British consumers like the iPad 2 but think it is pricey March 8, 2011 LAST Wednesday Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad 2, a revised design for the tablet that will become available in the US next week and in 25 other countries a fortnight later. APPLE CREATES BUZZ IN UK The announcement led to an immediate rise in buzz score in the UK; from +20 on the day of [...]
Microsoft to pay $1bn for Nokia tie-up March 8, 2011 MICROSOFT will pay Nokia a staggering $1bn (£620m) upfront to develop handsets designed to run its Windows Phone 7 (WP7) operating system, it is understood. Nokia will reportedly pay Microsoft a royalty fee for each WP7 licence it uses, although the exact figure has not been announced. Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop, a former Microsoft [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 7, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES IVORY COAST MOVE SPARKS COCOA FEARS Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivory Coast leader who the international community says lost presidential elections in November, announced he would nationalise the cocoa sector in a surprise move that threatened to drive the cocoa price sharply higher. The African country is the world’s largest cocoa exporter, accounting for [...]
Western Digital in $4.3bn deal March 7, 2011 Western Digital, the world’s second-biggest hard drive maker, yesterday agreed to buy Hitachi’s hard disk drive operations for about $4.3bn (£2.7bn) in cash and stock. After the deal, Hitachi will own 10 per cent of Western Digital. Western Digital said it had secured a term loan of $2bn and a revolving credit facility of $500m [...]
iPad 2 moves the tablet goalposts out of sight March 7, 2011 SO the iPad 2 is finally here, unveiled by Steve Jobs who, if you believe some of the more hyperbolic reports, may have risen from the dead to show it off in San Francisco last week. Geeks flocked to BBC studios for the live link-up to the event; so many geeks that there was nowhere [...]
A sanctuary – with iMacs – in West Sussex March 6, 2011 A WEEKEND in the country is often not so much a change of pace as stepping back into another era, where duvets are a dirty word and the closest you get to modern technology is a Teasmade. Not so at Park House, a luxury rural retreat in West Sussex. There might be rows of Hunter [...]
Steve Jobs returns to unveil the new iPad 2 March 2, 2011 APPLE surprised critics yesterday when its talismanic leader Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance to unveil the latest version of its iPad tablet computer. Despite being on medical leave, Jobs took to the stage in San Fransisco, saying: “We’ve been working on this product for a while – I didn’t want to miss this one.” [...]
FIRST LOOK AT THE IPAD 2 March 2, 2011 The iPad 2 is better, faster, slicker. Rivals hoping to muscle in may as well pack up and go home – if you want a tablet, nothing comes close to this. LAST night I got my hands on one of the first iPad 2s in the country. Steve Jobs, looking positively healthy for a man [...]
Wall St shrugs off fresh oil price rise March 2, 2011 US stocks eked out gains yesterday despite another rise in oil prices as investors bet the latest data signaled the economy could absorb expected higher energy costs. Wall Street seesawed as oil fluctuated throughout the day. Brent crude LCOc1 hit a 2 1/2-year high above $117 a barrel in the late morning but later slipped. [...]
Citi sells Egg credit cards to Barclays March 1, 2011 BARCLAYS is buying the UK credit card portfolio of Egg from the online bank’s US owner Citi, transferring more than 1m customer accounts to the Barclaycard brand. The value of the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, has not been disclosed, but Barclay’s said it was buying the assets at a “significant discount” to [...]