Is Facebook’s libra a step towards the legitimisation of crypto? June 20, 2019 The “banking for the unbanked” narrative has long been the preserve of the bitcoin community. There are some 1.7bn people in the world today with no access to a bank account, and since bitcoin came into common usage, “financial inclusion” has been its mantra. So what should we make of Facebook’s apparent incursion into cryptocurrency? [...]
Xperia 1 review: Sony’s new flagship is a tower of power June 19, 2019 Look at this incredibly tall lad. Sony’s new flagship, the Xperia 1 is a monolith, a towering glass slab that looks just as likely to trigger the next stage of human evolution as it is to book you an Uber. Take this thing outside and you’d need to let air traffic control know ahead of [...]
Activists call for break up of Google June 19, 2019 Protesters are calling on Google’s parent company Alphabet to break itself up before it is forced to by regulators. Sum Of Us, a US-based activist group, will ask shareholders to vote on breaking the company up at a meeting at the company’s offices in California today. Read more: Amazon overtakes Apple and Google as world’s [...]
Facebook confirms launch of own cryptocurrency June 19, 2019 | City Talk By Gary McFarlane from interactive investor. The social media giant announces its own cryptocurrency, called ‘Libra’ that aims to be ‘global money’. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has announced Libra coin, a cryptocurrency that aims to be global money and is set to launch in early 2020. A new app is joining the Facebook family called Calibra (https://calibra.com/), which will act as [...]
Debunking the dropout-hero narrative June 19, 2019 It often happens. In meetings, at networking events, or even around dinner tables. “So, where did you go to college, Andrew?” “MIT,” I respond. Naming the Institute usually draws impressed looks. “But I left before graduating to build my own company.” Choosing not to complete university historically evoked suspicion, even sympathy. But that is not [...]
Google Calendar down: Worldwide outage hits users June 18, 2019 Google Calendar has suffered an outage, leaving desktop users with no idea what meeting they should be rushing to next. The Calendar tool, used by millions of overly busy office workers worldwide, is currently down. Google’s G Suite status page marked the Calendar orange, meaning it is suffering from service disruption. “We’re investigating reports of [...]
Pokemon Go creator Niantic buys London startup Sensible Object June 18, 2019 Pokemon Go developer Niantic has acquired London-based games studio Sensible Object for an undisclosed sum as it continues to expand its gaming platform. Read more: Pokemon Go creator Niantic valued at $4bn Sensible Object, which uses voice AI and augmented reality (AR) in its games, will continue life as Niantic London after the acquisition. Founder [...]
Sainsbury’s Bank outage: Customers locked out of online banking June 18, 2019 A Sainsbury’s Bank outage spurred customers to take to Twitter today to complain they could not access their accounts online. Read more: The UK banks with the most IT outages Neither the supermarket’s new app nor online banking service wereworking for customers, with Down Detector reporting dozens of complaints this morning. An outage map showed [...]
Ad industry ‘faces brain drain’ amid creativity crisis June 18, 2019 The advertising industry could face a brain drain as employees increasingly look outside adland for their fill of creative work, according to a report published today. Research by ad agency Impero revealed 62 per cent of people in the industry have interviewed for a job in another sector over the last 12 month, while the [...]
Social media firms team up with advertisers to fight online harms June 18, 2019 Social media giants including Facebook and Google have formed a new alliance with brands and ad agencies in a bid to crack down on harmful material online. A total of 16 brands, including Unilever, Diageo and Procter & Gamble, have signed up to a new working group that will lobby publishers and platforms to remove [...]