California’s “Gig Worker Law” Has Passed, but Uber Says It Shouldn’t Have to...
AB 5, a groundbreaking labor bill that would expand job benefits and pay guarantees to thousands of workers formerly classified as independent contractors, cleared the state Senate and Assembly on...
View ArticleSome Popular YouTube Creators Are About to Lose Their Verified Status
YouTube is breaking the hearts of many of its most beloved creators, announcing yesterday that it will be stripping an army video makers of their hard-won verification checkmarks. In a shift that seems...
View ArticleOverheated Angelenos Can Now Consider Renting a Swimming Pool by the Hour
For folks facing another broiling L.A. fall without access to their own swimming pools, the Airbnb of aquatic relief is here. A website called Swimply will now allow you pay by the hour to rent someone...
View ArticleWhy Some Celebs Are Giving Out Their “Phone Numbers” to Fans
It’s 2019 and it’s not enough to follow a celebrity on Instagram or Twitter. Now, celebrities are giving out their digits. Sort of. Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Lopez, Ian Somerhalder, and even the Jonas...
View ArticleMaxine Waters Put the Screws to Mark Zuckerberg at Today’s Congressional...
Mark Zuckerberg was hauled before the House Financial Services Committee this morning, ostensibly to discuss Facebook’s foray into cryptocurrency, Libra. But, as soon as Los Angeles Congresswoman...
View ArticleWaymo is Creating 3D Maps of L.A. for Its Driverless Cars
Waymo, Google’s autonomous vehicle development company, deployed three of its self-driving minivans in Los Angeles last week to explore how the vehicles might eventually fit into the city’s...
View Article50 Years Ago Today, the First Internet Message Was Dispatched from UCLA
The world wide web wouldn’t be possible without ARPANET, a government-funded research effort launched at UCLA in 1969. Leonard Kleinrock, a professor of computer science at the university and one of...
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Elon Musk, Twitter’s Favorite Tweeter, Is ‘Going Offline’
Billionaire funboy and space pioneer Elon Musk seems to have announced this morning that he’s leaving or at least taking a break from his favorite/most hated social media site. In a rapid-fire tweet...
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What Does a Chinese Company Want with Gay Hookup App Grindr?
In 2016 when a largely unknown Chinese company dropped $93 million to purchase a controlling stake in the world’s most ubiquitous gay hookup app, the news caught everyone by surprise. Beijing Kunlun...
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L.A. Wants to Know Where Scooter Commuters Are Going. Uber Says That’s...
Angelenos used to zipping around the city on Uber’s fleet of electric scooters and bicycles may soon have to find alternative means of transportation (or, er, a different brand of scooter or bike) as...
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James Dean to Suffer CGI Resurrection in Upcoming Movie—and Everyone Hates...
Screen icon and method acting pioneer James Dean is forever connected to the motto, “Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse,” but now a group of filmmakers have paid off the legend’s...
View ArticleHow Letterboxd Is Trying to Get an Edge Over Other Movie Apps
Letterboxd, an online film database crossed with a social networking app, describes itself as “the Goodreads of movies.” Last month the platform launched a partnership with JustWatch.com so that users...
View ArticleHackers Reportedly Got Ahold of People’s Disney+ Log-Ins Almost Instantly
On November 12, just hours after Disney launched its new streaming service, Disney+, complaints began surfacing that new subscribers—all of them desperate to watch The Mandalorian, no doubt—had been...
View ArticleWhat’s Apple’s Streaming Strategy? Think of It as Content as Catnip
It’s hard to grasp how Apple—albeit, one of America’s most successful companies—expects to compete in the streaming wars when it’s offering a fraction of the viewing choices of competitors like...
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A Game-Changing Electric Mustang and More to See at the L.A. Auto Show
The 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show opens to the public today at the L.A. Convention Center, as slumping sales, shifting technologies, and the coming of age of a generation diffident about car ownership are...
View ArticleA Jury Decided Elon Musk’s “Pedo Guy” Tweet Wasn’t Defamation
A Los Angeles jury determined on Friday afternoon that Elon Musk did not defame British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth when he referred to him as “pedo guy” in a 2018 tweet. The verdict came after...
View ArticleElon Musk Has Quietly Been Buying Up an Entire Cul-de-Sac in Bel-Air for Years
“People think I have a lot of cash. I actually don’t,” billionaire Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk told a packed Los Angeles federal courtroom last week. If the electric car titan has been a bit thin...
View ArticleVideo Game and Tech Company Workers Are Turning to Unions for Labor Protection
The next Call of Duty may come with a “union made” sticker. One of the largest unions in the United States has teamed up with gaming industry activists to unionize the tech and gaming industries. The...
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Matchmakers Are Doing a Brisk Business Pairing Silicon Valley CEOs with L.A....
Did you hear the one about the actress who caught her boyfriend in bed with another woman? “Tom!” she cried. “What are you doing?” “Well, I got a speaking part in the new Spider-Man,” he replied, “and...
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Delivery Apps Are Forcing L.A. Restaurants to Adjust to a Take-Out World—or...
Canter’s is the Dodger Stadium of delis. The enormous menu; the nearly 24-hour service; the Kibitz Room, home to generations of rock and rollers and late-night rabble-rousers—none of it has changed in...
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