The Guardian

Advocates are fighting against the $16.7bn global smart-toy market, decrying surveillance and a lack of regulation As the holiday season looms into view with Black Friday , one category on people’s gift lists is causing increasing concern: products with artificial intelligence . The development has raised new concerns about the dangers smart toys could pose to children, as consumer advocacy group…

From Away, Calpak and Samsonite, here are budget-friendly reasons to upgrade your luggage, replace your headphones and finally invest in a set of packing cubes Snag these tech , home and kitchen Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things While the Black Friday deals landscape can be overwhelming – and you might be tem…

The sales you’ve been waiting for all year have arrived. Snag deals from Samsung, Amazon, Sony and more The 43 very best US Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, curated and vetted Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things Black Friday started off as a way to score some great deals on gifts, but let’s be honest: it’s also a chance to pick up some nice, …

Here’s how to spot a genuinely good laptop deal, plus the best discounts we’ve seen so far on everything from MacBooks to gaming laptops • Do you really need to buy a new laptop? • How to shop smart this Black Friday Black Friday deals have started, and if you’ve been on the lookout for a good price on a new laptop, then this could be your lucky day. But with so many websites being shouty about t…

We’ve rounded up the best Black Friday TV deals for every budget, from 50in OLEDs and small smart TVs to top-rated brands like Samsung and LG • Do you really need to buy a new TV? • The best Black Friday laptop deals When it comes to buying a new TV during Black Friday, careful prep and a canny eye for detail are everything. Sometimes that big-screen bargain isn’t quite the steal you might think,…

Workers say the firm’s ‘warp-speed’ approach fuels pressure, layoffs and rising emissions More than 1,000 Amazon employees have signed an open letter expressing “serious concerns” about AI development, saying that the company’s “all-costs justified, warp speed” approach to the powerful technology will cause damage to “democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.” The letter, published on Wednesday, …

It’s always crushing when a wildly anticipated game turns out to be a dud, but this RPG’s awful story and clunky dialogue gave my son and I something to talk about It was an exciting November for the Diamond household: one of those rare games that we all loved had a sequel coming out! The original Outer Worlds dazzled our eyeballs with its art nouveau palette and charmed our ears with witty dialo…

Harms include threats to release intimate pictures as charity warns against parents sharing photos or details of children online Nearly one in 10 UK parents say their child has been blackmailed online, with harms ranging from threatening to release intimate pictures to revealing details about someone’s personal life. The NSPCC child protection charity also found that one in five parents know a ch…

As navies seek to counter submarines and protect cables, startups and big defence companies fight to lead market Flying drones used during the Ukraine war have changed land battle tactics for ever. Now the same thing appears to be happening under the sea. Navies around the world are racing to add autonomous submarines. The UK’s Royal Navy is planning a fleet of underwater uncrewed vehicles (UUVs)…

Study finds that a week of political content can bring about a shift in views that previously would have taken three years Small changes to the tone of posts fed to users of X can increase feelings of political polarisation as much in a week as would have historically taken at least three years, research has found. A groundbreaking experiment to gauge the potency of Elon Musk’s social platform to…

Amazon Web Services owns the basic infrastructure for other businesses to operate online, turning even governments into its serfs. But now some people are fighting back For the past six years, every Black Friday – that made-up carnival of consumption – Amazon workers and their allies have mobilised across the world in coordinated strikes and protests . At first glance, these disputes look like th…

A new feature on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter allows users to see the location of other accounts. It has resulted in a firestorm of recriminations When X rolled out a new feature revealing the locations of popular accounts, the company was acting to boost transparency and clamp down on disinformation. The result, however, has been a circular firing squad of recriminations, …

Two decades on, its influence still lingers, marking a moment when gaming felt thrillingly new again • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Almost 20 years ago (on 1 December 2005, to be precise), I was at my very first video game console launch party somewhere around London’s Leicester Square. The Xbox 360 arrived on 22 November 2005 in the US and 2 December in the UK,…

Nintendo Switch 2; Bandai Namco/Sora/HAL Laboratory/Nintendo It takes some getting used to, but this Mario Kart challenger soon reveals a satisfyingly zen, minimalist approach to competitive racing In the world of cartoonish racing games, it’s clear who is top dog. As Nintendo’s moustachioed plumber lords it up from his gilded go-kart, everyone from Crash Bandicoot to Sonic and Garfield has tried…

From Minecraft chess and coding for kids to retro consoles and Doom on vinyl for grown-ups – hit select and start with these original non-digital presents Gamers can be a difficult bunch to buy for. Most of them will get their new games digitally from Steam, Xbox, Nintendo or PlayStation’s online shops, so you can’t just wrap up the latest version of Call of Duty and be done with it. Fortunately,…