Toyota, Volkswagen partner ride-hailing companies and other top stories.

• Toyota, Volkswagen partner ride-hailing companies

  

  Toyota and  Volkswagen are the latest automakers to forge alliances with ride-hailing companies, deals that could see the car makers not only sell cars to drivers of the app companies but also develop jointly on-demand mobility technologies. On Wednesday, Toyota said it was making a strategic investment in Uber Technologies as part of a bigger partnership that would include leasing of its cars to Uber drivers. Car purchasers can lease their vehicles from Toyota Financial Services and cover thei..

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• 15 Things You Should Know Before Playing Overwatch

  

  Getting started in Overwatch can be pretty daunting: there are so many heroes to learn, maps to memorize, and loot crates to open, that it’s hard to keep track of it all. But we have a few quick pointers that should help. Here are the things I wish I knew before jumping into Overwatch. Start with an easy character Some characters are easier to pick up than others. For players already familiar with shooters, I’d go with Soldier 76, Pharah, D.VA or Bastion at first. These are characters who ar..

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• Microsoft bangs the final nail in Nokia Devices' coffin, will lay off 1850

  

  Satya Nadella and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop during happier times. Elop got the boot in 2015. The last remaining vestiges of Nokia at Microsoft are being closed down as the company "streamlines" its smartphone hardware business. "Up to 1,850" people will lose their jobs (1,350 in Finland, 500 elsewhere) as the company essentially exits the phone market. Microsoft bought Nokia's Devices and Services business in 2013 for $7.1 billion. In July last year, Microsoft laid off 7,800 of the staff..

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• Pebble unveils two new smartwatches and a wearable not meant for your wrist video - CNET

  

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• YouTube Upgrades E3 Gaming Hub

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• Rocket League Is Playable Across Platforms Today, Get The Details

  

  Rocket League gets a heck of a lot friendlier today as players on the Xbox One and the PC are finally able to play on the same pitch. This sort of cross-platform play isn’t wholly new, but it sure isn’t that common. Rocket League already allowed for cross-platform play between the PlayStation 4 version of the game and the PC. Now the love is spreading even further, with players on the Xbox One version of the game able to play with their PC friends. For the time being, however, it doesn’t loo..

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• Apple Says “Me Too”, Works On Amazon Echo Competitor Powered By Smarter Siri

  

  Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is reportedly working on an Amazon Echo like device. The space for these kinds of devices is about to heat up as companies such as Google also announced intentions to enter it. A report from The Information revealed that the iPhone maker will open up Siri by releasing a Software Development Kit (SDK) at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2016. This will allow developers to develop and integrate apps with Siri, which should help in increasing the personal digital assist..

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• Post-delay, Mirror's Edge Catalyst is almost here

  

  June 7Despite getting bumped a tiny bit due to a delay, Mirror's Edge Catalyst is on track for a June 7 release date (June 9 in Europe) for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. With a launch trailer that is thankfully lacking in Icarus screentime, DICE gives players the gist of the story (ha) and showcases some gameplay elements -- mostly dealing with traversal mechanics rather than combat. Open world collecathon nonsense aside, it actually looks pretty awesome -- I really dig the variety of environments. And..

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• 24 more characters, for better and worse

  

  Today Twitter redefined its laws of physics. But while it’s posed as a simplification of the 140-character rule, the change will reshape information density, conversation style and self-promotion in the app. If you want to know what’s happening and why, read TechCrunch’s detailed breakdown of the changes scooped by Bloomberg’s Sarah Frier. Here, we’re going to examine the how, as in how this will impact the Twitter that 300 million people have ingrained into their life, and billions more never ..

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• Twilio launches add-on marketplace

  

  Twilio today announced the launch of its add-ons marketplace. Using these add-ons, developers who use Twilio’s API to power the messaging features of their apps and services can easily combine Twilio’s services with those of its partners. “This the beginning of Twilio’s marketplace,” Twilio CEO and co-founder Jeff Lawson told me. He noted that Twilio already offers developers many of the building blocks to build communication right into their apps and developers often combine these with APIs f..

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