#software
- Stop Hate for Profit: The Facebook Ad Boycott Starts Today
The Stop Hate for Profit campaign kicks off July 1, with hundreds of advertisers pausing Facebook and Instagram spend over the platform's handling of hate speech.
- TypeScript Is Quietly Eating JavaScript
Static typing keeps climbing developer surveys as Angular, React, and Vue projects default to TypeScript to catch bugs before production.
- Microsoft Pulls the Plug on Mixer, Hands Streamers to Facebook Gaming
Microsoft is shutting down Mixer and pushing its streamers and viewers toward a new partnership with Facebook Gaming.
- Apple Is Putting Its Own Chips in the Mac
At WWDC 2020, Apple confirmed the Mac will move from Intel to its own ARM-based Apple Silicon, starting this year.
- Zoom Reverses Course, Will Encrypt Free Calls Too
Zoom says free users will get end-to-end encryption after all, with phone verification required and beta testing starting in July.
- GitHub Says Goodbye to 'Master' as the Default Branch Name
GitHub will make 'main' the default branch name for new repos, part of a wider industry move away from slavery-linked terminology.
- How Lockdown Reshaped Developer Collaboration Tools
Remote-first tools like Zoom, Slack, and Live Share have become the backbone of software teams navigating a world without offices.
- Android 11 Beta 1 arrives quietly, minus the show Google had planned
Google shipped Android 11 Beta 1 for Pixel devices today, having scrapped its planned launch event to make space for coverage of the George Floyd protests.
- Google Pumps the Brakes on Android 11's Beta Launch
Google postponed its June 3 Android 11 beta event, saying now isn't the time to celebrate amid nationwide unrest.
- Windows 10 May 2020 Update arrives with WSL2 built in
Microsoft's version 2004 rollout starts today, making WSL2 a standard feature and bundling Cortana changes plus a Cloud Download reset option.
- Who Pays the Maintainers?
As remote work spotlights enterprise reliance on open source, GitHub Sponsors and similar programs face fresh attention.
- Build 2020: Terminal Goes 1.0, WSL2 Ships, and Windows Gets a Package Manager
Microsoft's Build 2020 keynote delivers Windows Terminal 1.0, WSL2, a winget preview, Project Reunion, and details on its OpenAI supercomputer.
- Zoom Settles With New York Over Its Security Promises
NY Attorney General Letitia James reached an agreement with Zoom requiring mandatory passwords, better encryption, and other safeguards after a spring of Zoombombing.
- GitHub Satellite 2020: Codespaces, Discussions and npm join the family
GitHub's virtual Satellite conference brought cloud dev environments, community forums, and the npm registry closer to home.
- How Zoom, Slack and GitHub Became Pandemic Lifelines
Lockdowns turned video calls, chat, and cloud dev tools into daily infrastructure almost overnight, and the numbers are staggering.
- Twitter's Usage Boom Meets an Ad Slowdown
Twitter's Q1 2020 mDAU jumped 24% YoY, but revenue rose just 3% as COVID-19 hit ad spending late in the quarter.
- Apple and Google Hand Developers the Exposure-Notification API
The first version of the joint Apple/Google COVID-19 exposure-notification API is now available to public health developers ahead of May's public rollout.
- Everyone's Cloud Migration Just Got a Deadline
Distributed teams are rushing to cloud infrastructure and remote-friendly CI/CD as office access disappears.
- 'Zoom Fatigue' Becomes a UX Problem Software Makers Must Design For
Video calls have replaced in-person meetings, and the exhaustion they cause is now a design challenge, not just a personal one.
- Open Source Is Booming Right Now, and That's Not Only Good News
Lockdown has sent pull requests and new contributors surging on open-source projects, but maintainers warn review capacity isn't keeping pace.
- Apple and Google Team Up on a Contact-Tracing API
Apple and Google jointly announced a Bluetooth exposure-notification API to let public health apps on iOS and Android interoperate.
- Visual Studio Online Gets a New Name: Visual Studio Codespaces
Microsoft rebrands Visual Studio Online as Visual Studio Codespaces, betting on cloud-hosted dev environments as the future of coding.
- Teams and Meet Scramble to Catch Zoom's Lockdown Boom
Microsoft Teams and Google Meet report huge usage spikes as they race Zoom for the suddenly essential video-call market.
- Zoom Hits Pause: Eric Yuan Promises 90 Days of Security-Only Work
Zoom's CEO admits the app's security and privacy failed under lockdown-driven growth, freezing new features for 90 days to fix them.