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The ACT SmartWi-Fi service was rolled out to 250,000 homes in January. The post ACT Fibernet reports 3x Wi-Fi device speed improvement following Aprecomm AI platform deployment appeared first on Wi-Fi NOW Global. View the full article

Some of the fixes are simple. By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

Some of the fixes are simple. By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

Your clients will be happier ... and so will your staff. By Jody Padar Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA Go PRO for members-only access to more Jody Padar. View the full article

Your clients will be happier ... and so will your staff. By Jody Padar Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA Go PRO for members-only access to more Jody Padar. View the full article

Don’t take them for granted. By Ed Mendlowitz Tax Season Opportunity Guide We have many resources and need to recognize that. And we need to treat each with its own importance. Even if you did everything yourself, you’d still need … Continued Go PRO for members-only access to more Edward Mendlowitz. View the full article

Don’t take them for granted. By Ed Mendlowitz Tax Season Opportunity Guide We have many resources and need to recognize that. And we need to treat each with its own importance. Even if you did everything yourself, you’d still need … Continued Go PRO for members-only access to more Edward Mendlowitz. View the full article

Featuring Danielle Guizio, Owner and Designer, Guizio; Kat Hantas, Cofounder, 21Seeds Infused Tequila and Stacey Tank, CEO, Bespoke Beauty Brands (owner of KimChi Chic Beauty and Jason Wu Beauty). Moderated by Yasmin Gagne, Staff Editor, Fast Company What separates companies that scale from those that stall? These founders and CEOs may have the answer. In this panel, you’ll gain insight into the strategies, decisions, and challenges behind building high-growth businesses, from knowing when an acquisition or retail expansion is the right move to capitalizing on buzzy products. View the full article

Google’s AI-powered match type Search Max is rolling out to more accounts, bringing automated ad optimization to Search campaigns. How it works: Expanded search term matching. Google extends beyond existing keywords and match types, using landing pages, headlines, and descriptions to surface new, relevant searches. Text & URL optimization. Google dynamically selects the most relevant landing pages and pairs them with optimized headlines and descriptions. Automatically created assets. Search Max now incorporates AI-generated ad components, further streamlining ad creation. Why we care. Search Max aims to increase conversions by dynamically tailoring ads based on user searches, ad assets, and landing pages – going beyond traditional keyword targeting. By expanding search term matching beyond traditional keywords, dynamically optimizing ad components, and leveraging AI-generated assets, it could help reach new audiences with minimal manual effort. However, with greater automation comes less control, meaning advertisers will need to closely monitor performance and adapt strategies as Google continues refining the feature. First seen. We discovered this update via PPC News Feed, citing search marketing consultant Jerome Fleck: View the full article

This is a sweeping generalisation, but it’s a useful one. You probably deserve a promotion, but on its own, that’s rarely enough to actually get you promoted. There are forces working against you: the cold, hard unit economics of your…Read more ›View the full article

U.S. inflation slowed last month for the first time since September and a measure of underlying inflation fell to a four-year low, even as widespread tariffs threaten to send prices higher. The consumer price index increased 2.8% in February from a year ago, Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed, down from 3% the previous month. Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy categories, rose 3.1% from a year earlier, down from 3.3% in January. The core figure is the lowest since April 2021. The declines were larger than economists expected, according to a survey by data provider FactSet. Yet they remain higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. And most economists still expect inflation will remain elevated this year as Trump’s tariffs kick in. “Today’s cooler-than-expected reading was a breath of fresh air,” Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, said. Yet she cautioned that the Fed is likely to keep its key rate unchanged for now until it sees further evidence of how the White House’s trade and immigration policies affect the economy. On a monthly basis, inflation also came in much lower than expected. Consumer prices rose 0.2% in February from the previous month, down from a big 0.5% jump in January. And core prices rose just 0.2%, below the 0.4% increase in January. Economists watch core prices because they are typically a better guide to inflation’s future path. A sharp drop in air fares, which fell 4% just in February from the previous month, helped bring down overall inflation. Rental price increases also slowed. And the price of new cars fell last month compared with January. Grocery prices were unchanged last month from January, bringing some relief to consumers grappling with a 25% jump in grocery prices from four years ago. The cost of eggs, however, jumped 10.4% in February from the previous month and are nearly 60% more expensive than a year ago. Avian flu has forced farmers to slaughter more than 160 million birds, including 30 million in January. Average egg prices hit $5.90 a dozen nationwide in February, a record high. The price had consistently been below $2 a dozen for decades before the disease struck. And with Trump imposing—or threatening to impose—a wide range of tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, China, Europe, and India, most economists forecast price growth will likely remain elevated this year. The duties have roiled financial markets and could sharply slow the economy, with some analysts raising the odds of a recession. Many economists expect inflation would fall this year without the import taxes, but with tariffs imposed, they forecast inflation will stay elevated through the end of this year. Trump has pledged to impose reciprocal tariffs on any country with duties on U.S. exports on April 2. Economists at the Yale Budget Lab calculate that those duties, by themselves, could boost the average U.S. tariff rate to its highest level since 1937, and cost the average household as much as $3,400. Wednesday’s update is likely to encourage the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in January that rate cuts were on hold and another reduction is highly unlikely at the Fed’s meeting next week. The biggest wild card for the Fed—and the economy as a whole—are the tariffs and Trump’s threats to impose more. Since his inauguration in January, Trump has imposed 20% taxes on all imports from China, and 25% duties on imports from Canada and Mexico, though most of those tariffs have been suspended for a month. On Wednesday, the administration increased tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%, promising that the taxes would help create U.S. factory jobs at a time when Trump’s seesawing tariff threats are jolting the stock market and raising fears of an economic slowdown. The European Union responded in kind almost immediately announcing retaliatory trade action with new duties on U.S. industrial and farm products. Trump has promised reciprocal duties on countries that tariff exports from the United States, including Europe, India, and South Korea on April 2. AP Writers Josh Boak and Paul Wiseman in Washington, and Lorne Cook and David McHugh in Europe, contributed to this report. —Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer View the full article

