Techmeme
April 19, 2017, 4:00 AM

Top News

Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Facebook debuts Spaces, its social VR platform that lets up to four users hang out in VR, available in beta for Oculus Rift, to expand to other VR platforms  —  More than three years after its acquisition of Oculus, Facebook is a product even more deeply intertwined with people's online identities.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook debuts Camera Effects developer platform: Frames Studio for simple picture effects, available now; AR Studio for creating masks, scene effects, in beta  —  Facebook will rely on an army of outside developers to contribute augmented reality image filters and interactive experiences to its new Camera Effects platform.
Tim Peterson / Marketing Land:
Interview with David Marcus on making bots easier to find on Messenger, updates to M assistant, debut of Chat Extensions to help devs add in-chat functionality  —  ‘We have a shot at becoming the Yellow Pages of messaging apps,’ says Facebook's Messenger boss, David Marcus.
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
BuzzFeed:
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple makes iMovie, GarageBand, and iWork apps for Mac and iOS free for all users; formerly they were free with the purchase of a new Mac or iOS device  —  Apple today updated several of its Mac and iOS apps, making them available for all Mac and iOS users for free.
Andrew Dalton / Engadget:
Microsoft now lets users use phone authentication instead of passwords to access accounts  —  Microsoft's Authenticator app can now save you a step when logging into anything that requires a Microsoft Account.  According to a blog post from the company's identity division …
Serdar Yegulalp / InfoWorld:
Docker unveils LinuxKit, a containerized kit for assembling custom Linux distributions, and the Moby Project for building customized container systems  —  LinuxKit provides tools for creating container-centric Linux distros, and the Moby Project helps integrate container elements Docker has released to the community
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Samsung S8/S8+ review: gorgeous design, build quality, great camera, but fingerprint scanner is in awkward spot, Bixby's useless, preinstalled apps are annoying  —  The new S8 and S8 Plus aren't perfect, but they are damn close  —  People “aren't excited by new phones anymore.”
Jason Del Rey / Recode:
Sources: PetSmart is acquiring Chewy.com for $3.35B in the largest e-commerce acquisition ever  —  Bigger than Walmart's deal for Jet.com.  —  PetSmart has agreed to make the biggest e-commerce acquisition in history, putting a deal in place to snatch up fast-growing pet food …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple to unveil three iPhones this fall, including two revamped models and new high-end model with curved OLED display; high-end model could be delayed  —  Apple is testing a revamped iPhone with an all-screen front, curved glass and a stainless steel frame alongside upgrades to the current models.

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Earlier Picks

Rich McCormick / The Verge:
Casey Newton / The Verge: