A Glimpse of Work After Lockdown From New Government Guidelines
New government guidelines from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), after its consultations with bosses, unions and trade bodies have given a glimpse of early forms of post-lockdown working practices. Draft Plans The latest seven draft plans from the government, widely reported in the UK media this week, are thought to be […]
Businesses Get Extra Time To Meet New Payment Processing Rules
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has given UK businesses an extra 6 months to reach compliance with the new Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) rules for payment processing. What Are The SCA Rules? The SCA rules, introduced in 2019, are intended to the improve security of payments and limit fraud by making sure that whoever requests […]
Apple and Google To Ban Location Tracking In Contact Tracing App
Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc (Google) have both announced that they will not use GPS location tracking as part of the COVID-19 contact tracing app that they both jointly developing. Apps With contact-tracing and testing believed to be vital components in an effective strategy for stopping the spread of the highly infectious COVID-19 virus, both […]
How Tech is Helping Reduce Lockdown Stress and Mental Health Problems
A state of lockdown has increased our reliance on technology as a way to help us meet our needs, and here are some of the many ways that technology can help us to actually reduce stress and help us look after our mental health in these challenging times. Apps There’s a wide variety of apps […]
Tech Tip – Charging Properly To Take Care of Your Phone Battery
You may have found that you’ve been using your gadgets for longer and charging them more during lockdown so, if you’d like to know more about keeping your gadgets’ lithium-ion batteries healthy in the long run, here are a few important tips: – Lithium-ion batteries do not like being charged fully to 100 per cent […]
Robot Food Deliveries in Milton Keynes During Lockdown
Delivery robots from U.S.-based company Starship Technologies have come into their own during the lockdown as a way of delivering food to the residents and workers of Milton Keynes. First Commercial Deployment in the UK The autonomous robot delivery Service operated by Starship Technologies is the first commercial deployment in the UK, and since the […]
UK Contact Tracing App In A Couple Of Weeks
Matthew Gould, chief executive of the National Health Service’s technology group NHSX has announced that a COVID-19 contact-tracing app for the UK could be ready “in the next couple of weeks”. Bluetooth, Short-Range Most countries in Europe that have chosen to use contact-tracing apps at some point have opted for a short-range Bluetooth “handshake” between mobile […]
Google Meet ‘Free For Everyone’
Google has entered the video conferencing market fight with the likes of Zoom and Facebook Messenger as it announces that its ‘Google Meet’ premium video conferencing service will soon be free for everyone. Google Meet Google Meet is a video conferencing service that, until now, has only been paid-for as part of G Suite, Google’s […]
Facial Recognition and Super Computers Help in COVID-19 Fight
Technology is playing an important role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic with adapted facial recognition cameras and super-computers now joining the battle to help beat the virus. Adapted Facial Recognition Facial recognition camera systems have been trialled and deployed in many different locations in the UK which famously include the 2016 and 2017 Notting Hill […]
Tech Tip – Setting A Background in Microsoft Teams
If you are using Microsoft’s Teams during the lockdown and would like to set up a more professional-looking or even a fun or custom background during your video calls, here’s how: You can choose to use one of the backgrounds that are built-in to teams or, you can set up your own custom background (putting […]