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The Mortgage Bankers Association found gains in March for conforming, jumbo and government-sponsored loan indices for the third consecutive month. View the full article

Remember the iPod? It’s making a quiet comeback. Four years after Apple killed off its digital music player, secondhand sales are surging. It’s fueled in part by young people interested not just in its retro looks but a desire to listen to music in a focused way and with playlists not determined by algorithms. “There’s a growing trend, particularly amongst younger users, to mitigate the ease with which they can be distracted by smartphones, often driven by mental health and well-being concerns,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight. “Having a dedicated music device, such as an iPod, is a good way to reduce your dependence on a smartphone and avoid being drawn into other activities, like doomscrolling through social media feeds, when you only really want to listen to music.” If you’re interested in joining the iPod revival, here are some pointers: How to get an iPod You can’t buy a new iPod anymore but it’s not too hard to get your hands on a used one. There are still a lot of them around because Apple sold 450 million over two decades. There’s a thriving secondhand market, as evidenced by thousands of listings for used iPods on eBay. “Based on my discussions with people in the market, there has definitely been renewed interest in refurbished iPods,” said Wood. But watch out, because eBay, strangely, also has thousands of listings for new iPods. On closer inspection, they’re from China-based sellers and some buyers have left feedback complaining they received a used or refurbished device in counterfeit packaging. Facebook Marketplace, peer-to-peer reselling site Mercari and refurbished electronics platform Back Market also have plenty of listings. Back Market, which operates in the U.S., Japan and more than a dozen European countries, said iPod sales last year jumped 48% from 2024. There are also businesses dedicated to selling refurbished iPods. And there’s a chance someone you know has one gathering dust in a drawer somewhere. My 16-year-old daughter recently discovered her grandmother’s silver iPod Nano, complete with original charging cable and white earphones, in a guest room nightstand during a recent visit. For support, there’s a vibrant online community of users swapping tips and sharing pictures of their devices, many with aftermarket modifications like faceplates in non-original colors. Which iPod is it? There’s not just one single style of iPod. The original iPod, released in 2001, came with a scroll wheel that became a design signature. When the sixth generation was released, Apple started calling it the Classic. It was followed by the smaller Mini and Nano versions, and the Shuffle, which had no screen. Then came the Touch, which had a glass touch screen and ran on iOS to support mobile apps — basically an iPhone without the phone. If you’re not sure which model you have, check Apple’s identification page. Bringing it back to life So you’ve found grandma’s old iPod, but does it work? The battery could be dead so you will need a charging cable. Later generations of the iPod Touch used Apple’s Lightning cable but all other models require a 30-pin charging cable, which has a distinctive wide, flat plug. Apple doesn’t make these anymore but replacements are available from aftermarket manufacturers. If charging doesn’t revive it, the battery might need replacing. Or maybe there’s something else wrong, like a broken earphone jack or a damaged display. Apple still repairs iPods, but only for the two final generations of the Touch. You can send it to a repair service or fix it yourself if you’re feeling handy. Repair website iFixit has detailed step-by-step repair guides for replacing various components. You’ll need to source spare parts yourself. IPod Touch owners should beware of software limitations. The most recent version of Apple’s operating system that will work on the seventh generation iPod Touch — the last version ever sold — is iOS 15, and previous models are limited to even older versions. This is not an issue with other iPod variants because they don’t run iOS. Adding music Grandma’s silver iPod Nano appeared to be working fine, but I decided to start fresh by doing a factory reset to wipe the audio files left on it and restore the original settings. You’ll need a computer, either a Mac or Windows, to do this. Apple has a page that outlines the steps. Those of you with Windows computers can use Apple’s iTunes program to manage your iPod and sync up your song library. To add digital music files from your computer, drag the files into iTunes and drop them in the iPod’s music library. To add a song that you’ve bought previously in iTunes, download it first to your computer, right click on it and select “Add to Device.” Apple discontinued iTunes for MacOS in 2019 so Mac computer users will have to use Apple Music, but it’s an equally easy process of dragging and dropping files. Take note, Apple Music subscribers: you should be able to stream music on later generations of the iPod Touch. But for every other type of iPod, you’ll only be able to add and listen to music files ripped from a CD or purchased from a digital music platform. Upgrading the software Most iPods are pretty basic, in part because they’re limited by the device’s onboard firmware. But part of the iPod’s appeal is that it’s easy for hobbyists to tinker with them, said Wood. “There is definitely a movement of people looking to take iPods and modify them for modern use,” he said. One popular hack is replacing the iPod’s firmware with open-source software such as RockBox, which can be used “to upgrade an iPod to offer greater control and add features that Apple had not included or did not exist at the time,” Wood said. This includes support for high-resolution lossless music files, the ability to manage music without iTunes, and tracking what you’ve been listening to so you can upload your playlist to a platform such as Last.fm, Wood said. ___ Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip. —Kelvin Chan, AP business writer View the full article

Today's Bissett Bullet: “Very few business owners highly value compliance work. It is often viewed as a necessary evil and as such, the decision to change accountants for this sort of work will, more often than not, be driven by price.” By Martin Bissett See more Bissett Bullets here Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Metehan Yesilyurt’s SDK analysis revealed the pipeline names. We captured months of real Discover feeds to show what each pipeline actually does — volume, reach, timing, and which publishers dominate. Here’s what 42 million cards reveal about Discover’s internal architecture. What we did Over three months (December 2025 – February 2026), we observed real Discover feeds from hundreds of devices. The result: 42 million feed cards analyzed. We linked each card to the precise pipeline that selected it. Some of the names were already known from the SDK, You likely saw the SDK Analysis by Metehan Yesilyurt already. What was missing: what each pipeline does in practice. How much content it selects, how many devices see it, how fast it operates, and which publishers it favors. That’s what our data reveals. For each pipeline, we compute four metrics: Reach — percentage of devices that see each URL per day Speed — median age of articles at time of appearance Exclusivity — percentage of URLs unique to that pipeline Volume — share of total feed Explore all 20 pipelines visually: Open the interactive explorer → Screenshot of the interactive explorer — EN toggle. Not one algorithm — a layered system The common assumption: Discover uses a single recommendation algorithm. Our data tells a different story: it’s a structured system with six functional layers, each with distinct logic, speed, and audience. Each pipeline positioned by speed (X axis, log) and reach (Y). neoncluster stands out at 13% reach — the highest editorial pipeline. feedads is the extreme outlier at 58.4%. Breaking pipelines (nsh, mustntmiss) cluster top-left; personalization pipelines bottom-right. The 20 EN pipelines ranked by total volume. content dominates at 34.2%, followed by feedads (11.1%) and aura (8.7%). The 20 EN pipelines organized into 6 functional layers. Same structure as French, radically different proportions. The six layers: Core editorial — content (34.2% of volume), moonstone (7.8%, reach 9.4%), aura (8.7%, science/tech over-represented), paginationpanoptic (5.5%, scroll infrastructure), relatedcontentruby (6.7%, click-triggered related content). News urgency — mustntmiss (0.5% volume but 7.3% reach, ~2x priority boost, 29% AI Overviews content) and newsstoriesheadlines (10.6% reach, Google News story clusters). Trends — deeptrendsfable detects, deeptrends persists. Sequential pipeline: 27% pass rate, 21-hour delay. x.com is a trend signal source even in EN. Local/geo — geotargetingstories (x.com dominates at 43.2% in EN), webkicklocalstories (hyperlocal UK/US press, 67% exclusive URLs), astria (BBC 29.3%, horse racing, astrology, Showcase). Social/video — the YouTube cascade: creatorcontent (YouTube 72.4%) → freshvideos (+15h, 94% YouTube) → neoncluster (+23h, 100% YouTube, 13% reach). The cascade that doesn’t exist in French. Commercial — shoppinginspiration (13.1% reach, 2.5-day lifespan) and feedads (58.4% reach — the highest of any pipeline in any language). AI Overview — discover_ai_summary (1.1% of volume, 99.997% AI Overviews content, EN-only). Quality press: Reuters, New York Times, CNBC, Financial Times, Guardian. The four EN-specific findings The YouTube cascade: three pipelines, one content journey This is the most distinctive feature of the English feed. Three pipelines form a sequential amplifier: StagePipelineContent mixReachTiming1. Intakecreatorcontent72% YouTube, 23% x.com6.7%T₀2. Filterfreshvideos94% YouTube7.1%T₀ + 15h3. Broadcastneoncluster100% YouTube13.0%T₀ + 23h At each stage, the content narrows (from mixed to pure video) and reach increases (from 6.7% to 13%). The best YouTube content is filtered, then projected to 13% of devices — broadcast-level distribution. Growth is explosive across all three stages: creatorcontent 7.8x, freshvideos 7.2x, neoncluster 18x over three months. The video cascade is the fastest-growing part of Discover EN. In French Discover, this cascade doesn’t exist. neoncluster has 36 hits in 3 months. The conditions — YouTube-dominant social, pure video content, broadcast audience — are only met in English. The three-stage video cascade: creatorcontent (intake, 1.9h) → freshvideos (amplifier, 8.6h) → neoncluster (broadcast, 17.3h, 13% reach). At each stage, content narrows toward pure video and reach increases. AI Overviews have landed in Discover — but only in EN AI Overviews — the AI-generated summary card — has been added to Discover. But only in English. discover_ai_summary: 1.1% of EN volume, 99.997% AI Overview content. Reuters (12.3%), New York Times (7.5%), CNBC (7.3%). Finance and space over-represented. mustntmiss: 29% AI Overviews content — the highest penetration of any non-dedicated pipeline. paginationpanoptic: 7.8% AI Overviews — even the scroll infrastructure carries AI summaries In French: Almost no AI Overview hits in 3 months. AI Overviews content rate per pipeline. discover_ai_summary at 99.997%, mustntmiss at 29%, paginationpanoptic at 7.8%. AI Overviews exist only in English Discover. The AI Overviews source club is small and elite: Reuters, New York Times, CNBC, Financial Times, Guardian. Factual, structured, financial press. AI Overviews in Discover don’t democratize visibility — they concentrate it. feedads reaches 58% of English devices feedads is the single most powerful pipeline by reach — 58.4% of EN devices see each ad. YouTube accounts for 53.7% of ads (video advertising dominates). Campaigns run for a median of 57 days. The ecosystem is hermetically sealed: 99.8% exclusive URLs. For context: the highest-reach editorial pipeline (neoncluster) reaches 13%. feedads reaches 4.5x more. The EN Discover feed is heavily monetized — significantly more than French (24% reach). The EPL exclusion The most surprising finding. Premier League content is systematically under-represented across 7+ EN pipelines. The affected terms: Premier League, football, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham. Each shows strong negative signals in aura, deeptrendsfable, deeptrends, geotargetingstories, astria, freshvideos, and others. The terms not affected: NFL, NBA, Olympics, rugby, cricket, Formula 1. The exclusion is specific to EPL. Premier League terms are systematically under-represented across 7+ EN pipelines. Other sports (NFL, NBA, F1) are unaffected. The most likely hypothesis: EPL broadcasting rights and licensing constraints create editorial restrictions that propagate through the selection system. But we can’t confirm this — it’s an observation, not an explanation. Three publisher profiles Each row = a domain, each column = a pipeline family, color = percentage of hits. Find YouTube (49.9% social), Guardian, BBC, New York Times, and see their pipeline fingerprint at a glance. For each pipeline, the top 5 domains and their share. neoncluster: 100% YouTube. feedads: 53.7% YouTube ads. content: YouTube, Guardian, BBC. shopping: TechRadar, Tom’s Hardware, Digital Camera World. Quality press (Guardian, BBC, New York Times) Present in 8-10 pipelines. Guardian shows the broadest spread — top-5 in 12 different pipelines, from content and aura to newsstoriesheadlines and deeptrends. BBC dominates astria (29.3%) and deeptrends (24.7%). mustntmiss gives a ~2x priority boost, and with 29% AI Overviews content, AI Overviews-readiness is now a competitive advantage for quality press in EN. Tech/review site (TechRadar, Tom’s Hardware) shoppinginspiration: 13.1% reach, 2.5-day lifespan — a strong visibility window. But shopping is a silo: low co-occurrence with other pipelines. A Samsung Galaxy S25 review stays in shopping. The opportunity: diversify beyond pure product testing. aura over-represents science/tech content by 2-2.4x. Adding editorial context — a trend analysis, a market comparison — can open doors to aura and content, breaking out of the shopping silo. Video-first publisher (YouTube channels) The cascade is a 3-stage amplifier. neoncluster at 13% reach is broadcast-level distribution. The content that makes it through: news/politics (WION, NBC — 46% international news), science, and current affairs. Entertainment and gaming are present but don’t dominate. For a YouTube creator focused on news/politics/science, Discover’s cascade is one of the most powerful organic distribution channels available — and it’s growing at 18x in three months. Full per-profile recommendations (quality press, tech, video, local, lifestyle, finance, pure player) will be published in our Substack series. Explore further This article is an overview. The complete analysis — 20 pipelines, per-pipeline data, domain leaders, typical titles — is available: Interactive explorer: navigate all 20 pipelines, compare metrics, see top domains and typical titles EN Substack: weekly deep-dives with data, charts, and recommendations Full reference: 1492.vision — the complete pipeline-by-pipeline analysis, with 3 detailled articles. The Discover system evolves. These findings are a snapshot from December 2025 to February 2026. The video cascade that didn’t exist in December already represents 13% of EN reach in February. Monitoring the evolution — not just photographing a moment — is where the real advantage lies. Data: 42 million Discover cards, December 2025 – February 2026. Analysis: 1492.vision. Credit to Metehan Yesilyurt for the Google SDK analysis — our data shows what each pipeline does in practice. View the full article

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. Did Anthropic just soft-launch the scariest AI model yet? On Tuesday Anthropic announced that it would deploy its newest and most powerful AI model, Claude Mythos Preview, to a new industry initiative (Project Glasswing) meant to safeguard critical software infrastructure against cyberattacks. That sounded good, but it obscured the real news somewhat—that one of the big three AI labs has now developed a model that could, in the wrong hands, be a super-dangerous cyberweapon. In the course of normal model training, the model began showing significant skill in both detecting bugs in software systems and exploiting those bugs to disrupt or gain control of the systems. It found a 27-year-old vulnerability in OpenBSD and exploited it to gain root access. It caught a 16-year-old flaw in FFmpeg that automated tools missed after five million tests. Perhaps most impressively, it’s able to create exploits by stringing together multiple software vulnerabilities that by themselves wouldn’t do anything. It did this to a Linux system to gain admin-level access. Interpretability researchers also found cases where the model exhibited deceptive or manipulative behavior during tests. In one case, Mythos discovered and used a privilege-escalation exploit and then designed a mechanism to erase traces of its use. Anthropic said it would give access to its Mythos model to a select group of tech companies, including Apple and Cisco, along with about 40 additional organizations that build or maintain critical software infrastructure. This is a bit like a defense contractor unveiling a super-lethal missile capable of striking any target on Earth, while insisting it will be distributed only to a small group of trusted countries and used strictly for defensive purposes. But the larger story may be that Anthropic has created a model with significantly more intelligence than any we’ve seen before. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has repeatedly said that models that equal or better human beings in intelligence were coming. “There’s a kind of accelerating exponential, but along that exponential there are points of significance,” he said in a video released by the company Tuesday. “Claude Mythos Preview is a significant jump ” Perhaps soft-launching Mythos as a defensive cybersecurity asset was Anthropic’s way of getting people used to the idea that it’s created a model that approximates artificial general intelligence, in which an AI system equals or exceeds human intelligence in most tasks. We’ve been talking for years about how to keep AI systems aligned with human values and goals, but the discussion has mostly lived in the abstract. The industry has leaned on that, effectively arguing that we should wait to see how real-world risks actually play out before locking in binding rules. Anthropic may be suggesting that those risks are no longer hypothetical. Anthropic is also likely wary of releasing a model that, in the wrong hands, could function as a kind of weapon of mass destruction. In a worst-case scenario, it might be used by a hostile state actor to infiltrate and take control of critical information systems, including those that underpin financial markets. Cyberattackers already rely on software tools to scan internal networks, websites, and applications for vulnerabilities, often the same tools used by defenders. Increasingly, they are pairing those tools with large language models to automate the process, building agents that can identify weaknesses and even generate exploits. By comparison, Claude Mythos would likely be far more powerful and autonomous than anything currently available to cybercriminals. But that will change. Future versions of existing models like DeepSeek will very likely catch up with Mythos, and in a matter of months, not years. “More powerful models are going to come from us and from others, so we do need a plan to respond to this,” Amodei said in the video. In fact, OpenAI’s forthcoming model, nicknamed “Spud,” is expected to show up in the next few weeks, and it could match Mythos’s reasoning and problem-solving skills. In an interview with VentureBeat, Newton Cheng, Anthropic’s Frontier Red Team Cyber Lead, was blunt about the risks of these future models. “The fallout–for economies, public safety, and national security–could be severe,” he said. His use of the “fallout” word suggests a type of cyberattack I’d rather not think about. Because of those clear cybersecurity risks, Anthropic plans to keep Claude Mythos tightly controlled, with access limited to participants in the Glasswing project. But even a locked-down model raises concerns. Less than two weeks ago, the company accidentally exposed details about Mythos after an employee misconfigured a content management system. No source code or model weights were released, but the episode hardly inspires confidence in Anthropic’s ability to secure it. And attackers will be motivated to try. It is also possible that the “leak” was less accidental than it appeared, part of a broader soft-launch strategy. What we know about OpenAI’s next big model aka ‘Spud’ OpenAI president Greg Brockman and CEO Sam Altman have been dropping morsels and hints about their company’s newest model, which is codenamed “Spud.” The model’s real name could end up being something like GPT-5.5 or, more likely, GPT-6. And it could be released within weeks. Spud is expected to bring stronger agentic capabilities, more autonomous behavior, better multistep planning and execution, and less errors, as well as better multimodal reasoning and fewer hallucinations. Brockman said Spud is the product of two years of research. He called it “a new pre-train,” suggesting that OpenAI may have fundamentally changed the base model and how it learns, rather than using the same model and adding things like performance optimization or fine-tuning. OpenAI researchers finished pre-training the model March 26, Brockman said. Training Spud must have required massive amounts of computing power, because OpenAI reportedly shut down its Sora video app in order to free up more GPUs for the effort. The researchers are now in the post-training phase, which includes fine-tuning and safety testing. Brockman said that with Spud, OpenAI has a “line of sight to AGI” within the next couple of years. CEO Sam Altman told staff the model is “very strong” and “can really accelerate the economy.” OpenAI hasn’t shared any official benchmarks of Spud’s performance, but it’s likely that Spud will rival Anthropic’s new Mythos models. Then it’ll be Google Deepmind’s turn to top the benchmarks with a new Gemini model. Research: Just 10 minutes of AI assistance can make you dumber Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Oxford, MIT, and UCLA found that after just 10 minutes of AI assistance people perform worse and give up more often than those who never used AI. The researchers asked 1,200 people to solve fraction problems or answer reading comprehension questions. Half of them were allowed to use an AI assistant. Then the researchers asked both user groups to take the same test. The researchers found that the AI-assisted group scored better than the non-AI group in the first test. But when that group was deprived of the AI in the second test they scored significantly worse, relative to the (non-AI using) control group. They also gave up more frequently than non-AI users on test problems. Only 10 minutes of AI use on the first test can sink the test-taker’s performance and persistence on the second test, the researchers add. The researchers say this is especially concerning because users need a measure of persistence in order to pick up new skills. Persistence is a good predictor of long term learning, they say. “AI conditions you to expect immediate answers, removing the productive struggle that builds real competence,” one of the researchers, MIT’s Michiel Bakker, said in an X post Tuesday. How the test subjects used the AI mattered. Those who used it to get direct answers (61% of test takers) showed the steepest declines in both performance and willingness to keep trying. People who used the AI only for hints did better. “We posit that persistence is reduced because Al conditions people to expect immediate answers, thereby denying them the experience of working through challenges on their own,” the researchers write. They suggest that AI tools should act more like a human mentor, who, in some situations, prioritizes the long-term growth of the user over the immediate completion of a task. In a larger sense, the study puts some real science behind the fear that humans will outsource more and more of their brain work to AI, eventually relegating themselves to the sidelines of modern business and other human affairs. More AI coverage from Fast Company: Rana el Kaliouby on why AI needs a more human future 20 seconds to approve a military strike; 1.2 seconds to deny a health insurance claim. The human is in the AI loop. Humanity is not OpenAI warns Elon Musk is escalating attacks as their trial nears Y Combinator’s CEO says he ships 37,000 lines of AI code per day. A developer looked under the hood Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium. View the full article

Over four decades, I have had the opportunity to consult with almost all of the major companies in the PC, consumer electronics, and telecommunications industries. In 1991, when the PC industry was barely a decade old, Acer’s founder Stan Shih invited me to tour the company’s new PC factory in Taiwan. What I saw wasn’t just a factory–it was the foundation of a new world order in technology manufacturing. Over the years, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of Taiwan’s crucial role in the global technology ecosystem. Semiconductor leaders like TSMC, along with manufacturing powerhouses such as Compal, Foxconn, Quanta, Pegatron, and Wistron, have built an ecosystem unmatched anywhere else in the world. This network has become the backbone of production for much of the world’s technology–supplying chips and devices for Apple, Nvidia, AMD, HP, Dell, and many others. Taiwan, an island about the size of Maryland just 90 miles off the Chinese mainland, produces roughly 90 percent of the world’s advanced semiconductors. Those chips power your iPhone, your laptop, your car, and even the massive data centers driving artificial intelligence. Without Taiwan’s fabrication facilities, the global technology industry does not just slow down–it stops. That the flow of Taiwanese chips could stop is more than a theoretical risk–it’s a crisis already in motion. China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province to be reclaimed, could attempt to impose a naval blockade around the island. In fact, the China’s People’s Liberation Army recently conducted live-fire military exercises in the waters surrounding the island–a dramatic escalation of the drills that have become increasingly common since the last Taiwanese presidential election. These are not abstract war games; they are rehearsals for a naval blockade of the island, and everyone paying attention knows it. Colleagues in Taiwan who study such scenarios warn that even a rehearsal —with no missiles, no boots on the ground, just ships in the water—could choke off the world’s chip supply and cripple the American tech economy. And the chance that China might risk a blockade could increase while the U.S. is focusing its resources on Iran, they say. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke bluntly about the danger at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month. He called Taiwan’s concentration of advanced chip manufacturing “the single biggest point of failure” in the world economy and warned that a naval blockade or the destruction of the chip fabrication facilities would be “an economic apocalypse.” Two presidential administrations have tried to mitigate the risks posed by the Taiwan situation. President Biden deployed billions in federal grants under the CHIPS and Science Act to rebuild domestic semiconductor manufacturing. It was the right instinct, even if the results have been painfully slow to materialize. President The President has taken a harder line, imposing tariffs on certain Taiwan-manufactured chips as a way of encouraging the buildout of the U.S. chip manufacturing base. Carrots, then sticks. Neither has meaningfully moved the needle. Why? Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, has spent decades building not just factories but an entire chip production ecosystem with specialized suppliers, fabrication engineers, and years of accumulated industrial knowledge. Nothing like it exists anywhere else on earth. Replicating that ecosystem on another continent, and achieving its scale and economics, is almost impossible, at least in the near term. It’s not like near-shoring a call center–it takes years, and tens of billions of dollars. The TSMC fabrication facility under construction in Arizona is a step in the right direction, but it is one plant, producing chips at a fraction of the volume Taiwan provides, and it won’t be fully operational for years. Intel’s chip manufacturing turnaround has seen major setbacks, including large fabrication business losses, customer doubts, and delays in winning new contracts. Samsung’s Texas expansion has faced delays, pushing the timeline for these factories going online to at least 2027-2028. I have watched Silicon Valley successfully navigate recessions, trade wars, and geopolitical upheavals. But nothing compares to the structural vulnerability the industry now faces regarding Taiwan and the global semiconductor supply chain. What makes the situation so frustrating—and so dangerous—is that the tech industry has had years to build resilience and has largely chosen not to (I began raising these concerns with two major semiconductor companies as early as 1999, and with all the major PC makers in the early 2000s). Apple, for example, moved a significant share of its phone manufacturing to India, yet its dependence on TSMC remains deep. The gap between the problem and the solution remains vast. If I were advising the boards of America’s major technology companies today, I would tell them this: The risk calculus has changed, and the window for an orderly, economically manageable shift to a more diversified supply chain is closing. What’s left now is a race against a geopolitical clock that no company in Silicon Valley controls. The time to act is not after a blockade; it is now—before the scenario everyone prefers to dismiss as unlikely becomes the crisis no one is prepared to survive. View the full article

Taiwan’s control of leading-edge silicon chips lies on a geostrategic faultline View the full article

3 other ways to differentiate yourself. By Sandi Leyva The Accountant’s Accelerator Go PRO for members-only access to more Sandi Smith Leyva. View the full article

Traffic from agentic AI sources is rising at Dell, but the impact remains minimal and inconsistent, according to the company’s ecommerce lead. The details. Dell is seeing increased visits from platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude, according to Breanna Fowler, head of global consumer revenue programs. But the growth isn’t “earth-shaking,” and agentic shopping has yet to deliver meaningful results, Fowler told Digital Commerce 360. Dell is still testing how to integrate with LLM-driven shopping, with efforts in early proof-of-concept stages and internal debate over long-term strategy, Fowler said. Fowler expects agentic AI to function more like an aggregation layer — similar to travel sites or delivery platforms — rather than a primary purchasing channel. Fowler doesn’t expect consumers to adopt agentic shopping en masse for transactions, at least in the near term. Agentic AI vs. search. Fowler said that, with or without LLMs and agentic commerce, ecommerce sites “can do the most good for their customers” through a “really great search experience.” “If I can’t find your products easily and effortlessly, no amount of content and configurator capabilities — nobody really gives a crap about that stuff,” she said. Why we care. Agentic AI is emerging as a discovery layer, but it hasn’t shown signs of replacing core search behavior. You still win or lose on how easily products can be found, whether by humans or AI agents. The context. Dell ranks highly in emerging AI-driven discovery metrics, despite not being among the largest ecommerce players. That mismatch suggests AI surfaces may reward different product types or content structures than traditional search. Bottom line. Agentic AI is sending more traffic, but it behaves like a top-of-funnel channel, not a conversion engine. Search — especially on-site — remains the primary driver of ecommerce performance. The report. Dell use case for agentic AI could revolve around search rather than commerce View the full article

Nevada’s largest utility says it will need three times the electricity required to power Las Vegas just to handle proposed data centers — and it probably can’t do that without fossil fuels. That means the utility could miss Nevada’s clean energy targets requiring 50% renewable power by 2030. “I can’t remember a time in the history of the industry where we’ve seen as much interest in adding load, which is primarily driven by data centers,” said Shawn Elicegui, senior vice president of regulatory and resource planning for NV Energy, which provides electricity to 90% of the state. It’s one of many utilities across the country grappling with how to meet the exploding electricity demand for data centers to power artificial intelligence without sacrificing long-term plans to move away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable and zero-carbon sources. In North Carolina, which is also seeing a surge of data centers, the largest utility is revising its long-term plans to delay the retirement of coal plants and to build more natural gas plants. Legislators removed an interim goal for utilities to cut carbon emissions, spurring concern from environmentalists that the state might miss its goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050. NextEra Energy, which serve commercial electricity in over a dozen states, completely dropped its goal to reach zero emissions by 2045 due to the “demand for all forms of power generation,” the company said in a recent business filing. The The President administration has encouraged states to use coal to meet the demands from manufacturing and data centers. Tech companies are also slowing down on their own climate goals to meet the consumer demands for artificial intelligence. “It’s very alarming, and it’s probably the single largest natural resource issue of our time,” said Olivia Tanager, director of the Sierra Club’s Toiyabe chapter covering Nevada. Nevada is one of the fastest-growing data center markets in the U.S. thanks to its lack of a corporate income tax, cheap land and tax breaks for data centers. There are dozens already with more on the way. Now lawmakers are eyeing more regulations and debating how to balance both the state’s clean energy goals with the economic benefits data centers bring. Some data centers say they want to be part of the solution; the industry was responsible for half of all corporate clean energy procurement in 2024, said Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy for the Data Center Coalition. But renewable energy’s contribution to the power grid is not growing fast enough. Nationally, orders for gas turbines are backlogged and processing renewable energy projects take time, industry experts say. One Vegas data center built its own solar fields South of the Las Vegas Strip, the Switch data center stretches for nearly a square mile (kilometer). It’s the largest data center in Southern Nevada, and it runs entirely on renewable energy, according to Jason Hoffman, chief strategy officer. Unlike other data centers, Switch is licensed to build its own sources of renewable energy at the scale of a utility company. It has built 1 gigawatt of solar energy and is in the process of building more solar fields, he said. The company only uses NV Energy’s grid for the delivery of electricity, and it sources its own power from third-party suppliers. Inside of the massive buildings, hundreds of servers hum within gigantic soundproof and waterproof chambers. They contain vital information for Switch’s clients, including major banks, streaming services, online shopping websites, casinos and state and local governments. During the summer heat, when more energy is required to keep the equipment cool, Switch can remove itself from the grid and be self-sufficient, Hoffman said. The data center is designed to require minimal air conditioning during the rest of the year. Many other utilities and tech companies are turning to gas-fired generation to power data centers, including the controversial xAI data center near Memphis that is using mobile gas turbines strapped to semitrucks.” Tanager, of the Sierra Club, said multiple proposed data centers in Northern Nevada would use hundreds of low-quality diesel-powered backup generators that will worsen air quality. Data centers have backup generators in case the power goes out and are not used often. At a recent seven-hour legislative meeting, Nevadans complained to lawmakers about the noise data centers produce, and their worries about how the centers will affect water supply and energy bills. Residents of Boulder City, home of the Hoover Dam, are also opposing a proposed center for similar concerns. State provides financial incentives for clean power NV Energy requires data center developers to agree to fund their own infrastructure and energy needs — but it doesn’t have to be renewable. Nevada designed a volunteer funding model that allows companies to put up money for NV Energy’s clean energy development then count it toward their corporate energy goals. It was the first such model of its kind in the country and led to the development of a geothermal plant in Northern Nevada with Google as a partner. Environmental groups want the state to make that model mandatory, but still worry it wouldn’t bring enough clean energy to meet demand. They also worry NV Energy could expand its reliance on fossil fuel without the guarantee that all the proposed data centers will be built. NV Energy will require companies to sign contracts ensuring their commitment to the state before energy is built, Elicegui said. The utility’s philosophy is that “growth is welcomed,” but that companies need to be responsible for power load added on their behalf “whether they show up or not.” The public utilities commission in Nevada may impose a fine, grant an exemption or take some other action if it determines NV Energy failed to meet the state’s clean energy goals. The utility is set to publish a report with more specifics by the end of the month. Democratic Assemblymember Howard Watts of Las Vegas said it is “unacceptable” to bring forward projects that will threaten the state’s renewable energy portfolio. Watts wants to see it required that data centers take on the costs of clean energy development. While many companies are already taking those steps, putting those guardrails in statute is necessary, he said. “Building more gas plants seems like going in the exact opposite direction of what we need to do as a state,” he said, noting the state has “tremendous solar and geothermal energy potential.” —Jessica Hill, Associated Press View the full article

An appellate court reversed part of an $8.5 million award for attorneys who secured a $38.5 settlement against the lender in 2023 in a False Claims Act case. View the full article

I've wanted to be a social media creator for years. Six months ago, I finally started — and almost quit before I posted a single thing. I had plenty of ideas — the problem was that every piece of advice I found was written for a brain that works very differently from mine. I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2019 and level one autism in 2020 — and not one article I read addressed what it takes to stay consistent when your brain fights you on it. So I stopped following everyone else's advice and built a system that works for my brain instead. My brain doesn't naturally see the steps between "start a social media account" and "become a successful creator." I see the end goal, but not the path. Standard advice like "be consistent," "show up every day” assumes you can translate those phrases into daily action. But I couldn't. I needed every step broken into smaller steps. Here's the system I built, and use every day to stay consistent. It was designed for my neurodivergent brain, but if you've ever felt paralyzed by a blank content calendar, it'll probably work for yours too. Lower your starting barMost beginner advice tells you to "stay consistent" — so I took that literally and decided posting every single day across every platform was the only way to do it right. As you can imagine, that didn’t last long, and I ended up burnt out before I was able to really get started. So I made two decisions: I picked one platform — TikTok — and committed to one video post per week. That was it. I didn't add a second platform until the first one felt easy, and I didn't increase my posting frequency until the current one felt boring. Once I had a good system, I moved to LinkedIn and began posting once per week, twice per week, all the way up to seven days a week. The other thing that unlocked consistency for me was letting go of "perfect." I'm a raging perfectionist with ADHD, which is a brutal combination. I didn't just want my content to be good — I needed it to be perfect before anyone could see it. And when I couldn't get it there, I'd scrap it and start over, or just not post at all. Lowering the bar on both platform and perfection helped me more with consistency than anything else I'd tried. My main advice here is don't compare your beginning to someone else's middle. Don't add a second platform until the first one feels easy. That way, you won’t spread yourself too thin before finding your footing. Capture ideas immediatelyHaving ADHD means your brain is always running, even when you desperately want it to stop. For me, it feels like standing at a railroad crossing while a train barrels through. Each car is a different thought, a different idea, a different thing I should be doing, and once they're gone, they're gone forever I knew I had to find a way to capture ideas in the moment, since most of them came at the worst possible times — in the shower, while driving, or right before falling asleep. I started with the Notes app on my iPhone, jotting down quick ideas I'd later move to a Google Doc when I was at my computer. Then I discovered voice memos. Being able to just talk through an idea was a game-changer for a brain that moves as fast as mine. Now I use Otter.ai to capture and transcribe voice notes, which means nothing gets lost in translation either. Having a system for capturing ideas was only half the battle. The other half was actually doing something with them. During my content creation time, I go through my ideas and develop them into solid concepts and sometimes even full scripts, depending on the platform. Start “batching” your contentWhen I first started creating content, I thought I was supposed to record and write something every single day. The constant context switching was a lot on my brain. I need to "get in the zone" when it comes to creating, and my life has plenty of distractions that make doing that every single day impossible. I saw Kirsti’s content creation article, and I really liked her “batch content creation” tip, so I started implementing that into my content creation routine. I started dedicating one morning per week to content creation, where I would create five to six pieces of content in one sitting. Now that I have a routine around batching, I’ve added a second morning, but only creating three to four pieces of content in a sitting. The rest of the week, I schedule my posts and engage with my community. This works for me because it means I only need to show up twice instead of all seven days, and it has been a lifesaver for my sanity. Create a simple content calendar with themed daysIn addition to ADHD, I have autism, and the two do not always agree. My autistic brain wants a plan. My ADHD brain wants to throw the plan out the window. The solution I landed on was a flexible framework instead of a rigid schedule. For content creation, that framework is a simple content calendar in Google Sheets with themed days instead of a full content plan. My TikTok calendar looks something like this: carousel days, gaming tips and tricks, cat video day, CapCut memes. The themes repeat every week, which means I never have to decide what kind of content to make, only what I'll create within that format on that day. Build templatesStarting from scratch was another thing that overwhelmed me early on. Having to create videos, memes, and carousels with no starting point made the whole thing feel bigger than it needed to be. Templates killed that paralysis. I started with one template in CapCut for my gaming videos, and one for LinkedIn built around a framework I keep coming back to: Hook, Story, Lesson, CTA. Every LinkedIn post I write starts there. The hook grabs attention, the story makes it personal, the lesson makes it useful, and the CTA gives the reader somewhere to go. I fill in the framework instead of starting from scratch. Start with one template for your most common content type, then build others as you start to identify what you're drawn to creating. Automate, automate, automate!Having ADHD means I'm so forgetful that sometimes I wonder how I function throughout the day. If you've ever walked into a room and immediately forgotten why, imagine that happening on repeat, all day long. When it came to content creation, I'd create something I was genuinely proud of and forget to post it for days. Sometimes weeks. The fix was simple: I stopped relying on myself to remember. Now I use Buffer to schedule my content on LinkedIn and TikTok. I schedule everything right after my batch creation sessions, while I'm already in content mode. That way, posting happens whether my brain shows up for it or not. For when you fall off trackPart of being neurodivergent is that you will miss posts sometimes. I've missed weeks, abandoned calendars, and ghosted my own accounts. The difference now is that I have a system to come back to, so when it happens, I know exactly how to find my way back. When I miss a week, I don't try to catch up or post twice as much the next week. I just pick up where I left off. One post, one platform, one day. Your system should be forgiving enough to survive your worst brain days. If this system feels like a lot, start where I did. Pick one platform, post once a week, and don't worry about the rest until that feels easy. You don't have to build the whole thing at once, you just have to start. View the full article

Managing your small business finances effectively is vital for growth and sustainability, and choosing the right online bookkeeping service can make a significant difference. Services like QuickBooks Live and 1-800Accountant offer customized solutions that simplify record-keeping and guarantee compliance. These platforms provide real-time insights and dedicated support, helping you maintain a solid financial foundation. Comprehending the key features and benefits of these services will guide you in selecting the best fit for your business. Key Takeaways QuickBooks Live offers personalized bookkeeping starting at $300, ideal for small businesses needing efficient financial management and expert support. 1-800Accountant specializes in small business bookkeeping with plans starting at $209 per month, ensuring affordable and tailored services. Botkeeper provides automated solutions starting at $999, focusing on scalability and monthly support for growing businesses. Ignite Spot Accounting features certified bookkeepers and customizable services, starting at $625, to meet unique financial challenges. Bookkeeper360 offers flexible hourly services and additional support at competitive rates, ensuring accurate financial records and insights for small businesses. Importance of Online Bookkeeping Services As your small business grows, managing finances efficiently becomes increasingly important, and online bookkeeping services play an essential role in this process. These services offer affordable bookkeeping solutions that help you maintain accurate financial records without breaking the bank. With digital bookkeeping, you gain access to real-time insights, allowing for informed decision-making. Monthly accounting services are customized to meet your specific needs, ensuring compliance and accuracy in your financial reporting. Furthermore, personalized attention from dedicated bookkeepers helps you navigate unique financial challenges, making it easier to adapt your strategies as your business scales. Extensive online bookkeeping goes beyond basic tasks, providing tax preparation and strategic advisory support to maximize savings and effectively manage expenses, enhancing your overall financial literacy. Choosing the Right Online Bookkeeping Service When you’re choosing the right online bookkeeping service, it’s essential to assess your business needs first to guarantee the solution fits your specific requirements. Next, compare pricing structures across different providers, as transparent pricing can prevent unexpected costs down the road. Finally, evaluate the service features offered, such as real-time insights and customized reporting, to make sure you have the tools necessary for effective financial management. Assess Business Needs Choosing the right online bookkeeping service requires a thorough assessment of your business’s specific needs, ensuring that the features offered align with your operational requirements. Start by identifying crucial services, like dedicated bookkeeping support, invoicing, and payroll, which can greatly benefit your home-based bookkeeping business. Evaluate the scalability of the service, as options like QuickBooks Live and Pilot adapt to your growth. Furthermore, consider if the service specializes in your industry or stage of business, since some focus on startups whereas others cater to established small businesses. Finally, look for providers that offer personalized attention and expert advice, which can help you find the best bookkeeper suited to your unique financial intricacies in online bookkeeping for small business. Compare Pricing Structures How do you determine the best pricing structure for your online bookkeeping service? Start by comparing the costs associated with different providers. For instance, QuickBooks Live begins at $300 after a cleanup fee, whereas 1-800Accountant offers services starting at $209 per month. Consider tiered pricing options, like Ignite Spot Accounting, starting at $625 monthly, which scales with your business revenue. If you have fluctuating needs, Bookkeeper360‘s hourly rates might suit you better, charging $19 plus $150 for extra support. Automated solutions, such as Botkeeper, require a minimum commitment, costing between $999 and $2,499 monthly. Custom plans from providers like Pilot can help tailor services to your specific needs, ensuring you manage costs effectively while receiving adequate support. Evaluate Service Features Once you’ve assessed the pricing structures of various online bookkeeping services, it’s time to evaluate the specific features they offer to determine which one aligns best with your business needs. Look for services providing dedicated bookkeeping and accountant support, guaranteeing accurate financial management customized to you. Evaluate scalability with options like QuickBooks Live and Pilot, which adjust as your business grows. Transparency in pricing is essential, so consider services like 1-800Accountant that offer clear monthly rates. Finally, prioritize companies that provide invoicing, payroll, and real-time financial insights for improved decision-making. Feature Importance Examples Dedicated Support Guarantees accuracy QuickBooks Live Scalability Adjusts to growth Pilot Transparent Pricing Avoids hidden fees 1-800Accountant Range of Features Improves operational efficiency Invoicing, Payroll Personalized Assistance Navigates financial intricacies Expert Guidance Overview of the Best Online Bookkeeping Services When considering online bookkeeping services for your small business, it’s crucial to know which options stand out regarding features and pricing. Services like QuickBooks Live and 1-800Accountant offer dedicated support and thorough solutions, whereas others like Botkeeper focus on automation to meet diverse needs. With plans starting from as low as $19 per hour to $625 per month, you can find a service that fits your budget and requirements. Top Service Recommendations Finding the right online bookkeeping service can greatly streamline your small business operations and improve financial accuracy. Here are some top recommendations to take into account: Service Starting Price QuickBooks Live $300 (initial cleanup fee) 1-800Accountant $209/month Ignite Spot Accounting $625/month (based on revenue) Botkeeper $69/license (minimum 10 licenses) Pilot $199/month QuickBooks Live is known for its cleanup services, whereas 1-800Accountant specializes in small business needs. Ignite Spot focuses on certified bookkeepers, and Botkeeper offers automated solutions. Finally, Pilot provides dedicated finance experts customized for startups, making it easier to choose a service that fits your unique requirements. Key Features Offered Choosing the right online bookkeeping service not only streamlines your financial management but furthermore enhances your overall business efficiency. These services typically provide dedicated bookkeepers, guaranteeing your financial records are accurate and timely, customized to your unique needs. You’ll receive monthly financial statements and visual reports, which offer actionable insights to support your business growth. Real-time financial data access allows you to make informed decisions based on up-to-date information. Extensive tax support is another vital feature, simplifying tax season with year-end packages and ongoing advisory assistance to maximize your savings and guarantee compliance. Services like QuickBooks Live and Ignite Spot Accounting likewise offer scalable options, adapting to your business as it grows without sacrificing quality. Pricing and Plans Steering through the pricing and plans of online bookkeeping services can greatly impact your business’s financial health. QuickBooks Live starts at $300, with three plans that include expert guidance and tax resources. Botkeeper offers a starting price of $69 per license, but with a minimum of 10 licenses, costs can escalate to $999-$2,499 for additional support. Ignite Spot Accounting begins at $625 monthly, adjusting pricing based on your revenue, ideal for growing businesses. 1-800Accountant’s plans start at $209 per month, including tax prep, but have received complaints about billing. Finally, Bookkeeper.com offers services from $399 per month, featuring unlimited support and monthly check-ins, even though onboarding may take up to three weeks. Evaluate these options to find the best fit for your needs. Top Picks for Online Bookkeeping Services When you’re looking to streamline your small business’s financial management, online bookkeeping services can provide essential support customized to your needs. QuickBooks Live stands out with a rating of 4.5, starting at $300 after an initial cleanup fee, offering expert guidance through three plans. Botkeeper, likewise rated 4.5, caters to accounting firms with prices starting at $69 per license for a minimum of 10, featuring automated solutions with monthly support. Ignite Spot Accounting, rated 4.3, offers personalized services starting at $625 per month, focusing on certified bookkeepers. Meanwhile, 1-800Accountant specializes in small business bookkeeping, starting at $209 per month, and Bookkeeper360, rated 4.0, provides flexible hourly services starting at $19 plus $150 per hour. Detailed Reviews of Each Service Understanding the features and offerings of each online bookkeeping service can greatly impact your decision-making process. QuickBooks Live, rated 4.5, starts at $300, offering expert guidance and tax resources through three thorough plans. Botkeeper, likewise rated 4.5, targets accounting firms with a minimum price of $69 per license, scaling up to $2,499 for improved support. Ignite Spot Accounting, rated 4.3, specializes in certified bookkeepers with monthly fees starting at $625, suitable for growing businesses. 1-800Accountant, with a rating of 4.3, offers small business bookkeeping starting at $209 per month, including tax preparation. Finally, Bookkeeper360 provides flexible hourly services beginning at $19, allowing you to tailor your bookkeeping approach to your specific needs. Essential Features of Online Bookkeeping Effective online bookkeeping services come equipped with vital features that empower small business owners to manage their finances with confidence. One key feature is dedicated bookkeeper or accountant support, ensuring accurate financial management so you can focus on growth without confusion. Scalability is important, with services like QuickBooks Live and Pilot offering flexible plans that adapt as your business expands. Real-time insights into financial data enable proactive decision-making, helping you identify areas to save or invest effectively. Thorough financial reporting, including monthly statements and visual expense overviews, allows you to understand your performance at a glance. Additional features like tax preparation support, automated invoicing, and payroll services improve the value of online bookkeeping, making it indispensable for small businesses. Value and Integrations Online bookkeeping services not just provide essential features but also deliver significant value through expert support and seamless integrations with popular accounting software. Here are some key aspects you should consider: Expert Support: Services like QuickBooks Live and 1-800Accountant offer dedicated professionals to assist with your bookkeeping needs. Seamless Integrations: Many platforms smoothly connect with accounting software, enhancing your financial operations and saving you time. Customizable Pricing: Options from companies like Pilot and FlowFi allow you to select plans that fit your budget and requirements. Scalability: Services like Bookkeeper360 adapt to your growing business, ensuring your bookkeeping evolves alongside your needs. These features collectively maximize value and reduce costs, providing essential support for small businesses. Services for Growth Prospects and Cleanup As your business grows, ensuring that your bookkeeping keeps pace becomes crucial, especially during busy periods like tax season. Services like QuickBooks Live provide a one-time cleanup option, starting at $300, which helps get your finances organized efficiently. Ignite Spot Accounting offers personalized services with pricing based on your annual revenue, making it ideal for growing businesses. If flexibility is key, Bookkeeper360’s pay-as-you-go model allows you to adjust services as needed. For startups, Pilot provides customizable packages starting around $199, focusing on scalability. Furthermore, automation tools like Botkeeper and Decimal streamline bookkeeping processes, ensuring ongoing financial management. These services help maintain accurate records, supporting your growth and preparing you for tax obligations. CFO Services and Their Benefits CFO services play a crucial role in the financial health of small businesses, offering strategic guidance that goes beyond basic bookkeeping. By partnering with online bookkeeping companies like Ignite Spot Accounting, you can gain valuable insights that improve your decision-making. Here are some benefits of utilizing CFO services: Cash Flow Forecasting: Plan for future expenses and revenues effectively. Budgeting Assistance: Create realistic budgets that align with your business goals. Compliance and Accuracy: Navigate complex financial regulations with expert support. Real-Time Insights: Access performance metrics that inform your strategies. These services empower you to focus on core operations as you build a strong financial foundation, optimizing resource allocation, and identifying cost-cutting opportunities necessary for sustainable growth. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Bookkeeping Method for a Small Business? The best bookkeeping method for your small business is likely using cloud-based software, which gives you real-time access to financial information. Adopting a double-entry accounting system can improve accuracy by recording each transaction in two accounts. Regularly updating your financial records, ideally monthly, simplifies tax preparation. Furthermore, implementing a budgeting process helps track expenses and revenues, allowing you to identify cost-cutting opportunities and make informed decisions about investments. What Is the Best Online Bookkeeping System? To find the best online bookkeeping system, consider your business’s specific needs. Look for platforms like QuickBooks Live or 1-800Accountant, which offer user-friendly interfaces paired with expert support. If you’re a high-growth startup, Pilot or Ignite Spot Accounting can provide customized packages, including CFO advisory services. Furthermore, systems like Botkeeper and Bookkeeper.com deliver real-time insights, as well as flexible pricing structures guarantee you can find an affordable option that suits your budget effectively. What Is Better and Easier Than Quickbooks? If you’re seeking alternatives to QuickBooks that simplify bookkeeping, consider options like Bench, which offers user-friendly software starting at $249 per month. Botkeeper automates bookkeeping for accounting firms at $69 per license, streamlining processes effectively. For startups, Kruze Consulting provides personalized services, starting at $600 monthly. Decimal stands out by delivering real-time financial insights without complex setups, making it easier to manage your finances efficiently. Explore these choices to find what suits you best. How Much Is Quickbooks per Month for a Small Business? For small businesses, QuickBooks offers various plans. The Fundamental plan starts at around $40 per month, whereas the Plus plan is about $70 monthly. If you’re looking for expert guidance, QuickBooks Live offers bookkeeping services starting at $300 per month, plus an initial cleanup fee. Conclusion In conclusion, selecting the right online bookkeeping service is crucial for small business success. Services like QuickBooks Live and 1-800Accountant offer fundamental features such as real-time insights, dedicated support, and thorough tax assistance. By grasping your specific needs and evaluating the available options, you can choose a service that not just streamlines your bookkeeping but likewise supports your growth. Investing in quality bookkeeping guarantees accurate financial management, allowing you to focus on broadening your business effectively. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Best Online Bookkeeping Services for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

When Winter storm Fern tore across the country in late January, more than a million Americans lost power. In Nashville, the utility recorded its highest outage total in history. In Louisiana, some families waited nearly two weeks for the lights to come back on. Officials issued emergency orders in several states as the storm exposed the fragility of our centralized energy system. And yet, during that same storm, a different story was quietly playing out. Households with the ability to generate and store their own power with home solar and storage kept the lights on, ran their heat, and charged their devices. They were independent of a grid that was buckling under the cold. That contrast is what should be driving the national conversation about how we build our energy future. America’s grid is under more stress than at any point in its history. AI data centers, EV charging, a manufacturing renaissance, and rapid home electrification are all arriving at once. PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, is struggling to keep up with an onslaught of new large load requests. Meeting this surge requires an estimated $720 billion in infrastructure investment, with traditional build timelines stretching into the 2030s. Meanwhile, residential electricity bills have already risen 33% since 2020, placing a heavy financial burden on many American families. And Winter Storm Fern is not an anomaly as the number of severe storms is increasing. But part of the solution is already scaling fast, and it’s sitting on and in American homes across the country. PROVEN AT SCALE, NOT JUST IN THEORY Last July, while U.S. electricity demand shattered records at more than 759,000 megawatts, more than 100,000 residential batteries aggregated as a distributed power plant, and delivered power to California’s grid during peak demand hours—the largest residential battery dispatch event in U.S. history. An independent analysis by The Brattle Group confirmed what grid operators observed: the distributed batteries performed like a traditional power plant, delivering consistent, large-scale output. Three thousand miles away in Puerto Rico, where the power goes out nearly 100 times a summer, roughly one in 10 homes now have a battery and solar array. A network of approximately 80,000 home batteries can generate as much electricity as a small natural gas power plant during an emergency. LUMA, the island’s grid operator, called on those batteries 80 times last year to ease energy supply shortages. These aren’t demonstrations. They’re proof points. And the numbers behind them are growing fast. BUILT ON CUSTOMER ECONOMICS Homeowners don’t install batteries to help the grid—they install them for backup power and energy independence. But when those individual decisions are aggregated at scale, something remarkable happens: hundreds of thousands of households become a flexible, distributed power plant that can respond to grid stress in minutes. Interest in pairing new home solar with storage is growing across the country. We have seen this internally, with more than 70% of our new customers choosing to add storage systems. Grid support is growing with it: customer enrollment in distributed power plant programs increased by fivefold in a single year. Last year, our distributed power plants dispatched more than 1,300 times to support the grid during critical hours. The economics are increasingly compelling for families. A Stanford University study published last year found that solar panels and batteries make financial sense for most American homes, providing backup power during outages while helping save money on rising electricity costs. In addition, customers receive compensation for participating in distributed power plant programs. It’s a rare energy solution that benefits the homeowner, the grid, and the community. THE POLICY UNLOCK States are beginning to realize that the full potential of distributed storage requires deliberate policy design. In Texas, the ADER Project is aggregating distributed energy resources to help meet the state’s surging electricity demand, driven in part by new data centers. In Kansas, regulators signed a settlement enabling customers to directly support a data center’s procurement of distributed assets, including customer-sited batteries. In New York, the proposed Homegrown Energy Act would require data center developers to contribute to a fund that helps bring distributed assets—including home storage—online quickly. And in Illinois, the POWER Act establishes requirements for data center-funded distributed power plants to help data centers meet their clean energy capacity needs. The principle underlying all these approaches is one I believe in deeply: the rising cost of new demand should not be pushed onto American families. People who are already paying their bills shouldn’t subsidize the electricity needs of future data centers. They should be partners in solving the problem. THE TOOLS EXIST. THE MOMENT IS NOW. The distributed power plant market, currently valued at $6.3 billion, is projected to reach over $39 billion by 2034. This isn’t a niche technology on the horizon—it’s a critical piece of energy infrastructure that is already working, already scaling, and already keeping families from suffering through the next major outage. America’s grid was designed for the last century. Meeting the demands of this one—AI, electrification, and extreme weather—requires rethinking our energy system. The answer isn’t only more poles and wires. It’s millions of homes generating, storing, and sharing energy. The capacity is scaling, the technology works, and the economics increasingly favor it. What’s needed now are policy and utility frameworks that fully integrate distributed power plants into grid planning at every level. There is no time to waste. Mary Powell is CEO of Sunrun. View the full article

Managing accounts receivable effectively is crucial for your business’s cash flow and overall stability. By establishing clear payment terms and sending accurate invoices, you can streamline the collection process. Furthermore, monitoring your receivables and offering multiple payment options can greatly improve your efficiency. Comprehending these strategies is important, but there are more nuanced practices that can further optimize your approach. Let’s explore the key tips that can transform your accounts receivable management. Key Takeaways Establish clear payment terms and communicate them proactively to set expectations and reduce confusion. Send invoices promptly with detailed descriptions and specific payment terms to prevent disputes. Monitor and analyze accounts receivable regularly to identify overdue accounts and trends in payment behavior. Offer multiple payment options and discounts for early payments to encourage timely settlements. Utilize technology, such as AR management software, to automate invoicing and streamline collections for efficiency. Establish Clear Payment Terms When you establish clear payment terms, you set the foundation for a smooth financial relationship with your customers. Clearly outlining these terms, including due dates, acceptable payment methods, and penalties for late payments, helps reduce confusion. Consider adopting standard payment terms like “Net 30,” which allows customers 30 days to settle their accounts, as well as offering discounts for early payments, such as “3/10 n/30,” to encourage prompt compliance. Ensure that all payment terms are present in contracts and invoices, reinforcing expectations and maintaining transparency. Regularly review and update these terms to align with industry standards and customer feedback, ensuring they remain relevant and effective. Proactively communicate payment terms during the sales process to clarify how and when payments are expected. Following these accounts receivable best practices can greatly improve your receivables management efforts, leading to enhanced cash flow and stronger customer relationships. Send Timely and Accurate Invoices To guarantee timely payments, you need to send invoices quickly and accurately after delivering your goods or services. Including clear descriptions and specific payment terms in your invoices can help prevent confusion and disputes. Automating the invoice sending process can improve efficiency, reduce errors, and speed up payment processing, making it easier for both you and your customers. Use Clear Descriptions A clear and detailed invoice is crucial for guaranteeing prompt payment and minimizing disputes. In accounts receivable management, providing thorough descriptions of the goods or services you’ve delivered helps prevent misinterpretations. Each invoice should include unique invoice numbers, making it easier for you and your clients to track payments. Consistency in formatting improves readability and maintains professionalism, which positively influences client relationships. Regularly reviewing and updating your invoice templates based on feedback guarantees you capture all necessary information accurately. Clear and concise descriptions promote a better comprehension of what accounts receivable management entails, ultimately leading to smoother transactions and quicker payments. This attention to detail can greatly improve your overall accounts receivable process. Include Payment Terms Including payment terms in your invoices is vital for facilitating timely payments and maintaining a healthy cash flow. Send invoices immediately after delivering goods or services to guarantee swift payment and minimize delays. Your invoices should include fundamental details like the due date, payment amount, and clear instructions to avoid confusion. Consistency in your invoicing format, including unique invoice numbers and detailed descriptions, improves clarity and simplifies tracking payments. Establishing a standard billing cycle and following up on overdue payments can greatly reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) to below 30 days. Utilizing electronic invoicing systems streamlines this process, allowing faster delivery and easier access for customers, encouraging them to make payments quickly without unnecessary hassle. Automate Invoice Sending Automating invoice sending not just streamlines your billing process but also guarantees that your invoices reach customers immediately after goods or services are delivered. This reduces delays in the payment process, improving your cash flow. By utilizing invoicing software, you improve accuracy and minimize human errors, ensuring all crucial details are included. Consider these benefits of automating your invoicing: Scheduled reminders for unpaid invoices prompt timely payments. Real-time tracking lets you monitor which invoices are opened and which are outstanding. Convenient payment options facilitate quicker collections from customers. Reduced Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) helps manage your cash flow more effectively. Implementing these practices will greatly improve your accounts receivable management. Follow Up on Overdue Payments When payments are overdue, it’s essential to implement a structured follow-up process. Start with a polite reminder email one week after the due date, and if necessary, escalate to phone calls after a month. This systematic approach not only aids in recovering outstanding payments but additionally maintains professional communication with your clients. Timely Reminder Communications Effective follow-up on overdue payments is crucial for managing accounts receivable, as it helps maintain cash flow and strengthens client relationships. To improve your reminder communications, consider implementing the following strategies: Send initial reminders one week after the due date to encourage prompt resolution. Utilize a structured follow-up schedule with reminders at T, +7, +14, and +30 days past due for consistent outreach. Incorporate automated reminder systems to reduce manual workload and increase efficiency. Document all follow-up communications to maintain a clear record of interactions and strategies. Escalation Procedures for Non-Payment Establishing clear escalation procedures for non-payment is essential to manage accounts receivable effectively. Start by implementing a structured timeline for follow-ups, such as reminders one week after the due date, then at one and two months. Use automated reminder systems to streamline communication, ensuring timely outreach without burdening your staff. Maintain detailed records of all follow-up interactions to promote transparency. After 60 days of non-payment, involve account managers or collections specialists to escalate the issue. If internal efforts fail, refer accounts to third-party collection agencies. Time Frame Action Taken Responsible Party 1 Week After Due Send Initial Reminder Accounts Receivable Team 1 Month After Second Reminder Accounts Receivable Team 2 Months After Escalate to Account Manager Account Manager 60 Days After Consider Collection Agency Collections Specialist Offer Multiple Payment Options Offering multiple payment options is crucial for enhancing your accounts receivable management. By accepting various payment methods, you increase the likelihood of receiving timely payments from your customers. Research indicates that businesses that provide multiple options see a 20-30% boost in collection rates. Here are some effective strategies to take into account: Accept credit cards, ACH transfers, and online payment portals to cater to different preferences. Offer automatic payment options to simplify the process for clients and guarantee timely invoice payments. Include clear instructions for each payment method on your invoices to reduce confusion. Utilize a user-friendly online payment platform available 24/7, allowing clients to pay at their convenience. Monitor Accounts Receivable Regularly To effectively manage your accounts receivable, you should monitor payment timeliness closely. By analyzing aging receivables, you can spot trends and adjust your collection strategies proactively, ensuring overdue accounts are addressed quickly. Regular reviews won’t just help you maintain cash flow but additionally improve your overall collection efficiency. Track Payment Timeliness Tracking payment timeliness is vital for maintaining a healthy cash flow in any business. By regularly monitoring accounts receivable, you can address overdue accounts swiftly. Implementing a tracking system is key; it helps categorize outstanding invoices by their due dates, allowing for timely follow-ups. Here are some effective strategies to take into account: Schedule monthly reviews to identify trends and persistent late payers. Use automated reminders for payments due at intervals like T-3, T, +7, and +14 days. Regularly analyze historical payment behaviors to refine your credit policies. Aim to reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) by staying proactive in your collections efforts. These steps can greatly improve your overall Collection Effectiveness Index (CEI). Analyze Aging Receivables Analyzing aging receivables is a fundamental practice for any business aiming to maintain its financial health. By regularly reviewing these receivables, you can identify overdue accounts and initiate timely follow-ups, which helps reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) to below the target of 30 days. Segmenting these accounts into categories, such as 0-30 days, 31-60 days, and 61-90 days, allows you to prioritize collection efforts and manage cash flow more effectively. Monitoring the aging report monthly reveals trends in customer payment behavior, guiding proactive adjustments to credit policies. Furthermore, tracking aging receivables highlights potential bad debts, enabling necessary actions to mitigate financial risks. This practice likewise improves communication across finance, sales, and customer service teams, promoting collaboration in addressing payment issues. Adjust Collection Strategies Regular monitoring of accounts receivable is crucial for optimizing collection strategies and maintaining a healthy cash flow. By regularly reviewing your accounts receivable aging reports, you can identify overdue accounts and prioritize follow-ups. Establish a routine schedule for monitoring—this could be weekly or monthly—to stay proactive in addressing potential cash flow issues. Furthermore, utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) like Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) to evaluate your collection efficiency. Implement automated reminders for overdue accounts. Analyze payment patterns and adjust strategies accordingly. Offer discounts for early payments to encourage timely settlements. Change payment terms to better align with customer capabilities. Leverage Technology for Efficiency As businesses endeavor to improve their accounts receivable (AR) processes, leveraging technology becomes essential for boosting efficiency and accuracy. Implementing AR management software can automate invoicing, payment processing, and collections, greatly reducing manual work and the chance of human error. By utilizing electronic invoicing systems, you can streamline billing processes and improve record-keeping, leading to faster payment processing and enhanced cash flow. Integrating AR software with your existing financial systems provides real-time visibility into accounts receivable data, enabling better decision-making and cash flow management. Moreover, automating reminders and follow-ups for overdue payments can increase collection efficiency, reducing Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and minimizing overdue accounts. In addition, employing data analytics tools allows you to identify trends in customer payment behaviors, optimizing your billing strategies and advancing overall AR performance. Embracing these technologies can transform your AR processes, making them more efficient and effective. Maintain Open Communication With Customers Open communication with customers is crucial for guaranteeing timely payments and maintaining healthy business relationships. By regularly engaging with your customers, you set clear payment expectations and build trust. Here are some effective strategies to improve communication: Use multiple channels: Reach out via email, phone calls, or messaging apps to remind customers of upcoming due dates and overdue balances. Be proactive: Contact customers before payment due dates to address any issues they might have, emphasizing the importance of timely payments. Encourage feedback: Ask customers about their payment experiences, which can provide insights to refine your accounts receivable process. Keep accurate records: Document all communications regarding payments to guarantee transparency and consistency in follow-ups and dispute resolutions. Evaluate Customer Creditworthiness Evaluating customer creditworthiness is essential for minimizing financial risk and ensuring smooth cash flow in your business. Start by analyzing their credit history, payment behavior, and overall financial stability to assess the risk of extending credit. Utilize credit scoring models like FICO scores; a score above 700 typically indicates good creditworthiness. Reviewing financial statements, such as income statements and balance sheets, helps gauge a customer’s ability to meet payment obligations. Implement a consistent credit evaluation process that includes checking trade references and payment histories with other suppliers, giving you a thorough view of the customer’s credit profile. Additionally, leverage industry benchmarks and credit risk assessment tools to compare potential customers against similar businesses. This comparison aids in setting appropriate credit limits and terms, ensuring you mitigate risk while maintaining healthy cash flow. Implement Proactive Collection Strategies Implementing proactive collection strategies is crucial for maintaining healthy cash flow and minimizing overdue accounts. By taking the initiative, you can improve your collection processes and guarantee timely payments. Here are some effective strategies to contemplate: Establish a system to contact clients immediately when a payment is due. Implement automated reminder emails and follow-ups to boost payment rates. Utilize customer touchpoints, like project updates, to reinforce payment expectations. Monitor accounts closely to identify overdue payments early, ideally within the first 30 days. Encouraging open communication about payment expectations helps nurture trust, leading to improved customer relationships and quicker payments. Continuously Assess and Improve AR Processes To maintain a healthy cash flow, regularly evaluating and improving your accounts receivable (AR) processes is vital. Start by identifying inefficiencies and aim to reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) to below 30 days. Gather feedback from your sales and finance teams to refine strategies, promoting collaboration for timely collections. Monitor customer payment patterns and overdue accounts monthly to address potential issues proactively. Staying informed about industry best practices and emerging technologies will help you adapt and maintain a competitive edge. Utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate AR efficiency continuously. Here’s a simple table to visualize important aspects: KPI Target Value Action for Improvement Collection Effectiveness Index (CEI) Above 90% Improve collection strategies Average Days Delinquent (ADD) Below 30 days Streamline follow-ups Customer payment patterns Analyze monthly Adjust credit terms Regular assessments will drive your AR processes toward success. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the 5 C’s of Accounts Receivable Management? The 5 C’s of accounts receivable management are Character, Capacity, Capital, Conditions, and Collateral. Character assesses a customer’s credit history and reliability, indicating their willingness to pay. Capacity evaluates their ability to repay debts based on income and obligations. Capital examines financial resources available for repayment. Conditions consider the economic environment and industry factors affecting repayment. Finally, Collateral involves assets that can secure repayment, providing additional assurance for lenders. How to Manage Accounts Receivable Effectively? To manage accounts receivable effectively, establish clear payment terms your customers understand. Automate invoicing and reminders to improve efficiency, sending invoices right after service delivery. Monitor metrics like Days Sales Outstanding to assess your effectiveness, targeting a DSO below 30 days. Provide multiple payment options for convenience, and regularly review overdue accounts. Implement a proactive collection strategy, following up swiftly after missed payments to maintain your cash flow stability and minimize overdue accounts. What Is the 10 Rule for Accounts Receivable? The 10% rule for accounts receivable suggests you should aim to collect at least 10% of your total receivables each month. This benchmark helps you assess the effectiveness of your credit policies and collection efforts. By focusing on this target, you can reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and improve cash flow management. Regularly monitoring your collections against this rule allows you to identify potential issues early and adjust your strategies proactively. What Are the Five Steps to Managing Accounts Receivable? To manage accounts receivable effectively, start by establishing clear credit policies to guide your credit decisions. Next, send timely and accurate invoices right after delivering goods or services, ensuring they include crucial details. Implement a structured follow-up process for overdue payments, using reminders and personal outreach. Regularly monitor your accounts receivable reports to spot trends and overdue accounts. Finally, utilize technology for automation to streamline invoicing and collection processes, enhancing overall efficiency. Conclusion In summary, managing accounts receivable effectively is essential for your business’s cash flow and overall stability. By establishing clear payment terms, sending accurate invoices, and following up on overdue payments, you can improve your collection processes. Offering multiple payment options and maintaining open communication with customers further streamline operations. Regularly monitoring accounts receivable and evaluating your strategies allows you to adapt and improve. By implementing these tips, you can secure a more efficient accounts receivable management system. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "10 Essential Tips for Managing Accounts Receivable Effectively" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

YouTube is pushing further into traditional TV-style advertising, signaling a shift that could reshape the viewing experience — and attract bigger brand budgets. What’s happening. Some TV viewers are being shown ads up to 90 seconds long before they can skip, a significant jump from the 30-second unskippable formats introduced recently. How it works. The longer ad blocks appear primarily on TV devices and may exceed 90 seconds in total length, with the skip option only becoming available after that initial window. Why we care. YouTube is creating more premium, TV-like ad inventory that allows for longer, more impactful storytelling on the big screen. This opens the door for brand advertisers to run campaigns similar to traditional TV but with digital targeting and measurement. As Google pushes further into connected TV, budgets may increasingly shift toward YouTube as a core channel for reach and brand awareness. Zoom in. Early reports suggest the format is not tied to video length, appearing on both short and long content, and is currently limited to TV audiences rather than mobile or desktop. User reaction. Feedback so far has been largely negative, with viewers criticizing the longer interruptions and exploring alternatives like ad blockers or third-party clients. Context. The test follows recent efforts to monetize more aggressively, including new ad formats and the rollout of a lighter subscription tier offering reduced ads. What to watch. Whether YouTube expands the format beyond TV and how it balances ad load with user retention. Bottom line. YouTube is leaning into its role as a TV platform — and longer, less skippable ads may be part of the tradeoff. View the full article

Tax day is right around the corner, but for some, the true deadline to complete returns is nearly a week earlier. That’s because if you’re planning to mail your tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) instead of filing them electronically, they’ll need to be postmarked — not mailed — by April 15. Due to recent changes at The United States Postal Service (USPS) that impact transportation operations, mail may not arrive at originating processing facilities on the day it is mailed, the organization said in a January announcement. “This means that the date on the postmarks applied at our processing facilities will not necessarily match the date on which the customer’s mailpiece was collected by a letter carrier or dropped off at a retail location.”. The agency says physically bringing your mail to a Postal Service retail location and asking for a manual postmark at the counter, rather than simply placing it in the mail, can ensure the mail is postmarked on the same day. Therefore, taxpayers who plan to put their returns in the mail should do so at least three to five days before the April 15 deadline. Those who are anticipating not having their returns filed by the deadline can file for an extension. According to the IRS, there are three ways to file for an extension, which include paying online and checking the box to file for an extension, using IRS Free File, or requesting an extension by mail. While filing for an extension can give you until Oct. 15 to file your returns, it doesn’t allow you to pay any taxes you owe later than April 15. The bigger picture at USPS Slowed down transportation operations at USPS are far from the only issues impacting the agency. Earlier this month, Postmaster General David Steiner told Congress that USPS is facing a “critical juncture” due to a “drastic reduction in the use of mail,” as well as overregulation. Steiner said that, as a result, the price of a first‑class stamp could rise to 90 to 95 cents, up from 78 cents, which he explained “would largely solve” the agency’s “controllable loss.” While the price of stamps isn’t going up for now, USPS did recently announce that, as of Sunday, April 26, the U.S. post office will implement an 8% transportation surcharge on packages. The change will be in effect until Jan. 17, 2027. “This temporary price adjustment will provide needed flexibility for the Postal Service by helping to ensure that the actual costs of doing business are covered, as required by Congress,” USPS said at the time of the announcement. Last year, about 6% (or 11 million) taxpayers filed their returns on paper instead of electronically, according to the IRS. Filing returns past April 15 may trigger interest and penalties on what you owe. “The failure to pay penalty is 0.5% of the unpaid taxes for each month or part of a month the tax remains unpaid,” the IRS explains. “The penalty won’t exceed 25% of your unpaid taxes.” However, since penalties are based on a percentage of unpaid tax, those who don’t owe taxes or are set to receive a tax refund won’t face financial penalties for late returns. View the full article

FedEx has launched an innovative reusable packaging system in partnership with Returnity, a move that promises to reshape the B2B shipping landscape for small businesses. This initiative addresses cost concerns and environmental impact while enhancing the efficiency of supply chains. The new reusable box solution enables businesses to seamlessly transition from traditional corrugated packaging, which often incurs handling fees, to a more sustainable alternative. Designed specifically for FedEx’s logistics framework, these durable boxes can be collapsed and integrated into existing shipping operations, making it a compelling option for small to medium-sized enterprises. Neil Gibson, FedEx’s senior vice president of global customer experience, emphasized the benefits, stating, “By pairing Returnity’s durable, easy-to-integrate packaging with our global network, we’re helping retailers unlock meaningful cost savings while reducing environmental impact, all without sacrificing speed or reliability.” This assertion underlines the dual focus on financial gain and sustainability, both critical elements for today’s market. The reusable packaging comes with key practical advantages. Each box is engineered to handle up to 50 shipment cycles and can support loads of up to 50 pounds. By enabling businesses to reuse boxes instead of relying on single-use materials, companies could see packaging costs drop by as much as 30% per cycle. Additionally, this system has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 64%-88% compared to traditional options, particularly when returns are managed efficiently. Real-world testing has demonstrated the solution’s viability. FedEx has piloted the packaging with various shippers throughout North America, yielding positive results. Participating businesses noted faster unpacking and restocking processes, increased labor efficiency, and improved organization in backroom spaces. Lower product damage rates were also reported, a critical concern for maintaining profit margins. For small business owners, these newfound efficiencies can translate into better customer experiences and higher operational productivity. As many are already under pressure to cut costs and improve sustainability practices, adopting this reusable system could provide a competitive edge in an increasingly eco-conscious market. By minimizing waste and promoting a circular economy approach, small businesses can align with larger environmental goals. However, transitioning to a reusable packaging system is not without challenges. Small business owners must assess the feasibility of integrating this new format into their existing logistics. Understanding how these boxes fit into current workflows is essential, particularly for those who rely on third-party fulfillment centers or e-commerce platforms with established shipping protocols. Furthermore, while the packaging is now available in the U.S., international rollout plans are in place for Australia and Europe, which could limit its immediate applicability for businesses engaged in cross-border trade. It remains vital for businesses to stay informed about rollout timelines and availability in various regions. To explore this new option, small business owners can connect with their FedEx sales representative. As the service begins to be adopted on a wider scale, there will likely be ongoing opportunities for feedback and development, further refining how reusable packaging can benefit B2B operations. FedEx’s commitment to sustainability, highlighted by its goal to achieve carbon-neutral operations by 2040, signals a significant shift toward responsible business practices. By integrating reusable packaging into their supply chains, small businesses stand to gain financially while contributing positively to the environment. For more details, you can visit the original announcement from FedEx here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "FedEx Launches Innovative Reusable Packaging System for B2B Shippers" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

FedEx has launched an innovative reusable packaging system in partnership with Returnity, a move that promises to reshape the B2B shipping landscape for small businesses. This initiative addresses cost concerns and environmental impact while enhancing the efficiency of supply chains. The new reusable box solution enables businesses to seamlessly transition from traditional corrugated packaging, which often incurs handling fees, to a more sustainable alternative. Designed specifically for FedEx’s logistics framework, these durable boxes can be collapsed and integrated into existing shipping operations, making it a compelling option for small to medium-sized enterprises. Neil Gibson, FedEx’s senior vice president of global customer experience, emphasized the benefits, stating, “By pairing Returnity’s durable, easy-to-integrate packaging with our global network, we’re helping retailers unlock meaningful cost savings while reducing environmental impact, all without sacrificing speed or reliability.” This assertion underlines the dual focus on financial gain and sustainability, both critical elements for today’s market. The reusable packaging comes with key practical advantages. Each box is engineered to handle up to 50 shipment cycles and can support loads of up to 50 pounds. By enabling businesses to reuse boxes instead of relying on single-use materials, companies could see packaging costs drop by as much as 30% per cycle. Additionally, this system has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 64%-88% compared to traditional options, particularly when returns are managed efficiently. Real-world testing has demonstrated the solution’s viability. FedEx has piloted the packaging with various shippers throughout North America, yielding positive results. Participating businesses noted faster unpacking and restocking processes, increased labor efficiency, and improved organization in backroom spaces. Lower product damage rates were also reported, a critical concern for maintaining profit margins. For small business owners, these newfound efficiencies can translate into better customer experiences and higher operational productivity. As many are already under pressure to cut costs and improve sustainability practices, adopting this reusable system could provide a competitive edge in an increasingly eco-conscious market. By minimizing waste and promoting a circular economy approach, small businesses can align with larger environmental goals. However, transitioning to a reusable packaging system is not without challenges. Small business owners must assess the feasibility of integrating this new format into their existing logistics. Understanding how these boxes fit into current workflows is essential, particularly for those who rely on third-party fulfillment centers or e-commerce platforms with established shipping protocols. Furthermore, while the packaging is now available in the U.S., international rollout plans are in place for Australia and Europe, which could limit its immediate applicability for businesses engaged in cross-border trade. It remains vital for businesses to stay informed about rollout timelines and availability in various regions. To explore this new option, small business owners can connect with their FedEx sales representative. As the service begins to be adopted on a wider scale, there will likely be ongoing opportunities for feedback and development, further refining how reusable packaging can benefit B2B operations. FedEx’s commitment to sustainability, highlighted by its goal to achieve carbon-neutral operations by 2040, signals a significant shift toward responsible business practices. By integrating reusable packaging into their supply chains, small businesses stand to gain financially while contributing positively to the environment. For more details, you can visit the original announcement from FedEx here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "FedEx Launches Innovative Reusable Packaging System for B2B Shippers" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

The StairMaster may be having a moment, but straight-up stair running has been around forever. As a runner myself, I know real-world stair workouts are one of the most effective and accessible training tools out there, no gym membership required. Especially for my fellow city runners without mountains or hills nearby—or really anyone looking to add some variety into their workouts—stair workouts are a great option to try. What is vertical training?Vertical training is exactly what it sounds like: deliberately incorporating upward movement into your workout. Unlike "flat" running, every step up forces your body to fight gravity, which changes the muscular demand, the cardiovascular load, and the mechanical stress on your joints. There are plenty of reasons why you'd want to add vertical training of some kind into your routine. It increases posterior chain strengthRunning on flat ground is largely quad-dominant. Climbing stairs, on the other hand, requires serious glute, hamstring, and calf activation. Over time, stair training builds the posterior chain strength that flat running simply doesn't, and that strength translates directly into faster, more powerful running on any surface. It gives you stride power and explosivenessEach step up is essentially a single-leg press against gravity. That builds the kind of explosive hip extension that makes you a stronger pusher-off at ground contact. Sprinters have used stadium stairs for decades for exactly this reason. You don't need to be a sprinter to benefit from it. It's lower impact than you'd thinkCompared to pounding the pavement, the uphill phase of stair running is surprisingly low-impact. The key is going easy on the downhill. It increases your mental toughnessThere's a reason the stairs are the end of the "Rocky" training montage. Training yourself to stay composed and keep your form when your legs are screaming is a skill that pays off in all areas of your life. These are my favorite stair workoutsBefore diving into specific workouts, there are some form cues to understand. You want to make sure you're driving your movement through your whole foot, not just your toes. Try to lean slightly forward from the hips, pump your arms, and keep your gaze a few steps ahead. Avoid letting your heels hang off the edges of steps, locking your knees at the tops of steps, or otherwise causing yourself to trip up or down the stairs. With all that in mind, here are the stair workouts I like to do when I'm training for a race. Ideally, you'll warm up for at least five minutes before you start climbing. This simple beginner stair workoutSimply climb continuously for 20–30 minutes at a conversational pace. If you are on real stairs instead of a machine, allow yourself to descend slowly each time. Focus on consistent effort, not speed. Cool down with five minutes of walking and calf stretching. A posterior chain focused stair workoutAfter your warm-up, run up one flight hard, and then walk down slow. Run two flights hard, walk down. Build up to five or six flights, then work back down. Rest 60–90 seconds at the bottom between sets. I know that what constitutes a "flight" changes depending on what you have in front of you, so use your best judgment. The goal is explosive, powerful steps—two at a time, if you can do it safely. Aim for a total session time of around 30 minutes. And intervals stair workout This one you can do on a machine or outdoors. Do 8–12 repeats of hard uphill effort for 20–30 seconds, followed by 90 seconds of easy descent and recovery at the bottom. You should be working at a 9 out of 10 effort on the way up. (For experienced runners, this is the stair equivalent of track 200s: short, sharp, and effective.) The bottom lineBe like Rocky. Seriously, when I'm training for a race with any significant elevation, stair work is non-negotiable. But even if your goal race is completely flat, the posterior chain strength and raw efficiency of stair intervals will make you a better runner on any terrain. View the full article

