Technology | The Guardian

PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC; 4A Games/Deep Silver

Chinese tech company uses full-page ads to push for inclusion in 5G rollout despite concerns it is a security riskChina’s Huawei has taken out full-page ads in major New Zealand newspapers in which they equate the idea of ban on the company to a rugby tournament without the All Blacks.The advertisement reads: “5G without Huawei is like rugby without New Zealand”, referring to the upcoming nationwide rollout of the mobile technology. Continue reading...

New rules also prohibit celebrities who look under-25 from appearing in promotionsGambling adverts will no longer be allowed to appear on websites or in computer games that are popular with children, under new rules designed to stop irresponsible gambling.Bookmakers will be required to use every targeting tool possible to ensure online gambling promotions are not seen by under-18s. They will also have to avoid placing gambling adverts on parts of websites that are popular with children, and stop using celebrities or other people who appear to be under 25 in their promotions. Continue reading...

Gavin de Becker has spent decades protecting the rich and famous. Now he’s helping the Amazon CEO take on a tabloidThe National Enquirer has his sexts and, it appears, saucy photos. His imminent divorce is the talk of Wall Street.So Jeff Bezos, the Amazon boss, announced on Friday that he had turned to a singular figure for help – a “bodyguard to the stars” and Los Angeles-based security consultant named Gavin de Becker. Continue reading...

Experts are calling on company to counter closed groups where members can post misinformation without challengeFacebook is under pressure to stem the rise of anti-vaccination groups spreading false information about the dangers of life-saving vaccines while peddling unfounded alternative treatments such as high doses of vitamin C.Related: How Facebook and YouTube help spread anti-vaxxer propaganda Continue reading...

Part van, part car – the all-new Rifter from Peugeot is ready to work hard all week and party at the weekendPeugeot Rifter

In this Valentine’s week special, Jordan Erica Webber looks at whether apps have helped or hindered the art of datingGrindr, the dating app geared towards gay, bisexual, trans and queer people, celebrates its 10th anniversary in March. In addition to being one of the most popular dating apps, it is also being used by enthusiastic tourists wanting to learn more about the places they’re visiting, without having to pick up a travel guide book.How has the app, along with Tinder and others, affected the way we meet people? Jordan chats to professor of sociology at Stanford Michael Rosenfeld, the director for equality at Grindr, Jack Harrison-Quintana, and PHD student Rachel Katz. Continue reading...

Saudi minister says ‘we have nothing to do with it’ as row between the world’s richest man and the tabloid rumbles onThe kingdom of Saudi Arabia has denied that it had anything to do with the leaking of intimate photographs and texts of the Amazon chief executive, Jeff Bezos, to the National Enquirer, as the row between the world’s richest man and the tabloid rumbles on.Related: Jeff Bezos accuses National Enquirer owner of 'extortion and blackmail' Continue reading...

Back in 2016, Apple’s wireless earbuds were ridiculed by the tech industry. Now, thousands of memes later, the tables have turnedOf all the widely ridiculed tech products, Apple’s AirPods have experienced an extraordinary turnaround. Back in 2016, they were roundly mocked by the tech industry. Tiny wireless earbuds? It seemed like a recipe for disaster – streets would be littered with these lost headphones, which would clutter up city pavements like discarded gloves and babies’ socks.“If only there were an invention that could keep those AirPods tethered together, like a string,” wrote Ashley Esqueda from the tech website CNET on Twitter. “The beauty of the headphone cable is just like the beauty of a tampon string: it is there to help you keep track of a very important item,” wrote Julia Carrie Wong in the Guardian. Continue reading...

These insects’ brains may be tiny, but they’re better with numbers than many human children and they are past masters at communicating life skillsLast week, Australian scientists announced that honeybees (Apis mellifera) can learn to add and subtract. Fourteen bees were put through 100 training exercises in a maze – and got the correct answer between 64% and 72% of the time. “It is not that every bee could do this [spontaneously], but we could teach them to do it,” said Dr Adrian Dyer, co-author of the research. Continue reading...

This convoluted tale – with lurid pics, private investigators and, naturally, Trump – seems to have captured the spirit of the ageAnother Hollywood awards ceremony passed with the usual red carpet fashion show, earnest acceptance speeches and mingling of the rich and famous. So few found it remarkable when billionaire Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon, was photographed at an after-party with TV presenter and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez.Related: Jeff Bezos 'blackmail' claim puts focus on National Enquirer links to Trump Continue reading...

The arrival of the popular US festival for vloggers in the UK is a reminder of the powerful forces changing children’s televisionFor people working in the outwardly bright and cheerful world of children’s television, the past week was not a happy one.On Thursday, a report on the UK’s television viewing habits confirmed many of their worst fears. Among 4-to-15-year-olds last year, the hours of conventional or “linear” television viewed – that is, television watched at the time it was being broadcast – had fallen by 11% in 12 months. Among 16-to-24s, the decline was 15%: the biggest year-on-year drop ever recorded. Continue reading...

The red blood droplet with a period-positive message is hailed as a step forward but some see it as a half-measureThe newest emoji made crimson waves across the internet upon its unveiling this week – and that was exactly the point.Plan International UK’s fight for the cartoon red blood droplet – an emoji meant to symbolize menstruation – was almost poetically symbolic to the message it was trying to convey with it: that periods aren’t shameful. Continue reading...

Who’s who in saga involving world’s richest man Jeff Bezos, and Donald Trump ally and National Enquirer owner David PeckerThe founder of Amazon was until recently perceived to a be a nerdy technocrat bent on nothing more than dominating every single aspect of world commerce through ruthless efficiency. Now, the richest man in the world has transformed himself into the bulked-up, leather jacket-wearing owner of the Washington Post, willing to take on both rival media barons and the US president after details of his love life were made public. The 55-year-old struggled to control the scandal when the National Enquirer first revealed details of his affair with a TV presenter, Lauren Sanchez, last month but he has since gone on the warpath, responding to threats from the tabloid by publishing his correspondence with the outlet, including detailed descriptions of intimate images he sent to his lover. Continue reading...

The Amazon CEO has accused the tabloid of threatening to publish nude images of him to stop him investigating acquisition of intimate text messagesA sprawling international scandal involving Jeff Bezos – the owner of Amazon and world’s richest man – and allegations of “extortion and blackmail” by a tabloid publisher threatened on Friday to also engulf Donald Trump as several key questions went unanswered.Bezos alleges that David Pecker, the owner of the National Enquirer and a longtime friend of the US president, warned him he would publish revealing intimate photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the tabloid obtained text messages exposing his extramarital affair. Continue reading...

Social media platform advised to follow self-harm picture ban with focus on anorexiaImages promoting potentially life-threatening eating disorders are thriving on Instagram and need to be cracked down on in the same way as graphic self-harm images, leading charities and experts have said.The social media giant’s focus on removing graphic images of self-harm did not go far enough, they said, and young people also faced being confronted with pro-anorexia images due to little policing on the site. Continue reading...

Tackling non-graphic related content, however, presents harder challenge than graphicInstagram has bowed to public pressure and introduced a series of policies aimed at protecting vulnerable young people who use the site.Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, has committed to tightening up a number of policies relating to self-harm and suicide on the photo-sharing platform after weeks of pressure spearheaded by the father of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old who took her life in 2017. Ian Russell believes Instagram was partly to blame. Continue reading...

Staff responsible for getting children to use social network previously worked on LOL ‘meme hub’Facebook is restructuring its “youth team” with a greater focus on Messenger Kids, its instant-messaging app for under-13s, reports say.The team, a small group within the company responsible for getting children to use the social network, had previously been working on an experimental new feature called LOL, described by industry news site TechCrunch as a “cringey teen meme hub”. Continue reading...

‘Transparency’ rule requires labor department to reveal details of investigations to their targetsThe Trump administration is making it easier for tech companies to discriminate against workers, with a policy that impedes efforts to close the gender pay gap in Silicon Valley, current and former US labor officials said.A new US Department of Labor (DoL) “transparency” directive is forcing DoL officials to disclose preliminary details about anti-discrimination investigations to the targets of the inquiries, which, current and former DoL employees say, enables those companies to evade enforcement efforts and conceal potential violations while cases are ongoing. It’s as if the FBI or the Internal Revenue Service had to give an advanced heads-up to entities they were investigating, the DoL employees say. Continue reading...

From business started in garage to world’s richest man and collision course with Trump

When one critic hailed the company’s immersive show ‘game of the year’, founder Felix Barrett explored video games’ non-linear storytelling. Now he spies a new frontier for the stageThere is a head-scratching moment at the beginning of the popular farming simulator video game Stardew Valley, where you wonder, “What now?” Newly installed on your late grandfather’s dilapidated farm, you’re given no instructions on how to turn the business’s fortunes or what to explore in the neighbouring town.This conundrum fills Felix Barrett with glee. As the founder and creative director of British theatre company Punchdrunk, he has spent 19 years turning warehouses into vast worlds that audiences must learn to explore alone. From Woyzeck to Faust, Punchdrunk transforms classic plays into sprawling, interactive experiences. The idea is this: traditional theatre shows are passive affairs where you watch a distant stage from the comfort of a chair - but a Punchdrunk show is active, mysterious, and places you inside a fiction you can touch, smell, and even taste. The choice of what to do and where to go is up to you. Continue reading...

Amazon chief alleges tabloid threatened to publish nude images of him

Social media site announces action following criticism from British teenager’s fatherInstagram has announced that it will ban all graphic self-harm images as part of a series of changes made in response to the death of British teenager Molly Russell.The photo-sharing platform made the decision – which critics said was necessary but long overdue – in response to a tide of public anger over the suicide of the 14-year-old girl, whose Instagram account contained distressing material about depression and suicide. Continue reading...

Company reports 321 million active monthly users in fourth quarter, a drop of 5 millionTwitter’s share price fell close to 10% in on Thursday as record fourth-quarter revenues and the milestone of achieving its first full year of profitability failed to allay investors’ concerns over a drop in user numbers and a weak revenue forecast.The social media company reported 321 million monthly active users in the fourth quarter, a decrease of 9 million year-on-year and 5 million lower than the previous quarter. Continue reading...

User consent will be required before combining WhatsApp and Instagram account dataGermany’s anti-monopoly regulator has ordered Facebook not to combine user data from its WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook apps without consent, after a major three-year investigation into potentially anti-competitive actions.The federal cartel office announced on Thursday that it would be giving the technology company 12 months to change its data policies. Continue reading...

Jenifer wants a backup while EC wants a replacement for Google+, which is shutting downI have a lot of bookmarked sites for medieval manuscripts on my laptop, which it took a long time to collect. How can I back them up in case the laptop dies? JeniferAs you know, Google is closing Google+ in April. I currently use the site as my online bookmarking tool. Can you suggest something that is easy to use both online and on mobile? ECFirst things first, Jenifer. You should have a backup of your whole hard drive in case your laptop dies. Your operating system almost certainly includes usable backup software. Otherwise, there are more than 30 free third-party alternatives for Windows including BackUp Maker, AOMEI Backupper Standard and EaseUS Todo Backup Free. Continue reading...

An important investor explains how his enthusiasm has turned to shameAs the so-called Techlash gains pace and polemics on the downsides of the internet flood the book market, one omission seems to recur time and again. Facebook, Google, Amazon and the rest are too often written about as if their arrival in our lives started a new phase of history, rather than as corporations that have prospered thanks to an economic and cultural environment established in the days when platforms were things used by trains. To truly understand the revolutions in politics, culture and human behaviour these giants have accelerated, you need to start not some time in the last 15 or so years, but in the 1980s.Early in that decade, the first arrival of digital technology in everyday life was marked by the brief microcomputer boom, which was followed by the marketing of more powerful personal computers. Meanwhile, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were embedding the idea that government should keep its interference in industry and the economy to a minimum. In the US, a new way of thinking replaced the bipartisan belief that monopolies should always be resisted: concentrations of economic power were not a problem as long as they led to lower prices for consumers. And at the same time as old-school class politics was overshadowed, the lingering influence of the 60s counterculture gave the wealthy a new means of smoothing over their power and privilege: talking in vague terms about healing the world, and enthusiastically participating in acts of spectacular philanthropy. Continue reading...

