Techmeme
March 4, 2016, 9:40 AM

Top News

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 …
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
New York Times:
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 …
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Palmer Luckey says even high-end Mac Pros aren't powerful enough for the final Oculus Rift hardware  —  Oculus Founder: Rift will come to Mac if Apple “ever releases a good computer”  —  Even high-end Mac Pro GPUs aren't powerful enough for VR, Luckey says.
Kamal Ahmed / BBC:
Sources: Facebook revenue in UK will no longer be routed through Ireland, will pay millions of pounds more in UK tax  —  Facebook to pay millions of pounds more in UK tax  —  Facebook is set to pay millions of pounds more in tax in the UK after a major overhaul of its tax structure.
Wall Street Journal:
Source: Snapchat raises $175M more from Fidelity at same $16B valuation as a year ago  —  Snapchat Raises $175 Million From Fidelity at Flat Valuation  —  Messaging company still worth $16 billion in latest funding  —  Snapchat Inc. has raised $175 million in fresh funding from Fidelity Investments …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Intuit sells its Quicken business to private equity firm H.I.G. Capital  —  Intuit sells Quicken unit to H.I.G. Capital  —  The company's well-known Quicken business has been sold to a private equity firm.  Quicken GM Eric Dunn was an investor in the transaction.
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 …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Facebook adds Spotify integration to Messenger so users can share songs and playlists  —  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.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Instagram bans links on profile pages pointing to 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 me’ deeplinking for some other social media services within its apps.

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Earlier Picks

Pavithra Mohan / Fast Company:
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors: