Employees are now whispering to AI voice dictation tools rather than clacking the keys. Will ‘voicepilling’ make everyone more productive – or just more annoying?Name: Voicepilled.Age: Reid Hoffman first declared himself “voicepilled” in the autumn of last year. Continue reading...

12 May 2026 14:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Carly Schwartz wanted a solution for her mental health struggles. She found one, but not where she expectedOn a threadbare carpet in the living room of a Bernal Heights bungalow, I lay blindfolded on my back. Two middle-aged rescue terriers, one missing an eye, sniffed my feet and climbed up and down my legs. F**kin’ Perfect by Pink blared in the background, but the music sounded muffled and distant, like I was listening from underwater.It was 1pm on a Thursday. Instead of going to the office, I’d allowed a shaman named Jonathan to inject my thigh muscle with a large dose of liquid ketamine. Even in my compromised state, high and spread out like a corpse on a stranger’s rug, I knew I’d reached peak absurdity. I also knew I wouldn’t emerge from this activity with even a slight improvement to my mental health.Carly Schwartz is the author of the new memoir I’ll Try Anything Twice: Misadventures of a Self-Medicated Life and the former editor in chief of the San Francisco Examiner Continue reading...

11 May 2026 14:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Comedy debuts at Versailles featuring dialogue, music, costumes and scenery created with help of AI tool Le ChatEurope live – latest updatesMolière is to the French what Shakespeare is to the English: the last word in historical literature, drama, wit and satire.Now, more than 350 years after his death, the 17th-century dramatist has been revived after scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style. Continue reading...

11 May 2026 12:29 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

The problem wasn’t just the perfectly polished, yet mediocre prose. It’s what’s lost when we surrender the struggle to translate thought into wordsI have been teaching fiction writing at MIT since 2017. Many of my students last wrote fiction in middle school, and very few have experienced a proper workshop, so at the start of every semester I offer these directions for writer and reader alike:Read the story at least twice. Mark what works and what doesn’t – underline great sentences, flag clunky syntax, gaps in logic and unrealistic dialogue. Ask yourself: does the story work? Why or why not? What could improve it? Answer in a signed letter to the author, attached to their story. Give your honest opinions. Remember that an effective peer review demands close reading of the text accompanied by a boldness of spirit. Continue reading...

10 May 2026 13:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Small top-tier Android is great to use, being fast, AI-loaded and with reasonable battery life, but falls short of rivals on cameraSamsung’s compact flagship phone hasn’t changed much in a year, but the S26 is still one of the best smaller handsets available as rivals grow larger and larger.The S26 is the cheapest and smallest of this year’s top Samsungs, dwarfed by the top-of-the-line S26 Ultra in size and price. But like everything with a memory chip at the moment, the S26 has increased in price by £80 or the equivalent to £879 (€949/$899/A$1,349). At least it has double the starting storage. Continue reading...

30 Apr 2026 06:00 ✍️ 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