Britain hasn’t lost Arm: Its acquisition is the start of a new Great British tech story July 19, 2016 A week ago, many were wondering whether the UK’s tech sector would become less relevant in a post-Brexit world. The news of Arm’s acquisition by SoftBank for £24bn means many things for UK tech – but irrelevance is not one of them. This acquisition is positive and timely news. Following the referendum, it’s an immediate vote [...]
Twitter will let you apply to become a verified user July 19, 2016 Twitter's much-coveted blue tick of user verification is about to go mainstream. The tech giant said today it will allow any user to apply to gain the verified user status – usually reserved to high profile tweeters and celebs – which is illustrated by a tiny blue tick alongside their profile picture. Users will simply [...]
“Snoopers’ Charter” data collection rules ok if proportionate, says European court July 19, 2016 A UK law requiring companies to keep up to a years worth of data on people's emails, phone calls and web activities is okay – as long as it "satisfies strict requirements" – according to a preliminary ruling from the European courts . The legal case, which has implications for the future legislation on monitoring communications, was brought by Labour deputy leader Tom Watson and [...]
If you go down to the woods today… you might find a Google robot July 19, 2016 A woman walking her dog was in for a surprise when she came across something a little more unusual also out for a stroll. It's not every day that you stumble across one of the biggest companies in the world testing out their robot technology, but that's exactly what happened – and she caught it [...]
MPs slam BT: “Put house in order or face split” July 19, 2016 BT has been told to put its "house in order" or face a split by a leading group of MPs. The telecoms firm has been accused of "significantly under investing" in its Openreach broadband, potentially to the tune of millions of pounds a year and of favouring "interests and priorities" of shareholders over customers. An investigation [...]
Cheers! Now Deliveroo’s delivering wine, beer and cocktails July 19, 2016 Drinkers rejoice: food delivery startup Deliveroo is expanding beyond the simple delivery of food and into into takeaway alcohol, including wine, craft beer and cocktails. The startup backed by top investors has inked new deals with Majestic Wines and Brewdog among others to bring the tipples straight to people's doors after testing out the drinks-only and [...]
Nintendo is catching all the investors – shares double since Pokemon Go launch July 19, 2016 Nintendo's share price rocketed another 12 per cent in the US on Monday, and was performing even better in Tokyo on Tuesday. The tech giant's share price has now more than doubled since the launch of Pokemon Go earlier this month – bringing the group's market cap to around $42bn (£32bn). Read more: Pokemon Go is showing [...]
Barclays chief warns of UK digital deficit July 19, 2016 The UK is beating its rivals when it comes to embracing digital technology but risks being usurped by smaller countries, putting the country’s economic growth and productivity at risk, Barclays’ top boss in Britain has warned. “We urgently need to secure London and the UK as the world’s pre-eminent powerhouse of tech innovation as well [...]
Shot in the Arm for the City as £24bn mega-deal is agreed July 19, 2016 British tech giant Arm Holdings yesterday agreed to a £24.3bn takeover by telecoms group Softbank, in a move that would go down as the second largest outbound Japanese deal on record. Softbank has pounced for the Cambridge-based chip-maker following a sharp drop in the value of the pound, largely prompted by last month’s vote to leave [...]
Internet of Things not so clever as scepticism holds back the rise of smart homes July 19, 2016 Households are failing to put their money where their mouth – or their food – is when it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT), a new survey into connected devices from consultants Deloitte has found. While two-thirds of UK consumers said they believed IoT gadgets could make their lives better, only half of us [...]