You can catch Pikachu during the anniversary event of ‘Pokèmon Go’

It seems appropriate that for the first anniversary of one of the biggest games to come out in recent history will feature its most iconic character. Pokèmon Go, which is celebrating its one year anniversary this month, will be running an anniversary event starting July 6^th to 24^th. That event will give you the opportunity to get a special Pikachu that’s wearing Ash’s hat. Aside from that, Niantic says, “You’ll also be able to stock up for Raid Battles and the events ahead with the special limited-time Anniversary Box, which will include Incubators, Max Revives, Ultra Balls, and Raid Passes at a discount in the in-game shop.”

If you were expecting more, unfortunately that’s all we’re getting for now. Trading or legendary monsters still aren’t available. But this is most likely due to the overwhelming popularity of the game. As it attracted so many users, the game needed “rebuilding and rewiring” of its infrastructure to keep it running at the scale it was running, as Niantic CEO John Hanke admits. Hanke says this put them at around six months behind. For now we have to settle with Pikachu.

Source: Kotaku

Renowned Swiss designer Yves Béhar wants to help you sleep better

Yves Béhar and his team at fuseproject partnered with a startup called Rythm to help you get better quality sleep. The startup unveiled a device they called Dreem, a headband of sorts that makes use of white noise via bone conduction to help you fall asleep quicker. It also monitors your brain function while in deep sleep and syncs that with “sound stimulations” to help improve deep sleep by up to 31 percent. At the same time, the device also serves as an alarm, but without the obnoxious, blaring sound you’re used to. Dreem can be controlled via an Android/iOS app and is now available for pre-order for US$399 (around CA$520) until July 15^th. Afterwards, it’ll cost US$499 (around CA$650).

Chinese search giant Baidu wants to build the ‘Android’ of autonomous vehicles

You may or may not be familiar with Chinese search giant Baidu but you might be hearing more from them in the future as they partnered with 50 companies to help develop their self-driving car platform. Some of the big names in the auto and tech industries have joined them, including Ford, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Intel. Baidu wants its Apollo platform to turn into a global program that can compete against the likes of Alphabet’s Waymo and Uber’s own autonomous vehicle. This even puts them up against the likes of its partner Ford’s own self-driving initiative.

Baidu wants to position Apollo as an open source software platform, though. Thus, drawing the comparison with Android. So that hardware and car makers can quickly deploy and customize the system. “It is in essence the ‘Android’ of the autonomous driving industry but more open and more powerful,” said Qi Lu, Baidu’s chief operating officer, at Baidu Create, the company’s inaugural artificial intelligence conference. “Apollo is not solely Baidu’s. It belongs to everyone in the ecosystem. And as we and our partners contribute to the platform in our areas of specialty, we all gain more, with the results far greater than just our own.”

Source: The Verge

Moto Z2 Play is now in Canada

Motorola just unveiled its newest smartphone, the Moto Z² Play, and the said device is now available in Canada. With a retail price of around CA$800, the Moto Z² Play gets an extra Moto Mod in the box, while supplies last, that is. If you get the unit through Bell Mobility, Bell MTS, Freedom Mobile, and SaskTel, this device gets the new JBL SoundBoost 2 included with it—giving you an additional value of $114.99. The new Moto TurboPower Pack Mod and Moto GamePad are said to be coming this summer.

The Moto Z² Play now comes in a thinner, lighter, all-metal unibody design and has a 5.5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display and a water-repellant coating. It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 2.2GHz octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM and promised battery life of up to 30 hours on a single charge. TurboPower charging tech promises up to eight hours of battery life in just 15 minutes. Its 12-megapixel rear camera combine laser and dual autofocus and promises to capture 25 percent more light than the previous generation. 

Update on Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 10:08PM by Nicole Batac

Updated the post to reflect that the Moto Z² Play has 3GB RAM instead of 4GB RAM.