The government should have been working on multiple tracing apps all along June 24, 2020 The NHS contract tracing app has been scrapped in favour of a system developed by Google and Apple. Although health secretary Matt Hancock has been heavily criticised for this failure, the UK is by no means alone. For example, Denmark, Germany and Italy each tried to build their own app, based on the same type [...]
FTSE 100 and Wall Street gain on signs of economic recovery June 23, 2020 The FTSE 100 closed up and Wall Street posted strong gains on Tuesday afternoon after new economic data signalled that business activity across the US, UK and the Eurozone was recovering faster than expected. Having risen steadily throughout the morning, the FTSE 100 pushed ahead in afternoon trading today as traders welcomed the most significant [...]
Apple makes concessions to developers after outcry June 23, 2020 Apple is to begin allowing developers that break its App Store rules to appeal company decisions, marking a change in its policy as outside scrutiny of its marketplace ramps up. Similarly, updates to apps that include minor bug fixes will not be delayed while an appeal is in progress. The move was prompted by a [...]
Google faces calls from staff to end tech sales to police June 23, 2020 Google employees have been circulating an internal petition to push the tech giant to stop selling its services to police forces, following similar moves from other companies. More than 1,600 employees are said to have signed the petition so far, seen by Reuters, which voiced disappointment with Google for not joining the “millions who want [...]
That’s it, folks, AI version 1’s a wrap June 23, 2020 Well, we’ve done it. Pop the corks, and let’s enjoy a socially distanced Zoom party to celebrate. The current generation of AI, and in particular machine learning, has ended its beta phase and is now officially done. We can look forward to incremental update releases over the coming decade, but it’s packaged, available, everywhere, reliable, [...]
Big tech vs the market: what you need to know June 23, 2020 Big tech has led the global market recovery in the wake of Covid-19. Can the dominance of the FAMAGs continue? On 8 June the S&P 500 of US stocks recovered all their Covid-19 losses for 2020. The so-called FAMAGs (Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet (Google’s parent company)) led that recovery. Even before the pandemic, [...]
The City View: With Billy Hult, President of Tradeweb, on markets and management during a crisis June 23, 2020 In this episode Christian is joined by Billy Hult, President of Tradeweb, the Nasdaq-listed trading giant. Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS Billy talks about how his platform adapted to market volatility and how the market adapted to the pandemic and the US Fed’s response. He also shares his thoughts on leadership during a crisis and [...]
Apple WWDC 2020: Everything Apple announced June 22, 2020 Tech giant Apple today unveiled its latest product updates at the annual WWDC developer conference, streamed online from the Steve Jobs Theater in California for the first time. Usually a five-day, $1,600 event for tech developers to learn about the latest tools for making apps, the WWDC — which stands for Worldwide Developer Conference — [...]
FTSE 100 finishes in the red amid second wave concerns June 22, 2020 The FTSE 100 has started the week on the back foot amid growing concern over a second wave of coronavirus infections. As markets opened, the index fell 0.94 per cent to begin the day in the red at 6,233.28 points. However, the FTSE 100 trimmed some of its losses to finish 0.76 per cent down [...]
Asian stocks wobble on US fears of coronavirus second wave June 22, 2020 Stocks in Asia had a rocky start to trading today, as concerns about rising coronavirus cases in the US prompted fears of a second economic lockdown on the horizon. Japan’s Nikkei index recovered from early losses to trade either side of flat, while US S&P 500 futures were at a gain of 0.3 per cent after [...]