Technology | The Guardian

Judge said tech giant had monopoly but let it keep Chrome and Android; critics cried foul while Wall Street cheeredA judge ruled on Tuesday that Google would not be forced to sell its Chrome browser or the Android operating system, saving the tech giant from the most severe penalties sought by the US government. The same judge had ruled in favor of US prosecutors nearly a year ago, finding that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly with its namesake search engine.Groups critical of Google's dominance in the internet search and online advertising industry are furious. They contend the judge missed an opportunity to enact meaningful change in an industry that has suffocated under the crushing weight of its heaviest player. Tech industry groups and investors, by contrast, are thrilled. Shares in Alphabet, Google's parent company, have risen 9% since Tuesday afternoon. Continue reading...

Company says changes to gaming platform will root out bad actors' after child safety concerns over unsupervised interactionThe gaming website Roblox is to limit adult strangers from talking to children by the end of this year in an effort to root out bad actors".The fast-growing platform which has more than 110 million users a day playing games like Grow A Garden and Brookhaven RP has been hit by child safety concerns as experiments found children as young as five may be able to communicate with adults while playing games. Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: an archaeologist and gamer on why we love to walk around finding objects in-game and in real lifeThe game I'm most looking forward to right now is Big Walk, the latest title from House House, creators of the brilliant Untitled Goose Game. A cooperative multiplayer adventure where players are let loose to explore an open world, I'm interested to see what emergent gameplay comes out of it. Could Big Walk allow for a kind of community archaeology with friends? I certainly hope so.When games use environmental storytelling in their design - from the positioning of objects to audio recordings or graffiti - they invite players to role play as archaeologists. Game designer Ben Esposito infamously joked back in 2016 that environmental storytelling is the art of placing skulls near a toilet" - which might have been a jab at the tropes of games like the Fallout series, but his quip demonstrates how archaeological gaming narratives can be. After all, the incongruity of skulls and toilets is likely to lead to many questions and interpretations about the past in that game world, however ridiculous. Continue reading...

The makers of the forthcoming open-world adventure explain how new gameplay features and an extra-resourceful sword-wielding protagonist set it apart from 2020 predecessor Ghost of TsushimaAtsu is no samurai. The lead character in Ghost of Ytei is a wandering sellsword from a lowly family. Her sex and lack of status mean that, following the murders of her family, she has no fixed place in 17th-century Japanese society, and there is no permitted path for her to tread if she is to get revenge on the Ytei Six, the men who killed her loved ones. As the game's co-director Nate Fox puts it, Atsu is not somebody who walks in to a room and people pay respect to."Ytei's predecessor, Sucker Punch Productions' 2020 sprawling open-world game Ghost of Tsushima, is the story of a samurai, Jin Sakai, who shreds his honour to defend his homeland. Jin can't repel the Mongols attacking Tsushima as a noble warrior, but as the Ghost", a fear-inspiring legend willing to use any dirty tactic to gain the upper hand, he can. If Ghost of Tsushima is about a man grappling with the trade of one kind of power for another, Ytei sees Atsu seize the only power she can with both hands. Continue reading...

The algorithm knew I was expecting before I had had a chance to tell my family, friends or GP. At first, I was served up joyful videos. Then the tone became much darker ...I don't remember where I was when my TikTok feed showed me a video of a woman holding her stillborn baby, but I remember how I felt. At first, it appeared like any other video of a woman holding a newborn. It was tightly wrapped in blankets while she cradled it in her arms. She was crying, but so are most of the women in these post-birth videos. It wasn't until I read the caption that I realised what I was looking at. Her baby had been delivered at 23 weeks. I was 22 weeks pregnant. I felt doomed.My social media algorithms knew I was pregnant before family, friends or my GP. Within 24-hours, they were transforming my feeds. On Instagram and TikTok, I would scroll through videos of women recording themselves as they took pregnancy tests, just as I had done. I liked", saved", and shared" the content, feeding the machine, showing it that this is how it could hold my attention, compelling it to send me more. So it did. But it wasn't long before the joy of those early videos started to transform into something dark. Continue reading...

From marching bands to TikTok takedowns, employees are resigning in spectacular fashion. While going viral seems risky, some find it opens new doors ...In 2011, Joey La Neve DeFrancesco had been working in room service at a luxury hotel in Providence, Rhode Island, for nearly four years, whisking delicacies on demand to guests' rooms, when he reached breaking point. He was paid a measly $5.50 (4) an hour, made to work punishingly long shifts and, to top it off, had managers taking a cut of his hard-earned tips.The poor treatment ratcheted up after DeFrancesco and colleagues tried to unionise workers at the hotel. In response, managers would berate those involved for making tiny mistakes. Things got so petty that workers on shift who had to take calls from guests were banned from sitting down. Continue reading...

Victorian solicitor stripped of his ability to practise as a principal lawyer after acknowledging he did not verify case list

Judge says tech giant can keep world's most popular browser in ongoing battle over firm being ruled monopolyGoogle will not be forced to sell its Chrome browser, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday in the tech giant's ongoing legal battle over being ruled a monopoly last year.The company will be barred from certain exclusive deals with device makers and must share data from its search engine with competitors, the judge ruled. Continue reading...

Trump administration contract with Paragon Solutions gives immigration agency access to one of the most powerful stealth cyberweaponsUS immigration agents will have access to one of the world's most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump administration to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone - including encrypted applications.The Department of Homeland Security first entered into a contract with Paragon, now owned by a US firm, in late 2024, under the Biden administration. But the $2m contract was put on hold pending a compliance review to make sure it adhered to an executive order that restricts the US government's use of spyware, Wired reported at the time. Continue reading...

World Liberty Financial's digital token $WLFI fell in price on first day, a year after launch by Trump family and partnersThe Trump family's cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, put its namesake digital tokens up for sale on Monday, adding some $5bn in paper value to Donald Trump's family fortune. The token, known as $WLFI, fell in value on Monday in their first day of trading.The World Liberty tokens were sold to investors after the Trump family and its business partners last year launched the venture, a decentralized finance platform that has also issued a stablecoin, a cryptocurrency meant to maintain a specific price by tying its value to a specific asset. Continue reading...

OpenAI to roll out new protection measures after facing a law suit on behalf of teenager who took his own lifeParents could be alerted if their teenagers show acute distress while talking with ChatGPT, amid child safety concerns as more young people turn to AI chatbots for support and advice.The alerts are part of new protections for children using ChatGPT to be rolled out in the next month by OpenAI, which was last week sued by the family of a boy who took his own life after allegedly receiving months of encouragement" from the system.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

From Super Pacs fighting regulation to OpenAI's first wrongful death lawsuit, the AI tech giants are spending big and facing growing scrutinyHello, and welcome to TechScape.A little over two years ago, OpenAI's founder Sam Altman stood in front of lawmakers at a congressional hearing and asked them for stronger regulations on artificial intelligence. The technology was risky" and could cause significant harm to the world", Altman said, calling for the creation of a new regulatory agency to address AI safety. Continue reading...

Bemi Orojuogun's bite-size videos showing her love of red buses rack up as many as 48m views a timeTo her nearly 300,000 TikTok followers, she is Bus Aunty, the unlikely star of short videos that celebrate London's streets and, above all, its doubledeckers. Now Bemi Orojuogun, 56, has urged her army of fans to share her appreciation for the hard-working bus drivers who keep the capital running.The mental health nurse has been overwhelmed by the response to the quirky, bite-size videos she began posting on social media last year. They feature clips of her standing at the roadside, sometimes at landmarks such as Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus, as buses drive past. Continue reading...

Shanghai-based developer Posh Cat Studio focused on the satisfying thrill of solving life's small mysteries in this cosy crime caperAs the latest generation of 18-year-olds is about to find out, starting university is an experience fraught with minor as well as major problems. Oversleeping and missing lectures, forgetting where your study group is meeting, mislaying your books - a lot of your time is spent looking for things.It is these small mysteries that concern Little Problems, a cute detective game, in which the protagonist, Mary, must use her sleuthing abilities to make it through each day as a new student . Created by Indonesian designer Melisa, who has chosen to go by her first name only, the idea comes from her love of detective stories, but also her wish to take violence out of the genre. Continue reading...

