Paradyn noted an increased demand for improved network connectivity amongst its customers, as businesses utilise a growing number of cloud-based applications. Traditional networks are unable to maintain the strong speeds and optimised connectivity required to facilitate the growth of cloud computing. Scaling legacy network solutions to overcome this challenge is time-consuming and costly. Paradyn designed its SD-WAN service as a cost-effective alternative which can deliver a high-speed, secure, and reliable connection across multiple locations.
Paradyn’s new service can cut businesses’ wide-area network costs by up to half in comparison to traditional configurations. Automated network changes reduce the number of people required for installation, management and support, with specialist hardware no longer needed, and a range of efficiencies stemming from improved performance all contributing to lower network costs.
Several of Paradyn’s customers are already piloting the technology and there is particular interest amongst companies who prioritise data security. Paradyn has built in security across every aspect of the service, including a range of managed security features. Connections to a company’s network made remotely and across different office locations can all be managed and secured centrally. This also enables users to easily define, implement and manage network policies that make the most sense for each location, with the deployment of policy changes reduced from a matter of months to days.
Cillian McCarthy, CEO, Paradyn, said: “At Paradyn, we receive consistent feedback from customers that connectivity speeds and consequent sub-optimal application performance are some of the greatest barriers to their digital transformation projects. SD-WAN can overcome these challenges seamlessly and we’re thrilled to bring to the market a managed network solution that will greatly enhance our customers digital experience.
Cillian McCarthy, CEO, Paradyn
“Now is the perfect time for businesses who need to connect multiple locations to consider how to do so in the most efficient and cost-effective way. While there are many significant benefits to SD-WAN, there are also many elements at play and many decisions to be made which can make adoption seem complex. That’s where a managed service provider like Paradyn comes in. We can manage every aspect according to the customer’s needs, with all the work taking place in the background so end-users can simply enjoy a seamless experience with all applications and services working exactly as intended.”
Pocketalk™, the portable, AI-powered instant voice translation device, is coming to the UK to empower travellers to converse quickly and easily with people in a multitude of languages. With the ability to translate 74 different languages bidirectionally, Pocketalk makes it easy for users to understand others and be understood by others. The Global SIM embedded, “Built-in Data” model is available with two years of all-you-can-use mobile data coverage in 128 countries and regions. Pocketalk “Built-in Data” model is available on Amazon for £259.00.
The winner of the ‘Innovation Award in Mobile Computing’ at IFA 2018, Pocketalk allows people to converse naturally, not just in stilted statements or phrases and with no dictionary in sight. Small and compact, the device comfortably fits in the pocket, so it can be taken anywhere, eradicating the need to pass a smartphone back and forth.
Designed with simplicity in mind, Pocketalk combines the best speech-to-text, translation and text-to-speech engines from around the world. Using Wi-Fi, mobile data or a personal hotspot to connect to the internet, Pocketalk is able to provide the most accurate translations possible with a push of a button. It uses the most robust language engines and cutting-edge cloud technologies for highly accurate translations.
Unlike many smartphones, Pocketalk comes with dedicated dual noise-cancelling microphones to pick up every word even in noisy environments making it perfect for use outdoors or in restaurants, train stations or airports. Additionally, whilst having no lag time and a simpler interface than a smartphone, users no longer have to waste the battery on their phone to use it. Pocketalk has around seven hours of battery life whilst being used intermittently or around five hours if it is in constant use. There is also the option to put the device into sleep mode to preserve up to 10 days battery life with the touch of a button.
Noriyuki Matsuda, CEO and founder of master company Sourcenext, stated, “The need to connect cultures and make the world feel a little smaller is stronger than ever and that’s exactly our goal with this device. We developed Pocketalk to help people of all backgrounds providing them with an instant open line of communication and foster a mutual understanding and respect among different cultures. When you have the right tools, language is a gateway and not a barrier.”
With its easy-to-use interface, Pocketalk is a great device for people who are constantly travelling, working with colleagues of different nationalities or those who wish to fully immerse themselves in a country’s culture. The device is available in white, black and gold with its own global sim for two years so, unlike with mobile data on a phone, there are no hidden charges.
The Pocketalk two-way voice translation device is available with a two year global sim for £259.00 from Amazon UK and $299.00 from Amazon US.
Protecting your vehicle against cybersecurity attacks is surprisingly painless — if you know where to begin. In order to protect yourself against a potential car hacker, you need to think like a hacker — which starts with knowing your car’s vulnerabilities. Points of entry can include your entertainment system, keyless entry remote, and even USB ports.
Once a hacker has gained control of one or more of your car’s electronic control units, they can control anything from basic dashboard functions to the engine and brakes. Thankfully, this isn’t common — but it is possible, as demonstrated in 2015 by white-hat hackers.
Want to learn more? This animated infographic outlines five different ways a car can be hacked and steps you can take to protect your ride.
It’s taken little more than a decade for smartphones to become indispensable. Since the initial explosion in the UK in 2008, smartphone ownership has risen from 18% to 78%, as high as 95% among 16-24 year-olds. 40% of adults look at their phone within five minutes of waking up; they’re a fundamental part of orientating ourselves to go about our day.
We rely on our smartphones to keep us connected to work, family and friends – so why do we accept their consistently inconsistent connectivity on the train, in the office, or waiting in line to grab our lunch? Ofcom’s 2018 Connected Nationsreport found that almost one in every four buildings (23%) endures poor 4G from all network providers. Vilicom’s own research suggests that poor connectivity is affecting up to 1.6m businesses with 83% of employees struggling to secure full-bar coverage.
This is an alarming threat to business reputation and profit margins, as well as an obstacle to procuring talent, as both customers and staff wrestle with the frustrations of securing mobile coverage. Businesses haven’t had to solve this issue independently before, and so most simply aren’t prepared to overcome the obstacles in providing extensive, high-quality mobile data in their own buildings.
Businesses need professional advice on how to get full bar mobile signal if they’re to make a significant change to their employee and/or customer experiences. However, their inexperience is often exacerbated by a lack of guidance on effectively addressing the problem with businesses not knowing where to turn . Vilicom’s own research shows that 19% of businesses in the UK have tried and failed to deploy an indoor coverage solution because they couldn’t find a provider or had no idea where to start looking for help.
Fortunately, there are some simple steps organisations can take to help them keep productivity and revenues high.
Construction
Businesses first need to examine their own premises. Old buildings are made up of brick, concrete and/or stone, all of which are notorious mobile signal blockers. On top of this, if many such buildings are packed into a dense urban area, it becomes even more difficult to secure consistent mobile signal from the outside.
Some new builds are designed with mobile signal in mind, but many face similar issues. Health and safety requirements, and standardisation for qualities like soundproofing or energy efficiency, create buildings designed to let as little energy in or out of the building as possible. While modern insulation and building techniques further heighten the difficulty that mobile signal has in effectively penetrating them.
It’s often assumed that changing network provider is a panacea for mobile coverage. However, when it comes to buildings that aren’t conducive to mobile penetration, it makes little difference, as the same signal from a different tower will likely have the same result. Reconstruction to address this is both a massive logistical burden and extremely expensive, or a business might be renting office space, and this isn’t an option anyway.
As a result, if businesses can’t make a change externally, they need to look at internal solutions and eliminate the solutions that don’t suit them.
Elimination
Many organisations may immediately think that Wi-Fi is the answer. It’s easy to set up andaccessible to anyone familiar with technology. For a family home it may be the best solution, but conventional Wi-Fi isn’t the best option for businesses that need to have good connectivity for their voice and data.users i.e. those that need to make mobile calls and use smartphone apps often on different devices.
Modern enterprises rely on software that demands consistent connectivity at high speeds whether on the move or in the office. Wi-Fi usually struggles to match enterprise speeds and network reliability is often variable.However, it will still lack the national reach of data coverage and requires users to navigate cumbersome processes such as password barriers and often leads to frustrated users attempting to circumvent performance problems due often to these systems not being dimensioned correctly for the right capacity. This can manifest in estremely erratic connectivity, sometimes good, but sometimes bad , depending on user numbers and user profile.
Wi-FI password portals have been a concern for IT security departments for many years.; a Wi-Fi password can be obtained simply by asking at reception, and the accessibility of Wi-Fi networks to malicious operators is well established. For businesses that value their cybersecurity, Wi-Fi is a weak link.
Resolution
A dedicated internal mobile network addresses all indoor mobile coverage problems, offering comprehensive security alongside far greater capacity and consistency. This sort of hardware used to be available from network providers, but the diversification of the mobile market means it’s simply no longer financially or logistically viable.
Network-neutral specialist system integrators are now filling this gap, providing the equipment that businesses need to guarantee signal for mobile devices regardless of their choice of operator. Employees in offices benefit from vastly improved mobile signal, as do customers and visitors to commercial premises.
For example, a financial trading firm approached us after renting a floor in a shared workspace building without considering indoor mobile coverage before they committed. This was despite the fact that they spend 99% of their time on their mobile devices to do business. They soon found they had poor network coverage, impacting the volume of trades they could convert, and so we installed a high-performance coverage system throughout the office within weeks to rectify this.
Indoor mobile coverage solutions have huge potential to save businesses money, confusion and frustration. The time is now to revolutionise connectivity and reap the commercial benefits. All that is required is to share some simple information such as a building’s landscape and nature of business with a specialised systems integrator today, tobe safe in the knowledge that a secure reliable solution indoor mobile coverage is in place with minimal fuss.
With Father’s Day just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about what your old man wants! Gone are the days of Dads who enjoy socks and aftershave. Whether he’s an outdoor adventurer, a fitness-fanatic, a minimalist or just an all-round cool Dad, Speckhas got you covered this Father’s Day!
COOL DADDY
This Father’s Day, unleash your Dad’s inner style icon with a SpeckGrabTab! With over 90 unique GrabTab designs to choose from, there’s a print to suit every Dad’s style. GrabTab is a slim grip-assist accessory that provides a secure hold on your device without adding extra bulk or impeding wireless charging. As dynamic as it is cool, it even doubles up as a phone stand, which is handy for on-the-go entertainment.
Some Dads enjoy the subtle, more refined things in life… If this sounds like your Dad, the Presidio Stay Clear from Speck is ideal. This dual-layer phone case features a newly developed innovative coating that safeguards against yellowing and discoloration caused by UV rays and oils. Speck’s IMPACTIUM Clear shock-absorbing material will also help to protect Dads phone against drops of up to 2.4 meters.
Eat, Sleep, Gym, Repeat!
If your Dad is a fitness buff, or always planning his next marathon, why not gift him the Presidio SPORT or Presidio PRO case? Not only do these case have 3 layers of protection for drops of up to 3 meters – they also have an anti-microbial coating. This prevents the growth of bacteria and staining on the case when setting it down to time sets or throwing it into gym bags.
Outdoor Adventurer
For Dads that never seem to lose their flair for the outdoors, the Presidio ULTRA Case is perfect! It has four layers of protection for drops of up to 4.5 meters. And if this wasn’t enough, it also has 360-degree port protection, a removable front bumper, and a holster clip for attachment onto belts, bags – you name it! This clip also doubles up as a phone stand. For Dads who love to hike, run, or cycle in the great outdoors, this case will go down a treat!
As the urban population continues to grow and cities become denser, this creates social, environmental, and economic concerns. Fortunately, addressing these challenges is easier with technology. Since living in the digital age has made our lives easier, cities across the world are deploying smart tech to improve infrastructure and services and provide their residents with a better quality of life.
Tackling traffic issues with sensor data
For instance, the city of York in the UK is using technology to improve its traffic system. In this medieval city, many roads suffer from traffic congestion and the city is constantly building new homes to respond to residents’ housing needs, which puts pressure on road infrastructure. All this forced UK’s Department for Transport to propose a solution and make York’s traffic more efficient. The solution consists of installing sensors along the A59 road. These sensors are designed to detect signals from drivers’ mobile phones and connected cars, gathering real-time information about their movement. All data is collected anonymously and shared only with city officials. This will enable York’s authorities to better understand traffic patterns in the city and help them to make better decisions. As a result, York’s roads will be “safer and [the] air cleaner”, explains Peter Dew, York’s executive member for transport.
Smart traffic lights that can communicate with drivers
York’s project is still being tested, and if all goes according to plan, authorities in the UK will start implementing cutting-edge tech in other cities. The idea is to equip roads across the UK with traffic light systems that communicate with drivers. The same way road sensors in York communicate with drivers’ mobile phones, the smart traffic lights will interact with drivers. Here’s how. As the vehicle approaches, the traffic light will connect wirelessly to the drivers’ smartphone and advise them at which speed they should move to arrive when the light is green. This will help to minimise stop-and-go traffic, which is particularly evident during peak hours. Stop-and-go driving can not only cause a vehicle’s brakes to wear out, but also increase harmful emissions.
Similar technology will be installed in UK’s city of Milton Keynes. AI-based traffic lights developed by Vivacity Labs will monitor traffic and adjust lighting patterns accordingly. The system will be accompanied by 2,500 cameras installed across the city. While adjusting its lighting patterns, the system will give priority to cyclists, emergency vehicles, and buses. In case the camera detects a large number of cyclists or buses on the road, the system will provide a longer green light for them.
Real-time air pollution monitoring in Armidale
It’s clear that traffic is a significant contributor to air pollution, and we often don’t even realise how bad the air we breathe is. As the Guardianreveals, 95 per cent of the global population is exposed to unsafe air. To improve its air quality, the Australian city of Armidale installed air quality monitoring sensors. Due to its geographical position and the use of wood for heating during the winter months, Armidale’s air quality is very poor. And residents often fail to realise how dangerous it can be to their health. This forced the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) to deploy Purple Air Sensors across the city to collect real-time data. Such data is accessible online, which allows residents to know when the air outside is bad, so they can reduce their exposure to air pollution and minimize the time they spend outdoors.
How did smart tech help Chicago to reduce its gun violence rate?
Smart technology can also help cities fight against crime. Take Chicago as an example. In 2017, Chicago witnessed 650 murder cases, which is among the highest murder rates in the US. To make its residents feel safer, Chicago was forced to seek a solution. It didn’t take long before the city started using ShotSpotter technology. This system, attached to utility poles, relies on sensors and a camera to detect gunshots and automatically alert the police. Besides identifying the right location, ShotSpotter can also detect how many shots were fired and provide information about the weapon.
What makes this technologyso appealing is that it can differentiate gunshots from fireworks. Sometimes people will call the police to report a gunshot incident, when in fact it was just kids playing with firecrackers. Moreover, ShotSpotter is better than traditional 911 calls, because people reporting gunshots often have difficulties describing the incident properly or fail to give the exact location, which only causes delays. And in situations like these, every second counts. According toFox News, ShotSpotter can reduce police response time from eight minutes to 30 seconds. Chicago’s police department claims that the system led to a decrease of 43 per cent in shootings in the community area of Englewood. The system is used in two districts, but due to its success, the police will be adding this tech to six more districts by 2019.
Since everything around us is getting smarter, our cities should, too. Becoming a smart city might seem as a far-off dream, but the truth is that cities worldwide are investing in technology to improve traffic, monitor air quality, and reduce crime. Thanks to smart city technology, we can make our future safer and more enjoyable.
Richard van Hooijdonk
Author: Richard van Hooijdonk
International keynote speaker, trend watcher and futurist Richard van Hooijdonk offers inspiring lectures on how technology impacts the way we live, work and do business. Over 420,000 people have already attended his renowned inspiration sessions, in the Netherlands as well as abroad. He works together with RTL television and presents the weekly radio program ‘Mindshift’ on BNR news radio. Van Hooijdonk is also a guest lecturer at Nyenrode and Erasmus Universities.
Depending on your sleeping needs, you might be interested in purchasing a smart bed. Generally, these differ immensely from regular beds, coming with a multitude of features all designed to help you sleep better at night.
Smart beds can do many things: adjust the temperature of the bed, change the firmness level, provide a soothing massage, and much, much more. These models typically cost more than traditional mattresses, but their benefits could very much outweigh the cost depending on your needs.
Deciding if one is right for you can be a bit of a hassle, with so many options to choose from so many different sleep preferences and requirements … where do you start? Hopefully, this guide will help you decide if one is right for you.
What are the main benefits of a smart bed?
You might be wondering what smart beds can do for you that your regular mattress can’t already. This is a valid question because this is still a relatively new technology, which many might have qualms about if they’ve never tried it before.
Sleep tracking technology
Some smart beds have the added feature of being able to track all kinds of relevant information about your sleep health and patterns with included sleep tracking technology. This can include heart rate monitoring, when you toss and turn, your breathing rate, the total amount of time you spent sleeping, how deep you slept, and so on.
This can help tremendously with helping you to track just how much or how little sleep you’re getting, which can make a huge difference in your overall well-being. For example, with a smart bed, you’d be able to have a ready set of information about your sleep that you can give to a doctor for a potentially easier diagnosis, as they’d have more exact knowledge of how you sleep at night, instead of relying on your own recollection.
This can also be a handy feature in telling you if you sleep too hot or cold, allowing you to make adjustments to your room temperature for better sleep. A good place to shop for some really cool beds is mattressnut.
Temperature regulation
Another feature that could help aid in sleep is the temperature regulation features often included in a smart bed. These can track temperatures and either warm you up with onboard heating capabilities when you’re too hot, or keep the heat at bay with cooling technology. This will depending on which model you get, but it should be standard feature of many.
This might save you from having to adjust the thermostat of your house, which could come in handy if you’re living with multiple people who have different sleeping/temperature needs, potentially saving you some money in the long run.
Added smart connectivity
Many also come integrated with apps or other smart home internet devices, meaning you could possibly control your bed through other smart devices like your phone, giving you greater control over your mattress. Want your bed to be nice and warm before you get home? Program it from far away with the push of a button.
You can also adjust the firmness levels of a smart bed, usually, allowing you to customize your sleep to a level of comfort you may not have received from other traditional mattresses. And with added control comes potentially better sleep, which could be great for working off sleep debt and other forms of sleep deprivation.
This could also be a good option if you tend to share your bed a lot or require different settings from time to time, as you can adjust your smart bed on the fly and set the firmness to whichever setting you like, a feature unavailable to most traditional mattresses.
Are there drawbacks to getting one?
As we’ve said before, smart beds tend to be more expensive than traditional mattresses, which might be a problem if price is a concern. Check into the features included with yours and make sure that it’s right for you, as sometimes you may not be able to utilize a feature to the fullest extent.
The added technology might also make things a bit more complicated to those who aren’t so used to more modern types of bedding, potentially creating more confusion.
Conclusion
Smart beds can be a great fit for your home and might offer you better control over your sleep over traditional mattresses, depending on your needs. They can potentially offer you a better diagnosis of sleep problems and help you achieve more comfort during sleep.
These could give you more convenience in the long run and allow you to sleep more soundly. If this sounds like it could be right for you, then you should consider purchasing one.
What is undisputed, though, is the intelligence of artificial intelligence. The very basic of AI – artificial narrow intelligence, or weak AI – is known to be better than humans at one particular thing at any one time. Take it one level up, and artificial general intelligence may combine near-human-like thinking with impressive computational prowess. A feat that humans likely won’t be able to accomplish.
Incredibly, while AI seemingly has infinite possibilities, there is one arena in which humans can outsmart it (and no, we don’t mean emotional intelligence). As we’ll explain below, we haven’t yet come across an artificial intelligence that can decipher optical illusions as cleverly as humans can. Take this optical illusions quiz to test your mettle, and read on for reasons why humans are better at optical illusions than AI.
Optical illusions improve our visual literacy, but AI can’t compute
Visual literacy refers to the brain’s ability to interpret and derive meaning from visual information. When we look at an image, the brain picks up on visual cues – light, shadow, height, etc. – to provide context to what it’s seeing.
This context helps the brain understand the image it’s seeing and anticipate what that image logically means (for example, in the famous Kanizsa Triangle illusion, our brain can see a complete triangle despite no such shape actually being present). This logic is based on connecting the image we see to images we’ve seen in the past and predicting what the ‘probable’ image might be. Optical illusions deliberately mislead the brain by manipulating the all-important ‘context’ of the image. Thus, regularly viewing optical illusions can help improve our visual literacy as well as make it harder for us to be ‘caught out’ by the deception that illusions try to create.
In an effort to learn more about how optical illusions impact the human brain, researchers Robert Williams and Roman Yampolskiy from the University of Louisville (UofL) turned to AI. They wanted to task AI with creating new optical illusions they could test on humans. They pumped their AI’s neural network with over 6,000 optical illusions, hoping it could in turn create some new illusions. Alas, the AI simply couldn’t figure out how to create new illusions from the data given to it.
Our brains are better at understanding optical illusions than AI
Unfortunately for the UofL researchers, neural networks – or the same machine-learning systems that can identify faces and create realistic new ones – simply can’t recognise optical illusions. According to the researchers, there are only a few thousand static optical illusions in existence. This meant their neutral network didn’t have enough information to work with. Currently, we don’t have an advanced enough machine-learning system that can learn from such a small dataset.
The key, it seemed, was that humans can actually see the illusions whereas machine-learning systems can’t do the same. They can’t understand the principles behind the illusions – i.e. the context that human brains can quickly pick up on – and lack the same complex structure of the human visual system that optical illusions aim to play upon and manipulate.
For the moment, at least, AI is not advanced enough to be able to interpret and decipher optical illusions. Humans, on the other hand, can not only decipher illusions and understand how they work, they can also overcome them, learning – through practice – to become immune to the manipulation that illusions rely so heavily on. So, at least where optical illusions are concerned, humans outsmart AI.
Equipped with Google’s newest operating system (Android 9.0 Pie) an AI-enabled camera, a 6.2-inch screen and either 64GB or 128GB memory options, the G4 is Nuu Mobile’s flagship handset.
The AI within the camera allows for automatic calibration based on the subject of the photo, from food to pets and family pics. Beyond its photographic abilities, the G4 also offers more memory (6 GB) than many laptops, as well as a wireless charging capability, and a stunning, stylish body that’s nearly impossible to scratch.
Nuu G4 – Available in June 2019 From £299.99 from uk.nuumobile.com
The Elite Wireless Headphones are perfect for fathers who want an affordable headset packed with all the latest technology. Featuring 40mm Neodymium drivers for superior sound quality, it’s crystal clear audio is also supported by Active Noise Cancelling, that reduces unwanted ambient sound, providing an immersive listening experience.
With over 10-hours of wireless playback the Elite Wireless Headphones are ideal for listening to favourite music when travelling, commuting or in the office when connected to a Bluetooth device. If users need to make calls then a built-in microphone for hands-free conversations ensures this is as easy as possible.
Activ5 is a first-of-its-kind, wireless-enabled, isometric-based strength training device that coaches users through 5- minute, low-impact, full-body workouts. A fitness innovation ideal for everyone from working dads who sit all day, to travellers, over 60s, or simply dads who find it challenging to fit in daily activity, Activ5 by Activbody allows anyone with a smartphone to exercise anywhere while coaching, tracking and entertaining them.
The sleek and portable handheld device guides users through short burst workouts, providing full-body toning from both sitting and standing positions, all while tracking results on the companion Activ5 App which hosts over 100 unique workouts. With a durable design that measures more than 200 lbs. of force, Activ5 helps users increase strength by as much as 5 percent per week, and effectively tones and strengthens muscles using isometric workouts.
Isometric exercise is a type of low-impact strength training where the angle of the joints and muscle length do not change during contraction – for example a plank. Scientific research has proven that isometric exercise is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to build strength, accelerate fat burning and tone the body (five minutes of isometric exercise can be equivalent to 25 minutes of gym-machine exercises).
Activbody Activ5 – £119.95 from Selfridges and Amazon
These wireless metal earphones with a built in microphone are great for sporty dads. With a five hour battery life, the comfortable and magnetic earbuds fasten securely around the neck, making them easy to carry, while the metal casing gives the earphones a fashionable and trendy look.
The must-have gift for busy working dads, the RocketBook Mini is ideal for keeping things organised. The Everlast Mini fits in pockets and provides a new way of creating quick reminders, brilliant ideas, and everything else dad jots down on-the-go! Any notes can be digitised and sent to the cloud using a smartphone and the accompanying Rocketbook app. When all 24 pages of the notebook are full, the ink can then be quickly erased from the pages with a damp cloth enabling the environmentally-friendly Everlast Mini to be used over and over again. Available in four colours (black, navy, teal or red).
With a woven front speaker covering and a textured casing, the sophisticated Encore DAB radio is the perfect for Dad’s man cave or office. Available with 20 pre-set channels to access stations quickly and an alarm clock with snooze functionality so that dad can have a well-deserved lie in, the Encore is also equipped with two 5W speakers, Bluetooth connectivity and two stylish knobs that control the volume and tuning.
Groov-e Encore DAB radio – £69.99 from groov-e.co.uk
