Techmeme: HBO Max to launch on May 27 for $15 per month with 10,000 hours of programming (Hollywood Reporter)

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Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:

Epic Games launches Fortnite on the Play Store, after over a year of offering it only outside the store, noting Google puts sideloaded apps at a disadvantage — Epic Games is finally settling its feud — kind of — with Google and putting Fornite onto the Google Play Store, but the studio sounds pretty pissed about it.

More: Polygon, The Verge, XDA Developers, Ars Technica, Android Authority, Windows Central, Thurrott, 9to5Google, CNET, Android Police, Yahoo Finance, Gamasutra, and Slashdot. Tweets: @joshconstine

Bloomberg:

Sources: Epic Games, owner of Fortnite and Houseparty, has discussed raising between $500M and $1B, at a valuation above $15B

Ginny Marvin / Search Engine Land:

Google will let merchants list their products for free in Shopping search results, as part of an effort to better compete against Amazon in product search — After 8 years, Google will bring free listings into its Shopping results as part of an evolution to better compete against Amazon in product search.

More: The Keyword, 9to5Google, The Verge, TechCrunch, Axios, The Next Web, Neowin, XDA Developers, Engadget, Search Engine Journal, Android Central, and MSPoweruser

Tweets: @mdudas, @craigmillr, @ppckirk, @bigalittlea, @mblumenthal, @joshelman, @juokaz, @lutherlowe, @williamready, and @ginnymarvin. Thanks:@ginnymarvin

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

Netflix reports Q1 revenue of $5.77B, up 27.6% YoY, vs $5.76B est., global streaming paid net additions of 15.77M, now totaling 182.86M accounts, up 22.8% YoY — - Netflix reported its Q1 2020 earnings after the bell on Tuesday. — Netflix has ranked among analysts' favorite “stay at home” …

More: Netflix, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, ZDNet, Axios, TechCrunch, Engadget, and The Streamable. Tweets: @jamestitcomb

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Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat:

NPD Group: Nintendo Switch sales doubled YoY in March, while PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sales each grew by over 25%; March hardware spending rose 63% to $461M — Let's say a global pandemic forces you to spend almost all of your time inside at home. Sure, this means you have a chance to catch up on Netflix and reading.

More: Nikkei Asian Review, NPD Group, Digital Trends, The Verge, GeekWire, Wccftech, Liliputing, Polygon, GamingBolt, GameSpot, Mashable, and Wall Street Journal

Tweets: @zhugeex and @matpiscatella

Rachel Abrams / New York Times:

New York's AG says it's investigating Charter Communications' handling of COVID-19, requiring thousands to work in offices; source: 230+ workers tested positive — More than 230 workers at Charter Communications, the cable and internet giant known as Spectrum, have tested positive for Covid-19 …

More: Gizmodo, Ars Technica, CNBC, and The Daily Dot

Tweets: @nytimes, @dellcam, @carnage4life, @zackwhittaker, @rachelabramsny, @karlbode, and @nytmedia

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Sonos launches Sonos Radio, a free streaming radio service preloaded in the Sonos app, with 60K+ stations from multiple partners alongside original programming — Sonos Radio will now be the default service available for the company's speakers — Sonos has always been the neutral manager …

More: Sonos, TechCrunch, Wired, Input, The Next Web, Android Police, Engadget, TechHive, TechRadar.com, Digital Trends, Ausdroid, CNET, TechSpot, UPROXX, MSPoweruser, Mashable, Protocol, Thurrott, MobileSyrup, Gizmodo, Pitchfork, AppleInsider, SlashGear, The Independent, 9to5Mac, and RAIN News

Tweets: @dcseifert, @backlon, @reckless, @chriswelch, and @journeydan

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Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Security researcher discloses four 0-days affecting an IBM enterprise security tool after IBM refused to accept the bug disclosures through its official program — Zero-days impact the IBM Data Risk Manager (IDRM), one of IBM's enterprise security tools. — A security researcher …

More: GitHub, Threatpost, BleepingComputer, The Hacker News, and SecurityWeek

Snap:

Snap reports in Q1 DAUs increased 20% YoY to 229M, revenue increased 44% YoY to $462M, time spent watching Discover content rose 35%+; stock up 18%+ after hours — Snap Inc. Announces First Quarter 2020 Financial Results Daily Active Users increased 20% year-over-year to 229 million …

More: The Verge, Axios, and CNBC

Tweets: @chetanp, @joshelman, @thekenyeung, and @cnbcnow

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Cho Mu-Hyun / ZDNet:

Samsung says its blood pressure monitoring app for Galaxy Watch has been approved by a South Korean regulator and will be available in Q3 — The app measures blood pressure when paired with a smartwatch. — Samsung's app that measures blood pressure on its smartwatch has been approved …

More: Samsung Global Newsroom, CNET, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Nikkei Asian Review, SamMobile, Gizchina, SlashGear, Wareable, TalkAndroid.com, Android Central, 9to5Google, BGR India, Android Police, Pocketnow, MSPoweruser, and Neowin

Tweets: @samsungmobile, @maxwinebach, and @jackycwong

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:

Security firm buys a database, first seen last month, with info on 267M+ mostly US Facebook users, including full names and phone numbers, for £500 on dark web — Threat actors are selling over 267 million Facebook profiles for £500 ($623) on dark web sites and hacker forums.

More: Input, TechRadar.com, and Tom's Guide. Tweets: @piccadillycrown

Nick Bilton / Vanity Fair:

A look at Elliott Management and Twitter's deal, which bought Jack Dorsey time as CEO, as activist investors pinned Twitter's stagnation on his 4.5-year tenure — Twitter's CEO, last of the Steve Jobs-like tech-founder demigods, was on the verge of being pushed out by private-equity investors.

Tweets: @vanityfair, @jim_edwards, @vanityfair, @b52malmet, and @kantrowitz

Apple:

Apple launches App Store, iCloud, Apple Arcade, and Apple Podcasts in 20 new countries; Apple Music expands to 52 new countries — Cupertino, California — Apple announced that starting today, even more customers around the world can enjoy many of Apple's most popular Services.

Financial Times:

Sources including employees at Foxconn and Pegatron facilities say iPhone factories have slowed production, cutting overtime and reducing staff, as demand dips — Some of the biggest factories supplying Apple are reducing staff and cutting overtime — Chinese factories that supply Apple …

More: MacRumors, The Mac Observer, iPhone Hacks, Wccftech, and Ars Technica

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

Kuo: Apple postpones iPhone SE Plus release from H1 to H2 2021, seeing a dip in demand for iPhones and production delays across the upcoming iPhone 12 models — Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities has shared a new investor note today detailing the ongoing development of Apple's 2020 iPhone 12 models.

More: MacDailyNews

Hollywood Reporter:

HBO Max to launch on May 27 for $15 per month with 10,000 hours of programming — The streaming service is set to debut amid the shutdown brought about by the novel coronavirus outbreaking, bringing with it 10,000 hours of library programming from across the WarnerMedia catalog.

More: Pressroom, CNET, YouTube, CNET, Engadget, Tom's Guide, The Daily Dot, and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @jakestakes, @thr, and @evanwolf

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Tom Simonite / Wired:

Google's head of quantum computing hardware John Martinis resigned from his position this month after disagreements with Hartmut Neven, its quantum AI director — John Martinis brought a long record of quantum computing breakthroughs when he joined Google in 2014. He quit after being reassigned to an advisory role.

More: Fortune and HPCwire

Tweets: @brianroemmele, @skdh, @benjaderberg, @charlesarthur, @wired, and @tsimonite

Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:

Thirty experts, including tech execs and VCs, on how the adoption of tech amid the pandemic will change work, education, health care, manufacturing, and more — We're four weeks into the massive time-out forced on us by coronavirus. Many of us have spent much of that time trying to get used …

Tweets: @ideo

Ron Miller / TechCrunch:

Confluent, the company behind open source streaming data project Apache Kafka, raises $250M Series E at a $4.5B valuation, following last year's $125M Series D — The pandemic may feel all-encompassing at the moment, but Confluent announced a $250 million Series E today …

More: Confluent and FinSMEs. Tweets: @ron_miller

Sean O'Kane / The Verge:

General Motors is shutting down Maven, the car-sharing service it launched in 2016, after pulling the service from about half the cities it was in last year — The coronavirus pandemic was the final nail in the coffin — General Motors is shutting down Maven, the car-sharing service it launched in 2016, the company tells The Verge.

More: Engadget. Tweets: @bgurley and @parismarx

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