The trials and tribulations of tapping new tech November 7, 2017 "Neither Redbox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition.” Those are the words of Jim Keyes, the former chief executive of video rental giant Blockbuster back in 2008. Just five years after Keyes made that statement, Blockbuster went bust, swallowed whole by the mighty online streaming service that is Netflix. [...]
Augmented reality startup Snatch wins £4.4m in latest funding and backing of LastMinute.com founder Brent Hoberman November 2, 2017 Augmented reality game Snatch has won £4.4m in seed funding from a raft of investors, including the co-founder of Lastminute.com The startup, established by British co-founders Joe Martin and Jamal Hirani, officially launches its app in the UK this week. It has attracted backing from LastMinute.com founder and cexecutive chairman of First Minute Capital Brent [...]
Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL review: Simply the best Android phones ever made October 18, 2017 Google’s new phones are rather good. The Pixel 2 and its bigger brother the Pixel 2 XL (identical in every way but shape, size, price and battery) are straightforwardly excellent. They are simply the best Android phones ever made. Life-changing, envelope-pushing, they can shift a paradigm from fifty paces. They do your laundry, improve your [...]
Electric shock – finding the winners and losers of the electric revolution October 11, 2017 The electric car – as a concept – is almost as old as the internal combustion engine (ICE). The first electric vehicle (EV) is credited, somewhat contentiously, to Scottish chemist Robert Anderson as far back as 1837. Thomas Edison is even rumoured to have explored a cheap electric car with Henry Ford as early as [...]
Robotaxi for who? The 16 stocks UBS believes will benefit from fleets of driverless cars (and the 13 that won’t) October 5, 2017 The rise of the robotaxi – fleets of futuristic looking autonomous cars carrying people around cities and beyond – threatens to bring mass cheap and efficient transport to the world’s roads. That’s good for consumers, but what about business? Well, some stand to benefit more than others, according to UBS, which estimates they will be [...]
These are the world’s 50 most valuable brands of 2017 September 25, 2017 Apple and Google have once again take the two top spots in a list of the world’s 100 most valuable brands, according to rankings by consultancy group Interbrand. Five UK firms made into into the 2017 best global brands list. These were Burberry, HSBC, Land Rover, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker. This is the fifth consecutive [...]
Apple, Google and Microsoft top list of the 100 most valuable brands September 25, 2017 Apple and Google have once again take the two top spots in a list of the world’s 100 most valuable brands, according to rankings by consultancy group Interbrand. Five UK firms made into into the 2017 best global brands list. These were Burberry, HSBC, Land Rover, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker. This is the fifth consecutive [...]
The company profits at risk from rising carbon prices September 5, 2017 The extent to which company profits and investor returns could be at risk from tougher climate policies and higher carbon prices has been set out by a new model developed by Schroders. The “Carbon Value at Risk” (Carbon VaR) framework, developed by the Sustainable investment team, highlights the inadequacies of traditional measures of climate risk [...]
Apple’s driverless car project Titan has morphed into a staff shuttle bus as reports suggest a scaling back of ambitions August 23, 2017 Apple’s driverless car project, long-rumoured and only recently confirmed by boss Tim Cook, looks like it might be taking a back seat at the company. Its ambitions have been scaled back from a fully autonomous Apple car, to a shuttle bus for staff. Read more: “Hey Siri”: Now you can transfer money with just your [...]
Amazon: Is this the end for ‘old-school’ retailers? August 22, 2017 If you are a regular reader of the financial press, you could be forgiven for thinking some kind of corporate serial killer is currently on the loose. On an almost daily basis, fresh obituaries appear for retail businesses and there is a strong consensus on who is to blame – the global phenomenon that is [...]