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More than 300 million people used Zoom's video conferencing software on April 21, a 50% jump from 200 million daily users at the beginning of the month, CEO Eric Yuan said during a webinar Wednesday.

"Clearly, the Zoom platform is providing an incredibly valuable service to our beloved users during this challenging time," Yuan said. "We are thrilled and honored to continue to earn the trust of so many enterprises, hospitals, teachers and customers throughout the world."

As coronavirus lockdowns have encouraged more people to turn to video conferencing tools to keep working as well as stay in touch with friends and family, Zoom has emerged as the dominant platform, topping charts in both Apple and Google's app stores at the end of March.

But Zoom's popularity has skyrocketed in recent weeks even as the company scrambles to address various privacy scandals, like a practice called "Zoom bombing" where trolls have been hijacking users' meetings and harrassing them. The company was also for a time sending analytics data to Facebook without alerting users, and while it has since reversed course, it was recently hit with a class-action lawsuit related to the data sharing.

In a blog post earlier Wednesday, Zoom announced that the new version of its software, set to roll out to users within the week, would have a number of features aimed at fixing some of those issues. Users will soon be able to report trolls who intrude on meetings uninvited, and they'll also be able to take advantage of stronger AES 256-bit GCM encryption. Other changes to default settings around meeting passwords and "waiting rooms" — which help keep uninvited guests out of meetings — are already available to users, the post said.

Image Credits: PitchBook (opens in a new window)

Image Credits: PitchBook

A group of AIDS activists are the latest victims of Zoombombers, hackers who hijack video sessions on teleconferencing platforms like Zoom.

Founded in 1987, ACT UP has used aggressive direct actions like "die-ins" to draw attention to the AIDS pandemic and the need for research, treatment, and a cure.

On Tuesday evening, ACT UP held a webinar titled "Are You Ready to ACT UP?: Lessons Learned From HIV to Fight COVID."

Malú Machuca Rose, a performance studies graduate student at Northwestern University, told Business Insider they joined the webinar about 10 minutes after it started.

Following introductions, Rose said, the room suddenly became chaotic as multiple users tried to wrest control of the audio and video.

"On the mic, they would take over and not let the moderator speak," Rose said. Some shouted "pee poo," or made undistinguishable sounds using computerized voices.

On camera, the hackers covered their faces with masks and shirts while "making lewd sexual gestures and using the share-screen option to display [straight] pornography," Rose said.

They added that the bombers were able to push attendees out of the session at will.

"At the beginning, a few [of the hackers] were kicked out but more kept coming," Rose said. After about 10 or 15 minutes, they added, "the moderators realized it wasn't going to happen" and ended the session.

Seeing all the other activists on the video chat, Rose said, "made me even sadder — to feel what that space could have been and what it was turned into."

'Experiencing it was much worse'

The video chat was hosted on Jitsi, a free open-source platform launched in 2011. Like Zoom, Jitsi is not end-to-end encrypted, and users have reported being "Jitsi-bombed."

"I had read about Zoombombing, but experiencing it was much worse," Rose said. "My partner, whose mom passed away from AIDS-related illness in the '90s, walked in the room as it was happening and held me while I cried."

"We were both really disappointed in what clearly seems a form of online terrorism against the communities we're a part of," they said.

Roughly 20 minutes after the webinar's posted start time, ACT UP tweeted that it ended the event "due to the virtual bombing by white supremacists."

The tweet offered "apologies for everyone on that call," and assured members that a followup webinar on Wednesday night would be on a secure platform.

Shortly before 9 pm, the organization sent a followup tweet emphasizing that ACT UP was "determined to not let white supremacists disrupt our organizing."

Another tweet thanked New York State Senator Julia Salazar "for helping us troubleshoot Zoom," suggesting that app will be utilized for tonight's event.

It's not clear what led ACT UP to believe the bombers were white supremacists.

"The people who hacked the chat were clearly white, but I didn't catch onto any specific racist imagery," Rose said. "I think Zoombombing, in general, has been done by white supremacists," they added. "And, given that those most affected by HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 are people of color, the accusation makes sense."

In a statement, ACT UP said "there is nothing special" about Tuesday's incident.

"These types of attacks are what trolls do, and have done, to people all over the world for many years. Nor is it the first time ACT UP has been trolled," the group said, adding that it was more frustrated about "the countless elementary school kids and religious minority groups who've had their discussions interrupted over the last several weeks."

Lucas Acosta, press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest LGBT lobbying group called the attack "absolutely awful."

"Our community is always under a microscope because of our identities," Acosta told Business Insider. "We're living our lives online right now, [and] it is still of the utmost importance to make sure that our privacy remains intact."

Hate groups have embraced Zoombombing

Zoombombers have particularly targeted minorities, like Muslims, Jews, and people of color: On March 30 the FBI published a warning about teleconference-hijacking, saying had received "multiple reports of conferences being disrupted by pornographic and/or hate images and threatening language" during the pandemic.

There have been numerous reports of anti-Semitic Zoombombings since March: In Westchester County, New York, online religious services were interrupted by a man "posting swastikas and other offensive material," according to WABC-TV.

A virtual Seder for a group of 150 Yeshiva University students celebrating Passover was hijacked by a dozen hackers who started referencing the Holocaust, making death threats, and calling attendees "dirty Jews."

During an online "Ask the Rabbi" class at a Jewish high school on Long Island, Zoombombers began "saying all these anti-Semitic things, cursing them out, saying 'you f---king Jews,'" the mother of one attendee told CBS News.

Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, told Business Insider that across social media platforms, "extremists have seized on the coronavirus pandemic as a vehicle to spread their hate and conspiracies."

"While some Zoombombing incidents can be attributed to internet trolls without particularly malicious intentions, there is concern that extremists are also increasingly exploiting this newfound reliance on video-conferencing technology to target certain groups or advance their hateful messages."

How Zoom is fighting Zoombombers

Zoombombers are typically able to hijack teleconferencing sessions by getting access to a public video-chat URL. It can be as easy as searching 'Zoom.us' or an equivalent address on Twitter, Forbes reported.

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has admitted the company was unprepared for the deluge of new users that came as millions of people started working and socializing from home.

"We did not do a good job," Yuan told CBS News. "When we offer the free service, we should have a training session, we should enable a password. Looking back, we should have done that. Absolutely. This is our oversight."

Legendary Silicon Valley investor Bill Gurley won't be involved in his venture firm's latest fund.

Benchmark is currently in the process of raising $425 million for its tenth fund, the Wall Street Journal's Yuliya Chernova and Rolfe Winkler first reported. But when the firm reached out to its limited partners for investments, Gurley was notably absent from the list of four venture capitalists who would be making investments through the new vehicle, The Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.

This is the first fund that Gurley has not taken an active role in since joining Benchmark in 1999, the report said.

But Gurley, who is still on the boards of 11 different companies, has no plans to leave the VC firm, a source familiar with his thinking told Business Insider. Gurley plans to continue working with those companies and their founders — as well as his firm — "for many, many years into the future," the source said. 

Benchmark did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment. 

As an investor with something of a Midas touch, Gurley has brought Benchmark billions in returns through bets on companies ranging from GrubHub to Stitch Fix. Gurley is especially famous for backing Uber in 2011 with $10 million, a stake which eventually brought in $8 billion for Benchmark, as Chernova and Winkler recounted. 

Business Insider's Troy Wolverton contributed to this report.

There are times when you would experience difficulty with an app on your Android – the phone would lock up and experience occasional crashes. That's perhaps time for you to update the app. 

This same practice applies to Gboard, Google's virtual keyboard app.  Google regularly adds new and improved features, so taking the few seconds to update is well worth the improved user experience. 

Here's how to update Gboard on Android. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $859.99 at Walmart)

How to update Gboard on Android 

1. Open up the Google Play Store app and search for Gboard.

2. Tap on Gboard, and if you see the word "Open" in a green box, you already have the most up-to-date version. If you see the word "Update," tap it and the updating process will begin.

To figure out when the most recent version of Gboard (or any Play Store app) was offered, tap on the app in the Play Store and look under the word's "What's new" to see the "Last updated" date.

 

For those who are new to audiobooks, the idea of spending money on a book, based on a short clip, can feel like a bit of a gamble. What if you don't like the narrator's stylistic choice that comes in a quarter of the way into the book? What if the plot takes a turn you simply don't enjoy?

If you have Audible, you can actually return your unwanted audiobooks, and the funds would be refunded using the same method you used for purchasing. If you're an active member, you can choose to exchange it for a new audiobook.

Here's how to return or exchange a book on Audible. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Lenovo IdeaPad 130 (From $469.99 at Walmart)

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

How to return or exchange a book on Audible

1. Go to audible.com on your PC or Mac and log into your account, if necessary.

2. Hover over "Hi, [your name]!," located at the top of the screen, then select "Account Details" (you may be required to sign in again, to confirm your identity).

3. Select "Purchase History" in the left sidebar.

Magic Leap reportedly slashes 1,000 jobs and steps away from consumer plans

While Kindle Unlimited offers you access to countless ebooks, there may come a time when you are no longer using it.

If you wish to cancel your Kindle Unlimited membership, you can navigate to the "Manage my membership" section on the Amazon website. There you'll find your current plan and payment settings, along with the option to cancel. It's important to note that these changes can only be made online and not on any Amazon app.

It's also worth noting that while your account will be cancelled, you'll still have access to your borrowed titles until your membership expires. Your membership will expire on the date you were to be charged a fee. Your borrowed books will be removed from your library and your billing will end then.

Here's how to cancel. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

Lenovo IdeaPad 130 (From $469.99 at Walmart)

How to cancel Kindle Unlimited

1. Log into your Amazon account on your preferred browser on a PC or Mac.

2. Click on the three bars in the upper left hand corner to open the main Amazon menu.

3. Click "Kindle E-readers & Books" under "Shop by Category."

It's only April, but Apple has already unveiled a new iPhone. And no, it's not the rumored 5G-enabled iPhone 12 you've probably been hearing so much about.

Rather, it's the $400 iPhone SE, a revival of the special edition iPhone Apple introduced back in 2016.  Unsurprisingly, the 2020 model comes with a number of improvements over its 4-year-old predecessor, particularly when it comes to performance. The device officially launches on April 24 and is currently available for preorder. 

The new iPhone SE features a 4.7-inch screen with a Touch ID home button and a glass and aluminum design, making it very similar to 2017's iPhone 8. But most importantly, it runs on Apple's A11 processor — the same chip that powers the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. That gives the iPhone SE an advantage over other similarly priced smartphones, like the $400 Google Pixel 3a, which runs on a less powerful chip designed for less expensive smartphones.

I've only been using the iPhone SE for roughly a couple of hours, but I can already tell it fills an important hole in Apple's lineup. At a time when rivals like Google and Samsung are introducing more budget-friendly options, Apple had been lacking an inexpensive smartphone that still feels new until now. 

The iPhone SE may not have a borderless screen like the $400 Samsung Galaxy A51 or a camera that can see in the dark like Google's $400 Pixel 3a. But it does pack as much power as Apple's latest flagships — a sign that Apple intends to give Android device makers more competition when it comes to targeting shoppers on all budgets. 

Here's a closer look at my brief first impressions of the new iPhone SE.

Ally Financial, the digital-only bank with some $180 billion in assets, said Wednesday that it was forgiving many customer's debt in order for them to receive their full $1,200 coronavirus stimulus payment.

As part of the relief package passed by US lawmakers in March, banks can use the direct deposit payments to pay off debts owed by the customer receiving the check. Ally, however, said it would erase any overdrafts and not ask for customers to repay anything.

"It is, in effect, a gift to customers in need," the bank said.

In recent weeks, as the coronavirus pandemic forced businesses around the world to close, sending tens of millions of Americans to unemployment assistance and plunging the US economy into recession, Ally has allowed customers to defer payments on many loans.

Earlier in April, Ally said 25% of customers had asked for help on their auto loans, a significant portion of the company's business.

Business Insider has asked Ally for more details, like any limits on overdraft forgiveness or total forgiven so far, and will update this post if any information is received.

"At Ally, we recognize there has never been a more critical time to deliver on our promise to 'do it right', and we are committed to supporting the people we serve safely and confidently through this crisis," Jeffrey Brown, Ally's chief executive, said in a press release.

For Duncan Davidson, the last six weeks or so have been intense.

Since the end of February, when general partner Davidson and his colleagues at Bullpen Capital first started to think that the coronavirus epidemic could have a big effect on their funds and investments, they've been working long hours trying to help their portfolio companies figure out how to weather the coronavirus crisis. They also considered how their early-stage, post-seed venture firm itself could make the best use of the remaining cash in its four funds. That process has involved multiple rounds of analysis, to examine how the firm had earmarked its cash, as well as the changing condition of its stable of about 60 startups.

They've finally nearing the end of the effort, but it hasn't been easy.

"From the beginning of March all the way to now, this is all we've been doing," Davidson told Business Insider in an interview Tuesday. He continued: "I think most every VC fund's been working their asses off the last six weeks on a similar type of process."

Bullpen started the effort with an analysis of its reserves. Venture firms typically set aside a large portion of money in their funds for follow-on investments in their portfolio companies. Those reserve funds can be used to increase or maintain the firm's stake in companies when they raise new rounds of capital — offensive reserves, as Davidson put it. Or they can be used to help prop up companies that are going through rough times — what Davidson calls a defensive use of reserve cash.

Bullpen went through a process of triage with its startups

Even in ordinary times, venture firms routinely reassess how they plan to allocate their reserves. But when Davidson and his colleagues started to think that the epidemic could lead to a widespread economic crisis, the task of reevaluating their reserves took on a new urgency. They wanted to make sure they were clear in their minds how much cash they still had on hand and what they were conserving it for.

"You don't want to use up your money on that," Davidson said. "You get in trouble if you keep on doing that."

After going through the triage analysis, Bullpen asked its startups to put together what it calls a default-alive plan. That's essentially a strategy to get the company to a point where it has enough cash to last 18 months, or until it gets to break-even, whichever comes first. Unfortunately, many of Bullpen's companies didn't take the endeavor very seriously, Davidson said. Given the Bullpen team's fears about the looming impact of the pandemic on the global economy, they found the startups' plans far too optimistic.

So, Bullpen stress-tested the startup's plans. They urged the companies to assume that the second quarter would be really bad; that, say, they might see a 50% drop in sales. Their next question for the startups: Can you really survive for the duration on your default-alive plans? That exercise forced at least some of the portfolio companies to adopt what Davidson calls the lifeboat theory — to stay afloat, you throw overboard everything except what you absolutely need. 

There were some unexpected outcomes from that exercise. Some companies that Davidson and his colleagues had considered beyond hope of saving were able to find ways to give themselves new life. Some of them, like liquor delivery company Saucey, even benefitted from the crisis, seeing a surge in sales.

"We had some upside surprises," Davidson said.

But the firm also determined that a handful of startups weren't going to make it through the crisis and weren't worth putting more money or effort into, he said. He declined to name any.

"It was a very small number," Davidson said.  "I guess we were lucky that way."

Davidson worried about the "morals" of startups applying for loans

About the time when Bullpen was stress-testing its startups, the federal government enacted the CARES Act, the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package. That law included a $350 billion loan program for small businesses that included the promise of loan forgiveness if companies used the money to cover their payroll, utilities, and mortgages or rent. Although many startups would appear to qualify, because they have fewer than 500 employees, there was some uncertainty about whether certain regulations would bar them from participating in the program.

Davidson and his colleagues spent the next couple of weeks trying to figure out whether their startups would be able to apply. Then, once they determined the companies largely could, they considered whether they should. The team addressed that question with another round of analysis, sorting their companies into various categories.

Some were too big or didn't qualify for other reasons. Some were going to be fine without the the loans. Some weren't going to make it even if they got the stimulus funds. But some stood to benefit from them.

Bullpen wanted to make sure companies thought long and hard about whether to apply for the funds, Davidson said. Davidson emailed the firm's founders, urging them to think about the ethical issues involved. Because of the limited amount of money in the program, it was likely that the startups that scored  loans would be getting them at the expense of other companies that might have needed them more.

"Consider the impact of what you're doing," Davidson said he told the founders in the emails. "This is not just a money decision, it's a moral decision."

In the end, more than half of the 60 companies in Bullpen's portfolio applied for the small business loans. At least some of them plan to use the money to rehire people they laid off in an effort to survive the crisis, Davidson said.

"I like those companies," he said. "That's exactly the spirit of what the ... program is all about."

Got a tip about a startup or the venture industry? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Earlier this month, the $775 million cloud-services company D2iQ — formerly known as Mesosphere — laid off 34 employees as it looked to cut costs amid falling sales, according to an internal presentation viewed in part by Business Insider. The layoffs affected about 13% of its total workforce.

