Uber is reportedly exploring the idea of purchasing Expedia, one of the largest travel booking companies in the world, according to the Financial Times. Expedia, which is valued at $20 billion and which reported its highest-ever annual revenue in 2023, will be the company’s biggest acquisition, if the deal does indeed push through. The Times says it’s very early days, however, and Uber hasn’t even made a formal offer for the travel company yet. It’s still in the process of studying the implications of acquiring Expedia and has, over the past months, worked with advisers to figure out whether the deal is feasible and how it would be structured.

The company’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, may have to sit out deal discussions, seeing as he used to be CEO of Expedia before he was hired by the ride-hailing service in 2017. He’s still in its Board of Directors, as well. It doesn’t sound like Khosrowshahi was the one who suggested the potential purchase, though — in its report, the Times said the idea was “broached by a third party.”

Uber has had plans to become a wider travel booking platform for a while now. Khosrowshahi said he wanted Uber to be the “Amazon of transportation” from the time he joined the company. Since then, the ride-hailing service has added train, bus and flight bookings in some markets, and it has also made several large acquisitions. It purchased online food delivery service Postmates for $2.65 billion and alcohol delivery service Drizly for $1.1 billion before shutting it down three years later. The company also teamed up with Waymo and Cruise to offer autonomous rides in certain markets. As the Times notes, Uber became profitable for the first time in 2023 due to a renewed demand for rides and food delivery and could be a in a good position to acquire a company as big as Expedia.

Samsung just announced the Special Edition model of the Galaxy Z Fold. It’s thinner and a little lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 6 that only recently went on sale, and includes slightly larger displays on the inside and out and a new banded pattern on the back. It also has more memory available for Galaxy AI and an upgraded 200 megapixel wide-angle camera.

Great! Unfortunately, it’s only been announced for South Korea, priced at 2,789,600 KRW or just over $2,000 when it goes on sale Friday, October 25th. And it seems the only other release market will be China.

At 10.6mm and 236 grams, the Galaxy Z Fold SE is 1.5mm thinner and 3 grams lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Memory is now 16GB standard, and the wide-angle sensor has been bumped up from 50 to 200 megapixels. The inner and outer displays are slightly larger as well at 8.0 inches and 6.5 inches, respectively, up from 7.6 and 6.3 inches. That does make the device a little taller and wider to hold when folded or unfolded.

The changes are unlikely to address the concerns we had when reviewing the Galaxy Z Fold 6 this summer. There’s still nothing here that’s meaningfully different in a device category that Samsung helped pioneer. But if you’re looking for a good foldable that’s the best Samsung has to offer, then the Galaxy Z Fold SE is what you’ll want to import.

From a growing skills gap to a stubborn productivity crisis, business leaders are under increasing pressure to improve efficiency while also fostering employee engagement. Everyone agrees that technology can help, and many businesses are now harnessing AI to enhance processes like customer service and repetitive workflows. But many industry leaders are overlooking another key driver of business growth: creativity.

Investing in creativity traditionally might have seemed like a nice-to-have, but organizations that encourage curiosity and inspire teams to question the status quo outpace their competitors. Canva’s recent survey, conducted with Harvard Business Review, showed that 96% of business leaders agree that creative ideas are essential to an organization’s performance and long-term success.

Strands is a brand new daily puzzle from the New York Times. A trickier take on the classic word search, you’ll need a keen eye to solve this puzzle.

Like Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword, Strands can be a bit difficult to solve some days. There’s no shame in needing a little help from time to time. If you’re stuck and need to know the answers to today’s Strands puzzle, check out the solved puzzle below.

How to play Strands

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strand answers

Today’s spanagram

We’ll start by giving you the spangram, which might help you figure out the theme and solve the rest of the puzzle on your own:

Today’s Strands answers

• PACK
• HERD
• KNOT
• FLOCK
• PRIDE
• SWARM
• SCHOOL
• COLONY

Mobile apps continue to transform the daily lives of modern users. In 2024, these programs have reached a completely new level with the integration of AI, automation, and personalization. These new apps help you stay productive, keep track of your health and fitness, manage your finances effectively, and even find time for learning within a busy schedule. Today, we’ll talk about the most useful Android apps in daily life that can boost your productivity and help you change your life.

Productivity

The main goal of the most useful Android apps in daily life is to help users organize their time and complete tasks efficiently. By optimizing your workflow, these apps help you increase daily productivity and make the most of every free minute. In 2024, these best Android apps have become smarter, often using AI to analyze user behavior and provide personalized recommendations:

– Todoist. This app helps you manage your daily tasks more effectively. It integrates with other services and calendars;

– TickTick. A convenient must-have task planner that includes a calendar, timer, and focus functions. With this app, you can manage your time more effectively throughout the day;

– Trello. Task boards with a simple interface and team collaboration features. It’s a great choice for those working on team projects, thanks to its simplicity and visualization tools.

Health and well-being

More and more users are paying attention to their physical and mental health. The most useful Android apps in daily life can handle a variety of tasks—fitness, body system monitoring, meditation, and more. These apps will help you stay in shape both physically and mentally:

– Calm. A meditation and sleep improvement app with many preset scenarios for relaxation;

– MyFitnessPal. Helps you track your nutrition and physical activity. It’s an essential tool if you’ve decided to adopt a healthy lifestyle. The app includes a food database that helps you calculate the calorie content of meals.

Learning and development

Learning and development apps help users acquire new knowledge at their own pace and in their free time from everyday tasks. These apps not only assist in learning new languages but also in mastering programming:

– Duolingo. An interactive language-learning app with gamification elements. You can learn new words and practice anytime, earning various rewards and achievements;

– Headway. This app lets you read books in just 15 minutes—it highlights key ideas, helping you gain new knowledge without spending too much time. It’s perfect for busy people—you can integrate learning into your packed daily schedule.

Financial management

These apps will boost your financial literacy level—you’ll be able to track your expenses, plan your budget, make transactions, and invest with minimal effort. In 2024, such apps use AI technology to analyze user behavior and offer more personalized financial advice:

– YNAB (You Need a Budget). This app helps you plan your budget, track expenses and income conveniently, and analyze your financial habits;

– Revolut. A user-friendly banking transfer service that also includes budgeting tools. It helps analyze expenses and allows you to make international payments quickly.

Social and communication

These most useful Android apps in daily life keep users connected without worrying about their security and personal data privacy. One of the 2024 trends for such apps is maximum user confidentiality.

– Signal. The most secure messaging app for communicating with others. It ensures a high level of privacy through end-to-end encryption;

– Telegram. A popular messenger with numerous additional features—users have access to bots, channels, and groups. Another advantage is its fast performance and adaptability to nearly all smartphones.

New trends in Android apps in 2024

The year 2024 brought significant changes to most useful Android apps in daily life. These include the use of new technologies, enhanced security standards, and a growing focus on environmental awareness. We’ve highlighted a few key trends that are shaping new Android apps:

– Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Integration. These technologies help apps track user behavior and adapt the interface and available features based on the collected data. They also simplify everyday tasks. For instance, in the Grammarly app, AI analyzes the text and automatically corrects mistakes;

– Eco-friendly Apps. In 2024, environmental awareness became a major focus in the mobile industry. Many apps aim to help users reduce their carbon footprint and use natural resources more consciously. An interesting eco-friendly app is Ecosia. It’s essentially a browser where the creators use all the money earned from ads to plant trees;

– Cashless Payments. In 2024, there is a growing demand for free Android apps that allow for cashless payments. With these apps, you can transfer money instantly and securely without needing to visit banks. We’re also seeing an active integration of cryptocurrencies. For example, Google Pay not only offers convenient contactless payments but also allows you to manage all your bank cards in one place;

– Gamified Apps. Gamification is one of the key trends in the mobile industry in 2024. Now, game-like elements such as achievements, levels, and rewards are used to motivate users to take certain actions. This trend is especially popular in educational and fitness apps. A great example is Habitica, an app where managing daily tasks and habits turns into an engaging RPG experience.

Conclusion

Mobile technology is making life easier, more convenient, and more enjoyable for modern users. Today, smartphones have various daily life apps for productivity, health, learning, and financial management, which automate most tasks. These apps help maintain a balance between work and personal life effortlessly. Try out a few options from the productivity apps list to improve your life. Start with Headway, which helps you learn even with a busy schedule, and install Todoist to boost your productivity. Share your thoughts in the comments—what apps do you already use regularly? Which ones have had the biggest impact on your daily life and helped improve it?

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Be My Eyes, the accessibility app for mobile devices that puts blind and low-vision people on a live video call with a sighted guide, will help Microsoft train its AI. Be My Eyes will provide anonymized video data to improve scene understanding in Microsoft’s accessibility-focused AI models.

The data sets Be My Eyes gives Microsoft will include “unique objects, lighting and framing that realistically represents the lived experience of the blind and low vision community.” The goal is to make Microsoft’s AI more inclusive for people with vision disabilities.

The companies say all personal info has been scrubbed from the metadata. The provided data won’t be used for advertising or any purpose other than training Microsoft’s AI models.

Although this is Be My Eyes’ first such data partnership, it’s worked with Microsoft before by incorporating its Be My AI tool into Microsoft’s Disability Answer Desk. As its name suggests, Be My AI is the company’s GPT-4-powered spin on an assistance product. In that case, it helps people with vision disabilities navigate Office, Windows and Xbox.

Be My Eyes also struck a deal with Hilton earlier this month. In that case, dedicated hotel staff help blind and low-vision lodgers do things like adjust their thermostats, make coffee and raise or lower their blinds. A previous 2023 partnership between the two companies helped train the Be My AI model.