Also: The best smart notebooks of 2023 The notebook comes with a Pilot FriXion erasable pen, a microfiber cloth to wipe the pages clean, a 40-page lined and dotted grid page pack, and a scratch-resistant cover. Smart notebooks are one way to reduce your environmental impact, especially if you’re one to buy a planner each year or a fan of journaling. Beyond their eco-friendliness, is the plain fact that a lot of people still prefer to handwrite their notes, journal entries, lists, and planning rather than use a digital alternative....

In case you’ve somehow managed to avoid it thus far, pickleball is a cross between tennis, badminton, and ping-pong. Played with plastic rackets and something like a whiffle ball on what resembles a scaled-down tennis court, it’s gentler than tennis and more accessible for beginners. It also stokes frenzied competition. How do I know? Two decades ago my dad moved into a house with a pickleball court. Technically the court was on a municipal utility easement that abutted the property, but there it stood, singularly attached to Dad’s backyard....

That is one way to look at Solimar, a new release of The Trade Desk’s ad-buying tools that is being formally unveiled Wednesday at a New York event featuring the company’s CEO and co-founder, Jeff Green. “It’s about a better conversation with clients about what they want to achieve in the platform,” said Mark Davenport, the company’s head of data science, in an interview with ZDNet via Zoom. “We noticed as the platform grew in complexity, clients would stumble into traps when setting up campaigns,” said Davenport....

The companies leading the wearables category have not changed, with Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Imagine Marketing still at the forefront. However, out of these leading companies, four of the top five experienced declines compared to the year prior during the second quarter. Despite the decline, the leaders continue to add new wearable models to the market. This month, Apple introduced three new smartwatches to its portfolio, and last month Samsung dropped its latest Samsung Galaxy Watch5....

Phishing kits are nothing new, but this phishing-as-a-service service caught the attention of Microsoft’s security teams because it lowers the bar to quality phishing even more. That business, called BulletProofLink and a few other names, provides email and web site templates as phishing kits do, but also offers email delivery, hosting services, credential theft. It also claims to provide ‘fully undetected’ (FUD) links and logs and is available for purchase as a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or annual subscription....

While it’s true that you can stay productive and enjoy amazing entertainment on your phone, there are many times when a larger screen would be welcome. Those occasions don’t warrant heavier laptops or even large tablets, but a small, lightweight tablet is another story. For example, you can get a slim-yet-powerful Samsung Galaxy Tab A for just $119.99 during our Refurbished Event, which runs from September 17 to 30. This refurbished Samsung tablet weighs under a pound and is perfect for enjoying the content you love best....

The uncrewed systems were deployed as part of training raids on simulated adversary positions in Cumbria and Dorset, and were tasked with various missions ranging from reconnaissance operations through delivering supplies to soldiers, to identifying and tracking targets of interest. Made up of six different types of drones, the swarm took over land, air, water and above-water environments, but was operated as one autonomously controlled unit from a single ground station....

But you don’t have to choose one over the other. With the Ugreen Nexode Mini 45W Dual USB-C Charger, you can have both. The Nexode 45W charger is another in a line of chargers from Ugreen that makes use of GaN (Gallium Nitride) technology. The switch from silicon technology to GaN allows manufacturers to create smaller, more efficient chargers that are capable of outputting more power and yet remain cooler....

Pine64, which makes numerous developer-friendly pieces of kit, is billing the PineTab 2 as much more than just a specifications upgrade due to its new design, including a metal chassis that has two “snap-tabs” for easily releasing the back to access internals for repairs and upgrades. Also: The 5 best Linux laptops for consumers and developers It’s also been designed with modular internals, such as the eMMC sitting on its own printed circuit board....

In order to get the deal, you will need to use code ONEDAY30. A life pro tip: You need to add this discount before you go to checkout at the JBL website when you are still in your cart. Otherwise, when you go to review your order, you will not see the code applied. Be sure to check out this daily deal and get it before it expires – or worse, they sell out....

The top 7 trends shaping digital transformation in 2022 are: Trend 1: The future of work will be built on connected, hybrid experiences. The workplace has rapidly evolved, and with it, employee expectations – forcing organizations to deliver digital‑first and connected experiences to drive productivity and retain talent. Trend 2: The composable business matures. As the pressure to innovate faster continues to rise, organizations will seek even greater agility, leading to an increased drive to composable and event‑driven architectures....

Content about natural language processing (NLP) saw a spike in growth of 42% year on year, while the underlying category of deep learning was the second-most heavily used topic, with 23% growth, according to O’Reilly’s Technology Trends for 2023 report. Also: OpenAI is hiring developers to make ChatGPT better at coding O’Reilly’s snapshot of trends in learning is based on its internal “units viewed” metric, which is a measure of how many times IT workers and developers view ebooks, videos and live training courses about key subject areas....

The one apparent blemish in the quarter was that the company’s Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate was 131%. That was down from 137% in the prior-year period. The report sent Twilio shares down 13% in late trading. “We had a terrific Q3, and we’re really exicted about our set-up for Q4,” said CFO Khozema Shipchandler, in an interview with ZDNet via Zoom following the report. Characterizing the quarter as “another fantastic growth quarter,” Shipchandler noted that the company generated 65% revenue growth in the quarter, of which 38% was"organic....

One area where there’s been substantial change is with the famous blue checkmark. The blue checkmark was originally presented by Twitter as a symbol of a “verified” account. However, Twitter was capricious about who it chose to grant blue checkmarks to. Twitter occasionally opened up submissions for blue checkmark consideration, but there was no hard-and-fast criteria for selection. Because of this, some people were given blue checkmarks while others who seemed to be of similar notoriety and standing were not....

I also asked who will be replacing Johnson and Townes-Whitley. No word back so far. It is the end of Microsoft’s fiscal 2021 today. And it’s also just a couple of weeks before Microsoft’s major annual partner conference, Inspire, kicks off virtually. Recently, Microsoft announced that one of its highest ranking execs, Jean-Phillipe Courtois, would be moving to a new role and passing the global sales, marketing and operations torch to Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business....

Uber’s new LTL service is tightly integrated into the Uber Freight platform. It’s backed up by Uber’s new partnership with BlueGrace Logistics, a third-party logistics provider that already has a significant scale in the LTL space. The new service brings Uber Freight closer to its vision of moving goods of any size, all the way from a port to the end-user. Uber Freight ultimately wants to “transform logistics for small and medium-sized businesses and support freight all the way from the first to the final mile,” Michael Bailey, Uber Freight product manager, said to ZDNet....

Honestly, do these people even know what they’re doing? All those smiling flight attendants cover up a chasm of failure. Are they even aware of what’s really going on? Southwest’s passengers are suffering so much that perhaps they just don’t have the energy to express how unhappy they are. What? You thought this was all my opinion? How could you? No, these seem to be the feelings of the suddenly descending-into-humor cohorts at United Airlines....

Companies like gloohome, Hampton, and Somfy all offered their own spins on the smart lock, including kits meant to replace an older, and likely less smart, deadbolt. Singapore-based igloohome showed off its latest line of padlocks, deadbolts, and key boxes, which include access via PIN codes, so they work without an internet connection. A booth rep said the PIN code options make it ideal for rental properties and Airbnbs, where consistent internet connections aren’t always a given....

The incident caused mass disruption and delays for airlines, airports and passengers. It seems it was related to an issue with the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which provides pilots with real-time information about changes and potential hazards on flight routes. The lack of system availability meant that all domestic flights were temporarily grounded for two hours while the system was restored. “Safety is always our first priority, and ensuring flight safety was the reason for this morning’s ground stop while the affected systems were restored and checked....

iConstituent is currently used by about 60 House members and was designed to facilitate communication between politicians and local residents. But in May the platform was hit with a ransomware attack and Chief Administrative Officer of the House Catherine Szpindor told Punchbowl News that the attack targeted iConstituent’s e-newsletter system, which House members buy access to. Szpindor added at the time that no data from the House had been taken or accessed and the network used by the House was not affected....