For many scientists, physicists and fans of space venturing, getting to Mars could be the most important thing we do in the 21st century. But we have a long way to go before touching human feet on the red planet, so perhaps the best way to prepare the way for …
Read More »YouTube is apparently planning a TV streaming service
YouTube has been expanding a lot in the last couple of years, not only have we seen the launch of YouTube Music but the popular video site also launched YouTube Red, a paid subscription service that removed ads and gives access to exclusive original shows from specific content creators. Now, …
Read More »UK’s ad watchdog is making ISPs simplify broadband pricing
The UK's Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has confirmed that it is introducing new guidelines that would put ISPs in a position where they would need to make broadband pricing more transparent and simplify packages. This comes just a day after TalkTalk confirmed that it would be taking the first steps …
Read More »UK’s red telephone boxes to be converted to micro-offices
The red phone box is a little like the red double decker bus in the UK: a major part of 20th century culture. Of course today though, the phone box is rather useless for most, so one company is looking to change that, by turning them into micro-offices, for use by …
Read More »Google announces Fiat partnership with driverless cars
While Google has spent many years developing autonomous vehicles, many wondered if it would eventually get into car manufacturing itself, or partner with a more traditional company. It looks like the latter may be the most true of those ideas, as it's now announced a partnership with Fiat to help …
Read More »Vivendi buys up even more shares in Ubisoft
While Activision may have managed to escape the clutches of Vivendi, attention has now turned to Ubisoft. A few months back, Vivendi began buying up shares in Ubisoft and the publisher's CEO spoke openly about opposing any form of takeover. However, this week, Vivendi bought even more shares in Ubisoft …
Read More »Judge rules Amazon at fault for child in-app purchases
We have all heard horror stories of children being left with smartphones or tablets and running up insane charges on in-app purchases. This issue has been brought to the attention of the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon plenty of times in the past and it took a while for …
Read More »YouTube is making a big change to its Content ID system
Over the last couple of years, YouTube's Content ID copyright system has been a bit of a pain for quite a few YouTubers, particularly those that rely on Fair Use. Currently, if a claim is made on a video, monetization immediately stops, which means the creator isn't making any money …
Read More »Virgin Media to expand FTTP to one million UK homes and businesses
While BT is looking to offer better speeds on its entry-level fibre optic broadband package, Virgin Media is looking to raise the bar on its higher-tier packages, with plans to expand its fibre to the premises (FTTP) offerings to one million UK homes and businesses, paving the way for future …
Read More »China is gunning hard for driverless cars too
We've heard a lot about western companies like Google, Tesla and various traditional manufacturers working on autonomous vehicle technology, but China is making a big play for it too. Along with Baidu, many Chinese firms have been working on developing self-piloting vehicles, many of which showed off their latest efforts …
Read More »Storing cat pictures in DNA: Microsoft buys up 10 million strands
While the world of mainstream computing seems to have finally caught on that an SSD is the only place to put your operating system, some companies are already looking to the future of long-term storage. One solution Microsoft is experimenting with, is very different than the norm: DNA storage and …
Read More »Space X kills decade long ULA military contract monopoly
For the first time in more than a decade, a company other than Boeing or Lockheed Martin will be launching American military hardware into orbit, ending a monopoly the two had created in a very lucrative industry. The company that dismantled that long-running tradition? Space X, the relatively young space …
Read More »Intel also wants to replace the 3.5mm headphone jack
It looks like the 3.5mm headphone jack is going to suffer an abrupt end over the next few years. Not only is Apple planning to ditch it entirely on its next iPhone but now Intel has weighed in on the conversation and it seems that the chip making giant would …
Read More »Getty Images accuses Google of promoting photo piracy
Getty Images, a well-known US-based photography agency has accused Google of promoting photo piracy and undermining its business. This will lead to yet another formal antitrust complaint being filed against the company with the European Commission, which already has two antitrust cases out against Google at the moment regarding Android …
Read More »Would you spend £300 on a Dyson hair dryer?
Dyson is a company that has revolutionised blowing or sucking air for a couple of decades now, changing the face of vacuum cleaners and bathroom hand dryers the world over. Now it wants to change how those with long hair dry it, with a new near-silent hair dryer that while …
Read More »In-road LED lighting to help smartphone distracted pedestrians
Although there are some parts of the world that have considered banning the practice of texting while walking, the German city of Augsburg, just outside Munich, is trying something different. To prevent its smartphone users from endangering themselves on the roads, it's added LED traffic lights to crossings at different …
Read More »You can now buy games on Steam using Bitcoin
While the fanfare surrounding digital currencies like Bitcoin seems to have settled down a bit over the last year, plenty of people still have some left over to use and now, you can use your Bitcoins on Steam. We first heard that Valve may roll out Bitcoin payments on the Steam …
Read More »Elon Musk claims Tesla autopilot halves the number of crashes
Although there are a lot of companies out there testing autonomous vehicle features like lane assist and smart cruise control, Tesla was the first to provide a near-fully driverless motorway option to Model S owners. While it's had some hiccups, CEO of Tesla Elon Musk, has announced that it has …
Read More »Microsoft and Google agree to try to stop battling in the court room
One of the more frustrating aspects of the tech world is the amount of lawsuits and legal complaints flying left and right between large companies. However, Google and Microsoft have agreed to make an effort to start to try to settle their differences outside of the court room going forward …
Read More »UK government wants 10 year jail sentences for online piracy
Following on from an almost year-long consultation on the matter, the UK government has decided that two-year maximum prison sentences for those caught sharing copyrighted material online might not be enough, and now wants to push for a ten-year maximum sentence instead. According to an Intellectual Property Office report, this …
Read More »Don’t take to the skies: drones banned during London Obama visit
As much as the commercialisation of manual and autonomous drone technology has gone some way to democratising the skies, that won't be possible during U.S. President Obama's visit to the UK at the end of this week. Beginning today, Thursday 21st April, drones are banned across whole swathes of London, …
Read More »Noble brings true leather to OCUK gaming chairs
Gaming chairs are a surprisingly hot product line at the moment, which is why Overclockers UK has continued to expand its offerings with various companies from around the world. Its latest edition however, is a little exciting, as Noble Gaming offers true-leather gaming chairs, a first for the market. The …
Read More »Space X landed Falcon 9 is finally home for testing
Although the big, scary and complex journey for the Space X Falcon 9 rocket was its launch and recovery on the drone barge earlier this month, it still had to take a trip to Space X's facility at the Kennedy Space Centre. After many days of travel on the back …
Read More »Intel to cut workforce by 11 percent, 12,000 staff to be let go
Earlier this week, reports began circulating stating that Intel was planning a huge round of job cuts. At the time, we didn't know how many would be affected but following on from the company's quarterly earnings report, the announcement was made that Intel would be cutting down its workforce by …
Read More »Netflix insists its VPN blockade isn’t hurting business
It has been a few months since Netflix officially announced that it would be taking a harder stance against VPN users and those trying to circumvent geographical content restrictions. This has been a fairly controversial move but apparently, it isn't having an effect at all on the company's pocket. During …
Read More »‘Light skin’ could be techy bodypaint of the future
Staple of prank videos, art shows and magazine photoshoots the world over, clothing-feigning bodypaint is always quite an impressive show of how easy it is to trick the human eye. But we may do away with it and perhaps even clothes altogether one day, as a new type of ‘E-Skin' …
Read More »Intel is reportedly planning to cut thousands of jobs
According to reports making the rounds this week, it looks like Intel could be planning to hold a round of mass job cuts shortly, reducing the headcount in some divisions significantly. This will apparently be an even bigger round of job cuts than last year, when 1,100 people were let …
Read More »UK Hosting company error took a bunch of customer websites offline
While some on the internet were trolled last week by a man claiming to have destroyed his entire company with a bad line of code, this week we have a very real story about a hosting company that may have managed to accidentally delete an unspecified number of its customers' …
Read More »European Commission’s Android antitrust probe turns to complaining businesses
It has been a while since the European Commission first launched its anti-trust investigation against Google's Android OS and now, the commission is ready to hear the formal complaints from businesses claiming foul play. The companies that initially complained about Google's hold on the market with Android now have 24 …
Read More »BT to boost entry-level fibre speeds to 52Mbps
We all know how frustrating BT can be to deal with at times here in the UK but if you do happen to use their Fibre service, then you may soon be treated to faster speeds. BT has announced that it is bumping up the speeds of its entry-level fibre …
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