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LastPass: Why You Should Be Using a Password Manager

Marty
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0
LastPass: Why You Should Be Using a Password Manager

Seriously Facebook? Seriously? This is getting re-god-damn-diculous. Facebook once again made a balls of privacy. The passwords of millions of users were stored in plain text and were fully accessible by employees with internal access. You’ve no idea how frustrating this is for someone like me who is always trying to promote the best side of tech. Join me as I explain what happened along with why this is such a mess while also giving you an incredible tool called LastPass that will protect you from companies who clearly just don’t care about your privacy.

Facebook and Privacy Problems

As you may have detected from my intro there, I’m extremely annoyed and angry that Facebook has had yet another bloody password privacy issue. It seems that the light shone on the social media giant following the Cambridge Analytica scandal has also uncovered quite a few other demons too.

In September of last year, it emerged that some crappy coding on Facebook led to hackers being able to steal access tokens and access people’s accounts.

The Latest Privacy Mess Up

It’s not a breach. It’s not a hack. What Facebook did this time was basically not care about the basic rules and best practices when it comes to storing people’s passwords. But what does that mean?

According to Facebook, “hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users, tens of millions of other Facebook users, and tens of thousands of Instagram users” had their passwords stored in plain text on systems accessible by company employees. The reason this wasn’t a breach or a hack is because Facebook maintains none of their employees did anything with the passwords. Sound Facebook.

Regardless of whether or not something happened with this data, it’s a disgrace that Facebook stores passwords of anyone anywhere in plain text.

Password Hashing

Plain text passwords are basically passwords saved in a format that’s nice an easy to read. Thing of it like saving a load of passwords into a Word document. That’s the level of security you get.

Password hashing is where your password is passed through a system which jumbles it up and makes it impossible to reverse; unless you know the key. It’s a rather simple process which renders your hacked password useless should it fall into the wrong hands.

Have You Been Pwned?

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re reading this safe in the knowledge that passwords falling into the wrong hands and hacks only happen to other people. Prepare to be shocked.

There’s a website called Have I Been Pwned which lets you see if your email address or password has been caught up in a hack. I’m in there. Both emails and a password I used to use. One password I used years ago was ‘shiloh’. Nice and simple that one. Why did I pick it? Well, it was in an X-Files game so I thought it would make a great password. Turns out I’m not alone. In the below screengrab, I’ve just checked ‘shiloh’.

This service is the very service which made me realised I needed to change how I deal with passwords. It’s hard to remember multiple passwords so I was doing what everyone does; using the same password for everthing.

The problem with using the same password for everthing is that when one site gets hacked and your password gets compromised, hackers will assume you’ve used it elsewhere. For example, if your Adobe password was found by hackers back in 2013 then could have used it to try log into your Facebook account and wrek havoc on your life.

So, how do you avoid this from happening? I’ve decided to employ a password manager.

What Is A Password Manager?

The safest password is a password you don’t know. It might have been Edward Snowden that said that but whoever it was, it makes a lot of sense. If a password is easy enough for you to remember, it’s likely pretty easy for a computer programme to decipher too.

The safest password is a password you don’t know.

Right now, for the vast majority of websites I visit and sign up to, I have no idea what my password is. For example, I have no idea why my Facebook password is. I’ve no idea what my Instagram password is. I actually have no idea what password I used to log into Goosed.ie when I’m writing articles. I do know they are all different passwords with a lot of charachters made up of letters, numbers and symbols.

The reason I don’t know any of my own passwords is because I use LastPass, a password manager.

Life With LastPass

It’s called LastPass because it’s the last password you’ll ever need to know. Once you know your LastPass password, their service will then manage all your other passwords. This allows you to have incredibly complex combinations and most importantly a different password for every single website that you sign up for.

It’s Called LastPass because it’s the last password you’ll ever need to know

When privacy mess ups like this latest craic from Facebook happen, you’ll see security experts advise that you change your password on the effective platform and anywhere else you use that same password. So, today you should be changing your Facebook password and everywhere else you use that same password. Take a moment to think about how horrible that is.

Because I use LastPass, today I updated my Facebook password and that’s me done. Secure until they mess up again.

The only recommendation I have here is that you make your password for LastPass a passphrase and whenever you can turn on two-factor authentication.

What If LastPass Gets Hacked?

I’ve been recommending LastPass to people for a while now and the first question I always get back is “but what if LastPass gets hacked”.

It’s a very fair question to which I have two responses.

First of all, LastPass did have a security incident back in 2015. No data was leaked or anything thanks to how LastPass handles your privacy; keeping things seperate and never knowing your master password. They regularly test their own systems and remain at the very cutting edge of online security protocols. At the end of the day, this is their business.

Secondly, if you’re using the same password across loads of sites and it’s something like ‘Fluffy123!’, you’re only fooling yourself if you think the your privacy is nice and safe. By employing a password manager like LastPass, you will be improving your security immeasurably.

Fruit is the Least of Your Problems

I’m going to use a metaphor to explain what I mean here. I recently saw a question put to a fitness instructor about fruit; specifically natural sugar content. The question was around losing weight by reducing sugar and should that also include reducing the amount of fruit you eat. His response was perfect. If you’re overweight, eating fruit is not the cause.

When it comes to online security, if your goal is protecting your privacy, entrusting a password manager to use different complex passwords for every site you register with is far more beneficial than worrying about your password manager being hacked. Hell, we’ve seen how much all these other online service providers care little about your privacy so the least you should be doing is taking control of the situation.

If you’re still on the fence though, please take time to read through what LastPass themselves has to say about this. They are a fully transparent company built on policies of open honesty.

What About Logging Into Mobile Apps?

This is important. LastPass comes in the shape of multiple platforms. You can install a Chrome Extension which helps you logging into websites through your browser or a mobile app which will then let you log into apps on your mobile phone. Within the LastPass app itself you can also reveal your password should you need to log into something that doesn’t natively support LastPass. A good example here might be if you wish to log into Facebook on a games console or something similar.

The important call out here is I’ve been living with LastPass for a long time and never find myself locked out or unable to log in somewhere. Because I can safely store information like my PPS number in the app too, I’ve found I usually have information to hand that I used to have to dig around for.

Other Password Managers

LastPass is by no means alone in the world of privacy and password managers. I would argue it provides the most for free, but then again can you really put a price on privacy?

It’s just the one I’ve used the most and can personally stand over recommending. If, for some reason, you don’t feel like it’s for you, try out the likes of 1Password or Keeper.

Whether you’re convinced or not about password managers, I implore you to check it out. If you have any questions, as always, fire them into the comments below or over on our social accounts.

Google Stadia: Gaming Is About To Change Forever

Marty
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0
Google Stadia: Gaming Is About To Change Forever

I enjoy spending some time on my games console when I have a couple of hours free. I’ll admit, as I get older finding that time is more difficult. So, when I turn on my console only to find there’s an hour’s worth of updates, I get a little annoyed.

Today, Google Stadia was unveiled to the world and it is going to change gaming. I know, I know. Every single day there seems to be something that changes an institutional industry, but Google Stadia is quite likely going to have an impact on gaming like Netflix had on Xtravision.

What is Google Stadia?

Google Stadia removes the requirement for you to have a console or high spec computer in order to play the latest games. In a way, to follow on from my Netflix and Xtravision comparison, this is the gaming equivilant of being able to watch Blu-ray quality movies by streaming instead of having a disc.

Google Stadia will allow gamers to play the latest titles straight from the cloud through a plethora of devices. Not fancy devices either. You’ll be able to play games which have just been released using yout Chromecast and a special Google Stadia controller. Want to use your own USB controller? No problem, you’ll also be able to stream games straight to your laptop through Chrome browser, smartphones, TVs and tablets.

I’m not talking about low resolutions here either. Stadia will allow you to stream console-quality games in 4K and 60 frames per second with HDR and glorious surround sound while also being future-proofed for whatever is coming next.

What Will You Need To Run Google Stadia?

At launch, Google Stadia will support desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. You will not need a box. By that I mean there’s no need for a console like the Xbox or PlayStation. The reason for this is because Google does all the hard work on their side, streaming the data to you instead of you having a machine with the power required to do it locally.

Say you’re watching a video of someone streaming a playthrough of the latest GTA game on the official Rockstar Games YouTube channel. When the video finishes, a popup asks if you’d like to play. With a simple click, you’re in the game. It’s science fiction stuff, except this is coming in 2019.

Internet Connection Required To Run Google Stadia

As you might imagine, this does mean you’ll need a fairly fast internet connection, which I understand could send a chill down the spine of the Irish. National Broadband Plan crisis aside, let’s look at this in a positive light.

Back to the GTA example. If it’s your first time running Stadia, you’ll be prompted to run an internet connection test. Google will use this to ensure you meet the minimum requirements to play live games. Google looks at the latency between you and the servers, bandwidth and the likes with the service requiring a streaming rate of 15Mbps, the latency of less than 40ms and an ability to handle 95% of data without any loss.

Sounds ambitious? Fair enough, I’ll agree with you but for some, it’s easier to have a connection like this than an expensive console which will inevitably be obsolete at some stage down the line. With that said, Google ain’t a charity.

How Much Will Google Stadia Cost?

Just how much Google will charge for the Stadia service remains an unknown, but I’m happy to make some wild speculations. How we pay for things has changed in recent years. Subscription models have become common place and the absolute default for younger generations. Instead of investing on several albums or movie rentals per year, we pay a subscription to services like Spotify or Netflix. Gamers pay a premium to access streaming services like Twitch and I fully expect Google to go down this route.

While its possible Google could charge gamers €75 and up to access a single game, €10 per month to access a full range of games seems much more likely. Then again, with the YouTube integration, maybe this is another string to the bow of YouTube Premium. There’s no limit to what Google might do here, so watch this space.

Google Stadia Irish Launch Date

Oh, come on now. You know I don’t know that. Well, I don’t know exactly, but Google has committed to its Stadia platform launching later this year. Yep, you should be able to take advantage of this platform in 2019 and maybe even Ireland from launch. Maybe, just maybe it’ll launch in Ireland from the get-go as Google did confirm a UK, US and “much of Europe” launch.

Fingers crossed.

…And That Stadia Controller?

So, if you’re playing through desktop you can use your own controllers if you like. Google is, however, planning for you to game through a Chromecast which means you’ll need your own Stadia Controller. This thing doesn’t connect to anything locally, but instead directly to where Google is streaming the game from in the cloud via your WiFi connection.

This is the crux of it all. If Google can make this work seamlessly without lag that leaves you as a head shot magnet, well hell…this whole thing might just work.

Would you prefer to pay a membership for unlimited games? Is the PC master-race ready for a new challenger? Will Irish internet connectivity even be able to handle the likes of Stadia? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Watch The Google Stadia Announcement

Paddy’s Night Problems: MyTaxi Needs More Than Another Rebrand

Marty
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0
Paddy’s Night Problems: MyTaxi Needs More Than Another Rebrand

When I suggested we deploy an Uber-style solution to the countryside to help stimulate a rural social life, I was really quick to point out the importance of having a trustworthy taxi driver. It’s the morning after St. Patrick’s Day night and I have a rant about taxis in Dublin. Specifically, I have a rant about MyTaxi that I want to share.

What Happened With MyTaxi On St. Patrick’s Night?

In short, a taxi driver undermined the whole MyTaxi service because he didn’t want to pay the rather hefty 12% commission that comes with accepting MyTaxi jobs versus the 0% commission he would pay for someone flagging him down on the street.

Time for more detail.

Best Laid Plans

My plans for St. Patrick’s Day this year were a bit more ambitious than usual. My apartment overlooks the parade route, so after some drinks and enjoying the parade, I was heading over to the 3Arena for a charity comedy gig before grabbing the Luas down to Fibber McGees for a music gig. Given I’ve been living in the capital for five years now, this was the most ambitious Paddy’s Day plans I’d made here yet.

Surprisingly everything went swimmingly until getting the Luas back out from the 3Arena. It was jammers, so we decided to get a taxi. I didn’t have any cash on me (as is par for the course) so I fired up MyTaxi. Not a taxi to be had, but it was a busy area at the time so I got over it. Fortunately, someone I was with spotted a taxi and flagged him down. We were sorted. But I still wanted to pay. Thankfully, he was a MyTaxi driver with loads of branding all over the car, leaving me confident I’d be able to use the Pay With MyTaxi feature.

This is where my rant begins. I apologise in advance if this all seems petty.

Resisting An Argument

Just as we set off on the taxi, I asked the driver if it would be ok with him for me to use the Pay With MyTaxi feature.

This system is really simple. You flag a taxi on the street, check if they are a MyTaxi driver and then find them in the app in order to pay with your saved card rather than cash.

Great idea right? I’d only used it once and it worked perfectly. This time, however, the taxi driver laughed and said no. Yup, he actually laughed. After he laughed, he explained the joke I missed.

“This thing is a joke tonight” the driver said, pointing at his phone which showed the MyTaxi interface. “Why should I pay a 12% commission to these guys tonight when everyone is on the street looking for a taxi?”

he was only looking at this from his pocket and not from the experience of his passengers

I won’t lie. I was a bit triggered by this. Mainly because I have a lot of experience in customer-centric retail spheres and he was only looking at this from his pocket and not from the experience of his passengers. We had a great night so far and one of the party travelling with me, fortunately, had cash which meant I could resist the argument.

Still, it left a bad taste in my mouth and I’ve been thinking about it since. There are two ways of looking at this.

The Taxi Driver Was Wrong

That taxi driver was spinning around in a Toyota Prius that was dressed head to toe in MyTaxi branding. This naturally led to my assuming that using the Pay With MyTaxi functionality would be absolutely no problem. Technically, you are supposed to mention it to the driver at the start of your journey and we were driving about one minute before I realised that, mentioned it and found out it would not be an option.

This taxi driver was looking at this scenario from his own financial benefit only. He didn’t want to lose 12% of the fare by letting me use MyTaxi to pay for the journey. Let’s do the maths.

My trip cost €12 which means he would have received €10.56 instead of €12 should I have paid with the MyTaxi app. So he got himself an extra €1.44 by insisting we pay cash.

I know. If you look after the pennies the pounds look after themselves, but I doubt very much many people bother to use Pay With MyTaxi feature, so with this being a potential once-off on his night, would it really have been that big a deal?

Are You Busy Tonight?

There’s one more important point to bring up here. Instead of asking my taxi driver the classic “are you busy tonight” or making a joke about people always asking that, a few years ago I started asking them what they thought about MyTaxi (formerly Hailo).

The majority of them seem to be fairly happy with it as the service means they can pick up fares on quiet nights rather than sitting around waiting for someone to flag them down. Some did mention the commission or the delay for payments, but even so, most said the whole thing compliments their days work with a few extra fares a day.

So for a driver to have all the MyTaxi branding reject a customer wanting to use the MyTaxi app to pay for a ride because it was a busy night where he didn’t need the app, is at the very least bad form. You can’t just sign up for something and offer a service when the going is good.

Well, actually you can given this is exactly what happened, but as I said, it’s bad form.

Would you believe Dublin taxi drivers and me have previous on this.

Why Would You Book On MyTaxi?

In a past life, an employer had a MyTaxi account. This was brilliant because they simply gave employees access to the company account and you could be whizzed around Dublin without having to worry about expensing back taxis receipts as the company paid for the trip on the spot. Brilliant way of doing things.

That was until I booked a cab to collect me outside Croke Park.

The driver I booked through MyTaxi pulled up outside and I jumped in. “Where are you off to?” asked the driver. “You should be able to see the exact address there in the MyTaxi app” says I.

The driver actually got quite agressive here.

“Why the fuck would you book using this bloody app here”, the driver said out of nowhere. “You can easily hail down a taxi, but because you’ve booked through this bloody app I won’t see a penny of this for a week or two”.

I was taken aback by him giving out to me considering, in my eyes, I was giving him money for the service he provides to everyone on a daily basis. I explained that it was a business account which meant I wouldn’t be out of pocket (nor could I afford to be) for getting a taxi across town. He gave an auld audible “tut” before silently dropping me to my destination.

Personally, as a customer, these are the two standout negative experiences I’ve had in five years with taxis in Dublin. While both surround MyTaxi, I would say both situations were, in the very least, partially the fault of the taxi driver and not MyTaxi.

That doesn’t mean I think they are totally innocent here.

MyTaxi Is Wrong

In both scenarios that I’ve given here, I can totally see why the taxi drivers were less than pleased to be dealing with a MyTaxi customer and not a regular cash-paying customer.

  1. They would lose 12% of the fare
  2. They would have to wait a week or two to be paid

As a customer, to be quite honest, I couldn’t care less about these two points. Last night, I had no cash on me so MyTaxi was the only option and in the second example I gave, I couldn’t afford to cover a taxi myself. If I taxi driver has all the MyTaxi livery on his car, as far as I’m concerned he should be accepting the MyTaxi app as a payment method.

At the same time, I can see where he was coming from. St. Patrick’s Day and night is like shooting fish in a barrel for taxi drivers. Everyone needs to get somewhere and they’re often happy to pay a taxi driver to make it happen that little bit easier. Why would you want to hand over 12% to someone when you don’t have to?

MyTaxi stats for 2018

12% does seem like a massive commission. Here are some more maths to put it into some sort of context. To get a taxi from my gaff to the airport costs €30 according to the Transport for Ireland fare calculator. On a fare like this, MyTaxi would make €3.60 and the driver would make €26.40.

MyTaxi probably made around €3.6 million on people going to the airport alone in 2018. 12% commission means big money but this is how these services work. Food delivery services like JustEat and Deliveroo work on the very same idea of connecting customer and service provider while taking a slice of the pie along the way. JustEat charges 13% commission on every order you make with a restaurant with the chipper generally being somewhat happy with the thought that they might not have got that order at all if they weren’t on the JustEat app.

It’ll Take More Than Another Rebrand

The app, which started out in Ireland as Hailo, became MyTaxi in 2017 but will again rebrand later this year to FREE NOW. People used to say “I’ll Hailo a taxi” and now they reluctantly say I’ll MyTaxi a cab, but FREE NOW just seems a ridiculous name for the taxi app. With focus on this rebrand, my fears are even stronger that the company is more focused on what their parent company, Daimler, wants rather than their own drivers and customers want.

MyTaxi has had it hard over the past few years, struggling to find enough drivers to meet demand while also fighting off competitors such as Lynk, Uber and, more recently, Flag. It’s a balancing act, but I fear that unless MyTaxi can get all their drivers on-board with some reduced commissions or helping them see the overall benefits, taxi drivers will resent the service and even worse, resent customers who are innocently using the platform for convenience.

Taxi apps are, in general, great. You’re never stuck without cash, if you lose something you can find it, you know the driver has been vetted, you can share your ride details and if you lose something in the cab, you can contact the driver the next day. It’s safer and I love it for that. So for the next few months, I’m going to focus on using Lynk, which has been created by Dublin taxi drivers which means they must be happy enough for people to use that, right?

Update

The people at MyTaxi have since been in touch with me to highlight that Pay With My Taxi is commission-free and that while they do their best to make this clear to drivers, this one must have slipped the net.

Huawei Mate X Folding Phone First Certified 5G Smartphone

Marty
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0
Huawei Mate X Folding Phone First Certified 5G Smartphone

On the stroke of midnight, as we rang in 2019, Huawei announced the P smart 2019 and as a result, they had the first smartphone announcement of the year. Yesterday, Huawei announced another first as their new folding phone, the Mate X, became the world’s first certified 5G phone.

Whether or not folding phones are the next big thing, is still up for debate, but the Mate X is nothing short or a beautiful phone. Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, while cheaper, appears to be an unusual design misfire, while the Mate X looks sublime.

Coupled with the design innovation, Huawei has now confirmed that the Mate X is teh world’s first certified 5G handset.

5G certification is carried about by TÜV Rheinland, the same crowd behind that CE certification that devices must pass to be eligible for sale within the EU.

The Huawei Mate X utilises a Balong 5000 chipset. This single chip supports a broad spectrum including 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G meaning the addition of 5G to your new smartphone won’t mean it needs to be bigger at all. While refusing to compromise on design, the Balong 5000 chip also doesn’t skimp on performance with the chip being the first to achieve an industry-wide 5G benchmark of 4.6Gbps.

Basically, it’s really fast.

The Mate X is going to be an absolute beast and it might very well be the reason I come around to the idea of folding phones.

Watch this space.

When Will 5G Launch in Ireland?

You can expect to see 5G arrive in Ireland later this year. Both Vodafone and Three have been public in outlining their hopes to support this new mobile spectrum. Exact dates haven’t been confirmed though, so again – watch this space too.

Dublin Tech Summit 2019: Space, Space and More Space

Marty
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Dublin Tech Summit 2019: Space, Space and More Space

I say it every year. Isn’t it an awful shame we lost Web Summit. Last week, it was announced that we’ve also lost MoneyConf, cancelled at relatively short notice, now to become part of the Lisbon Web Summit. Thanks be to jaysus we have Dublin Tech Summit again this April. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be taking a look at what’s on to look forward to, but today I’m going to start with space, space and more space.

A New Space: Moving Into the RDS

It’s partially a symbolic move but mostly a practical move. Dublin Tech Summit has received mixed reviews to date when it took place in the Dublin Convention Center and that’s simply because it outgrew the building. The first event wasn’t too bad, but last year proved to be too much for the event. With one floor closed off, Casey Neistat and a lot of students the whole event ground to a halt.

This year, Dublin Tech Summit moves to the RDS. Formerly the home of Web Summit, the RDS had it’s own problems, namly the WiFi which infamously proved to be a major pain point for CEO Paddy Cosgrave. Still, as a venue, the sheer size of the RDS was incredible for Web Summit. While you can expect to see only a part of the RDS being used for Dublin Tech Summit this year, the potential for expansion is what really excites here. That and there’s a lovely pub across the road.

Chris Hadfield: Extreme Leadership in Space

Up until a few years ago, if you were asked to name an astronaut, there’s a fair chance people could have only named Neil Armstrong. Nowaways there’s a very good chance that Chris Hadfield would also be the name on the tip of people’s tongues.

The former commander of the International Space Station will be at Dublin Tech Summit to discuss extreme leadership and to be fair, he’s well placed.

Hadfield is one of those really cool personalities too, so you can expect his talk to be jammers. To celebrate his appearance, here’s him singing in space:

Alyssa Carson: Bid to Become a Martian

Alyssa Carson is in one of the most unique positions on the planet. Just 17 years of age, Carson is training to be among the first humans to journey to Mars. It’s really not something to be taken lightly. Her eventual journey will be across nearly 65 million kilometers of space. It’s a lonely journey, but not neccessarily a one-way ticket.

Carson’s journey will be long and lonely, fraught with danger and lots plenty of personal sacrifice, but it’s her passion. Her talk on the Wednesday will be surely be riveting and not one to be missed. I’m intrigued to hear about the sacrifice and the mental state of someone preparing for such a harrowing journey.

Dublin Tech Summit takes place on 10 and 11 April this year in the RDS, Dublin. Be sure to throw us a follow on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to keep up to date with the latest news from the event.

Dublin Churches Begin Trialing Contactless Payments for Donations

Jon
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Dublin Churches Begin Trialing Contactless Payments for Donations
Image result for irish church dublin

It might come as no surprise to people that we wouldn’t be the biggest fans of the church here at Goosed.ie, Martin has even wrote an article about using GDPR to leave the Catholic Church. But if we can use tech to leave, the church can use tech to their advantage too. That’s why it now looks like collection baskets may soon become a thing of the past!

We’ve all been there down the years, you’re sitting down doing your mini aerobics class throughout mass and bang, the collection basket comes out. Do you not want drop a couple coppers in to the basket or did you just simply forget the change? Well it could all be changing due to a new initiate that’s kicked of in 5 Dublin based churches.

Digital collection boxes

Image result for contactless card payment

These digital collection boxes are basically the introduction of contactless card payments in place of the old basket for those of us who barely carry cash anymore. They have rolled out this initiative to tackle the decline in cash donations. It’s been reported that there has been a 19% decrease in donations between 2016 and 2017, with donations dropping from 2.4million from 3.1million the previous year.

“We are piloting a new payment method in a small number of churches, with card machines in place at the back of the church to allow parishioners to make a contactless contribution,”

Has this been done before?

Image result for church of england

Yes it has, the Church of England has been trailing it for a short while now and the early reports are indicating a 97% increase in donations since the introduction of the digital collection box.

Of course that means the Catholic Church have the euro symbols in their eyes and they have jumped right on the bandwagon.

“later this year we plan to roll out the ability for the majority of parishes to accept card-based payments using a parish payments system. This will cover many transactions such as offerings, pilgrimage payments and will enable parishioners to sign up for recurring contributions.”

Not ones to miss a trick, this new system won’t spell the end of the old wicker baskets that traditionally do the rounds. Now how this works is simple, you pick from one of four options and then either tap your card or phone and pass along. The device can currently handle 500 transactions before needing to charge.

From what we have seen so far, Irish churches will have a stationary device at the back of the church so you can donate before or after the service and in time we might see the mobile option replace the traditional donation method.

At the moment there are over 16,000 in the UK using the system and they aim of making portable card readers available.

It’s definitely an interesting time for the church as worshippers and donations have been drying up over the last couple of years but hey if you’re the church going type and you like giving them money here’s a modern solution that we assume will be rolled out nationwide in the near future.

Anthem – Game Review

Jon
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Anthem – Game Review

Anthem only needed a couple of things to go right to be a success and at a glance, it’s one of the most highly polished titles we’ve seen from one of the biggest developers in the world. It’s a deceptive game in the sense that from the moment you see the world, it’s characters and scenery you’re blown away by how gorgeous everything is. Then you play the game. It starts strong, throwing you into the midst of an epic battle where aliens and humans face off in a battle to the death. What happens next is a disappointment, the new game smell wares off and you see the game for exactly what it is, a pretty but buggy and soulless game that fails to show BioWare’s unique storytelling ability.

The Story

Image result for anthem

Anthem is set on an alien planet where the human race are working towards survival thanks to exo-suit wearing warriors called Freelancers. On this planet, the aliens have shaped the environment using the power of the Anthem of Creation, a mystical energy source of sorts. These “Shapers” as they are known, have now done a runner and left all their Anthem-infused power tools still running, which causes all sorts of apocalyptic accidents that Freelancers are tasked with preventing.

Sounds exciting right? Well not exactly, the story feels like it’s half finished and even the well made characters can’t save it.

The Grind

After the initial mission you will find yourself in a place called Fort Tartis which is a small enclosed city, this is your home and main hub. You play as something called a Freelancer aka a warrior in a mech suit and this is where you return to make your upgrades, talk to NPC’s and pick up your contracts.

When you begin you’re going to be eager to talk to all the characters within the fort so you can get started powering up, gathering loot and get cracking with the storyline. And then it starts to go wrong. Levelling up is a slow and painful grind while the repetitiveness of Anthem starts becoming boring and tedious.

Missions start to blend together and you don’t get a proper grounding around the villain’s motives or the heroes hardships. This means you rarely have a clear understanding of what’s happening or why it matters.

Slogging Away

Here’s Anthem in a nutshell – grab a contract, do the mission, return to base, repeat. Anthem lacks a natural story progression that we have seen in games like Spider-Man and Read Dead and to be honest it would benefit massively from a clearer storyline, that way you’re not constantly jumping in and out of your base for things to do.

Playing with friends is also a bit of a bother. If they are in a different part of the story to you, they won’t make any progress by joining you on a mission. Why I do not know. Also, waiting for them to endlessly talk to NPC’s and constantly travelling back to base kind of takes the enjoyment out of playing with mates.

And finally, it’s just such a slog in my opinion. Around mid-way through the game gets bogged down with too many characters and not enough character development/relationship building. It becomes repetitive and that brings me onto the problem called the Tombs of the Legionaires.

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This is essentially a side quest where you have to explore four different caves. Not bad, but to enter each tomb you need to complete a ridiculous amount of tedious tasks. Collect 20 chests, 10 collectables, beat 50 enemies and entry could be yours. I’ll pass. Such was the blowback from gamers towards BioWare, they changed the mission so that your actions in free play mode contribute to the lists once you reach level three. If you’re like me and you won’t spend much time in freeplay then it’s pointless. It’s really a shame because it’s a fine looking game, with promising aspects, it’s just not hitting the mark.

It’s not all bad

Image result for anthem the game people

Really it’s not. It’s a brilliant looking game. The architecture and scenery are proper stunning while the wildlife around you is slickly done. It’s a complete 180 from the normal apocalyptic wastland vibe you get from most similiar games, namely Destiny 2.

Flying is also pretty cool and it makes travel a breeze. It feels a lot more free than the story ever does and the suits themselves are amazingly detailed with slightly different flying characteristics. It makes for a really nice experience and jumping about to reset yourself in battle will always have you cracking a smile.

So the flying and scenery are good, but it’s the combat where the game really comes to life. The combat visuals are something to see and when you start getting proper weapons, fighting is great craic.

Image result for anthem

So there’s four Javelin classes, you start as the Ranger and as you level up you start leveling up you unlock new suits. Every suit has it’s own different flying characteristics, abilities, strenghts etc and these are:

The Collossus: A slow, sturdy tank like machine

The Interceptor: A fast/agile melee machine

The weapons themselves are ranked by rarity and power which correlate its strength and with the addition of components and inscriptions you can customize and upgrade your suit. To be fair that is fun.

Money Money Money

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Speaking about upgrading the suit, as per the usual now microtransactions are a big deal for Anthem. Any form of visual customization like emotes and cosmetics are going to cost you a few beans.

Speaking about upgrading the suit, as per the usual now microtransactions are a big deal for Anthem. Any form of visual customization like emotes and cosmetics are going to cost you a few beans.

Within the game you can purchase armour and materials using coins you collect throughout the game but you can also use microtransactions to get what you want. This is helped by the fact that gathering coins is a pain making it easier to just buy the upgrades if you wish. For example, gathering 40,000 coins can take over 10 hours.

Longevity

You can complete the campaign in about 20-25 hours roughly but realistically Anthem is going to be dependant on downloadable content to extend its lifespan. If they can bring out some fresh ideas and fix some of the bugs and problems then maybe it can spark some life back into the title and we can have something fun to play. However if things continue as they are then Anthems best bet is going to be having a small niche of dedicated players.

Goosed Verdict

It could have been an incredible game, but let’s call a spade a spade here. Anthem is just not up to scratch! Sorry but it is, I find you spend a lot of time scratching your head simply asking yourself “Why?” Just why is this game not what it should have been.

I don’t want to seem like I didn’t have any fun on the game but it just seems to lack the basic fundamentals of what a game like this needs to work. Players have begun boycotting the game in order to get a bug re-introduced that actually made the game better and that probably says all you need to know really. Anthem is flawed from start to finish and although I’d love to be proven wrong, I’m skeptical that they can do enough to get the players back on board.

The company behind Anthem, BioWare have already detailed some of the changes that will be coming in the new couple of weeks and months. As the game is a “live service game” we should expect that Anthem will change a fair bit, not unlike Destiny 2 or The Division. In fairness to BioWare they seem open to feedback and they are doing their best to respond to it as fast as possible, which is nice. Sadly they have lost me and I won’t be coming back and I imagine that’s the case for most people who have tried Anthem.

HorseSales.ie – Buy and Sell Horses Online.

Jon
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HorseSales.ie – Buy and Sell Horses Online.

Remember our mate Brenny? He’s been on the podcast before and he’s one of the guys behind the brilliant CyberSmarties and GymGo. Well, this bunch of serial tech entrepreneurs are back again with their latest venture. Not going to lie their new company is a proper curve ball and it’s going to properly disrupt a market we genuinely have never thought off… Horse sales. So if you’re watching Cheltenham and have been thinking “Jaysus, I wouldn’t mind owning a proper pony” then now is your chance. So let’s have a gander and see what it’s all about:

What is HorseSales.ie

No photo description available.

The Limerick based company has just launched Horsesales.ie, the first and only online auction platform to allow people to buy and sell thoroughbred horses to a global market from the convenience of their couch in a simple and cost-efficient manner. So if you’ve ever thought of buying a thoroughbred horse in time for Cheltenham now’s your chance…

How did they start up?

Once upon a time I visited their old office space in O’Connell Street in Limerick and geniunely this is how they work. Come up with an idea, write it down and stick in the idea jar until their current project is complete. Now with CyberSmarties fully operation, itchy feet set in.

They have realised that the bloodstock industry was well behind the mark when it came to its use of technology, especially when buying or selling horses. Their idea was to use modern technology to make a market that was more efficient and all around easier. They have about as much of a background in horses and horse auctions as I do so they had to go out and travel the length and breadth of the nation speaking with trainers and breeders to see what they needed.

How do customers sell and how do I buy?

Image may contain: horse

Horsesales.ie seems fairly simple and straight forward to use. To sell a horse all the owner has to do is register with the platform and fill in the details that include – uploading pictures of the horse, pedigree etc, choose your length of auction and your reserve (does not have to be seen) and guide price. The Buyer registers to bid and Horsesales.ie verify them as a legitimate buyer. A Bidder can go and see the horse while the auction is running.

Interestingly enough, they also have their customer service team on hand throughout the process and auctions to help you get used to the sales process. Once the auction is over, they liase with all parties to complete the sale (all of which are subject to a veterinary test)

The cool techy stuff

Horsesales.ie is all about efficiency, convenience and value for money. In today’s world, time is money and your mobile is effectively your office. So that means they needed to use technology to create a platform that would allow a breeder, trainer or owner could conduct all their sales business from their phone without leaving their yard and more importantly, their horse doesn’t have to leave their yard. The online element to buying and selling horses is already something new and it also opens up a global market, depending on where the vendor wants to sell.

Sellers won’t have to wait for traditional closed or public auctions to sell. This means less travel and transport cost as well as reducing costs for keeping the horse on site for longer than they would like, plus their own cut is a lot smaller than traditional sales companies in this space.

On the platform, there are three techy touchpoints, Syndicates, VR and TV.

The Syndicates

VR

HorsesalesTV

Goosed Verdict

Personally, I won’t be popping out to buy a pony anytime soon but it’s a very interesting concept to solve a problem in a very niche market. I’ve seen a number of companies looking at platforms of a similar ilk for buying and selling cars at auction but horses are a different game altogether. Horsesales.ie use of virtual reality to add an extra dimension is one of the first uses of VR I’ve seen for sales, rather than entertainment or gimmick. I like this because in recent experience we have all been hung up on AR to improve online purchasing for obvious reasons but it seems that VR might still have a future after all. I’m very interested in seeing where this technology goes and what other industries, auction or not, begin seeing VR as a viable tool to improve their online purchasing experience. Now Horsesales.ie, any chance of doing this for I don’t know, say buying/renting houses online or remove the payment element and we make dogrescue.ie. Just saying.

Apple Showtime: What to Expect From Apple March 25th Event

Marty
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Apple Showtime: What to Expect From Apple March 25th Event

Lord above I love a good tech keynote. Nothing beats a new product launch. But what the bloody hell does Apple have to launch in March? Their phones are selling away and there are no MacBooks or iPads due to be launched? My money is on a Netflix competitor.

What to Expect From Apple’s March 25th Keynote

Let me start with what you’re very unlikely to see. Any gadgets. I’m afraid if you’re hoping to iPads or MacBooks or folding Apple phones, you need to get your hopes and cut them way down.

No. Instead, Apple is starting to move into the services space.

You might have read my opinion in the Irish Times recently where I described the fragmented ecosystem consumers now find themselves in when it comes to entertainment. Disney will start their own service, pulling content from Netflix and now it would appear that Apple will launch it’s own streaming service.

Apple Video Streaming

Apple wants to directly take on Netflix and Amazon Prime with their own video streaming service and content creation platform, and they’ve been putting their money where their mouth is.

In typical Apple style, it’s all very quiet and hush hush so that’s pretty much all I have so far on this. The only other rumour is that Apple will also launch a Netflix style service for news too. To be totally honest, Irish consumers need not get too excited at all because all of these potential announcements have a pang of “not going to hit this island any time soon” off them.

The Apple Showtime even will take place on March 25th 17:00 GMT.

Soundcore Liberty Air Review: The Black AirPods Alternative

Marty
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Soundcore Liberty Air Review: The Black AirPods Alternative

I still remember a few years ago when Apple killed the headphone jack. It was for the iPhone 7 and I thought it was absolutely ludicrous. But wireless headphones, earphones and earpods got to the point where I’ve admitted it’s time to kill the headphone jack altogether, even though the latest Samsung phones actually haven’t.

Anyway, the guys over at Soundcore were kind enough to send over a pair of Liberty Air earpods for me to test out and despite the number of audio options I have right now, they’ve quick become a personal favourite.

Who is Soundcore?

You may or may not have heard of Soundcore. There’s a bigger chance you’ve heard of their parent company, Anker. I’m a massive fan of these guys because they never let up on quality. Their cables are brilliant, their speakers are whopper and they even have the Nebula brand, responsible for making one of my favourite gadgets in the world; the Nebula Capsule Projector.

Their also after creating what I personally believe could be the future of personal electronics charging.

Soundcore, like everything Anker does, has set out to create incredible audio products without the incredible prices you often see on the high street.

So, now that you know who Soundcore is, let’s look at the Liberty Air.

Design Inspired By Apple AirPods

You don’t have to look too hard to find out what inspired the design of the Libery Air.

An only lovely photo of me modeling the Soundcore Liberty Air

The Liberty Air have clearly been designed to mimic Apple AirPods, except of course they’re black, not white.

Apple marketing for AirPods

Again, I was critical of the AirPods when they launched because they just looked like a pair of regular Apple earphones with the cable cut off. I thought they just looked silly to be honest. Every now and then I eat humble pie, and this is one of those times. The Liberty Air earbuds are one of the most comfortable pairs of earbuds I’ve worn. They remain light, but secure meaning they’re great regardless of whether you’re in the gym, walking around town or sitting in the office.

Also falling under the design heading is the clever touch controls build into each earbud. I don’t think they are totally intuitive, but with a couple of days used, you’ll soon be a pro when it comes to the touch controls.

A double tap on the right earbud will pause or play music and also answer or end a call, should one be incoming. A tap and hold will skip onto the next song while doing the same on the left bud will skip back a track. Double tapping on the left will activate your smart personal assistant of choice.

The clever thing about the touch controls is having call controls on the right. If you want to wear just one earbud in, it has to be the right one but this does mean the buds double as a handsfree kit.

Liberty Air Audio Review

It’s funny. Twelve months ago, I said I wanted to start reviewing audio products more even though I really don’t consider myself to be much of an audiophile. In that twelve months, I’ve tested out Sony wireless buds and been terribly disappointed, been blown away by Bose QC 35 II, knocked for six with the quality of E’nod Audio Buds and am also working on reviewing a few pairs of Jabra audio products. Basically, I’ve finally played with enough audio products to know what’s good and what’s tripe.

From a noise cancelling point of view, the Liberty Air earbuds don’t offer a massive amount of suppression. The flip side of this is that they pack a huge punch in the audio side of things which means the audio experience is brilliant. Brilliant to the point where people shouting at you in the office can go completely missed, ending with them throwing things at you to get your attention. Based on a true story.

The only other thing worth mentioning here is the connectivity quality. Thanks to Bluetooth 5.0, you’ll experience little or no connectivity issues. Sure, if you’re an Apple user you won’t get the fantastic connection that you get with Apple AirPods, but seriously, this is as close as you get without the sillit price.

Buds Battery

There’s a par for the course when it comes to wireless earbuds. You get about three hours continuous use and a charging case which has an additional three charge cycles. In a review, coming soon, I’ll let you know how Jabra goes beyond the expected, but Soundcore goes even further.

Soundcore Liberty Air and charge case

On a single charge, the Liberty Air earbuds will give you five hours continuous use and the battery pack gives another twenty hours. For me, I’ve yet to be caught without power because the slightly longer battery life and bigger charge pack means there’s more time for me to remember to charge everything. Honestly, it makes a big difference.

Liberty Air: The Verdict

So first of all, they looked a little silly but to be honest, the Liberty Air are incredibly comfortable. The audio quality is brilliant and connectivity is incredible regardless of your device type. Everything about the Liberty Air seems to strike a chord. One thing I’ve omitted so far is the price.

At just €120 and €50 less than Apple AirPods, the Liberty Air are the perfect AirPods alternative. They also come in both black and white, just in case Apple white isn’t your thing.

If the price of AirPods is just too much and you want something which arguably delivers a better audio experience, give the Soundcore Liberty Air a try.

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