Technology | The Guardian

Once, people who owned viral photos made little money from them. Now, the ‘original’ can potentially sell for an enormous sum. But are buyers savvy investors – or unwitting dupes?The photographer Jeff McCurry’s favourite Harambe memes are the ones where the dead gorilla is in heaven, Photoshopped alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, Tupac and Muhammad Ali. “It’s like: wow,” says McCurry. “What greater spot can you be placed in? Harambe’s at the top of the hill, waiting to meet you there.”McCurry took the photograph of the 17-year-old western lowland gorilla that went on to become a meme. In it, Harambe kneels, projecting a fearsome aura of strength, nobility and calm. A former volunteer photographer at Cincinnati zoo, McCurry was there on 28 May 2016, the fateful day a three-year-old boy climbed into the gorilla’s enclosure, forcing zookeepers to shoot Harambe dead. “It didn’t seem real at first,” says McCurry, who was a regular visitor to the zoo. “When any of your friends die, it’s hard to process. I was in shock.” Continue reading...

One of US’s biggest unions, with 1.4m workers, to vote on resolution making Amazon employees its top priorityOne of the largest unions in the US is expected this week to launch a broad effort to unionize Amazon employees.The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents 1.4 million workers in 500 unions nationwide, will vote on Thursday on a landmark resolution to make its highest priority helping Amazon workers achieve a union contract. Continue reading...

‘Report remove’ button on Childline website is described by internet safety charity as a world firstChildren in the UK who are worried that nude pictures and videos may end up online will be able to report the material to help prevent it from being uploaded in the future.For the first time, young people will be able to flag the content with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) via a tool on Childline’s website before it has appeared online. Continue reading...

Investors wary after authorities in Sichuan ordered bitcoin mining projects to closeBitcoin has tumbled further in the wake of China’s expanding crackdown on bitcoin mining, as investors grow more uncertain about the future of the leading cryptocurrency.Bitcoin fell as low as $31,333 on Monday, a two-week trough, dragging down other cryptocurrencies. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has lost more than 20% in the past six days alone and was at half its April peak of almost $65,000. In the year to date, it remains up about 11%. Continue reading...

The troubled sci-fi adventure was taken off the PlayStation store in December 2020 due to serious technical issues – now it’s back, but its use is “not recommended” and PS5 owners still have to waitThe much-hyped sci-fi adventure Cyberpunk 2077 has finally been launched on the PlayStation store, more than six months after the game’s initial release.Related: Cyberpunk 2077: how 2020's biggest video game launch turned into a shambles Continue reading...

My friend Maureen Donnelly, who has died aged 71 of cancer, was a successful and creative businesswoman with socialist ideals and a belief in public service. She was also a rambler, adventurer and lover of Irish literature, and managed to be active in all these fields while also being a devoted single parent.Born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Maureen was the daughter of Mary (nee Barker) and Frank Donnelly, and one of five siblings brought up on a modest farm nearby. After leaving St Joseph’s convent school, Donaghmore, and studying maths at Queen’s University Belfast, she moved to London. Asked why, she replied that as a Catholic she couldn’t get work she wanted in Northern Ireland, and as a woman, she wouldn’t get such employment in Dublin. Continue reading...

Losses almost double last year despite growing demand for crypto trading pushing up revenues 34%Losses at the British fintech firm Revolut nearly doubled last year, despite cashing in on the year-end cryptocurrency boom.The company – founded by the former Lehman Brothers trader Nik Storonsky and chaired by the ex-Standard Life Aberdeen boss Martin Gilbert – said it made £39m on its cryptocurrency investments last year, while growing demand for its crypto trading services helped pushed revenues up 34% to £222m in the 12 months to 31 December. Continue reading...

Nature is full of examples of biology adapting to its surroundings. Technology may just be about to catch upFrom the bottom of the oceans to the skies above us, natural evolution has filled our planet with a vast and diverse array of lifeforms, with approximately 8 million species adapted to their surroundings in a myriad of ways. Yet 100 years after Karel Čapek coined the term robot, the functional abilities of many species still surpass the capabilities of current human engineering, which has yet to convincingly develop methods of producing robots that demonstrate human-level intelligence, move and operate seamlessly in challenging environments, and are capable of robust self-reproduction.But could robots ever reproduce? This, undoubtedly, forms a pillar of “life” as shared by all natural organisms. A team of researchers from the UK and the Netherlands have recently demonstrated a fully automated technology to allow physical robots to repeatedly breed, evolving their artificial genetic code over time to better adapt to their environment. Arguably, this amounts to artificial evolution. Child robots are created by mixing the digital “DNA” from two parent robots on a computer. Continue reading...

Recent changes have driven down pay for drivers, including a reduction in minimum pay for long-distance tripsSocializing, parties and late night trips are all coming back as the coronavirus pandemic recedes in the US and along with them has come a surge in the price of calling a cab. It’s good news for Uber and Lyft, but for the rideshare drivers who were hit so hard by the pandemic? Not so much.“We’re making less than normal,” said Robert Eaton of Reno, Nevada, a full-time Uber driver for over two years. He tries to work as many hours as possible every week to provide for his family, citing his most common shift is 16 hours, noon to 4am. “While fares have skyrocketed in this market, the drivers’ pay has not been raised at all.” Continue reading...

AirPods rivals have top sound, battery and translation features but cost significantly lessGoogle’s latest AirPods competitors, the Pixel Buds A-Series, get a big price cut and a slightly more comfortable design.The new Bluetooth earbuds take a cue from Google’s cheaper but great A-Series phones, cutting a few features to cost £100 (US$99) – a full £80 cheaper than their predecessors. Continue reading...

Chief scientific adviser will head new government body looking at big bets in science and technologyThe government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, has been asked by Boris Johnson to investigate whether the UK’s successful vaccine procurement programme can be replicated in other areas of technology.Vallance, who has become a household name following his appearances at coronavirus press conferences, will take on the new title of national technology adviser, serving alongside his current roles. Continue reading...

The Booker prize-winning author on Mare of Easttown, her favourite lockdown park and the fearsome power of folk musicBorn in Dublin in 1962, Anne Enright studied English and philosophy at Trinity College Dublin and received an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. Formerly an RTE television producer, she has written two collections of stories, published together as Yesterday’s Weather, one book of essays and seven novels, including the 2007 Booker prize-winning The Gathering and The Forgotten Waltz, which was awarded the Andrew Carnegie medal for excellence in fiction. In 2015, she was named the inaugural laureate for Irish fiction. Her latest novel, Actress, published by Vintage, is out in paperback now. Continue reading...

Owner of video-sharing app also reports a 93% increase in gross profit to $19bn in 2020ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, more than doubled its revenues last year as usage of the hugely popular video app boomed.The company, which last year weathered pressure from Donald Trump to sell its US operation as part of a trade war with China, reported a 111% increase in revenues to $34.3bn (£24.7bn). Continue reading...

This year’s online-only E3 video game expo was hardly the usual explosion of blockbuster games, but there were still some standout storiesWe all wanted to see Metroid Prime 4, the long-anticipated first-person science-fiction shooter-adventure that has been in development at Nintendo for an absolute age. But instead we got a whole new Metroid – a 2D one in the vein of the SNES and Game Boy Advance classics, the first game in the series in this style for about 19 years. Metroid Dread features Samus Aran being chased by distressing, transforming drone-robots who appear to be largely impervious to her ever-expanding array of weapons, and it looks genuinely scary. It’ll be out on 8 October on Nintendo Switch. Continue reading...

Switch; Nintendo

Firm says sites are slow to act when warned that fake reviews are being solicited on their platformsAmazon has blamed social media companies for its failure to remove fake reviews from its website, arguing that “bad actors” turn to social networks to buy and sell fake product reviews outside the reach of its own technology.The company says it removed more than 200m suspected fake reviews before they were seen by customers in 2020 alone, but nonetheless has faced continued criticism for the enormous scale of fake and misleading reviews that make it on to its store. Continue reading...

The California startup leads a global push toward lab-grown meat. But experts question its bold claimsIn December of last year, a handful of diners sat down to a futuristic meal at 1880, a members-only restaurant in Singapore. The star ingredient was “no-kill” chicken – raised not on a farm but in a laboratory bioreactor. Attendees snacked on lab-grown nuggets paired with crispy maple waffles, bao buns, and black bean puree.For the California entrepreneur Josh Tetrick, it was a breakthrough. His company, Eat Just, had become the first in the world to sell the product after receiving approval from Singapore authorities. Headlines hailed a landmark step in the quest to end animal agriculture, upend the meat industry and redefine our diets. Continue reading...

There was no Switch Pro announcement, but Nintendo brought Zelda, Metroid and WarioWare to its E3 showNintendo showed new footage of the long-awaited sequel Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 during its E3 live stream on Tuesday afternoon, along with a tentative launch date of 2022.The company revealed a new teaser for the game, which is set in the same world as its critically acclaimed predecessor. This time, the action will take in the skies above Hyrule as well as on land, with Link able to fly to islands floating far above the Earth. Continue reading...

After being laid off during Covid, my dad set his heart on a job at Costco. I told Twitter about it – cue a social media explosionNearly a year after he’d been laid off because of Covid, my dad – a jubilant, always-smiling, 58-year-old Michigander best known for befriending everyone he meets – told me he wanted to go back to work.Specifically, he wanted to work at Costco. Continue reading...

Finding it hard to get things done? Here are some expert strategies to get on top of your job

The company has clarified that dating apps will not be rejected after an announcement last week sparked confusion

Tesla CEO says transactions made in digital currency will resume once crypto mining is greener

A survey shows that nearly half of young, single Americans haven’t had any physical intimacy with anyone since the pandemic started, and two thirds are planning on sticking with virtual intimacy post-Covid

News follows disclosure of competition case brought by small traders against US tech giant and family-run Indian joint venture CloudtailA joint venture between Rishi Sunak’s billionaire in-laws and the internet retailing giant Amazon is in a multimillion-pound dispute with the Indian tax authorities, a Guardian investigation has found.The disclosure adds to the list of legal battles currently involving the joint venture, following news on Friday that India’s competition commission has been given permission to relaunch an investigation into Amazon. Continue reading...

From Halo Infinite to the long anticipated role-playing adventure Starfield, Microsoft is promising a big show for this year’s digital only E3 conference7.43pm BSTVirtual E3 is all a bit weird and disappointing but there were some great-looking games in Microsoft and Bethesda’s line-up. Here’s all the news, for those just joining us:7.23pm BSTIt’s something new from Arkane, makers of Dishonored and Prey. It’s an Xbox exclusive, an open-world shooter that you can apparently play alone or with friends. We’re seeing Heroes-esque young things with telekinetic powers, perusing a destroyed storefront. Then we see what happened: a supernatural firefight against VAMPIRES, assisted by locals who apparently worship them. They have a glowing purple Tardis and a robot dog? I’m into this. It’s called Redfall and it’s out summer next year. Continue reading...

CMA’s move thought to be first time regulator involved at an early stage in new technology creationThe UK Competition and Markets Authority has announced it will take an active role in developing Google’s plans to prevent websites tracking Chrome users.Under the proposals, the CMA would accept legally binding commitments from Google not to use its proposed replacements for tracking cookies, a set of technologies the search engine calls its Privacy Sandbox, in a way that would harm competition. It is thought to be the first time a competition regulator has been involved at such an early stage in the creation of a new technology. Continue reading...

Inquiry will include company’s £1bn-a-year joint venture with Rishi Sunak’s father-in-lawThe Indian competition commission is to relaunch an investigation into Amazon’s selling practices, which will examine the company’s £1bn-a-year joint venture with UK chancellor Rishi Sunak’s billionaire father-in-law.The investigation, originally announced in January 2020, will proceed after an Indian court on Friday dismissed pleas by Amazon and its rival – the Walmart-owned Flipkart – to quash its investigation into the business practices of the huge US retailers. Continue reading...

FEC investigation failed to uncover link to Rally Forge, a firm with close ties to Turning Point USAA digital marketing firm closely linked to the pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA was responsible for a series of deceptive Facebook ads promoting Green party candidates during the 2018 US midterm elections, the Guardian can reveal.In an apparent attempt to split the Democratic vote in a number of close races, the ads purported to come from an organization called America Progress Now (APN) and used socialist memes and rhetoric to urge leftwing voters to support Green party candidates. Continue reading...

