Technology | The Guardian

Fifteen years since Microsoft's motion-sensing gaming camera was released for the Xbox 360, artists, roboticists and more are still finding new ways to use itReleased in 2010 and bundled with the Xbox 360, the Kinect looked like the future - for a brief moment, at least. A camera that could detect your gestures and replicate them on-screen in a game, the Kinect allowed players to control video games with their bodies. It was initially a sensation, selling 1m units in its first 10 days; it remains the fastest-selling gaming peripheral ever.However, a lack of games, unreliable performance and a motion-control market already monopolised by the Nintendo Wii caused enthusiasm for the Kinect to quickly cool. Microsoft released a new version of the Kinect with the Xbox One in 2013, only for it to become an embarrassing flop; the Kinect line was unceremoniously discontinued in 2017. The Guardian reached out to multiple people involved in the development of the peripheral, all of whom declined to comment or did not wish to go on record. Instead, the people keenest to discuss Microsoft's motion-sensing camera never used it for gaming at all. Continue reading...

UN-commissioned study in UK, US, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand finds satisfaction rises with ageFor more than half a century, the midlife crisis has been a feature of western society. Fast cars, impulsive decisions, and peak misery between the age of 40 and 50. But all that is changing, according to experts.In a new paper commissioned by the UN, the leading academics Jean Twenge and David Blanchflower warn that a burgeoning youth mental health crisis in six English-speaking countries worldwide is upending the traditional pattern of happiness across our lifetimes. Continue reading...

Information Commissioner's Office says it aims to learn about wider market by looking into two sites plus ImgurTikTok is to be investigated by the UK's data protection watchdog, which is looking into whether social media algorithms are serving up inappropriate or harmful content to children.Growing concerns over how social media platforms are using data generated by children's online activity have prompted the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to launch an investigation into the Chinese platform, along with the forum site Reddit and the image-sharing site Imgur. Continue reading...

TUC says proposals on copyright and AI framework must go further to stop exploitation by rapacious tech bosses'Action is needed to protect workers in creative industries amid huge changes in technology and artificial intelligence, unions have urged.The TUC said there was an urgent need to put in place proper guardrails" for workers ranging from artists, writers and journalists to teachers and academics. Continue reading...

Cryptocurrency slipped into technical bear market, before Donald Trump talked up plans for Crypto Strategic ReserveBitcoin has recorded its largest monthly loss since June 2022, pushing it into a bear market as the euphoria over cryptocurrencies after Donald Trump's election win faded, before the president pumped it up again on Sunday.The price of bitcoin fell by 17.5% in February, the biggest monthly drop since June 2022, and its 11th worst month in the last decade, as negative sentiment gripped financial markets. Continue reading...

Air fryers have taken over our kitchens, but which wins the crown for the crispiest cooking? Our expert peeled 5kg of potatoes to find out The best blenders to blitz like a pro, tried and testedAir fryers inspire the sort of feelings that microwaves did in the 1980s. I vividly remember those new-fangled boxes being spoken about often, either dismissively or with delight. A rash of cookbooks followed, and dinner changed across the land. Fast-forward a few decades and air fryers have become the same kind of kitchen disruptors", offering time-saving convenience and healthier cooking, but with the added allure of easily achieved, mouth-watering crispiness.Since launching with a single-drawer design, air fryers have evolved. Sizes range from compact to XL, while drawer configurations can be double, split or stacked. Alongside air frying, many will grill, roast and bake, and some will dip to lower temperatures for dehydrating, fermenting and proving dough. One we tested features steam cooking, allowing you to whip up dim sum as easily as a roast dinner, while another included racks for cooking on four levels.Best air fryer overall:

Tesla once appeared the future of vehicles. Then Musk's salutes and support at Trump's inauguration left owners feeling saddled with a symbol of hate'

Dismissing 6,700 IRS workers during tax season is a recipe for chaos but AI's disruption will be much more widespreadThe Trump administration recently announced that it would be laying off approximately 6,700 workers at the Internal Revenue Service, about 8% of the people employed by the agency. Tens of thousands of federal employees at other agencies are also losing their jobs.The timing could not be worse. We're in the middle of the tax season with corporations and individuals facing filing deadlines in March and April. Millions of returns will need to be processed. Refunds will be due. Questions will need to be answered. But that's not all. Continue reading...

The Albanese government is banking on direct-to-device access to satellite connections to improve coverage

As AI grows increasingly prevalent, some are showing their children tools from ChatGPT to Dall-E to learn and bondJules White used to believe his 11-year-old son needed to know how to code to be successful. Now, though, the Vanderbilt computer science professor says it's more crucial for James to learn a new, more useful skill: how to prompt artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots.Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, White has been showing his son the ropes of generative AI. He began by demonstrating to James how ChatGPT can create games using photos of toys on the floor of their house. Later, White exposed him to AI's hallucinatory flaws by having his son debunk ChatGPT-generated world record claims with verified information from the Guinness Book of World Records. After more than two years of experimentation, White's son, now in fifth grade, has learned how to integrate AI into a range of everyday activities, from crafting study materials to determining the cost of shoes without a price tag. Continue reading...

Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: Putin is on the inside now'

Criminal justice specialists call for new approach to identify emerging type of murderer with no prior convictionsThe rise of 0 to 100" killers who go from watching torture, mutilation and beheading videos in their bedrooms to committing murder suggests there could be a link between extreme violence online and in real life, experts have said.Criminal justice experts advocated a new approach, inspired by counter-terrorism, to identify an emerging type of murderer with no prior convictions, after cases such as Nicholas Prosper, who killed his mother and siblings and planned a primary school massacre. Continue reading...

Potential uses for gadget could include online shopping, weight management and sensory testing, say researchersIf your colleague bores you to tears with pictures of their lunch, then a new gadget could make your life even worse.Scientists have developed a device to recreate the flavours of food and drink, allowing them to be shared remotely in a matter of seconds - but they have not yet cracked spicy food. Continue reading...

Internet calling service that disrupted landline industry to close in May as tech giant says it will focus on TeamsSkype will ring for the last time on 5 May as owner Microsoft retires the two-decade-old internet calling service that redefined how people connect across borders.Shutting down Skype will help Microsoft focus on its homegrown Teams service by simplifying its communication offerings, the office software giant said on Friday. Continue reading...

Users of Reels report feeds dominated by violent and graphic footage after apparent algorithm malfunctionMark Zuckerberg's Meta has apologised after Instagram users were subjected to a flood of violence, gore, animal abuse and dead bodies on their Reels feeds.Users reported the footage after an apparent malfunction in Instagram's algorithm, which curates what people see on the app. Continue reading...

The technology, just released in Europe and the UK, clearly has the potential to transform the film, TV and advertising industries

Sadler's Wells, London

Sora would not exist without its training data,' said peer Beeban Kidron, citing another level of urgency' to debateThe artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT has launched its video generation tool in the UK amid a deepening row between the tech sector and creative industries over copyright.Beeban Kidron, the film director and crossbench peer, said the introduction of OpenAI's Sora in the UK added another layer of urgency to the copyright debate", in a week the government faced strong criticism over its plans for letting AI firms use artists' work without permission. Continue reading...

Americans are using their wallet to hurt where it matters - including during Friday's planned economic blackout'

From the raw materials required to the machines that make them, every part of the chip supply chain is fiercely contested in the global race for tech supremacyA small town in the Netherlands hosts the only factory that produces the only chip-making machines that generate a type of light found nowhere naturally on Earth: extreme ultraviolet, a light emitted by young stars in outer space.This light, known as EUV, is the only way to make one of the world's most valuable and important technologies at scale: cutting-edge semiconductor chips. The factory is forbidden from selling its EUV machines to China. Continue reading...

Geo Group, an Ice partner, is moving at unprecedented speed' to build out its monitoring, executive chair saysThe Geo Group, the largest single private contractor to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), said it was building out its surveillance business to be able to monitor hundreds of thousands or millions more immigrants than it already does.The Geo Group, a private prison corporation and parent company of BI Inc, has contracted with Ice for nearly 20 years to manage the agency's electronic monitoring program. It currently tracks approximately 186,000 immigrants using devices such as ankle monitors, smart watches and a facial recognition app, according to public Ice data. Due to increasing demand from Donald Trump's administration, which has promised mass deportations, company executives said that they expect that number to grow past its previous peak of 370,000 to 450,000 immigrants within the next year. The remarks were made during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday morning. Continue reading...

Funds would be used to create holding company for 26-year-old's growing empire of video and food businessesThe world's biggest YouTube star, MrBeast, is planning to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in a move that would reportedly value his company at roughly $5bn (3.9bn).The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is said to have spoken with several wealthy individuals and financial firms about taking part in the investment round. Continue reading...

From the cutest postapocalyptic world to multiplayer mayhem and a modern family classic, here are the Switch's must-play gamesWhen we think of Nintendo we picture serene and cosy cartoon adventures filled with cute creatures and lovable Italian stereotypes. But while there is plenty of Mario on the Switch, the console offers a diverse range of delights for newcomers and longtime gaming veterans. Here are the 15 essentials. Continue reading...

In 1935, Derek Harris was born - and so was the K6 red phone box. Now, Harris is spending his 90th year ensuring this beloved local facility isn't lostThe battleground at the heart of a struggle between an 89-year-old man and a multi-billion pound multinational is a small junction in a Norfolk village, where a red phone box stands. And at the red phone box, sheltering from the wind, is Derek Harris. Last month, he learned that BT (formerly British Telecom) was threatening to close the phone box in the village of Sharrington, where he has lived for 50 years, when he saw it on the agenda of the parish council meeting. I thought: I'd better do something about this,'" says Harris.He has described it as a David and Goliath" campaign. It is that, and - as becomes clear on this sunlit but biting February day - so much more. We will talk mortality and reprieves, heritage and value. I'll leave with a renewed sense of how it's possible to feel real affection for an inanimate object, and why having a mission matters. Continue reading...

The US agency said it refers to this specific North Korean malicious cyber activity as TraderTraitor'North Korea was behind the theft of approximately $1.5bn in virtual assets from a cryptocurrency exchange, the FBI has said, in what is being described as the biggest heist in history.The haul, which reportedly has since lost some of its value, exceeded the previous record sum of $1bn stolen by the dictator Saddam Hussein from Iraq's central bank before the 2003 war, and underlines the North's growing expertise in cybercrime. Continue reading...

Investors were eyeing the firm for signs of slowing demand after revelation high-end chips not necessary, but found fewNvidia surpassed investor expectations for the fourth quarter of 2024 with a 78% jump in revenue year over year.The company reported $39.3bn in revenue, beating analyst projections of $38.25bn. It also reported $0.89 in earnings a share on Wednesday, beating expectations of $0.84. Continue reading...

Special adviser showed instinctive feel for authoritarianism as he addressed the president's first full cabinet meetingOn Tuesday, just over a mile from the White House, the classicist Mary Beard spoke to an audience about Roman emperors. An autocrat is somebody who kills you when he's being his most generous," she remarked. You go to dinner, you think, wow, this is wonderful! But the generosity of the autocrat is always potentially lethal."On Wednesday, Donald Trump held his first full cabinet meeting. The mood was warm and convivial and, some might say, generous. Housing secretary Scott Turner offered a prayer that included: Thank you, God, for President Trump." Continue reading...

Cross-party committees urge ministers to drop plans to force creators to opt out of works being used to train AITwo cross-party committees of MPs have urged the government to prioritise ensuring that creators are fairly remunerated for their creative work over making it easy to train artificial intelligence models.The MPs argued there needed to be more transparency around the vast amounts of data used to train generative AI models, and urged the government not to press ahead with plans to require creators to opt out of having their data used. Continue reading...

This attempt to discover the identity of the cryptocurrency's originator is clearly a labour of love. But all the information is old and it's so padded out it's the TV equivalent of a Zoom call that could have been an emailWho is Satoshi Nakamoto? It's a mystery that has vexed the internet since long before crypto went mainstream, via Silicon Valley bros and that weird period where celebrities got really into NFTs. Finding out the identity of the person who designed bitcoin - the decentralised, multitrillion-dollar currency - would be a big (and potentially dangerous) deal. Think WikiLeaks, if Julian Assange was also a potential kidnapping target with a handsome digital ransom fee. It is also - you may be unsurprised to hear - a mystery that this digital two-parter from Channel 4 does not get to the bottom of. At the outset, its journalist host, Gabriel Gatehouse (known for the BBC's Trump podcast, The Coming Storm), warns viewers that: The film you're about to watch - in fact, this whole series - consists almost entirely of middle-aged white guys talking about tech", as their middle-aged, white-guy faces flash up on screen. That wouldn't be so much of an issue if any of these cypherpunk" pioneers - or Gatehouse himself - had anything to say that hadn't already been debunked on Reddit.It's not the interviewees' fault. Gatehouse blames a possible omerta code for their silence, but with Satoshi potentially a target for all manner of cartels, criminals and governments, why would any of these computer scientists - namely fellow Briton Adam Back, who ducks and dives away from Gatehouse at a conference in Miami - give anything away? In lieu of revelations, we get an Adam Curtis-inspired visual treatment to distract us - all film noir clips juxtaposed with old cartoons and animations of faceless automatons marching in lockstep. Continue reading...

Its investment in indie darlings and big-name talent suggested the streamer wanted big stakes in the gaming industry, but layoffs, lousy ties-in and leadership changes suggest that is changingWhen Netflix first started adding video games to its huge catalogue of streaming TV shows and films, it did so quietly. In 2021, after releasing an impressive experiment with the idea of interactive film in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch in 2018 and a free Stranger Things game in 2019, Netflix began expanding more fully into interactive entertainment.The streamer's gaming offering, for a long time, was its best-kept secret. Whoever was running it really had an eye for quality: award-winningly brilliant and relatively little-known indie games comprised the majority of its catalogue, alongside decent licensed games based on everything from The Queen's Gambit to the reality dating show Too Hot to Handle. Subscribers could play games such as Before Your Eyes, a brief and touching story about a life cut short; Spiritfarer, about guiding lost souls to rest and Into the Breach, a superb sci-fi strategy game with robots v aliens. The company bought or invested in several game studios known for making critically acclaimed work, including London-based Ustwo games (which was behind Monument Valley). It also established a studio in California to work on blockbuster games, staffed by veteran developers. Continue reading...

Government employees fight the Trump administration's chaos by organizing and publishing information on BlueskyAfter seeing Elon Musk's X post on Saturday afternoon about an email that would soon land in the inboxes of 2.3 million federal employees asking them to list five things they did the week before, a clandestine network of employees and contractors at dozens of federal agencies began talking on an encrypted app about how to respond.Employees on a four-day, 10-hours-a-day schedule wouldn't even see the email until Tuesday - past the deadline for responding - some noted. There was also a bit of snark: bonus points to anyone who responds that they spent their government subsidy on hookers and blow," one worker said. Continue reading...

Tech company blames phonetic overlap' for problem where US president's name appearsApple has promised to fix a bug in its iPhone automatic dictation tool after some users reported it had suggested to them Trump" when they said the word racist".The glitch was first highlighted in a viral post on TikTok, when the speech-to-text tool sometimes briefly flashed up the word Trump" when they said racist", and was later repeated by others on social media. Continue reading...

Survey of 1,000 students shows explosive increase' in use of generative AI in particular over past 12 monthsBritish universities have been warned to stress-test" all assessments after new research revealed almost all" undergraduates are using generative artificial intelligence (genAI) in their studies.A survey of 1,000 students - both domestic and international - found there had been an explosive increase" in the use of genAI in the past 12 months. Almost nine out of 10 (88%) in the 2025 poll said they used tools such as ChatGPT for their assessments, up from 53% last year. Continue reading...

Decision to shutter development studios comes as gamers cut back on new purchases and instead opt for proven titlesWarner Bros Discovery is shutting down three of its video game development studios in a move aimed at boosting profitability for its gaming division amid a sluggish recovery in the market, a spokesperson for the company's games unit said on Tuesday.The studios to be closed are Player First Games, WB Games San Diego and Monolith Productions. Development on Monolith's Wonder Woman game will also halt, following the shuttering. Continue reading...

The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said more than 1 million US federal employees responded to an email sent by Elon Musk's Department of government efficiency asking them to list five things they had accomplished in the last week. 'It took me about a minute and a half to think of five things I did last week. I do five things in about 10 minutes, and all federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working,' said Leavitt. She added that a new email was being sent threatening employees that they will be fired if they don't respond

Vote vindicates tech company's decision to uphold diversity initiatives as other firms give into pressure from presidentApple shareholders voted down an attempt to pressure the technology company into yielding to Donald Trump's push to scrub corporate programs designed to diversify its workforce.A proposal drafted by the National Center for Public Policy Research - a self-described conservative thinktank - urged Apple to follow a litany of high-profile companies that have retreated from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives currently in the Trump administration's crosshairs. Continue reading...

Barney Ronay on Arne Slot | Church of England | Tech revolution | Too many questions | Last word on school reports?Last month, Barney Ronay said Liverpool's manager, Arne Slot, had the look of a prosperous provincial butcher here to pick up a civic award". This month (23 February), he said Slot had the air of a friendly neighbourhood greengrocer who juggles apples on his forearm". Nextmonth, the jolly baker?

The tycoon's links with Donald Trump and Germany's far-right AfD have slammed the brakes on sales and put the car's owners in a spin

Tech billionaire, a close adviser to the US president, is a vocal supporter of Germany's far-right AfD partySales of new Tesla cars almost halved in Europe last month, indicating waning demand for the US carmaker's vehicles as its chief executive Elon Musk intervened repeatedly in the politics on both sides of the Atlantic.The Texas-based carmaker sold 9,945 vehicles in Europe in January, down 45% from last year's 18,161, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA). Tesla's share of the market dropped to 1% from 1.8%. Continue reading...

Fickle financial dealings leave a man and his friends in debt, prompting them to go in search of the slippery crypto king responsible and hold him to accountThe opening crawl for this timely, acute thriller proclaims it's a Steven Soderbergh presentation, although that's the only place that the veteran film-maker's name crops up in the credits. No doubt kudos here should mostly be due to director Cutter Hodierne and screenwriter John Hibey, as well as their crew and cast, but it's tempting to sense a light Soderberghian touch in Cold Wallet's blackly comic look at how cryptocurrency eats the soul of all who meddle in its black arts.Charismatic Raul Castillo stars as protagonist Billy, a bit of a screw-up who is neck deep in a crypto called - tellingly for those aware of the history of bubble stocks - Tulip. Hoping to cash out enough to buy a house so he can gain better access to his daughter who lives with his bitter ex-wife (Zoe Winters from Succession), Billy is the proverbial this close to his goal when the currency suddenly tanks after reports of the sudden death of its founder. Now, Billy finds he actually owes money. The same goes for his good friend, hippy-jock Dom (Tony Cavalero), who Billy talked into investing in Tulip and is now at risk of losing his gym business. Continue reading...

Recordings of empty studios represent impact on musicians of UK's plans to let AI train on their work without permissionMore than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, Damon Albarn and Annie Lennox, have released a silent album in protest against UK government plans to let artificial intelligence companies use copyright-protected work without permission, as a celebrity backlash builds against the proposals.The recordings of dormant music studios and performance spaces, called Is This What We Want?, are being released as leading cultural figures warn livelihoods are under threat from proposed changes to copyright law. Continue reading...

Parliamentary petition launched due to billionaire's link to Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to conquer CanadaMore than 200,000 people from Canada have signed a parliamentary petition calling for their country to strip Elon Musk's Canadian citizenship because of the tech billionaire's alliance with Donald Trump, who has spent his second US presidency repeatedly threatening to conquer its independent neighbor to the north and turn it into its 51st state.The British Columbia author Qualia Reed launched the petition in Canada's House of Commons, where it was sponsored by the New Democrat parliamentary member and avowed Musk critic Charlie Angus, as the Canadian Press first reported over the weekend. Continue reading...

Holmes, who is serving nine years, attempted to overturn conviction over multimillion-dollar investor fraud scandalA US court upheld the conviction of the Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes for defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars while operating her failed blood-testing startup, once valued at $9bn, rejecting her multi-year appeal. The court also upheld the conviction of Ramesh Sunny" Balwani, once Holmes's romantic partner and president of Theranos.A three-judge panel for the 9th US circuit court of appeals in San Francisco rejected claims of legal errors at their separate trials held in 2022. Continue reading...

Spending ranges from new AI server factory in Texas to film and TV content and may add 20,000 jobsApple announced Monday it would invest $500bn in the US in the next four years that would include a giant factory in Texas for artificial intelligence servers and add about 20,000 research and development jobs across the country.The move comes on the heels of reports that the Apple CEO, Tim Cook, met Donald Trump last week. Many of Apple's products that are assembled in China and imported to the US could face 10% tariffs introduced by the White House earlier this month, though the iPhone maker secured some waivers from China tariffs during the first Trump administration. Continue reading...

The Last Week Tonight host looked at content moderation and how Mark Zuckerberg has bent to Trump's willJohn Oliver took aim at Mark Zuckerberg and the world of content moderation in this week's episode of Last Week Tonight.The host of the HBO series looked at just how much the tech industry seemed to swing toward Trump" since the election last year. Continue reading...

Many start their studies hoping to find friends, themselves and intellectual stimulation. More and more are finding they've been sold something elseWhen Mai* started studying psychology in mid-2019, she looked forward to making the trip to the university for her tutorials, where she'd have lively conversations with classmates as they grappled with new ideas.But her excitement turned to dread when her face-to-face tutorials were swapped for Zoom meetings in 2020.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...

Exclusive: Government reluctant to take action that could weaken UK's attractiveness to AI firms, says Labour source

Despite its early detractors at Sega, the legendary driving game was released to great success and millions of salesKenji Kanno, director of Sega's legendary driving game Crazy Taxi, remembers the exact moment he knew the game had made a seismic impression. I was going to Las Vegas for promotional work," he says. I got into the taxi and the driver drove me very fast, arriving at my destination quickly. At the end, he laughed and said: I am the real Crazy Taxi!' It was a strange experience."Initially released in arcades, the zany, pop-punk drive-em'-up celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. Crazy Taxi was an addictive coin-swallowing thrill ride, the game's eccentric cabbies continually yelling Ready to have some fun?" and Time to make some crazy money!" in the faces of perturbed-looking normies who simply wish to be chauffeured over to Pizza Hut. Driving green-haired Axel's yellow 1960 Cadillac Eldorado so fast that its front bumper smashed into sunny San Francisco's concrete hills was a memorable experience for all who played. (The Ford Mustang-driving Gena was my mum's character of choice.) Continue reading...

Bybit platform appeals to brightest minds' in cybersecurity for help after attacker transfers Ethereum currencyThe cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has called on the brightest minds" in cybersecurity to help it recover $1.5bn (1.2bn) stolen by hackers in what is thought to be the biggest single digital theft in history.The Dubai-based crypto platform said an attacker gained control of a wallet of Ethereum, one of the most popular digital currencies after bitcoin, and transferred the contents to an unknown address. Continue reading...

More than 2,000 cultural figures challenge Whitehall's eagerness to wrap our lives' work in attractive paper for automated competitors'Original British art and creative skill is in peril thanks to the rise of AI and the government's plans to loosen copyright rules, some of the UK's leading cultural figures have said.More than 2,000 people, including leading creative names such as Mark Haddon, Axel Scheffler, Benji Davies and Michael Rosen, have signed a letter published in the Observer today calling on the government to keep thelegal safeguards that offer artists and writers the prospect of a sustainable income. Continue reading...