The Big Tech Show

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 edit...

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 Cl...

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...

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 c...

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 busines...

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 listi...

This week, Adrian sits down with Eir CEO Carolan Lennon, who says: - the Huawei controversy isn't about security but is a "US-China trade issue" - Minister Michael Ring’s claims about Eir are "factually untrue" - Traditional ‘linear’ TV is toast: we will all move to apps-based television in time - Eir hasn’t decided yet on a new price for GoMo after the current €12.99 “for life” offer runs out Len...

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’. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 broadcasti...

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 mult...

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 circumst...

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 fo...

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...

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...

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 s...

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...

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 p...

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...