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Airbnb agrees to share data for over 17,000 NYC listings
Airbnb and New York City are inching closer to making peace over data sharing. To start, the home rental outfit has reached an agreement to hand over semi-anonymized host and reservation data for over 17,000 listings in the city. It's also providing data for every NYC listing rented between January 1st, 2018 and February 18th, 2019 that might have violated the city's short-term rental laws.
NYC will accept Google Pay on some subway and bus routes
If you have Google Pay, you might be able to tap your phone for subway or bus payments in NYC in the near future. The tech giant has teamed up with The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to conduct a pilot test for Google Pay covering select subway stations and Staten Island buses. Starting on May 31st, the MTA will switch on the "pay per ride" feature on your device, giving you a way to just tap your phone and ride. You don't even need to fire up the app itself.
New York City's MTA will support Apple Pay in early summer
If you're a New Yorker, you won't have to wait long to use Apple Pay for mass transit. As part of a call discussing Apple's latest earnings, Tim Cook revealed that New York City's transit system would support Apple Pay in early summer, narrowing down the generic "later this year" mentioned in March. He didn't say just which services and routes would be covered, but the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's tap-to-pay OMNY system is supposed to launch May 31st with coverage on the 4, 5 and 6 subway lines as well as Staten Island buses.
Netflix will invest up to $100 million in a NYC production hub
Netflix films many of its productions in New York City (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is just one example), so it only makes sense to have a large presence there, doesn't it? The company certainly thinks so. It's establishing an NYC production hub that will include six sound stages in Brooklyn and an expanded office in Manhattan's Flatiron District. It should create "hundreds of jobs" (including 127 executive, marketing and production development roles) over the next five years, and should foster up to $100 million in investments, according to Governor Cuomo.
New York fails in its first attempt at face recognition for drivers
New York's bid to identify road-going terrorists with facial recognition isn't going very smoothly so far. The Wall Street Journal has obtained a Metropolitan Transportation Authority email showing that a 2018 technology test on New York City's Robert F. Kennedy Bridge not only failed, but failed spectacularly -- it couldn't detect a single face "within acceptable parameters." An MTA spokesperson said the pilot program would continue at RFK as well as other bridges and tunnels, but it's not an auspicious start.
The Shed and the art of the flex
The Shed's concept is simple: It's the 120-foot tall building that moves. This idea is both its architectural hallmark and its metaphor for the future of culture. Opening on Friday, New York City's half-billion dollar, hybrid museum-meets-performance space can shapeshift to double its indoor perimeter in five minutes.
Waze Beacons will help you navigate inside New York City tunnels
New York City's tunnels are as much a part of its landscape as its subway lines and streets, but they can also be a pain when your GPS signal cuts out and your navigation app is effectively blind. They might not cause headaches for much longer. Waze is launching its wireless Beacons, which help improve navigation in areas with unreliable GPS, across the New York metro area. You'll encounter them in familiar NYC underground sections like the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel and Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
CBS launches streaming-only news service for New York City
CBS is acting on its promise to add a local flavor to its streaming news service. The broadcaster has launched CBSN New York, its first major local streaming service. The internet-only channel promises around-the-clock coverage of NYC's goings on, with CBS 2 and WLNY 10/55 providing both their usual live news broadcasts as well as hour-long live shows just for CBSN. It'll also provide continuous coverage of any breaking events as well as on-demand streams.
Nike's new NYC flagship store is fueled by its mobile app
New York City's 5th Avenue shopping district is home to iconic brands like Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Versace and Adidas, but for the past few months a big member of that list has been missing: Nike. The company closed its flagship NikeTown store at the end of 2017, reportedly in part because it didn't want to be a tenant of the Trump Organization. But Nike never planned to leave 5th Avenue for good, and now it's back with a 68,000-square-foot, six-story space called the "House of Innovation 000." The store, which opened today, was designed with the Nike app in mind -- in what the company is calling a blueprint for its future retail locations.
NYC's security app is ready to protect your phone
You now have your chance to see just how well a New York City-backed mobile security app works in practice: the metropolis (and its tech partner Zimperium) has released NYC Secure for both Android and iOS. As promised, the free software can detect device, app and network threats and recommend actions if it finds something worrisome. It'll advise you to disconnect from a suspicious WiFi hotspot, or tell you to uninstall a malware-laden app. You don't need an internet connection, and it won't transmit sensitive information.
Airbnb is suing NYC to keep from sharing host data
In a role-reversal, Airbnb is the one suing a city, and it's doing so to protect its hosts' privacy. In July, the New York City Council passed a regulation forcing short-term rental services to hand over hosts' names and addresses every month to help a civic crackdown on illegal listings. Airbnb's lawsuit against NYC alleges that the new law violates its users' constitutional rights.
NYC mayor signs ride-hailing vehicle cap into law
After the New York City Council passed legislation proposing a cap on all ride-hailing vehicles, mayor Bill de Blasio signed it into law today. This makes it the first US city to limit the total number of drivers working for Uber, Lyft and other services.
NYC will cap the number of Uber and Lyft vehicles on its streets
The New York City Council just passed legislation to temporarily cap ride-sharing vehicles in the city for a full year. They started considering the proposed bills weeks ago to freeze the amount of licenses granted in order to study the growing industry. New York will be the first major US city to limit the number of vehicles operating under Uber, Lyft and other ride-sharing providers -- and, by passing another bill, let the city establish a minimum pay rate for app-based drivers.
Uber and Lyft hoped 'rainy day' fund would relax NYC regulations
Ridesharing companies really, really don't like the thought of New York City capping their services and otherwise instituting new regulations. To that end, they recently tried a drastic measure: making a charity offer in return for concessions. Lyft's Joe Okpaku informed The Verge that his company, Uber and carpooling service Via unsuccessfully proposed a $100 million "hardship fund" that would have compensated individual taxi medallion owners to the tune of "tens of thousands of dollars." Some would get payments immediately, while further payments would take place over the course of five years. In exchange, however, NYC's City Council would have needed to drop its proposed cap and minimum wage requirements -- not surprisingly, the city turned it down as a result.
NYC may cap the number of Uber and Lyft vehicles on its streets
New York City's bid to regulate the ridesharing industry may include some hard limits on the size of those businesses -- at least, for now. The City Council is looking at proposed legislation that would largely freeze the issuance of ridesharing vehicle licenses while officials work on a year-long study of the cars' effects. The only exception would be for wheelchair-accessible vehicles, which have been in short supply.
After Math: Stay cool
It's been a sweltering week with much of the country swaddled in a record-setting heat wave but that hasn't slowed the tech industry. Netflix is reportedly considering a new HDR-enabled pricing tier for its service, a pair of people were awarded $5 million in their lawsuit against the Fyre Festival, NASA debuted a new heat shield to keep its sun-bound probe from burning up, and Facebook is in talks to host a reality show starring the hottest man on the pitch, Cristiano Ronaldo.
New York City's WiFi kiosks now offer real-time bus arrivals
Numerous cities display real-time bus arrivals on public screens, but New York City? Not so much -- you'll probably have to pull out your phone to know if you have a chance of making your ride. That shouldn't be a problem before long, as the city has launched a pilot program that puts real-time bus info on LinkNYC's gigabit WiFi kiosks. Visit one of 29 kiosks in Brooklyn's City Council District 39 and you can see arrival times for nearby stops at a glance, letting you know when you need to hustle.
NYC’s mayor has a plan to get e-bikes on city roads
San Francisco and other cities around the US have been rolling out pedal-assisted e-bike sharing programs to help decrease street traffic and air pollution. Now New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio has directed his city's Department of Transportation to start making rules that allow pedal-assist bicycles on the streets. Throttle e-bikes that can travel faster than 20 MPH, will not be included in the legalization effort, however. Pedal-assist bikes have been illegal to operate under the current administration due to safety concerns.
NYC will launch its own security-conscious app this summer
New Yorkers will have another security app to consider installing on their devices this summer -- a city-sponsored one. The office of Mayor de Blasio has announced that it's releasing its own free smartphone protection app to residents as part of NYC Secure, the city's first cybersecurity initiative. "New Yorkers manage so much of their lives online, from paying bills to applying for jobs to engaging with government," the mayor said in a statement. "NYC Secure will ensure that we're applying the best and most effective protection efforts to help New Yorkers defend themselves online."
Art and tech studio Eyebeam opens calls for one-year residencies
The NYC-based nonprofit tech and art center Eyebeam has opened a call for residencies. If you're a budding artist or technologist who wants to create works like the anonymous thumbdrives that cropped up around the city almost a decade ago, you can apply on Eyebeam's website.
