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The Morning After: Mobile video service Quibi launches today

On your phone, and only on your phone.

Hey, good morning!

There is so much money behind Quibi. If you've never heard of it, it's a mobile video service/network hot on the heels of many similar services that have failed. With Hollywood clout and again, so much darn money, Quibi launches today -- for $5 per month with ads! -- with a selection of shows and content with short runtimes and baffling sales pitches.

Will it sideline Netflix, Hulu, podcasts, games, Instagram and absolutely everything else you use to kill time on your phone? I'm not sure it will. Still, there's a 90-day free trial if you want to give it the benefit of the doubt.

-- Mat


It's more popular than Firefox after just a few months.
Microsoft Edge is now the second most popular desktop web browser

Microsoft's new Chromium-based browser is picking up users. According to the latest figures from NetMarketShare, Edge just inches ahead of Firefox, with 7.6 percent versus 7.2 percent. Yes, it's Window's default browser, but it's that Chromium base that makes it more compatible, faster and, well, less janky compared to older versions of Edge.


Spotify is still out front.
Music streaming subscriptions grew by nearly a third in 2019

Counterpoint Research says paid music subscriptions jumped 32 percent to reach 358 million users in 2019. It points to a mix of exclusives, phone service bundles, regional price cuts and extended trial periods for the leap in growth. Spotify, with a 35 percent cut is out in front, while Apple Music claims 19 percent and Amazon has jumped up to 15 percent. After that, it's all the others, like YouTube Music, Tencent, Yandex Music and so on.


Quit trying to make Quibi happen
Quibi raised $1.75 billion for so-so shows trapped on your phone.

Devindra Hardawar has been watching those Quibi snippets, and he can't fathom why anyone would be willing to stump up five bucks a month for it. He also didn't find much value flipping between portrait and vertical modes. Quibi's Turnstyle tech moves between those orientations without stopping the show, but without much commuting in our near future, where this would be useful on a crowded train, it's a miss. You also can't 'cast' the videos to TVs through AirPlay or Chromecast, which means you'll have to share your actual phone if you do eventually find something cool.


New York City is among them.
School districts ban Zoom over security concerns

As Zoom hunkers down to fix its reputation and security holes, some US school districts, including large ones like New York City and Nevada's Clark County, have banned or disabled the video communication service over security and privacy worries. The exact issue differs depending on the district, but they tend to be a mix of tangible security and privacy problems, with teachers and staff who may not be familiar with how Zoom works. There's no end-to-end encryption for Zoom meetings, making it possible to intercept video conferences. Teachers have also had to grapple with "Zoombombing" incidents where bad actors disrupt virtual classes -- sometimes by guessing the meeting number, sometimes because staff share the meeting details on public sites.

But wait, there's more...


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