The HTC U Ultra is a 5.7-inch phablet with a dedicated notification screen and a whole lot of power February 15, 2017 HTC says that the design of its new phone is inspired by water. And to be fair, it does look wet and shiny, like a boy in a Hockney painting emerging from a swimming pool, skin glistening in the California sunlight. The U Ultra’s all-glass, all-the-time aesthetic gives it a slick and glossy style that [...]
Sniper Elite 4: As unflinchingly ultra-violent as this World War Two shooter series gets February 15, 2017 World War 2 is a well-represented setting in video games, but Sniper Elite 4 is proof that the generic isn’t always boring. This four-quel transports the series from the deserts of Africa to the towns, vineyards, forests and docklands of sunny northern Italy, where you’ll embark on all sorts of different missions, typically involving shooting [...]
Amazon’s delivery drones could one day be dropping packages by parachute February 15, 2017 Amazon has filed another very interesting patent. At the end of last year, it was revealed Amazon had filed a patent for a flying airship warehouse designed to speed up drone deliveries. As you do. And now the US Patent and Trademark Office has granted the e-commerce giant a patent for a new way to deliver [...]
Snake on a phone: Nokia is resurrecting the 3310 February 15, 2017 Remember the early noughties? A simpler time, when phones had keypads and the internet was something you did at home? It looks like a little slice of that is coming back – after it emerged the company behind Nokia phones is planning to resurrect the humble Nokia 3310 at this month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. VentureBeat has [...]
Jack Dorsey gave Twitter a really expensive Valentine’s Day present February 15, 2017 Twitter founder Jack Dorsey celebrated Valentine's Day with a big confidence boost for the social network. Dorsey bought just over $7m (£5.6m) worth of Twitter stock – and of course, tweeted about it, using the romantic hashtag #LoveTwitter. #LoveTwitter https://t.co/fELbw0ska7 — jack (@jack) February 14, 2017 The Twitter boss, who also founded (and is, controversially, chief executive of) payments company [...]
How do you raise funding if your tech startup is not based in London? February 15, 2017 | City Talk London, fintech and money. They're three amigos aren't they? A winning combo of location, sector and investment, affording the best exposure to startup capital and markets. Right? Not quite. Last year, more was invested in UK tech and fintech outside of London than anywhere else in Europe. And thousands of tech firms are finding competitive funding and startup costs outside the [...]
Could corporate spying be a larger threat to business security than cyber attacks? February 14, 2017 When a fresh-faced graduate reported promptly one morning for his first day at a financial institution, he offered up a passport as identification. Reception staff checked his name off a list of other new recruits and issued him with a building pass to join scheduled induction sessions. He never attended the meetings, and instead swept [...]
Meet Prodigy Finance: The fintech firm that went global on day one February 14, 2017 With Trump in the White House and a hard Brexit on the horizon, protectionism is back on the menu. Many entrepreneurs are concerned about the implications for the free movement of goods, capital and people. But at a recent Leap 100 breakfast, chief executive and co-founder of Prodigy Finance, Cameron Stevens, sounded a note of [...]
One in five startups is planning to set up in Europe because of Brexit February 14, 2017 One in five startups is planning to set up in another county in Europe because of Brexit, but the majority intend to keep their headquarters in the UK, new figures reveal. Just one per cent of the startups surveyed by Silicon Valley Bank said they will move their HQ to somewhere else in Europe, and [...]
The worrying tale of how my business made $515m more than Snapchat last year February 14, 2017 The marketing and media agency I co-founded likely made at least $1bn more profit than Uber last year. We also made $515m more than Snapchat and $450m more than Twitter. This isn’t because we did anything particularly remarkable. We just stuck to the basic business principle that it’s better to make money than lose it. [...]