• Investment bank Needham has lowered its Google Q2 revenue estimate to down 7% year-over-year, a downgrade from the 5% they previously predicted.
• "Our sources suggest that international ad revs are down more than in the US," they said.
• They also believe Amazon presents a "structural" threat to Google's key money-making business right now and is a big reason Google's search ads are losing market share.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google will announced its second-quarter results later this month, and one Wall Street firm has just lowered its expectations.

Needham analysts have lowered their Q2 revenue estimate for the company to a year-over-year drop of 7%, a downgrade from the 5% they had originally projected.

Google's search and advertising business is being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, driven "by material declines in travel, auto, entertainment, media and retail ads – both search and video ads," according to the Needham note shared with Business Insider.

The analyst note follows an earlier report from eMarketer which projected that Google's search revenues would decline in Q2 for the very first time in history. RBC's Mark Mahaney told Business Insider back in March that he predicted the same.

"Our sources suggest that international ad revs are down more than in the US," said Needham analysts in the note, which projects flat revenue for Google's full 2020 year.

Based on eMarketer data, travel made up about 11% of Google's search ad revenue in 2019, representing a big hit to the company's key moneymaking business.

Alongside these losses, the analysts note that "rising unemployment levels and GDP declines" are driving lower consumer spending right now.

And as the COVID-19 pandemic hammers Google hard, Needham's analysts believe Amazon now has the opportunity to benefit.

While Facebook still has a greater share of the digital ad market than Amazon right now, Needham analysts believe that the ongoing Facebook advertising boycott, combined with the loss of small businesses to the pandemic, makes Amazon the bigger problem for Google.

"[Amazon] is the better reason Google-search ads are losing market share, in our view," said the analysts. "[Amazon] represents a structural attack against Google's-search product, not just a COVID-19 related problem, in our view."

To back that up, the analysts cites statistics that 70% of Amazon Prime members begin their searches on Amazon rather than Google, and that Prime members also spend an average of $1,400 a year.

Google is clearly aware of that threat too: just last week, the company announced it would allow merchants to promote their products at the top of Google's search pages for free.

Google is trying to lure more sellers onto its platform and away from Amazon, which has seen a huge boost in online shopping during the pandemic. Financial services firm Cowen predicts Amazon's ad business will make $17.6 billion this year.

SEE ALSO: Google looks for 4 specific traits when screening potential interns, according to the company's chief talent recruiter

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Productivity and collaboration apps that enable remote work are seeing huge demand right now and while Microsoft still largely dominates the workplace, there are many newer apps trying to reinvent pieces of the productivity suite. 
• Companies like Notion are rethinking how document sharing and collaboration should work, Airtable is rethinking what spreadsheets are used for, and Front is reimagining how coworkers should use email. 
• Business Insider spoke to venture capitalists and analysts to compile the following list of productivity and collaboration startups that are reinventing the traditional office suite and taking on Microsoft.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Productivity and collaboration apps that enable remote work are seeing huge demand right now, as companies look for ways to keep employees connected and effective while working from home. Tools that were already popular before the pandemic — like Microsoft, Slack, and Zoom— have seen user numbers skyrocket even more dramatically. 

Microsoft in particular has reaped the benefits via its chat and collaboration app Teams, which is bundled in its Office 365 suite along with Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and more. Microsoft Teams' number of daily active users jumped to 75 million in April, with analysts speculating that Teams saw such a large jump in usage because it was the most convenient collaboration platform for many businesses to adopt since they were already paying for Microsoft's suite to use its other tools. 

While Microsoft still largely dominates the workplace, startups are chipping away at different parts of its suite by inventing new types of workplace collaboration and productivity apps to reinvent specific tools that office workers typically use. For example, Notion is rethinking how document sharing and collaboration should work, Airtable is rethinking spreadsheets, and Front is reimagining how coworkers should use email. 

Tools like that are creating new categories "around or adjacent to the traditional office productivity suite," said Rich Wong, a partner at Accel. "These are different forms of collaboration tools that, over time, will change the nature of how people work." 

As the shift to remote work increases the need for better work tools, many of these new productivity and collaboration startups are poised to grow. Business Insider spoke to five venture capitalists and analysts to compile the following list of productivity and collaboration startups that are reinventing the traditional office suite.

Here are the 14 companies that they recommended that are reinventing work (all funding and valuations taken from PitchBook unless otherwise noted): 

SEE ALSO: Zoom just hired a new security chief. Meet Zoom's 12 power players helping CEO Eric Yuan navigate the product's skyrocketing growth

Airtable

Funding: $170 million

Valuation: $1.1 billion

Major Investors: Thrive Capital, Benchmark, Caffeinated Capital, CRV

What it does: Airtable is a cloud-based spreadsheet tool that lets users build their own custom apps without having to code.

Why it's on the list: Airtable is used for everything from project management to spreadsheets, and is taking on legacy tools like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. The company has widespread popularity and has grown rapidly. It's planning to build two new offices this year, focused on engineering, sales, and marketing, to support its growth. 

In March, CEO Howie Liu told Business Insider that company's revenues have quadrupled in the two years or so since Airtable raised its Series C round of $100 million in 2018. The company is said to be in talks to raise another $50 million in funding, according to a report from The Information in April. 

Vertex Ventures partner Sandeep Bhadra isn't an investor in Airtable, but says its "phenomenal execution" impresses him, and that few companies can compete against it. 

Notion

Funding: $70.9 million

Valuation: $2 billion

Major Investors: Index Ventures, First Round Capital, Chasella and A.Capital Ventures

What it does: Notion wants to be an "all-in-one workplace," so teams have one place to write notes, track projects, build spreadsheets and databases, and get organized.

Why it's on the list: Notion is pioneering an entirely new way of working and collaborating and it's booming in popularity. Sonali de Rycker, a partner at Accel, said in March that it's "no surprise that they hit 1 million users in less than three years" because it just proves how useful its product is. De Rycker is not an investor in Notion.

Unlike most other startups, Notion has not raised a lot of venture funding, but has plenty of inbound interest from VCs. In March the company raised $50 million in new funding in a round led by Index Ventures that valued it at $2 billion. CEO Ivan Zhao told Business Insider that Notion was profitable and thriving amid the boom in remote work, and only raised to give customers reassurance that Notion will be sticking around. 

Chris Marsh, an analyst at 451 Research, said he sees Notion as a "flexible digital canvas" that brings documents, data collaboration, and workflow together, and is pioneering a new type of productivity tool to replace legacy word processing and file sharing.

Canva

Funding: $316.5 million

Valuation: $6 billion

Major Investors: Blackbird Ventures and Sequoia Capital China, Felicis Ventures, General Catalyst, and Bond Capital 

What it does: Canva is an easy-to-use graphic design app that provides free and paid templates for freelance, professional, and aspiring designers.

Why it's on the list:  Canva is taking on tools like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft PowerPoint, and catching on as a powerful-but-simple tool, even for non-artistic users in sales and marketing departments. It's also growing incredibly fast: It just raised a $60 million funding round that shot the company's valuation to $6 billion. Legendary tech investor Mary Meeker has participated in previous rounds. 

Canva has seen skyrocketing growth due to increased remote work, the company said when it announced its funding. The company is looking to continue adding more features, and make acquisitions in the media and editing space. 

Superhuman

Funding: $56 million

Valuation: $260 million

Major Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Shrug Capital, First Round Capital, Day One Ventures, Chapter One Ventures, and Boldstart

What it does: Superhuman is reimagining email with the goal of making it a faster and more efficient way to communicate. Users get keyboard shortcuts, additional features, and reminders to get though their inboxes in less time. 

Why it's on the list: Superhuman, which gives users keyboard shortcuts and reminders that help breeze through an inbox, has a huge fan-base in Silicon Valley. The email app, which is currently invite-only and costs $30/month, promises to help users become inbox-zero masters by using AI and other features to help them stay on top of their messages. 

Its goal is to displace older workplace email apps like Microsoft Outlook and Gmail and make email something that truly makes people more productive at work. Investor Jeff Morris, Jr. at Chapter One Ventures said Superhuman will come a "must have" product for all companies eventually.

Coda.io

Funding: $60 million

Valuation: Unknown

Major Investors: Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Soma Capital, New Enterprise Associates

What it does: Coda has created a new type of document that combines the flexibility of a Word document with the power of a spreadsheet and the functions of an app.

Why it's on the list: Coda is in a similar space as Notion, and wants to be a new type of workspace. It allows users to collaborate on documents and customizable tables, then add functionality, too, like emailing a time sheet or nudging a coworker on Slack. Investor John Lily at Greylock previously told Business Insider that Coda allows teams to build a doc that's as powerful as an app. 

The idea is to "empower non-technical people with the ability to customize how they create and manage their own work," said Chris Marsh at 451 research.

Figma

Funding: $132.9 million

Valuation: $2.1 billion

Major Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund

What it does: Figma brings the same kind of collaboration available in Google Docs to design. Its cloud-based software helps web design teams create, test, and ship designs.

Why it's on the list: Figma is opening up the design process to more than just designers and allowing teams to easily collaborate on projects. It has a strong fan-base of front-end designers, marketing teams, and social media creatives. 

The company just raised $50 million in funding that brought its valuation to a little over $2 billion. In the remote work era, more teams have been using Figma's white-boarding, note taking, slide deck creating, and diagramming tools, according to TechCrunch.

"We're beginning to see creative teams and non-creative teams come together and tools like Figma are looking to design for that," Chris Marsh at 451 Research said. 

Loom

Funding: $68.5 million

Valuation: $350 million, according to Forbes

Major Investors: Sequoia Capital, Coatue, Kleiner Perkins, Jay Simons, Kevin Systrom, Ashton Kutcher

What it does: The video messaging app lets users record short videos — instead of typing long emails or spending time in meetings — to get their ideas across.

Why it's on the list: Loom solves the problem of communicating complex ideas in a new form factor. The app lets people record short videos to share via messaging or email, and it's seeing increased interest during the remote work era. Investors are using it to give feedback on startup pitches, CEOs are using it to communicate with employees, and teachers are using it for online lessons.

Sandeep Bhadra at Vertex Ventures is not an investor in the company but said that Loom tackles "asynchronous video communications" well because "people love the personal touch." He likens it to "Cameo for enterprises," referring to the short-form video app for celebrities.  

Bhadra isn't the only fan. Loom's investors include high profile individuals like Ashton Kutcher, Instagram's Kevin Systrom, Atlassian's Jay Simons and Figma's Dylan Field, all of whom participated in its recent $28.75 million funding round, according to Forbes. 

Beautiful.ai

Funding: $16.3 million

Valuation: $36 million

Major Investors: Trinity Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and First Round Capital

What it does: Beautiful.AI uses artificial intelligence to make effective and well-designed presentations.

