• Snowflake has reportedly filed confidential paperwork for an IPO and is aiming for a $20 billion valuation, according to the Financial Times. Snowflake has declined to comment.
• The cloud data warehousing company is one of the hottest startups in tech. "It's going to be the blockbuster enterprise listing for 2020," Constellation Research analyst Ray Wang told Business Insider.
• Here are 5 reasons Snowflake has drawn much attention in the tech world — from its 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Snowflake is reportedly planning to go public in what could be one of the most closely watched trading debuts in tech this year.

The Silicon Valley startup has submitted paperwork for a confidential initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the Financial Times.  

Snowflake is aiming for a valuation of as high as $20 billion, the report said. The company just raised $479 million in February at a $12.4 billion valuation. In total, Snowflake has raised $1.4 billion from investors including Sequoia and ICONIQ Capital.

"It's going to be the blockbuster enterprise listing for 2020," Constellation Research analyst Ray Wang told Business Insider. "Investors are looking for winners on cloud and analytics."

Here are 5 reasons Snowflake's reported plan to go public is getting the tech world excited:

Snowflake dominates a new, hot market: Cloud data warehousing.

Snowflake was founded in 2012 by Benoit Dageville, Marcin Zukowski, and Thierry Cruanes. It came of stealth mode only in 2014, but it quickly became a hot startup for addressing a critical business problem: how to efficiently store and manage massive amounts of data in the cloud.

The cloud enabled businesses set up networks on web-based platforms run by the likes of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google. But for many businesses who embraced cloud computing, managing their data in the cloud proved to be a challenge.

Snowflake "hit the market at exactly the right time," Gartner senior director analyst Adam Ronthal told Business Insider last year.

"When Snowflake first launched they launched in a world where there was a fair amount of dissatisfaction" with the data warehousing technologies, he said. "Snowflake came along and said, 'If you're struggling with these things, we can address that for you.' And they could."

Former CEO Bob Muglia left suddenly after saying an IPO is not imminent.

Snowflake stunned the tech world last year when it announced the sudden departure of CEO Bob Muglia.

Muglia, who was named CEO shortly before the startup came out of stealth mode in 2014, is a veteran executive who once served under Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer at Microsoft. He stepped down at Snowflake not long after saying in a media interview that he didn't plan to pursue an IPO for another year or two. 

Muglia was replaced by Frank Slootman, the current CEO, who rejected the notion that the interview was the reason for his predecessor's exit, calling it "the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

"That is not how boards operate or how they think," Slootman told Business Insider in an interview last year. "CEO transitions are extremely difficult. They're risky. They're absolutely the last resort. You don't do this because somebody had a bad interview. It's absurd."

Slootman also said at the time that Snowflake could go public within three years.

CEO Frank Slootman left ServiceNow partly because it became focused on "social justice issues."

Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman is a Silicon Valley veteran who previously led two successful tech IPOs.

He was CEO of Data Domain, the data storage company which went public in 2007 and is now owned by Dell. Before Snowflake, he was CEO of ServiceNow, the cloud software giant which went public in 2012.

Slootman left ServiceNow in 2017 partly because the fast-growing software behemoth was expanding its focus beyond the business of tech.

"They started caring about things that I had no interest in," he told Business Insider in a 2019 interview. "You've got all the social justice issues and all the politics that go with that."

He was critical of political and social activism at tech companies, such as the protests launched by Google employees who complained about the work the company was doing for the Federal government.

"I cannot possibly handle that kind of conversation," Slootman said. "You go somewhere else if you want that conversation."

Slootman expects that Snowflake partners Amazon and Microsoft will one day be his rivals

Snowflake rapidly became dominant in cloud data warehousing largely because it forged partnerships with the giants of the cloud, Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

But the cloud giants also offer cloud storage products that compete directly with Snowflake. In fac, CEO Frank Slootman says the cloud market could change dramatically in a way that could hurt smaller players like Snowflake.

"There is one giant elephant in the room," Slootman told Business Insider last year. "That is that the [main] cloud players are also our competitors."

Slootman was speaking from experience. He said he has seen how dominant tech companies eventually try to "suffocate" smaller players, through intense take-no-prisoners competition or acquisitions.

"Microsoft did it. IBM did it. They all do it. It's innate. It's not good for them, but they can't help themselves. For the cloud era, that is going to be a dynamic that every company will face."

"I'm a huge customer of Amazon and at the same time, they are a huge competitor, so it's a very interesting dynamic," he said. "Microsoft is trying to make up ground so they are very partner-friendly right now. But does Microsoft have the same homicidal impulses as Amazon? Yes they do."

Slootman wants to be known as a no-nonsense, effective leader, in the style of General George Patton.

The tech world full of top executives and pioneering entrepreneurs who looked up to the industry's iconic figures, including Steve Jobs,  Bill Gates and Larry Ellison.

Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman's idol is George Patton, the legendary World War II general.  This explains his direct, no-nonsense leadership style in business. Slootman actually helped recruit John Donahoe, who once led eBay, to succeed him at ServiceNow. (Donahoe recently left to lead Nike and has since been replaced by former SAP CEO Bill McDermott.)

Slootman compared Donahoe to Dwight Eisenhower, another US general who later became president. 

"He is the Eisenhower. I'm the Patton," he told Business Insider last year. "Eisenhower was a politician. He tried to please a lot of people." He added: "Patton just wanted to kill Germans and he wanted to get to Berlin first."

• Seedpods are treehouse-like popup resorts designed by Nomadic Resorts.
• The pods are based on the shape of seeds and are low-impact and sustainable.
• The first prototypes were installed in a nature reserve in Mauritius in 2019.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The future of travel, and glamping, might be in luxury tents shaped like seeds. At least, that what design studio Nomadic Resorts is proposing, in what they're calling a "hospitality revolution."

No one knows what travel will look like as the world moves past the COVID-19 pandemic, but this might be a clue. The Seedpod is somewhere between a treehouse and a tent, and functions as a pop-up resort. Seedpods could potentially solve some travel issues exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

With lockdowns and people stuck at home, Nomadic Resorts is betting that people will crave outdoor experiences. The pandemic has also led to an economic downturn, but Seedpods are cheaper than a hotel would be, while still having amenities that regular tents wouldn't. They're available to buy from Nomadic Resorts for $3,400.

Here's what they're like.

SEE ALSO: This $125,000 'Airship' tiny home looks like a spaceship and is fully self sufficient — see inside

Seedpods can either be hung from trees, or stand on a tripod.

The design is based on the natural shape of seeds, made of a number of structural rings and able to resist wind speeds of up to 75 miles per hour.

Inside, they have a ceiling fan, charging station, and light.

They can also convert from a sitting area to a sleeping area at night.

With a diameter of about seven feet, and about seven feet of internal headspace, there's isn't much room to move around, but they're perfect for sleeping in nature.

By moving the table and pillows, the small space is used efficiently for eating, lounging, or sleeping.

Though named for its seed-shaped inspiration, from the outside it looks almost like a cocoon.

"Our idea was to create a structural system that could be installed using manpower only on virtually any terrain, anywhere on the planet within a day that could last at least for a decade," Nomadic Resort COO Neil Henrikz said.

The structures can be put up in just about any location with only a few people, no tools required, making them great for hiking and setup in remote locations.

Because they're so small, Seedpods can be disinfected quickly and could be used on a socially distanced camping trip.

