Undercover reporter gets a taste of the sprawling fraud industry in which cryptocurrencies play a crucial roleFive firms including Autotrader and Just Eat investigated over fake review failingsThe holiday flat near(ish) the Roman ruins of Pompeii was “disgusting”, and smelled of “a mix of dampness and sewage”, according to one reviewer on Google Maps. I never visited, but I gave it five stars.I did the same for a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel across the River Thames, an Ibis budget hotel in east London that is part of the Accor group, a central Travelodge and the nearby Hyatt Place – some of the best-known hotel brands in the world. Scattered in there were requests for reviews for hostels and B&Bs in Genova, Naples, Maastricht, Krakow and Brussels. For a few days I had a new job: writing fake reviews on Google Maps in exchange for cryptocurrency. Continue reading...

27 Mar 2026 08:31 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

One minute, Dennis Biesma was playing with a chatbot; the next, he was convinced his sentient friend would make him a fortune. He’s just one of many people who lost control after an AI encounterTowards the end of 2024, Dennis Biesma decided to check out ChatGPT. The Amsterdam-based IT consultant had just ended a contract early. “I had some time, so I thought: let’s have a look at this new technology everyone is talking about,” he says. “Very quickly, I became fascinated.”Biesma has asked himself why he was vulnerable to what came next. He was nearing 50. His adult daughter had left home, his wife went out to work and, in his field, the shift since Covid to working from home had left him feeling “a little isolated”. He smoked a bit of cannabis some evenings to “chill”, but had done so for years with no ill effects. He had never experienced a mental illness. Yet within months of downloading ChatGPT, Biesma had sunk €100,000 (about £83,000) into a business startup based on a delusion, been hospitalised three times and tried to kill himself. Continue reading...

26 Mar 2026 10:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Struggling to find the right buzzwords to adorn your CV, or to put a gloss on a series of professional setbacks? There’s a translation app for thatName: LinkedIn Speak.Age: One month old. Continue reading...

24 Mar 2026 15:48 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Big tech believes the future is AI while everyday Americans remain wary; and the dangers of riding in a Tesla Cybertruck Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery. This week in tech, we discuss a moment of divergence between Silicon Valley and everyday people; deep cuts at Meta to maximize spending on AI; writers caught using AI; and the frightening, fiery crashes of the Tesla Cybertruck.How the FBI can conduct mass surveillance – even without AIKash Patel admits under oath FBI is buying location data on AmericansWhy is the FBI buying people’s location data and how is it using the information? Continue reading...

24 Mar 2026 13:58 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Mid-range handset gets chip, storage and MagSafe upgrades to offer more essential iOS features for less The cheapest new iPhone has been upgraded for this year with a faster chip, double the storage, automatic portraits and MagSafe, providing even more of the core Apple smartphone experience for less.The iPhone 17e is an upgraded version of the mid-range “e” line launched last year with the first iPhone 16e and is the latest member of the iPhone 17 family. It starts at £599 (€699/$599/A$999), undercutting the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16 by £200 and £100 respectively to be the cheapest new iPhone sold by Apple.Screen: 6.1in Super Retina XDR (OLED) (460ppi)Processor: Apple A19 (4-core GPU)RAM: 8GBStorage: 256 or 512GBOperating system: iOS 26Camera: 48MP rear; 12MP front-facingConnectivity: 5G, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, Satellite and GNSSWater resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 mins)Dimensions: 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8mmWeight: 170g Continue reading...

23 Mar 2026 07:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Latest Android superphone packs great cameras, fast chips, long battery, a stylus and first-of-its-kind privacy displaySamsung’s latest Ultra superphone promises to keep shoulder surfers out of your business with a first-of-its-kind privacy display built into its huge 6.9in screen.The Galaxy S26 Ultra is Samsung’s top-of-the-line phone costing £1,279 (€1,449/$1,299/A$2,199) and is one of the most feature-packed handsets you can get, with four cameras on the back, an integrated stylus and AI assistance in every corner. Continue reading...

16 Mar 2026 07:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Quality camera, good software and long battery life, but you should just buy the Pixel 9a insteadThe latest smartphone in the lower-cost A-series Pixel line shows what makes Google phones so good, while undercutting the competition on price. The problem is that it differs little from its predecessor, which is still on sale.Priced from £499 (€549/$499/A$849), the Pixel 10a is more like a second edition of last year’s excellent Pixel 9a. The two phones share the same Tensor G4 chip, not the newer G5 in the rest of the £799 and up Pixel 10 line; the same memory, storage and cameras; the same size 6.3in OLED screen, though the Pixel 10a reaches a higher peak brightness making it slightly easier to read outside. Continue reading...

05 Mar 2026 07:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN