Smuggled cheetahs, counter-terror cops and Grace Kelly feature in the Wild Things podcast which profiles the outrageous career of the world-famous illusionists. Plus: Stephen Fry looks at brainsWild Things: Siegfried & Roy

Western users may be logging off, but across the continent of Africa, the social media company is indispensable for everything from running a business to sourcing vaccines. How has it become so inescapable?Badri Ibrahim is a Sudanese comic artist and the founder of the Abbas Comics empire. His strips are quirky and irreverent, poking fun at the Sudanese military and encouraging civic activism. One recurrent character is a hapless but wise cat called Ghadanfar, a sort of Garfield meets Snoopy protagonist, who finds himself on the wrong end of misunderstandings with neighbourhood felines and humans. It is all rendered in colloquial dialect and is dry, funny and often poignant. So popular has the comic become that Ibrahim is regularly commissioned to do private work, rendering Ghadanfar in different guises – as a bashful groom on a wedding invitation card, for example.The majority of this work comes through Facebook, where his comics have about 19,000 followers. “I ran the page for about a year,” Ibrahim says. By then, it had become its own community, and now he does not need to spend much time maintaining it. During the launch period, Ibrahim spent a lot of time “posting regularly and engaging with comments” and also “sending the page to everyone I know”. Freelance work came through those comments. “People and businesses would send me a message through the page, looking for an artist. Sometimes they ask for one of my comic characters to use for a product.” He can’t imagine how he would have launched his artistic career without Facebook. Continue reading...

Investors react to possibility that Playstation and subscription service will lose Activision Blizzard games$20bn (£14.7bn) has been wiped off the value of Sony after its rival Microsoft announced a record-breaking deal to buy the Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard and take the console wars into the metaverse.Shares in the Japanese conglomerate closed down 13% on Wednesday, their biggest fall since the global financial crisis in 2008, as investors reacted to the possibility that the $70bn bid for Activision Blizzard could result in hit games being pulled from the Sony PlayStation console and subscription service and offered exclusively on the rival Microsoft Xbox. Continue reading...

The company’s bottomless appetite for buying new studios means the art of the deal is threatening the art – and heart – of the gameIn 2014, Microsoft bought Minecraft’s developer Mojang for what seemed, at the time, an eye-popping figure: $2.5bn (£1.8bn). It was the first in a series of bullish video-game studio acquisitions by the tech giant, whose games division has been led by executive Phil Spencer, a long-time advocate for video games within Microsoft and the wider business world, for the past eight years. More studios followed, for undisclosed amounts: beloved Californian comedy-game artists Double Fine, UK studio Ninja Theory, RPG specialists Obsidian Entertainment. It seemed that under Spencer’s leadership, Microsoft was cementing its commitment to the Xbox console and the video-games business by investing in what makes games great: the people who make them.Then came 2020’s deal to acquire Zenimax (and with it Bethesda), for a properly astonishing $7.5bn. This was different. This wasn’t the Xbox division acquiring studios to make games for its consoles. This was an entire publisher, with several different studios and a whole portfolio of popular game series. At this point Microsoft’s spending started to look like a monopoly move – a bid to sew up the market by closing off hugely popular games behind Microsoft’s own consoles and services. When it was confirmed that Bethesda’s forthcoming games, including this year’s space role-playing epic Starfield and the next fantasy Elder Scrolls game, would be exclusive to Xbox and Microsoft Game Pass, I started to wonder whether Microsoft’s stated aim to make video games more widely available to everyone was lining up with its actions in the market. Continue reading...

Investigation alleges Israeli police carried out phone intercepts without court supervision or monitoring of how data was usedThe Israeli police allegedly conducted warrantless phone intercepts of Israeli citizens, including politicians and activists, using the NSO group’s controversial Pegasus spyware, according to an investigation by the Israeli business media site Calcalist.Among those described as having been targets in the report were local mayors, leaders of political protests against the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former government employees. Continue reading...

Tech giant acquires publisher of games including World of Warcraft and Candy CrushMicrosoft is to pay almost $70bn to buy Activision Blizzard, the publisher of mega franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, in the biggest ever takeover in the tech and gaming sectors.Microsoft said that the $68.7bn (£50.6bn) all-cash deal – which dwarfs its previous biggest, the $26bn takeover of LinkedIn in 2016 – will “provide the building blocks for the metaverse”. It is the biggest deal in tech history, eclipsing the $67bn paid by Dell to buy the digital storage giant EMC in 2015. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: when every game tries to collect our data and monetise our attention, it’s no wonder the world responded positively to one that’s simple, fun and free

The New Yorker has made a virtual art show to take place within the smash-hit game – and a real-life one at London’s Serpentine with a touch of augmented reality. Can it get young gamers into galleries?For Brian Donnelly – known as Kaws since his graffiti beginnings in 1990s New York – art has always been a communication tool. From street art to vast public commissions, he says, “it’s a chance to create a dialogue”. His desire to bring art to the masses is partly why his work spans collectable toys and streetwear collaborations, as well as paintings and sculptures that sell for millions. His new exhibition will allow him to connect with a large number of eyeballs in, he says, “a new and massive way”. The show, New Fiction, is at London’s Serpentine Gallery, and simultaneously on two free online platforms: the gaming behemoth Fortnite and the augmented-reality (AR) app Acute Art.With more than 400m player accounts, Fortnite is massive, especially when compared with the estimated footfall of an average Serpentine show (around 35,000). While the uninitiated might dismiss Fortnite as just another shooting extravaganza, players are increasingly spending time in its more peaceful zones, such as creative mode, where they can mooch about the Fortnite metaverse without fear of elimination. “You can hang out with your friends and explore new features,” says Fortnite’s partnerships director, Kevin Durkin. This could mean honing your dance moves but also watching a film or an Ariana Grande concert (as players did in August 2021), or, as of today, visiting an art gallery. Continue reading...

No Place to Hide drive funded by Home Office to warn social media firms over dangers of end-to-end encryptionA government-backed campaign has stepped up the pressure on plans by Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Messenger and Instagram apps to introduce end-to-end encryption, warning that millions of cases of child sex abuse could go undetected.The new campaign warns that social media companies are “willingly blindfolding” themselves to abuse if they implement end-to-end encryption for private messaging. Continue reading...

Speculators rush to sell off their kit as Balkan state announces a crypto clampdown to ease electricity crisisFor bitcoin enthusiasts in Kosovo with a breezy attitude to risk, it has been a good week to strike a deal on computer equipment that can create, or “mine”, the cryptocurrency.From Facebook to Telegram, new posts in the region’s online crypto groups became dominated by dismayed Kosovans attempting to sell off their mining equipment – often at knockdown prices. Continue reading...

Plans by crypto-evangelists for the lavish hideaway have courted mockery and controversy, and now the island is back on the marketWidely mocked plans to establish a tropical haven for cryptocurrency enthusiasts have run into trouble after a contract to buy an island in Fiji for US$12m fell through.A group of crypto-evangelists, led by Max Olivier and Helena Lopez, outlined plans for the island, Nananu-i-cake, in a lavishly animated YouTube video, featuring a wide-eyed crypto bro named Christopher landing by helicopter and being given a guided tour by a talking coin called Connie. Continue reading...

Overwhelmed by messages, notifications and distractions? You can reclaim your focus without a full digital detoxAre you in control of your smartphone or is it in control of you? Sometimes it is difficult to tell. One minute you might be using FaceTime to chat with loved ones or talking about your favourite TV show on Twitter. Next, you’re stuck in a TikTok “scroll hole” or tapping your 29th email notification of the day and no longer able to focus on anything else.We often feel like we can’t pull ourselves away from our devices. As various psychologists and Silicon Valley whistleblowers have stated, that is by design.Becca Caddy is the author of Screen Time: How to Make Peace With Your Devices and Find Your Techquilibrium (Blink, £14.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply Continue reading...

The Nigerian photographer on an unusual encounter on the roadside in MoroccoAs a professional photographer, Stephen Tayo’s usual reason to travel is for work. Since visiting Marrakech solo in 2019, however, he had been raving to friends about how much they all needed to go. Bored after a year under Covid restrictions, he eventually rallied five friends from his home town of Lagos, Nigeria, to join him on a mini road trip. The group began in Tayo’s beloved Marrakech, then decided to head to the beach to slow the pace a little.“We hired a bus and headed for Essaouira on the coast, but stopped any time we saw something interesting. Shortly after a roadside coffee break, we saw this tree filled with goats taking shelter and resting,” Tayo says. Continue reading...

Car-sharing is both liberating and a big hassle if you want to avoid the cost and carbon emissions of a personal vehicleBefore moving overseas six years ago, I sold my car and have been living without one ever since. Life in New York for the first two years was a breeze, but being car-free in Sydney? Not so much.Private cars have always been integral to getting from A to B in Australia. While I caught the bus to school, afternoon and weekend activities usually required a lift from my parents or those of a friend. I got my own licence as soon as I was eligible and a few years later bought my first car, which I used most days. Continue reading...

Meta says human rights diligence projects can be ‘highly time intensive’ and run for year or moreThe owner of Facebook and Instagram has said it will “assess the feasibility” of conducting an independent human rights study related to its work in Ethiopia, after the company’s oversight board urged it to investigate how its platforms have been used to spread hate speech and unverified rumours in the country.Meta was asked by its oversight board, which reviews the company’s content moderation decisions and policies, to conduct the study after it upheld the removal of a Facebook post alleging the involvement of ethnic Tigrayan civilians in atrocities in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. Because the platform had subsequently reinstated the post after an appeal by the user who posted it, Facebook was required to take it down again. Continue reading...

Cryptocurrency with shiba inu dog meme rises 15% after billionaire’s tweet about merchandiseDogecoin, the cryptocurrency with a shiba inu dog meme, soared in value by 15% on Friday after the billionaire Elon Musk said it could be used to buy Tesla merchandise.Dogecoin rose to $0.20 after Musk’s tweet early on Friday, and has soared by 5,859% over the past 12 months, according to data from the Coinbase website. Continue reading...

An open letter expresses concern about Covid misinformation and specifically addresses an episode with virologist Robert MaloneA total of 270 US doctors, scientists, healthcare professionals and professors have written an open letter to streaming company Spotify, expressing concern about medical misinformation on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, listed as the platform’s most popular program.The letter asks the platform to “establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform”. Continue reading...

PC; Dim Bulb Games

Why the Guardian US is running a major project on everyday gun deaths in the Golden State

Federal Trade Commission wants to force sale of Instagram and WhatsAppThe US competition watchdog can proceed with a breakup lawsuit against Facebook’s owner, a federal judge has ruled.Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, had asked a court to dismiss an antitrust complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the second time. However, Judge James Boasberg said on Tuesday that the FTC’s revised lawsuit should be allowed to proceed. Continue reading...

Modern video games boast longer and longer playtimes – but does the idea of spending hundreds of hours on a game make you feel excited, or exhausted?In the winter of 1996, I almost lost my job because of the acclaimed management sim Civilization II. I was supposed to be reviewing it for the video game magazine Edge, where I was a fledgling staff writer. But I got so hooked, playing it was all I did for three weeks. During that period I ate, slept and drank Civilization II. At the end, I handed in my extremely thorough two-page review: the only thing I had submitted for the entire issue. I was supposed to be writing 25 pages a month. My editor was … displeased.On Saturday evening, video game publisher Techland proudly tweeted that if players hoped to fully complete its forthcoming apocalyptic adventure Dying Light 2, they would need around 500 hours – “almost as long as it would take you to walk from Warsaw to Madrid”. The message immediately provoked a storm of controversy. Many respondents were critical, complaining that there wasn’t a chance they’d be able to find enough time for such a challenge. Writer Andy Kelly summed up it up by tweeting: “How not to market a game to anyone over 30 years old.” Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: actual, lasting change to toxic ‘studio culture’ is an expensive problem to solve – but more costly to ignore

The maker of Grand Theft Auto adds popular farming game and Harry Potter to roster to create gaming giantThe maker of hit video games including the Grand Theft Auto franchise is to acquire Zynga, best known for its FarmVille and Harry Potter titles, in a $12.7bn (£9.4bn) deal that will create a global console and mobile gaming giant.US-listed Take-Two Interactive said the cash and shares deal will create one of the largest publicly traded interactive entertainment companies in the world. Continue reading...

Starlink’s satellite internet performance has fallen victim to felines attracted to the warmth its dish gives off on cold daysElon Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, has ambitious plans to bring internet access to people anywhere in the world. But it turns out the venture is providing another service: warming up cats.A customer tweeted a photo of five cats huddled on his Starlink dish, which links homes to more than a thousand satellites, and noted that the presence of the furtive felines had slowed his internet performance. Continue reading...

EU police body accused of unlawfully holding information and aspiring to become an NSA-style mass surveillance agencyThe EU’s police agency, Europol, will be forced to delete much of a vast store of personal data that it has been found to have amassed unlawfully by the bloc’s data protection watchdog. The unprecedented finding from the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) targets what privacy experts are calling a “big data ark” containing billions of points of information. Sensitive data in the ark has been drawn from crime reports, hacked from encrypted phone services and sampled from asylum seekers never involved in any crime.According to internal documents seen by the Guardian, Europol’s cache contains at least 4 petabytes – equivalent to 3m CD-Roms or a fifth of the entire contents of the US Library of Congress. Data protection advocates say the volume of information held on Europol’s systems amounts to mass surveillance and is a step on its road to becoming a European counterpart to the US National Security Agency (NSA), the organisation whose clandestine online spying was revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. Continue reading...

We take in 3D crosswords and wordplay in other forms in our pick of the best of the broadsheets’ crypticsIn the sample clues below, the links take you to explainers from our beginners series. The setter’s name often links to an interview with him or her, in case you feel like getting to know these people better.10a Adult gets into origins of Peppa Pig with hesitation in front of function needing sheets of A4? (9)

From low-cost to do-it-all systems, here are the best wireless, wifi and smartphone-connected optionsWhether you have a newborn or know someone who does, a good baby monitor can be both freeing and reassuring, helping keep an eye on the little ones as they rest.But with so many to choose from with varying brands, capabilities and prices, it can be hard to know which work best in practice. So we put nine of the best baby cameras to the test across three different categories for travel or home. Here are the ones that delivered. Continue reading...

Four storage solutions to help Britain keep the lights on deep into the futureSoaring energy bills rooted in a global gas supply crunch have focused minds on the age-old problem: how can we better store power?Attention has turned to the closure of the Rough gas storage facility in the North Sea in 2017, which left the UK with only enough storage to meet the demand of four to five winter days. Continue reading...

Campaigners say lack of parental controls on Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset could breach children’s safety codeThe UK’s data watchdog is seeking clarification from Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta about parental controls on its popular virtual reality headset, as campaigners warned that it could breach an online children’s safety code.The Information Commissioner’s Office said it was planning “further discussions” with the Facebook and Instagram owner about its £300 Oculus Quest 2 device, which was a sought-after gift over Christmas. However, child safety experts have warned that the headset’s lack of parental controls – which would allow parents to block content that could be harmful to children – expose young users to the threat of abuse on the platform. Continue reading...

Young developers on the platform used by many millions of children claim they have been financially exploited, threatened with dismissal and sexually harassedAnna* was 10 when she built her first video game on Roblox, a digital platform where young people can make, share and play games together. She used Roblox much like a child from a previous generation might have used cardboard boxes, marker pens and stuffed toys to build a castle or a spaceship and fill it with characters and story. There was one alluring difference: Roblox hosted Anna’s tiny world online, enabling children she had never met and who maybe lived thousands of miles away from her home in Utah to visit and play. Using Roblox’s in-built tools – child-friendly versions of professional software – Anna began to learn the rudiments of music composition, computer programming and 3D modelling. Game-making became an obsession. When she wasn’t at school Anna was rarely off her computer.As she became more proficient, Anna’s work caught the attention of some experienced users on Roblox, game-makers in their 20s who messaged her with a proposition to collaborate on a more ambitious project. Flattered by their interest, Anna became the fifth member of the nascent team, contributing art, design and programming to the game. She did not sign up to make money, but during a Skype call the game-makers offered the teenager 10% of any profits the game made in the future. It turned out to be a generous offer. Within a few months, the game had become one of the most played on Roblox. For Anna, success had an unfathomable, life-changing impact. At 16 her monthly income somehow exceeded her parents’ combined salaries. She calculated that she was on course to earn $300,000 in a year, a salary equivalent to that of a highly experienced Google programmer. Anna cancelled her plans to go to college. Continue reading...

Critics attacked Don’t Look Up for being over the top. But the mania for NFTs shows how on-the-money the movie isOn 24 December, the movie Don’t Look Up began streaming on Netflix following a limited release in cinemas. It’s a satirical story, directed by Adam McKay, about what happens when a lowly PhD student (played by Jennifer Lawrence) and her supervisor (Leonardo DiCaprio) discover that an Everest-size asteroid is heading for Earth. What happens is that they try to warn their fellow Earthlings about this existential threat only to find that their intended audience isn’t interested in hearing such bad news.The movie has been widely watched but has had a pasting from critics. It was, said the Observer’s Simran Hans, a “shrill, desperately unfunny climate-change satire”. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw found it a “laboured, self-conscious and unrelaxed satire… like a 145-minute Saturday Night Live sketch with neither the brilliant comedy of Succession… nor the seriousness that the subject might otherwise require”. Continue reading...

Record sales and now news of a battery that lasts hundreds of miles. It’s getting better, but going green was tough, admits a reluctant pioneerThis time last year my partner John and I celebrated purchasing an electric car by driving through London to see the Christmas lights without having to pay congestion or Ulez – ultra-low emission zone – charges. I gleefully tweeted that Regent Street, deserted in lockdown, seemed a London from a different era: empty roads and glittering shop windows.This was my first moment of enjoyment of the electric vehicle (EV), whose purchase had been the source of considerable domestic tension. An eternal optimist, John was convinced we should dispense with a diesel car. The arrival of a grandchild, living at the opposite diagonal corner of London, tipped the balance. It would cut 30 minutes off a hellish journey. Continue reading...

The mathematician and Countdown presenter on Caribbean comfort food, a podcast for millennials and her owl-shaped bestieBorn and raised in east London, the mathematician Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, 31, was announced last month as a new presenter on Countdown, covering Rachel Riley’s maternity leave. A child prodigy, Imafidon passed two GCSEs at primary school and two A-levels aged 11. She graduated from the University of Oxford with a master of mathematics and computer science degree in 2010 and in 2013 co-founded and became the CEO of Stemettes, a social enterprise encouraging young women to pursue careers in Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths). In 2020 she was named the most influential woman in tech in the UK. Continue reading...

The reality show about the LA collective of TikTok stars is a bleak portrait of the relentless, inarticulable job of being oneself onlineThe Hype House, a collective of some of TikTok’s most famous stars in the hills north-west of Los Angeles, appears to be a very lonely place even with somewhere around 10 residents between the ages of 17 and 23. Bird’s-eye shots of the house in its eponymous Netflix reality series – to date, arguably the most prominent attempt to translate TikTok fame to the formulas of major streaming platforms – capture a property of isolation and excess: a grandiose villa with a cluster of palm trees atop a barren, brown hill, an empty driveway save for a brightly painted school bus. Inside, a collection of social media influencers and creators – Instagram, YouTube and, most predominantly, TikTok – traipse about impersonally deluxe rooms trailed by a constant cloud of content. They’re either making some (planning, rehearsing, filming, being filmed), lamenting the pressure to do so, or avoiding the churn entirely in an anxious, bored malaise.In confessionals which open the series and recur throughout the five episodes made available for review, the Hype House stars attempt to explain their fame, their jobs and the experience of being known by millions of people and having your worth — and income — quantified by followers. Like sisters Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, the TikTok stars and former Hype House collective members in Hulu’s Kardashian-esque The D’Amelio Show, and Gen Z music superstars Billie Eilish and Juice WRLD (who both blew up on Soundcloud) in their respective 2021 documentaries, the kids find the experience of social media fame basically inarticulable. Continue reading...

Angela Underwood claims Facebook ‘knowingly promoted inflammatory and violent content and connected extremists’The sister of a security officer who was murdered in Oakland in 2020 is suing Facebook, alleging that the tech company played a part in radicalizing the two men accused of killing him.David Patrick Underwood was fatally shot and his partner was wounded while guarding a federal building on 29 May 2020, when a large demonstration over the police killing of George Floyd was underway nearby. Continue reading...

Our tendency towards rosy recollections of the past has been amplified in recent times, from photos on social media to retro video gamesI’ve always been susceptible to bouts of nostalgia. Defined as “sentimental longing for the past”, nostalgia was originally identified as an emotion afflicting people who were separated from their homeland – a familiar feeling to someone who called four cities and two countries home by the age of 12.Modern researchers say nostalgia is experienced more or less the same way by everyone – across countries, ages and genders. “When people experience nostalgia, what they typically are doing is bringing to mind and revisiting memories that are special to them, or cherished, or particularly meaningful,” says Clay Routledge, a psychological scientist and professor at North Dakota State University. Continue reading...

Figure represents a 570% increase on previous year, and was 1,447 times the average Apple employee’s payApple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, was paid nearly $100m (£74m) last year, a 570% increase on the previous year, according to regulatory filings.Cook, 61, who took over as chief executive from the Apple founder Steve Jobs in 2011, also gained access to share awards worth about $750m as the iPhone maker’s market value approached $3tn. Continue reading...

Mobile phone, TV, carmakers and other major players tout what’s new at the annual Las Vegas tech showcaseFrom colour-shifting cars to digital art TVs and stress-predicting watches, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which opened on Wednesday, offered its usual mix of wacky, visionary and desirable goods. Here are some of the highlights. Continue reading...

The ex-newsreader bears all to David Cameron’s Brexit right-hand-man in a new podcast about the life lessons to be found in traumatic experiences. Plus: a chilling true-crime show about murders in doughnut shopsDesperately Seeking Wisdom With Craig Oliver

Truth Social’s launch will come 13 months after the former president was banned from Twitter and FacebookDonald Trump’s new media venture plans to launch its social media app Truth Social on 21 February, according to an Apple Inc App Store listing.Truth Social, the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) alternative to Twitter, is available for pre-order before going live on the US Presidents’ Day holiday. Continue reading...

Data privacy watchdog says websites make it difficult for users to refuse cookiesFrance’s data privacy watchdog has fined Google and Facebook a combined €210m (£176m) for hampering users’ ability to stop the companies tracking their online activity.The Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) said on Thursday it had fined Google a record €150m for making it difficult for internet users to refuse cookies – small text files that build up a profile of a person’s web activity for commercial purposes. It fined Facebook €60m for the same reason. Continue reading...

The swapping, collating and posting of nude images of women without their consent is on the rise. But unlike revenge porn, it is not a crime. Now survivors are demanding a change in the lawRuby will never forget the first time she clicked on the database AnonIB. It is a so-called “revenge porn” site and in January 2020, a friend had texted her for help. Ruby is a secondary school teacher, used to supporting teenagers, and her friend turned to her for advice when she discovered her images were on the site.“She didn’t send the thread that she was on,” says Ruby, 29. “She was embarrassed, so she sent a general link to the site itself.” When Ruby opened it, “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t believe that such an infrastructure existed: something so well organised, so systematic, fed by the people who lived around us.” Continue reading...

The downfall of the founder of Theranos is a story of hubris and lies – and a parable for a financial system that is badly brokenThe story of how Elizabeth Holmes came to defraud some of the richest and most powerful investors in the US, only to end up this week facing decades in prison, is so epic and outlandish that it is no wonder it has already flowered into a prize-winning book and a popular podcast, and is reportedly on its way to becoming a Hollywood film, with Ms Holmes to be played by Jennifer Lawrence, no less. But it is more than superb entertainment; it is a parable about how our financial system is badly broken.At only 19, Ms Holmes decided to reinvent a fundamental part of healthcare: blood testing. No more painful pinpricks, nor anxious waits for results. She dropped out of Stanford to start Theranos in 2003, and in short order pulled in some of the biggest investors in Silicon Valley, garnered adoring magazine profiles and turned her startup into a firm employing 800 staff and valued at £6.6bn. Continue reading...

Nathan Dane spent six years honing his version of the BBC’s defunct text-based information serviceIf you find news websites too overwhelming, too fast and too full of distractions then this might be the solution: a recreation of the BBC’s Ceefax service featuring up-to-date headlines, an accurate weather map and the latest stock market prices.Nathan Dane, 20, has spent the last six years building a simulation of the BBC’s defunct text-based information service. It takes in data from the BBC’s existing website and repurposes it in the distinctively blocky font that was ubiquitous on television sets during the 1980s and 1990s. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: the Theranos founder’s conviction shows healthy scepticism about promises to radically rewrite our future is no bad thing

Spokesperson says account ‘suspended for violating rules on platform manipulation and spam’Twitter has permanently banned the popular news aggregation service Politics For All, in a sign of how the social media platform has substantial power to deprive news outlets of their audience without warning.A spokesperson said the account was “suspended for violating the Twitter Rules on platform manipulation and spam” and would not be allowed to return. Continue reading...

The diversified technology giant generated revenues of $1bn a day in its last financial yearThe striking part about Apple’s $3tn valuation is that it does not look obviously wrong. Or, rather, it does not appear out of line with the racy values the US stock market places on technology companies. There is no need, for example, to engage in heroic horizon-gazing projections, as with $1.2tn Tesla, to support the enormous number. One can roughly get to $3tn at Apple via conventional yardsticks such as revenues, profits and cash generation.The company generated revenues of $366bn in its last financial year that ended in September – $1bn a day – and made profits of $94.7bn. So the shares are being rated at slightly more than 30 times last year’s earnings. That’s punchy, but not wildly so given the rate of revenue growth (one third last year) and the fact that all the profits find their way to investors these days, largely through share buy-backs. Continue reading...

The mobile phone game Josh Wardle launched in October now has 300,000 people playing it daily – but, he says, he is not cashing inName: Wordle.Age: Nearly three months old. Continue reading...

Founder of blood-testing company Theranos spun ‘alluring narrative that everyone wanted to believe’Just six years ago Forbes magazine declared her the “the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire” and the “next Steve Jobs”. Now, Elizabeth Holmes, 37, founder of the collapsed blood testing company Theranos, is facing decades in prison after being found guilty of conspiring to defraud her investors out of billions.Holmes, a university dropout with no medical training, had fooled regulators and some of the world’s richest people, including Rupert Murdoch, Henry Kissinger and Larry Ellison, into believing she had figured out a way to test for a range of health conditions with just a pinprick of blood. Continue reading...

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, has been found guilty on four of 11 charges of fraud, concluding a high-profile trial that captivated Silicon Valley and chronicled the missteps of the now-defunct blood testing startup. The Guardian looks back at how Holmes' rhetoric changed over time as the company ultimately fell short of its ambitious pledge