Techmeme
May 6, 2020, 1:05 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils Surface Go 2 with a bigger 10.5-inch display and more powerful Intel processors, available on May 12, starting at $400  —  The smaller Surface gets a big hardware bump  —  Microsoft's smallest Surface tablet is getting some important hardware upgrades today in the form of the Surface Go 2.
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Microsoft debuts 13.5-inch and 15-inch Surface Book 3 laptops with 10th-gen quad-core Intel CPUs, new NVIDIA GPUs, available May 21 from $1,600 and $2,300  —  With the Surface Book 2, Microsoft proved it could take on the MacBook Pro directly with a powerful and genuinely innovative PC notebook.
Microsoft Devices Blog:
Microsoft announces $250 Surface Headphones 2 with better sound and battery, arriving on May 12, and says its Surface Buds will ship on the same day for $200  —  Available for preorder today, new Surface devices and accessories are designed to help you work, learn, connect and play from anywhere
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Uber says it will lay off 3,700 employees, or ~14% of its workforce, as it has been hit hard by the pandemic; CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will forgo his base salary  —  Uber announced Wednesday that it will lay off 3,700 employees.  The cuts to its customer support and recruiting teams represent …
Ellen Hammett / Marketing Week:
Study: half of the money brands invest in programmatic advertising never reaches online publishers; 15% of the money is unattributable to supply chain players  —  A new study by ISBA has found that half the money advertisers invest in programmatic advertising never reaches online publishers …
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Interview with Apple SVP Craig Federighi about the iPadOS cursor, a significant change to the pointer paradigm, and the decisions Apple made to get there  —  Apple SVP Craig Federighi talks about the iPad's new cursor and Magic Keyboard  —  Even though Apple did not invent the mouse pointer …
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Sources: Google to release a Fire TV-like Android TV dongle with a new content-centric UI in the coming months, likely extending its Nest brand to the product  —  Google is set to introduce an Android TV streaming device in the coming months, a reimagined dongle with a new user interface …
Ivan Mehta / The Next Web:
Facebook tries again to offer “free” mobile web access with data limits, partnering with telecoms in Peru to offer a Discover app that lets users visit any site  —  Remember Free Basics?  Facebook's ambitious program to bring people to the internet for the first time.
Hyunjoo Jin / Reuters:
Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee makes a rare apology, saying he will not hand over management of the company to his children, and vows to protect labor rights  —  SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee, embroiled in a bribery scandal, on Wednesday made a rare apology …
Theodore Schleifer / Vox:
Letter from Brian Chesky to Airbnb employees says the company is laying off 1,900, or ~25% of its workforce, and expects a 2020 revenue decline of 50% YoY  —  Airbnb is laying off a quarter of its staff.  —  Airbnb, seen until recently as one of Silicon Valley's most financially secure unicorns, is laying off a quarter of its staff.
Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
Q&A with Steven Sinofsky on his upcoming memoir that chronicles his time at Microsoft, as he reflects on how the company fought the ILOVEYOU virus 20 years ago  —  On the 20th anniversary of the unleashing of the ILOVEYOU virus—which infected millions of PCs worldwide …
Bloomberg:
Spotify CEO expects Apple to “open up” its platform more to 3rd-party apps, after Spotify's antitrust complaint with the EU, but sees it as a long-term process  —  - Apple plans to let other music services integrate with HomePod  — Ek says ‘steps to go before’ Apple is open and fair platform
Hugh Langley / Business Insider:
Sources: Magic Leap is in talks to raise $100M in funding from a major health company after laying off around half of its workforce  —  - Magic Leap is turning to a “major” health care company to raise money, according to an internal memo obtained by The Information.
Shannon Liao / CNN:
Activision Blizzard CEO says people may turn to free mobile games during the pandemic, after the company beat Q1 expectations with sales of $1.52B, up 21% YoY  —  New York (CNN Business)While much of the economy is hurting during the pandemic, video games are thriving.
Divya Balji / Bloomberg:
Shopify tops estimates with Q1 revenue of $470M, up 47% YoY, and gross merchandise volume of $17.4B, up 46% YoY  —  - First-quarter revenue jumped 47% to $470 million from 2019  — Gross merchandise volume soared 46% to $17.4 billion  —  Shopify Inc. reported first-quarter revenue …
FinSMEs:
Limbix, which is developing prescription digital therapeutics for adolescent mental health disorders, raises $9M Series A led by GSR Ventures  —  Limbix, a Palo Alto, CA-based developer of digital therapeutics for the treatment of adolescent mental health disorders, raised $9M in Series A funding.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
The Libra Association names former US Treasury Department official Stuart Levey as its first CEO ahead of a renewed regulatory push  —  The Libra Association, the group behind the proposed digital currency invented by Facebook Inc., named former U.S. Treasury Department official Stuart Levey as its first chief executive officer.

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.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
Celebrating 10 years of Zoho Marketplace  —  30 Zoho products,2,900+ extensions and integrations,1 million+ users, and2 million installations.Zoho Marketplace celebrates a decade-long journey of adding timeless value …
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

Channels with Peter Kafka:
Joanna Stern on the New Siri, OpenAI's Weird Gadget, and Life After the Wall Street Journal
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Big Technology Podcast:
Here's How The AI Bubble Bursts — With Paul Kedrosky
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Eric Vishria - A Decade of Lessons Investing in Software & Hardware
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Getting the Snack Right', With Chance Miller
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Grit:
Booking.com CEO on AI and the Future of Travel
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
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 1:05 PM ET, May 6, 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

Angela Lashbrook / OneZero :

Earlier Picks

Brooke Auxier / Pew Research Center:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Kieren McCarthy / The Register: