“By 2030, if we don’t have models that are extraordinarily capable and do things that we ourselves cannot do, I’d be very surprised,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in an interview published by Politico in September. After this year, “I think in many ways GPT5 is already smarter than me at least, and I think a lot of other people too”.

The AI advances we have seen this year could “set the world on a path of explosive growth”, said The Economist. “The picture that is emerging is perhaps counterintuitive and certainly mind-boggling.”

The latest ‘charismatic megatrauma’

We have reached a “pivotal moment” in our relationship with artificial intelligence, said Idan Feingold on CTech. Over the last year, the AI hot potato has “evolved from a buzzword to the epicentre of every business conversation”. There has been an unprecedented “surge” in productivity linked to AI innovation, with practical applications advancing “at a pace we have never seen before”.

“AI has begun to settle like sediment into the corners of our lives,” said David Wallace-Wells in The New York Times. We have emerged from a “prophetic phase” that followed the release of ChatGPT in 2023, and have relaxed into “something more quotidian”. Like many other “charismatic megatraumas”, such as nuclear proliferation and climate change, AI retains the power to distress and disturb, but it no longer provokes mass hysteria.

AI’s role in the healthcare sector has come a long way in the last decade. Microsoft announced this year that its AI diagnostic orchestrator performed four times more accurately than human doctors, with 20% reduced cost. “The real test”, said Time, will be how tools like this perform in real-world settings, but there is hope they might “set the stage” for introducing high-quality medical expertise in parts of the world without access to cutting-edge healthcare.

‘Economic revival’ or ‘financial bust’?

However you look at it, 2025 has been unique. “The hype and the hopes around AI have been like nothing the world has seen before,” said The Economist. Audiences have “marvelled” at ChatGPT’s abilities and were “mesmerised” by Sora 2’s generative video capabilities. That fascination shows no signs of fading; one estimate predicts more than $7 trillion will be spent on AI by the end of the decade.

As the past year progressed, concerns grew over when the AI bubble might burst. But that may be “asking the wrong question”, said Jurica Dujmovic in Market Watch. Don’t be misled by the 2000 dot-com crash: we are experiencing an “orderly deflation” rather than a sudden collapse. Amid the doom and gloom, the AI market still presents “genuine opportunities” for investors, operators and consumers alike.

Focus is now “shifting” to the outlook for AI in 2026, especially concerning its commercial profitability, said The Economist. Revenues from AI in 2025 amounted to a “measly” $50 billion a year, which equated to roughly an “eighth of Apple or Alphabet’s entire annual revenues”. Next year, expect reactions to be even more extreme, with “economic revival”, a “financial bust” and “social backlash” all possible.

Microsoft has announced an initiative that will pivot the company away from its relationship with entrepreneur Sam Altman’s OpenAI to instead develop its own artificial intelligence system. While the tech giant’s products come embedded with OpenAI software after a 2019 partnership, the company’s push for AI independence is fueled in part by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s efforts to recenter human beings in the search for digital superintelligence. But as AI fever continues to sweep through the halls of industry, education and everyday life, where does Microsoft’s human-centric vision for the technology fit?

‘Very tough tradeoff’ for an AI ‘accelerationist’

A recently renegotiated agreement with OpenAI has allowed Microsoft to establish a new internal “Superintelligence Team” to develop the company’s digital intelligence capacity while putting “human interests and guardrails first,” said The Wall Street Journal. While AI may become “more humanlike,” it will never experience “suffering or pain itself,” Suleyman said to the paper. “Therefore we shouldn’t over-empathize with it.” The goal, Suleyman said, is to create “types of systems that are aligned to human values by default.” By definition, that means those systems are “not designed to exceed and escape human control.”

A self-described AI “accelerationist” who wants to “go as fast as possible,” said Semafor, Suleyman nevertheless believes it will be “necessary” to give up “some level of capability” so human beings “remain in control” of the nascent technology. However, doing so will be a “very tough tradeoff,” Suleyman said to the outlet, “because in the history of humanity, we haven’t had to do that.” In a separate interview with CNBC, Suleyman admitted he had been “roasted” by one of his own conversational AI programs as being the “ultimate bundle of contradictions” for both his accelerationism and warnings thereof.

By framing its AI push in terms of “humanist superintelligence,” Microsoft is making a “deliberate effort to contrast” its work with the more “technological goals” of other AI developers, Fortune said. Microsoft’s initial offering will focus on “three core applications,” said Seeking Alpha: “AI companions for everyone; medical superintelligence,” and what the company described as “plentiful” clean energy.

Running counter to regulatory currents

The push to develop digital superintelligences is the “new goalpost for AI development” at large, even if the term itself is “imprecise” at articulating “how capable, exactly,” the technology would need to be to qualify, said Bloomberg. At the same time, Microsoft’s emerging focus on “safety and human-centricity” comes as industry regulation “moves away from a focus on those areas,” said Axios. This poses a risk to Microsoft’s more cautious vector, which could “prove costlier or less efficient than those developed with fewer safeguards.”

Microsoft’s steps into the ongoing race for superintelligence will be programmed with a focus on “containment,” the Journal said. That will include “probing and testing the models to ensure they only communicate in a language that humans understand” as well as creating systems that “avoid appearing as if they are conscious.”

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has “returned to normal operations”, the company has said, following an outage that caused widespread chaos and again exposed the fragile foundations that today’s digital world is built on.

Slack, Snapchat, Signal and Perplexity were some of the affected apps and websites, among a host of big names. AWS offers cloud servers that allow these services, and millions of other websites and platforms, to run.

What exactly is AWS?

AWS is a cloud-computing platform that provides the infrastructure underpinning much of the internet.

It is one of the world’s biggest web-hosting providers, offering storage space and database management, and connecting traffic to more than 76 million websites around the world.

It has “positioned itself as the backbone of the internet” said BBC technology editor Zoe Kleinman. And “that’s how it sells its services: let us look after your business’s computing needs for you.”

Bringing in $108 billion (£80 billion) last year, AWS now accounts for the majority of Amazon’s profits.

What went wrong?

Within hours of the outage, Amazon engineers had identified the root cause of the issue: a Domain Name System (DNS) error. DNSs effectively serve as maps or phonebooks that link web URLs to server IP addresses so traffic is directed to the correct website.

“To keep with the phonebook analogy”, when DNS resolution issues occur servers provide the “wrong numbers for a given name, or vice versa”, said Wired.

Because so much of today’s online ecosystem is reliant on a small number of cloud platforms, when an outage of this magnitude occurs on one, “the ripple effects can quickly spread across industries and into people’s daily lives”, Rob van Lubek, of US software development firm Dynatrace, told The National.

That is what happened on Monday, with banking services, social networks messaging apps, government services, airline booking sites and online shopping all affected. Even Amazon.com itself was down for a time, while the company’s Alexa smart speakers and Ring doorbells stopped working.

“The headlines will focus on streaming services being down,” Ismael Wrixen, of US software developer ThriveCart, told The National. “The real, untold story is the unrecoverable loss of conversions for millions of small businesses. Every minute this occurs, entrepreneurs are learning the most painful lesson in e-commerce: your perfectly optimised ad funnel means nothing if the ‘buy’ button is dead.”

Surely this shouldn’t happen?

Monday’s outage has shown how integral AWS, and the other major cloud-computing services run by Google and Microsoft, have become.

Put bluntly, “when AWS sneezes, half the internet catches the flu”, Monica Eaton, of US payment services company Chargebacks911, told The National.

But after similar AWS disruption in 2021 and 2023 – as well as last year’s faulty CrowdStrike update, which brought down Microsoft Windows systems causing $5 billion (£3.7 billion) in direct business losses – many are asking how this keeps happening and why there are not fail-safes given how important these services are to people all around the world.

It raises “some difficult questions”, said The Register. “After all, cloud operations are supposed to have some built-in resiliency, right?”

When so much of the world’s digital infrastructure runs on a handful of American cloud providers, “resilience becomes as much a geopolitical issue as a technical one”, said Tech.eu, noting how even the UK’s tax authority HMRC was affected by the AWS outage.

It has “underscored just how dependent governments, businesses and users have become on the ‘big three’ cloud giants” and highlighted the “urgent need for multi-region, multi-provider strategies to mitigate systemic risk”.

For all the political difficulties inherent in President Trump’s state visit, the deluge of high-profile deals accompanying it was enough to put a spring into even the most care-worn chancellor’s step, said Reuters. Before Trump and his entourage of tech bros sat down to dinner at Windsor Castle, Rachel Reeves and the US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, had already announced a “transatlantic taskforce” to deepen links between the City and Wall Street.

Taking some of the sting out of “a challenging Budget in November”, is news that Blackstone, the giant US alternative asset manager, could invest £100 billion over the next decade, said Kalyeena Makortoff in The Guardian. Bank of America, meanwhile, will create up to 1,000 new jobs in Belfast.

Sod’s law, said The Times, that the bank’s monthly fund manager survey – published on the same day – reports that “institutional investors are dumping shares in UK companies at the fastest rate in more than 20 years”, amid anxiety over tax rises, borrowing costs and the stagnant economy.

Big numbers

Rolls-Royce’s shares jumped ahead of the visit, said the FT. The company, a pioneer of small modular reactors (SMRs), is a clear beneficiary of a joint $100 billion nuclear deal, involving speedier regulatory approvals and secure nuclear supply chains, and the aim of getting new reactors online by the mid-2030s.

Still, “the centrepiece” of the visit, business-wise, is a “technology partnership” involving greater cooperation with Silicon Valley on AI and quantum computing, said James Landale on BBC News, which the sacked US ambassador, Lord Mandelson, called his “personal pride and joy”.

The numbers are certainly big, said The Daily Telegraph. Microsoft plans to invest a record £22 billion on infrastructure, including Britain’s most powerful AI supercomputer; Google has made a further £5 billion investment; Nvidia is pumping £11 billion into the UK AI ecosystem; and OpenAI plans to open a “Stargate” AI hub in Newcastle.

Tariff deal shelved

It’s glitzy stuff and “a nice vote of confidence in the UK”, said Patrick Hosking in The Times. But are these “gigantic warehouses stuffed with chips” really “the saviours of capitalism”? Siting data centres within our own borders in theory gives us more security over AI. But “don’t expect them to generate myriad high-skill, high-paid jobs”: the average data centre employs 54 people.

Therein lies the rub, said Andy Haldane in the FT. Successful industrial strategies need to focus on more than a set of “superstar” sectors. “The bulk of UK jobs are in the everyday economy” – and on that score this visit hasn’t delivered. Hopes of slashing tariffs on UK steel, from 25% to zero, have been quietly shelved.

Microsoft's claims about a potential breakthrough in quantum computing and the creation of a new state of matter have created backlash from physicists who question the claim's veracity. While the company's researchers stand by their assessments, similar ones were ultimately rescinded the last time Microsoft made them. That puts a heavier burden of proof on the company this time around.

'Fraught history of similar claims'

Microsoft's announcement about its supposed breakthrough was "met with skepticism from some physicists in the field," said Salon. Some say that the Microsoft research team did not include all the data in the research paper published in Nature to prove that this form of quantum computing could work. And due to a "fraught history of similar claims from the company being disputed and ultimately rescinded, some are extra wary of the results."

This is not the first time the company has faced pushback while presenting findings in the field of quantum computing. In 2018, Microsoft reported in a research paper that it had detected the presence of Majorana zero-modes, special zero-energy quasiparticles. Nature eventually retracted the paper after it was scrutinized in a report from independent experts. Four physicists not involved in the original study concluded it was unlikely Microsoft had intentionally misrepresented the data. Instead, the company seemed "caught up in the excitement of the moment."

While the more recent paper describes the structure and architecture that could be used to build a topological quantum computer, Microsoft "cannot show" it can "really operate it," Jelena Klinovaja, a theoretical physicist at the University of Basel, said to Salon.

'Essentially a fraudulent project'

There were concerns about the absence of a test Microsoft should have used to look for Majoranas, the "so-far undiscovered quasiparticles arising from the collective behavior of electrons," Nature said. The test, known as the topological gap protocol (TGP), was not mentioned in Microsoft's February announcement, Henry Legg, a theoretical physicist at the University of St Andrews, said in a recent critique. "Since the TGP is flawed, the very foundations of the qubit (quantum bit) are not there," said Legg.

The critiques went on. Vincent Mourik, a German experimental physicist, and Sergey Frolov, a University of Pittsburgh professor of physics and astronomy, made a YouTube video criticizing the "distractions caused by unreliable scientific claims from Microsoft Quantum." Concerns about Microsoft's claims "go back quite a number of years," so the reaction has not "just been triggered by this announcement per se," Frolov said to The Register.

While the scientific community remains skeptical, Microsoft is "sticking to its guns," said Laptop Mag. In the year since the paper's submission and publication, the company has made more progress with its topological qubits, the quantum bits that would power Microsoft's proposed chips, said Microsoft researcher Chetan Nayak on a blog forum.

Nayak doubled down on the claims his team made in the paper during a talk last week at the American Physical Society's Global Physics Summit. He remained "collected and convinced that his team has tamed the elusive Majoranas," even as "Legg and other physicists denounce Microsoft's claims," said Science. "We have only revealed a tiny fraction of what we've done," Nayak said to Science. Going forward, it will look "more and more convincing that this is going to be the basis of a technology."

What happened

Microsoft said Wednesday it has developed a computer chip based on a new "topological" state of matter — not solid, liquid or gas — that it expects will underpin exponentially faster and more powerful quantum computers "within years, not decades." The company said its custom-built topological superconductor — topoconductor — can "observe and control Majorana particles" to produce topological quantum bits, or qubits, the building blocks of quantum computing.

Who said what

Microsoft said it created eight topological qubits and placed them on its new Majorana 1 processor, but there was a "clear path" to fitting each chip with a million qubits, the requisite "threshold for quantum computers to deliver transformative, real-world solutions" like self-healing building materials and breaking down microplastics. "All the world's current computers operating together can't do what a one-million-qubit quantum computer will be able to do," the company said.

Scientists have "chased the dream of a quantum computer — a machine that could exploit the strange and exceedingly powerful behavior of subatomic particles or very cold objects — since the 1980s," The New York Times said. Microsoft's quantum technology could "leapfrog" rival methods being developed at Google, which two months ago "unveiled an experimental quantum computer that needed just five minutes to complete a calculation that most supercomputers could not finish in 10 septillion years — longer than the age of the known universe."

What next?

Quantum computing is "still in its nascent stages," The Wall Street Journal said, but the race is on and "industry experts suggest the first commercially viable quantum computers could begin to appear in the next half decade or so."

"Bill Gates is the John McEnroe of the tech world," said Steven Poole in The Guardian. "Once a snotty brat whom everyone loved to hate", he is now a "beloved elder statesman" – a dedicated philanthropist who was doing "effective altruism" long before it was fashionable.

In this, the first of a planned trilogy of memoirs, the 69-year-old recounts the first two decades of his life, from his early years in a "pleasant suburb of Seattle" to the founding of Microsoft in 1975 and the agreement, two years later, to form a partnership with Apple Computer's Steve Jobs. The book is no mere "geek's inventory of early achievements". Gates expresses "genuine gratitude for influential mentors", and "strikes a wry mood of self-deprecation throughout". Explaining his decision to attend theatre classes at high school, he admits the "main draw" was the number of girls there. And unlike most "self-made" billionaires, he emphasises the "unearned privilege" of his background, with his lawyer father and teacher mother.

Gates was, he admits, hugely lucky to attend a school that, in 1968, became one of the first in the US to provide pupils with access to a computer, said Tom Knowles in The Telegraph. From the age of 13, he spent every "spare minute" at the terminal. With other pupils, including future Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, he formed a programming group that was commissioned to "automate the payroll systems for local businesses and produce a new timetable for every pupil in his school".

Moving to Harvard, he and Allen learnt that a company in New Mexico had developed the first commercially available mini-computer, said Richard Waters in the Financial Times. Realising that the race was on to write software that would make such "PC-like machines useful", Gates dropped out of Harvard and relocated to Albuquerque, where his company – at that point called "Micro-Soft" – was born.

Some episodes covered in Source Code – such as the "legal intricacies of Microsoft's negotiations with a long-defunct Seattle software firm" – really ought to have been "lost to history", said Tom Whipple in The Times. Yet at its best, the book is refreshingly frank and real. "I have never read anything that so vividly describes the pizza-fuelled shower-dodging obsessiveness" of the coder at work.

Gates is honest, too, about being a difficult child, said Ian Birrell in The Spectator. Today, he suggests, "I probably would be diagnosed on the autism spectrum." This "surprisingly readable book" shows how he surmounted such obstacles to become "one of the key figures of our digital age".

'The real question Harris and Trump should answer about marijuana'

Leana S. Wen at The Washington Post

The "question Kamala Harris and Donald Trump should answer is not whether marijuana should be legal, but what comes next," says Leana S. Wen. How would they "help people afflicted with wide-ranging consequences of cannabis use?" Laws "already protect Americans from inhaling secondhand tobacco. When will leaders propose — and enforce — similar laws for marijuana?" We should "see presidential candidates acknowledging these negative health effects as they lay out a national educational campaign."

Read more

'I was a Secret Service agent. Protecting presidents is not like in the movies.'

Bill Gage at The Hill

Many people "criticizing the Secret Service have no professional experience in conducting complex protective operations at the presidential level," says Bill Gage. But "U.S. Secret Service protective operations do not just happen. Most take weeks of planning and involve multiple components." The Secret Service's "budget should be increased so that it can hire more special agents," but "even with these improvements it still won't be like the movies." The agency "cannot keep tabs on everyone."

Read more

'Apple CEO Tim Cook is right. The US manufacturing workforce is in crisis.'

Allison Danielsen at the Chicago Tribune

There has "never been a time when the need to match job seekers with the nation's most needed jobs has been as critical," says Allison Danielsen. There is a "gap between supply and demand for engineering," and the "skill sets that those engineers will require are sorely lacking, creating the possibility that nearly a third of all engineering roles will remain unfulfilled." It is "critical that we create a robust pipeline for young people" to "explore and build career paths."

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'Microsoft's Three Mile Island deal is great news'

Bloomberg editorial board

Microsoft's deal reopening Three Mile Island "could prove highly consequential," said the Bloomberg editorial board. Meeting "global climate goals by 2030 will require some $1.2 trillion in added clean-energy investment each year," and a "nuclear splurge — especially in the U.S., where generation has stagnated for decades — is long overdue." Microsoft's deal is a "welcome vote of confidence that nuclear is not only essential to fighting climate change and powering new technologies, but it's also exceedingly safe."

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With artificial intelligence putting a damper on its clean energy goals, Microsoft is turning to nuclear power in a first-of-its-kind exclusive deal with a nuclear plant. The massive amount of energy needed to power artificial intelligence has contributed to a resurgence of interest in nuclear power, a turn for an industry on its way out over the last decade. But with Big Tech closing in on nuclear plants, some wonder what will be left for everyone else.

The symbolism of the deal

Three Mile Island, the dormant Pennsylvania nuclear plant at the center of the Microsoft deal, became "shorthand for the risks posed by nuclear energy after one of the plant's two reactors partly melted down in 1979," said The New York Times. The other reactor operated safely for years before ultimately closing down for economic reasons five years ago. With the Microsoft deal, a "revival is at hand." Because of artificial intelligence, the tech giant needs massive amounts of electricity for its growing number of data centers, and the company has agreed to use as much power as possible from the plant over the next 20 years. The plant's owner, Constellation Energy, promises to spend $1.6 billion refurbishing the reactor, hoping to restart it by 2028 with regulatory approval. The deal marks the first time "Microsoft has secured a dedicated, 100% nuclear facility for its use," the Times said.

"The symbolism is enormous," Joseph Dominguez, the chief executive of Constellation, said to the Times. Even though Three Mile Island "was the site of the industry's greatest failure," it can now be a "place of rebirth."

To fulfill its energy needs, Microsoft is also pursuing power from nuclear fusion, a "potentially abundant, cheap and clean form of electricity that scientists have been trying to develop for decades," said The Washington Post, although "most say [it] is still a decade or more away from generating electricity." Microsoft is ahead of the game, having signed a contract to buy fusion energy "from a start-up that claims it can deliver it by 2028."

Microsoft's new deal will help move it closer to its goals of running its global network on clean energy in 2025, said Bobby Hollis, Microsoft's Vice President of Energy, per Bloomberg. Integrating its entire product line around AI has increased cloud computing demand, "imperiling Microsoft's plans to be carbon negative by 2030," Bloomberg said. The agreement is a "major milestone in Microsoft's efforts to help decarbonize the grid," Hollis added.

AI pushes the resurgence of nuclear power

The unprecedented deal is the "latest sign of surging interest in the nuclear industry as power demand for AI soars," Bloomberg said. Over the past decade, over a dozen nuclear reactors have gone dark "in the face of increasing competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy." But now, the growing demand for electricity, "especially from data centers," has led many to turn to nuclear plants that can "provide carbon-free power around the clock."

"Policymakers and the market have received a huge wake-up call," Dominguez said. With the way technology moves, there is "no version of the future of this country that doesn't rely on these nuclear assets."

Unfortunately, tech's bullish approach to securing nuclear power has some experts worried there will not be enough to go around. The owners of nearly a third of the country's nuclear power plants were in talks with tech companies to meet the demands of the AI boom, The Wall Street Journal said. These deliberations could potentially "remove stable power generation from the grid while reliability concerns are rising across much of the U.S," and the electricity demand is driven up by new tech like AI, the outlet said. Instead of helping to add new green energy solutions to meet their "soaring power needs," tech companies would be "effectively diverting existing electricity resources." That could raise prices for other customers and "hold back emission-cutting goals," said the Journal.

Amazon Web Services closed a similar deal earlier this year, acquiring a data center campus connected to Talen Energy Corp.'s nuclear power plant on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania for $650 million. The arrangement raised concerns among clean energy advocates and regulators, specifically the the state's consumer advocate, Patrick Cicero, who said he was worried about cost and reliability if big companies snatch up all the plants. "Never before could anyone say to a nuclear-power plant, we'll take all the energy you can give us," Cicero said to the Journal.

Gearing up for the end of the year and leading up to the holiday season, there are a few long-awaited sequels among the fall's video game releases. One studio takes a crack at remastering a classic horror game, while the makers of "Call of Duty" and "Assassin's Creed" push past controversy to deliver another entry in each of their franchises.

'Silent Hill 2' (Oct. 8)

Silent Hill 2 is a "definitive cult classic" and a "Lynchian slice of psychological horror" that has "cultivated a rabid fanbase in the 23 years since it was released," Vulture said. Bloober, the Polish studio and horror experts, has taken up the task of remastering and modernizing Konami's flagship horror franchise. So far, the remaster "looks competent enough," the outlet said, "the famously obfuscating fog is suitably thick, and the genre-definingly creepy monster designs of Masahiro Ito are rendered more grotesquely than ever." This will be the first major release for the franchise since 2012's "Book of Memories" and will be one of two re-releases for Konami this year, along with "Metal Gear Solid Delta." Pre-order here for PlayStation or Steam.

'Call of Duty: Black Ops 6' (Oct. 25)

The "Call of Duty" franchise's latest entry is the first to come out since Microsoft acquired developer Activision Blizzard last October, setting off several legal battles for the tech giant. Game Pass subscribers will have access to the game as soon as it drops, and the game will also be available on PlayStation consoles "thanks to a bitterly negotiated agreement made between Microsoft and Sony during said acquisition," said Vulture. Set in the early '90s and developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, "Black Ops 6" features a spy thriller single-player campaign, an online multiplayer mode with 16 new maps and a new zombie mode. Pre-order here.

'Life Is Strange: Double Exposure' (Oct. 29)

A return to the supernatural mystery series, nearly a decade after 2015's "Life Is Strange" ended, protagonist Max is back. The new game respects the two possible endings from the first game, allowing you to bounce back and forth between parallel timelines. The series has "mastered the art of single-player storytelling, emphasizing exploration and player choice, delivering often hard-hitting and emotional plots with characters you come to love over the course of their journey," said Dexerto. "Double Exposure" reinvigorates all things people loved about its predecessor. "The clever use of each game's main mechanic or power, the world-building, the strongly written characters and the laidback yet momentous story are all present in the new title," Dexerto said. Pre-order here.

'Assassin's Creed Shadows' (Nov. 15)

Another video game release that has been tinged with controversy is the upcoming "Assassin's Creed Shadows," which takes the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order to feudal Japan. Players will control two characters, with ninja Naoe, a female shinobi, and Yasuke, a Black samurai based on the real-life figure. Including the latter character led to some backlash from Japanese players over the historical accuracy, as Yasuke's position as a samurai has been a source of debate. Beyond that hiccup, fans of the series will likely be "thrilled to see the combination of samurai and ninja abilities both fully represented in gameplay through unique protagonists" while maintaining the game's "fictionalized takes on historical figures that are essential to its DNA," said Rolling Stone. Pre-order here.

Somewhere, in an office of the cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike, someone must have had the worst day of their working life last week, said Matthew Field in The Daily Telegraph. 

The US tech company is not a household name, but it is a massive player in the industry: its software is embedded deep in the computers of some 23,000 corporations worldwide, including more than half of those listed on the Fortune 500.

With $3 billion (£2.33 billion) in reported revenues last year, CrowdStrike was valued at $80 billion (£62 billion) – until last Friday, when the firm that is supposed to protect IT systems caused the most significant IT outage the world has ever seen. A piece of code that it had pushed out as part of one of its routine updates to combat evolving cyber-threats contained a defect that caused Microsoft Windows to crash. 

As a result, millions of people working in everything from hospitality to banking turned on their computers that morning, only to be greeted by the "blue screen of death". 

Relief and overreliance

In Britain, people woke up to find that Sky News had fallen silent, said The Times. Trains were cancelled as ticketing systems failed; Waitrose was among the retailers that could not accept contactless payments; Ladbrokes told its punters that it could not accept bets; thousands of GP surgeries were unable to access medical records or make referrals; some schools could not report pupil absences; and some hospitals were forced to cancel appointments for cancer treatments. 

Around the world, airports resorted to displaying flight information on whiteboards; security scanners failed; and passengers queued for hours to be checked in manually. Hundreds of flights to and from UK airports were cancelled on what was projected to be the busiest flying day since 2019, and the Government convened its COBR crisis response.

Among security experts in the US, the initial reaction was one of relief, that this was not a nation-state attack, said David E. Sanger in The New York Times. For two years, government cyberwarriors have been combatting Volt Typhoon, an allegedly state-supported Chinese operation to "pre-position" malware into US critical infrastructure for future sabotage operations: it is "designed to sow far greater fear and chaos" than was seen on Friday. 

But as the failure cascaded across industries, attention turned to the dangers posed by security software of this kind, said Joseph Menn in The Washington Post. To be effective, it must have privileged access to internal networks, so that it can "see everything"; but that means that if something goes wrong, the consequences, as we saw on Friday, can be catastrophic. 

And though fixing the faulty code was not complicated, it was still expensive and time-consuming, as computers had to be rebooted manually by specialists. For businesses, this should be a wake-up call, said Simon Pardo in the Daily Express. Many have been able to scale back their IT teams by buying systems from third-party providers; but that has left industries with an "overreliance on single vendor solutions" – too many eggs in one basket.

A 'perfect storm'

The CrowdStrike cascade would have been more contained, had Microsoft not got such a "stranglehold" on the corporate world, said The Observer. Most businesses use Windows. Add in the pressure on firms to boost their cybersecurity, and you have the conditions for last week’s "perfect storm". 

Of course, computing monocultures have advantages in terms of efficiency and so on, but they're not good for resilience. And hackers are aware of these vulnerabilities: indeed, it has been suggested that cybercriminals may turn out to have been behind the faulty code at CrowdStrike. There are basic lessons to be learnt from this fiasco – such as that updates should be rolled out in stages. More broadly, it highlights just how dependent we have become on "a complex web of technologies that few understand". The risk is that, because this defect was fairly quickly fixed, it will be seen as a hiccup, not as a massive red flag.

We've had plenty of those before, said Edward Lucas in the Daily Mail. In a "supply chain attack" in 2021, hackers (most likely Russian) used an update issued by a software firm called SolarWinds to gain access to the networks of thousands of organisations including the Pentagon. This year, there was a "near miss" when an engineer spotted that malware had been inserted into an update to a ubiquitous software package called XZ Utils. Were it not for his vigilance, hackers would have gained a "backdoor" to hundreds of millions of computers. 

In just a few years, we've rushed headlong into a digital future, embracing new technologies so fully that our world now barely functions offline. In the process, tech giants have become so rich and powerful that they've been able to evade accountability for any damage their products wreak. We've sacrificed security for innovation and convenience; sooner or later, we'll pay heavily for that.

Microsoft's products remain among the most used in the workplace, especially its video-chatting service Teams and its flagship suite of apps, Office. However, the pair are about to undergo a major change: While Teams and Office have previously been offered as a bundle, Microsoft has announced that it will begin selling the two products as separate entities.  

This change already occurred in Europe at the end of 2023, but this announcement confirms that Microsoft will unbundle the two products globally. This separation will be implemented via a "new lineup of commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites that do not include Teams in regions outside [Europe] and Switzerland," Microsoft said in a press release. The company also provided a list of options for customers in the U.S. — and everywhere else — to "continue to use, renew, upgrade, and add seats to their current plans as usual."

The unbundling comes as a result of warnings from regulators about possible antitrust violations. They cautioned the company that "packaging the products together gives Microsoft an unfair advantage," according to Reuters, which first reported the news. The company is now implementing its unbundling change globally in an attempt to avoid antitrust fines from the European Union and other regulators. 

What did the commentators say?

Microsoft has long been in the crosshairs of antitrust regulators, as the fact that it bundled Office and Teams together has "upset some competitors, with some asserting that the tech giant was leveraging its position in an unjust manner to gain a competitive edge," Manish Singh said for TechCrunch. 

Beyond regulators themselves, competitors have also expressed anger toward Microsoft. Salesforce, which owns the instant messaging app Slack, has "termed Microsoft's actions 'illegal' in the past, alleging that the Windows-maker forced installation of Teams to customers through its market-dominant productivity suite and hid the true cost of the chat and video service," said Singh. 

There is no doubt that Microsoft's decision is the "latest effort by the software giant to head off investigations by global antitrust enforcers as regulators examine the power of Big Tech," The New York Times' DealBook newsletter said. This isn't a unique proposition for Microsoft, as the separation is "reminiscent of Microsoft's unbundling of Windows in the 2000s," which came after a "bruising antitrust battle with the Justice Department over the tech company’s efforts to shut rivals out of its platform."

Having learned its lesson from that period, Microsoft's announcement "appears aimed at allaying some of those concerns," Brian Fung said for CNN. But the fight may not be over, as the European Union has continually "expressed concerns about Microsoft 'abusing' the market dominance of its Office productivity software to restrict competition for 'communication and collaboration products,'" Siladitya Ray said for Forbes. 

What next? 

The split of Microsoft's products could be a turning point for competitors. Besides Salesforce, video communications company Zoom has "struggled of late to compete with Microsoft’s suite of communications products," CNBC said. Many workplace customers "believe Zoom is a superior platform vs. Teams," but the "bundling of Teams to Office has always been enticing for customers to consider Teams," analysts at Mizuho Securities said to CNBC. 

The fact that this bundle will no longer exist "should help alleviate some enterprise churn headwinds" and calm the concerns of antitrust regulators, the Mizuho analysts said. This appears to be what Microsoft is banking on, as the unbundling will allow for "proactive changes that we hope will start to address these concerns in a meaningful way" and would make "interoperability easier between rival communication and collaboration solutions," Nanna-Louise Linde, the vice president of Microsoft's European Government Affairs, said in a statement after the plan was announced in Europe last year. 

And while Microsoft's decision comes at the behest of antitrust pushes, the company may not be completely off the hook. Microsoft has already racked up $2.4 billion in EU regulatory fines over the past decade and "risks a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of antitrust breaches," Reuters said. The unbundling is a big step — it "may not completely ward off further regulatory scrutiny, but showing regulators Microsoft is willing to be proactive could still soften the stance by regulators," Gil Luria, a senior software analyst at D.A. Davidson, said to Reuters. 

If you've had your eye on any stock-related news in recent months, there's a good chance you've come across "the Magnificent Seven." If you're not yet familiar, you're not that far behind — the name was only recently coined by Bank of America analyst Michael Hartnett in 2023, per Investopedia. 

"Originally, the phrase was a reference to a 1960 Western film, 'The Magnificent Seven,' which was directed by John Sturges and depicts a group of seven gunmen," reports Investopedia. But today, it's "been repurposed to reference a group of seven high-performing and influential stocks in the technology sector, borrowing from the meaning of a powerful group."

What are the Magnificent Seven stocks?

The Magnificent Seven is made up of the following seven stocks:

• Apple (AAPL)
• Microsoft (MSFT)
• Alphabet (GOOG and GOOGL)
• Amazon (AMZN)
• NVIDIA (NVDA)
• Tesla (TSLA)
• Meta Platforms (META)

As The Motley Fool notes, "all seven companies are focused on capitalizing on large technology-driven growth trends," though technically, five are tech stocks, and the other two are tech-focused consumer discretionary stocks."

Why are these stocks deemed the Magnificent Seven?

So what makes these seven stocks so, well, magnificent? Put simply by NPR, in 2023, "the S&P 500's impressive performance is actually thanks almost entirely to just a handful of stocks" — the Magnificent Seven. According to Kiplinger, "in 2023, the Magnificent Seven stocks logged an impressive average return of 111%, compared to a 24% return for the broader S&P 500."

According to Investopedia, there are a culmination of factors driving these stocks' magnificent performance: "adaptability," "strong financial health," "global reach," "strong market position," and "worldwide brand recognition." As Investopedia explains, these companies "are at the forefront of technological changes across the economy, and they consistently develop new products and services that drive consumer demand and business growth." 

Should you invest in the Magnificent Seven stocks?

It might seem like a no-brainer to dump your money into these Magnificent Seven stocks — but not so fast. As Kiplinger points out, "these Magnificent Seven stocks are not bulletproof." In fact, just in 2022, "all seven of these names finished the year with double-digit percentage losses," reports Kiplinger.

There are other risks to weigh as well. Per The Motley Fool, "one of the biggest risks of investing in these stocks is their high valuations" — in other words, "it could be hard for those already large companies to grow into their valuations in the future, potentially causing their stock prices to underperform." Further, according to The Motley Fool, "tech spending tends to be cyclical," which means that "if there's a recession and economic growth slows, it could significantly affect the growth of the Magnificent Seven."

Other risks to take into consideration when it comes to the Magnificent Seven include "regulatory and legal risks," "technological disruption," "market saturation and competition," and "cybersecurity threats," among others, reports Investopedia.

So what does that all mean for your portfolio? As Kiplinger puts it, "prudent investors must stay aware of market environments and diversify their portfolios." Investopedia offers similar advice, noting that "while the Magnificent Seven offer potential for substantial growth, they also require careful analysis and a balanced approach considering their strengths and the various external factors that could influence their future trajectory."

Generative artificial intelligence hit the scene in 2023 and quickly became the next big thing in tech. ChatGPT, an advanced chatbot created by OpenAI, a former nonprofit turned tech-industry unicorn, was at the center of the enthusiasm for AI. The company had a busy year, including sparking an AI arms race and co-founder Sam Altman's near ouster. 

Here's a look at how generative AI took over the tech industry in 2023: 

The start of the AI 'gold rush' 

OpenAI wasn't expecting ChatGPT to be "much more than a passing curiosity among AI obsessives on Twitter," Charlie Warzel wrote for The Atlantic, but it surpassed expectations quickly. Within the first five days of its debut, 1 million users signed up. The advanced chatbot was supposed to be "the software equivalent of a concept car," Warzel added. "Instead, it became one of the most popular applications in the history of the internet." Other generative AI apps gained popularity, and ChatGPT's viral success fueled a swift pivot in Silicon Valley, signaling the beginning of an AI arms race. "The AI 'gold rush' is here," The Washington Post proclaimed at the start of the year. 

Generative AI isn't limited to chatbots or text generators. The internet has been flooded with AI-generated portraits, music and videos. The realm of possibilities with the budding technology seems nearly limitless, grabbing the attention of investors. This year, over 1 in 4 dollars invested in American startups went to an AI-related company, per data from Crunchbase. The AI gold rush also helped make Nvidia, which creates microchips needed to run AI, a trillion-dollar company. 

With AI advancing rapidly, big tech companies had to move swiftly to capitalize on the momentum. After falling behind in recent years, Microsoft made a deal with OpenAI that "allowed the computer giant to leap over such rivals as Google and Amazon," said The New Yorker. After investing more than $3 billion since 2019, Microsoft reached another $10 billion deal with OpenAI in January. Over the last year, the company has integrated ChatGPT into its search engine, Bing, and released a fleet of AI chatbots called Office Copilots for its other products. Google executives declared a "code red" in response to ChatGPT and started fast-tracking their own AI projects. This led to a less-than-stellar debut of Google's chatbot Bard, which the company admittedly didn't believe was ready to be publicly available. Elon Musk, who also helped found OpenAI, introduced Grok, which he described as an AI chatbot with a "rebellious streak." Meta seemingly abandoned the metaverse and released its own chatbots on Instagram and Facebook in an attempt to court Gen Z users. 

Experts sound the alarm about 'societal-scale risks'

While the AI arms race forged ahead rapidly with little-to-no guardrails, it wasn't long before the excitement turned to fear. People began to wonder whether these advanced apps would someday steal jobs and make human employees obsolete. ChatGPT caused some musings about the death of the high school English class.  Creatives started pushing back against AI companies using their work to train their programs without permission. Several authors banned together to file lawsuits against Google and OpenAI, accusing them of using a trove of pirated books to train their large language models. Musicians pushed back against AI-generated impersonations. AI even played a significant role in this year's Hollywood writers' strike. 

Experts also warned that the lack of regulation and the swift integration of generative AI everywhere could threaten humanity. In the more immediate sense, people worry that the underdeveloped technology is prone to "hallucinating" or presenting false information as fact.  AI could also help perpetuate disinformation in the wrong hands, which many see as a threat to democracy. There also is an undercurrent of discrimination and bias that has some civil rights activists wary of the technology. 

Some of the sternest warnings came from some of the industry's most prominent players. In March, about a thousand AI industry leaders, computer scientists and tech industry VIPs signed an open letter warning that AI was moving too fast, with too few regulations. The group included Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio and Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque. They called for companies to "immediately pause for at least six months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4," or else "governments should step in and institute a moratorium." 

A few months later, Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "godfather of AI" for his pioneering work on neural networks, retired from his position at Google to join the growing chorus of experts warning about the risks AI could pose to humanity. "It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things," Hinton told The New York Times. He signed another one-line open letter released by the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit organization, which warned that the "risk of extinction from AI" was on par with other "societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war." 

Politicians worldwide began taking steps to create regulations to help mitigate AI's risks. After months of closed-door meetings, President Biden unveiled an executive order to develop guidelines for safely working with AI.  In November, 28 countries gathered in the United Kingdom for a two-day AI summit held by U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Still, with the technology spreading so rapidly, regulators need help to keep up. 

The smartest insight and analysis, from all perspectives, rounded up from around the web: 

Sam Altman walked onstage at OpenAI’s first developer conference on Nov. 6 to rapturous applause as he "ticked off the company’s accomplishments," said Max Chafkin and Rachel Metz in Bloomberg. Last week, the co-founder and chief executive of the world’s most famous artificial intelligence company was fired by its board via teleconference. The abrupt dismissal less than two weeks after Altman’s thunderous ovation triggered a chaotic weekend of jockeying over the future of the company that brought ChatGPT to the world and set off an international AI frenzy. More than 730 of OpenAI’s 770 employees signed a letter saying they would quit if the board didn’t resign. Microsoft, which owns a 49% stake, promptly said it would hire Altman to "lead a new in-house AI lab alongside OpenAI board member Greg Brockman." Meanwhile, OpenAI’s board clung to its original goal as a nonprofit founded to "advance digital intelligence" to "benefit humanity as a whole." Under Altman, that mission was spinning "out of control," becoming "maybe even dangerous."

To understand the chaos you have to know that OpenAI isn’t structured like a normal company, said Rohan Goswami at CNBC. At the top is its board, the "group responsible for pushing Altman out," which controls a nonprofit corporation, OpenAI Inc. That nonprofit owns and controls a subsidiary, OpenAI Global, which is the company that Microsoft invested in. The for-profit subsidiary was created so that OpenAI could lure enough talent to keep up with Big Tech rivals. But "none of its largest backers, even Microsoft, have board seats." Microsoft has something else, though, said Ben Thompson in Stratechery: "a perpetual license to all OpenAI intellectual property, including source code." The question was always whether "it had the talent to exploit that IP." You can make the case that by hiring Altman and Brockman Microsoft can "acquire OpenAI for $0 and zero risk of an antitrust lawsuit."

This isn’t Altman’s first ugly corporate breakup, said Eric Newcomer in his Substack newsletter. His departure as president of the startup accelerator Y Combinator "was more contentious than publicly understood," echoing some of what’s going on here. Two of OpenAI’s former executives quit to form a safer AI company, Anthropic, because they "felt troubled enough" by Altman’s approach. This fiasco is exactly why AI demands regulation, said Steve Petersen in the New York Post. The technology carries too much potential danger for corporations to police themselves. "Investor greed should not be a thumb on this particular scale."

OpenAI tried and failed to straddle a rift forming in Silicon Valley, said The Economist. On one side are the "doomers, who believe that, left unchecked, AI poses an existential threat to humanity." Opposite them are the "boomers," who think doomers are hysterical and ignorant of AI’s "potential to turbocharge progress." The board seems to be in the doomer camp, while Altman himself "seemed to have sympathy with both groups." Whichever side can prove "more influential" will shape what regulators do to promote or limit AI — which in turn will "determine who will profit from AI most in the future."

This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.

OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman has been hired by Microsoft days after being fired as CEO of the company that he helped to create.

The suddenness of his sacking on Friday, and "the Icarus-like fall it represents for Altman, is difficult to overstate", said The Atlantic. It's "as if Bill Gates was abruptly shown the door at Microsoft in 1995".

Employees at OpenAI, along with Silicon Valley's big guns, rallied behind Altman over the weekend. Leading investors led by Microsoft, which has put $13 billion into OpenAI so far, explored the possibility of reinstating him to his former role. 

These efforts fell through on Sunday when OpenAI's board announced that former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear had been hired to replace Altman. This was swiftly followed by news that Altman and his fellow OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman would be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.

Why was Altman fired?

"Healthy companies led by competent, commercially successful and globally beloved founders generally don’t tend to fire them," said Bloomberg, and on the surface at least, "all those things could have described [Altman's] role at OpenAI".

Altman had "kicked off a global race for artificial intelligence supremacy, helped OpenAI surpass much larger competitors, and was, by this point, regularly compared to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs", said the financial news site.

Now he is out. A blog post on OpenAI's website on Friday said the board "no longer has confidence" in Altman's leadership because "he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board".

Reading between the lines of the "extraordinary firing", said the BBC's technology editor Zoe Kleinman, "this suggests there was something he either had or had not told them – and somehow he's been caught out. The wording is so powerful, it almost sounds personal."

It wasn't a case of "one big problem", a person with direct knowledge of the board's decision told the Financial Times (FT). "The board reached the point where they couldn't believe what Sam told them."

According to "people familiar with the matter", the FT said, Altman was ousted "because of concerns about his commitment to OpenAI’s mission of ensuring safe and beneficial AI".

Such a "philosophical disagreement wouldn't normally doom a company that had been in talks to sell shares to investors at an $86 billion valuation, but OpenAI was nothing like a normal company", said Bloomberg. Structured as a non-profit but with a for-profit subsidiary that had aggressively courted venture capitalists and corporate partners, this "novel – and, as OpenAI critics see it, flawed – structure put Altman, Microsoft, and all of the company's customers at the mercy of a wonky board of directors that was dominated by those who were skeptical of the corporate expansion".

The most popular theory, put forward by Kara Swisher of New York magazine, is that the rest of the board, assembled by its chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, disagreed with Altman on how the firm should balance making money with the safe release of its models. This appears to have influenced the decision to appoint Shear as the new CEO.

"In spite of now being at the helm of one of the world's most powerful AI companies – and being a self-described 'techno-optimist' – Shear has expressed concerns about what he sees as the potential existential threat posed by the technology," reported the BBC.

What will happen next?

While Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella said it would "remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI" following the change in leadership, the manner in which the board unceremoniously dumped Altman has not gone down well with either its key backer or its employees. 

The company was in "open revolt" today, said Wired, as more than 500 employees signed an open letter "threatening to leave unless the board resigns" and reinstates Altman and Brockman.

According to Axios, Microsoft was left "blindsided", learning about the news only a minute before it was announced, "which was one minute earlier than employees at OpenAI reportedly found out", said The Atlantic.

By hiring two OpenAI co-founders who have a "broad and dedicated following among staff", said the FT, Microsoft is "likely to gain the upper hand over rivals who are attempting to tap talented AI researchers and engineers from OpenAI".

OpenAI is currently in talks to raise funds at a valuation of nearly $90 billion but following the drama of the past few days, and now deprived of Altman and Brockman – the face and engineering brains of the start-up – that valuation may now be tested.

The impact on the wider industry is "less clear", said The Economist. Under Altman, OpenAI shipped new products into the world "which gave it a first-mover advantage" and as a result its competitors were "forced to move faster to keep pace". 

A more "safety-focused OpenAI will therefore slow down the whole industry, allowing competitors to catch up", while "AI startups that were building products with OpenAI's technology may now think twice before tying themselves too closely to one company".

Microsoft's new offer to buy "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard has been approved by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), bringing an end to a near two-year bid to secure the gaming industry's biggest-ever takeover.

The approval follows a "restructuring of the deal" and a "major concession made by Microsoft" to the regulators, said PC Mag. This comes after the CMA blocked the original $69bn (£59bn) bid in April over concerns that Microsoft, which makes the Xbox console, would dominate the new cloud gaming market.

The Financial Times saw the approval differently, saying it "marks a win" for Brad Smith, the Microsoft executive who "led the company's legal campaign to defend a deal that many investors and analysts had written off earlier this year".

Writing on social media, Smith said Microsoft was "grateful" for the CMA's thorough "review and decision", which "we believe will benefit players and the gaming industry worldwide".

The CMA said the revised deal would "preserve competitive prices" in the gaming sector and offer more choice and better services, but the BBC said it has "proved controversial and received a mixed response from regulators around the world". It is the "biggest ever tech deal", said The Telegraph.

Even as it finally approved the takeover, the CMA reprimanded Microsoft, which had criticised the watchdog's initial rejection as "bad for Britain". The CMA's chief executive, Sarah Cardell, said that businesses and their advisers "should be in no doubt that the tactics employed by Microsoft are no way to engage with the CMA".

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had earlier intervened, urging the CMA to "understand their wider responsibilities". The UK regulator had "appeared increasingly isolated" in blocking the takeover after its EU counterparts passed the deal and the US competition regulator failed to secure a court injunction to stop it, said The Guardian.

Microsoft has partnered with the corporation Carbon Streaming on a new project to bring the former closer to its carbon-negative goal. The company invested millions of dollars to receive up to 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal credits through the production of burnt organic material, or biochar, which offsets emissions the company itself produces. This method is a “vital piece of the puzzle for corporations with net zero commitments,” according to Oliver Forster, the vice president of sales at Carbon Streaming. So what exactly is biochar and how does it offset emissions, thereby mitigating climate change?

What is biochar?

Biochar is a “charcoal-like substance that’s made by burning organic material from agricultural and forestry wastes (also called biomass) in a controlled process called pyrolysis,” according to Regeneration International. The organic matter is “burned in a container with very little oxygen” and consequently releases “little to no contaminating fumes” into the atmosphere. Once burned, biochar can then be added to degraded soil, which it improves by helping it “retain water and nutrients,” per Forbes. The resulting effect can lead to potentially better crop yields and reduced fertilizer requirements.

In addition to improving soil quality, converting biomass to biochar can prevent emissions from reaching the atmosphere. Normally, decomposing organic matter emits “the potent greenhouse gases CO2 and methane.” But with pyrolysis, “the carbon is locked in a stable form that resists decay, sequestering it for hundreds of years,” Forbes explained. 

How can it be used to fight climate change?

According to Our World in Data, agriculture, forestry and land use account for approximately 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. “When farmers grow their crops, they apply fertilizer and/or manure and use different kinds of machinery to till the soil,” said Raj Shrestha, a research associate in horticulture and crop science at The Ohio State University. “In the process, greenhouse gases are produced and released into the atmosphere.”

Biochar could offset the equivalent of up to three gigatons of carbon dioxide each year by 2050, which is like shutting down 800 coal plants, Grist reported. “We can achieve negative emission in our agroecosystems by reducing the carbon source and enhancing carbon sink,” Shreshta explained, adding that biochar “contributes to both these aspects to create net negative agriculture.”

“If we can convince farmers that converting biomass to biochar is good for the long-term sustainability of soils, the economy, and good for the environment, then we’ll be able to see wide adoption of this technology,” Shreshta continued. Some companies, like Microsoft, have seen the potential and have opted to pay “biochar producers millions of dollars so that they can claim credit for the carbon that’s locked up in the soot and not in the atmosphere heating the Earth,” Grist wrote.

Are there any drawbacks?

Biochar alone is not enough to reduce carbon emissions from soil and must be combined with other methods like “commercial nitrogen fertilizer or organic materials like manure or compost,” Euronews noted. It is also expensive to produce and there is “limited evidence on its benefits and stability, due to a lack of large-scale, long-term studies.”

In order for biochar to become a legitimate climate solution, it would need to be produced “on a much larger scale,” per Grist. However, that brings up “a lot more complicated questions,” Charlotte Levy, a science adviser at carbon removal nonprofit Carbon180, told the outlet. There’s the possibility that companies could start growing plants specifically to create biochar, rather than using existing organic matter, which could actually worsen greenhouse gas emissions. And it’s not like biochar would make it so farmers could totally “supercharge” production, Grist added.

Moreover, “not all biochar is equal,” the outlet went on. “Biochar started to be promoted as a single solution and a silver bullet, and it’s much more nuanced than that,” Rachel Seman-Varner, a soil scientist at the American Farmland Trust, told Grist. “A lot of people are trying to shift toward understanding that biochar is a class of products.” 

In a “striking show of leniency by a notoriously tough regulator”, the European Commission has approved Microsoft’s $69bn megadeal with games-maker Activision Blizzard, said DealBook in The New York Times – just weeks after the UK’s competition regulator threw it out.

The eurocrats are satisfied with Microsoft’s concessions: namely a pledge to make top titles like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft available to rival gaming platforms such as Sony and Nintendo for the next ten years. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, by contrast, argues the Seattle software giant “could end up dominating the nascent business of cloud gaming – and that no solution apart from selling off big chunks of Activision would be acceptable”. The US has yet to formally pronounce. “Microsoft and others are left trying to navigate an increasingly complicated thicket of global rules, where regulators are coming to very different conclusions about the same issues.” Given the size of the British, European and US markets, “simply ignoring one of them is impossible”.

‘Closed for business’

“It might not be as exciting as a shoot-out” in Call of Duty, but the EU’s decision is a landmark, said Matthew Lynn in The Daily Telegraph. It’s also a sign that “something has gone badly wrong in Britain”. You can argue the finer points of the games market, but what on earth was the point of Brexit if the UK is now taking a tougher stance on regulation than Brussels? If even the EU’s competition tsar, Margrethe Vestager – no pushover – thinks the deal is okay, there are surely questions about the CMA’s stance. It looks as if we are indeed “closed for business”.

The regulator’s new boss, Sarah Cardell, is certainly feeling the heat, said Alex Hern in The Guardian. Summoned by MPs this week, she was forced to deny that she had blocked the deal “on the orders” of the US Federal Trade Commission.

‘Down to the wire’

The alternative view is that the Commission has gone out on a limb here, said Bloomberg – and that the CMA was right. Cardell is no outlier, said the FT’s Due Diligence newsletter. America’s trust-busting duo – Lina Khan of the FTC and Jonathan Kanter of the Department of Justice – are only “just getting started” on a tough new regimen aimed at protecting workers and independent businesses, as well as consumers. “Khan and Kanter aren’t just in the game to block deals, they want to scare chief executives from even thinking about doing transactions that promote rampant consolidation.”

Where does this leave Microsoft and Activision? With a deal set to go “down to the wire”, said Dan Gallagher in The Wall Street Journal. It could be a long, hot summer.

In the 1850s the California gold rush brought more than 300,000 people to the west coast of the US in search of their fortune. There’s another one taking place this year – in the field of artificial intelligence.

“The AI ‘gold rush’ is here,” The Washington Post exclaimed. Companies are “racing to be part of the next big hit in the field and taking drastic action to do it”.

AI investment has risen consistently over the past six years. A new report from Writerbuddy.ai found that investment rose from $12.75bn in 2015 to $93.5bn in 2021 – a remarkable 633.33% increase, reported TechRound.

In announcing 12,000 job losses across the company recently, Google’s parent, Alphabet, said the cuts were necessary if it wants to “bet big” on areas like artificial intelligence.

Brad Smith, the vice chair and president of Microsoft, wrote a blog post earlier this month suggesting that the AI revolution had arrived significantly earlier than most analysts has predicted. “AI developments we had expected around 2033 would arrive in 2023 instead,” he wrote.

‘Cool and clever applications’

Impressive original artworks as well as poems, essays and other pieces of writing generated by AI have overrun social media in recent months.

A few companies specialising in what has been called “generative AI” have between them raised hundreds of millions of pounds, “spurring a hunt for a new generation of AI unicorns”, said Wired.

One of those, Stability AI, held a party in San Francisco recently to announce $101m in new funding, which would value the company at $1bn. At the event were familiar names from the tech industry including Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Artificial intelligence has an array of potential applications. Generative AI companies are already “working on applications including generating music, game development, writing assistants, customer service bots, coding aids, video editing tech, and assistants that manage online communities”, Wired said.

​​In 2022, venture capitalists invested “at least” $1.37bn in generative AI start-ups, according to PitchBook data, which amounts to almost as much as the five previous years combined.

“This is just like a gold rush,” said Russ Altman, associate director of Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI. “We’re going to continue to see things that are really cool and clever, but they won’t be perfectly well-thought-out with respect both to the business model and to the potential long-term damages or impacts on society.”

‘Serious regulatory challenges’

As pointed out by tech commentator Tod Pedler on Medium, Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of creative destruction suggests that over time, new innovations emerge to replace existing ones that are rendered obsolete over time. Consequently the current AI revolution could mean that “some of today’s technology titans could potentially fall”, Pedler said.

There are also potential human costs to the rapid innovation, said VentureBeat. “The past week’s AI and Big Tech news, from outsourced labour to layoffs and lawsuits, provided a sober reminder of the human side of the generative AI storyline that I can’t – and enterprise businesses shouldn’t – simply ignore.”

“I think I know why artificial intelligence is breaking our all-too-human brains,” said Peter Coy in The New York Times. “It’s coming at us too fast.”

“We don’t understand what’s happening inside the black boxes of A.I., and what we don’t understand, we understandably fear,” Coy added. “Ordinarily we count on lawmakers and regulators to look out for our interests, but they can’t keep up with the rapid advances in A.I., either.”

The question of regulation of AI is a concern of lawmakers around the world, but how to do it is not immediately obvious. AI creates “serious regulatory challenges due to the way it is funded, researched and developed”, said Kate Jones, Marjorie Buchser and Jon Wallace at the London-based think tank Chatham House.

The private sector is currently driving progress in AI, but “without government oversight the future application of AI’s extraordinary potential will be effectively outsourced to commercial interests. That outcome provides little incentive to use AI to address the world’s greatest challenges, from poverty and hunger to climate change,” the analysts said.

There are also concerns about how AI will impact the development of robots and how it will be used in war.

“New technologies unfortunately typically bring out both the best and worst in people,” said Microsoft president Brad Smith. And according to NYT’s Peter Coy, “it will take an all-out effort to beat back the worst and bring forth the best”.

Shares in Google’s parent company Alphabet dropped by 9% this week after a botched demonstration of its new AI chatbot, which instantly wiped £100bn (£82bn) from its value.

Alphabet had tweeted a video of Bard, its newly announced rival to ChatGPT, which it described as a “launch pad for curiosity” that could simplify complex topics.

In the video, the bot was asked to tell a nine-year-old about the James Webb Space Telescope and its discoveries.

Bard replied that it was the first telescope to take pictures of a planet outside the Earth’s solar system. But astronomers quickly pointed out that the feat was first achieved in 2004 by the Very Large Telescope.

“Why didn’t you factcheck this example before sharing it?” Dr Chris Harrison, from Newcastle University, replied to the tweet.

Google has been “under pressure since late last year”, said the BBC, when Microsoft-backed OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT. The software “became a viral hit”, the site said, for helping people pass exams, write poems, dream up jokes and answer questions.

Microsoft announced this week that it will incorporate ChatGPT into its Bing search engine, “which has lagged Google for years”, said the BBC.

Google investors appear to have been rattled by the Bard demonstration, because of the error and because they “were disappointed as Alphabet failed to provide detail on how it will compete with Microsoft in this area”, This Is Money said.

The sharp dip in Alphabet’s stocks was directly mirrored by a leap in Microsoft’s share price, which rose by 3%.

The “costly blunder” was brought about by Google’s “haste” to catch up with Microsoft in the AI chatbot field, said Quartz.

Google still has a huge advantage over Microsoft in terms of its reach, tweeted Jim Fan, an AI research scientist at Nvidia. ChatGPT has built a user base of 100 million people as of 1 February, which, while impressive, is nowhere near the reach of Google, whose search engine crossed the 1 billion users mark years ago. “Unlike ChatGPT, Google doesn’t need to gain users. It just needs to roll out to its existing search box,” Fan said.

Whichever way it goes, the competition between the two experimental chatbots is going to be, in Fan’s words, “a dance of giants”.

Google has introduced Bard, its first public foray into the generative AI arena and the first shot in the chatbot wars that look set to define Big Tech in the decade ahead.

In a blog post this week, Google said it would first give access to Bard to a group of trusted external partners, but the company said it has plans to give the public access “in the coming weeks”.

Bard “appears to be a response to ChatGPT, the sensationally popular artificial intelligence chatbot developed by startup OpenAI with funding from Microsoft”, said Wired.

Its arrival comes as Microsoft is expected to imminently announce ChatGPT integration into its search engine Bing. By getting the news of Bard out first, Google is showing that it “isn’t about to let Microsoft or anyone else make a swipe for its search crown without a fight”, said Wired.

While Google has used the company’s LaMDA AI technology to help improve search results for years, chatbots like ChatGPT or Bard “actually generate their own text based on all the information they’ve been trained on, so Google can create completely new pieces of content to help answer search queries”, said The Washington Post.

Google’s blog post said Bard “seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models”. The company added that means it can explain new discoveries from Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope in a way that’s understandable for a nine-year-old, or “learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills”.

‘The latest battleground in Big Tech’

Chatbots “have become the latest battleground in Big Tech”, said the Independent, with Google’s parent company Alphabet more than matching Microsoft’s investment by “putting more than $31 billion towards research and development in 2021”, according to Forbes, citing figures from The Wall Street Journal.

Facebook’s parent company Meta launched its own AI chatbot Blenderbot in the US last summer, and in China “the tech giant Baidu says an advanced version of its chatbot Ernie (also known as Wenxin Yiyan) will roll out in March 2023”, reported the BBC.

The “rushed announcement and lack of information about Bard are telltale signs of the ‘code red’ triggered at Google by ChatGPT”, said The Verge. Although OpenAI’s technology is “not revolutionary”, the decision to make ChatGPT freely available on the web “exposed millions to this novel form of automated text generation”, the website added.

Google’s search engine “is still its biggest income stream”, agreed Semafor’s Tom Chivers and so ChatGPT with its ability to “give relevant natural-language answers to questions rather than a string of links, is the first real threat to its dominance”.

Last month the founder of Gmail, Paul Buchheit, warned that artificial intelligence like ChatGPT could mean “Google may be only a year or two away from total disruption”. According to Buchheit, “AI will eliminate the search engine result page, which is where they make most of their money”. Even if they catch up on AI, “they can’t fully deploy it without destroying the most valuable part of their business”, he tweeted.

‘From playful to hateful’

But tech giants are wary of the power of their creations too. In 2016, it took Microsoft “just 16 hours to shut down its AI chatbot Tay”, said the Independent.

Released on Twitter with the tagline “the more you talk, the smarter Tay gets”, users quickly figured out that they could get the bot to repeat whatever they wrote and influence her behaviour. Tay’s “playful conversation soon turned racist, sexist and hateful, as she denied that the Holocaust happened and called for a Mexican genocide”, added the news site.

Last year, Google fired one of its engineers after he said that LaMDA had become sentient and already, “some industry experts have cautioned that big tech companies like Google could overlook the potential harms of conversational AI tools in their rush to compete with OpenAI”, said Vox. And “if these risks are left unchecked, they could reinforce negative societal biases and upend certain industries like media”.

Bill Gates stepped down from the Microsoft board while being investigated over claims that he had an “inappropriate” relationship with a staff member, it has emerged.

Members of the board “hired a law firm to conduct an investigation in late 2019” after a “Microsoft engineer alleged in a letter that she had a sexual relationship over years” with her billionaire boss, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.

During the probe, “some board members decided it was no longer suitable” for Gates to remain as director of the company he founded in 1975, the paper continues. But according to a “person familiar with the matter”, he “resigned before the board’s investigation was completed and before the full board could make a formal decision on the matter”.

A spokesperson for Gates told the WSJ that “there was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably”.

However, his “decision to transition off the board was in no way related to this matter,” the spokesperson said. “In fact, he had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years earlier.”

Microsoft has confirmed that an investigation was launched. A spokesperson told Sky News that the company had “received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000”.

“A committee of the board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm, to conduct a thorough investigation,” the representative continued. “Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern.”

The disclosure comes just weeks after Gates announced that he and his wife of 27 years, Melinda, were divorcing. In a joint statement posted on Twitter, the former couple gave no explanation for their separation beyond saying that “we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives”.

Allegations of an affair follow suggestions from insider sources that Melinda was also concerned about her husband’s dealings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In April, Gates told the WSJ that he “didn’t have any business relationship or friendship” with the the disgraced financier, who committed suicide in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

But The New York Times reported earlier this month that “beginning in 2011”, Gates “met with Epstein on numerous occasions”, and that the pair also discussed a potential charitable venture.

A source subsequently told People Magazine that “Epstein is definitely a sore spot” for Melinda and that her concerns about her husband’s relationship with the convicted paedophile dated back to those first meetings. “That’s a long time for issues to fester,” the source added.

When Microsoft released the first version of Flight Simulator in November 1982 it opened up a new world for aviation geeks.

Now, 37 years later, the 11th instalment has left gamers stunned.

By using accurate geographic data from Bing Maps, a global cloud computing network and real-time weather information, the 2020 edition “is as much a visual spectacle as it is a simulator”, The Guardian reports.

Developed by Asobo Studio and published by Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft Flight Simulator lets pilots file a flight plan to anywhere on the planet. Featuring 37,000 airports, two million cities, 1.5 billion buildings plus real mountains, roads, trees, rivers, animals and traffic, the intricate detail is epic.

With a choice of light planes to wide-body jets, pilots can fly during the day or night, amid the challenges of realistic weather conditions.

Critics have been waxing lyrical about the sim since its release. IGN’s Seth Macy calls it the “most incredible experience” he’s ever had on a computer while Jordan Oloman of the NME describes it as a “hotbed of pure wonder”.

Here we take a look at the video trailers, game information and critic reviews for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020: the key details

• Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
• Developer: Asobo Studio
• Simulator platform: PC Windows 10
• Release date: out now
• Download price: standard edition £59.99; deluxe edition £79.99; premium deluxe edition £109.99 (it’s also included with Xbox Game Pass for PC)

What the critics are saying

Martin Robinson, Eurogamer

“So often, Microsoft Flight Simulator feels like the future. I’ve been playing daily for pretty much a month now, and I still struggle on occasion to believe it’s real. Over the past month or so, Microsoft Flight Simulator has sent me on a spiral of discovery, exploring the world as well as the often mundane, frequently magical detail of air travel, my appreciation of what Microsoft and Asobo have achieved growing all the while. When it all comes together, this thing can be as uplifting as flight itself.”

Seth Macy, IGN

“Microsoft Flight Simulator is the most incredible experience I’ve ever had on a computer. The realism, the depth, the almost limitless replayability - it’s like nothing I’ve ever played before. It does so much to recreate the feeling of actual flight, at a level of accuracy never before seen, that there were times when I came in for a landing at real-life airfields I’d seen during my time in the Air Force where I was simply stunned.”

Keith Stuart, The Guardian

“There are specific flight challenges and missions to try out, and even a global scoreboard where you can match yourself against other pilots, but you never have to do any of this. You can merely pick a departure point and a destination, and fly along the Amalfi coast, or up over the Ural mountains; you can cross the Atlantic, the Irish Sea or Lake Wakatipu. Wherever you go, this game captures the wonder of flight, and the spiritual and emotional rush of seeing the world in a different way.”

Jade King, Trusted Reviews

“Microsoft Flight Simulator is a triumphantly ambitious venture which pushes the boundaries of photorealism in the gaming medium. It requires a lot of horsepower and the support of Azure technology to accomplish such a feat, but these barriers are washed away when you're staring down at endless cities and thick jungles from thousands of feet in the air. It’s breathtaking, and I hope it brings such simulators further into the mainstream.”

Jordan Oloman, NME

“Flying planes in Microsoft Flight Simulator will make you question your relationship with the landscape of the places you love for the better by making you reconsider your place in the environment. It’s given me an adventurous zeal and a strong desire to conquer the woods and nature nearby that I’ve been neglecting in quarantine, purely by showing me what’s on offer. Where other games can trap you in your own head, Microsoft Flight Simulator is a hotbed of pure wonder.”

In-game visuals

Apple, Google, Tesla, Microsoft and Dell are being accused of aiding and abetting the use of child labour in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The tech giants have been named as defendants in a landmark lawsuit filed in Washington D.C. by the International Rights Advocates organisation on behalf of 14 parents and children in the Central African nation.

Court documents allege that the multibillion-dollar companies are complicit in the death or injury of hundreds of children used to mine cobalt, a mineral vital to the production of the lithium-ion batteries used in the firms products.

Listen to The Week discuss cobolt mining on The Week Unwrapped podcast

What is cobalt and how is it used?

Cobalt is a mineral used in rechargable lithium-ion batteries as one of the components of the cathode, along with lithium.

Such batteries are found in mobile phones, tablets and other consumer devices, and the “same fundamental technology is used in electric vehicle batteries and in battery storage sites”, says energy industry news site Network.

As The Guardian explains, cobalt is “essential to power the rechargeable lithium batteries used in millions of products” sold by tech firms every year. “The insatiable demand for cobalt, driven by desire for cheap handheld technology, has tripled in the past five years and is expected to double again by the end of 2020,” the newspaper reports.

More than 60% of mined cobalt originates in the DRC, one of the world’s poorest nations, where the soaring demand for the precious metal is “at times met by workers, including children, who labour in harsh and dangerous conditions” for as little as the equivalent of £1 a day, The Washington Post reports.

“An estimated 100,000 cobalt miners in Congo use hand tools to dig hundreds of feet underground with little oversight and few safety measures”, resulting in accidents that often cause deaths and injuries, says the newspaper.

Frequent contact with the toxic heavy metal can also cause serious health issues including heart problems, damaged vision and cancer, says educational site Battery University.

What does the lawsuit allege?

The legal claim is being made on behalf of the families of 14 anonymous young plaintiffs, of whom six were killed in tunnel collapses after being driven by poverty to seek work in cobalt mines, while the others suffered life-altering injuries including paralysis.

The families are seeking damages for forced labour, and “compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress over deaths and disabling injuries in the mines”, says the Network site.

The lawsuit argues that the tech firms “aided and abetted the mining companies that profited from the labour of children”.

The families say in the claim that their children were working illegally in mines owned by firms including British–Swiss multinational Glencore. These mining companies are alleged to have then sold the cobalt to third parties, who in turn sold it to the US tech giants.

The lawsuit is “clear in its allegations that these companies knowingly entered into business with the mining firms despite knowledge of their child labour supply chains”, Vice News reports.

The news site adds that “while these batteries may power renewable technologies necessary to avoid climate apocalypse”, cobalt mining “is done at great cost to the miners, their communities and their ecosystems”.

How have the firms responded?

The firms under fire claim in the small print of their codes of ethics that they use “voluntary programmes” to recruit workers, the Daily Mail reports.

However, Apple has not commented on the specific allegations in the lawsuit. In a statement to CNN, the company said that it remains “deeply committed to the responsible sourcing of materials that go into our products”, and that “since 2016, we have published a full list of our identified cobalt refiners every year, 100% of which are participating in independent third party audits”.

“If a refiner is unable or unwilling to meet our standards, they will be removed from our supply chain. We’ve removed six cobalt refiners in 2019,” a spokesperson added.

Google, whose parent company Alphabet is listed as a defendent, said: “Child labour and endangerment is unacceptable. Our Supplier Code of Conduct strictly prohibits this activity. We are committed to sourcing all materials ethically and eliminating child mining in global supply chains.”

Dell also said in a statement that it is “committed to the responsible sourcing of minerals”, and to “upholding the human rights of workers at any tier of our supply chain and treating them with dignity and respect.”

“We have never knowingly sourced operations using any form of involuntary labor, fraudulent recruiting practices or child labour,” the firm insists.

Glencore said that it was aware of the allegations and that it “does not tolerate any form of child, forced, or compulsory labour”.

Microsoft and Tesla have not yet responded to requests for comment about the newly filed lawsuit, but Tesla suggested as far back as 2017 that it was aware of the issues within the DRC’s cobalt mining industry, and announced plans to develop a battery entirely free of cobalt.

But not everyone is convinced by these responses.

Speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) this week, Siddharth Kara, a public policy lecturer at Harvard University and expert on human trafficking, said: “I say words are all fine and good. But what you say you tolerate and what’s actually happening on the ground are two different things.”

Microsoft has come up with an unconventional method for storing movies that could help preserve old film indefinitely.

Developed under the company’s Project Silica banner, the new medium is made of a “hard silica glass” that can endure extreme conditions without damaging the digital information stored on it, TechRadar reports.

Microsoft teamed up with entertainment giant Warner Bros to engrave a copy of the 1978 movie Superman on to a coaster-sized glass panel and retrieve it using “polarised light” and artificial intelligence (AI), Microsoft’s Jennifer Langston said in a blogpost.

Warner Bros approached Microsoft to help shift its archive from computer hard drives and film negatives stored in “temperature and climate controlled rooms” to a more permanent alternative, the Daily Mail notes.

Technology could replace the entertainment industry’s age-old problem of storing original movie footage on film, which is “relatively sensitive and vulnerable to long-term degradation”, the news site adds.

How does it work?

According to Trusted Reviews, the process works by using a laser to “burn small vowels” into the surface of a piece of glass measuring 7.5cm by 7.5cm with a thickness of 2mm. Each vowel contains “multiple bits” of information, with data being engraved on multiple layers.

As described by Langston, the laser creates “layers of three-dimensional nanoscale gratings and deformations at various depths and angles”.

Microsoft then uses “machine learning algorithms”, which are AI systems that are trained to carry out a process autonomously, to decode the small engravings using light that is passed over the panel, she says.

Each glass panel stores 75GB worth of data, says Trusted Reviews. While that’s not nearly as large as most consumer storage systems, the panels can store information for “centuries” without degradation.

“The hard silica glass can withstand being boiled in hot water, baked in an oven, microwaved, flooded, scoured, demagnetised and other environmental threats that can destroy priceless historic archives or cultural treasures if things go wrong,” said Langston.

Will it be the future of storage?

While the technology has the potential to safeguard old movies, pictures and records, it’s unlikely that laser-engraved glass will find its way into consumer products any time soon.

“We are not trying to build things that you put in your house or play movies from,” said Ant Rowstron, deputy lab director at Microsoft’s research centre in Cambridge. “We are building storage that operates at the cloud scale.”

It means that the panels could be used in vast, highly secure data centres, replacing the mass storage solutions currently used by cloud providers such as Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon Web Services. Therefore, tech fans wouldn’t need to worry about using hard drives at home to store their data securely.

“We really want something you can put on the shelf for 50 or 100 or 1,000 years and forget about until you need it,” Rowstron concluded.

Microsoft announced a new form of its Windows operating system last week that’s set to power a wave of foldable devices from both the company itself and its third-party partners.

Announced in New York last Wednesday alongside a range of new products, including a foldable tablet and an Android-powered smartphone, Windows 10X is designed to work exclusively with devices that fold in the middle.

Unlike Samsung, which has recently released its Galaxy Fold smartphone with a single bendable display, Microsoft is banking on dual-screen devices being more reliable.

The software is expected to launch towards the end of next year with Microsoft’s newly announced Surface Neo tablet, says TechCrunch, before making its way on to dual-screen devices from the likes of Dell, Lenovo and HP.

What is Windows 10X?

In short, Windows 10X is a heavily revised version of Microsoft’s computer software that’s specially designed for portable devices with two screens.

According to Engadget, the operating system is “considerably more efficient” than today’s Windows 10 and “sports an interface optimised for dual screens, including more elegant app placement and a more touch-friendly Start menu”.

The system also offers better multitasking functions than Windows 10, says tech news site BleepingComputer. For instance, users will be able to study a graph on one page while taking a Skype video call on the other.

It’s not just designed for the latest software, either. The Verge notes that Windows 10X can run “legacy apps” from Microsoft’s older operating software based on the 32-bit system Win32. The software runs using a “container technology”, allowing legacy apps to operate without putting too much stress on the battery.

Finally, Windows 10X is tipped to be more efficient, meaning users will get more battery power from their dual-screen device, the site adds.

It’s worth noting that the software is still in its infancy and could undergo significant changes once it releases in 12 months’ time.

Why has Microsoft gone foldable - not bendable?

Microsoft has chosen to develop dual-screen foldable devices, as opposed to the more hi-tech bendable displays seen on the new Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei’s upcoming Mate X.

According to the BBC, one industry analyst believes that the troubles Samsung faced with the Galaxy Fold, which was delayed by five months after several reviewers ran into major screen failures, may have put Microsoft off bendable screen technology.

Speaking to the broadcaster, Ben Wood, research chief at CCS Insights, said: “Given the issues Samsung had with the initial version of the Galaxy Fold and the wider challenges around the fragility of flexible displays, it makes sense that device makers are experimenting with alternative designs.”

But Microsoft’s product chief, Panos Panay, told the BBC that dual-screen hardware and software benefits user productivity.

“The overload is much less,” he said. “I’m staying in context on a web browser on one side, and I’m looking at my mail on the other. Or, I have a calendar on one side, and I have my mail on the other.”

So what devices are compatible with it?

Not a lot, given that the software isn’t expected to launch until the end of next year.

The only device that’s currently confirmed to run the software is the upcoming Surface Neo, though The Verge says Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo all have devices in the works that will use Windows 10X.

However, existing dual-screen gadgets cannot run the operating system, nor will the company’s upcoming Surface Duo smartphone - which is powered by Google’s Android, the tech site says.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp appear to be recovering from a major outage that has caused uproar among social media users worldwide.

Website tracker DownDetector yesterday received complaints from tens of thousands of people, many of whom reported issues with images not loading on the Facebook-owned platforms.

Users in Europe, the US, South America and Japan were “particularly affected” by the outages, The Independent reports.

Facebook claims the problems have now been resolved and that all three platforms should be running normally, but some users claim they are still experiencing issues.

What happened?

Judging by outage maps on DownDetector, Facebook users began experiencing issues with loading images just after 2pm GMT yesterday. Reports of problems on WhatsApp and Instagram began emerging about an hour later.

Facebook users said that images and videos were not loading correctly, while those on WhatsApp “noticed image, audio, and video files were not able to send”, The Guardian reports. Facebook Messenger was also affected by the glitch, with some people “unable to load or send images and videos”, the newspaper add.

The image-loading glitch hit Instagram, too, and proved particularly disastrous, given that the platform centres around photo sharing. Users who opened the app were prompted to reload images but then just got an error message.

Meanwhile, rival social media firm Twitter and Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud-based subscription service experienced a similar image display issues, reports Ars Technica.

The widespread problem appears to stem back to Cloudflare, a security service for website operators. Cloudflare was hit by glitches on Tuesday that caused thousands of sites to display “502 error“ messages to visitors - where a platform’s servers cannot be reached.

In a blogpost on Tuesday evening, the US-based company blamed “flawed software deployment”, the BBC reports.

“Our testing processes were insufficient in this case and we are reviewing and making changes to our testing and deployment process to avoid incidents like this in the future,” Cloudflare said.

Are they back online?

Apparently so. Facebook tweeted an apology to users later on Wednesday, adding that “the issue has since been resolved and we should be back at 100% for everyone”.

Twitter bosses also apologised for issues on the platform, saying that the problems were “almost at 100% resolved” but that some users might experience “residual effects”.

It appears that these effects are still causing headaches for a small group of being, with complaints continuing to be logged on DownDetector hours after the glitch was said to have been fixed.

Has this happened before?

Yep. Yesterday’s outage may have been frustrating but the social media platforms have experienced far more severe blackouts in the past.

In April, “millions” of users were prevented from logging into their Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp accounts after a server update went awry, The Sun reports.

But the social media firm had experienced its “most severe outage ever” the month before, when the firm’s products were inaccessible for over 14 hours, the BBC says.

And the reaction?

Despite the Twitter outages, some users still managed to post videos and gifs expressing their thoughts and feelings about the situation.

Microsoft has unveiled its most powerful and highest-performing console yet, after taking to the stage at the E3 games expo.

The show, taking place at Los Angeles Convention Center until 13 June, is the biggest event in the gaming calendar, with tech companies showcasing their latest titles and devices. One notable exception this year is Sony, which is missing E3 for the first time in the show’s 24-year history - leaving all eyes are on rival Microsoft.

Here is what the firm has in store for fans:

Project Scarlett

Gamers had been hoping that Microsoft would reveal first details of its next-generation console at E3, and the tech giant didn’t disappoint.

The console, code-named Project Scarlett, will be equipped with “high bandwidth GDDR6 memory” and a “custom-designed AMD processor” that delivers four times the performance of the Xbox One X, The Independent reports.

Thanks to the upgraded hardware, the new console will be capable of deliver an 8K resolution and frame rates of up to 120fps. The Xbox One X, in comparison, can play only a handful of games at 4K and 60fps.

The new system will also feature a solid-state drive (SSD), rather than the hard-drive disc (HDD) found in the current range of Xbox consoles. According to Microsoft, the SSD can run more than 40 times faster than the existing storage, giving power that allows players to “move through worlds without waiting for games to load”.

The new console will launch at the end of next year, with no word as yet on pricing or form factor.

Project xCloud

Although Project Scarlett was the headliner of Microsoft’s keynote yesterday, the company’s new Project xCloud streaming service was a worthy supporting act. The technology was unveiled in October, but fans got their first chance to see the service in action on a host of devices at E3.

According to Eurogamer, Project xCloud is “Microsoft’s vision of a Netflix-style game-streaming” service, allowing players access to “lots of games on lots of devices in lots of places”. So provided they have a good internet connection, users will be able to stream titles such as Halo 5: Guardians and Forza Horizon 4 straight to their smartphone or tablet.

After putting the service to the test, tech news site Windows Central praises the “incredibly impressive” visuals and “responsiveness of the controls” when using Project xCloud.

However, the site notes that there is some input lag - the delay between pressing a button and the game responding - so it may not be suitable for competitive multiplayer matches.

Project xCloud is due to arrive in October, a month before the launch of Google’s rival service Stadia.

The games

Microsoft also unveiled around 60 games, ranging from big-budget titles to indy games built by small teams looking to break into the mainstream.

Arguably the biggest announcement was Halo Infinite, which is scheduled to be a launch title on Project Scarlett next year. Polygon says the game is being touted as a “spiritual reboot” to the futuristic shooter franchise, spawning a new chapter in the Master Chief’s storyline that can be accessed by both series veterans and newcomers.

Cyberpunk 2077, a futuristic role-player game (RPG) from The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red, was shown during the keynote, too. The Poland-based studio said the highly anticipated game will be released on 16 April 2020 and revealed that Keanu Reeves will play one of the title’s characters, reports Kotaku.

Meanwhile, a launch date of 10 September was confirmed for Gears of War 5, with players able to trial an early version of the game as part of a multiplayer “tech test” on 15 July, notes Digital Trends.

Other notable reveals include Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which covers all nine of the mainline movies, as well as a Lego-themed expansion for Forza Horizon 4.

Microsoft is on course to steal headlines at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, which kicks off in just under two weeks’ time.

Not only is the tech giant expected to take the wraps off its next-generation Xbox games console, but recent rumours suggest that the company also plans to reveal more about its new Project xCloud service.

Nicknamed the “Netflix for games” by Microsoft boss Satya Nadella, the service will allow gamers to play the latest titles on any device, whether it’s a popular desktop computer or smartphone, Business Insider reports.

While the idea sounds simple on paper, the tech giant faces a number of hurdles before the service gets off the ground. These include transmitting vast quantities of data to users with poor internet connections and mobile networks.

We’ll have to wait until E3, which runs from 11 to 14 June, to see whether Microsoft’s service will become the next craze in the gaming world. In the meantime, here’s everything you need to know about the Project xCloud:

What is Project xCloud?

Simply put, Project xCloud is a service that allows members to stream video games over the internet for a monthly fee.

The service was announced at E3 last June. In October, Microsoft confirmed some of the Project xCloud’s key features, says the tech news site AndroidAuthority. Among the features confirmed was the ability to stream console games, such as Forza Horizon 4 and Halo 5, on a smartphone through a mobile network connection.

Microsoft will uses its Azure cloud computing hardware and software to power the service, the website says. This means that gamers could tap into ultra-powerful computers and a games library consisting of thousands of titles from a host of devices with an internet connection.

As the games would be powered by the cloud rather than a conventional gaming system, gamers would be able to stream titles in a high-quality video format on devices that typically aren’t powerful enough to run console titles, such as laptops and tablets.

Could it really become the Netflix for games?

It’s certainly a possibility.

Project xCloud already has a gigantic library of titles for gamers to choose from. According to TechRadar, Microsoft employees are testing prototype versions of the service with libraries that contain as many as 3,500 titles from across the Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One catalogue.

There’s even talk of 1,900 extra games being added to the service so it’s unlikely players will struggle to find a new title to sink their teeth into, says the tech site.

One of the biggest challenges the company faces, however, is the ability to transmit vast quantities of data over the internet.

Unlike movies, which can be easily compressed over the internet, computer games are often tens of gigabytes in size. This makes them difficult to stream on weaker internet connections and mobile networks.

Microsoft does, however, have 54 Azure data centres that provide coverage to 140 countries, says the Microsoft news site WindowsCentral. Players in Asia, for example, would be able to stream titles from their local data centre, as opposed to having to rely on one in the US. This should deliver a smoother gaming experience.

What about the competition?

The idea of a Netflix-style service for computer games is certainly new to the industry, but Microsoft isn’t the only tech giant pursuing the idea of a video game streaming service.

Google, for example, announced a new Stadia service at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco in March. Much like Project xCloud, Stadia will allow players to stream video games over the internet to almost any device in exchange for a monthly fee.

But Nadella believes that Microsoft is ahead of the curve thanks to its experience in the games industry through its Xbox programme.

“We have a huge back catalog, which is: we have our own games”, he told Business Insider in a reference to Microsoft-owned titles such as the Forza and Halo franchises.

Both of these services are still in their infancy. We won’t yet know how they will compare until prices have been announced. Nor will we know how they will perform until they’re available to the public.

For now, Microsoft appears to be leading the way in delivering the world’s first “Netflix for games”.

There’s less than a month to go before Halo Infinite, one of the most eagerly anticipated games of the year, takes to the stage at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) in the US.

The event, which runs from 11 to 13 June at the Los Angeles Convention Centre, plays host to some of the biggest game launches of the year and Halo Infinite is on course to be a headline title.

A trailer previewing the 343-developed game was shown during Microsoft’s keynote at the event last year, but the short clip had no gameplay footage.

As a result rumours are spreading fast ahead of this year’s games expo.

Here’s everything we know so far about Halo Infinite:

When will it be out?

There’s no official word yet.

But the tech news site Game Rant says that users on the NeoGaf chat forum predict that Halo Infinite will launch in 2020, just in time for Christmas.

This suggests the game will launch on both the Xbox One and Microsoft’s next console, commonly referred to as Xbox “Scarlett”, which is expected to be announced at this year’s E3.

What are the game’s new features?

Details about Halo Infinite’s story and features are thin on the ground.

In an interview with IGN in March, 343 boss Bonnie Ross said that Infinite would be a “spiritual reboot” for the popular Halo series.

Although she didn’t reveal anything about the game’s story, she stressed that the studio had learnt from the mistakes it had made with its previous games.

Ross said that the game would be about “hope, and wonder, and heroism, and humanity, and community, and bringing a community together.”

What we do know is that the game will see the return of the Master Chief, the hero in all the main Halo games. He will have a slightly new look in Infinite, says the gaming news site PCGamer.

The website also says that players will be able to fight against other players both online and through splitscreen multiplayer where up to four people compete against each other using the same screen.

But don’t expect a Battle Royale-inspired mode where players fight against each other in a vast open world until only one person is left standing.

