Techmeme: Amazon's Alexa will be able to control Nest and Honeywell thermostats this month (Jacob Kastrenakes/The Verge)

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March 3, 2016, 6:35 PM

Top News

Pavel Alpeyev / Bloomberg Business:

Samsung says customer privacy is “extremely important” and backdoors would undermine trust, but stops short of openly supporting Apple, won't file amicus brief — Samsung Echoes Apple's Arguments on Importance of User Privacy — The world's largest smartphone vendor also opposes backdoors

Dawn Chmielewski / Re/code:

A list of the companies, organizations, and individuals that have filed court documents supporting Apple against the FBI — These Are Apple's Allies Against the FBI (Updated) — Some 40 companies and organizations are expected to file briefs today in support of Apple in its fight …

More: Re/code, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Tech Insider, ZDNet, The Next Web, Electronic Frontier Foundation, VentureBeat, Investor's Business Daily, New York Times, iPhone in Canada Blog, Fortune, BGR, Cult of Mac and Tech Times

New York Times:

Several tech execs were initially worried about supporting Apple in FBI case because of its potential to backfire, concerns over public perception — Apple Gets Tech Industry Backing in iPhone Dispute, Despite Misgivings — It is a remarkable moment for the technology industry …

More: Washington Post, NPR, Re/code, Box, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg Business, Fortune, New York Magazine, iPhone in Canada Blog and Nextgov

Tweets: @jennamc_laugh, @nytimesbusiness and @nytimesbusiness

Sarah Buhr / TechCrunch:

Amazon unveils Tap, a $130 Alexa-enabled portable bluetooth speaker, and the $90 Echo Dot, which adds Alexa support to other speakers — Amazon adds the $130 Tap and the $90 Dot to the Echo family — Amazon's voice-operated command center Echo produces something close to modern …

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Amazon's Alexa will be able to control Nest and Honeywell thermostats this month — Last month Amazon started allowing its Alexa voice assistant to control smart home thermostats. Now, Amazon's virtual assistant will be compatible with two major brands: Honeywell and Alphabet-owned Nest.

More: Washington Post, GeekWire, Forbes, Mashable, 9to5Google, Nest Blog, Quartz, TechHive, iMore and The Next Web

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / Motherboard:

Amazon quietly removed support for device encryption in the latest version of Fire OS, which powers its tablets and phones — Amazon Quietly Removes Encryption Support from its Gadgets — While Apple is fighting the FBI in court over encryption, Amazon quietly disabled the option …

More: The Daily Dot, Engadget, Wired, Ars Technica, The Next Web, The Verge, Gizmodo, ZDNet, Techdirt, The Digital Reader, Pocketnow, Talking New Media and New York Magazine

Tweets: @davidscovetta, @ppinternational, @justicar, @mattblaze, @acedtect, @securityhumor and @dangillmor

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Facebook rolls out ability to share Spotify songs and playlists from within a chat thread on iOS and Android — Spotify becomes first music platform to integrate with Facebook Messenger — Music has arrived on Messenger. — Facebook announced today that its mobile messaging platform now integrates with Spotify.

More: TechCrunch, Messenger, Android Authority, VatorNews, The Verge, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, Mashable, iMore, Variety, RAIN News and Ubergizmo

Lucas Mearian / Computerworld:

Samsung ships the world's highest capacity SSD, with 15TB of storage — Samsung Electronics announced Wednesday that it is now shipping the industry's highest-capacity solid-state drive (SSD), the 15.36TB PM1633a. — Samsung revealed it was working on the drive last August …

More: Samsung Newsroom, Engadget, Ars Technica, ValueWalk, The Register, Digital Trends, FierceCIO News, TechSpot, The Tech Report, Mashable, PCWorld, Tech Times, Gizmodo UK, ZDNet, Neowin, Ubergizmo and BetaNews

Tweets: @laurensvanduijn and @samsungsemius

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Instagram blocks deeplinks on profile pages that let users point to their Snapchat or Telegram accounts — Instagram starts blocking ‘add me’ deeplinking for Snapchat, Telegram — Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform Instagram is flexing its platform muscle by shutting down 'add …

More: The Verge, Tech Times, Ubergizmo, The Next Web and SocialTimes. Tweets: @chanian

Deborah M. Todd / Reuters:

Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman says company exploring sale of $1B-$3B of non-core assets like patents and property as alternative to spinning off core business — Yahoo exploring sale of $1 billion-$3 billion in ‘non-core assets’: CFO — Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) is exploring the sale of $1 billion …

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

HTC Vive Pre: unfinished, but makes best case for VR both as entertainment device and computing interface — The HTC Vive Pre: an unfinished, incredibly fun virtual reality system — Of all the virtual reality headsets out there, the HTC Vive feels most like what science fiction visionaries promised us in the '80s and '90s.

More: PCWorld and VentureBeat. Tweets: @jake_k and @joshmarinacci

Pavithra Mohan / Fast Company:

YouTube partners with UN to produce content that promotes gender equality, invests in videos by and about women at YouTube Spaces — YouTube Boosts Female Content Creators With Two New Initiatives — Both programs will focus on producing videos by women, for women, that discuss gender equality and other women's issues.

More: YouTube Blog, AndroidHeadlines.com, Gadgette, TechCrunch, Jezebel, Teen Vogue, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Fortune, SiliconBeat, AndroidHeadlines.com, 9to5Google, BetaNews, The Stack, The Verge, Mashable, AndroidHeadlines.com and Tubefilter. See also Mediagazer

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