Technology | The Guardian

Laden with irrelevant detail, the boastful ‘OOO’ email is the latest vehicle for one-upmanship. Why not keep it simple?So, you’re off on your hols, then? Remembered to leave an out-of-office message on your email? Ah, yes. “John Stephens will be out of the office from 1st August for two weeks. If you need an urgent response to a query, please contact … ”I’m sure you’ll agree that there’s nothing wrong with that – straightforward and informative. But – how can I put this, John? – isn’t it just a little bit prosaic? Don’t you itch to generate a frisson of envy among your colleagues while you’re not hewing at the coalface? Boost your image? What might be called induced OOO envy? If so, you’re going to have to do a damn sight better than the above. Because telling the truth on an OOO is so passé these days. No, what’s required is something altogether more ambitious, more global. Continue reading...

Workers hear drug deals, medical details and people having sex, says whistleblowerApple contractors regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex, as part of their job providing quality control, or “grading”, the company’s Siri voice assistant, the Guardian has learned.Although Apple does not explicitly disclose it in its consumer-facing privacy documentation, a small proportion of Siri recordings are passed on to contractors working for the company around the world. They are tasked with grading the responses on a variety of factors, including whether the activation of the voice assistant was deliberate or accidental, whether the query was something Siri could be expected to help with and whether Siri’s response was appropriate. Continue reading...

Tweaks to user experience help company to better-than-expected profitability of $76mTwitter’s revenue rose by almost a fifth year on year, the company reported on Friday, leading to “better-than-expected profitability” of $76m (£61m) in the second quarter of 2019, although this was down from $80m in the same period last year.The results were boosted by strength in US advertising revenue, which was up by 24% overall, in part due to growth in “monetisable daily active users”, which reached 139 million people, up 14% year on year. Continue reading...

Microsoft, Google and several others are vying to be the ‘Netflix of video games’, but what advantages are on offer for players?Streaming video games is an idea with such obvious advantages that like virtual reality, motion controls and 3D screens, it had already hit the market several times before it was technologically possible: witness the untimely demise of OnLive in 2015. The big question facing Microsoft and Google, both of which showed off their entries into the “cloud gaming” market at the E3 video game conference in Los Angeles last month, is whether they’ve taken the plunge at the right time, or whether they, too, will be chalked up in history as premature entrants.After playing with Microsoft’s Project xCloud and Google’s Stadia, we can draw some conclusions but others will have to wait. Both services are aiming at different targets, and based on the idealised situations in which they were presented, they each achieve their goals. But not everything is in their hands. No plan survives contact with the enemy, and no streaming service has yet survived contact with the realities of home broadband. Continue reading...

Weeks after paying £43m for city state’s dearest penthouse, inventor has reportedly bought £26.5m bungalowWhen billionaire inventor James Dyson bought Singapore’s most expensive flat for £43m earlier this month, the only thing the luxury triplex was missing was its own waterfall.But Dyson, who has been criticised for uprooting his company to Singapore after strongly backing Brexit, has rectified that with the purchase of a second property, complete with cascading water feature. Continue reading...

Players as young as 12 will compete in the event, marking Fortnite: Battle Royale’s entry into the lucrative professional games tournament circuitAfter 10 weeks of open qualifiers attracting more than 40 million competitors, the Fortnite World Cup finals will be held this weekend in New York. Up for grabs for the 100 qualifiers – many of whom are between 12 and 16 years old – is a total prize pot of $30m, the largest ever for an esports event.With more than 250 million players, Fortnite: Battle Royale has become one of the most popular video games in the world since its launch in 2017. The World Cup represents the title’s entry into the lucrative world of professional games tournament circuits, where revenues are set to pass $1bn this year, due to exploding sponsorship, advertising and broadcast rights. Continue reading...

Company’s earnings rebound even as justice department announces antitrust review of major tech firmsGoogle’s parent company Alphabet rebounded from a difficult start to the year on Thursday, when it reported higher than expected revenue and earnings.The digital advertising behemoth continues to amass extraordinary profits, with $9.18bn in the second quarter of 2019, but investors had been concerned about decelerating growth rates. Continue reading...

Second-quarter earnings lower than expected amid threat of government actionAmazon reported lower-than-expected profits in its second quarter of 2019, as it faces unprecedented opposition from lawmakers and consumers over its growing power.Related: Shop til they drop: the play that takes us inside an Amazon warehouse Continue reading...

Nintendo Switch; Intelligent Systems/Nintendo

PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch; MachineGames/Bethesda

Hugh wants to buy his wife a new tablet to replace her old Samsung Galaxy 10.1. What are the options?My wife is an artist. She has been using a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 since 2014. This allows her to draw and paint using a stylus supplied with the pad. She loves using it, but it’s past its best and the battery won’t hold a charge for very long. I am thinking of buying her a replacement. What should I go for? HughIf you’re an artist who uses computers, you’ve never had it so good, as former prime minister Harold Macmillan almost said. Touch-sensitive screens are becoming ubiquitous, so there are dozens of usable devices at a wide range of price points. However, they are not all the same, and people can be confused by the differences. Continue reading...

Scientist behind study urges platform to tweak algorithms to ‘prioritise factual information’The majority of YouTube videos about the climate crisis oppose the scientific consensus and “hijack” technical terms to make them appear credible, a new study has found. Researchers have warned that users searching the video site to learn about climate science may be exposed to content that goes against mainstream scientific belief.Dr Joachim Allgaier of RWTH Aachen University in Germany analysed 200 YouTube videos to see if they adhered to or challenged the scientific consensus. To do so, he chose 10 search terms: Continue reading...

Penalty by US government reflects scale of breach, first reported by the ObserverFacebook will pay a record $5bn (£4bn) penalty in the US for “deceiving” users about their ability to keep personal information private, after a year-long investigation into the Cambridge Analytica data breach.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US consumer regulator, also announced a lawsuit against Cambridge Analytica and proposed settlements with the data analysis firm’s former chief executive Alexander Nix and its app developer Aleksandr Kogan. Continue reading...

Action may finally be taken over claims Facebook, Google Apple and Amazon have monopolised chosen fieldsThe US Department of Justice (DoJ) has announced a wide-ranging antitrust review of “market-leading online platforms”, suggesting that long-awaited action may finally be taken against some of the world’s largest companies.But the confirmation of the investigation is sparse on detail, revealing only that the review “will consider the widespread concerns that consumers, businesses and entrepreneurs have expressed about search, social media, and some retail services online”. Continue reading...

Forces had warned that Russian ageing app was not bound by EU privacy legislationPolice forces in the Netherlands have backtracked on calls for users to delete the popular age-filtering FaceApp, over which some critics have voiced privacy fears.In a series of posts on Facebook, it was erroneously claimed by forces across the country that the Russian app, which predicts how people will look as they get older, was not safe as it would not be bound by European privacy legislation. Continue reading...

An unexpected revamp of Microsoft’s classic flying simulator could usher in a new era of cloud function for gamesFlight Simulator was once one of the jewels in Microsoft’s crown, as close to synonymous with PC gaming as it’s possible to get. The series debuted a staggering 37 years ago, pre-dating even Windows as an operating system, and demanded exacting attention from players as they guided increasingly detailed planes safely through the skies. Over the course of a dozen iterations spanning nearly four decades, the flying experience evolved from blocky cockpit views to full aerial tours with a hangar’s worth of realistically modelled aircraft to get to grips with. It’s been running so long that even Microsoft does not know its sales figures, but Flight Simulator has certainly been played by millions.Yet as PC gaming blossomed, becoming home to everything from competitive shooters to arthouse narrative games, Flight Simulator’s star began to wane. The last major release was 2006’s Microsoft Flight Simulator X (eventually revamped and repackaged for Steam in 2014), while 2012’s simplified spin-off, Microsoft Flight, had an aborted take off, cancelled a mere five months after launch. The golden age of flight (simulators) has long been over. Continue reading...

Camera shutter, tap gesture, better speakers and 5.5in screen make for an appealing smart alarm clockAmazon’s latest Echo Show 5 Alexa smart display is smaller, cheaper and has improved privacy, but is a £79.99 5.5in screen with a camera ready to replace your alarm clock in the bedroom?The Show 5 isn’t the first Alexa smart display aimed at being your bedside clock. The Echo Spot, with its pleasingly round screen and ball-like shape, was released in 2018 and is still available for £120. Continue reading...

Shares climb as Snap Inc announces 48% increase in revenue to $388mSnapchat announced an exceptionally strong second quarter on Tuesday, sending shares surging in after hours trading.New augmented reality tools, a redesign of its Android application, and expansion into new markets brought the company major growth in the second quarter of 2019. The number of Snapchat users has increased 8% since this time last year to 203 million, the company said. Continue reading...

Video game music played by an orchestra is not new, but 8-Bit Symphony, a celebration of music from pioneering C64 composers, took many years of work

Records and ID documents accessed and fake invoices sent in ‘malicious’ hackStudent data has been stolen in a “sophisticated and malicious” cyber-attack on a university.Records and ID documents of some Lancaster University students were accessed in the phishing attack and fraudulent invoices were sent to undergraduate applicants, a spokesman for the university said. Continue reading...

Our updated list of the top iOS and Android mobile phones – at the best prices right nowNeed a new smartphone but don’t know which one is the very best? Here’s a guide comparing the current top-end smartphones from Apple, Samsung, Huawei, OnePlus and others to help you pick the best handset for you.There has never been a better time to buy a new flagship smartphone with many quality handsets available at a wider range of prices than ever before. Whether your priority is two-day battery life, fantastic camera performance or a spectacular screen, there’s plenty to choose from. Continue reading...

Tech firm settles class-action lawsuit but denies it is unfair to older applicantsGoogle has settled a lawsuit alleging age discrimination in its hiring practices, paying $11m to more than 200 jobseekers who were over 40 when they applied to join the company.Although it has settled the case, Google denies the allegations that it was unfairly dismissive of older applicants. Continue reading...

Chinese firm was blacklisted by Donald Trump over national security concernsHuawei Technologies, the Chinese company put on a US blacklist because of national security concerns, secretly helped North Korea build and maintain its commercial wireless network, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing sources and internal documents.The Chinese telecommunications company partnered with a state-owned Chinese firm, Panda International Information Technology, on a number of projects in North Korea over at least eight years, the Post reported. Continue reading...

Jordan Erica Webber talks to Laura Hudson, who wrote about video game producers making games that present players with situations where a character might choose to have an abortion. She also chats to Mary Flanagan of Tiltfactor about the potential impact games can have on changing opinions Continue reading...

Eating plastic waste, cleaning up oil spills and detecting tumours… how these micro-organisms can help change the worldScientists have discovered a way of using bacteria to produce graphene – a nanomaterial composed of a single layer of carbon atoms with extraordinary properties. Graphene is strong, flexible and conductive with the potential to revolutionise electronics, but using it has remained difficult. “For real applications, you need large amounts,” says Prof Anne S Meyer, of the University of Rochester, New York. Her team have used a bacterium called Shewenella to produce large quantities of thinner, more stable graphene. Continue reading...

You don’t have to spend a fortune on headphones to get noise cancellation, decent bass and fine detail at high volumeWhile you can pay hundreds of pounds for a pair of audiophile or status headphones, if you’re mainly going to be wearing them in the gym, listening to a podcast or leaving them on the bus then you’re probably wasting your money. Moreover, the price of technologies like Bluetooth and noise cancellation is falling and you can pick up a pair featuring both of these useful features for mid-range prices. Here’s our review of some popular models… Continue reading...

A Dutch solar-electric prototype with a range of up to 450 miles could be a ray of hope in the darkLightyear One

PC, PlayStation 4; Monstars/Resonair/Enhance

4G mobile technology will launch on Jubilee line and will be extended to other linesLondon Underground passengers will be able to use their phones in tunnels between stations from early next year, removing one of the last major public places in Britain without phone reception and creating new challenges to commuter etiquette.Transport for London confirmed to the Guardian that 4G mobile phone technology would go live in tunnels on most of the Jubilee line from March 2020 and on other lines in the coming years. Continue reading...

Information Commissioner’s Office says people should check how apps use their dataThe Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is considering allegations that FaceApp, the face-ageing photo app that has gone viral, is misusing personal data.“We are aware of stories raising concerns about FaceApp and will be considering them,” a spokesperson for the information watchdog said on Thursday. “We would advise people signing up to any app to check what will happen to their personal information and not to provide any personal details until they are clear about how they will be used.” Continue reading...

Some of the earliest video games were influenced by the space race and created using the same computers as NasaOn 20 July 1969, before an estimated television audience of 650 million, a lunar module named Eagle touched down on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility. The tension of the landing and the images of astronauts in futuristic spacesuits striding over the moon’s barren surface, Earth reflected in their oversized visors, would prove wildly influential to artists, writers and film-makers.Also watching were the soon-to-be proponents of another technological field populated by brilliant young geeks: computer games. It is perhaps no coincidence that during the early 1960s, when Nasa was working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Instrumentation Lab to develop the guidance and control systems for Apollo spacecraft, elsewhere on campus a programmer named Steve Russell was working with a small team to create one of the first true video game experiences. Continue reading...

As artificial intelligence is increasingly introduced into business, an expert panel – hosted by the Guardian – forecast how it will change our working livesWorkplaces should use automation technologies to enhance employees’ jobs rather than to replace humans, according to speakers at an event held by the Guardian on 11 July. However, they saw problems in the introduction of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robots, the latter including software as well as physical machines. Continue reading...

Mihika Sharma’s smart stick, which helps blind people cross the road, is one of the winning entries in this year’s Tech4Good awardsNine months since the government unveiled its social prescribing strategy to tackle loneliness, progress is still patchy. One in 20 adults in England feel lonely often or always, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. And two-thirds of disabled people report feeling lonely. Part of the problem is that efforts are being hampered by austerity: figures out this month showed that £7.7bn has been cut from adult social care budgets in England, and the number of daycare centres has fallen by more than 40% from 2010 levels.Technology is already at the forefront of efforts to reduce loneliness, but the winners of this year’s Tech4Good awards, announced on Wednesday, show how innovative use of technology can improve access to cultural and leisure activities, which are an excellent way to bring people together. Continue reading...

Peter wants a mini-laptop to go with his old BlackBerry phone. What are his options?I’m old-school now at 71, but I’m still designing and working as a consultant. I had nothing but BlackBerry smartphones for years. Then it all went wrong. My boring Samsung J-something does most things but I miss my BlackBerry. I found an old one in a drawer, and it fits nicely in my pocket when off out. However, when I’m in a coffee place or relaxing, I’d like a big screen for YouTube, WhatsApp links, and writing reports. I’m thinking of rebooting my nice small BlackBerry and putting a smallish mini-laptop in my bag. Any thoughts? PeterBlackBerry lost its premier position in the market – when its phones were used by everyone from Paris Hilton to then US president Barack Obama – but you can still buy BlackBerry phones. The company licensed its name and technology to China’s TCL Communication Technology Holdings Limited (TCT), which sells phones under the TCL, BlackBerry Mobile and Alcatel brand names. It also makes TV sets, soundbars, headphones, air conditioners and dehumidifiers. (The BlackBerry name has also been used by Optiemus Infracom, selling phones as BlackBerry Mobile India, and BB Merah Putih, which briefly served the Indonesian market.) Continue reading...

Following the panic over this viral app, the moral of the story is: don’t worry too much about ‘the Russians’. You should worry about everythingOver the last few days the #faceappchallenge has taken over social media. This “challenge” involves downloading a selfie-editing tool called FaceApp and using one of its filters to digitally age your face. You then post the photo of your wizened old self on the internet and everyone laughs uproariously. You get a small surge of dopamine from gathering a few online likes before existential ennui sets in once again. Challenge completed.On Monday, as the #faceappchallenge went viral, Joshua Nozzi, a software developer, warned people to “BE CAREFUL WITH FACEAPP….it immediately uploads your photos without asking, whether you chose one or not”. Some media outlets picked this claim up and privacy concerns about the app began to mount. Continue reading...

Amazon’s basic Kindle lights up with a better screen to close the gap with the PaperwhiteAmazon’s cheapest, most basic Kindle now has a light and a better screen, which makes it very nearly the new default ebook reader. The new Kindle 9 – which is, confusingly, one of the new 10th generation of Kindles alongside the fourth-generation Paperwhite and third-generation Oasis – looks very similar to the previous version.The sides of the reader feel as though they have been softened slightly. It has been made 2mm narrower and 0.4mm thinner but 13g heavier than the previous version. The Kindle 9 is easy to hold for extended periods and feels fairly robust. Continue reading...

Social media giant says the trial, which rolls out Thursday, will ‘reduce pressure’ on users of the platformInstagram users in Australia will no longer be able to see how many likes a post has a received under trial changes to “remove pressure” on the digital platform’s users.Instagram will on Thursday begin rolling out the trial update removing the total number of likes on photos and viewings of videos on user feeds and profiles, and permalink pages. Continue reading...

Investigation into possible anti-competitive behaviour is likely to spark US anger

The pastel-hued Nintendo Switch Lite, out in September, is far from the only beautiful console in video game history. These 10 were much more than unattractive slabs Continue reading...

A little less ‘Pro’ means the regular OnePlus 7 is smaller and lighter, offering a top experience for £500The OnePlus 7 is basically the OnePlus 6T with the guts of the OnePlus 7 Pro, which sounds like a bad thing, but for £500 it is arguably the best bang for your buck going.There was nothing wrong with the design of the 6T, so there isn’t with the 7. The 6.41in AMOLED display is bright and crisp, filling most of the front of the phone with a small chin at the bottom and a teardrop notch in the top for the selfie camera. Continue reading...

Banking committee questions Facebook on its Libra project, while the House will later take aim at Google, Apple and Amazon

Social media firm to investigate users’ complaints and take down violating postsFresh efforts to tackle scam adverts across Facebook are being introduced in the UK following action taken by the consumer champion Martin Lewis.The social media company is releasing a scam ads reporting tool, with a specially trained team investigating alerts raised by users, reviewing reports and taking down violating posts to clamp down on potentially misleading adverts. Continue reading...

Immigrants and workers say e-commerce giant should cut ties with federal deportation agencies and improve working conditionsActivists, immigrants and Amazon employees demonstrated against the e-commerce giant on its annual Prime Day, protesting against its labor practices and its involvement with US authorities’ deportation efforts.The protests on Monday began in seven US cities, coinciding with the yearly sale that made the company more than $4bn in 2018. Continue reading...

Motorists sent up the garden path as controversial M4 East tunnel from Homebush to Haberfield fails to displayGoogle Maps is working to resolve an issue where Sydney’s newly opened WestConnex M4 East motorway – part of Australia’s largest transport infrastructure project – does not display on its map.The 5.5km tunnel, from Homebush to Haberfield, opened on Saturday after controversy over its impact on health, traffic and the mandatory acquisition of homes. Continue reading...

Jordan Erica Webber teams up with Science Weekly host Ian Sample to find out more about how companies use various techniques to trick us into buying something we may never have needed, or wanted Continue reading...

MoD, DExEU and DHSC lodged complaints requesting removal of fake accounts pretending to be associated with governmentTwitter accounts masquerading as official outlets for Dominic Raab and Liam Fox were revealed as among those the UK government succeeded in shutting down after complaining to the social media company.Details of complaints to Twitter by various departments about suspected fake accounts posing as original have been revealed by freedom of information requests from the Guardian, showing it has not always gone in favour of the UK government. Continue reading...

TV’s Stranger Things and Game of Thrones have brought millions of new players to the classic fantasy gameFor the past few days the ancient walls of Northumberland’s Langley Castle have resounded to the clang of clashing broadswords and the battle cries of angry goblins.A band of mercenaries emancipated a caravan of slaves, a princess captured a corrupt warlock, and then there was that unfortunate business with the insane dark elf sorcerer. Continue reading...

Jack Poulson’s non-profit group Tech Inquiry aims to make it easier for coders to speak outEmployees of tech companies should have the right to know when they are working on projects they may find ethically unacceptable, a former Google whistleblower has said.In 2018, Jack Poulson hit headlines after he resigned from his job at Google over the company’s (now-scrapped) plan to build a censorship AI for the Chinese search market. Now, he wants to make sure that other tech workers can fight for what’s right without having to put their livelihood on the line. Continue reading...