Author: Charlotte Gill

China proposes high-speed rail to Iran

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

China has proposed a Silk Road high-speed rail link to Iran in order to boost connectivity between the two countries. The proposed route will start at Urumqi and then Yining in northwest China, before moving onto Kazakhstan’s Almaty, Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, and will then travel to the Uzbek cities of Tashkent and Samarkand. After a stop in Turkmenistan’s Ashgabat, the railway will finally move across to the capital of Iran, Tehran.

Through a series of high profile meetings and bilateral visits, Sino-Iranian relations have improved considerably over the past decade

Although rail infrastructure currently exists to transport goods between China and Central Asia, a difference in track width slows down the process considerably. At present, when goods reach Chinese borders, deliveries are delayed for days at a time in order for gauges to be changed.

The new rail link however, which will run alongside the old route, can eliminate this current issue – thereby improving the competitiveness between land and sea freight. The increase in cargo traffic is expected to justify the cost of the rail’s construction.

According to China Daily, passenger and container trains will travel along the same route, with the only difference between the two being speed; the former will travel at 250 to 300km per hour, while cargo will be transported at 120km per hour.

In addition to a new transportation link that will bolster trade between Beijing and Tehran, the two countries are also negotiating deeper military ties and strategic cooperation. Although China and Iran historically held close military relations in the 1980s and 1990s, the relationship began to decline in the early 2000s. Through a series of high profile meetings and bilateral visits, Sino-Iranian relations have improved considerably over the past decade, and particularly so earlier this year when a nuclear deal was strike between Tehran and the P5+1 countries (China, Russia, the UK, the US, France – plus Germany).

Deutsche Bank to make online banking safer than ever before

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Deutsche Bank is working on a new technology that should make online banking and paying via mobile both easier to use, while also being harder to compromise. The system hopes to do away with passwords, in favour of a combination of a number of other measures to identify the user.

The large number of personal features required to access the account should make unauthorised access to the account near impossible

The technology, which is being created in conjunction with the firm Callsign, will make use of various features of the bank account holder – such as the location they are in, the way in which they hold their phone, the force of pressure used on the mobile phones touch screen, fingerprints, and facial recognition.

The idea is that even if parts of the identity of an account user are taken – for instance, if a thief was able to somehow acquire their finger prints – the other metrics required will block their access. The large number of personal features required to access the account should make unauthorised access to the account near impossible.

At the same time, the sheer number of metrics required to access the account mean that not all of the metrics need to be satisfied for a user to login. If a specific number of the metrics are recorded as correct, but a number of others not, the account should still be able to be accessed.

Nick Doddy, Deutsche’s regional innovation manager, told the Financial Times: “If you’ve broken your right arm and… you’re at home and now you’re using your left hand, it will say her location is good, her PIN is good, her biometric is good, but she’s now handling it in a different way, so it might say ‘give me a facial recognition’.”

The sophisticated nature of the technology should give a higher level of confidence to banks that the user is who they say they are, which should result in banks allowing customers to execute higher value transactions.

COP21 gets green light despite Paris attacks

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

The COP21, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, is set to start on November 30. With the cooperation of over 190 countries, negotiators will attempt to ratify a legally binding and universal agreement that aims to prevent global warming exceeding a 2°C rise in temperature.

The event will see more than 50,000 participants and over 25,000 delegates from governments, intergovernmental organisations, UN agencies and NGOs – as well as key members of the international business community – descend on Paris.

After the terrorist attacks that occurred in the French capital on Friday 13 November, some worried that the event would not go ahead

The event will see more than 50,000 participants and a little over 25,000 delegates from various governments, intergovernmental organisations, UN agencies, NGOs, as well as key members from the international business community will descend on Paris for the conference.

After the terrorist attacks that occurred in the French capital on Friday 13 November, some worried that the event would not go ahead due to security concerns and the decision by the national government to issue a state of emergency, which restricted entry in and out of the country.

Despite this, organisers have said that the show must go on, with Climate Action CEO, Nick Henry, explaining that COP21 will “proceed as planned”.

“Such violent acts of terror against innocent people are incomprehensible and abhorrent, and my thoughts are with the families who have lost loved ones or are caring for the many injured,” said Henry.

“Laurent Fabius, France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, and Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, have already confirmed that COP21 will proceed as planned and we support them in the decision not to let terrorism derail what will be one of the most important environmental conferences of our lifetimes.

“France has reinstated border controls and will increase police deployment during COP21, so we feel assured that security in Paris will be appropriate to the level of threat. We are currently reviewing event security with Stade de France in the light of Friday’s events to ensure the safety of all participants.”

Tesla supercharges autopilot project

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

It appears Tesla is to accelerate its project to build autonomous cars as the company’s CEO Elon Musk personally appealed on Twitter for “hardcore software engineers” to apply. Tesla’s autopilot features hit the market only a few weeks ago and already the company is committing additional resources to the goal of complete automobile autonomy.

Tesla’s autopilot features hit the market only a few weeks ago and already the company is committing additional resources to the goal of complete automobile autonomy

Writing on Twitter, Musk stressed “that I will be interviewing people personally and Autopilot reports directly to me.” Calling the search a “super high priority”, people from across the globe responded enthusiastically to the company’s planned expansion of the Autopilot software team, with Musk responding to many of them personally.

Speaking little over a year ago now, Musk said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that a fully autonomous car would be ready in five to six years, and that the finished product would be a factor of 10 safer than a living person at the wheel.

Using a combination of camera, radars, sensors and mapping data, Model S and Model X cars, if equipped with the autopilot software, can automatically steer, change lanes and adjust speed when required.

However, for the present time at least, the autopilot features stop short of making any of Tesla’s car completely autonomous, and the driver must still place their hands on the wheel at certain points. Although Tesla’s autopilot-equipped cars differ to say Google’s in this manner, the company’s “fleet learning network” means that any valuable data gathered while on the road is automatically compiled and shared with the network. Essentially, when one car learns something new, they all do.

The ‘Son of Concorde’ takes flight in 2021

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

When Concorde got cancelled 12 years ago, business travellers lost the ability to fly from London to New York in three hours. But thanks to the combined efforts of airline manufacturers, Airbus and Aerion, supersonic flights are having a renaissance.

The manufacturers are currently working on the AS2, a new private jet capable of flying at 1.5 Mach (max), with the plan being to have it in the skies as early as 2021.

The jet will cater to the tastes of high-net-worth individuals

“Airbus Group has a long history of supporting innovation, and Aerion’s innovative aerodynamic technology unquestionably offers long-term benefits to the industry in terms of performance and efficiency”, said Doug Nichols, CEO of Aerion.

“We are targeting the first half of 2016 to select a propulsion system, which will enable us to formally launch the program shortly thereafter”, reported Nichols. 

Nicknamed the ‘Son of Concorde’, the plane will be made using carbon fibre and be capable of holding up to 12 passengers.

The jet is will also feature a luxurious interior, helping it cater to the tastes of high-net-worth individuals, who the aircraft is being marketed to. 

According to Aerion CEO Doug Nichols: “The message from many of today’s long-range business jet operators is very clear: They want a supersonic jet sooner rather than later; a cabin comparable in comfort to today’s long-range jets; a range of 5,000nm or better; and they are willing to pay more than $100m for such an aircraft.

“That is the supersonic jet we are working to deliver.”

China’s Tsinghua Unigroup bids to become world-leading chipmaker

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

The Chinese state-owned corporation, Tsinghua Unigroup, plans to invest $47bn (300bn yuan) over the next five years in order to build an electronic-chip empire. Its ambitious plans, which were revealed during an interview between the group’s Chairman Zhao Weiguo and Reuters, includes a series of acquisitions, as well as the takeover of an unnamed US chip company. The group aims to become the third biggest chip manufacturer in the world, dislodging Qualcomm, from the spot and placing it behind market leaders Intel and Samsung.

The group aims to become the third biggest chip manufacturer in the world

Its new strategy became public several months after the failed $23bn takeover of US rival Micron Technology, in what would have been the biggest foreign acquisition by a Chinese company in history. The proposed deal had raised national security concerns on the basis that the Micron produces chips for US weaponry systems.

The enormous investment is part of a big drive by the Chinese government to reduce dependence on Western producers and technology, as well as to become a global competitor in the field. Tsinghua Unigroup also hopes to gain a prominent role in the global supply chain of the NAND flash industry, a market that is currently dominated by the top five chipmakers in the world.

To help with this arm of its strategy, the group recently acquired a 25 percent stake in the Taiwanese Powertech Technology, which give it access to technology and resources crucial for testing memory products. The Tsinghua University controlled firm is also preparing to build a 90bn yuan factory to manufacture memory chips – a product that it does not manufacture at present.

Given the rate of mergers and acquisitions, together with the spending power of $47bn, it appears that Tsinghua Unigroup is on an unstoppable course to carve a place for itself in the fast growing but highly competitive global chip industry.

Saudi Arabia considers cutting energy subsidies

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Saudi Arabia is currently reviewing how to cut the generous energy subsidies it lavishes upon its citizens. After years of being able to provide cheap energy to its citizens, chronic low oil prices have seen pressure put upon the Kingdom’s budget. The country’s oil minister, Ali Al Naimi, when asked at a press conference whether or not the Kingdom will allow its energy prices to increase, replied that it was under study.

The fiscal pressure the Saudis now face is partly their own doing

The Kingdom, which sits upon the world’s second largest oil reserves, subsidises both consumers and business, with the majority of them going to commercial users such as industry and retail. Businesses that would feel the impact of a rise in electricity costs the most are likely to see cheap loans, to offset the shock of the subsidy reduction.

The fiscal pressure the Saudis now face is partly their own doing. In 2014, despite declining world oil prices, Saudi Arabia and other OPEC member states made a conscious decision to maintain production levels. This increased supply on the world market, leading the price of a barrel of oil to plummet from roughly $100 in July 2014 to $50 in January 2015, with prices hovering around this low point for much of the rest of the first half of the year.

This has created a gap in Saudi Arabia’s finances. In July, the Saudis had to raise $4bn on the domestic bond market – the first sovereign issuance in eight years. This was soon followed by once again in August, with an attempt to raise a further $27bn worth of funds.

Tag Heuer unveils $1,500 smartwatch

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

Eight months after it was first announced, Luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer has become the first luxury watchmaker of note to enter the smartwatch market. Complete with the brand’s trademark titanium casing, black rubber strap and watch face, albeit a digital one, the most notable characteristic is that it is the first of its kind to run Android Wear.

Analysts have long suspected that the luxury and smartwatch market would make a good fit

The watch, under the name of Tag Heuer Connected, shares much in common with the company’s traditional line up, and at $1,500 a pop, is the first smartwatch yet announced to retail for over $1,000. The release also makes Tag Heuer the first Swiss watchmaker to enter the smartwatch market, although the company has stopped short of branding the device “Swiss made”, given that the majority of its components have been manufactured elsewhere.

Analysts have long suspected that the luxury and smartwatch market would make a good fit, though it’s not yet known whether Tag Heuer’s typical customer will shell out for a less traditional device. With this in mind, the company has given buyers the option to swap out their digital device for a mechanical once their two-year warranty is up, in exchange for a $1,500 fee, which allows the watchmaker to stand by its traditions should push come to shove.

The biggest concern for Tag Heuer going forwards is that luxury customers tend to favour Apple’s products ahead of Google’s, and the former’s aversion to forming any partnership with third-party watchmakers could limit Connected’s compatibility with existing devices. For now, 1,000 units are available in only 15 stores across the US, with models in Britain, Germany and Japan to follow.

Snapchat captures six billion daily views

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

The number of daily video views on the messaging app Snapchat has tripled to six billion since May, thereby edging in on Facebook’s own daily count of eight billion. The figure is not only impressive because less people visit Snapchat on a daily basis than Facebook’s one billion, but also because the app is only available on smartphones, rather than desktops also.

Despite Snapchat’s huge appeal, particularly among younger consumers, and its valuation of $15bn, the start-up is actually struggling

The rapid increase illustrates the growing popularity of online videos, which is expected to drive a larger focus on video advertising online. In line with this growing trend, Facebook has been adding more video content onto its platform this year, which can account for its increase in users over the past seven months. According to Facebook’s November earning call as reported by the FT, 500 million people now watch eight billion videos on Facebook every day – double the figure than what was reported for May.

While Facebook remains the social media king, Snapchat has grown exponentially since it was first created in 2011. Over the last year, it has broadened its appeal by adding new features, such as Stories, a product that strings together ‘Snaps’ in order to create a narrative that lasts for 24 hours. Then in October, Snapchat launched Lenses, which allows users to choose from hundreds of filters and add animation to their pictures.

Despite Snapchat’s huge appeal, particularly among younger consumers, and its valuation of $15bn, the start-up is actually struggling. In August, the company’s financials were leaked online and revealed that it had lost over $128m in 2014, while making just $3m in revenue. Such figures can explain Snapchat’s current strategy of product expansion and partnerships with media giants, such as CNN and ESPN, yet it still has a lot of work to do in order to successfully monetise its mammoth number of worldwide users.

Amazon opens its first real store

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

After two decades of retailing online, internet giant Amazon has opened its first physical book shop. The store opens in University Village, Seattle on November 04, in what is said to be a permanent move, as opposed to a pop-up or temporary fixture. As well as books, it will also sell Kindles, and other electronic devices.

The decision to open an actual shop illustrates the ‘comeback’ of the print industry

Despite having a winning strategy of undercutting the prices of traditional bookstores, which is made possible by a lack of property and staff overheads, Amazon believes that it can combine the best of both worlds to make its new store a success. The pricing of the books in store will reflect those featured online.

The retailer will use data collected from its website to influence the contents of the shop, including basing its selection of 6,000 titles upon those most popular online. Books will also feature placards that provide a customer rating and a review given by a customer on the Amazon website. All books will be outward facing so as to attract shoppers to cover artwork, while titles with a 4.8 star rating or more will be showcased by the tills.

According to a press release published by Amazon in June, Seattle topped the list for “most well-read city” in the US, with its citizens not only purchasing the most books, but also the most newspapers, magazines and Kindle books. The Washington city is also home to the headquarters of Amazon, making it a natural choice for its flagship store.

The decision to open an actual shop, in spite of being the number one online retailer in the US, illustrates the ‘comeback’ of the print industry and the resurgence in popularity of physical books among consumers. Many had feared over the past decade that ‘print is dead’ due to the arrival of the internet age, yet more and more people are now being drawn by the allure of books and to certain aspects that simply cannot be mimicked on an electronic device or online.

Biggest pharma merger in talks

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

After a year of mergers, the biggest one yet is now on the cards as pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has entered into talks with Dublin-based Allergan – a firm specialising in dermatology, aesthetics and generic products.

Details of the deal have not yet been revealed, nor has an agreement been reached, states Allergan on its website. One particular hurdle that must be overcome during negotiations is the price of the transaction in a market in which share prices are falling for rival companies. The composition of the combined company and possible lay-offs at Allergan is also due to be discussed.

News of the talks has ignited a debate regarding tax inversions

News of the talks has ignited a debate regarding tax inversions, as the deal would enable Pfizer to take advantage of lower taxes in Ireland. As such, Pfizer is facing increasing pressure back home in the US, as presidential candidates target firms accused of relocating in order to pay fewer taxes domestically, as well as those charging high prices for prescription medicine.

“Clinton is committed to cracking down on so-called ‘inversions,’ where a company chooses to leave the US on paper to game the tax system, and believes we should reform our tax code to encourage investment in the US, rather than shipping earnings and jobs overseas,” said spokesperson Ian Sams, according to Reuters.

The possible merger comes after months of Pfizer’s $16bn acquisition of Hospira, in a bid to expand its portfolio of patent protected products. Now with the possible Allergan merger, Pfizer would also add the famous anti-wrinkle treatment, Botox, and Restasis, a dry eye treatment, to its range – the two alone earn $3.7bn in annual sales.

The combined company would have a market share of around $330bn, far exceeding the current global market leader, Johnson & Johnson by over £50bn, and will make up around a third of the total market worldwide.

European Parliament rules against net neutrality

Posted on by Charlotte Gill

On October 27, the European Parliament voted against a package of rules concerning the management of internet traffic, upon the basis that the move will create an internet “without discrimination”. However, the decision to reject a series of regulatory amendments has created uproar among tech companies and NGOs, which claim that due to various loopholes, net neutrality will not be safeguarded.

The decision to reject a series of regulatory amendments has created uproar among tech companies and NGOs

The other throng of decision, which will be welcomed by many, entails the abolishment of roaming charges within the EU by 2017. If fact, some believe that the reason that a large majority of MEPs had rejected the amendments package was so as not to cause further delays.

The package, as voted by MEPs, will create ‘fast lanes’ for specialised services, such as remote medical surgeries and self-driving cars. Internet service providers will also be able to offer customers ‘zero-rating’ services, in which customers can freely access sites and services outside of their data plans. Due to the overall vagueness of the rules however, many argue that it will be easy for internet companies, particularly large ones, to create deals with service providers that are disadvantageous for other market players.

Another possible consequence, which affects firms that supported the proposed amendments, including Netflix, SoundCloud, Etsy and Kickstarter, could involve sizeable fees to ensure that customers continue to receive data promptly. The Brussels-based lobby group, European Digital Rights, has also warned against an internet in which there are slow lanes and fast lanes for traffic, dependent on the fees paid for by content providers, or if the ‘zero-ratings’ loophole is used.

Even the creator of the World Wide Web had voiced his support of the amendments, “To keep Europe innovative and competitive, it is essential that MEPs adopt amendments for stronger “network neutrality” (net neutrality),” Sir Tim Berners-Lee wrote in a blog post for the Web Foundation. “If adopted as currently written, these rules will threaten innovation, free speech and privacy, and compromise Europe’s ability to lead in the digital economy,” he added.