Techmeme
February 17, 2016, 2:15 AM

Top News

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Court orders Apple to disable 10-tries-and-wipe feature on San Bernadino shooter's iPhone to allow government to crack password through brute force  —  U.S. wants Apple to help unlock iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter  —  A federal judge has ordered Apple to help the government unlock …
Eric Schmidt / Jigsaw:
Alphabet's Google Ideas think tank becomes Jigsaw, an incubator that uses technology to solve world issues like terrorism; Jared Cohen named president  —  Google Ideas becomes Jigsaw  —  Today we're announcing the expansion of Google Ideas, Google's think tank, as a technology incubator called Jigsaw.
Bryan Clark / The Next Web:
Kanye West's new album downloaded 500K times on pirate sites, calls into question value of Tidal-only release  —  Kanye West's ‘Life of Pablo’ already pirated 500,000 times  —  Kanye West's new album ‘The Life of Pablo’ may have been released as exclusive to Jay-Z's streaming music service Tidal, but it didn't stay that way for long.
Sapna Maheshwari / BuzzFeed:
American Airlines sues Gogo over right to terminate agreement, claiming ViaSat's wifi is faster; Gogo stock falls over 28%  —  American Airlines Is Suing Gogo Over Its Crappy Wi-Fi  —  The company wants to switch to the competing service used by JetBlue and Virgin America — but Gogo is digging in its heels.
James Ball / BuzzFeed:
Stuxnet was part of larger campaign against Iran's power grid, air defense; Israel modified the program, then launched it unilaterally, claims documentary  —  U.S. Hacked Into Iran's Critical Civilian Infrastructure For Massive Cyberattack, New Film Claims  —  A new documentary on “Stuxnet” …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram confirms that it's beginning to roll out long-awaited two-factor authentication  —  Instagram Finally Adds Two-Factor Authentication To Fight Hackers  —  Instagram accounts are worth stealing.  Now at 400 million users including celebrities, brands, and artists making a living, it's time to add another lock to its doors.
Eugene Kim / Business Insider:
Yahoo reorganizes Yahoo Labs as both its chief scientist and VP of research leave company; the researchers will now work more closely with product teams  —  Yahoo just pulled the plug on its Google-like research group  —  Yahoo is scaling back its research lab and two of its top executives are out.
James Risley / GeekWire:
Former lead architect of Windows 95 announces Swipe, an open-source document creation platform for mobile  —  Windows 95 architect launches open-source, media-rich document creation platform for mobile devices … PowerPoint is fine for your business presentation, but getting your message across …
Gina Hall / Silicon Valley Business Journal:
Data analytics startup Wavefront raises $11.5M led by Sequoia Capital  —  Wavefront emerges from stealth with $11.5M funding  —  Data analytics startup Wavefront raised $11.5 million and emerged from stealth on Tuesday.  Sequoia Capital led the round.  Backers also include Sutter Hill Ventures and Webb Investment Network.
Pete Rizzo / CoinDesk:
Microsoft plans to have a certified blockchain marketplace by this spring  —  Why Microsoft Wants ‘Every Blockchain’ on its Azure Platform  —  While Microsoft tested the waters with bitcoin at the tail end of 2014, the tech giant appears poised to be a far bigger player in the burgeoning market …
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Giphy closes $55M Series C at a $300M post-money valuation led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, though the service is not yet monetizing  —  Giphy Closes $55 Million Series C At A $300 Million Post-Money Valuation  —  Giphy, the Google of GIFs, has closed a $55 million Series C funding round at a valuation of $300 million post-money.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Silk Labs, founded by Mozilla's former CTO Andreas Gal, launches a Kickstarter to debut Sense, its smart home hub and facial recognition camera  —  Ex-Mozilla Team Unveils “Sense,” An Intelligent, Secure Hub For The Smart Home  —  With the emerging ecosystem of connected devices …

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Earlier Picks

Matt Kinne / Phone Probe:
Reuters:
Steve Ragan / CSO: