Techmeme: Bob Chapek has been named CEO of The Walt Disney Company, effective immediately; Bob Iger will serve as executive chairman through 2021 (The Walt Disney Company)

Top News

Firefox begins rollout of encrypted DNS over HTTPS (DoH) by default for US-based users to thwart snooping ISPs — US-based Firefox users get encrypted DNS lookups today or within a few weeks. — Firefox will start switching browser users to Cloudflare's encrypted-DNS service today and roll …

Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:

Amazon opens Amazon Go Grocery in Seattle, its first full sized grocery store without cashiers or checkout lines — Amazon Go is going full grocery. — Two years after launching a chain of convenience stores without cashiers or checkout lines, Amazon is opening its first “Amazon Go Grocery” …

More: Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, Vox, Bloomberg, Reuters, PYMNTS.com, Newser, SlashGear, TechSpot, Gizmodo, TechRadar.com, Yahoo Finance, Protocol, and CNET

Tweets: @laurenthomas, @jowyang, @pierslinney, @kantrowitz, @raju, @kushkatakia, @danpriceseattle, @nbcnightlynews, @sallyshin, @delrey, @delrey, @jensmithwsj, @ranimolla, @hypervisible, @mdudas, and @humanvsmachine. Thanks:@taylor_soper

Salesforce:

Salesforce says Keith Block has stepped down as co-CEO but will still advise Marc Benioff; Gavin Patterson named President and CEO of Salesforce International — Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) today announced that Keith Block has stepped down as co-CEO of Salesforce and Marc Benioff is Chair and CEO of the company.

More: SiliconANGLE, ZDNet, Yahoo Finance, Silicon Valley Business …, and Axios

Jordan Novet / CNBC:

Salesforce acquires Vlocity, a provider of cloud and mobile software built atop Salesforce, for $1.33B, reports Q4 revenue of $4.85B, up 35% YoY, vs $4.75B est. — - Keith Block became co-CEO alongside Marc Benioff less than two years ago. — Salesforce announced the $1.33 billion acquisition …

Tweets: @teddyschleifer

The Walt Disney Company:

Bob Chapek has been named CEO of The Walt Disney Company, effective immediately; Bob Iger will serve as executive chairman through 2021 — Robert A. Iger Assumes Role of Executive Chairman through 2021 Mr. Iger Will Direct the Company's Creative Endeavors Mr. Chapek Brings 27 Years …

More: CNBC, TechCrunch, The Verge, Variety, 9to5Mac, The Information, CNET, Vox, AppleInsider, Digital Trends, IGN, Silicon Valley Business …, MacDailyNews, Quartz, GameSpot, Patently Apple, IndieWire, BGR, Polygon, Engadget, Observer, and Geek.com

Tweets: @edmundlee, @ballmatthew, @crecenteb, @anthony, @pkafka, @pkafka, and @thekenyeung

See also Mediagazer

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Google patches a Chrome zero-day bug found by its Threat Analysis Group, the third actively exploited Chrome zero-day discovered in the past year — This is the third Chrome zero-day discovered being exploited in the wild in the past year. — Google has released today a Chrome update …

More: Google Chrome Releases, Neowin, Digital Trends, Lifehacker, Threatpost, MSPoweruser, and Pocketables. Tweets: @campuscodi

Biz Carson / Protocol:

Bird says it's testing Bird Pay, a feature that lets users buy products from local businesses by scanning a QR code in the Bird app, as it looks to stem losses — Investors want to see profits. Is adding payments to products the solution? — Bird, the scooter company, is pivoting into payments — kind of.

More: TechCrunch, Engadget, and Mashable

Tweets: @bhwags, @issielapowsky, @zck, @dellsystem, and @neerajka

Sarah Emerson / OneZero :

Survey of 11,500+ H-1B visa holders at US tech companies finds discomfort with Trump's policies, with many feeling their place in the US is highly conditional — OneZero conducted a 10,000-person poll to shed light on the plight of H-1B workers — This article is part of Into the Valley …

More: MacDailyNews and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @ozm, @ustechworkers, @indivisible_usa, @arjunblj, @janelytv, @datarade, @s_m_i, @organizejs, @histoftech, @sarahnemerson, @kozemoze, @dlberes, @joshsternberg, @ow, and @davegershgorn. Thanks:@dlberes

