Techmeme
April 29, 2020, 12:00 AM

Top News

Alphabet:
Alphabet reports revenue of $41.2B, up 13% YoY, net income of $6.8B, up from $6.7B YoY, Other Bets operating loss grew to $1.1B; headcount grew to 123K, up ~20K  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - April 28, 2020 - Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google's teleconferencing service, Meet, is adding 3M new users per day, up from 2M earlier this month, with 100M DAUs compared to Zoom's 300M  —  That's up from two million per day earlier this month  —  Google's Meet teleconferencing service is now adding about 3 million users per day …
More: Pocketnow
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
In an email to staff, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company will allow employees to return to offices no earlier than June 1 and take a “staggered” approach  —  - Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company will allow employees to return to offices no earlier than June 1 …
Jon Swartz / MarketWatch:
Amir Efrati / The Information:
Source: Uber executives discuss cutting ~20% of its 27,000 headcount in the coming weeks; company veteran CTO Thuan Pham has resigned  —  Executives at Uber are discussing plans to cut around 20% of the company's employees, as it copes with a sharp decline in its ride-hailing business due …
Matt Stroud / OneZero:
The CEO of Banjo, a SoftBank-backed surveillance firm that's raised nearly $223M, was once a neo-Nazi and was involved in the drive-by shooting of a synagogue  —  magazine profiles and on conference stages, Damien Patton, the 47-year-old co-founder and CEO of the surveillance startup Banjo, often recounts a colorful autobiography.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Zuckerberg more actively in charge of Facebook after five departures from board of directors since 2019, as he attempts to consolidate decision-making  —  The 35-year-old tycoon has recast the company's board of directors and sought a high-profile role for the social-media giant in the Covid-19 pandemic
New York Times:
Casey Newton / The Verge:
YouTube adds fact-check info boxes to some searches, above the search results, in the US, after launching in Brazil and India last year  —  The program launched in Brazil and India last year  —  YouTube will begin adding informational panels containing information from its network …
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
Instagram has been overrun with cash giveaways, which are often framed as charity, but are part of growth schemes run by social media marketing firms  —  As the coronavirus continues to disrupt lives and livelihoods, influencers are offering free money to followers — and gaining a lot more in return.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Kaspersky researchers detail a targeted espionage campaign via Play Store spyware apps, aimed at a few hundred users in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India  —  Malicious Android apps from the so-called PhantomLance campaign targeted hundreds of users, and at least two slipped past Google's defenses.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Apple adds COVID-19 testing site information to Apple Maps across the US and makes improvements to its Mobility Trends site  —  Apple has now added COVID-19 testing sites to its Apple Maps app across the U.S., covering all 50 states and Puerto Rico.  The update provides testing locations …
David Gelles / New York Times:
A look at efforts by the tech industry to procure PPE for frontline workers, including one led by Salesforce's Marc Benioff to secure 50M pieces of PPE for $25M  —  A call from a university chancellor set in motion a private sector effort to procure 50 million masks, gowns and swabs for American medical facilities.
Christina Farr / CNBC:
How a handful of employees at Apple quickly pushed forward the development of a contract tracing API and collaboration with Google in less than a month  —  - Apple and Google announced a partnership to bring contact tracing to smartphones on April 10th.  Their software toolkit will be released on Friday.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify's Anchor launches a tool that turns video chats into podcast-ready audio; works with a range of videochat products including FaceTime and Instagram Live  —  Spotify is tapping into the increased usage of video conferencing during the coronavirus quarantine to grow its own podcast business.
Ryan Kovatch / 9to5Google:
Google is shutting down Shoelace, a hyper-local social networking app it had launched in New York City in July 2019  —  In July 2019, Google's experimental project incubator Area 120 launched a new local meetup app that would connect users in New York City.

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More News

Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

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Washington Post:
Gizmodo: