UK slips behind Norway and Finland in readiness for driverless cars February 11, 2019 Britain’s rivals are speeding ahead in the race to introduce driverless cars onto the roads, according to research. The UK slipped two places this year down to seventh place in KPMG’s rankings on progress and capacity for adopting the technology, overtaken by Norway and Finland. Read more: Tomtom to focus on driverless after €910m sale [...]
Wisdom of crowds: startup brings crowd funding to litigation finance February 11, 2019 When Cormac Leech, chief executive of new crowd funding litigation platform Axiafunder, is questioned about the potential 20-30 per cent returns offered to investors on its website, he doubles down. “If anything I’d say its conservatively 20-30 per cent, we would aspire to do better than that actually,” he says. Any investment offering such stellar [...]
Hacker stereotypes exacerbate UK’s cyber security skills shortage, warns NCSC February 11, 2019 Negative stereotypes about computer hackers are contributing to a skills shortage in the cyber security sector, according to industry experts. High-profile cyber specialists today warned the industry’s hackneyed reputation as a breeding ground for reclusive computer geeks is misleading and is putting promising students off a career in the profession. Read more: Huawei offers to [...]
Reddit users launch Winnie the Pooh protest against Tencent amid censorship fears February 11, 2019 Defiant images of Winnie the Pooh have sprung up across community news site Reddit as users hit back at a major investment by Chinese tech giant Tencent. Reddit confirmed today that the Chinese conglomerate has contributed a $150m (£116m) investment in the website, which describes itself as the ‘front page of the internet’, as part of a wider [...]
Dentsu Aegis names Euan Jarvie as new chief executive amid leadership overhaul February 11, 2019 Advertising agency Dentsu Aegis has appointed Euan Jarvie as its new chief executive in a bid to shake up its leadership team and focus on the UK market. Jarvie will take on the role as UK and Ireland boss with immediate effect, following a stint as the firm’s president of global clients. Read more: Dentsu [...]
Lloyds online banking down: Customers unable to access accounts as Lloyds suffers outage February 11, 2019 Lloyds' online banking system crashed this morning, leaving some customers unable to access the service. The failure followed scheduled maintenance to the bank’s online banking, mobile app and tablet app services over the weekend. Customers were able to access online banking from around 5pm this evening. Read more: Noel Edmonds’ lawyer to take on Lloyds over Bristol [...]
Robots, surgery, and the NHS – what will the future medical bot look like and when will the machines take over the operating theatre? February 11, 2019 In the 2012 film Prometheus, there’s a memorable scene where the protagonist uses an automated medical table to remove an alien creature growing in her stomach. At the press of a few buttons, robotic arms quickly perform a complex procedure – the operation looks more like a car assembly line than surgery. The scene is [...]
Revolut’s Valentine’s Day advert caused a social media storm – and shows the pitfalls of using comedy in marketing February 11, 2019 Roses are red, violets are blue, there’s a company in hot water and it’s called Revolut. The fintech challenger bank, which offers a mobile-based banking service, recently launched a new ad campaign of Tube posters that joked about the spending habits of its customers. One of the four adverts read: “To the 11,867 people who [...]
Quit nostalgic navel-gazing and get excited for the future February 11, 2019 The thing about the 1970s – if you lived through them – is that they were for the most part dull and dour years, devoid of political and economic energy. And as for the fashion, don’t even go there. Yet there seems to be no shortage of fresh-faced tweets proclaiming those years to be something [...]
DEBATE: As London Blockchain Week kicks off, will people ever feel safe buying their groceries in bitcoin? February 11, 2019 As London Blockchain Week kicks off, will people ever feel safe buying their groceries in bitcoin? Dr James Smith, co-founder and chief executive of Elliptic, a cryptocurrency intelligence agency, says YES. Cryptocurrencies are in still their early stages, used more as an investment and tradeable asset than as a form of money, and a lot [...]