Category: News and Views

What You Need to Know About Bitcoin for Your Small Business | Small Business Trends

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As a small business owner, I have been avoiding thinking about cryptocurrency and Bitcoin for many years. But on this week’s The Small Business Radio Show, we discuss what you need to know about Bitcoin for your small business, your customers, and vendors.

Chris Brady is a New York Times best-selling author and speaker with a new book called “The Bitcoin Bride”. He was listed Richtopia’s Top 200 list of most influential authors in the world.

According to Chris, Bitcoin is not that complicated. He says that “it’s just money. Bitcoin was created to fix the money system since it’s broken. Governments and banks can expand its supply anytime they want…. backed by nothing. This is bad news for consumers since it results in inflation, erodes business profits and personal savings.  Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation.”

Read More

What’s Going on With Netflix? Everything You Need to Know About the Company’s Massive Fall | Entrepreneur

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Netflix was down over 26% premarket on Wednesday following the release of the company’s latest earnings report, which brought the total market capitalization of the company down nearly $50 billion.

The company reported a 10% increase in revenue during Q1 of 2022, including an 8% increase in average streaming paid memberships. Here’s everything you need to know about what’s going on with the streaming service.

Netflix is bleeding subscribers

The company announced that it had lost a record net 200,000 subscribers during Q1 of 2022, its biggest drop off in over a decade.

“In the near term though, we’re not growing revenue as fast as we’d like,” the company warned in a letter to shareholders. “COVID clouded the picture by significantly increasing our growth in 2020, leading us to believe that most of our slowing growth in 2021 was due to the COVID pull forward. Now, we believe there are four main inter-related factors at work.”

Read More

Florida lawmakers have stripped Disney of special tax status | BBC News

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Florida lawmakers have voted to strip Walt Disney of its special self-governing status amid a political clash between the company and the governor.

The status gave Disney powers to levy tax, build roads and control utilities on the lands of its theme park.

The entertainment conglomerate did not respond to a request for comment.

The move is widely seen as retribution for Disney’s opposition to a bill that bars many primary-school classrooms from discussing sexual orientation.

Read More

This Week in Apps: Google bans call-recording apps, Snap’s Q1 and BeReal hype | TechCrunch

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China grew 19% in 2021 to reach $170 billion. Downloads of apps also grew by 5%, reaching 230 billion in 2021, and mobile ad spend grew 23% year over year to reach $295 billion.

Today’s consumers now spend more time in apps than ever before — even topping the time they spend watching TV, in some cases. The average American watches 3.1 hours of TV per day, for example, but in 2021, they spent 4.1 hours on their mobile device. And they’re not even the world’s heaviest mobile users. In markets like Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, users surpassed five hours per day in mobile apps in 2021.

Read More

Buckle up: The Fed is about to get tough on inflation | CNN

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Last month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since December 2018. Now there are growing expectations that the central bank is about to dramatically step up the size and pace of its rate hikes in order to put a brake on surging consumer prices.

St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard, one of the more hawkish members among the Fed’s regional bank chiefs, reiterated at an event Monday that the Fed needs to “expeditiously” raise rates in order to tamp down inflation. (Inflation hawks typically push for higher rates while so-called doves favor lower rates to stimulate growth.) Bullard suggested the Fed could raise rates by as much as 75 basis points.

Read More

Workers are Seeking or Planning to Seek New Jobs | business.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Higher pay, better benefits, or improved work environment could entice 88 percent of these job seekers to stay with their current company

Public health crises past and present have caused labor shortages that ripped out and reworked the fabric of society. The Great Plague liberated serfs, the Spanish Flu brought women to the workplace, and COVID-19 is empowering modern employees to redefine work-life balance and find roles that fit their lifestyles.

In upending the economy, the coronavirus also reshaped views of the workforce. Hourly earners were finally seen as essential and many office workers logged in from home, while government assistance allowed millions to reconsider their employment status. Many workers delayed their returns to the office or quit their jobs to seek more favorable terms as part of The Great Resignation.

Read More

A self-driving car stopped by San Francisco police | BBC News

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

San Francisco police officers were faced with a new challenge after stopping an autonomous vehicle with no-one inside.

Officers approached the car, operated by Cruise, because it had been driving without headlights.

In the incident, captured on film, an officer remarks that there “ain’t nobody in it” before the car moves to what Cruise said was a safer location.

The company said the headlights issue was a result of human error.

Read More

Inflation Hits a 40-Year High–And Businesses Ponder the R-Word | Inc.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

While the cost of capital remains relatively inexpensive and consumers keep their foot on the pedal of the economy, the recent inflationary surge will likely drive the Federal Reserve to act to cool the economy. The big question: Can the Fed apply the brakes without slowing the economy into a recession.

In March, inflation rose 8.5 percent, a 40-year high, according to the latest reading of the Labor Department’s consumer price index, or CPI. Meanwhile, groceries surged 10 percent in March from a year ago, while food overall rose 8.8 percent. Used car prices are more than 35 percent higher than they were a year ago, dropping slightly since January, and nationally a gallon of gas is currently hovering at around $4, up 18.3 percent in March and nearing a record set in 2008.

Read More

YouTube services worldwide are experiencing issues, the company confirms | TechCrunch

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

YouTube today confirmed the site is experiencing a variety of issues that are impacting users worldwide. The company acknowledged the service’s problems after numerous users reported error messages when trying to watch videos or noted various site elements weren’t available — like the sidebar navigation or the Setting menus, for example — among other things.

Some users also found they couldn’t sign in to their YouTube account or switch between profiles. Others said they were unable to cast YouTube to their TV or use the app on their gaming console.

When trying to play videos, some would see an error that said “No Internet Connection” even though they weren’t otherwise having connectivity issues.

Read More