All posts by Paul Stradling

News

Sustainability : World’s First 3D-Printed 100% Bio-Based House

The University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) in the US has unveiled the first 3D-printed house made entirely with bio-based materials.

BioHome3D 

The 600-square-foot prototype ‘BioHome3D’ has 3D-printed floors, walls and roof made of wood fibres and bio-resins. The fully recyclable house also has 100 per cent wood insulation and customisable R-values. ASCC has also said that another bonus of Biohoime3D is that the precision of the printing process of the house construction means that waste was almost eliminated.

Could Solve Housing Problems and Help The Environment 

The University of Maine has highlighted the advantages of the technology in helping with a housing and environmental crisis as:

– Addressing labour shortages and supply chain issues that are driving high costs and constricting the supply of affordable housing.

– The use of automated manufacturing and off-site production cutting the time for on-site building and fitting up the home.

– Printing using abundant, renewable, locally sourced wood fibre feedstock reducing the dependence on a constrained supply chain, supporting the revitalisation of local forest product industries, and making the process more resilient to global supply chain disruptions and labour shortages.

– The sustainably grown wood fibre used is a renewable resource that captures carbon during the tree growth cycle. This could help reduce the 40 per cent of global carbon emissions that buildings account for (UN Environment Programme figures).

– BioHome3D houses could act as carbon storage and sequestration units during their lifetime and after they are recycled.

How And Where? 

The prototype BioHome3D was printed in four modules, then moved to the site and assembled in half a day. Electricity was running within two hours with only one electrician needed on site.

The house is sited on a foundation outside ASCC and has been equipped with sensors for thermal, environmental, and structural monitoring to test how it performs through a Maine winter. Researchers say they expect to use the data collected to improve future designs.

Scalable 

ASCC says it will be able to scale its advanced manufacturing research in housing construction with the opening of the Green Engineering and Materials (GEM) research ‘Factory of the Future’. When complete, GEM will serve as a hub for AI-enabled large-scale digital hybrid manufacturing and will have bays dedicated to scaling up the production of housing, such as BioHome3D, as well as boatbuilding (an important industry in Maine).

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

Finding ways to quickly provide enough affordable housing while facing a labour shortage are two big challenges in themselves. The BioHome3D, however, looks as though it may be a way to meet these challenges whilst also addressing ecological and climate change challenges i.e., by using sustainable, renewable, locally sourced, recyclable natural resources in a way that also captures carbon. The fact that the main parts of this type of home can be pre-made (printed in four modules), then moved to the site and assembled in half a day with only one electrician needed on site shows huge promise in terms of cost and labour saving and getting affordable homes to where they’re needed fast. This project is another example of the enormous potential of 3D printing technology and how its innovative use is revolutionising many parts of different industries. Being in Maine where boatbuilding is an important industry, 3D printing at scale in this way also shows how this method could be adapted easily to build boats. This is an exciting development that could be reproduced in other parts of the world and could create new opportunities not just in housing but in many different industries and sectors.

News

Security Stop-Press : WhatsApp Data Breach: 487 Million User Phone Numbers!

According to a Cybernews report, it has been alleged on a hacking community forum that 487 million WhatsApp user phone numbers from 84 countries, including the UK, are for sale online as part of a database which may have come from a breach. It’s been reported that the UK dataset contains the phone numbers of 11 million users and is being sold for a per-capita sum of $2,500. The advice is, if you need to check whether your number or email has been stolen in a breach, use a site like https://haveibeenpwned.com/. To make accounts more secure, choose strong passwords, don’t share them between accounts, use 2FA where possible, and use a good authenticator app.

News

Tech Tip – Find And Share The QR Code For Any Website

If you’d like a quick way to share a page from any website, Google Chrome gives you the option to share a QR code for any page. Here’s how it works:

– After making sure that your Google Chrome browser is updated to the latest version, go to the page on any website that you want to share.

– In the address bar, top right, find the ‘share this page’ symbol (an arrow in a box) and click on it.

– Chose ‘Create QR Code’.

– Either copy the QR link code, click ‘Download’ to download the QR code, or scan the on-screen QR code with another device’s camera.

News

Tech News : WhatsApp’s New Business Directory Search Function

WhatsApp has given a progress update on new business-focused features that can embed the entire shopping experience directly into the WhatsApp chat.

Find A Business – Browse Businesses By Category 

WhatsApp says that it is launching a new ‘Business Search’ feature. This allows users to browse businesses by category, or search by the business name. WhatsApp says that using this feature within the app can “save people from having to find phone numbers off websites or type a number into their contacts.” 

Also, WhatsApp says an added privacy bonus of this feature is that whatever users search for within business search is processed in a way that means it can’t be linked back to their account.

Make Secure Payments Within Chats 

Although WhatsApp stressed in its progress update that its “first principle remains keeping people in control of their conversations”, i.e. its message service, its new secure checkout feature allows users to make a secure payment right from a chat with their credit or debit card. Recently launched in India and being tested in Brazil with “multiple payment partners,” WhatsApp describes the seamless checkout within its App as “a game-changer for people and businesses looking to buy and sell on WhatsApp without having to go to a website, open another app or pay in person.” 

Many Business Focused Features Being Introduced 

These latest features follow WhatsApp’s launch of ‘Communities’ which was designed to capitalise on the fact that many non-profit organisations, as well as businesses now use WhatsApp, and build more engagement and loyalty among these valuable segments. Meta’s WhatsApp has been introducing many features over the last few years designed to attract more business users an monetise the app. These include, for example, voice and video calling, the ability to share files within WhatsApp up to 2GB in size, improvements to voice messaging, Linked Device (WhatsApp Web) and more. WhatsApp already has ‘WhatsApp Business,’ launched in January 2018 in the UK.

Staying Within The App 

The new WhatsApp features also highlight how many apps, WhatsApp included and recently Zoom (with its Mail and Calendar Clients and Services) are trying broaden the range of services that can be accessed within their apps so users (especially business users) don’t have to leave the app. Eventually, many apps are looking to become ‘super apps’ that provide a diverse range of service and shopping opportunities in one app.

Trouble At Meta Mill 

Recently however, following a slump in advertising revenue from Facebook and Instagram, alongside two poor financial results from investor confusion about and huge investment in the slow-burning Metaverse concept, there’s trouble for Meta. WhatsApp’s owner Meta recently announced that it was laying off a massive 13 per cent of its workforce globally in re-structuring. The pressure, therefore, is now even more on WhatsApp to bring in more revenue and attract more business customers.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

With Meta’s recent poor financial performance, declining advertising revenue from its core services, plus competition from other apps targeting the business market WhatsApp needs to keep adding more features (as it has been doing for some time) and broadening these features to attract and bring in more revenue from business customers.

Features like business search and secure checkouts within chats may help both businesses and users as well as a way to keep users within the app and move it more towards being a potential complete and secure service. This will help WhatsApp compete in an environment where individual apps are trying to gain share by expanding their range of services to become one-stop shops and super apps.

News

Tech News : UK Could Be Like Silicon Valley Says Hunt

Speaking in the House of Commons, UK chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt said that Brexit “freedoms” could be leveraged to “turn Britain into the world’s next Silicon Valley.” 

How? 

Mr Hunt highlighted artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technology and robotics as key areas he believes the UK could excel in. In his speech, he drew upon ‘lessons’ from a previous Conservative chancellor, Nigel Lawson, and highlighted four changes that he believes could support innovation and make the UK a major technology centre. These are:

– By the end 2022, the UK government plans to make changes to EU regulations in five growth industries: digital technology, life sciences, green industries, financial services, and advanced manufacturing. Mr Hunt suggested that these regulations changes will, helped by Sir Patrick Vallance, “support safe and fast introduction of new emerging technologies.” 

– Legislating to give the Digital Markets Unit new powers “to challenge monopolies and increase the competitive pressure to innovate.” Mr Hunt believes this could help create a more favourable competitive environment for UK tech companies.

– Increasing funding for the UK’s nine catapults (nine leading technology and innovation centres) by 35 per cent and committing to the Project Gigabit ultrafast broadband roll-out with a view to maintaining the target of 85 per cent coverage by 2025. Project Gigabit ultrafast broadband is the project to connect up 7,000 more remote properties on UK’s Jurassic coastline with fast broadband by 2025.

– Reform of R&D tax reliefs to improve the effectiveness of how public money is spent.

Challenges 

Despite Mr Hunt’s ambition and optimism, tech, communications, and business commentators have been quick to highlight challenges to this vision becoming a reality. These include:

– The effects of the recession (which may last years) and the cost-of-living crisis.

– A predicted fall in GDP, rising unemployment (predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility / OBR).

– A tech skills gap and 60,000 vacancies in the IT sector.

– A need to give investment help more equally across the country and to close the digital divide.

– Worries that cutting R&D tax credits for small businesses could adversely affect the UK’s most innovative start-ups.

– Concerns that the UK is lagging behind other countries in terms of fast broadband provision and the rollout of 5G, thereby affecting competitiveness.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Mr Hunt’s aim and vision to boost the UK’s technology industry and make it a tech centre has been welcomed by many but has echoes of previous pledges over many years to make this happen. The UK has suffered from a tech skills gap for many years and Brexit led to fears that skilled tech workers, many of whom came from overseas, would leave (which happened in many cases), leaving employers struggling to attract new skills compared to other countries. Mr Hunt’s speech highlighted his beliefs, however, that changes to regulations (which in reality, are unlikely to happen until the end of next year) and challenging monopolies could be a way to create a more favourable environment for tech innovation to flourish in the UK.

The idea of cutting R&D tax credits, however, appears to have the potential to be counter-productive to the aim of giving a boost to innovative small businesses. The recession, cost of living crisis, tech skills gap, and the UK lagging behind in terms of fast broadband provision and 5G rollout are very tough challenges that are hard to ignore and so it appears that there’s a lot of work to do to make the UK like ‘Silicon Valley’ although the ambition and the vision are welcomed.

News

Tech Insight : Google’s New Features For Maps, Search, And Shopping

Following the roll-out of a range of new features for Google’s Maps, Search and shopping, we take a look at what they are and what benefits they could bring to users.

Two New Features For Shopping 

It’s the ideal time of year to introduce new features to Google Shopping, hence the roll-out of two new features now. They are:

1. AR Shopping. This feature allows users to see how beauty products would look on their face, i.e. whether a shade of foundation would suit them. To do this, Google’s AR shopping presents users with a photo library featuring 148 models representing a diverse spectrum of skin tones, skin types, ages, genders, face shapes and ethnicities.  Users can search for a foundation shade on Google across a range of prices and brands, and see what that foundation looks like on a model with a similar skin tone, including before and after shots. This can help make the decision of which one to purchase easier, more convenient, more personal, and may give the user more chance of selecting the right product. Once a foundation brand/type is selected, the user can then select a retailer to buy directly through Google. This feature is helpful for both retailers and customers, and, like several of the other new features, may encourage more of boost in Google Ads plus more engagement with Google’s services from businesses.

2. Try out products in 3D and AR. This feature allows customers to examine a product all the way around, e.g. spin and zoom, as well as see a product up close. For example, users can look at shoes in their space so they can really decide if elements like the colour, laces, tread, or sole fit their style. As of now, Google says users can look at brands like Saucony, VANS and Merrell in 3D and AR, and that other brands are on the way. To use the feature, it’s a case of typing (for example) “Shop blue VANS sneakers” and tapping “View in my space.”

Three New Features for Maps 

Originally announced in September but rolled out in time for the festive season, Google has introduced three new features for Google Maps which are:

1. Live View. Using a combination of AI, billions of Street View images and augmented reality, Google says this feature allows users to navigate a city more intuitively. For example, Google says tapping the camera icon in the search bar lets users see nearby stores, coffee shops, banks and ATMs, and AR-powered directions and arrows show which direction a user is travelling and how far away they are. Users can also tap on different place categories to explore what restaurants, bars, dessert shops, parks and transit stations are nearby. One really helpful aspect of the feature is that AR overlays key information about each spot, e.g. opening times and prices. For users who are not very familiar with the area of a city they’re in (e.g. for a shopping trip), this could be a real timesaving and value-adding feature. Google says that this feature is first being rolled out for use in London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo (on Android and iOS).

2. Find the best charging station for your electric vehicle. Although Google Maps already gives some real-time charging point information, with the new feature, users can search for “EV charging stations” and select the “fast charge” filter. Users can also see stations with chargers 50kW or higher (to charge up faster) plus, in some cities, the feature will allow users to filter for stations that offer a particular EV plug type. One of the key challenges for EV owners is finding suitable charging points nearby which can be more of a headache if you’re not familiar with the area, so this new feature offers convenience, greater peace of mind, and saves time for users.

3. See wheelchair accessible, stair-free places. Using information from business owners and contributions from the Google Maps community, this feature can be useful not just for wheelchair users, but anyone with a pushchair, or luggage. Tapping the “Accessible Places” setting in the Google Maps app shows a wheelchair icon on the business profile if it has a wheelchair accessible entrance, plus the same icon with a strikethrough if it’s a non-accessible place. Users can also use the feature to check if a place has accessible seating, disabled toilets and suitable parking. Business owners can contribute to this; i.e. they can show that their business is accessible by finding their profile, tapping “About,” and then “Edit features.”  Although Google Maps has given accessibility information since 2020, this feature expands the scope of what users can find out in advance and could therefore be extremely helpful, save time, and save potentially poor experiences. With this feature, Google is leveraging different technologies to advance the idea of virtual shopping (similar to the Metaverse idea), handling the whole shopping process, and linking directly to retailers in Google, e.g. advertisers, thereby appealing to brands, retailers and customers as well.

Search 

Google’s core service has always been its search, and this has been expanded  again with two new features that link it with local food businesses, thereby competing with aspects of food ordering apps, and its Maps feature. The new Search features are:

1. Search for your favourite dish. Originally announced in September, this feature allows users to save time and increase the personalisation and precision of their search. Users can search for an exact dish, and where they can find it nearby by typing the dish name into search, e.g. “mac and cheese near me.”

2. Multisearch near me. The introduction of this feature means that Google Lens in the Google app can be used to snap a picture or take a screenshot of a dish or an item, and the words ‘near me’ can be added to quickly find a place that sells it nearby.  Cindy Huynh, Product Manager for ‘Lens’ says “This new way of searching will help me find local businesses in my community, so I can more easily support neighbourhood shops during the holidays.” 

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

With these exciting new features, Google is funding more ways to leverage, combine, and integrate its existing services (Search, Maps, and Shopping) to create more value by focusing on improving how they can be used to link them more closely to smaller businesses for use on the go.

These features are likely to be of particular interest to users at this time of year (Christmas shopping) which could in itself encourage more trial and more of a buzz about them. This combination of new features also integrates with Google My Business, Google Ads, and aspects of Search which, in turn, could make local city businesses engage more with Google’s service and could boost ad sales too. These are also a way for Google to compete with the many popular other Map apps that people now use, such as Waze, HERE WeGo, Bing Maps, MapQuest, Maps.me, OpenStreetMap, OsmAnd, and more.

News

Featured Article : How Investment In Sustainability Could Protect Against Disruption

After a new report published which says that most business leaders plan to increase investment in sustainability initiatives to protect against disruption, we look at what this means.

Report 

A recent Gartner report highlighted how 86 per cent of business leaders plan to increase their organisation’s investment in sustainability initiatives to protect against disruption and 87 per cent are already engaged in sustainability initiatives and expect to expand them in 2023 and 2024.

What Kind Of Disruption? 

The kinds of disruption to businesses, supply chains, and the wider economy that businesses need to protect themselves against include:

– Economic uncertainty. In the UK, for example, the effects of recession, inflation, rising interest rates, sluggish productivity, problems in the labour market and an IT skills gap plus a relatively weak post-pandemic recovery are all creating less certainty and a tough economic environment. For example, Office for Budget Responsibility (figures) show that the UK may not return to its pre-pandemic growth level until the end of 2024, while ONS figures show that by September, the economic output in the UK was still 0.4 per cent lower than pre-pandemic.

– Geopolitical conflict. For example, the war in Ukraine and its multiple effects, notably including high energy costs, higher commodity prices, and disrupted supply chains are causing cost pressures on a number of industries, high food prices, a squeeze on consumer (end-user) spending. This has led to uncertainty over future supply chains (especially if businesses deal in Europe), difficulty for central banks to forecast and plan, and overall uncertainty.

– Escalating materials and energy costs. Again, mainly due to the war in Ukraine, this is having a major effect on business costs and consumer spending. The soaring cost of energy could also increase data centre costs by 40 per cent which may soon mean price rises for business customers who are now very reliant on the cloud.

How? 

As highlighted in the Gartner report, the ways that business leaders plan to tackle disruption centre around re-examining all forms of business expenditure and seeking new, longer term, sustainability initiatives and new revenue streams that leave them less at risk of the uncertainty that’s part of current models, i.e. less reliance on fossil fuels such as oil and gas (and less reliance upon big oil companies).

Sustainability 

As identified by a report in October (Gartner), most investors see sustainability as the key strategic technology trend for 2023 and most CEOs see environmental and social changes as a top three priority for investors, behind profit and revenue.

In addition to getting away from expensive, volatile, and environmentally damaging fossil fuel reliance and the disruption it is currently linked to, other main drivers for business investing in sustainability initiatives include:

– Customer demand. The Gartner report shows that most business leaders (80 per cent) identified consumer pressure behind sustainability as the key reason for investing in sustainability initiatives.

– Environmental, social, and governance (ESF) expectations.

– More environmentally focused government regulations.

– Growing availability of sustainable technology.

– Opportunities to find new revenue streams, accelerate innovation, and develop new forms of customer engagement.

What Kind Of Sustainability Investment and Initiatives? 

Some examples of how businesses could use/are using sustainability investment and initiatives include:

– Investments in sustainability as regards energy consumption, and reallocating energy sources to areas with renewable energy sources.

– Software sustainability. Developing and using software that causes less environmental impact and producing new software standards that prolong devices’ lifecycles, thereby helping to reduce the amount of e-waste.

– Sustainability investments related to business travel, customer transactions, and productivity.

– Investing in more efficient hardware.

Return 

The recent Gartner report says that 83 per cent of business leader respondents said that their sustainability investments have created both short term and long-term value, and supply chain savings, and that costs for their initiatives have been outweighed by immediate efficiency improvements. There is also the key benefit of the promise of a more stable future for their companies/organisations. That said, it’s still relatively early days for many businesses that have invested in sustainability and, as such, the returns on investments are still unclear.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The Gartner report appears to reveal a growing consensus among business leaders that consumer demand is a major driver for businesses investing much more in sustainability. The current economic uncertainty, geopolitical conflict, escalating materials and energy costs, increase environmentally focused government regulations, and the growing availability of sustainable technology, all alongside the climate crisis are also now major reasons why businesses are looking seriously at how sustainability investment could help. Turning to sustainability-focused solutions could help businesses not just to reduce business expenditure, but to possibly create new revenue streams and tackle the threat of disruption more effectively over time.

News

Sustainability : Data Centres In Space?

A feasibility study is to be carried out into whether solar powered data centres could be put into orbit to reduce their carbon footprint.

Who And What? 

The European Commission has chosen Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between aerospace and defence companies Thales (67 per cent) and Leonardo (33 per cent) to lead the ASCEND (Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero emission and Data sovereignty) feasibility study as part of Europe’s vast Horizon Europe research program.

Why? 

A growing number of devices and the IoT, the increased demand digitalisation and for cloud services mean that data centres in Europe and other parts of the world are growing at an exponential rate. Data centres, however, require large amounts of power and are major carbon producers. This means that they are having environmental and energy impact.

The idea of moving data centres into the earth’s orbit, powered by solar power plants would not only solve the problem of the carbon (and physical) footprint of data centres but, in the process, make it more likely that Europe’s Green Deal goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 can be met.

The Feasibility Study 

Thales says that the project is expected to demonstrate to what extent space-based data centres would limit the energy and environmental impact of their ground counterparts. Thales also says that feasibility study will have two main objectives, which are:

1. “To assess if the carbon emissions from the production and launch of these space infrastructures will be significantly lower than the emissions generated by ground-based data centres”. 

2. “To prove that it is possible to develop the required launch solution and to ensure the deployment and operability of these spaceborne data centres using robotic assistance technologies currently being developed in Europe, such as the EROSS IOD demonstrator.” 

Investment If Feasible 

If the feasibility study indicates that building and launching orbiting solar-powered data centres produces less carbon than normal, terrestrial data centres, Thales says this could mean major investments within the scope of Europe’s Green Deal. It could also justify the development of a more climate-friendly, reusable heavy launch vehicle, thereby enabling Europe to regain its leadership in space transport and space logistics, and the assembly and operations of large infrastructures in orbit.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

Data centres are power-hungry and produce a lot of carbon. With demands upon and demand for data centres increasing, but the need to reduce their carbon footprint and meet environmental targets mean the search for solutions is on. Carbon offsetting has been a major way that big tech companies have tried to become carbon neutral, but this doesn’t stop the carbon being released in the first place. On the face of it, putting solar-powered data centres into orbit sound a promising idea, but the scale of the data centres needed, and the carbon footprint of the development, testing, and operation of spacecraft that blasts them into orbit in the first place mean that it’s possible that they may not be more environmentally friendly than current data centres. If the feasibility study shows that putting data centres in orbit does significantly reduces their carbon footprint, this could bring the funding that could help make it a reality.

News

Security Stop-Press : Google Chrome Extensions Risk

After analysis of 1,237 Google Chrome extensions available via the Chrome Web Store, researchers from data protection company Incogni concluded in a recent report that almost half (48.6 per cent) have a high or very high-risk impact. This means that they may be storing sensitive, personally identifiable data. The advice is for users to be vigilant and to only choose extensions from trusted developers, i.e. those with a history of problem-free software development and high user ratings.

News

Tech Tip – Set Pages To Load Automatically In Chrome

If you’d like to save time by making your most often used and/or favourite pages load automatically whenever you open Google Chrome, here’s how:

– In Chrome, click on the three dots top-right and select ‘Settings’.

– In the left-hand menu select ‘On startup’.

– Select ‘Open a specific page or set of pages’.

– Click on ‘Add new page’ and add the URL of each page you’d like to load automatically load in separate tabs when Chrome is opened.