Study reveals top AI models for text, image, and video generation, highlighting adoption trends and emerging industry leaders. The post AI Model Showdown: Top Choices For Text, Image, & Video Generation appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

If you’re spending time and money adding keyword-rich content to your website, hoping to improve your Google Maps rankings, you’re wasting resources. Website content does not influence your visibility in Google Maps – but there are proven strategies that do. The SEO myth: Blogging and Google Maps rankings When Google Maps first launched, it appeared to pull keywords from local business websites to help match businesses with local searches. Because of this perceived influence, local SEO experts have long advocated for blogging and content marketing. However, this belief is based on incorrect correlations. Adding content to your website – if it is not part of your Google Business Profile (GBP) – does not impact Google Maps rankings. This misconception is significant because it has led to widespread misinformation about local SEO. As a result, businesses may invest resources in efforts that will not produce the expected results. Testing the theory: A keyword experiment To test this idea, I conducted an experiment over the past year. I created a page optimized for a completely fabricated keyword phrase, “hypnerotomachia enhancement.” “Hypnerotomachia” comes from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a book published in 1499 by early printer Aldus Manutius. The phrase itself sounds like a niche service a marketing agency might offer, but in reality, no business or website has ever used it before. By selecting a phrase that did not exist on any business profile or website, the experiment aimed to determine whether Google Maps absorbs new content added to a website and associates its keywords with the corresponding business profile. To test this, we: Created a dedicated page for “hypnerotomachia enhancement” on my agency’s website. Linked it in the sitewide top navigation. Submitted it to Google Search Console for indexing. Given that Google Maps may take time to process content from business websites, we left the page live for several months. The results: Organic search vs. Google Maps Despite all this, our business listing never appeared in Google Maps searches for “hypnerotomachia enhancement.” In contrast, the page ranked at the top of Google’s organic search results for the exact phrase. This demonstrates that while the content was recognized in organic search rankings, it had no influence on Google Maps results. The takeaway: Your keyword-rich website content has little impact on Google Maps visibility Although this may seem like a minor distinction, local SEO experts have long advised that optimizing website content with keywords could improve Google Maps rankings. This claim may have been true before Google introduced GBP listings. However, over time, this guidance has evolved from “could affect rankings” to the widely accepted but incorrect belief that it “definitely does affect rankings.” As a result, this misunderstanding continues to spread through blog posts, social media discussions, and industry conversations. In reality, website content now appears to have little to no direct impact on keyword relevance in Google Maps. If you are investing significant resources into blogging and creating new pages with the expectation that this will help your business rank in Google Maps – or improve your visibility for keyword phrases beyond those in your Google Business Profile – you are wasting your budget. This also applies to another common misconception. Creating location-based pages (often called “city pages,” “city area pages,” or “geo pages”) will not help your Google Business Profile appear more frequently in searches from those locations. Website content does not influence keyword relevance in Google Maps or Google Local searches. Additionally, these types of pages may violate Google’s spam policies, as they can be considered doorway pages, which have long been against the rules. Dig deeper: How to use location-specific authority content for SEO But keywords still matter for local search Adding keyword-rich content to your website does not create keyword relevance for your Google Business Profile or improve Google Maps rankings. That said, it can help your pages appear in regular search results outside the map pack. Depending on the query, these listings can drive traffic to your business, particularly for unique or low-competition keyword combinations. However, creating geographic pages is unlikely to make your Google Business Profile appear in search results for users searching from local areas – unless your business is physically near them or your profile settings include that location. Many users do not include a geographic name in their searches, as they expect Google to automatically provide locally relevant results. For some local search queries, appearing in Google Maps is crucial, especially as mobile searches continue to outpace desktop searches. Consumers often rely on Google Maps more than standard search results when looking for local businesses. This is why some businesses prioritize Google Maps optimization – and why it’s important to understand the differences between ranking in regular search results and ranking in Google Maps. Dig deeper: Top SEO tips for location-specific websites Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. Where should I focus efforts to rank for keywords in Maps? What should you do if optimizing website content does not help your keyword relevancy? Google’s guidance is not vague about this, as it turns out. You need to optimize your Google Business Profile. On its help page for “How to improve your local ranking on Google,” Google states: “Relevance refers to how well a local Business Profile matches what someone is searching for. Add complete and detailed business information to help Google better understand your business and match your profile to relevant searches.” Nearly 20 years ago, I wrote “Anatomy & Optimization of a Local Business Profile,” which is still worth reading – though some aspects are outdated. For example: GBP business names must now strictly follow Google’s guidelines. DMOZ is no longer relevant. Mail store addresses should be avoided. Some rating sites prohibit soliciting reviews. However, most core principles remain applicable and provide a strong foundation for optimizing your GBP. Write a strong business description Your description should clearly highlight your main products, services, and unique differentiators. Keep it concise and compelling – avoid AI-generated text, as it often lacks the nuance and authenticity needed for effective local SEO. Maximize your business categories Each category you add increases your potential visibility. While Google’s official guidance suggests using only your primary business category, this approach can be limiting. Businesses often operate in multiple relevant categories, and Google’s category list is not always comprehensive. For example, some niche specializations may not have a perfect category match. To maximize exposure, add all directly relevant and valid business categories to your profile. Dig deeper: How to pick the right Google Business Profile categories List your products and services This is one of the best ways to incorporate specialized keywords that don’t fit within Google’s predefined business categories. Google offers a set of standard service names based on your category, but you can also add custom services to target more specific searches. For example, if Google doesn’t include a precise service your business offers, you can manually enter it here – which is more effective than trying to influence Maps rankings through website content. When and how Google uses website content for Maps visibility Google Maps does use website content for certain aspects of search, such as: Link value (PageRank): Used as part of the prominence signal in rankings. NAP (name, address, phone number) consistency: Helps verify business details. Business hours: Cross-referenced with the GBP. Local business structured data: Used for verification and consistency. Product inventory content: Can be associated with GBP, though not directly tied to product pages. This is why there has been confusion about how website content factors into local search and the display of map pack results. As SEO myths go, the idea that adding keyword content to a local business website improves Google Maps rankings is relatively harmless since those pages can still appear in organic search results. However, this demonstrates why it’s important to reassess longstanding assumptions to better understand how everything fits together. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: I recently started a new job where I manage two employees. One of them, “Carol,” is challenging to work with. I’ve learned that some candidates even withdrew from the role I now hold because they couldn’t see themselves working with her. While I generally get along with Carol, managing her is difficult. She can be loud, boastful (sometimes claiming credit for others’ work), and occasionally rude, making snarky comments to colleagues. She admits she’s not a morning person, but on some mornings, her mood is so sour I feel I need to walk on eggshells. She doesn’t hesitate to interrupt others with her own questions, which I appreciate in terms of initiative, but she often responds curtly to volunteers or colleagues who interrupt her. A manager training session shed more light on her personality. Her Emotional Control score on a personality assessment was zero, which the facilitator described as indicative of deep self-esteem issues. I was advised to praise her as much as possible, though it may never feel like enough. I’ve been trying, but it’s exhausting — it doesn’t come naturally to me, and I worry about sounding insincere. Carol has mentioned attending therapy for job-related stress and anxiety, which I’m glad she’s addressing. I agree that her struggles seem rooted in low self-esteem. Do you have any additional advice for managing someone like Carol? I want to support her growth, but being direct with her is tough due to how sensitive she is. I’d caution you against putting too much weight on personality assessments (which are generally pseudoscience, although they might be helping in giving you the words to articulate patterns you had already noticed on your own) and instead urge you to focus on giving Carol clear and concrete info about what you need her to do differently. Given the problems with Carol’s conduct, focusing on building up her self-esteem is not the right strategy, and it will steer you away from the type of feedback Carol urgently needs. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t make sure you’re giving sincere praise to employees. Of course you should — with all of them, and it’s worth being extra intentional about it when you know someone thrives on that form of recognition in particular. So when you write that praising Carol’s work doesn’t come naturally to you and feels insincere, I want to know more about that. Does it feel insincere because she’s not actually doing a good job, or because you’re uncomfortable praising employees in general? If it’s the former, that’s a sign that you really, really need to be tackling the performance issues … whereas if it’s an across-the-board issue you have with other employees too, that’s something you’ve got to work on to be a better manager (more on that here). But regardless of the answer to that, it definitely sounds like you’re not giving enough feedback in the other direction, because these issues with Carol are persisting and you said it’s tough to be direct with her because of how sensitive she is. As a manager, you cannot allow the fear of an employee’s reaction to get in the way of you delivering important feedback about their work (or conduct); that would be neglecting your own job in a pretty fundamental way, and it’s unfair to to the other people who have to work with Carol. Frankly, it’s also unfair to Carol herself, since it means that she won’t have the opportunity to hear what she’s doing that’s alienating people and harming her reputation and which could even get her fired someday. (You might not fire her over what you’ve seen, but that doesn’t mean her next manager won’t. It’s a kindness to be direct with her.) Moreover, being able to take work-related feedback is a job competency like any other. You (hopefully) wouldn’t throw up your hands about someone who was, say, bad at meeting deadlines or produced work littered with serious errors. You’d address those problems head-on, because they’re clearly connected to the person’s ability to perform the role you’ve hired them for. You can — and should — have the same sorts of expectations around taking work-related feedback professionally. You can’t not give it just because Carol is sensitive. So: it’s time to tell Carol very clearly that she cannot be rude or snarky, her mood cannot be so disruptive that people feel they need to walk on eggshells around her, and she cannot respond curly to people who interrupt her. If she responds poorly to hearing that, address it head-on, right then in the moment: “What’s happening right now is part of what concerns me. I need to be able to give you feedback without you becoming upset. Being able to take feedback professionally is part of everyone’s job here, and being able to do it is crucial to your success in your role.” From there, you need to manage her much more closely. If she’s rude or making people feel they need to walk on eggshells around her, pull her in for a conversation right then and there (“This is what we were talking about — what’s going on?”) and hold her accountable to behaving appropriately. Don’t excuse it just because it’s apparently been excused in the past, or because you worry about how she’s react if you call her on it. You’re her manager, which means you’ve got to manage her. If you’re not praising her for things she genuinely does well, that’s something you’ve got to change on your side too. But it sounds like there are much more pressing issues to deal with first. View the full article

The morning after President Donald Trump addressed corporate America in Washington, one of the nation's top chief executives called on him for more policy certainty. View the full article

Apple has successfully blocked its opponents in India, Tinder-owner Match and a group of startups, from accessing its commercially sensitive information which was part of antitrust findings against the U.S. firm, a confidential order shows. An investigation by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) last year found Apple exploited its dominant position in the market for app stores on its iOS operating system to the detriment of app developers, users and other payment processors. Apple has denied wrongdoing and said it is a small player in India where phones using Google’s operating system are dominant. The investigation process has concluded but CCI’s senior members are yet to review the findings and pass a final ruling, which could force Apple to pay fines and even change its practices if the company is confirmed to have indulged in wrongdoing. Apple’s opposing parties in the case — Match and startup group Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) — asked the CCI to allow access to certain confidential information which include developer payouts and details of total billings, but were redacted when investigation reports were shared with parties. Match argued Apple had been “claiming excessive and unwarranted redactions in its submissions” across the world “to hinder effective scrutiny of its practices”, but the CCI did not agree and ruled in favour of Apple, according to a 13-page confidential order issued on March 3 and seen by Reuters. The order noted Apple’s comments, saying “the very fact that Match is involved in similar antitrust proceedings” with the company elsewhere will cause Apple harm if its commercially sensitive information is provided to Match. “The Commission notes that disclosure of such redacted information at this stage to ADIF and Match is neither necessary nor expedient … and disclosure of the same could potentially cause harm to the interests of Apple and other third parties,” the CCI noted. The CCI, Apple, Match and ADIF did not respond to Reuters queries. The Indian case was first filed by a little-known, non-profit group called “Together We Fight Society” which argued Apple’s in-app fee of up to 30% hurts competition by raising costs for app developers and customers. Apple’s iOS powered about 4% of 712 million smartphones in India as of 2024 end, with the rest using Google’s Android, according to Counterpoint Research. Apple’s smartphone base in the country has grown five times in the last five years. Apple can still oppose findings of the CCI investigation and watchdog’s senior members are expected to issue a final ruling in coming weeks. In 2022, the CCI imposed a $113 million fine on Google and said it must allow the use of third-party billing and stop forcing developers to use its in-app payment system that charges commission of 15%-30%. Google has denied wrongdoing. —Aditya Kalra, Reuters View the full article

Ex-Barclays boss is challenging regulator’s verdict that he downplayed his connection to late paedophileView the full article

Is leadership something you’re born with or can it be taught? It’s an interesting question, but one that you shouldn’t spend too much time stressing over. Even if you are full of charisma and people naturally line up to follow you anywhere, you could always hone your leadership skills with leadership training. Or, if you’re like the rest of us, who aren’t natural-born leaders, but find themselves in a position of leadership, you’ll want to study the techniques that rally teams to success. Leadership isn’t rocket science, but like rocket science, it can be taught. There’s a wealth of leadership courses available, online and in the real world. Some are free and others are not. We’ve done the footwork for you. Below is a list of 15 leadership programs, seminars, online courses and degrees you can take to help yourself become the best leader you can be. 1. Chicago Booth Leadership Training The University of Chicago Booth School of Business developed one of the first experiential leadership programs for full-time students in 1989 and launched its Effective Leadership program in 2009, tailored for evening and weekend Booth MBA students. The program’s guiding principles are self-awareness and acting your way into thinking, as opposed to thinking your way into action. 2. Pryor Learning Solutions The Management and Leadership program at Pryor, which includes live and online learning options, offers a wide variety of management seminars that focus on leadership training, motivating yourself and your employees, budgeting skills and effective communications, such as how to effectively deliver criticism and discipline for employee growth. The lessons provide practical tips for transforming a workgroup into a cohesive and coordinated team. 3. Bell Leadership Institute Bell Leadership Institute has been helping organizations build leadership mastery since 1972 with programs focused on practical, take-home actions designed for your specific needs and culture. They offer keynote speeches, a Leader’s Roundtable, open-enrollment seminars, custom programs, annual meetings, executive retreats, licensed programs, assessment tools and coaching for individuals, businesses and organizations, as well as families and communities. /wp-content/uploads/2017/06/london-school-of-business.png 4. London Business School Executive Education Program The London Business School has an Executive Education program that is globally recognized and highly regarded. In addition to in-person programs in London and Dubai, they offer online and blended leadership training programs for more flexibility. They employ a faculty of experts throughout various business and leadership disciplines and teach practical applications that participants can apply to their work. 5. Harvard Leadership and Management Courses Leadership and Management Courses at Harvard University help maximize team productivity, drive breakthrough innovation and secure a competitive edge. Through hands-on exercises and discussion, management theories and leadership best practices, you’re taught to master complex challenges and capitalize on opportunities. Courses include building good judgment, building more effective teams, influence and persuasion in leadership, leadership coaching strategies, conflict resolution, strategic leadership and management skills for emerging leaders. 6. American Management Association: Leadership Training Courses The American Management Association’s Leadership Training Courses and Seminars offer courses in general leadership study, such as its “5 Day MBA Workshop,” as well as more specific courses in strategic leadership. Its mission is to shore up students’ capabilities in management, including communication and collaboration skills, critical thinking, finance and project management skills. They promise to provide the competitive tools you’ll need to differentiate yourself in a challenging marketplace. /wp-content/uploads/2017/06/korn-ferry-vector-logo-2022-600x333.png 7. Korn Ferry Leadership Development Program The Korn Ferry Leadership Development Program focuses its leadership training on both professional and leadership development. Participants will get personalized guidance for growth that combines tailored insights from professional development assessments and an AI-driven feedback tool. This is a well-known leadership training company that has a global reach, working with leaders in over 50 countries. /wp-content/uploads/2017/06/edx_logo_icon_248968.png 8. edX edX is an online learning platform that provides courses from organizations and universities around the globe. “Becoming a Resilient Leader” from the University of California, Berkeley is a leadership course that focuses on building resilience in leadership. Another example that edX offers is called “Leadership Communication for Maximum Impact: Storytelling and Presence” from the University of Washington. Beyond courses, edX has programs, certificates and forums to explore. /wp-content/uploads/2017/06/yale-school-of-management.png 9. Yale School of Management Executive Education The Yale School of Management Executive Education program includes a robust suite of programs aimed at developing leaders who have both a business background and those who have a strong sense of social responsibility. While this isn’t a free leadership training option, those who participate will leave with a global perspective on mission-driven leadership. /wp-content/uploads/2017/06/TED-Logo-600x375.png 10. TED Talks If you’re looking for a free and accessible place to access leadership training, TED Talks are a great place to start. These video talks provide a wealth of knowledge and inspiration for leaders at all levels. They cover everything from vulnerability to the power of passion to how great leaders inspire action. There are even TEDx events that occur throughout the world to help inspire thought and foster dialogue. 11. Alison.com Leadership Classes Alison.com is an online company that offers free leadership skills in business. They’re geared to the entrepreneur and provide a course of study on the essential leadership skills an entrepreneur or business person will need. Among the skills taught are how to organize your business, select and manage your team, and how maintain proper professional behavior. Four different types of organizations and four stages of organizational growth are taught, as well as recruitment methods to build your team, helping you understand corporate responsibility and business ethics. While the courses are free, if you score well enough to earn certification, that documentation will come at a fee. 12. Coursera Leadership & Management Coursera is an online learning center, which collates courses from universities and educational institutions around the globe. These classes include video lectures, auto-graded and peer-reviewed assignments and community discussion forums. Courses are priced from $29-$99, usually run between four-to-six weeks, and when completed supply a certification. The leadership and management courses include leading people and teams, inspired leadership, organizational leadership, conflict management, inspirational leadership and culture-driven team building. /wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2022-PM-Logo-04-600x170.jpg 13. ProjectManager Leadership Blog ProjectManager is a project management software company and its website also acts as a training platform and hub of knowledge for the project management community. It publishes several training articles and a new leadership and project management training video every week. Subjects range from leadership development, project management, team building, productivity and even technical templates and guides for seasoned professionals. Best of all, the tutorials are all free. 14. SPARK Entrepreneurial Boot Camp Program SPARK Entrepreneurial Boot Camp Program teaches an efficient and proven method to validate business concepts. It has been designed specifically with entrepreneurs in mind to help them conceptualize and build a business model and find beta customers. They get hands-on assistance to test their ideas over the multi-week program, interacting with mentors and early stage investors. The boot camp takes place in Ann Arbor, Mich., and costs $1,500, so it’s not for everyone. But if you have the time and money for an intensive crash course in leadership, there’s much you can gain from it. 15. Mindtools.com Mindtools.com is a learning platform that was established in 1996. The site will prompt you to join, for a fee. It does offer many free lessons on skills and techniques to improve leadership abilities through ideas such as being an authentic leader, using emotional intelligence and knowing what the right leadership approach is for the situation. If you do join, there is more content, such as books and interviews with experts to further your leadership education. Leadership is about having the right tools to exercise that leadership and build highly functioning teams. ProjectManager is a cloud-based project management software that gives leaders real-time views of their projects and teams and does the busywork so you can focus on leading. Start a free 30-day trial today. The post 15 Leadership Training Options: Courses, Programs and Blogs appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

Each year, Samsung takes what Google has made with the annual Android update—the Android Open Source Project (or AOSP) to be precise—and builds a fresh version of One UI, its bespoke mobile operating system complete with all the extra Samsung bells and whistles. This year, we're getting One UI 7, which is based on Android 15. One UI 7 comes preinstalled on the new Galaxy S25 phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but the rest of us are still waiting for it to roll out at the time of writing. Here's everything new that's coming with the software update, and when you can expect it to make its way to your Galaxy handset. Best new features in One UI 7Perhaps the most significant new features in One UI 7 are the Now Bar and Now Brief. The Now Bar is Samsung's answer to Live Activities on iOS: It shows pertinent information, including sports scores, map directions, workout stats, media playback controls, and stopwatch timers right on the lockscreen. Then there's Now Brief, which gives you regularly updated summaries of information you need front and center as the day progresses. You might get alerts about upcoming meetings, for example, or the weather forecast for the rest of the day, or a summary of your stats from Samsung Health. The Now Bar is new in One UI 7. Credit: Lifehacker As you would expect, there's plenty of AI: The writing assist tools have been upgraded to make it more straightforward to rewrite, summarize, and compose text across any app, and using any Android keyboard. There are also AI-powered call transcriptions so you can get your spoken conversations on the phone written out for you as you talk, and enhanced AI search with natural queries in the Samsung Gallery app. A more minor change comes with tweaks to the adaptive charging options. With One UI 7, you can set a limit for charging, beyond the standard 80% and 100% options. if you want charging to stop at 85% or 90% instead, that's now possible if you dive into the battery settings. Sticking with device maintenance, One UI 7 follows Android 15 in making app archiving a system-level feature (previously it was inside the Play Store app). This means if you've got apps you don't use often, you can clear out most of the associated data to free up space, without doing a full reinstall—that saves you time if you need to get back to the app again (in terms of logging in and configuring it). One UI 7 will also recommend apps it thinks you should be archiving. There's more control over adaptive charging. Credit: Lifehacker One UI 7 also brings with it a pretty comprehensive visual overhaul. It looks cleaner and more modern than One UI 6, with icons, widgets, and menus that are a little more colorful and easier on the eye. The Quick Settings and notification panels have also been split up, so you need to swipe down from different sides of the screen to see them—though there is a setting to go back to the old combined panel if you prefer it. Finally, Samsung has also given the default Camera app a bit of a refresh, with a more intuitive approach to the interface that makes it easier to get to the pro-level photography tools (while also keeping them well hidden away if you never need them). Like the other visual changes, it makes the software feel fresher and easier to navigate. When is One UI 7 being released?Samsung has recently confirmed that One UI 7 will be rolling out to at least some older phones sometime in April, though it hasn't provided a full list of which devices will get it (perhaps because it's not sure). The Samsung Galaxy S24 range will certainly get the update, as the software has been available in beta for those phones since December. Since the launch of the beta program, it's been extended to cover the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6, with support for the Galaxy S23, Galaxy A55, and Galaxy Tab S10 tablet series coming soon. However, as these devices are all joining the beta at different times, it's not clear whether or not they'll get the finished One UI 7 by April. The update could go back as far as the Galaxy S21. Credit: Samsung Broadly speaking, Samsung tends to offer four years of Android upgrades to its flagship and mid-range devices, so handsets as far back as the Samsung Galaxy S21 (from 2021) may well be eligible—but that's just an estimated guess, not an official confirmation, and it's difficult to say how long it may take for the software to fully roll out. There also remains some confusion over which handsets will get which One UI 7 features—again, it's not something Samsung has been very specific about. There has been speculation that features such as Now Brief may remain as Galaxy S25 exclusives, most likely to push sales of the newer devices. View the full article

Refinance activity was up 16% from the end of February while purchase applications rose mildly, on the strength of fading rates amid larger economic woes. View the full article

Featuring Stan Adams, Public Policy Specialist, Wikimedia Foundation; Nicole Ozer, Technology and Civil Liberties Director, ACLU of Northern California and Alissa Starzak, Deputy Chief Legal Officer and Global Head of Policy, Cloudflare. Moderated by Max Ufberg, Senior Editor, Fast Company. In an era of mass surveillance, mounting attacks to cybersecurity, the death of net neutrality, and geopolitics fragmenting the internet, it’s never been a more important time to fully understand what’s at stake regarding your digital rights and freedom. Join this panel of leaders at the forefront of securing a better and more open digital space for all. View the full article

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s radiation levels have significantly dropped since the cataclysmic meltdown in Japan 14 years ago. Workers walk around in many areas wearing only surgical masks and regular clothes. It’s a different story for those who enter the reactor buildings, including the three damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. They must use maximum protection—full facemasks with filters, multi-layered gloves and socks, shoe covers, hooded hazmat coveralls and a waterproof jacket, and a helmet. As workers remove melted fuel debris from the reactors in a monumental nuclear cleanup effort that could take more than a century, they are facing both huge amounts of psychological stress and dangerous levels of radiation. The Associated Press, which recently visited the plant for a tour and interviews, takes a closer look. Cleaning 880 tons of melted fuel debris A remote-controlled extendable robot with a tong had several mishaps including equipment failures before returning in November with a tiny piece of melted fuel from inside the damaged No. 2 reactor. That first successful test run is a crucial step in what will be a daunting, decades-long decommissioning that must deal with at least 880 tons of melted nuclear fuel that has mixed with broken parts of internal structures and other debris inside the three ruined reactors. Akira Ono, chief decommissioning officer at the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, says even the tiny sample gives officials a lot of information about the melted fuel. More samples are needed, however, to make the work smoother when bigger efforts to remove the debris begin in the 2030s. A second sample-retrieval mission at the No. 2 reactor is expected in coming weeks. Operators hope to send the extendable robot farther into the reactor to take samples closer to the center, where overheated nuclear fuel fell from the core, utility spokesperson Masakatsu Takata said. He pointed out the target area as he stood inside the inner structure of the No. 5 reactor, which is one of two reactors that survived the tsunami. It has an identical design as No. 2. Hard to see, breathe or move Radiation levels are still dangerously high inside the No. 2 reactor building, where the melted fuel debris is behind a thick concrete containment wall. Earlier decontamination work reduced those radiation levels to a fraction of what they used to be. In late August, small groups took turns doing their work helping the robot in 15- to 30-minute shifts to minimize radiation exposure. They have a remotely controlled robot, but it has to be manually pushed in and out. “Working under high levels of radiation (during a short) time limit made us feel nervous and rushed,” said Yasunobu Yokokawa, a team leader for the mission. “It was a difficult assignment.” Full-face masks reduced visibility and made breathing difficult, an extra waterproof jacket made it sweaty and hard to move, and triple-layered gloves made their fingers clumsy, Yokokawa said. To eliminate unnecessary exposure, they taped around gloves and socks and carried a personal dosimeter to measure radiation. Workers also rehearsed the tasks they’d perform to minimize exposure. The mission stalled early on when workers noticed that a set of five 1.5-meter (5-foot) pipes meant to push the robot into the reactor’s primary containment vessel had been arranged in the wrong order. A camera on the robot also failed because of high radioactivity and had to be replaced. The workers’ highest individual radiation dose was more than the overall average but still far below anything approaching a 100-millisievert five-year dose limit. Even so, a growing number of workers are concerned about safety and radiation at the plant, said Ono, the decommissioning chief, citing an annual survey of about 5,5,00 workers. In 2023, two workers splashed with contaminated sludge at a water treatment facility were hospitalized, though they had no health problems. Making sure it’s safe Yokokawa and a plant colleague, Hiroshi Ide, helped in the 2011 emergency and are team leaders today. They say they want to make the job safer as workers face high radiation in parts of the plant. On the top floor of the No. 2 reactor, workers are setting up equipment to remove spent fuel units from the cooling pool. That’s set to begin within two to three years. At the No. 1 reactor, workers are putting up a giant roof to contain radioactive dust from decontamination work on the top floor ahead of the removal of spent fuel. To minimize exposure and increase efficiency, workers use a remote-controlled crane to attach pre-assembled parts, according to TEPCO. The No. 1 reactor and its surroundings are among the most contaminated parts of the plant. What’s next? Workers are also removing treated radioactive wastewater. They recently started dismantling the emptied water tanks to make room to build facilities needed for the research and storage of melted fuel debris. After a series of small missions by robots to gather samples, experts will determine a larger-scale method for removing melted fuel, first at the No. 3 reactor. Experts say the hard work and huge challenges of decommissioning the plant are just beginning. There are estimations that the work could take more than a century. The government and TEPCO have an initial completion target of 2051, but the retrieval of melted fuel debris is already three years behind, and many big issues remain undecided. Ide, whose home in Namie town, northwest of the plant, is in a no-go zone because of nuclear contamination, still has to put on a hazmat suit, even for brief visits home. “As a Fukushima citizen, I would like to make sure the decommissioning work is done properly so that people can return home without worries,” he said. This story has been corrected to remove erroneous reference to burns in the 2023 incident. —Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press View the full article

Managers’ favourite stocks tumble as market volatility surgesView the full article

An influx of copy-and-pasted Christian messages has recently taken over TikTok’s comment sections. Over the past several days, comments about Jesus Christ have surfaced among the top comments on a wide range of unrelated videos. There’s no obvious connection between the accounts posting them, but the pattern is hard to miss. “Jesus died on a cross for you. He defeated death, he defeated your sins. He did this for you, and he gave us the Holy Spirit. Spread the word,” reads one of the most frequently repeated comments. Others follow the same script: Jesus died for our sins, we’ve been given the Holy Spirit, and now it’s our job to evangelize. Some even admit to being copy-pasted, though the origin of the trend remains unclear. Anyone chronically online knows that TikTok’s comment section is part of the fun. But the sudden wave of Christian spam is wearing on some users. “I was just browsing TikTok in bed this morning before waking up and like you said it’s nearly EVERY video that has 10 or so of these comments,” one Reddit user wrote in the r/Christianity subreddit. “I have nothing against anyone who is religious or spiritual in any way but absolutely no one is trying to be preached at while they’re just browsing or walking down the street etc, idk what folks think this accomplishes.” Other Reddit users have attempted to solve the mystery by suggesting possible explanations. However, no one is certain if the religious messages come from bots, Christians, religious organizations or a combination. “Lotta money in the christian right’s been flooding endorsements and advertisers online, you use that money to artificially boost your followers, you appear at the top of youtube. ta daaaaa, you have created a zeitgeist,” one Reddit user theorised. “Bots, shills, paid comments, and bots and bots,” added another. As well as raising questions, the trend has sparked a number of satirical responses. An edited version of the comment, also appearing across viral TikTok videos, references NBA star LeBron James in the same comment format, instead of Jesus Christ. Regardless of where the trend started, religious content is booming across TikTok’s 1.9 billion global users. Videos featuring the app’s top five religious hashtags, including #Jesus, have amassed over 1.2 trillion views. Despite assumptions about waning faith, Gen Z is just as religious as older generations, according to Pew Research’s 2025 study—and on TikTok, the pulpit is louder than ever. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google increased the negative keywords for PMax from 100 keywords to 10...View the full article