Amazon
Amazon issues COVID-19 guidelines, as cases are reported in multiple US fulfillment centers
For many across the world, online retail services like Amazon have become a lifeline, as the COVID-19 pandemic forces self- and government-imposed isolation. Warehouse employees and gig workers have become…
Amazon warehouse workers organized to demand PTO, and coronavirus clinched it
Amazon never tires of explaining how great it is to work at one of its warehouses, but as usual the actual employees tell a different story. This particular group of…
Apple Music adds a personalized playlist of happy songs to cheer you up, plus a work-from-home mix
Apple Music is launching a new playlist the company hopes will raise your spirits during these difficult times. On Monday, the service began rolling out a new personalized playlist called…
Amazon temporarily discontinues ‘lower-priority’ items; Flipkart suspends all new orders
Amazon said on Tuesday that it is temporarily discontinuing accepting orders for “lower-priority” products in India and prioritizing servicing urgent items such as household staples, health care, and personal safety…
Using 25% lower bandwidth, Disney+ launches in UK, Ireland and 5 other European countries, France to come online April 7
Disney+, the streaming service from the Walt Disney Company, has been rapidly ramping up in the last several weeks. But while some of that expansion has seen some hiccups, other…
Amazon Care to provide delivery and pick-up of at-home COVID-19 test sample kits in Seattle trial
Amazon is going to be working with a new research initiative backed in part by the Gates Foundation that will distribute at-home coronavirus assessment kits, and then deliver the collected…
Daily Crunch: Tech giants take steps to fight coronavirus
Tech companies are donating supplies and adjusting priorities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an activist investor takes three seats on the Box board and aircraft taxi company Lilium raises…
Amazon Prime Video is streaming kids’ movies and TV for free, no Prime membership required
Amazon is making a selection of family-friendly and programming for kids available for free streaming on Prime Video as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis, which has people trapped…
Facebook and Disney to downgrade streaming quality in Europe due to COVID-19
Facebook is temporarily downgrading the quality of video streaming in Europe on its social platforms Facebook and Instagram in response to a call for action from the European Commission, per…
MasterClass is launching free, live Q&A sessions with big shots in their respective industries
MasterClass is known for selling access to pre-recorded online classes by a long list of people who are among the best at what they do, from tennis great Serena Williams…
IBM, Amazon, Google and Microsoft partner with White House to provide compute resources for COVID-19 research
During today’s White House coronavirus task force press conference, President Trump announced the launch of a new public/private consortium to “unleash the power of American supercomputing resources.” The members of…
Amazon, Apple and Microsoft CEOs detail their companies’ efforts to combat coronavirus pandemic
The tech industry is mobilizing its considerable resources to attempt to support efforts against the growing global coronavirus pandemic. Over the weekend, the CEOs of Amazon, Apple and Microsoft all…
AWS, IBM launch programs to encourage developers solving COVID-19 problems
As society comes to grips with the growing worldwide crisis related to the COVID-19 virus, many companies are stepping up in different ways. Today, two major tech companies — Amazon…
OneWeb confirms layoffs and potential launch schedule delays amid reported bankruptcy considerations
Satellite operator OneWeb has confirmed that its workforce has been reduced via layoffs, after TechCrunch learned that it reduced its workforce by as much as 10% this week. The company…
Rivian shuts down all facilities over COVID-19 pandemic concerns
Rivian, the buzzy electric vehicle startup that is backed by Amazon and Ford, is shutting down all of its facilities due to the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by…
Daily Crunch: Streaming services respond to COVID-19
Streaming services will reduce video quality in Europe, we get our hands on the new MacBook Air and Anthony Levandowski pleads guilty. Here’s your Daily Crunch for March 20, 2020.…
Amazon follows Netflix’s lead, reducing streaming quality in Europe
Following moves by Netflix and YouTube, Amazon announced today that it, too, will be throttling streaming bitrates in Europe in an effort to conserve bandwidth. The online giant confirmed the…
Workers sent home after Amazon warehouse employee tests positive for COVID-19
It was, it seems, only a matter of time before something like this happened. As we noted in yesterday’s FreshDirect story, not everyone has the ability of being able to…
Even in the age of COVID-19, you need to stay focused on the customer
It’s easy to think, as we find ourselves in the midst of a truly unprecedented situation, that the rules of building a successful business have suddenly changed. While the world…
With world events overtaking the tech world’s preferences to meet for coffees and convene at events, Y Combinator skipped its famous two-day live Demo event and went for a radical…
Big opening for startups that help move entrenched on-prem workloads to the cloud
AWS CEO Andy Jassy showed signs of frustration at his AWS re:Invent keynote address in December. Customers weren’t moving to the cloud nearly fast enough for his taste, and he…
Deliveroo riders can’t access coronavirus hardship fund, warns union
UK on-demand food delivery startup Deliveroo has been accused of setting up an inaccessible hardship fund for couriers in the midst of the coronavirus crisis that leaves gig economy workers…
Amazon donates $1 million to DC organizations helping those impacted by COVID-19 outbreak
Amazon announced this morning it’s making a $1 million donation that will be split among four Washington, D.C.-region community foundations that are working to support vulnerable populations during the COVID-19…
CO2-based vodka startup Air Co. fully redirects its tech to making hand sanitizer for donation
A NYC-based startup that developed technology that extracts carbon dioxide from the air and combines it with water to create vodka has redirected its entire production capacity toward producing hand…
US government reportedly in talks with tech companies on how to use location data in COVID-19 fight
U.S. government officials are currently in discussion with a number of tech companies, including Facebook [update: Facebook now says that it is not in discussions to give the government any…
Amazon limiting shipments of certain types of products due to COVID-19 pandemic
Amazon’s “Fulfillment by Amazon” (FBA) program, through which it provides warehousing and shipment services for products from third-party sellers, as well as its larger vendor shipment services, are being partially…
Refurbished electronics startup Refurbed raises $17M round, led by Evli Growth Partners
Renewed phones, laptops and tablets can be as much as 40% cheaper than their brand new cousins, working equally as well and, because they have been saved from the scrapheap,…
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been in regular contact with the White House on coronavirus pandemic
During a White House briefing on Monday detailing new recommendations regarding public health from the administration’s coronavirus task force and the CDC, President Trump was asked by a member of…
Amazon is looking to hire 100,000 employees to keep up with demand
Amazon is looking to hire 100,000 new employees for its warehouse and delivery operations in the U.S. to keep up with demand during the current coronavirus outbreak, the company said…
Workers at America’s largest companies are not covered under coronavirus aid package
Workers at America’s largest companies are not covered under a bill passed by the House of Representatives on Friday that is supposed to support American workers impacted by the spread…
