Techmeme
April 22, 2020, 6:10 PM

Top News

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Researchers say they found two actively exploited iOS 0-days, present since at least iOS 6, including a remote zero-click flaw in Mail; Apple says patch coming  —  In the summer of 2016, researchers at a digital rights organization and a cybersecurity firm announced they had caught …
Ed Hammond / Bloomberg:
Sources: Magic Leap is laying off about half its employees, or around 1,000 people, as it winds down its consumer business; Magic Leap has raised over $2B  —  - About 1,000 employees are said to be affected by cuts  — Magic Leap to wind down consumer business in retreat
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
iPhone SE 2020 review: good battery life but has a tired design and while the camera is good in bright light and great at video, it is noisy in low-light  —  A strong case against $1,000 phones  —  What do you look for in a new iPhone?  The top of the list likely includes battery life and camera quality.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Zoom rolls out its 5.0 update, focused exclusively on security and privacy features, including easier call management and upgrading encryption  —  Zoom is moving quickly to address complaints  —  Zoom promised a 90-day feature freeze to fix privacy and security issues, and the company is delivering on some of those promises.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Facebook invests $5.7B in Jio for a 9.99% stake, making it the largest minority shareholder in the subsidiary of India's most valued firm, Reliance Industries  —  Facebook has enjoyed unparalleled reach in India for more than a decade.  But as China's fast-growing ByteDance emerges …
Nikhil Pahwa / MediaNama:
Scott Rosenberg / Axios:
Zoom fatigue is now setting in, as it moves from being a social lifeline to a chore, used for all interactions while aggravating anxieties in an exhausting time  —  The rapid trajectory of videoconferencing service Zoom has entered a new phase: What started as a social lifeline during the pandemic …
New York Times:
US intelligence officials say Chinese operatives are amplifying COVID-19 disinformation in America using text messages and social media posts  —  American officials were alarmed by fake text messages and social media posts that said President Trump was locking down the country.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix announces plans to offer $1B in junk bonds to fund operations and potential acquisitions; as of the end of March, Netflix reported $14.17B in debt  —  Netflix is going back to the debt markets yet again, announcing plans to offer $1 billion in junk bonds to fund operations and potential acquisitions.
Katie Notopoulos / BuzzFeed News:
Instagram confirms it will add a “Remembering” banner under the usernames of people who have died, and has accelerated the process due to the pandemic  —  Instagram is speeding up plans for a new account memorialization feature, adding a “Remembering” banner under a username to signal that a person has died.
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Google's Threat Analysis Group shares a report outlining efforts by over 12 state-sponsored hackers using COVID-19 as cover for espionage  —  More than 12 government-backed groups are using the pandemic as cover for digital reconnaissance and espionage, according to a new report.
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it now prioritizes the removal of COVID-19 tweets that incite “harmful activity” or could lead to the destruction of 5G infrastructure  —  Ever since it first started rolling out, 5G skeptics have attempted to link the next-gen cellular technology to all manner of health issues.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google launches a Watchlist feature for Search to help users keep track of TV shows and movies  —  Google is adding a new feature to Search that will help you keep track of all the TV shows and movies you want to watch during these long weeks at home.  The company had already …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Hands-on with Motorola's new $999 Edge Plus, which has a 6.7-inch display, Snapdragon 865, 5G, 12GB of RAM, 3.5mm jack, and arrives on May 14 on Verizon  —  Hands-on with Motorola's most powerful phone in years  —  Motorola is making flagship phones again.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Fishtown Analytics, makers of an open source analytics engineering tool called dbt, raises $12.9M Series A led by a16z  —  Philadelphia-based Fishtown Analytics, the company behind the popular open-source data engineering tool dbt, today announced that it has raised a $12.9 million Series …
CNBC:
US Small Business Administration notifies ~8,000 business owners seeking federal relief loans that their personal data may have been exposed to other applicants  —  - Some small business owners seeking help via the Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loan program …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Granulate, which is developing a service that optimizes computing infrastructure in real time, raises $12M Series A led by Insight Partners  —  Granulate, a startup developing a platform that optimizes computing infrastructure in real time, today announced that it raised $12 million, bringing its total raised to date to $15.6 million.
More: TechCrunch, FinSMEs, and ZDNet
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Q1 lobbying filings: Facebook's spend rose 19% QoQ to $5.3M, Apple rose by 18% QoQ to $2.2M, Amazon was up 3% QoQ to $4.3M, and Google dropped 34% QoQ to $1.8M  —  - Facebook and Amazon led the Big Tech companies in lobbying spend in the first quarter of 2020, according to documents filed with the federal government this week.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Vivaldi browser gets built-in options to block ads and tracking, with a blocklist powered by DuckDuckGo's Tracker Radar, and comes out of beta on Android  —  Vivaldi, the browser launched by former Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner, has long positioned itself as a highly customizable alternative to Chrome and Firefox for power users.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Bill Gurley will not be a partner in Benchmark's 10th venture fund but will continue to work with companies he led earlier investments in  —  Lead investor won't be involved in new fund for first time since he joined firm in 1999  —  Bill Gurley—one of the most prominent …
Tom Krazit / Protocol:
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian says that its open source tool for microservices management, Istio, will be donated to a foundation in the near future  —  Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has ended years of confusion by telling Protocol that Google will eventually donate its open-source project Istio …

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