Tomorrow's World

Hope you had a lovely Easter. I recall, this time last year – at the start of Lockdown, in April – it was HOT! Well, let me re-phrase… the weather was absolutely lovely, and we were in gardens enjoying the suns rays. This year… we’re not quite at those temperatures but to get you warmed up for the week ahead… here’s my Top Two stories of the week!

1. First up – it’s been a bit of a sad week. Not tech or innovation related – but nevertheless, would like to share my condolences to the families of DMX, HRH Prince Philip, Nikki Grahame, and others who passed away this week. It’s though when loved ones pass away – thoughts and prayers for anyone who’s going through tough times at the moment.
2. Moving to tech… and to share something that came in my newsfeed recently was Tesla – and their naming convention for cars.

Now, you may be aware, there’s the Model S, 3, X and Y. For those eagle eyed amongst us – you’ll see it could (kind of) spell SEXY. Now, the reason why Tesla didn’t release the Model 3 as Model E is because Ford own the copyright for that name and wouldn’t release it.

Anyway… so we have SEXY.. but what next? Well… sources inform us that Tesla in China are working on a Model 2.. which could also be built in the Berlin Factory. It’d be similar to a BMW 2 series, Audi A2, etc… so the 2, as a name, works. People will know.

After the 2… there’ll be a Tesla 4. Again, slightly bigger than the 3…

So we have the naming convention of 2, 3, 4…. and my shirt.

That’s correct. Tesla – rumoured – to have an idea, to build a car called, ‘my shirt’.

Bal… are you pulling our leg?

Not at all. Tesla honestly wanted a line up called SEXY, it’s just unfortunately the E wasn’t available and went for 3, so it’s S3XY.

And coming up… we have 2, 4 and my shirt. Why?

This is a requirement because then the lineup can be: 2 S-3-X-Y 4 My Shirt.

And with that…. I’ll leave you with the classic. (Have a great weekend!)

Who’s your biggest fan?

First and foremost – Happy Easter! Hope you’re enjoying Easter and have not consumed tooooo many Easter Eggs! With so much going on in the World, it’s becoming more and more difficult to pick only two stories – and for those asking will I include more, unfortunately not at the moment. But will try to do more blog posts…

Ok, let’s get to it this Easter Weekend!

1. First up – Whatsapp Scam! – So this first appeared on Twitter. Basically, there’s a very clever scam that’s going around which concerns all Whatsapp users. The attack revolves around the six-digit verification code that WhatsApp gives out when you want to regain access to your account.

The message reads ‘Hello, sorry I sent you a six-digit code by SMS by mistake, Can you transfer it to me please? It’s urgent.’

What has actually happened is your friend’s account has been hacked.

Scammers are now trying to hack all their contacts. You are one of them.

They are trying to set up WhatsApp on a new device with your number.

WhatsApp acknowledges this and sends a six-digit authorisation code to your mobile phone by SMS.

“The scammers now try and get you to forward it to them by pretending to be a friend of yours,” he said.

“If you send them the code, your WhatsApp will be hacked.”

Which? and Mr Alexis urged users to turn on two-step verification as protection. They also suggested confirming whether the verification message is real by contacting the friend who sent the message without using WhatsApp.

2. And this week gone…. we had April’s Fool Day! – Now we had some really good ones this year, and some… not so good ones!

You are probably wondering which ones were my favourite… well, personally for me, I think VW did very well, they came in early, made it very believable and did all the ground work required. Innocent also teamed up with Heinz which was clever…. especially after the whole beans on Weetabix situation!

Which was your favourite?

So there we have it… whatsapp scams and April Fool Jokes which had us all believing…

Today’s Friday Thought, is from a friend of mine. She’s shared this with me, and I think it’s great to think about what it really means… especially on a cloudy day.

And we carry straight on.. straight through March with lots still happening!! With lockdown rules easing, Covid cases coming down.. it’s important to ensure we stay safe – but also, for our mental health, we get some fresh air, and go on nice walks (where possible!).

Ok… my top 2 from this week!!

1. Cost of Electric Car Charing! Now whilst we’re all being told, electric is the future (even though I think Hydrogen will play a big part)… the cost of ‘charging our cars’ can be expensive!

So… when we’re all driving electric cars, we won’t need petrol stations, we’ll need charge stations. And like petrol stations, they all charge differently.

There’s some cheaper ones and you guessed it, there’s some expensive ones. Below is a table showing the cost of charging a new iX3 at various charge stations. One thing to point out, it’s cheapest to charge at home…. but you will need, to charge at a charge station if you’re out and about!

2. Delivery Robots – they’ve have gained major traction over the last year with more and more people looking for contactless deliveries due to Covid-19. Postmates X is the robotics spinoff of the popular delivery startup acquired by Uber in 2020 and recently became its own company known as Serve Robotics. With nearly 50% of restaurant deliveries in the U.S. being located within walking distance, their technology negates the need for a car, making deliveries more accessible.

It will be interesting to see how many restaurants and local retailers turn to robots to deliver their products. So many have pivoted because of the pandemic. Many restaurants have complained about delivery services, so maybe robots could be a solution…

So there you go… my top 2 stories from this week. I will continue to share more new tech (though the robot delivery has been happening for a while… and is now taking off!), but ones that impact you, and could be coming to you soon.

If you need more information, or are a business that needs some innovative solutions – reach out to me! Happy to talk, understand and collaborate.