CEO Travis Kalanick is out at Uber, the popular ride-sharing company he helped start in 2009. It’s been tough sledding for Uber as of late and for Travis in particular, following the death of his mother in a boating accident just recently. Driver strikes, sexual harassment claims, underhanded shenanigans in cities that banned the service and more have piled pressure on Kalanick, and his on-camera squabble with a driver didn’t help.
Kalanick will remain on Uber’s board of directors, which also includes Arianna Huffington, and so far, no new CEO has been appointed. Uber’s rise has been swift, with analysts saying it could be worth as much as $70 billion, which is more than Ford or GM. Quick historical note: Kalanick did not start Uber, he was actually brought on as an advisor by co-founder Garret Camp, who originally called the service UberCab. Kalanick became CEO in 2010.
He took a leave of absence just a week ago, and on Tuesday, Uber debuted a tipping feature in selected cities that drivers have been asking for… for years. The ability to tip drivers will be coming to more cities as time goes on. But as for Travis? Whether he ever gets back in the driver’s seat at Uber in the future is the big question.
There goes your free time
You can get your retro Sega gaming fix starting Thursday with Sega Forever, a new and growing pack of vintage SEGA games for your mobile device. Five SEGA Genesis games, including, yes, Sonic the Hedgehog, will debut Thursday on iOS and Android, and the price is certainly right: free with ads, or two bucks each for no ads.
And while the games will either be ports or emulations, they’ll all get some modern features, including saving to the cloud, offline play, online leaderboards, and the ability to use Bluetooth controllers. Sounds good to us! After the first batch of games debuts, SEGA says new games will be added every two weeks. With the unexpected popularity of Nintendo’s NES Classic retro console, this looks like a smart move by Sega.
The ears have it
Like we said yesterday, just three… not so short months until Apple reveals the new iPhone 8, or iPhone Edition or whatever it’s going to be called. And now, no less than Forbes is getting into the iPhone 8 prediction business by saying they most definitely maybe have the latest look at the new phone, and, it’s a bit different than what we saw in this render yesterday. Forbes says its images come aftermarket case maker Olixar and accessory distributor Mobile Fun.
Both companies have apparently been pretty accurate about predicting past iPhones and the cases are already up for pre-order, so someone’s confidence is high. The vertical dual cameras and other details are all there, but the OLED screen is a bit different up top, where it makes way for the dual-front facing face-detection cameras, giving it a pair of “ears” as it were. Rumor suggests those ears will be used for notifications and other quick updates.
So, is this the final word? Is this really the new iPhone 8? Like anyone outside of Apple really knows for sure. But, we can say with some certainty that new iPhone will be pretty spendy, so start saving now.
We’ve got more news on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, and be sure to tune in to this week’s DT podcasts: Close to the Metal (computers and such) on Tuesday, Trends with Benefits (general tech shenanigans) on Thursdays, and Between the Streams (movie and TV topics) every Friday.