Why it's on the list: Beautiful.AI is taking on apps like Microsoft's PowerPoint and Google Sheets by trying to make a better presentation software. The software lets users choose templates based on the subject of their presentation, and then modify each slide depending on the content. 

Karan Mehandru, a partner at Trinity Ventures and an investor in the company, calls it a "PowerPoint killer." 

Front

Funding: $138.4 million

Valuation: $859 million

Major Investors: Initialized Capital Management, Sequoia Capital, Anthos Capital and Tribe Capital, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes

What it does: Front takes a team-based approach to email. It combines a company's social media, email, texts, and other messages into a shared inbox to which the entire team has access.

Why it's on the list: Front is taking on one of the most-used tools in the modern workplace: email. Corporate email is currently dominated by Microsoft Outlook and to a lesser degree Google's Gmail, and hasn't really been reinvented since it was first introduced in the 1990s. Front believes that a shared inbox can make people more efficient and productive at their jobs. 

It just raised a $59 million funding round in January, and although the company declined to share a specific number at the time, it said its valuation has grown four-fold from its last round 2 years ago.

Process.st

Funding: $29.6 million

Valuation: $38.2 million

Major Investors: Accel, Salesforce Ventures, Atlassian, Blackbird Ventures, AngelPad

What it does: Process Street created a "super-powered checklist" that can automate work processes and be integrated into other tools that employees use in the workplace.

Why it's on the list: Process Street is pioneering a new type of workplace productivity tool that takes the idea of a to-do list and makes it collaborative and actionable. The company raised a $12 million funding round led by Accel earlier this year, and plan to use the funds to keep growing the product. 

"I guess arguably you could use a Google Sheet as a way of keeping track of a list of things and sort of ticking down it," said Accel's Rich Wong. "But to actually make it a collaborative process as opposed to just being sort of a flat document — that had never been done before for a lot of these processes," 

While Process Street doesn't compete directly with any of Microsoft's products, a new app called Microsoft Lists is attempting to make a similar type of automation and integration. 

Almanac

Funding: $9 million

Valuation: Unknown 

Major Investors: Floodgate Fund, CoFound Partners, General Catalyst, Inspired Capital, Abstract Ventures

What it does: It's an open-source platform for document sharing. 

Why it's on the list: Almanac wants to be the GitHub of document sharing, said Shruti Gandhi of Array Ventures, an investor in the company. The platform lets users create, share and collaborate on open-source work documents, on topics ranging from HR best practices to legal templates.

The company just raised a $9 million seed round of funding to keep growing the platform for its 10,000 current users, according to blog TechStartups.

"They've seen contributions increase 800% since Covid started and people submit everything from [diversity, equity, and inclusion] docs around racial justice, to work samples used in job searches," Gandhi said. "GitHub is a mission critical tool for engineers—Almanac is going to be the same for every business person."

Miro

Funding: $76.3 million

Valuation: $725 million

Major Investors: Iconiq Capital, Accel

What it does: It helps teams build and develop ideas from anywhere using virtual white-boarding software.

Why its on the list: Miro is in the right place at the right time as companies move to more remote and distributed ways of working. It helps companies work in real-time or at different times by sharing a canvas for product development, user experience and design, strategy, and mind mapping.

"As teams are increasingly distributed across small and large organizations, companies lack the tools to collaborate in a remote context, which made us really excited about Miro's proposition," said Sonali de Rycker, a partner at Accel and an investor in Miro. While Miro doesn't directly compete with Microsoft's productivity tools, it represents a new category that could replace or complement older tools. 

Miro can be used in tandem with video conferencing software because people can document ideas in real-time and share them with others later, said Chris Marsh at 451 Research. 

Hopin

Funding: $46.8 million

Valuation: $350 million, according to Business Insider

Major investors: IVP, Slack Fund, Salesforce Ventures, Accel, Northzone Ventures, and Seedcamp

What it does: Hopin creates software for an all-in-one online events platform that can mimic an in-person event or conference. 

Why it's on the list: Hopin has exploded in popularity in the remote work boom, as everyone seeks to replace in-person conferences and events with online replacements. The company raised two funding rounds this year, $6.5 million in February and a larger $40 million round in June. 

While Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom can be used for online events, Hopin takes the experience a step further. Chris Marsh at 451 Research wrote in a recent report that after an event is created on Hopin, "attendees can visit receptions, event stages, networking rooms, special event sessions and booths." The platform can also handle thousands of attendees. 

Workflowy

Funding: Unknown 

Valuation: Unknown 

Major Investors: Bloomberg Beta, New Ground Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Array Ventures

What it does: Workflowy is a cloud-based list-making tool that companies can use to share tasks and information. 

Why its on the list: The company takes a unique approach to organizing information, which investor Shruti Gandhi of Array Ventures calls a "a shared brain for your company and a good way to collaborate for a remote workforce." 

She adds that it lets companies and individuals "break big ideas down into small pieces, focus on one thing at a time, and stay on the same page." 

• A tenant in Atlanta that subleased space at the Salesforce Tower to Knotel late last year is suing the firm for over $150,000 in unpaid rent.
• The tenant also wants to boot the flexible workspace provider from the nearly 25,000 square foot space.
• A construction contractor, meanwhile, has placed a lien against the building for almost $80,000 it says it is owed by Knotel for work on the space.
• The debts are the latest to pile on the company, which is said to owe brokerage firms unpaid commissions and has fallen behind on office rent at other locations.
• For more stories like this, sign up here for our Wall Street Insider newsletter.

Signs of stress continue to hamper the flexible-workspace firm Knotel.

A company in Atlanta is suing to boot Knotel from an office space at the Salesforce Tower in the city's Buckhead Heights section and recoup over $150,000 in unpaid rent and other expenses.

Separately a contractor that performed construction work on the space has filed a lien against the property, claiming that Knotel owes it nearly $80,000.

Rubicon, a waste-management software firm, sued Knotel in Georgia state court last month, accusing the workspace firm of failing to pay rent for the Salesforce Tower's 18th floor in May or June. Knotel subleased the 24,653 square foot space last December from Rubicon, agreeing to pay $77,318.24 a month for the office, according to the complaint.

Read More: Knotel and insurance startup Rhino didn't disclose its CEOs were brothers when it struck a complex financial deal. Now a key partner could be on the hook as Knotel scrambles to pay bills, slashes staff, and plans to shed portions of its portfolio.

Rubicon claims it is not only owed rent, but a 10% late fee that Knotel agreed to pay in the sublease deal, and that it is entitled to reimbursement for costs it incurs for the litigation, such as attorneys fees. The company is asking the court to remove Knotel "immediately from premises," according to the suit.

A spokesman for Rubicon declined to comment on the case. 

The Warren-Hanks Construction Company, which filed a $77,729 mechanic's lien in March against the building for unpaid work it claims it performed on Knotel's space, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman for Knotel didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the situation.

In a letter sent to Rubicon on May 29 by Knotel's chief investment officer, Jonathan Goldberg, that is included as part of the court records related to the case, Knotel indicated that the economic dislocation from the Covid-19 pandemic had prevented it from paying rent for the space and that it would seek "an abatement of all rent due and an extension of time to perform any other obligations under the sublease."

Read More: Leaked Knotel financials reveal that the WeWork rival had huge pre-pandemic losses and now has more unpaid bills than cash. It's a grim sign for the flex-office space.

"The duration of the force majeure event, under the circumstances is not determinable at this time," Goldberg stated in the letter to Rubicon, referring to a legal argument being used in court by a growing group of tenants that seeks to label the virus crisis as an "act of god" that should relieve them from rent and lease obligations. "During the period of the force majeure event, any rental payments under the sublease shall be abated to the extent permitted under the sublease or under any applicable laws or governmental orders."

The pandemic crisis has prompted flexible-workspace clients to withhold rent or vacate spaces, placing a strain on providers such as Knotel and WeWork. It wasn't clear if Knotel had found a user for its space at the Salesforce Tower and whether that party was paying Knotel for the space.

Knotel has faced mounting unpaid bills as its once fast-growing business has struggled. It was recently sued by a landlord in San Francisco who alleges the company failed to pay over $110,000 in rent for space it leased at 972 Mission Street in April and May, along with other charges. A landlord in New York has also sued Knotel, claiming $169,000 in unpaid rent. 

Knotel also owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid commissions to major brokerage firms who helped find takers for its 2.5-million-square-foot portfolio in New York. Recent information for the company uncovered by Business Insider painted a bleak financial picture for the firm.

Knotel lost $49 million in the first quarter of 2020, according to an income statement seen by Business Insider, and its balance sheet listed $110 million of assets versus $238 million of liabilities and a little less than $36 million in the bank at the end of the first quarter. 

SEE ALSO: Leaked Knotel financials reveal that the WeWork rival had huge pre-pandemic losses and now has more unpaid bills than cash. It's a grim sign for the flex-office space.

SEE ALSO: Knotel and insurance startup Rhino didn't disclose its CEOs were brothers when it struck a complex financial deal. Now a key partner could be on the hook as Knotel scrambles to pay bills, slashes staff, and plans to shed portions of its portfolio.

SEE ALSO: Leaked memo reveals Knotel CEO's playbook for burying news about jobs cuts at the flex-office startup

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that calls for "transparency and accountability from online platforms."
• The order represents a remarkable and direct challenge to social media companies like Twitter and Facebook, and comes two days after Twitter fact-checked two of Trump's tweets pushing false claims about voting by mail.
• Among other things, the order takes aim at Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, a foundational law that has shaped today's internet and which shields internet companies from being held liable for content users post on their platforms.
• Trump's order could completely reshape the internet landscape and undermine the business models of social media companies, but many legal experts say the order has significant flaws that may not hold up in court.
• The executive order comes at a time when the coronavirus has caused more than 100,000 deaths in the US and the Trump administration's reponse to the pandemic has been criticized, leading some observers to suggest the social media executive order is a convenient way for Trump to change the subject.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Here's everything that's happened involving Donald Trump's social media executive order, and all the latest information about what it means:

The big story

• Trump signs executive order threatening social-media companies after Twitter fact-checked his tweets

• Read the full executive order about social media companies that President Trump signed

Latest news

• Trump's executive order specifically calls out his feud with Twitter over its move to add fact-check labels to his misleading tweets about mail-in voting
• An FCC commissioner slammed Trump's executive order on social media, calling it an attempt to turn the FCC into 'the President's speech police'
• Satirical websites are testing Facebook's policy on not being the 'arbiter of truth' by running false headlines claiming Mark Zuckerberg is dead or abusive

Analysis and important background

• What you need to know about Section 230, the controversial part of an internet law Trump targeted in a new executive order
• Legal and tech policy experts say Trump's draft executive order cracking down on social-media companies is dead on arrival

• Trump's executive order cracking down on 'online censorship' has nothing to do with free speech

• Trump's social-media order isn't crazy, and it will probably work
• Trump is effectively inciting harassment of a Twitter employee in response to its content-policy enforcement. The company is in an impossible position.

• The real threat to Facebook and Twitter isn't a pandemic or a president

What it means for Twitter, Facebook, and other internet companies, and how key players are reacting

• The future of Facebook, Twitter and Google is under attack in Washington DC. Internet companies are mapping out a new strategy mixing confrontation and conciliation.

• Facebook tried to appease its conservative critics for years. It got hit by Trump's executive order on social media anyway. 
• President Trump's clampdown on social media could hurt startups and cripple competition with Facebook and Twitter
• Trump's executive order is pushing social media titans Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey to clash over how they handle free speech
• Trump's executive order calls out YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook — but Google's name curiously disappeared from the final version of the order
• Trump is attacking a Twitter employee over the company's decision to fact-check him because the employee criticized Trump in past tweets

Join the conversation about this story »

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• In July, BMW will roll out a sweeping software update that includes digital personalization and on-demand functions.
• The automaker envisions a future where people will subscribe to existing features on their cars, such as a heated steering wheel or adaptive cruise control.
• The software will be compatible with BMWs with the automaker's latest Operating System 7, as well as the 2021 BMW 5 Series.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In July, BMW plans to launch a comprehensive software update on compatible cars that includes digital personalization and on-demand functions. 

The way it works, the automaker explained via a press release, is that BMW will provide the car's necessary hardware and software during assembly so that, later on, it can be activated according to the buyer's preference. 

BMW envisions a situation where, for example, if one customer wanted a feature that wasn't requested when they bought the car, it can be added afterward. And if that car came into new ownership with someone else, that new owner could also activate the features that they want. 

CNN better details this subscription service by giving tech features — adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, adaptive suspension — and comfort features — a heated steering wheel — as examples.

"We offer maximum flexibility and peace of mind to our customers when it comes to choosing and using their optional equipment in their BMWs, whether this BMW is new or used," a BMW spokesperson told Techcrunch.

"In the near future, we will not only be able to add more functions here, but we will also be able to add even more flexibility for our customers with temporary bookings so booking of options for three years, for one year, or even shorter periods of time, like a few months," the spokesperson continued.

BMW didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's inquiries of when and in which markets customers can expect these on-demand functions and digital personalization to roll out. 

According to CNN, the company said that hypothetically a first owner could purchase a three-year subscription to heated seats, which is how long that person would expect to keep the car. Then, the next owner could decide for themselves if they wanted to subscribe to the heated seats, too. 

This, of course, requires the car to already have the feature's hardware built-in from the factory, such as the required sensors for adaptive cruise control or the heating elements in a seat or steering wheel. BMW casts the idea in a very favorable light in its press release, stating that it is "strengthening selection and personalization for customers, offering them maximum flexibility."

Yet, this move can also be seen as the start of major automakers' dangerous slide into the territory of microtransactions. Microtransactions, known and hated in the gaming world as in-game purchases, have infuriated players by essentially charging them more money to enjoy a game they already bought.

This BMW could end up being similar. Your car would have all the necessary hardware already included. You would still pay for the gas to haul it all around. But you would also have to pay BMW a subscription fee just for it to turn the features on. What happens if, after a while, the cost of the subscription outpaces the price of the feature itself? 

Then you have to consider what happens in the used-car market. Will the new owner also be on the hook for paying for now-outdated hardware? 

Tesla famously offers over-the-air features, but as Jalopnik reported in February, this isn't always a perfect process from owner to owner. A customer, according to the outlet, bought a used Tesla Model S that was equipped with Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving Capability — features totaling about $8,000 — only to find that both were removed from the car during a software update without his permission. 

This was because, as Tesla customer support told the customer, "Tesla has recently identified instances of customers being incorrectly configured for Autopilot versions that they did not pay for. Since, there was an audit done to correct these instances. Your vehicle is one of the vehicles that was incorrectly configured for Autopilot."

There are, as Jalopnik pointed out, entire forum threads dedicated to this happening to other people.

It does state in its press release that the new 5 Series, as well as every BMW that will be built after July 2020, will be compatible with the upgrade. The cars just need the automaker's latest Operating System 7.

SEE ALSO: BMW updated its 5 Series sedan with a new look and a mild hybrid system that'll shut off the car while cruising to save gas

Join the conversation about this story »

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• The Sony WH-1000XM3 are arguably the best noise-cancelling headphones you can buy.
• They offer a great design, super comfortable fit, and excellent sound quality — making them a great choice for all situations.
• Their full retail price is $349.99, but Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy have them on sale now for $72 off, bringing their price down to $278.00.
• That's among the best deals we've seen for these excellent headphones so far. 
• For more headphone recommendations, be sure to check out our regularly updated roundup of the best headphone deals.

The Bose QuietComfort 35 II headphones were long considered the best noise-cancelling headphones, but the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones have challenged the Bose for the top spot ever since their release in 2018. 

In fact, the Sony WH-1000XM3s now rank as the best noise-cancelling headphones overall in our guide, even beating out Bose's latest noise-cancelling headphones, the Bose 700. Check out the Sony WH-1000XM3 review here. 

The main downside to these headphones is their price, but right now, Sony's headphones are $72 off at Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart. The discount brings the cost down to $278.00, which is one of the lowest prices we've seen for these headphones since they launched. 

The Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones have a ton to offer. They boast a super nice over-ear design that's comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and you can get them in black or silver — either color option is a classy look. They also have a USB-C port and a touch-sensitive control panel, making it easy to turn the volume up or down, control playback, and so on.

These headphones boast plenty of bass response, plus a well-tuned mid-range, and there's a ton of clarity and detail in the high-end. In other words, they're relatively well balanced in comparison with the Bose QuietComfort 35 II headphones (which are on sale for $50 off right now). 

The noise-cancellation tech on Sony's headphones is second-to-none, making them a great option for long flights, commuting, and so on. They also offer Alexa and Google Assistant integration, so you can quickly and easily talk to your digital assistant straight from the headphones.

We don't know how long the sale is running, so act quickly if you want a pair.

Get the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones from Amazon, $278.00 (originally $349.99) [You save $71.99]

Get the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones from Best Buy, $278.00 (originally $349.99) [You save $71.99]

Get the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones from Walmart, $278.00 (originally $348.00) [You save $70]

Join the conversation about this story »

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

• Cem Sibay, Amazon's former vice president of worldwide Prime product and technology, is now leading the company's efforts to build an internal COVID-19 testing lab, Business Insider has learned.
• His team's priority is to build the testing capabilities and infrastructure needed to deliver test results in between the lab and Amazon's facilities across the country.
• Amazon previously said it planned to spend $300 million on building the test lab during the three months ending in June as part of its $4 billion investment on coronavirus-related initiatives during the quarter.
• Are you a current or former Amazon employee? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal or Telegram (+1-415-926-2066) or email (ekim@businessinsider.com).
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon has tapped Cem Sibay, a 15-year company veteran, to lead its efforts to build an in-house COVID-19 testing lab, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sibay, who most recently ran the day-to-day operations of Amazon's Prime membership program, became vice president of "Project Ultraviolet," the internal codename for the initiative, in April, the people said. The team's top priority is to roll out COVID-19 testing to every Amazon employee and build the infrastructure needed to ship testing results between the in-house lab and Amazon facilities across the country. 

Ultraviolet is likely a reference to the theory that UV light is an effective disinfectant for COVID-19. Amazon recently showcased a UV-light-emitting robot designed to kill the novel coronavirus in Whole Foods stores and warehouses.

Amazon's spokesperson declined to comment.

Sibay's appointment shows Amazon is assigning one of the company's most important COVID-19 response efforts to a trusted executive with a proven track record of success — but no background in healthcare. 

After he spent seven years on Amazon's corporate-development team, Sibay helped grow the company's European operations until 2016. Then he moved to the team in charge of the Prime program, helping expand it to over 150 million paid members worldwide. Sibay's experience in fast delivery and logistics while on the Prime team was a key consideration for his appointment, as test-result delivery is a big challenge for the team, one person said. Sibay recently updated his LinkedIn page to reflect the change in his role.

"Covid changed everything. It's time to fight back. Leading a team of passionate scientists, engineers, product managers and other subject matter experts that have put their 'day jobs' on hold to help make a difference and ultimately save lives. Testing, testing, testing," his Linkedin profile says.

A $300 million project with a Kentucky address

Amazon previously said it planned to spend about $300 million on building the testing lab during the three months ending in June. Additionally, it said it expected to spend a total of $4 billion across a number of coronavirus-related initiatives during last quarter, such as increased wages and improved temperature checks for warehouse workers. CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement in April that the company started "building its first lab and has begun a pilot to test front-line employees."

Sibay's team recently recruited several executives from other parts of the company, people said. The new additions include Liam Pingree, the former manager of the Prime Air drone-delivery team; Jack Sallay, most recently a senior manager of the Prime Benefits team; and Sarah Mathews, who was a director for Amazon Books. Pingree's LinkedIn profile now says he's part of "Amazon Laboratories."

The team is actively hiring both internally and externally. Many of the job openings linked to Sibay's team are in Hebron, Kentucky, where Amazon is building a new Air Hub for its freight service. In one job posting for a medical-technologist position, Amazon says it's looking for someone who can work a 24/7 shift and "perform all laboratory testing in a high complexity CLIA-certified laboratory covering all levels of complexity necessary for diagnosis and treatment."

Amazon's response to COVID-19 has been a hot-button issue for the company over the past few months. A number of employee demonstrations arose across the country over the company's safety measures, while several lawmakers demanded answers for the firing of activist employees. Amazon still hasn't disclosed the total number of infections among workers at its warehouses, but an unofficial employee tally has the count at over 1,500 cases.

In April, Bezos wrote in his annual shareholder letter that his time and thinking "continues to be focused on COVID-19 and how Amazon can help while we're in the middle of it."

SEE ALSO: Leaked emails show Amazon is delaying Prime Day again to October as concerns grow that a new COVID-19 demand spike may hit supply chains

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Tax Day is now July 15 — this is what it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time

• Palantir, the data-mining company co-founded by Peter Thiel, was named after a mystical, all-powerful seeing stone in "Lord of the Rings."
• One of the story's villains, the wizard Saruman, uses a palantir to surveil his enemies.
• The stone's power and limitless knowledge corrupt Saruman and allow him to be manipulated, leading to his downfall.
• The story's heroes are also tasked with escaping their enemies' line of sight via the palantir in order to complete their mission of ridding Middle Earth of the evil One Ring.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Palantir, the secretive and controversial Silicon Valley data firm, is gearing up to go public in what could be one of the biggest IPOs in tech's history.

