Pollinger’s Productivity : June 2025

WhatsApp Finally Comes To Ipad After years of user requests, WhatsApp has officially launched an iPad app. It syncs seamlessly with your phone and supports all the usual features, including voice notes, calls and media sharing. Insights: It’s taken long enough but great that we finally have WhatsApp on iPad. Now if only Instagram could follow suit…

Read More

Meta : Merchandising & Military

Meta is stepping up its push into physical retail, open-source AI, and military-grade AR and VR technology, but each move is attracting scrutiny and raising new questions about ethics, transparency, and the company’s strategic direction. Physical Stores Selling Smart Glasses Meta is reportedly preparing to open a new wave of physical retail stores in a…

Read More

Gmail Now Summarises Emails Automatically

Gmail users will now see AI-generated summary cards appear by default at the top of long emails, thanks to an automatic update to Google’s Gemini assistant. Google Doubles Down on Inbox AI Google has announced that as of 29 May 2025, its Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) assistant will automatically summarise long email threads in Gmail,…

Read More

Fastest Change In Tech History

The pace and scale of artificial intelligence (AI) development is now outstripping every previous tech revolution, according to new landmark reports. Faster Than Anything We’ve Seen Before Some of the latest data confirms that AI really is moving faster than anything that’s come before it. That’s the key message from recent high-profile reports including Mary…

Read More

Why Google’s New ‘Fingerprint’ Policy Matters

In this Tech Insight, we look at Google’s controversial decision to allow advertisers to use device fingerprinting, exploring what the technology involves, why it has sparked concern, and what it means for users, businesses, and regulators. A Policy Reversal In February 2025, Google quietly updated its advertising platform rules, allowing companies that use its services…

Read More

Grok Blocked : Quarter Of EU Firms Ban Access

New research shows that one in four European organisations have banned Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot due to concerns over misinformation, data privacy and reputational risk, making it far more widely rejected than rival tools like ChatGPT or Gemini. A Trust Gap Is Emerging in the AI Race The findings from cybersecurity firm Netskope point…

Read More

Block Spam Calls

In this Tech Insight, we look at how UK businesses can identify, block, and protect themselves against the growing nuisance (and threat) of spam calls, and why doing so is now essential for productivity, security, and reputation. More Than a Nuisance If you’ve noticed more spam calls slipping through lately, you’re not imagining things. Nuisance…

Read More

Google Phases Out .co.uk and Other Country Domains

Google is retiring all country-specific search domains, meaning users who try to visit sites like google.co.uk will soon be automatically redirected to google.com instead. Unified Search Experience Google is ending its long-running use of country-specific domain names like google.co.uk, redirecting all users to a single global homepage, i.e. google.com. The change, already rolling out, marks…

Read More

Alarms Over Mass Monitoring of Benefit Claimants

There are concerns that a new government bill designed to tackle benefit fraud could subject millions of claimants to routine bank surveillance, even when there’s no suspicion of wrongdoing. What Is the Fraud Bill? Earlier this month, MPs passed the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, a piece of legislation aimed at cracking down…

Read More

AI – Deceptive & Self-Preserving ?

A new safety report has revealed that an earlier version of Claude Opus 4, Anthropic’s latest flagship AI model, once showed a willingness to blackmail, deceive, and act in extreme ways if it believed its existence was under threat. A Powerful New Model With a Troubling Backstory On 23 May, Anthropic publicly launched Claude Opus…

Read More