21st Century Innovative Technologies and Developments as also discoveries, curiosity ( insolite)...

Last Friday, it was reported that Canadian smart glasses startup North was on the verge of being snapped up by Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Today, it’s official.

North announced the acquisition on both Twitter and in an official blog. Details regarding the terms of the sale were scant, though a Globe and Mail scoop from Friday put the number at around $180 million. North’s remaining staff will, however, be staying in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada and joining a Google team also based there.

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https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Apple has acquired Fleetsmith, makers of software that lets businesses automate device setup, patching, and security for company-owned Apple devices such as Macs, iPhones and iPads.

Looking at the bigger picture, the Fleetsmith deal gives Apple an in-house mobile device management solution to offer enterprise clients and supports its overall enterprise strategy. 

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https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

TechCrunch has learned that Amazon has acquired Body Labs, a company with a stated aim of creating true-to-life 3D body models to support various b2b software applications — such as virtually trying on clothes or photorealistic avatars for gaming.

One source suggested the price-tag Amazon paid for Body Labs could be $100M+. However a second well-placed source suggested it’s closer to $70M than $100M — so we’re pegging it at between $50M and $70M.

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment on the acquisition.

New York based Body Labs was founded in March 2013, according to CrunchBase, and had raised more than $10M across two investment rounds — closing an $8M Series A in November 2015.

The company says its AI, computer vision, and body modeling expertise stems from research started at Brown University and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems.

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http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Für 1,2 Milliarden US-Dollar übernimmt Amazon Medienberichten zufolge Zoox. Das Start-up entwickelt selbstfahrende Autos.

Amazon springt einmal mehr auf den Zug der selbstfahrenden Autos auf. Der Onlinehandelsgigant übernimmt das Start-up Zoox, Medienberichten zufolge für stolze 1,2 Milliarden US-Dollar (etwa 900 Millionen Euro).

Bereits vor einem Monat gab es entsprechende Hinweise, damals erklärte Zoox, es gebe Angebote und Verhandlungen zur Übernahme – jedoch wurde deren Herkunft nicht verraten. Nun ist es offiziell, Amazon hat das Ergebnis inzwischen mitgeteilt. Zum Kaufpreis schreibt der US-Konzern nichts, mehrere US-Medien hatten vorab jedoch nicht nur die Übernahme vermeldet, sondern auch den Preis in Milliardenhöhe.

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https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Blockchain smart contracts can finally have a real world impact
A startup says it has tackled a long-standing problem that has kept smart contracts from responding to events in the outside world.

You have probably heard that blockchain technology and "smart contracts" are going to revolutionize our lives.

But there’s a problem: before smart contracts can do anything really useful, they need a reliable way to connect with events in the real world—and that has proved impossible so far. This is the so-called "oracle problem," a technological challenge that is still hampering any chance that blockchain will break out and become a part of our everyday lives.

Until now, perhaps. A startup called Chainlink is combining its software with a trusted hardware system called Town Crier, developed by a leading academic cryptocurrency research group. Together, they might be closer than ever to solving the problem.

Smart contracts are computer programs stored in a blockchain. They can be used to automate the unstoppable transfer of crypto-tokens between users, according to agreed-upon conditions. “Oracles” are real-time data feeds that deliver things like weather data, currency exchange rates, airline flight information, and sports statistics to smart contracts.

The idea is that by working together, the two systems can allow blockchain-based services to interact with real-world events with a greater degree of trust than is possible from today’s oracle services. For example, if your flight is canceled but you bought flight insurance, a smart contract might instantaneously pay you after getting an update from a trusted source of flight times.

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 https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=blockchain

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Blockchain

https://www.scoop.it/t/luxembourg-europe/?&tag=Blockchain

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Smart+Contracts