DWP director Kevin Cunnington set to take over as new head of Government Digital Service

Kevin Cunnington, currently director general for business transformation at DWP, is taking over as the new head of the Government Digital Service

BBC: And then we strapped a helicopter rig to an elephant

 Imagine being part of the BBC’s natural history unit, traveling the world to create some of the world’s most beautiful documentaries. Sounds like a dream job, right? I sat down with Huw Cordey, the producer on a ton of the Beeb’s best-loved shows, to find out more about the technology and gadgets the team deploys to capture the beasties in action. Read More

CIO interview: Gary Steen, chief technology officer, TalkTalk

TalkTalk has overhauled security since its controversial data breach in 2015, according to CTO Gary Steen, and is investing in technology to beat its rivals on customer service

Researcher uncovers UK government threat to privacy

Despite concerns about the draft Investigatory Powers Bill, a legal researcher has highlighted that existing legislation is a much bigger threat to privacy than most UK citizens realise

The Freewrite is the ultimate distraction-free writing tool

 riting on a computer is awful. Without discipline – in my case, at least – an effort to get out 1,000 words of non-fiction usually ends up consisting of thirty minutes of web browsing before writing, intermittent Facebook trips while tapping out a few hundred words, and a nice jaunt through Hacker News at the 750 word mark. I get the job done, but I know my brain isn’t doing… Read More

Ticwatch 2 is a slick smartwatch that raised $500K on Kickstarter in just 3 days

 If you haven’t been tempted to buy a smartwatch yet, or have been disappointed by your purchase of an Apple Watch, one of Samsung’s (many) Gear wearables or others, there may yet be salvation for you. Read More

Make your commute suck less

 Everything you do to make your commute better is like an early-stage investment in your success at work. Start earning dividends early by borrowing some of our hundreds of hours of research and picking up the best devices and accessories for commuters. They make your twice-daily trek by car, rail or bike worry-free, comfortable, and sometimes even fun. Read More

Six essential processes for keeping data secure

Data security is increasingly vital for organisations as the countdown begins for compliance with new rules imposed by the EU’s general data protection regulation

Consumer identity management is the core of real CRM

IAM + CRM is much more than simply IAM for external users, says Ivan Niccolai

Nordic CIO interview: Vesa Erolainen, Pöyry

Doubts were raised when Vesa Erolainen, CIO at Finnish engineering and consulting company Pöyry, outlined his IT transformation plan, but he ended up winning an award for it

German digital bank Fidor acquired by French banking giant

Fidor CEO says merger with BPCE will allow challenger to continue its international expansion

Universities give free cloud services to UK medical researchers

The Universities of Bath, Birmingham, Cardiff, Swansea and Warwick are giving researchers free access to cloud-based compute resources to speed up scientific discovery process

A quarter of UK developers are self-taught

As the skills gap leaves firms scrambling for tech talent, self-taught developers are taking advantage of the need for skilled workers

Mobile and video pay off for Google’s parent company Alphabet

Alphabet ascribes strong second quarter financial results to long-term investments in mobile and video as demand for advertising through these channels increases

Windows Mobile shrinks as Microsoft prioritises productivity and platforms

Microsoft prepares to axe 2,850 jobs as it culls smartphone business and majors on productivity and platforms

AWS vs Google vs Microsoft: How the enterprise cloud war is hotting up

With Amazon, Google and Microsoft all reporting strong growth on the back of cloud, we take a closer look at how they have achieved it

Apple hires founder of QNX Software Systems for automotive project

 Apple is adding an experienced automotive software developer to its ranks and perhaps changing the focus of its secretive automotive division. Bloomberg is reporting Apple hired former BlackBerry employee and co-founder of QNX Dan Dodge, who will work in the software team of Apple’s automotive project. Dodge brings considerable experience to Apple. The company he co-founded developed… Read More

TSA key cracker Johnny Xmas tells us how to stay safe while traveling

 A few days ago we reported that a group of hackers at the HOPE Conference in New York told the world that they had cloned the last TSA Master Key. These keys, which were leaked in a Washington Post article, are a bit of security theatre coupled with a lot of poor engineering. Xmas believes, however, that personal security is important and he wanted to tell us how they cracked the keys and how… Read More

Genovation’s GXE breaks the land speed record for a street-legal all-electric car

 You probably aren’t trying to set a land speed record for an all-electric, street legal car, but if you are, I have bad news: The goalposts just got moved further out. Genovation‘s Extreme Electric (GXE) car, which uses a Corvette Z06 chassis with a custom electric drive under the hood, broke its previous record of 186.8 mph by a margin of nearly 20 mph. The new record now stands… Read More

Amazon rides high on sales growth, especially in cloud services

Amazon's share price climbed 2% on news of strong second-quarter sales growth boosted by a 58% year-on-year rise in sales of cloud services

Facebook’s revenue rockets on strong growth

Facebook has reported a 186% year-on-year increase in second-quarter profits driven by a 63% rise in advertising revenue boosted by demand for video ads

UK’s top security judges struggle to assess privacy threats

Technological advancements make it difficult for the Investigatory Powers Tribunal to assess privacy threats, say the tribunal’s own judges

Interview: Google cloud chief Diane Greene talks enterprise strategy and taking on AWS

Computer Weekly talks to Google cloud chief Diane Greene about how it intends to win over the enterprise market and give AWS a run for its money

Using a #hashtag to take diversity awareness global

Recruiter Structur3dpeople utilises the power of social media to spread the word about women in the technology industry

Smartphone sales boost Samsung’s second quarter

Samsung has reported a 27% rise in operating profit for its mobile division in the second quarter, driven by strong demand for Galaxy smartphones, which the company expects to continue

Al Murooj Rotana increases guest satisfaction with updated Wi-Fi network

Dubai-based Rotana Hotels sees guest satisfaction rates rise on back of 802.11ac wireless roll-out at its Al Murooj Rotana property

BT sales increase 35% in 2016 Q2 with EE and broadband boosts

BT Group reported a 35% increase in revenue as it benefits from its EE acquisition and a large share of the broadband market

Most cloud applications not GDPR-ready, report reveals

Just 2% of more than 15,000 enterprise cloud application analysed are GDPR-ready, according to a cloud risk report

MI5 accused of compromising security court

Judges at the UK's most secret court were persuaded not to disclose the existence of secret intrusive data on the population after briefings and lunch with MI5's deputy director general

Almost 60% of millennials search for jobs through company websites

Research by Monster finds the younger generation react strongly to what they find on an employer’s website when looking for work

Revealed: The battle for GDS – how Whitehall mandarins are trying to carve up digital strategy

Insiders say senior civil servants want to break up the Government Digital Service and return IT to its previous departmental model

Oracle buys NetSuite, but vows to respect independence

Oracle has agreed to buy NetSuite but the acquired company will retain autonomy says Oracle

LivBlends renames itself Replenish and gives us a first look at its futuristic smoothie machine

 Nearly two years ago LivBlends was a Y Combinator smoothie delivery startup. The company has evolved since then, raised $3.8 million in seed from various investors and switched its name to Replenish. It’s also moved away from delivery and into manufacturing a line of Keurig-like self-cleaning smoothie machines. Replenish is still in the testing phase of the product, but… Read More

Security experts have cloned all seven TSA master keys

 Key escrow — the process of keeping a set of keys for yourself “just in case” — has always been the U.S. government’s modus operandi when it comes to security. From the disastrous Clipper chip to today, the government has always wanted a back door into encryption and security. That plan backfired for the TSA. The TSA, as you’ll remember, offers a set of… Read More

Scuro’s titanium dive watch hits on all cylinders

 As TC’s resident watch hound I like to try to find you all a few interesting crowdfunded timepieces. What’s important to me, however, is the quality and the uniqueness of the piece. That’s why I like the perfect storm of crowdfunded watch magic called the Scuro. It is a massive dive watch with a unique design, titanium case, and automatic movement. Plus you can get it for… Read More

UK government paves way for Amazon Prime Air trials

Amazon is working with regulator CAA to enable trials of Amazon’s Prime Air drone to take off in the UK

Business unprepared for future ransomware, says Cisco report

Next wave of ransomware expected to be more pervasive, resilient and capable of spreading quickly and effectively throughout networks by capitalising on vulnerabilities

Gov.uk Notify notifications system starts to be used for live digital services

Status updates system is latest part of the government-as-a-platform strategy from the Government Digital Service

Apple highlights services revenue and future bets as iPhone sales decline

Apple share price up on strong performance in services and investments in augmented reality and artificial intelligence, despite 27% year-on-year decline in quarterly profit

UK firms miss out on lucrative data science exploitation

The Economist Intelligence Unit finds UK companies struggling to cash in on data exploitation, in a SAS-sponsored research study

European scientific community seeks support for €5.3m hybrid cloud build

Research organisations from across Europe want to build a hybrid cloud platform to support their HPC and big data projects

Warwickshire and West Mercia police select Saab to update shared control room

Warwickshire and West Mercia combine emergency and contact centre systems using Saab Group’s Safe unified control room system

Broadband providers urge UK firms to have their say on Ofcom’s BT-Openreach proposals

Nationwide campaign seeks to enable UK businesses to make their views known as regulator considers the future of BT-Openreach

Privacy Shield good to go for at least a year, say EU regulators

Transatlantic data transfer framework approved, but will need more fine-tuning in the first joint review in a year’s time

Accenture to move HMRC tax system to private cloud

HMRC has awarded Accenture a contract that will run until 2020 to digitise the UK tax system

Facebook open sources Surround 360 camera with Ikea-style instructions

 Facebook needs you to fill its News Feed, Oculus Rift, and Gear VR with 360 content. So today it put all the hardware and software designs of its Surround 360 camera on Github, after announcing the plan in April. Thanks to cheeky instruction manual inspired by Ikea’s manuals, you can learn how to buy the parts, assemble the camera, load the image-stitching software, and start shooting… Read More

Some last-minute thoughts about Apple’s earnings

 In about an hour, Apple will announce its quarterly earnings. So you’ll soon be able to read all about it on TechCrunch as we have a team ready to look at all these numbers and find out if they’re moving up or down. But I’m going to use this opportunity to give you a few thoughts about what’s going to happen and what you should look for. Read More

Program your own self-driving racer with FormulaPi

 Self-driving race cars are a few years away but why not simulate the roar of robotic Formula 1 cars with a little Raspberry Pi magic? The folks at Piborg are offering the opportunity for hackers and makers to try and drive their own autonomous car brain in a centralized race. They’ve launched a Kickstarter and they’re looking for folks to download the autonomous racing code, modify… Read More