Techmeme
May 7, 2020, 3:50 PM

Top News

Ari Levy / CNBC:
Zoom is acquiring Keybase, a 25-person startup, to add end-to-end encryption to video calls, the first acquisition in the company's nine-year history  —  - Zoom is acquiring Keybase, a 25-person start-up in New York, to add end-to-end encryption to video calls.
Isabelle Kirkwood / BetaKit:
Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs says it will no longer pursue its smart city project at Quayside in Toronto due to “unprecedented economic uncertainty”  —  Sidewalk Labs has announced it will no longer pursue its project at Quayside in Toronto.  The company noted the decision was due to the current …
James Vincent / The Verge:
Google updates its Lens app for iOS and Android to let users copy and paste some handwritten text to Chrome, read text aloud, and provide information on words  —  If you handwriting is neat enough  —  Google has added a very useful feature to Google Lens, its multipurpose object recognition tool.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google brings all of its messaging and communication apps under a single team to be led by Javier Soltero, who is VP and GM of G Suite  —  Integration isn't on the roadmap, but coherency may be  —  In October of last year, Google hired Javier Soltero to be the VP and GM of G Suite …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
A Facebook SDK crash caused iOS apps like TikTok and Venmo to crash on Wednesday, showing the need for Apple to sandbox third-party SDKs from an app's own code  —  Facebook's near-ubiquitous SDK broke yesterday, taking major mobile apps with it  —  Sometime around 6:30PM ET on May 6th …
Dana Wollman / Engadget:
Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch review: nice display, lovely keyboard, and great performance, but models with 10th-gen Intel CPUs are pricey and it can get hot  —  I had a feeling I'd be reviewing a new 13-inch MacBook Pro sooner rather than later.  When Apple refreshed the MacBook Air back in March …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Uber leads a $170M investment in Lime, with Bain Capital Ventures, Alphabet, and GV participating, and will transfer its Jump scooter division to Lime  —  - Uber is leading a $170 million investment round in Lime, the companies announced Thursday.  — Uber will transfer its own electric bike …
Matt Brian / Engadget:
UK broadband provider Virgin Media and telecom operator O2 announce a £31B merger in an effort to take on BT, Sky, and Vodafone in the country  —  The rumors were true: UK broadband provider Virgin Media and telecoms operator O2 are to merge, their parent companies confirmed today.
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Square launches Online Checkout to let sellers accept card payments without having to build an online store  —  Square is introducing a new payment tool designed for small businesses looking to rapidly transition to ecommerce.  —  With billions of people around the world forced to adhere …
More: PYMNTS.com
David Kaye / Just Security:
Facebook's efforts are laudable, but the Oversight Board does not end debates over online speech or legitimize content moderation choices by other platforms  —  With the Naming of Oversight Board Members, What Kind of Institution Will This Become?  —  With Facebook's unveiling of the first 20 …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Facebook will begin to open most of its offices on July 6 but says most employees will be given the choice to continue to work from home through the end of 2020  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday will announce that most of the company's employees will be given the choice to continue …
Brittany A. Roston / SlashGear:
Smart home company Wink to require users pay a $4.99 monthly subscription fee starting May 13, or device automations and accessibility via app will be disabled  —  Smart home company Wink has made a surprising and heavily criticized announcement: it will soon charge a monthly subscription fee.
New York Times:
Israeli security company says hackers linked to the Chinese military have used Aria-body, a cyberattack tool, on governments and firms in Australia and SE Asia  —  An Israeli security company said the hacking software, called Aria-body, had been deployed against governments and state-owned companies in Australia and Southeast Asia.
Apple:
Apple awards $10M from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund to COPAN Diagnostics, a leader in COVID-19 sample collection kit production  —  Cupertino, California — Apple today announced it is awarding $10 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund to COPAN Diagnostics, a market leader …
Owen Churchill / South China Morning Post:
Citizen Lab: WeChat screens overseas users for sensitive content, which it then bars from being viewed by Chinese accounts  —  Research group Citizen Lab finds WeChat screens overseas users for sensitive content, which it then bars from being received by Chinese accounts Findings are likely …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Nintendo reports FY 2019 net profit of $2.43B, up 33.5% YoY, on sales of $12.31B, up 9% YoY; to date, 55.7M Nintendo Switch and Lite consoles have been sold  —  Nintendo reported that its full-year sales for the fiscal year ended March 31 were $12.31 billion, up 9% from $11.30 billion a year earlier.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Groove, which provides customer service software for SMBs, raises $12M Series A led by Level Equity  —  Sales engagement solutions provider Groove today announced that it raised $12 million, which CEO Chris Rothstein says will be used to expand awareness and acceleration adoption of the company's platform.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Epic Games says Fortnite has 350M registered players, up from 250M in March 2019; in April, players logged 3.2B hours in the game  —  More than 3.2 billion hours played in April alone  —  Epic's Fortnite has more than 350 million registered players, the game developer announced on Wednesday.
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Internal document reveals Twitch is looking to fund a slate of original, unscripted series that would be live and interactive on dating, sports, music, and more  —  - Amazon unit will bankroll slate of unscripted series this year  — Use of Twitch has exploded during the coronavirus pandemic

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Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Brady Dale / CoinDesk: