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Tech News : Robot Police Dog Sent Back With Tail Between Its Legs
It has been reported that NYPD has cancelled its contract with the company that supplied its ‘robot dog’ after the robot’s militarised appearance increased tensions with civilians at a difficult time for police relations. What Robot Dog? The robot ‘dog’ nicknamed...
Tech News : Huge Lockdown Profits For Amazon
Changing consumer habits due to lockdown are believed to have been a big factor in Amazon’s Q1 profits being a massive three times larger than last year. Huge Profit Growth in Just One Year In the first 3 months of 2020, before the first lockdowns for the pandemic,...
Featured Article : Image Optimisation
In this article we look at image optimisation, the different types of compression and image files, and how files different file formats can be compared and best used. Vectors or Bitmaps? Raw, digital image files start as either vectors or bitmaps/rasters/pixel maps....
Tech Insight : What Is An MSP?
In this article, we take a brief look at what an MSP is, what services they provide, and what benefits businesses get from using an MSP. MSPs A Managed Service Provider (MSP) is a company that delivers outsourced IT services and support to businesses and...
Tech Tip – Setting Up An ‘Out Of Office’ Autoreply In Gmail
Many people may be familiar with how to set up an ‘out of office’ email in Outlook, but it can also be done in Gmail too. Here’s how: - Log in to Gmail and select the ‘gear’ (settings) symbol (top right). - Select ‘See all settings’. - Scroll down to ‘Vacation...
Tech Insight : ISDN To be Switched Off
With BT Openreach officially setting the timeframe for switching off PSTN/ISDN, we look at what this means for businesses. ISDN an PSTN Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), which really came into being in the 1990s, is a set of communication standards that are...
Featured Article – How To Browse Privately
This article takes a brief look at what private browsing actually means with popular browsers and software, and how genuinely private browsing could be achieved. Why Browse Privately? Over 80 percent of websites use one or more tracking tools (Epic) and reasons for...
Tech News : EU To Ban “Unacceptable” Use of AI
Following last week’s leak of proposed new rules about the use of AI systems, The European Commission looks likely to ban some “unacceptable” usage of AI in Europe. The Leak and the Letter This latest announcement that the European Commission aims to ban “AI systems...
Tech News : MI5 ‘Think before You Link’ Campaign Warning To Staff
MI5 is using a ‘Think before You Link’ campaign to warn its workers about the growing threat of being targeted for information by actors for hostile states using fake profiles on platforms such as LinkedIn. Think before You Link It has been reported that MI5 believes...
Tech Tip – Receive Only Your Important Notifications in Outlook
If you would like to save time by configuring Outlook to only send you alerts when important emails arrive, here’s how: This involves setting up custom alert rules for specific people whose emails are particularly important to you e.g., the boss and other colleagues....
Tech Insight : What Is An API?
In this article, we take a brief look at what APIs are, why they are important, and how they are they are used. What Is An API? An Application Programming Interface (API) is intermediary software that allows different applications to talk to each other. In essence, it...
Featured Article – What Is Greenwashing (in Technology)?
In this article, we look at what ‘greenwashing’ is, how and why it is being used, and what is being done to stop it. What Is Greenwashing? Greenwashing, a term coined by Jay Westerveld in 1986, refers to how some companies mislead stakeholders about their...
Tech News : Russia Sanctioned Over Cyber Attacks
President Biden’s administration in the U.S. has placed new sanctions on Russia over alleged cyberattacks affecting the U.S. and its allies. What Is Russia Accused Of? The U.S. government sanctions relate to: – The ‘SolarWinds attack’ where cyber-criminals accessed...
Tech News : MEPs Seek Ban On Public Biometric Surveillance
Following the recent leak of an EU draft of rules for applying to AI, 40 MEPs have called for a ban on the use of facial recognition and other types of biometric surveillance in public places. Draft Rules The leaked draft rules by EU lawmakers to regulate the use of...
Tech Tip – Creating An Email List In Outlook
If you’d like a quick and easy way to regularly email group of contacts (e.g. work colleagues or suppliers), Outlook gives you the ability to create a Distribution List (or Contact Group in 365). Here’s how it works: For Outlook Online - Log into outlook.com or select...
Featured Article : Employee Exit
When employees leave a business or organisation, there are many actions that need to be taken to maintain security. Here’s a summary of some of them in relation to the health and continuity of the business and to fulfil legal and stakeholder responsibilities....
Tech Insight – What’s Happening About The HUGE Facebook Data Leak?
With Facebook having to inform more than a staggering 530 million users that they were exposed to a data breach in 2019, some criticism for the company about the breach has prompted some to ask just what is happening? What Breach It has been reported that in 2019, the...
Tech News : Microsoft and LinkedIn’s New Features To Help UK Jobseekers
With the pandemic fuelling job losses, new features from Microsoft’s LinkedIn platform could provide some help to the UK’s 1.7 million unemployed. The Challenge Many of LinkedIn’s users may now be facing the considerable challenge of unemployment and/or trying to...
Tech News : Liquid Cooling To Maintain Microsoft’s Data Centres
Huge demands on Microsoft’s data centre servers, partly driven by a surge in Microsoft Teams user numbers has led to the tech giant opting for liquid-immersion cooling. The Challenge Microsoft has recognised that it has now come up against the slowdown of Moore’s Law...
Tech Tip – Free Ways to Share Photos
We all take lots of photos with our smartphones, so here is a selection of some of the best free places to share (and back up) photos. - Google Photos. Just having a Gmail account gives access to this service you can share photos with family, friends, or teammates,...
Featured Article : Risks or Benefits of Charging Devices Overnight?
Many of us charge phones and laptops overnight but is this good for the battery and is it potentially dangerous, and how can we safely get the most from our device batteries? Batteries Smartphone and laptop batteries are Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion). These batteries have high...
Tech Insight – The Global Microchip Shortage
With the world facing a considerable semiconductor microchip shortage, we take a look at the causes and effects of the shortage plus some potential solutions. Why Is This Important? Microchips are now included in virtually everything from watches to white goods and...
Tech News : New Amazon AI Tool Monitors Your Business KPIs
In a move to provide more business intelligence, Amazon is launching a new tool that monitors key performance indicators (KPIs) to detect ‘anomalies’ so it can alert the business to potential problems. Lookout For Metrics ‘Lookout For Metrics’ is the name of the new...
Android Stack Scanner Can Organise Your Documents
Google is launching its ‘Stack’ app for Android, an AI-based scanner that also names and categorises the documents it scans. The Technology The Stack app is a result of collaborative work between Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator and the DocAI team in Google...
Tech Tip – How To Speed Up Your Phone Charging
If you are finding that your phone is getting slow at charging, here are some of the possible causes and solutions: - Incompatible or faulty accessories, such as power brick, USB cable, or charging pad/mat (for wireless charging). Choosing a charger or brick with...
Featured Article : Art, Cars, Carbon & Crazy Numbers
With news of a booming NFT market and the acceptance of Bitcoin as payment for Tesla cars, we look at the environmental impact of these and how the technology needs to be improved to be made more sustainable. Robot Painting Collaboration This week there was news that...
Tech Insight – What Are Zero-Click SERPs?
In this article, we look at what a zero-click searches (SERPs) are, how this has impacted SEO, and what measures can be taken to increase the likelihood of your pages achieving featured snippets. Zero-Click SERPs A zero-click search describes when the search engine...
Tech News: Notable Notes About … The New £50 Note
Bletchley Park code-breaking hero and wronged computer pioneer Alan Turing is to feature on the UK £50 note from 23rd June. Alan Turing Despite breaking WWII Nazi Germany’s Enigma machine code, allowing enemy messages to be read and thereby shortening World War II and...
Tech News: Live: Teams Transcriptions
Microsoft has announced the launch of an AI-powered live transcription tool for Teams which provides a written record of the spoken text that occurs during a meeting. How It Works The live transcription tool identifies each speaker and automatically captures in...
Tech Tip – Adjust The Sound For Specific Apps
If you would like to have better control of the volume levels of individual apps that you have open on Windows 10 this can easily be done via the settings (Sound) section and the hidden ‘Volume Mixer’. Here’s how: Using (Sound) Settings - Click on the Start button and...