Author: InfoForTech

when you’re trying to stay focused on something, there’s no shortage of distractions on your phone, through your web browser, or out the window. And with attention spans crumbling in the TikTok era, we now have an entire category of apps dedicated to helping you stick to what you’re supposed to be doing.These apps all work more or less in the same way, giving you a straightforward method of tracking how long you’re spending on a task, and offering some sort of incentive to keep going for the allotted amount of time. Sometimes you get a few extra features as…

Both tech firms outlined cost-cutting plans in separate internal memos dated Apr 23 Meta and Microsoft are taking significant steps to reduce their workforces as they streamline operations and manage the rising costs of artificial intelligence (AI) investments, according to recent media reports. In an internal memo dated Apr 23, Meta said it plans to cut about 10% of its workforce—roughly 8,000 employees—beginning May 20. The company also intends to leave around 6,000 open roles unfilled. On the same day, Microsoft issued its own memo, announcing a large-scale voluntary buyout programme for its US employees. Around 7% of its US…

Artificial intelligence startups Cohere Inc. and Aleph Alpha GmbH today announced that they intend to merge. The transaction is backed by Schwarz Group GmbH, Germany’s largest retailer. It plans to lead a funding round into the combined company by making a $600 million “structured financing commitment.” CNBC reported that the Series E deal, which is also expected to draw other investors, will close later this year. Toronto-based Cohere has raised about $1.6 billion in funding from Nvidia Corp. and other backers since launching in 2019. The company offers several AI model families that are each optimized for a different set…

Qualtrics is based in Provo, Utah, and downtown Seattle (above). (GeekWire File Photo) Qualtrics CEO Jason Maynard shook up the company’s senior leadership team on Friday at its dual headquarters in downtown Seattle and Provo, Utah, less than three months after taking the helm of the experience management technology company. Five executives are no longer with the company, Maynard told employees in an internal email viewed by GeekWire, calling the moves “a difficult but important step” designed to “simplify our structure and ensure we are positioned for our next phase of growth.” The impacted leaders span Qualtrics’ business, engineering, IT, …

Marketing has spent years producing dashboards that impress leadership and inform almost nothing. Clicks. Impressions. Follower counts. Social engagement. These numbers create the illusion of momentum while the CFO sharpens their pencil. The shift to outcome-based measurement is not a trend. For most marketing teams, it is a survival question. There is a particular kind of meeting that CMOs dread. Not the budget review, exactly. The one before it. Where someone on the finance team asks what marketing actually produced last quarter, and the answer begins with the word “impressions.” The number that follows is always large. It is always…

XChat, the standalone app for accessing X’s messaging feature, is available to download now for iOS. X first suggested it would be stripping direct messaging from X in 2025, but at least for now, XChat is available in the original X app, the web and this new app.Based on its launch video, the new XChat app offers many of the elements of modern messaging X had already introduced to its chats feature, like the ability to delete and edit messages, block screenshots and send disappearing messages. The new XChat app also supports video and audio calls, and X claims that…

Fitbit isn’t just tracking your steps anymore; it’s starting to talk back.  The Fitbi 4.68 update, currently rolling out for Android and iOS users, is one of the more feature-packed app releases in a while (via 9To5Google). It brings a more conversational, personalized coaching experience for users.  Google What’s new in this update? The main addition is the return of the sleep log editing feature on Android. The feature was missing from the previous app build. For those catching up, it allowed users to edit the previous night’s summary and manually override it from the overflow menu. It’s also coming…

Every year, the countries competing in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) arrive with a booklet of their best, most original problems. Those booklets get shared among delegations, then quietly disappear. No one had ever collected them systematically, cleaned them, and made them available, not for AI researchers testing the limits of mathematical reasoning, and not for the students around the world training for these competitions largely on their own.Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and the company HUMAIN have now done exactly that.MathNet is the largest high-quality dataset…

The creators of a new social media app called Bond want you to stop doomscrolling and to create bonds… in person.Bond, which launched on Tuesday, was created by a team of developers who previously worked for platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. The Bond app is currently available for iOS. Co-founder and CEO Dino Becirovic said that the app is designed to encourage you to interact with your friends rather than passively consume social content or make posts for the algorithm. “We use a ‘friending’ model and remove feeds to eliminate performative behavior and give you psychological safety,” Becirovic told CNET. Bond…

The Ember Smart Mug 2 is niche, but it has a loyal following. Even though we think there are better mug warmers on the market, Ember is like Apple AirPods or Kleenex. People want what they want. Right now, for Mother’s Day, the Ember Smart Mug 2 is on sale for just under $100, a 30 percent discount and a match of the very best price we’ve tracked. You can save at Amazon, Best Buy, and the manufacturer’s website.This smart mug is probably overkill. It has a smartphone app that notifies you when your coffee reaches the ideal temperature, and…