By Connor Hurson, Carousel30

There was an awful lot of talk this week surrounding the supposed Facebook killer, Ello. While the invite-only social networking site doesn’t have any intentions of taking down Facebook, they certainly see themselves as a competitor. The platform caters to the Facebook users that are fed up with advertising and sick of the constant behind-the-scenes data mining that Facebook has become known for. The differentiator for Ello is that the site is completely ad-free and while they do collect user data (with an opt-out option) they ensure it is solely for user-experience improvement reasons. While I certainly wouldn’t deny an invite to join Ello, I don’t know if I’m fully convinced. Read more and decide for yourself at Tech Times.

With the latest pick in the NFL clean-up effort, the Marketing Department selects…Dawn Hudson? That’s right. The NFL announced last week that Dawn Hudson, a career marketer with past employers including PepsiCo and DDB, will be the next chief marketing officer for the National Football League. While the announcement alone isn’t exactly groundbreaking, the timing of it is quite…suspect. In the midst of a PR crisis surrounding the Ray Rice domestic abuse video, it certainly looks like the perfect time to name the first female executive for the NFL. However, the NFL and those close to Hudson say that she had been on the League’s radar long before the domestic-violence issues occurred and that while it wasn’t planned, it certainly doesn’t hurt. Check out what the marketing industry is saying about the NFL’s most recent hire over at AdAge.

We’re breaking up. It’s not you. But it’s not me either. It’s about…money. A conversation somewhere along those lines (okay, maybe not exactly) went on behind closed doors at the executive offices of Ebay this week as the company decided to formally split PayPal off from the parent company, Ebay. The decision is part of a larger trend among US companies to reduce their scope and focus on core competencies in hopes of increasing stock prices and appeasing shareholders. Moreover, the spinning off of PayPal is made in an effort to allow the two companies the ability for their management team to focus on their respective organization and the flexibility to care for its goals. To read more about the breakup, head over to the New York Times.

So, what ever happened to Apple Pay? The company announced a “revolutionary” new payment system using Near-Field-Communication that was set to be one of the many updates to the family of iPhone 6’s. Well, if (numerous) reports hold true, you may be able to start using Apple Pay before your next paycheck goes through. Banking blog, Bank Innovation, is reporting that the new payment feature will be wrapped into the iOS 8.1 update set to release on October 20. Ready for Apple to now spend your money as opposed to just take it? If so, get excited by checking out the report at Mashable.

So you have an idea and you want to put it somewhere online. You need a designer and some developers to make it look even semi-appropriate, right? Well, not quite. Thanks to a new app in the Microsoft Office suite, people with absolutely no web design experience can now build and showcase their ideas with little-to-no design experience. The app lets you drag and drop content from a number of sources without ever leaving the app–YouTube, Facebook, and your own camera roll to name a few. Once a user adds the first piece of content, Sway will analyze the content and make recommendations on design styles using algorithms developed by Microsoft. While the app certainly isn’t as intuitive or creative as a web designer, it certainly provides a place for to start for novices looking to get their idea on the web. Looking to get started? Head over to PCMag to read more.

This post originally appeared on the Carousel30 blog