Six months in and we can just about see a slither of sunshine through the rain. Luckily, Q2 2019 has been a little brighter for the IT and tech industry, with the following news, celebrations and updates.
Stack Overflow’s annual Developer Survey results have been revealed, with some interesting updates for the industry including:
Let us know what you think about the results on Twitter.
The biggest gaming show in the world took place this quarter, bringing important gaming news, updates and technology with it. Topics up for debate at this year’s E3 included a world without consoles thanks to cloud gaming, Google’s new video gaming platform, Stadia, and why Sony decided not to attend.
The results of the 2019 Government AI Readiness Index have been released, with the UK being placed second best in the world to take advantage of AI technology for public service delivery. AI is a big deal in the UK, where research and development funding is set to increase to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. If you’re interested to know how this can enhance your career, get in touch with one of our AI recruitment specialists today.
In other AI news, the UK government has appointed new members to its AI Council, including Paul Clarke, CTO at Ocado, and Adrian Smith, CEO of the Alan Turing Institute.
Another quarter, another batch of security flaws. This time, we saw a quarter of UK universities admit that their research programmes may have been infiltrated; 64% of businesses say that they have suffered a security breach linked to abuse of user credentials; and a transgender charity suffered a historical data breach that saw thousands of emails made public online.
IT security professionals will have another day to celebrate, following the introduction of National Surveillance Camera Day on 20 June. Aiming to raise awareness about why and how they’re used, it is hoped that the event will spark a nationwide conversation about camera technology – especially that of AI and facial recognition.
The UC Expo (united communications) took place this May, with some important issues up for debate. Key topics included the use of AI in an enterprise’s UC infrastructure, the concept of cognitive collaboration and the future of chatbots. See the highlights here.
Any IT engineers out there worried about robots taking over their jobs needn’t be, according to Amazon’s chief robotics technologist. Instead, we’ll experience a future where robots and humans work together, extending human capability to gain productivity and allow us to focus on more critical tasks.
Jaws dropped this quarter as Apple’s new Mac Pro unveil reached the cost of the stand. $999 is the price tag – causing many in the industry to question whether Apple has lost touch with reality. And that wasn’t the only shocking announcement: iTunes is to be no more. Launched back in 2001, iTunes users will now be redirected to Apple Music, Apple TV and the podcasts app.
Investments have been flying around the industry this quarter, spelling new projects, jobs and employers. Highlights include:
Elsewhere, in warmer climates, the European tech scene has been busy with:
Vodafone’s 5G network will go live in seven cities at the beginning of July, Instagram is tackling hackers, Facebook is printing its own money, and we’ve been talking about CV writing for women in tech, security clearance FAQs, JavaScript frameworks, graduates and the most in-demand programming languages of 2019.
We’ll see you back here in three months – in the meantime, keep up-to-date with our IT industry blogs and LinkedIn page.
