During a recent stay at an Airbnb in Brazil, my host invited me to eat a traditional local snack of pão de queijo and have tea. It was a lovely gesture, but it was 10 p.m. and I had arrived from an 18-hour bus ride through the countryside earlier that day. I just wanted to sleep. But when gauging whether to go to bed or be friendly, I had to consider another factor: My Airbnb rating. The app lets hosts and guests rate each other on cleanliness, friendliness and “overall experience.” If I...

Happy Tuesday, MarketWatchers! Don’t forget to read today’s top personal finance stories. How e-books are ruining parent-toddler bonding time Research finds parents engage less with the toddlers when reading e-books versus print books. For these 'marijuana moms,' working in weed lets their families live the high life Democratic-leaning states say they’re feeling the pain from the new tax law New York and three other states said in court papers that pressure is rising from the SALT cap. Help!...

Ichigo Natsuno, Courtesy of Penguin Random House Feel like you have too many subscriptions and not enough time — or money? You aren’t alone. On Monday, Apple AAPL, -1.03% announced a new streaming video service that will allow users to subscribe to channels such as HBO T, +2.01% and Showtime. With Netflix NFLX, -1.71% Hulu , and Amazon AMZN, +0.54% providing their own subscription video services, some have speculated that consumers have reached “peak subscription,” while others have...

Americans are bad at saving — and banking apps are trying to talk them into doing better. Almost 60% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings and nearly 80% live paycheck to paycheck. A number of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots are trying to talk people into improving, offering help like budget coaching, unsubscribing users from unnecessary recurring costs, and telling them whether they can afford that take-out order on Friday night. But when your bank talks to you, how does it...

Kimberly White A new HBO TWC, -0.07% documentary, “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” tells the tale of ill-fated blood-testing startup Theranos and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, who allegedly cheated investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars before the company’s collapse in early 2018. Holmes has been called a narcissist and worse for her business deals, but the documentary called attention to another issue: her voice. Holmes affected what one writer called a “confusing...