The Big Tech Show

What happens when the tech company you build becomes wildly successful? Do you change? At the Web Summit, Adrian sat down with the Des Treanor, co-founder of Intercom, the €1bn software firm. They talked about dealing with success, company culture, artificial intelligence and where Intercom goes from here. The Big Tech Show is brought to you this week by PwC. See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...

Adrian returns to Dublin following Apple’s MacBook Air and iPad Pro launch. Joined by Sunday Independent business correspondent Michael Cogley and INM head of product Steve Dempsey, he goes through the most important features of what was announced and asks whether pro tablets can be a long term replacement for current laptops. Irish Independent business editor Donal O’Donovan joins the discussion...

Mark Little is one of Ireland’s most recognisable media technology figures. From being an anchorman on RTE television to founding Storyful to becoming boss of Twitter in Ireland, he has seen the business from all angles. Now he’s back with a new venture that aims to reinvent app-based news. Together with former journalist and Facebook executive Aine Kerr and ex-Storyful collaborator Paul Watson, L...

When do comedy and technology mix? Why is social media so much to the fore in critical analysis of current events? This week, Adrian chats to a contemporary master, David Schneider, about the role of comedy and social media in our daily lives. Schneider is one of the writers and actors on seminal British comedy series such as 'The Day Today' and 'I’m Alan Partridge’. Adrian also catches up with Lo...

In a week that saw the resignation of the Minister responsible for the National Broadband Plan, Adrian asks some blunt questions about whether the whole rural rollout plan is going to be delayed and, if so, for what reasons. Adrian is joined in analysing the whole sorry saga by the Irish Independent’s political correspondent, Laura Larkin and the Sunday Independent’s business correspondent, Michae...

How do you ask for money for your startup? That’s the question that Adrian put to Peter O’Malley, the co-founder of a new startup that has raised €1m from a variety of ‘business angels’ that include Paddy Cosgrave, CPL boss Anne Heraty and former Paddy Power chief Breon Corcoran. Is there a difference between approaching ‘friends and family’ and business contacts? What sort of plan do you need to...

How do you ask for money for your startup? That’s the question that Adrian put to Peter O’Malley, the co-founder of a new startup that has raised €1m from a variety of ‘business angels’ that include Paddy Cosgrave, CPL boss Anne Heraty and former Paddy Power chief Breon Corcoran. Is there a difference between approaching ‘friends and family’ and business contacts? What sort of plan do you need to...

This week, Adrian talks tech and politics with Tommy Collison, an Irish transplant to Seattle. Tommy brings us up to date on where tech and politics intersect in Silicon Valley. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With almost two weeks of rigorous testing under his belt, Adrian Weckler assesses the iPhone Xs and Xs Max . Is the screen on the Xs Max too big? Has battery life improved? Is the Xs now the best cameraphone, or is Huawei’s P20 Pro still in top spot? And can that big, big price be justified, or is it worth waiting for next month’s iPhone Xr? Adrian also meets Jamie White, the young Dublin entrepre...

This week, Adrian reports from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California where he was on hand to test out the newly-launched iPhone Xs Max, Xs and Xr phones. The big talking points are around that new 6.5-inch screen, a whopper by Apple’s standards. But the other surprise feature came in the shape of the new Apple Watch Series 4’s ECG sensor and ‘fall detection’ feature. Separately, Adrian talks...

This week, Adrian Weckler talks to the global IT security celebrity and virus hunter Mikko Hypponen. Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, says that we should be taking threats from North Korea a lot more seriously than we do. He also explains why, in the hierarchy of worst malware outbreaks in recent years, Petya was probably worse than Wannacry. And he hears how Adrian is guilty of perpe...

This week, Adrian talks to Daniel Gross, who grew up in Israel and went to Silicon Valley as a teenager to seek fame and fortune through the famous accelerator, Y Combinator. He set up a company called Cue and sold it to Apple for a reported $35m in 2013 before going to work for the tech giant. Last year, he left Apple to become a partner in Y Combinator and now he’s a founder of Pioneer, which sa...

This week, Adrian sits down for an exclusive chat with Ryan Smith, the charismatic Utah founder of the €2bn software firm Qualtrics. As well as being one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world, Smith is on a mission to battle cancer. He started his company when he quit college to look after his father, who was diagnosed with cancer. While his dad survived, Qualtrics’ Irish boss Dermot...

This week, Adrian and the panel discuss the thorny question of whether social media services should be allowed — or obliged — to kick people off for airing views and opinions that are considered extreme or dangerous. It’s an issue that Twitter is currently hamfistedly trying to deal with in the case of Alex Jones, the American conspiracy theorist whose InfoWars channel has been accused of stirring...

They came to Dublin to seek success and fortune. This week, Adrian Weckler sits down with two ambitious, successful young entrepreneurs who have one thing in common: they came to Dublin for the promise of its tech industry. What did they find? Is Dublin the real tech capital they had heard about? Can you make it big here? What about those who say that Dublin is just a glorified big outsourcing cen...

This week Adrian Weckler looks at the list of sins Facebook is again having to answer for. Joined by political correspondent Laura Larkin and business editor Donal O’Donovan, the panel assesses Facebook’s excuses to an Irish government committee and looks at what might happen in the short term. Will there be a Digital Safety Commissioner? Will any political regulation actually materialise? And do...

There is a downside to tech cities. On the US west coast, where the biggest tech companies have their headquarters, there is also terrible homelessness. In this podcast episode, Adrian goes to Seattle, arguably America’s fastest-growing tech metropolis. He poses the question; why is homelessness is so bad in a city that’s booming so much? While Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing and other huge firms soar,...

Having tested dozens of handsets this year, Adrian Weckler gives his verdict on what the best cameraphone on the market is at present. It comes down to a battle between three models: Huawei’s P20 Pro, Apple’s iPhone X and Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Plus. Adrian picks the winner, the runner up and the also-ran, as well as a budget alternative. Adrian also looks at some of the best summer technology gadget...

This week, Adrian gets a behind-the-scenes tour of Microsoft’s campus headquarters in Redmond, Seattle. This includes a preview of the latest in he company’s ‘mixed reality’ headset, Hololens. It also includes a discussion on the ethics and future of artificial intelligence, which Microsoft is laying great emphasis on. The company also lays out some futuristic plans, including a data centre under...

This week, Adrian Weckler talks to two women directing crucial operations in two of the world’s biggest tech companies. The Big Tech Show travelled to Seattle to meet Emma Williams, the Dubliner who’s now Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Office Products Group. As she tells Adrian, it was originally the study of Old Norse and Anglo Saxon English in Trinity College that gave Williams a prope...

How has it come to a situation where a big tech company announcing 1,000 new jobs is freaking people out? This week’s Amazon jobs announcement has led to a backlash from people who feel it will put extra pressure on rents and infrastructure in the capital. “Where will they live?” “Oh great, even higher rents...” “Why are these jobs all in Dublin?” “How many will come from abroad?” 20, 10 or even f...

“Are robots actually becoming intelligent?” “Is my job under threat from intelligent machines?” “How close are Google, Amazon and Apple to giving me a real assistant?” “Is Elon Musk right that machines are going to wake up and start killing us?” These are the practical questions that dominate today’s discussions around artificial intelligence. Adrian Weckler sits down with AI expert and founder of...

This week, Adrian Weckler and Dr Mick O’Kerrigan from RecommenderX discuss 20 of the dumbest, faddiest tech ideas in recent years. From connected forks and ‘smart umbrellas’ to 3D televisions and digital photo frames, the two mercilessly condemn the worst of our tech gadgets to their hall of shame. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“I run a sports club – does this mean I have to ask them for permission to email now?” “Is it the end of cold-calling?” “What about if I want to email everyone about a charity I’m supporting?” These are the practical questions that many are asking as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force. Adrian Weckler sits down with Daragh O’Brien (founder of data privacy expert fir...

Adrian is joined by culture journalist Roisin Kiberd and INM’s head of product (and Sunday Independent columnist) Steve Dempsey to pore through some of the biggest tech tissues of the week. - Do people have a right to know that they’re talking to a robot (such as Google’s Duplex)? Is it amazing or creepy? - Has Ireland made a mistake in choosing 16 as the digital age of consent rather than 13, lik...