British Gas is blaming ultra high definition 4K TVs for adding £82m to energy bills by 2019 December 13, 2016 They may be turning into a must-have item, but energy inefficient 4K TVs are set to add £82m to UK consumers’ electricity bills by 2019, British Gas has warned. The ultra high definition (HD) TV sets have this year single-handedly caused the first rise in household energy bills from watching TV since 2011, preliminary findings [...]
Apple’s wireless Airpod headphones are finally here (with delivery before Christmas) December 13, 2016 They're here! The biggest leap forward in Apple's headphone technology has finally arrived, with the wireless Airpods now available to order on the UK Apple Store. They're priced at £159 with deliveries in London being estimated to take place as early as 19 December – just in time for the crucial Christmas shopping season. Read [...]
Emoji translator is probably the most millennial job you’ll ever see December 13, 2016 We've had lego model builder, doing social media for the Queen and, of course, there was the famous "best job in the world" living on an island paradise in Australia, but now we think we've found the most millennial job in the world – emoji translator. Those who don't know their aubergines from their see no evil [...]
BMW 530D XDrive SE review: When a car is this good to drive, why let it drive itself? December 12, 2016 B MW flew me out to Portugal to drive the new 5 Series and made such a song and dance about its Autonomous Drive technology, you’d think it had reinvented the self-steering wheel. Frankly, I hated it. Yes, the 5 Series will drive itself for 30 seconds at a time on straight roads, and will [...]
Another British tech firm has been bought by a foreign company December 12, 2016 Shares in e2v, the British tech firm which supplies imaging sensors that help the Hubble space telescope and the Mars Curiosity Rover take pictures, have jumped almost 50 per cent after agreeing a £620m sale to US-based Teledyne. In the latest example of a US firm being snapped up by a foreign company, the conglomerate [...]
No, vinyl isn’t bigger than digital downloads – but it could easily outlive them December 9, 2016 Earlier this week, a story did the rounds which prompted some debate in the UK music world. This is the news from Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), which suggested digital music had been beaten in sales by that stubborn old minx, vinyl, for the first time since its inception. A rare positive tale of a physical [...]
Shares in Nintendo jumped again today as anticipation around its Super Mario mobile game builds December 9, 2016 With the release of its hotly anticipated Super Mario iPhone game slated for next week, Nintendo's shares have got a power-star boost. Shares surged as much as five per cent immediately following the announcement of the game's release to Apple's App Store on 15 December. Read more: Yes, really. Japan's Prime Minister dressed up as Super [...]
McDonald’s to move non-US tax base to UK December 8, 2016 As the Brexit vote prompts companies to accelerate in moving onto the continent, one corporate juggernaut is reversing through the drive-thru. Fast food icon McDonald’s today announced it would move its tax base from Luxembourg to the UK, after facing increased scrutiny from EU regulators. The news of a new international holding company based in Britain for [...]
Apple bought 9 startups in 2016. Here’s what they do December 8, 2016 Apple buys a lot of companies, but it doesn't talk much about them, making it hard to keep track. So we put together nine of its acquisitions reported this year. This list is not exhaustive, we know for sure some purchases have never been revealed. As expected, artificial intelligence companies remain the dominant category, but [...]
Sony wants to make the next Pokemon Go December 7, 2016 Sony is hoping to mimic the success of rival Nintendo’s Pokemon Go with its announcement of as many as six new smartphone games to be released next year. Starting in April 2017, Sony will release new games made for mobile phones, initially available in Japan and other Asian countries, said Tomoki Kawaguchi, executive director of [...]