Tesco share price dips as Blinkbox Books closes ending supermarket’s digital entertainment services January 26, 2015 Tesco is closing the last of its digital entertainment services, Blinkbox Books, after failing to find a buyer for the ebook platform. The news sent shares in the supermarket down just over three per cent in afternoon trading. The struggling supermarket said it would close the service by the end of February to focus on [...]
Fitbug starts to flex its muscles January 7, 2015 The founder of the British fitness tracking group tells Oliver Smith in Las Vegas that he is already thinking about the next big thing PAUL Landau has had an interesting six months. In July he was the founder of a wearable fitness tracker firm whose share price had hovered around 1p for over two years, [...]
CES 2015: Still the biggest tech show on earth – Bottom Line January 8, 2015 As the global tech industry packs its bags and leaves the neon lights of Las Vegas behind for another year, is the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s largest tech convention, still relevant? On one hand, CES boasts that this year it had more than 3,500 tech exhibitors and over 160,000 attendees. The organisers have [...]
Royal Mail share price falls as profits drop after struggles with competition November 19, 2014 This isn't what Royal Mail shareholders wanted to hear in the run-up to its busiest month: shares fell 7.3 per cent in the early afternoon as the 500-year-old postal service said its delivery operations faced "stiff competition" in the first half of the financial year. For the six months to 28 September, pre-tax profit [...]
Styluses for iPads: Take your tablet experience to the next level November 5, 2014 Apple doesn’t believe in styluses. Avoiding reliance on a digital pen was part of Steve Jobs’ masterplan when engineering the first iPad and the Cupertino company has stuck to its guns ever since. There are a handful of third party devices on Apple’s online store but you won’t catch it manufacturing its own. [...]
EU VAT rule change could hike the cost of ebooks January 1, 2015 After weeks of deep discounts and mega-sales courtesy of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day, shoppers may be a bit miffed to find out that at the start of the new year they may have to pay more for their ebooks. As a result of a change in EU tax rules, digital products will be [...]
Netflix now more popular than iPlayer, 4OD and Amazon Prime Instant Video May 14, 2014 Netflix is now the second largest driver of online traffic in the UK and Ireland, just two years after it launched, and it now accounts for 17.8 per cent of traffic, according to new research. The television and movie streaming service is beaten only by YouTube’s 19.9 per cent share of traffic, according to Sandvine. [...]
Black Friday UK 2014: Where are the best bargains for must-have Christmas toys? November 25, 2014 As the countdown to Black Friday – November 28 if you're wondering – continues, the big question is exactly which items will be going on sale. Luckily for you, the Toy Retailers Association has today unveiled its DreamToys, the gifts that the industry has judged “must have” Christmas crackers. The list has pedigree [...]
Tax competition is good for Europe: Don’t let Jean-Claude Juncker muddy the waters January 21, 2015 At the end of last week, the European Commission disclosed a preliminary finding that Amazon’s tax arrangements in Luxembourg could have constituted “state aid”. While Amazon has said that it had received no special treatment, this is not good news for the Duchy’s former Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, now president of the Commission. Yet the [...]
Thomas Piketty rejects France’s Legion of Honour award January 1, 2015 France's rock star economist Thomas Piketty has turned down France's highest state honour because, in his view, it is not the role of the government to dispense these kinds of awards. The economist made waves in 2014 and topped the Amazon bestseller list with his book Capital in the 21st Century, which postulated that inequality [...]