Shipments of the newly launched Oculus Rift virtual reality hardware have been delayed, resulting in refunds of customer shipping costs. Having been made available 28 March for $599.99 (GBP410) a large quantity of orders have been delayed due to "component shortages." Preorders have been slow to appear to consumers keen to get their hands on the first-to-market VR headset. The company has admitted the shortcomings in its distribution of the Oculus Rift with it claiming many will not be shipped until 12 April.

John Lewis has launched its third accelerator programme as it seeks to support innovations ranging from the health and well-being sector to kids' tech products. Successful participants could receive a maximum GBP100,000 funding from a total cash pot of GBP200,000. In return for funding, John Lewis and the retailer's partner L Marks will receive an equity stake in the company.

Waitrose is following a number of its major rivals with the launch of a substantial own-brand range which will focus on a more premium offering. Called Waitrose 1, it brings together existing premium ranges including "Seriously fromWaitrose," "'menu from Waitrose," and "from Waitrose" under one new brand. It marks the biggest food range to be launched by Waitrose since essentialWaitrose, now a GBP1bn brand, seven years ago. It will initially house over 500 products, which will increase to over 800 products.

Following a "successful" launch in the U.S. last month, Twitter has made its First View ad unit available in Europe. This means that UK brands can now pay to ensure video content takes prime position on the timelines of Twitter users. Brands that take up First View with Promoted Trends will take the top ad slot in the Twitter timeline for a 24-hour period. Subsequently, a video ad will not only appear top of a user's timeline, but also top of their trending topics list.

The usual queues were nowhere to be seen outside Apple stores today -- only the employees were waiting to get inside. iPhone launches are notorious for the long queues that form outside Apple stores, as eager gadget fans wait patiently to get their hands on the latest model. And it can't have escaped anyone's notice that the company recently launched the heavily rumoured iPhone SE.

A year after buying a little-known music service and relaunching it as Tidal, Jay Z appears to be preparing to sue its original owners for misleading him about its performance. Lawyers for the musician turned millionaire businessman have reportedly written to venture capital firm Verdane and Scandinavian media conglomerate Schibsted, saying they "significantly" exaggerated the service's number of users.

Microsoft Edge has been developing slowly since its version 1.0 release, but judging from a session at this week's Build conference in San Francisco, the pace of development is about to pick up. The feature most power users are awaiting is the availability of JavaScript extensions, similar to those available in Google's Chrome browser. That feature is currently available in Insider preview releases of Windows 10, with one eagerly anticipated extension, AdBlock Plus, already confirmed as an early arrival.

Turner, parent company to networks including TNT and TBS, has spearheaded a $15m investment into digital publisher Mashable. The partnership will give Turner the opportunity to distribute some of its programming to Mashable's large digital audience. According to Mashable, its site has 45 million monthly unique visitors and it has 28 million followers on social media. It will also allow Turner to leverage Mashable's Velocity graph, which uses predictive analytics to determine which posts will perform best.

The UK advertising market will grow by 6.2% this year, Carat has predicted in its latest ad-spend report, up from a previous forecast of 5.5% for 2016. Today's Carat Ad Spend Report by the Dentsu Aegis Network media agency predicts the UK will outperform the rest of the Western Europe market -- with the exception of Ireland, which is set to grow by 7.3% this year. The advertising market in Europe is predicted by Carat to grow by 3.1% in 2016, up from 2.8% in 2015.

Beyonce's long-anticipated sportswear brand for women, Ivy Park, has launched, in collaboration with Topshop owner Philip Green. The brand has launched with a moody YouTube video starring the singer, and an interactive site that describes Ivy Park as "merging fashion-led design with technical innovation." The name Ivy Park relates to Beyonce's daughter, called Blue Ivy, and a park in the singer's hometown of Houston called Parkwood Park.