ResidentialBusiness

While getting a home you're thinking of buying inspected to make sure it's not harboring any hidden problems goes without saying, it's just as important to do a deep dive on the neighborhood you'll be moving into. But while you can look up crime stats and compare property values, how can you know if you’re going to personally vibe with the new surroundings? Here are seven strategies you can try in order to vibe-check your potential new neighborhood before signing a lease or taking out a mortgage. Walk the area instead of driving aroundWhether you’re a walker or you believe strongly in driving to the end of your driveway to collect the mail, a stroll through a prospective neighborhood is an effective way to gauge its overall feel. If you have a dog, taking it for a walk there is just as effective (and might make you feel more comfortable). Walking around will show you whether your neighborhood is buzzing with activity at all hours, or if it’s super quiet. You’ll get a feel for whether neighbors socialize a lot, or if they keep to themselves. This will let you know if the area matches your energy, or if you’ll be bored or irritated living there. Walking around also gives you the chance to run into residents and chat them up a little. Some casual conversation can reveal a lot about the character of the place, and whether people are happy living there or gritting their teeth every day. Hang around at different times of dayWalking is a good technique, but so is sitting. Take a drive to your new potential block at different hours of the day and just sit there for a little while and listen. Noise is one of the leading complaints people have about their neighbors, but it can be difficult to notice when you’re actively touring a home and engaged with a real estate agent. Sitting for a bit and listening will tell you whether the neighborhood is packed with barking dogs, screaming children, loud train tracks, blasting stereos, or vicious arguments. Try a short-term rentalIf you have the time and flexibility, look for a short-term rental in the neighborhood you're considering. A brief mini-vacation there will give you a day or two to see what everyday life might be like there. You'll also have the opportunity to find out how walkable it is, what the local stores and nightlife are like, even how easy it is to find street parking. If you can’t wait to get out of there after a few days, you'll know everything you need to about whether it's the spot for you. Preview the nightlifeWalking and staking out the neighborhood are effective ways to gauge the vibe, but make sure you include some weekend evenings on your schedule. A neighborhood that’s pin-drop quiet on a Monday morning might transform into an enormous block party on Friday night—which may or may not be what you’re looking for. If you can, check it out during a holiday as well—a neighborhood that has regular block parties or other social events to mark these occasions will have a very different vibe from a spot where everyone keeps to themselves. Even if you’re not going to be renting out a room, you might consider redirecting your nightlife to the new neighborhood for a few nights. Hit up some restaurants, bars, coffee shops, or other venues. These will be your go-to spots when you live there, so knowing whether they’re walkable, always crowded, incredibly noisy, or just not your tempo is valuable information. Check out the grocery storesThere is absolutely a hierarchy of grocery stores, so you should check out your options in your potential new neighborhood. High-end spots will be clean and well-stocked, with fresh produce but higher prices. Lower-end stores might not be a pleasant shopping experience, and might indicate a neighborhood on a downward spiral. And having no local options and being forced to drive to a big-box store—or having dollar stores and convenience stores as your only grocery option—might make living there a lot more difficult. Your feelings about the local grocery situation might depend on your lifestyle, but it’s worth it to make sure the stores match up with your expectations and needs, whatever they are. Test your commuteIf you’re going to be commuting to and from work, school, or some other location regularly, do a test run or two. Get to the prospective neighborhood a little early, start the clock, and start your commute from there. Whether driving or taking public transportation, this will be the best way to get a feel for whether your commute is about to get much, much more nightmarish, a lot easier, or not change in any way at all. Check the local calendarOne thing you should look at when vetting any neighborhood is any list of public events in the general area you can locate. Many communities have public websites with information about upcoming festivals, block parties, and community events like local theater productions. You can also check out the local chamber of commerce for event information. 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 here. AI pioneer Illia Polosukhin offers a blockchain-flavored open-source enablement platform Illia Polosukhin, who coinvented the Transformer architecture at Google in 2017, is now launching a new company called Near AI. The company will offer services through a blockchain-powered platform that functions as a secure marketplace for open-source AI models and agents. Polosukhin is a strong advocate for transparent, open-source AI models, which he believes are the best way to promote responsible adoption in an equitable and safe manner. He’s deeply concerned about individuals’ data privacy and the data sovereignty of companies and countries in a world where just a few tech giants control the largest AI models and the vast amounts of data they collect. His vision is to empower many developers to build powerful models openly, while giving users more control over their data. The challenge, however, is that developers of open-source (or open-weight) models typically offer their work for free. This means they incur development costs without generating revenue—and must also worry about potential liability if someone later uses their models to cause harm. According to Polosukhin, some open-source developers are reluctant to host their models on Hugging Face due to the risk of weight leaks. Hosting models on their own server clusters shifts the burden of governance and compliance—especially regarding user data—entirely onto them. On the Near platform, which Polosukhin and his team have been developing since mid-2024, that burden is eliminated. “For developers it’s a very effective way for them to ship their models and agents because they don’t need to deal with all the GDPR compliance themselves for user data,” Polosukhin says. “We build a very simple hosting platform that does all that and they also get distribution.” He likens the Near platform to an app store—but for open-source models and agents. The platform leverages blockchain technology to create a decentralized network of users—including enterprises, independent developers, and researchers—around the world, Polosukhin explains. Each user must have the appropriate hardware configuration to join the network. Once connected, they can run encrypted versions of models locally and pay a fee per token to the model’s creator. User registration and payment coordination are handled on the blockchain. Users benefit by gaining access to models from verified developers on a trusted platform—one where neither Near nor the model creators can see the user data running through the models. For enterprises in regulated industries, this could be more appealing than sending sensitive data to a frontier model provider like OpenAI or Google, where privacy and security are less transparent. Between 2018 and 2022, the Near Foundation raised $650 million to build the Near protocol and platform. Now, Near AI—the newly formed company—will offer specialized services for developers and users on top of that platform. Don’t be surprised if Near AI raises a new funding round in the near future. With new Google and DeepSeek models, AI parity seems very real Remember when OpenAI’s Sam Altman said that other frontier model developers shouldn’t bother trying to catch up to OpenAI? What a difference a year makes. For a long time, OpenAI’s models enjoyed a comfortable performance lead over the competition—but that’s changed. Google, which had been slow to accelerate development of generative models that might someday exceed human intelligence, yesterday released a new reasoning model called Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental that outperforms OpenAI’s best across several well-known benchmark tests. Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental now leads in the math and science benchmarks Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A (GPQA) and the 2025 American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). It also achieves a state-of-the-art score of 18.8% on Humanity’s Last Exam, a notoriously difficult test set designed to capture the human frontier of knowledge and reasoning. Google DeepMind leader Demis Hassabis says on X that Gemini 2.5 “reasons through its thoughts before responding, effectively mimicking how humans process thoughts.” “It approaches a problem gradually, refines potential solutions, and chooses the best one,” he says. The model’s standout features include native multimodality—it processes images, video, audio, and code as tokens—and the ability to hold vast amounts of information (up to a million tokens) in memory while reasoning through problems and selecting the best answer. The plot thickens. The Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has just released a new open-source model called DeepSeek-V3-0324, which improves on the earlier V3 model in reasoning, math, science, and coding. Anyone can download the model from Hugging Face and start developing their own models and apps with it. Developers can’t do the same with OpenAI’s and Google’s top models, which do not reveal their code, training data, or model weights. A year ago, most industry observers believed China was years behind U.S. AI companies in model performance; now, the gap is said to be just a few months. The takeaway is that state-of-the-art frontier models aren’t as precious or untouchable as they once were. That’s why OpenAI, Google, and others are racing to get consumers hooked on their chatbots, agents, and other applications as quickly as possible. Their main value is no longer in powering enterprise systems at premium prices via APIs—it’s in getting as many consumer users as possible into subscription plans, as AI becomes a bigger part of everyday work and life. Anthropic and Databricks team up to service enterprises in regulated industries Databricks and Anthropic are joining forces in a five-year partnership that will integrate Anthropic’s Claude AI models directly into the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. As a result, Databricks’ more than 10,000 enterprise customers will be able to send their proprietary data through the most advanced Anthropic models within the AWS, Azure, or Google clouds. Many of Databricks’ customers are enterprises in regulated industries such as finance and healthcare, so being able to run advanced AI models on the same platform as their data storage is a major advantage. Databricks notes that its tools allow enterprises to create AI agents that not only understand their organizational data but can also reason about it using Anthropic’s Claude models. “They are the leading AI model out there and so getting that in front of our customers is really what all this is about,” says Databricks VP of generative AI Naveen Rao. “We want to give our customers the best AI capabilities to unlock the value of their data.” Databricks customers will have access to Anthropic by default within the Databricks cloud, eliminating the often-protracted process of adding a new vendor. The Anthropic fees will simply appear on their Databricks bill. Rao says the two companies will first focus on helping existing Databricks customers get the most out of the Anthropic models. They may then shift focus to attracting new enterprise clients with the combined strengths of Databricks’ data security and governance and Anthropic’s state-of-the-art intelligence and safety controls. “We meet customers all the time who have clarity on their model story but are looking for something in terms of their long-term data story, and I’m sure the opposite or the compliment is true on the Databricks side,” says Anthropic chief product officer Mike Krieger. “You’re often meeting a customer on some portion of their journey, and being able to help them fast-forward through some discovery on the other parts helps you show up well.” More AI coverage from Fast Company: The ‘living globe’ that can help drones fly without GPS This watchdog is tracking how AI firms are quietly backing off their safety pledges Otter’s new AI agents are built to boost sales and streamline meetings Will AI-generated anime reshape storytelling—or replace it? 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

