Year: 2022

It’s that time of year again. The holiday season is approaching quickly, and gift buying is probably taking over your mind. If you’re stumped on what to buy and need some inspiration, take a look at part four of our holiday gift guide.

Amazon Kindle Scribe

If you are uncertain about introducing ebooks to an avid reader in your family, Amazon’s Kindle series might be your best bet. The Kindle Scribe also marks Amazon’s long-awaited step into e-note territory. “Feels like writing on paper”, Amazon boasts. Readers can scribble thoughts, annotate documents, and jot down to-dos on their ebook without the bane of the constant phone or tablet notifications. Also expect the classic e-reader features, including adjustable warm light, auto-adjusting front light and USB-C charging with a battery advertised as “designed to last for months”. Priced at C$429, Scribe is available in Tungsten with 16, 32 or 64

The impact of a full-scale probe by European Union (EU) regulators into Broadcom’s US$61 billion purchase of VMware earlier this year will hinge on the framework of the investigation, which will reveal much about what regulators are thinking, said John Annand, a director of the infrastructure team at Info-Tech Research.

That framework, according to a Reuters report, could be announced as early as next week, following an initial series of meetings known as “state of play” between EU regulators and Broadcom officials.

According to Reuters, EU officials usually convey their concerns during such meetings, and if companies fail to convince them of the merits of their takeovers, they then launch a full-scale four-month long investigation once their preliminary review of the deal ends.

Annand said there is a multitude of issues associated with the sale, chief among them being “continued uncertainty” and how that is impacting VMware product sales.

The massive talent shortage that impacted the industry during the first half of 2022 may be smaller following layoffs, however workers have a whole new set of demands as employees, experts say.

Over the past few months, technology companies from Amazon to Shopify have been letting go a significant number of their employees. According to Layoffs.fyi, a startup that’s been tracking layoffs in the tech industry, in this year alone, more than 140,000 people in the U.S. have lost their jobs. 

However, even with the numerous layoffs, skilled tech talent is still in demand. 

“Despite some of the headlines, and layoffs with some of the big tech companies, we’re still seeing skilled tech talent remain really high in demand,” said Mike Shekhtman, senior regional director at Robert Half.

Shekhtman added that after the pandemic, instability in the tech workforce, and continuous

Public health and technology leaders convened in Ottawa at CityAge’s 10th annual Data Effect event last week to discuss data stewardship and sharing as the key to foster innovation and create an integrated public health data ecosystem in Canada.

Chief scientific officer at Ottawa-based Bruyere Research Institute, Kumanan Wilson kicked off the discussion by highlighting the potential of data to advance research and implementation of new health technology. 

The development of the mRNA vaccine “in an unbelievably short period of time”, with “basically lines of code” is one such advancement that trailblazed during the pandemic, Wilson explained. The latest Omicron specific versions of the vaccine, for instance, were released prior to phase three trial, and hence needed a new data system to not only test its safety and effectiveness, but also to conduct post-market surveillance with ongoing real world data. Canada, he added, “has the best data” and “can