Chairman says everyone should work together to fight terrorism online and to de-escalate tensions on social media, but does not set out any plansGoogle’s Eric Schmidt has called on the technology industry to put its collective intelligence behind tackling terrorism on the internet, by building “spell-checkers, but for hate and harassment”.Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, wrote in the New York Times that individuals, tech companies and governments all have a role to play in ensuring the internet is only used for positive ends. Continue reading...

From musical tweetbots to rejuvenated and repurposed arcade games and cameras, here are some of the best hacks and projects you told us about

Experts say ‘kudos’ of committing crime is luring more teenagers, as average age of suspects falls by seven years in the space of 12 monthsThe average age of suspected cyber-attackers has dropped dramatically to just 17, the National Crime Agency has said.Experts believe the “kudos” of committing crime lures teenagers on to the wrong side of the law, and pranks used in online gaming can spiral out of control. Continue reading...

Manpower survey reveals soaring costs following high profile attacks on Sony, TalkTalk and JD WetherspoonBritain’s top cybersecurity experts are billing major companies more than £10,000 a day to protect vulnerable IT systems from sophisticated hackers, according to recruiter Manpower.Less experienced experts can still charge more than £3,000 a day to tackle the escalating threat to sensitive digital information. Continue reading...

Publisher wants to cut 225 jobs from Warwickshire warehouse, where books are distributed, owing to decline in demandReaders’ preference for ebooks has been blamed for 225 potential job losses after publisher Penguin Random House announced cuts that leave staff facing an anxious Christmas.The publisher of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman and EL James latest 50 Shades novel, Grey, wants to cut jobs at its warehouse in Rugby, Warwickshire. It put its decision down to a fall-off in demand for physical books, which are distributed from the warehouse, and consolidation among publishers. Continue reading...

Is Apple really ‘the first major computer company to make Open Source development a key part of its ongoing software strategy’?Apple has pleased nerds everywhere by releasing its Swift programming language as open source, freeing up the code-base of the language to be used as developers see fit.It’s good news if you’re a fan of free software (that’s “free-as-in-speech”, meaning that the code is no longer locked up behind prohibitive licenses), and Apple is justifiably proud, with Craig Federighi, the company’s head of software engineering, saying that: “Swift’s power and ease of use will inspire a new generation to get into coding, and with today’s announcement they’ll be able to take their ideas anywhere, from mobile devices to the cloud.” Continue reading...

More tips on how to survive in the radioactive wasteland, including how to fight Legendary enemies, hide goodies and carry more stuffFallout 4’s rich and varied landscape is built for lackadaisical roaming – the player character’s nicknamed the Wanderer for a reason. The experience isn’t about just racing through the main questline or finding the best gear, but assembling your own story from all of Bethesda’s tiny interlocking parts.The Commonwealth is a harsh mistress, however, so we could all use some help – and none other than our grizzled survivor “Corbyn” has heeded your call. We’ve already covered the 12 key tips for beginners, so now it’s time for some more advanced instruction. Let’s really get those Super Mutants quaking in their boots. Continue reading...

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

The digital adviser for both David Cameron and Boris Johnson talks about diversity and successYou’re the digital representative on David Cameron’s business advisory panel. Should digital be seen as a separate sector?

Elan Gale on the modern minefield that is internet dating, and why humour is often the sanest responseTell me about the inspiration for the Instagram account Tinder Nightmares?

In the first of a series of monthly columns, our critic examines the growing issue of mental health in the design of new titlesIn the 1990s, 27-year-old video game archaeologist Lara Croft became internationally recognisable, in part thanks to her unfeasibly tiny waist, panoramic bust and a slew of appearances on the covers of magazines such as Rolling Stone, Newsweek and Time. We live in an era when such megawatt stars do not grow old. Instead, like Batman, Star Trek or Jesus, they endure as ciphers for successive waves of actors, writers and directors to inhabit and reinterpret.Croft, in fact, has grown younger with time’s passing. In the most recent entry in her series, last month’s Rise of the Tomb Raider, she’s a 23-year-old. More youthful, certainly, but also more complicated. While in the earliest Tomb Raider games Croft did little more than knock about in ancient ruins, fend off hostile wildlife and solve preposterous masonry-based puzzles, in this latest outing she’s in therapy. The tomb raiding, it turns out, is in fact a way to work through her grief at her father’s death. Continue reading...

California’s Silicon Valley runs the show when it comes to successful tech companies. So why has the old world failed to produce a thriving digital industry to rival the US?David Galbraith, a partner at venture investment firm Anthemis, has a statistic he likes to quote. “The combined value of the top three internet companies in the Americas – so, basically, in America – is around $0.75tn (£0.5tn). In Asia, it’s around $0.5tn. In Africa, it’s $50bn. And in Europe, it’s just $25bn.”When I first heard the figure from him, on the hottest day of the year at a conference in the City of London, I was shocked. Galbraith, who helped create both net standard RSS and listings site Yelp in the early 2000s, is not known for exaggeration. Continue reading...

Coming our way are houses run by networked kits . But this will have grave implications for privacy and securityThere is a technological juggernaut heading our way. It’s called the Internet of Things (IoT). For the tech industry, it’s the Next Big Thing, alongside big data, though in fact that pair are often just two sides of the same coin. The basic idea is that since computing devices are getting smaller and cheaper, and wireless network technology is becoming ubiquitous, it will soon be feasible to have trillions of tiny, networked computers embedded in everything. They can sense changes, turning things on and off, making decisions about whether to open a door or close a valve or order fresh supplies of milk, you name it, the computers communicating with one another and shipping data to server farms all over the place.As ever with digital technology, there’s an underlying rationality to lots of this. The IoT could make our lives easier and our societies more efficient. If parking bays could signal to nearby cars that they are empty, then the nightmarish task of finding a parking place in crowded cities would be eased. If every river in the UK could tweet its level every few minutes, then we could have advance warning of downstream floods in time to alert those living in their paths. And so on. Continue reading...

As CEO of a tech startup and a former adviser to David Cameron, I’ve seen efforts to ‘change the world’ from two sides. It’s time to encourage Silicon Valley to expand its problem-solving approachTry to put aside any hostility you may feel for the way in which Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan chose to announce their massive philanthropic commitment this week. Using the birth of their first child to focus attention on the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative this week, the couple were met with praise and criticism in equal measure.My perspective comes from both sides of the equation: I’m the co-founder and CEO of a Silicon Valley tech startup, Crowdpac, but was for a number of years senior adviser to British prime minister David Cameron. One of the phrases you hear most in the tech industry is: “We want to work on big problems.” Well, I’ve done that in government, and I’m now doing it in tech. And I can tell you: the HBO show Silicon Valley hits the nail on the head with its parodic portrayal of every last startup founder and app developer claiming that they’re going to “change the world”. Continue reading...

The decision by the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify internet providers as ‘common carriers’ is being tested in a Washington DC courtroomNet neutrality is on trial, and everyone from white-shoe-firm lawyers to Christian internet activists showed up to watch oral arguments in the US Telecom Association v the FCC on Friday in a packed Washington DC courtroom, where an exasperated bailiff threatened to toss out reporters who wouldn’t stop using their phones to access the technology in question.From the moment in February when the FCC voted to reclassify internet providers as “common carriers”, paving the way for net neutrality protections, a bitter fight in the courtroom was inevitable. Continue reading...

This month’s roundup of hot new tech includes an electric chopper and a build-your-own robot named Alan. Welcome to the future!Cyclists wanting to give their morning commute that extra spark might want to look into an Archont electro from Serbian e-bike maker Ono Bikes. This stylish stainless steel ride was inspired by Harley Davidson motorbikes. Under the hood sits a 7-kW electric motor that will push it just shy of 50mph with a range of 60 miles on one charge.The Archont electro will set you back €9,999 (£7,026) when it goes on sale, though pre-orders have a 33% discount for a limited time, or a non-electric version costs €1,999 (£1,405), when available in April. Continue reading...

Top video-game choices to find under the treeTearaway Unfolded (PS4) Continue reading...

The astonishing success of Football Manager is based on data so accurate it’s used by clubs to rate players and tacticsIn September this year the England winger Andros Townsend received a frantic text message from his girlfriend. “When did you get fined for not turning up for training,” it read, followed by that iPhone emoji that resembles the troubled subject of Edvard Munch’s The Scream: eyes locked open, mouth agape, hands clasped to cheeks.“Huh?” he replied, in bewilderment. “I got fined?” Then, a demand: ‘Show me.” Townsend’s girlfriend, Hazel O’Sullivan, obliged with a screengrab of a headline that read: “Andros Townsend accepts his fine.” Townsend, the article could be seen to continue, had learned his lesson and “indicated a willingness to improve his behaviour in future”. Continue reading...

Initiative through which couple will give away Facebook shares is structured to enable flexible use of funds, says founderMark Zuckerberg has defended the structure of his new philanthropic organisation after critics suggested he was avoiding paying tax on the sale of his shares.Related: Facebook shares: what's behind Mark Zuckerberg's 'hacker philanthropy'? Continue reading...

New technology connects us, but in a world where you’re only ever a swipe away from other people’s thoughts, where do you keep your own?Private faces in public places

Union representative says drivers are concerned about safety of UberPool and how revenue will be sharedUber faces a union-backed protest against its decision to make it compulsory for its London drivers to offer a new minicab sharing service.GMB, the union for Uber drivers, has written to the company calling on it to reverse a decision not to allow drivers to opt out of the UberPool car-sharing service, which launched in London on Friday. Uber says the new scheme will help cut congestion and bring down the cost of travel for passengers.

Hackers steal 657,000 personal details from old website database but pub chain says stolen data is ‘extremely limited’Personal details of up to 657,000 customers of pub chain JD Wetherspoon have been stolen in the the latest cyber attack on a British company.Wetherspoon said the hack was made on its old website, and that “extremely limited” credit and debit card details were stolen for 100 customers who bought the pub chain’s vouchers online before August 2014.

From Christmas jumpers featuring classic characters to a gaming-binge friendly Pac-Man bean bag, here are some perfect present solutions for video game fansSo you’ve bought the gamer in your life all the blockbuster winter releases they asked for – congratulations, they’re going to be very happy. But what else do you get for that special person who’s probably going too spend much of the festive season sat in front of the TV shooting at aliens?Here are 20 video game-themed suggestions, ranging from clothing to books. Sure, you could also buy them a bike or a kite or something to try and coax them outside, but frankly that’s your problem – good luck with that. In the meantime, we have cuddly toys and comics.

A game is what you would like it to beSo new year is coming, the time when for centuries video games journalists have traditionally knelt before their console or PC of choice and begged the Pixellated Games Fairy for just one wish. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of the Pixellated Games Fairy.Next you’ll be saying you don’t believe in Santa Binding-Clause, by whose grace we are not prosecuted for breaking the terms in “standard agreements” we agreed to without reading. Continue reading...

British startup has shipped to 160 countries, based on its mantra of being ‘a technology company that happens to make physical books’British startup Lost My Name has sold more than 1m of its personalised picture books for children since launching its first title two years ago.The company’s The Little Boy/Girl Who Lost His/Her Name book is ordered by parents from its website, with a story based on their own child’s name, as the main character searches for its letters. Continue reading...

Heather’s parents love their old hi-fi, but would like to listen to it in the garden as well. Is there an affordable way of making it, say, Bluetooth-compatible?My parents have an old hi-fi stack system – vinyl, CD and radio. It still works great and the speakers are fab! The only thing is, they want to be able to listen to their CDs in the garden, which is quite a distance. I was thinking of getting them a Bluetooth speaker for the garden, but is there any way of making their hi-fi Bluetooth compatible? HeatherThere must be a dozen ways to solve this problem, but most of them run into all sorts of ancillary issues, including cost. Is there a handy mains plug in the garden or does the solution have to run from batteries? Will the speakers be left in the garden? If so, they will have to be weatherproof. Most importantly, will your parents be happy to keep going back into the house to change CDs? Continue reading...

A work email drops into your inbox at 11pm. You have to answer it, right? No, you don’t …It’s 8pm. Your shift finished at 5pm. You’re still at your desk. Everybody else is still at their desks. Nobody wants to leave, even though you’re no longer being paid. When you do finally get home, you check your email. You don’t want to be the person who didn’t respond, even though the message arrived in your inbox at 11pm. Even though you’re putting your kids to bed, or having drinks with an old friend, or in the middle of watching Homeland. And not being paid.I want to throw up when someone 'reaches out' to 'touch base' Continue reading...

The new Apple operating system has arrived - OSX El Capitan - hot on the heels of iOS 9. Our digital sherpa escorts us through some of its secret crags. Continue reading...

Nathan Brenner found guilty of driving a hire car without a licence or registration, setting a precedent that may make the service illegalUberX is effectively illegal in Victoria after a test case found one of its Melbourne drivers guilty of driving without a commercial licence.Magistrate Julian Ayres found Uber driver Nathan Brenner guilty on Friday of two counts of operating a commercial passenger vehicle without a licence. Continue reading...

Mexican billionaire says his own charitable projects do not involve donating his shares – ‘foundations do not solve poverty, we need to create companies’The Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has said he will not give away his family’s shares to charity like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Hunter Moore, founder of IsAnyoneUp.com, was also fined $2,000 for hacking into e-mail accounts and posting explicit photos without the subjects’ consentHunter Moore, the operator of revenge pornography website IsAnyoneUp.com, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison, his defense lawyer, Robert Holley, has said.Moore founded IsAnyoneUp.com, a site where sexually explicit photos were posted without the subjects’ consent, sometimes by former partners. Those photographed were often identified by name, contact information, and links to profiles on social networks. Continue reading...

This week saw the largest-ever hack targeting minors, described as an Ashley Madison-level breach. It serves as a reminder that kids can be targeted tooAs parents shop for holiday presents this year, they should think twice about buying toys that connect to the internet. Privacy risks are very real for some “interconnected” toys but, unfortunately, it is not easy to understand privacy policies – even for a lawyer like me.On Tuesday, VTech, a Hong Kong-based company that sells various tablets, “learning” toys and apps designed for children, experienced one of the largest ever hacks targeting children. Nearly 5 million parent accounts and 6.4 million children’s profiles are believed to have been compromised.

It’s quietly become the biggest children’s entertainment platform on the planet. So what is the secret of YouTube’s success?Thanks to channels such as Little Baby Bum and Baby Big Mouth, YouTube has quietly become the biggest kid’s entertainment platform in the world. And now the video-sharing site has just launched its own Kids App in the UK and Ireland.

Report claims online video service is set to negotiate with Hollywood studios and TV firms to help YouTube Red compete with Netflix, Hulu and AmazonYouTube is preparing to strike deals with Hollywood studios and television firms to bring films and TV shows to its YouTube Red subscription service.The online video service is keen for its $9.99-a-month service to compete more directly with rivals such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, according to the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading...

Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of currency transfer service Transferwise, says more startups could flourish in Australia if not hampered by big banksMalcolm Turnbull must make major changes to taxation, regulation and business culture to fulfil his ambition of making the Australian economy more agile and innovative, a leading digital entrepreneur has warned.Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of the London-based currency transfer service Transferwise, believes more startups could flourish in Australia but they risk being held back by entrenched interests such as the big four banks. Continue reading...

Australian music duo hail ‘genius, mastermind move’ by fan David Spargo who altered band’s Wikipedia page with fake entry listing him as a relationYou can’t trust everything you read on Wikipedia, as a security guard has learned after falling for a concertgoer’s auspicious edit.Fan David Spargo tried to gain backstage access at a Peking Duk gig in Melbourne on Wednesday night, claiming to be related to the Australian electronic music duo.

Retailers issue product recalls as trading standards officers suggest consumer vigilance over self-balancing scooters this ChristmasTrading standards officers are warning Christmas shoppers to be cautious before buying a hoverboard – tipped to be one of this year’s most popular gifts – after thousands were impounded at UK ports after testing revealed they were at risk of exploding or bursting into flames.The futuristic gadget – also known as a self-balancing scooter, eboard or swegway – is selling fast in the runup to Christmas, but there have been reports that poor quality, imported versions are a fire hazard. Continue reading...

Competition and Markets Authority says nine of 25 proposals put forward by Transport for London to regulate taxi trade would be bad for customersUber has been given a boost in its attempts to stave off proposed changes to regulating the taxi trade in London, after the competition authority said the reforms would not serve the public interest.Transport for London (TfL) is consulting on a range of requirements for licensed hire cars, after advances in technology, and particularly the advent of Uber, challenged rules governing the traditional black cab industry.

From Donald Trump on Muslims to Ben Carson on pyramids, the hopefuls on Bush’s own side keep saying something stupidOver the weekend Jeb Bush, the US presidential hopeful, told CBS News that if it came to it he would support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee, “because anybody is better than Hillary Clinton”. You can see why he felt obliged to say so, but it won’t be easy for him to defend the idea that Clinton is the worst presidential prospect he can think of.Related: Ben Carson's lies reveal a fundamental truth about candidates' tall tales | Mike Daisey Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg has joined a club of charitable billionaires who have given away large amounts of their money. We take a look at some of themRelated: Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announce baby girl – and $45bn charity initiativeMark Zuckerberg’s decision to donate $45bn of Facebook shares to charity makes him the latest in a long line of US business moguls who have given away large chunks of their fortunes. Continue reading...

Troubled tech company could sell off assets including Yahoo Mail and its news and sports sites instead of spinning off its multibillion-dollar stake in AlibabaThe Yahoo board will weigh a sale of its core internet business when it meets this week, according to sources.Its meeting comes amid a broader debate about the future of the company and that of high-profile chief executive Marissa Mayer. Continue reading...

Biggest ever cyber-attack targeting children sees private information stolen including photos and addresses as well as the information of 4.9 million parentsToymaker VTech will be investigated by several US states after a hack that exposed the private data of 6.4 million children, including photos and addresses.Attorneys general of Connecticut and Illinois said they will investigate the breach, the largest known hack targeting children, which exposed the private data of more children than the 4.9 million adults caught in the hack. Continue reading...

Chinese upstart’s latest Android device is excellent value for money with great screen, good camera and dual-sim support – if you can manage to buy oneThe OnePlus X offers quite a lot of bang for your buck in terms of specifications, design and build – it looks like a premium smartphone but costs under £200.

The couple’s initiative is a huge gesture – but even by extreme giving, they can never buy their way out of the inequality their wealth and power createsIt’s refreshing to see two prominent billionaires even paying lip service to upending plutocracy. And of course, considering the dire state of the global wealth gap, it would be counterproductive to do anything that could discourage future extreme giving from the wealthy.Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan welcomed their newborn daughter Max into the world on 1 December with a joint open letter on Facebook promising her all sorts of things and announcing a philanthropic initiative involving 99% of their shares going to worthy causes. Continue reading...

Twitter dug into the Facebook founder’s 2,000 word letter his newborn, which also announced his new charity initiative to combat general global problemsBillionaire, social network founder and, once upon a time, everyone’s unsolicited friend on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg added two more titles to his name on Tuesday. A newborn daughter made him a father and an open letter announcing he would give away 99% of his Facebook stock made him a man destined for several awkward years after his daughter learns to read.In the open letter to his daughter Max, Zuckerberg describes how he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, plan to found the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a foundation that will center around “personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities”. Continue reading...

Budget airline launches lawsuit over allegedly ‘misleading and deceptive’ online ads for rival site selling Ryanair flightsRyanair has launched legal action against Google in an attempt to force the internet search engine to stop promoting allegedly misleading and deceptive ads for another website selling Ryanair flights.The Irish airline has long complained about eDreams, which it claims masquerades as Ryanair to sell its seats at inflated prices and causes problems with customers’ bookings. But it has turned its attention to Google as internet searches for Ryanair promote the eDreams website and an eDreams subsidiary, Opodo – as well as Google’s own flight search adverts – above Ryanair’s site. Continue reading...

UK government monitoring station admits hacking devices for the first time during case brought by Privacy International and internet service providersGCHQ carries out “persistent” illegal hacking of phones, computers and networks worldwide under broad “thematic” warrants that ignore privacy safeguards, a security tribunal has heard.Microphones and cameras on electronic devices can be remotely activated without owners’ knowledge, photographs and personal documents copied and locations discovered, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has been told. Continue reading...

After controversial depowering of infamous Warsong Commander card, creators of collectible card game say such alterations will inevitably happen againThis autumn, Blizzard Entertainment took one of the most powerful decks from its collectible card game Hearthstone and obliterated it. This was not the first time the company had decided to significantly alter, or “nerf”, an aspect of its hugely successful title, but it was the most high profile, and caused a storm of controversy within the Hearthstone community. Many thought it was the nerf to end all nerfs.But it wasn’t. Continue reading...

Beyond the Fence, the story of a family at Greenham Common, will incorporate machine-generated plot and musicThey have become brilliant at chess, had music performed by one of the world’s leading orchestras and seen their art enter major collections. But could a computer also generate a hit West End musical?The answer may be provided next year with the announcement of the world’s first computer musical, getting a run at the Arts Theatre accompanied by a TV series on Sky Arts. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Tuesday 1 December. What did you get in your advent calendar this morning? Continue reading...