Reviews

The Fourth Transformation: A vision of the near tomorrow from Shel Israel and Robert Scoble

Neville Hobson Artificial Intelligence, Books, Business, Hardware, Innovation, Reviews, Society, Software, Technology, Trends, Web
The Fourth Transformation

One of the things I like most about The Fourth Transformation, the new book from Shel Israel and Robert Scoble published in December 2016 that I just finished reading, is the way in which it will help you to join up the dots and begin to understand the fundamental, disruptive and accelerating changes we already see around us brought by advances in technology – notably, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) – and massive shifts in people’s behaviours. You’ll encounter plenty of new terms, phrases and expressions in this book – starting with mixed reality (MR) and spatial computing – that you will increasingly see online and in the workplace. There’s a useful glossary at the […]

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Samsung (and Facebook) raise the mobile game

Neville Hobson 10 Comments Business, Communication, Entertainment, Experiences, Gadgets, Innovation, Marketing, Mobile, Reviews, Software, Technology, Wearable Tech

The smartphone market continues to rapidly evolve. Who thinks about a smartphone these days as simply a device to make phone calls and send text messages? I don’t – a smartphone is a powerful computer that also makes phone calls and sends text messages. That thought came to me more than once or twice while I watched and listened to Samsung’s press event via live video stream from the Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona on Sunday evening. The company announced their next smartphones in the Galaxy model line – the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge – held aloft by DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics, in the photo above. While both devices look pretty similar to […]

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Small is the new big with the Raspberry Pi Zero

Neville Hobson 4 Comments Communication, Experimenting, Gadgets, Hardware, Innovation, Reviews, Technology

Do you remember the days when computer magazines came with cover disks? And then with CDs that progressed to DVDs? All with must-have utilities and often free programs that were part and parcel of the PC enthusiast experience from the 80s through to the early 00s. That fell by the wayside with the advent of the modern internet and growing broadband connectivity along with worries about malware and viruses and greater knowledge and sophistication in using computers. Among many other things. But imagine if you could get an actual computer on the front cover of a magazine. That’s just what you can right now with the launch this week of the Raspberry Pi Zero, a tiny but powerful computer that […]

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Facebook blogging could be great…

Neville Hobson 8 Comments Blogging, Communication, Experiences, Reviews, Social Networks, Software, Weblog Tools, Weblogs

Facebook announced some updates to its Notes tool last week designed to make it appeal more to users of the social network than has been the case so far. Notes lets you write longer-form content exceeding the brevity a status update gives you, and post it to your Facebook timeline to share with your friends. Think of it as ‘blogging lite’ within Facebook – the update brings some new features including adding a cover image to your post, adding images including captions in the post body, and some simple formatting attributes such as headings and bulleted lists. It could be a useful tool, a great way to publish a post to Facebook that might be more appropriate there than, say, publishing […]

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Windows 10 is just around the corner

Neville Hobson 9 Comments Experiences, Experimenting, Hardware, Reviews, Software, Technology
Windows 10

In just a few days, on July 29, Microsoft will begin the public rollout of Windows 10 in 190 countries. If you want to upgrade your desktop or laptop computer, it’s a free upgrade in specific circumstances. Lifehacker has a simple flowchart that makes it quite easy to see if you qualify. The only difference to this chart is that Windows 8 won’t get you the free upgrade but Windows 8.1 will. According to Microsoft: The only requirements are that a) your device is compatible, and b) you’re running genuine Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Windows 8.1 (Update). Windows 10 is designed to run on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs. That means your device is likely compatible […]

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