Technology
- Amazon confirms Echo Look devices will stop working from July after pulling the Alexa-powered camera in Dec. 2019, offers discounts on Echo Show for Look users (Kyle Wiggers/VentureBeat)
- Sony says it is on track to launch PlayStation 5 this year and has begun manufacturing the console, announces a games focused event on June 4 (Tim Bradshaw/Financial Times)
- Twitter and Reddit file an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit challenging a State Dept. requirement that visa applicants must disclose social media handles (Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch)
- Uber announces an hourly booking feature that lets people book trips for up to seven hours at a time, for $50 an hour (Dara Kerr/CNET)
- Tile sends letter to European Commission arguing that recent changes in iOS hinder its product as Apple prepares to launch a competing tracker (Javier Espinoza/Financial Times)
- Facebook's NPE launches Venue, a "second screen" app where selected well-known personalities will provide commentary and engage with fans during live events (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
- Zynn, a TikTok clone from ByteDance Chinese rival Kuaishou, pays users to watch videos and has now hit the top of the US iOS App Store following its May debut (Andrew Hutchinson/Social Media Today)
- Google's concept of federated analytics shows users' privacy can be protected by analyzing a device's data locally and collecting only aggregated results (Kyle Wiggers/VentureBeat)
- Facing an advertising slump, Google rescinds offers to temporary and contract workers; sources say around 2,000 people are affected globally (Daisuke Wakabayashi/New York Times)
- Crowdsourced security testing service Synack raises $52M Series D from C5 Capital, B Capital, and others, report says at a nearly $500M valuation (Duncan Riley/SiliconANGLE)
- Microsoft details its work with Google to improve spellcheck in Chrome and Edge, which now use Windows Spellcheck with better support for URLs, acronyms, more (Tom Warren/The Verge)
- As Twitter adds a warning to Trump's tweet advocating violence against Minneapolis protesters, so far Facebook and Instagram have left similar posts unchanged (Todd Spangler/Variety)
- Trump's social media EO, if enacted, would create problems for him, attacking the legal provision that allows inflammatory, harassing, and untruthful messages (New York Times)
- Didi Chuxing raises $500M led by SoftBank for its autonomous driving division, the first external investment for the fledgling self-driving subsidiary (Lulu Yilun Chen/Bloomberg)
- Twitter adds a rule violation notice to Trump's tweet threatening Minneapolis protestors, saying it glorifies violence; users must click to see the tweet (Ina Fried/Axios)
- Global shipments of wearable devices reached 72.6M units in Q1, growing 29.7% YoY, with Apple shipping 21.2M units for a 29.3% market share (IDC)
- Google releases Android Studio 4.0, with Motion Editor for making MotionLayout animations and tools to allow previewing apps in 3D and in multiple screen sizes (Kyle Bradshaw/9to5Google)
- Samsung is partnering with Winklevoss' crypto exchange Gemini to allow users to more easily trade and store digital assets on mobile phones (Olga Kharif/Bloomberg)
- ACLU sues Clearview AI in Illinois alleging the facial recognition startup violated residents' privacy by scraping, selling their online photos without consent (Nick Statt/The Verge)
- Twitter now lets users schedule tweets in advance, up to 18 months, and gives users the option to save tweet drafts from its web app (João Carrasqueira/Neowin)
- Trump EO misreads Section 230 by conflating two independent subsections and asking the FCC to link the two provisions together, despite previous rulings (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
- Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz is stepping down as CEO, says the company has raised "significant" funding and pivoted to spatial computing for enterprise (Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat)
- NSA warns Russia-linked Sandworm hacking group has been actively exploiting a now-patched flaw in Exim mail transfer agent since Aug., exposing ~2.5M servers (Sergiu Gatlan/BleepingComputer)
- Trump's EO has limited power, as content created by a platform, like Twitter's labels, is not covered by Section 230 and the FCC lacks authority to enforce EO (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)
- Sources: ByteDance looks to shift decision-making and research capabilities out of China, expanding operations in US and increasing global hires (Reuters)
- Source: Trump's executive order was rushed through using an old draft that was circulated last year, overriding concerns from agencies and Section 230 reformers (Emily Birnbaum/Protocol)
- Cisco to acquire ThousandEyes, which provides SaaS network performance monitoring, for a price that sources say is ~$1B (CNBC)
- Investigation finds many tenant screening services, relying on algorithms to find infractions and widely used by landlords, often produce flawed reports (The Markup)
- Salesforce Q1: revenue of $4.87B, up 30% YoY, subscription and support revenue $4.58B, up 31% YoY, Q2 guidance lower than expected; stock down ~4% after hours (Jordan Novet/CNBC)
- VMware reports Q1 revenue of $2.73B, up 12% YoY, subscription and SaaS revenue up 39% YoY; stock up ~9% after hours (Larry Dignan/ZDNet)