by Peter Walker Senior political correspondent on (#6W5XW)
Public accounts committee also flags persistent digital skills shortages' and uncompetitive civil service pay ratesThe government's ambition to boost efficiency by embedding AI in all aspects of its work risks being undermined by out-of-date technology, poor quality data and a lack of skilled staff, an influential Commons committee has warned.The report by the cross-party public accounts committee (PAC) found that more than 20 government IT systems identified as legacy", meaning out of date and unsupported, have yet to be given funding to improve them. Continue reading...
Fintech firm, operating CashApp, Square and Tidal, to close nearly 800 open jobs in second such move in just over a yearBlock, Jack Dorsey's financial technology company, plans to let go almost 1,000 current employees, while making other changes to its operations in its second such move in just over a year.Dorsey, who co-founded and previously ran Twitter before co-founding Block in 2009, informed employees of the impending cuts on Tuesday in an email, viewed by the Guardian, titled smaller block". The layoffs will impact more than 930 employees, with another nearly 200 managers being moved into non-management roles, and another nearly 800 open jobs will be closed, according to the email. Continue reading...
Tech startup says it bought company once linked to music piracy to transform it into a social music platform for artistsA brand that was notoriously connected to music piracy before re-emerging as a subscription music service, has been sold to Infinite Reality for $207m.The tech startup announced on Tuesday it had bought Napster in hopes of transforming the streaming service into a social music platform where artists can connect with fans and better monetize off their work. Continue reading...
Studies show those who engage emotionally with bot rely on it more and have fewer real-life relationshipsHeavy users of ChatGPT tend to be lonelier, more emotionally dependent on the AI tool and have fewer offline social relationships, new research suggests.Only a small number of users engage emotionally with ChatGPT, but those who do are among the heaviest users, according to a pair of studies from OpenAI and the MIT Media Lab. Continue reading...
Head of tech giant's consumer electronics and mobile devices division passed away at a hospital on TuesdaySouth Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that its co-chief executive officer Han Jong-hee has died due to cardiac arrest. Han was 63.Han was in charge of Samsung's consumer electronics and mobile devices division, while co-CEO Jun Young-hyun oversees the chip business of South Korea's biggest company. Continue reading...
Tech CEO accused of aiming to privatize space and satellite operations as federal agencies reportedly seek contractsElon Musk appears to be laying the groundwork to privatize some space and satellite operations now under the authority of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), or steer lucrative contracts toward his SpaceX and Starlink companies, former agency employees say.They're sounding the alarm as at least four other federal agencies have reportedly begun pushing new contracts toward Musk's Starlink satellite internet company. Musk, the world's richest man, has been tasked by Donald Trump with drastically slashing the federal government workforce and costs. Continue reading...
The genetic testing firm filed for bankruptcy after a major data breach. Here's how to protect your DNA privacyWelcome to Opt Out, a semi-regular column in which we help you navigate your online privacy and show you how to say no to surveillance. The last column covered how to stop tech companies spying on your phone as Trump promises mass deportations.The DNA testing company 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy after months of concern over its financial health and its ability to keep users' genetic information secure. In light of the uncertainty looming over the company's future, you should do one thing to protect your privacy today: delete your 23andMe account. Continue reading...
Prominent campaigner says Elon Musk's platform qualifies for the levy, which is on the block in negotiationsElon Musk's X stands to benefit financially if the government pulls an 800m tax on US tech firms as part of an economic deal with Donald Trump, as a prominent tax campaigner indicated the social media platform qualifies for the levy.Dan Neidle, the head of the non-profit organisation Tax Policy Associates, said the social media platform was eligible for the digital services tax, which is on the block in negotiations between the US and the UK. Continue reading...
Those of us who spend our lives gaming can no longer deny knowledge that our online communities are awash with disturbing hate speech and violent rhetoricThere is a lot of attention on young men and toxic masculinity at the moment. It's about time. The devastating Netflix drama Adolescence, about a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a girl after being radicalised by the online manosphere, has drawn attention to the problem through the sheer force of its brilliant writing and a blistering lead performance from teenager Owen Cooper. Recently, former England football manager Gareth Southgate gave a speech about the state of boyhood in the UK, specifically about how young men, lacking moral mentors, are turning to gambling and video gaming, thereby disconnecting from society and immersing themselves in predominantly male online communities where misogyny and racism are often rife. There has been some kickback in the gaming press to the idea that games have provided a less-than-ideal environment for boys, but even those of us who have played and enjoyed games all our lives need to face up to the fact that gaming forums, message boards, streaming platforms and social media groups are awash with disturbing hate speech and violent rhetoric.Honestly, we have known this for a while. The 2014 harassment campaign GamerGate, which claimed to be about a lack of objectivity in games journalism, but was really a reaction to increasing inclusivity and progressive thinking in game development, was a testing ground for the radicalisation of young white men by alt-right" influencers and news outlets such as Breitbart. Many of the apparatus of online rightwing extremism, including mass harassment and doxing of victims, originated in that rancid cauldron, where female and LGBTQI+ game developers, and game-makers of colour, were made to fear for their lives. Continue reading...
This premium mattress comes with a chunky price tag. Here's what impressed me - and what could be better The best mattresses: sleep better with our six rigorously tested picksI put in months of hard sleep to test Simba's flagship bed-in-a-box" mattress, and for the most part, I found it so comfortable that I told everyone it was the best mattress I'd ever reviewed. It ultimately lost that crown to the Otty Original Hybrid but, goodness me, it gave me some glorious sleep along the way.As with other hybrid mattresses, the Simba Hybrid Pro combines pocket springs with various types of memory foam to offer a balance of support and softness. Its outstanding motion isolation makes it a particularly fine choice for couples who need some peace from each other's nocturnal fidgeting. Continue reading...
On straight line missions, YouTubers jump fences, wade through rivers, and almost die in peat bogs. It's completely pointless - and weirdly beautifulSpending too much time on YouTube can be a dangerous game for men my age. Algorithmic gyres can pull you rightwards - towards misogynistic extremes and away from the parts of the internet that build connections and foster consensus.Thankfully the rabbit hole I fell down led me - in a perfectly straight line - towards a renewed sense of childlike adventure. Continue reading...
New CPS guidance aims to boost use of deletion orders after Observer revealed systemic failingsThe Crown Prosecution Service is to update its guidance on so-called revenge porn" crimes to stop perpetrators being allowed to keep explicit photos of their victims.The Observer revealed last month that magistrates courts were routinely failing to make orders for the deletion of content linked to intimate-image abuse cases - and that prosecutors were failing to request them. Continue reading...
When a Netflix drama highlights how online influencers can turn a teenager into a killer, it's time to rethink social mediaEvery so often, a television drama comes along that has the power to change things. Last year, it was ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office, in which the plight of subpostmasters was rendered with such success that it actually hastened in real-world legislation to compensate them.And now we have Netflix's Adolescence, which looks at the online radicalisation of young boys by men's rights activists (MRAs) such as Andrew Tate. Last week, Keir Starmer told the Commons he had been watching the series with his family and that it portrayed an emerging and growing problem" that needed to be tackled. Now MPs are examining ideas to address the issue with greater urgency.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...
The co-founder of LinkedIn and Democrat donor remains confident that AI can be good for all of us - if its introduction is handled in the right wayReid Hoffman is a prominent Silicon Valley billionaire entrepreneur and investor known for co-founding the professional social networking site LinkedIn, now owned by Microsoft. He's also staunchly anti-Trump. The longtime Democrat donor threw his support behind Kamala Harris in the race for the White House. Hoffman spoke to the Observer about technology in the new political milieu and his new book about our future with artificial intelligence, Superagency. The book, while not ignoring the problems that AI might cause, argues that the technology is poised to give us cognitive superpowers that will increase our individual and collective human agency, creating a state of widespread empowerment for society.You have a vested interest in being positive about AI, including a company focused on conversational AI for business, Inflection AI. Why should we listen to you?
The company that prides itself on announcing products only when they're ready grossly underestimated the demands of personalising its virtual assistantAfter ChatGPT broke cover in late 2022 and the tech industry embarked on its contemporary rendering of tulip mania, people started to wonder why the biggest tech giant of all - Apple - was keeping its distance from the madness. Eventually, the tech commentariat decided that there could be only two possible interpretations of this corporate standoffishness: either Apple was way behind the game being played by OpenAI et al; or it had cunning plans to unleash upon the world its own world-beating take on the technology.Finally, at its annual World Wide Developers' Conference (WWDC) on 10 June last year Apple came clean. Or appeared to. For Apple, AI" would not mean what those vulgar louts at OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Meta raved about, but something altogether more refined and sophisticated - something called Apple Intelligence". It was not, as the veteran Apple-watcher John Gruber put it, a single thing or product but a marketing term for a collection of features, apps, and services". Putting it all under a single, memorable label made it easier for users to understand that Apple was launching something really novel. And, of course, it also made it easier for Apple to say that users who wanted to have all of these fancy features would have to buy an iPhone 15 Pro, because older devices wouldn't be up to the task. Continue reading...
Amid angst over the technology, a consensus is emerging about its capabilities - but there is an elephant in the roomIn early March, a job advert was doing the rounds among sports journalists. It was for an AI-assisted sports reporter" at USA Today's publisher, Gannett. It was billed as a role at the forefront of a new era in journalism", but came with a caveat: This is not a beat-reporting position and does not require travel or face-to-face interviews." The dark humour was summed up by football commentator, Gary Taphouse: It was fun while it lasted."As the relentless march of artificial intelligence continues, newsrooms are wrestling with the threats and opportunities the technology creates. Just in the past few weeks, one media outlet's AI project was accused of softening the image of the Ku Klux Klan. AI is also playing a part in some British journalists recording more than 100 bylines in a day. Amid the angst over the technology, however, a broad consensus is beginning to emerge about what the technology is currently capable of doing accurately. Continue reading...
Facebook and Instagram owner reaches legal agreement with human rights campaigner in case that could set precedent for millionsThe owner of Facebook and Instagram has agreed to stop targeting a UK citizen with personalised adverts after agreeing a settlement in a landmark privacy case that could set a precedent for millions of social media users.Mark Zuckerberg's Meta also said it was considering charging UK users for an advert-free version of its platforms after the legal agreement that avoided a trial in the high court in London. Continue reading...
Cafes are cracking down on remote workers - but we can save ourselves by following a few simple rulesOnce upon a time, it was socially acceptable to smoke inside, wear those mad, wide ties and pat your secretary on the bottom. Norms change, and that's often for the best. But when it comes to laptops in cafes, falling from favour as owners lose patience with remote workers, I am begging society to reconsider. Don't take my cafe nook - it's the only thing keeping the WFH brigade and lonely freelancers like me sane.My kitchen table, where I do most of my work, is fine. It's got a window next to it. There's a kettle I can use whenever I like. I can play my own music, make loud phone calls and migrate to the sofa when being upright gets a bit much. But variety is the spice of life, and truly I would lose my mind if those were my only options. Yes, I'm aware of co-working spaces, but they are a) full of awful people and b) I can't afford one. Luckily, the buzz of the outside world, the soothing white noise of life beyond my keyboard's tip-tapping, is only as far away as the nearest cafe - for now.Emily Watkins is a freelance writer based in LondonDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Musk lambastes judges as leftwing activists in more than 20 posts as Trump administration's judiciary clash intensifiesIn the days after a federal judge ruled Elon Musk's dismantling of USAID likely violated the constitution, the world's richest person issued a series of online attacks against the American judiciary, offered money to voters to sign a petition opposing activist judges", and called on Congress to remove his newfound legal opponents from office.This is a judicial coup," Musk wrote on Wednesday, asking lawmakers to impeach the judges". Continue reading...
It is impossible to ignore video game music now,' says Tommy Pearson, founder and artistic director of the inaugural London Soundtrack festivalDid you know that soundtrack concerts are among the most popular for touring orchestras? A full third of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's first-time audience members are coming to the concert hall via their favourite series and movies - and video games. It is a huge cultural growth area, and one that may have gone unrecognised by the general public.It is impossible to ignore video game music now," says Tommy Pearson, founder and artistic director of the inaugural London Soundtrack festival. The sheer creativity and artistry in games is incredible, and it's been fascinating to see so many composers blossom in the genre." Continue reading...
Arve Hjalmar Holmen, who has never been accused of or convicted of a crime, says chatbot's response to prompt was defamatoryA Norwegian man has filed a complaint against the company behind ChatGPT after the chatbot falsely claimed he had murdered two of his children.Arve Hjalmar Holmen, a self-described regular person" with no public profile in Norway, asked ChatGPT for information about himself and received a reply claiming he had killed his own sons. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot, Rachel Keenan and Rachel Hall on (#6W25K)
Exclusive: TV drama Adolescence adds to pressure from MPs for action to help schools tackle impact of social mediaBridget Phillipson is to begin in-depth scrutiny of smartphone bans in schools in England as pressure grows from MPs to act on the effect of social media on teenagers.The education secretary is to start monitoring a group of schools to understand the effectiveness of the guidance. The education department will also, for the first time, do an in-depth analysis of the national behaviour survey in schools to look at the most successful ways of policing the bans, and the challenges schools are facing. Continue reading...
Elon Musk's company is arguing against the government's expanded powers to allow easier removal of online contentIndia's IT ministry has unlawfully expanded censorship powers to allow the easier removal of online content and empowered countless" government officials to execute such orders, Elon Musk's X has alleged in a new lawsuit against New Delhi.The lawsuit and the allegations mark an escalation in an ongoing legal dispute between X and the government of India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, over how New Delhi orders content to be taken down. It also comes as Musk is getting closer to launching his other key ventures, Starlink and Tesla, in India. Continue reading...
Ellen Hollander calls Trump aide's hunt for supposed fraud a fishing expedition' in temporary restraining orderA federal judge on Thursday blocked Elon Musk's so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) from accessing social security records as part of its hunt under Donald Trump for fraud and waste, calling the effort a fishing expedition".Judge Ellen Hollander granted a temporary restraining order that prevents Social Security Administration (SSA) workers from allowing Doge to have access to records that contain personally identifiable information. Continue reading...
While it is unknown if any Australians have been targeted, the military-grade program from Paragon Solutions provides full access to encrypted messaging apps
Organisations including energy and transport firms told to guard systems against powerful new computersThe UK's cybersecurity agency is urging organisations to guard their systems against quantum hackers by 2035, as the prospect of breakthroughs in powerful computing threaten digital encryption.The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued new guidance recommending large entities including energy and transport providers introduce post-quantum cryptography" in order to prevent quantum technology being deployed to break into their systems. Continue reading...
Sir Gareth Southgate is right to warn that social media is trapping boys in toxic ideals. It's a crisis demanding real-world solutionsBoys used to be raised by their parents. Now, as they grow up, an increasing number are coming under the influence of toxic online figures who push a hollow, misogynistic version of masculinity. This isn'thelpingtheir character or their relationships. But it does work for a digital world where worth is measured in money, status and appearance. Girls havelong seen their mental health suffer from social media comparisons and phone addiction. But that doesn't make it any less troubling now that boys are being similarly affected.In his Richard Dimbleby lecture for the BBC, SirGareth Southgate made a cogent case that young men are being failed by modern society - not just by absent role models, but by a culture that doesn't acknowledge failure and vulnerability while exposingthem to damaging digital influences. Withoutreal-life guidance, they can withdraw, becoming reluctant to talk or unable to express their emotions. Boys can fall into an unhealthy world of gaming, gambling and pornography.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
This thrilling trip through Japan is the best the series has given us in yearsI have played many Assassin's Creed games over the years, but I've rarely loved them. Ubisoft's historical fiction is perennially almost-great. A lot of players would say it reached its peak in the late 2000s, with the trio of renaissance Italy games beginning with Assassin's Creed 2, and their charismatic hero, Ezio Auditore. Since then, the series has become bloated, offering hundreds of hours of repetitive open-world exploration and assassination in ancient Greece, Egypt and even Viking Britain. Odyssey (the Greek one) was the last I played seriously; I found the setting exquisite, the gameplay somewhat irritating and the scale completely overwhelming.The Assassin's Creed games are extraordinary works of historical fiction, fastidiously recreating lost periods of history and letting you walk around in them. They're the closest thing to time travel. I play them for the virtual tourism, and find myself vaguely disappointed that 80% of what you do in these painstakingly realised worlds boils down to parkouring around killing people. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Angela Giuffrida on (#6W1CF)
David Yambio, founder of Refugees in Libya, urges international criminal court members to have phones checkedA prominent activist in Italy has warned the international criminal court that his mobile phone was under surveillance when he was providing the ICC with confidential information about victims of torture in Libya.A report released on Wednesday by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, which tracks digital surveillance of members of civil society, has confirmed that David Yambio, the founder of an organisation called Refugees in Libya, was targeted by mercenary spyware. The attack occurred at a time when he was in communication with The Hague, he said. At least one attack took place around June 2024, researchers said. Continue reading...
Director Greg Kohs uses every tool in the editing palette to explain how Artificial General Intelligence (as differentiated from Artificial Intelligence) worksIf you don't follow science news much, you may only be aware of Artificial Intelligence as a new-fangled thingy that somehow makes TikToks of kittens singing versions of Don't You Want Me Like I Want You Baby in an ickle kid voice. If that's your level of engagement with AI, then this competent, fluent documentary offers a very approachable entry into the subject. It's not, however, a wide-lens overview of the subject but a character-driven study of one specific, key-player company in the industry: DeepMind, whose intercapped name betrays its origins in the 2010 tech-boom era.As it happens, DeepMind is now officially called Google DeepMind and is part of a suite of divisions developing robotics and solving problems using AI - sorry, AGI because it's not just Artificial Intelligence we're talking about here, but Artificial General Intelligence (it gets explained). The fact that Google and its tech overlords are involved, however amiable they seem when seen in their office casual dress (former CEO Eric Schmidt at least), means this has more than a little flavour of corporate video, investor-fluffing, and self-congratulatory smugness about it. But DeepMind's British founder and CEO Demis Hassabis manages to come across as a pretty nice guy with a genuinely interesting backstory. The son of a Greek father and a Singaporean mother raised in London, he was a child chess prodigy who became a video game designer; instead, he opted to go into a purer form of research on how thinking itself works, and that became his business. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6W16Z)
With launch problems fixed, first colour Kindle improves reading experience - but it is pricey and too small for comicsAmazon's first Kindle with a colour screen had been a very long time coming and then suffered a rough landing last year, plagued with yellowing screen issues and shipping delays. But with those problems fixed, is a splash of colour the revolution the Kindle needs?Amazon isn't the first to use a colour e-ink screen in an e-reader, but it thinks its upgrades meaningfully improve on the tech used by others such as Boox and Kobo over the past four years by offering greater contrast and speed. Continue reading...
Jack Thorne, whose Netflix series has shone a light on incel culture, calls for restrictions on teens' social media accessSmartphones should be treated like cigarettes and banned until the age of 16 in the UK, according to the writer of Adolescence, which explores the insidious influence of incel-culture".Jack Thorne, whose Netflix show has started a national conversation about the danger of online spaces for teenagers, argued that algorithms used on social media platforms could quickly lead to dark spaces". Continue reading...
Corporations started wooing my friends as soon as college began. It's time for the left to reimagine its relationship with techWhen my friends and I graduated with our math degrees this past May, we felt like we could do anything.After long nights spent on problem sets, the most aimless and ambitious of us will forgo grad school and become interns and employees at the shiniest, slimiest corporations in America - big banks, the military industrial complex, big tech, big pharma - where we will solve interesting, difficult problems on cushy salaries. Continue reading...
From cordless designs to budget buys, we've tested the top hair straighteners for every hair type Everything I've learned as a beauty columnist about the products that actually workStraighteners are here to stay - but thankfully, heat styling has come a long way since GHD's first ceramic straighteners ushered in an era of poker-straight hair in 2001. Today's models feature adjustable heat settings and protective technology for hairstyling with minimal damage.The looks you can achieve with a straightener have become more versatile as well: one twist of a modern, curved-edge straightener can create styles from ultra-smooth strands to structured ringlets and soft, beachy waves. There's a wide range of styling possibilities with just one tool.Best overall hair straighteners:
Il Foglio says artificial intelligence used for everything - the writing, the headlines, the quotes ... even the irony'An Italian newspaper has said it is the first in the world to publish an edition entirely produced by artificial intelligence.The initiative by Il Foglio, a conservative liberal daily, is part of a month-long journalistic experiment aimed at showing the impact AI technology has on our way of working and our days", the newspaper's editor, Claudio Cerasa, said. Continue reading...
The tech billionaire and his EV company suffer, Apple castigates itself over Siri failures and a Meta tell-all book evokes a strong reactionHello, and welcome to TechScape. In this week's edition: Elon Musk suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Apple beats itself up over Siri, and Meta goes after one of its own over a tell-all book.The past 10 days have marked several of the most significant setbacks for Musk in months. Tesla, arguably his marquee company, continued to fall in value as investors worried about the threat of trade war and possible recession - as well as declining profits. Escalating protests against the company over the billionaire's role in the government also grew in number and intensity across the US, coupled with rising cases of vandalism and social stigma against his cars. SpaceX has also struggled, with one of its rockets dramatically exploding in midflight last week and then an announcement that it was delaying a rescue mission to retrieve stranded" astronauts. The company tried again two days later.Adding to Musk's headaches, his social media platform, X, experienced widespread outages throughout the day on Monday. During a Fox Business interview, he claimed that it was the result of a massive cyberattack" that the company had traced to the area of Ukraine.How an obscure US government office has become a target of Elon MuskDeeply uncomfortable': UK Starlink users switch off over Musk's political machinationsElon Musk targeted me over Tesla protests. That proves our movement is working | Valerie Costa Continue reading...
As the 30-year-old studio behind many innovative and beloved video games shuts down, its founders, fans and designers discuss what made it so specialLate last month, Warner Bros announced it was closing three of its game development studios in a strategic change of direction": WB Games San Diego, Player First Studios, and Monolith Productions. At a time when the games industry is racked with layoffs and studio closures, the barrage of dispiriting headlines can be numbing. But the shutdown of Monolith cut through the noise, sparking fresh shock and outrage at the industry's slash and burn approach to cost cutting. There are numerous reasons for this, but among them was a pervading belief that Monolith would be around forever. I don't think I ever really considered the possibility that it would shut down one day," says Garrett Price, one of Monolith's seven founding members.True to its name, Monolith was a singular presence. Founded in 1994, it was a prolific developer whose games displayed visual flair, mechanical inventiveness and a knack for synthesising pop-cultural themes. Most excitingly, you could never really predict what the studio would do next. While it primarily produced first-person shooters, there were forays into platformers, dungeon crawlers and open-world games. And even the core FPS titles differed wildly in theme and style, inspired by everything from 60s spy films to Japanese horror. Continue reading...
From watching classic samurai movies to rendering the unique way light falls on Japan's mountainsides and modelling individual characters' socks, Ubisoft has spared no effort recreating a fascinatingly violent period of historyMore than four years after its announcement and after two last-minute delays, the latest title in Ubisoft's historical fiction series Assassin's Creed will finally be released on Thursday. Set in Japan in 1579, a time of intense civil war dominated by the feudal lord Oda Nobunaga, it follows two characters navigating their way through the bloody chaos: a female shinobi named Fujibayashi Naoe, and Yasuke, an African slave turned samurai. Japan has been the series' most-requested setting for years, Ubisoft says."I've been on [this] franchise for 16 years and I think every time we start a new game, Japan comes up and we ask, is this the time?" says executive producer Marc-Alexis Cote. We've never pushed beyond the conception phase with Japan until this one." Continue reading...
Cafe owners seeking convivial atmosphere as well as better turnover are starting to deter remote workersTo the Coffee-house, and there all the house full of the discourse of the great fire," wrote Samuel Pepys of his trip to a 17th-century cafe - then the social nerve centre of London's gossiping elite.Fast forward to the 21st century and the chattering classes have been replaced with the clattering classes - remote workers busily hammering away on their laptop keyboards and shouting on video calls to be heard over the mechanical grinding of coffee beans. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6VZG2)
Transparent back, flashing LEDs, novel design, long battery life and huge triple camera help this Android stand outLondon-based Nothing has brought one of the last things setting top-level phones apart from cheaper mid-range models down to a more affordable price: high-quality camera zoom.Cameras have long been the battleground of the most expensive phones, each vying for better quality, longer reach and multiple lenses. While much of this costly progress has trickled down to cheaper models, optical zoom cameras are few and far between below the 600 mark.Screen: 6.77in 120Hz FHD+ OLED (387ppi)Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3RAM: 12GBStorage: 256GBOperating system: Nothing OS 3.1 (Android 15)Camera: 50MP main, 50MP 3x tele and 8MP ultrawide, 50MP selfieConnectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.4 and GNSSWater resistance: IP64 (spray resistant)Dimensions: 163.5 x 77.5 x 8.4mmWeight: 211g Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian