Techmeme
March 30, 2020, 7:30 PM

Top News

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft debuts a Family Safety mobile app and AI-powered PowerPoint and Excel features as part of its 365 Family and Personal subscriptions, coming April 21  —  Microsoft today announced that on April 21, Office 365 will become Microsoft 365, or “the subscription for your life.”
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: in early March, Apple started letting some engineers take home early versions of future devices to continue work during the lockdown period  —  With its 175-acre campus in Cupertino, California, and several dozen more offices across the rest of the world, Apple Inc. wasn't designed as a work-at-home company.
Sean Lyngaas / CyberScoop:
HackerOne expels mobile voting vendor Voatz from its security program over hostile interactions with researchers, the first time it's cut ties with an org  —  HackerOne, a company that pairs ethical hackers with organizations to fix software flaws, has kicked mobile voting vendor Voatz off its platform …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
App Annie: videoconferencing apps saw a record 62M downloads during the week of March 14-21, up 45% from the prior week  —  Work-from-home policies, social distancing and government lockdowns have increased the demand for video conferencing apps, for both business and personal use.
Zara Stone / OneZero :
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
A US federal court rules that simply breaking a site's terms of service does not constitute criminal hacking under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act  —  Courts have struggled to interpret the vague Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.  —  A federal court in Washington, DC, has ruled that violating …
The Information:
Facebook says it has struck a deal to license tech and purchase AR displays from microLED firm Plessey, which sources say Apple recently looked at buying  —  Facebook has struck a deal to buy all of the augmented reality displays made by British firm Plessey, as the social network looks …
Marc Tracy / New York Times:
Facebook says it will invest $100M to support the news industry during COVID-19: $25M in emergency funding for local news and $75M in additional marketing spend  —  With grants and marketing spending, the social media giant hopes to support outlets doing essential local reporting but struggling with a drop in advertising.
Ina Fried / Axios:
After changing its rules, Twitter is cracking down on COVID-19 misinformation from prominent accounts, including Brazilian President Bolsonaro and Rudy Giuliani  —  It's notable that Twitter, like other social networks, has announced stricter rules on virus-related misinformation than other types of false posts.
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
Foxconn posted a $1.58B profit in Q4 2019, down 24% YoY; sources say the 5G iPhone will launch in the fall, but future Apple products may be delayed  —  - The company known as Foxconn grappling with Covid-19 upheaval  — Apple's key partner getting back on track after the outbreak
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Huawei open sources MindSpore, an AI computing framework akin to TensorFlow and PyTorch, which it claims offers a 50% efficiency boost over rivals on average  —  Huawei this week announced that MindSpore, a framework for AI app development that the company detailed in August 2019, is now available in open source on GitHub and Gitee.

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Earlier Picks

New York Times:
Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:
Dan Primack / Axios:
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Mark Wyciślik-Wilson / BetaNews: