Techmeme
April 27, 2020, 10:55 PM

Top News

Leo Kelion / BBC:
UK's NHS says it's making a contact tracing app that uses a centralized approach, giving it more insight into COVID-19's spread than Apple and Google's approach  —  The UK's coronavirus contact-tracing app is set to use a different model to the one proposed by Apple and Google, despite concerns raised about privacy and performance.
Bloomberg:
Douglas Busvine / Reuters:
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
As COVID-19 decimates the global economy, tech giants have a unique opportunity to expand their power, crush rivals, and improve their political fortunes  —  The global pandemic gives Silicon Valley titans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand their power, crush rivals and change their political fortunes.
New York Times:
Many tech startups are successfully applying for loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, often to extend their runways despite already raising large sums  —  Some young companies have turned to the government loans not for day-to-day survival but simply to buy useful time.
CNN:
Baseless YouTube conspiracy videos, embraced by CCP media and uploaded to WeChat, Weibo, claim a US Army reservist started the pandemic and are ruining her life  —  Maatje Benassi, a US Army reservist and mother of two, has become the target of conspiracy theorists who falsely place …
Yoko Kubota / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple pushes back production of flagship iPhones coming later this year by about a month, as the pandemic weakens demand and disrupts manufacturing  —  The phones, some with 5G connectivity, will vary in price and come in three sizes  —  Apple Inc. is pushing back the production ramp …
Eduard Kovacs / SecurityWeek:
Microsoft has patched a vulnerability in Teams that could have been exploited by hackers to hijack accounts by sending malicious links or GIFs  —  Microsoft has addressed a vulnerability that could have been exploited by hackers to hijack Microsoft Teams accounts by sending specially crafted links …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Review of Google's second-generation $179 wireless Pixel Buds: sound quality has improved, but their silicone “stabilizer arc” can cause discomfort over time  —  Google's new earbuds finally go truly wireless and have improved sound quality  —  Google's original Pixel Buds came …
Adam Satariano / New York Times:
Interviews and documents show Europe's GDPR rules have been stymied by a lack of enforcement, poor funding, limited staff resources, and tech companies stalling  —  Nearly two years in, there has been little enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation, once seen as ushering in a new era.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Twitter turned off the ability to receive tweet alerts via SMS messages in most countries last week  —  The ability to receive tweet notifications has been disabled  —  For the most part, you can no longer use Twitter as it was originally built to be used: over text message.
Ben Sandofsky / Halide:
An in-depth analysis of how iPhone SE leverages machine learning software to generate a portrait effect using a single 2D image  —  After four years, we have a new budget-conscious iPhone.  Like previous SE, it reaches that price point by sticking to components from previous generations. iFixIt found …
Neha Alawadhi / Business Standard:
WhatsApp says there has been a 70% reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages sent after its new forwarding limit was enforced  —  Earlier this month, WhatsApp limited the number of times a frequently forwarded message can be sent further to only one chat at a time
Tom Krisher / Associated Press:
Tesla rolls out a new update for select vehicles to be able to automatically stop at traffic lights and stop signs  —  DETROIT (AP) — After testing on public roads, Tesla is rolling out a new feature of its partially automated driving system designed to spot stop signs and traffic signals.
Vjeran Pavic / The Verge:
DJI unveils Mavic Air 2 with upgraded camera sensor that can take 48MP photos and shoot 4K at 60 fps, claims 34 minutes of flying time, shipping May 11 at $799  —  A bigger sensor, a bigger battery, and redesigned controller come to DJI's mainstream drone  —  Two and a half years …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Introducing Zoho Spend: A unified platform for the next gen finance teams.  —  Effective business spend management is a direct lever for profitability.  When organizations gain visibility into where money flows …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Invest Like the Best:
Gavin Baker - Nvidia v. Google, Scaling Laws, and the Economics of AI
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Pat Grady & Alfred Lin from Sequoia
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
The Social Radars:
Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Grit:
The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:55 PM ET, April 27, 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

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: