|
April 22, 2020, 4:35 PM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Ed Hammond / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Magic Leap is laying off about half its employees, or around 1,000 people, as it winds down its consumer business; Magic Leap has raised over $2B — - About 1,000 employees are said to be affected by cuts — Magic Leap to wind down consumer business in retreat
More:
Magic Leap, Input, TechCrunch, The Information, Fortune, VentureBeat, AppleInsider, Mashable, Financial Times, Forbes, The Verge, CNET, Business Insider, Axios, South Florida Business Journal, New World Notes, TechSpot, Yahoo Finance, GamesIndustry.biz, MSPoweruser, Gamasutra, and UploadVR
Tweets: @mathewi, @heynewt22, @seyitaylor, @dhh, @trace_cohen, @bskip22, @joshconstine, @rezendi, @iwazaru91, @robbietilton, @scobleizer, @stevekovach, @ali_heston, and @josephflaherty
| Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE: |
Researchers say they found two iPhone 0-days, exploited in the wild, including a remote zero-click flaw in the Mail app; Apple says an update will patch both — In the summer of 2016, researchers at a digital rights organization and a cybersecurity firm announced they had caught …
More:
ZecOps Blog, Wall Street Journal, Mashable, CNET, Ars Technica, Threatpost, The Verge, BleepingComputer, SiliconANGLE, Reuters, Forbes, TechCrunch, Business Insider, 9to5Mac, Malwarebytes Labs, PYMNTS.com, AppleInsider, Patently Apple, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Mac Observer, Tom's Guide, iMore, Cult of Mac, Yahoo Finance, iPhone Hacks, MSPoweruser, The Hacker News, and iDownloadBlog.com
Tweets: @ryanaraine, @lorenzofb, @wsj, @newley, and @ildannymoore
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Facebook invests $5.7B in Jio for a 9.99% stake, making it the largest minority shareholder in the subsidiary of India's most valued firm, Reliance Industries — Facebook has enjoyed unparalleled reach in India for more than a decade. But as China's fast-growing ByteDance emerges …
More:
Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Livemint, CNBC, Gizchina, South China Morning Post, PYMNTS.com, coinspeaker.com, Engadget, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Financial Times, VentureBeat, and Silicon Valley Business …
Tweets: @sub8u, @akm1410, @varinder_bansal, @arjunkharpal, @sarahfrier, @jonrussell, @nixxin, @chandrarsrikant, @rahulnischal, @tsuvik, @internetfreedom, @mytechmusings, @samidhas, @madhumachi, @r0h1n, @cvllr, @gautamghosh, @rameshsrivats, @eastdakota, @internetfreedom, @internetfreedom, @sub8u, @kurtwagner8, @raju, @rohitdubey, and @stevekopack
| Nikhil Pahwa / MediaNama: |
Facebook's deal with Jio is unlikely to make a dent in India's mobile payments market, where Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm have emerged as the big players — So it's confirmed: Facebook has bought 9.9% stake in Jio Platforms Limited, the parent company of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, for $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore).
More:
TechCrunch, Reliance Industries Limited, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Adweek, Bloomberg, Reuters, KrASIA, Forbes, Inc42 Media, Fortune, XDA Developers, and Social Media Today
Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg. Tweets: @disruptivedean, @blitzkreigm, @alexeheath, @mikeisaac, @kurtwagner8, @sushubh, @seyitaylor, @arjunkharpal, @thekenyeung, and @sarthakgh
| Dieter Bohn / The Verge: |
iPhone SE 2020 review: good battery life but has a tired design and while the camera is good in bright light and great at video, it is noisy in low-light — A strong case against $1,000 phones — What do you look for in a new iPhone? The top of the list likely includes battery life and camera quality.
More:
Wired, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, CNBC, Macworld, The Irish Times, International Business Times, CNET, The Independent, Pocket-lint, Wccftech, AppleInsider, Android Central, TechRadar.com, MacRumors, YouTube, 9to5Mac, MacDailyNews, iPhone in Canada Blog, Yahoo Finance, Gizchina, Tom's Guide, iPhone Hacks, and iMore
Tweets: @dhh, @thurrott, @reckless, @joannastern, @backlon, @waltmossberg, @chillmage, @panzer, and @tailosivetech
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Zoom rolls out its 5.0 update, focused exclusively on security and privacy features, including easier call management and upgrading encryption — Zoom is moving quickly to address complaints — Zoom promised a 90-day feature freeze to fix privacy and security issues, and the company is delivering on some of those promises.
More:
Zoom Blog, The Next Web, ZDNet, iMore, Thurrott, Neowin, Engadget, Computerworld, Yahoo Finance, BetaNews, 9to5Mac, OnMSFT.com, TechRepublic, MSPoweruser, and Wccftech
Tweets: @jwangark and @profwoodward
| Zoe Schiffer / The Verge: |
Some US courts are turning to Zoom for trials during the lockdown, which critics say limits public access to the courts and favors high-end law firms — It would have been an uneventful court appearance had one of the lawyers not had some trouble with his Zoom background.
More:
Yahoo Finance
| Todd Spangler / Variety: |
Netflix announces plans to offer $1B in junk bonds to fund operations and potential acquisitions; as of the end of March, Netflix reported $14.17B in debt — Netflix is going back to the debt markets yet again, announcing plans to offer $1 billion in junk bonds to fund operations and potential acquisitions.
More:
Netflix, The Verge, Deadline, Wccftech, Hollywood Reporter, and Reuters
Tweets: @richlightshed and @adrianweckler
| New York Times: |
US intelligence officials say Chinese operatives are amplifying COVID-19 disinformation in America using text messages and social media posts — American officials were alarmed by fake text messages and social media posts that said President Trump was locking down the country.| Scott Rosenberg / Axios: |
Zoom fatigue is now setting in, as it moves from being a social lifeline to a chore, used for all interactions while aggravating anxieties in an exhausting time — The rapid trajectory of videoconferencing service Zoom has entered a new phase: What started as a social lifeline during the pandemic …
More:
The Information, Fast Company, and BBC
| Lily Hay Newman / Wired: |
Google's Threat Analysis Group shares a report outlining efforts by over 12 state-sponsored hackers using COVID-19 as cover for espionage — More than 12 government-backed groups are using the pandemic as cover for digital reconnaissance and espionage, according to a new report.
More:
The Keyword, BleepingComputer, CNET, Federal Computer Week, Mashable, The Keyword, and Yahoo Finance
Tweets: @mrisher, @razhael, @ryanaraine, @razhael, @jenn_elias, and @campuscodi. Thanks:@aaronjstein
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Facebook says it will now show the location of large Facebook and Instagram accounts alongside posts, to help users assess their authenticity, rolling out in US — Facebook today is introducing another feature aimed at making it easier to see who's behind the posts published across Facebook and Instagram.| Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge: |
Hands-on with Motorola's new $999 Edge Plus, which has a 6.7-inch display, Snapdragon 865, 5G, 12GB of RAM, 3.5mm jack, and arrives on May 14 on Verizon — Hands-on with Motorola's most powerful phone in years — Motorola is making flagship phones again.
More:
9to5Google, Verizon, TechCrunch, PCWorld, XDA Developers, CNET, Thurrott, VentureBeat, Android Police, Gizmodo, and Bloomberg
Tweets: @glkcreative and @dcseifert
| CNBC: |
US Small Business Administration notifies ~8,000 business owners seeking federal relief loans that their personal data may have been exposed to other applicants — - Some small business owners seeking help via the Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loan program …
More:
Ars Technica, Washington Post, Threatpost, and PYMNTS.com
Tweets: @katerogers, @shaynacpa, @arielmtspeaks, @iansams, @zck, @counternotions, and @mattrosoff
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Google launches a Watchlist feature for Search to help users keep track of TV shows and movies — Google is adding a new feature to Search that will help you keep track of all the TV shows and movies you want to watch during these long weeks at home. The company had already …
More:
Yahoo Finance and AndroidGuys
| Danny Palmer / ZDNet: |
Trustwave: the number of ransomware attacks in 2019 quadrupled year-over-year, and they are now more commonplace than payment card theft cybercrime incidents — Ransomware attacks have overtaken credit card theft as the top form of cybercrime according to new data.
More:
Trustwave, BetaNews, TechRepublic, and infosecurity-magazine.com
Tweets: @shah_sheikh and @dannyjpalmer
| Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: |
Vivaldi browser gets built-in options to block ads and tracking, with a blocklist powered by DuckDuckGo's Tracker Radar, and comes out of beta on Android — Vivaldi, the browser launched by former Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner, has long positioned itself as a highly customizable alternative to Chrome and Firefox for power users.
More:
Vivaldi Browser, The Verge, Downloadcrew, TechRadar.com, Engadget, BetaNews, gHacks Technology News, 9to5Google, Thurrott, Android Police, Softpedia News, OnMSFT.com, XDA Developers, and CNET. Tweets: @vivaldibrowser
| Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat: |
Google says Flutter, its open source UI framework, now has nearly 500,000 users, up 10% month-over-month in March, as it outlines future changes — Google today revealed that “nearly half a million developers” now use its open source UI framework Flutter each month.| Sophos News: |
Deep dive on a “sextortion” spam email scheme that raked in 50.98 BTC, or ~$473K, over five months and, on some days, accounted for 20%+ of all observed spam — Cryptocurrency profits from sextortion spam funneled into wallets tied to other cybercrime and dark web market activity.| Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch: |
Patreon says it laid off 30 employees, 13% of its workforce, partly due to current economic uncertainty, despite seeing a surge in new creators last month — Creative platform Patreon has laid off 30 employees, which is 13% of its workforce, TechCrunch has learned.| Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: |
Fishtown Analytics, makers of an open source analytics engineering tool called dbt, raises $12.9M Series A led by a16z — Philadelphia-based Fishtown Analytics, the company behind the popular open-source data engineering tool dbt, today announced that it has raised a $12.9 million Series …
More:
PR Newswire and Philadelphia Business Journal
| Bobby Allyn / NPR: |
Profile of Martin Pichinson, whose firm helps wind down financially troubled tech companies, as his work ramps up amid 21K lost startup jobs since early March — Toggle more options — Monikers have followed Martin Pichinson for his whole career, given his line of work.
Tweets: @npr and @wolfejosh
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Intel details Project Corail, a partnership with Accenture and Sulubaaï Environmental Foundation, debuted in May 2019, that uses AI to monitor coral reef health — To commemorate Earth Day, Intel — in partnership with Accenture and Sulubaaï Environmental Foundation … | About Facebook: |
Facebook rolls out Messenger Kids to 70+ new countries, adding features to make it easier for parents to connect kids with their friends — With schools closed and people physically distancing, parents are turning to technology more than ever to help their kids connect with friends and family.
More:
VentureBeat, Mashable, The Verge, Engadget, SlashGear, Firstpost Tech, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, XDA Developers, iDownloadBlog.com, Thurrott, 9to5Mac, Neowin, Android Central, Social Media Today, PhoneArena, Adweek, Yahoo Finance, MSPoweruser, CNET, and About Facebook. Tweets: @martinsfp
| Lauren Feiner / CNBC: |
Q1 lobbying filings: Facebook's spend rose 19% QoQ to $5.3M, Apple rose by 18% QoQ to $2.2M, Amazon was up 3% QoQ to $4.3M, and Google dropped 34% QoQ to $1.8M — - Facebook and Amazon led the Big Tech companies in lobbying spend in the first quarter of 2020, according to documents filed with the federal government this week.| Will Knight / Wired: |
MIT has terminated its five-year research collaboration with Chinese AI firm iFlytek, which is accused of supplying tech for surveilling Uighurs in China — Reports accuse iFlytek of selling technology to the government that's used to oppress ethnic Uighurs in China's northwest.
Tweets: @wired, @kenroth, and @tsimonite
Sponsor Posts
Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle — Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify. Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle — Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify. Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed. Project Ready. Tasks Created. — Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms. But for most businesses …
Contract Signed. Project Ready. Tasks Created. — Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms. But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses — Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place. Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses — Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place. Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Anthropic's quest to study the negative effects of AI is under pressure
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
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.
Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:35 PM ET, April 22, 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.
From Mediagazer
The Guardian:David Pierce / The Verge:
Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:
Upcoming Tech Events
Earlier Picks
| The Daily Beast: |
More:
Input, The Verge, Gizmodo, and FedScoop
Tweets: @hshaban, @hoofnagle, @erinbanco, @clarajeffery, @m_lynx_3000, @thedailybeast, @paullewis, @noahshachtman, @lukeobrien, and @minhtngo
| James Pearson / Reuters: |
More:
TechCrunch. Tweets: @jonrussell, @will_nguyen_, @tmclaughlin3, @pinoytapsilog, @linhpnguyen, @dabeard, @tostevinm, @pearswick, and @pearswick
| Jason Schreier / New York Times: |
More:
SlashGear, CCN.com, and GamingBolt
Tweets: @kojipro2015_en, @glassbottommeg, @sexualjumanji, @nfritanga, and @ohnoitsalexx