TGIF, you beautiful Austinites! Here's some of the news that tech blogs are buzzing about this morning:

While not exactly conforming to the wishes of the online voting public, a British polar vessel will be rechristened the RRS Sir David Attenborough, while an on-board drone submarine will retain the name "Boaty McBoatface," as per the will of 120,000 voters. May you find buried treasure and live a long, autonomous life, Boaty.

Uber's largest rival that you've never heard of, Didi Kuaidi, is raising $2 billion in a round of funding to fend off Uber in China. The country's largest ride-hailing service could be valued at $25 billion, making it the world's fourth-most valuable startup, reports Bloomberg.

The partnership between GM and Lyft (which may or may no be operating in Austin by Monday) for driverless technology may be bearing autonomous fruit sooner than expected. The Wall Street Journal reports that driverless electric taxis could be on the roads within a year.

Speaking of self-driving cars, both Google and Apple look to be buying land to test out self-driving vehicles. Could some of that real estate be in Austin?

Are you a student who actually likes to pay for music? Apple is offering a 50 percent discount for the soon-to-be-revamped streaming music service.

Microsoft says it has 300 million active users on its latest desktop operating system, Windows 10, but it's ending the free ride on upgrades. July 29 is the deadline to upgrade for free. After that, Windows 10 Home will cost $119.