Sir Clive Sinclair mosaic, made with original keys from Sinclair computers, Charis Tsevis, 2011 (Flickr) Technology-wise, we’re presently in what might be called an interregnum. There is no clear outcome for AI, especially generative AI. We can’t tell whether it’s a saviour, a destroyer, or a damp squib. More importantly, generative AI — and a … Read more
Having recently (finally) bought a pair of big chunky Bluetooth headphones, thinking they were so commonplace I wouldn’t get any weird looks, I now realise that once again I’m at the wrong end of a trend curve. People are staring at me — and not for my rugged visage. I’m the oddity: everyone else is … Read more
This is a column I did for the BBC World Service, broadcast this week. There’s been a lot of talk that the big boys — by which I mean Apple and Samsung — are about to launch so-called smart watches. But how smart does a watch have to be before we start strapping them to … Read more
One thing discussed often and at great length in nerdy circles these days is this: Is the tablet—by which we really mean the Apple iPad, because it created the market, and presently accounts for nearly two thirds of it—a computer. A PC, if you will? Some say that the iPad is not really a computer. … Read more
Some folk have suggested that because Sony is behind the new version of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo all the product placements are Vaio: This would be a slap in the face of the original novel and the Swedish version, which stuck pretty closely to the text. But I’m not sure. Here’s another picture … Read more