For certain professions, like designers, developers, and digital creators, the portfolio-first idea keeps coming back. As the argument goes, if your work speaks for itself, why would you ever need a resume? However, anyone who has recently applied for a contract or full-time role knows the reality of the situation.
Hiring still very much happens through structured filters, applicant tracking systems (ATS), and busy recruiters. Yes, you need a decent portfolio to be memorable but having a compelling resume is what gets you screened in.
Here’s the good news: resume builders in 2026 have caught up. The best ones are AI-integrated, ATS-intelligent, and allow you to balance personal branding with structured information.
If you’re a freelancer, a designer, a developer, or a digital creator, then using one of these resume builders is the perfect way to compliment your personal website.
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What makes a resume builder worth using in 2026
You need to understand that the category for this type of software has evolved. A few years ago, most resume builders were nothing more than template libraries. The bar is much higher now.
Ideally, a resume builder that’s worth your time and money has these four major facets:
AI that understands resumes, not just text. General AI tools rewrite bullets without knowing what a recruiter is actually looking for. Tools trained on resume best practices focus on the specifics, like action verbs, quantified results, and missing keywords from the job description.
ATS intelligence without hacks. The ideal resume builder employs clear layouts and logical keyword placement, ensuring that your resume is easily readable by both machine algorithms and people.
Real-time feedback. The builders that offer you real value can tell you exactly which bullet is vague, which section is light, and what you need to fix.
Design that compliments a portfolio. For designers and developers, a resume that looks like it was made in the previous decade contradicts the work it’s attached to. Layout, typography, and visual hierarchy still matter.
Now let’s go over the tools that meet most of the criteria.
Side-by-side resume builder comparison
Tool
Best for
AI features
ATS-friendly
Free plan
Enhancv
Best overall for personal branding
ATS intelligence, AI content tailoring, real-time feedback
Yes
Limited
Canva
Full creative control
Basic AI writing
Mixed
Generous
Novoresume
Structured, polished layouts
Content suggestions
Yes
Limited
Resume.io
Speed and simplicity
Pre-written bullets
Yes
No
Kickresume
AI-assisted writing
GPT-based generator
Yes
Limited
FlowCV
Minimalist resumes
Light AI assistance
Yes
Generous
Now let’s take a closer look at each tool.
Enhancv: best overall resume builder for personal branding
Enhancv is the strongest all-rounder resume builder. It’s the most consistent pick for developers and digital creators who want their resume to do more than list jobs. It combines AI assistance with real-time feedback. That’s what separates it from tools that only generate text.
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You can use the AI resume tailoring feature to analyze a job description and adjust your resume to match it. It will rework your keywords, skills, accomplishments, and phrasing. The Resume Checker runs 27 distinct checks across content, layout, formatting, and style, and explains the why behind every recommendation. The content checker is trained on hiring patterns, rewording weak bullets into active, quantified ones.
The template library is ATS-tested. And the drag-and-drop editor gives high degrees of customization. For digital creators who want personality and recruiter-readiness in one document, Enhancv’s resume templates are the safest default.
However, Enhancv isn’t a design tool. Despite the high levels of personalization you can achieve with it, you’d need a dedicated design tool for complete visual control. This brings us to the next best option.
Canva: best for full creative control
Canva gives you a lot of freedom to make your design look the way you want it to. Drag, drop, recolor, add an icon, swap a font. The flexibility is genuine, and for portfolio-related positions where the resume serves as a design example, Canva is effective.
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But the trade-off is also real. ATS parsability on heavily designed Canva documents can be a hit or miss. Multi-column layouts, embedded graphics, and non-standard visuals can confuse older parsers.
Canva’s AI writing tools have advanced, yet they still seem more general-purpose compared to the specialized ones designed for resumes. The optimal approach is to utilize Canva when the focus is on the design itself. Nonetheless, combine it with a simpler version for the ATS systems.
Novoresume: best for structured, polished layouts
Novoresume leans more into clean, structured layouts. The sections of the resume are clearly defined, the spacing is uniform, and the final product appears refined immediately. This is an excellent option for those who desire their resume to appear traditional and professional without investing much time in making adjustments.
AI assistance is lesser here than at Enhancv. It provides you with content ideas, but the feedback loop is much narrower. The main idea is that Novoresume is perfect for those who have their content ready and just need help with the design.
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Resume.io: best for speed and simplicity
Resume.io optimizes for the quickest path between a blank page and finished ATS-ready PDF. The interface is straightforward, the prompts are simple to comprehend, and the suggested pre-written bullet points help you with the most tedious aspect of resume writing.
However, what this tool lacks is depth. Customization is limited, design variation is modest, and the AI is limited to filling in blanks rather than diagnosing what’s weak. Still, if you need a resume real quick, then Resume.io will suffice.
Kickresume: best for AI-assisted resume writing
As a product, Kickresume bets heavily on AI-generated content. It can create a complete initial draft from a job title and some prompts. This is useful if you’re unable to get beyond looking at an empty document. The template library is robust, and ATS compatibility is typically effective.
But keep in mind that drafts generated by AI still require editing and personal contributions. Kickresume produces a polished output, but recruiters can easily identify a generic application from afar. Utilize it to start, then rephrase the bullet points in your unique style.Your portfolio and your resume should look like they were made by the person so make sure your resume sounds like you and shows your character.
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FlowCV: best minimalist resume builder
FlowCV is known for minimal, ATS-friendly resumes. There’s little friction and the free plan is unusually generous. The interface is calm, and the output is pretty much what you’d expect for a developer who wants a straightforward document.
The AI features are light, design options are intentionally narrow to minimize choice fatigue, and the tool assumes you know exactly what to say in your document. If you’re a developer or a freelance engineer, and you prefer a visually quiet resume, then FlowCV is a reliable option.
Resume builder vs. personal website: what should you use?
As we established, the two formats serve different parts of the same job search.
When a resume builder is enough
Modern resume builders cover what most hiring pipelines actually require:
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Applying through traditional channels (job boards, company career pages, recruiter inboxes).
structured document that an ATS can read in under a second.
The role values consistency and credentials over visual differentiation.
Corporate design teams, in-house developer roles, and full-time positions routed through HR usually expect a resume. A polished personal site you have to ask the recruiter to bookmark won’t suffice.
When you should build a personal website instead
A personal website is the better investment when the work is the pitch:
You’re a freelancer, contractor, or creator selling services directly.
Your portfolio needs to breathe (case studies, process write-ups, video, interactive demos).
You want clients finding you via search, not just applying through a job board.
You care about branding (domain, design system, voice, all within your control).
For independent designers and developers, a well-put WordPress website is often the difference between getting referrals and chasing them.
The hybrid approach (recommended)
For most digital creators, it’s best to have both.
Use a resume builder that suits you for your applications. When a recruiter asks for a PDF, you’ll have one ready.
Meanwhile, use your WordPress site for presence and credibility. That’s the long tail of work that wins trust before the interview. Besides, you can link to your site from your resume header.
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Final thoughts
The portfolio-first mindset is partially correct. Portfolios continue to serve as evidence. The thing is, recruiters usually look at your resume first to decide if they want to consider you for a job. Portfolios are evidence of your work and skills and resumes help recruiters screen people from a sea of candidates.
In 2026, the top resume creators connect the two. They offer AI that comprehends recruitment, feedback that enhances the resume, and formats that succeed in ATS.
If you choose to invest in just one tool, Enhancv is the safest overall choice. It is particularly effective for developers and creators seeking to establish personal branding while ensuring recruiter appeal in one document.
The catalytic converter in your car’s exhaust system has a complex emissions-related job to perform. Placed between the engine and the muffler, it reduces the amounts of the three primary pollutants found in the exhaust gases of internal combustion engines: nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons. By passing the engine’s exhaust through the catalytic converter’s honeycomb-like ceramic structure, which is coated with precious metals like palladium, platinum, and rhodium, these three pollutants are converted into less harmful substances. Catalytic converters have been mandated since 1975, with nearly every car required to have one.
Another major part of your car’s catalytic converter system is the oxygen sensor, which interfaces with your engine’s electronic control system to monitor its exhaust gas flow, preventing it from running either too rich or too lean. This keeps your emissions within the legal limits, while also balancing your car’s power and economy.
Catalytic converters can be susceptible to some common problems over their lifespan, which should normally be the vehicle’s entire life. Let’s look at these problems individually, going over why they may happen and what the best ways are to fix them.
