Technology | The Guardian

This is what I’ve learned from living without email, electricity, or a phone…It was almost midnight when I checked my email for the last time and turned off my phone for what I hoped would be for ever. I had spent the summer of 2016 hand-building a straw bale home on a half-wild smallholding in County Galway, Ireland, and the following morning I intended to begin a new life without modern technology. There would be no running water, no clock, no fossil fuels, no electricity or any of the things it powers; no internet, phone, washing machine, lightbulbs or radio. I had no idea if unplugging myself from the industrial world would mean I’d lose all touch with reality, or finally discover it.I’m reluctant to write much about the big-picture reasons why I decided to reject tech. We know them too well already, and it’s not for want of information that we continue down the road we’re on. But, over time, I found my reasons slowly changed. Now they’ve less to do with saving the world, and much more to do with savouring the world. The world needs savouring. Continue reading...

Lyft, which went public on Friday, will soon be joined by Uber, Airbnb and other companies valued over $1bn – and they may be just the animal to burst a bubbleFive years ago Aileen Lee, founder of Silicon Valley investor Cowboy Ventures, coined the term “unicorn” for a private company valued at more than $1bn. Back then unicorns were almost as rare as their mythical namesakes – just 39 existed, according to Lee. Now there are 334 around the world, worth more than $1tn. And this week some of the very biggest beasts started stampeding towards the public markets.Related: Lyft share price soars 20% in minutes on taxi app's stock market debut Continue reading...

After two weeks of criticism, Sheryl Sandberg published a letter saying the company is exploring live stream video restrictionsTwo weeks after a terrorist used Facebook to broadcast live video while he massacred 50 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand, the company has broken its silence in the country by publishing a letter from Sheryl Sandberg in the New Zealand Herald.Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said the company is “exploring” placing restrictions on who can live stream video on Facebook, but did not announce any actual policy changes. Continue reading...

App, designed to help EU nationals to apply for settled status, until now worked only on Android

Tech firm has acted as US-Havana intermediary as memo says Cubans trust Google more than Trump administrationGoogle has worked as an intermediary between the Trump administration and the Cuban government as it has sought a deal to improve internet access on the island, according to private remarks by Google’s manager in Havana.Related: Apple Arcade v Google Stadia: which is the future for video games? Continue reading...

Whether it’s protesting projects with immigration authorities or walking out to demand better treatment of women, activism has entered tech with a force the industry has never experiencedThe election happens. The next day at the Slack office, people were quite literally sobbing in the cafeteria. I was mostly keeping my shit together until my parents called from Canada. I went into one of the little phone booths and just sobbed on the phone. It took a bit of time to grieve, but then you also have to act. The space that Maciej created in Tech Solidarity was incredibly important. To show up at that first meeting at the Stripe offices and see hundreds of other people who are figuring out what the hell to do next was incredibly gratifying. “Oh, Joe who works over at the security team at a text-editor company actually cares about the fate of Muslim people in America.” There were lots of pleasant surprises like that. Continue reading...

As algorithms play a growing role in criminal justice, education and more, tech advisory boards and academic programs mirror real-world inequality

Verifiable contact details will be required to run campaigns on site ahead of EU electionsAdvertisers will be required to provide verifiable public contact details before they can run political campaigns on Facebook, the company has announced, in the latest attempt by the social network to increase accountability for so-called dark adverts.The move is part of a raft of changes in the buildup to the European elections in May, when citizens from across the EU will vote in new MEPs. Continue reading...

US government says company is breaking the law by restricting who can view housing-related ads based on their ‘race, color, national origin, religion’The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) has charged Facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act, alleging that the company’s targeted advertising discriminated on the basis of race and color.In a statement, Hud said Facebook was breaking the law by restricting who can view housing-related adverts on its site, which the department said “unlawfully discriminates based on race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, sex, and disability”. Continue reading...

Government report casts doubt over Chinese firm’s future involvement in telecomsThe government-led committee set up to vet products made by the controversial Chinese firm Huawei has warned it has found new significant issues that could pose a risk to the British telecommunications industry.The Huawei oversight board, which is chaired by the head of GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said it had found further “significant technical issues in Huawei’s engineering processes leading to new risks in the UK telecommunications networks”. Continue reading...

The battle royale team game has won millions of players within weeks. How violent is it? What’s the age limit? And what does it cost? We answer your questionsSurprise-released in February, Apex Legends has taken the world of online gaming by storm, attracting more than 50 million players within a month. But what is it about this Fortnite-style battle royale blaster that has made it such a huge success, and should parents be concerned?Here’s everything you need to know. Continue reading...

From Neopets to Habbo Hotel and AIM, the early internet was a friendlier place. Readers recall the online spaces they’ve loved and lostThirty years ago this month, Tim Berners-Lee submitted his proposal for what would become the world wide web. Today’s internet is so dominated by a few tech companies and toxic debate, it can be hard to remember that it was once a friendlier place of previously unfathomable discovery and connection, especially when many of those online communities no longer exist. We asked readers and writers to share their favourite stories of the internet as it once was. Tell us yours in the comments. Continue reading...

Ed doesn’t want to pay an annual subscription for Office 365 and he’s looking for a compatible rivalI chose Microsoft Word for Mac when I switched to a MacBook Pro some years ago. As a writer, I have a very large number of Word files, but with Microsoft moving to an annual subscription model, the cost of remaining with Word is looking prohibitive.Is there is a cheaper way of carrying on with Word, or, failing that, an alternative word processor with which I’ll still be able to open and edit my existing Word documents? EdMicrosoft would prefer both Mac and Windows users of Office to move to the online version, Office 365, but it’s still entirely up to you. In fact, you can already use some Microsoft Office programs online, including Word, without paying Microsoft a penny. All you have to do is create a Microsoft Account using any working email address – it doesn’t have to be a Microsoft email address – and you can use online versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint with free online storage in OneDrive. This is exactly the same as Google’s online suite. The main difference is that Microsoft’s programs are better, except for multiuser simultaneous editing. Continue reading...

The spectre of superintelligent machines doing us harm is not just science fiction, technologists say – so how can we ensure AI remains ‘friendly’ to its makers? By Mara HvistendahlIt began three and a half billion years ago in a pool of muck, when a molecule made a copy of itself and so became the ultimate ancestor of all earthly life. It began four million years ago, when brain volumes began climbing rapidly in the hominid line.Fifty thousand years ago with the rise of Homo sapiens sapiens. Continue reading...

Company previously allowed such material even though it has long banned white supremacistsFacebook will no longer allow content supporting white nationalism and white separatism, it said on Tuesday. The announcement comes nearly a year after the revelation that its policy against white supremacy and hate speech still let users call for the creation of white ethno-states or claim the US “should be a white-only nation”.The policy change announced on Wednesday, which will go into effect next week, comes in the wake of a white supremacist terror attack on mosques in New Zealand that left 50 people dead, and as Facebook and other social media companies continue to grapple with the ways violent white supremacist groups are using their platforms for propaganda and recruitment. Continue reading...

US government panel has informed Beijing Kunlun Tech that its ownership of Grindr constitutes a national security riskChinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Limited is seeking to sell Grindr, the popular gay dating app it has owned since 2016, after a US government national security panel raised concerns about its ownership, according to people familiar with the matter.The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has informed Kunlun that its ownership of West Hollywood, California-based Grindr constitutes a national security risk, the two sources told Reuters. Continue reading...

Netflix-style subscriptions by two tech behemoths could open up gaming to millions who can’t afford pricey equipment. Watch out Microsoft and Sony

As flamenco dancers and baristas help show off multimillion-dollar homes, there is no longer room for the middle classIn Silicon Valley, an open house can be more than an open house. At a six-bedroom, seven-bath home in the town of Menlo Park, a flamenco dancer swirled and a guitarist fingerpicked in a kitchen alcove. Outside, pesto pizza was pulled from the pizza oven. A face painter splotched unicorns on pudgy cheeks. A barista whipped up lattes. There were squishy toys for kids and videos of the house for potential homebuyers, who could keep the video-players.“We mailed brochures to 5,000 homes, including one entirely in Mandarin,” said Michael Repka, CEO of DeLeon Realty, who padded around the house, along with everyone else, in booties, so as not to scratch the wood floors. Three days later, the Flamenco dancing paid off. The house sold for $6.82m, which was $332,000 above the asking price. Continue reading...

President says customers are asking company to build data centres elsewhere as a result of the government’s encryption billCompanies and governments are “no longer comfortable” about storing their data in Australia as a result of the encryption legislation, Microsoft has warned.On Wednesday the company’s president and chief legal officer, Brad Smith, said customers were asking it to build data centres elsewhere as a result of the changes, and the industry needed greater protection against the creation of “systemic weaknesses” in their products. Continue reading...

Will we still be able to upload online content and news – and what about memes?The European parliament approved the largest, and most contentious, overhaul of copyright legislation in two decades on Monday. When the directive comes into effect, it will be the biggest change to internet regulation since General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).Related: MEPs approve sweeping changes to copyright law Continue reading...

Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar says encryption-cracking bill must be amended before electionAustralian tech heavyweights, led by Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar, have intensified their call for the government to amend its controversial encryption-cracking bill before the coming election.Tech companies will gather in Sydney on Wednesday for a public forum where they will call for amendments including clarifying the requirements of employees under the law; creating a clearer definition of designated communications providers; increasing oversight; and narrowing the type of crimes the regime can be used for. Continue reading...

Hackers were able to access users’ movements, hometown, search history, email and phone numberThe detailed personal information of more than 60,000 Australians was exposed in a massive cyber-attack on Facebook last year, giving hackers the ability to access their movements, hometown, search history, email and phone number.Internal documents reveal the attack on Facebook in September last year affected an estimated 111,813 Australians, among roughly 29 million worldwide. Continue reading...

PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch; Telltale / Skybound Entertainment

Chinese firm first to launch smartphone with periscope zoom and Leica quad cameraThe Huawei P30 Pro is the first smartphone to have a 5x periscope-like optical zoom and four cameras on the back.Stepping up the smartphone camera wars another notch, the latest flagship smartphone from the Chinese firm at the centre of a political storm looks to raise the bar not only for camera quality but also flexibility. Continue reading...

Here’s what Tim Cook didn’t reveal, from Apple Card details to the Arcade game serviceIt’s US-only (for now?) but Apple is pushing its new credit card hard. The company is offering 2% cashback, paid daily, on any purchase made with the card using Apple Pay, and 3% on any purchase made with Apple itself, including the App Store and Apple Music. For purchases made in stores and online that don’t take Apple Pay, of which there are a lot, the rate is lower, at 1%. But those figures show how much Apple is willing to pay to make its card a success. For comparison, the best cashback card in the US, according to those who track this sort of thing, is the Citi Double Cash Card, which offers 2% cashback on everything but doesn’t drop the fees that Apple has, such as overseas transactions or late payments. Continue reading...

A cheerful, endearing approach to VR makes Nintendo’s Labo VR kit a fascinating family prospectVR was meant to be the future, and it still yet might be, but the current selection of virtual reality devices is in the main expensive, impractical and nausea-inducing. Initially tethered to high-end computers with wires, neither the Oculus Rift nor the HTC Vive VR headsets have yet captured the public imagination as much as that of investors, and lower-end contraptions such as Google Cardboard haven’t offered interesting enough experiences to become popular. Nintendo Labo, on the other hand, shows virtual reality for what it really is, at least right now: an interesting toy. With a 7+ PEGI rating, in contrast to the 12+ recommendation for every other VR device, it has the age suitability to match.Labo is not the VR device that will finally break through and make the technology ubiquitous, but that’s not what it’s trying to do. Like the other Nintendo Labo kits, released last year for Nintendo Switch, it is an interesting and educational toy aimed at curious children and their families. In the box are sets of cardboard sheets and a game cartridge containing the instructions to fold them into ingenious models. Pop the cart into the Switch, assemble your viewer according to the friendly directions, slot the console into the model, and you have a little working VR headset. Continue reading...

Tech giant blames slowing demand for its memory chips and smartphonesSamsung has issued a surprise profit warning, blaming a slump in memory chip prices and slowing demand for display panels. It is the latest sign that technology firms are facing tougher times amid a global economic slowdown.The warning from the South Korean technology company comes two months after Apple shocked investors with its first profit warning since 2002, citing the “magnitude” of the economic slowdown in China. Continue reading...

A flurry of stock market debuts, from Uber to Airbnb, has many speculating how more wealth will affect the city

Millions of us now have virtual assistants, in our homes and our pockets. Even children’s toys are getting smart. But when we talk to them, who is listening? By James VlahosOn 21 November 2015, James Bates had three friends over to watch the Arkansas Razorbacks play the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Bates, who lived in Bentonville, Arkansas, and his friends drank beer and did vodka shots as a tight football game unfolded. After the Razorbacks lost 51–50, one of the men went home; the others went out to Bates’s hot tub and continued to drink. Bates would later say that he went to bed around 1am and that the other two men – one of whom was named Victor Collins – planned to crash at his house for the night. When Bates got up the next morning, he didn’t see either of his friends. But when he opened his back door, he saw a body floating face-down in the hot tub. It was Collins.A grim local affair, the death of Victor Collins would never have attracted international attention if it were not for a facet of the investigation that pitted the Bentonville authorities against one of the world’s most powerful companies – Amazon. Collins’ death triggered a broad debate about privacy in the voice-computing era, a discussion that makes the big tech companies squirm. Continue reading...

Cyberdelic VR is being used to treat trauma and even simulate near-death experiences

Steven Spielberg and Big Bird on hand as company reveals new services including credit card and gaming platformApple unveiled a host of new subscription services at a star-studded event in Cupertino, California, on Monday morning.The event marked the debut of a new era for a company that built its brand on hardware and software; just last week, Apple announced new products with little fanfare, saving its firepower for Monday’s celebration of services, from its attempt to take on Netflix to a new Apple credit card. Continue reading...

The games world is awash with spiteful online appraisals – but what’s the point? A committed review-bomber tells allIn an age when everyone’s a blogger or social media influencer, it’s easy for traditional criticism to get drowned out. It’s at the epicentre of this din of competing opinions that Metacritic – a review aggregator owned by CBS that parses disparate media scores into round(ish) numbers – has flourished. Every game, album and movie that is released gets added to site’s gargantuan database, and review scores from tens or hundreds of publications are crunched into an easily digestible average.But on the right side of each product’s page is a separate score, a bane of developers, directors and record companies everywhere: the user reviews section. It’s a public forum where anyone who registers an account can jump into the discussion, leave their own score and heap praise on a release – or, perhaps more often, pour scorn on one. Continue reading...

Many of us rely on our devices for everything from rousing us in the morning to staving off boredom. But there are ways to break the habit Continue reading...

Alex Hern speaks to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, 30 years after the computer engineer sent the proposal for what would become the world wide web. Jordan Erica Webber chats to Elle Hunt and Alex about their earliest memories of using the webThis week, the inventor of the world wide web reflects on what he could have done differently all those years ago, and what we should all be doing to make the internet a safer and better place.Then, Elle Hunt and Alex Hern join Jordan Erica Webber to talk about some of the wackiest stories they heard when compiling the memories of people who used the web in the early days. Continue reading...

Huge screens, dynamic range, lots of pixels, OLED … cut through the telly jargon to find the right one for your homeLet’s face it. Your current TV is showing its age. Its resolution is resolutely HD (so very 00s) and it doesn’t even respond to voice commands, no matter how loud you bawl. Maybe the time has come to upgrade to something cutting edge.Connected smart TVs are now standard fare. With integrated streaming services, you can season binge from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video without the need for an additional set top box or dongle – or multiple remotes. Just connect the TV to your home wifi or router. Continue reading...

Tim Cook has made Apple the most valuable brand in the world – will this be a new success or a sign of the company’s problems?“It’s showtime,” reads the invite for Apple’s next big launch. It sure is. On Monday at the 1,000-seat Steve Jobs Theatre in Apple’s $5bn space-age campus in Cupertino, California, the company’s chief executive, Tim Cook, will unveil his big plans to become a modern media mogul.Details of the plans are sketchy but it appears Apple will be launching a new platform for news publishers with paywalls – the Wall Street Journal is in, New York Times and Washington Post are not – and announcing a series of new TV deals and original programmes that will put it head to head with Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and their rivals in streaming media as they fight it out to be the new kings of Hollywood. Continue reading...

Scientists have discovered that humans may be able to pick up on the Earth’s magnetic field. Here are some other species with animal magnetismLast week, researchers from the California Institute of Technology announced that they believe humans have the ability to pick up on the Earth’s magnetic field – a power known as magnetoreception. In an experiment, participants’ brains were described as “freaking out” when the magnetic field was changed unexpectedly. Continue reading...

The all-conquering 4x4 hits an important milestone – and there’s no better place to join in the fun than BeaulieuThis year, Land Rover’s all-conquering go-anywhere Discovery celebrates its 30th birthday. Since its launch in 1989, the Disco has become synonymous with adventure. It’s been put to work in the most extreme locations, proving time and again that capability does not come at the sacrifice of comfort. It’s equally capable chugging across deserts, through jungles or up the M40. More than 1.7 million have been sold and in its 30 years it has won more than 300 awards. If you want to wish it many happy returns, Beaulieu’s Simply Land Rover is the place to go. From the minimalist Discovery Series I to the latest high-tech versions, all five generations of the Disco will be on display at the National Motor Museum. More than that, the event is a celebration of all things 4x4. More than 400 Land Rovers of every variety will be joining the celebration. Running alongside the event will also be Simply Rummage, where you can track down hard-to-find spares and accessories. You can also challenge yourself on the Forest Drive. The event is the first of a car-packed summer at Beaulieu: it’s followed by Simply Jaguar, Simply Japanese and Simply Mercedes.Simply Land Rover, 23 June, £12 or £10 if you go in a Land Rover (beaulieu.co.uk) Continue reading...

#NoAmazon, armed only with intimate knowledge of their home community, came together to take on an internet behemothOn the morning of February 14, Maritza Silva-Farrell was on a call in her Lower Manhattan office with a fellow climate activist when she noticed a New York Times news alert pop up on her phone.Amazon was pulling out of New York City. The tech behemoth had cancelled its plans to build a second headquarters, and create a reported 25,000 jobs, in Queens barely three months after choosing the city. The decision to select New York as one of the chosen cities – the Washington, D.C. suburb of Crystal City, Virginia was the other – had marked the end of the company’s two-year-long American-Idol style HQ2 contest where over 230 cities from across North America doled out major tax breaks and other corporate freebies to lure Amazon. Continue reading...

Rami Malek’s slasher horror, Bowie as a cyberpunk hacker, streetfighting Carmen Electra, and John Hurt down and dirty … improbable roles for A-listersIt’s no longer unusual to see big-name actors in video game roles – and usually it works out fine. Ellen Page in Beyond: Two Souls, Kristen Bell in Assassin’s Creed and Charles Dance in Witcher 3 were all perfectly cast, bringing their talent and star quality to fitting roles, and featured prominently in those games’ promotion. But sometimes, famous faces pop up in video games where you’re not expecting them, whether it’s someone at the start of their career who later turns into a huge star, or an ageing legend looking for a quick buck. Here are some of our favourite improbable appearances. Continue reading...

Iconic game about urban bloodsuckers is to get an unlikely sequel next year, from Paradox Interactive and Hardsuit Labs in SeattleVampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is almost unique in video game history. It suffered a deeply troubled development involving turbulent clashes between developer Troika and publisher Activision, and was eventually released incomplete and deeply broken. And yet, the 2004 financial disaster of a game is adored and celebrated for its innovative dialogue, astounding characters and banquet of choice. Kept alive ever since by a dedicated group of fans who have patched it up and improved it multiple times, it’s a game now remembered for its huge ambition rather than its colossal failure.Fifteen years later, a sequel has just been announced. Created by Hardsuit Labs (Blacklight: Retribution), along with Bloodlines’ original writer Brian Mitsoda, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has secretly been in development for three years. It will be released in 2020. Continue reading...

Gaming requires my full focus and is one of the few activities that doesn’t encourage me to check my phone every five minutesI’ve heard that my generation spends about 10 hours online per day. If I’m being honest, that sounds a little conservative to me. When are you not online? Aside from face-to-face social interaction (say, coffee with a friend) or activities that force attention (the movies; gigs) I can’t think of a time when I wouldn’t at least be passively scrolling or using my phone in some capacity. I recently bought a pop socket – a small device that allows you to grip your phone better – so that it’s easier for me to hold while moving.I’ve grown up with computers, tablets and various other kinds of screen, and it seems unnatural that you would try to give them up in order to emulate some older generation’s way of life. But being connected all the time can get a little frenzied, and I’ve recently found myself needing to take some time out. It’s ironic that the one tool I’ve found most conducive for relaxing isn’t offline at all. Continue reading...

Company admits to mistake and says it has no evidence of abuse – but the risk was hugeFacebook mistakenly stored “hundreds of millions” of passwords in plaintext, unprotected by any encryption, the company has admitted.The mistake, which led to user passwords being kept in Facebook’s internal servers in an insecure way, affects “hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users, tens of millions of other Facebook users, and tens of thousands of Instagram users”, according to the social networking site. Facebook Lite is a version of Facebook created for use in nations where mobile data is unaffordable or unavailable. Continue reading...

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Site says recently live streams are prioritised for review only when flagged for suicideFacebook has released more details of its response to the Christchurch terrorist attack, saying it did not deal with the attacker’s live stream as quickly as it could have because it was not reported as a video of suicide.The company said streams that were flagged by users while live were prioritised for accelerated review, as were any recently live streams that were reported for suicide content. Continue reading...

Chris wants to know if a Windows laptop with a 17in screen would be easier for his ‘pensioner eyes’

I taught my son how to play video games. Now he’s teaching meThere is a moment in parenthood when your child discovers you are not infallible, that you can be beaten. The first time a kid wins a game of tennis against their mum or dad, or solves a maths problem their parents can’t even begin to understand, it is profoundly bittersweet. While it is wonderful to see your child growing up and becoming independent, when they get good at things, they are a little bit less yours, and you are a little bit less heroic. It is sometimes hard to be the grownup in that situation and not deal with it childishly. I discovered this on Saturday when my eldest son and I were playing Apex Legends.My wife had taken our younger son to Jersey for the weekend to see her sister, and I thought it would be a treat to hunker down with our first born and spend a few hours fighting against strangers together in the battle royale shooter game of the moment. Players are automatically put into online groups of three, so we set up two TVs and two consoles so we could compete together in the same squad. My son and I have not played together much since the days of our epic Minecraft sessions or when we’d spend hours battling through every one of the Lego action adventures, dividing up the puzzles between us. That was when he was eight or nine. He’s 13 now, and plays with with friends he meets online. I hear them from the other room, sharing jokes and trash-talking through their headsets. Continue reading...

As my daughter kindly told me, I am only one of these things. But I was perturbed by how accurately I’d been microtargetedI read that Jeremy Wright, the culture secretary, is looking at “microtargeting” by online advertisers. I have a long list of stuff to worry about in my life, and the world in general. Microtargeting hadn’t made the cut. But it’s on there now, because something most odd has happened to me on the iPhone Maps app.I was staying at my friend’s flat in a big block in the middle of Birmingham last week. Lying in bed, squinting at the Maps app, looking for something, I chanced upon the name of a company located either in or next to the building I had woken up in: Dating Agency for Attractive People Age 52 Plus. What’s that all about? Why 52? Is 52 a thing, a significant milestone? Continue reading...

Higher contrast, better touchscreen and Paperwhite-like light among improvementsAmazon has released a new version of its cheapest Kindle e-reader with an improved screen and a reading light, a feature previously held back for its more expensive devices.Costing £10 more than the previous generation, at £69.99, the new Kindle has a 6in e-ink display with an adjustable front light that projects from the sides to make the screen readable in the dark. Continue reading...