Technology | The Guardian

In this week’s newsletter: Follow Rotherham and Oxford’s coaches through their tense end of season run-ins in Moment of Truth. Plus: five of the best podcasts for gamers

Mojang Studios says use of non-fungible tokens does not align with the game’s ‘values of creative inclusion and playing together’Minecraft will not allow non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be used on the popular gaming platform, with the company describing them as antithetical to Minecraft’s “values of creative inclusion and playing together”.NFTs confer ownership of a unique digital item, typically an image or a video, with the ownership recorded on a decentralised digital register known as a blockchain. Continue reading...

App is used by 7% of adults for news with nearly half turning to TikTokers rather than conventional outlets for updatesWatch out Huw Edwards, the TikTokers are coming. The social video platform is the fastest growing news source for UK adults, according to a survey, but nearly half of people using it for current affairs turn to fellow TikTokers rather than conventional news organisations for their updates.TikTok is used by 7% of adults for news, according to the UK’s communications watchdog, up from 1% in 2020. The growth is primarily driven by young users, with half of its news followers aged 16 to 24. Continue reading...

CEO Elon Musk said the cryptocurrency sale was to maximize its cash position only, but prices still slid after Wednesday’s reportTesla’s second quarter of 2022 came to a shaky end as the electric carmaker reported a drop in profit after it struggled to meet demand due to a shutdown of its Shanghai factory and production challenges at new plants. The company also sold 75% of its bitcoin holdings, leading to a slide in the cryptocurrency price.Tesla’s second-quarter profit fell 32% from record levels in the first quarter, with the company reporting a $2.26bn net profit on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The Meta CEO, and former COO Sheryl Sandberg will be questioned as part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Facebook users in CaliforniaMark Zuckerberg, CEO of the Facebook parent company Meta, will face a six-hour deposition over the way the company handled user data relating to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to new court filings.The deposition comes as part of a lawsuit filed in a California court on behalf of Facebook users impacted by the platform’s partnership with Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm accused of manipulating user data. Continue reading...

Tax benefit was part of £850m in tax credits provided to online retailer by governments across EuropeAmazon’s core UK division was handed a tax credit of just over £1m last year by HM Revenue and Customs despite the online retailer’s profits soaring by almost 60% to £204m.The tax benefit was part of €1bn (£850m) in tax credits provided to Amazon by governments across Europe, up from €56m a year before, according to accounts filed for the US company’s Luxembourg-based division. Continue reading...

Judge in Delaware denies Tesla chief’s bid to delay trial, as Twitter seeks verdict that will force Musk to complete $44bn takeoverTwitter has won the first legal skirmish in its attempt to force Elon Musk to complete a $44bn (£36.7bn) takeover of the social media company, after a judge ruled that a trial will take place in October.Legal experts said the ruling in Delaware was good news for Twitter, which had asked for a fast-track process to settle the dispute. A Delaware judge said there was a “cloud of uncertainty” hanging over Twitter and accepted the company’s argument that a delay would cause severe damage to the business. Continue reading...

The company joins other tech firms in slowing hiring as fears grow that inflation will lower consumer demandApple is reportedly planning to slow hiring and spending growth next year to cope with an economic downturn, which would place it in the company of American tech companies including Facebook, Amazon and Google in enacting similar measures.The changes, first reported by Bloomberg, would not affect all teams, and Apple is reportedly still planning a major product launch scheduled for next year that includes a mixed-reality headset, its first significant new category since the Apple Watch in 2015. Continue reading...

Dominik Diamond hasn’t had the best month – but scampering around in a virtual world full of robot dinosaurs has at least given him a breakThe worst thing about video games is also the best thing: their addictiveness. When you find the right one? The rest of the world can go to hell. That helped me as a child: I could use them to escape the more painful parts of growing up. Parents didn’t fight in Manic Miner. You didn’t have to worry about Stephen Gibson battering you on the way home from school in Chuckie Egg.As a parent of young kids, I was a dreadful hypocrite, always saying they should be doing something more worthwhile than playing Mario Kart – even though, when they would ask me “like WHAT, Dad?”, the only answer I could think of was “the stuff the other parents brag about their kids doing on Facebook”. Continue reading...

An opaque council controls smartphone access for Israel’s Haredim population, but many are making forays online anywayTel Aviv’s booming science and technology industry, bolstered by graduates of elite state intelligence units, has earned Israel the nickname “start-up nation”.Yet in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox suburb just a few miles east of Tel Aviv’s skyscrapers, a vicious fight is unfolding over whether smartphones are compatible with traditional Jewish law - and who should have the power to decide on internet access. Continue reading...

PC, Xbox; Interior Night/Microsoft

A new study says many employees think a work communication without an emoji lacks something. But with generations split over their meanings, sending them is not risk-freeName: Workplace emojis.Age: 25. The first set of emojis hit Japanese phones in 1997. Continue reading...

PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (version tested); BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive

Latest findings suggest Rwandan government has deployed surveillance campaign against relatives of Paul RusesabaginaThe mobile phone of a Belgian citizen who is the nephew of Paul Rusesabagina, a jailed critic of the Rwandan government made famous by his portrayal in Hotel Rwanda, was hacked nearly a dozen times in 2020 using Israeli-made surveillance technology, according to forensic experts at The Citizen Lab.The findings follow earlier revelations by the Guardian and other media partners in the Pegasus Project, an investigation of Israel’s NSO Group, that Rusesabagina’s daughter, a dual American-Belgian national named Carine Kanimba, was under near-constant surveillance by a client of NSO Group from January to mid-2021, when the hacking attack was discovered by researchers at Amnesty International’s security lab. Continue reading...

‘Foxes are guarding hen house,’ says expert after ministers seek tougher industry-led protections insteadLoot boxes in video games will not be banned in the UK, despite a government consultation finding evidence of a “consistent” association between the features and problem gambling.Loot boxes have attracted comparison with gambling because they allow players to spend money to unlock in-game rewards, such as special characters, weapons or outfits, without knowing what they will get. Continue reading...

The Conservatives have kicked the sprawling document, which aimed for a political Goldilocks zone and ended up a hot mess, firmly down the roadThe Goldilocks theory of policy is simple enough. If Mummy Bear says your latest government bill is too hot, and Daddy Bear says your latest government bill is too cold, then you can tuck in knowing that the actual temperature is just right.Unfortunately, the Goldilocks theory sometimes fails. You learn that what you actually have in front of you is less a perfectly heated bowl of porridge and more a roast chicken you popped in the oven still frozen: frosty on the inside, burnt on the outside, and harmful to your health if you try to eat it. Continue reading...

Customers to the online retailer’s first in-person location were disappointed by the limited selection and algorithmic picksOutside Amazon’s first in-person clothing store in California, Diemmi Le, 22, summed up her experience: “You don’t have to talk to anybody.”For years, Amazon tried – and ultimately failed – to translate its online book business into successful brick and mortar bookstores. Dozens of stores were shuttered this spring. Now, the online shopping giant is trying again, this time attempting to reinvent the mall clothing store. Continue reading...

An investigation revealed that companies use enough energy to power Houston, and contribute to growing carbon emissionsThe largest US cryptomining companies have the capacity to use as much electricity as nearly every home in Houston, Texas; energy use that is contributing to rising utility bills, according to an investigation by Democratic lawmakers.Cryptomining is a highly energy intensive process involving the use of specialized computers running constantly to solve complex math problems in order to create new virtual coins. Continue reading...

Lawyers for the billionaire oppose company’s request that the trial begin in SeptemberElon Musk has filed a motion opposing Twitter’s request to fast-track a trial over his plan to terminate his $44bn deal for the social media company.Musk’s lawyers, in papers filed with the Delaware Chancery court on Friday, said Twitter’s “unjustifiable request” to rush the merger case to trial in two months should be rejected. Continue reading...

Company says it was faced with ‘run on the bank’ amid ‘cryptopocalypse’ as investors raced to withdraw assetsThe cryptocurrency platform Celsius Network was left with a $1.2bn (£1bn) deficit after suffering from a digital version of an old-fashioned “run on the bank”, according to its bankruptcy filing in the US.Blaming a combination of its own poor decisions, a global “cryptopocalypse” and unfavourable media coverage, the company filed for Chapter 11 – a US process that allows companies to trade while restructuring their finances. Continue reading...

In viral videos, content creators film themselves surprising strangers with toys, food and wads of cash – whether they like it or not

US company says recruitment drive will take permanent workforce in Britain to 75,000Amazon is creating more than 4,000 permanent jobs across the UK this year, the company has announced.It said the recruitment drive would bring its permanent workforce in the UK to 75,000, having created 40,000 new jobs in the past three years. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Explore the shocking murder of the Maltese journalist, with input from her son – and the man who confessed to her killing – in Who Killed Daphne? Plus: five of the best podcasts for book-lovers

Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert award-winner could transform lives of kidney disease patients, say expertsA home dialysis machine inspired by technology used in fruit juice dispensers has won the UK’s most prestigious engineering prize.The device, made by Quanta, is currently used by about 50 patients in the UK, but more than a dozen NHS trusts are planning to offer the technology to patients this year and experts say it could transform the lives of kidney disease patients. Continue reading...

World’s richest man posts series of memes after legal team confirmed plans to pull plug on Twitter takeoverElon Musk broke his silence on Monday over his attempt to bail out on buying Twitter for $44bn, mocking the company before the firm hit back with a statement of its own that called his attempted termination “invalid and wrongful”.Early on Monday, the world’s richest man went on the social media platform he claims he is no longer trying to buy and fired off a series of tweets suggesting he is gearing up for a likely legal battle. Continue reading...

‘Buy now, pay later’ firm, once Europe’s most valuable private tech company, valued at less than $7bnKlarna, the “buy now, pay later” fintech darling that was once Europe’s most valuable private tech company, has seen its value slashed by 85% to less than $7bn in its latest round of fundraising.The company, which enjoyed stellar growth while also being criticised for potentially leading shoppers into unsustainable debt, announced the valuation after the conclusion of a difficult $800m funding round as investors continued to question the true worth of many tech businesses. Continue reading...

Billionaire finds platform he no longer wants to buy useful after termination of $44bn takeover

Exclusive: Mark MacGann says he has decided to speak out about firm to ‘right some fundamental wrongs’Mark MacGann, a career lobbyist who led Uber’s efforts to win over governments across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has come forward to identify himself as the source who leaked more than 124,000 company files to the Guardian.MacGann decided to speak out, he says, because he believes Uber knowingly flouted laws in dozens of countries and misled people about the benefits to drivers of the company’s gig-economy model. Continue reading...

Leak shows how the former Labour minister used his access to pro-Kremlin oligarchs, including some now under sanctionsEven before Uber’s top executives arrived in Davos in January 2016, its bosses were trying to secure invitations to the exclusive party hosted by the billionaire Russian metals magnate Oleg Deripaska. Famous for its free-flowing vodka, the event was an invitation-only, after-hours fixture of the world economic forum, the annual gathering of corporate leaders and politicians in the Swiss Alps.Fortunately for Uber, it had hired someone who could pull strings. “Put them on list at door,” ordered Peter Mandelson, according to messages in the Uber files data leak. Continue reading...

Greater accuracy, longer battery and full support for triathlons makes the best running watch even betterGarmin’s latest running watch has been upgraded in almost every way, bringing multisport tracking, more advanced GPS and a bunch of high-end features down to a more affordable price with the Forerunner 255.The longstanding series is available in two sizes for the first time with the 255 – a small 41mm-wide case and a larger 46mm model, which means it should fit comfortably on a wider range of runners’ wrists. But it has very big shoes to fill, replacing the well-regarded Forerunner 245 from 2019. Continue reading...

The US firm used Tory connections to wage a relentless UK lobbying campaign, leaked files show

Four creators share their Dall-E-generated images – and their hopes and fears about AI in artYou type in words – however nonsensical or disjointed – and the algorithm creates a unique image based on your search. This is Dall-E 2, a startlingly advanced, image-generating AI trained on 250 million images, named after the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and Pixar’s Wall-E.While use of Dall-E 2 is currently limited to a narrow pool of people, Dall-E mini (or Craiyon) is a free, unrelated version that is open to the public. Drawing on 15m images, Dall-E mini’s algorithm offers a smorgasbord of surreal images, complete with absurd compositions and blurred human forms. Continue reading...

Uber sought access to leaders, officials and diplomats through David Plouffe and Jim Messina, leak shows

Leak suggests former CEO believed there was an upside to attacks on drivers as firm campaigned for law changes

Striking a balance between protecting your data, ensuring your personal security and getting the most out of dating apps can be tricky. Here’ some advice on the dos and don’tsIn an online wild west populated by scammers and hackers, dating apps pose challenges beyond just finding a partner. It’s getting harder to tell if your date is who they say they are, and that’s before you consider the data security and privacy implications of using the apps on your smartphone.It’s difficult to maintain privacy when apps such as Hinge, Tinder and Bumble need to collect data to match you with potential dates. Then there’s the data you share with other users – including your sexual orientation, age and social media information – that could put you at risk if it gets into the wrong hands. Continue reading...

Billionaire avoids talking of collapse of $44bn deal but talks about colonizing Mars and boosting Earth’s birthrates at conferenceElon Musk reportedly talked about the colonization of Mars and boosting Earth’s birthrates during his keynote address at Allen & Co’s Sun Valley conference on Saturday, but he avoided discussing his attempt to withdraw from his $44bn bid to buy Twitter.Musk’s talk to close out this year’s edition of the Idaho conference which annually draws tech, media and finance gurus became one of the hottest tickets after lawyers for the Tesla boss filed notice Friday that he was terminating his bid to acquire Twitter. The billionaire accused the social media firm of failing to provide information on bot accounts, among other things, making observers wonder whether he would address such complaints at his speech scheduled for the next day. Continue reading...

Venture capitalist Matthew Ball’s new book explores the three-dimensional virtual world that is set to supersede the net. What might this alternative digital reality have in store for users?Venture capitalist Matthew Ball first wrote about the metaverse in 2018 and his essays have become essential reading for entrepreneurs and tech watchers who are attempting to understand or profit from the network Mark Zuckerberg and many others are anticipating will supersede the internet. Ball is former head of strategy at Amazon Studios and his first book, The Metaverse: How It Will Revolutionize Everything, is published later in July.What is the metaverse?

Scientists alarmed at claims of releasing 10m frogs and 100m ladybugs to rack up viewers as relocating species can have ‘extremely negative consequences’A TikTok “frog army” has racked up millions of likes – but the potential consequences of the bizarre stunt are no joke, experts say.In February of this year, a young TikTok user who claims to be based in the UK started building out a “frog army” after noticing “some type of eggs in a shallow pond near his home”. In recent videos, he claimed to have gathered more than 1.4m eggs that have hatched into tadpoles in a backyard pool he built. “I wanted to create the largest frog army in history,” he said in one video. “Next year I will create a giant pond for 10 million frogs.” Continue reading...

Dance groups urge amateur dancers to seek formal training before attempting advanced TikTok movesAspiring dancers are risking injury by copying advanced moves and taking part in viral challenges on TikTok, leading dance organisations have warned.The Royal Academy of Dance says young people should be careful when attempting to recreate moves by professional dancers, or taking part in challenges on social media. Continue reading...

The photographer on capturing a private moment in India’s pink cityPrarthna Singh describes the nationwide oxygen and bed shortages during India’s second wave of Covid, in April 2021, as a “traumatic time for everyone. People were carrying their loved ones from city to city. We all felt helpless.”At the time, the photographer was living with her parents in Jaipur, Rajasthan, the “pink city”. The maharajah had most buildings painted this colour – which indicates hospitality – to welcome the Prince of Wales in 1876. Singh’s portrait, of her mother meditating and stretching in her garden, echoes this history. Continue reading...

Senegalese-Italian has enjoyed a meteoric rise, becoming the most followed creator on video appLike many of us, Khaby Lame turned to TikTok in the early days of the pandemic. The Senegalese-Italian had just lost his job working in a factory in Chivasso, a suburb of Turin 12 miles north-east of the city centre, thanks to Covid and was at a loss for what to do.Just as countless others did, he began posting videos – at first, videos in subtitled Italian, but later silent, up-close reactions to absurd events. Unlike most of us, Lame’s dalliance with the short-form video-sharing app turned serious. After an astronomical two years, the 22-year-old is now the king of TikTok. Continue reading...

Analysis: billionaire could be fined $1bn for walking away – and he risks new lawsuits and even his job, experts sayElon Musk withdrew his $44bn bid to buy Twitter on Friday after a months-long saga that rankled investors and shook the market, kicking off what may be a long legal battle with the company.The Twitter chair, Bret Taylor, said on Friday that the social media firm would sue in a Delaware court to enforce the deal. The deal included a “specific performance” clause, a provision that may force Musk to buy the company as long as he has financing in place. Musk in May said he had secured financing to complete the deal. Continue reading...

Walking away will not be easy for the world’s richest man, as Twitter says it will sue to keep deal aliveElon Musk has withdrawn his $44bn bid to buy Twitter after a dramatic few weeks of speculation that his deal to take over the company was falling apart.“Mr Musk is terminating the merger agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr Musk relied when entering into the merger agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect,” wrote lawyers for Musk to Twitter. Continue reading...

From Platform 9¾ in Harry Potter to Bill and Ted’s phone booth, a new exhibition about portals explores the ways we’ll soon be moving around the metaverseWith its hidden doors, folding walls and clever optical tricks with mirrors and light-wells, Sir John Soane’s Museum feels like just the kind of place you might stumble across a portal to another dimension. Moving from one room to the next in this wildly reimagined London townhouse is never as straightforward as stepping through a simple doorway. The eponymous neoclassical architect and collector saw to it that the thresholds between the different parts of his house-museum were elaborate spaces in themselves, topped with lanterns and lined with mirrors and windows, offering views up, down and through his multi-levelled maze of antique treasures.

Washington Post says Musk team has stopped certain funding discussions as Tesla CEO questions spam account figuresThe planned takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk is in “serious jeopardy”, according to a report, sending shares in the company 4% lower in after-hours trading on Wall Street.Musk’s team has stopped certain discussions around funding for the $44bn deal, according to a report in the Washington Post, citing three people familiar with the matter. The report said Musk had concluded that Twitter’s figures on spam accounts – a bone of contention in the deal – were not verifiable. Continue reading...

Maintaining a feelgood atmosphere is now a job aimed at keeping prospective investors interested – and distracting holders from a troubled marketDon’t call it a collapse – it’s just a vibe shift.Since January, the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has been locked in a downward spiral, with sales on one popular platform falling to less than one-seventh of their January peak, and the buyer of the so-called “Mona Lisa of the digital world” – a $2.9m NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet – being forced to sell for just $6,800. Continue reading...

The decision by California jurors brings to close a 13-week trial of Elizabeth Holmes’s former lover and business partnerThe former Theranos executive Sunny Balwani has been convicted on all 12 fraud charges brought against him for his role at the now-defunct blood testing company.The decision closes the final chapter of Theranos’s legal saga, nearly eight years after serious concerns were raised about the startup’s blood testing technology. The conviction of Balwani, who at one point oversaw the Theranos lab and put millions of his own fortune into the company, also marks a more severe judgment than that of his former lover and business partner Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of only four of 11 of the same charges in January. Continue reading...

World’s richest man has threatened to drop acquisition of firm in dispute over fake accountsTwitter has revealed that it is suspending more than 1m spam accounts a day, as Elon Musk threatens to walk away from buying the business in a dispute over fake users.The new figure, confirmed by the social media platform on Thursday, represents a doubling of its previous update. Its chief executive, Parag Agrawal, said in May that spam account suspensions were running at 500,000 a day. Continue reading...

Change to online safety bill will stop sites such as YouTube barring content instantly, following TalkRadio debacleTech platforms will be barred from taking down news content in the UK until an appeal has been heard against the decision, ministers have said.A change to the online safety bill means that articles in breach of a service’s terms and conditions cannot be removed or hidden until the publisher has been notified and has received the verdict of any appeal to the platform. Continue reading...

How realistic is Peter Kosminsky’s Channel 4 drama about an IT attack on the UK? Very, according to one of the UK’s top digital intelligence expertsWhen I heard there was going to be a TV drama about cybersecurity, my initial reaction was that it was a brave thing to attempt. Trying to make what we do televisual is notoriously difficult. There is very little to see – just people tapping at keyboards and staring at screens, with most of the action going on inside their heads. So I have been pleasantly surprised by Peter Kosminsky’s Channel 4 series The Undeclared War (whose second episode airs tonight). I binge-watched the entire thing in a weekend.The cyber-attack on the UK in episode one was all too credible. I initially thought they were going to be vague and melodramatic – “The internet’s gone down!” – but the script went on to explain how the BT infrastructure, which does run a huge chunk of web traffic in the UK, had been taken offline. They specified how 55% of web access had been lost and it was cleverly timed to be a disruptive attack, rather than a disastrous one with planes falling out of the sky. You can cause a lot of chaos by taking out any of these “Tier 1 networks”. We’ve seen it happen by accident – last October, Facebook managed to wipe itself by mistake – so it’s perfectly plausible an attacker could do the same. Continue reading...