This week, Apple battled with the FBI amid an order to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the terrorists involved in the San Bernardino shooting, Kanye West made waves in the tech world when his new album launched exclusively on Tidal, the new Samsung Galaxy phones leaked and much more. These are the top tech stories from this week.
1. Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the company will appeal a California judge’s order to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the terrorists involved in the San Bernardino shooting. Following the request, Cook argued that adhering to it would “threaten the security of our customers.” Matthew Panzarino broke down why Apple is taking this stance. Natasha Lomas detailed why Apple is right to do so and warned of the privacy concerns that would arise if Apple were to comply with the FBI’s order. If you backdoor one iPhone, you backdoor them all — and invite all governments, everywhere to do so. Throughout the week, Twitter and Google chimed in with support for Apple. Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted that “Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users’ privacy.” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey weighed in, too.
2. After scoring exclusive streaming rights to Kanye West’s new album, The Life of Pablo, Tidal took over the No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store. Kanye took it a step further, claiming that the LP will never go on sale on iTunes or Apple Music. But things didn’t go exactly as planned. Twitter was filled with complaints from consumers who said they paid for the album, but never received the download.
3. Connie Loizos wrote that secondary shops are flooded with unicorn sellers. While many investors last year were seizing the chance to take advantage of booming prices, they’re now apparently trying to wring what they can out of their positions. That leaves secondary buyers left to assess whether to buy now or wait to see if prices fall even further.
4. There is a battle raging for curated social media supremacy. At events like The Grammys, which took place this week, each social app wants to be where you see the best of and behind the scenes. Josh Constine compared the strengths and shortcomings of Instagram Spotlights, Snapchat Live Stories and Twitter Moments when it comes to featuring events.
5. Images of Samsung’s next Galaxy phones, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, leaked everywhere. Not to be outdone by the leak, Samsung then touted the new phones’ fitness and privacy smarts ahead of the launch.
6. Apple apologized and updated iOS to restore phones that were disabled by Error 53, a problem caused by unofficial repair shops replacing the connector that runs between the Touch ID sensor in an iPhone’s home button.
7. Yahoo shuttered some of its content verticals, including Yahoo Food, Yahoo Health and a few others, to focus on a new digital content strategy.
8. Google introduced a new feature called “Gmailify” that will allow anyone to take advantage of Gmail’s spam protection, inbox organization, Google Now integrations, and more, without needing a Gmail address.
9. Popular GIF-making site Giphy closed a $55 million Series C round at a post-money valuation of $300 million. Now, it’s time to monetize.
10. We learned that Facebook is planning to put ads in Messenger. A leaked document Facebook sent to some of its biggest advertisers reveals that Facebook will launch ads within Messenger in Q2 2016.
11. IBM announced it will acquire Truven Health Analytics for a whopping $2.6 billion. It is the fourth major purchase for Watson Health since the unit was established in 2014.
12. We noticed Twitter testing an in-app GIF button on Android a few weeks ago, and now the company has formally announced that it is launching the GIF search feature on iOS, Android and the web.
13. Sarah Perez wrote about ThingMaker, a $300 3D printer that lets kids make their own toys.