theverge--2020-04-01--Spotify and Warner agree to an ‘expanded’ global licensing deal

Today , Spotify and Warner Music Group announced in a short statement that the two entities have renewed their global licensing agreement .
This news comes about two months after Spotify ended its “ global food fight ” with Warner / Chappell Music ( Warner Music Group ’ s publishing arm ) , and the two entities inked a multi-territory licensing agreement .
“ Spotify and Warner Music Group are pleased to announce a renewed global licensing partnership , ” the joint statement reads .
“ This expanded deal covers countries where Spotify is available today , as well as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forward to collaborating on impactful global initiatives for Warner artists and songwriters , and working together to grow the music industry over the long term.
” The rift between Spotify and Warner has been public over the past year , and it centered largely on Spotify ’ s 2019 expansion into India .
Warner and Spotify couldn ’ t come to terms on a publishing agreement , so Spotify tried to use an obscure provision in India ’ s copyright law in order to obtain a statutory license for the catalog .
Warner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ high court , saying , “ After months of negotiations , Spotify abruptly changed course and has falsely asserted a statutory license for our songwriters ’ music publishing rights in India .
We had no choice but to ask an Indian court for an injunction to prevent this.
” Although the spat appeared to be over the publishing rights for this one territory , it was actually a proxy for the renegotiations in Spotify and Warner Music Group ’ s global licensing deal .
Spotify ’ s chief financial officer , Barry McCarthy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ It ’ s not really about India , ” McCarthy said onstage at a Morgan Stanley conference .
“ It ’ s about leverage and renegotiation of the global agreement.
” Spotify launched in India without the Warner / Chappell Music catalog , which hosts many of the world ’ s biggest artists .
But today ’ s deal will finally make Warner Music ’ s vast catalog — which includes acts like Cardi B , Bruno Mars , and Coldplay — available to Spotify users in India .
Aside from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recently said that a point of contention during negotiations involved Spotify ’ s push into podcasts .
According to sources , music companies fear losing revenue share as the platform continues to diversify the types of content it offers .
“ They are constantly trying to chip away at that share of music on the platform , ” one music executive told Financial Times .
“ Of course there is friction there.
” While financial details around Spotify and Warner Music Group ’ s deal were not disclosed , there ’ s no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the health of major labels .
Warner Music Group ’ s Securities and Exchange Commission filing from February 6th of this year states that streaming brought in a large chunk of the label ’ s revenue for the fiscal year 2019 .
“ Recorded music revenue earned under license agreements with our top two digital music accounts , Apple and Spotify , ” reads the filing , “ accounted for approximately 30 percent of our total revenues.
” Spotify now holds long-term licensing agreements with two of the three major labels : Warner @ @ @

Today, Spotify and Warner Music Group announced in a short statement that the two entities have renewed their global licensing agreement. This news comes about two months after Spotify ended its “global food fight” with Warner / Chappell Music (Warner Music Group’s publishing arm), and the two entities inked a multi-territory licensing agreement.
“Spotify and Warner Music Group are pleased to announce a renewed global licensing partnership,” the joint statement reads. “This expanded deal covers countries where Spotify is available today, as well as additional markets. The two companies look forward to collaborating on impactful global initiatives for Warner artists and songwriters, and working together to grow the music industry over the long term.”
The rift between Spotify and Warner has been public over the past year, and it centered largely on Spotify’s 2019 expansion into India. Warner and Spotify couldn’t come to terms on a publishing agreement, so Spotify tried to use an obscure provision in India’s copyright law in order to obtain a statutory license for the catalog. Warner then took Spotify to Bombay’s high court, saying, “After months of negotiations, Spotify abruptly changed course and has falsely asserted a statutory license for our songwriters’ music publishing rights in India. We had no choice but to ask an Indian court for an injunction to prevent this.”
Although the spat appeared to be over the publishing rights for this one territory, it was actually a proxy for the renegotiations in Spotify and Warner Music Group’s global licensing deal. Spotify’s chief financial officer, Barry McCarthy, admitted as much in an interview. “It’s not really about India,” McCarthy said onstage at a Morgan Stanley conference. “It’s about leverage and renegotiation of the global agreement.”
Spotify launched in India without the Warner / Chappell Music catalog, which hosts many of the world’s biggest artists. But today’s deal will finally make Warner Music’s vast catalog — which includes acts like Cardi B, Bruno Mars, and Coldplay — available to Spotify users in India.
Aside from the argument over India, Financial Times recently said that a point of contention during negotiations involved Spotify’s push into podcasts. According to sources, music companies fear losing revenue share as the platform continues to diversify the types of content it offers. “They are constantly trying to chip away at that share of music on the platform,” one music executive told Financial Times. “Of course there is friction there.”
While financial details around Spotify and Warner Music Group’s deal were not disclosed, there’s no denying that streaming is increasingly integral to the health of major labels. Warner Music Group’s Securities and Exchange Commission filing from February 6th of this year states that streaming brought in a large chunk of the label’s revenue for the fiscal year 2019. “Recorded music revenue earned under license agreements with our top two digital music accounts, Apple and Spotify,” reads the filing, “accounted for approximately 30 percent of our total revenues.”


theverge--2020-04-02--Google donates free Chromebooks and 100,000 mobile hotspots for rural California students

Google will provide 4,000 Chromebooks and fund the use of 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots for rural students in California , who are studying from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic , CNBC reports .
The initiative , which was announced by California governor Gavin Newsom and Google CEO Sundar Pichai , will allow students to get access to free and unlimited Wi-Fi for a minimum of three months .
In California , EdSource reports that 20 percent of students can ’ t get on the internet .
Google ’ s donation could cut this number in half , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Darling-Hammond .
“ We ’ re providing 4,000 Chromebooks to California students in greatest need & free wifi to 100,000 rural households during the # COVID19 crisis to make distance learning more accessible , ” Pichai wrote in a tweet .
California ’ s schools are scheduled to remain closed through the end of the school year .
However , more resources are still needed in the state .
Newsom estimates that California will need 162,013 more Wi-Fi access points in addition to those provided by Google , SFGate reports .
There are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mobile hotspots can be in areas where cellular signal is weak .
This is not just a problem in California , however .
The so-called “ homework gap ” exists right across the US , prompting calls for the federal government to do more to level the playing field .
The FCC has already taken steps to allow schools to work with carriers to upgrade their internet infrastructure , but one FCC commissioner wants the regulator to go further , and provide Wi-Fi hotspots directly to schools to loan out to their students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can to help these efforts succeed for all students , including those who fall into the homework gap and are at greatest risk of being left behind , ” FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wrote in a recent op-ed for The Verge .
Google ’ s contribution joins existing initiatives announced by Californian schools to improve their remote learning efforts .
EdSource notes that San Francisco Unified has distributed over 5,200 Chromebooks to its students since its schools closed in March , while Los Angeles Unified has authorized a $ 100 million investment to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is partnering with Verizon to provide internet access .

Google will provide 4,000 Chromebooks and fund the use of 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots for rural students in California, who are studying from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, CNBC reports. The initiative, which was announced by California governor Gavin Newsom and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, will allow students to get access to free and unlimited Wi-Fi for a minimum of three months.
In California, EdSource reports that 20 percent of students can’t get on the internet. Google’s donation could cut this number in half, according to California State Board of Education Linda Darling-Hammond.
“We’re providing 4,000 Chromebooks to California students in greatest need & free wifi to 100,000 rural households during the #COVID19 crisis to make distance learning more accessible,” Pichai wrote in a tweet. California’s schools are scheduled to remain closed through the end of the school year.
However, more resources are still needed in the state. Newsom estimates that California will need 162,013 more Wi-Fi access points in addition to those provided by Google, SFGate reports. There are also questions about how useful the 100k mobile hotspots can be in areas where cellular signal is weak.
This is not just a problem in California, however. The so-called “homework gap” exists right across the US, prompting calls for the federal government to do more to level the playing field. The FCC has already taken steps to allow schools to work with carriers to upgrade their internet infrastructure, but one FCC commissioner wants the regulator to go further, and provide Wi-Fi hotspots directly to schools to loan out to their students.
“We must do what we can to help these efforts succeed for all students, including those who fall into the homework gap and are at greatest risk of being left behind,” FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wrote in a recent op-ed for The Verge.


theverge--2020-04-02--Sprint is dead. Long live Sprint

Sprint is dead. Long live Sprint

It ’ s done .
We now have just three major cell phone carriers in the US : Verizon , AT & T , and T-Mobile , which just completed its merger with Sprint .
It ’ s been such a long time coming and has seemed so inevitable that the news — on April Fools ’ Day , no less — felt like little more than a blip in the tech world .
If you ’ re a Sprint customer , don ’ t panic .
Chaim Gartenberg has the answers on what ’ s next for Sprint customers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through .
There ’ s no need to worry that things will change significantly in the short term .
And T-Mobile is doing what it can to offer some immediate benefit .
Sprint customers may get access to T-Mobile ’ s LTE network if their phones support its bands and may get software upgrades to support T-Mobile ’ s mid-band 5G .
T-Mobile CEO John Legere is stepping down .
Over the past eight years he has brilliantly executed a strategy that combined a calculated leather-jacket-wearing persona , an even more calculated insurgent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ service and price .
I have expressed and will continue to express concern that T-Mobile has undercut net neutrality and I still think long-term this merger will encourage the big three to raise prices .
But the bigger picture is that two-year contracts and onerous data caps may still be widespread if it weren ’ t for T-Mobile .
But I come here today not to praise John Legere , but to bury Sprint .
When any big company goes down , it ’ s impossible to point to any single cause and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that was the mistake.
” There are always a hundred “ if but for ” examples you could point to .
I have often pointed to Sprint ’ s gigantic bet on WiMAX as the 4G technology of the future when LTE is what ultimately won out .
I think that hurt Sprint ’ s chances but I also recognize that it ’ s an oversimplification to just say that WiMAX did it .
You could do the same thing with the Nextel acquisition , too .
So rather than a post-mortem , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ glory days .
Because once upon a time , Sprint was by far the best carrier for nerds who were into smartphones .
I ’ m talking about the days before and just after the iPhone — so yes , this is praise for a time that ’ s more than a decade behind us now .
But in those mid-to-late-aughts days , there was no better place to be a smartphone user than on Sprint .
Verizon was literally turning off GPS and limiting Bluetooth while Cingular ( soon to be AT @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out how to prepare its network for the iPhone onslaught .
Both charged a lot of money to use their networks .
And T-Mobile , well , it was doing its damnedest to get sold off to AT & T .
Sprint , meanwhile , had a really solid CDMA 3G network , charged less than its competitors , and didn ’ t try to break smartphone functionality left and right in a bid to upsell you on its own services .
If there was such a thing as “ uncarrier ” in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And actually , I want to just mention that Sprint was more willing to work with people who had questionable credit , too .
Sometime that could feel a little predatory , but often it meant that people who would otherwise not have access to a cell phone could get one .
I base that observation not just on my own experience ( I was very bad with money ! )
, but on what I saw in the community that formed around Sprint .
In those pre-Reddit and pre-Twitter days , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shout out to Howardforums in particular .
Many of us came to those communities because we were looking for the not-so-secret program called SERO — the Sprint Employee Referral Option .
It was a way to save some money on your bill and it wasn ’ t that hard to acquire if you could talk to the right person .
But while you were hustling your way into a SERO plan , you discovered a group of people who were just as excited about the latest Windows Mobile or PalmOS smartphone as you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) quaint , but the combination of all of these things was a big deal .
Sprint genuinely made technology more accessible to a wider swath of people than other US carriers .
Were it not for its prices , its openness to new technology , and the communities that formed around those two things , I probably wouldn ’ t be writing these words to you right now .
Sprint even had 2008 ’ s version of a disruptive plan , the “ Simply Everything ” plan that offered unlimited voice , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rarity in those days .
Whatever fight was in Sprint dissipated ten years later as it quietly prepared itself for a T-Mobile acquisition .
Sprint was never mighty and never quite managed to compete successfully against its larger competitors .
But for a time it served an underserved group of people when other carriers wouldn ’ t .
Ex-T-Mobile CEO John Legere deserves credit for turning that company around and taking up much of the work that Sprint started .
He got attention by cursing while wearing a bright pink T-Shirt .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CEO Dan Hesse got attention by calmly walking the streets of New York in black and white .
In a shocking development today , Amazon quietly updated its app to allow in-app rentals and purchases on the iPhone , iPad , and Apple TV .
This goes counter to everything we ’ ve expected from Apple ’ s rules around the App Store .
Amazon is processing payments directly and apparently not paying Apple its 30 percent cut .
Apple ’ s statement confirms it : Apple now lets some video streaming apps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claims that this isn ’ t some new policy , because it has allowed a couple of other video services to do it .
But I don ’ t know , it sure as hell felt new to me and to everybody else who ’ s been following the “ Apple tax ” closely .
Why does Amazon get to use its own payment system and not , say , Fortnite ?
Or any developer , really ?
I have many , many thoughts on this but not enough time to get into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tomorrow ’ s newsletter .
So I deeply hate the word “ techlash.
” As an occasional punster , it strikes me as lazy and awkward .
So you ’ d think that I would hate the word “ Zoomlash , ” but look : it ’ s also lazy and awkward , which is an apt description of Zoom ’ s approach to security and privacy .
So I ’ ll allow it .
Casey Newton ’ s newsletter , The Interface , went deep on Zoom today , so I encourage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ read his take on Zoom .
It ’ s good and I would link to it but it ’ s not live on our website as I compose this .
Newsletters !
In addition , though , here are some good pieces that I do have links for : ┏ Zoom faces a privacy and security backlash as it surges in popularity .
┏ The best alternatives to Zoom for videoconferencing .
┏ Exclusive : Detroit Amazon workers plan to walk out over handling of COVID-19 .
┏ Six Dark Sky alternatives for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a look at a few of the best options right now .
┏ YTMND is back , a year after shutting down .
This is the very very very best news .
┏ YouTube reportedly working on TikTok competitor called Shorts .
Everybody has to make a version of everybody else ’ s stuff , I guess .
Anyway , if TikTok beats this challenge back I call dibs on the headline “ TikTok pantses Shorts.
” ┏ Sony ’ s latest true wireless earbuds have nine-hour battery life and cost $ 129.99 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but aren ’ t all wireless earbuds anyway ?
I will say I would not have expected Sony to start competing at this price point .

It’s done. We now have just three major cell phone carriers in the US: Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, which just completed its merger with Sprint. It’s been such a long time coming and has seemed so inevitable that the news — on April Fools’ Day, no less — felt like little more than a blip in the tech world.
If you’re a Sprint customer, don’t panic. Chaim Gartenberg has the answers on what’s next for Sprint customers now that the T-Mobile merger has gone through. There’s no need to worry that things will change significantly in the short term. And T-Mobile is doing what it can to offer some immediate benefit. Sprint customers may get access to T-Mobile’s LTE network if their phones support its bands and may get software upgrades to support T-Mobile’s mid-band 5G.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere is stepping down. Over the past eight years he has brilliantly executed a strategy that combined a calculated leather-jacket-wearing persona, an even more calculated insurgent brand, and genuine improvements in both service and price. I have expressed and will continue to express concern that T-Mobile has undercut net neutrality and I still think long-term this merger will encourage the big three to raise prices. But the bigger picture is that two-year contracts and onerous data caps may still be widespread if it weren’t for T-Mobile.
You are reading Processor, a newsletter about computers, software, and tech by Dieter Bohn. Dieter writes about consumer tech, software, and the most important tech news of the day from The Verge. You can read an archive of Processor newsletters here and subscribe to all of The Verge’s great videos here! Subscribe
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But I come here today not to praise John Legere, but to bury Sprint.
When any big company goes down, it’s impossible to point to any single cause and say “that’s it, that was the mistake.” There are always a hundred “if but for” examples you could point to. I have often pointed to Sprint’s gigantic bet on WiMAX as the 4G technology of the future when LTE is what ultimately won out. I think that hurt Sprint’s chances but I also recognize that it’s an oversimplification to just say that WiMAX did it. You could do the same thing with the Nextel acquisition, too.
So rather than a post-mortem, I want to celebrate Sprint’s glory days. Because once upon a time, Sprint was by far the best carrier for nerds who were into smartphones. I’m talking about the days before and just after the iPhone — so yes, this is praise for a time that’s more than a decade behind us now.
But in those mid-to-late-aughts days, there was no better place to be a smartphone user than on Sprint. Verizon was literally turning off GPS and limiting Bluetooth while Cingular (soon to be AT&T) was struggling to figure out how to prepare its network for the iPhone onslaught. Both charged a lot of money to use their networks. And T-Mobile, well, it was doing its damnedest to get sold off to AT&T.
Sprint, meanwhile, had a really solid CDMA 3G network, charged less than its competitors, and didn’t try to break smartphone functionality left and right in a bid to upsell you on its own services. If there was such a thing as “uncarrier” in those days, it was Sprint.
And actually, I want to just mention that Sprint was more willing to work with people who had questionable credit, too. Sometime that could feel a little predatory, but often it meant that people who would otherwise not have access to a cell phone could get one.
I base that observation not just on my own experience (I was very bad with money!), but on what I saw in the community that formed around Sprint. In those pre-Reddit and pre-Twitter days, we hung out on various vBulletin forums — shout out to Howardforums in particular.
Many of us came to those communities because we were looking for the not-so-secret program called SERO — the Sprint Employee Referral Option. It was a way to save some money on your bill and it wasn’t that hard to acquire if you could talk to the right person.
But while you were hustling your way into a SERO plan, you discovered a group of people who were just as excited about the latest Windows Mobile or PalmOS smartphone as you were. It sounds (and is) quaint, but the combination of all of these things was a big deal. Sprint genuinely made technology more accessible to a wider swath of people than other US carriers.
Were it not for its prices, its openness to new technology, and the communities that formed around those two things, I probably wouldn’t be writing these words to you right now.
Sprint even had 2008’s version of a disruptive plan, the “Simply Everything” plan that offered unlimited voice, texting, and data — a relative rarity in those days.
Whatever fight was in Sprint dissipated ten years later as it quietly prepared itself for a T-Mobile acquisition. Sprint was never mighty and never quite managed to compete successfully against its larger competitors. But for a time it served an underserved group of people when other carriers wouldn’t.
Ex-T-Mobile CEO John Legere deserves credit for turning that company around and taking up much of the work that Sprint started. He got attention by cursing while wearing a bright pink T-Shirt. But take a moment to remember that ex-Sprint CEO Dan Hesse got attention by calmly walking the streets of New York in black and white.
Rest in peace, Sprint.
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Apple and Amazon, sittin’ in a ...smoke-filled room
In a shocking development today, Amazon quietly updated its app to allow in-app rentals and purchases on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. This goes counter to everything we’ve expected from Apple’s rules around the App Store. Amazon is processing payments directly and apparently not paying Apple its 30 percent cut. Apple’s statement confirms it: Apple now lets some video streaming apps bypass the App Store cut.
Apple claims that this isn’t some new policy, because it has allowed a couple of other video services to do it. But I don’t know, it sure as hell felt new to me and to everybody else who’s been following the “Apple tax” closely. Why does Amazon get to use its own payment system and not, say, Fortnite? Or any developer, really?
I have many, many thoughts on this but not enough time to get into them all here. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s newsletter.
The Zoomlash
So I deeply hate the word “techlash.” As an occasional punster, it strikes me as lazy and awkward. So you’d think that I would hate the word “Zoomlash,” but look: it’s also lazy and awkward, which is an apt description of Zoom’s approach to security and privacy. So I’ll allow it.
Casey Newton’s newsletter, The Interface, went deep on Zoom today, so I encourage you to not only subscribe, but read his take on Zoom. It’s good and I would link to it but it’s not live on our website as I compose this. Newsletters! In addition, though, here are some good pieces that I do have links for:
News from The Verge
┏ Six Dark Sky alternatives for Android weather watchers. Barbara Krasnoff takes a look at a few of the best options right now.
┏ YTMND is back, a year after shutting down. This is the very very very best news.
┏ YouTube reportedly working on TikTok competitor called Shorts. Everybody has to make a version of everybody else’s stuff, I guess. Anyway, if TikTok beats this challenge back I call dibs on the headline “TikTok pantses Shorts.”
┏ Sony’s latest true wireless earbuds have nine-hour battery life and cost $129.99. They’re kinda funny looking, but aren’t all wireless earbuds anyway? I will say I would not have expected Sony to start competing at this price point.


theverge--2020-04-02--What Zoom doesn’t understand about the Zoom backlash

The Interface is a daily column and newsletter about the intersection of social media and democracy .
Subscribe here .
[ Ed .
note : Today ’ s newsletter and column was written and distributed before Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan published his 1,300-word plan to address the security and privacy issues related to the company ’ s unprecedented consumer growth .
What follows is unedited because email is forever . ]
Just in time for one backlash against the technology industry to end — or at least pause — a fresh set of concerns has arrived to occupy our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ video chat app company , rocketed to prominence as COVID-19 forced tens of millions of Americans — and most of Silicon Valley — to begin working , schooling , and socializing at home .
Like lots of people , I ’ m now on Zoom for multiple hours a day .
But with all that new usage comes heightened scrutiny — and in the first weeks of the Great Social Distancing , Zoom has repeatedly come up short .
The first problem was the Zoombombings .
I don ’ t know if I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but I was certainly one of them .
My friend Hunter and I started a virtual happy hour a few weeks ago , and after we tweeted the links , some trolls kept stopping by to take over our screens and share porn .
We quickly learned how to fix the problem , but Zoombombings continue every day .
The FBI is looking into it , and so is the New York attorney general ’ s office .
The problem is that Zoom allows people who have joined your call to share their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ controls for changing this setting are difficult to find .
The second problem was that Zoom began to generate directories of every email address that signed into a call and then let strangers start placing video calls to one another .
As with screen sharing disabled by default , this was arguably a feature that made sense for intra-company chats but not for broadcast .
Joseph Cox had the story at Vice : The third problem was that Zoom ran around telling everyone that its platform is “ end-to-end encrypted , ” when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ encryption ” without telling anyone .
Micah Lee and Yael Grauer had the story in The Intercept : As long as you make sure everyone in a Zoom meeting connects using “ computer audio ” instead of calling in on a phone , the meeting is secured with end-to-end encryption , at least according to Zoom ’ s website , its security white paper , and the user interface within the app .
But despite this misleading marketing , the service actually does not support end-to-end encryption for video and audio content , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understood .
Instead it offers what is usually called transport encryption , explained further below .
[ ... ] The encryption that Zoom uses to protect meetings is TLS , the same technology that web servers use to secure HTTPS websites .
This means that the connection between the Zoom app running on a user ’ s computer or phone and Zoom ’ s server is encrypted in the same way the connection between your web browser and this article ( on https : //theintercept.com ) is encrypted .
This is known as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end-to-end encryption because the Zoom service itself can access the unencrypted video and audio content of Zoom meetings .
So when you have a Zoom meeting , the video and audio content will stay private from anyone spying on your Wi-Fi , but it won ’ t stay private from the company .
( In a statement , Zoom said it does not directly access , mine , or sell user data . )
There are other problems .
Like , it turns out Zoom evades MacOS administrator controls to install itself without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ permission .
And there is a way to steal someone ’ s Windows credentials over Zoom by sharing hyperlinks , although arguably that is more of a Windows problem than a Zoom problem .
To round out the list , a security researcher on Wednesday found two additional ways to exploit Zoom and wrote about them on his blog .
At this point , you may be wondering what Zoom has to say about all this .
Over at Protocol , David Pierce talks to Zoom ’ s chief marketing officer , Janine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He writes : On the surface , this sounds reasonable .
Zoom is a business tool , but it ’ s now being used outside of businesses , and so new vulnerabilities have emerged .
And yet that argument is challenged by all of the problems above , which basically resolve to this : in order to make a popular video chat app , you have to make it extremely easy to use .
In other words , you have to make it a consumer app .
In the old days — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you used for work were decided by your workplace .
They bought you your computer , and your license for Microsoft Office , and whatever other arcane and generally awful-to-use programs you needed to get your job done .
That all changed once people got mobile phones and could begin using whichever programs they wanted to .
A new class of productivity tools arose emphasizing design and ease of use : Google Docs , Box , Dropbox , and Evernote led the way , with Trello , Asana , and Slack following a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ built for work , but they were designed for consumers .
It ’ s why they succeeded .
Zoom learned that lesson , and has applied it consistently since its founding in 2011 .
Designing for consumers is why , for example , Zoom goes to such great lengths to install itself on your Mac without you having to get permission from an admin .
Designing for consumers is why Zoom tries to generate a company director on your behalf .
Designing for consumers is why Zoom allows you to log in with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in trouble for — perhaps wrongly — this week . )
And to be clear , designing for consumers has been a good choice for Zoom .
It helped the company grow much faster than the competition — most notably Skype , which seems to have been caught flat-footed by the moment .
Zoom has so much momentum at this moment that creating virtual backgrounds for your calls — a fun and distinctive and extremely consumer-y feature of the product — has suddenly become a key marketing platform for Hollywood .
Consumer-grade ease @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like Zoom — but so is enterprise-grade security .
That ’ s what its business customers are paying for , after all , and it ’ s why Zoom is going to have to start shoring up its platform in a hurry .
Ben Thompson has a good idea for stopping the Zoomlash in its tracks : That won ’ t stop the occasional zero-day exploit from popping up .
But it would go a long way toward demonstrating that the company understands the stakes of our new world and is prepared to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has never been that , as its chief marketing officer says , “ it wasn ’ t designed for consumers.
” The problem is that it was .
Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms .
Trending up : Google is partnering with California lawmakers to give out 4,000 Chromebooks to students in need in California .
It ’ s also providing free wifi to 100,000 rural households during the coronavirus pandemic to make remote learning more accessible .
Trending sideways : Facebook , Twitter , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus scams and stop misinformation on the platforms .
But people keep posting things that clearly violate the rules .
The situation underscores how the companies are engaged in an infinite game of whack-a-mole that ’ s tough to win .
Amazon workers at a fulfillment center near Detroit , Michigan , plan to walk out over the company ’ s handling of COVID-19 .
Workers say management was slow to notify them about new coronavirus cases and didn ’ t provide adequate cleaning supplies .
( Josh Dzieza / The Verge ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ events as it races to hire 100,000 new workers .
The company has since begun making the events virtual .
( Spencer Soper and Matt Day / Bloomberg ) Palantir is in talks with France , Germany , Austria and Switzerland about using its software to help them respond to COVID-19 .
The data-analytics firm says its technology can do everything from helping to trace the spread of the virus to allowing hospitals to predict staff and supply shortages .
( Helene Fouquet and Albertina Torsoli / Bloomberg ) Palantir is also behind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Centers for Disease Control ( CDC ) to monitor how the coronavirus is spreading .
The tool will also help the CDC understand how well equipped hospitals are to deal with a spike in cases .
( Thomas Brewster / Forbes ) A group of European experts are preparing to launch an initiative to trace peoples ’ smartphones to see who has come into contact with those who have COVID-19 .
The goal is to help health authorities act swiftly to stop the spread of the virus in a way that is compliant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Douglas Busvine / Reuters ) School closures are leading to a new wave of student surveillance .
Colleges are racing to sign deals with online proctor companies that watch students through their webcams while they take exams .
( Drew Harwell / The Washington Post ) Facebook is expanding its Community Help feature as part of the company ’ s COVID-19 efforts .
The new COVID-19 Community Help hub will allow people to request or offer help to those impacted by the coronavirus outbreak .
( Sarah Perez / TechCrunch ) Here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the coronavirus pandemic .
She ’ s quarantining at home with her fiance and kids and raising millions for her local food bank .
( Alyson Shontell / Business Insider ) Coronavirus is forcing couples to cancel their weddings , but some people are getting creative and live-streaming their nuptials on Zoom .
( Zoe Schiffer / The Verge ) Doctors are turning to Twitter and TikTok to share coronavirus news .
They ’ re trying to combat the bad medical advice that ’ s circulating around the big platforms .
( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diplomat has been helping to spread a conspiracy theory that the United States and its military could be behind the coronavirus outbreak .
Here ’ s how that hoax started .
( Vanessa Molter and Graham Webster / Stanford Internet Observatory ) The coronavirus pandemic shows why Comcast could get rid of its data caps permanently without killing its business .
( Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica ) Hackers are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to launch cyberattacks against healthcare providers .
In one instance , the criminals used encryption to lock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patient records and promised to publish them online if a ransom wasn ’ t paid .
( Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg ) Startups are desperately fighting to survive the coronavirus pandemic .
Some are laying off workers and slashing costs — but even that might not be enough .
( Erin Griffith / The New York Times ) Americans streamed 85 percent more minutes of video in March 2020 compared to March 2019 .
Binge watching on Hulu has grown more than 25 percent in the past two weeks alone .
( Sara @ @ @ @ @ @ @ calling is up 50 percent month over month .
This blog post about how usage has changed with the coronavirus pandemic is the kind of check-in I ’ ve been asking for from big tech companies .
Rebecca Jennings invites you to post with abandon .
She says the digital world is now a far happier place than the real world , which is a perfect excuse for you to spend time on social media doing various Instagram and TikTok challenges .
( Rebecca Jennings / Vox ) Total cases in the US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : At least 4,500 Data from The New York Times .
⭐Democrats are worried that Google ’ s ban against most ads related to COVID-19 , from nongovernmental organizations , could help Trump get re-elected .
They say it allows the President to run ads promoting his response to the crisis while denying Democrats the chance to run ads criticizing this response .
Emily Birnbaum at Protocol reports : Google ’ s data centers use billions of gallons of water to keep processing units cool .
Some of the centers are located in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their supplies .
( Nikitha Sattiraju / Bloomberg ) As presidential candidates pivot to campaigning almost entirely online , political tech startups are scrambling to keep up with demand .
Business is booming for companies that allow candidates to easily text or call voters and donors .
( Issie Lapowsky / Protocol ) Wisconsin faces a shortage of poll workers and a potential dip in voter turnout due to the due to the coronavirus pandemic , but the state is moving forward with its April 7th primary anyway .
( Zach Montellaro / @ @ @ @ @ @ @ helping President Trump build a database of COVID-19 cases .
He ’ s also turning his Hawaiian island resort into a health and wellness laboratory powered by data , whatever that means !
It all promises to be a very good Netflix series someday .
( Angel Au-Yeung / Forbes ) Facebook is stepping up its efforts to help with the US census .
Facebook and Instagram now have notifications reminding people to complete the census , and the company is also working to combat misinformation about the process .
( Facebook ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to TikTok called Shorts by the end of the year .
The app will take advantage of YouTube ’ s catalog of licensed music by allowing users to choose songs as soundtracks for their videos .
Alex Heath and Jessica Toonkel at The Information have the story : The part of the economy dedicated to creating novel Instagram backdrops is tanking due to the coronavirus pandemic .
Color Factory and Museum of Ice Cream both shut down for now , laying off most employees .
( Ashley Carman / The Verge ) YTMND @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being brought down by a server failure .
The site has modernized a bit , and no longer needs Flash to view its archive of looping GIFs and synchronized music .
( Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge ) Jack Black joined TikTok .
His first video shows him doing a dance he calls the “ Quarantine Dance.
” He ’ s , um , shirtless .
And wearing cowboy boots .
( Taylor Lyles / The Verge ) Animal Crossing ’ s social media explosion has left some fans feeling frustrated and jealous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The game has become a phenomenon on social media in part because of a new button that lets players easily share screenshots .
( Patricia Hernandez / Polygon ) Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine .
Participate in the 2020 census !
It takes about 10 minutes and helps direct billions of dollars in federal funding to local communities .
( And if you won ’ t listen to me , perhaps you ’ ll listen to Sheryl Sandberg . )
Go to one of these virtual events with authors and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Watch Protocol ’ s Issie Lapowsky interview Rep. Ro Khanna , who represents Silicon Valley , in a Zoom meetup on Thursday at noon PT .
Send us tips , comments , questions , and Zoom vulnerabilities : casey @ theverge.com and zoe @ theverge.com .

[Ed. note: Today’s newsletter and column was written and distributed before Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan published his 1,300-word plan to address the security and privacy issues related to the company’s unprecedented consumer growth. What follows is unedited because email is forever.]
Just in time for one backlash against the technology industry to end — or at least pause — a fresh set of concerns has arrived to occupy our attention. Zoom, the once-obscure enterprise video chat app company, rocketed to prominence as COVID-19 forced tens of millions of Americans — and most of Silicon Valley — to begin working, schooling, and socializing at home. Like lots of people, I’m now on Zoom for multiple hours a day. But with all that new usage comes heightened scrutiny — and in the first weeks of the Great Social Distancing, Zoom has repeatedly come up short.
The first problem was the Zoombombings. I don’t know if I was the first victim of this, but I was certainly one of them. My friend Hunter and I started a virtual happy hour a few weeks ago, and after we tweeted the links, some trolls kept stopping by to take over our screens and share porn. We quickly learned how to fix the problem, but Zoombombings continue every day. The FBI is looking into it, and so is the New York attorney general’s office. The problem is that Zoom allows people who have joined your call to share their own screens by default, and the controls for changing this setting are difficult to find.
The second problem was that Zoom began to generate directories of every email address that signed into a call and then let strangers start placing video calls to one another. As with screen sharing disabled by default, this was arguably a feature that made sense for intra-company chats but not for broadcast. Joseph Cox had the story at Vice:
The issue lies in Zoom’s “Company Directory” setting, which automatically adds other people to a user’s lists of contacts if they signed up with an email address that shares the same domain. This can make it easier to find a specific colleague to call when the domain belongs to an individual company. But multiple Zoom users say they signed up with personal email addresses, and Zoom pooled them together with thousands of other people as if they all worked for the same company, exposing their personal information to one another. ”I was shocked by this! I subscribed (with an alias, fortunately) and I saw 995 people unknown to me with their names, images and mail addresses.” Barend Gehrels, a Zoom user impacted by the issue and who flagged it to Motherboard, wrote in an email.
The third problem was that Zoom ran around telling everyone that its platform is “end-to-end encrypted,” when in fact it had redefined “end-to-end encryption” without telling anyone. Micah Lee and Yael Grauer had the story in The Intercept:
As long as you make sure everyone in a Zoom meeting connects using “computer audio” instead of calling in on a phone, the meeting is secured with end-to-end encryption, at least according to Zoom’s website, its security white paper, and the user interface within the app. But despite this misleading marketing, the service actually does not support end-to-end encryption for video and audio content, at least as the term is commonly understood. Instead it offers what is usually called transport encryption, explained further below. [...] The encryption that Zoom uses to protect meetings is TLS, the same technology that web servers use to secure HTTPS websites. This means that the connection between the Zoom app running on a user’s computer or phone and Zoom’s server is encrypted in the same way the connection between your web browser and this article (on https://theintercept.com) is encrypted. This is known as transport encryption, which is different from end-to-end encryption because the Zoom service itself can access the unencrypted video and audio content of Zoom meetings. So when you have a Zoom meeting, the video and audio content will stay private from anyone spying on your Wi-Fi, but it won’t stay private from the company. (In a statement, Zoom said it does not directly access, mine, or sell user data.)
At this point, you may be wondering what Zoom has to say about all this. Over at Protocol, David Pierce talks to Zoom’s chief marketing officer, Janine Pelosi, about the past few weeks. He writes:
“The product wasn’t designed for consumers,” Zoom CMO Janine Pelosi told me, “but a whole lot of consumers are using it.” That’s forced Zoom to evaluate a lot about the platform, but especially its default privacy settings.
On the surface, this sounds reasonable. Zoom is a business tool, but it’s now being used outside of businesses, and so new vulnerabilities have emerged. And yet that argument is challenged by all of the problems above, which basically resolve to this: in order to make a popular video chat app, you have to make it extremely easy to use.
In other words, you have to make it a consumer app.
In the old days — the 1990s, basically — the tools you used for work were decided by your workplace. They bought you your computer, and your license for Microsoft Office, and whatever other arcane and generally awful-to-use programs you needed to get your job done.
That all changed once people got mobile phones and could begin using whichever programs they wanted to. A new class of productivity tools arose emphasizing design and ease of use: Google Docs, Box, Dropbox, and Evernote led the way, with Trello, Asana, and Slack following a few years afterward. These were tools built for work, but they were designed for consumers. It’s why they succeeded.
Zoom learned that lesson, and has applied it consistently since its founding in 2011. Designing for consumers is why, for example, Zoom goes to such great lengths to install itself on your Mac without you having to get permission from an admin. Designing for consumers is why Zoom tries to generate a company director on your behalf. Designing for consumers is why Zoom allows you to log in with Facebook. (Something else it got in trouble for — perhaps wrongly — this week.)
And to be clear, designing for consumers has been a good choice for Zoom. It helped the company grow much faster than the competition — most notably Skype, which seems to have been caught flat-footed by the moment. Zoom has so much momentum at this moment that creating virtual backgrounds for your calls — a fun and distinctive and extremely consumer-y feature of the product — has suddenly become a key marketing platform for Hollywood.
Consumer-grade ease of use is essential for a tool like Zoom — but so is enterprise-grade security. That’s what its business customers are paying for, after all, and it’s why Zoom is going to have to start shoring up its platform in a hurry. Ben Thompson has a good idea for stopping the Zoomlash in its tracks:
Freeze feature development and spend the next 30 days on a top-to-bottom review of Zoom’s approach to security and privacy, followed by an update of how the company is re-allocating resources based on that review.
That won’t stop the occasional zero-day exploit from popping up. But it would go a long way toward demonstrating that the company understands the stakes of our new world and is prepared to act accordingly. Zoom’s problem has never been that, as its chief marketing officer says, “it wasn’t designed for consumers.” The problem is that it was.
The Ratio
Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms.
🔼Trending up: Google is partnering with California lawmakers to give out 4,000 Chromebooks to students in need in California. It’s also providing free wifi to 100,000 rural households during the coronavirus pandemic to make remote learning more accessible.
🔃Trending sideways: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are adopting stricter policies to limit coronavirus scams and stop misinformation on the platforms. But people keep posting things that clearly violate the rules. The situation underscores how the companies are engaged in an infinite game of whack-a-mole that’s tough to win.
Pandemic
Amazon workers at a fulfillment center near Detroit, Michigan, plan to walk out over the company’s handling of COVID-19. Workers say management was slow to notify them about new coronavirus cases and didn’t provide adequate cleaning supplies. (Josh Dzieza / The Verge)
Amazon ignored social distancing guidelines at recruiting events as it races to hire 100,000 new workers. The company has since begun making the events virtual. (Spencer Soper and Matt Day / Bloomberg)
Palantir is in talks with France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland about using its software to help them respond to COVID-19. The data-analytics firm says its technology can do everything from helping to trace the spread of the virus to allowing hospitals to predict staff and supply shortages. (Helene Fouquet and Albertina Torsoli / Bloomberg)
Palantir is also behind a new tool being used by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to monitor how the coronavirus is spreading. The tool will also help the CDC understand how well equipped hospitals are to deal with a spike in cases. (Thomas Brewster / Forbes)
A group of European experts are preparing to launch an initiative to trace peoples’ smartphones to see who has come into contact with those who have COVID-19. The goal is to help health authorities act swiftly to stop the spread of the virus in a way that is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation. (Douglas Busvine / Reuters)
School closures are leading to a new wave of student surveillance. Colleges are racing to sign deals with online proctor companies that watch students through their webcams while they take exams. (Drew Harwell / The Washington Post)
Facebook is expanding its Community Help feature as part of the company’s COVID-19 efforts. The new COVID-19 Community Help hub will allow people to request or offer help to those impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. (Sarah Perez / TechCrunch)
Here’s how Sheryl Sandberg is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. She’s quarantining at home with her fiance and kids and raising millions for her local food bank. (Alyson Shontell / Business Insider)
Doctors are turning to Twitter and TikTok to share coronavirus news. They’re trying to combat the bad medical advice that’s circulating around the big platforms. (Kaya Yurieff / CNN)
A Chinese diplomat has been helping to spread a conspiracy theory that the United States and its military could be behind the coronavirus outbreak. Here’s how that hoax started. (Vanessa Molter and Graham Webster / Stanford Internet Observatory)
The coronavirus pandemic shows why Comcast could get rid of its data caps permanently without killing its business. (Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica)
Hackers are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to launch cyberattacks against healthcare providers. In one instance, the criminals used encryption to lock down thousands of the company’s patient records and promised to publish them online if a ransom wasn’t paid. (Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg)
Startups are desperately fighting to survive the coronavirus pandemic. Some are laying off workers and slashing costs — but even that might not be enough. (Erin Griffith / The New York Times)
Americans streamed 85 percent more minutes of video in March 2020 compared to March 2019. Binge watching on Hulu has grown more than 25 percent in the past two weeks alone. (Sara Fischer / Axios)
Rebecca Jennings invites you to post with abandon. She says the digital world is now a far happier place than the real world, which is a perfect excuse for you to spend time on social media doing various Instagram and TikTok challenges. (Rebecca Jennings / Vox)
Virus tracker
Total cases in the US: 205,172
Total deaths in the US: At least 4,500
Reported cases in California: 8,582
Reported cases in New York: 83,760
Reported cases in Washington: 5,292
Governing
⭐Democrats are worried that Google’s ban against most ads related to COVID-19, from nongovernmental organizations, could help Trump get re-elected. They say it allows the President to run ads promoting his response to the crisis while denying Democrats the chance to run ads criticizing this response. Emily Birnbaum at Protocol reports:
Prominent Democratic PACs in recent days have funneled millions of dollars into television ads accusing Trump of mishandling the coronavirus crisis. But staffers of several Democratic nonprofits and digital ad firms realized this week that they would not be able to use Google’s dominant ad tools to spread true information about President Trump’s handling of the outbreak on YouTube and other Google platforms. The company only allows PSA-style ads from government agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and trusted health bodies like the World Health Organization. Multiple Democratic and progressive strategists were rebuked when they tried to place Google ads criticizing the Trump administration’s response to coronavirus, officials within the firms told Protocol.
Google’s data centers use billions of gallons of water to keep processing units cool. Some of the centers are located in dry areas that are struggling to conserve their supplies. (Nikitha Sattiraju / Bloomberg)
As presidential candidates pivot to campaigning almost entirely online, political tech startups are scrambling to keep up with demand. Business is booming for companies that allow candidates to easily text or call voters and donors. (Issie Lapowsky / Protocol)
Oracle founder Larry Ellison is helping President Trump build a database of COVID-19 cases. He’s also turning his Hawaiian island resort into a health and wellness laboratory powered by data, whatever that means! It all promises to be a very good Netflix series someday. (Angel Au-Yeung / Forbes)
Facebook is stepping up its efforts to help with the US census. Facebook and Instagram now have notifications reminding people to complete the census, and the company is also working to combat misinformation about the process. (Facebook)
Industry
⭐YouTube is planning to launch a rival to TikTok called Shorts by the end of the year. The app will take advantage of YouTube’s catalog of licensed music by allowing users to choose songs as soundtracks for their videos. Alex Heath and Jessica Toonkel at The Information have the story:
TikTok’s business is small relative to that of YouTube, which had more than $15 billion in advertising revenue last year. ByteDance makes the vast majority of its revenue in China—including from its local TikTok equivalent, known as Douyin—and has used its financial resources to aggressively advertise TikTok in the U.S. and elsewhere. In a note to employees late last year, ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming urged them to “diversify TikTok’s growth” and “increase investment in weaker markets,” according to Reuters.
The part of the economy dedicated to creating novel Instagram backdrops is tanking due to the coronavirus pandemic. Color Factory and Museum of Ice Cream both shut down for now, laying off most employees. (Ashley Carman / The Verge)
YTMND is back, nearly a year after being brought down by a server failure. The site has modernized a bit, and no longer needs Flash to view its archive of looping GIFs and synchronized music. (Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge)
Jack Black joined TikTok. His first video shows him doing a dance he calls the “Quarantine Dance.” He’s, um, shirtless. And wearing cowboy boots. (Taylor Lyles / The Verge)
Animal Crossing’s social media explosion has left some fans feeling frustrated and jealous of other peoples’ elaborate designs. The game has become a phenomenon on social media in part because of a new button that lets players easily share screenshots. (Patricia Hernandez / Polygon)
Things to do
Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine.
Participate in the 2020 census! It takes about 10 minutes and helps direct billions of dollars in federal funding to local communities. (And if you won’t listen to me, perhaps you’ll listen to Sheryl Sandberg.)
And finally...
Talk to us


theverge--2020-04-02--The first Harry Potter audiobook voiced by Stephen Fry is now free to stream

Harry Potter and the Philosopher ’ s Stone , which was released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer ’ s Stone in the US , is now free to stream on Audible .
It ’ s part of a series of initiatives launched by JK Rowling and friends to keep everyone entertained while they ’ re cooped up at home .
Better yet , it ’ s the version narrated by Stephen Fry , which has previously been difficult to legally access in the US .
As well as making the audiobook available , the series ’ publishers are also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to read the books to their students in remote video lessons .
There are big debates about whether Stephen Fry ’ s or Jim Dale ’ s rendition of the audiobooks are better , but as a Brit who grew up listening to Fry ’ s version it ’ s always been the obvious choice for me .
If you ’ re an American who ’ s never heard it then I ’ d recommend you giving it a go even if , as TechCrunch notes , you might have a difficult job @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rest of the books .
As well as Fry ’ s English version , the free audiobook is also available in Spanish , French , Italian , German and Japanese .
Teachers are also now free to stream themselves reading the books for students Although Rowling and her team have loosened the licensing restrictions on teachers reading the books as part of remote virtual lessons , there are still some caveats .
The biggest of these is that it ’ s meant to allow the books to be read on closed educational @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rather than commercial platforms like YouTube .
Teachers are also encouraged to not amend or abridge the books while they ’ re reading them , which is advice that Rowling herself could occasionally stand to pay a little more attention to .
Meanwhile , if you ’ d like to listen to the audiobook , then you can do so over at stories.audible.com .
Unfortunately the offer is streaming only ( with no option to download ) , so you ’ ll need to make sure you ’ ve got a somewhat stable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a half hour runtime .
Accio 4G , am I right guys ?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which was released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the US, is now free to stream on Audible. It’s part of a series of initiatives launched by JK Rowling and friends to keep everyone entertained while they’re cooped up at home. Better yet, it’s the version narrated by Stephen Fry, which has previously been difficult to legally access in the US.
As well as making the audiobook available, the series’ publishers are also temporarily relaxing licencing restrictions to allow teachers to read the books to their students in remote video lessons.
There are big debates about whether Stephen Fry’s or Jim Dale’s rendition of the audiobooks are better, but as a Brit who grew up listening to Fry’s version it’s always been the obvious choice for me. If you’re an American who’s never heard it then I’d recommend you giving it a go even if, as TechCrunch notes, you might have a difficult job getting your hands on his recordings of the rest of the books.
As well as Fry’s English version, the free audiobook is also available in Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese.
Teachers are also now free to stream themselves reading the books for students
Although Rowling and her team have loosened the licensing restrictions on teachers reading the books as part of remote virtual lessons, there are still some caveats. The biggest of these is that it’s meant to allow the books to be read on closed educational platforms like Google Classroom or Schoology, rather than commercial platforms like YouTube. Teachers are also encouraged to not amend or abridge the books while they’re reading them, which is advice that Rowling herself could occasionally stand to pay a little more attention to.


theverge--2020-04-02--Zoom announces 90-day feature freeze to fix privacy and security issues

Zoom ’ s recent growth has put it in the spotlight over a series of privacy and security issues , and the company is now promising to address them over the coming 90 days .
In a detailed blog post , Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan explains how the company has been responding to a massive increase in users .
Zoom has never shared user numbers before , but Yuan reveals that back in December the company had a maximum of 10 million daily users .
“ In March this year , we reached more than 200 million daily meeting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” says Yuan .
That ’ s a huge increase that has seen people use Zoom for reasons nobody expected before the coronavirus pandemic .
“ Our platform was built primarily for enterprise customers , ” explains Yuan .
“ We did not design the product with the foresight that , in a matter of weeks , every person in the world would suddenly be working , studying , and socializing from home .
We now have a much broader set of users who are utilizing our product in a myriad of unexpected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did not anticipate when the platform was conceived.
” The challenges of supporting 200 million users compared to just 10 million a few months ago are significant enough , but the privacy and security issues that have been uncovered recently present greater challenges for the company .
Zoom is now freezing its feature updates and focusing on its security and privacy issues instead .
“ Over the next 90 days , we are committed to dedicating the resources needed to better identify , address , and fix issues proactively , ” explains Yuan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being transparent throughout this process.
” All of Zoom ’ s engineering resources will now be focused on safety and privacy issues , and the company is planning a “ comprehensive review ” with third-parties to ensure it ’ s handling the security of these new consumer cases properly .
Zoom is also committing to releasing a transparency report to share the number of requests from law enforcement and governments for user data .
It ’ s something that digital rights advocacy groups have called on Zoom to release .
Zoom is also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , consulting with other chief information security officers across the industry , and using white box penetration tests to identify other security bugs .
Yuan will also hold a weekly webinar on Wednesdays at 10AM PT / 1PM ET to discuss privacy and security updates for Zoom as it tackles its response over the next 90 days .
“ Transparency has always been a core part of our culture , ” says Yuan .
“ I am committed to being open and honest with you about areas where we are strengthening our platform @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of their own to best use and protect themselves on the platform.
” Zoom ’ s response is what many in the security community had been asking for , and the company is committing to fixing the issues that have been identified and promising to be transparent in the process .
That ’ s encouraging to hear for Zoom ’ s existing users , and the many millions of new users that are choosing the app to connect to friends , family , and coworkers for the first time .

Zoom’s recent growth has put it in the spotlight over a series of privacy and security issues, and the company is now promising to address them over the coming 90 days. In a detailed blog post, Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan explains how the company has been responding to a massive increase in users. Zoom has never shared user numbers before, but Yuan reveals that back in December the company had a maximum of 10 million daily users. “In March this year, we reached more than 200 million daily meeting participants, both free and paid,” says Yuan.
That’s a huge increase that has seen people use Zoom for reasons nobody expected before the coronavirus pandemic. “Our platform was built primarily for enterprise customers,” explains Yuan. “We did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home. We now have a much broader set of users who are utilizing our product in a myriad of unexpected ways, presenting us with challenges we did not anticipate when the platform was conceived.”
Related Zoom faces a privacy and security backlash as it surges in popularity
The challenges of supporting 200 million users compared to just 10 million a few months ago are significant enough, but the privacy and security issues that have been uncovered recently present greater challenges for the company. Zoom is now freezing its feature updates and focusing on its security and privacy issues instead. “Over the next 90 days, we are committed to dedicating the resources needed to better identify, address, and fix issues proactively,” explains Yuan. “We are also committed to being transparent throughout this process.”
All of Zoom’s engineering resources will now be focused on safety and privacy issues, and the company is planning a “comprehensive review” with third-parties to ensure it’s handling the security of these new consumer cases properly.
A zoom wedding. Photo by Lisa Kabouridis and Graeme Blackett
Zoom is also committing to releasing a transparency report to share the number of requests from law enforcement and governments for user data. It’s something that digital rights advocacy groups have called on Zoom to release. Zoom is also “enhancing” its bug bounty program, consulting with other chief information security officers across the industry, and using white box penetration tests to identify other security bugs.
Yuan will also hold a weekly webinar on Wednesdays at 10AM PT / 1PM ET to discuss privacy and security updates for Zoom as it tackles its response over the next 90 days. “Transparency has always been a core part of our culture,” says Yuan. “I am committed to being open and honest with you about areas where we are strengthening our platform and areas where users can take steps of their own to best use and protect themselves on the platform.”


theverge--2020-04-02--Asus’ ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 is a gaming laptop with two screens

It ’ s a big day in the mobile-computing world .
Intel has unveiled its new H-series chips , Nvidia has announced its RTX Super GPU lineup for mobile devices , and just about every major laptop manufacturer is introducing new laptops incorporating that hardware .
But Asus is releasing something unlike anything else that ’ s hitting shelves today : the Zephyrus Duo 15 .
Asus says that this is the first dual-screen laptop branded specifically for gaming .
It ’ s technically correct , although it discounts past dual-screen laptops — like the company ’ s own Zenbook @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were fairly competent gaming machines , too .
Here ’ s how the new laptop works .
Like Asus ’ past dual-screen laptops , there ’ s one screen ( the main 15.6-inch one ) which can be either a 4K 60Hz panel or a 1920 X 1080p 300Hz panel .
The former is geared toward content creators ( Asus says it covers 100 percent of the Adobe RGB color space ) ; the latter will appeal more to gamers .
Then , there ’ s a second display built into the upper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one is a 14.1-inch 60Hz touchscreen with 3840 x 1100 resolution .
The screen ’ s top edge lifts off the deck to prop it up at a 13-degree angle , so both displays should be comfortably in your field of view while you ’ re using the laptop .
( The opening underneath also allows the laptop ’ s fans to draw air in from above , which will help out with airflow , according to Asus ) .
There ’ s a second display built into the keyboard deck It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here : you could have Twitch open on the bottom display while you stream or have Discord open on one screen and your game in another if you ’ re playing with friends .
Personally , I am very excited to keep a list of all the Civ V leaders and their respective bonuses handy on the bottom panel so I can stop having to tab out to look them up .
You could also use the secondary screen for easy access to in-game overlays .
Asus says it has partnered with developers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ controls suited to the dual-screen setup , and has partnered with Adobe for special content-creation tools as well .
It ’ s apparently working with Techland on optimizing Dying Light 2 and has created apps with Overwolf for League of Legends , Fortnite , and CS : GO .
( Of course , I don ’ t expect we ’ ll see a ton of these extra programs in the near future , since only a few laptops can make use of them right now ) .
Regarding configurations , the Duo 15 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a USB-C port that supports Thunderbolt 3 .
The most expensive model will include the 4K screen , a Core i9-10980HK , 32GB of RAM , 2TB of storage ( RAID ) , and an RTX 2080 Super .
You ’ ll be able to buy that one June 1st for $ 3,699.99 .
There are also two configurations with the 300Hz screen coming June 29th .
The $ 3,499 build also includes a Core i9-10980HK and an RTX 2080 Super , but has 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage ( PCIe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ includes a Core i7-10875H , 32GB of RAM , 2TB of storage ( RAID ) , and an RTX 2070 Super .
The Duo 15 headlines a full new gaming lineup from Asus that uses Intel ’ s new H-series chips and Nvidia ’ s RTX Super GPUs .
The company has refreshed some of its gaming models : there ’ s a new Zephyrus S17 , Zephyrus S15 , and Zephyrus M15 .
And it ’ s made additions to its ROG Strix Scar esports lineup : look out for a new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as well as a new ROG Strix G15 and G17 .
These will be available in North America throughout Q2 and Q3 .

It’s a big day in the mobile-computing world. Intel has unveiled its new H-series chips, Nvidia has announced its RTX Super GPU lineup for mobile devices, and just about every major laptop manufacturer is introducing new laptops incorporating that hardware. But Asus is releasing something unlike anything else that’s hitting shelves today: the Zephyrus Duo 15.
Asus says that this is the first dual-screen laptop branded specifically for gaming. It’s technically correct, although it discounts past dual-screen laptops — like the company’s own Zenbook Pro Duo and Zenbook Duo — that were fairly competent gaming machines, too.
Here’s how the new laptop works. Like Asus’ past dual-screen laptops, there’s one screen (the main 15.6-inch one) which can be either a 4K 60Hz panel or a 1920 X 1080p 300Hz panel. The former is geared toward content creators (Asus says it covers 100 percent of the Adobe RGB color space); the latter will appeal more to gamers.
Then, there’s a second display built into the upper half of the keyboard deck. This one is a 14.1-inch 60Hz touchscreen with 3840 x 1100 resolution. The screen’s top edge lifts off the deck to prop it up at a 13-degree angle, so both displays should be comfortably in your field of view while you’re using the laptop. (The opening underneath also allows the laptop’s fans to draw air in from above, which will help out with airflow, according to Asus).
There’s a second display built into the keyboard deck
It’s easy to see the use cases here: you could have Twitch open on the bottom display while you stream or have Discord open on one screen and your game in another if you’re playing with friends. Personally, I am very excited to keep a list of all the Civ V leaders and their respective bonuses handy on the bottom panel so I can stop having to tab out to look them up.
You could also use the secondary screen for easy access to in-game overlays. Asus says it has partnered with developers to create content with special interfaces and controls suited to the dual-screen setup, and has partnered with Adobe for special content-creation tools as well. It’s apparently working with Techland on optimizing Dying Light 2 and has created apps with Overwolf for League of Legends, Fortnite, and CS:GO. (Of course, I don’t expect we’ll see a ton of these extra programs in the near future, since only a few laptops can make use of them right now).
Asus
Regarding configurations, the Duo 15 has a 90Wh battery and charges via a USB-C port that supports Thunderbolt 3. The most expensive model will include the 4K screen, a Core i9-10980HK, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of storage (RAID), and an RTX 2080 Super. You’ll be able to buy that one June 1st for $3,699.99. There are also two configurations with the 300Hz screen coming June 29th. The $3,499 build also includes a Core i9-10980HK and an RTX 2080 Super, but has 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage (PCIe). And the $2,999 option includes a Core i7-10875H, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of storage (RAID), and an RTX 2070 Super.


theverge--2020-04-02--Gigabyte’s latest gaming laptop supports Intel’s most powerful 10th Gen Core i9 processor yet

Gigabyte has introduced three new versions of its Aorus gaming laptops : the Aorus 15G , 17G , and 17X .
Each features the newly announced Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake H-series processors , and you ’ ll be able to choose between the eight-core Intel Core i7-10875H and the high-end Intel Core i9-10980HK .
These are also Gigabyte ’ s first gaming laptops to include Nvidia ’ s new RTX 20-series Super mobile graphics chips , and they ’ re configurable to feature the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q chip .
Additionally , each of these machines comes standard with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 240Hz refresh rate .
Each of these laptops looks a bit different .
While the 15G and 17G look like they might be able to blend in with a pack of sleek ultrabooks , the 17X ( above ) looks like a big glowing gaming rig .
Unfortunately , they all feature “ nostril cams ” — i.e.
, webcams that are built near the hinge and don ’ t offer a flattering view of your face .
Pricing for the 15G starts at $ 1,699 , and the 17G starts at $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at $ 2,399 .
They ’ ll be available starting on April 15th .
Gigabyte ’ s 2020 iterations of the Aero creator-focused laptops are also getting the new Intel i7 and i9 processors and Nvidia RTX 20-series Super graphics chips .
The new Aero laptops ( available in 15- and 17-inch models ) start at $ 1,599 and $ 1,699 , respectively , and will ship with 1080p displays and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti by default .
The 15-inch model has the option to be upgraded to an OLED screen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support for 4K HDR resolution .
The 17-inch version ’ s display can also be upgraded to support 4K HDR , though Gigabyte ’ s press release doesn ’ t specify if it ’ s OLED .
That one costs $ 2,299 to start .
Each of these new Aero machines offers Thunderbolt 3 , HDMI 2.0 , and a UHS-II SD card reader .
While they ’ re geared toward content creators , the aforementioned new CPU and GPU specs , as well as a 144Hz refresh rate display , mean they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nicely .
The configurations shipping with 1080p displays have six-core Intel Core i7-10750H , and opting for an upgraded screen opens up the CPU options to those available for the Aorus series above .
These will also be available on April 15th .
And like the new Aorus machines , these feature webcams near the hinge , which isn ’ t a great placement .
If you ’ re looking for something more affordable in the gaming department , the updated Aorus 5 and Aorus 7 start at $ 1,299 and $ 1,399 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Intel Core i7-10750H , and at the lowest cost , they ship with Nvidia ’ s GTX 1650 Ti graphics , with support up to the RTX 2060 if you want to spend more .
Given the cheaper prices , these are a bit stripped down in terms of features compared to the new Aorus entries above .
They don ’ t have a mechanical keyboard built in , nor do they have 240Hz refresh rate displays .
Instead , these use displays with a 144Hz refresh rate , which is still plenty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in late April .

Gigabyte has introduced three new versions of its Aorus gaming laptops: the Aorus 15G, 17G, and 17X. Each features the newly announced Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake H-series processors, and you’ll be able to choose between the eight-core Intel Core i7-10875H and the high-end Intel Core i9-10980HK. These are also Gigabyte’s first gaming laptops to include Nvidia’s new RTX 20-series Super mobile graphics chips, and they’re configurable to feature the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q chip.
Additionally, each of these machines comes standard with Omron mechanical keyboards and displays with a 240Hz refresh rate. Each of these laptops looks a bit different. While the 15G and 17G look like they might be able to blend in with a pack of sleek ultrabooks, the 17X (above) looks like a big glowing gaming rig.
The Aorus 15G and 17G share a minimalist design, which doesn’t stick out as much as the 17X. Image: Gigabyte
Unfortunately, they all feature “nostril cams” — i.e., webcams that are built near the hinge and don’t offer a flattering view of your face. Pricing for the 15G starts at $1,699, and the 17G starts at $100 more. The high-end 17X starts at $2,399. They’ll be available starting on April 15th.
The OLED version of the Aero 15. Image: Gigabyte
Gigabyte’s 2020 iterations of the Aero creator-focused laptops are also getting the new Intel i7 and i9 processors and Nvidia RTX 20-series Super graphics chips. The new Aero laptops (available in 15- and 17-inch models) start at $1,599 and $1,699, respectively, and will ship with 1080p displays and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti by default. The 15-inch model has the option to be upgraded to an OLED screen starting at $1,899, with optional support for 4K HDR resolution. The 17-inch version’s display can also be upgraded to support 4K HDR, though Gigabyte’s press release doesn’t specify if it’s OLED. That one costs $2,299 to start.
Each of these new Aero machines offers Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 2.0, and a UHS-II SD card reader. While they’re geared toward content creators, the aforementioned new CPU and GPU specs, as well as a 144Hz refresh rate display, mean they’ll be able to handle games nicely. The configurations shipping with 1080p displays have six-core Intel Core i7-10750H, and opting for an upgraded screen opens up the CPU options to those available for the Aorus series above. These will also be available on April 15th. And like the new Aorus machines, these feature webcams near the hinge, which isn’t a great placement.
The Gigabyte Aorus 5. Image: Gigabyte


theverge--2020-04-02--Nvidia’s RTX Super GPUs for laptops have arrived — here’s where you’ll see them first

Nvidia has announced its new RTX 2080 Super and RTX 2070 Super mobile GPUs .
These are the company ’ s top-of-the-line ( and priciest ) RTX cards for laptops , offering a performance bump over the company ’ s standard RTX 2070 and 2080 offerings .
They ’ re based on Nvidia ’ s Turing architecture , which includes dedicated “ RT Core ” hardware designed to drive ray tracing .
RTX Super cards first arrived for desktop machines last July , and standard RTX mobile GPUs were only made available shortly after CES 2019 .
Nvidia will also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gaming laptops ) , which it says many upcoming notebooks will feature .
The company says its Max-Q systems will double the power efficiency of previous designs thanks to a new feature called Dynamic Boost that automatically distributes power between their GPU and CPU , new low-voltage GDDR6 memory , upgraded voltage regulators , and Nvidia ’ s new Deep Learning Super Sampling ( DLSS 2.0 ) , which uses artificial intelligence to help the GPU render pixels .
The Max-Q systems will double the power efficiency of previous designs What will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nvidia has confirmed a number of upcoming laptops that will include the new GPUs .
The headliner is the 2020 Razer Blade 15 , which will pair the RTX 2070 Super Max-Q or 2080 Super Max-Q with an i7-10875H — the first eight-core processor ever to appear in a Razer Blade .
Razer has also tweaked the Blade ’ s keyboard layout ; the oft-maligned up key has been moved to a more convenient location .
You ’ ll be able to pick it up in May starting at $ 1,599 .
Acer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting updated with the Super cards .
The new Triton sports a 15.6-inch 300Hz IPS display and a new keyboard with per-key RGB lighting .
Lenovo ’ s new Legion 7i ( succeeding the Legion Y740 ) will also incorporate the new GPUs ( up to the RTX 2080 Super ) .
Other gaming models include Gigabyte ’ s Aorus 15G , 17G , and 17X ; Asus ’ ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 ( and a number of refreshes in its Zephyrus and ROG Strix lines ) ; and MSI ’ s GS66 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the content-creation side are Gigabyte ’ s Aero 15 and Aero 17 , incorporating an RTX 2080 Max-Q and a Core i7 .
Nvidia says the Aero reached 167fps in a combination of Control , Wolfenstein : Youngblood , and Deliver Us the Moon ( with ray tracing off ) .
The 15 starts at $ 1,599 , but can be configured for $ 1,899 with an AMOLED screen and optional support for 4K HDR resolution .
( The 17 supports HDR , but no OLED option . )
Both configurations hit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ include Acer ’ s ConceptD 7 Ezel and Ezel Pro , and MSI ’ s Creator 15 and Creator 17 .
In non-Super news , Nvidia also confirmed a number of new laptops that are getting its RTX 2060 .
The list includes the $ 999 HP Omen , which will be the most affordable price we ’ ve ever seen for an RTX 2060 laptop .
MSI says it performs five times as well as the 2016 Omen ( which had a GTX 960M ) .
Other laptops getting the 2060 include @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s Legion Y540 , MSI ’ s GF65 Thin , and the Asus ROG G512 .

Nvidia has announced its new RTX 2080 Super and RTX 2070 Super mobile GPUs. These are the company’s top-of-the-line (and priciest) RTX cards for laptops, offering a performance bump over the company’s standard RTX 2070 and 2080 offerings. They’re based on Nvidia’s Turing architecture, which includes dedicated “RT Core” hardware designed to drive ray tracing. RTX Super cards first arrived for desktop machines last July, and standard RTX mobile GPUs were only made available shortly after CES 2019.
Nvidia will also offer Max-Q configurations (intended for thin gaming laptops), which it says many upcoming notebooks will feature. The company says its Max-Q systems will double the power efficiency of previous designs thanks to a new feature called Dynamic Boost that automatically distributes power between their GPU and CPU, new low-voltage GDDR6 memory, upgraded voltage regulators, and Nvidia’s new Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS 2.0), which uses artificial intelligence to help the GPU render pixels.
The Max-Q systems will double the power efficiency of previous designs
What will be more interesting to most people is that Nvidia has confirmed a number of upcoming laptops that will include the new GPUs. The headliner is the 2020 Razer Blade 15, which will pair the RTX 2070 Super Max-Q or 2080 Super Max-Q with an i7-10875H — the first eight-core processor ever to appear in a Razer Blade. Razer has also tweaked the Blade’s keyboard layout; the oft-maligned up key has been moved to a more convenient location. You’ll be able to pick it up in May starting at $1,599.
Acer’s Triton 500 is another A-lister getting updated with the Super cards. The new Triton sports a 15.6-inch 300Hz IPS display and a new keyboard with per-key RGB lighting. Lenovo’s new Legion 7i (succeeding the Legion Y740) will also incorporate the new GPUs (up to the RTX 2080 Super). Other gaming models include Gigabyte’s Aorus 15G, 17G, and 17X; Asus’ ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 (and a number of refreshes in its Zephyrus and ROG Strix lines); and MSI’s GS66 Stealth and GE66 Raider.
The headliners on the content-creation side are Gigabyte’s Aero 15 and Aero 17, incorporating an RTX 2080 Max-Q and a Core i7. Nvidia says the Aero reached 167fps in a combination of Control, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, and Deliver Us the Moon (with ray tracing off). The 15 starts at $1,599, but can be configured for $1,899 with an AMOLED screen and optional support for 4K HDR resolution. (The 17 supports HDR, but no OLED option.) Both configurations hit shelves April 5th.
Other creator models include Acer’s ConceptD 7 Ezel and Ezel Pro, and MSI’s Creator 15 and Creator 17.
The 2020 HP Omen will include an RTX 2060 and starts at $999. Nvidia
In non-Super news, Nvidia also confirmed a number of new laptops that are getting its RTX 2060. The list includes the $999 HP Omen, which will be the most affordable price we’ve ever seen for an RTX 2060 laptop. MSI says it performs five times as well as the 2016 Omen (which had a GTX 960M).
Other laptops getting the 2060 include Acer’s Nitro 5, Lenovo’s Legion Y540, MSI’s GF65 Thin, and the Asus ROG G512.


theverge--2020-04-02--Intel’s new 10th Gen chips bring 5.0GHz clock speeds to gaming laptops

Intel is announcing the next wave of its Core processors , and it ’ s finally bringing out the big guns , with its first 10th Gen Comet Lake H-series processors for laptops .
They ’ re Intel ’ s beefiest , most powerful , and most demanding chips , designed to go in high-end gaming laptops and creative machines for users who need the most power .
The new chips have a TDP of 45W , with clock speeds that can boost past 5.0GHz , a first for Intel ’ s processors .
The star of the show is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Core i9-10980K , with eight cores , 16 threads , and a base clock speed of 2.3GHz that can boost all the way up to 5.3GHz .
But Intel will be offering multiple chips that can reach maximum boost speeds of 5.0GHz or more between its i9 and i7 lineup ( the two i5 chips max out at a paltry 4.6GHz and 4.5GHz ) .
It ’ s a big leap forward , one that Intel promises should offer up to 44 percent better overall performance compared to a three-year-old laptop with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chips also have a new feature Intel calls “ Thermal Velocity Boost , ” which helps Intel reach those 5.0GHz-plus speeds by automatically boosting clock frequency by up to 200MHz when the processor ’ s temperature measures 149 degrees Fahrenheit / 65 degrees Celsius or lower ( assuming there ’ s power available ) .
If you ’ ve been keeping track , Intel ’ s been releasing its 10th Gen chips for months now in laptops , with both its 14nm Comet Lake processors and its fancy new 10nm Ice Lake chips @ @ @ @ @ @ @ performance , and efficiency thanks to the process improvements ) .
But until now , all of its 10th Gen chips have been either low-power Y-series chips designed for ultralights like the MacBook Air ) or midrange U-series ( think computers like the 13-inch MacBook Pro ) .
To be clear : these new chips are still Comet Lake chips built on Intel ’ s 14nm process ( similar to the Comet Lake Y-series and U-series chips Intel released last summer ) .
They don ’ t use the 10nm Ice Lake process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tiger Lake process that Intel teased at CES .
That means that a lot of the benefits that come with the 10nm Ice Lake chips — including Intel ’ s integrated Gen 11 Iris Plus graphics — aren ’ t coming to these new laptops .
On the other hand , given that almost every H-series machine will have a discrete mobile GPU ( like , say , Nvidia ’ s newly announced RTX Super lineup for laptops ) , the slower integrated graphics isn ’ t that big of a loss .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ benefit the new H-series chips , as Intel ’ s long development time and experience with the incrementally developed 14nm node has helped it achieve better performance than it could at the 10nm level right now .
Like Intel ’ s other 10th Gen chips , the new H-series models will see some of the lineup-wide benefits , like integrated Wi-Fi 6 support and Thunderbolt 3 .
All the new H-series chips will also support Intel ’ s Optane memory .
The new chips are meant to be Intel ’ s answer to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ series — specifically , AMD ’ s top-of-the-line 45W H-series chips , like the Ryzen 9 4900HS , Ryzen 7 4800H , and Ryzen 5 4600H .
While the first laptops with AMD ’ s new chips are just starting to roll out , early impressions of them have been extremely positive .
Intel ’ s new chips look to raise the bar again compared to AMD ’ s top chips , offering faster clock speeds than AMD ’ s already impressive numbers .
We ’ ll have to see how the new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well as how things like price , battery life , and laptop sizes compare — before we can see if Intel has defended its crown .
New laptops with the H-series chips should be available in the coming weeks , with manufacturers like Asus , MSI , Gigabyte , and more all debuting new or updated hardware alongside Intel ’ s announcement .

Intel is announcing the next wave of its Core processors, and it’s finally bringing out the big guns, with its first 10th Gen Comet Lake H-series processors for laptops. They’re Intel’s beefiest, most powerful, and most demanding chips, designed to go in high-end gaming laptops and creative machines for users who need the most power. The new chips have a TDP of 45W, with clock speeds that can boost past 5.0GHz, a first for Intel’s processors.
The star of the show is the new Core i9 model, the Core i9-10980K, with eight cores, 16 threads, and a base clock speed of 2.3GHz that can boost all the way up to 5.3GHz. But Intel will be offering multiple chips that can reach maximum boost speeds of 5.0GHz or more between its i9 and i7 lineup (the two i5 chips max out at a paltry 4.6GHz and 4.5GHz). It’s a big leap forward, one that Intel promises should offer up to 44 percent better overall performance compared to a three-year-old laptop with a Core i7-7820HK.
The i9 and i7 chips also have a new feature Intel calls “Thermal Velocity Boost,” which helps Intel reach those 5.0GHz-plus speeds by automatically boosting clock frequency by up to 200MHz when the processor’s temperature measures 149 degrees Fahrenheit / 65 degrees Celsius or lower (assuming there’s power available).
Intel 10th Gen H-series Model Cores / Threads Watts Boost / Base Frequency (GHz) Intel Core i9-10980HK 8C / 16T 45W Up to 5.3 / 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7-10875H 8C / 16T 45W Up to 5.1 / 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7-10850H 6C / 12T 45W Up to 5.1 / 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7-10750H 6C / 12T 45W Up to 5.0 / 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5-10400H 4C / 8T 45W Up to 4.6 / 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5-10300H 4C / 8T 45W Up to 4.5 / 2.5 GHz
If you’ve been keeping track, Intel’s been releasing its 10th Gen chips for months now in laptops, with both its 14nm Comet Lake processors and its fancy new 10nm Ice Lake chips (which offer better battery life, performance, and efficiency thanks to the process improvements). But until now, all of its 10th Gen chips have been either low-power Y-series chips designed for ultralights like the MacBook Air) or midrange U-series (think computers like the 13-inch MacBook Pro).
To be clear: these new chips are still Comet Lake chips built on Intel’s 14nm process (similar to the Comet Lake Y-series and U-series chips Intel released last summer). They don’t use the 10nm Ice Lake process or its upcoming successor, the 10nm+ Tiger Lake process that Intel teased at CES.
That means that a lot of the benefits that come with the 10nm Ice Lake chips — including Intel’s integrated Gen 11 Iris Plus graphics — aren’t coming to these new laptops. On the other hand, given that almost every H-series machine will have a discrete mobile GPU (like, say, Nvidia’s newly announced RTX Super lineup for laptops), the slower integrated graphics isn’t that big of a loss.
And the older process actually might help benefit the new H-series chips, as Intel’s long development time and experience with the incrementally developed 14nm node has helped it achieve better performance than it could at the 10nm level right now.
Like Intel’s other 10th Gen chips, the new H-series models will see some of the lineup-wide benefits, like integrated Wi-Fi 6 support and Thunderbolt 3. All the new H-series chips will also support Intel’s Optane memory.
The new chips are meant to be Intel’s answer to AMD’s highly anticipated Ryzen 4000 series — specifically, AMD’s top-of-the-line 45W H-series chips, like the Ryzen 9 4900HS, Ryzen 7 4800H, and Ryzen 5 4600H. While the first laptops with AMD’s new chips are just starting to roll out, early impressions of them have been extremely positive. Intel’s new chips look to raise the bar again compared to AMD’s top chips, offering faster clock speeds than AMD’s already impressive numbers. We’ll have to see how the new chips perform head to head — as well as how things like price, battery life, and laptop sizes compare — before we can see if Intel has defended its crown.


theverge--2020-04-02--MSI announces new laptops with Comet Lake H and new Nvidia GPUs

MSI has announced some of the first laptops to include Intel ’ s new 10th Gen processors from its Comet Lake H series .
The company has announced specs and release dates for its GS66 Stealth , GE66 Raider , and Creator 17 , all of which were unveiled at CES earlier this year .
The two gaming rigs will feature up to an i9-10980HK , and the Creator 17 will sport up to an i7-10875H .
All three will also feature up to Nvidia ’ s Geforce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q mobile graphics .
Of the two gaming laptops @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subdued design .
MSI says it ’ s ideal for business users who might also enjoy some casual gaming .
The GE66 Raider , by contrast , is geared toward gamers who want something showy ; it has a large customizable light strip on the front that can flash over 16 million colors .
Both 14-inch laptops have new cooling systems — the GS66 has three fans with 0.1mm blades , which MSI says are the world ’ s thinnest fan blades , while the GE66 has two fans with 0.25mm blades .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ says it worked with speaker manufacturer Dynaudio to upgrade the sound .
And they can both be configured with a 300Hz screen .
What ’ s potentially a game-changer , however , is that the laptops have a 99.9Wh battery , which is just about the largest battery you can put in a laptop ( it ’ s just below the Federal Aviation Administration ’ s 100Wh limit for lithium-ion batteries that are allowed on airplanes ) .
Battery life always varies by system , but we got about eight hours from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Anything in that neighborhood would be pretty good for a gaming notebook .
The Creator 17 is , as its name implies , designed for creative professionals .
The big news is that it ’ s the first laptop to feature a Mini-LED screen .
Mini LEDs are ( as you ’ ve probably guessed ) much smaller than regular LEDs , so screens can pack in more of them , and can dim and brighten with more accuracy .
( Don ’ t confuse Mini LEDs with MicroLEDs — those are a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a resolution of 3840 x 2160 and can reach a brightness of 1000 nits .
The Creator 17 also supports MSI ’ s Creator Center software , which includes extra tools for users .
For example , you can assign a certain number of CPU cores to certain tasks or select from preset profiles .
The GS66 Stealth starts at $ 1,599 and is now available for preorder at Newegg ; you can get it on all retail platforms on April 15th .
The GE66 Raider and the Creator 17 both start at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 15th .
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MSI has announced some of the first laptops to include Intel’s new 10th Gen processors from its Comet Lake H series. The company has announced specs and release dates for its GS66 Stealth, GE66 Raider, and Creator 17, all of which were unveiled at CES earlier this year.
The two gaming rigs will feature up to an i9-10980HK, and the Creator 17 will sport up to an i7-10875H. All three will also feature up to Nvidia’s Geforce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q mobile graphics.
The MSI GS66 Stealth Image: MSI
Of the two gaming laptops, the GS66 Stealth has the more subdued design. MSI says it’s ideal for business users who might also enjoy some casual gaming. The GE66 Raider, by contrast, is geared toward gamers who want something showy; it has a large customizable light strip on the front that can flash over 16 million colors.
The MSI GE66 Image: MSI
Both 14-inch laptops have new cooling systems — the GS66 has three fans with 0.1mm blades, which MSI says are the world’s thinnest fan blades, while the GE66 has two fans with 0.25mm blades. They also have new audio; MSI says it worked with speaker manufacturer Dynaudio to upgrade the sound. And they can both be configured with a 300Hz screen.
What’s potentially a game-changer, however, is that the laptops have a 99.9Wh battery, which is just about the largest battery you can put in a laptop (it’s just below the Federal Aviation Administration’s 100Wh limit for lithium-ion batteries that are allowed on airplanes). Battery life always varies by system, but we got about eight hours from the MacBook Pro’s 100Wh brick. Anything in that neighborhood would be pretty good for a gaming notebook.
The MSI Creator 17 Image: MSI
The Creator 17 is, as its name implies, designed for creative professionals. The big news is that it’s the first laptop to feature a Mini-LED screen. Mini LEDs are (as you’ve probably guessed) much smaller than regular LEDs, so screens can pack in more of them, and can dim and brighten with more accuracy. (Don’t confuse Mini LEDs with MicroLEDs — those are a Samsung thing). The screen has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 and can reach a brightness of 1000 nits.
The Creator 17 also supports MSI’s Creator Center software, which includes extra tools for users. For example, you can assign a certain number of CPU cores to certain tasks or select from preset profiles.
The GS66 Stealth starts at $1,599 and is now available for preorder at Newegg; you can get it on all retail platforms on April 15th. The GE66 Raider and the Creator 17 both start at $1,799 and hit stores on April 15th.