Weekly Roundup: Seven Tech Stories You May Have Missed

The tech world moves quickly. It’s easy to miss some things. We’ve got your back with another weekly roundup. Happy reading!

1. The front page of Norway’s largest Newspaper Afteposten put Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on blast for the company’s decision to censor a historic photograph of the Vietnam war. The 1,505-word letter accuses Zuckerberg of thoughtlessly “abusing your power.” The letter, written by Espen Egil Hansen, the editor-in-chief and CEO of Aftenposten added “I am upset, disappointed – well, in fact even afraid – of what you are about to do to a mainstay of our democratic society.”

2. Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating office, says watchOS 3 is a dramatic improvement, with expressive messaging, activity sharing, and new apps, such as Pokémon Go. The Go app for Watch allows users to check into PokéStops, hatch eggs, and see when wild Pokémon appear—but you’ll need to actually open your iPhone to catch them. John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, the developer of Go, says the game has been downloaded 500 million times and players walked a combined 4.6 billion kilometers.

3. Ubisoft is responsible for Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, the Tom Clancy series, Rainbow Six and a litany of others titles over the past three decades. Now approaching 500 employees, the gaming giant’s Toronto team is heads-down on Watch Dogs 2, For Honor and a few more secret projects. Techvibes took an exclusive, in-depth look at Ubisoft Toronto’s office to figure out how they keep pumping out hit after hit.

4. Even Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, is perplexed by the recent explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket. The explosion, which occurred earlier this month and destroyed a $200-million Facebook satellite, was described today by Tusk as “the most difficult and complex failure we have ever had.”

5. Apple has partnered with Nintendo to bring Super Mario to iOS. A new game, called Super Mario Run, will be released soon for iPhone and iPad. Similar to the original Super Mario, Run is designed to be playable with just one thumb. Super Mario stickers will also be available for the updated iMessage app when iOS 10 is released later this month.

6. Alcatel this week announced the launch of Vision, making it the first global smartphone brand to offer its users an all-in-one virtual reality experience. Vision is an all-in-one mobile home entertainment virtual reality device to offered with entry-level pricing. It can be worn for up to three hours, with or without glasses, allowing plenty of time to take a VR tour of a museum or for watching a movie.

7. Volvo is testing a fully autonomous truck in a deep underground mine, marking the first time a self-driving vehicle has functioned in the tough conditions of a mine. The truck is part of a development project aimed at improving the transport flow and safety in the Kristineberg Mine. It will cover a distance of 7 kilometres, reaching 1,320 metres underground in the narrow mine tunnels.