The Tech News Tonight show also described the "Make with Code" movement to program 18 or so Xmas trees at the White House. Also, Amazon's Element Diapers and Baby wipes were mentioned. [ A bit of a weird news and I would never associate diapers with Amazon! What a surprise!] | |
The most interesting deep dive news story was on Uber and how it has expanded to 250 cities around the world! Uber is a ride sharing service headquartered in San Francisco. The story mentioned another similar company that was in India but where the people don't have credit cards or a cell phone. So this new start up Indian-Uber-like company accepts cash and you can call for a ride from a local pay phone. There was also an interview (almost like a co-host) with "The Wall Street Journal". Summarizing the tremendous growth that Uber has experienced in a short while, and other interesting tidbits kept one interested main news story about Uber. How the Uber Company had to deal with hiring a lot of people in a short amount of time was reported on...so the writers of the Tech News Tonight show demonstrated that they did have a lot of interesting content for the Uber story. I was impressed with the quality of Tech News Tonight. Also Tech News Tonight's Sarah Lane did a great job with the Wall Street news reporter---it definitely was not boring.Do you like the idea of Uber? I personally have tried Uber once on a business trip in Washington DC in September of this year. My colleague suggested that we use it to get to the DCA airport. I agreed. He had a Uber accound and used his iPhone application to put in the request. Within a few minutes he had accepted the Uber rate and the Uber driver was on his way to pick us up. In my opinion it was a great alternative to the normal taxis service in Washington DC. It was about the same cost or maybe a few dollars less than what a normal taxi would cost. The Uber driver was courteous and we had no problems at all with the ride to the airport. I like it and am perfectly fine with the idea. I am impressed with the idea of ride sharing and believe Uber provides a healthy bit of competition to all the cab companies in cities around the globe.
However, I just read an article "Boycott Uber If you Don't Like It" --- http://gawker.com/boycott-uber-if-you-dont-like-it-1497095976 . This article refers to a Uber experience in New York City where someone was charged an outrageous amount for its services in the city. This is because Uber sets its price according to demand. The higher the demand the higher the prices are for Uber. The author of the article states that Uber "...is a luxury good for people with too much disposable income." The position of the author is that public transportation should be improved in those cities where Uber is present. He believes that one should take the issue up with the federal, state, and local governments. Uber is ranked almost last as far as urban transportation modes as far as affordability goes where 1) Walking 2) Riding the subway or bus 3) Taking a cab 4) Calling a car service 5) Uber, 6) a private car and driver.
So what is your opinion about Uber? Is it an expensive service? Have you used Uber yet? Do you feel the same way as the author of the http://gawker article? Or do you see it the way I see it --- Uber is a great ride sharing transportation service. Do you believe that Uber is convenient, safe and affordable? Also, if you feel as if Uber brings you value and are willing to pay for Uber's service (since no one is bending your arm backwards), then go for it and agree to the Uber rates then accept the Uber ride! What else is there to do?
If you have not tried Uber yet, don't just listen to the guy who has one secondhand example in New York City --- because I have a first hand and a concrete experience in Washington DC from the GSA Building on F Street to the DCA airport during rush hour on a Thursday evening in September of this year!
Please comment below because I would like to hear what you have to say? Is Uber for you?
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Refer to: Tech News Tonight (R) reminds me a lot of a TV evening news broadcast. The newscast (i.e., Episode #228 on Dec. 4, 2014) touched on numerous mini-news stories.
TWiT(R) gets its name from its first and flagship podcast, This Week in Tech.
See the following sites:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWiT.tv]
TWiT.tv [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWiT.tv]
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