The same story line kept coming up in the early days of ride-hail driving apps: I leased a car to drive for Uber or Lyft, and it ended up costing me too much.

That repeated problem and a bad business model led to the end of Uber’s Xchange Leasing program in 2017. But now a new crop of services and programs are emerging. On Monday, Lyft announced a new deal with Avis: Drivers can rent a car via the Lyft app from the rental car company’s fleet of 600,000 vehicles as part of its Express Drive program. 

Lyft said that since the program launched in 2016, drivers who rent have earned $450 million. No mention on how much they spent to rent a car each week. Read more…

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It’s Viral Market Crash week on Mashable. Join us as we take stock of the viral economy and investigate how the internet morphed from a fun free-for-all to a bleak hellscape we just can’t quit.

For every big city Twitter user complaining about the subway or crowded rooftop bars, there’s a small town resident offering a glimpse into a much simpler life.

Welcome to “local Twitter,” or tweets from teens and young adults who use the platform to share pure and uncomplicated thoughts.

Identifying what classifies a tweet as local can be difficult, because much of local Twitter is about a feeling invoked from a statement, paired with a complete lack of self-awareness or innocence. Local Twitter has roots in the suburbs but as Taylor Lorenz for the Atlantic points out, you don’t need to live in one to participate because “local Twitter has more to do with what you tweet than where you live.”  Read more…

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Facebook has been getting cozy with your banks, but that might not be as alarming as it sounds.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook has been courting banks to enter into data-sharing agreements. Google and Amazon have reportedly also sought similar arrangements, exchanging user data for the banks’ integration with the tech companies’ massive platforms.

But Facebook is denying the “data sharing” aspect of the report, per an article from TechCrunch. It says that it is seeking integration with banks to enhance its payment and commerce initiatives within Messenger — which already launched in March as a pilot program with Citibank in Singapore.  Read more…

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More than halfway through HBO’s Sharp Objects, no one really knows who killed the girl whose violent death sparked the events of the series. No one really knows what Amma’s deal is either, or if Camille is going to be able to handle the painful emotions that come with being back in her childhood home. No one knows much of anything. 

Except for one thing. Everyone knows Adora Crellin is a complete monster. 

Seriously, what is Adora’s damage? She’s a horrible, person-shaped monster in a fluffy pink shell with zero redeeming qualities and the personality of an arsenic-laced Ladurée macaron. The fact that she managed to live long enough to have at least one adult daughter without the town coming for her in the middle of the night with torches and pitchforks speaks volumes about how messed up Wind Gap society is. Read more…

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It’s Viral Market Crash week on Mashable. Join us as we take stock of the viral economy and investigate how the internet morphed from a fun free-for-all to a bleak hellscape we just can’t quit.

Jukin Media is like an internet mob boss.

With nearly 50,000 videos in their library, it owns a huge chunk of the viral videos on the internet, and it decides who gets to share those clips — and they don’t come cheap. Yet you’re probably blissfully unaware of the company that’s behind the scenes pulling the viral strings.

As a company, what Jukin does is relatively simple: It finds undiscovered videos, buys them or strikes a revenue share from the owners thirsty for viral fame or money. It then licenses the clips for rebroadcast — to everyone from the local news to highlight reel shows on MTV.  Read more…

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A tiny Pomeranian has just won Halloween, and it’s only August. 

Just a hat and coat is all Instagram star Bertram needed to pull off one perfect rendition of polite adventurer and duffle raincoat fan Paddington Bear, and by gum, it’s perfect.

Look at the little hat. The little coat! Its little nose. Its unquenchable sense of adventure, and potentially endless capacity for getting into trouble! Read more…

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Nearly two weeks after being hospitalized for a reported drug overdose, singer Demi Lovato has released a statement, asking for “time to heal and focus” and promising to “keep fighting.”

The statement, posted on Lovato’s Instagram account, doesn’t offer any specifics about the incident but does address the singer’s open and ongoing battle with addiction. 

Lovato was hospitalized on July 24 after the apparent overdose. TMZ originally reported that it was a heroin overdose but Lovato’s reps said some of the information reported in the wake of her hospitalization was “incorrect.”  Read more…

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Being alone on a cold alien landscape may seem like a sad way to pass six years, but for the Mars Curiosity rover, it’s been a brilliant stretch. 

Sunday, Aug. 5 marked the sixth anniversary of Curiosity’s historic touchdown on the surface of Mars and the rover celebrated the way we all do: with a post on social media. 

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Vampire Weekend, you okay dudes?

The band, which announced on Saturday night that its fourth album is complete, certainly had a lot to celebrate during their Lollapalooza performance. And it seems when the members of Vampire Weekend get excited they just play “A-Punk” over and over.

That’s right. To open their set, Vampire Weekend played the fan favorite song from the self-titled 2008 album Vampire Weekend, not one, not two, but THREE whole times in a row.

That’s a lot of “say ohs.”

The setlist for the Aug. 4 performance confirmed that the band did in fact plan to play approximately seven minutes of “A-Punk.” Why???? Uh, nobody is really clear on the details. Read more…

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The revival of popular 1990s sitcom Murphy Brown has kicked off filming and we’re beginning to learn more about the topical nature of the show, including plans to directly address the #MeToo movement and plenty about Donald Trump’s attacks on the press.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association summer press tour Sunday morning in Los Angeles, creator Dianne English confirmed that President Trump and his continued attacks on the press would be a big topic of the upcoming series. 

Per the Hollywood Reporter, English said, “Our show has always been in the real world, but I’m focusing the show through the prism of the press. The First Amendment is under attack like we’ve never seen it before.” Read more…

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