Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi last year wanted to make his expanding ride-sharing company the “Amazon of transportation” with e-scooters and e-bikes added to the platform. Now he’s tagging on being the “Google of transportation” as part of his goals for the company.

At the Uber Elevate Summit in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Khosrowshahi overviewed “all the ways to get around your city.” It’s no longer just ordering a taxi from an app. There’s Uber Copter coming to New York City next month for helicopter rides to the airport, and Uber Eats drone deliveries in San Diego. New self-driving cars are coming back online. And starting next year, “we want to take the transportation grid into the third dimension,” he said. Read more…

More about Uber, Uber Elevate, Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber Air, and Tech

Google is about to make video games even weirder than they already are, and you might have to learn what some numbers mean to keep up.

Last week, Google revealed launch information for its Stadia gaming platform. The sales pitch for Stadia is a strong one on the surface: You can play the biggest games with the highest visual settings without buying any new hardware. If you own a Chromecast or any device that runs a Chrome browser, you’re set.

Stadia does this by basically being Netflix for games. The game isn’t running in your home, it’s running on a powerful computer in a Google data center near you. You’re streaming a video of yourself playing a game, which means you can’t play anything without a stable internet connection. Read more…

More about Google, Gaming, Video Games, Streaming Services, and Stadia

If all goes according to plan, Uber Air flying taxis will take off in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Melbourne in 2023, the company announced at its annual Uber Elevate Summit on Wednesday. Think of it like Uber Pool in the sky (but definitely not as cheap).

The electric VTOLs (vertical take-off and landing vehicles) are similar to a helicopter, and will carry four passengers at low altitude from skyports in each metro area. Test flights are slated to begin next year—with cautious FAA approval. The agency’s acting administrator Dan Elwell spoke at the conference Tuesday and shared his thoughts on Uber Air in a string of tweets. Read more…

More about Uber, Flying Taxi, Skyport, Uber Air, and Tech

Yes, there is a fastest accelerating lawnmower in the world, and yes, it has been named. 

Honda’s Mean Mower V2 has won the accolade from the people at Guinness World Records, who have declared it as having the fastest acceleration for a lawnmower, averaging 0 to 100 mph in just 6.285 seconds — while still performing its grass-cutting duties. (To qualify for the record, the mower had to actually look and function like a lawnmower — which it does.) 

The new record was announced this week; it was set last month by a professional stunt driver on a track in Germany.

The Mean Mower has cred: An earlier version set a record in 2014. The latest version, released in 2018, can go even faster, with a top speed of 150 mph, which could really cut down your time spent on yard work. Read more…

More about Honda, Lawnmower, Guinness World Record, Tech, and Transportation

Forget everyone else, this is the only influencer you need to follow from now on.

A dad named Omar from Austin, Texas is finally getting the Instagram engagement he deserves after all of his hard work influencing. 

When Omar recently found out exactly what it means to be an influencer, he decided to give it a go. He created the Instagram account @justaconstructionguy and started posting carefully curated snapshots of his daily life.

His daughter shared his antics on Twitter, and it was later screenshot and reposted by the meme account @middleclassfancy. When Omar’s daughter first posted about his account, he had 75 followers. After being shared across meme accounts all over Instagram this week, his following has blown up to 285,000 at the time of writing.  Read more…

More about Instagram, Influencers, Culture, and Web Culture

TL;DR: 23andMe’s comprehensive Health + Ancestry Kits are on sale for $149 through June 17, making them a great gift for your dad.

Fact: DNA test kits make excellent gifts no matter the occasion. They promise a kind of self-discovery that’s sort of irresistible, but better yet, they’re one of those experiential presents that don’t take up any physical space in your home.

Such kits lend themselves particularly well to Father’s Day gift-giving — because after all, it’s not every day that your dad gets to explore the oldest branches of his family tree. Besides, it’ll be fascinating to find out more about your family history too. Read more…

More about Dna Test, 23andme, Mashable Shopping, Ancestry Test, and Culture

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Please, for the love of comprehensive sex education, do not use wild yams for birth control. 

In an unfortunate now-deleted Bad Tweet, podcast host @MissBriaJanay called a variety of fruits and herbs “natural birth control options.” The accompanying graphics suggested using the plants instead of clinically-tested contraceptive, and included head-scratchers like injecting neem oil into “uterine horns” and eating dried figs after unprotected sex. 

@MissBriaJanay, by the way, does not promote herself as a medical professional or experienced herbalist. 

More about Twitter, Birth Control, Culture, Health, and Web Culture

Uber has announced the first international city its flying taxis one day might be buzzing over. 

The Australian city of Melbourne will join Los Angeles and Dallas as the third official pilot city for Uber Air, the rideshare company’s ambitious project to transport people in short distances via the skies. 

Test flights are expected in 2020, with commercial operations aimed for as soon as 2023. Uber claims trips will be priced the same as an UberX ride over the same distance, but we’ll see about that. 

“Australian governments have adopted a forward-looking approach to ridesharing and future transport technology,” Uber Australia, New Zealand and North Asia general manager Susan Anderson said in a statement. Read more…

More about Tech, Australia, Transportation, Uber, and Uber Air

The U.S. women’s national team won 13-0 against Thailand in their first match in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup on Tuesday. In light of their incredible victory — it was a record win in both men’s and women’s World Cup history — people want to know why they’re paid so much less than the men’s national team. 

Player Alex Morgan alone managed to score a record five times during the match. To put the team’s 13 goals into perspective, the U.S. men’s national team scored 12 in their last three World Cup attempts combined. 

So yeah, this is pretty freaking impressive. 

More about Twitter Reactions, World Cup, Equal Pay, Culture, and Web Culture