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April 8, 2020, 5:10 PM
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| Michael McWhertor / Polygon: |
Google makes Stadia free to use for anyone with a Gmail address and will give new users two months of Stadia Pro for free — Stadia Pro is also free for two months — Google's video game streaming platform, Stadia, is now free to anyone with a Gmail address, the company announced on Wednesday.
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The Keyword, 9to5Google, Thurrott, New York Times, VentureBeat, XDA Developers, Ars Technica, The Next Web, 9to5Google, Reuters, Android Police, IGN, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, AndroidGuys, USgamer.net, CNET, The Verge, KnowTechie, BGR, Gamasutra, 9to5Google, Input, Game Rant, Yahoo Finance, TechRadar.com, OnMSFT.com, GameSpot, Droid Life, Android Central, Liliputing, Wccftech, Kotaku, Neowin, Twinfinite, Pocketnow, VG247, and Blue's News
Tweets: @googlestadia, @mrphilharrison, @therealandymc, and @kylebrussell
| Ina Fried / Axios: |
Tech giants like Apple, Facebook, and Google are scrambling to create digital internships for this summer, as offices remain shuttered during the pandemic — Go deeper — By Sara Fischer, Stef W. Kight — Campaigns turn to texting as coronavirus spreads| Eric S. Yuan / Zoom Blog: |
Zoom gives updates on its progress with privacy and security: appointing a CISO Council and Advisory Board and bringing on Alex Stamos as an outside advisor — As I mentioned in my message on April 1, Zoom has seen tremendous growth and new use cases emerge over the past few weeks …
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BuzzFeed News, Alex Stamos, Bloomberg, Thurrott, Forbes, ZDNet, The Verge, Reuters, Gizmodo, Forbes, New York Times, Ars Technica, Marketing Land, Business Insider, CircleID, Executive Yuan, VICE, NPR, SiliconANGLE, CNBC, Input, Reuters, HealthITSecurity, NBC News, ZDNet, BetaNews, Silicon Valley Business …, iMore, Wccftech, TechRadar.com, 9to5Mac, BleepingComputer, CNET, TechCrunch, The Register, BetaNews, Politico, Bloomberg, The Daily Dot, and TechRepublic
Tweets: @alexstamos, @zoom_us, @carnage4life, @bdsams, @jolingkent, @cfarivar, @karaswisher, @kimzetter, @fromedome, @gcluley, @patrickmoorhead, @alexstamos, @peterwsinger, and @kreasechan
| Richard Nieva / CNET: |
Google says Meet, its teleconferencing tool, is adding 2M new users a day and logged 2B minutes of video calls in March with daily usage up 25x from January — As people around the world hunker down in their homes to slow the spread of COVID-19, one technology has emerged as a lifeline to the outside world: video chat.
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Android Police, 9to5Google, Droid Life, Android Central, Google Cloud Blog, and The Keyword. Thanks:@jeskillings
| Jordan Novet / CNBC: |
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cloudpro.co.uk, coinspeaker.com, Thurrott, Staten Island Advance, Seeking Alpha, the guap, Business Insider, and TheStreet. Tweets: @yoda. Thanks:@mattrosoff
| Matt Drange / Protocol: |
Online ticketing service Eventbrite says it will lay off 45% of its employees; sources say Eventbrite has over 1,000 staff — Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz announced Wednesday during a companywide meeting that 45% of employees were being laid off, Protocol has learned.
Tweets: @mattdrange, @mattdrange, @joshconstine, and @martinsfp
| Thomas Brewster / Forbes: |
UK's NCSC and US DHS publish a list of 2,500 COVID-19-related threats they are tracking, including malicious websites and email addresses linked to scams — If you weren't already taking the rise of coronavirus-based cybercrime seriously, take note. A rare joint alert has gone out from U.S …
More:
Microsoft Security, ZDNet, us-cert.gov, CyberScoop, BleepingComputer, CNET, Dark Reading, OnMSFT.com, AppleInsider, and ComputerWeekly.com
Tweets: @stshank and @iblametom
| Luke O'Brien / HuffPost: |
Investigation details facial recognition company Clearview AI's ties to the alt-right, including hiring employees with deep links to far-right extremists — Clearview AI, which has alarmed privacy experts, hired several far-right employees, a HuffPost investigation found.
