Bespin labs

Well, that's a headline I long to read. Unfortunately, Google has lagged behind in the personal assistant device game for some time now. In September of this year, Amazon announced a plethora of new Alexa powered devices, which are now hitting stores. The Echo Show, which enables video calling. The Echo Look, which is intended for fashionistas. The Echo Spot, which is like a really fancy alarm clock. The Amazon Tap,  aka portable Echo. We all hoped that the Google announcement a few weeks later would bring something exciting and disruptive to steal the thunder from Amazon, but unfortunately, we got a pebble (Google Home Mini), and large square speaker (Google Home Max), and some new colours for the existing air purifier (aka Google Home). All extremely underwhelming. Sorry Google, but I was expecting video calling, I was expecting Youtube videos, I was hoping to search through my photos, I was at least expecting two-way communication between devices! ...

Over the past few months, I've been speaking to more and more business owners about their concerns regarding GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which becomes law on 25th May 2018. The concerns appear to come from misinformation and fake news over GDPR. There are the scaremongers, reporting on the increase fines that an organisation could face. While it's true GDPR has increased the levels of fines to 2% of an organisation’s global turnover, and for more severe incidents €20 million or 4% of turnover, whichever is the larger, it's unlikely that fines will rocket. Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner for the UK, stated in a recent blog , it’s scaremongering to suggest that we’ll be making early examples of organisations for minor infringements or that maximum fines will become the norm. Denham continued to say that; " The ICO’s commitment to guiding, advising and educating organisations about how to comply with the law will not change under the GD...