Business improvement area

Audio player loading… Google is rolling out a new “Asian-owned” identifier badge for American businesses that will appear on Search and Maps. The purpose of this new badge is to make Asian-owned businesses easier to find in a user’s local area. Appearing as a red flower (opens in new tab) , business owners can adopt the optional new badge by first going to their respective Google Business account (opens in new tab) . Under the My Business section, owners will go to View Profile and then click Business Information. Scrolling down to the More section and clicking on “From the business”, they will be able to activate the “Identifies as Asian-owned” attribute. After hitting save, the red flower icon will pop up in the location’s Business Profile on Google Search and Maps. We reached out to Google and asked if there are plans to expand the identifier internationally. Officially, there are plans to expand the Asian-owned badge to “ad-supported publishers” on Google’s … [Read more...] about Google Search and Maps update adds new identifier for Asian-owned businesses

Sage, a global leader in accounting solutions, recently relaunched Sage One Accounting as Sage Business Cloud Accounting—the service's second name change in two years. The name change wasn't accompanied by improvements that would have helped the small business accounting stand out among the competition, however. It sometimes looks (and acts) like an application better suited to accounting professionals, rather than small business managers. You don't get the fresh, state-of-the-art approach you see in ZipBooks or Editors' Choice–winning Intuit QuickBooks Online. Still, Sage Business Cloud Accounting gets the internal mechanics right, and it may be a good, affordable fit for very small businesses that don't need QuickBooks Online or Xero's capabilities. The website has a mix of basic tools (income- and expense-management) and advanced ones (multicurrency, flexible user permissions), but it lacks some of the features between those two levels, such as time tracking and purchase orders. … [Read more...] about Sage Business Cloud Accounting Review

The best Android smartwatch are wearables that work well with the smartphone operating system. Many of these smartwatches run Wear OS, as it's basically the wrist-based version of Android. However, there are a few that run on other operating systems that work well with your phone. Despite the many options, choosing the ideal Android smartwatch for you isn't as complicated a process as it seems. The key is to find one that allows you to take advantage of all its features and not locking you out of some just because of your choice of phone operating system. We've tested hundreds of smartwatches, including the latest releases, and we're here to help you narrow down your options. Below are our top picks of the best Android smartwatches that work well with Android phones , some of them making it into our best smartwatches guide. Whether you're looking for the best running watches or best cheap smartwatch , you'll find an Android smartwatch below to suit your needs. Don't … [Read more...] about Best Android smartwatch 2022: what to wear on your wrist for Google-powered phones

Apple's WWDC keynote on Monday was streamed to the public and it showed off quite a few new user-facing features in both iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 . Still, the presentation was tailored mostly to the audience seated in the Moscone Center in San Francisco: developers. Announcements about Apple's retail business and new hardware were almost entirely absent, discarded in favor of demos and extensive descriptions of new APIs and Swift, the company's new programming language. "[At the keynote], every app I saw demoed by Apple also had an SDK that went with it," Delicious Monster Software's Wil Shipley told Ars. "New HealthBook app? Oh, it’s also a framework developers can tie into. Extensions for searching SportsCenter in Spotlight? Oh, it’s actually extensions any developer can tie into." Response from developers has been largely positive—new features like Extensions and iCloud Drive are addressing age-old complaints about everything from the way apps interact with one another to … [Read more...] about Developers react to iOS 8 and its long-awaited opening of the platform

Pinterest has engineered a way to serve its photo-sharing community more of the images they love. The social-image service, with more than 400 million monthly active users, has trained bigger recommender models for improved accuracy at predicting people’s interests. Pinterest handles hundreds of millions of user requests an hour on any given day. And it must also narrow down relevant images from roughly 300 billion images on the site to roughly 50 for each person. The last step — ranking the most relevant and engaging content for everyone using Pinterest — required a leap in acceleration to run heftier models, with minimal latency, for better predictions. Pinterest has improved the accuracy of its recommender models powering people’s home feeds and other areas, increasing engagement by as much as 16%. The leap was enabled by switching from CPUs to NVIDIA GPUs, which could easily be applied next to other areas, including advertising images, according to Pinterest. “Normally … [Read more...] about Pinterest Boosts Home Feed Engagement 16% With Switch to GPU Acceleration of Recommenders

6.4 Nomad Internet Like Unlimited data No contracts required Freedom to connect just about anywhere in the US Don't Like High upfront costs Competitive rates for rural internet, but pricier than cable or fiber Internet speeds are not guaranteed Nomad Internet launched as an internet service provider in 2017 to help bridge the digital divide by connecting rural community members and people on the go -- everyone from farmers and remote workers who regularly travel for business to those in the recreational vehicle lifestyle. To accomplish this, Nomad Internet uses major carriers' 4G LTE mobile networks to bring internet connectivity to its customers. The company's approach -- no contract, no cancellation fees -- makes it a compelling choice for those with few broadband options. The main caveat? Since it's a third-party vendor using other providers' networks, the internet speeds you receive may … [Read more...] about Nomad Internet Review: Stay Connected With a Wireless, Cellular Setup

I've been reviewing tech for CNET for nearly nine years now, and I've never had an assignment quite like writing reviews of internet service providers. From refrigerators , waffle makers and toasters to smart speakers , light bulbs and security systems , the common thread tying everything I've ever reviewed for CNET together is testing. Our team prides itself on finding smart, effective means of putting products to the test, uncovering the key data that separates the good options from the bad ones, and sharing those insights with our readers. ISPs are an entirely different beast. Your first problem is that internet providers are regional, so if you wanted to test a provider's quality of service, you'd need a home in whatever part of the country they cover. Even then, a single location wouldn't really cut it, because service offerings and available technologies vary wildly by address. On top of that, testing the quality of a given home's internet … [Read more...] about How We Review Internet Service Providers

EDITOR'S NOTE: AUGUST 2022 Chromebooks used to be considered the cute younger sibling to the laptop; trying to imitate the more mature Windows laptop and MacBooks while running on underpowered hardware to keep things cheap and affordable. It turns out, however, that Chromebooks are the perfect device for students, as their low cost makes them accessible to many more families while its straight-forward, no frills functionality is the perfect tool for students to get their work done. Now, with the new school year starting up in just a few weeks, families everywhere are on the lookout for the best Chromebook for the student or students in their life as they do their back-to-school shopping. With that in mind, our latest entrant to our list, debuting at number three, is the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook. This lovely, if expensive, device makes a compelling case for premium Chromebooks with its excellent design, fantastic performance, and solid battery life. It's not cheap though, so … [Read more...] about Best Chromebook 2022

The best standing desks around today can help offset and prevent a sedentary lifestyle. The health benefits they offer to those of us who spend all day in front of our computers can’t be understated. We are not meant to sit around all day. Sitting down too long – more than 8 hours a day – as stated by the American Journal of Public Health (opens in new tab) , can not only increase the risk of chronic diseases by 10% to 20% but premature death as well. UK's NHS points out (opens in new tab) that it also could slow your metabolism, which could impact "the body's ability to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and break down body fat." Unfortunately, most of us spend a large portion of our work life hunkered down at an office desk (opens in new tab) , which is why a standing desk is a great investment. Even students going back to school should consider one for a healthier way to do homework. To help you make the leap to a healthier work life, we’ve collected the best … [Read more...] about Best standing desk for home office and WFH 2022

Audio player loading… Five years is a stone-cold eternity in the realms of modern audio technology. But that is the length of time now passed since Apple announced its inaugural smart speaker, the HomePod (June 5, 2017, to save you asking Siri). I'll nail my colors to the mast: the original is still sonically excellent. It's open, detailed, regimented across the frequencies and it fills my home office with great-quality music every day. The downside? It was (and still is) expensive, at $349 / £319 at launch – a pricing strategy wildly different to Amazon's affordable Echo lineup. And worse than that, my beautiful HomePod was actually discontinued by Apple over a year ago, despite a rollout for Spatial Audio – something which never made it to the smaller, cheaper HomePod mini . Yes, the newer, more bijou product is still one of the best smart speakers you can buy today, thanks to its excellent sound, compact design, and great price, but as a huge fan of … [Read more...] about Hugely-updated HomePod 2 tipped to appear soon – and I couldn’t be happier