The head of Xbox Studios says the machine removes the need to think about technical constraints – and discusses controversial Halo: Infinite and Fable demosThe era of video game design being defined by technology is over, according to Microsoft. Two hours after the Xbox showcase event livestreamed on 23 July, I’m speaking to the company’s head of studios, Matt Booty, via video call. The showcase revealed 22 games, “built to launch exclusively on Xbox consoles”, nine coming from first-party teams – a clear response to Sony’s live event in June, which concentrated on exclusive PlayStation 5 titles. But there was no mention of hardware during the one-hour stream, and now Booty is keen to make the point that projects developed for Xbox Series X, due this Christmas, will not be as delineated or constrained by hardware specifications as they have been in the past.“We’re at a point where the technology is out of the way,” he says. “In previous generations, the hardware and its limitations would leave a pretty clear fingerprint on a game. I remember the first early games that used sprite scaling and then suddenly every game had all these objects flying around the screen. You’d build a game around technical advances like that. But now we’re at the point with the tech where we can just let the stories and the characters that the teams have in mind reach the screen.” Continue reading...

Young people are getting information about protests, police actions and stay-at-home orders from their social media feeds – but the trend isn’t harmlessFor many young people, clicking on to Instagram to get the latest news is now as second nature as picking up a daily newspaper once was to generations before. For a site that has traditionally been a platform for sharing lifestyle content rather than hard news, this is a shift in millennials and Gen Z, at a time when news updates seem more important than ever.Recently published data exploring how people accessed news and information about the coronavirus pandemic found, in the US, for 18- to 24-year-olds (the age group most likely to use social media as a source), over a quarter of respondents used Instagram to access news content within the last week, while 19% used Snapchat and 6% turned to TikTok. In comparison, only 17% used newspapers to access information. Globally, figures reached even higher levels – in Germany, 38% of 18- to 24-year-olds used Instagram alone to access the news, and in Argentina, this reached as high as 49%. Continue reading...

Our leading technology writers discuss Facebook, the inexorable rise of misinformation, the success of Black Lives Matter … and the simple joys of a bird feederJulia Carrie Wong, senior technology reporter, Guardian US: Good morning from Oakland. To kick us off, I’d love to hear how tech reporting has changed for you since the lockdowns began?Alex Hern, UK technology editor: Well, on the positive side, it’s got a lot more efficient. Stripped of the ability to invite me halfway across the city for a “friendly chat”, the largest companies in the world are now easier to get hold of on the phone, which saves everyone some time and me the cost of a tube fare. Continue reading...

Facebook and America are now indivisible, says the Observer journalist who broke the Cambridge Analytica scandal – and the world is a sicker place for it

The ex-CIA officer on why she lasted only six months at the tech giant and her fears about its role in the forthcoming US election

Thanks to dithering and ineptitude, we may never have contact tracing on our smartphones

Garmin servers are offline but you can still share your runs, rides, swims and walks with Strava. Here’s howGarmin Connect and Express have been taken offline by a reported ransomware attack, leaving runners, cyclists, walkers and others unable to sync their activities to Strava. But don’t worry – there is a manual way to upload your activities to Strava while Garmin is down. Here’s how:What you need: Continue reading...

Terror capitalism uses tools such as facial recognition to extract profits from marginalized people. Big tech and governments are collaborating

US company forced to shut down call centres, website and some other online services

In a packed hour of trailers, Microsoft revealed the Halo: Infinite campaign, plus the next Forza Motorsport and a new Fable6.27pm BSTHere’s a summary of what was shown tonight for the Xbox One X:6.13pm BSTThank you for watching with us! Next stop: release dates and prices! Continue reading...

Withdrawal follows criticism over alleged use of game streaming site to attract recruits

Hack affected more than 100 accounts including those of Elon Musk and Kanye West

PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One; Superhot Team

Online meetings | Bank scams | Civil service | Pro-EU masks | Zizi JeanmaireInstead of worrying about looking good on Zoom (Bidisha, 20 July), try giving people something else worth looking at. If you are able to sit in front of a window looking out on to a tree, this has the edge on shelves full of books. And during the conversation, you too can watch the branches swaying in the breeze. A restful image need not reduce the quality of decision-making.

‘Equity and inclusion’ teams to be assess Facebook and Instagram algorithms for bias

PC (version tested) PS4, Switch, Xbox, Apple Arcade; Amanita Design

An ongoing 2017 case found that discriminatory practices may be pushing women into lower-paying career tracksWomen at Google lose out on thousands of dollars each year compared with men as a result of discriminatory practices including pushing female employees into lower-paying career tracks, a lawsuit has alleged.The findings stem from an ongoing lawsuit brought against Google in 2017, which accused the tech company of gender pay discrimination between female employees – from coders to teachers in its in-house childcare department – and their male counterparts. More details about the extent of the pay disparity emerged in a memorandum filed in court on Tuesday to classify that lawsuit as a class action, which, if approved, would mean it applies to 10,800 women who have been employed by Google at any time since September 2013. Continue reading...

More stories of harassment, abuse and bullying in the industry have led to some high-profile departures. Women in gaming talk about toxic work and why it’s time for radical changeOver the last two years, in a protracted and devastating #MeToo movement for the video games industry, hundreds of women have spoken out about the manipulative and predatory behaviour they have experienced in their video game careers. A 2018 investigation by games website Kotaku led to legal action at California developer Riot Games, where five former employees sued the company over workplace harassment and discrimination and hundreds more joined walkouts to protest. The company promised to overhaul its workplace culture and a settlement was made in 2019.Then, last summer saw a wave of stories on Twitter about people in the games industry generally being plied with drinks and pressured into sex at industry parties, belittled and gaslit at work by male bosses, stalked, groomed, harassed, or treated with contempt when a senior man’s advances were spurned. Continue reading...

The company’s restrictions, which will affect about 150,000 accounts, will include blocking URLs and not recommending contentTwitter announced a broad crackdown on accounts and content related to the QAnon conspiracy theory on Tuesday, citing its policies against “behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm”.The company said it would block URLs associated with QAnon from being shared on the platform, and would no longer recommend content and accounts associated with QAnon or highlight them in search and conversations. These restrictions will affect approximately 150,000 accounts, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed. NBC News first reported the crackdown. Continue reading...

Analysis of 28 global studies dating back to 2008 found a minuscule positive correlationVideo games do not lead to violence or aggression, according to a reanalysis of data gathered from more than 21,000 young people around the world.The researchers, led by Aaron Drummond from New Zealand’s Massey University, re-examined 28 studies from previous years that looked at the link between aggressive behaviour and video gaming, a method known as a meta-analysis. Continue reading...

As Amazon thrives under Covid-19, critics say its founder’s wealth – he could buy the UK’s four big banks – is ‘obscene’He was already by far the world’s richest person, but Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has set a fresh record increasing his fortune by an additional $13bn (£10bn) in a single day to take his personal wealth to an unprecedented $189bn.The huge increase in Bezos’s wealth on Monday alone is equivalent of adding nearly 30 times the Queen’s £350m fortune. His total wealth now makes him worth more than Britain’s biggest company, the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca which is valued on the stock exchange at £121bn. Continue reading...

Trump isn’t the only one to fire off shots at other world leaders; Twitter can amplify misunderstandings and spread disinformationJust because Twitter is predominantly filled with quips and kvetching doesn’t mean what’s said on the platform can’t have far-reaching consequences, according to a new study from the Centre for Science and Security Studies at King’s College London on how government officials and agencies use Twitter during global crises.In Escalation by Tweet: Managing the New Nuclear Diplomacy, authors Dr Heather Williams and Dr Alexi Drew report that while “tweets from government officials may help shape the American public narrative and provide greater insights into US decision-making”, they can also create confusion, upend diplomatic communications and escalate global tensions. Continue reading...

Firm could have to pay out millions if it loses case, with implications across entire gig economyA five-year battle over the status and rights of Uber drivers reaches the supreme court in a case that lawyers believe has the potential to transform the gig economy in Britain.Uber wants seven of the UK’s most senior judges to overturn a 2018 appeal court ruling that drivers for the ride-hailing giant are workers and entitled to workers’ rights including the national minimum wage and paid holiday. Continue reading...

Prime minister’s comments about previous attack ‘incredibly useful’, but messaging needs to be consistent, advisory panel says

21 July 1937 The Italian physicist and inventor of a successful wireless telegraph dies in Rome at the age of 63Guglielmo Marconi (whose death is reported on another page) may be said with truth to have been not only the originator of radio-telegraphy but the most successful worker in its development. He was born at Bologna in 1874, his father being an Italian and his mother an Irish-woman; he was educated at Leghorn Technical School and at the University of Bologna. At an early age he showed inventive powers, and whilst still a boy he had acquired much knowledge of the results of researches on electro-magnetic waves by Hertz and others and had formed the idea of using them to communicate over a distance. On his father’s estate at the Villa Griffone, near Bologna, he began experimenting in June, 1894, with an ordinary spark induction coil and home-made coherers and other appliances.Related: Marconi and the invention of radio (1915-1943) Continue reading...

Video-sharing app continues to generate unease over privacy and censorship issuesAt first glance, TikTok is an unusual geopolitical flashpoint. The app, which offers a set of tools that make producing video fun and easy and in turn provides viewers with an endless stream of entertaining sub-minute clips, has more than half a billion users, with the majority aged under 30.It is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, but unlike peers such as Huawei and ZTE, it has little to do with critical national infrastructure, and has so far managed to avoid the accusations of intellectual property theft and state aid which are often the first step to sanctions. If anything, with Facebook this week launching a pitch-perfect TikTok clone, Reels, the company can make a case that it is a genuine innovator, oft-followed, never beaten. Continue reading...

Irish-made app has more than 1.3m downloads, in stark contrast to the UK’s efforts

Union wants ride-sharing firm to increase transparency and disclose how data is usedMinicab drivers will launch a legal bid to uncover secret computer algorithms used by Uber to manage their work in a test case that could increase transparency for millions of gig economy workers across Europe.Two UK drivers are demanding to see the huge amounts of data the ride-sharing company collects on them and how this is used to exert management control, including through automated decision-making that invisibly shapes their jobs. Continue reading...

Video-sharing app suspends building plans, with British ban on Huawei 5G kit seen as factorThe Chinese social media firm TikTok has pulled back from talks to site the headquarters for its non-China business in the UK, threatening the creation of 3,000 jobs, as fears grow of a tit-for-tat trade war between London and Beijing.Its parent company, ByteDance, which is based in Beijing, had spent months in negotiations with the Department for International Trade and No 10 officials to expand operations in addition to the near 800 employed by TikTok. Continue reading...

Accusations that Russian intelligence was involved in cyber attacks on coronavirus labs make ‘no sense’, says envoy

‘Geopolitical’ factors were behind the move, the company was told, with hints that the decision could be reversed in futureThe British government privately told the Chinese technology giant Huawei that it was being banned from Britain’s 5G telecoms network partly for “geopolitical” reasons following huge pressure from President Donald Trump, the Observer has learned.In the days leading up to the controversial announcement on Tuesday last week, intensive discussions were held and confidential communications exchanged between the government and Whitehall officials on one side and Huawei executives on the other. Continue reading...

The platform’s advertising software is beautifully engineered but it often produces ugly resultsEarlier this month Anne Borden King posted news on her Facebook page that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Since then, she reports, “my Facebook feed has featured ads for ‘alternative cancer care’. The ads, which were new to my timeline, promote everything from cumin seeds to colloidal silver as cancer treatments. Some ads promise luxury clinics – or even ‘nontoxic cancer therapies’ on a beach in Mexico.”The irony is that King is the last person likely to fall for this crap. She’s a consultant for the watchdog group Bad Science Watch and a co-founder of the Campaign Against Phony Autism Cures. So she effortlessly recognised the telltale indicators of pseudoscience marketing – unproven and sometimes dangerous treatments, promising simplistic solutions and support. In that sense she is the polar opposite of, say, Donald Trump. Continue reading...

(3-Fold Games, Humble Games)

Elon Musk’s company is the world’s most valuable carmaker, but it has never made a profitWhen Elon Musk tweeted in May that the share price of Tesla was “too high” at $780 (£622), it caused a brief moment of panicked selling by investors in the electric carmaker. Yet two months later Tesla had overtaken Toyota as the world’s most valuable carmaker in a remarkable rally in which its market value briefly topped $300bn this week.Tesla has never made an annual profit but the company has a market value equivalent to a third of the combined US, EU and Japanese auto indices – despite an expected share of only 0.8% of the global auto market this year. That disconnect has prompted re-evaluation from some investors and euphoria for others as they try to work out if the carmaker can ever justify the heady valuation. Continue reading...

Social network investigating whether users’ private data was compromised

At least two victims have blamed the mobile phone infiltration on a ‘dirty war’ by the Spanish state

Minister says Britain and allies confident Russian intelligence was behind cyber-attacks

Vow comes despite app’s own transparency reports revealing that it complies with requestsAs TikTok claims it would never hand over user information on Australian users to foreign governments, the company’s own transparency reporting reveals hundreds of instances where user data has been handed over to governments.The short video app popular with a younger demographic and used by some 1 billion people worldwide has been the subject of intense scrutiny over concerns its Beijing-based company ByteDance could be handing over data about its users to the Chinese government. Continue reading...

Larry Kudlow suggests that the popular video-sharing app could survive as an independent companyTikTok, the social media platform popular with young people around the world, could break away from its Chinese parent to evade being banned in the US, a White House adviser has said.“We haven’t made final decisions [on the ban] but as has been reported in some places, I think TikTok is going to pull out of the holding company which is China-run and operate as independent company,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters on Thursday. Continue reading...

The FBI has launched an investigation into the attack, saying the motivation appeared to be ‘cryptocurrency fraud’Twenty-four hours after a major security breach at Twitter saw the verified accounts of world leaders, celebrities, and corporate brands hijacked to publish fraudulent messages, few things were clear about the hack except this: it could have been much, much worse.“Imagine this happening the night before the election,” said Bruce Schneier, a prominent security technologist and fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. “It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to go: ‘Wow!’” Continue reading...

With the US government considering banning the China-based video-sharing app, here’s what you need to knowThe wildly popular video-sharing app TikTok is facing a potential ban in the US and among employees of several major companies over security concerns.What does that mean for you? Should you delete TikTok from your device? Here’s what you need to know. Continue reading...

UK National Cyber Security Centre says drug firms and research groups being targeted by group known as APT29

Data privacy rights have been backed by a new ruling, the latest twist in a nine-year campaign to limit surveillance by US agencies

Long-running legal saga finds inadequate protections against snooping on personal data by US intelligence agencies

Pair say they will file complaint against former head of Spain’s national intelligence centreTwo leading members of the Catalan independence movement whose mobile phones were targeted with spyware are to take legal action against the former head of Spain’s national intelligence centre (NIC).The announcement came after a joint investigation by the Guardian and El País revealed that Roger Torrent, the speaker of the Catalan parliament, and the former regional foreign minister Ernest Maragall were among at least four pro-independence activists targeted using Israeli spyware that its makers say is sold only to governments to track criminals and terrorists. Continue reading...

Twitter verified users with blue ticks prevented from getting their thoughts out during a two-hour lockoutThere was panic and joy on Wednesday night when verified Twitter users were forbidden from posting, for approximately two hours, for the first time.The unprecedented move followed the hacking of a series of high-profile accounts, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Kanye West and Apple. Continue reading...

TikTok denies it provides user data to the Chinese government. We look at the claims and the factsThe concern over what data TikTok might be collecting on its users and providing to government authorities should be a concern for every app, not just those linked to China.This week, in response to calls to ban the app in Australia, TikTok wrote to Australian politicians to say it was being used as a “political football” in the diplomatic fight between Australia, the US and China, and claimed it was misinformation to suggest the app was providing user data back to the Chinese government, or storing Australian data within China. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has claimed credit for the UK's decision to ban Huawei from the country’s 5G networks, after it was announced the firm would be stripped out of phone networks by 2027. The US president said he 'did it myself, for the most part', referring to talking countries out of using Huawei.Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to Britain, said the move was 'disheartening' and trust had been seriously damaged between the two countries and among business

Global Times mouthpiece says Beijing must respond or be seen as ‘easy to bully’Chinese state media has foreshadowed “public and painful” retaliation against the UK over its ban of Huawei from the country’s 5G networks, as Donald Trump appeared to take credit for the decision.Following Britain’s announcement that Huawei would be stripped out of the country’s phone networks by 2027, the state-run Global Times said in an editorial that China could not “remain passive”. Continue reading...