Daily Pulse: Google and Other Tech Companies Back Apple against FBI, Obama Plans Visit to Cuba, American Airlines Too is Frustrated with Slow Wifi

This is shaping up to be a battle of tech companies vs. government.  WhatsApp founder Jan Koom said he "couldn't agree more" with Tim Cook's stance against a court order that would require Apple to help the FBI hack an iPhone linked to the San Bernardino shooting investigation. Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted his support as well. The order "could be a troubling precedent," he wrote. 

Reform Government Surveillance, an advocacy group formed by tech companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and more (disclosure: LinkedIn too), released a statement of support. "In the long run, the tech companies are destined to emerge victorious," Farhad Manjoo predicts in The New York Times. 

Can the UK and the EU reach a deal that's palatable to Europeans and that David Cameron can sell to British voters? EU leaders are meeting for two days in Brussels to renegotiate the terms of Britain's presence in the EU before the country's Brexit referendum, which could be as early as June. In short, David Cameron wants more freedom from EU regulations, particularly for the City's financial firms, while keeping the benefits of the open European market. Nearly half of foreign investments in the UK come from the EU, so it's hard to argue Brexit wouldn't be harmful to both UK and European economies. Meanwhile, many continental nations aren't loving the idea that the UK would get special treatment. And the migrant crisis continues to undermine continental unity... 

Barack Obama will visit Cuba in the coming weeks, according to senior White House officials cited in several media reports. The plan should be announced today. The historic trip would seal the détente between US and Cuba, a defining element of Obama's foreign affairs legacy. The last sitting US president to visit Havana was Calvin Coolidge... in 1928. President Jimmy Carter has traveled there twice since leaving office. 

It's not just you that's frustrated. American Airlines is suing Gogo because its in-flight wifi is so slow, American wants out. The airline wants to break the contract that ties it to Gogo and go for ViaSat instead, which United, Jetblue and Virgin America use. Why is Gogo's wifi so bad (as Buzzfeed points out, the definition of a first world problem)? Bloomberg's Sam Grobart explained it last summer. What's changed since, is Gogo's monopoly is crumbling. 

"Just in time" scheduling is going out of style and it's about time. Walmart is planning to roll out an app to employees that will allow them to set their schedules within available shifts a couple weeks in advance, or even to have fixed shifts for up to a year for the most senior employees. It's not just low wages that make life hard for hourly workers: unpredictable schedules make it hard to plan for childcare or school and make life more expensive and unstable for the poorest workers.

Food for thought: Hours of sleep, by income

Cover art: Refugees and migrants massed onto an inflatable boat reach Mytilene, northern island of Lesbos, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on February 17, 2016. ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images

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What you may have missed — and really should read:

• From our editor at TED: Why we're willing to believe in Elon Musk's outlandish ideas
• Stefen Sinofsky: Why the heck can't we change our product? 
• Why the FBI's request of Apple will cause more harm than good

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Missed the last update? Catch up: 'Yahoo to Cut Back on Content, Binge On is Big for T-Mobile, IBM's Watson and Google's AI Look to Level Up'

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