Microsoft is acquiring ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, publisher of the best-selling video game franchises The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Doom. The $7.5bn deal (GBP5.85m) will see all future releases from Bethesda’s studios included on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Xbox chief Phil Spencer said: “Like us, Bethesda are passionate believers […]
Twitter has apologised for a “racist” image cropping algorithm, after users discovered the feature was automatically focusing on white faces over black ones. The company says it had tested the service for bias before it started using it, but now accepts that it didn’t go far enough. Twitter has long automatically cropped images to prevent […]
Following a bit of a false start with the original Fold last year, Samsung has hit a home run in its second attempt to make cutting-edge folding phone-tablets a reality – as the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is something really quite special. The new device costs GBP1,799, which makes it a super luxury purchase. Make […]
Dominic Cummings’ lockdown travels and the exams fiasco could have contributed to dooming the government’s Covid contact-tracing app before it even launches, a technology expert has warned. Evidence of low uptake overseas also suggests the app may not live up to ministers’ early hopes of a panacea. In late May, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, […]
A new company set up to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States plans to float on the stock market in an effort to increase transparency and show the Trump administration that it will adhere to regulatory oversight. TikTok Global plans to hold a public listing, its Chinese parent company ByteDance said Monday, […]
The most-downloaded app of 2010 made the photographs you took on your phone look way cooler. Vintage-effect filters, artful vignettes and a square-frame layout gave your ordinary snaps a pleasingly nostalgic Polaroid appeal. But 10 years later, barely anyone remembers Hipstamatic. It was a different photo-sharing app, which launched snapping at Hipstamatic’s heels on 6 […]
Carmakers’ annual meetings can be drab affairs: executives reading from a script, votes decided by big investors who don’t bother turning up, and perhaps the odd small shareholder deciding to take a pop at management. Tesla is different. This week’s event will be livestreamed around the world, with investor hype over what the company is […]
Donald Trump has said he “approves a deal in concept” that will allow TikTok to continue to operate in the US, after threatening to ban the Chinese-owned app. The president told reporters at the White House he was giving the deal with Oracle “my blessing” and that US national security concerns had been addressed. About […]
The federal government has refused to release information on the number of Australians still using the Covidsafe contact tracing app, on the grounds it could risk public safety and harm commonwealth-state relations. Covidsafe relies on large numbers of the population running the app on their phones when out in the community to help identify close […]
Spool forward a couple of centuries. A small group of social historians drawn from the survivors of climate catastrophe are picking through the documentary records of what we are currently pleased to call our civilisation, and they come across a couple of old movies. When they’ve managed to find a device on which they can […]