I'm one of those that is skeptical of AI, both the impact it can actually have on the future, but also from the point of view of being wary it may destroy the future (Terminator movies, anyone?). So whenever I see one of those memes doing the rounds of an AI getting a question ridiculously wrong or failing to understand basic alphabet or numerical concepts, I take great joy from …

I can't stop thinking about this news item on the BBC, complaining once again about the incorrect headline summaries Apple's Artificial Intelligence is creating based on their stories. In particular here, it claimed Luke Littler won the darts championship before he had (although he later did which I think wasn't a surprise to anyone). It also claimed Rafael Nadal had come out as gay, based on a story about a …

"I need another pair of earphones," I said. "What's wrong with the five pairs you already have?" "I don't have five!" Indignantly, I counted them. I didn't have five. I had six. But they're all for different purposes, you know? Original AirPods - revolutionary and brilliant but struggling for battery life. AirPods Pro - to replace the AirPods, which I never quite got round to throwing away. BeatsX - sporting …

The latest iPhone software update introduced the concept of widgets - an ability for apps to take up a bit more space on the home screen and display more useful information than just a link to the individual app. The software was rolled out quickly and at the expense of time for developers to do what they do best, so it's taking a while for apps to be updated, but …

I recently decided I wanted slightly more control over my news intake than occasionally looking at a news site, randomly perusing Apple News, or constantly being a day behind on Twitter. I thought, ah remember the good old days when you could subscribe to whatever RSS feeds you liked and follow the news straight to your RSS inbox? Why not try that again? Turns out, it’s really difficult. People don’t …

I've never really got on that well with Siri. Apple's voice activated assistant can do some cool things but she never really listens to me and I find it easier just to swipe and tap to get what I want. I'm not alone in getting frustrated with Siri, but I've long been complaining to Mr C that she just doesn't listen to me. He's not experienced the same level of …

The most recent episode of Robert Llewellyn's Fully Charged YouTube series focused on the fun and future-proof idea of solar-powered trains. Electricity-powered trains are front and centre at the moment, with the ongoing works to upgrade the length of the Great Western Railway line, but this episode talks of a short track that goes just a little bit further. Based in Australia, where there is a little bit more sunshine …

It’s always been a surprise to people that, despite being someone who avidly followed Formula One for a good ten years, I really don’t care much for cars. Recently someone asked me what car I drive, the vehicle I have sat in pretty much every day for two years, and it took me about twenty minutes to remember. I’ve always loved the freedom and independence being a driver gives you, …

2018 is all about self-improvement (and waiting for the weather to sort itself out for further adventures), and this month I wrapped up a new qualification that encompassed several exams and a lot of time staring at Microsoft applications. Is it wrong that I have mostly put in the time and effort for this award just because it makes me a master? Mastermind. The Master. Jedi Master. Take your pick, …

I’ve recently been using Apple’s Bluetooth earphones, otherwise known as AirPods. They weren’t my first choice – I don’t really enjoy the look of them, and was reluctant to get rid of my sturdy camouflage black wired earphones. Unfortunately, I upgraded to a new iPhone, one of the ones without the headphone jack, and that meant adjusting to a whole new world. The AirPods are both brilliant and awful. Here’s …

So, I bought a new car. I know what you’re thinking, “when I read on this blog that the new car buying process was starting, it sounded like we were going to enjoy tales from every step along the journey.” Well, yeah, except that was five years ago. My old car kept on keeping on for longer than expected, and then of course, life got in the way, and I …

I hadn't really been paying attention to the BMW Group's Next 100 celebration with concept cars ahoy - that is until I saw this video with their take on the future of Rolls Royce. "Are you ready?" the breathy voiceover lady oozes. Erm, not sure that I am actually! I don't really like what they've done with the square tyres here, it looks angular and odd and generally leaves a …

It's not every day you open up the app store on your phone to discover that Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has released an alarm clock app to help you wake up and set your goals. Turns out that was a really good day. The Rock Clock does exactly what it says on the tin, it's an alarm clock which pushes you to reach a specific goal (ie. wake up early, …

Google have finally taken the plunge and announced they will be building their own self-driving cars, rather than attempting to adapt existing machinery to be self-sufficient. It makes sense, after testing out the viability of the concept, to then start from the ground up and create a new vehicle. The design is a bit bubble car, but if it serves the purpose, there’s always room for improvement on that front. …

CNET published an exclusive story about Nike's plans to shut down their FuelBand hardware section, including layoffs and a focus on software instead. This was rebuffed, sort of, by a spokesperson, although their quote was more about continued support of the existing bands, rather than expanding the line. We will continue to improve the Nike+ FuelBand App, launch new METALUXE colors, and we will sell and support the Nike+ FuelBand …

I was recently watching one of those episodes of Friends that are always on a TV channel somewhere, and realised that there's a lot of landline usage in the show. Because Friends ended in 2004, they're missing a whole ten years of technology, which includes the revolution of smartphones that came after the iPhone in 2007. I dread to think of the jokes Chandler could make about Flappy Bird. Anyway, …

Up until recently, Bose was just a name that I occasionally heard in reference to headphones. I didn’t realise it was a pretty big brand that have their own stores and everything, not until I was dragged into one. Mr C was investigating the options for their SoundTouch system, and wanted to get a closer look. The SoundTouch is a pretty clever piece of kit, similar to the Sonos system. …

I remember when I first saw podcasting guru Leo Laporte talk about the Withings scale, that tracked your weight and tweeted about it every day. I thought he was completely mental, sharing such personal information, although the effect of peer pressure when it comes to healthy intentions has been proven. What I didn’t think was crazy was the concept of improved smarter gadgets tracking what you do. The so-called “wearable …

Google Reader shut down today, to mixed reactions from: “Finally!” to “Now to see what this alternative is like,” to “It’s 1st July already??” Thankfully, I was one of the middle batch. When Google first announced they would be closing their feed reader, I thought it was going to be the end of the world. Then for a couple of days I didn’t read any feeds at all, and figured …

Ghost: Just a Blogging Platform It's about time there was a bit of competition in the blog-hosting space. I am quite ingrained in Wordpress these days, but always looking to try something new.

I spotted this crazy but brilliant gadget stand that is way over-funded on Kickstarter, and it is such a great idea. Taking inspiration from the animal kingdom, the Monkey Kit stand is actually billed as a "tablet positioning system" but it can cling on to plenty of different types of gadget, and then can curl around things or prop itself up in the strangest of places. I particularly like the …

Off-the-beaten-track at CES 2013 Don't let's tell Mr C about the sports cameras!

The Thanksgiving Black Friday sale business doesn't really reach the UK, although the internet's ability to shrink the globe means we do get to see some deals. I spotted one such deal on the Amazon site, where they had reduced the Kindle Fire to just £99. Now, we don't really need another device in our lives, but I was interested to see what it was like, and we could always …

I wrote some initial impressions about the Kindle Paperwhite when it first arrived, and looking back, I think I was very generous. It was a disappointment but I tried to temper the frustrations with the knowledge that there were benefits for me (3G and touchscreen), and it was supposedly a cutting edge product - they knew it wasn't perfect. Unfortunately, after a month using the device most lunchtimes, I have …

I love projects and creative thinking that solve problems - even if they are problems that I don't always relate to or understand. This is one of those: encouraging people to exercise when they are using the computer too much. Can there possibly be such a thing?? The video explains it all, with tons of information here. I like the concept, I think being instructed you should do something based …

When the new and exciting Kindle Paperwhite was announced, I was keen to try it out. There's not much wrong with my current Kindle, but there are a few niggles that the Paperwhite is meant to solve, and they would make me ebook reading experience even more brilliant than it already is. We ordered as soon as we could, and the Paperwhite arrived on the doorstep yesterday. With just 24 …

If you've got a smartphone that does all manner of exciting things, you'll know that sometimes you run out of battery before the day is out. When I switched to the iPhone, I was pleasantly surprised by the battery power in the device - it would get me comfortably through the day, and just need a charge up at night. If I was to use it as a camera, though, …

It's an acquired taste, for sure, but I do so love this video that's been doing the rounds this week. A compilation of heaps of unboxing videos, with the hosts desperately trying to get their hands on the Nexus 7 tablet. Stick through the introductions, the good stuff comes later. How is it possible that Google or Asus or anyone didn't try and open this box? Where's the box-opening focus …

This week, I caught sight of a public spat between Paul Irish and Jeffrey Zeldman - two heavyweights in web standards evangelism. I know of them both from a vague distance and I follow some of their work but I can't pretend to know anything about web standards. I'm not even 100% sure what the argument is about and I certainly don't know what a blue beanie is. My opinion …

After my posts just over a month ago, wherein I decided to give my Android phone one last chance to convince me to replace it with another similar model, I had some fantastic suggestions of apps to use. Dolphin Browser and Fast Reboot were a revelation to me, and made for some more interesting minutes spent browsing. However, the irritations are still there, and after six weeks, I finally made …

I go through earphones at a rate of knots. Sometimes they lose the sound in one ear, occasionally I leave them places, often one end of the cable breaks and becomes unusable. Considering the amount I use them, I'm okay with that really. They have become more of a consumable than anything else. I've tried expensive ones, I've tried cheap ones, and in the end, I just go with whatever …

The conversation that kicked off after my post earlier today made me even more sure that I've not been trying hard enough with Android. I can't really stress how much I want to stay on the Android platform, but equally I know for a fact I'd get more use out of the iPhone. Either way, I'm not going to be splashing out on either for a month or two yet, …

A while back, Mr C and I went on a sojourn to the south coast to take some pictures. Actually, we went there with the specific intention to take pictures and publish them live on the go, forming a workflow as we went. I wrote more about the process we decided upon over on Sidepodcast, but we've now hit upon a snag. Posterous have gone through something of a revamp, …

This time last year, Google added new functionality to Maps on Android phones - Google Navigation. The new feature allowed you to search for directions as per usual, but then take it a step further and switch the results into turn by turn navigation. I've long resisted the SatNav world, although I have no real reason why. Perhaps I couldn't justify the cost in my head, and didn't particularly want …

Adobe are soon to be offering pay as you go models to rent their creative suite of software. Things like Photoshop, After Effects, InDesign and Illustrator are all costly pieces of kit but the new payment method could bring the point of entry down to new users. I decided to take ten minutes to chat to Mr C about how this might change some of the things we do on …

My old Mac had been on a slow decline for the past few months. It wasn't exactly a stunner when I got my hands on it, and I used it an awful, awful lot. The poor thing had been overworked and wanting a break for a long time but I wasn't about to let that happen. So, over the course of the Australian Grand Prix weekend this year, it sort …

In the midst of our studio sort-out, we uncovered this little gem. This is the G3 Lombard from 1999. This was the first gadget that I stole from Mr C, in the early days of our relationship. It was also the first Mac I ever used, and it was a good one. Lovely keyboard, beautiful curviness, and little flaps to cover up all the ports and holes. Plus I do …

In the ongoing quest to turn everything digital, there are still some cases where a paper and pencil just works. I'm the first to admit that every time I try an online or digital to-do list, I always end up right back with my notepad and pen. This is an interesting idea, then, the closest technology has come to being paper so far, I'd say - the NoteSlate. I can't …

Oh dear. I bet I'm not the only person to use that pun. Terrible. When Microsoft first announced the Kinect, did anyone else think it would never see the light of day? It seemed far too magical, a technology far greater than what we currently had, a step beyond what anyone would want in their homes. Think: Microsoft Surface. But here it is, launched in the States, and ready to …

Instant Search has been out and about for a while now, and I can't see that it's made my life any better, but I don't particularly hate it either. I've been catching up with some TWiT podcasts, and Leo has talked extensively about why they would choose to implement something like this and what purpose it serves. It's an interesting subject, because search is so very fundamental to the way …

I am the proud owner of a new HTC Desire and it is fabulous! My G1 finally came to the end of it's useful life. That or my contract came up for renewal so I went for the upgrade. To be fair to the G1, I was a seriously early adopter, I got a lot of use out of it, and it only occasionally let me down. By the end, …

I went to visit my brother recently (hi brother!) and he's the proud owner of a fancy HD TV. I do most of my media consuming online but I can appreciate a good TV when I see one. He was watching the snooker, which seemed a bit of a waste to me, but still, nice TV. We got into a conversation about 3D vs HD and we were mostly in …

I've been hearing about the Microsoft Courier but not really been paying attention. It first came to my attention as a competitor to the still-fictional-at-the-moment Apple tablet, but from what I've read, it's not meant to be a tablet computer, it's something different. I recently saw a video of the potential uses for the Courier and was blown away. There are also pictures and more info here. It looks really …

More than a year ago, I blogged about the cute and squishable Chumby, an internet gadget that seemed to just be a widget display showing you things like the weather, email and suchlike. I never bought one because at first it wasn't available in the UK, then the option to ship it internationally became available but the gadget was just that little bit too expensive. Now they have come out …

Why don't printers ever just work? If I had my way, I would never have to print anything, but that is a different problem. Faced with having to print something, why does a printer, whose sole job it is to print, splutter to a halt? It's not even a silent, resolute, protest of "No, I'm not doing that." The annoying red light blinks at you until you have to roll …

I have just remembered that Mr C asked me to write about the downside of the Google map via Android experience, just to provide a bit of balance to my previous post on the subject. We were headed out and about to visit the lovely Alex and Kat, but only managed to get five minutes from our house before hitting some serious traffic. We don't tend to sit in traffic …

I was recently introduced to the Android App Locale and it is really rather good. I thought I would share, although if you are a Google Android user, you have likely found this already. It is basically a fancy way of storing some 'if statements' in your phone to make certain things happen. I have only set up one, but will share with you as an example: I get a …

Whilst I've been getting more and more attached to my T-Mobile G1, it looks as though the Android development team are going through the opposite emotions. According to this story on Engadget, G1 users really need to make the most of their recent Cupcake software update, because it will probably be their last! Supposedly, HTC put a limited amount of internal flash space into the G1, and the Android operating …