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Updated 2025-06-06 11:47
More than 90% of schools in England ban mobile phone use, survey shows
Head of National Education Union calls for statutory ban on phones in schools and social media ban for under-16sAlmost all schools in England have banned mobile phone use by pupils, according to the first national survey conducted, as the leader of the largest teaching union called for a statutory ban owing to the damaging impact" on young people.The national survey, ordered by Rachel de Souza, the children's commissioner for England, showed that headteachers have swiftly instituted bans on smartphone use during school hours. The survey of more than 15,000 schools found that 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools have some form of ban. Continue reading...
Royal Mail trials postbox with parcel hatch, solar panels and barcode scanner
Five new boxes in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire enable company to cash in on boom in secondhand sellingRoyal Mail has unveiled a solar-powered postbox of the future" with a built-in barcode reader and a hatch to accept parcels larger than letterbox size.In the biggest change to postbox design since their introduction more than 175 years ago", the hi-tech pillar box looks as if it is wearing a jaunty beret. The black, chequered lid is in fact solar panels that power the scanner. Continue reading...
Why you can’t just repair your phone in the US to avoid Trump tariffs
Business owners warn taxes may increase parts prices, making electronics repairs more costly than beforeTariffs that took effect in the US at midnight on Wednesday are expected to make buying new smartphones more expensive. But opting to fix an old or damaged device as a way to save money may not avoid a higher bill.We do expect that we'll have to increase our own parts prices some, too, unfortunately," said Elizabeth Chamberlain, the director of sustainability at the device repair company iFixit. We're actively looking for sources of harvested parts from within the US. Even with higher prices on parts, however, repairs will still be much more economical than buying new." Continue reading...
Dr Oz tells federal health workers AI could replace frontline doctors
Former TV doctor who leads $1.5tn Medicare and Medicaid agency also says staff have patriotic duty' to stay healthyDr Mehmet Oz reportedly told federal staffers that artificial intelligence models may be better than frontline human physicians in his first all-staff meeting this week.Oz told staffers that if a patient went to the doctor for a diabetes diagnosis it would cost roughly $100 an hour, compared with $2 an hour for an AI visit, according to unnamed sources who spoke to Wired magazine. He added that patients may prefer an AI avatar. Continue reading...
White House insists iPhones will be US-made – but Apple calls it a non-starter
Experts doubt Trump line that tariffs and company's $500bn investment will shift manufacturing from AsiaThe White House is insisting that Donald Trump's vision of Apple's flagship iPhones being manufactured in the US will come to fruition, despite assertions from analysts and the company itself that it would not be possible.The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters during Tuesday's briefing that the president believed Apple's recently announced $500bn investment, as well as increasing import costs sparked by his trade tariffs, would encourage the company to ramp up manufacturing in the US. Continue reading...
Where have all the headphones gone on public transport? The noise is eating into my soul | Adrian Chiles
Just one antisocial fellow traveller can ruin a journey. Is it a giant two-fingered gesture to the rest of the world?Some time in the early years of the last decade, a friend and I travelled by train from London to Barcelona, where we would be covering a football match for work. We had a very nice day, playing Scrabble and drinking train wine as we sped south. The only problem was that a kid near us, not 10 years old, was watching a cartoon or playing a game on an iPad without the benefit of headphones. The sound wasn't so much loud as persistent. Slowly but surely it drilled its way into our skulls and started to eat into our souls. I shot the family a couple of glances but got a look back which managed to communicate two things. Firstly that they were sorry. Secondly that if they took the iPad off the kid, we'd all be sorry. So, on he went. And an otherwise perfectly pleasurable journey started to drag.Then I had an idea. I got my headphones out of my bag, caught the mother's eye, and handed them over. After a bit of faff they were connected to the iPad, the wretched noise ceased and I got a round of applause from men, women and children of many nations. I relate this story even though I never think it's a good look to be the hero of your own anecdotes. My excuse is that the incident reminds me of how rare such behaviour was back then. Yes, people were known to yak away too loudly on their phones, but whoever they were talking at remained a stranger to us. And if anyone was watching or listening to something, they'd be using headphones. True, a bit of tinny noise would occasionally leak out, which was annoying, but that was about as bad as things got.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Two visions within Trump world are battling for primacy. Which will win? | Ben Davis
The second Trump administration was backed and is staffed by two major - and widely differing - ideological projectsThe start of the second Trump administration has been chaotic, to put it mildly. It is difficult for Americans to understand what exactly the administration is trying to do and how it will affect them. It has been simultaneously a colossal remaking of the US state and the entire global order, but also seemingly haphazard, with significant policy decisions such as spending cuts and tariff rates clearly made with little thought or preparation. Analysts and commentators of all stripes have speculated on the motives and strategy behind the Trump administration's huge overhaul of society. But what is the Trump administration's plan for the US?The primary moves the administration has made are major cuts to federal government capacity through the department of government efficiency" (Doge) and now an unprecedented tariff regime that has sent financial markets into a free fall. Some view these changes as part of a grand overarching strategy to rebuild some version of an imagined past America: globally hegemonic and able to exercise power nakedly over other countries, economically self-sufficient with a large manufacturing base, and a reassertion of the previous social norms and order around gender, race, and sexuality. But a deeper dive into the Trump administration's explanation of their policies and vision reveals that rather than a single, coherent ideological project, the Trump administration is sclerotic and being used as a vehicle for more than one competing ideological project. Continue reading...
EU to build AI gigafactories in €20bn push to catch up with US and China
Up to five sites with power-hungry supercomputers and datacentres planned to drive AI moonshots'
Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas
Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building datacentres in water-scarce parts of five continentsAmazon, Microsoft and Google are operating datacentres that use vast amounts of water in some of the world's driest areas and are building many more, the non-profit investigatory organisation SourceMaterial and the Guardian have found.With Donald Trump pledging to support them, the three technology giants are planning hundreds of datacentres in the US and across the globe, with a potentially huge impact on populations already living with water scarcity. Continue reading...
Online suicide forum investigated under new UK digital safety laws
Ofcom's first investigation to look into whether site took adequate measures to shield users from illegal contentThe UK communications regulator has announced its first investigation under the new digital safety laws with an inquiry into an online suicide forum.Ofcom is investigating whether the site breached the Online Safety Act by failing to put in place adequate measures to shield its users from illegal content. Continue reading...
Bafta games awards 2025: full list of winners
Astro Bot wins in five categories as the night's most nominated Senua's Saga: Hellblade II victorious in just oneIn a video game year dominated by dark, bloody fantasy adventures - and continued job losses and studio closures - it was a cute robot that stole the night at the 2025 Bafta video game awards. Sony's family-friendly platformer Astro Bot won in five categories at yesterday evening's ceremony, including best game and game design.The rest of the awards were evenly spread across a range of Triple A and independent titles. Oil rig thriller Still Wakes the Deep was the next biggest winner with three awards: new intellectual property, performer in a leading role and performer in a supporting role. Clearly actors looking for Bafta-winning roles need look no further than the North Sea. The only other multiple winner was online shooter Helldivers 2, which won in multiplayer and music. The night's most nominated title, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, was victorious in just the one category: technical achievement. Continue reading...
UK creating ‘murder prediction’ tool to identify people most likely to kill
Exclusive: Algorithms allegedly being used to study data of thousands of people, in project critics say is chilling and dystopian'The UK government is developing a murder prediction" programme which it hopes can use personal data of those known to the authorities to identify the people most likely to become killers.Researchers are alleged to be using algorithms to analyse the information of thousands of people, including victims of crime, as they try to identify those at greatest risk of committing serious violent offences. Continue reading...
The composer still making music four years after his death – thanks to an artificial brain
In Australia, a team of artists and scientists have resurrected the US composer Alvin Lucier. It raises a storm of questions about AI and authorship - and it's also incredibly beautifulIn a darkened room, a fractured symphony of rattles, hums and warbles bounces off the walls - like an orchestra tuning up in some parallel universe. But there's not a musician in sight.If you look closely there is a small fragment of a performer. Albeit one without a pulse. Continue reading...
Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt buys £42m London mansion
Deal to buy Holland Park home, which ex-CEO reportedly plans to rent out, is latest by an American in the capital
So you want to go to the USA? Are you sure? Here’s how to prepare your machines for Trumpistan | First Dog on the Moon
Just reading this cartoon might get you thrown into an El Salvadoran jail - don't do it!
We have more data on ourselves than ever before. But can we really track our way into happiness? | Samantha Floreani
Self-tracking is regularly promoted as a way toward self-improvement. But life is not a mathematical problem waiting to be solvedInspired by a curiosity to factcheck my own feelings, I've been tracking my mood: Far too often a bad day can feel like a permanent state rather than a passing experience. As it turns out, observing the little coloured emojis on my mood chart, one bad day does not, in fact, mean I am doomed to live a blue crying-face life forever. Thank goodness.Others track themselves in different ways: monitoring daily step counts, tracking sleep cycles and bodily functions, counting calories, logging meals and so on. Digital technologies, wearable devices and an array of platforms make this easier than ever. Many people set reading targets and log books read on Goodreads or films watched on Letterboxd. Some track daily outfits online with the goal of perfecting personal style. Self-tracking is regularly promoted as a way toward self-improvement.Samantha Floreani is a digital rights activist and writer based in Melbourne/Naarm Continue reading...
Which celebrities are lying about their height? This website’s done the research
On Celebheights.com, thousands of users measure the statures of the rich and famous. The methods are scientific and the debates are fieryAs someone brushing up on 6'3", height is one physical insecurity I've never agonised over. Instead, it's a source of frustration as I crunch my legs into airplane seats and wait for them to go numb.Only after discovering Celebheights.com did I truly understand the depth of feeling - both excitement and rage - that height can inspire. Continue reading...
‘Profiting from misery’: how TikTok makes money from child begging livestreams
Exploitation fears as people in extreme poverty perform stunts and beg for virtual giftsThree young children huddle in front of a camera, cross-legged and cupping their hands. Please support me. We are very poor," says a boy, staring down the lens.They appear to be in a mud-brick hut in Afghanistan, living in extreme poverty. But their live stream is reaching viewers in the UK and worldwide - via TikTok Live. Continue reading...
Meta and Pinterest believed to have donated to Molly Russell charity
Anonymous donations made to Molly Rose Foundation, set up after UK teenager took her own life after viewing harmful material on social mediaMeta and Pinterest have reportedly made significant donations to the Molly Rose Foundation, a charity set up to campaign for internet safety.The foundation was set up in the name of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017 after viewing harmful material linked to suicide and self-harm on social media platforms. Continue reading...
‘I didn’t start out wanting to see kids’: are porn algorithms feeding a generation of paedophiles – or creating one?
More than 850 men a month are arrested for online child abuse offences in England and Wales. They come from every walk of life: teachers, police officers, doctors, TV presenters. And the numbers are rising every year. How did this happen?Andy was enjoying a weekend away with his wife when it happened. My neighbour phoned me and said, The police are in your house. They're looking for you.'" He didn't need to wonder why. You know. You know the reason. I was petrified when I got that call. It wasn't just the thought of other people knowing what I had done; I also had to face myself, and that is a sick feeling - it is guilt, shame."Andy had been watching and sharing images of children being sexually abused for several months before the police appeared at his door. He tried at first to keep it from his wife: I was afraid she would ask me to leave. I wouldn't have blamed her if she had." Continue reading...
Trump extends deadline for TikTok sale to non-Chinese buyer to avoid ban
Deadline set by US president was supposed to be Saturday, with Trump now considering decreasing tariffs to get dealDonald Trump said he will sign an executive order to extend the TikTok ban deadline. This is the second time the president will have delayed the ban or sale of the social media app, and will punt the deadline to 75 days from now.The TikTok deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed", Trump announced on his Truth Social platform on Friday. Continue reading...
Australia’s social media ban is attracting global praise – but we’re no closer to knowing how it would work
A trial is under way but the government faces many hurdles - including whether Trump-emboldened tech companies will comply
South of Midnight review – beautiful surfaces can’t hide thin gameplay
PC, Xbox; Compulsion Games
US authors’ copyright lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft combined in New York with newspaper actions
California cases over AI trainers' use of work by writers including Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Chabon transferred to consolidate with New York suits from John Grisham and Jonathan Franzen and moreTwelve US copyright cases against OpenAI and Microsoft have been consolidated in New York, despite most of the authors and news outlets suing the companies being opposed to centralisation.A transfer order made by the US judicial panel on multidistrict litigation on Thursday said that centralisation will allow a single judge to coordinate discovery, streamline pretrial proceedings, and eliminate inconsistent rulings". Continue reading...
Clickbait titles and cliffhangers: the mini TV serials capturing phone audiences
Vertical dramas' consisting of minute-long episodes are booming, with market predicted to be worth $14bn by 2027Found a Homeless Billionaire Husband for Christmas. The Quarterback Next Door. Revenge of the XXL Wife. My Secret Agent Husband.These may sound like cringey fantasies, but they're actually titles of vertical dramas", a new form of episodic television that is gripping millions around the world. Continue reading...
Mario Kart World: hands-on with Nintendo’s crucial Switch 2 launch game
It may not reinvent the wheel but the forthcoming racer looks awesome, plays flawlessly, offers more exhilarating carnage than ever before - and even allows some open-world exploration
TikTok ban deadline looms in US amid last-minute takeover bids
Deadline for company to divest from Chinese ownership nears as Trump mulls over potential bids from US firmsOnce again, the future of TikTok in the US is at stake. After a years-long tussle over whether or not to ban the app in the country, the deadline for the company to divest or sell its assets to a non-Chinese owner is up again on 5 April. Donald Trump has said his administration is very close" to a deal for the app.A handful of potential buyers have said they're interested in the tremendously popular social media app and various news reports have floated other types of deals, including an investment from the Trump-friendly venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz or a bid from Amazon. The president signed an executive order in January to postpone a ban-or-divest deadline until April; earlier this week he said he would like to see TikTok remain alive". But the path forward for TikTok, and its 170 million US users, remains murky. Continue reading...
Blanket ban on teen smartphone use ‘potentially detrimental’, says academic
Dr Amy Orben says there are no one-size-fits-all answers' given importance of access to online informationA leading academic tasked by the UK government with reviewing the effects of smartphones on teenagers has suggested blanket bans are unrealistic and potentially detrimental".Amy Orben, from the University of Cambridge, will lead the work on children and smartphone use that has been commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) along with a team of other academics from a number of UK universities. Continue reading...
Meta faces £1.8bn lawsuit over claims it inflamed violence in Ethiopia
Son of murdered academic calls on Facebook owner to radically change how it moderates dangerous content'Meta faces a $2.4bn (1.8bn) lawsuit accusing the Facebook owner of inflaming violence in Ethiopia after the Kenyan high court said a legal case against the US tech group could go ahead.The case brought by two Ethiopian nationals calls on Facebook to alter its algorithm to stop promoting hateful material and incitement to violence, as well as hiring more content moderators in Africa. It is also seeking a $2.4bn restitution fund" for victims of hate and violence incited on Facebook. Continue reading...
Don’t weaken online safety laws for UK-US trade deal, campaigners urge
Child protection charities say watering down Online Safety Act would be an appalling sellout' by governmentChild safety campaigners have warned the government against watering down landmark online laws as part of a UK-US trade deal, describing the prospect of a compromise as an appalling sellout" that would be rejected by voters.A draft transatlantic trade agreement contains commitments to review enforcement of the Online Safety Act, according to a report on Thursday, amid White House concerns the legislation poses a threat to free speech. Continue reading...
The best walking pads and under-desk treadmills, tried and tested to turn your workday into a workout
Sedentary lifestyles are bad for us, but which under-desk treadmills and walking pads are worth the cost? Our expert stepped up to find out The best treadmills for your homeVarious guidelines suggest we all try to walk at least 10,000 steps a day to improve our overall health and wellbeing. Public Health England encourages a slightly more manageable target of just 10 minutes of brisk walking daily to introduce more moderate-intensity physical activity and reduce your risk of early death by up to 15%.But even squeezing in brisk walks" can be a chore, with busy schedules and increasingly desk-bound jobs forcing more of us to remain sedentary for long periods. That is where walking pads come in, being lighter, smaller and often easier to store than bulky and tricky-to-manoeuvre running treadmills.Best overall walking pad:
I got to play Nintendo Switch 2: hands-on with 2025’s gaming must-have
There are new ways to catch goombas, a Mario Kart battle royale and innovative gameplay ideas abound, but Nintendo will need to work hard to sell its next-gen machineAfter Nintendo's intriguing hour-long live stream on Wednesday, we now know a lot more about its follow-up to the phenomenally successful Switch. But how does the Switch 2 play? After the online presentation, I got to spend about four hours road-testing the new console at a press event in the Grand Palais, Paris, the box-white exhibition hall adorned in Nintendo red and lined with rows of high-end TV screens and Switch 2 consoles. There was also a 90-minute roundtable with three of the masterminds behind the console: Tetsuya Sasaki (hardware design lead), Kouichi Kawamoto (producer) and Takuhiro Dohta (director). Here's what I learned. Continue reading...
Trapped with a Tesla: my dream car has become a living nightmare | The secret Tesla driver
I bought it to be part of a greener future, but that was before Musk proved so awful. I'd sell it now, but prices have droppedAfter our children left home, my wife and I decided to treat ourselves and buy a new car for a driving holiday in Europe. We'd been driving a family estate car for years, loading it up with kids and making trips to and from universities, but we wanted something for ourselves.As a surprise, she booked a test drive for the Tesla Model S for my birthday. It was unlike any car I'd been in before. I thought Wow, this is amazing." It felt like the future: a computer on wheels that was constantly updating with new features. I can't say I feel that way now - and many people seem to share that view. Tesla sales figures declined by 13% in the first few months of this year. Others feel even more uneasy: more than 200 demonstrations happened last weekend outside company facilities around the world to protest against Elon Musk and the wrecking ball he has taken to the federal government. Continue reading...
Block-busted: why homemade Minecraft movies are the real hits
The bestselling video game ever has a devoted, vocal, following. Can a faceless corporation make a successful film based on such beloved IP without involving its fanbase?By any estimation, Minecraft is impossibly successful. The bestselling video game ever, as of last December it had 204 million monthly active players. Since it was first released in 2011, it has generated over $3bn (2.3bn) in revenue. What's more, its players have always been eager to demonstrate their fandom outside the boundaries of the game itself. In 2021, YouTube calculated that videos related to the game - tutorials, walk-throughs, homages, parodies - had collectively been viewed 1tn times. In short, it is a phenomenon.Such is the strength of feeling, almost all of it positive, about Minecraft that it was only a matter of time before someone tried to turn it into a film. After all, you have a historically popular product and a highly engaged fanbase: what could possibly go wrong? Turns out, quite a lot. Last September, the first trailer for the film - titled A Minecraft Movie - was released, and the reaction was instant and violent. Minecraft fans devastated by awful' live-action trailer" read one headline the following day. Some called it a crime against humanity"; others a soulless neon abomination". In less than 24 hours, the website GamingBible had called it a curse on my eyes" and pure nightmare fuel". Within three days of its release, the trailer had been downvoted more than 1m times. Continue reading...
Shenmue voted the most influential video game of all time in Bafta poll
The idiosyncratic adventure from 1999 beat the likes of Doom and Super Mario Bros in a public vote, proving that, in a world of blockbusters, there's still room for strange, exotic gamesIt is a game about love and identity, but it also has forklift truck races. It is a game about bloody revenge, but while you're waiting to retaliate, you can buy lottery tickets and visit the arcade. When Bafta recently asked gamers to vote on the most influential game of all time, I'm not sure even the most ardent Sega fans would have gambled on the success of an idiosyncratic Dreamcast adventure from 1999. Yet the results, released on Thursday morning, show Shenmue at No 1, with perhaps more predictable contenders Doom and Super Mario Bros coming in second and third respectively.How has this happened, especially considering the game was considered a financial failure at the time of its release, falling short of recouping its then staggering development costs (a reported $70m, which would now get you about a third of Horizon Forbidden West or Star Wars Outlaws)? Well, nostalgia is a funny thing - and so is the concept of cultural influence. When it was released more than two decades ago, Shenmue was an oddity: an open-world role-playing adventure that followed martial arts student Ryo Hazuki as he sought revenge for the murder of his father. But while there were fights and puzzles galore, there was also a lot of ... other stuff. The game used an internal clock to switch between day and night, and to cycle through seasons. Often, the people Ryo needed to speak to (or beat up) were only available at certain times, so he had to kill time by wandering the streets of mid-1980s Yokosuka. You could go to shops, play old Sega arcade games, you could visit the hotdog stand. The world was filled with eccentric characters and strange mini-games - including the aforementioned forklift races. Continue reading...
How Afrofuturism can help us imagine futures worth living in | Lonny Avi Brooks and Reynaldo Anderson
Afrofuturism knows that futures are made - and that who gets to make them is a political questionThe digital age sings a seductive song of progress, yet a deliberate erasure echoes within its circuits. We stand at a crossroads, where technology, particularly the promise of artificial intelligence, threatens both to illuminate and to obliterate.Whose perspectives will shape, and whose will be erased from, the future we build? AI, in particular, has become the latest battleground in a culture war that oscillates between unchecked techno-optimism and dystopian fear. We are told, on one hand, that AI will save us - from disease, inefficiency, ignorance - on the other, that it will replace us, dominate us, erase us.Lonny Avi Brooks is Professor and Chair of Communication at Cal State East Bay, co-founder of the AfroRithm Futures Group, and co-creator of AfroRithms From The Future, a visionary storytelling game that imagines liberated futures through Black, Indigenous, and Queer perspectivesReynaldo Anderson is Associate Professor of Africology and African American Studies Temple UniversityAcknowledgements: we wish to acknowledge Ben Hamamoto and Sheree Renee Thomas for their review of this article and their thoughtful suggestions and edits. Continue reading...
Floppy disks and vaccine cards: exhibition tells tale of privacy rights in UK
Forty items on display in Manchester, collated by information commissioner, chart evolution of personal data usage over 40 yearsForty years ago, it would take a four-drawer filing cabinet to store 10,000 documents. You would need 736 floppy disks to hold those same files; now it takes up no physical space at all to store 10,000 documents on the cloud.As data storage has evolved, so too has the whole information landscape, and with it the challenges of storing, transferring and appropriately using people's personal data. Continue reading...
‘Meta has stolen books’: authors to protest in London against AI trained using ‘shadow library’
Writers will gather at the Facebook owner's King's Cross office in opposition to its use of the LibGen database to train its AI modelsAuthors and other publishing industry professionals will stage a demonstration outside Meta's London office today in protest of the organisation's use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence.Novelists Kate Mosse and Tracy Chevalier as well as poet and former Royal Society of Literature chair Daljit Nagra will be among those in attendance outside the company's King's Cross office. Continue reading...
Everything we learned from Nintendo’s ‘deep dive’ into the Switch 2
In this week's newsletter: Finally, the sequel to the revolutionary handheld console was unveiled - and it was a reminder that no one does joy like NintendoSixty minutes - that's how long Nintendo took on Wednesday afternoon to remind us that no other video game manufacturer creates joy like this one. It was the Nintendo livestream we've been waiting for: a deep dive into the new console after so much speculation. Sure, the Switch 2 is the company's first real hardware sequel - an updated and spruced-up version of its predecessor rather than a radical new piece of kit. But the updates are the intriguing part.Naturally, we're getting a larger (7.9-inch, to be precise) screen that displays in full HD at 1080p; but we're also getting re-thought Joy-Con controllers that now click to the console via strong magnets rather than those fiddly sliders we all put on the wrong way. The buttons are larger, too, so adults will be able to play Mario Kart with some semblance of skill. But the main new feature for the controllers is a new rollerball that enables each one to operate as a mouse. This will allow for new point-and-click features and some interesting control options. I like that they showed this off with a wheelchair basketball game, where you slide the controllers a long a surface to mimic pushing the wheels. Continue reading...
Nintendo reveals Switch 2 console due to launch on 5 June
New console features larger screen, double the pixels and magnetically attached controllersAfter months of intense speculation and cryptic teaser videos, Nintendo has finally unveiled the successor to its Switch console. The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch on 5 June at a retail price of 395.99 for the basic package and 429.99 bundled with Mario Kart World.As expected, the screen is now larger, measuring 7.9 inches and offers double the pixels of the previous display, in 1080p resolution. It also supports up to 120 frames per second for smooth animation, as well as high dynamic range lighting for better colour contrast, while the console remains the same thickness as its predecessor. The dock allows connection to a TV with up to 4K resolution supported. Continue reading...
Ed Atkins review – a harrowing medley of spiders, sinkholes and death
Tate Britain, London
What Australians flying to the US need to know about phone and device searches at the border
Can immigration deny you entry if you refuse to hand over your phone? What can officials look at or download, and how can you protect your devices?
Tesla quarterly sales slump 13% amid backlash against Elon Musk
Drop is likely combination of ageing lineup, increased competition and backlash to Musk's politicsTesla reported a 13% drop in vehicle sales in the first three months of the year, making it the electric vehicle maker's worst quarter since 2022. It's another sign that Elon Musk's once high-flying electric car company is struggling to attract buyers.The drop is probably due to a combination of factors, including its ageing lineup, competition from rivals and a backlash from Musk's embrace of rightwing politics. It also is a warning that the company's first-quarter earnings report later this month could disappoint investors. Continue reading...
Roblox gives parents more power over children’s activity on gaming platform
Parents can block children from talking to certain people and get detailed screen-time insights on site popular with under-13sParents can now block their children from communicating with specific friends or playing certain games on Roblox, an online gaming platform popular with children.The changes form part of a suite of safety updates intended to give parents more control over their child's experience on the platform. Continue reading...
Trump to consider final proposal on TikTok as US ban deadline looms
Owner ByteDance required to find non-Chinese buyer for video app's American operations by SaturdayDonald Trump will consider a final proposal" over the sale of TikTok's US operations on Wednesday, according to reports, as a Saturday deadline looms for the Chinese-controlled app to find a buyer.The White House is finalising plans for a deal involving US investors, possibly including the tech firm Oracle and the private equity firm Blackstone, CBS News reported. Even Amazon has thrown in a last-minute bid to buy the popular social media app, according to multiple reports. Continue reading...
UK needs to relax AI laws or risk transatlantic ties, thinktank warns
Tony Blair Institute says enforcing stricter licensing rules for copyright-protected material will threaten national security interestsTony Blair's thinktank has urged the UK to relax copyright laws in order to let artificial intelligence firms build new products, as it warned a tougher approach could strain the transatlantic relationship.The Tony Blair Institute said enforcing firm copyright measures would strain ties with the US, which is poised to announce tariffs on UK goods on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Data protection bill leaves room for governmental abuse, campaigners warn
Ministerial revision of privacy rules could allow targeting of voters with political messaging, rights groups fearPrivacy campaigners have warned that voters' personal data could be used to target them with political messaging under new laws.In a letter written to Chris Bryant, the data protection minister, and the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, campaigners said there was potential for abuse of new powers" in the data protection legislation, which was introduced to parliament at the end of 2024. Continue reading...
OpenAI raises $40bn in deal with SoftBank that values it at $300bn
Japanese investor to put $10bn at first into OpenAI and $30bn more by end of 2025 if certain conditions are met
How Tesla became a battleground for political protest
As demonstrations against Elon Musk and his political ties spread, Tesla owners find themselves caught in a growing debate - turning a once-iconic brand into a symbol of divisionOver the weekend, protesters gathered at Tesla showrooms in hundreds of cities across the world to demonstrate against Elon Musk laying waste the US government in alliance with Donald Trump. Their goal: stigmatize Tesla's cars. One sign in Manhattan read: Burn a Tesla, save democracy." Protesters are using the commercial democracy of consumer products to influence US political democracy.My colleagues Dara Kerr and Edward Helmore report:Musk's political ventures are forcing many Tesla owners to either be a spokesperson for or against the companyTesla investors brace for global sales data amid consumer backlash over Elon MuskElon Musk hands out $1m checks to voters amid Wisconsin supreme court election raceBy ghiblifying this woman, the White House inadvertently made a previously deported felon and literal fentanyl trafficker sympatheticHow to protect your phone and data privacy at the US borderHow and why parents and teachers are introducing young children to AISim farms', high heels, zombie knives: what scammers buy with the money they stealCalling all fashion models ... now AI is coming for youIs it safe? Is it spying? Disquiet over NHS magic eye' surveillance camera in mental health unitsThe controversial California city backed by tech elite has a new plan: boatsFrom smash-proof cases to updates: how to make your smartphone last longer Continue reading...
How to use AI to get a job interview and nail it – along with the salary you deserve
Supercharge your search and beat the screening, sharpen your speaking skills and boost your negotiating positionThe fear that artificial intelligence (AI) will replace millions of jobs is widespread. But equally, in today's tough job market, not using AI wisely as part of your search could mean you miss out. It's a tricky balancing act to harness the technology's power without losing the human touch. Continue reading...
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