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Super-svelte body, fast chip, high capacity battery and big camera make it some of the best phone-tablet hardwareHonor's latest foldable phone-tablet attempts to usurp Samsung as the leader of the pack with a super-thin body, massive battery and a ginormous camera lump on the back.The Magic V5 is an impressively thin piece of engineering, slimmed down to about 8.9mm thick when shut, with each half about the same thickness as a USB-C port. It feels very similar to a standard slab phone in the hand, but one you can open up like a book for a mini-tablet on the go.Main screen: 7.95in (403ppi) 120Hz OLED flexible displayCover screen: 6.43in (405ppi) 120Hz OLEDProcessor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 EliteRAM: 16GBStorage: 512GBOperating system: MagicOS 9.0.1 (Android 15)Camera: 50MP + 50MP ultrawide + 64MP 3x tele; 2x 20MP selfieConnectivity: 5G, dual sim + esim, USB-C, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, GNSSWater resistance: IP58 and IP59 (immersion and high pressure jets)Dimensions folded: 156.8 x 74.3 x 8.88-9mmDimensions unfolded: 156.8 x 145.9 x 4.1-4.2mmWeight: 217-222g Continue reading...

Antonio Gracias is part of the growing movement among Silicon Valley's right wing enamored with the therapeutic and commercial potential of drugs like MDMAMonths before Antonio Gracias took a leading role in the dismantling of the federal government by the department of government efficiency" (Doge), he was at Burning Man.In the dusty Nevada desert, Gracias, a billionaire private equity investor and one of Elon Musk's closest friends, attended Nova Heaven, a sunrise rave tribute to victims of the Hamas-led 7 October terrorist attack, and found himself dancing next to Rick Doblin - the US's most prominent advocate for psychedelic drugs. Continue reading...

Electric car business run by Elon Musk continues to lose ground to Chinese rival despite recent revamp of Model Y

Become the world's worst cleric, speak to the dead or pick a fight with sea birds in this Monty Python-esque magical mystery from Swedish developer Christoffer BodegardDungeons & Dragons is a rich playground of fantastical tales where warriors, wizards and elves can take on monstrous foes for unimaginable spoils ... or you can spend an entire evening completely undermining your dungeon master by killing off important characters, focusing on unrelated items and improvising your own disastrous adventure. This is often where the best stories are and where Esoteric Ebb takes its inspiration.Part tabletop game, part RPG, you play as a cleric who has been sent to investigate the destruction of a tea shop in the city Norvik, which is about to hold its first ever election in five days. You'll talk (and occasionally fight) with the local residents to uncover the truth and affect the outcome of the election. Or perhaps you'll just fight some seagulls. You can choose your own path, but, much like in D&D, your success comes down to dice rolls and having to live with the consequences if you fail them. Continue reading...

There are increasing reports of people experiencing delusions after intensive use of AI chatbots. The phenomenon, dubbed AI psychosis', has raised concerns that features built into large language models may contribute to some users losing touch with reality. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Hamilton Morrin, a psychiatrist and researcher at King's College London, about his recent preprint exploring who is at risk and how models could be made saferClips: CBS, BBC, NBC Continue reading...

Despite surpassing Wall Street expectations for its AI chips, company shares drop 2.3% in after hours tradingChipmaker Nvidia set a fresh sales record in the second quarter, surpassing Wall Street expectations for its artificial intelligence chips. But shares of the chip giant still dropped 2.3% in after hours trading, in a sign that investors' worries of an AI bubble and the repercussions of Donald Trump's trade wars are not quelled.Nvidia's financial report was the first test of investor appetite since last week's mass AI-stock selloff, when several tech stocks saw shares tumble last week amid growing questions over whether AI-driven companies are being overvalued. Continue reading...

ByteDance plans to offer employees $200.41 per share, up 5.5% from $189.9 six months ago, as revenue growsByteDance, the owner of the short-video app TikTok, is set to launch a new employee share buyback that will value the Chinese technology giant at more than $330bn, driven by continued revenue growth, said three people with knowledge of the matter.The company plans to offer current employees $200.41 per share in the repurchase program, the people said, up 5.5% from $189.90 each it offered them about six months ago which valued ByteDance at roughly $315bn. Continue reading...

