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(Photo Illustration by Avishek Das\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty ImagesLet\u2019s Recap:<\/p>\n
Microsoft Reportedly Pours Fuel on PC Pricing Flames as it Implements a ‘Significant Increase’ for Windows 11 Licenses<\/p>\n
Microsoft has reportedly raised the price that PC manufacturers pay to license Windows 11 \u2013 adding to the existing pressures PC makers are dealing with such as memory price hikes (\u201cRAM crisis.\u201d) According to a report from Taiwan\u2019s Economic Daily News, Microsoft increased Windows 11 licensing fees for PC makers by roughly 7-10 percent as of last month \u2013 though that is yet to be confirmed. The increases may also vary depending on the computer: manufacturers are reportedly paying higher licensing costs for PCs with faster processors. However, TechRadar states that \u201cthere’s no obvious reason why software costs should be hiked more than normal,\u201d and consumers should take this information as rumor until it\u2019s verified. (Source: TechRadar<\/a>) <\/p>\n Why this is important for your small business: <\/p>\n Still waiting on verification, but if true it\u2019s yet another additional cost to add to all the higher costs SMBs have been dealing with over the past few years. The price increase, if true, would impact new licenses so business owners will need to more closely evaluate the ROI of replacing their devices. The problem is that they\u2019ll have little choice, particularly if they\u2019re already committed to a Microsoft environment.<\/p>\n YouTube Now Requires Creators to Have Twice as Many Watch Hours to Start Earning Money<\/p>\n If you\u2019re considering starting a YouTube<\/a> channel, there are new monetization guidelines. Starting on February 1, 2027, creators seeking to earn money from ads and subscriptions will need 8,000 qualified watch hours during the previous 12 months \u2013 double the current requirement of 4,000 hours. For those who create short videos, you\u2019ll need 20 million qualified Shorts views within 90 days, up from 10 million. As to the reason behind this change, YouTube has reportedly stated that this will help \u201ckeep pace with the platform\u2019s growth\u201d that sees billions of views a day. For those just jumping on the YouTube creator train this is important info to be aware of going in. (Source: TechCrunch<\/a>) <\/p>\n Why this is important for your small business: <\/p>\n On the one hand, the move makes sense \u2013 YouTube has grown exponentially over the past few years, and yet its earnings qualifications haven\u2019t kept up. So this was going to happen eventually. The good news is that the company is grandfathering in existing creators. But now, for new creators, the barrier to entry is even higher. Perhaps the costs saved using AI creation tools will offset these barriers. And if this is true get ready to see even more AI generated content proliferating on the platform.<\/p>\n Introducing Grok Bot<\/p>\n This week, xAI introduced Grok Bot \u2013 a system of AI teammates \u201cyou can give real work to,\u201d the company announced. Humans can effectively assign work to Grok Bot like they would to a coworker; they can message a Bot from a phone or desktop, give it an assignment, and have it carry out the necessary steps. The Bot retains conversations and learns how the user prefers tasks to be performed. Each Grok Bot gets its own cloud-based computer allowing it to sign into applications, websites, inboxes and other business tools and continue working even when the user is away. According to xAI, they originally developed the technology internally where teams have been using Bots for a range of tasks and the bots have become \u201cmore autonomous\u201d over time. Now, it\u2019s available to users who are ready to utilize an AI workforce at their disposal. (Source: X.AI<\/a>)<\/p>\n Why this is important for your small business: <\/p>\n How does this compare to the skills already made available by Claude and ChatGPT? Will Grok Bot interact with my CRM and accounting software as if a human was doing the work? Can I trust this agent to do tasks in lieu of a human. I admit I haven\u2019t tried Grok Bot yet \u2013 it was just released publicly \u2013 but I\u2019m absolutely going to be playing with it over the next few weeks and perhaps write separately on my experiences. Be aware \u2013 it\u2019s still \u201cearly beta.\u201d<\/p>\n OpenAI is Building an SMB Ads Machine<\/p>\n A tech journal says that OpenAI is laying the groundwork for an advertising platform aimed at small and midsized businesses. Though this hasn\u2019t been officially announced, the company\u2019s recent job openings point to assistance from experts in the performance-ad venue, including teams devoted to growth, data science and sales operations. The job postings were closely reviewed by the publication Digiday which surmised that \u201cthe platform is currently building out a dedicated SMB ads unit.\u201d Included in OpenAI\u2019s job posting is a Lead Data Scientist for SMB Ad Growth \u2013 and the company is reportedly recruiting people with advertising experience from Google, Meta, TikTok, Amazon and Reddit. It all adds up to an SMB advertising platform in the works. To be continued. (Source: WeRSM<\/a>)<\/p>\n Why this is important for your small business: <\/p>\n There are already so many places for SMBs to risk, sorry, spend their money on ads. My smartest clients spend frugally, target where their users are, dedicate internal resources to implement the campaigns, test and report. I\u2019ve found that the success of online advertising, like everything else in life, comes down to the effort and resources devoted. To that end, OpenAI\u2019s ad platform may be great. But I\u2019m sure, like all the others, you\u2019ll get out of it what you put into it.<\/p>\n House-Passed Cyber Bill for Small Businesses Gets Senate Companion<\/p>\n Matt Bracken of Fedscoop reported on a promising piece of news for small business owners on the cybersecurity<\/a> front. The Small Business Cybersecurity Assistance Evaluation Act was introduced in the Senate last week. A companion bill to H.R.880., it\u2019s an explicit measure to improve the government\u2019s cybersecurity assistance for small businesses. The legislation would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a broad review of existing federal cybersecurity programs, resources, tools and support available to small businesses. This review would assess what\u2019s working, what needs improvement and how the federal government would fix\/enhance the areas of assistance. This is reassuring news for business owners who want to take advantage of extra resources and protections to strengthen their cybersecurity. To read more specifics, visit the link. (Source: FedScoop<\/a>)<\/p>\n Why this is important for your small business:<\/p>\n My concern with this is getting the message out. Let\u2019s say a cybersecurity bill is passed and becomes law. Who will know? How can SMBs take advantage? In the end it\u2019s up to the business owner \u2013 you and I \u2013 to follow and understand these things so we can leverage whatever resources are made available to us.<\/p>\n Note: Have a technology story that small business owners should know about? Don\u2019t mind me sharing my opinion? Share it with me on X @genemarks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo Illustration by Avishek Das\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images) SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty ImagesLet\u2019s Recap: Microsoft\u2019s Windows 11…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[74],"tags":[132668,297,18,19,17,305,307,100536,270774,82,121],"class_list":["post-640118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-bot","tag-chatgpt","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-microsoft","tag-openai","tag-smbs","tag-tech-news-this-week","tag-technology","tag-youtube"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117105247038136386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}