Dashing chaps: Jaguar’s design guru, Ian Callum has teamed up with the boys from Bremont April 8, 2015 As a watch enthusiast who’s also lucky enough to be a watch-industry insider, one tends to get blasé about meeting the legends of the trade – something that’s par for the course when it comes to doing the rounds at that annual extravaganza of all things horological, the Baselworld watch and jewellery trade fair. So, [...]
US web outfit Endurance plunges after Gotham City points the finger April 28, 2015 TWELVE thousand words wiped half a billion dollars off the value of web-hosting firm Endurance International yesterday after Gotham City Research launched the latest salvo in its battle against firms it alleges are worthless. The research note, entitled A Web of Deceit, placed a $0 target price on Endurance shares, which were trading at $21.94 [...]
Competition: Win a case of Sauternes with City A.M. Wine Club May 19, 2015 *This competition is now closed To make joining the City A.M. Wine Club taste even sweeter, we are offering two lucky entrants the opportunity to win a full case of Sauternes from one of Bordeaux’s top chateaux. Chateau Rieussec is one of nine estates originally classified by Napoleon in 1855 as a Sauternes Premier Cru. [...]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX wins Nasa commercial flight contract September 17, 2014 It’s a good day for PayPal founder Elon Musk; his SpaceX corporation has been selected by Nasa as one of the two firms to design crew capsules for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The Commercial Crew Development programme has awarded SpaceX and Boeing a combined sum of $6.2bn to develop the capsules. [...]
Car review: Audi’s technology-filled Q7 is near perfect if you’ve got kids in tow May 25, 2015 Verbier in Switzerland is an entirely appropriate place to launch the new Audi Q7. It has narrow streets, tortuous winding mountain roads and a touch of motorway for the car to stretch its legs. A private jet flew me to Sion where the Q7 was waiting for me in a hanger. Audi’s massive SUV [...]
Elon Musk was on the verge of selling Tesla to Google for $11bn and even “shook” on a deal with Larry Page April 20, 2015 The millionaire magnate behind the world's best-known electric carmaker was on the verge of selling his company to Google as it failed to turn a profit. Elon Musk's Tesla was about to fall into bankruptcy and the founder had begun negotiating with Google on a deal for the firm, according to a new book on [...]
Interview with a robot: Life, love and everything as seen by a sentient machine June 30, 2015 Do androids dream of electric sheep? Actually, they are far more concerned with their own mortality. That’s how it is with Bina48, at least. She's a humanoid robot and, just like us humans, she suffers from the occasional nightmare. One, where she is back in her box having been disassembled and used to build other [...]
The £10,000 wardrobe: What to buy if all your clothes catch fire February 2, 2015 The worst has happened. Your flat has burned down and all your clothes have gone up in flames. You would go out tonight but you – literally – haven’t got a stitch to wear. The insurance company has made you a take-it-or-leave-it offer of £10,000 to replace the whole lot, from the shoes up. What [...]
ESA races ahead in space travel with Europe’s first space taxi launch February 9, 2015 Until its Space Shuttle programme was closed down in 2007, the US was the dominant force in the development of space taxis. Operated by Nasa, the 40-metre-long vehicles delivered satellites into space, conducted science experiments in orbit and helped construct the International Space Station. At the time, Europe had created nothing capable of [...]
Solar Impulse 2 follows the sun around the world from Abu Dhabi March 9, 2015 SWISS adventurers Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg yesterday took off from Abu Dhabi on a round-the-world flight – with no jet feul. The plane, the “Solar Impulse 2”, is powered by 12,000 solar cells on the wings and weighs about the same as a family car. It can run both day and night off solar [...]