The company says a popup bathroom can be added, too, with a shower, toilet, and washbasin.

Solar panels can also be added to be more sustainable.

In 2019, the first Seedpods were installed at Bel Ombre Nature Reserve in Mauritius. Soon, Nomadic Resorts says that they will be for sale.

• Four years after being acquired by Salesforce, Quip has evolved from a standalone productivity and collaboration tool to a product that is embedded directly into Salesforce's customer focused tools. 
• Quip is best known for its co-founder Bret Taylor, who is now Salesforce's COO, but the product itself has become core to Salesforce's mission of giving organizations a "360 degree" view of their customers. It's meant to make Salesforce easier to use.
• Quip is now run by Ryan Aytay, who focuses on the customer facing and business side, and original co-founder Kevin Gibbs, who focuses on engineering and product. Both are co-CEOs of Quip.
• Quip is seeing a big uptick in usage during this remote work era, according to a recent report and Salesforce internal figures.
• Click here to read more BI Prime stories.

When the University of San Francisco asked Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to help source personal protective equipment for its medical workers in early March, he turned to one of his senior executives, Ryan Aytay, to help organize the effort.

Within days, Aytay pulled together a team of employees from within Salesforce to put aside their day-to-day jobs and focus on a task that included working with partners like Alibaba to find trusted PPE vendors. Their efforts were a success: Salesforce bought over $25 million-worth of PPE — more than 50 million pieces — to send to hospitals and agencies in need. To organize that effort, from sourcing to shipping, Aytay used Quip — a productivity tool Salesforce acquired in 2016 for $750 million.

Quip is best known because of the rapid rise through the ranks of co-founder Bret Taylor, who is now Salesforce's chief operating officer, while less is known about where the product stands now. Four years post-acquisition, Quip has evolved from a standalone productivity and collaboration tool with built-in office suite functionality to a product that is embedded directly into Salesforce's customer focused tools and a core part of the company's business. 

"We make it easier for anyone that uses Salesforce to know everything about a customer, everything that drives whatever they're doing, whether it's closing a deal or a service ticket or any process they want to do," Quip co-founder and co-CEO Kevin Gibbs told Business Insider. "We can make all of the users of Salesforce products more productive because we're getting all of that customer information at their fingertips."

Quip is now jointly run by Aytay, who focuses on the customer facing and business side, and original co-founder Gibbs, who focuses on engineering and product. In addition to running Quip, both have dual roles within Salesforce. Aytay also oversees strategic partnerships and key projects for Benioff and was recently promoted to Salesforce's chief business officer, and Gibbs also runs engineering and strategy for Salesforce's mobile apps. 

Evolving from a standalone productivity app to integrating with Salesforce

Quip has undergone a significant transformation in recent years under the leadership of Aytay and Gibbs. In its original form it was a collaboration app that let users create, annotate, and chat about documents or spreadsheets in real-time, competing against Google Drive, Microsoft Office, and even Slack. 

While it still exists as a standalone productivity app that costs between $10 and $25 per user per month, Salesforce primarily pushes it as part of its larger "Customer 360" set of products. That means that it's now deeply integrated into Salesforce's existing tools and meant to help make them easier to use, allowing people to collaborate and share information directly within Salesforce in new ways.

"We are about making Salesforce better," Aytay said. "It's about connecting the productivity component and the CRM context."

Here's what using Quip through Salesforce might look like:

A salesperson trying to close a deal with a new customer would ordinarily have to send that prospect an email with details to close a deal. With Quip, however, they could instead send a document that automatically pulls relevant data from their Salesforce database (to edit the document the customer would have to sign up for a Quip account, but just to read it they wouldn't have to). Then, when a deal gets approved through Quip, it's automatically recorded in a salesperson's Salesforce database.

Aytay calls it "extending" the capabilities of Salesforce via Quip and says that the product isn't trying to compete with the likes of Google Drive or Microsoft anymore. Instead, it's trying to partner with those apps. Quip allows users to embed a Google document or spreadsheet in the tool and integrates with Slack as well.

Ultimately, Aytay and Gibbs believes that Quip allows Salesforce users to be more productive: Instead of needing to switch between a bunch of different apps, they can access all the information they need in once place. 

"You're eliminating the need for someone to swivel-chair through email or swivel-chair to some spreadsheet or some other messaging application," Aytay said, "Because it's now all encapsulated inside of Salesforce."

Existing Salesforce customers pay an add-on fee for Quip integration, though prices differ between customers and there is no one set price. 

Quip in the remote work era

Like most productivity software, Quip is seeing a big uptick in usage right now during the coronavirus-related remote work era. Quip usage increased 15% between February and March, according to a report from security company Okta about the most popular workplace apps during remote work. 

Salesforce doesn't break out individual user numbers for its products, but confirmed that more businesses are signing up for Quip during the coronavirus crisis. Quip signed up 62% more customers per week between mid-March and mid-April than it signed up between mid-December and mid-March, Salesforce said. Users are also sending 20% more messages in Quip during the remote work era.

Though it declined to share Quip's revenue growth, Salesforce includes it in its "Salesforce Platform and Other" category in its quarterly earnings, along with several others businesses like Tableau and Trailhead. That category grew 62% year-over-year as of its last report.

Salesforce employees are using the product more too, including to share information with customers, he said. Salesforce is reimagining how it operates, its sales people are working from home, using video calls, and collaborating in Quip. That's also allowing them to easily share information with customers because "we're not able to go out and shake their hands and each and every day," he added.

Although Quip wasn't built specifically for remote work, the fact that it allows easy collaboration and access to information in the CRM system means that the product is especially useful right now, Gibbs said. He wants Quip to be the place where sales people, service agents, developers, and anyone else who uses Saleforce's customer facing tools can get work done. 

As a result of the pandemic, every business now has to rethink how it operates — from how it sells products to how it's providing customer service.

The effort that Quip's engineering and product teams have put into integrating the product over the last few years means its "very relevant" right now, Aytay said: "The things you did every single day before are different now."

Fitting into Salesforce without losing Quip's company culture 

As Quip has evolved, Gibbs' team has made user needs and experiences a priority, trying to figure out where Quip can help improve productivity for their specific jobs. The goal is to make sure the product design reflects the ways people are actually using it. Gibbs said he is still learning about how industries like healthcare and finance can best utilize Quip's capabilities. 

Quip customers that used the app before the acquisition are new customer prospects for Salesforce's core customer-focused software, and it tries to show them the value of integrating productivity and sales tools. Salesforce declined to name specific customers.

While Quip's product has been deeply integrated with Salesforce, Quip's workforce and company structure has largely stayed separate and intact. Many of Quip's employees have stayed with the company since it joined Salesforce, and even risen up through the ranks. Gibbs said that was a quality that appealed to him during the acquisition process.

"What I think Salesforce does an amazing job of is not mandating how people integrate and work together but, instead, talking about values," Gibbs said. "I didn't have to sort of contort myself to a new way of being, as being part of Salesforce."

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NOW WATCH: What makes 'Parasite' so shocking is the twist that happens in a 10-minute sequence

• A Las Vegas house with an attached 15,000-square-foot underground bunker is for sale.
• The house and bunker are listed for $18 million. 
• Inside, the house's bunker is covered in murals of landscapes at different times of the day.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Only about two miles from the Las Vegas strip, an ordinary-looking house sits on top of a 15,000-square-foot bomb shelter. The massive doomsday bunker is listed for $18 million, including a 5,000-square-foot home furnished in full 1970s style, plus murals throughout.

Realtor Stephan LaForge told Business Insider that the real draw of the listing is the massive underground property, though the I-beams and underground features are harder to represent in photos than the house's interior. LaForge told Realtor.com that the price reflects the impossibility of creating a structure like this today. It last sold for $1.15 million in 2015.

The house itself is a unique draw and has become somewhat famous. It has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, and a pool, plus a small guesthouse that sits aboveground. It was built in 1978 as a bomb shelter, although it isn't actually protective against a nuclear disaster. Current owners, the Society for the Preservation of Near Extinct Species, added period-appropriate furniture and other improvements that might make the house more livable to potential buyers.

3970 Spencer Street is listed with Stephan LaForge with Berkshire Hathaway Nevada Properties.

Take a look inside. 

SEE ALSO: This 193-square-foot prefab 'cocoon' tiny home with a 180-degree window was inspired by luxury hotels and can be put together in 2 days

The house is located only a few miles from the Las Vegas Strip.

From the outside, only the small townhouse is visible.

The underground house is accessible through a staircase from the lower level.

Rocks from the original builder's home in Colorado were used in landscaping.

Source: The Review Journal

It isn't easily mistaken for the real thing, but the lighting does create day and night effects.

Inside, the home is filled with '70s furniture.

All furniture is included in the price of the house.

The dining room is intensely gold.

The living room has a fan and a fireplace.

The house is actually cooled by eight air conditioning units installed by a previous owner, which ensure good air circulation underground.

It also has more recent additions of repeaters for cell phone reception and Internet.

Source: Forbes

Maybe more than any other room in the house, the kitchen screams the '70s.

The kitchen and other rooms have been used in art and film as period backdrops.

Source: Juno Calypso

Paintings in windows give the home a view.

Each of the five bedrooms has its own character.

Ceilings and room layouts could make someone inside forget they were underground.

One of the bedrooms even opens to the "outdoor" area.

One bathroom is also elaborate, with a spa.

It has an "outdoor" area as well, also part of the house underground.

Lighting changes based on the time of day.

Green carpeting and steel beams disguised as palm trees create the outdoor scene.

Designers were clearly committed to creating an outdoor vision, complete with a fountain and garden decor.

Residents can enjoy dusk on their porch, without ever emerging from 26 feet below ground.

Large murals add an imaginary landscape that extends beyond the yard.

According to the listing, the home has 500 feet of floor-to-ceiling murals.

They even include wildlife.

The murals depict scenes from other places the original owners lived.

And, residents can eat outside or host parties.

There are other entertainment options outside, too.

The outdoor-themed area has a six-foot-deep pool and two hot tubs...

A mini-golf course...

And a barbecue.

In addition to all the furniture, one year of a caretaker and upkeep is included in the price.

Laforge suggested to Realtor.com that the bunker could be used to host parties and special events, like raves.

Source: Realtor.com

He also added that it could be perfect for people looking for extreme privacy.

Listing Agent Stephen Laforge provided some renderings of the underground supports of the bunker.

This rendering shows the steel beams that provide the roof structure underground.

A cross-section of the bunker gives another perspective.

• I tested a $234,086 Aston Martin DB11 V8 — a gorgeous machine with a potent, 503-horsepower engine under the hood.
• The DB11 was introduced in 2016 and hasn't been substantially upgraded for 2020.
• It doesn't matter, because the car remains gorgeous.
• The Mercedes-AMG-sourced twin-turbo V8 is a dandy alternative to the DB11's V12.
• There are few proper grand-tourers around, but the DB11 is an exemplar of the automotive form.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Yeah, yeah ... Aston Martin, DB11, James Bond. All that stuff is still in the picture. But let's forget about the hoary cinematic associations and concentrate on the glories of the machine.

Aston kindly loaned me a 2020 DB11 coupé, with a Mercedes-AMG V8 engine replacing the V12 that I sampled several years ago. I tend to go absolutely ga-ga over rides like this; the DB9 is the car I've driven in the past half-decade that I simply cannot shake from my consciousness.

The DB11 doesn't have a lot of competition: the Ferrari 812 Superfast, the Mercedes-AMG GT, the outgoing Chevy Corvette. The question, then, is does it retain its traditional lead in this field — in terms of conjoining breathtaking beauty and staggering power?

Read on to discover the answer:

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My "Sunburst Yellow" 2020 DB11 V8 started at $205,600, but quite a bit more than a few grand in options took the as-tested price to $234,086

We first sampled the DB11 back in 2017.

Read the review.

And in 2019, we checked out the convertible version, the Volante.

Read the review.

The DB11 is, in two words, stupid beautiful. Introduced in 2016, the design was birthed under the supervision of Marek Reichman and signaled an aggressive departure from the Henrik Fisker era and Fisker's focus on suave restraint.

For me, Astons are the most beautiful cars money can buy. In fact, I always feel underdressed around Astons — not equal to the lovely gauntlet thrown down by these handsome machines.

The temptation with GT cars is to ... exaggerate. Because, as a designer, you can. Big engines mean long hood, and why not overplay the hand with the fascia? The DB11 resists that temptation.

Balance, balance, and yet more balance. The overall form is sleek and muscular, but the curves and lines and proportions add a dose of sheer elegance to the aesthetic.

If I were being churlish, I suppose I could complain about the headlamps, which are full LEDs with spidery running lights. I don't care for that little extra bit toward the backward sweep. Minor offense, though.

The front splitter is part of the nearly $7,000 "Exterior Black Pack."

In a world of gargantuan badges, Aston just doesn't go there.

This oh-so narrow hood vent ...

Is gracefully echoed on the front haunch, extended rearward from the wheel arch.

The design element is also rhymed at the back end, with the bold tail lights. The DB11 is a fantastic 360-degree car: it looks great from every angle.

True, the fastback, floating roof might not be for everyone, but it didn't bother me.

Again, the discreet badge, and the nameplate, in sans-serif chrome. (Technically, the typeface is Optima Roman.) That vent is part of an "AeroBlade" deployable spoiler.

"One of the major triumphs of the DB11's design is the new AeroBlade system, which creates a virtual spoiler using jets of air directed through discrete ducts located on the decklid of the car," we noted in our review of the DB11 several years ago

"This allows Aston to deliver great downforce without the need for a large and unsightly spoiler. There is a small retractable spoiler, but that's only deployed at high speed."

It's a subtle thing, but that rear haunch is power and beauty in ideal balance.

$3,200 buys you ten-spoke "Directional Black Gloss" wheels front ...

... And back.

The yellow brake calipers are $1,600 additional. My test car wore Bridgestones at all four corners.

In proper GT fashion, the DB11 is optimized for weekend runs to regions that are from the urban hullabaloo. Cargo capacity, under the hatch, is accordingly modest: less than 10 cubic feet.

One might be able to jam a slim golf bag in there. I could manage a pair of overnight packs, so mission accomplished.

It sure is fun to pop the aluminum clamshell hood on the DB11 ...

... to reveal the rude beast that lurks beneath.

The 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V8 engine makes 503 horsepower, with 513 pound-feet of torque. This powerplant is borrowed from Mercedes-AMG — Mercedes owns a chunk of Aston and the carmakers share some components.

The entire engine bay is cross-braced to increase the DB11's stiffness.

As magnificent as the DB11 is on the outside, the time has come to examine the interior.

We step over this door sill plate that identifies the car — note that there are no DB11 nameplates on the exterior.

It's a cliché, but Aston thinks about tailoring its interiors. The driver's seat fits like a Saville Row suit. I know what to do when I strap into a Porsche 911, but I know how I'm supposed to feel in an Aston. Clothes make the man!

The Aston badge is perhaps the best-designed in the automotive world. In my book, it's rivaled only by Alfa-Romero and Ferrari.

The DB11's start-stop button is lovely, but a step down from the old design, which required the insertion of a crystal key fob.

The push-button gear selector manages the eight-speed automatic transmission.

The DB11's paddle-shifters are nicely crafted hunks of satin-finished metal. The "S" button controls the the drive modes: GT, Sport, and Sport Plus.

The suspension button on the other side allows for corresponding modes, but you can be in GT mode here and Sport mode for throttle and gearshift response, for example.

The seats have perforated upholstery, and the yellow top-stitching is few hundred extra.

The DB11's one concession to bling.

Seat controls are tucked away on the center tunnel. I mean "alloy torque tube," which conceals a "carbon fiber propeller shaft."

The back seats. Hahahaha!!!

As much as the DB11's "Obsidian Black" interior is tailored, there's also some sculpture here and there.

The infotainment system runs on an eight-inch central screen.

Aston also borrows the undergirding tech from Mercedes, and to be honest, it isn't great. But a confession: I don't care. It gets the job done. You can plot a GPS course. You can pair your phone. There's a USB plug. The $2,270 Aston premium audio sounds phenomenal — a big improvement over systems I've sampled in the past.

This buttons-touchpad-puck-y command center is how you control the whole affair. It's ... awkward. But whatever. I'd rather Aston focus on making a beautiful car.

So what's the verdict?

If cars like the V12 version of the DB11 and the Ferrari 812 Superfast are rolling anachronisms at best and, at worst, on the automotive endangered-species list, then the DB11 V8 is an effort to stave off the inevitable. Personally, I'd rather have four more cylinders under the hood, but the virtues of the DB11 V8 are considerable, even if the machine has endured something of a soul-ectomy. (Interestingly, what's saddening in the DB11 V8 is utterly exhilarating in its stablemate, the glorious Vantage, more on that in a subsequent review).

What's good about the DB11 is indeed very good, and unlike many, many other 21st-century asphalt-obliterating beast-mobiles — all-wheel-driven and suspension-managed and rather generally sanded off the rough edge — the DB11 is rather a wild thing. The car is a tail-happy gunslinger, and you don't even have to try that hard to unstick the meaty Bridgestones from the road; a mere burst of throttle when executing a routine left or right turn will have you micro-drifting through the 'burbs, gleefully. The equation is simple: much horsepower and torque piped to the rear wheels, plus snappy steering, yields a giddy dose of oversteer. Cue giddy grin.

When that gets old, which it never does, you can always aim the DB11 at an unveering expanse of highway and savor the perfectly calibrated roar and rumble that the V8 produces. No, it ain't the majestic basso of the V12. But it'll do.

And when that gets old, which it also never does, you can just park the DB11 and look at it. Holy schmokes, does Aston Martin know how to sculpt sheetmetal! No Aston is as beautiful as the DB9, but the current lineup is ... well, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and declare inarguably the most gorgeous slate of vehicles money can buy.

A lot of money, of course, and let's face it, Astons depreciate faster than cannonballs tossed from ravine bridges. But who cares? Toyota Corollas lose value, too. I'd rather be carping about how much moolah I'm blowing while I'm behind the wheel of a sumptuous, made-in-England grand tourer: financial agony should at least be exquisite.

The general idea behind the V8 variant of the DB11 is that by decreasing the size and bulk of the motor, the driving dynamics become lighter and sportier — less grand-tourer than sorta-kinda sports car. Indeed, the DB11 V8 is more sprightly than the V12, and perhaps even a tad wilder. I clocked the 0-60 mph time at a spirited four seconds flat, but the DB11 is supposed to be faster than that, so chalk the discrepancy up to my cowardice. Somehow, the car allegedly manages just south of 20 mpg in combined fuel economy, and doggone if I didn't have a hard time incinerating high-octane petrol during my time with the DB11.

I wouldn't opt for the yellow paint job, but it sure pops in photos. So influencers, consider the choice. As with all Aston paint jobs I've experienced up close and personal, it's hypnotic.

In case you haven't guessed by now, I'm a sucker for Astons. The number-one plaything on my to-do list, should I unexpectedly make bank, is a DB9. I have a hard time reviewing the things objectively because I consider my wardrobe unworthy (paging Brioni) and because I'm weak-in-the-knees and fuzzy-in-love the whole time. Aston Martins are weapons of objectivity destruction in my world. They have me at VROOM!

They also don't play nice. I recently sampled both a Porsche Turbo S and a Mercedes-AMG GT R (which shares a lot of bits and pieces with the DB11) and durned if I struggle to unsettle those cars. The Porsche can't be ruffled by mere mortals, and the Merc is so loud and aggressive that it actively encourages you to be careful.

The DB11 V8, meanwhile, starts off mellow and mannered and then progressively unleashed hell. Before you know it, you're hanging on for dear life — but asking for more. And it's not obvious you can handle it. I fret not about throwing a 911 into a corner. And in, say, a Ferrari 812, I'm going so fast in a straight line that I don't want to tempt fate. But the DB11 V8 whispers in your ear about the limits of grip and urges you to hit that corner with an abundance of foolish energy. Beware.

In the weird world of true GTs, the DB11 is something special: a car with so much soul that it effortlessly crossed the mind-body barrier. After a few minutes behind the wheel, you feel alive in ways that only a machine this utterly and unapologetically alive can make you feel.

Worth way over $200,000? Well, if you have to ask ...

• The PlayStation 5 is coming this holiday season, according to Sony, and a ton of new games for the new console were just revealed.
• From a new "Spider-Man" game to this year's "NBA 2K" entry, the PlayStation 5 is getting a ton of new games. 
• Whether you're looking for huge new sequels, like "Horizon Forbidden West," major new entries in long-established franchises, like "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart," or this year's "NBA 2K" game, the PlayStation 5 has something for you.
• These are the biggest games that were revealed during Sony's big event last week!
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The PlayStation 5 is just months away, and this past week we got our first real look at games running on Sony's next-generation game console.

Great news: Not only do those games look stunning, but Sony revealed a plethora of unknown titles and hotly anticipated sequels during its big PS5 reveal event. 

From the new "Spider-Man" game to this year's "NBA 2K" entry, these are the 15 most exciting new PS5 games we saw this week:

1. "Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales"

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2. "Project Athia"

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3. "NBA 2K21"

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4. "Sackboy: A Big Adventure"

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5. "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart"

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6. "Stray"

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7. "Ghostwire: Tokyo"

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8. "Resident Evil 8/Resident Evil Village"

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9. "Demon's Souls" (Remake)

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10. "Horizon Forbidden West"

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11. "Bugsnax"

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12. "Deathloop"

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13. "Gran Turismo 7"

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14. "Hitman 3"

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15. "Little Devil Inside"

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BONUS: Here's the debut trailer for the PlayStation 5 console itself, which was also unveiled this past week!

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The coronavirus pandemic has sparked a public health crisis, the effects of which are now rippling throughout the global economy.

Cities have been shut down, travel is limited, and major central banks have begun to intervene in financial markets at levels unseen since the 2008 recession.

To find out how industry leaders think COVID-19 and related containment efforts will impact their companies and the economy as a whole, we surveyed executive decision makers from around the world.

Simply enter your email for a FREE download of our executive survey results.

Join the conversation about this story »

With speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G, and latency up to 120 times lower, 5G is poised to revolutionize the tech industry.

Telecoms in 18 countries will roll out 5G networks by the end of 2019, which means the race to secure global 5G leadership is officially underway. Winning would allow the opportunity to shape the future of the telecommunications industry, and could come with more than a decade of competitive advantages.

As the biggest mobile market in the world, China is at the front of the pack of global 5G development. China is projected to have 460 million 5G connections by 2025, which would make it the largest 5G market worldwide. After largely missing the opportunity of the 3G and 4G eras, 5G leadership is a top priority for China.

In the 5G Snapshot: China report, Business Insider Intelligence breaks down the key components and advantages of China's 5G mission, and provides summaries of the country's 3 largest wireless operators.

This exclusive report can be yours for FREE today.

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• British quantum computing startup Universal Quantum has emerged from stealth to announce a £3.6 million seed round.
• The startup wants to build a quantum computer with chips comprising one million qubits. For context, today's quantum computers have 20 to 50 qubits and the technology is difficult to scale up.
• Others competing in the field include Google and IBM, with quantum computing promising major breakthroughs in climate change, drug discovery, and other scientific fields.
• Read on for an exclusive look at Universal Quantum's pitch deck.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

British startup Universal Quantum has raised £3.6 million ($4.5 million) in new funding to try and beat IBM and Google to the moonshot of building a functioning quantum computer.

The University of Sussex spinout has emerged from stealth to announce its ambition to build a 1-million qubit quantum computer and test whether the tech might solve some of humanity's biggest challenges.

Quantum computing is at the very edge of physics and computer science, but the race to build a true super computer is heating up with Palo Alto's PsiQuantum raising $215 million in April, and Finland's IQM announcing a €15 million raise on Thursday.

The promise of quantum computing is that it could be considerably more powerful than traditional computing, enabling humanity to solve major challenges around climate change, drug discovery, and areas we haven't thought of. The trouble is, quantum computers are extremely difficult to run and, depending on who you talk to, none have really managed to outstrip classical computers.

In traditional computing, information is encoded in bits that are only one of two values at any one time, usually represented as 0 or 1, on or off. Quantum computing operates in the realm of quantum mechanics, a mysterious branch of physics that famously no one understands. And it doesn't rely on bits, but a unit called a qubit which can be in two states simultaneously.

"What quantum computers do is make use of a number of very cool effects you see in the quantum world and one of them, for example, is that something can be in two places at the same time," said Dr Sebastian Weidt, CEO and cofounder of Universal Quantum, adding: "In a conventional computer, bits are represented as a one or a zero. And because we now live in the quantum world, we can represent ones and zeroes at the same time. That's where a lot of the computational power comes in."

Different players working on this technology are taking different approaches to try and exhibit "quantum effects", Weidt said.

IBM and other firms use superconducting qubits which are fabricated onto a chip, which is then cooled down to absolute zero or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius. That technology literally requires something like a giant refrigerator which is, for obvious reasons, quite difficult to scale up.

Universal Quantum says it has developed tech based on trapped ions. "You use individual charged atoms and you encode information inside of them, so each atom becomes a qubit," said Weidt, adding that the qubits are in a vacuum system with cool technology and there is no need for giant refrigerators.

Weidt argues this will be easier to scale up to build a true quantum computer. "It's not enough to be at tens of qubits, and that's where we're currently at .... we need to be at the millions of qubits.

"We didn't care too much about doing stuff with five qubits, 10 qubits to get a great Nature paper," he added. "We asked ourselves: 'Okay, what would it take to build a 1-million qubit computer, what's stopping us right now?'"

Universal Quantum's new backers include Village Global — a fund that offers connections to Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Other backers include Hoxton Ventures, Propagator VC, Luminous VC, and 7 Percent.

Read Universal Quantum's (redacted) pitch deck below:

• This is a preview of The Internet of Things 2020 research report from Business Insider Intelligence.
• Purchase this report.
• Business Insider Intelligence offers even more technology coverage with Connectivity & Tech Pro. Subscribe today to receive industry-changing connectivity news and analysis to your inbox.

IoT systems and solutions are iterating rapidly, and providers are coming to meet more and more of companies' and consumers' needs.

Emerging tools and technologies like smart speakers, machine learning, and 5G are enabling huge gains to efficiency and more control at home and in the workplace.

The continued growth of the IoT industry is going to be a transformative force across all organizations. By integrating all of our modern day devices with internet connectivity, the IoT market is on pace to grow to over $2.4 trillion annually by 2027.

To give companies insight into who's using IoT solutions, who isn't, and key trends in the development and deployment of IoT projects, Business Insider Intelligence conducted its fourth annual Global IoT Executive Survey.

The annual survey, combined with past iterations of the study, offers a longitudinal look at adoption of the IoT generally, anticipated trends and their realization, and the evolution of decision-making processes alongside other points of interest in the wider space. Our survey includes over 400 responses from key executives around the world, including C-suite and director-level respondents.

Through this exclusive study and broad-based research into the field, Business Insider Intelligence details the components that make up the IoT ecosystem. We size the IoT market and use exclusive data to identify key trends in the connected devices sector. And we profile the enterprise, governmental, and consumer IoT segments individually, drilling down into the drivers and characteristics that are shaping each market.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• We project that there will be more than 41 billion IoT devices by 2027, up from about 8 billion in 2019.
• 5G networks will figure into many companies' IoT projects before the year is out, with 39% of respondents to our survey saying they plan to support 5G in IoT products and services before 2021.
• AI and machine learning are critical systems that are continually evolving to provide IoT users with the tools they need to parse mountains of data and quickly discern usable insights, while edge computing solutions are growing more central to IoT discussions and increasingly sophisticated as companies seek to reduce data transmission costs and lower latency.
• The report highlights the opinions and experiences of IoT decision-makers on topics that include: drivers of adoption, major challenges and barriers, investment plans, and the types of solutions they're employing thus far.

In full, the report:

• Provides a primer on the basics of the IoT ecosystem.
• Offers forecasts for the IoT moving forward, and highlights areas of interest in the coming years.
• Looks at who is and is not adopting the IoT, and why.
• Highlights drivers and challenges facing companies that are implementing IoT solutions.

Companies mentioned in this report include: Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Attest, Audi, AWS, Baidu, Blink, Carbon Black, China, Mobile, China UnionPay, Cisco, Cimcon, Deutsche Telekom, eero, enSilo, Ericsson, Etisalat, Foninet, Goldman Sachs, Google, Google Cloud, Honeywell, Honeywell Connected Enterprise, Huawei, Internet of Things Consortium, Intersection, Jacuzzi, Michelin, Microsoft, NEC, Nest, NXP Semiconductors, Oracle, Orange, Particle, Qualcomm, Ring, Salesforce, Sidewalk Labs, Sigfox, Singtel, SoftBank, Software AG, Sprint, STMicroelectronics, T-Systems, Telefonica, Telstra, Tenable, Tencent, Tolaga Research, Verizon, VMWare, Z-Wave, ZigBee.

Interested in getting the full report? Here's how to get access:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
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Apple is at a tipping point.

The tech giant’s fiscal Q1 2019 represented the first time in more than a decade the company saw declines in both revenue and profit during a holiday season.

Apple’s peripheral segments — 'Services' and 'Wearables, Home, and Accessories' — were two bright spots for the company.

And Apple’s latest event marked a shift in the company’s approach, with a focus on news, games, videos, and other content.

Business Insider Intelligence has outlined the road ahead for the tech giant in The Future of Apple.

To get your copy of this exclusive report absolutely FREE, simply click here.

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Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Monday.

1. Facebook has rejected a proposed code of conduct from an Australian watchdog that would make it pay for news links, the Guardian reports. Facebook said there would be no "significant" effect on its business model if it stopped sharing newslinks.
2. US states appear to be backing off using contact tracing apps to monitor the spread of COVID-19, NBC reports. The states that have rolled them out have not had great success in getting significant portions of the population to download them.
3. Germany is launching its own COVID-19 contact tracing app this week, Engadget reports. Originally the country said it would make its app without Google and Apple's specialized API, but it later reversed its position.
4. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that short video streaming app Quibi is on track to sign up 2 million subscribers by the end of this year, far less than original target of 7.4 million. Daily downloads have not topped 379,000 since its launch day on April 6.
5. SoftBank has invested roughly $500 million in Credit Suisse funds that invest in some of its own startups, The Financial Times reports. The funds have latterly increased their exposure to several startups in SoftBank's portfolio.
6. SpaceX launched 58 of its Starlink satellites on Saturday, leaving a rainbow-colored cloud in the Florida sky. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the mission to orbit lifted off just before dawn from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
7. A US antitrust probe into big tech wants the CEOs of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook to testify before the House in July, Axios reports. Letters were reportedly sent to the CEOs requesting their attendance last week, and suggested subpoenas could be used to compel them.
8. Google apologized after search results failed to automatically bring up an image of Winston Churchill. Google said this was the result of a technical glitch, not a conscious decision to remove the image of the former British prime minister.
9. Facebook released a trove of 100,000 deepfake videos as a resource to help train algorithms to spot them better, MIT Tech Review reports. The faces of 3,426 actors were used to build the dataset.
10. Tesla is adding wireless phone chargers and USB-C ports to some of its US Model 3s, Elektrek reports. The upgrade is coming to cars made in its Fremont, California factory after appearing in its Shanghai factory.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

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NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

• Amazon is the subject of two preliminary antitrust probes in California and Washington State.
• The probes center on whether Amazon uses its marketplace to give advantage to its own products to the detriment of third-party sellers.
• The EU is reportedly gearing up to announce formal charges this month following an investigation into the same allegations.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon faces increased competition scrutiny even as the pandemic sends its retail business skyrocketing.

Investigators in two US states, California and Washington, are reportedly gearing up to launch antitrust probes into Amazon over whether it uses its marketplace to favor its own products over those of third-party sellers.

Questions over Amazon's dual role running a retail platform while selling its own products on that platform are not new, but a Wall Street Journal report from April that Amazon employees were using sales data to develop products for the company thrust them back into the spotlight, and prompted Senator Josh Hawley to request a Department of Justice investigation.

In addition to being individually scrutinized, Amazon is being folded into more general national antitrust investigations into big tech. Axios reported Saturday a House tech competition probe has written to the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook requesting they testify in July. The letters sent by the committee reportedly contained reminders that subpoenas could be used to compel CEOs to testify and provide documents.

Meanwhile the EU is reportedly getting ready to file formal antitrust charges against Amazon following its investigation into similar allegations. Once the charges are filed, the European Commission will rule on them, a process that could take a year and result in a fine of up to 10% of Amazon's annual turnover.

These investigations are ramping up and coming to a head as Amazon deals with unprecedented demand. The company made $36.7 billion in net sales in the first quarter of 2020, meaning its fastest e-commerce growth in three years.

But Amazon's physical sales aren't the only element of its business model which has been called into question. In a June 11 union meeting, former Amazon exec and engineer Tim Bray said the company should be split up as its cloud computing business accounts for the bulk of its profit, allowing it to prop up the other parts of its business. 

SEE ALSO: Amazon's cloud generated over $10 billion in net quarterly sales for the first time ever — up 33% from a year ago

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NOW WATCH: A cleaning expert reveals her 3-step method for cleaning your entire home quickly

• On June 9, Brex and Rippling shared a broad financial checklist that startups can use when evaluating how to best reopen following statewide shelter-in-place orders and widespread remote work.
• Some of the lessons of the last few months could be used in the long run, such as maintaining remote work, to help cut costs while balance sheets are tight, Rippling CFO Adil Syed said.
• In the coming months, office space could be seen as a perk that startups offer employees as part of a comprehensive benefits package instead of traditional work conditions, Brex CFO Michael Tannenbaum said.
• Another area that could be trimmed down is marketing costs, Syed explained. If startups are unable to renegotiate existing contracts on something like billboards, he suggested revamping the advertising message to make sure it is in line with public sentiment and avoid coming off as tone-deaf.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Startups about to reopen for business are grappling with inconsistent rules between California's phased reopening and the Bay Area's more stringent requirements, leaving young companies flying blind when it comes to longer-term planning.

Of particular concern to startup founders is runway, or how long they can keep going on the cash they have in the bank if they don't change their average cost to run the business. With many VCs pulling back from new investments given the uncertainty in the market, founders are coming to terms with what their runway has to be just to survive. Belt-tightening is the biggest Silicon Valley trend of 2020.

So on June 9, credit card startup Brex and HR startup Rippling unveiled a financial checklist they developed to help startups evaluate what's next, and modify their operating plans if necessary. In the absence of clear federal or state guidelines or best practices from investors, startups like Brex have sought to fulfill the role of educator for their peers. The CFOs for the two companies unveiled the checklist as part of an ongoing series of online presentations for founders.

"Today's conversation was really born out of me and Michael kind of having a chat about our own journeys and navigating financial planning during COVID," Rippling CFO Adil Syed told attendees. "There are a lot of things that we don't have obvious answers for, but we figured there are folks out there that are feeling the same and wanted to have this chat with everyone."

The checklist covers various items that could be dialed back or cut altogether, Syed and Brex CFO Michael Tannenbaum said during the presentation. Given the restrictions in Silicon Valley in particular, Tannenbaum recommended cutting back on pricey office leases, and even going forward, redefining an office-based workspace as more like a shiny perk instead of a standard expectation.

"It used to be sort of like, the 11th Commandment was 'thou shalt be in an office' and I think now, this idea is that office space and the ability to interact with people is more of a perk," Tannenbaum said. "It can be a great thing that a company can offer, but when you start to think about it in that way, particularly in the context of financial planning, I think that's a really valuable framework because you can start to say, 'are we getting this value out of this office relative to other things we could be offering?'"

Another expense that both Rippling and Brex have dialed back on themselves is advertising on billboards and bus stops around the Bay Area. With fewer people commuting to those office jobs, the return on those historically costly ads continued to shrink.

But when Syed attempted to get out of a previously agreed upon contract for a billboard in San Francisco, he realized that it was less flexible than he had hoped. Together with Rippling' CMO, the startup developed an alterative advertising campaign, one that celebrated healthcare and frontline workers. Syed explained that this was an instance where he and his team were able to work within the constraints of the contract that had been agreed upon pre-COVID.

"It was a series of billboards that we put up in San Francisco right as a city was going into shelter-in-place, and the reality is we did it because we had no choice," Syed said. "There was no way for us to get out of the out-of-home contracts that we'd signed up for, but we use that opportunity to sort of flip the narrative into less about Rippling and more about all the, you know, really hard workers out there that were allowing us to stay safe at home."

Here is the financial checklist that Rippling and Brex shared with other founders and CFOs.

SEE ALSO: Here's a survivor's guide for startups weathering their first major recession, according to an expert who's been counseling young companies since the COVID-19 crisis erupted in March

• The Department of Justice has charged six former eBay employees, including two executives, in connection with a cyberstalking campaign against company critics.
• According to the lawsuit, the employees targeted a Massachussetts couple who ran an ecommerce newsletter critical of eBay.
• The employees sent the couple anonymous messages and packages to their home, including a bloody pig Halloween mask and a book "on surviving the loss of a spouse," according to court documents. 
• Each former eBay employee could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each charge.
• In a statement posted Monday, eBay said it was made aware of the federal investigation in August 2019, and terminated all involved employees after an internal investigation. The company also said its investigating committee found "no evidence" its CEO at the time, Devin Wenig, knew about the cyberstalking campaign.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Six former eBay workers have been charged in connection with a harassment campaign that targeted a Massachusetts couple who wrote an ecommerce newsletter critical of the company, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

According to authorities, the couple behind the newsletter were subjected to a slew of critical and harassing Twitter posts and messages, and sent a series of "anonymous and disturbing" packages to their home in Massachusetts. Along with a series of threatening messages, the couple received anonymous packages, including a preserved pig fetus and a funeral wreath. 

Authorities say two eBay executives planned the cyberstalking campaign in August 2019, after the newsletter published a story critical of eBay. Two people on the eBay executive team then concocted three-part harassment campaign involving employees on the global intelligence and security teams to "crush" the newsletter editor, according to the DOJ complaint.

The charged ex-employees then sent the couple — the newsletter's editor and publisher — "several" packages, including "a preserved fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath, a book on surviving the loss of a spouse, and pornography," authorities say. The complaint says the employees also sent an unpaid pizza delivery order of $70 to the couple's house at 4:30 a.m.

According to the DOJ complaint, the employees also spammed the couple's email inboxes with sign-ups to newsletters, including those with the subject lines: "the Communist Party"; "the Satanic Temple"; and "Cat Faeries." The DOJ says the employees also doxed the victims by publishing their home address on Twitter and in a Craigslist posting advertising a "block party" taking place at their house.

To hide eBay's connection to the deliveries and online messages, the employees used prepaid debit cards and anonymous email addresses, the criminal complaint says. According to the investigation, some of the employees planned to engage in covert surveillance of the couple, including an intent to install a GPS tracking device on the couple's car. One employee was found to have purchased tools that authorities believe he intended to use to break into the couple's garage, according to the complaint.

After police in Massachusetts started investigating, the charged eBay employees lied to authorities and the company's lawyers about their involvement, according to authorities. The employees deleted evidence of their involvement, and tried to fabricate documents to direct the police investigation in another direction, the DOJ investigation claims.

In a statement published to its website Monday, eBay said it became aware of the law enforcement investigation in August 2019 and cooperated fully. After conducting its own internal investigation involving legal counsel, eBay terminated all six of the employees in September 2019, the company says.

"EBay does not tolerate this kind of behavior. eBay apologizes to the affected individuals and is sorry that they were subjected to this," eBay's investigation team said in a statement. "eBay holds its employees to high standards of conduct and ethics and will continue to take appropriate action to ensure these standards are followed."

The company also noted that it investigated any possibility that its CEO at the time, Devin Wenig, played a role in the matter.

"The internal investigation found that, while Mr. Wenig's communications were inappropriate, there was no evidence that he knew in advance about or authorized the actions that were later directed toward the blogger and her husband," the company's statement reads. "However, as the Company previously announced, there were a number of considerations leading to his departure from the Company."

The six former eBay employees, including two executives, have each been charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. Each person could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each charge, authorities said.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

• New York Attorney General Letitia James has called on Apple and Google to impose stricter rules on contact tracing apps.
• While both companies have set out guidelines for apps built on their "exposure notification" API, the same rules aren't enforced for third-party apps in their stores.
• AG James has written to both companies requesting that only verified public health authorities can publish apps that transmit sensitive health information, along with other rules.
• A recent Business Insider investigation discovered that only a few US states are interested in Apple and Google's own contact tracing technology.
• Do you work at Google or Apple? You can contact this reporter securely using encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 628-228-1836) or encrypted email (hslangley@protonmail.com).
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is asking Apple and Google to impose restrictions on contact tracing apps that are made available through their app stores.

In letters sent to both companies, AG James asked for the tech giants to impose strict measures that would prevent sensitive health data being collected by untrusted sources, and would require these apps to be transparent in how they operate.

As US states begin to open back up, contact tracing apps are hitting smartphone app stores, but there is a concern that many of these apps have not been properly vetted.

James' letter also addresses an important difference between apps that use Apple and Google's own "exposure notification" API, which the company recently began rolling out, and third-party apps based on other technologies.

For Apple and Google's own exposure notification technology there are strict guidelines in place, including a rule that only public health authorities are allowed to build apps using it. But when it comes to third-party apps, these same standards don't currently apply.

A recent Wall Street Journal story shone a light on some of the poor privacy practices being used in these third-party apps. In response to that article, Apple said that contact-tracing apps are prohibited from displaying ads and offering in-app purchases. Google also pulled an app for not complying with its advertising policies.

AG James is now calling on both companies to impose stricter rules pertaining to how these third-party contact tracing apps handle sensitive data, and how transparent they're being with users.

"We understand that contact-tracing apps (those that do not use the exposure notification API) offered on the Google Play Store are not subject to the same requirements, and so may have different or lesser privacy protections," wrote James in the letter to Google, making the same case to Apple.

The letters ask Apple and Google to only allow verified public health authorities to put apps on their app stores when these apps transmit personal health information.

It also asks that these apps are upfront about the types of information they collect, how it might be used, and whether the app uses Apple and Google's own Exposure Notification API or something else.

Both companies have until June 19 to acknowledge the letter. Spokespeople for Apple and Google did not immediately responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

And while Apple and Google's API is now rolling out, a recent Business Insider investigation discovered that only three states are openly committing to using it, and many are uninterested in the technology.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid

• You can search emails in Outlook through the email client's native search bar. 
• Microsoft Outlook allows you to search keywords, email addresses, names, and more so that you can locate messages more easily and quickly.
• You can search for emails in Outlook on both desktop and mobile devices.
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

When you're getting dozens of emails a day, it can be tough to keep track of them all. What do you do when you know you need to find a specific email, but have hundreds of others to slog through first?

The answer is simple: searches. Many email clients, Microsoft Outlook included, have a feature that lets you search keywords in your email inbox so that you can locate topical emails.

The search bar on the desktop and mobile app is located at the top of your inbox's window, conveniently labeled with an icon resembling a magnifying glass as well as the word "Search." 

Here's how to search emails in Outlook on both desktop and mobile devices.

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How to search emails in Outlook on a computer

1. With Outlook open, click inside the search bar at the top of the screen and type a keyword or two for your search. 

2. Once you've typed your search term, press the Enter key, or click on the magnifying glass icon to begin the search. 

3. Scroll through the highlighted emails and select the message you need. 

How to search for emails in Outlook on a mobile device

1. Open the Outlook app and tap on the magnifying glass icon located at the bottom of your screen. 

2. Tap inside the search bar, labeled "Search," located at the top of your screen, and enter your search terms. 

3. Tap the Enter button on your keyboard and wait for the results to appear. 

4. Scroll to locate and tap the email you're looking for.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• How to turn off Microsoft Outlook desktop notifications and reduce distractions while working

• How to create a hyperlink in Microsoft Outlook and link out to websites, emails, and documents in your email messages

• How to delete multiple emails at once in Microsoft Outlook and empty your inbox faster

• How to archive emails in Microsoft Outlook and declutter your inbox

• How to delete your Outlook account in 2 different ways

SEE ALSO: The best desktop computers

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NOW WATCH: Why Pikes Peak is the most dangerous racetrack in America

• T-Mobile customers around the US were experiencing outages on Monday afternoon.
• The service tracker Down Detector had 93,000 reports T-Mobile outages as of 3:09 p.m. ET. Phone users also reported issues with their cell service on social media.
• T-Mobile said its engineers were "working to resolve a voice and data issue."
• While issues were reported with other carriers, including AT&T and Verizon, both carriers said their service was operating normally.
• Calls to a carrier experiencing outages may get an error message, resulting in reports of issues with unaffected carriers, a Verizon spokesperson said.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

T-Mobile and other wireless carriers around the US were experiencing issues Monday afternoon.

"Our engineers are working to resolve a voice and data issue that has been affecting customers around the country," Neville Ray, president of technology for T-Mobile, said in a tweet. "We're sorry for the inconvenience and hope to have this fixed shortly."

The service tracker Down Detector reported T-Mobile outages in New York, Florida, Texas, Georgia, California, and the Washington, DC, area. As of 3:09 p.m. ET on Monday, Down Detector had seen over 93,000 reports of T-Mobile outages and varying reports from the other carriers. Phone owners in the US also reported issues on social media on Monday afternoon with their cell service, particularly T-Mobile.

While both Down Detector and customers on social media reported that AT&T and Verizon service was down, an AT&T spokesperson told Business Insider its network was "operating normally." A Verizon spokesperson also told Business Insider the carrier was "operating at normal service levels" and said that, given that "another national carrier" was having issues, calls to and from that carrier might get an error message, resulting in reports of issues.

Down Detector also reported that US Cellular and Sprint were having issues, but neither company immediately returned a request for comment.

This story is developing.

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• You can add Yahoo Mail to your iPhone by downloading the official Yahoo Mail app.
• You can also add your Yahoo Mail account to the iPhone's default Mail app.
• Once you add your Yahoo Mail account, you can send and receive emails right from your iPhone.
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While some people log into the Yahoo Mail website through a browser to check their mail, this can be pretty inconvenient. If you have an iPhone, a better solution is to add your Yahoo Mail account to your iPhone.

It's faster and more efficient than checking email in a web browser, and you get all the convenience of a full-feature email app that's optimized for the iPhone's screen. 

You can do this in two easy ways — by installing the Yahoo Mail app, or by adding a Yahoo Mail account to the iPhone's own Mail app. Here's how to do both.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Apple)

How to add the Yahoo Mail app to your iPhone

Yahoo offers its own Yahoo Mail app for the iPhone. You don't need to use it, but it offers some useful features, like the ability to automatically filter your email by the type of message (such as subscriptions, receipts, travel, and unread).

If you want to give it a try, install Yahoo Mail from the App Store and then log into your Yahoo account using your username or email address and password. 

To install additional Yahoo accounts, tap the menu icon at the top-left of the Yahoo Mail app and tap "Add another mailbox." Tap Yahoo and follow the instructions to enter your username or email, followed by your password. 

How to add a Yahoo Mail account to your iPhone's built-in Mail app

You don't need to use the Yahoo Mail app; you can also add Yahoo Mail to the iPhone's own Mail app. This will let you read your Yahoo Mail in one unified inbox, along with all your other email accounts.

1. Launch your iPhone's Settings app — its icon looks like a gray gear.

2. Scroll down and tap "Accounts & Passwords."

3. Tap "Add Account."

4. Tap "Yahoo."

5. Follow the instructions to enter your username or email address, followed by your password. 

Give your phone a few moments to sync with your Yahoo mailbox. Once it does, all of your mail will appear in the Mail app.

Related coverage from Tech Reference: 

• How to forward email from a Yahoo Mail account to Gmail or other email services

• How to mark all Gmail as read to clear up your inbox of unread emails

• I just cleared out my Gmail using a simple trick that took only a few minutes — here's how to do it

• How to schedule send an email on Gmail on desktop or mobile, if you want to compose an email but schedule it to send at a later time

• How to find archived emails in Gmail in 2 simple ways on Mac or PC

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• Activist group NYC Mesh is using New York City's network of traffic cameras to track incidents of police brutality, as first reported by Vice.
• The city's Department of Transportation makes footage available to the public, but only in real time.
• NYC Mesh has made a public archive of the footage "to make it easier for the public to identify police misconduct," the group said in a blog post.
• Amid numerous incidents of police using force with largely peaceful protesters, the public has increasingly been calling for stronger oversight of law enforcement and accountability for those who abuse their power.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In the wake of George Floyd's death while in police custody, police departments across the US have been criticized for using aggressive tactics against largely peaceful protesters, including the use of tear gas, physical force and, in New York City, ramming protesters with vehicles.

While many incidents of police brutality — including Floyd's death — have been caught on video by news media, police body cameras, and bystanders' cellphones, activists in NYC are turning to a different tool to expose misconduct: traffic cameras.

NYC Mesh, a group of activists who operate a free, community-owned internet service, have started archiving footage from the city's vast network of traffic cameras and making it available to the public.

"Holding the police accountable requires witnessing, recording and sharing footage of their actions. Inspired by Darnella Frazier, whose recording of George Floyd's murder sparked a global movement, I am archiving NYC traffic camera footage with help from the NYC Mesh community to make it easier for the public to identify police misconduct," Aakash Patel, a volunteer for the group, wrote in a blog post Wednesday.

The Department of Transportation, which operates the camera network, currently makes footage available to the public, but only in real time, meaning someone would "have to be watching the right camera at the right time and be ready to take a screenshot," according to Patel.

By downloading the footage and posting it online for the public, Patel said NYC Mesh's archive tool "makes it possible to review footage after an event has taken place ... providing another source of visual evidence."

The tool works by saving an image from each camera whenever the feed updates, typically between one and 30 seconds, and then publishing them in batches, the blog post explained. Currently, the archive only includes feeds from Manhattan and Brooklyn — NYC Mesh is working to expand it to other boroughs, but the group is reportedly running into challenges expanding it.

Patel told Vice that, after several days of being able to access more than 200 GB of data per day, the DOT seemed to be slowing down the tool. He told Vice he submitted a request to the city get a "formal feed of the cameras, as they would provide a news agency," but that no one has gotten back to him.

The Department of Transportation did not immediately return a request for comment.

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