James and Andrew talking tech is always a great part of the week.
This week as usual the show is so full, see the notes below, that we just scratch the surface on the cool and unusual items of the week.
Click for the podcast.
Here are the notes!
Im getting into AI
Low tech but love it
Now that’s a firework show!
Cambridge Analytica fall out continues
Lets talk bots
Udrive is launching their Pay-per-minute car rental service in Sharjah. It’s a convenient and cheap way of driving when you pay only when you drive (more details – attached).
Please let me know if it’s of interest for you to meet with Hasib Khan (founder) for a chat about commuting/travelling and opportunities around it.. I’ve attached his bio
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Please find attached the latest news from Udrive, a dedicated pay-per-minute car rental service that today announced the launch of its services to residents and visitors of Sharjah.
Highlights:
- Developed as a smartphone app-based service, Udrive offers affordable rental car services across Dubai and now Sharjah.
- The new service will initially provide 100 vehicles, as part of its plan to offer the smartest and innovative transport modes in the emirate.
- Udrive cars can be booked and reserved for via a dedicated app, offering the most convenient car rental option in both emirates. This keyless access and the ability to park for free across the key areas of the city, where permitted, as well as free petrol, means drivers can go anywhere and at any time.
- Members only pay for the time they drive. No security deposits, minimum rental time or expensive border crossing fees. After 4 hours customers will drive 20 hours, the remaining day, for free, including 150 km free mileage.
- With more than 20,000 registered customers, Udrive currently records 600 trips per day with the over 100,000 trips recorded in 2017.
A new documentary from the director of Who Killed the Electric Car? is now available to stream for free this weekend, courtesy of entrepreneur Elon Musk. Do You Trust This Computer? explores the rise of artificial intelligence in all aspects of modern society, and features commentary from industry figures such as Stanford University professor Jerry Kaplan, director Johnathan Nolan, and journalist John Markoff. The film premiered recently at the Laemmle’s Monica Film Center in Los Angeles.
“[Director] Chris [Paine] and his team have done an amazing job with this movie. It’s a very important subject that will affect our lives in ways we can’t even imagine — some scary, some good. It’s a subject that I feel we should be paying close attention to,” said Musk in an announcement. “I think it’s important that a lot people see this movie, so I’m paying for it to be seen to the world for free this weekend.”
Instagram it is important as a marketing tool, sort of.
The bottom line is that brands marketing on Instagram don’t need to worry about this change just yet. But if your company isn’t already investing much time and money into the platform, perhaps it should: A Pew Research Center study published this month found that 35% of U.S. adults use Instagram, a 7% increase over 2016.
Here’s an interesting one.
A while back, LinkedIn started supporting clickable hashtags again, after disabling them for several years due to lack of use and questionable fit on the professional social network. Now, it seems LinkedIn is keen to push the use of hashtags as a key sorting option for on-platform content, with some users actually being forced to add a hashtag to their post to better categorize their entry.
Google or Dropbox is there a better service?
Dropbox wins the tight race
Pitting Google Drive versus Dropbox was always going to be a tight race, as both offer some of the best cloud storage features available today. Both services have expansive free and paid for versions, as well as solid consumer protections and file sharing capabilities. Time and again though, we had to give the win to Dropbox, because it just offers that bit more than Google Drive.
However, your needs are dependent on what you want to use the cloud storage facility for. If you have a few files and folders or are merely giving cloud backup a try, Google Drive would be our first recommendation, as its free offering is vastly superior to Dropbox’s. Google Drive is also excellent for those who are plugged-in to Google’s ecosystem, but for everyone else, Dropbox offers the superior service.
With faster file syncing, better password control for shared links and the ultimate unlimited storage package if you take out a business account, Dropbox is our pick.
This is a cool jean jacket that I need!
Cool website! Tracking things around the earth! Issue is does my mac support the view?
Solo official trailer!
Amazon R&D Spending top!
Amazon spent more on research and development last year than any other company in the US.
The Seattle company spent $22.6 billion on R&D last year, according to Factset data earlier reported by Recode. The tally includes technology and content spending.
Amazon, best known for its online store, has expanded into physical stores like its cashierless Amazon Go store and its book stores. It also sells a popular line of smart speakers powered by its Alexa digital assistant and creates original content for its Prime Video service.
Google parent Alphabet follows Amazon at No. 2, with $16.6 billion in R&D spending. The rest of the top five are Intel with $13.1 billion, Microsoft with $12.3 billion and Apple with $11.6 billion.
