Tech Talk Column

NBN recently released information to demonstrate just how much additional data we have been using since the start of COVID-19 restrictions. In less than a month our usage in the evening has increased by 25 per cent; the early evening has witnessed an…

Do you remember the old days? The days when we could jump in a car and drive to a local tourist destination and gather with other people whilst viewing the attraction? Or cast your mind back further – when we could fly across the seas and visit…

Many people talk about the pace of change ‘these days’ but I think it would be fair to say that COVID-19 has delivered a world where the pace of change is not measured in years or months but in hours and minutes. Just when we think we hav…

It was almost two years ago when I almost gave my daughter a heart attack. Our family was on an Easter holiday and one daughter was at University so she flew direct to our destination. We were about to prepare a meal in our apartment when I picked up…

If you were one of the tens of millions of people around the world who watched a day in the life of Jack Bauer unfold in the television series, ‘24’, then undoubtedly your highlight would have been similar to mine. Day Six, which aired th…

I recently had an experience I would not wish upon my worst enemy (I don’t actually have enemies – but the expression sounds very dramatic!) My wife and I were sitting at home relaxing on a Saturday afternoon. Our four children were at va…

Many people would be familiar with the name Alan Turing from the 2014 historical drama, The Imitation Game, which was the highest grossing film of that year. Turing is widely considered to be the father of artificial intelligence and I remember study…

Ahhhh – the thrill of attending a live sports match. Fighting my way through city traffic and lining up early to secure the best seats in the stadium. Lathering on sun screen throughout the day. Lining up to get a beer that is almost as good as…

What do you do when you manufacture a television with specifications so high that there isn’t content at the same level? The obvious answer is to manufacture a phone that can create content at the same level! Samsung has a range of 8K QLED tele…

Do me a favour. Go to your desk or office or wherever it is that you keep your electronic goods. Open the bottom drawer. Move aside all the old mobiles and electronic devices you have tucked away in there. Now find the cables. How many do you have th…

“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.” And so began each weekly episode of the ‘Six Million Do…

Put your hand up if you would like information on your mobile phone to be secure. Photos of your kids that you have taken on your phone to be kept private. E-mails from work about new product launches to remain just with employees. Posting informatio…

Henry Ellsworth, former Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office, delivered his annual report to congress. In that report he stated: “The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that per…

One of the traits I most admire about the human race is the ability to be creative and innovative in solving problems. Go back to circa 3500 B.C. when the Mesopotamians invented the wheel or the Egyptians invented the nail as a fastener then jump to …

Data shows that 92 per cent of all resolutions made in the heady euphoria of 1 January are unsuccessful so I thought I may as well start the New Year by breaking my recurring resolution. Every year I tell my readers it is simply too hard to make one-…

This Christmas, I promised myself, I definitely wouldn’t overindulge and then collapse in front of the TV and start pumping out zeds. But with a beautiful meal prepared and family gathered, the inevitable happened and before I knew it, I looked…

As our family gathers together during the holidays, it is inevitable there will be a point in time when we start reminiscing about our lives together. We pull out funny stories from our past with maybe a little embellishment on each retelling. One ch…

A friend of mine once told me that a phone call is a demand for a meeting without an appointment. Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with the attitude from a customer service perspective, I do understand the sentiment. Until 1876, our society exi…

What would your answer be if I asked you for the most commonly used data service in the world? Just a subtle hint – I have used exactly 160 characters thus far. It was twenty-seven years ago that the first text message was sent. Now text messag…