Techmeme
March 12, 2016, 1:50 AM

Top News

Justin Sink / Bloomberg Business:
At SXSW, President Obama advises tech industry to compromise on encryption now instead of waiting for Congress to act  —  Government Can't Let Smartphones Be ‘Black Boxes,’ Obama Says  —  Obama advises tech industry to compromise before Congress acts  —  President appears at South by Southwest as FBI sues Apple Inc.
Alex Hern / Guardian:
DOJ says it could make Apple turn over iOS source code and signature if it doesn't cooperate with court order, citing Lavabit case as precedent  —  FBI ‘could force Apple to hand over private key’  —  A legal filing implies that Department of Justice has a plan B, which involves demanding the company's electronic signature
Jacob Pramuk / CNBC:
Fortune:
Source: General Motors will pay more than $1B for Cruise Automation, which raised just over $18M from investors including Spark and YC  —  GM Buying Self-Driving Tech Startup for More Than $1 Billion  —  General Motors GM this morning announced that it will acquire Cruise Automation …
Sarah Buhr / TechCrunch:
GM buys self-driving car kit startup Cruise, plans to use tech to make driverless cars  —  General Motors (GM)announced today it plans to snap up Cruise Automation, a San Francisco-based startup making sensors that turn regular vehicles into ones that can drive themselves, for an undisclosed sum.
Mark Bergen / Re/code:
How Kyle Vogt Sold Cruise Automation to GM, Twitch to Amazon  —  Ten years ago, Justin Kan and Emmett Shear had just sold their app company, Kiko, and were itching for another venture.  They had a concept — livestream video — but no idea how to build it.  So they sent an email …
More: Fortune
Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Instacart cuts commissions for couriers by 50%, reduces fees per drop-off to $1.50 from $4 in SF, LA, and some other metro areas  —  Grocery-Delivery Startup Instacart Cuts Pay for Couriers  —  Instacart is the latest on-demand startup to try to contain costs in a tighter funding environment
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft launches tool to help Evernote users on Windows move their notes to OneNote  —  Microsoft launches OneNote importer tool for Evernote users  —  Microsoft today launched a OneNote importer tool that lets Evernote users bring their content to Microsoft's note-taking tool.
Amar Toor / The Verge:
AdBlock replaces ads with messages from anti-censorship activists through Saturday, in partnership with Amnesty International  —  Snowden, Pussy Riot, and Ai Weiwei launch AdBlock campaign to protest censorship  —  Ai Weiwei, Edward Snowden, and Pussy Riot have partnered with AdBlock …

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Earlier Picks

Syed Zain Al-Mahmood / Wall Street Journal:
Mellisa Tolentino / SiliconANGLE:
Ryan Smith / AnandTech:
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: