Yearly Archives: 2018

Tesco is closing down its email server at tesco.net. You’ll no longer be able to log in to your account from 27th June. You can set up free forwarding from your tesco.net address but this will only last until 10th October.

Tesco originally gave out these email addresses to customers of its Tesco Broadband and Homepage service. This was closed down in 2015 and customers were switched to TalkTalk. Tesco decided at the time to keep the email service running.

It’s technically unsurprising that they have decided to now close the email service as well, although many customers are frustrated by the short notice and lack of options to continue or prolong using the service. You can read more on the FAQ at tesco.net.

The primary issue being that many users feel tied to their existing email address, and trying to change at short notice is not easy. Not only do your family, friends and colleagues contact you at your primary email address, but it’s likely that you also use it for logins and accounts on numerous other online services, eg shopping, banking, events, etc.

We recommend moving to an email provider where the email service itself is not bundled in with or dependent on another service. For example, if you have an internet connection with Sky, then we recommend not using their email service, as what happens if you wish to move to another provider? Instead choose a more independent email service, such as Gmail or Outlook. Or you may wish to consider a private or business solution.

At this year’s World Web Developers Conference Apple introduced iOS 12 and the new macOS Mojave. It’s been a quieter year for Apple but there are still some significant updates for both systems.

iOS 12 is said to be a change for the better and focus on reliability and performance. This is also said to be the broadest update yet as it is compatible with 11 iPhones, 10 iPads, and 1 iPod Touch. Typically older iOS devices have slowed with the new updates but this update is expected to make older iPhones such as the iPhone 6 Plus 40% faster at launching apps, 70% faster at launching the camera app, and 50% faster at displaying the keyboard.

The iOS 12 update will have new apps and features and one of the highlights is the new digital health dashboard and improved Do Not Disturb features. To help you balance your screen time, the Digital Health Dashboard, found in the Settings, will include a series of tools to monitor and outline time spent on your device. You can then set app limits where you will receive a ‘Time is up’ notification. Using Family Sharing, parents can also limit kids time in apps by category or individual apps.

Do Not Disturb has had its capabilities expanded and now you can not just silence a notification sound, but also the visual notification which is often just as distracting when trying to switch-off or sleep. The lock screen remains clear until you unlock your iPhone in the morning.

Another small but significant change is grouped notifications — it binds together notifications by message threads and topics, making it easier to see everything at a glance, especially in the morning with often a number of notifications to sift through.

Group FaceTime will also become available and can be used for up to 32 people at a time — you’ll be able to go directly from a group chat to a group FaceTime from within the Messages app

Siri has new shortcuts that now let you assign a phrase to tasks and sync with other apps and Apple Home, e.g. saying “Heading home” will send a message to your partner, set the thermostat, and bring up fastest route home with Apple Maps.

There are many other features and highlights from the iOS 12 update and the first public release will be later this month, likely 26th June. The full finished version will then be released in September 2018 along with the new 2018 iPhones.

Apple’s macOS Mojave 2018 will also be released later this month and the new OS promises security and performance improvements along with new features to improve productivity. The most visual feature is the new ‘Dark Mode’, that can be applied to all elements of the interface, in every app, system-wide.

An update to Safari will have an emphasis on privacy where it will preemptively block tracking sites like Facebook’s ‘Like’ and ‘Comment’ feature. Additionally, Apple will also only give websites a ‘simplified system configuration’ to help prevent them from being able to identify and fingerprint your device for online ads.

There will also be new ways you can utilise your iOS device with the new macOS when working on a MacBook or iMac. Mac users will now be able to choose their iPhone as a method of capturing content when working on their Mac. For example, to add an image to a document, you can choose your iPhone as a capture device, take a picture, and then the image will instantly be added to your document. This function is also useful if you needed to scan a document, with the scan or photograph immediately adding to the document on your Mac.

It’s encouraging to see productive functions between the two devices being added and it’s also a common question of whether the two Apple operating systems for iPhone and Mac will ever merge to create one unified system.

The short answer is no, but they are now saying they are working on bringing iOS apps to Mac hardware. Apple says they have been in development for the past two years working on tools that third-party app developers can eventually use to port their own apps from iOS to MacOS. The point is that there will never be one single OS but, in (rumoured) a year from now, we will likely see iOS apps available for MacOS. Obviously, the apps using iOS are touch-screen operated, so the question was also brought up to Apple’s senior VP of software engineering if future iMac’s would ever be touch-screen enabled, which he firmly replied with a “no” and that they are not convinced touch-screen adds anything overwhelmingly positive to the desktop experience.

Below is a list of the devices that will support iOS 12 and macOS Mojave:

iOS:

macOS:

It’s always very important to update your device to the most recent version of its operating system as the updates also include important security updates and bug fixes. If you have any questions regarding these updates and purchasing a new Apple product, we are an Apple Joint Venture partner, please be in touch for a quote or consultation at, [email protected].

This week, you may have seen the news story regarding Microsoft’s purchase of GitHub for a staggering $7.5 billion. If you’re not a developer or know someone who is, you might not be familiar with GitHub at all. To give you a quick explanation, Git is a free open-source version control system that allows developers to create something, i.e. an app, for example, then make constant revisions to the code and release new versions up to and after the first official release of the app.

Version control systems keep these revisions straight, storing the modifications in a central repository — making it simple for developers to easily collaborate, download a new version of the software, make changes, and upload the newest revision. Git is far and away the most preferred version control system for most developers since it has these multiple advantages over other systems available — letting you store file changes more efficiently while ensuring better file integrity.

Where ‘Git’ is a command-line tool, the centre around which these things involving Git revolve is the ‘Hub’ — GitHub.com — a platform where developers store their projects and network with other developers and like-minded people.

More than 28 million developers already collaborate on GitHub, and it’s home to more than 85 million code repositories used by people in nearly every country. From the largest corporate companies to the smallest startups use GitHub and the growing number of users are not slowing down as the developer community continues to grow with computing being more and more embedded in the world and with every part of our daily life being transformed by digital technology.

The move by Microsoft to acquire GitHub hugely contrasts their former view of the open-source model. Historically people would say the open-source model didn’t mix well with businesses but times have changed and Microsoft is now the most active organisation on GitHub in the world.

Microsoft’s former CEO Steve Ballmer was famously against open-source software but with fresh minds in the company and new CEO Satya Nadella, they have recognised the service has become indispensable to programmers. As well, their recent successful acquisition of LinkedIn shows just how serious they are about evolving and growing the company.

Microsoft’s view is that now and in the future, developers will be at the centre of solving the world’s most pressing challenges. Microsoft’s goal is to ensure the GitHub platform continues to be the number one destination where developers can create, collaborate, share code and build on each other’s work. Workflows of developers will drive and influence business processes and functions across organisations — from marketing, sales and service, to IT and HR. In short, the decisions developers make will increasingly have an effect on every aspect of life and business and ensuring there is a strong and connected developer community, just like any community, will ultimately benefit everyone.

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This week, we launched the new website for the music rehearsal studio, Storm Rehearsal Studios. The studio is based in London and located next door to Holloway Road Tube Station.

The studio offers space for any type of band and musician to rent, as well as equipment hire and storage. There are also many great additional features which are highlighted on the homepage of the new site — stormrehearsalstudios.co.uk.

Please be in touch with us to discuss our website design and development services, email us at [email protected].

Are we becoming our own worst enemies when it comes to absorbing information and keeping clear of distractions? This topic has been discussed more and more recently as university classrooms are beginning to ban laptops from their lectures. Laptops and digital tools, designed to improve productivity, are now being said to actually hinder our focus and comprehension when used for note taking.

From classroom to the conference room, the switch back to basics of a notepad and pen is becoming more popular; unless a laptop is needed for presentation purposes etc.

The issue isn’t that juggling multiple tasks is always bad but it is about which mental capacities are needed for each task. For example, our “thinking voice” can only be used for one thinking activity at a time because it is also working as short-term memory. This is why we can’t read a book and write an email at the same time — we would be using two different memory-dependent activities making it impossible to remember clearly and focus on either task.

Our attention should be on one source or the other, on-screen or off-screen, or else productivity fails or slows significantly. If you think about how many people can be in a meeting room at a time and the cost of that time, then it starts to become a problem, simply due to a laptop or digital device distracting you with potential notifications from email, Slack, Trello etc.

The slower speed of note-taking by hand also increases our initial comprehension of the information right away before recording it, instead of acting as a stenographer which can happen whilst typing on a laptop.

Leaving laptops out of in-person meetings also can build a teams connection by signalling to others you are totally present and focused on what is being discussed or demonstrated.

The benefits seem to outweigh the negatives and greater value is to gain from often time sensitive work sessions. The idea might seem counterintuitive but by leaving the laptops behind, will ultimately be a rewarding experience for a workplace and the individuals.

If you found this article interesting, please sign up for our monthly newsletter where we feature news from digital tech and what projects we have been working on — directionfoward.com/news or get in touch with us at [email protected].

Most people either know someone or themselves have had the experience of losing data. If you consider how many individuals and businesses have hardware that gets lost or stolen each year, the number is startling and steps to avoid this are simple.

With so many cases of lost or stolen data, many would think precautions against it and basic knowledge and practice would be well known but still many individuals and businesses do not take advantage of even basic security practice, such as a backup strategy that includes cloud backup.

It’s imperative to have a backup strategy and to choose an approach that will cover you on many levels. We highly recommend the “3-2-1 strategy”, meaning you have at least three total copies of your data; two of which are local but on different mediums (ie. laptop and external hard drive) and at least one copy offsite.

For example:

While an onsite backup solution is essential, an offsite backup solution is a vital piece in completing your backup strategy. Having a backup near the device that it’s backing up, ie. your PC or laptop and external hard drive on the same desk, puts you at risk of losing both in the unfortunate event of a flood, fire, or theft where most likely both devices will be affected.

The 3-2-1 backup approach is a great start for protecting your data, with the ultimate aim of data backup is to find as many ways as possible to limit exposure should the worst happen. Cloud backup ensures that you have a copy of your data secure and continuously updated in an offsite location should something happen to your onsite systems, ie. PC desktop, laptop or external hard drive.

Having a local backup and an offsite backup gives you more options for backup recovery, which is always a positive. For more information about different backup methods including our Cloud Backup service, please visit directionforward.com/services/backup and get in touch with us at [email protected].

If you’ve purchased a new Windows Surface laptop you may have noticed Windows 10 S comes already enabled. Microsoft has also announced recently that, “Windows 10 S” will now become “Windows 10 in S mode” and will be available on all Windows 10 versions. Understandably it’s slightly confusing, so we have some info on the basics of what Windows 10 in S mode is and what to expect, firstly the “S” stands for “Secure”.

Initially configured for the Windows Surface Laptop, Windows 10 S is essentially a lightweight version of the full operating system which is locked down to run only apps from the Microsoft Store, in order to deliver better security. It also allows for easier configuration and deployment of multiple machines in an office or classroom environment.

Recently Microsoft announced Windows 10 S will move from a dedicated operating system to a special “S Mode” for versions of Windows 10. Microsoft admits the original version of Windows 10 S that locked a PC down to using just Windows Store apps, could be confusing for users.

Windows 10 in S mode is now a specific mode of Windows 10 that offers a familiar Windows experience that’s streamlined for security and performance, while limiting users to apps downloaded through the Windows Store, with an unlock option available for the full version of the software.

With the release of the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, “Windows 10 S” will become a mode of Windows 10 called “S mode” and is now available in more editions of Windows 10, not just Windows 10 Pro.

You can then make the decision to switch out of “S mode” and unlock the full version of Windows 10 at no charge, regardless of whether you’re a business or education customer or just the average consumer. Although, once you make the switch out of S mode, it is one-way and there is no switching back, most likely due to security reasons.

When using S mode, Microsoft Edge is the default web browser and Bing is the default search engine in Microsoft Edge. Other browsers are accessible while in S mode but all apps need to be downloaded from the Microsoft Store within Windows before using — the image below is an example of the type of notification you receive if trying to download the web browser Google Chome:

Microsoft says the reason for the change is due to users finding the naming of Windows 10 S confusing, and presumably not really understanding what the alternative on the operating system was all about. They say with the new S mode, it now offers all Windows 10 users the opportunity to use the new simplified and streamlined S mode, while still having the option to opt-out if needed.

If you would like more information or support regarding Windows 10 in S mode or purchasing a new Microsoft Windows device, please be in touch with us at, [email protected].

Last week the Creative Circle awards were held at Troxy on Commercial Road. The results are in and we’d like to say Congratulations to all the winners in the Creative Circle 2018! Go to their website to view this year’s winners — creativecircle.co.uk.

This year the Gold of Gold’s award went to Nike’s ‘Nothing beats a Londoner’ which has recently had trademark issues. Their use of ‘LNDR’ in the campaign is being challenged by a number of sources including activewear brand LNDR. The ad by Wieden & Kennedy London shows the passion behind young Londoners, featuring 258 members of the public and cameos from Skepta, Mo Farah, Harry Kane and Dina Asher-Smith.

No less than 48 hours before the big night, we received and processed the videos for the ads that were used in the awards presentation. The videos were then released live as the event occurred.

The Circle Ball 2018 awards night celebrates the best of new British advertising talent. This year all profits went to support the Creative Circle Foundation, which promotes diversity in UK creative departments with a free school.

If you would like to learn more about the digital services we offer, please be in touch here at [email protected].

Depending on what product you’re buying, it can be better to wait until a certain time of year to guarantee the latest model and/or best price

When buying a new product, it’s good practice to research to see when what the latest model is and if a new version is set to arrive. Waiting an extra few weeks might be worth it to be able to compare and have the latest version of the product. As well, when the new model arrives, the older model might become discounted.

There is a general timeline to help have a better understanding of when products are announced/released, and when you can commonly expect discounts. Keeping in mind these dates can change and discounts can randomly happen throughout the year.

New models are often announced at the Consumer Electronics Show, which is always held at the beginning of January — with products then launched generally in the Spring.

January is also a good time to find discounts on previous year’s TVs, often at a much better price than during the holidays. Although, over the holiday season, some companies will be trying to rid stock for the final quarter of the year, and therefore make huge discounts to rid themselves of volume and increase numbers.

There are some brands who are exceptions to the rule, such as Apple, who tend to release new laptops in the spring, and phones in the autumn. Their products are also usually available right as they are announced and older models almost never discounted.

Samsung and Google have also followed Apple’s “not in January” approach, with Samsung announcing in February and Google in October — releasing products shortly thereafter.

The big companies tend to follow a predictable pattern, which you can see here below:

If you are interested in purchasing a new device and would like to discuss purchase and setup, please be in touch with us at, [email protected]