Foxconn launches investigation into working conditions at factory used to make Amazon devices June 11, 2018 A Chinese plant that makes devices for Amazon is being investigated after an American watchdog group slammed the facility for harsh working conditions. Contract manufacturer Foxconn said yesterday it would launch an investigation into the plant. A 94-page report by China Labor Watch said bosses made staff work excessive hours, with low wages and inadequate [...]
All eyes on The Amazon June 8, 2018 All Eyes on the Amazon has been awarded £300,000in funding from players of People's Postcode Lottery. This funding will save one million hectares of Brazilian Amazon rainforest through an innovative training programme for local forest ranger teams. This will allow them to use drones, smartphones, and satellite-based monitoring systems to collect images, maps, and stories [...]
DEBATE: With House of Fraser closures, does it matter if consumers desert the high street for online outlets? June 8, 2018 With House of Fraser closures, does it matter if consumers desert the high street for online outlets? John Phillips, general manager (EMEA) at Zuora, says YES. Yes, it does matter if consumers desert the high street. Bricks-and-mortar retail is in trouble. Across the US and Europe, online retail is growing exponentially, while offline sales seem [...]
Premier League overseas TV rights: English top flight makes concessions to Big Six but still treads carefully June 7, 2018 You would be forgiven for missing it but, muffled somewhat by the noise surrounding Amazon’s purchase of a Premier League broadcast package and the news of chief executive Richard Scudamore’s imminent departure, today saw another significant announcement regarding English football’s top division. From the 2019-20 season, when the next set of broadcast contracts takes effect, [...]
Premier League TV rights: Amazon purchases first TV rights package to show 20 live Premier League matches from 2019/2020 season June 7, 2018 Amazon will show 20 Premier League matches a season for three years from 2019, and these will be available to the tech giant’s Prime members in the UK. From the 2019/2020 season, UK Prime members will have access to watch 20 matches a season, and will show one round of midweek games in December, and [...]
Inconsistent and erratic regulators risk stifling our thriving vaping industry June 7, 2018 Independent vaping companies, free from ownership or control by the tobacco or pharmaceutical industries, make up 90 per cent of what is one of the fastest growing industries in Britain. UK vaping businesses are known globally for their innovation and product stewardship, and locally, independent vape shops are one of the few areas of positive [...]
Turning a new page – how book marketing is changing June 4, 2018 ONE MIGHT think that with the rise of smartphones, the growing popularity of on-demand entertainment from the likes of Netflix, and headlines about Amazon eating the lunch of the high street bookshop, the UK book publishing industry might be in trouble. In fact, the most recent figures from the Publisher Association show that the sector [...]
One in five EU consumers have shopped using a voice assistant like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa June 4, 2018 While 87 per cent of US consumers are aware of voice and text aides, the European Union is miles ahead on adopting new technology from the likes of Apple, Amazon and Microsoft to carry out their daily buying needs. According to research carried out by Mastercard, 21 per cent of consumers in the EU have [...]
Facebook denies new data privacy allegations over its decade-old mobile device APIs June 4, 2018 In a post-Cambridge Analytica world where tech giants have to be increasingly touchy when fingers are pointed at privacy issues, Facebook has issued a rebuttal to allegations that parts of its tech are still leaking data to third parties. Over the last ten years, Facebook has reached data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 mobile device [...]
Yandex amps up its premium offering with new smart speaker launch and subscription service May 29, 2018 Yandex, also colloquially known as Russia’s answer to Amazon and Google, has today launched a smart speaker and a corresponding premium subscription service, alongside a range of expansions to its artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and intelligent assistant Alice. Known as Yandex.Station, the 9,990 roubles (£120) smart speaker is both Yandex’s first hardware product and the [...]