Techmeme
March 25, 2020, 11:50 AM

Top News

New York Times:
While traffic surges on Facebook, with messaging up 50% from last month in many countries, their now-remote workforce struggles to handle its own IT snafus  —  The social network is straining to deal with skyrocketing usage as its 45,000 employees work from home for the first time.
New York Times:
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Google brings its Podcasts app to iOS and unveils a redesign of Android app, with users' listening habits syncable across platforms via Google Podcasts for Web  —  Just in time for our collective house arrests, Google has unveiled a redesigned version of Podcasts.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
WHO partners with Facebook, Microsoft, and other tech companies on #BuildforCOVID19 hackathon to develop software tackling COVID-19 challenges, starting Mar. 26  —  - The World Health Organization has partnered with Facebook, Microsoft and several other tech companies for a hackathon to promote …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Apple updates Safari to fully block third-party cookies by default, months after Google said it would do the same in Chrome by 2022  —  Beating Google by two years to the privacy feature  —  Apple on Tuesday released a major update to its Safari Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) …
Chris Freeland / Internet Archive Blogs:
Internet Archive launches National Emergency Library, letting users borrow 1.4M+ digitized books without joining a waitlist during the COVID-19 crisis  —  To address our unprecedented global and immediate need for access to reading and research materials, as of today, March 24, 2020 …
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
iPhone makers Foxconn and Wistron have suspended all production at their Indian plants to comply with a nationwide lockdown  —  - Foxconn and Wistron are both complying with surprise lockdown  — PM Modi has ordered population to stay at home for three weeks
NBC News:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
App Store rules, like a ban on services that stream from the cloud, limit iOS users from accessing rival gaming services from Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia  —  Video-game fans suddenly have their pick of a huge menu of titles thanks to a raft of new mobile subscription services from Apple Inc. …
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
How 3D printer makers like Stratasys, Protolabs, and other companies like Ford, are helping fight COVID-19 by 3D printing face shields and medical equipment  —  With critical medical gear in short supply, additive manufacturing is an “essential part” of the pandemic response, the industry says.
Hariz Baharudin / The Straits Times:
Singapore will open source its contact-tracing app TraceTogether, which uses Bluetooth to identify people in extended close contact with COVID-19 patients  —  SINGAPORE - In a move to help the international community combat the coronavirus pandemic, the Government will be making the software …
Katie Notopoulos / BuzzFeed News:
Facebook's Portal makes a lot of sense during a quarantine: it is great for video chatting and staying in touch, especially with kids and the elderly  —  The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus.
Jay Greene / Washington Post:
Six US Amazon warehouses have at least one worker testing positive for COVID-19, with some facilities temporarily shut for cleaning and some workers quarantined  —  The spike in positive tests for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus comes as the ecommerce giant races to hire 100,000 workers to meet massive shopper demand.
Craig Mod / Wired:
The iPad's cursor, a translucent circle with momentum and the ability to change form based on the context, is more convincing and simply more fun  —  Apple's new iPadOS 13.4 adds enhanced support for trackpads.  And with that, a shiny new cursor.  —  I gasped when I first saw the iPad's new cursor …
Stephen Palley / The Block:
NY federal court issues preliminary injunction against Telegram's 2018 $1.7B ICO, finding the distribution of Gram tokens likely violates US securities law  —  The $1.7 billion 2018 fundraising effort by Telegram hit a major snag today when a Federal Judge in New York issued …
Antony Sguazzin / Bloomberg:
WHO's WhatsApp global COVID-19 information service is launching in 20+ languages, aiming to reach 50M people, after successful trials in South Africa  —  - World Health Organization steps up social media communication  — Service employs articial intelligence to offer range of topics
More: TechCrunch
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Espressive, which aims to develop AI-driven chatbots to reduce calls to company help desks, raises $30M Series B led by Insight Partners  —  Espressive, a four-year-old startup from former ServiceNow employees, is working to build a better chatbot to reduce calls to company help desks.
More: FinSMEs
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple SVP of People and Retail says in internal memo that Apple expects to start reopening its retail stores in the first half of April on a staggered basis  —  Apple Inc. expects to start re-opening its retail stores in the first half of April on a staggered basis and has extended remote work abilities …

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:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
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

Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:50 AM ET, March 25, 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

Laura Baldwin / O'Reilly Media:

Earlier Picks

Geoffrey Fowler / Washington Post:
Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch: