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The global video gaming industry took in an estimated $180bn in 2020 – more than sports and movies worldwideIt would be incorrect to say video games went mainstream in 2020. They’ve been mainstream for decades. But their place in pop culture feels far more central – to gamers and non-gamers alike – than ever before. In part, this is due to desperate marketers hunting for eyeballs in a Covid landscape of cancelled events. Coachella wasn’t happening, but Animal Crossing was open was for business. Politicians eager to “Rock the Vote” looked to video games to reach young voters. (See: Joe and Kamala’s virtual HQ and AOC streaming herself playing Among Us.) The time-honored tradition of older politicians trying to seem young and hip at a music venue has been replaced by older politicians trying to seem young and hip playing a video game. Yes, quarantine was part of this. But, like so many trends during the pandemic, Covid didn’t spark this particular trajectory so much as intensify it. Long before the lockdowns, video games had triumphed as the most popular form of entertainment among young people.Related: Refreshingly modern dinosaurs and a cyberpunk cat: our games picks for 2021 Continue reading...

Chant was heard in the US Capitol on Wednesday as pro-Trump mob, incited by the president, stormed the buildingTwitter stopped the phrase “Hang Mike Pence” trending on Saturday, but not before it trended on the social media platform in the aftermath of the company’s decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account.Related: Police arrest more Capitol rioters as details of violence and brutality emerge Continue reading...

The Flash-based title, now put to rest alongside Adobe’s animation tool, was much derided, but broadened the appeal of computer gamesTwo deaths you may have missed last week – for the simple reason that you have better things to do with your time than monitoring the tech industry. One was the end of FarmVille, a simplistic, time-wasting online game that consumed the attention of millions of Facebook users over the years; the other was the much-delayed execution of Flash, the animation tool that powered countless games and assorted website tricks for two decades, but which will no longer be supported by most web browsers or by its maker, Adobe.As it happens, both deaths are related, because one application used the other, but both were ubiquitous for different reasons. The FarmVille story is about human nature and the dynamics of addiction, social media and surveillance capitalism, whereas Flash is really just about tech and the evolution of the web. Continue reading...

Unprecedented moves intended to curb president’s spread of misinformation and the incitement of violenceTwitter and Facebook took unprecedented moves to address the spread of misinformation and the incitement of violence by Donald Trump on their platforms on Wednesday, after supporters of the president stormed the US Capitol.Related: The misinformation media machine amplifying Trump's election lies Continue reading...

The play Rossum’s Universal Robots clearly belongs to the 1920s but its satirical take on the meeting of humans and machines is all too relevant todayNot many plays introduce a new word to the language. One that did was Karel Čapek’s RUR: Rossum’s Universal Robots that had its premiere in Prague 100 years ago this month. Every time we use the word “robot” to denote a humanoid machine, it derives from Čapek’s play, which coined the term from the Czech “robota” meaning forced labour. But a play that was hugely popular in its time – its Broadway premiere in 1922 had a cast that included Spencer Tracy and Pat O’Brien as robots – has now fallen into neglect. Given our fascination with artificial intelligence, it’s high time we gave it another look.But what kind of play is it exactly? A dystopian drama attacking science and technology? Up to a point, but it’s much more than that. It starts almost as a Shavian comedy with a do-gooding visitor, Lady Helen Glory, turning up on an island where robots are manufactured out of synthetic matter. She is amazed to discover that a plausibly human secretary is a machine and is equally astonished when the factory’s directors turn out to be flesh and blood creatures rather than robots. With time, the play gets darker as the robots prove to be stronger and more intelligent than their creators and eventually wipe out virtually all humankind. Only a single engineer survives who, a touch improbably, shows two robots transformed by love. Continue reading...

Department declines to say how many mailboxes targeted but says hackers ‘likely Russian in origin’The US Department of Justice confirmed on Wednesday that its email systems had been accessed by the hackers who broke into the software company SolarWinds, another indication of the gravity of the breach that has shaken Washington.Related: Russians are 'likely' perpetrators of US government hack, official report says Continue reading...

PC, Mac, Android, iPhone; Nerial/The Dairymen

Wanting to emerge from lockdown ‘better’ versions of themselves, some people are turning to drastic measures

Researchers say big Facebook accounts still condemn vaccines while anti-vaxxers banned from Facebook have fled to InstagramConspiracy theories and misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine are still spreading on Facebook and Instagram, more than a month after Facebook pledged it would take them down.Under pressure to contain an avalanche of falsehoods, Facebook announced on 3 December that it would ban debunked claims about the safety and efficacy of vaccines now being distributed worldwide. The company said it removed more than 12m pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram between March and October, and that it worked with factcheckers to place labels on 167 million more pieces of content over the same period. Continue reading...

Site had temporarily exempted state from nationwide post-election ban ahead of Tuesday’s Senate votesFacebook has announced it will again ban political advertising targeting users in the state of Georgia, following the election there on Tuesday.The social media company said that, starting on Wednesday, Georgia users would again be subject to the US-wide political ad ban instated following the 3 November presidential vote. Facebook had temporarily lifted the ban in Georgia ahead of the runoff elections to allow political messaging to reach more voters. Continue reading...

Multi-agency report is the Trump administration’s first statement of attribution for the breaching of at least 10 federal agenciesRussia was “likely” to have been behind a string of hacks of US federal agencies identified last month, according the office of the US director of national intelligence which said the hackers breached fewer than 10 federal agencies.The office and the FBI, the National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency inside the Department of Homeland Security, in a joint statement, said the hackers’ goal appeared to be collecting intelligence, rather than any destructive acts. Continue reading...

The Tesla project will put Grünheide on the map, but some say it is doing ‘irreversible’ harm to the environmentFor the past 10 months, Silas Heineken has been flying a drone over one of Germany’s biggest building sites and posting the images on YouTube.The 14-year-old self-named “Tesla Kid” has built a significant following, as tens of thousands tune in each week to see the latest developments in Elon Musk’s GigaFactory as it emerges at speed from the sandy ground of Brandenburg, south-east of Berlin. Continue reading...

Outage disrupts service in the US, Germany, India, the UK, Japan and elsewhereSlack, the messaging service used by millions of people for work and school, has suffered a global outage on Monday.The service disruption occurred on the first day back to work for many people returning from the New Year’s holiday, underscoring just how intensely millions have come to rely on such online services to work and go to school from home during the global coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

An ultra-stylish trip to Gotham, a new Hogwarts adventure and a long-awaited sequel to Psychonauts lead our preview of this year’s most anticipated releasesLast year’s ensemble Avengers game was a bit of a disappointment, so DC fans will be hoping for better from this action game set in the Batman universe. As Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin and Red Hood, you push back against the ever-encroaching criminal forces of Gotham. It looks moody and ultra-stylish.

Cryptocurrency passes $30,000 as financial institutions express growing interestBitcoin has surged to a record high amid rising interest from investors and claims that the volatile cryptocurrency is on the way to becoming a mainstream payment method.Having quadrupled in value during 2020, bitcoin began 2021 strongly by breaking through the $30,000 (£22,000) mark for the first time, less than three weeks after first trading above $20,000. Continue reading...

During these alienating times, verbal messages helped us to communicate quickly while maintaining intimacy and friendship

The manufacturer delivered 499,550 cars in 2020, thanks to an end-of-year sales bump

As Uber parks its plans for robotaxis, experts admit the autonomous vehicle challenge is bigger than anticipated

Greg Jackson, boss of Octopus Energy, says the sector was ripe for an Amazon or Uber-style disruptor, but that his version will also boost the UK’s green revolutionGreg Jackson, chief executive of Octopus Energy, wears the unassuming combination of jeans and trainers one might expect from the founder of a wildly successful startup. There’s also a vast open-plan central London office, easy camaraderie with staff, lots of plants. He has the enthusiasm and world-changing idealism too. With all these markers of a tech unicorn – a deal last month with Tokyo Gas valued it at $2bn (£1.5bn) – it’s easy to forget that Octopus is an energy company. Jackson, 49, says the distinction is increasingly irrelevant.Octopus is a new breed of energy supplier, built on cutting-edge technology and unencumbered by the creaking billing systems and fossil-fuel plants that plague the UK’s “big six”. Set up just five years ago, it has been free to view the energy market as a tech startup would: ripe for disruption. This has made Octopus Britain’s fastest-growing energy supplier, and helped it agree that Japanese deal – under which it will supply energy to homes in Japan, while Tokyo Gas takes a near-10% stake in Octopus. Continue reading...

Trump’s false claims about the election and coronavirus are taking a dangerous toll. Can the divide be healed?At the beginning of 2021, millions of Americans appear to disagree about one of the most basic facts of their democracy: that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.The consequences of Donald Trump’s repeated, baseless claims of voter fraud will come in several waves, researchers who study disinformation say, even if Trump ultimately hands over power and leaves the White House. And there is no quick or easy way to fix this crisis, they warn. Because when it comes to dealing with disinformation, simply repeating the facts doesn’t do much to change anyone’s mind. Continue reading...

Claudia Winkleman and Clara Amfo, Strictly host and contestant, continue their successful podcast series. Plus: the New York Times struggles with its mea culpaHow Did We Get Here?

In this remarkable year, our stories are at risk of being locked away on phones and floating, forgotten, in the digital etherIn the process of removing the final vestiges of my things from my parents’ house this year I find a letter from my nana – Big Nana (because she was tall), not Little Nana (who wasn’t) – written in her familiar curly script.“Last Sunday I went to D’s 80th birthday luncheon – an exciting collection of old has-beens! One old lady said how dreadful she looked these days standing in front of the bathroom mirror (naked). Nearly all of us joined in with tales of horror – including some of the men! Surprising what a few sherrys [sic] can do.” Continue reading...

Creators of US app claim it was designed to promote small gatherings rather than large parties

Settlement by Australian arm of company comes before federal court could rule whether sacked delivery rider Amita Gupta was an employee or a contractor

Descriptions of Netscape Communicator and Mozilla Mail as ‘modern’ leads to questions over whether text was copied and pastedThe EU-UK Brexit deal refers to defunct decades-old computer software such as Netscape Communicator as “modern”, raising suspicions that some of the text may have been copied and pasted in.Online commenters gleefully shared the observation that page 921 of the painfully birthed trade agreement refers to Netscape Communicator – released in June 1997 – and Mozilla Mail as being “modern e-mail software packages”. Continue reading...

British firm challenges rivals including Nvidia with chips used in artificial intelligenceGraphcore, the UK maker of chips designed for use in artificial intelligence, has raised $222m (£164m) from investors, valuing the company at $2.8bn.The Bristol-based company’s latest round of funding was led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan as well as investors including Fidelity International and Schroders. Existing Graphcore investors, including Baillie Gifford and Draper Esprit, also joined the round. Continue reading...

Under the new criteria, products will lose marks if they do not meet a certain threshold for progressWhen we first started looking at the sustainability of consumer electronics at the beginning of 2019, we soon discovered that reliable information was very hard to find. It was difficult to establish which smartphones, tablets, headphones and other items were even capable of being repaired, let alone how long they might last or whether they contained recycled materials.The status quo was very much “don’t ask, don’t tell”. Upon asking, very few manufacturers even had records of the relevant information. Fewer still made it available for public consumption. Continue reading...

Investments in 2020 are higher than in rest of Europe combined and help to create seven ‘unicorns’UK technology companies attracted a record $15bn (£11.2bn) in venture capital funding in 2020, including the creation of seven “unicorn” firms valued at more than $1bn.The firms raised more money from VC investors than the rest of Europe combined, according to research by the data provider Dealroom. The $15bn total compares with the previous record of $14.8bn in 2019. Continue reading...

My colleague Dai Edwards, who has died aged 92, was one of a small group of engineers who designed the world’s first commercially available computer. He went on to help design other high-performance computers, each the product of fruitful collaboration between academia and industry.David Beverley George Edwards, known to colleagues as Dai, was born in Tonteg, South Wales. He was the only child of Cecilia (nee George) and William Edwards, who were both teachers. Dai went to Pontypridd boys’ intermediate school, leaving in 1945 with a state scholarship to study physics at Manchester University. Upon graduation, he joined Professor FC (Freddie) Williams’ electrical engineering group in September 1948. Continue reading...

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google and Amazon issued statements in response to Black Lives Matter this year but did they follow through?Following the death of George Floyd and nationwide protests against police brutality and racial inequality, some of the largest technology corporations waded into the anti-racism movement with slickly worded corporate declarations that “Black Lives Matter”.Those tech platforms are now facing increased pressure to back those promises with action – both on and off their platforms. Continue reading...

You heard all about The Last of Us Part 2, Animal Crossing and Cyberpunk 2077. Here are the overlooked gems that kept us sane in the pandemic

From pranksters trolling Trump, to the 96-year-old who won us a new national holiday, these people made us smile this yearTrue to form for an administration that could make the most routine tasks somehow absurd, Donald Trump couldn’t even lose an election without making it weird. With close but clear results, he refused to concede, concocting a series of unhinged conspiracy theories about stolen votes and fraud – lies he still maintains. Continue reading...

Writers have embraced Substack to cut out the middle man. The result is an eclectic library of anything and everythingSubstack is best known as the newsletter platform that lured several well-known writers and journalists away from established news outlets this year.Glenn Greenwald, Matthew Yglesias and Andrew Sullivan, formerly of the Intercept, Vox Media and New York Magazine respectively, have all jumped ship to sell their work directly to subscribers via the service. Continue reading...

Intellectual property to be repatriated to the US after IRS said it was owed $9bn in taxesFacebook is winding up Irish holding companies it has used to channel billions of profits to avoid paying taxes in the US, the UK and hundreds of other countries.The company’s main Irish subsidiary paid $101m (£75m) in tax while recording profits of more than $15bn in 2018, the last year for which records are available. Facebook companies around the world paid the Irish holding company for use of its intellectual property. Continue reading...

Broadcaster says video, showing digitally-altered monarch reflecting on Prince Harry, intended as warning about fake newsChannel 4 has sparked controversy and debate with a deepfake video of the Queen as an alternative to her traditional festive broadcast, to be aired on Christmas Day.The broadcaster will show a five-minute video in which a digitally-altered version of the Queen shares her reflections on the year, including the departure of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as senior royals and the Duke of York’s involvement with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading...

The company requested authors refrain from casting its technology in a negative light in at least three casesGoogle this year moved to tighten control over its scientists’ papers by launching a “sensitive topics” review, and in at least three cases requested authors refrain from casting its technology in a negative light, according to internal communications and interviews with researchers involved in the work. Continue reading...

Move marks a departure from past practice as in 2017 Twitter transferred followers of Obama administration accounts to TrumpJoe Biden will not inherit Donald Trump’s millions of followers on the official president of the United States and White House Twitter accounts when he assumes the presidency, marking a departure from past social media practice, the Democratic president-elect’s team said on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Israeli company should be held liable to American anti-hacking laws, Google, Microsoft and others argue

Sector grows as developers continue to work and consumers search for Covid boredom reliefThe lockdown boom in video games has put the spotlight on the global success of British game makers, attracting the attention of deep-pocketed US giants looking to snap up valuable pandemic-proof businesses.Electronic Arts, the California-based global gaming giant, announced a surprise £945m bid for Codemasters, the maker of Formula One racing games. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Privacy International finds apps collect information on birth control habits or how hard it is for women to reach orgasmMenstruation apps are unnecessarily storing personal data such as what medication women are on, their birth control habits and how hard women find it to reach orgasm, privacy campaigners have said.A study of five leading apps by Privacy International, a UK-based charity, found that companies held intimate information on users including answers to questions about when they have yeast infections and how often they have sex or see a gynaecologist. Continue reading...

Citizen Lab researchers say cyber-attack using NSO Group software likely ordered by Saudia Arabia and UAE

Analysis: NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware could allegedly track locations and access passwords

The San Francisco Bay Area remains the innovative center of the US tech industry. But challenges are on the horizonIt didn’t come as a huge surprise when Oracle Corp announced it was moving its headquarters from California to Texas last week. The world’s second largest software company, founded in Silicon Valley in the late 1970s, had already transitioned parts of its 135,000-member workforce to Austin over the last two years as executives sought to cut costs.Related: Elon Musk says he has moved from California to Texas Continue reading...

The Observer picture editor reflects on the evolution of photojournalism as he bows out after nearly 30 years

A mix-up on the tech giant’s service has meant three years of frustration for Simon Borghs, and highlights our reliance on the data private companies holdIf Simon Borghs wanted to eat a takeaway pizza fresh out of the box, he would have to sit in the local park. Taking a taxi meant lengthy discussions with the driver to ensure that he got to his flat. Getting a delivery meant walking down the road with his phone in his hand looking for the courier.His problem was that the postcode for his east London flat was incorrect on Google Maps, so any driver using the service for navigation ended up not at his address, but in parkland at Three Mills Green, Bromley-by-Bow, half a mile away as the crow flies, but a mile and a half to drive. Continue reading...

The drawbacks of insecure work and the gig economy have crystallised in the past six months. In an era of accelerated change, how can young Australians find quality jobs?

Secretary of state is first in administration to point to Russia but Trump attacks media over reports

A New York Times blogpost put pressure on the porn site over videos of rape and child abuse, but only when money was at risk did it take actionOn 4 December, the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof published a column entitled The Children of Pornhub. Pornhub attracts 3.5bn visitors a month, rakes in money from 3bn advertising impressions a day and, says Kristof, “prides itself on being the cheery, winking face of naughty, the website that buys a billboard in Times Square and provides snowploughs to clear Boston streets. It donates to organisations fighting for racial equality and offers steamy content free to get people through Covid-19 shutdowns.”If you sense a “but” coming, you’re spot on. Kristof continues: “There’s another side of the company: its site is infested with rape videos. It monetises child rapes, revenge pornography, spycam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags. A search for ‘girls under18“’ (no space) or ‘14yo’ leads in each case to more than 100,000 videos. Most aren’t of children being assaulted, but too many are.” Continue reading...

A flurry of lawsuits, deemed the biggest antitrust action since the 1970s, mark a stunning reversal of fortunes for Silicon ValleyThe attorneys general of more than 30 US states took aim at Google this week with a new major antitrust lawsuit, accusing the tech company of illegally protecting a monopoly over its search business. Continue reading...