Posts

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SEPARATING THE FIX FROM THE FAD: An insight into the growing health and fitness habits that are here to stay

Fitbit Force, Jawbone Up, Fitbug Orb, Nike FuelBand SEThis month I can seamlessly predict what your daily media digestion will mainly consist of – I suspect you have just finished reading about the New Year being THE time to discover a new you? Or maybe you’re wincing at the reality of being one of the 50% of people that have already ditched their diet and fitness resolution. Sound familiar?

Unfortunately the commercial hype around embarking on a healthy lifestyle in the New Year has somewhat diluted what actually is a very important message. The effects of yoyo dieting, blowing out one month and compensating by depriving yourself the next, is actually more dangerous than if you were to find a constant happy medium.

So why do we find ourselves becoming so absorbed with the quirky fads that will be a long forgotten come the Summer? Particularly when there are actually a lot of growing trends emerging that offer a much more holistic approach to fixing our psychology towards health, food and fitness. These are the solutions that offer a real lifestyle change. Read more

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What’s Hot in UK Consumer Technology this Christmas?

This post was first published by Naomi Barry, on Escapade PR’s blog  

As we head into November, and with just two pay days left until the big day, at Escapade our minds cannot help but drift towards the right Christmas gift for our nearest and dearest.

What is on trend?  And is anything actually within our budget?

When it comes to kids, you can’t go far wrong with the top ten list from Hamleys, with gifts priced from £25 to £200+.  Interestingly, this year, it is full of tech gifts featuring a  Barbie Colour Change Bag, a LeapFrog LeapTV and a Kiddizoom Smart Watch featuring games, alarm and camera functionality.

For the grown-ups, Currys and PC World unveiled its top 10 predictions for Christmas tech back in July (afterall that’s prime Christmas season in our world) with wearable tech forecast to be the gift of choice for many. Read more

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Down the Tubes – Ten years of NFC

This blog post is written by Michael Scanlan, a member of the Fintech team

Remember the guy commuting by waterslide to a soundtrack of the laid back country rock of the Bellamy Brothers’ ‘Just let your love flow’. He swooshed through supermarkets and shops and every time he wanted to pay for something he tapped his Barclaycard on a reader and off he went on his aquatic way with his no doubt soggy groceries.

What a marvel! Paying with card without your PIN? Tapping to pay? That’s the future right there!

Unfortunately, this future has failed to materialise. When I’m commuting home tonight, I’ll pass by more than a handful of retailers. And, to the best of my knowledge, only one of them, a purveyor of ready-to-eat sarnies, accepts contactless cards.

NFC is being positioned by the payments industry as the next step. No longer do you need a card. Your wallet is your phone. Touch your phone to the reader and pay. Read more

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Let’s get down to business – CCgroup launches Business Technology stream

This blog is written by Will Gardiner, Head of Business Technology at CCgroup

The 27th of November saw CCgroup launch its latest division – Business Technology.

There’s a news release here that explains why we think it’s important, what the opportunities are and why we’re equipped to make the most of them. And here’s a link to what PRWeek thought of the announcement.

In a nutshell, CCgroup has historically focused on mobile & telecoms, fintech and cleantech, but this year, several of our new and existing clients turned their focus on the enterprise market. And so, following the management buy-out in August, we established a new division to cater for B2B technology companies and consultancies from four key areas: IT Infrastructure; Workflow IT; Back-Office IT; and Business Intelligence & Big Data. There’s more detail on what these areas comprise of in the news release. Read more

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Wearable tech and Fintech PR: The importance of insight

This blog post was written by Michael Scanlan, CCgroup

In 1975, the German electronic band, Kraftwerk, appeared on Tomorrow’s World playing Autobahn while the voiceover explained how they used their ever-so modern synthesisers to create music. At the end, the voiceover soberly predicted that the following year they would dispense with keyboards altogether and wear jackets with electronic lapels that they would play instead. Read more

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A world of apps, FinTech Innovations and Commodore 64s

This post was first published by Michael Scanlan on the CCgroup blog.

In 1987, I went on holiday to the Soviet Union. Don’t ask.

Anyway, when I was there, I went into GUM, the famous department store in Red Square, to buy some souvenirs. Armed with a fistful of roubles, I navigated the Byzantine counter routine. You ordered from one person, paid a second and picked up your purchases from a third.

Huge queue due to the ancient paper ticketing system!

This was the most bizarre queuing system I’ve ever encountered. Until, that is, I attempted to get into Apps World 2013 earlier this week. Read more

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It’s IFA time again

Today IFA Berlin, the largest European consumer electronics show opens its gates again. Visitors and media can see and try some of the latest exciting new products at IFA:

Midland XTC-400 FULL HDMidland for example launches the sales of the latest action cams of the XTC product series at IFA 2013. In addition to the advanced technology and many new features the latest action cam generation convinces with its ease of use. Midland presents the new model XTC-400 FULL HD and XTC-280 at the IFA hall 1.2 – booth 118.

Read more

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How Technology Moves – Technology isn’t just a product, but a catalyst going around & improving society

This post was first published by Sarah Hurley on March Communications’ blog PR Nonsense.

Working in high-tech PR gives us a unique perspective into the technology that is quickly becoming the lifeblood of the corporate world. It’s certainly an exciting time for us brand storytellers to be bringing to light important topics, like why U.S. cloud computing adoption rates far outpace Europe’s, for example, or how application performance management can improve a patient’s healthcare experience.

Read more

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How Circa may Change the Way We Consume News

This post was first published by Hanah Johnson on March Communications’ blog PR Nonsense.

Earlier this week, Circa released an app that could potentially overhaul breaking news and how it’s consumed in a digital era.

Frustrated with the way daily news articles appear on our phones, often poorly reformatted from content intended for web browsing, Circa’s founders aimed to adapt news content specifically for mobile consumption. Furthermore, they wanted re-frame not just the way traditional news is delivered to mobile audiences, but also the way news is actually produced, by blowing up the news story and presenting it as component pieces. Read more

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“Yo, When Does the New App Drop?” Why Apps Need A Taste of the Music Scene

Ok, crazy idea time: I just picked up my phone and found that there were updates for about ten of my applications, some of which I know were updated just days ago, or at most, maybe a couple weeks ago. I find this somewhat annoying.

Firstly, though not really of concern for me as I am still grandfathered in to Verizon’s unlimited data plans, is that updates take bandwidth. If you have to contend with multiple updates that come one after another for each of your apps, many only to fix one small thing that should have been grouped in with others, and you’re not using an unlimited data plan, these app updates are wasting your bandwidth allotment, and potentially costing you money if they result in overages. Read more

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