Technology | The Guardian

If they don't broker a peace deal, their squabble could get messier and more expensive for both of them

Tech company warns government not to follow EU in forcing platform to allow third-party payments and app downloads

Electric carmaker sold 36% fewer cars year on year in May as it loses ground to China's BYD and other rivalsSales of new Tesla cars slumped by more than a third in the UK last month as the electric carmaker lost ground to China's BYD and other rivals, amid a political backlash against its billionaire boss, Elon Musk.Tesla sold 2,016 vehicles in the UK in May, down from 3,152 in May 2024 - a 36% drop, according to the monthly snapshot from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Continue reading...

Fortunate timing and government hesitation allowed the Switch 2 to come out on time, but the headache isn't overNintendo fans across the US are breathing a sigh of relief as they tear apart the boxes housing their new Nintendo Switch 2 video game consoles. On-again, off-again trade tariffs implemented by Donald Trump, which precipitated pre-order delays from Nintendo, made the 5 June release date of the highly coveted hardware feel more like a hope than a certainty. A potential price hike up from $450 loomed over launch day, but would-be buyers' fears did not come to fruition.Nintendo's maneuvering around Trump's tariffs isn't over, though - far from it. The Japanese console maker managed to luckily launch its device squarely within a 90-day tariff pause issued by the president. If tariffs on countries such as India and Japan return to the levels proposed during Trump's liberation day" speech at the start of April, however, experts say Nintendo will have to limber up for yet another delicate trade policy dance. Continue reading...

Tech firm is building humanoid park' in US to try out robots, which could spring out' of its vansAmazon is reportedly developing software for humanoid robots that could perform the role of delivery workers and spring out" of its vans.The $2tn (1.47tn) technology company is building a humanoid park" in the US to test the robots, said the tech news site the Information, citing a person who had been involved in the project. Continue reading...

It's the first major console launch in five years, so is it worth forking out for? From new tech to add-ons, our guide will help you decideSince its announcement in January, anticipation has been building for the Nintendo Switch 2 - the followup to the gaming titan's most successful home console, the 150m-selling Nintendo Switch. Major console launches are rarer than they used to be; this is the first since 2020, when Sony's PlayStation 5 hit shelves. Whether you're weighing up a purchase or just wondering what all the fuss is about, here's everything you need to know. Continue reading...

Latest spat appears to stem from fight between president's sons and Bill Zanker, longtime Trump business partnerA splashy website featuring an illustration of Donald Trump, looking buff and pumping his fist in the air, appeared online on Tuesday. The image is the logo of one of Trump's digital currencies, and the website claims to be the Official $Trump Wallet", hawking a product that would allow customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, primarily the president's own.The website prominently features the name of Trump's coin, $Trump, and invites people to join the waitlist to use the digital wallet. It was first noticed by the crypto newsletter Citation Needed. Magic Eden, an established cryptocurrency marketplace, said on the website that it had partnered with Trump's official digital coin team to create the wallet. The Twitter/X account for one of Trump's cryptocurrencies promoted the wallet product as well. Continue reading...

Government suffers fifth defeat in House of Lords over plans to allow AI companies to use copyrighted materialDefiant peers have delivered an ultimatum to the government - calling on it to offer artists copyright protection against artificial intelligence companies or risk losing a key piece of legislation.The government suffered a fifth defeat in the House of Lords over controversial plans to allow the AI companies to train their models using copyrighted material. Continue reading...

Social media platform claims firm used bots to access content, without requesting consent, to train ClaudeThe social media platform Reddit has sued the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, alleging that it is illegally scraping" the comments of Reddit users to train its chatbot Claude.Reddit claims that Anthropic has used automated bots to access the social network's content despite being asked not to do so, and intentionally trained on the personal data of Reddit users without ever requesting their consent". Continue reading...

MPs on Treasury committee hear that those affected were being contacted and would face no financial loss'HM Revenue and Customs has lost 47m after a phishing scam breached tens of thousands of tax accounts, a group of MPs has heard.Two senior civil servants at the tax authority told the Treasury committee on Wednesday that 100,000 people had been contacted, or were in the process of being contacted, after their accounts were locked down in what the officials said was an organised crime" incident that began last year. Continue reading...

The long-trailed console offers sturdier hardware, improved graphics and seamless online functionality. But it's more of an update than a revolutionLaunch week is finally here, and though I would love to be bringing you a proper review of the Nintendo Switch 2 right now, I still don't have one at the time of writing. In its wisdom, Nintendo has decided not to send review units out until the day before release, so as you read this I will be standing impatiently by the door like a dog anxiously awaiting its owner.I have played the console, though, for a whole day at Nintendo's offices, so I can give you some first impressions. Hardware-wise, it is the upgrade of my dreams: sturdier JoyCons, a beautiful screen, the graphical muscle to make games look as good as I want them to in 2025 (though still not comparable to the high-end PlayStation 5 Pro or a modern gaming PC). I like the understated pops of colour on the controllers, the refined menu with its soothing chimes and blips. Game sharing, online functionality and other basic stuff is frictionless now. I love that Nintendo Switch Online is so reasonably priced, at 18 a year, as opposed to about the same per month for comparable gaming services, and it gives me access to a treasure trove of Nintendo games from decades past. Continue reading...

A hacked or compromised account can be a nightmare. But with these tips, it need not be the end of the worldEmail accounts have become more than a longstanding method of communication, morphing into the centre of your digital world as the user login for hundreds of services from shopping to socials. So when you forget your password, your email gets stolen or hacked, it can be a total nightmare.Here's what to do if the worst happens. Quickly taking these steps can help get you back into your email and safeguard the many other accounts linked to it.Try to change your password from a device that's already logged in.Use a familiar device in a familiar location that you have frequently used your email account from before, such as your computer or a phone on your home wifi. Use the same browser you usually would if you have more than one installed.Use account recovery process for provider, such as Google or Microsoft, and access your account through your recovery email or phone if you have one.Answer all the recovery questions to the best of your ability, including any old passwords you might remember, even if you only know part of the answer. Google and Microsoft have tips you can follow. It may take up to 24 hours for you to be verified to recover your account.If all else fails, set up a new email account so that you can quickly migrate your logins for various sites and services to one you can control.Set a new, strong password that is unique for your email account. The password should be at least 12 characters, but the longer the better. Use a combination of alphanumeric and special characters. Some tips include using a combination of random words, a memorable lyric or quote, and avoid simple or guessable combinations. Use a password manager to help you remember it and other important details.Set up two-step verification using a code-generating app, rather than SMS text messages. Make sure you save your two-step backup codes somewhere safe.Use a passkey rather than a password, which uses your device and biometrics to authenticate you and cannot be hacked like a password.Set a recovery email and phone number to help get back into your account if you can't log in.Set up as many security questions as your account allows in settings and make them as difficult to guess as possible. Make sure you write the answers down somewhere safe. Continue reading...

Cut-down version of top Windows 11 AI notebook offers premium experience in smaller and less expensive packageMicrosoft's latest Surface Laptop is smaller and cheaper, managing to condense most of what is great about its larger siblings into a more compact frame without compromising too much on power.The Surface Laptop 13in joins the current seventh-generation Laptop 13.8in and 15in that were launched in the summer last year. It sits at the bottom of the premium pile in price, costing from 899 (1,099/$900/A$1,699), but above the Laptop Go 3, which is likely to be phased out.Screen: 13in LCD 1920 x 1280 (178 PPI)Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus (8 core)RAM: 16GBStorage: 256 or 512GBOperating system: Windows 11 HomeCamera: 1080P front-facingConnectivity: wifi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, USB-A, 2xUSB-C (3.2), headphonesDimensions: 285.7 x 214.1 x 15.6mmWeight: 1.2kg Continue reading...

Older series from Vampire Diaries to Skins are among the most popular on the platform as decade enjoys a revivalIt is the social media platform that likes to see itself as being on the cutting edge of the latest youth culture and setting the latest trends for others to follow. But across music, television and observations on British daily life, something more familiar is trending on TikTok - a new generation of nostalgia.Music and TV from the 2000s are being rediscovered by gen X and ageing millennials, as well as being discovered for the first time by gen Z. Use of the #noughties nostalgia hashtag is up 36% on last year across entertainment content - while the era is also enjoying a revival in fashion. Continue reading...

Parent company Aylo criticizes requirement that adult website visitors must confirm age with credit card or ID documentFrench visitors to the adult sites Pornhub, Youporn and RedTube will on Wednesday be greeted with a message denouncing the country's age verification requirements, the company said on Tuesday.Parent company Aylo, in reaction to a French law requiring adult sites to take extra steps to verify that their users are 18 or older, will stop operating in France, a spokesperson said. Continue reading...

Firms defend security features after police tell committee 80,000 phones were stolen in London in 2024MPs have accused Apple and Google of profiting from multimillion-pound phone-snatching operations that police say are masterminded by organised crime gangs in Britain, Algeria and China.In 2024, 80,000 phone devices of all kinds were stolen in London alone, up a quarter from 64,000 in 2023. The devices had a street value of about 20m, and iPhones made up the majority. Continue reading...

Fraudsters use fake artists to juice royalties from streaming services - but real musicians are getting blamed. Might they be better off without Spotify et al?There is a battle gripping the music business today around the manipulation of streaming services - and innocent indie artists are the collateral damage.Fraudsters are flooding Spotify, Apple Music and the rest with AI-generated tracks, to try and hoover up the royalties generated by people listening to them. These tracks are cheap, quick and easy to make, with Deezer estimating in April that over 20,000 fully AI-created tracks - that's 18% of new tracks - were being ingested into its platform daily, almost double the number in January. The fraudsters often then use bots, AI or humans to endlessly listen to these fake songs and generate revenue, while others are exploiting upload services to get fake songs put on real artists' pages and siphon off royalties that way. Continue reading...

Floss without the faff with our expert-tested water flossers, from travel-size models to countertop jets The best electric toothbrushes, testedThere isn't much I miss from my pre-Invisalign gappy teeth" days, but it was far more difficult for food and plaque to get stuck in the gaps - something I took for granted at the time. Using floss between my pre-braces teeth was easy, but ultimately pointless, like using a pipe cleaner to buff the Dartford Tunnel.With all the gaps closed, that's no longer the case, and my water flosser has become a welcome part of my dental routine. A water flosser fires an intense jet of water between the teeth to dislodge debris and leave your mouth feeling fresher.Best water flosser overall:

Generative AI is reshaping the job market, and it's starting with entry-level rolesHello, and welcome to TechScape. This week, I'm wondering what my first jobs in journalism would have been like had generative AI been around. In other news: Elon Musk leaves a trail of chaos, and influencers are selling the text they fed to AI to make art.New AI test can predict which men will benefit from prostate cancer drugOne day I overheard my boss saying: just put it in ChatGPT': the workers who lost their jobs to AIUS lawyer sanctioned after being caught using ChatGPT for court brief Continue reading...

Part-interpreters, part-comedians, video jockeys translate and contextualise western movies for audiences at homeOn a recent Saturday afternoon in an informal settlement in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, dozens of young men sat on benches in a dark shack to watch a bootlegged version of the Hollywood comedy-horror film The Monkey.As the English-language action unfolded on the screen, a voiceover translation in the Bantu language Luganda by VJ Junior, one of Uganda's top video jockeys, boomed into the room. Continue reading...

Everyone might be talking about the new title from gaming's favourite plumber, but there's at least one other interesting original launching with the new console this weekThe interesting thing about console launches is that you never know what unexpected treasures will emerge from the first batch of games. Who could have foretold that the hero of the PlayStation launch would be a fireworks simulation (Fantavision), or that the most joyous title in the initial GameCube lineup would involve simians racing each other in giant transparent globes (Super Monkey Ball)?The latest example could well be Konami's Survival Kids, the only new third-party game in the Switch 2 opening wave. It's the latest in the publisher's cult series of tropical island survival sims, which began on the Game Boy Color and, despite never really attracting vast global success, continued on to the Nintendo DS under a new name, Lost in Blue. Now it's back as a familyfriendly co-op survival adventure, in which groups of up to four players are shipwrecked on a mysterious archipelago, and must survive by gathering resources, crafting tools, finding food and exploring a series of lush, cartoonish environments. Four people can play online, but the game also supports Switch 2's game sharing, which lets one person who owns the game connect wirelessly with other consoles to play together. Continue reading...

He's spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive - and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast's videos simply very savvy clickbait - or acts of avant garde genius?Jimmy Donaldson, the 27-year-old online content creator and entrepreneur known as MrBeast, is by any reasonable metric one of the most popular entertainers on the planet. His YouTube channel, to which he posts his increasingly elaborate and expensively produced videos, has 400 million subscribers - more than the population of the United States of America and equivalent to the total number of native English speakers currently alive. It's close to twice as many subscribers as Elon Musk has X followers, and over 100 million more than Taylor Swift has Instagram followers. And that number, 400 million, does not account for the people who watch MrBeast's videos in passing, or who are aware of his cultural presence because of their children, or who just sort of know who he is but don't have any intricate awareness as to why he is famous.That number is the number of people who have made the volitional move of clicking that subscribe button, to ensure that they will a) not miss his latest videos and b) can be literally counted by potential advertisers as a more-or-less guaranteed audience. One last fact, before we move away from numbers and into more nebulous modes of consideration: his 2024 Amazon Prime reality competition show, Beast Games, in which 1,000 contestants competed for $5m (3.7m), the largest cash prize in television history, reportedlycost $100m to produce, making it the most expensive unscripted show in history. Jimmy Donaldson, at the risk of belabouring the obvious, isan incredibly big deal. Continue reading...

Richard Bednar apologized after Utah appeals court discovered false citations, including one nonexistent caseThe Utah court of appeals has sanctioned a lawyer after he was discovered to have used ChatGPT for a filing he made in which he referenced a nonexistent court case.Earlier this week, the Utah court of appeals made the decision to sanction Richard Bednar over claims that he filed a brief that included false citations. Continue reading...

Guardian investigation reveals promotion of dubious advice, questionable supplements and quick-fix healing methods

From a radio host replaced by avatars to a comic artist whose drawings have been copied by Midjourney, how does it feel to be replaced by a bot?Mateusz Demski, 31, journalist, Krakow, Poland Continue reading...

Once rivalling film premieres for theatrics, could Smyths' revival of the midnight launch tap into a desire for shared real-world experience?There was a time when certain shops would resemble nightclubs at about midnight: a long queue of excitable people, some of them perhaps too young to be out that late, discussing the excitement that awaits inside.The sight of throngs of gamers looking to get their hands on the latest hardware when the clock strikes 12 is growing increasingly rare. But if you happen to walk by a Smyths toy shop at midnight on 4 June, you may encounter a blast from the past: excitable people, most in their teens or 20s, possibly discussing Mario Kart. Continue reading...

I used to mock my wife for spending hours playing the candy-sorting mobile games, now I'm up to my neck in fizzy bottles of shame. It's like Waiting for Godot with gummy bears instead of trampsAs long as I can remember, my wife has started each day with 30 minutes of a Candy Crush game. As long as she can remember, I have started each day by telling her it is pointless casual gamer cack. Now I write for the Guardian, I need to find a more eloquent way of putting that, so I thought I would have a go myself. I am begging you: do not do the same. Candy Crush Soda Saga nearly ruined me in a week.I like the game mechanics. As Oscar Wilde said, the man who doesn't love sliding stuff to form chains of three or more matching shapes does not love life itself. This one is wrapped in a cute candy veneer, all fizzy bottles and gummy bears. And that makes the visuals so alluring. When you slide a Colour Bomb into a Candy Fish all the candies that colour get Candyfished and your eyes are treated to a bazillion of them fizzing around the screen destroying everything, while the firm yet gentle haptic feedback makes it a multisensory burst of pure, effervescent joy. Continue reading...

Drivers using the navigation app confronted with mass of red dots indicating stop signsConfusion reigned on German autobahns and highways at the start of one of the busiest holiday breaks of the year on Thursday after Google Maps wrongly indicated that vast swathes of them were closed.People using the navigation service around major conurbations such as Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin on motorways between western, northern, south-western and central Germany were confronted with maps sprinkled with a mass of red dots indicating stop signs. The phenomenon also affected parts of Belgium and the Netherlands. Continue reading...

After I was turned into a memecoin, I looked into the hype behind the crypto that only a tiny percentage of people profit fromIn November last year, I was turned into a memecoin. Several, in fact.Someone alerted me that a memecoin called Dork Nerd Geek ($DNG) had been minted with a picture of my face, and it already had a market cap (the total value of all coins in circulation) of $29,000. Twenty minutes later it was $100,000. An hour later it was $800,000. Continue reading...

Artificial intelligence tool determines best candidates to take abiraterone, which can halve risk of death from diseaseDoctors have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can predict which men with prostate cancer will benefit from a drug that halves the risk of dying.Abiraterone has been described as a gamechanger" treatment for the disease, which is the most common form of cancer in men in more than 100 countries. It has already helped hundreds of thousands with advanced prostate cancer to live longer. Continue reading...

Party leader says he wants UK to be a crypto powerhouse' during speech at Las Vegas conferenceReform UK will accept donations through bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Nigel Farage has announced.During an appearance at the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, where he was introduced as a UK presidential candidate", Farage said: As of now, provided you are an eligible UK donor ... we are the first political party in Britain that can accept donations in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies." Continue reading...

Though the billionaire vowed modernization and efficiency, what's left is a trail of uncertainty and reduced functionalityElon Musk formally exited his role in the Trump administration on Wednesday night, ending a contentious and generally unpopular run as a senior adviser to the president and de facto head of the so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge). Though he promised efficiency and modernization, Musk leaves behind a trail of uncertainty and reduced functionality.The timing of Musk's departure lines up with the end of his 130-day term limit as a special government employee" but also plays a part in an effort by the billionaire to signal a wider shift away from Washington as he faces backlash from the public and shareholders. Musk has recently made a show of refocusing his efforts on his tech companies in interviews, saying that he has spent too much time focused on politics and plans to reduce his political spending in the future. Continue reading...

Next stage of Elon Musk's factory development will need go-ahead from state and protest movement Trees not Teslas says it is determined to fight on

Tesla also buoyed by Elon Musk's confirmation that he will leave his role in the Trump administrationTechnology shares climbed on Thursday, buoyed by strong results from Nvidia, despite the AI chip company's boss issuing a warning about the rise of Chinese rivals.The Stoxx Europe tech index rose by 0.8% on Thursday following Nvidia's financial report, with the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML rallying by 2.4%. Continue reading...

Technology journalist Karen Hao, who has been reporting on OpenAI since 2019, compares the company's unprecedented growth to a new form of empireIn 2019, before most of the world had heard of the company, the technology journalist Karen Hao spent three days embedded in the offices of OpenAI.What she saw, she tells Michael Safi, was a company vastly at odds with its public image: that of a transparent non-profit developing artificial intelligence technology purely for the benefit of humanity. They said that they were transparent. They said that they were collaborative. They were actually very secretive." Continue reading...

Chip-manufacturing company, widely seen as bellwether for AI business, reports $44.1bn in revenue for quarterNvidia beat Wall Street expectations in its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday, marking another in a string of financial wins for the computer hardware giant. It reported $44.1bn in revenue in the quarter ending in April, up 69% from the previous year.The company exceeded investors' predictions of $43.3bn in revenue. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.81, under investor expectations of an adjusted earnings per share of 88 cents. The company also reported $39.1bn in data center revenue, up 73% from the year prior. Continue reading...

Tesla boss says US president's One Beautiful Bill Act undermines' his Doge cost-cutting effortsDonald Trump said he will be negotiating his signature tax bill after Elon Musk publicly criticised the president's spending plan, saying it undermines" cost-cutting efforts that the world's richest man once spearheaded.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump acknowledged the bill needs to get a lot of support" in Congress, adding we have to get a lot of votes". The president also said he was not happy about certain aspects of it, but I'm thrilled by other aspects of it" and confirmed he would be negotiating the legislation. Continue reading...

Disinformation spread to mainstream channels in what experts call deliberate informational warfare'As missiles and drones crisscrossed the night skies above India and Pakistan earlier this month, another invisible war was taking place.Not long after the Indian government announced Operation Sindoor, the military offensive against Pakistan triggered by a militant attack in Kashmir that Delhi blamed on Islamabad, reports of major Pakistani defeats began to circulate online. Continue reading...

If Shakespeare were around today, he'd be making open-world shooters with the same depth and diversion as his playsLast week, the Guardian spoke to the team behind Lili, a video game retelling of Macbeth, shown at the Cannes film festival. The headline quote from the piece was Shakespeare would be writing for games today", which I have heard many times, and does make a lot of sense. Shakespeare worked in the Elizabethan theatre, a period in which plays were considered popularist entertainment hardly worthy of analysis or preservation - just like video games today! The authorities were also concerned about the lewd and violent nature of plays and the effect they may have on the impressionable masses - ditto!But if we agree that a 21st-century Shakespeare would be making games, what sort would he be making? If our central thesis is that Shakespeare would be interested in mass, popular entertainment, then - if we're talking pure revenue - he would be making casual smartphone games: Tencent's multiplayer arena battle game Honor of Kings, for example, made $2.6bn (1.9bn) last year. However, while the Bard was certainly interested in royalty and honour (and making money), it's hard to see Hamlet working as a multiplayer arena-based online battle game structured into an endless series of fast-paced skirmishes. Our titular hero would barely get out the words, O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!" before being vaporised in a scorching barrage attack. For similar reasons, I can't see Shakespeare making battle royale games such as Fortnite because, while he certainly liked a battle and lots of deaths, there's not a lot of room for narrative complexity or rousing military rhetoric when the sole aim is to shoot as many people as possible while dressed as a giant banana or Sabrina Carpenter. Continue reading...

FromSoftware/Bandai Namco; PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Codemasters/EA Sports; PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X

In Thailand, exotic pets are increasingly popular among the wealthy elite, but few are prepared for a long-term commitment and campaigners say many animals are kept in cruel conditionsChampagne glasses clink at an exclusive Bangkok party, where guests in designer clothes laugh and mingle. They take turns posing with a cat, passing it casually from one to the other. But as the camera settles, it becomes clear this is no house cat - it's a lion cub. One woman, in a red cocktail dress, lifts the animal to her face and blows a kiss at the camera, a glass of wine balanced in her other hand.Clips such as this are flooding Instagram and TikTok, offering a glimpse into Thailand's booming captive lion trade. According to a new report by the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand and the Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group the number of lions in captivity has more than tripled since 2018 - a trend fuelled in part by the rising popularity of exotic pets among the country's wealthy elite. A growing network of lion farms cater to this demand - many of them run by amateurs with little experience in wildlife care.Lion breeder Patamawadee Chanpithak plays with cubs in the nursery at her farm. Photograph: Ana Norman Bermudez Continue reading...

From remotely locking it using a locator, to backing up a replacement, steps to help you secure your dataLaptops are the workhorses of the world and can contain thousands of important documents, photos and treasured memories. Losing them can mean more than just downtime from work. Here's what to do in the event the worst happens.Try to locate it using Microsoft or Apple's Find My device service, lock it remotely and mark it as lost to help secure your data.Remove it as a trusted device for services you use, including your Apple or Microsoft account, cloud accounts, shops or other browser-based apps.Change your passwords for key accounts, including your Apple or Microsoft account. Start with your email to prevent thieves using it to gain access to your other accounts through password resets.Report the theft to the police by calling 101 in the UK and give them a description of the laptop, make, model, colour and serial number, which may be on the box or in your Apple or Microsoft account.Contact your insurance provider if you have cover, your laptop may come under some home contents policies.Tell your bank about any credit cards you may have details of stored on your laptop.Contact the laptop's manufacturer to report the theft so it can blacklist its serial number, which may prevent it being activated and used by someone else.Set a strong password or long pin that cannot be easily guessed, set up and use any face or fingerprint scanners and make sure the screen is set to lock after a short period, usually when the screen turns off.Turn on device encryption in your privacy and security settings if not already enabled.Set up two-step verification for your Microsoft or Apple account, as well as any others you use.Turn on Find My" in a Windows 10 or 11's security settings or in iCloud settings on a Mac, which will help you locate a lost laptop, remotely lock it and mark it as lost with a message on its screen for anyone who finds it.Back up your data regularly. On a Windows laptop you can use Windows Backup to store files and settings on Microsoft's OneDrive cloud service (5GB free). On a Mac you can use Time Machine to back up the laptop to an external drive or sync your apps and files with iCloud (you can store 5GB for free). Alternatively, copy files to an external drive but be sure to encrypt it first before backing up any sensitive documents.Host important documents in the cloud. Microsoft and Apple have cloud services, but there are many others including Google Drive, Dropbox and Proton Drive.Take note of your laptop's colour, model number and serial number, and store your proof of purchase somewhere safe.Consider putting the laptop on your home contents insurance, which may need it to be added to the high-risk or high-value items list, particularly if you take it out of the home. Otherwise, there is dedicated laptop or gadget insurance, with multiple cover levels including theft. Continue reading...

Adele Zeynep Walton's sibling Aimee was a talented artist who loved music. It was only after her death that Walton realised Aimee had been lured into a dangerous community - and that others may also be victims of itAdele Zeynep Walton knew something was wrong when she stumbled out of her caravan in the New Forest at 8am - she was camping with her boyfriend - and, through her sleepy fog, saw her parents' car driving towards her. Initially annoyed by the idea of a family walk so early in the day, she then noticed that the car was veering off the track and, as it drew closer, her mother looked hysterical". Straight away," she says. I was like, It's Aimee.'"Aimee, Walton's younger sister, was 21 and had suffered from poor mental health for some months. She loved music technology and art - her accomplished self-portraits dot the walls of the family's home in Southampton, where her bedroom has been left exactly as it was before her death. She was such a big fan of the singer Pharrell Williams that he called her up five times to dance on stage at his concerts. But, with her mental health deteriorating, she had become harder and harder to reach. For two months, we didn't know where she was, what she was doing," Walton says. Continue reading...

According to novelist Elif Shafak, the platform suggested she make her talk shorter because viewers can't focus for 19 minutes. Now ... where was I?Name: Ted Talks.Age: Ted started in 1984. Continue reading...

A YouTube video feed of eagles Jackie and Shadow and their two children has given me hope the internet isn't all bad

Lifesize interactive pets touring libraries in Blue Mountains are also touted as being able to comfort people living with anxiety or dementia

Once unshakable, Apple is showing rare signs of strain. Meanwhile, OpenAI bets billions on its next act, and Trump's crypto fans lose millionsHello, and welcome to TechScape. This week in tech: Apple struggles on multiple fronts, OpenAI grows increasingly ambitious, and Trump helps some of his fans lose money on cryptocurrency. Continue reading...

Marion city council in South Australia censors strong language in some of the nearly 1,000 submissions that called for proposal to be struck down

Anyone can buy a tiny spy camera and hide it in a mirror, fake smoke alarm or public toilet. But why would they? As cases of voyeurism against women soar in the UK, victims say it's too easy for men to get away with itThe first time Heidi Marney took a bath in her new, temporary home, she felt she was being watched. I had this overwhelming sense that there were eyes on me," she says. She remembers scanning the room. It was a big, double bath and above, on the wall, there was a TV with a device hanging down with a flashing red light." Marney sent a photo of it to a friend who assured her that it was a dongle and said he had one too so that he could get Sky in every room.Logic told me that, if someone was filming me, there'd be a camera in my bedroom," Marney continues, so I went to my room and looked everywhere - the wardrobe, the lights; I was meticulous. There was nothing, so I told myself I was being ridiculous. My landlord was the kindest human you could ever meet. He would never do that." She pauses for a second then sighs. I'll never ever ignore my instincts again." Continue reading...