April Tech News Roundup

April Tech News Roundup

Eleanor Frere

Eleanor Frere

Reading the news may not be everyone’s favourite thing right now, you’re either falling into a rabbit hole of scrolling through article after article about you-know-what or maybe you’re avoiding the news altogether. So, while we hope you’re staying safe and well at home, here’s a little summary of the stories you may have missed this month in the world of tech.

First things first, good news. This month it was announced that renewable energy has now become Britain’s main power source. You can find out more on Current.

And while we do have to talk a little bit about the “c” word, it’s not all doom and gloom and there is a lot of good news stories too. BBC News reported that Facebook and Samsung have donated thousands of devices to the NHS, Twitter chief, Jack Dorsey, donated a quarter of his fortune ($1bn) to fight coronavirus (Guardian) and a non-profit has released an open source tool that allows you to print reusable protective masks in just a few hours. You can read more about this story on The Daily Mail.

With people across the globe forced to stay at home, Esports is also booming, pulling in audiences of tens of millions. Read the full story on City AM. Or, if you’d like to know which footballing stars are heading onto the screen instead of the field, you can pop over to the Guardian.

Talking of sports, the fitness industry has also had a major digital makeover, with everything from virtual gyms to hula-hooping (yes, this is a real thing) now available online. Head to The Telegraph to learn more about the digital fitness revolution. Not only wanting to help us stay fit in lockdown, but also help curb coronavirus, The Daily Mail also announced that Fitbit is launching a new feature that could detect the virus before symptoms emerge.

But with so many businesses and individuals alike flocking to Zoom, there have been reports of potential security flaws, with half a million Zoom users’ details found on the Dark Web according to The Daily Mail. TikTok has also recently come under security scrutiny as The Independent reported that hackers can replace people’s videos with their own.

The big tech winner earlier this month was Disney+, shooting past 50m subscribers, but there’s a new streaming player in town, with newcomer app, Qibi, reaching 1.7m downloads in just its first week. If you maybe want to give Qibi a go, you can read more about it on BBC News.

Last, but most definitely not least, ending on a happy note, we want to take our hats off once more to veteran, Captain Tom Moore, who has raised a staggering £27m (and counting) for the NHS with an epic garden walk. Well done!

Want to stay up to date with the latest tech news? Every morning, the Firefly team creates a roundup of the biggest news stories across the technology space. Sign up to Firewire by emailing hello@fireflycomms.com.

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