by Alexi Duggins, Hollie Richardson, Hannah Verdier a on (#65DNW)
In this week’s newsletter: The journalist was killed in mysterious circumstances in South Sudan – who was he, and why was he there? A new show finds out. Plus: five of the best podcasts to exercise to
by Dani Anguiano in Los Angeles and agencies on (#65DDW)
In the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of the company, rumors of job cuts swirl and employees report being left in the darkTwitter is facing fresh uncertainty amid a growing exodus of top management and reports that mass layoffs and major changes to the platform could be coming within days.The company’s advertising and marketing chiefs have recently announced their departures, as well as the chief people and diversity officer, the general manager for core technologies, the head of product and vice-president of global sales. Last week, Elon Musk fired the CEO, Parag Agrawal, the chief financial officer, Ned Segal, and the legal affairs and policy chief, Vijaya Gadde, shortly after taking over the company. Continue reading...
A follow-up to the company’s 2016 PlayStation VR is due to be released in February 2023Sony’s new PlayStation VR 2 virtual reality headset will be released on 22 February 2023, the company has announced. It will cost £529.99, more than the PlayStation 5 console needed to use it (currently £479.99).The price includes the headset itself, two motion controllers and headphones. An optional charging station costs an extra £39.99. Sony is billing it as a more premium device than the previous PlayStation VR, which was released in 2016 at £349. It features haptic feedback in the controllers, eye-tracking, higher fidelity OLED screens and 3D audio. Games bought for the older device will not be compatible with the newer one. Continue reading...
Classic songs are now remastered to compete with contemporary pop on streaming services. But what do we lose when Yellow Submarine is ‘de-mixed’ for generation playlist?Yellow Submarine, Ringo Starr’s turn on Revolver, has been a gateway for children into the music of the Beatles since its release in 1966. A new reissue of the album makes that relationship more explicit: Giles Martin, son of original producer George and the sonic custodian of the Beatles catalogue, says his “de-mixing” of the album – using AI to separate individual instruments that were originally squeezed together on four tracks – was done in part with a playlist-listening younger audience in mind.Martin recently told Variety that his teenage children listen to old and new music side by side, veering from Fleetwood Mac to Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. “[W]hat I want to make sure is that when people hear the Beatles, that it has the same dynamic as the other stuff they’re listening to,” he said. He added that 1969’s Abbey Road, recorded on a then luxuriant eight tracks and the first Beatles album not released in mono, stands out from the band’s catalogue as “it sounds more hi-fi than the other Beatles albums”. This might be, he proposes, one reason why it performs so well on streaming services. Continue reading...
Privacy policy update confirms data of continent’s users available to range of TikTok bases including in Brazil, Israel and USTikTok is spelling out to its European users that their data can be accessed by employees outside the continent, including in China, amid political and regulatory concerns about Chinese access to user information on the platform.The Chinese-owned social video app is updating its privacy policy to confirm that staff in countries, including China, are allowed to access user data to ensure their experience of the platform is “consistent, enjoyable and safe”. Continue reading...
Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, from which many workers have fled, now under seven-day Covid lockdownChinese authorities have announced a seven-day coronavirus lockdown in the area around the world’s largest iPhone factory, stoking concern that production will be severely curtailed ahead of the Christmas period.Foxconn’s plant in Zhengzhou, which employs about 200,000 people, produces the majority of Apple’s new phones, including the new iPhone 14. Continue reading...
A new wave of indie horror games and remakes of haunting classics such as Silent Hill are getting more creative at trying to mess with your headHalloween might be over, but the scary memories last a lifetime, at least for me. I do not like horror. I am one of the world’s biggest wusses, and feeding my imagination with nightmare fuel will keep me up at night for weeks. I was recently so disturbed by a simple bus advert for the movie Smile that I read the Wikipedia summary of the plot, and just that was enough to screw with my sleep. My partner, meanwhile, cannot get enough of disgusting films and terrifying games, so he’s delighted to be living through something of a golden age for video game horror. Not only are haunting classics such as Silent Hill and Resident Evil getting endless remakes, there’s also an ongoing new wave of indie horror games that do ever more creative things with this medium’s ability to get inside your head.These days, I actively try to avoid horrible things, but the games that freaked me out formed some of my most vivid childhood memories. Zelda: Ocarina of Time had the Gibdos, desiccated corpses that lived in graveyards and dungeons. They could freeze Link in his tracks with a shriek, then walk towards him with horrible slowness, then speed up at the last second to leap atop his shoulders and try to suffocate him. And at the bottom of a well, there was an amorphous, eyeless, white monster whose many hands protruded from the Earth, ready to grab and ensnare. I had to play the entirety of the Shadow Temple, with its bloodstains and discordant choral music, through half-closed eyes and with a guide in hand.Simon Parkin interviewed Hideo Kojima for us in Tokyo. Kojima still won’t talk about exactly what happened during his infamous split with Konami, but gaming’s most famous director did discuss plenty of other interesting stuff, including how he feels about his past work and his conflicting relationship with social media.CD Projekt Red’s original Witcher game is going to be remade. I would love to revisit this game and I’m super-interested to see whether they will preserve the collectible “sex cards” Geralt collected by sleeping with every available female character. Those were gross at the time, but the idea has aged particularly badly over the past 15 years.Ikea is throwing a fit over a horror game set in an obvious satirical stand-in for its stores, which would be quite funny if it wasn’t also forcing the developer to revamp the entire thing for fear of getting sued.This greatly entertaining feature chronicles how players have come together over the years to translate Splatoon’s various in-game languages – only to discover that the dude who runs the clothing shop wears a T-shirt on Tuesdays that says “Fuck You”.The manager of an Amsterdam hotel is dismayed that the building features in the new Call of Duty game. “We have taken note of the fact that the Conservatorium Hotel is undesirably the scene of the new Call of Duty … More generally, we don’t support games that seem to encourage the use of violence. The game in no way reflects our core values and we regret our apparent and unwanted involvement.” Continue reading...
Elon Musk says setting up process over those barred, including Donald Trump, will take ‘at least a few more weeks’Banned Twitter accounts including Donald Trump’s will not be reinstated until after the US midterm elections at least, the platform’s new owner, Elon Musk, has said.The Tesla chief executive’s statement came as a study revealed that Twitter had taken down six disinformation networks on the platform linked to China and Iran that had been tweeting about the 8 November elections. Continue reading...
The platform is home to a devoted base of left-leaning communities – and no one billionaire can control itSince Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter last week, some of the social media app’s users have been looking for a new home – only to find there aren’t many great options. Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey is beta testing a new app called Bluesky, but there’s no launch date yet.However, tech-savvy users are rallying around Mastodon, a six-year-old social media platform popular among a devoted base of left-leaning niche communities. Mastodon, named after the extinct tusked animal, is decentralized, which means it can’t be controlled by a single corporation or space billionaire. That’s clearly appealing to the flood of users who have signed up since Musk’s Twitter takeover, with more than 70,000 users joining Mastodon on the day after his announcement alone. Continue reading...
Match Group beat earning estimates for the third quarter, posting revenues of $810mTinder’s parent company, Match Group, beat revenue estimates for the last quarter as more users looking for matches took out paid subscriptions on the popular dating app.Their results were an outlier in what has been a quarter of poor performance for some of the biggest tech companies in the US. Match Group, who own a suite of dating apps including Hinge and OKCupid, saw their shares rise 16% on Tuesday. Continue reading...
The new owner justified the measure saying ‘we need to pay the bills somehow’Elon Musk has indicated that a verified account on Twitter in the future could cost $8 a month, despite facing a user backlash over proposals to charge for the feature.The new owner of Twitter described the current system for allocating blue check marks – which verify a user as a trustworthy source – as “bullshit” in a Twitter post to his more than 110 million followers on Tuesday. Continue reading...
US-based company hands over £615m to UK tax authorities after previously claiming it was exempt from VATUber is handing £615m to UK tax authorities to settle an investigation into unpaid VAT, as it reported better than expected results, sending its shares higher.The San Francisco-based ride hire and food delivery company said it achieved a UK tax settlement on Monday to resolve all outstanding VAT claims and would pay £615m to HM Revenue and Customs during the fourth quarter. Continue reading...
The world’s richest person is clearing house and causing chaos at one of the world’s top social media platforms. From verification to free speech, here’s inside Elon Musk’s first days of power
Twitter’s biggest tryhard has taken over the platform, but the social media industry could be heading for multiple crisesTwitter has been taken over by its least interesting troll for $44bn. When Elon Musk took a stake in the platform, he claimed it was to ensure the “future of civilisation” and preserve a “common digital town square”. Roughly translated, that means the world’s richest man has bought his favourite megaphone.Musk, with 112.1 million followers, is an obsessive Twitter tryhard: the attention economy’s biggest attention-seeker. From baselessly calling a British diver a “pedo”, to his baffling stunt at Twitter HQ – turning up with a kitchen sink and uttering the punchline, “let that sink in” – he clearly thinks comedy is his metier. He reminds me of Christopher Hitchens’ barb about an enemy: he “thinks he’s a wit and is half right”. Continue reading...
World’s richest person plans revamp of social media platform, asking users if he should bring back VineElon Musk is considering charging Twitter users $20 (£17.30) a month or $240 a year for a blue tick on their account, as the world’s richest person prepares an overhaul of the social media platform.The Tesla chief executive is planning changes to Twitter’s Blue subscription service, according to the tech newsletter Platformer, including raising the $4.99 a month fee to $19.99. Users verified by the platform – who carry a blue tick flagging them as an authentic source – would have 90 days to sign up to Blue or lose their check mark. Continue reading...
Reports that Musk will let go of 25% of its workforce, or nearly 2,000 employees, come as tech billionaire overhauls companyElon Musk has appointed himself CEO of Twitter and dissolved its board of directors, it was revealed in a company filing on Monday, as Twitter employees brace for extensive layoffs under a new restructuring that could target up to a quarter of staff.The Washington Post reported on Monday that Musk’s team has been discussing dismissing 25% of the company’s workforce in a first round of layoffs.Reuters contributed to this report Continue reading...
Shonda Rhimes and Sara Bareilles are among celebrities leaving the platform, but others are struggling with the decisionTwitter isn’t shaping up to be the party Elon Musk might have expected. Not long after the Tesla CEO officially gained control of the app, many users have contemplated an exodus – while others are debating the merits of staying.Some celebrities and pundits made it clear they were on their way out. Shonda Rhimes, the TV writer and showrunner, was one of the first. “Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye,” she wrote on the site. Continue reading...
Disruption comes less than a week after multi-hour outage at WhatsApp, also owned by Instagram’s parent company, MetaInstagram is looking into the reasons behind an accidental wave of account suspensions, which have led many around the world to worry that their access to the social network has been curtailed for good.Users began reporting problems at about 1300 GMT, turning to other social networks to post baffled screenshots of the ban notifications. “We suspended your account on October 31, 2022,” the warning reads, before telling affected posters that their account “doesn’t follow our community guidelines” and that it will be permanently disabled in the event of the suspension being upheld. Continue reading...
Unverified videos shared on Chinese social media showed people who are allegedly workers at the Foxconn plant climbing over fences and carrying their belongings along a road.Workers from China's largest iPhone factory have reportedly been fleeing the factory amid fears of full-scale lockdowns in Covid-hit Zhengzhou.Foxconn, an Apple supplier headquartered in Taiwan, has about 200,000 workers at the Zhengzhou complex. It has not disclosed the number of infected workers nor the number who have left, but said on Sunday it would not stop them from departing
Musk, despite his wealth, good fortune and global influence, is not a serious person – but he is toying with dangerous ideasIt took less than 48 hours for Elon Musk to reveal just how dangerous his new toy can be to this world. Replying to a tweet from former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the man worth more than $210bn with more than 112 million Twitter followers spread a dangerous conspiracy theory intended to distract people from an attempted political assassination just one week before a major US election.Clinton had warned that “the Republican party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories”, in response not just to the attack on home and spouse of Nancy Pelosi but a slew of attempted kidnappings and threats against elected officials who have stood up to the Trump agenda and the attempted overthrow of the US government in January 2021.Siva Vaidhyanathan is a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy Continue reading...
Setting one’s unease at delighting in hi-tech warfare aside, this is a precisely tooled, intensely immersive combat simulatorIt is almost comforting in this era of “games as a service”, where franchises exist as endless monetisation machines designed to consume every second of our free time, that Call of Duty still gets an annual retail release. Once upon a time, these games sold 30m copies a year, and people queued outside stores at midnight to buy them. Those days are gone, but Modern Warfare II shows there is still guilty pleasure to be had in these ridiculous yearly instalments of macho combat gymnastics.The campaign story takes place three years after the close of 2019’s Modern Warfare. The newly created Task Force 141 is sent to track down an Iranian terrorist who has somehow acquired a set of American nuclear missiles. It’s slickly produced, fast-moving stuff, ricocheting around the world, from the Middle East to Mexico, while gruff guys yell macho spec-ops phrases at each other. En route, there are a few spectacular set-pieces. A section where you infiltrate a convoy of military vehicles as it zooms along a civilian highway might be one of the best driving sequences I’ve ever played in a mainstream shooter; and there’s a brilliant gun fight on the deck of a cargo boat in rough seas, where massive shipping containers slide all over the place, squishing unwary combatants. Continue reading...
It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in your console. Many things, in fact, but here are some of the top scarers, from eldritch Victoriana to teen slasher horror and the video game equivalent of black metalFolk horror meets point-and-click adventure in this richly atmospheric narrative yomp over the desolate moors of Victorian England. Thomasina Bateman is an archeologist and woman of science, summoned to excavate an ancient mound near a remote rural village – and terrible forces are brought forth. With its engaging protagonist, brooding yokels and atmospheric locations, it’s like taking part in a chilling BBC costume drama starring Suranne Jones and Sean Harris. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#659P5)
Smaller Android phone offers great software, smart AI and performance for much less than rivalsGoogle appears to have triumphed again. The new Pixel 7 offers the same the top-flight software, camera and smart AI systems that have made its phones winners, but at a knockdown price that significantly undercuts rivals.Costing £599 ($899/A$1,299) it sits in between the top £849 Pixel 7 Pro and the budget £399 Pixel 6a, competing very favourably on price and specs with rivals from Samsung, Apple and others that are typically in the £700-800 range. Continue reading...
Post comes days after Musk takes over social media platform amid concern that hate speech will run rampant under his leadershipElon Musk was criticized on Sunday after posting a baseless conspiracy theory about the assault of Paul Pelosi to Twitter – the social media giant he took over several days ago with a promise to impose fewer restrictions on its content.Paul Pelosi, husband of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer at their California home on Friday. The attacker, identified by authorities as David DePape, allegedly said “Where is Nancy?” during the attack; Joe Biden said that she appeared to be the intended target. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker, Dan Sabbagh and Pippa Crerar on (#659CJ)
Unsecured mobiles, email accounts and WhatsApp chats could pose national security risk, intelligence experts warnMinisters risk creating “wild west” conditions in matters of national security by the increased use of personal email and phones to conduct confidential business, intelligence experts and former officials have warned.After a week tainted by a row over the use of a personal email account by the home secretary, it was revealed on Sunday that Liz Truss’s mobile is alleged to have been hacked by overseas agents. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#659AY)
We may never know just what happened with Liz Truss’s mobile, but it’s clear that ministers need to up their security gameIt is no longer news to point out that a mobile phone, if hacked, can be the ultimate tool for surveillance. But the question is whether it is a surprise to British politicians – and whether they are using their devices sensibly or carelessly.We will almost certainly never know precisely what happened to Liz Truss’s phone. The then foreign secretary had to abruptly drop her main number and take up a new, government-issued handset in the summer, just as it emerged she was likely to be the next prime minister after Boris Johnson. Continue reading...
More and more smart baby monitors and AI-powered toys are entering the Australian market, but these expensive products can have a significant privacy cost
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#658RF)
If this week’s results show a profit like last quarter’s, the company may at last be on the road to respectabilityIt has 120 million customers, takes $10bn worth of bookings a month, and, it transpired this year, more or less had the French president on speed-dial, doing its bidding. But can Uber turn a profit?The San Francisco-based ride-hailing giant squealed into “free cash flow”, as it puts it, in the last quarter, after racking up $23bn (£20bn) in losses in its first heady decade or so. On Tuesday, investors will see if it can repeat the trick in its third-quarter results. Continue reading...
To mark the site’s takeover by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, we present a survey of its most media-friendly momentsTwitter has great influence for a social media platform. It has a comparatively modest 230 million users, given that the likes of Instagram, Facebook and TikTok have user bases that run into the billions. But Twitter is beloved of politicians, celebrities, commentators and journalists and can have a great impact on the political and news cycle as a result. Here are some of the best-known and notorious tweets in the company’s 16-year history. Continue reading...
Fears have grown that the world’s richest man would remove the social network’s controls on hate speech – but can he really afford to?Elon Musk is not buying Twitter to make more money: he’s doing it to help humanity.In a message to advertisers last week, the world’s richest man said it was important to the future of civilisation to have a “common digital town square”. But bettering the species is going to cost money, given that Musk has paid $44bn for a social media platform to achieve that aim. Continue reading...
After the astonishing wealth earned during lockdown, investors fear times may never be as good again for Silicon Valley’s giantsLast week was a bad time to be a tech billionaire. When the pandemic drove the world online, the founders of Facebook, Google and Microsoft reaped wealth gains described as “pornographic” and cemented their position as among the richest cohort ever to have trod the planet. Well, the “good times” are over. Sort of.The world’s biggest tech companies reported their latest earnings last week and, for most, the news was bad. Meta (formerly Facebook), Alphabet (formerly Google) and Microsoft saw billions wiped off their values as investors began to worry that the best days of the tech titans were behind them. As investors made for the exit, the five biggest tech stocks crashed by a combined $950bn (£820m) at their lowest point. The slide also hit the fortunes of their creators. Continue reading...
Techniques which allow the sharing of data whilst keeping it secure may revolutionise fields from healthcare to law enforcementRachel is a student at a US university who was sexually assaulted on campus. She decided against reporting it (fewer than 10% of survivors do). What she did, however, was register the assault on a website that is using novel ideas from cryptography to help catch serial sexual predators.The organisation Callisto lets a survivor enter their name in a database, together with identifying details of their assailant, such as social media handle or phone number. These details are encrypted, meaning that the identities of the survivor and the perpetrator are anonymous. If you hacked into the database, there is no way to identify either party. Continue reading...
Conservative users began recirculating conspiracy theories as others voiced concerns over allowing hate speech and disinformationAmong the most urgent questions facing Twitter in its new era as a private company under Elon Musk, a self-declared “free speech absolutist”, is how the platform will handle moderation.After finalizing his takeover and ousting senior leadership, Musk declared on Friday that he would be forming a new “content moderation council” that would bring together “diverse views” on the issue. Continue reading...
by Dan Milmo, Jasper Jolly, Alex Hern and Kari Paul on (#657M0)
Shares delisted and top execs reportedly fired as world’s richest man closes deal to buy social media platformThe world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has completed his $44bn acquisition of Twitter, amid warnings from politicians and campaigners that hate speech on the platform must be held in check.The social media group confirmed the deal in a brief filing on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday morning, disclosing the deal had closed the day before. Shares in the company have been suspended and will delist on 8 November, capping a chaotic saga that began when the Tesla CEO first announced his plans to take the tech business private in April. Continue reading...
by Gloria Oladipo (now); Julia Kollewe (earlier) on (#65771)
Donald Trump says he is happy Twitter is in ‘sane hands,’ as SEC filing confirms the Tesla billionaire has bought the social media platform with over 230m usersHow have Twitter users reacted? The Guardian’s Matthew Cantor in San Francisco has taken a look.Richard Murphy, economic justice campaigner and professor of accounting practice at Sheffield University, says: Continue reading...
by Kari Paul in San Francisco and Dan Milmo Global te on (#656SE)
The $44bn deal will give world’s richest man control of social media platform with more than 230m usersElon Musk has completed his $44bn takeover of Twitter, taking control of the company and reportedly firing several top executives, including the chief executive, Parag Agrawal.The world’s richest man tweeted “the bird is freed”, in a reference to Twitter’s corporate logo, just hours before a court-ordered deadline to buy the business expired. Continue reading...
by Dan Milmo Global technology editor and Johana Bhui on (#65772)
‘Free speech absolutist’ could reinstate Donald Trump’s account and press ahead with staff cutsAfter a months-long fight over whether Elon Musk would become its new owner, Twitter appears to have entered a new chapter with the reported exit of several top executives.Ahead of a Friday deadline for the Tesla CEO to complete his $44bn deal to buy the social media company, it was widely reported that Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, the chief financial officer, Ned Segal, and the head of legal policy, trust and safety, Vijaya Gadde, were ousted. Continue reading...
The company was saved by its oldest technology, desktop computers, with sales worth of $11.5bnApple’s quarterly earnings on Thursday revealed that the company is weathering the ongoing tech downturn better than its competitors, reporting revenue and profit that topped Wall Street targets.Revenue rose 8% this quarter to $90.1bn, above estimates of $88.9bn, while net profit was $1.29 a share, topping with the average analyst estimate of $1.27 a share, according to data from the market research firm Refinitiv. Continue reading...
Company sees drop in after-hours trading after issuing guidance on the holiday quarter that worried investorsAmazon shares dropped close to 20% in after-hours trading on Thursday after the company said its all-important holiday shopping season would be smaller than expected.The company is the latest tech giant to disappoint Wall Street this week. After enjoying phenomenal growth during the pandemic, Amazon has struggled to contain costs as inflation and rising interest rates have taken their toll. The company has slowed the rollout of new facilities, leased out some warehouse space and enacted a hiring freeze in parts of its business. Continue reading...
Virtual reality gamble is not paying off as Mark Zuckerberg appears to be going out on a limb with avatarsAfter shares in Facebook’s parent, Meta, slumped by as much as 25% in the wake of abysmal quarterly results, critics intensified their calls for its chief executive to abandon his astronomically expensive pivot to the “metaverse” – a 3D virtual world intended to replace much of real-world socialising.“The cost of Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse ambition is clearer than ever,” said Rachel Foster Jones, a thematic analyst at GlobalData. “Meta has put its entire business on the line for the metaverse, which still doesn’t exist, and the gamble is not paying off. Continue reading...
Internet safety groups say withdrawal of proposed legislation from next week’s Commons schedule leaves children at continued riskThe government has been criticised for endangering children by failing to pass its online safety bill, after it confirmed that the change of prime minister had caused yet another delay to the proposed legislation.With no known date for when the bill will return to the Commons, internet safety groups warned that any further delay would continue to place children at risk. Continue reading...
Sell-off that began overnight continues after Mark Zuckerberg’s company reports halving of profitsInvestors wiped $80bn (£69bn) off the market value of Facebook and Instagram’s owner, Meta, after Mark Zuckerberg’s company reported profits had halved during the third quarter as advertisers reined in spending amid the global economic downturn.The 25% tumble in Meta’s share price since Wednesday evening has knocked billions off the personal wealth of Zuckerberg, its chief executive and largest shareholder. Continue reading...
Tweet comes as advertisers fear one of his first moves as chief will be to restore Donald Trump’s accountElon Musk has claimed he has “acquired Twitter” in a post to the social network reassuring advertisers it will stay a safe place for their brands, amid fears one of his first actions as chief executive will be to restore Donald Trump’s account.After months of uncertainty over whether or not his $44bn acquisition of the social media platform would go through, the Tesla chief executive’s post is the strongest acknowledgment yet that the deal is expected to be sealed before its deadline of 5pm in Delaware on Friday. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian