Original author: MitraSramana

Original author: Maureen Kelly

Original author: Maureen Kelly

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: jyotsna popuri

Amy and I just spent a week of vacation off the grid in Aspen. I ran, read, and hung out. I had a fantasy about writing, but didn’t get to it. We watched Narcos Season 3, ate at a bunch of Aspen’s restaurants, and had an Amy pre-birthday dinner with our friends Dave and Maureen. And we napped – a lot.

I hadn’t had a vacation since mid-April, which is unusual for me as Amy and I try to take a week off the grid every quarter. On day three, which was a Monday, I settled into a total chill zone which lasted all week. I did my long run on Friday (instead of Saturday) and cruised from Aspen to Basalt. I then slept most of the day on Saturday when I wasn’t reading or eating. Yup – I’m marathon ready.

While I’m not quite finished with Reincarnation Blues, I did knock down six other books this week.

Sourdough: I loved this one. Robin Sloan’s previous book, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, was my favorite book of 2013 (thanks Geraldine!) Sourdough was even tastier.

Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening: Intense, powerful, horrifying, and inspiring all at the same time. Manal Al-Sharif is incredible. I hope I get to meet her someday – I’ll thank her for being brave enough to do what she does and to tell her story while doing it.

The Impossible Fortress: My inner 14-year-old loved this book. Loved, loved, loved it. The Commodore 64 code was a bonus.

Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups – Timeless Advice from an Angel Investor Who Turned $100,000 into $100,000,000: I met Jason Calacanis in the mid-1990s when he was peddling his Silicon Alley Reporter magazine. We’ve been friends ever since and I give him a big hug whenever our paths cross. He’s his normal outspoken and bombastic self in this book, which has lots of gems buried in it. I smiled a lot when I read it. And how about that subtitle …

The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War: This book was a grind, but it had a lot of good stuff in it. It’s only 784 pages so it took more than a day to read it. If you are trying to understand what is going on in the current American economy, and why the future will not look like the past, this is a good place to start.

Teach to Work: How a Mentor, a Mentee, and a Project Can Close the Skills Gap in America: As part of my effort to get rolling again on my #GiveFirst book, I thought reading this might be a useful kick in the pants. It wasn’t.

My next vacation is in mid-November. The tank once again has plenty of fuel to get me to that point.

Also published on Medium.

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Original author: Brad Feld

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Tom Blomfield, CEO, Monzo. Monzo

LONDON — Startup bank Monzo is doing away with one of its most popular features — unlimited free ATM withdrawals overseas.

The company, which offers a prepaid money card and is rolling out current accounts, is asking its customers to choose the best new charging option for ATM fees abroad, saying its existing policy has become simply too costly to continue.

Withdrawals from international holes-in-the-wall cost Monzo between 1-2% of each transaction. Costs have more than doubled in the last year from £6 to £16 per user, the company says.

"This seems to be a result of a combination of factors, including people using their Monzo cards more frequently, increased awareness of the free cash withdrawals we’ve offered, and people signing up specifically to use the Monzo card abroad," Tristan Thomas, Monzo's head of marketing and community, wrote in a blog post this week.

Anecdotally, this rings true. I have recommended Monzo to friends and family to use when traveling abroad thanks to its free ATM withdrawals and good rates. (I also included it in a roundup last year of fintech products that can help you save money when traveling.)

13% of users account for 85% of the ATM fee costs, Monzo says, suggesting that a small core of users have been using Monzo extensively abroad.

"We want to build a sustainable, viable business that is around for many years to come," Tristan says. "At the moment, the rising costs of foreign ATM withdrawals makes that difficult."

Spending on cards while abroad, online sales in foreign currencies, and UK ATM withdrawals will all still remain free, Monzo says. But it is asking users to what to do about the overseas ATM withdrawals, offering three options:

1% charge for ATM withdrawals in Europe, 2% charge for withdrawals Rest of World 1.5% charge for ATM withdrawals everywhere outside the UK £200 free allowance per month, 3% charge for withdrawals thereafter everywhere outside the UK

Monzo is inviting feedback from its customer base on its website here.

N26's cofounders, from left, Maximilian Tayenthal and Valentin Stalf. The startup bank shut some accounts last year over ATM fees. Number26

The company is not the first fintech to run into issues with ATM withdrawals. Last year German startup bank N26 shuttered some customer accounts, saying they were running up too great a cost in ATM fees. Travel money card Revolut also introduced fees for ATM withdrawals at the end of last year.

