Associated Press
President Donald Trump.
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday.
- Amazon has seen its first warehouse-worker death from COVID-19 as calls for safer working conditions mount. The employee in question worked at Amazon's Hawthorne warehouse in California.
- Apple has released a tool that shows how whether people are obeying lockdown and social distancing rules. The tool gathers location data from Apple Maps users to glean trends in people's movements.
- President Trump said Apple and Google's COVID-19 tracing tech posed "big constitutional problems" thought he didn't explain what. Google and Apple partnered last week to create a contact-tracing system for detecting the spread of coronavirus, which will gradually be rolled out in the coming months.
- Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates has suggested travel for work will never be the same after the coronavirus. He told a podcast that business trips were among the areas that he doubted "will ever go back."
- A source told Business Insider that Airbnb is raising $1 billion in debt, its second fundraising round in just two weeks, as the company tries to navigate a tough economic landscape. Airbnb's business has been hit hard by coronavirus lockdowns, and the funds could help the company as it tries to survive the pandemic.
- Facebook blocked two 5G conspiracy groups with thousands of members after users celebrated the destruction of phone masts. Facebook said it was taking "aggressive steps" to halt misinformation around the coronavirus and 5G.
- Sequoia Capital global managing partner Doug Leone is advising President Trump on how to restart American businesses during the coronavirus-led economic shutdown. Leone is the sole Silicon Valley investor to be advising the president as part of his coronavirus task force.
- Google healthcare subsidiary Verily told five US senators that it has run more than 7,000 tests for COVID-19. Verily has been screening and testing people for coronavirus, but some senators are worried over how it collects and uses data.
- SoftBank warned its tech-focused Vision Fund will book a $17 billion annual operating loss. The Vision Fund has posted operating losses for three consecutive quarters, pushing the entire group into the red.
- Tech companies like Apple and Blue Origin and universities like Duke are using their arsenals of 3D printers to produce millions of face shields for medical workers. Universities like Duke, Harvard, and Northwestern are using their 3D-printing facilities to produce up to 1,000 face-shield components per day.
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