Uber just had its billionth ride.. and it was in London December 30, 2015 Uber has passed another milestone in its short history. Not only is it the most highly valued startup in the world, but its one billionth ride was taken on Christmas Eve – and it happened right here in London. That one billionth ride was a £5 UberX from London Fields to Hoxton and comes just five [...]
The payment buzzwords to expect in 2016: Wearables, biometrics and banking APIs December 30, 2015 As the new year approaches and the retro reviews for 2015 and predictions for next year start to fill my Twitter feed. I take a look back at the year and put out my early calls on what 2016 will have on the books (or is that on your device, or is that in your Virtual Reality [...]
ArcaBoard is a real-life hoverboard that’ll set you back $20,000 December 29, 2015 The craze for hoverboards may put some people into a technicality tizz, considering the devices do little – well, actually no – hovering at all. But now, the future envisioned in Back to the Future is really here, with the invention of a real-life hoverboard. The floating device (not simply a self-balancing scooter like the Christmas craze, which has been blamed for [...]
Blood pressure-lowering tablets should be given to more people in the UK, study advises December 24, 2015 Pills that lower blood pressure shouldn't only be prescribed to those with noticeably high blood pressure, according to a new study published in The Lancet. The authors say they should be given to anyone at high risk of heart disease, irrespective of what their blood pressure says about their health. People who fall into the [...]
Christmas Eve fly-by: An asteroid will travel past the Earth this afternoon, while the International Space Station will look just like Santa and his sleigh December 24, 2015 Today, an asteroid is going to fly past the Earth as it zooms through space. Called asteroid 2003 SD220, it was spotted by scientists at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who noticed that it moved considerably closer to us between 17 and 22 December. Thankfully, it's going to pass at a distance that poses no threat – [...]
Here’s what London looks like to a driverless car – can you identify the famous locations and landmarks? December 23, 2015 Driverless car technology relies on computers being able to see things. That's pretty hard to do, but now there's a new technology that uses deep machine learning to help them, and shows us just what a driverless car really might see while winding down the roads. Trees, roads, buildings and even pedestrians can be identified by [...]
Presents delivered to Tim Peake and the other ISS astronauts just in time for Christmas December 23, 2015 Time Peake and his team at the International Space station (ISS) have received their presents just in time for Christmas Day. A Progress 62P vehicle, loaded with gifts and equipment for experiments, docked this morning with the Pirs section of the station. It was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan two days earlier aboard [...]
Forget passwords, Google is trialling password-free logins using only your phone to improve IT security December 23, 2015 If you’re the type who’s always forgetting their password, this might just be the most welcome news of the day for you. Google has confirmed it is trialling password-free logins to sign in to a Google account, letting you authenticate through a smartphone notification instead. Passwords are well established as IT security’s weakest link: ineffective [...]
Mysterious moon: Scientists find unusual rock on lunar surface December 23, 2015 While we search far and wide in space to find out everything we can about the universe, it turns out there are still some unanswered questions about our closest neighbour – the moon. An unmanned Chinese rover, currently roaming the lunar surface, has identified a new type of rock with a composition that's different from [...]
Hoverboard Lucozade thief Omaree Lindsay who went viral from CCTV video released by police is spared jail December 23, 2015 What's thought to be the first ever conviction for using a hoverboard illegally has been handed down to a thief who brazenly swiped a crate of Lucozade and escaped down the street on a self-propelled scooter, becoming internet famous in the process. Footage of the theft went viral after CCTV was released by the police to catch him. [...]