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April 15, 2020, 7:50 PM
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Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple announces a new iPhone SE with a 4.7" display, A13, Touch ID, 12MP camera with portrait mode, 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB storage from $399, shipping April 24  —  It looks like an iPhone 8, but it has more modern specs  —  Apple has officially announced the new iPhone SE …
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
The new 4.7" iPhone SE shows that the era of small smartphones that could be comfortably operated with a single hand, is over  —  Apple's new iPhone SE 2 is the nail in the coffin of the small smartphone  —  It's been a bad year for small phone lovers.  It's no secret that the average size …
Bloomberg:
US DOD inspector general finds the Pentagon's controversial decision to award $10B JEDI contract to Microsoft was “consistent” with acquisition standards  —  - Inquiry didn't find evidence that Trump swayed the decision  — Inspector general added that White House limited cooperation
Jacqueline Feldscher / Politico:
US DOD's report could not “definitively determine” whether the White House intervened in $10B JEDI contract as officials were barred from answering questions  —  The Pentagon's inspector general “could not definitively determine” whether the White House influenced the procurement process …
Sandra Upson / Wired:
Profile of Lee Holloway, Cloudflare's third founder, widely considered a genius, who became distant and erratic due to a tragic case of frontotemporal dementia  —  Lee Holloway programmed internet security firm Cloudflare into being.  But then he became apathetic, distant, and unpredictable …
Cory Weinberg / The Information:
SoftBank-backed home buying startup Opendoor says it's laying off 600 employees, or ~35% of its staff, after halting home purchases last month amid the pandemic  —  Home-buying startup Opendoor laid off more than 600 employees Wednesday, one of the deepest cuts from a private tech firm since …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Google says it is launching a new Kids section on Google Play, featuring “Teacher Approved” apps, rolling out in the US in the coming days  —  ‘Everything here is teacher approved’  —  Google is launching a new Kids section for the Google Play Store, which will offer a selection of so-called “Teacher Approved” apps.
Mathieu Rosemain / Reuters:
Internal memo to unions: Amazon plans to close its 10 French warehouses, with 10K staff, until at least April 20, after a court banned non-essential item orders  —  Mathieu Rosemain, Gwénaëlle Barzic  —  PARIS (Reuters) - Amazon will close its warehouses in France until …
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
In an internal email, Sundar Pichai tells Alphabet employees that the company will slow the pace of hiring for the rest of 2020 as it re-evaluates investments  —  - Company is ‘recalibrating’ spending on data centers, servers  — Covid-19 crisis is affecting richest Silicon Valley businesses
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Microsoft details new environmental initiatives, including a Planetary Computer that would aggregate and analyze data to help in sustainable decision making  —  Microsoft today announced a series of initiatives aimed at advancing the protection and preservation of biodiversity and ecosystems around the world.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
The coronavirus crisis underscores the power and dominance of big tech companies and that novel legislative approaches are required to regulate them  —  Apple and Google, who last Friday jointly |  announced new capabilities for contact tracing coronavirus carriers at scale …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple says the Magic Keyboard with trackpad for iPad Pro is available to order and will arrive next week, ahead of the original May launch date  —  Apple has announced that the Magic Keyboard with trackpad for iPad Pro will be available to order today and begin arriving to customers next week.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
NY court rules Mashable embedding an Instagram post does not violate copyright law, as the photographer gave a “valid sublicense” by posting the image publicly  —  ‘This court cannot release her from the agreement she made.’  —  A court ruled yesterday that Mashable can embed …
David Jeans / Forbes:
Austin-based Coder, which offers a secure cloud-based coding service used by the US Air Force, raises $30M led by GGV Capital at a $200M valuation  —  As the coronavirus outbreak forces workers to stay at home, software engineers have faced a challenge accessing secure networks they'd typically only use at the office.
More: Crunchbase News.  Thanks:@alexrkonrad
Kanishka Singh / Reuters:
Self-driving car startup Zoox agrees to settle lawsuit with Tesla over misappropriation of trade secrets, requiring it to pay an undisclosed amount  —  (Reuters) - Zoox Inc said on Tuesday it had settled a lawsuit with Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) after admitting that some new hires from the electric carmaker …
Monica Chin / The Verge:
Dell XPS 13 (2020) review: beautiful design, standout keyboard and touchpad, more than adequate for gaming, but bad webcam and limited port selection  —  Dell improves upon an already winning formula  —  Every time a new XPS 13 comes out, the question is always the same: is it still the best Windows thin-and-light laptop?

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From Mediagazer

Deadline:
Disney initiates a third round of layoffs under Josh D'Amaro, sources say impacting a couple hundred staff, largely in HR and tech, smaller than prior rounds

John Koblin / New York Times:
Paramount streaming chief Cindy Holland is leaving the company; she joined Skydance as an adviser and became Paramount's direct-to-consumer chief last year

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the Trump administration used DHS funds to finance pro-Trump ads, including one that is almost identical to a 2024 Trump campaign ad, calling them PSAs

More News

Mathew Di Salvo / Decrypt:
G20 watchdog says stablecoins could undermine financial stability and that major world economies must implement a regulatory framework to confront the risk

Earlier Picks

Michelle Lhooq / Bloomberg:
Amid lockdowns, live streaming has emerged as an ad hoc support system for the music and nightlife industry, as artists ponder long-term financial viability
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Medium's opaque moderation of user-created content related to COVID-19 has allowed misinfo to spread, making it harder to tell fact from fiction on the platform
Bloomberg:
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, released on March 20 for Switch after a delay, is the big hit of the lockdown, with 3M+ domestic US sales, not including digital
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