In charts: How we spent £6.3bn on digital music, movies and games in 2016 January 5, 2017 It's official: we now spend more cash on watching films and TV via digital than we do on DVDs and Blu-Rays. And that helped entertainment sales hit a record high of £6.3bn in 2016. Some 58 per cent of revenues in the video business came from digital, a majority for the first time as overall sales [...]
Equity crowdfunding’s leading founders predict what’s in store for the sector in 2017 January 5, 2017 Equity crowdfunding will look even more grown up by Christmas 2017. More regulation is coming to the sector: the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said it’ll consult this year on new rules, in a bid to improve protection for retail investors and increase transparency around financial promotions. Read more: The FCA is cracking down on [...]
Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank lures Apple, Foxconn and Qualcomm to invest in its London-based $100bn tech fund January 4, 2017 Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank has attracted the likes of Apple, Foxconn, Qualcomm and Oracle founder Larry Ellison to invest in its $100bn (£81.4bn) London-headquartered tech fund. SoftBank will plough $25bn into the Vision Fund, while Apple has committed to putting in $1bn. "We believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically [...]
The 9 most anticipated videogames of 2017 January 4, 2017 Red Dead Redemption 2 Release: Late 2017 Platforms: PS4, XBO (PC unconfirmed) Not much is known about Rockstar’s horse-bothering sequel, but the announcement of a follow up to 2010’s open world cowboy simulator was enough to inspire frenzied excitement among fans. You can expect a huge multiplayer world, pistols at dawn, horses and a scene [...]
“Alexa, what’s an annuity?” Insurance company Aviva is using Amazon Echo January 4, 2017 "Alexa, what's an annuity?" Now your Amazon Echo can tell you the answer to burning questions about insurance and guide you through the unfamiliar jargon of the industry. The Insurance giant Aviva has developed a so-called skill (like an app for smartphones) for the voice activated speaker which proved a big hit for Amazon over Christmas. Read more: [...]
Titanic struggle between mobile data allowance and user demand is settled January 4, 2017 | City Talk It’s the quintessential 21st Century dilemma: you’ve just spotted Leonardo DiCaprio outside an Edinburgh café and snapped the best celebrity selfie of your life. But can you risk a Facebook Live broadcast? Just how much mobile data do you have left? Then you remember you’re in Scotland’s capital where, since the end of November 2016, [...]
The Square Mile wants a ban on all diesel minicabs by 2020 January 4, 2017 Leaders in the City are calling on the Mayor of London to ban diesel mincabs in the capital in a bid to reduce pollution. The City of London Corporation wants Sadiq Khan to ban all diesel vehicles used by companies such as Uber and Addison Lee by 2020. New licenses would not be given to [...]
Meet the Faraday Future, an electric car to rival Tesla that goes from 0 – 60mph in 2.39 seconds January 4, 2017 It wowed us last year with a Batmobile-style concept car, and now Faraday Future has unveiled its first full production vehicle with all the fanfare one might expect of Apple's latest iPhone. Understated is not on the horizon for the startup, which showed off its FF 91 electric car that boasts a not too shabby [...]
Mastercard’s £700m Vocalink deal raises competition concerns with watchdog January 4, 2017 Mastercard's £700m deal for Vocalink has raised concerns over competition in the payments infrastructure business with the market watchdog. Owned by a collective of 18 banks, including Barclays, Santander, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC, Vocalink provides the infrastructure for many payments in Britain such as Bacs and the Faster Payments Service as well as the Link ATM network. Concerns have [...]
Oof: Tesla didn’t quite deliver on its promise of 80,000 cars in 2016 January 4, 2017 Tesla may be the darling of Silicon Valley, but if you were awaiting a shiny new Model S in 2016, you may have been disappointed. The company said last night it had made 76,230 deliveries in 2016 – not quite the 80,000 to 90,000 it had promised. In the fourth quarter it delivered 22,200 vehicles, [...]