Park life: Portable speaker systems to see you through summer April 15, 2015 Make the most of those lazy-hazy-crazy days of summer with these excellent portable speaker systems. Bang & Olufsen A2, £299 Built from a rock-solid combination of extruded aluminium and a tough plastic polymer, this speaker is the perfect outdoor companion. As you’d expect from Bang & Olufsen, the sound is silky smooth and designed [...]
New discovery in mice paves the way for dementia cure April 15, 2015 Scientists at Duke University in the US have managed to stop mice developing dementia, and a similar cure could soon be on its way for humans. Using a drug that tinkers with the rodent's immune system, they were able to completely stop the onset of the age-related disorder, which is characterised by loss of memory [...]
Europe vs Google: EU accuses search giant of market dominance abuse in EU antitrust case and launches Android probe April 15, 2015 Five years after the European Commission first began investigating Google's dominance of internet search, formal charges against the search giant have finally been filed, accusing Google of anti-competitive behaviour. The EC's competition commissioner claims Google favours its own comparison of shopping products in search result pages over those of other shopping sites and has taken the [...]
A volcanic eruption could soon wipe out a huge chunk of the human population April 15, 2015 It sounds alarming, and it is – there's a reasonable chance a massive volcanic explosion will wipe out a significant portion of the global population before the end of the century, a report reckons. The European Science Foundation published finding estimating a probability of between five and 10 per cent that an eruption will reach a [...]
Being able to control your emotions is essential for career success – and it all starts in childhood April 15, 2015 Everyone knows being unable to manage your emotions won't go down too well at work, but having low self-control can actually ruin your career prospects way down the line – and it all starts in early childhood. A clear link has been uncovered between self-control and employment later in life by researchers at Scotland's University [...]
Taxi ride-sharing app Maaxi launches to join a crowded cab rank April 14, 2015 Maaxi, the black cab ride-sharing app will be launched today, joining the line-up in an already-competitive London taxi market. But founder and chief executive Gabriel Campos, former boss of online gaming website Pokerstars, insists the new offering is not just another taxi scheme, but rather “door-to-door public transport”. Campos, whose main backer is Nat [...]
Maaxi road test: The ride-sharing app turning black cabs into public transport April 14, 2015 It's a balmy London day and I’m sitting comfortably in a black cab, but, for the purposes of demonstrating his new ride sharing app, Maaxi boss Gabriel Campos wants me to envisage a more typical travel scenario. “Just imagine you’re waiting at the bus stop in the freezing cold and the next one’s not coming [...]
Borgen muse Margrethe Vestager tipped to finally shake up Google in anti-trust probe April 14, 2015 She is said to be the inspiration behind Birgitte Nyborg, the cool-headed Danish prime minister in the hit TV show Borgen. Today, European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager is expected to live up to the go-getting reputation of her fictional counterpart by setting out a list of charges, known as a statement of objections (SO), against [...]
Should human-killing robots be allowed to exist? The UN is deciding once and for all April 14, 2015 They're terrifying machines – capable of operating without human control and built with a vicious streak that could steal the lives of thousands of humans in a split second. As artificial intelligence develops and improves, who's to say the killer robots we put together with our own hands won't one day cause serious devastation to [...]
IBM is creating a huge health data cloud with Apple, Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic April 14, 2015 IBM, Apple and Johnson & Johnson have formed an unlikely alliance to create a giant health data cloud in an attempt to drastically improve medical data analysis. The companies will contribute information gathered from millions of personal health monitoring technologies such as fitness trackers, implants and smartphones to the newly-formed Watson Health Unit. IBM, [...]