THE COMUNICANO for Wednesday April 22nd 2020

Andy Abramson
10 min readApr 22, 2020

What’s Up Doc???……Events will be like what after Corona…The states “opening up map” during Corona….Grocery shoppers have concerns…Forget DUI, the new term is DWW (drinking while working)….ZOOM may be your next ad outlet….ZOOM fatigue is hitting us all…How to work better remotely…Two thirds of workers are now working from homeCable workers are not happy…Gaming sales grow…How Steak-umm is using Twitter…Where home services money is going…Vertical farm sales rise…Where 5G really is…T-Mobile rolls out more 5G….Netflix backs up on skipping while numbers grow….Why radio isn’t bigger…Apple and Amazon are chasing more sports…Facebook Messenger for Kids grows…Microsoft Word helps finish your sentences….IT teams are sports franchise heroes…The route to a faster web…those stories and more are here today, in THE COMUNICANO!!!

Trailer Watch

Corona Watch

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What do Post-Coronavirus Events Look Like?www.eventmanagerblog.com
The most pressing question on event professionals’ minds is what events will look like once the lockdowns have been lifted.

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Coronavirus computer modelers revise dates for easing state shutdowns www.geekwire.com
The latest computer projections from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation deliver a double dose of discouragement about the coronavirus outbreak.

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Survey: 60 Percent of US Shoppers “Fearful” of Shopping Inside Grocery Storesthespoon.tech

If coronavirus has you a little nervous about buying your food at the actual supermarket, you’re not alone. Results of a new survey from C+R Research shows that 60 percent of American shoppers are “now fearful” to shop at grocery stores, with 73 percent saying they are shopping less at physical stores.

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Schools, empty because of coronavirus, are being burglarized in Californiawww.mic.com

With much of the country virtually locked down due to coronavirus, overall crime rates have dropped. Cities are seeing fewer traffic stops and home burglaries, as mandatory shelter-in-place orders keep residents in their homes.

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All-day happy hour? Americans drinking while working at home during coronavirus pandemic: surveys www.pennlive.com
One survey, released Monday, found 42 percent of nearly 13,000 workers were drinking on the clock at home.

WFH Watch

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Foolproof tips to communicate better with your remote workforcethenextweb.com

It’s 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic has ground the world to a halt.

Your workforce — once office based — is now fully remote and you find yourself spending more time speaking to your employees and colleagues online.

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66% of employees in the U.S. are working from home www.prdaily.com

In a report on the state of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, Clutch found that nearly half of U.S. workers are remotely working five days a week. Collaboration is a top challenge.

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New State Street CIO Undergoes ‘Baptism by Fire’ With Pandemicwww.wsj.com
The new-hire honeymoon ended almost as soon as it started when Brian Franz joined State Street Corp. as chief information officer in January, shortly before the coronavirus arrived in force in the U.S.

ZOOM Watch

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New Research Shows Why and How Zoom Could Become an Advertising Driven Businessbattellemedia.com
As the coronavirus crisis built to pandemic levels in early March, a relatively unknown tech company confronted a defining opportunity. Zoom Video Communications, a fast-growing enterprise videoconferencing platform with roots in both Silicon Valley and China, had already seen its market cap grow from under $10 billion to nearly double that. As the coronavirus began…

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The reason Zoom calls drain your energy www.bbc.com
Video chat is helping us stay employed and connected. But what makes it so tiring — and how can we reduce ‘Zoom fatigue’?

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Zoom meeting etiquette: 15 tips and best practices for online video conference meetingswww.pennlive.com
Pro tip: if you aren’t talking, go ahead and mute your sound. And putting your best foot forward often means putting on pants.

Airbnb Watch

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Is this the end of Airbnb? www.wired.co.uk
Hosts are calling it the Airbnb apocalypse. But it’s more akin to an enema

Cable Watch

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Spectrum Employees Are Getting Sick Amid Debate Over Working From Home www.nytimes.com
More than 230 workers at Charter Communications, the cable and internet giant known as Spectrum, have tested positive for Covid-19, as employees question how many of them must work in the office.

Gaming Watch

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Coronavirus Means Bigger Gaming Sales, but Less Production www.nytimes.com
The coronavirus pandemic is offering mixed news and new challenges for gaming companies, both independent and corporate.

Social Watch

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Steak-umm’s Twitter account is dropping bizarre truth bombs. Here are the minds behind it.www.washingtonpost.com
The brand’s feed has earned high praise, but what’s the end game?

Services Watch

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The Home Services Subscription Economy: 2020 Report www.inmyarea.com
We surveyed 1000+ adults about their subscriptions to find out just how much people are paying for streaming services and if trends will change in 2020.

FoodTech Watch

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Vertical farms see surge in demand for greens grown indoors www.axios.com
The coronavirus has thrown a wrench in supply-chain logistics.

