Samsung splashes $8bn on connected cars company November 14, 2016 Samsung is stepping up its drive into the world of connected cars, splashing billions of dollars on a company specialising in the technology. The $8bn deal for US firm Harman International Industries, an offer of $112 per share, is a 28 per cent premium on the firm's Friday closing price on the New York Stock Exchange. Harman, which [...]
AI firm ASI Data Science raises £1.5m investment with backing from Skype founding engineer November 6, 2016 Jaan Tallinn, one of the men behind Skype, has backed a London firm that trains computer scientists in using artificial intelligence (AI). According to the Sunday Times, ASI Data Science, which works with the likes of easyJet and the BBC, has landed £1.5m of new investment, with LocalGlobe another backer. LocalGlobe was set up by [...]
Watch out Siri? Samsung’s next phone will have an AI assistant November 6, 2016 Samsung is following the lead of Apple and Google, revealing it will add a Siri-like personal assistant to its newest smartphone, the Galaxy S8. It's the first time a Samsung phone will have the feature and follows the tech company's acquisition of San-Francisco artificial intelligence startup Viv Labs last month. The open platform will let others [...]
Samsung’s in a spin: Now it has to recall nearly three million washing machines November 4, 2016 Things have gone from bad to quite a bit worse for Samsung. It had only just cut profit forecasts by a third after the much-hyped launch of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 ended in a mass recall (and some spontaneous explosions). Now it's had to recall about 2.8m top-load washing machines in the US, following reports [...]
Home is where the smart is: City A.M. meets Krystian Zajac October 31, 2016 When I first came to the UK, I was living in a tiny flat with five other people. I was educated, but washing dishes for a living. I did not care, the money was still better than what I got in Poland,” says Krystian Zajac, founder of Andrew Lucas. As far as rags to riches [...]
Property Entrepreneurs: London-based tech start-up Virtual Walkthrough has gone global after buyout by US firm Matterport October 28, 2016 You know you’re onto something when the big guys start taking an interest. And for James Morris-Manuel of Virtual Walkthrough, the last few months have seen proof that his concept of walking people through building interiors has reached the big time. Morris-Manuel has just sold his business to larger US company Matterport. The move means [...]
The question about ‘grand strategy’ that made Tim Cook unhappy was based on theory that makes uncomfortable reading for Apple October 27, 2016 Last night, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave a terse, unhappy answer to this question from UBS analyst Steven Milunovich: "Does Apple today have a grand strategy for what you want to do?" Milunovich asked the question two different ways, and Cook gave two non-answers, one of which was "as usual, we're not going to talk [...]
Samsung posted quarterly earnings that were at an eight-year low but in line with expectations October 27, 2016 Samsung posted its worst quarterly results for almost eight years in the wake of the Galaxy Note 7 debacle, but promised that it would rebound in the fourth quarter. Earnings plummeted 98 per cent in comparison to the previous year and languished at their worst level since the final quarter of 2008. Although this was [...]
Leading the charge: How to invest in the nascent, but lucrative, electric power storage sector October 27, 2016 One word captures the holy grail for the energy industry: storage. A Carbon Trust report from March found that better energy storage could save £2.4bn a year by 2030 in the UK. If certain regulatory hurdles are overcome, this could rise to £7bn a year. New developments and innovations are coming to market all the [...]
What to expect from Apple’s fourth quarter earnings October 24, 2016 Apple will announce its earnings for the fourth quarter tomorrow, ahead of a new MacBook launch later in the week. Connor Campbell, financial analyst at SpreadEx, said the earnings report "is likely to reflect the first annual iPhone sales decline in the company's history". Read more: Shares in this Apple supplier just fell off a [...]