Techmeme
April 9, 2020, 2:55 PM

Top News

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Sources: Microsoft won't be delivering its Windows 10X-powered Surface Neo dual-screen devices this year, nor will it ship Windows 10X to third-party OEMs  —  Microsoft is shifting its Windows focus to reflect the new world where virtualization and single-screen devices are more of a priority than brand-new form factors.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft has seen a new daily record of 2.7B meeting minutes in Teams, up 200% from 900M minutes in mid-March, and video call usage grew by 1,000%+ in March  —  Microsoft is revealing more about how people are using its Teams app, and it predicts the novel coronavirus pandemic will be a turning point …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
iOS 14 code shows that Apple is working on a “Clips” feature that would let users experience parts of an app's functionality in Safari by scanning a QR code  —  Apple is working on a new way to offer specific parts of third-party apps across the system without needing to have them installed …
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
Researcher Jane Manchun Wong: Facebook may be working on a new “Campus” feature, with Groups and Events for college students with .edu addresses  —  Facebook is apparently hoping to go back to its roots as a service that connects college students with each other.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
A new Zoom update hides meeting ID numbers in videoconference call title bars by default, preventing accidental dissemination of meeting IDs with screenshots  —  A new update to the Zoom client has been released that removes the meeting ID from the title bar when conducting meetings …
Will Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
The pandemic has companies like Netflix and Equinix expediting network and server upgrades, driving the biggest expansion of internet infrastructure in years  —  Just like that, our internet connection has become an umbilical to the outside world.  We now depend on it to do our jobs, to go to school, and to see other people.
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Verizon says it is now handling ~800M wireless calls on weekdays, more than double Mother's Day, while AT&T says calls are up 35%; internet usage is up 20-25%  —  The volume of phone calls has surged more than internet use as people want to hear each other's voices in the pandemic.
David Canellis / The Next Web:
Report: Travelex paid hackers 285 BTC, worth around $2.3M, to regain access to its systems after a ransomware attack on New Year's Eve  —  Travelex paid hackers $2.3 million worth of Bitcoin to regain access to its computer systems after a devastating ransomware attack on New Year's Eve, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
The Unicode Consortium says it's delaying emoji planned for 2021 but the emoji announced earlier this year will still be available in the fall  —  An emoji delay  —  The pandemic is even affecting emoji.  The Unicode Consortium, the group behind emoji releases, announced today that it's delaying …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Google's confirms it expanded Duplex, its AI chat agent, to the UK, Australia, and Canada  —  Google today quietly updated a support page to indicate that Google Duplex, its AI chat agent that can arrange appointments over the phone, is now being used in the U.K., Australia, and Canada in a limited capacity.
Robin Klein / Sifted:
Gaspard Sebag / Bloomberg:
France orders Google to pay publishers to display article snippets, starting from October of 2019, after Google initially refused to do so  —  - Watchdog says Google may have caused ‘serious’ harm to press  — Antitrust agency issues interim measures after press complaint
Reuters:
FCC grants Google permission to operate a portion of the 8,000-mile Pacific Light Cable Network System between the US and Taiwan, but not Hong Kong  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday approved Alphabet Inc unit Google's (GOOGL.O) …
Jason Gurwin / The Streamable:
Disney says Disney+ has 50M+ paid subscribers globally, and that its April 3 launch in India accounts for 8M Disney+ subscribers; stock rises 6%+  —  Disney announced that the company has surpassed 50 million paid subscribers, following their launch in India and eight Western European countries …
Kyle Daly / Axios:
Unions are seeing an uptick in engagement from tech and gig workers who worry the tech industry isn't doing enough to protect them during the pandemic  —  Tech and gig economy workers are talking to unions about organizing as they worry the industry isn't doing enough to protect them from the coronavirus.
Tweets: @axios
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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Dave Lee / Financial Times:
Dave Gershgorn / OneZero:
Eva Dou / Washington Post:
Richard Nieva / CNET: