News from 2024


NBA collaborates with GE HealthCare and MedStar Health on health study

CHICAGO and WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), and the Next Gen Basketball Players Union (NBGPU) have announced a collaboration with GE HealthCare and MedStar Health to conduct a pioneering research study on musculoskeletal and joint health. This longitudinal pilot study aims to quantify the impact of playing, training, and rest over a professional basketball season.

Palo Alto Networks introduces Precision AITM to enhance cybersecurity

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming enterprises, driving productivity and fostering broad adoption of generative AI. This trend has seen AI adoption across entire enterprises, with employees finding uses for GenAI in every department. In response to this development, Palo Alto Networks is introducing Precision AITM to help customers combat new threats while leveraging efficient security.

Five ways to personalize your Amazon Echo Buds experience

The Amazon Echo Buds (2023) are a versatile tool for those who want to take Alexa on the go. These semi-in-ear devices, designed to deliver rich audio and long-lasting battery life, offer premium features and hands-free access to Alexa for an affordable price of $49.99. They provide the convenience of asking Alexa to cue music, make a call, or set a reminder while on the move. Moreover, Echo Buds come with several features that allow users to personalize their experience and enhance productivity.

Verizon announces preliminary shareholder vote results and other updates

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) has unveiled the preliminary results of the shareholder vote at its annual meeting. The meeting was conducted in a virtual-only format today. In addition to this, Verizon has completed its sixth green bond offering of $1 billion. The company anticipates that the net proceeds will be entirely allocated toward renewable energy investments.

Verizon secures $100M contract with Michigan amidst other achievements

Verizon Public Sector has secured a $100 million contract with the State of Michigan. This announcement comes alongside several other significant developments for the telecommunications giant.

AAA projects record-breaking travel numbers for Memorial Day weekend

AAA anticipates that approximately 43.8 million travelers will journey 50 miles or more from home over the Memorial Day holiday period. This year's total number of travelers marks a 4% increase from last year and is close to matching the record set in 2005 with 44 million Memorial Day travelers.

Google and Harvard's AI collaboration provides unprecedented view into human brain

A collaboration between Google researchers and Harvard neuroscientists has yielded an unprecedented view into the human brain, utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to make sense of vast amounts of data. The team combined brain imaging with AI-based image processing and analysis to reconstruct nearly every cell and its connections within a small volume of human brain tissue about half the size of a grain of rice.

SBA awards $300k to organizations for women veteran entrepreneurship training programs

Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and representative for America's over 33 million small businesses in President Biden’s Cabinet, announced today a $300,000 funding allocation to three organizations. These funds are intended to deliver the SBA’s Women Veteran Entrepreneurship Training Program (WVETP) to local veterans.

AlphaFold 3 predicts the structure and interactions of all of life’s molecules

Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs have unveiled AlphaFold 3, an AI model that predicts the structure and interactions of various molecules, aiming to revolutionize biological understanding and drug discovery. The model, as described in a paper published in Nature, shows significant improvements in predicting molecular interactions compared to existing methods. AlphaFold 3 extends beyond proteins to a wide range of biomolecules, potentially impacting fields like material development, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals.

Precision AI Enhances Cybersecurity Capabilities, Palo Alto Networks Leading in AI

There’s been a dramatic leap forward in what’s possible around Precision AI, and security professionals are looking for ways to leverage these advances in meaningful ways. Early instances of copilots within the cybersecurity industry left many practitioners uneasy, as demos and proof of concepts returned erroneous or even offensive responses to standard security-related questions. Relevancy and precision have become the most critical characteristics to the success of GenAI within cybersecurity.

A Quantum Leap in Work Security: Palo Alto Networks Unveils Prisma SASE 3.0 Approach

In today's work environment, employees demand the freedom to be productive from anywhere, using any device, and accessing any application. Homes, coffee shops and mobile phones have become seamless extensions of the corporate network. This unrestricted approach empowers users, but it also increases risk due to a lack of consistent security, control and visibility across devices. Security strategies must catch up, and Palo Alto Networks is once again leading that charge. Prisma SASE 3.0 isn't just an upgrade; it's a quantum leap for SASE (secure access service edge), designed...


Triple-I: US P/C Replacement Costs to Outpace Inflation by 2026

U.S. property/casualty replacement costs are currently rising at a slower rate than overall inflation and this trend is expected to persist for the next two years, according to the Insurance Information Institute’s (Triple-I) latest Insurance Economics Outlook. Despite this slowdown in cost increases, it is unlikely to ease upward pressures on insurance premiums, particularly in light of deteriorating underwriting trends and multi-year replacement cost increases. However, it may provide some short-term relief for carriers before surpassing overall inflation again by 2026.

Samsung Electronics Tops Global OLED Monitor Market

Samsung Electronics Named No.1 in Global OLED Monitor Market

Minor drop in gas prices ahead of Memorial Day: AAA report

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 9, 2024)—In the past week, gas prices have seen a minor decrease, with the national average falling by three cents to $3.64 since last Thursday. This slight dip in prices is attributed to lukewarm domestic demand ahead of Memorial Day and oil costs remaining below $80 a barrel.

LFI Real Estate announces grand opening of latest Wild Fork location

LFI Real Estate has announced the grand opening of their ninth Illinois Wild Fork food emporium, the latest location set in Vernon Hills.

Marcus by Goldman Sachs Tops J.D. Power's Savings Account Customer Satisfaction Ranking

"Marcus by Goldman Sachs Savings Ranked #1 in Overall Customer Satisfaction by J.D. Power"

Samsung Partners with IBM to Enhance Mobile Security for Enterprises

At the RSA Conference in San Francisco, Samsung announced the next step in the evolution of its plan to re-imagine mobile device security for business customers in collaboration with IBM. Samsung will offer this solution, to be available later this year, which integrates on-device intelligence from Samsung Knox mobile device security platform into IBM Security® QRadar® Suite, a threat detection and response solution. The new integration is designed to provide security analysts and practitioners with added visibility via a “single pane of glass” experience into their...


Florida's Property Insurance Market Sees Improvement Following Legislative Reforms

The Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) reports that Florida’s property insurance market is experiencing improvements, attributed to legislative reforms that address legal system abuse and fraud. The reforms, established in 2022 and 2023, have paved the way for stability in the market as the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season approaches.