Powerful Communication Podcast

Let the games begin!   A spectacular Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022 opening ceremony has been dominating social media over the last few hours.   One of the major talking points was the giant Brummie Bull which served as the focal point for the show, there's also widespread praise for Duran Duran who performed, some 40 years on from their first hits.   There's a partial victory for the campaign...

You might have heard the phrase 'the great resignation' to describe the apparent phenomenon where large numbers of people quit their jobs during the COVID lockdown and never went back.   There does seem to be a lot of unfilled vacancies at the moment and something of a scramble on recruitment websites to try to fill them.   That appears to have had a knock on effect on Linkedin - the social networ...

The Commonwealth Games opening ceremony takes place tomorrow - in Birmingham and runs until the 8th of August.   You'll find the official website at www.birmingham2022.com     The games have a presence on all the major social media accounts and organisers are promoting the hashtag 'B2022' and 'Birmingham2022'.   On TikTok you can check out @commonwealthsport and see athletes from around the world...

  Technology shouldn't be causing us stress, but sometimes it does.   There's nothing more frustrating than forgetting a password and having to go through a laborious 'reset' process when you want to access something quickly.   'Password Managers' are designed to make life easier.   'Keeper', 'Zoho', 'LastPass' and '1Password' are some of the well known trusted sites to help with password manageme...

Long before the internet was an entertainment platform, it was almost entirely built around information and learning.   It can still be an extremely powerful educational tool - like an entire reference library wherever you want it.   'Think With Google' is a series of articles focussed on technology, marketing and leadership, designed to provide some thought provoking substance to your daily readi...

Listen up Amazon Prime users - you might notice some changes to the look and feel of the platform next time you log in.   A report on TheVerge.com says Amazon is rolling out a brand new look for Prime Video across many of its apps and devices.   The layout should be less cluttered and more intuitive - in fact it looks quite similar to Netflix and crucially, should be easier to find whatever it is...

It's getting easier to shop inside YouTube.   The video sharing platform has announced a new partnership with Shopify which will let people running Shopify e-commerce websites integrate their products across their YouTube channel.   This should be good news for lots of retailers but you'll need 1 thousand subscribers on your channel in order to access the new features so now is the time to build u...

A friend of mine got a fright the other day when she found an entry in her Google calendar from someone she didn't know.   I had to explain to her that by default, Apple, Google and Microsoft calendars are set up to accept calendar invitations from anyone.   This makes them an easy tactic for spammers and scammers, especially if the calendar invite they send you includes a link.   It's tempting to...

Google Maps is to start providing tailored directions depending on what type of vehicle you're driving.   A new software update will take into account hybrid and electric vehicles and offer the most efficient path.   Users will be asked to give details of their vehicle and the experience will be optimised from then on.   On the subject of cars - Amazon Garage is a useful feature if you're using th...

In this special episode of the Comsteria podcast, Colin Kelly explores the potential of a more immersive internet of the future and share some ideas regarding how we might choose to represent ourselves online. Want to know more about The Metaverse, NFTs and cryptocurrency? Join our live, jargon free webinar coming soon. Find out more at the Metaverse page on the Comsteria website.

The cost of living crisis is real and it's probably going to get tougher before it gets better so let's see if our technology can help us.   The first thing to look at is what you're not using.   That could be old phones, laptops and accessories gathering dust in a drawer.   Or DVDs and CDs you never play.   Now, there are many web sites which will buy them for you but they tend not give you much...

It's getting really nasty now between Twitter and Tesla founder Elon Musk - who's walked away from his offer to buy the social media platform.   A 44 billion dollar deal was on the table - Twitter it's launched legal action to hold him to his obligations.   I think this mess means either - someone else - probably a mainstream media company will buy Twitter on the cheap - if a deal can't be done, I...

It's getting hot, and depending on where you're listening, possibly very very hot.   And IT equipment doesn't really like intense heat.   Most technology will carry warnings about avoiding direct sunlight and keeping them in areas where the temperature is below 25 degrees.   If you're going to be working outdoors, consider backing up essential files before you go and don't walk from a cool indoor...

Users of Apple's FaceTime video calling service might have noticed a new feature.   It uses artificial intelligence to make it look like you are in fact looking the person right in the eye.   Some people think digitally altered eyeballs look fake, you can turn it off by going to into your FaceTime settings and turning off 'eye contact'.   The feature has been around since the launch of IOS 14.    ...

One of the most useful Tweets I've seen in a long time was published over thew weekend by @G_S_Bhogal - in 40 Tweets he explained 40 useful concepts he thinks we should know about..and these are amazing. From the laws of science to problem solving, how to handle trolls and beating procrastination and why powerful people lose their grip of reality - it's an incredible read. Check it out, on the has...

Social media has been a place of humour and biting sarcasm over the last 48 hours with all the UK political shenanigans.   I'm not even going to attempt to keep up to date with what's going on but there is some great humour on Twitter in particular as well as some really high quality explainer videos and threads helping us keep track of what's going on - remember all the high profile journalists h...

TikTok is hitting back at reports it's cooling on the idea of live shopping through its app.   Widespread reports yesterday quoted an unnamed TikTok source saying sales figures had been disappointing and a planned roll out of the feature was on ice - the company says it never planned to launch in continental Europe in the first half of this year and it remains committed to it's UK service.   Certa...

EA Sports won't be making any more of the FIFA video game series but they do still hold the rights to Formula 1 video games and the new official F1 2022 is out now and getting great reviews.   You can play on Xbox, Playstation and PC.     After some serious issues around privacy in its early days TikTok has enjoyed huge growth over the last couple of years but this looks like a rare mis-step from...

We're back live with your 60 second tech update.   Starting with news for gamers - if you have a Samsung TV you'll be able to access its new Gaming Hub.   This is another move towards gaming without a console - grab a Bluetooth controllers and pair a set of headphones and you'll be able to play titles from Xbox Cloud Gaming, Google's Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now - we're told Amazon's Luna platfor...

One big criticism thrown at Linkedin is that it's slowly but surely becoming more like Facebook and what was supposed to be a serious business network is becoming, well, another place full of nonsense and 'here's a funny cat video'.   If that's you, you won't like this because a 'funny' reaction is being added to Linkedin. The company says it's one of the most requested features and they're happy...

If you're into cars you'll like this.   The Ford Motor Company is uploading its entire archive to a dedicated website.   The Ford Heritage Vault features amazing images, stories and data from throughout its 119 year history.   It includes promotional material and adverts along with memories and statistics about some of the best loved cars from the brand's history.   You can even download the image...

One of the most frustrating things in life is trying to co-ordinate an event involving several people where you have to choose a date that suits everyone.   This is the sort of challenge computers were made for, and doodle.com is one of the best known software products that offers easy scheduling.   If you're only going to use it occasionally - there's a 14 day free trial which might be all you ne...

If you're looking for something to do and keen to save money over the summer then today's quick guide to online deals websites is for you.   And we start with 'itison.com' which launched in Scotland but has now expanded to other cities throughout the UK.   You can browse the listings, search, or join and tell is what you're interested in and receive personalised deals.   There's everything from af...

TV shows like 'The Office' sometimes poke fun and business jargon and corporate management speak and it seems the internet is the place we turn to try and make sense of it.   New research from Preply reveals the 10 most googled business acronyms.   Searches for 'POC' have increased dramatically - depending on who is saying it the abbreviation can mean 'proof of concept' or 'point of contact' and e...