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The Week in Tech

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Barclays embrace face-to-face video

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Barclays recently became the first UK bank to allow customers to use face-to-face video banking via their phones, laptops and tablets. The service will launch on December 8 and will allow premier account members to securely contact Barclays staff at any time of day via their devices. Steven Cooper, Barclays chief executive of personal banking, said the move represented a “Watershed moment for how people do their banking in the UK,” adding that it means the bank will “Be able to interact with customers completely on their terms” for the first time, with the service circumventing the limitations of traditional UK branch opening hours.

 

Netflix = The death of TV by 2030?

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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings

Reed Hastings, chief executive of the online streaming service Netflix, was recently quoted predicting the death of broadcast TV in Mexico City last week, where he was discussing the growth of the service in the region. He compared broadcast TV to a horse, stating; “The horse was good until we had the car,” and added that he believed “The age of broadcast TV will probably last until 2030.” Strong words indeed, but given the sheer size of the service, which accounts for a third of all US internet traffic and has 53 million subscribers worldwide, it's not a particularly far-fetched claim.

The age of broadcast TV will probably last until 2030.” Reed Hastings

Hastings also claimed the Latin America region was a significant growth region for the brand, calling it “One of the fastest growth areas in the world in terms of broadband households and Internet connectivity.” He also explained his plans to make Netflix a truly global concern, with the service already set to launch in Australia and New Zealand in the coming months. He said they are “Trying to get to a place where it's fully global and you can get anything, anywhere.”

 

Sony and the secret crowd funded watch

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Sony has been crowd-funding a revolutionary new minimalist smart watch, which use the same e-paper technology used in Amazon's Kindle. The new watch is reportedly the first in a range of products called “Fashion Entertainments,” all of which will use electronic paper. The product was added to a crowd funding site under the name FES, as Sony wanted to see whether or not it could stand on its own legs. It raised just under £19,000 in less than three weeks, and all those who pledged are set to receive their prototype watches in May next year.

 

Amazon's Cyber Monday

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With the grim spectre of Black Friday still hanging over us all, Amazon has decided to keep the madness alive with “Cyber Monday,” which offers exclusive deals for its mobile app users. The deals will continue throughout today (1 December) via the Amazon app, with fresh deals being unveiled every 10 minutes. Black Friday saw riots breaking out in stores across the UK, mirroring scenes from across the pond in the US, where Black Friday has been a not-so beloved tradition for years. Cyber Monday, promised to be less volatile, given its strictly an online affair.

The move to continue capitalising on the mania produced by Black Friday was evidently not a difficult one for Amazon to make, as they completely decimated their forecasts for the weekend, with the e-commerce giant reportedly selling 64 items per second on Black Friday itself (28 November). 5.5 million products were sold on the back of 3,000 deals, many of which will no doubt be reignited today.

Amazon has reportedly been branded a “Playground bully”

In related news, Amazon has reportedly been branded a “Playground bully” after the company sued the makers of the popular CBeebies Big & Small show over its Kindle trademark. Amazon has claimed the show's production company, Kindle Entertainment, has violated the trademark for its ubiquitous e-reader, despite the fact that Kindle Entertainment was founded months before said e-reader was launched. According to Kindle Entertainment director Anne Brogan, the company can't afford to change its name after eight years, and would “Love to reach a sensible settlement with Amazon.”

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