I can whip out my laptop and start getting work done. But what’s in my laptop bag? Here, let me take out on a tour. Do note that my laptop of choice is a 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro. The side and the operating system dictate some of my choices, but to be honest, most of the items I’ve listed here will work with most laptops. Also, on top of the things listed here, I carry the stick Apple MacBook USB-C charger and a bunch of different cables....

Supply chain issues have affected businesses in all sectors, from car rental businesses hamstrung by the auto-industry’s year-long semiconductor shortfall, to the humble bike shop because some components aren’t being produced in volumes that they were before. British satellite telco Inmarsat outlines multifaceted challenges that businesses face today, from population growth to spikes in consumer demand, a shortage of resources at the right time, efforts to reduce carbon output, and a new focus on safety after the pandemic....

Between 2019 and 2021, Project Zero researchers reported 376 issues to vendors under their 90-day deadline. Of those 376 issues, more than 93% of these bugs have been fixed and over 3% have been marked as “WontFix” by the vendors, according to Project Zero. The researchers added that 11 other bugs remain unfixed and 8 have passed their deadline to be fixed. Microsoft, Apple, and Google account for 65% of the bugs discovered....

For a less disruptive web browsing experience, Google is using ML to determine when a user may want to interact with a notification permission prompt. In the next release of Chrome, the browser will use an on-device model to predict how a person is likely to respond to a permission prompt. If the user is likely to reject it, the browser will silence it. The prediction is based on how the user previously interacted with similar permission prompts....

That total means user numbers have more than doubled from the 24 million it had at the end of 2020. To put Brave’s milestone in perspective, Google has billions of active users on Chrome, Android, iOS and Windows. Nonetheless, Brave has grown from a user base of 1.2 million in 2017 after launching in 2016: version 1.0 of the browser was released in November 2019. Its main pitch to people is that doesn’t sell targeted ads but rather trades attention via cryptocurrency....

Google has revealed that its new cloud region in Israel will be located near Tel Aviv, and outlined its expansion across South America, Europe, Asia, and Middle East. SEE: Cloud computing: Spreading the risk with the multicloud approach Google Cloud now consists of 29 cloud regions and 88 zones — up from 25 regions and 76 zones in April 2021. It gives customers compute and storage resources that are closer to their users, as well as Google’s analytics and its content distribution network (CDN)....

Chromebooks might be a cheap option for schools to roll out and manage, but not all of them are easy to repair. Thanks in no small part to education, Chromebook sales also jumped massively due to the move to remote learning as a result of the pandemic. According to Google, 50 million students and teachers are using Chromebook from its partners. To support admins who help these users, Google has launched the Chromebook repair program....

On Tuesday, Google unveiled a new, relatively compact camera that will help the company continue its efforts to maintain up-to-date imagery of basically everywhere on the planet. Typically, Google collects high-resolution Street View photographs with a camera bolted to the top of a car. Google’s Street View cars have enough processing electronics to fill the back seat. The new camera “takes all the power and resolution and processing capability of our entire Street View system… [and has] compressed that into something the size of a large, happy house cat,” Google’s Steve Silverman told reporters....

Now Pichai is talking about turning up the heat on Google’s AI efforts. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the CEO revealed that Google plans to add AI features to Google’s search engine. Also: Google will now guarantee some flight prices and pay you back if it’s wrong “Will people be able to ask questions to Google and engage with LLMs in the context of search? Absolutely,” Mr....

Announced on Monday, Google Cloud MD Amol Phadke and senior director Ankur Jain said that joining the global group will allow Google to “jointly drive and accelerate” Radio Access Network (RAN) industry initiatives. Founded in 2018 by AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DOCOMO, and Orange, the O-RAN Alliance includes telecoms vendors, researchers, and mobile network operators working in the RAN space. The alliance’s aim is to “re-shape the RAN industry towards more intelligent, open, virtualized and fully interoperable mobile networks” by introducing global standards that can be used for RAN deployments....

UC San Diego Health’s executive director of communications and media relations Jacqueline Carr confirmed to ZDNet that the breach resulted from a phishing attack. From December 2, 2020 to April 8, 2021, hackers had access to data including names, addresses, claims information, laboratory results, medical diagnosis and conditions, Medical Record Numbers and other medical identifiers, prescription information, treatment information, medical information, Social Security numbers, government identification numbers, payment card numbers or financial account numbers and security codes, student ID numbers, and usernames and passwords....

This type of malware distribution is fairly common, as hackers are able to easily bypass YouTube’s content regulation efforts. Details of the Fake Valorant Malware Campaign Valorant is a free first-person shooter (FPS) on Windows. The campaign target’s the game’s player community by offering an auto-aiming bot in the YouTube video description. Typically, such bots are add-ons that can be installed in the game and are very valuable to players....

Data Stolen from Over 60 Red Cross Operations Globally The data breach is the result of a sophisticated cyberattack on the computer servers which host ICRC information. The servers belong to a company based in Switzerland, which ICRC contracts to store its data. In a statement, the ICRC said the attack was detected earlier this week and said the attack put the affected vulnerable people at further risk. The stolen information is not limited to a particular Red Cross operation or mission....

The Cause: An Unpatched Vulnerability Healthy Kids is a US children’s insurance organization based in Florida. It was established in 1990 to help uninsured children get access to affordable health insurance. It administers a dental and health insurance program for children aged 5 through to 18. Furthermore, the organization runs an online children’s health insurance application for its health plan holders and applicants. However, it was recently forced to shut the website down when it was made aware that its data may have been breached....

Preparing to go to the Moon is about as intense as you would expect: NASA’s team of 42 astronauts and 10 astronaut candidates are going through rigorous training that involves landing Army helicopters, studying rocky terrain in areas like Iceland, spending extended periods at the bottom of a pool and training in VR simulations. NASA has yet to decide which astronauts will travel to the Moon. However, the agency said Friday’s it’s aiming to launch the Artemis II mission in 2024 – that mission will send astronauts on a lunar flyby test, making it the first crewed mission to go beyond low Earth orbit since 1972....

It surveyed over 850 people to ask what they needed to successfully make the transition to home working. The report revealed that almost 62% of people are working remotely with others in their home, yet over half (56%) were not allowed to bring equipment home from their employer to use. Workers who were not allowed to bring equipment home reported spending approximately $35 more on equipment than those who were able to bring supplies home with them....

If you’ve been trying to access your Netflix account while abroad or log in to a different regional Netflix, you may have come up against the streaming system’s strict geo-restrictions. And if you’ve been trying to bypass Netflix geoblocking with the wrong VPN, you’ll have experienced its anti-VPN software too. Since content licenses have to be purchased by country, not all Netflix content is available in every region. Netflix has to geoblock this content so it doesn’t void any copyright laws....

HR Solutions on the Deluxe People Platform was soft launched in the first quarter and is now widely available. Deluxe also said it would bring its HR and payroll tools for small businesses to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. On the surface, Deluxe’s launch highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digitization of SMBs. If you zoom out, however, there’s a digital transformation story and more than 2 years of work....

Let’s start with network. VPNs provide network connections, meaning they move data to and from your device. Private means they make that movement private, helping prevent hackers from seeing what you’re sending. And virtual means that you’re doing it all in software. You’re not running a new set of wires. Instead, you’re creating a software-based network connection that then moves data over the physical connection (whether that’s wireless or wired)....

And there are times when it really falls short. Take this example. I have a 12.9-inch M2 iPad Pro. I have Apple’s Magic Keyboard. I have an Apple Pencil. Good combination, right? A combo of hardware devices that Apple has built to work together. Except for one thing. Keeping my $129 Apple Pencil safe. Sure, there are magnets on the side of the iPad Pro, and the Apple Pencil clings onto these magnets both for charge and so as to not get lost....