More:
VentureBeat, The Verge, and Gizmodo
Tweets: @lukeobrien, @jessicaschulb, @blackamazon, @jessicaschulb, @chick_in_kiev, @jessicaschulb, @jessicaschulb, @jason_a_w, and @kashhill
| Adam Cancryn / Politico: |
Sources: White House team led by Jared Kushner has reached out to health tech companies about creating a real-time surveillance system for tracking COVID-19 — White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's task force has reached out to a range of health technology companies about creating … | Bloomberg: |
Sources: Airbnb has held talks about raising an additional $500M to $1B in debt, after announcing a $1B debt and equity deal on Monday, to weather the pandemic — - Company considering raising $500 million to $1 billion — Valuation fell to $18 billion in Monday's debt-equity deal| Wall Street Journal: |
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The Information, The Next Web, Reuters, Washington Post, Fortune, and Business Insider
Tweets: @dez_blanchfield, @joshuabaer, @analyst_g, @ericnewcomer, @gilliantan, @newley, @yoda, and @shitfund
| Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge: |
Twitter removes a tool that let mobile users prevent some data from being shared with advertisers; EU users are exempt and need to opt in to sharing — Users in Europe are the exception — Twitter has removed a privacy feature that allowed all users to stop sharing some private information with advertisers.
More:
help.twitter.com, 9to5Mac, and Adweek
| Ben Thompson / Stratechery: |
Apple and Amazon video deal is part of a long-term strategy to fight a potential Netflix-dominated future after most competing streaming services fold — Last week, without fanfare, Amazon Prime Video apps on iOS made a subtle change to the experience of purchasing or renting TV Shows and videos:
Tweets: @modestproposal1, @stratechery, and @dlberes
| Aarian Marshall / Wired: |
Gig workers say unemployment benefits included in the $2T COVID-19 relief bill are hard to access, won't arrive for a while, and the system is overloaded — The $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill makes contractors eligible for unemployment insurance. But states want pay stubs that ride-hail drivers don't have.| Ron Miller / TechCrunch: |
Mozilla says long-time chairwoman Mitchell Baker will become CEO, following Chris Beard's departure last year — Mozilla Corporation announced today that it has chosen long-time chairwoman Mitchell Baker to be CEO, replacing Chris Beard who announced he would be stepping down at the end of the year last August.| Talos Blog: |
Cisco's Talos security group finds fingerprint scanners from Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and others can be bypassed by fake fingerprints made with 3D printing — Phone, computer fingerprint scanners can be defeated with 3-D printing — By Paul Rascagneres and Vitor Ventura.
More:
SiliconANGLE, Ars Technica, infosecurity-magazine.com, SecurityWeek, and CyberScoop
Tweets: @r00tbsd, @security_craig, and @_vventura
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Microsoft says it will make all of its events digital until July 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic — Build 2021 will likely be a digital event — Microsoft is planning to make all of its internal and external events digital-only until July 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
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Digital Trends, VentureBeat, WinBuzzer, TechRadar.com, Eurogamer.net, Destructoid, IGN, USgamer.net, TrueAchievements, OnMSFT.com, GameSpot, GamesIndustry.biz, VG247, and Silicon Republic
Tweets: @tomwarren, @jasonlk, @remotesynth, and @tomphillipseg
| Craig Timberg / Washington Post: |
Study of 225 pieces of COVID-19-related content rated false or misleading: 59% remain up with no warning label on Twitter, 27% on YouTube, and 24% on Facebook — Facebook and YouTube do better, but still leave some misinformation up — More than half of the misinformation …
More:
Reuters Institute …, Nieman Lab, Forbes, The Independent, VentureBeat, Telegraph, Digital Trends, and Telegraph
Tweets: @rasmus_kleis, @_felixsimon_, @marklittlenews, @jason_kint, @parkermolloy, @jason_kint, @marklittlenews, and @oiioxford
| New York Times: |
SimilarWeb and Apptopia: amid quarantines, Americans increasingly use online platforms on computers, not smartphones; Nextdoor.com traffic is up 73% from Jan. — Stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic, with movie theaters closed and no restaurants to dine in, Americans have been spending more of their lives online.
More:
INCOMPAS, TechCrunch, FlowingData, and The Verge
Tweets: @blacklace40, @nytgraphics, @kyrah, @brianmcc, and @jayrosen_nyu
| Kyle Orland / Ars Technica: |
Valve releases data showing rise in games making $10K during first two weeks after release but analysis suggests ~80% of games earn under $5K during same period — Valve offers a peek behind the sales curtain, telling an incomplete and mixed story. — It has been roughly two years …
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Steam Community, Forbes, MCV/DEVELOP, GameSpot, Wccftech, PC Games Insider, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Kotaku, Gamasutra, GamesIndustry.biz, Engadget, VentureBeat, and Blue's News
Tweets: @brad_glasgow, @kyleorl, @necrosofty, @eevee, @steamworks, @greyalien, @enichan, @winterwolvesg, @eevee, and @withoutaplain
| Tatiana Schlossberg / New York Times: |
How scientists are using AI and machine learning to analyze vast data on oceans, including tracking migrations and Google helping to identify whale song — Machine-learning applications are proving to be especially useful to the scientific community studying the planet's largest bodies of water.
Tweets: @globalfishwatch, @nytscience, and @tatertatiana
| Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech: |
Evidence of benchmark cheating has been found in MediaTek chipsets used in smartphones from manufacturers including Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Sony — Mobile benchmark cheating has a long story that goes far back for the industry (well - at least in smartphone industry years) …
More:
Android Police, MediaTek, Forbes, ExtremeTech, and Android Authority
| Steve Lohr / New York Times: |
Analysis of GoDaddy data shows how small-scale digital entrepreneurs, part-time or full, generate significant economic spillover benefits across US communities — A new study examines the millions of small digital businesses. They could help many communities weather the economic blow from the coronavirus outbreak.
Tweets: @asu_ctds, @stevelohr, and @nytimesbusiness
| Ashley Stewart / Business Insider: |
Microsoft says it is pausing new hires except in some “strategic areas”, citing uncertainty due to the pandemic; sources: the company is still hiring for Azure — - Microsoft is “temporarily pausing recruitment” for some roles amid uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis, the company confirmed Tuesday.
More:
Forbes, GeekWire, WinBuzzer, and Seeking Alpha
| Charles Levinson / Protocol: |
CEO of gay dating app Scruff talks about avoiding partnerships with location data brokers due to privacy concerns and building an in-house analytics operation — A few years ago, a particular type of email began showing up in the inbox of Eric Silverberg, whose gay dating app, Scruff …
More:
Electronic Frontier Foundation and Firstpost Tech
Tweets: @protocol, @demianbulwa, @levinsonc, and @wolfiechristl
| Andy Greenberg / Wired: |
Researchers outline three privacy-conscious approaches to COVID-19 app contact tracing: Bluetooth, redacted location tracing, and hashing servers and mix nets — Researchers are racing to achieve the benefits of location-tracking without the surveillance. — Before the Covid-19 pandemic …
Tweets: @wired and @a_greenberg
| Annie Musgrove / Tech.eu: |
Swedish logistics tech startup Instabox, which lets e-commerce retailers offer same-day delivery through its delivery lockers, raises €36M at a €100M valuation — Swedish logistics tech company Instabox has closed a €36 million financing round, boosting the business' valuation to €100 million.
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