Category: Gadgets
Church offers live voting smartphone app to encourage interaction
A ‘word cloud’ displays things the congregation at Aylsham Parish Church in Norfolk is praying for (Mentimeter/PA) A church is trialling the use of a live voting smartphone app during sermons to help engage its congregation and encourage greater participation. Worshippers at Aylsham Parish Church in Norfolk are asked to…
Apple names Fortnite and Drake among most popular App Store downloads of 2018
Fortnite has been named as the most downloaded free game of the year from Apple’s App Store. The battle royale game, which recently revealed it had gone past 200 million registered players, is free to play across multiple platforms and has enjoyed runaway success over the last year. Aside from games, The Driving Theory Test…
Microblogging site Tumblr to ban adult content on platform
Tumblr hosts around 447.2 million blogs (PA) Microblogging site Tumblr has announced plans to ban all pornographic content from its platform, in a massive crackdown after child pornography was uncovered. From December 17, explicit adult content and most nudity will no longer be allowed on the site, with some non-sexual…
Fortnite gets chilly as teaser reveals season 7 release date
A wintry-themed seventh season of Fortnite is on the horizon within a matter of days, the hit game’s latest teaser has revealed. Makers Epic Games posted a chilly image on Fortnite’s Twitter account, with the caption: “A bitter ice spreads… 3 days to Season 7.” A bitter ice spreads… 3 days to Season 7. pic.twitter.com/yj70svBXti…
Uber to provide free transport to NHS staff working over Christmas
(Laura Dale/PA) Uber has announced that it will provide NHS staff in England who are working over the Christmas period with free transport this festive season. The ride sharing firm is offering two journeys costing up to £10 each, in a bid to help workers get to and from work…
Huawei launches AI-based story time app for deaf children and parents
A new app that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help deaf children and their parents learn to read together has launched in the UK. Chinese technology giant Huawei has created the StorySign app, which uses the firm’s own AI and a smartphone’s camera to recognise words on a page and translate them into sign language…
Astronauts blast off to ISS less than two months after failed launch
Astronauts have blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS) less than two months after the previous Soyuz mission failed. Astronauts Anne McClain from American space agency NASA, David Saint-Jacques from the Canadian Space Agency and Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos left aboard the Russian spacecraft from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan just…
Fourth generation espionage: How spy agencies are turning to Quantum computing and AI
The head of MI6, Alex Younger, says there is a need for “fourth-generation espionage” as adversaries take advantage of “blurred lines” between the cyber and physical worlds. Here are some of the ways Britain’s security services are adopting, and responding to, modern technology. – Artificial intelligence and quantum computing These are potentially valuable tools for…
ibis hotels in Switzerland offer Instagram ‘sitters’ to post your holiday photos
Hotel chain ibis has launched a new service that offers guests “social media sitters” to post holiday photos on their behalf. The service has been introduced at 16 hotels in Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland, and offers guests the chance to hire a local Instagram celebrity to take and upload photos for on their behalf.…
Snapchat ‘avoids popularity contest pressure of social media’, founder argues
Yui Mok/PA Unlike other social media platforms, Snapchat puts less pressure on people to be popular, app co-founder Evan Spiegel has argued. The 28-year-old entrepreneur believes that the social messaging app has an advantage over the likes of Facebook and Twitter because it does not include public likes or comments. “That’s…
