How can Silicon Roundabout compete with Silicon Valley? London’s digital edge depends on diversity December 19, 2015 This year I have attended and hosted events in Bangalore, Copenhagen, Berlin and New York all with a single purpose – to celebrate London’s thriving digital sector. Speaking to technology professionals abroad it is clear that London’s reputation is built on innovation, cultural openness and diversity. London’s diversity sparks ideas, welcomes new thinking and encourages [...]
Robots to take over the world in 2016, and five other crushingly predictable tech forecasts December 18, 2015 Every year the tech glitterati creates “tech predictions”. Once these were far-fetched, futuristic and fantastic. They promised jet cars, space food and handheld communicators. Nowadays, when our smartphones have almost as much computing power as Tim Peake’s new home, they can be a little… repetitive. So. Will those tech predictions everyone’s making come to pass? [...]
That Christmas feeling: Scientists have located the “Christmas spirit” in our brains December 17, 2015 That warm, fuzzy, Christmassy feeling we get every December is not just in our imagination – it's a physiological change that can actually be located in our brains. A study published in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal shows how the “Christmas Spirit” is present in five different areas of the brain during [...]
New Year wil be Airbnb’s busiest night of the year as one million renters expected – twice as many as last year December 17, 2015 The number of people spending New Year in an Airbnb will double this year, the home sharing platform has said, as more people than ever before choose to escape the celebrations by renting out someone elses home. More than one million people are expected to be staying in a place rented on Airbnb when the clock strikes midnight, compared [...]
Apple Pay, one year later: Why mobile payments have failed to catch on as we’re still looking for something better December 17, 2015 Mobile payments became a hot topic just about the time when first iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs in 2007. Back then experts in payment, retail, telecommunication, and banking industries started thinking about a smartphone as a viable alternative to physical wallets suggesting many different technologies, but no one knew how exactly the winner was [...]
Jeff Williams promoted to Apple’s chief operating officer, Phil Schiller to head App Store, Grey’s Tor Myhren hired for marketing and communications in rare management rejig December 17, 2015 Jeff Williams has been named Apple's new chief operating officer, in a rare reshuffle of the tech company's senior team. “We are fortunate to have incredible depth and breadth of talent across Apple’s executive team. As we come to the end of the year, we’re recognising the contributions already being made by two key executives,” said [...]
Tech predictions for 2016, including apps for everything, a space trip for everyone and drones blotting out the sun December 17, 2015 What an incredible year it’s been for science and technology. No frontier has been left unexplored. No bar unraised. No envelope unpushed. Not only did we invent a new type of motorised skateboard that spontaneously bursts into flames, but Apple made a really big iPad and now our watches shout at us for being unhealthy. [...]
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 review: an almost perfect tablet-laptop hybrid December 17, 2015 ★★★★★ A laptop-tablet hybrid, the Surface Pro 4 compresses the full and unfettered desktop version of the Windows 10 operating system into a sleek and A4-sized touchscreen. That means it runs proper, grown up Windows applications. You know, your executables and the like, the sort of things you double click on and do actual work with. [...]
Rainbow Six Siege review: an online shooter game with brains December 17, 2015 Rainbow Six has been around for as long as anybody can remember (that is to say, since 1998). Once a highly tactical anti-terrorist shooter renowned for its intricate planning stages and one-bullet-kills realism, subsequent releases saw the series gradually descend into a homogenised guff of squad-based, noisy gung-ho action blandness. Rainbow Six Siege bravely shifts [...]
Think it’s balmy now? 2016 will be among the warmest years on record, the Met Office suggests December 17, 2015 If you think December's balmy temperatures are unusual, get ready for more of the same – because next year will be the among warmest on record, the Met Office has predicted. And that's on top of 2015, which is already on track to be unusually toasty, said Professor Chris Folland, a research fellow at the Met [...]