Capital One Canada helps out local charities with 40-hour hackathon

Capital One Canada, together with Hackworks, are hosting a 40-hour Gift the Code Hackathon this October 21 to 23 to help address digital issues faced by six Toronto-based charities. Over 100 participants—a mix of volunteers and Capital One associates—will be brainstorming, building, and submitting technology solutions for the charities’ digital challenges. The event, which is hosted by Marc Saltzman, will see the participants broken into teams of four to six experts at BrainStation’s Toronto campus to help solve these problems.

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Visit Orlando app takes advantage of AR and Watson’s tech

Central Florida’s official tourism organization outs beta version of its Visit Orlando app. This destination mobile app makes use of WayBlazer’s IBM Watson-enabled technology and augmented reality (AR) technology to help provide personalized recommendations and understand conversational language of the users. The Watson-enabled machine learning capabilities allows the app to learn from your previous interactions with it and help refine recommendations for you over time. It culls information from different data sources such as media stories, expert blogs, trusted third-party travel resources, and Visit Orlando’s own database.

The AR technology enables features like “Around Me,” which overlays information about relevant dining and entertainment experiences in your area; and Magical Orb game that has you hunting and capturing Magical Orbs in different destinations, which you can collect to enter a sweepstakes for prizes. The apps gives you instant access to an Orlando Destination Specialist with just one tap. The app is available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

SlideShow: A closer look at Moto Z and various Moto Mods

The era of the modular smartphone is here and Lenovo's Moto Z (CAD $900)  and Moto Z Play ($650) which are coming to Canada late September can be expanded with a JBL Speaker ($99.99), a Lenovo pico projector (50 lumens, $399.99), a Hasselblad True Zoom (10x Zoom, Xenon Flash) and various battery and style attachments in wood, ballistic nylon, leather and rubber. Stay tuned for full reviews of the phones and the accessories in the coming month

Lenovo announces Moto Z Play smartphone coming to Canada

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Lenovo launched the latest Moto Z Play model at IFA today. The Moto Z Play is a mid-range flagship that will fall under the Moto Z and which will feature a 2.0 GHz octa-core processor, a stunning 5.5” 1080p HD Super AMOLED display and 3GB RAM of memory. It will have a 16MP laser autofocus camera and will come to Canada later in September for approximately $650 CAD, outright. Moto Z Play will be available at Rogers, TELUS and Koodo.