IBM Watson Group announced a $1 billion deal last week to acquire Merge Healthcare Inc. Merge Healthcare sells systems that help doctors store and access medical images, an essential step to eventually applying artificial intelligence to medicine. Merge Healthcare services is used by over 7,500 hospitals and clinics across the nation. Read more >>

The major gaming company, Electronic Arts (EA), is banking on their new Star Wars video game, Star Wars: Battlefront. Battlefront is EA’s first game in a 10-year agreement between EA and Disney, who purchased Lucasfilm in 2012. The demo of Battlefront shown at E3 featured the Battle of Hoth from “The Empire Strikes Back” with highly detailed graphics. In order to capture the look of the game as faithfully as possible, the developer for this game, DICE, three dimensionally photographed the actual props and models used for the original films. DICE even created some of the game’s explosion effects to look similar to the 1970’s cinema effects rather than using realistic firestorms to ensure the game looked authentically Star Wars. Electronic Arts has been creating Star Wars games well before Disney’s takeover since the original films. Read more >>

AT&T and IBM have joined together with Mueller Water Products to develop a new solution to help cities conserve water. This system uses Internet of Things technology that can be quickly installed and utilized to help cities manage water flow and prevent leaks. 2.1 trillion gallons of purified drinking water are lost each year in the United State because of leaky pipes and broken water mains. Fixing the infrastructure would cost significantly more money than the government has the budget for. AT&T and IBM’s solution will provide a cheaper method that will retrofit existing pipes with acoustic sensors that can pick up if there are any leaks. Read more >>

Chip maker Intel is buying competitor Altera for $54 a share in an all-cash deal, totaling about $16.7 billion. Read more >>

Samsung is set to reveal a new series of chips that could be a major part of the future of Internet of Things. These chips are planned to be just as powerful as a full on computer with the goal of powering web connected objects such as wearable devices, smart clothes, and smart appliances. Samsung will be teaming up with Artik hardware for the chip platform, producing a diverse system on a chip series that combines the most popular radio frequency standards on a single component. Read more >>