Technology | The Guardian

Opposition suggests prime minister’s use of non-government emails and mobile apps such as Wickr and Confide could be tactic to avoid legitimate scrutinyMalcolm Turnbull has defended his use of non-government emails and secret messaging applications such as Wickr after the opposition suggested it could be a tactic to avoid legitimate scrutiny.The Australian reported on Friday that the prime minister had been operating a private email server outside the federal parliament’s secure system, and had also used apps such as Confide and Wickr to communicate with colleagues and journalists. Continue reading...

German toy company offers an explanation after a California mother sparked outrage on Facebook about a toy character that comes with a neck shackleThe Playmobil toy company has claimed a dark-skinned figure wearing a neck shackle was meant to “represent a pirate who was a former slave in a historical context” after a mother complained that it was racist. Continue reading...

Cyber-attacks were apparently blocked by ‘threat monitoring’ product from October 2013 but server was exposed during prior three months, document saysHillary Clinton’s private email server, which stored some 55,000 pages of emails from her time as secretary of state, was the subject of attempted cyber-attacks originating in China, South Korea and Germany after she left office in early 2013, according to a congressional document obtained by the Associated Press.

Adblocker? Splitscreen? An automated selfies folder? These expert insights into Apple’s latest OS will surely put you on cloud 9“Barely better than the iPhone 6 Plus” review of the new iPhone 6S Plus Continue reading...

Alexander Heilner’s startling images reveal beauties we do not see“We were flying above a huge , immense desert,” says photographer, Alexander Heilner. “It was a monochromatic, rusty red colour as far as the eye could see, but in the middle was this jewel of blue and white.”It was neither oasis nor mirage. Part of the Intrepid mine, the vivid azure lagoon, so at odds with the surrounding Utah desert, is a potash evaporation pond, vital for fertiliser. Continue reading...

Artist Behnaz Farahi has created a ‘conscious’ garment that movesIt’s a garment that might attract a second glance – made as it is of an unusual array of 3D printed quills. But beware, the scrutiny is mutual. Designed by LA-based artist and architect Behnaz Farahi and on show at the Artists in Residence exhibition, Pier 9, Autodesk in San Francisco next month, this stylish top, titled Caress of the Gaze, is “conscious” – the cropped tunic has a concealed eye-tracking camera that allows the garment to respond physically to a passing stare. Continue reading...

Plus how far are Americans from Starbucks?, genome sequencing in 50 hours, the rise of 'context' and moreA quick burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team Continue reading...

Retailer opens up new chapter in battle between ebooks and physical books as e-reader was ‘getting virtually no sales’Waterstones is to stop selling the Kindle e-reader in most of its stores in what industry bosses have said could become a watershed moment in the battle between physical and digital books.James Daunt, the managing director of Waterstones, told the Guardian he has removed Kindles from most of the books chain’s 280 stores because they were “getting virtually no sales”. Continue reading...

Planned protest and controversy over untactful tie-in t-shirts are backdrop for gala screening of film telling story of the campaign to secure women the voteRelated: Suffragette review – a valuable, vital film about how human rights are wonIt has taken a decade to get off the ground, but as Suffragette received its UK premiere as the opening film of the London film festival, the film’s director revealed that she was determined not to be knocked off course in her quest to make her 10-year “passion project”. “A film is never easy,” said Sarah Gavron, “but this was a tough proposition because we wanted to stick to our guns. We pushed through all the obstacles.” Continue reading...

Three British companies have teamed up to create an anti-drone ‘death ray’. The device uses a directional antenna to ‘shoot’ interference at a remote-operated drone, causing it to fall from the sky. Engineered by UK firms Blighter, Enterprise and Chess, the device is distributed in the US by Colorado-based Liteye, which hopes to sell it to the US government and airports Continue reading...

Google says it ‘takes privacy very seriously’ after motor magazine reports Porsche chose to use Apple CarPlay after privacy fearsGoogle has denied claims that its operating system for in-car entertainment, Android Auto, spies on users.The report, from Motor Trend magazine, said that Porsche had chosen not to use Android Auto in its newest cars, instead opting for Apple Carplay over privacy fears. Continue reading...

Search company unveils Accelerated Mobile Pages in bid to work with publishers, ad companies and rival platformsGoogle is attempting to counter the threat from ad-blocking and rivals Facebook and Apple by radically improving the loading speed of web pages on smartphones and tablets.Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) aims to simplify the structure of mobile web pages and place the data needed to deliver them closer to users both physically and virtually in a bid to to achieve almost “instant” delivery of articles to anywhere in the world. Continue reading...

Screenwriter appears on US television to note that the tech guru’s widow Laurene Powell Jobs and Apple CEO Tim Cook have not yet seen Oscar-tipped dramaThe Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has hit back at claims family and former colleagues of Steve Jobs are fiercely opposing his controversial forthcoming eponymous biopic of the late Apple co-founder.The Wall Street Journal wrote on 4 October that the tech guru’s widow Laurene Powell Jobs had repeatedly tried to “kill” Danny Boyle’s film, which stars Michael Fassbender in the title role. Current Apple CEO Tim Cook also described recent attempts to immortalise the late Jobs on the big screen as “opportunistic” during an appearance on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert last month. Continue reading...

Will Been Choice, which hit the App Store this week, be allowed to stay up?For the first time since it introduced its own ad-blocking support, Apple has approved an app which allows users to block adverts inside mobile apps – even the company’s own ad-supported Apple News.The app, named Been Choice, is only available on the US app store, where it arrived on Tuesday. It uses the new ad-blocking features included in the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system to let users block adverts in the Safari web browser, similar to other adblockers such as Crystal or Purity. Continue reading...

Kingdom Holding and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal together own more than 5% of US company after $50m investmentSaudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his investment firm now own more than 5% of Twitter, his office has said.Kingdom Holding has paid $50m (£33m) to double its stake in the microblogging site to 0.72%, the Riyadh-based company said in a separate bourse statement on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The semantics of the internet encourage us not to worry about who or what actually has control of our dataFor most of us, how we perceive the internet is significantly shaped by the language used to describe it: say “web” and dew-dropped silk comes to mind, “net” and woven knots of string, “information superhighway” and bright cars racing in the dark.These names describe a system of disparate machines, giving shape to the network. Which name we choose has a large effect on how we perceive the structures that carry all our photos and emails and bank balances and work and subscriptions and love letters and affairs and charity donations. Continue reading...

‘I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn’ emails cost the company millionsSocial network LinkedIn has agreed to pay $13m to users to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing it of sending too many unsolicited emails to users.The lawsuit took issue with LinkedIn’s “add connections” feature, which lets users import their personal contacts into the social network (the source of the infamous subject line “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”). Continue reading...

Immigration department decides to contest ruling that it denied procedural fairness to asylum seekers whose personal details were disclosedThe immigration minister, Peter Dutton, is appealing against a landmark federal court decision that found his department’s response to a major data breach of asylum seekers’ personal details was “unfair to a significant degree”.On Wednesday Crikey revealed the minister was seeking to appeal against the decision in the high court.

Retailer becomes first on high street to launch such a service, charging flat fee of £3.95 and offering four home delivery slots every day

Managing director James Daunt says: ‘Sales continue to be pitiful so we are taking the display space back.’The UK’s largest book retailer is removing Amazon’s Kindle ebooks from its stores nationwide and replacing them with print books due to “pitiful sales”.Waterstones, which teamed up with Amazon in 2012 to sell the electronic reader in its stores, will use the display space for physical paperbacks and hardbacks instead. Continue reading...

New feature hopes to attract new and disengaged users to the social network with up-to-the-minute curation of breaking news and the day’s top storiesTwitter has launched Moments, a new service which hopes to show users the day’s most popular stories, as the 140-character social network takes a stab at news curation.

The crowdfunding website, which normally backs creative projects, will raise money for humanitarian relief in a project featuring Guardian video reportageA White House initiative on behalf of Syrian refugees has brought together the crowdfunding website Kickstarter and the United Nations refugee agency for a weeklong fundraising push that all sides hope could represent a breakthrough in charitable giving for Syria.Related: Syrian refugee crisis: why has it become so bad? Continue reading...

Sentencing council says effect on victim of losing personal information must be taken into account, regardless of item’s valueThe loss of precious photographs or sensitive personal information when a smartphone is stolen will result in tougher sentences for thieves under new guidelines, with less focus on the monetary value of the item.The sentencing council rules, published on Monday, say sentences should now take into account whether a stolen possession was of substantial value to the loser – regardless of monetary worth and would result in emotional distress or a loss of confidence caused by the crime. Continue reading...

Transport for London is looking to clarify whether using smartphones to calculate fares amounts to a taximeter, which is banned in private hire vehiclesThe ride-hailing app Uber is at the centre of a crucial high court case as London’s transport authority seeks clarity on whether smartphones can lawfully be used to calculate fares.After a day hearing evidence from all sides, the judge is widely expected to give his decision on Tuesday. If he rules against Uber, the verdict will be viewed as a victory for black-cab drivers and other minicab groups who feel the disruptive tech-focused competitor has not been regulated firmly enough during its three years of rapid growth in London. Continue reading...

28 injured after British multimillionaire Paul Bailey lost control of Porsche 918 Spyder and ploughed into spectators

From stamping out abuse to finally deciding how many characters is enough, here’s what should be in Jack Dorsey’s own ‘While you were away’ feedTwitter’s character limit dates back to the days of SMS messaging: it’s long enough to include the whole message, an 18 character username, one colon and one space per 160 character text. Now Twitter offers pictures, videos, and links, and is barely used over text message at all. As a result, users have taken to screenshotting large paragraphs of text to tweet longer missives. The company has to decide whether it’s going to attempt to stay a fast and brief messaging service or become a slower, richer social media site – and there are suggestions that the new chief executive Jack Dorsey may be backing the biggest change in the site’s history. Continue reading...

Ridley Scott’s film eyeing all-time October box-office opening mark set by Alfonso Cuarón’s 2013 sci-fi thriller, but Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk stumbles on Imax-focused limited releaseRidley Scott space thriller The Martian scored a stellar $55m to top the US box office on its debut this weekend.The impressive figures could yet see the critically acclaimed film overtake October record-holder Gravity when final figures are in: on estimates based on its Friday showing, Scott’s movie is just $700,000 short of the $55.7m record posted by Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning sci-fi thriller in 2013. Continue reading...

The PS4, Xbox One and Wii U consoles have been around for a few years. Might now be the moment to upgrade your old machine without spending too much?It’s the time of year that every gamer loves: the shops are filled with brand new PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo releases and you can’t switch on the television without an advert for some blockbusting sci-fi shooter attacking your eyeballs.But if you’ve resisted the lure of the latest games consoles for the last two years, is now the time to dive in? Continue reading...

Lego brings countless pop culture worlds together, Anki Overdrive is snappy and speedy, and Fifa 16 meets some of its goals★★★★ Continue reading...

Trikes usually call for plenty of denim and a mullet, but the new Can-Am cruiser is set to change all thatPrice: £17,199

Rugby has a long history of tweaking the rules to create more friction, making the sport more challenging and fun to watch – as have the best video games

‘Apparently, these are very popular with American agents and with Islamic State’The Mitsubishi pick-up has “Barbarian” in lights across every conceivable surface. It is incredibly beefy and, in the wrong hands, indeed a barbarian. You could back into an innocent Zafira as easily as turning on the radio. The parking camera is worse than useless, slow to respond and, in consequence, wrong about almost everything. But you don’t get a pick-up because it’s easy to park. You get it if you need to pick up a lot of stuff. It’s too large to get into a city dump without a licence, so it’s not your amateur’s pick-up. This is a planner’s pick-up.In rear-wheel drive, it is a bit like a tractor. The gear stick carries on shaking as you turn off the engine. It makes so many noises, I kept thinking there was a police car behind me. “Even the windows are too loud,” said a haughty seven-year-old from the back. Modern cars, I realised, try to mask the raw mechanics, and there is none of that here. Anything you can’t hear, you can feel vibrating. Primary ride events come at you like a fairground attraction: if you can see a crater coming, you know you’re going to feel it. But secondary ride events are significant, too: a seam in the road you wouldn’t even see will knock you around like a squally wind. It’s like driving a shed. “Why are these cowardly cyclists scattering before me?” I asked my mister. “Have you seen the size of yourself?” he replied. Continue reading...

Transport secretary calms fears that owners of cars caught cheating emissions tests might be forced to pay higher vehicle excise duty linked to pollutionVolkswagen drivers in Britain whose vehicle was fitted with a device to cheat emissions tests will not have to pay higher taxes to reflect the extra pollution their car causes, the government has pledged.VW has recalled almost 1.2m diesel cars in the UK and halted the sale of 4,000 vehicles because they possess an illegal defeat device which lowers nitrogen oxide emissions in test conditions but allows high emissions on the open road. Continue reading...

The smartphone taxi app is facing legal and regulatory battles across the worldUber has been hit by a string of problems across the world, with London the latest city to threaten the firm’s growth.

Ride-hailing app faces showdown in high court over whether its service breaches rules stating that only London black cabs can use metersUber’s running global battle with taxi drivers, politicians and legal authorities moves to London next week with a court hearing that could deal a blow to the ride-hailing app in one of its most successful markets.The San Francisco-based company has 18,000 registered partners, or drivers, in the UK capital. But that growth could be checked in the high court on Monday when London’s transport regulator, Transport for London (TfL), asks a judge to decide whether Uber is breaking the law.

What happens when a meme reaches peak popularity? We discuss whether memes can survive brand associationIn this week's Updog, our podcast dedicated to memes and the internet, Elena Cresci and Alex Hern debate whether the meme Netflix and chill, the internet's joke about casual sex, has died a death now it's reached the pages of the Sunday Times and the Guardian. Can some memes live forever? Or will we inevitably be talking about some other cool internet thing next week?• How 'Netflix and chill' became code for casual sex Continue reading...

Riverdance gets the Corden treament, Homeland star goes techno, Tony Hawks slips up and Chewbacca loo paper roarsWho is Ronnie Pickering? It’s the question that has echoed across social media this week after a motorcyclist’s video of a road rage incident went viral. The angry driver the rider encounters pulls over and, after a stream of swearing, says: “Do you know who I am? I’m Ronnie Pickering”. He then repeats this over and over again, spawning a whole host of spoofs, including Batman really is Ronnie Pickering! and Trainpotting’s Begbie is Ronnie Pickering, which didn’t make our list and Who Do You Think You Are? (Feat Ronnie Pickering) a Christina Perri spoof and Who Are You, which did.James Corden doesn’t have an identity crisis, but he has undergone a huge change of image since his early days as a TV actor in the UK to his role now as host of CBS’s Late, Late Show. By way of contrast, enjoy Corden’s take on Riverdance, in which he displays some nimble footwork (albeit shadowly lit), with his portrayal of Jamie Rymer in ITV’s Fat Friends. Jamie Rymer, which won him a nomination for network newcomer on screen at the 2000 RTS awards. Continue reading...

Revealed: Watchkeeper surveillance drones commissioned in 2005 have only completed six days of active duty in total after a decade in developmentA British army drone developed as an affordable solution is four years late and expected to cost £1.2bn to become fully operational, an investigation has found.The order to design and build 54 Watchkeeper surveillance drones was announced by the then defence secretary John Reid in 2005, who said they would be “key to battlefield surveillance of the future”. He signed off on costs of about £800m, with the contract going to a consortium led by the French defence firm Thales. Continue reading...

Using Google’s new domain buying service, Sanmay Ved purchased world’s most popular website for $12 before transaction was cancelled

It began just five years ago, with a photo of a dog and his girlfriend’s foot. Now Instagram has outstripped Twitter, with 400 million users. But is there life beyond selfies and sunsets?Kevin Systrom is posing for a photograph when we meet at Instagram HQ, arms splayed across the back of a sleek black sofa, with a knowing grin. “More photos!” he sighs, as he is moved to another spot in the room, with all the unconvincing exasperation of someone who quite likes having his picture taken. And so he should, because as the co-founder of Instagram, he gets asked a lot.Systrom is a rangy 6ft 5in and prides himself on dressing smartly, by Silicon Valley standards; today he wears a light grey jacket over his T-shirt, and dark trousers. He seems older than his 31 years and has a certain swagger, exuding the self-assurance that comes with having built a $35bn technology company and a personal fortune of around $400m. Continue reading...

Every week or two, from now on, will see new privacy disasters, each worse than the lastOn September 13, 2001, four US Senators from both sides of the aisle introduced the first version of the USA Patriot Act, a sweeping, 342-page bill that overturned virtually all US privacy laws and led to the creation of the global, pervasive surveillance programs that Edward Snowden disclosed in June 2013.

BMW, Chrysler, GM, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz diesel models also being investigated by US Environmental Protection AgencyThe Volkswagen emissions-testing scandal is deepening, with authorities in France and Italy launching investigations into the embattled German carmaker.

Taxi hailing company says regulator and court case aim to protect black cabs rather than give public what they wantUber, the under-fire taxi-hailing app, has hit out at London’s transport regulator, Transport for London (TfL), for taking it to the high court on Monday in the latest threat to its explosive growth in the London taxi market.The high court case, which will determine whether the Uber app breaks the law by effectively acting as a meter, is piling on the pressure for the ride-hailing firm. Continue reading...

Carmaker says it has now halted sale of 4,000 diesel-fuelled VW, Audi, Skoda and SEAT vehicles because they contain emissions-cheating softwareVolkswagen has admitted that it continued selling new cars in the UK fitted with “defeat devices” to cheat diesel emissions tests even after US authorities uncovered the scandal.The revelation piles pressure on the German carmaker. Richard Lloyd, executive director at consumer group Which?, accused VW of “adding insult to injury” for consumers.

Ugo is a PC user, but his daughter thinks he should buy a Mac. Rather than compare narrow specifications, it’s worth considering the attractions of the rival ecosystemsThe question is the usual: PC or Mac? I am a very normal PC user. My daughter says “when you try Mac, you never come back”. I bought an iPhone 5c and sold it after two months … UgoThat’s a very unusual question nowadays, but the stock answer remains the same: pick the one that does what you want at a price you are willing to pay. Since you don’t appear to have any specific requirements, and you haven’t given me a budget, you will have to decide. Your money, your choice. Continue reading...

Changes to act are now in effect, giving gamers much more power to request refunds on faulty purchases, including digital downloadsChanges to the Consumer Rights Act have come into effect in the UK today, and with key amendments designed to deal with software purchases and digital goods, there are some important gains for gamers.Most obvious is the provision of a clear 30-day period in which consumers can return goods that they deem to be faulty, and ask for a refund or a replacement. In the past, the act ambiguously required that goods needed to be returned within a “reasonable time”, which allowed more wriggle room for retailers, who could also insist on just offering a repair.

We talk to co-founder of Instagram Mike Krieger about five years of brunch photos and retro filtersWhen Instagram launched it had 25,000 users. Now, almost five years later, the app has more than 400m regular users.Olly Mann heads to Instagram HQ to talk to co-founder Mike Krieger about its stratospheric rise. They discuss whether video will take over from photo and what it's really like to live within the Facebook empire. Continue reading...

Spotify rival also strikes deal to offer Bundesliga coverage as it seeks to expand into news, talk and entertainmentDeezer has struck a deal with TalkSport to offer Premier League and FA Cup matches on its streaming service in the UK.The Spotify rival, which is planning an initial public offering that could value the business at €1bn (£737m), has also struck a deal with Sport1.fm to provide match commentary from the Bundesliga on its service in Germany. Continue reading...

His Caribbean mobile phone operator is to block web companies’ advertsA mobile phone company controlled by Denis O’Brien, the Irish media mogul, has started blocking advertisements on its networks.Digicel, the leading operator across the Caribbean, has launched the initiative as a way of forcing internet companies, such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook, to pay for access its customers. Continue reading...

Metadata+ and Ephemeral+ provided news alerts on deaths from US drone attacks, but fell foul of Apple’s regulationsTracking the number of deaths caused by US drone strikes in countries like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia? There are apps for that. Or rather, there were – until Apple removed them from its app store.