The Guardian

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, …

We’ve cut through the noise to find genuinely good Black Friday discounts on Filter tried-and-tested products across home, tech, beauty and toys • How to shop smart this Black Friday • The best Black Friday beauty deals Like Christmas Day, Black Friday has long since ceased to be a mere “day”. Yuletide now seems to start roughly whezn Strictly does, and Black Friday seemed to kick off around Hall…

Tech is on its last legs? Refurbished can be the cheaper, greener option. Here’s how to choose well and avoid the pitfalls • How to shop smart this Black Friday • How to make your phone last longer Even if you do your best to avoid it, it’s hard to escape the noise of retailers offering implausible-seeming Black Friday discounts on desirable technology. What they won’t be so keen to highlight is …

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, …

MEPs pass resolution to help parents tackle growing dangers of addictive internet platforms Children under 16 should be banned from using social media unless their parents decide otherwise, the European parliament says. MEPs passed a resolution on age restrictions on Wednesday by a large majority. Although not legally binding, it raises pressure for European legislation amid growing alarm about t…

OpenAI responds to lawsuit claiming its chatbot encouraged California teenager to kill himself The maker of ChatGPT has said the suicide of a 16-year-old was down to his “misuse” of its system and was “not caused” by the chatbot. The comments came in OpenAI’s response to a lawsuit filed against the San Francisco company and its chief executive, Sam Altman, by the family of California teenager Ada…

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,…

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster city council investigate whether data has been compromised At least two London councils have been hit by a cyber-attack and have invoked emergency plans as they investigate whether any data has been compromised. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster City council, which share some IT infrastructure, said a number of syst…

US firm says plan to speed up product development and improve customer satisfaction would save $1bn a year Up to 6,000 jobs are to go at HP worldwide in the next three years as the US computer and printer maker increasingly adopts AI to speed up product development. Announcing a lower-than-expected profit outlook for the coming year, HP said it would cut between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs by the end of…

Our writer trialled the most powerful robot vacuums – some of which even mop your floors – and these are the ones he rates • The best window vacs for clearing condensation: seven expert picks for streak-free shine Robot vacuum cleaners take the drudge work out of cleaning your floors and carpets. No more tiresome weekly stints of vacuuming, and no more last-minute panic sessions when you have vis…

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…

EU and US unshackle regulations in quest for growth, and is the AI bubble about to burst? Not yet, says Nvidia Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, writing to you from an American grocery store, where I’m planning my Thanksgiving pies. In tech, the European Union is deregulating artificial intelligence; the United States is going even further. The AI bubble has not po…

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,…

Trades, machine operations and administrative roles are most at-risk, says leading educational research charity Up to 3m low-skilled jobs could disappear in the UK by 2035 because of automation and AI, according to a report by a leading educational research charity. The jobs most at risk are those in occupations such as trades, machine operations and administrative roles, the National Foundation …

The use of AI in the surprise game-of-the-year contender has sparked a heated cultural and ethical debate, and raised existential questions for artists, writers and voice actors • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Arc Raiders is, by all accounts, a late game-of-the-year contender. Dropped into a multiplayer world overrun with hostile drones and military robots, every…