Daily Crunch: Jack Dorsey announces $1B relief fund

The CEO of Twitter and Square makes a major commitment to COVID-19 relief, Tesla shuts down its U.S. factories until May and PlayStation unveils its latest controller. Here's your Daily Crunch for April 8, 2020.

1. Jack Dorsey creates $1B COVID-19 relief fund using Square equity

Jack Dorsey announced in a series of tweets that he is shifting $1 billion in his Square equity to create a fund dedicated to COVID-19 relief. The Twitter and Square CEO is calling the fund Start Small and posting a tally of disbursements and recipients in a public spreadsheet.

The first Start Small contribution listed is $100,000 to America’s Food Fund — an effort led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Laurene Powell Jobs dedicated to providing meals to vulnerable populations disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Tesla to cut salaries, furlough workers as COVID-19 shutdowns expected to last until May 4

Tesla will suspend production at its U.S. factories until at least May 4 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting the company to cut pay for salaried employees between 10% and 30% and furlough workers, according to an internal email sent Tuesday night.

3. PlayStation 5’s new DualSense controller is a sleek and futuristic gaming accessory

Sony has revealed the design of the PlayStation 5‘s controller. It's a follow-on to its popular DualShock line that takes on a new name for a new generation: DualSense. The DualSense controller is kitted out in black and white, and in some ways looks like a futuristic, plastic armor-plated robot companion more than a gamepad.

4. Netflix now lets you lock your personal profile with a PIN to keep kids (and roommates) out

Want to let your kids poke around Netflix without them wandering their way beyond the kids section? Got a roommate who keeps inexplicably forgetting to use their profile and is totally screwing up your “Continue Watching” list? This is good news for you.

5. Dear Sophie: Is unemployment considered a public benefit?

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column from Silicon Valley immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn. This time, she looks at whether getting unemployment benefits would hurt a green card petition — yours or your spouse's — under the new public charge rule. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

6. Target’s Shipt shoppers walked off work

Yesterday, Shipt's shoppers walked off work in protest of the way it has treated shoppers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Iowa-based shopper Angie Kufner told TechCrunch, “Unless you get tested for COVID-19 or you’re half dead, Shipt’s not going to care."

7. Borderlands 3 bridges the gap between citizen science and blockbuster games

Borderlands 3 publisher 2K and developer Gearbox Software is elevating the series’ latest game to lofty new ideals with a new in-game experience called Borderlands Science, a crowdsourced citizen science project that will leverage the hit game’s massive player base to conduct actual scientific research.

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