Long Weekend: Newly opened hotel Innside New York NoMad offers to give guests the goss on Manhattan’s coolest hang outs August 5, 2016 The weekend: The epicentre of the world according to every Armageddon-themed movie ever made, New York’s also a welcoming, walkable city which begs to be visited when the days are long, the spirits high, and the air-con’s omnipresent. Its familiarity belies a forever changing chameleon of a personality, as the heaving bulk of an 8m-plus [...]
Three top tips for a reluctant digital detox August 4, 2016 That's it – switch off your phone, close your laptop… maybe even unplug the telly? Ok – perhaps wait until you've finished reading this, but a third of the country has considered taking just such drastic action in an effort to detox from the digital devices littering our lives. More than half of us consider ourselves hooked and a third of [...]
Here’s everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 August 3, 2016 Announced earlier this week, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 is a big old betsy of a phablet, a 5.7-inch monsterphone that brings the super-powered performance of its existing S7 Edge device to its Note range. The Android powerhouse that giant-handed fans have been waiting all year for – and the biggest rival to Apple’s iPhone – [...]
Move over iPhone fingerprint tech, the latest Samsung scans eyes August 2, 2016 It's time for Apple's iPhone fingerprint technology to move over – at least that's what Samsung is hoping. The rival Korean smartphone maker has unveiled its latest device – the Galaxy Note 7 – which has trumped its rival's use of biometrics with eye-scanning technology. Read more: Passwords are passe: Nationwide is testing behavioural biometrics The Note [...]
Meet the most influential British innovator in the world August 2, 2016 Demis Hassabis, the man who founded the multi-million pound artificial intelligence company acquired by Google, has been named the most influential British innovator in the world. DeepMind hit headlines in 2014 when it was bought by Google for £400m and this year did it again when its machine learning technology beat the world-leading player of the [...]
Five things you need to know about the Uber Didi Chuxing deal August 1, 2016 Uber and Didi have thrown in the towel on their costly rivalry with a deal to merge in China, worth a reported $35bn. Here's what you need to know. 1. Profits matter Uber was burning more than $1bn a year on its Chinese operations, becoming its largest market, but not making any profit from it. That's what boss Travis Kalanick [...]
Uber is merging its China business with arch rival Didi Chuxing August 1, 2016 Ride-hailing app Uber is merging its Chinese operations with its biggest rival in the region, Didi Chuxing, signalling an end to a long-standing and expensive rivalry. Didi has confirmed earlier reports of a deal between the two, saying it will acquire Uber's China assets. In return, Uber will take a 17.7 per cent stake in Didi, while Uber China's shareholders [...]
Mobile momentum: Why advertising on handheld devices will allow Google and Facebook to sustain their remarkable growth August 1, 2016 If there was any lingering doubt about the potential of mobile advertising, it was put paid to last week. Advertising’s two behemoths, Google and Facebook, beat analysts’ expectations for growth in the second quarter, thanks largely to the rise of mobile advertising. In its statement, Google’s parent company Alphabet said that not only were companies continuing [...]
Addison Lee profits under pressure from rise of mobile app challengers July 31, 2016 Addison Lee’s profits are being driven down by rising competition from mobile-based apps. The UK private car hire company owned by private equity giant Carlyle has reported post-tax earnings for the year to August dipped to £11.6m, down almost two-thirds from £32.9m in the previous year. New players in the market, led by US upstart [...]
Phew! Facebook’s AI chief says intelligent machines are not a threat to humanity July 31, 2016 The chief scientist leading Facebook's research into artificial intelligence doesn't believe the technology is a threat to human existence – unless we are very stupid. "I don’t think at AI will become an existential threat to humanity," said Yann LeCun, the top professor who is leading Facebook's efforts in the space of AI and machine learning. "I’m [...]