This is a sponsored post by LOPOO UK who've asked me to review their Oittm Bluetooth Realsound Speaker. Let's get one thing out of the way first, this is not the Amazon Echo! It's about the same size, shape, and design - but it has a very different purpose What's it for? This is a big Bluetooth speaker with integrated LEDs and microphone. At a basic level, you pair your phone with it and the Realsound acts as a speaker and microphone - so you can hold telephone conversations with it. But …
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After four fun-packed years of Digital Disruption, it's time for me to move on from The Lab at O2. I've had an amazing time, building 3D printers, charging phones from lemons, building paper-prototypes with unemployed people, finding all sorts of interesting security bugs, teaching kids to code, redesigning the nation's gas bills, creating holographic iPhone displays, speaking all over the country, and building some amazing software. Best of all, working with a team of talented, funny,…
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I never tire of telling people how bad my Nest Protect smoke alarm is. It is a buggy box which requires magic batteries and doesn't support some of its advertised features. Still, I've drilled it on to my ceiling now, so have to put up with it. This morning, I glanced bleary-eyed at my phone. OH FUCK! THE HOUSE IS ON FUCKING FIRE AND MY FUCKING NEST ISN'T WORKING! I sniffed the air. I couldn't smell anything strange. Perhaps it is deadly Carbon Monoxide. I frantically clicked the email…
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We all know what an email address looks like and how to validate them, right? A few years ago I got the Chinese domain name 莎士比亚.org. You can browse to it, link to it, and send email to it. Or can you? When I tried two years ago, none of the major email providers supported sending to non-ASCII email addresses. Today, I tried again with six of the big "Western" webmail providers. How did they do? Show Me The Data! I tested by trying to send an email to test@莎士比亚.org and the Punycode repre…
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