News

Mobile apps and software

July 24, 2017 24 Jul'17
Daimler and Bosch show off autonomous valet parking

A test of an app-based autonomous valet service is to take place at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart over the next few months
July 19, 2017 19 Jul'17
IBM results show slow transition to new business model

Cognitive is one of the cornerstones of IBM’s ‘strategic imperatives’, yet building out a portfolio of products and services will take time, IBM’s CFO admits
July 18, 2017 18 Jul'17
TfL starts ESN pilot build on the London Underground

At a GLA Oversight Committee hearing, TfL’s CTO revealed the organisation is building a pilot version of the Emergency Services Network on the London Underground
July 14, 2017 14 Jul'17
How Formula 1 plans to digitise fan experience

For a sport built on advanced technology, Formula 1 has lacked a truly digitally enabled fan experience – but that could be about to change

July 12, 2017 12 Jul'17
Contactless technology pushes card payments ahead of cash in retail sector

Retail payments made by debit cards exceeded the number made by cash for the first time last year
July 12, 2017 12 Jul'17
Australia’s Whispir dials into global market

Fast-growing cloud-based communications service provider expects to more than double its workforce within a year, and grow its business in the double-digit range
July 11, 2017 11 Jul'17
Legal & General picks HomeServe’s IoT LeakBot to protect homeowners

Insurance firm partners with HomeServe to deploy its internet of things LeakBot technology and lower customer premiums
July 07, 2017 07 Jul'17
Govia Thameslink rail operator picks Worldline for mobile ticketing

Rail operator Govia Thameslink sets out to replace its desktop ticket issuing service with a Worldline mobile solution
July 06, 2017 06 Jul'17
Sainsbury’s Group sales grow as Argos boosts performance

Group reports 8% increase in online grocery business and 10% rise in online Argos sales as total like-for-like sales jump 2.3% in first quarter
July 06, 2017 06 Jul'17
Uber puts the brakes on in Finland until 2018

App-based car transportation company has stopped providing one of its services in Finland until next year

July 06, 2017 06 Jul'17
TfL figures reveal massive contactless adoption

Transport for London figures for the use of contactless payments on its network add weight to its plans to sell its expertise to other cities
July 05, 2017 05 Jul'17
Experian upgrade causes glitches in service

Credit scoring company recently upgraded its systems and introduced a new mobile app that caused temporary issues for some customers
July 03, 2017 03 Jul'17
China, India to drive global mobile industry

The two Asian giants will account for nearly half of all new mobile subscribers worldwide by the end of the decade, according to a new study by GSMA
June 29, 2017 29 Jun'17
App-based banking continues its ascent in the UK

The number of people banking from their mobile phones is increasing as more services are made available through the channel
June 27, 2017 27 Jun'17
BT launches free London Wi-Fi and phone calls

Londoners and tourists to get free Wi-Fi and calls from BT as the company replaces phone boxes with digital services units
June 27, 2017 27 Jun'17
Danish mobile payments users get lock-screen and Touch ID technology

Holders of Denmark’s national debit card can use their fingerprints to instigate payments
June 26, 2017 26 Jun'17
Middle East retailers urged to embrace e-commerce platforms

E-commerce in the Middle East makes up a tiny proportion of the region's GDP, but this will change as Amazon stokes the market
June 23, 2017 23 Jun'17
Swedish fintech Klarna gains full banking licence

Swedish online payments provider Klarna becomes one of “the largest banks in Europe” after being granted an EU-wide banking licence by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority
June 22, 2017 22 Jun'17
Insurance industry transformation will mirror travel sector through insurtech

Insurtech is gaining momentum, and companies in the sector of all sizes and ages can learn from startups
June 19, 2017 19 Jun'17
Hovis boosts job applications after HR tech roll-out

Baker and flour miller expects a quick payback from HR technology project
June 15, 2017 15 Jun'17
As EU mobile roaming charges end, industry frets over impact

As consumers celebrate the end of mobile roaming charges across the EU, the industry is facing up to the challenges of implementing the new rules
June 15, 2017 15 Jun'17
Finnish mobile operators opt-out from free EU roaming

Finnish mobile operators have been exempted from new European Union data roaming rules for now
June 14, 2017 14 Jun'17
Baby Boomers taking to social media in greater numbers

Older adults are more connected than ever before, says Ofcom, with almost half of 65 to 74-year-olds now having a social media profile
June 14, 2017 14 Jun'17
Gatwick and six other airports to hold international hackathon

Trans-global hackathon aims to develop applications to improve air passenger experience
June 14, 2017 14 Jun'17
Microchips implanted in hands could be in use for payments in 20 years

UK consumers are becoming more accepting that biometric authentication will become the norm for payments
June 14, 2017 14 Jun'17
HR technology essential to cutting-edge customer service, say big businesses

If you can’t get your internal HR systems right, the business will suffer – Jaguar Land Rover, Lufthansa and Russia’s Sberbank explain why
June 14, 2017 14 Jun'17
Lufthansa Systems ‘crowdfunds’ BI to mine flight data

Open source business intelligence tool enables airline to gain new insights from a decade’s worth of ticket sales
June 13, 2017 13 Jun'17
Ford commits to London tech community with innovation centre

Ford is opening an innovation centre in east London to tap into the London tech scene
June 13, 2017 13 Jun'17
UAE telco Etisalat to pilot 5G

CTO says company is committed to trials and commercial launch of 5G in the UAE and the rest of the Middle East
June 12, 2017 12 Jun'17
Telematics firm on track for growth with managed SIMs and IoT

Fleet-tracking company Protrack is using a managed SIM card and internet of things services to improve its customer services posture and enter new markets
June 09, 2017 09 Jun'17
Patent group prepares for tough data protection laws by moving HR to the cloud

CPA Global to replace ERP-based HR system as it gears up to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation
June 08, 2017 08 Jun'17
Islamic State supporters shun Tails and Tor encryption for Telegram

Confidential communications show terror group’s supporters are turning to simple mobile phone messaging apps to exchange messages and distribute propaganda
June 08, 2017 08 Jun'17
Green Party wins the race for digital performance

Benchmark tests on the political parties’ websites shows the Green Party on top, with the Liberal Democrats bottom of the rankings for response times
June 06, 2017 06 Jun'17
Network tech helps BT customers cut carbon emissions

Telco claims it is now making 22% of its total group revenues from products contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions
June 05, 2017 05 Jun'17
New London restaurant orders up secure Wi-Fi service

Kiln, a new Thai restaurant in Soho, demonstrates the criticality of network services to support digital transformation in the SME sector
June 05, 2017 05 Jun'17
Singtel, DBS beef up SME support programme

The 99% SME initiative will provide small companies with a new online marketplace and an app to optimise digital advertising spending
June 05, 2017 05 Jun'17
Mass collection of data on population ‘illegal’, UK court told

Investigatory Powers Tribunal hearing challenges GCHQ over legality of mass surveillance, as government plans moves to control encryption
May 31, 2017 31 May'17
Norwegian bakery chain gets the taste of mobile reporting

Baker Brun, a bakery company in Norway, is modernising its business processes through the latest technologies
May 25, 2017 25 May'17
Debit card transactions to overtake cash payments, thanks to contactless

The number of payments made using debit cards will exceed the number made by cash three years earlier than expected, as a result of the success of contactless technology
May 24, 2017 24 May'17
Dubai financial services regulator launches temporary licence aimed at fintechs

Dubai is making it easier for financial technology companies to test out their ideas through a temporary licence
May 24, 2017 24 May'17
Twenty years of online banking has increased financial awareness

Online banking is helping people manage their finances better and reduce their debt as a result
May 24, 2017 24 May'17
Digital-only business bank gets regulatory approval

The latest challenger bank gets its regulatory approval and puts modern technology at the core of its offering
May 22, 2017 22 May'17
Dutch railway uses IoT to reduce people jams

Railway stations in The Netherlands are monitoring the movement of travellers to manage traffic flow and reduce people jams
May 22, 2017 22 May'17
HSBC voice authentication tricked by twins

Twin brothers managed to trick HSBC’s voice recognition security system into giving account access to the wrong person
May 22, 2017 22 May'17
Denmark's Spar Nord bank in app dispute with Apple

Danish bank Spar Nord considers legal dispute with Apple over the supplier’s rejection of mobile app
May 19, 2017 19 May'17
Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust deploys nurse-led mobile vital signs app

App developed with IT company ThinkShield helps clinicians at London NHS trust to prioritise at-risk patients
May 17, 2017 17 May'17
Google DeepMind patient data-sharing based on inappropriate legal grounds, says Caldicott

National data guardian for health and care says the NHS data-sharing deal with Google DeepMind, which relied on implied consent from patients, was made on an inappropriate legal basis
May 17, 2017 17 May'17
Startup aims to improve web access for disabled people

Essential Accessibility is on a mission to make online services more friendly to disabled people through a mix of assistive technology and consultancy
May 16, 2017 16 May'17
Customer experience transformation at Macquarie bank brings legacy system retirement as a bonus

Australia’s Macquarie bank builds a data layer on top of legacy IT systems to transform customer experience
May 16, 2017 16 May'17
Samsung Pay finally hits the UK

Mobile payments app available in the UK nearly two years after its launch
May 15, 2017 15 May'17
More than half of consumers trust reviews over retailer advice

Consumers are now more trusting of other customers and product reviews than they are of advice given by retailers
May 15, 2017 15 May'17
Toys R Us introduces tablets for store staff

Toy and games retailer Toys R Us is trialling the use of tablets for store assistance to provide a better customer service experience
May 11, 2017 11 May'17
Made.com trialling real-time chat for customer advice

Online retailer Made.com has partnered with Hero so showroom staff can chat live with online shoppers to help with queries and shopping decisions
May 11, 2017 11 May'17
Paymentless retail could be the future, says Barclaycard VP of strategy and innovation

The ideal in-store customer experience would be for payments to be an invisible part of the shopping process, says Barclaycard’s vice-president of strategy and innovation
May 11, 2017 11 May'17
London will lose its European tech leadership status because of Brexit

London is at risk of being usurped as the tech capital of Europe because of the UK's impending withdrawal from the benefits of EU membership
May 11, 2017 11 May'17
Addison Lee uses common customer transport tech to offer luxury couriering

Addison Lee is well known for being a business-focused private hire firm in and around London, but as competition has increased the firm has refocused its use of tech to provide courier services to customers and retailers
May 05, 2017 05 May'17
Smartphone apps can help to treat anxiety, university research shows

Research suggests the use of smartphone devices has the potential to “revolutionise current methods for gathering and using data in mental healthcare”
May 04, 2017 04 May'17
Facebook revenues, profits and users up in first quarter

Despite a strong first quarter, investors are nervous about the future profitability and growth of Facebook as it indicates it is starting to hit advertising revenue limits
May 03, 2017 03 May'17
Mayor of London seeks chief digital officer

Capital’s first-ever chief digital officer will oversee the digital transformation of public services across London
May 03, 2017 03 May'17
NHS challenges require alignment of tech and redesign, says Swindells

NHS England’s national director for operations and information, Matthew Swindells, calls on the NHS to use technology to alleviate pressures on the health service and enable app developers to create an ecosystem of self-care apps
April 29, 2017 29 Apr'17
IS supporter Samata Ullah branded a “new and dangerous breed of terrorist"

Samata Ullah, a 34-year-old man from Cardiff who posted encryption training videos on a radical Islamic blog, is a dangerous “cyber terrorist”, a court heard on 28 April 2017
April 28, 2017 28 Apr'17
Nordea strikes partnership with Swedish mobile payment startup

Nordic bank links up with payments startup in its latest fintech project
April 27, 2017 27 Apr'17
TSB launches first fruit of its owner’s proprietary system

TSB launches its first IT-based service built on its new core IT platform called Proteo
April 27, 2017 27 Apr'17
Case study: Specsavers furthers digital transformation with single customer view

UK retailer Specsavers has been in the process of digital transformation for several years, and has now partnered with Fujitsu to eliminate disparate systems and create a single customer view
April 26, 2017 26 Apr'17
Aussie developer Wangle makes foray into VPN market

Wangle’s proprietary virtual private network application optimises encrypted traffic and complies with Australia’s new mandatory data retention law
April 24, 2017 24 Apr'17
Motorola brings big data digital evidence service to UK police forces

Motorola is launching a digital evidence management service to UK police forces, backed off into AWS cloud infrastructure
April 24, 2017 24 Apr'17
Consortium hopes to drive autonomous car from London to Oxford

The Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles has awarded an £8.6m grant to back a consortium attempting the UK’s first Level 4 autonomous vehicle test run, to take place within the next two-and-a-half years
April 24, 2017 24 Apr'17
Danish bank group first to offer mobile payments with Dankort

A group of banks in Denmark are working together on a mobile payments service
April 21, 2017 21 Apr'17
ASEAN enterprises facing mobility roadblocks

An IDC survey commissioned by Red Hat reveals organisations in the ASEAN region lack mobile-specific skills and tend to approach mobility projects in an ad-hoc manner
April 13, 2017 13 Apr'17
Victoria Police to get more productive with mobile devices

Apple devices fitted with policing apps will let officers access vital information and collaborate while on the go
April 12, 2017 12 Apr'17
Chatbots, Fitbits and AI: IT suppliers identify the top trends in HR technology

Businesses are using Fitbits, artificial intelligence and chatbots to improve working life as competition increases to recruit talented ‘millennials’
April 11, 2017 11 Apr'17
Middle East’s Uber-like service adopts facial recognition technology

Ride-hailing service is using facial recognition technology to reassure customers that drivers are authorised
April 11, 2017 11 Apr'17
Going mobile in Moscow: city digitisation the Russian way

Computer Weekly meets with Andrey Belozerov, strategy and innovations advisor to the CIO of Moscow, to learn how the city government is taking a joined-up approach to digitisation and smart city technology
April 11, 2017 11 Apr'17
Video will become ‘cash cow’ for telecoms providers, says Huawei

Video services have the potential to generate a lot of money for telcos, according to Huawei president of products and solutions Ryan Ding
April 10, 2017 10 Apr'17
Customer expectation is biggest problem for retail, says panel

As retailers increasingly try to serve consumers across online, in-store and mobile, the main challenge they face is consumer expectation, according to a panel of experts
April 09, 2017 09 Apr'17
Shadow IT lurking in Southeast Asia

Singapore and Malaysia have the highest proportion of employees who use unapproved personal devices at work, according to a VMware survey
April 07, 2017 07 Apr'17
Cyber security fears are a barrier to fintech innovation

Survey shows most large financial services firms believe better visibility of cyber security controls within fintechs would improve prospects of partnering with them
April 06, 2017 06 Apr'17
CIO interview: Richard Sharp, CTO, Shazam

We speak to the new chief technology officer at music discovery service Shazam about how to foster an innovation culture
April 05, 2017 05 Apr'17
Technology investments core to JP Morgan Chase success

US investment bank is reaping the benefits of its $9.5bn annual technology spend
April 03, 2017 03 Apr'17
Australian banks’ move to boycott Apple Pay denied

Australia’s competition watchdog is concerned that the proposed conduct is likely to reduce or distort competition
March 31, 2017 31 Mar'17
NHS England updates its 'Five Year Forward View' and sets out technology plans

NHS England’s updated five year strategy reveals mental health trusts chosen to become digital centres of excellence, launch date for NHS apps library and plans for NHS 111 online
March 31, 2017 31 Mar'17
Expanding business intelligence firm uses technology to bring in recruits

Chester-based GBG has saved £300,000 in recruitment costs and seen its ‘Glassdoor’ ratings jump from 1.9 to 4.2 out of 5
March 30, 2017 30 Mar'17
UK insurtech startups follow fintech example

UK startups focused on technology for insurance companies saw capital investments double last year
March 29, 2017 29 Mar'17
Belfast Waterfront centre equipped with state of the art network

Belfast City Council has refitted its Waterfront conference and entertainment venue with new smart building connectivity to enhance the staff and visitor experience
March 28, 2017 28 Mar'17
Mobility suite saves Surrey and Sussex Police officers time and money

Over 3,000 frontline Surrey and Sussex Police officers have been outfitted with Airwave’s Pronto e-notebook and application suite
March 27, 2017 27 Mar'17
Emerging APAC markets more prone to malware

Indonesia, India and the Philippines are among the top 10 countries with the most number of malware infections, according to a Malwarebytes study
March 27, 2017 27 Mar'17
Consumers want to use retailer apps in-store

Consumers want retailers to implement applications that can be used in-store to offer personalisation and convenience
March 21, 2017 21 Mar'17
Mashraq uses beacon technology to make financial life easier

In its latest fintech launch, the UAE’s Mashraq bank is deploying beacon technology to ensure its customers get the loyalty rewards they are entitled to
March 20, 2017 20 Mar'17
Half of banks think more payments will be via fintechs by 2020

Fintechs have gone from being an emerging threat to banks to an opportunity for collaboration, according to an EIU report
March 20, 2017 20 Mar'17
Openreach trains apprentice engineers in virtual reality

Openreach inductees get to experience an immersive simulation of life as an engineer, taking them up telephone poles and into underground chambers
March 15, 2017 15 Mar'17
Digital commerce makes up less than 1% of GDP in Middle East

Region sees double-digit growth in consumer use of digital channels, but businesses seem reluctant to get involved
March 13, 2017 13 Mar'17
Royal Dutch Touring Club stimulates innovation and renewal of ICT

Dutch motoring club has shaped its business in a way that enables the business and IT department to innovate together
March 13, 2017 13 Mar'17
Vodafone brings offshore contact centre work to UK

Mobile operator Vodafone is creating 2,100 jobs in the UK by reducing the amount of call centre work done offshore
March 09, 2017 09 Mar'17
Open Rights Group calls for control of spies’ use of zero-days

Wikileaks’ publication of documents detailing CIA hacking tools has prompted calls for government to control spy agencies’ use of vulnerabilities in widely used hardware and software
March 09, 2017 09 Mar'17
Nordea brings social aspect to saving with fintech startup Spiff

Nordea launches a mobile savings app from Norwegian finanical technology company Spiff
March 08, 2017 08 Mar'17
Abu Dhabi finance regulator pens fintech agreement with Singapore central bank

The financial services regulator in Abu Dhabi is co-operating with its counterpart in Singapore to promote financial technology developments
March 08, 2017 08 Mar'17
WhatsApp, Signal, ProtonMail safe from CIA hacking tools

Top secure messaging and email apps are said to be safe from CIA hacking tools, but organisations are urged to assess their own vulnerability if the tools were to fall into the hands of cyber criminals
March 07, 2017 07 Mar'17
Bank branches still more popular than mobile apps for new accounts

Major research reveals the opportunities and challenges facing fintech firms
March 06, 2017 06 Mar'17
Virtual reality simulation helps KLM engineers escape in an emergency

Dutch airline KLM develops virtual reality simulation to show engineers what to do if a maintenance hangar catches fire
March 03, 2017 03 Mar'17
Crystal Palace Football Club uses app to securely share tactical information

IT is helping Crystal Palace football team to prepare for matches