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

User agreements are written for regulators and lawyers but new database intends to help consumers make more informed choices to ensure data is protected

Head of company’s Project Wing says guidelines being developed with FAA on identifying, tracking and co-ordinating unmanned craft flying at low altitudesGoogle has said it expects to begin delivering packages to consumers via drones in 2017.David Vos, the leader for Google’s Project Wing, said his company was in talks with the Federal Aviation Administration and other stakeholders about setting up an air traffic control system for drones that would use cellular and internet technology to co-ordinate unmanned aerial vehicle flights at altitudes under 500ft (152m). Continue reading...

Activists in San Francisco showed support for Proposition F, which would restrict short term property rentals and faces a key local vote on 3 NovemberAirbnb’s San Francisco headquarters has been occupied by protesters as the debate over affordability of the city’s housing reached fever pitch ahead of a crucial local vote on 3 November.Protesters were campaigning in support of Proposition F, which proposes tighter restrictions on short term rental properties, and gathered outside the office of vacation rental company Airbnb, which has been a flashpoint for the Prop F debate. Continue reading...

Legislation will enshrine security services’ licence to hack, bug and burgle their way across the web – with judicial oversight still to be determined

Knowledge Point to shut after 26 years, with rising rents and low unemployment blamed more than UberA combination of gentrification, low unemployment and Uber has forced London’s largest school for cabbies to slam on the brakes.Knowledge Point will shut in December after having trained black-cab drivers for 26 years in Islington, north London. Continue reading...

Discovering information via Google unfortunately appears to give us an over-inflated sense of our own intelligenceHow intelligent are you? It’s a question that is often best left unasked – particularly on a Monday morning.Luckily, it turns out that feeling smart without necessarily being so is simple – all you need is an internet connection. Because, apparently, Googling things can make us feel more intelligent. Continue reading...

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

Online retailer continues to be biggest seller of CDs, games and DVDs with 20.4% of market despite first slip in at least four years, figures suggestAmazon has lost market share in non-digital films, video games and music for the first time in at least four years as the high street fights back.

Immersive digital exhibition at Somerset House marks 50 years of saving the shores“This is where the coast opens, fanning like the primaries of a predator’s wing,” murmurs poet Owen Sheers, as the wind whispers in the ears and waves roll rhythmically on to the shore below. The tang of salt and seaweed in the air seems almost palpable – but that’s just an illusion, because this isn’t a day out on the headland; it’s the latest immersive digital experience.This one has been dreamed up by the National Trust. Part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for what is now the Neptune Coastline Campaign – the trust’s ambitious mission to buy swaths of the British coastline to save it from development – One and All launches on 4 November at nationaltrust.org.uk/oneandall, alongside a physical installation at Somerset House in London. “We’ve got over 775 miles of coastline under the care of the National Trust,” says Tom Freshwater, the trust’s contemporary arts programme manager. “What we are looking to do now is very much about managed access to the coast, people’s enjoyment of it and the wildlife potential that it has.” Continue reading...

20-year-old man arrested in Staffordshire in connection with attack on telecoms firm, following arrest of two teenagersA 20-year-old man arrested in connection with the cyber-attack on telecoms firm TalkTalk has been released on bail. Scotland Yard said he will attend a police station in early March pending further inquiries. He had been held on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act.The man, who was detained at an address in Staffordshire on Saturday, is the third person to be held in relation to the alleged data theft. Two teenagers were previously arrested over the cyber-attack. A 16-year-old boy, from Feltham in west London, was held on suspicion of computer misuse after a search of his home on Thursday. The teenager has been bailed to a date yet to be confirmed. And a 15-year-old boy from County Antrim in Northern Ireland was arrested on Monday and was bailed until a date in November.

An app that turns your friends into digital chaperones (via GPS tracking) aims to reassure those travelling alone late at night. We put it to the testDreading the long, late-night walk home alone before you’ve even set off on a night out? There’s an app for that. Companion is the brainchild of five Michigan students concerned about safety on campus. It allows friends to monitor your return journey via GPS, whilst also providing a means of quickly raising the alarm should you run into danger.An inbox full of £5 Uber invoices is proof that I never walk home alone after dark, even if it’s just the 12-minute dash from the station, but a free app that “allows you to reach out to friends” sounds like a good idea. For the sake of my safety and my bank balance, I arm myself with a newly downloaded Companion as I walk back from my friends’ house at 11.30pm on a Saturday night. Continue reading...

Former shadow home secretary David Davis says investigatory powers bill will have to let judges’ authorise warrantsPlans to grant police and intelligence officers new powers to monitor suspects online will not get through parliament without a requirement for judges to sign off on spying warrants, the former Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis has said.The backbench MP was speaking before the publication of a draft of the investigatory powers bill, due on Wednesday, with the Home Office so far refusing to indicate whether the proposed legislation will include judicial approval of applications made by the security services to intercept communications. Continue reading...

Co-star of new Steve Jobs film says she is worried by the addictive qualities of devices Apple has createdParents are “losing control” of their children to social media, award-winning British actor Kate Winslet has said, adding the she has banned her own from using such sites over fears their self-esteem is being damaged.In an interview with The Sunday Times, the Revolutionary Road star, 40, said parents should confiscate technology from their offspring – who she said may turn to social media for validation from strangers. Continue reading...

Vauxhall’s new Viva is fun, full of life and aimed at first-time motorists. But is it just too good for them?Price: £7,995

Ministers rule out ban on encryption but civil rights group Liberty says climbdown is ‘just spin’Highly controversial plans to allow the police and security services full access to everyone’s internet browsing history have been abandoned by ministers in what is being presented as a dramatic climbdown over online surveillance.Amid fears in government that it would be unable to force new laws through parliament because of concerns over civil liberties, the Home Office said it had dropped several contentious proposals from the investigatory powers bill, which will be published in draft form on Wednesday. Continue reading...

A 20-year-old man has been detained at an address in Staffordshire, police have said, following arrest of two teenagers

Hackers may have stolen the personal details of up to 2,000 mobile phone customers, Vodafone admits days after TalkTalk scandalHackers may have accessed the bank details of nearly 2,000 Vodafone customers, the company has said.The mobile phone provider said 1,827 accounts were accessed, potentially providing criminals with customers’ names, mobile numbers, bank sort codes and the last four digits of their bank accounts. Continue reading...

House of Lords emboldened by tax credits vote and sets sights on government’s draft investigatory powers billPeers could derail plans to give police powers to potentially access the internet browsing history of any computer user in Britain in the latest show of defiance by the House of Lords.The upper chamber has been emboldened after peers voted this week to delay proposed cuts to tax credits even though legislation had been passed by the House of Commons. Continue reading...

Einstein’s relativity, optical atomic clocks, and November’s Perimeter Institute public lecture from David Wineland. With some added geek nostalgiaA while ago the Independent asked me, and others, to share some science books that have excited us. My choice was “Science and the Universe” from the Mitchell-Beazley Joy of Knowledge library. In a pre-wikipedia (and for me pre-O level) age, this book opened up a whole landscape of amazing ideas - ideas backed by facts.The page I remember best is the one on the “Idea of Relativity”¹, which amongst other things shows cosmic muons lasting longer than usual because of the time-dilation effects of their high speeds. I think that must have been the first time I came across muons, or cosmic rays. But the illustration that stuck in my mind most strongly was that of a light clock, in which a ray of light is reflected between two mirrors. Continue reading...

Bacteria-fighting plastic could be the future of dentistryThe latest 3D printing innovation could change the way you think about your visit to the dentist. That’s because Dutch researchers at the University of Groningen are working on the creation of a 3D-printed tooth made of an antimicrobial plastic that kills the bacteria responsible for tooth decay on contact.Related: Smile! Meet the 3D printer churning out teeth, nerves and gums for dentists Continue reading...

This week’s tabloid headlines about the teenager who allegedly broke into TalkTalk’s website invoked the usual formula: reclusive, antisocial, young, male. But hackers are more complicated than that – and the people pursuing them say the stereotype is a problemThe portrait of the hacker as an antisocial, lonesome deviant is pervasive and seemingly indelible. This week, for example, the British tabloids rounded on a child who has been arrested in connection with the hacking of telecommunications provider TalkTalk’s porous servers in order to access customers’ personal data. The Daily Mail’s front page referred to him as “a baby-faced loner who rarely leaves his bedroom”. The Sun described the boy, who lives on a council estate with his single mother in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, and who suffers from learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as “reclusive”. He is, they continued, an avid player of video games, as if such a detail distinguishes this particular teenager from any other. The Mirror quoted a neighbour who described the boy as “quiet and shy”. He was often seen, she added, with a skateboard, although there was no mention whether or not his baseball cap was worn in the style of Bart Simpson: anarchically askew.Related: TalkTalk hack: boy arrested over alleged cyber-attack is bailed Continue reading...

For four days every year, Essen’s Spiel exhibition is the centre of the board game world. Owen Duffy looks at the games that make it that wayOn a drizzly Thursday morning in Germany’s industrial Ruhr region, I seemed to have unwittingly walked in on a seance.I found myself in a dimly gaslit room with grubby, wood-panelled walls and heavily cobwebbed corners that could have been lifted straight from the pages of a Victorian ghost story. The figures hunched around the table at the centre of the scene were concentrating intently on a collection of strangely-painted cards laid out before them. Continue reading...

We’re at GameCity for one last breakfast show, starring Keith Stuart, Jordan Erica Webber and Molly Carroll from Chucklefish Games!We’re back for one last ‘Wake up with the Guardian’ broadcast from the GameCity festival in Nottingham.All this week games editor Keith Stuart and writer Jordan Erica Webber have been broadcasting chat shows from the National Videogame Archive, interviewing developers and industry veterans and generally getting up too early. Continue reading...

Lobbying by police ahead of investigatory powers bill suggests ISPs will be required to keep data for 12 monthsPowers to view the web browsing history of criminal suspects or missing people are likely to feature in the government’s surveillance legislation published next week.The investigatory powers bill is expected to reintroduce a requirement that telecommunication firms retain records of sites accessed by their users, known as weblogs, for a 12-month period – a key element of the “snooper’s charter” that was blocked by Liberal Democrats in the last parliament.

Stuck for what to wear this Halloween? How about dressing up as your favourite internet meme?It's that time of year again: ghosts and ghouls, parties and pumpkins, llamas and left sharks.Yes, in this week's instalment of Updog – our podcast dedicated to internet memes and all things digitally viral – Alex and Elena decide on what internet meme they're going to dress up as for Halloween. Will it be Pizza Rat, Left Shark, or that perennial favourite Doge? Continue reading...

Meme was started by a celebrity Philippines couple, Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza, on television – but has left its origins far behindThe pabebe, a delicate hand wave from the Philippines, is taking the internet by storm. Millions of people all over the world are taking photos of themselves doing it. Continue reading...

Telecoms company confirms scale of cyber-attack was far smaller than feared as second teenager is bailed following data breachA second teenager has been arrested in relation to the alleged theft of data during a cyber-attack on the Telecoms giant Talk Talk.The 16-year-old boy was arrested in Feltham, west London, Metropolitan police said on Friday. He was released on bail until a date yet to be confirmed. Continue reading...

What this online update adds after Konami’s superb Phantom Pain is negligible, leaving you with a multiplayer that lacks depthInside big-budget games development, multiplayer is one of the first and most important decisions. Activision’s all-conquering Call of Duty series looms large over the landscape, and competitors for the top spot offer similarly comprehensive multiplayer modes – most of which will be supported for regular content releases and updates. For a primarily singleplayer game like Metal Gear Solid, an online mode is an enormous creative and financial gamble in 2015.Metal Gear Online’s biggest problem might be this context, because it has resulted in tunnel vision: this is the series’ third attempt at crossing over to online, across three generations of hardware, and the narrowest yet. Available as a download for all owners of MGSV: The Phantom Pain, MGO’s first impression is that it’s a bit of a penny-pincher. There are only three modes, for example, alongside a simple hub level and five maps.

Chrome OS and Android head says company is committed to the browser-based operating system despite greater integration with smartphone sofwareGoogle has denied the veracity of a report that states the company will fold its Chrome OS for laptops and desktop computers into its Android mobile operating.

Service providers send list of principles to MPs amid fears over impact of new legislation on civil libertiesInternet service providers have warned that any new powers introduced by the government to allow broader surveillance of web browsing behaviour must come with adequate oversight to protect civil liberties.The Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) has sent a checklist of five key principles to MPs that it believes any new legislation must adhere to.

Publisher News UK set to make U-turn and offer its content for free from 30 November in bid to compete with rivals such as Mail Online

Police confirm 16-year-old from west London held over alleged theft of thousands of TalkTalk customer’s dataPolice have made a second arrest in relation to the investigation into alleged data theft from TalkTalk.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer also revealed that a forthcoming band reunion was unlikely while she focused on raising her first childKaren O has teamed up with Lara Croft by writing a song for the latest Tomb Raider game.I Shall Rise will feature in Rise of the Tomb Raider, and according to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer, it was a perfect collaboration. Continue reading...

Latest round smartwatch from Motorola comes in more sizes and colours, lasts a good day with the screen on and takes standard watch strapsMotorola’s second generation smartwatch is what the Moto 360 should have been last year.

Andrew Barr says he has used the app-based taxi service, which now operates in almost 60 countries, numerous timesThe ACT chief minister has officially launched Uber in Canberra, calling it “a real step forward for on-demand transport” in the city.The ACT is the first jurisdiction in Australia to have passed legislation regulating app-based taxi services, allowing the likes of Uber, OnTap and GoCatch to operate under strict conditions and government oversight. Continue reading...

The ‘hacktivist’ collective wrote that the identities of white supremacist group members will be revealed next month on anniversary of their anti-Klan operationThe “hacktivist” collective Anonymous have vowed to release the names of “about 1,000” Ku Klux Klan members as part of an ongoing operation against the white supremacist group in the US.The names were obtained after Anonymous gained access to a Klan twitter account, according to a tweet from the Operation KKK, as Anonymous have named the anti-Klan operation.

Owner Mind Candy admits communication breakdown with ASA over pushing subscriptions to kids and resolves issuesMoshi Monsters has been removed from an advertising “blacklist” after admitting a “communication breakdown” with the UK regulator over a failure to comply with an order to stop pushing kids to get paid subscriptions to the hugely popular children’s website.Earlier this week the Advertising Standards Authority took the unusual step of launching a “name and shame” campaign against Moshi Monsters after the company failed to abide by a ruling published in August that its marketing practices broke the UK code on social responsibility, as well as direct exhortation and undermining parental authority. Continue reading...

Display that has been three years in the making ‘will not break no matter how many times the phone is dropped’, and is covered by four-year guarantee

Partnership between developer Respawn Entertainment and free-to-play firm Nexon sees both invest in mobile studio that makes the gamesFirst-person shooter Titanfall made a big impact when it stomped on to PC and Xbox consoles in 2014. Now the game is squeezing its giant mechanised armoured transports down for smartphone and tablet screens.Its developer Respawn Entertainment has struck a deal with free-to-play games firm Nexon that will see both investing in mobile developer Particle City, which will be creating several mobile games based on Titanfall. Continue reading...

On today’s show we’re talking to Ed Key, George Buckingham and Laura Dreamfeeel about radical game designOnce again, we’re broadcasting our live audio chat show from the GameCity festival in Nottingham. At 9am, you’ll be able to hear Keith Stuart and Jordan Erica Webber talk to offbeat game designers Ed Key (Proteus), George Buckenham (Punch the Custard, Panoramical, Fabulous Beasts) and Laura Dreamfeeel (Curtain).If you don’t catch it live, you’ll be able to listen to the recording later on. Continue reading...

Working with three local internet providers, Google is trying to expand in Indonesia by installing helium-filled balloons in the stratosphereHow do you connect a country made up of 17,000 islands to the internet? That’s the huge infrastructure challenge faced by Indonesia, and one that Google hopes to address using its high altitude ‘Project Loon’ balloons.The Silicon Valley giant has partnered with three Indonesian internet service providers - Telkomsel, Axiata and Inmost - to deliver LTE connectivity to remote areas via clusters of giant helium balloons to places where fixed-line service aren’t available. It’s part of the the company’s plan to help connect some of the billions of people around the world who remain offline. Continue reading...

Fans queued online for tickets but technical difficulties with system meant three-hour wait and transaction failureThe booking period for the play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, has been extended to January 2017 due to phenomenal demand. Fans scrambled for tickets when priority booking for performances from 7 June to 18 September 2016 opened at 11am but seats sold out quickly.Demand for tickets led to technical difficulties with the online system, including the site freezing and locking customers out of their purchases, which meant many fans who had waited up to three hours in the queue could not complete their transactions. Continue reading...

Retailer says sorry after technical problem allowed customers to temporarily see others’ account detailsMarks & Spencer has apologised for a data breach that forced it to suspend its website for two hours after customers were able to view other people’s personal details when logging into their accounts online.The retailer blamed a technical issue, which affected 800 customers, and said it acted quickly to resolve the problem. It stressed that it was not hacked by a third party and that no one’s financial details were compromised. Continue reading...

Another morning of live chat from the GameCity festival, this time feature James Parker of Ground Shatter and Alex Roberts, lead engineer of the National Videogame ArcadeIt’s raining here in Nottingham, but that will not quell spirits inside the National Videogame Arcade for the fifth day of the GameCity festival.One again, Guardian games editor Keith Stuart, and games writer Jordan Erica Webber will be live streaming from 9am, chatting to developers and industry veterans.

This iPad Air 2 rival has ample storage, but feels dated with last year’s software and average battery lifeSamsung’s latest Galaxy Tab S2 tablet is the thinnest yet, outdoing both Apple and Sony,and it comes with a vibrant 9.7in screen and a microSD card slot for storing hundreds of movies.The follow up to the Galaxy Tab S, the first truly good Samsung tablet, improves on design and speed, but swaps a widescreen for a squarer one, making it a more direct challenger to Apple’s iPad. Continue reading...

Justice Department asking Apple to access user’s data is comparable to asking a drug company to administer a lethal injection, US judge saysAsking Apple to bypass an iPhone’s password protection to hand over personal information to the US government is the equivalent of “asking a drug company to administer a lethal injection”, a judge has said.The Obama administration requested that Apple bypass passwords in a case involving an iPhone 5S and a closed investigation that is being conducted by the FBI and the US Drug Enforcement Administration but has unfolded into a war between a judge and the Obama’s Justice Department over encryption. Continue reading...

Firm now has more money in the bank than the annual GDP of Czech Republic, Peru and New Zealand, after selling 48m iPhones in latest quarterApple has more than $205bn of cash in the bank, the company revealed on Tuesday as its chief executive Tim Cook said the firm had made more than $234bn in 2015, making it its “most successful year ever”.The California company now has more money in the bank than the Czech Republic, Peru and New Zealand make in gross domestic product (GDP) a year, according to World Bank statistics. Apple’s cash balances increased by $2.8bn in the last three months alone. Continue reading...

Stock plummets 10% after company releases third-quarter results revealing its number of US users has remained flat at 66 million since start of the yearTwitter stock took another hit on Tuesday, dropping by more than 10% in after-hours trading in the hour after the company revealed it had failed to add any new users in the US for the second quarter in a row.In order to halt the slowdown Twitter is turning to old media, it will start airing TV ads during the World Series baseball championship starting Tuesday night. Continue reading...

The speaking iPhone tool has been pointing out users’ subscription status when they ask for information on chart-topping songsSiri has begun to differentiate between iPhone owners who subscribe to Apple’s music streaming service and those who do not.Apple Music launched in June 2015 with a free trial, which is now coming to an end. So far, 6.5 million people have paid for their first month of the streaming service, but those who choose not to pay to continue may see some differences in the way Siri answers their questions. Continue reading...