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Friday, June 5, 2020
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For many people, running and music or podcasts go hand in hand – anything to make the sometimes plodding monotony pass a little quicker.

Bluetooth earphones have freed us from the tangle of wires. Link them to the right music-playing watch and you won't need your phone either. But which ones are up to the task? Anker Soundcore Spirit X 2019 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Soundcore Spirit X are a great value set of Bluetooth exercise earbuds. Photograph: Anker RRP: £29.99 Exercise-ready water-resistant Bluetooth headphones don't come much cheaper than the Anker Soundcore Spirit X. Their IP68 water-resistance rating (1.5 metre water for 30 minutes) matches the best smartphones on the market and means they can be submerged in water, not just sweated on. This is ideal for surviving even the most arduous of workouts. The over-ear hook design ensures they stay in place, while a wire runs between the buds with a remote for volume and playback on one side. They come with three sets of wings that secure the earbuds in your ear too, plus five sizes of tips that go into your ear canal. They can connect to two devices simultaneously (such as your phone and running watch). They support the latest Bluetooth 5 standards and last up to 18 hours between charges via a microUSB cable. The sound won't blow you away and they don't block out noise very well, which has the added benefit of allowing for a little awareness while running, but they're better than you'd expect for the money. For those who don't want ear hooks, Anker's Soundcore Spirit are similar with just wings to hold them in place. Verdict: The fit won't suit everyone but plenty of tips, top water-resistance and 18 hours' battery are excellent for the money. Step up: Beats Powerbeats – much better sound, fit and fancy Apple features for £129.99. AfterShokz Aeropex Facebook Twitter Pinterest The AfterShokz Aeropex Bluetooth bone-conduction headphones allow you to listen to music or podcasts with full awareness as they don't block your ears at all. Photograph: AfterShokz RRP: £149.95 AfterShokz make bone-conduction headphones, which instead of having speakers that play sound into your ears, use a transducer to vibrate your skull just in front of your ears. The result is like being followed by a floating speaker as you can hear the music but everything else as well, for maximum awareness of your surroundings. The Aeropex are the latest Bluetooth pair, and are 30% smaller than previous efforts, only weigh 26g and are water resistant to IP67 standards (1 metre of water for 30 minutes). They loop over your ear and round the back of your head without touching your neck, gently squeezing your head just below your temples. They stay in place even when you are sprinting flat out, and are comfortable to wear for several hours at a time, including with wraparound sunglasses. They support the latest Bluetooth 5 standard, have playback and volume controls and last up to eight hours on a charge. A small magnetic USB cable charges the headphones in 1.5 hours. They sound surprisingly good with solid mids and highs but bone-conduction headphones lack any real bass. They are loud enough to hear in the wind and are some of the only headphones allowed in some races, due to their open-ear design. Verdict: Simply the best if you want maximum awareness and music or podcasts while running. Step down: AfterShokz Air – older, bigger and heavier but a third cheaper at £99.95. Jabra Elite Active 75t Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Jabra Elite Active 75t are an excellent set of true wireless earbuds that are water resistant and can play for up to 7.5 hours. Photograph: Jabra RRP: £189.99 If you want an excellent set of general true wireless earbuds that can hack it on a run too, the Jabra Elite Active 75t are some of the very best. The compact earbuds have a traditional silicone ear tip and stay put with a shape that twists and locks into place against the inside of your ear with a soft-touch coating for grip. Weighing 5.5g each, the earbuds are pretty small, light and comfortable with an IP57 water-resistance rating (1 metre of water for 30 minutes). They each have a single button with customisable single, double or triple presses. Hold the right to increase volume and the left to decrease volume. The battery lasts up to 7.5 hours between charges with power for another 20 hours in the compact case. A 15-minute trip in the case is enough for one hour of playback. The case takes two hours to charge via USB-C. They support the latest Bluetooth 5 standard and can connect to two devices at the same time. The best bit is the sound: real, thumping bass, good mids and highs, with full customisation available via an app. The earbuds block outside noise but have an ambient listening mode using the mics to give you some awareness if required. Verdict: Excellent everyday true wireless earbuds that can more than survive a run or workout. Side step: JayBird Vista – added silicone wings for a more secure fit but worse sound for £159.99. Beats Powerbeats Pro Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Powerbeats Pro are the best true-wireless earbuds for exercise with an unshakeable fit. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian RRP: £219.95 The Beats Powerbeats Pro are Apple's ultimate true-wireless workout headphones. They have the same seamless pairing, Siri and Bluetooth technology as the firm's excellent AirPods, but built into an over-ear-loop design with a silicone earbud tip. They are essentially the Powerbeats but without the cable. The headphones support Bluetooth 5, have an industry-leading nine hours of battery life, and a hard case that can charge the earbuds up to 1.5 times too for a total of 24 hours of playback. They are light and comfortable, with a mouldable ear hook for an unshakeably secure fit. The earbud tip offers reasonable isolation and the IPX4 water resistance rating means they're sweatproof. There is no wire to get caught or rub either. An excellent set of buttons, including playback and volume control on each earbud, compliment an excellent, punchy and energetic sound, which is pretty good for general listening, not just pounding the streets. Note that a recent update broke the volume buttons when used with Garmin running watches. Verdict: Unshakeable fit, great sound, long battery life and no wire, but only limited awareness. This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information. Topics Headphones Sam's smart buys Bluetooth Apple Gadgets features Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Reuse this content

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For many people, running and music or podcasts go hand in hand – anything to make the sometimes plodding monotony pass a little quicker. ...

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I suppose, though I couldn't swear to it, families used to sit round the TV together and watch the same news.

Now we all get our news separately, me from Twitter, the kids from TikTok, my Mr from reputable radio and newspaper sources. It means we disregard each other totally. I honestly assumed the young ones know nothing except whatever can be conveyed about slime in 15 seconds or one minute (the two time options for a TikTok). Everything Mr Z says, I tend to have read 24 minutes before. For his part, every time he looks over I'm watching a video of a mischievous goat, or driver and a cyclist having an argument, which he takes as a sign that I've given up on the world. The riots in the US completely capsized all this: for the first two days, the 12s-and-under had a much more precise understanding of the whole thing, not just the details of George Floyd's death, but the searing rage around it and the likely scale of the protests. "He wasn't a stranger, he was a co-worker," they would explain patiently about the police officer videoed kneeling on Floyd's neck, in the hours when traditional news stories were still limited to the most pared-down accounts. This is the job of journalism, to report only what's been verified; I know that, I wouldn't have it otherwise. But the kids were picking up a different frequency, in which the truth was self-evident, and all this plodding, boomer fact-checking was just a way to dampen with delay a crime that could not be minimised. They had a point. Many reputable news sources have an illustrious history of under-reacting to injustice, and, cloaked in a duty of balance, believing any old bilge that corrupt authority feeds them. But that's not what's going on here, I said. It's not because the BBC is institutionally racist that it doesn't have a view on whether this is first, second or third-degree murder. How could I be sure, they wanted to know. I just am. I'm very old. Sometimes you know things when you're old. They looked at me as though that was the weakest argument ever, when in fact it is one of my strongest. And they were scathing when I showed them a video on Twitter of a black CNN reporter getting arrested on live TV. "Black people are getting arrested for no reason all the time," they told me. "It's not more important because it's a journalist." No, but, yes, but … it is. Part of living in a democratic society is being able to bear witness unmolested. "Everyone with a phone is bearing witness," one said, and I thought, sure, OK, if you absolutely insist.Then the conspiracy theories started – not on the BBC, by the way, and not on Twitter (or at least not in my bubble), but on TikTok, where all roads led back to Jeffrey Epstein. "Do you even know who Jeffrey Epstein is?" asked Mr Z, and they didn't as such, but they knew that he was a sex offender, and they knew for absolute certain that he had been killed by some other means than his own hand, by order of Donald Trump. "But how would a president take out a hit on someone? Every squeak that happens in the White House is recorded," the Mr pressed on. But this was the wrong argument. It's not the practicalities that give this rumour the heady whiff of manure, but rather the formulaic neatness, all predatory billionaries intimately connected, like cheap airport fiction. Trump is waging a war on his own soil. In broad daylight, his actions are fascistic in language, imagery and intent. We really don't need a complicated, secretive subplot to make him the bad guy.  That's the point of the conspiracy theory: someone, somewhere, floods the territory with unfalsifiable claims, and once nobody knows what's true, everything is contestable. The world has been painted a shade of moral murk, and after that, nobody is good, nobody is bad, everybody simply is. Yet new media do not arrange themselves, conveniently, into platforms that give access to conspiracies, and those that crack open injustices. It's one ecosystem, for real and fake. You cannot tell your children to ignore it all; you can only counsel judgment and scepticism. So it was on TikTok, again, that the offspring first heard about US citizens getting teargassed (though on Twitter, predictably, that I saw the Texan protest-on-horseback) and again, they were not just better informed but more politicised. On the back foot, I tried to share what I know of tear gas, this aspect that nobody ever mentions – it attacks not just your airways but anywhere with any moisture; so in great solidarity, protestors all hand round lemon wedges to squeeze into one another's eyes, and all the women are going: "Thank you so much, but can we prioritise my burning vagina?""You've never been teargassed," said the 10-year-old, with authority. "I have, actually, at the G8 protest in Genoa." "Genoa," said the 12-year-old, "is not a place."

6:31 PM

I suppose, though I couldn't swear to it, families used to sit round the TV together and watch the same news. Now we all get our news ...

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Posted by sw at 6:31 PM 0 comments
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When Samsung released its Galaxy Z Flip, a phone with a screen that folds in half, the big question was whether the technology was really ready for use outside a lab.

I spent the last four months with it to find out.Samsung's second attempt at a smartphone with a folding screen, the Galaxy Z Flip promised one thing above all: a big, tall display that fits in a pocket.I found it extremely impressive when I reviewed it in February. The display was stunning, the hinge mechanism felt smooth and solid, and it worked like a regular phone when open. But the one thing I couldn't tell at the time was whether the folding screen would last. The screen is scratch- and blemish-free, which usually isn't the case for the exposed screens of normal smartphones after four months. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The GuardianHaving bought one and used it solidly for four months, folding and unfolding it more than 70 times a day (as recorded by the digital wellness tools), I can conclusively say yes, Samsung nailed it. The screen looks and works just as great today as it did fresh out of the box. There are no uniformity issues, no weird ripples or indeed marks of any kind, other than the original central crease where it folds.The screen is made from multiple layers of plastic and ultra-thin glass and is therefore softer than the hard, scratch-resistant glass on standard phones. But because the phone folds closed like a book, the screen is protected and has remained scratch-free.The phone wasn't used in a case and hasn't been babied. The back of the phone is made from traditional scratch-resistant glass and shows light scratch marks, just like any regular phone might.It got rained on several times and I even – heaven forbid – dropped it once from pocket height to a carpeted floor with no ill effects. I've let the passion of sport, when such things were still allowed, provoke me into mashing the screen a little too hard on occasion without damage. I sat on it a couple of times, and more than 20 other people have fiddled with it. The gap between the two halves doesn't cause an issue with dust. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The GuardianDespite the open USB-C socket showing the usual signs of pocket fluff and dust buildup, the screen collected very little in the way of detritus. But I definitely notice the plastic top layer is less fingerprint-repelling than traditional smartphone glass. It isn't really an issue in use, but I find myself cleaning it with my T-shirt more than I do other phones.The hinge works just like it did when new. It's smooth, stable and able to hold the phone open at any angle while still shutting with a pleasing snap. There have been no signs of dust or grit getting inside the hinge and affecting it or the screen. You can hear the little brush fibres inside sweeping the spine if you press your ear up to the hinge when you close it.Samsung rates the Z Flip for 200,000 folds, so I have well over 180,000 more to go before it fails. It's clear that while other makers also have folding screen technology, Samsung is well ahead in making it a practical and durable reality. The fingerprint scanner is a little more sensitive to changes in your prints than larger, round sensors. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The GuardianDurability worries cast aside, generally using the phone is still as much a joy four months later, even after the novelty has worn off a little. The crease is still just as visible, but I don't see it unless I look for it. I have even found myself stroking it with my thumb as a fidget.I can open the phone with one hand, but rarely do. Snapping the phone shut to end calls is very satisfying. The notification panel on the outside is enough to show me there's something important waiting or the time, but I wish it was slightly longer so scrolling text was easier to read.The fingerprint scanner works well most of the time, but I've noticed its slim shape is more affected by the changes in my prints caused by abrasive work such as DIY than larger circular sensors. The camera is pretty good, but I frequently find the lack of a telephoto zoom inhibiting. The battery life is good enough for a day but not much more than that.Overall, the Galaxy Z Flip is the one phone I can't put down. It is the most interesting and exciting smartphone I've used in all my years of reviewing hundreds of the things, and more than just an expensive proof of concept. Having lasted far better than I expected, it bodes very well for the next generation of foldable devices due this year and next.

6:31 PM

When Samsung released its Galaxy Z Flip, a phone with a screen that folds in half, the big question was whether the technology was really r...

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Posted by sw at 6:31 PM 0 comments
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Twitter has disabled a video by Donald Trump's campaign team that pays tribute to George Floyd, saying it is the subject of a copyright complaint.

The video was retweeted nearly 7,000 times by people including the US president and his son Donald Jr.In response to the video's removal, the campaign accused the social media site and its co-founder, Jack Dorsey, of censoring an "uplifting and unifying message from President Trump" and urged its followers make a separate YouTube video go viral.The nearly four-minute clip posted on Wednesday shows images of peaceful protests while Trump speaks of the "grave tragedy" before moving to a warning about violence from "radical leftwing groups" amid scenes of unrest and looting.The accompanying Team Trump tweet said: "We are working toward a more just society, but that means building up, not tearing down. Joining hands, not hurling fists. Standing in solidarity, not surrendering to hostility."A Twitter spokesperson told the Hill website they had received a complaint from a copyright owner of at least one of the images in the video.Andrew Clark, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said the move was "yet another reminder that Twitter is making up the rules as they go along". He added: "Twitter has repeatedly failed to explain why their rules seem to only apply to the Trump campaign but not to others. Censoring out the president's important message of unity around the George Floyd protests is an unfortunate escalation of this double standard."The US president has repeatedly clashed with Twitter ever since it placed a fact check on two of his tweets in which the president lied about the safety of mail-in voting .Twitter said last month those tweets violated its "civic integrity policy", which bars users from "manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes".Trump responded with an executive order that seeks to narrow social media companies' protection from liability over the content posted on their platforms.Last week Twitter hid a Trump tweet about the Floyd protests – in which he said: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" and threatened to call in the military – behind a warning that it glorifies violence.This is not the first time Trump has been accused of copyright infringement. In 2019 video posted by Donald Trump has been removed from Twitter after a copyright claim by the rock band Nickelback.

6:31 PM

Twitter has disabled a video by Donald Trump's campaign team that pays tribute to George Floyd, saying it is the subject of a copyright...

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Thursday, June 4, 2020
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Britain's intelligence agencies are working urgently to prevent hackers from hostile states, including China, trying to steal the secrets of a potential coronavirus vaccine, the head of GCHQ has said.

Jeremy Fleming, said hackers – including those from hostile states – were targeting the UK's health infrastructure and some of its world-leading research labs, often by using simple techniques."We do know that, whether it's states or criminals, they are going after things which are sensitive to us," the director general said in a rare interview to the Cheltenham science festival. "So, it's a high priority for us to protect the health sector, particularly the race to acquire a vaccine."He said hackers were often "looking for pretty basic vulnerabilities" such as "lures to get people to click on the wrong thing ... where people aren't backing up properly, or where they've got basic passwords and so on."The chief of the signals intelligence agency did not directly name China or any other country as being behind the cyber-attacks on the NHS and British research labs, but sources indicated that Beijing was often believed to be involved.Elsewhere in the interview, which was recorded three weeks earlier, Fleming described China as, in part, "an intelligence adversary", and said the UK had to navigate a complex relationship with Beijing, made more acute by the pandemic."For the UK, we see China as an intelligence adversary, we see them as an economic partner, we work with them in some areas, we compete with them in others, and in still others, we call out their behaviours when we don't think they align with what we expect to see or with our values."Britain's intelligence agencies have been pressing for both a reassessment of the UK's relationship with Beijing, arguing that Britain needs to reduce its dependence on Chinese technology and medical supplies, and a more realistic appreciation of the intelligence threat.Others, however, have gone further, claiming that coronavirus may have leaked from a high-security disease research lab in Wuhan, and that, in contrast to the prevailing research, it may be humanmade.Sir Richard Dearlove, who was in charge of MI6 in the runup to the Iraq war, told the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday that he had seen "very important" research suggesting there were "inserted sections" on the structures that bind the Covid-19 strain on to human cells.The research – by Prof Angus Dalgleish, of St George's hospital at the University of London and a former Ukip candidate, and the Norwegian virologist Birger Sorensen – goes against the prevailing scientific and security opinion, which says the virus emerged from horseshoe bats and was passed on to humans via an intermediate animal, such as a pangolin.Whitehall sources reacted with dismay to Dearlove's intervention, the latest in a long campaign of briefing aimed at justifying a lab leak theory pushed by the US president, Donald Trump. They reiterated they saw no evidence to justify the claim by the former MI6 boss.Last month, Andrew Parker, who was the head of MI5 until April, said of the origins of the coronavirus: "I'm just not aware of any evidence that it is anything other than what people think it is: it came via markets. There are all sorts of hypotheses around, but I just think it is not useful to speculate [or] worry about all that."

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Britain's intelligence agencies are working urgently to prevent hackers from hostile states, including China, trying to steal the secre...

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Zoom, the popular video conferencing platform, has announced it will provide end-to-end encryption after facing a litany of privacy and security concerns – but only to users who pay for it.

Eric Yuan, the company's CEO, raised alarm among privacy advocates on Wednesday by saying Zoom planned to exclude free calls from end-to-end encryption so as to leave open the possibility of working with law enforcement. "Free users for sure we don't want to give [end-to-end encryption] because we also want to work together with FBI, with local law enforcement in case some people use Zoom for a bad purpose," Yuan said on the call with analysts.Privacy and security experts say encryption, which secures communication so that it can only be read by the users involved, is particularly important at a time when video apps and other digital platforms are being used for sensitive issues such as organizing protests, discussing legal issues and attending medical appointments."Basic security shouldn't be a premium feature that's only available to wealthy individuals and big corporations," said Evan Greer, the deputy director at Fight for the Future, a digital rights advocacy that previously organized a campaign demanding Zoom increase user security. "It's just plain gross for the company to say they'll only keep your calls safe and secure if you pay extra."Greer also expressed concern that such comments play into ongoing attacks on encryption from officials such as the attorney general William Barr, who has called on companies such as Apple to provide back doors into encrypted devices for law enforcement purposes. They also come as the US considers the Earn It Act, proposed legislation that would hold companies accountable for content distributed on their platform, putting encryption at risk. A spokesman from Zoom said the company already offers basic encryption for users of all tiers. He added that Zoom does not "proactively monitor meeting content"."We do not share information with law enforcement except in circumstances like child sex abuse," he said. "We do not have backdoors where anyone can enter meetings without being visible to others. None of this will change."The decision could set a dangerous precedent for privacy, said Tim Wade, the technical director at the cybersecurity firm Vectra."In an online world, encryption is paramount to privacy, and privacy promotes safety, liberty and fairness into our social fabric," he said. "Gating personal privacy behind a paywall erodes basic freedoms and fairness."The encryption concerns are just the latest in a long line of criticisms Zoom has faced as its popularity soared during coronavirus lockdowns, as millions staying home from school and work turned to Zoom to connect.Zoom previously falsely advertised itself as using end-to-end encryption and, once caught, confirmed in a blogpost that end-to-end encryption was not possible on the platform.Meanwhile incidents of trollsattacking users on the app with slurs and offensive imagery – known as Zoom-bombing – also rose. Zoom added security measures in response, but the issue is ongoing.On the call, Yuan also outlined just how much the popularity of Zoom has surged in recent months. Zoom expects to generate up to $1.8bn in revenue this fiscal year, according to Bloomberg analysts on the call, triple what it generated last year. Yuan said Zoom is seeing as many as 300 million daily participants on the app, up from just 10 million in December.

1:25 PM

Zoom, the popular video conferencing platform, has announced it will provide end-to-end encryption after facing a litany of privacy and sec...

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Posted by sw at 1:25 PM 0 comments
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My 100-zip black backpack, previously the logistical and geek centre of my life, now sits neglected in a corner, not needed since Covid-19 abruptly halted my near-constant travel schedule.

Life went on – with limited disruption, if not quite as normal. After all, I have enough space, equipment and internet connectivity to work comfortably from home. In some ways, life has become more efficient. Less jet lag. More sanity. I'm hardly alone in experiencing this. Those of us fortunate to have jobs we can do from home have tidied up our video conference backdrops and changed how we operate. Where they can, many children have adapted, more or less, to virtual classrooms and the need to compete for workspace with their parents. We keep in touch with loved ones via computer screens in ways we couldn't have imagined only three months ago, while the crisis has spawned myriad coping mechanisms – from a boom in online quizzes, art classes and workouts to a golden age for memes. And while many of us are cooped up indoors, we have seen examples of great collective endeavour and support: communities coming together to help each other and the most vulnerable, albeit keeping two metres apart. In all of these things, the web has been the critical unifying force, enabling work, school, social activity and mutual support. Always intended as a platform for creativity and collaboration at a distance, it is great to see it also being used more than ever for compassion at a distance too. This is all very well, of course, if we have the web at our fingertips. But we are the lucky ones. Billions of people don't have the option to turn to the web in times of need or normality. A gross digital divide holds back almost half the planet when it most needs the web. In Africa, only one in four people can access the web and the benefits that so many of us take for granted This divide is most acutely experienced in developing countries. The position is particularly dire across Africa, where only one in four people can access the web and the benefits that so many of us take for granted. Women, in particular, in the developing world, are excluded, with men 21% more likely to have online access – rising to 52% in the world's least developed countries. The challenge extends to the wealthiest nations, too: 60,000 children in the UK have no internet at home and device poverty stops many more from learning online while schools remain closed. In the US, an estimated 12 million children live in homes without broadband connectivity, and people are parking cars outside schools and cafes, desperate for a connection good enough to learn and work "from home". These inequalities fall along the familiar lines of wealth, race and rural v urban divides. Working from home isn't an option for many — including some who have jobs that could be done remotely. Businesses in areas without the infrastructure to trade online are denied a lifeline that is keeping others around the world afloat.  The Alliance for Affordable Internet, an initiative of the World Wide Web Foundation, which was the foundation that I co-founded with Rosemary Leith, has outlined urgent actions that governments and companies should take to provide this lifeline to more people as quickly as possible. We're in a world where it is so much harder to get by without the web. And yet the digital divide won't disappear once this crisis is over. The ever-quickening march to digitisation has become a sprint. We must make sure those currently in the slow lane have the means to catch up. Otherwise billions will be left behind in the dust. As Covid-19 forces huge change to our lives, we have an opportunity for big, bold action that recognises that, as with electricity in the last century and postal services before that, the web is an essential utility that governments and business should combine to deliver as a basic right. History shows us that after all great global upheavals there are major attempts to repair the damage and rebuild, with some more successfully delivered than others. In the midst of this turmoil we must surely strive to ensure some good emerges out of the darkness. The web can and must be for everyone — now is our moment to make this happen. We have the technical means to connect the entire world in meaningful and affordable ways: we now need the will and the investment. Governments must lead the way. They must invest in network infrastructure, not only in urban centres, but in rural settings where market forces alone fail to connect residents. And because data affordability remains one of the biggest barriers to access, these networks must be efficient. For example, policies that encourage service providers to share network infrastructure, and regulations designed to shape competitive markets for data, can go a long way towards bringing down costs for users.  And, to connect everyone, governments will need to target typically excluded groups – including people on low incomes, women, and those in rural areas. This means funding public access and digital literacy initiatives to ensure everyone has the skills to use the internet in meaningful ways. Service providers must invest in network performance, reliability and coverage so that everyone is within reach of high-quality connectivity. We have seen experiments with drones, balloons and satellites to connect hard-to-reach areas. While these don't replace good policy and investment in proven technologies, innovation such as this is a welcome addition to the mix. There is nothing to stop governments and companies making a choice now, to accelerate progress on connectivity where good changes are happening and to step up where they aren't. Demand action from your government to make universal internet connectivity a priority Finally, we can all play a role as individuals. If you've relied on the web recently, don't you owe it to the other half of the world to help them get that lifeline, too? Demand action from your government to make universal internet connectivity a priority. Support a technology NGO such as the World Wide Web Foundation. Back the Contract for the Web — a collaborative project to build a better web, with universal connectivity as a key priority. Just as people campaign for clean water and access to education, we need a global campaign for universal internet access. We must, of course, be more alert than ever to the web's shortfalls – the privacy violations, the misinformation and the online gender-based violence that has become far too familiar. But these very real problems must not deter us from achieving the foundational challenge of making the web available to all. Universal internet access unlikely until at least 2050, experts say Read more Just as the world decided that electricity and water were basic needs that should reach everyone, no matter the cost, we should recognise that now is our moment to fight for the web as a basic right. Let's be the generation that delivers universal internet access. Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web. He is co-founder of the World Wide Web Foundation and chief technology officer at Inrupt Topics Internet Opinion Tim Berners-Lee Coronavirus outbreak Inequality Technology sector Broadband Zoom comment Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Reuse this content

1:25 PM

My 100-zip black backpack, previously the logistical and geek centre of my life, now sits neglected in a corner, not needed since Covid-1...

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Posted by sw at 1:25 PM 0 comments
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