Month: April 2022

Analysis: Week of activity from tech billionaire supports platform chief’s prediction of disruptions ahead Twitter’s chief executive knows this will not be the end of it. Announcing that Elon Musk will not join the company’s board, Parag Agrawal wrote: “There will be distractions ahead.” Interference is hard to avoid when one of your largest shareholders …

Musk unlikely to fade into background by not joining Twitter board Read More »

As Sydney’s ‘last, best’ video shop closes, what’s the future for physical media in Australia, and for the communities who collect them? We’ve love to hear about your film collections, big or small. Share them in the comments below In 2015, between dusty rows of shelves in a small op-shop somewhere in suburban Sydney, I …

Open thread: do you still use DVDs or videos? Has your collection survived? Read More »

Tango Gameworks’ developers spent years imagining a Tokyo cleared by a terrible event – then lockdown emptied the streets, bringing an uncanny reality to their paranormal visions Making games is a long old road – five years or more, often, from conception to actual release – and when Kenji Kimura was stuck for ideas on …

‘It’s like stepping into another world’: how Covid affected the eerie city of Ghostwire: Tokyo Read More »

From Dalí’s eerie streetscape to the fearful little crewmates in Among Us, our critics recommend culture for the irrationally threatened The world may be celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Godfather right now, but for paranoia aficionados, the biggest Francis Ford Coppola semi-centennial is still two years off. The Conversation came between the first two …

High anxiety: film, music, games and art for the paranoid Read More »

Nintendo Switch; HAL Laboratories/NintendoOvergrown theme parks feature in this kid-friendly, cinematic romp through a cutesy wasteland As I start this latest cutesy adventure with the adorable pink blob Kirby, I’ve just returned from a journey of my own – and with an unwelcome stowaway, in the form of whatever variant of Covid I picked up …

Kirby and the Forgotten Land review – pink, blobby caper is a sliver of weird joy in dark times Read More »

As a format it’s slow, encourages hype, and is difficult to correct. A radical overhaul of publishing could make science better When was the last time you saw a scientific paper? A physical one, I mean. An older academic in my previous university department used to keep all his scientific journals in recycled cornflakes boxes. …

The big idea: should we get rid of the scientific paper? Read More »

Speedcam Anywhere allows anyone to submit evidence of drivers speeding The developers of a new app that uses AI to estimate the speed of a passing car say they have been forced into anonymity by the vicious response from drivers. The app, Speedcam Anywhere, is the product of a team of AI scientists with backgrounds …

Speed camera app developers face abuse from UK drivers Read More »

Companies including Microsoft and Apple are attempting to build ‘Netflix for games’ Video game developers are champing at the bit ahead of an influx of money from some of the biggest technology companies in the world as they compete to build a “Netflix for games”. At the centre of the contest are Microsoft and Sony, …

Video game developers set for cash influx as tech firms compete for deals Read More »

Parag Agrawal says the company’s largest shareholder has declined to join the board, and ‘I believe this is for the best’ Elon Musk, Twitter’s biggest shareholder, has decided not to join the social media company’s board, its chief executive, Parag Agrawal, has said. Musk, who disclosed a 9.2% stake in Twitter just a few days …

Elon Musk will not join Twitter board after all, company’s chief executive says Read More »

The Tesla boss, who now has a 9.2% stake in the social network, has offered suggestions and criticisms in a series of tweets Elon Musk has set out his vision for Twitter after buying a 9.2% stake in the company, in a series of posts on the social network described by one commentator as having …

Elon Musk unveils vision for Twitter after joining board Read More »