Technology | The Guardian

The New Democratic party’s leader is riding high in the polls – and could be the kingmaker in next week’s electionHe’s the most-liked national political leader in Canada, wears sharply tailored suits, has graced the pages of a men’s fashion magazine and is followed by starstruck fans on social media. And he’s not Justin Trudeau.With Canada heading to the polls after a snap election controversially called by Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh, leader of the progressive New Democratic party (NDP), has quickly emerged as the most affable politician in Canada – and a powerful figure who is unlikely to become prime minister. Continue reading...

Suspended union rep calls on social media giant to intervene after exhausted workers complain of extra workloadFacebook’s facilities management firm has demanded the removal of a union activist leading a campaign against “impossible workloads” imposed on exhausted cleaners at the US tech giant’s London offices.Emails seen by the Observer show JLL @ Facebook, which manages the social media firm’s London sites, asked Churchill Group, which employs the cleaners, to remove the workers’ elected union rep, Guillermo Camacho, from Facebook’s offices after he helped organise protests against a doubling of cleaning duties in July. Continue reading...

The long view suggests we’re due a new era, whether it is that of metaverses, blockchain or quantum computingOne of the challenges of writing about technology is how to escape from what the sociologist Michael Mann memorably called “the sociology of the last five minutes”. This is especially difficult when covering the digital tech industry because one is continually deluged with ‘new’ stuff – viral memes, shiny new products or services, Facebook scandals (a weekly staple), security breaches etc. Recent weeks, for example, have brought the industry’s enthusiasm for the idea of a “metaverse” (neatly dissected here by Alex Hern), El Salvador’s flirtation with bitcoin, endless stories about central banks and governments beginning to worry about regulating cryptocurrencies, Apple’s possible rethink of its plans to scan phones and iCloud accounts for child abuse images, umpteen ransomware attacks, antitrust suits against app stores, the Theranos trial and so on, apparently ad infinitum.So how to break out of the fruitless syndrome identified by Prof Mann? One way is to borrow an idea from Ben Thompson, a veteran tech commentator who doesn’t suffer from it, and whose (paid) newsletter should be a mandatory daily email for any serious observer of the tech industry. Way back in 2014, he suggested that we think of the industry in terms of “epochs” – important periods or eras in the history of a field. At that point he saw three epochs in the evolution of our networked world, each defined in terms of its core technology and its “killer app”. Continue reading...

Jamie Henn, the founder of Fossil Fuel Free Media, on how advertising agencies help legitimise the fossil fuel industryJamie Henn, a co-founder of the climate group 350.org, had for a long time noticed a gap in climate advocacy that many had overlooked: while the fossil fuel industry pours money into ad campaigns, much of the climate movement simply doesn’t have the resources to do that work.Inspired to change that, Henn launched Fossil Free Media to give public relations and communications support to grassroots groups taking on the fossil fuel industry and campaigning for climate justice. Continue reading...

Tech firm is ordered to remove restrictions on app developers steering buyers outside platformA US district judge has dealt a blow to Apple’s business model by ruling that it cannot prevent app developers from including links that allow users to buy items outside the Apple App Store. The App Store is highly profitable for the tech firm, with analysts estimating that it makes annual revenues of about $20bn (£14m) and has a profit margin of 75%. Continue reading...

Sergei Ryabkov’s claim of interference in Duma vote believed to be reference to anti-Putin apps on Apple and GoogleThe Russian foreign ministry has summoned the US ambassador, John Sullivan, to complain about alleged interference by “American digital giants” in Russia’s upcoming parliamentary election.According to a ministry statement on Friday, the deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, claimed Russia “possesses irrefutable evidence of the violation of Russian legislation by American digital giants in the context of the preparation and conduct of elections to the state Duma”. Continue reading...

Taking the greatest bits of their source material, these games allow players to enter the worlds they love via epic lightsaber battles and balletic flights of fancyWhile TV shows and movies adapted from games remain, generally, rubbish, there is no such curse the other way round. This seminal James Bond tie-in is the best example, showing that first-person shooters – previously the esoteric concern of hefty PCs – could excel on consoles. Its four-player split screen also taught an entire generation how to swear wholeheartedly at their peers. And to settle it once and for all: Oddjob is too small. Therefore playing as him is definitely – definitely – cheating. Continue reading...

Vast range of new regulations prompt fears of a return to tight social control of pre-reform daysOn the second floor of a nondescript concrete building in north-east Beijing, the Youyou internet cafe is less than half full. Quiet and dark, the cafe’s customers are all adults, sitting in brown sofas in front of screens set up for hours of comfortable online gaming.Minors aren’t allowed in, and a poster on the glass entrance reads: “The whole society together cares about the healthy growth of underage teens.” Under new regulations from the Chinese government, minors are limited to just a few hours of gaming a week, with tech platforms ordered to enforce it. The intervention is just one of a recent rush of directives from Beijing aimed at reshaping society. Continue reading...

Prepare for near-past nostalgia, as Anna Wintour and co hail Y2K, via Juicy tracksuits and Sarah Jessica Parker. Plus: a scripted sci-fi adventure with KeshaIn Vogue: the 2000s

Guardian Australia picture editor Carly Earl explains the dos and don’ts of taking pictures of the moonWhen a full moon rises, many people will pull out their mobile phones to try and take an Instagram-worthy picture, but unfortunately the moon is really challenging to get a great photo of.Two reasons: it is very far away and unless you have a telephoto lens (which makes the moon appear closer than it is) it will always appear as a very small glowing dot in the frame. Continue reading...

Wayfarer-style specs feature pair of cameras for photos and videos, as well as a microphone and speakerFacebook lives in your pocket, on the web, and, if you’ve bought the company’s Portal video-calling device, even in your kitchen. Now, it wants to find a home on your face.The company has created its first “smart glasses”, with a pair of cameras to take photos and videos, a microphone and speaker to listen to podcasts, and a voice assistant to let you do the whole thing hands-free. Continue reading...

End to almost five years of free roaming across Europe will come into effect from 23 May 2022Three is to reintroduce charges for using their phones when travelling abroad, ending almost five years of free mobile phone roaming across Europe for their customers.Three is the latest of Britain’s biggest mobile companies to bring back charges, which will apply in almost 50 European territories as well as two dozen other international destinations, despite previously saying roaming costs would not return after Brexit. Continue reading...

Lawyers for the disgraced CEO on Wednesday alluded to ‘another side’ of her relationship with her former business associateOpening arguments in the highly anticipated trial of Elizabeth Holmes began on Wednesday, as jurors heard prosecutors argue the case before them was about “fraud, about lying and cheating to get money”.Holmes, 37, arrived early at the San Jose courtroom on Wednesday and sat flanked by her attorneys. Media has flocked to the case, with more than 100 people waiting in line outside the courthouse hours before doors opened and nearly a dozen cameras stationed outside. Continue reading...

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The social media platform is testing a series of measures to protect users’ privacy and prevent abuseTwitter is trialling a feature that allows users to shrug off unwanted followers without officially blocking them.It provides a less stark alternative to hitting the “block” button – a move that is often publicised across timelines when the blocked user screenshots the notification and publishes it. Continue reading...

Up for discussion in the Guardian tech newsletter: The risks of using personal data to influence citizens’ behaviour … Apple backtracks … and the history of the App StoreWhat should a public service announcement be in the 21st century? How can a government communicate with its citizens? And when does a state-run ad campaign become public policy in its own right? Continue reading...

Doug Field is fourth senior member of the iPhone maker’s car team to leave since FebruaryApple has lost the executive in charge of its below-the-radar car project to Ford, dealing a further blow to the iPhone maker’s automotive ambitions.Doug Field, Apple’s vice-president of special projects, had also worked on Tesla’s Model 3 vehicle under Elon Musk. Field, who rejoined Apple in 2018 after a previous stint at the business, is the fourth senior member of the company’s car team to leave since February. Continue reading...

Exclusive: National and local governments using targeted ads on search engines and social mediaA new form of “influence government”, which uses sensitive personal data to craft campaigns aimed at altering behaviour has been “supercharged” by the rise of big tech firms, researchers have warned.National and local governments have turned to targeted advertisements on search engines and social media platforms to try to “nudge” the behaviour of the country at large, the academics found. Continue reading...

Police claim plans for end-to-end encryption will stop officers being able to access ‘incisive intelligence’Facebook’s plans to allow encrypted messaging across all its platforms could prevent the detection of up to 20m child abuse images every year, a senior investigating officer has claimed.Rob Jones, the director of threat leadership at the National Crime Agency, said the social media company’s goal of rolling out end-to-end encryption will stop officers from accessing “incisive intelligence” that allows them to rescue abused children. Continue reading...

Company says UK business as a whole paid out £492m in ‘direct taxes’ in 2020 – up from £293m in previous yearAmazon’s key UK business paid just £3.8m more corporation tax last year than in 2019, even as sales increased by £1.89bn.Accounts filed at Companies House this week show that the corporation tax contribution of Amazon UK Services – the group’s warehouse and logistics operation, thought to employ the majority of the group’s UK workforce – was £18.3m in the year to December 2020, up 26% from £14.5m a year before. Continue reading...

By baby No 2, I just wanted a good night’s sleep. But my journey into baby tech taught me something else, writes Sophie BrickmanWhen my daughter Ella was little, I’d often see various tech products on my Facebook feed purporting to calm parents who were anxious about their baby’s sleep. Next to feeding, there’s likely no more anxiety-prone part of the day than a child’s bedtime – the fear they’re not on a schedule, or that once they get on one, it’s the wrong one, or that once they’re actually asleep, they might never wake up.I dismissed them out of hand – we were sharing a room with Ella, and I was aware of her every snort and snuffle, though in retrospect, it seems obvious that we could have had her sleeping through the night a little earlier … if we’d only settled on a sleep training method. Continue reading...

The ambitious new look at SpaceX’s first all-civilian flight, the streaming platform’s first real-time docuseries, takes reality television to spaceThe rise of commercial space travel is here, and for the vast majority who cannot afford its millions-plus price tag, streaming platforms are here to capture it. Starting this week, Netflix will air the first two installments of Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, its first docuseries to cover an event – SpaceX’s launch of its first all-civilian crew on a three-day trip circling Earth – in “near real time”. Subsequent episodes will document the four astronauts’ preparation for the 15 September launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Episodes three and four will air just two days prior; a feature-length finale film of the mission itself will air in late September.Related: How the billionaire space race could be one giant leap for pollution Continue reading...

Netflix’s new documentary series sells the first all-civilian flight to space as an exercise in philanthropy, but it’s little more than a privilege-fuelled puff piece for the billionaire’s adventuresWhile I’m still able – “allowed” is possibly the verb I want – I would like to register my objection to adverts masquerading as legitimate streaming content on a subscription service for which I pay good money. This is not how that particular model is supposed to work. I realise, of course, that I am Cnut howling at the digital waves. But proving our powerlessness before them is about the only thing left to us.Netflix’s new documentary series, or “documentary series”, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, is the offender in this case. It is designed to track the recruitment process, preparation for and then – in as close to real time as possible – the launch of the first all-civilian flight into space, by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Continue reading...

Wear OS 3 watch ups ante for Android wearables, now faster and feature-packed with body-fat scannerThe Galaxy Watch 4 is Samsung and Google’s attempt to combine efforts and compete with Apple’s smartwatch – and it gets about 80% of the way there.The Android smartwatch comes in two designs and four sizes, starting at £249 ($250) for the Watch 4 and £349 ($350) – as tested – for the Watch 4 Classic. They succeed the £269 Watch Active 2 and £399 Watch 3 respectively. Continue reading...

As activity tracking goes mainstream, an arsenal of consumer technology is rolling out for sleep. But how much do these interventions help?At 2.16am, I stumble to the bathroom. I catch a glimpse of myself. The light from the red bulb is flattering – I’ve been told to eliminate all blue light on my nocturnal trek – but the sleep-tracker headband, currently emitting the sound of gently lapping waves, kills any woke-up-like-this vibe. I adjust its double straps and feel my way back to bed. Continue reading...

Rapper asked for opinions on a new song, highlighting site’s popularity among people ‘sick of Twitter’When Kanye West was putting the finishing touches to his new album Donda, he was not content to trust only the ears of a few close confidants for feedback.The rapper and producer held a series of listening events in stadiums around the US, taking up residence in the locker room of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, to finish the album with the producer, Mike Dean, after playing it live to an audience of thousands. And then, when that was not enough, Dean turned to another group of Kanye superfans: the collective minds of the Discord community WestServerEver. Continue reading...

After the year of plenty that was 2020, 2021 has so far been a pretty lean one for video games. Are things about to turn around?It has not, I’m sure we can all agree, been a standout year for video games. Although the ongoing pandemic certainly encouraged more people to play, especially online, the release schedule has been … patchy. The fact that two standout titles of 2021 so far are cartoon platformer sequels to games from the 00s – Psychonauts 2 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – tells us a lot about how weird this year has been. Hitman 3, Resident Evil Village and It Takes Two were all solid (and my editor would tell you that Returnal is unmissable), but the schedule has relied heavily on updated editions and remakes – take a bow Super Mario 3D World, Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut.We know why this has happened. Covid ramped up the difficulty level of building games to Impossible Mode, with teams working at home, having to download millions of GBs of data, dealing with remote access to dodgy builds and holding intricate design meetings over Zoom from the kitchen table while homeschooling their kids. The result has been endless delays, including Horizon Forbidden West, Ghostwire: Tokyo and Gran Turismo 7 (though that last one is not really a shock, to be honest). Continue reading...

Amid rumours that he may in fact be CGI, Goldstein – who plays Roy Kent in the hit show – posted a video that raises more questions than it answersMichael, a famous actor is being quoted proclaiming he is ‘a human man’ and not, as apparently alleged, CGI. What is going on please?Steph, great question. There is a supposedly human man called Brett Goldstein who plays a grumpy footballer in the show Ted Lasso, on which he’s also a writer. Unfortunately his face is extremely matte and slightly too chiselled, and there is something deeply unsettling about the specific shadows cast by his football jersey – which has led many people on Reddit to believe that he is not, in fact, a real actor but instead a CGI animation of a grumpy footballer. Continue reading...

Missing Richard Simmons’s Dan Taberski returns with a new series about the ripple effects of the attacks which took place 20 years ago this week. Plus: Philippa Perry on sibling stresses9/12 (Available now on Wondery+ and Amazon Music, and widely from 8 September)

Online message board company preparing for initial public offering in early 2022, insiders sayReddit is seeking to hire investment bankers and lawyers for an initial public offering in New York, two people familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency.Reddit was valued at $10bn in a private fundraising round last month. By the time the IPO would take place early next year, the online message board company is hoping it will be valued at more than $15bn, one of the sources said. Continue reading...

Messaging app calls €225m fine for breaking data protection rules ‘entirely disproportionate’Ireland’s data privacy watchdog has slapped WhatsApp with a record €225m (£193m) fine for violating EU data protection rules.The Dublin-based Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced the decision on Thursday after a three-year investigation into the messaging app, which is owned by Facebook. It ordered WhatsApp to remedy its policies to protect personal data. Continue reading...

‘Reader apps’ such as Spotify, Netflix and Kindle will be able to share links to help users manage accountsApple has made a significant concession in its battle for control of the App Store, after the Japanese trade commission ruled that the company’s restrictions on apps such as Spotify, Netflix and Kindle were anticompetitive.Those “reader apps”, which allow users to view, read or listen to content purchased elsewhere, were previously banned by Apple’s policies from telling people how to subscribe to – or buy content from – their services. That lead to outcomes such as Netflix’s iOS app offering the ability to log in to an account, but no way to sign up for an account, nor even a hint that users need to sign up in the first place. Continue reading...

We live in a world where our expression of ourselves online is not false, but controlled. The video game takes me back to a more innocent, enjoyable timeA few weeks ago, on a low-rumbling hangover that never threatened to push me into the abyss, something very interesting happened to me (and about 16 other people): I started rigorously documenting my Football Manager experience online.For those not versed in Football Manager, it is a video game in which you, well, assume the role of a football manager and attempt, very slowly and carefully, to guide the club of your choice to glory. You get to do things such as answer emails and renegotiate the annual contract of your under-18s coach. Occasionally, you can sign a right-back. There is a button after every match that gives you the option to throw a water bottle. Continue reading...

Age Appropriate Design Code mandates apps to take ‘best interests’ of child users into accountA sweeping set of regulations governing how online services should treat children’s data have been welcomed by campaigners as they come into effect.The Age Appropriate Design Code – which was written into law as part of the 2018 Data Protection Act, which also implemented GDPR in the UK – mandates websites and apps from Thursday to take the “best interests” of their child users into account, or face fines of up to 4% of annual global turnover. Continue reading...

Some of site’s largest subreddits switched to private, saying Reddit is failing to tackle misinformation

Retailer says it will add 40,000 jobs in the US and 2,500 in the UK to support plans for rapid growthAmazon is planning to hire 55,000 staff in corporate and technology jobs in a global recruitment drive as the coronavirus pandemic fuels a boom in online retail, digital advertising and cloud computing.The chief executive, Andy Jassy, who took over from Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, in July, said the company planned to take on more workers in multiple locations worldwide to drive rapid growth at the firm. Continue reading...

When ‘safety mode’ is activated it will temporarily block accounts if site’s systems identify harmful behaviourTwitter is trialling an anti-troll feature that will automatically block accounts sending abuse to users.Once Twitter’s new “safety mode” is activated by a user, it will temporarily block accounts for seven days if the tech firm’s systems spot them using harmful language or sending repetitive, uninvited replies and mentions. Continue reading...

Time spent on the ‘funhouse mirror’ of video-conferencing calls has resulted in a distortion of our self imageThe effects of staring at ourselves for hours at a time during video conference calls has resulted in a breakdown of how we perceive our own self image.The phenomenon has been nicknamed “Zoom dysmorphia” by the dermatologist and Harvard Medical School professor Dr Shadi Kourosh, who has noticed an increase in appointment requests for appearance-related issues during the pandemic. Continue reading...

PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (version tested), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch; Gamious/Whitehorn Digital

Collector known as Pranksy has cryptocurrency returned after what appeared to be elaborate hoaxIn hindsight, it looked too good to be true: the chance to buy Banksy’s first foray into the lucrative world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for only a fraction of his soaring market prices.The piece (called Great Redistribution of the Climate Change Disaster) did enough to convince a buyer – confusingly named Pranksy – to pay the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of pounds only to have the currency returned after what appeared to be an elaborate hoax by a scammer. Continue reading...

The author on why he’s chosen to release his next book on the online platform – and why he hopes digital won’t see off the medium he loves mostOut of the gloom Salman Rushdie floats into view, his familiar face with short beard and glasses hovering on screen in front of a library that should win any competition for the most impressive Zoom bookshelf backdrop.From his New York apartment he is here to share three things: he has made a deal to publish his next work of fiction as a serialised novella on Substack; he intends to fulfil a long held, once thwarted desire to be a film critic; and he still doesn’t have the courage to write poetry. Continue reading...

US tech firm fined for not complying with order to come up with proposals on compensating publishersGoogle is appealing against a €500m (£430m) fine imposed by France’s antitrust watchdog after a dispute with local media about paying for news content.The financial penalty came amid increasing international pressure on online platforms such as Google and Facebook to share more of the revenue they make from using media outlets’ content. Continue reading...

Catherine Chen says Chinese telecoms firm will use technical expertise to reach new markets less dependent on the USHuawei has been forced to adopt the mentality of a startup partly because of US government sanctions, Catherine Chen, a board member for the Chinese telecommunications company, has said.Helping to run probably the most scrutinised company in the world, she said Huawei would survive and eventually break free of the attempted US shackles by using its technical expertise to forge a path into new markets less dependent on the US, such as energy conservation, artificial intelligence and electric cars. Continue reading...

Up for discussion in the Guardian tech newsletter: Samsung lead the way in flexible screens … OnlyFans’ U-turn on adult content ban … and Instagram’s age verification moveWhat will your next phone look like? Will it be a featureless black rectangle from the front, with a bulbous many-lensed camera unit emerging from the rear? Or will it be … different?Samsung is one of a growing number of companies betting that now is time for a change. The company’s latest phones, the Galaxy Flip 3 and Galaxy Fold 3, aren’t going to be mistaken for an iPhone at a distance: both are built, in different ways, around a flexible screen, with a hinge that bisects the whole device and fundamentally changes how it works. Continue reading...

The medical startup CEO is charged with six counts of fraud and faces up to 20 years in prisonThe trial of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the blood testing startup Theranos, began in a California courthouse on Tuesday, marking the latest chapter in a saga that has captured the attention of millions and prompted a reckoning with the Silicon Valley hype machine.Holmes, 37, is charged with six counts of fraud relating to her now-defunct medical startup, which once claimed its technology would revolutionize the medical industry by performing a range of tests with just a small sample, such as from a finger prick. The claims were later revealed to be largely fabricated. Continue reading...

People come to these videos to feel peaceful and good. It makes sense that they would then take turns to sweetly compliment each other

Move is part of firm’s efforts to introduce child-safe experience for under-18sInstagram will require all users to enter their birthdate before using the app, Facebook has announced, as part of the company’s efforts to introduce a child-safe experience for users under 18.The requirement has been introduced just two days before the UK begins enforcing the age appropriate design code. The code requires companies to identify child users and take special effort to safeguard their personal data, limit attempts to alter their behaviour, and prioritise their wellbeing. Continue reading...

Want an original artwork in your home but don’t know where to start? We’ve got you and your empty feature wall coveredYou’ve been locked down and staring at the walls for months. It’s time for a change of scene.Related: From the Pilbara to Australia’s classrooms: meet the Indigenous kids teaching the nation Continue reading...

Jess Impiazzi stars as a TV show android who has a different husband each day but gets hacked in this scattershot dramaThis is an inane hodgepodge of sci-fi, political thriller and perhaps some kind of ill-considered satire – of reality TV, venal politicians? It’s hard to divine the target when the attack is so scattershot. It is supposed to take place in the US in 2040 where everyone is obsessed with watching a daily TV show about a buxom android housewife with an English accent named Ria (Jess Impiazzi); she spends every day nearly the same way with her husband Jack, from waking up and breakfasting to winding down with an evening soap opera and then sex if Jack so wishes. In other words, it’s The Truman Show meets The Stepford Wives, except there’s just the one wife – and the twist is that “Jack” is played by a different person in each episode. The first we meet is Luke Goss, who seems to be merely passing though before being replaced the next night while a recharged Ria gets rebooted with Jack number 2 (Amar Adatia), a coarser, crueller mate for a day, who is in turn replaced by many more Jacks – some of them women. Continue reading...