Monthly Archives: May 2020

Google Assistant can now use your voice to verify purchases | Mashable

Posted on May 29, 2020 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Making purchases with your voice is convenient, but it’s far from secure. Google is attempting to change that when using Assistant by introducing an optional voice verification test.

As The Verge reports, the new security feature relies on Google Assistant’s Voice Match and it’s being rolled out slowly as part of a limited pilot program to test how well it works with smart speakers and smart displays. The Voice Match training feature was updated recently to include phrases so that Assistant could more accurately determine who is issuing commands.

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Tagged Google Assistant, verify purchases, voice verification

Facebook and Twitter clash over fact-checking as Trump threats intensify | CNN

Posted on May 29, 2020 by knjohn | Leave a comment

For years, Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB) have enjoyed a healthy rivalry: They’ve competed for acquisitions, talent and advertising dollars, and sometimes gone so far as to copy each others’ features in the never-ending pursuit to grow their audiences.

But the clash between the two tech companies appeared to take on new life this week after Twitter’s decision to place fact-check labels on some of President Donald Trump’s tweets sparked a series of threats, including an imminent executive order regulating social media companies.

The CEOs of the two companies traded criticisms in public. Former employees posted their own jabs on social media. And some legislators were quick to highlight the differences between the approach Twitter and Facebook took, potentially only adding to the tensions.

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Tagged Facebook, fact-checking, trump, twitter

Popular Alternatives to Direct Deposit | Business News Daily

Posted on May 28, 2020 by knjohn | Leave a comment

For many years, the only people who needed an alternative to direct deposit were those who had limited access to traditional banking services. This is no longer the case. The demand for alternatives to direct deposit is on the rise across all sectors of the economy. Many businesses are now expected to offer various methods of payment to their workers.

If you’re a business owner searching for checking account alternatives for your employees, you’re not alone. Here are a few solutions we’ve seen gain the most traction recently.

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Tagged Alternatives to Direct Deposit, Direct Deposit, traditional banking services

10 Ways to Find Your Focus When You’re Stressed Out | Life Hack

Posted on May 28, 2020 by knjohn | Leave a comment

How do you focus when you’re stressed? The truth is, you don’t.

You know what anxiety is like: Your mind can’t stick to any one topic for more than a few seconds. You shift restlessly, as if settling your body might also settle your thoughts.

Stress short-circuits the mind in all sorts of ways. Before you can learn how to focus when stressed, you need to understand what’s going on in your brain.

Why We Lose Focus When Stressed

When you experience stress — whether the cause is a tiger chasing you or a snarky comment by a co-worker — a chain reaction happens in your brain. Harvard Medical School lays this out in detail, but what’s important is understanding how an emotion can trigger a fight-or-flight response[1].

Changes begin in the amygdala, a brain area that is responsible for processing emotions. The amygdala then contacts the hypothalamus, which acts as the brain’s command center. From there, the hypothalamus spreads stress signals throughout the nervous system.

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Tagged Find Your Focus When You're Stressed Out, focus at work, Stressed Out

HBO Max vs. HBO Now: What if you use an unsupported device? | Fast Company

Posted on May 27, 2020 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Streaming TV, once heralded as a high-tech liberator that would save us from the headaches of big cable bundles, just got another big cable-like bundle yesterday with the launch of HBO Max.

WarnerMedia’s long-awaited rival to heavy hitters like Netflix and Disney Plus includes a broad mix of movies and TV shows from the Warner and HBO libraries, along with exclusive offerings you can find only on Max. It costs $14.99 a month and you can cancel it at any time.

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Tagged Disney Plus, HBO Max, HBO Now, Netflix, Streaming TV, WarnerMedia

Boeing Slashes Over 12,000 Jobs, With More Cuts Coming | Forbes

Posted on May 27, 2020 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Boeing announced Wednesday that the company is cutting over 12,000 jobs—most of those in the Seattle area—as the beleaguered air manufacturer deals with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic that’s at times seen air travel drop over 90% compared to 2019.

The company plans to lay off 6,770 U.S. workers this week, with another 5,520 workers being asked to take buyouts in coming weeks.

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Tagged Boeing, lay off workers, lay offs, Seattle area

Did Your Business Receive a PPP Loan from the SBA? Here’s How to Handle Potential Press Inquiries | AllBusiness.com

Posted on May 26, 2020 by knjohn | Leave a comment

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has provided billions of dollars in loans to millions of small businesses. Most of the recipients received relatively small loans (average size of $80,000 for the second tranche of loans), but there are a significant number of recipients who received $1 million or more, and 40,000 businesses received $2 million or more.

However, while the program clearly allows businesses with up to 500 employees to take out loans of up to $10 million, Congress and the Administration are rethinking that, and are promising to examine and audit those companies that have received more than $2 million in PPP loans. In addition to that scrutiny, however, the press is actively pursuing companies that have received loans of $1 million or more, often “naming and shaming” them and pressuring them to return their PPP funds.

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Tagged PPP Loan, Press Inquiries, sba

Communication Overload Impacts Employee Performance | Small Business Trends

Posted on May 26, 2020 by knjohn | Leave a comment

How Communication Overload Affects Employee Performance

GuideSpark CEO Keith Kitani said in an email to Small Business Trends, “Competition for employee attention is intense, especially when you consider the sheer volume of communications that employees receive every day, so it’s easy for a company’s important communications to get lost in the noise.”

GuideSpark’s survey also found that employees receive about nine emails per day that fall into the category of strategic corporate communications. In most cases, these are the messages you really need to get through and make an impact on your team. But they’re usually mixed in with all the other, less important messages. And even if they do get through, employees end up wasting tons of time sifting through their inbox daily to make sure those important communications get addressed.

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Tagged communication, Communication Overload, Employee Performance

Biden wants Amazon to ‘start paying their taxes’ | CNN

Posted on May 22, 2020 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Amazon (AMZN) should “start paying their taxes” in a broader critique of large, successful businesses.

“I don’t think any company, I don’t give a damn how big they are, the Lord Almighty, should absolutely be in a position where they pay no tax and make billions and billions and billions of dollars,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said in an interview with CNBC on Friday.

For the 2017 and 2018 tax years, Amazon’s own financial filings showed that it expected to receive money back from the federal government, not that it owed money in income tax. For the 2019 tax year, Amazon said it owed more than $1 billion in federal income tax, a figure experts said amounted to little more than 1% of its profits.

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Tagged Amazon, Joe Biden, taxes

The coronavirus ‘does not spread easily’ from touching surfaces or objects, CDC says | Live Science

Posted on May 22, 2020 by knjohn | Leave a comment

The new coronavirus “does not spread easily” from touching surfaces or objects, according to updated wording on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website.

This change was made on May 11 without an announcement from the organization, according to NBC News. The change, which was made during an internal review of their website, was meant to “clarify other types of spread beyond person to person,” CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund told NBC News.

But there doesn’t appear to be any new data on how infectious viral particles are on surfaces, according to NBC News.

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Tagged CDC, coronavirus, how coronavirus spreads