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  This month has been a turbulent one for many businesses and people, across the country and the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We're continuing to bring you the latest news across the technology industry. This month Tech companies are still hiring despite mass lay-offs elsewhere, Mercedes F1 create breathing aid for coronavirus patients, the UK government has ordered 10,000 ventilators from Dyson and much more.  ​     Tech companies still hiring despite mass layoffs elsewhere  Tech companies are still hiring feverishly as they move to take advantage of a world that is shifting to a digital landscape as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Despite mass layoffs elsewhere, and growing concerns over plummeting global markets. In California alone, tech companies were looking to fill 15,852 jobs in the second week of March, nearly three times the level of roles from a year ago. Click here to read more  (Financial Times) 19/03/2020   Investment and employment boom for the UK Tech Sector  Tech Nation's released their annual report this month, which explores the current state of the UK tech sector. It reveals that 2019 was the year for investment and employment boom in the UK, from the UK digital sector growing 6 times faster than any other industry to UK companies securing a third of £30.4bn of investment raised by tech companies in Europe.  Click here to read more  (UKTN) 19/03/2020   Mercedes F1 to make breathing aid for coronavirus patients UCL engineers have worked with clinicians at UCLH and Mercedes Formula One to build a breathing aid that can help keep coronavirus patients out of intensive care. The team have created the device, that delivers oxygen to the lungs without needing a ventilator, in under a week. Forty new devices have been delivered to ULCH and three other London hospitals and if trials go well, up to 1,000 of the CPAP machines can be produced per day.  Click here to read more  (BBC) 30/03/2020   Barclaycard enables new £45 contactless limit  Barclaycard will be rolling out the deployment of the new £45 contactless limit across UK retailers from 1 April 1 2020. The payments provider, which provides the technology to power over 150,000 terminals across the UK retail sector, is supporting the increased threshold to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Adjusting the contactless limit from £30 - £45 will allow more customers to make payments without touching terminals or handling cash. Click here to read more  (UKTN) 24/03/2020   UK Gov Covid-19 WhatsApp bot working after a false start  A Covid-19 WhatsApp bot set up by the UK government is finally working after problems during launch on Wednesday. Members of the public who message the bot can access pre-determined chunks of advice on symptoms or how to avoid spreading the disease. It failed to work for some users after it's launch, providing just an error message, but the BBC has not verified that the bot is working as intended.  Click here to read more (BBC) 26/03/2020   Government orders 10,000 ventilators from Dyson  The government has ordered 10,000 ventilators from Dyson to help deal with the coronavirus crisis. The firm headed by British inventor Sir James Dyson said it had designed a new type of ventilator in response to a call on behalf of the NHS and has hundreds of engineers working around the clock to design the ventilators from scratch.  Click here to read more  (BBC) 26/03/2020   NHS uses tech giants to plan crisis response  Data collected via the NHS's 111 telephone service is to be mixed with other sources to help predict where ventilators, hospital beds, and medical staff will be most in need. The goal is to help health chiefs model the consequences of moving resources to best tackle the coronavirus pandemic. The plan is expected to be signed off by health secretary Matt Hancock and three US tech firms Amazon, Microsoft and Planatir are aiding in the effort.  Click here to read more  (BBC) 26/03/2020     Our Technology news update regularly features supplier news, product launches, events, our own articles, and much more. Check back each month to catch up on the industry news affecting the Technology sector collated by our team of Technology consultants. If you would like to receive our monthly newsletter straight to your inbox, then sign up below! Form ID:4640  

    Another month, another issue of the latest in technology news! In our latest tech news update; Apple expects a miss of quarterly earnings estimates, 23 million Brits are expected to have digital-only bank accounts by 2025, Snapchat introduces intervention for mental health, the global smart home market is expected to reach 158bn by 2024 and much more.      February Technology news update     Apple to miss quarterly earnings estimates due to coronavirus   Apple recently issued a rare earnings warning saying it would not meet quarterly revenue expectations due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, which will limit iPhone production and limit product demand in China. This matters to Apple in particular because whilst many companies rely on China for production, Apply gets a significant chunk of its revenue from sales in China. Apple has stressed that it sees this impact as temporary "Outside of China, customer demand across our product and service categories have been strong to date and in line with our expectations." Click here to read more  (Axios) 17/02/2020     23.2 million Brits expected to have digital-only bank accounts by 2025 According to a personal finance comparison website, finder.com, just over 2 in 5 (44%) of UK adults will have a digital-only bank account in five years time, equivalent to 23.2 million Brits. Currently, 12 million Brits have a digital-only bank account, but a fifth plan to get one in the next five years, with two thirds (65%) of those planning to do so over the next year. A high priority for consumers is the convenience that digital-only banks and their apps can offer, which has been voted as the top reason (two years in a row) for having a digital-only bank account.  