What if your Internet Connected Fridge came with free electricity?


A bit of future-gazing which I can't be bothered spinning into a 15,000 word Gartner report. In the UK we have a competitive electricity market. Only one set of wires comes to your house, but you can buy your electricity from a number of providers. Some only offer organic, corn-fed, Wind Farm power - others promise price stability - another gives you a discount at their electric car chargers - one gives you loyalty points at a supermarket. We increasingly have smart meters. Second-by-second…

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Headphones displaying album art


A woman wearing headphones.

Many years ago, when I worked for a mobile phone company, a group of us were encouraged to come up with crazy ideas which the organisation could patent. I had one idea come this close to getting through until someone found an unnervingly similar patent and the whole thing was dropped. Well, it has been a dozen years and no one has released my killer idea, so I'm setting it free. It's simple. A set of Bluetooth headphones with a built in display to show off album artwork. Here's a quick…

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Ephemeral Media


Getting access to my Twitter archive opened my mind to the nature on transience of the media we create. Take, for example, this tweet and image: Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edenthttp://twitpic.com/2dhr3 - Loving #mint09 :-)❤️ 0💬 0🔁 012:24 - Mon 23 March 2009 Well... ok... fun at the moment it was taken, but does it have any use beyond that? On the off chance that I become a subject for scholars in the year 3723, perhaps. Should some media just be declared ephemeral? The word comes from th…

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What I Want From SpinVox


Screenshot of a voicemail which has been poorly transcribed to text using the SpinVox service.

[Full and utter disclosure, I get a free SpinVox service through work. I've also given James Whatley a man hug.] I love my SpinVox service. For the uninitiated, I turns your voicemails into transcribed text messages.  I no longer have to interrupt my day to dial in and listen, I get send a text and email like this. --------------- "Hey honey, it's me. Sorry to say that I'm just leaving the office now. So give me a call when you get this and I'll text you and let you know what train I'm on …

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