Techmeme
April 6, 2020, 5:40 AM

Top News

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Tim Cook says Apple has now sourced 20M+ masks for healthcare workers from its supply chain, has designed and is shipping face shields at a rate of 1M per week  —  Tim Cook is back with another update on Apple's ongoing efforts to help healthcare professionals amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Harriet Sherwood / The Guardian:
After some cell towers in the UK were set on fire, govt to meet with Facebook, YouTube, Twitter to stop the spread of a conspiracy theory linking 5G to COVID-19  —  After a spate of fires, the government is stepping in to halt the spread of linking coronavirus to the mobile network
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
YouTube says it will remove content spreading conspiracy theories linking 5G and coronavirus, but will leave content that is simply conspiratorial about 5G  —  Decision comes as four more phone masts are attacked  —  Play Video  —  YouTube will reduce the amount of content spreading conspiracy theories …
Nicole Sperling / New York Times:
Jeffery Katzenberg and Meg Whitman's Quibi short-video streaming service launches with $1.8B in funding amid the Covid-19 pandemic  —  Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman had to cancel a starry Hollywood party for their short-video platform because of the virus.  But Quibi is still going live.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Quibi app review: works reliably, auto-flips between landscape and portrait, but no tablet-optimized mode, no family member profiles, and lacks a TV experience  —  A mobile-only video app was always going to be a hard sell  —  After months of publicity, Quibi — the mobile phone app that's centered …
Valerie Strauss / Washington Post:
Zoom is being banned over security concerns by some US school districts, including NYC, which is directing teachers to switch to Microsoft Teams  —  Some school districts around the country have started to ban the use of Zoom for online learning from home during the coronavirus crisis …
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Skype no longer requires video call participants to have an account or to download software, letting users join a call via a link, similar to Zoom  —  Microsoft has made some nice improvements to its Skype video call service.  Starting today, users don't need to sign up for an account …
Daphne Leprince-Ringuet / ZDNet:
A look at how big tech companies and startups are helping governments around the world tackle Covid-19, with chatbots, supercomputers, hackathons, and more  —  Governments around the world have called on the help of the technology industry.  Here are a few of the projects in the works.
Jason Del Rey / Vox:
In internal email lists Amazon corporate employees express dismay over the firing of Christian Smalls and a report that management discussed a plan to smear him  —  Amazon fired warehouse worker Christian Smalls after he led a walkout at a Staten Island facility in late March.  Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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Dave Gershgorn / OneZero :
Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch: