The British Christmas that Charles Dickens serves up to us is rich in food and warmth, two things that in his day were often thinly stretched throughout the year in many homes. These days, for most of…
Aleksi Aaltonen, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
BT is planning to swallow mobile phone provider EE for £12.5 billion, a deal that will bring together Britain’s largest fixed-line telco and broadband provider with the country’s largest mobile phone network…
Uber is as good old reliable taxis - and can be only four times the price.
Lisa S/Shutterstock
Popular cab-hailing service Uber seems as accident-prone as ever, attracting criticism for quadrupling its rate to a minimum of $100 during the Sydney siege hostage situation. Having been criticised in…
Games appear in galleries, does that make them art?
blakespot
The UK’s video games industry body Tiga has called for the products to be treated like other creative industries such as television or film, rather than mere “software”. There is a good argument for this…
Google’s operations in Europe have come under fire recently, with the UK proposing new corporate tax reforms that are being dubbed a “Google tax” for targeting the multi-national. And this follows hot…
Take note: how does a typing on a laptop stack up to handwriting?
Ed Yourdon/Flickr
Two people walk into a seminar: one takes photos, video and an audio recording of the presentation, while the other takes hand-written notes. Which person do you think will better recall the information…
However hi-tech the world has become, it still rests on copper cable.
zhangyang13576997233/Shutterstock
Telephone companies have yet again announced inflation-busting increases in telephone line rental charges. Why, in a world that is increasingly mobile-first – or even mobile-only – are we still paying…
Hacking can, and should, keep us on our toes.
Alexandre Dulaunoy
The world is already short of computer security experts, but by 2017 that shortfall is going to have reached about two million. Criminal hackers cause damage running to billions of pounds every year…
Did they get any Jennifer Lawrence pics?
EPA/Rodong Sinmun
The recent cyber attack on Sony Pictures was so extensive there were notices placed on the entrance doors telling staff not to log in to the company’s network when they reached their desks. Sony’s entire…
Scenes that retailers dream of.
David Parry/PA Wire
Advent – the season of preparing for Christmas – has only just begun. But the build up to the consumption bonanza that Christmas has come to represent, started weeks ago. And to give retailers a December…
There has to be a better way than this.
Syda Productions/Shutterstock
Any verbal exchange – whether a scientific panel discussion, lovers quarrelling in a hallway, or the political hard-talk of a live interview – is a very sophisticated human activity. Besides the intricate…
Apple’s market value has reached a record-breaking US$700 billion, far outstripping its nearest rival. In a year of superlatives, the company’s shares have risen by 60% and it made its largest ever acquisition…
The product placement is obvious, but are viewers aware that it is paid for? And do they care?
AmazingPhil
Names like Zoella, Caspar, Alfie Deyes, and Tanya Burr might not trip off the tongue for the over 35s, but they are among the vloggers (video bloggers, that is) at the vanguard of radical changes in the…
Did MI5 send Michael Adebolajo a friend request?
Dave Thompson/PA Wire
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) of Parliament has now released its 191-page report into Lee Rigby’s murder. The report concludes that even though the ISC “discovered a number of errors…
On November 22, the national police non-emergency 101 and the NHS 111 services suffered disruption as a result of a technical fault in the Vodafone national network. This meant that people wishing to report…
The news that BT is in talks to buy either the O2 or EE mobile phone operators comes as no surprise. The UK telecoms market is one of the most competitive and regulated in the world and with traditional…
Home Secretary Theresa May is giving new powers to the police, which will enable them to clearly identify who is using a computer or mobile phone at a given time. Putting the politics of national security…
One of the UK’s largest market research firms has caused a stir with an online tool that gives a peek into its treasure trove of consumer profiles. YouGov describes its Profiler app as “a showcase for…
The UK Information Commissioner Christopher Graham has drawn attention to a webcam-monitoring Russian website, which offers thousands of private video streams, raising fears of unwitting and continuous…
Are we slaves to the convenience of Uber?
Andrew Matthews/PA Wire
Uber, the leading company in the taxi app sector, recently had to defend its company culture, values and ethics due to several reported incidents. These range from customer complaints, poor safety standards…