Northern Powerhouse: The North’s digital economy is booming but needs more infrastructure spending December 23, 2015 This year has seen the potential of the Northern Powerhouse truly realised and our digital sector sits at the beating heart of this agenda. The North’s digital economy is booming. It employs over 170,000 people and there has been a 57 per cent rise in new digital companies over the past three years. The UK’s [...]
Winter Solstice 2015: What you need to know about the shortest day of the year December 22, 2015 Today is officially the shortest day of the year, meaning we will see less sunlight than on any other day in 2015. By the time the sun goes down this afternoon, we will have experienced a total of seven hours, 49 minutes and 41 seconds of sunlight in the UK. So, what is the winter [...]
From lack of control to confident ignorance – these are the three different types of stupid December 22, 2015 From blatant buffoonery to more subtle levels of idiocy, most of us would agree that it takes a lot of effort just to avoid stupidity as we negotiate daily life. But now scientists have given us a helping hand – by putting labels on the different types of stupidity. Hungarian experimental psychologist Balazs Aczel and his team collected online news [...]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully returns its Falcon 9 rocket after sending it to space in breakthrough for reusable rockets December 22, 2015 Activist billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX has sent its Falcon 9 rocket into space and back again – an important breakthrough for reusable rockets in space exploration. The first stage of the Falcon 9 gently touched down at Cape Canaveral 10 minutes after lift-off, to employees’ cheers. This was SpaceX’s first flight since June, when one of its rockets exploded [...]
Fintech firm Transferwise in early stage talks to team up with banks in the UK December 21, 2015 London fintech firm Transferwise is set to partner up with the banks it has previously accused of “scamming” customers. The money transfer firm has announced it is in early stage talks with up to 20 banks around the world, including established and challenger banks in the UK, to embed its services in their online banking [...]
Fintech adoption could double among digitally active consumers in the next year December 21, 2015 Consumers' love of technology is growing at such a pace that their adoption of financial technology (fintech) could double in the space of a year. According to a survey of more than 10,000 digitally active consumers from around the world released today by EY, 16 per cent have used at least two fintech services in the last six months, [...]
Watch live: Astronauts at the International Space Station go on spacewalk while Tim Peake assists December 21, 2015 Two astronauts based at the International Space Station (ISS) are currently walking in space. Wearing their astronaut suits, they have exited their spacecraft are now floating around, gravity-free. The purpose of their space walk is to mend a key component of the ISS’ machinery, the mobile transporter, a rail car that moves a robotic arm along [...]
Three things we learned about Apple from Tim Cook on 60 Minutes – Tax “crap”, encryption and China December 21, 2015 Tim Cook has made a rare media appearance talking everything Apple, from tax to China, on CBS's 60 Minutes show. The chief executive of the world's largest listed company with a market cap of more than half a billion dollars, set the record straight on several criticism's of the tech giant. Here's what he had [...]
Intellectual property claims made by small businesses are on the up, as the internet makes original content harder to police December 21, 2015 The number of small businesses heading to court to protect their intellectual property (IP) is on the up, driven in part by an increase in digital copyright cases. According to research released today by law firm Hugh James, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) heard 308 claims in 2014, compared to 287 in 2013, and the [...]
Mobile phone fines for drivers will soon increase under new government plans December 20, 2015 Drivers breaking the law by using their mobile phones behind the wheel will soon be hit with more severe penalties if new proposals get the go ahead. The current fine for using a phone while driving would increase from £100 to £150 and drivers would lose an additional point from their licence taking the total penalty points to [...]
