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This might be the most French game ever - but there is more to the small-scale development of this belle epoque-inspired beauty than you thinkMuch has been made of the fact that the year's most recent breakout hit, an idiosyncratic role-playing game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, was made by a small team. (It has just sold its two-millionth copy). It's a tempting narrative in this age of blockbuster mega-flops, live-service games and eye-watering budgets: scrappy team makes a lengthy, unusual and beautiful thing, sells it for 40, and everybody wins. But it's not quite accurate.Sandfall Interactive, the game's French developer, comprises around 30 people, but as Rock Paper Shotgun points out, there are many more listed in the game's credits - from a Korean animation team to the outsourced quality assurance testers, and the localisation and performance staff who give the game and its story heft and emotional believability. 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 concepts. This week's followed the Spain/Portugal outagesIf you were prepping, what should be your top five things to hoard in light of the recent power outages in Spain and Portugal? Alina Ahmad, JohannesburgSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

Panic; PC, PS4/5, Xbox

New system will analyse responses 1,000 times faster than a human and save millions, ministers claimAn AI tool has been used to review public responses to a government consultation for the first time and is now set to be rolled out more widely in an effort to save money and staff time.The tool, named Consult", was first used by the Scottish government when it was seeking perspectives on the regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as lip filler. Continue reading...

Nvidia to sell hundreds of thousands of AI chips in Saudi Arabia and Cisco also signs deal with UAE company G42A swath of US technology firms announced deals in the Middle East as Donald Trump trumpeted $600bn in commitments from Saudi Arabia to American artificial intelligence companies during a tour of Gulf states.Among the biggest deals was a set signed by Nvidia. The company will sell hundreds of thousands of AI chips in Saudi Arabia, with a first tranche of 18,000 of its newest Blackwell" chips going to Humain, Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth-fund-owned AI startup, Reuters reported. Cisco on Tuesday said it had signed a deal with G42, the AI firm based in the United Arab Emirates, to help the company develop that country's AI sector. Continue reading...

Cuts follow push to slim management ranks, despite headcount still being up year-on-year in MarchMicrosoft says it is laying off nearly 3% of its entire workforce.The tech giant didn't disclose the total amount of lost jobs, but it will amount to about 6,000 people. Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers as of last June, the last time it reported its annual headcount. About 55% of those workers were in the US. Continue reading...

Big tech companies have exploited human language for AI gain. Now they want us to see their products as trustworthy collaboratorsAfter publishing my third book in early April, I kept encountering headlines that made me feel like the protagonist of some Black Mirror episode. Vauhini Vara consulted ChatGPT to help craft her new book Searches,'" one of them read. To tell her own story, this acclaimed novelist turned to ChatGPT," said another. Vauhini Vara examines selfhood with assistance from ChatGPT," went a third.The publications describing Searches this way were reputable and fact-based. But their descriptions of my book - and of ChatGPT's role in it - didn't match my own reading. It was true that I had put my ChatGPT conversations in the book, but my goal had been critique, not collaboration. In interviews and public events, I had repeatedly cautioned against using large language models such as the ones behind ChatGPT for help with self-expression. Had these headline writers misunderstood what I'd written? Had I? Continue reading...

What if a simple selfie was enough to show scientifically how well or badly we're ageing? That moment's getting closer ...Name: FaceAge.Age: New. Continue reading...

As the UK debates AI and copyright, Trump hands a gift to Big Tech, drones proliferate along the India-Pakistan border and a robot dispenses methodroneHello, and welcome to TechScape. Sometimes it helps me to write by thinking about how a radio broadcaster or television presenter would deliver the information, so I'm your host, Blake Montgomery. Today in tech news: questions hover over the automation of labor in the worker-strapped US healthcare system; and drones proliferate in a new conflict: India v Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons. But first, how fights over AI and copyright take very different shapes in the UK and US. Continue reading...

Peers back amendment to data bill requiring AI companies to reveal which copyrighted material they have usedThe government has suffered another setback in the House of Lords over its plans to let artificial intelligence firms use copyright-protected work without permission.An amendment to the data bill requiring AI companies to reveal which copyrighted material is used in their models was backed by peers, despite government opposition. Continue reading...

AI will do the thinking, robots will do the doing. What place do humans have in this arrangement - and do tech CEOs care?I recently found myself at a dinner in an upstairs room at a restaurant in San Francisco hosted by a venture capital firm. The after-dinner speaker was a tech veteran who, having sold his AI company for hundreds of millions of dollars, has now turned his hand to investing. He had a simple message for the assembled startup founders: the money you can make in AI isn't limited to the paltry market sizes of previous technology waves. You can replace the world's workers - which means you can capture their salaries. All of them.Replacing all human labour with AI sounds like the stuff of science fiction. But it is the explicit aim of a growing number of the tech elite - and these are people who lack neither drive nor resources, who have deep pockets and even deeper determination. If they say they want to automate all labour, we should take them at their word.Ed Newton-Rex is the founder of Fairly Trained, a non-profit that certifies generative AI companies that respect creators' rights, and a visiting scholar at Stanford University Continue reading...

Billy Evans, father of Holmes's children, says company can make diagnoses from users' blood, urine and salivaElizabeth Holmes's romantic partner - the father of her children - reportedly has raised millions of dollars to start up a new blood-testing company that is strikingly similar to the one that landed the Theranos founder in federal prison.The fundraising comes as Billy Evans, an heir to a hotel fortune, is pitching his new company, Haemanthus, to potential investors, according to the New York Times. Evans's pitch: a health-testing company that can make diagnoses from users' blood, urine and saliva. Continue reading...

US kids are falling prey to a sophisticated network of scammers who extort thousands - and push some victims to suicideA TikTok video shows a young man fanning out a stack of $100 bills. A second flexes his designer clothes. Another man posts a video of himself dancing and wearing a heavy gold chain. They boast to their eager followers about their path to wealth.BM got me a new car," states one caption on a video. $5,000 in a few hours." Continue reading...

While there have been concerns over the safety and legal status of the technology, working models from local startups are showing its benefits

A pharmacist and an engineer founded Opio Connect to make machines that dispense drugs and reduce drudge workLanea George pulls open a steel security door and enters a windowless room where a video camera stares at what looks like a commercial-grade refrigerator. The machine, dubbed Bodhi, whirrs and spins before spitting out seven small plastic bottles containing precisely 70ml of methadone, a bright pink liquid resembling cherry cough syrup. It is used as a substitute for morphine or heroin in addiction treatment.She scoops the bottles off the tray, bundles them with a rubber band and sets them on a shelf. It's not yet 10am and George, the nurse manager at Man Alive, an opioid treatment program - known colloquially as a methadone clinic - in Baltimore, has already finished prepping the doses for the 100 or so patients who will arrive the next day. Bodhi has changed my life and the lives of our patients," she says. Continue reading...

AI safety campaigner calls for existential threat assessment akin to Oppenheimer's calculations before first nuclear testArtificial intelligence companies have been urged to replicate the safety calculations that underpinned Robert Oppenheimer's first nuclear test before they release all-powerful systems.

Hundreds of leading figures from UK creative industries urge prime minister not to give our work away'Hundreds of leading figures and organisations in the UK's creative industries, including Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Ian McKellen and the Royal Shakespeare Company, have urged the prime minister to protect artists' copyright and not give our work away" at the behest of big tech.In an open letter to Keir Starmer, a host of major artists claim creatives' livelihoods are under threat as wrangling continues over a government plan to let artificial intelligence companies use copyright-protected work without permission. Continue reading...

Games like Roblox are played by millions of children globally - but some researchers warn dark design patterns embedded in them are difficult to avoid

Our tech expert is back with an updated guide to the top-tier Android phones, from budget buys to the best for battery lifeNeed an Android phone, but not sure which to go for, or whether to buy new or refurbished? With lots to consider, view me as your guide as you trek through the process of picking the best handset for you.The latest flagship Android phones come in various sizes, at different prices, and with varying hardware and software features, all powered by the fastest chips. Whether your priority is battery life, camera, screen size, software support or value for money, there is more to choose from than ever. But if you're thinking of buying Apple instead, we have a guide for iPhones, too.Best Android for most people:

Whether you want to bolster your home's security or simply make sure you know when someone is at the door, the latest generation of smart doorbells will help put your mind at ease The best robot vacuums to keep your home clean and dust freeDoorbells have evolved. Today, they watch us as we approach, let the people inside the home know we're coming sooner than our finger can hit the button, and give them a good look at our faces before they open the door. They're essentially security cameras with a chime function.If you haven't already installed one of these handy tools, there's a huge array available. Choosing the best video doorbell can be a bewildering task, with various factors to consider, including how much of your doorstep you want to see or whether you're prepared to pay for a subscription. To help make the decision a little bit easier, I tested eight popular video doorbells to find the best.Best overall video doorbell:

Wikimedia Foundation seeks judicial review of some requirements of Online Safety Act it claims may endanger safety of volunteer editorsThe charity that hosts Wikipedia is challenging the UK's online safety legislation in the high court, saying some of its regulations would expose the site to manipulation and vandalism".In what could be the first judicial review related to the Online Safety Act, Wikimedia Foundation claims it is at risk of being subjected to the act's toughest category 1 duties, which impose additional requirements on the biggest sites and apps. Continue reading...

The newest trailer indicates Grand Theft Auto VI may have a soft centre, with its focus on outlaw lovers Lucia and JasonSomething new is coming to the Grand Theft Auto universe next year. I don't mean super-high-definition visuals, or previously unexplored areas of Rockstar's take on the US. This time it's something much more profound. If you've seen the newly released second trailer from GTA6 - somewhat cruelly released just days after we discovered the game won't be out until next May - then you might know what I mean. The brand new thing is romance.It's now clear that the key protagonists of the latest gangland adventure are Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval, two twentysomething lovers from the wrong side of the tracks. He's ex-army, now working for drug runners; she's fresh out of jail, looking to make a better life for herself and her beloved mom. They fall for each other, hatch a plan to get out of Vice City, and then when their simple heist goes wrong, they find themselves at the sharp end of a state-wide conspiracy. You always knew that if Rockstar were going to tell a love story, it would involve a formidable cast of underworld kingpins, gang members, conspiracy nuts and corrupt politicians, and you were right. Continue reading...

President Trump's tariffs have plunged the world economy into chaos. But history counsels against despair - and the left should seize on capitalism's crisis of legitimacySince Donald Trump launched his chaotic trade war earlier this year, it has become a truism to say he has plunged the world economy into crisis. At last month's spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, where policymakers and finance ministers from all over congregated, the attenders were shellshocked", the economist Eswar Prasad, a former senior IMF official who now teaches at Cornell, told me. The sense is that the world has changed fundamentally in ways that cannot easily be put back together. Every country has to figure out its own place in this new world order and how to protect its own interests."Trump's assault on the old global order is real. But in taking its measure, it's necessary to look beyond the daily headlines and acknowledge that being in a state of crisis is nothing new to capitalism. It's also important to note that, as Karl Marx wrote in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon: Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please." Even would-be authoritarians who occupy the Oval Office have to operate in the social, economic and political environment that is bequeathed to them. In Trump's case, the inheritance was one in which global capitalism was already suffering from a crisis of legitimacy. Continue reading...

Our fashion expert rounds up her pick of the best phone straps, from beaded wristlets and cross-body straps to lanyards with recycled cases Jess Cartner-Morley's May style essentials: life-changing jeans and the ultimate holiday shoesYou're probably familiar with the concept of adding a finishing touch to your outfit: a belt that smartens up trousers, a great pair of sunglasses, statement jewellery that livens up a plain T-shirt. Well, now, there's a new accessory in town: the phone strap.For many of us, it's a must-have. On a practical level, it means you don't have to root around in your bag every time you need to check Google Maps for directions. With phone theft also an issue, it could keep your mobile safer. Continue reading...

Experts say such tools may give dangerous advice and more oversight is needed, as Mark Zuckerberg says AI can plug gapHaving an issue with your romantic relationship? Need to talk through something? Mark Zuckerberg has a solution for that: a chatbot. Meta's chief executive believes everyone should have a therapist and if they don't - artificial intelligence can do that job.I personally have the belief that everyone should probably have a therapist," he said last week. It's like someone they can just talk to throughout the day, or not necessarily throughout the day, but about whatever issues they're worried about and for people who don't have a person who's a therapist, I think everyone will have an AI." Continue reading...

How the global wrangle for natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is fuelling one of the world's worst humanitarian crisesHello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week, after three months of fighting, a peace agreement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is in the works. I spoke to our east Africa correspondent, Carlos Mureithi, about the conflict, how quickly it escalated and the prospects for peace. Continue reading...

Vulcan device capable of grabbing three-quarters of items in warehouses' fuels fears of mass job lossesAmazon said it has made a fundamental leap forward in robotics" after developing a robot with a sense of touch that will be capable of grabbing about three-quarters of the items in its vast warehouses.Vulcan - which launches at the US firm's Delivering the Future" event in Dortmund, Germany, on Wednesday and is to be deployed around the world in the next few years - is designed to help humans sort items for storage and then prepare them for delivery as the latest in a suite of robots which have an ever-growing role in the online retailer's extensive operation. Continue reading...

It's a year since teachers in St Albans asked parents not to give younger children smartphones. How successful have they been? What do the kids think about it? And has it made the adults think about their own addiction'?At 3.12pm on a sunny spring afternoon in St Albans, Yasser Afghen reaches for the iPhone in his jeans pocket, hoping to use the three minutes before his son emerges from his year 1 primary class to scroll through his emails. As he lifts the phone to his face, Matthew Tavender, the head teacher of Cunningham Hill school, strides across the playground towards him. Afghen smiles apologetically, puts his phone away, and spends the remaining waiting time listening to the birdsong in the trees behind the school yard.A one-storey 1960s block with 14 classrooms backing on to a playing field, Cunningham Hill primary feels like an unlikely hub for a revolution. But a year ago, Tavender and the school's executive head, Justine Elbourne-Cload, began coordinating with the heads at other primary schools across the city, then sent a joint letter to parents and carers across St Albans: the highly addictive nature of smartphones was having a lasting effect on children's brains. The devices were robbing children of their childhood. Could parents, the letter asked, please avoid giving them smartphones until they turned 14? Continue reading...

Damages awarded after earlier ruling found NSO unlawfully exploited a bug in WhatsApp to spy on usersMeta Platforms won a $168m verdict against the Israeli surveillance firm NSO, the company said on Tuesday, capping a six-year arm-wrestling match between the US's biggest social-networking platform and the world's best-known spyware company.Meta had already won after a December ruling found that NSO had unlawfully exploited a bug in its messaging service WhatsApp to plant spy software on its users' phones. On Tuesday, a jury in California ruled that NSO owed Meta $444,719 in compensatory damages - and $167.3m in punitive damages, Meta said. Continue reading...

Chain says up to one in 10 stores was affected on Tuesday morning but issue now fixed in all branches

No matter how many system updates the Meta boss runs, there will always be something about him that screams creepy automaton'. And the $270m apocalypse shelter doesn't helpOver the past few years Mark Zuckerberg has been conducting a very expensive experiment. If he grows his hair and revamps his wardrobe, will it make him seem more relatable? If he takes up mixed martial arts, goes wild boar hunting, and tells manosphere-adjacent podcasters such as Joe Rogan that companies need more masculine energy", will red-blooded American males respect him? With the help of a small army of stylists, personal trainers and PR gurus, could Zuck transform himself from an unlikable dork into an alpha bro?For a brief moment, the answer to all that seemed to be a tentative yes". Zuck's shock of shaggy new hair made the billionaire seem less like three Lego figures in a trenchcoat and more like an adult human male. His gold chains and jazzy new outfits sparked excited chatter of a Zucknaissance". The Meta billionaire also had a lucky break, PR-wise, in 2023 when Elon Musk, the world's least self-aware man, challenged him to a cage brawl. Cue a flurry of articles about how Zuck was actually a skilled athlete who would annihilate Musk in a fight, leaving approximately 950 children without their father. Continue reading...

Arcade Crew/Sleepy Mill Studio; PC

Documentary investigates the whereabouts of the model who played an influential corporate character, as well as the relationship between race and technologyBack when computers were still new, Mavis Beacon was an icon for generations of children learning IT skills. Her name, along with the accompanying image of a smiling, suited Black woman, graced countless editions of some popular software that taught typing through interactive lessons and games. For Black students, to see someone who looked like them in a position of authority and knowledge, inspired assurance and aspiration. Mavis Beacon, however, did not exist; she was a fictional character represented by a photograph of Renee L'Esperance, a Haitian model whose story is now lost to history. Eager to reclaim her legacy, film-maker Jazmin Jones and collaborator Olivia McKayla Ross embarked on a years-long quest to track down the woman behind the image.The resulting documentary is anything but conventional. Describing themselves as E-girl detectives", Jones and Ross draw on a wide variety of sources for their investigation. In addition to a physical headquarters - complete with an evidence board not unlike those seen in detective films of yore - there is a virtual dimension to their pursuit. We see what presumably is the cybersleuths' desktop screen, on which memes, Google maps and search results multiply like mushrooms after the rain. Continue reading...

CEO, Sam Altman, says decision to backtrack was made after hearing from civic leaders' and state attorneys generalOpenAI has reversed course in the process of transforming into a for-profit entity, announcing on Monday that its non-profit arm would continue to control the business that makes ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) products. Previously, the company had sought more independence for its for-profit division.We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware," said CEO Sam Altman in a letter to employees. Altman and the chair of OpenAI's non-profit board, Bret Taylor, said the board made the choice for the non-profit to retain control of OpenAI. Continue reading...

The billionaire fired thousands of workers, but savings are minimal and offset by degradation of services, critics sayAs Elon Musk steps back from his role heading the so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge), many experts on government operations complain that Doge has done nothing to improve the quality of services the government provides to the American people.Doge is not offering any solid claims that it has improved services in any way," said Donald Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. Rather, it has made the quality of some government services worse." Continue reading...

US health secretary claims data will be used for research but has not addressed privacy concerns and potential misuseAutism researchers and advocates are pushing back against the creation of an autism database - meant to track the health of autistic people in a major research study - and pointing to the ways such databases could be misused.While the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) denies it's a registry, the agency did confirm a sweeping database of autistic people will power a $50m study on autism. The health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, said last week that he plans to announce results from the study within months. Continue reading...

We gave you gardening tips, a spring fashion edit, the ultimate guide to anti-ageing and more. Here are the picks that inspired you most in AprilThe year always seems to pick up pace in spring, with the big house and garden tidy-up becoming all-consuming. The early spring sunshine has been wonderful (for those of us lucky enough to have seen some), though it does accelerate the pressure to ready your garden for the summer ahead.I spent winter trying not to look out of the window, fearing that most of the plants I'd optimistically bought last summer wouldn't make it. So it's a wonderful feeling to have the garden open up again - and many of you seem to agree. We were taken aback by the popularity of our pieces on how to get your garden ready for summer and the best secateurs to help you with the spring tidy. Continue reading...

Every day, members dig deep into their sick and twisted minds to unearth linguistic miracles. It's both delightful and deranged

Experts say online retailer has ethical responsibility to guard against chatbot-generated work on sensitive topicsAmazon is selling books marketed at people seeking techniques to manage their ADHD that claim to offer expert advice yet appear to be authored by a chatbot such as ChatGPT.Amazon's marketplace has been deluged with works produced by artificial intelligence that are easy and cheap to publish but include unhelpful or dangerous misinformation, such as shoddy travel guidebooks and mushroom foraging books that encourage risky tasting. Continue reading...

The end of civilisation might look less like a war, and more like a love story. Can we avoid being willing participants in our own downfall?Right now, most big AI labs have a team figuring out ways that rogue AIs might escape supervision, or secretly collude with each other against humans. But there's a more mundane way we could lose control of civilisation: we might simply become obsolete. This wouldn't require any hidden plots - if AI and robotics keep improving, it's what happens by default.How so? Well, AI developers are firmly on track to build better replacements for humans in almost every role we play: not just economically as workers and decision-makers, but culturally as artists and creators, and even socially as friends and romantic companions. What place will humans have when AI can do everything we do, only better? Continue reading...

Cryptocurrency mining facilities can blanket towns with constant' noise. They're likely to get louder under TrumpFirst came the dogs' balding - leathery pink patches on otherwise glossy fur coats.The veterinarian told Shenice Copenhaver it was genetic. But it wasn't long before one of the hairless puppies began stealing blankets to burrow beneath furniture and hide for long stretches. Continue reading...

How to beat the scam, from setting up new passwords and telling your bank exactly what you are doingHi mum," the first message starts, I've lost my phone." It carries on with a tale of woe: for some reason the sender has also been locked out of his or her bank account.Luckily a friend is often on hand to help - it's their phone that the message comes from, apparently - and if you could just transfer some money to their account that would be great. Alternatively, you might be asked to pay the rent, direct to a landlord, or foot some other urgent bill that has arrived at this time of crisis. Continue reading...

Recording concerts has become a compulsion for many. I'm resolving to put my device away and just dance: I hope others followI'm making a public vow, which I fear I may abandon the moment Lana Del Rey comes on stage at Wembley in July: to stop recording concerts on my phone. Last Sunday, producer and DJ Kaytranada responded to a fan on X who was frustrated at motionless concertgoers with their phones in the air, writing: I think we have come in this age where everybody's trying to catch a moment for their own social media presence. It shows their appreciation instead of them dancing and enjoying shows like we used to." Even though I wasn't at Kaytranada's show, he had me bang to rights.I have in the past incessantly recorded gigs, insisting to myself that there is no impairment of my enjoyment, or that determinedly rejigging the camera for a panoramic shot of the entire stage was all part of the concert experience. Lost in the spirit of a moment, it can be nice to snap yourself and friends singing along to your favourite artist, and to create a personal archive of a concert's best bits.Jason Okundaye is an assistant newsletter editor and writer at the Guardian Continue reading...

Kaitlyn Regehr says parents worrying about their children need first to look at their own usageSwitching off the colours on your phone and spending half an hour a week pruning your algorithm can help consumers control and improve their online media diet, according to a professor turned digital nutritionist".These two measures, otherwise known as greyscaling and algorithmic resistance, are among a number of recommendations from Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, an associate professor at University College London and a leading expert in digital literacy. Continue reading...

After Google lost its first monopoly trial, government asks it to sell off units of its core internet ads businessGoogle on Friday faced a demand by the US government to break up its hugely profitable ad technology business. The request came after a judge found the tech giant was commanding an illegal monopoly for the second time in less than a year.We have a defendant who has found ways to defy" the law, US government lawyer Julia Tarver Wood told a federal court in Virginia, as she urged the judge to dismiss Google's assurance that it would change its behavior. Leaving a recidivist monopolist" intact was not appropriate to solve the issue, she added. Continue reading...

Readers respond to a piece by John Harris on how we are increasingly leaving navigation to our phonesJohn Harris's observations on the implications of using unsuitable phone apps for navigation when walking in the wilds resonated with me (We now leave navigation to our phones. The result: more of us are getting hopelessly lost, 27 April). In terms of practical advice, though, rather than using the Ordnance Survey app backed up with a paper map, I do it the other way round.Using a 1:25,000 OS paper map as the primary navigational aid conserves phone battery and allows you to keep an eye on the wider landscape for navigational clues all the time; and the scale is fixed, so after becoming accustomed to it, you have a feel for distances while on the move. Continue reading...

Ireland's Data Protection Commission found video app breached GDPR and had submitted erroneous information' to inquiryTikTok has been fined 530m (452m) by an Irish watchdog over a failure to guarantee that European user data sent to China would not be accessed by the Chinese government.Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) regulates TikTok across the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Continue reading...

Company's founder plans to offload up to 25m shares through a trading plan

Their tech may have been primitive, but for 80s schoolchildren of a certain kind they had a glamour to equal any modern iPhoneOver the last couple of weeks I have been tidying our attic, and while the general aim has been to prevent its contents from collapsing through the ceiling, I have a side-mission. My most valued possession when I was twelve was a Casio GD-8 Car Race watch - a digital timepiece that included a built-in racing game on its tiny monochrome LCD display. Two big buttons on the front let you steer left and right to avoid incoming vehicles and your aim was to stay alive as long as possible. I lost count of the number of times it was confiscated by teachers at my school. I used to lend it to the hardest boys in the year, thereby guaranteeing me protection against bullies. As a socially inept nerd, this was invaluable to my survival. I'm pretty sure I still have the watch somewhere, and my determination to find it has been augmented by a recent discovery: these things are valuable now.Casio started making digital watches in the mid-1970s, using technology it had developed in the calculator market to compete on price, but as the decade drew to a close, the market became saturated and the company started to explore new ways to entice buyers. Speaking to Polygon in 2015, Yuichi Masuda, senior executive managing officer and Casio board member, explained, Casio went back to its original thinking when it first entered the watch market; that is, a watch is not a mere tool to tell the time.' We started talking about a multifunction [approach], time display plus other things, such as telephone number memory and music alarms." Continue reading...

Company exceeds expectations for third quarter in a row as chief executive Andy Jassy admits uncertainty over tariffsAmazon reported strong first-quarter earnings for the 2025 fiscal year on Thursday after the New York stock exchange closed - results that will be seen in the context of consumer resilience in the face of Donald Trump's tariff wars.Amazon reported $1.59 in earnings per share (EPS) and revenue of $155.67bn. Analysts had estimated that the company's EPS would come in at $1.36 on revenue of $155bn. In particular focus: Amazon's advertising business, which grew 19% in the first quarter of 2025, handily exceeding analyst expectations as well. The company has exceeded Wall Street's expectations for the previous two quarters. Continue reading...