The Big Tech Show

Has Samsung’s Galaxy Ring kicked off the “smart ring” era? How much is it? And what other products did the tech giant release? On The Big Tech Show this week Adrian is joined by producer, JJ Clarke. The electronics company revealed a new range of foldable smarthphones, smartwatches and a smart ring at its Unpacked event this week. Adrian spoke about this being a significant move by Samsung into the smart ring space which has largely been dominated by market leader Oura. The Galaxy Ring however is more discreet and more sleek than previous smart rings. The wearable will be coming to Ireland later in the year and is largely aimed at those that don’t want a smartwatch that pings and beeps endlessly. The Ring, will cost €459 and will be available in nine sizes and three colours: silver, black and gold. The “smart ring” era has kicked off in earnest with Samsung’s announcement of its Galaxy Ring. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For many people, a well-paid, high-flying career in a firm like Davy's Stockbrokers is considered a destination job in life. But not Rosanne Longmore, who went from being chief operating officer at Davy Wealth Management to leading and starting her own startup based on a concern that mothers and babies weren't getting proper attention when feeding with breast milk.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is the Apple Vision Pro a flop? Are fully autonomous cars still a decade away? And will Elon’s Musk’s August announcement shake up the self-driving car market? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by producer, JJ Clarke. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you have a thick phone wallet? Do you use a novelty ringtone or set notifications to ping constantly? Is the crying laughing emoji one of your go-to texting characters? Well, you may not think of yourself this way, but you're middle aged. On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by assistant producer, JJ Clarke. Adrian kicked off the conversation by talking about the older generations' annoying habit of leaving their ringtone on in public places. There was some daylight here between Adrian’s and JJ’s view on this, with the latter stating that he believed it was the time it took to stop the ringing was the issue. Overuse of certain emojis is a hallmark of people who have aged out of the zeitgeist. Adrian spoke about the overuse of the crying laughing emoji. He said it was used like punctuation by this type of phone user and that every message from one of these senders will include it. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is brain hacking and tracking just science-fiction? Or has emotion-sensing neurotech already arrived? And what are the applications, good and bad? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by Duke University Professor and Author of ‘The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology,’ Nita Farahany. The Law professor first came to neurotech as a result of being a self-described chronic migrainer. She began using neurostimulation devices and neurotechnology to treat the pain and this allowed her to physically move through the migraines without using drugs with negative side effects. In the second part of the conversation Adrian asked about the negative applications of this novel technology. The author made the point that a lot of this futuristic neurotech is already operational in society. She gave the example of an Australian company that has been selling a device for over a decade that can tell employers if their staff are wide awake or falling asleep. There are more recent reports of workers in China wearing these devices, being exposed to communist messaging and punished if they display a negative reaction. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever been tempted to get into meme stocks? Have you heard of friends making or losing money on Gamestop stocks? Or is the whole thing just a giant ponzi scheme? Adrian is joined on The Big Tech Show this week by chief investment officer and senior portfolio manager at Gresham House Ireland, Derek Heffernan. A meme stock is a stock that gains popularity among retail investors through social media. The popularity of meme stocks is generally based on internet memes shared among traders, on platforms such as Reddit. Investors in such stocks are often young and inexperienced investors. Examples of some memestocks are Gamestop, AMC, Nokia and Bed Bath and Beyond. Derek says that memestocks became popular in 2021 because people were sitting at home, furloughed, with more disposable income and they began betting on those stocks. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Where have all the late-night cafes gone? What's the alternative for a non-drinker? And what impact is it having on newly minted tech startups? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by assistant producer, JJ Clarke. In Adrian’s most recent article, he laments the disappearing cafe culture in Dublin and how they were a useful place to go or meet people, early or late if you didn’t want to go to a pub. There are very few cafes today, that open later than 11pm or do business before 6am. When asked what effect this may have on the budding tech entrepreneurs of today. Adrian pointed to Foursquare cofounders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai. They divided much of their early coding time between a handful of Manhattan cafes, which was partly connected to them creating a ‘mayor’ feature for the social check-in platform. He made the point that tech founders who want to meet or collaborate in 2024 have nowhere to do so. You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Irish tech industry grabbed its popcorn when Intercom co-founder and CEO, Eoghan McCabe, posted a thumbs-up photo with Donald Trump, endorsing the recently-convicted ex-president. McCabe isn’t alone. Across Silicon Valley, there’s a clear drift of senior figures toward Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How can we deal with no-shows in healthcare? Does it impact patient wait times? And can AI receptionists improve attendance? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian is joined by Spryt, chief operations officer and co-founder, Neill Dunwoody. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What’s the latest from Apple’s WWDC conference? Is user data still a priority? And why did they go big on AI? On The Big Tech Show this week, Adrian joins the show from Cupertino, California at Apple's WWDC conference. Joining him on the episode are tech industry analysts from CCS Insight, Leo Gebbie and Ben Wood.  The big news from the conference is that the tech giant has done a deal with Open AI. It’s essentially acknowledged that its own research and training models are limited. Contingent on user permission, Open AI will be able to reach into apple products and support the user in some core functions. Adrian was particularly impressed by Siri. Now it's more of a device assistant than a voice assistant. It can access your messages, emails, photos. Apple calls this a semantic index which isn’t used singularly but can help with everyday tasks.  Great pains were taken to underscore how private the new cloud setup used for its AI purposes. It uses what was described as an almost blockchain-like process. When the user asks AI a question or inputs some information, the data is anonymised, your IP address is masked and not tracked.  You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.