Russia named as likely culprit in cyber-attack on election watchdog, while police service accidentally publishes staff detailsThe UK election watchdog and Northern Ireland's police service both announced serious data breaches on Tuesday, in the latest example of the vulnerability of personal details to hacks and human error.The UK data regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), is looking at the incidents, which have raised immediate safety concerns over the consequences of leaking personal data. Here is what has happened and what we know so far. Continue reading...
Engineers' work on cycling and public transit have transformed the app - but rural directions remain a sticking pointIn October 2022, New York City officials unveiled a new bike lane on Schermerhorn street, one of the most dangerous and heavily trafficked streets in downtown Brooklyn and somewhere I had always avoided on my bike. Unless I was a religious reader of transportation department press releases (I'm not), I would have no way of knowing the lane existed - except that very same morning, my Apple Maps app sent me on the new Schermerhorn bike lane, instead of hurtling down Dean Street. By the time I was taking my return route, it was busy with cyclists.For Apple to know the lane was open, it had to have updates from the Adams's administration, as well as, presumably, hundreds of other city governments around the world. How was the company pulling it off? And it's not just cycling: it also knows the placement of the trees in Central Park, when the bus is coming, and whether a dive bar takes contactless payments or is cash only. Continue reading...
An aunt's death led Kemisola Bolarinwa to develop a wearable device that can pick up Nigeria's most common cancer much earlierIt was a school competition to build a radio that set Kemisola Bolarinwa on her path to becoming the inventor of a bra that can detect cancer. My physics teacher brought the idea of coming up with a radio transmitter and a receiver. I started working on it with one of my classmates," she says.We went for the competition, and we came second out of the many competitors from other schools. That was when I discovered myself to be an innovator - that was how the passion started." Continue reading...
Forget AI doomerism' hype over ChatGPT, big tech's colonial attitude lets hateful electoral propaganda be fed to millionsMore than 70 countries are due to hold regional or national elections by the end of 2024. It will be a period of huge political significance across the globe, with more than 2 billion people (mostly from the global south) directly affected by the outcome of these elections. The stakes for the integrity of democracy have never been higher.As concerns mount about the influential role of information pollution, disseminated through the vast platforms of US and Chinese corporations, in shaping these elections, a new shadow looms: how artificial intelligence - more specifically, generative AI such as OpenAI's ChatGPT - has increasingly moved into the mainstream of technology. Continue reading...
Participants in simulated environment with random slip hazards were more likely to fall despite trying to be more cautiousIn news that will come as a surprise to nobody who has walked down a busy street in the past 10 years, scientists have confirmed people texting while walking are more likely to have accidents.While previous studies have shown that texting pedestrians are more likely to walk into oncoming traffic, others have suggested young adults have mastered the art of multitasking and are able to text accurately while navigating obstacles. Continue reading...
Researchers create system using sound recordings that can work out what is being typed with more than 90% accuracyTapping in a computer password while chatting over Zoom could open the door to a cyber-attack, research suggests, after a study revealed artificial intelligence (AI) can work out which keys are being pressed by eavesdropping on the sound of the typing.Experts say that as video conferencing tools such as Zoom have grown in use, and devices with built-in microphones have become ubiquitous, the threat of cyber-attacks based on sounds has also risen. Continue reading...
The company formerly known as Twitter alleges that the Center for Countering Digital Hate drove away advertisers - but CCDH and legal experts say otherwise Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereCensorship, or rather his stance against it, is a key reason why Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44bn last year. His social media company's lawsuit against an anti-hate speech group refers to censorship, or variations on the word, eight times.But for critics of his complaint against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), it is Musk who is doing the censoring. The intent is definitely to get the centre to shut up. That's the whole point of this suit, to prevent the centre from exercising any speech that Musk doesn't like," says Prof Brian Quinn from Boston College law school. Continue reading...
Elon Musk firm alleges in lawsuit against Center for Countering Digital Hate that it got data help from European Climate FoundationElon Musk's X Corp has accused the European Climate Foundation of helping an anti-hate speech campaign group conduct research against its rebranded Twitter platform.The claim was made in a blogpost on Monday that alleged the ECF had given the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) access to Brandwatch, a software tool that allows organisations to monitor posts on Twitter, which Musk last month renamed X. Continue reading...
Country's data protection regulator said firm cannot harvest user information such as physical locations for showing targeted adsFacebook owner Meta Platforms will be fined 1m krone ($98,500) a day over privacy breaches from 14 August, Norway's data protection authority told Reuters on Monday, a decision that could have wider European implications.The regulator, Datatilsynet, had said on 17 July that the company would be fined if it did not address privacy breaches the regulator had identified. Continue reading...
Policy to apply to those living within 50 miles and follows fall in post- pandemic demand for video-conferencing servicesIt was the poster child for remote working and may have made more gains from people able to work from home during the pandemic than any other company, but even Zoom has told its staff to come into the office more often.The company, which became a household name during Covid lockdowns because of the popularity of its video-conferencing tools, has told employees to travel in at least two days a week, according to a report in Business Insider. Continue reading...
Like sea mines washing up on the beaches of the Black Sea, the consequences of someone else's war keep arriving in the lives of this science-fiction game's charactersIn any other game, two mega corporations obliterating each other in a galactic war would be the story's focus. But in Citizen Sleeper 2, the conflict between Conway and Senetstat at the centre of the Helion System is background noise. Citizen Sleeper is a game about the periphery," designer Gareth Damian Martin says.You, an escaped android, have more immediate problems than the brewing war at Helion's centre. Out in the Starward Belt, an archipelago of asteroids at the edge of the corporation-dominated solar system, you're running from a violent gang leader after stealing one of his spaceships. You need to keep your vessel fuelled, your supplies stocked, and your synthetic body topped up with a hard-to-find serum that keeps it from shutting down.Citizen Sleeper 2 will release initially on PC; release date TBC Continue reading...
Tinder's users say long-term relationships are their number-one goal. Yet dating apps are failing at finding people loveRomance scams are among the most common type of online fraud, with losses in millions of dollars. Scammers prey on people's need for love and connection, which can make them vulnerable to manipulation. There's no end to the lies romance scammers will tell to get your money," warns the Federal Trade Commission.I couldn't help but think of this when I saw that Tinder has just announced it is moving ahead with plans to launch a new high-end" membership for as much as $500 a month. Tentatively called Tinder Vault, representatives of the company have said that the new service will provide an even more fun experience" and quality matches" for exclusive" users.Nancy Jo Sales is the author, most recently, of Nothing Personal: My Secret Life in the Dating App Inferno Continue reading...
Forty years since the release of its first game, British developer Rare - formerly known as Ultimate - has cemented its place in gaming history. We look back at its origins on the ZX Spectrum and NESFor five long years, the ZX Spectrum magazine Crash tried to get an interview with the people behind Ultimate Play the Game, which had become one of the UK's premier games developers. They heard nothing until, one day early in 1988, Crash got a phone call. It was them. And they wanted to talk.Ultimate Play the Game, a trading name of Ashby Computers and Graphics, began in 1982, owned by one family: the Stampers - brothers Chris and Tim, and Tim's future wife Carole Ward, alongside programmer John Lathbury. Even at this stage, the Stampers were supremely confident in their own abilities, honed during the development of several arcade games. We chose [this] company's name because we felt it was representative of our products: the ultimate games," Tim Stamper declared in an August issue of Home Computing Weekly. The brothers designed and created games while Carole juggled administrative roles and contributed art to several of its first hits. Those early titles included Jetpac, the home computer game that thrust the company into the big time, and turns 40 years old this year. Continue reading...
Comment comes as company is going through organizational changes and looking to boost falling advertising revenueElon Musk has said his X social media platform will pay the legal bills and sue on the behalf of people who have been treated unfairly" by employers because of posting or liking something on the site formerly known as Twitter.If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill," Musk said in a post on X late on Saturday, adding that there will be no limits to funding the bills. Continue reading...
In this forthcoming black and white adventure game, you play as a ghost on a quest to ascend to a higher plane of the afterlifeWhy would you want to make a game about death? To me, it's fascinating," says Leo Dasso, director of Hauntii, a game about navigating eternity as a ghost. All of us have to cope with the changing circumstances of life, and death is the most extreme change of all, he says. And because death is universal, Dasso thinks the story will be of interest to everyone. As far as I know, nobody's immortal," he laughs.Not that he wants to put a downer on things. Often stories or games about death can kind of be morbid, [and] we really didn't want that for this game," he says. [Kirby creator Masahiro] Sakurai says that no matter what, a game should be entertaining first." And so it is with Hauntii, which sees your friendly ghost meeting a cavalcade of curious and often funny entities as they travel through the afterlife. Continue reading...
No part of me questioned whether this was real - I had to save my babyMom?" repeated my daughter's voice on my phone. I've messed up." My heart sank and I started trembling. I heard a man instructing her to lie down and put her head back. My 15-year-old daughter, Briana, was at a skiing competition with my husband two hours away, and I instantly thought she'd been badly hurt. I was in my car, picking up her sister Aubrey, who is 13, from dance class in Arizona. Over the phone, I heard Briana bawling and shouting, Help me, help me." My blood ran ice cold and my legs turned to jelly as the man on the phone began explaining that he had my daughter, and if I told anyone he would pump her stomach full of drugs, drop her in Mexico and I would never see her again.I sprinted into the lobby of the building where Aubrey was having her dance class. Putting the phone on mute, I wailed for help from the other parents. By this point, the man was shouting threats down the phone. A couple of mothers started calling 911. Coming out of class to hear what the fuss was about, Aubrey was thrown into a panic too. I pleaded with her to try to contact the rest of the family, but she was frozen in terror. I'll never forget her face as she tried to process that someone had taken her sister. Continue reading...
A growing number of doctored images are being used to disrupt politics. Here are four more recent examplesThe row over a manipulated photo of Rishi Sunak pulling an imperfect pint is the latest example of doctored or deepfake images attempting to disrupt politics.Using false information or imagery to alter public opinion is not new but breakthroughs in artificial intelligence threaten to take deception to a new level. Here are some recent examples of image-based disinformation. Continue reading...
Update will also ensure explicit or graphic photos do not appear easily in search resultsGoogle is launching new privacy tools to allow users to have more control over unwanted personal images online and ensure explicit or graphic photos do not appear easily in search results.Updates to Google policies on personal explicit images mean that users will be able to remove non-consensual and explicit imagery of themselves that they no longer wish to be visible in searches. Continue reading...
App says it will be launching a number of artificial intelligence initiatives to make dating more rewardingBeauty is now in the AI of the beholder. Or at least if you're on Tinder.The dating app is testing an artificial intelligence tool that selects users' best-looking photos for their profiles, in the hope it will enhance the chances someone will swipe right. Continue reading...
Call for action comes after Labour MP shared a digitally manipulated image of Rishi Sunak on social mediaExperts have warned that action needs to be taken on the use of artificial intelligence-generated or enhanced images in politics after a Labour MP apologised for sharing a manipulated image of Rishi Sunak pouring a pint.Karl Turner, the MP for Hull East, shared an image on the rebranded Twitter platform, X, showing the prime minister pulling a sub-standard pint at the Great British beer festival while a woman looks on with a derisive expression. The image had been manipulated from an original photo in which Sunak appears to have pulled a pub-level pint while the person behind him has a neutral expression. Continue reading...
Development trio Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, and Bennett Foddy are back with a story about a failson basement-dweller trying not to fall flat on his faceGame developers Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch and Bennett Foddy have been friends for over a decade, having met through NYU's Game Centre, and they already have one successful indie game under their belt. Ape Out had you smashing through halls full of goons as a rampaging gorilla to the tune of a procedural jazz soundtrack. Their next game, Baby Steps, is equally unconventional. A walking simulator in a very literal sense, you'll awkwardly steer Nate, a caked-up, onesie-wearing basement dweller, to the top of a misty mountain. And often, you'll fall flat on your face.On a controller, players use the triggers to lift and plant each foot while using the left stick to move the lifted foot around in the air, manually taking each of Nate's steps," Cuzzillo says. Using this literalist control scheme, reminiscent of Foddy's earlier games like QWOP and Getting Over It, the team want players to get into a rhythm as they hike, taking in the eclectic sights and letting their minds wander. That hypnotic space you can get into as you walk is a big part of the appeal of hiking to me," Cuzzillo said. We're trying to capture a bit of that here."Baby Steps is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in 2024. Continue reading...
Issues raised include use of eye scans to prove humanness' and financial inducements to sign upThe Kenyan government has barred the eyeball-scanning Worldcoin cryptocurrency project from recruiting new customers as it investigates data privacy and security concerns.Kenya's interior ministry said the venture must stop collecting user data after raising a number of issues including: concerns over the secure storage of data that includes scans of a user's iris; that offering crypto in exchange for data borders on inducement"; inadequate information on cybersecurity safeguards; and placing large amounts of private data in the hands of a private business. Continue reading...
Proposals would cut usage for 16- to 18-year-olds to a maximum of two hours, with under-16s limited to one hourShares in Chinese technology firms have fallen after the country's online regulator announced plans recommending smartphone use for children be limited to a maximum of two hours a day.The rules proposed by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) will require device makers, operating systems, apps and app stores to introduce a so-called minor-mode" capping time spent on screens, increasing the pressure on local tech companies already grappling with tight government controls. Continue reading...
by Hollie Richardson, Hannah Verdier and Nabiha Ahmed on (#6DGRE)
In this week's newsletter: Queen of the Con returns with a new season unpicking the life of reality TV star and ruthless manipulator' Jen Shah. Plus: five of the best celebrity-free podcasts
US tech giant starts charm offensive on artificial intelligence with basic courses to help firms understand and exploit emerging phenomenonA larger-than-life Michelle Donelan beams on to a screen in Google's London headquarters. The UK science and innovation secretary is appearing via video to praise the US tech behemoth for its plans to equip workers and bosses with basic skills in artificial intelligence (AI).The recent explosion in the use of AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's Bard show that we are on the cusp of a new and exciting era in artificial intelligence, and it is one that will dramatically improve people's lives," says Donelan. Google's ambitious" training programme is so important" and exceptional in its breadth", she gushes in a five-minute video, filmed in her ministerial office. Continue reading...
Cabinet Office assessment also upgrades likelihood of catastrophic' pandemic hitting the countryDisruption to energy supplies after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and another pandemic, are two of the most significant risks to the UK shown in an updated government register that declassifies some threats for the first time.In its first update for three years, the risk register rates the possibility of a catastrophic" pandemic as 5% to 25% likely in a five-year period, upgrading its risk from the previous assessment of 1 to 5% likely. Continue reading...
English and Mandarin speakers found to have the same level of accuracy when detecting artificially generated speechHumans are able to detect artificially generated speech only 73% of the time, a study has found, with the same levels of accuracy found in English and Mandarin speakers.Researchers at University College London used a text-to-speech algorithm trained on two publicly available datasets, one in English and the other in Mandarin, to generate 50 deepfake speech samples in each language. Continue reading...
Employees describe the psychological trauma of reading and viewing graphic content, low pay and abrupt dismissalsThe images pop up in Mophat Okinyi's mind when he's alone, or when he's about to sleep.Okinyi, a former content moderator for Open AI's ChatGPT in Nairobi, Kenya, is one of four people in that role who have filed a petition to the Kenyan government calling for an investigation into what they describe as exploitative conditions for contractors reviewing the content that powers artificial intelligence programs. Continue reading...
Dara Khosrowshahi expresses surprise at Wired journalist's $51.69 journey to company's annual product event in New YorkThe chief executive of Uber expressed surprise when an interviewer told him he paid $51.69 for a three-mile ride to the company's annual product event in New York.Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over at Uber six years ago and has presided over soaring price increases, was speaking to Wired when he was informed of the cost of the ride. Continue reading...
Changes at online craft marketplace prompt anger among vendors as some report up to 75% of takings kept for at least 45 daysEtsy sellers have boycotted the online craft marketplace after it stepped up the amount of sales income it holds back from some vendors to ensure items are delivered as promised.The UK's small business commissioner, Liz Barclay, said she had contacted the site about a fortnight ago after a surge in complaints by sellers who had suddenly seen as much as 75% of their takings held back on reserve for at least 45 days. Continue reading...
It is much more likely your message will be opened if you send it on a Sunday afternoon than a busy working day. But it might make you pretty unpopular ...Name: Work emails.Age: The first email was sent by the computer engineer Ray Tomlinson in 1971 to himself, reading QWERTYUIOP". Continue reading...
Whether you enter the big green pipe to Super Nintendo World, or want to rummage through rare games in Tokyo's Electric Town, Japan is a video game paradiseThe experience of travelling in Japan is simultaneously overwhelming and freeing. The world feels bigger out there, gilded by how mainstream video game culture is in comparison with the west. It doesn't feel like a subculture; it is ordinary. For example, I walked into a FamilyMart for a snack one afternoon, and found a Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom promotional mushroom tart (which was delicious). The little bright-green payphones along the streets are the very same as those used in the Resident Services in Animal Crossing. Narita Airport even has an entire Nintendo display welcoming jet-lagged passengers fresh off the plane. As a western tourist on a personal pilgrimage, there is so much to find and be surprised by.Here are some recommendations for fellow video game fans planning to explore Japan: Continue reading...
AI uses huge amounts of electricity and water to work, and the problem is only going to get worse - what can be done? Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereTechnology never exists in a vacuum, and the rise of cryptocurrency in the last two or three years shows that. While plenty of people were making extraordinary amounts of money from investing in bitcoin and its competitors, there was consternation about the impact those get-rich-quick speculators had on the environment.Mining cryptocurrency was environmentally taxing. The core principle behind it was that you had to expend effort to get rich. To mint a bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, you had to first mine" it. Your computer would be tasked with completing complicated equations that, if successfully done, could create a new entry on to the blockchain.Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is using AI to publish 3,000 local news stories a week in Australia.It's not just journalists at risk: AI is replacing comedians at the Edinburgh fringe.Elon Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter) is threatening to sue a media monitoring organisation that tracks hate speech on the social network.Meanwhile, the giant glowing X sign on the company's San Francisco HQ has been removed after neighbours complained. This came after Musk reportedly blocked building inspectors from accessing the office to look at the sign.The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has opened up an avenue to backtrack () on its block of a massive $75bn merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.A 1970s programming language called Prolog, which helped the early development of AI, has been put to another use: deciphering how to game the UK's national lottery for the maximum chance of success.Should you take your phone to the bathroom? Scroll during a film? Paula Cocozza runs through the 10 rules of smartphone etiquette. Continue reading...
Co-creative directors Mathieu Beaudelin and Kevin Poupard are tight-lipped about the story but their meditative take on mountaineering gives players a taste of being an elite climberFor those whose feel the call of the mountains, video games have proved abundant recently: Death Stranding, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Sable all feature enticing summits, enveloped in clouds, with makeshift rock-paths towards them. Now there is Jusant, the latest title to turn vertiginous traversal into a puzzle, inspiring wanderlust from the comfort of the sofa.It is the new game from Don't Nod, the French studio behind the hit adventure series Life Is Strange. However, unlike that famously chatty franchise, there isn't a single word of dialogue in Jusant. Rather, all its talking is done through dizzying, gravity-defying action. Co-creative director Mathieu Beaudelin wants to give players a taste of being an elite climber, he says, to become one with the massif. He describes the pursuit poetically: A dance with the mountain." Continue reading...
Researchers at UCLA found GPT-3 solved 80% of reasoning problems correctly compared with 60% of humansChatGPT can solve problems at a level that matches or surpasses an undergraduate student, according to a new study.Researchers found that the GPT-3 large language model that underpins the chatbot performed about as well as US college undergraduates when asked to solve reasoning problems that appear on intelligence tests or exams such as the American college admission test, the SAT. Continue reading...
A startup making replicas is giving Indigenous people in India an alternative to using wild animal parts in traditional headgearIn the lowland rainforests of Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India, tigers, clouded leopards, eagles and hornbills dot the landscape. The area is also home to the Nyishi community, the largest Indigenous tribe in the state, where the men traditionally don a byopa, an elaborate handwoven cane cap with the upper beak and casque of a great hornbill attached to the top edge, and an eagle's claw at the back. They also wield a machete fitted either with the short, squat jaw of the clouded leopard or the much larger one of a tiger.The tiger rules the jungle. The eagle rules the sky. Wearing their parts implies inhabiting their mighty spirit, protecting the people. It's a status symbol," says Nabam Bapu, an entrepreneur from the Nyishi tribe based in the state's Papum Pare district. Continue reading...
by Hannah Ellis-Petersen South Asia correspondent on (#6DD8R)
While online shopping explodes in the world's biggest country, traditional companies are struggling to adaptThe apps are there for whatever you need: an extra mango, a carton of milk, a pint of ice-cream or a replacement phone cable for the one your dog chewed in half. For those living in the urban centres of India - and increasingly in the smaller cities and towns beyond - almost anything can be delivered at the touch of a button - sometimes within less than 10 minutes.Online shopping, otherwise known as e-commerce, is rapidly changing the way India shops and nowhere is that clearer than through quick commerce: the apps that can deliver groceries and other essentials to your door in the time it takes to hard boil an egg and at a cost of 30p - or less - for the service. Continue reading...
