Technology | The Guardian

This new spatial computing' device is supposedly the most immersive way to watch TV - but major streamers aren't building apps for it. Plus, Facebook's AI god complex Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereIt's good to have friends. They come to your birthday party, offer a shoulder to cry on when things are hard and spend precious corporate resources developing apps for your nascent virtual reality platform despite little direct return. It can be tempting to believe that a pile of cash worth $30bn, and a single product line that brings in more than $200bn a year, is an acceptable substitute. But Apple is learning that money can't buy you everything.Last week, pre-orders opened for the company's Vision Pro headset, the $3,500 spatial computing" platform CEO Tim Cook has positioned as the successor to the Mac and iPhone and the launch of the third major era in Apple's history. But in the press, the launch has been overshadowed by the quiet hostility towards the device from those whose support will ultimately be needed to ensure its success.Rather than designing a Vision Pro app - or even just supporting its existing iPad app on the platform - Netflix is essentially taking a pass. The company, which competes with Apple in streaming, said in a statement that users interested in watching its content on the device can do so from the web.YouTube ... isn't planning to launch a new app for the Apple Vision Pro, nor will it allow its longstanding iPad application to work on the device - at least, for now [...] Spotify also isn't currently planning a new app for visionOS - the Vision Pro's operating system - and doesn't expect to enable its iPad app to run on the device when it launches, according to a person familiar with matter.All App Store developers - including those who place buttons or links with calls to action in their apps - benefit from Apple's proprietary technology and tools protected by intellectual property, and access to its user base. [...] Apple's commission will be 27% on proceeds you earn from sales.The Meta chief executive has said the company will attempt to build an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system and make it open source, meaning it will be accessible to developers outside the company. The system should be made as widely available as we responsibly can", he added.AGI is not a strictly defined term, but it commonly refers to a theoretical AI system that can carry out an array of tasks at a level of intelligence that matches or exceeds humans. The potential emergence of AGI has alarmed experts and politicians around the world who fear such a system, or a combination of multiple AGI systems, could evade human control and threaten humanity. Continue reading...

Voice cloning is ever more sophisticated - and can be used to impersonate a child and target their parents. So I have devised a new phone greeting for my teenagersA friend recently got duped by a scam text purporting to be from his middle daughter, and transferred 100 to an account to cover some baffling yet, according to the text, extremely time-sensitive untoward event.You can imagine how the scammer pulled that off. Think of everyday, low-level parental anxiety, expecting bad news when kids are anywhere farther away than the kitchen table; add the sheer believability of any bad news that starts with a 19-year-old texting: I smashed my phone"; all a scammer has to do is lean in. Continue reading...

Foreign minister Penny Wong says it will be a criminal offence to provide assets to Russian Aleksandr Gennadievich Ermakov after he was linked by authorities to the 'compromise of the Medibank Private network' in 2022. Defence minister Richard Marles says Wong's decision to use Australia's cyber sanction laws against Ermakov for his alleged role in the Medibank breach is a 'hugely significant and unprecedented step' and sends a message to cyber criminals that Australia 'means business'

Government uses cyber sanctions powers under Magnitsky laws for first time to target Aleksandr Gennadievich Ermakov, alleged to be responsible for hack

Gabriel Metcalf was hired to design a new California city backed by Silicon Valley money. He says bold action is needed to fight the housing crisisI met Gabriel Metcalf, the urban planner hired to design a new California city backed by tech billionaires, while we were mincing garlic and herbs at Burning Man. The New York Times had just blown open the mystery of who was secretly buying up more than 50,000 acres of farmland in Solano county, about 50 miles north-east of San Francisco.The buyers turned out to include a who's who of Silicon Valley investors who had thrown their weight behind an ambitious plan for a new California dream" city with walkable neighborhoods, climate-friendly infrastructure, green energy jobs and affordable homes. Continue reading...

Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr's lawsuit claims he was misidentified as culprit of armed robbery and put in jail, where he says he was rapedA 61-year-old man is suing Macy's and the parent company of Sunglass Hut over the stores' alleged use of a facial recognition system that misidentified him as the culprit behind an armed robbery and led to his wrongful arrest. While in jail, he was beaten and raped, according to his suit.Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr was accused and arrested on charges of robbing a Houston-area Sunglass Hut of thousands of dollars of merchandise in January 2022, though his attorneys say he was living in California at the time of the robbery. He was arrested on 20 October 2023, according to his lawyers. Continue reading...

Worries about impact on neighbouring schools of money for Malmesbury primary in Wiltshire, near Dyson's campusA 6m donation from Sir James Dyson to help fund the expansion of his local state primary school has been approved by the government, despite concerns about the potential impact on neighbouring schools.The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, announced on Monday that she had given the green light for the inventor's donation to Malmesbury Church of England primary school in Wiltshire, which is close to Dyson's research and development campus. Continue reading...

Data-corrupting flaws in hardware do exist - but most are quietly fixed without the public noticing, writes Alan CoxYou published several letters arguing that computers themselves are reliable (Computers rarely go wrong, but computer systems often do, 17 January). The truth is somewhat less positive. While computer hardware is more reliable than most current software, data-corrupting flaws in hardware do exist, and more are found over time.Some, such as rowhammer, become well known as security flaws, others become famous through recalls (like the Pentium FDIV fiasco), but most pass unnoticed by the general public and are quietly fixed or mitigated in microcode. Continue reading...

Months after he endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory, the CEO of X went to the site of the Nazi death campElon Musk, who has endorsed antisemitic conspiracy theories and been criticized for allowing antisemitic messages on X, formerly Twitter, visited the site of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on Monday.Musk's visit at the most notorious site of the horrors of the Holocaust came before a scheduled appearance later that day at a conference on antisemitism organized by the European Jewish Association in the nearby Polish city of Krakow. Continue reading...

Regulator takes action after masthead reveals links between two of company's directors and a series of failed crypto schemes

I recently stumbled upon a South Korean practice I've been doing for years. In 2024, it could be exactly what we needI subscribe to Vittles online magazine, because reading evocative writing about food I'm too lazy and incompetent to prepare or seek out is one of my favourite hobbies, and because I always learn something. In a recent edition, I discovered a captivating Korean suffix. There are no thoughts, just meong, the suffix in Korean used for activities of staring into stillness, like bull meong - staring into the fire," wrote the author, Songsoo Kim, in a beautiful article with recipes about preparing a feast that I would dearly love to eat, but absolutely will not cook.As a black belt starer into stillness - it's my other favourite hobby - this spoke to me deeply. I asked Kim about it and she explained meong (also written mung) is colloquially used to describe zoning out, but without a negative connotation. This, she explained, was an organic linguistic development, as more and more people started mentioning how staring at the fire at campsites or fireplaces together is rather healing." There are also forest, foliage and water versions of quiet, empty staring and cafes where you can hit mung". It's a moment we all need," Kim said. Continue reading...

Company removes account of developer saying ChatGPT bot violated policies on political campaigningOpenAI has removed the account of the developer behind an artificial intelligence-powered bot impersonating the US presidential candidate Dean Phillips, saying it violated company policy.Phillips, who is challenging Joe Biden for the Democratic party candidacy, was impersonated by a ChatGPT-powered bot on the dean.bot site. Continue reading...

Samsung's leading Galaxy Z Fold tested against challengers from Google Pixel, OnePlus and Honor to see which folder is top dogIs it a phone? Is it a tablet? A new group of folding devices are competing to appeal to consumers who want the best of both worlds, offering a phone-like screen on the outside and a large display on the inside that opens out like a book.Each is superior at different parts of the equation, but which is the overall best? I put the most promising devices to the test in a round-by-round competition to find the folding phone champion.Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 - the category definer, now in its fifth generationGoogle Pixel Fold - the Android-maker's first attempt at a folding phoneOnePlus Open - the first under the brand, built on third-gen tech from parent company OppoHonor Magic V2 - the third-gen foldable due to go on sale in Europe from the end of January Continue reading...

More than 38 million people have subscribed to the series about terrifying animated heads that live in toilets - but fears of Skibidi Toilet Syndrome may be slightly extremeAlex, I read a headline saying Russian Cops Forced to Investigate YouTube's Famous Skibidi Toilet' Series. As a series of words, what does that mean?Brrr Skibidi dop dop dop yes yes, Steph. Skibidi dobidi dib dib. Continue reading...

From chubby puppies to loveable robots, cuteness' has us all melting in its sticky little hands. But why did it gain such global traction - and does it have a dark side?Every day I rise early, like a stock trader, to start the daily business of sending and receiving adorable videos. Pigs wearing pig costumes, alien creatures spanking each other's botties, relationship dynamics explored via gibberish, talking cats and noodly cartoons. My friends and I are in deep, but how did this happen? Cuteness has been slowly taking over our world," says Claire Catterall, curator of the Cute exhibition at London's Somerset House. It's now accepted as one of our languages."It's a language that wouldn't exist without the internet. Even in 2014, Tim Berners-Lee expressed surprise at how his invention was being used. I'm amazed to see the many great things it's achieved." Another thing that surprised him? Kittens," he told Reddit readers. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhy are cars designed to be capable of going much faster than the speed limit? (Don't tell me they're made with the Autobahn in mind.) Andy Crosby, north WalesSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

Patrick Racz is in a long-running patent fight with the tech company over claims it stole his filesharing and payment system for iTunesAs a plumbing tycoon, Patrick Racz was used to enduring a deluge. But circumstances led to a very different kind of drenching, sitting in his local park in the rain contemplating the demise of his business during the dotcom crash. I lost everything. I had young children. I was embarrassed, upset that I'd let my family down. I couldn't look them in the face," he recalls.His nadir came just before the emergence of a patent battle with Apple that would define his life. Nearly two decades on, he remains at loggerheads with the company and the US courts. Continue reading...

US lawyers approached about class action against Midjourney and other AI firms accused of copyright laundering'Since the emergence of Midjourney and other image generators, artists have been watching and wondering whether AI is a great opportunity or an existential threat. Now, after a list of 16,000 names emerged of artists whose work Midjourney had allegedly used to train its AI - including Bridget Riley, Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Tracey Emin, David Hockney and Anish Kapoor - the art world has issued a call to arms against the technologists.British artists have contacted US lawyers to discuss joining a class action against Midjourney and other AI firms, while others have told the Observer that they may bring their own legal action in the UK. Continue reading...

Even as more job cuts await, some analysts see the beginnings of a bull market in the coming season of earnings reportsWill 2024 be a boom or a bust for big tech? By one estimate, there have been more than 7,500 layoffs in the sector since the start of the year - a dispersal of pink slips that many hoped would have ceased after the deep job cuts of 2023.However, as the US's big tech earnings season gets under way this week, some analysts are predicting strong numbers. This batch of quarterly financial results may show that the industry has cleared out its pandemic-era overhiring and reorganised itself around cloud computing and AI - necessitating cuts in sectors with less rosy prospects. Analysts keen on AI say we are at the start of a tech bull market. Continue reading...

Machine learning from existing weather models is already helping some developing countries with weather forecasts, one researcher says

The US country star on learning a new instrument at 40, her favourite place to eat in Nashville and an app she's happy to have send her to sleepCountry singer-songwriter Margo Price was born in Illinois in 1983 and studied dance and theatre at Northern Illinois University. For years, she was a fixture of the Nashville music scene, waiting tables and doing odd jobs while playing in various bands, before releasing her debut album, Midwest Farmer's Daughter, in 2016. In 2018, she was nominated for a best new artist Grammy and in 2022 published the memoir Maybe We'll Make It. Her fourth album, Strays, was released last year and she tours the UK and Ireland from 26 January (Gorilla, Manchester) to 30 January (Koko, London). Continue reading...

Back in the early 2000s, multiplayer gaming meant lugging huge PCs to friends' houses or school halls and connecting them with wires to have Lan parties. Early adopters remember that heady time. Introduction by Merritt KToday it is trivially easy to play games on a computer, games console or phone with your friends over the internet. But before the wide availability of high-speed internet, things were more complicated.In the 1990s and early 2000s, 3D graphics in video games were becoming more and more complex, but the low network speeds of the period meant that these games, unlike slower-paced and less graphically intensive strategy games, were nearly unplayable over an internet connection. In this moment, in which communications technology was being outpaced by graphical power, the Lan (local area network) party was born.Euskal party, Bilbao, Spain, 2004. Photograph: Koldo Aingeru Marcos Continue reading...

An iconic Rotterdam location, a passing motorcyclist, and all he had to do was keep his hand steadyJohn Emslie and his wife, Liz, were on a city break to Rotterdam when he took this photo. We were on the Erasmusbrug, nicknamed the Swan, which links the northern and southern halves of the city," he says. The long, white pylon and its distant glow, and the angled cable stays picked out by the projector lights, drew me in; I wanted to capture all of that light, form, scale and perspective. All I had to do was wait for the final element: the passing motorcyclist and his headlight."Emslie describes himself as an enthusiastic amateur" and used his Google Pixel 7 to capture the scene. I'm not sure my main camera could have produced such quality under such challenging shooting conditions. In low light, getting amanual camera set up is tricky and the moment is often lost by the time I'm ready," he says. The smartphone's brain', on the other hand, is so fast and clever that shots like this are made possible. Ican't claim any credit other than for keeping my phone steady!" Continue reading...

A cruise trip advertised as the longest in the world has become its own reality show, with passengers regularly going viral for their video diaries. But is anything actually ... happening?Patrick, I do not pretend to understand the arcane machinations behind my TikTok algorithm, but lately it has been delivering me video after video of people sailing the world in a nine-month cruise. They are all on the same cruise and there is the same quiet desperation behind each of their vacant gazes. What is happening?What is HAPPENING, Michael, is essentially a social experiment being broadcast in real time, and some of us absolutely cannot get enough of it. Continue reading...

Freezing temperatures across central US have cut electric vehicles' range and left drivers facing long waits at charging stationsFor nearly a week, frigid temperatures from Chicago to northern Texas have made life painful for electric vehicle owners, with reduced driving range and hours of waiting at charging stations.In Oak Brook, Illinois, near Chicago, on Monday, television reporters found Teslas that were running out of juice while in long lines for plugs at a Supercharger station. The temperature hit a low of -9F (-23C). Continue reading...

Can MachineGames's new first-person adventure Indiana Jones and the Great Circle live up to the third-person thrills of Indy-influenced hits Uncharted and Tomb Raider?History is not exactly littered with glittering Indiana Jones video games. The beautiful LucasArts adventure, The Fate of Atlantis; the pretty good Lego games; the decent Emporer's Tomb; the presentable SNES side-scroller, Greatest Adventures ... There have been good games, but few classics that transcend the brand like, say, Knights of the Old Republic. Maybe that's about to change.During Microsoft's latest Developer Direct online event, streamed on Thursday evening, we saw a 12-minute preview of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a globe-trotting first-person adventure, set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade. The project was revealed three years ago, but this is the first footage we've seen, and it's promising stuff. It has Nazis, it has a whip, it has Dr Jones in deserts, in tombs and arguing with Denholm Elliott in fusty college buildings; and it has a story involving a stolen artefact that is somehow linked to an international network of ancient monuments all of which align with a circle spanning the world. Continue reading...

Meta CEO accused of being irresponsible' by considering making tools on par with human intelligence open sourceMark Zuckerberg has been accused of taking an irresponsible approach to artificial intelligence after committing to building a powerful AI system on a par with human levels of intelligence. The Facebook founder has also raised the prospect of making it freely available to the public.The Meta chief executive has said the company will attempt to build an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system and make it open source, meaning it will be accessible to developers outside the company. The system should be made as widely available as we responsibly can", he added. Continue reading...

Employees fretted over company's negligible' response to child grooming, according to internal documents made public in lawsuitMeta estimates about 100,000 children using Facebook and Instagram receive online sexual harassment each day, including pictures of adult genitalia", according to internal company documents made public late Wednesday.The unsealed legal filing includes several allegations against the company based on information the New Mexico attorney general's office received from presentations by Meta employees and communications between staff. The documents describe an incident in 2020 when the 12-year-old daughter of an executive at Apple was solicited via IG Direct, Instagram's messaging product. Continue reading...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged the crypto exchange is flouting rules and selling unregistered securitiesA federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday grilled Coinbase and the US securities regulator about their divergent views on whether and when digital assets are securities, in a case closely watched by the cryptocurrency industry.Coinbase argued against classifying cryptocurrencies as securities by saying that the digital coins are like Beanie Babies, more akin to collectibles than stakes in a company. Continue reading...

Sandberg was once considered so critical to Facebook's success that her exit was seen as potential risk to investors' money

Sundar Pichai's memo acknowledges redundancies would come on top of round of layoffs reported last weekGoogle's chief executive has told employees to expect more job cuts this yearafter a recent round of layoffs that affected 1,000 staff.Sundar Pichai said in a memo to staff on Wednesday that some roles may be impacted" as he said divisions within the tech company continued to make changes. Continue reading...

South Korean firm will hope generative AI text, voice, image and video tools can help it regain top spot in phone marketSamsung has leaned heavily into AI tricks for its latest premium S24 Android phones, including instant phone call translation, new Google search and advanced image and video-editing features as it attempts to reignite waning consumer interest.The Galaxy S24 series, launched at an event in California on Wednesday, is led by the largest and most expensive titanium-clad Ultra", which features the very latest Qualcomm chips, the brightest screens and most powerful cameras. But in a change for the dominant South Korean firm, hardware updates have taken a backseat to flashy features powered by its new Galaxy AI brand. Continue reading...

Parents working for tech companies have a first-hand look at how the industry works - and the threats it poses to child safety

In this week's newsletter: Find out how the no strings attached' site hack forever altered thousands in Exposed. Plus: five of the best podcasts that ended too soon Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe Godmother

Sony, PS5

Former chief operating officer was lead architect of Facebook's digital advertising-driven business model

Court Services Victoria says hackers accessed years' worth of recorded hearings across several courts and attack was much worse than initially thought

Social media firms relying on AI for moderation generate unviable reports which prevent authorities from investigating casesSocial media companies relying on artificial intelligence software to moderate their platforms are generating unviable reports on cases of child sexual abuse, preventing US police from seeing potential leads and delaying investigations of alleged predators, the Guardian can reveal.By law, US-based social media companies are required to report any child sexual abuse material detected on their platforms to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC acts as a nationwide clearinghouse for leads about child abuse, which it forwards to the relevant law enforcement departments in the US and around the world. The organization said in its annual report that it received more than 32m reports of suspected child sexual exploitation from companies and the public in 2022, roughly 88m images, videos and other files. Continue reading...

Tech giant said it would delete entries for locations deemed personal' or sensitive, but 18 months later, it's still retaining data in some casesA year and a half has passed since Google first pledged to delete all location data on users' visits to abortion clinics with minimal progress. The move would have made it harder for law enforcement to use that information to investigate or prosecute people seeking abortions in states where the procedure has been banned or otherwise limited. Now, a new study shows Google still retains location history data in 50% of cases.Google's original promise, made in July 2022, came shortly after the supreme court's decision to end federal abortion protections. The tech giant said it would delete entries for locations deemed personal" or sensitive, including medical facilities like counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, and abortion clinics". It did not provide a timeline for when the company would implement the new policy. Five months after that pledge, research first reported by the Guardian and conducted by tech advocacy group Accountable Tech in November 2022 showed that Google was still not masking that location data in all cases. Continue reading...

Mysticism has long found a home online, but the rise of generative AI through services such as ChatGPT is making it easier than ever to project a sense of magic upon technologyA TikTok tarot card reader gazes at me through the screen and draws a card.If you're seeing this," she coos, it was meant for you." And in a sense, she's right. But it wasn't fate that brought me here, it was an algorithm. Continue reading...

We asked the podcaster and writer to share her comedy diet. Like anyone who was online in the 2000s, her list includes fanficI grew up in an era where pre-pubescent friendships were formed by gathering around a desktop computer watching video after YouTube video. Charlie the Unicorn (funnier than I remember) and Harry Potter Puppet Pals (less funny than I remember) were seen as the height of comedy. Aside from the occasional 6pm viewing of Australia's Funniest Home Videos, my diet of comedy was restricted to 240p internet videos, passed around like schoolyard contraband.I have to admit that not much has changed - I still spend a lot of time on the internet, and my friends and I incessantly quote obscure pop culture references turned memes. At times, I fear this has rotted my brain. Anyways, here's a selection of videos I find funny. Continue reading...

Is there a gentler way of thinking about vices - one that doesn't make us feel like villains?

iPhone maker ends South Korean rival's 12-year lead, as Xiaomi, Honor and Google divide Android marketApple has overtaken Samsung as the world's top smartphone seller, ending the Korean tech firm's 12-year run as industry leader.The iPhone took the top spot in 2023 with 234.6m units sold, according to figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC), overtaking Samsung's 226.6m units. Continue reading...

Teachers say mobile phones make their lives a living hell - so one Massachusetts school barred them Sign up to our free coaching newsletter to help you spend less time on your phoneWhen the weather is nice, the Buxton boarding school moves lunch outside. Students, faculty and guests grab their food from the kitchen, and eat together under a white tent that overlooks western Massachusetts' Berkshire mountains.As the close of the school year neared last June, talk turned to final assignments (the English class was finishing Moby-Dick) and end-of-year fun (there was a trip planned to a local lake). It was, in most ways, a typical teenage afternoon - except that no one was on their phones. Continue reading...

International community has no strategy to deal with risks, Antonio Guterres tells Davos meeting

Instruction manuals died out as video games introduced tutorials instead. But now games such as Tunic and The Banished Vault are bringing them backPlayers of a certain age will no doubt have fond memories of the paper instruction manuals that once came with every video game. Dan Marshall, creator of The Swindle and Lair of the Clockwork God, certainly does. He remembers the ritual of poring over the manual for a new game on the bus ride home from the shops, trying to absorb all of its information in preparation for playing the game itself.He vividly recalls receiving Bullfrog's 1993 game Syndicate via mail order early one morning, then impatiently waiting hours for his brother to wake up so he could play it on the PC in his room. And for that solid time I did nothing but read the manual over and over and over again," Marshall says. Continue reading...

Musk says he is not comfortable with Tesla becoming market leader in AI and robotics without at least 25% voting controlThe Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, said he would be uncomfortable growing the automaker to be a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics without having at least 25% voting control of the company, nearly double his current stake.Musk said on Monday in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that unless he got stock in the world's most valuable automaker that was enough to be influential, but not so much that I can't be overturned", at Tesla, he would prefer to build products outside of the electric-vehicle manufacturer. Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: To see where an IT flaw became a crisis, you have to look past the technology altogether. Plus, Substack's biggest names jump ship Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereThe Post Office Horizon scandal has long been a frustrating one to follow as a technology reporter, because - for all that it stems from the botched rollout of a massive government IT project - it isn't a technology story at all.There is a desire, with stories like this, to uncover the one specific fault from which the disaster unfolded. Take Grenfell Tower: there were flaws throughout the system, uncovered in harrowing detail by the inquiry into the fire, but it's also clear that the deadly error was cladding the building with flammable panels. Identifying that fulcrum point leads to further questions in both directions (how were the panels deemed safe and could the building have been safely evacuated even given that flaw), but it is clear where the catastrophe lies.I really liked using Substack and have had great interactions with their team over the years and don't actually want to move tbh. But it's clear that it's time. So, over the next month, I'll be migrating off the site.After much consideration, we have decided to move Platformer off of Substack. Over the next few days, the publication will migrate to a new website powered by the nonprofit, open-source publishing platform Ghost.Substack's tools are designed to help publications grow quickly and make lots of money - money that is shared with Substack. That design demands responsible thinking about who will be promoted, and how.The company's defense boils down to the fact that nothing that bad has happened yet. But we have seen this movie before, from Alex Jones to anti-vaxxers to QAnon, and will not remain to watch it play out again. Continue reading...

Social media firms have faced scrutiny from Congress over their impact on young users, but parents who have lost kids to online harm are now leading the chargeThe night of 23 June 2020 passed by like any other for 16-year-old Carson Bride. The teen had just gotten a new job at a pizza restaurant, his mother, Kristin Bride, said, and the family had been celebrating at home in Lake Oswego, Oregon. He wrote his future work schedule on the kitchen calendar after dinner, said goodnight, and went to his room for bed. But the next morning, Kristin says, the family woke to complete shock and horror": Carson had died by suicide.Kristin soon discovered that in the days leading up to his death, her son had received hundreds of harassing messages on Yolo - a third-party app that at the time was integrated into Snapchat and allowed users to communicate anonymously. Search history on Carson's phone revealed some of his final hours online were spent desperately researching how to find who was behind the harassment and how to put an end to it. Continue reading...

A limited-edition Pikachu With Grey Felt Hat' trading card drew in a new, younger audience to the Amsterdam gallery but caused mayhemIn early November, I was standing in a long line at the Van Gogh gift shop in Amsterdam waiting to purchase a Pokemon ballpoint pen. It was one of the few remaining items left in the store - this was the second month of the establishment's Pokemon collaboration, but the clamour for the limited edition merchandise was ceaseless. Everything from T-shirts to notebooks to shoulder bags with an image of Pikachu on the front had been picked bare, leaving only prints and postcards behind the till. It was barely past midday but the number of people crammed into the shop meant the area was soon cordoned off with others now rejected entry until it calmed down.This had become an all too familiar sight for attendees and staff. From the very start of the collaboration, which began in September for the museum's 50th anniversary and was intended to introduce new audiences to the work of the Dutch artist, the Pokemon merch caused mayhem as eager fans - and scalpers - clamoured for the best stuff. But the main cause was a single item: a limited edition Pikachu With Grey Felt Hat" trading card. As soon as the card was made available, it sold out online, while desperate gallery visitors had to enter scrums to try and pick one up. Footage of the Poke riots soon hit Twitter (now known as X), and later, eBay listings had the card on sale for up to $900. In mid-October, the card was discontinued. Continue reading...