How fast does New Horizons fly? This is what it looks like to look out of the window of the space probe September 24, 2015 The New Horizons space probe is the fastest mankind has launched. But just how fast is that? Recently making headlines as it whipped past Pluto giving us stellar images of the dwarf planet, it’s now hurtling through space at a speed nearing 36,000 miles per hour. But such eye-watering speeds are beyond most of us [...]
Breaking down vertical banking silos: Our outdated payments industry should look to Apple and BMW’s supply chains September 24, 2015 We depend on payments as the underpinning fabric of almost every aspect of cross border commerce. Yet the payments industry is still fundamentally built on a model which suited the needs of a world circa fifty years ago, rather than the dynamic, agile, hyper-connected world of 2015. The problem behind this is that individual financial [...]
London can come out on top in the era of job-killing robots September 23, 2015 Scary, scary robots. If you believe the hype, robots are coming for your job, your society and everything you hold dear. A widely publicised report argued that 35 per cent of jobs in the UK could be destroyed by automation and computerisation (which is what “robots” have come to mean in the shorthand of [...]
Wednesday is the day when we’re glummest on Twitter – and work week happiness peaks on a Friday September 23, 2015 Feeling blue today? Wednesday is when we’re feeling most negative, according to analysis of emotions expressed on social media. But don't worry, we'll soon perk right back up again. Work week happiness peaks on a Friday, you’ll be unsurprised to hear – but it can’t come close to the joy we feel when the weekend [...]
Rise of sex robots: Prepare yourself for the inevitable September 23, 2015 Who’s the sexiest robot you know? Obviously the answer is C-3PO. But think harder. Is there a robot in the world that you could fall in love with? Could you bring a replicant home to meet your parents? What about the robot that runs around screaming “danger Will Robinson”, could he support your family? The [...]
Review: Destiny The Taken King September 23, 2015 Destiny: The Taken King Rating: ★★★★☆ Destiny, the space-based multiplayer shooter that’s acted as a digital narcotic to 20m feverish players, has been easier to cut down on in recent weeks. Most committed Guardians – as players are known – finished the last expansion pack, House of Wolves, months ago, leaving them with the same handful [...]
Game review: FIFA 16 September 23, 2015 EA’s annual FIFA games tend to come in two flavours: the important milestones that introduce a wealth of new gameplay mechanics, and the routine ones that simply tweak a few things here and there and mainly exist to keep the yearly tradition going. FIFA 16 falls squarely in the latter category. On the pitch, not [...]
Why the future of fintech (and financial services) is collaborative September 22, 2015 The UK is fast becoming one of the world’s leading fintech centres. So it was fitting that, last week, investors, consultants, multinationals, startups and entrepreneurs gathered in London’s East End for FinTech Week 2015: an event where attendees could share ideas, network and, most importantly, do business together. The expo focused on how to [...]
Apple rickrolls us all through the Apple Watch… again September 22, 2015 If you thought the folk at Apple were a serious po-faced bunch, think again – they're rickrolling everyone… and not for the first time. Rickrolling, if you're not familiar, is an internet phenomenon whereby people share a link to something – an article, video, picture, for example – but it turns out, in fact, to [...]
Velocity buys Cover: UK dining app startup buys US restaurant payment firm and lands $4m from Saxo’s Lars Christensen and others September 22, 2015 Velocity, an app which lets you pay in restaurants without requesting a bill, has raised a further $4m (£2.6m) from investors, following hot on the heels from a $12m round of funding less than three months ago. The London-based startup has also acquired US company Cover, a restaurant mobile payments app for an undisclosed sum, more than [...]