Since 1996, the Pokémon games have exerted a fascination for fans, telling imaginative stories and encouraging a generation of players to question everything they see“This is it? This is the game?”I am in Italy with my partner, and just like every beach holiday since 1999, I have booted up Pokémon. This particular version is Pokémon Sun for the Nintendo 3DS, but all the games are fundamentally the same: you’re a child leaving home to catch and train tiny monsters so you can defeat various bosses and bad guys. My boyfriend, who has never played Pokémon, has just watched me eviscerate a grunt trainer with my level 41 Mudsdale. Continue reading...

Mike Pompeo makes last-minute plea to ministers ahead of ‘momentous’ decisionBritain’s sovereignty will be in jeopardy if the UK allows Huawei to develop its 5G infrastructure, the US secretary of state has warned.In a last-minute plea to senior ministers, who are expected to decide on Tuesday whether to use the Chinese company, Mike Pompeo described the decision facing Britain’s national security council as “momentous”. Continue reading...

This closely observed account of everyday life in the tech capital reminds us to be wary of all those boy geniusesI sometimes wonder, having studied engineering at university, whether I should have headed for California to pan for digital gold, working as a coder for one of Silicon Valley’s tech giants or trying my luck at an overvalued startup with employee share options. Anna Wiener’s book is a reassuring reminder that, had I gone, I probably would have hated it.Uncanny Valley is a memoir with few revelations for those who have had contact with the technology industry. Even people familiar with it only through media coverage will already recognise Silicon Valley as a world of young men (and it has to be said, a few women) who have had their egos massaged perhaps a little too hard and a little too long. Their stories of failure and greed, sexual harassment and bullying, toxic cultures fomented by bloated valuations of firms that turn out to be built on thin air, have become our generation’s cautionary tales. And that’s to say nothing of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Continue reading...

As researchers confirm that stress can turn you grey, we look at the other scientific factors that could salt-and-pepper your crowning gloryThis week, scientists from Harvard demonstrated that stress can accelerate the greying of human hair. The researchers found that stress prompts the production of a hormone that affects the melanocyte cells involved in making hair pigments. The scientists hope that this discovery will add to the understanding of how the depletion of stem cells contributes to ageing in general. Continue reading...

Clearview AI may be controversial but it’s not the first business to identify you from your online picsWay back in May 2011, Eric Schmidt, who was then the executive chairman of Google, said that the rapid development of facial recognition technology had been one of the things that had surprised him most in a long career as a computer scientist. But its “surprising accuracy” was “very concerning”. Questioned about this, he said that a database using facial recognition technology was unlikely to be a service that the company would create, but went on to say that “some company … is going to cross that line”.As it happens, Dr Schmidt was being economical with the actualité, as the MP Alan Clark used to say. He must surely have known that a few months earlier Facebook had announced that it was using facial recognition in the US to suggest names while tagging photos. And some time after Schmidt spoke, Google itself launched a facial recognition feature in its own ill-fated social network, Google+. It was called Find My Face and it scanned photos from users and their friends to identify recognisable faces. Four years later, as the tech analyst Ben Thompson points out, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud released face-recognition APIs, followed by Amazon Web Services with its Rekognition service in 2016. So it turns out that lots of companies – including Schmidt’s own – had crossed the facial recognition red line. Continue reading...

The entrepreneur and futurologist says the rapid pace of technology should fill us with optimism not fearPeter Diamandis is best known as the founder of the XPrize Foundation, which offers big cash prizes as an incentive for tech solutions to big problems. The entrepreneur and investor is also co-founder of the Singularity University, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit offering education in futurology. His new book, The Future Is Faster Than You Think, argues that the already rapid pace of technological innovation is about to get a whole lot quicker.Do you think people are worried about where technology is going to take us?

US discusses concerns over Chinese telecoms giant’s role in Britain’s future 5G networkDonald Trump discussed the security of telecommunications networks with Boris Johnson, the White House said, as Britain closes in on a decision on Huawei’s role in the country’s future 5G network.The US administration told allies not to allow the Chinese tech giant to form part of such networks, claiming it would be a security risk – a claim that Huawei vehemently denies. Continue reading...

Moderators required to sign form before accepting a job with subcontractor Accenture, according to report from the VergeContent moderators for YouTube have received legal warnings the job may negatively affect their mental health and cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new report from the Verge found.Social media sites are increasingly informing employees of the negative effects of moderation jobs following several reports on harrowing working conditions, including long hours viewing violent and sexually exploitative content with little mental health support. Before accepting a job with Accenture, a subcontractor that works with several social media companies and manages some YouTube moderators at a Texas facility, employees had to sign a form titled “Acknowledgement”, the Verge reported. Continue reading...

Julian Lewis MP responds to criticism over his refusal to use email for constituency correspondence, and says letters, phone calls and surgery appointments are ‘perfectly adequate’There is nothing “mysterious” about the fact that I do not use email for constituency correspondence: it is openly stated on the homepage of my – very extensive – website, and has been remarked upon in the press from time to time previously. Nor am I in the least “uncontactable”, as Bridget Craig (Letters, 23 January) knows perfectly well, having corresponded with me by letter without difficulty.Letters, phone calls, and, where appropriate, surgery appointments are perfectly adequate for people who genuinely need my help, as the many letters of thanks quoted on my website fully confirm. Only mass, manipulative campaigners and obsessive individuals find this a problem – and so they should! Continue reading...

Boss says firm is working to ensure older and newer products can be used together

The controversial technology is developing rapidly and its use spreading more widely

Civil liberties groups condemn move as ‘a breathtaking assault on our rights’

About 50m metric tons of e-waste are generated annually. But Apple says efforts to regulate mobile devices to reduce waste stifle ‘innovation’Do all cables matter?I found myself asking this deeply cursed question as I read a report commissioned by Apple on the European commission’s plan to require mobile device makers to adopt a standard charger. The report runs 92-pages, features a cover photo of the three types of charging ports (USB-C, Micro-USB, and Lightning) nestled lovingly together like mama, papa and baby bear, and is titled United in Diversity. Continue reading...

A day’s battery, solid performance and watch-first design makes Wear OS a much more attractive optionThe Fossil Gen 5 is easily the best Wear OS smartwatch you can buy at the moment, and as long as you don’t expect it to be an Apple Watch-beater, it gets the job done and looks the part.Smartwatches that run Google’s Wear OS software have come in many different designs from various different manufacturers, and work with both Android and the iPhone. But they have long been plagued by sluggishness, poor battery life and a software experience that is behind the competition. Continue reading...

Switch; Atlus/Nintendo

Margrethe Vestager says EU will also tax tech firms who ‘create value but do not pay taxes’The European Union’s leading tech regulator has thrown her weight behind the British government’s plans to press ahead with a digital tax despite threats from Donald Trump.Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition commissioner recently promoted to take charge of Europe’s digital policy as well, said she was a “strong supporter” of national digital taxes in order to advance the chances of an international agreement. She said the EU would revive plans for a digital tax within a year if international efforts to find a solution failed. Continue reading...

Speakers and networks will miss out on security fixes and eventually stop workingSpeaker company Sonos will cut off its most loyal customers from future software updates entirely unless they replace their old equipment for newer models, it has announced.The policy is unusual even within the novelty-obsessed technology industry, for the scope of the impact: customers who have a range of Sonos products, including the Connect, Bridge and first-generation Play:5 speakers, will not only never be able to update those devices but will also be blocked from updating any newer device that is connected to them. Continue reading...

Downing Street signals it is not affordable to exclude Chinese company from networkBritain is preparing to defy Washington and allow Huawei to supply 5G equipment, although the US is expected to mount a last-ditch campaign arguing the Chinese technology still poses a serious security risk.Downing Street signalled on Thursday that it believed Huawei kit was necessary to ensure that the 5G mobile network was affordable. It is expected, however, to agree fresh restrictions on the company at a ministerial meeting next week. Continue reading...

Automation is a red herring. The wider environment of slowing growth explains low labor demand largely by itselfAn army of robots now scrub floors, grow microgreens and flip burgers. Due to advances in artificial intelligence, computers will supposedly take over much more of the service sector in the coming decade, including jobs in law, finance and medicine that require years of education and training.Related: Republicans have turned the impeachment trial into a dangerous sham | Andrew Gawthorpe Continue reading...

Richard wants a laptop for its flatter keys, but desktop PCs can have any keyboard typeI plan to get a new computer for home use, no games. I would rather have a desktop/tower, if it was possible to get a more sensitive keyboard, but I have Parkinson’s and find that the keys are way too hard to use because they require a deeper push than laptop keyboards. Your earlier suggestion of getting an external monitor for a laptop sounds like a winner. How is the connection made? RichardThe short answer is that you should buy a desktop PC. With a laptop, you are more or less stuck with the keyboard fitted by the manufacturer, and the quality varies from average to mediocre. With a desktop PC, you can take your pick from dozens of USB and Bluetooth keyboards. These range from keyboards with flat, island-style isolated keys to full mechanical keyboards aimed at professionals and gamers. Continue reading...

With their long, complex stories, video games fit television better than film – especially now streaming services have the firepower to make such projectsIt is a truth, universally accepted, that video games do not translate well to the big screen. From Assassin’s Creed to the Super Mario Bros movie, the result is usually a compromised monstrosity, ignorant of the source material and quickly disowned by the studios, directors and actors responsible for it. There have been exceptions – Detective Pikachu was weird but fine and the Resident Evil films have their fans. But films based on games are usually a mess. Have licensing managers been looking at the wrong screen the whole time?This week, Netflix released viewing figures that showed its fantasy monster-hunting series The Witcher is on course to be the platform’s biggest-ever opening season, viewed by more than 76m households. There are question marks over how the company is now gathering its data (Netflix considers a view to have occurred when anyone watches for more than two minutes – it used to be 70% of the show). But even with such provisos in mind, The Witcher has been a success, performing well against veteran series such as The Crown (73m households). Continue reading...

Information suggests alleged targeting of Amazon chief was part of a wider campaign to pick off individuals close to KhashoggiThe message, it seems, could not have been clearer.On 8 November 2018, just one month after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, received an unsolicited text from Mohammed bin Salman’s WhatsApp account. Continue reading...

Under pay scheme, founder must build electric carmaker into $650bn company by 2028The Tesla founder, Elon Musk, has taken the first step to becoming $50bn (£38bn) richer after the value of the electric car company surged past $100bn.Musk, already a multibillionaire with a net worth estimated at about $30bn, secured approval in 2018 for a pay deal that would dwarf existing records for renumeration if it was paid out in full. Continue reading...

‘Grave concern’ expressed at evidence of possible ‘effort to silence Washington Post’

The Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone 'hacked' in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, sources have told the Guardian.Investigations reporter Stephanie Kirchgaessner analyses the background of the case and possible reasons why the Washington Post owner was targeted.Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement in the matter

Analysis by cybersecurity firm suggested Amazon founder was target of advanced malware

This eerie documentary dives deep into the hundreds of millions of online attention-seekers desperate to make contact via tales of the bizarre and mundaneShengzhe Zhu’s interesting and at times eerie documentary is an edited curation of hundreds of hours of live-stream videos in China. People (or “anchors”) broadcast themselves doing interesting or mundane or bizarre things and sometimes achieve massive followings. Their audiences interact with the livestreamers in real time with comments and requests and donations of virtual gift icons that can be redeemed for cash.This is a social-media attention economy in action, and in recent years it’s grown to be an extraordinary phenomenon in China, with more than 400 million livestreamers in 2017, before the government started cracking down, ostensibly because of a tragic accident in which someone fell to his death while attempting to live video himself doing pull-ups from the edge of a skyscraper. Continue reading...

We want to hear from parents and young adults about the non-mainstream sites they and their children accessWith new rules for technology companies to protect children online announced by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, we want to hear about the non-mainstream sites children and young people access.From autumn 2021, companies will have to consider 15 principles in order to avoid breaking the law and facing fines up to £17m or 4% of global turnover. Continue reading...

Special rapporteurs to announce further information on Guardian revelationsUN investigators are poised to release a statement about the alleged hacking of Jeff Bezos’s mobile phone after the Guardian revealed details of a forensic analysis that has implicated a WhatsApp account purportedly owned by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.The astonishing disclosure prompted a Democratic lawmaker in the US to urgently demand more information about the malware that was allegedly used to infiltrate Bezos’s phone in the 2018 hack of the Amazon founder. Continue reading...

Exclusive: investigation suggests Washington Post owner was targeted five months before murder of Jamal Khashoggi

Lawyers say ineffectiveness of act exposes UK to harm by ‘cybercriminals and hostile nations’Britain’s cyber-defences are being endangered by the outdated Computer Misuse Act, which prevents investigators from dealing effectively with online threats while over-punishing immature defendants, according to a legal report.Thirty years after hacking became a criminal offence, a study by the Criminal Law Reform Now Network (CLRNN) calls for urgent revision of the legislation governing illegal access to computers, denial of service attacks and other digital crimes. Continue reading...

Sites must assess content for sexual abuse and suicide risk or face fines of up to £17mTechnology companies will be required to assess their sites for sexual abuse risks, prevent self-harm and pro-suicide content, and block children from broadcasting their location, after the publication of new rules for “age-appropriate design” in the sector.The UK Information Commissioner’s Office, which was tasked with creating regulations to protect children online, will enforce the new rules from autumn 2021, after one-year transition period. After which companies that break the law can face sanctions comparable to those under GDPR, including fines of up to £17m or 4% of global turnover. Continue reading...

Meng Wanzhou’s lawyers argue that US accusations would not be considered a crime in Canada, where she was arrested in 2018Lawyers for a Chinese telecoms executive arrested in Vancouver have argued that her extradition to the US would allow a foreign state to criminalize behavior in Canada.Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei and eldest daughter of its founder, Ren Zhengfei, is wanted by US authorities for alleged fraud related to sanctions against Iran. Continue reading...

BoE one of central banks weighing potential benefits amid decline of cash and emergence of Facebook’s libraThe Bank of England will examine how Britain could adopt a bitcoin-style digital currency as part of a global group of central banks that have joined together to examine the possible pitfalls of relying on electronic money.Bank officials will meet with the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Sveriges Riksbank, the Bank of Canada, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to pool research and experiences of the potential for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Continue reading...

Apple shows it’s listening to pro users by producing a thicker, heavier and better machineApple’s new 16in MacBook Pro is bigger and heavier, but that’s a very good thing, with the largest battery you can have in a laptop and a new keyboard that looks to kick the troubles of the past few years to the kerb.It’s a bit of a U-turn from Apple and demonstrates that the Californian tech firm is finally listening to its hardcore audience: the professionals. Continue reading...

Queensland health authorities confirm man is in quarantine at home in Brisbane and they are awaiting tests after he presented with flu-like symptomsThe first case of China’s new deadly coronavirus may have reached Australia, with health authorities in Queensland confirming that a man is being monitored for the condition.The man recently returned from Wuhan, China with a respiratory illness, and has been quarantined at home in Brisbane while officials await the results of testing that will identify if he has the condition. Continue reading...

Extradition hearing begins in Canada as defence team rejects allegations that executive tried to get around Iran sanctionsThe accusations of sanctions busting against Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou have been dismissed by her lawyers as “fiction” at the start of a legal hearing in Canada in which she is fighting extradition to the United States.Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the technology conglomerate, and eldest daughter of its founder Ren Zhengfei, is wanted by US authorities for alleged fraud in trying to circumvent Washington’s sanctions against Iran. Continue reading...

Study of footballers in Brazil shows spending time on a smartphone or console before a game causes mental fatigueCould spending too much time on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram affect a footballer’s performance? Manchester United appear to think so. One report before their trip to Anfield claimed the club were “consulting leading experts” about how to help their stars deal with the negative mental effects of social media and also suggested there were concerns that players were suffering dips in form as a result of being abused online.Some may suggest the players should just “man up”. But scientists are increasingly scrutinising how mental fatigue – the lack of energy we feel from long periods of purely cognitive activity – can influence sporting performance, often with startling results. Continue reading...

Comfortable fit, good controls, thumping bass, rock-solid connection and tiny case make Jabra’s new earbuds a solid optionThe Jabra Elite 75t wireless earbuds are the follow-ups to some of the best Bluetooth earbuds of 2018, but now smaller, lighter and longer-lasting.A lot has changed in the world of true wireless earbuds since 2018. Competition is fierce with many good options, but few still manage the perfect combination of comfort, connectivity, case and sound. Continue reading...

The internet giant has exempted politics from regulations on falsehood. Good news for a candidacy built on liesIf you want to know why the worst president in US history currently stands a very good chance of winning again, consider a few facts. Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is already in full flow, brimming with cash, drenching social media with targeted ads, and reaping oceans of data on voters.The impeachment drama is, predictably enough, the perfect opportunity to put out material that plays to the idea of Trump as a noble maverick, struggling against the liberal conspiracy implied by his online questionnaires: “Do you agree that President Trump has done nothing wrong? Do you believe the Democrats will try and make up LIES to impeach the president?” Continue reading...

Chinese firm poised to help build UK’s 5G phone network despite warnings about spyingBoris Johnson is likely to approve the use of Huawei technology in the UK’s new 5G network against the pleas of the US government, a former national security adviser has said.Sir Mark Lyall Grant, who was Theresa May’s national security adviser, said that the security services had repeatedly concluded over several years that they were able to mitigate any potential threats posed by the Chinese technology. Continue reading...

Executive Andrew Bosworth’s handwringing about the company’s stance should not blind us to the fact that doing nothing is extremely lucrative for itOn 20 December last, Andrew Bosworth, a long-time Facebook executive and buddy of the company’s supreme leader, Mark Zuckerberg, published a longish memo on the company’s internal network. The New York Times somehow obtained a copy and reported it on 7 January, which led Mr Bosworth then to publish it to the world on a Facebook page. In one of those strange coincidences that mark a columnist’s life, I happened to be reading his memo at the same time that I was delving into the vast trove of internal emails released by the Boeing Company in connection with congressional and other inquiries into the 737 Max disaster. Both sources turn out to have one interesting thing in common – the insight they provide into the internal culture of two gigantic, dysfunctional companies.Trump got elected because he ran the single best digital ad campaign I’ve ever seen from any advertiser. Period Continue reading...

The Oxford economist talks about his new book on the challenges of a society with no traditional employmentDaniel Susskind is an economist and fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He has held policy roles in the Blair and Cameron governments. His new book, A World Without Work, explores how society should respond to the increasing automation of employment.This isn’t an unexplored topic, so why did you write this book?

As Alphabet becomes the latest firm to achieve a 13-figure market cap, analysts still forecast years of growth aheadAlphabet, the tech giant formerly known as Google, on Thursday night became the fourth company in history to reach a trillion-dollar (£776bn) valuation. In less than 24 hours, some analysts were predicting that the company, founded in a messy Silicon Valley garage 21 years ago, could double in value again to become a $2tn firm “in the near future”.The consensus among Wall Street bankers is nothing can stop the runaway share price rises of Alphabet or the other so-called “Faang” tech companies. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google have seen their combined market value increase by $1.3tn over the past year – that’s the equivalent of adding half the value of all the companies in the FTSE 100, or the entire GDP of Mexico. Continue reading...

The boss of the electric carmaker has a $50bn pay package ready to roll if the firm hits a $100bn valuationOne of the options on a fully loaded Tesla is “ludicrous mode”, a setting offering a 0-60mph acceleration time of 2.8 seconds for drivers who find its “insane mode” too sedate.To some investors, that’s similar to chief executive Elon Musk’s bonus package: if the electric carmaker’s share price goes above $554.80 – which would value the firm at $100bn, and which it came very close to last week – the mercurial entrepreneur could reap the first $350m instalment of a potential $50bn share-based pay package. Continue reading...

CEOs Philip Jansen and Nick Read say they have seen no evidence that warrants banBT and Vodafone are set to lobby Boris Johnson to allow Huawei technology to be used in the UK’s 5G phone network.BT’s chief executive, Philip Jansen, and Nick Read, his counterpart at Vodafone, are drafting a letter to the prime minister arguing they have not seen evidence that Huawei equipment poses a security risk that warrants a total ban. Huawei has always denied allegations its kit could be used by the Chinese government to spy on users. Continue reading...

Draft white paper suggest prohibition lasting three to five years is being consideredThe EU could temporarily ban the use of facial recognition technology in public places such as train stations, sport stadiums and shopping centres over fears about creeping surveillance of European citizens.A prohibition lasting between three and five years is seen as a way for Brussels to manage the risks said to be posed by the breakneck speed at which the software is being adopted. Continue reading...

Tech giant is the fourth US firm to achieve the valuation – after Microsoft, Apple and AmazonGoogle’s owner Alphabet has become a trillion-dollar company for the first time, making it only the fourth US firm to reach the bumper valuation.Alphabet’s value, based on the price of its Wall Street-listed shares, passed $1tn (£776bn) in the final minutes of trading on Thursday night, with shares closing at a record high of $1,450.16 each. Continue reading...

Imagine your smartphone knew everything about the city – but the city didn’t know anything about you. Wouldn’t that be truly ‘smart’?Guardian Cities is concluding with ‘The case for ...”, a series of opinion pieces exploring options for radical urban change. Read our editor’s farewell here“Smart city” is one of those science fiction phrases seemingly designed to make you uneasy, like “neuromarketing” or “pre-crime”. It’s impossible to be alive in this decade and not find something unsettling in the idea of our cities becoming “smart”.It’s not hard to see why: “smart” has become code for “terrible”. A “smart speaker” is a speaker that eavesdrops on you and leaks all your conversations to distant subcontractors for giant tech companies. “Smart watches” spy on your movements and sell them to data-brokers for ad-targeting. “Smart TVs” watch you as you watch them and sell your viewing habits to brokers. Continue reading...