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When we talk about phones and location sharing, were typically talking about limiting how much info overly aggressive apps can access. But theres another side to location sharingand thats actively opting to share your location with specific people (not companies!) for your own personal purposes. Whether its being able to keep tabs on kids, confirm the safety of parents or other loved ones, or simply know where a partner is at any given moment (with their permission, of course), your existing phone can turn into a powerful peace-of-mind provider and real-world life enhancer. The key is having the right software to make that happen in a way thats both helpful andjust as importantalso protective of your privacy. And thats precisely where todays Cool Tools discovery comes into play. This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures! Location sharing, with a side of privacy For most folks, deliberate person-to-person location sharing tends to revolve around a few primary paths: Google Maps (or the other Google apps associated with it, on Android) Apple Maps (or the Apple Find My app, on iOS) Or Life360, a slightly pricey third-party service that people seem to have a bit of a love-hate relationship with All of these services have their strengths. But they also come with their own limitations as well as concerns around cost, privacy, and data protection. Thats why I was so intrigued to come across a new cross-platform location sharing service called Paralino. It attempts to address all of those asterisks with an offering thats all about giving you an exceptional all-around experiencewith privacy and security at the core. Specifically, Paralino promises: Complete end-to-end data encryption, so only you and the specific people you choose to share with ever see where you go No tracking, no profiling, and no ads of any sort Intricate control over exactly what info you share with anyone And the option to share and receive not only on-demand location info but also proactive alerts (with everyones permission) whenever someone in your group arrives at or exits specific places Paralino offers both on-demand location sharing and proactive location alerts. Youll need roughly two to three minutes to set it up and try it out. First, download the Paralino app. Its available for both Android and iOS, so you can put it on any phone you (or anyone else you know) might be using. Then: Open er up and follow the prompts to create an account and sign in. You can opt to skip the sign-in and use the service only as a guest, if you want, but doing so makes it impossible to move your setup to another device in the futureso creating an account is really the most advisable way to go. When the app prompts you to pick a plan, tap the x in the upper-left corner of the screen to skip over that and stick with the services standard free level for now. The free level limits you to a single group for sharing, with one other person and up to two alert-generating places. If you end up really liking the service or wanting more than what the free tier provides, you can always look into Paralinos premium planswhich range from 40 bucks a year to $70 in the U.S., depending on the specificslater down the road. But you certainly dont have to pay and can get quite a bit out of the apps free level. Once you reach the apps main screen, look for the prompts to enable all the pertinent permissions. The app will ask to be able to send you notifications, so it can actually give you the updates you want, and to be able to see your location all the timeeven when you arent actively looking at it. It obviously needs that ability to be able to do what it does, and again, its core promise is that it always keeps everything encrypted and never saves any personal data. From there, all thats left is to connect to someone else and start sharing. And then, you can always see exactly where that person isand vice-versaas well as get any alerts you both opt into about each others locations. Once you’re connected to someone, you can always see their location on a simple map in the Paralino app. Its essentially a more fully featured and privacy-minded ersion of what Google and Apple offerand a much more privacy-respecting, focused, and affordable version of what Life360 provides. And thats exactly the kind of standard-challenging, small-scale competitor I love to see show up in arenas dominated by big players. Ive been using Paralino with my wife for several days now, and so far, its seemed both easy and effectiveand true to its promises around privacy and quality. The effect on my battery life has been minimal with the services default settings, too, though it seems the app would update our locations more frequently (with the tradeoff of using more battery power) if we switched from the Balanced updating frequency to the more aggressive Best Performance path. My only real gripe is that the interface for creating an alert-generating placea specific location where you get notifications when someone arrives and/or leavesis kinda funky, with no apparent search function and instead only a clunky way to find a place by zooming around on a giant world map. Thats awkward. But that one relatively minor quirk aside, Paralino is shaping up to be a solid service and a welcome alternative to the typical options in this area. If you use any sort of location sharing already or think doing so might be beneficial for you, its well worth your while to try. Paralino is available for both Android and iOS. The company is also working on a fully open source version of its apps for the future The service is free, at its base level, with optional upgrades that lift limitations and unlock extra features. (If you do end up pursuing one of those plans at any point, youll absolutely want to look at the annual subscription optionswhich are much better values than their monthly equivalents.) And, again, this app is all about using strong encryption and avoiding so much as even seeing any manner of personal infolet alone sharing your data with anyone you dont explicitly approve. Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletterstarting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.
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The current king of social media is the short-form video platform TikTok. It’s where trends are forged, news is broken, and opinions spread. Owned by China’s ByteDance, the app has an estimated 1.99 billion users33% fewer than Facebooks three billionand yet Meta is desperately trying to mimic TikToks features in its apps (particularly Instagram). But despite its popularity, TikTok has been under siege in 2025. It is facing the threat of a U.S. ban, which would jeopardize the livelihoods of millions of Americans who rely on the app to earn a living. And even if it survives, by transferring its assets to U.S.-owned interests, TikToks U.S. algorithm could change under new owners, which could make their content less discoverable. A growing number of concerned TikTok users are starting to take precautions, gravitating toward a small but expanding short-form video platform called Skylight. Heres why. What is Skylight? Skylight Social, better known as Skylight, is a baby in the social media world. It didnt exist until earlier this year, after TikTok was briefly taken offline in the United States ahead of the government ban. The platform, which is currently accessible through dedicated Skylight iOS and Android apps, went live in April. It is the brainchild of a two-person team, CEO Tori White and CTO Reed Harmeyer. But it also has a big-name backer behind it: Mark Cuban. While on the surface, Skylight looks a lot like TikTok, with a scrollable feed of full-screen short-form videos you can like and comment on, it also has a significant difference. Skylight is built on the Authenticated Transfer Protocol, or AT Protocol for short. This is the same protocol that X competitor Bluesky is built upon. That upstart social media network now has more than 39 million users. The advantage of the AT Protocol versus TikToks protocol (and the protocols of other social media companies like Meta) is that the AT Protocol is decentralized. This means that the platforms that use the AT Protocol dont hold power over the content you create; it is not tied to one companys servers. If the AT Protocol platform youre using shuts down or just no longer works for your needs, you can take all of your content and followers to another platform. As TechCrunch reported in April, in the face of a TikTok ban early this year, Cuban put out the call for someone to develop a TikTok competitor based on the AT Protocol. Harmeyer and White, the latter of whom had a following on TikTok and was worried about losing her community if the app were banned, decided to answer it. The two big benefits Skylight has over TikTok Skylight has two primary advantages over TikTok. Since its based on the AT Protocol, Skylight is a decentralized social media platform. That means your content and followers arent locked into the platform. Youre free to move all your videos and community to another AT Protocol short-form video app any time you want. This decentralization also makes Skylight fairly ban-proof. Any government can pretty easily block any social media network it desires because all major social media platforms are closed, centralized networks. But since decentralized platforms arent tied to any one app, even if an app itself is banned, a creator can simply take all their content, including likes, followers, and comments, to another platform and continue posting as usual. Indeed, the main marketing pitch Skylight uses on its website is touting the platform as unbannable, which, due to the flexibility of the decentralized AT Protocol, is a reasonable claim to make. But Skylight has another benefit. In August, the platform was updated with human-curated feeds. This differs from the algorithmically curated feeds used by major social media networks. Algorithmic curation is notoriously opaque, and, as DigiDay has noted, when it comes to TikTok, many existing users fear that its proposed new U.S. owners may change the existing algorithm to be friendlier to videos that align with their goals or ideology. Last month, CNN reported that TikTok’s new U.S. owners will include a consortium that will be comprised of Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, and Silver Lake, and that this consortium will be operated by a majority-U.S. board, including a member appointed by the Trump administration. With Skylights focus on human-curated feeds that users can choose to follow, the platform aims to help users feel assured that no algorithmic favoritism or censorship is occurring behind its digital walls. What is it like using Skylight? In an age where just a few trillion-dollar social media giants have control over not just our content, but the algorithms controlling who sees it, and where governments seem more willing than ever to ban platforms that millions of users rely on as their digital town squares, a short-form video platform like Skylight is sorely needed. But whats it like actually using the app? On a basic level, it feels as familiar as using TikTok: you scroll, like, and comment. It works well. The one significant drawback, however, is its limited content. Currently, Skylight has nowhere near the wealth of videos that TikTok offerswhich is no surprise, given the platform’s youth. In August, TechCrunch reported that the app had garnered around 240,000 downloads and had approximately 100,000 videos uploaded to its platform. But that could change. At one point, the AT Protocol-based Bluesky also had similar numbers, and now that decentralized platform is approaching 40 million users. Will Skylight ever reach that level? One should hope so. As tech giants and billionaires continue to consolidate their grip on the worlds social media networks, and even liberal democratic governments threaten to ban those same networks, the world needs platforms that their creators and users command. The future of free, unfettered speech that cant be controlled by corporations may depend on it.
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E-Commerce
Maybe youre managing a team while being a caregiver, or breaking sales records while working remotely as a single parent. Each challenge carves a mark on your journey to growth, purpose, and legacy, and earns a spot on your résumé. A résumé of challenges is not a list of defeats, but a record of victories: the battles youve fought, the lessons youve learned, and the resilience that will carry you forward. Having an awareness and understanding of your résumé of challenges helps you understand your own strengths and ability to rise. Being able to speak to your honest (nonfabricated or misrepresented) résumé of challenges before and/or during a job interview can be an authentic way to highlight what you bring to the table, which may not be visible in your submitted résumé. Benefits of Having a Résumé of Challenges 1. Provides proof of critical intangible traits and abilities Challenges not only show what youve been through. They show your resilience, adaptability, grit, and problem-solving ability. A résumé of challenges highlights strength of character. It can demonstrate your integrity, as well as your ability to stay honest and truthful and to maintain ethical principles, even when it is difficult or personally detrimental. It allows you to demonstrate your growth by talking about the lessons, skills, and wisdom left behind from each challenge. Also, your résumé of challenges can be proof that you can thrive in uncertain environments. 2. Demonstrates credibilitySharing and discussing your résumé of challenges and what you have learned from them provides transparency. It makes you more relatable and garners more respect. It demonstrates authenticity. Also, being authenticand having faced adversity and learned from itmakes you a better leader, and one that people trust. 3. Boosts self-confidence, fosters good mental healthReviewing your résumé of challenges can help remind you of what you are capable of accomplishing when facing new obstacles. This will feed and encourage your own personal confidence and empowerment. It also prepares you to face new obstacles without unwarranted fear. And maybe most of all, it helps you recognize your personal worthbeyond job titles or job descriptions. 4. Reframes setbacks as assetsYour résumé of challenges provides you with the opportunity to explain how your failures were used as stepping stones to higher growth and development. It can help you transform pain into purpose, showing value in lived experiences. 5. Inspires others, leaves a legacySharing your résumé of challenges normalizes struggle as a part of success. It creates a ripple effect that motivates others to keep going. And lastly, your résumé of challenges is part of your legacy. Its a record of strength that you can pass on to the next generation. Your story will tell them: Heres what I endured. Heres what I learned. Heres how you can rise, too. In many ways, that résumé becomes the most valuable document of your life, because it tells the truth about who you are to your core. Heres My Résumé of Challenges As an example, here are some things on my résumé of challenges. I was the first female, first Black person, and/or first Black female to achieve my roles in white male-dominated industries in corporate America. Because of this, I had to navigate the daily realities of sexism, racism, sexual harassment, and classism. During my engineering days, I often had to spend time in environments that did not have basic bathroom or sleeping accommodations for women. I also had to face many personal challenges while still showing up to perform and grow in my career, such as the loss of many dear loved ones, caring for my husband during his battle with colon cancer, and multiple health issues. Persevering through all these adversities, while maintaining my integrity, was proof of my resilience and character, earned me respect and trust, and shaped me into a person and leader who values diversity and inclusion, knows how to build high-performing teams, and strives to make everyone feel valued and appreciated. The next time you update your professional résumé, take a moment to update your résumé of challenges, too. Write down the hurdles youve cleared, the moments you thought you wouldnt survive but did, and the lessons that reshaped you. Because in the end, its not the titles we hold that define us, but the challenges weve overcome to get there. And when you know and understand your résumé of challenges, youll never again doubt your ability to rise.
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E-Commerce
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