‘Right to repair’ campaigners finally had something to celebrate last week as Apple announced its “self-service repair” programme, aimed at “customers who are comfortable with completing their own repairs.” Initial Phase Apple says that the initial phase of the programme, beginning in the US early next year, will be for iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models, and will focus on…
New research led by the University of Plymouth, and published in Royal Society Proceedings A, shows that tidal stream power could deliver 11 per cent of the UK’s annual electricity and play an important role in the government’s drive for net-zero. What Is Tidal Stream Power? Tidal stream power uses turbines (e.g., a tidal energy converter/TEC) to harness the kinetic energy…
Research by Zen Internet has revealed that hybrid working is causing businesses to question whether they now need enough on-premise tech infrastructure to support a full capacity office. Most Business Have Hybrid Working Plan The research conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Zen Internet showed that 93 per cent of businesses already have a hybrid working plan in place…
After recent reports that discarded e-waste in 2021 will weigh more then the Great Wall of China, The International Data Sanitization Consortium (IDSC) has sent an open letter to the RT Hon Alok Sharma MP, President of COP26, urging that e-waste be included on the agenda. Electronic The Fastest Growing Global Waste Stream According to the UN’s Global E-waste…
In this insight, we look at ‘smart’ doorbells and how the outcome of a recent legal case has highlighted the legal responsibilities that owner/operators of smart doorbells have under UK law. Smart Doorbells Smart doorbells, such as Eufy, Ring, Nest Hello, Arlo, Vuebell, IseeBell, and more are Internet-connected replacements for traditional doorbells. Smart doorbells use a smartphone app to…
The Royal Mint has signed an agreement with Canadian start-up Excir to recover gold and other precious metals from old smartphone and laptop circuit boards. Precious Waste Mountain A recent assessment by the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) forum has concluded that this year’s worldwide mountain of waste electronic and electrical equipment will total an estimated 57.4 million…
Alphabet subsidiary X, the Moonshot Factory’s ‘Project Taara’ is claiming 99.9 per cent uptime within the first 20 days of a light beam/laser broadband project. What Is It? Laser-based broadband uses wireless optical communications (WOC), which has been described as “like fibre, but without the cables”. In short, invisible beams of light, about the width of a chopstick, are used…
In this article, we look at some of the key issues surrounding the planned 2025 PSTN switch-off, the move to VoIP, and what options businesses have going forward. What’s Happening? Back in April, BT Openreach announced that starting from the end of this year (and finishing in 2025), it will be “switching off the UK telephone network as we know…
With the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 phone being the latest foldable phone in the spotlight, we take a closer look at what foldable phones are, their advantages, their disadvantages, and likely future development. Foldable As the name suggests, foldable phones have either a flexible screen, with a hinge that bisects the handset/device so that the uninterrupted screen can be…
In this article, we look at the different types and locations of EV charging in the UK, plus the challenges and legislation relating to it. How Many Electric Cars In The UK? By the end of August 2021, there were more than 600,000 plug-in vehicles, and nearly 300,000 BEVs (Battery-Powered Electric Vehicles) and 300,000 PHEVs (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle…
