Techmeme
April 11, 2020, 2:55 PM

Top News

The Verge:
Apple and Google announce a joint effort to introduce iOS and Android APIs in mid-May for opt-in Bluetooth-based COVID-19 contact tracing  —  A huge step forward in the fight against COVID-19  —  Apple and Google announced a system for tracking the spread of the new coronavirus …
More: Apple, New York Times, Washington Post, Ars Technica, Electronic Frontier Foundation, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, joekent.nyc, NPR, Forbes, New York Times, Wired, Vox, International Business Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, BBC, Axios, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, NBC News, Inc42 Media, Towards Data Science, Six Colors, TidBITS, MacStories, Variety, The Hacker News, Aldo's Notes, MediaNama, coinspeaker.com, Ubergizmo, Nikkei Asian Review, ACLU, kottke.org, Techdirt, Newser, Seeking Alpha, Threatpost, PYMNTS.com, NBC News, The New Consumer, New York Post, MacRumors, TalkAndroid.com, TechSpot, Digital Trends, FierceWireless, The Daily Hodl, Michael Tsai, ProgrammableWeb.com, ExtremeTech, BetaNews, Fortune, Macworld, Mashable, SiliconANGLE, Stacey on IoT, BuzzFeed News, Gizmodo, Pocketnow, Droid Life, IDG Insider Pro, Thurrott, Pocket-lint, AppleInsider, Liliputing, The Next Web, Daring Fireball, Daring Fireball, Wccftech, Politico, iPhone Hacks, Android Police, Apple Must, AppAdvice.com, BGR, The Irish Times, ZDNet, Appleosophy, The Verge, Technology Personalized, Reuters, Android Authority, Yahoo Finance, VentureBeat, Input, iMore, Neowin, CNET, CNBC, Engadget, 9to5Google, Business Insider, CNN, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Mac Observer, and The Startup
Moxie Marlinspike / @moxie:
[Thread] Moxie Marlinspike explains how Apple and Google's contract tracing framework will work in practice  —  First look at Apple/Google contact tracing framework: 1) Once a day, your device derives a new key ("daily tracing key"). 2) It uses that to derive a new “proximity ID” every time your device's bluetooth address changes (15min), which is broadcast to nearby BT sensors. 1/10
Casey Newton / The Verge:
A look at the limits of Bluetooth-based voluntary COVID-19 contact tracing, which faces adoption hurdles, potentially big numbers of false positive pings, more  —  False positives and rampant privacy issues suggest we need to make a new investment in hiring people
Tom Maxwell / Input:
IBM is releasing a free course and forum next week to teach COBOL programming language, as US states struggle to find programmers for old unemployment systems  —  Many systems that process unemployment claims still run on a 60-year-old programming language that barely any coders understand.
Johana Bhuiyan / Los Angeles Times:
Instacart is paying workers about the same to do 2-3 orders at a time as it does for one order as demand rises during the pandemic, interviews and receipts show  —  Dina W. did her last job for Instacart on March 20.  Before the coronavirus outbreak, Dina could easily avoid doing …
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Research tracking tech startup layoffs across the world since March 11 finds 204 startups have laid off 16,229 employees, nearly doubling between April 2-8  —  On Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department reported some staggering figures: the number of unemployment claims filed between March 15-April 4 surged to 16.8 million.
Justin Phillips / San Francisco Chronicle:
SF mayor caps commissions for food delivery startups to 15% during the pandemic; startups say the cap will raise customer fees, hurt delivery people's income  —  As struggling San Francisco restaurants pin their hopes of staying open on delivery and takeout orders, city officials have stepped …
New York Times:
Experts say social distancing directives, likely to continue in some form after the COVID-19 crisis, could prompt various industries to accelerate automation  —  Broad unease about losing jobs to machines could dissipate as people focus on the benefits of minimizing close human contact.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google says it will make changes to search results over the coming week to make it easier for users to find virtual health care options  —  The changes are rolling out over the coming week  —  Google is making changes to search results to make it easier for people to find virtual health care options …
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
Strip club dancers and promoters are hosting virtual pop-up strip clubs on Instagram Live, accepting tips via Cash app and promoting the events on Twitter  —  Going digital may be better for dancers.  —  For the past three weeks, Justin LaBoy, 28, a former professional basketball player …

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Sue-Lin Wong / Financial Times:
Jay Greene / Washington Post: