I thought I’d tried everything for my insomnia, but then I found Tamara LevittYou all know how much I love 80s movies, and the one rule of 80s movies is that there is always a sequel. So consider this a sequel column. It might not be up there with The Empire Strikes Back, but I reckon it equals the emotional drama of Ghostbusters II.Back in March, I wrote about my lack of sleep, due to my sleep-resistant baby. Well, funny how that story turned out! The baby is now sleep-trained, but I have managed to un-sleep-train myself. “Is there greater hell than this?” I’d wonder, soothing a bawling baby at 4.13am, but if there’s one thing 2020 has taught us, it’s that the answer to that question is always yes. What’s worse than being kept awake by your baby? Being kept awake by your own fritzed-out brain, while that treacherous little baby sleeps peacefully. I’ve considered demanding she now soothe me – a bit of quid pro quo here, baby – but I’m not sure she can sling me over her shoulder. Continue reading...

Alok Sharma says dominance of a few big companies hurts innovation and curtails customer choiceA new tech regulator will work to limit the power of Google, Facebook and other tech platforms, the government has announced, in an effort to ensure a level playing field for smaller competitors and a fair market for consumers.Under the plans, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will gain a dedicated Digital Markets Unit, empowered to write and enforce a new code of practice on technology companies which will set out the limits of acceptable behaviour. Continue reading...

Giant iPhone has two-day battery, better camera, massive screen and much-improved ergonomicsThe iPhone 12 Pro Max is the biggest, heaviest and most expensive version of Apple’s smartphone for 2020, a beast in every dimension.The top-of-the-range iPhone costs from £1,099 and sits above the 12 Pro (£999), the 12 (£799) and 12 mini (£699). Continue reading...

Global retailers should help collect, recycle and repair tech products, say MPsGlobal giants such as Amazon and Apple should be made responsible for helping to collect, recycle and repair their products to cut the 155,000 tonnes of electronic waste being thrown away each year in the UK, MPs say.An investigation by the environmental audit committee found the UK is lagging behind other countries and failing to create a circular economy in electronic waste. The UK creates the second highest levels of electronic waste in the world, after Norway. But MPs said the UK was not collecting and treating much of this waste properly. Continue reading...

The company said that the conservative news outlet, heralded by Trump, has repeatedly violated its policy on coronavirus misinformation

Thomas Moyer allegedly attempted to obtain concealed firearms licences for company employeesApple’s global head of security has been accused of trying to bribe police with hundreds of free iPads in order to obtain concealed firearms licences for company employees.Prosecutors in California allege that two officers were involved in a scam where they denied licences to carry concealed weapons (CCW) to applicants unless they offered something in return. Continue reading...

World’s biggest cryptocurrency has become more attractive to investors in Covid crisisThe price of bitcoin has broken through $19,000 for the first time in almost three years, taking the world’s biggest cryptocurrency close to its all-time high of just under $20,000.Bitcoin has surged by almost 40% in November and is up about 160% this year. It reached a peak of just under $20,000 in December 2017, before crashing spectacularly, losing a quarter of its value in a single day. Continue reading...

It spanned the River Eamont for over 250 years, then Storm Desmond swept it away. Now Pooley Bridge has been rebuilt – and a local delicacy must be updatedWhen Pooley Bridge lost its namesake crossing to the torrential floods of Storm Desmond in 2015, the picturesque Lake District village was robbed of more than just a route over the water. “It was like losing a well-loved relative,” says Miles MacInnes, chairman of the parish council. “Our community was split in two.” It was the symbol of the place, the essence of the community’s identity. As one local resident said: “We’ll have to call ourselves Pooley No Bridge now!”At Granny Dowbekin’s Tearooms, which had overlooked the historic bridge for generations, there was another dilemma. What would become of their trademark hand-baked delicacy, the Pooley Gingerbridge biscuit? “We’ll have to sell it in bits,” said baker Sarah Fowler. Continue reading...

… but a ‘seismic’ shift in Covid shopping habits will mean a cold Christmas for the actual high streetCoronavirus may be doing its best to cancel Christmas but, for the time being anyway, shoppers are carrying on regardless, with this week’s Black Friday online sales expected to reach new heights.In previous years, store chiefs have agonised about the impact on their high street chains of the US-inspired discount event, which arrived on British shores with a bang in 2013. But come this (Black) Friday, selling online will – for anything other than essentials – be the only game in town for retailers, whose shops may by then be closed in three of the four home nations. Continue reading...

You want to look so visually enticing that your boss won’t notice you’ve been saying the same thing, in different ways, for the last seven minutesWell, here we are. Week 2,057 of working from home. How’s it going? Is your posture resembling a crumbling question mark yet? Have you become depressed because the biggest dilemma of your day will be which flavour crisp you’ll go for? Are you a millisecond from Googling “quickie divorces”?One person who is loving this strange era must be Mr Zoom. Despite many of us wanting to silently scream at every new invitation link, video conferences and meetings remain inescapable. And the platforms proliferate. There’s your Google Meet, your BlueJeans and there is Zoom – the one where the etiquette still confuses me. Am I allowed to change my background to a wall-sized photo of the young Drew Barrymore at Studio 54, or is that considered rude? Continue reading...

Louder Than A Riot from NPR considers a majority-black musical genre – through the lens of the justice system. Plus: the dark side of orgasmic meditationLouder Than A Riot

Mini phone crams most of iPhone 12 into small body but screen may be too small for manyApple’s latest smartphone range has a surprise entry in the form of the iPhone 12 mini, which is a genuinely smaller phone with very few compromises.The phone costs from £699 and is the cheapest of Apple’s new smartphone line sitting below the £799 iPhone 12, the £999 12 Pro and the £1,099 12 Pro Max. Continue reading...

From the tomb of Tutankhamun to Raphael’s Sistine masterpieces, Adam Lowe makes perfect copies for governments and galleries the world over. But he’s not a forger – he’s a liberatorThe grandest spaces in the whole of the mighty Victoria and Albert Museum are the Cast Courts, built high enough to hold a full-scale replica of Trajan’s Column in Rome, which is colossal even in two pieces. No less imposing are the London museum’s 19th-century copies of Michelangelo’s David, not to mention its duplicates of Viking carvings and even the entire front of a Spanish cathedral. All these casts, which were recently cleaned, are a curious spectacle. Why did the Victorians create such a comprehensive “virtual art” collection? To make a clever point about a copy being just as good as the real thing – or simply to bring great work to the people?But there’s one exhibit here that brings the world of the fake, and all the questions the subject provokes, up to date: an eerily precise 3D print of a nude statue of Pauline Bonaparte, sister of French military leader Napoleon, by the neo-classical artist Canova. This lovely replica is the work of British-born, Madrid-based artist and tech pioneer Adam Lowe. By placing it here, the V&A is recognising that Lowe is reinventing the much misunderstood practice of copying. Indeed, Lowe takes the fine art remake to such heights of accuracy, sensitivity and detail that even experts are fooled. Far from being derided as cynical forgeries, though, his copies are hailed by this and other museums as opening up new ways of understanding and enjoying masterpieces. Continue reading...

Growing up on a farm in Virginia during segregation, West knew education would be her means of escape. But she didn’t know her quiet work on a naval base would change lives around the worldGladys West knew from a young age that she didn’t want to be a farmer. But the mathematician, born in 1930 in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, still had to help harvest crops on her family’s small farm. The hard work started before daybreak and lasted well into the blistering heat of the afternoon. She hated the dirt but, while she worked, she kept her mind on the building behind the trees at the end of the farm. It was her school, and even then she knew it would be her ticket to freedom.“I was gonna get an education and I was going to get out of there. I wasn’t going to be stuck there all my life,” West, 89, says firmly, on Zoom in her home in Virginia. Continue reading...

Workers are calling for hazard pay for moderators required to return to offices, plus better healthcare and mental health supportMore than 200 Facebook workers have signed a letter demanding better treatment for content moderators after some said they were required to return to the office even as the coronavirus crisis deepens. Continue reading...

Creation of specialist cyber force and artificial intelligence unit in pipeline

We asked Australian comedians what they find funny online. Benjamin Law reckons he isn’t a comedian, but still sent us this hilarious, sweary listFirst up, I need to come clean: unlike all the fine people who’ve contributed to this series so far, I’m not technically a comedian. Also, I acknowledge that constantly being mistaken for one represents a stain on the Australian comedy industry and I apologise for that – I’m always learning, I’m committed to listening and will try to do better, etc.But as a writer and broadcaster who spends way too much time online, I delight in all the delightful, surreal and absolutely rank stuff I’ve reaped from the internet over the roughly 12,000 years I’ve been online, and I’m happy to share some of my bountiful harvest now. Continue reading...

The tech giant says it will halve its commission to 15% for smaller developers from January 2021Apple has announced it will reduce the cut it takes from every in-app purchase by half for developers that make up to US$1m (A$1.37m) per year, as the company faces a new lawsuit from the makers of Fortnite over the practice.Apple currently takes a 30% commission on paid apps and for sales made within apps running on iOS on iPhones and iPads. Continue reading...

