The docks that you don’t have to dock with June 1, 2011 THE annoying thing with docks for MP3 players is how problematic and fragile those multi-pin docking connectors can be. Much easier if you don’t have to connect at all, which is what the latest generation of wireless docks and speakers enable. Bluetooth speaker systems have been around a little while but in items like Soundfreaq’s [...]
Electrical retailers face bleak future June 22, 2011 LOCATING the source of Kesa’s woes is fraught with difficulty, but its problems aren’t particularly new. Electrical retailers have been trading on wafer-thin margins for many years now, a fact that was disguised by the boom years when the property bubble meant TVs and white goods sold by the lorry load. When the crisis hit, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 25, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BRANSON WANTS 600 BRANCHES OF LLOYDS Sir Richard Branson has set his sights on buying a network of branches from Lloyds Banking Group as he attempts to go head-to-head with some of the biggest banks on the UK high street. Sir Richard met António Horta-Osório, Lloyds chief executive, on Tuesday and plans [...]
HMV in £53m deal to sell Waterstone’s May 20, 2011 HMV has agreed a deal to offload its Waterstone’s book chain to a fund headed by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut for £53m. Mamut already owns six per cent of HMV which has been struggling as downloads have hit its CD business, while sales at online retailers like Amazon have also taken off. The sale to [...]
Cheaper Kindle featuring ads to go on sale April 13, 2011 AMAZON?yesterday announced it will release a cheaper model of its Kindle e-reader that will feature adverts. It will initially go on sale in the US at a $25 (£15) discount, selling for $114 instead of the usual $139 price-tag. Users will, however, have to accept special offer adverts and sponsored screensavers. The first series of [...]
20 of the world’s largest donors December 21, 2011 1 BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION US The William H Gates Foundation was created in 1994 to work to improve global health. Created with an original stock gift of $94m (£60.5m), the foundation merged with the Gates Learning Foundation in 2000 to create the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The largest philanthropic organisation in the [...]
Gaunt Jobs unveils iCloud music system June 6, 2011 STEVE Jobs yesterday broke his medical leave to announce a new cloud-based music service that threatens to sink rivals such as Spotify. The gaunt-looking Apple boss unveiled iCloud, a music-streaming and online data storage service that can be accessed on devices such as the iPad and the iPhone. The service will allow users to instantly [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 25, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES HACKING FEARS SPARK TRINITY REVIEW Trinity Mirror, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, has launched a review of its editorial controls and procedures amid investor anxiety that phone-hacking claims could spread beyond the defunct News of the World. Trinity saw its shares fall 9.8 per cent yesterday over concern among investors that the [...]
Making your kitchen fit for a master chef June 2, 2011 THERE’S barely a TV minute, or channel flick that goes by these days without a celebrity chef whipping up an organic feast or gastronomic delight amid seductive lighting and a designer kitchen. Then there’s Masterchef, which has thrilled millions with its X Factor style drama. They’ve collectively inspired a nation of amateur culinary enthusiasts, and [...]
ENTREPRENEURS NEWS | IN BRIEF May 15, 2011 LoveFilm takes the BVCA prize LoveFilm and Mind Candy were badged as London and the South East’s best venture capital and private equity-backed businesses by the British Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (BVCA) this week. LoveFilm, acquired by Amazon in January, won the Exit Management Team of the Year award, while Mind Candy – [...]