Virtual phone number apps are gaming the App Store with duplicates

If you’ve searched the App Store for an app to get a second phone number, chances are you found dozens of apps with very little differences. A handful of companies are spamming the App Store with duplicated apps. This strategy is against Apple’s rules.

The App Store Review Guidelines are detailed rules that define what you can and cannot do on the App Store. As soon as you sign up for a developer account and submit an app to the App Store review team, you agree to comply with those rules. It’s a long document, but the rule 4.3 titled “Spam” is straightforward:

Don’t create multiple Bundle IDs of the same app. If your app has different versions for specific locations, sports teams, universities, etc., consider submitting a single app and provide the variations using in-app purchase. Also avoid piling on to a category that is already saturated; the App Store has enough fart, burp, flashlight, and Kama Sutra apps already. Spamming the store may lead to your removal from the Developer Program.

A tipster looked at a specific category in the App Store — VoIP apps that let you get a second phone number, send and receive calls and texts from that new number. I looked at that category myself and here are the results of my investigation.

Companies don’t even try to hide the fact that have submitted multiple versions of the same app with different names and icons. But core features remain the same. Apple hasn’t enforced its own guideline properly and developers took advantage of that grey area.

Example 1: TextMe

As you can see on the company’s website, TextMe currently operates three apps and is open about it — TextMe Up, TextMe and FreeTone. These three apps all have an average of 4.7 stars in the App Store with hundreds of thousands of reviews in total.

The wording is slightly different for each app. TextMe Up lets you “call & text anyone in the world from your mobile, tablet, and computer”, while TextMe lets you “get a new phone number and start texting and making calls for free” and FreeTone is all about “[enjoying] free calls & texts to the phone numbers in the US and Canada”.

But if you look at the App Store screenshots, the company doesn’t even bother changing the screenshots or marketing copy.

“Our apps have a different marketing target,” TextMe, Inc. co-founder and co-CEO Patrice Giami told me in a phone interview. “They share the same code base, but we can activate or deactivate some features in order to differentiate the apps. We manage that depending on the competitive environment and if we need to optimize distribution.”

Giami also believes that his company complies with the App Store guidelines. “Apple is doing a very systematic review — we’re constantly scrutinized because we release a lot of app updates. We’ve never been flagged or contacted by Apple — they’ve never said that we’re releasing complete clones of the same app,” he said.

TextMe uses the same developer account for its three apps, Text Me, Inc. Apple could easily compare those apps if it wanted to.

Example 2: BinaryPattern and Flexible Numbers LLC

This case is a bit more sophisticated. The company behind those apps has two different developer accounts and tried to differentiate its App Store listings a bit. Similarly, buttons and colors slightly vary from app to another, but it’s the same feature set.

Here are a few screenshots I took:

Texting/Calling Phone Burner

Smiley Private Texting SMS

Texting Shield – Phone Number

Burner Phone Numbers SMS/Calls

Business Line Phone Number

I’ve reached out to BinaryPattern/Flexible Numbers and haven’t heard back.

Example 3: Appsverse Inc.

This time, Phoner, Second Line and Text Burner all share the same developer account. Even though these apps let you do the same thing, Appsverse has released its app in three different App Store categories — utilities, productivity and social networking.

By doing that, the company’s apps appear in multiple categories. Text Burner is #88 in social networking, Second Line is #74 in productivity and Phoner is #106 in utilities.

It seems a bit counterintuitive as Appsverse splits their downloads between multiple apps. But I believe the main reason the company is releasing multiple apps is for keyword optimization and App Store search results. It then picks a different category for each app, but it’s a side effect.

Appsverse has sent me the following statement:

“The guideline promotes a healthy App Store ecosystem that is good for both developers and users. It prevents proliferation of similar apps that does not have a differentiation in business model, features, use cases and demographic appeal.”

Example 4: Telos Mobile and Dingtone Inc.

On paper, Dingtone and Telos look like two different apps from two different companies. I downloaded the Dingtone app and signed up with my email address. I then downloaded the Telos app and signed up with the same email address. Here’s the message I got:

I’ve reached out to Telos/Dingtone and haven’t heard back.

A level playing field

Those companies haven’t done anything illegal. They took advantage of Apple’s lack of oversight on an App Store rule. Releasing multiple versions of the same app is a great App Store optimization strategy. This way, you can pick a different name, different keywords and different categories. Chances are potential customers are going to see your app in their App Store search results.

While Apple is usually quite strict when it comes to App Store guidelines, it hasn’t enforced some of them. And this is unfair for app developers who play by the rules. They can’t compete as effectively with companies that know that they can ignore some rules.

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Facebook announces new program for premium video ads

Facebook is expanding its efforts around premium video advertising with a new program called Facebook Showcase.

This follows the announcement last fall of what the company calls In-Stream Reserve advertising — video ads with a curated list of hundreds of publishers, at a set price, with Nielsen-verified audiences. In fact, Facebook said at a press event today that In-Stream Reserve ads are reaching nearly 100 million U.S. viewers each month.

“That’s TV-like scale,” said Head of U.S. Agency Sales Erik Geisler (pictured above). He added that Facebook offers an effective way to reach the younger audiences that are moving away from linear TV, since 43 percent of In-Stream Reserve viewers are between the ages of 18 and 34.

How does Showcase change things? It combines this video advertising with the ability to run ads on a specific content category (including sports, fashion/beauty and the new additions of food and news), and to exclusively sponsor individual shows. And now advertisers can buy those ads for the 2019-2020 broadcast year.

“It takes In-Stream Reserve from a quarter-by-quarter opportunity [to something] more in line with the upfronts,” Geisler said.

Matthew Henick, Facebook

Facebook’s video destination Watch doesn’t exactly seem like a runaway success. In fact, Digiday just reported that Facebook won’t be renewing two-thirds of the news shows that it commissioned for Watch. However, Matthew Henick, who leads Facebook’s content and planning strategy, said he actually expects news content on Facebook to grow.

“We’re not cutting two-thirds of what our final output would be, we’re reexamining previous commitments,” he said.

More broadly, Facebook has said that Watch is attracting 400 million viewers who are watching at least one minute of video each month, and 75 million viewers who are watching at least one minute per day. And those daily viewers are actually averaging 20 minutes per day.

Henick said that there are “three main pillars” to Facebook’s video strategy: community, interactivity and the ability to “co-watch” a show with others.

He also announced a new animated comedy called “Human Discoveries,” which will star Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick and premiere sometime this year, while also revealing more details about Facebook’s upcoming revival of “The Real World” — apparently it will also be streaming old seasons of the show, as voted on by Facebook users.

