Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team!
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What’s new this week
Shopify launches new product to connect creators and merchants
Shopify has launched Shopify Collabs to facilitate partnerships between creators and merchants, providing them with a new sales channel to monetize their content.
To benefit from this new feature, creators need to apply for a Shopify Collabs account, browse and partner with Shopify merchants that align with their audience and curate a selection of products to share on their social media platforms using Shopify’s free link in bio tool built for commerce, Linkpop. When someone purchases a product through the shared link, the creator is paid. Shopify Collabs, from discovery to payout, is integrated with the tracking of inventory, orders and customer information, all on one platform.
The starter plan of Shopify includes Collabs and is priced at US$7 after a 14 day free trial.
Robert Half mobile app wins Gold Stevie in 2022 International Business Awards
Robert Half’s mobile app has won a Gold Stevie in the Professional Services category for Mobile Sites and Apps for the second consecutive year at the 19th Annual International Business Awards.
The executives judging the category praised the app for its ease of use, recent updates and AI capabilities.
Launched in July 2019, the Robert Half Mobile app sought to support job seekers by matching them with opportunities aligning with their requirements.
“Through our AI-powered mobile app, users access personalized job recommendations and exclusive opportunities based on their unique search preferences and profile,” said James Johnson, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Robert Half.
The International Business Awards 2022 received over 3700 nominations from organizations of all sizes and industries to be considered for a wide range of categories. More than 300 executives participated in the judging process to determine the Stevie Award winners.
MintList wins Stevie Award for Tech Startup of the Year
Vancouver-based, AI-powered online auto marketplace, MintList has won a Stevie Award at the 19th International Business Awards for Tech Startup of the Year, in the Software category.
Among only three Canadian companies that have ever won a Stevie award, the win is a first in this category.
“MintList simplifies the vehicle buying and selling process and reduces risk, putting the control back into consumers’ hands. Our technology is a welcome change from the traditionally frustrating process of buying or selling a car, and our record growth is proof that consumers want this,” said Mike Wood, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of MintList.
MintList will be among the winners celebrated at a gala banquet at the InterContinental London Park Lane Hotel, in London, England, on Saturday, 15 October – the first live IBA awards ceremony since 2019.
Best Buy launches Geek Squad Academy Paper Bag contest to support STEM education
Best Buy has launched the Geek Squad Academy Paper Bag contest to support interest in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) field and development of universal STEM skills. Paper bags sold in Best Buy stores will have a QR code redirecting parents and children to explore its Geek Squad Academy Online Learning STEM-focused program and enter a contest to win STEM prizes.
For each paper bag sold, Best Buy says they will donate $0.25 to help provide technology to schools across the country.
Geared towards youth aged 10-16, Geek Squad Academy Online Learning includes free web know-how courses to learn about coding, including Game Design, Photography, Cryptography, Stop Motion animation and 3D design.
The contest starts on August 19th and ends on September 30th. Participants can enter in three different ways, with a maximum of four entries per person. On Friday of each week of the six-week contest, one winner will be chosen to win a $250 Best Buy gift card, and at the end of the contest, one winner will be chosen to win a STEM prize package.
Find out how you can enter the contest here.
Xero hiring for multiple roles in Toronto and Calgary
New Zealand-based company, Xero has announced new tech roles in Toronto, Calgary and some remote opportunities.
Xero is recruiting for 19 roles including Software tester, Education Specialist, Bilingual Technical Writer, IT Cloud Systems Engineer, Account Manager, Senior Account Manager, Senior Legal Counsel, Senior Machine Learning Engineer. 10 are based in Toronto, five in Calgary and four remote.
Xero provides cloud-based accounting software solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, and has over 3.3 million subscribers, with over 1,000 third-party apps. The company recently acquired Calgary’s TaxCycle for C$75 million, and seeks to further expand its Canadian presence.
Xero says it offers a number of perks, including Health and Wellness benefits coverage, employee share scheme, leave allowance, a flexible work environment, and parental leave benefits. Team members are granted 10 annual wellbeing days and compassionate leave, aimed at supporting employees through personal difficult circumstances.
An unspecified number of the 19 positions have already been filled, the company says. Click here to browse Xero’s current vacancies.
More to explore
Canadian company wins CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge 2022 High Impact Award
CleanAir.ai, a Canadian cleantech company, has won the global CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge (CSXC) 2022 “High Impact Award” for its ALVI CleanAir Safety System.
Honeycomb’s Liz Fong Jones speaks with Blameless about technical debt
Liz Fong Jones, principal developer advocate at California-based software debugging tool vendor Honeycomb.io, and Jean Clermont, program manager at international construction service provider Flatiron, sat down in a recent webinar to talk about technical debt with site reliability engineering (SRE) advocate Matt Davis and SRE architect Kurt Andersen from SRE platform Blameless.
Rogers provides more information to CRTC inquiry on July 8 outage
Rogers has updated its reply to the inquiries made by the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) with additional information on what caused its network outage on July 8.
Microsoft and Technation launch program to help prepare students for a digital work world
Technation and Microsoft recently launched a career-ready internship program called Explore, which brought first and second-year college and university students from across Canada together to participate in a 10-week paid work-integrated experiential learning program at Microsoft’s Canadian headquarters in Toronto.
Google updates its search engine to demote clickbait
Google will be making changes to its search engine rankings to promote original content over purely search engine optimized articles that fail to inform and clickbait.
Visa partners with Metrolinx to bring Tap to Pay to transit riders in the GTA
Financial services company Visa has announced a collaboration with Metrolinx to offer transit riders in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) the choice of making contactless payments with their Visa credit card or a payment-enabled device, such as a smartphone or watch. Contactless payments were previously only available with PRESTO cards.
New CompTIA study highlights partner experience trends
New research from CompTIA shows that relationships between technology vendors and their channel partners are strong even as they work through issues related to compensation, communication and technical support.
Carbon neutral data centre market revenue set to soar: BIS
Market intelligence firm BIS Research this week released a report on the carbon neutral data centre market that predicts last year’s revenues of US$5.02 billion will more than triple by 2027.
Telus requests CRTC permission to add a surcharge to credit card payments
Telecommunications giant Telus has requested permission from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to add a 1.5 per cent surcharge to the bills of its customers who pay by credit card. If approved, this additional charge could be in effect as early as October.
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending
Apple employees sign new petition against return to office; Sony faces new lawsuit; landmark U.K. AV decision
Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today
Some CISO salaries are up, LockBit gang has troubles and crooks take advantage of poorly-secured WordPress sites.
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances (Hosted by Direction Informatique)
If you live in Quebec, or prefer to consume the latest technology news in French, our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered. Follow them on Twitter as well.
