The Full Story on Jeffrey Epstein Revealed. From Lisa Bryant, Academy Award Nominee Joe Berlinger (Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes), and Best-Selling Author James Patterson the four-part docuseries JEFFREY EPSTEIN: FILTHY RICH only on Netflix, May 27.
Category:
Tech
Twitter has become the first company to allow employees work from home in “forever”. CEO Jack Dorsey said in an email to employees that they could opt into work from home if their job duties allow it.
Dorsey also stated that Twitter is unlikely to open their office doors before September. Twitter has also cancelled all business travel and in-person evens through the end of the year.
Twitter’s share were up 0.6%.
Quibi, a short-form video platform, is blaming the Coronavirus for the apps failed launch. The New York Post is reporting that Jeffrey Katzenberg (Quibi’s founder) is unhappy with the 1.7 million downloads their app has recieved since launching on April 6.
The App was quickly in the top 50 most downloaded in the Apple App Store. However, Quibi quickly fell from top 50 to number 125.
“I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus,” Katzenberg said in an interview with the New York Times published Monday. “Everything. But we own it.”
Quibi has signed deals with Jennifer Lopez, Anna Kendrick, Liam Hemsworth, WWE, and many other names. However, they haven’t spent much money to bring current digital creators onto their platform.
The app has been downloaded a total of 3.5 million times and have roughly 1.3 million “active users”.
On a personal note, Quibi is the perfect app for a lockdown like the one we are in. Quibi should be exploding right now. The fact that they are not is 100% on them and 0% on Coronvirus.
The company is offered a 90 day free trial, now 14 days, and have not been promoting all that much. In all fairness, I have only seen a handful of ads. They have not been doing a great job promoting.
Some advice to Quibi: Take the old Netflix model of offering an affiliate program. If a content creator can get people to sign up for your service, give them a cut.
Quibi raised over $1 billion and had former HP CEO and former California Gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk Tweeted out today that he plans to resume production at the Alameda County facility against the “stay-at-home” orders in place in the County. Musk also said that he would be on the line with production employees and that he would be willing to go to jail.
“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules,” he said in a tweet. “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules. I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2020
According to Business Insider, Tesla employees were called and texted to be told that work would resume. They claim that their jobs were risked if they did not feel comfortable to return to work.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a press conference on Monday that he expected Tesla to be able to open sometime next week.
“My understanding is they have had some very constructive conversations,” he said in a video press conference. “My belief and hope and expectation is as early as next week, they will be able to resume.”
Musk has seen a massive outpouring of support for his decision to resume production.
In a world of tele-working, virtual classrooms, and video chatting with friends, Zoom has become the go-to service to use. Zoom claimed to have 300 daily users (up from 10 million daily users in December 2019).
However, The Verge is reporting that Zoom has changed the wording of their stats. The original reports said that they had “300 million daily users” and changed it to “300 daily meeting participants”.
“We are humbled and proud to help over 300 million daily meeting participants stay connected during this pandemic. In a blog post on April 22, we unintentionally referred to these participants as “users” and “people.” When we realized this error, we adjusted the wording to “participants.” This was a genuine oversight on our part,” the company told the outlet in a statement.
A “daily user” could be defined as one individual person hosting a meeting, a meeting participant could be someone who doesn’t have a Zoom account.
Zoom’s apology didn’t update the actual daily users.
Apple’s long road to pivoting into a services company is beginning to pay off. Apple announced last week that their services division brought in over $13 billion in revenue. The services that Apple provides includes Apple Music Apple TV+, iCloud, App Store, and Apple Arcade.
Apple’s first quarter touted revenue of $58.3 billion, up one percent from 2019.
“Despite COVID-19’s unprecedented global impact, we’re proud to report that Apple grew for the quarter, driven by an all-time record in Services and a quarterly record for Wearables,” CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “In this difficult environment, our users are depending on Apple products in renewed ways to stay connected, informed, creative, and productive.”
Apple TV+ is struggling to grow their subscribers base since its launch in November 2019. According to Fast Company, Apple has 33.6 million subscribers while Disney+ touts over 50 million paid users.
Friends is one of the most iconic show ever. So popular that in 2019, Netflix paid $100 million to keep the show on their platform before losing it to HBO MAX. The cast of Friends are set to do a reunion special for the streaming platform and they announced that 6 lucky people will be in attendance.
David Schwimmer, Jennifer Anniston, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, Courtney Cox, and Matt LeBlanc took to Instagram to announce their All In Challenge entry – 6 tickets and meet and greet with the cast. HBO Max launching on May 27, 2020.
“We’re so excited to join the All In challenge to help keep people fed and healthy during this time,” Aniston wrote on Instagram. “We’re inviting you and five of your friends to join the six of us on Stage 24. Be our personal guests in the audience for the taping of our @HBOMAX reunion, as we reminisce about the show and celebrate all the fun we had … and get the whole ‘Friends’ VIP experience on the Warner Bros. Studio Tour.”
She added, “Can’t wait to meet and hug you guys when this is all over. Until then, keep Facetiming, calling, DMing, and texting your friends and family. We gotta stay connected.”
The filming of the reunion special was originally going to available for the HBO Max launch, however. it was postponed to a further date.
Disney+ touted 50 million paid users in their recent earnings call and now Netflix is has something to brag about. The veteran streaming service saw 16 million new users join their platform.
Streaming is becoming a major winner during the Coronavirus outbreak. Netflix actually more than doubled their predicted growth. The company predicted they would have 7 million new users in the first quarter of 2020. They announced 15.8 million new users.
Netflix’s total subscribers was 182.9 million at the end of quarter 1.
“Membership growth has temporarily accelerated due to home confinement,” Netflix said in its quarterly shareholder letter Tuesday. “We expect viewing to decline and membership growth to decelerate as home confinement ends, which we hope is soon.”
Analyst are predicting that Netflix will be one of the only media companies that won’t see a major hit during the Coronavirus shutdown.
“After record subscriber additions, Netflix is and will continue to be the media company least impacted by COVID-19,” said eMarketer analyst Eric Haggstrom. “Their business is a near perfect fit to a population that is suddenly housebound. Virus related lockdowns have reaccelerated Netflix’s subscriber growth around the world.”
What streaming services are you using?
Facebook bans posts promoting the end of quarantine as protests erupt around the country
written by Julia Kanin
Facebook started banning event posts that promote anti-quarantine protests. “Events that defy governments’ guidance on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook,” said Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesperson, confirmed to CNN. He pointed out that groups and individual posts will still be allowed, but the company is working closely with state governments in New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio to determine its approach to demonstrations, according to the Washington Times. Mr. Stone stated that the events will not be removed unless the government prohibits it.
Republicans blasted Facebook for removing these posts, criticizing it for the encroachment of constitutional right for free speech at the behest of the state governments. “Why is Facebook colluding with state governments to quash peoples free speech?” wrote Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter. The American Civil Liberties Union also condemned this move, stating that “speech about government responses to the pandemic – from relief packages like the Cares Act to stay-home orders – is core political speech.”
Large protests to lift draconian lockdown measures and reopen the economy have taken place in several states over the past few days. Demonstrators in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Illinois, Florida, California, Tennessee, Washington, and Montana gathered in dozens of cities demanding to end stay-at-home orders according to Newsweek. They openly defied social distancing guidelines, many held signs with slogans such as “This is tyranny, not quarantine,” “Fear is the real virus,” “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me COVID-19!” Streets in Annapolis, Maryland, were packed with cars as people blocked traffic and protested from their cars as Slate reported. “People’s rights are being taken and people are out of work. It’s time to get back to work. It’s time to get people out there, interacting and being with the people they care about,” said one protestor from Illinois to ABC 7 Chicago.
President Trump voiced his support for protesters on Twitter: “I just think that some of the governors have gotten carried away.” He praised the efforts to defy shelter-in-place orders imposed by governors and push for loosening the restrictions. “I call these people the modern-day Rosa Parks—they are protesting against injustice and a loss of liberties,” said the White House adviser Stephen Moore to the Washington Post. He also pointed out that “a boiling point that has been reached and exceeded.”
Democratic governors responded with concern and asked the President to urge people to follow federal guidelines in order to stop the spread of coronavirus. Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), who has come under criticism for handling coronavirus in her state and issuing an executive order that paralyzed all businesses and operations in Michigan, responded that it’s dangerous to protest amid the pandemic and stated that she would appreciate if Trump administration can “reiterate the importance of staying home until we get these numbers down.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook took to Twitter to announce that Apple has secured 20 million (and counting) face masks they plan to donate to frontline healthcare workers. In the announcement, Cook announced that Apple has teams dedicated to sourcing these masks though their supply chains.
Cook also said that these masks will be distributed to healthcare workers in the most needed of locations. “This is a truly global effort, and we’re working continuously and closely with governments at all levels to ensure these are donated to places of greatest need,” Cook said in the video.
Cook also announced that Apple’s design team have begun to produce face shields. The company plans to produce and ship over 1 million masks every week. The first shipment was sent to Kaiser Hospital in the Santa Clara Valley last week.
Watch the announcement here:
Apple is dedicated to supporting the worldwide response to COVID-19. We’ve now sourced over 20M masks through our supply chain. Our design, engineering, operations and packaging teams are also working with suppliers to design, produce and ship face shields for medical workers. pic.twitter.com/3xRqNgMThX
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 5, 2020