Huawei Matebook X Pro review: The Chinese tech giant’s laptop is a true MacBook Pro rival December 13, 2018 Huawei has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately. The news comes at a time when the Chinese phone giant is only just beginning to drum up some real brand recognition in Western markets. In a few short years critics have stopped making jokes about how difficult it is to pronounce the company’s name [...]
Hamleys pulls slime toy as kids craze gets hit by EU safety warnings December 13, 2018 Hamleys has pulled a toy slime product off its shelves, after a wider test by consumer group Which found several products had failed safety tests for containing high levels of boron. Frootiputti slime, made by Goobands and sold by Hamleys, contained more than four times the EU limit for boron levels. The group said exposure to [...]
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic tourist spaceship successfully touches the edge of the world in today’s test flight December 13, 2018 Rocket man and Virgin billionaire Richard Branson's commercial space programme successfully reached the edge of the world's atmosphere for the first time in its fourth test flight across the US today. The Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two rocket, which was carried up to a height of above 12,000 metres by a specially-designed plane before igniting its motors, reached [...]
Confronting the Robots December 13, 2018 | City Talk Professor Peter Fleming, formerly of Cass Business School, wrote an article for Demos Quarterly which argued that the age of automation is unlikely to lead to a utopian world of play, but doesn't necessarily mean a proliferation of rubbish jobs. You can read the article in full here. Dr Simone Stumpf, Senior Lecturer in the Department of [...]
‘Non-sexy’ is the new cool: UK fintech predictions for 2019 December 13, 2018 Despite the continued uncertainties of Brexit, 2018 was another year for the UK’s fintech sector. Record levels of investment poured into the community, with $16bn secured in the first six months of 2018, exceeding the value of investment in US fintech by almost $2bn. In addition, progressive regulation and a thriving financial services sector attracted [...]
Tech supermarket Ocado reveals solid sales growth amid physical retail downturn December 13, 2018 Once dubbed the "Microsoft of retail", online supermarket Ocado has shaken off the sector's blues to post strong sales growth in its final quarter of the year. In a trading update for the three months to the start of December, Ocado said it had seen "consistent strong" growth in sales in the region of 12 [...]
City hedge fund giant Crispin Odey backs emerging fintech startup Jumo December 13, 2018 City veteran and hedge fund titan Crispin Odey has backed UK-based fintech startup Jumo with a $12.5m (£9.9m) funding injection through his firm Odey Asset Management. The investment today marks the final close of Jumo’s most recent funding round, which raised $52m from Goldman Sachs as its lead investor. Other participants included the French Development [...]
It’s about time: Revolut secures a full European banking licence December 13, 2018 Fintech banking startup Revolut has finally secured a full European banking licence, more than a year after first applying for authorisation in Lithuania. As such, the banking-app-turned bank has today unveiled plans for full current accounts in Europe, as well as future efforts in developing its own consumer lending product. The startup will launch with the [...]
Chinese streaming giant Tencent Music raises $1.1bn in IPO December 12, 2018 Chinese tech giant Tencent will raise roughly $1.1bn (£877m) in the US initial public offering (IPO) of its music streaming division. Tencent Music priced its shares at $13 each, at the low end of its $13-$15 range, and will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today. The share price puts Tencent Music’s value [...]
Musk to retire chairman role at Tesla in three years after interview backlash December 12, 2018 Tesla billionaire Elon Musk has said he intends to retire the role of chairman at the electric car manufacturer in three years time, having only stepped down from the role several weeks earlier. Tweeting in the aftermath of his conversation with CBS' 60 Minutes, Musk said: "Chairman is an honorific, not executive role, which means [...]