Techmeme
February 19, 2016, 12:00 AM

Top News

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Apple apologizes for Error 53, says it was designed to be a factory test, releases iOS update that restores bricked phones but doesn't re-enable Touch ID  —  Apple Apologizes And Updates iOS To Restore iPhones Disabled By Error 53  —  Earlier this month, a Guardian report flagged …
Jessica Guynn / USA Today:
Facebook pledges to fight against demands to weaken system security, Twitter adds its support to Apple in San Bernadino iPhone case  —  Facebook sides with Apple in iPhone fight  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook sided with Apple in the public spat with the Obama administration over its refusal …
New York Times:
TechCrunch:
Leaked document: Facebook will launch ads on Messenger in Q2, enabling brands to send message ads to customers who have previously initiated chats  —  Facebook Plans To Put Ads In Messenger  —  A leaked document Facebook sent to some of its biggest advertisers reveals that Facebook will launch ads within Messenger in Q2 2016.
Shara Tibken / CNET:
Apple's Trade Up With Installments program lets you trade in your old phone and pay a reduced monthly fee for a newer model  —  Apple wants you to ditch your old iPhone with this new payment plan  —  The Trade Up With Installments program lets you unload an old phone and get a new model for an outlay of less than about $35 a month.
Bloomberg Business:
Profile of Johny Srouji, Apple's SVP for hardware technologies, who is leading the development of company's chips  —  The Most Important Apple Executive You've Never Heard Of  —  A visit with Cupertino's chief chipmaker, Johny Srouji.  —  A little over a year ago, Apple had a problem: The iPad Pro was behind schedule.
James Vincent / The Verge:
GSMA announces new eSIM specification for smartwatches, fitness trackers, and tablets; Samsung's Gear S2 Classic 3G will be first device to use the new standard  —  Samsung's Gear S2 has the first certified eSIM that lets you choose carriers  —  The day the physical SIM card disappears is slowly getting closer.
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
FCC votes 3-2 to proceed with plan to give customers more choice over cable TV set-top boxes; proposal now moves into comment period  —  The FCC just took the first big step toward changing the cable box business  —  In a three-to-two vote, the FCC has decided to move ahead with a proposal …
Lance Whitney / CNET:
Microsoft Translator adds OCR capabilities to its iOS app, offline translations on Android  —  Microsoft's Translator app plays catch-up with Google  —  The version for iPhones now lets you use the device's camera to translate signs, menus and the like, while the version for Android devices can work offline.
Skype Blogs:
Skype starts rolling out group video calling for iOS and Android, beginning with North America and Western Europe today, with worldwide availability in March  —  Announcing group video calling for mobile phones and tablets  —  Just a few weeks ago, we announced the next evolution of Skype …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
PayPal launches overhauled iOS and Android apps with cleaner design, quicker access to sending and receiving money, more  —  PayPal Overhauls Its Mobile App  —  PayPal's mobile app is getting a massive overhaul today, representing the first time in the history that the company has rebuilt its app from scratch.
Ian Cairns / The Twitter Blog:
In customer service push, Twitter now lets businesses add a “send a private message” button to tweets, attach feedback forms to direct messages  —  Making customer service even better on Twitter  —  Today, we're excited to announce two new tools to help businesses provide even better customer service on Twitter.
Ram Ramanathan / Google Cloud Platform Blog:
Google Cloud Vision API, which detects the contents of images, enters public beta  —  Google Cloud Vision API enters Beta, open to all to try!  —  Today, we're announcing the beta release of Google Cloud Vision API.  Now anyone can submit their images to the Cloud Vision API to understand …

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Ron Miller / TechCrunch:

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