CMA says takeover of gif creation website limits choice for social media usersFacebook’s parent company, Meta, has been ordered by the UK competition watchdog to sell the gif creation website Giphy, the first time the regulator has blocked a deal struck by a big Silicon Valley company.The Competition and Markets Authority told Meta in November that the only way to resolve competition concerns was to dispose of Giphy, the largest supplier of animated gifs to social networks such as Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter, which it acquired two years ago for $400m (£290m). Continue reading...
Stars of huge titles claim they get peanuts as games companies rake in millions. Now the lead actor on Bayonetta is asking fans to boycott its new game in protest
A video game exploring the treatment of women in Hollywood has set a new standard of sophistication. We talk to its creator and starEvery now and then you play a video game that you just cannot stop thinking about. Candy Crush might leave colourful imprints on the back of your eyelids. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild may creep into your dreams. And then, very occasionally, a game comes along that is so entirely unlike anything you’ve ever played that it becomes an obsession. Immortality, the latest from lauded game-maker Sam Barlow and his studio Half Mermaid, is one of those. It is something that has never existed before: a video game that is also three feature-length films, wrapped around a mystery so compelling that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else for days. It is so delicate and complex that it’s difficult to figure out how it even works.The first thing you see when you load up Immortality is a talkshow clip from the late 1960s, in which a bright-eyed, red-haired young actor is being interviewed about her recent starring role in a film called Ambrosio, an adaptation of a 1796 novel about a devil temptress who draws a monk down the path of sin. This is Marissa Marcel, who was at this point on the brink of stardom – but this film she appears in, with an eminent but slimy director, is never released. Her next picture, an erotic thriller about art and murder, also never makes it into theatres. She retreats into obscurity for a long time, before emerging for a comeback in the 1990s in a Lynchian thriller about artifice and celebrity – but that film, too, is lost, and after that she disappears entirely. Continue reading...
Hellena Taylor, who voiced title character, says she was offered an ‘insulting’ $4,000 to reprise roleThe English actor who stars in the hit Bayonetta video game series has asked fans not to buy the latest release in the franchise, after revealing that she was offered just $4,000 (£3,500) to reprise the role.In an emotional series of videos posted to social media, Hellena Taylor, who voiced the title character of Bayonetta,said she had been replaced in the forthcoming third game in the series because she the proposed fee was an “insult”. Continue reading...
The photographer braved the cold to capture this striking shot – before Chicago’s salt machines could melt all the snow awayWhen a winter storm ends in Chicago, the temperature rises just enough for Cocu Liu to take a brisk walk. Armed with his thickest coat, the photographer was passing over the Michigan Avenue Bridge when he stopped to shoot the ice floating on the river beneath, and an anonymous passing man.“I was drawn to the simplicity and the composition, the contrast of left and right,” he says. “Because of the wind chill, before and during a storm the weather is too bitter. But I love the four seasons, and especially the snow, so I always made the effort to head out.” Continue reading...
Experts say it is the roboticists we need to hear from – and the people and jobs AI is already affectingWhen it announced that “the world’s first robot artist” would be giving evidence to a parliamentary committee, the House of Lords probably hoped to shake off its sleepy reputation.Unfortunately, when the Ai-Da robot arrived at the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday, the opposite seemed to occur. Apparently overcome by the stuffy atmosphere, the machine, which resembles a sex doll strapped to a pair of egg whisks, shut down halfway through the evidence session. As its creator, Aidan Meller, scrabbled with power sockets to restart the device, he put a pair of sunglasses on the machine. “When we reset her, she can sometimes pull quite interesting faces,” he explained. Continue reading...
Scammers posing as immigration lawyers targeted Facebook groups with tens of thousands of users, new report revealsScammers posing as Canadian immigration lawyers have targeted Facebook groups with tens of thousands of users, a new report reveals.The posts, documented in a new report by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), the research arm of watchdog group the Campaign for Accountability, have been flagged as potentially fraudulent by Latin American and Canadian authorities but continue to proliferate. Continue reading...
Samaritans among those calling for people of ‘all ages’ to be safeguarded from suicide and self-harm materialThe government must ensure the online safety bill protects adults from dangerous suicide and self-harm content, a group of charities including Samaritans has said, as ministers prepare to alter the legislation’s approach to legal but harmful content.The bill is set to resume its progress through parliament but the culture secretary has signalled that a key area, which contains provisions related to suicide and self-harm content, will be altered.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...
Court filing made public by social media company does not state what is being investigated, nor which federal authorities are involvedElon Musk is under a federal investigation related to his $44bn takeover of Twitter, the social media company has said in a court filing made public on Thursday.While the filing said he was under investigation, it did not say what the focus was, or which federal authorities were investigating. Continue reading...
by Hannah J Davies, Hannah Verdier and Hollie Richard on (#64P2G)
In this week’s newsletter: From Geli Raubal’s life and death to the mystery of Prince George, the Duke of Kent, this new series shines a light on the untold tales of our past. Plus: five podcasts on rock’n’roll excess
by Jessica Elgot Deputy political correspondent on (#64NKJ)
In government, party says it would stop inflation-busting price rises and take action on mid-contract hikesA Labour government would enforce a cheap broadband tariff for low-income families as well as taking action on mid-contract price hikes, the shadow culture secretary will announce.Labour will say broadband is an essential utility and that figures from the regulator Ofcom show almost a third of households (8 million) are having problems paying their broadband, phone and streaming bills. That is double the number a year ago. Continue reading...
LinkedIn posts suggest it is looking to operate its own warehouses to compete with other social commerce firms such as MetaTikTok appears to be deepening its foray into e-commerce with plans to operate its own US warehouses, the kind of packing and shipping facilities more associated with Amazon or Walmart than the social media platform best known for addictive short videos.In the past two weeks, TikTok has posted several job listings on LinkedIn looking for candidates to help it develop and grow its “Fulfillment by TikTok Shop” in the US to accommodate sellers using the app. According to the listings, TikTok plans to provide warehousing, delivery and item return options to sellers. Continue reading...
New iPhones which can detect car crashes and notify emergency services appear confused by thrill ridesApple’s newest phone has been automatically calling emergency services from the pockets of people riding rollercoasters in the US, mistaking the bumps and jerks of the rides as car crashes.The latest iPhone 14, as well as newer Apple watches, includes a feature that detects the signs and vibrations typical of a serious car accident – and calls 911 if the owner does not respond to a prompt to cancel. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#64KHV)
Comments on China-owned app come after Liz Truss expressed a desire to crack downThe director of GCHQ, Jeremy Fleming, said he would encourage young people to use TikTok, despite a campaign pledge by the prime minister, Liz Truss, to “crack down” on the Chinese video app and companies like it.The spy chief was asked on Tuesday morning if he would be concerned if his children were to use TikTok after he had warned that China was seeking to “impose its values” in other strategic areas of science and technology. Continue reading...
Ian Russell, whose daughter took her own life, says ‘waiting around’ leaves children exposed to harmful contentFurther delays in implementing the online safety bill will endanger young people at risk of harmful social media content, Molly Russell’s father has warned.Ian Russell said he received a phone call last week from the culture secretary, Michelle Donelan, in which she pledged to resume the bill’s progress through parliament before Christmas. Continue reading...
If the deal does not close by 28 October, a November trial will be scheduledA Delaware judge has postponed the Twitter v Elon Musk trial in order to give the Tesla chief executive time to complete his proposed $44bn takeover of the social media platform.The litigation was halted until 28 October to allow both parties to close the transaction, after Musk said he needed time to put together the funds for the deal. Judge Kathaleen McCormick said if the deal did not close by her deadline the parties were to contact her to schedule a November trial. Continue reading...
