What’s new
Alphabet is considering investing $1 billion in Lyft
Google parent company Alphabet might invest around $1 billion in Lyft, according to published reports. Alphabet has previously invested in Lyft’s rival, Uber, but the companies are now engaged in a lawsuit. Alphabet’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, has sued Uber claiming that an engineer who left Waymo for Uber stole and shared proprietary information. Representatives from Google and Lyft have not yet responded to requests for comment.
You can read more here.
Samsung launches a $300 million automotive innovation fund
Samsung announced a new unit dedicated to automotive tech. It’s also setting up a $300 million fund to invest in startups in the field. The first tranche of this fund worth $90 million has been invested into TTTech. Based out of Austria, TTTech develops platforms and safety software for connected cars. In addition, Audi has also invested in the same firm. In addition to this, Samsung also announced a strategic initiative to develop connected-car technology with Harman, the auto and audio product maker that it acquired last November for $8 billion.
More info are available here.
New products
Google Pixel 2
The phone will have a 5-inch 1080p display, Snapdragon 835, 4GB RAM and 64GB or 128GB storage options. It will come with a 12MP rear camera, IP68 water and dust resistance and Android 8.1.
More info here.
Nokia 2
Nokia 2 will have a 5-inch HD display, a Snapdragon 210 or Snapdragon 212 processor and Android 7.1.1 Nougat. It will come with a 4,000 mAh battery and 8GB of storage.
More info here.
You might want to know about this
Facebook is testing a temporary unfollow option for the News Feed
The new option is showing up on the website for some and allows gives users the ability to temporary unfollow posts from a given user for 24 hours, 7 days or even a full 30 days. The feature isn’t available for everyone just yet and Facebook hasn’t officially announced the feature, so there’s a chance it might never fully rollout publicly.
You can read more here.
Bose’s QuietComfort 35 II headphones will have a Google Assistant button
The new “Action button” on the QC35II headphones will be used to activate Google Assistant. From there, Assistant can answer general questions, send or read back your texts, control music, and more. Assistant is available for devices with iOS too.
More info can be found here.
Fun stuff
Overwatch will be free to play from September 22nd-25th
Blizzard is making the game free for everyone over the weekend of September 22-25. This isn’t the first free weekend for this game. Players have been able play it for free last September, the following November and just this past May.
You can read more here.
