Not using phone is ‘a strange experience but really is good for you’, music producer saysSimon Cowell has revealed that he has not used his mobile phone for 10 months in an attempt to boost his mental health and happiness.The music mogul said the move had paid off in terms of his quality of life. Continue reading...
From Bose to Beats, we assess the cans capable of shutting out the world as well as making your music singBose is one of the pioneers of noise-cancelling technology and is often lauded as the best in the business. The QC35 II are the second edition of the company’s wireless noise-cancelling cans and set the standard by which everyone else is measured. Continue reading...
It played a pivotal role in many campaigns through the Second World War, and now a special limited-edition of the RE/WD 125 is back in actionRoyal Enfield Classic 500 Pegasus
Researchers say wearable fitness trackers could also allow doctors to step in before patients must be sent to hospitalWearable fitness trackers, such as the popular Fitbit, have the potential to help doctors predict which patients will do well on a course of chemotherapy, and be able to intervene before unexpected admissions to the hospital, experts believe. Continue reading...
Numbers using Facebook have dropped significantly since 2015, with YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat more popularTeenagers have abandoned Facebook in favour of other social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram, according to a study from the Pew Research Center.Just 51% of US individuals aged 13 to 17 say they use Facebook – a dramatic plunge from the 71% who said they used the social network in Pew’s previous study in 2015, when it was the dominant online platform. Continue reading...
Smart home appliances send data to manufacturers and third parties, Which? warnsBritish homes are vulnerable to “a staggering level of corporate surveillance†through common internet-enabled devices, an investigation has found.Researchers found that a range of connected appliances – increasingly popular features of the so-called smart home – send data to their manufacturers and third-party companies, in some cases failing to keep the information secure. One Samsung smart TV connected to more than 700 distinct internet addresses in 15 minutes. Continue reading...
Company says the feature, which was blamed for the rise of fake news, was unpopularFacebook is shutting down its ill-fated trending news section after four years, according to a company executive.
by Presented by Jordan Erica Webber and produced by D on (#3RDRJ)
Jordan Erica Webber questions the significance of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s video game-themed concertSubscribe and review: Acast, Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook, Twitter or email us at chipspodcast@theguardian.com.The world premiere of PlayStation in Concert took place this week, featuring PlayStation game music from the 90s to today, arranged by Jim Fowler and performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Continue reading...
At annual meeting, investors condemn CEO’s level of sway at the company, telling him: ‘Emulate Washington, not Putin’In the months since Facebook faced one of the greatest crises in its 14-year history over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has faced tough questioning and increased scrutiny from his users, the media and governments around the world.On Thursday, the billionaire executive faced another challenge: from angry shareholders at the company’s annual meeting, where activist investors had forced votes on six proposals to change the company’s governance or institute other reforms. Continue reading...
Tech firm acts on accounts created by users under 13 at the time to comply with GDPRIn an effort to comply with GDPR, Twitter is blocking users who were underage when they signed up for the service – even if they’re now well over 18.The company instituted a wave of account suspensions on 25 May, the day the new privacy regulation came into effect, locking the accounts of any user whose self-declared date of birth suggested that they may have been under 13 at the point they signed up for the account. Continue reading...
Is this strange Android app bug an Easter egg? Whatever it is, it has mystified users on RedditSoftware and apps are full of so called Easter eggs, which bored coders put in to trigger something novel just for fun. If this is one of those, it’s the most bizarre Easter eggs for a while. Type “the1975..com†into the Google app on your Android phone and see what happens.
Broadband is slow on June’s farm and BT wants £16,000 to install something faster. What are the options?We’re a rural family of six with three businesses on site and we have three landlines in order to be able to use broadband. It is a disaster – usually less than 1MB, peaks occasionally at 4MB – and sometimes the kids have to go to the village to do homework.Why isn’t BT forced to enable rural homes with the same deals that city people get? BT wanted to charge £16,000 to connect us!BT isn’t forced to offer rural homes the same deals as city people because – as your £16,000 quote illustrates – it would cost too much. BT is busy extending its high-speed network to rural areas but the British government, via the DCMS’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) scheme, and local authorities are contributing to the cost.
Parents have been advised to limit media consumption, but research suggests it’s the nature of it that mattersFor many parents in the digital age, battles over screen time and devices have become a depressing part of family life, and knowing how much is too much has become a moving target.Whether it’s three-year-olds throwing tantrums when the iPad is taken away, seven-year-olds watching YouTube all night, nine-year-olds demanding their own phones, 11-year-olds nagging to play 18-rated video games that “all their friends†are, or 14-year-olds who are never off Instagram, every stage of childhood and adolescence is now accompanied by its own delightful new parenting challenges. Continue reading...
Nest Hello promises to recognise friends and family at the door, but could provoke privacy concernsGoogle’s facial recognition video doorbell, the Nest Hello, is launching in the UK to challenge Amazon’s Ring.
Law introduced banning drones from flying above 400ft and within 1km of an airportThe government has announced measures to tackle the dangers drones can pose to people, aircraft and airports.From 30 July, drones will be banned by law from flying above 400ft and within 1km of an airport boundary, because of fears they could damage the windows or engines of planes and other aircraft during takeoff or landing. Continue reading...
A game promising to let users play the killer in a school shooting has been removed from games store Steam following outcryA video game designed to simulate school shooting scenarios has been removed from the digital games store Steam.Active Shooter was due to be launched on the popular PC gaming site on 6 June, provoking an outcry from politicians and the parents of children killed during the Parkland shooting in Florida. A petition calling for the game to be removed from the store was signed by more than 180,000 people. Continue reading...
PUGB, creator of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, files lawsuit against Epic Games claiming similarities between two titlesThe creator of the smash-hit video game Fortnite is to be sued in South Korea for copyright violation.According to the Korean Times, a lawsuit has been filed by PUGB Corp, a subsidiary of the publisher Bluehole. It alleges that Fortnite bears many similarities to its own title, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which was launched several months earlier. Continue reading...
If confirmed, it would be the third time a Tesla in autopilot has crashed into a stationary emergency vehicle this yearA Tesla car operating in “autopilot†mode crashed into a stationary police car in Laguna Beach, California, leaving the driver injured and the patrol vehicle “totalledâ€, according to an official.Sgt Jim Cota, the public information officer for the Laguna Beach police department, tweeted photos of the accident, which was reported at 11.07am on Tuesday. The driver of the Tesla, who suffered minor lacerations to the face from his glasses, told police officers the Tesla was in the semi-autonomous mode, although further investigation is needed to confirm this. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Political correspondent on (#3R7ZN)
Directors could face financial penalty on top of fine directly imposed on companyBusiness directors could be personally fined up to £500,000 if they fail to prevent nuisance calls, under a government consultation on the issue.While there has been a big recent increase in the fines issued to companies – last year one was fined £400,000 for making almost 100m automated calls in 18 months – there is concern this has not been a sufficient deterrent. Continue reading...
Submission says bill would disproportionately affect ethnic minorities, and damage freedom of assembly and expression• Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morningFacial matching technology proposed by the government risks racial bias and would have a chilling effect on the right to freedom of assembly without further safeguards, the Human Rights Law Centre has said.The warning is contained in a submission to a parliamentary committee inquiry examining the Coalition’s proposal for the home affairs department to collect, use and disclose facial identification information. Continue reading...
Your reflexes are shot and your hand-eye coordination is dodgy – so how do you keep up with the kids in the world’s biggest video game? Here are the 13 rules of survivalYour kids are playing it, your friends are complaining about their kids playing it, and the tabloid press are telling you no one should be playing it because it’s evil. But the fact is, Fortnite is here, it’s lots of fun, and if you can’t beat its 40 million players you may as well join them.
It is lightning quick, clean, green – and expensive. But shouldn’t we think again about magnetic levitation?Clean, green, quick and quiet; no wheels, no engines to fail; able to stop quickly and safely and glide off noiselessly on a cushion of air.
Millions of teenagers have turned this unheralded video game into a cultural giant – and even parents are relaxed about itFortnite, a video game released without much fanfare last July, is now arguably the most popular diversion in the world; a cultural juggernaut on a par with Star Wars, or Minecraft – though one now also attracting players with a $100m prize fund. Playgrounds jostle as children showboat dance moves copied from the game, while parents tip from mournful anxiety about screentime quotas, to blessed relief that here is a game that encourages teamwork, compromise and communication between their otherwise monosyllabic adolescents.Fortnite borrows the premise of the Japanese novel Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, in which contestants are sent to an island where they must scavenge and fight until only one remains. In Fortnite you are dropped along with 99 other players from a flying bus, and parachute on to a candy-coloured island. Every few minutes a lethal electrical storm draws closer, herding survivors toward a final standoff. Continue reading...
Agency urges router owners to reset them and download updates amid fears hackers could collect dataThe FBI warned on Friday that Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and could collect user information or shut down network traffic.The US law enforcement agency urged the owners of many brands of routers to turn them off and on again and download updates from the manufacturer to protect themselves. Continue reading...
‘One-man cybercrime wave’ Grant West masqueraded as Just Eat to get people’s dataA hacker who carried out attacks on a string of companies before selling customers’ data on the dark web has been jailed for more than 10 years.Grant West, 26, carried out cyber-attacks on high street brands including Sainsbury’s, Asda, Uber, Argos and bookmakers Ladbrokes and Coral. Continue reading...
Users have been forced into agreeing new terms of service, says EU consumer rights bodyFacebook and Google have become the targets of the first official complaints of GDPR noncompliance, filed on the day the privacy law takes effect across the EU.Across four complaints, related to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Google’s Android operating system, European consumer rights organisation Noyb argues that the companies have forced users into agreeing to new terms of service, in breach of the requirement in the law that such consent should be freely given. Continue reading...
LA Times, Chicago Tribune and others redirect to pages saying sites are currently unavailable in most European countriesThe general data protection regulation, which has come into effect, has prompted a number of prestigious US-based websites including the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune to shut off access to internet users in the EU.Visitors to newspapers owned by Tronc Inc – formerly Tribune Publishing – which also includes the New York Daily News, the Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel and the San Diego Union-Tribune, are being redirected to a page with the message: “Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. Continue reading...
How has becoming compliant played out in your workplace? What short and long term effects will the process have on the business?The last minute frenzy to retain customers while still complying with new regulation won’t have escaped your inbox.
by Presented by Jordan Erica Webber and produced by D on (#3QZBT)
The General Data Protection Regulation is coming into into force. Jordan Erica Webber finds out how the deluge of emails could be a health hazardSubscribe and review: Acast, Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook, Twitter or email us at chipspodcast@theguardian.com.The General Data Protection Regulation is coming into force. Continue reading...
Police report says Model S accelerated for 3.5 seconds prior to collision with stopped firetruck that left two injuredA Tesla that crashed while in Autopilot mode in Utah this month accelerated in the seconds before it smashed into a stopped firetruck, according to a police report obtained by the Associated Press on Thursday. Two people were injured.Data from the Model S electric vehicle show it picked up speed for 3.5 seconds shortly before crashing into a stopped firetruck in suburban Salt Lake City, the report said. The driver manually hit the brakes a fraction of a second before impact. Continue reading...
The company, which has insisted its Echo devices aren’t always recording, has confirmed the audio was sentNo matter how suspicious it has seemed that Amazon is encouraging us to put listening devices in every room of our homes, the company has always said that its Echo assistants are not listening in on or recording conversations. Over and over again, company spokespeople have promised that they only start recording if someone says the wake word: “Alexaâ€.It’s a spiel Danielle, an Alexa user from Portland, Oregon, had believed. She’d installed Echo devices and smart bulbs in every room in her house, accepting Amazon’s claims that they were not invading her privacy. But today she asked the company to investigate after an Alexa device recorded a private conversation between her and her husband and sent it to a random number in their address book without their permission. Continue reading...
After controversy over Russian ads targeting US election, company creates searchable archive of political advertisingSix months after acknowledging it had run advertisements purchased by a Russian influence operation during the 2016 US presidential campaign, Facebook launched new political ad labels in the US disclosing who paid for them.Also starting Thursday on Facebook and Instagram, users will be able to search an archive of election and political issue ads in the US for all the political ads by a given candidate or organization. The archive will also allow users to see limited demographic information – age, gender and location – about the audience who saw the ad. Continue reading...
Federal investigation finds emergency braking system was not enabled in SUV that hit Arizona pedestrianA federal investigation into a self-driving Uber SUV that hit and killed a pedestrian in March has found that the vehicle’s emergency braking system was disabled.The preliminary report, issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, said on Thursday that while the vehicle’s guidance system had spotted the woman about six seconds before hitting her, emergency braking manoeuvres were not enabled in order to “reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behaviorâ€. Continue reading...
