Yelp announced this morning that it’s making a number of changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. First, it says it will be providing $25 million to local restaurants and nightlife businesses that are seeing a massive drop in business as a result of the crisis. This will take the form of “waived advertising fees, …

Yelp commits $25M in waived fees and free services to local restaurants and nightlife Read More »

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Uber and Lyft have been on quite a ride this year. After enjoying modest gains earlier this year thanks to an improved profitability forecast from Uber, the two companies saw their share prices gain ground …

For Uber and Lyft, this week has been a wild ride Read More »

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 move in a statement to TechCrunch, writing, We support the need for careful management of telecom services to ensure they can handle the increased internet …

Amazon follows Netflix’s lead, reducing streaming quality in Europe Read More »

At-home diagnostics startup Scanwell, which produces smartphone-based testing for UTIs, is working on getting at-home testing for the novel coronavirus into the hands of U.S. residents. The technology, which was developed by Chinese diagnostic technology company INNOVITA and has already been approved by China’s equivalent of the FDA and used by “millions” in China, can …

Scanwell aims to launch at-home 15-minute coronavirus test, but it still needs FDA approval Read More »

NASA has temporarily paused work on the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion capsule that will be used for its forthcoming Artemis missions, which will ultimately return the next American man and the first American woman to the surface of the Moon. The rocket and spacecraft were undergoing production and testing activities ahead of the …

NASA suspends work on its Moon and Mars spacecraft due to coronavirus pandemic Read More »

Let’s address the elephant in the room. There’s an undeniable irony reviewing an ultraportable laptop when you’re not allowed to leave your house. Of course, Apple didn’t see this coming. None of us did, with the possible exception of Bill Gates, I suppose. I bring this up not as a reminder of everything that’s wrong …

Apple MacBook Air review Read More »

Work in the time of coronavirus is driving huge growth in videoconferencing, as scores of office workers go remote and log on to meetings from home. Zoom — which offers a range of slick features like auto-transcription and virtual backgrounds — has been a key beneficiary of this viral boom. Back in February research analysts …

PSA: Yes you can join a Zoom meeting in the browser Read More »