After hopping over to Uber from Amazon in January 2015, the head of the ride-sharing company’s global customer support operations, Tim Collins, is returning from whence he came: he’s stepped down from his job at Uber and is reportedly going back to Amazon. [More]
sayonara
Maria Sharapova & 6 Other Pro Athletes Who Blew Big Endorsement Deals Overnight
By 3.8.16 — Updated: 12.27.16
All over the world, sports fans set their heroes up on high pedestals. So when scandals hit, it’s a long way for professional athletes to fall, and they often lose lucrative endorsement deals on their way down. [More]
E-Book Subscription Service Oyster Shutting Down
By 9.22.15
E-book subscription service Oyster (otherwise known as “the Netflix of books” because that’s how everyone describes things now) will be shutting down after two years. [More]
Ashley Madison CEO Steps Down In Wake Of Hacking Scandal
By 8.28.15
Less than two weeks after hackers published two big data dumps full of material stolen from Ashley Madison, a dating website for cheaters, its parent company Avid Life Media announced that effective today, CEO Noel Biderman will be stepping down from his position and is no longer with the company. [More]
Visa, MasterCard Cut Ties With Backpage.com After Pressure From Law Enforcement
By 7.1.15
After pressure from law enforcement, both Visa and MasterCard have announced they will no longer process payments for classified ads on Backpage.com. The site has often been criticized for its “Adult” section, which some say makes it easy for pimps and sex traffickers to solicit customers for sex. [More]
Uber Must End Pilot Ride-Sharing Program In Japan
By 3.4.15
Ride-hailing app Uber does a small amount of business in Japan. Until now, their drivers have been existing drivers of taxis and private cars for hire. The company has been experimenting with a ride-sharing service in the city of Fukuoka. They thought it would get around regulations by not having passengers pay for their rides. That did not work. [More]
CarMax, Virgin America, Others Ditching L.A. Clippers Over Owner’s Alleged Racist Comments
By 4.28.14
If we learned anything from Deengate last year, it’s that if people don’t like what you’re allegedly saying, big companies will no doubt cut ties and run in order to avoid as much of the fallout as possible. Joining Paula Deen and others before her in the rejected corporate sponsorships arena is the L.A. Clippers, whose owner Don Sterling has been accused of making racist comments. [More]
Reminder: If You’re Still Running Windows XP, Microsoft Is No Longer Providing Support
By 4.8.14
If you’re reading this on a computer running Windows XP, you’re either the overconfident sort that thinks you’ll never get hacked or you’ve forgotten that today is the day Microsoft is dropping its support for the product. In either case, it’s time to upgrade or face security risks you don’t need to be taking. [More]
Twitter Kills Off Ribbon’s In-Stream Payment System Hours After Its Launch
By 4.11.13
Yesterday morning the Interwebs were all abuzz about a new in-stream payment system from a company called Ribbon, which would allow Twitter users to buy stuff without ever leaving their Twitter feed. But mere hours after Ribbon debuted the feature, Twitter swiftly killed it off. [More]
Are Office Supply Stores Following Big Box Chains Down The Drain?
By 9.26.12
We’ve seen big box stores pare down the number of retail stores from their roll, as well as cut physical space and try to bulk up online sales. Now it looks like office supply stores are the latest retailers to feel the heat from Amazon: Staples announced it would be shuttering 45 stores in Europe and speed up the closing of 15 more in the U.S. to try and save $250 million a year. [More]
HTC Sense Warns Customers: We're Going Away For An Undetermined Amount Of Time
By 3.29.12
Way back when, about a year ago, we had a reader who had a bone to pick with HTC Sense after her phone was stolen and the remote-locking system failed. HTC apologized and said it was still working some stuff out — but now it seems there are just too many kinks in HTC Sense, and the company is warning customers of an impending, supposedly temporary, shutdown of services. [More]
