Techmeme
April 15, 2020, 11:10 AM

Top News

Miles Kruppa / Financial Times:
Sources: Airbnb raises another $1B in debt from investors including Apollo Global and Silver Lake, after raising a similar $1B funding round last week  —  New debt finance deal comes a week after an equal-sized funding round to help weather crisis  —  Airbnb is raising $1bn of senior debt …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple announces a new iPhone SE with a 4.7' display, Touch ID, 12 MP camera with portrait mode and 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB storage from $399, shipping April 24  —  It looks like an iPhone 8, but it has more modern specs  —  Apple has officially announced the new iPhone SE …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon will cut commission rates for its affiliate program starting April 21; amount of drop dependent on category, rates for grocery products dropping 5% to 1%  —  - Amazon on Tuesday told members of its affiliates program that it will cut commission rates beginning April 21.
Monica Nickelsburg / GeekWire:
Washington AG Bob Ferguson sues Facebook, saying the company violated its commitment to not sell political ads in the state  —  Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a new lawsuit against Facebook claiming the social network continues to violate state laws governing political ad disclosures.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
The coronavirus crisis underscores the power and dominance of big tech companies, and that novel legislative approaches are required to regulate them  —  Apple and Google, who last Friday jointly |  announced new capabilities for contact tracing coronavirus carriers at scale …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Houseparty has seen 50M signups in the past month and has been the most downloaded social networking app in the US App Store every day since March 20  —  Sima Sistani has been getting through the coronavirus outbreak's shelter-in-place order the past month in many of the same ways others have …
More: 9to5Mac and TechSpot
Bryan Menegus / Gizmodo:
Amazon says a manager at a facility in California died of COVID-19 on March 31, its first warehouse worker death; Amazon claims worker contracted virus offsite  —  A worker at an Amazon facility in California has died after contracting covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Ryne Hager / Android Police:
Nest will temporarily reduce the recording quality of its security cameras by default to reduce bandwidth impact amid COVID-19, users can easily revert change  —  Google is temporarily dropping Nest camera recording quality and bandwidth over the next few days in an attempt to reduce strain on ISPs and the internet in general.
Monica Chin / The Verge:
Dell XPS 13 (2020) review: beautiful design, standout keyboard and touchpad, more than adequate for gaming, but bad webcam and limited port selection  —  Dell improves upon an already winning formula  —  Every time a new XPS 13 comes out, the question is always the same: is it still the best Windows thin-and-light laptop?
Kanishka Singh / Reuters:
Self-driving car startup Zoox agrees to settle lawsuit with Tesla over misappropriation of trade secrets, requiring it to pay an undisclosed amount  —  (Reuters) - Zoox Inc said on Tuesday it had settled a lawsuit with Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) after admitting that some new hires from the electric carmaker …
More: Engadget
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Awake Security, which analyzes network traffic to identify and assess internal and external threats, raises $36M Series C led by Evolution Equity Partners  —  Awake Security, a cybersecurity platform that analyzes network traffic to identify and assess internal and external threats …
More: FinSMEs
CNBC:
Apple launches a tool that shows how well people are social distancing, using anonymized data from Apple Maps, similar to efforts from Google  —  - Apple on Tuesday launched a new tool that shows how well people are following social distancing guidelines.  — It gathers anonymous data …
Mathew Di Salvo / Decrypt:
G20 watchdog says stablecoins could undermine financial stability and that major world economies must implement a regulatory framework to confront the risk  —  Stablecoins could undermine financial stability and major world economies must confront this risk by implementing a suitable regulatory framework …
FinSMEs:
Push Technology, which provides real-time data streaming and messaging services, raises £10M Series A led by Maven Capital Partners  —  Push Technology, a Los Gatos, CA- and Belfast, Northern Ireland-based provider of real-time data streaming and messaging solutions, completed a £10m Series A round of financing.
More: Finextra and Tech.eu
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Nifty Games, which is partnering with NFL and NBA to publish officially licensed games, raises $12M Series A led by March Capital Partners  —  Nifty Games is aiming to reshape the mobile gaming strategies of national sports leagues, partnering with associations like the NFL and NBA …
More: VentureBeat and FinSMEs
Jon Porter / The Verge:
OnePlus 8 review: has great battery life and solid performance with a 90Hz display, but camera could be better and it lacks wireless charging and an IP rating  —  The traditional strengths, plus the traditional omissions  —  Video by Alix Diaconis and Vjeran Pavic
Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:

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