Senior medical officers’ screen time recommendations include ban on use during mealtimesParents should not allow children to take phones and other electronic devices into their bedrooms or use them during mealtimes, the UK’s leading doctors have said.The recommendations are two of eight pieces of advice released by the UK’s chief medical officers to guide parents on how to manage their offspring’s use of technology. Continue reading...

Tech giant pledges £1.5bn but compares process to replacing parts on moving trainThe Chinese technology giant Huawei has said security problems raised in a government report could take between three and five years to resolve.In a letter to Norman Lamb MP, the chairman of the House of Commons science and technology committee, the firm pledged to spend £1.5bn over five years to address security concerns raised last year. Continue reading...

Guide dogs, prosthetics and accessibility emojis welcomed by rights groupsFrom falafels to mischievous sloths, dozens of new emojis will bring greater diversity to messaging applications this year, as the organisation behind the symbols responds to a number of campaigns.The introduction of image-based characters such as hearing aids, wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs and guide dogs will help redress the underrepresentation of disabled people on the emoji keyboard, while there will also be a wider range of mixed-gender and ethnicity couples for users to choose from. Continue reading...

Streaming service reports first quarterly profits as it reveals plans to broaden beyond musicSpotify has bought two podcast firms and plans to spend up to $500m (£385m) on further acquisitions in an attempt to move beyond its music streaming roots for new growth.The Swedish company has acquired Gimlet, the firm behind a string of popular podcasts including Homecoming, which was adapted into an Amazon TV series starring Julia Roberts. Continue reading...

App launches paper on ‘stopping abuse’ in India, home to more than 200m of its usersWhatsApp says it is deleting 2m accounts per month as part of an effort to blunt the use of the world’s most popular messaging app to spread fake news and misinformation.The Facebook-owned service published the data as part of a white paper on “stopping abuse” that was launched on Wednesday in India, the biggest market for the company with more than 200m users. Continue reading...

Version of feature that Mark Zuckerberg was caught using is now available to allFacebook is launching an “unsend” feature in Messenger more than 10 months after it promised to do so after it was discovered surreptitiously removing messages sent by Mark Zuckerberg from their recipients’ inboxes.The company stopped using the secret feature, which it said it had built “to protect our executives’ communications”, when it was discovered in April 2018, and promised not to delete messages again until it could make “a broader delete message feature available”. Continue reading...

Tokimeki Unfollow is a browser plug-in that claims to clean away all those people whose tweets you don’t like. And then it tells them you’ve unfollowed them …Age: Brand new.Appearance: Marie Kondo, but for Twitter. Continue reading...

PlayStation 4, Xbox One; Square Enix

Ex-Burberry boss steps down after five years leading firm’s shops and online divisionAngela Ahrendts, the head of Apple’s retail division, will leave the company in April, five years after joining from Burberry.Apple has given no reason for her departure. The company has had a tumultuous year, becoming the first in the world to secure a trillion-dollar valuation in August before plunging in the markets at the beginning of 2019 when it revealed that iPhone sales were significantly lower than it had initially forecast. Continue reading...

Worries are growing about the destructive effects of algorithms on the youngSocial networks are facing a new legislative crackdown as worries about child safety online mount.While all sides agree that protecting children online is of paramount importance, the calls have led to a tense conflict between larger social networks, who argue that they cannot be held to an expectation of perfection, and the government, which is increasingly threatening to redefine the roles of internet companies if they won’t act voluntarily. Continue reading...

European commission says Enox Safe-Kid-One can easily be hacked and poses risk to childrenA children’s wristwatch that allows the wearer to be easily contacted and located has been recalled by Brussels over safety fears.The European commission said the Enox Safe-Kid-One, which comes fitted with a global positioning system (GPS), a microphone and speaker, posed a serious risk to children. Continue reading...

US tech firm has not disclosed sum but French magazine says figure is close to €500mApple has agreed to pay 10 years of back taxes to France, marking the latest victory for European governments pushing tech multinationals to pay their fair share in local markets.The iPhone and iPad maker reportedly shelled out close to €500m (£440m) after reaching a confidential settlement with French authorities in December, according to the French news magazine L’Express. Continue reading...

Twitter’s Jack Dorsey is thinking about creating a revise button to fix typos – but in the face of screen grabs, this feels futile“What’s the most important thing you want to see Twitter improve or create?” asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2016. The top answer? An edit button. Kim Kardashian West (59.5 million followers), in particular, is obsessed with the idea of one and has reportedly petitioned Dorsey via email and face-to-face. Donald Trump would probably also appreciate the function, given his propensity to tweet things such as “covfefe”.Now, Dorsey has spoken (in an interview with the US podcast host Joe Rogan) about how an edit button might work. If Twitter were to implement the feature, Dorsey says the platform would most likely allow a “5- to 30-second delay” for a tweet to send in order for the edit to be made, so as not to lose the “real-time nature” of tweeting. Continue reading...

A new battle royale game from the creators of mech shooter Titanfall offers squad-based play in a ruined sci-fi world – but is it enough to take on Fortnite?It was only a matter of time before another world-class game developer entered the lucrative battle royale genre. The new type of multiplayer online shooting game, which drops up to 100 competitors on to an island and requires them to fight until only one remains, is dominated by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and the cultural phenomenon that is Fortnite, currently earning $300m a month. Last October, Activision joined the fray with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode, and now Beverly Hills-based Respawn Entertainment, creator of the respected sci-fi blaster series Titanfall, has thrown its explosive hat into the ring.Simultaneously announced and launched on Monday, Apex: Legends is located in the Titanfall universe, taking place 30 years after the events of Titanfall 2. Set in a remote area of the galaxy named the Outlands, the game is essentially a cross between Fortnite and Blizzard’s popular hero-based shooter, Overwatch. Players are left in a ruined planetscape, in squads of three (you can’t play solo or in a duo), and must gather weapons and items while fighting 19 other teams to the death. Before the action starts, each player must choose one of eight characters, all of which have their own special skills and offensive abilities. Gibraltar, for example, is the brute strength option, capable of calling in an air strike to take out an entire side, while Wraith is able to create a wormhole from one point of the map to another, allowing her team to either escape a tricky shootout or warp straight into one. Continue reading...

QuadrigaCX, Canada’s largest exchange, was unable to access password or recovery key after Gerald Cotten died last DecemberAbout $190m in cryptocurrency has been locked away in a online black hole after the founder of a currency exchange died, apparently taking his encrypted access to their money with him.Related: Bitcoin: after 10 wild years, what next for cryptocurrencies? Continue reading...

Facebook-owned app promises changes to better shield users from self-harm imagesInstagram will introduce “sensitivity screens” to hide images of self-harm in an attempt to protect young people who use the site, the app’s head has announced.Adam Mosseri, who took over Instagram after the app’s founders departed suddenly in 2018, has promised a series of changes following the death of the British teenager Molly Russell, whose parents believe she took her own life after being exposed to graphic images of self-harm and suicide on Instagram and Pinterest. Continue reading...

Data-collecting devices can never be trusted, as the FaceTime bug has shown. From phones to doorbells, it’s the start of a civil-liberties nightmareIt has been a terrible week for Apple. Not only did the tech company report its first decline in revenues and profits in more than a decade, but it was embroiled in an embarrassing privacy scandal. A much-discussed bug in its FaceTime app meant that, in certain circumstances, you could turn someone’s iPhone into an all-seeing, all-hearing spying device. The glitch was a blow to Apple’s reputation for security, and a reminder that our smartphones are essentially surveillance tools. Even if your apps aren’t riddled with bugs or malware, your phone is probably transmitting more of your private information than you realise.It’s not just your phone you should be wary of. We live in an age of surveillance; data-collecting devices are everywhere. Internet-connected video doorbells, for example, which alert your phone when someone is at the door, and send a live video feed of the visitor, have been rocketing in popularity. Ring, one of the best-known connected-doorbell companies, was bought by Amazon last year; the e-commerce company has filed a patent that would combine doorbell cameras with facial recognition technology, alerting homeowners and police to “suspicious” visitors. Considering the biases found in facial recognition, this sounds like it has the potential to be a racial profiling, and civil-liberties, nightmare. Continue reading...

The picture-sharing site and its ilk are full of celebs peddling products and not being open about what they get in return. Will regulation help?The sun-drenched beaches of Exuma gleamed as brightly as the skin of the world-famous supermodels stretched out on yachts or dancing around flickering fires in the promotional video for Fyre, the glamorous music festival turned shambles turned scam that became the subject of the Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.The likes of Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski, all of whom have significant followings on Instagram and other social networks, were co-opted by the festival organiser Billy McFarland – now serving six years in prison for fraud – into posting plain orange squares to Instagram in a campaign to build anticipation for the festival, which it was promised would be held in the Bahamas in 2017. Continue reading...

While the UK woos China’s telecoms giant, fears grow over the risks it poses to national securityIf, according to an ancient Chinese proverb, “a crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind”, then Huawei is barrelling in on a storm force 12. Where the hurricane takes it, though, may be out of the telecoms giant’s control.A slew of bombshell allegations have raised troubling questions about the telecoms company’s probity and revived long-held concerns about its relationship with China’s intelligence services. The UK, in need of friends as Brexit looms, is struggling to negotiate the fallout. To ignore the mounting brouhaha risks alienating its closest ally, the United States, currently locked in a bitter trade war with China which has become synonymous with Huawei. But the UK needs Chinese technology to keep pace with the 21st century. Continue reading...

A real-world electric car that will do 300 miles on a single charge and costs half the price of a TeslaHyundai Kona Electric

Rise with the lark and you can expect a happier, more productive life, researchers suggest. And if you’re a woman you seem less likely to suffer from breast cancerA large-scale genetics study recently conducted by Exeter University revealed that people who are “early birds” have greater levels of happiness and are at a lower risk of depression compared to those who are “night owls”. The authors speculated that this was because the “night owl” body clock conflicts with work patterns and school timetables, and this could have negative outcomes. Continue reading...

He started posting YouTube videos when he was 15. Ten years and 11 million subscribers later, the vlogging superstar and his girlfriend Zoella are looking to diversifyWho is Alfie Deyes? “That’s a tricky one,” he – Deyes – says. Not because he doesn’t know who he is, but because I’ve told him I’m asking on behalf of my mum, who’s never heard of him: how would he explain his job to her? “I think I’ll just say: ‘I’m a 25-year-old content creator who loves making things happen, whether that’s things that people expect, or things people don’t expect.’”I say I’m asking for my mum, but if I’m honest I wasn’t 100% sure who he was myself; and if you’re over 35, chances are you don’t know, either. It’s not hard to get up to speed with his work, though, and by the time we meet I feel I know Deyes pretty well. I’ve shared some of the lovely life he has with his lovely girlfriend Zoe, also a content creator. I’ve met some of their lovely friends, their dog Nala, a black pug (no lovely for you, Nala, I’m afraid), and the lovely orange Aga in the kitchen of their lovely home. I know that Alfie won’t be working out until the summer this year, just doing a bit of bouldering at the local climbing centre. I know he used to have a special place under the mattress where he stuffed his bogeys, and that he wees sitting down. Continue reading...