Month: October 2024

District attorney says awards to registered voters from billionaire’s pro-Trump America Pac are an ‘illegal lottery’ A judge ordered all parties, including Elon Musk, to attend a court hearing in Philadelphia on Thursday in a lawsuit seeking to stop a political action committee controlled by the billionaire from awarding $1m to registered US voters in …

Judge orders Elon Musk to appear in Philadelphia court over $1m giveaways Read More »

Company beats financial predictions but does not increase daily users as much as Wall Street thought it might Meta’s blowout year continues after the company reported another stellar financial quarter on Wednesday. Shares fell in after-hours trading. Wall Street analysts had high expectations for the Instagram and WhatsApp parent company, projecting an 18% jump in …

Meta rides AI boom to stellar quarterly earnings, but slightly less than expected Read More »

Revenue from Azure cloud business increased by 22% as company focuses attention on artificial intelligence Microsoft reported better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday fueled by growth in its Azure cloud business, as five of the “Magnificent Seven” tech megacaps roll out quarterly earnings this week. “AI-driven transformation is changing work, work artifacts, and workflow across every role, …

Microsoft sails as AI boom fuels double-digit growth in cloud business Read More »

Sony is shutting down Firewalk, the studio behind its live-service flop, Concord. It’s the biggest, most expensive casualty of an increasingly crowded hero shooter market – and it won’t be the last • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here It’s official: after Sony pulled its struggling hero shooter Concord from …

Concord collapses, Firewalk falls – it’s a brutal year for game development Read More »

Monthly users rose by nearly half thanks to AI translation feature, and deals for AI training with Google and OpenAI boosted revenue Reddit on Tuesday reported a quarterly profit for the first time in its 20-year history. Shares of the company, popular for its user-led communities known as subreddits, rose more than 35% as markets …

Reddit shares soar after company turns first-ever profit Read More »

An expert in digital forensics and family violence says surveillance by spyware is rare – more often it happens via everyday features such as location sharing Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast We’re looking for apps I don’t remember downloading, and which platforms can access my smartphone’s camera or microphone; …

Is your smartphone being tracked? Here’s how to tell Read More »

Campaigners say 21% of people at workshops did not disclose on their applications relationships with firms being discussed More than one in five attenders at EU events on regulating big tech companies did not disclose links to the industry when applying to take part, according to transparency campaigners who say hidden networks are distorting public …

EU events on curbing big tech ‘distorted’ by attenders with industry links Read More »

Halloween is coming, and our minds are turning to scary games. But which titles are genuine fright fests? Our writers decided to find out in the most ill-advised way possible Shepton Mallet prison in Somerset is the world’s oldest correctional facility. It is also reportedly one of the most haunted. Between its opening in 1625 …

‘Our ghost meter went crazy’ : we played horror games all night in a haunted prison Read More »

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the authors. This week from 2018: How an extreme libertarian tract predicting the collapse of liberal democracies – written by Jacob Rees-Mogg’s father – inspired the likes of Peter …

10 years of the long read: Why Silicon Valley billionaires are prepping for the apocalypse in New Zealand (2018) – podcast Read More »

Analysts expected 12% year-on-year revenue gains, but company reports 15%, buoyed by performance in ads and cloud services Alphabet, parent of Google and YouTube, saw a third straight quarter of gains as it reported earnings on Tuesday. The tech giant had largely exceeded analyst expectations for the previous two quarters, and Tuesday’s results showed growth …

Google parent Alphabet sees double-digit growth as AI bets pay off Read More »