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.

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.

Apple’s iPhone 17 might come with a big selfie camera upgrade | Mashable

March 19, 2025March 18, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Apple might be preparing for a big selfie camera upgrade on the iPhone.

According to analyst Jeff Pu (via MacRumors), all the devices in the iPhone 17 lineup (that includes the iPhone 17, the iPhone 17 Pro, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and the rumored iPhone 17 Air) will have a 24-megapixel front camera.

That’s a pretty big upgrade given that the currently available iPhones all come with a 12-megapixel camera. Other details are absent, though Apple sleuth Ming-Chi Kuo previously said that the camera will “significantly improve the image quality”.

How Ann Arbor’s sustainable energy utility could impact future power grids | Fast Company

March 17, 2025March 16, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

An experiment is underway in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that could change how communities generate and distribute power in the future.

The city, with voters’ strong support, is launching its own sustainable energy utility. This new utility won’t replace DTE Energy, the local investor-owned power company, or even use DTE’s wires.

Instead, Ann Arbor will slowly build out a whole new modern power system, starting with installing rooftop solar and battery storage and reducing energy usage in individual homes and businesses whose owners opt in. The city then plans to expand by connecting homes and neighborhoods into microgrids and by using community solar and networked geothermal to allow broader access to clean energy.

Strategies for Reducing Financial Stress | AllBusiness.com

March 14, 2025March 13, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If there’s one lesson that Covid-19 has taught us, it’s that unexpected disasters can and do happen. And for the more than 25% of Americans who currently live paycheck to paycheck, an unexpected job loss, drop in income, or large medical bill can be enough to send your finances over the edge and cause an enormous amount of financial stress on you and your family.

Fortunately, there are several things you can do to regain control of your finances and reduce the stress caused by a plunging bank balance. Find the road back to financial freedom with these reliable financial disaster management tips.

How Tariffs Affect Small Businesses—Plus Tips on Navigating Them | AllBusiness.com

March 14, 2025March 13, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In early March, Goldman Sachs downgraded its prior economic forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2025 from 2.4% to 1.7%. According to Jan Hatzius, Goldman’s chief economist, “The reason for the downgrade is that our trade policy assumptions have become considerably more adverse.”

CNBC reports, “Goldman is warning that tariffs could raise consumer prices and tighten financial conditions, while leading companies to delay investments.”

David Kelly, the chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management wrote, “The trouble with tariffs, to be succinct, is that they raise prices, slow economic growth, cut profits, increase unemployment, worsen inequality, diminish productivity and increase global tensions. Other than that, they’re fine.”

Zoho Unveils Projects Plus, a Unified AI-Driven Project Management Platform | Small Biz Trends

March 13, 2025March 13, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Zoho Corporation has launched Projects Plus, a new AI-powered project management platform designed to enhance efficiency and collaboration for mid-sized and enterprise organizations. The platform integrates four key Zoho applications—Projects, WorkDrive, Analytics, and Sprints—allowing businesses to leverage data-driven insights, streamline workflows, and facilitate collaboration in real-time.

The introduction of Projects Plus follows a year of substantial growth for Zoho Projects, which saw a 20% year-over-year revenue increase in 2024. Additionally, the company reported a threefold rise in user migration from third-party project management tools, with 55% of new users transitioning from Microsoft Projects and JIRA.

Intuit QuickBooks Introduces Tap to Pay on iPhone for Seamless Contactless Payments | Small Biz Trends

March 13, 2025March 12, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Intuit has announced the launch of Tap to Pay on iPhone for QuickBooks Online customers in the U.S., providing small and mid-market businesses with a streamlined way to accept in-person contactless payments using only an iPhone. The new functionality enables QuickBooks users to manage their business finances more efficiently while improving cash flow and payment processing.

“With Tap to Pay on iPhone, we’re giving customers a competitive advantage that accelerates cash flow, business growth, and customer loyalty,” David Hahn, SVP, QuickBooks Money Platform says. “What makes Tap to Pay on iPhone unique for QuickBooks customers, is that it allows them to streamline their in-person payments and seamlessly connect them to their books and our end-to-end services, putting their full business finances all in one place. This new feature, coupled with our AI-powered platform and ‘done-for-you’ experiences, empowers small businesses to reach new levels of growth and success.”

Apple MacBook Air 13 (M4, 2025) review: the best small laptop ever | Digital Trends

March 12, 2025March 11, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In our previous reviews of the Apple MacBook Air, we’ve rated it as the best 13-inch laptop but stopped short of giving it a perfect score. With the advent of Apple’s M4 chipset, which isn’t a sea change over the M3 but is nevertheless significantly stronger, I don’t see any reason to hold back.

We can dispute if a laptop with a 13.6-inch display is officially in the 13-inch category or better belongs to the 14-inch laptop segment. But who really cares? The MacBook Air 13 is incredibly thin, light enough to be highly portable, very fast, and oh-so-efficient. It’s a remarkable accomplishment in terms of making hardware that’s sheer genius, and it doesn’t hurt that the entry level price of $1,000 now applies to the current chipset and includes a more reasonable 16GB of RAM.