Protests and glitches on El Salvador’s first day of Bitcoin as legal tender September 8, 2021 Angry protests and confusion amongst citizens, technological glitches and a drop in market value plagued El Salvador yesterday, as the country made history by becoming the first in the world to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender. As the change took hold, Bitcoin crashed to its lowest price in almost a month, plummeting from $52,000 [...]
This Kentish winemaker has just released the UK’s sweetest wine September 7, 2021 When you think of the great sweet wine producing regions you probably think of Sauternes in Bordeaux, the rolling hills of Austria, or the warm and humid vineyards of Hungary. But climate change is slowly but surely rewriting the rulebook for winemakers, and a Kentish producer has just released a late harvest wine with 122g [...]
Apple pushes back on controversial child protection features after privacy objections September 3, 2021 Apple will delay the release of its controversial new child protection features in order to collect more feedback and make improvements, after a feature that would scan customers’ phones and computers for child sex abuse images sparked widespread criticism for breaching user privacy. Over 90 policy and rights group worldwide, as well as Apple’s own [...]
Renaissance hedge fund execs to pay £5bn in back taxes September 3, 2021 Renaissance Technology executives and their family members have agreed to pay $7bn (£5bn) in back taxes and fines as part of a settlement with the US tax authority. The fines, which come as part of the largest tax settlement in US history, relate to trades made by the firm’s Medallion Fund between 2005 and 2015. [...]
UBS chief: Staff who choose not to get vaccine can work from home rather than office September 2, 2021 UBS employees who don’t want to receive the Covid vaccine can apply to work from home instead, the Swiss bank’s CEO Ralph Hamers announced today, indicating a more flexible approach than some banking rivals. Some banks, including Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, have mandated vaccines for staff returning to their desks in some [...]
Apple relaxes controversial App Store rules amid regulatory scrutiny September 2, 2021 Apple has agreed to make modest changes to relax its App Store rules after facing heat from regulators worldwide. The change will allow developers of “reader” apps to link to external sites for payments to avoid paying Apple’s controversial fees for in-app purchases, as high as 30 per cent. The changes, due to come into [...]
South Korea outlaws Google and Apple in-app payment systems August 31, 2021 South Korea’s National Assembly has approved legislation that bans app store operators such as Google and Apple from forcing developers to use their in-app payment systems. South Korea is reportedly the first country in the world to pass such a bill, which becomes law when it is signed by the president, whose party has backed [...]
Playhouse, a shrine to video games, launches at Selfridges as industry sales surge August 31, 2021 Video games have been big business for decades, with the top titles vastly out-grossing the most popular cinema releases. Were there any remaining doubts over whether the medium now represents one of the cultural megaliths of our time, lockdown answered those. Almost two third of UK adults played video games over 2020, with every age [...]
Sliding tech stocks weigh on Wall Street August 31, 2021 US stocks slipped today as poor performances among technology heavyweights weighed heavily on Wall Street’s main benchmarks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped 0.10 per cent to 15,250.36 points, led down by losses among Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. The blue-chip S&P 500 and the Dow Jones both inched up, rising 0.02 per cent and 0.08 per cent [...]
Apple snaps up classical music streaming service Primephonic August 31, 2021 Apple is challenging the likes of Classic FM and BBC Radio 3 with the launch of a new classical music streaming app. Apple will be incorporating Primephonic, a classical music streaming app from based in the Netherlands, into its Apple Music service. Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music and Beats said: “we love and [...]