Say ‘allo to Allo – Google’s WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger rival September 21, 2016 Google is jumping on the messaging bandwagon with a new cockney sounding app called Allo powered by artificial intelligence. The mashup between Apple Siri/iMessage/WhatsApp/Facebook Messenger/Snapchat might seem by some as a little late to the party – Facebook's Messenger and WhatsApp boast one billion users each and they dominate the world of messaging apps. Some suggest there can only be one chat [...]
Dixons Carphone has created an Amazon Dash style button prototype September 20, 2016 Dixons Carphone is experimenting with the Internet of Things (IoT) to create an Amazon Dash style button that can be used to provide customer support when their devices go wrong. Like a "panic button on a submarine", if your washing machine starts leaking, simply pressing the button will trigger a call back from Dixon's call [...]
Before the bell: What you need to know before the US market open September 20, 2016 Theresa May has been buttering up Wall Street following the Brext vote and drug giant GlaxoSmithKline has a new chief executive. Here's what you need to know before the US open at 2:30pm London time. The US futures markets are pointing higher ahead of the open. The S&P is up by 0.38 per cent, the Nasdaq [...]
Theresa May has called a Wall Street summit to reassure US banking giants in the aftermath of Brexit September 19, 2016 Prime Minister Theresa May is to go on a charm offensive with US banks, holding a summit with some of the biggest institutions in a bid to reassure them over potential repercussions of Britain's vote to leave the EU. Wall Street heavyweights invited to attend the special summit later today include JP Morgan Chase investment banking chief [...]
Eight years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, FutureBrand’s Tom Adams says that perceptions of banks’ brands are improving September 19, 2016 Eight years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, FutureBrand’s global head of strategy Tom Adams reflects on how the public perceives financial services organisations. In 2014, when his global brand consultancy first began polling professionals in 17 countries to see how they perceived the firms in PwC’s list of global top 100 companies by market capitalisation, [...]
We finally have a launch date for The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson’s Amazon Top Gear wannabe September 16, 2016 After what feels like aeons of hype, Amazon has finally confirmed a launch date for The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson's Top Gear-alike car show. The company said today the series, which also features Clarkson's Top Gear chums James May and Richard Hammond, will launch on 18 November on Amazon Prime Video, with new episodes released on a [...]
You can even use Amazon Echo to check your stock portfolio September 15, 2016 Time to ditch your computer screen? Checking how your portfolio is doing or finding out what's going on with a certain stock price is now as simple as asking. Amazon Echo, the home voice assistant device which launched in the UK yesterday, can tell you what the weather is like, play your music or help you keep track [...]
Morrisons reports improved sales and increased profits and says Brexit has had no negative effect September 15, 2016 Shares in Morrisons jumped almost five per cent as the market opened, after the supermarket reported an increase in sales during the 26 weeks to 31 July, and said it hasn't seen any ill effects from the Brexit vote. The figures Revenue dipped to £8.03bn from £8.06bn this time last year, however like-for-like sales in the first [...]
The Amazon Echo is an artificially intelligent speaker and virtual assistant that can play music, order curries and hail an Uber September 14, 2016 The Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker that you operate using voice commands. Inside it (well, somewhere in the cloud to be precise) lives Alexa, an artificial intelligence and essentially Amazon’s version of Siri. Alexa’s machine-learning algorithms and rapidly expanding skillset make her smarter as time goes on: so while today she can play music, [...]
Oh my god, I can’t believe it: Spotify has 40m paid subscribers, its founder said today September 14, 2016 It seems Spotify founder Daniel Ek has taken a leaf out of Elon Musk's book: the Tesla tycoon is fond of using Twitter to make market-moving musings. And today Ek did just that: 40 is the new 30.Million. 😄 — Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) September 14, 2016 He was, of course, referring to the number of paid [...]