Beware fake hoverboards: Counterfeit goods are no longer cheap imitations confined to the black market December 16, 2015 Only a few months ago, hoverboard hysteria swept the nation. Endorsements by celebrities from Lily Allen to Usain Bolt led to a massive rush of pre-orders and John Lewis swiftly ran out of stock. However, there is also a dark side to all of this excitement: the seizure of more than 15,000 hoverboards imported into [...]
Fintech challengers like Square, ApplePay and Funding Circle could undermine banks’ credit ratings in 2016 according to Standard & Poor’s December 16, 2015 The rise of fintech is challenging traditional banks, and could even undermine their credit rating, according to Standard & Poor's. The ratings agency expects global investment in 'non bank' financial service to be worth $24bn (£16bn) this year, double the figure in 2014. Traditional banks are still trying to adapt to the low interest rate, and [...]
Behind the scenes: Better infrastructure is required to keep London’s tech sector on track December 16, 2015 The Lord Mayor of London Alan Yarrow has identified infrastructure as one of the keys to unlocking the capital’s future growth. Given that the tech sector is at the very heart of London’s economic success – with a further £1.6bn being pumped into tech investment this year alone – the Lord Mayor’s statement has never [...]
Astronaut Tim Peake sends us a message from the International Space Station December 16, 2015 Major Tim Peake has sent a message down to Earth during his first full day at the International Space Station. The astronaut – the only one ever chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) to go to space, took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at just after 11am yesterday. He then spent six [...]
Roche breast cancer drug Kadclya ruled “too expensive” for NHS by Nice December 16, 2015 A life-extending drug for breast cancer sufferers has been described as “too expensive” for the NHS by Nice, the government's regulatory body for medicines. Kadcyla, which is owned by Roche, increases life expectancy of those with a progressed form of the disease by an average of six months. It is used in patients where the [...]
Tim Peake’s launch mission to the ISS is the start of a new era for the UK space industry as UK’s National Space Policy is announced December 16, 2015 All eyes have been on a desert in Kazakhstan this week. Baikonur Cosmodrome has seen the launch of the first human spaceflight, Sputnik and the first orbiting satellite. This week saw another first for this historic site, and a great leap forward for the UK space industry. Tim Peake has made his ascent to the International Space Station becoming the first [...]
Has Tim Peake given you the space travel bug? Here’s what it takes to be an astronaut with Nasa December 16, 2015 If you felt a surge of jealousy while watching Tim Peake make his way to the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday, worry no more – Nasa has just opened applications for its latest space programme. And this time, you could end up travelling to Mars. The bad news is that its most recent application process was anything to [...]
Amazon warns hoverboard buyers to throw them away over safety fears December 16, 2015 Amazon has warned shoppers who have purchased hoverboards to throw them away, a day after it pulled them from sale over safety concerns. The devices, which are in fact self-balancing scooters, had been pegged as one of the most popular gifts to give this Christmas. However, many of the devices do not adhere to safety [...]
Google year in search trends 2015: Cilla Black, iPhone 6s, Rugby World Cup and Adele – Here’s how we searched the web this year December 16, 2015 If there's any indicator into the psyche of the nation, it has to be what we spend our time googling. And this year it was all about Cilla Black, the iPhone 6s, and even the election managed to get our fingers typing. We said Hello to Adele more than any other musician and while the Rugby World [...]
McAfee cybersecurity report: Mobile banking apps are exposing us to cyber attacks December 15, 2015 Badly designed mobile apps are quickly becoming one of the biggest leaks exposing our personal data to cyber crooks, according to fresh security research from McAfee showing that threats are now being detected at the rate of five per second. Hackers are exploiting the weak security coding practice used in many mobile apps, and this [...]