There’s often a disconnect between what a webpage says it’s about and what its audience is actually searching for. This mismatch has always existed. But the stakes are higher now. If your page fails to match user intent, it won’t show up in AI-powered search surfaces. Search engines will find a page that delivers. You can see the mismatch, but it’s hard to quantify. The data to measure it is already in your Google Search Console account. Below, you can analyze your own pages to see how closely your content aligns with what your audience is searching for. Measuring the gap between positioning and demand Most web content today is designed to accommodate multiple target audiences, tens or hundreds of keywords, and brand positioning. As a result, it drifts away from the problems people are trying to solve. I’ve had this argument many times and learned that observations create interesting conversations, but numbers create urgency and action. In this case, the numbers you need are already in your data, and the intent gap analysis tool uses that data to measure them. Google Search Console captures what your audience searches for when they find each page. The meta description captures what the page says it’s about. One is demand. The other is positioning. Intent gap analysis scores the distance between your meta description and your audience’s queries. Vector embeddings make that score possible by measuring meaning rather than just matching words. The result is a single intent gap score (0-100) that shows how well your page aligns with what your audience is searching for. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with Connecting positioning to demand Google’s Search Central documentation describes the meta description as “a pitch that convinces the user that the page is exactly what they’re looking for.” The meta description also functions as a machine-readable signal. LLMs and generative engines consume it as a compact summary of what the page claims to deliver. Achieving “durable visibility in AI ecosystems” requires “consistent metadata, provenance, and trust signals that can be interpreted by search crawlers and generative engines,” IDC’s December 2025 Market Note on brand visibility found. Scoring a page’s meta description requires an anchor in audience behavior. Google Search Console provides that anchor — the queries where Google chose to surface your page, regardless of whether the page was built for that intent. The intent gap analysis tool expresses the gap as a score. In the sample analysis below of LumonHR, a fictional SaaS platform inspired by Severance, the homepage scores a 32. The meta description uses vague aspirational language that doesn’t match the functional, software-focused queries driving traffic. The page isn’t attracting the audience it targeted. LumonHR’s homepage scores a 32 out of 100. The colored bar shows how impressions distribute across topic clusters. Dig deeper: How to use AI to diagnose and improve search intent alignment Why intent is measurable now Search engines now use vector embeddings as a core part of how they match content to queries. Intent matching runs on meaning, not just keywords. When a user searches, the engine embeds the query and compares it against content candidates in a shared vector space. Semantic similarity is one of the signals that determines whether your page gets surfaced, cited, or used to generate an answer, alongside authority, trust, freshness, and other ranking factors. Vector embeddings let you see your page the way a search engine does. Where existing tools stop N-gram analysis and TF-IDF have been the standard tools for analyzing search queries. N-grams surface recurring phrases, revealing the vocabulary your audience uses. TF-IDF highlights which terms matter most in your query set. These approaches match words, not meaning. “Setting boundaries between office and personal time” and “maintaining employee work-life balance” share zero words. To a word-matching tool, they’re separate topics. To a search engine running on embeddings, they express the same intent. When brands match words and search engines match intent, you’re working at a disadvantage. Measuring meaning, not words Vector embeddings encode meaning. An embedding converts text into numbers, allowing you to create a map of relationships rather than a list of terms. When two pieces of text mean similar things, their vectors land close together in a shared mathematical space. Once your meta description and your audience’s queries are plotted in the same space, the distance between them is measurable. Queries close to the meta description align with the page’s positioning. Queries far from it represent demand the page wasn’t built for. That distance is the intent gap score. The map below breaks the intent gap into clusters, showing where your page aligns with audience demand and where it doesn’t. LumonHR’s query clusters mapped by the relationship between positioning and demand. Dig deeper: SEO gap analysis: How to find content and keyword gaps Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. What the intent gap reveals Clustering your queries into topics reveals which audiences the page is reaching and which it’s missing. Each cluster has two properties: How closely it aligns with the meta description. How much search demand it carries. Those two dimensions place every cluster into one of four quadrants: defend, create, optimize, or monitor. Defend High alignment, high demand. The audience is finding your page for the reasons you built it, and in volume. This is where your topical authority lives. Protect and reinforce. Keep the content current, and update the meta description if the language has drifted from how the audience phrases their searches. Create Low alignment, high demand. The audience is arriving with intent the page was never built to serve. This is demand you’re visible for but not capturing. Create new content for the clusters that fit your strategy, using the language your audience is already using. Ignore the ones that don’t. Each cluster that passes the filter is a signal for new content. Optimize High alignment, low demand. The page matches what these searchers need, but few are finding it. The content is right. The visibility isn’t. Investigate the constraint. The alignment is there, but the audience is small. Rankings may be too low, the positioning too narrow, or the topic may need supporting content to grow. Monitor Low alignment, low demand. Some clusters may grow into Create or Optimize territory over time. Watch for growth. This is often where emerging topics are first detected. If demand increases, re-evaluate. Query clusters analyzed, scored, and assigned a recommended action. Dig deeper: How and why to ‘be the primary source’ for organic search Your data, your score: Running the intent gap analysis Here’s the tool and how to run the analysis on your own pages. Step 1: Export your page data In Google Search Console, navigate to Performance > Search results, filter by a single page, and export as a .zip file. Step 2: Upload and score Upload the .zip file to the tool (your data is not stored) to get your intent gap score. The tool scrapes the meta description, scores every query against it, and clusters the results. Step 3: Explore the map Each cluster is plotted by alignment and demand. Click any bubble to see the individual queries with clicks, impressions, CTR, and position. Step 4: Review the breakdown Every cluster in one view with its quadrant, alignment score, and performance metrics. Step 5: Get rewrite recommendations The tool generates recommended changes to your page’s title and meta description, grounded in the search language from your highest-demand clusters. Step 6: Share your results Download the table as CSV or use the “Copy as Image” buttons to share individual views with your team. Sample suggested title and meta description revisions based on intent gap findings. Dig deeper: How to master user intent with SEO personas See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with Turning the score into a decision The intent gap score assigns a number to the disconnect, and that number gives it traction. It turns observations into actions you can take in stakeholder conversations, whether that means changing a page or defending it. Your audience is already telling you what they need. That signal is always shifting. Now you can monitor it, measure it, and close the gap. The tool featured in this article was created by Robin Tully, co-founder at Forecast.ing. View the full article

A reader writes: Can we have a thread on “people who do not want this job”? Notable entries for me include the person who applied to be our lobbyist who was extremely clear that he was going to use our contacts and access to lobby for legalization of psychedelics (dude, we are educators, that’s not even related) and the person who applied for the admin job but very clearly wanted the lobbyist job and all his questions about the admin job were how to get promoted to the lobbyist job. Second place goes to the two people who applied for several of our jobs because they wanted any job that would get them across the country. Yes, indeed we can. Another example: the guy working for a mid-tier clothing producer but insisting on Gucci-level quality. In the comments, please share your own stories of people applying for — or stuck in — a job that clearly was at odds with what they wanted, but trying to make it into the other thing anyway. The post people who don’t realize they definitely don’t want THIS job appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

YouTube is a melting pot for everything from music videos and movie trailers to wilderness survival tutorials and funny animal clips. You could quite literally spend all day, every day plugged into the app and never run out of things to watch, or rabbit holes to go down. That's great, but it's also something of a problem—many of us use YouTube in different ways and for different purposes at different times, and that can make organizing and finding new content tricky. Just because you've spent four hours trying to troubleshoot a car engine problem doesn't mean you necessarily ever want to see a vehicle maintenance video ever again. For me, the issue is my love of lo-fi and classical music mixes—vocal-free videos that last for hours, which I put on in the background while I'm working. I watch a lot of them, but I only watch them when I need them. Yet because there are so many in my watch history, whenever I want to actively watch other kinds of things, I'm met with only a screen full of similar chill-out videos for study and meditation. Maybe you don't want all your viewing to count towards all your recommendations. Credit: Lifehacker YouTube Channels lets you keep certain videos out of your recommendation feedThere are a few ways to solve for this problem, including using YouTube's built-in incognito mode—but it's only available in the mobile apps, not on the desktop site. Alternatively, I could get my mixes through YouTube Music, but they're harder to find and scroll through there. And I could just use an incognito browser window—but that would cut me off from the rest of my account, and bring back the ads (which, as a Premium user, I've paid to get rid of). The best hack I've found, and one which I now use daily, is YouTube Channels. Think of these as separate YouTube accounts within your YouTube account—you don't need a completely different Google account to use them, and you can switch between them easily from the YouTube web interface (you won't even lose your place in the video you're currently watching when you do it). Channels is one of YouTube's best and most slept-on features, and it's useful whether or not you subscribe to Premium. It silos off not just your viewing history and recommendations, but also your comments, likes, uploads, and everything else, and you can set up different channels for all the different ways you use YouTube. How to set up YouTube ChannelsTo get started with channels on the web version of YouTube, log in, click your profile avatar (top right), then select Switch account > View all channels. Click Create a channel and you can start giving your new channel a bit of an identity: Right away, you'll be asked to give your channel a name, handle, and profile picture. You can use the feature in a few different ways. For example, you can create a different space for uploads you don't want connected to your main YouTube account. If the channel will be public facing, you'll want to give more thought to the name and profile picture. Personally, I just need a space to listen to background music without it dominating the rest of my YouTube experience, so the details of the channel don't matter so much. At any time on YouTube on the web, you can click your channel avatar (top right), then View your channel and Customize channel to set a description, contact info, and other details. Your new channel will need a name and a handle. Credit: Lifehacker That's really all there is to it. You open up your Channel and browse YouTube as normal, only now you've got a new identity with its own subscriptions, playlists, viewing history, followers, and recommendations. If you're a YouTube Premium subscriber, then all of your benefits are carried over—and for me, my separate channel is the one I turn to whenever I need to listen to some lengthy music mixes. Switching between or removing YouTube ChannelsTo switch channels on the web, click your profile picture (top right), then Switch account. On mobile, head to the You tab, then tap the cog icon (top right) and Switch or manage account. To remove a channel you no longer need (and all its details), click your profile picture, then View your channel > Customize channel > Settings > Channel > Advanced settings > Remove YouTube content. View the full article

Fintech Candid says its AI-powered newsletter platform can scrape social media and public data to help loan officers send hyper-personalized outreach at scale. View the full article

For years, AI companies gave users unfettered access to the candy store, encouraging them to think of tokens, the chunks of text AI reads and writes, as effectively infinite. Tokens were bundled into subscriptions, hidden behind generous caps, or priced low enough that people stopped counting them. But as the cost of serving models eats into revenue, and as chip shortages, helium disruption, and data center bottlenecks constrain how much compute can come online, the big model makers are starting to ration access more aggressively. All-you-can-eat AI is disappearing. Now companies are in a contest to see who can keep subsidising demand the longest, and whether the last to blink gets to dominate the market. This week, Meta took offline its “Claudenomics” leaderboard, which tracked employee productivity using a crude metric of how many AI tokens they used over the past month. Employees used more than 60 trillion tokens in a single month, equivalent to around 80 million copies of War and Peace, or the contents of 10,000 entire libraries. “Leading frontier model developers are going to face trade-offs in how they use their compute resources,” explains Sam Manning, senior research fellow at GovAI, a community of researchers studying how AI is used and deployed. “It’s a super consequential decision these companies need to make.” The global shortage of AI chips, likely to be exacerbated by the Middle East war’s impact on helium, a key component in GPU production, along with a backlog in building data centers, means there is only a finite amount of hardware to both train and run AI models. Dial down the training budget and you risk falling behind competitors in releasing cutting-edge models. Cut back on inference, the speed and scale at which you meet customer demand, and you frustrate users. Different companies are taking different approaches. Earlier this month, OpenAI announced it would switch users on its Codex app to token-based pricing, rather than per message, regardless of query size. That could benefit those running smaller tasks, but could also quickly burn through a user’s token allowance. The company also ended a months-long offer to double Codex limits at the start of April. Around the same time, Anthropic blocked users from using Claude subscriptions to power OpenClaw agentic AI tools, pushing them instead toward API access. The likely reason was simple: demand. “We’ve been working hard to meet the increase in demand for Claude, and our subscriptions weren’t built for the usage patterns of these third-party tools,” said Boris Cherny, Claude Code executive, announcing the shift. “Capacity is a resource we manage thoughtfully and we are prioritizing our customers using our products and API.” The financial pressure is clear. The cost of serving AI models accounts for more than half of OpenAI and Anthropic’s revenues, according to internal data obtained by the Wall Street Journal. “There’s just been huge consumer surplus,” says Manning. “A lot of the initial motivation for pricing was to build up market share and get users onto their platforms. Maybe it’s the case that we’re seeing some sort of an inflection point there.” The price-versus-performance trade-off is not limited to U.S. firms. It is also front of mind for China’s AI companies. Zhipu AI, which makes the GLM models, has seen its open platform API token prices rise 83% year-to-date in early 2026, and this week announced another 8% increase for its latest models. The price hikes reflect accelerating demand, according to JP Morgan research. Users appear willing to absorb higher costs for higher-value workloads, particularly in coding and agent-related use cases. Rising prices and sustained demand are already reshaping unit economics for China’s AI giants, with Zhipu AI’s API gross margins expanding from 3% in 2024 to 19% in 2025. Still, Alibaba is taking a different tack. The company has made its Qwen-3.6 model free to users through OpenRouter, a coding support system. Users quickly burned through nearly 1.5 trillion tokens in a single day. That decision stands out, but the logic is clear. Alibaba is trying to win developers, workloads, and long-term cloud customers. While OpenAI and Anthropic are tightening access to protect scarce capacity and improve unit economics, Alibaba is playing a longer game, absorbing the cost in hopes of locking in users that may be harder to win later. Alibaba could also benefit from the fact most companies can’t compromise on price any time soon—if ever. Pricing pressures remain unavoidable if compute remains scarce, according to GovAI’s Manning. “We should expect there to be this sort of scarcity of compute for the foreseeable future,” he says. View the full article