All are grappling with a core problem for many fintech startups — can they convert all their users into paying customers?

Businesses like Monzo and Revolut have caught the attention of investors and the press thanks to the rapid growth of their customer bases. Revolut didn't exist two years ago but already has over half a million users.

Many people have undoubtedly signed up for startups like these because of the low-cost or free services that they offer. Usually, the costs of these services are simply absorbed by the business.

These startups argue that, while giving things like ATM withdrawals costs them money, the cost of user acquisition is still lower than what traditional banks pay. If they can make money from a user through another service, overdrafts say, once they've hooked them with free withdrawals, the up front investment and economics make sense.

However, both Revolut and Monzo are loss making and the claim that they can ultimately make enough money from users to cover costs remains just a theory.

Early indications suggest it could be easier said than done. Travelex launched a card to rival Revolut last year, the SuperCard, which offered free spending abroad but a 2.99% fee on any ATM withdrawals. Clearly, the hope was that customers would get the card but end up doing an ATM withdrawal here and there, giving Travelex a bit of revenue.

Things have not gone to plan. Travelex shut down the SuperCard scheme in May, citing "much higher than anticipated" costs. It seems that it is easier to simply charge the customer the foreign exchange fees up front so that everyone's on the same page.

There are other examples of plans going awry. Monese, a banking app for migrants, found that when people reached their monthly free activity cap, rather than pay for services people just stopped using the app. It has since pivoted to a paid-for model, to ensure customers are willing to pay from the start.

Across fintech, we may well see the growing creep of up-front charges for services as many startups clock that giving away freebies is not quite the same as winning loyal customers.

Original author: Oscar Williams-Grut

The 2018 Nissan Leaf.NissanElectric cars are starting to have their moment. The Tesla Model 3 has begun deliveries, and its main rival, the Chevy Bolt, has been on the market since last October. The vehicles have base prices of $35,000 and about $37,000, respectively, but at the moment Tesla is only manufacturing a $44,000 Premium version.

Both cars are total newbies when compared to the Nissan Leaf, introduced in 2010 and the best-selling electric car of all time (300,000!). The Leaf originally had a range of under 100 miles on a single charge, but its base price was just $30,000 before federal tax credits, and it has gathered a bit of a cult following.

However, the design was never held in high esteem and with newer, longer-range EVs coming to market, Nissan had to update the Leaf. The car has been revamped for the 2018 model year, with 150 miles of range and improved styling (less Star Trek shuttlecraft, more contemporary five-door hatchback).

The Tesla Model 3.Timothy Artman/TeslaLike the Bolt, the Leaf aims for practicality over sex appeal. The Model 3, on the other hand, is a snazzy looking set of wheels. That said, the new Leaf was clearly influenced by Tesla's example. A decade ago, the idea was that hybrids and EVs should advertise their virtues with a sort of anti-design (see the Toyota Prius). The Leaf was very much in that vein.

Tesla reversed that paradigm. Which was not as difficult for Elon Musk's carmaker because Tesla went after the luxury market first, whereas Nissan aimed for a slice of the mass market that wanted to experiment with EVs.

We're had the opportunity to check out both the Model 3 and the new Leaf, up close and personal, although we haven't yet officially reviewed either vehicle.

That doesn't mean we can't make some aesthetic comparisons. How does sensible — and seasoned — stack up against sexy and futuristic?

Here's an annotated take:

Original author: Matthew DeBord and Skye Gould

In the three days since Apple took the wraps off the iPhone X, the forthcoming device's facial recognition capabilities have drawn a substantial amount of attention.

Apple fans have welcomed Face ID as the future and the preferred way to unlock an iPhone X. Some privacy advocates have pointed out that the concept seems a little dystopian.

But others, like Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, who chairs a Senate privacy committee, want answers about how it works.

While Apple provided few details about the facial recognition system during the announcement a few days ago, the company now says it plans to release more information about Face ID privacy and security before the device goes on sale on November 3.

Apple's senior vice president for software, Craig Federighi, said that Apple plans to release a security "white paper" on Face ID in an interview with TechCrunch on Friday. Apple often releases detailed, technical reports it calls white papers on critical security features. 

One of the common misconceptions about Face ID that Apple is keen to dispel is that Apple is building a database of faces with its new feature. "Face ID data never leaves the device, is encrypted and protected by the Secure Enclave," an Apple representative told Business Insider. 

Apple's iPhone X.Apple"We do not gather customer data when you enroll in Face ID, it stays on your device, we do not send it to the cloud for training data,” Federighi told TechCrunch. 

An Apple representative provided this statement in response to a question from about Franken's request for information:

Our teams have been developing the technologies behind Face ID for several years, and our users’ privacy has been a priority since the very beginning.

Face ID provides intuitive and secure authentication enabled by the TrueDepth camera system and the A11 Bionic chip, which uses advanced technologies to accurately map and match the geometry of a user's face. Face ID data never leaves the device, is encrypted and protected by the Secure Enclave.

We’ve tested Face ID on people from many countries, cultures, races and ethnicities, using over one billion images to train our neural networks and defend against spoofing.

We’re confident that our customers will love using the feature and find it an easy and natural way to unlock their iPhone X. We will offer more details on Face ID as we near the product’s availability.

A Franken representative did not immediately respond to a inquiry about whether Apple has replied to the senator. 

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Original author: Kif Leswing

Equifax's top information-security executives are leaving the credit-reporting company after a data breach that exposed the personal financial information of 143 million Americans.

The consumer-data firm's CIO, David Webb, and its chief security officer, Susan Mauldin, are "retiring" a week after Equifax announced the cyber attack that has been called one of the worst such data breaches in US history.

Webb will be replaced by Mark Rohrwasser, who joined the company last year, Equifax said in an emailed statement. Mauldin will be replaced by Russ Ayres. Both Rohrwasser and Ayers have previously worked in Equifax's IT division.

The hack occurred between mid-May and July, Equifax said when it first disclosed the break in last week.

The company said criminals had accessed details including names and social security numbers. Credit card numbers for about 209,000 people, and certain documents for another 182,000 were also accessed. Equifax has set up a website to help people figure out if they are among those whose information was compromised.

Markets InsiderThe company said there was no evidence of a breach into its core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases, and has since admitted that the source of the breach was a software flaw that could have been prevented.

Three Equifax executives sold nearly $2 million in company stock just days after the breach.

The company said the executives "had no knowledge" of the incident beforehand, according to an emailed statement from the credit-monitoring agency.

Some US lawmakers have called for an investigation of the breach, with Equifax's CEO expected to testify before Congress over the matter, and the company's shares have plunged in the days since it was disclosed.

The breach could be one of the biggest in the United States, Reuters reported. Last December, Yahoo said more than one billion user accounts were compromised in August 2013, while in 2014 eBay had urged 145 million users to change their passwords following a cyber attack.

Original author: Bryan Logan

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Larry Ellison, Mark Hurd, and Safra Catz saw their company's stock plunge 8% on Friday. Noah Berger/Reuters, Robert Galbraith/Reuters, and Justin Sullivan/Getty

Investors weren't happy with Oracle's latest earnings forecast and made their feelings known Friday. 

Oracle's stock fell as much as 8.2% in regular trading before closing at $48.74, down $4.05 or 7.7%. 

Investors were responding to the company's latest quarterly report, issued Thursday, in which it offered disappointing guidance for its cloud revenue and profits for its second fiscal quarter.

Oracle forecast its cloud revenue would increase between 39% and 43% in the quarter. That may be fast-paced, but it would represent a slowdown from the 51.4% pace at which its cloud revenue grew in its just-completed first quarter. 

Oracle has been struggling to catch up with Amazon and Microsoft in cloud services, and investors have been closely scrutinizing its efforts.

The company also predicted that its per-share earnings in the second quarter will be between $0.64 and $0.68. Prior to the report, analysts were predicting the company would earn $0.68 per share in the period.

The disappointing news from Oracle may be partly a result of expectations that had gotten too high. Things were looking good for the company in June when it reported its cloud revenue in its fourth quarter had grown 58%. That spurred analysts to boost their price targets for the company's stock to $54.84 per share. 

Friday's sell-off of Oracle's stock could affect more than just general shareholders. Last week, the company revealed an update to its executive compensation program that ties the pay of founder Larry Ellison and joint CEOs Safra Catz and Mark Hurd to the performance of its stock and its success in the cloud market.  

To meet their pay targets —$103.7 million each in 2022, or $20.74 million annually — the team must get Oracle's stock to an average price of $80 per share for at least 30 days before 2022 and hit $20 billion in total cloud revenues in one fiscal year. Oracle's total cloud revenues in 2017 were $4.57 billion.

Original author: Becky Peterson