Techmeme
May 2, 2020, 3:50 AM

Top News

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Automatic Labs, which was recently acquired by SiriusXM, shuts down its vehicle-tracking service, tells users to remove its connected car adapters from vehicles  —  Automatic has announced that it'll be abruptly shutting down on May 28th because “the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted our business.”
David Heaney / UploadVR:
Valve ends SteamVR support for macOS, three years after Apple announced it at WWDC; Valve's survey found only 4% of Steam users were using macOS  —  Valve just ended SteamVR's support for macOS.  ‘Legacy builds’ will continue to be available.  —  SteamVR is Valve's PC-based virtual reality platform, supporting Windows and Linux.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
CDC issues new criteria for evaluating contact tracing tools to be used by public health authorities, opening the door for Apple-Google approach  —  - A new document published by the Centers for Disease Control outlines what it sees as the critical features for digital contact tracing apps.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
House Judiciary Committee demands Jeff Bezos testify at a hearing on Amazon's alleged misuse of third-party seller data or face a potential subpoena  —  A top House committee investigating the tech industry has asked him to agree to appear or face a potential subpoena if he declines
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Workers at Amazon, Whole Foods, Instacart, FedEx, Target, and Walmart join together in striking on May 1, demanding better workplace safety conditions  —  Demands include better cleaning services and 14-day shutdowns at affected locations  —  On May 1st, workers from Amazon, Whole Foods …
Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:
Hagop Kavafian / Android Police:
Google's Messages app, which isn't part of Google's apps package often pre-installed on phones by 3rd-party Android OEMs, passes 1B+ installs on the Play Store  —  Google's Messages app is packed with features, including a built-in markup tool, reminders, context-aware recommendations, a dark mode, RCS support, and a web interface.
More: Neowin and 9to5Google
Carrie Mihalcik / CNET:
Xiaomi defends its data practices, says it collects aggregated data that can't be used to identify users and syncs browsing history if data sync is turned on  —  Xiaomi is defending itself against accusations that it's been collecting private data from people who use its phones and web browser apps.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:

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More News

Earlier Picks

Randy Nelson / Sensor Tower Blog:
ICANN:
Aimee Chanthadavong / ZDNet:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon:
Alex Konrad / Forbes: