It’s been a busy few weeks in the social media & tech world; from new appointments to iPhones in China, it’s all been going on at Apple, Twitter, Facebook and the rest this past fortnight. Here’s a quick summary of what you need to know.
Unless you’re extremely tech savvy and keep up to date with the inner workings of Silicon Valley, you probably don’t know who Paul Maritz is. But you soon might, as he’s the name tipped to be giving Tech City it’s first real endorsement. Tech City, the London based Government backed answer to Silicon Valley in the States, is soon to be inhabited by Pivotal, the self proclaimed ‘biggest start up in the world’. Headed up by Maritz, it’s in good hands. Paul was number 3 behind Bill Gates & Steve Ballmer at Microsoft during the computer giants most successful years, and his new venture is one which creates technologies to allow businesses to create cloud apps. This is a massive boost to Tech City, based around Old Street in the capital. They have the know-how in Maritz and money to spend with a recent $105million investment and a valuation at $1billion. They plan to open up an office in London, initially holding 45 high tech staff next month.
After recently being blasted for it’s all-male board, Twitter have brought their first ever female to the boardroom, taking on Dame Marjorie Scardino. The former Chief Exec. of Pearson celebrated her appointment by posting her first ever tweet!
@twitter Thank you. There couldn't be a more exciting time in Twitter's history to join!
— Marjorie M Scardino (@marjscar) December 5, 2013
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has reportedly signed a deal with China Mobile to sell iPhones on their network. Joining the network, which has 760 million subscribers, could dramatically increase sales of the smartphone and continue Apple’s global technology takeover. If the rumours are true, it’s thought an announcement will be made within the next fortnight!
Major company not paying a major tax bill – not a new story. Facebook dodges tax – even less surprising, it would seem. Every few months or so there’s yet another story about Facebook not paying their taxes properly, and this time it comes from Dublin, where the UK & Ireland offices are based. Although the social media giants raked in a staggering £645million from UK and overseas business (up £1.5 billion on the previous year), the Irish government only received £4.4 million in taxes!
This year, it’s estimated that on average every child in the UK will receive £600 worth of gadgets in their stockings on Christmas morning. However, The Wild Network group has come up with an idea to get people to put down their iPads, take out their headphones and unplug their consoles – ‘Wild Time’ vouchers. The vouchers are downloadable vouchers that families can cash in to do fun, outdoor pursuits, together! It’s an incredible simple and marvellous idea though we don’t think Apple are quaking in their boots just yet!
A businessman from Qatar took a lady to court after she bad-mouthed his company on Twitter after it took them 2 months to pay her money they owed her for work (before then deducting funds from her to pay their own bank charges). He decided to sue the lady in a civil court battle; however, days before the trial was due to start he did a U-turn and dropped the case.
You may remember that Snapchat recently turned down a $3billion bid from Facebook. Well, this week they took on Emily White – a top executive from Facebook. She’ll sit as 2nd in-command to 23 year old Chief Exec Evan Spiegal. Emily is a great addition to the Snapchat team; labelled as a rising start in Silicon Valley, she has also been responsible for bringing to advertising to Instagram, as well as being an executive at Google.
Amazon recently announced they were working on drones to deliver parcels to customers electronically. Even more recently, Google announced that they were also looking down digital delivery pathways, working on drones. The humanoid robots that could deliver good to your door are being designed by the brains behind Android. Google says the inventions are robots with animal-like characteristics such as vision and moving limbs! eCommerce just got exciting.
Picture via Jason Howie on Flickr.