The Big Tech Show

Is the National Broadband Plan a visionary thing for Ireland? Or is it a grand folly? This week, Adrian talks exclusively to Peter Hendrick, the chief executive of the sole remaining bidder for the €3bn state-subsidised contract. The two talk about rollout timetables, cost and technology. Adrian asks why the last 20pc is being done with fibre and not wireless which, in the short term, might provid...

This week, we look at war stories from one of the fastest-growing online scams around – email fraud. Whether it’s invoice redirection fraud or CEO fraud, the phenomenon of faking corporate emails to siphon off thousands from a business is rampant in Ireland. Adrian Weckler looks through some of the reported incidences of this happening, including to Dublin Zoo, Trinity College and the Louth and Me...

There’s a lot of nonsense spoken about how rural broadband can be delivered. This week, Adrian Weckler and Irish Independent business editor Donal O’Donovan go through some of the myths and tropes around the process. They ask whether wireless or 5G might be an alternative. They also look at the cost of the rollout and whether the government can be trusted or not. And then they discuss the basic qu...

Do people really care if Facebook does unwarranted things with our personal data? Are we, in the press, simply overestimating how much it bothers people? The latest privacy breach involves the company saying it 'mistakenly' uploaded the private email contacts of 1.5m people. It has also admitted that millions, not thousands, of Instagram passwords were stored in plain language. But it's all being...

So now we know: Amazon is listening to our conversations. Some of its staff are told to listen in to what we tell the Amazon Echo to do. The company has been very secretive about this. But after a Bloomberg story delved into it, the company admitted that it listens to a small percentage of voice recordings to help its artificial intelligence figure out things like accents better. But that’s not al...

This week, we split the podcast into two segments: an interview with GoFundMe chief executive Rob Solomon and an audience with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on his visit to Dublin. While the 34-year-old billionaire was careful in his engagement with Irish journalists during the week, he did agree to talk for a few minutes. Adrian heard what Mark Zuckerberg is thinking on the issues of using Fac...

Apple’s big screen adventure (on a little screen) Why is Apple launching a TV and movie service? And will it be any good? This week, Adrian and Daragh O’Brien of Castlebridge wonder whether Apple can make it in Hollywood against the likes of Netflix, Disney and HBO. They also ask what the future is for old-fashioned linear TV broadcasters like RTE and BBC — will they essentially become the channel...

This week’s €1.5bn EU fine against Google for shutting rivals out of its online ad system begs the question: is Google too big? Should it be broken up? And if so, what about Facebook and Amazon? In the US, this is exactly what Democratic US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is proposing. But is it feasible? And what would it mean in terms of services? To discuss the practical and legal consi...

One of the roles for 5G is to connect self-driving cars. But before that happens, this generation of cars is currently being linked up to 4G networks for safety, upgrade and entertainment purposes. This week, Adrian talks to Barry Napier whose Cubic Telecom is one of Europe’s main providers of mobile connectivity to cars and other everyday things we use. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inf...

So Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook to be a ‘privacy first’ company. Totally expected, right? This week, Adrian and Castlebridge founder Daragh O’Brien dig down into Mark Zuckerberg‘s new corporate mission to see whether it holds water. They discuss the chances — or not — of Facebook being allowed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner to make messages from Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messen...

What's it like being Facebook's policeman? This week, Adrian sits down for an in-depth chat with Helen Dixon, Europe's most powerful data protection commissioner. They talk about Facebook, her approach and what exactly it takes for her office to kick off a probe. Helen has some surprising revelations, such as her office's recent look at whether Facebook is secretly recording us through our phones...

Adrian sits down with a German artificial intelligence expert to talk about why Europe isn’t doing AI right. In particular, Dr Stefan Heumann argues that member states and the European Union need to start taking AI seriously as a concerted effort if Europe is to compete with China and the US. Dr Heumann is a member of the management board of Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV), a non-profit think ta...

After a very big week of broadband announcements in Ireland, Adrian sits down with the person promising the most radical plan. Imagine boss Sean Bolger says that his wireless broadband company will build a new national network to connect over 1m homes, including 400,000 of the 540,000 rural homes currently earmarked under the National Broadband Plan. This, he says, will be done by building hundred...

You started a company. You sold it for over €60m. Now you’re going back to start something new from scratch. The question is: why? Why get back into the trenches and try to prove yourself all over again? “It's the struggle, the fight. It's pulling together the most talented people to do their respective jobs and having that team become greater than the sum of their parts.” That’s Alan Coleman, the...

This week, a double-header: one of Ireland’s best known venture capitalists talks money, while a tutor for beginners discusses what we need to know. Adrian catches up with entrepreneur and Draper Esprit financier Brian Caulfield to talk about the state of things for funding and company-building in Ireland today. Then he meets Aisling Mackey, Ireland’s ‘computer tutor’ to talk about some of the ski...

How relevant are colleges? This week, Adrian sits down with the president of Dublin City University, Prof Brian MacCraith, to talk what universities do well and what they struggling with. Adrian asks Prof MacCraith why Irish universities keep slipping down the international ratings. He also asks about the possible introduction of a student loan system or higher fees for richer students, two things...

Podcast host Adrian Weckler has been writing columns saying that web shopping — and Amazon in particular — is seriously altering the fortunes of offline retailers and the future of the ‘high street’. But the head of one of Ireland’s biggest retail chains, Harvey Norman’s Blaine Callard, thinks this is baloney. This week, Adrian invites Blaine on to tell him why. Blaine tells him that empty spaces...

In the wake of a Huawei executive arrested for spying in the EU, do western countries face a threat to their national security from Chinese telecom and tech companies? Or is the current controversy over who builds 5G networks being infused with scaremongering and paranoia by US politicians and commentators? Adrian sits down with Declan Ganley, the long-time Irish telecoms executive who claims that...

It’s arguably the most talked-about tech question of our time – is Facebook listening to your physical conversations to serve you ads? An increasing number of people are convinced that this is the case. To take a technical and ethical dive into the issue, Adrian is joined by three people who are deeply knowledgeable about the science, marketing and cultural tech behind what it would all entail. Fa...

From the demise of Facebook among younger people to the death of DSLR cameras and Amazon’s destruction of high street retail, Adrian looks at what to expect in the year ahead. He’s joined by Patrick Walsh, founder of the coworking space, Dogpatch Labs in Dublin. Along the way, they also discuss why people are turning off traditional offices and whether alternatives, such as Ludgate and Republic Of...

Is audio a missed opportunity for newspapers? A bold young Irish startup, NOA, has struck deals with publishers such as Bloomberg, the New York Times and the FT to create a new audio news service from those publications’ daily news stories. The idea, according to NOA’s Gareth Hickey and Shane Ennis, is to create a ‘Spotify for News’. Adrian chats about the idea and wonders about what kind of audio...

Phones, smartwatches, hifi, tablets, laptops – Adrian goes through some of the best tech to get over Christmas and recaps on what has impressed during the year. He’s joined by up-and-coming creative Jake McCabe, a hifi and video expert who dabbles in all things tech. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All the statistics show that when it comes to VC cash, men get almost all of it. In fact, they snag way more than the percentage of startups they solely found. In conversation with two Irish VC investors and a startup COO, Adrian wonders if it’s partly down to male founders simply being less shy about making grandiose, bold statements about their firms. And what should investors actually do about...

In the original dot com boom, all you needed was an idea and you were showered with millions in funding. But is the same now happening with cryptocurrency and blockchain? This week, Adrian meets David Wachsman, the founder of the world’s largest Blockchain focused PR agency. It has chosen Dublin as its headquarters to serve Europe. Adrian asks whether crypto is a bandwagon that people are jumping...

This week, Adrian throws off the shackles in a free-ranging conversation with the Irish Independent’s environment editor, Paul Melia. The two discuss the current state of big tech companies, why electric cars are a tough sell at present and the credibility gap that cryptocurrency evangelists sometimes suffer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.