Airbnb quietly tries out new paying scheme for guests

When you book a home with Airbnb, the policy is to pay upfront once you decide where to stay. But a new option has been spotted by Fast Company’s Ruth Reader while looking for her honeymoon destination. It hasn’t been officially launched but her account seems to be part of a small group of users that are shown a new “partial-payment feature.” It lets her pay partially for the place she booked and then having to pay the remaining balance two weeks before she arrives.

According to Airbnb’s spokesman Tim Rathschmidt, “We’re always looking for ways to make booking with and paying for Airbnb listings easier for guests, but have nothing to announce at this time.” It seems to be in the early testing phase yet but Reader theorizes this is being tested out on people who have booked far in advance and above a certain price point to make the feature attractive and more worthwhile. As she points out, from the time of the first payment and the next one, her and her fiancé will have four paychecks each, giving them more time to save up for it.

Review: 2017 Lincoln MKZ

One thing that impressed me about the 2017 Lincoln MKZ is the power it had given the 2.0L 4-cylinder engine under the hood. Thanks to the turbocharger, the vehicle had pep and didn’t lag when I wanted it to accelerate quickly. If you’re in the market for a mid-size luxury vehicle, take a look at the MKZ with me.

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Google PhotoScan now lets you turn off glare removal

A new update for the Google PhotoScan app makes the process of scanning faster and sharing easier. One of the new features include the ability to turn off glare removal. As Google reasons, “…sometimes, the lighting is just right, and there’s no glare present. For those moments, you can now turn off glare removal and scan in one step.” It’s something you can toggle right in the camera window. Even if you turn off glare removal, you can still access PhotoScan’s other features like cropping, image straightening, edge detection, and rotating to the correction orientation.

The app also now lets you share your new scan right after you take the photo. This means you don’t need to log on to Google Photos to start sharing. The new update is coming to both Android and iOS versions of the app.

Source: GSM Arena

Review: 2017 Cadillac XT5 Platinum

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

I recently took the 2017 Cadillac XT5 Platinum to a Easter family trip to Montreal. I was wondering if this mid-sized SUV would fit my specific requirements, which was to haul three adults, one child, and all our necessities (plus space for some shopping on the way back).

I picked up a stunning Crystal White Tricoat Platinum model, which seems to be a shimmering white at first glance but which has a pearlescent sheen when the light hits it. The XT5 is balanced, not too muscular yet not insanely angular. 

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