Wireless iPhone power, IBM CEO talks about its Trump ties, and Google Maps goes live with Lists. That and more in The Daily Crunch for February 13, 2017. And if you don't have a neural lace, it's time to start figuring out how to plug yourself into your computer.

1. A big sign iPhone 8 could have wireless charging

Wireless charging is likely coming to the next iPhone, whatever Apple ends up calling it. The company joined the Wireless Power Consortium, an industry association that promotes and guides standardized use of wireless charging tech.

Other members of the WPC include Samsung, LG, Qualcomm and HTC, so Apple is in good company. Apple released a statement about its participation basically saying that it belongs to a lot of standards bodies, so don't read too much into this, but the timing is interesting given rumors wireless charging is indeed a new feature for the next iPhone.

2. IBM's CEO addresses Trump proximity

IBM's Ginni Rometty remained one of the last tech CEOs who had not addressed Trump's immigration ban directly, and her silence was more noteworthy because she has a seat on Trump's advisory council on business matters (yes, the same council that counts Elon Musk a member, and that used to include Uber's Travis Kalanick before he quit). Her statements are likely not doing much to reassure IBM employees who would like the company take a stronger position against Trump's trespasses.

3. Google Maps launches Lists

You can now save favorite places right within Google Maps, and then share those around to others, too. Lists are also organized based on whether you want to visit the spot, already love it or just want to star it for later reference. It feels a bit like the beginning of a social network, and Google's not saying it's not that.

4. Musk really wants us to plug our brains into computers

Elon Musk's emphatic insistence that we speed up the process of melding our minds with computers is becoming a common refrain. The Tesla CEO was singing this tune again at an event in Dubai, where he also brought up the very real imminent impact of driverless cars, which could be one of the single largest disruptions to employment in human history.

5. Help find exoplanets

Researchers at MIT have released a huge dataset of measurements around nearby star systems, in the hopes of crowdsourcing the galactic task of finding exoplanets – and perhaps candidates for hosting viable life. It's a worthy way to spend your spare time, if you have the ability and the inclination.

6. Grab picks up a payment startup

Uber's competition in Southeast Asia is making its first big acquisition, a deal worth somewhere in the neighbourhood of $100 million. It's a way to own the online payments part of the product, which could help it further distinguish itself from Uber and others.

7. Uber is mapping in Asia

Speaking of owning more of your own product, Uber is seeking to build out its mapping operation in Asia, after doing similar things around the world. The company wants to lessen its reliance on Google and other mapping data sources, so this makes a lot of sense.