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Rikki says her son is too young for a smartphone, but wonders if a stylish ‘dumb’ device will withstand peer pressureMy son is nine and beginning to hang out with his pals, some of whom sport smartphones. Despite his pleas, we have made it clear there is no way he’s getting one. Aside from delaying his unbridled internet access, our argument is that if he can look after a dumb phone for a year or two, we might consider getting him a smartphone when he starts secondary school.I don’t want him to feel left out, and I’d like to get him a phone that – even though it lacks internet access – has a certain cachet, and perhaps some built-in games. But all the non-smartphones in the shops seem to be black and decidedly functional. RikkiDumb phones have very little cachet with children, unless you’re the first to have one, and it’s already too late for that. Your son may be happier if you involve him in buying a new phone, rather than giving him a hand-me-down, which is the usual parental solution. But unless he actually needs a phone, it might be simpler just to promise him a smartphone when he turns 11.

Ten pilot projects given greenlight for uses ranging from mapping and aircraft inspection to mosquito tracking and food deliveryApple, Intel, Microsoft and Uber will soon start flying drones for a range of tasks including food and package delivery, digital mapping and conducting surveillance as part of 10 pilot programmes approved Wednesday by the US government.The drone-testing projects have been given waivers for regulations that currently ban their use in the US and will be used to help the Federal Aviation Authority draw up suitable laws to govern the use of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for myriad tasks. Continue reading...

Google’s AI beat humans at a game that involved racing around an unfamiliar virtual environmentNotch up another win for the robots: the latest program from Google’s artificial intelligence group, DeepMind, has trounced experts at a maze game after it learned to find its way around like a human.Scientists noticed that when they trained the AI to move through a landscape, it spontaneously developed electrical activity akin to that seen in the specialised brain cells that underpin human navigational skills. So-called ‘grid cells’ were only identified in animals in 2005 in work that earned researchers a Nobel prize. Continue reading...

California conference agrees a guide to help tech companies moderate online contentSocial networks should publish the number of posts they remove, provide detailed information for users whose content is deleted about why, and offer the chance to appeal against enforcement efforts, according to a groundbreaking effort to provide a set of principles for large-scale moderation of online content.The Santa Clarita Principles, agreed at a conference in the Californian town this week, were proposed by a group of academics and non-profit organisations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, ACLU, and the Center for Democracy and Technology. Continue reading...

Google is trying to free people from the burden of email using AI to type out the whole thing for you taking smart replies to their logical conclusionThe days of having to think about and physically type out emails is over, at least if Google’s new “Smart Compose” feature for Gmail has anything to say about it.

Android gains new gesture navigation, screen notch support, AI-powered smart replies, task predictions, extended battery life, better privacy and tools to stop smartphone addiction

Musk launched the Boring Company to tackle LA’s hellish traffic – but to make the digging affordable, the tunnels will have to get smaller

Can a robot fold towels? Could your toaster turn against you? And will Amazon know when you’re hungry and drone-deliver a Chinese takeaway directly to your mouth? Find out as we step into the home of the futureIf the invention of the ship was also the invention of the shipwreck, as the French philosopher Paul Virilio suggested, then what does that make the invention of the Nest learning thermostat? As our homes fill up with more connected devices, funnelling every aspect of our lives into the great cloud of big data, the answer could be something much more alarming than just a few more faulty appliances cluttering up our cupboards.This is one of the unsettling questions at the heart of The Future Starts Here, an exhibition about to open at the V&A in London. It promises to be less of a showcase of Tomorrow’s World-type gadgetry than a thought-provoking probe into where exactly this new generation of smart technology is taking us. “People seem scared of the future at the moment,” says Rory Hyde who, with co-curator Mariana Pestana, has spent the last two years trawling university laboratories and touring Silicon Valley to gather 100 hot-out-of-the-factory innovations, from a low-cost satellite to a solar-powered shirt that can charge a smartphone. Continue reading...

Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, introduces a new robotic assistant in his keynote address to Google's 2018 conference in California on Tuesday. The virtual assistant, powered by Google Duplex, uses a very natural speech pattern that includes interjections such as 'er' and 'mmm-hmm' so that it sounds eerily lifelike.

As firms face scrutiny over habit-forming technologies, Google unveils system to show users how much time they spend on their devicesGoogle has unveiled a range of tools focused on “digital wellbeing”, designed to help people disconnect from their phones.“Our team has heard so many stories from people trying to find the right balance with technology,” said Sameer Samat, vice-president, product management, adding that although people find their devices useful, they would prefer to spend some of the time spent staring at a screen “on better things”. Continue reading...

Google Duplex contacts hair salon and restaurant in demo, adding ‘er’ and ‘mmm-hmm’ so listeners think it’s humanGoogle’s virtual assistant can now make phone calls on your behalf to schedule appointments, make reservations in restaurants and get holiday hours.The robotic assistant uses a very natural speech pattern that includes hesitations and affirmations such as “er” and “mmm-hmm” so that it is extremely difficult to distinguish from an actual human phone call. Continue reading...

Selfie Kiss | Finding companionship | Al Capone and Donald Trump | Predictive text | Double entendresThe Belvedere Gallery in Vienna is to be congratulated on its “Selfie Kiss” (Museums gear up for the selfie generation, 3 May). When I visited several years ago, Klimt’s painting was difficult to appreciate among the throng of visitors. Last year, a sign pointed to the Selfie Kiss room, where dozens of visitors took turns to take selfies against a copy, leaving the real thing to be admired by a significantly smaller number.

PC/Mac; Obsidian Entertainment

Tuning of car’s software to avoid false positives blamed, as US National Transportation Safety Board investigation continuesAn Uber self-driving test car which killed a woman crossing the street detected her but decided not to react immediately, a report has said.The car was travelling at 40mph (64km/h) in self-driving mode when it collided with 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg at about 10pm on 18 March. Herzberg was pushing a bicycle across the road outside of a crossing. She later died from her injuries. Continue reading...

Debbie Bestwick will sell up to half her shares when Yorkshire-based video games firm floatsThe founder of the Yorkshire-based video games company behind hits such as Worms is set for a £50m windfall from a stockmarket listing valuing the business at up to £230m.Debbie Bestwick, 48, founded Team17 in 1990 and her stake will be worth approximately £100m when the company floats on Aim this month. Bestwick, who received an MBE in 2016 for services to the video games industry, intends to sell up to 50% of her shareholding in the flotation. Continue reading...

Methods activate ‘same brain mechanisms as cocaine’ and leads to users experiencing ‘phantom’ notification buzzing, experts warnSocial media platforms are using the same techniques as gambling firms to create psychological dependencies and ingrain their products in the lives of their users, experts warn.These methods are so effective they can activate similar mechanisms as cocaine in the brain, create psychological cravings and even invoke “phantom calls and notifications” where users sense the buzz of a smartphone, even when it isn’t really there. Continue reading...

A crowd of 18,000 filled a Sydney arena at the weekend to watch groups of young men play video games for huge cash prizesWhenever an artist scheduled to play Qudos Bank Arena at Sydney Olympic Park doesn’t sell enough tickets, the venue tactfully drapes black cloth over the empty seats in the theatre’s uppermost section. Filling more than 18,000 seats is quite an ask, which is why only top-flight acts like Pink, Katy Perry, Shania Twain and Kendrick Lamar are attempting it in coming months.The black cloth is not needed today. Sydney gaming enthusiasts have filled the venue almost to capacity for the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM), a three-day professional video game tournament that rivals anything Qudos has hosted in terms of scale and spectacle.

I’m far from alone in my fear of people leaving me messages – and phone, email, text, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook are no better. So I’ve come up with a cake-based solutionI’m a millennial and I hate voicemails. They are up there with my most millennial of phobias; meeting a real-life Ross Geller; going to a restaurant that doesn’t give you the option of adding halloumi to a breakfast.I hate the little tape cassette icon that won’t go away, haunting you even after you have listened to the voicemail, as if Edgar Allan Poe designed app notifications. I hate the opacity of the message, with no information about the contents unless you listen to it, making it an ominous lucky dip of opportunity or disaster. Continue reading...

Trio who wrote climate paper had no idea they were referenced more than 2.8 million timesAn academic paper on global climate zones written by three Australians more than a decade ago has been named the most cited source on Wikipedia, having being referenced more than 2.8m times.But the authors of the paper, who are still good friends, had no idea about the wider impact of their work until recently. Continue reading...

Forget the awards and acclaim – nothing says you’ve hit the big time like having a creature named after youA new species of water beetle, discovered by scientists in Borneo, has been named after the Oscar-winning star of The Revenant. With its partially retractable head and slightly protruding eyes, Grouvellinus leonardodicaprioi was not named for its resemblance to the 43-year-old actor and environmentalist but because the scientists “wanted to highlight that even the smallest creature is important”. Continue reading...

Kia’s classy new fastback is a joy – just don’t mention its nameKia Stinger

Dedicated virtual reality installations offer an experience you can’t recreate at home – like in the early days of video gamingThe rise of the gaming console has left its mark on living rooms and bedrooms around Britain – but it has also hit the high street. There were around 1,000 amusement arcades in the UK in the 1980s, but that number had halved by 2011, according to the amusements industry trade body, Bacta.Now, the next generation of gaming – virtual reality – is once again making the arcade the prime venue for playing cutting-edge games. Continue reading...

Guardian Australia heads to the picturesque foreshores of Sydney Harbour to discuss the art of time-lapse photography with Matthew Vandeputte, a Belgian-born photographer who has made a name for himself pushing the technique to its limits.Using the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge as subjects, Vandeputte talks through the process, saying it reveals a ‘hidden dimension that we’re living in, but not aware of’ Continue reading...

Should we fear or embrace automation? Jol Miskin, Dr Jamie Gough, Colin Hines, William Wilson, Terence Oon and Dave Hughes give their viewsJohn Harris asks what happens next to all the jobs that technology will obliterate (Ten million jobs could be gone in 15 years. What then?, 30 April). He fears that inequality will worsen. Not necessarily. Let robots do the boring, repetitive stuff. Humans can do all those jobs required to create a better life for all, and provide decent pay and good working conditions to boot. It’s not rocket science. We need many more care, support, youth and early years workers. In fact, we pretty much need to reinvent local government and the services it should provide. Our parks, green and other spaces need workers to create pleasant environments (we once had such workers). We know the NHS is in crisis and that without investment – including increasing staff numbers – the future is bleak.In addition, a progressive government needs to rejuvenate our education system. That means developing a truly comprehensive system under democratic control. And it should enable us to learn for learning’s sake (gone will be the 40-plus-hour working week) as well as offering high-quality education and training throughout life for work, leisure and citizenship engagement. Perhaps a citizens’ income is the way forward, or maybe a genuine offer of decent work, at least for those who can. Either way, a dignified and adequate income for all: bread and roses. Continue reading...

Up to 2m people play the general knowledge quiz each day – and celebs are lining up to host itImagine the intellectual and social pressure of a pub quiz, then multiply it by more than 2 million people.Every day, at 3pm and 9pm sharp, an army of teenagers, students, pensioners and office workers stop what they are doing, whip out their smartphones and fire up an app to take part in a new online craze called HQ Trivia, the pub quiz brought kicking and screaming into the smartphone era. Continue reading...

This week, Jordan Erica Webber looks at how children are getting involved in maker culture and building their own adventureSubscribe and review: Acast, Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter or email us at podcasts@theguardian.comThe other day, a friend told Jordan Erica Webber that her tech-savvy dad has used the Raspberry Pi – a small and very cheap computer – to build all sorts of creative projects. For example, he created bark-activated door that allowed the family dog to let herself out for her morning pee. Continue reading...

Microsoft working on fix for machines and suggests temporary solutions to bug caused by installation of April 2018 updateThe new Windows 10 April 2018 update is causing apps such as Google’s Chrome browser and even Microsoft’s own Cortana virtual assistant to freeze and lock up computers.

iPhone, Android; Jam City/Portkey Games

Company says it has fixed the internal glitch and has seen ‘no indication of breach or misuse’ but recommends precautionary stepsTwitter has urged its 336 million users to change their passwords after the company discovered a bug that stored passwords in plain text in an internal system.

‘China’s Apple’ turns focus to west and is set to raise $10bn on Hong Kong stock exchangeThe Smartphone maker Xiaomi will begin selling its smartphones in the UK under a partnership with Hutchinson’s Three as “China’s Apple” turns its attention to the west.The news came as the firm announced its IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange seeking to raise at least $10bn (£7.3bn), in what could be the largest offering since Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba’s $25bn listing in New York in 2014. Continue reading...

Some products really are designed to addict your child. But this latest bogeyman is not among themEvery few years, a video game gets so popular with children that someone decides there must be something wrong with it. When I was a kid, it was Pokémon; when my stepson was little, it was Minecraft; now, of course, it is Fortnite, a colourful, battle royal-style shooter that’s currently so popular that pop star Drake and footballer Dele Alli are fans.When children get into things, they tend to do so quite intensely. (The concerningly detailed diagrams of the insides of Egyptian pyramids that I drew when I was nine are testament to that.) There is nothing wrong with a kid getting so into Fortnite that she wants to play it all the time; it’s just passion. Continue reading...

Tech insiders have finally started admitting their mistakes – but the solutions they are offering could just help the big players get even more powerful. By Ben Tarnoff and Moira WeigelBig Tech is sorry. After decades of rarely apologising for anything, Silicon Valley suddenly seems to be apologising for everything. They are sorry about the trolls. They are sorry about the bots. They are sorry about the fake news and the Russians, and the cartoons that are terrifying your kids on YouTube. But they are especially sorry about our brains.Sean Parker, the former president of Facebook – who was played by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network – has publicly lamented the “unintended consequences” of the platform he helped create: “God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.” Justin Rosenstein, an engineer who helped build Facebook’s “like” button and Gchat, regrets having contributed to technology that he now considers psychologically damaging, too. “Everyone is distracted,” Rosenstein says. “All of the time.” Continue reading...

Elon Musk got testy with analysts amid concerns over company’s future, after it burned through $745.3m in cash during important quarterTesla posted a record $709.6m net loss in the first quarter and burned through $745.3m in cash while struggling to crank out large numbers of its Model 3 mass-market electric car.The loss and cash burn announced on Wednesday raised questions about the company’s future and whether it would be able to pay all of its bills by early next year without more borrowing or another round of stock sales. Continue reading...

Employee allegedly called himself ‘professional stalker’ on Tinder as site seeks to launch dating app and faces privacy scandalFacebook has fired a security engineer after he was accused of stalking women online possibly by abusing his “privileged access” to data, raising renewed concerns about users’ privacy at the social network.The controversy, which came to light after the employee allegedly called himself a “professional stalker” in a message to a woman he met on Tinder, is particularly bad timing for Facebook, which announced this week that it is launching an online dating feature while it continues to battle a major privacy scandal in the US and the UK. Continue reading...

Rockstar Games offers new glimpse at wild west prequel ahead of October releaseRockstar Games has released a new trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2, one of the most anticipated video games of the year.The game, which will be out on October 26, is a prequel to 2010’s Red Dead Redemption, a western set in 1911 that followed the ill-fated outlaw John Marston in his attempts to redeem himself in the eyes of the law. Red Dead Redemption 2 stars Arthur Morgan, a member of the Van der Linde gang that played a pivotal role in the first game’s storyline. It is set in 1899, and the new trailer shows the gang on the run as the West becomes less wild. Continue reading...

I, for one, can’t wait for Facebook’s new service. Where better to point a powerful surveillance tool than at our love lives?

With revenues of over $61bn, Apple beat its 2015 record in the report released Tuesday – but sales of its most valuable product are slowingApple on Tuesday shook off worries that its $1,000 iPhone had failed to live up to the hype – but sales of the world’s most valuable company’s most valuable product are slowing, and Apple has announced a plan to buy its way out of trouble.Releasing its latest quarterly report, Apple announced it had sold 52.2m iPhones in the quarter ending 31 March, at an average price of $728.54. Sales were up 3% compared to last year and slightly lower than analysts had expected, but numbers beat the gloomiest forecasts and were enough to deliver Apple its best second quarter ever, with revenues of over $61bn. That beat the record of $58bn set in 2015. Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg says app, which shares some features with Tinder, aims to build ‘real long-term relationships – not just hookups’Facebook is launching a new dating app on the social media platform, its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced at an annual developer conference on Tuesday, unveiling a feature designed to compete with popular services like Tinder.Speaking in front of a packed crowd in San Jose, Zuckerberg described the new dating feature as a tool to build “real long-term relationships – not just hookups”. Continue reading...

Firm can continue to operate while it appeals against ruling that it is not ‘fit and proper’Brighton and Hove has become the third British city to reject Uber, after the council decided not to renew the firm’s licence to operate private hire cars.

With meteors crashing into the landscape, the latest update for the smash-hit online shooter game has an apocalyptic superhero feelAfter weeks of hints, rumours and comet trails illuminating the lurid skies, season IV of Fortnite has begun.The smash-hit online shooter game, which sees 100 players battling each other to survive on a vast island, was updated on Tuesday, with a selection of new items and emotes. More intriguingly, there are now two new areas to explore. Continue reading...

Drama created after Tackroom Theatre teamed up with Barnardo’s to conduct the largest piece of research ever done into the subjectThere’s no holding back in the rehearsal room, with talk of sex, incest porn and bondage. One musical number has a chorus about masturbating. It is funny, revealing and deeply troubling. The play, Why Is the Sky Blue? (Or How to Make Slime), is based on interviews with 10,000 people aged between six and 22, about the effects of pornography on their lives. Its title comes from the children’s search-engine questions, which included “Am I gay?” and “How big is my penis?”The cast members are drawn from the same age group as the interviewees and the show includes songs, verbatim experiences and improvised conversations. One of the young people says that, after stumbling across pornography online: “I didn’t even want to look at my own [genitals]. I was scared after watching.” Another comments: “It has affected my mental health and the way I feel about myself, the way I speak to girls.” Continue reading...

A movement led by survivors, public health experts and technologists is utilizing interactive technology to shift how people approach sexual misconduct

Identity matching bill provides ‘significant scope’ for minister to expand powers, state warnsVictoria has threatened to pull out of a state and federal government agreement for the home affairs department to run a facial recognition system because the bill expands Peter Dutton’s powers and allows access to information by the private sector and local governments.In October the Council of Australia Governments agreed to give federal and state police real-time access to passport, visa, citizenship and driver’s licence images for a wide range of criminal investigations.

Trial among users in Australia and New Zealand allows people to give comments an up or down voteFacebook is trialling new technology on some Australian and New Zealand users which allows people to give comments an “up” or “down” vote.A Facebook spokeswoman said the trial was in the early test stages and no decision had been made on expanding it to the global community of 2.2 billion users. A decision would be made after the company had gauged whether users found the new tool useful and productive, she said. Continue reading...

WhatsApp was built with a focus on privacy and a disdain for ads, but the Facebook-owned service is now under pressure to make money

Twenty cities are vying for a $5bn investment and 50,000 jobs, so are the movements of the CEO’s aircraft, N271DV, the key to HQ2?The tail number of Jeff Bezos’ $75m, 18-seat Gulfstream G650ER jet may provide the best clue yet of Amazon’s choice for a second North American headquarters, otherwise known as HQ2.Related: 'Not welcome here': Amazon faces growing resistance to its second home Continue reading...

Microsoft has released the latest version of Windows 10, adding improvements to task management, Cortana, Edge and sharingThe next version of Windows 10 is finally ready to download as a free update that adds some potentially game-changing new features as well as some welcome features that bring it up to par with what you might expect from a smartphone.

Six-wheeled robots will deliver food and coffee across a Silicon Valley office park in first commercial use of the technology – and whole cities could be nextIf you work in an office park, or study at a campus university, robotic delivery drivers could be coming your way, following the first-ever commercial deployment of the technology.Starship Technologies, an autonomous delivery startup created in 2014 by two Skype co-founders, has been in public testing mode in 20 countries around the world since 2015. Now the company says it is ready for its first “major commercial rollout”. Continue reading...

Corey Pein took his half-baked startup idea to America’s hottest billionaire factory – and found a wasteland of techie hustlers and con men• Read the text version hereSubscribe via Audioboom, iTunes, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Acast & Sticher and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter Continue reading...