Techmeme
April 7, 2020, 2:35 PM

Top News

Alex Hern / The Guardian:
WhatsApp now limits forwarding of viral messages, forwarded five or more times, to one group at a time, to fight the spread of misinformation  —  Restrictions on frequently forwarded messages intended to disrupt false Covid-19 claims  —  WhatsApp is to impose a strict new limit …
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Microsoft buys corp.com, a domain that receives sensitive info from misconfigured Windows PCs, for an undisclosed sum to keep it out of the hands of bad actors  —  In February, KrebsOnSecurity told the story of a private citizen auctioning off the dangerous domain corp.com for the starting price of $1.7 million.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Firefox 75 comes with a revamped address bar designed to make searches faster and a few performance tweaks  —  Mozilla today launched Firefox 75 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  Firefox 75 includes a revamped address bar with significant search improvements, a few performance tweaks, and a handful of developer features.
Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed News:
Book excerpt: Apple's Information Systems & Technology group, which makes internal tools, operates in tumult, hampering its output and alienating contractors  —  Life in Apple's Information Systems & Technology division reminds some of a sweatshop.  An exclusive excerpt from Always Day One …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft expands xCloud beta registration to 11 European countries, rolling out the preview gradually to avoid overloading the internet  —  Microsoft is rolling out the preview gradually due to coronavirus internet impact concerns  —  Microsoft is starting to open up its xCloud game streaming beta to countries across Europe.
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Book excerpt from Sarah Frier's No Filter covers how Mark Zuckerberg's jealousy held back Instagram and drove off founders, who gradually lost independence  —  Over the past decade, Instagram has become an engine of commerce and cultural influence with few peers—aside from its parent company …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Facebook's experimental product unit debuts Tuned, an iOS app creating a “private space” for couples, letting them keep a photo diary, exchange notes, and more  —  Keep a photo diary and check in on each other's moods  —  First, Facebook launched a dating feature, and now …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Sensor Tower: Quibi had more than 300,000 downloads on its launch day; heavily promoted in Apple's App Store, it reached #3 but just #29 on Google Play  —  Quibi, the oddly-named mobile streaming service founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, was downloaded over 300,000 times on launch day …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Interview with Masayoshi Son on WeWork and the role of the Vision Fund within SoftBank; he expects 15 companies in the Vision Fund portfolio to go bankrupt  —  Covering venture capital, software and startups  —  Between the WeWork debacle and the coronavirus, the markets …
Saheli Roy Choudhury / CNBC:
Samsung forecasts Q1 2020 operating profit of $5.2B, up 2.7% YoY, beating analyst estimates, and consolidated sales of ~$44B; stock is up 3%+  —  - Samsung said it expects 6.4 trillion Korean won ($5.23 billion) in first-quarter operating profit for 2020, up 2.7% from the 6.23 trillion won it posted for the same period a year earlier.
The Guardian:
Facebook says it will start actively removing false claims that link Covid-19 to 5G, which have started entering the mainstream  —  Perfect storm of conditions helped nonsense theories about 5G and coronavirus to take hold  —  A year ago, hoax theories about the dangers of 5G had barely pierced …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Mobile website builder Universe raises $10M Series A from GV as it moves into commerce and looks to compete with Shopify  —  A startup that has framed itself as an Instagram for websites is now squaring up against Shopify as it nabs new funding from Google's venture capital arm.
New York Times:
Some teachers in the US say under 50% of their pupils participate in online learning; absence rate seems higher in low-income households, marking digital divide  —  Teachers at some schools across the country report that less than half of their students are participating in online learning.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Pinterest adds Shop tabs connected to in-stock inventory, style guides, and more, and says user engagement with Shopping on Pinterest has grown by 44% YoY  —  Given the rise in online shopping attributed to the coronavirus outbreak which has forced consumers to stay home from stores …
More: Digital TrendsThanks:@malliegator
ProPublica:
Amazon's self-publishing arm gives white supremacists and neo-Nazis, often banned from other platforms, unprecedented access to a mainstream audience  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.
Taylor Lyles / The Verge:
Google updates Pixel 4 to require open eyes to use the phone's face unlock feature by default, with the option to disable it  —  Apple's had a similar feature since 2017  —  Google released an update for the Pixel 4 today requiring users to have their eyes open when using face unlock to open the phone.

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
Build vs Buy Embedded Analytics: The Decision That Defines Your Product Roadmap  —  Every SaaS product team eventually hits the analytics wall.  Your customers want insights inside your app.  Your roadmap has no room to spare.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Great Chat:
Go touch some grass (but don't tweet about it)
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Lenny's Podcast:
An AI state of the union: We've passed the inflection point, dark factories are coming, and automation timelines | Simon Willison
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Access:
The future of AI might be on your finger
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Axiom's Carina Hong: Solving Math's Hardest Problems With AI, And AI's Problems With Math
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.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Iran, Oil, and the US
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:35 PM ET, April 7, 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

Christina Farr / CNBC:
Feargus O'Sullivan / CityLab:
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: