Technology news

Image: Massimo Temporelli A medical device manufacturer has threatened to sue a group of volunteers in Italy that 3D printed a valve used for life-saving coronavirus treatments. The valve typically costs about $11,000 from the medical device manufacturer, but the volunteers were able to print replicas for about $1 (via Techdirt).
A hospital in Italy was in need of the valves after running out while treating patients for COVID-19. The hospital’s usual supplier said they could not make the

Fox Corporation has acquired ad-supported streaming platform Tubi for $440 million, bringing more than 20,000 movies and shows to the platform.
Tubi, which partners with top-tier studios and networks to provide people with thousands of films and TV shows, currently has 25 million users. Fox Corporation, which is separate from 21st Century Fox (the part of the company Disney acquired in 2019 for $73 billion), doesn’t have its own popular streaming platform.“Tubi will immediately expan

Photo by Sergei Bobylev\TASS via Getty Images COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has been much deadlier in older people — but more anecdotes are popping up of young, healthy people getting critically ill and even dying of the disease.
What do these cases tell us about the disease?
Two 29-year-old health care workers became seriously ill in Wuhan — only one survived, a report in The New York Times detailed. Other stories about people under 50 coming down with seri

Illustration by Angie Wang Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, we’ve been advised to stay inside and to minimize human contact. One of the biggest challenges that creates is getting food. Many states and cities have restricted restaurants to takeout since dining out is no longer considered safe or responsible. However, ordering delivery is still a viable option.
There is little evidence to support that COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, can be transmitted

With all of the chaos going on in the world, now is a great time to spend some time relaxing with new games. Maybe you need a list of games to play during the next few weeks. Maybe you are looking to purchase some new games, but you’re tight on cash. Look no further, I’ve compiled a list of games that are either free or extremely cheap at the moment.Please note that I will be listing several games available on multiple platforms, however, I am only mentioning versions of the game tha

The novel coronavirus pandemic has rapidly moved companies into a remote-first world.
Nearly all of the world’s largest events have been canceled, put on pause or pivoted to online-only. In the tech world, event cancellations thus far have included SXSW, GDC, Mobile World Congress, Google I/O, Facebook F8, E3 and others.
As more and more hosts consider staging fully remote events as possible alternatives, we decided to take a deeper look into the venture-backed startups focused on supporti

Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Someone with health insurance from their employer could pay $1,300 or more out of pocket for treatment if they’re hospitalized with a severe case of COVID-19, according to one analysis. Health researchers based that prediction off of the costs associated with hospitalization for pneumonia.“The thought is, how we treat pneumonia is going to look at lot like how we treat the coronavirus,” said Matthew Rae, associate director

Hello TechCrunch friends and family, tomorrow morning at 9 am Pacific Time we’re gathering on Zoom for an in-depth chat about our favorite startups from the latest Y CombinatorDemo Day. This year’s installment of the twice-yearly startup event happened yesterday, a week early and online only.
Like many other things, Demo Day was adapted to a new format in the face of COVID-19 disruptions. Despite that, TechCrunch wrote a host of posts on the companies that presented (you can see our

As the rest of the world slowly grinds to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic, the US launch industry is still sending rockets into space, with another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket set to take off from Florida on Wednesday morning. SpaceX is launching its latest batch of 60 satellites for its Starlink constellation, aimed at beaming internet coverage down to Earth. And the company is using a very special Falcon 9 rocket for the job: a vehicle that’s been to space and back four times before.
Thi

Image: Google Google has launched a new “Works with Chromebook” badge for accessories that are certified to be compatible with Chromebooks (via 9to5Google). The certification will be given to chargers, mice, keyboards, power adapters, and more.
“We’ve tested these accessories to ensure they comply with Chromebook’s compatibility standards,” said Kevin Ngo, the Works with Chromebook program manager, in a blog post.“Once you see the badge, you can be sure

Photo by Maja Hitij - Pool/Getty Images The European Union is locking down its borders with all other nations. German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced today that all external borders for countries within the group will close for 30 days for nonessential travel. People within the EU’s 27 member nations can still travel between those countries, although there will be some restrictions, and Europeans stranded abroad will be repatriated.
The EU includes countries particularly hard hit by CO

Image: Activision Call of Duty: Warzone, the new 150-person battle royale (BR) from Activision and Infinity Ward, is adding a solo game mode just one week after launch.Warzone, which is both an add-on to the current Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and a free-to-play standalone download, launched on Tuesday of last week, sporting 150-person matches and a series of clever twists on the BR formula that have made it one of the most successful new entries in the genre. The game amassed 15 million playe

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Nintendo’s online service experienced a nearly nine-hour outages, according to the company’s network status page. “All network services” were affected from 4:56AM to 1:45PM ET. During the outage, we found that the Nintendo eShop appeared to be down for Switch users in both the US and UK, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s online functionality was failing to load in the UK.
Nintendo’s online service isn’t the only gaming serv

Earlier today, TechCrunch caught up with Chris Sugden, a managing partner at Edison Partners, to talk about the current fundraising market, what’s next for SaaS startups and if there’s any good news to be found in today’s market.
As the stock market continues to gyrate (more up than down), and the unicorn exit market looks increasingly moribund, understanding how private investors are putting capital to work today and over the next few quarters is critical for startup founders.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple has decided to keep its retail stores outside mainland China closed indefinitely as the global spread of the coronavirus continues. The iPhone maker was originally targeting March 27th to reopen locations in the US and elsewhere around the world, but Bloomberg now reports the company plans to keep all stores closed “until further notice.” The company’s website has also been updated to reflect the new indefinite closure.Apple on

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Waymo is temporarily shutting down some of its robotaxi services in Arizona, just days after The Verge reported that its contracted safety drivers were becoming increasingly nervous about picking up passengers amid the growing coronavirus pandemic. Vehicles with safety drivers will no longer be on the roads in greater Phoenix, Arizona, while completely driverless versions will continue to shuttle passengers around in more limited numbers.Waymo says it has stopp

Popcorn Time disappeared a few years ago, forcing people who used the extremely easy “Netflix, but for piracy” app to search elsewhere for movies and TV shows. Today, as more people are forced to self-quarantine in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, Popcorn Time has returned, Motherboard reports.“Love in the Time of Corona Version 0.4 is out,” a tweet from the Popcorn Time Twitter account reads.
Popcorn Time was scrutinized when it was released in 2014

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Nintendo just gave us a good look at a bunch of new indie games coming to the Nintendo Switch in its latest Indie World Showcase video broadcast. We’ve rounded up some of the highlights from the event.
Exit the Gungeon will be available today
Exit the Gungeon, a spinoff of the popular roguelike Enter the Gungeon, will launch on the Nintendo Switch later today as a timed console exclusive. Exit the Gungeon first launched with Apple Arcade in September 201

Mei Kawajiri, Belén Flores Nuñez, and Vi Nguyen Nail artist Mei Kawajiri’s nails are her canvasses, statement pieces, and sources of joy. Now they’re also potential sources of infection, not compliant with the daily restraints a pandemic introduces. But she’s found a workaround: nail gloves.
Inspired by drag queens, Kawajiri stuck fake nails to surgical gloves ordered from Amazon, letting her flaunt her nails while staying protected. She posted her creation on In

Photo by Jeff Kowalsky / AFP via Getty Images The big three automakers in the United States are facing increasing pressure to close their domestic factories as the federal government, states, and other local governments issue new guidelines to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.The United Auto Workers union said in a letter to members on Tuesday that it’s advocating for at least a two-week shutdown of the automotive factories to protect employees who aren’t able to work r

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images Benjamin Netanyahu has authorized the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, to use cellphone location data to help combat the coronavirus. According to a New York Times report, the data will be used to retrace the movements of individuals who test positive for the virus, and identify others who should be quarantined.The agency has permission to use the data, which the Shin Bet has collected from Israeli carriers since at least 2002, fo

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google has decided to delay even the digital version of its largest conference of the year, the enterprise-focused Cloud Next conference, as the severity of the coronavirus crisis deepens.The company originally canceled the physical conference, which was set to take place in April in downtown San Francisco’s Moscone Center, at the beginning of this month. It later did the same for its more consumer-facing I/O developer conference. The plan was to host

Image: Marvel Disney has decided to delay the release of Marvel Studios’ Black Widow following the spread of the novel coronavirus.Black Widow was originally scheduled to be released on May 1st. There is no new date for the movie. Black Widow follows New Mutants, Mulan, and Antlers, which Disney delayed last week. Black Widow was supposed to kick off the fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and was planned to be the first big film in the franchise following Avengers: Endgame and

Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call Living with the coronavirus is going to reveal hard truths about the digital divide.This is especially true for students, who are being told in record numbers to head online for education. It’s time for a nationwide plan to ensure they can all get there. Like so much else, the internet has changed education. The days when out-of-school learning required only paper and pencil are long gone. Today, students live their lives online and use internet-based reso

When the sky is falling and the walls are closing in, I turn to late-night TV.Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, sometimes even Jimmy Fallon and James Corden; their irreverent take on whatever is happening in the world puts my clinically anxious mind at ease. This has become especially true in the time of COVID-19, or the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, as the normally packed subway cars in New York City empty out and the world feels tilted. I’ve used late ni

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google Translate’s new transcription feature, first demoed back in January, is out now for Android users as part of an update to the artificial intelligence-powered mobile app. The feature will allow you to record spoken words in one language and transform them into translated text on your phone, all in real time and without any delay for processing.
The feature will begin rolling out starting today and will be available to all users by the end of t

Jellyfish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium | Photo by George Rose/Getty Images Human visitors have vanished from the halls of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, and the penguins are taking over. Since the aquarium temporarily shuttered its doors as a part of their coronavirus response, caretakers have been taking some of the aquarium’s penguins on adorable tours of the facility.The adventure continues!This morning, Edward and Annie explored Shedd’s rotunda. They are a bonded pair of rockhop

Image: The Verge Facebook is planning to give a $1,000 bonus to every employee to help them amid the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, according to The Information. The move was reportedly announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an internal company memo on Tuesday. It’s unclear when the bonuses will be distributed.Each of the company’s nearly 45,000 employees will also get an “exceeds” rating for their first six-month review of 2020, which could lead to big bonuses that co

Image: Samsung Samsung’s PlayGalaxy Link service, which allowed you to stream games from your PC to select Galaxy smartphones, is shutting down on March 27th, the company has announced. Technically, Samsung made the announcement at the end of February, but the closure didn’t come to our attention until Gamasutra spotted the announcement earlier this week.Samsung didn’t elaborate much on the reasons for the closure, simply saying that “internal policy changes” are b

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Live-streaming is taking off, culturally speaking. More people than ever are familiar with the concept — whether that’s from Instagram Live (which is currently having its own moment) or Twitch. Mixer, Microsoft’s live-streaming service, has had a number of high-profile successes lately, signing streamers with huge audiences like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Cory “King Gothalion” Michael to exclusive agreements. Today

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Tesla is keeping its Fremont, California, car factory open following a new order from the Alameda County government ordering nonessential businesses to close down to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times. This comes just days after CEO Elon Musk underplayed the pandemic in an email to employees of his other company, SpaceX.
Notorious for massive end-of-quarter efforts to make and sell as many vehicl

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.
As investors struggle to price the stock market as economic and political news continues to break, the private market is entering a rough period. It seems increasingly likely that the period of disruption due to COVID-19 will persist for months, if not quarters. That means missed Q1 and Q2 revenue growth, bookings, and the like from startups domestically and around the world.
An