HSBC’s partnering with fintech startup Bud in latest Open Banking push for First Direct October 19, 2017 HSBC is partnering with London fintech startup Bud in its latest efforts toward Open Banking. The bank will offer Bud's financial management tools under its online only brand First Direct in a new trial, hot on the heels of the launch of its new app Beta last month. Users will be able to see their [...]
UK businesses have slashed their cyber security budgets by a third October 18, 2017 Businesses in the UK have cut the amount of cash they are spending on cyber security despite the growing threat of attacks. Budgets for security are a third of what they were this time last year, down to £3.9m on average, compared to £6.2m according to research from PwC. The cost of attacks has fallen, [...]
Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL review: Simply the best Android phones ever made October 18, 2017 Google’s new phones are rather good. The Pixel 2 and its bigger brother the Pixel 2 XL (identical in every way but shape, size, price and battery) are straightforwardly excellent. They are simply the best Android phones ever made. Life-changing, envelope-pushing, they can shift a paradigm from fifty paces. They do your laundry, improve your [...]
Dyson promotes Jim Rowan to chief executive, succeeding Max Conze, amid electric car plans October 10, 2017 Dyson has installed a new boss in the driving seat as it embarks on ambitious plans to build its own electric car. Operations chief Jim Rowan has been promoted to chief executive, replacing Max Conze who had led the British firm since 2011. Sir James Dyson, founder of the technology empire of vacuums, hairdryers and [...]
Adapt, or be crushed by the fourth industrial revolution October 9, 2017 No business has ever had the luxury of standing still. In the 1920s, American Express was founded as delivery service (hence the name), and Marriott originally specialised in root beer rather than hotels. Any company that has survived this long has had to adapt to the immense changes of the twentieth and early twenty-first century, [...]
Paper train tickets will be a thing of the past by the end of 2018 as UK rolls out £80m Oyster-style smart card plans October 3, 2017 The orange train ticket familiar to anyone who travels by rail across the UK will be a thing of the past by the end of next year. Ambitious plans to introduce a smart ticketing system that lets travellers use a mobile phone or Oyster-style smartcard to "almost all of the rail network by the end [...]
iPhone 8 review: Eclipsed by the iPhone X, is Apple’s “other” iPhone at risk of being forgotten about? September 27, 2017 The iPhone 8 is a conundrum: it’s an excellent phone, a hero handset, but one that’s destined to be the bridesmaid and never the bride. Launched on the same day as the all-new, all-singing, all-dancing iPhone X, the iPhone 8, which looks virtually identical to every premium Apple handset since 2014, is the plain sibling, [...]
London’s newest way to travel is Gett and Citymapper’s taxi-bus hybrid combining black cab carpooling and a bus-like route September 21, 2017 An innovative new way to travel that’s part bus, part taxi, is launching in London to help commuters get to and from work on routes that are currently tricky to navigate. Gett, the app for ordering black cabs on demand, will now offer shared taxis on a dedicated route between Waterloo and Islington for the [...]
Can iOS 11 Make iPad Your Primary Computer? September 19, 2017 | City Talk The latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 11, is released today for iPhone and iPad. Many of the changes may now make the iPad a real alternative to a Macbook or iMac as your primary computer. Dock makes app switching faster The first update comes in the form of a new dock for [...]
The cost of Uber’s licence to operate in London has quietly been increased by Transport for London September 18, 2017 Uber's cost of operating in London is set to rise even further after the transport regulator pushed forward with new plans that are set to add nearly £1m to its bill. Transport for London is now planning to charge a maximum fee of £2.9m for the largest mincab firms to operate in the capital, it [...]
