Tech News
Tech News and Analysis from around the web
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Google creates an application portal to help New York State with the recent surge of unemployment filings, says it could bring a similar service to more states — - The state of New York announced a partnership with Google for an online unemployment application system.
Jay Greene / Washington Post:
Amazon says it has begun assembling equipment to build a lab to screen its workers for COVID-19, may be working on antigen testing — With workers in at least 64 warehouses and shipping facilities testing positive, the e-commerce giant says it hopes to start testing a small numbers of employees ‘soon’
Bloomberg:
A look at how Google Classroom has doubled its active users to 100 MAUs amid COVID-19, with the ubiquity of Chromebooks, affordability, deep LMS integrations — - Google Classroom users double to 100 million during the crisis — Company has spent years entrenching itself in schools
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Starship Technologies expands its autonomous food delivery robot service to Tempe, AZ, following launches in Washington, D.C., and Irvine, citing rising demand — Starship Technologies has launched a robot food delivery service in Tempe, Arizona, as part of the autonomous delivery startup's …
Bani Sapra / Business Insider:
Facebook files lawsuit against Basant Gajjar, founder of LeadCloak, alleging its software helped scammers run deceptive ads on Facebook and Instagram — - Facebook announced that it filed a lawsuit against the founder of a company called LeadCloak on Thursday, alleging that it was helping …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Google rebrands its business-focused teleconferencing app Hangouts Meet to Google Meet and Hangouts Chat to Google Chat, leaving Hangouts brand for consumers — Following the official change from Hangouts Meet to Google Meet — Google has officially removed the Hangouts brand …
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Facebook begins rolling out “Quiet Mode” app feature that mutes most notifications and helps schedule breaks; coming to iOS in April and Android in May — Facebook is rolling out a new feature today that allows users to mute all notifications from the social network.
Dave Gershgorn / OneZero :
Analysis of efforts by 25 governments to track the COVID-19 pandemic using new surveillance programs, such as using location data or releasing an app — At least 28 countries are ramping up surveillance to combat the coronavirus — an attempt to stem the tide of the coronavirus pandemic …
Bijan Stephen / The Verge:
Twitch expands Watch Parties beta to all US creators, allowing streamers to broadcast Prime Video content with their viewers; global rollout in following months — Now, you can watch stuff on Amazon Prime with your favorite streamers — Twitch announced today that it's bringing …
Tina Bellon / Reuters:
Uber says it plans to ship millions of face masks to its active drivers and food delivery people around the world, and has started shipping to drivers in NYC — (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) on Thursday said it plans to ship millions of face masks to its active drivers …
Bloomberg:
In a filing, DOJ and other federal agencies urge the FCC to revoke China Telecom's permission to operate in the United States, which it has held since 2007 — - Defense and Justice departments cite national security threat — Security agencies file at Federal Communications Commission
Eric Newcomer / Bloomberg:
The political landscape in 2020 now seems less ominous for tech giants, as critics Warren and Sanders drop out and COVID-19 ramps up need for tech platforms — The candidates calling to break up Big Tech have faded away — There has been concern for months in Silicon Valley …
David Canellis / The Next Web:
Report: Travelex paid hackers 285 BTC, worth around $2.3M, to regain access to its systems after a ransomware attack on New Year's Eve — Travelex paid hackers $2.3 million worth of Bitcoin to regain access to its computer systems after a devastating ransomware attack on New Year's Eve, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Hayden Field / Protocol:
DARPA selects 17 orgs for its AI defense program, with Intel leading efforts to defend against physical attacks like use of stickers to trick self-driving cars — The Pentagon is teaming up with some of the biggest names in tech to combat hacks designed to mess with the automated systems we'll rely on in the near future.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Ferrum raises $9M seed to build its service that prevents medical mistakes using AI, such as by double checking radiology scans — Ferrum, a startup developing an AI patient safety platform to prevent medical errors, today announced that it secured $9 million in seed funding.
Biden can assemble a panel of scientists and medical doctors to keep the public informed. An hour a day, press conference style. What the CDC would be doing if Trump weren't president.
And he (Biden) would step back, an example for what Trump should do. Let the doctors and the military manage it. Stop campaigning while thousands of Americans are dying. Biden wouldn't even have to say it. It would make Trump look immediately tone deaf which he most certainly is.
What makes this idea so appealing right now is that the governors are linking up and sharing resources. Someone should be providing the science for them. The government is failing. But there's plenty of unused talent out there, it just needs to be managed.
Another reason -- it would mean that in order to compete, Trump would not only have to enable his scientists, he would also have to start using the US government money as it must be used, not for whatever bullshit he has planned. If he doesn't why should anyone listen to him? By giving him TV power the networks have made it unnecessary for him to use the government's economic and military power.
How much of the press coverage amounts to this:
Headline: Trump is a horrible person.
Sub-head: We are truly fucked.
Fours years of this crap.