Apple is rolling out a new Web-based editing tool that will open its Apple News app to any and all publishers. “Since Apple launched the app in September, it has attracted more than 100 major publishers as partners,” Vanity Fair notes. “What the new launch means is that anyone -- from individual bloggers to smaller, independent news organizations -- will be able to edit and deliver their stories, videos, galleries, and audio in the Apple News format, with Apple News’s reach.”

Apple is rolling out a new ad format for sponsored posts that appear in users' news feeds next to articles in the Apple News app. “The company revealed the new ad format in a developer-specification document for Apple's in-house mobile-advertising platform updated in March,” Business Insider reminds us. “The ads will be set in the same font as other articles in the News app, except for a small ‘sponsored’ tag.”

Flipagram -- a slideshows app with aspirations to become a social network -- now claims 36 million active users. “Those users flip through 5 billion photos and videos per month,” Re/code reports. “It’s been a model of consistency in the U.S. App Store over the past year, rarely dropping out of the top 10 in the ‘photo and video’ apps category.”  

Yahoo on Friday confirmed plans to shut down its Yahoo Games site and publishing channel in May. Additionally, “Yahoo Livetext is being shut down at the end of March 2016,” Venture Beat reports. Yahoo says Livetext let it “experiment with new user experiences and features” which it will try to incorporate into its existing products.”

With the codename “N,” Google just began previewing the next version of Android within the developer community. “That's much, much earlier than ever before,” The Verge notes. “Google usually waits until its IO developer conference.” In addition, “It's also going to be much, much easier for anybody to try it out, too,” The  Verge adds. “For the first time, the preview will be available as an over-the-air update you can sign up for.”

In 2015, mobile game maker Supercell made profits of $964 million on revenues of $2.326 billion, Venture Beat reports, calling the performance “astounding.” The Helsinki-based company makes mobile games like Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, and Hay Day. “There’s something magical in the water, or the snow, in Finland,” Venture Beat writes.

Re/code has compiled a list of all the companies and organizations supporting Apple in its privacy fight with the feds. To name a few, the growing roll includes a group of 32 law professors; Access Now -- a civil society organization dedicated to extending the digital rights of users around the world; AT&T; Intel; the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and 46 technologists, researchers and cryptographers.

It was no easy decision for Facebook, Microsoft and other tech giants to take Apple’s side in the fight against the U.S. government. Rather, “It took time for some of the tech companies to make the decision to support Apple,” The New York Times reports.” Several feared the showdown with the government was too risky and could have far-reaching implications for the tech industry if Apple lost.”