Uber launches grocery delivery in Canada, Latin America

If yoy don't feel leaving your house for groceries, Uber now offers grocery delivery in select cities. (Photo by Anna Shvets/Pexels)

A day after Uber announced that it acquired Postmates for $2.65 billion, it introduced grocery delivery in 19 Canadian and Latin American cities, including those in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. The project is also a result of the recently announced purchase of Cornershop in late 2019, which is still pending regulatory approval. Cornershop introduced grocery delivery to Latin America before bringing it to Toronto. The service will expand to the US later this month, specifically in Dallas and Miami, and then to more cities around the world in "the coming months."

It is the right time to launch a service like this, with COVID-19 affecting people's mobility and desire to leave the house with the pandemic for something as essential as grocery shopping. Uber says demand for grocery delivery has increased 197% since March.

Source: TechCrunch

Apple buys Waterloo-based Inductiv to improve Siri

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Apple's latest acquisition is seen as the company's attempt to improve its voice-activated assistant, Siri. The company bought Waterloo, Ontario-based Inductiv, but it won't elaborate on its plans, saying it "buys smaller technology companies from time to time." Inductiv specializes in using artificial intelligence to correct data and improve machine learning. According to Bloomberg, "clean data" is essential for machine learning because it allows the AI to enhance the software with "less human intervention." Apple also recently acquired Voysis, which reportedly will help develop Siri's natural language comprehension.

Inductiv was co-founded by machine-learning professors from the University of Waterloo, Stanford University, and the University of Wisconsin. But since the acquisition was recent, it might be a while to see what the effects will be on Siri.

Facebook acquires Giphy, reportedly for US$400 million

Facebook has acquired GIF-sharing service Giphy and plans to make it part of the Instagram team. Facebook didn't reveal how much it paid for to buy Giphy, but Axios reports that it's priced at around US$400 million. Giphy is expected to keep its branding, but it'll be primarily integrated into Instagram. GIFs are prevalent and used heavily in Instagram Stories, so having more access to a GIF-sharing service could work in Facebook's favour. We might expect to see it more integrated into other Facebook services as well.

Source: Engadget

Google acquires Montreal-based Typhoon Studio to develop exclusive Stadia games

Jade Raymond, vice president of Stadia Games and Entertainment, said Typhoon Studio's acquisition hopes to create "platform-defining exclusive content" for Stadia

Google just bought Montreal-based Typhoon Studio to help bolster exclusive content on its Stadia game streaming service. Game industry veterans, who have worked on titles like Batman and Assassin's Creed, head the small studio. They're now Google's first-ever first-party studio. We do not know how much the tech giant paid to acquire Typhoon Studio.

While the studio joins Google's Stadia Games and Entertainment Studio in Montreal, its first game, Journey to the Savage Planet, will still be released on different platforms, including the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the PC, on January 28, 2020. We would expect the game to make its way to Stadia in the future, too. Google still has a lot of improvements it needs to make to Stadia, but this acquisition might be a step in the right direction in offering exclusive content for its users.

Source: VentureBeat