The Big Tech Show

This week, Adrian sits down with the world’s most famous PR man and CEO of Edelman Public Relations, Richard Edelman.The Chicago-born executive, whose firm takes in €800m a year in revenue and has an expanding Irish office, gives Adrian his take on the state of the world.This includes the advice he would give to Mark Zuckerberg, why newspapers have to change their business model and the circumstances under which company bosses should speak openly about contemporary issues.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thought food delivery by drone was a distant tech promise?Think again.Irish entrepreneur Bobby Healy says his first Manna Aero drone flights with burgers and chips will start in January.The former Cartrawler CTO says he has clearance from Ireland’s regulators to do it and will start with an area servicing 30,000 people.In the near future, he says, he hopes to scale to 50,000 delivery drones for the Irish and UK markets.Is this really about to happen?Adrian sat down with Bobby at the Web Summit in Lisbon to talk about how Manna Aero will work, the challenges facing it and Healy’s future ambition for the company.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In what he says will be his last wide-ranging Irish interview “for two years”, Paddy Cosgrave speaks at length and in-depth about his business, his politics and his thoughts about the future.The Web Summit is still growing and is quite profitable, while sister events Collision and Rise are also expanding.Paddy reveals some of the background as to why he has campaigned against tax lawyers and an “unjust” economic system in Ireland. He also answers the allegation that he is adopting a double standard with regard to some of his stances, in relation to what he does with his own companies.This is a must-listen interview for anyone interested in the Web Summit founder.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian and Buzz.ie digital editor Mark Kavanagh look in depth at the pros and cons of Google’s latest flagship smartphone, the Pixel 4 XL.Adrian is disappointed with the phone’s battery life and lack of an ultrawide camera, while Mark loves the phone’s 90Hz refresh rate. Both admire Google’s Assistant and Android 10.The two journalists also compare and contrast the new Pixel with the other top phones on the market, while Adrian lists his three favourite smartphones of 2019.Adrian and Mark also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of signing up to Eir’s budget mobile operator, GoMo. Adrian thinks it’s a no-brainer, even if Eir goes back on its word and doesn’t keep the price at €10 per month for 80GB of data.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian invites a couple of guests on to ask about whether we’re anywhere close to realising aspirations of making Dublin into a ‘smart city’.What is a smart city, anyway? Is it just some public wifi? A few sensor-stacked bins? Or does Dublin have a plan for drones and autonomous vehicles?And should we avoid the example of Songdo, the South Korean city that spent €40bn creating a new smart citadel but where hardly anyone wants to live?Adrian talks to Jamie Cudden, Dublin City Council’s Smart City programme manager, and Dr Zohreh Pourzolfaghar from DCU’s School of Computing.For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Clothes manufacturers are starting to build voice technology into their garments, while Amazon’s new doorbell tech allows it to have autonomous conversations with whoever’s at the door.This week, Adrian Weckler goes through some of the latest developments in voice technology from companies like Google, Amazon and Nuance.He’s joined by Bret Kinsella, founder of Voicebot.ai and commentator of the year on voice technology as defined by the Alexa Conference.For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Creating start-ups is hard. -- few of them succeed. This week, Adrian talks to two Irish co-founders, people at very different stages. Des Treanor is the co-founder of one of Ireland’s most successful ever start-ups, Intercom. Ian Kehoe is the co-founder of a new online media business company, The Currency. Both have different perspectives, motivations and challenges. Adrian asks both about particular issues that crop up and how they get over them.For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian reviews the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Max. Although smitten by the new cameras on the updated handsets, he thinks that the unsung feature that will sell the iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max models is the impressive new battery life, up to five hours per day longer than last year’s iPhone X models. He’s joined by John Kennedy, former founding editor of SiliconRepublic.com and now editor of ThinkBusiness.ie, a business information platform run by Bank of Ireland. “After a week using the new iPhone 11 Pro Max, I would upgrade to it for two reasons,” says Adrian. “The cameras and the battery life. When it comes to cameras, I’m slightly biased. For me, the camera system on a phone is about half the reason I choose it. Apple claims that battery life on this model is up to five hours longer than last year’s X Max and it feels like it.”“I know that battery life has always been a pain point for iPhone users compared to some flagship models from rivals. So this is actually a very big deal, especially for power-users or business people relying on it as a workload tool. If anything, Apple is underplaying it.”For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian looks at some of the nuts and bolts of starting a company with a couple of entrepreneurs who have succeeded and failed several times.From choosing a place to work to asking for money from friends and family, Adrian gets the insights from Voxgig and Nearform founder Richard Rodger and serial startup activist Dave Cunningham.For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at:www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler looks at 5G not from the point of view of speed or connectivity but health. It’s been an issue bubbling under, in rural areas especially, as to whether mobile phone radiation is safe.The regulators say it is but there are some campaigners who don't believe that is so. Are they mere conspiracy theorists or is there more to it?To find out, Adrian spoke to Tom Butler, Prof of Business Information Systems at UCC, who believes in the dangers, and Prof Kevin Curran from the School of Computing at Ulster University, who believes that if the dangers were as bad as people were claiming it wouldn't have gone unnoticed.For more from the Big Tech show you can visit the show page at:https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-big-tech-show/The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.