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhy is the US the only country where nearly everyone drives an automatic? It's de rigueur over here, whereas driving stick" seems to be the default in other countries. Benton Oliver, San DiegoSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...
We've got used to dumping old devices. But a new breed of firms is making products that they hope you will hang on toIt is a habit that has become ingrained in so many consumers that you could be forgiven for thinking there was no other way: dumping your old and tired tech for a shinier model every year or two, shelling out hundreds of pounds in the process.But a new generation of technology is creeping into the mainstream that is designed to upend this consumerist churn - devices that can be taken apart, repaired and upgraded by the user, and not via an over-priced service. Continue reading...
Twitter's owner has given his toy a new name, but any ambition he has to turn it into a WeChat-like financial service is fancifulSo Elon Musk, the world's richest manchild, has changed the name of his favourite toy. Henceforth, Twitter is to be known as X. Strangely, though, you can still log on to twitter.com and be invited to tweet. This is a missed comic opportunity. Instead of the chancellor being able to say, for example, that he had tweeted his concern about the public sector borrowing requirement to the prime minister, he could be saying that he had X'd Rishi" on the matter. Sigh.So what is it about Musk and X? Well, it goes back quite a way - to 1999, when Musk set up X.com as an early online bank. For early", read weird". Customers were not charged fees or overdraft penalties. New users got $20 for free just by opening an account and a $10 bonus for every one of their contacts who signed up. As for the venerable banking convention that you should know your customer, Musk demurred. According to Max Chafkin, the biographer of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Musk bragged to CBS News that it was easier to get a line of credit at X.com than it was to sign up for an email account. You can fill out the whole thing, be done in two minutes, be in your account and have it funded already." Not surprisingly, within two months, X.com had more than 200,000 users, some of whom who had given fake addresses and immediately set to writing cheques that bounced. Continue reading...
Understanding how to interact with ChatGPT and its rivals so that their output matches your expectations will soon be a key office skill. Here's what you need to knowAfter all the initial excitement over ChatGPT, the language-processing tool driven by artificial intelligence (AI), the use of chatbots is becoming more commonplace. So how do you train your AI for work and home? We answer a few simple questions.What is prompt engineering?
He was after big architectural ideas, when three men and three pigeons caught this photographer's eye ...Britain looks most like itself on an overcast day," Sheffield-born photographer Johny Pitts says. He shot these three men - and three pigeons - outside partly renovated flats on London's Jamaica Road in Bermondsey. At the time, he was constantly on the lookout for big architectural ideas from the postwar period".I was using my phone as a sketchbook to record what I found," says Pitts, whose work can be seen at the Photographers' Gallery in London until 24 September. You'd be surprised how quickly things disappear. Many photographers think capturing a decisive moment is about people, but a lot of the time it's the street furniture and buildings that can suddenly change and alter the atmosphere that attracted you in the first place." Continue reading...
Elon Musk's latest bid to save the social media platform by a changing its name is part of a desperate attempt at world dominationElon Musk's latest change to Twitter, the social media platform he has appeared intent on sabotaging ever since he was strong-armed into honouring his commitment to buy it, appears to be the most baffling yet. In place of a chirruping blue bird, he has substituted a minimalist art deco" X, which was beamed across the facade of the firm's San Francisco headquarters this week.Mr Musk, one analyst told the Guardian, had singlehandedly wiped out over 15 years of a brand name that has secured its place in our cultural lexicon". It's hard to disagree. The blue bird had a charm that the ominous X does not. One graphic designer thought the new logo unwelcoming and threatening". In replacing the gentle invitation of a tweet with something more darkly anonymous, the world's richest person might be expressing more than he intended. Continue reading...
These devices should be regarded as potentially as destabilising as cars or alcohol, writes Siobhan O'Tierney. And Sushila Dhall laments parents who phub'As a teacher, I am thrilled that the UN has called for a ban on mobile phones in schools (Report, 26 July). This is long overdue. Since the ubiquity of phones has been normalised, I've seen a parallel fall in pupils' concentration and retention, and a rise in demotivation. From my observations, the advance of smartphones has advanced the dumbing down of pupils.School heads seem reluctant to challenge parents' sense of their right to contact a child at any time of day. I am frequently told by pupils - after asking them to turn off their phone and put it away- Oh Miss, I can't - it's my mum [or dad]. I have to answer them!" Continue reading...