Metadata is information generated as you use technology, and its use has been the subject of controversy since NSA’s secret surveillance program was revealed. Examples include the date and time you called somebody or the location from which you last accessed your email. Explore some of the data collected through activities you do every day. Today The Guardian’s data editor James Ball will answer your questions about the NSA data collection program in the US from 3pm-4pm EST | 8pm-9pm BST

It may be slightly disturbing, but a Japanese company can now print a 3D hologram of your unborn foetus. Oliver Wainwright explains.

Photograph: Pioneer

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un looks at the latest combat and technical equipment of the Korean People’s Army in an undisclosed location.

Picture desk live: the best news pictures of the day

Photograph: KCNA/Reuters

On the seventh birthday of the earliest version of Twitter we’ve been taking a look at our coverage of the platform as it started to emerge. The earliest article we can find which mentions Twitter is on a Comment is Free piece on 28 November 2006 by Michael Kinsley where he writes amusingly:

For the ultimate in solipsism, check out twitter.com, a site where you can answer the question, “What are you doing?” At 7:47 am on Monday, for example, Lynda was going to get a glass of cold water. This raises more questions. Did she get it? Was it cold enough? Tragically, we won’t know until someone starts a site about what you were doing before what you’re doing now. Or a site about what you are going to do after you finish what you’re doing now. There could be multiple options. People could vote. Someone call Google. We’re rich! 

Then there’s the Bobbie Johnson piece pictured above comparing Twitter to MySpace written on 16 March 2007 and this piece Bobbie wrote just the day before on 15 March 2007 has another smirk-inducing quote:

The rapid-fire model may be superseded when internet access become ubiquitous, but right now Twitterers have found that a quick text message does the trick for them. It’s even been the medium of choice for some breaking news announcements.

If only we had known back then what we do now…

Bender wasn’t the first robot to struggle with boredom and depression – that honour goes to the ship’s robot from Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.“I didn’t ask to be made,” said Marvin, morosely. “No one consulted me or considered my feelings in the matter.

See more robots in our gallery: 10 of the best robots

Photograph: Laurie Sparham/PR

This is pretty cool, zoom in on Mount Everest in a gigapixel photograph. Click on the image to give it a try. Photograph: GlacierWorks

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Kogoro Kurata, a Japanese designer and artist, demonstrates Kuratas, a 13ft tall robot. Kurata says the original inspiration came from wanting to bring to life the robots in films, animé, and toys of his childhood. While the current Kuratas is only a prototype, Kurata is taking orders through his website

What’s your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life?
It’s got to be the satnav, and it’s improved my life because I don’t get lost any more. I was always terrible at reading maps – I didn’t even know if I was holding it the right way up or not.

When was the last time you used it, and what for?
To find my way to the Prince Charles Theatre in Leicester Square for the premiere of Red Dwarf X.

What additional features would you add if you could?
I would love Basil Fawlty to be the voice of my satnav. It would be great if you could get celebrity characters doing satnav voices. Imagine having Rimmer doing your satnav for you …

Do you consider yourself to be a luddite or a nerd?
I’m a luddite, a definite luddite. I wish I wasn’t, but I am. Although you do see pensioners and people like that now going on computer courses and learning how to do things. My wife often encourages me, saying: “Why don’t you go on a little course so that you’re more comfortable around this technology?” Why do that when you’ve got people who’ll do it for you?

Red Dwarf star Craig Charles on computers and technology Photograph: Dean Chalkley/BBC/Dean Chalkley

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Internet users can explore the world’s largest coral reef as part of a new research project, the Catlin Seaview Survey, a joint venture between Google, the University of Queensland and the Catlin Group. Tens of thousands of 360-degree, high-definition panoramas of underwater forests, grasslands and crags will be taken by robot cameras, mapped and made available on the internet as a result of the collaboration, which will seek help from a global audience to assess the health and composition of the 2,300km-long reef

Photograph: Catlin Seaview Survey

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