Author: Elliot Davies
The Newsroom
| July 20, 2012 | Posted by Elliot Davies under entertainment, reviews |
The Newsroom is the latest brainchild of Aaron Sorkin, the prominent Hollywood writer who brought us A Few Good Men, The West Wing and The Social Network. The show focuses on a television newsroom at the fictional Atlantis Cable News (ACN), where anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) holds court with the support of his new executive producer, MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer), and newsroom staff including Jim Harper (John Gallagher, Jr), a producer, and Maggie Jordan (Allison Pill), an associate producer, all overseen by Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston), the news division president. The format of the show will be familiar to fans of Sorkin’s previous work. Much as The West Wing focused on the inner workings of the White House, so The Newsroom focuses on the inner… more
TSR on tech: your weekly news summary
| July 15, 2012 | Posted by Elliot Davies under TSR on tech |
Welcome back to TSR on tech! This week we’ve got all sorts of exciting news, from the sudden sale of Digg right through to a nuclear-powered underwater deep-sea Chinese mining station. Quite seriously. Plus there’s everything in between: funding for GitHub, funding from Bing, patent settlements, activity from Anonymous, announcements about the next two major operating systems, and much more. Read on! Business Digg, the social news site that was once valued at $175mn and was seen as one of the main drivers of internet traffic, has been sold to Betaworks, a technology development company, for just $500,000 plus equity. The site fell from favour after a series of missteps in the way it engaged its community, and since its… more
TSR on tech: your weekly news summary
| July 1, 2012 | Posted by Elliot Davies under TSR on tech |
Wow, what a week! This might be the most stories we’ve ever covered in one go, so let’s not waste too much time on introductions. Want to know about Sheryl Sandberg and Bob Mansfield? Jimmy Wales’ petition to save Richard O’Dwyer? Apple’s injunctions against Samsung? Details of the Natwest “meltdown”? Google skydiving? All that and much, much more below. Business Facebook has named Sheryl Sandberg, its chief operating officer, as its eighth director. In a statement, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, said: “Sheryl has been my partner in running Facebook and has been central to our growth and success over the years. Her understanding of our mission and long-term opportunity, and her experience both at Facebook and on public company boards makes… more
TSR on tech: your weekly news summary
| June 24, 2012 | Posted by Elliot Davies under TSR on tech |
It seemed as though nobody wanted to follow Microsoft’s Monday announcement of its new Surface tablet, resulting in an unusually slow news week – or so they would have you believe. Never fear, for we have dug deep to bring you all the best tech stories that didn’t make the headlines: we’ve got employees breaking ranks at Google, good news on ACTA, Julian Assange causing havoc as usual, and Larry Ellison buying a Hawaiian island. And if you’re lucky, we might also mention Natwest’s “small” banking issues and have a quick look at the Surface after all. Business Yahoo! has hired Michael Barratt, a well-known advertising executive currently working for Google, to be its chief of revenue from July. The move signals… more
TSR on tech: your weekly news summary
| June 17, 2012 | Posted by Elliot Davies under TSR on tech |
It’s the Apple edition of TSR on tech, with the WWDC keynote on Monday dominating the news cycle for the rest of the week. There were other goings-on, which we have duly reported on: cuts at Nokia, a rejected appeal for Assange, some important security updates; but all eyes were on San Francisco for Apple’s announcements about hardware updates, the new MacBook Pro with a Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion, and iOS 6. We’ve got the details on all of the aforementioned and more – just read on! Business Nokia, formerly the world’s largest mobile phone maker, has announced layoffs of up to 10,000 employees. The company will also close a factory in Finland and research facilities in Germany and… more
TSR on tech: your weekly news summary
| June 10, 2012 | Posted by Elliot Davies under TSR on tech |
It’s been a fairly slow week for those of us not frantically predicting what Apple will (or most likely won’t) change in iOS 6, which is due to be announced on Monday at WWDC. But the tech world never really grinds to a halt, and so we’ll still be taking a look at layoffs at HP and Olympus, wheelings and dealings in various courtrooms, Google’s 3D maps, Toshiba’s laptop with a 21:9 display ratio, and how you can get your very own Iron Throne. All this and more, below. Business Meg Whitman, CEO of HP, has announced that the company will be laying off 27,000 employees, or 8% of the company’s workforce, by October 2014. The cuts are expected to… more
TSR on tech: your weekly news summary
| June 3, 2012 | Posted by Elliot Davies under TSR on tech |
For once it has been a generally positive week in tech, with good news on ACTA (i.e. bad news for ACTA) and an outcome to the Google-Oracle Java suit that will have developers everywhere cheering. There are also some nice announcements from Facebook, a slight increase in momentum for Do Not Track, exciting event announcements from Apple and Google, and several product launches and releases. The news might not be so good if you’ve invested in Facebook or RIM, or if your name is Julian Assange, but at least you’re not a mayor who has just been arrested by the FBI. Business Facebook’s foray into the public market is looking less and less like the grand success Mark Zuckerberg &… more
TSR on tech: your weekly news summary
| May 13, 2012 | Posted by Elliot Davies under TSR on tech |
It has been a most unusual week in the tech world, with neither news about Apple nor any more mind-numbing patent lawsuits. Instead we’ve got some exciting intrigue at Yahoo! – did he alter it or didn’t he? – along with good news on ACTA, bad news about The Pirate Bay (sort of), several announcements from Facebook, and a couple of highly amusing computer glitches. Read about all this, and more, below. Business The headlines this week were that Scott Thompson, CEO of Yahoo!, is being accused of falsifying his academic record. Thompson’s official Yahoo! profile (included as part of regulatory filings submitted to the SEC), as well as his official bio from his previous job at eBay, stated that… more
TSR on tech: your weekly news summary
| April 22, 2012 | Posted by Elliot Davies under TSR on tech |
It was all about the numbers this week, as several major companies reported their quarterly earnings. Many hit the mark but we weren’t left without any surprises; you’ll have to read on to find out more. If finance isn’t your thing then don’t fret: we’ve also got the low-down on the Flashback virus infecting everyone’s Macs, a brief open beta for Diablo III, a very fancy watch, and MacBook Pro perfume. I kid you not. Business Microsoft’s Q3 earnings were better than expected this week, as the Redmond company reported profits of $5.11bn – 60 cents a share – on revenue of $17.41bn. Analysts had expected $17.18bn. The greatest increases were in Microsoft’s Business Division, which reported a 9% year-on-year… more
TSR on tech: your weekly news summary
| April 15, 2012 | Posted by Elliot Davies under TSR on tech |
It’s a business-heavy week this time around, with Facebook’s highly priced acquisition of Instagram and the launch of the first major Windows Phone handset. We also have some number stories as usual: this week it’s Google’s Q1 earnings, Apple’s market cap, layoffs at Sony and a patent purchase by Microsoft. Not only that, but Apple is being sued by the American government, Anonymous is unexpectedly topping a poll of influential people, and Google+’s metamorphosis into Facebook is nearly complete. For all this and more, read on! Business By far the biggest tech story this week was the sudden announcement that Facebook will be buying Instagram, a popular photo-sharing service, for $1bn. Many are wondering how sensible this was: not yet… more