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Your catalytic converter has been physically damaged
Anastasija Vujic/Shutterstock
Your catalytic converter hangs underneath your car with the rest of the exhaust system, so anything that can cause damage to your muffler or exhaust pipes can also “impact” your catalytic converter. That can mean debris on the road, as well as going over a curb while driving. Doing this type of damage to your catalytic converter can cause its ceramic internal structure to crack or break, affecting its ability to properly convert the toxic substances in your unfiltered exhaust gases.
Physical damage anything like what’s shown above is likely to require replacing your catalytic converter. This type of damage to your catalytic converter will probably also lead to the illumination of your Check Engine Light, since your emission control system will severely impacted by it.
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Be aware that certain states require CARB-compliant catalytic converter replacements, which meet the stricter standards set out by the California Air Resources Board. These standards apply to all cars replacing their catalytic converters in California, New York, and Colorado, including out-of-state vehicles. In addition, all CARB-compliant cars replacing their catalytic converters in the state of Maine that were made during or since the 2001 model year must be fitted with a CARB-compliant replacement unit. Be sure to check the local regulations in the state where you reside before replacing your car’s catalytic converter, and don’t even think about whether you should drive without a catalytic converter.
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Your catalytic converter has become clogged up
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There are numerous ways that your car’s catalytic converter can become clogged, and none of them have anything to do with the issue of external physical damage. If you have a leak of coolant or oil that makes its way into the exhaust system or into the cylinders, it can clog up the fine ceramic structure coated with those precious metals inside the convertor, rendering it ineffective. Clogging can also be the result of using substandard fuel, misfiring spark plugs, a fuel-air mix that’s too rich, or just wear and tear over time.
If you are facing the possibility of a clog, there are ways to clean your vehicle’s catalytic converter at home. It’s definitely worth a try if the only other alternative is replacing it out of pocket.
The symptoms of a clogged catalytic converter are pretty tough to ignore. You may experience much worse fuel economy as you drive, hard starting, high heat levels that can start fires under your car, a noticeable lack of performance from your engine, a rotten egg-like smell, and all of this will likely also trigger the Check Engine light on your dashboard to go on. Keep in mind that the clogged catalytic converter is creating an obstruction in your engine’s exhaust system that your engine has to work against, which can lead to leaking oil, seals blowing out in the engine, or even a blown engine if you wait too long to fix the problem.
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Your catalytic converter has been stolen
Romanets/Shutterstock
This unfortunate scenario has been happening to car owners across the country. California’s the leader in catalytic converter thefts nationwide, with New York, Illinois, Texas, and Florida rounding out the top five. A thief can cut off your catalytic converter in about a minute, making it unlikely they’ll be apprehended unless they are caught sawing it off. And while thieves get $50 to $500 for stolen converters, you’ll have to pay up to $4,000 to repair your car. While SUVs and pickup trucks, with their increased ground clearance, make the easiest targets, we have compiled a list of the cars most likely to have their catalytic converters stolen.
There are some ways to minimize the risk of having your car’s catalytic converter stolen. These include parking your car in a closed garage, the use of motion sensor lighting where you park your car, never failing to set your car’s alarm and locking your vehicle. If you must park in an area out in the open, be sure that it is at least lit very well.
Additional strategies for protecting your catalytic converter from theft involve making it tougher to remove or making it identifiable. Theft prevention devices include straps, clamps, or cages that make catalytic converter removal much more time-consuming, encouraging thieves to leave your car alone and move on to an easier, unhardened target. Another proactive way to discourage theft is to have your catalytic converter etched or engraved with your VIN or license number, making it easier to identify the owner.
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Your catalytic converter’s oxygen sensor goes bad
BLKstudio/Shutterstock
A modern catalytic converter’s oxygen sensor measures how efficiently it is doing its job by monitoring the amount of oxygen present in the exhaust gases. Over time, and possibly due to some engine-related issues like coolant leaking into the cylinders, a bad gasket, or a too-rich fuel mixture, the oxygen sensor can become contaminated or just wear out. In addition to this “downstream” oxygen sensor connected to the catalytic converter, there is usually an “upstream” or “pre-cat” sensor that controls the fuel supply to the engine.
Some indications that your car’s oxygen sensor is failing can include rough engine operation, reduced fuel efficiency, and the Check Engine light on your dash lighting up to alert you there’s a problem. And while you can clean a car’s O2 sensor, it’s not a great long-term idea. To identify the problem with your oxygen sensor, a diagnostic device should produce some trouble codes to guide you along. Make sure that there are no leaks detectible in your fuel injection system or your exhaust manifold, also checking the state of your ignition system parts. Once that you have properly diagnosed the problem and identified which of these sensors is faulty, the bad one can be replaced and correct engine operation restored.
The role of the oxygen sensor in your car’s emission control system, when operating properly, cannot be overemphasized. By consistently monitoring the flow of your car’s exhaust gases, it keeps emissions in check, maximizes performance, and gives you the best possible fuel economy.
AI PCs have quickly become the hottest trend in the tech industry, and Asus doesn’t want to be left behind. As the tradition goes in Computex, the Taiwanese company announced a massive lineup of new AI-powered devices, including creator laptops, consumer notebooks, desktops, all-in-one PCs, and even a brand-new tablet. Here’s everything you need to know about them.
New RTX Spark Laptops
Leading the announcement are the new ProArt P16 and ProArt P14 creator laptops. These are the first ASUS laptops powered by NVIDIA’s new RTX Spark platform, which combines NVIDIA’s Blackwell GPU architecture with the Grace CPU platform for AI-focused workloads.
ASUS says these machines are designed for creators, developers, and anyone working with AI-heavy workflows. The company is also bundling AI tools like MuseTree, StoryCube, and ProArt Creator Hub to help users manage creative projects and optimize system performance.
The laptops also come with ASUS’s latest Lumina Pro OLED displays that can hit up to 1,600 nits of HDR brightness and feature a 120Hz refresh rate. Interestingly, ASUS is introducing two new color options called Nano Black and Neo White, marking the first major design refresh for the ProArt lineup.
Zenbook and Vivobook Get the AI Treatment
For everyday users, ASUS refreshed the Zenbook 14 with a clear focus on portability. The laptop weighs just 1.1kg and uses ASUS’ Ceraluminum construction, which combines aluminum with ceramic-like durability. ASUS claims the laptop can deliver over 21 hours of battery life, making it one of the longest-lasting devices in the company’s lineup. Buyers can choose among Intel, AMD, and Snapdragon variants, with AI performance up to 50 TOPS, depending on the configuration. ASUS has also added new Arctic Blue and Komodo Coral color options to make the laptop feel less corporate than previous Zenbook generations.
Other highlights include a 1.7mm travel keyboard, an ASUS OLED display, Windows Hello support, Microsoft Pluton security, and adaptive privacy features that automatically dim or lock the screen when users step away.
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Meanwhile, ASUS is also betting heavily on Snapdragon-powered Windows laptops with the new Vivobook S14 and Vivobook S16. Unlike previous Vivobook generations, these models exclusively use Snapdragon X processors and deliver up to 45 TOPS of AI performance. The laptops are clearly aimed at students and young professionals. ASUS says battery life can exceed 25 hours, while fast charging can take the battery from 0 to 60 percent in under 50 minutes.
The larger S16 model offers a 16-inch OLED display with an 89% screen-to-body ratio, while the S14 opts for a more compact 14-inch design. Both feature 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, TÜV-certified low-blue-light technology, and military-grade durability certification.
ASUS Is Back in the Tablet Business
One of the more surprising announcements from the event was the ASUS Pad, marking the company’s return to the tablet category. The tablet features a 12.2-inch 2.8K OLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate and runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chipset.
ASUS has equipped the tablet with a 9,000mAh battery, Dolby Atmos-powered quad speakers, Google Circle to Search, and GlideX integration for easier cross-device workflows. At just 6.5mm thick and weighing 523g, the company is positioning it as both an entertainment device and a productivity companion.
New Desktops and AiOs Join the Lineup
Beyond laptops, ASUS also announced the new V700 Mini Tower desktop and V200/V400 all-in-one PCs. The V700 desktop stands out for its unusual home-inspired design, featuring wood-grain finishes and softer aesthetics rather than the aggressive styling usually seen in desktop PCs. It can be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and NVIDIA RTX 50-series graphics. The V400 AiO, meanwhile, uses Snapdragon-powered hardware and AI capabilities in a larger 27-inch all-in-one form factor aimed at family and home users.
Rounding out the announcements was ASUS Zenni Claw, a new AI assistant designed to simplify access to AI-powered workflows across work, travel, and everyday tasks. ASUS hasn’t revealed extensive details yet, but it appears to be the company’s attempt at creating a more unified AI experience across its devices.
Greenvolt Next also plans to allocate funding for the development of its Waterford headquarters.
Greenvolt Next Ireland – which is part of Greenvolt Group, a specialist in renewable energy solutions for the commercial and industrial sector – has today (3 June) announced the creation of 90 new jobs. 50 are to be made available at its Waterford headquarters and the remaining 40 will be based in the UK.
Over the next 12 months, the company will be recruiting mid-level to senior managers for roles including project engineers, senior project engineers, project managers and site managers. In expanding the team, the organisation aims to work on additional large-scale projects to support developers and landowners in advancing renewable assets and meet the UK and Irish demand for green energy solutions.
Greenvolt Next is also allocating funding for the further development of its Waterford headquarters, which is being increased by 2,176 sq ft and will be equipped with new technologies.
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Commenting on the announcement, Owen Power, the CEO of Greenvolt Next Ireland & UK, said: “Our success to date has been driven by our ability to deliver the most reliable and cost-effective energy solutions to customers, underpinned by unmatched resources and expertise. Looking to the future, which will only see greater demand for such projects, we want to continue making a tangible impact for businesses and the environment.
“That means investing in operations, growing the team and innovating for customers. As well as marking the next stage in our own journey, this will allow us to make renewable energy easy for more organisations across Ireland and the UK. In turn, they will not only be more sustainable but also more successful.”
In 2024, Greenvolt Group announced a partnership with Enerpower, with both organisations agreeing to a joint commitment to install up to 500MW of renewable energy between 2024 and 2029 and create 100 new jobs. The strategy was designed to impact the Irish and wider European markets.
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Springboard+ research found that adults often face financial difficulties when attempting to upskill or change the direction of their careers.
Educational platform Springboard+ has released the results of a survey exploring some of the challenges learners face as they aim to progress personally and professionally. The organisation commissioned an independent national survey collecting data from 1,000 Ireland-based adults across a wide range of ages, genders, regions and social backgrounds.
What was discovered is that almost half (46pc) of surveyed adults in Ireland struggle to afford learning and study opportunities to upskill and change the trajectory of their careers. The survey, which was part of Springboard’s ‘2026 Year of Me’ campaign, also identified which groups of people are typically more affected than others.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, women were found to be disproportionately impacted, as 53pc of women surveyed who were under the age of 45 agreed that they have very little time to invest in career growth. Half of parents also responded that time is a limited resource, while 54pc of women said that financially speaking, it is difficult to engage with upskilling opportunities.
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Decision time
More than 40pc of people surveyed said that they are afraid of making the wrong decision when choosing a new career direction. This sentiment was particularly prominent among younger cohorts, with 32pc of adults aged between 18 and 24 responding that they would struggle with the stress associated with learning new skills.
The report found, however, that despite the barriers, Ireland’s professionals still value learning and self-development, as 93pc of respondents believe learning new skills as an adult can change the trajectory of one’s life; 93pc also agree that learning new skills opens doors that otherwise would remain closed.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Dr Vivienne Patterson, the head of skills, engagement and statistics at the Higher Education Authority, said, “The findings highlight that many adults across Ireland want to invest in their future and develop new skills, but are often held back by practical pressures such as time, affordability and uncertainty about returning to learning.
“Flexible and affordable learning opportunities can play an important role in helping people overcome some of these barriers. Many Springboard+ courses are delivered on a part-time or online basis, allowing people to balance learning with work, family and other commitments, while the significant financial support available through the programme helps make higher education more accessible.
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“The strong demand we are already seeing for Springboard+ 2026 courses reflects the growing demand for flexible learning opportunities that can help people build confidence, develop new skills and explore new career opportunities.”
So far in 2026, a number of organisations and institutions have engaged in offering opportunities to boost skills among the Irish workforce.
In May, South East Technological University announced it is getting a new €11.5m computer system. The IBM z17 mainframe will support students and researchers in developing their skills. In April, the Government launched AIReady.ie, a national AI skilling platformdesigned to provide people across Ireland with the means to learn essential AI skills.
Similarly, in March of this year, Technological University of the Shannon launched its Regional Skills Horizon and Pathways to Employment (ReSHAPE) initiative, an AI-powered digital platform developed to support professionals based in Ireland’s midlands region, supporting economic development in counties such as Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath.
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For those who have never played the hit video games Undertale and Deltarune, the games are partially known for their interesting characters, many of which have eerie, surreal, and expressive designs. One of the more memorable characters from Deltarune is Tenna, a game show host of sorts whose distinguishing feature is an old television as a head, as well as a colorful suit. As a result he’s been the subject of a number of recreations by various cosplayers and makers like [BigRig Creates].
This version of the character was actually inspired by a previous build by [BunnyBii] which used an iPad as the interactive screen/face. Inside the television, though, the actual human found this to be front heavy and limiting in the ways that it could be used interactively, especially since the only way to see the outside world in this version was with a small endoscope and screen. [BigRig Creates]’s version builds on this idea but swaps out the iPad for a Raspberry Pi, allowing for much more customization, and uses a pair of Xreal glasses instead of a screen for the view of the outside world from in the television.
To get the whole costume together, the head is 3D printed with all of the electronics inside, and a game controller integrated into a handheld microphone controls the animations shown on the screen. A vibrant, custom-tailored suit with white gloves rounds out the ensemble, along with a pair of 3D-printed shoe covers since actual yellow shoes were a bit pricy. There were some interesting problems to solve along the way, specifically with regards to power management for all the electronics, but in the end it all seems to have come together quite well. [BigRig Creates] is no stranger to builds with unusual displays, though; one of our favorites was the world’s largest Nintendo 3DS.
If there’s one group that knows how to move fast, it’s runners — and that’s exactly what you’ll need to do to take advantage of this deal. Strava members can earn a free two-week Runna Premium subscription by running a 5K on Wednesday, which marks Global Running Day.
Strava is a popular fitness app that records and logs your runs, rides, hikes and other activities, including strength training. Last April, Strava acquired Runna, an AI-personalized running app, to customize training plans for different race distances and coaching for its subscribers. Strava doesn’t provide training plans, but it can log your runs, let you create your own routes, view your running stats after each run and share them with your app followers.
You can use Strava for free, but to access additional features, you would need to upgrade your membership to an individual ($80 annually), family ($140 annually for a family of four) or student subscription ($40 annually) if you’re willing to pay for the Strava and Runna combination plan, which costs $150 a year. You can also experience Runna for free, but to access it fully, you’ll need a subscription for $120 annually.
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However, if you run, walk, trail run or use a wheelchair and log a 5K on Global Running Day on your Strava app, you can experience Runna free for two weeks to decide for yourself if it’s worth the investment. Strava is counting GPS, virtual and manual activities toward the challenge goal.
Apple is also participating in Global Running Day and giving Apple Watch owners the chance to earn a digital badge by logging a 5K run indoors or outdoors. This also applies if you have other third-party fitness apps that log runs and connect to your Apple Health account.
For months the fight in India’s App Store antitrust case was not really about app stores. It was about a spreadsheet. The Competition Commission of India wanted Apple’s financial records; Apple did not want to give them up, least of all the global ones. On 3 June, Apple agreed to submit the financials, removing the obstacle that had stalled the long-pending case.
The reason the data mattered so much is the reason Apple resisted it. Under India’s competition law as updated in 2024, penalties can be calculated against a company’s global turnover rather than its revenue inside the country. For most companies that distinction is academic.
For Apple, whose Indian revenue is a sliver of a business that turns over hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide, it is the difference between a manageable fine and an existential one. Apple has said it fears a penalty of up to $38bn, a figure it has invoked as evidence the regulator is overreaching.
That fear is what drove the months of manoeuvring. Apple had refused to fully comply with the CCI’s demand for detailed financial disclosures, argued that global figures should be out of scope, and escalated the dispute to the Delhi High Court, seeking to pause the proceedings before they reached a final hearing.
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The regulator declined to slow down. The result was a standoff in which the substance of the case, whether Apple abused its market position, was held up by a procedural fight over what the regulator was allowed to see.
The underlying allegation is not new. A 2024 CCI investigation found that Apple had abused its dominant position in the iPhone apps market by requiring developers to use its proprietary in-app purchase system, the same conduct that has drawn regulatory fire in the European Union, the United States and elsewhere. India’s case has moved more slowly, but its penalty framework, anchored to global turnover, gives it unusual teeth.
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TNW readers have followed the procedural thread. The Delhi High Court recently brokered a compromise in which it told Apple to cooperate while ordering the CCI not to issue its ruling before 15 July, granting Apple a roughly two-month reprieve while requiring it to produce the data. Wednesday’s agreement is Apple acting on that, handing over the records it had fought to keep back rather than continuing a fight the courts had signalled it would lose.
What the concession does is unblock the case rather than decide it. With the financials in hand, the CCI can move toward the part that actually matters: whether to penalise Apple and, if so, how much.
The global-turnover framework means that calculation is where the real stakes sit, and it is the calculation Apple’s resistance was designed to forestall. Handing over the data does not concede the underlying conduct; it concedes the regulator’s right to the information it needs to act.
The case is now one of several fronts on which Apple’s in-app payment rules are under pressure at once, and India’s is among the more dangerous because of how the fine could be sized. Apple has bought itself a deadline of mid-July and lost the argument over disclosure. The ruling that follows, and the number attached to it, is the part still to come, and the part Apple spent months trying to delay.
From industrial gears to healthcare products to luxury goods, Alitheon’s FeaturePrint provides a link between physical objects and digital traceability without tags, labels, or stickers. (Alitheon Photo)
Bellevue, Wash.-based Alitheon raised $8 million in new funding to expand its FeaturePrint technology, which uses optical AI to create a unique digital “fingerprint” for physical objects — no barcodes, tags, or labels required.
FeaturePrint works by reading the microscopic surface variations every manufactured object naturally has using nothing more than a standard camera. Alitheon calls it “biometrics for things” and says it works on everything from designer purses to industrial gears to pharmaceutical packaging.
“We aren’t just identifying goods; we are powering the trust layer of the global economy, providing a level of security that additives and standard AI simply cannot match,” Alitheon CEO Roei Ganzarski said in a news release this week.
Founded in 2015, Alitheon has built a portfolio of 55+ patents and attracted customers across industries including aerospace, automotive, luxury goods and defense. Swiss precious metals company Argor-Heraeus is a customer.
Alitheron has landed $1.5 million in federal contracts, including work with the Pentagon’s Nuclear Weapons Center. Time magazine named FeaturePrint one of the 200 best inventions of 2023.
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In a 2024 GeekWire feature, Ganzarski illustrated the problem his company is trying to solve.
“Last year, auditors found that Lockheed Martin had lost a million parts in the F-35 program,” he said. “Lost? You don’t ‘lose’ parts. They just become unidentifiable. The barcode fell off, the sticker got erased.”
The Series A1 round was led by Emerald Technology Ventures, with participation from eBay Ventures. Alitheon, which employs 24 people, has raised a little over $40 million to date.
BioBead won the top prize at the Demsey Startup Competition, awarded by Trish Held (left), manager of philanthropy at the BECU Foundation, and received by BioBead’s Jared Espinosa and Renee Davis. (UW Photo)
The big winner at the University of Washington’s 29th annual Dempsey Startup Competition was BioBead, a startup launched by a UW team with an ag tech solution for boosting soil health and crop production.
The company won $25,000 from BECU as well as the $2,500 Voyager Capital Best Business to Business Idea Prize.
A record 186 startups entered the competition, whittled down to 16 contenders who pitched before judges in mock boardroom settings. Winners took home a share of $92,500 in prize money.
The event is open to student entrepreneurs from across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and British Columbia. Entrants range from very early-stage startups with a prototype to teams with minimum viable products or technologies ready for commercial production.
The competition runs over seven weeks, during which teams refine their strategies — recruiting business students to strengthen go-to-market plans, for example. Judges this year noted that AI is helping teams design more sophisticated technologies.
Grand prize recipient BioBead is developing small, biodegradable pellets that bring together bacteria and fungi that have coexisted in soil for 400 million years, helping plants absorb essential nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorus.
“People seem to be quite disconnected from everything below our feet because we can’t see it,” said Korena Mafune, a BioBead co-founder and UW research scientist. But those organisms are what allow crops above ground to flourish, she added.
BioBead’s other co-founders are Renee Davis, who is finishing her doctoral degree at the UW, and Mari Winkler, a UW professor in civil and environmental engineering. Jared Espinosa, a recent MBA graduate from the UW’s Foster School of Business, joined the team for the competition.
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The startup has been working with farmers growing lettuces, tomatoes, corn and wheat to test the benefits of the soil treatment. Initial results show higher crop yields while reducing the need for increasingly expensive fertilizers.
Mafune last month also won a $275,000 grant from the Washington Research Foundation to support commercialization of the technology.
The second to fourth prize winners were:
$15,000 WRF Capital Second Place Prize – CPRight (UW and Western University of Health Sciences in Oregon) is developing a low-cost patch that provides real-time information on compression depth and pace during cardiac emergencies requiring CPR. CPRight also won the $2,500 Chris and Barbara Petersen Best Health & Wellness Impact Idea Prize.
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$10,000 iSpot.tv Third Place Prize – Kinnex Health (University of Idaho) is building a wearable sensor to provide continuous joint-movement data collected from patients after orthopedic surgeries and procedures. The team also won the $2,500 Amazon Best Consumer Product Idea Prize.
$7,500 Friends of the Dempsey Startup Fourth Place Prize – Alarmable (UW) is creating a wearable bracelet charm that also serves as an alarm that can be triggered in emergency situations.
Other winners:
$5,000 Wilson Sonsini Social Impact Big Picture Prize – Osanwe Link (UW)
$5,000 Kathryn Gardow & David Bradlee Climate Solutions Big Picture Prize – LEAF (UW)
$5,000 Glympse Emerging Tech Big Picture Prize – Adam Biotech (UW)
$2,500 Smukowski Family Best Sustainable Business Prize – Clubless Collective (UW)
$2,500 eBay Best Marketplace Idea Prize – Kindred (UW)
$2,500 Perkins Coie Best Innovation/Technology Idea Prize – Emerald Dynamics(UW)
$2,500 Saara Romu Community Impact Prize – UWEMS (UW)
$2,500 DLA Piper Best Idea with Global Reach Prize – GridGuard (UBC)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Microsoft’s Build developer conference kicked off today, and as with almost everything the company has done in the last few years, Microsoft’s opening keynote focused overwhelmingly on AI and other closely related technologies. […] On the hardware front, we didn’t get any updates for existing Surface devices (not counting yesterday’s Surface Laptop Ultra announcement), but we did get something new: the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is “a compact developer PC” built around Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chip with up to 128GB of built-in memory. The Dev Box looks a little like a cartoon anvil or piano fell onto an Xbox Series X and flattened it. Its aluminum casing was designed “to double as a heatsink,” and its preloaded version of Windows 11 Pro will include a “purposeful” set of developer-centric default settings and preinstalled tools.
This is a follow-up of sorts to the Windows Dev Kit 2023, also known as “Project Volterra.” This Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3-powered PC was essentially the system board from a Surface Pro tablet stuffed into a plastic box, and it was introduced alongside Arm-native versions of several Microsoft developer tools. It helped to set the stage for the Arm-based flagship Surface devices that launched the next year, which benefitted from a better and faster x86-to-Arm code translation technology called Prism and a greater number of Arm-native third-party apps that didn’t need to be translated in the first place. Microsoft didn’t announce pricing or specific specs for the RTX Spark Dev Box, but you can probably expect it to cost quite a bit more than the $600 that Project Volterra did. Hopefully, Microsoft can keep the price at least somewhat lower than the $4,699 asking price for Nvidia’s similarly specced DGX Spark box.
On the software side, several developer-centric changes are coming to Windows 11, particularly for users of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Microsoft is introducing a Windows-native version of the coreutils command line tools, so that commands or scripts made for Linux work within Windows and the other way around; the ability to run WSL inside of containers, said to be arriving in “the coming months”; and something called Windows Developer Configurations that uses the WinGet tool to quickly set up “a distraction-free dev environment with VS Code, GitHub Copilot, WSL, PowerShell 7 and developer-optimized settings with one command on any Windows 11 device.” Microsoft also introduced Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), as “enterprise-grade sandboxed environments” that let AI agents like OpenClaw operate on Windows without getting unrestricted access to the whole system. In theory, MXC could let organizations enforce agent-specific limits, such as blocking access to personal accounts, separating work and personal data, or requiring permission before deleting files.
The MXC GitHub repo also notes support for “multiple containment backends,” meaning the same sandboxing concept could apply beyond AI agents to other plugins, tools, and workloads.
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