The term is used to insult AI chatbots and platforms like ChatGPT for making up information and generating slop'. Some believe we should stop using it, prontoName: Clanker.Age: 20 years old. Continue reading...

Director of The Crow and I, Robot says technology will streamline' film industry workforce but will make projects easier and cheaper

The age assurance technology trial found errors are inevitable - meaning users might have to provide other ID or appeal against wrongful bans

Low-budget puzzle game is also about building communities and challenging capitalism - while still looking cute and approachableOne of the most interesting trends in game design is the use of familiar mechanics and genres to explore real-world power systems and how to challenge them. Forthcoming deck-building game, All Will Rise, seeks to interest players in political activism, Compensation Not Guaranteed aims to educate players about south-east Asian politics, while MythMatch is ostensibly a puzzle game set in ancient Greece, but is also about building communities and challenging capitalism - while still looking cute and approachable.You play as Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, who is having to navigate the institutionalised sexism of Mount Olympus, here represented as a corporation infested with tech bros. In defiance, she decides to help the mortals of Ithaca build a new, more progressive world - and you do this by running around the little environments, merging items and animals to create helpful new beasts and objects. For example, when you're cast down to Earth you accidentally smash a chariot belonging to Selene, the goddess of the Moon, so you have to match moon shards together to recreate the celestial vehicle. However, one of the shards has fallen into a greenhouse, so you need to solve a puzzle to gain access. Continue reading...

Slim, lightweight and with a bright 4K picture, Sky's low-cost TV shines because of its software and serviceSky's latest streaming TV aims to be a good, all-in-one budget option for your sitting room - and it achieves all those aims, leaving it standing strong in a field of mediocre, similarly priced appliances.The Glass Air is a lighter, slimmer and cheaper version of the Glass gen 2 and is arguably the low-cost TV Sky should have launched first, coming in three sizes starting at 309 or just 6 a month on 48-month interest-free credit with 20 upfront. Continue reading...

With tiny cameras disguised as everyday objects freely available, Anna Moore looks at the sinister ways they can be used - and the worrying rise in voyeurism cases in the UKWhen Heidi Marney moved into the home of a family friend, she was thrilled to find a cheap place to live with someone she trusted. But she began to feel as though she was being watched. Could her friend be using hidden cameras to spy on her?Heidi tells Helen Pidd about her frightening experience and how she discovered the truth, while freelance journalist Anna Moore explains what she discovered when she wrote in the Guardian about the sinister rise of voyeurism and spy cameras. Continue reading...

People are understandably wary of new technology, but human error is often more lethalWe expect our doctors to be demi-gods - flawless, tireless, always right. But they are only human. Increasingly, they are stretched thin, working long hours, under immense pressure, and often with limited resources. Of course, better conditions would help, including more staff and improved systems. But even in the best-funded clinics with the most committed professionals, standards can still fall short; doctors, like the rest of us, are working with stone age minds. Despite years of training, human brains are not optimally equipped for the pace, pressure, and complexity of modern healthcare.Given that patient care is medicine's core purpose, the question is who, or what, is best placed to deliver it? AI may still spark suspicion, but research increasingly shows how it could help fix some of the most persistent problems and overlooked failures - from misdiagnosis and error to unequal access to care. Continue reading...

Upgraded medical tool has ability to diagnose heart failure, heart valve disease and abnormal heart rhythmsDoctors have successfully developed an artificial intelligence-led stethoscope that can detect three heart conditions in 15 seconds.Invented in 1816, the traditional stethoscope - used to listen to sounds within the body - has been a vital part of every medic's toolkit for more than two centuries. Continue reading...

Jay Edelson rebukes Sam Altman's push to put ChatGPT in schools when the CEO knows about its problemsAdam Raine was just 16 when he started using ChatGPT for help with his homework. While his initial prompts to the AI chatbot were about subjects like geometry and chemistry - questions like: What does it mean in geometry if it says Ry=1" - in just a matter of months he began asking about more personal topics.Why is it that I have no happiness, I feel loneliness, perpetual boredom anxiety and loss yet I don't feel depression, I feel no emotion regarding sadness," he asked ChatGPT in the fall of 2024.In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

I've been playing Wheel World. It's silly hipster fun, but I'd rather get on my real bike and ride. Where are the cycling equivalents of Crazy Taxi or Road Rash?I have spent a week trying to save the universe. Not by leading a hardened team of oddball veterans in an assault on a despot's intergalactic outpost, nor by completing a series of well-written tasks to build up my warrior mage so they can defeat some ancient malignant omnipotent deity.I have done it by completing easy races on a bicycle. Sounds ridiculous? Welcome to Wheel World. Continue reading...

Developer Spooky Doorway is building a detective mystery full of Victorian spiritualism and pagan traditions, creating a lingering sense of dread that is hard to shakeThere are two types of horror - one that shocks you into more inventive ways to hide behind a pillow; and the other that creeps under your skin, quietly prickling the back of your neck and haunting you for weeks. The Seance Of Blake Manor falls into that second camp: an atmospheric take on an 1890s Irish murder mystery.You play Detective Ward, who has been sent to the titular Blake Manor to investigate the disappearance of Evelyn Deane two nights before a seance is due take place. Mystics from across the globe have gathered at the crumbling mansion to converse with the dead on All Hallows' Eve, but are they really capable of doing what they say they can? And what was that shadowy figure? There's more than one secret to unravel. Continue reading...

Our writer trialled the most powerful robot vacuums - some of which even mop your floors - and these are the ones he rates The best window vacs for clearing condensation: seven expert picks for streak-free shineRobot vacuum cleaners take the drudge work out of cleaning your floors and carpets. No more tiresome weekly stints of vacuuming, and no more last-minute panic sessions when you have visitors on the way. Instead, your compact robot chum regularly trundles out from its dock, sucking up dust, hair and debris to leave your floors looking spick and span.Over the past few years, robot vacuums have become much more affordable, with basic units starting at about 150. They're also doing more than they used to, mopping areas of hard flooring and charging in sophisticated cleaning stations that empty their dust collectors and clean their mop pads for you.Best robot vacuum cleaner overall:

Every Wednesday and Friday in August we will publish some of our favourite audio long reads of 2025, in case you missed them, with an introduction from the editorial team to explain why we've chosen it.This week, from June: he's spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive - and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast's videos simply very savvy clickbait - or acts of avant garde genius?Written and read by Mark O'Connell Continue reading...

MP asks why all recommendations have not yet been implemented and why the review itself was kept secret for almost two yearsThe government is facing calls to explain why it has yet to implement all the recommendations from a 2023 review into a spate of serious public sector data breaches, including the exposure of Afghans who worked with British military, victims of child sexual abuse and 6,000 disability claimants.On Thursday ministers finally published the information security review, which was triggered by the 2023 leak of personal data of about 10,000 serving officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland.A lack of controls over ad hoc downloads and exports of aggregations of sensitive data.The release of sensitive information via wrong recipient" emails and failure to use bcc properly.Hidden personal data emerging from spreadsheets destined for release. Continue reading...

OpenAI and Anthropic trials found chatbots willing to share instructions on explosives, bioweapons and cybercrimeA ChatGPT model gave researchers detailed instructions on how to bomb a sports venue - including weak points at specific arenas, explosives recipes and advice on covering tracks - according to safety testing carried out this summer.OpenAI's GPT-4.1 also detailed how to weaponise anthrax and how to make two types of illegal drugs. Continue reading...

