Science and Tech

WASD One of the main showcases for UK gaming has been cancelled, reflecting the wider struggles of an industry which has seen a series of job cuts and studio closures. The WASD expo – which is usually held in London in April – is a shop window for British talent, with a particular emphasis on smaller, independent game-makers. But its …

Volocopter The VoloCity made demonstration flights in Paris over the summer One of the innovations at this year’s Paris Olympics was supposed to be an electric flying taxi service. Germany’s Volocopter promised its electric-powered, two-seater aircraft, the VoloCity, would be ferrying passengers around the city. It never happened. Instead the company ran demonstration flights. While missing that deadline was embarrassing, …

The social media platform Bluesky was hit by an outage on Thursday, amid a rising wave of popularity for the app, which is often described as a friendlier alternative to X,. Bluesky has at times been the most downloaded app on both the US and UK Apple Stores in recent days, with many social media users leaving X, formerly Twitter, …

Meta has been fined €798m (£664m) for breaking competition law by embedding Facebook Marketplace within its social network. The European Commission said this meant alternative classified ads services had faced “unfair trading conditions”, making it harder for them to compete. In addition to the fine, it has ordered Meta to stop imposing these conditions on other services. Meta said it …

Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg met wife Priscilla Chan at a college party 21 years ago Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has recorded his own version of rap track Get Low alongside US star T-Pain, in tribute to his wife Priscilla Chan for their “dating anniversary”. Zuckerberg sings with the help of Auto-Tune on an acoustic guitar reworking of the filthy floor-filler, …

Amazon has launched a new outlet called Haul which caps the price of products on sale at $20 (£15.79), in an effort to take on low-cost retailers Temu and Shein. The online shopping giant unveiled Haul as a mobile-only experience available in its Shopping app for US customers on Wednesday. It says shoppers can expect “crazy low prices” on Haul …

Getty Images iCloud is the online storage service from Apple Apple is facing a legal claim accusing it of effectively locking 40 million British customers into its iCloud service and charging them “rip off prices.” Consumer group Which? says the legal action – which it has launched – could result in a £3bn payout if it is successful, equivalent to …

British newspaper group the Guardian has announced it will no longer post on X, formerly Twitter, saying it has become a “a toxic media platform”. In a message to readers, it said the US presidential election “underlined” its concerns that its owner, Elon Musk, had been able to use X to “shape political discourse.” Mr Musk strongly backed Donald Trump …

Volkswagen Group (VW) and Tesla rival Rivian have launched a joint venture, with the German car giant increasing its investment in the partnership. The two companies say the the deal is now worth $5.8bn (£4.55bn) – up from an initial pledge of $5bn by VW. Shares in the US electric vehicle (EV) maker jumped more than 9% in after-hours trading …

We hear from a former moderator in Kenya who was left traumatised by his previous job.