Even if you don’t have an immediate need for it, a good oscillating multi-tool is one of those things everyone should keep in their toolbox for various cutting and sanding jobs around the house, and this highly rated (4.7 stars on almost 300 reviewsa) cordless DEWALT model is on sale today in Amazon’s Gold Box.Read more…
Uber has announced it’s launching a free insurance package for independent couriers delivering food for its Uber Eats business in nine European markets. It says…
Airwallex, an Australia-based fintech startup that helps banks and businesses handle cross-border transactions at scale, has closed a $6 million investment ahead of a planned…
“There are two types of competition for us at Loot: the banks and the money management apps,” Loot founder Ollie Purdue tells me. The U.K.…
Google is preparing to use light beams to bring rural areas of the planet online after it announced to a planned rollout in India. The…
First revision to publish
First revision to publish
First revision to publish
Go-Jek, the company leading Uber and Grab in Southeast Asia’s largest market, has bagged a hattrick of deals to advance its mobile payment strategy. Indonesia-based…
by George Mannes, AARP, December 14, 2017|Comments: 0. Divorcees Worse Off Than Widows. Marcel Christ/Gallery Stock. Divorce can be especially problematic to the financial security of older Americans, survey finds. Set aside that love stuff for a moment and ponder this question: Who’s worse off after her marriage …
by Shira Boss, AARP, December 14, 2017|Comments: 0. Hands holding money. Jamie Grill/Getty Images. ‘Tis the season of gifts — and not only those wrapped with a bow or sealed in a tin. About a third of all charitable giving occurs in December, surveys show. Even if the timing is driven as much by tax savings as by the …
The FCC kills net neutrality, Snapchat launches Lens Studio and Squarespace reportedly raises $200 million. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
“Social media” is a clumsy term that entangles enriching social interaction with mindless media consumption. It’s a double-edged sword whose sides aren’t properly distinguished. Taken…
The compressed timelines of this year’s open enrollment period for government-mandated healthcare have left some companies in the lurch, and as the final hours to…
In the eight years since Frederic Descamps and Jordan Maynard launched their last gaming startup, the industry they helped shape now brings in more than…
Five Dogs, One Pig: Meet @piggypoo_and_crew Love #WeeklyFluff? Follow the hashtag to stay connected to the community. Hello, world! It’s time to meet the Vietnamese potbellied pig and the five rescue pups who make up @piggypoo_and_crew. From left to right, there’s Rika, Slick, Nya, James, Bashe and Chowder. “When I look at my crew, I see the reflection of who I am in them,” says their human Shelby, who lives in Southern California. “Their happiness, their safety, their health, their whole lives rely on me and I will never ever let them down.”
Cranberries are quite pretty but, unless you pickle them, they’re not the tastiest garnish. Rather than let them skate by on looks alone, I make them pull their weight by performing double duty as a beverage chiller.Read more…
Today, the Federal Communications Commission, in a 3-2 vote spearheaded by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Michael O’Rielly and Brendan Carr, repealed the Obama-era legislation deeming broadband internet a Title II utility. In short, the FCC has voted to relinquish the ability to regulate ISPs, giving…Read more…
The FCC just voted to eliminate the net neutrality rules established by 2015’s Open Internet Order. Here’s what has been said so far. We’re still…
At WWDC this year, Apple announced it would soon offer its own podcast analytics service for show creators who publish on Apple Podcasts. Today, that…
I consider myself an authoritative scholar of the pizza arts, but until 30 minutes ago, I’d never heard of a Minnesota-style pizza. A recent story in the St. Paul Pioneer-Press noted that a well-known chain in the Twin Cities called Red’s Savoy Pizza had laid claim to a state-sanctioned pizza style—which must be…Read more…
Four years ago we talked to Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before, about how she works. Since then we’ve had her on our podcast The Upgrade twice, first to talk about happiness, then to talk about personality types. Now, in a special video installment of How I Work, we’re…Read more…
A friendly reminder that we only have 11 days left until Christmas, so your gift-buying days are down to the single digits when you account for shipping time. We see a lot of great deals every day, but these were our 10 favorites from Thursday.Read more…
Y Combinator famously funds a lot of companies, but there’s always more it could be doing, said its president, Sam Altman, in an interview with…
It’s not hard to find good deals on VPN subscriptions, but our readers’ favorite service, Private Internet Access, is notable for hardly ever running sales. This is the holiday shopping season though, so for a limited time, you can sign up for two years of the service for just $60, down from its usual $70. That’s just…Read more…
The FCC voted today to roll back the strong net neutrality rules established under the Obama administration in 2015. It’s distressing but at this point…
The death of Plastc back in April looked to many like the final nail in the smart card coffin. After all, the news came only…
Dreidel is the kiddo’s version of gambling, or so I grew up thinking! As history would have it, it came all the way across Europe from Ireland before becoming a Yiddish and then Hebrew favorite. A spinning top with four rules is chill, but playing with a little enhanced chocolate could help you take it to the…Read more…
Want to get a robotic vacuum for someone you love this holiday season, or just buy one for yourself? A couple of models are back on sale today.Read more…
As of this morning, Apple Maps has expanded to include indoor layouts of 30 airports across the globe. The company has primarily hit American cities…
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a leading voice in the fight against the FCC’s net neutrality rules repeal, has stepped forward with one of…
Amazon will once again allow sales of Apple TV and Google Chromecast on its site, after banning them two years ago in an effort to…
In the midst of an reputational makeover, Taylor Swift is debuting a brand new app called The Swift Life. The app is a dedicated social…
2017 Trend: An Homage to Slime Follow along on #IGYearInReview as we reflect on the most memorable Instagram trends of 2017. An old toy turned into a new passion for 16-year-old Alyssa Jagan (@craftyslimecreator). After seeing lots of slime DIYs pop up on social media, Alyssa, who lives in Toronto, realized she had all the necessary supplies to make her own. “I’ve been making slime and goo with my mom ever since I was little,” she says. “Slime became really pretty and visually pleasing in 2017. In the past, it didn’t look as nice, but now slime can be made in a variety of colors, scents and textures!” Inspiration for new varieties comes from different parts of Alyssa’s life. “I like to wander around craft…
Socks are the go-to example of a bad holiday gift from an uncaring gifter (or a relative who doesn’t really know you), but that’s an unwarranted reputation, if you ask me. If you’re in a cold weather climate, you wear thick ones every day, but chances are you don’t have 10 or 15 or even seven pairs to last you through…Read more…
Ever since Pandora Premium launched, fans of the service have been faced with a choice: stick with the free radio-style service or upgrade to à la carte streaming for $10 a month. Now, Pandora is offering free access to its premium tier—as long as you don’t mind watching a few ads first.Read more…
More than half of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings account. But we can do better than that.Read more…
The FCC voted this morning 3:2 to nullify 2015’s Open Internet Order and its strong net neutrality rules, substituting a flimsy replacement with a deeply…
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You’ve probably got some downtime during the holidays, whether you’re taking a few days off from work (you should), or enjoying your winter break after studying for exams (you didn’t). With 2018 on the way, you can start the new year on the right foot by prepping your resolution plans beforehand. Of course,…Read more…
Google and NASA today announced the discovery of a new planet in solar system Kepler 90, achieved using machine learning. By applying neural networking to…
With 2.2 billion active users, it might seem like turning followers into paying customers on Facebook would be easy. At least a few of those…
Microsoft today is officially launching a new version of its Mixer mobile gameplay streaming app, its Twitch rival. The app, which is initially available on…
Squarespace, the 14-year-old platform that makes it easy for essentially anyone to build their own website, is raising about $200 million from General Atlantic, valuing…
Google Flights is my go-to for finding cheap travel, but they haven’t always been great at predicting the best time to book, which is why I also rely on other travel planning tools, like Hopper. However, Google just released a few useful upgrades to their travel planning suite that make it even easier to find cheap…Read more…
Software development isn’t exactly something that naturally lends itself to mobile. Who, after all, wants to code on a virtual keyboard and a small screen.…
Everyone’s least favorite ads are coming to Facebook, but pre-rolls will only appear on original Watch tab videos you purposefully view and not in the…
If you have dreams of getting extremely sideways but don’t quite have the courage to try and slide your car inches from a wall, believe it or not you can start by doing donuts. And luckily for you, Formula D pro drifter Ken Gushi has some tips for us on how to make a sweet tire-slaying circle. Pay attention to him and…Read more…
Peppers, of any variety, are a pain in the ass. Irregularly shaped, filled with bitter ribs and somewhere between 12 and 850,000 tiny seeds that make their way into the darker recesses of your kitchen, hoping to be found one day by anthropologists who proclaim “They were just like us!”Read more…
Google today is expanding its booking features for travelers using Google services including Trips, Flights and hotel search, with a focus on helping people find…
You may recall that last week, researchers from the Breakthrough Initiatives set out a plan to observe ‘Oumuamua, an object thought to be from an…
Google released its Top 10 list of most-searched items in 2017 this week, and frankly, the overall list was a bit underwhelming, as people demanded more information about Hurricane Irma, Matt Lauer, and fidget spinners. Getting more granular, though, when we dive into the most-searched recipes in the U.S., the results…Read more…
They say the adult industry usually leads the way with new technology and CamSoda [NSFW LINK], a NSFW cam site, is no exception. The site,…
Instacart is going through some growing pains right now, with Amazon buying Whole Foods this summer and target picking up Alabama-based Shipt in the last…
Khosla-backed one drop blood test startup Genalyte has hired former Facebook exec Kevin Lo as president of the company. Lo comes to Genalyte after leading…
Getting the myriad of devices involved in the industrial internet of things provisioned and communicating with one another in a secure way will be one…
Snapchat is finally opening up so outside developers can help it offer infinite augmented reality experiences beyond those it designs in-house. Today Snap launches the…
When you’re a kid, there’s no party like a slumber party. Staying up late, learning how to burp the alphabet, eating candy until you puke—what’s not to love?Read more…
Anker dash cams, a phone-charging camping stove, Star Wars movies and comics, and more are all part of today’s best deals.Read more…
TEN years ago this month, America entered the “Great Recession”. A decade on, the recession occupies a strange space in public memory. Its toll was clearly large. America suffered a cumulative loss of output estimated at nearly $4trn, and its labour markets have yet to recover fully. But the recession was far less bad than it might have been, thanks to the successful application of lessons from the Depression. Paradoxically, that success spared governments from enacting bolder reforms of the sort that might make the Great Recession the once-a-century event economists thought such calamities should be.Good crisis response treats its symptoms; the symptoms of a disease, after all, can kill you. On that score today’s policymakers did far better than those of the 1930s. Government…
FOR all the sound and fury of the Brexit negotiations, it has seemed at times as if the financial markets have been barely affected. But as with the swans that glide on the Thames, a serene surface conceals some frantic paddling underneath.The pound is the most reliable indicator of the Brexit mood. A rule of thumb is that, if the headlines point to a “hard” Brexit (creating trade barriers with the EU), sterling will fall; signs of a “soft” Brexit (something that is close to the current relationship) will cause it to rise.But some feedback processes are at work. The big fall in the pound in the immediate aftermath of the referendum has led to a gradual rise in imported inflation. The annual inflation rate…
DIAMONDS, they say, are for ever. They can be pricey, too. On December 5th 173 lots of jewels auctioned by Sotheby’s raised $54m. They included several pieces belonging to Sean Connery, known for playing James Bond. The following day a car favoured by Bond, the Aston Martin DB5, was auctioned for $2.7m. It was among 24 classic vehicles that together fetched $45m. The sales in New York last week by the world’s two biggest auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, also involved fine wines, watches and other luxuries. Between them they sold $200m-worth.The Economist has compiled price indices for many of these items—diamonds, classic cars, fine wine, art, watches and other curios—and grouped them in a “passion” index. The index is weighted according to the holdings…
Steinhoff goes on special offerTHE scale is staggering, even by the standards of scandal-worn South Africa. Steinhoff, a retailer that is one of the country’s best-known companies, admitted to “accounting irregularities” on December 6th when it was due to publish year-end financial statements. Its chief executive, Markus Jooste, resigned, and the firm announced an internal investigation by PwC. Within days Steinhoff had lost €10.7bn ($12.7bn) in market value as its share price fell by more than 80% (see chart). Much is unclear, but it is shaping up to be the biggest corporate scandal that South Africa has ever seen. The company has said it is reviewing the “validity and recoverability” of €6bn in non-South African assets.Steinhoff traces its roots to West Germany, where it found…
Stores of valueFIFTH AVENUE in New York is the most expensive stretch of retail property in the world, now festooned with lights in the approach to Christmas. The pavements heave with crowds eager to see the diamonds sparkling at Tiffany & Co, a jeweller, and festive displays at Saks Fifth Avenue, a department store. But storefronts further downtown in once-thriving shopping districts remain vacant.The global retail property business is having to adapt as consumers spend more online. Consolidation is in vogue. On December 12th two retail property companies, France’s Unibail-Rodamco and Australia’s Westfield, agreed to merge in a deal worth $24.7bn to form the world’s second-biggest owner of shopping malls by market value. Westfield earns about 70% of its revenues from property holdings in America.In…
THE collapses of Enron and WorldCom in the early years of this century turned book-cooking into front-page news. Investors lost over $200bn; in 2002 the stockmarket fell by over a fifth between April and July. In response, America’s Sarbanes-Oxley Act set up a new body, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), to supervise auditors.Its quest to give auditors more teeth continues, with the introduction of new rules that James Doty, its outgoing chairman, bills as the most significant changes to reporting by auditors in over 70 years. The question now is whether Mr Doty’s successor, who was announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 12th along with four new PCAOB board members, will keep heading in the same direction.New disclosures on…
DEAR Team, I trust you are looking forward to your vacations and that the spirit of love and generosity infuses your family gatherings. I also hope that this spirit will be left next to the Christmas tree when you return to work at this incredible company on January 2nd. Because 2018 is going to be the year when America Inc loses its head after a decade of iron financial self-control. And I am not going to make that mistake. Let me drop some festive wisdom: when everyone else is throwing money around like Santa, it is best to behave like Scrooge.During my workout at 5.10am this morning my trainer played U2. I love Bono for his personal advice on charitable giving, but he is also…
THE new “Star Wars” film opens this week. “The Last Jedi” arrives in cinemas in time to boost expected ticket sales for the year to about $11bn in America, only slightly down from last year’s record. But the American film industry is in trouble. Tickets sold per person have declined to their lowest point since the early 1970s, before the introduction of the multiplex. Expensive flops have prompted studio executives to complain that Rotten Tomatoes, a ratings website, is killing off films before their opening weekends. The studios count on remakes and sequels to attract fans; such films account for all of this year’s top ten at the box office.It may get worse. Americans are losing the film-going habit as new sources of entertainment seize…
“THERE is life after Buenos Aires,” soothed Susana Malcorra, chair of the 11th ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Multilateralism may not be dead, but it has taken a kicking. Expectations were low as the meeting began in the Argentine capital. They sank even lower as it progressed. Delegates failed to agree on a joint statement, let alone on any new trade deals.Many arrived with a culprit already in mind. Robert Lighthizer, the United States Trade Representative, was the face of an administration that is both questioning the benefits of multilateralism and jamming the WTO’s process of settling disputes. As negotiations progressed, some delegates groused that American leadership was lacking. Some even speculated that the Americans might be happy if multilateral talks foundered.…
The Baumgarten blastCALL it the hydrocarbon equivalent of the butterfly effect. As oil and gas supplies tighten during the northern winter, disruptions as remote as a hairline fracture on a piece of Scottish pipeline, and an explosion in an Austrian natural-gas plant, have repercussions felt around the world.Start with the pipeline. After Ineos, a chemicals company, detected a growing crack on a piece of pipe near Aberdeen, on December 11th it said it would shut the main Forties pipeline carrying North Sea oil and gas to Britain for weeks. The suspension of a pipeline carrying 450,000 barrels a day (b/d) of crude, in a global market of almost 98m b/d, would not normally be disruptive. Yet Brent crude, the benchmark for pricing much of the…
It’s refreshing to wear a mechanical watch. The soft sweep of the seconds hand reminds us of the fleeting nature of time while the endless…
Streaming radio and music service Pandora is today introducing a new way for people to pay for on-demand access to music, without having to upgrade…
If you’ve ever eaten at a nice steakhouse, you were probably eating sous-vide meat. Here’s a secret though: It’s really easy to get those kinds of results yourself, and Amazon’s here to help with a $120 deal on the newest Wi-Fi version of Anova’s top-selling immersion circulator, as well as a $99 deal on the older…Read more…
The iMac Pro exists because it turns out that there is a lot of air underneath the aging Mac Pro and above the incredibly popular…
Canary’s finally bringing one of its most requested features to its full line of connected home security cameras. After spending some time in beta, person…
AI pioneer Andrew Ng is probably best known for his work on the Google Brain project and for leading Baidu’s AI group. After leaving Baidu…
Disney CEO Bob Iger positioned his company’s acquisition of Fox’s TV and movie businesses as a way for the company to prepare for a future…
Taiwanese digital media startup The News Lens launched only four years ago, but it quickly became one of the country’s most prolific news sources by…
We’re about to see two entertainment behemoths come together, as The Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox have officially announced a deal. As a…
Boston biotech startup Gingko Bioworks has announced the raise of $275 million in Series D funding to build out its Bioworks3 production facility. The funding…
Almost exactly two years ago, the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz took the wraps off a $200 million “biofund” that aimed to invest at the intersection…
Instana, a company that helps enterprises monitor and manage their microservice deployments with the help of automation and artificial intelligence, today announced that it has…
Alibaba last week announced a deal to help Ford sell electric vehicles in China but, aside from the big names involved, the most intriguing part…
Helpster, a two-year-old startup that connects blue-collar workers with employers in Southeast Asia, has closed $2.5 million in new funding. The startup operates in Thailand…
Finiata, the finance platform targeting SMEs, freelancers, and the self-employed that was founded by Sebastian Diemer, who previously co-founded credit scoring and loans company Kreditech,…
Paddle, a U.K. startup that offers software companies a single platform for the entire software sales process — including trials and licenses, payments, and analytics…
Teabox, the company pioneered the concept of selling tea to direct to consumers online, has served up $7 million in fresh funding to grow its…
It took Chinese authorities just seven minutes to locate and apprehend BBC reporter John Sudworth using its powerful network of CCTV camera and facial recognition technology.…
The Netflix executive who reportedly told one of Danny Masterson’s alleged rape victims that the company doesn’t believe them is no longer employed there. Andy…
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After laying off 40% of its staff and securing $169 million in emergency funding, SoundCloud’s first product push is a much needed step in the…
Blue Origin’s Crew Capsule 2.0 takes first flight, scientists at MIT make glow-in-the-dark plants and Google is opening an AI center in China. All this…
They say Christmas season gets earlier every year, and the same seems to apply to CES. The year’s biggest tech show is a little less…
Wizeline, a provider of outsourced programming services, is expanding its global footprint with agreements to partner with a slew of development shops across Southeast Asia.…
Pace, a London startup that has developed tech that uses machine learning to let hotels set room prices dynamically based on demand, has raised £2.5…
Match Group, which houses a large portfolio of dating app brands – including most notably, Tinder, Match, and OKCupid – is prepping a notable upgrade…
At a special AI-focused event today in San Francisco, Microsoft announced a number of feature updates to Bing that it hopes will make results smarter…
Microsoft introduced the Azure Bot Framework over two years ago and companies have building chatbots for a variety of scenarios ever since. Today, the company…
Mobile AR from Apple, Google and Facebook and computer vision/machine learning (CV/ML) are focusing the minds and wallets of VCs in Silicon Valley, China and…
Has Amazon’s ‘one-click’ checkout on mobile looked a little different to you lately? A number of users of Amazon’s mobile applications have recently reported seeing…
The first thing I download on a new Windows machine – after Chrome, of course – is PuTTY. This tried-and-true OpenSSH client has served millions…
Redbox, the company behind the ubiquitous supermarket kiosks for renting DVDs, is moving into the world of digital streaming. Technically, Redbox On Demand is still…
Comcast has promised before that it does not and will not engage in paid prioritization, and today the company has reiterated that stance — after…
We all love to share GIFs — and there are plenty of ways to do that, through online portals or keyboards — but often times…
Is it worse if a robot instead of a human is used to deter the homeless from setting up camp outside places of business? One…
2017 Trend: The Eyelid as the Canvas of Choice Follow along on #IGYearInReview as we reflect on the most memorable Instagram trends of 2017. While Ellie Costello (@makeupisart_x) paints magical scenes on her eyelids, it feels like she plants them. “I never ever plan a look and then go and get the flowers,” explains 20-year-old Ellie, who lives in London. “I always get some flowers first, then envision the look around the flowers. I find that creating as you go along always allows your creativity and imagination to run a lot more freely —I like just letting the magic happen.” Ellie is part of the beauty community on Instagram who made the eyelid their canvas of choice in 2017. “It is great when you can…
Loans can be the hardest to get for the people who need them the most. An estimated 45 million Americans don’t have a credit score and others…
While some folks still head to the stores on Black Friday and throughout December, many of us are turning to the web for Christmas shopping.…
PepsiCo is the latest company to reveal that it’s placed orders for Tesla’s forthcoming electric semi-truck – and also the company with the largest order…
Sophia Amoruso famously founded the retailer Nasty Gal, growing it from an Ebay store that sold vintage items to a darling of the fashion world…
One would think that the classification of internet providers as telecoms or not, and which federal agency has authority over them, is about as in…
The Google Assistant has long been available on most modern phones and tablets. But given the fragmentation of the Android ecosystem, many older devices will…
BENTON HARBOR, MI—Calling the rugged utensil a necessity for those who bake as hard as they live, KitchenAid on Thursday unveiled its new all-terrain rolling pin. “The DuraDough rolling pin features a larger cylinder diameter lined with specialized treads to take on heavy-duty dough prep,” said company spokesperson…Read more…
Aurora Flight Sciences is a company working on making full-scale autonomous combat craft a reality, and now some of its work is ready for prime…
One of the reasons recently IPO’d Stitch Fix became so popular among female shoppers is because of how it pairs the convenience of home try-on…
It’s been a long year – it feels like it actually spanned about 50, in fact. But now, at the end, some relief: Mario Bear.…
Professional social networks like LinkedIn have long been a mainstay of business, but what if you are more of a creative bent where LinkedIn looks…
Joblift, a European job site in the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands, has raised €10 million in a funding round led by the London/Berlin…
WhatsApp has always said that it has no plans to put ads into its own app, but this is not stopping Facebook, which now owns…
Target, America’s other favorite old-line retailer (the one that’s not Walmart, with the arguably better commercials), is buying the Alabama-based delivery startup Shipt in a…
Being an astronaut living and working aboard the International Space Station shouldn’t mean that you have to miss out on much-anticipated movie releases like Star…
EBay today announced another acquisition today that underscores the company’s current focus on building out better data tools for third-party sellers on its platform, to…
Japanese company ispace has raised $90.2 million in a Series A funding round, an amount it’s calling the “largest ever” Series A in commercial space…
T-Mobile is getting into the paid TV business, with the acquisition of Layer3 TV, a TV tech company, and plans announced to launch its own…
A team of MIT research have engineered plants that glow in the dark, using luciferase, the enzyme that lights up firefly butts. The answer to…
You’re probably going to get a better deal when you buy consumer products — like paper towels — wholesale, but at the same time you’re…
