Techmeme
April 13, 2020, 10:30 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is planning an iPad Pro-like design with flat edges and a smaller notch for iPhones, a smaller, cheaper HomePod, and Apple Tags for the fall  —  - iPhone's fall refresh to add 5G on as many as four new models  — Smaller HomePod speaker, location tags for keys in development
Ross Anderson / Light Blue Touchpaper:
A list of issues that make contact tracing an impractical solution in the real world, from trolling others to cheating to insufficient adoption  —  There have recently been several proposals for pseudonymous contact tracing, including from Apple and Google.
Leo Kelion / BBC:
NHSX will test an app for users to send a “yellow alert” if they self-diagnose with COVID-19 symptoms and a “red alert” if they test positive to recent contacts  —  The UK has confirmed plans for an app that will warn users if they have recently been in close proximity …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Apple says COVID-19 contact tracing apps can include duration of proximity when deciding what is a proximity event, potentially limiting false positive pings  —  Adoption is the hard part of contact tracing apps so far — but if it's baked into the operating system, it gets a lot easier
The Guardian:
Leaked docs reveal the extent of UK's cooperation with Faculty and Palantir on a “Covid-19 datastore” to power the previously announced NHS pandemic dashboard  —  Technology firms are processing large volumes of confidential UK patient information in a data-mining operation …
The Sunday Times:
Moxie Marlinspike / @moxie:
Krystal Hu / Reuters:
Amazon says it will put new online grocery delivery customers on a waitlist and prioritize existing customers amid surging demand  —  (Reuters) - Amazon will begin to put new grocery delivery customers on a wait list and curtail shopping hours at some Whole Foods stores to prioritize orders …
Ben Smith / New York Times:
Sources: after handing over to the new CEO, Bob Iger effectively returned to run Disney in March, as the pandemic decimated its most profitable businesses  —  The former C.E.O. thought he was riding into the sunset.  Now he's reasserting control and reimagining Disney as a company with fewer employees and more thermometers.
Chris Stokel-Walker / OneZero:
As some YouTube advertising rates drop by as much as 50% while viewership rates are up, YouTubers say their pay has dropped dramatically  —  Advertising rates on the platform have dropped significantly during the coronavirus pandemic  —  Newspapers, websites, and TV channels have all been decimated by the coronavirus.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Simplifying benefits management in Zoho People  —  Let's consider a new hire on their first day of orientation.  They receive a brief introduction to the benefits plans, and almost immediately, questions start to surface …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Sam Blond from Monaco
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Training Data:
Anthropic's Katelyn Lesse & Angela Jiang: Building an Ecosystem, not a Walled Garden
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
John Kim - How to Raise a Few Billion Dollars
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
The Sales Framework Every Founder Needs | Mark Roberge
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
How tech workers actually feel about AI in 2026 | Annual AI sentiment survey (Noam Segal)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:30 AM ET, April 13, 2020.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Duncan Fyfe / VICE:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: