Cloth Masks, Wet Markets, and 5G Towers Top Our Coronavirus Concerns This Week
Photo: GEORGE FREY/AFP (Getty Images)Coronavirus RoundtableCoronavirus RoundtableWe're here to discuss news, rumors, questions, and facts about this pandemic as we live through it.Welcome back to our weekly discussion thread, now named the Coronavirus Roundtable. Once again I’d like to hear what you’ve been hearing about our current pandemic, especially if it makes you go “huh,…
Improve your pandemic Passover with a candy seder plate
Photo: Stacey BallisFeaturesFeaturesStories from The Takeout about food, drink, and how we live.When I first started thinking about Passover stories to write this year, I was torn. After all, every year most major outlets usually make some attempt to acknowledge the holiday, usually with recipes that promise fully authentic old-school Bubbe nostalgia, highlight foods from…
Now Is Not the Time to Text Your Ex
Image: ShutterstockThese long days and nights of quarantine have made us start doing things we probably wouldn’t, under normal circumstances. Whether you’ve devoted hours to baking the perfect sourdough or putting together 1,000-piece puzzles, you may have a whole new set of hobbies than you did a month ago. If you’re someone who enjoys firing…
After Math: Life on the inside
Homeschooling your kids during a plague is difficult enough as it is. But trying to conduct remote learning over spotty WiFi is enough to drive any parent up the wall. Thankfully, Google Fi is stepping in to help by doubling the amount on data users can consume in a month before the system throttles down…
Amazon reportedly in talks to test warehouse workers for COVID-19
Whether or not Amazon gets its way is another story. While Abbott and Thermo Fisher are willing to work with Amazon, according to the notes, demand from the US government is apparently taking up all their available capacity. Amazon was nonetheless hopeful that other companies would follow in its path if testing went ahead.Amazon has…
Recommended Reading: Inside the PlayStation 5 with Mark Cerny
How Under Armour is making 100,000 masks a week to fight COVID-19Elizabeth Segran,Fast CompanyLike many other companies, Under Armour is reassigning resources to help fight the spread of COVID-19. The company has developed a "no-sew" face mask design that saves time and costs. What's more, UA estimates it can produce up to 100,000 of them…
FCC approves $200 million plan to fund COVID-19 telehealth services
Hospitals and health centers will be able to apply for up to $1 million in funding, and applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis. Priority will be given to areas with high rates of COVID-19, as well as traditionally underfunded healthcare providers like clinics in poor neighborhoods, TechCrunch notes."With the adoption of the $200…
Engadget Podcast: Keeping fit with tech at home
We’re weeks into stay-at-home life, and some of us are atrophying. Devindra and Cherlynn have spent the last few weeks looking into how tech has enabled us to work, get medicine, see doctors, find sanity and sustain our mental health from home. This week, our hosts are joined by our brand new commerce editor Valentina…
Help Researchers Track COVID-19 Spread With This App
Image: ShutterstockHow are you feeling today? Healthy, if a little more anxious than usual? Run-down? Feverish? A team of physicians and researchers are hoping you’ll take 10 seconds every day to self-report your symptoms (or lack thereof) to a new COVID Symptom Tracker app. If enough people commit to self-reporting, the team—which includes doctors, professors…
What We Know About the Coronavirus So Far
Photo: ShutterstockCOVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, was first discovered in China in late 2019. The first U.S. case was detected in January 2020, in a recent traveler who arrived in Washington State. Since its early beginnings, the story of COVID-19 has been rapidly evolving, with new information coming out daily. On March…
Take a virtual visit to Napa
For wine lovers around the world, it's all about discovery. Once they get a taste for the grape, oenophiles are rarely satisfied with even the most carefully curated, go-to vintages. There's always a hunt for the next great pairing, the thrill of uncorking a bold new Tempranillo or sublime Moscato. That feeling is a jones…
Snapchat’s new lenses use AR to encourage social distancing
One, labeled "My Social Distance," encourages users to "practice social distancing" and creates an AR circle on the ground to help visualize the necessary space recommended by the WHO and other health organizations. Another lens comes with animated reminders about hand washing, staying at home and the importance of not touching your face. Both lenses…
Most Read
How to Get Health Insurance During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Photo: ShutterstockRecent world events may have led you to believe that this would be a bad time to not have health insurance right now. And while we can’t judge your individual need for insurance, we can probably say that in general, you should think about getting coverage.But if you don’t have coverage through work—or you…
France orders Google to pay news companies for showing article extracts
After the law came into effect last year, Google said that it would simply remove snippets altogether unless publishers granted it the right to do so. However, the ruling body (called l’Autorité de la Concurrence) said that the “the vast majority of press publishers have granted Google licenses to use and display their protected content...…
Facebook will provide free Portal devices to UK hospitals and care homes
Facebook’s support for the fight against COVID-19 now includes a simple but important addition: keeping people in touch. It’s partnering with the UK’s National Health Service to offer up to 2,050 free Portal video calling devices to the country’s hospitals, care homes, hospices and other medical settings. The hardware will help patients contact friends and…
Here’s what Twitter’s weird ‘data-sharing’ notification really means
Twitter Prior to this update, Twitter allowed users to opt out of data sharing that enabled Twitter to tell advertisers how users interacted with ads for mobile apps, and share some “non-public” information like device identifiers. Now, most Twitter users have no choice whether or not that data is shared with Twitter’s advertisers. Those in…