Technology | The Guardian

Kathy Kleiman’s offers a valuable boost to our understanding of modern computers and their beginnings in wartimeIn 1942, the unthinkable happened. This “help wanted” ad appeared in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin: “Looking for Women Math Majors.”The ad was placed by the US army, which was hiring women to work at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, at the University of Pennsylvania. Kathleen McNulty was only 21, a brand new graduate of Chestnut Hill College, but she knew nothing like this had ever appeared outside the “Male Help Wanted” section of any newspaper before the US entered the second world war. Continue reading...

As Craig Wright’s legal tussles pile up, the world is no closer to knowing who the currency’s inventor really isWho is Satoshi Nakamoto? The mysterious inventor of bitcoin is a renowned figure in the world of cryptocurrency but his true identity is unknown.However, the British blogger Peter McCormack was certain about one thing: the answer isn’t Craig Wright. Continue reading...

The street photographer reflects on a chance encounter on the top deck of a bus

Acquisition part of Amazon’s bid to accelerate its growth beyond retail, but concerns raised about market power of Bezos firmAmazon announced it has agreed to acquire the vacuum cleaner maker iRobot for approximately $1.7bn, scooping up another company to add to its collection of smart home appliances amid broader concerns about its market power.iRobot sells its products worldwide and is most famous for the circular-shaped Roomba vacuum, which is equipped to integrate with various smart home systems. Continue reading...

Tesla chief says social media company miscounted accounts as part of a ‘scheme’ to mislead investorsElon Musk has accused Twitter of deliberately miscounting the number of spam accounts on its platform as part of a “scheme” to mislead investors.The Tesla chief executive made the allegations in a countersuit against the social media company, which is taking Musk to court in an attempt to make him complete an agreed $44bn (£36.5bn) takeover of the business. Continue reading...

After his wife’s Lexus was stolen, Edmund King went the extra mile to ensure his keyless fob was safeA metal box inside a microwave is not most people’s idea of a sensible key cupboard, but the AA’s president has revealed it is where he stores his car fob.Edmund King already used a Faraday pouch – a bag with a metal lining to block signals – to hold his keyless fob but has gone to extra lengths since his wife’s £50,000 Lexus was stolen by hackers. Continue reading...

Union says about 700 workers in Tilbury warehouse joined action and some faced disciplinary measuresHundreds of Amazon employees have stopped work at the online retailer’s warehouse in Tilbury in Essex in response to a pay rise of only 35p – about 3% – compared with inflation that is now forecast to hit 13% later this year.The GMB union said about 700 of the roughly 3,500 workers at the site, which is one of Amazon’s largest in Europe, gathered in the facility’s canteen for a meeting as they tried to register a protest against the pay deal. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Follow the team who uncovered a $300m plot to rob ordinary people of their savings over the phone in Chameleon: Scam Likely. Plus: five of the best women’s football podcasts

Novel design, good cameras, solid performance and battery life make a competitively priced packageThe Phone 1 is the first smartphone from the British technology startup Nothing, led by the OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, who set up on his own with the aim of bringing back a bit of interest and excitement to the increasingly samey world of consumer electronics.But the firm’s follow-up to the funky Ear 1 earbuds is no flashy top-spec phone. Priced at £399 (A$749), it looks to compete directly with more affordable models such as Samsung’s mid-range A-series and Google’s Pixel 6a. It does so while offering something unique: a series of white LED strips strewn across a transparent glass back to create patterns of light that Nothing calls “glyphs”. Continue reading...

Forget Netflix: millions are now tuning in to watch little yellow plane icons move across a map of the worldWant to watch a top-secret government flight live? Track a drug kingpin’s movements in real time? Or know how much Taylor Swift’s jets are polluting the air? They’re all streaming live on the sleeper hit of the summer: online flight trackers.On Tuesday, viewers set new records on Flightradar24, one of the largest flight tracker websites in the world, as they watched the seven-hour flight of Nancy Pelosi from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei. The trip, shrouded in secrecy until its final moments, grabbed international attention after China made military threats in the weeks leading up to the visit, and then launched live-fire exercises once she had departed. Continue reading...

Billionaire seeks material on how JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs advised platform during negotiationsLawyers for Elon Musk have subpoenaed JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs for records relating to the billionaire’s plan to buy Twitter.Musk has requested the banks turn over “documents and communications” relating to how they advised Twitter during negotiations, which Musk abruptly backed out of last month after offering to purchase the website for $44bn in April, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Stationary roadside vehicle can also tell if passing drivers are not wearing seatbeltA van with technology that can automatically detect drivers holding a mobile phone at the wheel or not wearing a seatbelt is being trialled in the UK for the first time.National Highways are working with Warwickshire police to try out the “sensor test vehicle” on motorways and major A roads, and drivers who are caught may be prosecuted. Continue reading...

The listing was lambasted in a viral TikTok video and was taken down by the companyAirbnb publicly apologized after it allowed a property owner to list an “1830s slave cabin” for rent in Greenville, Mississippi.In a TikTok video that went viral, a New-Orleans civil rights and entertainment lawyer, Wynton Yates, criticized the listing, saying: “The history of slavery in this country is constantly denied and now it’s being mocked by being turned into a luxurious vacation spot.” Continue reading...

Solana Foundation, supporter of blockchain network, says ‘malicious actor’ has taken fundsNearly $6m (£4.9m) has been drained from accounts linked to the Solana crypto network after a hacker targeted 8,000 wallets.The Solana Foundation, an organisation that supports the blockchain network, said a “malicious actor” had taken funds from a number of wallets linked to Solana. Continue reading...

Meta’s president of global affairs is heading back to London, having never hidden his longing for homeNick Clegg’s Europhile leanings are not just a political and professional matter, as a prominent remainer and former MEP, but a personal one too.Meta’s president of global affairs has a Dutch mother, a half-Russian father and is fluent in Dutch, German, Spanish and French. His wife, Miriam González Durántez, a leading international trade lawyer, is Spanish. Continue reading...

If you’d bought or sold bitcoin every time I wrote about it over the last decade, how much would you have made? Let’s do the maths

Developer Visai Studio’s debut tells a story of how food bridges the gap between generationsFood is much more than mere sustenance. It’s an expression of love; for a culture, and for those eating. Venba isn’t so much a cooking game as it is a game about cooking – a narrative puzzle about restoring an old cookbook that made its way into the titular character’s hands. Venba is a Tamil woman who left India for Canada with her husband to start over; they’re already thinking about leaving when she gets the news of her pregnancy. The very first dish you make in the game, a savoury rice cake called idli, becomes a way for Venba to break the news to her husband, a clever way to show how food can be part of any memory.“Regardless of what’s happening on any particular day, the kitchen is always busy in south Asian homes,” says the lead designer, who goes by the name Abhi. “When kids grow up and assimilate [into a new culture], they may forget their mother tongue, but they never forget the food that’s cooked.”Venba will be released later this year for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Continue reading...

From the real story of a virus that took out Iran’s urianium centrifuges to a surprisingly good Dan Brown novel, these are some of the best stories of our new era of ill online deedsA generation ago cybercrime was as esoteric a subject to write about as quantum mechanics or fluctuations in the derivatives market. Now it’s a central feature of many novels.Whether it’s criminal gangs phishing to steal sensitive data to sell on the dark web, or that creep from college catfishing people on Facebook, or the daily texts asking us to click a link to claim a prize or verify a payment, we are under continuous attack. Pension scams, identity thefts, all those strangers following our children on TikTok, everywhere we turn, someone is trying to turn the technology on which we rely against us. Continue reading...

The news comes on the heels of a dire revenue report, with company shares taking a 3% tumble in extended tradingRobinhood, the trading platform that gained notoriety for allowing amateur stock investors to play the market, is laying off nearly a quarter of its staff – citing economic conditions and the crash of the cryptocurrency market.The news it was slashing 23% of its staff came as the company posted a 44% decline in revenues on slumping trading activity, in a surprise earnings report that came one day earlier than scheduled, and sent the company’s shares down more than 3% in extended trading. Continue reading...

The National Cyber Security Centre advised of a hacking risk to online voting by party membersThe delivery of ballot papers to Conservative members to vote for the next prime minister has been delayed following security concerns.The postal ballot packs were due to be sent out from Monday to about 160,000 Tory members to choose between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Continue reading...

Adam Mosseri relocates temporarily as Meta continues attempts to counter TikTok’s riseThe head of Instagram is temporarily relocating to London less than a week after the Meta-owned company faced outrage from influencers such as Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner over changes to the popular photo-sharing app.Adam Mosseri, who has a strong relationship with the billionaire Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg, will move to the company’s offices in King’s Cross amid the tech firm’s battle for users with its Chinese rival TikTok. Continue reading...

Myopia is rising in children but experts say focus should be on spending time outdoors rather than reducing screen time

Educational publisher’s move into non-fungible tokens is intended to claw back some of the income lost to secondhand salesTextbook publisher Pearson plans to profit from secondhand sales by turning its titles into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), its chief executive has said.Educational books are often sold more than once, since students sell study resources they no longer require. Publishers have not previously been able to make any money from secondhand sales, but the rise of digital textbooks has created an opportunity for companies to benefit. Continue reading...

Passengers took 1.87bn trips during the spring and early summer, company says, a 24% increase compared with same time last yearUber’s bookings hit an all-time high in the last three months as anxiety over Covid-19 eased and workers headed back to the office.Passengers took a total of 1.87bn trips on Uber during the spring and early summer, the company reported on Tuesday, a 24% increase compared with the same time last year. That’s about 21m trips a day, on average. Continue reading...

Games announcements have become relentless. How’s a player to keep up? Start with our summer previews

Stray, a new indie title starring the internet’s favourite animal, is delighting players and pets alike, and its creators at BlueTwelve have been charmed by the reactionWhen a video game has us playing as an animal, it’s usually some psychedelic anthropomorphic cartoon creature such as Crash Bandicoot or Sonic the Hedgehog. Rarely do we actually behave like an animal, although when we do, it can be hilarious: 2019’s breakout cult hit Untitled Goose Game stars a nasty goose honking, pecking and chasing its way around a village of peeved humans, for instance. Stray, released last week, has us playing as the internet’s favourite animal, a cat, doing cat stuff: pattering across roofs, snoozing on cozy cushions, pushing things off shelves for no discernible reason.Players and critics have lapped Stray up. Even Peta likes it. But it’s also been winning over the feline population. Players have been posting pictures and videos of their own cats watching the game, apparently fascinated by the virtual cat’s surprisingly realistic movement and meows. The Twitter account @CatsWatchStray has now compiled hundreds of them. Continue reading...

New and improved earbuds sound better, have noise cancelling, last longer and are very comfortableGoogle’s latest Pixel Buds earbuds have been given the “pro” treatment, with better sound, noise cancelling, multipoint Bluetooth and a comfier design aimed at rivalling Apple’s AirPods Pro but for Android users.The Pixel Buds Pro cost £179 ($199/A$299), sitting above the firm’s £100 Pixel Buds A-Series as Google’s new top model. They will work with any standard Bluetooth device, including PCs and iPhones, but have special features designed for Android. Continue reading...

The Forsage pyramid scheme cheated investors out of $300m worldwide over more than two yearsUS authorities have busted a huge cryptocurrency pyramid scheme, charging 11 people for their role in defrauding retail investors for more than $300m worldwide.The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the charges Monday, which relate to a Ponzi scheme called Forsage that had operated for more than two years. The agency charged the alleged founders of the pyramid scheme as well as several promoters. Continue reading...

When asked if he’s proud of his son’s accomplishments, Errol Musk says: ‘No … we are a family that have been doing a lot of things’The father of Elon Musk said during an interview that he isn’t proud of his billionaire son, saying that Elon is unhappy with his own career progress.During the strange interview Monday with the Australia radio The Kyle and Jackie O Show, 76-year-old Errol Musk was asked if he was proud of Elon’s accomplishments. Continue reading...

Research says conspiracy theorists shifting from QAnon and Covid to disinformation about crisis caused by Russia’s war in UkraineTwitter accounts that have promoted QAnon and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories are switching focus and increasingly spreading disinformation about the global food crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a new study.The research by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), found that conspiracy theorist social media accounts started pushing the idea that western countries are responsible for the interruption of wheat, barley and maize exports from Ukraine. Continue reading...

Rachael Maskell, the York Central MP, has proposed a bill to tackle shortage of private rental housingLandlords are evicting tenants and switching to Airbnbs and holiday lets because the money is better and they “do not have to worry about bad tenants”.Research has found a boom in rental properties being used for short-term lets, caused by a rise in domestic holidays and increased regulations for long-term landlords. Continue reading...

A California-based organisation wants to harness the power of machine learning to decode communication across the entire animal kingdom. But the project has its doubtersA dolphin handler makes the signal for “together” with her hands, followed by “create”. The two trained dolphins disappear underwater, exchange sounds and then emerge, flip on to their backs and lift their tails. They have devised a new trick of their own and performed it in tandem, just as requested. “It doesn’t prove that there’s language,” says Aza Raskin. “But it certainly makes a lot of sense that, if they had access to a rich, symbolic way of communicating, that would make this task much easier.”Raskin is the co-founder and president of Earth Species Project (ESP), a California non-profit group with a bold ambition: to decode non-human communication using a form of artificial intelligence (AI) called machine learning, and make all the knowhow publicly available, thereby deepening our connection with other living species and helping to protect them. A 1970 album of whale song galvanised the movement that led to commercial whaling being banned. What could a Google Translate for the animal kingdom spawn? Continue reading...

Manufacturers have spied a handy revenue stream by delivering upgrades ‘over the air’, but are car owners prepared to fork out?When a customer said they had driven across three US states, from Texas to North Carolina, to get their car fixed, Tesla servicer Jason Hughes knew something must be up. It turned out to be an unusual problem: the Model S had lost a third of its battery range in an instant, while it was parked on a driveway.One of the US electric carmaker’s big selling points is that it is constantly connected to its vehicles via mobile networks, offering software updates and entertainment downloads “over the air”, or OTA. That remote connection could be revolutionary for the industry, opening the door for self-driving features to be downloaded and TV shows to be livestreamed in high definition. But the connected car is having teething problems. Continue reading...

The Bangladeshi photographer on workers in Dhaka who risk their lives dismantling old vessels for recycling or disposal

Rebekah Vardy probably isn’t buzzing at the ruling, a character assassination that has left her well and truly stung by libelOscar Wilde, Barbra Streisand, and now – Rebekah Vardy. When news broke that Vardy had lost her libel case against Coleen Rooney, she joined this heady roster of celebrities who have launched brain-bogglingly misguided and self-wounding legal cases. Like Wilde – who sued the Marquess of Queensberry for revealing his homosexuality – Vardy went to court to deny something that a rock could see was true: she’d passed on private stories about Rooney to the press. And like Streisand – who sued a website for featuring an image of her house, thereby drawing the world’s attention to it – she believed going to court was the best way to control her image. She was wrong.Vardy traded private details of her husband’s colleagues and their wives in the hope of currying positive coverage in the media. And because of that, Mrs Justice Steyn delivered a verdict that was even more of a character assassination than Vardy’s own memorable description of Rooney to a Daily Mail journalist: “Arguing with Coleen Rooney would be as pointless as arguing with a pigeon: you can tell it that you are right and it is wrong, but it’s still going to shit in your hair.” Well, Rebekah, you’re covered in shit now. Continue reading...

Jacob Wayne John Keen, 24, is alleged to have created hacking tool when 15 years old and sold it to more than 14,500 people

Musk’s 164-page filing is under wraps for now, as Twitter shareholder launches separate action to force entrepreneur to close the dealElon Musk has countersued Twitter, escalating his legal fight against the social media company over his bid to walk away from the $44bn purchase.Musk’s lawsuit was filed on Friday, hours after chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware court of chancery ordered a five-day trial beginning 17 October to determine if Musk can walk away from the deal. Continue reading...

Senior figures at social video app pushed back on request deemed ‘sensitive’, according to reportTikTok has said it refused an attempt by the Chinese government to open a disguised account on the platform for the purpose of spreading propaganda.The Chinese-owned social video app said the attempt was refused because the account would have violated its guidelines. Continue reading...

Sales up 7% in three months to June marking one of slowest growth periods in company’s history but still better than expectedAmazon reported its second quarterly loss in a row on Thursday but the company’s share price gained over 10% in after-hours trading on stronger than expected earnings.Sales for the three months ending in June increased by 7% to $121bn compared with $113.1bn in the second quarter of 2021. The increase marks one of the slowest growth periods for Amazon in its history but was better than expected. Continue reading...

The company in its second-quarter earnings report said it anticipates lower than predicted revenue of $26bn to $28.5bnFor the first time in nearly a decade, Meta’s explosive growth has come to a halt, as the Facebook parent company forecast its first decline in revenue since it went public.Meta, in its second-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, said it expects third-quarter revenue of between $26bn and $28.5bn – lower than the $30.52bn analysts predicted. Continue reading...

We would like to hear your thoughts on the platform’s new designInstagram has been subject to a user backlash after it launched a series of changes designed to make it more like TikTok. The changes include pushing the platform’s TikTok-style “reels” videos and heavy promotion of the TikTok-style “remix” feature, which means users have struggles to find content from friends and family.Instagram’s boss, Adam Mosseri, was frank about the changes: “We’re going to continue to support photos, but I need to be honest: more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time.” Continue reading...

For decades, LGBTQ+ characters and stories were almost nonexistent – but now things have improved, and a new generation of queer players are finding themselves (and each other) in video gamesFresh from a drag performance featuring a gender-swapped Mario and Princess Peach chasing each other around on stage, after watching a burlesque performer disrobe to the Tetris theme, I am standing at the bar waiting for a drink, surrounded by people in fabulous outfits. Famous drag queen Asstina Mandella is here in a stunning dress; I am in a purple bisexual-colours suit and I still feel somewhat underdressed for the occasion. I am not used to this at video games events – back in the 00s, it was mostly men in black T-shirts with logos on them, and I was one of about three women in the room. But this is the first in-person Gayming awards, an event that celebrates queer representation in video games, and the huge and ever-growing queer community that plays them.This might not be what some people would think of as the gaming audience, but the fact is that just about everybody plays games now – two-thirds of all Americans, to pluck just one stat – and of course, queer people have always been part of that community. If anything, queer people are overrepresented in the gaming population. Fully 21% of all the people working in the games industry identify as LGBTQ+, according to a recent survey by sector champion Ukie. Until quite recently, though, this was not reflected in games themselves, whose makers and marketers seemed resolutely committed to making games starring either white heterosexual males shooting at things, or anthropomorphic animals. When I was growing up in the 90s, even female representation in games was dismal, let alone queer representation. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: UK cybersecurity heads want companies like Apple to monitor suspicious activity on devices. It’s not the attack on privacy you might think it is

Research into gameplay habits of 40,000 people counters fears that gaming could harm mental healthTime spent playing video games has no effect on people’s wellbeing, a study from the University of Oxford has found, countering fears that gaming could be harmful to mental health.Unlike the vast majority of previous studies on the effect of video games on wellbeing, the Oxford team were able to track actual gameplay, rather than relying on self-reported estimates. Continue reading...

Destiny, Call of Duty and other epics expect you to play not for hours but for years. This endless games monoculture isn’t just bad for players – it’s bad for innovation

Gaming albums have been steadily rising in popularity since the early 2010s. Players and creators explain whyCaroline Grace has always enjoyed vintage technology. An IT tech in the Mid-Ohio Valley, they collect retro games, laser discs and cassette tapes, but mostly, vinyl records. Their collection is in the thousands, and hundreds of those are video game soundtracks. “I’ve been a big fan of games all my life,” says Grace. “Some of my earliest memories are playing games like Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap and Goof Troop with my dad and brother. I get positive feelings from listening to the Wonder Boy III music now. I have a lot of pleasant memories of playing it with my family back in the day.”The idea of buying video game soundtracks on vinyl may seem counter-intuitive: the most hi-tech digital entertainment medium meeting this fragile relic of the analogue era. But gaming albums have been steadily rising in popularity since the early 2010s. Partly that’s thanks to the wider vinyl revival, but it’s also due to the efforts of specialist record labels such as Data Discs, which produces beautiful albums based on vintage video games. “When we started the label in late-2014 there wasn’t really anyone releasing game soundtracks on vinyl,” says co-founder Jamie Crook. “We had been half-joking about trying to release Streets of Rage for the best part of a decade and we’re still surprised that no one else beat us to it. It just seemed abundantly clear that game soundtracks were going to be one of the next growth areas, alongside Japanese ambient, especially after the huge popularity of film soundtrack labels from 2012 onward.” Continue reading...

Tesla chief rejects Wall Street Journal claims he had affair with Nicole ShanahanElon Musk has denied a Wall Street Journal report that claimed he had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of the Google co-founder Sergey Brin, accusing the news outlet of running “hit pieces” on him and Tesla.The chief executive of the electric carmaker tweeted on Monday rejecting the affair claim as “total BS”, adding that he and Brin were still friends. Continue reading...

The Pennsylvania Senate hopeful is wielding social media might against star power. His secret weapon? SnookiWhether it’s Ronald, Donald or Arnold, Americans are all too familiar with the phenomenon of the second-tier celebrity turned politician. So when the TV doctor Mehmet Oz decided to run for Senate in Pennsylvania, his background as a B-lister seemed well suited to the role.As he proudly notes in his official biography, Oz has won Emmys, has written eight bestsellers, and was featured on six seasons of The Oprah Winfrey Show. He is a master of traditional media. But now the daytime TV star is facing a Democratic opponent who has proved himself a media success story in his own right – though his area of expertise is Twitter, not television. Continue reading...

We couldn’t check in online so had to pay to use the airline’s deskOn 27 June my partner and I were booked on a 7.55am Wizz Air flight from Gatwick to Athens. On the Saturday before, I received an email telling me to check in online.After filling in all the necessary details and double-checking the information, the website said “something went wrong” and I was unable to complete the process. I tried several more times but could not get to the end. Continue reading...

Follow the gospel of Larry David, go gaming on horseback, always carry a cushion, bin your cinema mates and learn Korean off the telly … Guardian writers present their best cultural life hacksIf you’re seeing something long and challenging, remember that having an alcoholic drink beforehand is asking for trouble. So be sure to do it. Continue reading...