PC Pro February 2020

tim travels back to the robot-filled future of 1957

I’M STILL NOT sure what I think about the novel – it has uncomfortable echoes of Lolita – but Robert A Heinlein’s The Door into Summer is a curious read for technogeeks. Published in 1957, it sets out Heinlein’s vision for two futures: the first in 1970, the second in 2000. Our protagonist is an inventor who has created a domestic robot, but who is forced by his conniving business partners to take the “long sleep” – being cryogenically frozen for 30 years – so they can take charge of the company. You could easily argue that it’s one of the world’s most influential books when it comes to shaping technology. It was certainly one of the inspirations behind Chuck Peddle’s creation of the 6502 processor: Peddle had been a key…

contributors

Nik Rawlinson Want to improve communication in your business? Nik examines the free and low-cost tools that can help, from 3CX to Facebook to Slack on p104 Steve Cassidy After years of lecturing firms on cyber-resilience, Steve almost gets caught out after being “stranded” in California during the forest fires. See p120 Nicole Kobie Maybe VR isn’t dead after all. Nicole talks to analysts, academics and a man who makes VR experiences for funfair rides to see where VR is going next on p127 Lee Grant At some point in time you’ll have a broken laptop sitting in front of you. Our tame repair shop owner shares his secrets so you can fix it yourself on p30…

g.fastis“not fastenough”

G.FAST, THE TECHNOLOGY intended to be a stepping stone to full-fibre broadband, has been dropped by a British ISP amid complaints about its speed and range. G.fast is an interim measure that theoretically pushes the speeds of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) copper connections into triple figures. It’s being deployed by BT Openreach in lieu of full-fibre connections. During the autumn, Openreach scaled back plans to make the technology available to ten million homes by 2020, with a revised figure of only 2.5 million, and critics believe the technology may never recover. According to ISP Aquiss, continuing with G.fast would be a waste of money as it simply provides “another excuse for Openreach not to deploy full fibre into certain areas”. Aquiss has more concrete concerns over the technology itself. “What we discovered over six months of…

five stories not to miss

1 Microsoft pushes out Windows10 improvements Microsoft’s second Windows 10 update of 2019 has landed, with the company promising improved OneDrive integration, easier access to calendars via the taskbar and voice controls for third-party assistants from the lockscreen. However, certain users may have to wait because Microsoft has imposed a “safeguard” feature to delay updates to machines with known compatibility issues. 2 Wikipedia founder eyes socialmedia crusade Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is hoping that a community-funded social media platform could clean up the market. The WT:Social platform will be “news focused” and funded by a pay-what-you-can model to beat the “amplified the voices of bad actors”. Wales says it will never sell user data. 3 Apple lifts lid on 16 in MacBook Pro Apple launched a chunkier MacBook Pro, replacing the existing 15in version with…

unveiled

Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor UP2720Q Dell is hoping to attract content creators who crave the ultimate in colour accuracy with the announcement of the first 27in 4K monitor with a built-in colorimeter and Thunderbolt 3. The UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor is targeted squarely at photographers and video editors. Dell claims the display provides 100% cover across the Adobe RGB gamut, as well as 98% of the DCI-P3 standard. To ensure those figures are maintained, there’s a built-in colorimeter for calibration, which can be scheduled to run when the display is not in use and is designed to work with the CalMAN calibration software. The UltraSharp is an IPS panel with a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution, 250-nit brightness, a 1,300:1 contrast ratio and a 6ms response time. In picture-by-picture mode, the monitor can display two…

fitbit owners see health data handed to google

FITBIT USERS FEAR their medical data will be used by Google after the tech giant agreed to pay $2.1 billion for Fitbit, with many observers saying the deal’s value lay in the data. Health-tracker maker Fitbit has 28 million users and gathers data as sensitive as sleep patterns and menstrual cycles. Many customers have expressed concerns over how Google might use the data. One Fitbit user we spoke to on condition of anonymity explained why they were unhappy, saying that neither Google nor Fitbit could explain how they would use details. “I was just offered a link to the press release – and it said that Google wouldn’t use Fitbit data, but only for advertising,” they said. “There isn’t a clear plan for the future of how it will be used, so…