Powerful Communication Podcast

It's official - Zoom kills creativity.

That's the headline I saw on Linkedin today - this is based on a study published in the highly respected Nature journal.

It involved more than 600 people and found that working in person generated more and fresher ideas.

The group taking part in virtual meetings generated fewer ideas and researchers found participants tended to spend more time focussing on each other's faces.

The team behind the study believe working on a screen leads to a narrower cognitive focus.

But there's more to it - because the screen used in the research was only 15 inches - which is pretty small. Many people who work remotely and make heavy use of video conferencing use larger screens and sometimes even 2 screens.

The lesson seems to be if you're going remote, make sure staff have the right technical set up to make the most of it.

Keep an eye on Pinterest - it's launching a new Pinterest TV Studio app which aims to make it easier to live stream and broadcast product demos.

Pinterest is making a real push into the live shopping space this year.

cameo.com is a website where celebrities will sell you personal video greetings of themselves.

You'll find everyone on there from former pro wrestlers to forgotten soap stars, musicians, reality TV stars and even some legitimate big names still enjoying successful careers.

How much you pay generally varies according how bright the celebrity's star is shining.

Well now Cameo have cut a deal with Snapchat which means Snapchat advertisers would commission Cameo celebrities to make adverts for them.

If history is anything to go by - expect something similar in Facebook and Instagram soon.

Now radio stations like this one spend lots of time thinking carefully about the mix of music they play.

Soundcloud has just bought a piece of software that claims to be able to do it automatically.

Musiio says it can quickly listen to hundreds of thousands of uploaded tracks and instantly identify which songs are going to be hits.

Those songs will then be prioritised on Souncloud.

It's all based around an algorithm of course and means the system is looking for songs that match a criteria based largely on other hit songs.

What would it make of something like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' ?

It's been another funny 24 hours on social media as Twitter users celebrated 'Ed Balls Day'

Every April 28th, we remember the day Ed Balls, star of Strictly Come Dancing and former politician, sent a tweet containing simply his name.

He'd been searching for news articles about himself and inadvertently typed his name into the 'Tweet' box and sent it.

As we now know - if you make an embarrassing blunder, the internet never forgets.

Have a look at hashtag EdBallsDay.

Good news for Facebook - its user numbers are growing again after a small decline at the end of last year.

Asian nations are fuelling much of the growth but recent restrictions imposed by Russia mean numbers in Europe have taken a significant dent.

And while the numbers go up, the amount of money Facebook makes is slightly down.

And after the Peloton bike, the next trend in personal fitness looks like being the high tech fitness mirror.

They cost about a thousand pounds and involve working out while data and coaching tips and advice are overlayed on top of the mirror image.

Experts are divided on whether they'll catch on.

Lots of people have been asking me about podcasts recently.

It's easy to get started and some hosting providers - like Podbean have a basic free plan which allows you to get started.

You don't need much equipment - £20 or so will get you a couple of lavalier or clip-on microphones which you can connect to your phone and start recording.

More advanced set ups could use portable multi track recorders, like the Zoom H4nPro or similar models from Tascam.

If you're based at home or in an office try to avoid recording your podcast in an echoey room with hard surface and big windows. You're better in a room with soft furnishings and a decent carpet.

A USB microphone can be a good purchase and be sure to wear headphones - even if it's just the in-ear bud type.

Podcasts are getting longer - the average duration was about 20 minutes a few years ago, it's now gone past half an hour and some of the most popular podcasts are even longer than an hour.

It is a competitive space and having a podcast doesn't mean people will listen to it.

So what is it that's unique or special about it and how will you make sure people will find it?

Remember another good place to start is to appear on someone else's podcast as a guest.

It'll be months before we see the impact of Elon Musk's ownership of Twitter.

The 34 billion pound takeover deal won't go through until later this year and while the right and left argue about the merits of the much promised 'free speech' that Musk says is a priority for him, a far bigger issue is how exactly will he get any sort of return on the money he's paying for the platform.

It's hardly made any money in its 18 year existence.

I'd expect him to concentrate on striking deals with broadcasters and publishers - that could be mean premium sports rights, podcasts, perhaps live video streaming deals with news organisations.

The key is providing content people want and for too long Twitter has been home to a very polarised, ugly debate that isn't doing anyone any good - and certainly did nothing for Twitter's previous owners.

Some analysts expect some human authentication - could that mean freedom of speech but only if you confirm your identity?

We've heard a lot the last 2 years about the environmental benefits of working remotely…but just because you're using technology doesn't mean there's no impact on the environment.

World Economic Forum research looked at what our digital use is doing to the environment.

It found every email sent generates 4 grammes of carbon emissions, and it increases to 50 grammes if there's a photo attached.

A new app called Fruggr lets users track the carbon used by all their electronic devices and consider more environmentally friendly ways of doing things.

Artificial intelligence and the metaverse isn't going to be some entirely 'seperate' world that you only access by wearing a special headset.

Some of it might be like that, particularly if you're playing games in a virtual reality world, but there will be another far more useful aspect which is already here.

Certain products for sale on Amazon now feature 'View In Your Room'. This opens your camera, scans your location and overlays the product in the actual room you are in right now.

You can then move the product around and try out how it's going to look in particular places.

There are other highly useful augmented reality applications in the world of DIY - for example if you had a product and wanted to see how it was going to fit against a wall or in a tight space, you could find out using AI without having to actually lift the physical item and move it around.

And here's a quick tip if you want to cut down your social media use without stopping entirely.

Take the apps off your phone.

That way you can still access your favourite platforms via a computer but it won't be quite so convenient to look multiple times a day. You control the technology rather than have it control you.

Is Google planning its own range of watches?

Tech commentators have spotted a change on the Google Store, which now displays a 'Watches' tab.

Google doesn't currently make watches although it bought FitBit a couple of years ago - until yesterday Fitbit products had their own category on the Google Store, now they sit underneath the 'watches' banner.

Experts reckon a Google Pixel watch could be coming soon.

I've been trying out a new drawing pad this week.

It's called the Wacom Intuous, it comes with a pen, or styles and lets you annotate the screen with free hand drawings.

It takes some practice, my handwriting still looks like a child's and I'm sometimes not quite sure where on the screen my drawing is going to appear.

But it might be useful if you're involved in meetings or run presentations.

iPads and other tablets do offer similar functionality but some are more expensive.

And if you want to amaze your friends over the weekend - visit YouTube and search for WalMart, Metaverse for a glimpse at what shopping, might look like in the future.

Are you smart, opinionated and do you enjoy writing?

Have you ever considered making money from blogging?

Platforms such as medium.com let anyone sign up, start writing content and if what you say generates enough interest, you could end up getting paid.

Blogging is free and easy to do and you can talk about absolutely whatever you want.

The more specific and niche the topic - the better.

Other blogging platforms include Wordpress and Blogger - they won't pay you directly for content but it can still prove lucrative.

Some bloggers translate their popular blog into a mainstream media profile, speak at events or publish books.

It takes a lot of work but you can do it anywhere, anytime you like.

And successful blogs don't have to be long form posts - they don't need to be like essays.

Short, straight to the point, engaging content often works best.

Think about something you know about, feel passionate about and could create regular written content about.

And a useful tool before I go - check out an app called Trello.

It's project management software - great for managing tasks and any situation where you've various things to do and different people you need to do it with.

That's trello

You can always rely on the internet to debate the burning issues of the day and over the last 24 hours one of the most trending topics was: what exactly is the filling of a Creme Egg?

Cadbury say they produce around 500 million of the eggs every year but a surprising number of fans took to social media to join the discussion, with many having no idea the 'goo' is in fact fondant, which does include powdered egg white.

Elon Musk is in for a fight if he's serious about taking full control of Twitter.

The Tesla boss has made a 43 billion dollar offer to take complete ownership of the platform but the Twitter board is resisting the move, so Musk will have to launch a hostile bid, or, of course, increase the amount he's offering.

Some tech commentators have expressed doubts that Musk is serious.

Over on YouTube there's incredible footage from San Francisco of police trying to stop a driverless car and then realising there was nobody inside it.

Every time officers approached the vehicle, it would drive away again, causing huge confusion.

The car's operators, 'Cruise' said police took action because the vehicle was driving without headlights, due to a technical fault.

Cruise is owned by General Motors and says the car pulled over to a safe location, the officer contacted the company and no further action was taken.

Lots of football over the weekend and a clue of what might lie ahead from the college sports scene in America.

The University of Centra Florida's football team are starting their new season with QR codes instead of number's on the player's backs.

Scanning them with a smartphone takes you to the player's biography page on the team's website.

I could see this catching on in the UK - there are obvious sponsorship and revenue generating opportunities.

At the start of the year, word puzzle Wordle was getting all the hype - which culminated in it being taken over by the New York Times.

Here's a new game that music fans will love.

'Heardle' is an app which asks you to identify the song from the introduction in as few tries as possible.

There's even a Pokemon inspired Wordle spin off called Sqwordle.

And do you have a friend that sends voice messages on WhatsApp because they can't be bothered typing?

I hear some people find this infuriating - and WhatsApp is making it easier to record and listen to voice messages.

You can now pause them while you play back. And you'll be able to continue listening to messages while moving out of the chat and doing other things on WhatsApp.