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POSH BRIEFCASE FOR EVERYDAY USE I’m a bit besotted with this Harber London’s Everyday laptop-friendly briefcase, so much so that I’ve been carrying it around for months and forgot to review it. It’s calf leather is ridiculously soft, and it has magnetically sealed, padded compartments for your gadgets, plus a magnetic keyring attachment so your keys never get lost at the bottom. It’s a bit pricey but it’ll last for years.
www.harberlondon.com, £349
WHAT HAPPENED TO ITVX NEWS? When ITV replaced its rather shonky streaming service ITV Hub with the almost-as-shonky ITVX, one of the promises made was that there would be a 24/7 feed of rolling reports from ITV News – a presenterless ITV News Channel. But, as yet, it has failed to materialise. Given the BBC is effectively largely reducing its UK news channel by stealth, this failure to launch couldn’t have come at a worse time.
CHARGER IS PRETTY AS A PICTURE Wireless charging for phones has been a gamechanger, but most wireless mats and docks are fairly uninspiring to look at. Twelvesouth have solved that with its Powerpic Mod 20w QI charger, which is built into a picture frame that will hold a 4”x6” photo. Plonk your phone in front of the picture and it starts charging. Works with any phone that supports wireless charging.
www.twelvesouth.com, £59.99
20 | theJournalist THIS DOES MATTER T
his year sees something extremely rare in tech – consensus. Anyone old enough to have bought a Betamax VCR instead of VHS or HD-DVD
player instead of Blu-ray will know that, when it comes to tech, it’s more than possible to back the wrong format and end up with an expensive paperweight. For once, the big tech firms are as one. Matter is the
new, agreed standard for smart home devices and is backed by Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and over 200 companies. In other words, you can buy any brand of device and (at least in theory) it will be able to talk to everything else in the building. So you’ll be able to trigger your lights to dim as soon
as you turn on a movie, or set the heating to turn down as soon as you’re snuggly in bed using one app. In reality, however, it’s a bit of a fudge. It brings together a bunch of existing standards and, thanks to some clever work under the hood, lets certain devices in your home (some routers, Amazon Echo and Google Nest devices) act like a Rosetta Stone.
> Twitter trims text test Owner Elon Musk’s latest
T
witter is a crucial tool for journalists, which also makes
it a target for hackers.
change will affect you if you secure your account using two-factor authentication ,
However, as you might expect, it’s not as simple as
all that, and there are a few things you need to know before you plough money into an all-singing, all- dancing smart home. First, Matter is still in its infancy. At the time of
writing, it can only handle basic devices such as smart plugs and light bulbs. Other product categories are due to come on stream, but we’re not there yet. Second, devices may get upgraded to support Matter,
but probably won’t. Many companies are using Matter as an excuse for built-in obsolescence, so you’ll need to replace devices instead of waiting for a software update. Third, while many products are advertised as
supporting Matter or have a software update in the pipeline, many won’t be activated until the whole platform is more mature. Matter is important and will touch our lives. But, for most, it’s still the tech of tomorrow. Keep Matter in mind if you’re investing in gadgets this year – but don’t expect the revolution just yet.
https://csa-iot.org/all-solutions/matter/
where you are sent a code via text message to log in. From now on, this option will be available only to users of the paid Twitter Blue service.
If you’re on the free service (as most of us are) act now to protect your account by switching to an authenticator app or FIDO key in your account settings.
Windows 10 pulled from sale M
Chris Merriman on technology for journalists
icrosoft has withdrawn Windows 10 from sal, but before you start panicking, it will provide support and security patches until October 14 2025 while it pushes Windows 11. We’ve talked about Windows 11 before. It relies on security features
only found in newer microchips, so Microsoft has effectively given a death date for older (pre-circa 2015) computers. More secure computers? Great. But Microsoft stands to be responsible for a tidal wave of e-waste, so it’s time to think about this. There are organisations that repurpose old devices and charities that convert them to Chromebooks for kids in developing nations. Also, manufacturers are obliged to recycle e-waste if you return it to them. But please – don’t make more landfill for the sake of a bit of software, OK?
BBC ONE NEWS
GOES HD
BBC’s big, late technical upgrade
After 14 years of the ‘red slide of doom’, BBC viewers in England will
soon see their local BBC One news bulletins in high definition (HD), as BBC One HD becomes the norm. The standard definition (SD) service is being replaced by a national ‘nightlight’ BBC One service, which will remain until 2025 to
allow stragglers time to upgrade their TVs. The process on satellite and Freeview will be completed by late spring. To find out if you can receive HD, go to channel 799 (on any platform) for a checker tool.
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