Simon Fabri' s blog – Perspectives on the world of the connected everything
London is host to 24 of 50 of the hottest FinTech startups according to a panel of judges from Google, Microsoft, some banks and venture capital firms, further cementing London’s place as the Silicon Valley of the finance world. London is home to Europe’s hottest fintech startups
Only six months after launch, Amazon has appeared to have pulled its beta Amazon Wallet app, in the wake of a raft of poor reviews, having averaged 3.1 stars on the Google Play store. This product could only use Amazon vouchers and credit as a means of payment, and was consequently not well received by users, who did not see the point of it. Pointedly, all its main competitors seem to have more comprehensive products and strategies in this space – Apple Pay accepts … Read more…
It has been barely 2 years since the 800MHz and 2600MHz bands were assigned in the UK for use by 4G services, and Ofcom, the UK communications regulator has already kicked off the process for assigning spectrum to be used by as-yet unknown 5G technology. Perhaps stung by criticism that the UK was a laggard in assigning 4G spectrum. However, the spectrum being considered is at 6GHz, and many home WiFi users will attest to, very high frequency spectrum does not … Read more…
SoftCard, the struggling mobile payments joint venture in the US between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile is apparently in the eyes of Google as it seeks to counter the success of Apple Pay in the US. Be interesting to see what this means for other carrier payment joint-ventures, such as Weve in the UK. The Wall Street Journey covers the essentials of this story well. Google Is in Talks to Buy Mobile-Payments Service Softcard null
Reviewing the various round-ups on what was big at CES, most agree that the Internet of Things was pretty high up the agenda of the companies attending, and was the underlying theme for the event. Not that this is a reliable predictor – don’t forget that 2012 was the year that supposed saw 3D TV come of age. The Absentees It is perhaps worth starting with a reminder of the notable absentees, Apple, Google and Microsoft, the three industry’s largest platform and … Read more…
In the first of a series of posts on noteworthy announcements at this year’s CES, we look at what Blackberry have been talking about. In November, we discussed the prospects of Project Ion, Blackberry’s umbrella Internet of Things play, where we talked up the applicability of Blackberry’s core expertise in embedded systems, mobile messaging and security to the world of connected ‘things’. Well, this week, John Chen, Blackberry’s CEO has been filling in the gaps, and it has been getting … Read more…
The need for means for managing user privacy as more and more devices become connected is a topic that has been raised a number of times on this blog. This week, at CES, someone slightly more influential, the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, Edith Ramirez raised these very concerns. While highlighting all the wonderful benefits the Internet of Things can bring, she highlighted the risks of ubiquitous data collection, the impact of unintended uses of data and the increased security risks will … Read more…
This blog has already explored the multitude of standards currently being used as the basis for connecting sensors, object and all sorts of things to the Internet and to each other. Nowhere is this problem more acute than in the area of home automation, where the lack of widely adopted standards results in systems that don’t talk to each other, and worse, in systems that quickly become obsolete and cease to be supported by their manufacturers. The situation where the home … Read more…
This week Microsoft announced that it was opening up to accept Bitcoin payments for its Xbox Live platform and Windows and Windows Phone stores through an integration with BitPay, a firm that provides bitcoin payment processing. Initially, bitcoin will be used to top-up Microsoft accounts, rather than to pay directly for a service or payment. Nevertheless, this move makes sense for Microsoft and aligns well with the younger demographic of Xbox Live. It definitely adds a serious dose of credibility … Read more…
Square, the US-based payments company best known for its mobile point-of-sale system has just announced that it has processed more than $100million worth of transactions in a single day. Probably the fact that the upcoming holiday season makes this the busiest time of year for consumer spending has some impact. This comes hot on the heels of a couple of significant partnership announcements made last month. First is a partnership with Snapchat to send money between friends, clearly addressing the … Read more…