Tech giants to testify before US Congress over Russian interference September 2, 2018 Top bosses from Twitter and Facebook are set to testify before US lawmakers on Wednesday, as part of a probe into how Silicon Valley polices online content. Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey will attend a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on 5 September to give evidence in a hearing on social [...]
Apple reaches a new self-driving car milestone in its first road accident September 2, 2018 A test vehicle from Apple's self-driving car programme was involved in a road accident near its Silicon Valley headquarters last month, making Apple the latest tech giant to join a recent spate of autonomous driving incidents. One of Apple's Lexus RX 450h self-driving vehicles was preparing to join a motorway in Sunnyvale on 24 August when it [...]
Blackrock voted to remove Elon Musk as Tesla chairman August 31, 2018 Blackrock-managed funds voted in favour of replacing Tesla's billionaire founder Elon Musk with an independent chairman, it revealed yesterday. Funds run by the New-York based firm backed a shareholder proposal to oust Musk as chairman, its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed. More than 86m shares voted against the failed motion, which would not [...]
Warren Buffett: I’d pick my iPhone over my airplane August 31, 2018 People should be taking better care of their iPhones, if billionaire Warren Buffett is to be believed. The business magnate said in an interview yesterday that he would prefer to have his iPhone over his private jet. Despite the $999 (£770) iPhone X being the most expensive smartphone Apple has produced, he claimed the device [...]
There’s nothing artificial about AI’s influence on the financial world August 31, 2018 Research by PwC estimates that global GDP will be 14 per cent higher in 2030 as a result of artificial intelligence (AI). That’s the equivalent of an additional $15.7 trillion, or more than the current output of China and India combined. If this is the case, how exactly will the City’s financial services sector change [...]
Stephen Kelly quits Sage, sending share price tumbling August 31, 2018 Sage chief executive Stephen Kelly has agreed to step down from his position after discussions with the board. Kelly, who joined the accounting software firm in 2014, has vacated his director and chief executive roles effective immediately on the back of lower-than-expected growth. Read more: Deustche Bank advises investors to sell Sage stock The company [...]
New car hire app Virtuo sidesteps all the usual pains of London car rentals August 30, 2018 By far the least entertaining part of renting a car is having to stand around inside a hermetically sealed fartbox of a portacabin on the edge of some rainy industrial estate, before a 17-year-old in an oversized suit throws you the keys to an old banger that you suspect was built in East Germany. Recently [...]
Apple has bought an augmented reality startup to rival Microsoft’s Hololens August 30, 2018 Apple has quietly acquired Akonia Holographics, a startup that makes super-thin and transparent lenses for augmented reality (AR) smart glasses. The news is a sign that Apple might soon move deeper into the AR market, a technology which can superimpose digital information and images on the real world. Other tech firms offering AR glasses to date include Microsoft's [...]
Amazon strides past $2,000 a share in trillion-dollar race August 30, 2018 E-commerce behemoth Amazon has broken past the $2,000 (£1,538) per share mark, putting the online retailer well on its way to hitting a $1 trillion market valuation. Shares in Amazon reached an all-time high of $2,010 just an hour after markets opened in the US, powering the firm past the $980bn market capitalisation milestone. Amazon made [...]
Jeremy Hunt takes aim at Google over ‘child abuse content’ August 30, 2018 UK foreign minister Jeremy Hunt has lashed out at Google over its plans to build a censored version of its search engine in China, while lagging on efforts to remove sensitive content on child abuse. "Seems extraordinary that Google is considering censoring its content to get into China but won’t cooperate with UK, US and [...]