A report, commissioned by health secretary Matt Hancock and led by US academic Eric Topol, has found that even though AI and robotics will enhance healthcare services, 90% of NHS staff will require fresh digital skills within 20-years. Robotics and AI Enhancements According to the report, although there has been fear that the implementation of AI and robotics to the NHS could be a step towards replacing human practitioners, they will in fact enhance services. Smart Speakers Could Help For example, the use of smart digital assistants such as Alexa and Siri could free-up more time for doctors which could [...]

The Astigan high-altitude "pseudo-satellite" (HAPS) drone, built in Somerset using British Technology, and co-developed with Ordinance Survey, could succeed where other earth-mapping efforts by tech giants have failed, and provide a wealth of other opportunities. High Altitude Hover For 90 Days, With No Re-Fuelling The fixed-wing aircraft, which has solar panels across 38m wingspan and only weighs 149kg (328lb), can be set to hover for 90 days at a time at an altitude of 67,000ft (c. 20,420m), without re-fuelling.  It is controlled from the ground and can be set to map large areas of interest or made to hover continuously [...]

Marketing report company Singular has produced an ROI index for mobile advertising, based on its own research which shows that Facebook and Google appear to offer the best value for mobile advertisers. The Research Singular sampled over $1.5 billion of spend in mobile advertising, including over a half a billion installs and almost $3 billion in revenue.  From this, the company was able to produce an ‘ROI Index’ that ranks the best-performing ad networks for mobile marketers on iOS and Android globally. Singular’s backers include Norwest Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Thomvest Ventures, and Method Capital, and Singular’s customers (as a [...]

Russia has set itself a deadline of 1st April to test “unplugging” the entire country from the global Internet for reasons relating to defence and control. Giant Intranet Dubbed “Runet” The impending test of a complete ‘pulling up of the drawbridge’ from the rest of the world is being planned in order to ensure compliance with a new (draft) law in Russia called the Digital Economy National Program.  This will require Russia's ISPs to show that they can operate in the event of any foreign powers acting to isolate the country online with a "targeted large-scale external influence" i.e. a [...]

If you’ve ever emailed yourself a photo or screenshot to get it from your phone to your computer or uploaded photos to e.g. Google Photos or Dropbox and then download them onto your PC, you may want to try Microsoft’s ‘Your Phone’ app.  With the app, you can link and sync your Android phone to your Windows PC or laptop and simply drag and drop photos or screenshots, plus you can receive and send text messages from your phone on your computer. Here’s how to set it up: This works for PCs or laptops running Windows 10 April 2018 Update [...]

A man was given a public order fine after being stopped by police because he covered his face during a trial of facial recognition cameras in Romford, London. What Facial Recognition Trial? A deliberately “overt” trial of live facial recognition technology by the Metropolitan Police took place in the centre of Romford, London, on Thursday 31st January.  This was supposed to be the first day of a two-day trial of the technology, but the second day was cancelled due to concerns that the forecast snow would only bring a low level of footfall in the area. Live facial recognition trials of [...]

Google has announced the introduction of its ‘Live Transcribe’ app for Android which allows people who are deaf or hard of hearing to see a live, near real-time written display of conversations on their phone. Live Transcribe The Google Live Transcribe app offers deaf and hard of hearing a new portable, accessibility tool that offers a convenient and innovative new way to join in conversations. With the Live Transcribe app turned on, the Android phone microphone feeds conversations into the app which can display accurate, near real-time captions on the phone screen in 70 different languages and dialects.  It also [...]

115,000 customers of the of Canadian digital platform Quadriga are believed to be owed C$250 million, but C$180 ($137.21 million) in cryptocurrencies have been frozen after the platform’s founder, who was the only person with the password to the platform’s stored funds, died in December 2018. What Is Quadriga? QuadrigaCX is a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange/platform, which allows the trading of Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum.  QuadrigaCX, was founded by Gerald Cotten and was Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange until 2019 and has 363,000 registered users. Cold Storage As part of QuadrigaCX’s security measures, ‘Cold Storage’ was used for most of the Bitcoins [...]

A massive 45% growth in the revenue of Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) in the fourth quarter has been fuelled by big profits in Amazon’s public cloud arm. Beats Microsoft & Google In Cloud Infrastructure The $7.4 billion cloud revenue, which is a jump 45% compared to the previous year, means that AWS is beating competitors Microsoft and Google in the market for cloud infrastructure.  These are the services that businesses and organisations use to outsource their computing and data storage needs. To give some idea of the scale of the jump in revenue for AWS, these figures mean that it [...]

Starting with the April 2019 update, Microsoft will be adding “Learn more” links to its error code messages in a bid to enable users to see what the code means, plus the chance to fix the error on the spot. Resolved During Installation The “Learn More” links will be there to help if there is an error during the upgrade (or installation) of Windows 10.  As well as explaining what the error is, Microsoft will also be giving users the chance to resolve the error messages themselves within the installer and will offer suggestions on how to update any problematic [...]