Earth is entering “new extinction phase”, finds study June 20, 2015 The Earth is facing a new period of extinction and humans could be among the first casualties, according to a new study by three American universities. Vertebrates are disappearing at a rate 114 times faster than normal, according to the work by academics at the universities of Stanford, Princeton and Berkeley. The report said Earth [...]
Britain’s hottest startups grew six times the rate of UK businesses June 19, 2015 Britain’s hottest startups are fuelling economic growth and job creation, growing at six times the rate of the rest of the UK’s businesses. The Future Fifty, a group of the country’s brightest and most promising high-growth tech businesses identified by Tech City UK, increased their workforce by 30 per cent in the last year, compared [...]
London tech has already surpassed San Francisco – and it can do better yet June 18, 2015 London beats New York for finance, Boston for universities, and has the world’s most exciting arts scene. But it’s tech innovation that has the greatest potential to drive London’s future growth. No other city in the world can match our cluster of ideas, talent and capital. The potential is dizzying. If we can bring [...]
RBS plans extra £150m a year spend on ailing IT systems after glitch affecting 600,000 payments at RBS, Natwest, Ulster Bank and Coutts June 18, 2015 Royal Bank of Scotland will spend another £150m a year on its ailing computer systems which this week caused havoc for RBS, Natwest and Ulster Bank customers after a glitch resulted in more than half a million missing payments. The bank's admin chief Simon McNamara today promised £150m of extra spending to make the bank's systems more [...]
Why Russia’s new data law targeting Google, Facebook and Twitter will cost its economy billions June 18, 2015 A new law being introduced in Russia which will force many of the world’s largest tech companies to hold the personal data of Russian citizens within the country's borders, will cost the Russian economy billions of dollars and damage its standing on the world stage. The data privacy law, which will come into force in [...]
Unicode 8: Unicorns, cheese, eye-roll face and the 37 new emojis you’ll soon be using after Apple, Google and Microsoft updates June 18, 2015 Rejoice, emoji lovers! Soon you'll be have 37 new characters to use in your texts, tweets and chats. Even if you're not down with the emoji lingo (*sad face*), it's the perfect time to get in on the action – Goldman Sachs is doing it, and an emoji password could even be the new secure way [...]
E3 2015: The video games you should be playing now, from Mario Tennis to Fallout 4 June 17, 2015 The world’s biggest video games conference, E3, came to a close yesterday. Here’s what you’ll be playing for the next couple of years. THE LAST GUARDIAN PS4 Perhaps the warmest reception during E3 was for a game most fans thought was dead in the water. The Last Guardian has been in development hell [...]
Five FinTech startups to watch: RBS, Lloyds and American Express back finance innovation June 17, 2015 Five tech startups seeking to disrupt the financial industry have caught the eye of some of the world's leading firms in the sector. A savings app, a company using visual cryptography to create secure passwords and a real-time sales platform for local businesses are just three of the winners in the search for startups creating [...]
Applied Graphene share price rises as Japan Patent Office approves production June 17, 2015 British company Applied Graphene has won approval for graphene production from the Japanese Patent Office. It is the first time the firm, which was founded in 2010, has been granted approval following an application, and sheds a positive light on the prospect of winning consent from the other five countries it has approached. [...]
Why those ultra-marathons coulkd actually be dangerous: Extreme exercise can lead to blood poisoning June 17, 2015 Here's one for extreme exercise enthusiasts like Mark Carney and Anthony Jenkins: taking on extreme events like ultramarathons could actually give you blood poisoning, new research has shown. Read more: Doing no exercise is worse for your health than being overweight Researchers at Monash University in Australia looked at the bloodstreams of people taking [...]