Techmeme
February 18, 2016, 1:50 AM

Top News

Tim Cook / Apple:
Apple opposes court order over shooter's iPhone, says US government is asking it to build a backdoor to the iPhone, calls it a “dangerous precedent”  —  A Message to Our Customers  —  The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers.
More: The Daily Beast, Fight for the Future, Guardian, Politico, The Verge, Mashable, Quartz, PCWorld, eWeek, Wired, New York Times, ABC, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Globe and Mail, Internet Society, Lawfare, CNNMoney, BuzzFeed, Forbes, The Register, Reuters, The Verge, blog maverick, Business Insider, Ars Technica, PRI, Government Technology News, PhoneDog.com, Medium, ReadWrite, Boing Boing, SiliconValley.com, SiliconANGLE, The Tech Portal, ACLU, International Business Times, VentureBeat, Tech Times, MacNN, NPR, Vox, Washington Post, Android Central, Popular Mechanics, The Intercept, MacRumors, The Atlantic, CBS Los Angeles, USA Today, Gizmodo, POPSUGAR, Hit & Run, Tech Insider, Cult of Mac, Redmond Pie, SlashGear, The Network Garden, TechnoBuffalo, Benzinga, InvestorPlace, US News, 9to5Mac, FierceWireless, blog.trendmicro.com, The Verge, Yahoo! Finance, Patently Apple, Yahoo Tech, Guardian, Associated Press, Re/code, Federal Computer Week, American Enterprise Institute, CircleID, iPhone Hacks, Phandroid, DISPLAYBLOG, iMore, AppleInsider, Fortune, Christian Science Monitor, The Daily Caller, Zdziarski's Blog of Things, New York Magazine, FierceCIO News, The Next Web, Marco.org, Bloomberg Business, CSO, Forrester Blogs, iPhone in Canada Blog, The San Diego Union …, BGR, TIME, The Tech Report, The Register, NPR, CNET, Nextgov, Freedom to Tinker, The Loop, Macworld, NBC Bay Area, Daring Fireball, Investor's Business Daily, Adweek, Michael Geist, ZDNet, Neowin, Digital Trends, Refinery29, Independent Journal Review, BBC, Schneier on Security, BetaNews, Shadowproof, Techvibes Global News, Daily Mail, and Tech Trader Daily
Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:
Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweets in support of Apple, says forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise user privacy  —  Google CEO Sundar Pichai backs Tim Cook over Apple-FBI controversy  —  Google chief executive Sundar Pichai just weighed in on the ongoing issue …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
How the FBI is essentially asking Apple for a master key for iPhones, and why the PR optics are bad for Apple in shooter case  —  [FREE] Apple Versus the FBI, Understanding iPhone Encryption, The Risks for Apple and Encryption  —  Today's update is a bit tardy for good reason …
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
White House Plays With Words, Says Department Of Justice Isn't Asking Apple To Create A Backdoor  —  Following Tim Cook's letter, the White House has reacted to Apple's strong stance against backdoors.  According to Reuters, the White House has said that the Department of Justice isn't asking …
Kara Swisher / Re/code:
Yahoo Tech Editor in Chief Dan Tynan is out; Yahoo's tech site will be integrated into its larger news site; David Pogue will stay with the company  —  If It's Wednesday, It's Layoffs Day at Yahoo: Today, Digital Magazines Get Hit  —  According to sources close to the situation …
Diego Macias / Android Headlines:
Google Translate adds 13 new languages bringing total to 103, now serves 99% of online population  —  Google Translate Update Adds New Language Support  —  Google Translate is a very powerful and useful tool which has been getting better over time.  The service can be used to translate text …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Twitter will now let you record and share videos in Direct Messages  —  Twitter may be in the middle of an existential crisis of sorts over where to take its slow-growing social network, but the company keeps plugging away at basic features to bring the service up to speed with competitors like Facebook Messenger.
Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:
Facebook announces that all publishers and bloggers worldwide can adopt Instant Articles beginning April 12  —  Facebook Will Make Instant Articles Available to All Publishers  —  As of April 12, almost a year after launch, any publisher can host content directly on the social media site
Office Blogs:
Outlook.com exits preview, gets major update including @mentions in emails, side-by-side doc and email editing, Giphy integrations  —  Outlook.com—out of preview and better than ever  —  The Outlook team is on a mission to bring you the best email and calendar experience—at work, at home—across all your favorite devices.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
U.S. Department of Defense to upgrade 4 million devices to Windows 10 by February 2017  —  The U.S. Department of Defense is committing to upgrade roughly four million devices and systems running legacy versions of Windows to Windows 10 by February 2017.  —  The U.S. Department …
Anthony D'Alessandro / Deadline:
NBCUniversal's Fandango buys Rotten Tomatoes and Flixster; Warner Bros. will take minority stake in Fandango  —  Fandango Acquires Rotten Tomatoes & Flixster From Warner Bros Entertainment  —  BREAKING: Fandango is set to acquire Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes, which includes …
Astro Teller / Backchannel:
Plenty of Google X moonshot ideas are ditched, with 100 investigations killed last year, including vertical farming and variable buoyancy cargo ship projects  —  The Secret to Moonshots?  Killing Our Projects  —  At X, I see up close every day how messy innovation is

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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

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