Apple acquires self-driving car startup Drive.ai

Kaveh Waddell/Axios

Apple’s latest purchase can be considered more as an acqui-hire. The company just bought Mountain View-based autonomous driving startup Drive.ai. They’ve hired dozens of the company’s engineers and Drive.ai has ceased all operations throughout the last few weeks. Rumours of Apple buying Drive.ai was going around earlier this month, suggesting that the company wanted to boost the development of its own self-driving vehicle system. And from the looks of it, Apple is looking at the company so it could bring in its employees.

Drive.ai was founded back in 2015 by a group of Stanford University students who wanted to introduce a self-driving shuttle service in select cities in Texas. But the company ran into problems and sought out a buyer, which we now know is Apple. Axios didn’t say how much Apple bought Drive.ai for, but the company took on the new hires into its engineering and product design divisions. The move confirms that Apple is still working on its Apple Car project, despite laying off 190 employees from its self-driving car division as part of a restructuring effort.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 2 codename hints at big things coming for the smartwatch

With the Galaxy Note 10 launch coming up, it’s being assumed that Samsung will be debuting a new version of the Galaxy Watch 2. The company did unveil last year’s Note and Galaxy Watch at the same event, after all. And while we haven’t heard much about the smartwatch, the supposed codename for the wearable hints at big changes coming to the Galaxy Watch 2. It goes by the name “Renaissance,” which seems fitting given that the Note 10 is being called “Da Vinci.” Perhaps the two put the focus on artistic expression, or they’re going to have better cross-functionality than usual. Or as Tech Radar points out, it could also mean the Galaxy Watch might be going through a major revamp. The word “Renaissance” can mean rebirth or revival, so this codename could hint at that. The wait to find out more about these devices shouldn’t be long though. Rumour has it Samsung will be launching the Note 10 on August 7th in New York, so we might be hearing more about these devices soon.

Source: T3

‘Harry Potter: Wizards Unite’ is now available in Canada

In case you missed the news, Niantic’s newest game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has just launched in 25 additional countries—including Canada. The AR game, which is reminiscent of the Niantic game Pokémon Go, first launched in a handful of countries to make sure the game is stable and wouldn’t overload servers with too many users at once. The freemium game lets you explore your neighbourhood and cities as you cast spells and try and defeat confounding magic so you can return “Foundables” back into the wizarding world. It’s available on both Android and iOS.

Source: 9to5Mac

Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro might get an update in September

Rumour has it the 16-inch version of the MacBook Pro is getting refreshed this coming September. According to IHS Markit analyst Jeff Lin, an “all-new” 16-inch MacBook Pro will have an LCD panel made from LG Display. It’ll have a resolution of 3,072 x 1,920, which will be a step up from the high-end version of the 15.4-inch model’s 2,880 x 1,800 display. And as expected, it might get a new processor as well.

Aside from the 16-inch model, Lin claims the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro might get processor updates at the same time as well. But it must be noted that this is all speculation for now. And it hasn’t been that long since Apple refreshed the MacBook Pro line.

Source: The Verge