iPhone 6: Apple expected to buy 194m smartphone screens this year ahead of release date August 27, 2014 The countdown to the launch of the iPhone 6 has already started (13 days and counting – as if you weren't ticking the days off the calendar), and that means Apple has been buying up a lot of screens – 194m to be exact. That is according to figures from NPD DisplaySearch’s latest insight, the FT [...]
One chart showing why Apple thinks you need a bigger iPad August 27, 2014 While the selling point of mobile technology is, well, its mobility, the desire for super-size screens to stimulate our eyeballs is now influencing the ultimate arbiter of cool, Apple. As well as the imminent launch (expected to be the iPhone 6) hawk-eyed Apple watchers have been thrown a curveball with the rumour of a larger iPad in [...]
Amazon’s Twitch takeover puts tech deals at 14-year high August 26, 2014 Amazon's $970m (£585m) takeover of eSport video website Twitch on Monday pushed the value of global tech M&A (mergers and acquisitions) so far this year to $174bn, its highest level since 2000, according to industry data. Global tech M&A activity is up 54 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to [...]
Easy money pushes S&P 500 index over 2,000 for first time August 26, 2014 US shares hit a record high yesterday, with the S&P 500 index breaking the 2,000-point mark during trading for the first time in its history. Global investors have piled into American stocks, pumped up by cheap money from central banks, and fleeing troubled economies in areas like the Eurozone and the wavering emerging markets. Federal [...]
eSports is Amazon’s big bet on the future – Bottom Line August 25, 2014 While eSports may look and sound like child’s play, it is in fact big business. Last year the industry attracted 71.5m online viewers worldwide, with Twitch being the destination of choice for over 75 per cent of viewers, and total prize money across eSport competitions reached $25m. While those viewer numbers are a drop in [...]
Jeremy Hunt should scrap plain cigarette packaging August 25, 2014 After Australia passed a first-of-its-kind law in 2012 mandating that all cigarettes be sold in plain brown packaging free of branding, UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt vowed to keep a close eye on the Australian law’s progress before introducing similar legislation in the UK. Two years later, the Australian bill has failed to reduce smoking, [...]
Venezuela plans to fingerprint shoppers to stop food shortages August 22, 2014 The President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has announced plans for a major mandatory fingerprinting system to combat the increasingly dire food shortages and rampant smuggling afflicting the Latin American state. He said the fingerprinting system would be similar to the one the country uses for voting and was intended to stop Venezuelans buying too much [...]
iPhone 6 pictures leaked: Apple’s new smartphone flaunts curves and a higher resolution screen August 21, 2014 As the hype surrounding the iPhone 6 reaches fever pitch ahead of its supposed unveiling on 9 September, new images claim to show the complete design of Apple’s new device for the first time. The leaked pictures reveal a return to the design of Apple’s original iPhone model, flaunting its curves as one website might [...]
More billionaires born in London than any other European city August 20, 2014 If ever there was a suitable carrot to dangle in a bid to make us work harder, this might just be it. Wealth consultancy WealthInsight and Spear’s magazine have revealed more billionaires are born in London than any other city in Europe (unless you consider Moscow part of Europe, in which case we’re second). Globally, [...]
Flappy Bird founder Nguyen Dong takes off with Swing Copters sequel August 19, 2014 The creator of Flappy Bird, the smartphone phenomenon that generated over $50,000 a day in early 2014 before it was pulled from Apple’s App Store after just nine months, is set to return tomorrow with his next game. Vietnamese developer Nguyen Dong, who shut down Flappy Bird after notching up 50m players and finding the [...]