Techmeme
April 5, 2020, 4:35 PM

Top News

Valerie Strauss / Washington Post:
Zoom is being banned over security concerns by some US school districts, including NYC, which is directing teachers to switch to Microsoft Teams  —  Some school districts around the country have started to ban the use of Zoom for online learning from home during the coronavirus crisis …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Zoom apologizes for routing some calls made in N. America through China, says it “mistakenly” allowed Chinese data centers to accept calls due to traffic spike  —  Hours after security researchers at Citizen Lab reported that some Zoom calls were routed through China …
New York Times:
Harriet Sherwood / The Guardian:
After some cell towers in the UK were set on fire, govt to meet with Facebook, YouTube, Twitter to stop the spread of a conspiracy theory linking 5G to COVID-19  —  After a spate of fires, the government is stepping in to halt the spread of linking coronavirus to the mobile network
Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Telecom engineers, considered essential workers in the UK, are facing harassment from anti-5G conspiracy mongers, linking the deployment of 5G to coronavirus  —  EE suspects telephone mast engulfed by fire in Birmingham was an arson attack as celebrities claim Covid-19 caused by new network
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
iOS 14 code indicates that Apple is working on a new feature codenamed “Avocado” to enable real, movable widgets on iPad and iPhone home screens  —  9to5Mac reported last month that Apple is working on a redesigned wallpaper settings panel for iOS, based on an early build of iOS 14 …
Dave Gershgorn / OneZero :
Washington state's facial recognition law, which is championed by Microsoft, was sponsored by State Sen. Joe Nguyen, who also is a program manager at Microsoft  —  Plus, live facial recognition updates and the week's A.I. research  —  Welcome to General Intelligence, your weekly dive into the A.I. news and research that matters.
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Sources: Apple is in the process of acquiring the California-based VR startup NextVR in a deal valued around $100M  —  It's no secret that Apple has ambitious plans for augmented reality and a future AR-focused headset.  Apple is practically building the platform for its future headset out in the open with ARKit.
Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch:
US Small Business Administration issues new guidance for the $350B stimulus program that still seems to exclude most VC-backed startups  —  Under new guidance issued by the Small Business Administration it seems non-profits and faith-based groups can apply for the Paycheck Protection Program loans designed …
J.M. Porup / CSO:
Critics say bug bounty programs buy researcher silence, may violate labor law, and are less effective when they are closed and have NDAs placed on them  —  When Jonathan Leitschuh found a catastrophic security vulnerability in Zoom, the popular videoconferencing platform …

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Earlier Picks

David McCabe / New York Times:
Aliya Chaudhry / The Verge: