Technology | The Guardian

Entering a crowded field, the Nintendo Famicom came to dominate the market in the 1980s, leaving a family orientated legacy that continues to be felt todayWhen the Nintendo Famicom, known abroad as the Nintendo Entertainment System, was launched on 15 July 1983, it entered a market crowded with formidable rivals. Six other consoles were released in Japan that year, including the Sega SG-1000, which arrived on the same day and would later be redesigned as the Master System in the west. Also in the running were the My Vision from Nichibutsu, the Pyuta Jr. from Tomy and the PV-1000 from Casio - all major consumer electronics manufacturers. But it was the Famicom that became a sales phenomenon, shifting more than 2.5m units by the end of 1984 and completely dominating the Japanese games industry.When it was redesigned as the NES and launched in the US in 1985, it revitalised the country's flagging games sector after an infamous crash a few years earlier. Its reach was truly global: even in markets where the console wasn't officially launched, bootlegged versions were rife. The Famicom is by far the most copied console of all time, and so called Famiclones" are still being made now. Continue reading...

Elon Musk has said advertising has plunged on his social media platform and it is cashflow negativeAn investor in Elon Musk's Twitter has written down their stake in the business by 47% as advertisers rein in their spending on the social media platform.The move by ARK Investment Management came as an analysis firm claimed that usage of the Twitter killer" Threads app has fallen by half since its launch by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta. Continue reading...

Content moderation and algorithmic safeguards are meant to help protect the privacy of people in legally contentious cases. So what went wrong? Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereSocial media imploded and the BBC practically ate itself last week as the scandal over Huw Edwards allegedly paying for explicit images from an unnamed young person unspooled.But what you knew, and when, depended largely on where you looked. Continue reading...

Critics say app - partly owned by a Saudi investor - promoting image of Mohammed bin Salman while critical voices are punishedSaudi Arabia appears to be exploiting the US messaging app Snapchat to promote the image of its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, while also imposing draconian sentences on influencers who use the platform to post even mild criticism of the future king.The California-based company, which last year agreed to a collaboration" with the Saudi culture ministry, has more than 20 million users in the kingdom - including an estimated 90% of 13-to-34-year-olds - and the crown prince has met personally with some of the platform's biggest Snapchatters" for informal talks about current events, according to people familiar with the encounters. Continue reading...

People are turning to chatbot impersonations of lost loved ones to help them grieve. Will AI help us live after we're dead?When Sunshine Henle's mother, Linda, died unexpectedly at the age of 72, Henle, a 42-year-old Floridian, was left with what she describes as a gaping hole of silence" in her life.Even though Linda had lived in New York, where she worked as a Sunday school teacher, the pair had kept in constant contact through phone calls and texting. I always knew she was there, no matter what - if I was upset, or if I just needed to talk. She would always respond," says Henle. Continue reading...

Shareholders sued the directors over stock option awards in 2017, accusing them of unfair and excessive compensationTesla Inc's directors will return $735m to the company to settle claims they grossly overpaid themselves in one of the largest shareholder settlements of its kind, according to a Monday filing in a Delaware court.The settlement resolves a 2020 lawsuit by a retirement fund that holds Tesla stock and challenged stock options that were granted to Tesla directors starting in June 2017. Continue reading...

Device launched by Steve Jobs in 2007 with promise to reinvent the phone' sells for 300 times original priceA 2007 Apple iPhone has been sold at auction for $190,372.80 (145,416) - 300 times its original sale price.The 4GB model , originally bought for $599, was still in its factory wrapping and was in exceptional condition, the auction listing said. The auctioneer LCG Auctions described the device as a popular high-end collectible" and exceedingly rare". Continue reading...

Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful; PS5, PC (version played)

It's the defining cyber crime of the 2020s, and hackers are only just beginning to exploit its potential to make money and sow mayhemIn the past year, some of the UK's most recognised institutions, from the Guardian to Royal Mail, have been hit with the defining cyber crime of our time: ransomware. Hackers locking up computer networks and demanding payment for the keys to restore them have snarled operations and left victims scrambling to recover.Nearly every sector of society, including healthcare, business, government and education, has now been targeted by ransomware gangs making demands that stretch into the tens of millions. Ironically, just a few months before the release of my own book on ransomware, my publisher was hit with a bruising attack, leaving my co-author and I unable to reach our editors via phone or email.Renee Dudley is a technology reporter at ProPublica and co-author of The Ransomware Hunting Team: A Band of Misfits' Improbable Crusade to Save the World From Cybercrime Continue reading...

Biggest and most premium Amazon slate yet is let down badly by Fire OS and lack of key appsThe Fire Max 11 is Amazon's first premium tablet and is designed to look and feel more like an iPad at half the cost. But while the appearance of the new machine is a step up, it falls far short of expectations when it is turned on.The new tablet starts at 249.99, undercutting Apple's cheapest iPad by more than 100 and just half of the price of the 10.9in model. Continue reading...

As unprecedented weather leads to increasing climate anxiety, there's a raft of different apps catering for every kind of forecastOne day in 2020, close to the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Matt Rickett realized he was checking weather apps all the time. He immediately understood why: Everything felt so unpredictable, so out of control," he says. Just knowing that something was going to happen, tomorrow, that people said was gonna happen, was reassuring."The next year Rickett, who lives in Austin, Texas, decided to stop using social media: I didn't like the control it had over my life," he says. But I still had the energy, the need to look at my phone, for some reason. So I got even more into weather." Continue reading...

Software giant acquiesced after US trade commission expressed concern that Activision Blizzard acquisition would hurt gamersMicrosoft has signed a binding agreement to ensure that the Call of Duty video game franchise remains available on Sony's PlayStation platform after Microsoft's $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the tech company said on Sunday, easing concerns from Sony and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).A tweet from Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming's CEO, read: We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and @PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games." Continue reading...

Latest sign that aggressive cost-cutting measures since Musk acquired Twitter are not enough to get cashflow positiveTwitter's cashflow remains negative because of a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load, Elon Musk said on Saturday, falling short of his expectation in March that Twitter could be cashflow positive by June.Need to reach positive cashflow before we have the luxury of anything else," Musk said in a tweet replying to suggestions on recapitalization. Continue reading...

Experts say LBRY's failure casts shadow on future of other alt-tech' sites as Twitter becomes more receptive to far rightLBRY, the company whose video-sharing technology and bespoke cryptocurrency once powered the extremist-friendly video platform Odysee, announced on Twitter this week that it would close its doors after a federal judge in New Hampshire fined the firm more than $111,000 for securities fraud.The announcement saw the value of its LBRY Credit (LBC) cryptocurrency - which was at the center of the Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) two-year prosecution of the company - sink to around 1/3000th of a cent by Thursday night. Continue reading...

The inventiveness and artistry of the Lumiere brothersA nude woman reclines on a tumble of fabric, a flower in her hair and bracelet on her wrist, frankly challenging the viewer with her gaze. It's almost Manet's Olympia, but not quite. This photograph is an Autochrome, the process invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere in 1904 and explored by the Observer Magazine on 2 November 1980, with recently unearthed images from the French Photographic Society.Autochrome was an early answer to frustration at the limitations of photography in capturing the colour and complexity of real life and its secret was an unlikely ingredient': potato starch. Minute grains of starch were dyed in primary colours, carefully mixed and held on a glass plate with silver bromide solution.' Continue reading...

EU legislation will herald greener devices, with greater longevity for software and access to user-replaceable partsThe current status quo of smartphone design, repair and longevity could finally be upended in favour of users - and the planet. That is the message from campaign groups on the landmark overhaul of rules concerning batteries and eco-sensitive design working their way through the various legislative bodies of the European Union - a market big enough to force manufacturers to change, even if EU rules don't directly apply to other regions.MEPs voted on 14 June to accept new battery regulations, elements of which look to ensure cells in smartphones and gadgets can be replaced with parts available for five years after the device is discontinued. In many cases, the rules say, batteries should be user-replaceable without requiring the use of specialised tools" and without the heat or solvents typically required to unglue components today. Manufacturers also won't be able to use software to stop batteries installed by third parties from working. Continue reading...

From excessive praise to overly perfect grammar, what to look out for to avoid getting scammed

EV manufacturer Lordstown Motors, lauded by Trump in 2020, has gone bankrupt - what now for the once-proud auto-making region?When Lordstown Motors, an electric vehicles (EV) manufacturer in Ohio's Mahoning Valley, declared bankruptcy last month, it was the latest blow to a region that has seen decades of extravagant promises fail to deliver.The 5,000 new jobs executives vowed to create in 2020 generated fresh hope for the shuttered General Motors Lordstown plant, which once functioned as an economic engine for the area and a critical piece of the nation's industrial heartland. Continue reading...

Artificial intelligence produces plausible verdicts on hotels, restaurants and tech in an instant

Can the simple, serendipitous beauty of day-to-day life' really be found in a handball hangout?There's an old handball court at Venice Beach that David Ingraham - a musician as well as photographer - describes as a quintessentially southern California location". It is, the Young Dubliners drummer says, always busy and wonderfully diverse, packed with people from all over the world, making it a prime street-photography spot".He doesn't see this particular shot, which he captured back in 2015 on an iPhone 8, as a product of good luck, however. I had an idea in my mind's eye of what I wanted, so I positioned myself accordingly and then observed, waited, shot, repeated," Ingraham says. Taking a quick shot and then moving on rarely results in anything worthwhile. I couldn't have got something like this without doing my homework first, studying the work of the masters of the craft, such as Alex Webb and Henri Cartier-Bresson." Continue reading...

The Federal Trade Commission's request to pause the deal was rejected, clearing the few remaining hurdles for it to go throughA US appeals court on Friday rejected the Federal Trade Commission's request to pause Microsoft's $69bn (53bn) purchase of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard.The appeals court decision removes one of the few remaining hurdles stopping Xbox maker Microsoft from closing the deal and expanding its gaming business. Continue reading...

State's chief information security officer says information from Victorian departments and agencies was accessed

Humans need to excel at things AI can't do - and that means more creativity and critical thinking and less memorisationEducation strikes at the heart of what makes us human. It drives the intellectual capacity and prosperity of nations. It has developed the minds that took us to the moon and eradicated previously incurable diseases. And the special status of education is why generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are likely to profoundly disrupt this sector. This isn't a reflection of their intelligence, but of our failure to build education systems that nurture and value our unique human intelligence.We are being duped into believing these AI tools are far more intelligent than they really are. A tool like ChatGPT has no understanding or knowledge. It merely collates bits of words together based on statistical probabilities to produce useful texts. It is an incredibly helpful assistant.Rose Luckin is professor of learner-centred design at the UCL Knowledge Lab in London Continue reading...

Cool design, competitive price, solid performance and good battery life - but let down by lack of supportThe Phone 2 is the latest Android smartphone from Nothing, a London-based company that specialises in good value devices with a novel transparent aesthetic.Costing 579 ($599), it offers top-phone specs for a mid-range price. After the success of its first handset, the Phone 1 last year, Nothing has stuck with its unique design, which takes the classic metal and glass slab of most mobiles and livens them up with a transparent back that exposes a series of LED strips.Screen: 6.7in 120Hz FHD+ OLED (394ppi)Processor: Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1RAM: 8 or 12GBStorage: 128, 256 or 512GBOperating system: Nothing OS 2.0 (Android 13)Camera: 50MP main and ultrawide, 32MP selfieConnectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 and GNSSWater resistance: IP54 (splash-resistant)Dimensions: 162.1 x 76.4 x 8.6mmWeight: 201.2g Continue reading...

Adoption rate of latest AI systems exceeds that of voice-assisted smart speakers, with one in 10 using them at least once a dayMore than a quarter of UK adults have used generative artificial intelligence such as chatbots, according to survey showing that 4 million people have also used it for work.Generative AI, which refers to AI tools that produce convincing text or images in response to human prompts, has gripped the public imagination since the launch of ChatGPT in November. Continue reading...

Khan accused of giving herself unchecked power' by taking aggressive steps to regulate big tech firms such as TwitterLina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, faced a grueling four hours of questioning during a House judiciary committee oversight hearing on Thursday.Republicans criticized Khan - an outspoken critic of big tech - for mismanagement" and for politicizing" legal action against large companies such as Twitter and Google as head of the powerful antitrust agency. Continue reading...

FTC makes move on claims OpenAI has run afoul of consumer protection laws by putting personal reputations and data at riskThe maker of ChatGPT is under investigation by the main US competition watchdog over whether it has broken consumer protection law by damaging people's reputations with its responses and misusing personal data.The move against San Francisco-based OpenAI marks the strongest regulatory threat yet to a company that sparked the frenzy in generative artificial intelligence, enthralling consumers and businesses while raising concerns about its potential risks. Continue reading...

Soho theatre, London

Tesla boss claims pro-humanity' xAI offers realistic alternative to pausing development of superintelligenceElon Musk has launched an artificial intelligence startup that will be pro-humanity", as he said the world needed to worry about the prospect of a Terminator future" in order to avoid the most apocalyptic AI scenarios.Musk said xAI would seek to build a system that would be safe because it was maximally curious" about humanity rather than having moral guidelines programmed into it. Continue reading...

The AI satire in the most recent season has been used as an example of why the Screen Actors Guild must strike to protect their careersWith the most recent season of Black Mirror, you sensed that Charlie Brooker was keen to move away from his reputation as a prophet. Time and time again since his series hit the air, it has managed to correctly predict the future in all sorts of horrible ways. But this season felt like it was deliberately skewing away from reality precisely to avoid this happening again. After all, unless a hapless demon destroys Earth - or unless Britney Spears literally turns into a werewolf - then Brooker is probably in much safer territory.Reader, it has happened already. Less than a month after it debuted, the Black Mirror episode Joan Is Awful has already become the unlikely figurehead of the potential Screen Actor's Guild strike. Continue reading...

The latest release from Dutch studio Team Reptile sets adventurers loose in the futuristic metropolis of New AmsterdamAs a teenager growing up in Laren, a town of a little over 10,000 people in North Holland, Dion Koster didn't have much to do. But he did develop a few passionate, interrelated interests: skateboarding, breakdancing, hip-hop and graffiti. So when Sega released Jet Set Radio Future on the Xbox in the winter of 2002 - a remake of the Dreamcast title Jet Set Radio about music-pumping, graffiti-tagging skater gangs in futuristic Tokyo - the 13-year-old Koster could hardly believe his luck. It was as if the game had been made for him.It really entranced me," he says. It took all the things that me and my friends were doing and threw it into the future. It added technology. It added the cyber to the funk." Continue reading...

In this week's newsletter: A new series produced by the world's most famous party girl delves into the origins of iconic clubs from London to Lagos. Plus: five of the best travel podcasts

Former head of employee benefits files proposed class action over workers laid off after Elon Musk acquired companyTwitter allegedly refused to pay at least $500m in promised severance to thousands of employees who were laid off after Elon Musk acquired the company, a lawsuit filed on Wednesday claims.Courtney McMillian, who oversaw Twitter's employee benefits programs as its head of total rewards" before she was laid off in January, filed the proposed class action in San Francisco federal court. Continue reading...

Anthropic releases chatbot able to process large blocks of text and make judgments on what it is producingA US artificial intelligence company has launched a rival chatbot to ChatGPT that can summarise novel-sized blocks of text and operates from a list of safety principles drawn from sources such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Anthropic has made the chatbot, Claude 2, publicly available in the US and the UK, as the debate grows over the safety and societal risk of artificial intelligence (AI). Continue reading...

James Farrar pursued ride-hailing firm for holiday pay and minimum wage after 2021 supreme court rulingA former Uber driver has won a payout of more than 20,000 owed to him for more than seven years after a tribunal ruled the gig economy firm failed to respect minimum wage and holiday entitlement laws.James Farrar, who brought the landmark supreme court case that forced Uber to recognise drivers as having more extensive employments rights than it would previously admit, is one of more than 70,000 drivers with whom the firm has recently agreed settlements. While Uber has not said how much it has had to pay out so far, it set aside about 465m. Continue reading...

Doordash, GrubHub, Uber and Relay lawsuits claim that the $17.96 per hour wage set to start on 12 July would deal blow to businessA week before New York City's app-based delivery workers were poised to see an hourly minimum wage increase, several tech companies fired a legal salvo that has temporarily delayed this change.Doordash, GrubHub, Uber and Relay filed lawsuits in Manhattan state civil court on 6 July, alleging that a recently greenlit $17.96 hourly minimum wage for app delivery workers - set to start on 12 July - would deal a blow to their business, also claiming it would harm this legion of workers. Under the law, the minimum wage would increase to some $19.96 for app delivery workers in 2025. Continue reading...

Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, PC; Netflix/Night School Studio, Omega Force

Judge dismisses FTC request to halt deal over concerns it would give Microsoft exclusive access to Activision gamesA US judge has ruled that Microsoft may go forward with its planned $69bn acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard, while the UK competition watchdog said it was ready to discuss changes answering its concerns over the deal.The US competition watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), had originally asked the judge to stop the proposed deal, arguing it would give Microsoft, maker of the Xbox gaming console, exclusive access to Activision games including the bestselling Call of Duty. Continue reading...

Law and finance sectors could be among most affected, according to organisation's employment outlookMajor economies are on the cusp of an AI revolution" that could trigger job losses in skilled professions such as law, medicine and finance, according to an influential international organisation.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said the occupations at highest risk from AI-driven automation were highly skilled jobs and represented about 27% of employment across its 38 member countries, which include the UK, Japan, Germany, the US, Australia and Canada. Continue reading...

Hundreds join action at online retailer's Coventry site in standoff over pay, conditions and union rightsThis is a picket line," says Rachel Fagan emphatically. The GMB union's Midlands regional organiser stands in front of a line of striking workers several rows deep at Amazon's vast BHX4 warehouse in Coventry, during industrial action designed to embarrass the online behemoth during a high-profile sales event.About 900 workers at the Coventry warehouse are taking three days of strike action from 11 July to 13 July, coinciding with its Prime Day sales event on Tuesday and Wednesday. Along the picket line, one worker holds up a placard carrying the union's familiar refrain: I am not a robot." Continue reading...

Suzi Dougherty's photograph of 18-year-old Caspar deemed suspicious' by judges, even though it was taken on her mobile

Twitter's boss has also challenged Meta's chief executive to a literal dick-measuring contest'. What's got into the billionaire manbaby?The world's richest toddler is at it again. Elon Musk, a very stable tech genius, is throwing a temper tantrum over Mark Zuckerberg launching the Twitter rival Threads. You would think a capitalist such as Musk would welcome a little healthy competition, but he doesn't seem keen to compete in the business arena. Instead, he has challenged Zuckerberg to a literal dick-measuring contest". Musk, who is 52 years old, prefaced that invitation by tweeting: Zuck is a cuck." It's not clear whether he had professional help crafting this zinger or if it came to him in a flash of brilliance.How is Twitter's new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, enjoying all this, I wonder? She probably thought she would be stewarding a struggling tech company's return to greatness; instead, she is managing a manbaby's outbursts. She probably expected she would be leading complex strategy meetings; instead, one imagines, she is being briefed by her underlings about what a cuck is. Continue reading...

Meta wants its new rival to be a friendly, news-free space. But with missing features, it might not leave Elon Musk's platform in the dust quite yet Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereIt feels as if the death of Twitter has been greatly exaggerated since Elon Musk took ownership of the company. Indeed, it's not Musk, but Meta's launch of Threads - which has 100 million-plus users in a matter of days - that could be the biggest threat to Twitter at present. Threads, though, appears to be a very different social media beast. For starters, Meta's response to Twitter is accessed through your Instagram account, meaning you can automatically follow the accounts you already follow on Instagram. And though it looks quite similar to Twitter, with short text-based posts, it differs in key ways.Friendly and news-free Continue reading...

Can 100 million new users be wrong? You betI signed up for Threads the other day, somewhat against my better judgment. After all, Threads doesn't have the best blood lines; nothing in its lineage suggests that it will be the secretariat of social media good behavior or ethics.It is the spawn of Meta, which we still might know as Facebook if Mark Zuckerberg and his brain trust hadn't decided to rename their behemoth after its many reputation-damaging misdeeds. Those include allowing users' data to leak out, as well as distributing untold amounts of hate and lies and ultimately, giving Donald Trump an invaluable helping hand in his disastrous 2016 election by spreading Russian disinformation. (Recall, too, the scandal surrounding Facebook's relationship with the political data firm Cambridge Analytica.)Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading...

The platform's parent company has gotten into several knots before about mishandling sensitive informationIn just a matter of days, Meta's new Threads app has reached 100 million users, solidifying the Twitter competitor's claim to the title of the most rapidly downloaded app ever.That rapid growth has concerned privacy experts, who warn that few users realize just how much information the app collects. They point out that Meta has put the launch of Threads in the European Union on hold because it's unclear whether the way the company handles user data and shares it across different platforms, including Threads, will run afoul of impending privacy regulations. Continue reading...

Judge looking into alleged hacking of ministers' phones with NSO Group spyware says Israel has not responded to requestsA Spanish judge investigating the alleged hacking of ministers' phones with Pegasus spyware has shelved his investigation over a complete" lack of cooperation from Israel, a court statement said on Monday.In June 2022, Jose Luis Calama said he had sent a formal request for international judicial assistance, known as a letter rogatory, to the Israeli government asking for information about the software made by the Israeli firm NSO Group. Continue reading...

Shadow work and pensions secretary will talk up possibilities of artificial intelligence as colleague discusses dangers for workersLabour would use artificial intelligence to help those looking for work prepare their CVs, find jobs and receive payments faster, according to the party's shadow work and pensions secretary.Jonathan Ashworth told the Guardian he thought the Department for Work and Pensions was wasting millions of pounds by not using cutting-edge technology, even as the party also says AI could also cause massive disruption to the jobs market. Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg's rival to Elon Musk-owned platform has grown rapidly since launch last Wednesday

Comedian known for Miranda Sings character faces accusations of inappropriate behavior with minors and wearing blackfaceColleen Ballinger's podcast Oversharing and several of her live shows have now been canceled as the YouTuber known for her satirical teenage persona Miranda Sings continues to face criticism for allegedly behaving inappropriately toward underaged fans and wearing blackface.Ballinger's co-host, Trisha Paytas, called the ordeal embarrassing" in a YouTube video this week, confirming that the duo's podcast would end after just three episodes. Continue reading...

US comedian and two other authors say artificial intelligence models used their work without permissionThe US comedian and author Sarah Silverman is suing the ChatGPT developer OpenAI and Mark Zuckerberg's Meta for copyright infringement over claims that their artificial intelligence models were trained on her work without permission.Silverman has filed the suits along with two authors, Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey, in which they claim the AI models developed by OpenAI and Meta used their work as part of their training data. Continue reading...