Plus: art on Samsung TVs, babies’ faces online, and the iPhone 16 Pro reviewed • Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, technology news editor at the Guardian US. Thank you for joining me. Continue reading...

Platform run from industrial estate in Cumbria and catering to alternative relationships has expanded globally A dating app aimed at alternative relationships nearly doubled its revenues last year as non-monogamous, queer and kinky users helped the UK-based business expand its reach across the world. Feeld, founded by an entrepreneur couple in an open relationship, has said it is “on a mission to elevate the human experience of sexuality and relationships” from its registered office on an industrial estate in Carlisle, Cumbria. Continue reading...

Millions are rejecting the culture-war hotspots of the major social media sites in favour of apps dedicated to activities they enjoy, while bonding with their fellow users Singletons looking to shack up with their soulmates online have relied on two key routes in the past decade or so: take your chance on dating apps, or befriend as many mutuals as possible on social media, in the hope that you find the one. But some have found a third way, using services such as Goodreads and Strava to meet partners with whom they hope to spend the rest of their lives. Those couples proved to be trendsetters. So-called hobby apps – built around activites such as running, reading or movie-going – are having a moment, and not just for love. Continue reading...

Personalised videos from celebrities such as Elijah Wood were a lockdown hit for a firm once valued at £1bn. Now A-listers have deserted it – though there’s always Nigel Farage It started, as many things do, with drama in the WhatsApp group. It was 2021, and a loose coalition of my friends and acquaintances was passing the on-again, off-again lockdowns by playing a spectacularly vicious online game called Subterfuge, in which treachery and betrayal are all part of how to play. Only, this time, people had gone too far and someone had been upset badly enough that they had quit the group. To win him back, my friends came up with a dubious plan – they would have Nigel Farage, of all people, record an ironic apology video urging their departed comrade to rejoin the group. Continue reading...

From long-range forecasts to ‘real feel’ temperatures, a good app can prepare you for the best and worst of weather * I find them quite magical’: the UK’s obsession with weather apps A weather app was a leading feature of the first iPhone in 2007 and enthusiasm for them has not dampened since. While the sophistication of forecasting and range of choice may have grown exponentially, different apps often give wildly different predictions. Meteorological institutions record observations using a network of instruments and tend to share them freely, so most weather services start with roughly the same data. But differences arise in how each office analyses and models the data to produce a forecast, and the chaotic nature and complexity of the climate system means small changes can produce huge variation. Continue reading...

Queen Camilla is apparently fixated with the forecast on her phone, behind which lies not just granular details but surprisingly lucrative businesses * Should I bring a brolly? Five of the best weather apps Several times a day, Francesca Simon, the author of the Horrid Henry children’s books, gets out her phone to check the weather – not just for where she is, but where friends and family live, where she has been on holiday, where she was brought up. “I love weather apps. I find them quite magical,” she said. With about 10 locations logged, her friends make fun of her “weather porn” habit. “If I don’t like what I’m seeing on one app, I’ll check another.” Continue reading...