Technology
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I was Mark Zuckerberg's mentor. Today I would tell him: your users are in perilFacebook is a big part of my portfolio, and I fear the dangers of tech addiction. While investors’ recent open letter to Apple is significant, more need to speak up
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How to quit your tech: a beginner's guide to divorcing your phoneSix very busy people attempt a digital detox -
Facebook warned it faces legal action from ‘revenge porn’ victimsSettlement with teenager over naked images of her posted online on networking site has ‘moved goalposts’, say lawyers -
Google's solution to accidental algorithmic racism: ban gorillasGoogle’s ‘immediate action’ over AI labelling of black people as gorillas was simply to block the word, along with chimpanzee and monkey, reports suggest
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CES 2018: voice-controlled showers, non-compliant robots and smart toiletsVoice assistants were in everything at the trade show, suggesting the future is smart – but does anyone actually want to talk to their toilet?
News
Privacy
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Cyber-attack risk on nuclear weapons systems 'relatively high' – thinktankChatham House warns that lack of skilled staff and slowness of institutional change exposes nuclear weapons systems
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Russian bid to influence Brexit vote detailed in new US Senate reportUK political system vulnerable to anti-democratic meddling via social media and ‘possibly illicit’ campaign funding, report says
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Opinion & analysis
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Mark Zuckerberg sets toughest new year's goal yet: fixing FacebookCEO reveals this year’s ‘personal challenge’ as site faces relentless criticism over spreading of misinformation and damage to users’ mental health
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Can Facebook win its battle against election interference in 2018?Claims of Russian meddling dominated 2017. The US midterm elections will be first big test of Facebook’s effort to stamp it out
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Safety Check: is Facebook becoming fear’s administrator-in-chief?This year, Facebook turned on its notification function for attacks in London and Las Vegas, Stockholm and St Petersburg. But do we feel more secure?
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2018 will be the year 4K TV goes big, but HDR still lags behindThe Winter Olympics, Wimbledon, the World Cup and Premier League football will drive 4K into the mainstream – but HDR will remain niche
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Dark Souls remastered for Nintendo Switch consoleNew version of acclaimed dark fantasy adventure coming to Nintendo Switch in May
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Meltdown: Epic Games blames bug fix for online game slowdownIncreased processor use occurred when company installed patches to fix flaws, leaving players of online battle game Fortnite unable to login
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The best board games for January 2018: Fog of Love; Legacy of DragonholtOne is an emotionally charged love story, the other is a swords-and-sorcery adventure. But they’re both exceptional story-driven games
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Sky pirates, preachers and prison breaks: the best video games of 2018Here be dragons … and grog-swilling pirates, armed cultists, dino-beasts and a teenage supersleuth called Jenny LeClue. We preview spring’s biggest releases, from Ni no Kuni 2 to the return of Red Dead Redemption
Inside Silicon Valley
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James Damore sues Google, alleging intolerance of white male conservativesClass-action lawsuit led by fired engineer includes 100 pages of internal documents and claims conservatives are ‘ostracized, belittled, and punished’
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Google faces new discrimination charge: paying female teachers less than menExclusive: former employee alleges that women hired to work as preschool teachers in the company’s childcare center were paid lower salaries than men with fewer qualifications doing same job
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Tech is one of the richest and most powerful industries in America – and it gets an awful lot wrong. So here’s some seasonal advice for Silicon Valley’s biggest beastsNew Year's resolutions for big tech: how Silicon Valley can be better in 2018
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Forget Juicero, here are the tech gadgets we can actually get excited about in 2018If this year’s $120m juicing flop gave you reason to doubt in human ingenuity, take heart in these incredible inventions to come: from an artificial kidney to a breast pump you might actually want to use
Reviews
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Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power by Byung-Chul Han – reviewAn examination of the internet age suggests that we should cultivate the heresies of secrets and silence
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The week in radio: Grenfell: Dust on Our Lips; Darknet Diaries; The Tip OffDevastating testimony did justice to the Grenfell tragedy, ‘virtual lives’ were shown being upended by hackers, and a fearless podcast continued to speak truth to power
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Devices
In depth
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Kodak leads surge of companies exploiting bitcoin buzzCompanies pivoting to, or just showing an interest in, cryptocurrencies and associated technologies have resulted in a sudden burst in share price
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Spotlight
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From the future of bitcoin to FacebookSocial networks and politics, the still unfulfilled promise of augmented reality, pay-to-play games: what might change in the year ahead
Will AT&T’s call to drop Huawei end phone maker’s US hopes?