This week Apple announced an upgraded 13-inch MacBook Pro, 2 major acquisitions happened this week, Microsoft held a Hardware event, Facebook announced half of their security oversight board and, the California AG sues Uber and Lyft. Also, Google pivots messaging strategy and Google shutters Sidewalk Labs.
New MacBook Pro
On Monday, Apple announced a new version of the MacBook Pro. It’s currently available in a 15-Inch variant. It has an A13X processor, starts at 16GB of RAM and 256 GB (up to 1TB in the standard configuration and a max of 4TB). It also loses that Butterfly keyboard for the new Magic Keyboard. It still has the Touchbar but has a physical escape key. The new 12-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,299 available to order now no shipping date was announced. It’s available in
2 acquisitions this week
Early this week Intel announced that they are acquiring transit app Moovit. Intel says that Moovit is an addition to their suite of autonomous vehicle software. It will integrate with MobileEye AV navigation and control equipment.
On Thursday, Zoom announced that they acquired Keybase. Keybase is a key directory that maps social media identities to encryption keys in a publicly auditable manner. The acquisition gives Zoom access to audited and trusted end-to-end encryption tech and professionals.
Microsoft Event
On Wednesday, Microsoft held an event where they announced the Surface Go 2, the Surface Book 3 and, some accessories. The Go and Book 3 just get spec updates. You can read more about the event in my full post.
Google shutters Sidewalk Labs
On Thursday, the Alphabet-owned Sidewalk Labs decided to shutter their smart city project in Toronto. The project had lots of issues including financing and property ownership. But the biggest issue was activists fighting data collection. The project was really interesting and I was rooting for it.
Other News
In other news the US Supreme Court hears oral arguments virtually for the first time, Apple announced that they will be holding WWDC virtually on June 22, SpaceX successfully static fires Starship NASA announced that they are teaming up with Tom Cruise to film a movie on the ISS and, Tokyo Game Show is moving online.
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I was planning to post LTT this week because I was having trouble writing it.