Technology | The Guardian

If inventor Franky Zapata can make it work, the Airscooter will be the personal flying machine' every misanthrope dreams ofName: The Airscooter.Age: Brand new. Continue reading...

Move by the billionaire owner of the social media site may be an attempt to drive up subscription of the app's premium serviceSocial media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, is poised to rework how news links appear on the platform, the latest change spearheaded by its owner, Elon Musk, to impact news publishers on the site.The news was first reported by Fortune on Monday and confirmed in a post from Musk later in the day: This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics [sic]," he wrote. The platform will no longer display headlines and other text from news links and show only the main image, limiting a user's ability to see the contents before clicking. Continue reading...

Twitter killer' social media platform experienced initial boom in sign-ups when it launched in JulyMeta has launched a web version of its Twitter killer" social media platform Threads that can be used without an app, as it attempts to revive itself after a recent drop in usage.The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp launched the microblogging site in July, widely understood as an alternative for users disillusioned with Elon Musk-owned Twitter, which has since rebranded as X. Continue reading...

From trips into the vast universe of Starfield, or the Islamic golden age, to a cuddly cat caper, these 10 games will be the big players in the coming monthsA truly enormous science-fiction role-playing game, the product of more than a decade's imaginings at Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda. It promises more than a thousand planets to visit, a space-station city of awe-inspiring proportions - and space fights that feel exciting.

Researchers focused on turtles and tortoises from sites of nuclear testsTortoise and turtle shells can be used to study nuclear contamination, scientists have found.Just as tree rings can provide snapshots of the Earth's climate, and ice cores can give us information on past temperature, researchers found that the layers of shells can be used as a time stamp of periods with nuclear fallout. Continue reading...

Remember when dating apps were just for love and sex? Now they're all about networkingName: Dating app job hunters.Age: A few years old. Continue reading...

Other gaming events may have hit hurdles, but gamescom in Cologne is expecting record number of exhibitorsLike Glastonbury and Primavera for music lovers, huge video game conventions have traditionally been a beloved gathering place for gamers, and a focal point of the year for gaming news.At events such as E3 in Los Angeles and gamescom in Germany, hundreds of thousands of fans would turn up to play forthcoming games in cavernous halls full of light and sound. But where music festivals have roared back since the Covid pandemic, video game conventions have struggled to regain their former essential place in the calendar. Continue reading...

This is Tobe Hooper's putrid amoral universe in film perfectly replicated as an interactive terror ridePC, PS4/5, Xbox; Sumo Digital/Gun InteractiveIt's been 50 years since Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre lit up cinema screens with its propulsive mix of desolation, buzzing tension and extreme violence. Saw-wielding maniac Leatherface is still up there with Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger as one of the most iconic depictions of murderous evil that cinema has ever produced - so it's strange we've had to wait this long for a game to truly get to grips with this seminal work of rural horror.Like 2017's Friday the 13th, which recently had its servers shut down for good, and the still hugely successful Dead By Daylight, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM) is an asymmetric online multiplayer game, in which players take part as either victims or killers. In those titles only one player gets to be the bad guy, but in TCM, three participants play together as the film's evil Sawyer family, working together to hunt down and slay their four desperate captives, who are all trying to escape. Among the victims, Connie can instantly pick locks and Leland can stun enemies, while on the family side the hitchhiker can set traps and new character Sissy can poison things. Players gain XP for upgrades after each round, whether their side wins or not. Continue reading...

An explosion of data use has led to massive infrastructure costs. Is the era of cheap all-you-can-watch content about to end? Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereThe writers and actors strikes in Hollywood have largely focused on streamers like Netflix paying more for the work the artists contribute to the services. On the tech side of things, meanwhile, a similar fight is brewing.Far from the Hollywood picket lines, telecommunications executives are looking at booming broadband use largely driven by video. Streaming video is one of - if not the main reason - for the explosion in data use across networks in the past 10 years, and platforms like Netflix are some of the main culprits. Continue reading...

Even as some firms are mandating workers come into the office, work from home has permanently changed the work landscapeThe work from home backlash is in full swing. In what seemed like an oxymoron brought to life, the video conferencing company Zoom has asked employees to return to the office. Amazon is reportedly tracking employees to make sure they are at their desks.The two companies are just the latest to sour on work from home (WFH), but does this mean the impending end of WFH as we know it? Continue reading...

CMA opens new investigation into $69bn acquisition as tech firm offers to sell cloud gaming rights to UbisoftMicrosoft has made changes to its proposed takeover of the video game maker Activision Blizzard as it tries to win over the UK competition regulator that blocked the $69bn (54bn) deal.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Tuesday said it would investigate the new proposals, under which Microsoft will not acquire cloud rights outside Europe for existing Activision desktop computer and console games, or for new games released by the developer during the next 15 years. Continue reading...

Charles Martinet was the original voice of the Italian plumber, but is now stepping back' from voicing characters for the Japanese game giantThe voice of Mario is stepping back" from the role after 27 years as the Nintendo character, the Japanese game company has announced.Charles Martinet, 67, was the original voice of the Italian plumber, starting with the 1996 instalment Super Mario 64. He also provided other voices in the game series including Mario's twin brother Luigi and the villainous Wario and Waluigi. Continue reading...

Almost one in three people aged 18-34 have been messaged by staff after giving personal details to a businessAlmost one in three people aged 18-34 have received unwanted romantic contact after giving their personal information to a business, a UK poll has shown.The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has called for recipients of such texts to come forward to help the regulator gather evidence of the impact of this phenomenon.The ICO has an online form for people who want to report an experience of unwanted contact. Continue reading...

Platform's users voice concern as it removes pictures and links on posts made before December 2014Elon Musk, the owner of the app formerly known as Twitter, has said the social media site may fail", after a glitch caused pictures posted before December 2014 to be deleted.In a post on the site, renamed X, Musk said: The sad truth is that there are no great social networks' right now." Continue reading...

Hustler DIY kit car was crafted by former Rolls-Royce engineer and school woodwork teacher in 1980sIt has had one careful owner, has never failed an MOT and there is no way the body work is going to rust.But whoever buys John Brazier's car at auction in Bath next month will have to get used to some pretty odd looks when they take it out for a spin. Continue reading...

While the far right claims artificial intelligence has become too woke', experts argue it's not a sentient being with its own viewpointsWhen Elon Musk introduced the team behind his new artificial intelligence company xAI last month, the billionaire entrepreneur took a question from the rightwing media activist Alex Lorusso. ChatGPT had begun editorializing the truth" by giving weird answers like that there are more than two genders", Lorusso posited. Was that a driver behind Musk's decision to launch xAI, he wondered.I do think there is significant danger in training AI to be politically correct, or in other words training AI to not say what it actually thinks is true," Musk replied. His own company's AI on the other hand, would be maximally true" he had said earlier in the presentation. Continue reading...

No, gaming isn't a niche, violence-inducing pastime, it's the defining entertainment medium of our time. We should treat it as suchOver the past few years, it feels as if there has been a subtle shift in the way that we view video games. That classic trope of games being a socially isolating experience, primarily within the purview of angry, pallid teenage boys, seems increasingly tired and outdated - because it is. Video games are no longer a niche, nerdy pastime. Much the opposite: they are one of, or perhaps the defining entertainment medium of the 21st century. One estimate puts the total number of people across the globe who play video games at 3.09 billion, with data from the US suggesting that two-thirds of American adults play them, with a fairly even split between men and women.But, even though we've moved past the most strongly negative characterisations of video games and become more accustomed to them, they're still viewed with a certain level of suspicion. And we're still presented with a seemingly endless cycle of scare stories in the news about their detrimental effects. I'm a firm believer in the huge potential of video games as a force for good in our lives, and I've written before about the benefits they can have - their ability to connect us and to allow us to explore and understand our emotions and attitudes. Nevertheless, the broad-level discussion about their impact seems to be at an impasse: games are becoming ever more popular, while commenters are often stuck in a simplistic back and forth about whether they are good or bad for us.Pete Etchells is a professor of psychology and science communication at Bath Spa University. He is the author of Lost in a Good Game and Unlocked Continue reading...

The World Robot Conference 2023 has opened in China, aimed at promoting scientific and technological progress. The event is a forum for participants to network and seek resources for further innovation. There's also the opportunity for ice-cream served by a robot Continue reading...

More Consumer Champions readers share their frustrating experiences of the email glitchLast weekend's Guardian Money article about Virgin Media customers being left without access to vital emails for several weeks prompted a sizeable response from other readers saying me, too".The sense of frustration was writ large across the letters sent in to us. Continue reading...

China is the world's biggest gaming market, where a culture of creativity has flourished - so please do not conflate companies and players with a repressive regime that cracks down on individual expressionOne of the most popular video games in the world today is Chinese. Not that everyone would be aware of the fact, or would care, but that game is Genshin Impact and it was created by Shanghai-based miHoYo. Its style and characters are greatly influenced by anime, and many players might have thought Genshin was Japanese-developed; it is telling that miHoYo is inspired by that country's culture. Despite being the world's biggest video games market, China still remains relatively minor as an international cultural force in games.Video games are one of the few creative media not dominated by the US. In consoles, two of the platform holders are from Japan, while developers in the UK and Europe are powerhouses of creativity. But the world's biggest games company is Chinese giant Tencent, which is often the target of racism and online criticism. While massive corporations don't need huge sympathy, as a Briton of Chinese heritage, it does pain me when Chinese games companies are falsely conflated with the Chinese government. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhich person has had the greatest impact on the course of the 21st century so far? Alf Henriksen, Odense, DenmarkSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

The elderly, the poor and the unbanked are among the marginalised groups being excluded from our cashless societyWhatever the word is for the opposite of heartwarming, it certainly applies to the story of Ruth and Peter Jaffe. The elderly couple from Ealing, west London, made headlines last week after being charged 110 by Ryanair for printing out their tickets at Stansted airport.Even allowing for the exorbitant cost of inkjet printer ink, 55 quid for each sheet of paper is a shockingly creative example of punitive pricing. Continue reading...

This screws us royally,' says one disgruntled iiNet user as internet service providers such as TPG curtail email accounts for customers

NSW residents Simon Elvins and his wife lost nearly $250,000 to a payment redirection scam - and they are not alone

The lowdown on handsets, networks and parental controls, if your child is ready for a first mobile or an upgrade is requiredIf you have decided it is time for your child to have their first mobile phone, or they are due an upgrade, the choice can be bewildering.There are various things to consider, from the handset and the mobile service to go with it, to parental controls and how well the phone fits in with the devices you already use. Continue reading...

Loss of protective feature may bring it into conflict with safety guidelines on App Store and Google PlaySocial media company X, formerly known as Twitter, will remove a protective feature that lets users block other accounts, Elon Musk has said in another controversial move for the company he bought last year.The block function allows a user to restrict specific accounts from contacting them, seeing their posts or following them. Block is going to be deleted as a feature', except for DMs [direct messages]," Musk said in a post on the platform, saying later: It makes no sense." Continue reading...

Concern over shortage of reliable news after articles blocked on Facebook in response to tech lawMeta began blocking news from appearing across its platforms in Canada this month after prolonged negotiations with the government over Canada's new Online News Act.As Canada grapples with its worst ever wildfire season, thousands of Canadians are could now be affected by a shortage of news content across Meta's platforms. Continue reading...

Masayoshi Soken has quietly ripped up the rulebook for the latest edition of Square Enix's epic seriesIf we have to bring the old world crashing down in order to build us a new one," says Cid, Final Fantasy XVI's gravel-voiced deuteragonist in the first act of the game, what say you? Are you with me?"Cid delivers this dramatic line as a musical refrain that any Final Fantasy player will recognise ascends and descends ominously in the background. It's the most recent interpretation of the series' famous Prelude, originally played by a simple digital harp working its way up and down a scale. Legend has it that this number was a last-minute addition to the very first game in the series (more than 35 years ago) by composer Nobuo Uematsu. It took about 10 minutes to create, and has since been performed by orchestras all over the world, and used in the games bearing the indomitable Final Fantasy brand. Continue reading...

New missions, a fresh 3v3v3 mode and an update of the popular zombie killing side game, Activision is going full bore for what could be John Price's last standAs well timed as any real-life military operation, when autumn approaches, Activision reveals a new Call of Duty title. On Thursday night, the publisher announced Modern Warfare III, the latest (and last?) in its series of military shooters reimagining the trio of hugely successful Modern Warfare titles from the early 2010s. The game will launch on 10 November, on PC, PlayStation and Xbox with development led by Sledgehammer Games, which worked on the original Modern Warfare III with series originator, Infinity Ward.Acting as a direct sequel to last year's Modern Warfare II reboot, the game will see dramatically moustached hero John Price and his Task Force 141 taking on long-running antagonist Vladimir Makarov, very much the Moriarty of Russian ultra nationalism. The Campaign mode will feature new Open Combat Missions, which offer players various routes and options depending on their preferred play styles. Continue reading...

This meditative game from Transylvanian studio Stoneskip has you reliving the memories of a young woman about to leave her family homeSimpler Times is pretty much the opposite of 2021's hit game Unpacking: here, it is all about packing up. Taina is getting ready to leave her family home to go to university, and as she packs away her belongings, each cherished object takes her on a contemplative journey. She's having second thoughts," says game director Dragos Matkovski. She's having doubts about moving into this next chapter of her life. And the reason why you, as a player, revisit her memories is to find out that, actually, she's doing the right thing."Matkovski was born in Moldova but now lives in Transylvania in Romania, where his studio, Stoneskip, is based. The studio itself was born around this project," he says. The origin of the game was simply me experimenting with 3D art." In the midst of the Covid pandemic, Matkovski idly began recreating the room he was stuck in as a 3D model, then posted his progress online. The positive feedback he received persuaded him to turn his room into something people could play.Simpler Times will be out on PC in 2024 Continue reading...

Collaboration rather than command-and-control is key to creating culturally and ethically positive systemsOne of the first images of AI I encountered was a white, spectral, hostile, disembodied head. It was in the computer game Neuromancer, programmed by Troy Miles and based on William Gibson's cyberpunk novel. Other people may have first encountered HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrik's 2001: A Space Odyssey or Samantha from Spike Jonze's Her.Images from pop culture influence people's impressions of AI, but culture has an even more profound relationship to it. If there's one thing to take away from this article, it is the idea that AI systems are not objective machines, but instead based in human culture: our values, norms, preferences, and behaviours in society. These aspects of our culture are reflected in how systems are engineered. So instead of trying to decide whether AI systems are objectively good or bad for society, we need to design them to reflect the ethically positive culture we truly want. Continue reading...

AI experts cite ethical concerns over relationships humans may develop with such chatbotsThe next time you lie in bed and absent-mindedly ask your old friend Google for a piece of life advice, don't be surprised if it speaks back to you.

Guardian test highlights experimental' nature of ChatGPT service being made available in Tui's appHolidaymakers typically rely on experienced tour guides and local companies to recommend excursions to medieval castles and spectacular waterfalls, but the world's biggest tour operator has said it will entrust the service to artificial intelligence instead.The German travel company Tui has started using ChatGPT in its app to provide holiday recommendations, in the latest sign of traditional businesses racing to harness AI. Continue reading...

The comedians promise a space for the lonely outsider to feel accepted' in Sara & Cariad's Weirdos Book Club. Plus: five of the best podcasts with multitasking hosts

The makers of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture return with a story about drilling down into something terrible lurking beneath the North SeaHow do you fancy making a 1970s horror game set in Scotland? That was the question that art director John McCormack recalls being asked by Dan Pinchbeck, co-founder of the Brighton-based studio The Chinese Room, when he joined the company a few years ago. McCormack's response was immediate: Well, as a Scotsman from the 70s, I would say that you've got me: I'm in."McCormack had been attracted to work for the studio by its reputation for storytelling and authenticity. The Chinese Room made its name with the cult hit Dear Esther in 2012, and went on to create the Bafta-award-winning Everybody's Gone to the Rapture in 2015, featuring an incredibly detailed recreation of a mysteriously deserted English village. Still Wakes the Deep carries on that tradition of faithful reproduction, although this time the setting is a North Sea oil rig rather than the bucolic English countryside.Still Wakes the Deep will be out in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Continue reading...

Fears that bias in training sets would mean minorities bearing brunt of scams, fraud and misinformationDetection tools being developed to combat the growing threat of deepfakes - realistic-looking false content - must use training datasets that are inclusive of darker skin tones to avoid bias, experts have warned.Most deepfake detectors are based on a learning strategy that depends largely on the dataset that is used for its training. It then uses AI to detect signs that may not be clear to the human eye. Continue reading...

Artificial intelligence could take personalized service a new, possibly sinister level - but can it really replace a chef?In the world of ultra-fine dining, service must run like clockwork. A team of specialists work together to create a seamless experience for customers from the point of booking reservations to the time the check is paid. Host, server, food runner, sommelier and dining room manager attend to - and even anticipate - guests' needs with unflinching poise. When it works well, customers feel cared for and pampered.It's time-consuming work to pay such attention to detail, and early advocates of artificial intelligence (AI) say that software could automize the most tedious parts of the job. Let workers focus on the food and service, they say. Others wonder if it will erode time-honed traditions in kitchens and dining rooms. So when considering the question of how AI might affect haute cuisine, it depends on who you ask. Continue reading...

Artist and designer Harry Nesbitt explains how his game pays homage to a countryside practice stretching back through historyIn the soft, rolling hills of the Derbyshire dales the grass is clipped to just a few centimetres by gently bleating sheep. For game artist and designer Harry Nesbitt who grew up here, this countryside is in his blood. There's something there deep in my subconscious," he says. I always want to tell stories or depict worlds that are close to my heart."Nesbitt's fondness for this terrain is visible the very first time you look at Summerhill, his forthcoming puzzle-adventure game that tasks the player with herding sheep through a bucolic landscape. You're accompanied by a dog who provides key assistance; you'll come across intriguing ruined structures, the remains of an ancient civilisation whose culture was centred on shepherding, through which you must guide your growing flock. Nesbitt says these ruins are designed in order to contain, funnel, or sort" sheep in certain ways, causing the player to rationalise" and reconfigure" the space in order to progress.Summerhill will be out on PC and unannounced platforms; release date TBA Continue reading...

Outsourcer Sama facing legal cases brought by Kenya-based employees alleging exposure to graphic contentThe chief executive of a company contracted to moderate Facebook posts in east Africa has said she regretted taking on the work, after its staff said they were left traumatised by graphic content on the social media platform.The US outsourcing firm Sama is facing a number of legal cases brought by Kenya-based employees, who alleged being exposed to graphic and traumatic content such as videos of beheadings, suicide and other material at a moderation hub. Continue reading...

I've been waiting to replay this taut, sometimes beautiful western since I binged it years ago. But fans are right to fear that a new port may not live up to its potential Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereIt's my birthday today, and Rockstar has been kind enough to rerelease its 2010 western opus Red Dead Redemption on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch (out tomorrow), as a slightly late birthday gift. It is indisputably a landmark game, less ambitious but also less self-indulgent than its 2018 sequel. The first game is tauter, its crafted set-pieces more memorable. Everyone who's played it remembers that moment when you cross the border into Mexico, and Jose Gonzalez starts to play as the sun rises. Few games boast a single moment that compares to it.I played Red Dead Redemption the summer after I graduated university, mainlining the whole thing in three days. I remember getting inordinately attached to my horse, the vast desert expanses, the encroaching inevitability of its shock ending at John Marston's farmhouse, which I saw coming but still gasped at. I remember hating the feds with every fibre of my being, and unexpectedly hating some of Marston's former outlaw friends just as much. It was a game with no real winners - still unusual at the time - and took the same bleak view of humanity's essential moral depravity as the Grand Theft Auto series, but with fewer off-colour jokes and more moments of fleeting beauty. I have been looking forward to playing it again. Continue reading...

America's richest and most cowardly man, Musk, proposed an idiotic fight, then came up with every excuse not to really do itNever challenge anyone to a fight. Not even if you think you would win. Especially not if you think you would win. To break this commandment is to invite the wrath of all universal karma down upon your head. It is to engage in the folly of hubris, to break the prohibition against violence, and to set oneself up as a poster child for getting what's coming to you". As a general rule, the people who forge ahead in defiance of this wisdom do so only because they are spoiled, confidence-poisoned children who can only learn things the hard way.Having $200bn only makes all of these poisonous characteristics more potent. But unlike most things, money cannot protect you from the consequences of this particular mistake.Hamilton Nolan is a writer based in New York City and a member of the WGAE Continue reading...

The rise of AI will destroy jobs - but also create them. And if you didn't nab that 700,000 role at Netflix, there are plenty of new positions in the offing, many in surprising areasThe conversation about AI and the workplace is understandably dominated by the downsides - after decades of automation eliminating manufacturing jobs, people in the service sector are worried about being replaced by robots".But every technological shift creates as well as destroys jobs. Artificial intelligence - at least in its current iteration, which uses large language datasets to create text, audio and video - is no different. What is, perhaps, surprising is the type of jobs it will create. Continue reading...

When content posted from critical news outlets and competitor apps was clicked, it opened a blank screen, delaying accessSocial media giant Twitter appeared to apply a five-second delay that would slow access to sites - a process known as throttling - including to the New York Times, Reuters, Instagram and Blue Sky, another social network, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.The sites with slowed links included competitors to Twitter and news publications that have been on Twitter owner Elon Musk's bad side due to critical reporting. The Washington Post tested the delays and found that if someone clicked a link on Twitter that would send them to another site, the link would open to a blank screen that lasted for a few seconds. Continue reading...

A dating-app meet goes wrong at the beginning of this action game when the world as we know it abruptly ends - but that won't stop love from flourishingEternights combines the action-packed spectacle of a PlatinumGames title with a darkly funny dating simulator. At the beginning of the game's Steam demo, you are building an online dating profile with your friend, and a woman texts you to meet up. By the time the demo is over, an apocalyptic calamity has destroyed the city you live in and turned its hapless citizens into mindless demons, and your arm has been cut off and turned into a sword. Oh, and the woman you thought you were going to go on a date with has ulterior motives. Standard romantic fare.Studio Sai founder Jae Yoo worked on the game on nights and weekends while doing a full-time job at Apple, before he eventually left to found his own studio. As Studio Sai's only full-time employee, he was responsible for the title's programming story, modelling and rigging animation - which he learned after downloading Unity and watching YouTube tutorials. He worked with two part-time artists and a part-time narrative designer, along with a composer and sound designer. Continue reading...

The head of the UK tech startup is as passionate about self-driving autonomy' as Elon Musk - but thinks it could be 20 years awayDriverless cars are here - if you happen to live in San Francisco, at least. Regulators voted last week to allow two companies to run driverless taxi services in the city. So it is surprising to hear from the British boss of an autonomous-car company that the next step - the dream of a car that can drive you anywhere - may still be a decade or more away.Gavin Jackson, of British startup Oxa, says it could be 10 or even 20 years before an Uber effect" takes over and robo-taxis are capable of going anywhere without human intervention. It's just the hardest problem you could possibly want to solve, because the variables are infinite," he tells the Observer over lunch in London. Continue reading...

When a pregnant Black woman was falsely arrested, she fought back. Here's what happened next. Plus, the week in AI Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article herePorcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when police in Detroit, Michigan came to arrest her on charges of carjacking and robbery. She was getting her two children ready for school when six police officers knocked on her door and presented her with an arrest warrant. She thought it was a prank.Are you kidding, carjacking? Do you see that I am eight months pregnant?" the lawsuit Woodruff filed against Detroit police reads. She sent her children upstairs to tell her fiance that Mommy's going to jail". Continue reading...

PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Switch, PC; Summerfall Studios

NSPCC says tech firms and MPs must back bill after UK police data shows scale of child abuse happening on social media'Tens of thousands of online grooming crimes have been recorded during the wait for updated online safety laws.The online safety bill is expected to become law in the autumn, but has faced a lengthy route to the statute book with repeated changes and delays to the proposed legislation. Continue reading...

Social media app, launched in the wake of Twitter chaos, recorded 576,000 active users in August, down 79% from 2.3 million in JulyThe daily usage of Threads, Meta's answer to Twitter, continues to slump after a strong start in its first weeks of existence.Engagement with the social media app is down 79% from a high of 2.3 million active users in early July to 576,000 as of 7 August, according to Similarweb, a digital intelligence platform. Continue reading...

A hit-and-miss documentary often struggles to explain the hows and whys of the Bangladesh Central Bank cyber heist of 2016Cybercrime, on top of being difficult to detect and even more so to prove, is notoriously tricky to visualize. The impact may be tangible, even devastating - nuclear plants damaged, hospitals disabled, pipelines shut down - but the perpetrators are shadowy and inscrutable, the crime unseen and insidious, the methods vague and indecipherable to lay people without a knack for computer science.Billion Dollar Heist, a new feature-length documentary, attempts the formidable challenge of turning one of the biggest financial crimes in history - the February 2016 cyber heist of $81m from the US Federal Reserve accounts for the central bank of Bangladesh - into informative entertainment. Director Daniel Gordon employs a range of cinematic techniques - some illuminative, some overly cliched - to get at a highly sophisticated cyber crime involving several countries, time zones and financial institutions. Among them: animation, dramatic recreation, stock footage of beeping ones and zeros, archival footage on the relatively brief history of hacking, ominous narration from British broadcaster and cybersecurity journalist Misha Glenny. Continue reading...