Technology | The Guardian

It has been a bumpy ride for Apple’s Project Titan, but sources suggest a passenger vehicle may not be far offApple is moving forward with self-driving car technology and is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own battery technology, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.The iPhone maker’s automotive efforts, known as Project Titan, have proceeded unevenly since 2014 when it first started to design its own vehicle from scratch. At one point, Apple scaled back the effort to focus on software and reassessed its goals. Doug Field, an Apple veteran who had worked at Tesla, returned to oversee the project in 2018 and laid off 190 people from the team in 2019. Continue reading...

Elon Musk’s car firm becomes stock market’s sixth-largest member on joiningTesla has joined Wall Street’s prestigious S&P 500 share index as its sixth-largest member, immediately rubbing shoulders with the likes of Amazon, Apple and Facebook.Shares in the electric carmaker fell by more than 5% on its debut day on Monday, amid widespread investor concern about the potential impact on global trade of the mutant coronavirus strain identified in the UK. Continue reading...

Top luxury noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones – but at a price that demands perfectionApple’s first own-brand noise-cancelling headphones are heavy on the luxury and sound – but also on price.The AirPods Max cost £549 and are the most expensive of Apple’s headphones line that includes the £159 AirPods, £249 AirPods Pro and sets from the Beats brand such as the £270 Solo Pro and £300 Studio 3 Wireless. Continue reading...

Instead of gathering around the holiday table, we’ll be gathering around our laptops for awkward silences and Zoom fatigueYour laptop screen will be a window into your soul this holiday season, so take advantage of the opportunity to make your life appear under control. An upside to any global pandemic is that you don’t have to clean up for guests. When it comes to messes, it’s “out of screen, out of mind”. Meanwhile, you can create an idealized – and/or completely false – vision of your home life: fill the area behind you with thick volumes of poetry, or hardcore exercise equipment, or the only plant you have ever managed to keep alive for more than a week. Continue reading...

Nearly a week after federal agencies were targeted, investigators are still unclear on what information may have been stolen

Covid-19 pushed many into poverty but brought huge benefits for some of the wealthiest, renewing calls for fairer taxes

Users of smart speakers around the world can hear monarch’s speech without lifting a fingerFans of the Queen’s Christmas Day broadcast will be able to listen without lifting a finger – and not just because the TV’s been tuned to BBC One since The Gruffalo at 8.55am. Alexa users will be able to summon Her Majesty into their living rooms from 3pm GMT with the words “Alexa, play the Queen’s Christmas Day message”.The privilege isn’t reserved just for Brits. Anyone with their Amazon Echo set to English – be that British, American, Australian, Canadian or Indian – will be able to listen to the speech, Amazon has announced. Continue reading...

Microsoft’s president says NSO Group enables more nation-states to deploy cyber-attacks, including against journalists and activistsMicrosoft has called on the incoming Biden administration to weigh in on a high-profile legal case involving WhatsApp and NSO Group, the Israeli spyware firm that the US software company said was helping to proliferate cyber-weapons.Comparing NSO Group to 21st-century mercenaries, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, claimed that the rise of private companies that engineer cybersecurity attacks meant that an increasing number of nation-states could now deploy cyber-attacks – including against journalists and human rights activists. Continue reading...

Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks say they had to fight for fair pay and faced retaliation for advocating for changePinterest announced this week it would pay more than $20m to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by a female executive. But to two Black former employees who had previously lodged similar complaints, the settlement represents a “slap in the face”. Continue reading...

Ryan’s World ‘child influencer’ also made estimated $200m from branded toys and clothingA nine-year-old boy has made nearly $30m in a year from “unboxing” and reviewing toys and games on YouTube to hold the title of highest-paid YouTuber for the third year running.Ryan Kaji, from Texas, made $29.5m (£22m) from his YouTube channel Ryan’s World, as well as a further estimated $200m from Ryan’s World branded toys and clothing, including Marks & Spencer pyjamas. He also signed an undisclosed, but likely multimillion dollar, deal for his own TV series on Nickelodeon. Continue reading...

At least six government departments breached in likely Russian intelligence operation thought to have begun in MarchThe US government is still in the dark over how deeply Russian hackers penetrated its networks during the worst ever cyber attack on federal agencies, members of Congress warned on Friday.At least six government departments were breached in a likely Russian intelligence operation thought to have begun in March. Although there is no evidence that classified networks were compromised, it is not known what the hackers may have stolen or how long it will take to purge them. Continue reading...

Government agencies around world among targets in SolarWinds ‘espionage-based’ hackMicrosoft has said the UK and six other countries outside the US have been affected by a suspected Russian hacking attack that US authorities have warned poses a grave risk to government and private networks.Brad Smith, Microsoft’s chief legal counsel, said the company had uncovered 40 customers, including government agencies, thinktanks, NGOs and IT companies, who were “targeted more precisely and compromised” after the hackers had gained initial access earlier this year. Continue reading...

Starring Keanu Reeves and hyped to the heavens, Projekt Red’s dystopian but glitchy romp has been pulled from sale. What went wrong?Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most-anticipated video games of the year was released last week. A dystopian romp around a Blade Runner-inspired city, it had all the ingredients for a perfect storm of hype: it’s been nearly a decade in the making; its creator, Warsaw’s CD Projekt Red, was behind one of the greatest games of the last decade (The Witcher 3 – think Game of Thrones but grimier); it stars Keanu Reeves, who is as popular with gamers as he is with everybody else. Eight million people had pre-ordered and paid for the game before it came out. But since 10 December, it’s all gone horribly wrong.On launch day, the reviews were good – great, even. Many critics praised the fictional Night City’s realism, its striking skyscraping architecture and grubby alleys; they loved the invigorating gunplay, ballsy characters and neon swagger. Some expressed reservations about the game’s rather adolescent tone and its eagerness to objectify women’s bodies – neither of which were a surprise to anyone who’d been keeping an eye on the game’s marketing. Continue reading...

Analysis: new president must find a way to contain such hyper-aggressive behaviour from MoscowIt is Joe Biden’s biggest foreign policy headache. As well as confronting the Covid pandemic, the president-elect has to deal with a more familiar problem: Russia. Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election cast a shadow over US politics for four long years.And now the Kremlin appears to have struck again. This week details emerged of an unprecedented cyber-attack against US government departments. Beginning in March, suspected Russian hackers penetrated Washington’s signature institutions. Continue reading...

Developer forced to add health warning and apologise after launch of hotly anticipated gameSony has announced it is pulling this year’s most-hyped video game, Cyberpunk 2077, from its online PlayStation store after complaints of bugs, compatibility issues and health risks.“SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment) strives to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, therefore we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store,” the firm said in a statement posted on international PlayStation sites in the US, Australia and elsewhere. Continue reading...

Good keyboard, nice design and solid build let down by hot running, poor battery life and software bugsThe Surface Laptop Go is Microsoft’s attempt to bring the best features of its premium machines to the mid-range PC market – but with a few corners cut.Starting at £549, it comes in below the £999 Surface Laptop 3 and £799 Surface Pro 7, but above the £399 Surface Go 2 tablet. Continue reading...

From rediscovering nature in 2020 to getting to grips with Zoom, readers tell us what they gained in a year when so much was lost

National Labor Relations Board finds merit to complaint over discharge of Gerald Bryson in Staten IslandA National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) investigation has found merit to a complaint that said Amazon illegally discharged a protesting warehouse worker in New York City, according to an NLRB spokesperson.Gerald Bryson, an Amazon associate, was helping to lead a protest outside a company warehouse in Staten Island, New York on 6 April while off the job, when he got into a dispute with another worker, according to Bryson’s attorney Frank Kearl. Continue reading...

‘Significant and ongoing’ cyber attack, suspected to be the work of Russia, poses a grave risk to ‘critical infrastructure entities’ as wellThe US government continues to reel from a large and sophisticated hacking campaign that affected top federal agencies, including the energy department, the treasury and commerce departments, and is even said to have targeted the agency responsible for the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile.Authorities expressed increasing alarm over the hack, suspected to be the work of Russia, warning that it poses “a grave risk” to federal, state and local governments, as well as “critical infrastructure entities”. Continue reading...

‘Anti-vaxxer’ misinformation to be tackled from next week, and conspiracy theories from 2021Twitter will remove tweets that spread harmful misinformation, starting with the Covid-19 vaccine, the company has announced – and from 2021 it will begin to label tweets that push conspiracy theories.The move sees the company follow Facebook and YouTube in tightening up policies around the coronavirus vaccination as the rollout of the jab begins across the world. Continue reading...

Russian agents are suspected in the Orion breach, which affected the treasury and commerce departments – and perhaps othersA vast trove of US government emails has been targeted in a hack thought to have been carried out by Russia, American officials revealed on Monday.The stunningly large and sophisticated operation reportedly targeted federal government networks and marks the biggest cyber-raid against US officials in years. The treasury and commerce departments were both affected and others may have been breached. Continue reading...

Former chief operating officer Françoise Brougher accepts settlement on condition it is made public

UK government sets out strict guidelines to govern removal of material promoting child sexual abuse and terrorismSocial media companies will need to remove and limit the spread of harmful content or face fines of billions of pounds, the UK government has announced, as it finally reveals the details of its proposed internet regulation.The online harms bill, first proposed by Theresa May’s government in April 2019, sets out strict new guidelines governing removal of illegal content such as child sexual abuse, terrorist material and media that promotes suicide, which sites must obey or face being blocked in the UK. Continue reading...

UK government sets out strict guidelines to govern removal of material promoting child sexual abuse and terrorismSocial media companies will need to remove and limit the spread of harmful content or face fines of billions of pounds, the UK government has announced, as it finally reveals the details of its proposed internet regulation.The online harms bill, first proposed by Theresa May’s government in April 2019, sets out strict new guidelines governing removal of illegal content such as child sexual abuse, terrorist material and media that promotes suicide, which sites must obey or face being blocked in the UK. Continue reading...

Our updated list of great Bluetooth truly wireless earbuds – at the best prices right nowIt wasn’t long ago that true wireless earbuds, those that don’t need any wires even between the earphones, weren’t very good. Solid connectivity was a challenge, dropouts were infuriatingly common and battery life was woeful.But they all offered that taste of freedom from wires that is like a ratchet – once you’ve experienced tangle-free listening, you’ll never go back. Continue reading...

Error was due to lack of storage space in authentication tools causing system to crashGoogle has suffered a worldwide outage, with failures reported across the company’s services, including Gmail, Google Calendar and YouTube. Beginning at about 11.50am GMT, the outages appeared to have affected the vast majority of Google’s services, apart from search, which operated largely unaffected.Despite the universal nature of the outages, the company’s automated systems reported no problems for any services for the first 30 minutes, across both consumer-facing and its cloud tools for developers. At 12.25pm, the company published an update, saying “We’re aware of a problem … affecting a majority of users. The affected users are unable to access [Google services].” Continue reading...

Analysis: eavesdropping on high-value targets is labour intensive so hackers may not have made most of accessIf there is one silver lining to the months-long global cyber-espionage campaign discovered when a prominent cybersecurity firm learned it had been breached, it might be that the sheer numbers of potentially compromised entities offers them some protection.By compromising one piece of security software – a security tool called Orion developed by the Texan company SolarWinds – the attackers gained access to an extraordinary array of potential targets in the US alone: more than 425 of the Fortune 500 list of top companies; all of the top 10 telecommunications companies; all five branches of the military; and all of the top five accounting firms. Continue reading...

FBI to investigate after US Treasury and Department of Commerce believed to have been targetedRussian hackers are being accused of carrying out the biggest cyber-raid against the US for more than five years, targeting federal government networks in a sophisticated attack, according to American officials and sources.The hackers, linked to Russian spy agencies, were able to monitor internal emails at the US Treasury and Department of Commerce and may have compromised other bodies, in what is being described as a highly sophisticated state-level attack. Continue reading...

Our updated list of the best pay-TV and streaming services in the UKThe choice of how you get your TV and movies in the UK has exploded in recent years, with a growing number of premium pay-TV providers and streaming services available at a wide range of prices.Many of them have long contracts, exclusive content and complicated bundled pricing. And that’s before you work out how to actually get it to your television, whether it is live broadcast TV via the traditional routes of aerial, satellite or cable, new offerings of streaming live TV over the internet, on-demand download or streaming services, or a mix of all three. All of which makes choosing the right one for you a bit of a minefield of information overload. Continue reading...

It will not accept that the manufacture of the £279 pair may just be below parI am three months and 16 emails into an exchange with Sony that is going round in circles. In December last year I purchased a pair of WH-1000XM3 headphones which began to show signs of unreasonable wear this August.The plastic casing on both arms popped out, leading to the ear cups hanging by an exposed wire. It doesn’t seem right that a pair of headphones costing £279 would be in this state after eight months of careful use. Sony replied with an ominous “Please note that this, from our end, will be considered as potential physical damage” thus presupposing the customer, and never the product, is at fault. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds ads featuring unauthorised images of Dick Smith, Andrew Forrest and others are part of a highly organised global enterpriseScam bitcoin ads trading off unauthorised images of Dick Smith, Andrew Forrest and other celebrities, which have taken in tens of thousands of Australians, are part of a highly organised global business that uses five addresses in the centre of Moscow, a Guardian investigation has found.The sheer scale of the scam has made it difficult for Google to block them, and for Australian regulators to take action. Continue reading...

From pink dungarees, to velvet boiler suits and African fabrics, it’s the bold and bright that’s catching our eye. Meet the women whose Instagram sales are hitting a highMarielle Wyse of Wyse London Continue reading...

I rely on apps for help with spelling and grammar as if they were old friends. Now I’m a tech entrepreneurI’m 10 years old. Minutes into a maths lesson and my palms have already begun to sweat. I’ve positioned myself in the back row, but the teacher walks up and down the aisles of the classroom, peering over our shoulders. I don’t understand the rules. The teacher’s voice becomes a blur, and I stare at the numbers on the board, willing them to make sense. I wasn’t a shy child, if anything I was bold and kind of brash, but I couldn’t ask for help. I didn’t have the language to explain what the numbers were doing to my brain.Soon I’d have a name for what I was experiencing – dyslexia – and I’d begin to find ways to accommodate my learning style. As with everything, there are scales here. Dyslexia presents and impacts people in different ways, and I was lucky to be at a great school. But I had to learn to overcome my fear of numbers and words. I had to do battle with my confidence. It’s only now I realise that this was the cause of me honing my greatest skill: learning to learn. Discovering more about different learning styles was a gamechanger – and where my love of artificial intelligence technology was born. Continue reading...

Australian board member Nic Suzor says independent body ‘is not blind’ to election fraud conspiracies or hate speechThe independent body set up by Facebook to review decisions to remove content will eventually need to tackle the issue of how to address politicians such as Donald Trump posting disinformation online, the board’s sole Australian member has said.The oversight board is a body set up by Facebook to review select cases where Facebook’s content moderators have removed a post, but the user believes it should not have been removed. The board makes binding decisions for Facebook, meaning a post that was removed could be restored if the board says it should be. Continue reading...

The government has come up with a clever new way of regulating the digital marketplace – but will it ever become law?On Tuesday, in a rare break with recent practice, a branch of the UK government did something clever. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) outlined plans for an innovative way of regulating powerful tech firms in a way that overcomes the procedural treacle-wading implicit in competition law that had been designed for an analogue era.

From speakers to watches through to tablets and games, there are lots of optionsWhat to buy the tech enthusiast in your life? Here are some ideas – from smart speakers and games consoles to smartwatches and headphones. With Christmas rapidly approaching, time is running out to buy the big-ticket items, so we have also included some instant-delivery gifts for last-minute purchases. Continue reading...

YouTube’s attempts to stay apolitical has kept it tied up in knots, focusing decisions on small technicalities

We look at four e-bikes, from the hi-tech to the conventional, to see which offers the best experience

Internet tabs, like gases, expand to fill their container. Close them all and feel the weight of unread content liftWhen I was a kid, The World’s Strongest Man was televised each year during the fallow period between Christmas Day and New Year. The thing I remember most was the sheer release on the faces of men built like tree trunks when they stopped pulling a train, say, or rearranging Atlas Stones that had made ribbons of their forearms.That’s the relief I feel when clearing all the tabs in my internet browser. Clicking the crosses like a long line of kisses finally indulged. There are many reasons why one has tabs open in double figures. In my defence, they are often related to work or research. The sense of lightness that comes over me when closing them is down to a task completed. It is a bit like setting one’s pen down at the end of an exam; the way the air feels that bit fresher coming out of the hall than going in. Continue reading...

Masahiro Hara came up with black and white pattern to optimise inventory in automotive industryThe eureka moment that helped Masahiro Hara perfect the Quick Response, or QR code, sprang from a lunchtime game of Go more than a quarter of a century ago.He was playing the ancient game of strategy at work when the stones arranged on the board revealed the solution to a problem troubling the firm’s clients in Japan’s car industry – and which is now being repurposed as a weapon in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

Regulators and 48 attorney generals take on company over antitrust concernsUS regulators and 48 attorneys general are limbering up for what promises to be the biggest legal battle against a US company in decades. Letitia James, the New York attorney general who is spearheading one of two lawsuits against Facebook, this week accused the social network of abusing its “dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals, snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users.”In a powerful speech, James said Facebook used its “vast troves of data and money” to fund a “buy or bury” scheme to quash competition. James said she would not rest until the courts ordered Facebook to sell off WhatsApp and Instagram, which she said the social network had acquired illegally. Continue reading...

Company will roll out feature in UK next year but without guarantee it will filter out 100% of advertsYouTube users will be able to opt out of most gambling and alcohol adverts if they don’t want to see them, using tools set to be rolled out by Google in the UK next year.Google told the Guardian that it was responding to feedback from users concerned by the number of ads for alcohol and gambling that they were seeing online, both on YouTube and on third-party websites. Continue reading...

Analysis: The biggest antitrust case in a generation has been compared to the years-long lawsuit against Microsoft in 1998Facebook is facing perhaps its greatest existential threat yet as the company prepares to battle two antitrust lawsuits brought by the US government and more than 40 states. But while analysts are calling the crackdown an important step, whether the social media giant can be reined in remains to be seen.The lawsuits brought against Facebook on Wednesday accuse the company of wielding its “monopoly power” to crush and overwhelm its rivals. The cases tackle Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp in particular, deals which federal regulators now say should be unwound. Continue reading...

Automation is revolutionising China’s pork farms but leaving independent farmers behindA slender snout. Shapely, upright ears. Like humans, pigs have idiosyncratic faces, and new players in the Chinese pork market are taking notice, experimenting with increasingly sophisticated versions of facial recognition software for pigs.China is the world’s largest exporter of pork, and is set to increase production next year by 9%. As the nation’s pork farms grow in scale, more farmers are turning to AI systems like facial recognition technology – known as FRT – to continuously monitor, identify, and even feed their herds. Continue reading...

Elon Musk tweets ‘Mars here we come’ after fireball engulfs prototypeSpaceX’s Starship prototype has exploded while attempting to land after its test launch from the company’s rocket facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Live video of Wednesday’s test showed the self-guided rocket landing at speed following a controlled descent before disappearing in a ball of flame.Despite the catastrophic end to the six-and-a-half-minute test, SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk was thrilled. “Mars, here we come!!” he tweeted. Continue reading...

Prosecutor says company has used power ‘to crush rivals’, with allegations centered on acquisition of Instagram and WhatsAppThe US government and a coalition of 48 states and districts have filed parallel lawsuits against Facebook in a major antitrust offensive that accused the social media behemoth of anticompetitive behavior and could ultimately force its breakup.At the heart of both antitrust actions, announced on Wednesday, is Facebook’s dominance of the social media landscape, and whether the company gobbled up potential competitors and blocked market access to others that could have eaten into its staggering market share. Continue reading...

VAT on Uber taxi trips and Airbnb stays in post-pandemic revenue plans passes the fairness testA chancellor who will borrow £394bn this financial year has to come up with a few new ways to raise money, and here’s a Treasury idea that sounds modest but interesting: put VAT on Uber taxi trips and stays in Airbnb properties.It would also seem to pass a basic test of fairness. Most Uber drivers and Airbnb providers are too small to be registered for VAT, but, taken as a whole, their sectors genuinely compete with companies that do pay VAT. Every night in a seaside Airbnb is one less visit to the local hotel, so there is also a question of keeping the competitive playing field level. Continue reading...

Papers relating to Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine reportedly targeted in attack on European Medicines AgencyGerman biotech firm BioNTech said on Wednesday that documents relating to the Covid-19 vaccine it has developed with Pfizer were “unlawfully accessed” after a cyber-attack on Europe’s medicines regulator.Earlier, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) – which is responsible for assessing and approving vaccines for the European Union – said it had been targeted in a cyber-attack. It gave no further details. Continue reading...

Elevate disposal follows sale of autonomous vehicle division as Uber aims for profitUber has sold its loss-making flying taxi division, Elevate, to a Californian startup as it abandons costly side projects in an attempt to turn a profit next year.The sale to Joby Aviation, announced late on Tuesday, comes a day after Uber ditched ambitions to develop its own self-driving car and sold its autonomous vehicle division, Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), to the startup Aurora Innovation for $4bn (£3bn). Continue reading...