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Kirsten Grind / Wall Street Journal:
COVID-19 Technology Task Force, an effort to let big tech companies assist White House's pandemic response, beset by disagreements over privacy and other issues — Effort to join Silicon Valley tech giants including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon with the White House to fight the coronavirus is faltering
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Spain-based Freepik, a freemium vector graphics and stock photos marketplace, acquired by PE firm EQT; local news report says deal values Freepik at €250M — Freepik, a Malaga-Spain based website which offers a curated freemium marketplace of vector graphics and stock photos fed …
Annie Musgrove / Tech.eu:
Berlin-based smava, an online portal that helps consumers compare loans offered by over 20 banks and lending partners, raises €57M in debt and equity — Berlin-based Smava, a credit comparison platform that offers cheaper loan options to consumers, has raised €57 million from Kreos Capital …
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Pie Insurance, a startup offering an automated online service that provides small businesses with workers' compensation insurance, announces $127M raise — Pie Insurance, a Washington, D.C.-based startup offering workers' compensation insurance to small businesses, announced this morning …
John Herman / New York Times:
The pandemic pushed Amazon to its breaking point, prematurely delivering a future it has been planning for, where whole categories of physical retail are closed — To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.
Max Chafkin / Bloomberg:
US to join Global Partnership on AI, set up to counter China's influence in development of AI technologies, becoming the last of the G-7 countries to sign on — The U.S. plans to join an international organization that will advise companies and governments on the responsible development …
Adrianne Jeffries / The Markup:
Grubhub should be thriving during the pandemic; instead, delivery apps' unworkable business model, charging high fees to small restaurants, creates huge losses — The crisis is a stark reminder that food delivery tech companies may have an unworkable business model
SpaceX is once again preparing to make history – the private spaceflight company is set to launch its Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission in collaboration with NASA today. This is the second time they’ve prepared to launch this mission, after an attempt on Wednesday last week was scrubbed due to bad weather. Today’s attempt is set for 3:22 PM EDT (12:22 PM PDT) and preparations, along with the launch itself, will be streamed above starting at 11 AM EDT (8 AM PDT).
The launch will take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and once again weather is a concern for today’s launch window. SpaceX and NASA have an instantaneous launch window today, which means they only have the one shot to take off – if the weather isn’t cooperating at 3:22 PM EDT, they’ll have to re-attempt the launch again, with the next possible window set for tomorrow, Sunday May 31.
This is the first time ever that SpaceX will be launching humans aboard one of its spacecraft – NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have the honor of being those first passengers. The mission itself is actually technically still a test, the final demonstration mission in the multi-year development of Crew Dragon, SpaceX’s first human-rated spacecraft. This launch will serve as the proof that Crew Dragon and the Falcon 9 rocket that carries it, is ready for human-rating, after which it will be ready for regular operational service, flying U.S. and allied astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) in low Earth orbit.
That will mean the U.S. once again has domestic human launch capabilities, something it hasn’t been able to claim since it ended the Space Shuttle program in 2011. That’s a big deal for a number of reasons, but primarily because it means that NASA won’t rely on buying berths on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get to the ISS, which will help it save money and ultimately control its own access to Earth’s orbital lab.
If successful, SpaceX will be the first of NASA’s two Commercial Crew partners to achieve this milestone. The other, Boeing, is still in the process of working out the kinks of its CST-100 Starliner human crew capsule, which encountered errors during its first uncrewed demonstration mission, resulting in the need to run that launch again sometime later this year, and then, depending on how that goes, fly its first human flight hopefully in 2021. SpaceX, meanwhile, is set to begin operational missions with Crew Dragon later this year, if all goes well with Demo-2.
Provided the launch occurs today, Behnken and Hurley will then spend 19 hours on orbit as they make their way to rendezvous with the Space Station for docking. They’ll then staff the station for a period of between a few weeks and a few months, depending on NASA’s decision regarding their ultimate mission length. That will involve helping with station maintenance and conducting experiments, and then they’ll re-enter Crew Dragon and make the trip back to Earth for an Atlantic Ocean splashdown and recovery once their time at the station is over.
Parimal Satyal / Neustadt.fr:
A look at the small and independent web, why it's different from the sites that dominate web traffic today, and why it's worth exploring — Most websites today are built like commercial products by professionals and marketers, optimised to draw the largest audience, generate engagement and ‘convert’.
Bryce Covert / Wired:
A behind-the-scenes account of how Kickstarter workers came together to become the first white-collar technology workforce to unionize in US history — The point wasn't so much about pay issues, but to give workers more say over what they produce—reflecting a trend of internal protest across the tech industry.
Chris Stokel-Walker / Increment:
A look at the rise of React, an open-source JavaScript library for building user interfaces, which is led by a small team of full-time developers at Facebook — On the social, cultural, and technological impacts of the increasingly ubiquitous frontend framework.
Circumstances stopping you from meeting up with others? Try some of these best apps to watch YouTube together with friends. All you need is a web browser to enjoy videos, music, and even workout with friends remotely.
These websites and apps sync YouTube videos and music for everyone to turn it into a group activity. While the clip is playing, you can video call with friends to see their reactions, or chat in text.
So queue up a music playlist together on YouTube, exercise with the best YouTube workout videos, or kick back and watch a movie together on YouTube.
Squad is one of the best ways to watch YouTube videos with friends online. It enables both video calls and chat while you’re streaming the same video. And it works on phones as well as desktop browsers smoothly, making it one of the few YouTube sync watching apps to do that.
You don’t need to sign up to use Squad. Simply create a new room with a unique name, and send that link to your friends. Friends can open it in their browser, or in the Squad app on iOS and Android.
You can search YouTube within the app without leaving the screen, to add new videos as and when you want. The video call works flawlessly, and you can also chat in text at the same time.
Squad also works with TikTok videos and has a few movies in its catalog that you stream. The app was initially a screen sharing app for video calls and still has that option too, but it has come a long way since then.
Download: Squad for Android | iOS (Free)
After trying many, many, many others like it, we believe Jukebox. Today is the best app to listen to music on YouTube in sync with others in real time. It’s easy, it’s free, it looks good, it works flawlessly, and you can use it for public rooms with strangers or private rooms with friends.
Create a new Jukebox room with a custom name to begin. You can make the room public or delist it so that only people with the link can join. Search for songs within the app and add them to the now playing list. Registered users can even save the playlist for later. There’s a Chat tab to talk with people in the room, though it’s text only.
The host of the room controls playback, with the play and next/previous track buttons. Other users can only choose to mute or unmute. But other users can add songs to the playlist. The host can also give moderation or admin rights to other users.
From the main page, you can browse active Jukebox public rooms to join any. You’ll see how many people are in it, and how many tracks are yet to play.
Jukebox is a perfect way to create a playlist of songs to listen to on YouTube and share it with friends. You can all listen to the songs together, and add tracks to it.
Working out is more fun when you do it with your friends. That’s why group classes and programs like CrossFit are so popular. You already know that you can stay fit at home with free workout apps. Co-Train Space lets you do a home workout with a YouTube coach, and your friends can join in too.
You don’t even need to register to begin. Pick a workout from Co-Train Space’s categories like morning, beginner, full body, specific parts, and yoga. It’ll create a room, just send the link to invite your friends. As the host, you get to decide when to start the session, so that everyone can work out in sync. The main video plays on the left, while your video chat is in a small bar on the right.
The app uses open-source video calling network Jitsi for its backend, so your data is safe and it’s a stable video connection. While video chat is the preferred form of communication, you can also use the built-in chatroom to send text messages. Co-Train Space is simple, easy, and just works as advertised. You can’t ask for more.
Let’s say you want to send an open invitation to join a chatroom where people share YouTube videos. Chrono Tube makes that happen, while still giving some anonymity. When you visit the website, you’ll first be taken to the #general chat. Don’t use that. Click the yellow “Create a room” button to start your own.
Every participant (including you, the host) is automatically assigned a random nickname. Search for a YouTube video in a separate tab, copy the link, and paste it in Chrono Tube with !q added before it. The app will immediately start playing the video in the chatroom for everyone to see. Any participant can keep adding more links to create a playlist.
Chrono Tube has a few fun scenarios you can use it in. For example, you could post that link on your social media, inviting your followers to add their favorite videos about a subject or music links from YouTube.
It’s a double-edged sword though. If the wrong person gets hold of the link, they can just as easily share objectionable videos in the chatroom. The smart move would be to use Chrono Tube for a limited time, and ensure you post the link in a way that people you want to connect with would use it.
If you don’t want the bells and whistles of video calling and YouTube search, share and watch videos with friends on YouTube Fiesta. Host a room, add your nickname and a YouTube video link, and share the room’s URL with friends.
YouTube Fiesta only has text chat with emojis to communicate with each other. Add a new YouTube link and hit the “Change” button to start a new video. You can choose if anyone can control playback or only the host. No playlists, no queues, and no headaches; YouTube fiesta’s simplicity is its greatest draw.
If you’re looking for more quick and easy options, try these other ways to watch Youtube together with friends.
The internet makes it easier than ever to share an experience in real-time with friends. YouTube is just one of the many apps you can enjoy together. There are many ways to listen to Spotify songs together with friends. And if you can’t go to the theater, so what? You can still watch Netflix with friends far away.
Read the full article: 5 Ways to Watch YouTube Together With Friends for Videos, Music, and Workouts
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google says it is delaying the Android 11 beta release and virtual launch event that was scheduled for June 3, but the final release is still on track for Q3 — Google this evening announced that it's delaying next week's Android 11: The Beta Launch Show. The company on Twitter says …
Brandon Vigliarolo / TechRepublic:
Stack Overflow's annual survey, taken by 65K+ developers: Rust remains most loved language at 86.1%, followed by TypeScript at 67.1%, Python dropped to third — Stack Overflow's 2020 survey of developers provides a snapshot of the programming community that can be useful in building hiring strategies …
Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic:
Mutual aid groups across the US are organizing online via productivity tools like Airtable and Slack to exchange info, coordinate grocery distribution, and more — Mutual-aid groups are distributing groceries and spare air conditioners via tools designed to turn labor into money as efficiently as possible.
Acorns, which helps millions of people invest their spare change in the stock market, has laid off between 50 to 70 people, TechCrunch has learned from multiple sources.
The Irvine, Calif.-based company would not confirm the total number of people laid off, but did confirm that there were cuts at the company as a result of broader business changes.
The news emerged days after the fintech company closed its Portland office earlier this week, one of four offices the company maintained. While Acorns offered Portland employees an opportunity to relocate to its Irvine headquarters, some roles were terminated as part of the relocation, the company said.
Employees laid off largely were members of Acorns’ support team. And the internal cuts are related to an external partnership with TaskUs, which out-sources customer care and support needs for other businesses. Acorns will bring on roughly 80 new TaskUs support roles in the next year, which the company said would grow its support team, just not its internal staff.
The internal Acorns support team will handle high-touch customer care situations via phone, while external roles will handle email support.
Beyond support roles, Acorns cut some people from various teams across the company.
Acorns has found unprecedented growth as the coronavirus brings new users into its world of investing and saving money. The company recently hit a milestone of 7 million sign-ups, continuing the trend that trading apps are benefiting from a down market.
At the same time, Acorns also launched a debit card that depends on users spending in order to make sense as a business product. Payment processing is a risky space to play in right now because consumer spending has nosedived due to shelter in place orders. It could be a weak spot for the company at the moment. Earlier today, Brex laid off 62 staff members, just one week after raising $150 million in venture capital money.
So, why does a company like Acorns, that is facing immense growth, need to do layoffs? Even if you’re winning right now, the pandemic and potential of an extended recession is forcing businesses to reevaluate the way they’re spending money. In Acorns’ case, it will have more headcount next year than it does right now. But dig a little deeper, and its choice to outsource roles and shut down an office means that growing right now can come at the cost of slimming down.
Investors in Acorns include PayPal, DST Global, Rakuten, Greycroft and Bain Capital.