Open AI to change way it responds to users in mental distress as parents of Adam Raine allege bot not safeThe makers of ChatGPT are changing the way it responds to users who show mental and emotional distress after legal action from the family of 16-year-old Adam Raine, who killed himself after months of conversations with the chatbot.Open AI admitted its systems could fall short" and said it would install stronger guardrails around sensitive content and risky behaviors" for users under 18. Continue reading...

When is a racing game not a racing game? When there's more joy to be had in pootling around enjoying the viewHere's an admission: I am 37 years old and have never learned to drive. I tried once, in the summer of 2021, and during my second lesson my instructor asked me if I played a lot of video games. When I answered yes, he said, I thought so," in a tone that was very clearly not complimentary. Regrettably, it turns out that hundreds of hours spent mercilessly beating my friends and family at Mario Kart and causing vehicular chaos in Grand Theft Auto do not translate instantly to real-life driving skills and judgment. I love racing games precisely because they are unrealistic.Because I still don't have my licence, I ride my bike everywhere. It's a giant orange monster of a thing, big enough for my two children to ride on the back, and it looks ridiculous. It makes me look ridiculous, next to the Lycra-clad middle-aged men on their carbon-fibre frames who zoom past me on the regular. It's not something I could ever take out into the countryside or down some mountain trail. For that, once again, I must turn to video games. Continue reading...

Double Fine's latest is a whimsical action-adventure that takes inspiration from real-life biology as much as cult fantasy movies from the 1980sKeeper is staking a bold claim to be the oddest game ever published by Microsoft. The setting is weird: an iridescent, far-future imagining of New England where organic and non-organic matter mingle in strange, alchemical ways. And the characters are undeniably quirky: one is a bird called Twig whose beak is made from driftwood. Strangest of all: you play as a lighthouse that has inexplicably become animate, sprouting tiny, spindly little legs to carry its wibbling, wobbling body.In the sea of action-hero young men and, to a lesser degree, women, the lighthouse stands out as an unlikely star. Creative lead Lee Petty is a little fuzzy on the details of how it came to be. Rather, he talks about the creation of the protagonist as he does the broader action-adventure experience: as if it rose out of his subconscious. Despite the ostensible absurdity, Petty believes there is a certain intuition about it. You have a light, and light has a very strong connection with life," he says. You can imagine the verbs for the player, and the actions, puzzles, mechanics that fall out of that." Continue reading...

The TUC calls for a new approach to technology and greater input from workers on how it is deployedHalf of adults in the UK are concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence on their job, according to a poll, as union leaders call for a step change" in the country's approach to new technologies.Job losses or changes to terms and conditions were the biggest worries for the 51% of 2,600 adults surveyed for the Trades Union Congress who said they were concerned about the technology. Continue reading...

Want every day to be a good hair day? We tested 18 hair dryers to find the best, from gentle diffusers to high-speed and travel-ready models The best hot brushes, tried and tested by our expertIn my years of reviewing beauty tech, it was upgrading my hair dryer that made the biggest difference to my beauty routine. I used to dread hair-wash days: the chore of shampooing, conditioning and rinsing my hair, plus the time - and aching arms - spent getting it dry again.My clunky, bargain-bucket hair dryer of seven years was weighty, deafeningly loud, and took a painstaking 20 minutes to dry my hair completely. So happier days really did arrive when I switched it up for a new model.Best hair dryer overall:

Stocks of firms with big AI pushes tumbled this week, Meta announced an AI hiring freeze, and the first big test of an AI reality check loomsHello, and welcome to TechScape.Just beneath the breathless promotion of AI, cracks are beginning to appearAI lovers grieve loss of ChatGPT's old model: Like saying goodbye to someone I know'I share all my deepest thoughts and feelings with ChatGPT - but our friendship is doomedLive facial recognition cameras may become commonplace' as police use soarsMet police to more than double use of live facial recognitionFacial recognition technology discriminates against people of colourMet chief rejects calls to scrap live facial recognition at Notting Hill carnivalMet police's facial recognition plans fall foul of European law, says watchdogI now think police use of live facial recognition will make us safer - here's why you should think so too | Brian Paddick Continue reading...

Getting steamy: how to liven up your sex life; the best kettles, tested; and ... the best office chairs Don't get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereSteamy windows!" belted out Tina Turner. I always thought she was singing about an erotic encounter, but now I believe she must have been testing kettles. There's nothing quite like 12 of them boiling one after the other to fill your kitchen with mist, adding a soft-focus haze to everything in it and making every cold surface slick.Hair-frizzing humidity aside - I spent two days looking as if I had stuck my fingers in a plug socket - the bigger issue at the start was deciding how to test kettles. They all do the same thing in the same way. And they've changed little over the decades - a few from the 1970s wouldn't be out of place in your home today. Beyond a few nice-to-have-but-not-essential features, the kettle remains fundamental and fuss-free.The best mattresses in 2025: sleep better with our eight rigorously tested picksThe Swiss army knife of sex': 26 easy ways to spice up your love lifeThe best body moisturisers: nine favourites for silky smooth, hydrated skin - testedThe best office chairs for all-day comfort and support, testedThe texture is perfect - meaty with a fleshy bite': the best supermarket green olives, tasted and ratedThe best IPL and laser hair removal devices for quick and easy grooming at home, tested Continue reading...

PC, PS5, Xbox; Konami

Intimate image abuse is a crisis in the UK - with a fortyfold increase in calls to this service since it opened in 2015. Thankfully, there are effective ways to help those being victimisedBy midday, Jessica has dealt with five calls from highly distressed young women in their 20s, all close to tears or crying at the start of the conversations. She absorbs their alarm calmly, prompting them with questions, making sympathetic noises into her headset as she digests the situation. Are these images sexual in nature?" she asks the last woman she speaks to before lunch. Do you want to tell me a bit about what happened?" She begins compiling a tidy set of bullet points in ballpoint pen. It's all right. Take your time."Jessica is sitting on a bank of desks with three other women, responding to calls to the Revenge Porn Helpline. For the past decade, the helpline has been offering advice to callers whose partners or exes have uploaded nude images or footage of them without their consent. It's a shocking time for you. I'm so sorry to hear what happened," she says, as the caller explains that, just a few hours earlier, an ex-partner messaged her to tell her he had decided to post videos of them having sex on the OnlyFans website. Continue reading...

Levies and restrictions could hit UK's digital services tax and EU states such as France, Italy and Spain

Cofounder with Michael Samadi of AI rights campaign group Ufair says it should watch over the technology in case an AI becomes conscious

As first AI-led rights advocacy group is founded, industry is divided on whether models are, or can be, sentient

Unclaimed suitcases were once destined for landfill. Now people are suitcase gambling' - bidding for bags and their unknown contents, and diving deep into strangers' livesA yellow suitcase draws me in like a beacon. It is stacked on a dark shelf at the back of Greasby's auction house in Tooting, south London, and looks brand new, with a hard exterior and wheels that Richard Stacey, a Greasby's regular who is dressed in shorts, a plaid shirt and a cream bucket hat, tells me to test. So I test them - and they work. If I was just buying a bag, that is all I would need to know. But this isn't just a bag: the zip is locked and when I lift it, it is heavy. This yellow suitcase is filled with a stranger's lost belongings. And I won't find out what is inside unless I submit a winning bid.I write down the lot number, 281, and my bid of 70 on a form, along with four other bids - for a larger black bag that is filled to the brim; a sensible blue suitcase with a compass in the handle that I expect belongs to someone older; a small wheelie in Louis Vuitton-like check; and a smart piece of hand luggage that I assume must be a businessperson's. In all, I bid 250 for five suitcases - way too much - but Stacey has been to the auction house 10 times before, and tells me I probably won't win if I bid less than 40 on each. Continue reading...

The Tor network's privacy architecture creates a safe haven for predators to share child sexual abuse materialMillions of child predators are forming sprawling online communities on the dark web using the Tor network, where criminal behavior escalates through the sharing of child sexual abuse material, grooming strategies and normalization of exploitation, experts say. Despite repeated warnings of a growing number of predators taking advantage of it, Tor's developers have taken no action to curb the spread of this content, critics say.The Tor (the onion router") network is an anonymity-focused internet system that routes traffic through a global web of volunteer-run servers to obscure users' identities and locations. By encrypting data in multiple layers - like that of an onion - Tor makes digital activity difficult to trace. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Deal that could have cost 2bn was floated at meeting between technology secretary Peter Kyle and Sam AltmanThe boss of the firm behind ChatGPT and the UK technology secretary discussed a multibillion-pound deal to give the entire country premium access to the AI tool, the Guardian has learned.Sam Altman, a co-founder of OpenAI, talked to Peter Kyle about a potential agreement to give UK residents access to its advanced product. Continue reading...

Shares in US tech stocks are falling but it would probably be unwise for fund managers to pull outThere are growing fears of an imminent stock market crash - one that will transform from a dip to a dive when euphoric headlines about the wonders of artificial intelligence begin to wane.Shares in US tech stocks have fallen in recent weeks and the prospect is that a flood of negative numbers will become the norm before the month is out. Continue reading...

Academic says sample size was too small to claim new sensitivity guidelines have removed racial, gender or age biasThe Metropolitan police's claims that their use of live facial recognition is bias-free are not substantiated by the report they cite to support their case, a leading expert on the technology has said.The Met is planning its biggest and most high profile use of LFR yet this bank holiday weekend at Notting Hill carnival in west London. Continue reading...

Former Lib Dem leader and Meta strategist writes in new book that power in tech capital is interlaced with self pity'

New wave of content creators say they hope to increase pay transparency by questioning people in the streetWould you be prepared to tell a stranger how much you earn and let them broadcast it all over the internet?For better or worse, it used to be the case that pretty much the only people who knew your salary were you, your boss and probably HM Revenue & Customs. Continue reading...

In an exclusive extract from his new book, the former Meta number two recalls the mindset, the mantras and the man at the top Read an interview with Nick Clegg hereI'm not a creature of Silicon Valley. I didn't study computer science. I've never written a line of code. I haven't spent my career immersed in the processes, debates and science of technological progress. I came to Meta, Facebook as it then was, in 2018 as an emigre from the world of British and European politics. I wasn't really sure what to expect.As an Englishman, I never cease to be amazed by the sheer scale of America. It's striking, when you first set foot in this part of Northern California, how remote it feels from the power centres of the east coast. It's not just the nearly 3,000 miles that separate you from Washington DC and New York; the three-hour time difference means you feel out of sync. The day's news agenda is in full flight on the east coast before the west is awake. The biggest European stories broke the night before. It's like you're far away from everywhere. It's no wonder people who want to strike out on their own, at a safe distance from the prying eyes of the men in suits, are attracted to this place. It's a natural home for idealists who want to stick it to the man. Continue reading...

When Britain's former deputy PM took a job at Meta, nothing could have prepared him for the cloying conformity' of the tech world. So why does he still think social media is a force for good? Read an exclusive extract from Nick Clegg's new book hereThe rain is just starting to fall from a grey London sky as Sir Nick Clegg arrives, ducking through the traffic and carrying what looks like his laundry. Clean shirts for the photoshoot, he says, before apologetically wondering if he might possibly get a coffee. Within minutes he has further apologised for wanting to swap the leather club chair he is offered for a hard plastic one; and then, in horror, for any impression inadvertently given that my questions might send him to sleep.Impeccable English manners should never be mistaken for diffidence - at 58, Clegg remains the only British political figure who could convincingly be played by the equally posh but self-effacing Colin Firth, whose old London home Clegg recently bought - but there are backbench nobodies more grandly self-important than the former deputy prime minister who became number two at the tech giant Meta. Which may be just as well, given rumours that his next supporting role may be to his lawyer wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez's nascent political career in Spain. It turns out she never really settled" in the land of the billionaire tech bro, one of many reasons the couple swapped poolside life in Palo Alto, California, for London almost three years before he left Meta, which owns and operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. She's fomenting insurrection in Spain now," Clegg says of Espana Mejor, her non-profit aimed at bringing citizens into policymaking. Continue reading...

Unprecedented deal comes after president demanded CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign over his ties to Chinese firmsThe US government has taken an unprecedented 10% stake in Intel under a deal with the struggling chipmaker and is planning more such moves, according to Donald Trump and the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, the latest extraordinary intervention by the White House in corporate America.Lutnick wrote on X: BIG NEWS: The United States of America now owns 10% of Intel, one of our great American technology companies. Thanks to Intel CEO @LipBuTan1 for striking a deal that's fair to Intel and fair to the American People." Continue reading...

Ex-workers said Musk failed to honor severance plan when he fired them after acquiring social media platform in 2022Elon Musk and his social media platform, X, reached a tentative settlement on Wednesday with former Twitter employees after a years-long legal battle over severance pay. Former staff had sought $500m in a proposed class action suit against the billionaire.A court filing released on Wednesday stated that both parties had reached a settlement agreement in principle and requested that a scheduled 17 September hearing in the case be postponed while they worked to finalize a deal. The filing did not disclose any details of the tentative agreement and it is unclear what level of compensation that former employees may receive. Continue reading...

Users say OpenAI's updated GPT-5 version is less chatty and fun, changing a unique connection they had come to rely onLinn Vailt, a software developer based in Sweden, knows her ChatGPT companion is not a living, breathing, sentient creature. She understands the large language model operates based on how she interacts with it.Still, the effect it has had on her is remarkable, she said. It's become a regular, reliable part of her life - she can vent to her companion or collaborate on creative projects like redecorating her office. She's seen how it has adapted to her, and the distinctive manner of speech it's developed. Continue reading...

Oral assessments, tightened security and faster marking could result as use of AI itself becomes core digital skillOral assessments, more security checks and speedier marking are all on the cards as generative artificial intelligence (AI) could transform exams for the next generation of students.As the 2025 exam season drew to a close with GCSE students picking up their results on Thursday, after mostly sitting traditional pen and paper exams, AI is already changing the landscape. Continue reading...

Cuts in trust and safety team part of switch towards artificial intelligence by social media app firmTikTok has put hundreds of UK content moderators' jobs at risk, even as tighter rules come into effect to stop the spread of harmful material online.The viral video app said several hundred jobs in its trust and safety team could be affected in the UK, as well as south and south-east Asia, as part of a global reorganisation. Continue reading...

PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox; Crinkle Cut Games/PQube

Two decades after its release and with a remake about to land, the cast of Hideo Kojima's stealth blockbuster reflect on what made this cold war caper a gaming classicYou never forget your first Metal Gear - yet there's one title in Konami's legendary stealth series that is universally heralded as its pinnacle: 2004's Snake Eater. This prequel-cum-threequel was something of a reset. Originally intended as a PS3 game thanks to its sheer technological ambition, but then released on PS2, writer and director Hideo Kojima yearned to take gravelly voiced protagonist Solid Snake away from dimly lit military bases and have him slither outdoors. Featuring hunting for food and snapping broken bones back into place, Snake Eater felt more grounded and immersive than any of its 2000s PlayStation peers.Yet for all Snake Eater's sweeping changes, one classic element remained intact - the stellar voice acting. It's telling that as Konami releases its remake, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, every wonderfully absurd line of the original script remains untouched. Boasting modernised controls and lavish new visuals, Delta feels closer to a 4K restoration of a cherished film than a maximalist Resident Evil-style remake. Continue reading...

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the journalist Gil Duran about his upcoming book The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Global DemocracyArchive: 10 News, All in Podcast, Bloomberg, CNN, Fox 5 San Diego, Hoover Institution, Jack Murphy Live, Megyn Kelly, PBS NewsHour, Yahoo Finance Continue reading...

At least six publications have taken down articles under the name Margaux Blanchard that were AI-generatedMultiple news organisations have taken down articles written by an alleged freelance journalist that now appear to have been generated by AI.On Thursday, Press Gazette reported that at least six publications, including Wired and Business Insider, have removed articles from their websites in recent months after it was discovered that the stories - written under the name of Margaux Blanchard - were AI-generated. Continue reading...

Jveuxdusoleil (I want sun') taps into a key part of Parisian culture: drinks on the terrasse, as many fear the extinction of the bistroIn August, Paris is uncharacteristically quiet as hordes of residents scatter to the country's beaches and coasts for a yearly month of vacation. Businesses close and the city nearly grinds to a halt. Among those who remain, there is an eternal, quintessentially Parisian quest: hunting for a balmy terrasse bathed in sunlight for an evening aperitif.Finding the perfect seat on the pavement outside a cafe may be a matter of a chance stroll or a timely text from a friend. This summer, though, a digital solution has gained popularity in an extremely French instance of the old Apple slogan there's an app for that": Jveuxdusoleil, an app that tracks the sun's movement through the city's maze of buildings to pinpoint exactly where you can claim a sunny spot on a terrace for your coffee. It arrives at a precarious moment for this particularly Parisian pursuit. Continue reading...

With its rousing card game about activism, indie studio Speculative Agency hopes to inspire players to engage with issues such as pollution and the climate crisisThe demo of All Will Rise begins with a win for lawyer Kuyili. She has just successfully argued in front of a court that a river running through the fictional version of the Indian city of Muziris should have the same rights as a person. According to Kuyili, this has precedent - after all, companies can argue in court similarly to individual people.The excitement over this historic win doesn't last long as, soon after, the river is polluted by a large oil spill, which catches fire, the toxic smoke enveloping several neighbourhoods. Pollution on this scale has devastating effects, so Kuyili and her colleagues begin investigating. Continue reading...

Twitch rival says it does not permit violent content after French man died during live stream, but eSafety commissioner says platforms need to better enforce their own guidelinesThe death of a man in France that was livestreamed on online platform Kick has sparked a police investigation and calls for regulators to examine what happened and how it was allowed to be beamed out live on the internet. What is Kick, what happened, and what could happen next? In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Exclusive: Campaigners complain no environmental assessment made for 90MW Buckinghamshire facilityThe deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, has been hit with a legal challenge after she overruled a local council to approve a hyperscale datacentre on green belt land by the M25 in Buckinghamshire.Campaigners bringing the action are complaining that no environmental impact assessment was made for the 90MW datacentre, which was approved as part of the Labour government's push to turn the UK into an AI powerhouse by trebling computing capacity to meet rising demand amid what it terms a global race" as AI usage takes off. Continue reading...

Gemini's new Magic Cue feature allows chatbot to scan digital life and pull up relevant informationGoogle's latest Gemini AI upgrades attempt to anticipate what useful information you made need from your life to address a potential issue, make you to better photographer or become your personalised health and sleep coach.Shipping on the just-announced Pixel 10 Android phones, the new Magic Cue feature enables the chatbot to comb through your digital life and pull up relevant information on your phone just when you need it. Continue reading...

Big hitters get their grand unveiling alongside some surprise announcements as gaming's biggest event arrives in GermanyIf you are in Cologne this week, you will find the place overtaken by cheerful nerds, as Gamescom, the world's biggest gaming event, descends upon the city once again. (I first went in 2009 - before that it used to be held in Leipzig, a city home to a famous absinthe bar; perhaps this is why my memories of it are somewhat hazy.) Over 300,000 people are expected to visit the Koelnmesse to play upcoming games and enjoy each other's company, to the extent that it's possible to enjoy anyone's company in a giant crowded convention hall with woefully insufficient food options.The event began, as is now tradition, with a showcase of games (pdf) whose publishers could afford the hundreds of thousands of euros necessary to show a trailer on an official livestream. (There was also a live performance of a piece of music from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the big, weird French hit of the year so far, as a welcome interlude.) As ever, I am here to spare you from watching a full two hours of trailers and pick out the most interesting stuff. Without further ado: Continue reading...

The 20-year-old series has been getting industry flak, with accusations of predatory monetisation and in-game bugs. But the latest instalment offers obvious bang for your buckIn early August, just days before a major Black Ops 7 preview event in Los Angeles, former Blizzard president and Microsoft executive Mike Ybarra called the Call of Duty franchise lazy". Posting on X, the veteran exec wrote that EA's upcoming Battlefield 6 would boot stomp" CoD this year and force the team to make better FPS games". And with Splitgate 2 head Ian Proulx mocking Call of Duty in his Summer Game Fest presentation just two months ago, it seems the blockbuster series has become the butt of an industry joke about endless franchises.It's not the only flak the 20-year-old brand has drawn. Though it sells millions of copies with each new release (Black Ops 6 was the bestselling game of 2024), accusations of predatory monetisation, pay-to-win skins, swarms of in-game bugs, and the recent use of AI to create in-game, paid-for content have understandably irked many players. Continue reading...

Jenny Jiao Hsia's award-winning coming-of-age tale is a charming look at a teen trying her best to stay on top of thingsIf you visited the V&A's Design/Play/Disrupt exhibition in 2018, you may have played an interesting minigame collection, in which you fought wobbly physics to feed a girl named Jenny, using a Tetris-style board to achieve the perfect calorie amount, and then twisting her into pilates poses.Almost seven years later, the full version of Consume Me, which won this year's Independent Games festival grand prize, is set for a September release. According to developer Jenny Jiao Hsia, the game has become a semiautobiographical tale about how she felt stupid, fat and ugly" in high school. What started as a collection of minigames about Hsia's struggles with dieting and disordered eating grew into a game that looks at the many facets of her life as a teenager, including her relationship with her mother - who appears accompanied by Persona-style boss battle music and always finds a reason to nag - as well as her insecurities around her first long-term relationship. Continue reading...

Employees outraged by report Azure platform used by Israel to store surveillance data collected on PalestiniansDozens of Microsoft employees occupied the company's east campus in Redmond, Washington to protest against what they say is the use of its software by the Israeli military to carry out operations in Gaza and enable the surveillance of Palestinians.Less than a week after the company said it was launching an independent investigation into the use of its Azure software, current and former staff occupied a space they declared the Free Zone", holding placards that read Join The Worker Intifada - No Labor for Genocide" and Martyred Palestinian Children's Plaza". Continue reading...

US president was concerned over app's Chinese ownership, but has softened after believing it won him 2024 electionThe White House launched an official TikTok account on Tuesday, as Donald Trump continues to permit the Chinese-owned platform to operate in the US despite a law requiring its sale.America we are BACK! What's up TikTok?" read a caption on the account's first post, a 27-second clip, on the popular video-sharing app. Continue reading...

Mark Rowley says technology will be non-discriminatory' and does not perform in a way which exhibits bias'The Metropolitan police commissioner has hit back at demands to drop the use of live facial recognition cameras at this weekend's Notting Hill carnival over concerns of racial bias and an impending legal challenge.Mark Rowley wrote in a letter that the instant face-matching technology would be used at Europe's biggest street carnival in a non-discriminatory way" using an algorithm that does not perform in a way which exhibits bias". Continue reading...

Would we tolerate anything else that got worse over time, not as a result of normal wear and tear but because the manufacturer suddenly decided it should?

Palantir and others boast bombastic' growth, Microsoft helps monitoring of Palestinian phone lines, Meta faces backlash over child safetyHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host, Blake Montgomery, currently enjoying Shirley Jackson's eerie final novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle.Russia restricts WhatsApp and Telegram, alleging apps used for fraud and terrorismCrypto mogul Do Kwon pleads guilty to fraud for $40bn market collapseElon Musk threatens Apple with lawsuit over OpenAI, sparking Sam Altman feudCan't pay, won't pay: impoverished streaming services are driving viewers back to piracyShut it down and start again': staff disquiet as Alan Turing Institute faces identity crisis Continue reading...