The Guardian

From turning down thermostats to make savings to installing reflectors to push warmth back into your home “When it comes to staying warm and saving energy, small changes can make a big difference,” says Sarah Pennells, a consumer finance specialist at the investment company Royal London. Continue reading...

Don’t splash out just yet! From a system update to better room lighting, a little fine-tuning could save you hundreds • Do you really need to buy a new laptop? Do you really need to buy a new TV? While the latest specs and outrageous screen sizes may well be a temptation, perhaps you can save money (and the environment) by holding off a little longer. With some simple tips and tricks, you can lev…

From Away, Calpak and REI, here are budget-friendly reasons to upgrade your suitcase, replace your headphones and finally invest in a set of packing cubes Snag these 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 tempted to avoi…

A lawsuit over automated shopping reveals a deeper struggle over who will control the next generation of AI and what happens when autonomous agents start acting on our behalf Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery. Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stay Elon Musk’s Grok AI briefly says Trump won 2020 presidential election AI i…

Online gaming company says voluntary age assurance technology will limit teens and children messaging users outside their own age groups Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast As Roblox rolls out new age assurance features to prevent teens and kids from chatting with adults they do not know, it has insisted Australia’s upcoming under-16s social media ban should not apply to …

US company that defends millions of websites against malicious attacks suffers unidentified problem A key piece of the internet’s usually hidden infrastructure suffered a global outage on Monday, causing error messages to flash up across websites. Cloudflare, a US company whose services include defending millions of websites against malicious attacks, suffered an unidentified problem on Tuesday, …

Bitcoin price at lowest level since April while FTSE 100 falls as Google boss warns there is ‘irrationality’ in AI boom Business live – latest updates More than $1tn (£760bn) has been wiped off the value of the cryptocurrency market in the past six weeks amid fears of a tech bubble and fading expectations for a US rate cut next month. Tracking more than 18,500 coins, the value of the crypto marke…

Gaming platform to use facial age estimation to limit chats to similar age groups, as allegations of grooming grow The online games platform Roblox is to start blocking children from talking to adult and much older teen strangers from next month as it faces fresh lawsuits alleging the platform has been exploited by predators to groom children as young as seven. Roblox has reached 150 million dail…

Forty years ago, the Nintendo Entertainment System dominated the markets in Japan and the US. But in Europe, a technologically superior rival was making it look like an ancient relic There’s an old maxim that history is written by the victors, and that’s as true in video games as it is anywhere else. Nowadays you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Nintendo Entertainment System was the only conso…

Which? study of ChatGPT, Copilot and others uncovers incorrect and misleading tips on investments, tax and insurance Artificial intelligence chatbots are giving inaccurate money tips, offering British consumers misleading tax advice and suggesting they buy unnecessary travel insurance, research has revealed. Tests on the most popular chatbots found Microsoft’s Copilot and ChatGPT advised breaking…

His company is potentially creating the ultimate state surveillance tool, and Karp has recently been on a striking political and philosophical journey. His biographer reveals what makes him tick In a recent interview , Alex Karp said that his company Palantir was “the most important software company in America and therefore in the world”. He may well be right. To some, Palantir is also the scarie…

The offensive listing seemed more than a mistake – it was a failure of corporate responsibility, says reader I found a baby outfit (sizes from newborn to five years) on Amazon bearing the phrase “Santa’s favourite ho”. This isn’t just a tasteless mistake – it’s a failure of corporate responsibility and consumer protection. A corporation this large should have systems that prevent sexuali sed or e…

As GenAI becomes the primary way to find information, local and traditional wisdom is being lost. And we are only beginning to realise what we’re missing This article was originally published as ‘Holes in the web’ on Aeon.co A few years back, my dad was diagnosed with a tumour on his tongue – which meant we had some choices to weigh up. My family has an interesting dynamic when it comes to medica…

Activision; PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, PC With a deafening onslaught of massive shootout set-pieces in exotic locations, an evolving campaign mode and excellent multiplayer offerings, this maximalist instalment of crazed carnage is a hoot It seems like an anachronism now, in this age of live service “ forever games ”, that the annual release of a new Call of Duty title is still considered a major eve…

From Demon Souls to Baby Steps, challenging games keep a certain type of player coming back for more. I wonder why we are such suckers for punishment • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Most people who really love video games have the capacity to be obsessive. Losing weeks of your life to Civilization, World of Warcraft or Football Manager is something so many of us …