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Tech
Industry, products, and the wires that hold it all together.
482 stories archived
Granta stops publishing short story award winners over AI controversy
Literary magazine will no longer engage in ‘external publishing partnerships’ after Commonwealth prize furore The prominent literary magazine Granta will no longer publish the winning entries of the annual Commonwealth short story prize after one of this year’s winners drew widespread accusations of AI use. The magazine said it would no longer be involved in “external publishing partnerships” in which it had no editorial control. Continue reading...
I dived into my digital past to revisit my most cringe teenage moments – and realised how lucky I am to not be young and online today
Twenty years ago I briefly became the victim of a viral pile-on – all because of a silly YouTube video. But I’m glad I had the chance to embarrass myself and move on. Are today’s teens so fortunate? As a teenager, I went kind of viral – and the most amazing thing about that is it had absolutely zero effect on my life. It was the summer holidays in 2006, and my friends Jessie, Emma and I decided to film ourselves singing along to our favourite song. We were overheated and hyperactive, jumping up and down and headbanging, stretching our arms to the heavens as we confessed to our mamas that we’d “just killed a maaaaaan” before asking Scaramouche if he’d do the fandango. Later, I added a couple of captions to the video implying we were drunk, even though I was 14 and the closest I’d been to buzzed was the pure placebo of clutching a glass bottle of J2O. Then – for reasons that are now lost to me – I uploaded the video to YouTube a month later, on 19 September 2006, under the title “Bohemian Crap-sody”. Continue reading...
Behind the Blog: Landfillcore and Go Knicks
This week, we discuss questionable analysis, mysterious parcels, and the Knicks (sorta).
The best 4K wireless TV streamers for more choice – with no aerial required
Want to prolong the life of your TV? A wireless TV box could be the answer. Our expert put top devices – from Freely streamers to Sky and Amazon Fire – through their paces • Do you really need a new TV? Simple ways to upgrade your current setup TV is changing – and so is the way we watch it. Forget that dusty aerial or unsightly satellite dish, you can now stream mainstream channels such as the BBC, ITV and others via Freely, alongside premium services such as Sky Atlantic, over wifi – and it doesn’t need to cost the earth. Freely comes from the creators of Freeview and Freesat. It’s backed by the UK’s main public service broadcasters and is supported by a growing list of TV providers. Scroll the Freely programme guide, and you’ll find familiar channels such as Dave, Yesterday and W. To watch them, you just need a wireless TV box and wifi. Best Freely TV streamer: Manhattan Aero Best budget wireless TV stick: Amazon Fire 4K Max Continue reading...
Rocket Report: Rebuild begins at Blue Origin launch pad; Relativity targets Mars
A French launch startup is scrapping the name of its rocket, apparently due to a trademark issue.
The UK’s social media ban for under-16s has just empowered big tech | Taylor Lorenz
Age verification means that the sector’s biggest players will now have access to information that will only make them richer and more powerful This week, the UK announced a wide-ranging ban on social media that will soon block users from communicating or accessing information on apps such as X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat unless they prove that they’re over the age of 16. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, called the policy “ a line in the sand ”. “Tech giants had their chance and failed,” he said , “but we’re stepping in to protect children, back parents and set a new normal for future generations.” All internet users, especially children, should be protected from exploitative systems online, but this new law will only foster more harm and help the largest and most powerful tech companies consolidate power and influence over everyone’s lives. Taylor Lorenz is a technology journalist who writes the newsletter User Mag and is the author of the bestselling book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet Continue reading...
‘It’s a scam’: Americans express unease over SpaceX’s influence on retirement savings
Guardian readers in the US share concerns about how the SpaceX IPO and AI boom affect their retirement accounts Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire last week after SpaceX debuted on the stock market with a valuation of $1.77tn. Millions of Americans could soon become indirect investors in SpaceX and other emerging AI-focused companies as US markets increasingly shift toward AI-driven investments. Continue reading...
As global warming threatens corals, scientists search for reefs that can take the heat
Researchers say these coral strongholds may help repopulate more degraded reefs.
‘They kill games, we fight back’: the activists campaigning to keep video games playable
When a company decided to shut down an online game’s servers, there wasn’t much the players who had bought that title could do – until a group called Stop Killing Games began lobbying for new consumer protection laws You can never be sure how long an online video game will last. Developer BioWare shut off sci-fi shooter Anthem’s servers in January, after seven years. Electronic Arts discontinued access to The Sims Mobile the same month. Wildlight Entertainment shuttered its Highguard servers in March, mere months after the game’s release. Activision Blizzard took Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile offline in April. Dozens more games have had their servers shut down in the first six months of 2026, adding to an already long list of video games that are no longer playable. There is little that players can do when a company decides to stop supporting online play. Communities work hard to keep their favourite games online, sometimes keeping dead games running on private servers , though that may not necessarily be entirely legal. Generally, though, when a game goes offline it is dead and it’s not coming back. Continue reading...
On the trail of the dotcom queen: how Julie Meyer left a pattern of unpaid bills, missing funds and broken dreams in her wake
Investigation: The entrepreneur was once the toast of London’s tech scene, a ‘global leader of tomorrow’ who starred on Dragons’ Den and promised untold riches for the startups she championed. But people she worked with in the last decade, from Malta to Switzerland, describe a very different reality Julie Meyer is sitting in a starkly lit attic, surrounded by piles of £50 notes. A California blond in a crisp, white shirt, her long, stockinged legs crossed at the knee, she listens intently to the young man standing before her. As he talks, she sizes him up. Eventually, she tells him: “I’m going to make you an offer.” It could be a scene from a heist movie, but Meyer is in a BBC studio, shooting a 2009 episode of the TV show Dragons’ Den. A celebrated entrepreneur with a venture capital fund, she is ready to invest in whichever contestants catch her eye. For the viewers, she has some advice: “What is success? A lot of it is self-belief. Continuing on when most rational people would stop.” This is an online spin-off from the original Dragons’ Den series, so the stakes are a little lower. But for Lex Deak, a 23-year-old with a big idea for a social media website, what happens in this room today could be make or break. He desperately wants to work with Meyer. Continue reading...
A bold satellite rescue mission came together in record time, but will it work?
"I consider this a success already, just from the fact that we're even going to try this."
Microsoft discovers new lightweight backdoor that steals cryptocurrency
Crypto Clipper spreads over USB and communicates over Tor.
FDA advisors unanimously vote to approve Moderna's mRNA after agency drama
In February, a Trump official refused to review the vaccine.
As China looms, Taiwan makes more drones for defense and the US military
Taiwan's drone spending plans for defense could also boost business overseas.
NASA asks Northrop Grumman to stop working on lunar HALO module
"We are reassigning most affected employees across existing opportunities and programs."
Android verification is coming: Google confirms timeline and supported app stores
A new system service will roll out this month ahead of big changes starting in September.
Apple patches high-severity eavesdropping vulnerability in Beats Studio Buds
The vulnerability, disclosed 12 months ago, affects multiple manufacturers.
After Senate vote, Trump admin backs off plans to kill ocean monitoring
It's unclear whether the system is currently intact.
A New Fossil Discovery Just Rewrote 150 Years of Evolutionary Theory
For 150 years, paleontologists assumed that the first vertebrates to leave the sea for land evolved a tadpole phase, similar to modern frogs. Immaculately-preserved fossils disprove that, scientists say.
Before SpaceX IPO, investors in China secretly acquired stakes
One previously unreported SpaceX investor has ties to Chinese military contractors.
Bernie Sanders unveils $7 trillion plan to give Americans control of AI industry
Biggest AI firms will likely recoil at Bernie Sanders' AI wealth fund.
Hunter-gatherers in Siberia died of a plague outbreak 5,500 years ago
We can't blame the Neolithic Transition for the plague anymore.
Cosmonaut Aleksandr Samokutyaev, 56, is first former ISS crew member to die
Two expeditions, two spacewalks, 322 days in space.
If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II’
“The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily."