Son of murdered academic calls on Facebook owner to radically change how it moderates dangerous content'Meta faces a $2.4bn (1.8bn) lawsuit accusing the Facebook owner of inflaming violence in Ethiopia after the Kenyan high court said a legal case against the US tech group could go ahead.The case brought by two Ethiopian nationals calls on Facebook to alter its algorithm to stop promoting hateful material and incitement to violence, as well as hiring more content moderators in Africa. It is also seeking a $2.4bn restitution fund" for victims of hate and violence incited on Facebook. Continue reading...
Child protection charities say watering down Online Safety Act would be an appalling sellout' by governmentChild safety campaigners have warned the government against watering down landmark online laws as part of a UK-US trade deal, describing the prospect of a compromise as an appalling sellout" that would be rejected by voters.A draft transatlantic trade agreement contains commitments to review enforcement of the Online Safety Act, according to a report on Thursday, amid White House concerns the legislation poses a threat to free speech. Continue reading...
Sedentary lifestyles are bad for us, but which under-desk treadmills and walking pads are worth the cost? Our expert stepped up to find out The best treadmills for your homeVarious guidelines suggest we all try to walk at least 10,000 steps a day to improve our overall health and wellbeing. Public Health England encourages a slightly more manageable target of just 10 minutes of brisk walking daily to introduce more moderate-intensity physical activity and reduce your risk of early death by up to 15%.But even squeezing in brisk walks" can be a chore, with busy schedules and increasingly desk-bound jobs forcing more of us to remain sedentary for long periods. That is where walking pads come in, being lighter, smaller and often easier to store than bulky and tricky-to-manoeuvre running treadmills.Best overall walking pad:
There are new ways to catch goombas, a Mario Kart battle royale and innovative gameplay ideas abound, but Nintendo will need to work hard to sell its next-gen machineAfter Nintendo's intriguing hour-long live stream on Wednesday, we now know a lot more about its follow-up to the phenomenally successful Switch. But how does the Switch 2 play? After the online presentation, I got to spend about four hours road-testing the new console at a press event in the Grand Palais, Paris, the box-white exhibition hall adorned in Nintendo red and lined with rows of high-end TV screens and Switch 2 consoles. There was also a 90-minute roundtable with three of the masterminds behind the console: Tetsuya Sasaki (hardware design lead), Kouichi Kawamoto (producer) and Takuhiro Dohta (director). Here's what I learned. Continue reading...
I bought it to be part of a greener future, but that was before Musk proved so awful. I'd sell it now, but prices have droppedAfter our children left home, my wife and I decided to treat ourselves and buy a new car for a driving holiday in Europe. We'd been driving a family estate car for years, loading it up with kids and making trips to and from universities, but we wanted something for ourselves.As a surprise, she booked a test drive for the Tesla Model S for my birthday. It was unlike any car I'd been in before. I thought Wow, this is amazing." It felt like the future: a computer on wheels that was constantly updating with new features. I can't say I feel that way now - and many people seem to share that view. Tesla sales figures declined by 13% in the first few months of this year. Others feel even more uneasy: more than 200 demonstrations happened last weekend outside company facilities around the world to protest against Elon Musk and the wrecking ball he has taken to the federal government. Continue reading...
The bestselling video game ever has a devoted, vocal, following. Can a faceless corporation make a successful film based on such beloved IP without involving its fanbase?By any estimation, Minecraft is impossibly successful. The bestselling video game ever, as of last December it had 204 million monthly active players. Since it was first released in 2011, it has generated over $3bn (2.3bn) in revenue. What's more, its players have always been eager to demonstrate their fandom outside the boundaries of the game itself. In 2021, YouTube calculated that videos related to the game - tutorials, walk-throughs, homages, parodies - had collectively been viewed 1tn times. In short, it is a phenomenon.Such is the strength of feeling, almost all of it positive, about Minecraft that it was only a matter of time before someone tried to turn it into a film. After all, you have a historically popular product and a highly engaged fanbase: what could possibly go wrong? Turns out, quite a lot. Last September, the first trailer for the film - titled A Minecraft Movie - was released, and the reaction was instant and violent. Minecraft fans devastated by awful' live-action trailer" read one headline the following day. Some called it a crime against humanity"; others a soulless neon abomination". In less than 24 hours, the website GamingBible had called it a curse on my eyes" and pure nightmare fuel". Within three days of its release, the trailer had been downvoted more than 1m times. Continue reading...
The idiosyncratic adventure from 1999 beat the likes of Doom and Super Mario Bros in a public vote, proving that, in a world of blockbusters, there's still room for strange, exotic gamesIt is a game about love and identity, but it also has forklift truck races. It is a game about bloody revenge, but while you're waiting to retaliate, you can buy lottery tickets and visit the arcade. When Bafta recently asked gamers to vote on the most influential game of all time, I'm not sure even the most ardent Sega fans would have gambled on the success of an idiosyncratic Dreamcast adventure from 1999. Yet the results, released on Thursday morning, show Shenmue at No 1, with perhaps more predictable contenders Doom and Super Mario Bros coming in second and third respectively.How has this happened, especially considering the game was considered a financial failure at the time of its release, falling short of recouping its then staggering development costs (a reported $70m, which would now get you about a third of Horizon Forbidden West or Star Wars Outlaws)? Well, nostalgia is a funny thing - and so is the concept of cultural influence. When it was released more than two decades ago, Shenmue was an oddity: an open-world role-playing adventure that followed martial arts student Ryo Hazuki as he sought revenge for the murder of his father. But while there were fights and puzzles galore, there was also a lot of ... other stuff. The game used an internal clock to switch between day and night, and to cycle through seasons. Often, the people Ryo needed to speak to (or beat up) were only available at certain times, so he had to kill time by wandering the streets of mid-1980s Yokosuka. You could go to shops, play old Sega arcade games, you could visit the hotdog stand. The world was filled with eccentric characters and strange mini-games - including the aforementioned forklift races. Continue reading...
by Lonny Avi Brooks and Reynaldo Anderson on (#6WC94)
Afrofuturism knows that futures are made - and that who gets to make them is a political questionThe digital age sings a seductive song of progress, yet a deliberate erasure echoes within its circuits. We stand at a crossroads, where technology, particularly the promise of artificial intelligence, threatens both to illuminate and to obliterate.Whose perspectives will shape, and whose will be erased from, the future we build? AI, in particular, has become the latest battleground in a culture war that oscillates between unchecked techno-optimism and dystopian fear. We are told, on one hand, that AI will save us - from disease, inefficiency, ignorance - on the other, that it will replace us, dominate us, erase us.Lonny Avi Brooks is Professor and Chair of Communication at Cal State East Bay, co-founder of the AfroRithm Futures Group, and co-creator of AfroRithms From The Future, a visionary storytelling game that imagines liberated futures through Black, Indigenous, and Queer perspectivesReynaldo Anderson is Associate Professor of Africology and African American Studies Temple UniversityAcknowledgements: we wish to acknowledge Ben Hamamoto and Sheree Renee Thomas for their review of this article and their thoughtful suggestions and edits. Continue reading...
by Hannah Al-Othman North of England correspondent on (#6WC6T)
Forty items on display in Manchester, collated by information commissioner, chart evolution of personal data usage over 40 yearsForty years ago, it would take a four-drawer filing cabinet to store 10,000 documents. You would need 736 floppy disks to hold those same files; now it takes up no physical space at all to store 10,000 documents on the cloud.As data storage has evolved, so too has the whole information landscape, and with it the challenges of storing, transferring and appropriately using people's personal data. Continue reading...
Writers will gather at the Facebook owner's King's Cross office in opposition to its use of the LibGen database to train its AI modelsAuthors and other publishing industry professionals will stage a demonstration outside Meta's London office today in protest of the organisation's use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence.Novelists Kate Mosse and Tracy Chevalier as well as poet and former Royal Society of Literature chair Daljit Nagra will be among those in attendance outside the company's King's Cross office. Continue reading...
In this week's newsletter: Finally, the sequel to the revolutionary handheld console was unveiled - and it was a reminder that no one does joy like NintendoSixty minutes - that's how long Nintendo took on Wednesday afternoon to remind us that no other video game manufacturer creates joy like this one. It was the Nintendo livestream we've been waiting for: a deep dive into the new console after so much speculation. Sure, the Switch 2 is the company's first real hardware sequel - an updated and spruced-up version of its predecessor rather than a radical new piece of kit. But the updates are the intriguing part.Naturally, we're getting a larger (7.9-inch, to be precise) screen that displays in full HD at 1080p; but we're also getting re-thought Joy-Con controllers that now click to the console via strong magnets rather than those fiddly sliders we all put on the wrong way. The buttons are larger, too, so adults will be able to play Mario Kart with some semblance of skill. But the main new feature for the controllers is a new rollerball that enables each one to operate as a mouse. This will allow for new point-and-click features and some interesting control options. I like that they showed this off with a wheelchair basketball game, where you slide the controllers a long a surface to mimic pushing the wheels. Continue reading...
New console features larger screen, double the pixels and magnetically attached controllersAfter months of intense speculation and cryptic teaser videos, Nintendo has finally unveiled the successor to its Switch console. The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch on 5 June at a retail price of 395.99 for the basic package and 429.99 bundled with Mario Kart World.As expected, the screen is now larger, measuring 7.9 inches and offers double the pixels of the previous display, in 1080p resolution. It also supports up to 120 frames per second for smooth animation, as well as high dynamic range lighting for better colour contrast, while the console remains the same thickness as its predecessor. The dock allows connection to a TV with up to 4K resolution supported. Continue reading...
Drop is likely combination of ageing lineup, increased competition and backlash to Musk's politicsTesla reported a 13% drop in vehicle sales in the first three months of the year, making it the electric vehicle maker's worst quarter since 2022. It's another sign that Elon Musk's once high-flying electric car company is struggling to attract buyers.The drop is probably due to a combination of factors, including its ageing lineup, competition from rivals and a backlash from Musk's embrace of rightwing politics. It also is a warning that the company's first-quarter earnings report later this month could disappoint investors. Continue reading...
Parents can block children from talking to certain people and get detailed screen-time insights on site popular with under-13sParents can now block their children from communicating with specific friends or playing certain games on Roblox, an online gaming platform popular with children.The changes form part of a suite of safety updates intended to give parents more control over their child's experience on the platform. Continue reading...
Owner ByteDance required to find non-Chinese buyer for video app's American operations by SaturdayDonald Trump will consider a final proposal" over the sale of TikTok's US operations on Wednesday, according to reports, as a Saturday deadline looms for the Chinese-controlled app to find a buyer.The White House is finalising plans for a deal involving US investors, possibly including the tech firm Oracle and the private equity firm Blackstone, CBS News reported. Even Amazon has thrown in a last-minute bid to buy the popular social media app, according to multiple reports. Continue reading...
Tony Blair Institute says enforcing stricter licensing rules for copyright-protected material will threaten national security interestsTony Blair's thinktank has urged the UK to relax copyright laws in order to let artificial intelligence firms build new products, as it warned a tougher approach could strain the transatlantic relationship.The Tony Blair Institute said enforcing firm copyright measures would strain ties with the US, which is poised to announce tariffs on UK goods on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Ministerial revision of privacy rules could allow targeting of voters with political messaging, rights groups fearPrivacy campaigners have warned that voters' personal data could be used to target them with political messaging under new laws.In a letter written to Chris Bryant, the data protection minister, and the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, campaigners said there was potential for abuse of new powers" in the data protection legislation, which was introduced to parliament at the end of 2024. Continue reading...
As demonstrations against Elon Musk and his political ties spread, Tesla owners find themselves caught in a growing debate - turning a once-iconic brand into a symbol of divisionOver the weekend, protesters gathered at Tesla showrooms in hundreds of cities across the world to demonstrate against Elon Musk laying waste the US government in alliance with Donald Trump. Their goal: stigmatize Tesla's cars. One sign in Manhattan read: Burn a Tesla, save democracy." Protesters are using the commercial democracy of consumer products to influence US political democracy.My colleagues Dara Kerr and Edward Helmore report:Musk's political ventures are forcing many Tesla owners to either be a spokesperson for or against the companyTesla investors brace for global sales data amid consumer backlash over Elon MuskElon Musk hands out $1m checks to voters amid Wisconsin supreme court election raceBy ghiblifying this woman, the White House inadvertently made a previously deported felon and literal fentanyl trafficker sympatheticHow to protect your phone and data privacy at the US borderHow and why parents and teachers are introducing young children to AISim farms', high heels, zombie knives: what scammers buy with the money they stealCalling all fashion models ... now AI is coming for youIs it safe? Is it spying? Disquiet over NHS magic eye' surveillance camera in mental health unitsThe controversial California city backed by tech elite has a new plan: boatsFrom smash-proof cases to updates: how to make your smartphone last longer Continue reading...
Supercharge your search and beat the screening, sharpen your speaking skills and boost your negotiating positionThe fear that artificial intelligence (AI) will replace millions of jobs is widespread. But equally, in today's tough job market, not using AI wisely as part of your search could mean you miss out. It's a tricky balancing act to harness the technology's power without losing the human touch. Continue reading...
I am a crime writer, I understand theft,' said Val McDermid - joining Richard Osman, Kazuo Ishiguro and Kate Mosse in their appeal to Lisa Nandy to act on their behalfA group of prominent authors including Richard Osman, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kate Mosse and Val McDermid have signed an open letter calling on the UK government to hold Meta accountable over its use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence.The letter asked Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, to summon Meta senior executives to parliament. Continue reading...
A haul of items seized by police reveals the scale and threat of payment fraud - a crime that can have significant emotional impact on victimsOn a shelf between Alexander McQueen shoes, Louis Vuitton handbags and Versace heels in the police evidence room are an 18-inch machete and a serrated zombie knife. Alongside the expensive fashions bought with the proceeds of serious fraud are the tools needed to achieve it, says DCI PaulCurtis.These are serious offenders and for whatever reason they felt the need to have these to protect themselves," he says. Among the other tools are Sim farms" bought on the dark web, which scammers use to send out numerous text messages at once; stacks of laptops; and mobile phones and payment card readers. Continue reading...
Musk denied he was buying votes but said the court election outcome would be critical to Trump's agenda and the future of civilization'Elon Musk gave out $1m checks on Sunday to two Wisconsin voters, declaring them spokespeople for his political group, ahead of a Wisconsin supreme court election that the tech billionaire cast as critical to Donald Trump's agenda and the future of civilization".It's a super big deal," he told a roughly 2,000-person crowd in Green Bay on Sunday night, taking the stage in a yellow cheesehead hat. I'm not phoning it in. I'm here in person." Continue reading...
As fashion brands create AI twins' with models' permission, some believe this is just another form of exploitationThe impact of AI has been felt across industries from Hollywood to publishing - and now it's come for modelling. H&M announced last week that it would create AI twins" of 30 models with the intention of using them in social media posts and marketing imagery if the model gives her permission.In a statement, Jorgen Andersson, the chief creative officer at H&M, described the idea as something that will enhance our creative process and how we work with marketing but fundamentally not change our human-centric approach in any way". Continue reading...
Guardian readers share the ways and reasons they are preparing their children and students for a future that may necessitate familiarity with generative artificial intelligenceSince the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, generative artificial intelligence has trickled down from adults in their offices to university students in campus libraries to teenagers in high school hallways. Now it's reaching the youngest among us, and parents and teachers are grappling with the most responsible way to introduce their under-13s to a new technology that may fundamentally reshape the future. Though the terms of service for ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and other AI models specify that the tools are only meant for those over 13, parents and teachers are taking the matter of AI education into their own hands.Inspired by a story we published on parents who are teaching their children to use AI to set them up for success in school and at work, we asked Guardian readers how and why - or why not - others are doing the same. Though our original story only concerned parents, we have also included teachers in the responses published below, as preparing children for future studies and jobs is one of educators' responsibilities as well. Continue reading...
by Jon Ungoed-Thomas, Lucas Amin and Natasha Ion on (#6W952)
Campaign calls for investigation into the use of Oxevison amid concerns over care and its effect on patientsIn July 2022, Morgan-Rose Hart, an aspiring vet with a passion for wildlife, died after she was found unresponsive at a mental health unit in Essex. She had just turned 18. Diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Hart's mental health had been badly affected by bullying, which had forced her to move school several times. She had previously tried to take her own life and was transferred to the unit, in Harlow, three weeks before her death.Hart, from Chelmsford in Essex, died on 12 July 2022 after being found unresponsive on the bathroom floor. A prevention of future deaths report issued after her inquest found that critical checks were missed, observation records were falsified and risk assessments were not completed. Continue reading...
We asked the experts about keeping luggage as light as possible (and still being ready for anything) The best travel-size toiletries for your next tripPacking is a fine art. No one wants to lug heavy bags around transport hubs or arrive at the other end to a chaotically stuffed bag full of creased clothes. But we all have our essentials" to cram in. For some, that'll be a full skincare routine or a semblance of a wardrobe; for others, it'll be sports equipment (though you really should leave the weights at home). So whether you're flying on an airline offering ever-dwindling luggage limits, trying to cram a car for the whole crew, or rushing between trains with a backpack, it really does pay to travel light.But what are the secrets to lightening the load without compromising? To find out, we've asked world travellers for all their best hacks and buys. Whether it's the travel writer who's been solo backpacking for more than 20 years or the hotel designer who has to dress smartly while zipping to locations across Europe, our globe-trotters shared their tips for everything from the ultimate wear-everywhere shoes to the best tech cheats. Continue reading...
Protesters gathered outside Tesla showrooms around the world on Saturday as part of a global day of action against billionaire chief executive Elon Musk. The protest is part of the Tesla Takedown movement - a grassroots campaign that calls for people to boycott Tesla, sell their shares and join local picket lines in a peaceful demonstration against Musk's influence
From Australia to Europe and the US, demonstrators rallied against carmaker's dismantling of US federal governmentThousands of people worldwide on Saturday protested Elon Musk and his efforts with Donald Trump to dismantle the US federal government, with rallies held in front of nearly every Tesla showroom in the US and many around the world - a concerted effort to go after the billionaire's deep pockets as the CEO of the electric vehicle maker.Protest organizers asked people to do three things: don't buy a Tesla, sell off Tesla stock and join the Tesla Takedown" movement. Continue reading...
Elliott Ingram was stunned at how a thief made off with his Ioniq 5 deploying a device to mimic the smart key - and says he should have been warnedThe motor manufacturer Hyundai faces legal action over allegations it failed to warn its customers that one of its most popular models of electric cars could be stolen effortlessly in seconds". Elliott Ingram, an expert in digital security, was stunned when a CCTV camera installed at his home recorded a hooded thief stealing his Hyundai Ioniq 5 car in less than 20seconds.The thief is believed to have used a device, available online, to mimic the car's electronic key. It is the latest in a spate of thefts involving the vehicle, and many owners now resort to a steering lock. Ingram's car was later recovered by police, but he is terminating the lease and seeking compensation from the motor company. He says the South Korean car giant should have alerted customers to the security vulnerabilities. Continue reading...
The author and podcast host on a favourite restaurant, adventures in scholastic research for his PhD and the second series of Squid GameBorn George Mpanga in north-west London in 1991, George the Poet is a spoken-word artist, author and podcast host. He studied politics, psychology and sociology at King's College, Cambridge and is now doing a PhD at UCL about the economic and cultural potential of black music. Aged 22 he signed with Island Records and released an EP before stepping away from the music industry. His award-winning podcast, Have You Heard George's Podcast?, launched in 2018. Last year he published Track Record: Me, Music and the War on Blackness. He will perform in RISE at the Royal Festival Hall on 25 April, as part of the Southbank Centre's new arts festival, Multitudes. Continue reading...
Venture capital-backed, $1bn companies are disrupting the way war will be waged with AI and futuristic weapons. Will they overthrow the traditional big military manufacturers, and what would that mean for the battlefield?Visit tech startup Skydio's headquarters on the San Francisco peninsula in California and you're likely to find flying robots buzzing on the roof overhead. Docking stations with motorised covers open to allow small drones that resemble the TIE fighters from Star Wars films to take off; when each drone lands back again, they close. The drones can fly completely autonomously and without GPS, taking in data from onboard cameras and using AI to execute programmed missions and avoid obstacles.Skydio, with more than $740m in venture capital funding and a valuation of about $2.5bn, makes drones for the military along with civilian organisations such as police forces and utility companies. The company moved away from the consumer market in 2020 and is now the largest US drone maker. Military uses touted on its website include gaining situational awareness on the battlefield and autonomously patrolling bases. Continue reading...
Born of our craving for nuance, these ubiquitous little icons are now causing confusion themselvesEmojis are right now. Netflix's Adolescence hinges on them. The US national security adviser, Mike Waltz, celebrates bombing Yemen with them. Prince William has a fondness for the aubergine.Emoji use may seem childish or trite, but it's not a passing fad. It's increasingly a language in its own right and evolving fast. Not so long ago, few would bother searching for an icon when just typing a word is clearer and - crucially - quicker. That was then. Now, more and more people lean on those ubiquitous little icons. Continue reading...
Join a loyalty scheme and you often get a reward or discount on your special day - but it may have strings attachedCelebrating your birthday isn't just about getting presents and cards from family and friends. Signing up to loyalty schemes and newsletters can give you access to a host of freebies, deals and discounts from retailers to mark the big day.With my birthday on the horizon I decided to look at what was on offer, and see which gifts came with some small print. Continue reading...
Some voice regret over Musk's backing of Trump, but others say CEO's views do not detract from the car's appealTesla showrooms across the world are expected to face anti-Elon Musk protests on Saturday, as Musk's senior role in the Trump administration has contributed to a European consumer backlash by some Tesla owners and prospective buyers.It follows a 44% drop in Tesla sales in Europe on average last month, according to the research platform Jato Dynamics. Tesla's European market share fell to 9.6% last month, the lowest it has registered in February for five years. Continue reading...
Misogynist ideas being normalised as accounts rebrand, with focus on Sub5s' and looksmaxxing', say researchersAdvocates of incel" ideology are rebranding as Sub5s" and adopting the language of self-improvement to push their content on TikTok, according to a study.Hateful material is banned from the social media site but accounts disseminating the beliefs are said to be hiding behind new terms and socially palatable" language. Continue reading...
Specifics of deal remain unclear, including how X's leaders will be integrated into new companyElon Musk's xAI artificial intelligence firm has acquired Musk's X - the social media platform formerly known as Twitter - for $33bn, marking the latest twist in the billionaire's rapid consolidation of power.The all-stock deal announced on Friday combines two of Musk's multiple portfolio companies, which also include automaker Tesla and SpaceX, and potentially eases Musk's ability to train his AI model known as Grok. Continue reading...
Stick vacuums are a convenient alternative to corded designs, but which model wins for overall cleaning prowess? Our expert reveals all The best robot vacuums to keep your home clean and dust freeChoosing a cordless vacuum isn't a decision that should be taken lightly. You're likely to keep a vacuum cleaner for years, relying heavily on its ability to suck up dust, crumbs, mud, pet hair and any other dry spillages or sheddings that end up on your floor. Choosing the right model can be the difference between an effective cleaner that's a delight to pull out of the cupboard and a dud that you dread having to unblock, detangle and clean after every use.In this review, I took 10 of the leading cordless vacuum cleaners from a range of manufacturers and at various prices and inflicted the same cleaning tests on each one. That takes all the guesswork out of picking your next cleaner: I can tell you exactly which ones picked up the most mess.Best cordless vacuum cleaner overall:
Motormouth v Musk is a hard spectacle to resist and, in the end, it turns out the monsters are realWith all the other conflicts going on in the world right now, Elon Musk v Jeremy Clarkson is one we could probably safely afford to sit out. I am weak-willed, however, and click through to the story in the Times to test the principle of my enemy's enemy is my friend". Musk is a real villain and Clarkson is just a motormouth, but I suspect the latter - for reasons of basic functionality and the sort of flippant humour with which Musk seems ill-equipped to cope - is capable of getting the better of the world's richest man, should these latest remarks of Clarkson's come to his attention. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6W73Z)
There's no need to buy a new phone every year: make yours last with these accessories, and tips on maximising the battery and storageModern smartphones have reached a plateau. Each new release makes only small gains, rendering frequent upgrades to new models a waste of time and money.The good news is that smartphones now last a long time: look after yours properly and it could last seven years or more. Here's how to make your phone go the distance. Continue reading...
The developers of Thank Goodness You're Here!, Frog Detective and Consume Me discuss burnout, second-album syndrome', erotic fan art, and the other highs and lows of having a breakout successIt is now more or less impossible to put a precise figure on the number of video games released each year. According to data published by the digital store Steam, almost 19,000 titles were released in 2024 - and that's just on one platform. Hundreds more arrived on consoles and smartphones. In some ways this is the positive sign of a vibrant industry, but how on earth does a new project get noticed? When Triple A titles with multimillion dollar marketing budgets are finding it hard to gain attention (disappointing sales have been reported for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the Final Fantasy VII remakes and EA Sports FC), what chance is there for a small team to break out?And yet it does happen. Last year's surprise hit Balatro has shifted more than 5m copies. Complex medieval strategy title Manor Lords sold 1m copies during its launch weekend. But what awaits a small developer after they achieve success? And what does success even mean in a continuously evolving industry? Continue reading...
US president acknowledges Beijing's role in any sale as app's owner faces 5 April deadline to find non-Chinese buyer or be hit with US banDonald Trump has said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the social media app used by 170 million Americans.He acknowledged the role China would play in any agreement. With respect to TikTok, and China is going to have to play a role in that, possibly in the form of an approval, maybe, and I think they'll do that," Trump told reporters on Wednesday. Maybe I'll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done," he added. Continue reading...
Longlisted for the Women's prize, this powerful dystopian novel imagines people jailed for their potential to commit crimesArriving home at Los Angeles international airport, Sara Hussein is asked by immigration and customs officers to step aside, then taken to an interview room. The fundamentals of this scene are familiar - you've probably watched something like it in a film, or dreamed about it happening to you; perhaps it already has. But Sara lives in a new world, several decades in the future, and she is being arrested because Scout, the state's AI security system, has flagged something irregular inside her mind.Sara seems unexceptional: she's a museum archivist, married and mother to young twins. She once had an argument with her husband Elias after he impulsively part-exchanged the family Toyota for a Volvo. Sara sees herself as a person who couldn't possibly be considered a member of the lawbreaking classes", until the moment at the airport when an officer informs her that her risk score" is too high, and sends her to Madison, a California women's retention centre housed in a former elementary school. At Madison, a record of good behaviour will lower her score; however, this record lies in the hands of her guards. She is not sufficiently subordinate, and can't get her number down. Continue reading...
With reports of people being turned away at airports over messages found on devices, here's what to do to minimize risksWelcome to Opt Out, a semi-regular column in which we help you navigate your online privacy and show you how to say no to surveillance. The last column covered what to do with your 23andMe account after the company filed bankruptcy. If you'd like to skip to a section about a particular tip, click the Jump to" menu at the top of this article.If you're a visa or green card holder with plans to travel to the US, reports of people being turned away at airports over messages found on their devices might be prompting you to second-guess your travel plans. You might be asking whether Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can search your phone, whether you can opt out and what you should do to minimize your risks. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Senior political correspondent on (#6W5XW)
Public accounts committee also flags persistent digital skills shortages' and uncompetitive civil service pay ratesThe government's ambition to boost efficiency by embedding AI in all aspects of its work risks being undermined by out-of-date technology, poor quality data and a lack of skilled staff, an influential Commons committee has warned.The report by the cross-party public accounts committee (PAC) found that more than 20 government IT systems identified as legacy", meaning out of date and unsupported, have yet to be given funding to improve them. Continue reading...
Fintech firm, operating CashApp, Square and Tidal, to close nearly 800 open jobs in second such move in just over a yearBlock, Jack Dorsey's financial technology company, plans to let go almost 1,000 current employees, while making other changes to its operations in its second such move in just over a year.Dorsey, who co-founded and previously ran Twitter before co-founding Block in 2009, informed employees of the impending cuts on Tuesday in an email, viewed by the Guardian, titled smaller block". The layoffs will impact more than 930 employees, with another nearly 200 managers being moved into non-management roles, and another nearly 800 open jobs will be closed, according to the email. Continue reading...
Tech startup says it bought company once linked to music piracy to transform it into a social music platform for artistsA brand that was notoriously connected to music piracy before re-emerging as a subscription music service, has been sold to Infinite Reality for $207m.The tech startup announced on Tuesday it had bought Napster in hopes of transforming the streaming service into a social music platform where artists can connect with fans and better monetize off their work. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian