whatsapp

WhatsApp’s New Business Directory Search Function

WhatsApp has given a progress update on new business-focused features that can embed the entire shopping experience directly into the WhatsApp chat.  Find A Business – Browse Businesses By Category  WhatsApp says that it is launching…
Parliament

UK Could Be Like Silicon Valley Says Hunt

Speaking in the House of Commons, UK chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt said that Brexit “freedoms” could be leveraged to “turn Britain into the world’s next Silicon Valley.”  How?  Mr Hunt highlighted…

Google’s New Features For Maps, Search And Shopping

Following the roll-out of a range of new features for Google’s Maps, Search and shopping, we take a look at what they are and what benefits they could bring to users.  Two New Features For Shopping  It’s the ideal time of year…
sustainability

How Investment In Sustainability Could Protect Against Disruption

After a new report published which says that most business leaders plan to increase investment in sustainability initiatives to protect against disruption, we look at what this means.  Report  A recent Gartner report highlighted…
patch panel

Data Centres In Space?

A feasibility study is to be carried out into whether solar powered data centres could be put into orbit to reduce their carbon footprint.  Who And What?  The European Commission has chosen Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between…

Tech Tip – Set Pages To Load Automatically In Chrome 

If you'd like to save time by making your most often used and/or favourite pages load automatically whenever you open Google Chrome, here's how: In Chrome, click on the three dots top-right and select 'Settings'.In the left-hand menu select…
twitter

What Is Twitter’s ‘Blue Tick’ All About?

Following announcements that Twitter under Musk will generate revenue by blue tick subscriptions, we look at what this means and at the blue tick chaos that followed the announcement.  What Is this ‘Blue Tick’ ?  Twitter’s…
Meta

Meta Cuts 13% Of Its Workforce

Meta has announced that it is laying off a masive 13 per cent of its workforce globally in re-structuring market uncertainty about the Metaverse vision.  Losses Lead To Layoffs  Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the 11,000-employee…
robot hand
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Amazon’s Sparrow Robot Could Replace Humans

Amazon is reported to be testing the machine learning ‘Sparrow’ robot arm that could handle 65 percent of its 100+ million diverse parcels.   Challenge  Although Amazon already uses robot arms called ‘Robin’ and ‘Cardinal’…
meeting

Zoom Hopes New Features Make It “One Stop Shop”

Zoom has announced that its new (beta) productivity tools, Zoom Mail and Calendar (clients and Services), combined with its existing features will mean that workers will have everything they need in one app.  Give Workers A ‘Toggle…
meat

Environmental Benefits Of Lab-Grown Meat

With lab-grown, cultivated meat looking as though it could tackle environmental and animal welfare issues, we look at the Dutch origins of this new produce, its benefits, and how tech has played an important role in creating the product.  What…

Tech Tip – Convert Picture Of A Data Table To A Usable One In Excel

Microsoft Excel is still one of the world's most widely used data tools and a new feature (for desktop), 'Data from Picture', means that you can now import a picture of a data table and convert it into a usable one within Excel. Here’s how: Save…
eyes
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‘PimEyes’ Search-By-Photo Stalker Scare

Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch has filed a complaint to the ICO that the face recognition search engine PimEyes may be unlawful, plus it could be enabling surveillance and stalking.  What Is PimEyes?  PimEyes is a search…
whatsapp

WhatsApp Launches ‘Communities’

Meta’s WhatsApp has announced the global rollout of it ‘Communities’ feature along with in-chat polls, 32-person video calling, and groups with up to 1024 users.  Communities  The Communities feature, for iOS and Android,…
microphone

Speech Recognition And Voice Commands

In this insight, we look at how you can use voice commands to carry out tasks in Windows, plus how speech recognition technology can be used for voice control of different systems and devices.  How Does Speech / Voice Recognition Work?  Voice…
smartspeaker

What Is ‘Matter’ ?

Here we look at what Matter 1.0 is, its advantages for the IoT and setting up a smart home (or office), and what its current limitations are.  What Is Matter?  Released just recently this October, Matter 1.0 is the new open standard…
robofish

Microplastic-Eating Robot Fish Takes To The Water

A prototype of an award-winning robotic fish design that filters water to trap microplastics has now been tested in lakes as well as the lab.  Gilbert Wins  Eleanor Mackintosh’s design for the glow-in-the-dark, water-filtering…
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Tech Tip – Stop Password Risk From Google’s Enhanced Spellcheck

It’s been reported that if you have Google’s Enhanced Spellcheck enabled, it could be sending everything you type to Google’s servers, including passwords. Here’s how to stop that from happening:  To check if you have enabled…
LinkedIn

New Features To Tackle Fake LinkedIn Accounts

Microsoft’s Social media platform LinkedIn has announced the introduction of new security features to help verify, identity, detect, and remove fake accounts, all aimed at boosting authenticity.  Problem With Fake Accounts  Back…
5g
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Tech News : Overhyped And A Long Wait For 5G Benefits

A recent Uswitch.com study has concluded that 5G connectivity has been overhyped, with many users yet to experience any real improvements in mobile speed or reliability.  Overstated  The study found that:  One in six mobile…
coder
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What Is A Discord Server?

In this insight, we look at what a ‘Discord server’ is, how to set one up, and the pros and cons of Discord servers.  What Is It?  Launched in 2015, ‘Discord’ (https://discord.com/) is a (free to access) voice, video and…
twitter

Twitter Takeover

After finally buying Twitter, firing the CEO, dissolving the Board, plus naming himself sole director and “Chief Twit,” we look at what’s happening at Twitter and where it could be heading.  Twitter Takeover  Following many…
chemicals

An End For Forever Chemicals

In what could be a huge step forward for environmental clean-ups, a team of researchers from the University of Washington has created a new technique for destroying so-called ‘forever chemicals’.  What Are Forever Chemicals?  ‘Forever…

Tech Tip – Free Online Image Editor

If you’re looking for a free, online image editor with plenty of functionality, you may want to try Photopea.  With Photopea, you can edit photos, apply effects, filters, add text, and crop or resize pictures in your browser. It supports…