Amazon earnings: What to expect amid a record-breaking tech boom February 1, 2021 Amazon enjoyed a stellar 2020, so all eyes will be on the ecommerce giant tomorrow night as it reports earnings for the final quarter of the year. Apple last week kicked off tech earnings season with bumper revenue of $111.4 (£81.5bn) — its best ever quarter, while Facebook also beat expectations. Amazon is also expected [...]
Monkey business: Elon Musk has wired up a monkey to play video games with its mind February 1, 2021 Eccentric biliionaire and boss of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk can claim another first after he told an audience his company Neuralink has wired up a monkey's brain to " play video games with his mind"
WPP signs early access advertising deal with Tiktok February 1, 2021 WPP has secured an advertising partnership with Tiktok, marking a key step in the holding group’s efforts to cash in on the wildly popular video app. The tie-up will give WPP’s clients early access to Tiktok’s new advertising services while they are under development, which the ad giant said will ensure they remain “at the [...]
EU approves Astrazeneca vaccine for all over-18s January 29, 2021 The EU drugs regulator has approved the use of the Astrazeneca Covid vaccine for all people over the age of 18. The green light from the European Medicines Agency means Astrazeneca vaccine is the third to be approved by the EU, after those developed by Pfizer/Biontech and Moderna. The move follows an increasingly bitter dispute [...]
Facebook to trial new ad control tools to tackle harmful content January 29, 2021 Facebook is to build and trial new tools that will give brands greater control over what content appears alongside their ads. The social media platform said its new advertiser topic exclusion controls will initially be trialled with a small group of advertisers. The new tools mark efforts by Facebook to reassure advertisers amid concerns their [...]
Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid vaccine 66 per cent effective January 29, 2021 The Covid vaccine being developed by Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, is 66 per cent effective at preventing moderate and severe coronavirus, data published from phase three trials has shown. The jab produced by world’s largest healthcare company is the first single-dose Covid vaccine so far. Britain has pre-ordered 30m doses of the [...]
Watchdog opens competition probe into Uber’s Autocab takeover January 29, 2021 The competition watchdog has opened an investigation into Uber’s planned takeover of taxi tech firm Autocab. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) today said it had launched a probe and was inviting views on how the deal could impact the private hire vehicle market in the UK. Stockport-based Autocab sells booking and dispatch software to [...]
Screenshot: How Reddit shone a light on the madness of markets January 29, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: Das ist Numberwang! **How Redditors beat the market at its own game **Do influencers need a rebrand? Media Moment of the Week: Das ist Numberwang! This week’s media moment is one that journalists the world over would probably rather forget but, being the intrepid media reporter that I [...]
UK tech sector outpaces entire private sector January 29, 2021 The UK’s tech sector expanded at a stronger rate than the entire private sector last quarter and is set to reach a four-and-a-half year high this year. Tech saw another rise in business activity in the fourth quarter, according to IHS Markit and KPMG research, although the pace of expansion slowed amid a wider economic [...]
‘Antibody cocktail’ could cut risk of death from Covid by 70 per cent January 28, 2021 The UK’s medicines regulatory body is reviewing a new “antibody cocktail” that could reduce the risk of death from people most at-risk from coronavirus by 70 per cent. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is carrying out advanced tests of bamlanivimab and etesevimab after trials showed “very encouraging” results. If approved they could [...]