TechBooky

If you are actively looking for someone to share quality time with, then you should get your dating practices down. And nothing helps than making a smashing impression on the first date. Meeting someone for the first time can often be a little awkward and even unexciting, if not planned properly. There can be various reasons like too much pressure on both parties, mismatched personalities or a boring setup - all of which can crush your ongoing pursuit of love. You see, not many people know what to do on a first date. It is important to know where to go, what to say, how to act and most importantly, how to take things forward and set up a second date. In an increasingly tech-driven world, it makes sense to use your smartphone to make you a first date expert and give you the charm of Don Juan so you can sweep her, him, or whomever right off their feet. Simply download a few apps and push the right buttons to help turn your dreams into reality. From planning a romantic evening to hitchin...

Looks like giving Google Assistant a redesigned UI wasn’t enough for Google this week, as it’s giving its digital assistant another feature to add to the roster. Google Assistant can now help you book a ride-hailing service and get a car sent your way, but it’ll still need some help at the end. You can start things off with your voice easily enough, and Google Assistant will show you the information from within the app itself, rather than forcing you to switch to Google Maps to show off the pertinent details.           Just say something like, “Hey Google, book a ride to” and inform the digital personal assistant of your destination. Once that’s done it will show you ride-hailing prices so you can compare before you summon a car. Those price estimations will show what Uber, Lyft, GO-JEK, Ola, Grab, and “many more” services, and the feature will show wait times for each of those options as well....

After three years of searching, Uber has finally replaced CFO Gautam Gupta who left the company back in 2015—Nelson Chai, a former Merrill Lynch CFO, will take the reins of the finance department. Nelson Chai, born 1965 is an American investment banker and financial executive. He formerly served as the chief financial officer of American financial services company Merrill Lynch & Co.; NYSE Euronext, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange; and Archipelago Holdings, the first fully electronic stock exchange in the United States.—and briefly as Bank of America"s president for the Asia-Pacific region. He is the former president of CIT Group and reported directly to then CEO John Thain. “I"m incredibly excited to bring on someone as experienced and thoughtful as Nelson,” remarked Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in a statement provided to CNBC . “He will be a great partner for me and the entire management team as we move towards becoming a public compan...

Uber is shifting its focus from the self-driving truck unit (based in San Francisco) inside its Advanced Technologies Group, the organisation announced in an email to the media. For the present, it"s stopping advancement on the self-driving trucks startup it procured from self-driving tech organisation Otto. This shutdown though won’t affect Uber Freight which was announced last year and is meant to connect professional truck drivers with shippers looking to transport goods over a long distance. The shift in focus according to the company is meant allow them focus on self-driving cars instead (based in Pittsburgh). Read more:  An Uber Self-driving Car Just Killed A Female Pedestrian In Arizona Engineers on the self-driving truck project will now be reassigned to its autonomous car division in line with the new vision. But for those who can’t fit into the new plan maybe because of compatibly problems, there will a relocation or separation package set up for them. ...

Uber has introduced a handful of new features aimed at improving the pickup process. Ever tried to call an Uber at night, only to wander around in frustration as both you and the driver keep missing each other? The ride hailing company wants to fix scenarios like that by enabling you to light up your smartphone"s display with a specific colour. By raising it up in the air, it can then direct your driver"s attention towards you - acting like a makeshift flare gun - and give them more of an idea of what to look out for. Drivers will naturally be notified of whatever colour you choose. This feature is called Spotlight. This isn’t the first time Uber has used colours as a means of communication between drivers and riders to help improve the pickup experience. In late 2017, the company unveiled its a gadget: the Beacon , a Bluetooth-enabled piece of plastic shaped like an Uber logo that drivers could stick to the inside of their windshields. Using the Uber app, riders could choos...

In an email to staff yesterday, Uber"s Chief People Officer, Liane Hornsey announced her resignation from the company. This resignation comes shortly after an investigation regarding allegations against Hornsey that claim she systematically dismissed complaints of racial discrimination within the firm. Hornsey has been the head of the company"s HR department for the past 18 months, and has spoken many times on diversity and discrimination issues. An email sent by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to the staff regarding this matter, but interestingly does not mention any specific reason for her resignation. Commenting on her departure, Khosrowshahi notes: "I am writing to let you know that earlier today Liane told me that she is leaving the company. Liane joined Uber in January 2017, and since then she has led our People & Places teams through a period of enormous positive change." According to Reuters , an anonymous group of employees, all of them people of colour, all...

Uber prices get higher as demand increases, but they also decrease as that demand cools off. There are times when you need to get an Uber right away, even if it"s at a peak hour and prices are through the roof. But there are also times when you have the luxury of waiting for your Uber to arrive -- those are the instances Uber had in mind when it cooked up an experimental feature that allows you to wait for a cheaper ride. The ride-hailing company is testing a feature that lets its customers take advantage of the new offer which entails telling them when fares are expected to get lower or higher. It also will help let riders know if they are willing to wait, they will find themselves a cheaper fare. Uber hasn"t publicly announced the feature, but in a tweet first spotted by Quartz , it is revealed that Uber is testing an option to have a longer wait time in exchange for a cheaper ride. An Uber employee in Berkeley, California, tweeted a screenshot of the feature. A screenshot...

Google has offered one of the easiest ways to book an Uber ride—until now. The tech giant has quietly removed Uber ride booking from its Google Maps app on Android, CNET reported. When you try to book a ride in Google Maps now, you’ll get a price range from Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing services, but you won’t actually be able to book your Uber ride inside the app In 2017, Uber acquired the ability to book rides in the Google Maps app by pulling up the account window and signalling the ride without any need to launch the Uber app, saving users time from hopping between app. Now, the feature gone from both the Android and iOS versions of Google Maps. Google Maps" support page has been updated to reflect the change, but provides no explanation on why the feature was removed, but help page said: “You can no longer book Uber rides directly in Google Maps. But you can still look up the route in the Maps app and then request the ride from the Uber app”. Al...

Bozoma Saint John is a natural born branding expert that exudes confidence and has been navigating through corporate America with her go-getter demeanour. Through the loss of her husband and raising her daughter on her own, Saint John used her pain for triumph to collect everything that belongs to her despite any obstacle that attempted to stand in her way. The 41-year-old woman with a marketing executive that inspires women of different colors worldwide by breaking down barriers in major companies, including PepsiCo and Apple Music, as one of the few Black women executives in technology. After leaving Apple Music as its head of consumer marketing to become Uber"s chief brand officer in 2017. Uber confirmed to that Saint John is leaving, which was first reported by Recode . Saint John is leaving to become CMO of Endeavor, the parent company of famed Hollywood talent agency WME, which represents stars such as Amy Adams, Oprah, and Matt Damon. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi thanked her ...

  Uber may be able to tell when you"ve had a few too many drinks. The ridesharing giant has explored identifying drunk passengers with artificial intelligence. According to a patent application filed by the company , Uber is planning to use machine learning to better understand the “state” of a passenger when they request a ride. The patent—which is pretty vague as to its purpose and full of a whole lot of technobabble describing how the system would theoretically work—lays out a system in which Uber could analyse how people typically interact with the app and determine if they are behaving in an “unusual manner,” whatever that might mean. The patent said: “The system receives the trip request from a user and generates a prediction about the current state of the user using the computer model. “To predict user state, the system compares data associated with the trip request to data about past trip requests submitted by the user. ...

Riding with Uber is getting more interesting . Really, you don"t need a prophet to tell you how awesome your Uber driver is or how annoying and you can"t wait to get to your destination so you can rate the driver,  now Uber—the ride hailing company is giving users the chance to rate their drivers in the middle of a trip.  The ride sharing company announced that Uber riders will now have the option to rate, compliment, tip, and share feedback with their drivers while they’re still in transit. This is a good news for users because now instead of forcing you to wait until your ride is over to rate a driver, the new changes on the ride hailing company app, will allow you while at the backseat and either tipping the driver halfway through a trip or informing Uber that the person needs to work on his or her driving skills or just rate the driver either with a five star or less.  Uber plans to take feedback on from the comments and tips from the riders and use it to...

[caption id="attachment_11390" align="alignnone" width="1280"]                                                                 Source: Fortune.com [/caption] Is that simple “push a button and “get food on your doorstep” . The world’s largest food delivery service, Uber is now planning to launch its network sky high. According to Bloomberg , Uber has plans to make food deliveries in the future using drones. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that the company is starting the pilot in San Diego as part of a wide-reaching commercial test program. The drone-testing projects have been given approval for regulations that currently ban their use in the US and this acceptance will be used to help the Federal Aviation Authority draw up suitable laws to govern the use of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for myriad ta...

  Jump bikes has a new owner; Uber. Uber, the ride hailing giants made its first acquisition under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: Jump Bikes, a startup that rents out electric dockless bikes in San Francisco and Washington DC. The New York City-based e-bike startup has been working with Uber for two months on a pilot to integrate bike-sharing options into Uber’s app. Apparently that trial went well because now Jump will become a subsidiary of Uber, and the ride-hailing company will take a leap into a brand new industry, with a different set of challenges and pitfalls. The bike-sharing company Jump, launched in 2011 as a Social Bicycles that runs GPS-enabled programs in twelve cities all over the world, including Portland, Oregon, and Phoenix, Arizona. In San Francisco, where it has 250 bikes, and Washington and about 100 Jump employees will be joining Uber. Jump’s offerings are both electric and dockless—twin cycling innovations that helped kick off a nationwide (and glo...

Uber shuts UberRush down. UberRush, an on-demand delivery service that connects shared economy couriers with businesses and individuals who need to schedule on-demand pick-ups and deliveries. It is an incredibly convenient service that connects people with local goods, food, and things. Individuals can have practically anything they want delivered to their door. In 2014, Uber launched “Uber rush” – an on-demand delivery service that will operate in major metropolitan markets like San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Over the weekend, Rush team New York sent out an email to customers informing them that the service will end in June 2018, the emails reads according to TechCrunch : “At Uber, we believe in making big bold bets, and while ending UberRUSH comes with some sadness, we will continue our mission of building reliable technology that serves people and cities all over the world,” Uber’s NYC RUSH team wrote to customers. Also added “We...

The ride-hailing company gets suspended from state of Arizona.  After the unforeseen circumstances that happened earlier last week that caused a fatal accident which occurred at night and coincided with autonomous test driver Rafaela Vasquez looking down right before the moment of impact, left pedestrian 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg dead. It is likely the first death caused by a self-driving vehicle, and the aftermath of the event has been severe for Uber, with the company immediately suspending self-driving operations in the state amid a US National Transportation Safety Board investigation. The Tempe Police Department is also conducting an investigation, which will eventually be turned over to the Maricopa County Attorney’s office. In the light of the event, today the 12News which was reported by Bianca Buono explained via her twitter account that “ In light of the fatal Uber crash in Tempe, Governor Ducey sends this letter to Uber ordering the company to suspend its ...

It is no longer news that the ride-hailing giants has businesses in most part of the world including Southeast Asia , but the news is that Uber today Monday, signed a deal to sell its business  to SouthEast Grab ,  it"s rival in the region.  As part of the procurement, Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Grab, with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joining Grab"s board. Grab will take over all of Uber"s businesses, including its ride-sharing, food delivery and payments and financial services in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a statement. Asia isn"t the first place Uber is retreating. The ride-hailing company sold its operation in China to Didi Chuxing its rival, which is one of the country"s biggest ride sharing provider, in August 2016. Rumours about Grab’s acquisition have been swirling since Softbank an investor with Grabs confirmed its investment in Uber last December. Grab has raised more th...

In the wake of the scandal involving the most extensive social network and the political consulting firm, it is likely that other software developers and internet companies will be investigated over how they share users" data. The latest decision to probe other tech giants will likely affect Alphabet Inc."s Google, Twitter, Uber Technologies, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and a host of many others that make users" data available to third-party developers, a similar case to what drove Facebook into the mess. Facebook allows numerous software developers to operate on its network, thereby granting them the access to harvest users" data. The main issue is how the collated data got into the hands of Cambridge Analytica. Given this, lawmakers in the US and the European Union have requested for an investigation into how the British firm was given the access to the data of 50 million users.  Notably, other internet companies are guilty of a similar offence because as long as user...

After months of Uber’s self-driving car launch , an incident occurred today as a female pedestrian was killed after being struck by an autonomous Uber vehicle in Arizona. In response to the incident, Uber has pulled all of its self-driving cars from public roads in the state as well as in the cities of San Francisco, Toronto, and Pittsburgh. The crash occurred near Mill Avenue and Curry Road early Monday morning in Tempe, Arizona. Police confirmed that the Uber vehicle was headed to northbound while the woman was walking in a crosswalk when she was struck by the vehicle unnoticed and she was identified as 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg by the police. This may be the first pedestrian to ever be killed in a self-driving vehicle accident. The vehicle was operating in an autonomous mode at the time of the accident. Herzberg was transported to a nearby hospital after the crash where she passed away from her injuries, according to a statement from Tempe police. Tempe police department stat...

Kalanick, who stepped down as CEO of Uber in June 2017 , said Wednesday that he"s now involved in something else other than ride hailing and this time it’s an investment fund  called 10100. [caption id="attachment_7316" align="alignnone" width="4115"] Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick pictured here [/caption] Pronounced “ten one hundred," will focus on real estate, web based business/ecommerce, and other innovative ideas in China and India. The former Uber CEO announced this on Twitter and other social media networks. The emphasis on two of the world"s quickest developing economies will take Kalanick back to where Uber confronted some of its hardest difficulties. [xyz-ihs snippet="Kalanick-startup"] You"ll recall that Uber had to sell of its Chinese business to rival Didi Chuxing in 2016 because it could not break into the market due to fierce competition from the latter. Apple didn"t make it easier for them by investing ...