Technology | The Guardian

WhatsApp joins Messenger on camera-equipped photo frame-like device tied in with AlexaJust 10 months after launching its first voice-controlled, video-calling smart displays in the US, Facebook is trying again with new Portal, Portal Mini and Portal TV – and now they are heading for the UK and Europe.The basic premise is very similar to the smart displays sold by Amazon, Google and others. Portal and Portal Mini look like digital photo frames complete with an actual black or white frame around the outside. They display your photos and calendar events, play videos and generally entertain, including streaming Spotify and Amazon Prime Video. They listen out for two hotwords depending on your settings. Continue reading...

Big tech claims AI and digitization will bring a better future. But putting computers everywhere is bad for people and the planetOur built environment is becoming one big computer. “Smartness” is coming to saturate our stores, workplaces, homes, cities. As we go about our daily lives, data is made, stored, analyzed and used to make algorithmic inferences about us that in turn structure our experience of the world. Computation encircles us as a layer, dense and interconnected. If our parents and our grandparents lived with computers, we live inside them.A growing chorus of activists, journalists and scholars are calling attention to the dangers of digital enclosure. Employers are using algorithmic tools to surveil and control workers. Cops are using algorithmic tools to surveil and control communities of color. And there is no shortage of dystopian possibilities on the horizon: landlords evicting tenants with “smart locks”, health insurers charging higher premiums because your Fitbit says you don’t exercise enough. Continue reading...

During a strange week for Asian Americans, the app – which is part of an art project – achieved its aim by underscoring exactly what’s wrong with artificial intelligenceHow are you supposed to react when a robot calls you a “gook”?At first glance, ImageNet Roulette seems like just another viral selfie app – those irresistible 21st-century magic mirrors that offer a simulacrum of insight in exchange for a photograph of your face. Want to know what you will look like in 30 years? There’s an app for that. If you were a dog what breed would you be? That one went viral in 2016. What great work of art features your doppelganger? Google’s Arts & Culture app dominated social media feeds in 2018 when it gave us a chance to bemoan being more Picasso than Botticelli, or vice versa. Continue reading...

Tech company to equip officers with body cameras to help identify terror attack videosFacebook is working with the Metropolitan police to improve the social network’s ability to detect live streaming of terrorism and potentially alert officers about an attack sooner.The tech company will provide officers at the Met’s firearms training centres with body cameras, in an effort to help its artificial intelligence more accurately and rapidly identify videos of real-life first person shooter incidents. Continue reading...

The withdrawal of the BBC’s iPlayer Radio app angers Rod MacraeI am saddened to discover that the closure of the BBC’s iPlayer Radio app service leaves me, and thousands of other loyal listeners, unable to access its services on anything but the latest handheld devices. From this week, if you have an iPad that runs on a platform older than Apple’s iOS11, you will not only see the iPlayer service stop, but will find you are denied access to its replacement, BBC Sounds, because it will only work on the newest iOS software.As a former reporter on Radio 4’s You & Yours, I am aware of the resentment many people have to any industry’s pressure on consumers to constantly upgrade and replace costly devices despite them functioning perfectly well. The BBC’s decision on the iPlayer Radio and Sounds apps will leave hundreds of thousands without access to its services. Sadly, the BBC has sided with the technology industry and ignored its own audience.

Fining YouTube for targeting adverts at children as if they were adults shows progress is being made on both sides of the Atlantic, writes Steve Wood of the Information Commissioner’s OfficeThe conclusion of the Federal Trade Commission investigation into YouTube’s gathering of young people’s personal information (‘Woeful’ YouTube fine for child data breach, 5 September) shows progress is being made on both sides of the Atlantic towards a more children-friendly internet. The company was accused of treating younger users’ data in the same way it treats adult users’ data.YouTube’s journey sounds similar to many other online services: it began targeting adults, found more and more children were using its service, and so continued to take commercial advantage of that. But the allegation is it didn’t treat those young people differently, gathering their data and using it to target content and adverts at them as though they were adult users. Continue reading...

Early reviews of Apple’s latest suggest colour, battery and lower price make the iPhone 11 a winnerThe early reviews of Apple’s iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max are in from publications with early access to the three models.While the iPhone 11 Pro is the most impressive technically, with a new triple camera system catching up to the competition, it is the iPhone 11, the cheapest of the bunch, that is winning the majority of people over. Questions remain as to whether it’s worth upgrading at all, however, if your iPhone is less than five years old. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Job has left some ‘addicted’ to extreme material and pushed others to far rightThe task of moderating Facebook continues to leave psychological scars on the company’s employees, months after efforts to improve conditions for the company’s thousands of contractors, the Guardian has learned.A group of current and former contractors who worked for years at the social network’s Berlin-based moderation centres has reported witnessing colleagues become “addicted” to graphic content and hoarding ever more extreme examples for a personal collection. They also said others were pushed towards the far right by the amount of hate speech and fake news they read every day. Continue reading...

Earl and Countess of Carnarvon open doors of Highclere Castle in Hampshire to select guestsFans of the hit TV series Downton Abbey are to be given the opportunity to “live like the lord or lady of a stately home” and stay in the castle where the show was filmed.To mark the release of the Downton Abbey film, the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon have posted their residence of Highclere Castle in Hampshire on the Airbnb booking website. Continue reading...

Workplace harassment was high on the agenda at the Women in Games European Conference, following a spate of allegationsSome say it is long overdue, some doubted victims would be ready to speak out, but now #MeToo has very much arrived in the video games industry. Last month, game developer Nathalie Lawhead posted to their website, accusing video game soundtrack composer Jeremy Soule of raping them while the two worked together at an unnamed Vancouver-based development studio. Soule has denied the accusation. Within days, another developer, Zoë Quinn, alleged on Twitter to have suffered abuse and harassment from Alec Holowka, co-creator of award-winning game, Night in the Woods. Holowka was found dead days after the allegations were made.Related: The video games industry isn’t yet ready for its #MeToo moment | Keza MacDonald Continue reading...

Office-sharing company’s value has been slashed since January but it says flotation will still take place this yearWeWork, the US office-sharing company, has postponed its stock market flotation after receiving a lukewarm response from investors.WeWork’s parent, We Company, had planned to launch an investor roadshow this week to drum up interest in its $20bn (£16bn) share sale, slashed from an initial valuation of $47bn. It hoped to price and list its shares next week, but has put the plans on ice amid operating losses and corporate governance issues. Continue reading...

Melbourne woman is accused of being part of syndicate which used stolen identity information to drain millions from multiple accountsMillions of dollars have allegedly been siphoned from personal superannuation and share trading accounts as part of a cyber fraud.There are understood to be multiple victims hit by the syndicate, which was revealed by the Australian federal police and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Money will go towards testing tools including voice analysis on child abuse image database

Tesla CEO’s lawyers said ‘pedo guy’ is a common insult used when Musk was a child in South Africa and not meant to ‘accuse a person’Elon Musk is continuing to try to wriggle his way out of a defamation lawsuit, claiming in a court filing on Monday that a tweet labeling a British diver “pedo guy” was not meant to actually accuse him of pedophilia.The Tesla CEO is being sued over comments made in 2018 about Vernon Unsworth, a diver who helped rescue a team of young soccer players stuck in an underwater cave. Continue reading...

My friend Sir Terry Harrison, who has died aged 86, was a man of the north-east and proud to be so. He joined the engineering firm Clarke Chapman in 1957 and became managing director in 1969. Clarke Chapman merged with Reyrolle Parsons to form Northern Engineering Industries (NEI) in 1977, employing 40,000 people.Terry became chief executive of NEI (1983-86) and was executive chair (1986-89) when it was acquired by Rolls-Royce. He was appointed to the board of Rolls-Royce and in 1992 was made chief executive. Three years later he was knighted. It was said that when Rolls-Royce divested itself of NEI in 1996, it had waited until Terry had safely retired from the board. Continue reading...

Social media was supposed to liberate us, but for many people it has proved addictive, punishing and toxic. What keeps us hooked? By Richard Seymour• Read the text version here Continue reading...

Same Bose magic now sleeker, with better controls, calling and adaptable noise cancellingBose’s new top-of-the range 700 noise-cancelling headphones attempt to be the new gold standard, with a new design, new technology and a shift in focus.Launched to sit atop the long-standing kings of noise-cancelling cans, the £300 QuietComfort 35 II, the new £350 Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 look to shift Bose’s rather staid image toward something more modern and fashionable. Continue reading...

Jordan Erica Webber is joined by Richard Sprenger, who recently went to Los Angeles to learn more about a new summer camp that aims to teach six to 10-year-olds how to become the next YouTube sensation. Continue reading...

Engineer who quit over military drone project warns AI might also accidentally start a warA new generation of autonomous weapons or “killer robots” could accidentally start a war or cause mass atrocities, a former top Google software engineer has warned.Laura Nolan, who resigned from Google last year in protest at being sent to work on a project to dramatically enhance US military drone technology, has called for all AI killing machines not operated by humans to be banned. Continue reading...

BoE among 26 global banks due to meet with Libra amid fears over risk to state sovereigntyGlobal regulators will question Facebook on Monday about its Libra cryptocurrency amid concerns from EU governments over the threat the digital currency poses to financial stability, according to the Financial Times.Officials from 26 central banks, including the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, will meet with representatives of Libra in Basel on Monday, the FT said, citing officials. Continue reading...

Marc Randolph launched the streaming service that would revolutionize TV and film, upend Hollywood and draw more than 150 million subscribersIt was a fluke that the Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph changed the history of television. It almost didn’t happen.In 1997, the Santa Cruz businessman was spending his carpool rides to work brainstorming internet startup ideas with a colleague. They discussed personalised surfboards, customised dog food, shampoo by mail. One commute, the chat turned to “videotapes”. Continue reading...

Gentler acceleration and electric vehicles can reduce air pollution but walking or cycling are bestLocal authorities are encouraging people not to leave their cars idling as tests show we can reduce air pollution by changing the way we drive.Scientists in Utah measured exhaust emissions from a test car driven by volunteers over a set route. Contrary to the stereotypical view of the “boy racer”, the study showed the older male participants were the most polluting drivers. Continue reading...

Finance minister says governments’ monetary sovereignty could be at riskFrance has said it will block the development of Facebook’s Libra in Europe, dealing the cryptocurrency a fresh blow.The French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said plans for Libra could not move ahead until concerns over consumer risk and governments’ monetary sovereignty were addressed. Continue reading...

Israeli PM has denied writing inflammatory post about ‘Arabs who want to destroy us all’Facebook has suspended a chatbot on Benjamin Netanyahu’s official page after it breached hate speech policy by sending visitors a message warning of Arabs who “want to destroy us all”.Battling a tight election race in the run-up to the 17 September polls, the Israeli prime minister has sought to appeal to far-right religious and nationalist voters who fear the political influence of Palestinian citizens of Israel. Continue reading...

Supermarket to roll out grocery deliveries within one hour across more UK citiesMorrisons has expanded its partnership with Amazon for ultra-fast same-day grocery deliveries to more cities across the UK, as it reported a drop in quarterly sales.The Bradford-based supermarket group said it had signed a multiyear deal with Amazon, which replaces its previous rolling contract, to cover “many more cities across the UK”. Continue reading...

Bill’s Acer Chromebook C720 will not receive further updates. It works well so can he still use it?I have recently got the message that my Acer Chromebook C720 will not be receiving any further updates as Google no longer supports Chromebooks older than six years. I use mine for surfing the internet, email and creating documents, which I send as email attachments. The machine still works as well as when I first bought it, and I’m reluctant to dump it for a new one.I understand that I can install a new operating system myself but I really can’t be bothered. The reason I bought a Chromebook in the first place was because of ease of use, simplicity and reliability. What are the risks if I just continue to use it without receiving any more updates? BillThere is no way to assess the risk because it depends partly on what you use your Chromebook for, and how careful you are. Nowadays, most attacks require some kind of user assistance. This can mean, among other things, installing fake Android apps with hidden features, installing bogus Chrome extensions, visiting malicious websites, falling for phishing attacks, falling for man-in-the-middle attacks and failing to install essential security updates. Continue reading...

New S-Pen Air gestures, enormous screen, triple camera, longer battery hope to convince Samsung super fans to upgradeThe king of Samsung smartphones has finally arrived, but is the Galaxy Note 10+ and its S-Pen stylus really still the super phone for super fans of the South Korean brand?For a long time the Galaxy Note line was used to push the boundaries of what could be done with a smartphone, siring the big-screen “phablet” category in the process. I’m sad to report that’s no longer the case. The £999 Note 10+ might technically be the biggest screen on a Samsung flagship phone, but it’s really only by a smidgen. Continue reading...

Apple is building a new base while selling expensive hardware to users, and taking a 30% cut from developersApple had few treats for those avid followers who tuned in to the company’s press event this week. Three new phones, all thoroughly leaked in advance; a new basic iPad with a slightly larger screen; and a new Apple Watch with a face that never turns off.Not everything was predictable. It’s just we had to take the surprises where we found them. Continue reading...

Brexit-battered pound means iPhones 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max will cost about £200 more than in USApple is set to release the most expensive iPhone ever in the UK next week against the backdrop of a Brexit-battered pound, just two years after the company broke its own records with the iPhone X.The iPhones 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, revealed during a press event on Tuesday, will hit the US market priced at $999 [£809] and $1,099, the same price as their predecessors, the iPhones XS and XS Max. Continue reading...

iPhone 11 Pro is being touted as ‘the most advanced and detailed iPhone yet’ with a three-lens ‘pro’ camera system

iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max have faster processors, better screens, and new double and triple camera systems

Apple’s autumn press event brings at least three iPhones, two watches and an arcade – follow along live to see if there are any surprises in store

Seventh-generation iPad is faster, with a bigger screen and Apple Pencil support

Latest smartwatch has health features, more case options and can display time all the time

Game subscription service will launch on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV on 13 September

Social network and its subsidiary to crack down on potentially dangerous contentFacebook will no longer allow graphic images of self-harm on its platform as the company tightens its policies following criticism of the moderation of violent and potentially dangerous content on social media.The company also said on Tuesday that self-injury-related content would become harder to search for on Instagram, and such images would not appear as recommended content. Continue reading...

Sony has confirmed ‘X’ button on Dualshock controller should be called ‘Cross’ and players are freaking outIn a week filled with furore and controversy in British politics, do not make the mistake of thinking you can escape to video games for respite. There is outrage brewing here, too, and it concerns the X button on the PlayStation controller.A fortnight ago, Twitter user @drip133 asked a seemingly innocent question above a photo of the joypad: “Do you say ‘x’ or ‘cross’ button?” There were hundreds of contradictory responses, which became increasingly furious as the week wore on. Some insisted that because the other buttons are named after shapes – Triangle, Square and Circle – logically, the “X” button must be called “Cross”; others pointed out that as ‘X’ was the common usage, this was the only acceptable pronunciation. Continue reading...

Move comes after Humanists UK pointed out that page contravened crowdfunding website’s termsThe crowdfunding website GoFundMe has taken down a page launched in June by campaigners against LGBT education in schools.Humanists UK had twice demanded the page be removed because it contravened GoFundMe’s terms. There had been no response until GoFundMe was contacted for comment by the Guardian on Tuesday morning. Continue reading...

Commission says invigilators cannot tell which devices are connected to internetAll watches should be banned from exam halls as more devices become connected to the internet, an inquiry into cheating has found.The Independent Commission on Examination Malpractice, set up by exam boards to investigate the prevalence of cheating in public exams, warned that invigilators increasingly could not tell the difference between smartwatches and traditional watches. Continue reading...

Later this month, more than 1,000 Amazon staffers will walk out to demand action. Rebecca Sheppard is one of the strike’s organizersSince late last year, a group of workers within Amazon have been organizing to push the company to radically reduce its carbon emissions. Yesterday, they announced a major new action: on 20 September, Amazon workers around the world will walk out of their offices to join the Global Climate Strike. So far, more than 1,000 workers have pledged to participate. The organizers have three demands. They want the company to commit to zero emissions by 2030, to have zero custom cloud computing contracts with fossil fuel companies and to spend zero dollars on funding climate-denying lobbyists and politicians.Related: Silicon Valley revolt: meet the tech workers fighting their bosses over Ice, censorship and racism Continue reading...

Vodafone says it would be ‘commercially crazy’ for TPG to create a fourth networkAllowing a $15bn merger between telecommunications companies TPG and Vodafone would snuff out the prospect of a new mobile network to challenge the industry’s dominant players, Telstra and Optus, the competition regulator has told a court.Appearing before the federal court on Tuesday, counsel for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Michael Hodge QC, said it was “entirely commercially realistic” to say that TPG would resume previous plans to roll out a network if the merger was stopped. Continue reading...

Footage posted online appears to show vehicle’s two occupants dozing as car travelled at 90km/h on a highwayA Massachusetts man has posted a video online that appears to show the driver of a Tesla car sleeping as he and a passenger travelled along a highway.Teslas have an autopilot function, but the company says drivers are expected to remain alert. Continue reading...

As Apple prepares to launch a new iPhone, Alex Hern explores the privacy scandal around its automated personal assistant, Siri. Plus, Polly Toynbee on why Jeremy Corbyn is preventing Boris Johnson from calling an electionThe Guardian’s UK technology editor, Alex Hern, talks to Anushka Asthana about the fallout from his revelations that contractors working for Apple were listening to voice recordings of Siri users in order to grade them. The company’s voice-automated personal assistant had recorded confidential information, illegal acts and even Siri users having sex. It subsequently issued an apology and pledged to change the way Siri is run.In the run-up to Apple’s annual product launch, Hern discusses why the Siri privacy breach is just one of the company’s many recent challenges. Continue reading...

Regulators are growing more concerned about company’s impact on smaller companies striving to compete in Google’s marketsFifty US states and territories, led by Texas, announced an investigation into Google’s “potential monopolistic behavior”.The Monday announcement closely followed one from a separate group of states on Friday that disclosed an investigation into Facebook’s market dominance. The two investigations widen the antitrust scrutiny of big tech companies beyond sweeping federal and congressional investigations and enforcement action by European regulators. Continue reading...

The retailer reported a pre-tax loss of €493m despite sales rising by 11.6% to €28bnAmazon received €241m in tax credits last year that it can deduct from future bills for its European business, despite efforts by authorities in Brussels to ensure the company pays more tax.Amazon Europe, which is based in Luxembourg and aggregates the billions of pounds of sales the retailer makes from individual countries across the continent, received the credits after reporting a pre-tax loss of €493m in 2018. Sales rose 11.6% to €28bn. Continue reading...

From ultra-violent alien hunts to a honking, flapping goose simulator, here are our video game highlights for the seasonThe third title in the comic book-inspired sci-fi looter-shooter series takes its familiar cast of antiheroes on another hyperactive, ultra-violent alien hunt across a range of post-apocalyptic planetscapes. The more complex progression system and an incredible arsenal of weapons will thrill fans and newcomers alike. Out 13 September Continue reading...

This week Jordan Erica Webber is joined by Alex Hern, as they look at the scandal that rocked the voice assistant world, and ask whether or not we can trust that voice assistants aren’t eavesdropping on our most private moments Continue reading...

E-safety commissioner given power to monitor sites and order offending websites to be blockedAustralian internet service providers have been ordered to block eight websites hosting video of the Christchurch terrorist attacks.In March, shortly after the Christchurch massacre, Australian telecommunications companies and internet providers began proactively blocking websites hosting the video of the Christchurch shooter murdering more than 50 people or the shooter’s manifesto. Continue reading...

Forget Apple’s much-vaunted iOS safeguards – attackers have been quietly breaking and entering for yearsWhenever there’s something that some people value, there will be a marketplace for it. A few years ago, I spent a fascinating hour with a detective exploring the online marketplaces that exist in the so-called “dark web” (shorthand for the parts of the web you can only get to with a Tor browser and some useful addresses). The marketplaces we were interested in were ones in which stolen credit card details and other confidential data are traded.What struck me most was the apparent normality of it all. It’s basically eBay for crooks. There are sellers offering goods (ranges of stolen card details, Facebook, Gmail and other logins etc) and punters interested in purchasing same. Different categories of these stolen goods are more or less expensive. (The most expensive logins, as I remember it, were for PayPal). But the funniest thing of all was that some of the marketplaces operated a “reputation” system, just like eBay’s. Some vendors had 90%-plus ratings for reliability etc. Some purchasers likewise. Others were less highly regarded. So, one reflected, there really is honour among thieves. Continue reading...