Canadian group sues government over Google-backed smart neighbourhood in Toronto

Sidewalk Labs—a company owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet—has plans to build a smart neighbourhood in Toronto that would collect data from different sources in the area. And it seems a local association is not happy with this development. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is suing three levels of government over this proposed plan. The association claims the project is “invalid and needs to be reset.” They are concerned about the increase in surveillance it entails and how the government seems to be outsourcing its responsibilities to a private corporation. The Sidewalk Labs project is run alongside the publicly funded Waterfront Toronto.

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Original ‘Burnout Paradise’ game will have its servers shut down by August 1st

After over a decade of being live, Criterion Games has confirmed that the original racing game Burnout Paradise will have its online servers shut down by August 1, 2019. Its offline game will remain playable, if you still want in on the action. Or you can opt to get the remastered version of the game, which launched last year. That version will still be up and running.

Source: PCGamer

How You Can Upgrade and Modernize Your Business

Most people – customers and partners alike – expect companies to be as modern as possible. This isn’t just for appearance, though. There has been consistent evidence to show that including technology and modern methods will cut down on costs while simultaneously increasing profits. Therefore, if you make the necessary changes, you can observe that your company will improve by leaps and bounds.

Now, it is fair to say that some of these modifications are going to cost you money. The good news, though, is that Smarter.Loans offers equipment financing and leasing and you can pay for certain machines and devices in this way. So, without further ado, here are the changes that you should consider making:

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Alexa owners in the US get access to free, ad-supported Amazon Music

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Amazon Music is coming to more users in the US, specifically those with Alexa devices. These device owners can listen to a limited number of top playlists and stations on Amazon Music for free. It is similar to what Amazon Prime subscribers get access to for free. They don’t need to be Amazon Prime subscribers. You can ask Alexa to play music by creating stations based on a song, era, genre, or artist. Or have the voice assistant queue popular global playlists on Amazon Music. If you want access to Amazon Music Unlimited, you’ll need to subscribe to the paid premium tier, which gives you access to over 50 million songs. Amazon is leveraging the popularity of its smart speakers to get more users to use its services—especially since it doesn’t come at an additional cost. This just might entice listeners away from third-party services that Amazon speakers support (like Spotify and Apple Music).

Source: Engadget