Trial of technology comes as official report warns existing system has been failing for at least a decadeOfficials are to start using artificial intelligence to help estimate the age of asylum seekers who say they are children.Angela Eagle, the immigration minister, said on Tuesday the government would test technology that judges a person's age based on their facial features. Continue reading...

Not all electric kettles are created equal. We boiled litres of water to find the best, from hard-water heroes to vintage-style, repairable and wi-fi connected models The best air fryers, tried and tested for crisp and crunchDespite the march of progress, the humble kettle remains a kitchen staple. It's what we turn to in times of strife, when spirits are flagging, or to start our day. And when a visitor calls, one of the first things we do is put the kettle on.While many small appliances have evolved beyond their original form, the kettle's basic principles remain largely unchanged. Water goes in and heats up until a thermostat switches it off; the water then pours out, and we enjoy a cuppa. However, the technology that goes into a kettle has been slowly improving: better insulation to keep water hotter for longer and reduce reboils; different temperature settings to suit every drink from green tea to herbal brews; and more features such as filters and concealed elements to keep scale out of our cups.Best kettle overall:

Big tech is offering athlete-level pay to lure AI researchers in a high-stakes race for dominanceThe tech industry is in a high-flying war over who can dole out more millions to attract artificial intelligence specialists. Individual researchers, most equipped with PhDs in computer science, are commanding giant salaries and mammoth signing bonuses in hiring negotiations. You might call them talent. The Washington Post called them Olympians in a recent headline: Why AI superathletes could be winning $100 million bonuses in Silicon Valley." These are the most sought-after employees in the world.Tech companies are tasking the star players of their AI squads with developing technology that can outperform humans in any task, a goal known as artificial general intelligence", or with creating AI models that surpass human intelligence overall, an objective known as superintelligence". Continue reading...

Cigarettes and vapes are being smuggled into virtual spaces beyond the reach of regulation, creating a new battleground for health campaignersIn the image, a group of friends is standing in a bar, smoke winding upwards from the cigarettes in their hands. More lie in an open packet on the table between them. This is not a photograph taken before smoking bans, but a picture shared on social media of a gathering in the metaverse.Virtual online spaces are becoming a new marketing battleground as tobacco and alcohol promoters target young people without any legislative consequences. Continue reading...

Report finds that wealth divide widened in Silicon Valley at double the rate of the whole US over the past decadeEconomic inequality has reached a staggering milestone in Silicon Valley: just nine households hold 15% of the region's wealth, according to new research from San Jose State University. A mere 0.1% of residents hold 71% of the tech hub's wealth.The findings come from the 2025 Silicon Valley Pain Index", a report published by SJSU's Human Rights Institute each year since 2020. The report aims to quantify structured inequalities" in Silicon Valley, and measures pain" as both personal and community distress or suffering". Continue reading...

Wide-ranging agreement with artificial intelligence firm behind ChatGPT comes after similar UK deal with GoogleSam Altman, leader of one of the world's biggest artificial intelligence companies, has signed a deal with the British government to explore the deployment of advanced AI models in areas including justice, security and education.The chief executive of OpenAI, which has been valued at $300bn (220bn) and provides the ChatGPT suite of large language models, agreed the memorandum of understanding with the science and technology secretary, Peter Kyle, on Monday. Continue reading...

Two-thirds of UK under-30s have used a microwave to make a cuppa, and one in six say they do it every day ...Name: Kettles.Age: 132. First featured in a catalogue in 1893. Continue reading...

Technology happens because people make it happen. We can choose otherwiseTechnology happens because it is possible," OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, told the New York Times in 2019, consciously paraphrasing Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.Altman captures a Silicon Valley mantra: technology marches forward inexorably. Continue reading...

Paid ads hosted on Facebook, Instagram and Threads seem to violate Meta's stated policies yet remain activeMeta is hosting ads on Facebook, Instagram and Threads from pro-Israel entities that are raising money for military equipment including drones and tactical gear for Israeli Defense Force battalions, seemingly a violation of the company's stated advertising policies, new research shows.We are the sniper team of Unit Shaked, stationed in Gaza, and we urgently need shooting tripods to complete our mission in Jabalia," one ad on Facebook read, first published on 11 June and still active on 17 July. Continue reading...

Progressives are seeking ideologically aligned matches as hot commie summer' heats up, but the apps aren't helpingZohran Mamdani gave Hinge an unofficial boost last month when the New York mayoral candidate revealed that he met his wife, Rama Duwaji, through swiping. There is still hope on those dating apps," he said on the Bulwark podcast a week before his stunning victory in the Democratic primary. The tidbit spread over social media, cementing the 33-year-old democratic socialist's status as a millennial everyman. A subsequent Cosmopolitan headline read: Zohran Mamdani could make history (as the first NYC mayor to meet his wife on Hinge)."Representatives for Hinge would not comment, but plenty of eligible New Yorkers did, claiming they would redownload the app due to Mamdani's success, in spite of their dating fatigue. Now I'm clocking in like it's a full-time job," one user posted on TikTok. If he can find love on that app maybe I can," another wrote in a caption. Continue reading...

Government sources say pressure from Washington, including JD Vance, could lead to Home Office climbdown, according to reportsPressure from Washington could lead the UK government to climb down on its demand that Apple provide British law enforcement agencies with backdoor access to encrypted customer data, it has been reported.In January, the UK Home Office formally asked Apple to provide law enforcement agencies access to heavily encrypted data held on behalf of its customers. But the US company resisted and withdrew its advanced data protection service from the UK market. It argues privacy is one of its core values". Continue reading...

Is the extreme output of X's AI chatbot Grok shifting the political dial? Chris Stokel-Walker reportsIn 2023 Elon Musk launched Grok, an AI chatbot marketed as providing unfiltered answers" on X. In part, it was reportedly created to counter other machines that Musk saw as being trained to be politically correct".Fast forward to 2025 and Grok is no stranger to controversy - sharing antisemitic content and white genocide conspiracy theories, and referring to itself as MechaHitler. One X user, Will Stancil, has even been the subject of extreme, violent, and individually tailored assault fantasies created by Grok, as he tells Nosheen Iqbal. Continue reading...

Instead of spending millions and taking years to complete, creative directors are producing high-grade work using the latest software, but critics voice copyright concernsA US stealth bomber flies across a darkening sky towards Iran. Meanwhile, in Tehran a solitary woman feeds stray cats amid rubble from recent Israeli airstrikes.To the uninitiated viewer, this could be a cinematic retelling of a geopolitical crisis that unfolded barely weeks ago - hastily shot on location, somewhere in the Middle East. Continue reading...

New codes developed by the tech sector and eSafety commissioner come into effect in December, with major ramifications for internet users

Chief executive of California Forever' says proposal to develop site would represent new home for frontier tech'The chief executive of California Forever", a Silicon Valley billionaire-backed project to build a new city on tens of thousands of acres of California farmland, has announced plans to develop a manufacturing site within the future town for defense, energy, robotics, aerospace and transportation companies.Speaking at the Reindustrialize summit in Detroit, Jan Sramek called the proposal the Solano Foundry". The 2,100-acre site would be located on the more than 65,000 acres in Solano county that the tech billionaires began purchasing in 2017 but have yet to develop. Continue reading...

Firm says technology used in El Eternauta is chance to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper'Netflix has used artificial intelligence in one of its TV shows for the first time, in a move the streaming company's boss said would make films and programmes cheaper and of better quality.Ted Sarandos, a co-chief executive of Netflix, said the Argentinian science fiction series El Eternauta (The Eternaut) was the first it had made that involved using generative AI footage. Continue reading...

AI agent can find restaurant reservations and go shopping for users, but OpenAI acknowledges there are more risks'Users of ChatGPT will be able to ask an AI agent to find restaurant reservations, go shopping for them and even draw up lists of candidates for job vacancies, as the chatbot gains the powers of a personal assistant from Thursday.ChatGPT agent, launched by Open AI everywhere apart from the EU, not only thinks" but also acts, the US company said. The agent combines the powers of AI research tools with the ability to take control of web browsers, computer files and software such as spreadsheets and slide decks. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Fellows called on academy to act over Tesla owner's role in Trump administration's attacks on researchThe Royal Society suggested to Elon Musk he should consider resigning his fellowship if he felt unable to help mitigate the Trump administration's attacks on research, the Guardian has learned.The owner of X, who is also CEO of Tesla and Space X, was elected a fellow of the UK's national academy of sciences in 2018 for his contribution to the space and electric vehicle industries. Continue reading...

Spate of incidents in Baltic Sea and around Taiwan are harbinger for further disruptive activity, cybersecurity firm saysThe risk of Russia- and China-backed attacks on undersea cables carrying international internet traffic is likely to rise amid a spate of incidents in the Baltic Sea and around Taiwan, according to a report.Submarine cables account for 99% of the world's intercontinental data traffic and have been affected by incidents with suspected state support over the past 18 months. Continue reading...

Texas has long been under threat from the launches and explosions of SpaceX rockets. Now Hawaii is emerging as another possible victimThe north-west Hawaiian island of Mokumanamana is said to be touched by the gods. Bisected by the Tropic of Cancer latitude line, it is deep in the Pacific Ocean, about 400 miles from Honolulu. The island's steep rocky cliffs give way to indigo blue waters dotted with monk seals and stony coral. No humans have lived on Mokumanamana, but it has the world's highest density of ancient Hawaiian religious sites.It sits as a boundary between what Native Hawaiians refer to as p', the darkness, and au', the light," said William Aila, the former chair of Hawaii's department of land and natural resources. When a Hawaiian passes, their soul makes its way from wherever it is in the main Hawaiian Islands, up to the North-western Hawaiian Islands. And at that juncture, at p, they're met by their ancestors." As Aila tells it, if a person has been good, they can pass into p and be with their ancestors, who inhabit the Pacific waters west of Mokumanamana. Continue reading...

As a 16-year-old I can tell you that teenagers will feel disconnected using this internet-safe smartphone Internet-safe iPhone for children goes on sale for 99 a monthI was intrigued to find out how this would work but a bit freaked out too. I use my iPhone non-stop: four hours each day during school terms; eight during holidays. Snapchat matters most, but I'm often following friends on TikTok and Instagram.The prospect of not having access to any apps or the internet was just ugh". Part of me wanted to scream at the thought of being cut off by this Sage phone. Would it make me want to divorce my parents? Continue reading...

Nintendo Switch 2; Nintendo

Novel design and cool software proves phones can still be fun, but this one struggles to beat flagship rivalsThe Phone 3 is London-based Nothing's latest attempt to get people to ditch Samsung or Apple phones for something a bit different, a little quirky and more fun.As the firm's first high-end Android in several years, it has most of what you'd expect a flagship phone to have. But where it tries to set itself apart is with slick, dot-matrix-inspired software and a design on the back that includes a small, unique LED screen. Continue reading...

Tribunal hearing comes days after Elon Musk's xAI apologised for antisemitic comments made by its Grok bot

Hackers also demanded the US government release more information on the sex trafficker Jeffrey EpsteinHackers gained access to the X account of the puppet Elmo over the weekend and used it to post racist and antisemitic threats as well as make profane references to Jeffrey Epstein. Sesame Workshop was still trying to regain full control on Monday over the red character's account.Elmo's X account was compromised by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts. We are working to restore full control of the account," a Sesame Workshop spokesperson said on Monday. Sesame Workshop is the non-profit behind Sesame Street and Elmo. Continue reading...

Tasting the good and the bad for the Filter; summer spritzes for aperitivo hour; and the perfect fans for keeping cool Don't get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereMy favourite scene in the film Ratatouille is when Remy the rat tastes strawberries and cheese. Closing his eyes, he takes a bite ... and it's fireworks. Like Remy, I'm a food lover: I'm a chef and recipe developer, writer and campaigner for a better food system, and have worked on farms and in kitchens, from River Cottage to Noma, for 25 years.Recently, I've been testing different supermarket staples for the food filter. Tasting 10 of each, I've rated everything from kimchi (as an avid fermenter, my favourite so far) to mayonnaise - 70 products in all. Vanilla ice-cream (coming up next week) was my least favourite: at least 50% of it was ultra-processed rubbish not even worthy of the name. It gave me stomach ache.The best men's suits under 400: 14 favourites for every occasion (and how to style them)The best period pants, tried and tested for comfort, style and absorbencyPanda Hybrid Bamboo mattress review: a stylish, supportive hybrid that keeps cool on balmy nightsThe best camping stoves for cooking like a pro in the wild, tested Continue reading...

Politics of carmaker's owner has soured sentiments in Grunheide, south-east of Berlin, where the factory promised jobs and revitalisationWhen Elon Musk advised Germans to vote for the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) in elections last year, Manu Hoyer - who lives in the small town where the billionaire had built Tesla's European production hub - wrote to the state premier to complain.How can you do business with someone who supports rightwing extremism?" she asked Dietmar Woidke, the Social Democrat leader of the eastern state of Brandenburg, who had backed the setting up of the Tesla Giga factory in Grunheide. Continue reading...

A surge in messages from fraudsters about automatic renewal at a higher price has prompted Amazon to email 200m users to warn themAs a frequent Amazon shopper you pay 95 for an annual Prime subscription, so when an email arrives warning the price is going up you are quick to react.But the email, which includes a button to click on to cancel" the subscription, is a scam and sent by fraudsters trying to steal your account login and payment details. Continue reading...

Recruitment is powered increasingly by artificial intelligence but employers still want big (human) brains

Silicon Valley's final dream is a world without institutions. But what works for a startup doesn't work for democracyElon Musk has stepped away from Doge with very little efficiency" to show for it. While it may have been more of a showpiece than real policy, this brutal and short experiment in Silicon Valley governance reveals a long-simmering battle between digital utopians and the institutional infrastructures critical to functioning democracies.Doge's website dubiously claims $190bn in savings. The receipts show that they are less about efficiency than they are aimed at effective dissolution, a fate met by USAID, the federal agency responsible for distributing foreign assistance. Continue reading...

PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2; Iron Galaxy Studios/Activision

The games' runaway success introduced a whole generation to hopped up US punk and metal. Bands including Less Than Jake, the Ataris and AFI pay tribute to a gaming megastar who loves them backWhen millions of parents bought their kids a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game in the late 90s and early 00s, they couldn't have understood the profound effect it would have on their children's music taste. With bands from Bad Religion to Papa Roach and Millencolin accompanying every failed spin and grind, these trick-tastic games slyly doubled up as the ultimate compilation CD.While the Fifa games have an equally storied history with licensed music, those soundtracks feel impersonal - a who's who of whichever artists EA's associated record labels wanted to push at the time. Pro Skater's soundtrack, by contrast, felt like being handed a grubby and slightly dog-eared handmade mixtape, still battered from its last tumble at the local skate park. Continue reading...

Non-violent games about cooking, farming or tidying now rival the more traditional video game pursuits of shooting and fighting in popularity. So what will the #cozy genre tackle next?In 2017, a game design thinktank called Project Horseshoe gathered a group of developers together to define the concept of cosiness in video games. Games, of course, have had non-violent elements since the medium was invented. Early life simulators such as 1985's Little Computer People, a low-stakes game in which the player interacts with a man living his unremarkable life in a house, could fit the bill; then there was the proliferation of social farming simulations after 1996's chibi-adorable Harvest Moon.But the resulting report, Coziness in Games: An Exploration of Safety, Softness, and Satisfied Needs, is probably the first organised effort to define a then-emerging genre. The group zeroed in on three core things: safety, abundance, and softness. Cosy games (cozy in US spelling) don't have high-risk scenarios: There is no impending loss of threat," they wrote. They must have a sense of abundance: Nothing is lacking, pressing or imminent." And a soft aesthetic wraps everything up like a warm hug. Continue reading...

Ex-NBC executive was tasked with building an everything app', but billionaire owner was biggest obstacle in her pathIn May 2023, when Linda Yaccarino, an NBC advertising executive, joined what was then still known as Twitter, she was given a tall order: repair the company's relationship with advertisers after a chaotic year of being owned by Elon Musk. But just weeks after she became CEO, Musk posted an antisemitic tweet that drove away major brands such as Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate and Warner Bros Discovery to pause their advertising on the platform. Musk delivered an apology for the tweet later at a conference - which he called the worst post he's ever done - but it came with a message to advertisers, specifically the Disney CEO Bob Iger: Go fuck yourselves." Yaccarino was in the audience of the conference.I don't want them to advertise," he said. If someone is going to blackmail me with advertising or money, go fuck yourself. Go. Fuck. Yourself," he said. Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you're in the audience, that's how I feel." Continue reading...

Teenagers increasingly taking breaks as they control own use of devices rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, experts sayChildren are increasingly taking breaks from their smartphones to better manage their mental health, personal safety and concentration spans, research has revealed.They are reacting to growing concerns that spending too much time online can be harmful by taking control of their own social media and smartphone use rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, according to experts. Continue reading...

Yaccarino announces she is leaving company after two years as chief executive officerThe CEO of X, Elon Musk's social network, announced on Wednesday she would resign.After two incredible years, I've decided to step down as CEO of ," Linda Yaccarino wrote. Continue reading...

At the Develop conference in Brighton this week, talk turns from cancelled deals and job cuts to replicating real human experiences and telling stories about diverse charactersFor anyone looking to gauge the mood of the UK games industry in 2025, there has been only one place to hang out this week: the bar of the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Brighton. It's in this building that the annual Develop conference has been bringing together developers, publishers, students and journalists since 2006 - and during the three days of talks, roundtables and keynotes, it's in the bar that everyone meets and unloads their theories and concerns about the state of the business.This year, after many months of cuts and closures, the mood has been dour. On Tuesday, I spoke to many coders, artists and studio heads who have had games cancelled, staff axed and deals obliterated; several senior developers predicted that the recent savage cuts to staff numbers and game projects will lead to a gaping black hole in the release schedules of many triple-A publishers in late 2026 and 2027. Grand Theft Auto VI was always going to be huge; now it's looking like the only game in town. Continue reading...

The popular Craigslist tradition is seeing a revival from Reddit and TikTok users, hoping a chance encounter turns into moreLayla Rivera was at work when her boyfriend texted: someone on Reddit was looking for her.In the comments of a post on the subreddit r/warpedtour, attendees of the punk rock and emo music festival searched for their missed connections - ephemeral friends or hookups they met onsite and would like to see again. Rivera could tell that one message, addressed to Leila/Layla (the short girl with the red top)", was almost certainly written by a man she encountered while watching the band Sweet Pill at Warped Tour's Washington DC stop in June. Continue reading...

Upgraded Bluetooth cans fold up, fit well, have long battery life, sound great and reduce more noise than rivalsSony's latest top-of-the-range Bluetooth headphones seek to reclaim the throne for the best noise cancellers money can buy with changes inside and out.The Sony 1000X series has long featured some of the best noise cancelling you can buy and has been locked in a battle with rival Bose for the top spot. Continue reading...

Researcher says tech could replace nearly all human labour within 20 years and societies urgently need to prepareIf Adam Dorr is correct, robots and artificial intelligence will dominate the global economy within a generation and put virtually the entire human race out of a job. The social scientist doubles up as a futurist and has a stark vision of the scale, speed and unstoppability of a technological transformation that he says will replace virtually all human labour within 20 years.Dorr heads a team of researchers who have studied patterns of technological change over millennia and concluded that the current wave will not just convulse but obliterate the labour market by 2045. What cars did to horses and carts, and electricity to gas lamps, and digital cameras to Kodak, are templates for the coming shock, he says. Technology has a new target in its crosshairs - and that's us. That's our labour." Continue reading...

The popular bot on X began making antisemitic comments in response to user queriesElon Musk's artificial intelligence firm xAI has deleted inappropriate" posts on X after the company's chatbot, Grok, began praising Adolf Hitler, referring to itself as MechaHitler and making antisemitic comments in response to user queries.In some now-deleted posts, it referred to a person with a common Jewish surname as someone who was celebrating the tragic deaths of white kids" in the Texas floods as future fascists". Continue reading...

Tech firm's chief, Louis Mosley, dismisses fears that contract threatens to undermine public trust in NHS data systems'Palantir, a US data company that works with Israel's defence ministry, has accused British doctors of choosing ideology over patient interest" after they attacked the firm's contract to process NHS data.Louis Mosley, Palantir's executive vice-president, hit back at the British Medical Association, which recently said the 330m deal to create a single platform for NHS data - ranging from patient data to bed availability - threatens to undermine public trust in NHS data systems". Continue reading...

The world's richest person threatens to create the America Party' and the US president calls him a TRAIN WRECK'Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week in tech news, Elon Musk and Donald Trump are back at it, warring over the passage of the president's sweeping tax bill and the Tesla CEO's threat to create a third political party. Whether the richest person in the world is successful in those efforts will largely depend on the recruitment of another star politician. In other news, we want to know if you use generative artificial intelligence to write your personal messages - in what circumstances, and how often? Email tech.editorial@theguardian.com to let us know.His function in politics is that of an ATMThe vehicle suddenly accelerated with our baby in it': the terrifying truth about why Tesla's cars keep crashingElon Musk's xAI gets permit for methane gas generatorsJury says Google must pay California Android smartphone users $314.6mTrump to start TikTok sale talks with China, he says, with deal pretty much' reachedTrump officials create searchable national citizenship databaseAI doesn't know what an orgasm sounds like': audiobook actors grapple with the rise of robot narratorsWimbledon chiefs defend AI use as Jack Draper says line calls not 100% accurate'Google undercounts its carbon emissions, report findsA billion people backing you': China transfixed as Musk turns against TrumpTrump and Musk's feud blows up again with threats of Doge and deportation

This nicely put together Swedish UFO throwback is notable for its early use of vlubbing' - using tech to match lip movements to new English dialogue. What's coming next?Here is a derivative but nicely put together sci-fi throwback, in which Inez Dahl Torhaug stars as Denise, a rebellious teenager in foster care whose father went missing in 1988. A dedicated ufologist for whom the truth was very much out there, Denise's dad was trying to find aliens when he vanished. Alien abduction? Government cover up? Regular old disappeared-guy? When his old car falls from the sky into a local barn eight years later, Denise joins forces with her father's friends at UFO-Sweden, including the likably nervous Lennart (Jesper Barkselius) plus assorted misfits, to investigate what leads they have, including the potential role of a shady-seeming organisation, the SMHI, AKA The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.You may gather from the names above that this is a Swedish film, and yet the dialogue is entirely in English. What gives? The unexpected twist is that the film is an early example of a technique that you can easily imagine becoming standard practice for streaming platforms hoping to reach multiple territories for minimal cost: AI-assisted dubbing. The original actors have re-recorded their lines and AI tech has been used to edit the visuals so that the lip movements from the original Swedish version match the new English dialogue. The technique is called vlubbing" (visual + dubbing) and the target audience is seemingly the kind that won't read subtitles or watch a traditional dub. Continue reading...

Counter-terrorism agencies are scrambling to maintain an advantage and thwart attacks as access to digital tools easesCounter-terrorism authorities have, for years, characterized keeping up with terrorist organizations and their use of digital tools and social media apps as a game of Whac-a-Mole.Jihadist terrorist groups such as Islamic State and its predecessor al-Qaida, or even the neo-Nazi group the Base, have leveraged digital tools to recruit, covertly finance via crypto, download weapons for 3D printing and spread tradecraft to its followers, all while leaving law enforcement and intelligence agencies playing catch up. Continue reading...

Here's a breakdown of how original Switch titles work on Switch 2, explaining everything from free Switch 2 updates to inbuilt backwards compatibility and the paid Switch 2 Edition upgradesOutside of the phenomenal Mario Kart World and next week's Donkey Kong Bananza, there isn't much new Nintendo software to keep early Switch 2 adopters occupied. Thankfully, Nintendo has seen fit to improve a heap of existing Nintendo Switch games on the shiny new system, both in the form of graphics-boosting free updates and more substantial paid reworks. The different options can be confusing, however, so here's an explanation of how it all works. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Amazon office workers in New York requested to donate time over to Fresh delivery process during firm's busiest timeCorporate employees of Amazon were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company's warehouses to assist with grocery delivery as it heads into its annual discount spree known as Prime Day.In a Slack message reviewed by the Guardian that went to thousands of white-collar workers in the New York City area from engineers to marketers, an Amazon area manager called for corporate volunteers to help us out with Prime Day to deliver to customers on our biggest days yet". It is not clear how many took up the offer. Continue reading...

Fall of 6.8% in early trading wipes $79bn off firm's value as market frets CEO's foray into politics will distract from roleShares in Tesla fell 6.8% by the close of US trading on Monday, wiping $79bn (60bn) off the company's value, amid investor concern that Elon Musk's launch of a new political party will present further problems for the electric car maker.Tesla's market capitalisation fell from just over $1tn to about $921bn after stock markets closed on Wall Street, with the value of Musk's stake in the company reduced by nearly $15bn, lowering it to below $120bn. Continue reading...

iPhone maker accuses European Commission of going far beyond what the law requires' in ruling

A deep dive into the surprising uses and linguistic shortfalls of the ubiquitous symbolsIn 2016, Apple announced that its gun emoji, previously a realistic grey-and-black revolver, would henceforth be a green water pistol. Gradually the other big tech companies followed suit, and now what is technically defined as the pistol" emoji, supposed to represent a handgun or revolver", does not show either: instead you'll get a water pistol or sci-fi raygun and be happy with it. No doubt this change contributed significantly to a suppression of gun crime around the world, and it remains only to ban the bomb, knife and sword emoji to wipe out violence altogether.As Keith Houston's fascinatingly geeky and witty history shows, emoji have always been political. Over theyears, people have successfully lobbied the Unicode Consortium - thecabal of corporations that controls the character set, including Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple - to include different skin colours and same-sex couples. It was easy to agree to add theface with one eyebrow raised, the guide dog and the egg. But not every request is granted. One demand for afrowning poo emoji" elicited this splendid rant from an eminent Unicode contributor, Michael Everson: Will we have a crying pile of poo next? Pile of poo with tongue sticking out? Pile of poo with question marks for eyes? Pile of poo with karaoke mic? Will we have to encode a neutral faceless pile of poo?" Continue reading...