The iPhone 6 is fine, sure, but with its massive footprint it’s also kind of a hassle if you have tiny hands. Take navigating back to the inbox from an email in Mail, for example; the gymnastics your thumb needs to undertake if you only have one hand available are Olympic-level. Enter Halo Back: not a Gwen Stefani remix but a smart screen protector that uses a capacitive channel to
One day in the not-too-distant future you’ll get in your self-driving car, speak out your destination and put your smartphone down on the arm rest – where it will begin charging automatically. Daimler (owner of Mercedes-Benz) and Qualcomm have announced a new partnership to work towards in-car wireless charging. The companies are also going to develop ideas for charging electric cars without cables. The days of fiddling around with cables
Introduction The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has finally seen its long-awaited release, and by all accounts, happiness should reign. Instead, its launch has been soured by one accursed word – downgrade. In a nutshell, the final game doesn’t look as good as players were expecting after early footage, and to add insult to injury, it’s because while the first two games were developed for the PC – the second one
German carmaker Daimler is to make software from web services company Baidu available in its Chinese Mercedes-Benz cars as part of a trend of deepening ties between carmakers and consumer technology companies. Carmakers are seeking to extend information and entertainment services available in vehicles, as well as smartphone compatibility, in an era of increasingly congested traffic. Daimler and Chinese tech giant Baidu announced their tie-up on Monday at consumer electronics
European shares fell in thin trade on Monday while the dollar powered ahead after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen indicated that the central bank was poised to raise interest rates this year. Investor concerns about Greece’s debt problems and a poor regional and local election result by Spain’s ruling People’s Party also weighed on the euro and European shares. The pull-back in European stocks mirrored losses on Wall Street
Central bankers should be aware of the potentially destabilizing effects of super-easy policy on financial systems, a top U.S. Federal Reserve official said on Monday, even if monetary policy should not be used as a main tool to prevent bubbles. “I would opt to use the macroprudential tools as the first line of defense, since they can be more targeted to the markets and institutions where the risks are emerging,”
Crude oil futures edged up on Monday as firm global demand vied with a strong dollar, but a public holiday in the United States and much of Europe kept trading muted. Front-month Brent crude gained 6 cents to $65.43 a barrel by 1400 GMT, after touching an intraday low of $64.72. U.S. crude was down 30 cents at $59.42 a barrel, after reaching $59.10 earlier in the session.
Greece intends to make good on its debt obligations but needs aid urgently to be able to do so, the government said on Monday, after several senior officials insisted Athens had no money to pay a loan installment falling due next week. It must repay four loans totaling 1.6 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund next month, starting with a 300 million euro payment on June 5 that is
Loss-making Malaysia Airlines is set to undergo a complete overhaul as it is restructured into a new company, with a rebranding that will be unveiled next week and changes planned to its fleet and network strategies. Christoph Mueller, who joined from Irish national carrier Aer Lingus, said in his first ever interview since taking over as chief executive on May 1 that the new company will be like a “start-up”.
OPEC is unlikely to change its production ceiling when the group meets in June, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Sunday, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. “Lowering OPEC’s production ceiling requires consensus between all members … under current conditions it seems unlikely that the OPEC production ceiling will change,” Zanganeh was quoted as saying. Last month, Zanganeh said the producing group should cut its target daily crude