List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

Standard Life has confirmed plans to create a commercial pensions dashboard, to help its four million customers have greater awareness around their retirement savings. It has partnered with financial technology company Moneyhub to deliver the dashboard, which will eventually be embedded into Standard Life’s existing customer app. The pensions dashboard will also be available to customers through Standard Life’s online desktop. We are excited to extend our collaboration with Moneyhub to develop and launch one of the UK’s first fully functional commercial pensions dashboards Gail Izat, Standard Life Standard Life said the initiative would help customers to find and view their state, workplace and personal pensions. Work has been under way within the pensions industry for several years to develop pensions dashboards, where people will be able to see their pension savings online, in one place. In June, pensions minister Laura Trott said the Government remained “as committed as ever” to making pensions dashboards a reality. The Government previously said more time was needed for the complex build of pensions dashboards to be set up. Standard Life said it was putting “the building blocks in place” so that it could be ready to hit the ground running with its dashboard, adding that the timeline for its delivery was dependent on the Government programme. The Government’s pensions dashboards programme has been urging providers to continue with their plans and Standard Life has seized the initiative Samantha Seaton, Moneyhub The pension provider added that it had been preparing to finalise plans so that it would be ready for launch when the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) regulatory approval process was in place. As well as finding and viewing pension data, Standard Life said its pension scheme members would be able to go further by connecting to and seeing their bank accounts, credit cards, savings, property valuations, Isas, loans, mortgages, and other financial products, in one place. Standard Life’s parent company, Phoenix Group, anticipates extending dashboard access to all of its 12 million UK customers “in due course”. Gail Izat, managing director of workplace at Standard Life, said: “It may seem obvious but simply knowing how much all your pensions are worth will allow you to plan for the future and understand what you can do today to have enough money to allow you to live your desired lifestyle later in life. Pensions dashboards will transform the way people plan for retirement. We remain committed to their delivery Department for Work and Pensions “We are excited to extend our collaboration with Moneyhub to develop and launch one of the UK’s first fully functional commercial pensions dashboards, while leading the way in shaping the future of retirement saving by giving customers greater certainty and a truly holistic view of their finances.” Samantha Seaton, chief executive of Moneyhub, said: “The Government’s pensions dashboards programme has been urging providers to continue with their plans and Standard Life has seized the initiative.” A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesperson said: “Pensions dashboards will transform the way people plan for retirement. “We remain committed to their delivery and to working closely with the pensions industry to ensure the record number of people saving for retirement have the support they need to make informed choices about their financial futures.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live BBC reviews Russell Brand’s time at corporation as YouTube demonetises content BBC removes some Russell Brand content as monetisation suspended on YouTube How does Russell Brand make money online?

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul says Congress needs to tighten restrictions on US firms’ investment in

By Zeba Siddiqui and Raphael Satter SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON About a year ago, the U.S. security firm Palo Alto

John Giannandrea, a former top Google executive who decamped to Apple Inc. to head its artificial intelligence business,

Companies are struggling to deal with the rapid rise of generative AI, with some rushing to embrace the technology while others shun it -- at least for now.

Tinder has rolled out an ultra-premium subscription tier to its dating app users, charging $499 per month to

By Tom Balmforth and James Pearson KYIV/LONDON Russian spies are using hackers to target computer systems at law

Apple's iPhone 15 lineup hit stores Friday as people waited in long lines across China, Europe and the US to be among the first to get their hands on one of the company's next-generation smartphones.

The Federal Trade Commission is expected to sue Amazon.com Inc. for antitrust violations next week, according to people

