Time for UK rules to catch up with electric scooters September 11, 2018 As I ride my bike into work, there are numerous obstacles to watch out for. I treat buses, trucks, and cars as though they are on fire, while I try to give pedestrians and other cyclists a wide berth. In recent weeks, I have noticed a new player competing for space in the weekday rat [...]
Tech chiefs might build robots, but they need to act like humans and come back down to earth September 11, 2018 A decade ago, it would have been highly unlikely that the average Joe could name a single chief executive at any of the world’s largest tech companies. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs aside, this unique set of individuals has historically operated in the shadows. But today, like it or not, technology is deeply ingrained in our [...]
Snap second in command Imran Khan to leave company after three years September 10, 2018 Snap today announced that its chief strategy officer of three years, Imran Khan, is set to leave the company. Khan informed Snap last week that he would be exiting to pursue other opportunities. The filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission said his departure was not down to any disagreement with the company. His final [...]
UK’s computer games industry grows turnover by a third in a year September 10, 2018 The UK’s computer games industry grew by a third in the last year to hit £697m, according to new research published today. Revenue grew 34 per cent last year to £697m from £522m the previous year, research from online business finance supermarket Funding Options showed. Read more: This exhibition at the V&A is a deep [...]
Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos among backers of £4.5m Wagestream start-up fund September 9, 2018 The founders of Amazon and Microsoft have backed a London start-up that allows workers to access their wages before payday. "Get-paid-as-you-go" platform Wagestream has received £4.5m of funding from supporters including technology billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Read more: Wonga goes under: Controversial payday lender placed into administration Wagestream, which aims to end the "payday poverty cycle", allows [...]
Elon Musk teases project to meld human brain with AI to create ‘superhuman cognition’ September 9, 2018 Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk has claimed he is just a “few months” away from a major announcement about a device which will fuse the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI). The eccentric billionaire, who has been the source of a host of controversies over the the past few months, said his Neuralink [...]
iPhone XS, Apple Watch 4, Mac Mini: Everything you need to know about Wednesday’s Apple event September 7, 2018 Apple is set to announce a whole new slate of products on Wednesday, including updates to the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac lines. Here's a roundup of what we've heard might come across the Steve Jobs Theatre stage this year. Three new iPhones Yes, you read that right. This year, Apple is slated to [...]
Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt at the V&A review: A fascinating deep dive into videogame design and culture September 7, 2018 Exhibitions about videogames frequently land wide of the mark. Either they’re bogged down in dusty arcade nostalgia – that decades old aesthetic of Pac-Man pixel art and bleepy chiptunes that just won’t go away – or they have the desperate air of a culturally sidelined medium crying out to be taken seriously by art critics. [...]
From Elon Musk to Elizabeth Holmes, beware maverick disrupters promising to save the world September 7, 2018 It has not been a good week for celebrity entrepreneurs. The world’s favourite failed healthtech unicorn folded for good. A maverick space technologist mired himself further in a pointless libel battle. And we also heard that Gwyneth Paltrow’s “wellness” brand Goop had agreed to pay $145,000 for making “unsubstantiated claims” about the healing properties [...]
Editor’s notes: Jeff Bezos should look closer to home for ideas on where to spend his fortune, new peer Bethell is a Lord to applaud, and the Economist shows how to stand up to social media bullies September 7, 2018 Amazon has joined Apple in the ranks of $1 trillion companies based on market capitalisation. Shortly before his company hit this massive (but meaningless) valuation, founder Jeff Bezos was pondering how to spend his vast wealth. Bezos is estimated to be sitting on a $130bn (£100bn) fortune – and earlier this summer he was asked [...]