Working Girl's Guide #26: Hibachi, the new colored Kindle, tips for holiday shopping

We’re talking Uber’s foray into travel, the battle over open-source web hosting, and how to holiday shop like a pro.

Let’s get into it.

Uber Makes Moves Into Hotels and Flights

Uber is reportedly considering acquiring Expedia, valued at over $20 billion, which would be their biggest acquisition in history. They’ve already expanded into food delivery (obvi) and less-frequently discussed freight and delivery. Also yachts, apparently? Did not know this! According to Uber CEO Khasrowshahi, adding hotels and flights to the mix would get the company closer to its goal of becoming a “super app” rivaling China’s WeChat.

The War at WordPress

If you’ve seen any cryptic posts from former WordPress employees on LinkedIn, let me fill you in. WordPress hosts 43% of all websites in the world, including the White House’s (ok wow). The company’s founder, Matt Mullenweg, accused WordPress parent company Automattic’s sole competitor, WP Engine, of “extracting hundreds of millions of dollars from his platform,” then took away WPE’s access to WordPress. Many think this is a huge violation of WordPress’s mission to offer open-source hosting without constraints. Mullenweg offered severance to any of his employees who wanted to leave based on his decision, and 159 people took the offer.

Private Equity is Making Plumbers Rich

Amazon just launched its new Kindle colorsoft, which is the first Kindle with color, and lets you highlight text in yellow, blue, orange, or pink. It’s going to be $280, and will start selling on October 30. Kindle sales have been way up over the past 2 years, maybe because of BookTok and the device’s loyal Gen Z fans. Seems like prime pre-holiday season time to release a new Kindle!

Highly recommend hiring the sweetest man named Niner (pictured) and hosting a Hibachi party in your front yard. Will your neighbors be insanely jealous? Yup. Will your roommate try to catch an egg in her hat and miss by a mile? Also yup. The food was delish, we perhaps drank a bit too much sake, and we had the best time.

The perfect fall jean doesn't exi-...Oh wait. It does? Ever since I discovered basics (real ones recall a few weeks ago when I realized white t-shirts are game changing), my world has been flipped upside down. The old me would have thought this outfit didn’t have enough going on, but I am completely over that phase! Essentials are quite literally everything you need to make it through fall! Get me a thin black leather belt, good pair of jeans, and a black long sleeve shirt and I am quite literally set for the season. All from Aritzia, bless them.

This week's lazy girl hack is all about getting a head start on holiday shopping lists. I don’t know about you, but IMO there’s absolutely nothing worse than braving the mall (gasp) on Black Friday. But of course I see things I want (read: need) every single day! Whenever I spot something I want or think someone else might love, I’ve just been popping it in a note on my phone. It’s basically like pre-shopping, and there’s something about browsing a list of things that already caught your eye that makes it feel way more personal (and easy) when suddenly you realize you need something for your cousin/roommate/brand manager (don’t worry Annie, I would never forget you)/boss’s dog’s trainer—and you have a whole list of things that feel special! And we love less time panic-shopping and more time for hot cocoa and binge-watching holiday rom-coms!

Thanks for reading!