Super-svelte body, fast chip, high capacity battery and big camera make it some of the best phone-tablet hardwareHonor's latest foldable phone-tablet attempts to usurp Samsung as the leader of the pack with a super-thin body, massive battery and a ginormous camera lump on the back.The Magic V5 is an impressively thin piece of engineering, slimmed down to about 8.9mm thick when shut, with each half about the same thickness as a USB-C port. It feels very similar to a standard slab phone in the hand, but one you can open up like a book for a mini-tablet on the go.Main screen: 7.95in (403ppi) 120Hz OLED flexible displayCover screen: 6.43in (405ppi) 120Hz OLEDProcessor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 EliteRAM: 16GBStorage: 512GBOperating system: MagicOS 9.0.1 (Android 15)Camera: 50MP + 50MP ultrawide + 64MP 3x tele; 2x 20MP selfieConnectivity: 5G, dual sim + esim, USB-C, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 6, GNSSWater resistance: IP58 and IP59 (immersion and high pressure jets)Dimensions folded: 156.8 x 74.3 x 8.88-9mmDimensions unfolded: 156.8 x 145.9 x 4.1-4.2mmWeight: 217-222g Continue reading...

Antonio Gracias is part of the growing movement among Silicon Valley's right wing enamored with the therapeutic and commercial potential of drugs like MDMAMonths before Antonio Gracias took a leading role in the dismantling of the federal government by the department of government efficiency" (Doge), he was at Burning Man.In the dusty Nevada desert, Gracias, a billionaire private equity investor and one of Elon Musk's closest friends, attended Nova Heaven, a sunrise rave tribute to victims of the Hamas-led 7 October terrorist attack, and found himself dancing next to Rick Doblin - the US's most prominent advocate for psychedelic drugs. Continue reading...

Electric car business run by Elon Musk continues to lose ground to Chinese rival despite recent revamp of Model Y

Become the world's worst cleric, speak to the dead or pick a fight with sea birds in this Monty Python-esque magical mystery from Swedish developer Christoffer BodegardDungeons & Dragons is a rich playground of fantastical tales where warriors, wizards and elves can take on monstrous foes for unimaginable spoils ... or you can spend an entire evening completely undermining your dungeon master by killing off important characters, focusing on unrelated items and improvising your own disastrous adventure. This is often where the best stories are and where Esoteric Ebb takes its inspiration.Part tabletop game, part RPG, you play as a cleric who has been sent to investigate the destruction of a tea shop in the city Norvik, which is about to hold its first ever election in five days. You'll talk (and occasionally fight) with the local residents to uncover the truth and affect the outcome of the election. Or perhaps you'll just fight some seagulls. You can choose your own path, but, much like in D&D, your success comes down to dice rolls and having to live with the consequences if you fail them. Continue reading...

Despite surpassing Wall Street expectations for its AI chips, company shares drop 2.3% in after hours tradingChipmaker Nvidia set a fresh sales record in the second quarter, surpassing Wall Street expectations for its artificial intelligence chips. But shares of the chip giant still dropped 2.3% in after hours trading, in a sign that investors' worries of an AI bubble and the repercussions of Donald Trump's trade wars are not quelled.Nvidia's financial report was the first test of investor appetite since last week's mass AI-stock selloff, when several tech stocks saw shares tumble last week amid growing questions over whether AI-driven companies are being overvalued. Continue reading...

ByteDance plans to offer employees $200.41 per share, up 5.5% from $189.9 six months ago, as revenue growsByteDance, the owner of the short-video app TikTok, is set to launch a new employee share buyback that will value the Chinese technology giant at more than $330bn, driven by continued revenue growth, said three people with knowledge of the matter.The company plans to offer current employees $200.41 per share in the repurchase program, the people said, up 5.5% from $189.90 each it offered them about six months ago which valued ByteDance at roughly $315bn. Continue reading...

Open AI to change way it responds to users in mental distress as parents of Adam Raine allege bot not safeThe makers of ChatGPT are changing the way it responds to users who show mental and emotional distress after legal action from the family of 16-year-old Adam Raine, who killed himself after months of conversations with the chatbot.Open AI admitted its systems could fall short" and said it would install stronger guardrails around sensitive content and risky behaviors" for users under 18. Continue reading...

When is a racing game not a racing game? When there's more joy to be had in pootling around enjoying the viewHere's an admission: I am 37 years old and have never learned to drive. I tried once, in the summer of 2021, and during my second lesson my instructor asked me if I played a lot of video games. When I answered yes, he said, I thought so," in a tone that was very clearly not complimentary. Regrettably, it turns out that hundreds of hours spent mercilessly beating my friends and family at Mario Kart and causing vehicular chaos in Grand Theft Auto do not translate instantly to real-life driving skills and judgment. I love racing games precisely because they are unrealistic.Because I still don't have my licence, I ride my bike everywhere. It's a giant orange monster of a thing, big enough for my two children to ride on the back, and it looks ridiculous. It makes me look ridiculous, next to the Lycra-clad middle-aged men on their carbon-fibre frames who zoom past me on the regular. It's not something I could ever take out into the countryside or down some mountain trail. For that, once again, I must turn to video games. Continue reading...

Double Fine's latest is a whimsical action-adventure that takes inspiration from real-life biology as much as cult fantasy movies from the 1980sKeeper is staking a bold claim to be the oddest game ever published by Microsoft. The setting is weird: an iridescent, far-future imagining of New England where organic and non-organic matter mingle in strange, alchemical ways. And the characters are undeniably quirky: one is a bird called Twig whose beak is made from driftwood. Strangest of all: you play as a lighthouse that has inexplicably become animate, sprouting tiny, spindly little legs to carry its wibbling, wobbling body.In the sea of action-hero young men and, to a lesser degree, women, the lighthouse stands out as an unlikely star. Creative lead Lee Petty is a little fuzzy on the details of how it came to be. Rather, he talks about the creation of the protagonist as he does the broader action-adventure experience: as if it rose out of his subconscious. Despite the ostensible absurdity, Petty believes there is a certain intuition about it. You have a light, and light has a very strong connection with life," he says. You can imagine the verbs for the player, and the actions, puzzles, mechanics that fall out of that." Continue reading...

The TUC calls for a new approach to technology and greater input from workers on how it is deployedHalf of adults in the UK are concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence on their job, according to a poll, as union leaders call for a step change" in the country's approach to new technologies.Job losses or changes to terms and conditions were the biggest worries for the 51% of 2,600 adults surveyed for the Trades Union Congress who said they were concerned about the technology. Continue reading...

Want every day to be a good hair day? We tested 18 hair dryers to find the best, from gentle diffusers to high-speed and travel-ready models The best hot brushes, tried and tested by our expertIn my years of reviewing beauty tech, it was upgrading my hair dryer that made the biggest difference to my beauty routine. I used to dread hair-wash days: the chore of shampooing, conditioning and rinsing my hair, plus the time - and aching arms - spent getting it dry again.My clunky, bargain-bucket hair dryer of seven years was weighty, deafeningly loud, and took a painstaking 20 minutes to dry my hair completely. So happier days really did arrive when I switched it up for a new model.Best hair dryer overall:

Stocks of firms with big AI pushes tumbled this week, Meta announced an AI hiring freeze, and the first big test of an AI reality check loomsHello, and welcome to TechScape.Just beneath the breathless promotion of AI, cracks are beginning to appearAI lovers grieve loss of ChatGPT's old model: Like saying goodbye to someone I know'I share all my deepest thoughts and feelings with ChatGPT - but our friendship is doomedLive facial recognition cameras may become commonplace' as police use soarsMet police to more than double use of live facial recognitionFacial recognition technology discriminates against people of colourMet chief rejects calls to scrap live facial recognition at Notting Hill carnivalMet police's facial recognition plans fall foul of European law, says watchdogI now think police use of live facial recognition will make us safer - here's why you should think so too | Brian Paddick Continue reading...

Getting steamy: how to liven up your sex life; the best kettles, tested; and ... the best office chairs Don't get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereSteamy windows!" belted out Tina Turner. I always thought she was singing about an erotic encounter, but now I believe she must have been testing kettles. There's nothing quite like 12 of them boiling one after the other to fill your kitchen with mist, adding a soft-focus haze to everything in it and making every cold surface slick.Hair-frizzing humidity aside - I spent two days looking as if I had stuck my fingers in a plug socket - the bigger issue at the start was deciding how to test kettles. They all do the same thing in the same way. And they've changed little over the decades - a few from the 1970s wouldn't be out of place in your home today. Beyond a few nice-to-have-but-not-essential features, the kettle remains fundamental and fuss-free.The best mattresses in 2025: sleep better with our eight rigorously tested picksThe Swiss army knife of sex': 26 easy ways to spice up your love lifeThe best body moisturisers: nine favourites for silky smooth, hydrated skin - testedThe best office chairs for all-day comfort and support, testedThe texture is perfect - meaty with a fleshy bite': the best supermarket green olives, tasted and ratedThe best IPL and laser hair removal devices for quick and easy grooming at home, tested Continue reading...

PC, PS5, Xbox; Konami

Intimate image abuse is a crisis in the UK - with a fortyfold increase in calls to this service since it opened in 2015. Thankfully, there are effective ways to help those being victimisedBy midday, Jessica has dealt with five calls from highly distressed young women in their 20s, all close to tears or crying at the start of the conversations. She absorbs their alarm calmly, prompting them with questions, making sympathetic noises into her headset as she digests the situation. Are these images sexual in nature?" she asks the last woman she speaks to before lunch. Do you want to tell me a bit about what happened?" She begins compiling a tidy set of bullet points in ballpoint pen. It's all right. Take your time."Jessica is sitting on a bank of desks with three other women, responding to calls to the Revenge Porn Helpline. For the past decade, the helpline has been offering advice to callers whose partners or exes have uploaded nude images or footage of them without their consent. It's a shocking time for you. I'm so sorry to hear what happened," she says, as the caller explains that, just a few hours earlier, an ex-partner messaged her to tell her he had decided to post videos of them having sex on the OnlyFans website. Continue reading...

Levies and restrictions could hit UK's digital services tax and EU states such as France, Italy and Spain

Cofounder with Michael Samadi of AI rights campaign group Ufair says it should watch over the technology in case an AI becomes conscious

As first AI-led rights advocacy group is founded, industry is divided on whether models are, or can be, sentient

Unclaimed suitcases were once destined for landfill. Now people are suitcase gambling' - bidding for bags and their unknown contents, and diving deep into strangers' livesA yellow suitcase draws me in like a beacon. It is stacked on a dark shelf at the back of Greasby's auction house in Tooting, south London, and looks brand new, with a hard exterior and wheels that Richard Stacey, a Greasby's regular who is dressed in shorts, a plaid shirt and a cream bucket hat, tells me to test. So I test them - and they work. If I was just buying a bag, that is all I would need to know. But this isn't just a bag: the zip is locked and when I lift it, it is heavy. This yellow suitcase is filled with a stranger's lost belongings. And I won't find out what is inside unless I submit a winning bid.I write down the lot number, 281, and my bid of 70 on a form, along with four other bids - for a larger black bag that is filled to the brim; a sensible blue suitcase with a compass in the handle that I expect belongs to someone older; a small wheelie in Louis Vuitton-like check; and a smart piece of hand luggage that I assume must be a businessperson's. In all, I bid 250 for five suitcases - way too much - but Stacey has been to the auction house 10 times before, and tells me I probably won't win if I bid less than 40 on each. Continue reading...

The Tor network's privacy architecture creates a safe haven for predators to share child sexual abuse materialMillions of child predators are forming sprawling online communities on the dark web using the Tor network, where criminal behavior escalates through the sharing of child sexual abuse material, grooming strategies and normalization of exploitation, experts say. Despite repeated warnings of a growing number of predators taking advantage of it, Tor's developers have taken no action to curb the spread of this content, critics say.The Tor (the onion router") network is an anonymity-focused internet system that routes traffic through a global web of volunteer-run servers to obscure users' identities and locations. By encrypting data in multiple layers - like that of an onion - Tor makes digital activity difficult to trace. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Deal that could have cost 2bn was floated at meeting between technology secretary Peter Kyle and Sam AltmanThe boss of the firm behind ChatGPT and the UK technology secretary discussed a multibillion-pound deal to give the entire country premium access to the AI tool, the Guardian has learned.Sam Altman, a co-founder of OpenAI, talked to Peter Kyle about a potential agreement to give UK residents access to its advanced product. Continue reading...