SpaceX head has had Trump's ear since election, and Israel hopes he can convince president-elect to pursue a dealIsrael has sought to enlist Elon Musk's help in reviving hostage negotiations with Hamas, according to reports in US media.Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, called the billionaire tech entrepreneur earlier this week to ask for his help in convincing Donald Trump to pursue a deal, according to CNN. Continue reading...
Musk bolstered Pac with $20.5m ahead of election while late supreme court justice's family denounced it as appalling'Elon Musk has emerged as the sole financial architect behind a provocative political action committee that appropriated the name of late US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to bolster Donald Trump's presidential campaign, according to federal campaign finance reports released on Thursday.The RBG Pac, funded entirely by the world's richest man with a $20.5m donation in the final two weeks of the campaign, ran advertisements and mailers suggesting an ideological alignment between Trump and Ginsburg on abortion. Continue reading...
This latest piece of modern vintage hardware from Retro Games Ltd makes for an astonishingly nostalgic experienceThe first time I played on a ZX Spectrum was at the Stockport branch of Debenhams, which in 1983 had an impressive home computer section that quickly turned into a sort of free creche for bored 13-year-old boys. You could hang out there for hours, typing rude Basic programs into an array of machines while the harried staff rushed about trying to stop them running. Some of the computers, however, ran games for customers to try - and this was where I encountered Manic Miner, the legendary platformer with its strange flashing visuals and surreal enemies. Speccy games looked utterly unique thanks to the machine's idiosyncratic way of restricting 8x8 sprite maps to two colours, which meant moving objects on screen were usually collections of coloured pixel patchworks, leading to an effect known as attribute clash. Somehow, it was both ugly and beautiful - and it still is.Unpacking The Spectrum, the latest piece of modern vintage hardware from Retro Games Ltd, is an astonishingly nostalgic experience. It looks exactly how I remember the original machine: a black slab with rubber keys, each one displaying not just a number or letter, but also a Basic programming command. Rem", Rand", Gosub", the mystical words of the home programming era. There is a USB cable to plug it in (though you'll need a USB plug of your own) and an HDMI lead, but no joystick. The machine is compatible with most USB gamepads - you just need to configure the buttons yourself, which takes a little time but is worth it if you can't bear using those rubber buttons to control your games. Continue reading...
The only hospital in the country using foetal safety software has seen baby fatalities drop by 82% in three yearsWhen Ellen Kaphamtengo felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen, she thought she might be in labour. It was the ninth month of her first pregnancy and she wasn't taking any chances. With the help of her mother, the 18-year-old climbed on to a motorcycle taxi and rushed to a hospital in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, a 20-minute ride away.At the Area 25 health centre, they told her it was a false alarm and took her to the maternity ward. But things escalated quickly when a routine ultrasound revealed that her baby was much smaller than expected for her pregnancy stage, which can cause asphyxia - a condition that limits blood flow and oxygen to the baby. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Age, disability, marital status and nationality influence decisions to investigate claims, prompting fears of hurt first, fix later' approachAn artificial intelligence system used by the UK government to detect welfare fraud is showing bias according to people's age, disability, marital status and nationality, the Guardian can reveal.An internal assessment of a machine-learning programme used to vet thousands of claims for universal credit payments across England found it incorrectly selected people from some groups more than others when recommending whom to investigate for possible fraud. Continue reading...
Amazon billionaire known for previously frosty relations with president-elect signals willingness to collaborateAmazon's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, is the latest tech mogul to offer a new wave of support for Donald Trump's incoming presidency, endorsing the former president's plans to reduce government regulation and signalling a willingness to collaborate.Speaking at the New York Times's DealBook Summit on Wednesday, the entrepreneur and Washington Post owner described himself as very optimistic this time around" about Trump's economic and tech strategy. Continue reading...
In a Hear Here special, we round up five of the best unscripted shows, and five of the best video game podcastsRachel Aroesti chooses five of the best unscripted podcasts, from a long-running improv sketch show to a musical podcast with a difference
Largest cryptocurrency, prone to volatile market surges, lifts amid hopes of lighter regulation with Trump's returnBitcoin has crossed $100,000 for the first time, scaling a fresh record high amid a euphoric rally sparked by Donald Trump's election victory.The world's largest and most valuable cryptocurrency - prone to volatile market surges and routs - has been lifted in recent weeks by hopes that the president-elect's return to the White House will usher in a new era of lighter regulation and supportive policies. Continue reading...
Cyber-espionage group Salt Typhoon' targeting at least' eight US telecom and telecom infrastructure firmsA large number of Americans' metadata has been stolen in the sweeping cyber-espionage campaign carried out by a Chinese hacking group dubbed Salt Typhoon", a senior US official told journalists on Wednesday.The official declined to provide specific figures but noted that China's access to America's telecommunications infrastructure was broad and that the hacking was ongoing. Continue reading...
Mashinsky, 59, who led Celsius and was charged last year on seven criminal counts, agrees to plead guilty to twoAlex Mashinsky, the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, said on Tuesday he intends to plead guilty to two counts of fraud.The former CEO, 59, was indicted in July last year on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation charges. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said he misled customers of Celsius to persuade them to invest, and artificially inflated the value of his company's proprietary crypto token. He pleaded not guilty later that day. Continue reading...
The board of the non-profit Code for Science & Society blocked a statement against genocide. The fallout tore the high-profile organization apartMiliaku Nwabueze, a senior program manager at Code for Science & Society, had been concerned for some time about the role of technology in state violence. Then, on 7 October of last year, Hamas entered Israel, killing and kidnapping about 1,400 people. Less than a week later, as Israel ordered 1.1 million Palestinians out of northern Gaza in the onset of its deadly retaliation, Nwabueze decided to write a message to her colleagues on the US-based non-profit organization's Slack channel.Hey y'all ... I have been watching multiple genocides around the world," she began, naming Palestine as well as Sudan, the Congo and Artsakh. All of these have heavy linkages to the tech industry." The 30-year-old went on to assert that CS&S - whose stated mission is to advance the power of data to improve the social and economic lives of all people" - should say, at the minimum, we support demands for a ceasefire" in Gaza. Continue reading...
Firm names Russia as top source of such activity but says it is striking' how little AI was used to try to trick votersMeta has intervened to take down about 20 covert influence operations around the world this year, it has emerged - though the tech firm said fears of AI-fuelled fakery warping elections had not materialised in 2024.Nick Clegg, the president of global affairs at the company that runs Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said Russia was still the No 1 source of the adversarial online activity but said in a briefing it was striking" how little AI was used to try to trick voters in the busiest ever year for elections around the world. Continue reading...
While the tech giant wrestles with an US antitrust case, its managing director in London is pushing hard on the commercial possibilities of artificial intelligenceGoogle's central London office cost as much as a tech unicorn and the company's UK boss, Debbie Weinstein, says it pulses with a similar spirit.It feels like a startup energy," she says. Continue reading...
Launched in Japan in December 1994, the record-breaking PlayStation started out as a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo - but ended up ushering video games into a new era all on its ownIf you were an obsessive video game fan in the summer of 1994, you'll remember where you were when Edge magazine's August issue dropped. By then, Sony had already announced its intention to develop the PlayStation console - the previous October - but it was the cover feature in the world's most forward-looking game publication that really blew open the possibilities of the machine. As well as listing its specifications in full, Edge secured enthusiastic statements of support from Capcom, Namco and Konami. One breathless developer told the mag: It's going to revolutionise the way computers are at the moment." Suddenly, the whole structure of the console games business was being threatened. All it needed was a push.Sony's entry into the video game industry has become the stuff of legend (and probably, one day, the stuff of a passable Netflix movie). In the late 1980s, the company was keen to get a foothold in an increasingly profitable business after the failure of its MSX games computer, so when the chance came up to build a CD-Rom drive for the soon-to-be-released Super Nintendo (SNES) console, Sony leapt at it. In the background, however, Sony's engineering genius Ken Kutaragi, was also designing a standalone system, the PlayStation, capable of playing SNES games as well as a new CD format that Sony itself would control. Continue reading...
People are turning to chatbots to solve all their life problems, and they like its answers. But are they on a very slippery slope?When Tim first tried ChatGPT, he wasn't very impressed. He had a play around, but ended up cancelling his subscription. Then he started having marriage troubles. Seeking to alleviate his soul-searching and sleepless nights, he took up journalling and found it beneficial. From there, it was a small step to unburdening himself to the chatbot, he says: ChatGPT is the perfect journal - because it will talk back."Tim started telling the platform about himself, his wife, Jill, and their recurring conflicts. They have been married for nearly 20 years, but still struggle to communicate; during arguments, Tim wants to talk things through, while Jill seeks space. ChatGPT has helped him to understand their differences and manage his own emotional responses, Tim says. He likens it to a friend who can help translate from husband' to wife' and back, and tell me if I'm being reasonable". Continue reading...
by Miranda Bryant, Nordic correspondent on (#6SKTH)
Researchers say parent company Meta is failing to remove explicit images on the social media siteMeta is actively helping self-harm content to flourish on Instagram by failing to remove explicit images and encouraging those engaging with such content to befriend one another, according to a damning new study that found its moderation extremely inadequate".Danish researchers created a private self-harm network on the social media platform, including fake profiles of people as young as 13 years old, in which they shared 85 pieces of self-harm-related content gradually increasing in severity, including blood, razor blades and encouragement of self-harm. Continue reading...
He's said $42.45bn spent by the US for rural internet isn't efficient. His Starlink company stands to benefit if he reduces that investmentElon Musk, named by Donald Trump to co-lead a commission aimed at reducing the size of the federal government, is poised to undermine funding for rural broadband services to benefit his satellite internet services company, Starlink.Musk has long been a critic of the Biden administration's Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (Bead) Program, which provides $42.45bn through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill to expand high-speed internet access in rural communities. Starlink, the satellite internet services subsidiary of SpaceX, has largely been shut out of this funding after government agencies deemed it too slow to qualify. Continue reading...
Some say they used bitcoin or Dogecoin to help reach goals such as affording to have a child or buy a houseMiles, a 37-year-old NHS doctor from London, has been trying to persuade friends to buy cryptocurrencies for years. In recent weeks, the Trump pump" to crypto prices has left them envious. They have watched in frustration as my gamble paid off," he says.Miles's crypto portfolio is now worth 2.3m, despite having cashed out about 600,000 earlier this year to buy a house. It's set me up for life," says Miles, who invested 4,000 in bitcoin in 2012. My pot fluctuates by hundreds of thousands each day, but I've been through years of volatile periods." Continue reading...
Meta CEO reportedly wants to support president-elect after previously banning him from Instagram and FacebookMark Zuckerberg has become the latest former Donald Trump critic to make his way Mar-a-Lago to break bread with the incoming US president.The tech mogul had banned Trump from the social media sites Instagram and Facebook, which he owns, following the January 6 riot that the president-elect egged on in an attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election. Continue reading...
Technology secretary admits Whitehall departments are not being transparent over way they use AI and algorithmsNot a single Whitehall department has registered the use of artificial intelligence systems since the government said it would become mandatory, prompting warnings that the public sector is flying blind" about the deployment of algorithmic technology affecting millions of lives.AI is already being used by government to inform decisions on everything from benefit payments to immigration enforcement, and records show public bodies have awarded dozens of contracts for AI and algorithmic services. A contract for facial recognition software, worth up to 20m, was put up for grabs last week by a police procurement body set up by the Home Office, reigniting concerns about mass biometric surveillance".The Department for Work and Pensions has been using generative AI to read more than 20,000 documents a day to understand and summarise correspondence" after which the full information is then shared with officials for decision-making. It has automated systems for detecting fraud and error in universal credit claims, and AI assists agents working on personal independence payment claims by summarising evidence. This autumn, DWP started deploying basic AI tools in jobcentres, allowing work coaches to ask questions about universal credit guidance in an attempt to improve the effectiveness of conversations with jobseekers.The Home Office deploys an AI-powered immigration enforcement system, which critics call a robo-caseworker". An algorithm is involved in shaping decisions, including returning people to their home countries. The government describes it as a rules-based" rather than AI system, as it does not involve machine-learning from data. It says it brings efficiencies by prioritising work, but that a human remains responsible for each decision. The system is being used amid a rising caseload of asylum seekers who are subject to removal action, now at about 41,000 people.Several police forces use facial recognition software to track down suspected criminals with the help of artificial intelligence. These have included the Metropolitan police, South Wales police and Essex police. Critics have warned that such software will transform the streets of Britain into hi-tech police line-ups", but supporters say it catches criminal suspects and the data of innocent passersby is not stored.NHS England has a 330m contract with Palantir to create a huge new data platform. The deal with the US company that builds AI-enabled digital infrastructure and is led by Donald Trump backer Peter Thiel has sparked concerns about patient privacy, although Palantir says its customers retain full control of the data.An AI chatbot is being trialled to help people navigate the sprawling gov.uk government website. It has been built by the government's digital service using OpenAI's ChatGPT technology. Redbox, another AI chatbot for use by civil servants in Downing Street and other government departments, has also been deployed to allow officials to quickly delve into secure government papers and get rapid summaries and tailored briefings. Continue reading...
More than 3m votes were cast for this year's awards, which went heavy on T-shirt guns and brand activations, but stayed quiet on the government's proposed social media banBetween them, the Australian online personalities who took the stage at the annual TikTok awards on Wednesday have more than 100 million followers - but if you're over the age of 30, you probably haven't heard of any of them.About 3.4m public votes were cast for this year's TikTok awards, which honour the top creators in categories like beauty, fitness, food, comedy and music. Just about everyone at the invite-only event found fame in a particular niche. Among the online stars in attendance were a quartet of brothers who perform highly choreographed dances in public (160,000 followers), a gay couple who constantly redecorate their home (3.4m followers), and a woman who has built her following on having very long hair (The Aussie Rapunzel, 1.3m followers). Another woman has amassed 1.5m followers by posting videos where she asks strangers if they are currently on their period. These are people who are regularly stopped on the street by fans, and who have so many followers they can make their living from brand deals. Continue reading...
Discussion platform takes fifth place in rankings and is the fastest growing large social media platform in the UKReddit, the American online discussion platform, has overtaken X to become the fifth most popular social media platform in the UK, according to the communications watchdog.Ofcom said Reddit, where users post on discussion threads within topic-based communities, was visited by 22.9 million UK adults in May this year, compared with 22.1 million on X. Continue reading...
In a world where books have to vie with smartphones for attention, a brilliant ebook reader is more necessary than everE-readers have been one of the greatest single-purpose gadgets for almost three decades. They offer an escape from technology and the endless distraction of mobile phones, despite also being tech devices.But that is starting to change. Colour ebook readers, for graphic novels, magazines and books, are now fairly common, and there are several models designed for note-taking. Plus, a whole family of these devices uses Android, meaning they can run all of those apps that often distract from reading.Best e-reader overall:
Social network says it must give permission for accounts to be sold or transferred after sale of rightwing InfoWarsElon Musk's X is trying to block the transfer of the platform's InfoWars accounts to the Onion after filing a legal objection stating that it owns users' accounts.The social network has filed a limited objection" to the sale of InfoWars, a media platform run by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, to the satirical news outlet the Onion. Continue reading...
In this week's newsletter: A new PlayStation portable device that will play the PS back catalogue is reportedly in the offing - it could be a gamechanger for the market Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereA report from Bloomberg this week suggests that Sony is working on a new portable PlayStation device. As someone who still has a PlayStation Vita languishing in my desk drawer because I can't quite bear to put it in the attic, this is an exciting prospect. It has been almost 13 years since Sony released the Vita, its last portable console, and it's such a wonder of a thing, with its big crisp screen and dinky little sticks. I wish more people had made games for it - paper-craft adventure Tearaway and topsy-turvy platform-puzzler Gravity Rush remain underrated.Actually, apart from the lovely and extremely niche Playdate, nobody has bothered to release a dedicated handheld games console in over a decade. Both the Nintendo Switch and Valve's Steam Deck are hybrids that can be played handheld and connected to a big screen. Continue reading...
Tech titans, and big business in general, are not reliable partners against Trumpism. Progressives need to accept thisAs Democrats think about how to counter the Trump administration, they need to accept a very simple lesson from the last eight years. Big tech and big business are part of the political opposition working on behalf of Donald Trump, not the Democrats' allies working against Trump and Trumpism.It shouldn't seem necessary to point out what seems to be an obvious fact. Nonetheless, there are some Democrats trying to stay close to big tech, or downplaying the importance of anti-monopoly policy when it comes to authoritarian risks. For example, a few days ago, Priorities USA, the largest Democratic party Super Pac, held a big resistance strategy session hosted by our friends at Google". Continue reading...
by Robert Booth UK technology correspondent on (#6SHET)
Social media platform under pressure to improve security as it announces plans to block under-13s from signing upTeenagers are facing wide-ranging new restrictions over the use of beauty filters on TikTok amid concern at rising anxiety and falling self-esteem.Under-18s will, in the coming weeks, be blocked from artificially making their eyes bigger, plumping their lips and smoothing or changing their skin tone. Continue reading...
Our writer trialled the most powerful robot vacuums - some of which even mop your floors - and these are the ones he ratesRobot vacuum cleaners take the drudge work out of cleaning your floors and carpets. No more tiresome weekly stints of vacuuming, and no more last-minute panic sessions when you have visitors on the way. Instead, your compact robot chum regularly trundles out from its dock, sucking up dust, hair and debris to leave your floors looking spick and span.Over the past few years, robot vacuums have become much more affordable, with basic units starting at about 150. They're also doing more than they used to, mopping areas of hard flooring and charging in sophisticated cleaning stations that empty their dust collectors and clean their mop pads for you.Best overall robot vacuum cleaner:
Research shows six in 10 social media content creators do not verify accuracy of information before posting itSocial media influencers need urgent" help to check their facts before they broadcast to their followers, in order to reduce the spread of misinformation online, Unesco has warned.According to a report by the UN's educational, scientific and cultural organisation, two-thirds of content creators fail to check the accuracy of their material, making them and their followers vulnerable to misinformation. Continue reading...
The Department of Justice suggested it should divest Chrome' and divest or submit to oversight of Android - seismic challenges for the tech giant Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereGoogle is in trouble. As my colleague Dan Milmo reported, the US Department of Justice has proposed a far-reaching overhaul of Google's structure and business practices, including the sale of its Chrome browser, in a bid to end its monopoly on internet search". The move follows a major court ruling last August in which a federal judge determined that Google had violated antitrust laws and held an illegal monopoly over search services. The justice department's suggestion is blunt: Google must divest Chrome." As for Android, the DoJ proposes two potential remedies: divest or submit to government oversight.Both demands present seismic challenges to Google's multiform, money-printing advertising business and would be a worst-case scenario for the company.The best iPhones in 2024: Apple smartphones tested, reviewed and rankedApple Watch Series 10: thinner, lighter and basically the same | Continue reading...
Experts say fake images raising fears around issues such as immigration have proliferated since EU electionsFrom fake images designed to cause fears of an immigrant invasion" to other demonisation campaigns targeted at leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, far-right parties and activists across western Europe are at the forefront of the political weaponisation of generative artificial intelligence technology.This year's European parliamentary elections were the launchpad for a rollout of AI-generated campaigning by the European far right, experts say, which has continued to proliferate since. Continue reading...
The committee's honourable mentions went to right to disconnect' and rawdogging'We're all living through the enshittocene, a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit," author Cory Doctorow said earlier this year.In 2022, Doctorow coined the word enshittification", which has just been crowned Macquarie Dictionary's word of the year. The dictionary defined the word as follows.Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Continue reading...
Young people in Birmingham attest that violent content on apps is having a real-world impactIt took about 90 seconds for Rianna Montaque to see violence on her X account: a fight in a restaurant that escalated into a full-on brawl with chairs smashed over heads and bodies sprawling.The Gang_Hits" account has plenty more clips like that - shootings, beatings, people being run down by cars. It is part of a grim genre of content which is often promoted by algorithms so it pops up in young people's social media feeds unbidden. Continue reading...
It's a war that will never end. But for small-business owners, it's all about managing risk while reaping rewardsWe humans are simply too dumb to use passwords. A recent study from password manager NordPass found that secret" was the most commonly used password in 2024. That was followed by 123456" and password". So let's all give praise that the password is dying.Yes, we know that we should be using 20-letter passwords with weird symbols and numbers, but our minds can't cope. We use the same password for many accounts, be it for a newsletter subscription or our life savings. We all have too many passwords. So we opt for the easiest to remember - and steal. Continue reading...
Santa has a new little helper. But can an AI-powered shopping assistant really master the subtle art of gift giving?Some people love buying Christmas presents. Polly Arrowsmith starts making a note of what her friends and family like, then hunts for bargains, slowly and carefully. Vie Portland begins her shopping in January and has a theme each year, from heart mirrors to inspirational books. And Betsy Benn spent so much time thinking about presents, she ended up opening her own online gift business.How would these gift-giving experts react to a trend that is either a timesaving brainwave or an appalling corruption of the Christmas spirit: asking ChatGPT to do it for them? Continue reading...
The fast-developing technology is providing opportunities in any crime type' - and police must move fast' to catch upPaedophiles, scammers, hackers andcriminals of all kinds are increasingly exploiting artificial intelligence (AI) to target victims in new and harmful ways, a senior police chief has warned.Alex Murray, the national police lead for AI, said that the use of the technology was growing rapidly because of its increasing accessibility and that police had to move fast" to keep on top of the threat. Continue reading...
The flourishing new platform may be like Twitter once was. The problem is the limited algorithmic scope of all social mediaAs I write, there's a window on my laptop screen that is providing a live view of a stampede. It's logging the numbers of people joining the social network Bluesky. At the moment, the number of registered users is 20.5 million. By the time you read this there will be more than 30 million of them, judging by the rate that people are currently joining.The proximate cause of it is the role that Elon Musk, owner of X (nee Twitter), played in the election of Donald Trump, when a significant proportion of the platform's 200 million-plus users realised that they'd been had - that they had, in effect, been useful idiots for Musk on his path to the centre of political power. Continue reading...
The US media pundit on the dangers of overregulation online, why he's more frightened of the tech bros than AI itself, and how to reclaim the web by getting rid of the geeksJeff Jarvis was born in 1954 and studied journalism at Illinois's Northwestern University. He worked as a TV critic and created the magazine Entertainment Weekly, later leading the online arm of US media company Advance Publications. Since 2001, he has been blogging at Buzzmachine.com and in 2005 he became an associate professor at City University of New York's graduate school of journalism, directing its new media programme before retiring last year. Jarvis, who lives in New York, is the co-host of the podcasts This Week in Google and AI Inside.What made you want to write your new book, The Web We Weave?
We recommended them in the Filter; now we've sifted through all the offers to find the genuinely good discounts on our favourite productsBlack Friday is still a few days away on 29 November, but stores are already dropping prices to compete for our attention and cash - and they're offering some delectable discounts on products we've recommended in the Filter.We cautioned against getting carried away too early in our guide to not getting ripped off in the sales, because many prices continue to fall until Cyber Monday (2 December). However, some of the most popular items can sell out even before Black Friday comes around. So, if there's something here you've had your eye on, this may be your best chance to grab it for significantly less than you'd normally pay. Continue reading...
