361 Podcast

The team discuss the tech they've added to their 'smart homes' since last year's challenge. They discuss what stayed and the new items that have been added.

After some time away the team are back to (prematurely) end the crypto-currency challenge. We talk about why and the challenges for using things like Bitcoin for anything other than speculation.

** Nothing in this podcast is investment advice. ** Recorded in mid December 2017, the team talk about their progress with their 'Crypto Challenge' and the dawning realisation that Bitcoin (and the like) might not be as usable as money. We learn a little about how this technology works, how (and why) its value might change, and share our own tentative first steps of buying and selling for ourselve...

This week the team tell bad Christmas cracker jokes and discuss gift ideas for last-minute shoppers. We look back at the topics we discussed in December 2012 (including - would you believe - Snapchat) and confirm with Ewan that, yes, it's also Christmas in Denmark. You heard it here first...

This week the team discuss 'FinTech' - the apps and services hoping to displace traditional banks and their products. We look at some of the most interesting offerings for consumers for everyday spending, foreign exchange and borrowing, considering which firms have what it takes to be successful. We also talk about AirPods, briefly.

This week the team discuss the ways apps and services fail to keep our data safe. From deliberate data theft to bad design we discuss the worst we've known and how the Apple and Android ecosystems are adapting to these threats. We also launch this season's challenge on crypto-currencies. This episode was recorded in late September 2017.

This week the team talk about the state of social media and how it's changed since we were early adopters. We talk about how and why we use various networks and how that's changed over time and our reactions, from quitting to shopping. We cover the services we know well and some newer ones we - well some of us - struggle with. Could it be Snapchat isn't for us?

We're back (sorry for the wait) and this week we're re-visiting our smart home challenge. What's the long-term verdict on the products we bought last season, what have we changed and would we recommend? Also, were you aware of the 'neat hair' situation in Nordic banking? Ewan has the latest.

After a short break we’re back with the final episode of the season. We’re looking at smart ‘stuff’ again… Ben’s been on the Citymapper smartbus trial run in central London and Ewan’s been doing an extended comparison of Google Home to Amazon’s Alexa. Rafe’s also been messing about with bees.

This week the team talk about mobile working… Do we still need laptops or is it possible to do ‘real’ work on an iPad. Does the device even matter or is it the software that drives users’ behaviour. We talk about ‘transformer’ devices, young people, keyboards and clipboards. Rafe also provides a duck-house update (so you can stop emailing to ask).

Having pioneered previews of events after those events have actually happened (last week), the team look-back at some of the interesting topics from Mobile World Congress 2017. Rafe gets excited about 5G; Ben gets nostalgic for Blackberry keyboards and Nokia snake; and Ewan still thinks it was all a waste of time.

After a brief break (important operational reasons, nothing to see here) the team are back catching up on the news, answering listener questions and taking a quick MWC preview. We cover duck houses (yes, really), how not to be in a 360° picture you’re taking, get an epic home camera review from a listener, cloud vs local smart-home controls, one smartphone hub to rule them all and Samsung taking o...

This week the team re-visit home automation, a year on from our ‘smart-home challenge’. Ewan tells us about a break in (or was it?) and we discuss what we kept from he challenge and what we’ve added since, along with the frustrations of ‘dumb’ systems with apps and new houses built without smart features. This episode was originally scheduled for release in early January - sorry about all that Chr...

This week the team look back at Consumer Electronics Show, trying to understand the themes that emerged: voice (and Alexa) everywhere, home automation and ‘emotional’ robots. Rafe, our ‘man on the ground’ gives us his view. Ewan’s still in Denmark and has discovered it has a land border with Germany… who knew?

Happy New Year! We’re back and - seasonally - talking about our travel experiences again and how mobile influences it. Ewan’s saved from disaster by Amazon Prime Now in San Francisco (seriously, how are they not sponsoring this yet?), Rafe’s excited by a QR code in a cathedral (don’t judge) and Ben wants to talk to Alexa in his hotel room (who needs friends?).

This week we look forward to 2017 - we think it’s the year of mobile… again (but this time it’s all about ‘mobile first’). We talk about what this really means, how we know, where it’s happening and why consumers’ preference is a far more important factor than the technology. It’s still a bit chilly in Denmark.

This week the team talk about Amazon’s smash-hit home assistant ‘things’ - the Echo and the Dot - and the on-board personality Alexa. We think they’ll sell by the ton this holiday season and wonder why we enjoy them so much compared to Siri. We discuss how we use them, the extra ’skills’ you can add and setting up simple home automation. WARNING - we say ‘Alexa’ a lot this episode so mute your Ech...

The team are back, now only two-thirds London-based. Ewan provides in-depth coverage of whether it gets cold in Denmark in winter and we (eventually) turn our attention to the fall-out from Samsung’s disastrous Galaxy Note 7 launch. Is the Samsung brand terminally damaged, did they do the right thing and will consumers trust them again after months of negative press coverage?

As season 13 draws to a close and Ewan heads to the airport for a new life in Denmark, the team reflect on 10 weeks of Android use. We discuss refinement, getting a lot for your money and being ‘all in’ on one ecosystem. So who won? Ben doesn’t want to, Ben and Ewan both broke their phones and Rafe still prefers Windows… Could we all be losers?

This week it's Mr Smith's turn to tell his background story. From formative years playing with Internet 'stuff' in the automotive industry and the joy of telling other people what to do (er, 'consulting') to 'government stuff' (shhh...) we learn that career plans are rarely written to last. Many failed attempts at being a blogger led to a career change into mobile and now 361, a 'well reviewed pod...

This week we put Rafe Blandford in the spotlight - his formative experiences with Psion devices (and broken limbs), founding the ‘all about’ empire, being a blogging pioneer and getting ‘inside Nokia’. Rafe shares his experience at the fore-front of online media, hitting 1m readers per month, ‘really big servers’, knowing more about Nokia than Nokia Execs and being laughed at by Steve Ballmer.

This week we turn the whole episode over to listener (and ace mobile developer / author) Matt Lacey’s question - what comes next for apps? The team talk through their views of the future, the impact of integrating apps into the OS and how Ewan’s going to get his toothpaste ordered. We consider how app-makers will have to shape their business to benefit from OS integration and whether regulators mi...

This week we track Ewan's history in tech - inciting a strike at school, selling (and failing to sell) businesses, working with the earliest SMS services, some stuff he can't talk about and big news about his next role. Ewan explains the ups / downs of being a tech entrepreneur in the early days of mobile. Ben and Rafe ask the questions and no-one gets naked.

The day we (but especially Rafe) didn’t think would come is finally here and the team settle-down to discuss Uber, Deliveroo, Jinn, Quipup, Jinn, Task Rabbit and - crucially - Urban Massage as we share our experiences of the growing number of ‘instant’ smartphone-enabled services available. Rafe has his own ‘on-demand’ experience live on the show and we forgive the absence of trousers this week as...

This week, as summer arrives in the UK with storm warnings and flash floods, we turn our attention to holidays and travel (again). We discuss the impact of the (near) removal of roaming fees across Europe, update our list of essential travel apps for 2016 and discuss some of the new tech we’ll be trying out. As episode 5 nears we also anticipate Rafe’s impending experience of the on-demand economy...