Frank O’Connor, the head of the Halo franchise, quashed the rumour on the chat forum Resetera, but said that players could probably make their own Battle Royale mode in the game’s Forge map creator.

Will it have microtransactions?

Yes, the game will support microtransactions – a system that allows players to buy items in a given game with real-world money.

In September, Gamespot reported a job listing at the developer 343 where the successful candidate would oversee “social and engagement features that encourage players to return again and again with their friends”, including microtransactions.

We don’t yet know how 343 intends to implement the system into the new game. But judging by microtransaction systems in recent online multiplayer games, such as Fallout 76 and Fortnite, Halo Infinite players may be able to use real-world money to buy new character outfits and weapon designs.

The game won’t, however, feature loot boxes (virtual treasure chests containing random in-game items) that can be purchased with real-world money.

Loot boxes have been heavily criticised since 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront II. Prior to the game’s release, reviewers discovered that players could pay real-world money to buy them and unlock special in-game abilities, giving a competitive edge to people who spent more.

The game has since been updated so that players can only buy loot boxes to obtain random outfits, but they remain a controversial topic that has prompted law makers across the world to question whether they’re a form of gambling.

But 343’s studio chief, Chris Lee, told his followers on Twitter that Halo Infinite would not include real-money loot boxes. This should come as a relief to many fans.

The wait for this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is almost over, as the world’s biggest video game event gets under way in just a few days time.

Some of the industry’s most important announcements are made at the show, which takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center and runs from 11 to 14 June.

But a number of gaming firms are holding press conferences over the weekend before the show officially opens to the public on Tuesday.

EA will be the first to hold its E3 keynote, which is expected to get underway at 9:15am local time (5:15pm in the UK) on Saturday and can be streamed from the company’s Youtube channel, says Gamespot. This will be followed by Microsoft’s conference at 9pm UK time on Sunday and Bethesda at 1:30am on Monday morning.

Google, however, will be streaming its own event on YouTube at 5pm UK time today, where it’s expected to announce the pricing and release date of its Stadia subscription service, says Engadget.

In the meantime, here’s what to expect from E3 in 2019:

Borderlands 3

It’s been four years since the last entry in the Borderlands franchise launched on consoles. However, fans of the role-playing game (RPG) will soon have their patience rewarded as gameplay footage of Borderlands 3 is expected to be shown at E3 next week.

Judging by a preview trailer posted by the developer Gearbox in March, Borderlands 3 appears to be “pretty much the same” as any Borderlands game before it, says TechRadar. This should be “reassuring for fans”, but “a bit disappointing for those looking for a new spin on the series.”

On the plus side, players can expect over a billion fictional guns to collect and a cast of “larger-than-life” characters to meet, the tech site says. There are also new environments to explore, including “shiny cities and creaking scrapyards”. Fans will be happy to know that Claptrap, the favourite robot character in the series, will be present in the game.

Borderlands 3 launches on PS4, Xbox One and PC on 13 September.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare

Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward has made plans to win back the trust of fans after its recent titles in the multiplayer series received mixed reviews from both players and critics.

Last week the company, which is owned by the gaming giant Activision, announced that it would be launching a “reimagined” version of 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a title widely considered to be one of the greatest multiplayer games of all time.

But the game won’t be a simple remastering of the original title. According to Gamespot, the new Call of Duty isn’t set in the same universe as the existing trilogy of Modern Warfare titles. Instead, it will be a “reboot of sorts”, albeit with some returning characters from the original trilogy.

Fans will be able to see gameplay for the first time at E3 next week, ahead of the title’s release on 25 October.

Cyberpunk 2077

Fans got their first proper look at gameplay from CD Projekt Red’s first-person role-playing title Cyberpunk 2077 at E3 last year, but the Polish studio is expected to go even bigger at this year’s event.

The game is set in a sci-fi world that seems to be far more gritty than the utopian environments seen in popular RPGs such as the Mass Effect and Deus Ex series. Instead, it appears to take elements from the dystopian worlds of Bladerunner and Mad Max.

CD Projekt Red, the studio behind the acclaimed The Witcher series, unveiled a one-hour gameplay clip of Cyberpunk 2077 last year, so it could be that “this year we’re going hands-on with the game for the first time”, says GamesRadar.

Gears of War 5

Fans of the Gears of War series have a lot to look forward to at E3 this year. After getting a glimpse of the upcoming shooter at the games expo last year, developer The Coalition is expected to demonstrate gameplay for the very first time in June.

According to GamesRadar, Gears of War 5 will put players in the shoes of Kait, the “sidekick” from 2014’s Gears of War 4. Little else is known about the game, but a recent leaks suggest that players will be able to complete the main story missions with a friend through online co-op, as well as fight against other players in conventional multiplayer modes “that you’d expect from the series”.

It’s also rumoured that the game will run at 60fps and feature HDR lighting effects on the Xbox One X, the gaming news site says. Gamers can also expect cross-play, meaning they can play the game on both their Xbox and PC.

The Coalition is expected to announce the game’s release date during Microsoft’s conference in a couple of weeks.

However, tech news site WindowsCentral says Taiwan’s games rating agency currently lists the title’s release date as 10 September. Although the leaked release window is “definitely possibly”, it’s worth taking the listing with “a grain of salt” until a confirmed date is announced.

Halo Infinite

It’s been nearly four years since a new Halo game hit stores but Halo Infinite is due to launch on the Xbox One later this year.

Little is known about the next titles in the Halo franchise other than it will spawn a new game engine and feature “massive landscapes and gorgeous vistas”, says Gamespot.

Don’t expect a Battle Royale-inspired mode, though. Franchise boss Frank O’Connor quashed the rumour on chat forum Resetera, but said that players could “probably make your own Battle Royale mode” in the game’s Forge map creator.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

Following the success of Let’s go, Pikachu! and Let’s go, Eevee! last year, Pokemon’s first traditional RGP launches on the Nintendo Switch in 2019 and is due to be previewed during the Japanese firm’s conference at E3.

Much like previous entries in the pocket monsters series, Pokemon Sword and Shield are two games set in the same fictional world. Those who opt for the Sword version will be given access to certain types of Pokemon to collect, while Shield owners will get their own exclusive Pokemon to find.

Sword and Shield are set in the world of Galar, a fictional island that’s “loosely based on the UK”, says CNet. Three new Pokemon have already been announced - Sobble, Scorbunny and Grookey - but expect many more to be revealed when E3 comes around.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

The first trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order arrived last month, giving fans a snapshot of what EA’s upcoming sci-fi adventure game will look like before gameplay footage emerges at E3 in June.

Developed by EA-backed studio Respawn Entertainment, the company behind the hugely popular Apex Legends game, Fallen Order will be a story-driven title that takes place after the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It has been designed to be played solo, as opposed to the recent crop of online-only Star Wars games.

And unlike Star Wars Battlefront II, which came under fire in 2017 for its loot boxes, Fallen Order won’t have the controversial progression system, says Eurogamer.

Next-generation consoles

Finally, the first details about the next generation of games consoles - specifically the new Xbox - are expected to be revealed at E3.

There’s “a very good chance” that Microsoft will unveil its successor to the Xbox One - or at least “heavily hint at what it’s capable of” - at the Los Angeles show, after confirming that the console was in the works at last year’s event, says Polygon.

Sony, meanwhile, has confirmed that it won’t be attending this year’s games conference. It will be the first time the company hasn’t held a product keynote at the show in E3’s 25-year history, suggesting that it will hold its own event later this year to announce the new PS5.

Project xCloud

Fans were given a glimpse of Microsoft’s Project xCloud at E3 last year, but the company is expected to showcase a near-final version of the streaming service in just over a week’s time.

Dubbed the “Netflix for games” by the company’s chief executive Satya Nadella, Project xCloud looks set to be a monthly subscription service that allows gamers to play thousands of titles from an array of devices, Business Insider reports.

The service is based on Microsoft’s Azure cloud systems. Rather than using a games console or high-end computer, players instead use the power of Azure’s cloud computers to stream games over the internet. For instance, Microsoft has shown that gamers can stream Forza Horizon 4, a particularly graphics-intensive game, onto their smartphones using a mobile network.

There are a number of hurdles that the company needs to get on top of before launching the service, though. Video games are often tens of gigabytes in size, making them particularly difficult to stream over poor internet connections.

We’ll have to wait until E3 kicks off to see whether the Project xCloud lives up to Nadella’s claim of being the Netflix for games.

Fierce gaming rivals Microsoft and Sony have formed an unlikely alliance to take on Google’s upcoming Stadia service.

The agreement will see the two companies “develop future cloud solutions” together using Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, says Gamespot.

Sony will also use Azure for its “own game and content-streaming services”, and to provide “better tools” to content creators, the gaming news site says.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has pledged to work with Sony on the development of semiconductors, which are used for processing in most electronic devices, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) systems, says Eurogamer.

Sony chief Kenichiro Yoshida said: “Microsoft has been a key business partner for us, though of course the two companies have also been competing in some areas.

“I believe that our joint development of future cloud solutions will contribute greatly to the advancement of interactive content.”

Google Stadia is now a serious threat

Though Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation brands were not mentioned during the deal’s announcement, it’s widely believed that the partnership will be used to spawn a video game streaming service to rival the upcoming Stadia platform from Google.

Stadia, which was unveiled in March at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, is the search giant’s first foray into the gaming world. It takes the form of a subscription service, where users pay a monthly fee to stream a host of games in 4K at 60fps over the internet.

No company has yet created a successful video game streaming service and the limited details available on Stadia, such as price and performance on low-speed internet systems, means it’s “impossible to speculate about Stadia’s impact” until it launches later this year, says Mashable.

But the new partnership between Microsoft and Sony suggests that the tech giants see Stadia as a far greater threat than the gaming community suspected.

Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst at IHS Markit, told the BBC that the partnership “is the best choice” for the two firms to maintain their position in the gaming market, despite “the competitive dynamic between Xbox and PlayStation.

“Working together they have a better chance to head off competition from the likes of Google, which has gone on to dominate the last wave of technology disruption in the mobile space alongside Apple,” he said.

There’s also talk of Amazon entering the fray, while Chinese tech giant Tencent “is well underway with its own cloud gaming prospect”, The Daily Telegraph says.

Plus, with Microsoft rumoured to be launching Xbox services on Nintendo’s Switch console, game companies may have to put their fierce rivalries aside to fend off competition from “wealthy upstarts”, the newspaper says.

What does this mean for Xbox and PlayStation brands?

There’s no word on how the deal will influence Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation brands, but don’t expect the partnership to result in a co-developed console.

There are rumours aplenty about Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 5 console, which is due to be previewed later this year before going on sale towards the end of 2020.

Microsoft has also made no secret about the development of its next line-up of Xbox consoles. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, said at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last year that work was well under way on the next generation of Xbox systems, which are commonly referred to as the “Scarlett” series.

But with Microsoft now laying the foundations for Sony’s cloud gaming service - along with the possible launch of the Xbox Game Pass on Nintendo’s Switch - the idea that gamers one day find themselves playing PlayStation titles on their Xbox consoles no longer seems far-fetched.

The Daily Mail is demanding action after learning that Microsoft browser users who visit the newspaper’s website are being warned the site cannot be trusted.

The NewsGuard add-on, which was integrated into Microsoft’s mobile Edge browser this week, issues a notification to users if they visit a website that the New York-based service’s team of journalists and analysts deems to be peddling “fake news”.

Visitors to such sites are met with a pop-up window that warns: “Proceed with caution: this website generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability.”

The window also contains a link to a so-called Nutrition Label detailing the reasons for the rating, with a checklist with ticks or crosses next to criteria such as “discloses ownership and financing”, “gathers and collects information responsibly”, and “has been forced to pay damages in numerous high-profile cases”.

Websites are given a score calculated by humans rather than an algorithm, and assigned a rating of green or red to indicate their trustworthiness.

The NewsGuard add-on is not turned on by default, and customers must opt-in to use the feature.

The inclusion of Mail Online on the list of sites with a red rating has prompted a fierce backlash from the paper, which says it is “in discussions with [NewsGuard] to have this egregiously erroneous classification resolved as soon as possible”, the BBC reports.

But NewsGuard co-founder Steve Brill insists the rating was reached in a fair and transparent manner, says The Guardian.

“We spell out fairly clearly in the label exactly how many times we have attempted to contact them,” Brill said.

“The analyst that wrote this write-up got someone on the phone who, as soon he heard who she was and where she was calling from, hung up. We would love to hear if they have a complaint or if they change anything.”

Fringe news sites Breitbart, WikiLeaks and the Drudge Report have also been given red ratings, along with Kremlin-backed Russian news sites RT and Sputnik.

Qatar-based news agency Al Jazeera gets a red rating too, a decision that may be met with surprise by some commentators.

Al Jazeera has been described as “a champion of audacity in face of obedience” by The Independent , while The Guardian has praised the site for “promoting free flow of information and opening up political debate”.

Microsoft’s Bing not only shows illegal images depicting child sexual abuse but also suggests search terms to help find them, according to a new report.

Researchers at Israel-based online safety start-up AntiToxin were commissioned by TechCrunch to investigate “an anonymous tip” that suggested it was “easy to find” child pornograghy on Microsoft’s search engine.

The study found that searching terms such as “porn kids” and “nude family kids” surfaced images of “illegal child exploitation”, the tech site says.

But the researchers also discovered that some seemingly innocuous terms could lead to illegal images.

Users searching for “Omegle Kids”, referring to a video chat app popular among teenagers, got a suggestion to search for term “Omegle Kids Girls 13”, which produced child abuse pictures, The Daily Telegraph says.

The researchers were “closely supervised by legal counsel” when conducting the study, adds TechCrunch, as searching for child pornography online is illegal.

Responding to the report, Microsoft’s vice president of Bing and AI products, Jordi Ribas, said: “Clearly, these results were unacceptable under our standards and policies and we appreciate TechCrunch making us aware.

“We’re focused on learning from this so we can make any other improvements needed.”

Microsoft isn’t the only tech giant struggling to tackle the problem.

In September, Israel-based safety groups Netivei Reshet and Screensaverz concluded that it was “easy” to find WhatsApp groups that posted and shared explicit images of children, according to CNet.

WhatsApp responded by saying it had a “zero-tolerance policy around child sexual abuse” and claimed it had removed 130,000 accounts in the space of ten days, the tech site adds.

Sony has finally revealed the long-awaited details of its new PlayStation 5 (PS5) console.

In a virtual “PS5 Showcase” event, Sony confirmed the launch date and price for the next-generation models as well as many new games.

After previously announcing some of the new titles, the Japanese tech giant is now gearing up for the PS5’s global launch in November.

Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said: “This is truly an exciting time for all of us at PlayStation.

“Over the past few months, we’ve been able to show you a glimpse of the stunning new games being created for PlayStation 5, taking advantage of the console’s unique capabilities to deliver lightning-fast loading, heightened immersion, and a whole new generation of experiences. And we’re excited that the time for you to experience these brave new adventures is almost here.”

Here we take a look at what Sony had to say about the PS5: the consoles, games and accessories.

UK price and release date

PS5 will be released in the UK on 19 November. Two versions of the console will be available: the PS5 Digital Edition (no disk tray) costs £359.99 and the PS5 with an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive costs £449.99.

Pre-orders for the PS5 consoles have started. But according to Digital Spy it’s already a “bit of a mess” and a “battle” for gamers to get orders confirmed with many online retailers “struggling to cope with the sheer volume and are running out of stock”.

On the two versions of the PS5, Ryan said: “We’re pleased to provide choice to gamers with two PS5 console options at launch, depending on if you want a digital-only experience or prefer disc-based gaming. Whichever PS5 you choose, you’ll enjoy the same breathtaking, next-gen gaming experiences.

“Both PS5 models use the same custom processor with integrated CPU and GPU for high-fidelity visuals, including 4K graphics and ray-tracing support, as well as the same ultra-high-speed SSD with integrated I/O for lightning-fast loading.

“PS5’s 3D audio and the DualSense Wireless Controller will also provide the same heightened sense of immersion on all PS5s.”

PS5 launch games

Keith Lee, CEO of Counterplay Games, had previously confirmed that the PS5 will welcome a new genre: the looter-slasher.

Announcing Godfall, Lee said: “Our game is uniquely one-part gear driven and one-part player-skill driven. Godfall retains the desire for offense-oriented, mastery-driven combat, rewarding you with head-turning, powerful loot that then inspires your next set of character builds.

“Godfall’s third-person melee combat is fluid, dynamic and interactive, embracing offense over defense. While many games these days create one-off cat-and-mouse challenges for players, we want to broaden combat encounters with enduring replayability.

“In Godfall you can expect satisfying one-against-many enemy encounters along with challenging head-to-head boss fights.”

Other new launch games coming to PS5 include:

Astro’s Playroom (Japan Studio) Demon’s Souls (Bluepoint Games / Japan Studio) Destruction All Stars (Lucid Games / XDEV) Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games) Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition (Insomniac Games) Sackboy A Big Adventure (Sumo Digital / XDEV) Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition (Capcom) Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach (Steel Wool Studios and ScottGames) Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Bros. Games) New God of War title (Santa Monica Studio)

DualSense wireless controller

In early April, Sony released the first images of the new DualSense wireless game controller for PS5.

Hideaki Nishino, SVP of platform planning and management, wrote in a blog: “We wanted everyone in the PlayStation community to get a first look at the DualSense wireless controller, and hear our vision for how the new controller will captivate more of your senses as you interact with the virtual worlds in PS5 games.

“The features of DualSense, along with PS5’s Tempest 3D AudioTech, will deliver a new feeling of immersion to players.

“We decided to keep much of what gamers love about DualShock 4 intact, while also adding new functionality and refining the design. Based on our discussions with developers, we concluded that the sense of touch within gameplay, much like audio, hasn’t been a big focus for many games.

“We had a great opportunity with PS5 to innovate by offering game creators the ability to explore how they can heighten that feeling of immersion through our new controller.

“This is why we adopted haptic feedback, which adds a variety of powerful sensations you’ll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud.

“We also incorporated adaptive triggers into the L2 and R2 buttons of DualSense so you can truly feel the tension of your actions, like when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow.”

Other accessories

The PS5 will launch in November with the DualSense Wireless Controller and a range of new accessories.

DualSense Wireless Controller: £59.99 DualSense Charging Station: £24.99 HD Camera: £49.99 Media remote: £24.99 PULSE 3D wireless headset: £89.99

Video game fans were spoilt for choice in 2018, with some of the biggest games yet arriving on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Red Dead Redemption 2, which launched in October, may go down as one of the greatest games of the decade, while God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man proved once again that the PS4 offers the best exclusive titles.

There were some disappointments, though. Fallout 76 failed to live up to expectations, with critics slamming its sparsely populated open world and numerous graphical glitches.

So what can we expect from next year’s line-up of titles? Here we look at some of the most eagerly anticipated games arriving in 2019.

Anthem

Players had hoped to get their hands on Anthem in 2018, but developer Bioware announced in January that the release of the futuristic multiplayer adventure game had been delayed by at least a year. Now, fans’ patience is finally set to be rewarded, with Anthem on course to hit shop shelves on 22 February.

The game puts players in control of mechanised combat suit-wearing characters, who are tasked with battling monsters in a sci-fi setting. Players can explore vast open worlds with other players online, or follow the main story by themselves.

Pre-orders have already kicked off on Amazon, with prices starting at £54.99 on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

Crackdown 3

Another game that was expected to launch in 2018, Crackdown 3 will finally be released on 19 February - more than four years after the title was first announced.

Crackdown 3 was originally due to arrive exclusively on the Xbox One in 2016, but was hit by a series of problems. This summer Xbox chief Phil Spencer told Eurogamer that he had felt that the title “needed more time” in development to make it feel more like the first game, which was an instant hit with fans and critics when it launched in 2007.

The new title can be pre-ordered now on Xbox One for £59.99 on Amazon.

Dead or Alive 6

The 2012 launch of Dead or Alive 5 (DOA5) was met with a flurry of criticism over its sexualised female characters, so developer Team Ninja has toned down the revealing outfits and put arcade-style fighting back at the forefront of the next title in the series, says Trusted Reviews.

Although conventional one-on-one and tag team battles still appear in DOA6, there are also a host of new features including “Break Gauge”, which allows players to unleash special abilities in certain circumstances.

DOA6 arrives on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 15 February. The PS4 and Xbox One versions can be pre-ordered from Amazon for £49.99 each.

Devil May Cry 5

Fans have waited more than a decade to get their hands on an all-new game in the Devil May Cry (DMC) franchise. That wait will finally end on 8 March, when DMC5 heads to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The Japanese action game will feature familiar faces from the previous games, including Dante and Nero, as well as a new playable simply know as “V”, says Tech Advisor.

The new title’s levels are tipped to be more open, to encourage players to explore, and it has also been rumoured that DMC5 will feature online multiplayer “for two to three players”, the tech site adds.

DMC5 can be pre-ordered for £39.99 on the Xbox One via Amazon. PS4 orders are currently unavailable through the retail giant.

Dirt Rally 2.0

The Birmingham-based studio behind the Formula 1 games, Codemasters, is going off-road in 2019, with a sequel to 2016’s rally simulator Dirt Rally set to launch on 26 February.

The racing game company is pulling out all the stops with Dirt Rally 2.0. According to PCGamesN, the firm has recruited Phil Mills, co-driver to the 2003 World Rally champion Petter Solberg, to provide gamers with directions on stages - a core part of rally driving.

Racing fans can pre-order Dirt Rally 2 on the PS4 and Xbox One for £54.99 on Amazon, while the PC version comes in at £39.99.

Gears of War 5

The next entry into the Gears of War franchise hits the Xbox in 2019 and is expected to mark a significant step forward for the sci-fi shooter series.

Rod Fergusson, studio manager at The Coalition, the game’s developer, told news site Wccftech that gamers can expect “a bunch of innovations” and “changes” in Gears of War 5.

These will include the addition of performance capture, where actors wear body suits covered in markers so programmes can accurately log their movements.

The Coalition has yet to announce an official release date for Gears of War 5.

Metro Exodus

Players who love Fallout 76’s post-apocalyptic setting but aren’t keen on the game’s online features may want to check out Metro Exodus, launching on 22 February.

A follow-up to Metro 2033 and Metro: Lost Light, Exodus is set in a post-apocalyptic Russia where a group of survivors are tasked with heading out of Moscow to find “more hospitable living conditions”, says Metro.

Players use a steam train to move between towns, each of which have their own open worlds, making “the scope of the game much larger than either of its predecessors”, the newspaper reports.

Pre-orders are open now through Amazon, with the PS4 and Xbox One versions costing £49.99.

Apple has gone before the US Supreme Court to defend the 30% commission that the company takes on iPhone app sales.

At an hour-long hearing in California on Monday, the tech giant’s lawyers denied accusations that the firm had exploited its “market dominance market dominance to inflate the price of iPhone apps”, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The case, launched in 2011, centres on whether Apple should be forced to pay damages to customers who claim that the company’s App Store is a “monopoly” and that the commission it takes from software sales is “unlawful”.

Apple’s defence is that the price of these apps is actually set by the software developers, says The Washington Post.

The company argues that customers who object to the high cost of apps should “take it up with individual developers”, as the firm is “simply acting as a middleman between app developers and users”, adds Gizmodo.

But the lawyers behind the suit argue that buyers have a direct relationship with Apple, since they spend money on the firm’s marketplace, and that as such, there is an anti-trust case to be made, reports Engadget.

What happens it Apple loses?

Apple is by no means the only company that takes high commissions on app sales - which means a ruling against the company could have major implications for other tech giants.

According to the BBC, both Microsoft and Google also take a 30% commission on app sales.

Jack Kent, research director at UK-based information provider IHS Markit, told the broadcaster that software marketplaces such as Apple’s App Store are becoming a vital part of tech companies’ business.

“The services category - which includes App Store commissions, alongside other media, content and services - is now Apple’s second-biggest driver of revenue after iPhone sales and has been its fastest growing source of revenues,” he said.

According to Bloomberg, the App Store generated $38.5bn (£30bn) in revenue in 2017, a year-on-year increase of about a third. Developers reportedly pocketed about $26.5bn (£27.8bn) of those earnings, with Apple taking the remaining $12bn (£9.4bn).

A date for the ruling has yet to be set, but the Telegraph says it could be as late as next June.

Choosing a tablet computer is a little more difficult today than it was when Apple launched the iPad back in 2010. As a consumer, you bought either the iPad or a similarly-sized alternative, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Fast forward eight years and the selection has grown substantially, with Microsoft becoming a key player in the market thanks to its Surface tablets.

Launched in 2012, the Surface line had a more conventional computer layout. Microsoft released a host of desktop-style accessories to go with it, such as a magnetic keyboard and mouse support, the latter of which is still absent on the iPad.

Now there’s a smaller and cheaper alternative called the Surface Go, which launches on 23 August for £379 - putting it in direct competition with Apple’s entry-level iPad.

The Surface Go sits at the bottom of Microsoft’s tablet range, below the critically acclaimed Surface Pro all-in-one computer.

With the same keyboard and mouse support as the range-topping Pro, the Surface Go could be an enticing prospect for potential iPad buyers looking for a more conventional set-up.

However, critics have been somewhat split over the new tablet. The Verge says the Surface Go “doesn’t seem to slot easily into any of the predefined notions of computer pricing tiers we’ve come to know recently”.

This is because ticking a few upgrade options on the order list can make the Go significantly more expensive than the entry-level iPad, but it’s slightly cheaper than a Surface Pro or a mid-range Windows laptop, the tech site says.

Mashable, meanwhile, argues that the Go’s Pentium processor is too slow compared with the Intel Core m3 chip inside base-spec Surface Pro models.

“It's good for very, very short bursts of light productivity. Pound out a couple of emails at the coffee shop. Watch a video on the plane. Edit a few documents in a cab,” the website says. But these tasks “can be accomplished on a cheap [Google] Chromebook or iPad” with ease.

However, Engadget disagrees. Despite the slow hardware, the Go is “the first Surface that can actually take on the iPad”, it says.

The tech site praises the Go’s “impressively thin and light” design, but notes the sleek looks don’t compromise the computer’s ability to deliver “a fully-fledged Windows PC” experience.

Still, with reviewers torn over whether the Surface Go is a stroke of genius or an underpowered laptop imitation, buyers may want to opt for the cheaper - and more critically praised - entry-level iPad.

Microsoft Store, from £379

The fourth instalment in Playground Games’s popular Forza Horizon racing game series is set to be one of the biggest releases of the year when it hits UK shops next month.

Announced at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) last month, Forza Horizon 4 takes the form of an open-world racing game set in Britain.

Players can drive some of the fastest cars on the planet, including the new McLaren Senna and Lamborghini Centenario, in locations including the Scottish Highlands and the city of Edinburgh.

Fans will have to wait until the first week of October to get their hands on Horizon 4. Until then, here’s everything you need to know about the open-world racing game:

The Week reviews Forza Horizon 4

Forza Horizon has been the go-to franchise for racing fans on Microsoft’s consoles since the original game arrived on the Xbox 360 back in 2012. The car list and open-world environments have grown with each iteration, and the graphics got a big bump with the launch of Forza Horizon 3 in 2016, when the 4K resolution mode was added for Xbox One X owners.

But while Horizon 3 was a critical hit, many fans quickly lost interest, complaining that the game felt too similar to those that came before it.

At first glance, developer Playground Games has done little to shake up the franchise with Forza Horizon 4. The game’s world, set in the UK, is the same size as the Australia map of Horizon 3, and only a handful of cars are featured that we haven’t seen in a previous Horizon or Forza Motorsport title.

However, this year’s game has a trick up its sleeve to keep fans engaged for months to come.

The new title sees the Forza debut of dynamic seasons, where the environment changes each real-world week to portray a different time of year - so leaves are scattered across roads in autumn, while spring sees rain showers that turn the game’s dirt roads into muddy tracks.

The winter landscape is particularly impressive. Players will need to swap their McLaren for a four-wheel drive car with studded tyres in order to cope with snow-covered roads.

The visual style is top-notch, too. Spring in Horizon 4 really does look like springtime in the UK, and players are almost certain to shiver when driving through the winter map. Even the signs and road markings are identical to the ones found in Britain.

Meanwhile, the vehicle handling feels as though it has been slightly tweaked to feel more realistic, which makes driving on the game’s twisty roads all the more rewarding.

Horizon Life also debuts in the game. This features focuses more on the social aspect of the game, where players can customise their character with new outfits and accessories. There are even houses scattered across the map where players can park up and customise their car.

All that said, there is still room for improvement. Although the Horizon 4 map is far more detailed than in the previous games, it still feels somewhat small and lacking in diversity compared with open-world racers such as The Crew 2 and Need for Speed Payback.

And while the map is stunning, some of the car models - such as the 2004 Subaru Impreza allotted to the player at the start of the game - are beginning to look a bit dated.

In the grand scheme of things, however, these are small gripes. Most players will be too busy to care as they charge through the countryside in a Bentley Bentayga, race against the Flying Scotsman in an Ariel Nomad, and power-slide a Pagani Zonda Cinque around an icy roundabout.

Without doubt, Forza Horizon 4 is the best instalment of the series to date and a must-own for any racing fan with an Xbox One.

Where to buy Forza Horizon 4

When does it come out?

Forza Horizon 4 launches on 2 October for the Xbox One and PC. Those with a more powerful Xbox One X can choose to run the game at a 4K resolution and 30 frames per second (fps) or at 1080p at 60fps.

Are pre-orders open?

Yes. Amazon has the standard version of the game for £49.99 on Xbox One, while a downloadable for PC costs £59.99.

Above that, at £69.99, is the Digital Deluxe version, which gives players access to six downloadable packs containing new cars, with the releases spread over the game’s first six months, as well as a day-one car pack.

The most expensive copy is the Ultimate Edition: a £79.99 bundle that comes with a steel case for the disc, access to the game four days early, a pair of game expansions, two car packs and VIP bonuses in the game itself.

Will there be a demo?

Yes - and it’s available now.

Xbox and PC users can download the trial for free from the Xbox Store.

New features guide

Whats new in Horizon 4?

Quite a lot, it seems. The standout feature is the debut of seasons, with the virtual world changing according to what time of year it is in-game.

The changing seasons can also have a impact on the map itself, says racing game news site GTPlanet. The large lake in the centre of the map, for example, freezes over during the winter, allowing players to drive on it.

Along with dynamic seasons, Horizon 4 puts a far great focus on multiplayer gameplay than the preceeding versions, says GamesRadar+. Players will share the open world with other players in real-time, which should make it easier to start multiplayer races or events.

There’s also a greater emphasis on character customisation. A player’s avatar can now wear different clothes and act out poses, such as Usain Bolt’s signature celebration stance, when they win a race.

Is a James Bond DLC on the cards?

It is indeed. Announced on the game’s Twitter page, the Best of Bond DLC (downloadable content) will be offered to Horizon 4 players when the new title launches on 2 October.

Featuring ten iconic cars spanning some 50 years of Bond movies, the DLC pack is free to download for buyers who opt for the £79.99 Ultimate Edition.

Those who go for the standard version of Horizon 4 will have to pay, however. Pricing for the DLC pack has yet to be announced but is expected to be around £8.

The iconic Bond cars featured are:

• 1964 Aston Martin DB5 - Goldfinger (1964)
• 1969 Aston Martin DBS - On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
• 1974 AMC Hornet X Hatchback - The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
• 1977 Lotus Esprit S1 - The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
• 1981 Citroën 2CV6 - For Your Eyes Only (1981)
• 1986 Aston Martin V8 - The Living Daylights (1987)
• 1999 BMW Z8 - The World is Not Enough (1999)
• 2008 Aston Martin DBS - Quantum of Solace (2008)
• 2010 Jaguar C-X75 - Spectre (2015)
• 2015 Aston Martin DB10 - Spectre (2015)

Is there a Halo mission?

There certainly is. Both the Forza and Halo series are owned by Microsoft, so the racing game often includes references to the popular sci-fi adventure franchise.

In Forza Horizon 3, the developers included the tank-like Warthog vehicle from Halo as a drivable car. Players could walk around the four-wheeled fictional combat vehicle and use it in several races against supercars.

For Horizon 4, the developers have create a special Halo-themed mission in which players race across beaches and fields as they escort a spacecraft through enemy lines, says PCGamesN.

Although the race is set in the base game’s open world - a fictional version of northern England and Scotland - Forza developers have placed “shields and purple crates” alongside the road to make it look like a mission from a Halo game, according to the gaming news website.

Plus, long-standing Halo character Cortana, an artificial intelligence (AI) system, will provide commentary throughout the race.

Fans who want to see the mission in action can watch a walkthrough on Forza Horizon’s YouTube channel here.

Britain map details

How big is the map?

Horizon 4’s scaled-down version of Britain is about the same size as the game world in Horizon 3, IGN reports.

However, the game’s director, Ralph Fulton, told the Red Bull site: “Seasons change the world around you, with each bringing its own striking beauty and impact on gameplay through new driving experiences, events, challenges and rewards.

“You’ll feel like you’re exploring a completely different world after each season change.”

The full map has yet to be revealed by Playground Games, but a Reddit user who goes by the name masterzh has compiled footage from several gameplay trailers to create a near-complete preview of the world.

Can you create your own tracks?

Absolutely. For the first time in Forza Horizon’s six-year history, players can add their own race tracks and rally routes to the map's road network.

Called the Route Creator, the new feature will offer players several locations from which to start their route, says gaming news site PCGamerN. Players create a series of checkpoints to outline their course, which they can then use along with both friends and computer-powered opponents.

The custom track creator is also expected to allow players to choose the season in which the races take place. Given that the seasons on the map change automatically each week, the option to customise the weather on their own circuits may appeal to players fed up with, say, sliding around in the mud during the game’s winter period.

The Route Creator has been an eagerly anticipated addition to the open-world racing game, but Forza developer Turn10 has yet to show fans footage of how the feature works.

In fact, the feature is reportedly causing problems for the development team. A Turn10 staff member under the username JONK1969 wrote on the Forza Horizon 4 forum that the Route Creator is causing “a lot of navigation challenges” for the game’s computer-powered AI competitors and has presented a series of bugs that need to be tackled before launch.

Microsoft has unveiled a smaller and cheaper version of its Surface tablet that looks set to go head to head with Apple’s latest iPad.

The new Surface Go is a 10in tablet that runs the latest version of Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating software. The device can also be paired with a physical keyboard and mouse, effectively turning it into a conventional laptop.

The Surface Go will sit below the more powerful Surface Pro in the company’s tablet range and arrives next month. Until then, here’s everything we know about it.

When do pre-orders open?

The Surface Go is available to pre-order now, with prices starting at “a very tempting £380”, says Alphr. That gets buyers 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.

A range-topping version will offer 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, but prices for this model have yet to be announced.

How does it compare with the Surface Pro?

Although the two tablets look almost identical, there are a number of differences.

The Surface Go comes with a seventh-generation version of Intel’s Pentium Gold processor, which is slightly less powerful than the Pro’s Intel Core M3 chip, The Guardian reports.

The Pentium Gold processor balances power with battery consumption to offer roughly nine hours of charge. That’s still four hours shy of the Pro’s battery life but more than matches most laptops on the market.

The Surface Go sports a 10in PixelSense Display with a resolution of 1800 x 1200, says the Daily Express. The Pro, meanwhile, offers a slightly higher resolution at 2736 x 1824, and its screen is 2.3in larger.

Both the Go and Pro support Microsoft’s Surface Pen stylus, as well as the company’s various wireless keyboard and mouse options.

The Go also gets a USB-C port, the latest physical connectivity standard, which is not available on any other Surface tablet.

And crucially, the Surface Go’s £380 price tag makes it nearly £370 cheaper than its range-topping sibling.

Is the Surface Go a match for the iPad?

It certainly is, says Gizmodo. The entry-level 9.7in iPad may be cheaper at £319, but the Surface Go will offer buyers a better all-round experience.

That’s mainly down to the iPad’s Bluetooth keyboard, which is not “nearly as sleek or elegant as Microsoft’s solution”, the tech blog adds.

The Verge disagrees with that verdict, however, arguing that the Surface Go “isn’t really a direct iPad competitor” as the sole purpose of Apple’s device is to serve as a tablet, while the Go is closer to a full computer system.

Instead, the Surface Go is a niche product that should be labelled as a “hybrid” device, combining elements of laptops and tablets, the site says.

Microsoft’s successor to the Xbox One will face stiff competition from the get-go next year, as rival firm Sony has confirmed that its PlayStation 5 console will share the same launch window as the new system.

Sony confirmed on Tuesday that the PS5 would arrive in time for Christmas 2020, and that the next-generation system will ship with a new controller featuring haptic feedback engines.

The announcement comes some four months after Microsoft announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June that its next Xbox, codenamed Scarlett, would launch at the end of next year.

While the tech company revealed key details about its PS5-rivalling console at the gaming event, some questions remain about the upcoming release.

Confirmed

Release

Microsoft is targeting a “holiday 2020” release for the next-generation Xbox, so expect to see it arriving in shops in the weeks leading up to Christmas next year.

The specs

Although Microsoft has yet to get into the nitty-gritty about Project Scarlett’s specs, the tech giant did disclose some key information about the console’s hardware during its E3 conference.

Project Scarlett will be built around a “custom-designed” processor that uses AMD’s Zen 2 and Navi architecture, reports TechRadar. This is coupled with the latest GDDR6 graphics memory, making the next-generation console four times more powerful than the Xbox One X.

Along with the performance boost, Project Scarlett will ditch the hard-drive disc (HDD) stage system found in current-generation consoles in favour of solid-state drives (SSDs). The benefit of SSDs is that they don’t have any moving parts, helping the new console improve game loading times “by a factor of 40x”.

The final result of these upgrades is a console that plays games at a resolution of 8K and a frame rate of up to 120fps. To put that into context, the Xbox One X can play only a handful of titles at 4K and 60fps.

Backwards compatibility

Microsoft has been leading the charge with backwards compatibility - the ability to play old games on new consoles - so it comes as little surprise that some games built for Project Scarlett will run titles from all four Xbox generations.

As gaming news site Game Rant reports, Microsoft says that “thousands” of games from the original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One will play on the fourth-generation console, suggesting that Project Scarlett will support “most if not all” titles launched on any Xbox system.

Some games will also be cross-generation, allowing users with Project Scarlett to play against their friends on an Xbox One.

Games confirmed so far

Only one game has been confirmed as a Project Scarlett title as yet: 343’s Halo Infinite.

However, Bethesda has hinted that its upcoming sci-fi role-playing game (RPG) Starfield will be launching on the next-generation of consoles, followed by The Elder Scrolls VI, says IGN.

There are also likely to be Project Scarlett-enhanced versions of Cyberpunk 2077, which launches on 16 April 2020, and Gears of War 5.

Unconfirmed

Will there be two consoles?

Possibly. Early rumours pointed to Project Scarlett being the code-name for Microsoft’s new range of system, rather than the name of a single console.

Insiders claim the company will release a top-spec version code-named “Anaconda”, which will replace the Xbox One X, and a budget “Lockhart” model that serves as a successor to the Xbox One S.

Adding to the speculation, Microsoft Game Studios chief Matt Booty referred to Project Scarlett as the company’s “console plan headed into 2020”, during an interview with Eurogamer at E3.

He refused to give any further details when asked to clarify whether Project Scarlett was the code name of a console or a wider product range.

Will it get rid of physical discs?

Maybe. Microsoft has already released a disc-free model of its Xbox One S called the All-Digital Edition, where users can only play digital versions of games bought through the Xbox Store.

The idea was conceived for 2013’s Xbox One, but it was canned after fans complained that the “always online” nature of the format prevented them from sharing games with their friends. If Microsoft were to release a digital-only version of Project Scarlett, it would probably launch alongside a more conventional model equipped with a disc drive.

What about VR support?

No, almost certainly not. Microsoft marketing boss Mike Nichols told video gaming website GamesIndustry.biz: “We don't have any plans specific to Xbox consoles in virtual reality (VR) or mixed reality (MR).”

He added: “Our perspective on it has been and continues to be that the PC is probably the best platform for more immersive VR and MR.”

By contrast, rival Sony’s PlayStation has offered its own VR solution since 2016.

However, while Sony has sold more than one million examples of its PS VR headset, the technology has not proved as popular as was expected, the BBC says.

Nintendo announced yesterday that popular multiplayer game Fortnite is now available for Switch console owners - but some fans are saying otherwise.

Revealed during the company’s conference at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, the Nintendo Switch version of Epic Games’s Fortnite is identical to the console and PC editions.

Existing players of the game - which pits 100 gamers against each other in an open world inspired by the Japanese novel Battle Royale - will be able to carry over their progress to the Switch version through their Epic Games account, The Verge reports.

However, the tech site says Sony has blocked those who play Fortnite on its PlayStation console from accessing their account on the Switch version, sparking a flurry of complaints on social media.

The block on PlayStation players means they will need to create a new account to access the Switch version, and will have to start the game all over again, says gaming blog Kotaku.

Fortnite wasn’t the only new title announced at Nintendo’s E3 conference.

Also making their debuts was a new entry into the company’s fighting franchise, Super Smash Bros, and a new Super Mario Party game, the BBC reports.

Pokemon’s first outing on the Switch, Let’s go, Pikachu! and Let’s go, Eevee!, was also shown during the keynote, ahead of their slated release on 16 November.

Nintendo was the third and final major gaming firm to hold a conference at the event, with Microsoft showcasing a host of new games on Sunday, followed by Sony’s keynote on Monday.

With this year’s E3 event now over, here are all the major announcements from the video gaming event:

Sony

Sony unveiled a number of heavy-hitting games at the Japanese company's small but significant Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) conference last night.

Heading the big reveal was another trailer for The Last of Us Part II, “one of its most anticipated PlayStation games” of the year, according to the BBC.

Judging by the clip, the sequel to 2013’s critically acclaimed The Last of Us is just as “bloody” as the original, says the news site, although the violence was contrasted with a scene showing series protagonist Ellie kissing another, as yet unfamiliar, woman.

A release date has yet to be announced, but TechRadar expects the game to launch at the end of 2018 or in early 2019.

Sony also previewed Death Stranding, the “eccentric” horror game from Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, at the Las Vegas expo. Fans were given a glimpse of long periods of gameplay, along with the introduction of a new female character, says Ars Technica.

However, much like previous clips shown by Kojima, the new trailer for Death Stranding “introduced just as many questions as it answered”, the tech site adds. No release window was announced, but the demonstration of gameplay indicates a launch date may not be too far off.

Ubisoft

Ubisoft is known for announcing big batches of games at E3, and this year’s event was no exception.

Kicking off the French company’s conference was a “jubilant” performance from dancers and musicians that led into the announcement of Just Dance 2019, due to launch on 25 October, says Wired.

That was followed by the new Trials Rising indie game, along with the Donkey Kong Adventure expansion pack for last year’s Nintendo-Ubisoft crossover, Mario + Raving Rabbids.

Another Assassin’s Creed game is also on course for release, at the end of the year, with the latest title taking the franchise to Ancient Greece.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey lets players choose between a male and female protagonist, and will include RPG elements similar to those in last year’s Assassin’s Creed: Origins.

Microsoft

Microsoft’s lack of exclusive games and first-party developers has put the company on the back foot in the consoles wars against Sony, says Wired.

The company therefore needed a stellar showcase of games at E3 to “restore industry and player confidence in the brand”, the website argues. Thankfully for Microsoft, it did.

Around 50 titles were revealed during the conference, says CNet, including Just Cause 4, Devil May Cry 5 and the eagerly awaited Cyberpunk 2077 from The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red.

There were also a number of titles that will be available only on Xbox One consoles and Microsoft PCs, such as Halo Infinite, Gears of War 5 and Forza Horizon 4. The company also confirmed that it had partnered with five game studios that will develop titles that will be playable only on Microsoft systems.

Added to that, Xbox chief Phil Spencer announced that Microsoft is now developing a successor to the Xbox One, but he didn’t reveal when it will arrive or how powerful it might be.

Bethesda

One of the most talked-about games heading into E3 was Bethesda Game Studio’s latest entry in its post-apocalyptic franchise: Fallout 76.

Studio chief Todd Howard confirmed that the new game takes the series in a different direction to the older single-player titles, as Fallout 76 takes the form of an “entirely online” multiplayer role-playing game (RPG) with survival mechanics.

The game is set to release on 14 November for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

Other titles announced during Bethesda’s showcase include fantasy RPG The Elder Scrolls VI, says Polygon, along with new entries into the Doom, Rage and Wolfenstein franchises.

And the company announced that it is working on its first all-new game in 25 years, says Ars Technica. The game, called Starfield, will be a single-player title and is expected to be set in outer space.

EA

EA announced most of its key titles ahead of E3, but that didn’t stop the company from revealing more information about some of the games it’s working on.

The first gameplay trailer for Anthem, developed by Mass Effect creators BioWare, made its debut during EA’s conference on Saturday, The Verge reports. Little is known about Anthem, which launches on 22 February 2019, although the trailer suggests it will feature a deep sci-fi world full of detail and have a similar multiplayer gameplay elements to Bungie’s Destiny 2.

There was also a host of announcements for EA’s Star Wars games, the website says, including an all-new title called Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The game is set after the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and is slated to arrive at the end of 2019.

Star Wars Battlefront II is also getting a number of updates over the coming months. According to Gamespot, the multiplayer shooter is getting new maps and characters from the prequel trilogy of movies, while larger scale skirmishes and additional space battle modes are set to appear in the summer.

Apple is on the brink of becoming the world’s first ever trillion-dollar company despite growing fears that the tech industry could be on the cusp of another dotcom bubble.

The iPhone maker’s market value soared to $950 following the company’s annual software conference, where Apple unveiled a series of new updates “which experts say maintain its grip on users”, reports the Daily Telegraph. Apple shares have now climbed by 18% this year.

Why is Apple so valuable?

Combined with continued support from Wall Street sage Warren Buffet, CNN Money says that “Apple is benefiting from investor euphoria surrounding the tech sector broadly”.

The MSCI global technology index has reached a record high while technology shares in Europe have hit levels not seen since the dotcom boom in 2001.

Who else is benefiting?

Growth from the “big four” tech firms, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet (Google’s parent company), has also driven the Nasdaq to an all-time high, mirroring similar gains by Asian tech giants including Alibaba and Baidu in recent weeks.

One factor driving tech markets appears to be that “despite their ballooning valuations, technology shares have been seen as insulated from fears surrounding trade wars”, says the Telegraph.

Will it last?

CNBC warns that “tech stocks are flashing a warning sign similar to before the dot-com bubble popped”.

“We can never know when the end will come. Still, there are three critical signals to watch for,” says Ruchir Sharma in an article for The New York Times titled, “When will the tech bubble burst?”

First, Sharma says, a regulatory crackdown on tech giants as either monopolies or productivity destroyers “could pop the allure of tech stocks”.

Second is a tightening of monetary policy by central banks.

And third, if tech earnings to start falling short of analyst forecasts, as happened in the heady days of the dotcom boom just before it crashed.

Technology giants including rival firms Google, Apple and Microsoft have got together to create a new standard for Braille computer accessories.

The group of tech firms, operating as the non-profit USB Implementers Forum, hope the Braille standard will help to make computing more accessible to blind users and those with low vision, Engadget reports.

At the moment, some Braille displays only work with certain PCs, or require additional software and drivers to use, says CNet. The new USB Human Interface Device (HID) standard will make it easier to use Braille readers across operating systems and hardware.

Blind or low vision users will be able to plug their Braille display into a PC, Mac and Android devices and use it instantly, just like a conventional USB mouse or keyboard.

The new software standard will also help streamline the development process for tech manufacturers making accessories with Braille displays.

Jeff Petty, Microsoft’s accessibility programme manager, said: “Developing a HID standard for Braille displays is one example of how we can work together, across the industry, to advance technology in a way that benefits society, and ultimately improve the unemployment rate for people with disabilities.”

Tech giant will start integrating the new software standard into their products as soon as next year, says Alphr.

The announcement marks another significant step by tech companies towards improving accessibility.

Last month, Microsoft unveiled a new Xbox controller that aims to assist gamers with disabilities. The controller, which takes the form of a board with different buttons and touchpads, has 19 inputs that allow gamers to plug in specialised accessories to improve usability.

Microsoft has launched a new customisable Xbox controller to help people with disabilities play computer games.

The Adaptive Controller is a compact board with two large circles instead of the joy sticks found on the company’s current line-up of controllers. The circles can be operated by the player’s arms, elbows or feet, The Guardian reports.

The board has 19 inputs for players to connect gaming accessories and these are designed to improve the device’s usability, the newspaper says. The add-ons include foot pedals, bite switches (a type of mouth-operatd button) and an extra set of touch-sensitive pads.

According to The Verge, no two controllers will be the same as gamers with disabilities are likely to have different preferences and needs. As a result, the Xbox Controllers will not be available on the high street.

Instead, gamers will be able to customise the device through an online configurator on the company’s website, the tech news site says.

As well as introducing its own accessories, Sky News says that Microsoft has worked with third party gaming manufacturers to ensure players have a host of accessibility accessories to choose from.

The tech giant has also collaborated with charities such as SpecialEffect, The Cerebral Palsy Foundation and The AbleGamers Charity to examine how users with disabilities play games, the news site reports.

Nic Bungay, a director at the Muscular Dystrophy UK charity, said: “We know from our own research that video games are important to many disabled people.”

The games allow them to socialise and compete with others “on an equal basis”, he says, and this has a positive effect on their wellbeing.

Noting the current absence of controllers aimed at helping disabled people play video games, Bungay says he hopes that the new Xbox accessory “marks the first step towards a more inclusive video gaming culture.”

Microsoft has yet to announce an exact launch date for the £74.99 Adaptive Controller, but says it will be later this year.

The first generation of Microsoft’s Surface Hub was a surprise hit when it launched in 2015 - and now the company is aiming to repeat that success with its second-generation model.

The original version of the wall-mounted touchscreen computer appeared to be quite a niche product, thanks to its large proportions and focus towards businesses, rather than domestic consumers. However, the giant touchscreen has proved popular over the past three years, and has few direct competitors in the market, Ars Technica says.

In a bid to capitalise on growing demand for jumbo conference screens, Microsoft has announced a new version of the Surface Hub, to be launched next year.

The panel has undergone a design overhaul, with the previous version’s sizeable bezels replaced with ultra-thin borders that run around the edges of the screen.

The touch panel itself measures 50.5in, with a 4K+ screen resolution and aspect ratio of 3:2 - the same as Microsoft’s other surface products.

While the first generation Surface Hub could only be used in landscape mode, the new version can be rotated and turned into a portrait screen. This can be helpful for digital note-taking, which can be done using the Surface Pen stylus that comes with each device.

The Surface Hub 2 is part of Microsoft’s ecosystem of consumer products, which includes the Surface Pro tablet, so the new device can run the same software suites as a standard computer, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop.

But what really sets the Surface Hub 2 apart is the capability to attach four of them to each other in order to form one massive touchscreen panel. For instance, you can connect four panels portrait mode at the sides to form a long landscape screen.

The new workstation also gets its own stand, which looks similar to an easel, although most customers are more likely install the panel on a wall in a meeting room or in their home office.

Microsoft’s chief product officer, Panos Panay, said the new Surface Hub is aimed at getting people “out of their seats, to connect and ideate, regardless of location”.

Microsoft has released footage of the Surface Hub 2 in action, but the price and a specific release date have yet to be announced. The current model costs $9,000 (£6,700).