Parting company with an old friend is never easy, but it seems that more and more us are outgrowing our old PCs and leaving them behind in favour of their more glamorous cousin - the tablet. Recently IDC predicted that tablet shipments would exceed portable PC sales this year, and they would dominate the entire market by 2015.
There’s no doubt that a fair bit of this growth is down to the increasing adoption of flexible working technology in the workplace. In fact we’ve discovered that around 15 per cent of businesses believe they could operate without PCs and half of CIOs are considering offering staff tablets instead of laptops for hot-desking schemes.
With connected devices like smartphones and tablets making their way into the workplace, more people are working on the move a...
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It’s no secret that we’re a nation of mobile addicts who would undoubtedly be lost without our handy little devices. We use them daily to do everything from send a quick text, check our emails on the and even to stream videos and listen to music. It’s safe to say, the days when a mobile phone was just for making calls are long gone.
That’s why we’re excited about the potential of mobile health. If we’re using our smartphones and tablets for everything else in our lives, from working on the move to downloading an app for the gym, then why not use them to improve our health?
According to shiny new research by PwC, mobile health has lots of potential to improve healthcare. If our smartphones or tablets reminded us to undergo a health check or take prescribed medication, we’d be healthier and ma...
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E-learning tools have the power to transform the average school classroom. The introduction of tablets and other smart devices are making lessons more exciting, inspiring and engaging for young people as they wave goodbye to ‘boring’ books and begin a whole new way of learning.
However, a recent announcement from the E-Learning Foundation told us that many schools up and down the country have limited access to Wi-Fi, preventing students from making the most of valuable digital resources which have the potential to bring even the dullest subjects to life.
That’s why we’re delighted to be teaming up with London Grid for Learning (LGfL) in helping 2,000 schools across London to benefit from a brand new Wi-Fi service which will enhance classrooms across the capital. Not only will students be abl...
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Scotland’s gearing up for a economic makeover as it jumps on the revolutionary digital train. Our wee nation is preparing to take the tech world by storm with its own digital hub in Edinburgh.
I thoroughly enjoyed speaking on a panel at Virgin Media Businesses’ event last week in the Scottish capital to discuss the digital explosion. The debate was simple; what’s more important to Scottish entrepreneurs, to be digitally savvy or be exuding with business know-how?
And what’s the key conclusion we found? Old school business rules just don't stack up in a digital world where pre-revenue companies sell for Billions! The digital revolution is about experienced people sharing and building a niche startup community.
At the debate on Scotland’s digital future we were also asked if we saw...
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We’ve spoken before about how collaboration through the cloud is definitely on the rise. It’s incredible to think that we might be working with people we may never meet - but this is the way we believe business is heading. One thing we’ve learned about collaboration is that we have to share information and resources to get the best results. But this has often been a stumbling block as firewalls were either extremely restrictive or were very lax.
We’ve launched a new managed firewall to make this a little easier – it’s a next generation product which is here to allow you to scale those digital walls a little easier. It allows businesses to be way more flexible about what they allow on their network.
It’s surprising, but nearly a quarter of the UK’s CIOs still ban some of the leading business...
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What’s going to be the most sought after business skill in years to come, a deep understanding of digital technology or a buzzing business mind? That’s the question we’re looking to debate next week as we host a Virgin Media Pioneers event in Scotland to look at what the Industrial Revolution 3.0 will hold.
The event is taking place at Summerhall in Edinburgh, on 30th April, from 4pm – 6pm and will be hosted by BBC Radio Scotland’s Kaye Adams. The discussion panel represents some of Scotland’s leading business people and entrepreneurs including, Sam Zawadski, the founder of AdvancetoGO and Sir Richard Branson’s ambassador for Scotland. We’re going to explore what skills the next generation of business leaders are going to need under their belt in order to lead Scotland into business g...
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The chill may still be on, but things are certainly heating up in the race to become the UK’s first super-connected city as we provide both Leeds and Bradford with their second free public Wi-Fi zones.
Using our fibre optic network, locals, businesses and visitors across Millennium Square in Leeds and the City Park area in Bradford are being welcomed into the heart of their cities with a completely free and super-fast Wi-Fi service. All that’s needed is a simple, one-time registration and - hey presto – you’re ready to enjoy a high performance connection into the digital world.
City Park, which only opened last year, is part of a big re-generation project in Bradford. The new service will provide an exciting digital dimension to City Park whi...
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PwC has revealed the extent to which the high street is currently changing. According to a report they’ve published, 28 shops a day are closing and things are likely to get worse before they get better. Since the turn of the year, the pace of closures has accelerated from 20 a day at the end of last year. Headlines have been grabbed by HMV’s difficulties and there’s a general feeling of doom and gloom in our shopping centres.
But they say the night is darkest just before the dawn, and this could be true of the current trend on the high street. We’ve talked about this in the past and recently spoke to 500 CIOs with 88 per cent of them telling us more modern technology introduced over the past twelve months is having an impact on making shops more attractive to consumers. Indeed over a third...
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It’s that time of year when we all froth at the mouth marvelling at the latest devices unveiled at CES. This year’s no different and a lot of envious eyes have been reading the reviews and thinking “want” as they run through the list of features on the newest gadgets.
What really stands out this year is that many of the devices offer both personal and professional uses. We’re all now pretty familiar with the idea of consumer tech being used for work purposes, however the rise of the ‘phablet’ means we’re increasingly blending both our work and home lives onto a smaller amount of devices.
But one of the drivers behind this technology becoming more accepted in the workplace is the software supporting them. Windows 8 in particular has been a hot topic. Commentators have debated it at length w...
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1. How important is a super-fast internet connection when it comes to the designing, building and launching of a supersonic car?
BLOODHOUND has a core team of 50 with an extended team of over 250 product sponsors all helping to contribute to the build of the world’s fastest car. Communication with these partners is critical in making sure we can keep the fast pace design and build process moving forward. With a super-fast internet connection we are able to send out design data quickly, ready for manufacture. We can also hold video conference meetings allowing the engineers to discuss/share designs with manufacturers over the web, meaning less time out of the office and more time designing. All in all, this super-fast connectivity is helping us reach our goal of developing...
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