Flappy Bird fans all atwitter after creator pulls high-flying game February 10, 2014 FLAPPY Bird creator Nguyen Ha Dong last night pulled the plug on his high-flying and addictive game after announcing, “I cannot take this anymore”. The Vietnam-based games developer, whose deceptively simple free mobile game flew to the top in popularity at the Apple App Store and Google Android Play store, tweeted earlier, “22 hours from [...]
Nasty, brutish, short: Why businesses prosper then die at an ever faster pace February 9, 2014 IF THOMAS Hobbes found himself walking down City streets today, he wouldn’t blink an eye. Business life seems to be getting increasingly short and rather nasty. Due to the accelerating rate of technological change, some economists believe we are heading toward a “winner takes all” era of unprecedented competition, enabled by an enormous number of [...]
Imagination shares lift as Apple extends its iPhone chip contract February 6, 2014 IMAGINATION Technologies saw its shares rocket as much as 20 per cent yesterday after it renewed a multi-year contract with Apple to supply the iPhone-maker with graphics chips for its devices. Since the beginning of 2012 Imagination’s share price has plummeted by over 75 per cent on fears that the chip maker was losing market [...]
London Time: Smart watches, we’re afraid to report, are here to stay February 6, 2014 YOU know how rude it seems when someone checks their wristwatch during a conversation? Well, things are about to get a lot ruder, thanks to 2014 being the year of the smartwatch. Just as the pocket watch proved itself useful enough to migrate to our wrists over the course of the 1930s, we are now [...]
Apple sticks the boot into Bitcoin with Blockchain removal February 6, 2014 Apple has removed the last Bitcoin wallet from its iOS app stores. The tech giant offered no explanation for the removal of UK-based Blockchain other than it was due to an "unresolved issue." The application had been available on the iOS app store for over two years and was downloaded over 120,000 times. Blockchain responded [...]
Green takes a bigger bite out of Big Apple with Fifth Avenue store February 5, 2014 SIR PHILIP GREEN is stepping up his expansion plans for Topshop in the US after announcing plans yesterday to open five new shops, including a flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue. The 40,000 square feet store on the world’s second most expensive street will open in the Autumn next to the Rockefeller Center and [...]
End of an era as Microsoft’s new boss takes over February 4, 2014 Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, steps down as chair of Microsoft, the firm he founded from his garage in 1975 MICROSOFT founder Bill Gates will step aside as chairman from the technology giant that he established in 1975 as part of the most dramatic management reshuffle in the firm’s history, which will see Satya [...]
Chip king ARM hurt by phone sales slowdown February 4, 2014 BRITISH chip designer ARM said a slowdown in demand for Apple and Samsung smartphones was behind a smaller than expected rise in fourth-quarter royalty revenues. ARM, whose technology is in nearly every smartphone, reported processor royalties of £80.8m, up seven per cent, but shy of analyst forecasts of £84.5m. Shares in ARM closed down six [...]
Here’s how Microsoft’s new CEO pick signals a change in direction February 4, 2014 Microsoft’s new chief executive Satya Nadella comes from an entirely different background to the executives who led Microsoft previously. Steve Ballmer, who Nadella replaces, comes from a sales background having worked in the company’s Sales and Support division from 1992 to 1998 where he made his name as a prominent salesperson and evangelist of the [...]
Microsoft’s next CEO has 4 huge challenges to face February 4, 2014 As rumours surrounding Microsoft’s next chief executive continue to swirl, we take a look at the four big challenges they're set to face. 1. Mobile Microsoft’s success in mobile with Windows Phone has been mixed, on the one hand its share of sales in Europe is hovering around ten per cent, and on the other [...]