2021 saw a number of winners and losers in the world of technology. From NFTs, a venture capital boom and 5G expansion to cybersecurity woes and folding phones, it was an eventful year both here in Ireland and internationally. But what soared and what stank? Adrian and Vizlegal CEO Gavin Sheridan pick the winners and losers in the tech year that was.

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You walk up to a shop counter and put your milk, bread and paper on the counter. How do you pay? With cash? A card? Your phone? Or even your watch?
Is it easy to do these things? Should it be easier? What’s coming down the line? And how can Ireland establish itself as somewhere that leads in this area rather than follows years after everyone else?
To find out more, Adrian is joined by Elaine Deehan, Ireland Country Manager at Starling Bank and Paul Sweetman, director of Financial Services Ireland, which is part of Ibec.

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How hard is it to make a living out of becoming a YouTuber or an Instagram influencer?
Is there a minimum number of followers you need? Do you have to pick a good niche? How many people actually make it?
Last week, YouTube revealed that there are now over 70 Irish YouTubers with more than 1m subscribers and over 450 Irish people with more than 100,000 subscribers.
In this week's podcast, Adrian is joined by two full time Irish professional social media personalities to talk about the nuts and bolts of how to make a living out of it.
Brian MacManus is the creator of the Real Engineering and Real Science YouTube channels, with almost 4m subscribers.
Clare Cullen is a former YouTube Ambassador to Ireland and host of the video podcast 'Storytime With Clisare'. She has 120,000 YouTube subscribers and over 30,000 Instagram followers.

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Stuck for a Christmas tech gift idea? Thinking about something fitness-related? Or headphones? Or just a stocking filler?
We’ve got you covered. From gifts for high rollers to penny-pinchers, Adrian is joined by Mark Kavanagh, tech writer for Irish Daily Star and IrishMirror.ie

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Last week, Star Trek fans were given the bad news that its Star Trek Discovery series is being removed from Netflix, with all past and future episodes only available on yet another streaming platform -- Paramount Plus.
Will we just accept this and subscribe to yet another platform? Or are we reaching overload?
This week, Adrian calculates that his monthly TV streaming outlay is now €62, rising to €142 when Sky and Sky Go are included.
But are Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus and all the rest just the beginning? And what are the streaming platforms doing to television and movies?
To discuss it, Adrian is joined by Steve McCormack, Reflektor Media CEO and a producer on TV shows such as Fade Street, Screen Producers Ireland’s Anthony Muldoon and journalist Jennifer Gannon.

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How old do you need to be to start a tech company that investors will take seriously? 25? 23? 20?
Today we talk to a couple of young Irish tech founders who are making waves at a very young age. Greg Tarr is 18 and the CEO and founder of an artificial intelligence firm called Inferex. Having won this year’s BT Young Scientist competition, Tarr received six-figure job offers and dropped out of secondary school. He is now skipping college (because it’s “a waste of time”) to focus on his firm, which has already raised €1.25m.
Adrian also speaks to Sean Finnegan, who is 20 and is currently raising money for his e-receipt software company, Receipt Relay.

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It’s 20 years into the future. Robots are cleaning our beaches and rivers.Advanced technology lets us mine asteroids and collect materials on the moon. And while tech trillionaires enjoy the greatest concentration of wealth in human history, advanced countries now give a universal basic income to all citizens, eliminating poverty and allowing people to focus more on jobs they’d much prefer to do.

Sound like a fantasy? Not to our guest this week, the futurist Brett King.

Together with Dr Richard Petty, he has written a new book called The Rise Of Techno Socialism — How Inequality, AI and Climate will usher in a new world.
He tells Adrian about what he thinks will happen in the coming years, and why.

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Are you struggling to find a Playstation 5? Or dismayed at month-long waiting lists for an iPhone 13 Pro? Or may your car dealer says you can’t change to a new model until next year because they can’t get any?
All of these shortages have one thing in common: a supply chain crisis in computer chips.
But in this high-tech world, how can this be happening? What’s behind it? And will it get better any time soon?
To discuss answers to these questions, Adrian is joined by consumer journalist Siobhan Maguire and motoring journalist Geraldine Herbert.

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Imagine you’re peckish. There’s nothing in the fridge but it’s
lashing outside — you don’t want to go the supermarket, and ordering your regular takeout will take ages.

Now imagine a different scenario: you order a takeout and it
arrives in 10 minutes. Why? Because it skipped the roads and came instead by drone.

That’s an option that the residents of Oranmore in Galway, Moneygall
in Offaly and, from next week, Balbriggan in County, will have had. Because Irish company Manna Aero has been delivering coffee, fast food, medicine and other things with drones in under 10 minutes to those communities.

The company says it wants to expand to dozens of towns by the
end of next year.

Is this the future? Is it safe? Will it be allowed to go national
and maybe international?

Joining Adrian this week from the Web Summit in Lisbon to discuss
this is Manna Aero founder and CEO Bobby Healy.

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As warnings of energy blackouts this winter emerge, there are questions being asked about the value of data centres to Ireland. Are they energy hogs? Do they hold their own as worthwhile businesses? And what should our policy be going forward?
With over 70 major data centres located in Ireland, some political parties are calling for a moratorium on new data centres. But is this a weak admission that we can’t set up our own modern electricity grid correctly?
Joining Adrian to discuss this issue this week is Social Democrats TD and spokesperson on climate, Jennifer Whitmore, the founder of Host In Ireland, Garry Connolly, and the Irish Independent’s environment editor, Caroline O’Doherty.

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