Technology | The Guardian

Replacement routers put speedy wifi in every corner of the home for reliable work, video calls and filmsWith wifi more important than ever for keeping your home working and your online entertainment up and running, it may be time to banish those irritating “not-spots” and make your broadband work everywhere in your home with a router upgrade.Now that most new devices, from laptops and phones to TVs and streaming boxes, support wifi 6, I put several of the latest mid-range “mesh” routers to the test to see which ones deliver. Continue reading...

Drivers get protection but prices may rise as minicab firms in city told to contract directly with customersUber will be forced to change its business model in London to contract directly with passengers who book, after a high court ruling that will affect all private hire operators in the capital.The judgment was hailed by unions for giving both drivers and passengers more protection, by underscoring previous legal rulings that drivers are workers with rights, and making firms responsible once bookings are accepted. Continue reading...

Whistleblower’s complaint led to disclosure of the review of charges the company failed to inform shareholders of defectsThe US securities regulator has opened an investigation into Tesla over a whistleblower complaint that the company failed to properly notify its shareholders and the public of fire risks associated with solar panel system defects over several years, according to a letter from the agency.The inquiry raises regulatory pressure on the world’s most valuable automaker, which already faces a federal safety investigation into accidents involving its driver assistant systems. Concerns about fires from Tesla solar systems have been published previously, but this is the first report of investigation by the securities regulator. Continue reading...

Victims in US and UK legal action accuse social media firm of failing to prevent incitement of violenceFacebook’s negligence facilitated the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar after the social media network’s algorithms amplified hate speech and the platform failed to take down inflammatory posts, according to legal action launched in the US and the UK.The platform faces compensation claims worth more than £150bn under the coordinated move on both sides of the Atlantic. Continue reading...

Cryptocurrency settles to just below $50,000 after record-high last month, in continuation of recent volatilityThe value of bitcoin has suffered a “thumping”, losing more than one-fifth of its value at at one point over the weekend before settling below $50,000 (£37,720), only a month after reaching a record high.The value of the cryptocurrency rose above $68,000 in November and had been predicted to move even higher by the end of the year, amid concern about the value of traditional assets such as gold and government debt. Continue reading...

I can’t have Octopus Energy’s Go tariff because the meter would interfere with air force systemsA few months ago I decided to switch energy supplier and moved to Octopus Energy’s Go tariff, principally because it offers cheap electric car charging overnight at a rate of 5p/kWh.I applied to have the required smart meter installed. But after being given a date, I was later declined on the basis that smart meters cannot work at my address because they interfere with the missile early warning system at RAF Fylingdales. Continue reading...

At a new exhibition at the reopening of the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, technology and designs for a better future are on displayIf America has stood for anything, it’s surely forward-looking optimism. In New York, Chicago, Detroit and other shining cities, its soaring skyscrapers pointed to the future. But has the bubble burst in the 21st century?“We don’t see ourselves striding toward a better tomorrow,” columnist Frank Bruni wrote in the New York Times last month, citing research that found 71% of Americans believe that this country is on the wrong track. “We see ourselves tiptoeing around catastrophe. That was true even before Covid. That was true even before Trump.” Continue reading...

Study finds over half of teenagers sent non-consensual sexual images via social media apps reported itSchools and parents should do more to support students who are being sexually harassed through platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram, while the tech companies need to clamp down on non-consensual sexual images being sent to young people, according to new research released on Monday.The study by academics at University College London and the University of Kent found that just over 50% of teenagers who had been sent unsolicited sexually explicit images via social media apps say they have not reported the offences to either their parents, authorities or the companies involved. Continue reading...

Vodka, jet fuel, protein… according to a new clutch of carbon-to-value startups, these are just some of the things that can be manufactured from thin airIn a warehouse laboratory in Berkeley, California, Nicholas Flanders stands in front of a shiny metal box about the size of a washing machine. Inside is a stack of metal plates that resemble a club sandwich – only the filling is a black polymer membrane coated with proprietary metal catalyst. “We call the membrane the black leaf,” he says.Flanders is the co-founder and CEO of Twelve, a startup founded in 2015, which received a $57m funding boost in July. It aims to take air – or, to be more precise, the carbon dioxide (CO) in it – and transform it into something useful, as plants also do, eliminating damaging emissions in the process. Taking the unwanted gas wreaking havoc on our climate and using only water and renewable electricity, Twelve’s metal box houses a new kind of electrolyser that transforms the CO into synthesis gas (syngas), a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen that can be made into a range of familiar products usually made from fossil fuels. Oxygen is the only by-product. This August, the pilot scale equipment made the syngas that went into what Flanders claims is the world’s first carbon neutral, fossil-free jet fuel produced by electrolysing CO. “This is a new way of moving carbon through our economy without pulling it out of the ground,” he says. Continue reading...

‘The ibex couldn’t care less about me. He was just there, magnificent, on his stage’As so often, says Eric Bouvet, the stage was set, the actors ready. “You get this amazing orchestra,” he says, “and you’re the conductor. You decide your point of view, your frame, you hit the button. A second either way, it wouldn’t have worked.”A five-time World Press Photo winner, Bouvet has covered conflicts from Afghanistan to Sudan, Iraq to Somalia, Chechnya to Lebanon. His Fujis have recorded the fall of the Wall, the release of Mandela, Tiananmen Square, for Time, Life, Paris Match. Continue reading...

Every year Grattan Institute compiles a list of essential reads for the PM. Here’s what it has recommended this timeAs 2020 drew to a close, Scott Morrison may have looked towards 2021 with a sense of optimism. But Covid-19 had other ideas, and Australia’s attention was soon fixed upon combating the deadly new Delta strain. This year has been marked by multi-state lockdowns, border closures and a fraught vaccination rollout, leaving the population exhausted. But as Australia nervously enters a new phase of normalcy (Omicron-permitting), there remain policy issues on the other side of the roadmap that demand attention.Boosting educational standards, reconciling our history with our First Nations people and our unhealthy reliance on a small handful of big tech firms areon the government’s priority list. Other issues, including conserving Australia’s environment, and addressing poverty and entrenched economic inequality, are worthy of any vision to “build back better”. Continue reading...

Revelation comes just weeks after the Biden administration placed NSO on a US blacklistThe iPhones of at least nine US state department officials were recently hacked by a government using NSO Group spyware, according to a new report that raised serious questions about the use of Israeli surveillance tools against US government officials around the world.The claim, which was reported by Reuters, comes just weeks after the Biden administration placed NSO on a US blacklist and said the surveillance company acted “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US”. Continue reading...

Firm has hired 2,000 staff in a matter of months in Wiltshire town, with ripple effect on other businessesOn an industrial estate outside Swindon, it’s the busiest time of year at Amazon’s newest warehouse in Britain. Black boxes rattle along miles of conveyor belt, carrying everything from toys to painkillers amid a cacophony of alarms and the faint hum of Christmas songs.“I’m looking around here at anything that might not be right, but it’s actually running very smoothly,” says David Tindal, the general manager of the Swindon fulfilment centre. “The team has been fantastic. We spend the whole year preparing for this peak time, like a good football club preparing for the cup final.” Continue reading...

Councils are planning to deploy version of Finnish online tool that helps people monitor carbon footprintFor those who want to be part of a zero carbon future but find the prospect of giving up flying, ditching the car and turning vegan daunting, help may be at hand. A Finnish-made online tool that promises to give users the key to their own “sustainable good life” by taking control of their carbon footprint is set to be launched in the UK.London Councils, the body that represents all London boroughs, is looking at developing a version of the tool, which aims to be helpful rather than hectoring, letting people create their own tailor-made path to reducing their CO2 output rather than giving out blanket prescriptions such as stopping flying or eating meat. Continue reading...

I didn’t expect to be making my competitive gaming debut at 30 – but over lockdown, my flatmates and I became hooked on Nintendo’s beloved brawlerThirty is definitely not the best age to kick off an esports career. In that world I am aged, with lower-back pain and reflexes about as sharp as a wooden spoon. But nonetheless, earlier this year, I found myself standing in a dimly lit east-London bar, huddled among the city’s greatest players of Super Smash Bros, Nintendo’s beloved fighting game. As the throng of competitors reminisced over previous tournaments and shared high-level techniques, I stared apprehensively at my name on the tournament ladder, hoping that nobody would find out that I only started playing Smash last year.At the risk of sounding like the narrator of a 90s teen film, let’s rewind. My Smash obsession began during the joyous era of lockdown one. As Covid-19 exploded devastatingly and invisibly, the humble Bow flat I shared slowly morphed from fun-loving party pad into cramped, claustrophobic prison. We did our best to keep things light with bike rides, poorly measured portions of weed brownies and increasingly ridiculous themed nights – but Super Smash Bros Ultimate was what really got me through the mind-numbing ordeal that was 2020. Continue reading...

Harsh Reality considers how TV has changed, as it celebrates Miriam Rivera’s life rather than mocking her. Plus: how a group of American students ended up at ‘Fake Oxford’Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera

Content was often ‘embarrassingly’ produced and pumped out via repurposed accounts, analysts sayTwitter has shut down thousands of state-linked accounts in China that seek to counter evidence of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, as part of what experts called an “embarrassingly” produced propaganda operation.The operations used photos and images, shell and potentially automated accounts, and fake Uyghur profiles, to disseminate state propaganda and fake testimonials about their happy lives in the region, seeking to dispel evidence of a years-long campaign of oppression, with mass internments, re-education programs, and allegations of forced labour and sterilisation. Continue reading...

Letter signed by 86 organisations asks for sanctions against Israeli firm, alleging governments used its software to abuse rightsDozens of human rights organisations have called on the European Union to impose global sanctions on NSO Group and take “every action” to prohibit the sale, transfer, export and import of the Israeli company’s surveillance technology.The letter, signed by 86 organisations including Access Now, Amnesty International and the Digital Rights Foundation, said the EU’s sanctions regime gave it the power to target entities that were responsible for “violations or abuses that are of serious concern as regards to the objectives of the common foreign and security policy, including violations or abuses of freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, or of freedom of opinion and expression”. Continue reading...

Chair of committee points out unpreparedness for Covid shows better anticipation of future threats is neededAssessment and planning by the government relating to risks facing the UK are deficient and “veiled in secrecy”, a report has found.The 129-page report, entitled Preparing for Extreme Risks: Building a Resilient Society, was produced by the House of Lords select committee on risk assessment and risk planning – a group appointed in October 2020.The establishment of an Office for Preparedness and Resilience by the government, headed by a newly created post of government chief risk officer.A presumption of publication by the government, and the publication of the content of the Official-Sensitive National Security Risk Assessment except where there is a direct national security risk.The publication, every two years, by the government of a brochure on risk preparedness to inform the public on topics including what to do in an emergency. Continue reading...

US regulators move to block ‘the largest semiconductor chip merger in history’The $75bn takeover of Cambridge-based chip designer Arm by its rival Nvidia is in jeopardy after US regulators followed the UK and Europe in moving to block “the largest semiconductor chip merger in history”.The Federal Trade Commission has sued to stop the takeover of Arm, which has ballooned in value from $40bn to $75bn since the offer was made last September due to a stock market surge in the chip sector, as seemingly almost insurmountable opposition now mounts after regulator action in Europe and the UK. Continue reading...

Regulator says safety of hundreds of individuals was jeopardised after their addresses were posted onlineThe Cabinet Office has been fined £500,000 by the UK’s data watchdog after the postal addresses of the 2020 New Year honours recipients were disclosed online.The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found officials failed to put in place “appropriate technical and organisational measures” to prevent the unauthorised disclosure of personal information in breach of data protection law. Continue reading...

Listing properties on land owned by XPCC, which has been linked to human rights abuses, risks breaching US regulationsAirbnb has reportedly listed more than a dozen properties on land owned by the Xinjiang paramilitary corporation, which has been sanctioned by the US over its alleged involvement in mass human rights abuses against Uyghurs by the Chinese government.The American media outlet Axios reported on Wednesday that the short-term rental company was at risk of exposure to US regulations preventing business dealings with sanctioned entities. Airbnb, which is a major sponsor of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, said it was not required to vet the “underlying landowner” of properties it lists. Continue reading...

In the bizarre world of the influencer, set out here in engaging style, the line between leisure and labour is increasingly blurredFor people like me, sitting here quaintly typing into a Word document for some half-forgotten old thing called a newspaper, it’s easy to be dismissive of influencers. But, as I’ve learned from Olivia Yallop’s book, not only is that limiting my understanding of where we are as a society (and where we’re heading), my ignorance is partly the fault of the very industry in which I work. “Journalists and publications are very reluctant to promote the influencer industry,” complains one of Yallop’s interviewees, a makeup and style Instagrammer. “If you scroll down the Daily Mail’s sidebar of shame … it’s like influencers don’t exist,” she says. “This silence around influencers – the same silence that may have you wondering why you’ve never heard of many of those mentioned in this book, despite their millions of followers – speaks volumes,” writes Yallop.Indeed, this is a book packed with unfamiliar names and dizzying numbers. “Top kidfluencers include brothers Vlad and Nikita, aged six and four, whose shared YouTube channel has brought in an estimated $64 million.” YouTuber PewDiePie “has 106 million followers and is estimated to earn around $8 million per month”. And how about this: “In 2018, financial analysts shook their heads in disbelief as Kardashian sister Kylie Jenner wiped $1.3bn (£1bn) off Snapchat’s market value in a single day after tweeting, ‘Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore?’”. Yallop contextualises these ludicrous stats with an engaging analysis of online culture that also takes in world-changing events from the Capitol insurrection to the pandemic. Continue reading...

Niels Juul hopes to raise up to $10m and says he wants to ‘democratise’ antiquated funding systemThe executive producer behind blockbusters including Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is to make Hollywood’s first feature film funded entirely by non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with a promise that those who invest will get a share of any profits and meet the stars of the production.Niels Juul, who has set up the production company NFT Studios to fund a series of films, hopes to raise between $8m and $10m (£6m and £7.5m) through the sale of 10,000 NFTs to the public and institutional investors. Continue reading...

Productivity Commission’s ‘right to repair’ report recommends a pilot scheme be adopted to advise consumers of durability of devices

The assistant US attorney also questioned Holmes on the nature of her romantic relationship to business partner Sunny BalwaniTheranos founder Elizabeth Holmes wept in court on Tuesday as a federal prosecutor grilled her over the nature of her relationship with Sunny Balwani, her former business and romantic partner, and her knowledge of problems at the company.Holmes, who faces 11 counts of fraud and up to 20 years in prison over charges that she lied about the company’s core blood-testing technology, had previously testified that she was emotionally and physically abused by Balwani. In Monday’s testimony, she said Balwani closely controlled how she ran the business, who she spent time with, and even what she ate. Balwani, who faces his own fraud trial in 2022, has strongly denied these accusations. Continue reading...

Move by Competition and Markets Authority is a welcome step against the power of big techBig tech has two faces. One face presents a new form of company: inclusive, socially liberal, very much with the zeitgeist, supporting the Democrats rather than the Republicans, and different from anything that has gone before.Strip away the makeup and a different face appears: the face of a monopoly seeking to protect itself from rivals. Over the years, the giants of Silicon Valley have used their financial clout to buy up smaller companies that might pose a threat to their market power. Continue reading...

Tech company fired three workers who raised concerns about potential sale of cloud technology to US immigration authoritiesA group of former Google employees have sued the company, alleging that it breached their employment contracts by not honoring its famous motto “don’t be evil”.In the lawsuit filed in California state court, former Google employees Rebecca Rivers, Sophie Waldman and Paul Duke alleged that they were fired two years ago for fulfilling their contractual obligation to speak up if they saw Google violating its “don’t be evil” pledge. Continue reading...

Holmes said in her fourth day of testimony that Sunny Balwani berated and controlled her to make her more disciplined and focusedElizabeth Holmes has testified that she was emotionally and physically abused by her former lover and business partner, Sunny Balwani, part of her attempt to refute accusations that she lied about Theranos’ core blood-testing technology.Monday marked Holmes’ fourth day on the stand as the continued to testify in her own defense in a fraud case that has gripped Silicon Valley. Continue reading...

The relatively unknown chief technology officer faces a political minefield in one of Silicon Valley’s top jobsJack Dorsey has stepped down as CEO of Twitter and passed the baton to the relatively unknown executive Parag Agrawal.Agrawal, who has been with the company for 10 years – most recently as chief technology officer – has emerged from behind the scenes to take over one of Silicon Valley’s highest-profile and politically volatile jobs. But who is he, and what can we expect for Twitter under his leadership? Continue reading...

New boss Richard Moore to say adversaries are ‘pouring money’ into technology and the agency needs outside funding to keep upMI6 will have to become “more open to stay secret” and work with tech companies to counter threats posed by China and Russia who seek to gain advantage by mastering artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.In his first speech as the foreign spy agency’s head on Tuesday, Richard Moore is expected to admit that “unlike Q in the Bond movies”, MI6 cannot develop the tools it needs in-house to counter hybrid physical and virtual threats. Continue reading...

The 45-year-old who dreamed of being a dressmaker steps down as social media industry becomes ever more competitive

Sunderland plant to play key role as carmaker says it will introduce 23 ‘electrified’ models by 2030Nissan is to invest almost 2tn yen (£13.2bn) into vehicle electrification over the next five years, including a key role for its plant in Sunderland, in its battle with rival traditional carmakers and specialists such as Tesla.The Japanese car manufacturer, which launched one of the world’s first mass market electric vehicles (EVs) with its Leaf model a decade ago, said it would introduce 23 “electrified” vehicle models by 2030, with 15 of them fully electric. The remainder would be hybrids. Continue reading...

Could AI turn on us, or is natural stupidity a greater threat to humanity?Ever since Garry Kasparov lost his second chess match against IBM’s Deep Blue in 1997, the writing has been on the wall for humanity. Or so some like to think. Advances in artificial intelligence will lead – by some estimates, in only a few decades – to the development of superintelligent, sentient machines. Movies from The Terminator to The Matrix have portrayed this prospect as rather undesirable. But is this anything more than yet another sci-fi “Project Fear”?Some confusion is caused by two very different uses of the phrase artificial intelligence. The first sense is, essentially, a marketing one: anything computer software does that seems clever or usefully responsive – like Siri – is said to use “AI”. The second sense, from which the first borrows its glamour, points to a future that does not yet exist, of machines with superhuman intellects. That is sometimes called AGI, for artificial general intelligence. Continue reading...

New M1 Pro and Max chips, larger screen, long battery life and more ports make for huge upgradeApple’s MacBook Pro has been given its biggest upgrade in power, ports and screen quality since 2016, ticking almost every box on the wishlist of eager Mac users.But the new 14in and 16in models are no longer machines for the average consumer. Costing from £1,899 ($1,999 or A$2,999) they are workstation laptops for creative pros and developers and priced accordingly. They leave the excellent £999 M1 MacBook Air as Apple’s foremost consumer laptop. Continue reading...

From smartphones to folding skis, the year’s top gizmos selected by tech experts from the Guardian, iNews, TechRadar and WiredCutting-edge tech is often super-expensive, difficult to use and less than slick. Not so for Samsung’s latest folding screen phones. The Z Fold 3 tablet-phone hybrid and Z Flip 3 flip-phone reinventions are smooth, slick and even water-resistant, packing big screens in compact bodies. The Fold might be super-expensive still, but the Flip 3 costs about the same as a regular top smartphone, but is far, far more interesting. Samuel Gibbs Continue reading...

The infamous hacking tool is now at the centre of international lawsuits thanks to a courageous research labIf you were compiling a list of the most toxic tech companies, Facebook – strangely – would not come out on top. First place belongs to NSO, an outfit of which most people have probably never heard. Wikipedia tells us that “NSO Group is an Israeli technology firm primarily known for its proprietary spyware Pegasus, which is capable of remote zero-click surveillance of smartphones”.Pause for a moment on that phrase: “remote zero-click surveillance of smartphones”. Most smartphone users assume that the ability of a hacker to penetrate their device relies upon the user doing something careless or naive – clicking on a weblink, or opening an attachment. And in most cases they would be right in that assumption. But Pegasus can get in without the user doing anything untoward. And once in, it turns everything on the device into an open book for whoever deployed the malware. Continue reading...

The company has set an example in the fight against carbon – but it retains ties to obstructionist groupsWhen the UN’s landmark climate report was released in 2018, calling for urgent and unprecedented changes, Microsoft executives were told to “commit it to memory”, said Elizabeth Willmott, who leads the company’s carbon program. “And so we did.”The report warned the world must reach net-zero emissions by 2050 in order to avert catastrophic climate change. To achieve this, not only must the emissions released by countries and companies be dramatically curtailed, but billions of tons of carbon dioxide must be sucked out of the atmosphere. Continue reading...

Apple is offering repair kits from next year so the Guardian spent a day in a specialist shop to see how it’s doneWhen fixing an iPhone screen, you have to be careful with the heat gun – the clue is in the name.If you overheat the handset you can damage the insides even before you can lever off a cracked screen, let alone replace it with another. And then you have to remember which screw is which. Continue reading...

There’s a wide choice of options, from credit cards to buy now, pay later services such as KlarnaBuying festive gifts used to be so simple but the march of technology, Covid and other factors have shaken things up and led to a dizzying array of payment options.Buy something on the fashion website Boohoo, for example, and you can choose from seven ways to check out: credit and debit cards, PayPal, Amazon Pay and four different “buy now, pay later” companies. Continue reading...

Investors have salivated over the Illinois automaker – but juggernauts like Ford and GM still have plenty of advantagesNormal, Illinois, a town of just 55,000 people, could be the future of car manufacturing, according to Wall Street traders, at least. Six hours’ drive away in Detroit, home of the US auto industry for more than 100 years, they are not so sure.The town gained international attention earlier this month after the Amazon-backed Rivian, an electric vehicle startup, went public in one of the biggest stock market debuts since Facebook. Despite the fact that the company has delivered only about 150 trucks, Rivian is now valued at about $100bn, more than either Ford or General Motors, which produced about 10m vehicles between them in 2020. Continue reading...

Losing 10m followers on sites such as Instagram is a price worth paying for co-founder of ethical beauty empireQuitting social media is hard to do, even when it doesn’t cost you anything. So when Lush’s chief executive, Mark Constantine, shut its thousands of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok accounts on Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, he knew dropping off millions of customers’ screens would damage his business.Its Facebook and Instagram accounts alone had 10.6 million followers and the void will result in an estimated £10m hit to sales but Constantine, one of the business’s co-founders, said it had “no choice” after whistleblowers called attention to the negative impact social media sites such as Instagram are having on teenagers’ mental health. Continue reading...

Israeli spyware firm’s problems go from bad to worse as scathing Apple lawsuit follows US blacklistingShalev Hulio, the co-founder of Israel’s NSO Group, was in Washington DC on a mission to try to resuscitate the surveillance company’s battered reputation on Capitol Hill shortly before the news broke that he had probably arrived too late to make a difference.With little advance warning to its allies in Israel, the Biden administration announced on 3 November that it was putting the spyware maker – one of the most sophisticated cyber-weapons companies in the world – on a US blacklist, citing use of the company’s software by regimes around the world for “transnational repression”. Continue reading...

Activists target distribution network to highlight company’s treatment of workers and environmental impactClimate activists have blockaded Amazon distribution centres across the UK to highlight the company’s treatment of its workforce and what they say are its “environmentally destructive and wasteful business practices”.Scores of Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists locked themselves together and used bamboo structures in an attempt to disrupt the online retail company’s distribution network on Black Friday – one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Continue reading...

‘Threat horizon’ report by tech firm’s cybersecurity action team details hacking threats to cloud serviceCyberhackers are using compromised cloud accounts to mine cryptocurrency, Google has warned.Details of the mining hack are contained in a report by Google’s cybersecurity action team, which spots hacking threats against its cloud service – a remote storage system where Google stores customers’ data and files off-site – and gives advice on how to tackle them. Continue reading...

At least 17 people including protest leaders have received alerts about devices possibly being compromisedThai activists who have called for reform of the monarchy are among at least 17 people in Thailand who say they have been warned by Apple that they have been targeted by “state-sponsored” attackers.Warnings were sent to the prominent activists Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul and Arnon Nampa, according to Panusaya’s sister May and the administrator of Arnon’s Facebook page. Panusaya and Arnon are in pre-trial detention after leading demonstrations calling for the power of the monarchy to be curbed. Continue reading...

PC, Xbox One/Series X/S, PlayStation 4/5; Dice/EA

Electricals retailer has problems with supplies of items such as iPhones, PlayStations and XboxesAO World has warned of shortages of electrical products and delivery drivers before Christmas, as coronavirus disruption pushed one of the pandemic winners into a £10m loss between April and September.Issuing its second profit warning in two months, the online retailer said shortages had been particularly acute in electronics such as Apple’s iPhone and games consoles including Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox. Continue reading...

Promise of Sky without satellite dish held back by bugs, clunky catchup apps and content restrictionsGlass is Sky’s new voice-controlled streaming television – an ambitious attempt to ditch the satellite dish and provide pay TV straight to the screen, with no set top box required.The television comes in three sizes starting at £649 for a 43in screen, or £13 a month over four years, which works out at £25 cheaper too. Sky’s service costs from £25 a month on top. Continue reading...

Move comes as child safety campaigners express concern plans could shield abusers from detectionThe owner of Facebook and Instagram is delaying plans to encrypt users’ messages until 2023 amid warnings from child safety campaigners that its proposals would shield abusers from detection.Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire has been under pressure to abandon its encryption plans, which the UK home secretary, Priti Patel, has described as “simply not acceptable”. Continue reading...