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.

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

Apple and Nike release limited edition Apple Watch NikeLab

Apple and Nike have partnered once again to release a new model of the Apple Watch Series 2. Calling it the Apple Watch NikeLab, this wearable has the same specs as the Nike+ but features a new black and cream Nike band. It’s supposed to be the “ultimate style companion” for those who love running. For the first time, Apple won’t be selling the Apple Watch NikeLab in its stores or website. This smartwatch will be available starting April 27 on Nikecom, at NikeLab locations, and at an Apple Tokyo pop-up store at the Isetan department store in Japan. MacRumors speculates that the Apple Watch NikeLab will have the same price and size as the Apple Watch Nike+ lineup.

Google Home now has multi-user support for up to six accounts

It’s finally come, even if Google Home isn’t officially available here just yet. Google’s smart speaker/home assistant can support up to six accounts and it can tailor its answers to each person based on their voice. Google makes use of neural networks to identify who’s speaking to it. It picks up certain characteristics in your voice and compares it to previous analysis to see if you’re the one speaking to it. Google boasts this does “only on your device, in a matter of milliseconds.”

But Google has a disclaimer—which it puts in its YouTube ad—that someone who has a similar voice to you might be able to get answers from Home based on your profile. The feature has started to roll out to users in the US and is expected to come to the UK in the coming weeks. Now, here’s to hoping Google Home officially launches here, especially since it’s gotten a whole lot more useful.

Source: The Verge