Arm Holdings – the biggest UK tech firm you may never have heard of – is getting sold to Softbank – the biggest Japanes tech firm you may never have heard of in a deal worth £24 billion.
So is this proof the UK tech industry is alive and well, or a cut price takeover following the sharp drop in the value of the pound?
The answer to that probably depends on which side of the fence you’re standing…
2015 has been another massive year in tech, with NFC technology taking over and changing the way we pay for goods, exchange information and even make a conference call.
Here’s a run down of what other top tech stories caught our attention during the last 12 months…
The UK’s top 20 coolest brands may not be something that’s necessarily on your radar – why would an arbitrary measure of something the vast majority of consumers buy into, or would like to buy into, ever be on anyone’s radar?
If you’re into tech though, this year’s list makes for interesting reading – not only does a tech brand top the list, other tech brands are clearly on the up.
Do you wake up each morning feeling like you could do with an extra hour or two before you’re ready to face the day ahead? Do you often hit the wall mid-afternoon? Do you struggle to switch off from the working day, or feel compelled to check social media last thing at night, first thing in the morning, or both?
Then it sounds like you could be suffering from technology addiction.
Have you ever wanted to take a conference call while in the shower, or conduct a teleconference while on the toilet?
It may seem like a odd question, but it’s something almost half (47%) of us admitted to doing in a recent study from InterCall.
Or maybe you just want some waterproof tech you can take to the pool or the beach on your summer holiday?
Whatever the reason, here is our updated round-up of the best waterproof tech…
Technology is progressing at a break-neck speed and making life a lot easier for all of us – arguably a little too easy if you consider how our cars will soon be parking themselves, while out smartphones become our PA’s – but what about when technology starts taking our jobs?
Although it sounds like the dystopian future of some science fiction novel, a study from Oxford University suggests a third of the British workforce could be replaced by machines withing the next 20 years.
And, unsurprisingly, it’s those at the lower end of the pay scale who will suffer with jobs that pay £30,000 or under around five times as likely to fall foul of tech than those that pay upwards of £100,000.
In case you haven’t heard, Apple is going to be unveiling its sixth-generation iPhone tomorrow – but what if you don’t care too much for Apple’s offerings, what’s out there to get your heart-rate app skipping a beat?
Teenagers are an image-conscious lot – but where it was once about having jeans from a must-have designer, the latest statement t-shirts, or the newest trainers, it seems today’s teens are turning their attentions to the latest, must have tech.
And whereas teenagers would never be seen dead or otherwise in ‘fake’ remakes of designer brands, it seems some are happy to save money on clothing and instead spend it on the latest smartphones.
Nicole Myers, a 19-year-old model from New York in USA, is one such teen technophile: “It’s definitely more exciting for a lot of teenagers to have a new phone that can do lots of cool stuff than clothing. A phone keeps you much more entertained. It’s a better distraction than clothing.”
So are our teens destined to ditch the threads for tech?
At the turn of the year we predicted, along with many others, hat 2014 would be the year of wearable tech as Sony, Samsung and Pebble all looked set to take the market by storm – it’s not quite worked out like that though.
Although more and more of us are coming around to the idea of wearable tech, and while there are a few months left of this year still, it doesn’t look like 2014 will quite be the year it breaks through.
So why hasn’t it taken off as expected? Maybe it’s because that the tech is wearable from a practical point of view, it’s still not quite suitable from a sartorial standpoint.
If you’ve ventured up in to the loft lately, or cleared out the garage, there’s a chance you may have stumbled across some old bits of tech, such as a cassette player or an old Nokia – let’s face it, everybody had a Nokia when mobiles first came out.
And while ‘tech’ might be pushing it a bit – has a tape deck ever been ‘hi-tech’? – these old bits of kit could be worth a few quid as some people (hipsters, probably) are going mad for retro tech as they look to make a stand against modern…well, anything…and party like it’s 1999.
Find the right buyer and not only could you offload your junk, you can also rip off a hipster while you’re at it. Win-win.
So, what sort of gear can you expect to get rid of?
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