Gimlet’s smash hit podcast returns from an enforced hiatus this week ... minus one of its hosts. But its future, and that of other shows blighted by controversy, is now precariousLast summer, Reply All’s reputation was at an all-time high. The long-running internet-themed podcast had recently released an episode about a man with a 90s pop song stuck in his head – a piece of music, it seemed, that nobody else on Earth could remember. The show’s hosts, PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman, gamely investigated, leaving no stone unturned and roping in some music heavyweights to help out. Expertly paced and impossible to second-guess, it combined a tantalising conceit with an incredible payoff. The Case of the Missing Hit was heralded by critics as one of the greatest podcast episodes of all time.Mere months later, Reply All was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. At the start of 2021, it launched a spin-off miniseries called The Test Kitchen, which focused on the allegedly toxic and racist workplace culture at the food magazine Bon Appétit. However, after only two episodes had been released, a former colleague accused the team behind The Test Kitchen of promulgating a similar environment at Gimlet Media, the company that makes Reply All. Continue reading...

A new French project ‘inspired’ by the Hitchcock classic could point the way to video games that riff off a film-maker’s wider aesthetic

iOS, PC, Switch; Inkle

Could using digital tags to track fish reduce seafood fraud, help conservation and hold everyone in the supply chain to account?In recent weeks, a new $50m (£35m) hybrid vessel set sail from Mauritius and headed out into the Southern Ocean where the crew will spend three months longline fishing for the Patagonian toothfish. By the time the fish are brought back, processed and sent to customers, consumers will know where and when that specific fish was caught, which boat landed it, who processed it and which certifications have been met. The technology enabling this is blockchain.“From the day it’s landed to when it ends up on someone’s plate, blockchain gives toothfish traceability right from the start,” says Steve Paku, captain of the Cape Arkona. “People can just scan the barcode and the whole story is right there in front of them.” Continue reading...

It is not clear if UK government had alternative that would have allowed services to be back online promptlyTuesday morning’s 45-minute internet outage, which knocked out the Gov.uk domain as well as a string of publishers and other websites, cannot easily be dismissed as an isolated event. It demonstrates a lack of resilience at the heart of critical government services.Anybody wanting to book a Covid test in the late morning on Gov.uk would have struggled. There is an alternative method, by phone, but who knows the number to call: 119? Government services that once delivered by form and post, then call centres, now only really exist through online connections. Continue reading...

The average household has more than £300 worth of unused cookery kit. Here, experts offer tips on how to make bread, ice-cream and other delicious foods without fancy contraptionsJacob Kenedy’s home kitchen is full of things he rarely uses: a sushi mat, a coconut grater, a pestle and mortar, even a borrowed turbotière (a kite-shaped pan specifically for poaching turbot). “I’m the worst,” confesses the chef-owner at Bocca di Lupo in central London. “I buy gadgets all the time. I’m a kleptomaniac of other cuisines; I’ve an enormous kitchen island full of crap.”Kenedy is not alone. In a survey last year, tapwarehouse.com found that 41% of tagine owners had never used theirs. Spiralizers, waffle-irons and juicers are all gathering dust, too, with the average household home to £311 of unused kitchen equipment. Continue reading...

Voice assistant will no longer send audio recordings to firm’s servers, instead processing requests ‘on device’Apple will no longer send Siri requests to its servers, the company has announced, in a move to substantially speed up the voice assistant’s operation and address privacy concerns.The new feature comes two years after the Guardian revealed that Apple staff regularly heard confidential details while carrying out quality control for the feature. Continue reading...

Videos uploaded by Apple-approved team falsely appeared to have been shared by Oregon woman herself, filing says

Tech giant will pay £189m after settlement found it unfairly favoured its own tools for buying and selling adsGoogle has been fined €220m (£189m) by French competition regulators for abusing its dominance in the online advertising market in a landmark settlement that could rebalance the relationship between tech giants and digital publishers.The settlement with the French competition authority, which found that Google unfairly favoured its own tools for buying and selling adverts online over those of rivals, marks the first time the Silicon Valley company has agreed to make changes to its practices as a result of the investigation. Continue reading...

Reforms force multinationals to pay tax in all countries they operate in, but Amazon could evade new rulesThe G7 group of wealthy nations signed a historic tax agreement to tackle tax abuses by multinationals and online technology companies on Saturday, agreeing to a minimum global corporate tax rate for the first time.Although broadly welcomed by tax campaigners and labelled a moment that would “change the world” by G7 finance ministers, months and possibly years of talks still need to take place before the rules come into force. Continue reading...

Amazon founder’s brother, Mark, and one other person will join Bezos onboard Blue Origin vessel on 20 JulyJeff Bezos will no longer be the richest person on Earth on 20 July because the Amazon founder will be blasting off into space on the first crewed flight of his New Shepard rocket ship.Joining Bezos on the flight will be his younger brother, Mark, a former advertising executive and volunteer firefighter. The third member of the crew is being decided by a charity auction, with the seat currently priced at $2.8m (£2m) five days ahead of the deadline for bids. Continue reading...

Apps such as Hinge and Bumble will offer benefits to vaccinated users amid fears of low take-up

Exclusive: communique from ministers suggests deal only applies to ‘profit exceeding a 10% margin’, which could rule out AmazonExperts have raised concerns that Amazon may escape paying significantly more tax in some of its biggest markets unless world leaders close a large loophole in a historic global deal.Finance ministers in London from the G7 group of wealthy nations, including representatives of the UK, US and EU, on Saturday agreed the landmark deal aimed at making the biggest companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook pay more tax. Continue reading...

The AI researcher on how natural resources and human labour drive machine learning and the regressive stereotypes that are baked into its algorithmsKate Crawford studies the social and political implications of artificial intelligence. She is a research professor of communication and science and technology studies at the University of Southern California and a senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research. Her new book, Atlas of AI, looks at what it takes to make AI and what’s at stake as it reshapes our world.You’ve written a book critical of AI but you work for a company that is among the leaders in its deployment. How do you square that circle?

The fashion resale app and its young users represents the likely future of retail: more online, more sustainable, and more socialDepop, the fashion resale app, has joined fellow British tech companies such as Arm Holdings and DeepMind in heading to a deep pool of investment outside its homeland.London-based Depop’s acquisition by Brooklyn-based Etsy for $1.6bn (£1.1bn) last week came just days after Oxford-based WaveOptics, a maker of displays used in augmented-reality glasses, was bought up by the Santa Monica-headquartered owner of Snapchat for $500m. Continue reading...

Brad Stone’s second book on the world’s richest person is another portrait of great power – and the great damage it does

Wise Bank of England heads are pondering the case for a state-run digital currency this week. But do we really need one?When Google announced that bitcoin traders would be allowed to buy advertising space on its pages from August, central banks were alerted to the next likely surge in publicity for cryptocurrencies.The increasing activity around digital currencies has not gone unnoticed at the Bank of England, and on 7 June Threadneedle Street’s brightest will publish a consultation document, setting out how a publicly operated electronic coinage system – one that would rival bitcoin – might work. Continue reading...

Whether single, curious or just plain horny, many people are planning to make the most of life after lockdowns. Are we ready to get up close and personal?

Christopher Wray also revealed that the agency is investigating about 100 kinds of ransomware cyber-attacksThe FBI has compared a recent string of cyber-attacks on US government and corporate entities to defense difficulties presented by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.Christopher Wray, the FBI director, also revealed that the agency is investigating about 100 kinds of ransomware, with many tracing back to criminal operators in Russia. Continue reading...

Twitter Blue, launched in Australia and Canada, also allows users to manage bookmarks and tweak coloursTwitter has launched its first paid subscription service, offering users the ability to undo tweets, manage their bookmarks and change the colour of their app icon for a monthly fee.The service, Twitter Blue, launched on Thursday in Canada and Australia for CA$3.49 and AU$4.49 a month respectively, offering a smattering of new features for those willing to pay for the premium tier. It is the first consumer-focused subscription product from a leading social network and comes amid growing pressure on app-based advertising. Continue reading...

Over lockdown, comedian, mother of two and former games journalist Ellie Gibson took up livestreaming, loved the community – and learned to love playing againLike so many things in my life, it began as a daft experiment. I love learning new stuff, and over the course of my 43 years I’ve tried all sorts. Some things have stuck, like comedy, running, and having kids. Some haven’t, like kung fu, olives and holidays in Germany. To be honest, I thought that livestreaming games on Twitch would fall into the latter category.For those who aren’t familiar (I wasn’t until this year), Twitch involves playing video games live on the internet while providing a running commentary. People watch you, and chat to you via a message window, and sometimes give you money. It’s sort of like exotic dancing, but with fewer breasts. Continue reading...