George Osborne makes a quick buck on £20 Bitcoin buy at Level 39 August 6, 2014 As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, you might expect George Osborne would like to keep his own pocket money in good old, Bank of England-regulated, sterling. But it’s apparent a trip to trendy FinTech den Level 39 has left Osborne with a sense of adventure – he’s gone where no chancellor has gone before – [...]
The iPhone 6: Apple rumours swirling as September release date approaches August 6, 2014 It seems like an age since Apple boss Tim Cook took to the stage to unveil the iPhone 5S, probably the strongest “mid-release” upgrade since the inception of the iPhone. That saw the introduction of the fingerprint reader and a faster processor that dragged mobile gaming into a new league. But once again, Apple’s rivals [...]
Eight ways technology has reinvented fiction July 16, 2014 At a recent lecture in Oxford, Will Self announced the death of the novel. The internet, he said, has mercilessly invaded the silent, solitary leisure time we once filled with “serious” reading. As a result, serious books will no longer feature as a central part of culture. Like classical music, they will continue to exist, [...]
UK’s £4bn app economy is the biggest in Europe June 26, 2014 The app economy in the UK is the biggest in Europe and set to generate £4bn revenue by the end of the year, cementing the country’s position as the leading tech hub outside of the US. The UK generates more than a third of app revenue produced across Europe and employs just under a fifth [...]
Shares in software group Adobe head for the cloud June 17, 2014 SOFTWARE giant Adobe Systems last night topped growth expectations on the strength of its cloud computing wares. The Nasdaq-listed group said revenues totalled $1.07bn (£631m) in the second quarter, beating its targeted range of between $1bn and $1.05bn. Operating income rose 22 per cent to $135m. More than half of its revenues came from subscription [...]
London now has bigger fintech sector than Silicon Valley or New York June 16, 2014 London is now the biggest global centre for financial technology firms, beating both Silicon Valley and New York based on the number of people the industry employs. There are 44,000 people working in fintech in London, compared to 43,000 in New York and just 11,000 in Silicon Valley, according to research by South Mountain [...]
Three things you didn’t know about Level39 boss Eric Van der Kleij June 16, 2014 Chief executive of Level39 Eric Van der Kleij 1 He invented the online process of “web call back”, leaving your number on a website for someone to call you back, while struggling to buy flowers for his wife online. 2 Canary Wharf’s FinTech incubator Level39 was born following a very chance meeting between Eric and [...]
Mario Kart 8 is the game that Nintendo’s Wii U needs right now June 11, 2014 Mario Kart 8 is both joyous and frenetic, nostalgic but packed with twists and innovations. It’s exactly the game Nintendo needs right now, a strong – albeit lonely – argument for investing in a Wii U (an argument that will be considerably strengthened if the Japanese firm can repeat the trick with its upcoming Star [...]
Review: Watch Dogs on Xbox One June 11, 2014 ★★★☆☆ I can’t remember the last game I anticipated quite as fervently as I have Watch Dogs. It's a title that places cyber crime and state surveillance at its heart, making its protagonist’s weapon the connected world; a world it doesn’t take a spectacular mental leap to imagine us all living in. And, for the [...]
CryptoLocker, GameOver Zeus and the rest of the malware out to get you June 4, 2014 Welcome to the terrifying world of cyber crime. It’s a constantly evolving and increasingly prevalent threat. This week, the Europol’s European Cyber Crime Centre (EC3) has been tackling the CryptoLocker virus, while the US National Security Agency has been pre-occupied with GameOver Zeus. Generally speaking, viruses are malware programs that replicate and wriggle into programs [...]