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In the wake of the recent news that Scotland’s Health Secretary, Michael Matheson, received an £11,000 roaming charges bill from his holiday, here we look at some of main ways you can keep data roaming charges down. What Are Data Roaming Charges?  Data roaming charges......

Amazon’s ‘Project Kuiper’ satellite broadband moved one step closer following a reported 100 per cent success rate for its first two prototype satellites. Project Kuiper  Like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, with Project Kuiper, Amazon hopes to set up its own low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband......

Computer Weekly recently reported that in an interview with the outgoing England and Wales biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner, Professor Fraser Sampson, he warned of the declining state of oversight in AI facial recognition surveillance deployment by UK police. Resignation  Professor Fraser Sampson emailed his......

Researchers at Bitdefender have reported discovering vulnerabilities in Google Workspace and Google Cloud Platform which, after first compromising the local machine, could allow threat actors to extend their activities to a “chain reaction” network-wide breach, potentially leading to ransomware attacks or data exfiltration. The researchers......

Swedish startup Minesto has developed a subsea ‘kite’ style mini power plant that generates renewable energy from tidal streams and ocean currents. How It Works  The ‘wing’ technology, described by Minesto as a kind of “subsea kite” and a “powerful, lightweight, and modular power plant” which can be made......

One year on from its general introduction, OpenAI has announced some major upgrades to ChatGPT for its Plus and Enterprise subscribers. New Updates Announced At DevDay  At OpenAI’s first ‘DevDay’ developer conference on November 6, the company announced more major upgrades to its popular ChatGPT......

Plans have been submitted for a new £1 billion development in Cheltenham that will include one of Europe’s largest tech campuses and will house the National Cyber Innovation Centre. Cheltenham’s Golden Valley Development  Planning has been submitted for what will be called ‘Cheltenham’s Golden Valley......

Elon Musk’s ‘xAI’ company has launched the preview of ‘Grok’, a new and rebellious AI chatbot that’s modelled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Grok  Grok is Musk’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. Musk was a co-founder ChatGPT’s OpenAI before stepping down......

Humane has announced the release of its Apple-style AI-powered badge/pin wearable that combines a smartphone with virtual assistant capabilities for when you’re on the move. Humane  Humane, a startup founded by ex-Apple design and engineering team Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, has announced the launch......

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, known for his revolutionary work in personal computing, was briefly hospitalised after a health scare in Mexico City. At 73, Wozniak suffered a fainting episode caused by a minor stroke last week while preparing to speak at the World Business Forum.......

Recent user reports indicate a perplexing battery drain in Apple Watches, affecting even the robust Apple Watch Ultra. The problem, linked to the WatchOS 10.1 update, has raised alarm among consumers and professionals who rely on the device’s longevity for daily productivity and connectivity. For......

The so-called ‘Batterygate’ iPhone throttling case has been given the go-ahead by UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal which could mean a near $1 billion (£853 million) damages payout to affected Apple customers. What Is ‘Batterygate’?  Batterygate refers to a 2017 software update to iPhones by Apple......

A new survey from CyberArk has revealed that increased workloads caused by a surge in cyber threats and attacks has led to 59 per cent of UK senior cyber security professionals facing burnout. Cyber Crime Levels High  The results of the survey highlight the growing......

US Startup Zephyr’s claim that it has solved smartphone GPS positioning problems through a network and software-based solution with sub-60cm accuracy has attracted $3.5 million seed funding. The Issue  Even though consumers have been putting growing demands on GPS through their increasing use of mobile......

November 10, 2004 : What’s In a Name? On November 9th 2004, the well-known web-browser ‘Firefox’ was released, although it had earlier been called something entirely different altogether. Originally created in 2002 by members of the Mozilla community, the browser had the codename “Phoenix”. This......

A new deep-learning AI algorithm, developed as part of a study by the University of Cambridge, can identify and classify ‘Hard to Decarbonise’ houses (energy-wasting homes) with 90 per cent accuracy. What Are ‘Hard-to-Decarbonise’ Houses?  Hard-to-Decarbonise (HtD) houses/buildings are really a subset of residential structures......

Google is testing ‘IP Protection’, a feature for Chrome that sends third-party traffic for a set of domains through proxies to mask their IP addresses, thereby boosting privacy by fighting IP-based covert tracking. IP Addresses  An IP address can be explained as being like a......

After ceasing operations earlier this year when it lost its core funding grant, start-up network Tech Nation has announced it will be relaunching its brand with a £10bn investment. Tech Nation  Originally established in 2010 as ‘Tech City UK’, focusing on nurturing the tech ecosystem......

Following trials, Microsoft’s AI assistant ‘Copilot’, which can even attend meetings for you, will be generally available to all Microsoft 365 Enterprise customers from 1 November. Copilot First introduced in March 2023 and rolled out as part free update to Windows 11, Copilot is an......

November 2, 1936 : BBC Basics “Gentlemen, you have now invented the biggest time-waster of all time. Use it well.”, said Isaac Shoenberg, head of the EMI research team that developed the first fully electronic television system to be used in regular broadcasting. On the second of......

Independent energy thinktank Ember’s Global Electricity Review 2023 reports that fossil fuel power generation has peaked for the half the world and that clean energy sources now account for nearly 40 per cent of the world’s electricity supply. Five Years Ago  Ember’s review report, which......

It’s been reported that some schools, in the UK (as well as Israel and the US) have advised Jewish parents to delete social media apps from their children’s phones over fears that they may see distressing hostage videos or videos of civilians being killed in......

Human content writers have surged in demand recently, as part of a broader effect, where ‘prompt engineers’ have seen salaries of $300,000. LinkedIn’s figures show that job posts in English with references to “GPT” or “ChatGPT” have increased 21-fold since November 2022. Interestingly, after almost......

October 10, 2023 : “A Thousand-Year Name Extension” Around a thousand years before electronics, a monk called Poppo was asked to prove his faith, because Sweyn Forkbeard was having doubts about his baptism. Legend has it that Poppo proved his faith by holding a red-hot......

As featured in a recent Wall Street Journal report, iPhone thieves are exploiting a security setting called the ‘recovery key’ to permanently lock owners out of their own iPhones and gain access to their financial apps. The method, however, hinges first upon ‘shoulder surfing’, i.e.......

Oxfordshire based Technology firm, Space Solar, says that giant solar panel farms could be in orbit and operational above the Earth by 2035. The Challenge  There are significant energy and environmental challenges facing everyone, including the fact that global electricity demand is set to double by......

Oslo-based startup Iris.ai has developed an AI Chat feature for its Researcher Workspace platform which it says can reduce ‘AI hallucinations’ to single-figure percentages. What Are AI Hallucinations?  AI hallucinations, also known as ‘adversarial examples’ or ‘AI-generated illusions,’ are where AI systems generate or disseminate......

With the recent release of the latest update of Apple’s iPhone software, iOS 17, we look at many of the useful new features and their benefits. What’s Happened?  Apple recently released a new updated version of its iOS (iOS 17), which contains many new features,......

October 23, 2001 : “A Thousand Songs In Your Pocket” Around this time 22 years ago on October 23 2001, Steve Jobs promised to give people “A Thousand Songs In Their Pocket”. His timing couldn’t have been better because at the time, Apple was primarily......

If there’s a particular and important chat you access frequently, you can create a shortcut for it on your device’s home screen. Here’s how: Long-press on the specific chat in the chat list until it’s selected. Tap on the three dots (top right). Choose “Add......

In this insight, we look at what many users think to be a surprising fact in that Microsoft 365 doesn’t provide a traditional email backup solution, and we look at what businesses can do about this. Did You Know?….  Contrary to popular belief, Microsoft 365 (previously......

Following complaints from customers about an overheating issue with the Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple is reported to have issued a statement explaining the causes, with a promise that it’ll be fixed with an update. Overheating  Since the iPhone 15......

Researchers at European XFEL X-ray laser have reported creating an atomic clock with such a precise pulse generator that it has an accuracy of only 1 second lost in in 300 billion years! How Atomic Clocks Work  Up until now, atomic clocks have been the......

October 1980 : Halloween, Early AI & Ghosts … AI isn’t something that’s just emerged in the last couple of years. Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde had distinct personalities and if these names sound familiar it’s because they were the four ghosts that chased Pac-Man......

Researchers at Rapid7 have reported a “possible mass exploitation” of vulnerabilities in Progress Software’s WS_FTP Server (a program that enables the upload and download files to and from a server). Rapid7 reported that from September 30, it has observed “multiple instances of WS_FTP exploitation in......

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has announced that as part of three big changes, it can now access current information by browsing the internet. Previously   Prior to the new (Beta) change, ChatGPT had only been trained on information up until September 2021, although ChatGPT’s newer GPT-4 architecture was......

In this tech insight, we look at QR codes, the many different methods to generate them, the benefits of doing so, and the future for QR codes as the successor to barcodes. What Is A QR code?  A QR (Quick Response) code, first designed in......

‘Stooky Bill’ : 02 October 2025 In days gone by, a Scottish person with a broken appendage might well have said their arm or leg was held in a ‘stooky’ (or ‘stookie’) which meant a plaster-cast. It’s thought the word comes from ‘stucco’ (plaster) although......

Google has announced that it is embedding its ‘Bard’ chatbot into its apps and services with the launch of ‘Bard Extensions’. Bard  In a similar way to Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s own ‘Duet’ (for Google Cloud users), and Salesforce’s Einstein Copilot, Google is giving users an......

In this insight, we look at the introduction of the Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 (ETDA), what it means and why it’s so significant, plus its implications. The ETDA  The Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 (ETDA), which was based on a draft Bill published by......

Elon Musk’s neurotechnology company Neuralink has announced that it’s looking for recruits for its first in-human clinical trial of a brain implant. Approved  Neuralink says that it has received approval from the independent institutional review board and for its first hospital site to begin recruitment in its first-in-human......

It’s been reported that a trade group for U.S. authors (including John Grisham) has sued OpenAI, accusing it of unlawfully training its chatbot ChatGPT on their work. Which Authors?  The Authors Guild trade group has filed the lawsuit (in Manhattan federal court) on behalf of......

Falcon 1 Launched : 28th September 2008 Rocket Man! This week on September 28 2008 SpaceX managed to finally get the Falcon 1 rocket into space. Founder Elon Musk was obviously thrilled, although curiously he wasn’t hungry – even though he’d skipped breakfast earlier that......

In this insight, we take closer look at the subject of tech companies getting into trouble over antitrust issues, why it happens, what can be done, and what part organisations like the UK ‘Monopoly Commission’ plays. The Monopoly Commission The Monopoly Commission dates back to......

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