Technology | The Guardian

Businesses will be able to sell to customers through Shops, potentially posing a challenge to commerce rivals such as Amazon

The pandemic has forced the Unicode Consortium to delay new emojis in 2021 – but remixes of existing ones could be on their wayCovid-19 has taken so much from us, but now it’s come for our emojis too.Related: Coronavirus US live: Trump claims to take hydroxychloroquine and threatens to withdraw US from WHO Continue reading...

Airline apologises after credit card details of about 2,200 passengers were stolen

New model squeezes bigger screen in same body, for an excellent, affordable ultraportable PCThe Surface Go 2 is Microsoft’s second iteration of its low-cost, smaller tablet computer and continues to prove that cheap Windows PCs don’t have to be terrible.The Surface Go 2 starts at £399, but for that you don’t get the £100 Type Cover keyboard, which is a must-have. That places the Surface Go 2 in the low-end PC bracket and makes it Microsoft’s cheapest current PC, undercutting the Surface Pro 7 by £300. Continue reading...

Journalists forced to submit written questions after outages of video conferencing platform

The latest attempt by the social media giant to act as a sovereign power is breathtaking in its sheer effronteryHere we go again. Facebook, a tech company that suffers from the delusion that it’s a nation state, has had another go at pretending that it is one. Originally, you will recall, it was going to create a global currency called Libra and in effect become shadow banker to the world. Strangely, a world that normally seems hypnotised by Facebook turned out to be distinctly unimpressed by that idea; after all, who would trust Facebook with money? So the project is effectively evaporating into something that looks a bit like PayPal, which is not quite what Facebook’s supreme leader, Mark Zuckerberg, had in mind.Nothing daunted, though, Zuck has had another hubristic idea. On the grounds that Facebook is the world’s largest information-exchange autocracy (population 2.6 billion) he thinks that it should have its own supreme court. (Yes, that’s the expression he originally used: later, wiser councils – possibly a guy called Nick Clegg – persuaded him that that might be just a tad presumptuous.) So it’s now just an “oversight board for content decisions”, complete with its own charter and a 40-strong board of big shots who will, it seems, have the power “to reverse Facebook’s decisions about whether to allow or remove certain posts on the platform”. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? But it looks rather less so when you realise what it will actually be doing. It’s actually a board for locking the stable door after the horses have bolted. Let us call the Facebook oversight board by its initials: FOB. Continue reading...

From a drunk Donald Trump to storytime with Boris Johnson, women are skewering the absurdity of Covid-19 life

Many people in Britain lack internet access and sufficient tech skills, charities warn MPs

The in-game party where you can listen to DJs, do cartoonish challenges or hurl burgers while dressed as a banana is a mass-participation godsendMy son is dressed as a giant banana and he is throwing hamburgers at me. I am making my getaway on a solid gold quad bike. For once, neither of us has access to automatic weapons.No, our home schooling regime hasn’t taken a dark turn. This is Party Royale, the brand new Fortnite mode, where deadly violence is banned and where the emphasis is on messing about and engaging in non-lethal competitions – but mostly messing about. It’s only been live for a few days but already it feels like what the early-millennium online social experiment Second Life could have been if it had been built by game designers rather than Californian internet eggheads. Continue reading...

Resident Evil was reanimated, Coffee Talk brewed up a mindful treat and Final Fantasy VII made our dreams come trueThe desert-island alternate-life game that’s spawned a thousand memes, Animal Crossing offers a cute, stress-free and eminently controllable little world to escape into. Compelling and full of character, it gives plenty of reasons to come back every day. Continue reading...

PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch (version reviewed); Megagon Industries

Long battery life, comfortable and secure ear hooks and great sound for exercisingApple’s revamped Powerbeats Bluetooth workout earphones take what was great from the firm’s true wireless earbuds and add a cable, longer battery life and cheaper price.The new £129.95 Powerbeats replace the older, more expensive Powerbeats 3, with redesigned ear hooks, cable guides and Apple’s H1 chip, which simplifies Bluetooth connectivity and gives them all the AirPods-like features Apple’s headphones have with iPhones. Continue reading...

Minicab firms aim to increase coronavirus protections after data shows drivers are one of the groups most at riskAddison Lee and Uber are to install partition screens in vehicles to protect staff and passengers from infection with coronavirus, after new data earlier this week revealed that male taxi drivers and chauffeurs are among those at highest risk of death from the disease.London’s largest private hire car operator, Addison Lee, claims to be the first in the industry to make the move, announcing that it would be fitting screens to all 4,000 vehicles in its fleet at a likely cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Continue reading...

The billionaire has defied shelter-in-place orders and styled himself as an anti-lockdown hero. This is how we got here

Chancellor says she was pained to learn outcome of inquiry pinning blame on Fancy BearAngela Merkel has said Russian hacking attacks on the Bundestag in which her emails were seized harmed efforts to build a trusting relationship with Moscow.Merkel told the German parliament on Wednesday that she had been pained to learn of the 2015 hack and the perpetrator. Continue reading...

Nintendo’s record-breaking new game has been embraced by a world in isolation. Its creators talk about how it was made for sharingAnimal Crossing has been a thing for almost 20 years, but this year it has exploded. You cannot scroll through any social media feed without seeing one of its benign, big-headed characters in a screenshot or video showing off someone’s beautifully tended desert island. Celebrities including Elijah Wood have been delighting fans by turning up to visit their towns. People who’ve rarely played games before have been picking it up as a lockdown distraction – including Lauren Laverne, who enthused about it on her Radio 6 Music show. US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez picked it up a few days ago and has been visiting her Twitter followers.Since the latest game, New Horizons, came out on 20 March, it has become a cliche to say that this is the game we all need right now. But if the numbers are anything to go by – it’s been setting new records, selling 11m copies by the end of March – then it’s absolutely true. Continue reading...

Great screen, performance, battery life and health tracking – but held back by small nigglesSamsung’s Galaxy Watch Active 2 may not run Android, but it is the best Android-compatible smartwatch available.The Galaxy Watch Active 2 starts at £269, costing £289 as reviewed here, and is the firm’s 10th smartwatch. Samsung has been making smartwatches since 2013 and it shows – the Galaxy Watch Active 2 is the most polished this side of the Apple Watch Series 5. Continue reading...

Federal parliamentary committee examining rollout says fears over network are being exploited, particularly on social media

Each worker will get $1,000, more if they were diagnosed with a disorder as a result of the material they viewedFacebook has agreed to pay a settlement of $52m in a court case alleging the company failed to protect workers tasked with moderating disturbing content from the grave mental health impacts of the job.As part of the settlement, which was announced Tuesday, moderators will get a minimum of $1,000 each from Facebook with the potential for additional compensation if they have been diagnosed with mental health disorders, including PTSD. Continue reading...

The company said those who want to return to the office won’t likely do so until at least September and reopening will be ‘careful’

Those who stay home ‘will be on unpaid leave’, email says, as employees say company is using ‘threatening tactics’

CEO announces electric carmaker will begin production on Monday after company sues county over Covid-19 restrictionsElon Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would resume production at its northern California factory on Monday afternoon, in defiance of a local public health order designed to slow the spread of coronavirus.“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules,” the billionaire CEO tweeted. “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.” Continue reading...

From separate share-houses in lockdown we tackle shared finances, work-life balance and goal setting – in a farming simulation“I’m going to the mines!” says a voice through my laptop.It’s my partner, Joel – albeit a pixelated version of him. I see him move swiftly out of the screen as I go back to my task of chopping down an oak tree, searching for wood and sap. Continue reading...

Carmaker sues authorities and threatens to move HQ out of California after factory stopped from reopening

Tesla sues state authorities over lockdown after Fremont factory stopped from reopening

Want something to show for the weeks you have spent in lockdown? These apps will help you achieve your aimsIn early April, one bullish American consultant suggested on Twitter that if people didn’t emerge from coronavirus quarantine having learned a new skill, gained more knowledge or having started something they’d been putting off, then “you didn’t ever lack the time, you lacked the discipline”.As the tweet was widely shared, it met mockery and anger in equal measure, as people noted that home schooling, financial worries, stress and/or illness are making this period anything but a delightful self-improvement holiday. Continue reading...

The tech giant has often been accused of mistreating workers, but our desire for instant gratification is part of the problemTim Bray resigned as an Amazon vice-president last week. “Who he?” I hear you say. And why is this news significant? Answers: first, Bray is an ubergeek who’s an alumnus of many of the outfits in tech’s hall of fame (including DEC, Sun Microsystems, the OED project at the University of Waterloo, Google’s Android team and, eventually, Amazon Web Services); and second, he resigned on an issue of principle – something as rare as hen’s teeth in the tech industry.In his blog, he wrote: “I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19.” It was an expensive decision. Bray said the decision to resign would probably cost him more than a million dollars in salary and shares, and that he regretted leaving a job he enjoyed, working with good colleagues. “So I’m pretty blue.” Continue reading...

As a delivery driver in a Blade Runner-style landscape, the thrill is to dip into client’s lives. Just don’t ask what’s in the packageThe city of Nivalis is, at once, arrestingly beautiful and awkwardly familiar. With its streaking hover cars and pink-humming katakana signs, the sparkling rain and homeless androids, it’s a cliche that invites cliches: “sprawling”, “neon-lit”, “Blade Runner-esque”. Still, overfamiliarity with the aesthetic does little to blunt the fierce appeal of Cloudpunk’s game world.In part that’s because this is a world constructed from tiny pixelated building blocks, which give the city and its distinct districts the feel of a basement Lego project that got wildly out of hand. As you sweep across its glowing vistas, weaving in, out, over, and under the local traffic, the tumbling blocks of houses below appear to plead to spill their secrets. The buzz when you first realise you can park up and gather them up on foot is exhilarating. But Cloudpunk also slips the constraints of its genre by virtue of its casting: you play, not as a monosyllabic hacker trying to topple a megacorp, or as an ex-cop trying to win back his badge, but as that humble hero of the hour: the delivery driver. Continue reading...

The wildly popular game gives players a place to socialize with others or simply escape while on lockdown for coronavirusAs shelter in place orders around the world have left many people trapped at home indefinitely, some have found a new place to meet up: inside the digital world of wildly popular Nintendo game Animal Crossing.Released in late March, Animal Crossing: New Horizons quickly became the top game in the US. In it, users explore a carefree pastel environment, growing fruits and flowers, catching bugs or fish to sell, and making friends with other characters in an open-ended simulation. Continue reading...

Cities like Barcelona want to use crisis to allow people to rent properties at decent ratesAirbnb has revolutionised travel and since it was founded in 2008 hundreds of thousands of property owners have used the holiday accommodation platform to make ends meet, make a living and, in some cases, make a killing.But while hosts, as they are known, are wringing their hands over the collapse of the travel industry and their loss of income, many city authorities are rubbing theirs at the prospect of thousands of holiday lets returning to the traditional rental market. Cities complain that the highly profitable holiday lets have driven up rents and forced out residents with the knock-on effect that local businesses no longer have a community to serve. Continue reading...

Juul, Yelp and hundreds of startups among tech firms cutting jobs while Amazon and Zoom see huge boosts

If the UK government wants to start easing the country's lockdown restrictions, it needs to get contact tracing right. But what does that mean? What would successful contact tracing even look like? Josh Toussaint-Strauss tries to find out with a little help from Christophe Fraser, an Oxford professor and infectious disease epidemiologist, and Alex Hern, the Guardian's UK technology editor

MPs and rights groups have warned lack of data protection could make UK app illegal

Coronavirus crisis has forced musicians and others to adapt, says founder of platformMusicians, artists and writers have turned to crowdfunding sites to make up for lost opportunities in lockdown, and their audiences have followed them, leading to a rise in contributions through platforms such as Patreon.Since mid-March more than 70,000 extra creators have joined Patreon, which allows fans to give monthly payments to artists in exchange for exclusive content or simply out of a desire to support someone whose work they appreciate. Continue reading...

My friend and colleague Tony Morgan, who has died aged 83 after contracting Covid-19, was one of the heroes of the early days of computers. As a computer engineer from the late 1950s, he was responsible for the installation of the pioneering Leo computers worldwide, including for the GPO (now BT) for telephone billing. After a 38-year career he remained an active member of the Leo Heritage Project, using his unrivalled knowledge to identify the company’s artefacts.Born in Kenton, near Harrow, Middlesex, to William Morgan, an architect, and Millie (nee Ferguson), Tony went to Harrow County grammar school and, after getting four A-levels, did his national service with the RAF, where he was trained as an air-radar fitter. Continue reading...

An online fitness class was hacked, prompting calls for greater security awarenessSixty children taking part in a fitness class on Zoom were subjected to footage of child sexual abuse streamed into the session by a hacker. The class was being hosted by a sports club in Plymouth, Devon.Devon and Cornwall police believe the hacker gained access to the virtual class after the details of the event were published on online forums. The force is trying to track down the hacker and is working with Plymouth city council’s social care team to identify everyone who saw the footage. Continue reading...

More protections needed before coronavirus app fully launched, says human rights committee

Sidewalk Labs’ CEO said unpredictabilities stemming from pandemic meant project was no longer feasibleGoogle’s affiliate Sidewalk Labs has abruptly abandoned its vision to transform Toronto’s waterfront into one of the world’s first “smart cities”.In a statement released on Thursday, Sidewalk Labs’ CEO, Dan Doctoroff, said that sustained unpredictabilities stemming from the coronavirus pandemic meant that the project was no longer feasible. Continue reading...

Xbox livestream showcases new titles designed to support the advanced features of the forthcoming consoleMicrosoft has revealed 13 games coming to its Xbox Series X console when the machine launches this winter. In an hour-long presentation, streamed live on Thursday, the company announced that well-known titles such as the recently announced Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, as well as Madden NFL 21 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, will all be on Xbox Series X.Also featured was Paradox Interactive’s vampire adventure, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Codemasters presented its racer DiRT 5 complete with impressive lighting and mud splatter effects, and an option to run it in 4K at 60 frames-per-second or in a lower resolution at 120fps. Namco Bandai showed a new anime-style sci-fi thriller named Scarlet Nexus, about a group of psychic law enforcers. Continue reading...

The panel has the potential to reshape how Facebook shapes the world and possibly introduce a new era of social media governanceA new era of social media governance began Wednesday, when the first 20 members of Facebook’s long-awaited oversight board were announced. The international panel of free expression advocates, journalists, a former prime minister, a Nobel laureate, and law professors will have final say over certain content moderation decisions for the world’s largest social media platform, independent of Facebook’s executives and staff.This limited transfer of power to an independent entity represents something of a sea change for a company that has since its founding been under the tight control of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is chairman of the board and controls a majority of the company’s voting shares. Continue reading...

California workers say the company is pressuring sick employees to show up – and flouting a California law meant to protect them from Covid-19

World’s most popular video game to celebrate launch of new party mode with live event featuring Deadmau5 and Steve AokiFortnite developer Epic Games has announced that the game now has 350 million registered players. In a tweet published on Wednesday, the company also revealed that, during April, the online shooter was played for 3.2bn hours – a tally that is likely to have been boosted by global coronavirus lockdown measures.Now well into its third year of existence, Fortnite is continuing to attract a massive global audience, despite several newer rivals in the battle royale genre, including Apex Legends from Electronic Arts and a new Call of Duty mode, Warzone. Over time the game experience has constantly evolved and expanded, from a defensive shooter in which players fended off zombies, to the wildly popular competitive battle royale mode, to more recent modes and events that focus on building things, socialising online with other players, or attending one-off performances. Last month, one such series of in-game live events featuring rapper Travis Scott attracted more than 12 million spectators. Continue reading...

Wireless speaker firm revamps top TV audio line, plus Sonos 5 speakers and gen 3 SubThe wireless home-audio specialist Sonos is launching the first of its next-generation speakers with a new Dolby Atmos voice-controlled soundbar called Arc.Arc replaces the firm’s popular Playbar and Playbase as its top-end TV sound system, re-engineered to provide a wider, more powerful sound and built on the new S2 software platform, which is due to roll out to existing speakers soon. Continue reading...

New independent board, which includes ex-Guardian editor, will rule on freedom of expression issuesFacebook has announced the members of its new oversight board, an international committee of judges, journalists and academics who will help steer the company’s policy on freedom of expression.Among the 20 board members who have agreed to help set policy for the social network are Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the former prime minister of Denmark; the Nobel peace laureate Tawakkol Karman; and Alan Rusbridger, the former Guardian editor-in-chief. Continue reading...

Experts say NHS relying on ‘Android herd immunity’ to overcome Apple-related issues

Windows-maker updates top and cheapest PCs, and launches new headphonesMicrosoft is launching a revamped line of its most powerful and cheapest Windows 10 PCs, the Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2, as it adjusts to continue operations during the pandemic.The new products, announced by blogpost rather than an event, are Microsoft’s premium computers competing directly with the likes of Apple and Dell, but with more novel designs. Continue reading...

Staff losing jobs receive email within hours of co-founder outlining plans in blogpost

iPad/iPhone (PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions forthcoming); E-Line MediaRealistic marine-diving game shines a light on the deep oceanA mellow and overtly educational game about marine wildlife, Beyond Blue is an opportunity to submerge yourself in the expansive beauty of the Western Pacific. Futuristic technology enables our marine scientist to scan creatures, track whale calls and withstand the crushing pressures of the deep ocean as she follows a pod of sperm whales through seascapes taken from the BBC’s Blue Planet II, from shallows to open ocean to the toxic deep-sea brine pool that gave me nightmares for weeks after seeing it on TV.Atmospheric though these watery places are, there’s no peril in this version of deep-sea diving, even when you try to manufacture it. Attempts to swim directly into the gaping mouth of a humpback or provoke a hammerhead shark yield nothing but the odd visual glitch. You can admire the impressively realistic sea life at leisure, panning drones around creatures to record their songs and examine their markings. Nonetheless, do not expect an entirely chill time beneath the waves. Inevitably for a game informed by the actual state of our oceans, there’s a touch of sadness here. Continue reading...