Author: Bal Bansal

Categories
Week in Review

Sunday (Tech) Summary

I thought this morning – there’s alot going on in the world of Technology and I haven’t had the opportunity for a while to share with you all what’s going on, how it’s all going… and most importantly, which bit of tech that really matters to you! So here we go…

First up, the new iPhone 15

Now, there’s been alot of hype over the iPhone 15 but in all honesty, I’m not seeing the huge leap that I was expecting.

Yes, it’s got a quicker processor.

Yes, the camera technology has improved.

Yes, the operating has some new cool features.

Yes, the charging port has changed to USB C.

Yes, it’s the new iPhone with an improved dynamic island user interface.

But should you upgrade?

Well, depends what you have now. The camera tech, to be fair has improved considerably. So if you’re rocking an 11 or 12, then yes! I would say definitely upgrade. If you’ve got a 13 or 14… depends if you need the speed (new processor makes it faster than before) and images (if you want a much better camera) then yes, upgrade. If you’re on the fence on these items… then you could wait or think about what other tech you could get.

Next up, what if you’ve got a Samsung?

The new Samsung Galaxy S23 has been accidently leaked in an image.

The leak comes from an image posted on the Galaxy Buds FE page found on Samsung Argentina’s website. Eagled-eyed Samsung watchers have spotted the date of Wednesday, October 4th in the notifications bar of the Tab S9 FE

Unfortunately, I don’t know much more at this time… but will share more as and when there’s more information shared. But for the Samsungers amongst us, this would be interesting for sure…

And finally, (not phone related)… AI Alexa!

Amazon has announced plans to incorporate Generative AI into its Alexa digital assistant.

Alexa is arguably the most popular virtual assistant. Still, like Siri, it uses natural language processing (NLP), a branch of AI that helps systems understand and naturally respond to human speech. However, these assistants are limited and trained to respond to patterns with pre-determined scripts or replies that need to be processed. That is, until now.

Currently, Alexa can recite a bedtime story for your kids. With the addition of Gen AI, Alexa would be able to produce unique stories each time, complete with your kids’ names for the characters and genres.

Essentially, generative AI would make Alexa smarter. This also means that Alexa would be able to answer open-ended questions without resorting to an internet search or an “Alexa answers contributor”.

Personally, I think that’s quite awesome – but also scary on the other hand because what you feed into GenAI helps it build it’s knowledge so becareful with any sensitive information you may be talking about!

So that’s a wrap folks! A quick Sunday (Tech) Summary of a few tech bits from the past week or so.

I’ll share some more in a few weeks… And like always, if you have any questions, you can always reach out to me on my socials or via this blog!

Categories
Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

Think like a farmer.

Why… because everything a farmer does for their farm, you should think about doing (if not already) for your workplace.

Categories
Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

All about making memories.

Facebook is great at showing what happened on this day many years ago… on mine, up came an old memory. Wonderful! It’s those moments I will remember forever.

The people, well….

Categories
Old Tech

Why you should take a break… from tech.

Strange one, this one.

Yep… I’m actually telling you, that you should take a break from technology.

There’s a few reasons why… but the biggest one is, whilst tech is great in whatever format it’s utilised, remember that it’s you who should be the focus – not the tech. Make the tech work for you and don’t you be a slave to the tech.

What do you mean Bal? Should I give up on all new tech stuff?

No, far from it. Do a quick analysis… let’s start with your phone. How many apps do you have?

Now… how many of those apps do you actually use? – and then, what do you use them for? and how long do you spend on those apps?

Once you have that information – honestly tell me you’re productive on those apps, or they help you mentally or physcially or that they’re enhacing your life (in some form or another)?

We’re slowly wasting hours and hours scrolling through tik tok videos.
We’re slowly wasting hours looking at various social media posts. We’re slowly wasting our time attached to various gadgets (smart watches – have I done my steps?!) and others.

What we need is a break.

Take a Tech Break. And have a kit-kat. (Or another chocolate)

The concern I have is we’re moving away from what we want to do and our thinking is quickly influenced by what we see.

It used to be like in the old days… with newspapers. They’d influence our thoughts – depending on what paper you read.

Social media does that today.

But take other technology…. for example, the other day, I saw some small gadget that you can place on the ankle of your Under 10’s football team and see how fast they run, what they do… track all their movement. You can use this device on older kids also. For me… I wasn’t impressed. In my very first FA coaching course, they said… the number one rule of football should be that they enjoy it.

How can you enjoy it if you’re being tracked with some technology. Then analysed. Then being told you should do this and that. Whilst I understand that kind of technology is important in top tier professional football games where it’s run like a business, it shouldn’t be for smaller younger clubs. Kids should enjoy just running around. Kick that ball. And slowly progress. Have fun. That’s the key thing.

Go and have a water fight.

Go and have a cup of coffee with a friend you haven’t spoken to for a while and put all your devices away.

Go and explore the outdoors.

I’m not saying ban tech. Far from it. Just take a break. Just use it wisely. Use it so it benefits you.

I watch YouTube videos on people polishing their cars. I like to polish my car. So I learn. I’ll use technology to help me advance.

It’s not entirely our fault. It’s become so easy now… pick up the phone and boom! notifications, information, etc… look around, people will be talking about the latest tik tok dance or the latest something that someone posted somewhere.

Yes, it’s fine to have a quick look – but remember… technology should work for you.

Categories
Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

Time goes quick.

Tomorrow, in the morning… I’ll be attending the funeral of a young man who passed away.

Then tomorrow evening, have a wedding reception of a close family friend (who recently got married). I’ve known him since he was a little kid.

Got me thinking, how time goes so quickly…. And mostly around wanting to do things which unfortunately stay as wants and aren’t ticked off the list…

Categories
Uncategorized

Are EV’s really the future?

I was speaking to someone today, whom had asked me – should I get an electric car?

My answer… there’s a few things you need to consider.

  1. Have you got/getting a charge point at home?
  2. How many miles do you do during the week?
  3. Do you drive over 250-300 miles (incl. a roundtrip) regular?
  4. Do you want a new new car or a second hand (new for you) car?
  5. Are you ok to plan some of your longer journeys?

You see, it is quite simple – but the above questions really will help you. In fact… the first question is quite essential.

Then I was asked… are EV’s the future?

Now, that’s a great question.

The current push is on EV’s.

Remember when they said diesels are the best and we should all be driving them.

Well… there’s other options and who knows where this could go.

The other options are…

Hydrogen – like the Toyota Mirai

Ok, this is a cut-away image that shows what’s behind a hydrogen car – but the essential thing is, it’s an option away from electric.

Power is generated by converting the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy, either by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to power electric motors or, less commonly, by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine

Now what’s the difference between these, electric and petrol?

Any other cars to consider?

Yes!

e-Fuel.

eFuels are produced with electricity from renewable sources, water and CO2 and are a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. eFuels can be used in existing infrastructure and thus decisively and affordably reduce CO2 emissions

Porsche are leading the way with e-fuels, but we’re still a way off from having it all readily available. But there’s hope we can keep alot of our current cars as is… maybe.

So in all reality, with the ban coming in 2030 (ban of selling new petrol or diesel only cars – you’ll still be able to get hybrids), the optionsa are limited and with the push, as mentioned earlier, to electric… the option would be electric or hybrid.

So with that I leave you to prepare yourself, have a charger installed at home and start thinking more about your journeys.

Cars will be around. Don’t think, in the UK, we can do without them. As much as you try to say use other transportation modes… the problem is, trains are expensive and cars can often still work out as a viable option…. not in all cases, but majority.

Categories
Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

An old colleague recently reached out to me. He said, ‘Bal… I need some advice’.

I was more than happy to share whatever elements of wisdom I had and also provide him with not answers but questions for him to come to the answers.

You see, for me, I love to see people succeeding. It’s not a competition – it’s about everyone getting to where they want to get to and if I can help folks on that journey, then that’s only a good thing, right?

Categories
Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

Summer is here! Well, the weather has been a mixed bag… some days have been awesome lovely sunshine, some cloudy.. but that’s ok.

So Summer is kind of here! and thank you to Koen, who part of this Summer Book Club, always sends me a book for the summer to read. He provides me with a list of great books – and asks me to choose one. I’ll be honest – look forward to the Summer Book Club email… because a) I know I’ll be going on holiday soon, b) I’ll have a book to read and c) it’s nice to be part of the club.

So which book did I go for this summer…. well it was a difficult choice! There were so many great books on the list. But the one I ended up going fo was ‘The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down’. It’s by Haemin Sunim – and I’ve already started reading it! It’s brilliant… my favourite part of the book is my Friday Thought for today. I shared it on my Insta and got plenty of likes… even Gurpreet Singh (aka Sikh Dad) privately messaged me reflecting on this.

Here’s my Friday Thought… a Buddha see’s Buddha, a pig sees pigs… what do you see?

Categories
Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

I’m not going to apologise to the folk I spoke to for the last few days and kept referencing Ted Lasso.

It was the final show on Wednesday – and yes, one was a little emotional.

Absolutely brilliant! The best show ever! And if you haven’t had the opportunity to watch it – honestly, you should! There is so much we can learn from Ted. Like… be a goldfish!

Bal…. what’s your favourite quote or part of the show?

Well, there’s so many to choose from, but if you pinned me down and asked me to say one, it’d be the one below…

I’ve even got the quote saved on my phone.

Have a great weekend folks!

Categories
Uncategorized

Holiday Monday

Well, it sure has been a while! – I know… apologies. It’s just, it’s been super busy recently and I haven’t been able to dedicate the time I’d like to my blog. I’ve made a promise to myself (after a few people asked me why I’m not blogging anymore) that I will blog more.

Bal, where have you been and what you been doing?

Well… I was over in Nashville, USA for a week for the first week of May, then I was at the Gartner conference (in London) for a few days. And I’m not sure if this is a reason or not, but my Nottingham Forest needed a huge win against the table topping (until Man City took over), Arsenal… and Forest being Forest, beat them – which meant they’re in the English Premiership for another season!

So now I’ve a little more relaxed, I’ll be on BBC Radio Nottingham next Sunday (June 4th) at around 6.30pm (but look out on my socials for the exact time) to talk about Tech! – that’s right, back to my, every two months’, BBC Radio interview where I’m asked what’s the latest and what’s happening.

Whilst there’s so much going on… honestly, everything from AI (ChatGPT) – if you’ve not heard about that, I’ll blog about it very soon! to all things robots and how the world is going to be taken over by bots!

However, what’s even more important than all that is what Mr Musk is up to…

Elon Musk’s brain-chip firm says it has received approval from the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to conduct its first tests on humans.

The Neuralink implant company wants to help restore vision and mobility to people by linking brains to computers.

It says it does not have immediate plans to start recruiting participants. Mr Musk’s previous ambitions to begin tests came to nothing.

So what is Neuralink, Bal?

Neuralink hopes to use its microchips to treat conditions such as paralysis and blindness, and to help certain disabled people use computers and mobile technology.

The chips – which have been tested in monkeys – are designed to interpret signals produced in the brain and relay information to devices via Bluetooth. Experts have cautioned that Neuralink’s brain implants will require extensive testing to overcome technical and ethical challenges if they are to become widely available.

So whilst the reasons makes sense… the question is, what also will these chips do and once we all have them in our brain!

Now its website promises that “safety, accessibility and reliability” are all priorities during its engineering process. Its initial aim was to start planting chips in human brains in 2020, in order to honour a pledge made the year before. It later vowed to get started in 2022 – so safe to say there’s been delays, but it’s definitely coming!

So I’ll wrap it up today with the question… would you have a microchip in your brain?