Latest app reviews

According to the latest figures, the unemployment rate in the UK is at its lowest since records were first recorded back in 1971. While those figures have to be commended, it's rather sobering to note that it has taken almost ten years to recover from the disaster of the GFC back in 2008-9. The downside is that people are working longer hours, wages growth has stagnated and many of the new jobs are part time. It doesn't help that many economists are predicting a new financial crisis in the not so distant future - especially with Brexit looming and Trump's America first policy continuing. ...  More

If you asked a number of potential customers about their most frustrating experience when dealing with an online business I'm betting that most of them will say that there's not much worse than sitting on the phone for half an hour while waiting for customer service. It's made worse when it's just a simple question that needs answering. And that's why the chatbot was invented. It enables customers to ask and get answers to frequently asked questions via an automated service. Amazingly enough, the first chatbot was created back in the early to mid 60's but the phrase itself wasn't really ...  More

Have you ever wanted to create your own version of YouTube, Hulu, WebTV... or Netflix, if it comes to that? You'd think that you'd have to take a course in coding and empty out the bank balance to have even half a chance of getting there, wouldn't you? However, with technology these days hitting new heights and being improved on every day, it's now possible to broadcast any number of long form videos for a small sum and  by utilising just a few lines of code. Because the camera is considered to be the new keyboard these days, the developer's mission was to make everyone's content ...  More

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There is plenty of evidence out there to suggest that the numerical concepts that kids acquire in early childhood lay the foundation for learning mathematical concepts later on in life. You will hear plenty of comments from baby boomer parents, for example, that learning their 'times tables' while at school has served them well to the point that they still remember them now - many years on. Personally speaking, one of the great math lessons in my life was playing the noble game of darts where players must keep track of their score as they count down from 301 or 501. The mistake that many ...  More

If you look online to search for the pros and cons of allowing young kids to play games online you will find as many positive comments as you will find negative ones. Some will say that kids should be playing with physical toys and interacting with their parents rather than being immersed in a virtual world on a computer. Others will say that kids should be outside enjoying the big wide world rather than stuck on the couch with an iPad in their sticky hands. However, many experts say that when kids play well thought out educational games it can improve their problem solving and strategic ...  More

It's a curious fact but, when Disney's animated film 'Finding Nemo' was released in 2003, its intended message was to save the beautiful clownfish and to keep them in the sea where they belong. Such was the effect of this emotive film, however, that millions were plucked from the oceans and sold on to parents who placated their screaming kids with tropical aquariums filled with brightly colored fish. Apparently, sales of clownfish rose by 40% over the next year or so but its estimated that 9 out of 10 perished pretty quickly. Now, I'm not suggesting that this game will have the same effect ...  More

Our online privacy has never been quite as important as it is these days. There seems to be a new story every week about accounts being hacked or identities stolen and I'm starting to get a bit tired of watching Mark Zuckerberg apologising for various Facebook anomalies every few weeks. WhatsApp claimed to have end-to-end encryption but that seems to have been shot down in flames when it was discovered that hackers can insert people into groups without having to have admin permission and the Android version of the Facebook Messenger app comes with a lengthy list of permissions that must be ...  More

On my commute to work each day it never ceases to amaze me just how many people play games on their smartphone while traveling. Old guys with suits, young schoolkids with backpacks and young females balancing a bottle of water on their knee while they wrestle with Candy Crush, Bejewelled or Gems with Friends. It's impossible not to look over their shoulders while they play and, more often than not, the games of choice are generally Match 3 games. I guess the phenomena started off way back in the 80's with a popular little tile matching puzzler called Tetris. For the last few years though, ...  More

There's been much talk lately about robots and computers taking over the job market in the not too distant future. Some experts believe that half of the jobs available today will be completely redundant by the year 2025. Whether it's self driving cars or carebots for the elderly there's little doubt that there will be less jobs going forward than were available to most of us when we started our work journeys some years back. But don't fear too much because, as Isaac Newton said so eloquently some years back - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.   More

Despite the protestations of printing companies, the paper business card phenomenon is coming to the end of its tenure. That's why organisations like Vistaprint are moving into other areas of commerce like banners, office supplies and work clothing. The fact is, like everything else these days, business cards are going online. Ahh but, you say...that's all very well but how does one collect and manage them. A good question. Well, as usual, it takes a bit of time for the world to catch up with new online concepts but here we have a new app that addresses the collection of  e-business ...  More