Technology | The Guardian

With its little hero made of yarn, this short, sweet puzzle platformer has a story to tell about the way love connects usUnravel is promoted as a tale “told completely without words”, but that’s not entirely true. In the photo album where the story is collected, a handwritten message summarises the themes of the game: “Love forms bonds, like strands of yarn. Like yarn, those bonds can be fragile, or get all tangled. But when they’re kept and cared for, they can bridge any distance.”Words also appear in the first level of this much anticipated puzzle adventure, to tell you how to run, jump, grab, climb, swing, throw a lasso and build a bridge. These instructions are nicely arranged, floating in the sky at the point you need them, but that doesn’t disguise that this is a tutorial crammed into one level, expecting players to quickly grasp how to move through the world. Continue reading...

Designer Melissa Coleman draws attention to the frequency at which young women die unnecessarily in childbirthIt’s beautiful, intricate and elegantly simple. But this lace collar is also seriously flash.Called Political Lace and created by Melissa Coleman, a software engineer-cum-media design artist based in London, the accessory is fitted with an LED light that blinks every seven and a half minutes – the frequency at which young women die unnecessarily during childbirth. Continue reading...

Administrative appeals tribunal had ruled that former Fairfax journalist Ben Grubb’s mobile data, held by Telstra, was not considered ‘personal information’The privacy commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, has launched a federal court challenge to a ruling that a journalist was not entitled to access parts of his personal mobile phone data.The landmark challenge is believed to be the first time the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has sought to appeal a case before the federal court. Continue reading...

Price of stock falls 13% in after-hours trading after hitting an all-time low earlier this week on news its number of monthly users has stopped growing entirelyTwitter lost users in the last three months, the company said on Wednesday, and the news sent share prices into a nosedive.Co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to lead the company last year and has shaken management to its core, laid off staff and instituted numerous changes to the service. So far his plans do not appear to be taking flight. Continue reading...

Entire-home listings were targeted for removal as the home-sharing tech company was facing intense criticism from New York authorities over its serviceAirbnb “purged” more than 1,000 listings from its site in order to rig a survey of its New York City hosts, according to a new report released on Wednesday.The move came as the home-sharing tech company was facing intense criticism from New York authorities. The report is based on the data collected by Murray Cox, who runs a watchdog website Inside Airbnb, and Tom Slee. According to the report, the “purge” targeted entire-home listings, which allow Airbnb users to rent an entire apartment, from people with multiple properties on the service, a particular issue with New York authorities. Continue reading...

Thousands of London’s traditional black taxis bring the streets around Westminster to a standstill during a protest against car-sharing service Uber and government pressure on their regulatory body on Wednesday. Len Martin from the United Cabbies Group says Uber needs to be subject to the same regulations as black cabs Continue reading...

Report finds average advertised pay for digital roles is about £50,000, as industry’s combined annual turnover hits £161bnEmployees in the UK’s growing digital technology sector can expect to earn better salaries than in the rest of the economy, according to the latest government-backed analysis of the industry.According to the Tech Nation 2016 report, the average advertised salary in digital roles is just under £50,000, 36% higher than the national average. The advertised pay for such jobs grew by 13% between 2012 and 2015. Continue reading...

Symantec warns of malware disguised as cheating tools for Blizzard’s collectible card gameHearthstone cheaters: all that bad karma is coming back to bite.Security researchers Symantec report that cybercriminals are disguising malware as cheating add-ons for Blizzard’s wildly popular collectible card game. Continue reading...

From Machine Code For Beginners to Computer Spacegames, the books that taught a generation of children to program have returned for freeA generation of children in the 1980s learned about programming from a series of computing books by Usborne Publishing. Now the company has rereleased them in free digital versions.Originally aimed at children learning to program their ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Commodore 64 computers, the series included books like Practical Things To Do With a Microcomputer, Machine Code for Beginners, and Write Your Own Adventure Programs. Continue reading...

