A COVID-19 tracking app has proven an overnight hit in the UK, with the medical researchers behind it hoping to bring it to the US too.
The app allows people to self-report coronavirus symptoms, and the app then logs the date, time, and location to help medical professionals identify potential hotspots …
COVID-19 tracking app and website
TechCrunch reports.
The team had already been working with researchers at at Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford, so the plan now is to bring the COVID-19 tracking app to the US.
An app in the U.K. called the C-19 COVID Symptom Tracker, developed out of an unlikely corner of medical research — looking into the progression of medical conditions by tracking twins — is asking people to self-report their symptoms in an effort to start to gather more of that detail […]
[It has now] gone viral, with 750,000 downloads since being launched on Tuesday morning. The app now is the third most popular app overall in the UK on the Apple App Store, and the number-one in the medical category, according to figures from App Annie.
Zoom and Slack see record use
With so many people now working from home, popular remote-working apps are seeing record usage.
Crain’s reports that popular videoconferencing app Zoom – which seems to have become the default video meetup app for social as well as work purposes – has seen demand more than double, with a significant bump to its share price.
The Verge reports that business-focused chat app Slack has hit record usage levels.
Shares spiked as much as 22%, trading almost twice its daily average volume, in their biggest one-day percentage gain since June 2019. The stock is up more than 40% over the six days, and it has more than doubled this year, with recent gains coming on signs of higher usage.
Microsoft, meantime, has a press event scheduled for Monday which is expected to include a consumer-focused version of its business chat platform, Teams.
Slack is revealing today that it has hit new user records for simultaneously connected users, thanks to a surge in demand for remote working amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday March 10th, Slack saw concurrent users pass 10 million, which then jumped to 10.5 million six days later on March 16th before reaching 12.5 million yesterday.
Global smartphone sales fell 14% in February
Counterpoint estimates that global smartphone sales fell 14% last month, with a much bigger fall likely this month, reports Reuters.
Hertz and Lyft help out US health workers
The WSJ reports that Hertz is giving free car rental to health workers in NYC. Only 20% of its cars are in use, compared to the usual 80%, so it has plenty of capacity.
Lyft is doing the same thing with bicycle rentals in three cities, notes Engadget.
Hertz said it will begin the program this week in New York City, which has emerged as the epicenter of the nation’s Covid-19 outbreak.
DIY Spotify soap dispenser
Finally, if you’re tired of singing Happy Birthday twice while washing your hands, the obvious way of timing your handwashes would be ‘Hey Siri, set a timer for 20 seconds.’
In New York City, Lyft will provide hospital workers, first responders and transit workers with a free, one-month Citi Bike membership […] In Boston, Lyft’s Bluebikes is offering hospital workers a free 30-day membership, and in Chicago, healthcare workers have access to free rides on the city’s Divvy bikes through April 30th.
But why do things the easy way when you could instead build your own gadget?
In addition to the soap dispenser of your choice, you’ll need a Raspberry Pi W Zero, an Adafruit Speaker bonnet, a few inches of wire, and a tiny bit of copper tape.