Activists fear Flock, whose tech reads license plates, might endanger women seeking abortionsFlock Safety, a rapidly expanding company that sells license plate readers to police and neighborhoods across the US, has an ambitious mission: to eliminate crime.Since being founded in 2017, Flock says it has contracted with more than 1,200 law enforcement partners in more than 40 states. It provides its services to more than 2,000 neighborhoods, and is expanding the products it offers beyond license plate readers to include a gunshot detection system. Continue reading...
by Hannah J Davies, Hannah Verdier, Hollie Richardson on (#64E9X)
In this week’s newsletter: the reality star examines the case of Kevin Keith in The System – can she pull off another rebrand? Plus: five of the best podcasts about money
Some people use it to improve their focus while others use it to drop off to sleep. The writer Zadie Smith says she listens to it day and night. But what is brown noise? And does it work?There’s a new buzz on TikTok – well, not a buzz exactly. It’s more of a hum, maybe waves crashing, a purring fan or steady, heavy rain. To me, it sounds like an empty aeroplane, cruising peacefully at altitude. It’s brown noise, a close cousin of the better-known white noise, and TikTok users, particularly the platform’s ADHD community, are all over it: there are 85.3m views for the #brownnoise hashtag.One top-rated video (1.3m views) shows user @NatalyaBubb trying brown noise. She looks initially startled, then spellbound. “Where did all the thoughts go?” reads the caption over her wide-eyed face. Commenters on her and other brown-noise clips are mainly – though not exclusively – rapturous. “I closed my eyes and literally thought of NOTHING … it makes my brain feel soft in the best way possible”; “This felt like fresh air to my ears”; “Like a soft weighted blanket that I’ve safely swathed my brain in,” says one writer with ADHD. Continue reading...
In this week’s newsletter: The question of tougher regulation is back following an inquest into the death of a 14-year-old who viewed significant amounts of harmful online content
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#64CWD)
Smaller, cheaper bass add-on for wifi speakers and soundbars delivers in all the right areasThe Sonos Sub Mini is a more compact bass upgrade at a slightly more palatable price, adding big boom and greater range to the firm’s wifi speakers and soundbars.The Mini costs £429 ($429/A$699) and is for Sonos fans who want more bass for their movies and music but can’t stomach the £749 outlay for its big Gen 3 Sub. Continue reading...
Elon Musk will proceed with the $44bn buyout of Twitter, but a bumpy road still lies ahead for the companyElon Musk was always going to struggle to win in Delaware. He had signed a binding agreement to buy Twitter for $44bn and to make his “reasonable best efforts” to complete the deal. Saying he didn’t want to buy it any more wasn’t going to work in Delaware, the state where Twitter is incorporated and one that carries a reputation for making sure agreed company transactions happen.And so it appears that Musk has chosen the least bad option, which is going ahead with the deal before spending millions more dollars trying to convince a judge that he should be allowed to walk away even though he had no grounds to do so. Continue reading...
Judge rules Twitter has ‘done enough’ to remove defamatory tweets about Bodegraven ReeuwijkA Dutch town has lost a court case asking Twitter to do more to stop the spread of a false conspiracy theory claiming it was home to a ring of Satan-worshipping paedophiles.Bodegraven Reeuwijk in the western Netherlands sued the social media company in September over the unfounded rumours spread by three men since 2021. Continue reading...
Chinese-owned platform popular among teens and young adults saw its turnover rise by 477% last yearTikTok has reported a five-fold surge in turnover to $1bn (£875m) across its operations in international markets including the UK and Europe last year, as trend-setting teens and young adults continue to make the video-sharing platform the hottest social app of the moment.Financial filings for Chinese-owned TikTok UK, which also covers operations in countries such as Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Colombia, shows that its popularity with the public is rapidly translating into an advertising and e-commerce boom. Continue reading...
Google’s gaming platform had good tech but it’s become the latest casualty in the cloud-gaming realm. Plus, the creators of Monument Valley are back with a gorgeous game of feelings-dodgeball
Hackers are increasingly taking users’ data hostage and demanding huge sums for its release. They have targeted individuals, businesses, vital infrastructure and even hospitals. Authorities have been slow to respond – but there is help out thereAround 9pm on Monday 23 November 2020, the IT manager for a school in central London received a text message from a colleague, saying the school’s website was down. He tried logging on but couldn’t. At first, he thought he had forgotten the password. After several attempts, he realised that he was locked out.The IT manager, Matthew (he asked us not to use his last name), works in a central London neighbourhood where affluence hides pockets of poverty, and migrant families from Pakistan, India and eastern Europe pin their hopes for their children on a small, publicly funded school. It has about 150 students aged between five and 10, many of them on free school meals. On a shoestring budget, in a Victorian building that’s showing its age, teachers track the students’ progress by photographing them as they learn how to hold a pencil, draw a picture or write their name. The snapshots and other progress reports are uploaded to a server, a powerful computer that processes data and provides services for other devices used around the school. Continue reading...
The founder of the language app is in talks with the UK government about offering its online test to visa applicants, at less than £50 a timeDuolingo is in discussions with the government to allow UK visa applicants to take an online language test for less than £50, replacing a system that costs some more than £1,000.Luis von Ahn, the founder of the online language-learning app, said the $49 Duolingo test had less risk of fraud and would be fairer for people wanting to study or work in the UK. Continue reading...
Texts disclosed to a US court show the two bonding before the Tesla CEO tweeted: ‘Is Twitter dying?’Newly published messages between Elon Musk and the CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, show that their relationship appeared to be blossoming before it dramatically soured, with the Tesla boss tweeting: “Is Twitter dying?”The series of text messages, disclosed in a Delaware court filing, suggest that the two men were for a short period bonding, including over their shared love of engineering, after Agrawal got in touch with him, weeks before Musk revealed his offer to buy Twitter. Continue reading...
Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, showcased his humanoid robot, Optimus, at the electric vehicle maker's AI Day event. The billionaire has said a robot business will be worth more than its carmaking business. At the event a prototype of the robot walked on stage and waved to the audience. And a video of it carrying a box, watering plants and moving metal bars in the Tesla factory was shown.'Our goal is to make a useful humanoid robot as quickly as possible,' Musk said at the event in Palo Alto, California.
The British photographer on the timeless quality black and white gives to an image of a young boy learning to swimHarry had never swum without armbands before. It was August 2021 and the three-year-old was on holiday with his parents, grandparents, sister and aunt, the photographer Hannah Cassidy. It had been the second arduous year of pandemic restrictions and time stuck at home for the toddler, so he and his sister Rose, six, were thrilled to arrive in southern Spain. The extended family had rented a villa in Murcia and from day one the kids gravitated towards the pool. Rose had taken swimming lessons before, but Harry had not.“A few days in, we switched his armbands for a float that strapped to his back,” Cassidy says. “He was standing on the side while we were in the pool, cheering him on, encouraging him to jump in and try to swim towards us. The outstretched arms you can see belong to Rose. They’re really close.” Continue reading...
Prototype walks onstage and waves at event as company looks to future beyond vehiclesTesla CEO Elon Musk showcased his much-touted humanoid robot “Optimus” at the electric vehicle maker’s “AI Day” event on Friday.The billionaire has said a robot business will be worth more than its cars, hoping to expand beyond self-driving vehicles that have not yet become a reality despite his repeated promises. Continue reading...
The older, saggier and sadder you get, the less you want to stare at your own digital doppelganger in a game, finds Dominik DiamondI’m having a midlife crisis with character creation in video games. My kids have always known the joy of recreating themselves virtually, but those of us who started playing in the 1970s as yellow balls with ghost-munching mouths still feel a tingle of excitement at those opportunities to put yourself into a game.The first time, for me, was when I created my own player in Fifa’s Career Mode in about 2006. This was an intoxicating addition to the football game genre, because you could live your dream of playing for the team you supported. But I was overweight, 6ft 2in and balding. In-game Dominik had the acceleration of an Acme anvil and looked like a fat Stanley Matthews. I could create a smaller, leaner whippet of a player who could score a bucketload of goals and lead Celtic to glory, but it wouldn’t be me in any way, shape or form. Continue reading...
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says tech company aims to ‘plan somewhat conservatively’ and will ‘further restructure’Meta employees have been warned of potential layoffs after the Facebook parent company announced on Thursday it would freeze hiring and “further restructure”, Bloomberg News has reported.In company communication with employees, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg cited the uncertain macroeconomic environment for the changes. The announcement comes after several tech companies have been forced to slash headcount in recent months, as advertisers trim spending in anticipation of a recession. Continue reading...
David and Ina Steiner were sent live spiders, cockroaches and funeral wreaths among other things by executives to harass themA former eBay executive was sentenced on Thursday to almost five years in prison for leading a scheme to terrorize the creators of an online newsletter that included sending live spiders, cockroaches, a funeral wreath and other disturbing deliveries to their home.David Steiner, who along with his wife was the target of the harassment campaign, told the court that eBay’s former senior director of safety and security James Baugh and other eBay employees made their lives “a living hell”. He expressed fear that other companies would use it as a blueprint to go after journalists in the future. Continue reading...
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington on (#6474C)
A report raises serious doubts about the US intelligence agency’s handling of safety measures after flaws put sources at riskThe CIA used hundreds of websites for covert communications that were severely flawed and could have been identified by even an “amateur sleuth”, according to security researchers.The flaws reportedly led to the death of more than two dozen US sources in China in 2011 and 2012 and also reportedly led Iran to execute or imprison other CIA assets. Continue reading...
‘Disney Animal Crossing’ is all over the video platform, but is it merely an imitation of everyone’s favourite pandemic play? Or will Mickey and co have you enthralled?When I first noticed TikTokers effusing about something called Disney Dreamlight Valley, I imagined it was your standard gem-matching mobile game, complete with in-app purchases and the occasional uncanny valley Elsa cheering you on from the sidelines. But throughout September, TikTok continued to feed me more and more videos of people claiming to be “addicted” to a game that had “taken over their life”. Someone, somewhere called it “Disney Animal Crossing” and with that, I was off to see a mouse about a house.Available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, Gameloft’s Disney Dreamlight Valley is a simulation adventure that owes Tom Nook-levels of debt to everyone’s favourite pandemic play, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In both games, you obtain a home in a strange land and start fishing, digging, breaking rocks, picking flowers, growing crops and crafting to make it as idyllic as possible for new residents. In Disney’s offering, these residents are Goofy, WALL·E and Ursula. Dreamlight even rips off ACNH’s rewards programme, rebranding “Nook miles” to “Dreamlight duties”, though it gives it a notably more adult – or at least, Disney adult – interface. Continue reading...
In the digital age, marketability is just as important as music. Artist and repertoire reps from Warner, Ministry of Sound and Partisan explain how they discover music in 2022Artists and repertoire representatives (A&Rs) are the wildcatters of the music business, spotting new acts, signing them and guiding their artistic development. The essence of what they do hasn’t fundamentally changed in over a century – but the way they do it has shifted significantly.Joe Kentish is president of Warner Records UK, and has signed acts such as Dua Lipa and Griff. He says his early days in A&R took place in “an analogue world” where he might be tipped off at 4pm “to see an act in Preston tonight” that he had never heard of, scrambling to arrive in time lest his competitors swoop first. Continue reading...
Future of company hailed by Boris Johnson as key to green industrial revolution hangs in the balance, as the first in our Electric Dreams series on Britain’s fledgling battery industry revealsChampagne flowed freely as Orral Nadjari courted bankers and potential business partners in a private box, against a soundtrack of V12 supercar engines, at the Goodwood festival of Speed.Nadjari had hit the big time: his Britishvolt battery startup was gatecrashing the annual petrolheads’ gathering at the historic West Sussex circuit in June with plans to power cars of the future using British-made batteries. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian