Techmeme
May 1, 2020, 4:50 PM

Top News

ICANN:
ICANN board has voted to reject the sale of the .org registry to private equity firm Ethos Capital  —  Today, the ICANN Board made the decision to reject the proposed change of control and entity conversion request that Public Interest Registry (PIR) submitted to ICANN.
David Heaney / UploadVR:
Valve ends SteamVR support for macOS, three years after Apple announced it at WWDC; Valve's survey found only 4% of Steam users were using macOS  —  Valve just ended SteamVR's support for macOS.  ‘Legacy builds’ will continue to be available.  —  SteamVR is Valve's PC-based virtual reality platform, supporting Windows and Linux.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
House Judiciary Committee demands Jeff Bezos testify at a hearing on Amazon's alleged misuse of third-party seller data or face a potential subpoena  —  A top House committee investigating the tech industry has asked him to agree to appear or face a potential subpoena if he declines
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
Researchers say Xiaomi phones are tracking usage habits and browsing data even in incognito mode  —  “It's a backdoor with phone functionality,” quips Gabi Cirlig about his new Xiaomi phone.  He's only half-joking.  —  Cirlig is speaking with Forbes after discovering that his Redmi Note 8 smartphone …
Carrie Mihalcik / CNET:
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Workers at Amazon, Whole Foods, Instacart, FedEx, Target, and Walmart join together in striking on May 1, demanding better workplace safety conditions  —  Demands include better cleaning services and 14-day shutdowns at affected locations  —  On May 1st, workers from Amazon, Whole Foods …
Aimee Chanthadavong / ZDNet:
IDC: Global smartphone shipments dropped 11.7% YoY to 276M during Q1 2020, the largest YoY decline ever  —  Shipment volumes suffered its largest year over year decline in the first quarter.  —  The latest data from International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed that as the world grapples …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Automatic Labs, which was recently acquired by SiriusXM, shuts down its vehicle-tracking service, tells users to remove its connected car adapters from vehicles  —  Automatic has announced that it'll be abruptly shutting down on May 28th because “the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted our business.”
Jane Lanhee Lee / Reuters:
ASAPP, which provides AI software to call centers, raises $185M Series B, source says at a valuation of $800M  —  (Reuters) - ASAPP Inc an artificial intelligence software that helps call center agents work better and faster, on Friday announced a $185 million series B funding round …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
The UN's social distancing app, 1point5, is largely ineffective at monitoring distance between people, indiscriminately picking up any Bluetooth signals  —  This week a division of the United Nations announced its new social distancing app designed to help alert people when they get too close …
Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:
William Gallagher / AppleInsider:
Apple Q2: services hit an all-time record of $13.35B, up from $11.45B in Q2 2019, as Wearables, Home and Accessories grew to $6.3B, compared to $5.13B last year  —  While the coronavirus has affected Apple's earnings, its overall second quarter results are better than predicted …
Apple:

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
The brand supporting the biggest brands in tech  —  Deliver memorable experiences throughout the customer journey with customer experience support from TELUS Digital.  Scale quickly, automate efficiently and win decisively.
Intel:
Intel Delivers powerful CPUs for AI and Networking  —  With the onset of AI, businesses demand powerful and efficient CPUs.  Explore new Intel Xeon 6 processors, for the broadest set of workloads with leadership performance and lower TCO.
Zoho:
8 must-have assets in every recruiter's work folder  —  Car mechanics can teach us an important lesson.  They always carry a handy toolbox with everything they need to troubleshoot common auto problems.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
A.I. Action Plans + The College Student Who Broke Job Interviews + Hot Mess Express
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Eric Yuan (CEO, Zoom): What Zoom's AI Strategy Can Teach Every Operator
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
BG2 Pod:
NVDA GTC, M&A Wiz / Goog $32 B Deal, April 2 Tariff Uncertainty; Huawei Belt & Road; ChatGPT
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Is Apple In Its "Vista" Era?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How the Tesla brand turned so toxic
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Inside PJ Vogt's low budget, super successful podcast
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:50 PM ET, May 1, 2020.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Bobbie Johnson / MIT Technology Review:
Amazon:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Prafulla Dhariwal / OpenAI:
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Dan Primack / Axios: