10 things in tech you need to know today
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.
- Ticketing platform StubHub has placed hundreds of its employees on temporary unpaid leave until at least June, Business Insider has learned. Around 450 StubHub employees have been asked to take an unpaid leave of absence that could last until June.
- Andreessen Horowitz-backed Wonderschool laid off 75% of staff on a Zoom call, telling employees the coronavirus could dry up any more funding for 2 years. Wonderschool also laid off staff in November, and some former employees described the cuts as a desperate bid to juice the business.
- Amazon has workers who tested positive for COVID-19 across 10 warehouses worldwide. Some workers have voiced concerns that as Amazon ramps up its workforce to cope with the spiking demand they are not adequately protected.
- A simple coronavirus home-testing kit could soon be available to order on Amazon in the UK. Professor Sharon Peacock, director of the National Infection Service at Public Health England, told the UK parliament on Wednesday that the group had developed finger-prick tests which establish whether a person has ever been infected with the virus.
- Analysts predict the iPhone 12 could be delayed by up to 2 months because the coronavirus has disrupted Apple's iPhone testing process. Travel restrictions put in place to curb the coronavirus outbreak may delay Apple's engineering and product verification testing.
- In a rare move, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and other tech giants are working together to help developers combat the coronavirus pandemic with technology. Participants can build any technology of their choice, but the World Health Organization worked with Devpost to provide some areas where help is needed the most.
- SpaceX quarantined a dozen employees after 2 workers test positive for COVID-19. According to The Telegraph, an employee and a medic at SpaceX's Hawthorne, California premises have the virus.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tesla's New York Gigafactory will reopen and start producing ventilators 'as soon as humanly possible.' New York has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, with 285 deaths and more than 30,000 cases.
- More than 100 startups in Portugal are helping fight COVID-19 and it's a model other countries can follow. Tech4Covid19 has recruited almost 4,000 volunteers, working on projects helping to house health workers, make thousands of medical visors using 3D printing, and analyze patient data.
- The FBI is promoting an at-home exercise app that also tracks your phone's location and data. The app, FitTest, recommends routines for push-ups, sit-ups, and jogs, and also gathers information from people's phones, including location data and WiFi network information.
Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.
You can also subscribe to this newsletter here - just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know.