Lyft just built a better e-bike for urban sharing

In pre-COVID-19 times, I worked in downtown San Francisco and was surrounded by people pedaling around on Lyft e-bikes—and never paid them much attention or gave serious thought to getting on one myself. Then a funny thing happened:  I bought my own e-bike  to help me shake off pandemic lethargy, and found that I loved it. And since I live too far into suburbia to consider commuting to my office on two wheels, I started looking forward to using Lyft’s bike-sharing service once I returned to the city. While I was getting intrigued by Lyft’s e-bikes, the company was busy creating its next-generation model—the first one it’s designed itself, after previously using e-bikes from a company called GenZe. I got to take a spin on one of the new bikes last week; more will hit the streets of San Francisco this week in a beta test, with the official rollout starting in Chicago this fall. Over time, this model will gradually replace Lyft’s current e-bikes, which comprise anywhere from 20% to 100% of its fleet depending on the market. (Between electric and conventional bikes, Lyft is the largest bike-share operator in North America.) For Lyft, designing its own e-bike started with assembling the necessary talent, which operates out of a workshop—warehouse in San Francisco and uses the environs as a proving ground. “We built this really amazing world-class design team that is passionate about micro-mobility and has a wide background from consumer electronics and everything with wheels,” says head of industrial design Oli Mueller, whose own résumé includes four years of experience working on smart-home products at Nest. The goals of this team did not include reinventing the experience of using one of its bikes in a way that might flummox current happy customers. So even though the new bike is new from the ground up, it doesn’t feel  that new. “When you take a step back, it looks kind of the same, kind of different,” says Gary Shambat, Lyft’s product lead for bikes and scooters. “And that’s purposeful.” Lyft’s new e-bike aims to be a lot better than its old e-bike, without being a radical departure. [Image: courtesy of Lyft] It also turns out that many of the touches that make an e-bike suitable for sharing aren’t glaringly obvious. They relate more to eliminating obstacles that might prevent people from using a bike—because it doesn’t fit them, can’t accommodate their stuff, or is just plain out of service. For example, the new bike’s seat can be lowered by an additional three inches—using a more accessible unlocking mechanism—which is a boon to shorter riders. The front-mounted basket’s backside is now closed rather than open—which should lessen the chances of your possessions taking a tumble—and its strap has been redesigned to facilitate securing bulky items such as groceries. There’s a new monochrome screen, but its primary purpose is to display helpful information before and after a ride rather than to do anything that might be distracting in transit. And Lyft learned from its experience with its current bikes to address problem areas that require e-bikes to be taken out of service for repair. Instead of a battery mounted externally on the downtube, the new bike sports one embedded inside the tube. Beyond the more elegant look, the battery has doubled in capacity from 500 watt-hours to 1,000 watt-hours—enough juice, Lyft says, for up to 60 miles of range, depending on factors such as the rider’s weight and how many hills the bike climbs. Not that any individual is likely to go anything like that distance; typical trips are more like a 1.5 to 2 miles. But the bigger the battery, the less often it needs to be charged, increasing a bike’s availability Read More …

Would you bet on sports through your TV? FuboTV is trying to find out

FuboTV subscribers might notice something new this week when they tune into the service’s South American World Cup qualifier coverage. Inside FuboTV’s Roku and Android apps, viewers will be able to pull up a dashboard of live stats by scrolling up on the video stream. From there, they’ll get to answer a handful of quiz questions—for instance, “which team will score first in the second half?”—for a chance to win a free year of Fubo’s service, which normally costs $65 per month. This may seem gimmicky, but Fubo says it’s part of a bigger plan to let people bet on games through their televisions. Fubo plans to launch a sportsbook in the fourth quarter of this year, but by starting with something a little lighter, Fubo is hoping to figure out how much interaction people want from their TV screens and which users would be inclined to bet real money as well. “Our hypothesis is that it’s going to be an engagement driver, but also in the bigger picture, it’s kind of our first step towards our overall gaming strategy,” says Mike Berkley, FuboTV’s chief product officer. FuboTV is one of many companies in the TV business that sees gambling as a potential cash cow, especially as the rising cost of sports and a declining pay-TV audience threatens the traditional channel bundle business. Still, betting on games remains illegal in many states, and Fubo is a fairly small streaming service. Its only choice right now is to move slowly as it builds its audience and pushes for more legalized sports betting. More contests to come For now, FuboTV’s live stats and contests are beta features limited to the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL) qualifiers, to which Fubo has the exclusive streaming rights . And while the live stats will also be available on Fire TV devices in the coming days, the contests will only appear on Roku players and Android mobile devices to start. But Fubo plans to expand on both fronts over time. Contest support is coming soon to Fire TV, Android TV, iOS, and the web, and Fubo is aiming to bring contests out of beta in time for football season in the fall. The service could eventually add contests for other types of content beyond sports as well. “Think of this really as a platform feature, where we can create a more enhanced viewing experience for every kind of content we provide on the platform,” he says. David Gandler, FuboTV’s cofounder and CEO, also floats the idea of using contests as an advertising tool, with companies offering a chance to win a car or free pizza Read More …

Would you bet on sports through your TV? FuboTV is trying to find out

FuboTV subscribers might notice something new this week when they tune into the service’s South American World Cup qualifier coverage. Inside FuboTV’s Roku and Android apps, viewers will be able to pull up a dashboard of live stats by scrolling up on the video stream. From there, they’ll get to answer a handful of quiz questions—for instance, “which team will score first in the second half?”—for a chance to win a free year of Fubo’s service, which normally costs $65 per month. This may seem gimmicky, but Fubo says it’s part of a bigger plan to let people bet on games through their televisions. Fubo plans to launch a sportsbook in the fourth quarter of this year, but by starting with something a little lighter, Fubo is hoping to figure out how much interaction people want from their TV screens and which users would be inclined to bet real money as well. “Our hypothesis is that it’s going to be an engagement driver, but also in the bigger picture, it’s kind of our first step towards our overall gaming strategy,” says Mike Berkley, FuboTV’s chief product officer. FuboTV is one of many companies in the TV business that sees gambling as a potential cash cow, especially as the rising cost of sports and a declining pay-TV audience threatens the traditional channel bundle business. Still, betting on games remains illegal in many states, and Fubo is a fairly small streaming service. Its only choice right now is to move slowly as it builds its audience and pushes for more legalized sports betting. More contests to come For now, FuboTV’s live stats and contests are beta features limited to the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL) qualifiers, to which Fubo has the exclusive streaming rights . And while the live stats will also be available on Fire TV devices in the coming days, the contests will only appear on Roku players and Android mobile devices to start. But Fubo plans to expand on both fronts over time. Contest support is coming soon to Fire TV, Android TV, iOS, and the web, and Fubo is aiming to bring contests out of beta in time for football season in the fall. The service could eventually add contests for other types of content beyond sports as well. “Think of this really as a platform feature, where we can create a more enhanced viewing experience for every kind of content we provide on the platform,” he says. David Gandler, FuboTV’s cofounder and CEO, also floats the idea of using contests as an advertising tool, with companies offering a chance to win a car or free pizza. It will also collect data on which viewers are most interested in contests, hoping to turn them on to betting once Fubo’s sportsbook launches Read More …

How to watch the UEFA Champions League final 2021 live without cable

Soccer fans around the world will be glued to their TVs this weekend for the 2021 UEFA Champions League final . The highly anticipated match between Manchester City Football Club and Chelsea Football Club—known for their rivalry within England’s Premier League—is a big deal. Although American football remains dominant in the United States, soccer has been growing in popularity for years, and the afternoon time slot for this weekend’s game—coupled with a pent-up demand for high-stakes sporting events—should help garner robust viewership among Americans. The game will take place at the Estádio do Dragão (Dragon Stadium) in Porto, Portugal. The Champions League final is set to begin on Saturday, May 29, at 3 p.m. ET. It will air on CBS and its sister streaming service, Paramount Plus, formerly known as CBS All Access. According to CBS Sports , pregame coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET. If you’re a cord-cutter who wants to stream the final live on your computer, phone, or TV, you’ll need access to CBS or Paramount Plus, which is offering a free trial to new subscribers. We’ve rounded up some ways to catch the action: Paramount Plus:  This service, formerly known as CBS All Access, offers CBS.  Find it here . Locast:  This nonprofit streaming service offers access to broadcast networks, including CBS, in 32 markets. Find it here . Hulu With Live TV:  Hulu’s streaming service offers CBS live. Find it here Read More …

Why the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack is a sign of things to come

Ransomware has grown fouler than ever, but it’s also grown up. The practice of using malware to encrypt files on a victim’s devices and then demanding a ransom payment for unlocking them has advanced far beyond its origins as a nuisance for individual users. These days, it’s a massively profitable business that has spawned its own ecosystem of partner and affiliate firms. And as a succession of security experts made clear at the RSA Conference last week, we remain nowhere near developing an equivalent of a vaccine for this online plague. “It’s professionalized more than it’s ever been,” said Raj Samani, chief scientist at McAfee, in an RSA panel . “Criminals are starting to make more money,” said Jen Miller-Osborn, deputy director of threat intelligence at Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42, in another session . Read More …