News

On March 23 2020, a national lockdown was imposed in the UK to help combat coronavirus. A year later, Jonathan Smy from SMY IT Services, takes a moment to reflect on what has been a very challenging 12 months for us all. It’s been an unprecedented year – a word that has been used time … Continue reading One Year of Working from Home →

Many of us charge phones and laptops overnight but is this good for the battery and is it potentially dangerous, and how can we safely get the most from our device batteries? Batteries Smartphone and laptop batteries are Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion). These batteries have high energy density so they can be made small, while their rate … Continue reading Featured Article : Risks or Benefits of Charging Devices Overnight? →

With the world facing a considerable semiconductor microchip shortage, we take a look at the causes and effects of the shortage plus some potential solutions. Why Is This Important? Microchips are now included in virtually everything from watches to white goods and crucially in larger, high demand, big industry items such as cars.  Many products … Continue reading Tech Insight – The Global Microchip Shortage →

In a move to provide more business intelligence, Amazon is launching a new tool that monitors key performance indicators (KPIs) to detect ‘anomalies’ so it can alert the business to potential problems. Lookout For Metrics ‘Lookout For Metrics’ is the name of the new service from Amazon Web Services (AWS) which uses machine learning for … Continue reading Tech News : New Amazon AI Tool Monitors Your Business KPIs →

Google is launching its ‘Stack’ app for Android, an AI-based scanner that also names and categorises the documents it scans. The Technology The Stack app is a result of collaborative work between Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator and the DocAI team in Google Cloud, and the technologies from Google’s acquisition of the education start up ‘Socratic’. How … Continue reading Android Stack Scanner Can Organise Your Documents →

If you are finding that your phone is getting slow at charging, here are some of the possible causes and solutions: – Incompatible or faulty accessories, such as power brick, USB cable, or charging pad/mat (for wireless charging). Choosing a charger or brick with higher amperage e.g., a power brick with 2 to 3 amps … Continue reading Tech Tip – How To Speed Up Your Phone Charging →

With news of a booming NFT market and the acceptance of Bitcoin as payment for Tesla cars, we look at the environmental impact of these and how the technology needs to be improved to be made more sustainable. Robot Painting Collaboration This week there was news that an artwork co-created by a robot called Sophia … Continue reading Featured Article : Art, Cars, Carbon & Crazy Numbers →

In this article, we look at what a zero-click searches (SERPs) are, how this has impacted SEO, and what measures can be taken to increase the likelihood of your pages achieving featured snippets. Zero-Click SERPs A zero-click search describes when the search engine query is answered by a snippet of text at the top of … Continue reading Tech Insight – What Are Zero-Click SERPs? →

Bletchley Park code-breaking hero and wronged computer pioneer Alan Turing is to feature on the UK £50 note from 23rd June. Alan Turing Despite breaking WWII Nazi Germany’s Enigma machine code, allowing enemy messages to be read and thereby shortening World War II and saving countless lives, Alan Turing’s genius and heroism was overshadowed by … Continue reading Notable Notes About … The New £50 Note →

Microsoft has launched a live transcription tool for Teams. In other words, it provides a written record of the spoken word during a meeting. How it works The tool identifies each speaker and automatically captures in real-time what each speaker says. As a result, the transcript is available during and after meetings. The speech is … Continue reading Live Teams Transcriptions →