Techmeme: Instagram announces Co-Watching, a feature that lets users browse the app together over video chat (Salvador Rodriguez/CNBC)

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

iPad Pro 2020 review: it's fast with a great display and excellent trackpad support, but iPadOS limitations remain and its LIDAR tech may get little use — An iterative year-over-year update — Apple's tagline for the new 2020 iPad Pro models is “Your next computer is not a computer.”

More: Wired, TechCrunch, Six Colors, International Business Times, Daring Fireball, TechCrunch, Macworld, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, 9to5Toys, CNN, iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, Wccftech, CNBC, and iPhone Hacks

Tweets: @laurengoode, @jsnell, @backlon, and @dcseifert

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:

Instagram announces Co-Watching, a feature that lets users browse the app together over video chat — - Facebook's Instagram announced a feature that lets users browse the app with friends over video chat. — The feature is called Co-Watching, and it allows users in direct-message conversations …

More: Instagram, MIT Technology Review, Business Insider, Android Police, Input, Digital Trends, TechCrunch, CNET, TechSpot, New York Times, The Verge, SlashGear, and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @instagram and @brianstelter

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Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

YouTube will change the default video resolution to standard definition worldwide for a month starting today to ease internet traffic — - Videos will default to standard definition worldwide — YouTube, Netflix already reduced video quality in Europe

More: The Verge, PCWorld, 9to5Google, Android Authority, Polygon, Business Insider, Android Police, MacRumors, Variety, Input, Tubefilter, TechSpot, Android Headlines, Droid Life, VG247, TalkAndroid.com, USgamer.net, and MacDailyNews. Tweets: @peard33

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Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Mobile-only banking app Revolut, which has 10M+ customers in Europe, is launching in the US today — European fintech startup Revolut is launching its app and service in the U.S. Starting today, anybody can sign up and get a Revolut debit card. In the U.S., Revolut has partnered …

More: The Verge, Revolut Blog, 9to5Mac, Reuters, coinspeaker.com, BetaNews, Crowdfund Insider, MacRumors, PYMNTS.com, The Block, and Tech in Asia. Tweets: @martinsfp

Financial Times:

Sources: Facebook's in talks to buy a multibillion-dollar stake in Reliance Jio to expand its presence in India; source says it was nearing deal for a 10% share — Deal seeks to expand social media giant's presence in India stalled by coronavirus travel ban

More: International Business Times, Business Standard, Reuters, TechCrunch, and MSPoweruser

Tweets: @pitdesi and @tanayj

Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:

Apple releases iOS 13.4, iPadOS 13.4, macOS 10.15.4, tvOS 13.4, and watchOS 6.2 to the public — Following a 1.5-month beta testing period and a 3-month gap between point releases, Apple today officially released versions 13.4 of iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS to the public, alongside macOS 10.15.4 and watchOS 6.2.

More: 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, ZDNet, MacRumors, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, The Verge, and Engadget

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Mozilla launches Firefox Better Web with Scroll for Firefox tracking protection and Scroll's ad-free browsing experience for $2.50/mo. for the first six months — Mozilla just announced a new initiative called Firefox Better Web with Scroll, which combines the tracking protection built …

More: The Mozilla Blog, The Verge, gHacks Technology News, Scroll Blog, Axios, and CNET

Tweets: @tryscroll, @arctictony, and @jason_kint

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Geoffrey Fowler / Washington Post:

Unacast, an analytics company using location data from a variety of apps, debuts a Social Distancing Scoreboard to grade how US citizens are adapting by region — D.C. gets an ‘A’ while Wyoming earns an ‘F’ for following coronavirus stay-at-home advice, based on the locations of tens of millions of phones

More: New York Times, FlowingData, and GeekWire

Tweets: @geoffreyfowler, @ginadivittorio, @mattizcoop, @roseveleth, @rrrrrrrix, @isaacstonefish, and @breanne_dep

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

Apple announces that the App Store is launching in 20 new countries this year, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia, Morocco, and Myanmar — In a post on its developer website this afternoon, Apple has announced that the App Store is launching in 20 new countries this year.

More: Apple Developer, CNET, Thurrott, MSPoweruser, TechSpot, Neowin, iMore, MacRumors, iPhone Hacks, The Verge, AppleInsider, Engadget, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @frakton and @maail

Check Point Research:

Ad fraud malware found in 24 children's Android games and 32 utility apps, downloaded nearly 1M times, before being removed from the Google Play Store — Research by Israel Wernik, Danil Golubenko , Aviran Hazum — Although Google has taken steps to secure its Play store and stop malicious activity …

More: Android Police, The Hacker News, The Next Web, Gizmodo, Dark Reading, HackRead, Threatpost, Wired, and ComputerWeekly.com

Caroline O'Donovan / BuzzFeed News:

Amazon now offers all US part-time and seasonal delivery employees paid time off amid COVID-19 outbreak; an employee group had been pressuring Amazon since Dec. — Thousands of Amazon Logistics employees will start accruing paid time off for the first time today, according to photos …

More: TechCrunch, Medium, Input, Business Insider, CNBC, and The Hill

Tweets: @dch1united, @laura_hudson, @aprilaser, @histoftech, @katiehill4ca, @carolynporco, @saramornell, @rko1814, @womensmarch, @sarahnemerson, and @ceodonovan

Ariel Shapiro / Forbes:

Streaming services see signup spikes in the past week, boosted by free trials, with Disney+ up over 300%, HBO Now 90%, Showtime 78%, Netflix 47%, Apple TV+ 10% — Topline: As Americans brace for spending weeks (or months) inside as the coronavirus pandemic spreads, they are subscribing …

More: iMore, Apple Must, Android Headlines, 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechSpot, and Houston Chronicle. Tweets: @carnage4life

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Cade Metz / New York Times:

Study: speech recognition systems from Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft misidentify words 19% of the time with white people vs. 35% with black people — Technology from Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM and Microsoft misidentified 35 percent of words from people who were black.

More: PNAS, AppleInsider, Business Insider, The Verge, The Next Web, Ars Technica, KnowTechie, 9to5Mac, RAIN News, and Mashable

Tweets: @onekade, @_rnbrewer, @_blusummers, @profjeffries, @cpayan_, @nytimesbusiness, and @srchvrs

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

Microsoft says attackers are exploiting a critical zero-day flaw in font rendering found in all supported versions of Windows; no patch is available — Microsoft says attackers are exploiting a previously undisclosed security vulnerability found in all supported versions of Windows, including Windows 10.

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Brave partners with Binance to include a widget on the new tab page that lets users buy, trade, and receive cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ethereum — Web browser Brave is expanding its cryptocurrency features with an integration with cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

More: Brave Browser and Cointelegraph. Tweets: @binance

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google unveils the Stadia Makers program to attract more indie developers, promising funding, technical assistance from Unity experts, free developer hardware — At the virtual Google for Games Developer Summit today, the company announced “Stadia Makers” to bring more indie titles to the platform.

More: stadia.dev, OnMSFT.com, VentureBeat, Thurrott, SiliconANGLE, The Keyword, The Verge, GameSpot, TechSpot, Engadget, and Neowin

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Google unveils new tools for game developers including Android Performance Tuner, Android GPU Inspector, and a NoSQL cloud database called Cloud Firestore

More: Android Authority, ZDNet, Pocket Gamer.biz, TechCrunch, Android Developers, The Keyword, YouTube, and 9to5Google

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