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Farmshelf Unveils Its First Consumer-facing Vertical Farming Unitthespoon.tech

Farmshelf, the vertical farming company best known for outfitting restaurants with its high-tech indoor farms, today unveiled its first-ever consumer-facing product, according to a company press release.

Apple Watch

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The One Phone That Can Disrupt Apple’s iPhone 12 apple.news

5G Watch

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Here’s every U.S. city with 5G coverage right now www.androidcentral.com
5G deployment is moving fast and the list of cities with coverage is growing all the time. See if your U.S. city has coverage yet by Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, or AT&T.

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T-Mobile and Sprint Already Making Big 5G Moves, Upgrading Customer Connectionswww.droid-life.com

The T-Mobile and Sprint merger isn’t quite a month old, yet New T-Mobile already has a couple of big network announcements to share as a result of it. T-Mobile customers will now find 5G in more places, faster 5G using Sprint’s network spectrum in select cities, and Sprint customers have access to parts of T-Mobile’s 5G and LTE networks.

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T-Mobile expands 5G network and gives LTE access to all Sprint customers www.imore.com

The T-Mobile and Sprint merger was just recently approved, and the companies are taking no time in bringing the strengths of both of their networks together for all of its customers.

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Vodafone exec slams 5G-coronavirus conspiracy theories: ‘The worst type of fake news’www.cnbc.com
Such baseless claims have inspired people to torch cell phone towers in Europe, resulting in outcry from officials, carriers and scientists.

Radio Watch

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In a Crisis, Radio Should Be Bigger Than Ever — So Why Isn’t It? www.rollingstone.com

Terrestrial music stations have a major cultural opportunity right now, but employees say a muddied strategy is standing in the way

YouTube Watch

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A new lawsuit against YouTube shows how hard it is to get the company to respond to abuse www.theverge.com
An impersonation scam involving cryptocurrency is now heading to the courts — but the average person has far fewer options

Netflix Watch

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Netflix Locks In New Feature That Lets Users Prevent Accidental Pauses, Time Skipsapple.news

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Netflix Earnings: Nearly 16 Million New Subscribers Join So Far in 2020 www.nytimes.com
The streaming giant added nearly 16 million new subscribers in the first three months of the year.

Apple Watch

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Apple is looking to expand its live sports coverage on Apple TV apple.news

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Could a streaming service like Apple or Amazon control the next Pac-12 rights deal?apple.news

KidTech Watch

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Facebook Messenger for Kids launches in Australia eftm.com

As a parent of three young kids I can tell you I’ve looked at a lot of messaging solutions for keeping in touch with my kids when I travel, none of them — other than Apple’s iMessage, have ticked all the boxes. Facebook’s announcement today that Messenger Kids is expanding outside the US and into more countries — including Australia may just change that whole process and create a whole set of new tickboxes that parents should be considering.

Facebook Watch

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Facebook tests customisable profile colours, and it looks BAD www.creativebloq.com
Dull burgundy, anyone?

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Facebook agreed to censor posts after Vietnam slowed traffic www.reuters.com
Facebook’s local servers in Vietnam were taken offline early this year, slowing local traffic to a crawl until it agreed to significantly increase the censorship of “anti-state” posts for local users, two sources at the company told Reuters on Tuesday.

Microsoft Watch

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Microsoft 365 Family and Personal subscriptions now available for purchase www.zdnet.com
Microsoft’s newly rebranded Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions are available for purchase. But there’s no updated word on when promised new features and apps will be available.

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Microsoft Word online can now rewrite whole sentences for you: How to use it www.laptopmag.com
Microsoft has updated Word online with a more powerful Rewrite Suggestions feature that can revise entire sentences for you. Here’s a look at what it does and how to use it.

Media Watch

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Digital media clobbered by coronavirus www.axios.com
The drastic measures at top digital media outlets serve as a stark reminder.

Web Watch

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Have You Noticed The New Web? It’s Faster, More Secure apple.news

Travel Watch

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‘Perfectly Airworthy’ Jets Now Facing Life On Death Rowwww.dmarge.com
Forget last year’s Boeing 737 Max parking crisis — the current global travel shutdown has made that logistical nightmare look like a flea on a camel’s back.

Tesla Watch

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Tesla releases impressive videos of cars avoiding running over pedestrians electrek.co

Odds & Ends

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NFL teams’ IT staffs emerging as key players in virtual draftwww.mobilesportsreport.com

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The Secret Service Training Tactic for Building Mental Enduranceforge.medium.com
Former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras explains how the Hormetic Effect can be applied to everyday life to build mental resilience and grit.

EarthDay Watch

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Earth Day campaigns go virtual in quarantined celebrations of 50th anniversary adage.com
Brands merge educational efforts with rallying cries for ‘Climate Action.’

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Andy Abramson

Follow me on Twitter @andyabramson or read my occasional blog post at andyabramson.com