Scientists are preparing to receive pieces of a distant asteroid, which will fall to Earth over the weekend and could reveal where we came from. On Sunday, a sample collected by a Nasa spacecraft that landed on Asteroid Bennu will float down into the Utah desert, where it will be gathered by scientists. They will then start work on analysing that material, in the hopes of understanding how planets form and what our solar system was like in its distant past. Nasa sent its Osiris-Rex spacecraft to Bennu in 2016, and it touched down on the distant asteroid in 2020, and scooped up a piece. Since then, it has been flying back towards Earth to drop the sample back home. The sample dropped out of Osiris-Rex will float down into the desert, helped by a parachute that should safely allow it to fall to the ground. The spacecraft itself will continue to fly, on its way to start a new mission to study another asteroid towards the end of the decade. It is the US space agency’s first mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, and is the largest asteroid sample ever returned to Earth. The capsule is estimated to hold around 250g of rocks and dust collected from the asteroid’s surface. Nasa will release a quarter of the sample to a group of more than 200 people from more than 35 globally distributed institutions, including a team of scientists from The University of Manchester, and the Natural History Museum. Asteroid Bennu is a 4.5-billion-year-old remnant of our early solar system and scientists believe it can help shed light on how planets formed and evolved. Experts say the carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid serves as a time capsule from the earliest history of the solar system. It is anticipated that the sample will provide important clues that could help us to understand the origin of organics and water that may have led to life on Earth. Because the sample has been collected directly from the asteroid, there will be almost zero contamination. Meteorites that fall to Earth are quickly contaminated from the second they make contact with our atmosphere. This means Bennu can give us an unspoiled glimpse into the past. Ashley King, UKRI future leaders fellow, Natural History Museum, said: “Osiris-Rex spent over two years studying asteroid Bennu, finding evidence for organics and minerals chemically altered by water. “These are crucial ingredients for understanding the formation of planets like Earth, so we’re delighted to be among the first researchers to study samples returned from Bennu. ‘We think the Bennu samples might be similar in composition to the recent Winchcombe meteorite fall, but largely uncontaminated by the terrestrial environment and even more pristine.” Dr Sarah Crowther, research fellow in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at The University of Manchester, said: “It is a real honour to be selected to be part of the Osiris-Rex Sample Analysis Team, working with some of the best scientists around the world. “We’re excited to receive samples in the coming weeks and months, and to begin analysing them and see what secrets asteroid Bennu holds. “A lot of our research focuses on meteorites, and we can learn a lot about the history of the solar system from them. “But meteorites get hot coming through Earth’s atmosphere and can sit on Earth for many years before they are found, so the local environment and weather can alter or even erase important information about their composition and history. “Sample return missions like Osiris-Rex are vitally important because the returned samples are pristine, we know exactly which asteroid they come from and can be certain that they are never exposed to the atmosphere so that important information is retained.” The spacecraft launched on September 8, 2016 and arrived at Bennu in December 2018. After mapping the asteroid for almost two years, it collected a sample from the surface on October 20, 2020. The capsule is expected to land at 3.55pm (BST). Astrophysicist Professor Boris Gansicke, Department of Physics, University of Warwick, said: “The asteroids in our solar system contain the raw building blocks from which the Earth was made, so working out their composition will tell us a lot of how our planet formed. “There are many open questions, for instance where did the water that we have on Earth come from? And where did the ingredients that made life possible to develop come from? “To answer those questions, i.e. measure the composition of an asteroid, you need to get your ‘hands’ on them (or in this case the arm of a space mission), and this is what Osiris-Rex achieved. “In a nutshell, it’s similar to sitting in front of a delicious dinner and wanting to have the list of ingredients.” Additional reporting by agencies Read More You need to update your Apple devices right now Amazon Prime Video will soon start running ads – unless you pay even more Amazon Prime Video will soon start running ads unless you pay a monthly fee You need to update your Apple devices right now Amazon Prime Video will soon start running ads – unless you pay even more Amazon Prime Video will soon start running ads unless you pay a monthly fee

Apple has released an urgent update for its iPhone, Mac and other products. The company said that the security update fixes three security flaws. As such, users have been urged to install the update as soon as possible, which can be done through the Settings app. All of the three bugs have already been exploited in the wild, Apple said, though it gave no information about how widely they have been used, or against whom. The three bugs meant that attackers would be able to make their way through different parts of the operating system to potentially steal information and take control of devices. It is just the latest in a run of major security issues that have forced Apple to push out updates this year. Earlier this month, Apple was required to fix a powerful security hole that researchers said had already been exploited by attackers using the “Pegasus” spying software. New updates are available for the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. They can be installed through their respective settings apps by clicking the “General” option and then software update, and the devices may prompt their owners to install them. The update came just three days after the release of iOS 17, Apple’s major update for the iPhone. And was released hours before the new iPhone 15 went on sale. As well as the security problems, the updates bring fix other bugs, Apple said. All three of the new bugs were found by Bill Marczak of The Citizen Lab at The University of Toronto’s Munk School and Maddie Stone of Google’s Threat Analysis Group, Apple said. Researchers at The Citizen Lab were also responsible for finding similar issues earlier this month. Read More iPhone 15 goes on sale – but you might struggle to actually get one iPhone 15: Apple workers strike in France ahead of biggest launch of the year Apple releases major update for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and more

The human body is a marvel of science and researchers have discovered a strange reoccurring mathematical pattern within its cells. Our bodies are made up of a massive variety of individual cells with countless different functions, from neurons in our nervous system to the oxygen carriers that all work in harmony to keep us alive. Experts from scientific research institutions in Germany, Canada, Spain, and the US have worked together on a study to determine just how many cells of each type there are in the human body and the results are staggering. They found that most adult males possess around 36 trillion cells, while adult females have in the region of 28 trillion cells. For a 10-year-old child, they have around 17 trillion. Interestingly though, scientists discovered that, regardless of the total number of cells, if they are grouped according to their function, the proportions for each individual remain the same. The researchers explained in their findings: “These patterns are suggestive of a whole-organism trade-off between cell size and count and imply the existence of cell-size homeostasis across cell types.” Scientists believe there is a natural balancing act at play between different cell types with new cells being produced to maintain the balance. The body produces fewer larger cells (such as muscle fibres) and more smaller cells (like blood cells). It is hoped that future studies will be able to uncover exactly how this happens and how bodies seem to naturally regulate cells. They explained that all cells are perfectly sized for their roles and any deviation from their scale can indicate the presence of disease. Experts have made their data, analysis and results public in the hopes that future studies into biology will be able to utilise their research. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.