Techmeme
March 15, 2020, 6:40 PM

Top News

Diane Bartz / Reuters:
Google says it is working with the US government to develop a nationwide COVID-19 website on symptoms, risks, and testing info, in addition to other measures  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O) said on Saturday that it was working with the U.S. government to develop …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
An overview of the COVID-19-related work Google is doing, and how it falls far short of the comprehensive testing system implied by President Trump on Friday  —  ‘Neither one of the announcements were ready for prime time,’ one official told the Washington Post
Frank McShan / MacRumors:
WSJ: some Apple employees still work from HQ due to restrictions on external access to some systems and prohibitions on unreleased products from leaving campus  —  The process of tech companies sending thousands of employees home amid the coronavirus crisis has been messy, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Amazon Prime likely to falter during COVID-19 crisis, from supply chain issues, increased demand, and the potential of a warehouse outbreak  —  More than half of American households are Amazon Prime members, and, for better or worse, have come to rely on the service for many of their everyday needs.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple will only accept COVID-19 related apps from recognized entities such as government orgs, health NGOs, and companies with health or education credentials  —  Apple today announced that it is evaluating COVID-19 coronavirus-related apps critically to ensure data sources are reputable …
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
After Amazon's crackdown on price gouging, some sellers who cleared out local stores are sitting on stockpiles, causing shortages of products like sanitizer  —  Amazon cracked down on coronavirus price gouging.  Now, while the rest of the world searches, some sellers are holding stockpiles of sanitizer and masks.
Grant Martin / Forbes:
Airbnb is broadening its cancellation policy to offer refunds to worldwide travelers with stays and experiences booked between March 14 and April 14  —  The largest vacation rental company in the world is broadening its cancellation policy to offer refunds to worldwide travelers with stays …
Sophia Kunthara / Crunchbase News:
Arctic Wolf, which provides security experts to act as an extension of a company's internal cybersecurity team, raises $60M Series D  —  Cybersecurity startup Arctic Wolf raised $60 million in its Series D round, bringing its total funding to more than $148 million.
More: FinSMEs
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon wants to open source its cashier-less store software via an organization called Dent, which held unsuccessful talks with Walmart and Target  —  Retailers don't yet plan to participate, but talks highlight Amazon's ambition to have others adopt its technology
Dan Guido / Trail of Bits Blog:
An independent audit of mobile voting app Voatz, which has been used in elections in four US states, details many critical vulnerabilities and recommends fixes  —  Voatz allows voters to cast their ballots from any geographic location on supported mobile devices.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work  —  Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
Zoho:
Introducing Zoho TouchPoint: Every handshake deserves a next step  —  Here's a scene you've probably experienced.  You spend a day at an event, talk to dozens of people, and come home with a stack of business cards.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
WebBrain:
WebBrain: an open-source AI agent for your browser  —  Read pages, fill forms and automate tasks in Chrome or Firefox.  Use local models or your preferred AI provider.  Get started free.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Special Report: The Fall Of Jensen Huang & What Comes Next
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.
Machine Gods:
The 10 Biggest Losers from Jensen Huang's Fall + The METR Report That Scared Us
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The $1.4B Startup Deciding What You See When You Shop Online | Sequen's Zoë Weil
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
Too soon to call it a vibe shift?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Encore: Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won't Forever)
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Invest Like the Best:
Zach Reitano - Building Ro and Why Healthcare Should Be 50% of GDP
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:40 PM ET, March 15, 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

Earlier Picks

David Gilbert / VICE:
Adele Peters / Fast Company: