Service status monitoring website Downdetector records thousands of people reporting problemsMicrosoft is investigating an outage that has hit users of its products worldwide including Teams and Outlook.The US tech firm said it was investigating “issues impacting multiple Microsoft 365 services”, referring to a suite of products that includes its Teams messaging and videoconference service, Outlook email and Word and Excel programmes. Continue reading...
Some app users are sending out surveys to screen potential suitors. But can a pop quiz ever lead to love?One night this January, as Robert Stewart scrolled through old Hinge matches, he decided to revive a conversation he had begun months ago with a woman on the dating app. After picking up where they left off and exchanging a few pleasantries, Stewart asked if the woman wanted to get on a phone call. He hoped it would lead to an in-person date.“We could do that,” the woman answered, but with one caveat. “You mind filling out a questionnaire for me first?” Continue reading...
The DoJ and eight states have filed a complaint against the tech company for violating antitrust lawsThe US justice department and eight states filed a lawsuit against Alphabet’s Google on Tuesday over allegations that the company abused its dominance of the digital advertising business, according to a court document.“Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” the government said in its antitrust complaint. Continue reading...
Frant Gwo’s follow-up to his 2019 mega-hit favours special effects and set pieces over performances, as the human race battles for survivalA gargantuan success in 2019, Frant Gwo’s The Wandering Earth remains one of the highest grossing non-English films of all time. This hotly anticipated prequel, even more ambitious in scope, follows the catastrophic events leading up to the Earth leaving the solar system in the original hit.At nearly three hours long, The Wandering Earth II is packed with expository science talk, which gets more convoluted and tiring as the clock ticks on. The gist of the matter is, in the face of imminent ecological disasters, an internationally consolidated government body has hatched a solution to alter the orbit of our planet. It also involves blowing up the moon. As well as resistance from (mostly) western countries, the decades-spanning enterprise is also routinely sabotaged by the rival Digital Life Project, which looks to virtual reality as a new beginning for the human race. Continue reading...
Elon Musk testifies at trial accusing him of defrauding investors by driving up the price of Tesla stock with his tweetsElon Musk continued his testimony in a trial accusing him of defrauding investors by driving up the price of Tesla stock with his tweets on Monday, saying that he understood that Saudi financiers were “unequivocally” behind his plan to take the electric carmaker private in 2018.The Tesla CEO’s tweets suggesting he had “funding secured” to buy up Tesla stock at $420 a share are the center point of the trial now in its fifth day in San Francisco federal court. Continue reading...
Music streaming service becomes latest tech firm to announce cuts after pandemic overexpansionThe music streaming service Spotify has said it is cutting about 600 jobs, as it became the latest big tech company to admit it expanded too quickly during the coronavirus pandemic.Its co-founder and chief executive, Daniel Ek, told staff in a blogpost that the platform was reducing its workforce by 6% after he had been “too ambitious”. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#683QK)
The influential academic says renewables alone can halt climate crisis, with technologies such as carbon capture expensive wastes of time“Combustion is the problem – when you’re continuing to burn something, that’s not solving the problem,” says Prof Mark Jacobson.The Stanford University academic has a compelling pitch: the world can rapidly get 100% of its energy from renewable sources with, as the title of his new book says, “no miracles needed”. Continue reading...
Tesla boss hopes for rise in revenue after advertising downturn in wake of takeoverTwitter is planning an advertising-free version of its subscription product, as the company attempts to raise revenue and increase demand for its premium offering.Elon Musk has targeted an increase in subscription revenue as a key part of the social media platform’s business plan under his ownership. Continue reading...
Cutting-edge technology is helping food chains reach the holy grail of flawless, contactless, low-budget diningThe secret behind the hi-tech future of sushi lies in an unremarkable building in the backstreets of Osaka.Inside, empty plastic cups and plates adorned with scrunched-up wet paper – to replicate the weight and texture of scallops – make their way along a conveyer belt. Continue reading...
New court filing says ex-Theranos founder booked flight departing 26 January last year, shortly after fraud convictionThe disgraced founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, made an “attempt to flee the country” by purchasing a one-way ticket to Mexico after she was found guilty on four counts of fraud last January, according to prosecutors.In the new filing on Thursday, prosecutors said that “contrary to defendant’s assertion that she has a ‘flawless record with US Pretrial Services’ and claim that no evidence suggests she will flee while she pursues her appeal … the incentive to flee has never been higher and defendant has the means to act on that incentive.” Continue reading...
World’s largest pest control group has developed technology to track individual rodents and assess how best to deal with themThe world’s largest pest control group is piloting the use of facial recognition software as a way to exterminate rats in people’s homes.Rentokil said it had been developing the technology alongside Vodafone for 18 months. Continue reading...
The new social network and its interconnected ‘fediverse’ is a welcome alternative to blustering rival Twitter and Elon MuskWhen Twitter first appeared in July 2006, I was enchanted by it. At one point, some geek created an app that logged tweets and geolocated them in real time on a map of the world, so you could watch little dots popping up all over the globe. (I even made a short video recording of my screen and set it to music, but didn’t put it online because I didn’t own the music rights, and now I can’t find it. Sigh – such is digital life.)What I loved about Twitter at the beginning was that it enabled you to plug into the thought streams of people you liked or admired. Like all good things, though, that came to an end when the platform embarked on the algorithmic curation of users’ feeds to increase “engagement” (and, it hoped, profits). And from then on, it became increasingly tiresome, though I kept my account. But when it became clear that Elon Musk was going to buy the platform – and wreak havoc – I decided to explore possible alternatives. Continue reading...
BT, EE, TalkTalk, Three and Vodafone among suppliers allowed to increase monthly chargesAs if household budgets were not already under enough pressure, millions of broadband and mobile phone customers look set to face rises of more than 14% in their monthly bills from April.BT, TalkTalk, Three and Vodafone are among the big telecoms suppliers that are contractually allowed to increase their bills in line with the previous year’s inflation rate, as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI) in December – plus a further 3%-3.9% on top. Continue reading...
We would like to hear from adults aged 18-30 about their messaging habits at workAn increasing number of younger workers do not check their emails and instead prefer to use social media such as Instagram – at least according to some tech bosses.We would like to hear from adults aged 18-30 about their messaging habits at work. Do you check your emails? Or do you prefer to use social media to stay in touch with colleagues? Continue reading...
by Alexi Duggins, Hannah Verdier, Hollie Richardson a on (#67ZJH)
In this week’s newsletter: American officials have for years been struck by a mystery illness on diplomatic visits. One journalist investigates why in The Sound. Plus: five of the best anthology podcasts
Former president’s lawyers petition company to allow access following ban from platform in wake of 2021 Capitol attackDonald Trump has petitioned Meta to restore his access to Facebook, as he reportedly looks to shift his 2024 presidential campaign into a higher gear.The former president was banned from Facebook more than two years ago, after his followers attacked the US Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Continue reading...
More than 500 advertising clients have reportedly paused spending since Elon Musk’s takeover in OctoberTwitter remains in the grip of an advertising squeeze, with the social media platform hit by a 40% drop in revenue after more than 500 clients paused their spending, according to reports.The company’s daily revenue was down 40% year-over-year, the tech newsletter the Platformer reported, while the news site the Information said staff were told more than 500 of Twitter’s top advertisers had halted spending since Elon Musk bought it in October. Continue reading...
Despite Musk’s claim he can’t get a fair trial in Twitter’s home town, judge sits San Francisco jury for Tesla suitThe shareholder case against the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, got off to a slow start on Tuesday, as potential jurors who variously described the controversial tech billionaire as “narcissistic”, “unpredictable”, “a little off his rocker”, “a genius” and “another arrogant rich guy” were questioned about their impartiality by the judge.But, by the end of the day, nine jurors had been selected to sit on the jury for the San Francisco trial, which hinges on whether Musk cheated investors of “billions” by asserting in 2018 tweets that he had “secured” financing to take the electric automaker private. Continue reading...
It’s early days, but this video-game adaptation about the world being overrun by fungal zombies is expertly done. Newcomers and original gamers will be amazed• The Last of Us review – one of the finest TV shows you will see this yearSpoiler alert: this recap is for people watching The Last of Us, which airs on Sky Atlantic and Now in the UK, HBO in the US and Binge and Foxtel in Australia. Do not read on unless you have watched episode one.Hello and welcome to The Last of Us episode recaps. We’ll spare you the enthusing about why the 2013 video game adapted for this series is the greatest of all time, and get right to it. Continue reading...
The tech billionaire has reportedly lost $182bn (£150bn) since November 2021, largely due to the drop in Tesla’s share priceElon Musk has broken the world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history, according to a Guinness World Records report.The tech billionaire has lost approximately $182bn (£150bn) since November 2021, although other sources suggest that it could actually be closer to $200bn, the report said. Continue reading...
The right to voluntary termination allows the buyer to escape the agreement provided they have repaid 50% of the total amount dueIf you are one of the thousands of people across the UK struggling to meet their car finance repayments, are you aware you can give the vehicle back and walk away debt-free once you have repaid half the amount owed?Car finance payments are typically the second-largest household expense after mortgage costs, and the car industry is nervously waiting to see how many people struggling with the cost of living default on loans, or use a little-known clause to voluntarily terminate their agreement. Continue reading...
Musk says negative local media coverage of shareholder lawsuit over 2018 Tesla tweet has prejudiced jurorsElon Musk has urged a federal judge to shift a trial in a shareholder lawsuit out of San Francisco because he says negative local media coverage has biased potential jurors against him.Instead, in a filing submitted late on Friday – less than two weeks before the trial was set to begin on 17 January – Musk’s lawyers argue it should be moved to the federal court in the western district of Texas. That district includes the state capital of Austin, which is where Musk relocated his electric car company, Tesla, in late 2021. Continue reading...
A dozen people based in Dublin and Singapore who moderate content and monitor hate speech believed to have been let goTwitter has made more cuts to its trust and safety team in charge of international content moderation, as well as a unit overseeing hate speech and harassment, Bloomberg reported on Friday.The move adds to longstanding concerns that new owner Elon Musk is dismantling the company’s regulation of hateful content and misinformation. Continue reading...
A new AI-assisted chatbot that can generate eerily fluent prose is only the latest in a long series of useful tech accessoriesSo the ChatGPT language processing model burst upon an astonished world and the air was rent by squeals of delight and cries of outrage or lamentation. The delighted ones were those transfixed by discovering that a machine could apparently carry out a written commission competently. The outrage was triggered by fears of redundancy on the part of people whose employment requires the ability to write workmanlike prose. And the lamentations came from earnest folks (many of them teachers at various levels) whose day jobs involve grading essays hitherto written by students.So far, so predictable. If we know anything from history, it is that we generally overestimate the short-term impact of new communication technologies, while grossly underestimating their long-term implications. So it was with print, movies, broadcast radio and television and the internet. And I suspect we have just jumped on to the same cognitive merry-go-round. Continue reading...
Cold River team launched attack on three facilities last summer as it escalates hacking campaign against Ukraine’s alliesA Russian hacking team known as Cold River targeted three nuclear research laboratories in the United States this past summer, according to internet records reviewed by Reuters and five cybersecurity experts.Between August and September, as Vladimir Putin indicated Russia would be willing to use nuclear weapons to defend its territory, Cold River targeted the Brookhaven (BNL), Argonne (ANL) and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories (LLNL), according to internet records that showed the hackers creating fake login pages for each institution and emailing nuclear scientists in an effort to make them reveal their passwords. Continue reading...
by Josh Halliday North of England correspondent on (#67HTJ)
Three people became stranded on steep scree slope while following route set by AllTrails app on Barf fellOne of the world’s most popular hiking apps has changed one of its routes after three walkers had to be rescued while following its directions in the Lake District.The walkers became stranded on a steep scree slope while following a route set by the AllTrails app on Barf fell, near Bassenthwaite Lake. They dialled 999 when they realised there was no safe route down the 469-metre fell as darkness loomed at 3.30pm on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Fancy monitors, wipe warmers, even a tube to help them pass wind … the baby-gadget market is booming. But how much of it is actually useful? Plus: how to have a baby on a budgetMost nights, around 3am, first-time mum Courtney Sanders is on her phone in the dark as she tries to rock her baby to sleep. Her three-month-old son is struggling with colic-like symptoms and the more Sanders searches for how to help, the more products are suggested to her. “My Facebook is currently full of ads for bedside cribs that come with an incline to help reduce colic – but I already have one of those and it doesn’t do anything.”She’s tried different feeding bottles, teats and milk formulas. The last thing she bought was a Windi. “It’s a tube you put into the baby’s bottom to help them pass wind,” she says. It didn’t work. Right now, she’s searching for a new baby monitor, as the one she bought is too complicated to use. Tomorrow she’s expecting a delivery of Munchy Mitts – a babygrow with silicone mitts for teething babies to chew on. Continue reading...
If only Musk would sacrifice his fortune and reputation and close down the site, people like me could get back to doing something useful with our timeWhere are we all going when Twitter dies? Mastodon? Hive? Back to sitting in saggy armchairs reading chunky books? Personally, I’m hoping it’s the latter, but I’m not optimistic. Twitter, of course, has been designed by a lot of very clever people to be extremely addictive, and if everyone switches to something else, it will probably be because it’s more addictive again, prodding all our dopamine-spiking buttons in some as-yet-undiscovered sequence with which battered airport paperbacks will be even less able to compete. Which, come to think of it, means it definitely won’t be Mastodon.Obviously, I’m hopelessly addicted to Twitter, like so many journalists who pretend we are using it for our jobs. I’ve tried to tie myself to the mast like Odysseus, installing apps that block it at certain hours or force me to take a cooling off period before I refresh the page, but I always find a way around them. Even if you delete your account entirely, there’s a 30-day cooling-off period, during which I inevitably re-up, like Odysseus with a pocketknife inside his tunic.Joel Snape is a writer and fitness expertDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Exclusive: tech firm quietly launches new audiobook catalogue narrated by AI – but move expected to spark backlashApple has quietly launched a catalogue of books narrated by artificial intelligence in a move that may mark the beginning of the end for human narrators. The strategy marks an attempt to upend the lucrative and fast-growing audiobook market – but it also promises to intensify scrutiny over allegations of Apple’s anti-competitive behaviour.The popularity of the audiobook market has exploded in recent years, with technology companies scrambling to gain a foothold. Sales last year jumped 25%, bringing in more than $1.5bn. Industry insiders believe the global market could be worth more than $35bn by 2030. Continue reading...
Irish regulator fines Facebook owner €390m after EU rejects argument for use of data to drive personalised adsThe business model of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta empire has been dealt a blow following a ruling that its legal justification for targeting users with personalised ads broke EU data laws.Campaigners said the move could force the Facebook and Instagram owner to ask users to “opt in” to having their data used for targeted ads. Continue reading...
Cheekily enjoyable chiller where a devastated girl seems saved by an eerily self-possessed robot companion – but all is not as it seemsNot a robot so much as a hi-tech Frankenstein’s monster, stitched together with bits of Robocop and Terminator, but cheekily enjoyable just the same. This is a sci-fi chiller co-written by horror experts Akela Cooper and James Wan and directed by Gerard Johnstone. M3gan, or Model 3 Generative Android, is an eerily self-possessed blond tweenage girlbot, voiced by Jenna Davis, a state-of-the-art toy from the near future developed as a personal passion project by engineer Gemma (Allison Williams, from Get Out and HBO’s Girls) to the exasperation of her highly stressed boss David, amusingly played by Ronny Chieng.To be properly developed, M3gan needs to “pair” with a little girl owner; she needs to sync up with an actual human, to learn her owner’s speech patterns, behavioural traits and emotional needs, so she can be properly close with her. And Gemma doesn’t have anyone to fill that post – until her nine-year-old niece Cady (Violet McGraw) is orphaned after a car crash and comes to live with Gemma, who must furthermore honour her late parents’ wish that she is homeschooled. This poor little girl, utterly devastated by her mom and dad’s death and without any friends her own age in a new city, is an obvious candidate to be M3gan’s new pal. Continue reading...
As Australia looks to the US and Europe on electric vehicle safety rules, carmakers are experimenting with sounds that will effectively warn pedestrians
Since Elon Musk’s takeover, advertisers have paused spending amid fears of a rise in divisive contentTwitter has said it will relax restrictions on political advertising as it seeks to generate more revenue after Elon Musk’s $44bn (£36.4bn) takeover of the platform.The social media platform banned political advertising in 2019 after its then chief executive, Jack Dorsey, declared that reaching people with political messages should be “earned, not bought”. Continue reading...
Company has lost more than 65% in value since last year, although it is still world’s most valuable automakerTesla shares started 2023 where they left off last year, plunging more than 14% on Tuesday on growing worries about weakening demand and logistical problems that have hampered deliveries for the world’s most valuable automaker.Once worth more than $1tn, Tesla lost more than 65% in market value in a tumultuous 2022. Tuesday’s slide knocked off nearly $60bn in market value, roughly equal to the valuation of rival Ford, which last year sold three times as many cars as Tesla. Continue reading...
AI is already capable of mimicking human creativity. Whether or not it makes artists obsolete will be down to how they use itThis month, the internet was flooded with stunningly ethereal digital art portraits, thanks to the work of the latest artificial intelligence-assisted application to go viral: Lensa. Users uploaded their photographs to the app and then – for a small fee – it used AI to transform their profile pictures into, say, a magical elfin warrior princess version of themselves, in no time at all.This year has seen a breakthrough for AI-driven image generators, which are now better than ever in quality, speed and affordability. The AI models are “trained” on millions of pieces of image and text data scraped from publicly available content online, and as in the case of Microsoft-backed DALL-E, can turn short text prompts such as “Ronald McDonald performing open heart surgery” into unique images. Continue reading...
Is the ping of a text stealing our focus or do we just lack willpower? And could mindless scrolling ever be good for our brains? Elle Hunt unpacks some surprising truthsHow does it feel inside your head? Turn your attention inwards. Maybe you’re daydreaming, allowing your mind to wander. Or maybe it feels sharp and alert. Maybe your thoughts are forging freely ahead, a sign that you have achieved the fabled state of “flow”. More likely, however, your brain feels like a browser with too many tabs open. From the widespread reports of a post-pandemic “brain fog” and the books on “deep work” and “stolen focus” topping bestseller lists, to the soaring diagnoses of ADHD in adults and children, it seems we are increasingly concerned by our ability to pay attention.Early last year, the Centre for Attention Studies at King’s College London found that 49% of 2,000 adults surveyed felt their attention span was shorter than it used to be. Almost as many (47%) agreed that “‘deep thinking’ has become a thing of the past”. These are generalisations and impossible to quantify – we have no consistent measure of attention or deep thinking, let alone of contrasting those through history with today’s. But the response proves that we at least perceive there’s a problem. Continue reading...
Tech tycoon has slashed jobs and lost credibility with investors since buying the social media platformWhen Elon Musk walked into Twitter’s offices on 26 October carrying a sink, one day before he bought the platform for $44bn (£38bn), it was the first sign that the tale of his ownership would not be a conventional one. “Let that sink in!” he tweeted. For everyone swept up in what followed – from thousands of Twitter employees to advertisers and critical journalists – it certainly has now.Musk’s reign since has proved unpredictable and controversial, with the Tesla CEO losing the title of the world’s richest man in the process. Here are some of the standout moments from those eventful past 10 weeks: Continue reading...
