This week, Adrian and Buzz.ie editor Mark Kavanagh list the best tech gadgets of the year. These include phones, headphones, smart speakers, cameras, smartwatches, drones, laptops and desktop PCs. The two also look forward to what is expected in 2020. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Some Irish tech firms prosper, some go bust and a great many simply run as a going concern.But there is a small number of Irish companies that still get talked about as ones with ‘potential’, even when they’re ten years old and bringing in millions. Ding, the Dublin-based firm that lets people top up their mobile phone credfit, may fall into this category. The company, founded by Mark Roden, has done pretty well to date. It has annual revenue of €38m based on over €500m of phone top-ups through ...
Almost two in five Irish people are leaving themselves open to a likely data breach by not updating their passwords. This week, Adrian sits down with Brad Brooks, CEO of OneLogin. The two talk about online security and why one in five Irish adults haven’t updated their passwords in over two years. One factor in understanding the lack of security hygiene over passwords in Ireland may be a professed level of annoyance that Irish people say they feel at online security measures. Almost a third of u...
How do you cope when your startup fails? The issue of mental health among founders isn’t widely discussed. This week, Adrian talks to Eamon Leonard, the popular Irish startup founder who found it tough going after one of his companies failed. Eamon talks candidly and honestly about the difficulties he had when things didn’t work out. He also talks about the new company he has co-founded, Boundless, and recounts the eye-opening tale of how he was ripped off by fraudsters when trying to buy equipm...
While the world tries to decide whether political advertising should be allowed on Facebook, the company has quietly chosen Ireland to try out a new privacy feature over almost all ads. ‘Off Facebook Activity’ will let you cut off advertisers from your Facebook identity, either individually or in total. The idea is to address a problem that came into sharp focus in the Cambridge Analytica scandal -- what happens to your personal data outside your Facebook sessions? The new Off Facebook Activity ...
This week, Adrian sits down with the world’s most famous PR man and CEO of Edelman Public Relations, Richard Edelman. The Chicago-born executive, whose firm takes in €800m a year in revenue and has an expanding Irish office, gives Adrian his take on the state of the world. This includes the advice he would give to Mark Zuckerberg, why newspapers have to change their business model and the circumstances under which company bosses should speak openly about contemporary issues. See omnystudio.com/l...
Thought food delivery by drone was a distant tech promise?Think again.Irish entrepreneur Bobby Healy says his first Manna Aero drone flights with burgers and chips will start in January. The former Cartrawler CTO says he has clearance from Ireland’s regulators to do it and will start with an area servicing 30,000 people.In the near future, he says, he hopes to scale to 50,000 delivery drones for the Irish and UK markets.Is this really about to happen? Adrian sat down with Bobby at the Web Summit...
In what he says will be his last wide-ranging Irish interview “for two years”, Paddy Cosgrave speaks at length and in-depth about his business, his politics and his thoughts about the future. The Web Summit is still growing and is quite profitable, while sister events Collision and Rise are also expanding. Paddy reveals some of the background as to why he has campaigned against tax lawyers and an “unjust” economic system in Ireland. He also answers the allegation that he is adopting a double sta...
This week, Adrian and Buzz.ie digital editor Mark Kavanagh look in depth at the pros and cons of Google’s latest flagship smartphone, the Pixel 4 XL. Adrian is disappointed with the phone’s battery life and lack of an ultrawide camera, while Mark loves the phone’s 90Hz refresh rate. Both admire Google’s Assistant and Android 10. The two journalists also compare and contrast the new Pixel with the other top phones on the market, while Adrian lists his three favourite smartphones of 2019. Adrian a...
This week, Adrian invites a couple of guests on to ask about whether we’re anywhere close to realising aspirations of making Dublin into a ‘smart city’. What is a smart city, anyway? Is it just some public wifi? A few sensor-stacked bins? Or does Dublin have a plan for drones and autonomous vehicles? And should we avoid the example of Songdo, the South Korean city that spent €40bn creating a new smart citadel but where hardly anyone wants to live? Adrian talks to Jamie Cudden, Dublin City Counci...
Clothes manufacturers are starting to build voice technology into their garments, while Amazon’s new doorbell tech allows it to have autonomous conversations with whoever’s at the door. This week, Adrian Weckler goes through some of the latest developments in voice technology from companies like Google, Amazon and Nuance. He’s joined by Bret Kinsella, founder of Voicebot.ai and commentator of the year on voice technology as defined by the Alexa Conference. For more from the Big Tech show you can...
Creating start-ups is hard. -- few of them succeed. This week, Adrian talks to two Irish co-founders, people at very different stages. Des Treanor is the co-founder of one of Ireland’s most successful ever start-ups, Intercom. Ian Kehoe is the co-founder of a new online media business company, The Currency. Both have different perspectives, motivations and challenges. Adrian asks both about particular issues that crop up and how they get over them. For more from the Big Tech show you can visit t...
This week, Adrian reviews the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Max. Although smitten by the new cameras on the updated handsets, he thinks that the unsung feature that will sell the iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max models is the impressive new battery life, up to five hours per day longer than last year’s iPhone X models. He’s joined by John Kennedy, former founding editor of SiliconRepublic.com and now editor of ThinkBusiness.ie, a business information platform run by Bank of Ireland. “After a week usi...
This week, Adrian looks at some of the nuts and bolts of starting a company with a couple of entrepreneurs who have succeeded and failed several times. From choosing a place to work to asking for money from friends and family, Adrian gets the insights from Voxgig and Nearform founder Richard Rodger and serial startup activist Dave Cunningham. For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/ The Big Tech show is in association with Mag...
This week on the Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler looks at 5G not from the point of view of speed or connectivity but health. It’s been an issue bubbling under, in rural areas especially, as to whether mobile phone radiation is safe. The regulators say it is but there are some campaigners who don't believe that is so. Are they mere conspiracy theorists or is there more to it? To find out, Adrian spoke to Tom Butler, Prof of Business Information Systems at UCC, who believes in the dangers, and Prof ...
This week, Adrian sits down with a specialist from St John Of Gods, Professor Colin O’Gara, who says he is seeing more and more people brought in for addiction to video games. Adrian asks Prof O’Gara about the scale and depth of the problem, its effects and how to diagnose it. The two also discuss possible treatments for the problem, including the kinds of medication prescribed. And Adrian asks Prof O’Gara to put the issue into context with established medical addictions, such as gambling, alcoh...
This week, Adrian tackles the thorny issue of mobile and broadband operators which advertise "unlimited" services that actually have hidden limits. He sits down with the head of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI), Orla Twomey, to ask why that organisation allows such a misleading situation to exist. Orla tells Adrian that while the situation is being reviewed, there is a rationale for allowing operators to advertise unlimited services that have limits. See omnystudio.com/list...
This week, Adrian sits down to find out what, if any, big ideas Dell Ireland's new country manager has. Mark Hopkins starts off defending some industry jargon before expanding into why he thinks tech will have a bigger impact on our education system. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Adrian sits down for a long, in-depth discussion with Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon on why she stopped the government from making its Public Services Card into a national identity card through the backdoor. After years of controversy, this week her office ruled that the PSC card cannot be used as a necessary form of identification for services outside the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. The move effectively puts a halt to any plans the government had...
After October 31st, will pensioners still be able to travel on a free pass around Ireland? Will online shops based in the UK be able to process customer information from Irish shoppers? It’s in serious doubt, says the guest on this week’s podcast, Castlebridge’s Dr Katherine O’Keeffe, an expert on data privacy. Adrian and Katherine go deep on why a no-deal Brexit spells chaos for many ordinary activities you wouldn’t have thought of. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
This week, Adrian sits down with Cillian Kieran, who recently scooped €3.8m in seed funding for his privacy-focused software startup called Ethyca. The two discuss possible solutions to today’s privacy problems. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Eir debate Eir's audacious €1bn proposal for an alternative National Broadband Plan stirred up a nest of debate and dissent in recent weeks. One of the senior political figures who backs Eir is Timmy Dooley, Fianna Fail spokesman on Communications, Climate Action and Environment. He sat down with Adrian to explain why he thinks it's worth taking a risk on an Eir proposal and what he would do as a government Minister. Dooley also outlined why he is in favour of a new digital tax on online adv...
The fad of the week is FaceApp, which makes even the most cherubic youngster look like Gandalf. But we really helping ‘The Russians’ compile a giant facial database? Or is the current hysteria just this month’s instalment of the neverending moral panic around tech? Adrian Weckler and Fearghal O’Connor (deputy business editor for The Sunday Independent) discuss the issue from a political and technological perspective. The two also examine Instagram’s trial move in Ireland to remove ‘likes’ from i...
Women in Tech is a new podcast series presented by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent. Samantha speaks to Irish women involved in tech who are dispelling myths and breaking down barriers. On this week's bonus episode, she meets Jennifer Cox, who is a CSM Associate Security Engineer with Tenable, an international cyber security company. With a background in theatre and media studies, Jennifer is not your typical STEM candidate and Samantha spoke to Jennifer about how a...
This week Adrian talks to Justin McLeod, the founder and chief executive of the dating app Hinge, which claims to be the fastest-growing such app in Ireland and the UK. As well as recounting his own dramatic love, McLeod talks about algorithms, safety, age verification and what works best for those using dating apps. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Women in Tech is a four-part series presented by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent. Samantha speaks to Irish women involved in tech who are dispelling myths and breaking down barriers. On this week's episode, she meets Iseult Ward, co-founder of Foodcloud, the food waste distribution platform, that in just seven years has already distributed 22,000 tonnes of food, moving meals every 28 minutes and helping over 9,100 charitable groups in Ireland and UK. Samantha spoke...
Hailo was a roaring success. Then, two years ago, it became MyTaxi. Since that happened, the company has had its struggles. Now, it’s rebranding yet again in a €3m move – to ‘Free Now’. Adrian Weckler has a candid chat with the company’s general manager, Alan Fox, about why the name change was necessary and whether technology can improve some of the issues the firm has faced. They also talk about future ideas, such as ‘surge pricing’ at busy times, as well as current features, such as a new €5 c...
Women in Tech is a four-part series presented by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent. Samantha speaks to Irish women involved in tech who are dispelling myths and breaking down barriers. On this week's episode, she meets Ingrid Devin, Director of Dell's Women's Entrepreneur Network which creates a forum for global women founders and CEOs to share best practices, build business opportunities, explore international expansion and access new resources. Samantha spoke to In...
Women in Tech is a four-part series presented by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent. Samantha speaks to Irish women involved in tech who are dispelling myths and breaking down barriers. On this week's episode, she meets Vanessa Tierney, founder and CEO of Abodoo, the remote working platform that is seeking to empower and enable more remote working for people in Ireland and abroad. Samantha finds out how an illness forced Vanessa into thinking about remote working, how...
Is AIB considering facial recognition for when you walk into a branch? Adrian sits down for a wide-ranging chat with the CIO of Ireland’s biggest bank about its imminent plans. Tim Hynes also assesses the risk from ‘challenger’ banks such as Revolut, while asserting that AIB’s 200 physical branches still “wash their face”, even in an era where so many payments are going cashless. And the two talk in depth about security challenges that banks – and many major companies—face. Tim was also in studi...
