Month: November 2021

Speech is out. Daft captions are in. Nearly everyone is beautiful. And one guy amassed 11m followers while living in emergency accommodation with his mum. Our critic samples TikTok comedy I’m used to consuming jokes and sketches as part of shows, as components of a bigger whole. But that experience leaves me rudderless on TikTok, …

Homeless stars, endless spaghetti and amplified farts: the comedians of TikTok Read More »

As the billionaire offloads shares worth $1bn, financial filings show the move was planned weeks before he asked followers’ opinion Elon Musk’s recent Twitter poll asking if he should offload 10% of his Tesla stocks to pay taxes was met with a clear “yes”. Financial filings released late on Wednesday showed the billionaire has since …

Elon Musk sells some Tesla stock – but was it really because of Twitter poll? Read More »

Campaigners sought to sue for £3bn damages on behalf of millions of iPhone users in England and Wales A £3bn legal action against Google over claims it secretly tracked the internet activity of millions of iPhone users has been blocked by the UK supreme court. Legal experts said the decision meant the “floodgates” remained closed …

Top UK court blocks legal action against Google over internet tracking Read More »

Thrilling but not forbidding, Hidetaka Miyazaki’s forthcoming fantasy epic is like Dark Souls meets Zelda: Breath of the Wild Before Hidetaka Miyazaki was given the job of salvaging his company’s embattled medieval fantasy game Demon’s Souls (2009), he was just another rank-and-file designer. For a child who grew up a voracious reader of sword-and-sorcery genre …

Elden Ring – Dark Souls’ creators and George RR Martin team up on an enticing fantasy Read More »

Platform says it is responding to feedback on preventing firms from abusing targeting options Facebook and Instagram are to stop allowing advertisers to target users based on their history of posting, reading or liking content related to subjects such as sexual orientation, religion and political beliefs. The social media networks’ parent company, Meta Platforms, said …

Facebook bans ads targeting race, sexual orientation and religion Read More »

PC, PS4/5, Xbox; ActivisionA band of inglorious stereotypes go on a covert mission to uncover a Nazi plan in a traditional instalment of the series There is always a sense of deju vu with Call of Duty games. For almost 20 years, they have led us through so many bombed-out cities, treacherous canyon passes and …

Call of Duty: Vanguard review – nostalgic warfare that takes us back to the start Read More »

Up for discussion in the Guardian tech newsletter: Facebook and Google will be targets for Ofcom if the government passes the proposed legislation Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here You wouldn’t blame Ofcom for feeling daunted. The world, or at least the bit of the planet that wants to clean up …

TechScape: what to expect from the online safety bill Read More »

The singing sensation belting out big numbers in the veg aisle, Britney’s Oops! redone as vintage jazz, how to flirt if you’re a woman in a musical … our critic takes her seat for theatre on TikTok Theatre TikTok threw out a lifeline for actors during lockdown with musical spin-offs and plenty of theatrical silliness …

‘Tesco, how can I resist ya!’ – the unstoppable stars of stage on TikTok Read More »

The film side of TikTok has plenty of spoofs. But our writer prefers the critics, the metal-jawed burger-biting machine – and the effects experts revealing how to make a camera crew vanish into thin air Film TikTok is giving film an explosion of energy, a performative and democratised version of cinephilia that celebrates, imitates, teases, …

So that’s how you do an eating scene! How TikTok swallowed the movies Read More »

Small updates keep Apple at top of smartwatch market, even if it’s not worth upgrading from recent models The Apple Watch gets a bigger, better screen, faster charging and a small price cut for 2021, which is enough to keep it at the top of the smartwatch market. The Series 7 version costs from £369 …

Apple Watch Series 7 review: bigger screen, faster charging, still the best Read More »