And while Watch is at the center of Facebook’s premium video strategy, it’s worth noting that Showcase ads aren’t limited to Watch; they can be viewed across Watch, the News Feed and Facebook Pages.

Facebook Watch is finally growing as payouts get spread thin

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Google’s new AI grammar checker are now live in Google Docs

Google today announced that its new machine learning-powered grammar checker is now live in Google Docs. The company first introduced this new feature at Cloud Next 2018, but it lingered in early access ever since.

Grammar checkers are nothing new, of course, and even Docs itself has long had one. What’s new here is that Google uses machine translation techniques to find obvious mistakes (see headline) as well as more subtle issues. It’s one thing, after all, to compare words in a dictionary to what you’re writing and mark up mistakes. It’s another to understand complex grammar rules, which can vary by region and style. The company claims that its machine translation technique is able to catch these kinds of issues because they are very hard to encode as a set of hard rules.

“Using machine translation, we are able to recognize errors and suggest corrections as work is getting done,” G Suite product manager Vishnu Sivaji explains in today’s announcement. “We worked closely with linguists to decipher the rules for the machine translation model and used this as the foundation of automatic suggestions in your Docs, all powered by AI.”

What Google is essentially doing here is training a model with correct sentences and then using the same kind of models it would use for translating sentences from English to French to translate incorrect sentences into correct ones.

Google Docs gets an AI grammar checker

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Google’s Flutter toolkit will get web-based dev tooling

Google today launched version 1.2 of its Flutter cross-platform UI framework at MWC Barcelona. With this, Flutter now features support for Android App Bundles, Google’s latest technology for packaging Android apps more efficiently and for creating instant apps, too. In addition, the framework lays the groundwork for helping developers accept in-app payments and adds a number of new web-based tools, too.

It’s only been a couple of months since the Flutter team shipped version 1.0. In case you are wondering what happened to version 1.1: that was last month’s beta release and the team plans to ship roughly one 1.x update every month.

Unsurprisingly, this update comes with the usual stability and performance updates, as well as the latest Dart 2.2 SDK (by default, Flutter apps are written in Google’s Dart language), but the team also notes that it worked hard to improve iOS support, too, with support for floating cursor text editing, for example.

While Flutter always focused on mobile, the team also recently started talking about building desktop apps with the framework. To prepare for that, version 1.2 now features new keyboard events and mouse hover support. Project Hummingbird, the Flutter team’s project for bringing Flutter to the web, will also become available as a technical preview in the next few months.

As far as the new dev tools go, it’s worth noting that Google already built Flutter support into Android Studio and added tools for Microsoft’s increasingly popular Visual Studio Code. Now, it’s also building new web-based programming tools, the Dart DevTools. These run locally and include a widget inspector, a timeline view, a source-level debugger and a logging view.

For now, these tools are officially in preview and are available for installation alongside the existing VS Code and Android Studio extensions and add-ins.

“We plan to invest further in Dart DevTools as a first-class unified tool for Flutter developers, and as integration for web-based experiences improves, we plan to build these services directly into tools like Visual Studio Code,” the team notes in today’s updates.

In addition to today’s launch, the Flutter team also announced a new contest: Flutter Create, which challenges developers to build something “interesting, inspiring and beautiful” with Flutter using 5K or less of Dart code. Among the prizes is a $10,000 iMac Pro, which, at 128 GB of RAM, isn’t likely to struggle with that 5K code base.

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Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI fund, leads $7M investment in English learning app Elsa

Google’s Gradient Ventures, the search giant’s dedicated AI fund, is casting its eye to Asia after it led a $7 million Series A round for Elsa, a startup that operates an app for English language learners.

The deal is Gradient’s first in Asia, and it includes participation from existing investors Monk’s Hill Ventures and SOSV. Elsa has now raised $12 million raised to date.

Elsa was founded in 2015 as a way to help non-English speakers improve their accent and general speaking ability. Vu Van, CEO and one half of the founding team, is a Vietnamese national who, despite being fluent in English, struggled to be understood after moving to the U.S. to study and then work. Together with speech recognition researcher Dr. Xavier Anguera — the startup’s CTO who leads its Portugal-based tech team — Van started Elsa to help people in the same predicament.

“I was very good at grammar, reading and writing but I realized people had a hard time understanding me because I had a very strong accent and my pronunciation wasn’t proper,” Van, who is based in San Francisco but travels extensively, told TechCrunch in an interview. “This impacts confidence when you apply for jobs or are even just meeting friends.”

“There are so many English learning solutions but they are mostly focused on expanding vocabulary or grammar, very few deal with pronunciation,” she added.

Elsa uses voice recognition and AI to grade a user’s speaking versus standard American English (and I thought us Brits were the global standard…) giving them a score at the end. That helps track their progress, while it focuses on pronunciation with a detailed review on how a user is speaking.

The service uses a freemium model that grants users full access to 1,000 courses for around $3-6 per month depending on the length of the package they opts for. That ranges from one month of access to 12 months. New content is added every week, Van said.

With this money in the bag, Elsa is going after growth in a number of its most promising markets.

The service has users in over 100 countries, but Vietnam is its top market with two million paying users. Partly because is it us Van’s home market, Elsa has doubled down on Vietnam with a local sales team and localized payments, including the likes of bank transfers and local wallets.

That’s the blueprint for expansion in its next three target countries; Japan, Indonesia and India. Already, Esla has opened an office in Tokyo and it is planning to introduce more localized content for Japanese users. Similar efforts will happen in Indonesia and India, where Van said the app sees strong engagement and downloads without any paid marketing efforts.

Elsa is also working on expanding its content from English to include other languages. Spanish is currently on the horizon and the company is already preparing the backend technology to make it possible.

“We have to build the voice recognition technology to recognize those languages accurately. We have the infrastructure but now just need to collect voice data to train the model,” explained Van.

Vu Van started Elsa in 2015 with Dr. Xavier Anguera to help non-English speakers improve their accent and general speaking ability.

Beyond geographic expansion, Elsa is also going after schools and classrooms. Already, in Vietnam, it is working with a handful of schools who have added the app to their classroom work. The company allows schools to upload their specific content or curriculum to Elsa to make it part of a student’s homework or assessment. Teachers can see if a student has completed oral homework, and the app grades their efforts.

“We want to help these teachers help their students,” Van said. “Even with the best intentions, they simply can’t teach speaking.”

