Techmeme
March 18, 2020, 11:05 AM

Top News

Apple:
Apple unveils new 11" and 12.9" iPad Pro with a lidar scanner for depth-sensing, backlit keyboard and trackpad, available to order today for $799+ and $999+  —  New Magic Keyboard Designed for iPad Pro Features a Floating Design, Backlit Keyboard and Trackpad, Delivering the Best Typing Experience Ever on iPad
Apple:
Apple launches new MacBook Air with a Magic Keyboard featuring scissor-style keys, 13.3" display, Touch ID, and 10th-gen Intel Core CPUs, starting at $999  —  The Most Popular Mac Now Has Up to 2x Faster Performance, the New Magic Keyboard and Twice the Storage
Washington Post:
Sources: the US government is in active talks with Facebook, Google, and others to use location data from Americans' smartphones to stem COVID-19's spread  —  The U.S. government is in active talks with Facebook, Google and a wide array of tech companies and health experts …
Joe Tidy / BBC:
Casey Newton / The Interface:
Amid COVID-19 crisis, tech platforms are making a premature bet on AI, as human moderators shift to moderating less sensitive content while working from home  —  Today, let's talk about some of the front-line workers at Facebook and Google working on the pandemic: the content moderators who keep the site running day in and day out.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Slack unveils a new design with an updated navigation bar, collapsible sections within the sidebar, improved ways to respond to threads and mentions, and more  —  It arrives today, and it's more customizable and simplified  —  Slack is unveiling a big redesign to its communications app …
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
This pandemic has generated a surge in online community building, creating cautious optimism that our virtual efforts can offset some in-person losses  —  We've always hoped that our digital tools would create connections, not conflict.  We have a chance to make it happen.
Alfred Ng / CNET:
HHS waives penalties for the use of non-HIPAA compliant video chatting services, like FaceTime and Skype, for telehealth during COVID-19 outbreak  —  The coronavirus crisis is pushing the US government to loosen one of its only laws on data privacy.  The Department of Health and Human Services …
Lindsey O'Donnell / Threatpost:
Study: Microsoft Edge sends frequent hashed IDs tied to hardware to its back-end servers, making it one of the least private browsers available  —  Microsoft Edge is one of the least private web browsers — even more so than other popular browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox — according to academic researchers.
David Shepardson / Reuters:
Facebook says it plans to award $100M in cash grants and ad credits for up to 30,000 small businesses in 30+ countries to address COVID-19's economic impact  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said Tuesday it plans to award $100 million in cash grants and ad credits for up to 30,000 small businesses …
The Information:
Ryan Broderick / BuzzFeed News:

Sponsor Posts

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Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
An 86-minute guide to finding PMF | Rob Snyder (Author, The Power of Pull)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
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Big Technology Podcast:
Google's Potential, AI Money Spigot Shutting?, PHP Bug & Cybersecurity's "Black October"
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Machine Gods:
Fired OpenAI Safety Researchers Speak Out + We Look Inside Pandora's Box
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
The Parking Startup That Swallowed A 100-Year-Old Giant | Metropolis CEO Alex Israel
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
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Great Chat:
AI's Spooky Season
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Sources:
Sundar Pichai on what's next for Google Gemini, Waymo, and data centers in space
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
 

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More News

Raymond Zhong / New York Times:
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Earlier Picks

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BuzzFeed News: