BlackRock buys robo-adviser firm FutureAdvisor for estimated $200m August 26, 2015 BlackRock is buying FutureAdvisor, a company that develops robo-adviser technology, for between $150m and £200m. Read more: Robo-advisers backed to fill financial gap Robo-advisers create automated investment portfolios for clients by asking them a series of questions about their income, investment ambitions and tax situation. FutureAdvisor was set up in San Fransisco five years ago [...]
Is this the UK’s next FinTech unicorn? Hank Uberoi of London-based tech startup Earthport slams outdated global payment infrastructure August 26, 2015 Could this be the UK’s next FinTech unicorn? After previous success stories like Monitise and TransferWise leading the way, a UK-based payment platform slamming today’s global payment infrastructure for being “decades” out of date is hoping to disrupt the way companies pay their bills. Hundreds of thousands of international payments are made every day. But [...]
Windows 10 now running on 75m devices in 192 countries, Microsoft figures reveal August 26, 2015 More than 75m devices around the world are now running Windows 10 since Microsoft released the new operating system less than a month ago. That means 31 devices – including phones, laptops and Xbox games consoles – were upgraded every single second over the last 28 days. It's the second time Microsoft has released figures [...]
Researchers discover a way to “switch off” diseased cancer cells August 26, 2015 US scientists have managed to “switch off” cancer cells, programming them back to normal cells in a breakthrough they hope may lead to reversing tumour growth. A team of researchers from Mayo Clinic in Florida managed to stop cancerous cells’ abnormal growth rate, retraining them to stop reproducing and die off like a regular cell [...]
FriendlyScore: This FinTech startup can analyse social media activity to prove creditworthiness August 26, 2015 When you're sharing a selfie at dinner or updating LinkedIn with your latest promotion, you're giving away more than you might think. A London-based startup has taken the huge amount of data we share every day on social media to come up with a way of assessing whether we can be trusted with a loan or [...]
Selfie sticks and adult colouring books: Here’s what Londoners buy the most, and where, according to Amazon August 26, 2015 True to form, west Londoners are knocking back the Bolly – while south of the river, residents are sitting back and relaxing with an on-trend adult colouring-in book. These are just some of the most popular items people pop in their shopping baskets across the four corners of the capital – and if you've always [...]
Back to school: Gadgets in kids’ back packs are worth £270 as total value more than triples to £3.2bn August 25, 2015 Parents will be sending their kids off to school in September with more tech gadgets than ever before. Each child's back pack will be filled with tech worth on average an astonishing £270, bringing the total value of British school kids' satchels to £3.2bn, more than triple this time last year. Just under a quarter of [...]
Self-driving cars: This is why they won’t reach our roads for a long time August 25, 2015 There’s much excitement about the future of the self-driving car. We've heard endless discussions about Google's version ever since it was first launched in 2010, and now Apple has jumped on the bandwagon, too. Read more: Driverless car technology to get £20m UK government funding and testing guidelines introduced In fact, earlier this year [...]
Alibaba’s cloud computing arm Aliyun launches “China’s first” artificial intelligence service August 25, 2015 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s cloud computing arm is breaking into the artificial intelligence market, launching what the company is proclaiming to be “China’s first AI platform”, which will give developers the capacity to analyse large amounts of data. Cloud computing division Aliyun is Alibaba’s fastest-growing division, and although the company still gets most of its [...]
Uber trials bus-route style pick-ups in San Francisco August 25, 2015 Uber's not content with just offering rides on-demand in hundreds of cities around the world. Now the startup is trialing a new feature that offers bus-style pick-ups along certain routes. The so-called "smart routes" are being tested out on the streets of San Francisco and build upon its existing Uber Pool service that lets you [...]