It’s that time of the month again… when Tech Trends curates a selection of all the weird and wonderful stuff out there that might tempt you to part with cash!

Ember Temperature Control Mug

Prolong the enjoyment of your coffee, tea or warm milk with the world’s first temperature control mug. Designed to be used in your home or at your desk, the Ember Ceramic Mug allows you to set your precise drinking temperature. It will then maintain that temperature for approximately one hour, so your hot beverage is perfect from first sip to last drop.

@Ember_Tech makes the world’s first mug that lets you customize and maintain the perfect temperature for your beverage
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The Ember Ceramic Mug automatically wakes up when your hot beverage is poured in and remembers your last preferred drinking temperature.
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The Mug

• 295 ml (10 oz)Approx.
• 1-hour battery life, or all day on charging coaster
• Temperature range is 50°C – 62.5°C

My memory and/or attention span is so bad that almost every cup of tea I make is left to go cold after the first sip so I was excited to test this out. It works, that’s it really, it is a good idea well executed! The mug itself, the 10oz version, is a little small but now available, in the US only, is a larger 14oz version that will keep fans of venti lattes happy.

The app allows you to select your optimum drinking temperature, save favorite presets, receive notifications when your ideal drinking temperature is reached, and track caffeine consumption
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Ember mugs connect to the Ember app for complete customization. The app allows you to select your optimum drinking temperature, save favorite presets, receive notifications when your ideal drinking temperature is reached, and track caffeine consumption with Apple Health integration. The app works well and the mug itself is comfortable to hold and the heavy base plate is not too distracting in use.

This weightier than normal mug does, however, lead to you thinking there is tea left in it when in fact it’s empty, not really a criticism, just an amusing observation. Personally, I’d fill it with lovely thick (aaaahhhhh) Bisto Gravy but whatever your tipple try one out for £79.95.

Personally, my hot tipple of choice is a mug of Bisto Gravy, but whatever floats your boat, the @Ember_Tech mug has your back
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Opløft Sit-Stand Platform

Work actively with Opløft – a slim and portable sit-stand platform for a healthier, more dynamic working life.

If you are sick of sitting on your arse all day Tech Trends can recommend this pleasingly small and light Sit-Stand Platform/Desk solution! The excellent Varidesk option is frankly huge and so heavy one person should not really move one alone but this Opløft desk, and yes I will call it a desk instead of a ‘platform’, from Posturite, is a less daunting option and packs super flat.

“Our most portable sit-stand desk yet is beautifully slim and light without compromising on quality or stability. The secret of Opløft’s strength lies in the unique cross-structure frame, which not only gives the platform a minimalist, classically Scandinavian aesthetic when extended to standing height, but also enables it to fold neatly into its own footprint for convenience. Simply push the handles on either side to float the surface effortlessly to any of the 14 height settings.”

When flat, Opløft is only 30mm thick and weighs just 12 kg – making it possible to carry safely between workstations or neatly store away. It’s taken Oploft many months of reengineering and perfecting to take it from a Kickstarter prototype to what it is today: a thing of beauty.

When flat, Opløft is only 30mm thick and weighs just 12 kg - making it possible to carry safely between workstations or neatly store away
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The secret of Opløft’s strength lies in the unique cross-structure frame, which gives the platform a minimalist, classically Scandinavian aesthetic
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You can also add a monitor arm to your Opløft set-up which positions your screen above the surface of the Sit-Stand Platform giving you more space and limitless configuration. Find the perfect height, tilt and angle to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders.

If you are sick of sitting on your arse all day Tech Trends can recommend this pleasingly small and light Sit-Stand Platform/Desk solution!
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• 14 height settings give you the freedom to sit or stand up to work
• Gas lift technology makes height adjustment effortless
• Cross structure design offers style and stability
• Slim 30mm profile when flat
• Easy to carry at 12 kg
• Sleek, contemporary looks inspired by Scandinavian minimalism
• Exceptional engineering with high-quality materials and components
• Encourages physical activity and healthier working behaviours

WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD

For high-end computing applications like gaming, HD media playback, or creative 3D software the affordable new Western Digital Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD might be just what you’re looking for. 3D NAND technology helps enable sequential read speeds up to 560MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 530MB/s for fast system boot-ups, quick application responses, and rapid transfer speeds.

WD's new 3D NAND technology helps enable sequential read speeds up to 560MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 530MB/s for fast system boot-ups, quick application responses, and rapid transfer speeds
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Offering improved endurance, a WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD features an active power draw up to 25% lower than previous generations
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A WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD uses 3D NAND technology not only for higher capacities (up to 2TB) than the previous generation WD Blue SSDs, but also to help reduce cell-to-cell interference for enhanced reliability. Offering improved endurance, these new models feature an active power draw up to 25% lower than previous generations. And with less power used, you’re able to work longer before recharging your device.

An SSD is designed with no moving parts to help protect against data loss if it is accidentally bumped or dropped. And with 1.75M hours MTTF (mean time to failure), up to 500 TBW (terabytes written), and several error correction technologies, WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSDs can help guard your data for years to come.

This model comes in two form factors: A traditional SATA interface or the increasingly common M.2 connection that enables drive size to be drastically reduced. This is popular in modern laptops and also in newer generations PC motherboards, so take your pick.

As usual, you get access to a few handy little tools with your purchase. Monitor your drive’s available capacity, operating temperatures, SMART attributes and more with the WD SSD Dashboard. Acronis True Image WD Edition software, available as a free download, can clone drives and backup your operating system, applications, settings and all of your data.

Ready for your high-performance computing needs, a WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD offers high capacity, enhanced reliability, and blazing speed for a nice low price. The 1TB SSD version I tried out is available for $149.99 here.

Book Review: The Great Firewall of China

James Griffiths shows how it was possible to build and control an alternative version of the Internet.

This book is a compelling and rather disturbing tale of how something that started out as little more than a glorified porn filter has now become an exportable and sophisticated model of mass censorship; one that is already being actively implemented in places like Russia and Africa. Griffiths has been a tech correspondent in China and SE Asia for almost a decade – first as a reporter in Shanghai, then as an editor at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong – he currently continues to work in the region as a senior producer for CNN in Hong Kong. Having had a front-row seat to the development of the “Great Firewall,” he felt compelled to write this book in order to highlight the important issues at stake, and how these matter not only inside China but within a global context too. Read the full review here.

Seedlip Grove 42

Seedlip is the world’s first properly distilled non-alcoholic spirit, solving the ever-growing dilemma of ‘what to drink when you’re not drinking’. Headquartered in London, Seedlip is a company dedicated to changing the way the world drinks by offering sophisticated alternatives to commonly available, overly sweet or fruity options.

“My family’s 300-year farming heritage coupled with a career working on drinks brands laid the foundations to spend two years working with distillers, growers & historians to create adult, complex drinks when, for whatever reason, you’re not drinking alcohol.” Explains Founder Ben Branson

Blended & bottled in England, Seedlip has created a coveted bespoke maceration, copper pot distillation & filtration process for each individual botanical that takes 6 weeks. Seedlip’s spirits boast zero calories, are sugar-free, sweetener-free & artificial flavour-free, making a Seedlip & Tonic the credible adult alternative to alcohol if not drinking. Such unfortunate circumstances might include, a school night, nominated driver, being up the duff or foolishly choosing to be teetotal. All Seedlip spirits are best served with tonic or as the base for martini or sour style non-alcoholic cocktails.

Blended & bottled in England, @SeedlipDrinks has created a coveted bespoke maceration, copper pot distillation & filtration process for each individual botanical that takes 6 weeks
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These delicious tipples are served in over 6000 prestigious cocktail bars, hotels, restaurants & retailers in over 26x international cities, 250 Michelin * restaurants including The Fat Duck & Eleven Madison Park as well as the world’s top cocktail bars including The Dead Rabbit, Dandelyan, Baxter Inn & The Savoy.

These delicious @SeedlipDrinks are served in over 6000 prestigious cocktail bars, hotels, restaurants & retailers in over 26x international cities
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@SeedlipDrinks spirits boast zero calories, are sugar-free, sweetener-free & artificial flavour-free, making a Seedlip & Tonic the credible adult alternative to alcohol if not drinking
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Available in three expressions:

@SeedlipDrinks does not disappoint and has created a wonderful option for drinking while maintaining a clear head
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1. Seedlip Spice 94 is aromatic with strong spice (All Spice Berries & Cardamom) & citrus (lemon & grapefruit peel) top notes & a long bitter from the highest quality barks (Oak & Cascarilla).
2. Seedlip Garden 108 captures the essence of the English countryside with sophisticated top notes of the handpicked peas & hay from the founder’s family farm with a complex herbal base character of spearmint, rosemary & thyme.
3. Seedlip Grove 42 is a celebration of the Orange; an adult, citrus blend of copper-pot distillates including Bitter Orange, Mandarin, Blood Orange, Lemongrass, Ginger & Lemon.

“The response from both the trade & consumers has been overwhelming & we are both proud & humbled to be championed by the world’s food & drink pioneers. Exciting times!” Concluded Branson

Tech Trends tried out the Grove 42 with ice and tonic and was genuinely surprised. Firstly, the spirit is as strong in taste per shot as very strong Gin so you really don’t need a lot in your glass. Secondly, flipping hell it’s lovely! It really is a perfect match for a nice quality tonic water such as Fever Tree and due to the intricate flavours and pungent fragrance, it is as satisfying to sip on a hot day as any traditional alcoholic tipple.

It really is a perfect match for a nice quality tonic water such as Fever Tree and due to the intricate flavours and pungent fragrance @SeedlipDrinks is as satisfying to sip on a hot day as any traditional alcoholic tipple
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You have to try this, I mean it. Seedlip does not disappoint and has created a wonderful option for drinking while maintaining a clear head. Sophisticated is too small a word for this excellent non-alcoholic spirit.

Check out the website here for more info and a bottle of Grove 42 costs £27.99 here.

Plugable UD-6950H USB 3.0 Dual 4K Display Horizontal Docking Station

A one-stop upgrade for your Windows laptop or desktop the Plugable UD-6950H USB 3.0 Dual 4K Display Horizontal Docking Station with DisplayPort and HDMI allows you to connect up to two additional monitors and up to eight accessories through a single USB cable. It features two DisplayPort or two HDMI outputs for mirroring/extending your desktop to up to two external monitors, a Gigabit Ethernet port, audio input and output ports, and six USB 3.0 ports.

The two DisplayPort outputs are Dual-Mode DisplayPort 1.2 (DP++) ports and they are backwards compatible with previous DisplayPort specifications. The two HDMI outputs support HDMI 2.0 specifications and are backwards compatible to previous HDMI standards. The display functions of this device are Windows specific and users might need drivers but take a look for much more info here.

The two HDMI outputs support HDMI 2.0 specifications and are backwards compatible to previous HDMI standards
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Windows-specific or not I used all the features (except monitors) perfectly on my MacOS laptops, the Ethernet connection was alone incredibly useful since Apple dropped that post on modern MacBooks
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Features:

• Supports two DisplayPort or HDMI connected displays at resolutions up to 4K@60Hz per display (3840×2160@60Hz) or one single 5K@60Hz display using both DisplayPort outputs. Displays and cables must support the desired resolution
• Equipped with six USB 3.0 ports for peripherals
• Audio input and output ports allow connection of external speakers, headphones or a microphone. Also supports audio pass through via DisplayPort or HDMI cable to a monitor or TV with built-in speakers
• Gigabit Ethernet port for hard-wired network connectivity
• Includes a USB 3.0 Type-C to Type-A cable and a USB 3.0 Type-C to Type-C cable to provide flexible host connectivity
• Supported on modern Windows systems running Windows 10, 8.1, and 7. Additional compatibility information below

Windows specific or not I used all the features (except monitors) perfectly on my MacOS laptops, the Ethernet connection was alone incredibly useful since Apple dropped that post on modern MacBooks. However this device is definitly not for everyone and comes with some significant limitations, see below.

System Requirements
For optimal performance the below system specifications are recommended:
Operating System: Windows 10, 8.1, or 7
CPU: Intel SkyLake i3 or Intel Core i7, AMD A10 at 2.0GHz or better
Graphics Processor: Intel HD 4000, AMD Radeon HD 8650, NVidia GeForce 7xxM or better
Memory: 8GB RAM
Host connection: USB 3.0 Type-A or Type-C port

Incompatible Systems
Cannot be mixed with non-DisplayLink USB graphics adapters and drivers (e.g. MCT, j5, or SMSC).
Not supported with macOS, Linux/Unix or ARM based Windows or ChromeOS systems.

Monitor Compatibility
Supports dual monitors up to 4K@60Hz (3840×2160@60Hz) each with DisplayPort or HDMI, or a single 5K@60Hz monitor with Dual DisplayPort inputs. DisplayPort equipped monitors and the DisplayPort cable must support DisplayPort 1.2 specification and HDMI equipped monitors and HDMI cables must support HDMI 2.0 specification in order to support 4K@60Hz. While backwards compatible with DisplayPort 1.1 and HDMI 1.4 standards, the resolution will be limited to 4K@30Hz.
Does not support DisplayPort MST daisy-chain connections or Dual-Link DVI conversions.
Does not support monitors with 1366×768 optimal resolutions.

Application Compatibility
Does not support HDCP copy protected content (Blu-Ray, Netflix, Amazon Prime video, etc.)
Suggested for web/productivity software; not recommended for gaming.

Gaming
We don’t recommend running games on USB attached displays as there are significant compatibility challenges. And even without specific compatibility problems, performance will always be a challenge – the extra CPU work required for USB graphics will be a source of reduced frame rates and problems. Normal desktop and application use are typically fine because they don’t push the system as hard as 3D games do.

If the Plugable UD-6950H suits your needs I can recommend it so pick one up here for £149.95.

Naked Nutrition Protein Powders & Supplements

We have been looking at wellness products here at Tech Trends and seeing innovation everywhere in this booming market. In September we tried out Soylent Meal Replacements and this month it’s the turn of Naked Nutrition. From Grass-Fed Whey Protein to Pea Protein Powder to Organic Brown Rice Protein Powder, Naked Nutrition provides the “purest supplements”. They claim their powders are loaded with essential amino acids and no artificial sweeteners or colours and commit to offering the best protein powders and supplements including Powdered Peanut Butter, Casein Protein, Creatine Monohydrate and many more.

We are looking at health and wellness products here at Tech Trends and are seeing innovation everywhere in this booming market
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We tested out their Collagen Peptides Powder, the Powdered Peanut Butter and the mindboggling Branched Chain Amino Acids, WTF? Well, this last one claims “the highest pharmaceutical grade, fastest dissolving, and rapidly absorbed Branch Chain Amino Acids available”. OK, so that does what? Naken Nutrition says studies have shown that BCAA supplementation improves strength and muscle development, speeds recovery, and increases endurance for men and women at all fitness levels. I am afraid all I can say is that it tasted OK but as a slothful couch potato I can’t speak to its powers of recovery or muscle boosting powers. I might be the wrong person to review these…? Anyway the Powdered Peanut Butter next!

Naked PB is a vegan peanut butter protein powder made exclusively from peanuts grown on US farms. Our powdered peanut butter is made from slow-roasted, non-GMO peanuts that are mechanically pressed to remove fat and oil. The result is a peanut butter powder that is over 40% protein. Gain the nutritional benefits of powdered peanut butter and enjoy its flavor by using it in recipes from cakes and muffins to smoothies. Naked Nutrition is committed to shortening the steps between our farms and you.

Studies have shown that BCAA supplementation improves strength and muscle development, speeds recovery, and increases endurance for men and women at all fitness levels
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If you love peanuts and crave protein then this is for you, but not me. Now, this next one I can relate to. Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body and a major component of connective tissues in tendons, ligaments and having a long-term knee injury I can recommend others with joint problems regularly consume collagen and this supplement is as good a way as any to do that.

Consuming collagen provides health benefits including joint health, youthful skin, healthy hair, protecting cartilage and bones, and workout recovery. Our hydrolyzed collagen powder is sourced from European cows that are pasture raised. Highly soluble and tasteless, use our grass fed collagen peptide powder in hot beverages such as your morning coffee, cold sports drinks, tea before sleep or as an unflavored protein base in pre and post-workout smoothies.

I have taken Glucosamine for a few years and this should provide similar benefits without struggling to swallow those enormous horse pills
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Now, this tub will stay on my counter and I’ll keep myself topped up to ease pain and stiffness in my knee. I have taken Glucosamine for a few years and this should provide similar benefits without struggling to swallow the enormous horse pills I used to take. Check out Naked Nutrition here and sample some of their range of 21st-century health supplements.

Oculus Go Facial Interface & Foam Replacement Set

Take your Oculus Go experiences to the next level with our custom interface and foam replacement set. This nifty new interface from VR Cover allows you to attach and remove foam replacements with ease, making it possible to customize the fit to suit your face. Having a funny shaped face I found this not only made the HMD comfier but blocked out more light.

This nifty new interface from VR Cover allows you to attach and remove foam replacements with ease, making it possible to customize the fit to suit your face
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The Oculus Go is known for being one of the most comfortable headsets on the market but it never hurts to make the comfy even cushier. VR Cover take this to the next level by using foam replacements with an extra large surface area – this has the effect of reducing pressure on your face and red marks around your eyes. Oh, and they use vegan leather so no small furry animals were inconvenienced in their making 😉

Less Red panda face has to be a winner so check these out for $29.00 here.

SanDisk Extreme Portable 1TB SSD

We all need more storage these days and a few of us need really fast storage for large media files or thousands of RAW photographs. We also need that storage to be portable and convenient to use and there are some very expensive solutions out there… but this new 1TB SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD is a remarkable bit of kit and very competitively priced.

This 1TB SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD is a remarkable bit of kit and very competitively priced
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Speed up the flow. Move files faster. The rugged SanDisk® Extreme Portable SSD delivers high-speed transfers with up to 550MB/s read speeds. This makes it perfect for saving and editing hi-res photos and videos. With an IP55 rating, it also stands up to rain, splashes, spills and dust.1

This tiny little drive boasts incredibly fast read speeds. With high-performance transfers at up to 550MB/s the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD lets you offload files in a snap. Capacities range from 250GB up to 2TB and it plays well with Windows or Mac via USB-C or USB-A.

With high-performance transfers at up to 550MB/s the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD lets you offload files in a snap
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Designed to work with both Windows and Mac, the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD is equipped with a USB 3.1 Type-C connector and also includes a USB Type-C to Type-C cable and a Type-C to Type-A adapter, meaning it will work with the PCs and Macs of today, tomorrow and yesterday.

• Dimensions 8.850 x 49.550 x 96.200 mm
• Weight 38.9g
• IP55 for water and dust resistance
• Interface USB 3.1 (Gen 2)
• Shock-resistant (up to 1500G) and vibration resistant (5g RMS, 10-2000HZ)
• Compatible with PC & Mac computers – no driver needed
• Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows® 7, Windows Vista and Mac OS 10.4+

This drive is the definition of awesome compact, pocket-sized design. Smaller than a smartphone it really is easy to pop on a keychain and tuck in a decent-sized pocket
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Good things do come in small sizes! This drive is the definition of awesome compact, pocket-sized design. Smaller than a smartphone it really is easy to pop on a keychain and tuck in a decent-sized pocket. The very small but effective cable and attached adapter SanDisk provides will cover all your needs and save you a few quid too.

The 1TB drive I tested out is now discounted and available for only $187.99 here so grab one now

The post March 2019 Product Reviews appeared first on Tech Trends.

We can all agree that the future is coming, whether we like it or not. And that future will be carried in 5G waves.

Of course, I exclude from that statement the Brexiteers who seem convinced that returning to the past, with workhouses for the poor and political power and wealth reserved for the elite, is the way forward. Well, Brexit aside (PLEASE), the future banging boldly on our door is a connected one and the technology that will take us into a wireless world of IoT, smart cars, immersive technology and wearables is 5G. And as I discovered at Huawei’s Innovation Day event earlier this month the key to a successful digital future is infrastructure and political will.

One thing none of us can disagree about is that the future is coming, whether we like it or not!
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The installation of new infrastructure is not something we excel at here in the UK where we still use a train network built by the Victorians
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Released this month, Huawei’s white paper ‘Digital Nation: Stronger Economy, Better Society, Adept Governance’ (available here) breaks down the actions governments looking to build for the future need to undertake if any new digital society, government and economy are to succeed. The installation of new infrastructure is not something we excel at here in the UK where we still use a train network built by the Victorians and where successive governments have been ambivalent about truly modernising our country and economy even as the digital age inexorably advances. However, there is still time, (nudge nudge any politicians reading) to do it right and ‘Digital Nation’ spells out how to go about it in simple terms for the rather “limited” leadership we now suffer here in Blighty.

“Digital Nation is much more than a pep talk or a paean of praise for the new information and communications technologies. Digital Nation is a roadmap for governments aiming to put their countries into the fast lane of sustainable development in the 21st Century.” Explained the renowned Prof. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, “Most importantly, Huawei draws on its deep knowledge of the new and emerging technologies, and its remarkable global experience, to highlight practical steps for governments to follow to create a dynamic, healthful, productive digital nation. Huawei also points out several possible roadblocks and impediments, and how to avoid or overcome them.”

Digital Nation is a roadmap for governments aiming to put their countries into the fast lane of sustainable development in the 21st Century.
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Apart from his invention of the word “healthful”, there is nothing here any sane, digitally aware person could disagree with. The paper outlines how research shows that the economy and society transform alongside ongoing digitalization. According to the report published by Huawei and Oxford Economics, digitalization will produce a sustaining effect on the economy, for every one US dollar invested in digital, GDP will grow by 20 dollars.

Digitalization will produce a sustaining effect on the economy, for every one US dollar invested in digital, GDP will grow by 20 dollars
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Digitalization will also facilitate the fulfilment of the UN’s SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), promoting an increase to economic efficiency in all industries, through the creation of new business models with traditional enterprises applying new digital technologies to enhance their competitive advantages. The convergence of finance and technology is also resulting in the emergence of a new wave of FinTech enterprises that Britain, as a global financial services hub, should be championing.

All of our industries and sectors will benefit from a coherent digital strategy, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) can effectively increase carrying capacity and speed, and lower the failure rate of infrastructure. Smart grid technology is helping to optimize power generation, transmission, transformation, storage, distribution, and consumption. In manufacturing, traditional manufacturers are upgrading by digitalizing technological processes, with many new products & technologies emerging as a result.

Applications such as virtual classrooms have gradually matured, and are alleviating difficulties previously faced in education. Digitalization optimizes resource allocation and improves lives
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Globally, intelligent health risk prevention, public medical resources sharing, facilitation of professional training, and collaborative operation of medical facilities will solve key pain points in the healthcare field. Other applications such as remote education, customized content, and virtual classrooms have gradually matured, and are alleviating difficulties previously faced in education. Clearly, digitalization optimizes resource allocation and improves lives across the board. However, this can only happen if we build a digital network capable of supporting it.

“Perhaps the most important lesson imparted by Huawei is the need to think, plan, and act holistically, and inclusively. The digital revolution can help the world to achieve key global goals – shared prosperity, good governance, high-quality public services, and environmental protection – if the digital technologies are deployed in an open environment that encourages mutual communications among citizens, consumers, businesses, and government, and the inclusion of all citizens.” Continued Prof. Sachs. “The government has a major responsibility to ensure that the digital systems benefit from unified standards, integrated management, and adequate financial resources.”

Digitalization will assist in the realization of interactive policy channels, self-service transactions, integrated data management, and reliable information encryption in order to improve government services
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It’s important to point out that digital innovation won’t only help business and the public but would also help governments govern. Digitalization could improve government efficiency, urban administration and assist in the realization of interactive policy channels, self-service transactions, integrated data management, and reliable information encryption in order to improve government services. Digitalization will also boost the formation of a new-era urban management system with self-adaptive environmental protection, independent emergency response, self-verifiable food traceability, and autonomous municipal regulations. I could go on but think my point is made.

Every nation will encounter difficulties and challenges during the process of digitalization, including ambiguity about who should organize and implement the initiatives, insufficient supporting resources, inadequate societal participation, a lack of flexible response to change (Nooooooo never), and lack of unified standards. Therefore, the paper suggests, governments should act now and take proactive measures such as organization, investment, implementation, and regulation to effectively act as practitioners, motivators, and regulators in digitalization.

Governments should act now and take proactive measures such as organization, investment, implementation and regulation, to effectively act as practitioners, motivators, and regulators in digitalization
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Digitalization is a global trend. With the development of infrastructure and technology (broadband, Internet, cloud, big data, and the Internet of Things), digitalization has also undergone a gradual transition from basic informatization to more comprehensive intelligent capabilities. Based on national digitalization strategy statements and the relevant definitions put forward by major economic organizations and experts, Huawei and Roland Berger propose a theoretical framework for a Digital Nation (Figure below). Empowered by digitalization, a Digital Nation can promote economic vitality, bolster societal wellbeing, and improve governance efficiency and fairness.

Empowered by digitalization, a Digital Nation can promote economic vitality, bolster societal wellbeing, and improve governance efficiency and fairness
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Key measures include building a top-down and integrated digital department, establishing a vertical organization specialized in key areas, expanding sources of funding, investing in ICT infrastructure, attracting and training digital talent, forming internal technical foundations, providing open access to public governmental database, implementing digital applications for e-Government, cultivating a digital ecosystem, developing global standards, establishing evaluation indicators, and ensuring data security and privacy, as well as encouraging the exchange of data.

If we in the UK are to thrive outside the EU we need to take ourselves seriously and get started building a viable digital future or we will be left even further behind
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The first level of need is to deploy ICT infrastructure. This is the foundation of a digital economy. Take China as an example. The digital economy is developing rapidly, and the industrial scale of digital transformation reached CNY21 trillion in 2017, accounting for 25% of China’s total GDP. This development was attributed to the rapid construction of ICT infrastructure. Today, China has over 3.4 million 4G base stations, accounting for over 55% of the total mobile communications base stations worldwide. As video, virtual reality, and Industrial Internet of Things gain momentum, the speed of 5G network construction is increasing, says Guo Ping, Chaiman of Huawei

Key measures include building a top-down and integrated digital department, establishing a vertical organization specialized in key areas, expanding sources of funding, investing in ICT infrastructure
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Now it is important to note that as a Chinese company Huawei has been widely discredited as a technology and 5G infrastructure supplier and was, most recently, rejected by New Zealand as a possible partner for 5G implementation. However few people point out that they are already embedded in our UK national 4G infrastructure so are we now going to blindly follow the likes of America and cut them out of our vital 5G investment? I seriously doubt Britain will grasp the nettle and digitise our way to Brexit glory but we need to take Huawei’s advice as we are way behind here and if we are to thrive – or, perhaps more realistically, survive – outside the EU we need to take ourselves seriously and get started or we will be left even further behind.

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Look Out! The 5G Future is Coming appeared first on Tech Trends.

Fail fast culture is essential to creativity and innovation, but what does good, creative failure actually look like?

One of the most overused and misunderstood doctrines in tech is “Fail Fast” or some variation thereof. We have got used to celebrating a culture where it is permissible for most start-ups to flounder in their first year (or even a few months) of poking their head over the parapet, and for entrepreneurs to squander millions on the road to that unicorn valuation.

Fail Fast is one of the most overused and misunderstood doctrines in tech
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We have got used to celebrating a culture where it is permissible for most start-ups to flounder in their first year
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Innovation does require the space for creative people to take risks and try new things, and it stands to reason that a good proportion of those ideas won’t work the first time around.

Like fat, not all failure is created equal, however. There’s definitely such a thing as “failing well”, just as eating olive oil, salmon and avocado is healthier than scoffing down a deep-fried Mars bar.

Innovation does require the space for creative people to take risks and try new things, and it stands to reason that a good proportion of those ideas won’t work the first time around
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Like fat, not all failure is created equal
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The idea behind good failure is to learn quickly from your mistakes and incrementally modify your approach until you perfect an idea enough to reach the tipping point of success – or run out of money – whichever comes first.

But what do good and bad failing cultures actually look like in the real world? Funnily enough, the best examples I’ve seen recently have come from two UK conferences, neither of which was hosted by a technology company.

The idea behind good failure is to learn quickly from your mistakes and incrementally modify your approach until you perfect an idea enough to reach the tipping point of success – or run out of money
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Failing the smart way

It might come as a shock to those locked inside the Silicon Valley bubble, but the concept of embracing failure isn’t a tech industry invention at all. It has, in fact, long been recognized as an essential part of the creative process for many industries. And UK cosmetics company Lush shows how that can work even in a, extremely competitive retail environment.

At their creative showcase in Manchester last week, Lush displayed a dizzying array of products – many of which weren’t yet available in shops – but that is nothing new in itself. From its earliest days, their R&D process involved constantly trying out new formulations, often discontinuing other products to make room for them in their shops. Customer feedback was always greedily gathered, and sales figures pored over, so that products that failed to hit the sweet spot were quickly withdrawn to make room for the next wave, and so on.

It might come as a shock to those locked inside the Silicon Valley bubble, but the concept of embracing failure isn’t a tech industry invention at all
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Over the years, that has seen the company build up an extremely loyal customer base which appreciates the fact that Lush tangibly listens to them and values their input (hundreds of punters in Manchester queued up for hours and paid over £20 a ticket for the privilege to attend the showcase, which would be a tall ask for any other retailer to say the least) and also grow into an international chain which appeals to an increasingly broader audience keen on ethical, animal-friendly and plastic free cosmetic alternatives.

Which is why, although they’re relative newcomers to the digital space, Lush sounds credible when it talks about its technology roadmap, currently being developed under the leadership of Jack Constantine, son of Founders Mark and Mo.

although they’re relative newcomers to the digital space, Lush sounds credible when it talks about its technology roadmap
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If there was ever a case study of turning failure around and coming out smelling of roses (and many other delicious things) it’s probably Lush
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From AI and image recognition to help customers navigate their sometimes bewildering products, to 3D Printing and VR/AR tech that will allow you to virtually try on their new makeup range, it all makes sense in the context of their ever-evolving approach. It’s an ethos of failure-as-a-stepping-stone-to-success that filters from the top.

Before starting Lush, Founder Mark Constantine went bankrupt with a venture called Cosmetics to Go, which drew in the punters, but ultimately could not make the numbers work to turn enough of a profit. He lost everything and went back to the drawing board with those hard lessons learned. That experience was later enshrined in the Lush Manifesto (which they printed for years on every shopping bag) which stated their fundamental belief in the right to lose everything and start again. If there was ever a case study of turning failure around and coming out smelling of roses (and many other delicious things) it’s probably Lush.

And the other way…

At the Conservative Party conference, the Chancellor of the Exchequer repeated the party line that unspecified technology can somehow magically provide a solution to fundamental and complex political problems
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In contrast, for a glaring example of what embracing failure in a counter-productive and reckless way looks like, we need look no further than the on-going Brexit saga, and a very different gathering happening this week in the UK.

At the Conservative Party conference, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (for those not familiar with UK politics, this is the man who is basically in charge of running the country’s economy) repeated the party line that unspecified “technology” (possibly Blockchain?) can somehow magically provide a solution to fundamental and complex political problems, including the extremely thorny issue of free movement across the Irish border.

For a glaring example of what embracing failure in a counter-productive and reckless way looks like, we need look no further than the Brexit saga
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Now, some might generously argue that this figure-it-out-as-we-go-along and hope for the best determination to press on with Brexit is akin to the gospel of Zuckerberg, who has done rather well for himself in moving fast and breaking things (such as democracy). Yet the really scary thing is, even Facebook seems to have a more coherent strategy for where they’re headed than the UK government at this stage.

Constructively using failure to innovate is like feeling your way around a room in the dark. The idea is to gradually build up a mental map of where obstacles and dangers might lie as you bump into them, until you find a path through.

Constructively using failure to innovate is like feeling your way around a room in the dark
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What Brexiteers are doing at the moment, however, amounts to having a map of that dark room which clearly shows a cliff and deliberately choosing to ignore it, all the while insisting that the only way forward is to run towards said cliff at full speed and with a jolly heart.

A culture of failure is in essence a culture of learning, and learning has nothing to do with stubbornly choosing to ignore facts. On the contrary, it requires the humility to recognize your mistakes and pivot accordingly. Sadly, there seems little chance of that at this point, and we’re all probably be saddled with the costly consequences of their disastrous failure for years to come. It’s a sad state of affairs when the hippies making the giant bath bombs are the sensible ones you wish were in charge.

A culture of failure is in essence a culture of learning, and learning has nothing to do with stubbornly choosing to ignore facts
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This article was originally published on The Next Web

The art of failing well https://t.co/OazzzZWFDE

— TNW Contributors (@TNWcontributors) October 3, 2018

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Rinse and Repeat appeared first on Tech Trends.

It’s great when technology just works and saves you a ton of time. This speech recognition application does just that.

Touch and gesture-based interfaces and good UI design are essential but if technology is going to become truly embedded in our lives – with AI assisting us in everything we do – we’ll have to learn to talk to tech. Or rather, tech is going to have to learn to talk to us, in our own language, not in code.

Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a H.A.L. 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you? H.A.L. 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey

The first step on the road to talking tech is to teach it our language, no mean feat as it turns out, but some innovative companies are breaking new ground in this area. Mozilla Research recently launched Deep Speech, their open-source speech recognition engine model and an open database called Common Voice.

Deep Speech is an end-to-end trainable, character-level, deep recurrent neural network (RNN) - a deep neural network with recurrent layers that get audio features as input and outputs characters
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One of the major goals from the beginning was to achieve a Word Error Rate in the transcriptions of under 10%. We have made great progress: Our word error rate on LibriSpeech’s test-clean set is 6.5%, which not only achieves our initial goal, but gets us close to human level performance. Explained Mozilla Research.

Deep Speech is an end-to-end trainable, character-level, deep recurrent neural network (RNN). In less buzzwordy terms: it’s a deep neural network with recurrent layers that get audio features as input and outputs characters directly — the transcription of the audio. This animation shows how the data flows through the network.

For a machine to learn anything it needs data input, in this case, human language – not just the English language, and not just English with received pronunciation. It’s got to work for anyone, anywhere, so in parallel to Deep Speech Mozilla have further embraced open innovation and started a publicly available voice database called Common Voice so that anyone can develop compelling speech experiences. It contains nearly 400,000 recordings from 20,000 different people, resulting in around 500 hours of speech. To date, it is already the second largest publicly available voice dataset out there, and people around the world are adding and validating new samples all the time. Contribute your own voice here.

Mozilla have started a publicly available voice database called Common Voice so that anyone can develop compelling speech experiences
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At Mozilla we’re excited about the potential of speech recognition. We believe this technology can and will enable a wave of innovative products and services, and that it should be available to everyone.

The possible commercial applications of these advances are huge, and Cambridge (UK) based start-up Speechmatics are one of the companies bringing innovative products to market in that area. Led by Founder and CTO Dr Tony Robinson, a pioneer in the application of recurrent neural networks in speech recognition, Speechmatics have built an AI-powered framework called Automatic Linguist (AL), which drastically improves the speed at which new languages are built for use in speech-to-text transcription. With 28 languages already supported AL can learn the basis of a new language in under a day, independent of human interaction. It learns by matching audio data with a counterpart transcript, drawing on linguistic patterns identified in other languages to make the process significantly faster than the industry standard.

To illustrate, Speechmatics built Hindi to an industry-leading standard in under two weeks (with 80% accuracy), which when tested, made 23% fewer errors than Google’s Hindi transcription tool. Giant killers or what? Traditionally, building new languages is a costly, time-intensive task, making only the most widely spoken languages in the world commercially worthwhile. AL’s tech opens up the door to the remaining 7,000 languages, some of which are spoken by tens of millions of people. What this means for businesses is that, in an increasingly technologically connected world, new territories, including those with high illiteracy rates, are opened for business. This includes uses in banks, call centres and the media industry among many others.

Building new languages is a costly, time-intensive task, making only the most widely spoken languages in the world commercially worthwhile. Speechmatic’s tech opens up the door to 7,000 more languages
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“We are already seeing a shift to a speech-enabled future where voice is the primary form of communication. Transcription not only eases the lives of many people, but opens the door for new opportunities, especially in regions with lower literacy rates. There are communities across the whole of Asia and Africa which are often overlooked when it comes to provisions for voice tech. There are over 7,000 languages in the world, and our ultimate goal is to make speech recognition technology available to as many as possible.” Explained Tom Ash, Speech Recognition Director at Speechmatics

Last week they released Global English, a single English language pack supporting all major English accents. Global English (GE) was trained on thousands of hours of spoken data from over 40 countries and tens of billions of words drawn from global sources (No rude ones we hope!), making it one of the most comprehensive and accurate accent-agnostic transcription solutions on the market. When tested against providers of similar solutions, GE consistently produced more accurate transcriptions. Compared directly, GE was between 3% and 55% more accurate than all Google’s Cloud Speech API accent-specific language packs and between 5% and 23% more accurate than IBM’s Cloud US English language pack.

Compared directly, GE was between 3% and 55% more accurate than all Google’s Cloud Speech API accent-specific language packs
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“In the UK alone, there are about 56 main ‘accent types’, and the concept of having one language pack per accent or region is very outdated. Bearing in mind that we live in an increasingly connected and mobile world, we need our tech to reflect that. We’ve all heard stories about people being misunderstood by their personal voice assistants or closed captioning getting something awkwardly wrong. While a lot of these stories are humorous, it’s ultimately highlighting a big issue. We’re hoping that Global English will inspire others to become more flexible and fair when it comes to people’s accents.” continued Tom.

“At Speechmatics, Global English has been designed specifically for long-form continuous speech recognition and our Real-Time Virtual Appliance already adjusts words as the context in a sentence becomes clearer. The key components of true voice integration are already here, the next step is to apply them to new use cases” Tom expanded.

Speechmatics is pretty quick and once completed you can print it off, download the result as .json or text file with an option to ‘Show Speaker’ which attempts to identify the speaker in the conversation
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We were really keen to test out this new tech and Speechmatics kindly gave Tech Trends some credits and access to their online service. Through a simple online interface, we signed in, uploaded a few audio files, chose the language and hit transcribe. It is pretty quick and once completed you can print it off, download the result as .json or text file with an option to ‘Show Speaker’ which attempts to identify the speaker in the conversation and give an audio timecode reference. Firstly I should explain, we do a lot of interviews, often in noisy environments and recorded on mobile phones so the quality of the recordings was not the best, but they were a pretty fair example of an everyday use case.

Audio is often recorded at events, blasted over PA systems or on table tops in meeting rooms or cafes, so how did it do? Not bad as it turned out, it processed in real time and after reading through the transcripts with my Editor we agreed that, although the accuracy was not amazing, and quite a bit of correcting and editing would be needed after the transcription, using Speechmatics was a benefit and would save time for a typical journalist wanting to quickly transcribe an interview. I think the principal problem is the current service does not do a great job separating out background noise, so the better quality the recording the better the transcription will be.

With this in mind, I tried out another implementation of Speechmatics through an Adobe Premiere Pro plug-in from Digital Anarchy called Transcriptive. The Transcriptive plug-in acts as a text editing tool and an online interface between your Adobe video editing software and your cloud-based Speechmatics service.

I must commend the Transcriptive plug-in from Digital Anarchy, its text editing interface is fantastic and synchs to the live audio as you skip through meaning-correcting the text
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Audio for video is usually recorded much more professionally than a journalist’s Q&A so when fed through Speechmatics yielded much better results
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Very Cool! Audio for video is usually recorded much more professionally than a journalist’s QnA so when fed through Speechmatics should yield much better results. I happened to need a subtitle track creating for the feature film Borley Rectory I am releasing this year and thought that would be the best test of the transcription tool, so I popped it in Premiere Pro, isolated the dialogue track and uploaded it to Speechmatics via the Transcriptive plug-in.

Wow! The transcription that came back was incredible, with only unusual names or sections with very fast or slurred speech needing correction
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Wow, now we were talking! The transcription that came back was incredible, with only unusual names or words and sections with very fast or slurred speech needing correction. Punctuation was another weak area and I had to insert about a thousand commas but I was blown away by the overall accuracy. I must also commend the Transcriptive plug-in for the text editing interface which is fantastic and synchs to the live audio as you listen or skip through meaning correcting the text to fit the audio was simple and fun. I literally squealed with delight (several times, to be honest) at how well the two services worked together and how easy it made what I feared would be an onerous task. When I was done I simply exported the text as the file of my choice, in this case, an SRT video subtitle file for use on YouTube, Blu-Rays and DCP cinema projection files. Job done.

“As the use of VPA’s increases the usage model needs to become more natural and will be a much closer fit to the longer form conversational speech models enabling easier and more natural use for everything from turning on the lights to sending an email, in the same way that the interaction would occur between humans,” Concludes Ian Firth, VP Products at Speechmatics. 

It is no revelation that the better the recording the better the result, and I am sure the algorithms will get better at dealing with poor recordings, background noise and fast speech as the technology evolves but I am sad to say we are still a long way from conversing with intelligent robots. However, these advanced technologies are a very significant first step towards a chatty bot and for what it does best, transcribing the human voice to text, and effectively teaching the computer the first skill needed to understand humans, Speechmatics is very good indeed and well worth the starting price of £0.06 per minute of audio with the option to buy in blocks of £10 or £100.

Speechmatics is very good indeed and well worth the starting price of £0.06 per minute of audio with the option to buy in blocks of £10 or £100
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When you consider that our modern mobile phones and browsers can read text out loud on command, the concept of stitching Speech Transcription technology together with Text to Speech tech reveals the missing link in the chain, an advanced AI to absorb the transcribed language input, understand the message, reason an answer and then respond. The thinking and reasoning AI is the really big advance that will make H.A.L. 9000 a reality, along with all the possible drawbacks.

I’m afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m a… fraid. H.A.L. 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

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