Thermos has an iOS-connected Smart Bottle that minds your hydration

Smart appliances are becoming a thing and Thermos is right in there with the first ever Smart Bottle with a lid that uses consumer’s information to create a customized hydration goal to ensure they are properly hydrated all day.

Now available in Canada, the Connected Bottle allows consumers to customize and monitor their water intake through the Thermos Smart Lid app and stay hydrated, no matter what life throws at them. The Connected Bottle Works with Fitbit, a leader in the connected health and fitness market, letting consumers track their water intake so they can more easily meet their hydration goals to help maintain energy and overall health.

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Niantic is reversing bans for mistakenly banned ‘Pokémon GO’ players

Niantic is letting some users back into the Pokémon GO fold after they’ve been dealt lifetime bans. The developer is taking back the bans for users who have been unknowingly using lesser known mapping tools that have been collecting data on the users and sending these to Niantic’s servers. Niantic CEO John Hanke says these tools resemble a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. And since these look like DDoS attacks, Niantic acted somewhat indiscriminately to protect its servers. "Because of this we have had to ban some accounts associated with using these add-on map tools, leading to confusion by some users about why they were banned," Hanke writes.

But Hanke presses on to say that they won’t stop enforcing its rules going forward. It still plans to ban users who use add-on maps or third-party tools that violate the game’s terms of service.

Source: The Verge

Dell and EMC close to completing merger

Michael Dell

Dell Inc. and EMC Corp. are set to close its merger after receiving regulatory approval from China’s Ministry of Commerce. The deal was announced back in October 2015 and will be completed on September 7. The combined company will start operating under the name Dell Technologies after the transaction is completed. In the face of growing pressure from cloud-based offerings, Dell and EMC plan to develop a wider product lineup ranging from servers to key software services and storage devices.

“This is an historic moment for both Dell and EMC. Combined, we will be exceptionally well-positioned for growth in the most strategic areas of next generation IT including digital transformation, software-defined data center, converged infrastructure, hybrid cloud, mobile and security,” says Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies. “Our investments in R&D and innovation, along with our 140,000 team members around the world, will give us unmatched scale, strength and flexibility, deepening our relationships with customers of all sizes.”

Source: Bloomberg

Sonos partners with Amazon, adds voice support to its speakers

By early 2017, you’ll be able to use Amazon Alexa-powered devices (such as the Echo, Tap, and Dot) to control your Sonos ecosystem. Sonos has entered a long-term partnership with Amazon to introduce things like voice control to Sonos’ connected speakers. Aside from that, the Sonos system also adds Spotify Connect support, which will let you easily stream tunes on the music streaming service right into your speaker system. The support should go live in the coming weeks. Sonos earlier this year partnered with Apple to bring support for Apple Music into its system.

Source: Gizmodo