Technology | The Guardian

With a motion-sensitive remote, voice control and an App Store, is the Apple TV the company’s first games console?Apple has announced a major upgrade to its Apple TV set-top box, bringing in voice control, a new motion-sensitive remote with a built-in touch pad, and the device’s very first App Store.The new features combine to make the device a potential games console as well as media player, with Apple’s Eddy Cue taking to the stage to discuss a raft of video games playable on the new hardware, including Disney Infinity and Guitar Hero. Continue reading...

Mixitl allows public to create own content such as ‘Soap Generator’ for comic-style storylines using different camera angles, sound effects and charactersThe BBC is launching a new online platform allowing the public to make their own content using brands such as EastEnders, Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing.Called Mixitl, the platform is part of the BBC’s Make It Digital project that launched on Wednesday. It will also include special programmes aimed at bringing digital technology and themes to a wider audience. Continue reading...

Just like Siri and Cortana, M will be fuelled by your personal data – this trust it expects must be earned and backed up by rulesFacebook’s announcement that it is testing a digital assistant called “M” means that each of the “big five” technology companies is now in the digital assistant game. Facebook M joins Apple’s venerable Siri app, along with Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana. Even Amazon has the Echo, a voice-activated internet of things appliance.These assistants might revolutionise how we interact with our digital devices, our homes, and the world. They promise to effortlessly help us find, and even predict what we want. Facebook says M will make advances through leveraging its unmatched database of personal information, coupled with invisible human “trainers”. By applying artificial intelligence to your Facebook data, M could help you buy gifts, book travel, and reserve tables at restaurants. Continue reading...

Declaring this ‘the most advanced butter knife in the world’ is pretty much winning a race no one else was runningSpreadTHAT’s self-heating butter knife, Selfridges, RRP £19.99, a titanium-alloyed bronze wand, with its upper edge dully serrated. Used for paring chilled butter in thin, readily smear-able strips. Continue reading...

Chinese search company challenges Google, Apple and Facebook with artificial intelligence voice search capable of ordering food and giving pet adviceChinese technology company Baidu, often labelled as China’s Google has launched a digital assistant to take on rivals from Apple, Microsoft and Google.

Need an excuse to get off the sofa? Look no further than ‘Putinspiration’ – exercise motivation tips with a political twist“Fitspiration” is the Instagram hashtag de jour, with six million posts showing flat abs or toned arms coupled with captions like “the harder the struggle the more glorious the triumph” and “earn your selfie”.“Fitspo”, as it’s also known, is about hitting the gym and eating the right food, but has been criticised by some for fetishising thinness. Continue reading...

The internet has sped things up for Australian acts such as Tame Impala and Troye Sivan breaking the international market, say insiders at Big Sound

The fate of virtual reality could be decided by Hollywood and gaming, so how can these creative industries make the most of the new tech?While virtual reality is fast becoming a familiar term in the popular consciousness, the excitement and opportunities it offers need to be pushed front and centre by encouraging wider trialling and take-up.

Dazzle It puts artist’s recent ferry redesign into hands of fans as part of first world war commemorationsThe pop artist Sir Peter Blake will let his art be remixed by users of a new app inspired by the “dazzle art” painted on British ships during the first world war, in the hope of confusing German U-boats.Dazzle It was commissioned as part of the commemorations for the war’s centenary, and has been released as a free app for Android and for iOS devices. Continue reading...

The annual American football franchise returns with complex new features and an impressively deep franchise modeThe 2015-16 NFL season is very nearly upon us and it brings with it, Electronic Arts’ American football simulator Madden 16, which is arguably the closest most Brits will ever get to suiting up and taking to the field for some good old-fashioned gridiron.We are introduced to the latest iteration through EA’s prediction for Superbowl 50, which unsurprisingly has pegged this year’s AFC champions as the Pittsburgh Steelers and, somewhat more controversially, chosen the Arizona Cardinals as the NFC champions for 2015-16. Continue reading...

Three years ago 96% of smartphone users were making at least one standard voice call a week, but now just three quarters do according to a new surveyMore than three quarters (76%) of UK adults now own a smartphone, up from 52% in 2012. But the number of people using their phone to make voice calls is falling.The share of device owners saying they make at least one voice call a week has dropped down from 96% to 75% over the past three years, according to research carried out by Ipsos Mori for Deloitte.

A US college student got very drunk and designed an entire plane. His friend’s tweet about it has gone viral and been retweeted more than 30,000 times. We talk to the guys …The news is, to put it mildly, pretty depressing recently – social media equally so. Twitter timelines are filled with the horrors of war and unspeakable tragedy, so it was a blessed relief that late on Sunday night a tweet which was a source of unadulterated joy started to go viral.Enter Keith Fraley, a 19-year-old second year student of software engineering at Michigan Tech college, and his tweet about his roommate, Mark, a mechanical engineering student, who arrived home wasted and managed to design an entire plane – and woke up with no memory the next day. Continue reading...

Lidar sensor can be fooled into seeing fake people, cyclists, cars or walls with a $60 system built out of Raspberry Pi and a laser pointerHackers can easily trick self-driving cars into thinking that another car, a wall or a person is in front of them, potentially paralysing it or forcing it to take evasive action.

Latest recall designed to protect connected vehicles from remote manipulation, says automobile companyFiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has recalled a further 7,810 Jeeps affected by a widely reported bug that allows an attacker to wirelessly seize control of the vehicle.The recall affects the variants of the 2015 model of the FCA’s Jeep Renegade sports utility vehicle with a 6.5-inch touchscreen, more than half of which FCA says are still in dealer hands. Continue reading...

Can’t tell your Big Boss from your Little John? Here’s our definitive guide to the whole Metal Gear seriesMetal Gear is arguably the greatest action gaming series ever created – but it is also easily the most bewildering. What is the difference between Liquid, Naked, and Solid Snake? What is Foxdie? And why is the US president involved? These are just some of the questions lurking within Hideo Kojima’s expansive, convoluted and often contrived gaming classics.So if you’ve been attracted to the series by the deliriously positive reviews of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, but are worried about not understanding anything that’s going on, here’s what you need to know. We’ve also ranked all the main titles for lasting quality – behind the latest title, of course, which we consider to be the very best.

As telecoms and TV customers interwine, rivals spend more on sporting rights and programmingWhen the group stages of the Champions League kick off next week, anyone turning to ITV to catch a game will be disappointed.This season’s top European club tournament (and its little brother, the Europa League) will only air on BT Sport after BT paid almost £900m for exclusive rights over three seasons, more than double the £400m Sky and ITV had paid for shared rights for the previous three years. Continue reading...

Parent Info website includes dictionary of abbreviations used by teenagers in chatrooms, many dealing with online sexual relationshipsParents concerned their children are “zerging” or giving away their ASL will be able to decode social media using a language guide launched by government.The dictionary translates abbreviations used by teenagers, including get naked on cam (GNOC) and age, sex, location (ASL) often used by children using anonymous chatrooms to disclose their personal details. Continue reading...

Yik Yak and Whatsgoodly give social media-saturated millennials a new way to openly share campus anecdotes. But with anonymity surfaces bullying and hateAs mobile phones and apps have become increasingly centralto one’s college experience in the past few years, a new type of app has emerged: the anonymous kind.In 2013 the app Yik Yak was created. And by 2014, it was being used at more than 1,000 colleges and universities worldwide, according to its founders Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington. Continue reading...

As advancing technology changes the face of employment in the 21st century, is the human workforce being made obsolete?Martin Ford is the founder of a Silicon Valley software firm and the author of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future. Geoff Colvin is senior editor at large at Fortune magazine and author of Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will.Martin Ford To understand why today’s information technology could have a much more dramatic impact on employment than anything we’ve seen before, it’s best to begin by considering the nature of work performed by most of our population. The reality is that a very large fraction of our workforce is engaged in activities that are on some level routine, repetitive and predictable. This is not to say that most people have jobs that are rote-repetitive, but rather that most workers face the same types of challenge again and again and that most of their actions and decisions can be predicted, based on what they have done in the past. Continue reading...

A combination of power and endurance meant German cyclists excelled at this year’s Tour de France, but none were a match for BMW’s latest 5-Series TouringPrice £45,320

Alex Gibney says Laurene Powell agreed to help – then tried to dissuade potential interviewees from taking partFour years ago, the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs triggered a global expression of mourning of a depth and duration that Oscar-winning documentary-maker Alex Gibney found hard to explain.Were the people who gathered at candlelit vigils at Apple stores around the world grieving for Jobs, or the perceived loss of a future that seemed to promise an endless procession of gadgets and devices each more extraordinary and innovative than the last? Continue reading...

Should that nuclear waste dump really be next to a school? Well, how else are you going to fit that Office of Bureaucracy in?Every single time I’ve played Suburbia since its release in 2012, the same moment comes up. You’re weighing up some tile or other, wondering where or how to expand, when your eyes fall on your opponent’s suburb.“What on earth have you built?!” you ask, gazing at some new variety of miserabilist hellscape.

Third title in Disney’s ‘toys to life’ series comes with the added force of Star Wars – but fans of the original trilogy will have to be patientHaving worked through classic Disney and Pixar content in the first Infinity game, followed by Marvel adventures last year, the third title in this “toys to life” series now brings out the biggest franchise in Disney’s war chest: Star Wars.As with its predecessors, the new instalment offers a range of play-sets – self-contained mini-games which can be accessed by putting the correct toy on the base. Twilight of the Republic is included in the Starter Pack and offers a Clone Wars era adventure set between Episodes II and III where a droid factory on Geonosis has been mysteriously activated. Continue reading...

Apple’s latest launch event next week is unlikely to surprise – the real conundrum is how the company convinces people to keep on buying“Siri, give us a hint,” said Apple’s invitation to its media event next Wednesday. But few needed a hint to know that the chief executive, Tim Cook, will unveil new phones and iPhone software, plus a greatly improved Apple TV set-top box controlled via Siri, Apple’s voice-activated system.

Growth beats expectations, extending record run of rising sales to 42 months, with demand for hybrids and electric cars up by halfPoor weather in August might have dampened high street clothes sales but it seems to have triggered a stampede into car showrooms with a near-10% increase in monthly vehicle sales.The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said new car registrations rose by 9.6% year-on-year to 79,060 vehicles with the Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf models leading the way. Continue reading...

New collection launched at IFA trade show in Berlin shows improved designs that better mirror traditional watches rather than ‘geek-gear’Smartwatches are still a technology niche loved by a few early adopters, but considered ugly, expensive and pointless by the majority of people.

Daniel Verley, 26, arrested after drone crashed in Louis Armstrong stadium during Flavia Pennetta win over Monica NiculescuA teacher from New York has been arrested for allegedly crashing a drone into an empty section of seats at the US Open tennis tournament.Daniel Verley, 26, faces charges of reckless endangerment and operating a drone in a New York City public park outside of a prescribed area. Continue reading...

Screen time has become a battleground in family life. But could it be the key to getting more children reading?More kids than ever now have access to a tablet. The naysayers fear that too much screen-time has a detrimental affect on children's ability to concentrate on long-form reading. But is it truly a threat to their literacy? Or could inventive ebooks and reading apps actually encourage young people to take up reading and be a valuable counterpart to the book?Joining Olly Mann on the podcast this week are Peter Robinson, head of research at Dubit and Asi Sharabi who launched the children's storytelling start-up Lost My Name along with our guardian panel; Stuart Dredge from the tech desk, Julia Eccleshare, our children's books editor; and our games editor Keith Stuart. Continue reading...

Sales of cordless vacuum cleaners and humidifiers drive sales at British group, which spends £3m on research and development each weekDyson, the privately owned British engineering group famous for its vacuum cleaners and bladeless fans, has announced record-breaking profits of £367m, up 13% on the year, despite spending £3m a week on research and development.Max Conze, the company’s German-born chief executive, said Dyson’s ownership structure helps it keep its investment in new technology at high levels. Continue reading...

You might not have known you wanted a jacket with 15 pockets and a built-in neck pillow, but thanks to Hiral Sanghavi and his backers, you’ll soon get oneLong-distance love has paid off for the designers of a travel jacket that has now attracted a record $8m from would-be buyers on crowdfunding site Kickstarter.

PhantomAlert sues Google subsidiary Waze over allegations the map and traffic data company stole some of its databaseGoogle is facing a lawsuit over allegations that its Waze traffic app stole part of its database from a competing app called PhantomAlert.Acquired in 2013, Waze offers turn-by-turn driving directions, but it differs from Google’s own Maps app in its tight integration of crowd-sourced information for map and traffic data. Waze users can update the app in real-time to mark jams, speed cameras and road works, as well as add more detail to the map itself. Continue reading...

Company bets on the Hub with open protocols to securely connect to range of sensors and third-party smarthome accessories as it takes on Apple and GoogleSamsung has launched a new hub for smarthome devices, which it hopes will kickstart the evolution of the internet of things (IoT).Its Hub will securely unite sensors and accessories from a range of manufacturers using the SmartThings open system. Continue reading...

Mexican developers have released a new game in which players can hurl objects at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Trump is the frontrunner in the GOP’s race and has singled out Mexico and Latinos during his campaign, including calling for Mexico to pay for a wall on its US border to contain migration. In the game, Trumpealo, players can throw footballs, tequila bottles and cactuses at the US billionaire businessman

Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield says AI in the workplace ‘will be about making us more efficient rather than taking our jobs’Virtual assistants powered by artificial intelligence are a staple of popular culture, from HAL 9000 in the Space Odyssey series to Samantha in 2013 film Her.But these assistants are no longer science fiction. There’s Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google Now and the recently-unveiled Facebook M. Plus, there’s Slackbot, the “assistant, notepad and programmable bot” whose potential is one reason workplace communications startup Slack is valued at $2.8bn by investors. Continue reading...

Oral arguments begin next week as a court examines US officials’ ability to seize information abroad amid controversy over narcotics caseDoes cloud computing have a nationality? That’s the question posed by Microsoft’s lawyers and the counsel in a closely watched case whose oral arguments begin in Manhattan on next Wednesday. The case scrutinizes the ability of the US government to seize information outside its own borders.

As the technology corporation introduces its brand new logo to the world, we take a look at other tech brand reinventionsGoogle, the company now owned by Alphabet, (do keep up) has unveiled a new logo, replacing probably the best known tech branding in the world. The new logo, in a typeface cheekily (but accurately) titled “product sans” is thought to be cleaner and easier to read but also – crucially – quicker to load.This isn’t the first time Google has played around with its logo, previous changes include the time the company altered the kerning (positioning of the letters), shifting the “g” and “l” letters by a single pixel each (see below). Continue reading...

The road warrior provides a thrilling adventure, but the rust-ridden story can’t keep up with the chaseAs with many a long-running movie series, Mad Max films are built around a few recurring twists and turns. One of these devices is the theft of Max’s car, the baleful V8 Interceptor that facilitates his transformation from family man to roving desert avenger in the 1979 original. Reclaiming the vehicle and thus, Max’s feckless nomad lifestyle is a narrative crux in the sequels, with allies and antagonists basically serving as speed bumps.Avalanche’s videogame adaptation comes up with a smart variation on the theme, appropriate to the needs of an open-world game that, like fellow Warner Bros release Shadows of Mordor, borrows its spread of initially fogged-up map regions and stronghold infiltration missions from Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series. Rather than rescuing his car, Max must build another, the Magnum Opus, using parts and scrap metal that are plucked from the wreckage of downed autos, the underbellies of dead towns and the hands of tribal fanatics. Continue reading...

Internet company’s share price dips after announcement that chief executive to take two weeks’ maternity leave in December to give birthYahoo shares have slipped after the company’s chief executive, Marissa Mayer, announced she is to take two weeks’ maternity leave to give birth to identical twin girls.In a post on her Tumblr blog, the 40-year-old, who already has one child, said the twins were due in December. Continue reading...

Rogue editors charged businesses and celebrities for Wikipedia entries and demanded ‘protection money’ to prevent changes onlineA Wikipedia scam in which small businesses have been charged “protection money” to safeguard pages about their organisations has prompted the online encyclopaedia to block 381 editor accounts.The Wikipedia Foundation said the accounts were blocked over “black hat” editing – charging money for the creation of promotional articles – amid allegations that hundreds of businesses and minor celebrities have been blackmailed by scammers posing as Wikipedia administrators.

Solid camera, screen, microSD card slot and 1.5-day battery life, mean this stock-Android smartphone gets the basics rightThe Motorola Moto X Play aims to be the phone that gets the basics right and packs a few high-end features, and still costs under £300 – but does it succeed?

ASA reprimands RockyFroggy, where users can play games to win prizes, after it ran an advertorial using a web domain similar to that of the BBCThe UK advertising watchdog has reprimanded a games website for using a fake BBC news article to try and attract players.RockyFroggy, a site where users can play games to win prizes, ran an advertorial using a web domain similar to that of the BBC and a style that mimicked the corporation’s news stories. Continue reading...

News Media Association calls on government to implement 10 changes to corporation’s objectives and governance in submission to green paperUK national and regional newspaper publishers have called for the BBC’s digital news operation to be curbed to allow commercial players to flourish at home and abroad.The News Media Association, the trade body for the UK newspaper industry, “fundamentally disagrees” with the corporation’s ambition to grow its online news services, according to its submission to the government green paper on the BBC charter review. Continue reading...

Federal judge’s ruling means sharing economy suit could cover more than 160,000 California drivers and increase plaintiffs’ leverageUber drivers are entitled to class action status in litigation over whether they are independent contractors or employees, a US judge said on Tuesday, in a ruling in a case that could have wide implications for the sharing economy.Three drivers sued Uber in a federal court in San Francisco, contending that they are employees and entitled to reimbursement for expenses, including gas and vehicle maintenance. The drivers currently pay those costs themselves. Continue reading...

Eatsa in the city’s financial district offers iPad-based ordering, with meals prepared by people whom customers never have to seeThose sick and tired of having to deal with their fellow humans all the time have a new respite – a fully automated restaurant in San Francisco.Customers at Eatsa in the Financial District will order from an iPad, sending the order to the kitchen. When the meal is ready, it appears in a small glass compartment. The food is prepared by real people, but the patrons never have to see them. Continue reading...

Search giant says the new design will soon be seen across all its products just a month after a major restructuring of the company gave rise to AlphabetFirst they changed their name, now they’ve changed their logo. Google introduced a new sans-serif and slightly toned-down four-colour logo on Tuesday in the biggest redesign since 1999.Related: Google's new logo is motivated by design austerity, not legibility Continue reading...

Thousands are said to have subscribed to the infidelity website in the last week, suggesting the recent leak of client information proved little deterrent for those keen to cheat on their spouses

In 2010 email, Blair seeks meeting between US secretary of state and Sheikh Tamim ‘to discuss potential partnership issues’New emails released from Hillary Clinton’s private account show that Cherie Blair lobbied the US secretary of state on behalf of the crown prince of Qatar, writing: “As you know I have good links to the Qataris.”In a 2010 email marked confidential, Blair sought to arrange a meeting between Clinton and Qatar’s young crown prince, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani. Continue reading...

Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain is finally out so, to celebrate, here’s a furtive glance back at our favourite sneak-n-shoot adventuresAfter years in development, a fascinating prelude and some interesting marketing decisions, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was finally released Tuesday. Following grizzled hero Big Boss on his journey into war-torn Afghanistan, the latest title in the series is looking like another epic, bewildering and brilliant stealth adventure.Metal Gear Solid, of course, popularised the stealth concept in 1998, introducing millions of gamers to the basic conventions of this then formative genre. You need a protagonist who relies more on watching and avoiding enemies than shooting them; you need an artificial intelligence system that gives baddies predictable patrol behaviours but also lets them see and hear the hero; and you need an environment that allows players to hide. A lot. Continue reading...

Cyber-attackers launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) violation on law enforcement agency in apparent revenge for previous arrestsCyber-attackers have taken down the website of the National Crime Agency (NCA) in apparent revenge for arrests made last week.The NCA website was temporarily down on Tuesday morning, four days after six teenagers were released on bail on suspicion of using hacking group Lizard Squad’s cyberattack tool to target websites and services. Continue reading...