That presentation on April 3 indicated D2iQ was reducing its sales projections for the rest of the year by 40% and that it was looking to slash costs by 25% to "ensure that we can maintain a sustainable business model." The same presentation predicted that without taking any action, the company would be forced to look for more venture-capital investment later this year or else it would run out of cash entirely as soon as summer 2021.

Beyond the layoffs, the presentation said the company would reduce costs by instituting a freeze on hiring and merit-based pay raises and looking for ways to cut down on spending in travel, cloud computing, marketing, and other areas. 

The presentation was made about two weeks after D2iQ CEO Mike Fey announced on March 18 that he was stepping down, with cofounder and Chief Technology Officer Tobi Knaup and President and Chief Operating Officer William Freiberg stepping up to replace him as co-CEOs.

"Earlier this month, we made the very difficult decision to reduce the workforce at D2iQ by approximately 13 percent," a D2iQ spokesperson said in a statement.

"The COVID-19 driven economic downturn has had an immediate and likely future impact on our business and we made this choice only after significantly cutting all discretionary expenses," the spokesperson added. "Our entire global team was affected. We continue to support organizations across the globe as they rapidly move toward more nimble, cloud-driven strategies, and believe the painful decisions made this month best position the company for the long-term."

D2iQ was founded in 2013 as Mesosphere, named for the Apache Mesos open-source cloud-computing software it used to build its products. In mid-2019, Mesosphere renamed itself D2iQ — short for "day 2 IQ" — to reflect a new focus on Kubernetes, the open-source cloud-computing project created at Google that is used by most Fortune 500 companies. 

In total, D2iQ has raised about $250 million in venture capital, including a $125 million Series D round in 2018. It also raised an undisclosed amount from SharesPost, Rembrandt Venture Partners, and other investors in February 2019 ahead of the name change. 

The company's software, across both of its iterations, is designed to make it easier for customers to manage and maintain their cloud-computing and server infrastructure, which helps them get more out of their investments in cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. 

The company's technology has attracted significant attention from major technology players: In 2015, D2iQ turned down an acquisition offer of as much as $150 million from Microsoft, but the company turned it down. 

More recently, Fey told Business Insider that an acquisition "is certainly an option down the road." 

Do you work at D2iQ? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Signal at 646.376.6106, Telegram at @rosaliechan, or Twitter DM at @rosaliechan17. (PR pitches by email only, please.) Other types of secure messaging available upon request. 

Video game sales are surging while millions of people are stuck indoors because of the coronavirus pandemic. And GameStop, the world's biggest video game retailer, is jostling to open stores back up, the company said late Tuesday.

GameStop announced it had begun to reopen some American stores, starting in Georgia and South Carolina, and said it was preparing to potentially reopen stores across the US "in the coming weeks."

Though many businesses deemed "non-essential" — including GameStop — were told to pause operations indefinitely in March, some states are opening businesses back up, even as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise. In Georgia and South Carolina, both states announced plans to re-open some businesses and public places that were previously considered off-limits during the ongoing pandemic, despite criticism.

"The Company has begun the process of re-opening stores in Italy, Germany, Austria and the states of South Carolina and Georgia," GameStop said in its announcement, "and is preparing for the potential to re-open in other operating countries and states in the coming weeks."

Video games have seen record sales since the pandemic began, and the company appears to be hoping that trend could buoy the company's yearslong decline.

Sales of video game hardware, software, accessories, and game cards topped $1.6 billion for March, according to The NPD Group's monthly report — "the highest reported spend for a March month since the $1.8 billion achieved in March 2008." 

In March, GameStop argued its business operations were "essential" because they "enable and enhance our customers' experience in working from home." The company also reportedly told employees that were still ordered to come to work to wrap their hands in plastic bags, and kept stores operating as late as March 21.  

There is reason for the company to want to reopen stores as soon as possible. In Australia, where GameStop's stores remained open during March, the company saw a "sales increase of approximately 64%," GameStop's announcement says. Meanwhile, one-third of the company's US stores have closed since the start of the pandemic; the other two-thirds are operating on a limited basis with curbside pick-up of online orders.

It's unclear how operations will be affected, if at all, in the two US states where GameStop is re-opening — the company has several dozen stores across both states.