In October 2016, two leading P2P platforms in the U.S. — Lending Club and Prosper — announced a new increase in interest rates for lower-grade loans. The decision was made in order to sustain investor demand. However, keeping the investor demand stable is not the only reason for recent changes — delinquencies are growing, especially when it comes to high-risk loans. Read More
Today, the White House issued its full-throated support for a joint resolution that would repeal regulations limiting what internet service providers can do with customers’ private data. The rules, introduced under the Obama administration last year, stipulated that an ISP must obtain opt-in permission to use and share (i.e. sell) consumer’s private data, including browsing… Read More
Do you like space? Do you like looking at it, wishing you were there instead of here, perhaps? Well NASA just did something that will make your day. The U.S. space agency launched a new web-based search engine for much of its catalog of images, video and audio files, which you can browse by keyword and metadata, so that you never have to remember the dismal reality that you’re… Read More
The MLB.com At Bat and NHL iOS applications have been updated today to take advantage of one of the new, but still under-the-radar features available in the just-launched version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 10.3: personalized home screen icons. That’s right — you now can replace either of these apps’ default icon with one featuring your favorite… Read More
I did a bad thing. I opened a bad file and it borked my PC. So as part of the grand tradition of frustrated tech bloggers calling on enormous companies to conform to their expectations, here is my rant on how terrible computers are — Windows ones, this time anyway — and how they ought to be. Read More
Waze is going to help you get your coffee, donuts and breakfast food constructions faster, with a new “Order Ahead” feature that lets you do exactly that: order Dunkin’ Donuts food ahead of time to pick up when you get to the restaurant. Dunkin’ calls itself the “first partner” for this Waze endeavor, meaning it’s likely to team up with other food… Read More
Tesla has long teased a Model Y, or fourth production car for its lineup, which will be another SUV, this time a compact likely with a more attractive and generally palatable price point. The Model Y fits with Tesla’s schoolyard humor name scheme, bringing the “S3X” model lineup to its natural, “S3XY” conclusion. Now, it looks like we could learn more about the… Read More
Portland, Oregon, has started a pilot program to bring car sharing and alternative fuels to low-income neighborhoods where residents might not consider either type of transportation accessible. Read More
Google’s side of the story in its patent and trade secret case against Uber is pretty damning — Google alleges that a former employee of its self-driving car unit stole thousands of sensitive documents on his way out the door to lead Uber’s self-driving efforts. But Uber would very much like all of this to be resolved in arbitration rather than in open court. Read More
Video game streaming site Twitch will soon begin selling PC games and other in-game content on its site, the company says. We understand the games may arrive as soon as tomorrow or later this week, though the exact timing is still in flux. Already one of the top destinations for live streaming and fan engagement, it’s not surprising that Twitch would take the final step… Read More
Venture debt has been much in the news lately. Are desperate times beginning to call for desperate measures? That might be an overstatement. At the same time, the venture debt firm Western Technology Investment has seen plenty of cycles and amassed plenty of data over its 37 years in the business, and CEO Maurice Werdegar says the firm just finished its busiest quarter ever. Read More
With yesterday’s release of iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4, Apple has made a significant change to how its App Stores operate. At long last, developers now have the ability to respond to user reviews in order to offer support, ask follow-up questions, say thanks, or otherwise interact with their app’s customers. The change has been a long time coming – the feature has been… Read More
Google’s desire for its search engine to become more deeply integrated into the iOS operating system got a big push today – the company says that its previously standalone keyboard app Gboard is now being bundled with its main iOS Search app. This change was announced alongside a handful of new features, including also support for an array of 3D Touch options and a new Google… Read More
Uber just released its first-ever diversity report detailing the demographics of its employees as of this month. The TL;DR is that Uber, like many other tech companies, is predominantly white and male. What surprised me, though, is that Uber fares slightly better than Facebook and Apple when it comes to female representation. Uber also has pretty solid representation of people of color. Read More
The lineup for TC Sessions: Justice just keeps getting better. I’m excited to announce that Facebook Global Head of Diversity Maxine Williams will be joining us onstage at TC Sessions: Justice in June. We’ll be discussing Facebook’s diversity playbook and its strategy to foster inclusion in the workplace. As head of diversity at Facebook, Williams is tasked with trying to… Read More
Garry Kasparov is widely considered the greatest chess player in history, but it was his historic match against IBM’s Deep Blue that cemented him as a household name. His loss became emblematic of humanity’s changing relationship with machines, computers and information — especially artificial intelligence. Read More
A slew of companies are announcing new-found compatibility with Google’s Home hub this morning, including August Home smart locks, Logitech’s Harmony line and light bulbs from TP-Link and LIFX. The announcements come as the company works to bolster its smart home presence in the wake of big pushes by Amazon and Apple. A look at the official Google Home page shows a small but key… Read More
A startup called Collectly is moving the debt collection process online and providing more transparency around how the process is going. By doing so, the company is recovering debt at twice the rate of traditional collection agencies. Read More
Facebook has finally capped off its strategy of cloning Snapchat’s USP by slotting a camera-first, ephemeral multimedia sharing feature into its entire social sharing estate. Read More
