Tesco is scrapping its 5p single use plastic carrier bags and replacing them with a new 10p Bag for Life made from 94pc recycled plastic. The announcement?follows a successful 10-week trial in Aberdeen, Dundee and Norwich, where Tesco found that customers bought significantly fewer bags when only pricer bags were offered. Removing the 5p single-use carrier bags will "significantly reduce the number of bags sold and will therefore help reduce litter and bags sent to landfill," Tesco said.?The single-use carrier bags will cease to be offered in stores from August 28. Money from the new 10p bag, which will be replaced for free if damaged, will go towards funding community projects across Britain. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/08/07/tesco-scraps-5p-shopping-bags-1

Easyshare is an all-in-one solution to pay your rent, bills and split sharehouse expenses. It gets your household payments sorted and shared with the option to use credit card or pay via bank transfer. www.geteasyshare.com

Adelaide is the first city in Australia to become a Gig City. Entrepreneurs, startups and big businesses there are being connected to extremely fast broadband speeds of 1 gigabit per second, up to 100 times faster than the national average, at an affordable cost to help them develop leading-edge ideas, create new opportunities and access new markets. www.gigcity.com.au

The Australian Government is conducting a review into open banking in Australia so that banks ? especially the Big Four ? open up their APIs and let FinTechs offer new financial products and services. In Europe, open banking has already been mandated by the European Commission. http://www.innovationaus.com/2017/08/ScoMo-to-pry-open-bank-data?

The Hobart City Council in Tasmania has agreed to draft legislation that would phase out single-use plastic containers and cutlery by 2020. Instead of using plastic containers for home delivery and takeout, restaurants in the city of 220,000 would have to use ones made from cardboard, cornstarch or bamboo that could be composted. The move follows Tasmania?s ban on thin plastic bags in 2013. (Thicker retail bags are still allowed.) https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/world/australia/plastic-tasmania-hobart.html?

Orii is a smart ring that gives you full control of your smartphone from your finger. The device blends Bluetooth with bone conduction technology to allow you to take phone calls and listen to messages by touching your ear with the finger wearing the ring. https://www.springwise.com/smart-ring-allows-users-hear-talk-finger/?