🚗 Uber hates this App

🚗 Uber Hates This App That Tells Drivers Whether It’s Worth Picking You Up

StopClub has become the new co-pilot for ride-hailing drivers.

The app reads fare information directly from platforms like Uber and calculates rates per kilometer or hour. This means drivers can give a thumbs down to low-paying trips and go for the ones that are more profitable.

StopClub's effectiveness lies in the speed and clarity of its fare breakdown.

Even seasoned drivers, who usually do these calculations in their heads, find the app invaluable. After all, they only have about seven seconds to accept or decline ride requests on Uber.

However, StopClub is facing a legal dispute from Uber, claiming that the app was illegally accessing and storing confidential data related to passengers, drivers, and ride prices.

In response, StopClub clarified that they’re not storing or extracting data but simply reading the information displayed on the screen to do their calculations.

Despite this legal battle, StopClub continued to garner support from drivers and prominent influencers.

🌐 The Origins of .ai, .io, and .tv Domain Suffixes

Ever wondered why some websites have funky domain names like .ai, .io, or .tv?

Well, these domain suffixes are actually country codes for small island nations.

For example, .ai is the code for Anguilla, a tiny Caribbean island with fewer than 20,000 people. But in the tech world, AI stands for artificial intelligence, making .ai a hot ticket for AI startups.

These domain suffixes, originally meant for local businesses, have turned into golden geese. Anguilla’s .ai domain rakes in around $3 million per month, contributing significantly to the government’s budget.

The allocation of these domains is based on the ISO 3166-1 standard established in 1974.

While some countries restrict their domains to local entities, others have capitalized on the global demand for their unique addresses.

🎧 Apple and Google Want to Shift How You Listen to Podcasts

The podcast landscape is changing fast.

Google is discontinuing its standalone podcast app, Google Podcasts, to integrate podcasts into YouTube Music, capitalizing on YouTube’s popularity as a podcast platform.

Apple, on the other hand, is transforming its podcast app into a comprehensive audio content hub, allowing users to link third-party subscriptions and access various forms of audio content like news, guided meditations, educational courses, and more.

Spotify is also joining the podcast revolution. It’s experimenting with a voice translation feature that can translate English podcasts into other languages using OpenAI’s Whisper model.

⚡ 3 Cool Tools

🧠 What did you think of today's email?

Your feedback helps me create better emails for you! Please reply to this email and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.

Until next time!

— Tay

p.s. if you want to sign up for the Rapid Rundown newsletter or share it with a friend or colleague, you can find us here.