Amazon’s virtual home assistant Echo comes to the UK September 14, 2016 Amazon has launched its virtual home assistant Echo in the UK and Germany, its first markets for the device outside the US, which lets users control their home and do tasks online via simple voice commands. The device, priced at £149.99 or £99.99 for Prime members, is powered by Amazon's Alexa, an artificial intelligence voice assistant similar to [...]
Just Eat orders £445m placing for takeaway May 21, 2015 JUST EAT moved closer to gobbling up Australian takeaway business Menulog last night, after it closed the books on its £445m placing and open offer. Bookrunners JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have conditionally placed 105.4m new ordinary shares with institutional investors at 425p per share, which will fund its acquisition of Menulog. The online takeaway [...]
Here’s some food for thought: The courgette crisis is no joke – the UK’s food security is at stake February 17, 2017 News of the so-called courgette crisis has been greeted with a certain amount of mirth in the press. The image of middle-class diners looking lost without their spiralized suppers after an uncommonly soggy winter in Spain was never going to provoke an outpouring of sympathy. However, a new report commissioned by Morrisons today suggests we [...]
Interiors: The Ivy Collection is spreading across London like a glamorous disease. We go on a restaurant crawl through the city June 16, 2017 A colleague recently took me to a new Asian restaurant in Shoreditch. As we were shown to a table my face fell. One of us would be looking out at the room and the other would get to look at a concrete wall. Kindly, my courteous companion took the duff seat, but neither of us [...]
Quiz: How boring is your daily lunch choice? February 13, 2017 Not looking forward to lunch today? That's hardly surprising: a new study has found a whopping three-quarters of Britons eat the same lunch every day – with 58 per cent saying they've eaten the same thing for as long as they can remember. The study, by the New Covent Garden Soup company, found 81 per cent of [...]
Focus On New Cross: With year-on-year house price growth at nearly 15 per cent, SE14 is a safe bet in Zone Two July 3, 2017 Like many areas tipped for great growth in years to come, New Cross is a place that’s sandwiched in between two much trendier neighbours. The meteoric rise of Peckham and Deptford has left poor SE14 trailing in its wake, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be just as popular in just a few years. [...]
Sutton goalkeeper Wayne Shaw resigns after pie stunt placed under investigation by FA and Gambling Commission February 21, 2017 Sutton United reserve goalkeeper Wayne Shaw has resigned from the club after coming under fire for eating a pie during Monday's FA Cup loss to Arsenal. Shaw is under investigation by the Football Association (FA) and the Gambling Commission after he potentially broke betting rules with the stunt. "Wayne himself has offered his resignation to the chairman [...]
Could the secret to a long and healthy life be hidden in a remote part of Costa Rica? We set out to meet the tribespeople who live beyond 100 years old September 5, 2017 The town hall in Nicoya, western Costa Rica, is one of the few colonial buildings left in the country. Given that the town was about to host a “congress of international centenarians”, it seemed like a good place to start my investigations into longevity. Unfortunately, no-one in the building seemed to know anything about it. [...]
Letter: Entrepreneurs urge government to consider access to tech talent after Brexit October 18, 2016 Entrepreneurs at the UK's fastest growing startups have signed an open letter urging government to consider the tech industry's need to access international talent in the wake of Brexit. Dear Editor, Britain’s digital industries are expanding at an extraordinary pace, creating jobs and contributing some £161bn in turnover to the economy. Companies like Just Eat, Mimecast, Shazam, Skyscanner, Mimecast and [...]
Just Eat devours more customers as orders jump May 5, 2015 ONLINE takeaway service Just Eat reported a jump in orders in the first three months of the year, as investment into its apps and websites paid off. Just Eat listed last Spring, and became the biggest technology float in London in eight years, said that like-for-like orders increased by 47 per cent in the first [...]