Apple gets support from likes of Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook against FBI in court

A legal alliance has emerged in Silicon Valley following the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI. Microsoft will be filing a “friend of the court” brief next week to support Apple’s challenge to the Justice Department. Some of the other companies who will be doing the same include Amazon, Twitter, and Facebook and reportedly Google as well as Box. Other groups and companies who are also considering backing Apple include the Internet Association trade group as well as Slack. The deadline to file the brief is on March 3. And Apple executives are expecting a lot of support from the tech companies and privacy groups who have taken immense interest in the outcome of this case.

Source: BuzzFeed News

Twitter adding the ability to search for and add GIFs to tweets

Sharing GIFs in tweets and direct messages is even easier with the new GIF search feature. Whenever you’re composing a Tweet or Direct Message, you can search and browse the GIF library. So if you’re looking for the perfect cat yawn or dance move to express exactly how you feel, just click the new GIF button. You can search by keyword, or browse categories of different reactions. People can now spice up tweets with hysterical GIFs.

Starting today, GIF search will roll out over the coming weeks to everyone around the world on iOS, Android, and twitter.com. To learn more, check out Twitter's Help Center.

Twitter 'VIPs' now start seeing ads again

A few months back, Twitter started testing out a feature that kept "VIPs" or elite users from seeing ads on the social network. It wasn't clear what VIPs were. It didn't seem to be about reach but more about verified accounts. Now, though the test for these special people seem to be over as Twitter is now treating them like regular users. They can now see ads like the rest of us. In Twitter's defense, they didn't announce this as an official feature but more of a test of sorts which the company likes to engage in every now and then.

Source: The Next Web

Twitter lets you run polls for up to a week

Do you need an entire week or even just a few minutes to run a poll? Twitter now gives you the option to choose how long you want your poll to last. It can be as long as seven days or as short as five minutes. If you want to be as arbitrary with time as you want, then go right ahead. Twitter says over 1.7 billion votes have already been cast since the social network released the feature.

Source: The Next Web