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Techmeme
May 9, 2020, 1:40 AM

Top News

Michael Steeber / 9to5Mac:
Wired:
States like NY, CA, MA, and cities like Baltimore and SF are skeptical about tech-based contact tracing, instead hiring thousands for manual contact tracing  —  Silicon Valley companies have proposed automating the arduous task of identifying people potentially exposed to Covid-19.  They're finding few takers.
Financial Times:
Sources: UK's NHS has already begun developing a second contact tracing app, using Google and Apple's contact tracing APIs  —  NHS team that built first app is told to build another on Apple-Google system  —  The NHS has already begun building a second smartphone app to trace the spread of the coronavirus …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Both Defcon and Black Hat, originally scheduled for August, have cancelled in-person events, instead opting to host conferences online  —  For real this time.  Its sister conference, Black Hat, has also been called off.  —  For years, a simple and elegant inside joke has permeated Defcon, the influential hacking conference.
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Facebook says it plans to complete the rollout of its redesigned desktop website to all users over the “next few weeks”  —  After the better part of a year, Facebook has started rolling out its redesigned desktop website to all of its users.  The company announced today it plans …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google adds a kid-friendly “family mode” to Duo and says Duo on the web will soon support group calls, starting as a preview on Chrome  —  Work and personal video calling are surging in light of COVID-19, with Google announcing a handful of new Duo features last month to support that demand.
Biz Carson / Protocol:
Lime's new CEO Wayne Ting, who replaces co-founder Brad Bao, talks about Uber-led $170M investment, consolidating assets from Jump, and weathering the pandemic  —  The funding deal announced Thursday “reaffirms that not only Uber but major investors believe in this industry and believe in Lime,” Wayne Ting said.
Bloomberg:
Google says it expects most of its staff to work from home until 2021  —  Elon Musk wants people to return to work.  Google and Facebook Inc. have another message for their staff: get ready to stay home for all of 2020.  —  Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive officer …
TechCrunch:
Target to acquire technology and assets of same-day delivery startup Deliv, which has raised a total of $80M in venture capital according to Crunchbase  —  Target, which already owns on-demand delivery service Shipt, is in the process of acquiring technology assets from same-day delivery service Deliv
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Microsoft and Amazon exchange acerbic blog posts, accusing each other of underhanded tactics in their fight over the DoD JEDI cloud infrastructure contract  —  Microsoft and Amazon are at it again as the fight for the Defense Department JEDI contract continues.
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Surface Go 2 review: small improvements over original with larger screen and faster CPU, but $400 entry model is lacking in power and upgrades are expensive  —  Judging the Surface Go 2 really comes down to your expectations.  Can you live with slow performance to get a well-designed $400 tablet PC (not including a keyboard)?
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Zoom reaches agreement with NY AG over security concerns; Zoom agrees to maintain security protocols, including protections for students, admits no wrongdoing  —  - Zoom reached an agreement with the New York Attorney General Letitia James' office Thursday, closing the state's inquiry …
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Judo Bank, an Australia-based neobank that provides loans to SMBs, raises $147M Series C, bringing its total equity funding to ~$500M  —  Judo Bank, an Australian neobank that provides loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has raised $147 million in a Series C round of funding.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sources: Microsoft is planning to add cursor support to Office for iPad by the fall  —  Microsoft is already working on latest iPadOS features  —  Microsoft is planning to update Office for iPad with support for Apple's latest iPadOS trackpad and mouse support.

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Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

Earlier Picks

Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Abby Ohlheiser / MIT Technology Review:
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Isabelle Kirkwood / BetaKit: