technology | Westminster World

Nov302020 by Ami Gill, Subedited by Halima Ahcene DjaballahNo Comments

Food delivering robots: will this be the new normal?

The future of food delivery has arrived. Starship Technologies, a robotics company have expanded their autonomous delivery robots to another town in the UK. Partnering with Co-op, Starship has been delivering food items to residents in Northampton. Photo credit: Ami Gill The small 100 pound electric robots travel up to four miles to deliver food, working around the customers’ schedule. They are quite a sight to see when you are out and about. It’s as though you are in a futuristic world where robots and humans walk side by side. Ordering food with Starship is very simple. Customers download the Starship Technologies app and then shop in the local store. Delivery times vary from 30 - 70 minutes, depending on what you order. Not only can you get small food orders, but Starshi

Apr142020 by Beth KeeleyNo Comments

Houseparty 101

ed-tech, Education, Explainer, Explainers, Media, Social media, Tech, Technology, Video

Are video calls something you've always stayed clear from? Are you struggling to know which app to use and how to work it? Well here is a technophobe's guide to using the latest viral craze - Houseparty! The interactive video chat application. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GtXxx_GIvI&feature=youtu.be

Apr112019 by Bowei FengNo Comments

Do you feel happy to live in the digital age？

Media, Social media, Tech, Technology

The World Happiness report released on 20th March. The Rank of the UK has increased to 15th place since 2013. （Data from the World Happiness report; Graph: Bowei) The measurement involves many factors such as GDP, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom and corruption levels. The top three happiest countries are Finland, Denmark, Norway. Among them, Finland was a second year to be the happiest countries in the world. In the digital era, people spend more time on social media. Based on the recent UK social media statistic, there are 45 million social media users, which is equal to 67% of the entire population. Of these, there are 39 million mobile social media users. On average, people in the UK spend about 1 hour 50 minutes on social media sites

Dec32018 by Zhenyi LuNo Comments

Psychology of hate crime bystanders: Indifference or self-protection?

Breaking News, crime, Culture, Media, News, ReportingWeek1

Onlookers “filmed on phones”, while a South Korean student was undertaking an alleged racist attack on London Oxford Street. Yeon Jeong Lee, 22, a student at the university in Canterbury, was beaten by up to 10 thugs while she was doing shopping in central London. What she felt disappointed was the reaction of the passers-by. “It was only two people who were trying to help me out and the rest would just be filming the scene ”, she said. She also mentioned the slow reaction of the police: "I filed the case over the phone, but they kept repeating the same response and didn’t show up". Source: Change.org Link: https://www.change.org/p/sadiq-khan-raise-the-awareness-of-hate-crime-in-oxford-street Psychology of passers-by Why in this case few people are willing to help? What's

Privacy concerns as TFL and O2 track commuters’ movements

Breaking News, Bus, DontUse, London, News, Technology, Transport, Travel, Tube

In an attempt to reduce rush hour traffic, Transport for London (TFL) and O2 are tracking the ‘mass movement of the population’ via smartphones. Using anonymised phone signals provided by the telecom giant, transport chiefs are working with engineering firm Aecom and Jacobs to “better understand transport patterns across London” as the capital’s population is forecast to grow by two million to 10.8 million by 2041. A representative from Aecom and Jacobs said: “The use of big data represents a significant step change” as the firm attempts to improve urban mobility. O2 says it scans 100 million aggregated and anonymous journeys nationwide each day. TFL has previously tracked commuters using in-station wi-fi networks to reduce crowding during busy hours and on busier routes. They

Dec112017 by Caroline PaulNo Comments

Apple in talks to buy London-based app Shazam

DontUse

Apple is in talks to buy music recognition app Shazam in a deal that is likely to be announced before the end of this week. If the acquisition goes ahead, it will allow Apple to incorporate Shazam's technology into its iOS operating system. Currently Shazam has partnerships with Snapchat, Spotify as well as Apple and makes much of its revenue from commissions paid to it for referrals to Apple's iTunes Store. As Apple faces increasing competition from Amazon and Spotify, a takeover of Shazam would make business sense - thus cutting out the need to pay Shazam as an intermediary. If the deal goes through Shazam would no longer refer users to Apple Music competitor Spotify Image: Wikimedia Commons Shazam has evolved considerably since it was set up by four US expats in 1999. P

Dec42017 by Charline Bou Mansour No Comments

Mobile phone addiction began 25 years ago

Breaking News, Culture, DontUse, Tech, Technology

The first text message that was sent actually used full words rather than text-speak. The first SMS was sent 25 years ago on the 3rd December 1992. A quarter of a century ago a British test engineer, Neil Papworth, typed the first text message which said, “Merry Christmas”. It launched into a success with smartphones that some reports suggest might even have become an addiction. The first SMS message was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom using a personal computer. It originated from radio telegraphy in radio memo pagers. The initial growth was slow, with GSM customers in 1995 sending on average 0.4 messages per month. But by 2006, over 205 million messages were sent in the UK alone. Did Neil Papworth have any idea at the time that analysts expect 7.89 trillion

Apps provide solution to gender gap in the workplace

Business, ReportingWeek1, Tech

We’ve all heard about the gender divide in the workplace, ‘the glass ceiling’ and the fact there are not enough women in the boardroom. But it’s time to move the conversation forward and provide solutions in a digital sphere where both men and women can participate. There are countless self-help articles and books on how to ‘disconnect from the internet’, cope with email anxiety and successfully create an online presence. Clearly there is a disjointment here, where the question is to consume, or to be eventually consumed by the digital sphere. “Data shows that digital not only changed how we shop, how we commercially engage with each other, how we interact, it’s fundamentally changing the world that we work in,” says Kathleen Mitchell, Vice President of fashion retail brand, Stel

How does the UK government support start-ups?

Business

The UK government backs many schemes that promote new start-ups. Some entrepreneurs, however, have criticised current efforts and fear the upcoming referendum on Brexit. "The start-up community started to spring up in London about five years ago," Vicky Hunter, the Head of Operations and Community at 3beards, a company which organises events for aspiring entrepreneurs, told Westminster World. “People were graduating from college, and there were literally no jobs”, she recalls while chatting at the Electric Showrooms pub in Shoreditch, the area in London highly populated by start-ups. The pub is overcrowded; there is a regular gathering for start-up enthusiasts. Several years after the recession, in October 2015, London topped the list of the most entrepreneur-friendly cities in

Amazon pulled some hoverboards in the UK and the US

ReportingWeek2, Tech

Anyone looking for self-balancing scooters known as “hoverboards” for Christmas on Amazon from America or Britain, may have a very limited selection. Amazon has suspended many sales of hoverboards over safety fears, the gadget site BestReviews first reported. The company has asked all hoverboard manufacturers to provide documentation showing that they are following necessary safety standards. Swagway, one of the well-known importers of hoverboards, told The Verge that Amazon asked manufactureres to show "documentation demonstrating that all hoverboards you list are compliant with applicable safety standards, including UN 38.3 (battery), UL 1642 (battery), and UL 60950-1 (charger)". This company has also said Swagway already meets this requirements, and its products are still avail