The new Mac Pros are popping up on rooftops thanks to augmented reality, Sidewalk Labs’ smart city project in Toronto is in the spotlight again, and Iron Man pledges to clean up the Earth.
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A few days after unveiling the redesigned Mac Pro, Apple added an AR feature on its website that lets anyone preview what the machine would look like on your desktop. Naturally, people took to Twitter to post photos of their virtual Mac Pro sitting on top of: rooftops, in people’s hands, and of course, next to blocks of cheese. The Mac Pro 2019 base model will be available this fall starting at around $8,000 CAD.
A Guardian article about the Toronto’s smart city project is gaining a lot of attention on Reddit. The story quotes US venture capitalist Roger McNamee, who warns that tech companies such as Google can’t be trusted with the data they collect on Toronto’s residents. He put his concerns to writing and submitted them to Toronto City Council. The letter comes after news that Waterfront Toronto, the project’s advisory panel, is going to delay a planned vote on the whole thing to perform an extensive evaluation of Sidewalk Labs’ plans.
And lastly, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist Tony Stark – I mean actor Robert Downey Jr. – took to the stage at Amazon’s new Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics and Space conference in Las Vegas recently and Reddit is talking a lot about it. Downey spoke to a room filled with AI experts and other dignitaries about his new idea – a new initiative called Footprint Coalition. Downey was thin on details – the coalition aims to clean up the planet with the help of emerging tech and robotics, an initiative the actor says he will commit to for the next 11 years. But the coalition won’t take off until April 2020, and beyond that, little info is available. The coalition’s website isn’t even up yet. But Downey told audience members he was serious about the effort. “I’ve got to do something. I’m unemployed,” he joked.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing.