Phones 4U founder John Caudwell is backing this mobile startup May 23, 2016 Phones 4U founder John Caudwell has put his weight behind a new mobile startup launching today which aims to simplify buying a new mobile and do away with lengthy contracts. Unshackled.com will sell phones and sims separately and has partnered with peer-to-peer lender Zopa to offer financing for the upfront cost of the device. Founded by the former chief operating officer of Phones 4U [...]
Before the bell: What you need to know before the US market open May 18, 2016 Japan avoids a recession and the oil price could be about to climb over $50 per barrel for the first time this year. Here's what you need to know before the US market open at 2:30pm London time. Markets look flat before the open. S&P futures are dead-centre, not even a point off. The Nasdaq is down by 0.01 [...]
The Nokia brand is as tough as the 3310 and is making a come back: Microsoft offloads Nokia handset business to Foxconn for $350m while Finnish company HMD picks up licences May 18, 2016 After Microsoft bought Nokia's handset business in 2014 we thought the 1990's icon Nokia would be gone from phone shops for good. Now it looks as though the brand is a tough as its famously indestructible 3310, after being revived by a sell off from software behemoth Microsoft. Microsoft, after just yesterday revealing its stance on Brexit, has passed on its mobile [...]
Britain sucked toward billion pound innovation funding Brexit black hole May 18, 2016 British business faces a billion pound funding black hole for research and development that risks leaving the nation trailing behind the rest of Europe when it comes to creating world leading technological and scientific innovation. More than a fifth of the UK’s £8bn competitive R&D funding in the last decade has come from Europe, but that [...]
Bacanora Minerals boss: 2020 will be a “magic” year for lithium May 17, 2016 The boss of one of the world's biggest lithium mines has singled out 2020 as a "magical" year for the so-called "white petroleum". Lithium forms a small but essentially irreplaceable component of rechargeable batteries. It's currently used in small-scale devices such as mobile phones, but could eventually revolutionise the car industry, as well as how we use the [...]
What to Expect at Google I/O: Beyond mobile… and reality May 17, 2016 This week the eyes of the technology industry are all on Google’s annual developer conference – Google I/O occurring from 18-20 May. The first conference since the creation of Alphabet has a brand new outdoor home – Shoreline Amphitheatre in San Francisco. While tech blogs are already awash with rumours, I’d like to share some areas to look [...]
Google’s just overtaken Apple as the world’s most valuable company (again) May 12, 2016 Google parent company Alphabet has surpassed Apple to become the biggest publicly traded company in the world in terms of market capitalisation after Apple shares fell below $90 for the first time since 2014. The under pressure iPhone maker and the search giant have been vying to be crowned the most valuable company in the world [...]
Barclays rules out Android Pay, going it alone with own mobile pay app May 12, 2016 Barclays is going it alone when it comes to mobile pay, rolling out its own contactless payment app on Android to all its customers, eschewing Google's own soon to launch Android Pay service. The bank's customers will be able to pay with just a swipe of their debit card from June with Barclays' Contactless Mobile [...]
After Apple, another smartphone maker is feeling the slowdown – this time, HTC May 9, 2016 It's tough time in the smartphone market these days. Pretty much everyone who's going to get one has already got one – in established markets at least – and that means the market is, in fact, more finite than firms imagined when growth rocketed over the past few years. Even for the likes of Apple. But it's HTC which is [...]
Channel 4 and ITV news producer ITN takes stride towards 2020 revenue vision May 3, 2016 News producer ITN today reported a seven per cent revenue leap as it seeks to generate £180m by 2020. The figures The maker of ITV News, Channel 4 News and 5 News today reported a 2015 turnover of £119.7m, up from £112m. Read more: ITN has big plans for revenue growth and US expansion Of the total [...]