Zone’s Ross Basham handpicks and shares the five best new stories on digital trends, experiences and technologies…
1. Ten is the tipping point for smartphones
Half of the UK’s 10-year-olds owned a smartphone in 2019, according to a new Ofcom report. The amount of phone owners doubled between the ages of nine and 10, which explains why I keep telling my nine-year-old she can’t have a phone (but will probably relent soon). 5% of 3–4 year olds own a phone, which is just bizarre.
Other interesting findings include 71% of 12–15 year olds having a social media profile (mainly Facebook and Snapchat, but a big increase in WhatsApp), while 80% of the children watched video on-demand but 25% watched no live broadcast TV at all — a figure that is likely to rise dramatically in the years to come.
2. AI and biology combine for first ‘living robots’
A research team of roboticists and scientists have combined AI and biology to produce the world’s first ‘living robots’. ‘Xenobots’ are made from stem cells and are less than 1mm long. They can propel themselves, join together to act collectively and move small objects. And, using their own energy, they can live for up to 10 days.
These groundbreaking creations aren’t actually robots at all — they are completely organic — and could be of great value for anything from cleaning polluted oceans to curing cancer. Conversely, they also raise legal and ethical concerns, and will probably go rogue and kill us all one day. Still, the potential is there…
3. Caucus app CEO prescient about own tech
The CEO of Shadow Inc — makers of the app that caused chaos at the Iowa caucuses this week — said a year ago that the tech being used by the Democratic party was “a shitshow”. Gerardo Niemira said the systems were a “tangled morass” as far back as 2016, when he started working with the Democrats.
Unfortunately, the app Shadow created didn’t exactly solve the problem, leading to massive delays amid incomplete reporting of results from across Iowa. “Coding problems” have been blamed for the delays, with the results still not known three days after they should have been.
4. VAR tech is ruining football, according to fans
More than two-thirds of Premier League fans believe that the video assistant referee (VAR) has made the game less enjoyable, according to a YouGov survey of 1,400 adults. VAR has caused much controversy since it was introduced this season, with managers and pundits queuing up to criticise how the tech has been implemented.
However, only 15% of those surveyed wanted VAR to be scrapped altogether, with 74% saying it should be kept, but modified. One major criticism is that fans in the stadium are left in the dark while decisions are being made, and there is strong support for them being able to see the footage at the same time as the VAR.
5. Toilet app keeps things Cleen as a whistle
In ‘apps I didn’t realise existed but actually make perfect sense’ news, the NEC in Birmingham is inviting visitor feedback on the cleanliness of its toilets through the review app Cleen. Users can either leave compliments or (more likely) post feedback on issues such as the need for more toilet paper.
You can even upload photos that can be viewed by other Cleen users (er… no thanks). For its part, the NEC has installed QR codes above the hand dryers to help identify where the problems are and quickly rectify them. I know a few pubs that could benefit from this kind of technology…
