Twitter Urges Employees to Work From Home

In an updated blog post, Twitter encouraged its staff to work from home in a bid to protect them from COVID-19. It became one of the first major U.S. firms to take such a step.

We are working to make sure internal meetings, all hands, and other important tasks are optimized for remote participation. We recognize that working from home is not ideal for some job functions. For those employees who prefer or need to come into the offices, they will remain open for business. Our Real Estate & Workplace team is increasing deep cleaning and sanitizing in all spaces, as well as more visual reminders for personal hygiene best practices and pre-packaged, pre-composed, and pre-plated food options. Working from home will be mandatory for employees based in our Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea offices due in part to government restrictions. Our criteria will evolve over time as we get more information, and we will communicate to affected Tweeps as appropriate.

Book Publishers Artificially Limit eBook Lending in Libraries

Major book publishers impose limits on how libraries handle ebooks, with short-term licenses and contracts.

Because only one reader can check out an ebook at a time, and because the cost of licensing an ebook is prohibitively high for libraries to invest in hundreds of copies for every new title, library-goers have become accustomed to long waits to check out ebooks, particularly bestsellers. For publishers, that’s the point. If you have to wait weeks to check out a new ebook, you might just cruise on over to Amazon and pay $14.99 to have it delivered immediately to your Kindle or the Kindle app on your phone.

Expensive college textbooks and dumb eBook rules are two good examples of how ripe for disruption this space is. It’s also shortsighted. The point of digital media is to make it so easy to access that people don’t feel the need to pirate anymore. But practices like this is partly what drives people to pirate.

World Travel Plug Adapter with 6 Attachments:$24.99

We have a deal on the PAK-WS Travel Adapter Set. This world travel plug adapter comes with six different attachments that will allow you to plug in in 200 different countries. In addition to having a standard U.S. three-pronged A/C outlet and a two-pronged A/C outlet, it also has a USB-A, a USB-C, and a 3.1A USB port. It’s $24.99 through our deal.

The Apple Smart Ring Might Cover an Entire Finger

Apple’s much-rumored smart ring could be extended to cover an entire finger. That’s according to a new patent, granted on Tuesday and reported on by AppleInsider.

A smart ring has the potential to provide users with functionality similar to an Apple Watch, but in a smaller package that doesn’t take up space on a user’s wrist. While part of the challenge of designing a smart ring involves cramming components into a small space, there is also the issue of its size offering little in the way of opportunity for embedded sensors to be used due to a lack of surface area, as well as for users to accurately control it. In a patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday titled “Expandable Ring Device,” Apple suggests the size of a smart ring may not necessarily be static. While the name of the patent hints at a one-size-fits-all design, the filing actually refers to ways the ring could be expanded into a longer tube that covers more of the finger, including some knuckles.