In 1842, the US patent office registered 14 designs, including a bathtub and a ‘corpse preserver’. It now handles 35,000 a year. Why did this once sedate world became a corporate arms race? It was designed to make sharpening a pencil feel as thrilling as flying a jet. A gleaming chrome teardrop, tapered to a …
From pencil sharpeners to a $539m lawsuit: how big tech weaponised patents Read More »
Deal comes as Microsoft builds up its cloud-computing operation for healthcare and business customers Microsoft is to buy the artificial intelligence and speech technology firm Nuance Communications for about $16bn (£12bn), as it builds up its cloud-computing operation for healthcare and business customers. Nuance, known for pioneering speech technology and helping to launch Apple’s virtual …
Microsoft to buy AI and speech technology firm Nuance for $16bn Read More »
Surge in share price of parent company Alphabet moved pair on to eight-man list The Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have joined the $100bn club of super-rich people with 12-digit fortunes after a surge in the share price of the tech firm’s parent company, Alphabet. Page and Brin, who co-founded Google in 1996, …
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin join $100bn club Read More »
Gesture backfires as customers highlight accessibility issues, with one saying UK has ‘completely lost the plot’ A leading sight charity has stressed the need for inclusive web design after rail websites switched to black and white to mark Prince Philip’s death, leaving partially sighted people struggling. Network Rail and National Rail websites turned from colour …
Visually impaired users complain after rail websites go greyscale for Prince Philip Read More »
App was to have been updated before English lockdown easing, but firms objected to data-sharing changes Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Ministers have paused a planned update to the NHS Covid-19 app after Apple and Google blocked it from their stores over privacy violations. The app, which aids contact tracing in …
Apple and Google block NHS Covid app update over privacy breaches Read More »
A Guardian investigation exposes the breadth of state-backed manipulation of the platform Facebook has repeatedly allowed world leaders and politicians to use its platform to deceive the public or harass opponents despite being alerted to evidence of the wrongdoing. The Guardian has seen extensive internal documentation showing how Facebook handled more than 30 cases across …
The inside story of Sophie Zhang’s battle to combat rampant manipulation as executives delayed and deflected Shortly before Sophie Zhang lost access to Facebook’s systems, she published one final message on the company’s internal forum, a farewell tradition at Facebook known as a “badge post”. “Officially, I’m a low-level [data scientist] who’s being fired today …
How Facebook let fake engagement distort global politics: a whistleblower’s account Read More »
The social media giant is still a law unto itself. Can anybody hold it to account? Half a billion Facebook users’ accounts stolen. Personal information compromised. Telephone numbers and birth dates drifting across the internet being used for God knows what. And for four days, from Facebook’s corporate headquarters, nothing but silence. If this sounds …
Another huge data breach, another stony silence from Facebook | Carole Cadwalladr Read More »
Over 100 Instagram accounts are promoting dangerous antivax views and selling ‘detox’ products, investigation finds Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Covid conspiracy theorists are seeking to profit from the millions of followers they have built up on Instagram during the pandemic by marketing health supplements, wellness courses and juicers to them. …
Facebook ‘still too slow to act on groups profiting from Covid conspiracy theories’ Read More »
Making a plan now can prevent identity theft, save records and stop friends getting painful pop-up reminders when you’re gone Two things are certain in life: death and the internet. With so many day-to-day functions, tasks and memories now taking place online, the question of what will become of your digital legacy – who will …
Who will deal with your online presence when you die? How to create a ‘digital will’ Read More »
