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 Ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft are delivering pitiful levels of take-home pay to the hundreds of thousands of US independent contractors providing their own vehicles and driving skills to deliver the core service, according to an MIT CEEPR study examining the economics of the two app platforms. The report catalyses the debate about conditions for workers on gig economy platforms, and… Read More

 The popularity of low-cost online deals, like those found on Wish, led Amazon in January to launch an “under $10” selection of products that ship for free. This week, eBay is following suit. The company announced on Thursday a new “under $10” shopping destination of its own, also with the perk of having items ship for free. The selection includes  fashion, tech,… Read More

 Rylo is a powerful little 360 camera that tries to keep its 360-degree features in the background most of the time; the real goal of the company is to rethink the camera so that you end up deciding how to frame the perfect photo or video after you’ve already grabbed the footage. The startup’s camera has been iOS-only since it launched last year, but today the company’s app… Read More

 When you hear ‘e-commerce in China’ you’ll probably ‘Alibaba,’ but another company is making progress to challenge the assumption that $450-billion company is China’s only online retail giant. JD.com, the nearest e-commerce competitor to Alibaba in China, has reported its first year of profitability as a public company. The Beijing-headquartered company… Read More

 Snap, Inc. calls itself a “camera company” so it shouldn’t be all that surprising that it’s working on new versions of its Spectacles hardware (especially since we reported just that last June). But a new report from Cheddar has surprised some with news that Snap is working on a refresh of their hardware´set to launch later this year, as well as a two-camera version… Read More

 Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. We had the full crew on hand this week with Matthew Lynley, Katie Roof, and myself, along with Mar Hershenson from Pear Ventures who stepped into the guest chair. It was a damn busy week, with news raining down from the skies. We had to pick the best, so… Read More

 Toyota has an existing think tank, research organization and long-term development wing courtesy of Toyota Research Institute (TRI), but now it’s expanding TRI with a new sub-company of its own: Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD), which I have to assume was so named just so they could have the really cool acronym. The new company will elevate TRI CTO James Kuffner… Read More

 Maven has launched its Maven Gig offering in Austin, just ahead of SXSW when there will probably be a fair amount of ride-hailing and on-demand food delivery activity. Maven Gig is the arm of GM’s Maven mobility brand that caters specifically to gig economy workers, with cars available to freelancers who drive only occasionally, and only essentially to offer ride-hailing services via… Read More

 Troy Hunt is turning Have I Been Pwned into an essential pwning monitoring service. The service monitors security breaches and password leaks so that you and your users remain secure. And now, the U.K. and Australian governments are monitoring their own domain names using the service. Most people are familiar with the consumer-facing version of Have I Been Pwned. You go on Have I Been… Read More

 Gaming and entertainment company Rovio continues to have a very hard time of it as it faces the music on the waning popularity of its once-might Angry Birds franchise. Today, the Helsinki-based company reported Q4 and full-year financials that fell short of even analysts’ most conservative estimates as it blamed lower-than-expected interest in its new slate of games. “In the… Read More