Carrying 99% of the world's international telecommunications, the vulnerable lines are drawing nefarious interestThe lead-clad telegraphic cable seemed to weigh tons, according to Lt Cameron Winslow of the US navy, and the weather wasn't helping their attempts to lift it up from the seabed and sever it. The rough water knocked the heavy boats together, breaking and almost crushing in their planking," he wrote.Eventually, Winslow's men managed to cut the cable with hacksaws and disrupt the enemy's communications by slicing off a 46-metre (150ft) section. Continue reading...
Amazon's total investment in the AI company now totals $8bn, with its AWS unit as Anthropic's cloud providerThe artificial intelligence startup Anthropic said on Friday it had raised an additional $4bn investment from its longtime backer Amazon.com, bringing the e-commerce giant's total investment to $8bn, underscoring big tech's growing generative AI investments.Amazon will maintain its position as a minority investor, the company said. Its AWS unit will also be Anthropic's official cloud provider. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#6P2CA)
Looking for the latest iPhone, or a good deal on a refurbished handset? Our expert has assessed and rated the current crop of Apple smartphonesThe best iPhone may be the one you already own. There is generally no need to buy a fresh phone just because new models have been released, as hardware updates are broadly iterative, adding small bits to an already accomplished package. But if you do want a replacement handset, whether new or refurbished, here are the best devices of the current crop of Apple smartphones.Many other smartphones are available besides the iPhone, but if you're an Apple user and don't fancy switching to Android, you still have a couple of choices. Whether your priority is the longest battery life, the best camera, the biggest screen or simply the optimal balance of features and price, there is more to choose from in the Apple ecosystem than you may expect, especially after the iPhone 16 models were released on 9 September.Best iPhone for most people:
Peter Kyle meets group of teenagers at NSPCC HQ who say imposing ban would reduce their social connectionsA social media ban for under-16s is not on the cards at the moment", a minister has said, as teenagers urged him to rethink plans to follow Australia's lead and restrict access to sites such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science and technology, is trying to convince social media platforms to do more to prevent online harms, with new laws coming into effect next year that could result in heavy fines and even jail in cases where online safety is breached. Continue reading...
by Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent on (#6SDFN)
Billionaire CEO is well connected in the US and China, something that could smooth the road ahead for the electric vehicle maker amid a looming tariff warIf it pays to have friends in high places, few among us can claim to be better placed than Elon Musk, the world's richest man and one of the only people to have cosy relationships with both Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. His commercial and political connections to both may prove pivotal as the feud between the US and China plays out over the next four years, particularly as Trump promises steep tariffs.Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, once supported Joe Biden. But his relationship with the current US president soured over the past four years as, among other insults, Musk felt that the White House gave Telsa, his car and green energy company, the cold shoulder". Trump, meanwhile, has described Tesla as incredible" even while pledging to do away with subsidies for electric vehicles. This year, Musk formally endorsed Trump as the presidential candidate, campaigned for him online and off and donated more than $100m to his re-election effort. Continue reading...
Tech firm says proposals to end its dominance of internet search are a radical interventionist agenda'The US Department of Justice has proposed a range of punchy remedies to address Google's dominance of the internet search market, including the forced divestment of its Chrome browser.Google said the proposals represented a radical interventionist agenda" that would harm America's standing as a tech superpower. Continue reading...
World's richest man responds to UK parliamentarians saying they will call him to testify about X's role in spreading disinformation during riotsElon Musk has said UK MPs will be summoned to the United States of America to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens" in a fresh escalation of tensions between the world's richest man and Labour.Musk, who has been a fixture at the side of Donald Trump since his re-election as US president, was responding to a Guardian report on Wednesday that the Commons' science and technology select committee would call him to give evidence in the new year in its inquiry into the spread of harmful content on social media after the August riots. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian