technology
The bitcoin boom spawned new billionaires and videos of beach parties and Lamborghinis. The crypto crash brought devastation for small investors and bankruptcy for many companies. Blockchain technology underpins crypto and has been hailed as a world-changing innovation, but does it have any use beyond creating speculative financial instruments? AFP asked crypto critic Stephen Diehl, author of recently published "Popping the Crypto Bubble", to run the rule over some of the most popular claims made for blockchain technology. More secure voting?As tension and confusion engulfed the United States ...
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The rollout of Android 13 is starting earlier than expected. The lucky owners of a Pixel smartphone (versions 4 and later) can already enjoy the latest features of Google's mobile operating system. As always, Google's smartphones are the first to benefit from the latest that Android has to offer. By the end of the year, the majority of owners of compatible smartphones from Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, Realme, Vivo, Motorola and Sony should also be able to benefit. All Android smartphones released this year, as well as other recent and 5G compatible models, will be able to take advantage of ...
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In the height of the pandemic, video games offered people solace in isolation. But now that life is slowly returning to pre-crisis normal, and inflation is soaring, gaming companies are feeling the pinch. Makers of consoles, accessories, and software for gaming are experiencing the same kind of post-pandemic effect as tech titans who saw business boom while Covid-19 fears kept people close to home. The squeeze has been exacerbated by steep inflation spurring belt-tightening and gaming fatigue after years of relying on indoor entertainment. Early in the pandemic, "people flocked to Twitch in dr...
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In the bowels of an imposing modernist tower in Paris, Laurent Duplouy carefully handles a pristine copy of "Tomb Raider" before slotting it back on the shelf alongside thousands of other classic video games. Duplouy oversees a huge archive of games at France's National Library (BNF), one of the longest-running efforts to preserve a part of global heritage that is often overlooked by cultural institutions. "The video game can be regarded as total art, because it combines graphic art, narrative art and a narrative structure," Duplouy told AFP. The 1990s glass and steel structure, a short hop fr...
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When video game designer Mark Venturelli was asked to speak at Brazil's biggest gaming festival, he submitted a generic-sounding title for his presentation -- "The Future of Game Design" -- but that was not the talk he gave. Instead, he launched into a 30-minute diatribe against the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies and the games it has spawned, mostly very basic smartphone apps that lure players with the promise of earning money. "Everything that is done in this space right now is just bad -- actually it's terrible," he told AFP. He is genuinely worried for the industry he...
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When you're dangling from a tower 2,000 feet above the desert floor by your fingertips, it may be difficult not to drop a couple of F-bombs -- even if you're a Hollywood actor shooting a PG-13 rated movie. Fortunately, a new editing technology came to the rescue of the "potty-mouthed" stars of "Fall," out in US theaters Friday, which follows two young women who decide to scale an impossibly tall metal tower in the remote California desert. This being a movie, the adventure doesn't go to plan, leaving Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner) stranded on a tiny platform where ...
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Third-party developers have added features to "The Sims" that allow players' characters to access abortions. The video game -- popular for the progressive vision instilled in its simulations -- had not previously opened up abortion rights to characters. These unofficial features have become particularly popular and continue to be downloaded with the recent repeal of abortion rights in the United States. Fans of the video game "The Sims" have added features that allow characters to have virtual abortions. These new features have become very popular within the community of the world's most famou...
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US teens have left Facebook in droves over the past seven years, preferring to spend time at video-sharing venues YouTube and TikTok, according to a Pew Research Center survey data out Wednesday. TikTok has "emerged as a top social media platform for US teens" while Google-run YouTube "stands out as the most common platform used by teens," the report's authors wrote. Pew's data comes as Facebook-owner Meta is in a battle with TikTok for social media primacy, trying to keep the maximum number of users as part of its multi-billion dollar ad-driven business. The report said some 95 percent of the...
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Artist and musician Zach Katz virtually transforms the streets of the world's major cities in order to show how the space could be made more hospitable to pedestrians. Every day, he posts new creations on his Twitter account and, in the space of a few weeks, has become something of a star among internet users, city planners and politicians. How do we imagine the downtown zones of the future? The Twitter account @Betterstreetsai explores this question by using DALL-E, the artificial intelligence (AI) that has started a real trend on the web. Here, fountains, green space, rails or even roads res...
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Faced with sarcastic and jealous remarks hinting at amateurism and indifference in their professional set-up, two freelancers talk about how they use social networks as they travel the world. Without restricting themselves on how they post, they don't hesitate to remind their colleagues or clients that they are still at work, even if they're in Bali or Australia. When you're a freelancer working on the other side of the world, it's hard to resist the temptation to post pictures of beaches and crystal waters on social networks. After all, isn't it a prime opportunity to share the beauty of an a...
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