E-commerce giant accused of using tricks to enroll millions into membership and making it nearly impossible to cancelAmazon went to trial on Monday in a US government lawsuit that accuses the e-commerce giant of using tricks to enroll millions of customers in its Prime subscription service and then making it nearly impossible to cancel.The Federal Trade Commission's complaint, filed in June 2023, alleges that Amazon knowingly used designs known as dark patterns" to deceive consumers into signing up for the $139-per-year Prime service during checkouts. Continue reading...

Firm faces another dismantling attempt over allegations of illegal monopoly over digital ads brought by DoJAfter deflecting the US Department of Justice's attack on its illegal monopoly in online search, Google is facing another attempt to dismantle its internet empire in a trial focused on abusive tactics in digital advertising.The trial that opened Monday in an Alexandria, Virginia, federal court revolves around the harmful conduct that resulted in US district Judge Leonie Brinkema declaring parts of Google's digital advertising technology to be an illegal monopoly in April. The judge found that Google has been engaging in behavior that stifles competition to the detriment of online publishers that depend on the system for revenue. Continue reading...

Simon Stiell insists it is vital governments regulate the technology to blunt its dangerous edgesHarnessing artificial intelligence will help the world to tackle the climate crisis, but governments must step in to regulate the technology, the UN's climate chief has said.AI is being used to make energy systems more efficient, and to develop tools to reduce carbon from industrial processes. The UN is also using AI as an aid to climate diplomacy. Continue reading...

For years, little was known about the multibillion-dollar company that handles data for the US immigration enforcement agency. Now, a cache of emails, training documents and reports sheds light on how Palantir helps Ice with investigations and on-the-ground enforcementOver the past decade, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) has amassed millions of data points that it uses to identify and track its targets - from social media posts to location history and, most recently, tax information.And there's been one, multibillion-dollar tech company particularly instrumental in enabling Ice to put all that data to work: Palantir, the data analytics firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, the rightwing mega-donor and tech investor. Continue reading...

If machines become superintelligent we're toast, say Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. Should we believe them?What if I told you I could stop you worrying about climate change, and all you had to do was read one book? Great, you'd say, until I mentioned that the reason you'd stop worrying was because the book says our species only has a few years before it's wiped out by superintelligent AI anyway.We don't know what form this extinction will take exactly - perhaps an energy-hungry AI will let the millions of fusion power stations it has built run hot, boiling the oceans. Maybe it will want to reconfigure the atoms in our bodies into something more useful. There are many possibilities, almost all of them bad, say Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares in If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, and who knows which will come true. But just as you can predict that an ice cube dropped into hot water will melt without knowing where any of its individual molecules will end up, you can be sure an AI that's smarter than a human being will kill us all, somehow. Continue reading...

London-based AI pioneer in talks to receive $500m investment from Nvidia as it funds its expansion in the US, Germany and JapanBritish startup Wayve has begun testing self-driving cars with Nissan in Japan ahead of a 2027 launch to consumers, as the company said it was in talks for a $500m investment from the chip-maker Nvidia.Wayve, based in London, said it had installed its self-driving technology on Nissan's electric Ariya vehicles and tested them on Tokyo's streets, after first agreeing a deal with the Japanese carmaker in April. Continue reading...

US president tells Fox News a man named Lachlan is involved ... that's a very unusual name, Lachlan Murdoch'Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch will probably be involved in the effort to buy TikTok in the US, Donald Trump said in an interview on Sunday.The president was asked about the status of the sale of the app during an interview with Peter Doocy on The Sunday Briefing on Fox News. Trump administration officials have signaled that a deal for the Chinese-owned social media platform was imminent, though there has been some confusion about the status of the agreement. Continue reading...

With hundreds of self-published books and one Hugo nomination, Tingle has become a beloved internet eccentric - and proof that anything can be horny if you try hard enough

Guardian Australia test finds scrolling shortform videos while logged out of YouTube and TikTok quickly leads to gambling, violent and far-right content

Amid the feathered dancers at an adult industry event, regulators with clipboards have been advising complianceThree Ofcom regulators with clipboards spent the weekend making their way around the exhibition floor of an international adult industry conference in Prague, trying to encourage the 1,700 delegates to comply with the UK's new Online Safety Act.Don't lie to us," one of the regulators told a room full of pornography site owners and employees during a lunchtime presentation explaining the new age verification requirements introduced in July as part of the act's measures to stop children seeing pornography. Be honest and open. If your measures are not good enough yet, put that on your risk assessment." Continue reading...

Dyson's upgraded Airwrap promises faster results and smarter tech. Here's what it gets right - and where it falls short The best hot brushes for a salon finish at home, testedOnce best known for its floor cleaners and hand dryers, Dyson has carved out a space in the electrical beauty market over the past decade. Its Supersonic hair dryer was followed by the Airwrap multi-styler, a revolution in hair styling that uses air rather than direct heat to curl hair - and regularly sells out in stores worldwide despite its high price.There have been two updates to the Airwrap since - a 2022 upgrade and the app-driven Airwrap id, which launched last year with variants for both curly and straight hair. This summer's Co-anda 2x is a completely re-tooled product, with a more powerful motor for faster styling, and new attachments, including an air-powered straightener. I tested the new model to find out if it could really be worth 580. Continue reading...

Child safety watchdog calls for child protection guidelines to be built into AI models from the outsetA chatbot site offering explicit scenarios with preteen characters, illustrated by illegal abuse images has raised fresh fears about the misuse of artificial intelligence.A report by a child safety watchdog has triggered calls for the UK government to impose safety guidelines on AI companies, amid a surge in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) created by the technology. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sarah Wynn-Williams faces $50,000 fine every time she breaches order banning her from criticising MetaA former Meta executive who wrote an explosive expose making allegations about the social media company's dealings with China and its treatment of teenagers is said to be on the verge of bankruptcy" after publishing the book.An MP has claimed in parliament that Mark Zuckerberg's company was trying to silence and punish" Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former director of global public policy at Meta's precursor, Facebook, after her decision to speak out about her time at the company. Continue reading...

Skip the wifi oven and Alexa toothbrush - these time-tested smart devices are must-haves in any homeI have tested hundreds of smart devices over the years, but only a select few have earned a permanent spot in my home. Too many seem to offer overcomplicated solutions for problems that barely existed in the first place - making them little more than a gimmick you toss in your closet weeks after purchase.However, while many smart home gadgets aren't the wisest investment, others can bring serious improvements to your home. From robot vacuums and smart bulbs to smart locks and video doorbells, here are five smart home devices that have made my life easier, and why you should consider adding them to your home, too.For automating all of your floor-cleaning chores:

ManticAI ranked eighth in the Metaculus Cup, leaving some believing bots' prediction skills could soon overtake expertsAn artificial intelligence system has beaten scores of forecasting enthusiasts, including several professionals, in a contest to predict events ranging from bust-ups between Donald Trump and Elon Musk to Kemi Badenoch being removed from the Conservative party leadership.A British AI startup, co-founded by a former Google DeepMind researcher, has ranked in the top 10 of an international forecasting competition, which requires entrants to forecast the likelihood of 60 events over the summer. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Instagram pictures of girls as young as 13 were posted to promote Threads site as bait', campaigner saysMeta has used back-to-school pictures of schoolgirls to advertise one of its social media platforms to a 37-year-old man, in a move parents described as outrageous" and upsetting".The man noticed that posts encouraging him to get Threads", Mark Zuckerberg's rival to Elon Musk's X, were being dropped into his Instagram feed featuring embedded posts of uniformed girls as young as 13 with their faces visible and, in most cases, their names. Continue reading...

Being a carmaker where everything is connected' has left JLR unable to isolate its plants or functions, forcing a shutdown of most systemsThe first external signs of the chaos about to hit JLR, Britain's largest automotive employer, came on the quiet last Sunday of August. Managers at a factory in Halewood, Merseyside, told industry contacts there might have been a hack - although it was not clear then just how bad the situation was.That changed quickly on the Monday morning. JLR, the maker of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, quickly shut down systems after realising the severity of the cyber-attack. Three weeks later, the carmaker is still incapacitated, unable to produce at any of its factories across the UK, Slovakia, Brazil and India (although a Chinese joint venture is thought to be operating). Continue reading...

They claim to fix fine lines, blemishes and redness - but which stand up to scrutiny? We asked dermatologists and put them to the test to find out The best anti-ageing products: Sali Hughes's 30 favourite serums, creams and treatmentsLED face masks are booming in popularity - despite being one of the most expensive at-home beauty products ever to hit the market. Many masks are available, each claiming to either reduce the appearance of fine lines, stop spots or calm redness. Some even combine different types of light to enhance the benefits.But it's wise to be sceptical about new treatments that are costly and non-invasive, and to do your research before you buy. With this in mind, I spoke with doctors and dermatologists to find out whether these light therapy devices actually work.Best LED face mask overall:

Deal gives Intel a lifeline as firms team up on AI datacenters and PC chips after Trump stake sparks market surgeNvidia, the world's leading chipmaker, has announced plans to invest $5bn in Intel and collaborate with the struggling semiconductor company on products.A month after the Trump administration confirmed it had taken a 10% stake in Intel - the latest extraordinary intervention by the White House in corporate America - Nvidia said it would team up with the firm to work on custom datacenters that form the backbone of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, as well as personal computer products. Continue reading...

The band cited a moral and ethical burden' placed on artists by revenue from their work ultimately funding lethal technologiesMassive Attack have become the latest act - and first major-label one - to pull their catalogue from Spotify in protest at founder Daniel Ek investing 600m (520m) in the military AI company Helsing.In June, Ek's venture capital firm Prima Materia led the defence tech firm's latest funding round. Helsing's software uses AI technology to analyse sensor and weapons system data from battlefields to inform real-time military decisions. It also makes its own military drone, the HX-2. Ek is also chairman of Helsing.Unconnected to this initiative and in light of the (reported) significant investments by its CEO in a company producing military munition drones and AI technology integrated into fighter aircraft, Massive Attack have made a separate request to our label that our music be removed from the Spotify streaming service in all territories.In our view, the historic precedent of effective artist action during apartheid South Africa and the apartheid, war crimes and genocide now being committed by the state of Israel renders the No Music for Genocide campaign imperative.In 1991 the scourge of apartheid violence fell from South Africa, aided from a distance by public boycotts, protests, and the withdrawal of work by artists, musicians and actors. Complicity with that state was considered unacceptable. In 2025 the same now applies to the genocidal state of Israel. As of today, there's a musician's equivalent of the recently announced @filmworkers4palestine campaign (signed by 4,500 filmmakers, actors, industry workers & institutions) - it can be found @nomusicforgenocide & supports the wider asks of the growing @bds.movement. We'd appeal to all musicians to transfer their sadness, anger and artistic contributions into a coherent, reasonable & vital action to end the unspeakable hell being visited upon the Palestinians hour after hour. Continue reading...

The phenomenal response to an article we published on this question led to detailed cognitive research - and the findings have implications that go way beyond gamersFive years ago, on the verge of the first Covid lockdown, I wrote an article asking what seemed to be an extremely niche question: why do some people invert their controls when playing 3D games? A majority of players push down on the controller to make their onscreen character look down, and up to make them look up. But there is a sizeable minority who do the opposite, controlling their avatars like a pilot controls a plane, pulling back to go up. For most modern games, this requires going into the settings and reconfiguring the default controls. Why do they still persist?I thought a few hardcore gamers would be interested in the question. Instead, more than one million people read the article, and the ensuing debate caught the attention of Dr Jennifer Corbett (quoted in the original piece) and Dr Jaap Munneke, then based at the Visual Perception and Attention Lab at Brunel University London. Continue reading...

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2; Gearbox Software/2K Games

The clown duo share what makes them laugh, including pop divas, unhinged mobile game ads and Kermit unmasked

More women are entering the US ranching and agriculture field. Their struggles - and aspirations - defy the traditional Marlboro cowboy stereotypeSavanah McCarty was not riding across the wide-open prairie when a horse accident nearly killed her.She was in the driveway of her leased farm outside Bozeman, Montana, waiting for a student's mother to arrive, when her horse seized and flipped over backwards, landing on top of her. Continue reading...

From famous Street Fighter lines to quips from 90s classics, these are the quotes we hear again and again - and even incorporate into our own livesSome snippets of video game dialogue, like classic movie quotes, are immediately recognisable to a swathe of fans. From Street Fighter's hadouken!" to Call of Duty's remember, no Russian" to BioShock's would you kindly?", there are phrases so creepy, clever or cool they have slipped imperceptibly into the gaming lexicon, ensuring that whenever they're memed on social media, almost everyone gets the reference.But there are also odd little phrases, sometimes from obscure games, that stick with us for seemingly no reason. I recall most of the vocal barks from the second world war strategy game Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, even though I haven't played it for 20 years. Why is it that I'll lose my headphones, wallet and phone on a daily basis, but I have absolute recall when it comes to the utterances of burly soldier Samuel Brooklyn? Why am I doomed to Finally, some action", Consider it done, boss" and the immortal okey dokey" echoing through my head? What is wrong with me? Continue reading...

Comments from Chinese official in Madrid have raised questions over who could control the algorithm that powers Tik Tok's video feedDonald Trump has claimed his administration has reached a deal with China to keep TikTok operating in the US, amid uncertainty over what shape the final agreement will take, with suggestions from the Chinese side that Beijing would retain control of the algorithm that powers the site's video feed.We have a deal on TikTok ... We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it," Trump said on Tuesday, without providing further details. Continue reading...

Kirk's rise to fame was largely bolstered by being extremely online - and it seems the suspect has that in commonHello, and welcome to TechScape. Dara Kerr here, filling in for Blake Montgomery, who promises he'll come back from vacation. Meanwhile, I'm looking at the memes, gaming and internet culture behind the shooting of Charlie Kirk.The bullet that killed conservative activist was inscribed with a message: Notices bulge OwO whats this?" The online world quickly recognized the reference. It's a phrase used in internet culture to troll people in online role-play communities, specifically furries (a subculture that cosplays as anthropomorphic animal characters).How thousands of overworked, underpaid' humans train Google's AI to seem smartLarry Ellison: Oracle co-founder who overtook Musk as world's richest personApple debuts thinner, $999 iPhone Air at awe-dropping' annual product eventHow to Save the Internet by Nick Clegg review - spinning Silicon ValleyThe women in love with AI companions: I vowed to my chatbot that I wouldn't leave him' Continue reading...

Carmaker says it will freeze production until at least 24 September as it continues investigationsJaguar Land Rover has extended its shutdown on car production, as Britain's biggest carmaker grapples with the aftermath of a cyber-attack.JLR said on Tuesday it would freeze production until at least next Wednesday, 24 September, as it continues its investigations into the hack, which first emerged earlier this month. Continue reading...

The knowledge economy' promised cultural and social growth. Instead, we got worsening inequality and division. Artificial intelligence will supercharge itRecently, Palantir - a tech corporation that boasts no fewer than five billionaire executives - announced its Q2 earnings: over a billion dollars generated in a single quarter. Forty-eight per cent growth in its business compared with the same quarter last year, including 93% growth in its US commercial business. These elephantine numbers are maddening - and, in large part, a result of the company fully embracing artificial intelligence (AI).The AI revolution is here and as its proponents remind us daily, it will remake our world, making every company and government agency more efficient and less error-prone while helping us unlock hitherto unheard of advances in science and technology. Not only this, but if we play our cards right, big tech's latest explosion could yield unprecedented economic growth.Dustin Guastella is the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623 in Philadelphia, and a research associate at the Center for Working-Class Politics Continue reading...

When you're done settling for the sludge in the hotel lobby, this portable brewing setup will open the door to perfect coffee anywhereNothing makes me feel more settled than making a cup of coffee in the morning. Without it, my whole day feels slightly off. For years, that was just something I accepted about traveling or camping - there might be coffee, but it wouldn't quite ground me. It would be a compromise. A little off.That's why I've spent the past few years perfecting my travel coffee setup: so I can make rich, comforting, homey coffee anywhere in the world, without trying to wedge an espresso machine into my carry-on. Here are the inexpensive tools that make it possible. Continue reading...

Rachel Reeves says move is a vote of confidence' in British economy as she prepares to open firm's first UK datacentre

Artificial intelligence will replace creativity with something closer to magical wishing. The challenge for future generations will be dealing with the feeling of emptiness that leaves us withIn the German fairytale The Fisherman and His Wife, an old man one day catches a strange fish: a talking flounder. It turns out that an enchanted prince is trapped inside this fish and that it can therefore grant any wish. The man's wife, Ilsebill, is delighted and wishes for increasingly excessive things. She turns their miserable hut into a castle, but that is not enough; eventually she wants to become the pope and, finally, God. This enrages the elements; the sea turns dark and she is transformed back into her original impoverished state. The moral of the story: don't wish for anything you're not entitled to.Several variations of this classic fairytale motif are known. Sometimes, the wishes are not so much excessive or offensive to the divine order of the world, but simply clumsy or contradictory, such as in Charles Perrault's The Ridiculous Wishes. Or, as in WW Jacobs' 1902 horror story The Monkey's Paw, their wishes unintentionally harm someone who is actually much closer to them than the object of their desire. Continue reading...

The cuddly chatbot Grem is designed to learn' your child's personality, while every conversation they have is recorded, then transcribed by a third party. It wasn't long before I wanted this experiment to be over ...I'm going to throw that thing into a river!" my wife says as she comes down the stairs looking frazzled after putting our four-year-old daughter to bed.To be clear, that thing" is not our daughter, Emma*. It's Grem, an AI-powered stuffed alien toy that the musician Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, helped develop with toy company Curio. Designed for kids aged three and over and built with OpenAI's technology, the toy is supposed to learn" your child's personality and have fun, educational conversations with them. It's advertised as a healthier alternative to screen time and is part of a growing market of AI-powered toys. Continue reading...

In 2020, after spending half his life in the US, Song-Chun Zhu took a one-way ticket to China. Now he might hold the key to who wins the global AI raceBy the time Song-Chun Zhu was six years old, he had encountered death more times than he could count. Or so it felt. This was the early 1970s, the waning years of the Cultural Revolution, and his father ran a village supply store in rural China. There was little to do beyond till the fields and study Mao Zedong at home, and so the shop became a refuge where people could rest, recharge and share tales. Zhu grew up in that shop, absorbing a lifetime's worth of tragedies: a family friend lost in a car crash, a relative from an untreated illness, stories of suicide or starvation. That was really tough," Zhu recalled recently. People were so poor."The young Zhu became obsessed with what people left behind after they died. One day, he came across a book that contained his family genealogy. When he asked the bookkeeper why it included his ancestors' dates of birth and death but nothing about their lives, the man told him matter of factly that they were peasants, so there was nothing worth recording. The answer terrified Zhu. He resolved that his fate would be different. Continue reading...

Tesla shares rose by more than 8% after news of CEO's transactions, a week after he was offered $1tn pay packageElon Musk, the Tesla CEO, has purchased nearly $1bn worth of the electric-vehicle maker's stock, a regulatory filing showed, reinforcing Musk's push for greater control over Tesla.Tesla shares jumped more than 8% in premarket trading on Monday following the news. Continue reading...

Nostalgic tech; autumn garden hacks; and what to wear when it rains Don't get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereWhen I was 18, I bought a heavily reduced MiniDisc player. This wasn't even what you could charitably call fashionably late", given the format was already on its last legs, but I loved it, and because nobody else was interested, blank discs were dirt cheap. I have a vague recollection of grabbing packs at Poundland, allowing me to create a glorious self-curated library of cheap music, five years before the birth of Spotify.I'm reminded of this because this week I've published a piece on the Filter about the portable audio technology that killed them: MP3 players. Or digital audio players, to give them their more accurate name, given MP3 playback is just one of many supported file formats.The best beauty Advent calendars in 2025, tested (yes, we know it's early!)The finishing touch: great buys for under 100 to lift your living space, chosen by interiors expertsIt's better than plastic and cheaper': 20 sustainable swaps that worked (and saved you money)How to get your garden ready for autumn: 17 expert tips you can do now - and what to skipThe crunch? Spot on': the best supermarket gherkins, tasted and ratedWhat to take to university - and what to leave behind, according to studentsHow to decorate your university room: 16 easy, affordable ways to make it feel like home Continue reading...

iPhone upgrade joined by watchOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe, adding a new look and features to devicesApple will release some of the biggest software updates for its iPhone, iPad and smartwatch on Monday, radically changing the way icons, the lock screen and the system looks, as well as adding features for compatible devices.Announced at the company's developer conference in June, iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe introduce Apple's new Liquid Glass design, giving everything a softer, more rounded and semi-transparent look that has proved divisive. Continue reading...

Met forced to rebut misinformation amplified by X users as Musk accused of inciting violence with protest commentsThe Metropolitan police has had to counter false suggestions by the artificial intelligence on Elon Musk's X platform that the force passed off footage from 2020 as being from Saturday's far-right rally in the city.The claim by the chatbot Grok was in answer to an X user's query about where and when footage of police clashing with crowds was filmed. Continue reading...

The ubiquitous AI tool has a divisive effect on educators with some seeing it a boon and others a menace. So what should you know about where to draw the line between check and cheat?For many students, ChatGPT has become as standard a tool as a notebook or a calculator.Whether it's tidying up grammar, organising revision notes, or generating flashcards, AI is fast becoming a go-to companion in university life. But as campuses scramble to keep pace with the technology, a line is being quietly drawn. Using it to understand? Fine. Using it to write your assignments? Not allowed. Continue reading...

Research suggests increase in office snooping in trend that some managers claim undermines trust with staff

From avoiding recycling a password, even part of it, to two-step verification, steps to closing an open door for hackersThe first you know about it is when you find out someone has accessed one of your accounts. You've been careful with your details so you can't work out what has gone wrong, but you have made one mistake - recycling part of your password.Reusing the same word in a password - even if it is altered to include numbers or symbols - gives criminals a way in to your accounts. Continue reading...

US-based tech boss was addressing the unite the kingdom' protest organised by Tommy Robinson via video linkElon Musk has called for a dissolution of parliament" and a change of government" in the UK while addressing a crowd attending a unite the kingdom" rally in London, organised by the far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.Musk, the owner of X, who dialled in via a video link and spoke to Robinson while thousands watched and listened, also railed against the woke mind virus" and told the crowd that violence is coming" and that you either fight back or you die". Continue reading...

Quantum sensing, satellite tracking and AI are part of an accelerating arms race in detection that should prompt a re-evaluation of Australia's defence strategy

Artificial intelligence is changing how students learn and the world they'll graduate into. Experts reveal how applicants can get aheadOpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently told a US podcast that if he was graduating today, I would feel like the luckiest kid in all of history."Altman, whose company developed and released ChatGPT in November 2022, believes the transformative power of AI offers unprecedented opportunities for young people. Continue reading...

Phil Bellamy's daughters refuse to ride in his electric car without travel sickness tablets. Are there other solutions?It was a year in to driving his daughter to school in his new electric vehicle that Phil Bellamy discovered she dreaded the 10-minute daily ride - it made her feel sick in a way no other car did.As the driver, Bellamy had no problems with the car but his teenage daughters struggled with sickness every time they entered the vehicle. Research has shown this is an issue - people who did not usually have motion sickness in a conventional car found that they did in EVs. Continue reading...

Exclusive: A third of those polled do not tell bosses about use of tools and half think AI threatens the social structureIt is the work shortcut that dare not speak its name. A third of people do not tell their bosses about their use of AI tools amid fears their ability will be questioned if they do.Research for the Guardian has revealed that only 13% of UK adults openly discuss their use of AI with senior staff at work and close to half think of it as a tool to help people who are not very good at their jobs to get by. Continue reading...

With research suggesting fewer than half of adults carry a wallet, four people reveal if they still do and what's insideFewer than half of British adults now carry a physical wallet, according to recent research, with many carrying payment cards on their phones or smartwatches instead.But while digital wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay are the default payment method among generation Z and millennials, many people over the age of 44 still rely on physical debit and credit cards. Continue reading...

A country plagued by power cuts has become the first to ban imports of petrol and diesel cars, as a new dam brings hopes of cheap green energyWhen Deghareg Bekele, an architect in his early 30s, bought an Volkswagen electric car this year, he was a little sceptical. Not only is his home town, the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, prone to persistent power cuts, he also doubted the quality of his new vehicle.Four months on, Deghareg is pleased with his purchase since he no longer has to endure long lines at the petrol pump, caused by Ethiopia's chronic fuel shortages. Continue reading...

Ditch the subscriptions and algorithms of the music streamers with our pick of the best modern digital audio players DJ Paulette, Carl Craig and more on the best DJ headphonesAn MP3 player? In 2025? Am I going to be covering Betamax and MiniDisc players next?No, this isn't a retro piece from the Filter. You may be reading this at least three years after Apple decided the iPod business was too niche to be worth bothering with, but MP3 players - or digital audio players, as they should more accurately be called - are seeing a small resurgence, despite the domination of Spotify, Apple Music and the like.Best MP3 player overall:

Looking for a new iPhone, or a good deal on a refurbished handset? Samuel Gibbs has assessed and rated Apple's 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 few 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's more to choose from in the Apple ecosystem than you may expect, especially after the release of the iPhone 16e.Best iPhone for most people: