Apple shares slump after China sales fall, Volvo to stop Polestar investment
Apple shares slumped in after-hours trading - driven by disappointing iPhone sales in China and a warning that future revenues will fall well short of expectations on Wall Street. The gloomy market reaction overshadowed an otherwise strong financial performance in Apple's first fiscal quarter. In the three months to 30 December, the tech giant reported…
Apple overtook Samsung as largest smartphone brand in 2023, research shows
Latest research from Omdia has found that in the fourth quarter of 2023, the smartphone preliminary shipment total reached 328 million units. This marks an 8.6% increase compared to 4Q22, and highlights 4Q23 as the first quarter to see a significant increase since 2Q21. It is also an 8.6% increase compared to the previous quarter. This…
Parkopedia partners with Charge Hub for North American EV charging
Connected car services provider Parkopedia is partnering with ChargeHub, the largest North American EV roaming hub operator, to enhance the charging experience for millions of North American EV drivers. ChargeHub’s 80,000-strong network of charging stations across the US and Canada will be integrated into Parkopedia’s Payment Platform to enable in-car charger activations and payments via…
Ofcom proposing further action to tackle ‘spoofing’
Ofcom is today proposing to strengthen its guidance on how phone companies should identify and block calls from abroad that falsely use UK numbers, known as spoofing. A common tactic used by criminals to defraud victims is to imitate – or ‘spoof’ – the phone numbers of legitimate organisations, like banks and Government departments. Fraudsters based abroad…
Mark Zuckerberg accused of ‘blood on his hands’, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 to get ‘glow up’
Mark Zuckerberg was one of several social media bosses accused of having "blood on [their] hands" at a hearing where companies were criticised for not doing enough to protect children from being exploited on their platforms. Mr Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, faced a sea of people who held pictures…
5 ways AI can help with your small business
The AI boom is set to spread far and wide in 2024, with a reported 77% of global businesses using the technology. However, it’s reported that only 29% of startups/small businesses have adopted the tool so far, citing lack of expertise as their main reason for not doing so. Interestingly, a survey of 3,000 business owners…
Elon Musk’s Neuralink implants brain chip, Amazon/iRobot merger shelved
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has claimed his Neuralink company has successfully implanted one of its wireless brain chips in a human. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he said "promising" brain activity had been detected after the procedure and the patient was "recovering well". The company's goal is to connect human brains to computers…
Global Spending on Consumer Electronics to drop $5.3 Billion in 2024
After record sales during the pandemic, the global consumer electronics market has had a challenging two years. High inflation and gloomy economic outlook cut down consumer budgets and significantly changed their spending habits, with many focusing their reduced disposable income on travel and leisure activities rather than tech. This low-demand landscape is expected to continue…
Telecoms firms must ditch ‘outrageous’ price rises, Which? warns
Broadband and mobile users face being trapped this Spring between price rises of potentially more than £60, or contract exit fees which may exceed £500, Which? research has found. The consumer watchdog is calling on telecoms firms to scrap these grossly unfair plans for April 2024 inflation-linked hikes that regulator Ofcom clearly determined cause 'substantial…
X blocks searches for Taylor Swift, Apple promotes Vision Pro ahead of launch
Image: Ronald Woan https://www.flickr.com/photos/rwoan/albums/72177720307235065/with/52792412295 Social media platform X has blocked searches for Taylor Swift after explicit AI-generated images of the singer began circulating on the site. In a statement to the BBC, X's head of business operations Joe Benarroch said it was a "temporary action" to prioritise safety. When searching for…