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 it.

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 different tennis player. As far as I can see, Nadal isn’t even mentioned in that original post.

“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 headphones, but again struggling for battery life. BeatsX but in a different colour - to replace the original Beats X that I couldn’t quite bring myself to ditch. AirPods Max - Because they are freaking awesome. And also felt like my ears could do with a break from all the inner ear nonsense. Beats EP - Wired Beats required for Windows laptop since working from home The new ones, by the way, are absolutely necessary and could not be fulfilled by any of the above - a pair of earphones specifically for Fitness+ workouts.

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 the few that I’ve seen so far have been really good.

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 really do RSS anymore, and if they are doing RSS, they’re not talking about it. Only a handful of websites actively display a link to an RSS feed, otherwise it may as well not exist – because how do you find it?

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 problems and I was taking it personally.

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 than we have in the UK, the Byron Bay Railroad Company refurbished an old train, refitting it with batteries and solar panels and allowing the machine not only to power itself with renewable energy but also to give power back to the grid.

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, but in terms of the mechanics, I couldn’t be less interested.

I listened to the audiobook of this, read by Hannah Fry herself, and I’m glad I chose to do it this way because I feel like it needed the calm explanatory voice of Dr Fry, with her enviable ability to get across quite complex things in a simple and efficient manner. The crux of the book is exploring how the many algorithms that affect our daily lives are flawed and what we might need to consider going about our day to day business as we use them.

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’m it!

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 how.

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, yea, 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 didn’t buy a new car. Then life got in the way again, forced my hand, and now I do have a new car.

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!

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, or write that screenplay), and the alarm sounds feature the Rock’s beautiful voice giving encouragement.

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 SE for the foreseeable future.

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, Friends isn’t a particularly technology heavy show, so although it is frozen in time a decade ago, it doesn’t take away from the sitcom that much.

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. The idea is that you have speakers of varying sizes littered throughout your house, and they can all be controlled from the one app – either on your desktop or mobile device. They can all play the same thing, or each can play something different, and they hook up to the wifi so can access all the internet radio stations across the globe. You can also Airplay stuff to them from Apple devices, and control things via remote if you don’t have the app to hand.

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.

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 that actually I could probably get on with my internet life quite well without them.

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 suggestions for use on the sofa or in the kitchen, but they also suggest in the gym or just curled around as a stand on the desk.

I’m a big fan of Tom Merritt’s podcasting work, particularly as part of the dream team with Molly Wood, but also on the TWiT network. He’s professional, super smart and explains tech things without being patronising. Yay! So, I was intrigued by the book, clearly born from a simple love of all things tech. I recall a Tech History Today podcast that I lost track of, but the book no doubt came from there.

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 use another gadget for testing things on.

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 given up. This week, I deregistered the Kindle, and went back to my previous version - a simpler, but more reliable product.

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 on a measurement of your activities is really good. The computer thing doesn’t work for me, because I would go mad if my mouse started slowing down. Plus I don’t have a bike. It makes more sense when people are just messing about on Facebook for hour after hour, or as I used to do - playing the Sims all night. I like to think I’m being slightly more creative online now, but that doesn’t mean that getting up and away from the screen isn’t important too.

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 hours of experience under my belt, I have some early thoughts on the device - and they’re not as ecstatic as I thought they would be.

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, on a day out, or as a map to find my way to that day out, then the power supply is severely depleted. The lighter socket in my car is intermittently functional, so that charging on the go can be a problem.

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 group that should have had a look before it went into production? The packaging looks nice enough, but you know they’re trying too hard if it’s impossible to get in. At least it doesn’t look dangerous though, not like Belkin products. The last time I tried to open one of those, the process required some scissors, a knife, an extra pair of hands, and almost a trip to A&E.

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 on the matter is pretty moot as I don’t know of the history between them or the big things they stand for other than skimming the surface of their output like I do. From my point of view, one party came out of the argument looking better than the other, and it’s not Paul’s podcast that I’ll be unsubscribing from. Of course it helps that he is cute as anything.

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 the decision and ordered my upgrade - the iPhone 4S. I can’t say I’m 100% looking forward to it, I like the variation of having a non-Apple device, but having said that, not having to carry a phone and an iPod separately is also appealing.

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 I can find. My most recent headphones came to an early demise with a lack of sound in one ear, so I made an emergency evening trip to the supermarket to grab a new pair. Mr C raised the idea of buying one good pair for office duties, and then another pair for running and sleeping with.

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, and that seems like a good period of time to knuckle down and try and get the best out of my Android phone. If I can prove that I can do whatever I want to do with the Desire I already have, then there’s no reason I need to change.

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, changing their website and apps to be completely different. I’m not really sure what they’re going for, adding in social networking functionality, I suppose, but all it has done is made it impossible to navigate. The website seems to take forever to load, and the app has spinning load wheels even when it’s not doing anything.

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 another gadget, although I don’t recall putting even that much thought into it.

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 Sidepodcast, and the way software is consumed as a whole.

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 of died. Thus, I have a “new-to-me” Mac on my hands. It’s taken a week or so to get everything up and running, but I’m not pretty much where I was before. One of the main changes, aside from the lack of hideous fan noises every time I opened any kind of video, is that I now have Snow Leopard.

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 love black gadgets.

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 say I am a fan of the website, it’s hard to actually find any useful information. From what I gather, though, the pencil acts just like a pencil. You can save, share and clear your work with the buttons, and it comes in a variety of colours - like a chalkboard.

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 break out across Europe today. I haven’t even been keeping a close watch on the hype surrounding but I already know that I want one.

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 use the web. My brain is incapable of storing information and now with Google, I don’t have to.

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, though, it was a bit creaky. The battery was all but useless, and it’s ability to pick up signals could only be jump-started by switching it on and off again.

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 agreement - who’s gonna fork out for a 3D TV?

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.

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 with the Chumby One, which is the next generation of Chumby. Firstly, the name makes me think of those campaigns to get innocent people out of jail. “Free the Chumby One!” That could just be me, though.

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 up your sleeves and get involved. Then the printer gets all sarcastic, saying: “Haha, there’s no paper stuck in that door, silly. Oops, look, now you’ve torn it. Still not having your print out, nah, nah, nah.” At this point, your hands will usually be smudged with black ink, that you then brush across your face.

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 if we can help it, and would prefer an adventure through all the back streets rather than sitting snapping at each other. You don’t normally expect to have to break out Google maps before you’ve even got going, but this we had to do.

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 lot of notifications on my phone for emails, and as quite a lot of the services I use are in the US (LibriVox, for example) these can come in at odd times of the day and night. Rather than be woken up every half hour, I thought about switching the notifications off. But that’s annoying. I thought about putting the phone to silent, but that is also not ideal.

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 system will soon outgrow it. There is plenty of information emerging about the next ‘Donut’ update, but there’s not much point in going through it here, as I still have months and months to go on my G1 contract and won’t be able to enjoy any of the new stuff until I can get my hands on an updated handset.