Life is like a line of Ubers, you never know what you’re gonna get. Sometimes you get a nice Uber driver who lets you charge your phone. Other times, you get a rude one who refuses to take a pregnant woman to the hospital to give birth.
A New York woman going into labor, along with her husband and birthing coach, called an Uber to take them to the hospital, only to be refused by the driver and get charged $13 for taking up his time. According to Fortune, the driver did not want to take the trio because the woman — who wished to remain nameless — looked like she might vomit, and he didn’t want to deal with the mess. He also said none of his peers would take a woman in labor. As it turned out, his statement proved false, because the group called another driver, who took them to the hospital. They made it in time, and the woman gave birth to a baby boy.
As the second driver proved, you can’t paint all Uber contractors with the same brush, however, it’s incidents like this that make the company look bad. Though Uber eventually issued a refund for the charge from the first driver, the transportation service ceased all communications when the new father, a lawyer, rebutted the company’s driver privacy policy by pointing out that driver licensing is a public record. Uber only responded after Fortune decided to pursue the story, stating it had “taken action to respond to this complaint.”
Uber remains steadfast in its insistence that it is not a taxi company, but rather a software company that makes an app for freelancers to use. It is not the first time the company has used that explanation to absolve itself from incidents that might hurt Uber’s reputation. The company has also used this argument to explain why its drivers should not be required to register as taxis, as well as to justify its minimalist driver screenings, which have allowed convicted sex offenders to be Uber drivers in the past.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.