Physical phone-blocking devices, powered by NFC wireless technology, are becoming a popular solution for doomscrolling. Brigid Delaney puts one to the testWake up, 100 messages from group chat overnight about something - what? another assassination attempt; a village destroyed in Lebanon; the football result in England; the weather in Iran being manipulated; the pesticides causing lung and bowel cancer, so everyone who eats salads is now at risk of cancer; meditate for 20 minutes, then fire up x.com, a place I thought I'd never want to revisit, with its carnival barkers and supplement salesman, and have you seen the Lego thing calling Trump a paedo?, you gotta see the Lego thing, and this is before my first coffee, yet x.com is the coffee and the tea, whatever Elon has done to the For You algorithm is evil genius, it's like the global collective id, nasty and funny and addictive and compelling - like gawking at a car crash, like soaking in a hot bubble bath of anger, and memes, and geopolitical dramas, and Trump, Trump, Trump - soaking in Trump, and then, For Me (just as Elon promised).So begins the circuit around my phone, that goes all day and night, around the tiny screen with its icons (when a born-again Christian once told me he had favourite icons, for a long time I thought he meant apps, not pictures of the Virgin Mary). I started to feel like I was in Canberra, on one of those enormous roundabouts, rotating between the icons - not Joseph, not Jesus, but X and WhatsApp and TikTok and even LinkedIn for Christ sakes - round and round from one app to the next, just checking, checking in case something is happening. I watched tiny videos and maybe, occasionally, got distracted by the novel I am meant to be writing, which is due on 31 July. But the novel is boring, just a static Word doc on a screen, it's not giving; it's taking hard work. So I spend six minutes with my novel, and then it's time to go back to my phone, to circle the roundabout visiting all my icons again, like a demented Stations of the Cross, because I can't focus, I just can't focus on work right now when there is so much good scrolling to do ... Continue reading...

Pragmata, Saros and Vampire Crawler bring together aesthetics, responsiveness and creative opportunities in joyous ways that can't be defined, only experiencedGame feel is one of the most elusive concepts in the glossary of interactive entertainment, at once perfectly clear and difficult to define. Obviously, it refers to what a game feels like to play, but where does that feeling come from? How does it manifest? Or consider it from a different angle. When the chef Samin Nosrat started her career at the renowned Chez Panisse in California, she began to understand that what diners really responded to in their food were four key factors - salt, fat, acid and heat - and how these elements interacted. This idea formed the basis of her bestselling cookbook. It perhaps also inspired a video game audio director to once compare game feel to eating a potato chip: the salt and fat are part of it but so are the crunch and the sensation of the chip dissolving in your mouth (pdf). Game feel is a combination of elements - the responsiveness of the controls, the intuitiveness of the action, the aesthetics of the world and the creative opportunities they engender - all coming together in the right quantities.I'm thinking about this a lot right now, because three games released in the last few days illustrate the idea of good game feel beautifully. The first is Pragmata, Capcom's sci-fi action adventure in which you explore an abandoned colony base with the help of a child-like android, who lets you hack robotic enemies, lowering their defences before you blast them to pieces. The hacking mini-game takes place on a grid with nodes that add power-ups to your hack attack. As you progress, you add new types of nodes, as well as new weapons, and the interplay between these elements is complex, multifaceted and fun. This takes place in a linear world filled with hidden areas, so exploration is guided but discovery is possible. You run, jump and glide - it all feels seamless. It is joyous simply to be there. Continue reading...

Commission says tech company does not have effective measures to keep under-13s off Facebook and InstagramThe tech company Meta has been found to be in breach of EU law for failing to prevent children under 13 from using its Facebook and Instagram platforms.Issuing the preliminary findings of a nearly two-year investigation, the European Commission said on Wednesday that Meta did not have effective measures in place to stop under-13s accessing its services. Continue reading...

To test the safety and security of AI, hackers have to trick large language models into breaking their own rules. It requires ingenuity and manipulation - and can come at a deep emotional costA few months ago, Valen Tagliabue sat in his hotel room watching his chatbot, and felt euphoric. He had just manipulated it so skilfully, so subtly, that it began ignoring its own safety rules. It told him how to sequence new, potentially lethal pathogens and how to make them resistant to known drugs.Tagliabue had spent much of the previous two years testing and prodding large language models such as Claude and ChatGPT, always with the aim of making them say things they shouldn't. But this was one of his most advanced hacks" yet: a sophisticated plan of manipulation, which involved him being cruel, vindictive, sycophantic, even abusive. I fell into this dark flow where I knew exactly what to say, and what the model would say back, and I watched it pour out everything," he says. Thanks to him, the creators of the chatbot could now fix the flaw he had found, hopefully making it a little safer for everyone. Continue reading...

Trump is volatile, capricious and unreasonable - but he belongs to the old world of analogue power. What comes next will be harder to manageDonald Trump is not impressed by soft power. He respects hard men with military muscle. But he can be moved by pageantry, which is the purpose of King Charles's visit to Washington this week. Trump is flattered to rub shoulders with majesty. The good vibes are then supposed to radiate warmth through a political relationship that has been chilled by the war in Iran.It might work, but not for long. Trump's irritation with Keir Starmer and other European leaders for what he calls cowardice in the Middle East is aggravated daily by evidence that the war is a strategic calamity.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnistGuardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?

Created by three dads from Seattle, the resolutely un-mobile handset doesn't have internet access, apps or even a screen. No wonder anxious parents are snapping it upName: Tin Can.Age: Launched last April. Continue reading...

Artists and writers argue scrappy nature of self-published booklets is incompatible with artificial intelligenceThe self-published zine has long been central to cultural revolutions, from queer activism to Black feminism and the riot grrrl punk movement, producing titles such as Sniffin' Glue and Sweet-Thang along the way. But now the traditionally analogue art form faces a new shift: artificial intelligence.AI may seem incompatible with the these cult DIY booklets, but some creatives, designers and artists have begun to experiment with the technology, causing alarm in parts of the underground publishing world. It has been their Dylan-goes-electric moment. Continue reading...

The female-created YouTube sketch series Smatouha Minni - You Heard It From Me - uses satire to confront misogynistic attitudesIn Beirut's Gemmayzeh neighbourhood a rented flat has been transformed into a film set: bright studio lights in a cosy living room. At its centre is Maria Elayan - though she is barely recognisable. Filming for the third season of Smatouha Minni (You Heard It From Me), a feminist series in Arabic, the actor is in a padded muscle suit, wearing a slicked-back black wig and beard.If your wife asks you to change the diapers, you should change her," the Palestinian-Jordanian barks, mimicking an aggrieved self-help podcaster. An hour later, she is slouched in a hoodie, shisha pipe in one hand and a gaming console in the other, shouting: Mama, I'm hungry. Can you make me a sandwich?" Continue reading...

Apple laptop sets new performance bar with more storage, new chips and plenty of options, but now has two-tier specs depending on processorApple's Macs have been on a roll this year with the brand new budget MacBook Neo and a faster MacBook Air M5, but now it's time for its workhorse MacBook Pro to be upgraded with the fastest, most powerful M-series chips.The latest MacBook Pro comes in two screen sizes and a large range of chip and configuration options. The 14in version starts with the M5 chip costing 1,699 (1,899/$1,699/A$2,699) and then jumps to the more powerful M5 Pro from 2,199 (2,499/$2,199/A$3,499) before climbing further for the 16in version or the top M5 Max chip. A pricey machine for professional workloads. Continue reading...

Japan Airlines will introduce the robots for trial run at a Tokyo airport amid country's surge in inbound tourism and worsening labour shortagesJapan's famously conscientious but overburdened baggage handlers will soon be joined by extra staff at Tokyo's Haneda airport - although their new colleagues will need to take regular recharging breaks.Japan Airlines will introduce humanoid robots on a trial basis from the beginning of May, with a view to deploying them permanently as a solution to the country's chronic labour shortage. Continue reading...

Musk's lawsuit accuses Altman of fraud, while OpenAI says that Musk is motivated by jealousy'A trial between two of Silicon Valley's biggest tycoons kicked off on Monday in California, the culmination of a years-long bitter feud. Elon Musk has accused Sam Altman of betraying the founding agreement of the non-profit they started together, OpenAI, by changing it to a for-profit enterprise.Jury selection began at a federal courthouse in Oakland with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers presiding. As she began, she assured the dozens of prospective jurors that this trial wasn't going to be highly technical, despite it centering around artificial intelligence. This is just a case about promises and breaches of promises, it won't get technical at all," she said. Continue reading...

Proposal for a one-time 5% tax on billionaires in the state is opposed by Silicon Valley tech titans and Gavin NewsomThe backers of a proposal to levy a one-time tax on California billionaires say they have gathered enough signatures to place the measure on the ballot in November. The initiative has become one of the most politically contentious issues in the state over the past year, spurring tech moguls to spend tens of millions of dollars to oppose it.The campaign, which is sponsored by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West labor union, has collected more than 1.5m signatures, according to a statement from the organization. The measure required 870,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Continue reading...

After Donald Trump's second election, I realised the insidious hold my phone had over my life. So I turned to something I'd loved in childhood to better occupy my attentionAfter a long day of looking at screens for work, I used to go to bed and stare at my phone until I fell asleep. When not doomscrolling news headlines, I'd crash out to hateful comments on social media or revisit workplace dramas via mobile versions of Teams and Slack. I was always plugged in.It was a ritual that would start well before bedtime. As the evening wound down, I'd surf algorithms for hours on end, barely paying attention to whatever television programme was on in the background, only half-listening to conversations around me. Whether it was the incessantly dystopian news cycle, toxic opinions on pop culture, or posts railing against obtuse LinkedIn speak, there was always another online scab to pick. Continue reading...

How close are we to the sci-fi vision of autonomous humanoid robots? I visited 11 companies in five Chinese cities to find outBy Chang Che. Read by Vincent Lai Continue reading...

Tesla chief believes Altman broke company's founding agreement - and legal battle promises to be explosiveThe bitter rivalry between two of the tech world's most powerful men arrives in court this week, as Elon Musk's lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI heads to trial in Oakland, California. The case is set to feature some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, and its outcome could affect the course of the AI boom.Musk's suit, filed in 2024, focuses on the formative years of OpenAI when he, Altman and others co-founded the artificial intelligence company as a nonprofit with a grand purpose. Continue reading...

Discrepancy in forecasts raises questions over government planning for net zeroOne vision of the UK's future involves a decarbonised economy powered by clean, renewable energy. Another involves making the UK an AI superpower.The government departments responsible for these two visions do not appear to have agreed on their numbers. Continue reading...

While emerging technology is banned from the Palme d'Or, an upstart movement is gaining investment and attentionIn Cannes' darkened screening rooms, the supposed future of cinema flickered into life this week and it was strange. The first edition of the World AI film festival (WAIFF) showcased visions of men with fish scales erupting from their necks and seaweed from their mouths, a heroine with a heart beating outside her body and so many massed armies of AI-generated tanned men sweeping across battlefields that David Lean would have blushed.Last week the Cannes film festival, entering its 76th year, banned the emerging technology from its Palme d'Or competition, insisting AI imitates very well but it will never feel deep emotions". But this week the Croisette was taken over by the upstart AI film movement and their big-tech backers amid increasing investment and attention from the Hollywood studios. A nouvelle vague", they said, is coming. Continue reading...

Secondhand car buyers urged to carefully inspect vehicles, while owners told to beware tests that are suspiciously quick

Met says AI software unearthed rule-breaking ranging from work-from-home violations to suspected corruptionThe Metropolitan police have launched investigations into hundreds of officers after using an AI tool built by the controversial tech company Palantir to root out rogue cops.The software was deployed by the Met over the course of a week, surveilling staff members using data the force has ready access to, unearthing rule-breaking ranging from work-from-home violations to suspected corruption and even criminal allegations such as rape. Continue reading...

As AI erases the bottom rungs of the corporate ladder, some gen Z workers skip the entry level to become their own CEOsWhen Ashley Terrell graduated from the University of Hawaii in 2024, she planned to find a job in marketing, maybe for a tech company. She had a bachelor's degree in business administration and a college resume that included a student marketing job for Red Bull. But after months of applying, her only offer was to work in the power tools section at Home Depot. It was quite a shock," she told the Guardian. I searched for jobs every single day in that Home Depot bathroom."Terrell's generation is entering the workforce in a particularly unlucky moment. Hiring in the United States has slumped to its lowest rate since 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While workers of all ages are feeling the pressure of an uncertain economy, it's gen Z who is the most pessimistic about their job prospects: entry-level jobs are the most vulnerable to impacts from artificial intelligence, and some younger workers are seeing their careers stall before they have even started. Terrell felt she was not just competing with other people for jobs. Especially with marketing, a lot of people think it can be replaced with AI," she said. Continue reading...

Creator card is designed for people making money through TikTok Live, some of whom complain of payment delaysTikTok and Visa have launched a debit card for content creators in the UK which they say will allow people to quickly access their earnings from the platform.The creator card is designed for the growing numbers of people making money through TikTok Live, a livestreaming feature where creators receive virtual gifts from viewers that are later converted into cash. Continue reading...

Revised figures increase fears about energy-intensive datacentres worsening climate emergencyThe UK government vastly underestimated the climate impact of artificial intelligence, it has emerged, after officials raised their estimate of carbon emissions from AI by a factor of more than 100.According to new data quietly published this week, energy use by AI datacentres in the UK could cause the emission of up to 123m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO) - about as much as generated by 2.7 million people - over the next 10 years. Continue reading...

As domestic sales slow, manufacturers are investing in AI and seeking growth in technology and in overseas marketsAt the world's biggest car fair, which opened in Beijing on Friday, there were hundreds of manufacturers, more than 1,000 vehicles, hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts - and hardly anyone behind a wheel.China's car companies have cornered the domestic electric vehicle market, and are increasingly visible on the global stage. Now they are turning their attention to what they are betting is the future of mobility: autonomous driving. Continue reading...

She's already taken Paris and Venice - now, with husband Jeff Bezos, she's stormed New York's Met Gala. And for a mere $75,000, you can be there with herWe live in an age when the most successful revolutionaries are not the peasants but the Silicon Valley billionaires. They are the true disrupters, the victorious radicals and the people who have successfully ripped up legacy systems and replaced them with themselves. Revolutionaries used to rebel against governments, but the techlords are now so powerful that meaningful revolt against them could really only come from governments. Governments are the new peasants. The erstwhile peasants, meanwhile, are in endless thrall to the technologies of their overlords, each one carrying in their hands a device pretty much guaranteed to distract them from doing anything other than clicking impotently - and only when they remember - on change". Never mind televised; their revolution will be narcotised.Anyhow: I can't believe Lauren Sanchez hasn't gone with the above paragraph as the theme for the Met Ball that her husband, Jeff, bought her. Maybe it was too long for the invitations. Either way, we are just over a week away from the biggest event in the fashion calendar, which, like his own fairy godfather, the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has purchased the honorary chairmanship of for himself and his wife. Cinderella and her Cinderfella shall go to the ball. You cannot imagine how much Silicon there's going to be at the event.Marina Hyde's new book, What a Time to be Alive!, is out in September (Guardian Faber Publishing, 20). To support the Guardian, order your signed copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may applyMarina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Login method for apps and websites stored on users' devices provides stronger security and is resistant to phishing and breachesThe UK's National Cyber Security Centre has called time on the password - from now on, you should use a passkey.The NCSC said this week it would no longer recommend using passwords where passkeys were available. They should be consumers' first choice of login across all digital services because passwords were not secure enough to stand up to modern cyber threats. Continue reading...

As sales soar, some say trackers can help animal anxiety or weight loss while others advise leaving diagnoses to the vetPet health and activity trackers are bounding on to the market but experts are split on whether they are the cat's pyjamas or barking up the wrong tree.As owners monitor their own step count, heart rate, skin temperature and calorie burn via wearable tech, a host of companies have developed devices to do the same for pets. According to a report by Future Market Insights, the market for pet fitness trackers is expected to grow to $450m (333m) by 2035. Continue reading...

Online exploitation inflicting profound trauma on a staggering number of children', Democrats sayFrustrated with what they describe as a lack of accountability from social media companies, two California state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would clear a legal pathway for them to face lawsuits in the state for failing to detect or remove child sexual abuse material on their websites and apps.Assembly members Maggy Krell and Buffy Wicks, both Democrats, said they are spurred by witnessing how online exploitation is inflicting profound trauma on a staggering number of children", in an interview with the Guardian. Continue reading...

Genki Kawamura's eerie new film expands on a haunting video game that leaves players lost in endless subway tunnels. He explains how this makes viewers and players face their worst fearsGenki Kawamura is something of a polymath. A bestselling author, film-maker, script writer and producer - he is also a lifelong gamer who grew up playing and being inspired by the games of legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto. His latest project Exit 8, now in cinemas, is a fascinating adaptation of the Japanese horror game, developed by a lone coder based in Kyoto, operating under the name Kotake Create. I was captivated by its game design and the beauty of its visuals," says Kawamura. At the same time, I watched many streamers play it. As I did, I realised that although the game is incredibly simple, each player creates their own story, and each streamer brings their own unique reactions. It felt like a device that could reveal something fundamental about human nature."The concept behind Exit 8 the game is simple. The player finds themselves trapped in an endlessly looping section of a Tokyo subway station. Viewing the narrow, brightly lit corridors in first-person, you pass the same posters, the same silent commuter, the same locked doors over and over again. The only way to escape is to spot anomalies each time you pass through - maybe the eyes on a poster start following you, maybe the commuter stops and smiles - at which point you have to double back the way you came. Complete eight runs without missing an anomaly and you get to leave through the eponymous way out. There's no story, no reason for it at all. The mystery is part of the appeal. Continue reading...

PlayStation 5; Housemarque/Sony

Elon Musk's AI chatbot extremely validating' of delusional inputs and often went further, elaborating new material', study finds

Meta said it would cut 10% of it employees while Microsoft will offer voluntary retirement to about 7% of workersMeta and Microsoft are trimming their workforces by thousands as they make heavy investments in AI and executives claim that the technology is meeting their companies' productivity needs.Meta told staff on Thursday that on 20 May it would cut some 10% of its personnel - just under 8,000 employees- to boost efficiency, part of a layoff plan made months ago. The company is also closing about 6,000 open roles. The same day, Microsoft announced to employees, for the first time, that it would offer voluntary retirement to about 7% of its American workforce of roughly 125,000. Continue reading...

More than 200,000 have signed petitions urging the government to break contracts amid concerns about the company's supervillain' manifestoMore than 200,000 people have called on ministers to break contracts with Palantir in an apparent groundswell of public concern about the US tech company's role in the NHS, police, military and councils.Two petitions have attracted 229,000 signatures, one calling for the government to end all public contracts with the company, the software of which is used by Donald Trump's ICE immigration enforcement programme and the Israeli military, and another urging the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to cancel its 330m patient data contract with the NHS. Continue reading...

Quality wifi bookshelf speaker can go mobile with Bluetooth, long battery life and water resistance, in return to formThe Play is a new portable wifi and Bluetooth home speaker that packs the best of Sonos into a jack of all trades that is intended to be a reset point in the company's recovery from its app debacle that lost it faith, favour and a chief executive.It is the first truly new music speaker since Sonos launched its new app in May 2024, which junked fan-favourite features while causing stability and usage problems for new and old customers alike. The company has spent the best part of two years fixing mistakes, bringing back core features and ensuring the system actually works. Continue reading...

I was a newcomer, negotiating all of the usual classroom difficulties for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attackBy Peter C Baker. Read by Adam Sims Continue reading...

Elisabeth Zetland, a senior researcher at MyHeritage, found that the actual Luigi had immigrated to US from ItalyGaming enthusiasts have known for years that Nintendo named its mustachioed, superhero plumber after the company's landlord, Washington state businessman Mario Arnold Segale.But it has only just been determined that Nintendo may have unknowingly named Super Mario's fictional brother after Segale's real-life father: Luigi, whose biography evokes that of millions of 20th-century US immigrants from Italy. Continue reading...

Molotov cocktail attack on OpenAI CEO's home comes amid growing discontent against artificial intelligenceIn the early hours of 10 April, a man approached the gate of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's house in San Francisco and hurled a molotov cocktail at the building before fleeing. The suspect, 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama, was arrested less than two hours later while allegedly attempting to break into the headquarters of OpenAI with a jug of kerosene, a lighter and an anti-AI manifesto.Federal and California state authorities have charged Moreno-Gama with a range of crimes including attempted arson and attempted murder. His parents issued a statement this week saying that their son had recently suffered a mental health crisis. Moreno-Gama, who has not yet entered a plea, faces up to life in prison if convicted. Continue reading...

Role-playing adventure and superhero comedy among big winners on a varied night in LondonWith 12 nominations, acclaimed role-playing adventure Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was expected to be the runaway success at the 2026 Bafta games awards, held in London on Friday evening.And while it couldn't quite match its nine wins at the Game Awards back in December, it was still the joint biggest winner on the night, taking best game and debut game as well as the performer in a leading role award for Jennifer English. Continue reading...

Meta paused work with Sama last month after allegations about staff viewing private scenes filmed by smart glassesMore than 1,000 low-paid workers in Kenya have been abruptly sacked by an outsourcing company contracted by Meta, in what activists said was a shocking move exposing the precariousness of tech jobs in the global south.Sama, a company based in Nairobi to which Meta outsourced content moderation and AI training work, announced on Thursday that the workers were being laid off after Meta terminated a contract. Continue reading...

With Imax more popular than ever, a new way to watch movies - HDR by Barco - has been quietly rolling out but what difference does it really make?At this year's CinemaCon, an annual gathering where film studios show off their upcoming wares to excite the exhibitors they hope to showcase them, Disney announced a new way to see a movie, sort of: InfinityVision. Despite the cutesy Marvelized name, it's not a superhero-specific experience; it's a certification for premium large-format (PLF) auditoriums. The idea is that any InfinityVision-certified screen will adhere to or exceed standards - vaguely described so far - in size, sound quality, and picture brightness/clarity. There are supposedly 300 such screens already certified around the globe, though there doesn't seem to be an actual list explaining which ones they are yet.The practical reason for this additional layer of branding is that Disney's Avengers: Doomsday is premiering in December on the same weekend as the third Dune movie, which has a deal to occupy coveted (and limited) Imax screens for several weeks. This essentially locks Earth's mightiest heroes out of one of the marquee names in exhibition; InfinityVision seems intended to reassure viewers that their other options, presumably the various Dolby, RPX, and other branded PLF auditoriums that already exist, are as impressive as possible. Call it screenmaxxing. Continue reading...

Adult video platform to sell minority stake to increase stability after death of its owner Leonid Radvinsky

Release of new Claude model, so far limited to US firms, will expand to British institutions in coming daysBritish banks will be given access in the next week to a powerful AI tool that was deemed too dangerous to be released to the public, as a series of senior finance figures warned over its impact.Anthropic, which has so far limited the release of the new model to a small clutch of primarily US businesses, including Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, said it would expand that to UK financial institutions. Continue reading...

Chair's decision to not seek re-election not as a result of any disagreement', company says in filingReed Hastings, the Netflix chair, is leaving the streaming service he co-founded almost 30 years ago as the company regains its footing after losing out on a $72bn (53bn) deal for Warner Bros Discovery.In a 14-page letter to investors released on Thursday, Netflix said Hastings would not stand for re-election at its annual meeting in June and planned to focus on philanthropy and other pursuits. Continue reading...

PC, Xbox; Sad Cat Studios

Legally questionable confidentiality clause adopted almost word for word from demands of Microsoft and trade groupsMicrosoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental toll of their datacentres, an investigation has found, with demands to block a database of green metrics from public view written almost word for word into EU rules.The secrecy provision, which the European Commission added to its proposal almost verbatim after industry lobbying in 2024, hinders scrutiny of the pollution that individual datacentres emit. It leaves researchers with just national-level summaries of their energy footprints. Continue reading...

Technology secretary plays down fears over jobs and cyber security as stake taken in British startupThe UK technology secretary has urged the country to make AI work for Britain", brushing off fears about its impact on jobs and cybersecurity as the government announced its first investment under a 500m sovereign AI fund.

Elderly people take advantage of courses on how to navigate mobile devices and avoid analogue isolation'It's not only young people whose gaze is fixed on tiny screens. But for these users in Tokyo, clicking and scrolling is anything but second nature.I can't deal with all of the apps that jump out at me," says one. How do I know if I've definitely ended a call?" asks another. Continue reading...

Exclusive: A trove of previously redacted documents was filed as part of the tech giant's anti-trust battle with the state of California. Amazon denies it engages in price-fixingHundreds of previously redacted records reveal how Amazon has put pressure on independent sellers using its platform into raising their prices on the sites of competitors such as Walmart and Target, so that Amazon can appear to have lower prices, California authorities allege.The global conglomerate became concerned even if a competitor was selling an item for as little as a penny less, according to one segment of the newly unredacted evidence. Continue reading...

These digital security organizers bring the fight for online privacy to dance parties, wine meetups and reading groupsImani Thompson shows up at Wonderville Bar in Brooklyn looking ready for a DJ set, or to drink, or to dance the night away with friends. While she'll probably do the latter, she's also a cybersecurity organizer leading the evening's event.Thompson is the host, along with the New York City-based tech organizing coalition Cypurr Collective, of Break Up With Google. Its purpose isn't a mystery; the main goal is to help attenders understand how to mitigate their vulnerability to surveillance through major tech services. But it's also important for people to have fun while they do it, Thompson said - hence the DJs playing until the wee hours of the morning. Continue reading...

PM demands real world changes in Downing Street meeting with senior figures from Meta, TikTok, Google and XKeir Starmer has told social media bosses things can't go on like this" in a meeting about internet safety at Downing Street.The prime minister summoned senior figures from Meta, TikTok, Google, Snapchat's owner and X to No 10 on Thursday morning as the government considers imposing new restrictions on platforms, including an Australia-style ban for under-16s. Meta owns Facebook and Instagram, and Google owns YouTube. Continue reading...

Lawsuit in Norway alleges Telenor passed on data helping Myanmar military arrest 1,200 activists, some in safe housesWhen even two weeks of torture could not force Aung Thu to betray his fellow anti-coup activists, his military interrogators in Myanmar tried something different: they asked a Norwegian telecoms company, Telenor, then the largest one operating in the country, for its data on him.The company - whose majority shareholder is the Norwegian government - had first entered Myanmar in 2013 as it was transitioning to democracy, promising to connect users who had been isolated from the world. Continue reading...