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Bringing up the rear (ooer missus) are the top 5 tech stories that Camps and Wrighty thought would be worth a decent discussion, so let's get going.

5. Snapchat Spectacles

Wrighty says...
To be honest I can think of nothing more ridiculous. We’ve been here before with Google Glass and we know how well that went. Obviously the concept of deliberate scarcity and making people queue for hours on end at vending machines looking like Minions increased the desire to have something that invaded people’s privacy to the ultimate degree. But is this the world that we are in now? Are we just willing to give away so much? It’s probably just a generational thing and I can’t talk as someone who puts themselves out there on podcasts and social media but this was a little creepy for me. God knows what comes next.

Camp’s says…
Snapchat came up with one of the best marketing ideas I've seen in quite a while to create a real interest and buzz for the Snapchat Spectacles. Snapchat really understand their target audience of 13-24 year olds and selling them only from Snapbots (special pop-up vending machines) made them highly desirable. Resembling a pair of children's sunglasses with a built in camera the Spectacles can “snap” 10-second video clips which then upload to Snapchat via an iPhone or Android phone paired through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. At $130 these certainly aren't cheap but they do look fun and I can see kids “snapping” video clips at skateparks and when riding bikes to share with their friends.

4. Apple vs The FBI

Wrighty says...
San Bernardino, that was the place, a place where something truly terrible happened. Information vital to the investigation may have been in the contents of an Apple 5C issued to an employee of the state but locked. The methods to get the 5C unlocked failed so the FBI approached Apple to provide them with a backdoor, something that they were unwilling to do and good for them.

I think as consumers our security should not be exposed to the whim of the few. I have no idea in a new American administration how these sorts of thing will go but for now I am glad that there is some precedent in place. Let’s hope it stays that way but I fear that it won’t.

Camp’s says…
The whole Apple vs FBI case has caused many debates on both the Mac Show and in the BTN Slackroom. It's a really complex topic which draws personal & emotional against morale & legal arguments. To keep the back story brief, the FBI requested Apple create an access method into a locked iPhone 5C so they could look for potential evidence in a terrorist investigation. Apple responded with a very public “No”, citing that introducing a “back door” regardless of the method creates a risk to the security of the device and therefore customers.

I have mixed views here, I value my security and have data on my iPhone that I do not want accessible to anyone else and particularly to anyone with dishonest intentions so for that reason I want ironclad security. I don't however want to live in a world where criminals and terrorist activity cannot be investigated. Many of the debates have centred around the judicial oversight that is crucial for the security services across the world to “authorise” access however for me the question still to be answered is that if a “magic key” was available to let the good guys in, how do you absolutely guarantee that the “magic key” can never fall into the hands of the baddies ??

3. Yahoo

Wrighty says...
Remember Yahoo? Of course you do, it was our gateway to the internet once but they lost their way as so many tech bigwigs have. But 2016 was the story of their demise. Ready to be bought, Verizon put their cards on the table but then found out that half a billion accounts had been compromised in a legacy attack. The deal seemed in turmoil and they wanted to redeem a one billion dollar voucher code but once they got their shopping delivered it turned out that another billion customers details had been compromised in an attack that preceded the first announced.

Their stock is pretty low right now and it seems as though the vultures are circling, waiting to pick them off.

Camp’s says...
Yahoo don't appear to have been able to stay out of the news in 2016 and it's pretty much all been for the wrong reasons.. In September Yahoo hit the headlines after they declared a 2014 breach of around 500 Million accounts with hackers taking names, email addresses, security questions & answers and some hashed passwords, the biggest cyber stick in history! Yahoo has still to say why they waited 2 years before to inform customers about the breach however with the $4.38 Billion acquisition by Verizon it's safe to say it would have leaked out eventually.. But then in December Yahoo announced that they had been victim of a separate and even larger attack in 2013 affecting more than 1 Billion (yes that is BILLION) accounts! I didn't realise there was anything like a Billion people still using Yahoo’s services.

It's safe to say that this story is going to run on for some months yet as Verison no doubt push for a hefty discount on that acquisition price. It will also be interesting to see what Marissa Mayer, the one time extremely successful young Google executive does next after a tenure as Yahoo CEO which has been littered with some very public errors.

2. Fake News

Wrighty says...
This really is one of the big ones. I remember when the internet was in its infancy and what you saw was what you got. Now we don’t know what is real and what is false and it is perpetuated by some of the biggest social influences in our lives. Outlets like Facebook and Twitter wouldn’t like to admit that these things happened but we all know it did, they say they are doing something about it but in the same way in the age of Photoshop where we can’t really believe what we see we really can’t believe what we read. So much so that the new leader of the free world could have easily been elected (allegedly) as a result of this media intrusion. It makes us more responsible to use our instincts.

Camp’s says…
I'm not so sure this story is anything new !? In today's world I agree that there are more “news” outlets than ever before and in the age of social media the race to break or share the story first clearly looks to be the main factor over any fact and accuracy checking. That said, news reporting has been faked since the dawn of time, there has been newspaper articles talked about due to their inaccurate reporting and in many cases wild witness statements. Evidence of photographs being faked also isn't anything new however technology has taken this out of the darkroom and into the computer and phone app now. So for me this story isn't anything new but merely a sign of the times that with more outlets and lazy reporting it's just a growing issue..

1. Galaxy Note 7

Wrighty says...
This has to be one of the most fascinating stories of the year. In a rush to beat Apple to the starting line Samsung rushed out their new flagship device. And nothing wrong with that it was a truly lovely phone but as we know with so many flaws. The main thing however, unless you chose to ignore it is the fact that it had the unfortunate feature of catching fire, not something you’d want from something so personal.

It turned out in their haste to beat the iPhone 7 to market (allegedly) that they never left enough room for the battery to expand thus causing an inevitable situation. Something that was not rectified in the replacement devices that were sent out to solve the problem.

Never before has an epic fail been so evident. It wasn’t just the Note 7 that was tarnished it was the Samsung brand as a whole. God know what would have happened if one of these incinerations happened when someone had it strapped to their face in a Gear VR.

I look forward to see what happens in 2017 to see how they will rebuild their brand but in Apple's favour you can’t beat a better time to release such a lackluster phone when the fans of your competitor are turning away.

Camp’s says…
The issues with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has definitely been the 2016 tech new story of the year in my book. Samsung launched their flagship mobile smartphone in August and the tech reviews were widely reporting this as the android phone to beat and indeed a real competitor to the anticipated iPhone 7.. And then BOOM (literally) within a matter of weeks there were several reports of the phone exploding and setting on fire which after an initial attempt to replace some units turned into the largest product recall in tech history. In recent weeks Samsung have even had to take this a step further still and force updates to remaining Note 7 devices to prevent them being used or charged at all!

The whole debacle has been a massive embarrassment for Samsung and it will be interesting to see how they approach their next smartphone release in terms of product branding, marketing and the the launch itself.

Author

Paul Wright

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