Click here to read more (UKTN) 19/02/2020     Snapchat introduces interventions for mental health Snapchat has recently been seen taking steps to claim some responsibility for its users' experience by adding a new tool called Here For You to its service. If you search topics ranging from depression to thinspo (the "thinspiration" content that can promote anorexia), Snap's results will intervene with helpful content written by experts. The move is meant to protect their most used audience, particularly young and malleable users of Snapchat, 90% of all 13 to 24 year-olds in the U.S use the app. Click here to read more  (Fast Company) 11/02/2020   Global smart home market to reach 158bn by 2024 More and more homeowners are embracing smart home technology in recent years and according to data gathered by PreciseSecurity.com, the global smart home market revenue is expected to reach $158 billion value in the next four years. Because of the speed of 5G implementation, the global smart-home ecosystem is set to continue its rapid expansion and recent investments from tech giants such as Apple, Google, Amazon and Alibaba have transformed the landscape significantly. Click here to read more  (UKTN) 07/02/2020     UK's 5G network well within safety limits, Ofcom tests find The rollout of ultra-fast 5G mobile connectivity has sparked debate and fears that the new transmission masts could be dangerous to humans. However, the first safety tests, run by Ofcom, of 5G base stations have found radiation levels are at "tiny fractions" of safe limits. The tests covered 16 locations in 10 cities across the UK where 5G enabled mobile base stations had been set up and measured the strength of the electromagnetic field. Click here to read more (BBC News) 24/02/2020     Samsung Electronics says UK website error exposed data of 150 customers  Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Wednesday that a "technical error" on its U.K. website had temporarily exposed the personal data of about 150 users. The South Korean manufacturer said it stopped all users logging into the site after it became aware of the error, which it said has since been resolved and only affected the U.K. Samsung has not stated how long exactly the data was exposed, but the vulnerable information included phone numbers, postal and email addresses and previous orders.  Click here to read more (Reuters) 26/02/2020   ​   Our Technology news update regularly features supplier news, product launches, events, our own articles, and much more. Check back each month to catch up on the industry news affecting the Technology sector collated by our team of Technology consultants. If you would like to receive our monthly newsletter straight to your inbox, then sign up below!   Form ID:4640  

  It's that time of the month again where we bring you the latest news in the Technology industry and in the 11th issue of our tech news update we cover; Apple card facing a formal investigation over gender discrimination, 5G to cover 65 per cent of the global population by 2025, a Cybersecurity firm falls victim to a cyber attack and much more.    New report shows investment in tech scale-ups increased fourfold The Blooming Late report by Tech.eu and Stripe analyses early-stage investment and growth-stage investment in European tech businesses and has revealed that In the first three quarters of 2019 alone, more than 52 deals of €100 million or above have been recorded across Europe. This is more than 2017 and 2018 combined and nearly four times as many as in 2016, and if the current trend continues the report states that we are likely to see around 70 mega funding rounds in 2019 - which would be more late-stage financing deals in a year than in the previous three years combined. Click here to read more about the quadruple increase in tech-scaleup investment (UKTN) 04/11/2019   Apple Card is facing a formal investigation over gender discrimination allegations  A viral tweet has prompted a formal investigation into the newly launched Apple Card for alleged gender discrimination in the way it determines credit limits. The Apple Card uses a credit limit algorithm and operates entirely from the iPhone;s Wallet app which came under close scrutiny when a web programmer and author David Heinemeier Hansson shared a series of tweets detailing how he was offered 20 times the credit limit if his wife. After contacting customer service, Apple Card representatives insisted it was the result of an elusive algorithm and insinuated there was an issue with her application. Click here to read more about Apple Card facing gender discrimination allegations (Business Insider) 10/11/2019     Uber loses licence to operate in London due to safety concerns  Transport for London (TfL) has declared that Uber will not be granted a new licence to operate in London after repeated safety failures, believing the taxi app to be not 'fit and proper' as licence holder, despite having made a number of positive changes to its operations. After initially losing its licence in 2017, Uber was granted two extensions, which will expire on Monday. The taxi firm is appealing and will be able to operate during that process, but if its appeal is unsuccessful, some think Uber drivers would move over to rival-ride sharing firms such as Bolt and Kapten. Click here to read more about Uber losing its licence to operate in London (BBC Tech) 25/11/2019   Tim Berners-Lee launches new initiative to fix the internet Inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, has officially launched the 'Contract for the web', a set of principles designed to "fix" the internet.  This contract includes nine core principles for a better internet, which governments, companies and individuals should adhere to, which includes the responsibilities to provide affordable, reliable internet access, whilst respecting civil discourse and human dignity.  The initiative has the backing of over 150 organisations, including tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook and DuckDuckGo and the launch comes as tech companies such as Facebook and Google have faced mounting pressure around the amount of user data they collect and how they collect it. Click here to read more about Tim Berners-Lee new contract for the web (The Verge) 25/11/2019   5G to cover 65% of the global population by 2025 According to The Ericsson Mobility report, Mobile subscriptions are increasing with the release of 5G and a total of 13 million 5G subscriptions are expected to exist by the end of 2019. The report also found that by 2025, 5G networks will support nearly half of the world's mobile data traffic, with the potential to cover up to 65% of the world's population in 2025. With 5G promising faster mobile data speeds and more reliable mobile networks, 5G will have a large impact on smartphone users, and Internet of Things (IoT) device users, in the coming years, Click here to read more about 5G set to cover 65% of the global population by 2025 (Tech Republic) 25/11/2019   Tensions rise after Google fires four employees Google US has fired four employees in what activists within the company described as an attempt to "crush" workers' attempts to organise. Staff were told by an internal memo that the findings for their termination where related to data security and employee safety. But the individuals who lost their jobs have come forward to say they were being punished for "speaking out". The sackings followed a demonstration at Google's San Francisco office on Friday, attended by over 200 Google employees.  Click here to read more about Google firing four of its employees in the US (BBC Technology) 26/11/2019      Cyber-security firm falls victim to data breach A cybersecurity company Trend Micro has said thousands of customers personal data has been exposed by a rouge member of staff. The employee sold information from the company's customer support database, including names and phone numbers to a third party. Trend micro said it believed approximately 70,000 of its 12 million customers has been affected and became suspicious after customers started receiving phone calls from scammers posing as them. The company has said it has contacted those whose details were exposed and said it has been working with the police and the employee who sold the details has been fired.  Click here to read more about the cyber-security firm that fell victim to a data breach (BBC technology) 06/11/2019   Upcoming Events    FinTech Connect 2019 - 03/12/2019 FinTech Connect is where large teams from major financial institutions go to make informed buying decisions on the latest innovations on the market, and where fintechs come to accelerate dialogues with digital buyers with responsibility across digital transformation, payments, financial security, regtech and blockchain.  View more information and how to attend here Tech For Good Gathering - London 2019 - 05/12/2019 The Tech for Good Gathering will feature speakers who are using technology to make our world a better place, celebrating how tech is being used to make positive social change. View more information and how to attend here   Our Technology news update regularly features supplier news, product launches, events, our own articles, and much more. Check back each month to catch up on the industry news affecting the Technology sector collated by our team of Technology consultants. If you would like to receive our monthly newsletter straight to your inbox, then sign up below! Form ID:4640  

  5 reasons to relocate to Birmingham   Last year I made the decision to relocate to the West Midlands and set up an Eligo office in Birmingham and after recently celebrating our 1st year of Eligo Birmingham, I can happily say I made the right decision! And I’m not the only one. Apparently over 7000 people left London to move to Birmingham in 2018. Not only is Brum a fantastic place to raise my family and a great place to work, there are also a few other reasons to relocate to Birmingham from London;   Travel Being located in the middle of the country Birmingham is a great halfway point connecting the north with the south. This also means it’s got great railway connections and I can easily catch a train to visit Eligo London in just over an hour. (Which can only improve once the high-speed HS2 line is finished!) Surprisingly even though Birmingham boasts having one of the UK’s largest populations, it has the least congestion if travelling by public transport. The city offers efficient and greener public transport which includes buses, trams and cycle routes.   Employment Birmingham is renowned for its manufacturing and engineering industries which contribute massively to the economy and provides hundreds of thousands of jobs. Historically the west midlands are known for manufacturing, automotive and aerospace industries, but over recent years Birmingham and the west midlands have also been making great strides in the Technology industry.  Boasting a growing tech ecosystem with digital technology businesses that are transforming the employment landscape.     Housing With house prices over 60% per cent cheaper in the West Midlands than those in London, relocating to Birmingham from London is a no brainer. (Homes in the West Midlands costing £186,480, compared to the average of £484,584 in London.) If you’re looking to live within the Birmingham city centre there are plenty of flats and apartments to choose from, and Brum also offers the perfect mix of city and countryside offering just a short commute into surrounding areas of the city.   Culture Birmingham can easily rival London in terms of culture, with art or museum events on around the city most weekends, the NEC also hosts huge global shows throughout the year. And if you’re a sports fan like me, Brum will be hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2022. Birmingham also has some great pubs, bars and restaurants and I can highly recommend a meal along the ‘curry mile’ in the south of the city.   Exciting tech scene Working with technology candidates and clients in the industry it’s been exciting to get involved with the tech scene in Birmingham, that has more software developers, programmers and software architects than any other region. Over the recent years, there has been an exciting increase in the number of start-ups in Brum (the second-most in the UK behind London in 2018) with great support for entrepreneurs being provided from funding and advice to workspaces available for new ventures. I talk more about the scene in Brum and its impact on start-ups with Tim Kay from KPMG in my blog 'Tech Talks: Eligo and KPMG discuss the Midlands tech scene' here. In this past year, I’ve also discovered that Birmingham is a great city for networking, offering great meetups across the city making it easier for tech professionals to share and access knowledge. The city also hosts a number of conferences and technology events, such as Birmingham Tech Week this week!   If you’re thinking of relocating to Birmingham from London, or anywhere! Check out our helpful guide to relocation here. We’re currently hiring for a technology recruiter to join our team in Birmingham, if you’re interested get in touch with me at rick@eligo.co.uk and find out what it's like to work at Eligo on our Work for Us page.