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First pictures from the 86th Geneva international motor show, which runs 3-13 March and presents new developments in the car industry Continue reading...

Palmer Luckey built the first virtual reality headset of the modern era – then sold it to Facebook for $2bn. But he’s not sure the future of VR is with Mark Zuckerberg’s social media platformPalmer Luckey has been waiting for this year his whole life. As a teenager, he collected obsolete virtual reality headsets from the original VR boom of the early 90s, using them as the basis for his own hacked together prototypes. Then, four years ago, he dropped out of California State University, founded Oculus and crowdfunded the Rift, the first modern-day VR head-mounted display (HMD) technology. This April, the device will get its long awaited launch – and it won’t be alone: the Samsung Gear VR arrived last year, while the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR headset will follow later in 2016.“This is a huge year,” says Luckey. He’s at Microsoft’s Spring Xbox Showcase in San Francisco, introducing the forthcoming Oculus version of Minecraft. But as the figurehead of the current virtual reality boom, he’s happy to discuss the wider state of play. “This is the first year there will be mass market consumer VR,” he says. “It’s the first time there’s going to be a lot of developers actually selling VR software and getting feedback. But I don’t think 2016 is necessarily the year of virtual reality – it’s not going to instantly explode into mass popularity. It’s going to take time.” Continue reading...

As digital privacy issues erupt worldwide, experts gathering in San Francisco are united that the government should not influence security technologyEfforts by the US government to compromise the security of technology companies such as Apple are “misguided”, a precursor to “tyranny” and “a path to hell”, according to computer security experts gathered in San Francisco this week.The consensus at the RSA conference, where luminaries from the security community are gathered, is that Washington will have a hard time convincing Silicon Valley engineers to invent a technical solution to resolve the standoff between Apple and the FBI. Continue reading...

The web pioneer helped start what would become America Online in the early 1980s, eventually connecting millions to the internet with dial-upJim Kimsey, a co-founder of web pioneer AOL, has died of cancer at age 76.He died Tuesday morning in his home in McLean, Virginia, said his son, Mark Kimsey. Continue reading...

Apple’s general counsel, Bruce Sewell, spoke to the House judiciary committee on Tuesday about the ongoing disagreement with the FBI over phone encryption. Hitting back at a court order the FBI obtained to attempt to force Apple to help it unlock a suspect’s iPhone, Sewell asked the Congress members whether the FBI should have ‘the right to compel a company to design a product it doesn’t already make, to the FBI’s exact specifications, and for the FBI’s use?’ Continue reading...

Last week Zynga was forced to sell its $228m San Francisco headquarters, and after a steady fall in stock its CEO has now stepped down for the second timeMark Pincus has stepped down as CEO of his struggling online gaming company Zynga for the second time. Replacing him is gaming veteran and current Zynga board member Frank Gibeau, the company announced on its blog.Pincus, an affable Silicon Valley character whose wealth is estimated at about $1bn, founded the company seven years ago and first resigned in April 2014 after a dramatic fall in the company’s stock market value. He returned as CEO in April 2015, but this second stint only lasted less than a year. Continue reading...

The judicial decision to back Apple against the FBI is extraordinary and profoundly significant (Report, 1 March). What it says is that we place higher trust in a corporate giant to protect our privacy than we do in a democratically accountable government agency to protect our security. I do not look at the FBI through rose-tinted spectacles, but nor do I ignore the potential market killing that the aggressive capitalist Apple will make out of this high-profile judgment. If our (privacy) rights as citizens are to be championed by a private enterprise, what does this mean for our relationship to the state? Are we transferring elements of our citizenship to the corporate sector and diminishing our relationship to the political state?I find horrifying the erosion of hard-won citizen rights by governments under a false warrant of fighting terrorism. But I would rather believe that there is a court of appeal and accountability, albeit distant, to defend those rights against government incursions, whereas Apple plays fast and loose with us – whatever turns a profit. Of course there are technical solutions to the impasse that would still protect our rights. If they had been potentially more profitable to Apple than taking this stand, it would be naive to think that it would not have conceded.

New version of investigatory powers bill doesn’t differ much from the old one, signalling a standoff between the government and technology sectorHere comes the new snooper’s charter, same as the old snooper’s charter.Many in the technology sector had been hoping that the final version of the investigatory powers bill, released on Tuesday, would backtrack on some of the more controversial aspects of October’s draft bill. But the final version, which will now be presented to parliament, contains only the mildest of tweaks, and even doubles-down on some areas. Continue reading...

Latest version of investigatory powers bill will allow police to hack people’s computers and view browsing history

When Android-father Andy Rubin’s dog Alex met Boston Dynamics’s robo-dog Spot, it wasn’t quite love at first sightThe world took one giant step towards robot equality recently, with our canine friends showing us that it’s possible to coexist with machines without killing each other.

Court orders Google to hide news reports of Japanese man saying criminals are entitled to have their private lives ‘respected and rehabilitation unhindered’Japan has taken another step towards recognising “the right to be forgotten” of individuals online after a court ordered Google to remove news reports about the arrest of a man who, according to the judge, deserved the chance to rebuild his life “unhindered” by records of his criminal past.

Cupertino’s battle with the FBI heads to Washington, with Apple supported by Salihin Kondoker whose wife was shot three times in the 2 December attacksThe husband of one of the San Bernardino shooting survivors has backed Apple in its battle with the FBI, ahead of a congressional hearing on Tuesday.Late on Monday night, Salihin Kondoker, whose wife Anies Kondoker was shot three times in the 2 December attacks, said he believed Apple should not be forced to help the FBI access the iPhone 5C of one of the shooters.

If it is determined the Google vehicle caused the crash, it would be the first time one of its SUVS caused an accident while in autonomous modeOne of Google’s self-driving cars has collided with a public bus in Mountain View, an accident report has revealed, in what appears to be the first example of one of the company’s prototype cars causing an accident.The incident happened on 14 February and was reported to California’s department of motor vehicles in an accident report that the agency posted on 29 February. Continue reading...

Latest Internet Advertising Bureau figures show 22% of web users over 18 years old use software to strip ads from digital contentMore than 9 million British web users say they now block ads, more than a fifth of all those over 18 years old who use the internet.The Internet Advertising Bureau’s latest snapshot of adblocking shows that 22% of British web users over 18 years old are currently using software to strip ads from digital content, up from the 18% who said they did so in October.

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Tuesday. Continue reading...

Judge James Orenstein says government’s position has implications that are ‘so far reaching as to produce impermissibly absurd results’A federal judge on Monday rejected an FBI request to order Apple to open the iPhone of a drug dealer in a major setback to the US government’s increasingly heated efforts to force the company to help unlock an iPhone used by a San Bernardino terrorist.The ruling late on Monday by magistrate judge James Orenstein rejected the US Justice Department’s attempt to gain access to the iPhone of accused crystal meth dealer Jun Feng, whose case is ongoing, though Feng has pleaded guilty. He will be sentenced in April. Continue reading...

Tech industry titans and political heavyweights have all weighed in to the debate over whether Apple should help the FBI access a terrorist’s iPhoneThe debate between Apple and the US Department of Justice had made for very strange bedfellows.Democratic congressman Mike Honda of California has come down firmly on the side of the tech company, saying that the DoJ sought to increase its authority “with the tyrannical impulses that were the very reason our country was created”. Continue reading...

It has taken two years, but there is finally an agreement over how US companies, including Google and Facebook, will transfer their users’ data out of EuropeEurope sought to plug a gap in a new transatlantic data pact on Monday by urging US firms to allow European Union privacy regulators to police compliance with the new rules.

Total Beauty promises to donate $10,000 to charity after admitting there were ‘no excuses’ for its Twitter errorA beauty website has apologised after mistaking Whoopi Goldberg for Oprah Winfrey as part of its Oscars night coverage.Total Beauty was criticised on social media after tweeting a photograph of Goldberg, who has a distinctive tattoo on her shoulder, accompanied by the line: “We had no idea Oprah was #tatted, and we love it.” Continue reading...

Raspberry Pi foundation launches new model as it announces 8m devices have been sold in four years, making it the UK’s all-time bestselling computerThe Raspberry Pi foundation has launched the latest generation of its flagship credit card-sized computer as it announced sales have topped 8m, making it the UK’s all-time bestselling computer.The Raspberry Pi 3, released on Monday, costs $35 (£25), the same as its predecessor (although still seven times more than the ultra-stripped-down Raspberry Pi Zero, which was launched as a free cover gift with a magazine). In its small-form factor is a 1.2GHz quad-core ARM processor (a boost from the Pi 2’s 900MHz), as well as integrated Wi-Fi and bluetooth, a first for the series. Continue reading...

My father, Roger Stanier, who has died aged 91, was an electrical engineer for the Post Office, a passionate gardener and an immensely knowledgeable railway enthusiast.He was born in Birmingham, the youngest child of Bill, a silversmith, and Mabel (nee Read), who had been a pupil-teacher, staying on after the usual leaving age to work with younger pupils, in Essex. Roger was educated at King Edward VI Camp Hill school for boys in Birmingham – but he was one of the generation of bright working-class students who went to grammar school with no prospect of going on to university. His career choice, in fact, was decreed by his parents. His brother, John, had already started to work for the Post Office’s telephone operation, and Roger started work there as an apprentice electrical engineer. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterMonday! Continue reading...

Britain’s new daily has no leading articles, no website, and columnists but no columns: can it drag readers back to print?

The new Street Fighter punches harder than ever, Dying Light delivers on its promises and Lego goes to pieces in its devotion to Marvel(PS4, PC, Capcom, cert: 12) Continue reading...

The group had hoped to host a party at the house south of Paris but their plans were derailed by the macabre discoveryA group of friends who rented a house on Airbnb for a party weekend in a French town got a nasty surprise when they discovered the decomposing body of a woman in the garden.

One Direction star ‘confirms’ reports of alleged relationship with X Factor judge by posting picture of them together

What might happens at this week’s congressional hearing as the iPhone maker continues to defy last month’s court order over phone encryption?On Tuesday, Apple will face one of the biggest corporate challenges in its history, when it tells a US House of Representatives committee why it has refused to help law enforcement officers break into the iPhone of Syed Farook – one of the gunmen in the San Bernardino shooting in December that left 14 dead and 22 wounded. The technology giant will be represented by its top lawyer, Bruce Sewell; making the case against it will be FBI boss James Comey.Apple, the world’s most valuable private company, has come under fire from many in politics and law enforcement after refusing to comply with the 16 February court order. Continue reading...

The rapper says he will name his next album after the games console launched in Japan in 1987. This is a good ideaSay what you like about Kanye West, but he sure knows his classic games consoles.The normally shy and retiring rapper has tweeted that his next album will be called TurboGrafx-16: an announcement that may have left some of his younger fans staring blankly at their phone screens in confusion. Continue reading...

Chinese internet billionaire Jia Yueting has an impressive track record, yet his ambitious electric car plans are riddled with problems and financial questions

Speaking in Berlin, Facebook boss calls Germany’s handling of European refugee crisis ‘inspiring’ and says site must do more to tackle anti-migrant hate speechMark Zuckerberg conceded Friday that Facebook didn’t do enough until recently to police hate speech on the social media site in Germany, but said that it has made progress and has heard the message “loud and clear”.German authorities, concerned about racist abuse being posted on Facebook and other social networks as the country deals with an influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants, have been pressing social media sites for months to crack down. Continue reading...

Two brothers whose sentences had been suspended are jailed for two years after obscene ‘jeering’ online at judge’s leniencyTwo brothers summoned back to court for mocking a judge on Facebook after she decided not to send them to prison for dealing drugs have been jailed for two years.

Lila Tretikov, the executive director of the organisation that oversees Wikipedia, has quit after a community revoltThe executive director of the Wikimedia foundation, the body that manages the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, has resigned following a row within the community over leaked plans to apparently build a search engine and compete with Google.Lila Tretikov, who joined the organisation in May 2014, offered her resignation to the board this week, and will work out her term until the end of March, according to Patricio Lorente, a member of the Wikimedia’s board of trustees. Continue reading...

From long-sighted FaceTime calls to urban rock-paper-scissors battles, even the perfectionism machine can be improved at arm’s length“I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?” said Apple chief executive Tim Cook in January.

Writer of the After series promises that she’ll involve her readers in future books, while answering their questions in new mobile communityAnna Todd started out writing fan fiction about One Direction on story-sharing community Wattpad, with a billion reads fuelling its transition into the After series of books.Now Todd is finding a new mobile way to chat to her own fans and encourage them to write their own stories, with the launch of an official app. Continue reading...

Signal’s security engineer Frederic Jacobs will join Apple as an intern this summer, to work on its CoreOS securityApple has hired a lead developer of encrypted messaging app Signal to work on its security team.Frederic Jacobs, who worked on Signal as a security engineer for two-and-a half years, will be joining Apple in an internship position for this summer, where he says he will be working “with the CoreOS security team”. Continue reading...

Set in the Stone Age, this game is nothing like the previous instalments of the franchise, lacking modern weaponry and an arch-villain

Openreach should be run at ‘arm’s length’, regulator says in review, but BT should keep control of cable network – for nowBT has been told to help rivals use its infrastructure to lay fibre cables that are faster than its own copper network, as part of a review of Britain’s broadband needs by the regulator Ofcom.In a once in a decade review, the regulator stopped short of recommending that BT be forced to split off Openreach, the division that owns the broadband infrastructure. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Friday! Continue reading...

The first of a 16-part series called Unbound, with music from Blackstar and starring Tavi Gevinson and Patricia Clarkson, has been posted to InstagramRelated: David Bowie's Blackstar to be turned into Instagram miniseriesThe first vignette from Instagram’s new miniseries Unbound, featuring music from David Bowie’s final album Blackstar, is as enigmatic as you’d expect from such a project. Before his death the British singer provided film-makers with unmediated access to the music and images from the album, with “no limits or preconditions”.

The company is investigating why staff are still ‘maliciously’ writing ‘all lives matter’ on campus walls, despite pleas from Zuckerberg himselfFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reprimanded employees following several incidents in which the slogan “black lives matter” was crossed out and replaced with “all lives matter” on the walls of the company’s Menlo Park headquarters.“‘Black lives matter’ doesn’t mean other lives don’t – it’s simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve,” Zuckerberg wrote in an internal Facebook post obtained by Gizmodo.

FBI’s ‘unprecedented’ request violates free speech law, Apple argues in first legal response to order that it must provide access to San Bernardino shooter’s phoneApple’s lawyers believe forcing America’s largest company to help the government crack open one of its iPhones would violate the US constitution and be a misinterpretation of a 227-year-old law. Continue reading...

Lawmakers will have first chance to question an Apple representative about the company’s escalating battle with the FBI over unlocking San Bernardino iPhoneApple’s top lawyer will testify before a congressional panel next week about the company’s escalating battle with the FBI over smartphone privacy, Washington sources have confirmed.Related: Inside the FBI's encryption battle with Apple Continue reading...

Andy Burnham says Conservative claims to have presided over a fall in crime while cutting police budgets would be proved falseCrime figures for England and Wales will double once cyber offences are included in official statistics, the shadow home secretary has said, launching Labour’s police and crime commissioner campaign ahead of May’s elections.Speaking at a launch event alongside Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in Birmingham, Andy Burnham said that Conservative claims to have presided over a fall in crime while cutting police budgets would be proved false once cyber crime was routinely included in Office for National Statistics crime figures from July.

Publishers with more than 10m blocked ads have to pay 30% of the revenue from previously blocked ads to make it on to whitelistAdblock Plus creator Eyeo has revealed crucial details behind the operation of the company’s controversial “acceptable ads” programme, which allows some advertisements through its adblocking software, often in exchange for a cut of the revenue received from the ads.In a blogpost, the company explained how it decides which publishers are asked to pay a fee to let their adverts through, and gave a partial explanation as to how that fee is calculated. Adblock Plus is the most popular desktop adblocking software, and its database is also used for many popular mobile adblocking apps (such as the iOS and Android app Crystal), which also integrate the acceptable ads program. Continue reading...

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, the Apple CEO defended his company’s decision to resist the FBI’s demand for help cracking an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Cook said Apple would do everything it could to protect the the US against terrorism, but not at the cost of the privacy of millions of people Continue reading...

Jason Mander assesses iPhone fatigue and slowing growth in the face of stiff competition from SamsungAs Samsung celebrates its first registered profit in years during the third quarter of 2015 and shows off new devices along with LG and others at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), Apple is having a nervous start to the new year. Yes, it posted record quarterly revenues of $75.9bn and record quarterly profits of $18.4bn, but glance behind the titanium curtain at Apple and a core problem is materialising.That problem is the iPhone, a device that still accounts for around two-thirds of Apple’s revenue. With smartphone penetration slowing considerably in western markets and an economic softness in China sparking concern that Apple will no longer see the profits and prospects of old, speculation has been rife that the firm will try and combat global economic pressure by launching a cheap device with a smaller screen before unveiling the iPhone 7. Continue reading...

Release your inner Ranieri with these strategy sims that get you handling tactics, transfers and training from your smartphone or tabletIf you think Guardiola, Wenger and Ranieri are the cream of the football-management crop, you should have seen me take Bishop’s Stortford from non-league obscurity to Champions League glory in less than a decade.Admittedly, this was in the last version of Football Manager on my computer, but my translatable skills for real-world management are surely clear. Old Trafford, I’m waiting for your call … Continue reading...

More than 33 million people in the UK are expected to log in regularly to the social network this year, with more than half of mobile users accessing the site