Posts By: David Firth

Apple reveals ‘leap forward’ iPhone X

Posted by & filed under Apple, Emerging Technologies, Entertainment, Ethical Issues, IT and the law, IT Trends.

Apple has revealed a high-end smartphone with an “edge-to-edge” screen that has no physical home button. The iPhone X – which is referred to as “ten” – uses a facial recognition system to recognise its owner rather than a fingerprint-based one. Source: BBC Technology News Date: September 12th, 2017 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41228126 Discussion 1) Is it really a “leap… Read more »

Spies’ use of cellphone surveillance technology suspended in January, pending review

Posted by & filed under Cybersecurity.

When a crippling ransomware attack wreaked havoc on computers around the world earlier this year, it did so with alarming, worm-like speed. It didn’t take long for security researchers to find out why. The highly sophisticated code that was used to sneak silently into computers, largely undetected, had been stolen from the NSA. The incident thrust a… Read more »

What exactly is an ICO?

Posted by & filed under bitcoin, Crypto currency.

In simple terms, an initial coin offering is an unregulated means to raise funds for a new crypto-currency business. It allows investors to buy newly created tokens – known as coins – issued by a venture in return for more established virtual currencies, such as bitcoins or ethereum. It is often compared to an IPO… Read more »

Amazon launches search for a second headquarters in North America

Posted by & filed under Amazon.

Amazon on Thursday said it plans to open a second company headquarters in North America, and it is soliciting pitches from cities and states for what it calls HQ2. The online retailer expects to invest more than $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs. Source: CNBC Date: September… Read more »

Using your face to buy your lunch

Posted by & filed under China, Civil Liberties, Emerging Technologies, Ethical Issues.

Chinese technology giant Alibaba has unveiled the first facial recognition system to pay for shopping – at a fast food restaurant. Amidst concerns about data privacy it insists none of the information it uses is retained. Source: BBC Technology News Date: September 7th, 2017 Link to video (1 minute 38 sec run time after 15 second ad in… Read more »

42% of Canadian jobs at high risk of being affected by automation, new study suggests

Posted by & filed under Artificial intelligence, Automation.

More than 40 per cent of the Canadian workforce is at high risk of being replaced by technology and computers in the next two decades, according to a new report out Wednesday. The Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship at Toronto’s Ryerson University said in its report that automation previously has been restricted to routine, manual tasks. However, breakthroughs in… Read more »

Why didn’t electricity immediately change manufacturing?

Posted by & filed under Cloud Computing, cloud services, IT and History, IT Infrastructure, IT Trends.

For investors in Boo.com, WebVan and eToys, the bursting of the dotcom bubble came as a bit of a shock. Companies like this raised vast sums on the promise that the worldwide web would change everything. Then, in the spring of 2000, stock markets collapsed. Some economists had long been sceptical about the promise of computers. In… Read more »