The company that started the smartwatch craze is in talks over a $40m acquisition by Fitbit December 1, 2016 A strange – and rapidly deleted – tweet by smartwatch maker Pebble has appeared to confirm (or failed to deny, anyway) rumours it is being bought by one of its biggest rivals. Reports by The Information suggested Pebble, the Kickstarter-funded wearables maker which kicked off the smartwatch craze back in 2012 when it raised over $10m (£8m), was [...]
Enclothed online stylist review: get someone with better taste than you to post new clothes to your house December 1, 2016 I’m the kind of shopper who ensures menswear will always remain relatively more expensive than womenswear. I don’t enjoy the experience, and therefore do it as little as possible. Once or twice a year, I realise I have nothing seasonally appropriate that wouldn’t cause embarrassment in our office full of hip young gunslingers, and force [...]
Barclays teams up with Creative England on new tech accelerator December 1, 2016 Barclays is teaming up with non-profit entrepreneurial support group Creative England on a new accelerator. The programme is aimed at companies working to apply the likes of gamification, the Internet of Things, and 3D modelling to other sectors that may not be seen as traditionally digital, like healthcare or tourism. The moves comes amid growing [...]
Thousands of online accounts feared hacked at National Lottery operator Camelot November 30, 2016 National Lottery operator Camelot thinks 26,500 accounts have been hacked. The company said it didn't think its own systems had been compromised, but that players' login details had been pinched from elsewhere. It discovered "suspicious activity" after online security monitoring on Monday. "No money has been deposited or withdrawn from affected player accounts," it said [...]
Jeremy Hunt wants to ban sexting for under-18s – and thinks Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter should be responsible November 30, 2016 Jeremy Hunt has suggested banning the sending of sexually explicit messages – otherwise known as sexting – by those under 18. In evidence given to the commons health committee on suicide prevention, the health secretary said social media companies should block those under 18 from sharing images with sexual content. "I think social media companies need [...]
Lack of sleep is costing the UK £40bn each year November 30, 2016 Lack of sleep can have a number of negative effects on a person – for one, people who sleep less have a higher mortality rate – but new research has revealed the financial cost of skipping naptime. A lack of sleep among the UK's workers is costing the economy up to £40bn – or 1.86 [...]
How can you monitor data in 810 billion photos? November 30, 2016 | City Talk Have you been watching the epic Planet Earth 2 from the BBC? If so, you'll have been amazed at the roving drone that filmed billions of locusts in Madagascar. How about the jaw-dropping footage of a starving lioness trying to take down a giraffe at full chat? You were there. Almost. The images were simply stunning. Combine them with some 810 billion [...]
These are the most entrepreneurial London boroughs November 30, 2016 East London start ups have gobbled up £23.2m worth of funding over the past four years, more than a third of all the lending to the sector in the capital. The figures from the Start Up Loans Company show that north London and west London are lagging behind, attracting just £8.3m and £9.9m respectively over [...]
The Royal Mint is putting gold bullion on the blockchain November 29, 2016 It’s not just currency that’s going digital – £1bn of the Royal Mint’s gold will soon be on the blockchain. The 1,000-year-old government-owned institution is working with exchange giant CME Group create a new digital trading platform for investors to buy and sell gold using blockchain’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) to track ownership. Why use [...]
Samsung’s thinking of splitting in two and pledges to boost 2016 dividend to reassure investors November 29, 2016 Samsung Electronics has confirmed it's weighing up dividing the firm into two separate companies. It has been under pressure from some investors to break itself into a holding unit and an operating company to bolster shareholder value and said it will be outlining plans to investors in Seoul today to boost just that. Samsung said it [...]