Interesting news from around the World

Please note that Channel Eye is not responsible for the content of external sites.

How brands are making (and building) Valentine’s day connections

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and on top of producing special-edition products and offers, from heart-shaped pepperoni pizza kits to cooking classes for romantics, brands are seizing this annual opportunity to encourage consumers to stop and smell the roses (or in the case of LEGO, to build one). Brand love is in the air… let’s explore how and where.

Minister blames monkey for Sri Lanka nationwide power cut

A nationwide blackout in Sri Lanka has been blamed on a monkey that intruded into a power station south of Colombo, cutting power to 22 million people.

UK demands access to Apple users’ encrypted data

The UK government has demanded to be able to access encrypted data stored by Apple users worldwide in its cloud service. Currently only the Apple account holder can access data stored in this way. The tech giant itself cannot view it.

Barclays tells staff to come into the office more

The bank is the latest company to make changes to its flexible working policy that has been largely in place since the Covid pandemic, saying it recognised the importance of staff collaborating in the same place.

Czech central bank to consider holding bitcoin as reserve asset

The Czech National Bank will consider holding billions of dollars worth of bitcoin in its reserves, Governor Ales Michl said on Wednesday, potentially the first shift into the cryptocurrency by a western central bank if it went ahead.

Dropbox’s new brand identity website puts boring style guides to shame

It’s no secret that style guides can be a little dry sometimes, but file hosting service Dropbox has bucked the trend, unveiling a new brand guideline microsite with a slick interactive twist.

DeepSeek: Chinese AI chatbot sparks market turmoil for rivals

The surge in popularity of Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek has sparked a selloff of shares in major tech companies after it overtook rivals such as ChatGPT to become the top-rated free app on Apple’s App Store.

UK telco TalkTalk confirms probe into alleged data grab underway

TalkTalk’s head of external comms, Liz Holloway, said: “We think it relates to an external standalone data platform application that manages a small part of our customer base, but that’s obviously owned and managed by an external third party.”

Instagram is about to look a lot more like TikTok

The changes Instagram says it’s implementing, including a vertical grid, will be familiar to users of the vulnerable video app.

UK Government to soften non-dom tax changes

Plans to abolish non-dom status will be amended to allow a more generous phase out of tax benefits, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced.

All the rumors about the iPhone Air

Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup is expected to introduce a new, super-thin form factor this year.

Yes, Minister character is government’s new AI assistant

The decision to name the AI after Sir Humphrey Appleby, a character described as “devious and controlling”, has raised eyebrows. Tim Flagg, chief operating officer of trade body UKAI, said the name risks “undermining” the government’s mission to embrace the tech.

Working from home ‘not proper work’ – ex-Asda boss

His comments come as some companies are calling time on remote working. Amazon, Boots and JP Morgan are just some of the businesses who now require their head office staff to be in every day.

Melania and Donald Trump launch their own cryptocurrencies

Disclaimers on the websites of both the $Trump and $Melania coins said they were “not intended to be, or the subject of” an investment opportunity or a security.

It’s official: Take a first look at the Switch 2

After months and years of rumors and official hints, Nintendo has finally pulled back the curtain on the Switch 2 with a first-look trailer (and sparse promo website) highlighting many small changes from the previous Switch.

Apple halts AI news alerts after errors

Apple has suspended a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that drew criticism and complaints for making repeated mistakes in its summaries of news headlines.

Spain plans 100% tax for homes bought by non-EU residents

Non-EU residents bought 27,000 properties in Spain in 2023, the Prime Minister told an economic forum in Madrid, “not to live in” but “to make money from them”.

“Buy something or leave,” coffee shop chain says

But one free refill of hot or iced coffee for customers who buy a drink to consume on the premises.

BMW’s new iDrive turns the whole windshield into a heads-up display

iDrive uses 3D graphics and augmented reality to keep your eyes on the road.

Inside the wild fall and last-minute revival of Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that imploded over the holidays

Friday, December 27th, was supposed to be the start of a relaxing holiday weekend. But it was chaos for thousands of small business owners who use Bench, an accounting and tax startup based in Canada that raised $113 million from investors like Bain Capital Ventures and Shopify.

Getty Images and Shutterstock to merge to form $3.7B stock photo giant

The move comes at a crucial time, as artificial intelligence is shaking things up for the stock image industry. AI represents both an opportunity and a threat, as Getty Images can choose to license its content to AI companies so that they can train their next-generation models. At the same time, its customers might decide to use generative AI tools to create images and videos that fit their needs.

Apple urged to withdraw ‘out of control’ AI news alerts

Apple is facing fresh calls to withdraw its controversial artificial intelligence (AI) feature that has generated inaccurate news alerts on its latest iPhones.

$19 trillion in transactions settled on the Bitcoin network in 2024

Bitcoin has a current market capitalization of roughly $1.9 trillion and surpassed silver’s $1.6 trillion market cap in 2024.

Crypto fugitive extradited to US over $40bn TerraUSD and Luna crash

A South Korean man accused of being responsible for a cryptocurrency crisis which cost investors $40bn (£31.8bn) has finally been extradited to the United States.

Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi plan to merge as the Japanese firms seek to fight back against competition from the Chinese car industry

Joining forces would create one of the world’s biggest car producers alongside Toyota, Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford.

44 crates, lost for decades, were unsealed. Inside was a fair dreamed up by art legends

The attractions were part of the world’s first art funfair – Luna Luna – dreamed up by little-known Austrian creative André Heller in the 1970s, featuring a carousel by Keith Haring, a Ferris wheel by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a David Hockney pavilion.

AI boom masks fundraising struggles for non-AI startups

“VCs are excited to back AI companies at red-hot valuations, “but everything else is really challenged,”

A new wave of desalination startups argues that deeper is better

It’s a cruel reality that only about 3% of the world’s water is fresh, and of that, only a fraction is readily available.

How CEOS should think about growth

There are only a handful of things you can do to grow faster. The trick is going all-in on just one.

Google unveils ‘mindboggling’ quantum computing chip

Chip takes minutes to complete tasks that would otherwise take 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years.

Amazon announces a new family of multimodal AI models

At its re:Invent conference on Tuesday, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, announced a new family of multimodal generative AI models it calls Nova.

Bitcoin Is flying High – These countries are considering a national reserve

Some countries are mulling a national Bitcoin reserve amid a historic market run-up that has pushed the world’s largest cryptocurrency to new heights in recent weeks.

Meta plans to build a $10B subsea cable spanning the world

Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is the second-biggest driver of internet usage globally. Its properties – and their billions of users – account for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic.

What’s in a name? Zoom is changing its name. But its users will still call it Zoom

While the change won’t alter how the company’s branding looks or sounds, it is significant for a different reason.

Please note that these stories are reported and hosted on platforms other than ChannelEye.Media.