One smart city in Canada will be $50 million richer at the end of the day. A software update for Apple Watch brings heart rate monitoring to more countries. And why technology is going to eat the world.
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Today we’ll know the winner of the federal government’s smart cities challenge. This competition kicked off in November of 2017 and finalists were announced in June of last year. There is a lot of money up for grabs here, with a $50 million prize, a $10 million prize, and a $5 million prize, all meant for communities of different sizes and projects of different scope. Contenting for the big $50 million prize are Quebec City; Waterloo Region, Ontario; the City of Surrey and the City of Vancouver, Montreal, and Edmonton. The idea is that the winners will use the funding to execute on their smart city plans. Even the finalists received a $250,000 grant. And now they have detailed plans that could still be acted upon, given the right funding solution.
Trending on Google, there’s a software update out for the Apple Watch. It’s watchOS version 5.2.1 The update brings the ECG app and irregular heart rhythm notifications to more countries, including Croatia, Czech Republic, Iceland, Poland, and Slovakia. It may be the last version of the watchOS version 5 released, because we’re expecting to see version 6 debut at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June.
I believe we are embarking on the next phase of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – through the rise of the “Disruptors”. Technology is Eating the World https://t.co/jSlbyGYc12 h/t @pmarca
— John Ruffolo (@ruffoloj) May 10, 2019
Trending on Twitter yesterday was the Ontario Centres of Excellence Discovery conference. In his keynote presentation, co-founder and vice-chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators John Ruffolo explained why technology is eating the world. That’s a spin on Marc Andreessen’s 2011 article “why software is eating the world.” Ruffolo says that technology is being used as the weapon of disruptors to out-compete traditional players across many different industries. These new entrants are as much technology firms as they are a business that’s focused on finance, health, education, property, or whatever else.