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Happy Mother’s Day! 🌷 In today’s letter: Elon Musk, the cash-poor billionaire; Nicole Nguyen on the Costco-Instacart price hike; Julie Jargon on grandparents rescuing stressed-out parents; the rise of office surveillance and more. But first ... |
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| Can Smartphones Curb Coronavirus? |
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| CREDIT: KENNY WASSUS/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL; CHARACTER BY BEN RITTMANN |
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Phone apps that can help slow the spread of coronavirus? “Well, this seems like an important and simple subject to report on!” I said to myself a few weeks ago. I was so very wrong—about the simple part, that is. The idea itself doesn’t require a masters in law, public health or engineering to understand: Smartphone apps you choose to use collect information about who you have come into contact with or where you have been. If you later test positive for Covid-19, the info can be used by contact tracers to track down those people and businesses to tell them about their possible exposure. If another user of the app later tests positive, the app could notify you of possible exposure. But… that’s about where the simplicity ends. As my column and video explain, a mix of different groups and technologies make this a big ol’ mess right now—especially in the U.S. You have app developers, you have Apple and Google working on iOS/Android compatibility, you have privacy experts trying to ensure our data isn’t misused, you have public health authorities and governments debating whether any of this is useful at all, and you have some states rushing out unproven software ASAP. I realized the answer isn’t to just sweep the mess under the rug, however. There’s so much potential in using our phone’s smarts and memory to augment our own to help the human contact tracers now being hired in giant numbers across the country. Over the next couple of months we’ll see how all this shakes out but in the meantime I hope my column and video will help you understand these apps better. After all, you’ll likely be hearing a lot more about them soon. —Joanna Stern is WSJ’s Senior Personal Technology Columnist, based in New York when not quarantined somewhere in New Jersey. 👉Also, check out Joanna celebrating Apple’s decision to kill the troubled butterfly keyboard. |
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| 🎬 Watch This: How Coronavirus-Tracking Apps Work |
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| CREDIT: KENNY WASSUS/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL |
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Public health authorities, developers and tech companies are working on apps to help us keep track of who we came in contact with and where we’ve been to aid in Covid-19 contact-tracing efforts. WSJ’s Joanna Stern explains the technologies using an 8-bit video game. |
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| 📖 Read This: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire |
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| PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY RYAN OLBRYSH; PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; SHUTTERSTOCK; MICHAEL MCNAMARA/ZENHOUS |
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| New From Nicole Nguyen: How to Take Better Breaks From Your Screens |
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| ILLUSTRATION: TIMO LENZEN |
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Going from a day in front of your computer to a Zoom happy hour to a family Netflix binge session can leave you feeling more exhausted than fulfilled. The solution seems obvious: Spend less time with your devices, duh. But that’s not as simple as putting down your phone, especially during the coronavirus quarantine, when screens serve as our primary venues for work and play. Here are ways to help you reduce screen time—without sacrificing productivity. 👉Speaking of screen breaks, go listen to Nicole discuss tips for grocery delivery here on the Tech News Briefing podcast. |
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Covid Unplugged: Spending too much time online? Here are tips for unplugging. Everybody needs to get offline at least part of the time to focus on the big picture. You may just need to trick yourself into doing it. |
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| Latest From Julie Jargon: It’s Grandparents to the Rescue for Stressed Working-From-Home Parents |
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| PHOTO: MARLA RIMKUS; SARAH CROTHERS |
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For all the generational snickering about older adults’ lack of technical savvy and tendency to indulge the children, parents now are finding that a virtual connection to grandma and grandpa is key to their sanity. They also are realizing how creative their own parents can be and marveling at how well their kids respond. Even then, a hook of some kind is needed to keep the kids from growing bored and wandering off. 👉Read Julie’s full column here. |
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• Apple’s Copyright Lawsuit Has Created a ‘Chilling Effect’ on Security Research (Vice) • It’s Not Just Zoom. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex Have Privacy Issues, Too. (Consumer Reports) • How YouTube Stars Are Getting Paid During the Pandemic (The Information) • U.S. Space Command Working on ‘Playbook’ for War in Space (Breaking Defense) |
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| 📖 Read This, Too: Welcome Back to the Office. Your Every Move Is Being Watched. |
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| ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL GLENWOOD FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL |
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Many Americans heading back to the factory and the office as the coronavirus pandemic eases will soon begin to notice that their every move is being watched or recorded. The arrival of Covid-19 is taking surveillance to a higher level, with some employers planning to track movements and gather personal information like never before in Western democracies. It marks a new chapter in the debate over privacy, and the trade-offs people are willing to make for safety. 👉Read Konrad Putzier and Chip Cutter’s full report here and listen to Chip on The Journal podcast here. |
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Let’s Pod | Get the latest in technology news for your weekday commute. The Wall Street Journal’s tech reporters and editors highlight leading companies, new gadgets, consumer trends and cyber issues. From San Francisco to New York to the hottest conferences, our journalists help you stay plugged in. | Listen Now |
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| ✉️ Reader Mailbag: Your Tech Questions |
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This week, Personal Tech columnist Nicole Nguyen discusses the Costco-Instacart relationship first mentioned in last week’s column. Got a question of your own? Reply to this email or write to us at personaltech@wsj.com. |
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Q: | One thing missing from your grocery delivery article: Even though Instacart shoppers can order from Costco without a membership, my local Costco charges higher prices for delivered goods than for the same items bought in-store.—Peter Knupfer from East Lansing, Mich. I have no problem paying Instagram’s fee and a tip, but a recent Costco receipt for $369 cost us $465 on Instacart. Could you show me where Instacart’s markups are disclosed?—Robert Doppelt from Highland Park, Ill. |
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A: | Thanks to Peter and Robert for flagging this: Costco charges higher prices for items on Instacart than in its warehouses or its own website. For example, a 2.5 lb. bag of Starbucks coffee is $22 on Instacart, but just $16 through the stores’ online shipping service—with no delivery fee for orders of more than $75. You’re paying extra for convenience and speed. Before the pandemic, Costco would ship that coffee in two days. Currently, delivery takes at least 14 business days. The delivery service Shipt also offers same-day delivery from Costco for higher prices than in-store. An Instacart spokeswoman said Costco sets the item prices in the app, and those markups apply to all Instacart users—even ones who are Costco members. Those members won’t earn points when ordering through Instacart, either. Costco did not immediately respond to a request for comment. To view a store’s pricing policy before you shop, go to the store page in the Instacart app or website, tap More Info and scroll down to Pricing. There you’ll see this little note: “Prices are higher than your local warehouse.” |
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Note: Questions are edited for clarity and length. |
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WSJ Tech Health is the Journal’s first virtual forum on health technology. At an extraordinary time for the global health industry, this event on June 2 will convene top tech and health-care executives and other experts for interactive conversations about the technologies fueling the response to the coronavirus pandemic. |
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Speakers will include: • Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram • Robert Califf, head of clinical policy and strategy, Verily Life Sciences and Google Health, Alphabet • Jessica Rosenworcel, FCC Commissioner • Patrick O. Brown, CEO and founder, Impossible Foods 👉Find out more here. |
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| Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP |
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Spot something wrong here? Spot, the four-legged robo-dog, is patrolling a park in Singapore to make sure people observe safe distancing. Hopefully its bark is worse than his bite. |
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We want to know what you think! Reply to this email and share your feedback. Brought to you by personal tech editor Wilson Rothman and tech editor Robert Wall. Tech news editor Bowdeya Tweh is currently out on parental leave, but you can still follow him on Twitter at @bowknowsbiz. |
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