The two French studio heads behind supernatural adventure Beyond: Two Souls face accusations of inappropriate behaviour towards staffFrench video game studio Quantic Dream has been accused of propagating a toxic working environment, according to reports in three French news publications.
Not only do they have tennis, pinball, a cinema, a gym and a Lego room at their disposal – employees in the Swiss city’s office also have their own nicknameName: Zooglers.Origin: 75 different countries. Continue reading...
The Hold app – already used by 40% of students in Norway – allows users to earn rewards such as cinema tickets for not using their phone. We put it to the testIt’s March 2012, the middle of exam term and my friend is in despair. Why? She can’t access her Facebook.Nordic app Hold is hoping to combat such examples of student smartphone addiction. It rewards users for not looking at their phones on campus – a task so difficult for my zombified-friend that she resorted to using a website that locks her out of all social media accounts. Continue reading...
A collective insanity has sprouted around the new field of ‘cryptocurrencies’, causing an irrational gold rush. I know you’re tempted, but don’t be a foolI’ve been watching this bitcoin situation for a few years, assuming it would just blow over.
Alert occurred after employer pressed button labelled ‘missile alert’, instead of the one next to it marked ‘test missile alert’A false alarm warning Hawaiians of an incoming ballistic missile on Saturday, was reportedly issued because of a “terribly designed†user interface.The computer system that allows the Hawaiian Emergency Management Agency (HEMA) to send emergency alerts asks employees to select the type of alert that they are sending from a drop-down menu. Continue reading...
These days, if we’re not staring at our smartphones, we’re sitting in front of computers. And more than half of office workers have reported the symptoms of eyestrain. How do you protect yourself?The rapid advance of technology over the past two decades has meant that many of us spend a considerable portion of the day staring at screens, whether that’s our smartphone or our office computer. As a result, studies have shown that between 50% and 90% of office workers have eye strain or associated health issues such as eye-twitching, red eyes, headaches and fatigue. So, how can you make things easier on your eyes? Continue reading...
Loss of the deal with the giant mobile carrier has put a huge obstacle in the way of the Chinese firm’s ambition of conquering the American marketAmid the glitz and glamour of the CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas last week, one piece of news struck a particularly sour note for Chinese phone-maker Huawei. Despite months of preparation, the giant US mobile carrier AT&T announced last Monday that it was pulling out of a deal to sell Huawei’s smartphones.The decision was taken as a result of political pressure on AT&T by American politicians, who had written to the telecoms regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – which must approve the sale of phones and other devices in the US – saying they had “long been concerned about Chinese espionage in general, and Huawei’s role in that espionage in particularâ€. Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei’s consumer division, was obliged to go through the motions at CES of introducing his new Mate 10 phone, having seen planned marketing spending of $100m and assurances of no government interference turn to ashes. Continue reading...
Facebook is a big part of my portfolio, and I fear the dangers of tech addiction. While investors’ recent open letter to Apple is significant, more need to speak upI am a tech investor, and Facebook is by far my largest investment. Still, for the past 15 months I have been pushing Facebook to sacrifice near term profits. The reason? I want them to address the harm the platform has caused through addiction and exploitation by bad actors. Government watchdogs barely regulate the technology sector in the United States, so investors like myself have a big role to play.
Stuck on your screen? We asked six very busy people to attempt a digital detox – here’s how you can, tooWhat’s the first thing you do when you wake up? Read the news? Check your emails? Scroll through social media? Now, imagine your phone’s not in the room. If that makes you feel aimless or uncomfortable, it may be time for a digital detox.This doesn’t have to be about giving up the digital world altogether, says Tanya Goodin, founder of digital detox specialists Time To Log Off and author of Off. “It’s about becoming aware of your own personal challenges around screens, gaining an understanding of what will help you overcome them, and learning to live with technology in a way that’s healthy. People are always amazed by how different they feel after not being on their phones and that motivates them to want to keep going.†Continue reading...
by Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent on (#3D4DC)
Settlement with teenager over naked images of her posted online on networking site has ‘moved goalposts’, say lawyersFacebook is facing a number of lawsuits from victims of “revenge pornâ€, a leading libel lawyer has warned, after a teenager reached a settlement with the social networking site over naked images of her that were posted online.The Belfast-based libel and privacy expert Paul Tweed has also told the Guardian his office was being “deluged†by inquiries from people who claim naked and compromising pictures had been posted on Facebook, Twitter and other sites. Continue reading...
Google’s ‘immediate action’ over AI labelling of black people as gorillas was simply to block the word, along with chimpanzee and monkey, reports suggestAfter Google was criticised in 2015 for an image-recognition algorithm that auto-tagged pictures of black people as “gorillasâ€, the company promised “immediate action†to prevent any repetition of the error.That action was simply to prevent Google Photos from ever labelling any image as a gorilla, chimpanzee, or monkey – even pictures of the primates themselves. Continue reading...
Voice assistants were in everything at the trade show, suggesting the future is smart – but does anyone actually want to talk to their toilet?The annual trend-setting tech extravaganza that is CES International in Las Vegas is drawing to a close, having suffered through torrential rain, blackouts and a few uncooperative robots. And it’s clear that your voice is more important than ever.
The social media site wants its users to ‘have more meaningful interactions’, but what does that mean in practice?The company is altering the algorithm that runs the news feed, which displays a computer-curated selection of posts from other users and Facebook pages. No longer will it prioritise “helping you find relevant contentâ€, says the site’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg. The new goal is to help you “have more meaningful interactionsâ€. Continue reading...
Parents fret about harmful content, but reducing device use to 90 minutes a day would be good for mental healthWe’ve all seen it – teenagers glued to their phones, not even glancing up when their parents talk to them; kids immersed in tablets at airports; young friends around restaurant tables staring at their phones instead of each other.As children and young people spend an increasing amount of time with screens – more than six hours a day according to one US survey – parents have begun to wonder if spending this much time with screens is safe. Continue reading...
Refresh of the News Feed algorithm will de-prioritize content shared by media and businesses in favor of that produced by friends and family, Zuckerberg saysMark Zuckerberg announced a major overhaul of Facebook’s News Feed algorithm that would prioritize “meaningful social interactions†over “relevant content†on Thursday, one week after he pledged to spend 2018 “making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spentâ€.The social media platform will de-prioritize videos, photos, and posts shared by businesses and media outlets, which Zuckerberg dubbed “public contentâ€, in favor of content produced by a user’s friends and family. Continue reading...
Venture capitalist faces legal hurdles by bidding for site, which has been shut down for more than a year following Hulk Hogan lawsuit he bankrolledVenture capitalist Peter Thiel has made an offer for Gawker, hoping to overcome legal hurdles and rival bidders for the site whose collapse the billionaire helped precipitate last year, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.Gawker’s news site has been inactive for more than a year, after it was shut down following a massive lawsuit against it by wrestling star Hulk Hogan, which Thiel bankrolled. In 2007, Gawker revealed Thiel was gay. Continue reading...
System called Ripley was reportedly used at least two dozen times in 2015 and 2016, including once to prevent tax investigators from collecting evidenceUber developed a secret system called Ripley that would lock down staff computers in the event of a police raid, preventing officials from accessing company data.The ride-sharing company used Ripley at least two dozen times in 2015 and 2016 in countries including Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg. Continue reading...
New version of acclaimed dark fantasy adventure coming to Nintendo Switch in MayLandmark action-adventure game Dark Souls is being remastered for Nintendo’s Switch console, the company announced today. The game was shown alongside a number of other new versions of older games for Switch, including cult hit The World Ends With You, Super Nintendo classic Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze and Hyrule Warriors.Dark Souls, an intricate and arcane work of dark fantasy, pits players against a world of demonic creatures, is widely regarded as one of the best video games of all time. Continue reading...
Modified Ford Fusion test car containing four occupants hit by van jumping red light in Pittsburgh, less than mile from startup Argo AI’s headquartersA self-driving test car from Ford-backed startup Argo was involved in an accident on Wednesday that sent two people to hospital.
Ludo wonders if he should keep paying for commercial clean-up program to run in Windows 10. Fortunately there are free alternative suitesDo I still need paid-for software like ParetoLogic’s PC Health Advisor with Windows 10 Pro? Ludo
News follows nation’s clampdown on cryptocurrencies as exchanges are raided over alleged tax evasion and fears of gambling addictionThe value of bitcoin plunged 13.5% in the early hours of Thursday after news hit that South Korea is planning to ban cryptocurrency trading.News of the ban follows the raiding of local cryptocurrency exchanges by police and tax authorities over alleged tax evasion, as one of the key nations driving the demand for bitcoin and other virtual currencies attempts a clampdown. Continue reading...
Logan Paul’s channel, which has over 15.6 million subscribers, will be removed from YouTube’s premium ad lineup as company apologizes for delayed responseYouTube is enacting a series of sanctions against Logan Paul, the popular vlogger who was forced to apologize after he uploaded a video on 31 December showing the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan.Paul’s personal channel, which boasts more than 15.6 million subscribers, will be removed from YouTube’s premium advertisement lineup, Google Preferred, a YouTube spokesperson confirmed. Google Preferred packages YouTube’s most popular channels for blue chip advertisers. Continue reading...
by Ewen MacAskill Defence correspondent on (#3CZ87)
Lack of skilled staff, slowness of institutional change exposes UK and US capabilities, warns Chatham HouseUS, British and other nuclear weapons systems are increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to a new study by the international relations thinktank Chatham House.The threat has received scant attention so far from those involved in nuclear military planning and the procurement of weapons, the report said. Continue reading...
Firms to give evidence in Senate on combating spread of extremist propaganda, while Twitter misses Russian election interference information deadlineTwitter, Facebook and Google are to be hauled in front of the US Congress again, to give testimony to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for extremist content.On 17 January, the three companies are required to give evidence on the steps they are taking to combat the spread of extremist propaganda over the internet, the committee has announced, in a hearing titled “Terrorism and Social Media: Is Big Tech Doing Enough?â€. Continue reading...
‘Corporate income tax adjustment’ made as settlement after multi-year audit by tax authorities into iPhone-maker’s UK operationsApple Europe has agreed to pay more than £100m of extra taxes following an “extensive audit†by HMRC, the firm revealed in accounts filed on Monday.The company said the payment of £137m, including interest on the unpaid tax, was a “corporate income tax adjustment†covering the years until September 2015 that “reflects the company’s increased activityâ€. It also notes that its income tax payments “will increase going forward†as the adjustment is incorporated into future tax bills. Continue reading...
From finicky robots to a not-so-smart suitcase, this year’s Consumer Electronics Show found an industry out of touch with the problems it really needs to solve
Apple now under pressure from both sides of Atlantic over admission it slows phones with older batteries, after French government opened investigationApple is facing questions from the US Senate over its practice of deliberately slowing down iPhones with older batteries, as the firm finds itself under pressure from both sides of the Atlantic.Chair of the Senate commerce committee, Senator John Thune, has written to Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, questioning the company’s handling of iPhone slowdown and consumers. Continue reading...
Ad-tech firm Criteo likely to cut its 2018 revenue by more than a fifth after Apple blocked ‘pervasive’ tracking on web browser SafariInternet advertising firms are losing hundreds of millions of dollars following the introduction of a new privacy feature from Apple that prevents users from being tracked around the web.Advertising technology firm Criteo, one of the largest in the industry, says that the Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) feature for Safari, which holds 15% of the global browser market, is likely to cut its 2018 revenue by more than a fifth compared to projections made before ITP was announced. Continue reading...
Company says it has ‘always looked out for kids’ after open letter from investors said it should do more to tackle children’s overuse of smartphonesApple says that it plans to make parental control tools more robust, following investor calls that it must take action against smartphone addiction in children.Two investors, collectively controlling $2bn (£1.48bn) in Apple stock, called out the company on Monday for not doing enough to help mitigate the growing concerns around the negative effects of smartphones and social media on the young, urging it to “play a defining role†in the health and development of children. Continue reading...
Class-action lawsuit led by fired engineer includes 100 pages of internal documents and claims conservatives are ‘ostracized, belittled, and punished’Google is facing renewed controversy over its alleged intolerance toward conservatives at the company, after a class action lawsuit filed by former engineer James Damore disclosed almost 100 pages of screen shots of internal communications in which employees discuss sensitive political issues.
Open letter highlights growing concern that Silicon Valley is damaging youth and urges new parental controls, child protection committee and release of dataTwo of the largest investors in Apple are urging the iPhone maker to take action against smartphone addiction among children over growing concerns about the effects of technology and social media on the youth.
Increased processor use occurred when company installed patches to fix flaws, leaving players of online battle game Fortnite unable to loginThe first real-world effects of processor vulnerabilities Meltdown and Spectre are beginning to show, due to fixes for the two megabugs which have the side-effect of slowing down cloud services worldwide.Online video game Fortnite is one of the worst hit, with the game’s creators attributing login issues and service instability to a 30 percentage point spike in processor use that occurred when the company installed the patches. Continue reading...
Cryptocurrencies that can make millionaires in minutes are justification enough to get out of bed at 5am to gambleBitcoin envy, the ultramodern malaise. News reports are full of this magic internet money’s rocketing value – currently $16,000 – and Facebook is dotted with people who picked some up at $500, $50 or even 50 cents. But the cryptocurrency ship hasn’t yet sailed. In the volatile market of alternative cryptos, relatively unknown alt-coins such as ripple, litecoin and ethereum regularly shoot up by hundreds of per cent in a matter of weeks, and plummet just as fast. Bitcoin envy has brought in vast sums of new money, dollar-eyed investors taking a Las Vegas gamble on which of the more than 1,000 alt-coins might rocket next. In September the cryptocurrency market cap was $137bn. Today it’s $800bn. It’s a blockchain gold rush.In mid-December a Facebook friend well-versed in crypto tipped Cardano’s ADA, which at 21 cents was just the tip I was after. Little did I know I was riding unarmed into a lawless digital wild west, where fortunes are made and lost on a tweet and every shill, trickster, bot and conman is using all the unregulated tricks in the book to make a fast buck. And this was undoubtedly my first rodeo. Continue reading...
Amazon and Google believe they’ve struck gold with their voice-controlled speakers while Apple and Microsoft struggle to catch upMove over smartphones. The battle now raging between the big technology companies for consumer cash is focused on the voice-controlled smart speaker.Having already conquered the pocket with the ubiquitous smartphone, big tech has been struggling to come up with the next must-have gadget that will open up a potentially lucrative new market – the home. Continue reading...
Plaintiffs claim compensation for security flaws and alleged slowdown that fixing computers will cause, while corporations count cost of correctionsIntel has been hit with at least three class-action lawsuits over the major processor vulnerabilities revealed this week.The flaws, called Meltdown and Spectre, exist within virtually all modern processors and could allow hackers to steal sensitive data although no data breaches have been reported yet. While Spectre affects processors made by a variety of firms, Meltdown appears to primarily affect Intel processors made since 1995. Continue reading...
A series developed with the help of anthropologists and scientists teaches children about the country’s 87 indigenous groups, who speak 71 languagesIn a simple wooden hut on a Caribbean beach, a young girl sits at the feet of her grandmother, who is crocheting a brightly coloured shoulder bag whose intricate design draws on the mythology of the Wayuu people.It’s the opening scene from a smartphone game that seeks to educate Colombian children about their country’s endangered indigenous cultures.
Updates to protect against Meltdown flaw available for supported iPhone, iPad, Mac computers and Apple TV devices, with more protections being developed
CEO reveals this year’s ‘personal challenge’ as site faces relentless criticism over spreading of misinformation and damage to users’ mental healthAmid unceasing criticism of Facebook’s immense power and pernicious impact on society, its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced Thursday that his “personal challenge†for 2018 will be “to focus on fixing these important issuesâ€.Zuckerberg’s new year’s resolution – a tradition for the executive who in previous years has pledged to learn Mandarin, run 365 miles, and read a book each week – is a remarkable acknowledgment of the terrible year Facebook has had. Continue reading...
Tim Gossling says that automation means the old capitalist model is no longer viable; Albert Beale writes that our drive for ‘efficiency’ is creating an increasingly inhumane world; plus letters from Keith Flett, John Wilson and Christine Weaser The Institute for Public Policy Research seems to think it is expounding some new ideas on the dangers of future technology (Poorest to fare worst in age of automation, 28 December), but in fact these ideas are half a century old. Norbert Wiener pointed them out in his book on Cybernetics, written in 1947 and published in 1948. His argument, in paraphrase, was that the first industrial revolution – the coming of steam power in the late 18th century – represented the devaluation of muscle, so that humans only found purpose as controllers of machines, in factories. The second industrial revolution, in the last century through automation and the digital economy, represents the devaluation of the human brain. If you devalue a man’s (or woman’s) muscles and also his brain, what has he got to sell in terms of his labour?The consequence is, as the IPPR points out, a hollowing out of the world of work. We shall still need design engineers, computer programmers and brain surgeons; we shall probably still need people to clean offices, streets and toilets. It is the middle-ranking jobs – the much derided “back-office jobs†– that are going. Does the Guardian still have a typing pool, I wonder? Continue reading...
What are Meltdown and Spectre? Do they only affect Intel chips? Will the fixes slow my computer … and what even is a processor?Meltdown and Spectre are the names of two serious security flaws that have been found within computer processors. They could allow hackers to steal sensitive data without users knowing, one of them affecting chips made as far back as 1995.
Everything from smartphones and PCs to cloud computing affected by major security flaw found in Intel and other processors – and fix could slow devices
Annabelle has been using an Apple iPod Shuffle but the battery is going. Is there a cheap and suitable music player she should replace it with?I am a blind young woman who absolutely loves listening to music. Does anybody out there know of any lightweight, blind-accessible alternatives to the iPod Shuffle? I have a first-generation Shuffle, which I purchased in 2008, and the battery dies after one hour. I want something that can be compatible with iTunes Music, especially .m4a files, that can store lots of music, and most important of all, that has an easy way to replace the battery. Also, I don’t want it to be too spendy, as right this moment, I don’t have hundreds of dollars. AnnabelleApple has discontinued the iPod Shuffle, but there are still lots of them available from other sources. Many are advertised as being brand new and still sealed in their boxes. Your simplest and least disruptive option is to buy a more recent Shuffle, or two, either “as new†or little used. Given that your last Shuffle lasted around nine years, this should also be a reasonably cost-effective option.
Price jumped 130% last year amid growth in use of derivatives products that allow investors to gamble on cryptocurrenciesThe growth in gambling on the yo-yoing value of cryptocurrencies using risky derivatives products has helped boost the profits of the financial spread betting firm Plus500.The London-listed company’s shares rose 130% in value last year and gained nearly another 25% on Wednesday after it said there had been increased interest throughout 2017 in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Continue reading...
The UK boss of insurer Axa lays too much of the responsibility for providing electric car charging infrastructure at National Grid’s door, writes Mike Brown. Plus Nigel Trow says people should still learn to driveAmanda Blanc, Axa’s UK boss, lays too much of the responsibility for providing electric car charging infrastructure at National Grid’s door (Report, 1 January). Electricity privatisation removed National Grid’s obligation to plan provision of adequate generation capacity as the market was seen as a more efficient provider. National Grid is responsible for carrying energy from the generation companies to regional bulk supply points, where most of it is passed on to regional distribution companies’ infrastructure which feeds our homes and businesses.While the Grid will require reinforcement, additional supply points and consequent investment, the impact on the distribution networks is likely to be disproportionate; banks of superchargers will require cabling to industrial amounts of energy while slower and home chargers will add cumulative demands that may require reinforcement work at street level. Grid and distribution charges are moderated by Ofgem but on the basis that necessary capital investment costs are passed on to the customer, so there will be an impact on energy costs. Continue reading...
At last, a film that dares to show the positive side of living in virtual reality. Steven Spielberg’s future shocker, about people using VR to escape hell on Earth, promises to be everything The Matrix wasn’t
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