The model for the education push sees schools pay a licensing fee per student, which Van said is subsidized while uploading their content is free.

Snagging investment from Gradient is a notable achievement for Elsa, but it will also allow the startup to tap into the company’s talent, too. That’s because Gradient operates a rotational program that allows Google employees to spend three to six months working at portfolio startups on secondment. That process hasn’t kicked off for Elsa just yet, but Van is hopeful of securing an engineer who might otherwise be prohibitively expensive for her company.

Gradient Ventures was founded in 2017 and this deal is the fund’s 18th, according to Crunchbase. Its previous investments include Canvass Analytics and Test.ai.

The Elsa team

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Light is expanding from smartphone cameras to self-driving cars

This year’s MWC has been very much the beginning of a new phase for Light. Until now, the Palo Alto startup has been best know for its 16-lens DSLR competitor, an utterly fascinating, if not particularly practical device.

At this week’s show, however, we’re seeing a wholly different side of the company, one focused on partnerships. The event has seen the company announce three big ones — Nokia device maker HMD, Chinese handset company Xiaomi and Sony, whose component manufacturing division will be teaming with Light to develop advanced modules for its near-near-ubiquitous camera hardware.

It’s a promising new start for the five-year-old company, and one that could help Light become a major player for mobile cameras, going forward. In an interview, CEO Dave Grannan told TechCrunch that the trio of deals are just the beginning, with more partnerships planned for a 2019 announcement.

The Nokia 9 is the first product of these deals. Announced at the show this week, the five-camera limited edition flagship is the product of a module that appeared last year, utilizing the array to create complex composite image similar to sorts of RAW shots one takes with an SLR. It’s one of a number of different array that can utilize Light’s technology to build a better mobile multi-camera system.

“When we started light five years ago, it wasn’t obvious that we would build a dedicated camera to begin with,” Grannan tells TechCrunch. “We realized that we really needed to build a reference device. Something to show the world what could be done. The idea from the first days was to prove to the world that it could be done and then start licensing our technology into other verticals starting with mobile phones.”

The proof-of-concept 16 camera system was always meant to be a limited edition product, according to the executive, and it ultimately sold out of its initial run. That number was in the tens of thousands, according to Grannan, though he won’t go into any more detail beyond that.

He was happy to discuss the startup’s future, however. In July, light raised a whopping $121 million, led by Softbank, bringing its total funding up to $181 million. It was the CEO Masayoshi Son who suggested the next step in the company’s evolution, moving to autonomous vehicles. While Light would be a new entrant in a field that already involves dozens of focused startups, Grannan believes it can offer imaging systems at a fraction of the cost of current LIDAR rigs — at around $5,000 apiece.

Light also plans to expand into security cameras, helping systems better process the information they collect. For now, however, it’s focused on mobile. And in spite of a push toward a more software focused approached to mobile camera improvement, Grannan believes that phone camera arrays will continue to expand — though perhaps not quite to the 16-camera level Light implemented on its own devices. Currently the company is working on a nine-camera module.

“Within a couple of years, three cameras will seem quaint,” Grannan says. “People are going to need this approach because it’s never good enough with imaging.”

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Tinder launches a Spring Break mode

Tinder, the dating app company which, as of late, has been more fully embracing its status as the preferred hook-up app of choice for the younger generation, is today launching a new feature designed for its college-aged Tinder U users: Spring Break mode. The feature will allow students to swipe through potential matches before heading out to their Spring Break destination.

Here’s how it works.

From March 4 through March 31, 2019, Spring Break mode will go live in Tinder offering 20 popular destinations, including Cabo, Lake Havasu, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, Puerto Vallarta, San Diego and others. To opt in, Tinder U users will need to look for the Spring Break card while swiping.

When they see it, they can then select their Spring Break destination to see who’s going. This destination will then be shown to potential matches through a badge on their profiles.

The idea, says Tinder, was inspired by trends the company was already seeing in product usage during this March time frame, when there would be huge upticks in some cities and locations. For example, South Padre Island experienced a 100x increase in activity in March 2018 compared to the previous month; Panama City saw a 10x increase; Destin Beach a 6x increase; and both Cabo San Lucas and Lake Havasu saw a 2x increase.

In addition to using its own data from past spring breaks, Tinder also consulted with its Tinder U users about which destinations to include.

“Spring Break, like Tinder, is a staple for many college students across the country,” said Jenny Campbell, Chief Marketing Officer at Tinder, in a statement. “We’ve historically seen huge upticks in Tinder usage during Spring Break in these destinations, and we are excited to give users the unique experience to connect before they pack their bags,” she said.

The new feature is one of several ways that Tinder is focusing on its more casual use case, as of late. Last November, the company told investors during its Q3 earnings that it would begin marketing the app as a way to enjoy the “single lifestyle” – that is, catering to a younger demographic’s demand for wanting to date around while in their 20’s – before they’re ready to settle down.

Tinder had also begun an online publication, Swipe Life, and is running various advertising campaigns, related to this initiative.

For years, Tinder had tried to downplay the app’s more casual nature, but it’s now able to change course due to its acquisition of dating app Hinge. Similarly aimed at younger users and millennials, Hinge is focused on creating relationships, not hook-ups. That frees up Tinder to refocus on what it does best: quick matches.

Tinder parent Match Group had hinted at its plans for Tinder U, during its earnings call earlier this month.

“In 2019, we are planning to solidify our leadership position among college students by expanding Tinder U to cover even more schools throughout the U.S. while also launching Tinder U in select international markets,” said Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg, speaking to investors. “We’re also expanding marketing through our on campus brand ambassadors and social media influencers. Expect to see more events and marketing tied to the school social calendar such as Rivalry Week and Spring Break,” she noted.

However, by shifting focus more towards a younger, less established customer base, Tinder could be challenged on the revenue side as college students are less likely to have disposable incomes for things like a paid Tinder Gold subscription. Instead, Tinder will need to generate revenue from these users through in-app purchases – like Boost and Super Like (the latter which is often used by mistake, turning it into a running joke on the dating app.)

Tinder said it was considering a wider range of a la carte features in the future, and plans to focus on this aspect of its service, as well, in 2019.

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Tinder launches a Spring Break mode

Tinder, the dating app company which, as of late, has been more fully embracing its status as the preferred hook-up app of choice for the younger generation, is today launching a new feature designed for its college-aged Tinder U users: Spring Break mode. The feature will allow students to swipe through potential matches before heading out to their Spring Break destination.

Here’s how it works.

From March 4 through March 31, 2019, Spring Break mode will go live in Tinder offering 20 popular destinations, including Cabo, Lake Havasu, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, Puerto Vallarta, San Diego and others. To opt in, Tinder U users will need to look for the Spring Break card while swiping.

When they see it, they can then select their Spring Break destination to see who’s going. This destination will then be shown to potential matches through a badge on their profiles.

The idea, says Tinder, was inspired by trends the company was already seeing in product usage during this March time frame, when there would be huge upticks in some cities and locations. For example, South Padre Island experienced a 100x increase in activity in March 2018 compared to the previous month; Panama City saw a 10x increase; Destin Beach a 6x increase; and both Cabo San Lucas and Lake Havasu saw a 2x increase.

In addition to using its own data from past spring breaks, Tinder also consulted with its Tinder U users about which destinations to include.

“Spring Break, like Tinder, is a staple for many college students across the country,” said Jenny Campbell, Chief Marketing Officer at Tinder, in a statement. “We’ve historically seen huge upticks in Tinder usage during Spring Break in these destinations, and we are excited to give users the unique experience to connect before they pack their bags,” she said.

The new feature is one of several ways that Tinder is focusing on its more casual use case, as of late. Last November, the company told investors during its Q3 earnings that it would begin marketing the app as a way to enjoy the “single lifestyle” – that is, catering to a younger demographic’s demand for wanting to date around while in their 20’s – before they’re ready to settle down.

Tinder had also begun an online publication, Swipe Life, and is running various advertising campaigns, related to this initiative.

For years, Tinder had tried to downplay the app’s more casual nature, but it’s now able to change course due to its acquisition of dating app Hinge. Similarly aimed at younger users and millennials, Hinge is focused on creating relationships, not hook-ups. That frees up Tinder to refocus on what it does best: quick matches.

Tinder parent Match Group had hinted at its plans for Tinder U, during its earnings call earlier this month.

“In 2019, we are planning to solidify our leadership position among college students by expanding Tinder U to cover even more schools throughout the U.S. while also launching Tinder U in select international markets,” said Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg, speaking to investors. “We’re also expanding marketing through our on campus brand ambassadors and social media influencers. Expect to see more events and marketing tied to the school social calendar such as Rivalry Week and Spring Break,” she noted.

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OnePlus, EE and Qualcomm starts a contest for 5G apps

Today at MWC Barcelona OnePlus CEO Pete Lau unveiled an initiative to spur apps for 5G networks. The timing is right, too. With 5G launching around the world this year, carriers, phone makers and consumers alike have yet to develop a killer app for the massive increase of speed provided by 5G. Basically, OnePlus is asking for help developing uses for 5G.

OnePlus sees a lacking of imagination around 5G in the long term. Speaking on a panel, CEO Pete Lau stated he does not believe people have thought enough about how 5G can change lives in the long term.

This contest will select 20 finalists, who will get OnePlus devices. The winners will get a trip to OnePlus HQ and access to 5G testing labs, and support from Oneplus and EE.

Such contest were common around the launch of 4G as mobile device makers were attempting to bolster app marketplaces. But 5G apps, could look much different from 4G apps as much of the processing is offloaded to a central data center instead of happening on the device.

The promise of 5G is nearly here, but it will take initiatives and programs like this one from OnePlus to help make the possibilities clear to consumers.

Earlier this week OnePlus, along with nearly every other mobile phone maker, unveiled a 5G device.

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OnePlus, EE and Qualcomm puts a call out for 5G apps

Today at MWC Barcelona OnePlus CEO Pete Lau unveiled an initiative to spur apps for 5G networks. The timing is right, too. With 5G launching around the world this year, carriers, phone makers and consumers alike have yet to develop a killer app for the massive increase of speed provided by 5G. Basically, OnePlus is asking for help developing uses for 5G.

OnePlus sees a lacking of imagination around 5G in the long term. Speaking on a panel, CEO Pete Lau stated he does not believe people have thought enough about how 5G can change lives in the long term.

This contest will select 20 finalists, who will get OnePlus devices. The winners will get a trip to OnePlus HQ and access to 5G testing labs, and support from Oneplus and EE.

Such contest were common around the launch of 4G as mobile device makers were attempting to bolster app marketplaces. But 5G apps, could look much different from 4G apps as much of the processing is offloaded to a central data center instead of happening on the device.

The promise of 5G is nearly here, but it will take initiatives and programs like this one from OnePlus to help make the possibilities clear to consumers.

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Huawei’s folding Mate X: a closer look

Yesterday gave us a closer view of the Samsung Galaxy Fold. Of course, there were still a plate of glass, a security rope and a few feet between us and the device. Huawei, thankfully, was a bit more willing to grant us access to their own foldable, the Mate X at a closed door meeting earlier this morning.

There were still ground rules for the foldable. Namely, a Huawei rep was driving the whole thing. Limited interaction with the device itself was allowed, but he was doing most of the navigating and all of the folding. While the product is pretty close to final, there’s still some work to be done before bringing it to market, and in Huawei’s words, the company wanted to give us “the best possible experience.”

In this case, that mostly means knowing the limitations of what the near-final product can actually do. For now, that means web browsing, some photography and opening up Google Maps — which, to be fair, comprises a fairly large chunk of what people will actually be doing with the product.

That said, there’s a lot to account for with a new form factor. After all, phone makers have gotten really good at working with a defined two-dimensional plan, a decade after the introduction of the first iPhone and Samsung Galaxy device. Folding, flipping and bouncing between screens presents all sorts of new challenge.

That said, in the demo at least, things seemed pretty smooth here. The device was pretty responsive in a less controlled environment than we’d previously seen it — or, for that matter, the Fold — in. There were few moments and some blank screens for half a second or so, however, when the apps had to jump screens. All of which is to see the Mate X is real. I’ve seen it, and am so far pretty impressive with the execution.

The product design, too, is quite well thought out. The product is surprisingly thin both folded and unfolded, and elements like the fold over camera lip, which offers a place to grip (a la the lip on the rear of the Kindle Oasis) are nice touches.

The screen, too, looks quite nice at first glance. That said, as with all of the foldable we’ve seen to date, capturing a glare from overhead light picks up crinkles on the display, along with a large seam in the middle, where the device folds over. You can’t feel them with your finger as you glide over to touch, but it’s easy to imagine how messy all of this could ultimately look after a few years of use.

The system also works when folded at a 90 degree angle, which could prove useful for future executions that Huawei is looking into. It’s clear that this is just the beginning of not only the form factor, but practical applications. It’s going to be watching developers figure out all of the stuff they can do with the product.

That “still early days” approach also to price point. Huawei acknowledges that the device is prohibitively expensive at ~ €2,200. That price includes the design to add 5G to the product — notably, there is no non-5G version planned, unlike the Galaxy Fold. That will no doubt make the Mate X even more of a niche product, until the next-gen cellular service rolls out for more users.

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In a way, the Mate X is a proof of concept — albeit proof that the thing can be relatively mass produced. At double the cost of a high-end flagship, I don’t expect the company plans to sell a lot of these, but the more it’s able to scale, the lower the price will ultimately be.

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Facebook finally bans UK far right activist, ‘Tommy Robinson’

Facebook has taken the decision to remove the Facebook page and Instagram profile of far right activist, Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Twitter permanently banned the founder of the far right English Defence League almost a year ago.

In a blog post announcing the decision Facebook says Yaxley-Lennon repeatedly broke its community standards. It writes:

Tommy Robinson’s Facebook Page has repeatedly broken these standards, posting material that uses dehumanizing language and calls for violence targeted at Muslims. He has also behaved in ways that violate our policies around organized hate. As a result, in accordance with our policies, we have removed Tommy Robinson’s official Facebook Page and Instagram profile. This is not a decision we take lightly, but individuals and organizations that attack others on the basis of who they are have no place on Facebook or Instagram.

“Our rules also make clear that individuals and organizations that are engaged in “organized hate” are not allowed on the platform, and that praise or support for these figures and groups is also banned. This is true regardless of the ideology they espouse,” Facebook adds.

It’s not clear what took the company so long to shutter Yaxley-Lennon’s pages given repeated breaches of its community standards.

The move comes two months after Facebook closed pages of another far right activist, James Goddard, also for hate speech violations.

Goddard had been using Facebook’s platform to solicit donations to fund activism which included intimidating politicians and journalists around Westminster — livestreaming the encounters to social media followers.

The activity of Goddard and small group of extreme Brexit supporters led the speaker of the House of Commons to write to the head of the Met Police urging action against the “aggressive, threatening and intimidating behaviour”.

Political attention has sharply stepped up around the social impacts of tech platforms and UK ministers are posed to set out a policy plan for regulating social media safety.

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Huawei: “The US security accusation of our 5G has no evidence. Nothing.”

Huawei’s rotating chairman Guo Ping kicked off a keynote speech this morning at the world’s biggest mobile industry tradeshow with a wry joke. “There has never been more interest in Huawei,” he told delegates at Mobile World Congress. “We must be doing something right!”

The Chinese company is seeking to dispel suspicion around the security of its 5G network equipment which has been accelerated by U.S. president Trump who has been urging U.S. allies not to buy kit or services from Huawei. (And some, including Australia, have banned carriers from using Huawei kit.)

Last week Trump also tweet-shamed U.S. companies — saying they needed to step up their efforts to rollout 5G networks or “get left behind”.

In an MWC keynote speech yesterday the European Commission’s digital commissioner Mariya Gabriel also signalled the executive is prepared to step in and regulate to ensure a “common approach” on the issue of network security — to avoid the risk of EU member states taking individual actions that could delay 5G rollouts across Europe.

Huawei appeared to welcome the prospect today.

“Government and the mobile operators should work together to agree what this assurance testing and certification rating for Europe will be,” said Guo, suggesting that’s Huawei’s hope for any Commission action on 5G security.

“Let experts decide whether networks are safe or not,” he added, implying Trump is the opposite of an expert. “Huawei has a strong track record in security for three decades. Serving three billion people around the world. The U.S. security accusation of our 5G has no evidence. Nothing.”

Geopolitical tensions about network security have translated into the biggest headache for Huawei which has positioned itself as a key vendor for 5G kit right as carriers are preparing to upgrade their existing cellular networks to the next-gen flavor.

Guo claimed today that Huawei is “the first company who can deploy 5G networks at scale”, giving a pitch for what he described as “powerful, simple and intelligent” next-gen network kit while clearly enjoying the opportunity of being able to agree with U.S. president Trump in public — that “the U.S. needs powerful, faster and smarter 5G”.

But any competitive lead in next-gen network tech also puts the company in prime position for political blowback linked to espionage concerns related to the Chinese state’s access to data held or accessed by commercial companies.

Huawei’s strategy to counter this threat has been to come out fighting for its commercial business — and it had plenty more of that spirit on show this morning. As well as a bunch of in-jokes. Most notably a reference to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden which drew a knowing ripple of laughter from the audience.

“We understand innovation is nothing without security,” said Guo, segwaying from making a sales pitch for Huawei’s 5G network solutions straight into the giant geopolitical security question looming over the conference.

“Prism, prism on the wall who is the most trustworthy of them all?” he said. “It’s a very important question. And if you don’t ask them that you can go ask Edward Snowden.”

You can’t use “a crystal ball to manage cybersecurity”, Guo went on, dubbing it “a challenge we all share” and arguing that every player in the mobile industry has responsibility to defuse the network security issue — from kit vendors to carriers and standards bodies, as well as regulators.

“With 5G we have made a lot of progress over 4G and we can proudly say that 5G is safer than 4G. As a vendor we don’t operate carriers network, and we don’t all carry data. Our responsibility — what we promise — is that we don’t do anything bad,” he said. “We don’t do bad things.”

“Let me says this as clear as possible,” he went on, putting up another slide that literally underlined the point. “Huawei has not and will never plant backdoors. And we will never allow anyone to do so in our equipment.

“We take this responsibility very seriously.”

Guo’s pitch on network trust and security was to argue that where 5G networks are concerned security is a collective industry responsibility — which in turn means every player in the chain plays a monitoring role that allows for networks to be collectively trusted.

“Carriers are responsible for secure operations of their own networks. 5G networks are private networks. The boundary between different networks are clear. Carriers can prevent outside attacks with firewalls and security gateways. For internal threats carriers can manage, monitor and audit all vendors and partners to make sure their network elements are secure,” he said, going on to urge the industry to work together on standards which he described as “our shared responsibility”.

“To build safer networks we need to standardize cybersecurity requirements and these standards must be verifiable for all vendors and all carriers,” he said, adding that Huawei “fully supports” the work of industry standards and certification bodies the GSMA and 3GPP who he also claimed have “strong capabilities to verify 5G’s security”.

Huawei’s strategy to defuse geopolitical risk by appealing to the industry as a whole to get behind tackling the network trust issue is a smart one given the uncertainty generated by Trump’s attacks is hardly being welcomed by players in the mobile business.

Huawei’s headache might lead to the mobile industry as a whole catching a cold — and no one at MWC wants that.

Later in the keynote Guo also pointed to the awkward “irony” of the U.S Cloud Act — given the legislation allows US entities to “access data across borders”.

U.S. overreach on accessing the personal data of foreign citizens continues to cause major legal headaches in Europe as a result of the clash between its national security interest and EU citizens fundamental privacy rights. So his point there won’t have been lost on an MWC audience packed with European delegates attending the annual tradeshow in Barcelona.

“So for best technology and greater security choose Huawei. Please choose Huawei,” Guo finished, ending his keynote with a line that could very well make it as a new marketing slogan writ large on one of the myriad tech-packed booths here at Fira Gran Via.

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5 Methods Hackers Use to Break Into Your Bank Account

With so many users making the jump to internet banking, it’s no wonder that hackers are on the hunt for login details. What may be surprising, however, are the lengths that hackers go to in order to access your finances.

Here’s a look at how hackers target your bank account and how to stay safe.

1. Mobile Banking Trojans

These days, you can manage all of your finances from your smartphone. Usually, a bank will supply an official app from which you can log in and check your account. While convenient, this has become a key attack vector for malware authors.

Fake Apps

The simpler means of attack is by spoofing an existing banking app. A malware author creates a perfect replica of a bank’s app and uploads it to shady third-party sites. Once you’ve downloaded the bad app, you enter your username and password into it, which is then sent to the hacker.

App Hijacking

The sneakier version of this is the mobile banking Trojan. These aren’t disguised as a bank’s official app; they’re usually a completely unrelated app with a Trojan installed within. When you install this app, the Trojan begins to scan your phone for banking apps.

When it detects a banking app being launched, the malware quickly puts up a window that looks identical to the app you just booted up. If this is done smoothly enough, the user won’t notice the swap and will enter their details into the fake login page. These details are then uploaded to the malware author.

Typically, these Trojans also need an SMS verification code to complete the hack. To do this, they’ll often ask for SMS read privileges during install, so they can steal the codes as they come in.

How to Defend Yourself

When downloading apps from the app store, keep an eye on the amount of downloads it has. If it has a very low amount of downloads and little to no reviews, it’s too early to call if it has malware or not.

This goes double if you see an “official app” for a very popular bank with a small download count—it’s likely an imposter! If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to read our guide on how to avoid Trojans.

Likewise, be careful with what permissions you give apps. If a mobile game asks you for SMS read permissions with no explanation as to why it wants them, stay safe and don’t allow the app to install. Never install apps from third-party sites, as they’re more likely to contain malware.

2. Phishing

As the public becomes savvy toward phishing tactics, hackers have escalated their efforts to trick people into clicking their links. One of their nastiest tricks is hacking the email accounts of solicitors and sending phishing emails from a previously-trusted address.

What makes this hack so devastating is how hard it would be to spot the scam. The email address would be legitimate, and the hacker could even to talk to you on a first-name basis. This is exactly how an unfortunate home buyer lost £67,000, despite replying to an email address that was previously legitimate.

How to Defend Yourself

Obviously, if an email address looks suspicious, treat its contents with a healthy dose of skepticism. If the address looks legitimate but something “seems off,” see if you can validate the email with the person sending it—preferably not over email, in case the hackers have compromised the account!

3. Keyloggers

This method of attack is one of the quieter ways a hacker can gain access to your bank account. Keyloggers are a type of malware that records what you’re typing and sends the information back to the hacker.

That might sound inconspicuous at first, but imagine what would happen if you typed in your bank’s web address, followed by your username and password. The hacker would have all the information they need to break into your account!

How to Defend Yourself

Install a stellar antivirus and make sure it checks your system every so often. A good antivirus will sniff out a keylogger and erase it before it can do damage.

If your bank supports two-factor authentication, be sure to enable this. This makes a keylogger far less effective, as the hacker won’t be able to replicate the authentication code even if they get your login details.

4. Man-in-the-Middle Attacks

Sometimes, a hacker will target the communications between you and your bank’s website in order to get your details. These attacks are called Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks, and the name says it all; it’s when a hacker intercepts communications between you and a legitimate service.

Usually, an MITM attack involves monitoring an insecure server and analyzing the data that passes through. When you send your login details over this network, the hackers “sniff out” your details and steal them.

Sometimes, however, a hacker will use DNS cache poisoning to change what site you visit when you enter a URL. A poisoned DNS cache means that https://ift.tt/2GHRpje will instead go to a clone site owned by the hacker. This cloned site will look identical to the real thing; if you’re not careful, you’ll end up giving the fake site your login details.

How to Defend Yourself

Never perform any sensitive activities on a public or unsecured network. Err on the side of caution and use something more secure, such as your home Wi-Fi. Also, when you log into a sensitive site, always check for HTTPS in the address bar. If it’s not there, there’s a good chance you’re looking at a fake site!

If you want to perform sensitive activities over a public Wi-Fi network, why not take control of your own privacy? A VPN  service encrypts your data before your computer sends it over the network. If anyone is monitoring your connection, they’ll only see unreadable encrypted packets. Picking a VPN can be difficult, so be sure to read our guide on the best VPN services available.

5. SIM Swapping

SMS authentication codes are some of the biggest problems for hackers. Unfortunately, they have a way to dodge these checks, and they don’t even need your phone to do it!

To perform a SIM swap, a hacker contacts your network provider, claiming to be you. They state that they lost their phone, and that they’d like a transfer of their old number (which is your current number) to their SIM card.

If they’re successful, the network providers strips your phone number from your SIM and installs on the hacker’s instead. This is achievable with a social security number, as we covered in why 2FA and SMS verification isn’t 100% secure.

Once they have your number on their SIM card, they can circumvent SMS codes easily. When they log into your bank account, the bank sends an SMS verification code to their phone rather than yours. They can then log in to your account unimpeded and drain your account.

How to Defend Yourself

Of course, mobile networks typically ask questions to check if the person requesting the transfer is who they say they are. As such, to perform a SIM swap, scammers typically harvest your personal information in order to pass the checks. Even then, some network providers have lax checks for SIM transfers, which allowed hackers to easily perform this trick.

Always keep your personal details private to avoid someone stealing your identity. Also, it’s worth checking if your mobile provider is doing their part to defend you from SIM swapping. If you keep your details safe and your network provider is diligent, a hacker will fail the identification check when they try to SIM swap.

Keeping Your Finances Safe Online

internet banking is very convenient for both customer and hacker alike. Thankfully, you can do your part to ensure you’re not a target of these attacks. By keeping your details safe, you’ll give hackers very little to work with when they take aim at your savings.

If you’d like to know more on keeping your finances safe on the internet, try our guide on buying goods safely online.

Image Credit: stokkete/Depositphotos

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How to Sharpen Your Interview Skills With These Soft Skills Questions

Your superb qualifications alone won’t get you the new job. The interviewer will want to know about another set of skills not on the resume. These invisible skills are more difficult to determine but they can be the ultimate barometer for testing your suitability for a job. Especially, a job which is about collaboration and teamwork.

You know them as soft skills. They are determined based on a series of behavioral interview questions. It is important to know how to answer these questions in the right manner to impress the interviewer. Here are several soft skill questions that you need to be prepared for:

1. Leadership

Question: Can you tell me about a time when you successfully led a team through a difficult project?

What the interviewer wants to know: Companies want to hire candidates with proven ability to take charge of a situation and provide guidance to colleagues during difficult times. Your client wants to know if you can be a true leader or stay a passive follower.

Tips on how to answer:

• Mention a time you independently came up with a solution to a work problem.
• If a problem was caused by your own actions or lack of knowledge, admit to your mistake, and mention the steps you took to avoid similar problems in the future.
• In brief, mention the specific steps you took to resolve the issue, like organizing a meeting to discuss strategies, seeking help from an expert, etc.
• Explain how your actions resulted in the problem being solved and improved productivity.

2. Time Management

Question: How do you cope with extra work on a project?

What the interviewer wants to know: Are you the type to get overwhelmed by extra work? Also, can you juggle multiple assignments at the same time? And finally, do you have a gameplan to manage excess work?

Tips on how to answer:

• Briefly describe how you organize a typical workday to get the most work done.
• Mention any software you use to manage projects. For instance, you can talk about your personal preference for using OneNote as a productivity system.
• Give an example of how you met project goals by breaking down a massive project into manageable chunks.
• Say you are open to advise from superiors on how to manage critical tasks.

3. Conflict Resolution Skills

Question: Tell us about a time when you had to work with someone you were not compatible with.

What the interviewer wants to know: How well do you play with others? And are you capable of working productively with someone you don’t get along with?

This question is about your emotional intelligence, and if you can be productive in a potentially difficult work environment.

Tips on how to answer:

• Mention that you get along with most of your colleagues, except those rare cases when differences of opinion may arise.
• Don’t spend too much time talking about the actual conflict and the reasons behind it. Instead, focus on talking about the steps you took to resolve the situation.
• Talk about how you avoid confrontation with a set of ground rules. For instance, you like to solve issues head-on instead of beating around the bush.
• Emphasize your ability to remain polite and professional when faced with hostility.

4. Problem Solving

Question: Can you tell us about a time when you overcame a significant challenge?

What the interviewer wants to know: How good you are at solving problems at the workplace, and whether you can be relied upon to come up with creative solutions independently.

Tips on how to answer:

• Don’t just talk about overcoming a job-related challenge, but also mention any instances when you independently came up with ways to be more productive at work.
• Give a full description of the specific details you encountered that led to the problem you faced.
• Mention how you interpreted a problem before you found its solution. For instance, you came across an inter-departmental conflict due to lack of communication.
• Talk about the steps you took to bring about a successful resolution to the problem. For instance, you solved it with a simple project management template in Excel.

5. Communication

Question: How would you explain a complex topic to someone unfamiliar with the subject?

What the interviewer wants to know: How good are you at communicating with your colleagues? Furthermore, can you collaborate with team members who have different skillsets?

Tips on how to answer:

• Mention that you actively seek to build a rapport with your colleagues by organizing off-site activities, asking more experienced colleagues for help with difficult projects, taking an active interest in their work, etc.
• If asked to explain a subject, break the topic down into three parts: The problem, the solution, and the solution steps involved.
• Use general examples and analogies to explain the details of the topic to help people who are unfamiliar with the subject.
• Talk about how you like to take the help of YouTube videos, explanatory charts, and other media to explain topics more clearly.

Related: You should always strive to improve your communication skills as it is a transferable skill across all kinds of jobs.

6. Adaptability

Question: Talk about a time when things did not go according to plan at work.

What the interviewer wants to know: Can you keep a calm head during an emergency?

Tips on how to answer:

• Mention any changes to the workplace that you have experienced in the past, and how you embraced those changes instead of avoiding them.
• Talk about your fondness for trying new software and strategies to improve efficiency.
• Discuss the initiation process at your former workplace, and how quickly you were able to adapt to the rules and working style of the company.
• Tell the interviewer that you rely on proven routines and can tweak them if necessary when things go wrong.
• Explain a typical crisis and how your out of the box solution helped untangle it.

7. Work Culture Suitability

Question: What are the things that are most important to you in a job?

What the interviewer wants to know: How closely your personal goals and ambitions align with that of the company, and whether you will want to keep working here for the long haul.

Tips on how to answer:

• Mention your enthusiasm for the company’s achievements, and your admiration for the general workplace environment.
• Express your desire to commit to the company for the long term, and how you plan to progress with the company’s guidance.
• Talk about your personal passions that align with the company’s areas of interests.

8. Collaboration

Question: How well will you fare in group projects?

What the interviewer wants to know: This is a different line of questioning than asking about your communication skills. The company wants to know if you are a team player or a lone wolf (Hint: it’s never a good idea to be considered a lone wolf at the workplace).

Tips on how to answer:

• Go back to your communication skills. Stress the importance you place on regular communication with your colleagues.
• Talk about the positives of teamwork; like the camaraderie, the united sense of purpose, or having someone reliable to depend upon.
• Don’t shy away from mentioning negative experiences with former teammates, but emphasize the lessons learned.

Be Genuine to Handle Tricky Interview Questions

Soft skills interview questions can be double-edged. You have to balance your successes with your failures so that you sound more human. Experience interviewers can detect empty bombast or exaggerated achievements. In the digital social age, it is difficult to cloak your true track record.

Be genuine. Think of an interview as a friendly conversation between two professionals and not as a verbal duel. Preparation goes a long way to help you gain that confidence. Why not start your preparation by learning how not to answer common job interview questions?

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What Is Airdrop? How to Share Files Between iOS and Mac

9 Stunning Airbnb Rentals That Were Used in Movies and TV Shows

Do you consider yourself a big movies fan? If yes, we’ve got the ultimate way to get closer to your favorite characters for you. Of course, traveling to visit these actual filming locations can be fun, but what about spending the night at places where huge stars like Benedict Cumberbatch or Martin Freeman were making those famous lines come alive?

If that sounds like your perfect holiday destination, we got you covered. Check out these Airbnb properties that once served as filming locations. Some of these places are affordable for budget travelers, while others will require you to lighten your wallet.

1. Listed Luxury, South Wales

Seen in: Sherlock, Doctor Who

Price: From $588/night

Fields House is a six-bedroom property that you can rent in Newport, South Wales, the location of quite a few episodes of both Sherlock and Doctor Who.

This classic “Victorian gentleman’s residence” was seen on TV as Irene Adler’s apartment (Lara Pulver, Sherlock) as well as Captain Latimer’s study (Tom Ward, Doctor Who). Both filmed back in 2012. The property has multiple spacious rooms and can accommodate up to 10 guests. Even though no bachelor parties are allowed, you can still grab your friends and spend a pretty special weekend in this luxurious house.

Fields House is located in Newport city center, within walking distance of all the main attractions. Three nights stay is minimum.

2. “Entourage” Honeymoon Spa Retreat

Seen in: Entourage, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, The Bachelorette

Price: From $455/night

Speaking of luxury, if you’re searching for a place where you could really feel like a celebrity, look no further. This luxurious villa is located right above downtown Los Angeles, in the hills of Los Feliz. So the most breathtaking views are guaranteed.

As for the TV appearances, this place played a supporting role in HBO’s Entourage, and reality shows like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and The Bachelorette. Aside from that, this villa has been used as a photography location for Vogue, Elle, Playboy, and Victoria’s Secret.

This 1972 estate also comes with an emerald tile pool and hot tub. Even spending just one night in this 750-square-foot house will make you feel pretty special.

3. Reversible Destiny Lofts

Seen in: Girls

Price: From $240/night

If your real estate tastes lie elsewhere, check out this loft apartment that you’re bound to fall in love with. In the latest series of HBO’s Girls, Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) called this place home. And you would want to do the same.

This two-bedroom flat is located in the Reversible Destiny Lofts in Mitaka, Tokyo. The place can accommodate up to 4 people, and is a true modern art masterpiece. Each loft is built around the central kitchen, and the living area is has multiple doorless pods sticking out of it. Everything here resembles geometrical shapes and will for sure change your perception of what a perfect apartment looks like.

The place is perfect for a little getaway with your partner or friends. However, if you’re planning to bring other people with you, bear in mind that the apartments aren’t huge. At about 560 square feet, you might find it a little crowded if you bring more than one or two people with you.

4. Historic Cottage in Albion Village

Seen in: Murder, She Wrote

Price: From $203/night

Fans of Jessica Fletcher will recognize tis little cottage from the TV series Murder, She Wrote. After all, the writer and an amateur detective spent her time solving crimes here. As most of the sights of the fictional Cabot Cove, Maine were shot here in Albion, California.

This hundred year old house can serve as a perfect writer’s retreat or a romantic getaway. If you choose to rent this property, you’ll find yourself just minutes away from the Pacific Ocean and a short drive away from a number of wineries. What can be a better setting for solving some local crimes?

5. Stunning Lake Oswego View Estate

Seen in: Extraordinary Measures

Price: From $1,539/night

This listing is for Harrison Ford fans. A part of his movie Extraordinary Measures was filmed here back in 2010. The price tag on this one is rather steep. However, the house can accommodate up to six people—so make sure you bring your friends or family.

This luxurious Hamptons-style estate comes with breathtaking views of the lake Oswego and downtown Portland. Being such a gorgeous property, it comes with at no surprise that it’s also been used as a photography location for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Architectural Digest.

6. Sunny Private Room

Seen in: Definitely, Maybe; Solitary Man, Damages

Price: From $105/night

Before becoming a Deadpool star, Ryan Reynolds starred in a not very well-known movie Definitely, Maybe. If you want to experience life in Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park neighborhood, this private home might be your best pick. Besides, this very same room served as a filming location for the 2009 Solitary Man (starring Michael Douglas), and the award-winning series Damages (starring Glenn Close and Rose Byrne).

The room is ideal for one or two guests, as it comes with just one double bed. This Airbnb listing also offers an easy commute to Coney Island and Prospect Part being within walking distance.

7. Love Shac Near Pappy’s and Rimrock Ranch

Seen in: Wild West films, The Cisco Kid

Price: From $98/night

If you live and breathe for the Wild Wild West vibes, take a look at this “love shack” on Airbnb. This rustic cabin is located in Rimrock, California, a short drive from Pioneertown. The place became a Wild West filming location back in 1940s. Experience the life of Wild West films actors, who lived in the town while filming early TV series like The Cisco Kid.

The cabin might seem rather small, but it comes with a double bed, some kitchen facilities (like refrigerator, microwave, and a coffee machine), and a TV. The bathroom and shower facilities are just outside the cabin though. So if you’re looking for a luxury retreat, you’re better off looking at other listings on the list.

8. Secluded Intown Treehouse

Seen in: Treehouse Masters

Price: From $525/night

If you’re looking for something outside the box but still resembling modern world facilities, check out this stunning treehouse. This Airbnb listing has it all: it’s a secluded one-bedroom house surrounded by beautiful nature and romantic decorations.

Even though you have to climb up to get to it, the house is situated just minutes from downtown Atlanta. What makes it even more magical is a bed on wheels. If the weather allows it, you can roll it outside and sleep right under the stars. The perfect couple’s getaway, the house made an appearance on TV in Animal Planet’s Treehouse Masters.

9. Fixer Upper Fabulous Mid-Mod

Seen in: Fixer Upper

Price: From $476/night

Have you ever caught yourself admiring the newly improved homes featured in reality series Fixer Upper? We all did. Luckily, many of them are available to rent on Airbnb. You can spend a night or two in your favorite makeovers and admire them up close and in person.

One great example is this modern house in Waco’s Mountain View neighborhood. It has five bedrooms and can accommodate up to 12 people. Plus, you can rent this place for a larger party if you agree with the owners in advance. Divided by all guests, the price tag seems reasonable too.

What’s Your Next Airbnb Destination?

Airbnb can be of great help when it comes to organizing your next vacation. If you can’t decide between several places from our list, make sure you add them to your Airbnb wishlist. That way you can always come back and finish planning your next trip.

Tired of Airbnb and feel like trying a different service? Check out these high-quality Airbnb alternatives for any budget.

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