TechCrunch:

Grab raises up to $856M from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and TIS INTEC, a Japanese IT solutions business — Southeast Asian on-demand transport startup Gojek denies that it is involved in talks to merge with Grab but today Grab announced a piece of news that — at the very least …

More: KrASIA, South China Morning Post, The Information, Nikkei Asian Review, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, ZDNet, Tech in Asia, PYMNTS.com, Yahoo Finance, and Axios

Reuters:

Ex-Apple employees and supply chain experts say preparation for new iPhone production, which usually starts early in the year, may be delayed due to COVID-19 — SAN FRANCISCO/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Travel restrictions to China because of the coronavirus have come just as Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) …

More: MacRumors, iMore, 9to5Mac, and iDownloadBlog.com

Amir Efrati / The Information:

Source: as it struggles to achieve a breakthrough, Waymo has doubled its headcount to 1,500 over the past year, mostly focusing on engineers — Alphabet's Waymo still hasn't perfected a self-driving car. So it is throwing more money at the problem. — Waymo nearly doubled its headcount …

Tweets: @amir and @jessicalessin

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Review of Apple's Chinese Store websites shows around 30 of 42 have reopened, most with shortened hours, as the company seeks to rebound from COVID-19's impact — - Company's store website shows 29 of 42 locations are opening — Apple recently pulled March quarter guidance on virus impact

More: 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, MacDailyNews, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, Nikkei Asian Review, MacRumors, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @thereds8 and @markgurman

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google says a planned server update gone awry caused Nest cameras to go down for over 16 hours — Google Nest is facing an outage this afternoon that sees “camera connectivity impacted.” At the moment, “Nest Cam Live Video” and “Video History” are down, though all other smart home services are operational.

More: The Verge, Android Central, Input, and iPhone in Canada Blog. Tweets: @rstephens

Tom Krisher / NBC Bay Area:

NTSB says the driver in a 2018 Tesla accident was distracted by a game on his phone and that the NHTSA's hands-off approach to self-driving tech is “misguided” — Just before the crash, the Tesla steered to the left into a paved area between the freeway travel lanes and an exit ramp

More: The Verge, MacRumors, Business Insider, Protocol, Digital Trends, CNBC, New York Times, Engadget, and BGR

Tweets: @mattoyeah and @jwilliamsap

Will Oremus / OneZero :

In-depth look at the iOS App Store and the potentially anti-competitive ways it restricts consumers and third-parties, an increasing area of regulatory scrutiny — Its App Store has a choke hold on your devices. That may not last much longer. — ou've just dropped $500 on a new iPad Air.

Tweets: @ozm, @siobhannyc, @dlberes, @willoremus, @willoremus, @willoremus, @willoremus, @willoremus, and @ozm

Cyrus Farivar / NBC News:

A county judge in San Diego has ruled that Instacart's classification of its California workers is not compliant with AB5; Instacart says it will appeal — The judge says Instacart is not complying with the new “gig economy” law that requires workers to be considered employees, not independent contractors.

More: CNET, The Verge, Objective-See's Blog, and VICE

Tweets: @aprilaser, @lorenasgonzalez, @cfarivar, and @saltygulf

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Firefox for Mac and Linux will begin using a newly-developed security sandbox system called RLBox to minimize impact of errors in its largely C/C++ codebase — Firefox's new RLBox sandbox system to ship to Linux users in Firefox 74 and Mac users in Firefox 75.

More: Mozilla Hacks. Tweets: @mozhacks, @campuscodi, @eroc, and @campuscodi

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Flock Freight, an AI-driven marketplace helping shippers and SMBs find freight transportation, raises $50M Series B led by SignalFire and GLP Capital Partners — Heavy-duty trucks play an indispensable role in transporting freight across contents — and the globe.

More: FinSMEs

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Comcast acquires Xumo, an ad-supported video streaming service that has about 10M MAUs, source says for over $100M — - Comcast is buying free ad-supported streaming service Xumo for more than $100 million. — Comcast's interest in Xumo stems from its partnerships with smart television manufacturers and streaming technology.

More: AdExchanger and Light Reading. Tweets: @mattrosoff. Thanks:@mattrosoff

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