Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie review: A faithful rendering of the classic comic strip December 18, 2015 U | Dir. Steve Martino ★★★★☆ Like Elvis, apple pie and widespread gun ownership, Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts” is woven into the fabric of American culture. The animated Christmas Special from the 60s has become part of the holiday tradition, and now the team behind 2011’s Rio are bringing the characters into the 21st century. [...]
Wall St slips as global concerns curtail rallies – New York Report December 17, 2015 CONCERN over faltering global economic growth yesterday ended a three-day rally on Wall Street, led by declines in energy and materials shares, a day after shares rose on the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 253.25 points, or 1.43 per cent, to 17,495.84, the S&P 500 lost 31.18 [...]
Apple Pay, one year later: Why mobile payments have failed to catch on as we’re still looking for something better December 17, 2015 Mobile payments became a hot topic just about the time when first iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs in 2007. Back then experts in payment, retail, telecommunication, and banking industries started thinking about a smartphone as a viable alternative to physical wallets suggesting many different technologies, but no one knew how exactly the winner was [...]
Jeff Williams promoted to Apple’s chief operating officer, Phil Schiller to head App Store, Grey’s Tor Myhren hired for marketing and communications in rare management rejig December 17, 2015 Jeff Williams has been named Apple's new chief operating officer, in a rare reshuffle of the tech company's senior team. “We are fortunate to have incredible depth and breadth of talent across Apple’s executive team. As we come to the end of the year, we’re recognising the contributions already being made by two key executives,” said [...]
Christmas came early: Here are all of the gifts foreign leaders gave Prime Minister David Cameron this year December 17, 2015 Two rugs, alcohol, a glass art platter and bronze coins: these are just some of the presents Prime Minister David Cameron has received from foreign leaders this year. Government papers published today reveal that Cameron received more than a dozen gifts from foreign leaders between April and September of this year. Too bad he can't [...]
Tech predictions for 2016, including apps for everything, a space trip for everyone and drones blotting out the sun December 17, 2015 What an incredible year it’s been for science and technology. No frontier has been left unexplored. No bar unraised. No envelope unpushed. Not only did we invent a new type of motorised skateboard that spontaneously bursts into flames, but Apple made a really big iPad and now our watches shout at us for being unhealthy. [...]
Hitting the brakes? Driverless cars must have a driver, says California DMV, putting bump in road for Google, Apple, Ford December 17, 2015 The development of self-driving cars has hit a bump in the road, after US authorities said they won't be allowed to hit the roads without a driver present. Regulators in California, where the majority of research and testing of autonomous vehicles is centred, said there needs to be a driver present in case the technology fails. Google is the best known [...]
Helping refugees is a tech challenge December 17, 2015 While there have been many causes worthy of our attention in 2015, the plight of Europe’s refugees and migrants has been the most visible. There are currently 20m people feeing violence and oppression around the world and many of them arrived on our continent’s shores this summer in the hope of a better life. Shocking [...]
Fintech challengers like Square, ApplePay and Funding Circle could undermine banks’ credit ratings in 2016 according to Standard & Poor’s December 16, 2015 The rise of fintech is challenging traditional banks, and could even undermine their credit rating, according to Standard & Poor's. The ratings agency expects global investment in 'non bank' financial service to be worth $24bn (£16bn) this year, double the figure in 2014. Traditional banks are still trying to adapt to the low interest rate, and [...]
Piquet restaurant in Fitzrovia is a former car-park that now serves snails to die for December 15, 2015 92-94 Newman Street, W1, piquet-restaurant.co.uk FOOD ★★★★☆ | VALUE ★★★★ | ATMOSPHERE ★★★☆☆ Cost for two with booze: £140 The part of Fitzrovia surrounding Piquet isn’t what you’d call atmospheric. At least not in a good way. To the north block after block of faceless office buildings recede into the distance; to the south lies the grubbier [...]