French startup Jump, a modern take on the concept of umbrella companies in France, has raised €11 million (around $12 million at current exchange rates) in a Series A funding round.

Jump offers full-time contracts to freelancers looking for some stability and the benefits involved with a full-time job. It only acts as an administrative companion and workers remain independent — they can work with multiple clients and negotiate their contracts directly.

Breega is leading today’s funding round, and Index Ventures and Raise Ventures are also participating. The startup had previously raised €4 million (around $4.5 million) back in 2021.

After signing up, freelancers can bill their customers through Jump’s platform, and at the end of the month, they can create payslips and receive a salary. This feature alone means that freelancers can define a pay for themselves that works all year long — even during those slow summer months.

And with a permanent contract, workers are registered with the national healthcare system and can contribute to the national pension system. Jump also provides health insurance contracts via Alan, meal vouchers via Swile, access to employee savings schemes and more. In France, a permanent contract is also particularly helpful when you’re trying to buy a home and negotiating a mortgage with a bank.

There are some tradeoffs, though. Corporate contributions are deducted from your pay, and Jump itself costs €99 per month. But when you’re a freelancer, money is just one part of the equation. I can see many freelancers who would like the best of both the freelancing and full-time employment worlds. So far, the startup has managed to convince 2,000 freelancers to make the jump.

The startup recently also launched a free offering for freelancers who are just getting started. It includes a free, professional bank account with a virtual debit card that works with Apple Pay or Google Pay. There are also a handful of software features to help you bill your first clients, such as a built-in invoicing tool and a dashboard to track your financial performance.

“It’s pretty much in line with how freelancers work: They often get started with the basic French freelancer status, and then switch to another status when they begin to feel the limits of their freelancing status and they have enough revenue,” said Nicolas Fayon, Jump’s co-founder and CEO (pictured above).

In the future, Jump wants to be able to support more independent workers, as it now caters to software developers, data engineers, project managers, creative consultants and sports coaches.

For instance, it wants to support B2C sellers, such as “businesses that bill consumers via Stripe using online payments or physical payment terminals,” Fayon said. Jump also plans to expand to other countries, starting with a British umbrella company for freelancers working in the U.K.

I’ve had a glimpse of how AI will change the world, and it’s filling me with both fear and wonder in equal measure.

The source of my consternation is Google NotebookLM. NotebookLM takes an article, blog post, or web page, and with just one click produces an audio file of a conversation between two people about it that sounds so natural and realistic that there is no way you’d believe you weren’t listening to two real people talking. They talk with passion and authority about the subject, sound engaged and interested and riff off one another in such a natural way that it takes your breath away. There are even the little sniffs, slight mispronunciations, slurs, and little giggles that all make it sound completely human.

Steven Kahn

Rising fame and philanthropy

Don Arnold/WireImage

The YouTube apology

What next for MrBeast?

An inanimate glob of ion-laced jelly can play the computer game Pong and even improve over time. Researchers plan further experiments to explore whether it can handle more complex computations and hope it could eventually be used to control robots.

Inspired by previous research that used brain cells in a dish to play Pong, Vincent Strong and his colleagues at the University of Reading, UK, decided to try playing the tennis-like game with an even simpler material. They took a polymer material containing water and laced it with ions to make it responsive to electrical stimuli. When electricity is passed through the material, those ions move to the source of the current, dragging water with them and causing the gel to swell.

In an experiment, the researchers used a standard computer to run a game of Pong and passed current into different points on the hydrogel with a three-by-three grid of electrodes to represent the ball moving. A second grid of electrodes measured the concentration of ions in the hydrogel, which was interpreted by the computer as instructions on where to move the paddle to.

The team found that the hydrogel could not only play the game, but that, with practice, its accuracy improved by up to 10 per cent and the length of rallies increased.

The hydrogel swells faster than it shrinks, while its rate of swelling slows even as the electrical current remains constant. The researchers say that these properties create a rudimentary sort of memory, as signs of the swelling remain recorded in the gel.

“Instead of it just knowing what’s immediately happened, it has a memory of the ball’s motion over the entirety of the game,” says Strong. “So it sort of gains an experience of the ball’s general motion, not just its current position. It sort of becomes a black-box neural network that has a memory of the ball’s behaviour, how it behaves and how it moves.”

Strong says the hydrogel is vastly less complex than neurons in a brain, but the experiment proves it is capable of similar tasks. He believes it could be used to develop new algorithms for normal computers that achieve tasks using the bare minimum of resources, allowing more efficient problem-solving. But it could also be an analogue computer in its own right.

“I won’t rule out having a hydrogel thing inside the brain of robots,” says Strong. “That sounds cool, and I’d like to see it. Although, the practicality… we don’t know yet.”

Strands is a brand new daily puzzle from the New York Times. A trickier take on the classic word search, you’ll need a keen eye to solve this puzzle.

Like Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword, Strands can be a bit difficult to solve some days. There’s no shame in needing a little help from time to time. If you’re stuck and need to know the answers to today’s Strands puzzle, check out the solved puzzle below.

How to play Strands

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strand answers

Today’s spanagram

We’ll start by giving you the spangram, which might help you figure out the theme and solve the rest of the puzzle on your own:

Today’s Strands answers

• HAMSTER
• MUSKRAT
• PORCUPINE
• SQUIRREL
• CHINCHILLA

Online casino operators today like to make their games, products, and services as accessible as possible so that everyone can enjoy everything they have to offer, meaning you can play games either instantly in your web browser from any decent internet-connected desktop computer or laptop.

Today’s best sites have also fully optimised their businesses for smartphones and tablets, and when using a mobile device, players can choose between playing directly on the website or from within a secure mobile application, which is usually compatible with most modern iOS, Huawei, and Android devices.

With that in mind, let’s dive straight in to discover which is better for playing online casino games – apps or web browsers, looking at some of the advantages and disadvantages of both options.

Should I play online casino games via the website or from within the app?

There is no right or wrong answer here. Ultimately, it boils down to whether you think you will prefer playing instantly in your web browser or from within an app.

Some people prefer the convenience of playing browser-based games without having to download an app, whereas others prefer playing from within an app. The important thing is that you have a choice these days.

Back in the day, mobile phone technology was nowhere near as good as it is today, so mobile casino gaming was that good. Today, more people play on mobile than any other device.

Several technological innovations and developments in recent years have made this possible, pushing mobile gaming to new heights, and it has become the popular way to play online casino games, whether it’s via an app or directly from the main website.

According to most people who have tried both, apps offer a more complete experience. Websites are the more convenient option, saving you from cluttering your device with another app.

Are there any good online casino mobile apps for South Africans?

Yes. If you live in South Africa and want to play online casino games or place the occasional sports bet, many people agree that the best betting app in South Africa is the official 10bet mobile casino application, which works well on any decent Huawei or Android smartphone or tablet device.

This perfectly secure app is free to download and only takes a few seconds to add to your preferred mobile device. Let’s take a quick look at the simple steps for adding this app to an Android device:

– To get started, click or tap the ‘download’ button from the 10bet download app web page
– As soon as the apk. file is downloaded onto your device, tap or click to open it
– If you encounter any issues and it’s not letting you get this far, head straight to your mobile device’s ‘Settings’ section
– Now, click or tap on the ‘Security’ option and head to the ‘Device Administration’ section
– Look for the ‘Allow Unknown Sources’ option and then enable it to allow the download
– Head back to the previous apk. download section and start the installation process
– As soon as you have completed this phase, you can either log in to your account (if you already have an active account) or register your new free account in under a minute

Which is better, the app or the website?

The app is considered the more secure option because it often comes with enhanced login security measures, such as 2FA or MFA (Two-Factor or Multi-Factor Authentication), such as voice, facial, or fingerprint recognition technology.

Also, you don’t need an internet connection to gain access to the app. To play on the website, you always need an internet connection.

Apps also tend to run more smoothly than websites and are more customisable than websites. They come with built-in support and are more functional, dynamic and robust than websites.

If you’re still unsure which option to go with, the app or the website, then perhaps you should try both to see which is more suitable based on your personal preferences.

Some of the main technological developments that have made both options ideal for playing online casino games are better smartphones/tablets, HTML5 technology, faster & more efficient web browsers, more intuitive, user-friendly, and easy-to-navigate web browsers, cloud computing/gaming, live streaming capabilities, and higher levels of cybersecurity.

Final thoughts

If you try browser-based games in your web browser first but then decide to try the app and find that you prefer playing directly from the website, you can easily remove the app just as easily as you added it.

Before attempting to download the app, make sure it’s compatible with your device, and then follow the simple onscreen instructions to add it to your smartphone or tablet.

Featured image source