Powerful Communication Podcast

It's looks like you'll soon be able to schedule Instagram posts from within the main app itself.

Until now, it's only been possible using 3rd party tools or Instagram's Creator Studio platform but tests are underway which would allow full scheduling of everything - including main Instagram feed posts, stories and reels.

That will make life much easier for small business owners or creatives looking to post more content round the clock without having to be there live.

There's an interesting tie up between airline easyJet and streaming giant Spotify.

The promotion will provide personalised travel recommendations based on users' listening habits.

It's a great example of the value of data - for some it could open up a world of exciting travel opportunities but would you want to share your favourite playlists and does listening to lots of ABBA even mean you would want a holiday in Scandinavia?

And what will it suggest if you listen to 'Life On Mars' by Bowie..will easyJet open a new route?

In fairness, you have to opt in and give easyJet permission to access your Spotify history but I think you can expect to see more of this sort of thing and fitness trackers are likely to be another battle ground for brands.

There's a saying I like that speaks volumes about the pace of technological change in the world today and it is: 'the jobs your children will do, haven't been invented yet'.

Well here's another role that you could never imagine existing just a few years ago.

Marianna Spring has just been appointed as the first 'Disinformation and social media correspondent' at the BBC. Marianna says she'll be investigating the impact of fake news, trolling and all that's bad with social media. I get the feeling she could be very busy.

And here's a whopper - Burger King is at the centre of confusion and ridicule on social media after it emailed thousands of customers a blank order email receipt.

It's not yet known if the fast food giant has had its systems hacked or it it's made a mistake but some of those affected say they haven't set up a Burger King account so it could be an internal mistake that's sent blank orders to the company's entire marketing database.

Unfortunately, because the orders are blank they can't be redeemed and so far there's no explanation from the company itself.

Music looks set to be at the centre of the next big technological battle.

Artificial Intelligence can create music in less than a second and increasingly, our ears can't tell the difference.

Whether it's backing music for a film or TV show, a commercial promoting a product or something appearing in the middle of a playlist to get you singing a long, there's huge interest in what could soon become a multi billion pound new industry.

If you're interested - have a look at an app called SongStarter which uses AI to create royalty free music and keep an eye on TikTok which is currently running job ads looking for engineers specialising in machine learning and artificial intelligence music creation.

More bad news for Twitter, it's had to report a security breach which affected 5 and a half million accounts.

And the NHS has confirmed an outage affecting its 111 phone service over the weekend was caused by a cyber attack.

If you're not one for celebrity gossip, cat videos, motivational gurus and perfect bodies then Pinterest might be the social media platform for you.

The Pinterest share price rocketed this week after the company reported its latest earnings - which show a 9% growth in revenue and a steady number of users.

Those figures are OK in a challenging environment, but what's got the experts really excited is that Pinterest is making more money on average out of every user - a 17% jump in every region it operates in.

And that's a big improvement compared to the other social platforms.

In quick news from around the internet - Facebook's going to put more focus on its ultra short 'Reels' video format which already works well on Instagram.

'UpNext' is a paid for iPhone and web app designed to help you stop forgetting things you stumble across online.

Whether it's articles you haven't read, music you forgot to listen to, a social media thread or anything else, it'll suggest 5 things you didn't finish every morning.

And if you're interested about your privacy online, read the Mashable article headlined 'Who owns the rights to your face?' - find it on Twitter on the hashtag digitalminuteUK.

Sometimes, computers stop working - or 'crash' for no apparent reason and it's usually highly frustrating, just when you're in the middle of something important.

There are a few things to keep an eye on that might help you prevent these incidents happening again.

One of the main ones is the CPU usage - this is the computer's central processing unit - basically its brain and by clicking in the right place you can see how hard its working.

Sometimes if there's too much of a strain on your system, programmes might stop working or freeze.

It might be that you lack enough memory for modern software or it isn't compatible with your device.

Sometimes having a labour intensive programme running but not in use can cause problems and simply being aware of it and closing it down can stop problems occurring with the programme you're actually wanting to use.

To access the data, on a PC hold down CTRL SHIFT and ESCAPE and choose Task Manager.

Then enter the Performance Tab and you'll see how much of the CPU is currently being used.

If you are a Mac User, go into the launchpad and click 'activity monitor'.

You should be able to set things up so you can monitor the CPU stats in a little window at the top of your screen so you'll see anything that increases the pressure on your system.

Remember modern software often requires modern hardware to run it so if you're computer is more than 10 years old that is considered pretty dated now and is likely to cause issues.

Have you seen this interactive map that shows the birthplaces of notable people around the world?

Zoom in on your hometown and you'll see the names of prominent figures from business, politics, sport, science and more.

It's been put together by researcher Topi Tjukanov pulling data from Wikipedia and other sources.

Check it out on Twitter using at the hashtag digitalminuteUK.

Elon Musk's 'Starlight' satellite internet service has been in the news.

The entrepreneur is launching thousands of satellites to provide high speed internet access in hard to reach areas.

It's particularly active right now in Ukraine and seems to be effective at getting round attempts from Russia to disrupt Ukraine's communications systems.

And listen up fans of retro computing - how about an Atari built from Lego?

The 2 thousand 532 piece set builds a model Atari complete with games and joystick - you can't play games on it but you can use the pieces to recreate scenes from famous games - the Lego Atari 2600 commemorates the 50th anniversary of Atari.

England's European Championship winning footballers are the toast of social media right now after their nail biting extra time 2-1 win over Germany.

Hashtags including 'itscomehome' and 'womensfootball' have been trending across Twitter and Instagram alongside of course #lionesses.

Video clips going viral include the players gatecrashing manager Sarina Weigman's post match press conference and the winning goal from Chloe Kelly.

If you're interested in finding out more about women's football on social media, the Lionesses have their own @lionesses Twitter and Instagram accounts and the women's super league is @barclaysWSL.

In Scotland you can visit scotwomensfootball.com for an overviews of all levels of the game and you'll find the top flight clubs in the SWPL where the new season kicks off this coming Sunday.

In other digital news today Snapchat has launched a new fund to encourage unsigned musicians to share their music on the platform.

And WhatsApp is attracting controversy for its stance regarding encryption.

The boss of the service says it would never bow to government pressure to weaken security - which could have made it easier for authorities to tackle the spread of illegal images through direct messages.

The discussions are part of the debate around the UK government's Online Safety Bill which has now been delayed until the autumn.

Let the games begin!

A spectacular Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022 opening ceremony has been dominating social media over the last few hours.

One of the major talking points was the giant Brummie Bull which served as the focal point for the show, there's also widespread praise for Duran Duran who performed, some 40 years on from their first hits.

There's a partial victory for the campaigners I mentioned earlier this week who were pushing Instagram to go back to its old ways and rely less on algorithms and software.

The platform's chief Adam Mosseri has acknowledged the criticism and said he thinks they need to take a step back and reassess the reliance on recommended content - many users want to see more from their friends and family and less of what the system thinks they should see.

Important news now for Amazon Prime subscribers - you're in for a price rise. From September the cost will increase to £8.99 a month, that's a pound more than it has been.

An annual membership will move from £79 to £95 but that is still 12 pounds cheaper than paying a month at a time.

You might have heard the phrase 'the great resignation' to describe the apparent phenomenon where large numbers of people quit their jobs during the COVID lockdown and never went back.

There does seem to be a lot of unfilled vacancies at the moment and something of a scramble on recruitment websites to try to fill them.

That appears to have had a knock on effect on Linkedin - the social network dedicated to careers and work - which is reporting record levels of engagement.

Parent company Microsoft says revenue at Linkedin is up 26% and user sessions increasing 22% over the most recent quarter.

kickstarter.com and other crowd funding websites are always worth a look if you're interested in new ideas and innovative gadgets - one that's causing quite a stir at the moment is a family owned company in Brooklyn trying to launch a line of positive, real life action figures.

Heroes - but not superheroes - is their slogan and the first hero in their range - Volodomyr Zelensky the Ukrainian President - the Kickstarter campaign has smashed its target and will be going into production.

And a study of 39 thousand gamers found the length of time they play has no impact on their wellbeing.

Researchers found the average player would have to play for more than 10 hours a day before noticing any difference and for the vast majority gaming has neither a positive nor negative affect on their well-being.

The Commonwealth Games opening ceremony takes place tomorrow - in Birmingham and runs until the 8th of August.

You'll find the official website at www.birmingham2022.com

The games have a presence on all the major social media accounts and organisers are promoting the hashtag 'B2022' and 'Birmingham2022'.

On TikTok you can check out @commonwealthsport and see athletes from around the world trying their best British accents.

A petition calling for Instagram to be more like Instagram and stop trying to copy TikTok is fast approaching 100 thousand signatures.

The change.org campaign is criticising the home feed which is now based on what an algorithm thinks you want, rather than people who've chosen to follow.

When it launched, Instagram was regarded as a place to highlight high quality photography - it's changed perhaps more than any other platform.

And a giant cashew tree in Brazil has become a social media phenomenon.

Video has emerged showing a large green covered area in the middle of the town - but it's not a park, it is in fact all one tree.

See it for yourself on Twitter on #digitalminuteUK.