Techmeme
May 21, 2020, 3:05 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Zuckerberg: Facebook could get to about half of staff working remotely permanently in 5-10 years and will be the “most forward-leaning company on remote work”  —  In January, as reports about the spread of a novel coronavirus emerged from China, Mark Zuckerberg began to prepare for a potential pandemic.
Dylan Byers / NBC News:
Facebook says it will start allowing many of its 50,000 employees and new recruits to work from home permanently  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that the social media giant will start allowing many of its 50,000 employees and new recruits to work from home on a permanent basis …
Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon has decided to move its annual Prime Day event to September and has started allowing unlimited nonessential goods shipments to warehouses  —  E-commerce giant also allows nonessential goods shipments, indication of wider variety of products  —  Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -.25% …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Facebook announces new features for Workplace, including a drop-in video call feature that mirrors Rooms, enhanced tools for Portal, and more  —  One of the biggest technology takeaways of the last couple of months has been that organizations need confident, wide-ranging digital strategies to stay afloat …
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Netflix says it will ask customers who have been inactive for a year or more if they want to keep their subscriptions, canceling accounts that take no action  —  - Netflix will start asking customers who haven't used its platform in the past year if they want to keep their subscriptions.
Candy Cheng / Bloomberg:
Shopify says it will allow its 5,000 employees to work from home indefinitely  —  - Canadian e-commerce company switching to ‘digital by default’  — Offices will be closed until end of year and redesigned  —  Shopify Inc. will allow its 5,000 employees to work from home indefinitely …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Facebook unveils a new Messenger feature to alert users about malicious activity, aimed at preventing scams and unwanted interactions with those under 18  —  In an effort to beat back a rise in scams and other unwanted interactions during the pandemic, Facebook today unveiled …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google rolls out new accessibility features for Android, including Assistant-powered, customized buttons called Action Blocks for tasks like playing music  —  Live Transcribe, Sound Amplifier, and Google Maps also get new updates  —  For Global Accessibility Awareness Day …
Ian Fogg / Opensignal:
Analysis of ten 5G operators across US, S. Korea, UK, and Australia finds that while Verizon has the fastest 5G speeds, its users see 5G just 0.5% of the time  —  Understanding the extent to which 5G improves the mobile experience is critical both for consumers considering upgrading to 5G …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Aditi Shrivastava / The Economic Times:
Amazon India launches a food delivery service called Amazon Food in select areas of Bengaluru and says it will expand to other cities in a few weeks  —  Amazon has been luring eateries with competitive commissions as a part of its larger plan to build a comprehensive product portfolio
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
NoSQL cloud database service Couchbase raises $105M Series G led by GPI Capital, bringing its total raised to $251M per Crunchbase  —  Couchbase. the Santa Clara-based company behind the eponymous NoSQL cloud database service, today announced that it has raised a $105 million all-equity Series G round …
BBC:
Court in Netherlands rules that, under GDPR, a woman must delete photos of her grandchildren that she posted on Facebook without their parents' permission  —  A woman must delete photographs of her grandchildren that she posted on Facebook and Pinterest without their parents' permission, a court in the Netherlands has ruled.
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Samsung unveils the Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition with custom features for terrain navigation and data encryption, made for rugged use cases like law enforcement  —  The move highlights how Samsung is pushing its devices into more industry use cases.  —  Samsung is continuing its push …
Elizabeth A. Harris / New York Times:
How the remote school experience, with fewer distractions and less social pressure from peers, makes learning easier for some students  —  “At home, it seems to be a bit easier to focus on all the work,” said one eighth grader who was struggling in school.  “Everything in general is easier.”
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Clara Analytics raises $25M Series B led by Aspen Capital Group for its AI-powered tools that expedite worker compensation claims  —  Clara Analytics, a predictive analytics company for workers' compensation claims, today announced that it has raised $25 million.
More: FinSMEs
Rey Mashayekhi / Fortune:
Neo-bank Aspiration, which positions itself as socially conscious and sustainable, raises $135M Series C led by Alpha Edison, bringing total funding to $200M+  —  Aspiration, the fintech startup that's brought a socially- and environmentally-conscious twist to the burgeoning realm of digital banking …
More: TechCrunch

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
Don't Do.  Just Tell.  With Zoho MCP for Bigin.  —  Dear small business owners,This one's a little different.We're not here to walk you through a checklist of features.  We're here to tell you about something …
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

Invest Like the Best:
Alex Sacerdote - How to Invest Through Technology Cycles
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
Father of the iPod and iPhone on building taste, judgment, and creativity in the AI era | Tony Fadell
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Will Apple (Finally) Get AI Right At WWDC?, Anthropic's Worry, Microsoft vs. OpenAI
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.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Hot I.P.O Summer + What Is A.I. Doing to Math? + HatGPT
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
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 3:05 PM ET, May 21, 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

Earlier Picks

Mark Hachman / PCWorld:
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Brian Heater / TechCrunch: