Techmeme
April 8, 2016, 9:20 PM

Top News

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Security experts say Burr-Feinstein draft encryption bill is flawed and dangerous  —  The Senate's Draft Encryption Bill Is ‘Ludicrous, Dangerous, Technically Illiterate’  —  As Apple battled the FBI for the last two months over the agency's demands that Apple help crack its own encryption …
John Everington / The National:
John Chen says BlackBerry will release two mid-range Android smartphones this year, one of them with physical keyboard, admits Priv was too expensive  —  BlackBerry switches focus back on mid-range smartphone market  —  BlackBerry has switched its focus back to the mid-range smartphone market …
Kif Leswing / Business Insider:
In a letter to the court, DoJ says it still needs Apple's help to crack iPhone in Brooklyn case  —  The government still wants Apple to help it crack an iPhone in New York  —  Although the Justice Department withdrew its request for Apple to help it hack into an iPhone used …
CNNMoney:
Tim Peterson / Marketing Land:
Facebook updates policy to let publishers post and tag paid-for content on verified pages  —  Facebook drops branded content restrictions for publishers  —  Facebook is letting publishers and other verified pages distribute branded-content for free, but it's unclear whether its labeling system is...
Kara Swisher / Re/code:
Yahoo Gives Bidders Another Week, Moving Deadline to April 18  —  Yahoo has moved the deadline for its bids out another week to April 18, according to sources close to the situation and the blabby bankers they talk to.  —  The process to sell Yahoo has been churning on as a variety …
Bloomberg:
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
How tech companies are using poets, novelists, playwrights, and TV writers to engineer the personalities of AI virtual assistants  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Until recently, Robyn Ewing was a writer in Hollywood, developing TV scripts and pitching pilots to film studios.
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
BMW leads $11.7M Series A in RideCell, launches car-sharing service ReachNow in Seattle in partnership with the startup  —  BMW just jumped into the U.S. car-sharing biz, with the help of YC alum RideCell  —  BMW just launched a new car-sharing service called ReachNow that will enable Seattle residents …
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Twitter appoints Pepsi CFO Hugh Johnston and LastMinute.com co-founder Martha Lane Fox to its board, replacing Peter Currie and Peter Chernin  —  Twitter Swaps Out Two Board Members  —  It took longer than Twitter wanted, but the company has named two new board members …
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Open Whisper Systems' Signal Desktop messaging system now available to all, no longer invite-only  —  Now's your chance to try Signal's desktop Chrome app  —  The desktop version of Edward Snowden's favored end-to-end messaging system, Signal, is now available to anyone who wants to check it out.
John Cook / GeekWire:
Amazon names Andy Jassy CEO of Amazon Web Services, Jeff Wilke CEO of Worldwide Consumer; Jeff Bezos remains CEO of entire company  —  Amazon now has three CEOs: Tech powerhouse promotes Andy Jassy and Jeff Wilke to CEO roles of respective divisions  —  Amazon.com is changing the titles …

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