All posts by Paul Stradling

News

Tech News : Want a Payrise? Apple Boss Earned $100 Million in 2021

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Apple CEO, Tim Cook, earned $100 million in 2021.

1,477 Times Higher Than Average

The filing showed that his pay, fuelled by stock awards, if compared to the new median pay for employees of $68,254, was 1,447 times that of the average employee at Apple.

Considerably Higher Than 2020

The filing appears to show that Mr Cook’s $98.7 million salary was so much higher than his $14.8 million in 2020 because he received $82.3 million in stock awards, $12 million for hitting Apple’s targets, and $1.4 million for air travel on top of his $3 million basic salary.

Home Working Has Boosted Demand

Apple was reported to have first become a trillion-dollar company as far back as August 2018, and in its first day of trading in 2022 became the first company to hit a $3 trillion stock market value (albeit briefly as stocks dipped at the end of the day). The company’s revenue received a considerable boost of more than 30 per cent to $365.82 billion in 2021 due to increased demand for its products thanks to the home working caused by the pandemic lockdowns.

First Since 2011

Mr Cook taking over for Steve Jobs in 2011 led to an initial 1,000 per cent stock surge, and Mr Cook has not, until last year, received restricted stock units since 2011.

Donate Wealth To Charity

Back in March 2015, Mr Cook announced that he planned to donate his $800m fortune to charity before he dies, with the money to go to many social causes, and to his nephew’s education.

Not The Richest

Tim Cook is certainly not the richest man compared if to Tesla founder Elon Musk whose fortune was boosted recently by a $ 32.6 billion rise in share price due to strong Tesla car sales in 2021 to $ 304.2 billion.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Evidence of the personal wealth and salary increases of big tech company bosses, particularly over the last 2 years, highlights the strength of the market position of their companies, the increased demand for tech/digital products and services with home working during the pandemic, and of course, obvious inequalities in society. Apple has clearly strengthened its market position during 2021 and Cook has been rewarded for his leadership through stock units, albeit for the first time since he took over. It’s difficult for many business owners to imagine the kind of remuneration figures that big tech bosses and rich-list people receive although, thankfully, it is not unusual for some to spend substantial amounts on worthy causes (Bill Gates), and it is heartening to hear that Tim Cook plans to donate so much to social causes, albeit after his death. Apple’s good profit news is a far cry from its 2020 fine for the ‘batterygate’ scandal and, with its new ‘Business Essentials’ service and ‘Self-Service Repair’ programme for iPhones beginning this year, plus the continued demand for its products, 2022 looks set to be another good year for Apple and its CEO.

News

Security Stop-Press : Phishing And Malware Threat Though Google Docs Flaw

Email security specialists Avanan have reported that hackers have been leveraging the comment feature in Google Docs to target primarily Outlook users. The attack works by hackers adding a comment to a Google Doc mentioning the target with an @. This automatically sends an email from Google to that target person’s inbox which contains bad links to malware or phishing sites. To protect themselves, users should cross-reference the email address in the comment to ensure it’s legitimate, scrutinize links and inspect grammar, and deploy protection that secures the entire suite.

News

Tech Tip – 3 Top Google Maps Tricks To Try

The Google Maps mobile app now has many useful and surprising features. Here are 3 top Google Maps tips you may like to try:

1. Remember Where You Parked

– When using Google Maps on Android, on reaching your destination, tap the blue location dot.

– Select ‘Save your parking,’ which adds a label to the Maps app, identifying where you parked.

– Tap that to add details e.g., car park level, or amount of time left before a meter expires (you can also set meter reminders or add a photo).

– To find your car later, tap the search bar up top and select ‘Parking location.’

– For iOS, tap the little blue location dot when you arrive, in the pop-up, tap ‘Set as parking location.’

– In the app, a ‘P’ icon will appear alongside a note that says, “You parked near here.”

2. Add Multiple Locations e.g., If You Have Several Stops To Make

– In the Google Maps mobile app, enter your starting point and your ultimate destination.

– Click the three dots (top-right).

– Select and click on “Add stop” and add details of the next stop on your route.

– Different stops can be dragged and dropped within your itinerary.

3. Measure Any Distance

– Right-click on a point on the map.

– Select ‘Measure distance’ from the list. A dot and a black line will appear.

– Click anywhere else on the map, and the distance between the points will be calculated (multiple points on a route can be added and the total distance calculated).

News

Tesco Set To Be First To Use Fully Electric Commercial Articulated HGV Trucks

Tesco has announced that, from this month, it is launching the UK’s first commercial use of fully electric, heavy freight articulated trucks.

Two For Use In Wales

In partnership with logistics and international freight forwarding company FSEW, the first of the electric fleet to take to the road will be two new 37 tonne DAF electric vehicles used to transport food and other products from the Wentloog rail terminal near Cardiff to Tesco’s distribution centre in Magor, Wales.

Charging Points

The Wentloog – Magor route is 30 miles each way and logistics partners FSEW has installed charging points at its site in South Wales that provide enough energy to power the lorries for 100 miles before needing to charge again.

Clean, Green Energy

HGVs make up only 5 per cent of vehicle miles but a disproportionately greater contribution to the UK’s domestic transport emissions of around 16 per cent. Tesco says that these first two lorries will be able to replace around 65,000 diesel-fuelled road miles with clean green energy, removing 87.4 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Could Help Meet Zero Emission Targets

It is hoped, therefore, that these newly commissioned EVs could help demonstrate that electric HGV transportation is commercially viable, and in doing so, encourage wider investment in technology and innovation. Electric HGV transportation could play a key role in accelerating not just the haulage industry’s transition to zero emission transport over the next few years, but also Tesco’s own target of reaching net zero emissions in its operations by 2035.

Progress

Jason Tarry, Tesco UK and ROI CEO said: “We’ve already made progress by starting our switch to electric home delivery vans and rolling out electric vehicles charging points for our customers. I’m excited that Tesco can also lead the way in electric haulage innovation, helping to tackle this last source of road transport emissions with the support of FSEW.”

Renewable Energy Partnership Too

Tesco already has a partnership with renewable energy investor, Low Carbon, to create three new solar farms in Essex, Anglesey, and Oxfordshire which can generate up to 130GWh of energy per year, enough to power 44,828 three-bedroom homes, helping the retail giant to procure more renewable energy and contribute to the grid.

Tesco has committed to use 100 per cent renewable electricity across the whole Tesco Group by 2030 which could save 30,308 tonnes of CO2 per year, the equivalent of taking 14,457 cars off the road.

What About The Other Supermarkets?

Back in July 2021, Sainsbury’s announced that it had become the first UK retailer to introduce fully electric refrigerated trailers to its delivery fleet. The fridges don’t release carbon emissions or particulate matter such as dust, dirt, soot, or smoke into the air and have low noise emissions, thereby reducing the overall environmental impact of the retailer’s delivery vehicles.

Also, in July 2021 Morrisons announced the addition of ultra-fast electric car charging points to 100 stores to help build the biggest supermarket charging network in the UK, with the electricity used for charging coming from zero-carbon energy sources like wind and solar.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

There is broad agreement that EVs are the way to tackle transport emissions particularly those made by disproportionately larger polluting vehicles such as HGVs. This move from Tesco and its logistics partner FSEW is, therefore, very promising and if the initial experiment demonstrates a solid commercial case for these electric HGVs, investment, expansion, and similar moves by Tesco’s competitors will most likely follow. Although the costs of replacing HGV fleets with new EVs is high, supermarkets like Tesco have already committed to net zero targets and these vehicles will represent a way to help them reach the targets much more quickly. All businesses with a transport/delivery element will need to think about the move electric vehicles in the coming years and for many smaller businesses, current high costs of EVs and the availability of enough charging points are major considerations. Having many more electric HGVs on the road as replacements for the current diesel fleets is likely to something welcomed by all for environmental and public health benefits.

News

Tech News : Shocking Suggestion From Alexa

A mother took to Twitter to complain that Alexa had suggested to her 10-year-old daughter that she play a game that involves touching the prongs of a live plug with a penny!

Playing

The mother, Kristin Livdahl (of Minnesota, USA), was reported to have been doing physical challenges indoors on Boxing Day with her 10-year-old daughter because of inclement weather outside, when her daughter asked Alexa, via the Amazon Echo, for another challenge.

The Penny Challenge

To her mum Kristin’s horror, as outlined in her Tweet, Alexa’s suggestion, which it had “found on the web”, was something called the “penny challenge” which is reported to have been circulating on TikTok and other social media platforms last year.

According to Kristin Livdahl’s tweet, the suggestion offered by Alexa was: “Here’s something I found on the Web. According to ourcommunitynow.com: The challenge is simple: plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.”

Thankfully, as Livdahl reported “I was right there and yelled, ‘No, Alexa, no!’ like it was a dog. My daughter says she is too smart to do something like that anyway.”

Extremely Dangerous

As reported by USA Today, comments from a Fire Marshal about a case where two high school students had tried the challenge (reported in The Providence Journal) highlighted how the challenge causes “sparks, electrical system damage, and in some cases fire.” 

Metals conduct electricity and, therefore, touching a live metal plug prong with another metal object held in the hand can result in serious physical harm such as burns, electric shock and potentially death.

Amazon Says Sorry

Amazon is reported to have apologised and offered help to Livdahl and stated that it had fixed the problem as soon as it became aware of it. Amazon has also stated that it will continue to advance its systems to prevent any similar responses in the future.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This is a damaging story for Amazon, and it was incredibly lucky that nobody was hurt. The story highlights how AI and algorithms can’t exercise judgement in the same way that a human can. It also illustrates how the Internet, apps, and the IoT can be dangerous for children and young people and how tech companies need to increase their efforts and their investment to make the digital world safer for young people. Parental oversight and control are also clearly still important elements in making sure that risks are minimised and that there is always a fail-safe in place.

News

Tech News : Fewer and Less At CES

It has been reported that the rapid spread of Omicron has led to more tech companies cancelling in-person appearances at January’s CES® technology industry trade show.

CES®

CES® is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association which is due to take place in Las Vegas 5 – 8 January. Due to Covid, last year’s CES® was held as a virtual event instead.

Some Big Names To Attend Virtually Instead

Although the in-person event is to ahead with around 2200 companies having in-person representatives present, some very high-profile tech companies have pulled-out of sending representatives in favour of attending virtually instead. The rapid rise in Covid (Omicron) cases is the given reason for in-person being swapped for virtual attendance.

Companies that have announced that they will not be sending in-person representatives to CES® so far include Amazon, Facebook, Google, Intel, and Microsoft, and, also just announced, chip maker AMD and PC manufacturer MSI. It has also been reported that Smartphone company OnePlus has cancelled an in-person event that was due to be held in Las Vegas on the same dates as CES®. It should be noted, however, that despite some big companies pulling out of in-person representation, 60 new exhibitors had been added in recent days.

Omicron

In the US (at the time of reporting), the country has just recorded a record-breaking seven-day average of Covid cases which has exceeded 267,000. The highly infectious Omicron variant now accounts for 59 per cent of new infections in the US, a massive jump up from 23 per cent just a week earlier. It is not surprising, therefore, that many of the big technology companies are not willing to take the risk.

Rules For Attendees

Attendees to the show must be fully vaccinated, wear masks and have tested themselves for Covid within the 24-hour period prior to entering one of the exhibition venues. There will, of course, also be social-distancing measures in place at CES®.

Covid Has Changed Big Tech Events

Covid has changed how big tech events have been held over the last two years.  For example, London Tech Week Connects back in June 2020 and CES® in January 2021 were held as fully virtual events, whereas London Tech Week in September 2021 was held as a hybrid of virtual and in-person events.

Value of Virtual

Although January’s CES® is going ahead as a physical, in-person event, those tech shows that have been held virtually in recent times have highlighted some of the advantages of virtual. For example, with most people now used to using platforms such as Zoom, attendances at virtual events are high. Also, virtual attendees find that they can network with more people and not needing to be physically present offers convenience, less hassle, less expense (e.g., no long flights or quarantines and uncertainty or hotel bookings required). Virtual events can also mean that some much higher profile speakers may be available.

Not Great For The Hospitality Industry

Unfortunately, fewer in-person appearances from big companies and attendees perhaps changing their minds as Covid cases rise rapidly is bad news, not just for the event organisers and workers (e.g., for productions crews) but also for hotels and surrounding businesses.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Event organisers can, of course, hold entire tech events virtually, or as a hybrid of virtual and in-person, but with the event already booked and organised, costs incurred and a lot at stake, high profile companies opting out of in-person attendance is likely to be a blow for CES® organisers. It could lead to others pulling out and may discourage attendance at the show. There is also the uncertainty now of the effects of a rapidly spreading variant on attendance and what pressure this may put on the organisers, and how it could affect the success of the show. It may be expected in the post-pandemic world that big events will have at least some virtual elements to them but cancellations for in-person attendees is bad for hotels and other bricks and mortar businesses that would normally benefit. Some businesses pulling out of in-person attendance, however, may benefit other exhibitors who may now be able to get a place at the show, possibly at favourable rates.

News

Featured Article : Wonders of OneNote

In this article, we look at what OneNote is and what it can do, plus we look at some of the competing programs available.

OneNote

Microsoft’s OneNote is a cross-functional notebook app/note-taking program that is part of the Microsoft Office Suite, along with programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. OneNote can be used for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. Users can create multiple ‘notebooks’ about different topics. The notebooks can be of any size with any number of sections and pages. Within each notebook users can gather together notes and mixed media such as drawings, screen clippings, audio commentaries/recorded audio notes, and embed Excel sheets. Users can also insert online videos, links, and add different types of files. The notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network.

Also, important notes can be highlighted with ‘To-Do’ tags, and the OneNote app allows users to annotate their notes, using a stylus or a finger.

Synced

Saving OneNote notebooks in the cloud (e.g., on Microsoft’s OneDrive), means that a user can open OneNote on any device connected to their Microsoft Office account and their notebooks will always be in synced across devices – phone, tablet, PC, or laptop.

What Can You Use OneNote For?

OneNote is great for collecting together research information, for note-taking, and information storage for personal or business use.

Benefits of OneNote

Just some of the key benefits of OneNote include:

– Flexibility and variety. Notebooks can be made to any size and multiple different types of media can included.

– Clarity. A better collection of information and files from multiple sources can give a clearer, more detailed holistic views of a topic which is also easier for others to understand.

– Better collaborative work. The ability to share Notepads can improve the quality of collaborative work.

– Cost efficient and familiar. Since OneNote is already part of the Microsoft Office/365 suite, there are no extra costs to using it, all team members already have the program and will be familiar with Microsoft programs, so no extra training costs.

Similar Programs/Competitors

Some more popular examples of the many similar, competing programs to OneNote include:

Evernote

The Evernote is a free app or browser extension and is OneNote’s main competitor. Like OneNote, Evernote allows users to create notes, and collect together all kinds of media (e.g., text, drawings, videos, scans, PDFs, documents photographs, and audio recordings). Evernote also allows users to create and assign tasks inside their notes with due dates, flags, and reminders.

One of its big advantages, apart from the fact that it is free, is that it offers the ability to save web content (web-clipping) i.e., web pages can be put into notebooks including text, screenshots, parts of articles and images (as thumbnails).

One possible drawback compared to OneNote is that Evernote limits free users to syncing across just two devices (across Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS).

Bear

Bear is a flexible notes app for Apple devices and the app extension allows users to Grab images, text, files, and clip web pages. Bear also supports sketching, drawing, and Apple Pencil (and other styli), allows users to create notes with Siri and iOS Shortcuts, and allows Apple Watch users to dictate and append to recent notes. The pro version gives the user access to attractive themes. Bear (Pro) also now allows users to encrypt individual notes and lock Bear with Face/Touch ID.

Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is a free, (ad-free) digital note-taking tool / note-taking app that works across devices and operating systems and offers an online suite of tools such as a word processor, an image and audio creator, and organiser. This app allows users to create, copy, move and share colourful ‘Note Cards’ and to organise ideas and information. Zoho Notebook also offers web-clipping so users can clip text, images, and entire articles from the web and save them to Notebook. This app also syncs to the cloud and across devices so it’s always backed-up and up to date.

Simplenote

Another popular, free digital note-taking app (and browser extension) is Simplenote for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux. Users can write, preview, and publish notes in Markdown format as well as, for example, sharing a to-do list, posting some instructions, or publishing their notes online. Notes are automatically backed up and synced in real time with each change, and users can add tags to find notes quickly with instant searching.

Dropbox Paper

Dropbox Paper is a free online document workspace, where users can organise and display text, media, and files all in one place. Paper lets users collaborate with others and access their Paper docs from anywhere. The app includes task management tools that allow users to assign to-dos, add due dates and mention people from within the doc itself.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

In these days of remote and hybrid working, with much of the workforce now used to digital, online, cloud-based collaborative working, better digital note-taking apps such as OneNote have come into their own. The flexibility of OneNote and the fact that it’s already part of and compatible with the Microsoft suite of programs and tools is a big plus. Being able to create shareable Notebooks that contain a wide range of media enable business users to save time, create a more holistic and detailed picture of a topic that can lead to better quality work, and the organising tools e.g., To-Do Tags make it very practical. Having notes that can be backed-up in the cloud and synced across devices also adds value and fits in well with new working practices. There are, of course, many other note-taking apps that offer similar features and benefits, many of them free, and businesses can choose to use whichever best serves their needs. Microsoft’s OneNote, however, is one of the leading apps in terms of features and it may be the case that many businesses have not tried it or used it to its fullest extent yet.

News

Tech Insight : What Is DuckDuckGo?

In this tech insight, we look at what DuckDuckGo is, what features it offers, and why businesses may consider using it.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a privacy-centred search engine / privacy browsing app, which is available as a download for mobile devices and a Chrome extension. The company, founded in 2008, also plans to launch a desktop browser for macOS laptops and desktops soon.

Most Downloaded Browsing App On Android

In a recent blog post, DuckDuckGo’s CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, said of the search engine’s popularity, “We’re now the most downloaded browsing app on Android in our major markets (and #2 on iOS behind Chrome), we’re averaging more than 100 million searches a day, and our most recent survey showed 27 million Americans (9 per cent) use DuckDuckGo.”

Privacy

DuckDuckGo retains a user’s privacy by not saving the user’s browser history, forcing sites to use encrypted connections, blocking cookies and trackers (including ‘hidden trackers’ before they load), and by stopping a user’s searches being sold to third parties for profiling and advertising.

DuckDuckGo uses Smarter Encryption which utilises a list of millions of HTTPS-encrypted websites, which has been generated by continuous crawling the of the web instead of crowdsourcing, thereby keeping it current. Also, DuckDuckGo’s Smarter Encryption enables users to be extra-secure in their browsing by being able to detect unencrypted, non-secure HTTP connections to websites and then automatically upgrading them to encrypted connections.

Features

Some of the extra features recently announced by DuckDuckGo include:

– A beta release of Email Protection, a free email forwarding service that removes trackers in a user’s email and protects the privacy of a personal email address without asking the user to change email providers.

– A new App Tracking Protection (beta) feature in the Android app that blocks third-party trackers like Google and Facebook lurking in other apps.

– A revamped search results page.

– New animation options to the “Fire Button”, the button used to clear all tabs and browsing data with one tap.

– The addition of a “Fireproofing” prompt which gives users the choice to keep certain sites logged-in between Fire Button burns.

Partnership With EFF Helps HTTPS Everywhere Extension

Also, a recent partnership formed with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in April 2021 has lent DuckDuckGo’s Smarter Encryption rule sets to the HTTPS Everywhere browser extension, thereby giving it extra security. This extension for Firefox, Chrome, and Opera encrypts user communications with many major websites.

Other Private Browsers

Other private browsers and search engines include:

– Epic Privacy Browser.  This is a secure web browser that blocks ads, trackers, fingerprinting, crypto mining, ultrasound, signalling, and offers free VPN (servers in 8 countries).

– Tor.  This browser uses a distributed network (randomly selected nodes) to anonymise the user’s IP address. Tor also encrypts traffic.  This makes it incredibly difficult for a user’s web traffic to be traced and very difficult for users to be tracked unless they reveal their IP address by enabling some browser plugins, downloading torrents, or opening documents downloaded using Tor.

– Brave. This is a free, open-source web browser, based on Chromium that blocks ads and trackers and allows users to use a Tor in a tab to hide history, and mask location from the sites a user visits by routing a user’s browsing through several servers before it reaches its destination.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Not every user wants a high level of privacy for most daily use, but for business users, the security of knowing that you’re not being tracked and that there is a high level of privacy protection by default may be an attractive and useful part of company security measures. Also, using a trusted app/extension/desktop browser may be a highly convenient way to get greater peace of mind and ensure that all reasonable measures are being taken to cover the many angles of security and privacy.  For many businesses, it’s likely to be a case of a combination of privacy solutions, e.g., VPNs and secure browsers being used as and when required in a way that is compatible with daily working practices, authorised, approved, and recommended by the company and other relevant stakeholders.

News

Security Stop-Press : Beware Of ‘Child In Need’ WhatsApp Scam

Action Fraud and WhatsApp have warned people to be on the lookout for a ‘child in need’ scam operating in the UK that has recently resulted in parents being conned out of £50,000. The con involves scammers targeting parents via WhatsApp, claiming to be one of their children and using different excuses to ask for a transfer of money e.g., the need to pay a big bill and being frozen out of their banking app, or similar.

News

Tech Tip – How To Run Older Programs Using the Windows 10/11 Compatibility Mode

If you’d like to run favourite but no longer compatible versions of older programs, apps, and games (legacy software) on Windows 10/11, try using ‘Compatibility Mode’.  Here’s how.

To enable legacy software that worked on old versions of Windows on your current Windows 10/11:

– In the search box on the taskbar, type the name of the program or app you want.

– Select and hold (or right-click) it, and then select ‘Open file location’.

– Select and hold (or right-click) the program file, select ‘Properties’, and then select the ‘Compatibility’ tab.

– Tick the box for “run this program in compatibility mode for” and select the old version of Windows from the dropdown list.  You can run the ‘Compatibility Troubleshooter’ first if you wish.