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

Whether it’s a natural disaster, bioterrorist attack or pandemic, experts reckon society as we know it will collapse within 13 days of a catastrophic event. So what do you do next?On 22 June, 2013, Tara O’Toole and Thomas Inglesby of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies, organised a war game like no other. The two researchers, working with an array of bodies such as the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, set out to simulate the effects of a biological attack on the US. The project was called Operation Dark Winter.What they discovered was that the country was ill prepared to cope. Within two weeks there would be enormous civilian casualties, a catastrophic breakdown in essential institutions, and mass civil unrest. Food supplies, electricity and transport infrastructures would all collapse. Continue reading...

Facebook reports Irish same-sex marriage referendum and US supreme court decision has driven increase in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex usersThe number of Australians coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer on Facebook daily has doubled since the start of 2015, the social media network has announced.Facebook measured the number of LGBTIQ Australians by monitoring which of its 14 million Australian users changed the “interested in” field to reflect a same-gender interest, an interest in both genders, entering into a same-sex relationship, or used a custom gender on their profile. Continue reading...

Alphabet convinces federal transportation safety board that the software in its self-driving cars is considered the driver, not the human insideGoogle has managed to persuade the US government that the tech company’s computers – rather than humans – should be defined as the “drivers” of a growing fleet of autonomous vehicles.In a significant precedent for Google and other companies developing autonomous car technology, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has ruled that the software behind some automated cars should be considered the driver. Continue reading...

James Clapper did not name specific agency as being involved in surveillance via smart-home devices but said in congressional testimony it is a distinct possibilityThe US intelligence chief has acknowledged for the first time that agencies might use a new generation of smart household devices to increase their surveillance capabilities.

Many consumers are wholly unaware that the smart devices making their home more custom and responsive are making data that can be hacked or collectedIf you want evidence that US intelligence agencies aren’t losing surveillance abilities because of the rising use of encryption by tech companies, look no further than the testimony on Tuesday by the director of national intelligence, James Clapper.As the Guardian reported, Clapper made clear that the internet of things – the many devices like thermostats, cameras and other appliances that are increasingly connected to the internet – are providing ample opportunity for intelligence agencies to spy on targets, and possibly the masses. And it’s a danger that many consumers who buy these products may be wholly unaware of. Continue reading...

There’s no story, no tutorial and no human interaction, yet this puzzle game has been a huge hit. Could it all be down to Blow’s idiosyncratic approach to development?Most of the games industry would describe a seven-year development cycle as hell on Earth. It brings to mind tortured, much delayed projects like Duke Nukem Forever and Daikatana – the sort of games that sink studios. So when asking Jonathan Blow to describe the process of making The Witness, the critically acclaimed puzzle game he started way back in 2008, you may expect horror stories. But you won’t get them. “It was very chill,” he says.Apparently, over those several years, Blow and his team at Thekla, Inc brought on extra help from architects and sound designers when they needed it, but for the most part they were just “six people in a room” with lenient working hours. They generally turned up by about 10:30am. Thursdays and Fridays were optional. Continue reading...

The beta test drew mixed responses, but Ubisoft still thinks it can reinvent the online role-playing shooter with this post-pandemic thrillerThe city that never sleeps is now a slumbering wasteland of abandoned cars and scattered rubbish. Occasionally, a stray dog pads past, while rats scurry in the darkened alleyways. Manhattan’s iconic buildings have become gravestones, covered in graffiti and deathly silent. As a vision of the post-human New York, The Division is pretty arresting.

In another push to tackle abuse and threats on the network, Twitter is introducing expert safety council to respond in ‘fullest and most nuanced way’Twitter will do more to tackle harassment and abuse on its network, the company has said, as it announces a new safety council made up of specialist charities and a slate of new anti-harassment features that will roll out through 2016.Twitter UK’s head of policy, Nick Pickles, said that the global council would include the mental health charity the Samaritans, the advice charity the Safer Internet Centre, and the Internet Watch Foundation, a specialist organisation that deals with criminal content including child abuse material. Continue reading...