Silicon Valley firm insists its new text generator, which writes human-sounding essays, can overcome fears over cheating‘A confident bullshitter that can write very convincing nonsense’: not a takedown of an annoying student or a former British prime minister, but a description of an artificial intelligence writing programme that is causing headaches for its makers.With fears in academia growing about a new AI chatbot that can write convincing essays – even if some facts it uses aren’t strictly true – the Silicon Valley firm behind a chatbot released last month are racing to “fingerprint” its output to head off a wave of “AIgiarism” – or AI-assisted plagiarism. Continue reading...
Trump tried to impose a total ban on the China-based app and some states have already prohibited its use on official devicesThe US government has approved an unprecedented ban on the use of TikTok on federal government devices. The restrictions – tucked into a spending bill just days before it was passed by Congress, and signed by Joe Biden on Thursday – add to growing uncertainty about the app’s future in the US amid a crackdown from state and federal lawmakers.Officials say the ban is necessary due to national security concerns about the China-based owner of the app, ByteDance. But it also leaves many questions unanswered. Here’s what you need to know. Continue reading...
Move follows House of Representatives ban, which TikTok called a ‘political measure that will do nothing’ for national securityTikTok has been banned on all federal government devices in the US, with limited exceptions, after Joe Biden signed a $1.7tn (£1.4tn) spending bill on Thursday containing a provision that outlaws the China-based app over growing security concerns.The ban – which was approved by Congress in a vote last week – is a major step targeting the fastest-growing social media platform in the world as opponents express worry user data stored in China could be accessed by the government. Continue reading...
A new service offers a way to offset losses from NFTs during a grim crypto winter that saw demand for digital collectibles vanishJust a year ago, Washington DC’s Hirshhorn art museum – the capital’s preeminent contemporary art museum – was asking whether non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were “fad or the future of art”. Twelve months on, it looks like “tax write-off” might have been the right answer.This year was not just the year that cryptocurrency values were burned by investor fears, rising interest rates, inflation and scandals, it was the year that crypto’s cartoonish art cousin the NFT – an electronic identifier confirming a digital collectible is real – collided with reality. Continue reading...
The tech industry’s hype machine always trumpets a fresh new ‘genius’ – and it still hasn’t learned its lessonIt was a month of eerie parallels.On 12 December, the disgraced crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested on fraud charges in the Bahamas, marking a dramatic end to his reign as the head of the now defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#679P7)
More devices contain recycled materials and are supported for longer, but there is much more to doWith a year full of pressures on our wallets, comfort and climate, technology took a back seat in 2022. But change for the better is slowly happening as big tech firms wake up to the demands of consumers wanting better, longer-lasting and more sustainable devices.Trends established in the last couple of years continued to gain pace. Recycled material has become mainstream. Devices containing at least some recycled plastic, metal or minerals are available in almost every category. The range of materials being reused is increasing – an important step towards a circular economy even if it is a very long way away from being fully realised. Continue reading...
Chinese surveillance manufacturer Hikvision has put in place tools to help police track protest activitiesChinese police can set up “alarms” for various protest activities using a software platform provided by Hikvision, a major Chinese camera and surveillance manufacturer, the Guardian has learned. Descriptions of protest activity listed among the “alarms” include “gathering crowds to disrupt order in public places”, “unlawful assembly, procession, demonstration” and threats to “petition”.These activities are listed alongside offenses such as “gambling” or disruptive events such as “fire hazard” in technical documents available on Hikvision’s website and flagged to the Guardian by surveillance research firm IPVM, or Internet Protocol Video Market. The company’s website also included alarms for “religion” and “Falun Gong” – a spiritual movement banned in China and categorized as a cult by the government – until IPVM contacted the company. Continue reading...
The technical failure comes after mass layoffs at the tech firm following its takeover by Elon MuskTwitter users have reported a massive global outage with many unable to access the website and its features for hours.According to downdetector.com, which tracks site traffic, the website became unavailable shortly before midnight GMT (11am Thursday AEDT, 7pm Wednesday EST), with outages most commonly reported on website rather than the app. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian