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Xero vs. QuickBooks: Which accounting platform is better?

Allison Murray/ZDNET If you're trying to select an accounting platform that will grow with your business while managing costs effectively, both Xero and QuickBooks offer competing products starting at $29 per month. However, they're each good at different things. Also: The best budgeting apps of 2025 Xero stands out for its user-friendly interface and flexible pricing structure that includes unlimited users across all plans. The platform excels in international business support with multicurr

2.5B Gmail users endangered after Google database hack

How the phishing attacks work Initial reports of attempted attacks have already been seen on Reddit, which are likely related to the data leak. Users describe how alleged Google employees have contacted them by phone to inform them of a security breach in their accounts. In these scam attempts, attackers are trying to take over Gmail accounts by triggering alleged “account resets” and then intercepting passwords to subsequently lock out the account holders. Another attack method involves “dang

Got a scary T-Mobile text about your account? Here’s what it really means

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR T-Mobile sent a text about “Authorized Users” that some customers mistook as a fraud warning. It was confirmed to be a mass informational campaign, not an unauthorized purchase attempt. It’s not the first eyebrow-raising SMS from the carrier this month. If you’re on T-Mobile, you might be starting to get a bit concerned about the carrier’s comms strategy. Following a security-related text from the carrier earlier this month that looked scammy but was real

Dev gets 4 years for creating kill switch on ex-employer's systems

A software developer has been sentenced to four years in prison for sabotaging his ex-employer's Windows network with custom malware and a kill switch that locked out employees when his account was disabled. Davis Lu, 55, a Chinese national living legally in Houston, worked for an Ohio-based company, reportedly Eaton Corporation, from 2007 until his termination in 2019. After a corporate restructuring and subsequent demotion in 2018, the DOJ says that Lu retaliated by embedding malicious code

In a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt uses

Earlier this year, MIT Technology Review published a comprehensive series on AI and energy, at which time none of the major AI companies would reveal their per-prompt energy usage. Google’s new publication, at last, allows for a peek behind the curtain that researchers and analysts have long hoped for. The study focuses on a broad look at energy demand, including not only the power used by the AI chips that run models but also by all the other infrastructure needed to support that hardware. “W

In a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt uses

Earlier this year, MIT Technology Review published a comprehensive series on AI and energy, at which time none of the major AI companies would reveal their per-prompt energy usage. Google’s new publication, at last, allows for a peek behind the curtain that researchers and analysts have long hoped for. The study focuses on a broad look at energy demand, including not only the power used by the AI chips that run models but also by all the other infrastructure needed to support that hardware. “W

AWS in 2025: Stuff you think you know that's now wrong

One of the neat things about AWS is that it’s almost twenty years old. One of the unfortunate things about AWS is… that it’s almost twenty years old. If you’ve been using the platform for a while, it can be hard to notice the pace of change in the underlying “foundational” services. More worryingly, even if you’re not an old saw at AWS scrying, it’s still easy to stumble upon outdated blog posts that speak to the way things used to be, rather than the way they are now. I’ve gathered some of thes

AWS in 2025: The Stuff You Think You Know That's Now Wrong

One of the neat things about AWS is that it’s almost twenty years old. One of the unfortunate things about AWS is… that it’s almost twenty years old. If you’ve been using the platform for a while, it can be hard to notice the pace of change in the underlying “foundational” services. More worryingly, even if you’re not an old saw at AWS scrying, it’s still easy to stumble upon outdated blog posts that speak to the way things used to be, rather than the way they are now. I’ve gathered some of thes

White House Joins TikTok With New Account. Here's What It's Posted So Far

The White House has officially joined TikTok, even as the administration is trying to help determine the future of the platform in the US. So far, the TikTok account has four videos: a mix of President Donald Trump speaking, footage of the White House over music -- and the caption "We're so back." There's also a video of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responding with hostility to a press conference question from a New York Times reporter, which is one way to set the tone early on. As of this

The White House just joined TikTok

While it was President Joe Biden who signed the law that would force ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok or face a ban, it’s his successor, Donald Trump, who has yet to fulfill his promise of arranging a deal to keep TikTok running, legally, in the United States. The current deadline for a deal is September 17th. Still, it hasn’t stopped Trump’s administration from creating @WhiteHouse on TikTok, which published its first post on Tuesday night: a video celebrating Trump’s accomplishments. The

Vendors that treat single sign-on as a luxury feature

Why does this exist? Single sign-on (SSO) is a mechanism for outsourcing the authentication for your website (or other product) to a third party identity provider, such as Google, Okta, Entra ID (Azure AD), PingFederate, etc. In this context, SSO refers to a SaaS or similar vendor allowing a business client to manage user accounts via the client’s own identity provider, without having to rely on the vendor to provide strong authentication with audit logs, and with the ability to create and del

PyPI now blocks domain resurrection attacks used for hijacking accounts

The Python Package Index (PyPI) has introduced new protections against domain resurrection attacks that enable hijacking accounts through password resets. PyPI is the official repository for open-source Python packages. It is used by software developers, product maintainers, and companies working with Python libraries, tools, and frameworks. Accounts of project maintainers publishing software on PyPI are linked to email addresses. In the case of some projects, the email address is tied to a do

The SSO Wall of Shame – Vendors that treat SSO as luxury feature

Why does this exist? Single sign-on (SSO) is a mechanism for outsourcing the authentication for your website (or other product) to a third party identity provider, such as Google, Okta, Entra ID (Azure AD), PingFederate, etc. In this context, SSO refers to a SaaS or similar vendor allowing a business client to manage user accounts via the client’s own identity provider, without having to rely on the vendor to provide strong authentication with audit logs, and with the ability to create and del

How to undo a reconciliation in QuickBooks Online - the easy way

Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images ZDNET's key takeaways QuickBooks hides reconciliation undo features from normal users. Reversing old reconciliations requires undoing them in sequence. Switching into Accountant mode unlocks the secret "Undo" option. Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium browsers. Regardless of the size of your company, one of the most important accounting tasks you can do is a regular reconciliation. This is

PyPI Preventing Domain Resurrection Attacks

Preventing Domain Resurrection Attacks Summary PyPI now checks for expired domains to prevent domain resurrection attacks, a type of supply-chain attack where someone buys an expired domain and uses it to take over PyPI accounts through password resets. These changes improve PyPI's overall account security posture, making it harder for attackers to exploit expired domain names to gain unauthorized access to accounts. Since early June 2025, PyPI has unverified over 1,800 email addresses when

MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW, but the Web Domain Is for Korean Snowmobiles

Cable news channel MSNBC is going to rebrand as My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW, according to a new report from the New York Times. The change is happening because Comcast’s NBCUniversal is spinning off many of its cable TV assets into a new company called Versant, severing ties with the “NBC” part of MSNBC. But it’s not yet clear where you’ll be able to find MS NOW on the web. That’s because the web domain msnow.com is registered in Gyeonggi, South Korea by someone who is clearly not t

Angry, confused and worried about police – behind Instagram bans

Angry, confused and worried about police – behind Instagram bans 13 hours ago Share Save Graham Fraser Technology Reporter Share Save Getty Images The banning of accounts has left an emotional impact on people Instagram users have told the BBC of their confusion, fear and anger after having their accounts suspended, often for being wrongly accused by parent company Meta of breaching the platform's child sex abuse rules. For months, tens of thousands of people around the world have been compla

Instagram users angry and confused as Meta overturns yet more account bans

Instagram users angry and confused as Meta overturns yet more account bans 7 hours ago Share Save Graham Fraser Technology Reporter Share Save Getty Images The banning of accounts has left an emotional impact on people Instagram users have told the BBC of their confusion, fear and anger after having their accounts suspended, often for being wrongly accused by parent company Meta of breaching the platform's child sex abuse rules. For months, tens of thousands of people around the world have be

Open Banking and Payments Competition

Much of the operation of the financial industry is legible to people outside of it. Your credit card works basically like you understand it to (excepting the occasional mythmaking about second order consequences). Debates about what terms banks are allowed to offer on credit cards are fairly straightforward and can be easily followed by non-specialists. But some issues are under the hood, and a societal debate about them doesn’t exactly wear its consequences on its sleeves. Consider the controv

PSA: YouTube will start guessing your age from today (Updated)

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR YouTube will start estimating the age of its US viewers beginning today, August 13. The platform will use AI to determine if you are under 18 and automatically apply age-appropriate experiences to your account. You can dispute the age estimation by providing a government ID, selfie, or a credit card. Update, August 13, 2025 (4:59 PM ET): Just as promised, YouTube’s new age checks have gone live, and users are already reporting running into restrictio

You’re not making the most of YouTube and YouTube Premium if you’re not using this trick

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority Back in April, I watched dozens of YouTube videos about Budapest before traveling there. When I returned home, my YouTube home page was still full of Budapest videos, and although I haven’t clicked on any since then, I still get them in my recommendations to this day. The same happened when I obsessed over lawnmowers before buying one, and the Ninja Woodfire grill before I splurged on it. YouTube keeps recommending videos for things I was momentarily intrigued

One of Google’s YouTube channels looks like it was hacked to promote crypto

Ryan Haines / Android Authority TL;DR An official Google YouTube account was taken offline today. Evidence suggests that Google India’s primary YouTube channel was hijacked by hackers. Screenshots show the account promoting crypto trading prior to going offline. Security is hard. Even with all the fantastic tools we have access to, designed to help keep our accounts and information private, actually maintaining good security requires ongoing effort, making sure we’re taking full advantage of

How I got another 15GB of Gmail storage at no cost (and without losing old files)

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Every new Google email account comes with 15GB of free storage -- a solid offer at no cost. However, that space can fill up fast, especially since it also covers files in Google Drive and Google Photos. If your inbox is cluttered with unread newsletters and sneaky spam, there's a way to clean house without losing important messages. With the right approach, you can preserve what matters while giving yourself a fresh start. Also: Gmail is making it a whole lot easi

'Chairmen' of $100 million scam operation extradited to US

The U.S. Department of Justice charged four Ghanaian nationals for their roles in a massive fraud ring linked to the theft of over $100 million in romance scams and business email compromise attacks. The defendants were allegedly high-ranking members of a major international fraud ring based in Ghana that targeted companies and individuals across the United States between 2016 and May 2023. Isaac Oduro Boateng (also known as "Kofi Boat"), Inusah Ahmed ("Pascal"), Derrick Van Yeboah ("Van"), an

Dial-up Internet to be discontinued

AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet. This service will no longer be available in AOL plans. As a result, on September 30, 2025 this service and the associated software, the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, which are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections, will be discontinued. This change will not affect any other benefits in your AOL plan, which you can access any time on your AOL plan dash