Techmeme
April 19, 2017, 8:10 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.
Agam Shah / PCWorld:
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Napier Lopez / The Next Web:
BuzzFeed:
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 …
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.
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
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Xiaomi announces 5.15-inch Mi 6 with Snapdragon 835, 12MP dual-cameras, 6GB RAM, 3,350 mAh battery, no headphone jack, starting at $360  —  Xiaomi has announced its latest flagship phone, the Mi 6, at an event in Beijing.  While Xiaomi drew widespread attention last year …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft tests power throttling background apps in pre-RTM build of Windows 10 to save up to 11% battery life, currently only for Skylake and Kaby Lake systems  —  Microsoft is planning to throttle the amount of power that background apps can use to improve battery life in Windows 10.
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 …
Elizabeth Weise / USA Today:
Trump's newly signed executive order to reform H-1B visas may make outsourcing less viable, but could bring more educated and better paid tech workers to US  —  SAN FRANCISCO — H-1B visa holders could get a lot more expensive and a lot better educated under a new executive order signed …
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.”

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Rich McCormick / The Verge: