LFW: Fintech firm Payfriendz brings big money to LFW with a dress made from £5,000 cash February 22, 2016 The world's designers have been showcasing the most outrageous and indulgent fashion trends on Brewer Street at London Fashion Week, but one fintech firm has gone one step further and created a dress made from £5,000 cash for the event. Styled on the classic shift dress, the financial frock is made of 600 £2 coins, with concertina sleeves made [...]
Yahoo share price bumps as Marissa Mayer says from will spin off Alibaba stake February 19, 2016 Yahoo is once again looking to spin off its stake in Alibaba – less than three months after suspending plans to sell its holdings the Chinese ecommerce giant. The flailing tech firm has hired Wall Street banks Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to advise a new "Strategic Review Committee" who will explore a potential sale [...]
Fintech unicorn Powa Technologies calls in administrators as Deloitte formally appointed February 19, 2016 Powa Technologies, one of the UK's only $1bn-plus technology "unicorns", has appointed Deloitte to oversee its potential administration. Hundreds of jobs would be threatened as the company sinks into administration, which could take place as early as this afternoon, City A.M. understands. While Deloitte has been formally appointed, it does remain possible Powa could make a last-ditch rescue attempt. Powa, based [...]
Three is going to block “excessive and irrelevant” mobile advertising February 19, 2016 Ad-blockers create debate at the best of times (as anyone at City A.M. can tell you…) – but now Three appears to have taken a side, saying it will block "excessive and irrelevant mobile ads" for all its users. The company said it was collaborating with Shine Technologies to "give customers more control, choice and greater [...]
Volvo’s cars will soon open with just an app and no need for car keys February 19, 2016 Forget keys, you'll soon be able to unlock and drive your car with just the swipe of a finger on a smartphone. Volvo is the first car maker to ditch keys for a smartphone app that will do everything from unlocking the door to starting the engine. The digital key works via an app using bluetooth [...]
Microsoft Surface Book review: unconventional design hides one of the best Windows 10 laptops you can buy February 18, 2016 From £1,299 | ★★★★☆ microsoftstore.com Microsoft’s hybrid laptop-tablet is a profoundly weird looking thing. If the Macbook Pro is your darling child, the Surface Book is the adolescent son who didn’t know when to stop growing. It’s oddly tall, gawky even, thanks to its 4:3 aspect ratio screen. This makes the keyboard look and feel [...]
Uber, Airbnb, eBay and Etsy: 2.5m people a month are now part of the online sharing economy, finds JP Morgan February 18, 2016 From selling items on eBay to renting out a spare room on Airbnb, 2.5m people each month are now earning money from the sharing economy, according to one of the most comprehensive studies of the new and fast-growing part of the economy to date. Those participating, who are more likely to be young and on lower incomes, earn around 20 to 30 per [...]
Apple iPhone sales fell for the first time in history, Gartner figures reveal February 18, 2016 Sales of Apple's iconic iPhones have fallen for the first time in history, analysts say. Global sales of the device declined 4.4 per cent at the end of last year, with 71.5m handsets sold in the last quarter of 2015. Apple sparked fears that the world has reached "peak Apple" in January when it revealed sales had fallen to [...]
Consumer’s guide to blockchain: How the cryptocurrency will revolutionise life for the consumer February 18, 2016 When I spoke to Peter Kirby, chief executive of blockchain startup Factom, he laughed when I described myself as a “blockchain traditionalist”. I meant that I still think of blockchain as the technology that made bitcoin credible – a peer-to-peer distributed ledger which immutably logs all transactions. This all sounds like jargon, so what does [...]
London startup Curve launches new card that will allow consumers to combine all their payment cards February 17, 2016 London-based startup Curve launched today, the latest in a string of new companies in the payments technology sector, with the aim of allowing consumers to combine all their bank cards into one payment card. The card, which is supported by a mobile app, will be accepted everywhere that MasterCard is. According to the company, the service "offers [...]