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Updated 2025-07-04 05:31
Making a monster: how to build a budget gaming PC without losing your mind
You will need time, space, fiddly components and patience - but it can be a deeply satisfying process that won't break your bankTwo years ago, I built my first PC - let's just say it did not go smoothly. After painstakingly constructing the entire machine, nothing happened when I switched it on. After several hours of disassembly and expletive-laden research, I discovered the motherboard needed a firmware update. I learned a lot that day, and after a few months of recovery, went on to build a couple more machines relatively painlessly.Now, with the economy flatlining and the cost of living high, I wanted to build another, a more budget-minded machine that wouldn't be too nightmarish to put together, and would play most of this winter's biggest games at respectable performance settings. The PC I put together is not cheap, but it performs very well and will still cope with next year's blockbuster releases. Whatever specs you go for, building it yourself is the most cost effective way to do it, and you get a great sense of achievement. As long as it works. Which it will, if you follow these handy hints. Continue reading...
No 10 worried AI could be used to create advanced weapons that escape human control
At global summit in UK, Rishi Sunak will highlight risk of criminals and terrorists using technology to make bioweaponsConcerns that criminals or terrorists could use artificial intelligence to cause mass destruction will dominate discussion at a summit of world leaders, as concern grows in Downing Street about the power of the next generation of technological advances.British officials are touring the world ahead of an AI safety summit in Bletchley Park in November as they look to build consensus over a joint statement that would warn about the dangers of rogue actors using the technology to cause death on a large scale. Continue reading...
Jabra Elite 10 review: comfy noise cancelling earbuds with spatial audio for all
Compact buds with solid battery life are boosted by Dolby surround sound for music and moviesBluetooth pioneers Jabra are back with a new set of noise-cancelling earbuds offering a comfortable fit and advanced Dolby Atmos spatial audio for Android and iPhone.The Elite 10 cost 230 (250/$250/A$380), undercutting chief rivals from Apple, Bose and Sony while offering all of their features regardless of what type of phone or tablet you have, which very few others manage.Water resistance: IP57 (case IP54)Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3 (SBC, AAC)Battery life: 6 hours with ANC (up to 27 hours with case)Earbud weight: 5.7gEarbud dimensions: 19.6 x 18.8 x 28.2mmDriver size: 10mmCharging case weight: 45.9gCharging case dimensions: 24.4 x 46.9 x 65.4mmCase charging: USB-C, Qi wireless charging Continue reading...
Experts disagree over threat posed but artificial intelligence cannot be ignored
Some say the existential dangers of a God-like' AI is overplayed but even then there are other impacts to be wary ofFor some AI experts, a watershed moment in artificial intelligence development is not far away. And the global AI safety summit, to be held at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire in November, therefore cannot come soon enough.Ian Hogarth, the chair of the UK taskforce charged with scrutinising the safety of cutting-edge AI, raised concerns before he took the job this year about artificial general intelligence, or God-like" AI. Definitions of AGI vary but broadly it refers to an AI system that can perform a task at a human, or above human, level - and could evade our control. Continue reading...
Dan Gardner wanted to know when to go to the loo during films – so he built an app
The developer of RunPee, the app that tells cinemagoers the best time to take a loo break, on what makes a good peetime' and how the program helped him meet his wifeCreated out of personal necessity by North Carolina-based developer Dan Gardner during a near three-and-a-half-hour King Kong screening, RunPee is an app that tells film audiences the best times to nip to the loo.Where did the idea come from?
A Roman solution to Raac’s ruin – is self-healing concrete the answer?
After recent building failures, researchers are looking to ancient materials for inspiration in creating more durable materials that repair themselves using glue or even bacteriaConcrete research gets caricatured as the epitome of dull - until the roof falls in. The dangerous state of many British schools built partly from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) has dominated headlines, alarmed parents and embarrassed the government, leading to emergency closures just as the new school term began. The crisis highlights that, however boring concrete might seem, our civilisation almost literally stands or falls on it.Far from being prosaic, concrete is a hi-tech substance at the forefront of materials research. One dream is to make concrete self-healing: able to repair its own cracks automatically. And modern research is drawing inspiration from an ancient source - the unassailable concrete of the monuments, aqueducts and harbours built by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago. Couple this with ingenious ploys such as entombing live, crack-sealing bacteria inside concrete, and research in this area could transform the way we build. Continue reading...
‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’: Yanis Varoufakis on extremism, Starmer, and the tyranny of big tech
In his new book, Technofeudalism, the maverick Greek economist says we are witnessing an epochal shift. At his island home of Aegina, he argues it's no longer the global finance system that shapes us, but the fiefdoms' of tech firmsWhat could be more delightful than a trip to Greece to meet Yanis Varoufakis, the charismatic leftwing firebrand who tried to stick it to the man, AKA the IMF, EU and entire global financial order? The mental imagery I have before the visit is roughly two parts Zorba the Greek to one part an episode of BBC series Holiday from the Jill Dando era: blue skies, blue sea, maybe some plate breaking in a jolly taverna. What I'm not expecting is a wall of flames rippling across a hillside next to the highway from the airport and a plume of black smoke billowing across the carriageway.Because even a modernist villa on a hillside on the island of Aegina - a fast ferry ride from the port of Piraeus and the summer bolthole of chic Athenians - is not the sanctuary from the modern world that it might once have been. The house is where Varoufakis and his wife, landscape artist Danae Stratou, live, year round since the pandemic, but in August 2023 at the end of a summer of heatwaves and extreme weather conditions across the world, it feels more than a little apocalyptic. The sun is a dim orange orb struggling to shine through a haze of smoke while a shower of fine ash falls invisibly from the sky. A month later, two years' worth of rain will fall in a single day in northern Greece, causing a biblical deluge and never-before-seen levels of flooding. Continue reading...
An old master? No, it’s an image AI just knocked up … and it can’t be copyrighted
US ruling on works created through artificial intelligence gives boost to creative workers fighting for livelihoodsThe use of AI in art is facing a setback after a ruling that an award-winning image could not be copyrighted because it was not made sufficiently by humans.The decision, delivered by the US copyright office review board, found that Theatre d'Opera Spatial, an AI-generated image that won first place at the 2022 Colorado state fair annual art competition, was not eligible because copyright protection excludes works produced by non-humans". Continue reading...
An AI Game of Thrones prequel? No wonder George RR Martin’s raining ice and fire on ChatGPT | Tim Adams
Authors have entered a war over words with OpenAI for using their books as training' feedstockBattles between human and artificial intelligence are no longer science fiction. The strikes in Hollywood led by the united guilds of actors and screenwriters have a common, intangible enemy: the algorithms and computer-generated imagery that are increasingly programmed by studios to render them redundant.In New York last week, a new front in that stand-off was opened by a group of American novelists - including John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and Jonathan Franzen - who are suing OpenAI, the creators of the ChatGPT program. The writers claim the software company has trampled over their copyright by feeding" its program with their books, training it" not only in natural language, but perhaps eventually to produce page-turners of its own. (The lawsuit alleges, for example, that ChatGPT has already created an unauthorised and detailed outline for a prequel" to George RR Martin's Game of Thrones novel series, entitled, not entirely convincingly, A Dawn of Direwolves.) Continue reading...
When it comes to creative thinking, it’s clear that AI systems mean business | John Naughton
The chatbot GPT-4 has produced more viable commercial ideas more efficiently and more cheaply than US university studentsIn all the frenzied discourse about large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4 there is one point on which everyone seems to agree: these models are essentially stochastic parrots - namely, machines that are good at generating convincing sentences, but do not actually understand the meaning of the language they are processing. They have somehow read" (that is, ingested) everything ever published in machine-readable form and create sentences word by word, at each point making a statistical guess of what one might expect someone to write after seeing what people have written on billions of webpages, etc". That's it!Ever since ChatGPT arrived last November, people have been astonished by the capabilities of these parrots - how humanlike they seem to be and so on. But consolation was drawn initially from the thought that since the models were drawing only on what already resided in their capacious memories, then they couldn't be genuinely original: they would just regurgitate the conventional wisdom embedded in their training data. That comforting thought didn't last long, though, as experimenters kept finding startling and unpredictable behaviours of LLMs - facets now labelled emergent abilities". Continue reading...
Waitrose turns to AI to create recipes for successful food products
The supermarket has used data from menus, online cuisine and social media posts to shape its Japanese rangeUnder fake pink cherry blossom, guests sipped House of Suntory cocktails and picked at plates of chicken karaage, prawn gyoza and cauliflower tempura from a kaitenzushi-style conveyor belt ... This was the London launch of Waitrose's new Japanese range.But without knowing it, and even if you live hundreds of miles away, your food choices may have had a hand in shaping the supermarket's 26-dish Japan Meny range. That is because it was developed with input from Tastewise, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that analyses menus, social media and online recipes to pinpoint food trends. Continue reading...
The east German town at the centre of the new ‘gold rush’ … for lithium
Refining the metal - which is essential for electric car batteries - in Europe would ease the EU's precarious reliance on ChinaIt has been called the new gold rush - a rush to catch up with China in producing and refining the materials needed in everything from computers to cars: but has it come too late to save Europe's car industry?Deep inside a former East German town lie the first fruits of the EU's grand plan to de-risk" and wean itself off dependency on imports for the green revolution. In Bitterfeld-Wolfen, 140km south-west of Berlin, an Amsterdam-listed company is scrambling to complete construction of a vast factory that will be the first in Europe to deliver battery-grade lithium. Continue reading...
‘They became Messi’: Juan Carlos Castañeda’s best phone picture
A sweltering day's work led the film-maker to a group of children with one goal in mindGiven the unforgiving August heat, most people were keeping to the shade of the trees in a nearby plaza. These boys, however, were playing football with a foam buoy. Juan Carlos Castaneda had sought out shade, too, and a bottle of water, having wrapped filming for the day. He was in Cite Soleil, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to shoot a short film on the community and its leaders.The kids in the picture were only 12, and they live in Haiti's poorest and most dangerous neighbourhood. None of them can afford proper shoes or a ball to play with - they're not even sure when they'll get their next meal," Castaneda says. However, when they discovered this yellow buoy, they became Messi, scoring a goal in the World Cup and, just for a second, leaving the heaviness of their lives behind." Continue reading...
The vast majority of NFTs are now worthless, new report shows
Two years after tech trend that swept up artists and celebrities, researchers estimate 23 million people hold worthless investmentsTens of thousands of NFTs that were once deemed the newest rage in tech and dragged in celebrities, artists and even Melania Trump have now been declared virtually worthless.According to a new report by dappGambl that reviewed data from NFT Scan and CoinMarketCap, 69,795 out of 73,257 NFT collections have a market cap of 0 Ether, leaving 95% of those holding NFT collections - or 23 million people - with worthless investments. Continue reading...
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty review: excellent expansion enhances an overhauled game
CD Projekt RED; PC, PS5, Xbox
TikTok has matchmaking service for staff to play cupid for co-workers
Meet Cute on company's intranet allows employees to advertise family and acquaintances to colleaguesTikTok has an internal matchmaking service for employees to introduce their colleagues to friends and family members, it has been revealed.The channel, called Meet Cute, sits on the workplace tool used by thousands of TikTok employees around the world for document hosting, video conferencing. It also helps people find a potential romantic partner from among their colleagues. Continue reading...
UK set to clear Microsoft’s deal to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard
The $69bn acquisition is expected to go ahead as revised proposal addresses regulator's concernsMicrosoft's $69bn (54bn) deal to buy Activision Blizzard, the maker of games including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, looks set to be cleared after the UK competition regulator said a revised deal had addressed its concerns.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) moved to block the biggest tech deal in history in April, citing concerns that Microsoft would dominate the nascent cloud gaming market. Continue reading...
AI developing too fast for regulators to keep up, says Oliver Dowden
Deputy prime minister to urge UN general assembly to create international regulatory systemArtificial intelligence is developing too fast for regulators to keep up, the UK's deputy prime minister is to announce as he aims to galvanise other countries to take the threat seriously in advance of the UK's AI safety summit in November.Oliver Dowden will use a speech at the UN general assembly on Friday to sound the alarm over the lack of regulation of AI, which he says is developing faster than many policymakers thought possible. Continue reading...
‘It’s an insult’: drivers react to Rishi Sunak’s electric car U-turn
Many feel decision to delay ban of petrol and diesel cars flies in face of environment and industry alike, while some see it as pragmatismRishi Sunak's announcement that he will delay banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035 in a U-turn on the government's climate commitments has triggered international condemnation and anger from industry.The policy shift came on Wednesday, as the prime minister stated that there would also be a slowdown in the phasing out of gas boilers and that the requirement for landlords to make their properties energy efficient would be scrapped. Continue reading...
‘We remade it from a fan’s perspective’: the creators of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
As Square Enix gears up to release the second chapter of its FFVII Remake trilogy, the game's creators reflect on making the original - and remaking a classicThere are few fictional locales as iconic as Final Fantasy VII's Midgar. Originally envisioned as a rain soaked New York-esque metropolis, the final sprawling cityscape kept the Big Apple's detective noir grit - but imbued it with a quietly ominous steampunk flavour. Boot up the PS1 original today, and its blurry pre-rendered backgrounds still conjure up a startling sense of place - Midgar's billowing chimneys and dusty streets blending seamlessly with skyscrapers that could preside in modern-day Tokyo.Drawing visual comparisons to Blade Runner and the character-led melodrama of Star Wars, this PlayStation 1 role-playing game has attained an almost mythological status - a pioneering playable parable about climate change destined to be retold time and time again. It was to fans' delight, then, when 23 years after the release of the low-poly original, 2020's Remake saw Final Fantasy VII reborn in high definition. Continue reading...
Best podcasts of the week: The animal activist who went on trial for his ‘special bond’ with a dolphin
In this week's newsletter: Hear the gripping, tragic yet funny story of Alan Cooper and his dolphin friend in Hooked on Freddie. Plus: five of the best podcasts rewriting history Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereHooked on Freddie
Your Face Belongs to Us by Kashmir Hill review – nowhere to hide
From stalkers to authoritarian states, the use and abuse of facial recognition techGet people talking about the gadgets they wish existed but don't, and soon the idea of glasses with a computer built in that tells you who you're looking at" comes up. Such augmented reality" devices seem so obviously desirable that someone usually says: When will they start selling those, eh?"In fact, two different companies have built working prototypes in the past six years. Facebook had an internal version in 2017, fed by the colossal number of profile photos on its site. The other is Clearview AI, a secretive American startup that first came to the attention of the New York Times journalist Kashmir Hill in November 2019. Continue reading...
Family sues Google after Maps allegedly directed father off collapsed US bridge
Tech company faces negligence lawsuit after Philip Paxson died from driving off a North Carolina bridge destroyed years agoThe family of a North Carolina man is suing Google for negligence after he died from crashing into a creek below a collapsed bridge at the alleged behest of Google Maps, the Associated Press reported.On 30 September 2022, state troopers found Philip Paxson drowned in his overturned pickup truck beneath a bridge that had collapsed nearly a decade earlier. Paxson, who was 47 and from Hickory, North Carolina (about 60 miles north-west of Charlotte), was returning home from his daughter's ninth birthday before the accident, his mother-in-law wrote in a post on Facebook. She added that neither the destroyed bridge nor the road leading to it had any barriers or warning signs to alert drivers of the hazard. Continue reading...
AI-focused tech firms locked in ‘race to the bottom’, warns MIT professor
Physicist Max Tegmark says competition too intense for tech executives to pause development to consider AI risksThe scientist behind a landmark letter calling for a pause in developing powerful artificial intelligence systems has said tech executives did not halt their work because they are locked in a race to the bottom".Max Tegmark, a co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, organised an open letter in March calling for a six-month pause in developing giant AI systems. Continue reading...
Twitter ranks worst in climate change misinformation report
Climate coalition cites Twitter's lack of clear policies to stop incorrect information and confusion from Musk takeoverA report ranking climate change misinformation gave Twitter (recently rebranded as X) only a single point out of a 21-point scorecard when assessing policies aimed at reducing inaccurate information - the worst out of five major tech platforms.The Climate of Misinformation report by Climate Action Against Disinformation looked at Meta, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok and Twitter for their content moderation policies and efforts to mitigate inaccurate information such as climate denialism. The group, which is made up of dozens of international climate and anti-disinformation organizations including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, released the report to draw attention towards climate misinformation on major platforms and makes the claim that big tech has become a complicit actor" in accelerating the spread of climate denial. Continue reading...
Pushing Buttons: Forget Starfield – No Man’s Sky is still the space adventure where you are truly free
In this week's newsletter: Maligned on its 2016 release, No Man's Sky offers a richer, more human-centred drama than the Bethesda blockbuster's empty experience Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereLike several million other video game players, I spent many hours last week travelling the galaxy in Starfield, the latest adventure from Bethesda, the creator of Fallout and the Elder Scrolls. But as with a number of my colleagues in the games press, I have spent much of this time wondering what it is about the game that's not quite right, that's lacking somehow.The consensus - summed up neatly in Eurogamer's review and this PCGamesN op-ed - is that the game adheres too closely to the well-worn structure of modern open-world games, where an inescapable main narrative is bulked up with optional side challenges that give the illusion of freedom, without any of the substance or unpredictability, or indeed actual freedom. Starfield represents a highly commodified form of exploration in which player adventures are channeled into endless fetch quests and box-ticking busywork. You're free, but you're unable to create any meaning or narrative of your own. You are there to shop, to consume; it is the wonder of the cosmos repackaged into a tract about capitalist realism. Continue reading...
The Isle Tide Hotel: like Wes Anderson directing a playable episode of Doctor Who
Brother and sister duo Grace and Harry Chadwick have followed in the footsteps of Charlie Brooker's Bandersnatch with an interactive film about body swappingThe receptionist is standing behind the hotel desk, his back towards me. An uncomfortable moment passes as I wait for him to register my presence. He doesn't move. A giant, Father Christmas-bearded man with colourful braces appears from a side door and silently sits in a tall chair. He looks directly at me, then his eyes flick to the bell on the reception desk. I ring it.Slowly, the receptionist turns around, revealing round, dark glasses, crooked teeth and a lined, almost cruel face. He speaks in a slow, vaguely unsettling drawl, seemingly mistaking me for someone called Miss Ray, who is apparently here for her final night". I mumble in surprise. He pauses, removing his glasses to reveal unseeing eyes. He's suspicious now, polite but threatening. He asks why I'm here. What do I tell him? Continue reading...
Pizza Hut Australia hack: data breach exposes customer information and order details
Company says it believes about 193,000 customers are affected by the breach, which it spotted in early SeptemberFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Meta encryption plan will let child abusers ‘hide in the dark’, says UK campaign
In Home Office initiative, survivors urge Mark Zuckerberg to rethink changes to Messenger and InstagramMark Zuckerberg's plan to roll out encrypted messaging on his platforms will let child abusers hide in the dark", according to a government campaign urging the tech billionaire to halt the move.The Facebook founder has been under pressure from ministers over plans to automatically encrypt communications on his Messenger service later this year, with Instagram expected to follow soon after. Continue reading...
Elon Musk’s Neuralink approved to recruit humans for brain-implant trial
Company is seeking people with paralysis to test its experimental device after getting green light from independent review boardElon Musk's brain-implant startup, Neuralink, said it has received approval from an independent review board to begin recruiting patients for its first human trial. The company is seeking people with paralysis to test its experimental device in a six-year study.Neuralink is one of several companies developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) that can collect and analyze brain signals. But its billionaire executive's bombastic promotion of the company, including promises to develop an all-encompassing brain computer to help humans keep up with artificial intelligence, has attracted skepticism and raised ethical concerns among neuroscientists and other experts. Continue reading...
Google DeepMind AI tool assesses DNA mutations for harm potential
AlphaMissense's predictions could help speed up research and diagnosis of rare disordersScientists at Google DeepMind have built an artificial intelligence program that can predict whether millions of genetic mutations are either harmless or likely to cause disease, in an effort to speed up research and the diagnosis of rare disorders.The program makes predictions about so-called missense mutations, where a single letter is misspelt in the DNA code. Such mutations are often harmless but they can disrupt how proteins work and cause diseases from cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anaemia to cancer and problems with brain development. Continue reading...
Elon Musk says Twitter, now X, could charge all users subscription fees
Billionaire also says platform has 550 million monthly users generating up to 200m posts a dayElon Musk has indicated that X, formerly known as Twitter, is considering charging all users for accessing the platform.The X owner said erecting a paywall around the business would ward off the bots, or automated accounts, that have become a bugbear for Musk. Continue reading...
From hate speech to AI music: the YouTube chief trying to leap tech’s biggest hurdles
Alison Lomax, London chief of the video platform, says it is committed to embracing artificial intelligence - but responsibly'Alison Lomax's presence on the video streaming platform she runs is relatively scant compared with the YouTubers with whom she spends much of her time.But what clips exist succinctly chart the marketing tech revolution she's been navigating: there's a badly framed 12 minutes from 2014 of Lomax lecturing on the rise of influencers working with brands; in another she describes how TV companies woke up to the potential of partnering with YouTube in 2016; and there's her on stage at London's podcast show this year, discussing YouTube's imminent relaunch into the booming audio format. Continue reading...
Plans for next-gen Xbox revealed in leaked Microsoft court documents
Unredacted court documents show digital-only cylindrical Xbox Series X console plans, a new controller and future Bethesda games releasesAn unredacted document accidentally made public as part of Microsoft's court battle with the Federal Trade Commission over its proposed $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard has revealed key information regarding the future of Xbox as well as forthcoming video games and messages regarding a potential bid to buy Nintendo.One piece of documentation, dated from April 2022, details Microsoft's plan to launch refreshed versions of its Xbox Series S and Series X consoles in September and November 2024 respectively. The Xbox Series X update, codenamed Project Brooklin is, according to the document, set to be digital only - with no disc drive - and features a new cylindrical design, 2TB storage drive, faster wifi, and a new version of the Xbox controller with motion controls via a new accelerometer and a swappable, rechargeable battery. The Xbox Series S (codenamed Ellewood) is also set to boast faster wifi as well as a 1TB storage drive and lower power consumption. Continue reading...
Anthropology review – clever AI missing-person mystery
Hampstead theatre, London
TechScape: The ‘smartphone era’ transformed the world – what will define the next decade?
In this week's newsletter: It's been ten years since the dawn of the iPhone age - and since I started covering tech at the Guardian. This is how much the world has changed since Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe annual cadence of Apple's money-printing press conferences is a big date on the tech journalism calendar. It might not be exciting any more (as we discussed last year), with a steady stream of leaks removing the chance of big surprises and an increasingly incremental approach to product design ensuring that each year's release is mostly the same as the previous year's. But it's still a big moment for readers, reporters and the industry.For me, it's also a personal milestone. I joined the Guardian when the iPhone 5S was announced, and I've covered technology here for ten years since then. Continue reading...
Sadiq Khan says hundreds of thousands spent on anti-Ulez Twitter manipulation
Mayor of London expected to tell social media firms of campaign and urge them to bear down on the attempts to distort truth'Sadiq Khan is expected to claim that hundreds of thousands of dollars" were spent on an anti-Ulez online manipulation campaign on Twitter, citing research conducted after Labour's unexpected Uxbridge byelection defeat.The London mayor, who will speak at a conference in New York on Tuesday, said he feared that disinformation and manipulation campaigns were spreading apace" but it was not always clear who was behind them. Continue reading...
Israel’s prime minister urges Elon Musk to curb antisemitism on his platform, X
Benjamin Netanyahu called on the billionaire owner to clamp down on the hate on the site formerly known as TwitterIsrael's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, urged Elon Musk to address the proliferation of antisemitism on the billionaire's social media platform X.In an in-person meeting in California on Monday, Netanyahu said he hoped Musk would find ways within the confines of the first amendment to clamp down on antisemitism and other forms of hatred on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Continue reading...
AI boom may not have positive outcome, warns UK competition watchdog
Risks include high prices as well as proliferation of false information, fraud and fake reviews, says CMAPeople should not assume a positive outcome from the artificial intelligence boom, the UK's competition watchdog has warned, citing risks including a proliferation of false information, fraud and fake reviews as well as high prices for using the technology.The Competition and Markets Authority said people and businesses could benefit from a new generation of AI systems but dominance by entrenched players and flouting of consumer protection law posed a number of potential threats. Continue reading...
Emoji dumping: how to say it’s over when you can’t be bothered with words
One in three online daters have been ditched by emoji. But what are the symbols that spell out It's not you, it's me'?Name: Emoji dumping.Age: No more than 15. Continue reading...
Elon Musk hits out at Soros foundation before meeting Israel’s Netanyahu
X owner makes comment on his platform as he prepares to meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin NetanyahuElon Musk has accused George Soros's foundation of wanting to destroy western civilisation, as the tech tycoon prepares to meet the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in California.Musk made the comment in reply to a post by a user sharing footage of people arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa from north Africa that referred to a George Soros led invasion" of Europe. Continue reading...
iOS 17 release: everything you need to know about Apple’s big updates
iPhone upgrade joined by watchOS 10 and iPadOS 17, adding new features to Apple's mobile devicesApple plans to release software updates for its iPhone, iPad and smartwatch on Monday, adding new features and designs for compatible devices.Announced at the company's developer conference in June, iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and watchOS 10 add a much-improved keyboard with autocorrect that will let you swear, new standby modes, contact posters, greater customisation and the biggest reworking of the Apple Watch's interface since launch. Continue reading...
HWL Ebsworth hack: 65 Australian government agencies affected by cyber-attack
National cybersecurity coordinator Darren Goldie reveals some clients with personal information exposed in hack on law firm yet to be informed
‘I couldn’t stop myself’: inside the 12-step program for internet addiction
Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous is based on the principles of AA, offering community support to aid recoveryHi, my name is Sarah* and I am an internet and technology addict."So began a meeting on a recent Wednesday afternoon, as 18 people quietly gathered on a Zoom call. Text in their small video boxes showed they hailed from locations as disparate as Oregon, India and Namibia. Continue reading...
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson review – pillock, genius, or both?
The tech mogul is portrayed as a brutal visionary with father issues in this comprehensive biographyThe big question in the public mind about Elon Musk, as a London cabbie once put it to me, is whether he's a pillock or a genius". The quick answer is that he's both; a better answer is that there's a lot of detail between those two extremes - so much so, in fact, that it takes Walter Isaacson 688 pages to cram it all in. But cram it in he does.Isaacson is an experienced biographer, with lives of Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, Jennifer Doudna and Steve Jobs to his credit. With the benefit of hindsight, that last volume looks like a practice run for a life of Elon Musk, who, like Jobs, makes people wonder whether appalling personal behaviour can be separated from the relentless drive that has made him successful. Continue reading...
The EU cable guys have tied down Apple, yet big tech is still bossing the Tories | John Naughton
The tech giant has bowed to European legislation with a USB-C connector on its new iPhone but the UK government has failed to make messaging services toe the line on encryptionSometimes, when Apple launches a new device (or even an upgrade of an existing one), it's tempting to think that the accompanying blurb is a satirical spoof. On Tuesday, the day the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus were launched in California, for example, it burbled that both phones featured industry-first colour-infused back glass with a stunning, textured matt finish and a new contoured edge on the aluminium enclosure. Both models feature the dynamic island [which displays outputs and alerts] and an advanced camera system designed to help users take fantastic photos of everyday moments in their lives. A powerful 48MP [megapixel] main camera enables super-high-resolution photos and a new 2x telephoto option to give users a total of three optical zoom levels - like having a third camera. The iPhone 15 lineup also introduces the next generation of portraits, making it easier to capture portraits with great detail and low-light performance."Oh, and by the way, it also has a USB-C charging port. This information, which comes towards the end of the blurb, is both interesting and symbolic: interesting because it signals that Apple is finally bowing to the EU's requirement that all electronic devices should use the USB-C standard by 2024; and symbolic because it demonstrates that regulators can clip the wings of even the most powerful companies if they are resolute and clear about the consequences of noncompliance. Continue reading...
Free food and threats to bonuses: UK finance and tech firms fight working from home
Banks and insurers join Google, Amazon and Meta in encouraging staff to spend most of week in officeFree parking and changes to managers' bonuses have helped Britain's biggest insurer, Aviva, lure staff back to their desks for most of the working week.Welcome to the new-old world of work: where companies, particularly those in financial services and technology, push for staff to spend more days in the office as they try to rebalance the working from home trend. Continue reading...
Twitter gave at least 32 of Trump’s private messages to special counsel
Newly unsealed court filings show company turned over messages after receiving search warrant in election subversion caseTwitter gave the special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump for alleged election subversion access to at least 32 of the former president's private messages.The company, now known as X, turned over the messages after receiving a search warrant, CNN first reported on Friday, citing newly unsealed filings to the US circuit court of appeals. Continue reading...
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 preview: hands-on with the web-slinging duo
PlayStation 5
TikTok fined €345m for breaking EU data law on children’s accounts
Irish data regulator says platform put 13- to 17-year-old users' accounts on default public setting, among other breachesTikTok has been fined 345m (296m) for breaking EU data law in its handling of children's accounts, including failing to shield underage users' content from public view.The Irish data watchdog, which regulates TikTok across the EU, said the Chinese-owned video app had committed multiple breaches of GDPR rules. Continue reading...
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