Four-fold rise since March edges towards all-time record as cryptocurrency gains greater acceptanceBitcoin, the world’s best known cryptocurrency, jumped above $17,000 to a three-year high on Tuesday as a growing number of investors backed it as an alternative to other assets.The currency climbed more than 4% to $17,492, its highest level since December 2017 and more than four times higher than the price in March when heavy selling sent its value below $4,000. Continue reading...

Users can disable features such as Smart Reply that use personal data to improve experienceGmail users will finally be able to easily opt out of “smart” features that use their personal data to improve the experience, the company has announced, as it seeks to reassure regulators around the world that it offers genuine user choice around how it processes data.Once it launches, a single setting on Gmail will ask users to decide whether to “turn off smart features” for their email accounts, disabling the personalisation that powers features including Smart Compose and Smart Reply. A second setting will also enable users to opt out of sharing their Gmail data with other Google services such as Maps and Assistant. Continue reading...

Tool that lets advertisers track users created without consent, says activist Max SchremsThe consumer rights activist Max Schrems has filed a formal privacy case against Apple, arguing that an ID generated by iPhones that lets advertisers track users violates privacy regulations.Schrems, whose lawsuit against Facebook led to a landmark ruling restricting data transfers from the EU to the US, has made the case through his privacy rights non-profit Noyb, which has filed formal complaints in Spain and Berlin against Apple. Continue reading...

Tried and tested neckband wireless earbuds have more cable than AirPods but at less than half the priceThe Beats Flex are Apple’s latest neckband Bluetooth earbuds, and bring many of the fancy features of its AirPods to headphones costing just one third of the price.The new Beats cost £49.99 and replace the £129 Beats X as the firm’s cheapest wireless earbuds, sitting below the £129.95 Powerbeats, and Apple’s £129 AirPods. Continue reading...

Nationals MP Anne Webster, her husband and not-for-profit group targeted by ‘disgraceful and inexplicable’ postsFacebook has apologised to Nationals MP Anne Webster over months-long delays in responding to reports of abuse she received from an online conspiracy theorist that led to an $875,000 defamation payout order.In September, federal court justice Jacqueline Gleeson ordered the payout to the first-term Mildura MP over Facebook posts in April by Australian conspiracy theorist Karen Brewer. The posts were shared hundreds of times and falsely accused Webster of being “a member of a secretive paedophile network” who had been “parachuted into parliament to protect a past generation of paedophiles”. Continue reading...

It’s a question that has raged since the 90s, with conflicting claims about the species of one of Nintendo’s best-loved charactersIn the Guide’s weekly Solved! column, we look into a crucial pop-culture question you’ve been burning to know the answer to – and settle it, once and for allOver the course of almost three decades playing video games and 15 years writing about them, I have seen a few recurrent questions that just refuse to die. Are video games art? (Yes, when they want to be.) Is Sonic better than Mario? (Obviously not: Sonic has only starred in about three good games since 1991.) Does playing games turn you into a sociopathic murderer? (No, but having to answer that question 4,000 times has certainly given me thoughts of mild violence.) But none has ever bothered me as much as this: is that Toad from Super Mario’s actual head, or is he wearing a mushroom hat? Continue reading...

From Apple to Samsung, Amazon to Microsoft, there’s lots of options, starting from less than £100As the UK heads towards the holiday season, being able to easily entertain ourselves, read the news, play games and – more importantly than ever – video call our loved ones means having the right tablet can make a real difference.Unlike most laptops, tablets have fairly good video cameras, support apps and make it simple to fire up that Zoom call. Here are the best available across a range of budgets. Continue reading...

Research based on playing time data showed gamers reported greater wellbeingPlaying video games can be good for your mental health, a study from Oxford University has suggested, following a breakthrough collaboration in which academics at the university worked with actual gameplay data for the first time.The study, which focused on players of Nintendo’s springtime craze Animal Crossing, as well as EA’s shooter Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, found that people who played more games tended to report greater “wellbeing”, casting further doubt on reports that video gaming can harm mental health. Continue reading...

Winner of international prize, which had a record number of entries this year, to be announced on ThursdayFrom a well-timed recyclable PPE glove to a wheel-based device to cut “invisible” pollution from tyres, 20 groundbreaking designs by students across the world are in the running to be named on Thursday as the international winner of the annual James Dyson award.The prestigious accolade brings with it a £30,000 cash prize – and gives winners a chance to turn their innovation into a commercial product with real-world impact. One in five previous winners have gone on to commercialise a wide range of exotic inventions, including bionic arms, origami-style clothing and bio-reactive food labels. Continue reading...

Adult clubs such as NSFW and Killing Kittens are reporting booming interest in video hook-ups. Remember when virtual get-togethers were about meetings or cocktail parties?The Zoom honeymoon is over. So are Houseparty dinners where you plan to eat the same thing at the same time, then flake and eat some Doritos, then realise that you don’t especially want to chew on screen. No more online cocktail parties, where conversation mysteriously cannot flow and everyone takes it in turns to tell an inconsequential anecdote that is short, but never quite short enough. No more FaceTime quizzes, where you lackadaisically Google the answers on your phone, because the goodwill entailed in joining the call in the first place was about all you had in you.The only thing that has survived, apparently, is the virtual sex party. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Union survey finds 17% of drivers for Uber and other services sexually harassed or assaulted by passengersUber and other rideshare drivers are earning an average of $12 an hour during the Covid-19 pandemic, and 17% have been sexually harassed or assaulted by passengers, according to a new survey of the gig economy.A survey of 230 workers – 93% of whom work for Uber – has revealed a range of violent assaults, threats, racism and sexual harassment experienced by drivers. Continue reading...

Given the problems involved in regulating the tech giants, the EU commission’s targeted investigation seems the smartest way to achieve resultsThe European commission has opened an antitrust investigation of Amazon, on the grounds that the company has breached EU antitrust rules against distorting competition in online retail markets. Amazon, says the commission, has been using its privileged access to non-public data of independent sellers who sell on its marketplace to benefit the parts of its own retail business that directly compete with those third-party sellers. The commission has also opened a second investigation into the possible preferential treatment of Amazon’s own retail offers compared with those of marketplace sellers that use Amazon’s logistics and delivery services.The good news about this is not so much that the EU is taking action as that it is doing so in an intelligently targeted manner. Too much of the discourse about tech companies in the last two years has been about “breaking them up”. But “break ’em up” is a slogan, not a policy, and it has a kind of Trumpian ring to it. The commission is avoiding that. Continue reading...

Having won in California, they will seek devastating victories elsewhereOne of the darker outcomes of 21st-century work life has been the predatory gig economy. Divorced from healthcare benefits and regular pay, millions of workers are told they are supposed to be lucky to drive passengers around in a car for ever-diminishing returns.Last week, there was hope that Proposition 22, a ballot measure that allows gig economy companies to continue treating drivers as independent contractors, would be defeated in California, an increasingly progressive state. But voters passed the measure overwhelmingly, thanks to obscene amounts of spending by Uber, Lyft, Seamless and DoorDash. Unleashing more than $200m – 10 times the amount of the proposition’s opponents, like labor unions – the coalition of tech giants easily drowned out those fighting for the rights of workers. Continue reading...

Apple’s big update adds colour, iPhone-like icons, settings and apps, ready for new and old Macs alikeApple has just released Big Sur as a free update, marking the biggest redesign for macOS in years. The core system of every Mac computer is now equal parts traditional desktop computer and features many will be used to seeing from the iPad and iPhone.Big Sur marks the end of an era for the Mac’s software in more ways than one. For years Apple has been slowly blending the design and operation of its desktop and mobile software, bringing features from the iPhone or iPad to the Mac and vice versa. With Big Sur comes a significant step toward the goal of merging the two. Continue reading...

Journalists Simran Hans and Tara Joshi offer smart analysis as well as nostalgia in Twenty Twenty. Plus: more ‘badman language’ and general larks with the Kurupt FM crewThe Art of Asking Everything

The coronavirus pandemic has left us living more and more of our lives online. But the place where we chat with friends, get our news and form our opinions is full of vile and dangerous conspiracy theories. Is the world’s biggest social network doing enough to combat them?

High-speed pods could eventually make New York-Washington trip in 30 minutesRichard Branson’s Virgin Hyperloop has completed the world’s first passenger ride on a high-speed levitating pod system, a key safety test for technology it hopes will transform human and cargo transportation.The Virgin Hyperloop executives, Josh Giegel, its chief technology officer, and Sara Luchian, the director of passenger experience, reached speeds of up to 107mph (172 km/h) at the company’s DevLoop test site in Las Vegas, Nevada, the company said on Sunday. Continue reading...

Investment in robot warfare at heart of UK’s planned five-year defence reviewThirty thousand “robot soldiers” could form an integral part of the British army in the 2030s, working alongside humans in and around the frontline, the head of the armed forces said in a television interview on Sunday.Gen Sir Nick Carter said the armed forces needed “to think about how we measure effects in a different way” – and he called on the government to proceed with the previously promised five-year integrated defence review. Continue reading...

The controversial messaging app has moved huge crowds on the streets of Belarus. But who is its secretive puppet master?

‘Stop the Steal’ group acquired 40,000 members after a similar group was shut down, then changed its name without explanationThousands of Donald Trump supporters have unwittingly found themselves in a Facebook group called “Gay Communists for Socialism”, after being tricked by its creators into joining what they thought was a pro-Trump election group.On Thursday, a Facebook group called “Stop the Steal”, a reference to the president’s false claims that Joe Biden is “stealing” the US election, was disabled by the social network for misinformation after gaining more than 350,000 members. Other groups emerged in its place, including a second “Stop the Steal” group that attracted more than 40,000 castaways from the original group. Continue reading...

DoJ is suing for formal forfeiture of funds after tracking down the person holding them

PlayStation 5; Sony Japan Studios Asobi Team/Sony

If the system was really sophisticated, it would trigger a call to a dieticianI recently received a text asking me to verify whether I had made a recent purchase. This is something that happens a lot, as my bank is triggered by anything that doesn’t appear to be me. It will allow limitless funds to go on overpriced trainers, but block barbecue meats or Tottenham Hotspur merch. I am making this up, of course, as it seems entirely random what it double-checks, although I am sure there is a sophisticated algorithm that says things like: “Romesh doesn’t usually buy vegetables in January – he gets depressed and eats only pastries.”It is worse when I’m on tour. The bank gets extra suspicious because I make purchases in so many different towns, particularly since almost every one is curry. I spent the whole of my last tour on the phone trying to convince my bank it was actually me having vegetable jalfrezi for the 16th consecutive night. If the system were truly sophisticated, it would trigger a call to a dietitian. Continue reading...

Digital system automatically reduces electric bicycles’ power in built-up areasElectric bike motors will be shut down when entering residential or built-up areas of Amsterdam, under a government-funded project to cut road deaths from the increasingly powerful vehicles.The digital technology, which has been successfully trialled on a 4km stretch of bike lanes at Schiphol airport, was funded by the Dutch ministry of infrastructure and water management. Continue reading...

This enormous spaceship of a console comes with enough flagship features – from fast SSD and frame rate to 4K resolution – that you might overlook the hefty price tag

Conspiracy theories and misinformation have circulated widely before removal, watchdog findsTikTok has emerged as an unexpected source of misinformation about the US election, with numerous inaccurate or misleading posts circulating as tech companies battle to contain falsehoods from Donald Trump and others.

They’re superfast, they’re frictionless and you get access to Xbox Game Pass. But not much else, from the controller to the interface, has changed – and launching without a single new game is just bizarre

Feature on Facebook-owned app is designed to help people cut their digital footprintWhatsApp will soon have a disappearing message feature, designed to enable users of the chat app to cut down on their digital footprint.Once the update, which is rolling out from Thursday, hits phones, users will be able to set an option for each individual chat they are in – whether one-on-one or a group – to delete messages automatically seven days after they have been sent. Continue reading...

Richard Browning is pursuing the stuff of a million childhood dreams. But having built a working jetpack, will anybody use it?On a gloomy afternoon in a Sussex wood, a 21st-century superhero appears. Dressed in black, helmeted, a pack on his back and jets on his arms, he rises to a couple of metres above the ground, accelerates up above a grassy bank and then hovers in a swirling cloud of autumn leaves.No matter how many times you’ve watched a video on YouTube, nothing can quite prepare you for the sight of a human being in flight. It is the embodiment of a thousand myths, from Hermes and Peter Pan to Iron Man, as well as a million childhood dreams, and is the only correct answer to that old conundrum: which superpower would you choose, invisibility or flying? If it wasn’t for the roar of the jet engines and the smell of fuel, you would assume it was just a dream. Continue reading...

Funds have lain dormant since darknet site founder Ross Ulbricht was jailed in 2013A billion dollars worth of bitcoins linked to the shuttered darknet market Silk Road has changed hands for the first time in seven years, prompting renewed speculation about the fate of the illicit fortune.Almost 70,000 bitcoins stored in the account which, like all bitcoin wallets, is visible to the public, had lain untouched since April 2013. The website was shut down by an FBI raid six months after they were deposited, and they have not moved since. Continue reading...