Spotify buys up Cord Project and Soundwave startups for product innovation in fight against Apple as Deezer raises $100m January 20, 2016 Spotify has acquired two startups, one specialising in voice messaging and the other in music discovery, in the fight against new rival Apple Music. New York-based Cord Project, founded in 2014 by two former Google employees, has one million users of its flagship app Cord. Soundwave is a Dublin-based startup founded in 2012. It boasts 1.5m downloads in [...]
Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk win 2015 Luddite Award for their “alarmist” warnings about artificial intelligence January 20, 2016 Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have just “won” the 2015 Luddite Award for their warnings about artificial intelligence. A world-renowned physicist and the entrepreneur behind ventures like Tesla and SpaceX, neither of the two are exactly what you might call afraid of technology. But the worries the two have expressed on the future of AI [...]
Apple iOS versus Google Play Store: Here’s the winner in each country according to downloads and revenue in 2015 January 20, 2016 In the ongoing battle of Apple versus Google, there's a surprising winner across the world – both of them. More people are downloading apps from Google's Play Store than Apple in most major countries. Only three of the top 20 countries – Britain, Canada and Japan – buck this trend, with iOS more popular than Google Play in [...]
“Password”, “123456” and “qwerty”: These are the world’s 25 worst passwords of 2015 January 20, 2016 If you thought we might have stepped up our collective password game in the light of a slew of high-profile cyber attacks… think again. Amazingly, “123456” is still the world’s most popular password, followed by meta favourite “password”. The unfortunate passwords most loved by public and cyber crooks have been uncovered by SplashData’s annual ranking [...]
How to see five planets in one go: Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter can be seen all at once for the first time in a decade January 20, 2016 Clear skies might make it feel extra cold, but for the next month they will offer us a rare chance to see five planets lined up in the sky at once. Starting early this morning (20 January) and continuing until the same date in February, budding astronomers will be able to see Mercury, Venus, Saturn, [...]
Twitter down: Web, app and mobile site are still experiencing outages January 19, 2016 Twitter is still experiencing problems this afternoon following an outage this morning. Users worldwide were prevented from logging into the site on web and mobile browsers for several hours. The site's app also appeared to be hit. The outage meant people were met with a "something went wrong" message. Halfway through the morning, Twitter returned for many users, though with [...]
Fintech revolution? Banks will survive disruption from new technology January 19, 2016 Last week, yet another report was published suggesting banking has reached its digital tipping point. Figures from Javelin Strategy & Research suggest that for the first time ever, US consumers banked on their mobiles more than in branches last year. We’re seeing a similar picture in the UK, as the large banks increase their technology spend [...]
Here’s how the government wants to use blockchain’s distributed ledger technology January 19, 2016 Blockchain's distributed ledger technology (DLT) could save billions of pounds by preventing welfare fraud and benefit overpayment errors, according to the government's chief science adviser. The technology could provide a cheap and easy way of getting welfare claimants without bank accounts into the system as well as verifying their identities and would also provide a transparent account [...]
London and Europe are getting a new £500m tech startup VC fund as Chinese-backed Cocoon Networks launches January 19, 2016 London's tech startups are set for a new injection of cash worth as much as half a billion pounds as a new Chinese-backed venture capital fund launches. Private equity firms China Equity Group and Hanxin Capital will launch Cocoon Networks with £500m to invest in UK and European tech companies which show potential for success in China. The wide-ranging fund will span fintech, biotech, medical devices [...]
How do you make coffee in space? British astronaut Tim Peake posts a video revealing the unglamorous truth aboard the International Space Station January 19, 2016 How do astronauts make their coffee? British astronaut Tim Peake has posted a video from aboard the International Space Station to reveal the answer to this question – and it’s surprisingly unglamorous. If you thought making coffee on the International Space Station has been a cinch since Nasa’s promise to deliver a space-ready espresso machine to [...]