Blu-Ray – No Way
NEC and Toshiba have jointly submitted an alternative blue‑laser DVD specification to the DVD Forum, directly challenging the Blu‑ray format endorsed by a consortium of major electronics firms. Their proposal emphasizes backward compatibility with existing DVD production lines and eliminates the need for a cartridge, enabling slimmer drives and dual‑layer discs. The companies plan to release a PC‑compatible blue‑laser drive next year, followed by a consumer DVD player in 2004. This move initiates a new standards war in the high‑definition optical media market.
The Distrusted MSM
A Statista Consumer Insights survey of 31 countries reveals that 31% of French respondents distrust their mainstream media, the highest level globally. Japan and the United States follow closely, with roughly three‑in‑ten respondents expressing skepticism. The United Kingdom and Germany...
Starlink vs OneWeb
OneWeb, now under Eutelsat, finished deploying a 648‑satellite low‑Earth orbit constellation plus six trial units in 2024. By contrast, SpaceX's Starlink runs more than 10,000 satellites and plans to expand beyond 15,000. OneWeb’s satellites sit in a slightly higher orbit...
Elon’s New Pay Packet
Elon Musk’s newest compensation plan at SpaceX ties a massive equity award to a Mars colonization milestone. If SpaceX reaches a $7.5 trillion market cap and establishes a one‑million‑person colony on Mars, Musk would receive 200 million super‑voting shares valued at roughly...
Stock Market Shrugs Off War
After a sharp dip when the US‑Iran war erupted in late March, the S&P 500 rebounded by mid‑April, regaining all March losses and climbing to 7,137.9 points—a 13% rise from the March 30 low. The rally was fueled by strong corporate earnings,...
Renewables Overtake Coal
Renewables now account for nearly 34% of global electricity generation, overtaking coal as the largest single source in 2025. Solar power drove 75% of the net increase, adding 636 TWh, while wind also expanded. Coal’s share slipped to 33% after peaking...
E-Books Lag Printed Books
Statista’s latest market data shows e‑books still lag printed books in most countries. In the United States, 21% of consumers bought an e‑book last year versus 30% who purchased a printed title. China is the outlier, with e‑book purchases at...
Fable: The Man Who Saved A Billion Lives
A pioneering agronomist created high‑yield wheat strains that doubled output in Pakistan and India, effectively saving hundreds of millions of lives. His breakthrough earned him the Nobel Peace Prize, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal....
Cooking Apple
Since becoming CEO in August 2011, Tim Cook has driven Apple’s stock to rise over twentyfold, delivering more than 20% average annual return. Under his leadership Apple hit a $1 trillion market cap in 2018 and now exceeds $4 trillion, while the...
What Is Private Credit?
Private credit has surged to over $1.5 trillion in assets, driven by stricter bank regulations that left a financing gap for mid‑market firms. Pension funds, insurers and sovereign wealth funds supply capital to specialized funds that originate direct loans with flexible...
Top Ten (+40) Best Places To Work In UK
The 2026 Best Places to Work in the UK list was compiled from thousands of Glassdoor reviews, filtered through a proprietary algorithm that weighs review quantity, quality, and consistency. The ranking excludes any pay‑to‑play or self‑nomination processes, ensuring an unbiased...
Terafab’s Tricky Targets
TSMC chief C.C. Wei cautioned investors that the Elon‑Intel‑Terafab venture faces realistic construction and ramp‑up timelines, pushing volume production to the end of the decade at a 2 nm node. Even then, the fab would lag TSMC’s own roadmap, which targets...
Ed Embraces Mythos
Rumors swirl that Mythos, an AI‑powered security platform, could become a game‑changing tool for protecting corporate systems. Early access appears limited to a select group of British banks and other heavily vetted organisations, creating a scarcity‑driven buzz. Companies left out...
When Wireless Looked Golden
Qualcomm CEO Sanjay Jha warned that wireless memory shipments would outpace PCs by 2008 and projected GHz‑speed chipsets within a year. He highlighted severe supply constraints for fabless firms and urged maintaining 80‑90% fab utilization for five years before building...
The Rising Risk Of Private Credit
Private credit has surged, with assets under management more than quadrupling since 2015 to over $1.5 trillion, fueled by pension funds, endowments, insurers and other institutional investors. The growth stems from tighter post‑2008 banking regulations that nudged traditional lenders away from...
Pain At The Pump Not So Bad For Americans
U.S. gasoline prices have risen over 40% since the war began, pushing the national average above $4 per gallon. When measured against average hourly earnings, a gallon now costs about 7.7 minutes of work, down from 10.7 minutes in June...
Musk’s ThornyQ
A court case set for April 27 will determine whether it was fraudulent for Elon Musk to invest $38 million in OpenAI under the premise that it was a not‑for‑profit entity, only to later benefit from its for‑profit arm that owns...