It was founded in 2003 by some of the "PayPal mafia," including now billionaire investor and Trump adviser Peter Thiel. He, along with the rest of the Valley's inner circle, harbors a deep-seated obsession with J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings"— so much so that Palantir's founders opted for a moniker inspired by a magical object in the fantastical universe.

The palantiri are a collection of indestructible crystal stones used in Tolkien's fictional Middle Earth as a means of "far-seeing" communication.

The wizard Saruman uses one of the all-powerful seeing stones to surveil his foes and is ultimately corrupted by the unbounded knowledge that it provides him. Sauron — the main villain in the books and the films — reaches Saruman through the palantir and manipulates him into doing his bidding.

Critic and leading Tolkien scholar Jane Chance Nitzsche wrote that Saruman uses the stone to "seek Godlike knowledge by gazing in a short-sighted way" into the palantir. By opting for "mere knowledge" instead of actual wisdom, the wizard eventually met his downfall.

In the movie, you might also remember Peregrin "Pippin" Took mischievously snatching a palantir while Gandalf and the others are asleep. He and the rest of the story's heroes continuously dodge their enemies' line of sight in order to complete their main quest: destroying the One Ring and ridding Middle Earth of such a source of evil.

Palantir, the tech firm, creates software that gives its customers a wide-ranging, searchable database to find what they're looking for. So naming the company after an object that provides a broad scope of sight might seem fitting.

But critics say that harnessing Palantir's tech as a surveillance tool, especially while partnering with such agencies as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, could be less than heroic. The company has provided ICE with data from the Department of Health and Human Services, which resulted in hundreds of immigrants being arrested. The company also works with law enforcement agencies.

Palantir isn't the only tech company connected to Thiel that bears a LOTR-inspired name and has drawn criticism.

He was an early investor in military-contracting startup Anduril, which was named after the magical sword in the series that was wielded by the trilogy's hero, Aragorn. The company, founded by Palmer Luckey in 2017, was recently awarded a contract with US Customs and Border Protection to build a virtual "wall" as a means to prevent illegal crossings into the US. The system will utilize surveillance towers to detect movement.

Fans of the beloved books have taken issue with companies that have names inspired by "Lord of the Rings" and work with border authorities like CBP.

"It's really not even close to the point, but between this and [Palantir], wtf is up with tech bros using Lord of the Rings names for their big data services for the military?" a Twitter user said last year. "Did I miss some pro-war/surveillance message in Tolkien's work?"

SEE ALSO: Palantir, a secretive tech company started by members of the 'PayPal mafia' with close ties to the Trump administration, could be one of the biggest tech IPOs ever. Take a closer look at how it makes money

Join the conversation about this story »

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

• Sony's PlayStation 4 has dominated the video game industry since it launched in November 2013, and deals on consoles, games, and accessories are frequently offered.
• Though the PlayStation 5 is due out in late 2020, Sony says it plans to continue supporting the PS4 for years to come thanks to its huge install base.
• The PlayStation 4 still has plenty of new games on the way, and you can find lots of great discounts on PS4 classics, even with a new console generation on the horizon.
• Right now, "Red Dead Redemption 2" is on sale for $39.99, which is $20 off its regular price.
  

The PlayStation 4 is one of the best-selling video game consoles of all-time, with more than 100 million consoles sold around the world since its debut in 2013.

Sony has dominated the current console generation with PlayStation 4-exclusive games like "God of War," "Horizon Zero Dawn," and "Marvel's Spider-Man." Hit franchises like "MLB the Show" and "Uncharted" also continue to keep fans dedicated to the PlayStation brand.

Beyond a library of more than 2,500 video games, the PlayStation 4 also serves as the anchor for countless home theater systems, providing Blu-ray and DVD playback, digital movie rentals, and support for popular streaming apps like Netflix, Spotify, and Twitch.

The PlayStation 5 is due to launch in fall 2020, but Sony says it will continue releasing games for the millions of PS4 owners while gamers gradually adopt the new console. As an added bonus, the PS5 will support hundreds of the most popular PS4 games, so you can start building a library now and bring them over to the new console when you're ready to upgrade.

Below, we've collected the best deals on PlayStation 4 consoles, exclusive games, and accessories. These discounts should all come in handy whether you're picking up a PlayStation 4 for the first time, building your library of games, or trying to find the cheapest price on a PlayStation peripheral.

Here are the best PlayStation 4 deals for July 2020:

• "Red Dead Redemption 2," $39.99 (originally $59.99) at Best Buy [You save $20]
• "Control," $29.99 (originally $59.99) at Best Buy [You save $30]
• HyperX Cloud Stinger Wireless Headset for PS4, $69.99 (originally $89.99) at Best Buy [You save $20]
• Pre-owned DualShock 4 Wireless Controller, $49.99 ($59.99 new) at GameStop [You save $10 buying pre-owned]

Prices and links are current as of 7/7/2020. Added new deals for PS4 games and HyperX Cloud Stinger headset. Removed deals that are no longer active. Updated by Kevin Webb.

Best PlayStation 4 console deals

After releasing the original PlayStation 4 in 2013, Sony released two new versions of the console in 2016 — a slim model replacing the original, and the more powerful PS4 Pro.

The PlayStation 4 Pro is capable of playing games at 4K resolution, while the standard PS4 is limited to 1080p. Despite the resolution limits, every version of the PS4 is capable of HDR color output, and a 1TB hard drive is now the PS4 standard.

Though there are no discounts currently available on new PlayStation 4 consoles, with the PlayStation 5 on the way, buying a used or refurbished PlayStation 4 could be a wise choice if you just want something to hold you over until you're ready to upgrade to the next generation console.

Unfortunately, stock for all PlayStation 4 consoles remains low at many retailers. With that in mind, the below products might not currently be available for shipment. We'll update this section with more retailer options as stores add more inventory. 

• PlayStation 4 Pro, $399.99 (originally $399.99) at Best Buy
• PlayStation 4 Slim, $299.99 (originally $299.99) at Best Buy
• Refurbished PlayStation 4 Pro, $359.99 ($399.99 new) at GameStop [You save $40 buying refurbished]
• Refurbished PlayStation 4 Slim, $279.99 ($299.99 new) at GameStop [You save $20 buying refurbished]

Best deals on PlayStation 4 games

There are thousands of games available for the PlayStation 4, so we've chosen to focus on the some of the console's most popular titles. Digital games are available through the PlayStation Network storefront, which also offers sales on a regular basis.

• "Red Dead Redemption 2," $39.99 (originally $59.99 at Best Buy) [You save $20]
• "Control," $29.99 (originally $59.99) at Best Buy [You save $30]
• "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night," $19.99 (originally $39.99) at Best Buy [You save $20]
• "The Outer Worlds," $24.99 (originally $39.99) at Best Buy [You save $15]
• "Borderlands 3," $14.99 (originally $39.99 at Best Buy) [You save $25]

Best PlayStation 4 controller deals

The DualShock 4 is the standard PlayStation 4 controller but it's also compatible with Windows, iOS, MacOS, and Android devices.

With controllers like the Xbox Elite Series popularizing the use of rear paddle buttons, premium controllers like the SCUF Vantage have become popular choices for the PlayStation 4 as well. Sony released a special attachment to add back buttons to the DS4 controller in January 2020, but it's been hard to find in the months since.

Though there are no discounts on brand-new DualShock 4 controllers right now, you can save $10 by purchasing a pre-owned controller via GameStop.

• Pre-owned DualShock 4 Wireless Controller, $49.99 ($59.99 new) at GameStop [You save $10 buying pre-owned]

Best PlayStation VR and PS4 accessory deals

The PlayStation VR is the top-selling VR headset, thanks in part to the 100 million people who already own the required PlayStation 4. The headset connects directly to the console and can be used to play standard games in 2D as well as immersive VR titles like "Firewall: Zero Hour."

The PlayStation Move Motion controller has been around since the days of the PlayStation 3 and works in tandem with the PlayStation VR to track arm and hand movements. They're not mandatory for playing games in VR, but some games require them for proper motion control, like "Superhot."

The Gold Wireless Headset is one of Sony's official headsets for the PlayStation 4, but the PS4 console and controller are compatible with a wide range of third party audio devices.

There are no discounts currently available on brand-new PlayStation VR headsets or bundles, but GameStop has refurbished PlayStation VR units for $149.99 when they're in stock. We'll update this section with more PlayStation VR and accessory deals as they are announced.

• HyperX Cloud Stinger Wireless Headset for PS4, $69.99 (originally $89.99) at Best Buy [You save $20]
• Refurbished PlayStation VR (HDR Compatible), $149.99 ($199.99 new) at GameStop [You save $50 buying refurbished]

Best PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now deals

PlayStation Plus is a subscription service that's required for online play with nearly all PlayStation 4 games.  The subscription also offers special discounts in the PlayStation Network store, and subscribers get free games each month that remain available as long as the PlayStation Plus subscription is active.

If you're already a PlayStation Plus subscriber, buying a discounted membership will add time to the length of your current subscription.

Meanwhile, PlayStation Now is a subscription streaming service that lets you stream hundreds of games to your PC or PS4. Think Netflix, but for PlayStation games. The service includes games for PS2, PS3, and PS4. As an added bonus, PlayStation 4 owners can download the full version of their PlayStation Now games to play offline.

• 12 Month PlayStation Plus Membership, $59.99 from GameStop
• 12 Month PlayStation Now membership, $59.99 from GameStop

• RealFriend, launched in 2018, is a startup that created a chatbot to simplify the apartment-hunting process.
• RealFriend first went live in Tel Aviv. After a year-long beta test, it is now officially launching in New York.
• RealFriend's cofounders shared the pitch deck that helped them raise a $4.4 million seed round earlier this year with Business Insider.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In the hottest markets, finding the right apartment can feel like a full-time job, wading through fake listings and apartments that don't fit the needs of the renter. Even a rental broker, who can help with some of this, has a smaller, siloed view of the market because they're tied to a specific brokerage and a limited amount of listings.

That problem is what convinced long-time collaborators Omri Klinger and Hadar Landau to apply the AI-chatbot they had been building to the world of real-estate rentals in 2017 with the launch of RealFriend.

RealFriend first went live in 2018 in Tel Aviv. In 2019, the chatbot spoke to almost 54,000 renters in a city where 50,000 apartments are rented a year. The company also launched a beta run in New York last year, renaming the chatbot from Dooron, its Israeli name, to Luke, as it began to operate stateside. 

RealFriend raised $4.4 million in a seed round this March, with backing from Gaia, a NYC real-estate investment fund; Eyal Waldman, CEO and founder of Israeli-American computer hardware company Mellanox Technologies; Israeli venture capital firm F2; angel investor and former SVP of product at WeWork Ron Gura; and German media  company Axel Springer.

Now, RealFriend is launching more widely in New York, with the hope of helping renters navigate the famously challenging New York rental market as it rapidly changes due to the coronavirus.

Business Insider spoke to Klinger, the company's CTO; and Landau, the company's CEO about their pitch deck and why they think chatbots will massively change real estate. 

Here's the pitch deck RealFriend used to win over investors and raise its seed round.

(Disclosure: Axel Springer is Business Insider's parent company.)

Realfriend first launched in Tel Aviv, and has now been running a beta for over a year in New York.

The company gave the chatbot a traditional name in order to facilitate more natural conversations with the bot. 

"You tell Luke things you tell only to friends," Landau said. "In real estate, which is an emotional process, having someone who has your back is what you're looking for."

Landau and Klinger have been working together for 15 years, and first met in the Israeli Defense Force.

Israel is one of the world's leaders in successful startups, with Tel Aviv having the most startups per capita outside of Silicon Valley.

Startup experts told Business Insider last year that the IDF is one of the main reasons for this, because of its use of cutting-edge technology and the discipline that is instilled in its soldiers. 

Landau and Klinger met in the IDF in 2005, and by the time they launched RealFriend, they had already launched one startup together, OneFeed. 

OneFeed was a browser extension for Chrome that turned the "new tab" page into a dashboard with personalized news, email notifications, and social-media alerts. 

Early experiments with chatbots and a bad experience apartment hunting led the two to make real estate their focus.

After selling their previous startup in 2015, Landau and Klinger began to experiment with chatbots. It took them more than a year to create a conversation engine for the chatbot that satisfied their demands, which coincidentally lined up to when Landau was searching for a new apartment in Tel Aviv. 

He spent hours sorting through many listings, some of which were fake, to find potential apartments to rent. Afterwards, Landau realized that apartment rental would be a perfect application for the conversation engine they had built. 

"We realized that what we built could be the future of real estate," Landau said.

RealFriend's central concern is making sure its chatbot can interact with people as if it were actually someone they could speak to.

The company used the above chat log, which shows a user "introducing" Luke to their mom, as an example of the bot's conversational skill, especially in relation to other rental search options online.

The company used chat because it is more personal than other options, is accessible to more people, and allows for more flexibility in the amenities and requests it can accommodate.

Key to their choice to use a chatbot was the more personal nature it brings to the real estate rental process, which is one of the most important financial and personal decisions that people make. 

Chatbots are also more widely accessible to users who aren't as comfortable with tech and don't want to learn a whole new app. Landau gave the example of an older customer who uses voice-to-text to communicate with Luke, something that would be significantly more challenging if Luke were an app.

Chatbots are also more flexible, allowing the system's database to easily add other considerations or features that might be hard or impossible to find on a traditional website, and would be a user-experience nightmare to code into a traditional website. 

"You can tell it things that are not in an app, like an open kitchen layout and south-facing view from my living room," Landau said. "This is something you wouldn't be able to search on StreetEasy." 

This sample chat shows Luke's ability to suggest properties on the market, provide data about the market, schedule showings, and iterate on feedback.

The chat begins with a user telling Luke what their requests are for an apartment, leading Luke to provide a potential option. Luke's engine, which combines information from many apartment listing sites, is able to give data about its affordability compared to the market as well. 

The app then schedules a rental showing, and then after the showing, asks for feedback. The user explains why they want to pass on it with quite specific details, prompting Luke to suggest another apartment that matches one of the user's concerns. Those concerns are also logged into RealFriend's backend database, so that the company doesn't recommend this apartment to people with the same concerns.

This slide helps to explain why RealFriend is using a chatbot, and why it sees such an opportunity in the US.

Despite having no marketing beyond word of mouth, the company became quite popular in Tel Aviv.

Dooron spoke to more people in 2019 than there are apartments being rented in Tel Aviv.

The company's New York beta, launched in 2019, now has 2,500 monthly active users.

The company soft-launched Luke in the notoriously-challenging New York rental market in March of 2019, and has seen a 25% month-over-month growth in engagement. 

New York was always planned as another market to launch in, as Klinger was actually living in the city when the pair decided to apply their conversation engine to rental real estate. 

RealFriend shared some of their customer's responses to Luke to show how users treat Luke more like a person than a chatbot.

The replies are the company's proof that they're able to connect with users in a much more personal way than a traditional real-estate search service.

"The more they talk with us, we gain more knowledge and the bot becomes smarter," Klinger said. "It's more of a relationship than a transaction."

Landau said that the company has even received selfies from users on vacation, explaining to Luke that they'll be back and ready to keep apartment hunting when they get home.

Luke and Dooren's Net Promoter Scores are higher than those of other, larger AI assistants and dwarf other real-estate portals.

The company's service is free, but they're hoping to eventually make money by charging agents a referral fee of 25% of their commission.

As of now, Luke and Dooron are totally free, but the company plans to eventually charge referral fees from brokers. 

"We collaborate with brokers, and we do some of the tedious work they used to do to save them time and help them focus," Landau said. 

While the company looks to eventually make money through referral fees, not too dissimilar from models like Zillow's search portal, they don't plan to actually sell their services to a whole brokerage. 

Landau said that they've received a lot of offers to partner with brokerages, but have decided not to because they want Luke to be a neutral arbiter who helps out the person looking for an apartment and is not financially aligned with a specific broker or apartment. 

"Staying unbiased is important," Klinger said.

The company has found coronavirus to accelerate the adoption of their product, after a short period of slowdown.

With renters relying on virtual tours and minimizing the amount of apartments they enter, Luke and RealFriend have seen huge spikes in demand. 

At the beginning of the crisis, the company saw use of the app plunge by more than half of its previous demand. But as economies began to open back up, demand has spiked. 

The demand came from users who were reevaluating their current apartment after being locked-inside, as well as those looking for lower prices and potential concessions, said Klinger. 

In New York, Klinger said they're seeing lower prices and landlords offering many concessions to potential tenants, with landlords offering winter pricing during the peak summer months. 

Hadar said they've also seen a change in amenities that potential renters are looking for, with less people asking for a gym nearby and more people asking for open living space and in-unit laundry.

• Apple will start developing its own chips for future Mac computers, a shift that could give the tech giant more freedom to create custom Mac features that are closely tied to its software.
• It's an approach that Apple has taken with the iPhone and Apple Watch, both of which have features powered by the neural engine in Apple's homegrown chips.
• The development of its own silicon is just one way in which Apple is blending its mobile and desktop ecosystems.
• The company is also redesigning the Mac's software in a way that more closely resembles that of the iPhone and iPad with its Big Sur update.
• These changes could help Apple create new features that make the Mac stand out, coming after Windows devices have largely defined the biggest shifts to occur in the laptop industry over the last decade.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple has always taken a distinctly different approach to its laptop and desktop computers compared to Windows rivals. While Windows PC makers have infused the qualities of both mobile and desktop computers into laptops they've launched over the past seven years or so, Apple has always maintained a stance that mobile and desktop operating systems should remain separate.

While it's true that iPhone and Mac products run on separate software — a decision Apple has no plans to change —Mac computers are on pace to evolve into something that looks a lot more like the iPhone than ever before. That's all thanks to Apple's new Mac software, and most importantly, the company's plan to transition away from Intel to its own homegrown chips.

Apple announced its decision to develop its own silicon for Macs during its Worldwide Developers Conference last month, saying that it expects the transition to take two years. Such a move will enable Macs to run iPhone and iPad apps since the chips powering these products will run on one common architecture.

It will also open the door for Apple to design specific Mac features based on the device's hardware and processing power, just as it's done for the iPhone, Apple Watch, and other products. Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted at as much during the company's presentation.

"When we look ahead, we envision some amazing new products," Cook said during the presentation. "And transitioning to our own custom silicon is what will enable us to bring them to life."

The Mac has gotten boring compared to Windows 

The shift to Apple silicon indicates there are some promising updates ahead for the Mac, which hasn't changed much over the last decade. While Windows computer makers such as Lenovo, Dell, and Asus among others have developed computers with detachable or flexible touch screens, multiple displays, or designs that take various forms, Apple's MacBooks largely look the same, save for the addition of the Touch Bar in 2016.

The most exciting change to come to Apple's newest MacBook Pro and Air laptops are their redesigned keyboards, an update that came in response to criticism of Apple's flatter and more typo-prone butterfly keyboard. Dell, meanwhile, showcased concept laptops with flexible displays and more than one screen at the CES tech conference in January.

Apple's decision to develop its own silicon for the Mac hopefully means we'll see new innovations come to its line of laptops and desktops. And that's a very good thing for Apple, which has largely ignored the biggest industry trend to unfold over the last decade: the rise of laptop-tablet hybrids.

Apple was never on board with the idea that mobile and desktop operating systems should be the same, but it recently began playing catch-up when it comes to this trend by building more desktop-like functionality into the iPad, especially the iPad Pro.

Despite bucking this trend, Apple is still one of the top five laptop and desktop vendors in the world when it comes to global market share. But it ranks behind PC giants like Lenovo, which placed in first, followed by HP, Dell, and Acer, according to figures from the International Data Corporation published in April.  

Having more freedom and flexibility to develop new features for the Mac that may help it stand out could be especially important now that PC makers are starting to think about what's next for the laptop — like the integration of 5G technology.

It would also give Apple an advantage in that it wouldn't be prone to issues impacting the rest of the industry, like Intel's chip shortage from 2019, which impacted rivals like Dell and HP. 

The Mac's future is starting to look a lot like the iPhone

Based on the company's announcements at WWDC, the Mac is taking a new direction that will more closely resemble the iPhone experience, possibly setting the stage for more significant changes to the Mac lineup.

Although Apple has yet to launch its first computer based on its own silicon, the company's  macOS Big Sur update already provides a glimpse at the growing similarities between the Mac and the iPhone. The update, slated to launch in the fall, has a slick new design that feels similar to the iPhone and iPad's interface. For example, Apple is bringing Control Center — the panel with quick settings for screen brightness, volume, media playback, and other controls that's accessible on the iPhone — to the Mac with Big Sur.

The dock is also getting a fresh redesign that resembles that of the iPad, and the Messages app for Mac will be updated with features that have long been available on the iPhone, like support for Memoji, the ability to insert GIFs, and special effects when typing certain phrases. 

When Apple starts launching computers powered by its own processors instead of Intel's, that shift will become even more apparent. Not only will iPhone apps be capable of running on the Mac natively, but it'll also allow Apple to make bolder and more dramatic changes to the Mac than what we've seen in recent years. 

The iPhone's biggest advantage is coming to the Mac: complete control

A large part of  what sets Apple apart lies in the fact that it controls almost every aspect of the product development process, from the hardware design to the software and silicon. That's what has separated Apple's iOS platform from Windows and Android. Because Apple designs its own chips for mobile devices like the iPhone and Apple Watch, it's able to tailor its products' performance, functionality, and power management in accordance with the device's software. 

Take the automatic handwashing detection in watchOS 7, Apple's next major software update for the Apple Watch. That feature is made possible by the neural engine found inside the Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5.

There are many examples of this on the iPhone, among the most recent being Apple's deep fusion photography feature, which it announced last fall. Deep fusion uses machine learning enabled by the neural engine inside the A13 Bionic, the chip that powers the iPhone 11 lineup and iPhone SE, to process photos at the pixel level, optimizing shots for texture, detail, and noise.

Apple's announcement left many unanswered questions about Apple silicon, such as exactly how powerful its chips will be. But what's clear is that developing its own silicon will enable Apple to put its own stamp on the Mac just as it's done with other products.

Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies, said that this approach falls in line with Apple cofounder and former CEO Steve Jobs' vision when speaking with Bloomberg Businessweek in 2016. 

"Steve came to the conclusion that the only way for Apple to really differentiate and deliver something truly unique and truly great, you have to own your own silicon," Srouji said to Bloomberg Businessweek in 2016. "You have to control and own it."

SEE ALSO: Apple is expected to release a larger iPhone 12 Pro later this year — here's everything we know about Apple's next high-end iPhones so far

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How waste is dealt with on the world's largest cruise ship

• You can easily compress a PowerPoint file's size, which makes it easier to share and save.
• When you compress your PowerPoint, you'll have to reduce the quality of any music, videos, or pictures you have in your slideshow.
• Once you've compressed your PowerPoint, it will load faster, but the media in it may not look as good.
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

At some point in your slideshow-creating life, you've probably saved a PowerPoint presentation and realized that the file size is entirely too large. 

Larger file sizes make PowerPoints more difficult to send and save, and they also make each slide take longer to load.

One of the easiest ways to quickly reduce a PowerPoint presentation's file size is to compress it. When you compress a PowerPoint, you'll reduce the quality and size of every media file in the presentation. This includes videos, audio clips, animations, and photos.

If you compress them down to an appropriate size, your file size will be much smaller. However, your photos, videos, and other media probably won't look or sound as sharp.

Here's how to compress your media files in PowerPoint on a Mac or PC.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

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

Acer Chromebook 15 (From $179.99 at Walmart)

How to compress a PowerPoint file on a PC

1. In the ribbon or menu bar at the top of the screen, click "File." Make sure that "Info" is selected in the left sidebar.

2. Click "Compress Media." Depending on whether your version of PowerPoint was made before or after 2016, this button will either be next to the label "Multimedia" or "Media Size and Performance."

3. Choose one of the three options for media quality from the dropdown menu. These will differ based on which version you have as well, but they boil down to: 

• Select the highest quality option if you want to maintain high quality media for in-person presentations. 
• Select the middle option for quality akin to media found on the internet. 
• Select the lowest quality option if your file needs to be as compressed as much as possible — for example, if you need to send it via email.

How to compress a PowerPoint file on a Mac

In the Mac version of PowerPoint, you can only reduce the file size of images, not videos or music.

To do this:

1. Open your PowerPoint slideshow and click "File" in the menu bar at the top of the screen. If you only want to compress specific images, select them before clicking "File."

2. In the dropdown menu, click "Compress Pictures..."

3. You'll be shown a "Compression Table," which lists all the different ways you can compress the file. You'll have three main options:

• "Printing" will keep your pictures at the highest quality possible.
• "Viewing on screen" will reduce the quality of your pictures by about 30 percent.
• "Sending in an e-mail message" will compress them by another 30 percent or so.

You can also pick the fourth and last option, which will keep each picture's current resolution, but try to reduce the file size in other areas.

4. Select whether you'd like to delete parts of your pictures that have been cropped out — doing so will help reduce the file size.

5. Choose whether you'd like to compress every picture in the slideshow, or just the ones that you selected beforehand. Once you've decided, click "OK."

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• How to add a border to slides in PowerPoint, and give your slideshow a sleek design

• How to embed a YouTube video into your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations using a Mac or PC

• How to convert Google Slides to a PowerPoint presentation in 4 easy steps

• How to convert a PowerPoint to Google Slides in 2 different ways

• How to copy or duplicate a PowerPoint slide and put it anywhere in your slideshow

SEE ALSO: The best all-in-one PCs you can buy

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• Facebook's auditors are calling for the company to hire more experts with backgrounds in civil rights.
• The proposed changes were detailed in the company's third and final civil rights audit, which was published on Wednesday.
• Facebook has already created a civil rights task force and has committed to hiring a senior leader to oversee civil rights initiatives.
• But auditors say the company needs to do more, and that includes hiring more people with dedicated roles focused on civil rights.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook is committing to hiring a civil rights leader, but auditors are urging the tech giant to hire more employees with expertise in civil rights for dedicated positions throughout the company.

The findings were part of the company's third and final civil rights audit report published on Wednesday, capping a two-year-long process that began in 2018.

"In particular, it's absolutely essential that the company do more to build out its internal civil rights infrastructure," the report read. "More expertise is needed in-house, as are more robust processes that allow for the integration of civil rights perspectives."

The audit focused on seven key areas for Facebook: civil rights accountability structure, elections and census 2020, content moderation and enforcement, diversity and inclusion, advertising practices, algorithmic bias, and privacy.

Civil rights leader Laura W. Murphy led the audit, along with a team from civil rights law firm Relman Colfax spearheaded by Megan Cacace. 

The final report comes after Facebook has been caught in a slew of controversies over topics related to election interference, consumer privacy, the spread of misinformation, and its policies on content moderation and free speech. Among the company's most recent troubles is the decision by more than 40 major brands to halt advertising on Facebook after the social media platform opted not to take action against posts from President Trump regarding the protests held after the death of George Floyd.

Although the auditors commended the tech giant for existing efforts and progress, it also noted that the company still has a long way to go. In particular, the auditors took issue with Facebook's decision not to fact-check post from politicians, especially its lack of action against posts from President Trump.

"While the audit process has been meaningful, and has led to some significant improvements in the platform, we have also watched the company make painful decisions over the last nine months with real world consequences that are
serious setbacks for civil rights," the report read.

One of the many changes the auditors asked for in the report involves hiring dedicated civil rights experts to address civil rights concerns throughout all aspects of the company, from product development to key decision-making.

"In the Auditors' view, the more Facebook is able to embed civil rights experts onto existing teams, the better those teams will be at identifying and addressing civil rights risks, and the more civil rights considerations will be built into the company's culture and DNA," the auditors wrote.

Facebook has made some efforts on this front: It's created a Civil Rights Task Force led by Sheryl Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer. It's also hired experts and consultants with voting and and census expertise to train employees and increase efforts to combat misinformation and voter suppression, the report notes.

Facebook has also committed to providing civil rights training for key employees and has created a new senior role specifically for civil rights leadership.

But the auditors say Facebook needs to go further by building out a team of experts to support the company's civil rights leader, rather than making it one aspect of existing employees' jobs.

"There is a difference between working full-time (as members of the civil rights leader's team) on identifying and resolving civil rights concerns, and having civil rights be one component of a job otherwise focused on other areas (as is the case for members of the Civil Rights Task Force)," the audit report read. "While the Auditors recognize that Facebook has agreed to allow the civil rights leader to build a team over time, they are concerned that without more resources up front, the leader will be overwhelmed before there is any opportunity to do so."

It's unclear which changes from the audit Facebook will actually put into practice, as Sandberg notes that it will not be implementing all of the recommendations from the report. She did say, however, that the company has started the process of bringing more civil-rights expertise in-house.

"While we won't make every change they call for, we will put more of their proposals into practice," Sandberg wrote. "We have started to do that — and we are making new commitments today."

Do you work at Facebook? Contact Business Insider reporter Lisa Eadicicco via encrypted email (lisaeadicicco@protonmail.com), standard email (leadicicco@businessinsider.com), or Twitter DM (@lisaeadicicco). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a nonwork device to reach out.

SEE ALSO: Facebook employees are revolting after it chose to not moderate a Trump post. Here's what's going on inside Facebook, and how its identity problem is tearing the company apart.

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• OnePlus is gearing up to release its next smartphone, the OnePlus Nord, which will cost less than $500.
• The phone is expected to feature a flat, simple design, a multi-camera setup, and 5G connectivity.
• The Nord will be noticeably cheaper than the recently launched OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, which cost $700 and $900, respectively.
• The launch would come as smartphone makers like Samsung and Apple are launching more competitively priced phones like the iPhone SE and series of Galaxy A devices. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

OnePlus launched the $700 OnePlus 8 and $900 OnePlus 8 Pro earlier this year, but the company is already planning its next major smartphone launch: The OnePlus Nord.

Unlike the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, the Nord is expected to represent a return to the company's roots of launching affordable smartphones that undercut the prices of devices launched by Samsung and Apple. The company has somewhat strayed from that vision by launching phones with higher prices at a time when the industry is gravitating toward less expensive phones.

If the leaks turn out to be true, we can expect the sub-$500 OnePlus Nord to challenge premium devices like the iPhone 11 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 with a triple-lens camera and 5G support.

Here's everything we know about the OnePlus Nord, which is expected to debut this month.  

SEE ALSO: Apple is expected to release a larger iPhone 12 Pro later this year — here's everything we know about Apple's next high-end iPhones so far

It will be priced under $500.

One of the most interesting confirmed details about the OnePlus Nord is its price.

The company revealed in a recent behind-the-scenes video about the phone's development that it will be priced below $500, putting it in direct competition with the the $400 iPhone SE and Samsung Galaxy A71 5G.

It will run on Qualcomm's 765G processor and support 5G.

The OnePlus Nord will support 5G connectivity, making it one of the cheapest devices to do so. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei confirmed the 5G support and processor model to TechRadar.

OnePlus will be among the few smartphone makers offering 5G phones at a more affordable device, along with TCL which unveiled the $400 TCL 10 5G earlier this year.

Many 5G smartphones from companies like Samsung cost $1,000 or more. 

The phone will probably have a flat screen with a simple design.

Although OnePlus hasn't officially unveiled the phone, comments from the company and leaks have given us clues about what the phone will look like.

The website True Tech posted a reportedly leaked photo of the phone showing a device with a flat display and a hole-punch cutout for the front-facing camera at the top. The report also suggested the phone could have a 6.4-inch display. That lines up with a similar leak posted in December from OnLeaks and 91mobiles. 

A thread on the shopping website DesiDime, however, claims the OnePlus Nord could have a 6.5-inch screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and an in-screen fingerprint sensor. The thread was in reference to a survey that some customers had received asking how likely they were to buy a OnePlus phone with the listed specifications, which XDA-Developers first noticed.  

Still, it's unclear how accurate the True Tech report is, considering it says the phone will come with a MediaTek processor while the company's co-founder confirmed to TechRadar that the Nord will run on a Qualcomm chip.

The leaks from True Tech and OnLeaks also show images of the device with just one selfie camera, whereas other rumors suggest the phone will have two front cameras. 

In its behind-the-scenes video, OnePlus staff are also seen holding a device during a meeting that looks a lot like what the leaks have described — a phone with a flat, borderless screen and a dual front camera. 

That would mark a departure from the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro, which have curved screens.

"The visual identity is supposed to be inspired by the Scandinavian sort of design," OnePlus' Matthias Czaja said in the video. "We think of it as very clean and calm and modern and minimalistic."

It may have three rear cameras and two front cameras.

It sounds like the OnePlus Nord will come with multiple cameras on both the front and back.

The DesiDime survey suggested the device will have a triple-lens camera with 64-megapixel, 16-megapixel, and 2-megapixel sensors. 

The phone model visible in OnePlus' recent video also shows a device with three camera lenses on the back. 

Otherwise, Android Central has reported that the OnePlus Nord will have two selfie cameras: one with a 32-megapixel sensor and another with an 8-megapixel sensor. However, that does conflict the survey that surfaced on DesiDime, which referenced a OnePlus phone with a 16-megapixel front camera. 

The phone is expected to support fast charging and may have 128GB of storage.

If accurate, the DesiDime survey has leaked just about every hardware detail about the OnePlus Nord, including its battery, memory, and storage capacity.

The survey suggests the phone could have a 4,300 mAh battery, which would make it larger than the Samsung Galaxy S20's 4,000 mAh battery but smaller than the Galaxy S20 Plus' 4,500 mAh battery. Otherwise, the poll indicates the Nord could have 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage space, and support for fast charging. 

It's expected to launch this month, but it won't be coming to the US. At least not right away.

OnePlus has announced that it will be holding a digital launch event for the Nord on July 21, providing a first real look at the device. It's unclear if the OnePlus Nord will be launching on that date or if the company only plans to unveil the phone during the event. 

Regardless, OnePlus has already begun accepting pre-orders for the OnePlus Nord in three waves.

The first two waves occured on July 1 and July 8, with the third scheduled for July 15 when the company will be taking pre-orders during a 24-hour window.

The Nord won't be launching in the US, however. It'll debut in Europe and India, but OnePlus CEO Pete Lau suggested that the Nord — or some version of it — will eventually make its way to the US.

"But don't worry, we're also looking to bring more affordable smartphones to North America in the near future well," he wrote in a OnePlus forum post. 

• Facebook deputy general counsel Paul Grewal is joining Coinbase.
• Grewal was one of Facebook's top lawyers, working on commercial, regulatory, and employment issues, as well as the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
• He's leaving to become Coinbase's new chief legal officer.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

One of Facebook's top lawyers is leaving the company to join the cryptocurrency startup Coinbase.

Paul Grewal, a vice president and deputy general counsel at the social-networking giant, will become Coinbase's new general counsel.

In a blog post, Coinbase said: "Paul will oversee all legal functions of the global business and will manage the continuing growth of our best-in-class legal team. As part of our commitment to operating the world's leading regulated crypto business, Paul will also lead the team's continuing work to partner with financial services regulators, contribute to the development and rollout of innovative, regulated products and services, and support the company's global growth and regulatory strategy."

A Facebook spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Grewal was involved in the company's response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and focused on "Commercial, Regulatory, Competition, Employment, International, Ediscovery and Litigation," according to his LinkedIn profile. 

At one point in 2018, he was touted as a potential replacement to Facebook's outgoing general counsel Colin Stretch — but that role ultimately went to former US State Department legal adviser Jennifer Newstead. 

Grewal was at Facebook for more than four years, joining in June 2016. He was previously a magistrate judge in California for nearly six years, a partner at Howrey LLP for a decade, and a clerk at the federal court of appeals. He studied at MIT and then Chicago Law School.

Bloomberg Law reported in February that Coinbase was on a "legal hiring binge" and snapping up senior talent from American Express, the crypto company Kraken, and the law firm Baker McKenzie. In March, Coinbase's chief legal officer, Brian Brooks, left to join the US Office of the Comptroller of Currency, CoinDesk reported at the time.

Do you work at Facebook? Contact Business Insider reporter Rob Price via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by standard email only, please.

SEE ALSO: Facebook is about to reveal its long-awaited civil-rights audit amid an advertiser boycott, but it's already saying it won't follow every recommendation

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• Google has abandoned plans to offer cloud services in China and other politically sensitive countries, according to a new report.
• The project, known as "Isolated Region," would have allowed Google to strike up partnerships with local companies and government agencies in the country. It would also let countries control data inside their borders.
• The project was ultimately scrapped, due in part to growing geopolitical tensions, which have been aggravated by the pandemic.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google has scrapped plans to offer a cloud service in China along with other politically sensitive markets, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

The company pulled the plug on the project known as "Isolated Region" partly due to concerns over geopolitical tensions that have been aggravated by the pandemic.

The "Isolated Region" initiative would have seen Google set up its cloud services in China controlled by a third party, be it a local company or government agency, reports Bloomberg. It would also have allowed the partner to retain full control over user data, so as to satisfy rules in China over such deals.

But Google put a pause on the project in January 2019 as tensions between the US and China mounted, choosing to instead prioritize potential other customers in EMEA countries.

The project was scrapped entirely this May, according to the report, which adds that the company is still considering a "pared back" cloud offering for China.

In a statement to Business Insider, a Google spokesperson acknowledged the existence of Isolated Region but denied that it was shut down for political or pandemic-related reasons. "Isolated Region was not shut down over geopolitical concerns or the pandemic," they said. "Google does not offer and has not offered cloud platform services inside China, and Google Cloud is not weighing options to offer the Google Cloud platform in China."

Google said that the initiative was in response to "emerging requirements around adoption of cloud technology from customers and regulatory bodies in many different parts of the world."

The spokeperson added: "Isolated Region was just one of the paths we explored to address these requirements. What we learned from customer conversations and input from government stakeholders in Europe and elsewhere is that other approaches we were also actively pursuing offered better outcomes."

However, they did not elaborate on what those other approaches were.

According to the Bloomberg report, some employees inside Google raised concerns over the China Cloud project, but it's not clear if this affected the decision to pull the plug.

This wouldn't be the first time Google has flirted with the idea of entering China. The company was at one point working on censored search engine codenamed "Dragonfly," which was scrapped after employees petitioned to shut it down.

But Google is determined to make a success of its cloud computing business. The business raked in $8.9 billion in revenue for the company last year, yet trails behind rivals Amazon and Microsoft. Google has set a deadline of 2023 to be a top-two player in this market.

Are you a Google insider with insight to share? You can contact this reporter securely using encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 628-228-1836) or encrypted email (hslangley@protonmail.com).

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• Facebook removed disinformation accounts it says were linked to Roger Stone, the longtime friend of President Trump. 
• The accounts involved posted about "candidates in the 2016 primaries and general election, and the Roger Stone trial," Facebook said. 
• Facebook also removed networks that originated in Canada, Ecuador, Brazil, and Ukraine.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook has removed disinformation accounts after an "investigation linked this network to Roger Stone and his associates" and other political figures in five countries, the social media giant said in a blog post Wednesday, citing involvement of President Trump's longtime friend. 

"In each case, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts as a central part of their operations to mislead people about who they are and what they are doing, and that was the basis for our action," Facebook said. 

"The Page admins and account owners posted about local politics in Florida, Roger Stone and his Pages, websites, books, and media appearances, a Florida land and water resources bill, the hacked materials released by Wikileaks ahead of the US 2016 election, candidates in the 2016 primaries and general election, and the Roger Stone trial," Facebook said. 

Facebook said the people behind this activity used fake accounts to pose as residents of Florida, post and comment on their own content to make it appear more popular than it is.

Stone was convicted on all seven counts of an indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness, and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election.

In April, the FBI unsealed records showing Stone allegedly bought hundreds of fake Facebook pages in 2016, which he used to circulate news articles that would damage his political rivals and, later, to defend himself against charges of Russian collusion. Facebook said those records led to the new actions. 

The company said it "identified the full scope of this network following the recent public release of search warrants pertaining to the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller." The records were unsealed after The New York Times, CNN, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and Politico jointly petitioned the court.

"Our investigation linked this network to Roger Stone and his associates," Facebook said.  

On the size of the Stone network, Facebook said it removed 54 Facebook accounts, 50 Pages, and 4 accounts on Instagram. About 260,000 accounts followed one or more of these Pages and around 61,500 people followed one or more of these Instagram accounts, Facebook said. Facebook also said "less than $308,000 in spending for ads on Facebook and Instagram paid for in US dollars" was linked to the accounts.

Facebook also removed networks that originated in Canada, Ecuador, Brazil, Ukraine, and the United States.

"The majority of the activity we removed today focused on domestic audiences in each country and was linked to commercial entities and individuals associated with political campaigns and political offices," the blog post said. 

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• This is a preview of the Business Insider Intelligence Internet of Medical Things premium research report. Purchase this report here.
• Business Insider Intelligence offers even more technology coverage with our Connectivity & Tech Briefing. Subscribe today to receive industry-changing connectivity news and analysis to your inbox.

Healthcare providers have been turning to the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) to facilitate their digital transformation since before the coronavirus hit the US — but the pandemic has caused a sea change in providers' willingness to implement IoT solutions that augment efforts in preparing for, containing, and diagnosing the virus. 

As the backbone that powers the IoMT, connectivity and technology providers have a mounting opportunity to capture a larger slice of the market as it evolves alongside the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, healthcare providers were forecast to adopt IoT devices at one of the fastest rates of any industry segment, with the installed base of IoT endpoints expected to grow 29% year-over-year in 2020.

And pre-pandemic, healthcare was among the top three industries expected to see the fastest growth rates (15.4%) in IoT investment in terms of spending over the 2017-2022 forecast period. But the coronavirus is fundamentally changing how healthcare can be accessed and delivered in the US, and we expect to see even faster growth throughout 2020 — and that this upward momentum will outlast the pandemic.

In TheInternet of Medical Things, Business Insider Intelligence assesses the North American IoMT market and explores how the IoMT opportunity for connectivity providers is evolving alongside the coronavirus pandemic, and how these players are carving out their place in the growing segment. We first unpack the opportunities for connectivity and technology providers in the IoMT market and outline how the coronavirus pandemic will impact demand for various IoT solutions in healthcare. We then detail how emerging techonlogies are propelling the healthcare IoT space forward. Finally, we explore how connectivity and technology players can expand within the IoMT ecosystem.

The companies mentioned in this report include: AT&T, Augmedics, AVIA, Choice IoT, DarioHealth, Eko, GE Healthcare, Intel, Medtronic, Packet, Phillips, PlushCare, PTC, Smardii, Sprint, Telit, Vuzix, XENEX, Zebra. 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report: 

• Healthcare providers are prioritizing IoT investment in solutions that enhance virtual care delivery, augment emergency services and triage, and automate or streamline tasks. 
• The IoMT opportunities for connectivity and technology providers will only be amplified as the IoT intersects with other emerging technologies. 
• We interviewed executive decision-makers in the connectivity and technology space to gather their insights on how they determine which IoMT opportunities to prioritize, the best go-to-market strategy for these new opportunities, and what goes into the decision process when selecting a partner to expand within the IoMT. 
• The report also highlights the opinions of executive decision-makers in the connectivity and technology space on topics that include: telemedicine, preventative care, administrative operations, 5G, edge computing, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. 

In full, the report: 

• Sizes the North American IoMT market through 2022 and explains how it compares with pre-coronavirus estimates. 
• Identifies the three biggest IoMT opportunities for connectivity and technology providers based on conversations with companies entrenched in the IoMT ecosystem, and on our analysis of their impact, scalability, early evidence of value creation, and increased utility amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• Provides recommendations for connectivity and technology providers on how to carve out and expand their footprint in ways that unlock the most value. 

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

1. Business Insider Intelligence analyzes the tech industry and provides in-depth analyst reports, proprietary forecasts, customizable charts, and more. >> Check if your company has BII Enterprise membership access to the full report
2. Sign up for the  Connectivity & Tech Briefing, Business Insider Intelligence's expert email newsletter keeping you up-to-date on the people, technologies, trends, and companies shaping the future of healthcare, delivered to your inbox 6x a week. >>Get Started
3. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now

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• Healthcare software maker Cerner wants to help healthcare organizations use patient data to help improve preventative care.
• It launched a partnership in 2018 that integrates Cerner's patient record system with marketing and cloud tools from Salesforce. 
• The integration can help automate the process of reaching out to patients, whether for scheduling preventative procedures, making appointments, or informing them about common conditions. 
• For example, customer BayCare has used the tool to send an automated email to all men over the age of 50 in its patient database who haven't had a colonoscopy, reminding them to schedule one.
• Recently, the tool has also helped healthcare facilities reschedule non-coronavirus-related appointments and procedures as it becomes safe to do so.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Cerner, which builds software for things like electronic medical records and emergency room systems, is on a mission to help healthcare organizations use patient data to improve preventative care. It launched a system called HealTheIntent about five years ago to let healthcare facilities see trends about their patients — like their age groups or conditions — but found that providers couldn't actually take action on those trends. 

So, it partnered with Salesforce on an integration with its health cloud to improve how healthcare facilities using HealTheIntent can interact with patients and provide preventative care. 

The joint project started in 2018 and is meant to help inform patients, encourage them to seek preventative care, and live a healthy lifestyle. Cerner is essentially using a marketing platform to get people to stay healthy. The partnership — whereby Cerner resells Salesforce's health cloud and marketing cloud products along with its own tools — helps healthcare organizations automate phone calls and emails for purposes like reminding people to get check-ups. 

"We're sitting on all this data but didn't have a great way to interact with people about it at scale," Peter Yates, director of Cerner Health Ventures told Business Insider. "We have a great, a clinically informed profile about patients and we needed the CRM system and the marketing automation system to really help us unlock that data."

Here's how Cerner and Salesforce's partnership helps improve patient care  

To understand how customers use these platforms, David Bradshaw, Cerner's head of consumer and employer solutions, pointed to customer BayCare, a healthcare organization in Florida. BayCare uses Cerner's electronic medical records technology, which is a database for patient information like medications, medical conditions, lab results, and procedures. The software also tracks payments and revenue. BayCare also has various contracts with doctors and facilities like nursing homes and rehabilitation centers that may use Cerner's technology. The HealTheIntent platform can connect all of those systems to form a single profile of a patient, so their health data is easily accessible in one place. That data is then fed into the Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud for preventative care. 

For example, doctors recommend that men over the age of 50 get colonoscopies to check for cancer. Using the Cerner and Salesforce integration, BayCare can send an automated email to all men over the age of 50 in its patient database who haven't gotten a colonoscopy, reminding them to schedule one. That information would also pop up on the patient's record for a doctor or nurse during an in office visit. 

"Salesforce can run an engagement campaign using the tools that they are best at to reach out to those individuals, which are typically in the thousands. It's just impractical to call them all on the phone and engage them," Bradshaw told Business Insider. "That's one of many use cases of how the Cerner Salesforce partnership is creating unique capabilities in the healthcare industry that just haven't existed before." 

Salesforce's platform is compliant with health privacy laws called HIPAA so it doesn't store or share the patient health data it's analyzing from Cerner's software, said Dr. Ashwini Zenooz, Salesforce's chief medical officer. 

Cerner originally decided to digitizing the healthcare process because it saw large the gaps in how people experienced care: Some lacked access to preventative care or information about common conditions. Now healthcare providers are able to easily inform many people at once about why a colonoscopy is important, share information about the procedure to show its not scary, and give them an easy way to schedule it.

The hope is that it will improve the way people are able to manage their health and underlying conditions, Zenooz said.

"They can essentially market in a way to those specific customers, but the aim isn't to market to them, it's to help them with their disease state and to drive awareness and to improve outcomes," she added.

Ultimately, Cerner felt that partnering was the best option for its customers, rather than building a customer engagement platform on its own. It also started to use Salesforce tools internally to manage its customer base. 

Keeping up with patient care during the pandemic

The integration has become a crucial way to help patients manage underlying conditions and their overall health during the pandemic in particular. In March and April, many healthcare facilities were cancelling elective procedures and appointments to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. 

However, now — months later — many people are in need of a doctor's visit or a procedure for non-coronavirus-related conditions. Customers like BayCare can use the Cerner system to see who cancelled appointments and then use Salesforce to send emails saying it's now safe to reschedule.

"We didn't design the system to do mass cancellation recovery campaigns, but by virtue of the integration, we are able to help our clients do that with what we've built," Yates said. 

Normally, without this software, healthcare organizations would have to go through the medical records system manually to see who cancelled appointments and call people to reschedule, Dr. Zenooz said. That can result in even more delays for people seeking healthcare. 

Zenooz said from her experience working at the Department of  Veterans Affairs, there's often a disconnect between the software available and the needs of a healthcare facility. Cerner and Salesforce's partnership aims to bridge that gap. 

"There's one — efficiency, because you can do it at scale, but two — you can personalize the process," she said. "So you can essentially say 'somebody who's a diabetic, who has diabetes, obesity, and foot ulcers, goes on this journey; somebody with diabetes foot and a high cholesterol goes on this journey.' So you can really personalize the journeys with this, whereas that takes a lot of manual power to make that happen."

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SEE ALSO: Salesforce's chief philanthropy officer says companies need 'bold' internal changes along with donations to drive change: 'It's dollars plus action'

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• Data-crunching firm Palantir Technologies filed to go public Monday night. Valued at $20 billion, it would be the largest tech startup to debut in the market since Uber's public offering last year.
• The firm has a reputation for secrecy, and previously kept away from an IPO to keep details of its business under wraps. Details of its business that did surface — like its work with ICE and the Pentagon — have prompted backlash.
• Palantir's IPO filing also comes amid unprecedented political pressure on Silicon Valley companies — tech employees have increasingly pushed for progressive reforms while the Trump administration cracks down on perceived anti-conservative bias in tech.
• Going public will force Palantir to pull back the curtain on its business. And for the first time, the company will have to present an image that appeases the public and shareholders. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As Palantir prepares to go public, it will have to sacrifice one of its most valuable assets: secrecy.

The data-crunching firm is one of the oldest startups in Silicon Valley, co-founded by venture capitalist Peter Thiel in 2003. It's also one of the most valuable private tech companies — it has raised more than $3 billion in venture capital with a valuation of $20 billion. Palantir's announcement on Monday that it plans to go public capped more than five years of speculation that it was planning to list its shares.

But until now, Palantir has avoided revealing many details about its business — a decision that likely bolstered the company's success.

Palantir works primarily with government agencies including police, the Department of Defense, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, building software to process and analyze their data. The company's tools have been used to facilitate ICE raids and military strikes — CEO Alex Karp said earlier this year, "Our product is used on occasion to kill people."

Karp himself has worried publicly that Palantir might not have been able to secure those contracts or build its products if it were a public company at the time, both because of public perception and investors' inability to understand Palantir's revenue model.

"The problem with being a public company is that it can be culturally corrosive on the inside," Karp told Axios in May. "These products were built over the course of years. And they were derided. Barely anyone wanted to invest in us. We almost went out of business a number of times."

A growing chorus of activist pushback

Because Palantir hasn't shied away from contracts with agencies like ICE and the Pentagon, it's become a target for immigration activists and human rights advocates.

After Palantir won a contract to build a coronavirus tracking platform for Health and Human Services, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus opened a probe demanding answers about whether Palantir would share people's health data with ICE (Palantir says it doesn't share data between different clients).

The lawmakers' letter cited concerns raised by Mijente, a progressive activist group that has led a campaign called #NoTechForICE that lobbies universities and companies to cut ties with Palantir. Other tech activist groups that have long criticized public companies like Amazon for law enforcement partnerships have turned their attention on Palantir.

"Palantir has built its empire by helping governments' violate people's basic human rights. No matter how much they try to clean up their image for investors, their money will always be blood money," said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future.

Palantir's public offering announcement also comes as tech workers are increasingly vocal about dissatisfaction with their company's mission and contracts. Earlier this year, Google abandoned a contract to develop AI for military drones, called "Project Maven," after employees protested. Palantir picked up the Pentagon contract after Google dropped it.

As a private company, Palantir itself has withstood similar employee uproar without caving — more than 200 employees sent a letter to Karp in 2018 decrying the company's contract with ICE, but Palantir maintained the contract.

Rebranding under public scrutiny

Palantir's IPO filing is confidential, and the company has yet to formally pitch its business to potential shareholders and the general public. But Palantir has made some early indications of what its brand might look like as a public company.

The company, usually cagey about the details of government contracts, has touted its work with public health agencies on COVID-19 response— a banner at the top of its site invites people to "learn what we're doing to help."

Palantir has also taken steps to build a more robust public image as it prepares for an IPO. The company hired three new board members in June including Alexandra Wolfe Schiff, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and its first female board member (California law requires that public companies have at least one woman on their board).

Karp himself has also been increasingly open to public statements, sitting down for an Axios interview in May that probed the company's ethical obligations.

"I've had my favorite employees yell at me ... I've had some of my favorite employees leave," Karp said at the time. "The most valid criticism that they have is, essentially, that if you are involved in anything, that one instance of injustice, does it tarnish all instances of justice?"

SEE ALSO: New records show Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have thousands of previously unreported military and law enforcement contracts

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