Category Archives: Technology

Half of Oakland students lack access to computers. Jack Dorsey is stepping in

Posted on by

Twitter CEO’s $10m pledge will immediately help ‘put a device in the hand of every single kid’ in Oakland’s public schools

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square, has announced that he will donate $10m toward computers and internet access for public schools in Oakland, a city where half of students lack reliable access to either.

Dorsey dropped the news after the Oakland mayor, Libby Schaaf, tweeted a video of one those 25,000 students without access to the technology. “Every student deserves the ability to learn from home,” wrote Schaaf.

Continue reading...

Just the tonic: app helps Iraqi patients locate vital medicines

Posted on by

In Mosul, sourcing essential medication can be an expensive struggle – but entrepreneur Ameen Hadeed may have found the solution

When Ameen Hadeed’s father had heart surgery in 2015, the tricky part was not the operation but finding the drugs to aid his recovery.

The clinic had no medicine, so Hadeed was told to hustle around his home city Mosul to find the prescriptions. It took hours and cost a small fortune, as he visited store after store.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk reopens California Tesla factory in defiance of lockdown order

Posted on by

CEO announces electric carmaker will begin production on Monday after company sues county over Covid-19 restrictions

Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would resume production at its northern California factory on Monday afternoon, in defiance of a local public health order designed to slow the spread of coronavirus.

“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules,” the billionaire CEO tweeted. “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”

Continue reading...

How Covid-19 contact tracing can help beat the pandemic

Posted on by

If the UK government wants to start easing the country's lockdown restrictions, it needs to get contact tracing right. But what does that mean? What would successful contact tracing even look like? Josh Toussaint-Strauss tries to find out with a little help from Christophe Fraser, an Oxford professor and infectious disease epidemiologist, and Alex Hern, the Guardian's UK technology editor


Continue reading...

Covidsafe app: how Australia’s coronavirus contact tracing app works, what it does, downloads and problems

Posted on by

The app will ask for your name (or pseudonym), age range, postcode and phone number. Scott Morrison says the Australian government’s covid safe tracking app won’t be mandatory to download and install, but its uptake numbers could play a part in easing Covid-19 restrictions

The Australian government has launched Covidsafe, an app that traces every person running the app who has been in contact with someone else using the app who has tested positive for coronavirus in the previous few weeks, in a bid to automate coronavirus contact tracing, and allow the easing of restrictions.

Here’s what we know about the app so far.

Continue reading...

Pollution causing birth defects in children of DRC cobalt miners – study

Posted on by

Researchers link exposure to mining pollutants to greatly increased risk of conditions such as spina bifida and limb abnormalities

Thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are being exposed to dangerous levels of toxic pollution that is causing birth defects in their children as they mine for cobalt used to make rechargeable batteries for smartphones, laptops and electric cars, a new medical study has found.

Research published in the Lancet last week found that local people working in mines in the African “copperbelt”, a mining region stretching across Zambia and the DRC, are at significantly higher risk of having children born with serious birth defects.

Continue reading...

Iran’s state broadcaster meddled in Scottish referendum, says Facebook

Posted on by

Fake social media accounts also used to support Ron Paul’s presidential bid and the Occupy movement

Iran’s state broadcaster experimented with using fake social media accounts to influence the outcome of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and other western elections, according to a report from Facebook released on Tuesday.

The Iranian network, one of eight to be suspended for so-called “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” by the social media giant in April, points to efforts by state-linked groups to try to use Facebook to influence foreign democratic contests years before Russia’s alleged campaign against the 2016 US presidential contest.

Continue reading...

Amazon is cracking down on protesters and organizing, workers say

Posted on by

At least six workers who have participated in protests or advocated for safer conditions have been fired during the pandemic

Amazon’s revenues topped $33m an hour in the first three months of the year as the coronavirus pandemic locked down large parts of the world. The sales boost has handed Amazon the biggest dilemma of its 25-year life: how to deal with a growing chorus of critics within the company. So far its reaction has only made matters worse.

Last week an Amazon vice-president, Tim Bray, resigned in protest at what he called the company’s “chickenshit” decision to fire colleagues in the company’s warehouse division who had highlighted safety issues. “Remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised,” wrote Bray.

Continue reading...

Amazon executive resigns over company’s ‘chickenshit’ firings of employee activists

Posted on by

Tim Bray’s departure comes as company faces increased scrutiny and employee activism around its Covid-19 response

Tim Bray, a top engineer and vice-president at Amazon, announced on Monday he is resigning “in dismay” over the company’s firing of employee activists who criticized working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Bray’s resignation comes as Amazon faces increased scrutiny and employee activism surrounding its internal response to coronavirus. Amazon workers on Friday participated in a nationwide sick-out to, claiming the company has failed to provide enough face masks for workers, did not implement regular temperature checks it promised at warehouses, and has refused to give workers paid sick leave protest working conditions and inadequate safety protections.

Continue reading...

Apple launches 13in MacBook Pro with Magic Keyboard

Posted on by

New keyboard replaces issue-prone Butterfly version, plus new chips and more storage

Apple has launched an updated version of its popular 13in MacBook Pro laptop with a revamped keyboard, more storage and faster chips.

The 13in MacBook Pro now has Apple’s Magic Keyboard, replacing the ultra-thin Butterfly keyboard that suffered from multiple issues regarding noise, dust and malfunctioning keys. The new machine joins the larger 16in MacBook Pro and the recently released MacBook Air, completing the removal of the Butterfly keyboard from Apple’s product line.

Continue reading...

YouTube deletes conspiracy theorist David Icke’s channel

Posted on by

Icke’s account was terminated for violating policy on spreading coronavirus disinformation

YouTube has deleted conspiracy theorist David Icke’s account.

The video-sharing site said the 68-year-old violated its policies on sharing information about coronavirus.

Continue reading...

Home affairs data breach may have exposed personal details of 700,000 migrants

Posted on by

Exclusive: Privacy experts say the breach in the SkillsSelect platform, which affects data going back to 2014, was ‘very serious’

Privacy experts have blasted the home affairs department for a data breach revealing the personal details of 774,000 migrants and people aspiring to migrate to Australia, including partial names and the outcome of applications.

At a time the federal government is asking Australians to trust the security of data collected by its Covid-Safe contact tracing app, privacy experts are appalled by the breach, which they say is just the latest in a long line of cybersecurity blunders.

Continue reading...

US lawmakers demand Jeff Bezos testify over Amazon’s ‘possibly criminally false’ statements

Posted on by

House lawmakers said they could subpoena CEO to testify in antitrust investigation if he doesn’t appear voluntarily

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers investigating Amazon for possible antitrust violations have demanded that Jeff Bezos testify before Congress to address statements by the company that “appear to be misleading, and possibly criminally false or perjurious”.

“Although we expect that you will testify on a voluntary basis, we reserve the right to resort to compulsory process if necessary,” seven leaders of the House judiciary committee, including the chair Jerry Nadler, wrote in a letter to the Amazon CEO on Friday.

Continue reading...

Why the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory is false – video explainer

Posted on by

Conspiracy theories linking 5G technology to coronavirus have resulted in dozens of phone masts across the UK being vandalised in recent weeks. Theories about the dangers of 5G had already been circulating, despite regulators confirming that the radiation levels of the new technology are well within safe boundaries. So how did the conspiracy incorrectly linking it to 5G start? And is 5G really dangerous? We explain why 5G has nothing to do with Covid-19

Continue reading...

Apple sales beat expectations but Tim Cook sees uncertainty ahead

Posted on by

Company reports $58.3bn in sales as CEO says China sales ‘headed in the right direction’ despite coronavirus

Apple reported sales and profits that beat Wall Street expectations on Thursday despite fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, with Tim Cook saying China sales were “headed in the right direction” as that country reopens.

But the CEO said it was impossible to forecast overall results for the current quarter because of uncertainty created by the virus.

Continue reading...

Nasa picks Bezos’s Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX to build new lunar landers

Posted on by

Alabama company Dynetics also chosen for moon landing project, as three firms prepare to compete

Nasa has selected three private space companies to lead the development of lunar landers for its forthcoming moon landings.

The three companies are Blue Origin, owned by Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos; Elon Musk’s SpaceX; and Dynetics, based in Huntsville, Alabama, Nasa announced on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Documents reveal FBI head defended encryption for WhatsApp before becoming fierce critic

Posted on by

Christopher Wray defended encryption in 2015 as a lawyer, contradicting his current opposition to the practice

Christopher Wray, the FBI director who has been one of the fiercest critics of encryption under the Trump administration, previously worked as a lawyer for WhatsApp, where he defended the practice, according to new court filings.

The documents, which were released late on Wednesday night as part of an unrelated matter, show Wray worked for WhatsApp in 2015 while he was an attorney for the Washington law firm of King & Spalding.

Continue reading...

Google executive took part in Sage meeting, tech firm confirms

Posted on by

Attendance of Demis Hassabis raises further questions about secretive group advising UK government on Covid-19

Google has confirmed that one of its senior executives participated in the UK government’s scientific advisory group on Covid-19, raising further questions about the composition of the secretive committee.

Demis Hassabis, a co–founder of Google’s artificial intelligence division, DeepMind, attended a meeting of the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) on 18 March, when the group was considering whether the UK should go into lockdown.

Continue reading...

Google reports weak revenue growth in first pandemic-affected quarter

Posted on by

Alphabet first-quarter earnings offer a glimpse of how the digital ad market has fared amid stay-at-home orders

Google reported its weakest revenue growth in nearly five years in the first quarter as the pandemic-driven recession began to shrivel its advertising sales.

“It was the tale of two quarters,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, told investors on a conference call on Tuesday. Typically – strong revenue growth in January and February was undercut by a “significant and sudden slowdown in advertising” in March, he said. “When I last spoke with you, no one could have imagined how much the world would change – and how quickly.”

Continue reading...

Amazon and other platforms allowing payments to far-right groups

Posted on by

Report by Center for Media and Democracy finds SPLC-designated hate groups receiving income via mainstream platforms

Dozens of hate groups and racist media outlets are receiving income via mainstream payment processors such as Amazon, Stripe and DonorBox, according to a new report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).

The groups still receiving donations and sales via such platforms include promoters of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that motivated the Christchurch shooter, an organization cited as an inspiration by mass shooter Dylan Roof, and several groups that participated in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville that ended in the killing of a protester.

Continue reading...