Sales of the so-called ‘dumb phone’ – devices that simply make and receive calls and texts – are apparently on the rise again as more people are eager to disconnect from the internet.
The news comes on the back of Ofcom findings earlier this month which revealed that the average smartphone owner in Britain checks their device every 12 minutes.
The watchdog found that almost a fifth of adults spend more than 40 hours a week online, up from just 5 per cent 10 years ago.
However new figures now suggest that old fashioned technology is making a comeback and that sales of so-called dumb phones have increased for the first time in years.
While global sales of smartphones rose by just 2 per cent last year, feature phone sales went up by 5 per cent.
Estonia wants tech talent from the UK
Estonia, known as one of the most digitally advanced countries in the world, has launched a recruitment campaign to attract IT specialists from the UK.
The ‘Career Hunt’ campaign aims to find tech experts and encourage them to apply for senior positions at companies including Skype, Taxify, Twilio, Microsoft and Swedbank.
Selected candidates will go on a five-day trip to Estonia, and will meet with IT industry giants, visit the NATO Cyber Defence Centre and attend the world’s biggest robotics festival, Robotex. They will also have an opportunity to interview for a dream job.
The search is being conducted by job search portal Jobbatical, led by CEO Karoli Hindriks.
Facebook users get ‘Trustworthiness’ score
Facebook has been ‘secretly’ ranking people based on how trustworthy they are, according to reports.
The Washington Post revealed that the system was developed by the social media giant over the past year.
Facebook says the measurement was developed to help handle reports of false news on its platform, and is currently only being used by its misinformation team.
However, the tech firm has strongly objected to the tool being described as a reputation rating.
A spokesperson said: “The idea that we have a centralised ‘reputation’ score for people that use Facebook is just plain wrong and the headline in the Washington Post is misleading.
“What we’re actually doing: We developed a process to protect against people indiscriminately flagging news as fake and attempting to game the system.
“The reason we do this is to make sure that our fight against misinformation is as effective as possible.”
Tech firm analyses celebrity chef recipes
A UK food analytics company has analysed recipes from celebrity chefs to show which ones are the healthiest.
Brighton-based CheckYourFood.com has completed work on a project designed to get the nation eating more vegetables and natural ingredients.
The business was called in to work on ‘The Truly Epic Book of Veg Power’, a project led by the Veg Power Fund, which includes recipes from well-known chefs and A-list celebrities such as Sir Paul McCartney.
CheckYourFood.com used its food software and analytics tools to analyse the ingredients and provide a nutritional breakdown of all the recipes in the book.