Please don’t use your wall as a projection screen | Digital Trends

March 27, 2025March 26, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The biggest reason to get a projector is because its image can be, well, big. When you first experience watching a blockbuster movie, or playing a game, or cheering on your local sports team in your living room with the picture taking up most of your wall, it’s exciting and intoxicating. But if you’re watching that wall-sized picture on the literal wall, you’re not only visually doing yourself (and the money you spent on an excellent projector) a disservice, you’re affecting the projector’s performance. Potentially to a drastic degree.

Now, if you’re using a pico projector or something that’s designed for its portability that only costs a few hundred dollars, by all means use a wall for some quick temporary viewing or to have on in the background. But if the whole idea was to replace your TV with a projector, it’s important to understand why you should stop using a wall as your screen surface.

How to watch Saturday’s partial solar eclipse | Digital Trends

March 27, 2025March 26, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The moon will be passing in front of the sun on Saturday in a phenomenon known as a “partial solar eclipse.”

As the name suggests, it means that unlike a total solar eclipse, a part of the sun will still be visible, but the spectacle is still worth enjoying if you’re in a location from where it can be viewed.

Those places include parts of North America, Europe, Africa, northern Asia, small parts of South America, throughout Greenland and Iceland, as well as much of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

Shaping a Bright Future: Key Skills for Aspiring Communication and Public Relations Professionals | The Startup Magazine

March 26, 2025March 25, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Key Takeaways

Understanding foundational skills is crucial for future success in communication and public relations.
Developing soft skills can significantly enhance career prospects.
Staying updated with industry trends can set professionals apart in competitive markets.

In today’s whirlwind pace of today’s digital and interconnected world, communication and public relations have emerged as pivotal players in steering public perception and cultivating essential relationships. For those eyeing success, acquiring and honing the right skills is non-negotiable and a key part of public relations professional development.

Tech for Good: 10 Female Leaders Making a Positive Impact | The Startup Magazine

March 26, 2025March 25, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When it comes to startups, females are making strides on a number of fronts.

For example, the United States has seen a surge of women choosing the path of entrepreneurship. According to the 2024 Impact of Women-Owned Businesses report there are 14 million women-owned businesses, employing nearly 12.2 million people and generating $2.7 trillion in revenue. This makes up a total of 39.1% of all U.S. businesses.

Data also suggests that female entrepreneurs have a powerful influence on other areas of the workplace. A landmark global study found that female-owned businesses empower other women and employ more women on average than male-owned businesses.

Yet despite these positive changes, gender-based discrimination in the corporate workplace is actually on the up after years of progressive change. The Young Women’s Association found that workplace discrimination against women hit a three-year high in 2024.

Fraud experts brought in over student loan allegations | BBC News

March 25, 2025March 24, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The education secretary has asked counter-fraud experts to lead an investigation into reports millions of pounds in student loans are being claimed by people with no intent to study.

It follows a report in the Sunday Times which says it found evidence of some individuals enrolling on degree courses at small colleges just to access loans, with no intention of paying them back.

Bridget Phillipson has called in the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) to coordinate the government’s response to the allegations and to support investigations already under way.

23andMe files for bankruptcy protection | BBC

March 25, 2025March 24, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Popular DNA testing firm 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy protection, and announced that its co-founder and CEO, Anne Wojcicki, has resigned with immediate effect.

The company will now attempt to sell itself under the supervision of a court.

23andMe said in a press release that it plans to continue operating throughout the sale process and that there “are no changes to the way the company stores, manages, or protects customer data.”

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection watchdog, said on Monday it had notified the company of its intent to hand down a £4.59m fine over a 2023 data breach.

Vertical farming company Plenty files for bankruptcy after raising nearly $1B | TechCrunch

March 24, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Vertical farming company Plenty has filed for bankruptcy, the company said in a press release on Monday.

In its statement, Plenty said it has received a commitment for $20.7 million in debtor-in-possession financing as part of a proposed restructuring plan. It plans to continue to operate a strawberry farm in Virginia and a plant science research and development (R&D) center in Wyoming.

Debtor-in-possession financing is financing for firms in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Since its 2014 inception, South San Francisco-based Plenty has raised nearly $1 billion in funding from a variety of investors, including SoftBank Investment Advisers, Walmart, Bezos Expeditions, and Jeff Bezos as an angel investor.

Its last known valuation was $1.9 billion at the time of a $400 million Series E fundraise in January 2022, according to PitchBook.

Apple is bringing lossless audio and low-latency audio to AirPods Max | TechCrunch

March 24, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Apple announced on Monday that it’s bringing lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio to AirPods Max headphones when using the included USB-C cable.

With this upcoming update, AirPods Max headphones will unlock 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio to maintain the quality of original recordings. Lossless audio also extends to Personalized Spatial Audio “to deliver a more sonically accurate, uncompressed, and immersive experience,” the company says.

Users will be able to listen to more than 100 million songs in lossless audio with Apple Music.

As for the ultra-low latency audio, Apple says the AirPods Max will be better suited for music production. Using the USB-C cable, AirPods Max users will enable musicians to create and mix with Personalized Spatial Audio and head tracking. This means artists can record and mix music without losing audio quality, Apple notes.

End-to-End Encrypted Texts Between Android and iPhone Are Coming | WIRED

March 21, 2025March 20, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Knifings, firebombings, shootings, and murder-for-hire plots—all linked to a splinter group of the 764 crime network called “No Lives Matter.” According to its own manifesto, the group seeks to “purify mankind through endless attacks” and has released at least two “kill guides” tied to violent plots in the US and Europe. Intelligence documents reviewed by WIRED reveal growing concern among analysts, but experts remain unsure how to stop the group’s spread.

On Monday, X experienced intermittent outages after a botnet flooded the social network with junk traffic in an attempt to take down its system. Elon Musk stated that the distributed denial-of-service attack originated from Ukrainian IP addresses, implying that the country—already under siege by a Russian invasion and frequently mocked by the centibillionaire—may have been responsible. Security experts tell WIRED that this is not how DDoS attacks work.

Best Portable Chargers (2025): iPhones, iPads, Laptops and; More | WIRED

March 21, 2025March 20, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

PORTABLE DEVICES HAVE a Murphy’s law-like ability to run out of power at the least convenient moment: as you step on the bus, right in the middle of an important meeting, or just as you get comfortable on the couch and press Play. This is why you need the best portable chargers handy, to make all those situations a thing of the past.

There are hundreds of portable battery packs, and picking one can be confusing. To help, we’ve spent years working our way through all of them. This obsession started when WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson lived off-grid in a vintage RV, powered primarily by solar panels. But even if you’re not living in an off-grid solar setup, good power banks will come in handy. These are our favorites. Be sure to check out our Best MagSafe Power Banks guide for Apple-specific portable chargers, and our Best Portable Power Stations guide if you need more power.