Journalists most important tech influencers in TytoTech 500 – Chris Price in at 51!

I was delighted to make it into Tyto PR‘s annual Tyto Tech 500 list of #tech influencers once again, squeezing into 51st place between Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis and Last Minute co-founder Brent Hoberman. Not bad company to keep I’d say.

Indeed, the number of journalists placed in the Tech 500 ranking this year has risen by 38% since 2021 and we now make up 198 of the 500 most influential individuals in the list.

The Tech 500 identifies the most influential individuals in the technology sector across the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.

The pan-European Tech 500 reveals that influential figures predominantly come from four major tech sectors: General Tech, EnterpriseTech, FinTech, and ConsumerTech. This collectively constitutes over half (58%) of the total influencers ranked in the Tyto Tech 500 and mirrors the previous year, where these sectors similarly commanded the top positions.

However, two sectors have demonstrated remarkable growth in influence in recent years: SpaceTech and Cybersecurity. In two years, the number of influencers related to SpaceTech has risen by 350% and Cybersecurity by 43%.

Here are the top 10 influencers in the UK for 2023:

1. Richard Branson – Founder, Virgin

2. George Freeman – UK Minister of State for Science, Research, Technology and Innovation

3. Alok Sharma – President, COP26

4. Jonathan Brearley – CEO, Ofgem

5. Patrick Vallance – Non-Executive Director, ARIA

6. Helen Dickinson – CEO, British Retail Consortium

7. Sarah Butler – Retail Correspondent, The Guardian

8. Mark Carney – Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, United Nations

9. John Edwards – Information Commissioner, Information Commissioner’s Office

10. Dan Milmo – Global Technology Editor, The Guardian

Infrastructure under attack!

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I’m enjoying writing for IFSEC Global – a business publication aimed at those in the security industry, which combines both physical and cybersecurity with fire safety.

In this piece – my third article for the Informa publication – I look at the risk posed to our critical national infrastructure following the recent attack on the Oldsmar water plant in Flordia. Here a cyber attacker was able to adjust water levels remotely to dangerously high acidic levels.

Could the same happen in the UK? In a word: yes. Thanks to the rise of remote working (partly as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic) and the increasing prevalence of IoT technology within Industry 4.0, the risks are now greater than ever before.

In this article I interview several leading industry experts about the threat our critical national infrastructure faces and their comments are very concerning.

How to protect our critical infrastructure from attack

12 things that have changed since cycling in the ’80s

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It’s been a long time since I last rode a bike on the road, at least for any length of time. Probably around 30 years. While I like to consider myself a very sporty person, cycling is one thing that I’ve never really fancied doing in London. It just doesn’t seem that much fun with all the traffic on the road.

But since taking delivery of my first E-Bike (the £1600 Volt Pulse) I’ve decided to get back in the saddle and give cycling another go. I’ve quite enjoyed it (having a motor for those north London streets definitely helps), but here’s what I’ve learned from regular road cycling over the last few weeks:

1. Bike seats are really hard – Perhaps it’s because my first bike was a Chopper which had a nice large saddle and was very comfortable, but I’ve got a very numb bum indeed from the saddle on this bike and I don’t think it’s any harder than any other bike. Maybe it’s like when you learn to play the guitar and the tips of your fingers ache until you get used to it.

2 Bikes are difficult to climb onto – Is it just me or is getting on a bike a lot more difficult than it used to be? I’m sure it must be to do with ageing, but whereas I can still run, play football and swim regularly, getting on a bike for me is actually very difficult. I’ve taken to jumping on it from behind like an unruly horse, rather than swinging my leg around the saddle! And yes before you ask the saddle isn’t too high for the bike.

3. Traffic is ridiculous – I know it’s stating the bleeding obvious, but there are cars everywhere and they’re very scary. In a large car, other cars simply don’t chance it. On a bike you are literally bottom of the food-chain it seems and fair game for everyone to pull out in front of or open the car door into. Thankfully nothing’s happened yet (I’ve just given a lot of drivers my Paddington hard stare) but can understand why safety organisations encourage the Dutch Reach technique of opening car doors.

4. Speed-bumps aren’t my friend – In a reasonably big car I simply glide over speed-bumps. Not so on a bike. It feels like every large speed-bump is like a mini mountain I have to hurdle. As for pot holes, don’t even get me started. They’re the arch-enemy. Continue reading →

Sunday Telegraph: STEM Awards 2019 supplement, AI in the NHS

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Sunday Telegraph Apologies for the radio silence but I really have been incredibly busy recently, mostly writing about Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and the Internet of Things.

Here’s a piece that was published in a Sunday Telegraph supplement yesterday (November 25th, 2018) about how the NHS can use AI technology to save money and improve its service – especially important given the increased pressure it is under from us all living longer.

According to Frost & Sullivan’s Social Innovation in Healthcare report, the number of people aged 65 or older worldwide is projected to grow from an estimated 524 million in 2010 to nearly 1.5 billion in 2050. And during this period, total health and long term care costs are set to double to nearly 13pc of GDP among OECD countries.

Although not without its problems – as a recent investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) into the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust sending data to Google’s DeepMind showed – technology can help bridge this funding gap by making health services run more efficiently, diagnosing illnesses more quickly, even providing care for the elderly.

According to a recent report by former health minister Lord Darzi, the NHS could save £12.5bn a year by fully automating repetitive and administrative tasks, such as communicating medical notes, booking appointments and processing prescriptions.

In September, the UK Government also announced £17million of funding for projects that it claims could revolutionise healthcare. These included a program combining AI and GPS tracking to match the availability of beds and porters in hospitals as well as a 3D printing technology for tablets and smartphone apps to monitor and improve the treatment of long-term complex wounds.

Celebrating 25 years of Goodwood FOS with autonomous cars!

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2018-07 July 13 Roborace Goodwood FoS-Run-02_hr

Pictured above Roborace which became the first ever autonomous vehicle to complete the Goodwood Hill Climb

This year the Goodwood Festival of Speed (FOS) celebrated its Silver Anniversary. During this time it has firmly established itself as the UK’s premier motor show, beating off competition from the British International Motor Show held at various venues in its long history from 1903 to 2008.

It’s not difficult to see the appeal either. Rather than just viewing cars in a sterile exhibition hall, like Birmingham’s NEC (where I spent many a happy year with my Dad back in the 1970s), you actually get to see, even sit inside, a lot of the cars in the open in a massive setting.

Great if it’s lovely and sunny like it was last weekend, not so good perhaps in the pouring rain which we normally experience in the final week of Wimbledon!

So big a setting is Goodwood in fact that it takes you several hours to cover the various areas on foot (and a fair amount of time to get in the venue too if you are driving which most people are).

Think of it as the Glastonbury for car buffs with various fields dedicated to different types of cars – much like different musical genres or bands. Some people even camp all weekend, as with a music festival, because there really is such a lot to look at.

Best of all you can see many of the cars racing throughout the day up the famous Goodwood Hill Climb – a stretch of race track measuring 1.86Km (1.16 miles) taking you past the beautiful Goodwood House, the seat of the Duke of Richmond.

As well as thousands of classic cars, race cars, motorbikes and even some planes and helicopters, all the major car manufacturers have vast stands at Goodwood (I was at this year’s show as a guest of Ford). This included Tesla which was showing off its latest, ‘affordable’ electric Model 3 car which should be available next year for a price of around £35,000.

There’s also a section at Goodwood called the Future Lab where you can see future developments in travel. Here I got to play with a very shiny lunar module from Japan-based iSpace which is hoping to become the first private company to launch a module to investigate the surface of the moon in 2020.

Pictured with the latest and very powerful Ford Mustang which I got to drive around during the Goodwood Festival of Speed, courtesy of Ford.

I also got to see the latest delivery drones used by companies such as DHL to take parcels to remote areas which are difficult to access by road (ie. the Swiss Alps) as well as a completely autonomous race car called Roborace (pictured at the top of the page and below).

Indeed at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed Roborace made history by becoming the very first car to achieve the Goodwood Hill Climb without a driver (not even a midget one hidden inside as someone suggested).

Designed by Daniel Simon, the automotive futurist best known for his work in Hollywood films such as Oblivion and Tron, the extremely low-slung vehicle (it’s amazing how low you can make it when you don’t need a human) expertly navigated flint walls and bales of hay on the Goodwood estate using a variety of sensors on Friday 13th of all days!

Roborace’s time wasn’t too shoddy either, averaging a little over 60 miles per hour to complete the testing course in around 1 minute 30 seconds (OK it’s a little off the record of 41.6 seconds set by a racing driver, but it’s still not bad).

Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for the semi-autonomous Ford Mustang with humans inside. Developed by Siemens in conjunction with engineers from Cranfield University, it did eventually make it to the top of the hill but only in a time of over 4 minutes and only after an altercation with several bales of hay – see pic below.

autonomous-1965-ford-mustang-at-goodwood

While the future of cars on the road may well be autonomous it seems we’ve got a few more years of enjoying car shows like the Goodwood Festival of Speed, complete with fully functioning human drivers on the road, first!

Stunning Portugal scenery in the new Audi A6

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Screen Shot 2018-05-25 at 11.34.38

Just got back from a great trip with Audi taking their latest A6 for a spin around the mountain roads of the Douro Valley near Porto.

I’m going to write a full review next week, but suffice to say for now it’s a great car – although probably one for the corporate executive who is more likely to be at home on the motorway than on mountainous country roads!

For a start it’s quite a big beast of a motor, plenty of room inside and quite wide. However, it handles very well and comes with plenty of power (3 litre engine as standard though a smaller 2 litre is available).

I liked it primarily because of the onboard tech which is getting more and more advanced. There’s touch screen control with haptic response of course (so you can feel the movement of the buttons) as well as voice control.

Press the talk button on the steering wheel and ask for a pizza restaurant and it will tell you where the nearest one is. Say you are feeling cold and it will even turn the heating up automatically for you in the cabin.

There are also a whole host of great assist features for driving including 360 degree cameras which really help with parking and assisted cruise control which will keep you a safe distance from the vehicle in front.

It really is quite a clever car although all of this intelligence doesn’t come cheap so you better get saving!

You can read the full review on Shiny Shiny here.

Fellow journalists hard at work

Coworth Park: Luxurious surroundings for a luxury DS car launch

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I recently went to the very lovely Coworth Park near Ascot, on the borders of Berkshire and Surrey. It’s a strange part of the world in some ways, a beautiful bit of countryside nestled between some not so beautiful parts of the world – I’m looking at you Bracknell and Slough!

Like a lot of country houses that have been converted into hotels, Coworth Park is predictably stunning. But what I thought was amazing was the attention to detail, from the sweeping wooden staircase to the interior control lighting in each of the bedrooms and a free standing copper bath in the bathroom.

Then of course there’s the spa which is quite simply out of this world – especially the large and beautifully lit pool which you can see pictured above.

I was there with a company called DS Automobiles who I must admit I knew very little about before going on the trip. But basically it’s a luxury car brand from France named after the iconic Citroen DS, first launched in the 1950s.

And although it’s difficult to get as excited by the design of the latest DS car, the DS 7 Crossback SUV (pictured above in the grounds on a rainy Wednesday), there’s no denying it’s a luxurious vehicle inside.

Quite simply it’s stuffed to the gills with tech including 14 Focal loudspeakers and a load of semi-autonomous driving and safety features including Night Vision mode (handy if you don’t want to run over deer on the country roads).

What I particularly liked though were the car’s massage seats which were very comfortable indeed – perhaps a little too comfortable for driving – and the detailing of the interior upholstery.

Like Coworth Park itself, there’s certainly no shortage of luxury with this latest DS car – a lot more Ascot than Slough.

You can read my full review here on my tech website, Tech Digest: https://www.techdigest.tv/2018/02/review-ds-7-crossback.html

Are dockless bikes the future for city transport?

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Although I’m not a cyclist by any means, I am fascinated by the culture around cycling. In particular, the whole rise of dockless bikes systems which I must admit I knew nothing about until I met up with the guys from Ofo.

It’s actually a fascinating company. Started in China about four years, Ofo (so called because the letters look a little like a person cycling) is now available in 20 countries and around 250 cities (Sheffield being the latest one in the UK, following on from the roll out in Cambridge, Oxford, Norwich and parts of London).

Using the app, you can locate the bright yellow bikes on the street (they are shown as yellow dots on the map). As long as you’ve got your credit card details stored, you can then unlock the bike by scanning in its QR code.

Prices seem very good: 50p for half an hour (compared with £2 on a Boris Bike) and the bike itself is lightweight with a shopping basket, lights (powered by a dynamo) and three gears – good enough for most areas of London.

The only downside is that the punctureless tyres are a little hard which can make the ride a bit of a bone shaker, especially if you are going over cobbled streets.

You can read my full review here: https://www.shinyshiny.tv/2018/01/review-ofo-dockless-bicycle-system.html

Beatboxing in 360 VR. Whatever next?

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I may be showing my age, but when I first started off as a tech journalist back in the early 1990s, TVs were virtually square, weighed a ton, and most people were listening to grunge music coming out of Seattle.

Nearly 30 years later, everyone has a super light flat widescreen TV and early adopters (admittedly mostly gamers at the moment) are getting into virtual reality headsets for an even more immersive experience. Thankfully the music has changed a fair bit too!

For the last few weeks I’ve been working with Kodak, testing out its little VR camera, the Kodak PixPro 4K VR360 and looking for different types of content to shoot in 360 to do it justice.

Obviously the first things that spring to mind are action videos which is why we went to Go Ape to film as well as a skateboard park in Tottenham.

Both were great in showing off the immersive experience of 360 filming, although shooting with a camera strapped to your head or holding it as you negotiate a zip wire (especially if you a broken hand like my son did at the time) are never easy. Thankfully we didn’t break the camera though!

Live music in VR

However, what interests me are alternative uses for VR and 360 outside of the obvious genres. For example, YouTube now has its own virtual reality channel where you can check out thousands of the latest 360 videos in different categories.

These include a live MTV version of Ed Sheeran singing Shape of You at the 2017 VMAs and, for those of a certain age, Duran Duran’s performing Hungry Like The Wolf filmed to commemorate this year’s Duran Duran Appreciation Day (#DDAD17) – who knew?

In both you can choose to see a close up of the performers on stage or pan round and check out the audiences just as you would do if you were there in real life (there is of course a considerable difference in age between the two audiences!)

For our 360 video, filmed with the Kodak PixPro, we chose to hire the talents of our very own wolf: Frankie Rowley-Walker, a.k.a Wolfie.

In the video below he shows off his beatboxing skills in full VR 360 (you can check out his own music channel here //soundcloud.com/user-27733578.)

And while the audience is a little smaller than for Ed Sheeran and Duran Duran (just two cameramen and a stray dog), the experience is nevertheless very immersive.

Sometimes I miss the early 1990s. But I must admit when it comes to the size of the TVs and the music, I much prefer 2017!

You can see Frankie performing in our YouTube video below:

And if you want the full 360 experience with footage taken entirely from the Kodak PixPro VR360 then go here:

You can see all of the videos shot with the Kodak PixPro camera here.

Telegraph (22/11/17) – Taking on the money launderers

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money laundering.png
Great to have a full page in yesterday’s Telegraph Business Section on money laundering. It’s such a massive topic at the moment and such a huge problem around the world – but especially in the UK because of its reputation as a financial services centre.

Although money laundering has been around since the beginning of time, it’s now estimated to cost the UK government a whopping £80 billion a year in lost revenue – obviously money that could be spent on hospitals and schools.

While technology, especially cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, may be helping money launderers hide their ill gotten gains, it’s also helping banks and governments spot suspicious transactions more easily using artificial intelligence/machine learning.

In this article I interview BAE Systems’ Rob Horton about how they are helping financial institutions to take a more proactive approach to detecting money laundering in their organisations.

You can read the full article by clicking on the link below:

BAESystems.FP.DB.2311 (1)

Experiencing London in virtual reality with the Kodak PixPro 4K VR360

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KodakPixPro 2

For the last few weeks my son Archie and I have been busy filming in and around London for a series of YouTube videos.

You see, we’ve partnered with Kodak on two of my tech blogs, TechDigest.tv and ShinyShiny.tv to produce four themed videos designed to showcase what their latest VR camera, the Kodak 4K VR360 can do.

Despite the weather not always being that great, it’s been good fun so far, acting like a tourist and filming the likes of Buckingham Palace and Big Ben.

Yesterday we were in a nearby wood filming the leaves falling from the trees and dogs sniffing around the camera while next weekend sees us travelling to the newly opened Go Ape adventure park at Alexandra Palace to bring you VR footage from the high ropes.

You can see our first ‘taster’ video below with another, London’s Top 10 VR landmarks, due later this week.

While this first one isn’t filmed completely in VR, look out for future videos in the series for which you will need your Google Cardboard type headsets or Oculus Rift to enjoy fully.

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Review: Paddington 2 movie

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The follow-up to the 2014 movie sees Paddington in trouble once again, this time as he tries to get his paws on a pop up book for Aunt Lucy’s birthday. Paddington aficionado Chris Price reviews this perfect heart-warming family film for ShinyShiny.

First of all, I must declare an interest. I’ve loved Paddington since the original TV series of the 1970s, inspired by the Michael Bond books of the 1950s onwards.

What I loved – apart from the depiction of Paddington as this naïve, trusting and very polite outsider – was the animation.

Only Paddington was depicted in complete 3D whereas the others were coloured cardboard cut outs in front of a black and white backdrop. It was distinctive and simple, but I think worked well for the 5 minute long short stories on TV.

You can read the full review here.

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The MG GS – an MG but not as we know and love it

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For the last 10 days or so I’ve been riding around in this SUV. Which means I’ve been able, quite literally, to look down on other road users, and generally drive around like I own the place.

Actually it’s not been too bad. I’ve quite enjoyed the elevated driving position, although when it comes to parking I’ve been worried that I’m going to crush the vehicle behind me – even with a rearview camera and screen which I don’t quite trust.

What I can’t quite get over though is that this big beast is actually an MG. Yes the same manufacturer which brought us the MGB GT – a classic car which I owned in the 1990s and loved on the odd occasion when it actually started – is responsible for something which is so completely and utterly different. The absolute opposite in fact.

The reason for this, of course, is that MG is no longer Morris Garages but owned by SAIC, China’s largest vehicle manufacturer. As a result, the new owner is in the process of rolling out several new models which seem to have very little in common with the original MG ethos.

Maybe that’s a good thing? Maybe people don’t care about funky looking sports cars anymore and just want practical SUVs to put their kids, their shopping and their dogs in? Especially if they have a reasonable price tag attached – this SUV costs from a little over £15K on the road though the model I tested was nearer £20K.

But it seems a shame to buy a brand like MG and not to design something a little more, well, in keeping with the heritage. It’s OK but there’s really very little to distinguish it from a Nissan Qashqai or KIA Sportage and that to me seems a bit of a missed opportunity.

In short it handles well, has bags of features and a decent leather trim. But it lacks a little in power, has quite a small boot for a big car (see pic above) and doesn’t really get the heart pounding.

Of course it’s early days for the new MG (I haven’t seen a single new MG on the road since I took delivery of this MG S) and, in the words of D:Ream, things can only get better.

Certainly the MG E-motion, the electric supercar concept unveiled at the Shanghai motor show in April (pictured below) looks more like what I would expect a bang up to date MG to look like.

And I can’t wait to get hold of one of these. Bugger practicality and an elevated driving position. Give me a car that makes me feel like I’m 20 again bombing round the streets. But if you could make it a bit more reliable than my MGB GT please I’d be grateful!

Full review to follow on TechDigest.tv later this week.

Huawei Eco-Connect Europe 2017: Connected cows, delivery drones and more!

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You’ve probably never heard of Huawei, pronounced Waa-Wey. But chances you will have come across them at some point and not realised.

As well as manufacturing various digital set-top boxes, including the YouView box rolled out by TalkTalk in the UK, the Chinese giant is also the world’s third largest mobile phone manufacturer.

Earlier in the year I was fortunate enough to be invited to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona by Huawei and was given one of their P10 smart phones. And I can honestly say it has the best digital camera I’ve ever seen on a smartphone – much better than the iPhone 7.

This time, I’ve come to Huawei’s Eco Connect Conference in Berlin to find out what some of their commercial partners are up to for a piece I’m writing on digital banking for The Telegraph. I’ll also be writing up some of the content for my own tech blog, Tech Digest.

Yesterday I learned all about various applications for the Internet of Things, iOT, most memorably how they work with agriculture tech companies to make dairy farming more efficient.

Not only do farmers can use IoT sensors to detect when a calf is born in order to ensure everything is OK, they also know when is the best time for a cow to mate with a bull – the ideal ‘rutting’ period as it’s known!

Less graphic perhaps was finding out about applications for narrowband IoT, a low power wide area network which can be even be used underground to monitor water usage/wastage for the development of smart cities.

Today, it was the turn of companies like DHL to show how they are using augmented reality glasses, drones and robotic trolleys to make the process of sorting items at their depots more efficient. DHL is even using drones to send important deliveries such as medicines to mountainous regions in the Alps, cutting down delivery time from days to minutes.

But you’ll be pleased to know it hasn’t all been work, work, work. I’ve also had time to take in Berlin, a city I’ve been coming to on and off for 25 years. Yesterday we went to former Eastern Berlin where I took this picture below of the famous Fernsehturm TV tower near Alexanderplatz.

Built in the 1960s by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as a symbol of Communist power, it’s easily the most striking of Berlin’s buildings. It’s fair to say though that technology has moved on a little bit in the last 50 years with many of us now watching TV programmes over IP (Internet Protocol) – via our Chinese manufactured Huawei set-top boxes of course!

Alexanderplatz

Digital Assistants: Alexa v Google v Apple

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There really is so much to say about voice recognition technology that I don’t think you can do it justice in a 1000 words. But I gave it a go in this piece for Tech Radar which briefly compares Amazon Alexa with Google Assistant and Apple Siri.

Personally I love my little Amazon Echo Dot, which I use mostly for playing music and checking the weather. But Google seems to be catching up fast with Google Assistant on its Google Home devices.

Arguably, Google Home is probably better for multiple users in the same house and is more intelligent than Amazon Alexa. However, it isn’t compatible with anywhere near as many home automation devices. Yet.

Certainly, Amazon is leading the way in terms of sales of Alexa products following a trajectory that is looking to outstrip that of Apple iPhone in the early days. Could the next couple of years see digital assistants become as ubiquitous as the smartphone?

I don’t think it’s beyond the realms of possibility, especially with units costing from £49.

As for Apple with Siri, it seems that the company is now at the back of the pack. While Siri was introduced well before its rivals back in 2011, Apple fails to have capitalised on its early lead.

Will its promised smart speaker, the HomePod, be a case of too little, too late? Personally I think so.

You can read my full article here.

How technology can help improve our health and save money

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healthcare Inevitably, the cost of health care is rising dramatically as people are living longer. Obviously this is putting pressure on health systems across the world, including the NHS.

However, technology can play its part in improving our health and reducing costs, for example by analysing ‘big data’ to improve patient outcomes and by the introduction of telemedicine – where it’s possible to monitor patients remotely.

In this piece for the Telegraph’s Social Innovation Forum, taking place on November 28th, I interview Rachel Dunscombe, Chief Information Officer of Salford’s Royal NHS Trust about some of the initiatives they have been working on to improve patient outcomes.

You can read the full interview here.

Taking a trip with Olympus. Getting creative with the new E-M10 Mark III.

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Yesterday I spent a nice afternoon taking pictures on board a boat cruising down The Thames, courtesy of Olympus. I was essentially there to test out its latest digital camera, the Olympus E-M10 Mark III which meant taking lots and lots of pics of London’s iconic buildings and generally behaving like a tourist .

It’s an interesting mirrorless camera, half way between a standard compact and a digital SLR. Aimed at people like me who are perhaps bored of smartphone photography and want to move onto something which offers more creativity but without the bulk, it offers plenty of manual features including the ability to set your own aperture and shutter speed.

It’s also got lots and lots of filters including two black and white film filters which as you can see from the examples below I really enjoyed using.

Will the iPhone 8 be the first £1000 phone?

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Amazingly it’s 10 years since the first iPhone launched and it’s highly likely that Apple will mark the occasion next week with the announcement of the iPhone 8, a dummy model of which (apparently) is pictured above on the right.

As you might expect the iPhone 8 is widely expected to have all the latest bells and whistles including an OLED screen that goes right to the edge pretty much, a dual camera system and, possibly, a glass back in order to enable wireless charging.

But what it will also have is an enormous price tag. Rumours have it that even the basic 64GB model will set you back $999 with the 512GB costing a cool $1199.

With the pound falling against the dollar, that means almost certainly you will be paying over £1000 for all but the very basic model.

A few years ago that would have seemed unthinkable, but then I suppose people routinely spend £1000 on computer equipment and for many the iPhone is just as valuable and just as useful.

I don’t think I will be rushing out to buy one just yet though.

8 things we know about the iPhone 8 already
Image courtesy of Marques Brownlee. See the iPhone 8 video here.

Daily Telegraph: It’s time to bridge the gender gap (19/7/17)

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According to statistics from the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) less than 10 per cent of the UK’s engineering workforce is female, the lowest anywhere in Europe. Yet at the same time, we face a massive skills shortage across the sector.

So what is being done to make engineering an attractive career option for women? And once we have got women into the industry how do we support them to return to work if they leave to have children, take a career break or care for elderly relatives?

These were just some of the questions posed to a panel of expert speakers at a recent roundtable event hosted by The Daily Telegraph and supported by BAE Systems.

You can read my full report in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph by clicking on the link below.

BAESystems.FP.DB.1907

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Keep ahead of the curve. Daily Telegraph, motoring section (1/7/2017)

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Thanks to The Daily Telegraph for running my piece on creating a ‘digital twin’ and how manufacturers like Maserati are now using Siemens’ technology to reduce the need for prototypes and to optimise production.

Says Brian Holliday, Siemens Managing Director, Digital Factory: “The digital twin not only enables people to visualise programmes and work together at much lower cost, it means that car manufacturers can make greater progress in designing, simulating and verifying before conducting testing in the real world.”

We’ve come a long way in car production since Henry Ford said way back in 1909 ‘you can have any colour you want as long as it’s black.’

Samsung Futurescape – What is the ‘new normal’?

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Most people probably know Samsung best for its range of mobile phones, but it’s fair to say that the Korean giant offers a wide range of tech solutions for businesses as well as consumers.

Recently I went along to the manufacturer’s Futurescape event on behalf of The Daily Telegraph to see how Samsung is working with companies on everything from Virtual Reality to Artificial Intelligence.

For example, one of Samsung’s partners is Thomas Cook which is introducing Gear VR headsets in some of its 700 stores to help bring holidays and holiday excursions to life when people are thinking about booking them.

Other exhibits at this year’s Futurescape included a start-up estate agent that is using VR to guide people through homes and a company using wearable devices, such as Samsung’s Gear 3 smart watches, to alert retailers if a VIP walks into the building.

Says Graham Long, Vice President, Samsung Electronics, UK and Ireland: “I used to apologise to our enterprise customers about Samsung being a predominantly business to consumer brand and our lack of business heritage, but now the behaviour of the market has swung completely to our advantage.”

You can read the full article here. Or see the content from the newspaper below.

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Daily Telegraph: Companies need to be more active in dealing with cyber security threat

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Too many companies take a compliance based view when it comes to IT. Rather than dealing with the potential cyber security threat, they are more concerned with putting in controls to protect their assets.

This needs to change, James Hatch, Director, Cyber Services, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence told me in a recent interview for The Daily Telegraph. He says that businesses, especially large businesses, need people in place who think more like attackers and the potential damage they could cause.

“We are still dealing with the same problem of how to protect the things we value in life,” he reckons. “People still want to want to steal from us, copy from us or disrupt our lifestyles; it’s just that technology has enabled them to do it more easily at scale.”

You can read the full interview here.

Underwater MP3 player reviews – now published

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swimmer2 Remember a little while ago I told you about some underwater MP3 players I’ve been testing in time for the summer? Well now they’ve been published on Tech Radar here.

Personally I prefer the Finis design (pictured above) which you don’t have to put in your ears – it uses bone conduction technology to transmit the audio across your cheekbones.

It’s more comfortable to wear and doesn’t move out of position which can be a problem if you are wearing earbuds. The downside is that it’s a little more expensive than some of the others at around £80 (see here).

Most of the designs work surprisingly well underwater providing you give them a bit of a clean after swimming. I recommend a spray like Muc Off to get rid of any excess water and for cleaning out the charging points which can become corroded over time.

One question that people always seem to ask me about these devices is ‘can you listen to audiobooks on them while swimming?’ The short answer is no. Many people have tried but most report disappointing results when listening to dialogue.

However, for music these devices are great and some of them are very cheap (not much more than £25). Although I would definitely recommend the Finis, it can only be used in the water – it’s not suitable for land use. If you want something that can be used for running or cycling, then perhaps look at a model like the i360 instead which does both jobs very well.

You can buy the Finis Duo here

10 things I remember about swimming in the 1970s

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What else to do on a rainy Bank Holiday Monday than reminisce about the 1970s when swimming meant burning your skin off with Vosene Shampoo, ducking each other’s heads under the water and throwing yourself off the 10m diving board without bellyflopping. Oh and public information films. Who remembers this one below about Dave who shamefully couldn’t swim and lost his ‘bird’ as a result? You can read the full feature here.

Furbo treat tossing dog camera! Of course

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I love gadgets. I love dogs. So what isn’t there to love about a treat tossing dog camera. Yes you did hear me right. The wonderfully named Furbo has come up with a gadget that lets you toss treats via the smart phone app to your furry friend.

So you could be sitting in a meeting bored out of your tiny mind when you decide to chuck a treat to your pet. Or if your dog is barking you can talk to him/her via the two-way audio provided.

Warning, at first the dog will freak out at the noise of the Furbo, but pretty soon they’ll get used to it. Also, the gadget does sometimes randomly spit out two or three treats so best to avoid if your dog is on a diet! Apart from that it’s great.

You can see my YouTube review video below.

‘Going back to nature’ in Nissan’s X-Trail SUV?!

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‘Let’s offroad’, said no one in a Nissan X-Trail, ever

Yesterday I ditched my 21st century gadgets and reverted to my inner caveman. I left the comfort of my warm home office and instead found myself learning how to use a type of fungus to light my own fires on an exceptionally cold day in Sussex (I think I’m still thawing out now.)

Only I didn’t. Not really. Basically it was all an elaborate, tongue-in-cheek publicity stunt to link Nissan’s latest 2 litre X-Trail SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) to the concept of Adventure with a capital A. Nevermind, that the biggest adventure this particular 4×4 will face is probably a trip to the admittedly quite steep Marks and Spencer’s car park in north London’s Muswell Hill.

The idea is that this is a vehicle for rugged, bearded, check shirt wearing, adventurer types who love nothing better than foraging for their own food and slinging a bit of roadkill on the back seat for supper. Not (of course) a relatively cheap and cheerful SUV which people will buy for the higher driving position and large amounts of legroom (as well as the fact there is the possibility of a dog-friendly edition for pet owners. See here).

OK I get it. But I must say that really I would much rather sit inside in front of a warm log fire, lit quickly with a Zippo, than rummaging around for bits of twigs and getting my hands dirty in dark bits of fungus that look suspiciously like sheep poo. In the same way as I would much rather make a call on my mobile than tie two bits of string together and put a tin can on either end.

Given the age we live in though, it’s perhaps not surprising to hear that there are even companies that specialise in these ‘back to nature’ excursions, including the one we were with: Hunt, Gather, Cook. A kind of culinary paintball for angst-ridden Londoners.

Founded around seven years ago by a guy who left a chef’s job in the capital and who described himself as a ‘fire enthusiast’ (don’t we call them arsonists), it specialises in taking people into the wilderness where they can learn different animal slaughter techniques. Nice.

For a man who had to hide in the bushes with three quarter length trousers and no socks in virtually sub-zero temperatures, the ‘bearded hipster’ was a surprisingly cheerful chap!

Thankfully as a vegetarian, I was spared having to kill any innocent creatures to satiate any primal needs. Instead, the biggest challenge I faced was finding a ‘bearded hipster’ in a farmer’s field, see picture above, and making a fire so that he could have a much needed soya cappuccino. It’s all in day’s work!

But the day wasn’t just spent larking around the countryside making fires and rescuing pretend, stranded hipsters. As well as genuinely taking the X-Trail off road – albeit on the nursery slopes compared to the black runs intended for more serious SUVs – I also interviewed a guy who is setting off in a modified Nissan Leaf on the 10,0000 mile Mongol Rally with only his wife for company. Now that’s a brave man.

You can read the story about the Mongol Rally here: http://www.techdigest.tv/2017/04/adventurer-chris-ramsey-to-undertake-10000-mile-mongol-rally-in-nissan-leaf-electric-car.html. Full YouTube video to follow.

I test out some of the best pet gadgets for ShinyShiny

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I really don’t need much of an excuse to write about pet gadgets. But as it’s #NationalPetDay in the US tomorrow, I thought I’d put together a feature on ShinyShiny, showcasing some of the best and most interesting out there.

What’s great is that thanks to the IoT (Internet of Things) any product can now become ‘smart’, whether that’s a dog collar or a camera so it’s now possible to monitor your pet more closely than ever before.

For example with a smart collar, available from a company like Nuzzle, you can track on a map exactly where your furry friend is. Furbo, on the other hand, takes things a little further, allowing you to talk to your dog via a two-way audio connection, view what they are getting up to in high definition video, even dispense treats from a machine!

Other smart devices for pets though I’m not so sure about including the Pellet which is basically a doorbell for pets. The idea is that the dog presses a big buzzer which sends an alert via an app to their owner that they want to go outside to play or go to the toilet! Sounds a little more hassle than its worth to me.

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Testing out swimming gear for the summer

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When I’m not teaching in secondary schools or writing freelance tech pieces I’m often swimming, usually during the Winter in the outdoor HEATED pool at David Lloyd in North Finchley.

But in the summertime I like to venture a little further afield and swim in lakes and the sea.

Sometimes I combine journalism with swimming (though not at the same time as the Mac gets a bit wet). So this month I’ve been testing out some new Arena gear I’ve been sent which you can read about on my swimming blog, Goggleblog here.

Next week I’ll also be testing out some underwater MP3 players or SwiMP3 players for gadget website, Tech Radar, now that I’ve finally got enough players that actually work! Watch this space.

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Now you can ‘photoshop’ your own selfies in seconds – thanks to ‘beautification’ mode

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The camera doesn’t lie. Or does it? For years we’ve been talking about ‘photoshopping’ models to make them look thin or remove their blemishes, but it’s now easier than ever before to do it with your own smartphone.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been playing with the latest Huawei P10. Although I’ve got massive reservations about the latest Android 7 platform after being so used to Apple iOS, I must admit that this phone is quite impressive – at least as far as the camera is concerned (I’m less impressed with the battery life but I’ll come back to that another time).

Like the iPhone 7, it’s got a dual lens camera system on the back which is great for creating arty pictures with a beautiful depth of field. One is monochrome (20 megapixels), the other colour (12 megapixels). What’s more both lenses are produced by Leica which is renowned for its high quality camera gear.

Another useful feature is the portrait mode which Huawei claims can track 190 points on a face. Handy if you want to airbrush a few of your imperfections in a few seconds!

Using the beautification tool, you can enlarge your eyes, whiten your teeth, even narrow your face. In addition you can improve your complexion and top up your tan at the same time.

Above you can see my before (left) and after (right) selfies. The effects are quite subtle and the picture is a little soft, but I especially like the teeth whitening feature which makes me look a bit more healthy. The bronzing feature works well too.

OK it hasn’t exactly turned me into Brad Pitt, but you can see some subtle improvements. Who knows with a bit more time in the editing suite, I may even look presentable!

And below here’s a shot of my little puppy Poppy without beautification mode switched on – because she doesn’t need it. I do think this camera is very, very good for a smartphone.

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Switching from iPhone to Android – why does it have to be THIS difficult?

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Who would have thought that trying to transfer everything from an iPhone to one of the new Huawei phones above could prove so difficult

Let’s get one thing straight. I’m a big fan of my iPhone 6S. It works and it does everything I want from a phone. It’s a little on the chunky side now and of course the battery life could be better, but apart from that no real complaints.

However, just recently my head has been turned by Android, particularly the latest models from Huawei, including the P10 pictured above. In part, it’s because I was given one in Barcelona last week at an MWC event, but it’s also because many of them look quite nice, especially in the different colours.

Also I felt it was about time after being an Apple evangelist for so long to see what the opposition is up to so I could put together a rational argument when it comes to debating the merits of Apple iOS v Android down the pub (yes I have interesting friends).

I was given a dazzling blue Huawei P10 and it’s a classy looking number with a good sized screen, slim and very lightweight. If I was going to make a sexist comparison on the day after International Women’s Day I would say it’s like trading in the wife for a younger, slimmer model. But of course I wouldn’t say that – at least not out loud.

There’s just one big problem: switching from iPhone to Android. Honestly, I think getting a divorce would be less painful than this, especially if you are trying to switch using an Apple Mac rather than a PC. Of course if you have a Gmail account it’s a massively help, especially with syncing your contacts, but for everything else you are kind of on your own (Huawei does have software to help with the process but of course it’s PC only).

Transferring images was the first problem. For this I used the excellent Send Anywhere app that enabled me to send large images from my iPhone to the Huawei P10 once I’d keyed in an activation code. I have to say it worked very well, although timed out on me a couple of times when I was trying to send particularly large batches of images.

Above: The Huawei P10 in dazzling blue. It comes with a great dual lens camera system, courtesy of Leica

Text trauma

However, this was nothing compared to the problem with transferring text messages. I’ve had a few issues with texts before, but nothing quite like this. Thanks to an article here on Tech Republic, I was able to start the process after figuring out how to backup my iPhone in iTunes without the encryption switched on. It turns out this meant having to delete all of my existing profiles within iTunes in order to switch the encryption off!

But as if that wasn’t tricky enough, the next step was even harder. I had to find a file called improbably 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 and then load that into another app called iSMS2droid to begin the process. Certainly not easy when the only way I could find of transferring the file to my new Android phone was to download some software to my Apple Mac called Android File Transfer which displayed the Huawei’s folder on my desktop.

Once I’d found a folder on the phone to put the text message file into, I was able to start the lengthy process of transferring text messages. It’s fair to say that iSMS2droid isn’t the friendliest app around but then it is free and it did do the job. So began the lengthy process of transferring 20,000 text messages from my iPhone to my shiny new Huawei P10!

One of the things I love about the iPhone is iMessage which enables you to send message to other iPhone messages free of charge (what my mother-in-law calls ‘blue messages’, because they are shown in the colour blue in Messages rather than green). However, another advantage is that you can control all of your text messages (including green messages from Android devices) via your Apple Mac – useful if, like me, you’ve got big hands that frankly struggle with a small smartphone keyboard.

Unfortunately there’s just no way of fully recreating this experience with Android. There is a clever little app called Android SMS for iChat that does at least allow you to send and receive text messages via Messages on the Mac via a platform called Jabber. However, the main downside is that if you want to send more than five messages a day then you will have to pay for the Pro version of the software which will cost you a hefty $9.99 a month or $4.99 a month if you commit to 12 months. What’s more it uses quite a bit of power so will take its toll on your battery life.

What next? iPhone or Android

So how’s it been so far? OK but not great. Like a messy divorce, I’m still coming to terms with everything that’s going on. In many ways the Huawei P10 phone is really good (the screen and the camera seem much better than the iPhone and it’s nice and slim too), but I’m not sure I can go the distance with Android.

I do like the flexibility of the platform (I’m running the latest Android 7.0 Nougat) but it’s just not as slick as the iPhone. Graphics don’t seem as sharp and one of the main frustrations at the moment is that it doesn’t seem possible to prioritise WiFi networks – something that was possible with earlier versions of Android – without downloading yet another app (this one is called WiFi Prioritizer and does what it says on the tin).

That’s really annoying when you’ve got BT Infinity in the house and it keep defaulting to the awful BT WiFi with FON all the time which rarely works.

Finally, another problem I seem to be experiencing is poor battery life. I’m quite surprised because one thing that Android fans always tell me is how much better battery life is on Android phones than iPhones. But this actually seems much worse. Unless I’m in Ultra Battery mode when just about everything I need to use is switched off, it runs down in about half a day with normal use. Charging up also seems to take an age compared to the iPhone.

It’s still early days of course. But maybe the grass isn’t greener after all.

A full review of the Huawei P10 will follow on ShinyShiny next week.
You can read my interview with artist Chris Levine about his collaboration with Huawei here.

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Let’s forget the Nokia 3310. The future is much smarter and more interesting

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Artist and photographer Chris Levine (left) appears in a selfie with me at Huawei’s launch of its latest P10 smartphone at the Metronom gallery in Barcelona

While all the hype may be around the relaunch of an old favourite, the Nokia 3310, which I’m already completely bored hearing about, for those of us who prefer to look forwards rather than backwards, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona offers an exciting glimpse into the not too distant future.

Thanks to Huawei (pronounced Waa-Wey, though I’m still not sure how), I was privileged enough to get a brief glimpse into this future in Barcelona at the weekend.

From the minute I landed at the city’s fabulously named El Prat airport where literally hundreds of different companies all holding name boards had descended to meet their guests, I could sense the anticipation and excitement around the latest hi-tech products, about to be unleashed at Mobile World Congress.

Ostensibly, I was there as a guest of Huawei to meet various artists at Barcelona’s Metronom gallery . The one thing they have in common? They’ve all used the latest Huawei P10 smartphone to compose the images displayed in a pop-up exhibition that runs until March 2nd.

And while the Chinese smart phone manufacturer which is, believe it or not, the third biggest in the world after Apple and Samsung, isn’t the first company to collaborate with the artistic community in order to gain kudos and credibility, it is the first one I’ve seen which has done a really convincing job.

I was simply blown away by the quality of some of the images which I’d expected to offer good resolution, but which also seemed well lit too, thanks to various post production facilities within the cameraphone.

Talking to light artist and photographer Chris Levine, who is perhaps most famous for taking pictures of the Queen with her eyes closed (here he is above with one of those images), you could see that he was genuinely excited about the quality and potential that new smartphone technology offers photographers.

Sure, he hasn’t quite ditched his iPhone 6S completely yet, but he told me that the Huawei P10 provides the best quality for photography he’s seen from a smartphone yet, thanks to its Leica dual lens system. Is he telling the truth? I think so judging from what I’ve witnessed, but I’ll let you know when I test out the dazzling blue P10 (which doesn’t seem so dazzling to me) which they gave me to keep!

You can read the specs of the Huawei P10 here on my tech blog Tech Digest here. My interview with artist Chris Levine will follow later this week on ShinyShiny.

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Above: Some photographs taken by Chris Levine using the Huawei P10 smartphone.

Below: Andrew Garrihy, Chief Marketing Officer for Consumer Technology, Huawei Technologies, talks about the strategy behind the Huawei P10 launch including its collaboration with colour company Pantone and camera manufacturer Leica in this YouTube video below.

Apologies it’s a little shaky – I would like to say it’s because of all the glasses of champagne at the launch but I wasn’t even drinking at the time!

How do we help boys and men with mental health issues? Natasha Devon MBE offers her advice

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On Monday I went to a very interesting discussion about mental health issues, specifically about how they concern boys and men (it was held at City of London School where my son goes). It was given by Natasha Devon MBE who was the government’s ‘tsar’ for mental health.

I say was because in the end she had the job for less than a year before being sacked in May 2016 for speaking her mind about government testing in schools.

Basically she thinks there’s too much of it and it is causing untold stress on the children. Having spent some time as an exam invigilator in schools, and seeing what the kids have to go through, I can kind of agree.

After all in what other situation that children are likely to encounter in their lives, will they have all their possessions taken away from them, including their sacred mobile phones, and asked to work in silence while writing on pieces of paper for two hours?

That said, I haven’t really come up with a more practical solution for testing people’s abilities before leaving school or going to university.

However, given that testing isn’t going to end any time soon, what can we do to practically improve our children’s mental health? The way Devon sees it there are three main areas to focus on.

These are improving critical thinking, developing healthy coping mechanisms and talking more! Children are often poor at all three it seems and boys are much more reluctant than girls to talk about their problems, either with each other or with an adult.

Speaking specifically about access to online porn, Devon said there is really no point in trying to prevent access. “If they want to find it they will,” she said. However the key with all online content is “to encourage them to think critically and give them the necessary armour so they don’t simply accept ideas.”

She was particularly critical of adverts, such the Lynx Angels advert of a few years back, complete with Sexy Boy soundtrack, which portrays women as these ethereal sirens (personally I think she may be missing the tongue-in-cheek humour, but then again maybe teenage boys who watch it are too!)

Men, she believes, are usually encouraged by media to confirm to a traditional heterosexual stereotype: “Rich, buff and stoic are all seen as masculine values…we need to redefine what strength is and show that men can be masculine and have feelings too.”

Undoubtedly the prevalence of social media hasn’t helped teenagers when it comes to self-esteem issues either. Rather than seeing only what our peers are up to, as previous generations had to, we’re now living in a world where we are presented with an online version of what everyone in the world is up to which may – or frequently may not – match reality.

Extreme levels of stress, coupled with low self esteem may result in bullying or self-harm too, typically seen as children cutting themselves. However increasingly Devon claims that boys are engaging in fights they know they are going to lose just to hurt themselves.

Even more worryingly over 80 per cent of suicides are male. Devon highlighted a case of a a young graduate friend, James Mabbett, who killed himself at the age of 24 without any warning. Described as the life and soul of the party, and oozing charisma from every pore, he simply hanged himself one evening in his hotel room.

It’s a terrible story, but Devon believes a lot more can be done to prevent needless deaths like this. One way is to keep children’s stress levels in check is by encouraging them to develop healthy, rather than unhealthy, coping mechanisms.

So instead of turning to alcohol or self harm, we need them to find an outlet that isn’t related to the things that cause them stress. That may be relaxation or meditation although is perhaps more likely to be helping them be creative in music, art or drama.

Finally, and it’s been said many times before, boys and men need to talk more! However, Devon believes this needs to be in environments where men feel comfortable, perhaps where they don’t need to make eye contact with one another, she suggests. For example, it could be in the the gym or taking part in sport, but almost certainly isn’t in a female counsellor’s office!

In one example she gives she talks about how a boy had one of the best conversations with his father while the two of them were painting a wall together! Whatever works.

Natasha Devon runs Self Esteem Team, an organisation that works with teens on mental health, body image and self-esteem. She can also be found on Twitter @NatashaDevonMBE

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Yes vinyl is great, but it’s not going to replace digital any time soon

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I love comebacks as much as the next person. After all I was brought up on the Rocky films! But I’m always astonished by how things are twisted by the media to give tech stories a particular – and usually more sexy – spin.

If you read the coverage on the BBC and in the Guardian in particular about the latest revenue figures for vinyl you could almost be fooled into thinking that people are ditching digital – burning their iPhones, and rushing out to buy vinyl and record players instead. Maybe in Shoreditch they are, but elsewhere in the country it’s a very different picture.

Yes, the revenue raised from vinyl has outstripped the revenue from digital downloads for the first time, but let’s all get a grip! There are other factors at work here. In particular, people are shifting their digital consumption away from downloads and towards streaming services like Spotify and Deezer.

At the same time we are seeing the price of digital downloads falling through the floor while vinyl prices rocket. Take the lovely Kate Bush’s live Before The Dawn album as an example. Buy this triple album on vinyl and you’ll be looking at spending over £50. Download it digitally and it’s around £12. Quite a difference.

Then of course there’s Christmas. Who wants to wrap up a digital download when you can get a nice touchy feely album – one hopefully featuring images and artwork from Kate Bush – instead?

Yes it’s lovely, but vinyl is still only 2% of the music market in terms of volume and I don’t think it will grow too much more any time soon.

You can read my more detailed piece on Tech Digest here.

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Keep an eye on your home (or just your dog) with Blink’s smart home security system

Featured / ChrisPrice / 1 Comment

David Laubner, Blink’s Head of Digital Marketing and Sales, demonstrates the US firm’s latest wireless security system

Home security used to be such a hassle and an expensive one too. When I first started covering smart homes for magazines around 15 years ago, I visited these luxurious places with banks of CCTV screens, all hooked up to state-of-the-art cameras and controlled via bespoke Crestron touch pads. Sometimes they would even have their own security people whose job it was to monitor the cameras 24/7.

Now you can do pretty much the same thing for around £200 and 10 minutes of set up, if that. A number of solutions have come to the market, including those from Netgear Arlo. However, yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited to The Ivy Restaurant (darling) in Central London for a demonstration of a new home security system from US firm Blink.

A wireless device, the Blink security camera can be set up anywhere in a few minutes

I have to say it looked really good (and not just because the Apple and Crumble Pie with brown butter ice cream was to die for). I’m going to write a proper piece on my blog Tech Digest about how it all works later today, but suffice to say it’s a modular wifi based security system with the possibility of connecting up to 10 cameras on one hub (more than enough for most properties).

Actually it’s really a home monitoring system, rather than a security system as such because it doesn’t sound an alarm. However, what it will do is alert you via email if someone has triggered the sensor. It will also record up to 60 seconds of video footage for each ‘event’ which is stored securely in the cloud, free of charge.

At this time of year the set up would be particularly good for catching out courier firms who claim to have come to the door to deliver a parcel but didn’t leave it ‘because you were out’ (that old chestnut). Alternatively it’s good to see what your dog gets up to while you are out, such as jumping on the sofa or finding any scraps of food left on the table.

In the US, some people even use the Blink cameras to monitor who their teenage kids bring home on an evening (which seems to be taking things a little too far to me) while some have even caught burglars in the act and reported them to the police.

The police have even turned up and the camera has caught them making an arrest which all seems very exciting!

Prices start at £109.99 for a one camera system while a three camera system will set you back £259.99. Additional cameras are £89 each.

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Writing about running gadgets – not quite the same as actually running!

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Today I’ve mostly been writing about running and feeling guilty. Guilty because it’s ages since I’ve been running and I just can’t seem to get myself motivated. Five a side football yes, but there’s something about the solitary pursuit of running that just seems like too much of a commitment at the moment, especially on a cold winter’s day and especially with dodgy knees.

That said, it’s a virtually perfect day for a leisurely jog around the park or even a more demanding run around the wood. It’s dry, not too cold and not very windy. I’ve also got most of the gear, including a lovely Nike running jacket and a pair of Nike Flyknit running shoes I was given on a launch a couple of years back so I’ve really got no excuses.

The only thing I could possibly do with is one of these nice TomTom cardio watches (pictured above) which measures the distance you’ve travelled, your speed and your heart rate as you run.

However, knowing me I’d probably spend most of my time looking at the screen convincing myself I was having a heart attack every time my heart rate went up over about 120 beats per minute and end up killing myself running into a tree instead!

You can read my Top 10 running accessories piece on Tech Digest here.

What does 5G mean for your business?

December 3, 2019 / ChrisPrice / Leave a comment

5G-launch 5G offers much more than just speed. Increased capacity and ultra-low latency make it ideal for targeted, real-time services that could revolutionise your business.

In this article for The Telegraph, sponsored by Vodafone, I look at how the move from 4G to 5G could be a real game changer for a number of industries, including the automotive, healthcare, and entertainment industries to name but a few.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/5g-in-sport/what-does-5g-mean-for-businesses/#

Agile working: does it work? Telegraph Business feature

February 15, 2018 / ChrisPrice / Leave a comment

people-woman-coffee-meeting Agile working can help boost productivity and improve staff morale, but companies need to plan their strategy carefully so that it doesn’t become a disorganised mess. That’s the conclusion of a piece I’ve written for The Telegraph here.

In the 20th century, organisations that wanted to succeed needed to make sure that all employees turned up to a place of work during designated hours, usually between 9am and 5pm.

However, with advances in technology, particularly smartphones and faster home broadband, this is no longer the case. Today, it’s often argued that flexibility helps organisations get more from their teams.

Many businesses now offer flexible working to help individual employees with their work/life balance, while some go much further, implementing ‘‘agile working’’ practices to enable all staff to work wherever and whenever they want, with the help of the latest technologies.

But does agile working really allow staff to work more smartly and collaborate on projects more easily or does it just lead to increased confusion and greater security risks? You can read the full piece here.