Twelve South, a leading designer of Apple accessories, today introduces the HoverBar Tower, a flexible floor stand for iPad. Whether working out, playing a musical instrument or watching Netflix in bed, the HoverBar Tower will ensure the iPad displaying the exercise video, sheet music or latest TV series is in the perfect viewing position. Height adjustable from under three feet to over five feet and with a rotating bracket that can hold an iPad in portrait or landscape, the HoverBar Tower is easy to move around and use anywhere in the home. The HoverBar Tower is available now in white or black for £129 exclusively from Apple stores and Amazon.
Joining the HoverBar Duo in Twelve South’s range of iPad stands, HoverBar Tower takes the viewing experience to the next level. Easy to set up and use, the flexible stand can be placed in almost any position. Set it low to the ground for a virtual yoga class or next to a rowing machine, or at eye level in front of a stationary bike – it’s perfect for any Apple Fitness+ workouts. A weighted base makes it very sturdy and ideal to use alongside home exercise equipment. It is compatible with all iPad models, even with most cases attached.
Not just for fitness, the HoverBar Tower can keep hands free during online guitar lessons or while lying in bed watching movies. In the kitchen, it will keep an iPad out of the mess while users follow recipes and in the home office it could even be used to float an iPad above or next to a desktop monitor as a second (or third) screen. Portable yet sturdy, there are a long list of clever ways to use the HoverBar Tower.
The HoverBar Tower is available now for £129.99 from Apple in-store and online in white and black and Amazon UK in black only.
Esri Ireland, the market leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), is today announcing that it has helped Wicklow County Council to migrate their geospatial data and GIS services to the cloud, improving internal processes and transforming the delivery of public services.
For more than 25 years, Wicklow County Council has used Esri’s ArcGIS solutions in areas ranging from local development planning to highways maintenance. Now, with its ArcGIS Online system, Wicklow County Council’s data can be accessed in one central and secure cloud-based location and up-to-date data can be made available to the public faster than before.
The scalable system is underpinning the rollout of services to 142,000 citizens in Wicklow and enabled the council to build a new Residential Zoned Land Tax app in just half a day. User experience is improved as data from planning applications is now updated daily and receives thousands of views per day, while planning queries now load in a matter of seconds.In addition, Wicklow County Council can publish its County Development Plan immediately, as soon as it is formally adopted.
Esri’s technology is saving time for Wicklow County Council’s 850 employees as it eliminates the need for software updates and server upgrades with additional storage. Without the time-consuming burden of server management, the council’s GIS team can focus on creating new web apps to improve public services.
ArcGIS Online also simplifies data management, making it easier for the council to keep its 450 data sets current and available, such as information on vacant development sites. The migration has resulted in a six-fold increase in the performance of the council’s web-based GIS apps for both employees and members of the public who engage with these services. The system can handle peaks in traffic without any disruptions and returns search results rapidly.
Paddy O’Flaherty, GIS Officer, Wicklow County Council said:“Managing data and maintaining our GIS platform is so much easier than before. Things that were a chore can now be done with the click of a button. Users can select a thousand features, and ArcGIS Online will still return the results straight away.
“Not only did we migrate data to ArcGIS Online; we also did a thorough data quality review, to make sure that the data we were sharing online was the primary and most accurate data set available. ArcGIS Online has freed up time to develop more GIS services to improve our delivery of public services.”
Ted Taylor, Technical Account Manager, Esri Ireland: “We are delighted to be working once again with Wicklow County Council. It’s fantastic to see them embrace new technologies which will ensure resilience for the future. ArcGIS Online provides quick and reliable access to information, streamlines workflows, and improves programme performance, meaning the council can continue to provide vital resources to the public quickly and efficiently. We look forward to continuing to work with them to enhance these services for the residents of County Wicklow.”
A new study from Dell Technologies unveiled today has ranked Dublin as 23rdout of 55 cities globally for its ability to attract and foster women entrepreneurs.
The 2023 Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index ranks cities across the world based on their ability to attract high potential women entrepreneurs (HPWE) who want to do more, scale faster and thrive.
This year’s Index shows positive, forward progress for Dublin since Dell first launched the research in 2016. While it ranked 23rd in the Index overall this year, Dublin also demonstrated consistent progress as it registered the 3rd highest momentum score. The city climbed 11 positions since 2017, when it ranked 34th.
Dublin also excelled in the list of the most advanced cities for women entrepreneurs in the technology sector, ranking 7th. The research specifically highlighted the city’s advantage in the access to a qualified and diverse workforce and its central role as a major global hub for cybersecurity.
Dublin ranks 8th out of the 55 cities in gender equality in leadership in the tech industry and 12th for its access to mentors and role models for women.
Commenting on the research, Ciara Dempsey, Regional Sales Senior Manager at Dell Technologies Ireland, said: “The Dell WE Cities report is a key piece of research that not only highlights the importance of creating an environment where women entrepreneurs can thrive but also how collectively we can empower a greater number of female leaders to create and grow their business here in Ireland.
“While there’s still much progress to be made, it’s fantastic to see Dublin recognised as an emerging hub for talented women entrepreneurs, especially in the technology industry. By further investing in high potential women entrepreneurs and equipping policymakers with data-driven insights, we can foster an ecosystem where business leaders and entrepreneurs can grow regardless of gender.”
Building on the annual research, the survey by Dell serves as a tool to advise policymakers on how to better support women in business, and profiles global centers of commerce by their overall suitability for women entrepreneurs.
The 55 cities included in the Dell WE Cities 2023 were ranked on five important characteristics: capital, technology, talent, culture and markets. These pillars were organized into two groups — operating environment and enabling environment. The overall rating is based on 72 indicators; 45 of these (nearly two-thirds) have a gender-based component. Individual indicators were weighted based on four criteria: relevance, quality of underlying data, uniqueness in the index and gender component.
NAD Electronics, the highly regarded manufacturer of high-performance audio-video components, today announced the NAD CS1 Endpoint Network Streamer, a compact, minimalist design that makes it easy to add streaming capability to any music system. The CS1 will be available in retail shops and NADElectronics.com with a retail target price of US$349 / £299 / €399 / CDN$499 in March 2023.
Employing audiophile-grade components, the NAD CS1 can play high-resolution audio up to 24-bit/192kHz. It features Bluetooth, Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi and supports the most popular streaming and casting protocols, including Apple AirPlay 2, GoogleCast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Roon. Certification for network sharing via DNLA/UPnP protocols expected to be complete with retail available of CS1 in March 2023. That means listeners don’t have to install a dedicated app to use the CS1; they can control playback with the music apps they use every day.
OPTIONS UPON OPTIONS
There are many ways to play music through the NAD CS1 Endpoint Network Streamer. Listeners can use Bluetooth to pair the CS1 with a smartphone, tablet, or computer.
The CS1 offers many options for playing music over a home network. Listeners can use AirPlay 2 to stream CD-resolution audio from any app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, or from an iTunes library on a Windows PC.With GoogleCast, users can cue up music in any Cast-enabled app on a mobile device or personal computer, then transfer playback to the CS1.
NAD CS1 front
Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect users can cue up music in the apps for those services, then easily transfer playback to the CS1. Roon subscribers can play music from their digital libraries and from streaming services with resolutions up to 24-bit/192kHz.
AUDIOPHILE-GRADE Sound
The NAD CS1 Endpoint Network Streamer delivers the audio performance for which NAD is renowned. It features an advanced differential digital section based on Texas Instruments’ PCM5141 DAC, a design known for its extremely low noise, excellent dynamic performance, and immunity to clock jitter. It also has full MQA rendering and decoding capability for playing master quality music from Tidal.
FLEXIBLE CONNECTIVITY
Users can connect the CS1 to their home network via Wi-Fi or hardwire its LAN Ethernet port to their network router. The CS1 has a pair of RCA analogue outputs for connection to a stereo receiver, integrated amp, preamplifier, or a pair of powered speakers. The CS1 also has optical and coaxial outputs for sending digital audio at up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution to powered loudspeakers with digital inputs, or to a home theatre receiver or external DAC.
“Streaming has profoundly altered the way people discover and experience music,” said Cas Oostvogel, Product Manager of NAD Electronics. “The CS1 makes it easy to add streaming to a legacy stereo or home-theatre setup. Or someone could configure a low-footprint system for a den or home office by combining the CS1 with a pair of powered speakers. Streaming doesn’t get simpler than this.”
Key Features of the NAD CS1 Endpoint Network Streamer:
Compact, minimalist design
Built-in Bluetooth 5.0
Dual-band Wi-Fi plus LAN Ethernet port
Support for network sharing via DLNA/UPnp* protocols
Stereo analogue, optical digital, and coaxial digital outputs
Premium differential DAC design based on Texas Instruments PCM5141 DAC, with support for 24-bit/192kHz high-resolution audio and MQA decoding
Apple AirPlay 2 support allows CD-resolution streaming from any audio app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac
GoogleCast support allows playback at up to 24-bit/96kHz resolution from any Cast-enabled app on a smartphone, tablet, or personal computer
Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect support lets users cue up music on a smart device, then transfer playback to the CS1
Roon subscribers can stream audio to the CS1 from their personal libraries and online services supported by Roon in hi-res
Scientists, led by University of Bristol, have been studying a fish sensory organ to understand cues for collective behaviour which could be employed on underwater robots.
This work was centred around the lateral line sensing organ in African cichlid fish, but found in almost all fish species, that enables them to sense and interpret water pressures around them with enough acuity to detect external influences such as neighbouring fish, changes in water flow, predators and obstacles.
The lateral line system as a whole is distributed over the head, trunk and tail of the fish. It is comprised of mechanoreceptors (neuromasts) that are either within subdermal channels or on the surface of the skin.
Lead author Elliott Scott of the University of Bristol’s Department of Engineering Mathematics explained: “We were attempting to find out if the different areas of the lateral line – the lateral line on the head versus the lateral line on the body, or the different types of lateral line sensory units such as those on the skin, versus those under it, play different roles in how the fish is able to sense its environment through environmental pressure readings.
“We did this in a novel way, by using hybrid fish, that allowed for the natural generation of variation.”
They discovered the lateral line system around the head has the most important influence on how well fish are able to swim in a shoal, Meanwhile, the presence of more lateral line sensory units, neuromasts, that are found under the skin result in fish swimming closer together, while a greater presence of neuromasts on the skin tend to result in fish swimming further apart.
In simulation, the researchers were able to show how the mechanisms behind the lateral line work are applicable at not just the tiny scales found in actual fish, but at larger scales too. This could inspire a novel type of easily-manufactured pressure sensor for underwater robotics, particularly swarm robotics, where cost is a large factor.
Elliott said: “These findings provide a better understanding of how the lateral line informs shoaling behaviour in fish, while also contributing a novel design of inexpensive pressure sensor that could be useful on underwater robots that have to navigate in dark or murky environments.”
The team now plan to develop the sensor further and integrate it into a robotic platform to help a robot navigate underwater and demonstrate its effectiveness.
The research for this paper was funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP).
Paper: ‘Lateral line morphology, sensory perception and collective behaviour in African cichlid fish’ by Elliott Scott et al in Open Science.
Find your rhythm with Urbanista Atlanta, advanced true wireless earphones for total music listening with deep bass and detailed sound. Atlanta’s active noise cancelling technology delivers a powerful and precise audio experience that you can enjoy for hours, and the earphones’ noise-reducing triple microphones make sure you can take calls in crystal clear sound in any environment. With up to 8 hours of playtime per charge and a charging case holding three additional charges, Atlanta provides the energy you need to own the day, all day.
The Urbanista Atlanta, advanced true wireless earphones for total music listening with hybrid active noise cancelling and multipoint connection for up to two devices which in today’s world is one of the latest key features required for people on the go and work on multiple devices be it at home or in the office.
The Urbanista Atlanta is available in 4 stylish colors, expressing the vibrant style of their iconic namesake.
KEY FEATURES
Playtime 8 hours
34 hours total playtime
Hybrid active noise cancelling
Transparency mode
Microphone noise reduction
Automatic play/pause
Multipoint connection
Touch controls
Voice assistant support
Wireless charging
IPX4 water resistant (earphones)
USB Type-C charging
App support
Belfast-based scientific software company SciLeads has unveiled plans to create up to 50 new jobs over the next two years after announcing its workforce has grown to a team of 50 as of this month.
Launched in Belfast in 2016 by friends Daniel McRitchie, Laura Haldane and James Campbell, SciLeads is an innovative lead generation and market intelligence platform that helps scientific companies identify, engage and close their ideal buyers.
SciLeads has created the most comprehensive and accurate database of scientific researchers, helping sales and marketing teams quickly identify who needs their products for their research.
The company placed 14th in the 2022 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list, which ranks the fastest growing technology companies based on revenue growth over a four-year period. The previous year, the business was the top ranked Northern Ireland company on the list placing 11th, making this its second year in the top 20.
SciLeads began 2021 with 20 staff but having recruited across a number of roles it reached the milestone of 50 employees by the end of 2022. Now, with a strong pipeline of work, plans to launch new products, as well as further expansion into Asian markets, the company has projected that it will need to double its workforce to 100 by 2024 to manage the demand for its services.
Daniel McRitchie, CEO at SciLeads said: “We are at an exciting point in our journey where we are the industry leaders in our space but still have massive potential to grow further. We believe our exciting plans for 2023 will enable us to double our headcount again over the next 2 years. We are open to all options in assisting us with our plans, including taking on investment from the right partner.”
In the past year, SciLeads has successfully expanded its senior team with the appointment of a Senior Product Manager, Head of People and Culture and Head of New Business, and is currently recruiting for a range of sales and software development roles.
SciLeads is trusted by hundreds of scientific companies globally to accelerate sales and drive growth. 93% of its customer base is outside of the UK with its software currently used globally by Fortune 500 companies right down to the smallest start-ups.
Laura Haldane, co-founder and VP of Sales and Marketing at SciLeads added: “Finding talent in today’s market is definitely a challenge, particularly on the technical side. However, our remote first working has helped us to overcome this by hiring anywhere in the world, as well as being flexible with our current staff. We recently had a member of the team ask if they could move to Australia and work for SciLeads there and of course we said yes.
“When we started out, we knew we wanted to create a company with a truly flexible culture and work life balance. We have been working remotely since 2016, encouraging staff to get outside, walk the dog, go to the gym and see the sunshine. As we scale, we are adamant about maintaining this.”
SciLeads has seen the benefits of flexible working with all roles fully remote, along with flexible hours and holidays to ensure people can make their schedule work for them. The company gives each SciLeader £750 every two years so they can make their home office exactly how they want it.
The majority of the SciLeads team are based in Northern Ireland and Canada.
SciLeads continue to be on the lookout for talented Sales, Data, Product and Software professionals. More information can be found at scileads.com/careers.
Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) expands the industry’s top selling server portfolio, with an additional 13 next-generation Dell PowerEdge servers, designed to accelerate performance and reliability for powerful computing across core data centers, large-scale public clouds and edge locations.
Next-generation rack, tower and multi-node PowerEdge servers, with 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, include Dell software and engineering advancements, such as a new Smart Flow design, to improve energy and cost efficiency. Expanded Dell APEX capabilities will help organizations take an as-a-Service approach, allowing for more effective IT operations that make the most of compute resources while minimizing risk.
“Customers come to Dell for easily managed yet sophisticated and efficient servers with advanced capabilities to power their business-critical workloads,” said Jeff Boudreau, president and general manager, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies. “Our next-generation Dell PowerEdge servers offer unmatched innovation that raises the bar in power efficiency, performance and reliability while simplifying how customers can implement a Zero Trust approach for greater security throughout their IT environments.”
New Dell PowerEdge servers are designed to meet the needs of a range of demanding workloads from artificial intelligence and analytics to large-scale databases. The expanded portfolio announced in November 2022, including the PowerEdge XE family of servers with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs and the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software suite for a full stack, production AI platform builds on advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
New servers for cloud service providers
The introduction of Dell PowerEdge HS5610 and HS5620 servers delivers optimized solutions tailored for cloud service providers managing large-scale, multi-vendor data centers. Available in both 1U and 2U form factors, these new, two-socket servers include cold aisle serviceable configurations and are available with Dell Open Server Manager, an OpenBMC based systems management solution to simplify multi-vendor fleet management.
Greater performance and simpler management
Next-generation PowerEdge servers provide improved performance, including the Dell PowerEdge R760, which delivers up to 2.9x greater AI inferencing on 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel Deep Learning Boost and Intel Advanced Matrix Extensions The PowerEdge R760 also offers up to a 20% increase in VDI users and over 50% more SAP Sales & Distribution users on one server, compared to the previous generation.PowerEdge systems may be ordered with NVIDIA Bluefield-2 data processing units to provide additional offload, acceleration and workload isolation capabilities idea for power efficiency for private, hybrid and multicloud deployments.
Dell R760
Enhancements to Dell monitoring software and new services make server management even easier:
Dell CloudIQ— Dell software combines proactive monitoring, machine learning and predictive analytics while offering a comprehensive view of servers wherever they reside. Updates include advancements to server performance forecasting, select maintenance operations and new virtualization visualization.
Dell ProDeploy services — The Dell ProDeploy Factory Configuration service delivers PowerEdge servers ready to install and preconfigured with the customer’s preferred operating system, hypervisor software and settings for RAID, BIOS and iDRAC. The Dell ProDeploy Rack Integration service delivers and installs production-ready racked and networked PowerEdge servers, ideal for companies expanding their data center environments or undergoing an IT modernization.
Dell iDRAC9 — As customers seek increased server automation and intelligence, Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) makes Dell systems easier to deploy and diagnose, equipped with updated features such as Certificate Expiry Notice, Telemetry for Dell Consoles and GPU monitoring.
“With improvements in genomic sequencing technology and new methods in the lab driving data growth, data flows will continue to expand in the future. To ensure our continued innovation, we need to process data quickly and efficiently,” said Dr. Pete Clapham, Informatics Support Group Leader, Wellcome Sanger Institute. “Dell PowerEdge servers are well-designed, have built-in security, and deliver the performance that allows us to accelerate scientific discovery and bring innovation to the world faster.”
Designed for sustainability
Dell PowerEdge servers are designed with sustainability in mind, offering customers a 3x performance improvement, compared to 14th Generation PowerEdge servers with Intel Xeon Scalable processors launched in 2017, resulting in less floor space required and more powerful and efficient technology across all next-generation systems. Key highlights include:
Dell Smart Flow design — A new feature within the Dell Smart Cooling suite increases airflow and reduces fan power by up to 52%compared to previous generation servers.6 The Smart Flow design supports greater server performance with less power required to cool systems for more efficient data centers.
Dell OpenManage Enterprise Power Manager 3.0 software — Customers can better manage efficiency and cooling goals, monitor carbon emissions and set power caps up to 82% faster to limit overall energy usage. With the enhanced sustainability target tool, customers can determine overall server use, virtual machine and facility energy consumption, leak detection for liquid cooling systems, and more.
Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT)— Four next-generation Dell PowerEdge servers will be available with the EPEAT silver designation, and 46 systems will be designated EPEAT bronze. The EPEAT ecolabel is a leading global designation, covering products and services from the technology sector that demonstrate a responsible purchasing decision.
“Today’s modern data center requires continuous performance improvements for complex workloads such as AI, ML and VDI,” said Kuba Stolarski, research vice president, IDC Enterprise Infrastructure Practice. “As data center operators endeavor to keep up with the demand from these resource hungry workloads, they must also prioritize environmental and security goals. With its new Smart Flow design, coupled with enhancements to its power and cooling management tools, Dell offers organizations significant improvements in efficient server operation alongside the raw performance gains in its newest generation of servers.”
Reliability and security at the core
Next-generation PowerEdge servers help accelerate Zero Trust adoption within organizations’ IT environments. The devices constantly verify access, assuming every user and device is a potential threat. At the hardware level, silicon-based hardware root of trust, with elements including the Dell Secured Component Verification (SCV), helps verify supply chain security from design to delivery. Additionally, multifactor authentication and integrated iDRAC verifies users before granting access.
A secure supply chain also enables customers to advance their Zero Trust approach. Dell SCV offers cryptographic verification of components, which extends supply chain security to the customer’s site.
Delivering a scalable, modern compute experience
Customers looking for OpEx flexibility can consume PowerEdge servers as a subscription through Dell APEX today. Using advanced data collection and processor-based measurement by the hour, customers can take a flexible approach to avoid the costs associated with over-provisioning their compute needs.
Later this year, Dell Technologies will expand its Dell APEX portfolio to offer bare metal compute services on-premises, at the edge, or in colocation facilities. Services will be available through a predictable, monthly subscription and easily configured through the APEX Console, enabling customers to meet their workload and IT operational needs with scalable and secure compute resources.
“4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors have the most built-in accelerators of any CPU on the market to help maximize performance efficiency for real world applications, especially those powered by AI,” said Lisa Spelman, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Intel Xeon Products. “With the latest generation of Dell PowerEdge servers, Intel and Dell continue our strong collaboration in delivering innovations that create real business value, while incorporating leading scalability and security that customers require.”
Availability
Dell PowerEdge R760 is available globally in February 2023.
Dell PowerEdge HS5620, HS5610 are available globally in April 2023.
Additional next-generation Dell PowerEdge servers will be global availability throughout the first half of 2023.
ProDeploy Factory Configuration is globally available today
ProDeploy Rack Integration is available today in the US, with availability in Ireland to be announced.
Dell APEX compute services are planned for the second half of 2023.
According to PlatformCon organizer Luca Galante, platform engineering is “the discipline of designing and building toolchains and workflows that enable self-service capabilities for software engineering organizations in the cloud-native era” to reduce cognitive load and improve developer productivity. In 2022, it became one of the biggest tech trends. “Platform engineering’s positive impact on system reliability, developer productivity, and delivery speed indicate that platform engineering won’t just be a trend,” commented Humanitec Community Manager Aeris Stewart, “It’s here to stay.”
Last year’s conference attracted more than 6,000 attendees from around the world and featured 78 community-submitted talks. HashiCorp’s Director of Platform Engineering, Infrastructure Michael Galloway remarked, “PlatformCon knocked it out of the park, bringing together folks from some of the top companies that are actively practicing in this emerging space. I regularly refer to the ideas and strategies that folks shared in my work today.”
Building on the success of last year, PlatformCon 2023 promises to be even bigger and better. Confirmed speakers on this year’s lineup include OpenCredo CEO/CTO Nicki Watt, Defense Unicorn Value Stream Architect Bryan Finster, and OpenSauced Founder and CEO Brian Douglas.
This year’s conference will feature new and improved tracks, including “Stories,” “Tech,” “Blueprints,” “Culture,” and “Impact,” covering a wide range of topics, from building platforms for enterprise use cases to technical solutions for platform teams and cultural considerations for platform engineering.
Attendees will be able to watch all talks at their own pace and join live virtual kickoff events for their region. Speakers will be available for Q&A on the Platform Engineering Slack channel during the conference, providing a unique opportunity for attendees to engage with the experts.
The call for proposals is now open! Experts, leaders, and practitioners in the field of platform engineering are encouraged to submit their talk proposals by February 28th to share their insights with the community.
Register for PlatformCon 2023 to receive updates on new speakers, opportunities to get involved, and in-person meetups.
