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Farhad’s and Mike’s Week in Tech: Ride-Hailing News Owns the Road

By FARHAD MANJOO and MIKE ISAAC

Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

A settlement in class-action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts maintains the status of Uber drivers as independent contractors.

Ford says that it expects to have a fully autonomous car fleet on the road within five years. Uber announced an acquisition. And Lyft has a hard time finding any takers.

Lyft was valued at $5.5 billion after an investment round by G.M. and others in January, making it one of the more pre-eminent unicorn companies in Silicon Valley.

Lyft Is Said to Seek a Buyer, Without Success

By DAVID GELLES and MIKE ISAAC

The talks underline how difficult it has become to operate in the ride-hailing market, where people can book rides from drivers through a smartphone app.

The co-founders of Otto, Anthony Levandowski, left, and Lior Ron, were veterans of Google’s car and mapping efforts before they started Otto in January.

Uber Aims for an Edge in the Race for a Self-Driving Future

By BILL VLASIC and MIKE ISAAC

The company said it had acquired a start-up comprising former Google and Carnegie Mellon engineers, as well as announced a partnership with Volvo to test self-driving cars on Pittsburgh streets in a matter of weeks.

Judge Overturns Uber’s Settlement With Drivers

By MIKE ISAAC

The settlement was “not fair, adequate and reasonable,” the judge said, and the reimbursement was far beneath what might have been won had the suit proceeded.

More News

Should You Charge Your Phone Overnight?

By JONAH ENGEL BROMWICH

Leaving your phone plugged in when its battery is already fully charged shouldn’t be bad for it. Except that the act of charging can itself hurt our phones.

Downtown Phoenix, as seen from the offices of Gainsight, a Redwood City, Calif., company that opened the 12-person office in November.

Bay Area Start-Ups Find Low-Cost Outposts in Arizona

By CONOR DOUGHERTY

After struggling with high salaries and soaring housing costs, some Silicon Valley tech companies expanded outward to areas where they could grow quickly and make jobs more appealing.

Hampton Creek, Maker of Just Mayo, Is Said to Be Under Inquiry

By NICK WINGFIELD and KATIE BENNER

The report of an S.E.C. inquiry follows a Bloomberg article describing an effort by Hampton Creek to buy large quantities of its egg-free mayonnaise.

Tech Tip

The iBooks Author program is designed to make e-books for Apple devices, but you can also save your creation as a PDF file for reading on non-Apple tablets and other screens.

Picking a Digital Publishing Format

By J. D. BIERSDORFER

E-book readers and tablets can handle several types of files, but some may work better for certain kinds of books.

Bits

A software engineer at work in one of Otto’s big-rig trucks.

Daily Report: Uber Dominates Thursday

By PUI-WING TAM

An acquisition, a self-driving partnership with Volvo and lawsuit news kept Uber at the forefront of tech for most of the day.

Corner Office

Bracken Darrell is the chief executive of Logitech.

Bracken Darrell of Logitech: Be Sure to Tell the Boss What’s Wrong

By ADAM BRYANT

The C.E.O. of Logitech says that when a company goes through tough times, employees need to speak up and know they will be heard.

Meet Marcus, Goldman Sachs’s Online Lender for the Masses

By NATHANIEL POPPER

The company plans to introduce a retail banking operation called Marcus, which will offer small consumer loans, which Goldman has traditionally avoided.

Your Money Adviser

Social Security Retreats From Cellphone-Based Online Security

By ANN CARRNS

The change means users can log on to their online “mySocialSecurity” accounts as before, with just a username and password.

Nick Denton, Gawker Media’s chief executive, was known for saying that journalists shared the most interesting stories not in their articles but with each other at the bar after work.

Gawker.com to Shut Down Next Week

By SYDNEY EMBER

Word of the website’s closing comes after the sale of its parent, Gawker Media, to Univision this week.

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Personal Technology

State of the Art

A Charming Alternative Universe of You, Your Friends and No News

By FARHAD MANJOO

Both Snapchat Stories and the newer Instagram Stories let users experience their friends’ most intimate and endearing moments in a news-free zone.

Tech Fix

Duo, Google’s video-calling app, is an alternative to Apple’s FaceTime.

Google Duo Makes Video Calling Between Operating Systems Easier

By BRIAN X. CHEN

The app fits into Google’s playbook. Over the last few years, Google has increasingly offered its important software and internet services to iPhone customers.