The Big Tech Show

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 be...

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...

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....

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 entrep...

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...

“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 V...

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 (fro...

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. See...

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 m...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 cultur...

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 Adr...

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...

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 involvemen...

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 talk...

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 giver...

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,...

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 C...

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 b...

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...