The Big Tech Show: Recent Episodes
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Ireland sits at the heart of the world's digital economy, with most transatlantic data cables passing through or close to its waters. But is Ireland prepared to protect the infrastructure that keeps businesses, banks and public services connected?
In this episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler is joined by Fearghal O'Connor, Chief Business Writer with the Irish Independent, to examine growing concerns over Ireland's maritime security.
They discuss the risks posed by hostile activity, the country's limited naval capabilities and why experts believe investment in surveillance and defence has become increasingly urgent as geopolitical tensions continue to rise.
https://www.independent.ie/service/why-you-can-trust-the-irish-independent/a/98708550.html
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As the warm weather starts to wane and our days of consistent sunshine look numbered, chances are you’ll check your phone’s weather app to find out what’s next in store. But not all weather apps are created equal: some look fantastic and operate beautifully while others offer clunkier UX but reliable reports.
Alan O'Reilly, creator of the enormously popular Carlow Weather social media accounts, joins Adrian Weckler to discuss what app we should all be using, how AI is changing the landscape of meteorology and some surprising trends from the intersection of weather and technology.
Host: Adrian Weckler | Guest: Alan O'Reilly (Carlow Weather)
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With mixed reports on how likely another heatwave might be, now might be the time to invest in the right tech to keep your home cool in summer. Adrian Weckler gives Dee Reddy the lowdown on how to keep the heat down.
Plus: As OpenAI's latest agent goes rogue, we look at how Ireland is bucking the trend with new AI job creation and how and the Papal prayer app committed a cardinal data sin.
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Adrian recently climbed into a taxi in California and found nobody behind the wheel. It was a fully autonomous Waymo. So how far is Ireland from seeing the same thing on our roads?
Barry Lunn, founder and CEO of Provizio, explains why self-driving technology is improving fast, why safety matters more than speed, and why Europe is taking a different path from the US. They also discuss Tesla, AI, regulation and whether driverless cars are closer than most people think.
https://www.independent.ie/service/why-you-can-trust-the-irish-independent/a/98708550.html
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Electric car sales are climbing but owning one is becoming more complicated. Public charging prices have surged, grants are changing, and thousands of people living in terraced homes still cannot easily charge outside their own front door.
Adrian Weckler is joined by Mark Noble, broadcaster and creator of the Nobby On Cars YouTube channel, to discuss why charging costs are rising, whether government policy is keeping pace with demand, and what needs to change before electric cars become a realistic option for everyone in Ireland.
https://www.independent.ie/service/why-you-can-trust-the-irish-independent/a/98708550.html
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Electric scooters were once seen as the future of urban transport, but growing safety concerns are changing the conversation.
On this episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler is joined by former Fine Gael TD Noel Rock to discuss whether electric scooters have become too dangerous for Irish roads. They examine rising injury numbers, gaps in enforcement, why existing rules are failing, and whether tighter regulation is enough or if Ireland should consider banning them altogether.
https://www.independent.ie/service/why-you-can-trust-the-irish-independent/a/98708550.html
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The United States has ordered Anthropic to restrict access to its most advanced AI model and is now urging other leading developers to give the government early access to new systems before they are released. Is this sensible national security or the beginning of state control over artificial intelligence? Adrian Weckler speaks to William Fry partner Barry Scannell about why the most powerful AI models are causing alarm, whether America now has an AI kill switch and what it could mean for Europe, businesses and the future of technology.
https://www.independent.ie/service/why-you-can-trust-the-irish-independent/a/98708550.html
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Who is Mark Zuckerberg really? Is he the awkward, robotic tech billionaire seen in public, or something very different behind closed doors?
Sheera Frenkel, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist and co-author of the bestselling An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination, joins Adrian to examine the Meta chief's personality, upbringing and leadership style.
From his privileged childhood and early coding obsession to Facebook's move fast culture, Zuckerberg's rise is a story of relentless ambition, fierce control and extraordinary resilience.
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The week on The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler, speaks with Jim Browning, the Northern Ireland based digital investigator known for exposing global scam operations. With millions of YouTube subscribers, Browning explains how he infiltrates scam call centres by gaining access to their systems and turning their own tactics against them.
He describes how scammers trick victims into handing over banking access, and how his work helps identify offenders and alert authorities. Browning also discusses the ethical challenge of watching scams in real time while deciding when to intervene to protect potential victims and support law enforcement action.
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- The uncomfortable truth about banning under 16s from social media
Description/Copy
Should Ireland follow the UK and ban social media for under 16s? Adrian is joined by JJ Clarke to examine why many child safety experts argue that bans do not work and may even create new risks for young people online.
The discussion looks at Ireland's plans for age verification, the challenge of enforcing existing rules, and why regulators in Brussels are increasingly focused on forcing platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook to change algorithms that drive addictive content.
Why you can trust the Irish Independent: learn about our editorial guidelines and AI useSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Will Apple users in Europe miss out on the company's biggest AI upgrade yet? And what does the growing dispute between Apple and the European Commission mean for consumers?
Adrian Weckler spoke to Ben Wood at FDM CCS Insight, from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in California.
The discussion focused on Siri AI, Apple's new deeply integrated artificial intelligence platform, and why many of its headline features may not be available on iPhones and iPads in the European Union. Wood explained how Apple's privacy first approach is clashing with EU competition rules, leaving consumers caught in the middle of an increasingly tense regulatory battle.
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Is your phone really listening to you or is something more complex going on behind the scenes?
Adrian Weckler and JJ Clarke tackle the most enduring tech conspiracy theory, the belief that private conversations trigger targeted ads.
They explore why this feels so convincing and why it keeps happening. From behavioural signals to location data and algorithmic prediction, they explain why the reality may be both less sinister and more powerful than people think.
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AI was supposed to replace workers at speed. Instead, some of the world’s biggest companies are finding costly problems, poor results and frustrated customers. Adrian Weckler and JJ Clarke examine why firms such as Starbucks, Pizza Hut and Klarna are scaling back AI projects. They also discuss the warning from Pope Leo, who has criticised AI for threatening human dignity, work and genuine human judgement, as companies race to cut costs and automate jobs before the technology is truly ready. Why you can trust the Irish Independent: learn about our editorial guidelines and AI useSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Irish consumers are embracing online banks in their droves, but do they trust them with their salaries, savings and investments?
Adrian Weckler is joined by Bianca Zwart, chief strategy officer at bunq to discuss the rise of digital banking in Ireland, why younger customers are turning to crypto and investing apps, and whether neobanks can compete with traditional institutions on trust, fraud protection and customer support.
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Why does one fibre broadband package cost nearly twice as much as another using the same line? Are Irish households paying more than they need to for internet access? And do speed guarantees matter when choosing a provider? Adrian Weckler is joined by Irish Independent reporter and journalist Saoirse Hanley to examine the gap in broadband pricing across Ireland, with some fibre packages costing almost twice as much as rivals. They discuss rising prices after introductory offers, minimum guaranteed speeds, long term contracts and what consumers should focus on when choosing a broadband. You can listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. Why you can trust the Irish Independent: learn about our editorial guidelines and AI useSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ireland has long relied on multinational tech companies to fuel jobs growth and tax revenue but are we becoming dangerously dependent on them?
Professor Joe Haslam, executive director of the Owner´s Scaleup Program at IE Business School and Fine Gael TD for Dún Laoghaire and barrister, Barry Ward join Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
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Electricity bills are soaring and more Irish homeowners are wondering if solar panels are finally worth it.
On this week’s The Big Tech Show, Adrian speaks to Dr Paul Deane, Senior lecturer in clean energy in UCC, about the real cost of installing solar at home, how many panels most households actually need and whether batteries are worth the investment.
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Deepfake pornography is emerging as one of the most urgent challenges in artificial intelligence.
On this week’s The Big Tech Show, Adrian speaks to Aoife White at the European Correspondent, who specialises in EU affairs, about how the EU’s AI Act aims to tackle the issue by targeting the apps that make such content to create.
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On this week’s episode of the Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler examines the end of an era as Tim Cook prepares to step down as Apple chief executive after fifteen years. With author of “Apple in China: the capture of the world’s greatest company”, Patrick McGee, the discussion explores Cook’s legacy from turning the iPhone into a financial powerhouse to criticism that Apple lost its creative edge. They also examine the timing of his exit, the rise of successor John Ternus, and the challenges ahead including artificial intelligence and dependence on China. As Apple enters a new chapter, the question remains whether history will judge Cook as a cautious operator or a transformative leader. You can listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. We want to earn your trust and are members of the Trust Project. See our ethics policies at independent.ie/ourjournalismSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Can you really hear the difference between AI and human music anymore? and does it even matter?
On this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler speaks to John Corley, chief executive of Spanish Point Technologies, about the rapid rise of AI generated music.
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Why is Peter Thiel talking about the Antichrist in Rome? and what does it reveal about the intersection of tech and belief? On this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler speaks to ?Dr. Massimo Faggioli, professor in Ecclesiology at the Loyola Institute at Trinity College, Dublin. From Catholic theology to Silicon Valley ideology, he explains how ancient religious ideas are being reshaped by modern tech elites and why some now see technology itself as a path to salvation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do you go from tech to wine influencing? What does it take to build a global following online? And can passion become a real business? On this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler speaks to Jonathan Staunton, also known as Wine List Guy. From Irish pubs in Italy to Microsoft, he shares his unconventional journey and how he turned social media into a career. You can listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fifty years on from its creation, what were Apple’s hits? Misses? And is AI use a no-go for journalists? Adrian Weckler is joined by Darragh Nolan on The Big Tech Show to mark 50 years of Apple, from the Macintosh to the iPod and iPhone, and what still drives its success today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why are teenage boys still drawn to online influencers? and what are they really looking for?
Psychologist, broadcaster and former professional footballer, Richie Sadlier joins Adrian Weckler on The Big Tech Show to explore the appeal of figures like Andrew Tate.
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Could you be next to face legal action? Producer, JJ Clarke, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss dodgy boxes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did the world’s first ransomware attack begin? and why are we still falling for the same tricks today?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did an Irish student end up building one of the biggest home-services startups in the US?
Irish entrepreneur Oisín Hanrahan joins Adrian Weckler on The Big Tech Show to discuss his path from buying property in Budapest as a student to dropping out of Harvard Business School to launch Handy.
He also talks about startup co-founder dynamics and his latest venture, Keychain, which connects food brands with manufacturers.
Listen on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Is Anthropic emerging as the “good guy” of artificial intelligence? And do ethics in AI actually matter to users? Veteran tech journalist Rupert Goodwins joins Adrian Weckler on The Big Tech Show to discuss the rivalry between Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, and whether AI companies should decide how their technology is used. They also look at the shifting social media landscape, from Bluesky to X. Listen on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is Apple’s MacBook Neo the best value laptop ever? Can it match a MacBook Air? And is €699 all you need for the Mac experience? Darragh Nolan, multimedia reporter at the Irish Independent, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Who is Sam Altman and why does he matter so much to artificial intelligence? What do we really know about his views on risk, control and power in the AI race? Ellen Huet, features writer with Bloomberg News and host of the Foundering podcast, joins Adrian Weckler on The Big Tech Show this week. Altman, CEO of OpenAI, runs the company behind ChatGPT. The episode explores his rise, his warnings about AI dangers and the controversies surrounding OpenAI. Listen on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How safe is your crypto really? And what happens when your private keys fall into the wrong hands? Journalist and crypto commentator Monty Munford joins Adrian on this week’s episode of the Big Tech Show. Adrian and Monty talk about how he first got into cryptocurrency, why he chose Ethereum over Bitcoin, and the moment he discovered £25,000 worth of crypto had vanished from his wallet. Monty explains the mistakes he made storing his private keys, how hackers may have accessed them, and what the loss taught him about online security. They also discuss how that stolen crypto would be worth far more today — and why his story is a cautionary tale for anyone dabbling in digital assets. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What tech habits drive us absolutely bonkers? Is it a generation gap? And how do we combat it? Saoirse Hanley, journalist at the Irish Independent, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What happens when your electric car breaks down away from home? Do they have technicians to deal with them? And if you're in a very rural area, can you rely on breakdown services or might you be stranded? Darragh Nolan, multimedia reporter at the Irish Independent, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is the future of AI in Ireland? Do we have digital sovereignty? And should social media be banned for under sixteens? James Lawless, Minister for further and higher education, research, innovation and science, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is a recommender algorithm? Should they be switched off? And how do they create toxic narrative bubbles? Johnny Ryan, digital rights campaigner and director of Enforce at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is the world of espionage now online? Are the Irish the cyber weak link in Europe? And how is digital sabotage being used today? Richard Aldrich, professor of International Security at the University of Warwick and leading expert on intelligence, espionage and cybersecurity. The security expert explained how bad-acters can hack into the back of the internet connected fridges and get them to overheat on a windy day. Getting fridges to catch fire simultaneously is a contingency that the UK government is just starting to consider as a threat. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Online polarisation, Trump, Elon Musk, AI, media, Ireland and startups — Mark Little is thinking about a lot of things right now. In this extended episode, he lays out some bare truths about the state of the world and what his own plans are at present.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Who is rising and falling in the US tech world? What events will shape 2026? And will Elon weather the Grok scandal? Blake Montgomery, the Guardian’s US Tech editor, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The conversation began by Adrian asking the Guardian’s US tech editor about the reaction in America to the Grok AI scandal. The US-based journalist explained that the reaction to X’s Grok AI tool in the US has been muted and heated than Europe. According to Montgomery, a couple of US lawmakers have voiced their concerns and called for a Grok ban but because the reaction to the AI tool globally, Musk has begun to dial back the AIs capabilities. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What makes Jeff Bezos tick? Is he a generational talent who will take us to the stars? Or billionaire tech bro living the high life? Christian Davenport, journalist who spent twenty-five years at the Washington Post and the author of the recently published book, Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos, and the Inside Story of the New, Trillion-Dollar Space Race. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
With Grok AI now being used to undress people online, what do we do? Should government ministers stay off X? And is Ireland about to require digital ID? TJ McIntyre, associate Professor of the Sutherland School of Law in UCD and Head of Digital Rights Ireland joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Stephen Cluskey was about to enter his leaving cert year in Belvedere College when something happened that changed his life forever. On a camping trip with friends, Stephen fell off a hay bale and was paralyzed from the neck down. Stephen Cluskey, CEO of Mobility Mojo, accessibility advocate and social entrepreneur joins Adrian on this week’s episode of the Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How will tech affect your life in 2026? Will AI win you over with convenience? Could dodgy-box users be fined? And what about a mid-Atlantic rift when it comes to tech regulation?
In this episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler is joined by Dee Reddy to share his 10 predictions on what to expect next year, as well as rating how our predictions for the last year turned out.
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Ireland’s list of global sporting champions is relatively short, which means that when a new one is minted then we like to celebrate their achievements with them. And while Excel spreadsheets is about as niche as e-sports get - there’s no doubt that the competition is heating up when it’s broadcast live from Las Vegas via ESPN. And this year, it looks like it's not just Excel’s logo that proudly wears green - as the title of Global Excel Champion 2025 was won by Ireland’s Diarmuid Early.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Where is AI going and who is at the helm? What jobs might be in trouble and should Europe back down on its regulations? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by one of Ireland's most famous tech entrepreneurs Sean Blanchfield to hear about Jentic - his latest venture - and to hear how the age of AI is already up and running.
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Will we see a folding iPhone in 2026? Or what about better AI on Apple devices? Has the iPhone Air been a flop and will it be replaced?
Joining technology editor Adrian Weckler on the Big Tech Show is friend of the podcast Stuart Miles, tech expert and the founder of Squirrel.
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What devices should you gift for Christmas? From buds to coffee machines, what tech treats would you like to receive? And should you go high-end or budget? JJ Clarke, producer, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The Kodak compact digital camera costs €160 from Conn’s Cameras and is for the Gen Z-er in your life. Standalone compact digital cameras are all the rage among teens and early 20-somethings, with their vintage look, anti-AI vibe and one-shot focus. For this cohort, Kodak’s Pixpro FZ55 makes a great gift. It’s easy to use, has a 1x to 5x mini-zoom and fits snugly into almost any normal jeans or jacket pocket. For the self-loathing phone addict in your life. The Brick costs €60 from getbrick.app. Brick’s appeal is simple: stop using your phone so much. The way it works is simple. Just touch it off your iPhone or Android phone and it will deny access (or "brick”) a set of pre-chosen (by you) apps. It will also hide any notifications associated with them. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s going on in Bitcoin? Is this a crypto winter? And how is AI luring funds away from digital currencies? Katie Byrne, Money editor with the Irish Independent, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The conversation began by Adrian discussing why mainstream cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin is down around 25% over the last two months, and around 15% for the year, wiping close to a hundred billion dollars from people's wallets or Revolut accounts. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What streaming platform is most popular? Which streamer is focussing on quality? And does subscription cost make a difference?
Dave Hanratty of the Irish Independent and the No Encore podcast, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
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Kurt Wagner, Senior Reporter at Bloomberg leading and author of Battle for the Bird: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, and the $44 Billion Fight for Twitter's Soul, joins Adrian for this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
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We want to earn your trust and are members of the Trust Project. See our ethics policies at independent.ie/ourjournalism
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Would you use a stablecoin? If so, how might you go about that? And what are the pros and cons?
Stani Kulechov, Finnish entrepreneur and founder of Aave, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
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What is a smart city? Is Dublin one? And what’s different about them? Ruth Freeman, director of Research for Society at Research Ireland, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. A smart city is an urban area that uses technology and data to improve the quality of life for its citizens, increase the efficiency of city services, and promote sustainable development. It integrates digital systems like the internet of things to collect and analyse real-time data, which helps optimize everything from transportation and energy use to public safety and waste management. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Who is Jensen Huang? Why does he always wear a leather jacket? And what's he like to work for? Stephen Witt, Los Angeles based journalist and author of The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia And The World’s Most Coveted Microchip, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Last week, Nvidia became the first company to surpass a $5 trillion (€4.4 trillion) valuation. That’s worth more than every country’s GDP, except for the US and China. It’s worth more than the entire crypto market, the entire gold market and, according to one colourful estimate, every pizza ever sold in history. Nvidia is making vast amounts of real, hard cash from the AI boom. It’s not potential or future revenue, like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft or Anthropic. It’s billions in sales of its AI chips, which almost every tech company now craves. Sitting atop this new empire is Jensen Huang, the 62-year-old leather-jacket wearing Singaporean-American, who has gone from being a nerdy graphics card boss to the most powerful tech CEO in the world. For the moment, at least, he tops peers such as Elon Musk, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg in influence and relevance. In the award-shortlisted biography The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia And The World’s Most Coveted Microchip, which is the best account of Huang published so far, author Stephen Witt documents Huang’s life from a newly-arrived immigrant in the US to being a frequent visitor at Donald Trump’s Mar A Lago compound in Florida. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does Amazon’s new sub-sea cable mean for Ireland? Is Apple planning a new budget laptop? And why is Trump reserving Nvidia’s most advanced chips? Saoirse Hanley, money journalist with the Irish Independent joins JJ Clarke on this episode of The Big Tech Show. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a new high-speed transatlantic cable from Cork to Maryland in the US to power global internet traffic and its data centres. The new ‘Fastnet’ cable can deliver over 320 terabits per second, enough to stream over 12 million HD movies simultaneously. It will be one of the highest capacity data cables yet built across the Atlantic. The cable, which won’t be operational until 2028, will make landfall in Castlefreke, near Rosscarbery in west Cork. Cork was chosen, the company said, because most other major transatlantic cables land in either Mayo or Dublin, giving the tech giant an “alternative pathway” for critical internet traffic compared to existing infrastructure in the event of any problems or outages. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is ChatGPT the main player in the AI game? What does the research tell us about AI chat bot results? And are people increasingly using chatbots as therapists?
Maeve McTaggart, news and political reporter with the Irish Independent, joins JJ Clarke on The Big Tech Show this week.
ChatGPT has become a near-monopoly for everyday AI use in Ireland, new figures collated by the Irish Independent suggest.
Almost five out of six online AI queries from Ireland happen using OpenAI’s service, with rivals nowhere close, according to a study by the Irish Independent and the Dublin-based online web statistics firm, Statcounter.
The figures show that more than 84pc of Irish generative AI requests are from ChatGPT, followed distantly by Microsoft’s Copilot and Perplexity, both on 6pc.
You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Could the dodgy box users finally face fines? Why is Ireland looking to copy Italy? And will it curb illegal streaming in Ireland? Darragh Nolan, Multi-Media reporter, with the Irish Independent joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Irish dodgy-box users would face direct fines for the first time under new plans being considered by broadcasters and copyright authorities. It is understood the move is being planned by large TV rights holders such as Sky, after a similar crackdown was introduced in Italy. That move led to thousands of dodgy-box users getting fined earlier this year. According to a recent Sunday Independent poll, up to one in five Irish households use dodgy boxes. That represents up to 400,000 people illegally streaming content like sport and movies. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do you spot a deepfake? What are telltale signs of AI-videos? And who is responsible for synthetic fake videos posted on social media? JJ Clarke, producer, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Adrian began the conversation by discussing the recent deepfake videos on Catherine Connolly on Facebook. A series of Al deepfake videos of RTÉ news bulletins criticising presidential candidate Catherine Connolly amassed over 160,000 views and hundreds of genuine comments on Facebook over several days before being removed. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What have we learned from the huge tech outage this week? How did it happen? And are the warnings of an AI bubble accurate? JJ Clarke, producer, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What are the best tips for beginners using AI chat bots? Have AI videos featuring dead celebrities gone too far? And is the EU losing the tech race because of stringent regulations? Darragh Nolan, Multimedia reporter with the Irish Independent, joins JJ Clarke for this episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are AI videos threatening content creators? Have we entered an AI bubble? And what are the best broadband options?
Saoirse Hanley, journalist at the Irish Independent, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
Adrian began by asking Saoirse whether she would be less likely to watch a AI generated video than a human generated one. The journalist responded that she would immediately lose interest in videos that are seen to be made by a machine. This topic was on the back of YouTube content creator Mr Beast announcing recently that AI video is so good now that it is legitimately threatening the livelihood of content creators.
You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.
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How will Microsoft navigate pressure from the Trump administration? Will its decision impact the growing trend in Europe towards “digital sovereignty”? Indeed believes AI will transform rather than replace human jobs. And what’s Nigel Farage’s issue with “Britcoin”? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by producer Dee Reddy to discuss.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this week’s episode, we delve into 'Scratchgate' amid accusations that iPhone 17 Pro models are too easily marked compared to previous iPhones. We also explain how to switch to an eSim account and which Irish operators are offering one. And we look at Apple's explanation, as revealed in person to the Irish Independent by one of the company's top executives, around why the tech giant feels it can't launch key new features such as iPhone Mirroring and Live Translation in Ireland and the EU. This week's show is presented by Adrian Weckler.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Which new Apple product delights? How good are the AirPods Pro at noise cancellation? And what are Adrian’s top picks? JJ Clarke, producer, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How advanced are today’s robots? What can they do now? And what’s likely in the coming years?
Conor McGinn, CEO at Akara Robotics and professor of Robotics at Trinity College Dublin, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of the Big Tech Show.
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What is the new iPhone Air like? Why is ‘thin in’ with the new phone design? And how good is the new AirPods Pro language translation?
CCS Insight analysts, Ben Wood, joins Adrian to discuss the new suite of Apple updates.
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What are the pros and cons of large, foldout phones? What are the advantages of smaller, flip-fold phones? And do they still cost way more than ordinary phones?
Maeve McTaggart, Multimedia Reporter with the Irish Independent, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
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What are the allegations facing Roblox? Why are a group of law firms looking to file lawsuits against the company? And how is the gaming platform making the online space safer for its users? This episode contains sensitive content including descriptions of graphic violence and sexual assault and may be disturbing to some listeners. If you are affected by any of the content of this podcast, please go to https://oneinfour.ie/ If you are in crisis, call the OneinFour helpline at 01 662 4070 or call DRCC’s 24-hour National Helpline on 1800 77 88 88. Reporter for WIRED magazine, David Gilbert, joins Adrian on The Big Tech Show today. The reporter began the conversation by stressing the point that most parents whose children use the platform Roblox aren’t aware of its features. The platform is in fact a massive open platform where people can interact and chat with each other. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is drone delivery noise a potential obstacle to the technologies’ progress? Will the convenience become commonplace? And what has former UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg been saying about the tech industry? Darragh Nolan, Multi-Media reporter, with the Irish Independent joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The Multi-Media reporter was reporting on the drone noise issue in Dublin 15 recently. Adrian asked what he found out when writing on the topic and the journalist says that it's reception is mixed, some neighbours are highly against the noise of the technology whereas other neighbours are in favour of the convenience and are currently using it. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is AI’s current capabilities? Does it live up to the hype? And how can it be used in everyday scenarios? Alan Smeaton, professor Emeritus at DCU and founding director of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics attached to DCU, joins Adrian Weckler on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The conversation began by Adrian asking the question, “what does agentic AI do?” Professor Smeaton responded by saying, what happens is that you ask it a question and then the agentic AI goes off and then searches the information, aggregates it and then synthesizes it into a cogent answer. You can listen to the full episode here, on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why has Elon Musk threatened Apple with legal action? Is it safe to let Judges use AI? And how did the Intel CEO convince Trump to do a U-turn?
Katie Byrne, Money editor with the Irish Independent joins JJ Clarke on this episode of The Big Tech Show.
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How are computer games created? Where do developers get funding? And is Ireland a good place for game development? Ronan Price, games critic and assistant publishing editor at the Irish Independent presented this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The games reviewer is joined by Colm Larkin, founder of Dublin-based indie game studio, Gambrinous. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s it like to work for Tesla? How were sensitive company files leaked? And why is camaraderie amongst employees discouraged by Musk? Sönke Iwersen, co-author of The Tesla Files, the inside story of Musk’s empire, and an award-winning journalist who has led the investigative team at Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did the EU lose out to Trump in US trade talks? What does this mean for the Irish economy? And why are legitimate texts still being labelled as ‘scam texts’?
JJ Clarke, producer, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why are the ESB hiking prices on EV charging? What is in Trump’s new AI action plan? And how is the Irish media regulator going after X for age verification? JJ Clarke, producer, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The cost of publicly charging an electric car is being increased by up to 15pc by Ireland’s biggest provider. ESB cars, which has the most public charging points in the country, is adding 7 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) across all of its tariffs, raising the cost of charging an electric car by up to €7. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What are the pros and cons of the new EU digital wallet? When will it be operational? And how to stop doomscrolling? JJ Clarke, producer, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do we spot the truth from a lie online? Are AI photos and videos getting too convincing? And what can be done to stop the spread of misinformation? Ciarán Cannon, VP of Global Affairs with Alison and former Fine Gael TD for Galway East and Damien Mulley, digital communications expert and founder of Mulley Communications, join Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did the nationwide scam text filter start mislabelling texts? Why are kids turning to chatbots for friendship? And what will Linda Yaccarino’s legacy at X be?
JJ Clarke, producer, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do we think about AI replacing jobs in Ireland? What jobs will go first? And why are people talking about Nothing’s Phone (3)?
JJ Clarke, producer, joins host Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why has Elon Musk formed the America party? How will this affect EV subsidies? And does the Tesla boss have more cards up his sleeve?
JJ Clarke, producer, joins host Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What are AI-generated tracks? Can humans tell the difference between bot and human creation? And how are the music streaming platforms responding? Eamonn Forde, music business writer and author, joins Adrian on the Big Tech Show for this week’s episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Will Sky’s new crackdown on dodgy boxes work? Can they really start looking at WhatsApp groups to identify offenders? And what is the future for dodgy boxes in Ireland? JJ Clarke, producer, joins host Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The conversation began with producer JJ asking Adrian should the average dodgy boxers user be worried about criminal prosecution. The tech editor answered that Sky is already using private investigators to identify sellers and users of dodgy boxes online but that the problem will not be solved by a spate of prosecutions. Adrian suggested that Sky and other media companies need to learn from the likes of iTunes who pivoted once people started illegally downloading music. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is regulation crushing Europe’s AI hopes? Will this drive Irish startups away? And will we see a softening of the EU stance? Dr Richard Blythman, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Naptha.ai, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Adrian began by asking the AI expert if Europe is driving away tech entrepreneurs with it high regulation. Dr Blythman stated that he believes it has and that is why the company he co-founded is registered in Singapore because they are more foreward looking in terms of regulation according to the Irishman. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Can your social media posts stop you from entering the US? Should you scrub your online history? And is it easier for those with a tech background to get visas? Caro Kinsella, US Immigration Attorney joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The immigration attorney started by stating categorically that a person’s social media posts can stop them from gaining entry into the US. Immigration officials at ports of entry to the US have the right to request access to a person’s electronic devices. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did the No Kings protest happen? How did demonstrators organise online? And what was Adrian’s experience of the LA riots? Reporter for WIRED magazine, David Gilbert, joined Adrian on The Big Tech Show today. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Should you respond to work texts after hours? Why is underage phone use more prevalent in less advantaged areas? And what policies could help parents with this issue? JJ Clarke, producer, joins host Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is the latest from Apple’s WWD conference? Is the tech giant behind on AI? And are there any exciting new features? Adrian is currently in Cupertino at Apple Park, California, where Apple just showcased their latest product upgrades. There were three main areas of focus; iOS 26, Liquid Glass and AI features. CCS Insight analysts, Ben Wood and Leo Gebbie, joined Adrian to discuss the new suite of Apple updates. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did Niall Mac an tSionnaigh go from selling Christmas trees to CEO of SumUp? What’s his leadership style? And why is cash a thing of the past?
Niall Mac an tSionnaigh, CEO of SumUp joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
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Could AI potentially blackmail humans in the future? Would it be a help or hindrance to schools? And will it lead to mass unemployment? Conor Kelly, head of growth at Human Loop, joins Adrian in this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did Lisa Brankin go from home economics to managing director? What lessons did she learn from her parents? And why are we a long way off autonomous vehicles? Lisa Brankin, chair and managing director of Ford in Britain and Ireland, joins Adrian Weckler on this episode of the Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What were Google’s top AI announcements? How does ‘pick and pay’ work? And will virtually trying on clothes become the norm? JJ Clarke, producer, joins host Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The tech editor began by discussing Google’s new AI mode and how it will aid users when shopping. The new feature empowers the AI agent to shop on the users behalf, including doing the back-end checkout for the shopper. The AI agent then pays for the item once the shopper has given the artificial intelligence the all clear to do so. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What are the steps to navigating tech at US border control? How can we learn from Lithuania’s cyber defence? And what is the new sport of sperm racing? JJ Clarke, producer, joins host, Katie Byrne, standing in for Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Katie began by discussing an article that featured in the Irish Independent about navigating US border control phone checks at the airport. The article written by tech editor, Adrian Weckler, explained that you can delete your WhatsApp, Gmail and other social media with no loss of data as long as you back it up before you delete the apps. This will stop US border control agents checking these apps but may look suspicious as the phone won’t have any social media apps. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does Amazon new Vulcan robot do? Why is the new Nothing phone the best affordable option? And how should the DPC respond to TikTok storing data on Chinese servers? JJ Clarke, producer, joins host Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Will AI replace authors? How will we spot real from the fake? And have some LLMs already been trained on authors’ books? Shane Hegarty, bestselling children’s book author joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Adrian began by reading out a five-hundred-word excerpt generated by chat GPT in the style of author Shane Hegarty. The tech editor then asked Shane to rate the piece for accuracy out of 10. The children’s book author gave the piece a one out of ten because it was trying to be funny and had little sense of what his book is actually about. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is YouTube the most powerful media of all? How are hackers bypassing biometrics using artificial fingertips? And are Irish jobs on the line as Intel swings its layoff axe? JJ Clarke, producer, joins host Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The tech editor began by discussing a report by the pan-European Policing Authority Europol which has joined other IT security organizations in warning that biometric systems like fingerprints and facial recognition scanners are being bypassed by criminals. The reason this has garnered so much interest is because so many users access their phones through their fingerprints and facial scanning. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is the case for space? Does humanity benefit from it? And are the environmental impacts too great? Leo Enright, space commentator, former RTE and BBC correspondent joins Adrian on the Big Tech Show. Adrian began the conversation by asking was there any scientific merit to the Blue Origin New Shephard rocket which last week made a sub-orbital flight with an all-female crew to the edge of space and back. The space commentator stated that there was next to no scientific value in the Jeff Bezos backed space exploration. However, Leo Enright, did point out that Gail King was the first American journalist in space and the he is hopeful that she will once again popularise space exploration amongst the American public. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What made Adam Dalton realise he loved selling? Which teacher influenced him in secondary school? And what are the downsides of a multi-million euro exit? Adam Dalton, co-founder of Jamango! former CEO and co-founder of Robotify, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Adam Dalton seemed destined for entrepreneurship with an early love of LEGO and Minecraft. Adrian began the conversation by asking him about a guidance counsellor in his secondary school called Michael O’Neill. The teacher put on coding classes after school where Adam learned to build websites and games through coding, which served him well in his future career. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Will Irish jobs be impacted if the EU go after US tech services? Is Ireland the likely battle ground for a digital trade war? And why did the Chinese pull out of the deal to sell TikTok? JJ Clarke, Producer, joins host Donal O’Donovan on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The business editor began by pointing out that Ireland sells about 52 billion dollars' worth of digital services to the US every year, versus about 53 billion dollars' worth of physical products. Roughly half of Irish exports to the US (the digital services) are not affected by Trump’s current tariffs. However, Donal O’Donovan highlighted that global trade in goods and the manufacturing sector are being targeted currently. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How much energy do data centres consume? What kind of data do they store? And is Ireland now a landfill for junk data? Caroline O’Doherty, Environment correspondent with the Irish Independent joins Donal O’Donovan on the Big Tech Show this week. The environment correspondent started by talking about why companies like building data centres in Ireland. Caroline O’Doherty stated that; Ireland has a strong IT sector, the political climate is stable, and the geographical climate is also favourable because data centres create a lot of heat and don't do well in hotter countries. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did US military leaders accidentally add a journalist to their group chat? What should users of DNA test 23andme do now that the company is going bankrupt? And why has Netflix show Adolescence created such a panic about teenage phone use? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss the latest tech news. The tech editor started by discussing the recent security leak at the highest level of the US government. Editor in chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to a Signal group chat You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is happening with the weaponisation of technology? From Musk threatening to shut off Starlink in Ukraine to the Israeli’s arming hundreds of pagers. And where does Ireland’s neutrality stand in all of this? Declan Power, security and defence analyst, joins the Big Tech Show for this week’s episode. The tech editor began by asking the defence expert about Ireland’s neutral stance. Declan Power made the argument that Ireland has taken a side in the Ukraine conflict. However, Ireland is only providing non-lethal support for Ukraine such as aid and fuel rather than bombs and bullets. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What should you know about the new Amazon.ie website? Is it worth switching over from the UK domain? Is it cheaper? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss the latest tech news. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s the new MacBook Air like? Should you upgrade to it? And can a new CEO rescue Intel’s woes? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss the latest tech news. Adrian began the conversation by talking about the new MacBook Air with an M4 chip. He advised the listener to consider older versions of the MacBook Air with either M2 or M3 chips as they are perfect for the average office worker. However, the tech editor made the point that if someone has an intel chip based laptop or an M1 chip laptop, they should consider the new MacBook Air. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is buying a Tesla now a political statement? Are people now shying away from the EV brand? And has Elon’s support of Trump spelled disaster for Tesla sales? Derek Reilly, partnership director with Nevo, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s going on with crypto? What’s the state of play with meme coins? And is the market about to crash? Katie Byrne, Money editor with the Irish Independent, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Adrian began by discussing Trump coin, Donald Trump’s meme coin which has reportedly made 350 million dollars since its launch. The money editor told Adrian that after announcing his crypto project, there was a pattern showing that people had got the news at least 24 hours before the meme coin news was announced. The money expert explained that by the time the news of the meme coin was shared on truth social, the insiders had gone in made their money and exited. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s are the benefits of 6G? Are the Chinese phone brands flooding the market any good? And what’s different about the new iPad Air? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss the latest tech news. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why are Chinese online shopping apps taking off in Ireland? Will Apple’s age assurance system work? And what can be done to stop children encountering harmful content online? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss the latest tech news. Apple is introducing a new declared age range function which will enable developers to see age information volunteered by parents during the account setup for a child on the Apple app store. Under the new system, parents will be able to change the age associated with a child’s account, while a new set-up process is also being introduced to make it easier for parents to control their child’s access levels to apps on iPhones and iPads. Apple is also setting additional abilities for app developers to restrict kids from downloading apps from Apple’s App Store based on their age. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is Apple investment in Europe a thing of the past? How do the AirPods Pro 2 work as clinical grade hearing aids? And is the affordable new iPhone 16e worth getting? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss the latest tech news. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian talks to Danny Jenkins, CEO and co-founder of ThreatLocker IT security firm. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is Ireland’s tech juggernaut grinding to a halt? Are we alienating ourselves from Europe with corporate tax? And how do we approach the Trump administration? Richard Curran,?columnist with the Sunday Independent and presenter of The Business on RTÉ Radio 1, joins Donal O’Donovan on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. With the EU and the US increasingly butting heads on the issue of tech regulation, Ireland may soon find itself in problematic territory between the EU and the Trump administration. Richard Curran, began by setting the scene of what makes up the Irish tech scene. He described it as “huge” with quite a large number of the tech workforce being employed by multinationals. Depending on how you measure it, there are between 110,000 and 120,000 people employed in Ireland within the industry. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What can we expect from the new iPhone SE? Is it worth getting the Samsung S25 Ultra? And why are the new AI features on phones so underwhelming? JJ Clarke, producer, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Adrian has spent the last month trying out the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. According to the tech editor the device keeps its perch atop all Android flagship phones, but he argues that the new AI features may not keep it there for much longer. The phone comes with great cameras and display, S Pen and good battery life and is priced at €1,469 with 256GB or €1,849 for 1TB. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are ultra-cheap online buys from Temu and Shein about to be a thing of the past? Who will benefit? And what is Comreg doing about scam texts? JJ Clarke, producer, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Both the EU and the US moved to cutdown the free flow of low-cost online purchases from China to the West. On the EU side, customs checks, and increased costs will be imposed on ultra-cheap packages from China. The US has gone further with Trump’s new tariff programme prompting the US postal service to announce that it would temporarily no longer accept any parcels from China, however, it resumed accepting them on Wednesday. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is life like for an Irish tech co-founder in the US? Is America a more dynamic space for technology? And what are the downsides to living in a Trump nation? Markham Nolan, co-founder of the AI startup Noan, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. The co-founder lived in the US for a decade, seven years in Manhattan and then 3 years in a suburb of the city called Larchmont. Nolan argues that America is a place of dynamism for tech companies but there are also downsides. He eventually left the states to return to Dublin with his family. Markham cited a higher quality of life, active shooter drills in his children’s school and access to healthcare as main reasons for returning home. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Could Mark Zuckerberg’s makeover of Meta cost Irish jobs? Will Trump go to war against Dublin based EU privacy fines? Will users see an uptick in hate speech? Thomas Hughes, chief executive of Appeals Centre Europe, joins Adrian on The Big Tech Show this week. The Appeals Centre Europe is a Dublin-based agency with a staff of 25. It was recently given regulatory imprimatur by Ireland’s media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, as a qualified body to accept and adjudicate on user complaints from across the EU against the three biggest social media platforms; Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. While the decisions made by Appeals Centre Europe are not binding, they are officially logged and are persuasive to regulators who can then take a more binding action such as imposing fines. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is DeepSeek AI? How did it wipe over a trillion dollars off the US NASDAQ Index? And why are experts urging users to be cautious? Founder and CEO of Galvia AI, John Clancy, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss. DeepSeek AI is a free AI-powered chatbot founded in 2023 by Chinese hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng. The product uses a reasoning model, which means it shows the user how it arrives at an answer. The technology uses less memory than its rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT which reduces the cost to perform tasks. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is it worth getting a generator for stormy weather? What kind of generator should you get? And do you need an electrician to install one? ?Peter Finn, also known as Pete the Builder on Instagram, and star of the Home Rescue TV show joined Adrian on the show to discuss. In the wake of storm Éowyn last week, hundreds of thousands of homes in Ireland were left without electricity and many still have no power. Peter Finn advised people to get a generator installed by an electrician. The builder also made the point that the Irish government should look at putting cabling underground to avoid mass outages. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does a Trump presidency mean for technology? Will there be a regulatory war between the EU and US? And what was behind Elon Musk’s bizarre hand gesture? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is Ireland a natural place for artificial intelligence? Are we overregulating when it comes to data centres? And what can we expect from AI in 2025? ?Mark Kelly, founder of AI Ireland and chief customer officer of Alldus, joins Adrian to discuss. The founder began by saying that agentic artificial intelligence will become more common over the coming year. Agentic AI is the technology that powers AI agents so they can act autonomously without human oversight. By serving as a comprehensive platform, agentic AI facilitates seamless interaction between AI agents and humans, fostering a collaborative environment where both can work together. Mark pointed out that an AI agent will be able to book a flight for a person, pick them a seat and even purchase books for them on Amazon. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does a TikTok ban mean for us? Who will or won’t be able access it? And what are the implications for the Irish workforce? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
January means dark days, cold weather and isolation. A new opportunity, a change of life, and that means it’s one of the most vulnerable times for those at risk from romance scammers. How do you spot a romance scam? Who are they targeting? And if it happens to you, how do you report it? Detective superintendent, Michael Cryan from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, joins Adrian on The Big Tech Show to discuss. ?The detective superintendent described romance fraud as a scam that takes place mainly online. He says, the victim will match unknowingly with the scammer and then that person will exploit the person through manipulation and exploitation over a period of time. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are you thinking of buying an electric car in 2025? Why did EV sales drop by almost 24% last year? And from cold weather to charging points, what should you consider before purchasing? JJ Clarke, producer, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Adrian began by quoting The Society of the Irish Motor Industry’s figures that showed that in 2024 there were 121,195 new car registrations and only 17,459 of them were electric cars. There was a decrease of 23.6% from the 22,852 registrations seen in 2023. The tech editor made the point, that consumer confidence in electric vehicles has collapsed here in Ireland as well as in some other European countries. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What are the big tech trends for 2025? What will happen with crypto, Amazon.ie and the Trump-Musk relationship? Maybe we will see the world’s first company worth four trillion dollars but will hear about via Threads or X? JJ Clarke, producer, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As 2024 comes to a close, what were the best phones, laptops, tablets and headphones? Of the many to cross Adrian’s desk, here are the ones that stood out and are still worth getting. JJ Clarke, producer, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why is Luigi Mangione being lauded as a hero online? What does this response say about online culture? And what does this say about the status of healthcare in the US? Reporter for WIRED magazine, David Gilbert, joined Adrian on The Big Tech Show todaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is social media now ungovernable? Have we created an online world of manipulation, misinformation, controlled by a handful of billionaires? And if so, what can we do about it? Privacy expert, one of the inventors of social networking and author of Restoring Our Sanity Online, Mark Weinstein, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Will Bitcoin continue to soar? Is Apple’s Vision Pro a flop? And should we take meme coins seriously? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss the latest tech news. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In a rush to get presents? What tech should you gift this Christmas? And what are Adrian’s top affordable picks? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of the Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Do you have a thick phone wallet? Do you use a novelty ringtone or set notifications to ping constantly? Is the crying laughing emoji one of your go-to texting characters? Well, you may not think of yourself this way, but you're middle aged. In this revisited episode of The Big Tech Show from July of this year, Adrian speaks to producer, JJ Clarke. Adrian kicked off the conversation by talking about the older generations' annoying habit of leaving their ringtone on in public places. There was some daylight here between Adrian’s and JJ’s view on this, with the latter stating that he believed it was the time it took to stop the ringing was the issue. Overuse of certain emojis is a hallmark of people who have aged out of the zeitgeist. Adrian spoke about the overuse of the crying laughing emoji. He said it was used like punctuation by this type of phone user and that every message from one of these senders will include them. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are people easy to hack? Are we vulnerable to manipulation? And could this skill be used to gain entry to a property? In this revisited episode of The Big Tech Show from March of this year, Adrian speaks to the people hacker, Jenny Radcliffe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why are Crypto and Bitcoin on a bull run at the moment? Was it set off by a Trump victory? And how long will it continue? Lory Kehoe, Chief commercial officer and head of international at M2 joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why is Bluesky getting a million new followers a day? How big is it in Ireland? And how do you find people once you join? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. Bluesky is a social media platform that was founded as part of Twitter in 2019. In 2021, Jay Graber became CEO of the platform, with Dorsey leaving the platform's board in May. The site was initially invitation-only but was then opened to the public. Adrian began by addressing the narrative that people are leaving X and joining Bluesky on account of political ideology. However, he said the main reason users are signing up to the platform is because it is the first alternative to X where users can go and get the news. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is Apple’s new MacBook Pro M4 worth getting? Is it better than an updated MacBook Air? And what type of work requires one? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. For the last week Adrian has been testing out the 16-inch space-black, nano-texture version of the new MacBook Pro M4. He gives his verdict on the laptop which starts at a fairly lofty €2,999. Whereas the entry-level 14-inch M4 model (€1,949) has a few immediate upgrades worth noting, including double the RAM (16GB), a better chip (M4) and its €100 less than the M3 model. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why did the FBI set up their own encrypted phone company? How did it result in the biggest drug trafficking sting in history? And is law enforcement finally catching up with criminals online? Author of Dark Wire and co-founder of 404 Media, Joseph Cox, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. In 2018 the Federal Bureau of Investigation set up ANOM, a supposedly secure smartphone-based proprietary messaging app. It was a sting operation that intercepted millions of messages sent through the service. The ANOM service was widely used by criminals, but instead of providing secure and encrypted communication, it was in fact a trojan horse distributed covertly by the FBI between 2018 and 2021. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What effect will President Trump’s win have on Ireland? Is it the end of Ireland’s US multinational corporation tax bonanza? And will Elon Musk be given free rein to promote his interests? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do you make an impression as a startup founder? Does walking into a big company and asking to see the CEO work? And how do you get past gatekeepers? Oran O’Flynn, CEO and co-founder of Talio, an AI-powered market research co-pilot platform joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is the hardest part of founding a tech startup? How do you choose a business partner? And what do you give up in the pursuit of success? Adrian was joined this week on The Big Tech Show by Nocomed founders, Rosemary Durkan and Donal Adams to discuss their startup journey. Nocomed is the first sustainability platform for life science companies. The business allows companies to measure and reduce their carbon emission. Adrian asked the co-founders about how they chose each other, and it turns out that Rosemary and Donal sat together on the first day. The tech editor quizzed them about what they had to give up, Rosemary spoke about less money while Donal mentioned the time demands to get the enterprise on its feet. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How can tech allow blind people not just hear but feel the action as a fan? How does Field of Vision’s haptic device work? And how was the Irish startup created? Co-founder of Field of Vision, David Deneher, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. David describes the device as a tablet which has a small magnetic finger piece that moves based on where the ball is on the pitch. There are tactile pitch lines which the blind or visually impaired person can feel which allows the fan to feel exactly where the ball is on the pitch at any given moment. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s going on with electric cars? Has Ireland made a complete bags of it? Or is it just a blip in a general upward trend? And what are the top EV models to look at right now? This week on the Big Tech Show, Adrian is joined by Derek Reilly, partnership director with Nevo. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How big is the rift emerging between the US and EU over AI? Why are tech giants going big on nuclear AI data centres? And are we witnessing the end of the non-robotic taxi? To discuss, Adrian was joined by head of growth at Humanloop and founder of Taxbot.ie, Conor Kelly, on the Big Tech Show. Conor began by talking about his recent move to San Francisco and the attitude there to Europe. He said that all the innovation in the artificial intelligence space is coming out of Silicon Valley with all big tech companies releasing new AI models there. The Dublin native noted that Europe is so far behind the US that the newer models can’t even be brought to Europe anymore. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is the answer to Ireland’s data center energy problem nuclear power? Why are Google and Microsoft investing in it? And why are 15 data centres across the country paused? Adrian was joined by Senior Lecturer in Clean Energy at University College Cork, Dr. Paul Deane, to discuss the issue. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is the war on dodgy boxes a failure? Was Tesla’s robotaxi launch more Flinstones than Jetsons? And why is the Irish social media regulator warning of “enshittification”? Producer, JJ Clarke, joins Adrian to discuss this week’s technology news.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is Google about to be broken up? Will Tesla’s Robotaxi be a hit? And what are the bargains and swizzes in this years’ Amazon’s Prime Day sale? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on The Big Tech Show this week to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The inside story of how Elon Musk bought Twitter, and its mismanaged ever since, is a fascinating one. This week, Adrian is joined by the New York Times journalists, Ryan Mac and Kate Conger, who wrote a blow-by-blow account of how it all happened, with insider access to people involved in the deal. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What makes a tech founder? When is the right time to pivot? and how do they perfect their elevator pitch? Co-founder and head of technology at Kreoh, an AI engine, Fareed Idris, joined Adrian on The Big Tech Show this week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is the scale of disinformation in the runup to the US election? Who is behind it? And has it got its claws into Europe? Reporter for WIRED magazine, David Gilbert, joined Adrian on The Big Tech Show today. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is YouTube Premium worth sticking with despite the price hike? What does Ireland get out of the Amazon.ie launch? And why is Meta’s Nick Clegg calling Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner a mailbox? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did Max Fosh amass a YouTube following of over four million? Is sneaking into London Fashion week easy? And how close did he come to being Mayor of London? YouTuber, Max Fosh joined Adrian on The Big Tech Show this week to discuss his new European tour Loophole. During the interview, Adrian asked Max about his knowledge of the YouTube algorithim and what does well on the platform. Fosh explained that negative emotions play better than positive ones on YouTube. He said, titles like the ‘worst restaurant’ or ‘worst experience’ tend to trend higher than positive title descriptions. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s does the life of a tech reviewer involve? Do you get to keep any of it? And are the AirPods 4 worth a purchase? Producer, JJ Clarke, joins Adrian to discuss the life of a tech reviewer on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is artificial intelligence all it’s cracked up to be for business? Does it move the needle when it comes to enterprise? And is the belief that AI isn’t ready for commercial application accurate? There's a growing trend to say that AI isn't yet ready for enterprise business because it makes too many mistakes, or it can't turn jumbled silos of information into something reliably simple for business executives to use. Cofounders of NOAN, Neal Mann and Markham Nolan joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Did Apple do enough to impress people at its iPhone 16 event? Will people buy one for the Apple intelligence features alone? And will the standoff between Apple and the EU stop people upgrading? Adrian is currently in Cupertino at Apple Park, California, where Apple just showcased their latest product upgrades. There were three main areas of focus; iPhones, Air Pods and watches. Freelance tech journalist, Britta O’Boyle, CCS Insight analysts, Ben Wood and Leo Gebbie, joined Adrian to discuss the new products. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is Sky Mobile’s new budget plan worth ditching your current service for? What are the tech essentials for college? And should you splurge or save on your first laptop? Producer, JJ Clarke, joined Adrian on The Big Tech Show this week to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Can anything be done about dynamic pricing for concert tickets? Or age restrictions for teenagers online? And is the arrest of Telegram’s Pavel Durov a warning shot for Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk? Producer, JJ Clarke, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is the best camera to get? Is it still worth getting one in an era where many feel they’re dead? If so, what are the advantages and disadvantages?
This week, Adrian is joined by John Bilbao, a staff writer with Petapixel and a professional photographer and cinematographer in his own right.
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How did Rent the Runway become a NASDAQ listed company? What does its CEO think of diversity becoming a focal point in the US election? And why was Galway chosen as one of its bases?
The CEO and co-founder of Rent the Runway, Jennifer Hyman joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show.
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Where would you be without your smartwatch? What’s the best way to listen to music in your kitchen? Who’s going to vacuum the living room when you learn a surprise guest is on the way?
In this episode, Adrian talks through his choices with producer Dee Reddy and shares a few more for good measure. From robot vacuums, to low technology coffee making – some of the best technology are in the items we use every day.
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Are Google’s latest Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL phones worth getting? Adrian Weckler goes through all of the pros and cons, including some of the dystopian new AI features baked in.
On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by producer Dee Reddy to discuss.
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What might Apple’s new robotic iPad do? Will we see long lasting EV batteries? And are AI glasses finally about to become a real thing?
Adrian looks at the tech that might inspire or give us hope over the coming months and years. Producer, JJ Clarke, joins Adrian on today’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss.
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What is the next big thing in tech? Is it AI? Is it Apple’s Vision Pro? Or might 2024 be the most boring year for tech ever?
Producer, JJ Clarke, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss what might be tech’s blandest year.
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What does it take to build a startup? What do you have to give up or sacrifice? How many extra hours do you have to work? What about the loss of things like holidays, sick pay? And what's the pressure like from loved ones who might want a stable and predictable present and future? Adrian is joined on The Big Tech Show this week by co-founders of AI accessibility platform, DevA11y, Cormac Chisholm and Patrick Guiney-Fox. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is now the time to buy a Mac in the wake of the Crowdstrike blue screen of death? Is a Mac better than a Windows PC? And what are the pros and cons of each? Editor at large with TechRadar, Lance Ulanoff, joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. During last month's global IT outage, one cohort of computer owners didn’t bat an eyelid and that was Apple Mac computer owners. They were unaffected by this meltdown. Prompted by this Adrian and Lance debate the good and the bad of Apple and Windows. The TechRadar writer recently swapped Windows for Mac but pointed out that Windows has always been a platform for productivity. He questioned why it is called Windows because you reach in and do stuff. When Ulanoff began working on a Mac a year ago, he said the tech never stops working, there is no blue screen of death equivalent. Additionally, the New York based journalist pointed out that what you get with the Mac is incredible efficiency and battery life. Adrian pushed back saying that the one area where Windows is clearly in pole position is with gaming. He explained that any gamer he has ever talked to uses Windows because of its customisability. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Do you feel like a mug for paying your TV licence? Are you going to end up covering those that don’t? And what’s going on at the National Cyber Security centre? This week the Irish Independent published internal documents from the National Cyber Security Centre that showed serious problems within the security body. These included management issues but more specifically a hiring crisis that is starting to affect this institution that is supposed to protect this country from cyber attacks. Producer, JJ Clarke, joins Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are killer robots a realistic threat? We hear reports of things like drones using AI in war zones, but how advanced is the technology generally now? and what sort of guardrails are in place? Adrian is joined on The Big Tech Show this week by software engineer and lethal autonomous weapons expert, Laura Nolan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is the IDA worried about a Trump presidency? What would his tariffs do to Irish business? And should Ireland be looking to grow domestic rather than foreign investment? CEO of the IDA, Michael Lohan joined Adrian on The Big Tech Show this week. Adrian began by asking what a Trump 10% tariff would mean for Ireland as an open economy which is vulnerable to fluctuations in the global market. The CEO said that he sees tariffs as counterproductive to global trade and innovation. Lohan made the point that Ireland is the ninth largest investor in the US economy, and it isn’t proactive to put levies on trade between the two nations. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is the EU strangling tech services such as Meta AI and Apple AI with regulation? Is it doing the same to startups here? Is the phrase 'America innovates, Europe regulates' accurate? Venture partner at Sure Valley Ventures, Donal Cahalane, joined Adrian on the show. Adrian opened with the question is Europe a bad place for budding startups. DC answered that start-ups in Europe must fight against more regulation than their US counterparts. He added that in the States there is an attitude of asking for forgiveness rather than permission. The venture partner argued that Europe has a different approach, they will often look to regulate first and seek to take advantage of the wave of innovation second. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Last week Ford relaunched the Capri model. Instead of being the exciting, lust worthy, affordable sports car we saw in the 1970s, it's a middle of the road, small, bland SUV that's almost indistinguishable from anything. Why did they play it safe? Is the bland SUV design more popular? And has the badge of this iconic car been sunk? Adrian is joined on the show this week by partnerships director of Nevo Ireland and founder of Nevo EV Review YouTube channel, Derek Reilly. Derek spoke about the motor companies' knack for taking names of former models and relaunching them with a modern twist. The original Ford Capri model began production in 1968 as a coupé, however the 2024 iteration is an SUV. The EV expert explained that Ford is trading on name recognition and that the new Chinese electric car companies entering the western market don’t have this advantage. He did add that when he posted a review video of the Capri, 90% of responses and comments were people giving out about the new look. The Michigan company has enlisted the star power of Eric Cantona with the hashtag of #Jesuiscapri, with the aim of boosting sales. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Has Samsung’s Galaxy Ring kicked off the “smart ring” era? How much is it? And what other products did the tech giant release? On The Big Tech Show this week Adrian is joined by producer, JJ Clarke. The electronics company revealed a new range of foldable smarthphones, smartwatches and a smart ring at its Unpacked event this week. Adrian spoke about this being a significant move by Samsung into the smart ring space which has largely been dominated by market leader Oura. The Galaxy Ring however is more discreet and more sleek than previous smart rings. The wearable will be coming to Ireland later in the year and is largely aimed at those that don’t want a smartwatch that pings and beeps endlessly. The Ring, will cost €459 and will be available in nine sizes and three colours: silver, black and gold. The “smart ring” era has kicked off in earnest with Samsung’s announcement of its Galaxy Ring. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
For many people, a well-paid, high-flying career in a firm like Davy's Stockbrokers is considered a destination job in life. But not Rosanne Longmore, who went from being chief operating officer at Davy Wealth Management to leading and starting her own startup based on a concern that mothers and babies weren't getting proper attention when feeding with breast milk.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is the Apple Vision Pro a flop? Are fully autonomous cars still a decade away? And will Elon’s Musk’s August announcement shake up the self-driving car market? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by producer, JJ Clarke. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Do you have a thick phone wallet? Do you use a novelty ringtone or set notifications to ping constantly? Is the crying laughing emoji one of your go-to texting characters? Well, you may not think of yourself this way, but you're middle aged. On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by assistant producer, JJ Clarke. Adrian kicked off the conversation by talking about the older generations' annoying habit of leaving their ringtone on in public places. There was some daylight here between Adrian’s and JJ’s view on this, with the latter stating that he believed it was the time it took to stop the ringing was the issue. Overuse of certain emojis is a hallmark of people who have aged out of the zeitgeist. Adrian spoke about the overuse of the crying laughing emoji. He said it was used like punctuation by this type of phone user and that every message from one of these senders will include it. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is brain hacking and tracking just science-fiction? Or has emotion-sensing neurotech already arrived? And what are the applications, good and bad? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by Duke University Professor and Author of ‘The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology,’ Nita Farahany. The Law professor first came to neurotech as a result of being a self-described chronic migrainer. She began using neurostimulation devices and neurotechnology to treat the pain and this allowed her to physically move through the migraines without using drugs with negative side effects. In the second part of the conversation Adrian asked about the negative applications of this novel technology. The author made the point that a lot of this futuristic neurotech is already operational in society. She gave the example of an Australian company that has been selling a device for over a decade that can tell employers if their staff are wide awake or falling asleep. There are more recent reports of workers in China wearing these devices, being exposed to communist messaging and punished if they display a negative reaction. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Have you ever been tempted to get into meme stocks? Have you heard of friends making or losing money on Gamestop stocks? Or is the whole thing just a giant ponzi scheme? Adrian is joined on The Big Tech Show this week by chief investment officer and senior portfolio manager at Gresham House Ireland, Derek Heffernan. A meme stock is a stock that gains popularity among retail investors through social media. The popularity of meme stocks is generally based on internet memes shared among traders, on platforms such as Reddit. Investors in such stocks are often young and inexperienced investors. Examples of some memestocks are Gamestop, AMC, Nokia and Bed Bath and Beyond. Derek says that memestocks became popular in 2021 because people were sitting at home, furloughed, with more disposable income and they began betting on those stocks. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Where have all the late-night cafes gone? What's the alternative for a non-drinker? And what impact is it having on newly minted tech startups? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by assistant producer, JJ Clarke. In Adrian’s most recent article, he laments the disappearing cafe culture in Dublin and how they were a useful place to go or meet people, early or late if you didn’t want to go to a pub. There are very few cafes today, that open later than 11pm or do business before 6am. When asked what effect this may have on the budding tech entrepreneurs of today. Adrian pointed to Foursquare cofounders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai. They divided much of their early coding time between a handful of Manhattan cafes, which was partly connected to them creating a ‘mayor’ feature for the social check-in platform. He made the point that tech founders who want to meet or collaborate in 2024 have nowhere to do so. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Irish tech industry grabbed its popcorn when Intercom co-founder and CEO, Eoghan McCabe, posted a thumbs-up photo with Donald Trump, endorsing the recently-convicted ex-president.McCabe isn’t alone. Across Silicon Valley, there’s a clear drift of senior figures toward Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How can we deal with no-shows in healthcare? Does it impact patient wait times? And can AI receptionists improve attendance? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by Spryt, chief operations officer and co-founder, Neill Dunwoody. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s the latest from Apple’s WWDC conference? Is user data still a priority? And why did they go big on AI? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian joins the show from Cupertino, California at Apple's WWDC conference. Joining him on the episode are tech industry analysts from CCS Insight, Leo Gebbie and Ben Wood. The big news from the conference is that the tech giant has done a deal with Open AI. It’s essentially acknowledged that its own research and training models are limited. Contingent on user permission, Open AI will be able to reach into apple products and support the user in some core functions. Adrian was particularly impressed by Siri. Now it's more of a device assistant than a voice assistant. It can access your messages, emails, photos. Apple calls this a semantic index which isn’t used singularly but can help with everyday tasks. Great pains were taken to underscore how private the new cloud setup used for its AI purposes. It uses what was described as an almost blockchain-like process. When the user asks AI a question or inputs some information, the data is anonymised, your IP address is masked and not tracked. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What are the telltale signs of a Revolut scam? How can we avoid them? And is the app a safe place for your money? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by security expert and chief information security officer at Waystone, Conor Flynn. The problem of financial scams has become an issue for Irish banking customers recently, with an upsurge in fraud cases for Revolut users. The Banking and Payments Federation says that fraudsters stole about 100 million euro through frauds and scams last year. However that was from customers of AIB, Bank of Ireland and permanent TSB and didn’t include fraudulent activity on Irish Revolut accounts. Conor highlighted to Adrian that a typical Revolut scam will have certain features. They will purport to be Revolut, a family member or close friend and will create a sense of urgency to send them money. The cyber security expert warns that scammers use social engineering to get you to operate quickly and in response to an emergency trigger of some sort. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are there global rules for AI? How is Ireland contributing? And why is telecoms mogul David McCourt getting involved? On The Big Tech Show this week Adrian speaks to chairman and founder of Granahan McCourt and chairman and founder of the National Broadband Ireland, David McCourt. The businessman is attempting to set up global rules governing AI use by bringing together experts in the field to make the technology safer and more equitable. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do we separate fact from fiction with AI? What is an AI hallucination? And how is an Irish startup fighting faulty AI? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by Inspeq AI founders Ramanujam Macharla Vijayakumar and Apoorva Kumar. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The restaurant business is notoriously fickle in Ireland with high rents, tight margins and staffing issues. How is one entrepreneur using AI to turn a profit? How does it work? And where do most restaurateurs go wrong? CEO of Nory and founder of chicken fast food chain, Mad Egg, Conor Sheridan joined Adrian on The Big Tech Show this week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When will the new Range Rover EV land? Is it a good time for the brand to go full EV? And what is being worked on in their centre for excellence in Shannon? Jaguar Land Rover has achieved its highest ever yearly sales and its biggest profit in almost a decade. This is driven by record sales, particularly of Range Rovers with around 133,000 vehicles ordered at the end of the financial year (2023), and three quarters of those were Range Rovers, range Rover Sport and Defender models. Adrian was joined on The Big Tech Show this week by General Manager at the Jaguar Land Rover facility in Shannon, Paul Girr. When asked by Adrian about concerns about long term take up of EVs, Girr responded that the company has no real concerns in terms of adoption of electric vehicles in the future. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why do some companies still see remote working as a positive force for their workforce? How can leadership teams adapt? And how is Ireland informing the culture as a global powerhouse?On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by eBay Ireland Site Leader and Senior Director of Customer Experience, Siobhan Curtin.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is remote working creating a mental health crisis? Are those working from home overeating? And what can be done to improve mental health in the digital workforce? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by the CEO of mental health and wellbeing platform Kara Connect, Tobba Vigfusdottir. Kara Connect has done research this year showing that in 2024 mental health issues cost an employer €1,500 per employee per annum. Vigfusdottir says that since the pandemic we have seen a surge in mental health issues because of two factors: our relationship with phones changing and the de-stigmatization of mental health issues. The latter has led more people to enlist the help of mental health services. The Icelander pointed out that the younger generation of workers beginning their careers are arriving in the world of work very stressed. She gave the statistic that almost 46 percent of young workers feel bad or anxious most of the time which is contributing to psychiatric waiting lists. Tobba stated that those who work from home have most difficulty in physical health and nutrition. She said that nutrition issues then compound, and the worker feels a sense of shame at the prospect of returning to the office. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What tech do you bring abroad when you travel? How do you avoid getting completely ripped off on roaming charges? And what are some of the hacks you should know about? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by the travel editor of the Irish Independent, Pól Ó Conghaile. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What can Irish consumers expect from Amazon.ie? Why is Elon Musk under investigation bythe US Justice Department? And do we really miss phone calls?This week on The Big Tech Show, Adrian discusses the tech stories hitting the news.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How common is romance fraud? Are the victims likely to report? And how can you spot the scammers?On The Big Tech Show podcast this week, Adrian spoke to cyber security expert, Dr Jessica Barker MBE.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apple’s latest launch event took place in London yesterday, with four new iPads and a new Apple Pencil Pro among the latest innovations unveiled to journalists. It was once largely accepted that iPads were for leisure use and that most users (and indeed companies) would always favour laptops for business tasks but could this new generation of tablets from the tech behemoth mark a sea change in how tablets are used? On The Big Tech Show this week Adrian speaks to producer Dee Reddy on the latest from Apple’s Let Loose event. He breaks down; the new products on offer, how the technology has expanded and why the newest tablets come with a hefty price tag.He also catches up with Jeff Blaber and Stuart Mills at the event, to find out if he’s the only one who prefers his iPad to his laptop for work?You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What's going on with self-driving cars? What is the current status of the technology behind it? And can it be used in other ways? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by Barry Lunn, the founder and CEO of Provizio, which is a Limerick based company best known for its technology around autonomous driving. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is TikTok a security risk? Should the Taoiseach be using it against the advice of the National Cyber Security Council? Or is he one of the exceptional cases that is allowed? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does it take to build a startup? What kind of personality does it require? What kind of mentality do you have to have? And what do you do when you get there?On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by CEO and co-founder of Glitch, Aisling Browne.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are social media platforms unduly skewing the minds of young males? What is the harmful content they see? And is it unprompted? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by postdoctoral researcher with the Observatory on Cyberbullying, Cyberhate & Online Harassment at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre, Dr Catherine Baker. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What's going on with artificial intelligence? Has EU legislation helped or hindered the AI space? and why has OpenAI updated GPT-4?Adrian is joined on The Big Tech Show this week by head of growth at Human Loop, Conor Kelly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How were Eir complaints staff instructed to treat a complaint? Why are Eir saying this instruction is being used ‘out of context?’ And how does this effect Eir customers? Telecoms company Eir was fined €7,500 in court today after pleading guilty to 12 counts of breaching regulations governing how complaints should be handled by providers. However, it says the paragraph relating to staff instructions around customer complaint telephone numbers and websites was “taken out of context”. It added that this was part of “training material for new customer service agents”, requiring agents to transfer a call rather than asking a customer to call a second time. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are politicians being harassed out of office on social media? As a wave of Irish TDs leave office, partially citing invective and coarseness online, how is our new TikTok Taoiseach doing?Joining Adrian to discuss this is the Fine Gael TD for Galway East, Ciaran Cannon, who recently announced that he would not run again for the Dail, partially because of how ugly things were getting onlineAdrian is also joined by Damien Mulley, director of Mulley Communications, who has conducted extensive research into how politicians fare online and who is doing best.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When is Disney+ clamping down on password sharing? What is Apple’s new robot project? And why does Elon Musk think AI will exceed human intelligence next year? This week on The Big Tech Show, Adrian discusses the tech stories hitting the news. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are you overpaying for mobile, broadband or TV? Is it a bother to switch? And will your service suffer in quality if you change provider? On The Big Tech Show, Adrian discusses how you can save on mobile, broadband and TV amid price hikes this month.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What led Emmet O’Neill to the role of CEO of StoryToys? Was it a straight line to the top? And how did he deal with the failures along the way? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by CEO of StoryToys to discuss the often-perilous journey of an entrepreneur. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is the best foldable phone on the market? How much do they cost? And why is the Honor Magic V2 first in class? On this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian discusses the best flip and foldable smartphones available this year. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How did Mike Feerick build a business with 40 million users? How did he convince Chuck Feeney to mentor him? And how is he helping Irish diaspora connect with their roots back home? CEO of global e-learning platform Alison.com, Mike Feerick, joined Adrian to discuss his highs and lows in a life in business. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why are EV sales dropping? Will the price discounts help them bounce back? And what does it have to do with the charging network?Derek Reilly, founder of Nevo and the EV Ireland YouTube Channel joins Adrian to discuss the latest on electric cars, including why sales are plummeting.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is the Apple MacBook Air worth getting? What are the new features? And how does it compare to the previous model? On this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian looks at Apple’s newest multi-purpose laptop.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
ThreatLocker IT is one of the most significant players in cybersecurity in the world, but from the start it wasn’t smooth sailing. What is the company’s Irish connection? How did it persevere through failure? And why did its CEO focus on small businesses rather than the big firms? Danny Jenkins, CEO and co-founder of ThreatLocker joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bitcoin has hit a record high again. Is it back to high growth? Will it hit $100,000 in value? And what on earth is leading to this spike? To discuss, Adrian is joined on today’s episode by adjunct assistant professor in technology trends at Trinity College Dublin and head of stablecoin at MSX Limited, Lory Kehoe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When is drone delivery coming to greater Dublin? What are Manna’s plans for the US? And will the company IPO? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by CEO of Manna Drone Delivery, Bobby Healy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is people hacking? How difficult is it to con your way into a building? And what is a burglar for hire? On this episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian is joined by Jenny Radcliffe, author of ‘People Hacker: Confessions of a burglar for hire.’ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What fitness smartwatch wearable should you get? Are you better off getting a specialist watch? Or might one of the latest fitness trackers or rings be a good option? Joining Adrian on The Big Tech show is fitness and wearables editor at TechRadar, Matt Evans.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do you grow a small company? Is it worth doing an MBA at some point? And is Ireland making a mistake by concentrating so heavily on foreign tech? Executive director of the Owner’s Scale up project at IE Business School in Madrid, professor Joe Haslam joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Will the current clampdown on dodgy boxes curb use? Should the dodgy box owners be worried? And is their use funding criminality? On this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian discusses the potential impacts of this crackdown.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How should we feel about garda body cams and facial recognition technology? Are we barreling towards a police state? And do we really want to be under surveillance all the time?Practising barrister, Senator Barry Ward joined Adrian on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show to discuss the technology.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How does OpenAI’s new text-to-video system Sora work? Where does it get its content from? And how will we protect ourselves from a whole new level of disinformation?
On The Big Tech Show today, Adrian discusses the new technology and how lifelike its creations appear.
More episodes of The Big Tect Show available here
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Would you know disinformation if you saw or heard it? And might you be seeing it now in the U. S. on topics such as immigration around the Texas border? If you are seeing this, might any of it be influenced by actors such as Putin's Russia? On this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian talks to David Gilbert, a reporter for Wired.com who specialises in investigating disinformation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Gone are the days of a €10 streaming subscription with most platforms warning of increased fees and less to watch.Which service will you cut? How much are they going up by? And will live sport become the next big thing for streaming giants?On this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian discusses streaming services upping their prices.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After ten years, as Data Protection Commissioner what are Helen Dixon’s highs and lows? Why is she moving on? And are fines effective in bringing big tech in line? Adrian speaks to Helen Dixon on this week’s episode in her last media appearance as Data Protection Commissioner. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Elon Musk’s Neuralink company has implanted its first brain chip into a human but what is Neuralink? How does it work? And when will it be widely available?On this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian discusses Neuralink with technology editor of the London Independent, Andrew Griffin.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Who is Mr Beast? How did he become the most followed person on YouTube? And why has he started putting videos up on X? In this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian is joined by reporter with the Irish Independent, Darragh Nolan, to look at the life and times of James Stephen Donaldson. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Samsung’s top phone sees improvements in cameras, power, screen quality and design. But it is the new AI features that make it really interesting and also where it sometimes struggles. On the Big Tech Show this week, Adrian introduces us to the Samsung Galaxy’s new flagship phone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Do you still use Facebook? Or is your elderly uncle the only person still on it? As Facebook turns twenty, what will its legacy be? One of disrupted elections, scandals, or of bringing people together?On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian debates whether Facebook has had a positive or negative impact since its inception twenty years ago.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why have early reviews criticised the Apple Vision Pro? Could this be Apple’s first failure? And are tech enthusiasts yet to be convinced? The Apple headset has gone on presale in the US, but the reviews haven’t been great. On the Big Tech Show this week Adrian looks at the reasons behind this lukewarm reception. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are you through with cinemas? Do you go as much as you used to? Are we witnessing the death of cinema? On this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian was joined by culture journalist and cinephile, Jen Gannon, to discuss if going to the pictures is becoming a thing of the past. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What are deep fakes currently capable of? Are they accessible? And will this impact elections in the future? Adrian looks at what deep fakes can and can’t do with co-founder of Webio Paul Sweeney. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Vodafone has entered the Irish TV market with a bang by undercutting the competition on price. But in a confusing environment of offers, promotions and pricing, what is the best deal? How often should you switch? And what streaming services are baked into the cost? Adrian dives into whats on offer in the tv market and how much it will cost. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What are the real challenges with getting an electric car? What are the hidden benefits? In this episode, Adrian Weckler goes through the basic issues, without any sugar coating, that using an electric car brings.He explains that even for those who love their electric cars, range anxiety sometimes remains an issue. He also highlights sub-par public infrastructure. On the other hand, he points to the superior handling of electric cars and argues that more people should switch from petrol and diesel for environmental reasons.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How important do you regard your civil rights online when it comes to big tech platforms like Google and Meta? Are you concerned about how they use and sell your data? And could it even stray into the realm of national security? Adrian was joined on The Big Tech Show by senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), Dr Johnny Ryan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Could AI girlfriends become an advanced market in 2024? Will Apple’s Vision Pro, to be launched imminently, sell out? What will happen with crypto, electric cars and AI? Will Elon Musk pull X from the EU? Is there any hope in the fight against text scammers?In this episode, Adrian Weckler and Tabitha Monahan interrogate Adrian’s predictions of what is likely to happen in the coming months.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What were the best tech gadgets of the year? What was the best laptop, tablet and phone? What were the best headphones and buds? Having reviewed most of the big releases, Adrian Weckler picks the best of 2023 on this week’s episode of The Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What role did Meta have in fueling the Myanmar military’s violence against the Rohingya people? Were its algorithms central to the campaign of hatred waged against this ethnic group? And what reparations should Meta pay for its contribution to the atrocities? On this week's episode of The Big Tech Show, Adrian hosted an Amnesty International panel discussion on Meta’s role in amplifying anti-Rohingya content on Facebook in Myanmar. He was joined by member of the Rohingya community, Maung Sawyeddollah, head of big tech accountability at Amnesty International, Pat de Brún, and senior policy officer at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Olga Cronin. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are you buying an electric car? And are you concerned about the collapsing value of EVs? On The Big Tech Show today, Adrian sits down with the general manager of Nevo.ie, Derek Reilly, to discuss the price drops. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Have Musk’s birds finally come home to roost? Will the EU’s legal action bring the billionaire to heel? And what are the potential outcomes from this investigation?On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian chats to producer, JJ Clarke, about the three possible consequences.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why has crypto roared back to almost €40,000? Are we seeing the return of a bull market? Can anything damage the appeal of Bitcoin? And what comes next? This week, Adrian talks to Lory Kehoe, adjunct assistant professor in technology trends at Trinity College Dublin and head of stablecoin at MSX Limited, about the spike in value.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Stuck for a gift idea? Adrian’s top picks for the best and newest tech this festive season. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is Slush tech conference in Finland? Does it stack up to Web Summit? And why did so many Irish choose to travel to it?Adrian chats to producer, JJ Clarke, about the highs and lows of the event in Finland.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What makes a good pair of headphones? how did Ireland’s only audio brand get the name OneSonic? And can it make it in the US? This week, Adrian chats to CEO of OneSonic, David Cawley, to discuss starting a headphones company in the pandemic and the drive for quality audio. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do we make sure we don’t get caught out by scam calls? What should we tell our loved ones to watch out for? This is a victim’s story of a phone scam, a cyber security expert’s walkthrough of the situation, and how you can defend against these types of frauds. Adrian was joined by victim of a scam call, Gus Fitzpatrick, and managing director of Waystone Compliance Solutions, Conor Flynn, on this week’s episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After the Dublin riots, what comes next from a tech point of view? Will this be the catalyst for enacting new hate speech laws? And is garda use of facial recognition technology a shoo-in? On this week’s Big Tech Show, Adrian asks if we are likely to overcorrect following the violence seen in Dublin last Thursday.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Why is Oisin Hanrahan betting big on food for his next big venture? The Irish born former CEO of Handy.com which raised $100m before being sold to Angi, has secured $18m in seed funding. The Rathcoole native plans to overhaul the way consumer packaged goods are sourced. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Five days on from his dismissal, OpenAI have announced Sam Altman will return as CEO. Why was he reinstated? Who are the winners and losers in this soap opera? Adrian walks through why the company brought the co-founder back. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s going on in OpenAI? Why did OpenAI fire Sam Altman? And what moves has the former CEO made since his shock termination last Friday? Adrian was joined by AI expert and founder of Taxbot.ie, Conor Kelly, to shed light on the tumult unfolding in the Silicon Valley company. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What was the Web Summit like without Paddy Cosgrave? Will it survive? Was it worth going to the event in Portugal this week? Adrian discusses the highs and lows of the convention in Lisbon, where he has been for the past four days. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In the world of privacy, why are messaging apps like Signal fighting to stop governments creating back doors into its app? How does this affect the user's privacy? And can messages that are not encrypted be turned over to law enforcement? Adrian spoke to Signal’s president, Meredith Whittaker, at the Web Summit in Portugal. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is the EU’s right to repair proposal? Will it help an age group that don’t know how to change a lightbulb? And will it save the average customer money when fixing their tech? Adrian is joined by technology presenter on Ireland AM, Gadget guy and CEO of back from the future, Colin Baker.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Has technology made us compulsive trackers? Fitness wearables, electricity monitoring apps, travelling at the most efficient speed in your EV and the list goes on. Have we become obsessed? Can the constant pinging of your fitness watch be good for you?Professor of psychiatry at Trinity College, Brendan Kelly, looks at the unhealthy side of constantly measuring and when to give them up.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Does the news still happen on twitter? Do journalists still hang out there? Can the new name, logo and freedom of speech policy prove successful? Or has disinformation, reinstated banned accounts and trying to be the ‘’everything app’’, led to demise of X? Under Elon Musk's ownership, sweeping changes have meant one thing for the company – controversy.Adrian chats to producer, JJ Clarke, about the year that was at X under Elon’s governance.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is Web 3? What will this new era of the internet mean for the average web user? And what technologies will come with it? Alex Tapscott, who has just written a book on the top, peels back the layers of Web 3 jargon to explain what works and what’s hype.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are you getting the most out of your iPhone 15? What are the unknown functions on the device that Apple doesn’t advertise? On the show today, Adrian runs through the features you probably didn’t know were available. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On the Big Tech Show this week, we investigate baby monitors. How much do they cost? What do they measure? And which are the top picks? One technology that has emerged to aid parents during this nervy time is the baby monitor. Adrian was joined on the show today by Freelance Lifestyle Journalist, Cat Hufton to discuss the parenting aid. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Thousands of motorists' sensitive data was accessible to hackers in a major Garda towing firm IT breach. Over a half a million documents of drivers’, including vehicle registration certs, card details and insurance information were accessible. Joining Adrian to discuss the breach is international cyber-security researcher, Jeremiah Fowler, who discovered the issue. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Following claims last week by Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave that Israel was engaging in “war crimes” in the Gaza Strip, a number of big-name guests have withdrawn from the tech conference in Lisbon next month. On the Big Tech Show today Adrian speaks to Irish Independent reporter, Tabitha Monahan, about the impact that this will have on the organisation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What lessons did the downfall of Blackberry teach the tech sector? Is the next generation coming to unsettle the tech giants of today? Will Apple and Google become cautionary tales as Blackberry did? Reporter with the Globe and Mail and co-Author of ‘Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of Blackberry’, Sean Silcoff, joins Adrian to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are online reviews to be trusted, given the amount of fakes ones posted?Consumer affairs correspondent with the Guardian, Sarah Marsh, joins Adrian to talk about it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this weeks Big Tech show, is GoFundMe a vital resource for raising much needed funds, or a service that’s papering over the cracks in our creaking welfare and medical systems? GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan joins Adrian to talk about it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on the Big Tech Show, Adrian dives into the clandestine world of spyware. This follows the disclosure of the Predator files which is a new investigation into the global surveillance crisis by the European Investigative Collaborations media network, with technical assistance from Amnesty International’s Security Lab. Offaly native and head of the Security Lab at Amnesty International, Donncha O'Cearbhaill spoke to Adrian about the negative impact of the Predator spyware application. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What's next for Apple? Who's the next CEO going to be? And are they still working on a car or are they facing trouble in China? And will its mixed reality headset the Vision Pro be a success? Journalist and founder of the price comparison platform Squirrel, Stuart Miles, joined me on the Big Tech show to discuss what are the next moves for the Tech See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The iPhone 15 Pro which has scarcely been out for two weeks has encountered issues with some users reporting the device is overheating. The tech company has blamed a bug in its operating system as a main reason for this problem. On the Big Tech Show, Adrian reviews the Ray-Ban Meta Smart glasses and how the technology become more seamless. Finally, Adrian dives into the tweets of Elon Musk over the past 72 hours (about 3 days) and their increasingly extreme nature. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In recent months it's emerged that a syndicate of Silicon Valley billionaires, including Ireland's Patrick and John Collison, have bought 55,000 acres of farmland in California with the purpose of starting a new city from scratch. Is this a dystopian idea or a fresh way to tackling San Francisco’s housing crisis? Adrian is joined by J.K Dineen from the San Francisco Chronicle to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
There’s plenty to consider before adding a smart doorbell to your home – what brand to go for, what you’ll use it for, wired or rechargeable. It’s not quite as simple as sticking the bell on the door either, with some models coming with monthly subscription services. With the added security could come concerns around privacy. Is a smart doorbell right for you? Adrian Weckler is joined by Belfast Telegraph technology columnist Kurtis Reid. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How do you run a successful startup while studying in college? And what happens when you try to pitch to one of the Collison brothers when you're doing so? On the Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by entrepreneur Robert Davitt who just won Trinity College's Launchpad competition with his startup Fam World, formerly known as HEBE Adventures. It's self-described as the Airbnb of student travel.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
While a lot of focus was on the new iPhone and Apple Watch releases last week, Apple also released a new AirPods Pro model. With the USB-C charging port the most obvious change, are the earbuds worth upgrading too? iOS 17 was also released this week with some notable updates for your current iPhone. Adrian takes a look at the updates, reviews the new AirPods and examines the new WhatsApp social media feed, Channels.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week Apple held its annual launch at its headquarters in Cupertino, California. Among the releases is the new iPhone 15 Pro Max which offers an improved zoom function. Surprisingly, all iPhone euro prices have fallen, and the iPhone 15 Pro is cheaper than last year’s iPhone 14 Pro. There are also updates to the Apple Watch with a more powerful processor and a new way to control it. Are these latest releases worth your money? Adrian Weckler is joined by Stuart Miles and Leo Gebbie in Cupertino. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is Ireland introducing the penalty of a thought crime? Could you be arrested and prosecuted for something you’ve written or drawn or just imagined, but never shared online or with another person? Irish Council of Civil Liberties Director Liam Herrick and Fine Gael Senator Barry Ward join Adrian for a spirited debate.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A new wave of crackdowns on TV ‘dodgy boxes’ is under way, with legal warnings being sent out in seven counties so will a garda be calling to your door? Adrian speaks to Irish Independent Business Journalist Caoimhe Gordon about the latest developments. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Earlier this month, an IT blunder allowed Bank of Ireland customers to withdraw 'free' cash at ATMs. The incident gained global attention. But it’s not just the banks. The HSE, telecoms companies and all sorts of other Irish ultilities and pillar institutions seem to suffer from recurring IT problems. Irish Independent journalist Sarah Collins joins Adrian to find out why many Irish organisations are so bad when it comes to everyday service-oriented tech.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
There are seven deadly words you have never been allowed use for your website.
The reason? Someone might be offended. Co-founder and CEO of Ireland’s biggest web domains company, Blacknight, Michele Neylon joins Adrian to explain the rules. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Disney is going to hike the price of its online streaming service by around €2 following others like Netflix, which have done the same in recent months. Will consumers still pay when the prices go up? Are there any decent alternatives? Adrian speaks to Deirdre Molumby, Audience Editor at Independent.ie and arts journalist Dave Hanratty.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What will next month's iPhone 15 bring? Are there any interesting new features we should be getting excited about at this point? And what else of interest is there out there in the smartphone world? Adrian looks ahead to the next iPhone launch.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ireland’s electric car charging network has come in for significant criticism over the years. As demand for EVs has risen, the number of public charging points has not increased fast enough to keep up. What's going on with Ireland's electric car charging network? Are we stuck with one of the worst networks in Europe or might things actually start to look up very soon. Adrian Weckler is joined by the CEO of EasyGo, Chris Kelly, to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Since Elon Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight back in June, there have been questions over whether the fight would ever actually go ahead. Now though, it looks like the battle of the tech bros is off, after Zuckerberg posting online that he was moving on, saying Musk “isn’t serious” about the bout. Is this whole thing the cringiest thing to happen in the tech world this year? Does it have any signals for what's happening with the companies involved? Adrian Weckler discusses. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
With artificial intelligence now a part of most people’s daily lives in some capacity, there are some that are using developments in the technology to have relationships with AI. Is love possible with an AI creation? Could you date one for example? Is there anything wrong with the idea of dating one? Adrian is joined by clinical psychologist Dr Malie Coyne to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Calls to Ireland’s emergency calls system rose by as much as 50pc this year because of a Samsung smartphone glitch that causes mistaken calls from pockets. Meanwhile, Zoom has asked its staff to return to the office at least two days a week, if they live within an 80km radius of the office. And Irish people spend €108m per month on video streaming services, with the average person spending €28.26 per month. Adrian takes a look at the latest tech news. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
From starting a TikTok house in Ireland to creating a payments company for influencers and then selling that company to an Irish unicorn, Jake Browne is on a very interesting trajectory through the marketing and tech world.
Now he's building the next big ad startup. Jake Browne, founder and CEO of Veblen Giffen joins Adrian on the Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Elon Musk says he wants X, formerly known as Twitter, to be a super app. But is Revolut getting there first? This week the payments app added car insurance to its list of offerings, which now includes things like credit cards, stock trading, crypto and loans. But things haven't been all positive in tech this week. Accenture has announced 890 jobs at its Irish operation, which is in addition to the 400 cuts announced earlier this year. Can we expect more layoffs in the tech industry or is the tide beginning to turn? Adrian takes a look at the story making headlines in tech this week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the Big Tech Show, Adrian is joined by one of the best-known tech entrepreneurs in Ireland, Bobby Healy, to discuss his vision for the future and how the next drone delivery trial in Blanchardstown will make Manna the biggest drone delivery operation in the world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Elon Musk has unveiled Twitter's new logo. X will now replace the famous blue bird. There are also plans for the name Twitter to retire and X to replace it as the new brand name for the platform. Meanwhile, TikTok is to introduce new text-only posts on its platform as a rival service to Twitter. And Spotify has announced it will increase the price of some of its most popular subscriptions. On the Big Tech Show, Adrian takes a look at the tech stories making the news this week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What are the best most important gadgets that you may have overlooked in daily life? From home security to lost and found tags we go through the tech you might have missed. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Twitter has seen a 50pc drop in ad revenue since Elon Musk took over at the social media platform. Now, Twitter has begun paying part of its ad revenue to some profiles with large followings. Is this a way to generate income lost to dwindling advertisers? Meanwhile, Microsoft is set to face its first antitrust probe by the European Union in over a decade for how it has 'bundled' its teams app with the overall Office suite. What could this mean for Microsoft if it is found to have breached anti competition rules? Now that we are the other side of the ChatGPT hype, Google has launched its answer to the AI chatbot, called Google Bard. Is it any good and are the same concerns around misinformation as much a problem for Bard as it is ChatGPT? Adrian takes a look at the big tech stories making the news this week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The sale of electric cars in Ireland has been on the rise in recent years, but for those who haven’t turned to EVs, it can be tricky figuring out what you need to know. Adrian is joined by Derek Reilly, founded of Nevo and the EV Ireland YouTube Channel to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
It's been six days since Meta launched its new platform Threads. A rival to Twitter, it has already gained over 100 million users. What is Threads like and can Irish users sign up? Adrian Weckler takes a look at the much hyped new social media platform.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Online safety is a topic that we’re yet to find the answer to. Self-regulation by the online platforms doesn’t seem to be cutting it. Now, Ireland has its own online safety commissioner who is tasked with bringing these tech companies in line. Adrian is joined by Ireland’s first online safety commissioner, Niamh Hodnett. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What's the transition from sports superstar to tech actually like? Bernard Brogan knows more than most. He has won four all-star awards, seven all-Irelands and had a glittering career in the GAA. Now he has just got funding for his startup PepTalk and is looking to grow the business in the US. Adrian is joined by Bernard Brogan for this week’s Big Tech Show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When people talk about quantum computing, they often move quickly to the science fiction area. Stuff like time travel or multiverses. But what is it actually really all about? Adrian is joined by Dr. John Goold, Associate Professor in Physics at Trinity College Dublin. See omny.fm/listener for privacy information.
Why are we so prone to panicking over new technology? Where once we freaked out about video games, the Internet and 5G, now it's artificial intelligence which we worry will cause the end of civilisation. Has our fear of AI gone too far or is it merely healthy scepticism? Adrian is joined by Brendan Kelly, Professor of Psychiatry at TCD and Barry Lunn, Founder & CEO of Provizio AI. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Wexford based Niall Kehoe started coding at the age of eight and developed his own apps when he was 10. Now the Enniscorthy teenager has made it into the world's top tech college, Stanford University, on a full scholarship. Adrian caught up with Niall on a visit to San Jose, California, where Stanford's main campus is. They discuss his journey getting into Stanford, what life there is really like, and what plans he might have next. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apple's vision of the future is finally here, and they called it funnily enough the Vision Pro. Is the headset just another failed VR project in the making or can Apple truly succeed where everyone else has failed? From Apple HQ in Cupertino, California Adrian is joined by Stuart Miles and Leo Gebbie. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A monorail, solar panels for all and a universal basic income are some of the things that Ireland could do with up to €60bn in extra tech cash from fines, budget surpluses and potential back tax rulings from Europe. But what should we sensibly do with all that money?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Everything is changing in the crypto world. There's new regulations which have been broadly welcomed. So what's happened? Well, after years of trash talking crypto as a Ponzi scheme, regulators have now started to embrace it and give it rules to adhere to. Will this make crypto mainstream and what will it mean for those who trade in crypto? Host: Adrian Weckler. Guests: Lory Kehoe and Jon Ihle. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
It's been a strange week in the world of multinationals, big tech companies and the Irish Exchequer. Ireland seems to be doing its best to turn away an awful lot of money. First, we have the news of Meta's €1.2 billion fine imposed by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, which didn't want to impose that fine. Now we have the case of Apple and Ireland versus the European Commission, where Ireland doesn't want the €14 billion in back tax that the European Commission says we're owed. Adrian discusses the latest, including the Meta layoffs announced this week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
There is lots of information out there about electric cars; from the grants available to the distance you can go before having to charge up again. Something that has gained in popularity though, are electric bikes. Are they worth the expense and what do you need to know before investing? Adrian is joined by Olivier Vander Elst, co-founder of Greenaer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
You've heard of the curse of Hello, but what about the curse of the Forbes 30 under 30? From Elizabeth Holmes to Sam Bankman-fried, getting name checked as the next big thing in tech could ironically turn out to be a shortcut to notoriety, prosecution, and maybe even jail. Adrian is joined by Jon Ihle to discuss why some high-profile young entrepreneurs get caught up in the law. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week the VAT on solar panels was scrapped, making them cheaper for those looking to invest. Is now the time to go solar and what do you need to know before you do? This week on the Big Tech Show, Adrian is joined by Brian McIntyre from the SEAI. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What's the next big thing in tech? A lot of people think Apple's new headset, set to be announced in June could be it. But can Apple make augmented reality a success where so many others have flopped? Adrian Weckler is joined by Stuart Miles, journalist and the founder of the price comparison widget, Squirrel. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Earlier this month, the 43 year old founder of the Cash app, Bob Lee, was killed in San Francisco. It took police a few days to arrest another tech worker, Nima Momeni, who police say was known to the deceased. But by then, a narrative had spread across the media about Lee being a victim of San Francisco's decline into lawlessness, homelessness and chaos. This week Adrian is joined by the editor of San Francisco’s Mission Local news website, Joe Eskenazi to discuss the case and the coverage that it received. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What does the next generation of tech founders look like in Ireland? What are they making? How do they think? This week Adrian is joined by one such founder, Jack O’Regan Kenny. At the age of 20, Jack has already founded and exited one company and is now managing director of the Dublin based accelerator, Patch.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Since the launch of GPT4 last month, the world over has been talking about ChatGPT and how it will change our lives as we know it. Aside from the potential negative sides that have been widely covered, are there everyday tasks that this AI tech can help us with? Adrian Weckler takes a look at some of the best examples of ChatGPT making life easier.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week Elon Musk joined AI experts in signing an open letter, calling for a pause on the development of artificial intelligence technology more powerful than Open AI's GPT-4. Could future progress in AI pose a threat to society and are those developing the tech considering the implications of their work? Adrian Weckler discusses.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs was charged in the US with fraud, after his arrested in Montenegro last week. Now legal action is being taken against Binance, with US regulators accusing the company of operating illegally in the country. What is happening in crypto and we going to see more scandals coming from the industry? Host: Adrian Weckler. Guest: FT’s Scott ChipolinaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Last month, Chinese billionaire tech banker Bao Fan was reported missing after his company Chinese Renaissance, said they were unable to contact him. His disappearance is not the first time this has happened. Back in November 2020, Jack Ma, founder of the online retail giant Alibaba vanished for months. Why are these powerful figures in China’s tech industry disappearing? Adrian Weckler is joined by journalist Clifford Coonan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, OpenAI released the newest version of its artificial intelligence technology, ChatGPT. Will it live up to the hype, or will the main focus still be around writing college essays for students? Adrian Weckler is joined by co-founder of Caliber AI, Neil Brady to discuss this and the new era of AI we are now in. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In the last 72 hours, the world has been consumed with the threat of a possible banking crisis.It all started with a hitherto little-known U.S. lender called Silicon Valley Bank. What happened for the bank to collapse and will Ireland be impacted? Adrian Weckler is joined by Irish Independent's business editor, Donal O'Donovan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A crackdown on illegal TV streaming networks, also known as ‘dodgy boxes’ is taking place in 12 counties across Ireland. The main targets are a number of online portals and services that provide illegal access to premium TV content. Is this the beginning of the end for the dodgy box? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
So far this year, Dublin Airport has seen half-a-dozen interruptions to flights as a result of drone sightings. The government is now looking into anti-drone technology to deal with the issue. What is that technology and will it help to curb further disruption as we come into the busy St Patrick’s Day period and into the summer? Adrian Weckler explains.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Charlotte Morgan's story went viral when thieves used her phone to get at her bank card’s pin number, leaving her thousands of pounds out of pocket. Charlotte tells us how to stop the same thing happening to you. This episode was first published on 23rd Sept 2022See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Has Elon Musk’s personal brand affected the sales of Tesla? Since Musk’s Twitter takeover, more people are questioning the values of his other companies, like Tesla – including Adrian Weckler. Steve Dempsey of the Irish Independent joins to discuss the shifting brand perception.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the Big Tech Show, Adrian is joined by Barry Lunn, founder and CEO at Provizio, a company trying to save lives with radar technology that can help prevent car crashes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The tech industry has been hit with a spate of mass layoffs. One trend emerging from this, is the approach some of these companies take, using email to deliver the news to employees. This week on the Big Tech Show, Adrian speaks to one of the 12,000 Google employees in the US who woke up to an email telling him he was being let go. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
They’re the secretive tech that social media companies use to keep us engaging with the platforms. How much do we know about algorithms and what exactly are they used for? This week Adrian is joined by Damien Mulley to discuss the good, the bad and the potentially harmful way the algorithms could influence users. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
He is one of Ireland’s most recognisable rugby stars. Now Jamie Heaslip has become a successful startup investor. This week on the Big Tech Show, Jamie joins Adrian to discuss his move from sport to tech and now working for Stripe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What is it about a downturn that makes it attractive to build a Start-Up? This week Adrian is joined by Eamon Leonard from Broadstone VC to discuss how a crisis can spur on innovation, Eamon’s interesting career so far and what a good start-up investment looks like.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When ChatGPT launched last year, the hype around the new AI chatbot has grown and grown. It can write poems, screenplays, articles and even do children’s homework. Not only does it have teachers worried, but companies like Google have increased investment in generative AI, so they can keep up. Adrian Weckler takes a look at the chatbot and what all the hype is about. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are you thinking of getting an electric car in 2023? This week on the Big Tech Show we have a beginner's guide on all you need to know about going electric. From the best models, to charging them and a million other questions in between. Host: Adrian Weckler. Guest: Derek Riley.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Last year was a turbulent one for the tech industry. Could 2023 be as dramatic? This week on the Big Tech Show, Adrian looks at what we can expect from tech this year, including the possibility of more layoffs, what we can expect from cryptocurrency and if this year is the year the Metaverse will catch on. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Formerly RTÉ's political correspondent, Martina Fitzgerald made the move into the tech industry when she took the job of CEO in Scale Ireland in 2020. A not-for-profit organisation, she now represents start-ups and growing businesses. This week Martina joins Adrian to discuss her time as a journalist, her decision to move into tech and how the industry is treated both by politicians and the media. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
It's been a busy week for Elon Musk, with his Twitter poll calling for him to step down as CEO of the social network. But this month the tech billionaire revealed what his other company Neuralink has been working on. Adrian Weckler is joined by journalist Antonio Regalado to discuss the possibility of brain chip implants being made available by the company. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week marks the 5th Anniversary of the Big Tech Show. Joining us for this extended episode is our first-ever guest, broadcaster and founder of Storyful and Kinzen, Mark Little. Mark joins Adrian to chat about Twitter and Elon Musk, the future of journalism and his new role in Spotify. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Now that we're in the final weeks of 2022, Adrian takes a look back at the best tech of the year, including smartwatches, home appliances and headphones. Is Bitcoin doomed? Or are we in the midst of a crypto winter, the trough of another cycle, with canny investors waiting it out? Adrian is also joined by the Managing Director of Bitpanda Alex Batlin to discuss.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the Big Tech Show, as part of our new Ask Adrian segment, we ask if our phones are really listening to us, how we can stop scam calls and discuss some of the tech news stories of the week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How concerned are you about your messages to friends or family staying private? On this week’s Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler is joined by CEO of messaging app Signal, Meredith Whittaker to talk about absolute privacy – is it always a good thing, would people abandon WhatsApp or iMessage in favour of it and can it sometimes help criminals? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this week’s Big Tech Show With Adrian Weckler, we talk to the global CEO of the taxi company Free Now about cities banning cars and the likelihood of autonomous vehicles soon. Thomas Zimmerman also answers questions about taxi shortages and whether the name ‘Free Now’ is often used in frustration by customers left waiting.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Adrian sits down with the billionaire tech CEO of Dropbox, Drew Houston, to talk about his new revamped office in Dublin, the future of work, what’s going with the tech industry’s wave of job layoffs and whether Ireland is vulnerable.
The two also talk about Dublin’s cost of living, where Dropbox now sits compared to Microsoft, the pros and cons of airing political views as a tech CEO, and what he said to Steve Jobs when the late Apple CEO tried to buy Dropbox. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, The Big Tech Show is at the Web Summit in Lisbon. Adrian chats to Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky about the future of the banking app in Ireland, and if Irish customers will be able to get mortgages from the digital bank. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler speaks to Paul Daugherty, Group Chief Executive of Technology and Chief Technology Officer at Accenture to talk about why he thinks we need to reframe how we think about the Metaverse. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ethereum, one of the largest cryptocurrencies completed the highly anticipated “Merge”, a software update that cut the currency's energy usage by 99%. How successful was The Merge and will it influence other cryptocurrencies to become more energy efficient? Adrian Weckler is joined by James Nagle, co-founder of Bitcove to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What happens when you have to battle social media companies for access to a loved one’s online information when they pass away? That’s what Irishwoman Donna Ahern has been facing for the last year, since her twin sister suddenly died.
In this week’s podcast, Donna talks about the hoops she has had to jump through to comply with the processes put in her way by Facebook and Google.
Adrian also looks at some of the best Amazon Prime Day bargains and reviews Google’s new Pixel phones and Pixel Watch.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
With the Elon Musk and Twitter saga raging on, we ask if Musk is finally about to buy Twitter and what that could mean for the platform? With new EU rules saying most gadgets must use the same charging cable from 2024, we discuss if this is officially the end of the drawer full of cables. Host: Adrian Weckler. Guest: Damien Mulley. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Irish Shoppers who head to Britain will be able to save hundreds of euro on luxury goods under a new regime that offers overseas visitors tax-free perks. Adrian Weckler is joined by Jon Ihle, Deputy Business Editor of the Irish Independent to discuss.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the Big Tech Show with Adrian Weckler, we talk to Charlotte Morgan, whose story went viral around the world when thieves used her phone to get at her bank card’s pin number, leaving her thousands of pounds out of pocket. Charlotte tells us how to stop the same thing happening to you. Adrian also looks at Apple’s new Watch Series 8 and gives his verdict on whether it’s worth getting or notSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the Big Tech Show with Adrian Weckler, we are discussing whether TikTok should be banned. Reports found that TikTok can log keystrokes on iPhones and that Bytedance staff in China have ultimate access to any and all TikTok user data they want. Adrian is joined by finance correspondent of the Currency, Sean Keyes to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Apple launched the iPhone 14 at its headquarters in Cupertino, California. Adrian tells us how the launch went and whether it’s worth upgrading to the latest iPhone.
Host: Adrian Weckler. Guests: Stuart Miles, Britta O’Boyle and Robert Leedham.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
With the cost of living and energy crisis dominating the news right now, data centres are coming under greater scrutiny. This week on the Big Tech Show we ask are data centres to blame for Ireland's energy woes?
If blackouts do happen, we explore what kind of tech can help get your through an energy outage.
And we talk to the two young tech entrepreneurs who have quit Dublin for Spain because the rent is too high here. Guests: Cian McNally, Evan McgloughlinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s the best laptop, monitor, power-bank or noise-cancelling headphones for a college student? Or rather, what’s the best you can get at a reasonable price in a cost-of-living crisis? Adrian Weckler is joined by technology journalist and recent college graduate Andy O’Donoghue.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jack Williams is co-founder and CEO of the Belfast-based ecommerce fulfilment firm Selazar. While the company made headlines recently for getting £20m in funding, the highest amount of venture capital in Northern Irish history, this week it was also in the news for less flattering reasons, having lost an employment tribunal case in London over claims of ageism. Adrian Weckler sat down with Jack this week to talk about ecommerce, retailing, being a young CEO, and also about what happened in the tribunal case.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is the tech party over for Ireland? Google has announced a temporary recruitment freeze, Microsoft is eliminating open jobs, while both Meta and Apple are reportedly planning to hire fewer people. In other words, some of Ireland’s biggest tech employers are scaling back their plans. The tech sector here has been on the biggest bull run in Irish industrial history. But is it finally facing a slowdown? And is our indigenous tech sector any more resilient? Joining Adrian Weckler to discuss the issue are Sarah-Jane Larkin, director general of the Irish Venture Capital Association, and Gareth Fleming, director of tech recruitment at Brightwater Recruitment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Technology editor Adrian Weckler reports on the results and concerns he had after taking a DNA test with online service 23&Me. He is joined by Stacy Detweiler, a genetics counsellor working for the company's medical team.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
If you were a billionaire, would you give most of it away? That’s what Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says he’s doing. He’s the world's fourth richest man, worth €115bn. But he says he has an "obligation" to return his resources to society. He says he wants to drop out of the world’s rich lists. And he’s not alone in the tech elite. Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook, among others, also say they’ll give away almost all of their wealth. Does this make them decent stewards of capitalism? Or is sort of another type of ego-trip?
Joining Adrian to discuss it is the Irish Independent’s deputy business editor, Jon Ihle.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is the new M2 too expensive? Is the older M1 MacBook Air a better deal? Or might you be better off getting the new MacBook Pro M2, which is almost the same price?
Adrian Weckler is joined by fellow reviewer, PocketLint.com’s deputy editor Britta O’Boyle, to discuss the pros and cons of Apple’s latest MacBook Air M2.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is it possible for a brand new phone from a brand new company to capture your Apple or Samsung-bound cash?
The Nothing Phone (1) is the brainchild of OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei.
This week, tech editor Adrian Weckler flew to the London launch to see what all the hype is about. He gives his verdict on the phone, as well as the views of some other experts.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How can you watch your Netflix series in a foreign Airbnb? Is it possible to avoid getting gouged when using your smartphone abroad?
Adrian is joined by Colin Baker, gadget expert and managing director of Back From The Future to discuss 10 useful devices and services to enhance a summer holiday, either abroad or in Ireland.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In 2007, Steve Jobs took to the stage to introduce what he called a “revolutionary new product”. This week 15 years ago, the first iPhone went on sale.
Is it still an all-conquering device? What might September's iPhone 14 bring? And can the iconic smartphone stay at the heart of Apple’s world, or will smart glasses and cars become the company's new focus?
Joining technology editor Adrian Weckler to discuss all of this is someone who was at the original launch – Stuart Miles, the founder and CEO of Pocket-lint.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
30 years ago, John Touhy set up the logistics and delivery company Nightline, which also spawned Parcel Motel. Having sold it to UPS for €30m in 2017, he's back with another offering in the field -- OOHPod. This is a smart locker service that is supposed to make it easy to pick up and return parcels in your own time. The company aims to place “out of home” lockers in 1,000 locations across the island of Ireland by 2025. John Touhy talked to Adrian about his past, present and why some entities in Ireland seem intent on blocking progress in the parcel delivery field.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What’s it like being the CIO of one of the most iconic pandemic-era tech companies in the world? No-one knows better than Harry Moseley, Zoom’s chief information officer . The man from Rathfarhnam has been close to the helm of a company whose very name has become a verb in the English language. But what’s coming next? Is the drive for remote working stalling? And can Zoom pull back from a steep decline in its own share price recently? Harry spoke to tech editor Adrian Weckler.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Apple, Google and Microsoft are joining forces to kill off passwords. They say that they will try to replace passwords by using smartphones as two-factor authentication via things like a PIN number or a fingerprint, and using that for verification on an operating system or website. But will this work? And what should you be doing to protect yourself with the passwords you already use? Joining technology editor Adrian Weckler to discuss this is Conor Flynn, managing director at Waystone Compliance Solutions.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In recent weeks, Google and Apple have begun pulling all their Irish workers back into the office.
Other big companies are starting to do the same, and it’s not just the tech giants here, such as Amazon, Intel and Salesforce.
A glance at Indeed.com, the biggest recruitment site, shows that of 58,000 jobs currently advertised, just 4,000 — or around 7% — allow you to be remote.
So here’s a question — what happened to all of the talk about our work lives changing forever? About having more choice in working outside the office? Was it all just BS? Or maybe just a beautiful dream?
To discuss the issue, technology editor Adrian Weckler is joined by Tracy Keogh, co-founder of Grow Remote.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Alan Holland had a steady, comfortable life as a lecturer in artificial intelligence in University College Cork. But in 2012, he left it all to try and build a startup specialising in procurement automation. 10 years on, that company, Keelvar, has just picked up its latest funding round of $24m, with plans to increase headcount at the firm to over 100. Alan joins technology editor Adrian Weckler to discuss what it was like to leave the security of a college academic life for a startup. He also explains what's going to happen next in the supply chain crisis.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Does Elon Musk, conqueror of low orbit space, pioneer of the electric car, the nearest thing we have to a real life Iron Man, actually intend to buy Twitter or not? Is he really being put off about spam bots, the defeat of which was one of the reasons he said he wanted to buy the platform? Is he trying to back out because of the tech stock crash? Having already signed a contract, legally, can he back out? Or does he still want the company, but is just trying to lower the price? Tech editor Adrian Weckler has a basic explainer about what’s going on and what to expect next.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Over the last week, tech stocks have crashed. The likes of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Tesla and Amazon lost between €120bn and €200bn each in their market value.
Some others, like Zoom and Netflix, are even worse, down between two thirds and three quarters in value.
What the hell is going on? Are we all suddenly reassessing what we think the value of these tech companies is? Or is something else causing these valuations to slide?
Could it affect your pension? Or, if you work for a tech firm, your pay?
And what on earth is happening to sections of the crypto market?
To discuss the issue, tech editor Adrian Weckler is joined by Jon Ihle, deputy business editor of the Irish Independent.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Elon Musk is a genius and an inspiration to millions. But he's also acting like an asshole in his drive to buy Twitter.So do you have to be a bit of a bully to succeed in tech? Do you have to mete out abuse like Steve Jobs… to achieve things like Steve Jobs? Or can you be a nice guy like a Collison and still get all the way to top? To discuss this, Adrian is joined by Conor Neill, the founder of six companies, best known of which is Taxijet. He also holds a psychology degree and is professor at one of the world’s top business colleges, the graduate business school of the University of Navarra, IESE. He is also president of Vistage in Spain, which describes itself as the world’s leading CEO organisation.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Are the tech companies, with their high salaries and expanding campuses, making it unaffordable for everyone else? And does this make Dublin a blander, less interesting city? Joining technology editor Adrian Weckler to discuss the issue is Leonard Hobbs, director of Trinity College Dublin’s Research and Innovation; artist Claire McCluskey, whose inner city Richmond Road Studios workplace recently recover an eviction notice; and Mark Cullen, director and curator at Pallas Projects studios in Dublin 8.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What everyday tech quirks really get on your nerves?
Banking? Online players? Services not letting you cancel online? Adrian Weckler discusses some of the worst offenders with journalist Jonathan Keane and broadcaster Andy O’Donoghue.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ever wondered about raising cash for a startup? Unsure where to start or how to go about it? About grants? Or venture capital firms? Or investment ‘angels’? Or even asking family and friends?
This week, Adrian Weckler gets answers to these beginners’ questions from Jack Cantillon, CEO and co-founder of the new Dublin-based startup Herd, which has just raised €600,000 with commitments for another €400,000.
Donal ‘DC’ Cahalane, the experienced startup consultant now working with Dogpatch, also joins the podcast to offer his advice on what to do when you’re starting off.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Electric cars are hot. But it’s really hard to get one. And there are still lots of basic questions that many people have, which often aren’t answered by dealers or pundits. Does the promised range fall drastically on a motorway? What’s the actual availability of public chargers? And what’s the likely resale value compared to petrol or diesel cars in a few years? For some plain-speaking questions and answers on the topic, Adrian is joined by motoring journalist Geraldine Herbert.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Should Apple and Facebook be forced to allow you to send texts from Whatsapp to iMessage?
That’s one of the possible ramifications from a new EU law that big tech firms are up in arms about.
Will it break encryption? Could it cause spam? Or is it consumer progress?
And what’s going on with the new data transatlantic treaty?
To discuss these issues, Adrian is joined by Mark Scott, Chief Technology Correspondent at Politico.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fuel and electricity prices are going through the roof. There is one thing you can do, and help the planet while you’re at it — put in solar panels.But how easy or hard is that to do? How expensive is it? And how much of a dent might it really make in a country known for cloudy, rainy days and dark winters?Joining Adrian on this week’s episode is someone’s who done it – Castlebridge founder (and Wexford householder) Daragh O’Brien. A longstanding expert in domestic solar installation, Tim Cooper, also gives Adrian an A-Z of practical questions that someone considering solar might have.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Electricity bills. Fuel costs. Diesel hikes. Streaming prices rises. Most of us are currently drowning under inflationary pressure that is ramping up our cost of living. Can tech help? Sort of. Adrian Weckler and consumer journalist Siobhan Maguire discuss ways that tech can help to cut your bills.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Some mock them, others worship them. But non fungible tokens – NFTs – look here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. If you’ve a passing interest, how might you get started? How might you separate the real thing from the scams? And why are so many damn celebrities trying to sell you one? To explain all of this, Adrian is joined by Lory Kehoe, the newly-appointed director of NFT Success at Coinbase, and who is also the founder of Blockchain Ireland as well as being an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ireland has had relatively thin layers of protection against cyber attacks and IT threats. But after a catastrophic attack on the HSE, the state beefed up Ireland’s National Cyber Security Centre, doubling its staff and increasing its remit. Will it be enough? Or does Ireland remain dangerously exposed? What are the threats now from a Ukraine-centred cyber war? Joining Adrian Weckler to discuss this is the newly-appointed director of the National Cyber Security Centre, Richard Browne.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Who watches over the biggest tech firms in the world? Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner. This week, we talk to Helen Dixon about the challenges her office faces, criticism she has received and some of the biggest issues on how big tech intersects with our lives.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How does your bank rate when it comes to keeping your everyday transactions safe and reliable? What are the larger cybersecurity challenges we’re now facing? Our guest on the show today is Paul Swift, Bank of Ireland’s Head of Technology, Media and Telecoms Sector.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
According to authorities here, ‘romance scams’ cost victims an average of €18,000 each. How do they happen? Who are the perpetrators and the victims? If you’re on a dating app, what should you avoid? Adrian is joined by the cyber-psychology researcher and lecturer, Dr Nicola Fox Hamilton.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Last month, Stripe co-founder John Collison told me something I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to. “A starting salary in some software engineering jobs is more than €100,000,” he said. “I don't think this has leaked its way out into the popular consciousness here… There’s a career conservatism in Ireland.” Indeed. This week, the Big Tech Show decided to tease this out. Are software and tech graduates the new mega rich class? If so, what wider effects on society are we starting to see from this? Will conservative, middle-class parents now say things like ‘help! My daughter, the software engineer, is drowning?’ And what are the effects on things like rents and house prices? If the premium rental residential areas in Dublin start filling up mostly with engineers and other tech graduates, do we risk creating the type of bland, homogenised cultural atmosphere that has made cities such as San Francisco into the boring, vanilla-flavored metropolitan areas? Joining me, Adrian Weckler, to discuss all of this is Stephen Kinsella, the newly-tenured professor of economics at the University of Limerick and that institution’s director of Immersive Software Engineering.
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We’re all going to die. The question is: what happens to our social media accounts when we do? Who gets the photos in them? The documents? The DMs? Is it different for Facebook and, say, iCloud? Can your Whatsapp account be claimed by someone as an inheritance? And what about other important online accounts you have, like Microsoft’s OneDrive or Google Drive? Is there anything you can do in advance to prepare? Or if you’re a family member of someone recently deceased, how do you go about trying to get access to a social media account that might have an important piece of information or document needed to settle an ongoing probate or legal issue? Joining Adrian to talk about the answers to these questions are Susan Murphy, a solicitor with makemywill.ie and Damien Mulley of Mulley Communications.
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Adrian Weckler recently learned how hard it can be to quit a gambling app. He signed up to one, LivescoreBet, just to watch a football game. But it wouldn’t let him delete his account.
Six times he asked, six times he was refused. He then signed up to other betting apps to see whether they were any better. Most allowed him to bet using his credit card through apps such as Apple Pay or Revolut, even though betting apps aren’t supposed to allow credit card betting.
What, he asks, must it be like for those with gambling addiction? Adrian discusses the scant regulation in Ireland and other elements of the issue with former gambling addict (now a counsellor) Tony O’Reilly and Prof John O’Brennan.
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A few years ago, an ambitious young entrepreneur made a big claim: she was developing technology that could diagnose illnesses from a drop of blood. Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos dazzled investors with her pitch, dressing up like Steve Jobs and talking a perfect game. As we now know, there was no ground-breaking technology. Holmes, who was faking it rather than making it, has now been convicted on several counts of fraud. The episode, which captured the imagination of the world, has shone the spotlight on a darker side of startup ethics – how far can you stretch your startup’s claims of potential when looking for money? Is it still okay to fake it until you make it? Joining Adrian to compare stories and discuss the issue is seasoned startup advisor Donal Cahalane.
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Will 2022 be all about NFTs and Apple's AR glasses? Joining Adrian to go through his predictions for what will and won't happen this year is tech journalist Andy O'Donoghue.
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2021 saw a number of winners and losers in the world of technology. From NFTs, a venture capital boom and 5G expansion to cybersecurity woes and folding phones, it was an eventful year both here in Ireland and internationally. But what soared and what stank? Adrian and Vizlegal CEO Gavin Sheridan pick the winners and losers in the tech year that was.
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You walk up to a shop counter and put your milk, bread and paper on the counter. How do you pay? With cash? A card? Your phone? Or even your watch? Is it easy to do these things? Should it be easier? What’s coming down the line? And how can Ireland establish itself as somewhere that leads in this area rather than follows years after everyone else? To find out more, Adrian is joined by Elaine Deehan, Ireland Country Manager at Starling Bank and Paul Sweetman, director of Financial Services Ireland, which is part of Ibec.
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How hard is it to make a living out of becoming a YouTuber or an Instagram influencer? Is there a minimum number of followers you need? Do you have to pick a good niche? How many people actually make it? Last week, YouTube revealed that there are now over 70 Irish YouTubers with more than 1m subscribers and over 450 Irish people with more than 100,000 subscribers. In this week's podcast, Adrian is joined by two full time Irish professional social media personalities to talk about the nuts and bolts of how to make a living out of it. Brian MacManus is the creator of the Real Engineering and Real Science YouTube channels, with almost 4m subscribers. Clare Cullen is a former YouTube Ambassador to Ireland and host of the video podcast 'Storytime With Clisare'. She has 120,000 YouTube subscribers and over 30,000 Instagram followers.
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Stuck for a Christmas tech gift idea? Thinking about something fitness-related? Or headphones? Or just a stocking filler? We’ve got you covered. From gifts for high rollers to penny-pinchers, Adrian is joined by Mark Kavanagh, tech writer for Irish Daily Star and IrishMirror.ie
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Last week, Star Trek fans were given the bad news that its Star Trek Discovery series is being removed from Netflix, with all past and future episodes only available on yet another streaming platform -- Paramount Plus. Will we just accept this and subscribe to yet another platform? Or are we reaching overload? This week, Adrian calculates that his monthly TV streaming outlay is now €62, rising to €142 when Sky and Sky Go are included. But are Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus and all the rest just the beginning? And what are the streaming platforms doing to television and movies? To discuss it, Adrian is joined by Steve McCormack, Reflektor Media CEO and a producer on TV shows such as Fade Street, Screen Producers Ireland’s Anthony Muldoon and journalist Jennifer Gannon.
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How old do you need to be to start a tech company that investors will take seriously? 25? 23? 20? Today we talk to a couple of young Irish tech founders who are making waves at a very young age. Greg Tarr is 18 and the CEO and founder of an artificial intelligence firm called Inferex. Having won this year’s BT Young Scientist competition, Tarr received six-figure job offers and dropped out of secondary school. He is now skipping college (because it’s “a waste of time”) to focus on his firm, which has already raised €1.25m. Adrian also speaks to Sean Finnegan, who is 20 and is currently raising money for his e-receipt software company, Receipt Relay.
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It’s 20 years into the future. Robots are cleaning our beaches and rivers.Advanced technology lets us mine asteroids and collect materials on the moon. And while tech trillionaires enjoy the greatest concentration of wealth in human history, advanced countries now give a universal basic income to all citizens, eliminating poverty and allowing people to focus more on jobs they’d much prefer to do.
Sound like a fantasy? Not to our guest this week, the futurist Brett King.
Together with Dr Richard Petty, he has written a new book called The Rise Of Techno Socialism — How Inequality, AI and Climate will usher in a new world. He tells Adrian about what he thinks will happen in the coming years, and why.
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Are you struggling to find a Playstation 5? Or dismayed at month-long waiting lists for an iPhone 13 Pro? Or may your car dealer says you can’t change to a new model until next year because they can’t get any? All of these shortages have one thing in common: a supply chain crisis in computer chips. But in this high-tech world, how can this be happening? What’s behind it? And will it get better any time soon? To discuss answers to these questions, Adrian is joined by consumer journalist Siobhan Maguire and motoring journalist Geraldine Herbert.
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Imagine you’re peckish. There’s nothing in the fridge but it’s lashing outside — you don’t want to go the supermarket, and ordering your regular takeout will take ages.
Now imagine a different scenario: you order a takeout and it arrives in 10 minutes. Why? Because it skipped the roads and came instead by drone.
That’s an option that the residents of Oranmore in Galway, Moneygall in Offaly and, from next week, Balbriggan in County, will have had. Because Irish company Manna Aero has been delivering coffee, fast food, medicine and other things with drones in under 10 minutes to those communities.
The company says it wants to expand to dozens of towns by the end of next year.
Is this the future? Is it safe? Will it be allowed to go national and maybe international?
Joining Adrian this week from the Web Summit in Lisbon to discuss this is Manna Aero founder and CEO Bobby Healy.
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As warnings of energy blackouts this winter emerge, there are questions being asked about the value of data centres to Ireland. Are they energy hogs? Do they hold their own as worthwhile businesses? And what should our policy be going forward? With over 70 major data centres located in Ireland, some political parties are calling for a moratorium on new data centres. But is this a weak admission that we can’t set up our own modern electricity grid correctly? Joining Adrian to discuss this issue this week is Social Democrats TD and spokesperson on climate, Jennifer Whitmore, the founder of Host In Ireland, Garry Connolly, and the Irish Independent’s environment editor, Caroline O’Doherty.
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Will we all switch over to a new, more integrated virtual reality to socialise, play, work and shop?
That's what Mark Zuckerberg thinks is going to happen. He and Facebook are now about to start building this 'metaverse', partly in Ireland. How will it benefit our lives? How might it hurt our lives? To dig deeper into what the metaverse will and won't be, Adrian is joined by Bloomberg's technology editor Nate Lanxton and TCD professor Eoin O'Dell. The panel take a look at how the metaverse will work and what the privacy and regulatory implications might be.
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This week, Adrian looks at whether China's ban on cryptocurrency will scupper the prospects of Bitcoin, which has been soaring in value in recent years. He is joined by James Nagle, CEO of the Irish cryptocurrency-trading firm, Bitcove. James doesn't think a reciprocal ban is likely in the US or the EU, but says that there are some concerns over the energy consumption that Bitcoin-mining takes.
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This week, Adrian is joined by technology journalist Andy O'Donoghue to discuss Facebook's new smart glasses, called Ray-ban Stories. Adrian realtyes his experience using the glasses, which can record 30-second video clips and take photos without people clearly being aware that they are doing so. Andy likes the idea of smart glasses in general and thinks they're here to stay.
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This week, Adrian is joined by Senator Gerard Craughwell and IT security expert Paul C Dwyer to look at whether Ireland's cyber security is up to scratch. Both men say that it is not. Senator Craughwell goes further, describing it as "an absolute joke". Both are also criticial of government ministers who dismissed as 'overblown' the Irish Independent's recent revelation that the HSE is still using almost 30,000 computers with Windows 7, an obsolete operating system.
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This week, Adrian has a plain English review of the iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max.Adrian ranks them in order of which is best and what type of person should or shouldn’t upgrade.
He’s joined by tech journalist Mark Kavanagh to talk about the iPhones and the iPad mini, which also also launched this week.
Both journalists discuss why the mini is a better choice that Samsung’s Frankensteinish Galaxy Z Fold3.
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This week, Adrian talks to Fidelma McGuirk, founder and CEO of Payslip. Ms McGuirk decided to move to Westport from Dublin in 2015, after which she founded her payroll tech company. Despite attracting over €8m in funding earlier this year, attracting talented engineers and staff to a tech company outside a city has its own challenges.
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It has nothing to do with Katherine Zappone.
This week, Adrian goes into depth about the problems around Minister Simon Coveney’s hacked phone.
Together with freedom-of-information expert Gavin Sheridan and privacy expert Daragh O’Brien, the minutae of what we know, and what the law is, around Simon Coveney’s hacked phone are parsed in detail.
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This week, it’s a panel show to discuss some of the big issues of the week: the iPhone 13’s potential satellite capability, Google Ireland’s delayed return-to-the-office mandate, the latest VC figures and whether you should use video on or off during Zoom calls. The topic of whether billionaires serve any purpose is also debated. Adrian is joined by the Irish Independent’s Jon Ihle and Reach’s Mark Kavanagh.
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This week, Adrian talks to Mike Fisher, the CTO of the giant online retailer Etsy, in the wake of that company's €1.3bn acquisition of Depop. Fisher is one of the most experienced CTO's around, having been a previous engineering VP of Paypal, among other roles.
The two talk through a number of issues, spending a lot of time on what makes a good or a bad engineering culture and whether or not tech staff are likely to come back to offices any time soon.
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This week, Adrian hosts a spirited discussion about whether Apple is right or wrong to scan photos from your iPhone to iCloud for potential child sexual abuse imagery.
He is joined by UCD's director of digital policy (and former Irish Council for Civil Liberties representative) Elizabeth Farries and Alex Cooney the CEO of CyberSafeKids Ireland.
The whole thing raises some big questions. What is the moral difference between scanning a phone and a private online account for child abuse imagery? Why wouldn't Apple do the same for other types of illegal content in future? And why wouldn't countries now put more pressure on them to do so?
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Conal Henry has had an interesting journey through the business and telecom worlds. From being commercial director of Ryanair, he built up Enet’s business around Ireland before joining the National Broadband Plan and then leaving to set up his own company, Fibrus Networks, which raised over €100m.
That Belfast-based firm won a €200m contract to roll out part of Northern Ireland’s answer to the National Broadband Plan. Now he’s targeting rural broadband in England.
Adrian and Conal discuss a range of topics, from the return of mobile roaming in the UK to why satellite will never match fibre in terms of broadband quality.
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Is the new commercial 'space race' between Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and (the relatively poor) Richard Branson anything to celebrate for humanity? Or is it just one big egomaniacal episode?
This week, Adrian and TCD professor Louis Brennan chew over some of the deeper questions around this year's commercial space launches. Is there a point to paying between €250,000 and €22m to go a few dozen kilometres up in the sky?
What is the endgame for this activity and what use might it be? Are any of the principals really interested in saving our species through space exploration? Might they not spend a few quid to help stop the destruction of Earth instead?
Adrian and Louis also differ on whether they would take a seat on one of the spaceflights, if the opportunity arose.
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You’ve seen and heard it from every science fiction movie or TV programme. You’ve heard it from scientists and philosophers.
So are we living in a multiverse? Is there a version of you that’s a billionaire? Or a mass-murderer? Or a talking frog?
Or are we, like Elon Musk insists, living in a simulation created by some other intelligent species? To talk about some of these big philosophical, technical and scientific questions, Adrian is joined this week by Dr Mark Mitchison, recently appointed as assistant professor in quantum science at Trinity College Dublin.
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Should Ireland follow Norway in bringing in a law that would make it mandatory for online influencers to disclose that they have digital altered images of their faces or bodies when promoting products? And if so, should it stop there? Should digitally-enhanced derrieres or dermatological features be admitted more widely, to give impressionable teens a truer idea of what is real and what isn’t?
Adrian is joined by three experts in their field — Instagram makeup influencer Niamh Martin (‘Nima Brush’), YouTuber Clare Cullen (‘Clisare’) and Irish Independent columnist Tanya Sweeney.
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Will tech companies flee Ireland if it abandons its 12.5pc corporate tax rate? Will the pipeline for new ones dry up?
Adrian is joined by UCD business lecturer (and former IDA executive) Emmet Oliver and Irish Independent business reporter Sarah Collins to discuss the issue.
Is the 12.5pc drive an about global equity, European jealousy or both? What will Ireland have to offer tech companies over other countries if the 12.5pc rate is uniformly introduced? How important is it relative to other infrastructural issues here?
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Can a pub pass work in Ireland? This week, Adrian talks to Irish ex-pat Zoe Healy Jensen, now living in Denmark. She explains how QR codes have been successfully integrated into everyday life in the Scandinavian country, allowing her and other vaccinated people to enter restaurants and pubs with little fuss.
Goosed.ie’s Martin Meany also joins the conversation to talk about the background and context of QR codes.
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This week’s topic is Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite broadband service that some believe is the future for rural areas that have been deprived of broadband connectivity. But with the National Broadband Plan slowly being rolled out to every rural home here, does Starlink realistically have any role to play? Who would pay two to three times the price of a fibre connection for Starlink’s dish and monthly fees when it only delivers a fraction of fibre’s speed? Adrian is joined in discussion by Rory Fitzpatrick, CEO of the National Space Centre and Brian Flanagan, a retired business consultant who has been testing Starlink’s service from his home in Blackrock, County Dublin.
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This week, we debate whether facial recognition should be banned or curtailed. It comes after Europe’s data regulators called for a total ban on facial recognition in public places.
But is that practical? What are the pros and cons?
Adrian is joined by privacy expert Carey Lening and technologist and retailer, Colin Baker.
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This month, $150m was raised by Peter Foley’s LetsGetChecked, giving the five year old startup a valuation of over $1bn. Last month, €100m was raised by two Irish startups — Wayfarer (€62m) and Qualio (€41m). The month before that it was a handful of others, such as Payslip. It means that well over €1bn will be raised year, significantly up on last year. What’s going on with these eye-watering sums? Is there any suspicion that we may be in a frothy boom at the moment? Is tech just benefitting from a lack of other places to put your money? Or has there been a transformation in the underlying value of Irish tech companies? Adrian is joined by seasoned venture capitalist (CEO of Scale Ireland) Brian Caulfield and the Irish Independent’s deputy business editor, Jon Ihle.
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Dublin looked on nervously this week as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that staff at the 6,000-strong Irish office can now work from the UK. From January next, they will also be allowed to move to France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland while working for the Irish office. This is a major policy shift. Until now, ‘remote’ working at tech multinationals meant somewhere else within Ireland. Will other multinationals follow Facebook’s lead? If so, does that mean the end of the tech boom in Dublin, with talented engineers free to base themselves in coastal Spain, Tuscany or the Black Forest? Adrian is joined by Boundless CEO Dee Coakley and Irish Independent business reporter Ellie Donnelly to discuss the pros and cons of remote working, and what we might see next.
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Is it time to take a punt on Bitcoin? Or is it all a big Ponzi scheme waiting to collapse?
Bitcoin’s value has slumped by 30pc this month.China, where so much of it is mined, is saying it might crack down. Environmentalists are against it, saying it uses up too much energy. And now even Elon Musk has nixed its use for buying Teslas.
So what does this mean for Bitcoin’s value? Is it just a normal month in the ever-turbulent-yet-often-soaring life of crypto currencies? Or is there something different going on this time?
Adrian talks to Goodbody senior trader David Bergin about the topic.
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Is the gig economy a dystopian modern sweatshop or a new flexible way of working that gives people more control over their lives? This week, Adrian discusses the issue with John Ryan, the founder of Gigable. Gigable connects restaurants to freelance delivery drivers — it has over 2,000 drivers on its books. John Ryan says that the gig economy has unfairly earned a bad rap; done right, he says, it can be the answer to what a lot people need. Adrian puts it to him that there is a danger the gig economy is a creeping casualisation of work, stripping rights such as sick pay, parental leave and holiday pay. Ryan says that it needn’t be like that, pointing out that Gigable is introducing some benefits, such as access to online GPs.
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This week, Adrian discusses the origins and the potential fixes of Ireland’s catastrophic HSE ransomware episode with experienced cyber security practitioner, Paul C Dwyer. Dwyer pulls no punches in saying that Ireland’s IT security infrastructure isn’t up to scratch. The two look at factors contributing to this, including an historical and cultural distaste in Ireland for investing significantly in defence-related activities. Dwyer offers some suggestions on what steps we might take to rebuild Ireland’s cyber security infrastructure in a more robust format.
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This week, Adrian looks at why some weather apps on our phones are so unreliable.
He talks to meteorologist Alan O’Reilly of Carlow Weather. The two go through the best apps to use and why some are more accurate than others.
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For most, it’s a breath of fresh air. The latest iOS 14.5 update will start showing you pop-ups when you open an app. It will ask you this question: “allow [app] to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites?”
This will be accompanied by a short pitch from the app concerned as to why it needs you to do this. (Although it can’t link your answer to functionality — Apple’s new rules forbid tracking to be a requirement for the app’s features to work.)
If you say no, that app can’t track you across the web for the purposes of ads. (If it’s found to be doing so, it’s booted out of the App Store.) If you say yes, it’s business as usual.
There are already some indications that most people will opt out of being tracked.
Is it this universally a good thing or are there underreported disadvantages for small businesses trying to reach their audiences?
Adrian is joined by David Campbell, head of e-Commerce at Humm and a director of Digital Business Ireland, and Daragh O’Brien, CEO of privacy firm Castlebridge.
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More than 7,000 people have signed up for a mass action lawsuit in Irish courts against Facebook. The case, organised by Digital Rights Ireland, is over a global data leak that exposed the mobile phone numbers of 530 million people. People are really upset about this, not least because Facebook doesn’t appear to be taking it seriously. There are at least 1.3m Irish numbers alone, matched perfectly against full names and, in many cases, occupation or location. The least that we can expect is a new wave of scam texts or Whatsapps. But for a few thousand people, it could be a lot more serious. The names and numbers of gardai, sitting judges, prison officers and others in sensitive positions are among the numbers leaked. As are roles such as management positions in womens’ refuges and other places that could be prone to harassing or predatory contact. All are easily searchable. In this week’s podcast, Adrian talks to the director of Digital Rights Ireland, Antoin O’Lachtnain, about the leak and the case. Digital Rights Ireland is taking the Irish court action under European GDPR rules and says that an award of between €300 and €12,000 in damages is “comparable” to what might occur in its Facebook case. Former Facebook worker Carey Lening, who now works on privacy and security issues with Castlebridge, also joins the podcast to talk about her experience and where we go from here.
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Do you liven up your texts with a crying-laughing emoji? Do you try to make a point more forceful by using the hand-clapping symbol in between words? Do you intersperse the two-eyed ‘look’ pixel in every second or third Whatsapp message?
You’re literally showing your age. According to experts, large swathes of emoji are now only used by middle-aged and older people.
This week, Adrian talks to Keith Broni, the deputy emoji officer (yes, that’s a real job) for Emojipedia about the politics and generational angst of emoji.
He’s also joined by the Irish Independent’s newest columnist, Tanya Sweeney, and Irish Independent reporter Gabija Gataveckaite, to talk about the wider cultural effects that emoji are having among different generations.
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This week, Adrian looks at whether buying digital art through NFTs (‘non-fungible tokens’) is for suckers or savvy collectors. He’s joined by Lory Kehoe, adjunct associate professor at Trinity Business School and director of digital assets at BNY Mellon.
The discussion looks at the recent $69m auction sale at Christie’s for an NFT-linked digital canvas, as well as the $2.9m sale of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet via NFT and the growing prominence of Ireland’s own Kevin Abosch, who has sold over €1m in NFT digital art in the last month. What exactly do you own when you buy a piece of art via NFT? What’s to stop someone simply copying it at the click of a button? And where does it all fit in to the growth of crypto-currencies and blockchain?
The two also look at the IPO of Coinbase and ask whether it’s worth the extraordinary valuation.
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“10 years ago, we were sitting around drinking coffee and talking about Facebook and Twitter. Then we just decided to start doing things. Last month, one of our local startups IPO’d at $4bn.”
This week, Adrian sits down to chat with Clark Dever, one of the senior ecosystem heads at Techstars, the international startup accelerator organisation.
Clark tells Adrian about the experience of Buffalo, a rust-belt city in a high-tax state (New York).
The two discuss everything from incentives to tax rates and what startups should really do to get some funding and connections in place.
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This week, Adrian talks to Markham Nolan, the WWE’s VP of Media Operations.
The Dubliner is responsible for managing a social media footprint of over 1bn followers as well as being influential in the WWE’s overall media strategy.
The two talk about how Markham’s past in Irish journalism and Storyful. They also go through how and what the WWE prioritises in its online and media operations.
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This week, Adrian looks at the best webcams, cameras, lights and microphones for video-conferencing and Zoom calls from home.
He’s joined by two experts — well known YouTuber and content creator Clare Cullen (@Clisare) and a director of Conns Cameras, Bob Conn.
The panel also talks about how to set up so as to look professional.
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This week, Adrian welcomes back Paul Campbell, founder of the ticket-selling company Ti.to and the online event platform Vi.to.
Fresh from raising over €1m, Paul talks politics, ethics and how to sell software.
He also discusses the best camera, microphone and lighting setups for conferencing from home.
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This week, Adrian sits down with the veteran Irish tech marketer, Kieran Hannon, who has just taken a CMO job with the clean air firm WellAir.
Hannon is a 35-year survivor of Silicon Valley’s tech industry, with some big roles to show for it. He was chief marketer for Radioshack before moving on to a similar role in Belkin. A stint in Openpath preceded his appointment as marketing chief in the Bill McCabe-backed WellAir.
The two talk about survivability, tech marketing, retail, identities and a host of other topics.
The Big Tech Show is in association with Sky Broadband.
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This week, Adrian chats to Damien Burns, Europe’s top person with Amazon-owned Twitch, the giant live streaming platform.
While it dominates online streams of video games, Damian says that it’s now aiming farther afield, to lifestyle stuff.
Adrian asks about the market for watching sleeping videos and how much money you can make when sharing your Fortnite or Grand Theft Auto sessions live.
The two also talk about player bans, competing with TV stations and why US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) sometimes uses the platform to communicate.
For more visit the Big Tech Show page: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/
The Big Tech Show is in association with Sky Broadband.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week’s guest is Helen Dixon, Europe’s most powerful tech regulator. She and Adrian talk about Facebook, Whatsapp, fines, Brexit, data rights and a whole host of other things.
Among the revelations are that Whatsapp will not be sharing more data with Facebook in the EU anytime soon.
Helen Dixon says that there has “been no progress” between Facebook and the Irish regulator on seeking allowance for Facebook to integrate Whatsapp with Facebook in a closer way, as it is poised to do in the US. The tech giant has been trying for years to find a way to make more money out of its subsidiary, which has tighter privacy controls than the tech giant’s main social platform.
But Ms Dixon’s office has steadfastly refused to allow cross-sharing of data across the EU, citing a lack of satisfactory explanation from Facebook around the legal basis of the data sharing.
“I don't doubt that Facebook hasn't given up on the idea of the data sharing,” she said. “But nonetheless, there has been no progress in terms of WhatsApp convincing the DPC that as the controller of the data of users of WhatsApp, it should share it with Facebook. And they've made no substantive approach to us. So it really hasn't progressed. There's no sharing of EU user data between the controllers.”
Last month, Whatsapp saw 20m users leave for rival messaging apps when it informed users outside the EU that they needed to agree to Whatsapp sharing more account information with Facebook for the ultimate purpose of cross-service advertising.
Helen Dixon is talking to Adrian on the same day that her office published its annual report, outlining several investigations and data breach statistics.
For more visit the Big Tech Show page: https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/
The Big Tech Show is in association with Sky Broadband.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Adrian sits down with Carolan Lennon to talk through some of the major issues failing Eir.
It’s been a tricky few months for the company, which has attracted white hot criticism over its customer service levels during the pandemic. It’s also been a successful period in other ways, with its GoMo budget service hoovering up an unusual number of customers (250,000) in just a year, forcing the hand of rivals Three (48) and Vodafone (Clear Mobile).
Adrian goes through the topics, including a personal hobby horse: why operators here persist with the term “unlimited data” when fair use limits still apply.
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Escooter rental firms are lining up to launch here: at least five firms have declared their intention to do so.
This week, Adrian sits down with Lawrence Leuschner, the founder and CEO of Europe’s biggest firm — Tier. It operates in 90 European cities and wants to launch here.
Adrian asks the questions that many will have: where will they be parked? How much will they cost to hire? And will we see ads urging us to ‘ride’?
Tier joins others in looking at a launch in Ireland after Communications Minister Ryan said he plans to remove the requirement for tax, insurance and a driver’s licence. Instead of motorbikes, escooters are to be reclassified as ‘powered personal transporters’.
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This week, Adrian chats with LetsGetChecked founder and CEO, Peter Foley.
The €100m Dun Laoghaire startup tests for dozens of different conditions and illnesses, from cancer to sexual health issues.
Adrian and Peter discuss testing airline passengers, a new lab in Dublin and being snubbed by the Irish government. But they also talk about Peter's plan to test DNA profiles as its next service.
The company is considering a saliva swab test that would contribute to a ‘Book Of You’ concept. The aim would be to get a better idea about what kind of illnesses you might be more susceptible to.
The company could then set up a schedule of screening tests that you’d receive automatically, almost like service notifications.
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Bitcoin’s price has been rallying in recent weeks, but can it stay at this level? Or will it crash as it has so many times before?
Adrian talks to cryptocurrency veteran Lory Kehoe, now in a new position as director of digital assets and blockchain with BNY Mellon, the huge international bank.
Kehoe explains what’s behind Bitcoin’s current rise and makes an argument that it is institutional movement on cryptocurrency — rather than a mob on Reddit — that is driving crypto’s long term rise in value.
For these reasons, he believes that it will continue to rise in value. The two also discuss the mentality of ‘hodlers’, who hold on to their cryptocurrency no matter what.
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This month, a small group of employees in Google's US headquarters joined a union. Even though it was a relatively tiny number - just 400 out of 125,000 employed worldwide - it caused a stir.
A union in a high-tech company? Weren't unions supposed to be on the decline? Aren't tech firms supposed to be enlightened, high-paying workplaces where there isn't any need for unions?
In Ireland, unions are rare in tech companies. But they're not unknown.Apple, for example, has a number of Siptu members in Cork, linked to its original industrial activity of manufacturing computers there. HP, Ericsson and IBM have historically had some union membership.
This week, Adrian talks to the assistant secretary general of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Owen Reidy, about whether unions are a realistic prospect for big tech firms in Ireland.
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holds Adrian’s guest this week is Conor Pierce, Samsung’s Irish-born corporate vice president for the UK and Ireland. The two discuss the launch of the Galaxy S21 as well as what we might see in the coming years. Samsung has its own ideas about this, having just released a new 110-inch television and a home help robot.
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When is the last time you paid for something in cash? Have you, like us, had the same €20 in your pocket for four months?
The pandemic has made Ireland -- and every other country -- into largely cashless societies. From Apple Pay on your watch to Revolut on your phone, cash has faded away in daily life.
So why aren’t we talking about the obvious next step: ditching bits of paper and scraggly coins altogether?
This is what Adrian discusses with this week’s guest, Stephen Kinsella, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Limerick's Kemmy Business School and a columnist with The Currency.
Which are the better arguments? That it could mean less violent crime, less tax evasion and quicker queues? Or that it could lead to a further erosion of privacy and may unfairly disadvantage vulnerable groups in society?
The two go into the topic in depth.
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New Year, new tech world? Adrian makes a few predictions about what we’ll see in 2021, alongside guests Jon Ihle (deputy business editor, Irish Independent) and Dr Katherine O’Keeffe (director of training, Castlebridge). The predictions include trends for Brexit-related online shopping on services like Amazon, more pricing hikes for streaming giants Netflix and Disney Plus, a bedding in for remote working, the demise of cinemas, the first $100bn ‘Irish made’ tech company and a lot more.
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This week, Adrian is joined by a couple of small Irish tech business owners, News Over Audio’s Gareth Hickey and Thinscale’s Brendan Kiely.
The three talk about a variety of issues, including whether big tech companies are getting too much love and support compared to small ones, the case for more flexibility in hiring (and moving) abroad, how remote working will pan out and the future for subscription media.
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What were the best gadgets of 2020? What were the best laptops, phones, smartwatches, headphones and speakers? Adrian tested over 100 tech products during the year. Joined by digital editor of Buzz.ie, Mark Kavanagh, he gives his picks and discusses why they topped their categories. Adrian also discusses his early impressions of a gadget that landed on his desk this week: Apple’s AirPods Max.
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Last week, Slack and Salesforce announced an acquisition agreement worth $27.7bn (€22.9bn). It’s the biggest tech deal of the year and one of the biggest of all time. This week, Slack co-founder Cal Henderson spoke exclusively to technology editor Adrian Weckler about keeping a separate identity, the tech industry, remote working, Ireland’s place in the world and other things.
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Europe is bringing in a raft of new laws to try to tighten things like advertising and runaway algorithms.
This week, Adrian invites Politico’s chief technology correspondent, Mark Scott, on the podcast to talk through the issues.
He also asks Mark about Ireland’s reputation at the moment in the EU on a myriad of issues, from data protection to tax.
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With weeks to go before the first rural homes are connected under the NBP, here’s an in-depth discussion with Peter Hendrick (CEO of National Broadband Ireland).
It covers the basics, the finer details, the controversies and the future. What exactly is the criteria for inclusion in the NBP? Does it cover all rural future-builds?
Why was so much of the contract redacted? What happens if the project is flipped by its owners?
Is Elon Musk’s Starlink any kind of credible alternative?
And lots, lots more. It’s a frank, expansive discussion with a lot of detail and some blunt questions.
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Is it now unpatriotic or selfish to buy from Amazon? Are you aiding a billionaire cartoon villain rather than helping a struggling Irish trader during the pandemic?
In recent weeks, this has gained traction as a popular theme in Ireland. Zeal for supporting Irish is transmogrifying into judgementalism for not spending your money with local traders. If you buy online from abroad, you’re selfish and feckless. You’re not doing your bit.
But this side-steps a problem that many of its comfortably-off advocates don’t acknowledge: lots of people can’t afford to ignore cheaper goods or delivery and more convenient services, from megacorp entities. €5 on a small item -- or the 90 minutes it takes to go and get it -- can make a big difference. €50 on a large item can be a deal-breaker.
Joining Adrian to talk about this is Duncan Graham, head of Retail Excellence Ireland and Samantha McCaughren, business editor of the Sunday Independent.
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This week, Adrian talks to Senator Marie Sherlock, whose Labour Party is introducing a bill that would give people the legal right to disconnect from work mails, DMs, Slack, Teams, Zoom and other platforms at certain times.
But is this actually possible in a 2020 workplace?
What is ‘work’ these days, anyway? Haven’t our lockdown lives become a blur of screens, one way or another?
Joining Adrian and Marie to tease out the issues is Fearghal O’Connor, the Sunday Independent’s deputy business editor.
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On this week’s Zoom podcast, Adrian welcomes Amarach Research’s Gerard O’Neill and the Irish Independent’s deputy business editor, Jon Ihle, on to talk about two topics — whether 5G is needed and not returning to offices.
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This week, Adrian talks to David Cawley, an acoustic designers who has created the audio brand OneSonic.
The company’s first products are a pair of noise-cancelling headphones (€75) and wireless Bluetooth earbuds (€60).
Adrian asks him about the aspiration to take on the giants of hifi audio and how he thinks he might succeed.
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This week, Adrian delves into the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro models, comparing the two phones against each other and against other leading smartphones. One big question emerges: has Apple made the iPhone 12 too powerful? Is there enough in the iPhone 12 Pro to justify the extra stretch? If you’re thinking about upgrading your phone soon, you won’t want to miss this episode. Adrian is joined by Mark Kavanagh, digital editor of Buzz.ie and assistant editor of the Star.
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This week, Adrian tackles the potential deaths of cinemas. He’s joined by the RTÉ arts broadcaster Rick O’Shea and Andrew Lowe, the part-owner of the Lighthouse and Palas (Galway) cinemas and a co-founder of the film production company Element Pictures. Adrian puts it to them that Disney’s decision to prioritise streaming from now on could be a signal of what’s to come, with more and more movie budgets going into platforms like Disney+, Netflix, Amazon and Apple TV+. This, in turn, could lead to long term cinema closures as people start cutting back on the number of times they want to go into multiplexes compared to the 65-inch 4K telly in their own front room.
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The CTO of the world’s most fought-over company is this week’s guest. Paul Scanlan talks to Adrian about geopolitics, telecoms and the possibility of a split in the internet as the US and China engage in low-level industrial warfare. Adrian asks whether Huawei is facing retreat in Europe and what Scanlan expects to see in five to ten years’ time.
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This week, Three switched on its 5G network in Ireland. Adrian has been out testing the network, finding some great speeds but also some gaps in the map.Here, he interviews Three’s chief technology officer, David Hennessy.
He asks about what 5G might be useful for, what (if any) danger still exists from anti-5G conspiracy theorists and about Three’s general future plans.
For an accompanying explainer on the general rollout of 5G mobile services in Ireland, as well as a snapshot of Adrian’s testing of Three’s network, see Independent.ie.
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It’s finally coming to a head. After years of hedging and fudging and hiding behind controversial ‘standard contractual clauses’, reality is staring us in the face. Facebook, Google and the rest may soon be run out of Europe as the internet splits into three core silos: the US, Europe and China.
There are now a few big questions.
First, is there a way for big tech companies to carry on with existing services without breaking EU privacy law? Facebook says it can’t see how. But one of today’s guests, Castlebridge founder Daragh O’Brien, says there is a way.
But even if they can do it, is all of this really the opening salvo in a wider trend to see big US tech companies, as they currently operate, watered down in Europe? Moreover, would we miss them if they left? INM’s Steve Dempsey looks at that issue, alongside Adrian.
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After launching two new iPads, two new Watches and a Fitness+ subscription service this week, Apple is the main subject of today’s podcast. Adrian and Buzz.ie digital editor Mark Kavanagh talk about why Apple has stayed on top, why iPads blow away Android rivals and what might come next with the iPhone 12.
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The bad news is that the iPhone 12 is delayed. The good news is that we have a good idea of its strong and weak points. So if you were considering an upgrade, or are just curious about Apple’s next model (there will actually be four of them),
Adrian and his guests (Sunday Independent deputy business editor Fearghal O’Connor and Daily Telegraph Technology Correspondent Michael Cogley) offer a rundown of the likely new features. It shouldn’t be missed that Apple makes around €1bn in profit per week on the back of this machine, so even if you’ve no interest in the gadget itself, your pension fund manager probably does.
The three also take a look at what to expect from the new iPad and Apple Watch to be unveiled next Tuesday, and then discuss whether Google’s lease pullback in Dublin means that office life as we know it has peaked.
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Is Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 Ultra the best Android smartphone right now? What about earphones? And tablets? And laptops?
And what doesn’t quite make the grade?
Surrounded by dozens of the latest gadget releases, Adrian is joined by Buzz.ie’s Mark Kavanagh to talk through what shines and what fizzles.
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Ever wonder what Gerry McGovern did next?
Those who’ve been around the Irish technology scene for a couple of decades will remember a time when Nua was one of the beacons of the industry. With a mission to create a ‘Local Ireland’ platform, it culminated in a multi-million euro stake from (what was then known as) Telecom Eireann. And then the dot bomb crash happened.
So where has Gerry McGovern been? What does he now think of that time?
This week, Adrian catches up with the Longford man on the publication of his eighth book, ‘World Wide Waste’.
McGovern has lost none of his passion, which is now directed at cutting out physical and digital waste. He gets heated about a few things during the podcast.
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This week, Adrian talks to one of the thorns in the side of big tech companies. Dr Johnny Ryan recently joined the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, having spent much of the last two years taking action against Google and the Interactive Advertising Bureau in his role with the privacy browser, Brave.
His main point is that the system still tolerates big tech and online ad companies brushing over our data privacy rights on issues like consent and what happens to the sharing of our personal profiles once we click on a website.
Adrian asks him what his idea of an internet with stricter enforcement of European rules might look like and whether he thinks this is likely.
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After Bank Of Ireland’s volte-face on refunding customers who were conned in an SMS phishing campaign, this week’s podcast looks at the ‘smishing’ issue in some detail. How does smishing actually work? Is it the fault of SMS gateways that lots of companies use?
Joining Adrian is Dr Jessica Barker, co-founder if Cygenta and a cyber security expert who’s particularly good at explaining cyber issues. She points out that sometimes the dodgy grammar used by phishing fraudsters is deliberate, to make easier marques more clearly identifiable to them.
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This week, Adrian talks to Alan Holland, founder and CEO of Cork-based Keelvar, a procurement AI technology firm that recently raised €16m in a funding round.
Adrian asks Alan about the growing trend among Irish tech founders to go abroad for venture funding instead of relying on investment sources here.
The two also discuss the transition from being an academic in a university to a startup entrepreneur and the change of pace required.
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This week, Adrian and Sunday Independent business editor, Samantha McCaughren, discuss the rise of paywalls across major newspaper brands.
Adrian argues that while they sometimes attract narky comments from online readers, paywalls have simplified the news consumption process and set a more solid path for future business models.
They discuss whether it’s ethical to put critical news, such as Covid-19 updates, behind a subscription paywall.
They also look at how related business models, such as reader contributions and online advertising, are faring for those who depend on them.
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“March 12, 2020 was the day that the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its largest drop since 1987, the year I was born. That was the day I decided to take the next step and start fundraising for our Series A.”
But how on earth did Corkman Robert Fenton, founder of life science data management firm Qualio, do it?
This week, he gives Adrian the story of how he went from zero to $11m, from multiple VC firms, in 90 days. He also talks about the temptation that some companies now have to leave San Francisco, where he now lives.
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This week, Adrian tackles the two giant breaking news stories of the week: Apple’s €13bn tax win against the European Commission and what the Schrems data privacy ruling means for ordinary Facebook and web users here.
On the first topic, he’s joined by tax expert Brian Keegan, who attended the court case last year.
On the privacy ruling, Adrian grills data protection expert Katherine O’Keeffe (from Castlebridge) about where the ECJ decision leaves ordinary people who are now wondering whether their use of cloud services might soon fall foul of European law.
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This week, Adrian talks to John Goulding and Joe Lennon, co-founders of the workplace communications software firm Workvivo. The two just raised almost €15m in venture funding, having decided not to shilly-shally around with Irish VCs. Instead, they followed the bigger money trail stateside and landed it.
The chat involves raising money, growing a company from Cork and a host of other things.
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This week, Adrian has a lively chat with one of Ireland’s most interesting serial entrepreneurs, Norman Crowley.
Crowley built and sold three companies for $750m by the age of 40. But he came tantalisingly close to selling one of them for $1bn. He explains how that episode hit him hard for a year. But he also now says that it was “the best thing that ever happened” to him. Crowley has gone on to mix his love for the environment with new successful companies, including Crowley Carbon (which raised $31m earlier this year) and Electrifi, which reconditions classic sports cars into all-electric vehicles. He also challenged Adrian to walk on hot coals, a dare that the host is currently considering.
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This week, Adrian is joined by the CEO of the country’s biggest online-only media publisher, Journal Media, and the CEO and co-founder of Silicon Republic, one of Ireland’s longest-running and most successful online publishers.
Adrian Acosta and Ann O’Dea dive deep into commercial and business challenges that media companies now face in Ireland.
Is online advertising for media firms doomed? That’s a big question that the panel discusses in some depth.
Alternate funding methods are also discussed, such as reader appeals and membership clubs. Acosta reveals that The Journal has attracted over 5,000 financial contributions since launching its reader contribution scheme two months ago.
O’Dea describes the factors around creating other businesses adjacent to media, such as conferencing.
And the panel looks at the prospects for different Irish media organisations from any new or re-organised ‘media fund’ that might be put together by the Irish government.
On the health of media, the panel also analyses some of the issues around trust, or lack of it, in press and media.
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This week, Adrian dives into the amazing story of Ireland’s most fantastically controversial startup of the last 20 years: Steorn. The company raised €20m on the premise of having invented a perpetual motion machine using magnets. The startup claimed to have uncovered an “anomaly” in the laws of physics that would allow for never-ending power. From a full page ad in the Economist boasting of their breakthrough to a dramatic demonstration fiasco in London, the story of Steorn is a mixture of ambition, delusion and hubris. To explain the ins and outs of the story to Adrian is Barry Whyte, chief feature writer for the Business Post. Barry’s newly-published book, ‘The Impossible Dream’, recounts in great detail the entire Steorn story, painting a brilliant picture of the characters involved, the key moments and the ultimate outcomes.
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This week, Adrian is joined by a vastly experienced Irish media panel in the area of digital media and technology: co-founder of Kinzen and Storyful Mark Little, founder of Maximum Media Niall McGarry and co-founder and editor of The Currency, Ian Kehoe.
The panel dives deep into the problems and opportunities for media in a technology-dominated landscape.
In his first extensive public commentary since his company’s examinership, Niall McGarry also addresses the issue of the ‘click farm’ incident in 2017 that saw the publisher of Joe.ie and Her.ie lose a substantial amount of revenue from advertisers after an employee was found to have manipulated listenership figures on an AIB-sponsored podcast.
“It was so isolated, such a one-off and so unique to a publisher like us that I think a lot of people jumped on it and made it a much bigger story than it was,” he says.
“It gave a huge amount of traditional media organisations an opportunity to have a pop at us because we came out of nowhere. We didn't come from the Dublin media set. We had created something new.”
Mr McGarry says that he wants to “put the incident behind us and move on”, instead focusing on “some of the amazing work we've done”.
“I think our organisation has been incredibly impactful on things like the Eighth Amendment referendum and on marriage equality. We were the first brand to get out there and get behind a yes campaign.”
Niall believes that the company is “too big to fail” and has “too important a role” in Ireland not to emerge from its current High Court examinership process.
The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.
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This week, Adrian dives into the murky, colourful world of online fraud, scams and cyber security.
He and security expert Brian Honan look at the latest threats, occasionally getting side-tracked by the pros and cons of encryption, password managers and just how famous an Irish celebrity you have to be for your face to be illegally attached to diet pills or cryptocurrency scams.
They also look at resources in place in Ireland to fight cybercrime and whether more is required.
The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.
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Zoom is the single biggest breakthrough service of the 2020 global lockdown, in or out of tech. Before February, it was a niche business tech tool. 90 days on, it’s a global household name. Grannies, schoolteachers and friends now use it daily. It has replaced ‘Skype’ and ‘FaceTime’ as our default verb for video-conferencing.
And the chief information officer, responsible for making large chunks of it work, is a man from Rathfarnham.
Harry Moseley is unlike a typical CIO. He’s relaxed and easygoing with the emeritus demeanor of a board member rather than the guy logging 14-hour days to make sure everything is ticking.
Adrian hears from Harry about the “upsetting” moments over security reports in recent weeks. He also touches on his childhood here, including growing up as a Jewish kid in Dublin.
Adrian also talks to Vanessa Tierney, CEO and co-founder of Abodoo, an Irish firm set up with a specialty in matching remote workers to employers.
In a wide-ranging chat, Adrian and Vanessa go beyond the clichés of remote working to discuss the future of cities and whether there’ll be a generational split in who wants to live in built-up areas.
The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.
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This week, Adrian talks to Jonathan Ruane, lecturer in global economics and management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), adjunct professor at TCD and a previous co-founder of Eventovate, which he sold in 2016.
Do Irish startups deserve a handout from the state? Or should it be considered a handup?
After all, aren’t startups supposed to define a bootstrapping and disruptive culture?
The two also tackle some much broader contextual issues around the culture behind startups and funding -- from anti-intellectualism to why inheritance tax should be increased to spur more innovation.
It’s a fascinating diversion into some of the deeper issues behind the daily debates that normally make up the bulk of discussions on the topic.
The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.
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In a packed episode this week, Adrian asks whether the gold rush for back-to-work thermal cameras in Ireland is warranted and looks at how startups are coping with live under pandemic conditions.
Thermal cameras are being painted as a key tech enabler to get Ireland moving again, from airports and hospitals to ordinary businesses. But TCD’s Dr Seamus O’Shaughnessy explains their limitations to Adrian in plain English.
Then the founder and chief executive of one of Ireland’s most successful indigenous software firms, Phorest, tells Adrian about startup struggles during the current lockdown.
He also explains how his company’s technology is helping hundreds of hairdressers in Germany to re-open safely.
The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.
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This week, Adrian talks to Alison.com founder Mike Feerick, who runs one of Europe’s biggest online learning platforms with 15m registered users.
Telling Adrian that April brought 600,000 new registrants to his site, Mike explains why the writing is on the wall for universities which are “too expensive” and “out of date”.
“Most employers just want to know that you can do a particular job,” he says from his Galway base. “I loved being at Harvard but it was for the people I met there, not the actual learning material.”
The Big Tech Show is in association with Fidelity Investments.
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As the world watches governments’ introduction of contact-tracing apps, new research from Trinity College Dublin suggests that the involvement of Google could cause privacy problems in at least one contact-tracing model. Adrian Weckler talks to Professor Dough Leith, chair of Computer Systems at the School of Computer Science and Statistics at TCD, who has taken a close look at Google’s involvement in Singapore’s OpenTrace platform, used for its TraceTogether app. His paper, jointly compiled by TCD research fellow Stephen Farrell, concludes that Google’s Firebase Analytics could mean that supposedly anonymous users might be identified. It also warns about potential ad-targeting associated with the same technology. All of this comes after reports that the Irish contact-tracing app has undergone a recent design change, potentially involving Google in its makeup. And it comes as Google and Apple intensify their joint approach to contact-tracing, offering more data about how their API might work.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Adrian brings on veteran tech reporter John Kennedy and former TD Noel Rock to run through some of the stories of the week. Noel gives an insight into the pressures that politicians can face from constituents on issues such as the erection of mobile masts, even when the science behind the arguments seems shaky. (He describes himself as an opponent of vigilante anti-5G groups.) John talks about how he sees tech companies coping with the lockdown and what we might expect to see next.
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It’s been described as ‘the safety net’ of the pandemic. But how much do we, or should we, rely on GoFundMe?
This week, Adrian hosts a Zoom call with Tim Cadogan, GoFundMe’s recently-appointed chief executive.
They talk about how much people are committing to GoFundMe campaigns here, including almost €1m to a ‘Feed The Heroes’ campaign in recent weeks.
Irish people remain some of the biggest givers per capital on GoFundMe, Tim says.
But Adrian asks Tim what it says about society that so many campaigns relate to things like medical bills or domestic emergencies. Are we letting authorities off the hook?
And they look more widely at whether tech companies have been a good or a bad influence during the Covid-19 lockdown.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We're become used to hearing giant web companies described as leeches, health risks and agents of discord.
But has the tone changed, now that we're all eagerly using their services to survive while locked in our homes?
Are we quietly shelving our pearl-clutching hysteria about the dangers of 'screen time' and notional long-term health fears over using smartphones?
Do we care as much if their free, or cheap, platforms slurp data? This week, Adrian Weckler is joined by senior Irish tech investor (and Draper Esprit partner) Brian Caulfield and data protection expert (and Castlebridge research director) Katherine O'Keefe to weave a path through the pros and cons of the scenario we now find ourselves in. The panel also discuss the finer points of working from home, as well as the challenge that brings.
And they look at the benefits and pitfalls of Ireland's upcoming contact tracing app.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, we dive into the topic of Twitter bots. Specifically, we ask the question: are pro-government bot accounts being operated in Ireland? We also explain what a Twitter bot is, how they typically operator and how to check whether a suspected account is a bot or not.
Adrian Weckler is joined by digital marketing consultant Damien Mulley to explore the figures.
Then Adrian is joined by Paul Campbell, founder of the Irish ticketing reservation platform Tito, who has just launched an online video conferencing platform called Vito. Along the way, Adrian and Paul talk about their insecurities, phone voices and the Irish tech ecosystem.
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This week, Adrian talks to Docusign CEO Dan Springer about what it’s like to announce 100 new jobs in Dublin and then have to hire them all over video links.
But that’s exactly what Docusign is doing. The e-signature company is flying at present with over €1bn in revenue likely in 2020, even with the current pandemic.
And like plenty of other multinational tech firms, it has chosen Dublin as its biggest base outside the US west coast.
Dan also tells Adrian why he took a few years out of his career to raise his two teenage sons as a single father, and why attitudes towards working men who do that remain a little antiquated.
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Week 2 of Ireland’s Covid-19 virtual lockdown continues with many trying to get used to working from home.
Videoconferencing is an especially steep learning curve. “Tom? Hello, Tom? Tom we can see you, but we can’t hear you. Try hitting unmute. Actually, hold on - it might be star six. Try star six. Tom? Tom! TRY STAR SIX.”
Aside from our diet going to hell and our backs and shoulders wrecked from slouching in inappropriate chairs, Adrian looks at some of the tools to use and talks to tech and privacy expert Fintan Swanton about some of the associated issues that may arise.
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Everyone is being told to work from home — including Irish and Sunday Independent journalists.
So Adrian rang some of them up to see how they are getting on. He found them coping in a brave new world of Microsoft Teams, virtual private networks and remote working amongst kids, dogs and builders.
Adrian spoke to Sunday Independent business editor Samantha McCaughren, Irish Independent business editor Donal O’Donovan and Sunday Independent deputy business editor, Fearghal O’Connor.
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After a row over whether authorities should or should not have revealed the name of an Irish school where a student tested positive for Covid-19, this week’s panel digs deeper in other potential privacy conflicts that may arise.
Should health authorities be asking infected people for their Google tracked location? If things got really desperate, would they even look for dystopian tools, such as Clearview’s facial identification database?
The panel, which sees Sunday Independent deputy business editor Fearghal O’Connor and Castlebridge chief executive Daragh O’Brien join host Adrian Weckler, also debates whether remote working is actually a viable option for people in the longer term. Given that remote working tools have been around for a decade, why would people suddenly start to become interested in the practice now?
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This week, Adrian is joined by Pocket-lint.com editor Chris Hall and Buzz.ie digital editor Mark Kavanagh to go through the wave of top smartphones just launched.
Is Samsung’s folding Flip Z a good deal? What are the flaws, if any, in the S20 Ultra’s incredible camera zoom? And how are soon-to-be announced OnePlus 8 Pro and Google Pixel 4a models shaping up?
The panel goes in depth on the pros and cons of each model to give you a better idea of what’s worth getting.
The Big Tech Show is in association with Vodafone Business.
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This week, Adrian Weckler is discussing 5G and taking a critical look at its strengths and weaknesses.
To help him make sense of whether it is all it’s hyped up to be, Adrian is joined by Bobby Healy, founder of Manna Aero, Con Kennedy, Chief Technical Officer with Ericsson Ireland and Niall Campion, co-founder of VRAI.
The panel discusses everything from drone usage to 4K movies to the pros and cons of ‘millimetre wave’ 5G.
The Big Tech Show is in association with Vodafone Business.
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This week, Adrian Weckler’s panel looks at what’s coming next with TV. Is traditional ‘linear’ television mortally wounded, as Eir CEO Carolan Lennon recent told Adrian?
Or can Sky, Virgin Media and broadcasters like RTÉ and the BBC hold their own against the tens of billions being invested by Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video and all the rest?
Adrian is joined by Sunday Independent business editor Samantha McCaughren and the cofounder of Dublin-based startup LogoGrab, Alessandro Prest.
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The former Ireland international rugby player, Jamie Heaslip, is becoming a textbook example of how to transition from sport into modern business.
Eschewing the role of a corporate mascot, Heaslip has chosen the role of tech investor and promoter, meeting young startups to see whether they’re worth a punt.
Some are. One of his earliest bets has just paid off spectacularly. Pointy, the retail listing startup cofounder by Charles Bibby and Mark Cummins, recently announced its acquisition by Google in a nine figure deal. Heaslip is understood to have made a six-figure sum from his initial investment.
Other bets, such as the analytics firm Kitman Labs, look promising for a significantly augmented return in the near future, too.
And if tech hits another bubble, he has a few Dublin pubs to fall back on, such as The Bridge 1859 and Lemon & Duke, as well as a job in Google he could probably return to.
But Heaslip doesn’t think that startup tech is going south anytime soon. He has just taken a deeper role in a fintech firm, Flender, that has created a new online platform to match lenders with small businesses who want to borrow sums up to €300,000.
Adrian Weckler sat down with Heaslip to ask him about tech, trends, culture and the transition from sport to investing.
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This week, Adrian sits down with Eir CEO Carolan Lennon, who says:
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the Huawei controversy isn't about security but is a "US-China trade issue"
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Minister Michael Ring’s claims about Eir are "factually untrue"
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Traditional ‘linear’ TV is toast: we will all move to apps-based television in time
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Eir hasn’t decided yet on a new price for GoMo after the current €12.99 “for life” offer runs out
Lennon also says that Eir’s 5G launch wasn’t kept private because of the presence at the event of Huawei chairman Guo Ping. And she rejects criticism that using Huawei telecoms equipment in Eir’s 5G network makes it any less secure than other networks.
“It's very hard to take the smoke away from everything that's going on around this,” she says. “But obviously security is really important to us. We've just recently won the Garda mobile business tender. So it's not stopping us winning business. Do American multinationals mention it? Yes. But has it stopped us winning business? No It hasn't. So we're going to push on, we’re committed to them, they've been a good supplier and we're very happy with the kit and the quality of the network.”
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Twitter is an angry place. It can drain your natural sense of goodwill and manners. This week, we look at how to behave on the world’s narkiest social network. Adrian is joined by Victoria Turk, features editor of Wired UK and author of the international hit book, ‘Digital Etiquette’.
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Politicians like to say that elections are won on doorsteps. But most of them now spend almost as much time on their Facebook pages and Whatsapp groups.
But who is policing Facebook and messaging groups for misinformation, planted false stories and algorithm-gaming?
It’s not the BAI. It’s not the telecoms regulator, Comreg. And it’s not the Irish Press Council or Press Ombudsman. Unlike broadcasting or print, there is no official policing for fairness, accuracy or balance.
Invariably, it comes back to the companies themselves.
This week, Adrian is joined by Damien Mulley, founder of Mulley Communications, to look under the hood of how targeting works on social media during an election campaign. Mulley talks about an experiment he ran where he was able to target a handful of influential TDs and their political advisers for a couple of euro using Facebook’s ad system.
And the two discuss the darker side of the political system and what it can throw up by way of trying to skew political debate online.
Techniques have moved beyond the creation of outright false headlines claiming that a particular candidate has been endorsed by the Pope.
Modern methods can be subtle and sophisticated, playing off algorithms. This includes getting dozens, or hundreds, of people to swarm online, all leaving comments under a news article or candidate post. Or to search repeatedly for a candidate’s name in an attempt to skew the search engine’s algorithm.
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Trinity College Dublin has a €1.1bn plan to build a new high-end innovation district’ plan that would see the cream of academic and industrial talent come together.
The government is to consider putting €150m into the 10 year plan. The resulting five-acre space near Dublin’s Silicon Docks hopes to create a new super-hub for engineering, scientific and tech research, mixing academic stars with multinationals and venture capitalists.
Dublin, the college says, should have its own equivalent to Boston’s Kendall Square or London’s Crick Institute.
But is the plan a bold new template for the next stage of Ireland’s industrial ascension? Or is it another symbol of a two-tier city where the super-successful push ordinary citizens out? Could it be both?
Adrian sits down with TCD’s chief innovation and enterprise officer, Dr Diarmuid O’Brien to find out.
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In this podcast, Adrian and Donal O’Donovan (Irish Independent business editor) continue to look ahead at some of the big tech trends, services and products that are set to make a difference in 2020.
As usual, Adrian makes a couple of calls on what he thinks will and won’t pan out.
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It’s the last week of 2019 (and, depending on your view, the decade). Instead of looking back, we’re going to make some predictions about what you can expect to come at you in tech over the next year.
Adrian is joined to discuss his predictions by Donal O'Donovan, Irish Independent business editor.
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This week, Adrian and Buzz.ie editor Mark Kavanagh list the best tech gadgets of the year.
These include phones, headphones, smart speakers, cameras, smartwatches, drones, laptops and desktop PCs.
The two also look forward to what is expected in 2020.
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Some Irish tech firms prosper, some go bust and a great many simply run as a going concern.But there is a small number of Irish companies that still get talked about as ones with ‘potential’, even when they’re ten years old and bringing in millions.
Ding, the Dublin-based firm that lets people top up their mobile phone credfit, may fall into this category.
The company, founded by Mark Roden, has done pretty well to date. It has annual revenue of €38m based on over €500m of phone top-ups through its system. These come via deals with over 500 mobile operators and availability through 600,000 retail outlets.
But talk to anyone in the Irish tech industry and it’s still discussed as something yet to see its finest day. Roden himself sets this tone, saying it hasn’t quite fulfilled its ambition.
This week, Adrian sits down with Roden to talk about what he thinks the company should do next.
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Almost two in five Irish people are leaving themselves open to a likely data breach by not updating their passwords.
This week, Adrian sits down with Brad Brooks, CEO of OneLogin. The two talk about online security and why one in five Irish adults haven’t updated their passwords in over two years.
One factor in understanding the lack of security hygiene over passwords in Ireland may be a professed level of annoyance that Irish people say they feel at online security measures.
Almost a third of us get frustrated by the familiar Captcha random image and number generator system, while nearly one in five get irked by one-time passcodes via text or email.
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How do you cope when your startup fails? The issue of mental health among founders isn’t widely discussed. This week, Adrian talks to Eamon Leonard, the popular Irish startup founder who found it tough going after one of his companies failed. Eamon talks candidly and honestly about the difficulties he had when things didn’t work out.
He also talks about the new company he has co-founded, Boundless, and recounts the eye-opening tale of how he was ripped off by fraudsters when trying to buy equipment for a side-business making whiskey.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
While the world tries to decide whether political advertising should be allowed on Facebook, the company has quietly chosen Ireland to try out a new privacy feature over almost all ads.
‘Off Facebook Activity’ will let you cut off advertisers from your Facebook identity, either individually or in total.
The idea is to address a problem that came into sharp focus in the Cambridge Analytica scandal -- what happens to your personal data outside your Facebook sessions?
The new Off Facebook Activity tool will show you the apps and websites that connect to your Facebook profile, usually for the purposes of advertising, and will let you wipe that slate clean. You can then choose not to let Facebook use your general browsing activity to show you personalised ads.
Will people use this tool, or just ignore it as they do for many of the privacy settings that services such as Facebook introduce?
That’s a question that Adrian puts to David Baser, a senior product director at Facebook responsible for the new Off Facebook Activity tool.
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This week, Adrian sits down with the world’s most famous PR man and CEO of Edelman Public Relations, Richard Edelman.
The Chicago-born executive, whose firm takes in €800m a year in revenue and has an expanding Irish office, gives Adrian his take on the state of the world.
This includes the advice he would give to Mark Zuckerberg, why newspapers have to change their business model and the circumstances under which company bosses should speak openly about contemporary issues.
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Thought food delivery by drone was a distant tech promise?Think again.Irish entrepreneur Bobby Healy says his first Manna Aero drone flights with burgers and chips will start in January.
The former Cartrawler CTO says he has clearance from Ireland’s regulators to do it and will start with an area servicing 30,000 people.In the near future, he says, he hopes to scale to 50,000 delivery drones for the Irish and UK markets.Is this really about to happen?
Adrian sat down with Bobby at the Web Summit in Lisbon to talk about how Manna Aero will work, the challenges facing it and Healy’s future ambition for the company.
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In what he says will be his last wide-ranging Irish interview “for two years”, Paddy Cosgrave speaks at length and in-depth about his business, his politics and his thoughts about the future.
The Web Summit is still growing and is quite profitable, while sister events Collision and Rise are also expanding.
Paddy reveals some of the background as to why he has campaigned against tax lawyers and an “unjust” economic system in Ireland. He also answers the allegation that he is adopting a double standard with regard to some of his stances, in relation to what he does with his own companies.
This is a must-listen interview for anyone interested in the Web Summit founder.
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This week, Adrian and Buzz.ie digital editor Mark Kavanagh look in depth at the pros and cons of Google’s latest flagship smartphone, the Pixel 4 XL.
Adrian is disappointed with the phone’s battery life and lack of an ultrawide camera, while Mark loves the phone’s 90Hz refresh rate. Both admire Google’s Assistant and Android 10.
The two journalists also compare and contrast the new Pixel with the other top phones on the market, while Adrian lists his three favourite smartphones of 2019.
Adrian and Mark also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of signing up to Eir’s budget mobile operator, GoMo. Adrian thinks it’s a no-brainer, even if Eir goes back on its word and doesn’t keep the price at €10 per month for 80GB of data.
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This week, Adrian invites a couple of guests on to ask about whether we’re anywhere close to realising aspirations of making Dublin into a ‘smart city’.
What is a smart city, anyway? Is it just some public wifi? A few sensor-stacked bins? Or does Dublin have a plan for drones and autonomous vehicles?
And should we avoid the example of Songdo, the South Korean city that spent €40bn creating a new smart citadel but where hardly anyone wants to live?
Adrian talks to Jamie Cudden, Dublin City Council’s Smart City programme manager, and Dr Zohreh Pourzolfaghar from DCU’s School of Computing.
For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/
The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.
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Clothes manufacturers are starting to build voice technology into their garments, while Amazon’s new doorbell tech allows it to have autonomous conversations with whoever’s at the door.
This week, Adrian Weckler goes through some of the latest developments in voice technology from companies like Google, Amazon and Nuance.
He’s joined by Bret Kinsella, founder of Voicebot.ai and commentator of the year on voice technology as defined by the Alexa Conference.
For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/
The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Creating start-ups is hard. -- few of them succeed.
This week, Adrian talks to two Irish co-founders, people at very different stages.
Des Treanor is the co-founder of one of Ireland’s most successful ever start-ups, Intercom.
Ian Kehoe is the co-founder of a new online media business company, The Currency.
Both have different perspectives, motivations and challenges.
Adrian asks both about particular issues that crop up and how they get over them.
For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/
The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Adrian reviews the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Max. Although smitten by the new cameras on the updated handsets, he thinks that the unsung feature that will sell the iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max models is the impressive new battery life, up to five hours per day longer than last year’s iPhone X models.
He’s joined by John Kennedy, former founding editor of SiliconRepublic.com and now editor of ThinkBusiness.ie, a business information platform run by Bank of Ireland.
“After a week using the new iPhone 11 Pro Max, I would upgrade to it for two reasons,” says Adrian. “The cameras and the battery life. When it comes to cameras, I’m slightly biased. For me, the camera system on a phone is about half the reason I choose it. Apple claims that battery life on this model is up to five hours longer than last year’s X Max and it feels like it.”
“I know that battery life has always been a pain point for iPhone users compared to some flagship models from rivals. So this is actually a very big deal, especially for power-users or business people relying on it as a workload tool. If anything, Apple is underplaying it.”
For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/
The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Adrian looks at some of the nuts and bolts of starting a company with a couple of entrepreneurs who have succeeded and failed several times.
From choosing a place to work to asking for money from friends and family, Adrian gets the insights from Voxgig and Nearform founder Richard Rodger and serial startup activist Dave Cunningham.
For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/
The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week on the Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler looks at 5G not from the point of view of speed or connectivity but health. It’s been an issue bubbling under, in rural areas especially, as to whether mobile phone radiation is safe.
The regulators say it is but there are some campaigners who don't believe that is so. Are they mere conspiracy theorists or is there more to it?
To find out, Adrian spoke to Tom Butler, Prof of Business Information Systems at UCC, who believes in the dangers, and Prof Kevin Curran from the School of Computing at Ulster University, who believes that if the dangers were as bad as people were claiming it wouldn't have gone unnoticed.
For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at: https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/
The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Adrian sits down with a specialist from St John Of Gods, Professor Colin O’Gara, who says he is seeing more and more people brought in for addiction to video games. Adrian asks Prof O’Gara about the scale and depth of the problem, its effects and how to diagnose it. The two also discuss possible treatments for the problem, including the kinds of medication prescribed. And Adrian asks Prof O’Gara to put the issue into context with established medical addictions, such as gambling, alcohol and drugs. In an era when Irish teenagers are competing globally in esports competitions, how should Ireland deal with the clinical side of it?
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This week, Adrian tackles the thorny issue of mobile and broadband operators which advertise "unlimited" services that actually have hidden limits. He sits down with the head of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI), Orla Twomey, to ask why that organisation allows such a misleading situation to exist. Orla tells Adrian that while the situation is being reviewed, there is a rationale for allowing operators to advertise unlimited services that have limits.
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This week, Adrian sits down to find out what, if any, big ideas Dell Ireland's new country manager has.
Mark Hopkins starts off defending some industry jargon before expanding into why he thinks tech will have a bigger impact on our education system.
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This week, Adrian sits down for a long, in-depth discussion with Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon on why she stopped the government from making its Public Services Card into a national identity card through the backdoor. After years of controversy, this week her office ruled that the PSC card cannot be used as a necessary form of identification for services outside the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. The move effectively puts a halt to any plans the government had of making the Public Services Card a ‘national identity card’ through stealth. “The Department does not have a legal basis for processing personal data when it's in the case of a person who's seeking to avail of a service with the public sector body other than the Department itself,” she tells Adrian. However, she stopped short of saying that the Public Services Card must be scrapped. “Any cards that have been issued, their validity is not in question by anything we've found in this report,” she said. “They can continue to be used in the context of availing of free travel or availing of benefits that a person is claiming from the Department.” Dixon qualifies this by saying that the PSC can be used voluntarily by a citizen as a valid proof. “If someone optionally brings their public services card to renew their driver's license, there is no issue with that. But what we're saying is that it must be an option. A public sector body cannot now require someone who doesn't already have one, to go and procure one in order to avail of their service.” The PSC has been criticised by civil liberties groups who claim it is an attempt by the government to create a national identity card by stealth. Earlier this year, UN special rapporteur on poverty, Professor Philip Alston, said that the PSC “runs the risk of becoming a centralised database containing intimate, personal information” that was unsafe. Government ministers have repeatedly claimed that the PSC is a protection against fraud, identity theft and helps to cut costs. They say that the card simplifies identity registration for public services and reduces the need for duplicate forms and the repetition of processes. However, Dixon tells Adrian that the PSC as currently constructed is overarching and is sometimes being used without good reason or legal justification. “An example is the Department of Education’s appeal system around school transport,” she said. “It now says that you have to procure a PSC card to make an appeal. It’s very difficult to see why that’s a requirement.” Dixon also tells Adrian that she has opened a new investigation into the owner of The Huffington Post, Techcrunch and Yahoo. The Irish DPC office is now probing Verizon Media, formerly known as Oath, around complaints that its online media properties do not give users choice around online ‘cookies’ that track user activity online. Meanwhile, Dixon tells Adrian that her office’s first major GDPR decision relating to a multinational tech firm looks set to be about Whatsapp. “I expect that file to land on my desk in the next fortnight,” she said. However, it is then likely to take “months” to arrive at a formal decision due to a statutory process of “examination and analysis”. Dixon’s office currently has 61 statutory enquiries underway under GDPR law, 21 of which are focused on tech multinational firms. These include Facebook (8), Twitter (3), Apple (3), Whatsapp (2), Instagram (1), Google (1), Linkedin (1), Quantcast (1) and Verizon Media (1). Under GDPR law, the Irish DPC can fine a company up to 4pc of its annual turnover.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After October 31st, will pensioners still be able to travel on a free pass around Ireland? Will online shops based in the UK be able to process customer information from Irish shoppers?
It’s in serious doubt, says the guest on this week’s podcast, Castlebridge’s Dr Katherine O’Keeffe, an expert on data privacy. Adrian and Katherine go deep on why a no-deal Brexit spells chaos for many ordinary activities you wouldn’t have thought of.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Adrian sits down with Cillian Kieran, who recently scooped €3.8m in seed funding for his privacy-focused software startup called Ethyca.
The two discuss possible solutions to today’s privacy problems.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Eir debate
Eir's audacious €1bn proposal for an alternative National Broadband Plan stirred up a nest of debate and dissent in recent weeks. One of the senior political figures who backs Eir is Timmy Dooley, Fianna Fail spokesman on Communications, Climate Action and Environment. He sat down with Adrian to explain why he thinks it's worth taking a risk on an Eir proposal and what he would do as a government Minister. Dooley also outlined why he is in favour of a new digital tax on online advertising.
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The fad of the week is FaceApp, which makes even the most cherubic youngster look like Gandalf.
But we really helping ‘The Russians’ compile a giant facial database? Or is the current hysteria just this month’s instalment of the neverending moral panic around tech?
Adrian Weckler and Fearghal O’Connor (deputy business editor for The Sunday Independent) discuss the issue from a political and technological perspective.
The two also examine Instagram’s trial move in Ireland to remove ‘likes’ from individual posts. Will it do anything meaningful to help ease mental health issues suffered by teens? And will it cripple so-called ‘influencers’?
Lastly, Adrian and Fearghal look at how online subscriptions are taking bigger and bigger chunks of our monthly pay cheques. Adrian’s now stands at over €100 – with media companies now switching over to paywalls, how far can it go?
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Women in Tech is a new podcast series presented by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent.
Samantha speaks to Irish women involved in tech who are dispelling myths and breaking down barriers.
On this week's bonus episode, she meets Jennifer Cox, who is a CSM Associate Security Engineer with Tenable, an international cyber security company.
With a background in theatre and media studies, Jennifer is not your typical STEM candidate and Samantha spoke to Jennifer about how and why she got into tech and why not being afraid to speak out has stood to her throughout her career.
For more from the series go to: www.independent.ie/podcasts/women-in-tech/
The Women in Tech podcast series is in association with 100% Electric Nissan Leaf.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week Adrian talks to Justin McLeod, the founder and chief executive of the dating app Hinge, which claims to be the fastest-growing such app in Ireland and the UK.
As well as recounting his own dramatic love, McLeod talks about algorithms, safety, age verification and what works best for those using dating apps.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Women in Tech is a four-part series presented by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent.
Samantha speaks to Irish women involved in tech who are dispelling myths and breaking down barriers.
On this week's episode, she meets Iseult Ward, co-founder of Foodcloud, the food waste distribution platform, that in just seven years has already distributed 22,000 tonnes of food, moving meals every 28 minutes and helping over 9,100 charitable groups in Ireland and UK.
Samantha spoke to Iseult about the original idea, getting it off the ground, scaling in Ireland and internationally, as well as the growing issue of food poverty and waste.
For more from the series go to: www.independent.ie/podcasts/women-in-tech/
The Women in Tech podcast series is in association with 100% Electric Nissan Leaf.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hailo was a roaring success. Then, two years ago, it became MyTaxi. Since that happened, the company has had its struggles. Now, it’s rebranding yet again in a €3m move – to ‘Free Now’.
Adrian Weckler has a candid chat with the company’s general manager, Alan Fox, about why the name change was necessary and whether technology can improve some of the issues the firm has faced.
They also talk about future ideas, such as ‘surge pricing’ at busy times, as well as current features, such as a new €5 cancellation charge.
And Adrian asks whether it’s a good or bad thing that regulations prevent companies like Uber and Lyft from operating similar services to many other European and US cities.
‘Free Now’ is the largest taxi company operating in Ireland with 12,000 drivers, 540,000 “regular” customers and 4.5m passengers carried in the first three months of this year.
It is also part of a wider taxi transportation group across Europe, ultimately owned by the German automotive giant Daimler.
And it is starting to introduce new services such as shared taxi trips between multiple passengers via its new MyTaxi Match app feature. In future, it hopes to add a fleet of electric scooters around Dublin.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Women in Tech is a four-part series presented by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent.
Samantha speaks to Irish women involved in tech who are dispelling myths and breaking down barriers.
On this week's episode, she meets Ingrid Devin, Director of Dell's Women's Entrepreneur Network which creates a forum for global women founders and CEOs to share best practices, build business opportunities, explore international expansion and access new resources.
Samantha spoke to Ingrid about the network and the lack of women investors in general as well as her own career in the tech world.
For more from the series go to: https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/women-in-tech/
The Women in Tech podcast series is in association with 100% Electric Nissan Leaf.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Women in Tech is a four-part series presented by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent.
Samantha speaks to Irish women involved in tech who are dispelling myths and breaking down barriers.
On this week's episode, she meets Vanessa Tierney, founder and CEO of Abodoo, the remote working platform that is seeking to empower and enable more remote working for people in Ireland and abroad.
Samantha finds out how an illness forced Vanessa into thinking about remote working, how she runs her digital platform from County Wexford, and why more Irish companies need to consider remote working as an option for their employees.
For more from the series go to: https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/women-in-tech/
The Women in Tech podcast series is in association with 100% Electric Nissan Leaf.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Is AIB considering facial recognition for when you walk into a branch?
Adrian sits down for a wide-ranging chat with the CIO of Ireland’s biggest bank about its imminent plans.
Tim Hynes also assesses the risk from ‘challenger’ banks such as Revolut, while asserting that AIB’s 200 physical branches still “wash their face”, even in an era where so many payments are going cashless.
And the two talk in depth about security challenges that banks – and many major companies—face.
Tim was also in studio to discuss AIB’s sponsorship of ‘Techies for Temple Street’ the annual event that raises thousands for Temple Street Childrens’ Hospital.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Adrian’s guest is Fianna Fail’s spokesman for science, technology and research, Kildare North TD James Lawless.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Adrian challenges James over Irish politicians’ apparent disconnection from tech issues which, at times, veers into illiteracy.
From demanding passports for Facebook access to dithering over broadband rollouts, Adrian goes over some of the reasons why Irish politicians are often held in low esteem by the public on tech issues.
Adrian and James also discuss ways of improving some issues, such as scientific research and cyber security.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Women in Tech is a new four-part series presented by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent.
In the series, Samantha speaks to Irish women involved in tech who are dispelling myths and breaking down barriers.
On this first episode, Samantha is joined by Regina Moran, Enterprise Director with Vodafone Ireland, who, as an engineer by background, has always been involved in the STEM areas and is well-versed in breaking the mould from her early days.
Regina talks about her own career and degree in engineering despite not having honours maths, plus the importance and need to introduce girls to STEM subjects before the age of 12.
Regina is a chartered fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, served on the council and executive and as president from 2014 to 2015, during which time she promoted STEM and the role of women in engineering.
She has received a fellowship of Irish Academy of Engineering, is also a member of the Government-industry led Smart Futures Advisory Board and is a former non-executive director of EirGrid.
For more from the series go to: https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/women-in-tech/
The Women in Tech podcast series is in association with 100% Electric Nissan Leaf.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Adrian spent a week in China getting a look under the hood of Huawei, the world’s most controversial tech company.
He discusses his experience here with two INM acolytes, Sunday Independent deputy business editor Fearghal O’Connor and Sunday Independent business correspondent Michael Cogley. He recounts how:
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He ended up singing with a band in a Chinese bar only to discover the guitarist was a senior Huawei executive (who then unexpectedly agreed to a revealing interview)
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He coped with being behind the great firewall of China, with no access to Google, Facebook, Twitter or any or their associated services (and how the virtual private network he paid for simply didn’t work)
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He navigated the astonishing scale of Shenzhen, a giant Chinese city that was designed after local politicians visited Shannon in Co Clare in 1980, and which now has 20m people (unlike Shannon in Co Clare)
Adrian, Fearghal and Michael also discuss the wider implications of the Huawei controversy for global security, multilateralism and our choice of mobile phone in the future.
The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland.
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This week Adrian is joined by Independent News & Media (INM) head of product (and business columnist) Steve Dempsey and INM chief commercial development officer Mark Coan. The subject matter is the current and future prospects of the Irish media. 2019 has so far seen multiple Irish media companies announce layoffs. What does the future hold? Can paywall subscriptions turn traditional titles’ fortunes around? What other models are working at present? Or are there simply too many titles and publishers for the market to sustain at present?
The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland.
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This week, Adrian is joined by data privacy expert Daragh O’Brien and child protection campaigner Alex Cooney of CyberSafeIreland.
The three discuss the reappointment of Helen Dixon as Ireland’s data protection commissioner to a second five-year term.
They also look at why, a year after the digital age of consent was raised from 13 to 16, it is no harder for children to access social media services and whether the UK’s upcoming age-verified online pornography system can teach us any lessons here.
Finally, the three touch on the issue of e-voting and whether it may be time for Ireland to think again about what was a disastrous introduction of the technology here 15 years ago.
The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland
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Zander Lurie is the boss of the world’s biggest online survey company. The Nasdaq-listed firm has over 17m users and is expanding all over the world. Lurie reflects on the process by which he became SurveyMonkey CEO after the tragic passing in 2015 of his friend Dave Goldberg, husband of Sheryl Sandberg and former chief executive of SurveyMonkey. “The hairs still stand on the back of my neck, thinking about Dave,” he says. He also talks about the expectations on a modern tech CEO to take positions on controversial issues in the news, including immigration or President Trump. And he chats in detail about a number of other things, from the perception that Big Tech now has it all wrapped up to Dublin’s appeal for Silicon Valley.
The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland
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This week, Adrian sits down with Richard Bruton, the government Communications minister at the centre of the state’s €5bn plan to run subsidised fibre broadband to every one of 540,000 rural homes and businesses in the country.
He establishes for the first time that the value of the finished rural broadband network will only be a fraction of the €3bn the state is subsidising.
Diving deep into some of the issues around the controversial rollout, Adrian asks Minister Bruton some other key questions about the current state of the broadband tender, including:
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SUBSIDIES – did the government’s subsidy rise when Eir pulled out of the National Broadband Plan tender competition, leaving only one bidder?
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WHAT THE NETWORK IS WORTH TO THE BIDDER – how much does the government value the completed broadband network and is it giving this asset away too cheaply to a private company, Granahan McCourt?
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PROFITABILITY – how much is the bidder ‘allowed’ to make under the agreed broadband operation?
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FAILSAFES – what does the bidder have to fail at for the state to legally claim the network back?
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FINANCE – how much responsibility does the state take in checking up on how the bidding company is financed, including the source of that finance?
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SECRECY – why can’t more detail on non-sensitive issues, such as the rate of return the bidder is allowed to make, be disclosed?
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TAXPAYER VALUE – what was the difference, if any, between the bids of Eir and Granahan McCourt?
And much more. For anyone with an interest in Ireland’s biggest ever communications contract, this is required listening.
The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland
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While attention rests on the National Broadband Plan, eir still holds the keys to many of Ireland’s biggest telecoms problems.
This week, Adrian sits down with company chief executive Carolan Lennon to ask some of the key questions.
On the National Broadband Plan, Adrian asks whether Lennon whether knowing that eir would collect close to €1bn from rental of its poles to the National Broadband Plan was a factor in the company withdrawing from the tender to oversee responsibility for the whole project. Lennon responds in detail about why eir pulled out.
Adrian also asks whether, with €400m of new debt being taken on by eir, the company is again being sucked into a pattern of getting overstretched and over-leveraged.
Other topics are discussed at length. For instance, eir has also promised 99pc geographic mobile 4G coverage of the country. Is this really possible without tens of thousands of new masts?
Does Lennon believe that there’s room in the Irish market for three fully-fledged mobile operators?
Are the days of the landline and home phones numbered? In an era of WhatsApp and Skype, is there a long term future for traditional mobile phone numbers?
The two also discuss potential uses for 5G and the long term future for telecoms companies. And Lennon says that she believes the copper network that eir owns is on the way out.
Lennon even reacts to a suggestion from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last week that the government recently considered renationalising eir.
The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland
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Is the National Broadband Plan a visionary thing for Ireland? Or is it a grand folly?
This week, Adrian talks exclusively to Peter Hendrick, the chief executive of the sole remaining bidder for the €3bn state-subsidised contract.
The two talk about rollout timetables, cost and technology.
Adrian asks why the last 20pc is being done with fibre and not wireless which, in the short term, might provide a cheaper solution.
He also asks whether National Broadband Ireland, the new entity which will build and maintain the network, has resolved its differences with Eir and why it will cost €1bn to rent Eir’s infrastructure over the coming years.
For anyone interested in the detail of the National Broadband Plan debate, this is worth listening to.
The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, we look at war stories from one of the fastest-growing online scams around – email fraud.
Whether it’s invoice redirection fraud or CEO fraud, the phenomenon of faking corporate emails to siphon off thousands from a business is rampant in Ireland.
Adrian Weckler looks through some of the reported incidences of this happening, including to Dublin Zoo, Trinity College and the Louth and Meath Education and Training Board.
He is joined in studio by one of Ireland’s most senior experts on fraud, Conor Flynn of ISAS. Together, they dig down into the mechanics of how the scam takes root, from the first breach to the ultimate withdrawal.
They also look at the role of ‘money mules’, often in the guise of third level students who ‘rent’ their bank accounts to the fraudsters, and what might happen to them.
Finally, the two discuss ways that companies can protect against it.
The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland.
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There’s a lot of nonsense spoken about how rural broadband can be delivered.
This week, Adrian Weckler and Irish Independent business editor Donal O’Donovan go through some of the myths and tropes around the process.
They ask whether wireless or 5G might be an alternative. They also look at the cost of the rollout and whether the government can be trusted or not. And then they discuss the basic questions underpinning the whole process: is rural broadband to every home important? If so, is a state subsidy justifiable? And if that’s agreed, should it be high speed infrastructure or a patch-up job?
Also: Adrian gives a very brief, spoiler-free review of ‘Avengers Endgame’.
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Do people really care if Facebook does unwarranted things with our personal data? Are we, in the press, simply overestimating how much it bothers people? The latest privacy breach involves the company saying it 'mistakenly' uploaded the private email contacts of 1.5m people. It has also admitted that millions, not thousands, of Instagram passwords were stored in plain language. But it's all being greeted by a big 'meh' from the public. Other than a few campaigning media outlets and privacy activists, thi+e latest revelations appear to barely bother anyone. Have we just become numb to a neverending stream of Facebook privacy screwups? Or does the company's unmoved account membership figures suggest that people see the breaches but conclude that it's a price worth paying for the utility they get out of it? In this week's podcast, Adrian and Castlebridge privacy expert Daragh O'Brien debate whether Facebook's privacy issues are regarded with disquiet anymore. They also look at the Irish data protection commissioner's recent guidance to schools, where the watchdog said bishops and principals who tell parents that they can't take photos at school events simply "because of GDPR" are wrong. And they consider the wider legal and ethical implications of when taking photos is and isn't okay.
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ZXvz7II5SHeDjDpGvTugj
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So now we know: Amazon is listening to our conversations. Some of its staff are told to listen in to what we tell the Amazon Echo to do.
The company has been very secretive about this. But after a Bloomberg story delved into it, the company admitted that it listens to a small percentage of voice recordings to help its artificial intelligence figure out things like accents better.
But that’s not all the workers hear. Some say that they have picked up disturbing things, like assaults. But they’re told not to do anything about it.
There are a whole host of issues that crop up around this.
Is it okay for Amazon staff to physically listen to our voice commands, even if it’s just for quality control?
Do we believe them that it’s just for quality control?
And a longer term, thornier issue arises -- what responsibility, if any, does a platform have if it detects something like a sexual assault?
Joining Adrian to discuss this in depth is Patricia Scanlon, the founder and chief executive of Soapbox Labs, which specialises in childrens’ speech technology and artificial intelligence.
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This week, we split the podcast into two segments: an interview with GoFundMe chief executive Rob Solomon and an audience with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on his visit to Dublin.
While the 34-year-old billionaire was careful in his engagement with Irish journalists during the week, he did agree to talk for a few minutes. Adrian heard what Mark Zuckerberg is thinking on the issues of using Facebook as a tool for election interference, privacy in Europe, harmful content and why Facebook wants to start pushing for the transfer of data from one app to another as a right.
GoFundMe’s Rob Solomon explained to Adrian why Ireland is the highest per-capital user base of his fundraising platform’s services. He also talked Adrian through the ways that GoFundMe guards against scam fundraising attempts and gave examples of how the platform disallows misinformation drives, such as recent attempts to raise money for anti-vaccination programmes.
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Apple’s big screen adventure (on a little screen)
Why is Apple launching a TV and movie service? And will it be any good? This week, Adrian and Daragh O’Brien of Castlebridge wonder whether Apple can make it in Hollywood against the likes of Netflix, Disney and HBO. They also ask what the future is for old-fashioned linear TV broadcasters like RTE and BBC — will they essentially become the channels of sport, news and talent shows? And the two look at another prominent issue in Ireland this week: broadband. Specifically, will the government’s National Broadband Plan be rolled out? Should it be? How important is broadband, anyway?
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This week’s €1.5bn EU fine against Google for shutting rivals out of its online ad system begs the question: is Google too big? Should it be broken up? And if so, what about Facebook and Amazon?
In the US, this is exactly what Democratic US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is proposing. But is it feasible? And what would it mean in terms of services?
To discuss the practical and legal considerations around this, Adrian is joined by Philip Andrews, the head of the EU & Competition Law Group at McCann FitzGerald and by Donal O’Donovan, business editor of the Irish Independent.
The panel looks at how much of our lives are spent using Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon and whether there’s any hope for new entrants to the market. They also wonder whether Europe’s muscular regulatory approach toward the big tech firms is sufficient or whether more radical anti-trust remedies are needed.
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One of the roles for 5G is to connect self-driving cars. But before that happens, this generation of cars is currently being linked up to 4G networks for safety, upgrade and entertainment purposes.
This week, Adrian talks to Barry Napier whose Cubic Telecom is one of Europe’s main providers of mobile connectivity to cars and other everyday things we use.
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So Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook to be a ‘privacy first’ company. Totally expected, right?
This week, Adrian and Castlebridge founder Daragh O’Brien dig down into Mark Zuckerberg‘s new corporate mission to see whether it holds water.
They discuss the chances — or not — of Facebook being allowed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner to make messages from Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger ‘interoperable’, as Zuckerberg sets out.
And they look at what Ireland’s new Online Safety Commissioner will be expected to do.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What's it like being Facebook's policeman?
This week, Adrian sits down for an in-depth chat with Helen Dixon, Europe's most powerful data protection commissioner.
They talk about Facebook, her approach and what exactly it takes for her office to kick off a probe.
Helen has some surprising revelations, such as her office's recent look at whether Facebook is secretly recording us through our phones (and what they found).
Adrian also asks Helen whether GDPR is causing endless pop-ups on websites that get ignored and if it has helped the big tech firms while hurting small players and startups.
And theres lots more, from CCTV to what the office is planning in the future.
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Adrian sits down with a German artificial intelligence expert to talk about why Europe isn’t doing AI right.
In particular, Dr Stefan Heumann argues that member states and the European Union need to start taking AI seriously as a concerted effort if Europe is to compete with China and the US.
Dr Heumann is a member of the management board of Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV), a non-profit think tank working at the intersection of technology and public policy in Germany.
Adrian spoke to him at the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin.
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After a very big week of broadband announcements in Ireland, Adrian sits down with the person promising the most radical plan.
Imagine boss Sean Bolger says that his wireless broadband company will build a new national network to connect over 1m homes, including 400,000 of the 540,000 rural homes currently earmarked under the National Broadband Plan.
This, he says, will be done by building hundreds of sites (such as masts) around the country, which will deliver the service to antennae on rural homes.
But is this just another promise from a telecoms company? When will the rural homes he’s planning on connecting see the service?
And does this mean he intends to scupper or challenge the state-subsidised scheme, which would use taxpayers’ money to do an enhanced fibre-based version of the same thing?
Bolger has decades of experience in the Irish telecoms market. His was the company behind the WiMax wireless service that rose and fell some years ago.
But rural Ireland may be his biggest challenge yet.
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You started a company. You sold it for over €60m. Now you’re going back to start something new from scratch. The question is: why? Why get back into the trenches and try to prove yourself all over again? “It's the struggle, the fight. It's pulling together the most talented people to do their respective jobs and having that team become greater than the sum of their parts.” That’s Alan Coleman, the Dubliner who sold homegrown telecoms billing company Britebill for a fortune in 2016. He’s back with a new startup, Sweepr, and he’s aiming higher. He’s this week’s podcast guest on ‘The Big Tech Show’. One of the questions Adrian asks is what gets a startup entrepreneur really motivated. “Once I have an idea in my mind that this is inevitably going to be the way in which the world works, I then think, ‘why couldn't I do that? Why shouldn't it be me that starts the path to that inevitable outcome?’ I'm an extreme optimist.” Adrian and Alan also talk about privacy, the Ring doorbell and what’s coming next in tech. “There’s an enjoyment out of taking something that is literally a fleeting thought and building it up into a working company,” says Coleman.
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This week, a double-header: one of Ireland’s best known venture capitalists talks money, while a tutor for beginners discusses what we need to know. Adrian catches up with entrepreneur and Draper Esprit financier Brian Caulfield to talk about the state of things for funding and company-building in Ireland today. Then he meets Aisling Mackey, Ireland’s ‘computer tutor’ to talk about some of the skills that we should brush up on.
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How relevant are colleges? This week, Adrian sits down with the president of Dublin City University, Prof Brian MacCraith, to talk what universities do well and what they struggling with.
Adrian asks Prof MacCraith why Irish universities keep slipping down the international ratings. He also asks about the possible introduction of a student loan system or higher fees for richer students, two things long recommended to keep Irish universities afloat but which no political party here will accept.
The two also discuss whether online learning services such as Galway-based Alison.com or US-based Udacity and Coursera are chipping away at the basic rationale for having physical universities in the first place.
Prof MacCraith also denies that there is a ‘snob factor’ with regard to Irish kids choosing a ‘northside university’.
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Podcast host Adrian Weckler has been writing columns saying that web shopping — and Amazon in particular — is seriously altering the fortunes of offline retailers and the future of the ‘high street’. But the head of one of Ireland’s biggest retail chains, Harvey Norman’s Blaine Callard, thinks this is baloney. This week, Adrian invites Blaine on to tell him why. Blaine tells him that empty spaces in high streets and run down shopping centres are a misreading of the data and have more to do with parking charges, bad zoning and plain bad retailing than Amazon. He also reserves delivers harsh verdicts on retailers such as Clerys and Sears. Adrian remains unconvinced, but gives Blaine a good run at why he thinks the media are running with a false narrative. The two recorded the podcast in Harvey Norman’s newest flagship outlet, the 58,000 square foot store in Tallaght.
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In the wake of a Huawei executive arrested for spying in the EU, do western countries face a threat to their national security from Chinese telecom and tech companies? Or is the current controversy over who builds 5G networks being infused with scaremongering and paranoia by US politicians and commentators?
Adrian sits down with Declan Ganley, the long-time Irish telecoms executive who claims that China has a military-industrial ethos which threatens western security. Adrian puts it to Declan that there is little evidence so far linking telecoms rollout that involve Chinese infrastructure firms with spying or other nation state activities. But Declan isn’t convinced, arguing that there is a greater national ‘mission’ in China that cannot be ignored.
The two also debate how 5G licences should be rolled in future, with Declan arguing that the current system is broken.
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It’s arguably the most talked-about tech question of our time – is Facebook listening to your physical conversations to serve you ads? An increasing number of people are convinced that this is the case. To take a technical and ethical dive into the issue, Adrian is joined by three people who are deeply knowledgeable about the science, marketing and cultural tech behind what it would all entail. Facebook ad expert Damien Mulley doesn’t believe it’s happening and explains why. Dr Patricia Scanlon, founder of voice AI specialist firm Soapbox Labs, is sceptical but thinks it might be possible under certain circumstances. And culture journalist Roisin Kiberd takes a step back to consider its place in our wider relationship with tech.
If you like informed, in-depth commentary on a big tech issue of the day, this is worth your time.
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From the demise of Facebook among younger people to the death of DSLR cameras and Amazon’s destruction of high street retail, Adrian looks at what to expect in the year ahead.
He’s joined by Patrick Walsh, founder of the coworking space, Dogpatch Labs in Dublin. Along the way, they also discuss why people are turning off traditional offices and whether alternatives, such as Ludgate and Republic Of Work in Cork, Portershed in Galway and HQ in Tralee will mop up the business of hosting growing tech firms.
This is the 52nd Big Tech Show podcast of 2018 – a big thank you to all our listeners for tuning in over the year.
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Is audio a missed opportunity for newspapers? A bold young Irish startup, NOA, has struck deals with publishers such as Bloomberg, the New York Times and the FT to create a new audio news service from those publications’ daily news stories.
The idea, according to NOA’s Gareth Hickey and Shane Ennis, is to create a ‘Spotify for News’. Adrian chats about the idea and wonders about what kind of audio delivery might work best. Inevitably, he slips into a few impressions of well-known radio and advertising people he thinks might do it well.
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Phones, smartwatches, hifi, tablets, laptops – Adrian goes through some of the best tech to get over Christmas and recaps on what has impressed during the year.
He’s joined by up-and-coming creative Jake McCabe, a hifi and video expert who dabbles in all things tech.
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All the statistics show that when it comes to VC cash, men get almost all of it. In fact, they snag way more than the percentage of startups they solely found.
In conversation with two Irish VC investors and a startup COO, Adrian wonders if it’s partly down to male founders simply being less shy about making grandiose, bold statements about their firms. And what should investors actually do about it? Is positive discrimination desireable? Or should it be a slow evolution?
Giving expert analysis on the funding climate, as well as life around Irish startups, are this week’s guests: Edel Coen (investment executive with Draper Esprit, a pan-European venture capital firm), Isabelle O’Keeffe (principal at Suir Valley Ventures) and Austin Spivey (chief operating officer of Wia Technologies).
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In the original dot com boom, all you needed was an idea and you were showered with millions in funding. But is the same now happening with cryptocurrency and blockchain? This week, Adrian meets David Wachsman, the founder of the world’s largest Blockchain focused PR agency. It has chosen Dublin as its headquarters to serve Europe. Adrian asks whether crypto is a bandwagon that people are jumping on. The two talk about possible use cases versus actual examples of blockchain in action now. David also deals with the question of why so many fringe industry players have been catapulted into a starring role just because they are now involved in the crypto industry. And Adrian talks about examples of ethical breaches in journalism within crypto-oriented media organisations, specifically the issue of articles for cash.
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This week, Adrian throws off the shackles in a free-ranging conversation with the Irish Independent’s environment editor, Paul Melia. The two discuss the current state of big tech companies, why electric cars are a tough sell at present and the credibility gap that cryptocurrency evangelists sometimes suffer.
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We talk about the life of a startup founder being loaded with pressure and stress. But one of Ireland’s best known technology executives, who went from managing a $5bn division of Cisco to starting and selling his own startup, says that life in a big company was actually far more taxing than running your own business.
Barry O’Sullivan spoke to Adrian Weckler about it, and a host of other things, in this week’s podcast.
“I never missed any of the kind of trappings of being a senior executive at a company like Cisco,” he says. “I would say the stress level of being a CEO of a startup for me was about 10pc of what it was to be a senior executive at a company like Cisco.”
“When I ran a $5bn business at Cisco, it was a continuous grind. There were always presentations to the board on investments and acquisitions and so on. And every big company has lots of politics. When you’ve got a job like that, at a company like Cisco, it’s a big job and it’s very well paid. You always kind of have to be on all the time, you know?”
“What was most stressful was that decisions often took a long time to make. You would think that as a very senior executive that you would have the power of all the decisions you want to make. But quite a lot of stuff had to be presented and has to be decided with your peers. At a startup you can just do it.”
O’Sullivan now advises a $33bn venture firm, Permira, on investments and acquisitions. He also sits on the board of Genesys, the tech company that bought his Altocloud startup and which has just announced 200 new jobs in Galway.
What happens when the tech company you build becomes wildly successful? Do you change?
At the Web Summit, Adrian sat down with the Des Treanor, co-founder of Intercom, the €1bn software firm. They talked about dealing with success, company culture, artificial intelligence and where Intercom goes from here.
The Big Tech Show is brought to you this week by PwC.
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Adrian returns to Dublin following Apple’s MacBook Air and iPad Pro launch. Joined by Sunday Independent business correspondent Michael Cogley and INM head of product Steve Dempsey, he goes through the most important features of what was announced and asks whether pro tablets can be a long term replacement for current laptops.
Irish Independent business editor Donal O’Donovan joins the discussion to figure out whether the Web Summit, which kicks off in Lisbon on Tuesday, matters to Irish business. Is the event too closely tied with founder Paddy Cosgrave? And does Cosgrave’s foray into political topics help or hinder the conference?
There’s also a look at the politics and ethics around the mass walkout at Google during the week, followed by a dissection of what may be holding up the National Broadband Plan.
This week’s episode is brought to you in conjunction with PwC.
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Mark Little is one of Ireland’s most recognisable media technology figures. From being an anchorman on RTE television to founding Storyful to becoming boss of Twitter in Ireland, he has seen the business from all angles.
Now he’s back with a new venture that aims to reinvent app-based news. Together with former journalist and Facebook executive Aine Kerr and ex-Storyful collaborator Paul Watson, Little has launched ‘Kinzen’.
Adrian sits down to talk to Little, Kerr and Watson about the problem they’re trying to solve and what lies ahead for the news business.
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When do comedy and technology mix? Why is social media so much to the fore in critical analysis of current events? This week, Adrian chats to a contemporary master, David Schneider, about the role of comedy and social media in our daily lives. Schneider is one of the writers and actors on seminal British comedy series such as 'The Day Today' and 'I’m Alan Partridge’. Adrian also catches up with Lory Kehoe, the Irish boss of the blockchain specialist company, Consensys. They discuss some of the applications for blockchain in business today and whether it cold have a role in creating new economic models for the media industry.
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In a week that saw the resignation of the Minister responsible for the National Broadband Plan, Adrian asks some blunt questions about whether the whole rural rollout plan is going to be delayed and, if so, for what reasons. Adrian is joined in analysing the whole sorry saga by the Irish Independent’s political correspondent, Laura Larkin and the Sunday Independent’s business correspondent, Michael Cogley.
Adrian also catches up with Oisin Hanrahan, the Dublin tech entrepreneur who raised almost €100m for the US online service firm Handy Technologies, after the company was sold to Nasdaq-listed Angi Homeservices.
And Adrian gets a hands-on look at the latest range of updated Amazon gadgets, from the Echo speakers to the new Echo Input, as they prepare to launch into the Irish market.
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How do you ask for money for your startup?
That’s the question that Adrian put to Peter O’Malley, the co-founder of a new startup that has raised €1m from a variety of ‘business angels’ that include Paddy Cosgrave, CPL boss Anne Heraty and former Paddy Power chief Breon Corcoran.
Is there a difference between approaching ‘friends and family’ and business contacts? What sort of plan do you need to have in place?
Peter talks about his own experience and how he and co-founder Galen Lowney realised that there was space in the market for their startup, Advisable.com.
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How do you ask for money for your startup?
That’s the question that Adrian put to Peter O’Malley, the co-founder of a new startup that has raised €1m from a variety of ‘business angels’ that include Paddy Cosgrave, CPL boss Anne Heraty and former Paddy Power chief Breon Corcoran.
Is there a difference between approaching ‘friends and family’ and business contacts? What sort of plan do you need to have in place?
Peter talks about his own experience and how he and co-founder Galen Lowney realised that there was space in the market for their startup, Advisable.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week, Adrian talks tech and politics with Tommy Collison, an Irish transplant to Seattle. Tommy brings us up to date on where tech and politics intersect in Silicon Valley.
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With almost two weeks of rigorous testing under his belt, Adrian Weckler assesses the iPhone Xs and Xs Max . Is the screen on the Xs Max too big? Has battery life improved? Is the Xs now the best cameraphone, or is Huawei’s P20 Pro still in top spot? And can that big, big price be justified, or is it worth waiting for next month’s iPhone Xr? Adrian also meets Jamie White, the young Dublin entrepreneur who set up Start Summit and Leading Social, a marketing agency specialising in social media strategies for big companies.
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This week, Adrian reports from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California where he was on hand to test out the newly-launched iPhone Xs Max, Xs and Xr phones. The big talking points are around that new 6.5-inch screen, a whopper by Apple’s standards. But the other surprise feature came in the shape of the new Apple Watch Series 4’s ECG sensor and ‘fall detection’ feature. Separately, Adrian talks to the futurist Lucie Greene about how the big tech companies are likely to affect our lives in coming years. Greene is the author of 'Silicon States: The Power and Politics of Big Tech and What It Means for Our Future'. Greene gives a glimpse of a dystopian near-future while avoiding much of the over-egged hysteria that sometimes compromises work in this genre. Voting via block-chain or emergency services on demand (with 'surge pricing' models built in) may be on the way, she says, as Silicon Valley ramps up its designs on cities and towns. Greene also takes a look at the political manoeuvres of big tech companies and their founders, from how Uber and AirBnB riles up local communities to the once-likely presidential ambitions of Mark Zuckerberg.
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This week, Adrian Weckler talks to the global IT security celebrity and virus hunter Mikko Hypponen.
Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, says that we should be taking threats from North Korea a lot more seriously than we do.
He also explains why, in the hierarchy of worst malware outbreaks in recent years, Petya was probably worse than Wannacry.
And he hears how Adrian is guilty of perpetuating one of the stupidest security practices in Ireland today.
(Hypponen is one of the keynote speakers at this year’s Dublin Information Sec 2018, taking place in the RDS on October 15th.)
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This week, Adrian talks to Daniel Gross, who grew up in Israel and went to Silicon Valley as a teenager to seek fame and fortune through the famous accelerator, Y Combinator.
He set up a company called Cue and sold it to Apple for a reported $35m in 2013 before going to work for the tech giant. Last year, he left Apple to become a partner in Y Combinator and now he’s a founder of Pioneer, which says that it is looking for ‘lost Einsteins’ or talented young people who aren’t getting a chance in life.
His thesis is that there’s massive potential in young people who are missing out because they don’t come from the ‘right’ background. Pioneer is being backed by Patrick Collison and the famous investor and former Netscape founder Marc Andreesen, who are both helping to fund it.
Adrian and Daniel talk about his life, what inspired him and why he wants to help people get ahead.
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This week, Adrian sits down for an exclusive chat with Ryan Smith, the charismatic Utah founder of the €2bn software firm Qualtrics. As well as being one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world, Smith is on a mission to battle cancer. He started his company when he quit college to look after his father, who was diagnosed with cancer. While his dad survived, Qualtrics’ Irish boss Dermot Costello passed away earlier this year from cancer. (Costello, a huge presence in the Irish tech industry, spoke about this at length in a written interview with Adrian in January when he new he had only days to live. You can read it in full here: https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/news/tech-boss-choosing-to-define-his-life-by-optimism-not-illness-36456505.html) Smith talks about Costello’s importance to him personally and to Qualtrics and explains why the company has named its new Dublin headquarters after Costello. He also talks about his zeal for ‘5 For The Fight’, the $50m campaign he set up to battle cancer via research and how the Irish chapter has already raised close to €200,000 in less than a year. Smith also talks about the “underbelly” of the tech boom, which comes as in the form of soaring rents and property prices.
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This week, Adrian and the panel discuss the thorny question of whether social media services should be allowed — or obliged — to kick people off for airing views and opinions that are considered extreme or dangerous. It’s an issue that Twitter is currently hamfistedly trying to deal with in the case of Alex Jones, the American conspiracy theorist whose InfoWars channel has been accused of stirring up violent sentiment through its broadcasts and editorials. (Jones has argued that the September 11th terrorist attacks in the US were “an inside job” and that the Sandy Hook massacre, which killed innocent children, never happened.) Facebook and YouTube have kicked Jones and Infowars off. Are they right? Is this a question of freedom of speech or sensible policing by the social networks? Joining Adrian to debate the issue are Constantin Gurdiev, a professor of finance and a former editor of Business & Finance, and Jason O’Mahony, a political pundit and regular columnist with the Times Ireland Edition and Sunday Times. Gurdiev argues that it’s an overstep on the part of the social networks to ban voices, even ones as repugnant as Jones, as social networks are public spaces now. O’Mahony says that it’s proportionate to ban characters like Jones.
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They came to Dublin to seek success and fortune. This week, Adrian Weckler sits down with two ambitious, successful young entrepreneurs who have one thing in common: they came to Dublin for the promise of its tech industry. What did they find? Is Dublin the real tech capital they had heard about? Can you make it big here? What about those who say that Dublin is just a glorified big outsourcing centre for multinationals? American Austin Spivey (head of operations for Wia Technologies) and Sergei Lyubka (co-founder and CTO Of Cesanta) give a frank assessment of what’s good and bad about Dublin. Unsurprisingly, accommodation comes across as a nightmare. “I’ve found it harder to get an apartment here than in San Francisco,” says Spivey. “I would say that it’s really tough.” On the other hand, the quality of the people in Dublin and the number of other companies performing at a high level is a big draw, say Spivey and Lyubka. “Dublin is a proper tech capital,” says Lyubka. “Most of our market is the US so we could locate anywhere but Dublin is where we want to be.”
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This week Adrian Weckler looks at the list of sins Facebook is again having to answer for. Joined by political correspondent Laura Larkin and business editor Donal O’Donovan, the panel assesses Facebook’s excuses to an Irish government committee and looks at what might happen in the short term. Will there be a Digital Safety Commissioner? Will any political regulation actually materialise? And do people really care about all the hoopla around Facebook in the first place?
The matter of a fresh tech bubble is also explored, partially triggered by Facebook’s huge fall in valuation after its earnings report last week. But are today’s tech companies really overvalued or is this just more doom-mongering by commentators hoping to be correct at some point? The panel looks at the companies involved and the basic factors that could prove or disprove the existence of bloated valuations.
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There is a downside to tech cities. On the US west coast, where the biggest tech companies have their headquarters, there is also terrible homelessness.
In this podcast episode, Adrian goes to Seattle, arguably America’s fastest-growing tech metropolis.
He poses the question; why is homelessness is so bad in a city that’s booming so much?
While Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing and other huge firms soar, so does the number of people in tent cities alongside roads in the city.
It’s a dystopian scenario. Adrian asks the leaders of local homelessness organisations why it’s happening and talks to one local politician about the connections between big tech companies and the poverty problem.
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Having tested dozens of handsets this year, Adrian Weckler gives his verdict on what the best cameraphone on the market is at present. It comes down to a battle between three models: Huawei’s P20 Pro, Apple’s iPhone X and Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Plus. Adrian picks the winner, the runner up and the also-ran, as well as a budget alternative. Adrian also looks at some of the best summer technology gadgets on the market right now, including the best new drone, portable power bank and travel camera.
Adrian also asks an awkward question: should the biggest tech companies be doing more to get involved with local communities in Ireland?
He looks at the cases of Google, Facebook and Apple and compares them to a time 100 years ago when giant companies like Guinness felt a deeper responsibility to helping out in the communities they operated in.
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This week, Adrian gets a behind-the-scenes tour of Microsoft’s campus headquarters in Redmond, Seattle.
This includes a preview of the latest in he company’s ‘mixed reality’ headset, Hololens. It also includes a discussion on the ethics and future of artificial intelligence, which Microsoft is laying great emphasis on.
The company also lays out some futuristic plans, including a data centre under the sea.
And it gives a complete rundown of what the office of the future might look like, including giant collaborative touchscreens and meetings controlled by voice assistants.
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This week, Adrian Weckler talks to two women directing crucial operations in two of the world’s biggest tech companies.
The Big Tech Show travelled to Seattle to meet Emma Williams, the Dubliner who’s now Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Office Products Group.
As she tells Adrian, it was originally the study of Old Norse and Anglo Saxon English in Trinity College that gave Williams a propensity to learn open source code.
20 years on, Williams is directing some of Microsoft’s most important products, having left her mark on Bing, artificial intelligence and one of its newest initiatives, Microsoft Teams.
Adrian then met Emily Vacher, Facebook’s director of trust and safety. A former FBI agent, Emily recounts why she joined America’s famed law enforcement agency and how that led to a career in Facebook. She also talks about the tech giant’s latest initiative in Ireland, where Facebook has teamed up with An Garda Siochana to distribute alerts whenever there is a credible threat of a child being abducted.
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How has it come to a situation where a big tech company announcing 1,000 new jobs is freaking people out? This week’s Amazon jobs announcement has led to a backlash from people who feel it will put extra pressure on rents and infrastructure in the capital. “Where will they live?” “Oh great, even higher rents...” “Why are these jobs all in Dublin?” “How many will come from abroad?” 20, 10 or even five years ago, big job announcements were seen as a huge boost to the country. Today, they’re seen as a threat. Adrian Weckler and Irish Independent environment editor Paul Melia discuss the origins of the problem and potential solutions. The resentment appears to come from those trying to buy a home or rent an apartment. The already sparse stock of available accommodation gets thinner and thinner. A two-bedroom terraced ex-council home that sold for €280,000 three years ago now costs €400,000. A 450 square foot one-bed apartment that cost €900 now costs €1,200. Engineers can afford to pay this. Retail or service industry workers can’t. At the heart of the problem is the feeling that we haven’t gotten our act together on housing and infrastructure. So more and more of us are being squeezed out of parts of the city where rents and house prices are rocketing. But instead of blaming ourselves (planners, politicians, councillors, lawyers and countless Nimby-addled community associations) for the Wild West property market, we’re turning on companies offering new jobs. If only multinational firms would stop coming in with these jobs, things might be easier for ‘ordinary people’. Get lost, Google. Feck off, Facebook. Adios, Amazon. But are we that bad at steering our own country?
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This week, Adrian Weckler sits down with Stripe’s all-action chief operating officer, Claire Hughes-Johnson, one of the star speakers at this year’s Moneyconf conference.
They talk about solving problems, problems with homelessness in big tech cities like San Francisco and why there’s still a long way to go for online payments to fulfil its potential.
Stripe, the online payments firm set up by Limerick brothers Patrick and John Collison, is now one of Silicon Valley’s most important tech firms. It was valued at over $9bn a year ago but is almost certainly worth more now.
“Are robots actually becoming intelligent?”
“Is my job under threat from intelligent machines?”
“How close are Google, Amazon and Apple to giving me a real assistant?”
“Is Elon Musk right that machines are going to wake up and start killing us?”
These are the practical questions that dominate today’s discussions around artificial intelligence.
Adrian Weckler sits down with AI expert and founder of SoapBox Labs, Patricia Scanlon, to go through dozens of ordinary questions about what will now happen in normal life with AI on the rise.
The two also discuss the latest developments in voice recognition technology, including the question over whether we should have a right to know when we’re talking to a chatbot.
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This week, Adrian Weckler and Dr Mick O’Kerrigan from RecommenderX discuss 20 of the dumbest, faddiest tech ideas in recent years.
From connected forks and ‘smart umbrellas’ to 3D televisions and digital photo frames, the two mercilessly condemn the worst of our tech gadgets to their hall of shame.
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“I run a sports club – does this mean I have to ask them for permission to email now?”
“Is it the end of cold-calling?”
“What about if I want to email everyone about a charity I’m supporting?”
These are the practical questions that many are asking as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force.
Adrian Weckler sits down with Daragh O’Brien (founder of data privacy expert firm Castlebridge) to go through dozens of layman questions about what will now happen in everyday business – and normal life – under the new law.
Adrian also drops in on Pointy, the Dublin startup that has seen its product-discovery technology adopted by one in seven Dublin retail outlets. He talks with company founders Mark Cummins and Charles Bibby about their story and what the future has in store.
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Adrian is joined by culture journalist Roisin Kiberd and INM’s head of product (and Sunday Independent columnist) Steve Dempsey to pore through some of the biggest tech tissues of the week.
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Do people have a right to know that they’re talking to a robot (such as Google’s Duplex)? Is it amazing or creepy?
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Has Ireland made a mistake in choosing 16 as the digital age of consent rather than 13, like the UK? While there are pros and cons to the higher age, there’s a nagging feeling that it may be unenforceable and, ironically, let tech companies off the hook for properly catering to young teenagers (as it can now assume they’re all 16).
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Twitter starts hiding replies from those it deems to be ‘trolls’;
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Facebook’s removal of fake accounts and millions of pieces of content involving extreme violence or pornography;
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Airbnb to be banned from parts of Amsterdam – will more and more cities follow?
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Banks trawling through your social media – honesty or a step too far?
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How Elon Musk and Grimes got together over a nerdy science fiction joke about artificial intelligence.
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What sort of power do ‘influencers’ really yield? Adrian sits down with one of the most powerful social media figures in Ireland, who is a wanted man by commercial brands. James Kavanagh explains what he does, why it works and how he is now earning a multiple of what he did in previous jobs. Honesty and originality, he says, are key attributes, as well a particularly strong work ethic. He discusses how coming from a family of strongly motivated individuals, including his famous brother (Conor McGregor’s trainer), has influenced his aptitude to graft. James also talks about why Snapchat — the platform that originally gave him his biggest boost — now appears to be “stagnating” compared to Instagram.
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What’s the story with self-driving cars coming to Ireland? How will it all affect insurance? Will middle-aged men be able to bear giving up ‘control’ of their ‘rides’? And which cars already have significant self-driving capabilities?
Adrian sits down with two people who know all about it, Geraldine Herbert (Sunday Independent and editor of wheelsforwomen.ie) and Philip McNamara, co-founder of Mobility X, which is looking at the near future for autonomous vehicles.
The panel also look at the problems being faced with electric cars in Ireland, particularly why Irish people won’t buy them. And there’s a discussion on the very worst type of passengers which you might get stuck with.
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Communications Minister Denis Naughten sits down with Adrian and Fearghal O’Connor to talk of plans to make high speed broadband an “enforceable legal right” in Ireland.
The Roscommon TD also says that a new mobile coverage map for Ireland will become available at the end of the year, showing where all the blackspots are.
And after weeks of controversy, Minister Naughten also answers a few questions about media plurality in Ireland and when a ministerial opinion differs from a personal opinion when talking on the phone.
Other topics covered include the struggle of electric cars in Ireland, why the Minister himself doesn’t drive one and the future of Eir.
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This week Adrian sits down with the Emmy award-winning Boston tycoon who is the last man standing in Ireland’s controversial National Broadband Plan – Enet chairman David McCourt. Joined by Sunday Independent deputy editor Fearghal O’Connor, they discuss politics, Donald Trump, Angelina Jolie and the prospects for rural Ireland.
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In this episode, Adrian talks about digital consent, kids, Facebook, privacy and all points in between with Dylan Collins, the Tipperary founder and chief executive of SuperAwesome, a ‘kid tech’ company he founded five years ago and which is now valued at over $100m.
Adrian and Dylan debate some basic truths about the internet and social media, and also look Mark Zuckerberg’s performance in front of the US Congress during the week.
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This week, Adrian is joined by the CTO of Europe’s biggest airline, Ryanair. John Hurley talks about the barrier to putting wifi in the planes, those trumpet noises and whether Ryanair can really become the “Amazon of travel”. He also explains why, despite things like reserved seating now on offer, Ryanair won’t ever be getting into ‘business class’. The Sunday Independent’s deputy business editor, Fearghal O’Connor, is on hand to keep things civilised.
The panel also unbox Apple’s new sixth generation iPad and wonder aloud why telecoms executives and aviation executives tend to wear the same clothes.
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What are the rules when it comes to dating people you work with? In tech companies, there are some interesting new guidelines emerging.
To discuss this, Adrian is joined by Green Party leader Eamon Ryan TD and Irish Independent journalist Katie Byrne.
The three also discuss the future for electric cars and whether we’re caught up in too many techno-fuelled upgrade bubbles, resulting in poor environmental practices.
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Facebook is a mess — but are we really deleting it from our lives? Adrian is joined by outspoken privacy expert Daragh O’Brien and the group editor of Independent News & Media, Dearbhail McDonald, to talk about the fallout from the omnishambles that has been Facebook’s last week. Is this a basic question of right and wrong? Or are there other agendas at work? Will people really walk away from Facebook? Is the Cambridge Analytica episode a genuine tipping point for privacy law? Tune in for a full-throated discussion with a few conspiracy theories thrown in.
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Adrian sits down with Helen Dixon, the most powerful data protection enforcer in Europe.
Dixon talks about the factors and contexts involved in dealing with the likes of Facebook, Yahoo, Google and other big firms, which are based in Ireland.
The possible birth of a national identity card is also discussed.
In a frank exchange, Dixon also refutes the claim, sometimes thrown by critics of Ireland’s data protection record, that it’s a bad thing for her office to act as a sounding board for Facebook when it wants to introduce new features.
And she also warns that the upcoming GDPR will see some significant fines landing on companies across the land.
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In this episode, Adrian sits down with journalist Roisin Kiberd and Dublin TD Noel Rock to talk about Twitter, having a social media ‘score’ and Samsung’s newest Galaxy S9 phone.
Rock talks about using Twitter as a medium and what to do when you get it wrong. The panel also looks at China’s dystopian new ‘Sesame Credit’ score where citizens are rated according to everyday tasks such as separating their bins properly.
There’s also a discussion about the controversial Personal Services Card and the impact of International Women’s Day on tech companies, while Adrian takes the panel through an unboxing of Samsung’s €1,000 Galaxy S9+ smartphone.
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Adrian sits down with DIT head of design Barry Sheehan and freelance culture journalist Roisin Kiberd to talk about whether AirBnb is helping society or damaging it.
Sheehan, who rents out his one-bed house in Dublin using AirBnb, says that it’s not detracting from the rental stock available to struggling families.
The panel also looks at the short New York Times career of Quinn Norton, whether journalists should be free to express opinions on Twitter and the new phenomenon of people picking fights with robots.
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Adrian sits down with award-winning Irish press photographer, Steve Humphreys, to talk about the best cameras on the market, how to take a good photo and what type of camera you should use on different occasions.
Is a full frame model really necessary? What are some good tips to get the best out of a single lens when travelling? Where does taking photos of people now sit with modern privacy rules?
Steve also recounts some dramatic personal stories from his life as a press photographer, including the moments behind some of his most famous award-winning shots.
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Best phone? Or Windows laptop under €1,000? What about noise-cancelling headphones? Or mid-level camera? Adrian is joined by Independent tech whizz (and Dublin Roller Derby maestro) Sara Devine to go through some of the most common buying decisions that listeners throw up. Sara and Adrian also pit the iPad Pro against Microsoft’s Surface Pro in what turns out t be something of a hardware battle royale.
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Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave sits down with Adrian to talk bluntly about Irish journalism, politics, the property crisis, the future of tech and a skewed balance of power that multinational firms have over Ireland’s industrial future. Paddy also talks about AI and cryptocurrencies ahead of Moneyconf, the Web Summit’s financial technology event happening in Dublin this June.
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Adrian is joined by former Ireland rugby player (and Android enthusiast) Mike Ross and long time Apple user Dermot Daly to talk about the latest phones. The three compare the iPhone X to top Android models, including Samsung’s S8, and look at which one to choose. The panel also digs down into other recent developments, such as Amazon’s launch of Alexa into the Irish market and whether it’s worth getting an Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Plus, or whether it’s worth holding on for an Apple HomePod.
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Adrian is joined by Leinster and Ireland rugby international player Jamie Heaslip, who talks about his favourite tech and why he has become a keen investor in a number of Irish startups.
Jamie also talks about being an adult intern in Google (twice), his admiration for blockchain technology and his future after rugby.
Other topics this week include smart homes, Elon Musk, electric cars and Apple.
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This week, Adrian talks to one of the world’s most infamous hackers, Kevin Mitnick, about what it’s like to be on the run for two years, get caught and then spend a year in solitary confinement.
Mitnick says that he was punished too harshly for his crimes and that the companies he hacked did not suffer to the extent they pleaded.
Adrian is also joined in studio by the Dublin co-founder of one of Silicon Valley’s fastest growing startups. Intercom’s Des Traynor talks to Adrian about ‘unicorn’ tags, how he and his cofounders persuaded Twitter boss Biz Stone to become an investor and whether tech culture has become toxic. They also discuss some of the issues around gender imbalances in tech at present.
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After a week of tech utopia at CES, Adrian looks at the some of the gadgets to come out of it – the growing influence of Alexa, giant TVs, drone cars and the coming wave of AR and VR glasses.
These topics, together with artificial intelligence in our daily lives, are discussed with this week’s guest, one of Ireland’s most successful tech entrepreneurs. Steve Collins built gaming companies such as Havok and Kore, more recently, co-founding the fast-growing mobile firm Swrve. He now focuses his energy as an investor in future technology for Dublin-based Frontline VC.
Adrian and Steve also look at whether Elon Musk is right to warn us all about the coming robot tide.
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“Bitcoin will reach $200,000 by the end of 2018.” That’s the view of Reuben Godfrey, one of Adrian’s guests on today’s show, who insists that the rise in the cryptocurrency’s valuation is not a bubble.
Another Bitcoin expert, John Gleeson, explains to the podcast how to go about buying Bitcoin for the first time if you’re a beginner.
We also discuss the cost and process of replacing your phone’s cracked screen.
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Adrian is joined by award-winning tech journalist Marie Boran and INM ‘newsonomics’ expert Steve Dempsey to talk about whether the media will survive in 2018. The three also take a look at how robotics and social media will affect society in the next 12 months and go through the most important trends of 2017. There’s a last chance to win one of two Motorola Moto G5 smartphones.
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Is the ‘gig economy’ exploitative or a source of opportunity? Adrian discusses its pros and cons with Oisin Hanrahan, the 34-year-old Dubliner who raised €100m for Handy.com, an online cleaning and handyman service he cofounded.
The two also look at gadgets, artificial intelligence and whether Facebook has more responsibility to society now than it did in previous years.
There’s also one of two Motorola Moto G5 smartphones to be won.
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In the first episode of The Big Tech Show, technology editor Adrian Weckler and Neva-Labs cofounder Mark Little discuss startups, gadgets, Facebook and the future of social media.
Little, a former RTE Prime Time anchor, Storyful founder and head of Twitter Ireland, questions the quality of the news that Facebook and other social networks show us every day.
Weckler and Little also compare existing media funding models with emerging ones, such as Patreon.
Little also explains some of the barriers of building a global startup out of Dublin.
And there’s a quick roundup of the gadgets to avoid giving your loved ones this Christmas.
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