Twitter has faced pressure to provide better protection for users who are abused and bullied on the network. Policy head Nick Pickles explains its new plansA child born today will grow up in a world powered by data. They will be surrounded by powerful digital technologies, while the world’s information is digitised, analysed and transmitted around them in seconds. In the first week of their life, 3.5bn tweets will be sent.

It may still be in its infancy, but startups say city has the components for a digital sector to rival London’s Tech City – though finance can be trickyInside the offices that nestle within the old warehouse buildings of Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, which house many of the city’s nascent digital technology companies, there’s a sense of purpose and industry.Liverpool is classed as having a tech cluster, which means, according to a report out this Thursday, its digital industries stand a good chance of growing faster and generating higher salaries than in much of the rest of the country. Continue reading...

With 80% of Indians still offline, the regulators’ decision to block free services in favor of wider consumer choice is a risky decisionWhat constitutes digital equality?India’s national telecoms regulator thinks it knows, its national consultation on differential pricing for mobile data packages concluding that “zero rating” services, or offering them for free, is discriminatory. And over objections that zero rating practices create more opportunity for the 1 billion digitally disconnected, India has banned them. Continue reading...

Survey of 13- to 18-year-olds reveals teenagers with disabilities and those from minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to encounter cyberbullyingOne in four teenagers suffered hate incidents online last year, a figure described by experts as a “wake-up call” on the impact of internet trolling.The survey of 13- to 18-year-olds found that 24% had been targeted due to their gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, disability or transgender identity. One in 25 said they were singled out for abuse all or most of the time. Continue reading...

Site given three months to stop tracking and transferring data to US without consent in first significant action since Safe Harbour pact was struck downThe French data protection authority on Monday gave Facebook three months to stop tracking non-users’ web activity without their consent and ordered the social network to stop some transfers of personal data to the US.

Pichai received 273,328 shares, company filing shows, bringing his holdings in Alphabet to $650m – still far less than the net worth of Google’s foundersThe boss of Google, Sundar Pichai, has been awarded $199m (£138m) worth of shares, making him the highest paid chief executive in the US.

Exclusive: Breach at Australia’s health practitioner regulator reveals flaws in handling of personal data and ‘shakes confidence’ in medical complaints systemA nurse was allegedly assaulted by an employee of Australia’s health practitioner regulator, who used his credentials to access the agency’s database and track down her home address and phone number.Related: Lamb chop weight enforcers want warrantless access to Australians’ metadata Continue reading...

Researchers at University of California at Berkeley are developing a mechanical roach after finding its exoskeleton is uniquely suited to fitting into small spacesSearch and rescue missions of the future could be led by a horde of robot cockroaches, with US researchers developing a mechanical version of the reviled insect in order to serve the whims of its human overlords.A University of California at Berkeley team found that cockroaches, despite their reputation as unwanted vermin, are superbly adaptable creatures able to contort their bodies to fit into various small and awkward spaces. Continue reading...

Hackers claim to have stolen sensitive information from 20,000 people employed by Department of Justice and 9,000 employed by Homeland SecurityUS officials have downplayed the impact of the latest hack of government data, this one containing employee information from 29,000 Department of Justice (DoJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) staff.Hackers claimed Sunday night to have stolen sensitive information from some 20,000 people employed by DoJ, including Federal Bureau of Investigation officials, and another 9,000 from DHS. But government sources familiar with the hack said the compromised information paled by comparison to the recent data theft from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Continue reading...

Chef Neal Fraser served avocado soup and spicy meatballs at an event for ‘food influencers’ in LA – then revealed that all the ingredients came from McDonald’sA well-known Los Angeles chef tricked a group of foodies with an elegant meal prepared entirely out of McDonald’s food.Chef Neal Fraser, who hosted the meal last week at the Carondelet House in downtown Los Angeles, told about 40 “food influencers” in attendance he would be “cooking with experimental” and “fresh ingredients”, the Orange County Register reported. Continue reading...

