Beautiful things: Brass vessels, Samsung’s easel TV and Tom Dixon furniture February 19, 2015 Make storage stylish with these handcrafted stacking vessels Storage is a vital, but throughly mundane, fact of life. Fortunately, the brother and sister team behind Utopia & Utility have come up with a solution that’s both functional and fashionable. These stacking vessels are actually three different containers made by three European craftsmen to form one [...]
Samsung to take on Apple in mobile payments sector with purchase of LoopPay February 18, 2015 Samsung has purchased LoopPay, a mobile wallet company that will rival Apple Pay and Google Wallet. The South Korean tech company has not disclosed the price of the deal it proclaimed will “accelerate the next wave of innovation in the digital smart wallet”. The move suggests that Samsung is ready to compete [...]
Why the Apple Watch should obliterate sales records for wearable tech February 17, 2015 Apple is banking on its new Apple Watch being a breakthrough device for the wearable tech sector after ordering between 5m – 6m units from its Asian supplier. An April launch date for the product has been set by Tim Cook who said in Apple’s earnings call last month that his “expectations are [...]
Apple just patented a virtual reality headset February 17, 2015 Apple has become the latest technology giant to jump on the virtual reality bandwagon, after it patented a design for a virtual reality headset that works by by plugging the iPhone into it. The tech giant is actually surprisingly late to this particular party: US Patent No 8,957,835, aka "Head-Mounted Display Apparatus for Retaining a [...]
British Gas buys smart home company AlertMe for £44m as Centrica bets on Internet of Things February 13, 2015 British Gas has just splashed some major cash on AlertMe, the smart home technology company behind its Hive service, which controls heating remotely at the touch of a smartphone screen. The Centrica-owned energy company will pay £44m to acquire AlertMe, the east London company which provides a platform for connected “smart” devices throughout the home, [...]
Arm Holdings’ full-year profit grows on the back of Apple iPhone sales February 11, 2015 Software design company Arm Holdings’ full year profit jumped 13 per cent to £411.3m, after the iPhone 6, holding the company’s core chip technology, enjoyed record sales. The Cambridge-based company, most known for selling microchips to smartphone giants Samsung and Apple, saw its revenue rise 11 per cent to £795.2m. Apple, one of Arm’s biggest [...]
Tesco is winning at Valentine’s Day. Here’s why February 11, 2015 Valentine's Day is just around the corner and what says love more than multinational retailers pushing their pink heart-shaped products you neither want nor need? Absolutely nothing. That's why between now and Saturday we will all be bombarded with adverts for all the chocolates you can eat (before the cocoa runs out) recipes for two, [...]
Imagination picks former Sony Mobile chief Bert Nordberg as next chairman February 9, 2015 British microchip designer Imagination Technologies yesterday appointed Bert Nordberg as its new chairman. Nordberg, the former president and chief executive of Sony Mobile communications, will succeed Geoff Shingles, who is retiring on 20 March. “It is a great pleasure to welcome Bert to Imagination,” said Imagination’s Senior independent director David Anderson in a statement. “His [...]
Samsung admits its smart TVs can listen to viewers’ conversations and pass them on to third parties February 9, 2015 If you have a Samsung Smart TV in your home, it's time to put an end to any incriminating conversations you might be having. It turns out the product's screen can listen to what you say and pass information on to third parties. Part of the company's privacy policy for its Smart [...]
Alibaba moves into smartphone market with £400m investment February 9, 2015 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has bought a $590m (£388m) minority stake in Chinese smartphone maker Meizu. The move signals Alibaba’s first major foray into smartphone hardware as it looks to build a platform for its YunOS mobile operating system. In a joint statement, the two companies said they will collaborate “to achieve [...]