In 1983, six businessmen got together and opened the first Hooters restaurant in Clearwater, Florida. Hooters of America LLC quickly became a restaurant chain success story. With its scantily clad servers and signature breaded wings, the chain sells sex appeal in addition to food—or as one of the company’s mottos puts it: “You can sell the sizzle, but you have to deliver the steak.” It inspired a niche restaurant genre called “breastaurants,” with eateries such as the Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery and Twin Peaks replicating Hooters’ busty business model. A decade ago, business was booming for breastaurant chains, with these companies experiencing record sales growth. Today it’s a different story. Declining sales, rising costs and a large debt burden of approximately US$300 million have threatened Hooters’ long-term outlook. In summer 2024, the chain closed over 40 of its restaurants across the U.S. In February 2025, Bloomberg reported that the company was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy. Hooters isn’t necessarily going away for good. But it’s certainly looking like there will be fewer opportunities for women to work as “Hooters Girls”—and for customers to ogle at them. As a psychologist, I was originally interested in studying servers at breastaurants because I could sense an interesting dynamic at play. On the one hand, it can feel good to be complimented for your looks. On the other hand, I also wondered whether constantly being critiqued might eventually wear these servers down. So my research team and I decided to study what it was like to work in places like Hooters. In a series of studies, here’s what we found. Concocting a male fantasyland More so than most restaurants, managers at breastaurants like Hooters seek to strictly regulate how their employees look and act. For one of our studies, we interviewed 11 women who worked in breastaurants. Several of them said that they were told to be “camera ready” at all times. One described being given a booklet with exacting standards outlining her expected appearance, down to “nails, hair, makeup, brushing your teeth, wearing deodorant.” She had to promise to stay the same weight and height, wear makeup every shift, and not change her hairstyle. Beyond a carefully constructed physical appearance, the servers relayed that they were also expected to be confident, cheerful, charming, outgoing, and emotionally steeled. They were instructed to make male customers feel special, to be their “personal cheerleaders,” as one interviewee put it, and to never challenge them. Suffice it say, these demands can be unrealistic—and many of the servers we interviewed described becoming emotionally drained and eventually souring on the role. ‘The girls are a dime a dozen’ It probably won’t come as a surprise that Hooters servers often encounter lewd remarks, sexual advances, and other forms of sexual harassment from customers. But because their managers often tolerate this behavior from customers, it created the added burden of what psychologists call “double-binds”—situations where contradictory messages make it impossible to respond properly. For example, say a regular customer who’s a generous tipper decides to proposition a server. Now she’s in a predicament. She’s been instructed to make customers feel special. And he’s already left a big tip, in addition to being a regular. But she also feels creeped out, and his advances make her feel worthless. Should she push back? You might assume that managers, aware that their scantily clad employees would be more likely to face harassment, would try to set boundaries and throw out customers who treated servers poorly. But we found that waitresses at breastaurants have less support from both management and their coworkers than servers at other restaurants. “Unfortunately, the girls are a dime a dozen, and that’s how they’re treated,” a former server and corporate trainer at a breastaurant explained. The lack of coworker support might also come as a surprise. Rather than standing in solidarity, the servers tended to compete for favoritism, better shifts and raises from their bosses. Gossiping, name-calling, and scapegoating were commonplace. The psychological toll My research team also wanted to learn more about the specific emotional and psychological costs of working in these types of environments. Psychologists Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Robert have found that mental health problems that disproportionately affect women often coincide with sexual objectification. So we weren’t surprised to find that servers working in sexually objectifying restaurant environments, such as Hooters and Twin Peaks, reported more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and disordered eating than those working in other restaurants. In addition, they wanted to be thinner, were more likely to monitor their weight and appearance, and were more dissatisfied with their bodies. Hooters didn’t reply to a request for comment on this story. Why are women drawn to the job? Given our findings, you might wonder why any women would choose to work in places like Hooters in the first place. The women we interviewed said that they sought work in breastaurants to make more money and have more flexibility. A number of servers in one of our studies noted that they could make more money this way than waitressing at a regular restaurant or in other “real” jobs. For example, one of the servers we interviewed used to work at a more run-of-the-mill restaurant. “It was OK, I made OK money,” she told us. “But working at Hooters . . . I’ve walked out with hundreds of dollars in one shift.” All the women we interviewed were in college or were mothers. So they enjoyed the high degree of flexibility in their work schedule that breastaurants provided. Finally, several of them had previously experienced objectification while growing up, or they’d participated in activities centered on physical appearance, such as beauty pageants and cheerleading. This likely contributed to their decision to work at a Hooters or one of its competitors: They’d been objectified as adolescents, and so they found themselves drawn to these kinds of setting as adults. Even so, our research suggests that the financial rewards and flexibility of working in breastaurants probably aren’t worth the potential psychological costs. Dawn Szymanski is a professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

Plus six tips for those aspiring to the role. By Marc Rosenberg The Rosenberg Practice Management Library Go PRO for members-only access to more Marc Rosenberg. View the full article

Plus six tips for those aspiring to the role. By Marc Rosenberg The Rosenberg Practice Management Library Go PRO for members-only access to more Marc Rosenberg. View the full article

Today's Bissett Bullet: “One reason why accounting professionals find it difficult to sell is that they rarely give a reason to move that the prospect cares about.” By Martin Bissett See more Bissett Bullets here Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Today's Bissett Bullet: “One reason why accounting professionals find it difficult to sell is that they rarely give a reason to move that the prospect cares about.” By Martin Bissett See more Bissett Bullets here Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Climate activist group claims victory after demand to end new oil and gas becomes UK government policyView the full article

'Everyone here is a superhero.' By Liz Farr Go PRO for members-only access to more Liz Farr. View the full article

'Everyone here is a superhero.' By Liz Farr Go PRO for members-only access to more Liz Farr. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Roborock is the maker of many fine robot vacuums (and vacuum/mop combos). They are so fine, in fact, that even when they're on sale, as many of them have been for the past few days during Amazon's Big Spring Sale, they can cost you several hundred dollars. One Roborock vacuum-and-mop combo, however, is really discounted right now: The Q7 Max is $189.99 (Amazon lists its regular price as $299.99 and the Roborock website shows the original price as a whopping $599.99). The Roborock Q7 Max specs Roborock Q7 Max Robot Vacuum and Mop So, what do you get for $189.99? The Q7 Max comes with 4,200Pa of suction, which is modest but powerful. (Some Roborocks ratchet the suction power up to 10,000Pa, but if you're dealing with a standard amount of household dust, this should suffice.) This device also vacuums and mops simultaneously, saving time and effort. Like other models, you get 30 adjustable water flow levels, which means you can customize what the robot does based on your own preferences and flooring materials. It's not self-cleaning when it's in its dock, so you will need to empty the dust and water tanks periodically. One of the key selling points of this brand's vacuums is its Lidar navigation, which enables the vacuums to create 3D maps of your space over time. From there, the machine will figure out the most efficient cleaning route and learn to avoid obstacles. It detects stairs, automatically returns to its charging dock when it needs to, and comes with a feature that allows you to lock it in using the mobile app so your kids and pets can't mess with it. It'll run for up to 180 minutes on one charge and can cover over 3,200 square feet in that time. This model uses a rubber brush that stays low to the floor to pick up dirt and hair, both from flat surfaces and out of crevices. All that being said, it only runs on 2.4G wifi, so don't try to connect it to anything heavier-duty. The Best Amazon Spring Sale Deals You Can Get Now Apple AirPods Pro 2 Wireless Earbuds — $169.99 (List Price $249.00) Ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced — $169.00 (List Price $189.99) soundcore by Anker Q30 Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones with Multiple Modes, Hi-Res Sound, Custom EQ via App, 40H Playtime, Comfortable Fit, Bluetooth Headphones, Multipoint Connection — $55.99 (List Price $79.99) Blink Mini 2 (White, 2-Pack) — $37.99 (List Price $69.99) 2024 Apple iPad mini A17 Pro chip, Built for Apple Intelligence, Wi-Fi 128GB - Blue — $399.00 (List Price $499.00) Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS, 42mm, Black, S/M 130-180mm, Sports Band) — $299.00 (List Price $399.00) Sonos Era 100 Wireless Speaker - White — $199.00 (List Price $249.00) Fire TV Stick 4K Max Streaming Player With Remote (2023 Model) — $39.99 (List Price $59.99) Fitbit Inspire 3 Health & Fitness Tracker (Midnight Zen/Black) — $69.95 (List Price $99.95) Roku Express 4K+ HDR Streamer with Voice Remote — $29.85 (List Price $39.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’re a developer, hobbyist, or just someone trying to keep up with modern programming tools without emptying your wallet, this deal might catch your eye: Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 is currently going for $27.97 on StackSocial—down from its usual $499. That’s a one-time payment for lifetime access. Once you buy, the redemption code gets emailed to you instantly, and you have 30 days to activate it. There are no recurring fees, just a fully loaded development environment with features that make coding faster, cleaner, and less of a headache. This version of Visual Studio marks a shift—it’s their first 64-bit IDE that handles larger projects without choking. If you’ve ever waited for your code editor to stop freezing while dealing with massive workloads, that’s less of a concern here. It supports cross-platform app development through .NET MAUI, so you're covered whether you’re building for Android, iOS, or desktop. Plus, features like Live Share make collaboration less chaotic. You can co-code in real time, control what collaborators see, and even carry over your custom settings. There’s also IntelliCode, which is basically AI that learns your coding habits and fills in the blanks intelligently. It can finish lines of code or suggest the next logical move based on your style and context. It’s a little eerie, but it works. You can also build, test, and deploy to Azure right from the IDE, which is great if you’re cloud-focused. There are some things to keep in mind. This is for Windows users only. If you’re working on a Chromebook, iPad, or even a 32-bit system—this won’t work. It’s compatible with Windows 10 and 11, and you’ll need at least 4GB of RAM (though more is better). Depending on how many features you install, it also takes up anywhere from 850MB to 210GB of storage. View the full article

Google is rolling out new conversion tracking columns for Demand Gen campaigns, giving advertisers a more nuanced view of social-style performance tracking. Details. 100% attribution to last Demand Gen touchpoint. Available at campaign and ad group levels. Specifically designed for platform-to-platform comparisons. Why we care. Advertisers can now directly compare Demand Gen campaign performance with paid social platforms, using view-through conversion data that provides a more comprehensive attribution model. The big picture. The new Platform Comparable conversion columns offer a specialized tracking method that: Isolates only Demand Gen interactions. Provides view-through conversion tracking. Differs from standard conversion column measurements. Between the lines. This update signals Google’s continued effort to make Demand Gen campaigns more competitive with traditional social advertising platforms, giving marketers more granular performance insights. First seen. This update was first picked up by digital marketer Hana Kobzová when she shared it with PPC News Feed. What’s next. Advertisers should carefully implement these new columns for benchmarking between platforms and avoid comparing to search or Performance Max campaigns View the full article

Oh what a tangled web, CoreWeave . . . View the full article

ASUS has officially introduced the NUC 15 Pro+, a high-performance mini PC designed to deliver advanced computing capabilities in a sleek, compact form factor. Announced on March 19, 2025, the NUC 15 Pro+ integrates the latest Intel Core Ultra processors and offers up to 99 TOPS for AI-enhanced power, alongside support for quad 4K displays, cutting-edge connectivity, and a durable, upgrade-friendly chassis. Performance Boost with AI-Enhanced Power The NUC 15 Pro+ features up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor (Series 2) paired with Intel Arc Graphics, delivering an 18% performance increase over previous-generation NUC models. With up to 99 TOPS of AI performance, the device is engineered to handle intensive workloads, making it suitable for professionals, creators, and multitaskers seeking both speed and energy efficiency. Quiet Operation with Advanced Cooling Designed for whisper-quiet computing, the NUC 15 Pro+ incorporates a new thermal design optimized for improved airflow. ASUS reports that the advanced silent-cooling system reduces noise by 1.2 times compared to earlier models, maintaining peak performance even under heavy processing loads. Next-Generation Connectivity Equipped with Intel WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, the NUC 15 Pro+ offers high-speed wireless connections. WiFi 7 supports data rates up to 46Gbps and can simultaneously handle up to 16 streaming devices. The device also includes proximity sensing to detect user presence, intelligently locking or waking the system to conserve energy. Bluetooth 5.4 offers data speeds up to 2Mbps and connectivity over distances up to 240 meters. Immersive Visual Experience The mini PC supports up to four 4K displays via two HDMI 2.1 ports and two Thunderbolt 4 ports, delivering sharp, vivid visuals ideal for both multitasking and entertainment. A new sync-off feature helps reduce energy consumption by powering down connected monitors when the system is idle. Tool-Free Upgradability ASUS designed the NUC 15 Pro+ with a sleek 0.7-liter aluminum chassis that combines aesthetics with practicality. A spring-loaded hinge lever allows users and IT personnel to access the internals for tool-free upgrades, making it simple to replace or expand RAM and storage. Durable and Sustainable Design Built to meet US MIL-STD-810H certification, the NUC 15 Pro+ is tested for reliability in harsh environments and around-the-clock operation. This rugged design minimizes downtime and supports long-term use with reduced maintenance needs. Detailed Specifications The NUC 15 Pro+ is available in both pre-configured Mini-PC and customizable Kit versions. Supported operating systems include Windows 11 64-bit, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and RedHat Enterprise Linux. CPU options range from Intel Core Ultra 5 to Ultra 9, with memory configurations supporting up to 96GB DDR5-6400. For storage, users can choose between M.2 2280 and 2242 PCIe Gen4x4 SSDs, with support ranging from 128GB to 2TB. Connectivity features include Intel WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, 2.5G Ethernet, USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt 4 ports, as well as HDMI CEC support. The device operates at temperatures between 0–35°C and stores safely between -40–60°C. The ASUS NUC 15 Pro+ is available now, offering a powerful, compact solution for users who demand performance, efficiency, and flexibility in a mini PC format. Image: Asus This article, "ASUS Launches Compact and Powerful NUC 15 Pro+ Mini PC" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

ASUS has officially introduced the NUC 15 Pro+, a high-performance mini PC designed to deliver advanced computing capabilities in a sleek, compact form factor. Announced on March 19, 2025, the NUC 15 Pro+ integrates the latest Intel Core Ultra processors and offers up to 99 TOPS for AI-enhanced power, alongside support for quad 4K displays, cutting-edge connectivity, and a durable, upgrade-friendly chassis. Performance Boost with AI-Enhanced Power The NUC 15 Pro+ features up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor (Series 2) paired with Intel Arc Graphics, delivering an 18% performance increase over previous-generation NUC models. With up to 99 TOPS of AI performance, the device is engineered to handle intensive workloads, making it suitable for professionals, creators, and multitaskers seeking both speed and energy efficiency. Quiet Operation with Advanced Cooling Designed for whisper-quiet computing, the NUC 15 Pro+ incorporates a new thermal design optimized for improved airflow. ASUS reports that the advanced silent-cooling system reduces noise by 1.2 times compared to earlier models, maintaining peak performance even under heavy processing loads. Next-Generation Connectivity Equipped with Intel WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, the NUC 15 Pro+ offers high-speed wireless connections. WiFi 7 supports data rates up to 46Gbps and can simultaneously handle up to 16 streaming devices. The device also includes proximity sensing to detect user presence, intelligently locking or waking the system to conserve energy. Bluetooth 5.4 offers data speeds up to 2Mbps and connectivity over distances up to 240 meters. Immersive Visual Experience The mini PC supports up to four 4K displays via two HDMI 2.1 ports and two Thunderbolt 4 ports, delivering sharp, vivid visuals ideal for both multitasking and entertainment. A new sync-off feature helps reduce energy consumption by powering down connected monitors when the system is idle. Tool-Free Upgradability ASUS designed the NUC 15 Pro+ with a sleek 0.7-liter aluminum chassis that combines aesthetics with practicality. A spring-loaded hinge lever allows users and IT personnel to access the internals for tool-free upgrades, making it simple to replace or expand RAM and storage. Durable and Sustainable Design Built to meet US MIL-STD-810H certification, the NUC 15 Pro+ is tested for reliability in harsh environments and around-the-clock operation. This rugged design minimizes downtime and supports long-term use with reduced maintenance needs. Detailed Specifications The NUC 15 Pro+ is available in both pre-configured Mini-PC and customizable Kit versions. Supported operating systems include Windows 11 64-bit, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and RedHat Enterprise Linux. CPU options range from Intel Core Ultra 5 to Ultra 9, with memory configurations supporting up to 96GB DDR5-6400. For storage, users can choose between M.2 2280 and 2242 PCIe Gen4x4 SSDs, with support ranging from 128GB to 2TB. Connectivity features include Intel WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, 2.5G Ethernet, USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt 4 ports, as well as HDMI CEC support. The device operates at temperatures between 0–35°C and stores safely between -40–60°C. The ASUS NUC 15 Pro+ is available now, offering a powerful, compact solution for users who demand performance, efficiency, and flexibility in a mini PC format. Image: Asus This article, "ASUS Launches Compact and Powerful NUC 15 Pro+ Mini PC" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

New Jersey-based cloud computing provider will seek $1.5bn, down from initial target of $4bnView the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. I test and review a lot of robot vacuums and mops. Usually, they're premium or flagship models, which makes the Switchbot K10+ an outlier, but it still impresses me every time I use it—so much that it is one of the few vacuums I've held onto to use myself. When Switchbot upgraded the K10+ to the K10+ Pro, it got even better (they made the vacuum suction more powerful and dropped the mop attachment). Right now, during Amazon's Big Spring Sale, it's $300, which is half off its regular price. Switchbot K10+ Pro Robot Vacuum Mini Robot Vacuum $299.99 at Amazon $599.99 Save $300.00 Get Deal Get Deal $299.99 at Amazon $599.99 Save $300.00 What makes it so special? It's tiny. About 2/3 the size of normal robot vacuums, it can get between and under spaces no other robot can. The radius it makes around chair legs and furniture is tiny, as well. It's quiet, and it doesn't get stuck on larger debris, or trapped in places because it's so small it can escape any spot most robots get stuck in. Despite having about half the suction of premium robots, it works spectacularly across carpet, hardwood, tile, or rugs. The tower is petite, and is self-emptying. The Switchbot app is simple and easy to navigate, too. You can still create complicated maps and schedules. While, generally speaking, I think most people should get a combo vacuum and mop these days, I've gifted the K10+ Pro to a number of people for their offices or smaller homes, and they've all raved about the machine. The current sale puts it below $300, and at that price, it is the best robot vacuum deal out there. The Best Amazon Spring Sale Deals You Can Get Now Apple AirPods Pro 2 Wireless Earbuds — $169.99 (List Price $249.00) Ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced — $169.00 (List Price $189.99) soundcore by Anker Q30 Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones with Multiple Modes, Hi-Res Sound, Custom EQ via App, 40H Playtime, Comfortable Fit, Bluetooth Headphones, Multipoint Connection — $55.99 (List Price $79.99) Blink Mini 2 (White, 2-Pack) — $37.99 (List Price $69.99) 2024 Apple iPad mini A17 Pro chip, Built for Apple Intelligence, Wi-Fi 128GB - Blue — $399.00 (List Price $499.00) Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS, 42mm, Black, S/M 130-180mm, Sports Band) — $299.00 (List Price $399.00) Sonos Era 100 Wireless Speaker - White — $199.00 (List Price $249.00) Fire TV Stick 4K Max Streaming Player With Remote (2023 Model) — $39.99 (List Price $59.99) Fitbit Inspire 3 Health & Fitness Tracker (Midnight Zen/Black) — $69.95 (List Price $99.95) Roku Express 4K+ HDR Streamer with Voice Remote — $29.85 (List Price $39.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Last year, Google released a niche feature in its experimental NotebookLM product that turned out to be a sleeper hit. You could upload any document to NotebookLM, and it would use AI to generate a two-person conversational podcast out of it. These aren't meant to be uploaded online for viewership, but for you to listen to as a learning ad. The idea is that there are times when it's easier to understand a concept when two people are just casually conversing about it. If that sounds appealing to you, good news: you no longer need to dive into the unfamiliar NotebookLM interface to try it out. Google's AI-generated podcasts, called Audio Overviews, are now available for free directly in the Gemini app and website. And now that Audio Overviews are integrated directly into Gemini, you can even use Gemini's own Deep Research reports as sources for your podcast. Personally, I've found it useful to first prompt Gemini to create a Deep Research report on a topic, then directly generate an Audio Overview from it (skipping past having to read it myself). Generate and download podcasts on any topicTo get started, use the Gemini website or the Gemini app. To upload your own document or slide show, click the Plus button and add in your desired source file. As soon as the file is processed, you'll see a button for Generate Audio Overview. Credit: Khamosh Pathak Press the button and wait for Gemini to begin its work. It can take anywhere between 3–5 minutes to generate your podcast audio, depending on the depth of the material. Alternatively, you can prompt Gemini to create a report for you using the Deep Research option below the text box. Here, too, you'll have to wait a couple of minutes until the research is ready. Then, open the Deep Research document, click the down-arrow button, and then use the Generate Audio Overview button. You can also just enter "Generate Audio Overview" in the text box. Credit: Khamosh Pathak When the processing is done, you'll get a notification from the Gemini website or the app. You'll now see a player in the chat box. Hit the Play button to start playback, and use the seek bar to jump to any point in the recording. Yes, there's speed control too, but you can only increase the playback speed up to 1.5x. Credit: Khamosh Pathak I got 10 minutes of podcast overview from a 12-page document, so the detail isn't bad. If you don't want to listen to your podcast right away, or if you'd like to share it, you can also download the audio for offline payback. Click the three-dot menu button in the audio player and choose the Download option. Credit: Khamosh Pathak From here, you can also choose the Share conversation option to share your Gemini chat and recording using a link. And while you're in Gemini, you might want to try creating your own custom AI Bots, called Gems, since those are now free for everyone to use. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes: I’d appreciate your and other workers’ advice on how to cope providing service when you are feeling fragile yourself. I work in a somewhat frazzled, frantic healthcare environment seeing around 30 patients a day in an inner city, low income area. It’s … a lot — with very demanding patients. But I mostly enjoy it. It’s not amazingly well paid, but it pays the bills. My family is going through our own problems at the moment due to our teen’s mental health issues. There are some days before I even get to work where I’ve had to cope with an emotional tidal wave from my lovely but ground-down teen daughter who has school avoidance, anxiety, and an eating disorder. It’s pretty awful but we are holding on as a family. I’ve had days off and been erratic with sudden cancellations over the past year and work has been kind. I can’t afford an extended period off, so please don’t suggest that as it would break our family finances due to all the additional support we have to pay for our teen. There are some days where I feel like my skin is a cell thick. The usual patient problems about running late or having to coax a patient through a nerve-wracking procedure, etc. leaves me feeling wrung out. I’m normally smiley and reassuring but right now I want to switch to “low battery mode” and not give so much to them right now. I don’t really know how to do that. As for self care? I’m doing all the things I should (yoga, breathing, healthy diet, talking to friends), but work is a different issue. How to create a firewall around my emotions so I can cope with being shouted at by patients because we are running late or help them inch-by-inch through their anxieties when I feel as though my own anxiety is going to have me sobbing on the floor in the middle of the appointment? Is that possible? Readers, please weigh in via the comment section. View the full article

Google has dropped its AI while browsing feature, formerly known as SGE while browsing. Google didn’t say why it removed the feature but posted a note in its help documentation that the feature is no longer. What is AI while browsing. Google originally wrote: “SGE while browsing was specifically designed to help people more deeply engage with long-form content from publishers and creators, and make it easier to find what you’re looking for while browsing the web. On some web pages you visit, you can tap to see an AI-generated list of the key points an article covers, with links that will take you straight to what you’re looking for directly on the page. We’ll also help you dig deeper with “Explore on page,” where you can see questions the article answers and jump to the relevant section to learn more.” It is gone. Google noted here, saying: “The AI while browsing feature is no longer available” The paywall structured data documentation removed a line about this feature which read: “AI tools while browsing, a separate feature than AI Overviews, will not show key points for paywalled articles, if paywall structured data is on the page.” Why we care. Many publishers and site creators were not happy that Google was overlaying its AI on your webpage, leading users to be able to use AI to summarize your content, instead of having the user read the content you wrote. Well, now this is gone and you no longer have to worry about it for paywall structured data. View the full article

Military officials from France and UK to travel to Kyiv soon, says French president View the full article

Pageviews are a web analytics metric that counts each time a visitor loads or reloads a page on your website. Each instance of a user viewing a page is one pageview, regardless of whether the same user views the same page multiple times. Tracking pageviews helps you measure traffic volume and understand which content attracts the most attention. But: Pageviews are not the most important metric you should track. I’ll explain why below, but first let’s clarify what they are in the context of a few other metrics. Pageviews vs. Users vs. Sessions Pageviews represent the total number of times people view your pages. If someone visits your homepage, clicks to your blog, then returns to your homepage, that counts as three pageviews. Unique pageviews, on the other hand, combine multiple views of the same page during a single session. If that same visitor views your homepage twice in one session, it would count as just one unique pageview. In the context of analytics tracking tools, unique pageviews were a Universal Analytics metric. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) doesn’t track unique pageviews. Further reading: Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Ultimate Guide and Tutorial A user is an individual person visiting your site. A session is a group of interactions one user takes on your site within a given time frame. Here’s an example of how these all tie together: Imagine someone discovers your site through Google. They land on your homepage, check out your about page, read a blog post, go back to the homepage, then get distracted by a phone call. Two hours later, they return to your homepage, browse your product page, and then make a purchase through your checkout page. Here’s how your analytics would count this activity: Users: 1 Sessions: 2 (the initial visit and the return visit) Pageviews: 7 (homepage, about page, blog post, homepage, homepage, product page, checkout) Unique pageviews: 6 (the double homepage visit in the first session would count as one unique pageview) Understanding these distinctions helps you interpret your data accurately and make better marketing decisions. For example, a high pageview-to-user ratio means visitors are exploring multiple pages on your site. This is generally a good sign of engagement. This is just one reason it’s important to track pageviews alongside other metrics. Why Pageviews Aren’t the Most Important Metric to Track Pageviews tell you how many times your pages are being viewed by your audience. But they don’t tell you: If those visitors had a good experience If they want more of your content If they want to buy from you That’s why pageviews are sometimes described as a vanity metric. Sure, it feels great to see that graph trending upward. But more pageviews doesn’t automatically mean more business. Put it this way: Would you rather have 100K monthly pageviews with a 0.1% conversion rate, or 10K pageviews with a 3% conversion rate? The big number is attractive, but the math is clear: the latter gives you 3x as many conversions (300 vs. 100). But what about 100,000 pageviews and a 0.3% conversion rate? You’re still getting the same number of conversions, and you’re reaching a much bigger audience. I’d still take the 10K visitors with the 3% conversion rate. Why? Two reasons: Higher conversion rate means I’m better catering to what my audience actually wants There’s room to scale that 10K with a high conversion rate for even more conversions If my realistic target market is 200K people per month, I can only double my audience size with the first example. With a 0.3% conversion rate, that would be a total of 600 conversions each month. But with the 10K example and a 3% conversion rate, there’s room to potentially scale my audience size by 20x. While obviously a big feat, this could eventually lead to 6,000 new customers each month. Obviously this is a major simplification. There are factors like marketing fatigue, limits on the number of potential customers that would ever become paying customers, and limits on my own abilities to scale. But I’d always take a smaller, more engaged audience that converts more often over a larger, less engaged one. In organic search, this means meeting the search intent. For paid ads, it could be a matter of producing great creatives and landing pages. Conversion rates aren’t the only metrics to track either. Other important ones include: Average order value (AOV) Customer acquisition cost Customer lifetime value Return on ad spend (for paid advertising campaigns) These metrics tell you how well you’re positioning your products, how targeted your audience is, and how effective your ad campaigns are. Insights you can’t get from pageviews alone. Pageviews, Cookies, and Bots There’s another reason you shouldn’t just pay attention to pageviews: you can’t always trust the numbers. With a focus on privacy, the digital world is trying to move away from tracking measures like third-party cookies. Tools like Google Analytics rely on cookies and tracking codes to track pageviews, so user consent levels can affect the numbers. You might have 500 people visit your page in a month. But if 250 of them decline your tracking cookies, your analytics will be off by 50%. Not only that, but we also can’t ignore the potential for bot traffic. Google Analytics does a reasonable job of filtering these out, but it’s not perfect. So you can’t always take your pageviews metric at face value. But which numbers don’t lie? Your conversions. Bots don’t tend to buy things, and even if a user denies cookies, they can still sign up to your email list, download a template, or buy your products. This is why your bottom line metrics are far more important to track than just watching your pageviews number. Further reading: Conversion Rate Optimization: The Definitive Guide With that said, pageviews do matter a lot in certain contexts. When Pageviews Are Actually Important Pageviews are an important measure of your overall reach. This in itself is helpful as a site owner. But pageviews are particularly important in a few other cases. Display Ads If you run display ads on your site, pageviews directly impact your bottom line. More eyeballs on your pages typically means more ad impressions and more revenue. That’s because display ad networks tend to pay on an RPM basis, or revenue per thousand impressions. This is why news sites and entertainment blogs in particular obsess over pageviews. Their business models depend on it. Brand Awareness When you’re trying to grow your brand awareness, getting more pageviews indicates you’re reaching a wider audience. If your goal is simply to get your brand in front of as many people as possible, it makes sense to focus on pageviews. How to See Pageviews in Google Analytics Google Analytics is the interface most people will likely be familiar with when it comes to tracking pageviews. They’re no longer actually called pageviews, and are simply referred to as “views” now. But for all intents and purposes, they’re the same thing. How to Find Pageviews in GA4 Google Analytics 4 works differently from Universal Analytics, which it fully replaced in 2024. Instead of focusing on pageviews by default, it’s built around “events,” and pageviews are just one type of event (labeled “page_view”). You can see your site’s total pageviews on the overview page in your GA4 property. If it doesn’t display by default, just click the drop-down and set it to “Views.” But to see pageviews by page, first click “Reports” > “Life cycle” > “Engagement” > “Pages and screens.” You’ll end up on the “Pages and screens” report. This shows a graph and table of your pages with the most pageviews (again, just called “views” in GA4). If you scroll down, you’ll see a table with page views, along with other metrics like users and information about engagement. You can sort by pageviews to quickly see which of your pages are underperforming. You can also search for specific pages to track their performance: How to See How Many Pageviews Other Websites Get Understanding how many pageviews your site gets is clearly useful. But it’s even more useful when you can compare that number to your competitors. You can get an estimate of how many pageviews a site gets using a traffic checker, like our free traffic checker tool: However: There’s no fully accurate way to see how many pageviews another site gets without seeing its analytics dashboard. Measuring pageviews accurately requires you to have a pixel or code snippet on your site. If it’s not your site, you can’t see how many times that snippet fires. Other tools simply measure estimates based on various data sources. These could be their own user panels or publicly available data sources. Their accuracy varies widely depending on the site’s size and industry. They tend to be more accurate for larger sites with more traffic (as they’ll naturally just have more data to use). So they’re best used for understanding trends, rather than absolute numbers. Here’s an example: Imagine you’re the owner of Mountain Bean Coffee, a brand that offers specialty coffee. And let’s imagine you know from GA4 that you get 22K pageviews per month. You identify a few of your competitors, and you want to compare their pageviews to yours. You know you can’t get 100% accurate numbers. So instead, you look for a trend by entering them all into a traffic checker tool. You stick your site in, and it tells you that you get 16.4K visits per month. Even though this is lower than your actual pageview count, this is your baseline that you’ll use to compare to your competitors. You pop three competitors into the same tool, and it suggests you’re somewhere in the middle when it comes to traffic levels: MakersCoffee.com: 4.6K PressCoffee.com: 8.2K DrinkTrade.com: 303.9K You can see you’re driving more traffic than some competitors (like Maker’s Coffee). But you’re not at the level of Trade Coffee yet. You know these aren’t the exact numbers of pageviews they get. But you can use this as a guide going forward. For example, imagine Press Coffee’s number of visits increased to 20K while yours only rose to 18K. Their estimated count is still lower than your actual count. But you can probably be quite confident they are now getting more pageviews than you. Monitor More Than Just Pageviews While pageviews can be a useful indicator of site traffic and content popularity, they’re just one way to track website performance. For most businesses, the metrics that matter most are those that directly impact revenue and growth. Like conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and lifetime value. For more on tracking what matters to your business, check out our guide to SEO performance and results. The post What Are Pageviews? (How to Track and Improve Them) appeared first on Backlinko. View the full article

There has been a striking drop in remote SEO role listings — down to just 34% — as well as SEO content job listings – down 28%. That’s according to The 2025 Previsible State of SEO Jobs Report, released today. Meanwhile, SEO job listings for leadership positions (e.g., vice president of SEO) grew by 50% in 2024, while SEO manager positions increased 58%. Why we care. It may be too early to know whether this is a blip or a trend, but this data indicates that companies are looking to hire SEOs skilled in strategy, technical, and AI. Although content-focused roles are being squeezed by generative AI, leadership and technical skills remain as valuable as ever. Job market. 90% of all open SEO positions came from companies with more than 250 employees. Other key stats: Remote jobs made up 50% of the market in early 2024. By year’s end: 34%. Openings for vice president of SEO grew 50% quarter over quarter. SEO content roles fell 28%, while SEO manager roles rose 58%. Salaries. 12% of SEO job listings offered a salary over $100,000 in 2024. Meanwhile, 40% In-house positions offered a salary over $100,000 or higher, compared to 14% at agencies. Here’s a breakdown of the average salary by position: Vice president of SEO: $191,850. Director of SEO: $141,178. Technical SEO: $97,500. SEO manager: $80,800. Content SEO: $67,500. Bad sign? The median salary for all open positions in 2024 was $82,000. However, the median salary dropped every quarter, falling from $90,000 in Q1 to $75,000 by Q4. Skills. What were the most in-demand skills? Technical SEO, content marketing, and data analytics. 56% of job descriptions with a salary of $250,00 to $300,000 mentioned AI. Higher-salary positions were more likely to mention AI, data analytics, technical SEO, and stakeholder management. Lower-salary positions were more likely to mention link building. What they’re saying. Tyson Stockton, COO and co-founder of Previsible, said: “As the SEO industry continues to mature we are seeing the market further acknowledge the importance and complexity of search with an increase in director-level and above roles. There is a timidness around content SEO, as many are still trying to understand how best to leverage emerging technologies.” The report. 2025 Previsible State of SEO Jobs Report: New Insight & Skill Data From 10,000+ Job Listings & Expert Search Predictions View the full article

A federal judge has ruled that The New York Times and other newspapers can proceed with a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking to end the practice of using their stories to train artificial intelligence chatbots. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein of New York on Wednesday dismissed some of the claims made by media organizations but allowed the bulk of the case to continue, possibly to a jury trial. “We appreciate Judge Stein’s careful consideration of these issues,” New York Times attorney Ian Crosby said in a statement. “As the order indicates, all of our copyright claims will continue against Microsoft and Open AI for their widespread theft of millions of The Times‘s works, and we look forward to continuing to pursue them.” The judge’s ruling also pleased Frank Pine, executive editor of MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, owners of some of the newspapers that are part of a consolidated lawsuit in a Manhattan court. “The claims the court has dismissed do not undermine the main thrust of our case, which is that these companies have stolen our work and violated our copyright in a way that fundamentally damages our business,” Pine said a statement. Stein didn’t explain the reasons for his ruling, saying that would come “expeditiously.” OpenAI said in a statement it welcomed “the court’s dismissal of many of these claims and look forward to making it clear that we build our AI models using publicly available data, in a manner grounded in fair use, and supportive of innovation.” Microsoft declined to comment. The Times has said OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft have threatened its livelihood by effectively stealing billions of dollars worth of work by its journalists, in some cases spitting out Times‘s material verbatim to people who seek answers from generative artificial intelligence like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. ————— The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP’s text archives. View the full article