Some companies push new onerous terms of service on users as GDPR rules come into force on FridayDozens of websites shut down their activities completely, others forced users to agree to new terms of service, and inboxes have been flooded with emails begging customers to remain on mailing lists as the GDPR rules come into force on Friday.The biggest update in data protection laws since the 1990s is posing major challenges for developers and businesses – while giving substantial new powers to consumers. Continue reading...
While many apps gather ‘digital dust’, others foster dependent helplessness, writes Martin WillisJohn Harris’s critique of the internet revolution (Ignore the hype over big tech. Its products are mostly useless, 21 May) does not go far enough. While many apps gather “digital dustâ€, others foster dependent helplessness.Last week in Berlin, a young Bavarian visitor asked me, a non-German speaking British pensioner, for help in navigating a short journey on the underground. He looked bemused when I produced a map and traced the route he needed to take, to the extent that I offered to guide him as I was travelling in a similar direction. Continue reading...
As regulations come into force on Friday, inboxes fill with messages hoping to persuade customers to stay subscribedAs the GDPR deadline approaches, businesses have been resorting to ever more desperate attempts to get users to open their emails.
Renewed call to drop Facebook’s under-13s chat app backed by 21,000-strong petitionMore than 21,000 child health advocates are petitioning Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to “pull the plug†on the company’s Messenger Kids app aimed at under 13s, warning of the “addictive power of social mediaâ€.In an open letter and petition led by two groups, the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC) and MomsRising, the campaigners urged Zuckerberg to use his “enormous reach and influence to promote children’s wellbeing.†Continue reading...
by Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison on (#3QXE1)
Company gathered data from texts and photos of users and their friends, court case claimsFacebook used its apps to gather information about users and their friends, including some who had not signed up to the social network, reading their text messages, tracking their locations and accessing photos on their phones, a court case in California alleges.The claims of what would amount to mass surveillance are part of a lawsuit brought against the company by the former startup Six4Three, listed in legal documents filed at the superior court in San Mateo as part of a court case that has been ongoing for more than two years. Continue reading...
by Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison on (#3QXE2)
Facebook CEO exploited ability to access data from any user’s friend network, US case claimsMark Zuckerberg faces allegations that he developed a “malicious and fraudulent scheme†to exploit vast amounts of private data to earn Facebook billions and force rivals out of business.A company suing Facebook in a California court claims the social network’s chief executive “weaponised†the ability to access data from any user’s network of friends – the feature at the heart of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Continue reading...
Firm’s first non-US Advanced Technologies Centre will host Elevate programme and research into electric transportUber is opening a new research centre in Paris to develop the firm’s flying taxis as part of its Elevate programme.The new Advanced Technologies Centre, which will open in the autumn, will be Uber’s first development site outside the US. The taxi firm said that it would be investing €20m (£17.5m) over the next five years and is partnering with École Polytechnique on various research schemes. Continue reading...
Matt’s dad wants to organise files and make them accessible via his phone and tablet. Which program should he choose?My dad runs a small business and has problems organising his files – Word documents, PDFs, photos – alongside his emails. He wants to be able to easily save the emails and files in folders in date order in a single place. He also wants the folders to be accessible from anywhere on his phone/iPad.I’ve tried simply saving the emails and documents into a single folder on his Mac, but this is a huge pain for the amount of emails he receives. MattOne of the advantages of the digitisation of information is that we can now store many different kinds of data together. Videos and sound recordings now sit happily alongside letters, photos, paper receipts and invoices instead of in separate ledgers or folders, or on different physical media such as cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs etc.
Battlefield V aims to showcase the “unseen locations and untold stories†of war, with both epic battles and individual missions to engage in from Norway to north AfricaWARNING: video content not suitable for childrenThe Battlefield series is going back to where it started with its fifth incarnation, but this time with a goal of showcasing the “unseen locations, untold stories, and unplayed gameplay moments†of the second world war.For the first time in the series, that also includes a heavy focus on female soldiers, with a substantial chunk of the single-player mode starring women, and the option for players to bring female characters into multiplayer games. Continue reading...
The company will focus research efforts on Pittsburgh and continue to test in San FranciscoUber is to shut down its self-driving car programme in Arizona after one of its cars killed a pedestrian there in March.Related: Self-driving Uber kills Arizona woman in first fatal crash involving pedestrian Continue reading...
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