James Dyson donates £8m to University of Cambridge to fund new engineering facilities complete with a house that can almost think for itself May 9, 2016 British entrepreneur James Dyson has today opened a range of new engineering facilities at the University of Cambridge, including a slightly scary-sounding new smart building that’s more like a “living creature”, according to Dyson’s statement. The new facilities were funded with an £8m donation from Dyson's eponymous foundation. The cash injection is the largest gift [...]
UK set for take off in “drones for business” industry worth billions May 9, 2016 The market for drones in business – from transporting goods to servicing ships and filming TV shows – could be worth $127.3bn (£88bn) and the UK is destined to play a major part in that, new research reveals. Infrastructure, agriculture and transport are the areas where drone technology will have the greatest application, in terms of both labour and services, [...]
Calling all startups: The FCA’s fintech accelerator is open for business May 9, 2016 Fintech startups will now be able to test out their ideas without fear of getting on the wrong side of regulators. A so-called sandbox has been launched by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today offering a tech accelerator environment for young firms looking to disrupt finance. "Supporting innovation is an essential part of our role in promoting competition [...]
Oil major Total makes near €1bn wager on renewable energy with bid for battery maker Saft May 9, 2016 French oil major Total made a €950m (£750m) bid for battery maker Saft, effectively increasing its wager on the renewable energy sector. It said that the €36.5 per share offer represents a 38.3 per cent premium to Saft's closing price as of Friday. The friendly offer has already received unanimous approval from Saft's board, but it's still subject to a review [...]
After Apple, another smartphone maker is feeling the slowdown – this time, HTC May 9, 2016 It's tough time in the smartphone market these days. Pretty much everyone who's going to get one has already got one – in established markets at least – and that means the market is, in fact, more finite than firms imagined when growth rocketed over the past few years. Even for the likes of Apple. But it's HTC which is [...]
NHS fined £180k for data breach that leaked HIV clinic patient identities May 9, 2016 The NHS has been fined thousands of pounds for revealing the identities of hundreds of patients of a London HIV clinic because of an email error. A newsletter from a sexual health clinic in Soho was sent out to more than 700 users of an HIV service last year with patient email addresses and full [...]
Someone spent thousands on this one-off Jony Ive designed Apple iPad Pro May 9, 2016 An iPad specially created by Apple's design guru Jony Ive and the only one of its kind in the world has been snapped up at auction for thousands of pounds. The one-off yellow iPad Pro, along with a blue suede smart cover and orange leather Apple Pencil case, was bagged by an unknown buyer at the auction for a hefty [...]
China takes stake in Apple chip supplier Imagination Technologies May 9, 2016 A Chinese technology fund has taken a three per cent stake in UK chip maker Imagination Technologies, sending shares rocketing more than 13 per cent. Tsinghua Unigroup, a state-backed tech holding firm which is part of Tsinghua university, has ambitions to become the biggest chip maker in the world and has taken a three per cent stake in [...]
Should you believe in unicorns? Tech start-ups have polarised investors with Bill Gates calling for restraint but others arguing new tech will change the world May 9, 2016 The sad demise of unicorns was widely predicted at the start of the year. Unicorns – or young, technology private companies valued at over $1bn (£693m) – drew vast sums of investment throughout last year and comparisons with the dot-com boom were drawn. There are around 170 companies with unicorn status, according to Fortune. Some are [...]
The blockchain payments app: How Circle plans to change the way we spend – and think about money May 9, 2016 You don't pay to send someone an email – to send information from one place to another. And merchants typically pick up the cost of actually making the transaction when you buy something online. And the founders of Circle – the free, blockchain-enabled payments app – don’t think you should pay to send money, either. [...]