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These days, nearly all businesses have experienced some sort of disruption to their day-to-day operations, from reduced hours and customer demand to disrupted supply chains. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses are finding ways to adapt and support their local communities—especially right here in New York, the city that thousands of Googlers and I call home. And who better to take us for a tour of a few beloved New York spots than “The Tonight Show” host and native New Yorker, Jimmy Fallon?

To kick off National Small Business Week, we teamed up with “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” to visit some of Jimmy’s favorite New York City small businesses. Along the way, he shared ways that you can help out the small businesses near you.

Lakou Cafe in Brooklyn uses its Business Profile on Google to post updates for customers and to show that it offers takeout options, sells gift cards, accepts donations, and more.

Jimmy and “The Tonight Show” introduced us to Sabrina Brockman of Grandchamps and Cassandre Davilmar of Lakou Cafe, the owners of two Brooklyn restaurants in his backyard. Like Jimmy, Cassandre and Sabrina have pitched in over the last couple of months to support World Central Kitchen, a not-for-profit devoted to providing meals for those in need. Together, Sabrina and Cassandre have donated more than 11,000 meals to healthcare workers, first responders, protesters and families in need since May. 

Small business owners like Cassandre are also finding ways to reach customers and keep them informed, using digital tools like their free Business Profile on Google. Lakou Cafe updated their Business Profile with takeout options, and added buttons to sell gift cards and accept donations.

We also joined Jimmy at GupShup, his go-to Indian restaurant, a family-owned spot in Manhattan founded by Jimmy Rizvi. GupShup has partnered with World Central Kitchen to provide nearly 12,000 meals since May to frontline workers and hospitals. Jimmy Fallon reminds us how important it is—and how easy it can be—to support local businesses by giving a rave review (fun fact: he loves GupShup’s Crispy Okra and Guacamole).

You can also book reservations, order take out, post photos, buy gift cards, and more to support your local businesses directly from Google Search and Maps.

Are you a small business owner?

If you own a small business and are looking for free tools and training to grow your business, visit grow.google/smallbusiness. 

And if you’re a small business based in New York state and don’t have an e-commerce presence yet, Google has partnered with COOP to help 150 qualified New York small businesses set up and promote an e-commerce site in preparation for doing business during the holidays. Application opens Monday, September 28 at the MainStreet ONLINE website.

Grow with Google’s free resources support American businesses. See how Jimmy Fallon’s favorite businesses adapt and connect with customers.

An anonymous reader writes: The Russian government is working on updating its technology laws so it can ban the use of modern internet protocols that can hinder its surveillance and censorship capabilities. According to a copy of the proposed law amendments and an explanatory note, the ban targets internet protocols and technologies such as TLS 1.3, DoH, DoT, and ESNI. Moscow officials aren't looking to ban HTTPS and encrypted communications as a whole, as these are essential to modern-day financial transactions, communications, military, and critical infrastructure. Instead, the government wants to ban the use of internet protocols that hide "the name (identifier) of a web page" inside HTTPS traffic.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Get 'Linux Administration Cookbook' ($35.99 value) FREE for a limited time  BetaNews

1. Microsoft’s Edge browser is coming to Linux in October  TechCrunch
2. Microsoft's Edge browser is arriving on Linux in beta next month  The Verge
3. Microsoft Edge is coming to Linux in preview in October  BleepingComputer
4. Microsoft is bringing Edge to Linux developers in October  VentureBeat
5. PSA: Microsoft Edge comes to Linux next month  The Next Web
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

Microsoft’s Edge browser is coming to Linux in October  TechCrunch

Microsoft to start testing its new Edge browser on Linux in October  ZDNet

Microsoft's Edge browser coming to Linux in preview in October  Neowin

1. Microsoft’s Edge browser is arriving on Linux in beta next month  The Verge
2. Microsoft’s Edge browser is coming to Linux in October  TechCrunch
3. Microsoft is bringing Edge to Linux developers in October  VentureBeat
4. Microsoft Edge on Linux preview is coming in October  Engadget
5. Microsoft Edge finally lands on Linux in October  TechRadar
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

Microsoft to start testing its new Edge browser on Linux in October  ZDNet

Free Intro to Linux Course Surpasses One Million Enrollments  PRNewswire

Disney+ is a one-of-a-kind experience that transcends generations. Whether it’s a classic like Snow White or the new, live-action series The Mandalorian, Disney+ has something for everyone to love. And starting today, you can navigate Disney+ content on Google Assistant-enabled Smart Displays, like Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max, in select markets around the globe—just by using your voice. 

If you have a Disney+ subscription, simply link your account in the Google Home or Assistant app and you can play movies and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and more. Say, “Hey Google, play ‘The Mandalorian’ on Disney+” to start streaming instantly. You can also already cast Disney+ from your compatible mobile devices to your Nest Smart Displays and Assistant-enabled devices by opening the streaming service’s mobile app and tapping the Cast icon, or stream anytime on your Android TV.

And there are more ways Google is bringing the Disney experience home: 

Dress up your Mini as Mickey 

Our friends at OtterBox created a custom base accessory that lets you give your Google Home and Nest Mini Mickey Mouse makeovers. Just clip your device into the base to showcase Mickey’s iconic ears in any room. 

Journey through the world of “Frozen” 

Join some of your “Frozen” favorites—Anna, Elsa, Olaf, and Kristoff—around the campfire as they tell legends exploring the world of “Frozen 2.” You can hear these stories on Google Assistant-enabled Android and iOS phones, smart speakers and Smart Displays. To get started, just say, “Hey Google, tell me a ‘Frozen’ story” and you can pick which character you’d like to narrate.

Whether you’re indulging in nostalgia or experiencing a new generation of movies for the first time, Google now makes it easier than ever for everyone to enjoy Disney. 

Voice casting is now available for Disney+ on Google Assistant-enabled Smart Displays, including Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max.

Samsung has unveiled its next high-performance NVMe 2280-sized M.2 drive, the 980 Pro. So far, it comes in three capacities shipping this month: 250GB for $89.99, 500GB for $149.99, and 1TB for $229.99. A 2TB model will arrive later this year, but Samsung didn't share a price. From a report: The standout feature of this drive is its compatibility with M.2 slots over the PCIe 4.0 interface. If you have a compatible motherboard, Samsung says the 980 Pro can go on a tear with sequential read / write speeds of up to 7,000MB/s and 5,000MB/s, respectively. It claims that this is two times faster performance than PCIe 3.0 SSDs and nearly 13 times faster than the more affordable but slower SATA SSDs. Of course, to get the best speeds out of this Samsung M.2 drive, you'll need a compatible motherboard with a PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot. Adoption of the tech is starting to ramp up, including mainstream computing products like AMD's third-generation Ryzen CPUs, its Radeon RX 5700 and 5700XT GPUs, and more recently, Nvidia's RTX 3080 graphics card. Sony and Microsoft are also using the technology for their custom SSD technologies in the PS5 and Xbox Series S / X consoles.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Reliance Industries has asked local suppliers to ramp up production capacity in India so they can make as many as 200 million smartphones over the next two years, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter, a potentially enormous boost for the country's technology ambitions and a warning shot to rivals such as Xiaomi. From a report: India's most valuable company is in talks with domestic assemblers to make a version of its Jio phone that would run on Google's Android and cost about 4,000 rupees ($54), said the people, asking not to be identified since the plans are private. The inexpensive phones will be marketed with low-cost wireless plans from Reliance Jio, the parent company's carrier, they said. Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani is aiming to remake the country's smartphone industry much like he did in wireless services, where his aggressive prices and simple plans quickly made him the dominant force. The billionaire is also aligning himself with the Indian government's plans to build more domestic manufacturing, a possible boost for local assemblers like Dixon Technologies India, Lava International and Karbonn Mobiles.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I’ve been in the technology industry for a long time, including 10 years at Google. And during my years in the workforce, I’ve always had a difficult time tracking projects. Our teams stored notes and related tasks in different documents. Those documents always got out of date. We’d have to manually sync data between them. And I’d spend a lot of time coordinating between team members to prioritize and update statuses. I spent more time keeping track of work than actually working! 

Tracking work with existing tech solutions meant building a custom in-house solution or purchasing an off-the-shelf product, but these options are time-consuming, inflexible and expensive.

That's why we built Tables, a user-friendly, intuitive work tracking tool, as part of Area 120, Google's in-house incubator for experimental projects. Tables helps teams track work and automate tasks to save time and supercharge collaboration—without any coding required.

Save time, work smarter

Tables, with other teams at Google, is investing in automation. For Tables, this means Bots. With Bots, teams can easily schedule recurring email reminders when tasks are overdue, message a chat room when new form submissions are received, or move a task to someone else’s work queue when the status is changed.

Tables helps teams track work, no matter the task at hand.

Prior to Tables, you'd have to do a lot of manual work: check multiple different sources of data, collate it all together and then copy and paste it into another doc to hand it off. Tables makes automating these actions quick and easy, saving teams time and making collaboration seamless.

Integrated with Google

Getting started with Tables is easy. You can import data right from Google Sheets, share data with your Google Groups and assign tasks to your existing Google contacts. 

It’s time to spend more time working and less time tracking it. That’s why today, we launched the beta version of Tables in the U.S.—with both a free and paid plan. Now you can work more efficiently and collaborate easily, no matter the task. Get started today or visit our website to learn more. 

Tables, the newest tool from Area 120 by Google, beta launches in the U.S. to help teams easily track and automate work.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: A whistle-blower at Boeing Co. is urging aviation regulators to add additional protections to the grounded 737 Max. Curtis Ewbank, who has previously raised concerns about the plane's design with congressional investigators, said in comments filed with the Federal Aviation Administration that a proposal to mandate fixes to the jet didn't address multiple hazards identified in the two fatal Max accidents and earlier incidents involving the 737. "Clearly more actions are required to revise FAA processes so that it accurately assesses airplane design and regulates in the public interest," Ewbank said in the comments, posted on the Regulations.gov website. The FAA has proposed multiple changes to the plane following the crashes that killed 346 people before allowing it to carry passengers again. The system that was driving the jet's nose down in both accidents would no longer activate repeatedly and various steps were taken to minimize the chances it would malfunction. The agency is also proposing to require multiple other revisions to the plane, such as an improved flight-computer system to improve its redundancy. Ewbank said the FAA and Boeing should do more to prohibit faulty readings from the sensor implicated in both crashes and improve the plane's warning systems. In addition, the agency should do a broader review of how pilots react to emergencies and do a more thorough redesign of the flight-control system, he said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Linux Software Market provides details by vendors, including company overview by: Google, RedHat, Amazon, Twitter, Novell, Facebook  SG Research Sphere

Lightweight Puppy Linux 9.5 Released, Based On Ubuntu 20.04 LTS  Fossbytes

Microchip Introduces No-Cost, License- and Royalty-Free Ensemble Graphics Toolkit to Speed Linux® Graphical User Interface Development  GlobeNewswire

TURNIP Vulkan Driver Up And Running On Qualcomm's KGSL  Phoronix

Linux Software Market to 2025 Future Investments by Key players like Google, RedHat,Amazon , Twitter, Novell, Facebook, Samsung, Oracle, IBM, DELL, Microsoft  SG Research Sphere