Dispatches From The Front

The Business Legal Terms You Need to Know | Business.com

Posted on June 9, 2023 by knjohn | Leave a comment

From comparable worth to torts, we break down the legal lingo all business owners should know.

Marketers, accountants and software developers all have their own jargon – common industry words that others might not readily understand – but the legal field is also well known for its complex lingo.

While there’s no need to go to law school if you’re not pursuing a career in this field, it’s important for business owners to have a basic understanding of the legal terminology they’re likely to encounter. You don’t have to know everything, but you do need to know enough to stay compliant. It’s also essential to know when you should hire an attorney. Consider this your crash course on legal terminology – no Bar exam necessary.

Leave a comment

Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged business jargon, Business Legal Terms, small business owners

Biggest Business Lies Ever Told | Business.com

Posted on June 9, 2023 by knjohn | Leave a comment

You’ll never look at these companies the same way again.

Honesty and trust are crucial ingredients in business success, but not every company chooses to go that route. Some companies lie, mislead their investors and create toxic work environments for their employees – only to have it blow up in their faces.

Business is competitive, but there are some lines that should never be crossed. Let’s look at some of the biggest business lies ever told and the practical lessons you can take away from these notorious mistakes.

Leave a comment

Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged Business Lies, business mistakes, Equifax data breach

Best wireless headphones for 2023 from Bose, Sony, and more | Digital Trends

Posted on June 8, 2023 by knjohn | Leave a comment

While wired headphones are still great for getting the most out of hi-res lossless music, wireless headphones have come a long way in terms of sound quality, features like active noise cancellation (ANC), transparency mode, and more. They’re incredibly comfortable, and, of course, you don’t have any wires to get tangled up in on your morning commute.

We’re always looking for the best wireless headphones, and we also take comfort, audio quality, and battery life, seriously, too. For this roundup, we’re focusing on wireless headphones of the over-ear variety. For the best wireless earbuds, we’ve got a roundup of those, too.

That said, we think that Sony’s latest WH-1000XM5 are so good that they currently take the top spot on not just this list, but also our picks for the best noise-canceling headphones and the best headphones, period. They’re light, very comfortable, have excellent noise cancellation and sound quality, and are packed with premium features.

Leave a comment

Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged Bose, sony, wireless headphones

How to download the iOS 17 beta on your iPhone right now | Digital Trends

Posted on June 8, 2023 by knjohn | Leave a comment

As expected, Apple officially took the wraps off iOS 17 at WWDC 2023. The next major release of the iPhone operating system includes some exciting new features, ranging from improvements to phone calls and FaceTime to a new Journal app.

The final release of iOS 17 isn’t expected to arrive until September, but as usual, Apple is making its first developer preview available now to give developers a head start on prepping their apps so they’re ready to go as soon as iOS 17 officially lands in the fall. If the past few years are any indication, we’ll also see a public beta arrive sometime in July, usually in tandem with the third or fourth developer beta.

Leave a comment

Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged iOS 17, iOS 17 beta, iPhone

Ukraine dam: Thousands flee floods after dam collapse near Nova Kakhovka| BBC News

Posted on June 7, 2023 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Thousands of people are being evacuated downstream of a major dam which has collapsed in Russian-held Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said 80 towns and villages may be flooded after the destruction of the dam at Nova Kakhovka, which he blamed on Russia.

Water is surging down the Dnipro river, and is said to pose a catastrophic flooding risk to the city of Kherson.

Russia has denied destroying the dam – which it controls – instead blaming Ukrainian shelling.

Leave a comment

Posted in News and Views

Tagged dam collapse, President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine dam

Microsoft to pay $20m for child privacy violations | BBC News

Posted on June 7, 2023 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Microsoft will pay $20m (£16m) to US federal regulators after it was found to have illegally collected data on children who had started Xbox accounts.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a settlement with the company on Monday, which also includes increased protections for child gamers.

Among other violations, the FTC found that Microsoft failed to inform parents about its data collection policies.

It follows a similar action against Amazon last week over its Echo devices.

The FTC said Microsoft violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by not properly getting parental consent and by retaining personal data on children under 13 for longer than necessary for accounts created before 2021.

Leave a comment

Posted in News and Views

Tagged child privacy violations, Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, Microsoft

Oklahoma approves first US taxpayer-funded religious charter school | BBC News

Posted on June 6, 2023 by knjohn | Leave a comment

An Oklahoma school board has approved what will be the first publicly funded religious charter school in the US.

The Oklahoma State Virtual Charter School Board approved the Catholic charter school by 3-2 in a vote on Monday.

The charter school would be run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa.

The state attorney general called the approval “unconstitutional” and warned it could lead to costly legal action.

A charter school is funded by taxpayers but independently managed. Charter schools are a small fraction of the US school system.

Leave a comment

Posted in News and Views

Tagged Catholic charter school, Oklahoma, religious charter school

Best fitness trackers for kids: Wearables from Fitbit, Garmin, and more to get them motivated | Mashable

Posted on June 6, 2023 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Kids have the kind of energy adults could only dream of having. But like for the rest of us, movement can sometimes get overlooked — especially if there’s a PlayStation or iPad with Youtube within arm’s reach or there’s not easy access to play outdoors. You might not think that a kid needs to track that activity (or the motivation to move around at all), but in a relatively sedentary society, making movement a priority from a young age is still vital.

Fitness trackers for kids can help foster a well-balanced lifestyle and introduce responsibility through reminders. The ones designed specifically for children in mind focus on leading an active lifestyle (rather than weight loss or something) as well as forming healthy non-fitness related habits, like building a bedtime routine or being responsible for chores.

Leave a comment

Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged Fitbit, fitness trackers for kids, Garmin

The S&P 500 broke out above a key level. Now what? | CNN Business

Posted on June 5, 2023 by knjohn | Leave a comment

The S&P 500 index on Friday closed at its highest level in almost a year. But that doesn’t mean that stocks are poised for a bull run just yet.

The broad-based index on May 26 closed above the 4,200 level for the first time since August 2022, when the market began to sell off and fell sharply to last year’s low of about 3,577 in October.

The S&P 500 ended last week up 1.8% at about 4,282, marking its best weekly gain since late March.

So, what caused the broad-based index to finally breach its level of resistance? The gains were powered by three key updates that investors cheered:

Leave a comment

Posted in News and Views

Tagged debt ceiling, federal reserve, Job Reports, S&P 500, The Fed

WWDC 2023: 5 takeaways from Apple’s biggest product event in years | CNN Business

Posted on June 5, 2023 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Apple on Monday unveiled its most ambitious – and riskiest – new hardware product in years: a mixed reality headset called the Apple Vision Pro.

Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook touted the Vision Pro, which combines virtual reality and augmented reality, as a “revolutionary product,” with the potential to change how users interact with technology, each other and the world around them.

The highly anticipated announcement came at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where it also teased a long list of new features and updates to some of its most widely used products.

Here’s what you should know from the event:

Leave a comment

Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged Apple, product event, virtual reality, VR