Dec 7th 2016
Tech News Today 1656
Pony Bros
Fitbit buys Pebble, Project Field, Pandora Premium, space poo.
Pebble will shut down and fitness company FitBit will buy Pebble's key assets. The acquisition excludes hardware, but some of Pebble's talent, and all of its intellectual property will now belong to FitBit. The Pebble Time 2, Pebble Core, and Pebble Time Round Kickstarter Editions will not go into final production and all backers will receive refunds.
Sony announced a new take on table top card gameplay called Project Field, a dedicated smart pad meant to pair with a smartphone or tablet that allows physical cards to interact with and trigger on-screen gameplay mechanics using NFC and bluetooth technology.
You can now search Google just by tweeting an emoji to @Google, and you'll get results from nearby. For example tweeting a cookie emoji will return a list of bakeries near you.
Pandora’s new paid streaming service was shown to a small group of VIPs, and its called Pandora Premium. The service integrates the many thumbs ups that users have offered over the years to tailor its experience, including taking orphaned playlists and suggesting additions based on the Music Genome Project.
Apple announced its apps of the year, including the most downloaded app, which was Snapchat. Apple also made a list of the favorite apps of this year for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch and Mac.
- Kerry Davis from Engadget discusses space poo, customized drones, and Amazon Go.
- Maria Naggaga, Program Manager at Microsoft, talks about Computer Science Education Week, The Hour of Code, and the best ways for kids and adults to learn to code.
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Links
- RIP Pebble: Fitbit buyout spells the end of the smartwatch company
- Sony Unveils New Games, Controller in Smartphone Gaming Push
- Following in Nintendo's steps, PlayStation is bringing games to iPhone and Android
- There's a very good reason to tweet emoji at Google right now
- Pandora officially unveils its long-awaited Spotify competitor
- Apple just revealed the most-downloaded app of 2016
- SpacePoop
- Design your own custom drone
- What is Amazon Go?
- Minecraft Hour of Code Tutorials
- LET'S MAKE SOME GAMES
- Black Girls CODE
- Watch a parrot wearing goggles fly through a laser sheet