This week’s headlines saw Pokémon Go mania, iPhone 7 leaks and the biggest tech IPO of the year so far. Here’s a quick roundup of the top tech news of the week so you can get back to hunting Charizards.
1. Pokémon Go completely took over this week, adding $9 billion to Nintendo’s value as the global rollout continued. The app topped Twitter’s daily users, and saw more engagement than Facebook. Want to get better, faster? Here are 13 tips on how to be the ultimate Pokémon trainer.
2. According to leaks that emerged this week, the iPhone 7 is going to look an awful lot like the iPhone 6s. One photo showed that the 7 would feature redesigned antennas, giving the phone a sleeker look. The new model shows a bigger, protruding camera lens, perhaps indicating the rumored dual-lens camera system. As always, take rumors with a grain of salt.
3. Line, the mobile messaging app from Japan, went public in what was the biggest tech IPO of 2016. Line’s share price jumped 50 percent on its Tokyo debut as the IPO raised over $1.1 billion in its dual listing on NYSE and Tokyo Stock Exchange. Here’s everything you need to know about Line.
4. Tech executives came out against Donald Trump in an open letter. “We have listened to Donald Trump over the past year and we have concluded: Trump would be a disaster for innovation. His vision stands against the open exchange of ideas, free movement of people, and productive engagement with the outside world that is critical to our economy — and that provide the foundation for innovation and growth,” the letter says. It’s signed by an impressive list of executives from Slack, Twilio, Yelp, Reddit, Twitter and more.
5. Recently departed Hyperloop One co-founder Brogan BamBrogan filed a restraining order (for allegedly placing a hangman’s noose on BamBrogan’s chair after a disagreement) against the company’s former head of legal, Afshin Pishevar. He also filed a lawsuit against both Afshin and his brother Shervin Pishevar (for wrongful termination and claims of failure toward fiduciary duty). An L.A. judge swiftly dismissed the restraining order, determining Pishevar was not a threat to BamBrogan since the two no longer live or work together. A spokesperson for Hyperloop One called the lawsuit “unfortunate and delusional.”
6. Amazon’s AWS made an acquisition to continue building out the services that it offers on its cloud storage platform. It has bought Cloud9, a San Francisco-based startup that has built an integrated development environment for web and mobile developers to collaborate together. Amazon also pulled off another successful Prime Day sales event, announcing that Prime Day 2016 was the “biggest day in the history of Amazon.”
7. Microsoft debuted its “Surface as a Service” program aimed at getting devices into the enterprise. The initiative will allow businesses to lease Surface devices, as well as subscriptions to Office 365 and Windows 10. The company says this will allow customers to benefit from access to the latest hardware.
8. Founders of the AR helmet maker Skully were booted out by investors. Skully jumped into the tech scene two years ago after a highly successful Indiegogo campaign for the company’s AR motorcycle helmet that lets riders see traffic behind them. The founders have been on a different page than investors regarding the future of the company for quite some time, said a source.
9. Unity Technologies, which has become indispensable to the gaming industry, raised a monster $181 million round at a reported $1.5 billion valuation. With the rise of augmented and virtual reality, we are rapidly approaching the likelihood that the future will be built on Unity.
10. The ongoing investigation surrounding a number of Tesla crashes that allegedly involved Autopilot continued as Consumer Reports called for Tesla to disable the mode until it can be made safer. Was Tesla’s Autopilot mode too much autonomy, too soon? We’ll have to wait and see.
11. Google made another small acquisition to help it continue to build out its latest efforts in social apps. The search giant acqui-hired deep search engine Kifi to enhance its Spaces group chat app.
12. Twitter continued its push into the livestreaming competition as it announced a livestreaming deal to bring Pac-12 university sports to its service. Earlier this week, Twitter also signed a deal with Bloomberg to livestream financial news.
13. Most companies don’t even give their own employees access to their data centers, but because Facebook open sources most of its server and networking designs, it’s a bit more open to allowing outsiders in. We got a look inside Facebook’s data center, where your data goes to die and where your photos from 10 years ago live.