Rise In China Rare Earth Exports
China’s rare‑earth shipments rose to 62.6 thousand metric tons in 2026, up from 55.4 thousand tons in 2024 and well above the pandemic low of 35.4 thousand tons in 2020. The surge includes the highest monthly export volume since 2009, reflecting robust demand...
Patients’ Pops
In May 1961 a Hull community club sought permission to launch a half‑hour radio program on alternate Sunday nights, targeting hospital patients. The club secured free use of recordings from major record labels and copyright clearance, then pursued landline access...
Credibility
Sam Altman and Jensen Huang, two of AI’s most visible leaders, are drawing criticism for inconsistent messaging. At the HumanX conference, Huang told potential buyers to ignore ROI and focus on investment, while Nvidia’s sales have surged ten‑fold in two years...
Ed Looks To Bring AI To Whitehall
UK’s Department of the Civil Service is trialing AI programmes donated by US partners, yet senior officials argue that the nuanced, rule‑based decisions affecting citizens cannot be fully automated. The Permanent Secretary stressed that bias, hallucinations, and misalignment with public...
Where $1bn Is Entry-Level
ADD Partners’ Rupesh Chatwani is urging UK integrated‑circuit startups to aim for billion‑dollar IPOs rather than modest $100 million exits. He argues that semiconductor ventures now require roughly $30 million of seed funding, and only a handful need to achieve $1 bn valuations...
Far Away Objects
Artemis II has set a new record for the farthest distance traveled by a crewed spacecraft, reaching a peak of 406,771 km from Earth. The mission demonstrates NASA’s progress toward deep‑space crewed flights beyond low‑Earth orbit. By contrast, the most distant human‑made...
Not Everyone’s Gone To The Moon
The United States has completed 45 lunar missions—the most of any nation—culminating with the Artemis II launch on April 1, 2026. The former USSR conducted 22 missions between 1959 and 1976, while China has logged ten, including a serendipitous 1997 Hong Kong satellite...
Changing Tack
OpenAI has acquired the online technology talk show TBPN to steer the conversation around artificial intelligence. The purchase follows a pattern of strategic pivots, from non‑profit to for‑profit models, ad‑free to ad‑supported content, and building its own datacenters to renting...
Top Ten (Less 5) Companies Granted Patents Last Year
In 2025, U.S. patent offices granted a record 323,272 patents, with Samsung Electronics topping the list at 7,054 approvals. TSMC followed with 4,194 patents, Qualcomm with 3,749, Huawei with 3,952, and Samsung Display secured 2,859. Asian firms dominated the landscape,...
Apple’s Quest For The NBT
Apple continues its hunt for the next big thing, a pattern that has produced game‑changing products such as the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Its latest effort, the Vision Pro mixed‑reality headset introduced in 2023, has struggled to gain traction...
AEI’s First Computer Installed
In January 1961 AEI’s Apparatus Division opened a dedicated computer centre in Sale, Cheshire, installing the AEI 1010 data‑processing system for demonstration, training and programming services. The move marked the division’s transition from purely mechanical apparatus to electronic data handling, coinciding...
The Ten Most Valuable Companies
Apple, once the world’s most valuable company, saw its market cap climb to $3.5 trillion by 2024. However, the AI‑driven surge in semiconductor demand propelled Nvidia past Apple, making it the most valuable firm in 2024. The shift underscores the growing...
Ed Goes Extra-Terrestrial
Amazon and Tesla are planning massive low‑earth‑orbit (LEO) data‑centre satellite constellations, each targeting up to a million satellites. The UK boasts over a hundred firms capable of building satellite components, with expertise in radiation‑hard ICs, laser communications and thermal control....
Phones & Tumours
In 2004 the UK National Radiological Protection Board cited a Swedish Karolinska Institute study that linked more than ten years of analogue mobile phone use to a doubled risk of acoustic neuroma, a rare benign tumour. The case‑control analysis involved...
Fable: The Deceiver
An unnamed CEO orchestrated the largest U.S. bankruptcy on record, wiping out $180 billion in investor capital. He concealed unprofitability by reclassifying operating expenses as capital expenditures and by moving reserve funds into revenue to hit quarterly targets. The fraud led...
Zenvo Hypercar
Zenvo has unveiled the Aurora Agil, a hyper‑performance hypercar powered by a bespoke 6.6‑liter V12 engine. The quad‑turbo unit delivers 1,250 bhp on its own and, when paired with an electric hybrid system, reaches a peak output of 1,850 bhp, making it...
Top Ten Companies For AI Datacentre Capacity
The latest CRN‑sourced ranking lists the ten firms with the largest AI‑capable datacentre capacity, measured in megawatts. Microsoft Azure tops the list with over 15,000 MW across 60+ regions, followed by AWS at 12,000 MW and Google at roughly 8,500 MW. Other major...