CMA targets Apple and Google’s market dominance to strengthen UK app market July 23, 2025 The UK’s competition watchdog has proposed a sweeping shake-up of the mobile app economy, with plans to designate Apple and Google as having “strategic market status” (SMS) – a move that could open the door to new rivals, lower development costs, and broadly loosen the tech giants’ tight grip on the mobile ecosystem. In a [...]
Microsoft offers ‘pay-as-you-go’ software concession to cloud rivals after bowing to pressure July 18, 2025 Microsoft will allow its cloud rivals to offer ‘pay-as-you-go’ software to their customers after bowing to pressure over its licensing practices. The US tech giant attracted criticism for the way it offered exclusive software deals to customers of its Azure cloud platform, which rivals said made it difficult for them to compete. But in a [...]
AI browsers are about to become your biggest problem July 15, 2025 When AI agents – computer programs that use AI to do tasks and reach goals by themselves for a person or another system – become the default way people navigate the internet, the value chain will be rerouted, says Paul Armstrong very business that depends on digital reach is about to face a visibility crisis. [...]
Meta-backed fellowship puts open source in the firing line July 11, 2025 The UK government has launched a $1 million open source AI fellowship funded by Meta through the Alan Turing Institute, inviting the nation’s top AI engineers to spend 12 months building public-sector AI tools. The scheme focuses on open-source AI models like Meta’s Llama 4 to create applications for everything from speeding up planning approvals [...]
Peter Kyle hits back at claims Labour is too close to Big Tech July 9, 2025 Tech secretary Peter Kyle has hit back at criticism that the Labour government is cosying up to Big Tech, insisting he’s “doing the job” by securing the best deals for Britain. Speaking at a Google Cloud event in London on Tuesday, Kyle addressed recent reports flagging the number of meetings he’s had with US tech [...]
Google joins UK’s AI skills push July 9, 2025 The UK government has signed a sweeping partnership with Google Cloud to modernise public services, replace outdated tech systems, and upskill 100,000 civil servants in digital and AI tools by 2030 – a move ministers say could save billions and rescue Whitehall from decades of ‘ball and chain’ IT contracts. Announced at the Google Summit [...]
This is why billions of passwords were leaked in Apple and Google breach June 24, 2025 A trove of around 16bn passwords and usernames linked to major online platforms – including Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and dozens of government services – has surfaced online, in what researchers are calling one of the largest known compilations of stolen credentials. Initial reports caused confusion, suggesting direct breaches of platforms like Apple and Google. [...]
UK’s competition watchdog sets its sights on Google search June 24, 2025 The UK’s competition watchdog has proposed designating Google with ‘strategic market status’ after an investigation earlier this year revealed market issues. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had “heard concerns” that Google’s search advertising costs are higher “than would be expected” in a “more competitive market”. It will also look into the transparency [...]
Cannes Lions: Ad agencies are subsidising their own AI displacement June 24, 2025 It may have been all smiles at Cannes, but behind closed doors the future of AI poses a huge threat to ad agencies, writes Paul Armstrong.
WhatsApp, Google, Adobe, YouTube investor group buys into US cricket June 9, 2025 Silicon Valley figures from Adobe, YouTube, Google, WhatsApp and Dropbox are among those to have invested in Major League Cricket (MLC) franchise the San Francisco Unicorns. They join figures from TV show The Big Bang Theory, Yodlee, and Menlo Ventures in going into sports ownership. Shantanu Narayen, chairman and chief executive at Adobe, is among [...]