Month: August 2021

Whether it’s chatting with small children, planning occasions or finding ways to socialise off-camera, after 18 months of lockdowns we’ve learned what works With many parts of Australia still in lockdown, connecting with others can feel increasingly challenging. Whether video calls are stifling your usual banter with friends, or the problem is actually hearing them …

Zoom dilemmas solved! Expert advice on making video chats less awkward and more fun Read More »

According to addiction expert Dr Anna Lembke, our smartphones are making us dopamine junkies, with each swipe, like and tweet feeding our habit. So how do we beat our digital dependency? Dr Anna Lembke, a world-leading expert on addiction, is concerned about my “phone problem”. During our interview I confess, in passing, to having an …

Constant craving: how digital media turned us all into dopamine addicts Read More »

Guardian Australia picture editor Carly Earl explains the dos and don’ts of taking pictures of this month’s blue moon, also known as a sturgeon moon When a full moon rises, many people will pull out their mobile phones to try and get an Instagram-worthy photograph, but unfortunately the moon is really challenging to get a …

August full moon 2021: how to photograph the blue moon on your phone or camera with the right settings Read More »

The startling rise to wealth of the nation’s entrepreneurs has been an affront to Beijing’s political philosophy and increasingly, a threat to the communist party In a Politburo group study session on 23 November 2015, China’s president, Xi Jinping, recommended the book Capital in the Twenty-First Century by the French economist Thomas Piketty. “The rich …

The party’s over: China clamps down on its tech billionaires Read More »

A workplace in Bucharest filled with anti-virus innovations could become the new normal in office design, its creators hope Explainer: what are UK workers’ rights when asked to return? Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Not so long ago it may have seemed more like a futuristic vision of the workplace – …

Disinfection robots and thermal body cameras: welcome to the Covid-free office Read More »

They are good for the environment and your wallet but there can be pitfalls. Here’s how to grab a bargain safely in the UK Smartphones are a key part of modern life but with prices routinely in excess of £1,000 for the latest high-end handsets, should you be considering cheaper secondhand or refurbished models instead? …

How to buy a secondhand smartphone – and what to look out for Read More »

Judge sides with drivers in lawsuit brought over Prop 22 Uber criticizes decision and says it plans to appeal A judge on Friday struck down a California ballot measure that exempted Uber and other app-based ride-hailing and delivery services from a state law requiring drivers to be classified as employees eligible for benefits and job …

Blow for Uber as judge finds California’s gig-worker law unconstitutional Read More »

Beloved by journalists and increasingly used by a wider public, Tveeder is still run from Franco Trimboli’s Melbourne bedroom, in his spare time, out of his own pocket On any given day, Franco Trimboli’s hobby makes the news. During office hours the 42-year-old who lives in suburban Melbourne is a coder, digital designer and project …

Meet the man behind Tveeder, the no-frills live TV transcript that became an Australian media hero Read More »

Musk said he would probably launch a humanoid robot prototype next year, which is designed to do ‘boring, repetitious and dangerous’ work. The billionaire chief executive of Tesla said the robot, which would be about 5ft 8in (1.7 metres) tall and weigh 56kg, would be able to handle tasks such as attaching bolts to cars …

Elon Musk unveils plan for ‘Tesla Bot’ with man dancing in a bodysuit – video Read More »

The quest to prevent batteries – rich in raw materials such as cobalt, lithium and nickel – ending up as a mountain of waste A tsunami of electric vehicles is expected in rich countries, as car companies and governments pledge to ramp up their numbers – there are predicted be 145m on the roads by …

Millions of electric car batteries will retire in the next decade. What happens to them? Read More »