Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan to pledge $3 billion to help fight disease

Aside from being the CEO of the biggest social media site, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are working on a bigger cause: helping cure all diseases. Through the couple’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, they plan to invest over US$3 billion over the next decade with an aim of curing all diseases by the end of the century. The three goals the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has include bringing scientists and engineers together, develop new tools and tech, as well as boost the movement to fund science needed to treat diseases. They plan to work with the top scientists from around the world to work on this

Chan, a pediatrician by profession, talked about this plan at an event hosted at the University of California, San Francisco, Mission Bay campus, which houses the school’s state-of-the-art hospital. Present at the event were well-known scientists, investors, and politicians like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (who is a partner of the Initiative), former US Secretary Janel Napolitano, and investor Ron Conway. The first investment by the initiative will be $600 million to fund the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, an independent research center at Mission Bay where engineers, biologists, computer scientists, and the like can collaborate.

Source: CNET

Google Allo will keep your messages on its servers until you delete them

Google is backtracking a bit from what they’ve announced at Google I/O and sharing how they plan to store messages on its new Allo app. If you’re not using Incognito Mode in the app, the messages you send there will be stored “transiently.” What this means is your chat history will remain on your device and Google’s servers until you physically delete them. According to Google, they made the change to improve the smart reply feature of the app. Of course, the messages will remain encrypted. But if you don’t want to have to delete the messages yourself (the one you’re messaging has to delete them, too, to completely remove the data), you can choose to use Incognito Mode within the app.

Source: Engadget + The Verge | Download: Google Play Store + Apple App Store

‘Forza Horizon 3’ comes to Windows 10

Fans of the Forza series are in for a treat. The Windows 10 version is almost here. Pre-order for the Forza Horizon 3 Ultimate Edition brings the game into your hands on September 23, which is four days ahead of the release of the Deluxe and Standard editions. Coinciding with this release, NVIDIA and AMD are going to launch game-ready drivers for Forza Horizon 3. While the current drivers work, the updates will bring performance optimization and stability improvements.

Playground Games is currently working on some in-game errors with some marketplace functionality—including selecting DLC like VIP or Car Pass from the in-game Marketplace tab and accessing certain DLC cars from within the Autoshow. The game should be up and running for September 23.

Source: Xbox Wire

IBM opens innovation space for Canadian entrepreneurs and startups

IBM in partnership with Ontario Centres of Excellence and the Government of Ontario launched the IBM Innovation Space, a new startup hub in Toronto to accelerate innovation activities and investments in Ontario by helping businesses propel into the global marketplace.

The IBM Innovation Space is the first initiative to launch under the IBM Innovation Incubator Project, a $54 million dollar initiative funded by a $24.75 million dollar contribution from IBM and $22.75 million from the Government of Ontario’s Jobs and Prosperity Fund.  Other partners include the SOSCIP Research Consortium and members of the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE).

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