Street Fighter V review: a promising but unfinished update that’s plagued by gargantuan bosoms February 17, 2016 The Street Fighter franchise is so iconic to a generation of players, so steeped in warm, fuzzy nostalgia, that updating it requires a surgeon's touch. You can't keep making the same game, but its success lies in its simple mechanics, stored deep in the muscle memory of our fingers. If a Street Fighter II aficionado can’t pick [...]
Google Ideas think tank becomes Jigsaw in latest Alphabet renaming February 17, 2016 First Google surprised us with a name change to Alphabet, now, it's taken further inspiration from the kids' playroom with its latest renaming. Google Ideas, the search giant's think tank, will be called Jigsaw from now on and will expand its focus to become a technology incubator. "The team’s mission is to use technology to tackle [...]
Is your city most or least at risk from robots taking jobs? February 17, 2016 The robot overlords are taking your jobs, so we've been told time and time again. But there are some places in Britain where that's more likely to happen than others. Exeter, Crawley and Norwich have the highest number of job vacancies which are at the greatest risk of automation in the future, according to new research. It [...]
Tim Cook: Apple won’t unlock San Bernadino shooter’s iPhone with “backdoor”, responding to FBI court ruling, and warns of weakened encryption risks February 17, 2016 Apple boss Tim Cook has said the company will contest a US court ruling forcing it to break the encryption on the iPhone of one of the San Bernadino shooters. "The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far [...]
US private equity giant Apollo buys ADT to create $15bn security firm February 16, 2016 US private equity firm Apollo today said it is taking security equipment firm ADT private and merging it with another security company in a deal valued at $15bn (£10.5bn). Apollo said it will pay $42 per share for ADT, representing a premium of around 56 per cent over ADT's closing share price on 12 February [...]
Mobile World Congress 2016: What to expect – biometrics, virtual and augmented reality and Chinese smartphone brands February 16, 2016 Mobile World Congress 2016 always brings with it a flurry of new mobile gadget announcements – here are some of the trends to expect. The smartphone is quickly becoming an integral part of a bigger continuum of devices and smart objects as users increasingly live their lives in a "device mesh." This is an environment, [...]
Ordnance Survey map of Mars is an intergalactic guide for ramblers February 15, 2016 Never get lost again with this handy map of, er, Mars. The bastion of British mapping, Ordnance Survey, has created a new guide for ramblers, hikers and drivers to use for future journeys around the red planet. You can stroll past the canyons of Hydraotes Chaos and Aureum Chaos or the Martian crater Schiaparelli with the guidance from [...]
Airbnb reveals all about how people stay in London: Tourists prefer outer boroughs over central February 15, 2016 Visitors staying at Airbnbs in the capital prefer the outer boroughs rather than central London locations in the heart of the city. The increase in nights stayed in places around the outskirts is nearly 20 per cent higher than areas in the centre of the city, research from the global rental startup found. Visitors are flocking towards the [...]
From Hinkley Point C to renewables: UK government intervention is damaging Britain’s energy security February 15, 2016 The UK’s electricity margins have become very narrow in recent years. National Grid’s latest winter outlook report suggests they are currently at just 1.2 per cent, increasing to 5.1 per cent with the use of emergency measures. These emergency measures, which include paying large businesses to stop using electricity, had to be used in November last year. National [...]
Underwater cities and 3D printed homes – Here’s how houses of the future will look in 100 years’ time February 15, 2016 Prepare yourself for underwater cities, super-tall skyscrapers – and homes simply printed out on-demand thanks to 3D printing technology: these are just some of the ways we will live in a century's time. There'll also be colonies on the moon and eventually Mars and beyond, while personal drones will let us transport our home to any holiday spot. The [...]