Hourly Wages at Small Businesses Hit Record Level in December | Small Business Trends

January 14, 2022January 13, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As 2021 drew to a close, the average hourly wage at small businesses locked in at $30, according to the Paychex IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch.

The December data shows hourly earnings growth improving to 4.27%, which is the highest level since Paychex began reporting 10 years ago.

Hiring at small businesses also closed 2021 on an optimistic stat, improving 7.31% from the prior year, according to the same report.

Hourly Wages at Small Businesses Hit Record Level in December

Paychex CEO Martin Mucci summed the stats.

“Employers are responding to the pressure of the tight labor market by raising wages, and workers are benefitting,” Mucci said.

10 QuickBooks Alternatives | business.com

January 14, 2022January 13, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

QuickBooks is the most widely used accounting software, but there are alternatives that might be better for your business.

QuickBooks is the most widely used accounting solution available, and it’s one of the best accounting software options for small business owners. But the company does charge a relatively high monthly fee, and it doesn’t offer the best customer support.

Many small businesses outgrow the tools that QuickBooks provides. When this happens, you’ll need a QuickBooks alternative that works with your budget and accounting needs.

This article will break down 10 of the best QuickBooks alternatives to consider when you’re ready to switch software.

iPhone 14 Pro design leak shows bizarre hole and pill cutout | Digital Trends

January 13, 2022January 12, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Is that a circular hole punch? Or a pill-shaped cutout? Wait, it’s both. As per a fresh leak, the iPhone 14 Pro and its Max sibling will ditch the notch in favor of a weird arrangement that includes both a circular and a pill-shaped cutout arranged neatly in a line. Whether it looks appealing is debatable, but it definitely hasn’t been attempted before by a smartphone maker.

Display supply chain expert Ross Young, who has a fairly accurate track record with display-related Apple predictions, tweeted what appears to be an engineering template for an iPhone 14 Pro model. There are two separate cutouts, a design that we are yet to see on a phone so far. Samsung offers a bucket load of phones with a single circular cutout, Motorola has a phone with two separate camera dots, and Huawei has been loyal to the pill-shaped design for the past few years. But never have the two elements been blended together like this.

Scams Startups Need to be Aware Of | The Startup Magazine

January 13, 2022January 12, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Starting your own business is never easy, but it can be made even harder by scammers that are trying to trick you into parting with your money. Startups are often targeted by criminals because they’re seen as less experienced than bigger businesses, but by educating yourself about some common scams, you’ll be in a much better place to avoid startup scams and ensure the success of your venture.

One of the most common ways that criminals reach out to startups is through phone calls, which is why it’s so important to be wary of unknown numbers. Rather than answering calls from numbers you don’t recognize, use a website like unknownphone.com to try and figure out who is calling. Services like this will show you whether others have had bad experiences with the number that rang you, so you can block them before getting into trouble.

Three ethical issues around pig heart transplants | BBC News

January 12, 2022January 11, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A US man has become the world’s first person to get a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig.

57-year-old David Bennett, who doctors say was too ill to qualify for a human heart, is doing well three days after the experimental seven-hour treatment.

The surgery is being hailed by many as a medical breakthrough that could shorten transplant waiting times and change the lives of patients around the world. But some are questioning if the procedure can be ethically justified.

They have pointed to potential moral trouble spots over patient safety, animal rights and religious concerns.

So how controversial are transplants from pigs?

There’s No Slowing the Great Resignation | Inc.com

January 12, 2022January 11, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

November fueled another record month for the Great Resignation, as 4.5 million workers either left or switched jobs, according to data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The November milestone usurps the previous record of approximately 4.4 million workers who ditched their jobs in September.

The so-called quits rate, which examines the amount of voluntary departures as a percentage of total employment, increased in both smaller businesses employing one to nine workers as well as larger shops with 1,000 to 4,999 workers.

Apple paid out around $60 billion to App Store developers in 2021 | TechCrunch

January 11, 2022January 10, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Despite facing numerous antitrust lawsuits and tighter regulations in certain markets, Apple today reported new figures indicating record App Store growth in 2021. The company in a press release said it has now paid out more than $260 billion to app developers since the App Store first launched in 2008, a number that’s up from the $200 billion Apple reported at the end of 2020 — meaning, in 2021 alone, Apple paid developers a total of at least $60 billion.

That number is a lot larger than the payouts reported in previous years.

For comparison, Apple by the end of 2019 had paid developers a total of $155 billion since the App Store’s debut. The year prior, it had said that figure was around $120 billion. Reading between the lines, that means payouts to developers jumped by $35 million from 2018 to 2019, then grew by another $45 billion from 2019 to 2020.

Where are memories stored in the brain? New research suggests they may be in the connections between your brain cells | Entrepreneur

January 11, 2022January 10, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

All memory storage devices, from your brain to the RAM in your computer, store information by changing their physical qualities. Over 130 years ago, pioneering neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal first suggested that the brain stores information by rearranging the connections, or synapses, between neurons.

Since then, neuroscientists have attempted to understand the physical changes associated with memory formation. But visualizing and mapping synapses is challenging to do. For one, synapses are very small and tightly packed together. They’re roughly 10 billion times smaller than the smallest object a standard clinical MRI can visualize. Furthermore, there are approximately 1 billion synapses in the mouse brains researchers often use to study brain function, and they’re all the same opaque to translucent color as the tissue surrounding them.

Amphibious Fat pickup lugs supplies through mud, blizzard, and water | New Atlas

January 10, 2022January 9, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The tire-sucking bogs and lonely, icy Arctic expanses of Russia inspired the Sherp ATV and its six-wheeled powered trailer. Canada has some of the same types of inhospitable, uncrossable northerly terrain, and it also has its own homegrown amphibious rover: the Fat Truck from Quebec’s Zeal Motor. Traditionally equipped with a combination of huge 65-inch paddle-tires and fully enclosed personnel carrier, the Fat Truck family has welcomed a versatile cargo hauler in the all-new 2.8P, a high-riding pickup truck built to carry work supplies over harsh, trackless land and water that would spell disaster for the average pickup.

What is an AirTag? | Mashable

January 10, 2022January 9, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There are two kinds of people in this world: People who have been late to an event because they cannot find their keys or wallet or purse, and people who are liars.

Apple’s AirTag, a tracking device released on April 30, 2021, set out to fix that first group’s problem. Designed to act as a key finder, the tool can also be slapped on an animals’ collar, tucked into a bag, or, yes, even attached to a car or a person.

But what actually is an AirTag?

Apple AirTags are built for your keychain — each unit is 1.26 inches in diameter, which is about twice the size of a quarter. Starting at $29, the water-resistant tool uses Apple’s Find My network and Bluetooth signals to connect your phone with the tag and guide you to your misplaced item. It’s compatible with any iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch device capable of running iOS and iPadOS 14.5 or later. If you’re familiar with other Bluetooth trackers, like Tile or Chipolo, the Apple ones work pretty much the same way.