Science Museum, London

Viral attacks in the 1980s and 90s were often gaudy, psychedelic and provocative – and now they can be experienced without destroying your PCThey may have crippled computers and cost billions, but the computer viruses unleashed in the 1980s and 1990s could be provocative works of art, too. Rather than the silent-but-deadly viral attacks of today, the attention-seeking malware of yesteryear featured animations, taunts and even games that would flash up on your computer screen as the virus took hold. Continue reading...

With Linx, Amy Anderson helps the high-powered but often lonely tech CEOs of California find love the old-fashioned way for the low price of $50,000It is a truth universally acknowledged about dating in Silicon Valley that for single women in possession of reasonable fortune, “the odds are good, but the goods are odd”.According to the Pew Research Center, the area around San Jose and Silicon Valley is top in the nation for the ratio of single men to single women. Most of those single men work in tech.

UK scientist is advocating for research to show psychoactive drug use is a matter of sound public health policy – and Silicon Valley startups see an opportunityFinding safe, new uses for psychoactive drugs, well-known chemical compounds that can alter the mind, is a fashionable occupation for a niche group of tech enthusiasts called biohackers. Biohackers are hobbyists that typically experiment with psychoactive drugs, among other life-enhancing tools, outside of institutional laboratories. But one academic scientist is trying to convince the UK government and the scientific community that psychoactive drug use is a matter of sound public health policy.While the US Federal Trade Commission is in the midst of penalizing businesses for using inadequate scientific evidence to claim that their products improve cognitive abilities, Samuele Marcora, the director of research at the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Kent, is initiating academic research that could bolster these products’ reputations. Continue reading...

As elections near, one social media platform appears to have escaped hardliners’ curbs and filtersAs Iran gears up for parliamentary elections at the end of the month, an instant messaging app believed to be used by one in four Iranians is set to play a major role.Telegram allows users to broadcast to unlimited numbers of people on public channels, with a strong emphasis on privacy protection for its users. It made headlines when it emerged that members of Islamic State were using it to broadcast propaganda. In Iran, however, which has a tech-savvy young population, it is mostly downloaded for reading news, communicating with friends or sharing jokes. Continue reading...

Set amid the wilderness of Yellowstone National Park, this enigmatic adventure offers a compelling meditation on love, loss and lonelinessFirewatch is a game about solitude and space, a first-person journey through the massive wilderness of America’s Yellowstone National Park. It’s a space of such magnitude that it almost unavoidably conjures mysteries and conspiracies of corresponding size. But at the close, we are drawn back down to the essential and human.You are Henry. Continue reading...

The fitness tracker craze has taken a paternalistic turn with a US university asking students to wear wristbands. Has datafication gone too far?‘Apple’s iPhone sales disappoint but profit beats targets,” said the headline. It turned out that Apple sold “only” 74.77m iPhones in the fiscal first quarter of 2016, which is less than a 1% increase on the same period a year ago. So what happens? The share price plummets and Alphabet (aka Google) overtakes Apple as the world’s most valuable company.And right on cue, we get the usual kind of kindergarten “analysis” from the tech commentariat. Apple has run out of ideas. It needs a new “breakthrough” product along the lines of the iPhone. The iPad was supposed to be that product, but its sales are declining. And the Apple watch clearly isn’t going to take its place etc, etc... Continue reading...

The creator of The Witness has defended its £29.99 price tag. But how do you measure the true value of a video game?Of all the bargains to be had in the Harrods New Year sale, none shines quite so ostentatiously as the store’s 24-carat gold-plated Xbox One, sat in gaudy resplendence under thick, presumably ram-raid-proof Perspex. While the console (purportedly the only one of its kind) had endured an ego-shanking £3,500 discount to its original £5,999 price tag, it remains one of the most expensive pieces of video game hardware in the world. This will be of small comfort to the sulking internet commentators who, in the past few weeks, have bemoaned the launch price of the Oculus Rift, Facebook’s forthcoming virtual reality headset. The technology, which will lead the VR charge in March, will cost £499 at launch (or around £1,000 for a package that includes a capable PC), much more than was previously expected. Continue reading...

