The update is free, available today across both Windows and macOS versions of the browser. It’s another example of how tech giants are shoring up their internet products and services amid growing concerns surrounding internet use, data privacy, and online harassment. What Kids Mode does The new Mode defaults to preventing most tracking, reducing personalized ads. Kids will be restricted to Bing SafeSearch, without access to any websites or videos that don’t pass muster....

As big tech continues to grapple with a looming economic downturn and a drop in consumer demand, this is Microsoft’s third round of cuts this year, with the company letting go of 1,800 employees this July. The move, which will see employees from multiple divisions lose their jobs, including members of Microsoft’s Xbox and Edge teams, follows similar actions taken by Meta, Google, and Apple. Microsoft Lets Go of Around 1000 Workers Windows, Edge, and Azure developer Microsoft has been forced to fire another round of employees as the company’s revenue slows down, according to a source cited in the Business Insider this week....

The pandemic has made businesses seriously reevaluate how they do work. While office space and company culture was the priority for years, quarantine made flexible options and collaborative technology the new standard. Fortunately for business owners, this shift has driven digital business tools like Microsoft Teams to improve as often as possible, and this new update could make a big impact for those that find themselves on video chats for the majority of the day....

Created by former Google engineer Gaku Ueda and former Yahoo engineer Ethan Kan, MODE is a cloud platform that takes care of the most essential function of any IoT system: connecting mobile applications with hardware devices in real time. The platform provides an intuitive cloud API for devices, mobile clients, and application servers. IoT developers can utilize MODE as the backend infrastructure throughout the entire development cycle, from prototyping to product launch....

There’s nothing more exciting than sitting by the fire and watching your favorite holiday movies but what if you haven’t even gotten to that yet? It’s so easy to be wrapped up in the work hustle and holiday shopping that you forget to get yourself the gift of “being” and just sitting on the couch watching your holiday films to get you in the spirit. Every year, I aspire to be Clark Griswald trying to plan the perfect holiday....

The regional node will allow all four partners to better share resources, present region-wide training programs, and offer mentorships between staff members. The goal, ChicagoInno reports, is “to grow an entrepreneurship ecosystem among the top engineering schools.” Midwest Startups Get $2K Through the Program The I-Corps program offers $2,000 in funding to startups in their program, though they must bootstrap their own Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants in order to make it through their early stages....

Apps Developers have been creating mobile apps for the blind and visually impaired, helping enable them to navigate the world more easily. Smartphones themselves are near ubiquitous and they put technology in the hands of the visually impaired that a decade ago wouldn’t have been possible. Examples of apps are colour identifiers, light detectors (to ensure they’re all turned off), GPS apps and software that converts text within other apps to voice....

We started our day at the Desert Botanical Gardens, home to one of the collections of rare, threatened and endangered species of plants from around the Southwest. The mayor of Phoenix Greg Stanton joined us, along with tech leaders, educators and influencers sharing news about the exponential growth Phoenix has seen in recent years. I spoke with Mayor Stanton about the Phoenix startup ecosystem (below). Phoenix has been ranked the number two fastest-growing city for technology....

What most people do not know is that all these electronic items have at least one thing in common: the existence of at least one Printed Circuit Board (PCB) inside it, somewhat similar to the one in the picture below. Definition A PCB consists of a plate formed by layers of plastics and fibrous materials (such as phenolite, glass fiber, polyester film, and other polymers) that has thin films of metallic substances (like copper, silver, gold or nickel)....

The number of Americans affected is estimated to be 61 percent of the entire U.S. population, and span both political parties. The News The news was broken by the internet security team at UpGuard, which posted this today: Since UpGuard noticed the leak last week, tech site Gizmodo has confirmed the ownership of the data belonged to Deep Root Analytics, a “conservative data firm that identifies audiences for political ads....

With 722 million devices in use worldwide — a number that has doubled in the last three years — it’s safe to say wearable technology isn’t going anywhere. From fitness buffs to technology fiends, these wrist-mounted computers have become an integral part of the tech ecosystem, and getting a chunk of that market share is more valuable than ever before. Now, Philips is looking to seriously shake up the wearable market with this accusation, which could have some significant impacts on the industry....

When I say “simple,” I mean simple. The website is set up so comprehensively that users only need to press a button, accept that the website will have access to your Instagram account and voila: you receive an arbitrary score evaluating how influential you are with your collection of pictures. When I say “arbitrary,” I mean arbitrary. As far as I could find, there is no range to compare yourself to the bottom or the top....

Last month, Pixie re-released their new enhanced trackers and app, so we gave it a whirl to see how this compares to the others on the market. Setup Like most Bluetooth connected devices, the Pixie should have a relatively simple process to connect each marker to your base point. Unfortunately, there were a couple of bumps along the way, which may be due to their additional technology that allows it to create a mesh network....

But it wasn’t due to the quality of the product. It was more or less due to one thing: Pokemon nostalgia. Pokemon Go Is Kinda Glitchy As an AR service, Pokemon Go is bare-bones. It gets the basics solidly down: It pushes people outside, hunting in the real world for tiny pocket-sized monsters. But right now, it has a host of problems that really would have combined to scare off audiences in any other game....

Are you one of those unlucky would-be Romeos whose account details on Ashley Madison are now bared to hackers, crooks, journalists, and security analysts? Yes? Oops. Well, here are some suggestions for how to avoid this kind of stress in the future. No? Whew! But that doesn’t mean you’re safe from future attacks of this kind, even if the sites you tend to spend your time on are more reputable....

The messaging app that prides itself on complete privacy has just released their newest update, allowing users to watch independent movies through the app. Wiper Film, a subscription service for Wiper, allows users to access and watch hundreds of independent films through the app. If watching it instantly isn’t your cuppa tea however, you also have the option to download the films to watch later. The subscription service will run you $4....

Here are all the important tech terms you need to brush up on before 2022 ends and the new year begins. Tech Terms That Rose to Prominence in 2022 Quiet Quitting The term “Quiet quitting” garnered significant media attention after being discussed extensively by employees on social media throughout the year, particularly in younger millennial and Gen Z circles. Re-Recruiting Re-recruiting isn’t necessarily a brand-new term – and probably arose before the year began – but it was honed in on by Microsoft in their September 2022 Work Trend Index, for which 20,000 workers from across the globe were surveyed....

Password security is currently the best way protect yourself from security breaches. Unfortunately, the average user doesn’t follow the majority of password best practices, often using the same password for multiple accounts and choosing short, easy-to-guess words to secure their accounts. Unfortunately, it appears Shopify is at least somewhat enabling this behavior by allowing users to create some seriously uncomplicated passwords to sign up for its service. As for how likely a password is to get hacked with that few variables, researchers pointed out that it was quite common: There’s been plenty of research done on how long your password should be if you want to sufficiently deter hackers from accessing your information, and let’s just say, it’s definitely a lot longer than five characters....

Finding money to fund a small business is a laborious task. Ask any entrepreneur who’s managed to get their business off the ground, and they’ll tell you that finding the initial capital to help turn ideas into reality is one of the most time-consuming (yet essential) aspects of starting a business. I mean, unless you’ve got many thousands of dollars saved up on the side, you’re going to need find money from somewhere to launch your business....

The “private” messaging app recently announced that users will be able to send and receive Bitcoins anonymously through the messaging app. It really takes some of the intimidation out of the digital currency. Users will not have to keep up with and ask for someone’s unique Bitcoin wallet ID, and can instead simply send it over Wiper. In addition, it displays the amount in dollars and cents which means you do not have to worry about the ever fluctuating exchange rate....