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In the days and months to come, unprecedented global solidarity will emerge as the world battles the COVID-19 outbreak. But experts also worry the surging pandemic will provide cover for those looking to expand already problematic domestic surveillance practices.

Consumer cell phone location data has proven to be hugely lucrative for the marketing sector and law enforcement community. It’s also useful to urban planners and other researchers hoping to track the movement of a population in sophisticated detail.

When it comes to pandemics, such data can help researchers identify which areas an infected individual may have traveled, and which person or persons in their friend circles they may have had contact with before or after falling ill. Such data was used during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to predict where the next cluster of infections would emerge.

But some of these efforts may also come with troubling privacy ramifications.

In Israel, the New York Times reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has authorized the country’s internal security agency to tap into “a vast and previously undisclosed trove of cellphone data” to better track the behavior and movement of infected COVID-19 patients. The effort has yet to be formally approved by Parliament’s Secret Services Subcommittee.

"The Israeli government is searching for technological solutions to monitor the coronavirus. The Solution it chose is using technological tools that until now served the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to fight terrorisim, and to use them on the Israeli population, specifically citizens sick with the virus," said Anat Ben-David, a lecturer at the department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication at the Open University of Israel, and one of several privacy experts in the country who wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister seeking clarity on the government's new surveillance methods. "Employing these monitoring tools could disproportionately hurt all citizens' privacy."

While location data may prove fruitful in tracking and controlling a pandemic like COVID-19, history holds some warning flags, US privacy experts say.

“Governments are prone to overreach in an emergency,” Gaurav Laroia, Senior Policy Counsel and privacy expert at consumer group Free Press told Motherboard. “Especially when they feel the situation is slipping out of their control.”

“There's certainly a possibility that the government may seek to expand domestic surveillance powers under the guise of protecting the public,” he said.

Sara Collins, Policy Counsel at digital rights group Public Knowledge, told Motherboard that it would be difficult to implement Israel’s specific policy under US law.

“Right now, the only way for the US government to receive geolocation data is either through the warrant/subpoena process, the purchase of geolocation data, or voluntary partnerships with entities that collect geolocation data,” she said.

“None of these methods would be easy to implement quickly or would cover the entirety of the US population, but they are possibilities,” she added. “The ease with which entities can acquire vast amounts of geolocation data is one of the many reasons we need federal privacy legislation.”

Late last month the FCC said it would be fining four major US carriers after they were caught selling access to consumer data to all manner of dubious middlemen. But the penalties paled in comparison to the money gleaned off this data by wireless carriers over the last decade, and wireless carriers like T-Mobile say they’ll be fighting the fines.

Authors like Author Naomi Klein have long warned that disasters provide handy cover for major corporations or governments pushing controversial policies. Such a threat is particularly pointed here in the U.S., where the expansion of barely transparent domestic surveillance programs operates at a brisk pace even under normal circumstances.

On Monday, Senate leadership plans to push through a vote on the USA Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2020, legislation that renews many of the more problematic aspects of the controversial Patriot Act. The Act had already passed the House on a 278–136 vote despite widespread condemnation by privacy and civil liberties groups.

Doctor Linnet Taylor, a data researcher at Tilburg Law School, took to Twitter to warn that any new surveillance efforts established during the COVID-19 crisis should include sunset clauses ensuring they’re rolled back once the threat has abated. Access to the data should also be restricted to avoid Cambridge Analytica-esque abuse, she warned.

“It's more than possible for the government to be active and responsive in the face of this public health crisis while being respectful of people's civil liberties and privacy,” Laroia said.

“Public health measures should be driven by science and not used opportunistically to reverse the progress we've made in rolling back the government's domestic surveillance powers since 9/11,” he added. “We must be vigilant about our community's health—and rights as well.”

Additional reporting by Emanuel Maiberg.

NASA has delayed two airborne missions that study Earth’s climate and the effects of climate change, and one tasked with understanding extreme weather, due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Due to the current uncertainty about the coronavirus situation in the United States and its potential impact on travel during the next few weeks, three NASA Earth Science airborne science campaigns slated to deploy across the country this spring have rescheduled their field activity until later in the year,” said Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, in a recent statement.

The missions that will be affected are called Delta-X, Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS), and Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE). Unlike orbital missions, these campaigns gather data using airplanes and teams at target locations, which can make them vulnerable to delays due to the pandemic.

“These airborne campaigns are often accompanied by deployment of personnel (scientists, postdocs, students, technicians) on the ground to make measurements that are used to calibrate the remote-sensing measurements,” said Marc Simard, the principal investigator of Delta-X at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in an email.

“As such, it requires travel by airborne and field personnel during the campaign,” he added. “Spaceborne missions are global and consistent. Thus, calibration can be anywhere and anytime during the multiyear mission, although preferably near the beginning of the mission.”

J. Thomas Farrar, principal investigator of S-MODE at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, also noted that these missions tend to involve many research organizations, all of which are reeling in response to the pandemic at the moment.

“All of these institutions have different and rapidly evolving travel and work restrictions, and it seemed likely that travel restrictions by some institutions or school closures or something would make it impossible to successfully execute the field campaign,” Farrar said in an email. “It was also clear that it would be more costly if we tried to go ahead and then had to delay at the last minute.”

The S-MODE mission is designed to pinpoint kilometer-scale “eddies” in the ocean-atmosphere heat exchange that may have long-term ripple effects on the entire climate system. The team will study this phenomenon off the coast of San Francisco, though Farrar noted that the effect occurs all around the world.

“For the pilot experiment, we will conduct flights over about two weeks to repeatedly sample these eddies with different kinds of remote sensing measurements (things like ocean velocity, ocean temperature, wind, and waves),” he said.

Originally, those flights were supposed to take off around April 9, with support from the research vessel RV Oceanus based in Oregon. But as the pandemic intensified, the team decided to put off the deployment until October, which Farrar said was “definitely the right decision.”

“One of the good things NASA has learned to do is to require big projects to have contingency plans from the outset, and we had long ago identified a 6-month delay as a viable contingency option that would still let us accomplish our science objectives,” he explained.

As a result, Farrar added, “the S-MODE team still expects to accomplish all of our science goals, without any real negative impact.”

Meanwhile, Delta-X is focused on observing the hydrology of the Mississippi River during periods of high and low water levels, which occur in the spring and fall. The broader goal of the mission is to better understand the effect of sea level rise, which is driven by climate change, on vulnerable coastlines. The team has already completed demonstration flights that enabled them to learn fine details about the relationships between water levels, plant productivity, and sediment cycles.

The Delta-X spring flight, planned for next month, has now been postponed to April 2021. Simard and his colleagues plan to get back to the field for the fall flight in September. “Delta-X will still capture high and low discharge,” he said. “There is no impact on science, other than delay in delivery of science data and models.”

The new schedule for the DCOTSS mission, which will use high-altitude NASA aircraft to study thunderstorms across America, is a bit more finicky. Because these storms are most bombastic in the summer, this mission needs to run throughout June and July, and test flights were originally scheduled to happen this month.

“As things stand right now, it is not clear how much we will be able to fly this year,” said Kenneth Bowman, DCOTSS principal investigator at Texas A&M University, in an email. “We have developed alternative deployment schedules that will allow us to fly this year, but they will require significant improvements in the coronavirus situation.”

Though the DCOTSS team is grappling with these immediate uncertainties, the mission should ultimately be able to attain the data it needs, though it may be delayed by a few years.

“We do need to fly during the warm season to capture the kinds of storms we want to observe, but otherwise the project schedule has considerable flexibility,” Bowman said. “We can move one or two deployments to 2022, if necessary, assuming that the aircraft and other facilities are available when we need them.”

“That would not be ideal, as it would delay the collection of science data,” he added. “But we believe that as long as we can start flying next year there is still a very good chance that we can fulfill our science goals.”

Update : This article has been updated to include comments from J. Thomas Farrar.

Amazon is looking to hire 100,000 new warehouse and delivery workers to meet increased demands for shipments as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the company announced on Monday. It will also increase the hourly pay of workers employed in these positions by an additional $2 in the United States through April.

As more Americans stay indoors to protect themselves from the coronavirus outbreak, they’re turning to e-commerce stores like Amazon to purchase groceries and household supplies. On Friday, Amazon told customers that they could experience delays in Prime shipments and that the company was running out of stock on some highly sought-after household staples.

“Getting a...

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Microsoft’s flagship collaboration tool is down for the count. Just as millions logged on for their coronavirus-prompted work-from-home arrangements, the software did not work for workers in the U.S. market. I received a message from my editor via Teams and could not respond to him, and I am still experiencing issues as I write this article.

Microsoft took to Twitter, sharing it had “received reports that impact associated with TM206544 is ongoing,” and are investigating the issue.” This comes just a month after another reported Microsoft Team’s outage occurred because it failed to add a key certificate that established a connection between HTTPS and Microsoft’s servers, forcing users offline for hours in some cases.

Such an outage could prove critical at the moment, given how high the stakes are when it comes to the potential rapid spread of the virus, and governments putting new measures in place to reduce the number of infected persons. Something else I feel compelled to add since everything is coronavirus-centric nowadays is the number of confirmed cases. That number is inaccurate, hence the scramble to contain it before numbers spiral out of control.

Earlier this morning, and a bit closer to home, the European workforce also had a Microsoft Teams outage, which Microsoft claimed it had fixed. Even now, users in the U.S continue to experience the same issues, however. According to the website DownDetector.co.uk, thousands of outages were reported throughout the UK today.

Not being able to connect to Microsoft’s servers was the number one issue reported by Teams users, with 71 percent of users saying they had issues with Teams servers. Logging in came next, with 25 percent saying they had difficulties logging in, and two percent said they had issues with the Microsoft Teams website.

Status in UK as of 3:15pm – image courtesy of downdetector.co.uk

Zoom and Google Hangouts also experienced outages, raising the question: Can these companies keep up with the sudden surge in traffic? With the importance of such systems for remote workers evergrowing, it will remain key for collaboration companies to have redundancies to avoid these issues in the future.

As millions of employees take to the software, in many cases for the first time, these kinds of outages are to be expected. Microsoft will have to step it up if it wants to prove a reliable tool during this global pandemic, as countries have already closed borders, and stock markets continue plummeting. Not to mention, plenty of UC events have already been canceled as a result of the virus.

Update: Tuesday, March 17, 2020, Microsoft still reporting message outages.

Microsoft is revealing today that 1 billion active machines are now running Windows 10. “Today we’re delighted to announce that over one billion people have chosen Windows 10 across 200 countries resulting in more than one billion active Windows 10 devices,” says Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Modern Life and the Search & Devices Group. “We couldn’t be more grateful to our customers, partners, and employees for helping us get here.”

This number includes PCs, laptops, Xbox One consoles, and HoloLens devices running Microsoft’s latest operating system. It means Microsoft has now hit its original goal of a billion devices running Windows 10, albeit two years later than it originally expected. Microsoft is also...

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• Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has said that he plans to become "at least the No. 2 cloud." To get there, the company will have to surpass Microsoft and close the gap with market-leading Amazon Web Services.
• Analysts expect making a big cloud acquisition will be the fastest way for Google to grow.
• Business Insider compiled a list below of 20 potential Google acquisition targets, according to analysts.
• Some of them are big and unlikely — including companies and businesses like Oracle Cloud, IBM Cloud, or Salesforce — while others point to Google Cloud's need to deepen its expertise in AI chips, cloud software, and other markets.
• Click here to read more BI Prime stories.

As Google Cloud tries to catch up to cloud-market leaders Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, analysts expect Google could make big cloud acquisitions this year to boost the business.

Google is significantly behind Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud computing business. Gartner most recently estimated AWS had a 47.8% market share in 2018, compared with Microsoft's 15.5% and Google's 4%. And Google's G Suite, which includes tools like Gmail and Google Docs, is very popular, with two billion monthly active users — but is far outmatched by Microsoft Office and the cloud-based Office 365 in the workplace.

But CEO Thomas Kurian, who took over Google Cloud in early 2019, has a plan to turn things around. According to a source who spoke with Business Insider in August, Kurian told employees Google Cloud has a five-year goal to become "at least the No. 2 cloud" and present a more serious threat to the leading AWS. It's already made notable progress, showing that it's on track to post $10 billion in revenue this year, with 53% year-over-year growth in the last quarter. 

Part of that plan has involved acquisitions: Google last summer announced plans to buy data-analytics company Looker for $2.6 billion. Google in November also bought CloudSimple, once a crucial part of Microsoft's cloud ecosystem. 

Analysts expect that there are likely more to come. Kurian was known for his aggressive acquisition strategy at Oracle, his previous employer, and they expect that he'll take a similar tactic to bolster Google Cloud and make it more appealing to larger customers — especially amid the current economic tumult, which could drag down startup and public company valuations alike. 

"To catch up to AWS and Azure, the only way for Google to catch up is to make an acquisition. Big ones," Jeb Su, principal analyst at Atherton Technology Research, told Business Insider. "(Kurian) is probably looking now that the market has crashed and looking at much bigger acquisitions."

While Google Cloud is known for its artificial intelligence and data analytics capabilities, it needs to expand its product portfolio to keep pace with its leading cloud rivals, analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush has previously said.

"[Google Cloud Platform] is miles behind Microsoft and Amazon," Ives told Business Insider earlier this year. "Kurian & Co. need to acquire a cloud apps or infrastructure player to gain a toehold into this market."

Through that lens, there are a lot of different ways that Google Cloud could go, and analysts we spoke to have ideas — though some of their ideas would be a stretch, no matter how many zeroes are at the end of Google's bank balance. There's also no indication that any of these companies would even want to sell, or that Google has ever come calling.

Here are the 20 companies Google could consider buying to boosts its cloud business, according to analysts – and some are more likely than others:

SEE ALSO: Google’s buzzy Anthos cloud technology is already being used by big banks — now it’s going into the telecom industry with a new AT&T partnership

AT&T Cloud

The telecommunications conglomerate AT&T offers cloud solutions for businesses for people to store, manage, and share their data. 

Jeb Su, principal analyst at Atherton Technology Research, says that AT&T provides "solid" cloud solutions while having a lot of experience in engaging with enterprises. He also says AT&T's cloud business is small enough to integrate more easily into Google Cloud. On top of that, Google Cloud recently announced a partnership with AT&T as it enters the telecommunications space, suggesting a pre-existing relationship between the two.

CenturyLink

CenturyLink provides services for Internet, phone, TV, IT, and cloud and network security.

Su says CenturyLink has plenty of experience in serving enterprises. And Google Cloud has been working to enter the telecoms space by partnering with companies in that industry and building products specially made for telecommunications.

Still, this acquisition seems unlikely as CenturyLink has a market cap of over $10 billion, as of the time of writing – certainly not out of the realm of possibility for the deep-pocketed Google, but still more than Google Cloud has paid for most of its other acquisitions. 

Indeed, $10 billion is the same amount of revenue Google Cloud is on track to generate this year, per the company's own numbers. 

Cerebras

Startup Cerebras creates AI chips that are capable of deep learning, a type of AI that's designed to function and learn similarly to the human brain. Currently, it's valued at $1.71 billion and has raised funding from investors like Benchmark, Foundation Capital and A&E Investments.

Google Cloud is known for its AI technology. Maribel Lopez, founder and principal analyst of Lopez Research, says Google Cloud may want to build even better AI technology with more advanced hardware to support that — which is where Cerebras might fit in.

"If you're looking at what's going on with AI chips, even Intel and Nvidia are buying different things from the data center," Lopez said. "I still think there's lots of little chip companies that have good employees and that's the only way you get access to interesting technologies. That's one of the things I think is really important."

Ericsson

Ericsson is a Swedish telecommunications company that builds networking and Internet connection technology. It's currently working on building faster 5G technology. 

Lopez said this would be a "wild crazy guess."

"If you wanted to have telecom customers, that might be one expansion opportunity," Lopez said. "That could be kind of interesting."

Google Cloud has been working to enter the telecoms space by partnering with companies int that industry and building products specially made for telecommunications. Still, since Ericsson has a market cap of $22 billion, any deal would likely be too rich for even Google's blood.

Fiddler Labs

Fiddler Labs builds software to monitor the performance, predictions, and insights of company's AI algorithms. It's valued at $37.5 million and has raised money from investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners and Lux Capital Management.

Lopez says that if Google Cloud acquired Fiddler Labs, it would be similar to how VMware's planned acquisition of networking startup Nyansa, which builds software for monitoring and managing networking data.

"I can see someone like Google trying to find another company like that," Lopez said.

Lopez says that many AI startups like Fiddler Labs address niche use cases, which can make them potential acquisition targets for larger companies like Google Cloud who want to offer those specific services to customers.

"When you're thinking about the types of things someone might acquire, one of the things to look at is it really just an amazing feature or is it a product someone would invest in?" Lopez said. "A lot of startups are building products, but they're building niche products. No one wants to bother with the integration hassle of a niche product. They would rather have Google or IBM or Amazon provide that flexibility."

Graphcore

Graphcore builds chips to solve AI and machine learning problems faster. Customers of Microsoft Azure, one of Google Cloud's rivals, 

As the clouds compete against each other, they're also racing to build the best AI technology. That requires hardware to run more complex problems, and Lopez says an acquisition of an AI chip startup like Graphcore could help. 

"If you're looking at what's going on with AI chips, even Intel and Nvidia are buying different things from the data center," Lopez said. "I still think there's lots of little chip companies that have good employees and that's the only way you get access to interesting technologies. That's one of the things I think is really important."

IBM Cloud

Like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, IBM has its own cloud — although it's widely considered to lag far behind its rivals, depending on how you calculate it.

The modern iteration of IBM Cloud started from the cloud computing provider SoftLayer, which IBM acquired for over $2 billion in 2013.

Su says that IBM Cloud has "huge experience" in engaging with enterprises, which could give Google Cloud a competitive edge. It's also a "solid cloud infrastructure solution," although not as price-competitive as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. He also says it's small enough to be easily integrated into Google Cloud. 

IBM, for its part, has signalled a new willingess to work with, rather than against, its larger cloud rivals. Incoming IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, who led IBM's cloud and cognitive software unit, is also the one who architected IBM's $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat — a big bet on so-called "hybrid cloud," helping customers' existing systems integrate with infrastructure set up on clouds like Amazon's, Microsoft's, or Google's. 

At the same time, however, it's not clear if IBM would be willing to get out of the market entirely and sell the business to the likes of Google Cloud.

Nokia

Nokia, the Finnish telecommunications and mobile phone company, was another pick from Lopez because of its innovation in 5G technology. 

Lopez said while this too is a "wild, crazy guess," this could be an opportunity to win over telecommunications customers. 

Indeed, Google Cloud has been working to enter the telecoms space by partnering with companies int that industry and building products specially made for telecommunications. Still, since Nokia has a market cap of $15 billion, any such deal might be so expensive as to be unlikely. 

Nutanix

Analyst firm RBC Capital Markets predicted in a recent report that Google could acquire Nutanix, which makes software for businesses to manage their networks in the cloud and in private data centers.

The deal would bolster Google's efforts in the so-called "hybrid cloud" space, where more traditional servers and data centers integrate more tightly with clouds like Google's or Amazon's.

Google could pay as much as $10.1 billion, RBC estimated in January — a prediction made before Nutanix fell significantly as the broader stock market was shaken up amid the coronavirus crisis. At the time of writing, Nutanix's market cap is about $2.69 billion. It was above $6 billion at the time of the prediction.

Oracle Cloud

Oracle has its own cloud offering, although it's seen as trailing behind Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google Cloud. 

Su named Oracle Cloud as a potential acquisition target because of its experience in engaging with enterprises. In addition, it's a "solid cloud infrastructure solution," even if it's not as advanced as AWS, Microsoft, or Google Cloud. Still, it's small enough to be integrated into Google Cloud.

Forrester analysts have previously predicted that Oracle is so far behind in the cloud that it will lessen its focus on cloud and stop competing with AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud.

Still, Oracle, where Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian previously worked, seems unlikely to spin out its cloud business — and its equally unclear if Oracle founder and CTO Larry Ellison would be willing to give up the fight against AWS.

Palo Alto Networks

Ives also named Palo Alto Networks as a potential Google cloud acquisition. The company, which offers cloud-based cybersecurity tools, has a market cap of around $14 billion at the time of this writing. That could give Google Cloud a significant boost in helping secure customer data.

Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks in December announced plans to partner to run several Palo Alto Networks services on Google Cloud, and bring new products to the market.

Rackspace

Rackspace is a services provider that supports customers that are moving to the cloud. It used to be a competitor to clouds like AWS and Google Cloud, but it changed its business strategy. Recently, it acquired the consulting company Onica, further highlighting how it's supporting AWS customers, rather than competing against the much larger company.

Su says he picked Rackspace because of how it works with enterprises to help them move to the cloud, while it's still small enough to be easily integrated into Google. If Google Cloud were to acquire Rackspace, it could have the company do the same kind of customer-support work for its own cloud.

Salesforce

RBC Capital Markets earlier this year made a big, bold prediction: Google will buy Salesforce. 

The equity-research firm in its 2020 software outlook report said Google could acquire Salesforce to leapfrog Microsoft in the cloud market in a deal that it projects to be valued at as much as $250 billion. In such a case, RBC expects Google would have to leverage debt to make it work.

Acquiring Salesforce would allow Google to "instantly jump" to the No. 2 spot behind Amazon, displacing Microsoft, RBC said, by hugely bolstering its cloud software revenue.

The deal seems extremely unlikely, given Salesforce generates as much revenue in six months as Google Cloud does in an entire year. Another firm, Piper Sandler, recently predicted Microsoft would be the buyer is Salesforce were for sale – despite there being no indication that the company is at all interested in selling to either company, or anybody else.

Even Piper Sandler gave such a deal a"low likelihood given sheer size of potential deal and willingness to sell."

Su, for his part, says he doesn't believe Google Cloud needs to acquire software application companies like Salesforce to reach its market share target.

ServiceNow

ServiceNow – one of the pioneers of cloud-based applications – is a potential Google acquisition target, according to Ives.

With a market cap near $50 billion and new, experienced, CEO, however, the deal seems unlikely.

The company recently hired former SAP CEO Bill McDermott as its CEO, and he has a vision to take ServiceNow to $10 billion in revenue.

As Business Insider's Ben Pimentel writes, "McDermott's insights into digital transformation in the cloud era are valuable at a time when businesses, including startups and big corporations, have come to understand technology's importance in today's world, but are navigating what has become a complicated, even confusing, enterprise tech market."

Su says he doesn't believe Google Cloud needs to acquire software application companies like ServiceNow to reach its market share target.

Splunk

Ives also mentioned data-analytics company Splunk among the "tech cloud stalwarts" Google could buy.

Splunk makes products to help developers track and analyze the immense amount of data being generated by modern software and IT infrastructure, in order to diagnose problems and ward against cyberattackers.

The company's market cap is more than $16 billion at the time of this writing.

Supervisely

Supervisely is an artificial intelligence startup that can analyze images to identify and label what each of those images are. It's being used by companies like Mazda and Alibaba. 

Lopez says she picked this as a good fit for Google Cloud because it helps companies with building better AI applications by training and annotating the data needed to build these algorithms. 

"Annotation is a big issue in AI," Lopez said. "These guys are considered leaders in tagging tech. [It] would be a good cloud service for GCP if the price is right."

Verizon Enterprise

The telecommunications company Verizon has its own enterprise business to provide networking, business communications, and security services to large companies. 

Su says that Verizon Enterprise has "huge experience" in engaging with enterprises, but it's still small enough to be easily integrated into Google Cloud. 

Still, it's unlikely that Verizon will spin out its enterprise unit, as it's a core part of its business.

VMware

VMware is a longstanding enterprise company known for pioneering virtualization, the cornerstone technology that makes modern cloud computing possible. Lately, it's making the Google-created cloud computing project Kubernetes a big part of its business.

Su said he picked VMware because of its focus on enterprises. It's also the leading vendor for virutalization technology that businesses use to run on their private data centers, and it's working on helping businesses with moving to the cloud. 

"Those are potential acquisitions that would make sense if Google is really serious about catching up," Su said. 

VMware has a market cap of over $42 billion, and is a crown jewel in the Dell corporate empire, so this acquisition seems unlikely.

Workday

Cloud-based finance and human resource firm Workday could be a potential Google Cloud acquisition target as the company tries to catch up with Amazon and Microsoft, Ives, the Wedbush analyst, said.

Workday is worth more than $30 billion at the time of this writing. Ives called Workday among four "tech cloud stalwarts that stick out" as potential Google acquisitions.

Workday's human resources and financial management platform is used by 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies, according to the RBC Capital Markets report. RBC, however, believes Microsoft will try to buy Workday to gain entry into what we believe is going to be the most durable cloud growth market outside of the public cloud," which an RBC analyst said will be cloud enterprise resource planning. 

Su says he doesn't believe Google Cloud needs to acquire software application companies like Workday to reach its market share target.

IT systems integrators

Microsoft has decades-long relationships with partners and IT systems integrators who help companies with setting up new technology and moving to the cloud. Marty Wolf, president of martinwolf, says Google Cloud should do the same. 

Wolf declined to name a specific IT systems integrator that Google Cloud could acquire. However, he says Google Cloud can buy a company that has existing relationships with its rivals AWS and Microsoft. Over time, this will help customers move to Google Cloud, he says. 

There's low hanging fruit for sales people and customer relationships," Wolf said. "That's very valuable...Google needs real partners with traction."

• Goodyear has unveiled its reCharge Concept tires that are self-regenerating and self-charging with artificial intelligence features.
• The tires can change its treads according to the climate and terrain.
• Goodyear claims its concept tires keep in line with the trending needs of electric and sustainable mobility.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Goodyear has unveiled a self-regenerating concept tire with artificial intelligence features that allow the tire treads to change according to the environment and climate.

Goodyear claims to be one of the largest tire companies in the world, and its reCharge Concept tire was created to keep in line with the world's increasing shifts towards electric and sustainable mobility options. 

The concept tires were designed with three concepts in mind: personalization, sustainability, and hassle-free use, according to its maker. It was also designed for increasing individuality demands: the tires can shift depending on the terrain, climate, and driver needs with the help of artificial intelligence.

Keep scrolling to learn about Goodyear's new concept reCharge tires:

SEE ALSO: Turkey-based Bilgin Yachts has launched what it claims to be the largest and most eco-friendly yacht in the country

The concept reCharge tires can adapt to road conditions and the climate, whether it be driving on the highway or in the mountains, according to Goodyear.

The center of the tires contain capsules with "reloadable and biodegradable" treads, according to its maker.

The tire treads pop out from inside of the tire as needed.

Goodyear was inspired by spider silk while designing the tire treads. This shows in the reCharge's strong, but biodegradable and lightweight treads, according to its maker.

Liquids in the capsules "recharge" the treads.

Goodyear claims the treads won't need consistent checks and extended recovery time from potential damages.

• Zapier, a fast-growing automation startup with some 300 employees, has been all-remote from the very beginning, with a workforce scattered all around the world.
• Business Insider spoke with Zapier CEO Wade Foster about how he manages the company, and how he stays productive and focused when working from home. 
• The lessons come as companies in every industry send their employees to work from home to limit the spread of coronavirus, creating a culture shock for workers and managers alike.
• Foster says companies need 3 essential tools — chat, video, and shared documents — to get started. But learning how to stay productive and creating a company culture that can blossom remotely takes more time to develop.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Fast-growing Silicon Valley startup Zapier is known for being a popular tool that connects applications together and letting users build automation. 

But it is also notable for another reason — since it was founded in 2011 it's always been an all remote company, with no main office. Its 300 or so employees live all across the United States and often outside of it. The company's cofounders, including CEO Wade Foster, live in the San Francisco Bay Area, but most of their employees do not. A few years back, in fact, Zapier even offered a $10,000 bounty to any new hire who was willing to leave the San Francisco Bay Area.

That gives Foster, and Zapier, some experience in a problem now faced by all the companies that have opted to send employees to work from home to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. For workers and managers alike, it can be a real culture shock to go from an office environment to a distributed workforce.

Foster tells Business Insider that the foundation of meeting this challenge comes down to three tools that every remote workforce needs: A chat tool, a videoconferencing app, and a collaborative document editor. Zapier itself uses Slack, Zoom, and a mix of Google Docs, Coda, Quip, and a home-built tool for those purposes, respectively.

That's the technical stuff you need just to get started, he says, but it's not all there is to thriving as a remote company.

"From there, a lot of it is how you approach the work from a cultural standpoint," Foster told Business Insider — which, for Zapier, meant hiring people who were motivated self-starters, ensuring that all communication in the company was transparent, and creating a culture of learning among its employees.

Keeping a structured work week

A major key to remote work is having a somewhat structured work week, Foster said. Many newcomers to working from home bemoan a loss of productivity and focus. Foster said some structure and a regular schedule helps with that, including taking time for breaks.

Foster tries to keep his own calendar fairly regimented: On Mondays, he schedules one-on-one meetings with employees to set priorities for the week. On Tuesdays, he meets with one department, like the sales or marketing teams. Wednesday to Friday he leaves open for whatever may come up: interviewing candidates, the weekly all-hands meetings on Thursday, and anything else. 

Structure can also help when it comes to managing remote employees. While it can seem daunting to not know what employees are up to or how they're working, Foster said rather than micromanaging, Zapier just sets a clear structure for keeping everyone up to date on what you're working on.

"[It] just creates a bit of organizational awareness and team awareness around what's critical for individuals and it's a bit of a gut check on alignment to make sure we're all sort of working in orchestration with each other rather than against each other," Foster said.

Every Friday, employees check in with their teams on what their top priority was that week, how they tackled it, and what's top priority for next week. People also share fun anecdotes about their personal lives, their weekend plans, and et cetera. 

Company culture when you're all-remote

That last bit is important for creating a company culture, which can be a bit tricky when all your employees don't interact face to face every day. Foster said for the new wave of companies that might be experiencing remote work for the first time, this will be the hardest thing to replicate in such a short time period.

"This is something that we had years to really get good at it," Foster said. There's a few things that make it possible, the first is making sure employees have a place to talk about non work topics, in the same way they might in an office setting. Zapier uses Slack channels assigned by topics like gardening or cooking.

Another thing Zapier does is pair up employees randomly to get to know each other. The matched-up employees then schedule a 30-minute chat to just catch up with each other. Foster said the purpose of it is not work related — oftentimes employees are just learning about what each other's roles are or what their hobbies are.

"These interactions are really important in a distributed company because one thing that you have to recognize is that you aren't around people all day, so it's easy for loneliness to set in. And so these are some things that we do to combat that," Foster said. 

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Google is not working with the US government in building a nationwide website to help people determine whether and how to get a novel coronavirus test, despite what President Donald Trump said in the course of issuing an emergency declaration for the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, a much smaller trial website made by another division of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is going up. It will only be able to direct people to testing facilities in the Bay Area.

More than an hour after Trump’s press conference, a Google communications Twitter account passed along the following statement from Verily, which is a different company inside the Alphabet corporate umbrella:

We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing....

Continue reading…

A little under a year and a half after it released its first pair of true wireless earbuds, Sennheiser is back with a follow-up: the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2. The big improvements to the true wireless earbuds are that they support noise cancellation and have much better battery life. There are also some more minor improvements, like the fact that these earbuds are 2mm smaller than their predecessors.

The improvements in battery life are, on paper, at least, pretty impressive. You’ll now get up to seven hours of playback from the earbuds themselves (up from four hours last time around), and using the case gets you 28 hours in total (up from 12). Sennheiser also claims to have fixed the battery drain problems that some users...

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Global leader in the collaborative endpoint market, Konftel, recently announced new conferencing technology. The video collection now features the Konftel CC200 (pictured, above), a comprehensive offering that combines a state-of-the-art camera with an integral video codec and collaboration support for Webex, Teams, and Zoom.

The Konftel 70 speakerphone will be implemented into exciting video packages for both mid-sized and huddle meeting rooms. The solution is designed for a world where corporate culture is in a period of rapid transition, and this is translating into additional meetings with fewer participants. The smaller meeting rooms in the workplace need to be better equipped for video conferencing solutions. Annual growth of 38% is forecast for the segment in the next few years.

Supporting Demands for New Meeting Rooms

According to Global Sales Director for Konftel, Tommy Edlund, the company is already seeing strong market demand in relation to the USB video kit for meeting rooms of various sizes. That solution was launched back in 2018. This new offering addresses the major group of customers calling for an all-in-one solution for video conferencing, without having to rely on a user laptop or room PC.

The market for dedicated video conferencing tools is expected to grow to twice the size of the market for conference cams with USB connectivity by 2023, according to Konftel. The new CC200 is the first model in the company’s new product category of collaboration cameras. The all-in-one device supports both H.323 and SIP and works with all standards-based video systems. At the same time, it can be used directly with collaboration tools like Zoom, Webex, and Teams.

According to Tobjorn Kalsson, the Product Manager at Konftel, it only takes a few minutes to install a Konftel CC200, and there’s no need for running new cables in the room. Once the solution is up-and-running, users can instantly rely on stable audio and video, since the dedicated solution is not reliant on the quality of the PC to function.

Complimenting the Konftel Portfolio

The Konftel 70 speakerphone complements the company’s portfolio of Bluetooth and USB products, offering performance, simplicity, and design that helps it to stand out from the competition. Karlsson noted that Konftel sees the product as a key component of its video package solutions, along with the company’s conference cams and OCC hub.

Konftel 70

Konftel believes that there’s no reason to compromise on audio and sound performance with a speakerphone, just because you’re solution uses a USB connection. The CC200 includes features like a 4K video sensor, two channels for content sharing and camera, four built-in microphones, and optimisation for sound through the Konftel OmniSound functions. The user interface includes a remote control, web interface, touchscreen, and more.

Both the Konftel CC200 and the Konftel 70 will be launched at a price that is designed to appeal to both end-customers and the sales channel, according to the Global Sales Director, Tommy Edlund.

• I've been using Microsoft's new Edge web browser for almost two months, and though I've used Google Chrome for several years, I've barely even noticed a difference.
• The new Edge and Chrome are very similar, as both are built on the same Chromium platform. It takes almost no adjustment to switch over from Chrome.
• The new Edge has a few features that set it apart from Chrome, like better privacy settings. It also uses less of my computer's resources, which Chrome is notorious for hogging.
• Perhaps most importantly, the browser extensions you'd find in Chrome are also available in the new Edge too, making it way more useful.
• It's certainly worth trying the new Edge, if only for the better privacy settings and browser efficiency. Over time, Microsoft will surely add more features that will further differentiate it from Chrome.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

I've experimented with web browsers other than Google's dominant Chrome, like Firefox or older versions of Microsoft's Edge, just to see what else is out there and to make sure I'm not missing out on anything.

Those experiments usually don't last long. I typically revert back to Chrome within the day, sometimes after only a few minutes. There's just something about Chrome's design, extended extension library, and functionality that I wasn't getting on other browsers.

But for the first time, I've stuck with a different browser — Microsoft's new Edge, an upgrade from the browser of the same name that launched with Windows 10 in 2015 — for more than a day. In fact, I've stuck with the new Edge for almost two months since I installed it on launch day, January 15.

Here's my experience so far with Microsoft's latest attempt at getting you to use its web browser:

SEE ALSO: Microsoft's new Edge browser has such powerful privacy settings that it's triggering the ad blocker popup on some websites, even when I don't have an ad blocker

I opened up my laptop one day and completely forgot I was using Microsoft's new Edge browser instead of Chrome.

I realized I was on the new Edge browser only when I searched for something in the address bar and was shown results from Microsoft's Bing search engine instead of my usual Google results.

I actually tried using Microsoft's Bing — the default search engine in Edge — but after a while, I reverted back to the Google search engine. Bing results were overall quite good, but Google still can't be beat. And Google search is better integrated with other Google services I use, like YouTube.

That bodes well for the new Edge web browser. It looks and feels a lot like Chrome, and switching is painless. After all, it's built on the same web-browsing platform, called Chromium, that Google used at the core of Chrome too.

After the initial setup, my bookmarks toolbar was automatically transferred and looks exactly like it does on Chrome, and I installed my favorite extensions with relative ease. One of the biggest "things" about the new Edge is that it supports Chrome extensions too, so you get the wide variety of options that previous versions of Edge didn't have.

And perhaps most importantly for a lot of users, Chrome browser extensions are supported in Edge too.

Any extension you used in Chrome will work in Edge, which is huge news. I couldn't do my work on previous versions of Edge, as I was so reliant on certain extensions to add key features and functionalities to the browser.

That said, Microsoft needs to work on making it easier to find the extensions you want. Right now, Microsoft positions the official Edge extension library as the primary way to get extensions, and some of my extensions aren't available there.

Instead, I need to search for "Chrome web store" and go from there to get the extensions I want. It's a little workaround, but no big deal, and not a deal-breaker. More than anything, it's useful that I can pick any Google Chrome extension I want and start using it with no hassle.

And since using the new Edge browser, I've noticed a couple of things I like better than Chrome.

For one, it doesn't use up as much of my computer's precious resources as Chrome does — namely the RAM that Chrome devours, leading to slow performance over time. And loading web pages on Edge has been just as fast, if not faster.

Right now, with exactly the same number of tabs (19) and the same websites loaded on both web browsers on Windows 10, Edge is using 1.6 GB of RAM and Chrome is using 2 GB.

The privacy settings are also a lot simpler to understand, more robust, and better laid out than on Chrome.

Managing privacy on Edge is much easier than it is on Chrome. Edge's privacy settings are well laid out and do a better job of telling you what it's doing on the privacy front and how it could affect your experience.

In fact, the privacy settings are so powerful that Edge is tricking sites into thinking I have an ad blocker.

On the "strict" privacy setting in Edge, which blocks most trackers on sites, some sites have asked me to disable my ad blocker. The thing is I don't have an ad blocker installed on Edge. That's impressive.

On Chrome, the closest privacy setting I could find to Edge's "strict" option is blocking third-party cookies, and that didn't seem to have any effect on ads.

Should you switch? Sure! Give it a shot!

In many ways, Edge is more or less a Chrome doppelganger, but with a couple of little extras that can plant the seed of considering switching. It's worth a shot, if just for the clearer and more robust privacy settings and the reduced impact on your computer's RAM.

And if you're setting up a new Windows 10 computer, the new Edge has what it takes to be your default web browser rather than just a tool to download Chrome the moment you boot it up.

Down the line, I wouldn't be surprised if the new Edge gets more little features that further set it apart from Chrome.

At the same time, Google's ecosystem goes beyond the Chrome web browser. Chrome is linked in some way or another to my Google account, which includes Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, and so on, and all that ties in with the Google stuff on my smartphone. Microsoft's biggest obstacle will be combatting Google's incredible and far-reaching ecosystem.

To that end, Edge is available on Android and iOS, so your computer and smartphone lives don't have to be separate. 

I should note that everyone has a different way of using their web browser of choice, with innumerable little tricks, shortcuts, and customizations, that it's almost impossible for my experience to translate perfectly to yours. If you're making too many compromises or uncomfortable changes when checking out Edge, then maybe it's not for you!

The productivity software suite has more than 5 million paying businesses. 

• An effective computer mouse can seriously help improve your computing experience, and the best of the bunch remains the Logitech MX Master, thanks to its mix of excellent feature-set and ergonomic design.

Point, click, scroll – these actions have become a ubiquitous part of daily life. The computer has evolved a lot over the past few decades, but the mouse has been used as the best way to interact with different functions of the computer since 1984's Apple Macintosh.

Of course, the mouse has evolved a bit since then, but their core function hasn't changed much. For example, many computer mice have embraced wireless technology like Bluetooth to increase convenience, but you're still scrolling and clicking. The way in which mice track movement has changed from tiny rolling balls to lasers as well.

So, what should you consider when you're looking for a new mouse? For starters, you should think about whether you want a wired or wireless mouse. Many wireless computer mice use Bluetooth and can connect to your computer directly, while others come with a small dongle that you have to plug into your computer's USB port.

You should also consider the overall size of the mouse. Looking for something to take with you on the road a lot? Perhaps a small mouse would be better. Or, if your mouse is simply going to sit on your desk at home, you can get a bigger, more ergonomic mouse.

There are hundreds of mouse models out there, but we've done our homework to help you find the best one for your needs, having either directly tested or extensively researched every pick on our list.

Here are the best computer mice you can buy

• Best computer mouse overall: Logitech MX Master
• Best computer mouse for gamers: Razer DeathAdder Chroma
• Best portable computer mouse: Microsoft Mobile Mouse 3600
• Best affordable wireless computer mouse: Logitech M705
• Best computer mouse for ergonomics: Evoluent VerticalMouse 4
• Best USB computer mouse: Microsoft Classic Intellimouse

Updated on 3/13/2020 by Joe Osborne: Added new pick for "best USB mouse" for anyone wanting a traditional experience. Added new block of buying advice and links for working from home (WFH) gear in light of current events. Checked and updated all links and prices.

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The best computer mouse overall

The Logitech MX Master doesn't just look impressive – it's ergonomically designed and features customizable buttons.

The Logitech MX Master came out a few years ago, and it has been hailed as one of the best computer mice ever to be released – and for good reason.

Logitech is a powerhouse in the computer peripheral world, and the MX Master is the company's flagship mouse. The mouse can connect to your computer through its Bluetooth connection or through an included USB dongle, but the main selling point to the mouse is the fact that it comes with a number of different customizable buttons and wheels.

For example, you'll get the main scrolling wheel in between the two main buttons, but you'll also get another wheel on the side near where your thumb rests. That wheel can be used for side-scrolling, which can be very helpful in day-to-day use, as well as in specific industries, like music production. Right near that side-wheel, you'll also find an extra two buttons, as well as another button underneath the thumb rest, which Logitech calls the "gesture button." It can be used on a Mac to switch desktops, for example. All of those buttons can be customized through the Logitech software.

Another excellent thing about this mouse is that it can last 40 days on a charge under normal use, and you can continue using it while it's charging through the microUSB port on the front of the mouse. Next up, you can connect to up to three different devices, and you can switch between them using a button underneath the mouse.

Last but not least, the mouse features a super comfortable and ergonomic design, which makes it ideal for hours of use at a time.

Pros: Plenty of customizable buttons, ergonomic design, highly accurate

Cons: A little expensive

The best computer mouse for gamers

The Razer DeathAdder Chroma features a slick design for gaming, as well as five customizable buttons and super-accurate tracking.

The original Razer DeathAdder was hailed as one of the best gaming mice out there, but the company has since updated the mouse with Razer DeathAdder Chroma, and this mouse is even better.

The Razer DeathAdder Chroma looks a little basic, but in reality, it's anything but. It's quite an ergonomically-designed mouse, and it features rubberized textures on both the left and right of the mouse to ensure that it doesn't slip from the hand, which is important when you're gaming.

The mouse, which is wired, comes with a total of five buttons. You'll get the two standard mouse buttons, as well as one under the scroll wheel, and two others on the left in reach of the thumb. Those buttons can be customized using the Razer Synapse software, which also lets you set the lighting profile and make your mouse change colors. You can also calibrate the mouse to the surface you're using it on, which helps make it a little more accurate.

Perhaps the best thing about the mouse is under the hood. The mouse is equipped with a 10,000 dpi optical sensor, which is extremely accurate, and it is capable of mouse movements of up to 200 inches per second. That's probably a lot more than you'll ever need.

The mouse may be excellent, but it isn't perfect. Some reviews, like PCWorld's, argue that the buttons can feel a little like a toy at times. That review ended up with a score of 4/5 stars, so it can't have been too annoying. Meanwhile, IGN gave the mouse 9/10.

Pros: Ergonomic, five buttons, included grip, comfortable

Cons: Buttons can feel cheap, slightly expensive

The best portable computer mouse

The Microsoft Mobile Mouse 3600 isn't just cheap, it's also small and connects to a wide range of devices, making it a perfect choice for those on the go.

Microsoft may be best known for its software, but it's a growing force in the hardware world, too. The company has been making computer mice for some time, and the Microsoft Mobile Mouse 3600 is one of its most-loved.

The mouse is designed for portability, and as such, you would expect it to connect to multiple devices, and it does. You can use this mouse on a Windows computer, Mac computer, and Android device – though be warned that it is not compatible with Windows 7. It connects to all those devices through its Bluetooth 4.0/4.1.

The best thing about this mouse, however, is the fact that it's quite compact and light, making it a fine choice for those who need to take their mouse on the go. The mouse comes in at only 3.2-ounces, which really quite light. It's also relatively cheap, starting at only $20 for the black version.

Pros: Compact and light, cheap, connects to a wide range of devices.

Cons: Somewhat basic design

The best affordable wireless computer mouse

The Logitech M705 wireless mouse is reliable and versatile for a whole lot less than most products.

Looking for a capable all-around mouse on a bit of a budget? The Logitech M705 Marathon Mouse could be the right one for you. The mouse is a little older, but it's compatible with a wide range of operating systems, including Windows XP and later, and Mac OS X 10.4 and later.

The mouse isn't just versatile, it's also built to be energy efficient. According to Logitech, it uses half the power of other comparable wireless mice. It'll connect to your computer through a USB dongle, so you will need to have an extra USB port to properly use the device.

The mouse also features a few extra bells and whistles – like two extra buttons on the side, which can be used for other functions.

Of course, the best thing about this mouse isn't how many features it has, it's the fact that it's inexpensive. The mouse comes in at only $21.04 on Amazon right now because it's on sale from the original $49.99 price tag.

Pros: Extra buttons, compatible with a lot of operating systems, wireless, comfortable

Cons: Slightly basic design, only connects using a dongle

The best computer mouse for ergonomics

The Evoluent VerticalMouse 4 has the ultimate ergonomic design, because it takes the mouse and makes it vertical instead of horizontal.

If you're looking for something that offers ultimate comfort, then the Evoluent VerticalMouse 4 is the right mouse for you. Be warned, though, you may get some weird looks.

Using this mouse, you'll place your hand vertically instead of horizontally, and the mouse features rests for your hand to increase its comfort level. The idea here is that you avoid too much forearm twisting, which increases arm health, according to Evoluent.

Like some of the other mice on the list, the mouse also features thumb buttons, meaning it's a little more functional than some other mice. It also has a pointer speed button right under the main buttons, meaning you can adjust how quickly the pointer moves on the screen without having to wade into your computer's settings. If you do want to change any settings, the mouse comes with the included customization software.

While it is a great mouse, there are a few things to consider before you buy. For example, according to PCMag's review, the plastic used on it tends to attract grime, and the software's user interface could be a little better designed.

Pros: Extremely ergonomic and comfortable, quick dpi switching

Cons: Can get grimy, expensive

The best USB mouse

The Microsoft Classic Intellimouse pleases not only general users, but many PC gamers, too — all for just under $30. Definitely the best USB mouse.

Sometimes, the simplest and most straightforward design is what wins the most smiles. That's exactly what's at play with the Microsoft Classic Intellimouse, a $30, USB 2.0 revival of Microsoft's storied Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 from 2003.

The original Intellimouse was among the first of its kind to use optical tracking rather than a trackball underneath its base as well as a more contoured, ergonomic design. Both of which were mildly revolutionary at the time.

Today, the revival comes with a similarly ergonomic shape, but refined for modern tastes. The Classic is also tuned for a tracking speed of up to 3,200 dots per inch, or DPI, via Microsoft's BlueTrack technology. This makes it appealing to PC gamers looking for quick tracking speeds and basic comforts.

Finally, the red tail light of the previous model is now a subtler white. It's an appreciated move to mainstream the mouse even for gamers.

We've enjoyed trying out the Microsoft Classic Intellimouse, appreciating its simple design and effective performance. However, be careful: the mouse is solely supported by Windows operating systems — not macOS or Chrome.

Pros: Smart design, fast and smooth tracking, cool tail light, affordable

Cons: No USB-C option, only supported by Windows

Working from home? Check out our other home office guides

The best standing desks

So many jobs involve sitting at a desk for hours each day, and it can be hard to break away to incorporate more standing without sacrificing productivity. If you have a standing desk, you can convert your space to a much more active one, improving your health and energy levels. These are the best standing desks.

The best active seating for your office

Active seating promotes movement, improves posture, and activates your core while sitting, and some models can work in tandem with a standing desk, so you can find the perfect combination of sitting and standing throughout the day. These are our top picks for the best active seating.

The best office chairs

If you spend the majority of your day parked in your office chair, you owe it to your body to choose a chair that gets an A+ for ergonomics. Our top picks will help improve your posture and may even help relieve back pain.

The best desk lamps for your office

If you have a home office, it's important to have good lighting so you don't strain your eyes while typing away on your computer or going over documents. There are dozens of different desk lamps to choose from in all kinds of styles. These are the best desk lamps you can buy to light up your workspace in style.

US broadband provider CenturyLink has confirmed to Motherboard it will suspend all broadband usage caps as millions of Americans quarantine themselves to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“We recognize that high-speed internet service plays a crucial role in the everyday lives of our customers,” a company spokesman told Motherboard. “In light of COVID-19, we are suspending our data usage limits at this time.”

CenturyLink, one of the nation’s largest internet service providers (ISPs), provides broadband to 5.4 million subscribers across its 37 state footprint. Like many US providers, CenturyLink imposes a one terabyte monthly usage cap, and had previously experimented with charging users an additional $10 per each 50 gigabytes of data consumed.

The company’s “excessive use policy” indicates that consumers that repeatedly exceeded the company’s 1 terabyte monthly limit risked getting kicked off the network entirely.

“If you continue to exceed your usage plan without taking advantage of one of the options provided, CenturyLink reserves the right to disconnect your service after the third month of excessive usage in a rolling 12-month period,” the policy states.

CenturyLink is the second US ISP to suspend such restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the massive rise in home learning and telecommuting. Some 200 US ISPs employ such limits, some with monthly caps as low as just a few gigabytes.

Early Thursday morning Motherboard reached out to the ten biggest US ISPs that currently employ such penalties, asking if they’d be willing to suspend these restrictions in the wake of the outbreak. By Thursday afternoon AT&T had informed Motherboard it would be suspending its 1 terabyte cap and $10 per 50 GB data overages.

Comcast, the nation’s biggest ISP, told Motherboard it was exploring a number of options to aid those now quarantined at home, but so far the elimination of its caps and usage surcharges isn’t among those options. The nation’s fifth biggest cable provider, Mediacom, told Motherboard it would be giving its users an extra 50 GB of data consumption during the month of March.

Consumer groups and industry executives alike have long pointed out that these kinds of restrictions and overage fees serve no actual technical purpose outside of price gouging captive customers in uncompetitive markets. Experts say network congestion isn’t really solved by such limits, something confirmed by previously leaked Comcast documents.

The ease at which these companies can quickly suspend such penalties—despite the looming surge in bandwidth consumption from those quarantined—further confirms they weren’t serving much of a technical purpose in the first place.

Dane Jasper, CEO of California’s biggest independent ISP Sonic, has long noted that such restrictions are unnecessary in the face of steadily declining bandwidth and network hardware costs.

“Usage caps are not rational as a response to congestion on a network, because the network must be built for peak prime-time load,” Jasper previously told Motherboard, adding that such limits were a direct result of limited US broadband competition.

“In a duopoly there is little to no competitive market pressure that would curtail these practices,” Jasper said.

Phillip Dampier, an activist who for years has battled such arbitrary broadband restrictions over at his website Stop the Cap, applauded CenturyLink and AT&T’s decision, and urged other US ISPs to follow suit.

"Data caps were always unjustified and the overage penalties even more so, but at a time when Americans are being asked to work, learn, and entertain themselves at home, it is unconscionable cable and phone companies could raise internet bills even higher and profit from the COVAD-19 crisis,” he said. “Data caps and overlimit fees must be suspended immediately."

• Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield highlighted deals the company signed last quarter where customers chose it over Microsoft Teams, its chief competition in the work chat app market.
• Although Butterfield didn't give specific names, he said those customers included a large defense contractor and a Fortune 100 retailer.
• While customer wins over Teams have some analysts more hopeful about Slack's future prospects, others worry that the spectre of coronavirus looms over its ability to compete with Microsoft.
• With Slack's ability to send salespeople out to close deals limited by the spread of coronavirus, and more of its customers working from home, analysts fear that the market may favor the incumbent — in this case, Microsoft, which has established relationships with most major companies around the world.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield touted the company's customer wins against Microsoft's rival Teams chat app during a call with analysts after it reported earnings on Thursday. But analysts fear that Slack's future prospects to compete with its much larger rival may be dimmed by the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

At the time of publication on Friday, Slack's stock was the lowest it has been since it went public via direct listing last year. The dip came after it reported earnings that beat Wall Street estimates, but that still showed a weaker-than-expected forecast for next quarter and signs of slowing growth.

On the call, however, Butterfield spotlighted several customers it signed on in the quarter that picked Slack over Microsoft Teams. Although Butterfield didn't give specific names, he said those customers included a large defense contractor and a Fortune 100 retailer. Butterfield also echoed previous claims that many of Slack's largest customers tend to also be Microsoft customers who still choose the app because it works better for them.

"Slack scales elegantly for both end users and administrators. Slack's superior user experience and platform capabilities result in real engagement. And if you want to change the way people work together through software, people have to actually use the software to work together," he said. 

While these anecdotes about customer wins over Teams have some analysts more hopeful about how Slack will fare in this competitive environment, some are still skeptical, and now worry about the impact that coronavirus might have on the company's ability to close the big deals it needs to show further growth.

Coronavirus casts a long shadow

The spread of coronavirus has put Slack in a precarious situation. 

As a workplace collaboration tool, Slack is well positioned to help enable increased remote work amid the coronavirus outbreak, and has seen a spike in usage for the free version of the app as a result. However, the company was careful to tell analysts that it is not yet certain if that growth will translate into a long-term bump in paying customers. 

Meanwhile, Slack's growth comes from signing on large customers, like the ones Butterfield described during the call with analysts. But Slack attributed its weaker-than-expected guidance for the next quarter to the disruption in travel and overall economic uncertainty caused by coronavirus, which it says could make those deals more difficult to close.

Analysts see that as another factor potentially working against Slack, putting more pressure on its competition with Teams going forward — especially given Microsoft's existing relationships with most major companies all over the world, making it that much harder for Slack to compete.

"Slack has become much more weighted to the enterprise over the past few years, and with sales reps out of the field, closing deals can be particularly challenging. In our opinion, taking a conservative view on guidance is the appropriate course at this point," Arjun Bhatia, an analyst at William Blair writes in a note published Friday. 

Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said he thinks the low guidance was due to the competition from Microsoft, in addition to the general uncertainty in the global economy right now. 

"No investor doubts Slack's cult-like product portfolio and impressive growth trajectory, the issue comes down to its long-term growth profile with Nadella and Redmond laser focused on its Teams and the Office 365 opportunity and how this likely impedes the Slack growth train in our opinion heading into FY21 and beyond," Ives writes in a note published Friday.

William Power, an analyst at Baird, has a more positive outlook. He thinks while deals might take longer to close because salespeople aren't traveling, the boost Slack — which trades under the ticker symbol WORK — is getting from more people working remotely will translate to more paid customers in the long term. 

"Though early, WORK expects enterprise sales cycles to lengthen, driven by less travel and fewer face-to-face meetings and conferences. On the other hand, usage, particularly among the entry free users, has been surging across geographies, which should translate to more paid customers over time," Power writes in a research note. 

As for Butterfield, he's taken jabs at Microsoft Teams before, dismissing its daily active user growth as forced because it comes from users of other Microsoft products being force migrated to Teams. Microsoft for its part has touted its daily active user numbers as growing faster than Slack. 

As of November 2019, Teams has 20 million daily active users, and Microsoft executives last month shed some light on how that is calculated, saying passive actions don't count. Slack has 12 million daily active users as of October 2019. 

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Bitcoin was born out of a financial crisis, its debut announced in early 2009 with a block of data containing a headline referencing bank bailouts. Since then, a popular narrative around the technology has been that it's a hedge against the rest of the world—when the Black Swan finally rears its ugly head, the unwashed masses with their worthless dollars will grovel before the fleece vest-wearing, cryptocurrency-wielding elite. Ha-ha!

Anyway, none of that shit has happened during the first real, global test of this theory: the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

As the US stock market saw its worst crash since 1987, Bitcoin price has taken a serious tumble, actually, and currently sits at roughly $5,500 USD, down from around $9,000 a week ago, and with a 24-hour low of $3,867. Anybody who was hoping to sell any recently-acquired bitcoins for a profit in the near-term is probably sweating bullets right now, and everyone should say a little prayer for folks who bought in mid-plunge, believing with their genius brains that it had definitely reached the bottom.

So, what's happening here? Maybe Bitcoin isn't the "safe haven" asset (like gold) that some thought it was? This has led to a lot of crowing from critics, but many Bitcoiners are ideologically-driven and devoted to the project, which may ultimately be its saving grace during the current dip.

On Twitter, Bitcoiner Pierre Rochard went as far as saying that Bitcoin has proved itself to be the "ultimate safe haven asset" because "the network stays up, the exchanges trade 24/7, and the market found a healthy clearing price above—well above the 2015 low." While it's, uh, let's just call it an overstatement, to say Bitcoin is the "ultimate" safe haven asset while it's actively crashing, Rochard has a point: Bitcoin isn't doing that badly, at least for now. It might not be an unflagging stalwart amid global chaos, but it has seen worse.

Between late 2017 and 2018, Bitcoin crashed from nearly $20,000 to below $4,000 after a wild speculative bubble popped, and it's still here. Maybe external factors such as the coronavirus will end up doing more to damage it than its own hype did—debts must be paid in dollars, after all—but Bitcoin keeps proving that we shouldn't underestimate the willingness of rich nerds with an apocalypse fetish to pour money into this thing over the long haul.

Jill Carlson, a principal at Slow Ventures, made another great point over at Coindesk: Perception is everything, and if Bitcoin isn't seen as a safe haven by the majority then it won't be. Still, she suggests this perception is wrong, and that Bitcoin is in many ways an ideal safe haven. She writes:

"It can be self-custodied, so even when systems of trust and rule of law breaks down, it can be held. It is open and borderless, with relatively liquid markets in every country in the world. It is censorship-resistant, meaning no government nor institution can, practically speaking, prevent investment or transaction in bitcoin. Bitcoin has a fixed supply, much like gold."

All fair points, but in practice we are seeing that Bitcoin is not living up to its promise of being a tower from which the moneyed and prepared can laugh at everyone else below. It is simply freaking out.

I own no bitcoins (go on, roast me), but for years I've found it fascinating as an economic and technological site of ideological contest. There's just not a whole lot of things out there so directly predicated on everything else going to shit. That being said, this aspect of Bitcoin's narrative is extremely powerful and is probably going to continue to appeal to the types of people who might buy a luxury emergency bunker or just keep a well-stocked bug-out bag in their closet.

I don't know if this is a good thing, but it's real, and it's why even a crash seems like an opportunity to buy more bitcoins to some. In fact, most of these people are probably already looking ahead to the next big technical event in Bitcoin, the "halvening" in May. Now there's another rabbithole to go down.

• Employees at Shopify, the e-commerce platform, are among hundreds of thousands who have been ordered to work from home amid efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
• A source familiar with the matter told Business Insider that Shopify has given its employees $1,000 each to furnish their home set-ups with whatever equipment needed to work remotely.
• Employees were also told they are allowed to take home any office equipment, including computer monitors, they need to do their jobs.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Employees of e-commerce platform Shopify are getting $1,000 each to buy what they need to work from home amid growing efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Shopify has directed all employees — who total more than 5,000 people in 11 different countries — to work from home starting March 16. According to a source familiar with the matter, the e-commerce platform has given each of its employees a stipend to pay for any office equipment they need to set up a workspace for remote work.

More and more employees around the world have been ordered to work from home as COVID-19, the coronavirus disease, continues to spread. More than 125,000 people have now tested positive for the disease, which the World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic Wednesday.

Shopify, a Canada-based company, announced Wednesday on Twitter that its employees would work from home starting March 16 to "play a part in reducing the spread of the virus."

Spotify did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. It's unclear if whether the $1,000 amount is a bonus employees will see in their paychecks, or whether workers will need to expense the items they purchase.

The person familiar with the matter told Business Insider that Shopify employees are also allowed to bring home whatever equipment they need to take from the office in order to do their jobs remotely. 

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Shopify is not alone among major tech companies in telling employees to work remotely. Business Insider reported Wednesday that Google has now recommended nearly all of its 100,000 employees worldwide work from home. Spotify, the Sweden-based music streaming platform, has instructed its employees to work remotely for at least two weeks. Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Twitter have all asked their employees in the Seattle and Silicon Valley areas to do the same.

Major events that bring together hoards and crowds have been canceled around the world. Massive tech conferences like Mobile World Congress and SXSW been nixed. President Trump also announced Wednesday night that all travel to the US from Europe, except for the UK, would be suspended for the next 30 days.

SEE ALSO: Googlers are jolted by life without free lunch as hundreds of thousands work from home — but insiders say 'nobody could be more prepared' than their company for COVID-19

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A judge has ordered the release of former US Army analyst Chelsea Manning from a Virginia jail. Manning has been imprisoned since May 2019 for refusing to testify before a grand jury.

Manning’s appearance before the jury was no longer needed, and “her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose,” Judge Anthony Trenga wrote in his order. Under the order, Manning will be required to pay a total of $256,000 in conditional fines, which began accruing on a daily basis starting in May 2019.

Manning attempted suicide yesterday, the New York Times reported. A hearing to consider her confinement was scheduled for tomorrow.

Manning was convicted in 2013 on espionage charges, for providing hundreds of thousands of government files to...

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• In the 1980s and 1990s, Steve Jobs made predictions about how technology and the internet would impact daily life that turned out to be surprisingly accurate.
• He predicted virtual assistants like Siri and e-commerce giants like Amazon long before these services existed. 
• Among his biggest predictions of all was that the web would be everywhere.

Today, you wouldn’t leave the house without your smartphone. But back in the mid-1980s and 1990s, a device like the iPhone was still far out of the purview of most tech companies and the average consumer. Modern online media giants like Facebook and YouTube were still at least 20 years away, and Google first became a company in 1998.

To say the tech landscape was a much different place would be an understatement.

Yet Steve Jobs made several assessments about the impact that computers and the internet would have on our lives in speeches and interviews from the 1980s and 1990s. His remarks, particularly the ones he made in this Wired interview from 1996, were remarkably on-point.

Here’s what Jobs got right:

SEE ALSO: From new iPhones to foldable phones, these are the smartphones we can't wait to see in 2019

Apple launched the iPad in 2010, but it appears that Jobs had been thinking about tablets since as far back as 1983.

In an audio recording from Jobs’ speech at the International Design Conference in Aspen that year, Jobs refers to “an incredibly great computer in a book that you can carry around with you that you that you can learn in five minutes.” After the full recording surfaced in 2012 on the Life, Liberty, and Technology Blog, many media outlets pointed out that this description sounds very similar to the iPad.

Long before we had Siri or Alexa, Jobs predicted modern virtual assistants when asked about the role of computers in 1984.

"The next stage is going to be computers as 'agents,'" he said in a 1984 interview with Newsweek's Access Magazine published by The Daily Beast. "In other words, it will be as if there's a little person inside that box who starts to anticipate what you want. Rather than help you, it will start to guide you through large amounts of information. It will almost be like you have a little friend inside that box."

That sounds very similar to the way Apple’s Siri, Samsung’s Bixby, and the Google Assistant work on iPhones and Android phones today. These digital helpers learn more about you and your habits the more you use them and surface contextual information before you ask.

"You'd start to teach it about yourself," Jobs also said during that same interview. "And it would just keep storing all this information about you and maybe it would recognize that every Friday afternoon you like to do something special, and maybe you'd like it to help you with this routine. So about the third time it asks you: 'Well, would you like me to do this for you every Friday?' You say, 'Yes,' and before long it becomes an incredibly powerful helper. It goes with you everywhere you go. It knows most of the raw information in your life that you'd like to keep, but then starts to make connections between things ..."

More than 20 years before Apple introduced the iPhone, Jobs essentially predicted that these “agents” would live in slates we carry around with us.

"I've always thought it would be really wonderful to have a little box, a sort of slate that you could carry along with you," he also said to Newsweek's Access magazine in 1984.

And perhaps even more surprisingly, Jobs predicted that people would start using these devices at age 10.

"You'd get one of these things maybe when you were 10 years old, and somehow you'd turn it on and it would say, you know, 'Where am I?' And you'd somehow tell it you were in California and it would say, 'Oh, who are you?'" he also said during the Access magazine interview.

A 2016 study from Influence Central indicates that the average age a child receives their first phone is 10.3 years old. This also lines up with a Nielsen study from 2017 that indicated 45% of parents polled said that they got a service plan for their child's smartphone between the ages 10 and 12.

Jobs also predicted in 1995 that the internet would make it possible for startups to compete with established corporations because it would allow them to sell products directly to consumers rather than investing in distribution resources.

"Secondly, it's very exciting because it is going to destroy vast layers of our economy and make available a presence in the marketplace for very small companies, one that is equal to very large companies," he said in 1995 when speaking to the Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation.

Today, startups like Casper sell mattresses directly to consumers, Warby Parker sells frames to people who need eyewear, and Kickstarter lets people support ideas they like.

Jobs reiterated this idea when speaking to Wired in 1996, noting that the internet would be a formidable way to bypass the middleman. This has become a main theme in tech startups for the past 20 years.

"The best way to think of the Web is as a direct-to-customer distribution channel, whether it's for information or commerce. It bypasses all middlemen. And, it turns out, there are a lot of middlepersons in this society. And they generally tend to slow things down, muck things up, and make things more expensive. The elimination of them is going to be profound," Jobs said.

And, he warned, "large companies not paying attention to change will get hurt."

"The Web is just going to be one more of those major change factors that businesses face every decade. This decade, in the next 10 years, it's going to be the Web. It's going to be one of them," Jobs said.

Seems like taxi and record companies and bookstores would agree.

Jobs' major prediction from the 1996 Wired interview was that the web will be ubiquitous. Sure, lots of people predicted that, but he made a remark about "Web dial tone everywhere" that does hint at the mobile-first world of today.

"There will be Web dial tone everywhere. And anything that's ubiquitous gets interesting."

Another big prediction from that 1996 interview: Commerce was going to be killer on the web.

When asked about the main beneficiaries of the web, Jobs said that it would be people who have something to sell: "It's commerce. People are going to stop going to a lot of stores. And they're going to buy stuff over the Web!"

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was paying attention, even though Amazon was only a small book-focused startup at the time. Twenty years later, Amazon did $105 billion in net sales in 2015 while retail chains like Walmart are struggling to keep up and shuttering stores.

Source: GeekWire

Of course, as we know now, there were missteps on the way to regularly buying things online. Later in the interview, Jobs said that big-time e-commerce was "about two years away," but that it was going to be huge.

"The third thing is commerce, which is even harder than complex publishing because you have to tie the Web into your order-management system, your collection system, things like that. I think we're still two years away. But that's also going to be huge," Jobs said to Wired.

There were missteps on the way, like Pets.com, which had little revenue and went out of business in 2000.

Jobs said in that Wired interview that if the "Web got up to 10 percent of the goods and services in this country, it would be phenomenal."

According to the US Census, e-commerce accounted for 9.7% of total retail sales in 2018.

One prediction was for fully featured web applications years before terms like Ajax and Web 2.0 were coined: "People are starting to do complex publishing on the Web — very simple forms of it. This will absolutely explode in the next 12 to 18 months."

"It's the next big phase of the Web," Jobs said to Wired. "Have you seen the Federal Express Web site where you can track a package?"

Another shocking revelation from that Wired interview was that Jobs predicted Tesla — or, at least, Tesla's business model for its dealerships.

"Take auto dealerships. So much money is spent on inventory — billions and billions of dollars. Inventory is not a good thing. Inventory ties up a ton of cash, it's open to vandalism, it becomes obsolete. It takes a tremendous amount of time to manage. And, usually, the car you want, in the color you want, isn't there anyway, so they've got to horse-trade around. Wouldn't it be nice to get rid of all that inventory? Just have one white car to drive and maybe a laserdisc so you can look at the other colors. Then you order your car and you get it in a week," Jobs said.

Today, Tesla "stores" have nearly no cars on-lot. Instead, prospective buyers can check out sample cars and order online or through a salesperson for later delivery, depending on the state. LaserDiscs, however, are not part of the process.

Of course, Tesla's dealerships could have been influenced by Apple Stores, which were one of Jobs' projects. So obviously there's a debate as to whether Jobs predicted this or influenced it.

Now, Tesla is shutting down some of its brick-and-mortar stores in an effort to cut costs as it shifts to online sales, echoing Jobs' earlier predictions to Wired about e-commerce.

Jobs predicted to Wired that the desktop market will be in the "dark ages for the next 10 years, or certainly for the rest of the decade." Today, PC sales are continuing to shrink.

"Eventually, Microsoft will crumble because of complacency, and maybe some new things will grow," he said to Wired. "But until that happens, until there's some fundamental technology shift, it's just over."

In the most recent holiday quarter, shipments of traditional PCs declined by 3.7% year-on-year according to the International Data Corporation.

Jobs seemed to be predicting cloud services as well, like Apple's iCloud or Google Drive: "The minute that I don't have to manage my own storage, and the minute I live primarily in a connected versus a stand-alone world, there are new options for metaphors."

"I don't store anything anymore, really. I use a lot of e-mail and the Web, and with both of those I don't have to ever manage storage. As a matter of fact, my favorite way of reminding myself to do something is to send myself e-mail. That's my storage," Jobs also said to Wired in 1996. 

He even seemed to have an inkling that Chromebooks would be a product before Google had even finished its search engine: "It's possible that some people could come out with some very interesting Web terminals and sell some hardware."

"It's much like the old mainframe computing environment, where a Web browser is like a dumb terminal and the Web server is like the mainframe where all the processing's done," Jobs said to Wired.

Jobs was a huge supporter of technology in schools, but even in 1996 he realized that adding technology doesn't automatically make schools better.

He argued for a more drastic overhaul. Today, his widow, Lauren Powell Jobs, is one of the biggest backers of charter schools.

He also argued to Wired that people were already living in "information overload" and "most people get far more information than they can assimilate anyway."

Considering the average American consumer checks his or her phone 52 times per day according to Deloitte, Jobs may have been onto something. Screen time management has certainly been an area of focus for Apple in recent years, as it introduced features in its iOS 12 software that provide users with insights about how they're using their iPhones.

Jobs also knew that computers would be most useful for communication back in 1985, long before smartphones and social networks like Facebook and Instagram existed.

When speaking with Playboy in 1985, Jobs explained why computers will be essential in homes by saying the following:

"The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We're just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people — as remarkable as the telephone."

That sounds an awful lot like how we use our smartphones today.

Today, six out of the top 15 free apps in Apple's iPhone App Store are all centered on communication, such as Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Gmail, according to app analysis firm AppAnnie. 

But even with all of those predictions about how the web could revolutionize industries, Jobs did say that technology doesn't change the world, which is arguably wrong!

"The Web is going to be very important. Is it going to be a life-changing event for millions of people? No. I mean, maybe. But it's not an assured Yes at this point. And it'll probably creep up on people.

"It's certainly not going to be like the first time somebody saw a television. It's certainly not going to be as profound as when someone in Nebraska first heard a radio broadcast. It's not going to be that profound," Jobs said.

Eleven years later, Jobs introduced the iPhone.

This is an update of a story originally published in 2016. 

• Google's G Suite — which encompasses Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and other productivity tools — has surpassed 2 billion monthly active users, according to Axios.
• Google's G Suite boss Javier Soltero did not say how many of those users are paid, or how many use services beyond Gmail.
• But Google did say in 2019 that 5 million businesses are now paying for G Suite, while Microsoft's Office 365 suite for businesses now has 200 million monthly active users.
• Even so, the milestone suggests that Google is becoming a more formidable challenger to Microsoft when it comes to office productivity tools. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Microsoft may be the dominant player when it comes to workplace software thanks to its Office 365 suite, but Google is quickly gaining traction. The search giant recently said that its G Suite product, which includes services like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Meet, has surpassed 2 billion monthly active users, according to Axios.

Google's G Suite boss Javier Soltero shared the news with Axios on Wednesday, but did not say how many of those 2 billion users were paid, or how many use anything besides Google's popular Gmail email service. Google said roughly one year ago that 5 million businesses are now paying for G Suite, which pales in comparison to Microsoft Office 365's 200 million monthly active users of its version for businesses.

As part of his effort to build up G Suite since joining Google in 2019 after spending four years at Microsoft, Soltero has been focusing on boosting features like search and making Gmail more conversational, according to Axios. Google is also trying to make it easier to integrate between apps, as Soltero told Axios that he Google still has "work to do" in that area.

But Microsoft has also been making improvements to its workplace productivity offerings. The company released a service called "Project Cortex" at the end of last year, which is like a search engine for more easily finding information between Microsoft applications. 

Regardless, the milestone suggests that Google is becoming a more serious challenger to Microsoft's Office. Google has already made its tools stand out against Microsoft's thanks to its focus on artificial intelligence, Raul Castanon-Martinez, a senior analyst at 451 Research, previously told Business Insider's Ashley Stewart.

In the future, Google intends to extend that work by bringing its Smart Compose feature, which makes suggestions when typing in Gmail and Docs, to appear in other Google services, Soltero told Axios.

"Google has built differentiation based on its key strengths with cloud-native capabilities and AI, so it's important for Microsoft to step up its game," Castanon-Martinez previously said to Business Insider, adding that Google's G Suite is "rapidly gaining ground."

SEE ALSO: Billionaires like Jeff Bezos use the same phone you do — and that makes them very, very hackable

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Apple is planning to reintroduce scissor-switch keyboards to more laptops soon, according to generally accurate analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. New MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models are coming in the second quarter of 2020, Kuo says in a research note obtained by MacRumors. The move would follow a pattern set by last year’s 16-inch MacBook Pro, which replaced the unpopular and unreliable butterfly switches with a more traditional “Magic Keyboard.”

Kuo recently indicated that the current 13-inch MacBook Pro will be replaced by a 14-inch model, but he hasn’t said whether that’ll happen with this second-quarter update. It’s possible that the scissor-switch keyboard will come to the 13-inch model first before a more significant overhaul later. Apple...

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Montblanc has unveiled its first set of headphones: the wireless, noise-canceling MB 01 Smart Headphones. They’re built for luxury and long flights, and are predictably expensive compared to other popular models, costing $595.

It’s easy to strike down a newcomer (and a bold one, at that) to such a crowded and competitive market, but there are a few reasons to believe these might be worth checking out. Montblanc tells Engadget that it built them under advisement from Alex Rosson, a co-founder of the audiophile company Audeze, along with other well-qualified audio engineers and designers. That alone doesn’t guarantee they’ll be great, but it’s a good start.

The MB 01’s ear pads that touch your head are covered in sheep leather, while the...

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Washington state and San Francisco are banning large gatherings to help reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The bans are a way to create social distancing, which may help people avoid coming into contact with others who might be sick.

Gatherings of more than 250 people in the Seattle area are prohibited through the end of March, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced. Gatherings of more than 1,000 people will be banned in San Francisco for two weeks, according to the office of San Francisco Mayor London Breed.

“This order applies to gatherings for social, spiritual and recreational activities,” said Inslee’s announcement about Washington’s ban. “These include but are not limited to: community, civic, public, leisure, faith-based,...

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Apple is indefinitely closing all 17 of its Apple Store retail locations in Italy due to the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, according to notices posted on the company’s Italian website, as spotted by Bloomberg. The store closings are effectively a formality, though, given that the entire country of Italy has already been put on lockdown as of March 9th.

Apple has yet to say when the stores will reopen, only noting that the stores “will remain closed until a later date.” Italy’s lockdown is currently set to lift on April 3rd. While the stores remain closed, Apple is instead directing customers to its support website for both phone or web-based customer support.

The Italian shutdown marks the second major closing of...

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The California attorney general’s office announced Wednesday that it would not appeal a federal court decision approving the $26 billion T-Mobile and Sprint merger. In a settlement with California, the companies made a handful of promises like creating new low-cost mobile plans and jobs in the state.

According to the terms of the settlement, the New T-Mobile, as the combined company is called, is now required to make low-cost mobile plans available in California for the next five years, including a $15-per-month 2GB plan and a $25-per-month 5GB plan. It must offer 100GB of no-cost high-speed internet service and a free mobile Wi-Fi hotspot device to 10 million low-income households that are currently going without access for five years....

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• Cisco is instituting a mandatory work from home policy for many of its 75,000 or so employees around the world over coronavirus fears.
• The policy affects Cisco's main campus in San Jose, California, as well as several of its other offices around the world — including San Francisco, New York City, and all of Washington State. It also extends internationally, to offices in countries including China, Italy, South Korea, and Australia.
• Cisco has not released information about any confirmed cases on its campus — but last week, it shut down one of its buildings after it learned that a worker was exposed to the coronavirus.
• Cisco says that it's well-positioned to move to make a temporary move to remote work — it makes secure networking products, and is also the proprietor of business videoconferencing tool WebEx, which it says has only grown more popular amid the coronavirus outbreak.
• The company says that employees not directly affected by the policy are still allowed to work from home at their own discretion.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Networking giant Cisco has issued a mandatory two week work from home policy for most of its employees around the world, particularly in the areas where there are a concentrated number of cases of COVID-19, the coronavirus disease, the company confirmed to Business Insider.

More specifically, Cisco says that this new work from home policy applies to its main campus in San Jose, California, as well as its offices in San Francisco, New York City, and all of Washington state. It also extends to international employees in China, South Korea, Italy, Perth, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur.

That includes its main campus in San Jose, California, the company confirmed, where many of its 39,000 US employees work. Cisco has about 75,000 employees worldwide.

"The safety and wellbeing of our employees, partners, customers, and the communities in which we work is our highest priority. We have decided to take proactive and precautionary measures, including a mandatory work from home policy for specific locations where there are a concentrated number of cases. All other Cisco employees are welcome to work from home if they feel more comfortable. We believe this is the right decision as we learn more details about the virus, new testing capabilities, and steps we can take to remain healthy," a spokesperson said.

Cisco has not released information about any confirmed cases on its campus but it did confirm to Business Insider that last week, it shut down one of its buildings after it learned that a worker was exposed to the coronavirus. Cisco's San Jose campus is enormous, with over 30 buildings including a state-of-the art healthclub and its own medical center.

According to the Santa Clara County Public Health department, where San Jose is located there have been 37 cases of the virus either confirmed or suspected and under investigation as of Sunday, with the number rising daily. The state of California as of Wednedsay has so far confirmed 157 cases and two deaths. Another over 10,000 people are self-monitoring. Santa Clara is one of a handful of counties in the state at risk for community transmission, the department says — which is to say, it's spreading locally, and not just via people who have recently traveled.

Santa Clara County is now also requiring that conferences and other mass gatherings over more than 1,000 people be cancelled.

Cisco is well-prepared

Interestingly, Cisco is well-equipped to handle a workforce of tens of thousands of employees working for home because it makes the networking and videoconferencing technology to support such an effort. This includes secure WiFi products, as well as its flagship WebEx videoconferencing software, which the company is now allowing others to try at no charge for three months or to expand their usage for free. It also makes videoconferencing hardware, especially for conference rooms.

"As you'd expect we use our collaboration, networking and security technology to allow our employees to work remotely. We have done this for years and working remotely is deeply engrained in our culture," the spokesperson says. 

Even externally, the company is seeing usage of WebEx skyrocket every week in Japan, Singapore, China, South Korea, Italy and across Europe. Cisco tells us that signups for WebEx in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa sales region have jumped 211% since the outbreak was first reported.

Last week, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins also promised that Cisco's hourly workforce would continue to get paid during the coronavirus outbreak, including those vendors who work for outside contractors.

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