Your Weekend Tech Digest: Elon Musk leaves Trump’s advisory council, Snapchat Spectacles released in Europe

By Tian DuBelko

We round up the trending stories every week so you can catch up on the top tech news. This week, Elon Musk left President Trump’s advisory council, Amazon applied for a patent for its parachute shipping labels, Snapchat Spectacles came out in Europe, and Google announced its ad blocker for Chrome. Get your weekly recap here, then head over to our blog for more stories.

Elon Musk leaves President Trump’s White House advisory councils over the Paris Climate Accord

Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017

Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, promised this week that he would remove himself from his official advisory role with the administration after Trump announced the U.S. would be removing itself from the agreement. Musk isn’t the only tech leader to react to the Paris climate deal, as the likes of Tim Cook (Apple) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) has also taken to Twitter to speak out in support of the deal.

Amazon awarded patent for parachute shipping label

(Image via BI Intelligence)

Earlier this week, Amazon was awarded a US patent that could improve drone efficiency and bring benefits to the e-commerce giant’s Prime Air program. Being able to airdrop packages at their destination will eliminate the need for drones to land, thereby improving delivery efficiency. Amazon Prime, beloved for its 2-day delivery options, already has 80 million subscribers. This patent could make the shipping and delivery an even more painless process than it is now.

Snapchat Spectacles have been released in Europe

Almost seven months after their U.S. debut, the Snapchat Spectacles have made their way to Europe. For just £130, you can pick up a pair of sunglasses with a built-in video camera. With over 55 million people using Snap for at least 30 minutes a day, in Europe, don’t be surprised if you start seeing these being worn around en vogue.

Google has plans for its own Chrome adblocker

Google has announced plans to introduce its own adblocker for Chrome by 2018. This new adblocker won’t block every ad on the Internet, but it will block ads that are deemed to have intrusive advertisement. Things like autoplay videos or pop-up windows that take up the whole screen fall under this category, and hopefully Google’s new adblocker will help filter out some of those annoying ads on the web.

Did you come across a story that we didn’t mention? Tell us about it in the comments!