Downtime

Recent Posts

  • Drone accidentally announced in Argos catalogue

    Clare McDonald - Business Editor 02 Aug 2018
  • Technology companies are always coming up with increasingly elaborate ways to announce their new products. But when drone manufacturer decided to postpone the press event where it would announce ...

  • Kuri curries favour but Bosch favours Currys

    Ryan Priest 26 Jul 2018
  • Bosch has forced startup firm Mayfield Robotics to cancel the release of Kuri, a home robot that was all set to patrol your house and rob your dog of its last shreds of dignity. Could it be that ...

  • Chitty Chitty Bond Bond

    Ryan Priest 19 Jul 2018
  • Aston Martin unveiling plans for a “sports car of the skies” will presumably cause some headaches for those James Bond fans of the school of thought that nothing about the franchise should ever ...

  • The analogue minister

    Ryan Priest 12 Jul 2018
  • When Theresa May’s unstoppable reshuffle tour eventually reached as far as grinning app namesake Matt Hancock, he found himself thrust from his role as secretary of state for digital, culture, ...

  • Siri, show me a threat to national security

    Ryan Priest 04 Jul 2018
  • Gavin Williamson unwittingly summoning Siri on his iPhone whilst updating Parliament on the fight against Daesh has marked him as national security’s weak link, which couldn’t really be any less ...

  • Introducing Ukip’s meme team

    Ryan Priest 28 Jun 2018
  • Somewhere deep in cyber space, a clutch of the internet’s more eccentric alt-right YouTubers have collaborated to join Ukip for a bit of attention, and the dotty old right-wing Eurosceptics have ...

  • L is for the way you look at renewable heating technology

    Ryan Priest 21 Jun 2018
  • A civil servant has swapped her job at the Department for Education for a stint on ITV’s hit reality show Love Island. Zara McDermott, who had previously been developing government policy on ...

  • Better off Elon

    Ryan Priest 13 Jun 2018
  • This week, we suppose we’re meant to have some kind of sideways take on Downtime icon Elon Musk selling flamethrowers to his lamewad fans, but documenting this man’s hijinks is starting to become ...

  • Educating Norris

    Ryan Priest 07 Jun 2018
  • One app mentioned at Zendesk’s customer experience conference this month was Replika, an AI friend that on first impression seems barely an improvement on grandparent’s crumpet Eliza from 1964. ...

  • Football’s kompromat home

    Ryan Priest 01 Jun 2018
  • The BBC has started blowing its own vuvuzela about all the new technology it will be using to supplement the upcoming World Cup, including a virtual reality lounge to watch games in on its ...

  • Now that’s what I call compliance II

    Ryan Priest 25 May 2018
  • Nobody’s been able to get in contact with Downtime’s marketing manager since our discovery of a GDPR-themed Spotify playlist back in March, but his driving licence was found by the Royal Thai ...

  • Nothing compares 2U89X

    Ryan Priest 17 May 2018
  • The government announced this month a brand new method for submitting divorce applications: it can now all be done online! The digital route is intended as a less stressful option than the fusty ...

  • Beats, shoots and leaves

    Ryan Priest 10 May 2018
  • Electronic music producer Arca has partnered with a leather company to create some BDSM headphones. It’s a big moment for experimental music, after a week that saw one of its own go so far as ...

  • A twisted fire sale

    Ryan Priest 03 May 2018
  • Guangzhou-based drone company EHang has broken the world drone display record for the most drones used at an airborne show, but the decidedly indifferent Chinese media preferred to point out the ...

  • The life of macro

    Ryan Priest 26 Apr 2018
  • Kanye West’s recent Twitter meltdown, in which he professed his love for Donald Trump, has seen many fans turn on him, but our interest lies more with his denunciation of Microsoft Excel. The ...