Affordable and stylish, this classic town bike is perfect for city slickersThe Loft is made by Electra, a Californian bike company. They call it a ‘flat-footer’, which means its frame has been designed so that when you stop you can put your feet flat on the ground. For anyone who has given themselves a temporary vasectomy as they tipple over on tiptoes, this could be a godsend.The relaxed geometry also means it is incredibly comfortable to ride around town. It’s been designed with functional minimalism in mind and there’s nothing poncey about its clean and classic lines, its sensible mudguards and useful rack. It has a deep step through to make getting on and off easy, and the upright bars put you in the ideal position to avoid bumps, pot holes and jaywalkers. Gearwise, you can choose from a fixie-like single up to an 8-speed hub. A good un’ (evanscycles.com). Continue reading...

Security measure is necessary to prevent use of fraudulent parts, says company, after thousands of users affectedApple has hit back at criticism of its controversial “Error 53” message on iPhones, claiming it is part of measures to protect customers’ security.On Friday, the Guardian revealed how thousands of iPhone 6 users have had their devices, which cost hundreds of pounds, left useless after encountering the error message. Continue reading...

David Bytheway has signed a deal with the Bundesliga club in another sign sports gaming is becoming as popular as the real thingIt is safe to say that David Bytheway earns just a fraction of Wayne Rooney’s £15m-plus annual Manchester United salary. But while Britain’s latest footballing export plies his trade with his thumbs rather than his feet, the future might just belong to him.“I’m definitely on a very comfortable wage at the moment. And while it doesn’t come close to a footballer’s wage, maybe it’s something that will change,” says Bytheway, 22, from Wolverhampton, who has signed a deal with the German Bundesliga club Wolfsburg to be one of its two official gamers. Continue reading...

It takes a particular kind of driver who not only loves to floor it, but actively enjoys a car that feels as if it’s going 80 even at 40Are dual exhausts just for showing off, or the logical end point of the high horsepower vehicle? For that matter, does anybody need this kind of power, and when – outside of criminal activity – does anybody need to hit 62 miles an hour from cold in 6.2 seconds? These questions are for losers. Reason not the need of the sporty vehicle. If you want it, you know why you want it, and all that remains to ask is, does the sportiness fulfil the dearest desires of those who love to sport? If we take those desires to be antithetical to those of the general population, then yes. But let’s dig in a little: lazyboneses, who sit marshmallowishly in their seats and are just waiting for a driverless car, followed by a liverless life, prefer the automatic. Those who are a bit more vigorous prefer a manual, and those who like to sport prefer a gearbox like this: so racy that it’s quite hard to get into each gear unless you’ve hit peak condition for it. It’s like watching Breaking Bad. You think it’s just telly, and only when you concentrate will you understand why other people enjoy it.Likewise, your sedate, prosocial driver (like my stepmother, whom I once had to follow home from Kent and was surprised when I arrived that my toenails hadn’t grown through my shoes) will drive at 80 tops and never once wonder what a car sounds like at 100. The regular driver might strain at the speed limit every now and again, for kicks. But it takes a particular kind of driver who not only loves to floor it and can see the point of a top speed of 155mph, but actively enjoys a car that feels as if it’s going 80 even at 40. I’m not saying I am one of those people, I’m just saying I understand they exist, and this is the car for them. It is a cheeks-blown-back, hair-on-end, take-hills-like-you’re-flying kind of car. The steering is taut, responsive, even a bit melodramatic, like having a telepathic bond with a vehicle that sometimes misinterprets you on purpose. Continue reading...

Transport chiefs are trying to convince US technology company to extend trials of prototype driverless vehicles to the capitalLondon transport chiefs are in “active discussions” with Google in an attempt to convince the company to trial its driverless cars in the capital.Isabel Dedring, the deputy mayor for transport, said officials met with Google recently to encourage the technology company to extend its pilot scheme to London. Continue reading...

Perhaps the most highly revered Silicon Valley engineer, Musk said he has been thinking about an electric jet with vertical takeoff and landingElon Musk, founder of SpaceX, Tesla and PayPal, has hinted that his next project could be building a vertical takeoff electric plane.Making a surprise appearance at the Hyperloop pod competition, a contest to design a futuristic, high-speed, people-moving pod between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Musk was asked what his next project might be. Continue reading...

The professional social networking website’s stock plummeted to three-year low of $110.01 after revenue predictions fell much shorter than expectedLinkedIn Corp’s shares plunged as much as 43% on Friday, wiping out nearly $11bn of market value, after the social network for professionals shocked Wall Street with a revenue forecast that fell far short of expectations.The stock sank to a three-year low of $110.01 in early trading, registering its sharpest decline since the company’s high-profile public listing in 2011. At least seven brokerages downgraded the stock from “buy” to “hold” or their equivalents, saying the company’s lofty valuation was no longer justified. Continue reading...

Google makes the money but Alphabet’s other companies are wildly ambitious, from ‘curing’ ageing to robot butler designLooking at the annual results of Alphabet, you could be forgiven for thinking that last year’s reorganisation of the world’s most valuable company was all for nothing.Google, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet, dominated financially. The segment, which includes most of the best-known Google products such as its search engine, maps, Gmail, YouTube and Android, made up $74.5bn of the company’s $75bn (£52bn) annual revenue. Continue reading...

British astronaut plans to post tweets about the game, as the BBC beams live-stream of it to his space station orbiting 400km above the earth

Drama is based on viral tweets by Aziah ‘Zola’ Wells – which won praise from Ava DuVernay and Missy Elliott – about her brush with a violent pimpJames Franco has signed up to direct a potentially controversial true-life drama based on a wild and unsavoury stripper road trip to Florida that went viral on Twitter.According to the Hollywood Reporter, Franco’s film will be based on the Rolling Stone article Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted, which was published in November. The piece related the story of stripper Aziah “Zola” Wells’ 148-tweet splurge, described as “like Spring Breakers meets Pulp Fiction, as told by Nicki Minaj”, in which she claimed she narrowly avoiding being tricked into prostitution by a fellow stripper and her violent Nigerian pimp. Continue reading...

DeepMind’s Go-playing software will play South Korean in five-match game live-streamed on YouTube, following victory over European championGoogle’s French Go-champion-beating AlphaGo artificial intelligence will take on the Go world No 1 in a live broadcast from Seoul, South Korea. The contest will begin on 9 March and offers a $1m prize.

Battery could revolutionise UK energy market by enabling people to store excess energy generated from rooftop solar panelsThe setting is decidedly modest: a utility room in a red-brick house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Wales. But if the hype turns out to be right, this may be the starting point for an energy revolution in the UK.Householder Mark Kerr has become the first British owner of a Tesla Powerwall, a cutting-edge bit of kit that the makers say will provide a “missing link” in solar energy. Continue reading...

From discounts on hotel rooms and plane tickets to shopping vouchers, student deals and gig tickets without booking feesAll hail the age of austerity. Even if that doesn’t extend to the expensive devices we carry in our pockets. But smartphones can save you money, if you let them.Apps comparing the prices of meals, plane tickets, insurance and more are well established on the app stores now, as are apps with more specific methods of saving you a few pounds. Continue reading...

Author Alec Ross looks at how robots, genomics and big data are going to change our lives foreverAs a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton, Alec Ross travelled the world with the remit of cataloguing the best examples of innovation the human race has to offer. His trips took him to Korea, the Congo and Silicon Valley (and far enough overall he has calculated, to take him from the Earth to the moon twice, with a side trip from the US to New Zealand), and left him with a concern that the rate of change could leave many behind.From robots entering the workforce and leading to the very real prospect of redundancy within a decade for the million employees of Taiwan’s electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn to genetic engineering unleashing the possibility of designer babies, the power of technology to reshape the world is reaching historic levels. Continue reading...