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It’s an example of the highly optimized approach that the company has long held during its rise to dominance in the ecommerce world. Other perks include cash back on fuel purchases Additional perks include tools to help drivers with insurance and taxes.

Why Would You Buy the HomePod? Sure, the HomePod might sound good but you can get speakers that sound better for less, and you can hook a Google Home up to them and make them smart. There’s really no reason to buy a HomePod. Why Was Apple so Late to the Party? It might simply be due to a lengthy development process. In fact, when Apple delayed the HomePod’s release, it claimed it needed “a little more time before it [would be] ready for… customers....

“The A-GRade team has been interested in this space for a while but it wasn’t until we met the team at Rover.com and learned about its robust marketplace that we finally found the company we wanted to back,” said Ashton Kutcher, A-GRade Investments. “As dog owners, we understand how difficult it can be to find someone you trust to care for your dog. Rover is solving a problem millions of people deal with everyday by providing the most sensible solution—connecting dog owners with people who truly love dogs and want to take care of them....

The new business is focused on helping to educate kids but also assist parents with providing fun and educational activities without having to run to Michael’s each week to gather the right supplies for the various arts and craft projects. So each month BabbaCo will send a BabbaBox with all the materials and videos needed for parents to create educational activities with their kids. For example, a box may include a video about trees that teaches a lesson about nature and offers additional activities for the parents to do with their kids with that theme in mind....

Bazaar Chat aims to make shopping more fun and interactive. The idea behind the app is that you are stepping into a virtual bazaar, just like in real life, but this time you have a virtual assistant that will assist you in your search. No matter in which part of the world you are you, Bazaar Chat will connect you with local sellers and service providers. Just ask Sera (your assistant) about something you are looking for, and she will start indexing sellers based on your keyword....

From the MacBook Pro to Acer’s Chromebooks range, there really is a laptop out there for everyone, regardless of wallet or needs. Want to spend upwards of 5k kitting out your MacBook to be able to compete with the NASA control room? Be our guest. Only got $200 and want to be able to check emails, browse the web and catch up on Netflix? No problem. We’ve taken a look at some of the best laptops from this year that we think are worth taking into 2020, so read on if you want to find the right model for you....

We’ve rounded up our top tech for the year below. If you’re lucky, Santa might just have left one of these under the tree for you. If not, bypass the jolly fella entirely and treat yourself – after all, you’ve been good this year, right? In this guide: Like many, we thought Apple had replaced the Air line with “the MacBook”, its even slimmer 12-inch cousin. While the Air had the occasional update since its first appearance in 2010, the design, and many of the internals, remained untouched....

This time for the #StartupsEverywhere, series, Kyle talks with me about launching The Sandbox, his startup, the challenges in Santa Barbara and economic growth. I am a community builder. I support startup and entrepreneurial programs in the Santa Barbara community, as well as local events and collaborations, that help to foster new ventures and a healthy environment for entrepreneurs. I am also an entrepreneur. I’ve helped to found and launch tech products and businesses (including Brandlive & Kaldera consulting) and organizations (Startup Santa Barbara)....

Their social ticketing app changes the way people enjoy the movies. Users can purchase tickets, invite friends, and the best part, pre-order concessions ahead of time. Through their partnerships with Lionsgate, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox Film, and Fidelity Management and Research Company, Atom Tickets has raised over $125 million in capital. Their marketing partners Chase Pay, T-Mobile, iHeart Radio, and more have helped fueled their growth to over four million monthly users....

The new law, designated as Assembly Bill No. 984, will add a handful of guidelines surrounding technology that monitors drivers’ activity. And since “monitoring activity” describes how almost all major fleet management system hardware works, any fleets operating out of California will need to double-check what type of data they’re collecting. That said, there’s no huge rush: The bill gives everyone up until January 1, 2024, to ensure that their monitoring devices are up to par....

For many in the Miami community, these words feel like an era coming to an end. Wifredo Fernandez (Wifi) and Daniel LaFuente created and managed a space, LAB Miami, unlike any other in Miami. LAB Miami is a place where entrepreneurs, creatives and the career adventurer can come in, find a desk and work on their ideas. It is a place where strict and conventional norms of a workspace are broken, and new ideas–as odd as they may sound–are encouraged....

Lenovo, for example, has announced a new 5G-enabled laptop while HP has debuted a boatload of stylish and powerful laptops and convertibles. Here’s the lowdown on the laptops, desktops, and tablets that are set to be hitting the shelves this year. Microsoft is promising that the Surface Pro 7+ has been “purpose-built to empower people, teams, and classrooms in the new digital age.” But what has it actually done to achieve that?...

TechCo and CES teamed up again for 2018 to showcase innovative startups from Eureka Park before the conference begins. With a vote from a group of investor judges and tech leaders from around the country, Lishtot took home the win with Bartesian a close second. Both companies will be automatically fast tracked into the Top 100 semifinalists at the 2018 Startup of the Year competition which takes place during the Innovate Celebrate conference this fall....

Cubii is an under the desk elliptical, but functions more like a stationary bike. After a very quick setup process and charging, you’ll be pedaling away. Doesn’t matter if you’re at work, watching TV at home, or anywhere that involves a seat, you’ll be active. Over the course of a month we used Cubii in an office setting under a traditional desk. Features/Specs More than just a typical elliptical, Cubii has many of the same features that made Fitbit bands incredibly popular....

One might ask why does it matter especially for early stage businesses who are experimenting to achieve product market fit. Marc Andreessen famously emphasized ‘the only thing that matters is getting to product market fit’. But actually it is a pretty useful metric if only because it builds discipline in learning to manage the unit economics of a business. While it seems relatively straightforward, there are various factors to consider....

Google’s initiative, according to the complaint filed with UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) by Marketers for an Open Web (MOW), should be paused so that regulators have time to figure out “long term competitive remedies” to Google’s dominance over the world’s internet data. Wait, what’s happening? Google first announced its plan to phase out third-party cookies in its Chrome web browser back in January of this year, using a timeline that would give them the two years to complete the process....

The pandemic has done a lot to change the way we work. From flexible schedules to video meetings, the average work day has become virtually unrecognizable compared to just a few years ago. Now, with Facebook launching a virtual reality meeting feature, your day-to-day life could get a lot more technological. That is, if anyone is actually on board with the innovative technology. The functionality actually sounds quite impressive. Users will be able to use their own computers in these virtual reality meeting rooms, utilize a whiteboard that all attendees will be able to see, and even take advantage of multiple room layouts depending on how many employees will attend....

In 2017, 60.5 million Americans used a virtual assistant at least once a month to complete a simple task. For the math buffs out there, that’s one-fifth of the population. Additionally, another report from Childwise found that 42 percent of children between the ages of 9 and 16 use virtual assistants at home. Taking into account that virtual assistants have only been around for a little less than four years, it’s fair to say these digital helpers are here to stay and likely to evolve....

To be clear, it didn’t just win once: The AI, named Pluribus, played 10,000 hands of the popular poker game across 12 days and 13 different opponents, all professionals. In some scenarios, it played five humans and in others, one human went up against five versions of Pluribus. The AI, which was created by Carnegie Mellon University researchers working with Facebook’s AI initiative, prevailed to win an average of $1,000 an hour, or $5 per hand....