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Updated 2024-11-24 21:17
Google's millions will transform San Jose – but at what true cost?
A major urban hub without a big-city feel, San Jose hopes a huge new Google campus will rethink its car-centric sprawl. But critics warn it will steamroll poorer residentsSan Jose is the Bay Area’s most populous city, home to more than a million people and the headquarters of eBay, TiVo and Adobe. It’s a major urban hub for workers at Facebook in nearby Palo Alto and Apple in Mountain View. It is also one of the wealthiest cities in the world, where a salary of six figures only just qualifies as middle class. And yet, tourists rarely visit the city in any numbers. Compared to its northern neighbors, Oakland and San Francisco, the press barely pays it any attention, except when the Sharks make the NHL playoffs. Continue reading...
Libra: US Congress asks Facebook to pause development
Legislators say they need time to investigate cryptocurrency and its potential impactThe US Congress has asked Facebook to pause development on its Libra cryptocurrency until lawmakers have had more time to investigate the ramifications of the company’s actions.In a letter from the Democratic head of the house committee on financial services, congresswoman Maxine Waters, and the heads of its subcommittees, the legislators ask the company to “immediately cease implementation plans”. Continue reading...
FCA proposes ban on cryptocurrency products
Financial Conduct Authority says crypto-assets are ill-suited to small investors and very volatileThe UK’s markets regulator has proposed a ban on financial instruments linked to digital cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, warning that such products could cause huge losses for retail consumers unlikely to understand their risks or value.The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said products such as derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) that reference crypto-assets were “ill-suited” to small investors. Continue reading...
George Felton obituary
Pioneering computer scientist who became the UK’s foremost software authorityGeorge Felton, who has died aged 98, was the doyen of computer-industry software designers. In the early 1950s the term “software” had not been invented, and for most computer manufacturers responsibility stopped with delivering the hardware – programming the computer was the customer’s problem. Felton helped change that perception.He managed, and largely implemented, the programming scheme for the Ferranti Pegasus computer, first delivered in 1956. It was a programming regimen of unprecedented completeness that made life a great deal easier for computer users. He went on to become the UK computer industry’s foremost software authority. Continue reading...
Can You Pet the Dog? The purity of petting pixelated puppies
@CanYouPetTheDog has more than 250,000 followers, including game developers, but most are just digital dog enthusiastsGames often feature dogs but player interaction is generally limited to violent, negative verbs – attack, shoot, kill. Now one wildly popular Twitter account is dedicated to championing the games that allow us to interact positively with our pixelated pals.@CanYouPetTheDog is a journal of record initially inspired by the virtual strays of Ubisoft’s military shooter game, The Division 2, and covers everything from unlikely candidates such as Super Smash Brothers Ultimate to the aptly named Dog Petting Simulator (video above). Continue reading...
Facebook warned Libra cryptocurrency will come under close scrutiny
UK financial regulator highlights concerns over consumer protection and privacyFacebook’s plans for a global cryptocurrency, Libra, will warrant close scrutiny by governments across the world, according to one of the UK’s most senior financial regulators.Christopher Woolard, the executive director of strategy and competition at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted a series of potential issues with the digital currency, from consumer protection and privacy concerns to financial market stability. Continue reading...
TikTok under investigation over child data use
UK inquiry looking at whether video-sharing app breaches data protection law
The Sinking City review – Lovecraftian detective game has cult appeal
PlayStation 4 (version tested), Xbox One, PC; Frogwares/Bigben Interactive
Adidas under fire for racist tweets after botched Arsenal launch
Company automatically posted pictures of new shirts with offensive Twitter handles on backAdidas UK has come under fire after a social media gambit backfired spectacularly, leading to the company tweeting out pictures of its shirts with racist and offensive slogans on the back.The error came as Adidas launched a social media campaign, #DareToCreate, in conjunction with its release of the new Arsenal home kit. Continue reading...
Bitcoin price falls below $10,000 as boost from Facebook's Libra fades
Cryptocurrency climbed to nearly $14,000 on news social network was launching rivalThe price of bitcoin has fallen back below $10,000, down 30% from last week’s peak of nearly $14,000.Continuing its wild ride, the digital currency dropped to $9,717 on Tuesday, down 8.1% on the day. Last Wednesday, the cryptocurrency shot up to $13,879, breaking through the $12,000 and $13,000 levels in less than two hours. Continue reading...
Google tweaked algorithm after rise in US shootings
Mass murders present challenge for search engine to deliver accurate resultsMisinformation is so common after mass shootings that Google has had to tweak its algorithm to compensate, a senior search engineer at the company has revealed.Pandu Nayak, who joined the company 14 years ago to work on its search engine, told the Guardian that mass murders presented an increasing challenge for the search engine to deliver accurate results. Continue reading...
How an exodus of 'Bay Area refugees' is shaking up Sacramento
As thousands of tech workers move into Sacramento, the city long considered California’s overlooked middle child is enjoying the attention – for nowPhotographs by Salgu WissmathJoan Didion, the patron saint of California, once managed to summarily dismiss and define her hometown with just one flippant eye-roll of a quote: “Anybody who talks about California hedonism has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento.”California residents have long derided the state’s capital for the crime of being perfectly average. “The midwest of California”, they call it. A cow town. Sacramento’s appeal, it’s often said, is that it’s close to places that are actually appealing, like San Francisco and Tahoe. Continue reading...
Lyft donates $150,000 in rides to immigration groups across US
Company will match rider donations to Raices, which provides legal aid to immigrantsThe ride-hailing company Lyft will be donating $150,000 in ride credits to support immigration groups across the US in the next six months.The company has also partnered with Raices, a not-for-profit organization providing legal services to immigrants. Through its Round Up & Donate program, Lyft will match rider donations to Raices throughout the month of July, and it will commit to up to $50,000 to the organization in support of their services. Continue reading...
Facebook ban on white nationalism too narrow, say auditors
Company policy prohibits praise or support for specific term ‘white nationalism’Facebook’s new policy banning white nationalism from its site has been undercut by the company’s decision to ignore content that does not use the term “white nationalism”, according to an external audit.The auditors, appointed by Facebook in 2018 to oversee its goals of “advancing civil rights on our platform”, said Facebook’s overly narrow implementation of its own rules was hampering moderation. Continue reading...
Futuristic sounds to make electric buses safer hit wrong note
Fears ‘spaceshippy’ proposals by TfL to make vehicles audible could confuse pedestriansTransport for London has been warned that proposals put forward for a safety feature to make electric buses more audible risk confusing vulnerable road users.TfL has commissioned Aecom to come up with a recognisable noise that will help alert pedestrians and cyclists to the presence of vehicles that can be dangerously quiet. Continue reading...
Marvel's Avengers: can the controversial new video game win over the faithful?
The Avengers video game has just been unveiled – and has proved divisive, thanks to redesigned characters and a trailer that looked more like a film than a gameBefore this year’s E3, the annual video games event where publishers descend on Los Angeles to unveil and promote their wares for the next year and beyond, anticipation was high for Square Enix’s new Avengers game – an action-adventure for one to four players, in which you can fight as Hulk, Black Widow, Thor and plenty of others. In the year that Endgame grossed more than $2.7bn at the box office worldwide, surely not much could go wrong for a game proffering a personalised Marvel superhero fantasy.As it turned out, however, the Avengers game’s big reveal fell rather flat (and was rather eclipsed by Keanu Reeves, who made a surprise appearance to reveal his top-secret cameo in the forthcoming Cyberpunk 2077 the day before). That is Iron Man, right? Why does he look nothing like Robert Downey Jr? Continue reading...
'We all suffer': why San Francisco techies hate the city they transformed
San Franciscans have long complained that tech workers ruined their city, driving up rents and homelessness and eliminating diversity. Now even the tech workers agreePhotographs by Jason HenryIt was a beautiful winter day in San Francisco, and Zoe was grooving to the soundtrack of the roller-skating musical Xanadu as she rode an e-scooter to work. The 29-year-old tech worker had just passed the Uber building when, without warning, a homeless man jumped into the bike lane with his dog, blocking her path.She slammed on the brakes, flew four feet into the air and landed on the pavement, bleeding. “It was one of those hardening moments where I was like, ‘Even I am being affected,’” she recalled. Continue reading...
Is YouTube proud? – Chips with Everything podcast
Jordan Erica Webber looks at why some people, such as Carlos Maza, say YouTube needs to do more to protect minorities from hate speech. The Guardian’s UK technology editor, Alex Hern, joins in on the conversation.Note added 1 July 2019: Due to a communication mix-up, we erroneously stated in the first airing of this episode that Google, of which YouTube is a subsidiary, did not respond to our request for comment. The company did respond, citing their official blog post on the subject matter of this episode - read it here. Suggestions that Google did not respond have been omitted.
White House insists Trump Huawei reversal not 'catastrophic mistake'
Amazon's Jeff Bezos pays out $38bn in divorce settlement
Ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos will become world’s fourth-richest woman but has promised to give away half of awardThe world’s biggest divorce settlement will be made official this week as Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos hands over a 4% stake in the online shopping giant to his soon-to-be ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos.A judge is expected to sign legal papers transferring the Amazon shares – worth $38bn (£29bn) – into MacKenzie Bezos’s name. It is by some distance the largest divorce settlement in history the previous record was $2.5bn paid to Jocelyn Wildenstein when she divorced art dealer Alec Wildenstein in 1999. Continue reading...
'Things are changing so fast': the benefits and dangers of robots in the UK workplace
Politicians, trade unionists and experts have set out to learn more about the new industrial landscape“We are under the threat of closure all the time,” says Andrew Peters without a hint of fear in his voice.As though repeating himself for the hundredth time, the managing director of Siemens’ Congleton factory in Cheshire explains his workers are battling for survival. Competition in this historic market town at the foothills of the Pennines, where lush green hills rise to the craggy moorlands of the Peak District, is increasingly global. Continue reading...
Toyota Corolla: ‘Nothing has been left to chance’ | Martin Love
Quiet, composed and resolutely unshowy… Would you guess this is the world’s bestselling car?Toyota Corolla
Ruha Benjamin: ‘We definitely can’t wait for Silicon Valley to become more diverse’
The sociologist on how discrimination is embedded in technology – and how we go about building a fairer worldRuha Benjamin is an associate professor of African American studies at Princeton University, and lectures around the intersection of race, justice and technology. She founded the Just Data Lab, which aims to bring together activists, technologists and artists to reassess how data can be used for justice. Her latest book, Race After Technology, looks at how the design of technology can be discriminatory.Where did the motivation to write this book come from?
An app using AI to 'undress' women offers a terrifying glimpse into the future | Arwa Mahdawi
Unless we start taking online misogyny seriously, we are going to face a future where women may not be able to exist onlineSign up for the Week in Patriarchy, a newsletter​ on feminism and sexism sent every Saturday. Continue reading...
You can't enforce a ban on mobile phones in the classroom – we should teach kids to hate them instead | Van Badham
Ours is a desperate hour, we can try to learn to read phones, cynically and powerfullyThe Australian state of Victoria has just banned mobile phones in the classroom. This is a noble intention, but a missed opportunity. Really, they should have smashed the machines, every one.The logic of the state government’s decision is faultless. Mobile phones distract children from classroom learning, and undermine teacher authority. They are poisonous crucibles for bullying, the means of image-based abuse, and a popular media for peer humiliation. Much is being learned about the affect of the palm-held contagion on human cognition – the erasure of skills in basic orientation and location awareness, their addictive appeal to dopamine in the teenage brain, their nasty impact on body confidence and sexual perception. Continue reading...
Facebook and Google likely to face new regulators for news and ads
ACCC report argues for an authority to monitor ads to ensure tech giants do not break anti-competition lawsFacebook and Google are likely to face a strong push for new regulators in Australia to oversee news and advertising on their platforms following the completion of the competition regulator’s inquiry into the tech giants.In December 2017, then-treasurer Scott Morrison directed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to look at the impact that search engines, social media platforms and other online aggregation sites were having on competition in media and advertising. Continue reading...
Jony Ive, Apple designer behind iPhone and iMac, to exit company after 30 years
Ive to remain ‘very involved’ with Apple as he launches new creative companyJony Ive, the chief architect of groundbreaking and distinctive designs from the iMac to the iPhone, announced on Thursday that he is leaving Apple after nearly 30 years.Ive’s departure, which was announced in an exclusive interview with the Financial Times, is sure to set off shock waves in the tech and design worlds, but the 52-year-old Briton will remain involved with Apple. He plans to launch a new creative company called LoveFrom – and said Apple will be his first client. Continue reading...
The Trump rule? World leaders that violate Twitter rules will get warning label
Move is a shift in efforts to balance its ideological commitment to free expression with rules against harassment and hate speechCall it the Trump rule.Twitter will attach a special label to tweets by major political figures if their content violates the site’s rules but the deleting of them is not in the public interest, the company said on Thursday. Continue reading...
Uber settles with UK women who accused driver of sexual assault
Firm had contested allegations but has reached undisclosed out-of-court settlementsUber has reached out-of-court settlements with two women who alleged they were sexually assaulted by the same driver in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the UK against the company.The cases were taken by two women who had ordered vehicles using Uber’s app during nights out in Leeds in December 2015, but told police they were sexually assaulted by the driver. They are both five-figure settlements. Continue reading...
EU to run war games to prepare for Russian and Chinese cyber-attacks
Ministers to be put in fictional scenarios after series of hacking incidentsThe EU is to conduct war games to prepare for Russian and Chinese cyber-attacks, in response to a series of incidents that alarmed European governments.Pekka Haavisto, Finland’s foreign minister, said an increase in the prevalence of meddling required a reaction from the 28 member states. During meetings in Helsinki in July and September, EU interior and finance ministers will be asked to manage fictional scenarios. Continue reading...
Tired of Google following you? It is now easier to clear location data
New functionality automatically deletes history of places users have visitedIt is now slightly easier to opt out of Google’s panopticon, with the introduction of new controls from the search engine to automatically clear your data after a set period of time.By default, Google saves a permanent history of everything a user has searched for, every website they have visited, activity from any other app, site or device that uses Google services, and a record of their physical movements gleaned from using Google Maps or an Android device. Continue reading...
F1 2019 review – sublime motorsports simulation
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC; Codemasters
What’s the best cheap tablet or e-reader for PDF files?
Thomas needs a device to read A4 PDFs of technical papers that is cheaper than a good laptopI am looking for an e-reader for technical papers. These are usually only available in fixed, non-reflowable, PDF format and sized for printing on A4 paper. They cannot be read on a typical e-reader such as a Kindle because the text is too small. I don’t need the fancy note-taking capabilities of options such as the Remarkable PDF reader. Can you recommend something that doesn’t cost as much as a decent laptop? ThomasThe main attraction of Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) is that people can read the files on almost any kind of device. The corollary is that almost any device will work as a PDF reader, including smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops running almost any operating system. Indeed, so many people need to read PDF files for business and educational research purposes, there are e-readers designed for the task. Continue reading...
Abortion clinic ads in Australia blocked in error, Google says
Abortion providers in Australia noticed a sharp drop in traffic from Google ads in the last weekGoogle says it has corrected a mistake that blocked ads for abortion providers from appearing in search results in Australia.Abortion clinics in Australia reported a significant drop in traffic in the last week, as first reported by the ABC, with clinics such as the Macquarie Street clinic in Sydney stating their bookings had dropped and the phones had stopped ringing due to their paid ads not appearing in Google search results. Continue reading...
Facebook says it can't handle election misinformation crisis alone
Speaking at Aspen Ideas Festival, Mark Zuckerberg says private companies shouldn’t have ‘final word’ on such decisionsMark Zuckerberg has said Facebook cannot be expected to manage the crisis around election misinformation campaigns on its own.The Facebook CEO, speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Wednesday, said that while the company was focused on questions of election security and interference before the 2020 US presidential election, “those are really hard questions to answer”. Continue reading...
More than 9m play Candy Crush for three hours or more a day
Executive of maker King tells MPs he does not believe there is addiction problemA top executive at the maker of the multibillion dollar Candy Crush Saga game has revealed that more than 9 million players a day spend from between three to six hours or more playing the puzzle game.Alex Dale, a senior executive at its maker, King, also told a Commons select committee investigating immersive and addictive technologies that last year one player spent $2,600 (£2,050) in a single day on the gold bar currency that can be used to propel players faster through the game. Continue reading...
Schools to teach pupils about perils of fake news and catfishing
Education secretary says guidance will help guard children against online harmsGuidance on teaching online safety in schools to make children more resilient to catfishing, fake news and other online harms has been announced by the education secretary.The guidelines will combine teaching on relationships, citizenship and computing to help students understand the technology behind targeted advertising, false profiles and other digital issues. Continue reading...
Watch Dogs Legion's dystopian post-Brexit London
In Ubisoft’s forthcoming game, London has become a surveillance state run by authoritarian populists – and its citizens must come together to fight backThe virtual London of Watch Dogs Legion, the forthcoming sci-fi open world adventure by Ubisoft Montreal, is sometimes uncanny in its accuracy.For instance, while evading the police, and the private military forces working alongside them in the game’s dystopian future, I was able to use my knowledge of the layout of the real world’s Broadcasting House, headquarters of the BBC, to duck down a side street and avoid a drone that had been dogging me since Trafalgar Square. Continue reading...
My secret shame: I am (still) addicted to Pokémon Go
Dominic Rushe has caught over 11,000 Pokémon, walked 1,841km in Poké-land, and doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon
Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency faces questions from international regulators
Chair of Financial Stability Board says company’s plans could spark closer scrutiny of cryptocurrenciesFacebook’s Libra cryptocurrency is facing increasing skepticism from international regulators days after ambitious plans for it were unveiled by the social media company.On Tuesday, Randal Quarles, chair of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a policy coordinator for G20 countries, said Facebook’s plan to expand into retail payments could lead regulators to take a closer look at such financial instruments. Continue reading...
'A white-collar sweatshop': Google Assistant contractors allege wage theft
Interpreting a spoken request isn’t magic, rather it has taken a team of underpaid, subcontracted linguists to make the technology possible“Do you believe in magic?” Google asked attendees of its annual developer conference this May, playing the seminal Lovin’ Spoonful tune as an introduction. Throughout the three-day event, company executives repeatedly answered yes while touting new features of the Google Assistant, the company’s version of Alexa or Siri, that can indeed feel magical. The tool can book you a rental car, tell you what the weather is like at your mother’s house, and even interpret live conversations across 26 languages.But to some of the Google employees responsible for making the Assistant work, the tagline of the conference – “Keep making magic” – obscured a more mundane reality: the technical wizardry relies on massive data sets built by subcontracted human workers earning low wages. Continue reading...
My Friend Pedro review – action-movie mayhem without the fluff
PC, Nintendo Switch; DeadToast Entertainment/Devolver Digital
Next online battle will play on fear of bots, says Facebook official
New ‘influence operations’ will openly advertise participation in debate instead of hiding itThe next wave of “influence operations” like those that Russia used to target the 2016 US election will aim to destabilise debate by making voters think bots are everywhere, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy has said.Nathaniel Gleicher, who runs the company’s response to politically motivated malfeasance on its platform, said groups such as Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) were increasingly trying to manipulate public perception of themselves. “Not running a large network of fake accounts but just playing on the fact that everyone thinks there are large networks of fake accounts out there,” he said. Continue reading...
Has an Australian judge just broken Facebook for publishers?
Landmark ruling set to change the way media companies engage with the social media giant
iOS 13: how to install Apple’s latest iPhone software today
Feature-packed new software is out in beta, though users are reporting ‘tons of rough edges’Apple has released the public beta version of its much-anticipated free iOS 13 software update for iPhones and the first edition of its new iPadOS for tablets.Those eager to try the latest features, including the new dark mode, faster Face ID, Memoji stickers and smarter photo organisation, can now install iOS 13 on a compatible iPhone or iPadOS on their Apple tablet. Continue reading...
BMW aims to double electric and hybrid sales in next two years
Carmaker to have 25 electrified models on sale by 2023 as strict new EU rules loomBMW is accelerating its push away from the internal combustion engine towards battery technology, as the German carmaker seeks to double the number of electric and hybrid vehicles it sells in the next two years.The company will have 25 electrified models on sale in 2023, two years earlier than previously planned, it announced on Tuesday. More than half of the vehicles will be fully electric. Continue reading...
Media companies scramble after judge rules they are liable for Facebook comments
Australian judge finds media companies have a responsibility to ensure defamatory remarks are not posted on social media
I spent a day eating food cooked by robots in America's tech capital
Vivian Ho befriended an electronic arm and grappled with a defunct tea maker during a trip through Silicon ValleyAround the world, an industry has emerged around automating food service through robotics, raising questions about job security and mass unemployment while also prompting praise for streamlining and innovation.In the epicenter of Silicon Valley, where innovation is exalted beyond all else, this industry has played out in various forms, from cafes, burger shops and pizza delivery to odd vending machines. Continue reading...
The Guardian view on female voice assistants: not OK, Google | Editorial
When computer assistants reply in female voices, are they saying that women lack power in their world?Within two years there will be more voice assistants on the internet than there are people on the planet. Another, possibly more helpful, way of looking at these statistics is to say that there will still be only half a dozen assistants that matter: Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa in the west, along with their Chinese equivalents, but these will have billions of microphones at their disposal, listening patiently for sounds they can use. Voice is going to become the chief way that we make our wants known to computers – and when they respond, they will do so with female voices.This detail may seem trivial, but it goes to the heart of the way in which the spread of digital technologies can amplify and extend social prejudice. The companies that program these assistants want them to be used, of course, and this requires making them appear helpful. That’s especially necessary when their helpfulness is limited in the real world: although they are getting better at answering queries outside narrow and canned parameters, they could not easily ever be mistaken for a human being on the basis of their words alone. Continue reading...
Bitcoin passes $11,000 on news of Facebook's cryptocurrency plan
The original cryptocurrency hits 15-month high as traders bet move will legitimise sectorThe price of bitcoin has surged above $11,000 (£8,600), its highest level in 15 months, amid renewed hype over cryptocurrencies after Facebook said it was planning to launch a digital currency next year.Bitcoin has risen in value by almost $2,000 in the week since the US technology firm revealed plans to create a cryptocurrency called Libra, in a move that could radically reshape the financial landscape with far-reaching implications for governments and central banks around the world. Continue reading...
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