Biggest Apple smartwatch gets better health tracking and new readiness tools with a battery and chip boost in preparation for controversial audio AIAs the Ultra enters its fourth year as Apple’s biggest and beefiest smartwatch it gets the best kind of spec upgrade – longer battery life – while waiting for something potentially more transformative.That’s because several of the key features announced as part of Apple’s new smartwatch lineup for 2026 have yet to be enabled, awaiting updates towards the end of this year. That leaves the £749 (€899/$799/A$1,349) Apple Watch Ultra 4 the top dog, but basically the same as last year’s model.Case size: 49 x 44mmCase thickness: 12mmWeight: 63gProcessor: S11Storage: 64GBOperating system: watchOS 27Water resistance: 100 metres (10ATM)Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, wifi 4, 5G RedCap/4G, UWBSensors: HR, ECG, spO2, temp, depth, dual-band GPS, compass, altimeter Continue reading...
The Department for Business and Trade has announced its investigation of faulty software used in Post Office branches before the controversial Horizon system
Datacenter and chip costs fueled sharp decrease in AI sector although non-AI stocks still had a strong showingThe latest shudder for stocks in the AI industry pulled markets lower worldwide on Thursday, while oil prices hit their highest levels since May on worries about the war with Iran.The S&P 500 fell 1.2% for its worst day since July, while the Nasdaq composite tumbled 2.6%. The weakness for tech stocks was so overwhelming that it masked strength for the rest of the US market, in which the majority of stocks actually rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 11 points, or less than 0.1%. Continue reading...
PM will also announce funding for specialised protective gear and the deployment of military aircraftThe UK government is to create an AI Cobra unit to spot wildfires after this year’s record-breaking summer saw devastating blazes across the country.The country experienced its hottest-ever summer this year, with prolonged dry periods and extreme heat fuelling wildfires that triggered an emergency alert to mobile phones in England and Wales. Figures released on 8 October showed a clear upward trend in the number of fires recorded each year. Continue reading...
Problem in language that underpins 70% of sites has led governments and companies to pull sites offline to patch faultTell us: have you been affected by the PHP code flaw?What is PHP, and how bad is the computer language flaw causing website shutdowns globally?Websites around the world have been hit by millions of attempts to exploit a recently discovered vulnerability in their code, cybersecurity companies have said, as the US warned the flaw could allow attackers to take control of web servers, steal data and disrupt services.The problem in the PHP programming language, which underpins about 70% of the world’s websites, emerged on Wednesday causing governments and companies to pull their websites off the internet before they could be attacked and so they could patch the fault. Continue reading...
As security teams worldwide grapple with the deep impact of the PHP2Shell flaws, the PHP Foundation reveals how a carefully planned vulnerability disclosure process went horribly wrong
Chief executive agrees to remain in California for eight years even if state brings in one-off 5% wealth taxMeta has struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg to help him foot a possible California wealth tax targeting billionaires.The social media company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp revealed on Wednesday night that the arrangement would keep its chief executive living in California, where Meta’s headquarters are located. Continue reading...
German carmaker has migrated to Red Hat’s agentless IT automation platform to manage an HPC cluster comprising 30,000 Linux and Windows servers
In the 20th century, totalitarian societies emerged at gunpoint. Going forward, they might arise from overwhelming deference to artificial intelligence
The UK bank is cutting thousands of jobs as it invests in the latest technologies, such as artificial intelligence
Jennifer Nelson runs the international arm of an organisation that takes stakes in tech firms that secure US and allied interests
Exclusive: Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco taskforce urges ministers to offer areas greater benefits from tech infrastructure amid fears of US-style oppositionAI companies have told ministers they have 12 months to head off public opposition to datacentres in the UK or risk US-style protests that could threaten their construction.Successive dry summers and rising energy bills are increasing public scrutiny of plans for the huge computer warehouses that are used to train and run AI models, says a submission to the Labour government from a group including the AI infrastructure companies Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco. Continue reading...
Jury had found Meta misled consumers after Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign obtained user data without consentA judge in New Mexico ordered Meta Platforms to pay $25bn on Wednesday after a jury found the company had misled consumers in a case arising from allegations that a political consulting firm involved in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign obtained data from millions of Facebook users without their consent.“Facebook’s wrongdoing – over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public – goes to the heart of Facebook’s core business practices,” Judge Francis Mathew wrote in his order after the verdict. Continue reading...
Open Climate Fix says opening priority energy datasets could cut consumer bills, as a coalition of energy and data innovators urges ministers to act on the clean power mission
Patch or go offline, say UK, US and EU agencies as two AI-discovered flaws in PHP, the language behind most websites, allow unauthenticated remote code execution
As SpaceX impacts Ukraine and AI-generated music divides artists and fans, critics are asking what happens when technology has too much control over our livesThis was originally published in TechScape, a newsletter about how technology shapes our lives. Sign up to receive it hereHello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you while sitting in front of Roy Lichtenstein’s monumental Drowning Girl, on view in New York City. Today in tech, we’re discussing the perils of Elon Musk’s one-man global infrastructure, AI-generated music and a Guardian AI conference in Paris. Continue reading...