Opposition leader Bill Shorten addressed reporters at a press conference in Perth and answered questions on the ongoing controversy surrounding an opinion piece by NBN chairman Ziggy Switowski, which was deemed by the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, to have been a breach of the caretaker code. The code precludes public servants from taking part in public discussions during an election campaign, with Shorten branding the breach ‘a very disappointing sign ... of what the government will do to cover up their own failure of policy’ Continue reading...
They’re easy to mock until you use them, but they’re a staple of millennial identity with a power to express tone – and proof of why representation mattersWhen Apple announced a banquet of upgraded emoji features at its annual developer event on Monday, even its own software boss groaned. “The children of tomorrow will have no understanding of the English language,†he quipped, veering only slightly off course from Apple’s upbeat corporate spiel.Apple’s emojification will be welcomed with by a certain demographic, but greeted with a by another. Continue reading...
You can remove almost all apps that come pre-installed on iPhone and iPad, set a wake alarm and change your file system (if you’re so inclined)Monday’s keynote at Apple’s worldwide developers conference was fairly packed. The company’s various executives spoke for two hours about the watchOS, iOS, tvOS and the newly-monikered macOS, but while we were all wowed by the changes to Messages, the facial recognition introduced in Photos, and, er, Swift Playgrounds, Apple left almost as many interesting things unsaid as they announced onstage. So here are our picks for what would lead the Keynote That Never Was. Continue reading...
Due for Christmas 2017, Project Scorpio will support both virtual reality and 4K HD, as Microsoft positions itself to better rival Sony’s PlaystationMicrosoft has announced two new versions of its Xbox One console in an ambitious plan to ensure the lifespan of its latest machine.A new, more compact version called Xbox One S is launching in August, while Christmas 2017 will see the arrival of Xbox One Project Scorpio, a significantly more powerful update, that will support high definition virtual reality as well as games designed to exploit new 4K Ultra HD technology. Continue reading...
Kratos returns in a visually impressive demo, while Spidey battles through New York and a new Resi teaser drops – plus Fumito Ueda’s Last Guardian gets 2016 release dateWhile Microsoft placed the emphasis of its E3 press conference on new hardware and services, Sony went with games, games and more games. A new start for the bloody God of War series, a fresh Spider-Man adventure and a creepy-looking Resident Evil 7 were all well received by the large crown at LA’s Shrine Auditorium, as was the announcement of Hideo Kojima’s next project, Death Stranding.God of War provided the opening shot of the evening, featuring a new, older Kratos, who has now been transported from Greek to Norse mythology (though he still seems to bear his old Spartan scars). In a play-through shown onstage we see the bald slaughterer sporting not only a beard, but a young son, who he’s trying to teach how to hunt deer. The boy makes several mistakes though, and is then attacked by strange demon-like warriors, who Kratos attacks with an axe and a deadly range of melee moves. The sequence ends with a boss fight with a giant troll in which the son accidentally shoots his father with an arrow. Continue reading...
Xbox chief Phil Spencer announces Microsoft’s latest console: the Xbox One S, which is due to launch in August. Speaking at a press conference on Monday in Los Angeles, Spencer also announces the Xbox One Project Scorpio, a more powerful version of the current console. The E3 games event begins on Tuesday in LA
Rapper and fashion designer’s late mother ascends to heaven in first official trailer, which debuted at a Sony press conference in Los AngelesThose who paid witness to the Kanye West’s extravagant New York album and fashion launch in February would have been struck by a surreal intermission: when the rapper unveiled a preview of his own console game. Its trailer, which pays homage to his late mother, has now appeared.The Only One video, after his song of the same name, debuted at Sony’s E3 2016 press event in Los Angeles on Monday. It features an animation of the Chicago rapper’s late mother Donda West, who rides on the back of a winged white horse that is galloping through the clouds towards heaven. Continue reading...
Creator of the Metal Gear series is back with a new title starring Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus – and a disappearing babyHideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series, wandered onto the stage halfway through Sony’s E3 press conference, said “I’m backâ€, then lapped up the long and warm applause. After his mysterious removal from Konami, the famed game director set up his own studio and later revealed a partnership with Sony – but it wasn’t until Monday night in Los Angeles that fans knew the result of the deal.And to be honest, they know little more now, apart from the fact that the first title from the post-Metal Gear Kojima Productions will be called Death Stranding and stars Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus (who previously worked with Kojima on an abandoned Silent Hill sequel). The oblique teaser for the game has the Reedus character waking naked on a beach, clutching a baby, which then seems to disappear, replaced by a black tar-like substance – which then appears as a child’s hand prints in the sand. All around the human characters are dead sea animals. Continue reading...
Business networking site launched in 2003, attracting $53m investment and eventually gaining 433 million membersIt took just 14 years for LinkedIn to grow from a brainwave in a tech entrepreneur’s living room to a $26.2bn (£18.5bn) takeover target.Reid Hoffman, 48, hatched the idea for LinkedIn from his apartment in December 2002 – shortly after eBay bought online payment service PayPal, where he was CEO. Continue reading...
by Alex Hern in London and Jana Kasperkevic in New Yo on (#1H1FD)
Business-oriented social network site hails deal as ‘a chance to change how the world works’Microsoft is buying the business-focused social network LinkedIn for $26.2bn (£18.5bn) in cash, its biggest ever purchase, the two companies announced on Monday.The agreed deal – at $196 per LinkedIn share – was announced by both companies before the market opened on Wall Street. LinkedIn’s shares soared 49% on the news while Microsoft’s dipped close to 3%. Continue reading...
Ahead of E3, the studio has shown off the remake of its classic 90s game Quake with expanded professional leagues to come later this summerIn a video which handed a huge chunk of red meat to retro gaming fans, Bethesda, flush from the critical success of their recent Doom reboot, teased a remake of the 90s video game classic Quake at a press conference at E3.The trailer was entirely rendered so there’s little inkling of what the game will look like, but Id studio director Tim Willets – co-designer of the original game – said that the new “Quake Champions†iteration will be a high-speed multiplayer-focused game – with unlocked framerates – capitalizing on the already-extant Quake e-sports market. Continue reading...
Electronic Arts has thought big with its latest football sim, transferring to the Frostbite engine and taking story-telling lessons from BiowareThis, of course, happens every year. The producers at EA Sports in Vancouver have to travel the world evangelising the latest Fifa title to journalists who are used to being told that this is the most exciting, innovative instalment the series has ever seen. And then we’re shown a new heading mechanic.But this year, there are two genuinely game-changing additions, and a whole host of supplemental tweaks, updates and evolutions. Of course, marketing and sponsorship remain a big part of the pre-release hype, so we know that Fifa 17 will have four ambassadors to help with its authenticity: James Rodriguez, Eden Hazard, Anthony Martial and Marco Reus. Apparently they’re not just faces on the box – they’ve been consulted about new additions to the game. We’ll see. Continue reading...
Get started with VR on your iPhone or Android phone with these 100 apps, spanning films, games, news and 360-degree photo-sharingYou don’t need to spend hundreds of pounds on an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive headset to give virtual reality a try.The Android or iPhone handset in your pocket is a VR device in its own right too, especially when paired with a sub-£20 Google Cardboard headset that uses your phone as its screen and works with both Android and iOS. Continue reading...
by Daniel Boffey Observer policy editor on (#1GWKZ)
Call for tougher law to protect victims following a rapid increase in the number of explicit images being posted online without consentThe threat of circulating “revenge porn†would be criminalised and the evidence threshold lowered to bring England and Wales in line with Scottish law, under changes to be proposed by a former Lib Dem cabinet minister.The law south of the border has failed to keep pace with the rapid increase of the malicious exploitation of explicit or sexual images without their subject’s consent, according to former Scottish secretary Alistair Carmichael. He is to argue in the Commons in favour of amendments to criminalise not only the circulation of private sexual photographs and films without consent, but the threat of circulating them. Continue reading...
Victorian tribunal had ruled in favour of Barbara Uecker and Michael Greaves, but supreme court overturns that decisionA Melbourne couple who listed their rented apartment on Airbnb breached their own lease agreement by doing so, a court has found.
US safety agency says it is concerned carmaker may have asked owners to sign nondisclosure agreements over possible faulty control armsFederal regulators in the US have started to investigate whether electric car maker Tesla sought confidentiality deals with customers over suspension problems in its Model S sedans.The US National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) said customers may have been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements following reports of a possible defect causing suspension control arms to break and the driver to lose control of the car.
A patent filing has revealed a design for the much-vaunted Magic Leap augmented reality headset, but it’s hard to imagine looking cool while wearing itDepending on the reality you seek, the latest virtual reality news is either really nifty or really dorky.The much-hyped startup Magic Leap – backed by Google, Warner Brothers, JPMorgan Chase and others – recently won a patent for the design of an augmented reality headset. The device, according to a report in Wired, would let users superimpose calendars, kids pictures or jellyfish over day-to-day life. So-called mixed reality or augmented reality is seen by many as consumer technology’s next big wave. Continue reading...
Adrian Flux designs policy for consumers whose cars already have driverless features, such as auto-parking and ABSThe company Adrian Flux has launched what it claims to be the UK’s first personal driverless car insurance policy.The policy is designed for consumers who already have driverless features in their cars, such as self-parking, or are thinking of buying a car with autopilot features. Fully self-driving cars are not expected to be on the road until 2020 at the earliest, when Volvo has said it plans to launch such vehicles.
With big tech business making regular political and ethical blunders, it is our responsibility to complain – and let them know they must do betterWhenever I write or talk about some company’s terrible conduct, practices or terms of service, the first response I get, inevitably, is “don’t buy their products, thenâ€.In May, it was the way Applecontrols which apps we can download – which suppresses political speech. The company refused to put Liyla and the Shadows of War – a game about a child’s life in Palestine – in its app store because, the company said, games couldn’t have political overtones. The overwhelming response from the peanut gallery was that people who don’t like Apple’s policies shouldn’t buy Apple’s phones. Continue reading...
Struggling with Blizzard’s team shooter? This guide will help with everything from exploiting hidden shield effects to synchronising ultimate attacksBlizzard’s acclaimed team-based shooter is delighting millions with its brash visual style and surprising tactical depth. But while there are many online guides drilling down into the specific nuts-and-bolts of each character, some players are still struggling with the fundamentals of this fresh take on the first-person shooter.So let us take you through some basics, some not-so-basics and some dirty secrets. Continue reading...
Artificial intelligence can now win a game, recognise your face, even appeal against your parking ticket. But can it do the stuff even humans find tricky?One video, for me, changed everything. It’s footage from the old Atari game Breakout, the one where you slide a paddle left and right along the bottom of the screen, trying to destroy bricks by bouncing a ball into them. You may have read about the player of the game: an algorithm developed by DeepMind, the British artificial intelligence company whose AlphaGo programme also beat one of the greatest ever Go players, Lee Sedol, earlier this year.Perhaps you expect a computer to be good at computer games? Once they know what to do, they certainly do it faster and more consistently than any human. DeepMind’s Breakout player knew nothing, however. It was not programmed with instructions on how the game works; it wasn’t even told how to use the controls. All it had was the image on the screen and the command to try to get as many points as possible. Continue reading...
Kayvon Beykpour, the 27-year-old developer behind the live-streaming app, on the competition – and why footage of a puddle in Newcastle made such a splashIn March 2015, Twitter announced that it had acquired Periscope, a little-known startup. In the year since, the company’s app – which lets users stream video of themselves live from anywhere in the world – has been used to broadcast footage of refugees crossing the Turkish border, bomb scares at football matches, and a puddle in Drummond, Newcastle. Now, Periscope looks like it’s ahead of the game – and Facebook has started ploughing millions into live video.Related: Periscope phone app gives millions a way to live-stream their lives Continue reading...
Equally at home on tarmac and trail, this unusual hybrid from America offers the best of both biking worldsIn a world of carbon mania, Cannondale has remained resolutely loyal to the joys of aluminium. In this US builder’s hands, it is light, strong, sleek, reliable and – in a frame such as this – just as expensive. But the Slate 105, which has just been crowned Eurobike’s ‘best road bike’, is also a true game changer. It is two bikes in one: a road bike designed to go off-road, or maybe a trail bike with a fondness for tarmac. It features unusually relaxed geometry, an eccentric one-armed front suspension fork (called a Lefty Oliver) and a combination of heavy duty disc brakes and a road-going drivetrain. This means the Slate is both light and stiff for those long- distance schlepps, yet also agile and sturdy for rough ground. It’s a two-for-one fun machine…Price: £2,499
The parent company that owns the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times said it would now be known as a ‘content curation and monetization company’Tribune Publishing, the parent company that owns several storied and proud newspapers in the US including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, announced on Thursday that it would be changing its name to “tronc Inc.â€That’s with one lowercase t and one uppercase I.
The central character in this brilliant new game is haunted by a deadly illness – something with which creator Alex Preston is all-too familiarHyper Light Drifter is a game about struggle. Released in March to wide critical acclaim, it opens with a wordless three-minute animation in which an unknown land is ravaged by a blinding explosion; a lake of blood forms and quickly fills with the corpses of alien creatures. It looks like a standard science-fiction tale of doomed planets and extraterrestrial invasion, but it turns out these scenes of massacre are the visions of a single person, the titular drifter.Put in the eight or so hours to beat Hyper Light Drifter and it’s likely you won’t learn much more about its mysterious world. Ostensibly an action role-playing game, it borrows the best parts of classic titles such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Diablo, to produce something that looks like a classic 1990s console adventure. You dash through lush woods and crystal lagoons, and you fight poison wolves and old knights with an electric blue sword and a modifiable gun. Yet not much is told of the world along the way save the occasional slideshow of images that stand-in for the spoken words of the frightened locals. Continue reading...
The investor has released her annual batch of analysis and predictions, and says ‘always listening’ devices like Amazon’s Echo are set to boomIn the future, you probably won’t use your keyboard to get to this website.So predicts of one of the internet’s top oracles, Mary Meeker, a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. On Wednesday Meeker, a long-time investor and financial analyst, unveiled her annual predictions of the technology industry’s future at a conference in southern California. The two big takeaways: people will do more talking to their computers and less typing on them. Oh – and the technology sector’s days of easy, red-hot growth may be behind it because an increasing percentage of the Earth’s population already owns a smartphone. Continue reading...
Cybersecurity reports reveal only a portion of all cyber-attacks on US central bank and identifies 51 cases of ‘information disclosure’ involving the Fed’s boardThe Federal Reserve detected more than 50 cyber breaches between 2011 and 2015, with several incidents described internally as “espionageâ€, according to Fed records.The US central bank’s staff suspected hackers or spies in many of the incidents, the records show. The Fed’s computer systems play a critical role in global banking and hold confidential information on discussions about monetary policy that drives financial markets. Continue reading...
This year’s instalment allows players to build their own on-screen Skylander characters from hundreds of componentsWhen the first Skylanders title arrived in 2011, it did much more than revive the career of cutesy PlayStation hero Spyro the Dragon – it invented a whole new type of video game.The so-called “toys-to-life†genre, mixes on-screen action with physical action figures that can be placed on a RFID-equipped portal and then digitally transferred into the game. Kids loved it because they got to collect cool figures as well as play a diverting action adventure; parents were less sure because the growing range of plastic toys was getting expensive after five instalments – especially when you factored in the rival franchises: Disney Infinity, Lego Dimensions and Nintendo’s Amiibo collection. Continue reading...
EU heads to take 57km maiden voyage in €11bn Gotthard base tunnel on WednesdayMeasuring 57 km in length, situated 2.3km deep under the Alps and having cost €11bn to complete, Switzerland’s Gotthard base tunnel is more than just the world’s longest and most expensive tunnelling project.At a time of rising nationalism and closing borders, European leaders will also hope it can serve as a reminder that the continent can still smash barriers when it manages to pull together.
Michael Hayden talks at Hay festival about Edward Snowden and how Facebook, not government, is new privacy battlegroundBritish people are not demanding more transparency from the intelligence services as loudly as Americans, the former director of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and CIA has said.Michael Hayden played a pivotal, leading role in American intelligence until he was replaced as director of the CIA shortly into the presidency of Barack Obama. Continue reading...
Rare Lorenz teleprinter, part of Hitler’s encryption equipment, snapped up by National Museum of ComputingFor codebreakers with the allied forces, it was more important a discovery than the Enigma machine, offering encryption for the Nazi command that, when cracked, would hasten the end of the second world war and lead to huge breakthroughs in modern computing.
As you point your phone at everything from Notre Dame to a slice of chocolate cake, remember these images will take on significance only after you have goneSummer begins again. Millions of people are packing their bags to get away from it all. Their eyes are ready for fresh sights: sun-drenched beaches, famous museums, parasolled cafes.More eyes than ever before will, however, see nothing fresher than the screens of their own smartphones. They will not need to look at sunsets and palm trees, for they will have flawless copies on their devices (click!). The great scale of the Notre Dame cathedral, in Paris, or the Colosseum, in Rome, will bring no risk of eyestrain: they will be able to see the grandeur of these sites in harmless digital miniature (click!). Screens will give them their own versions of the Mona Lisa or Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, versions that have this significant advantage over the originals: they can be owned, stored and used as material for a personal online story. Continue reading...
Finance minister Michel Sapin rules out UK-style deal with Google or McDonald’s and says more cases could followFrance will “go all the way†to ensure multinationals operating on its soil pay their taxes while more cases could follow after Google and McDonald’s were targeted in tax raids, the finance minister, Michel Sapin, has said.Sapin also ruled out negotiating a deal with Google on back taxes, as Britain did in January. “We’ll go all the way. There could be other cases,†Sapin said. Continue reading...
Driverless lorries designed to work specifically in underground tunnels are becoming a reality. How long before they appear on roads?In a disused military aircraft hangar buried deep in a granite hillside, Johan Tofeldt flicks a switch on the future of mining.“Look, no hands!†he beams, as the truck lurches backwards and executes a precise reverse. “It’s a little heavy on the clutch, but then it’s not designed for driver comfort.†Continue reading...
CMA claims some firms may be breaching consumer laws by changing storage terms at any time, for any reason and without noticeCloud storage providers are treating customers unfairly and risk users losing access to their photos and other personal possessions, the competition regulator said.An investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority found providers offered contract terms and practices that could breach consumer law. Continue reading...
Projects to install undersea cables from US to Spain would ensure fast enough connectivity for tech companies’ virtual reality and live video servicesFacebook and Microsoft are going underwater.The two technology companies announced on Thursday they are to install an undersea cable from the east coast of the US to Spain to help speed up their global internet services. Continue reading...
Those of a certain age may remember a BBC TV programme called Tomorrow’s World that reported on technological, scientific and medical innovations (If robots are the future of work, where do humans fit in? 24 May). The way these were described suggested an end to drudgery – soul-destroying jobs like stacking supermarket shelves. We’d all have shorter working hours and longer holidays; the production of abundant food would abolish famine; medical advances would eradicate deadly diseases like malaria and cholera. Science and technology would be used for the benefit of all humanity. We would all have longer, healthier, happier lives. It sounds like a utopian pipe-dream now that several of the advances talked about in Tomorrow’s World have come to pass. The patents and rights to these scientific, medical and technological advances have been acquired by big business and big pharma and used solely to make huge profits for the shareholders. Too many of us are now slaves to technology, working longer hours for less pay, with no holidays because of zero-hours contracts, living in glorified rabbit hutches, eating unhealthy, mass produced convenience foods and, in what free time we have, kept docile by TV talent shows, soap operas, football and endless repeats of Friends – the modern day equivalent of bread and circuses, the Roman emperors’ means of pacifying the plebs. Yes, the future may be brighter. But only for the few.
Steve Easterbrook’s comments came days after one of the fast-food giant’s former US CEOs suggested that a higher minimum wage could lead to using robotsMcRobots are not coming to a McDonald’s near you just yet, according to Steve Easterbrook, the company’s chief executive officer.His comments came two days after one of the fast-food giant’s former US chief executives suggested that a minimum wage of $15 an hour could lead to McDonald’s replacing its workers with robots. Easterbrook was speaking at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting when he said that technology is not likely to lead to “job elimination†at McDonald’s. Continue reading...
Boost your mindfulness and try to rise above digital distractions with these apps to carve out time for peaceful reflectionThe first rule of mindfulness might be to switch your smartphone off. From checking emails at bedtime to constant, needy push notifications from mobile games, our phones can often feel like they amplify our daily stress.Turning to your smartphone for respite from the digital clutter may feel as ridiculous as holding an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a pub, with your inbox, social networks and Candy Crush Saga just a couple of taps away. Continue reading...
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Our new technology podcast, Chips With Everything, is coming next weekA month ago we told you that our audio team was working on a new digital culture and technology podcast. Today, we’re ecstatic to be able to share some exciting details about the new show.The show, titled Chips With Everything, is our new podcast all about when people and technology collide. We’ll be covering stories about how tech influences and impacts our lives on a daily basis; about how the digital world around us makes our lives better ... or not. And much, much more. All from the same team that creates all of the Guardian’s other brilliant shows. Continue reading...
Mobile provider claims network level adblocking is attempt to provide greater privacy, lower data costs and better experience accessing web on devicesMobile provider Three is to run a 24-hour adblocking trial in the UK in the first step towards removing ads for all its customers.The company is planning to contact customers and ask them to sign up for the trial, which will take place in mid June. Continue reading...
Music streaming service nevertheless recorded widening losses in 2015 due to heavy investment and fiercer competitionRevenues at Spotify, the world’s biggest music streaming service, surged 80% last year to nearly €2bn (£1.5bn) but losses widened as it invested heavily amid tough competition from the likes of Apple Music and Tidal.Revenues jumped to €1.95bn, as the growth rate accelerated from 45% in 2014 and 74% in 2013. Most of the firm’s revenues comes from subscriptions, which rose 78% to €1.7bn, while advertising revenues nearly doubled to €196m. Continue reading...
Among the changes, you’ll soon be able to quote and retweet yourself, while infamous ‘.@’ will be no moreThe rumours are true: Twitter is going to stop counting photos and videos in its 140-character limit.But the changes go far beyond what was leaked to Bloomberg in mid-May, and will alter many of the rules that users of the service have come to take for granted. Continue reading...
With its open-world environment and emphasis on crafting, this is an interesting sequel, marred by glitches and frame rate issuesFor years, the mainstream games industry has been accused of lacking ambition. The default strategy is to rely on big-budget franchises that get updated on an annual basis – until they stop selling.It’s refreshing, then, when a developer attempts something that palpably aims to push boundaries. That’s what Dambuster Studios has done with Homefront: The Revolution, a fully open-world first-person shooter with an unusual cooperative multiplayer mode and an eye-catching story premise. Unfortunately, the resulting game is beset by technical problems. Continue reading...
Halfbrick Studios, the makers of the billion-selling fruit-slicing game, have announced plans to convert it into a live-action family comedyMobile phone game Fruit Ninja is to follow The Angry Birds Movie into cinemas, in a move sparked by the latter’s impressive box-office results.According to the Hollywood Reporter, Halfbrick Studios, the makers of the popular smartphone fruit-slicing game, have partnered with Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters producer Tripp Vinson to create “a live-action family comedy†inspired by the game. Few details of the proposed project have emerged, other than that the script is due to be written by JP Lavin and Chad Damiani, previously responsible for the as-yet-unproduced crime romance Kamikaze Love, which appeared on the 2007 Black List of most-liked screenplays.
Technology | The Guardian
