Technology | The Guardian

Microsoft’s biggest launch in the last few years must go right, or the company might end up with users stuck on Windows 7 foreverWindows 10 might be Microsoft’s final version of its 29-year-old operating system, but there are quite a few things it must get right for it to be the next XP – and not the next Vista.

Microsoft’s new and final version of Windows has been released. Have you upgraded yet? Tell us how you faredMicrosoft has released Windows 10, the latest, and final, version of its operating system. It’s available as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users (there was no Windows 9!) Have you upgraded yet? How long did it take? Did you have any problems? Do you like the new Windows? Or is it nothing compared with Windows 3.1? Let us know in the comments below.• Read our four-star review of Windows 10 Continue reading...

Australian actor posts thank you video praising ‘amazing response’ after his initial message is retweeted almost 10,000 times

Users of the social network can now nominate a ‘legacy contact’ to manage their digital presence after they die – but how on earth do you decide who to pick?As a man in my mid-30s in the year 2015, I spend the bulk of my life diligently and repeatedly carrying out one simple task – ignoring the prospect of my inevitable death. It’s quite easy, partly because I don’t appear to be imminently approaching my demise, but mainly because I’ve successfully barricaded myself inside an impenetrable fort of shiny distractions.If I notice a story about a freak accident that resulted in a tragic loss of life, I bury my head in Netflix for a bit. When I realise that I’m incrementally growing closer to the average age of people mentioned in obituaries, I stab a bunch of strangers on Assassin’s Creed until the tightness in my chest goes away. And if I’m struck by a sudden awareness that the human body is a fragile, error-strewn thing, and that I could easily be taken out by a plane or a car or a virus or an exploding oven or the accidental consumption of raw camel’s milk without so much as a second’s notice? Well, I hammer out a load of unfunny fart jokes on Twitter. There, there. Everything’s OK. Everything’s OK. Continue reading...

iRights campaign says young people should be able to easily edit or delete comments or pictures they have posted on sites such as Facebook and TwitterGovernment ministers have backed a campaign calling for under-18s to have the right to delete embarrassing and damaging material they have posted on social media that could later harm their job or education prospects.The iRights coalition has set out five rights that young people should expect online, including the ability to easily edit or delete comments or pictures they have posted on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and to know who is holding or profiting from their information. Continue reading...

It’s free! It’s out tomorrow! It has Minecraft!… for a bit. For some people. Continue reading...

Surveillance laws being debated around the world should avoid the recent fate of the French – and the scorn of Franz KafkaThe problem of our laws, wrote Kafka, is that they can involve arbitrary, secretive acts on the part of elites. The law, on this view, has “brought only slight, more or less accidental benefits, and done a great deal of serious harm, since it has given the people a false sense of security towards coming events, and left them helplessly exposed”.“We live”, Kafka concluded, “on the razor’s edge”. Continue reading...

The organization notified the FBI and Department of Justice of a possible data breach that could threaten the ‘privacy and safety of our staff members’Planned Parenthood representatives say that hackers appear to be working to gain access to the abortion providers’ employee information systems.The organization notified the FBI and Department of Justice of a possible data breach, a spokesperson said on Monday, one that representatives from the organization said “if true” could threaten the “privacy and safety of our staff members”. Continue reading...

Far-right Gates of Vienna website is also promoting upcoming London exhibition of Muhammad cartoons which it is feared is intended to incite Islamist violenceA group of MPs have called for an investigation into a far-right website described as a training manual for anti-Muslim paramilitaries – amid fears that an upcoming exhibition of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in London is designed to incite Islamist violence.The Gates of Vienna website has been heavily promoting the exhibition, which is understood to feature the same drawings shown in Texas in May when two gunmen attempted to storm the event and were killed by police. Continue reading...

Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act would give tech firms broad latitude to collect personal data – even as Congress uses old tech to avoid prying eyes

Argos has become the first major British retailer to offer an on-the-spot trade-in service for old devices – so how much could one writer get for the old phones and tablets knocking around her house?How many old mobile phones and tablets are languishing in your home? A quick inventory of my drawers, where gadgets go to die, reveals a stash bigger than Las Vegas’s neon boneyard.There are five phones, a couple of them smart and stored inexplicably in their original boxes (a state of affairs that makes me look like a serious collector, but is really an example of senseless hoarding). There’s also an Asus tablet that looks, under closer inspection, to be an extremely small Etch A Sketch. It’s a shameful walk down technology lane, although it’s surprising how nostalgic you can get when confronted by your partner’s old Sony Ericsson K850. It also prompts some existential questioning, namely: why the hell am I still using a cracked, two-year-old Samsung Galaxy S3 when I could be posturing ironically with a Nokia 2730? Continue reading...

Requesting password recovery email allowed attacker to gain access to gaming accounts without needing password or access to email accountPC gaming platform Steam has fixed a bug that allowed anyone to steal a user account by being armed with nothing more than the account’s username.The bug affected Steam’s password recovery process for four days, from 21–25 July, and was excruciatingly simple: an attacker could try to log-in to someone else’s Steam account, and ask for a password recovery email to be sent out. Continue reading...

Users left unamused as social media company replaces content subject to takedown notices with ‘tweet withheld’ messages, allowing 10 days to appealTwitter has begun to honour takedown requests from users complaining their jokes have been lifted wholesale and shared by others, passing them off as their own.Certain tweets have begun to be replaced with copyright notices and a message saying “tweet withheld”. The blocked tweets offer users the chance to “learn more” via a link to Twitter’s policy on DMCA takedown notices. Continue reading...

What is the ‘speak-no-evil-monkey’ really saying? Are those hands praying or high-fiving? Emoji ambiguities explainedSo there’s going to be a film based on emoji. Of course there is, there’s a film based on everything these days. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But the emoji film is going to have a tricky time getting the meanings of emoji right. It’s often the case that the symbols’ official Unicode Consortium titles do not relate to how we use them every day.The truth is, emoji can mean a vast array of things. Here are some examples of the kinds of ways the following emoji could be used; not necessarily how their creators intended. We’ve mixed in emoji as they appear on both Apple and Android products. Continue reading...

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

Instead of mobilising a national defence against cyberattacks, we want a toaster that communicates with the washing machine over the internetComputer experts have long warned about a catastrophic cyber-attack in the US, a sort of Web 3.0 version of 9/11 that would wreak enormous damage throughout the country. Like most Americans, I shrugged. With all of the enormous resources the country enjoys, those warnings seemed like the rantings of a digital Chicken Little.Oddly enough, the revelations of the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden gave me some false comfort. If the powerful NSA was so good at hacking its own citizens, then surely the agency could prevent criminals, terrorists and foreign enemies from doing the same? Continue reading...

Experts say the US has hit a low point in its storied space history, but that hasn’t stopped thousands of children from spending their summers learning about the cosmos – and hoping, perhaps, to be among the first on the red planetRecent evidence, at least, would seem to suggest that space camp – that all-American rite of passage for generations of young math wizards, science geeks and wannabe astronauts – ought to have disappeared into a black hole by now.

Godzilla | Trials Fusion: Awesome Level Max | Door KickersThere are few things as satisfying as blowing stuff up in video games, which is why playing as Godzilla, Japan’s favourite city-razing monster, is instantly appealing. Lumbering about, laying waste to office blocks and swatting helicopters should be about as much fun as it’s possible to have. Unfortunately, Godzilla the game is a work of staggering incompetence that turns even the straightforward process of controlling your huge monster into a joy-sapping toil. Staggering at a glacial pace between stultifying encounters with large buildings and power plants, you’re constantly assailed by tanks, helicopters and bombers, none of which do enough damage to make them a real concern. More of a threat are fellow giant monsters, with fan favourites such as Mothra and Mechagodzilla putting in appearances. But these battles are also hampered by poor controls and texture-free graphics. Its poor translation, phoned-in voice acting and low-budget looks may be true to the franchise, but don’t make for an involving game. Releases this appalling were once commonplace, but these days it’s rare to find anything quite so brazen. Continue reading...

‘If you had a single mattress to take to the dump, you’d be made up’Nobody chooses to be a person who makes up slogans for cars: you have to try not to get too hung up on them. But Honda’s “the power of dreams” infuriated me as I drove the CR-V. It swam around my head. “Nobody would ever dream this!” I shouted as the stertorous automatic gear change dragged me clumsily along. “Not unless they’d eaten blue cheese and gone to sleep thinking about Talgarth Road.” The new nine-speed automatic transmission has made it smoother than the five-speed, but I still found it lurchy and lumbering.These cars are incredibly popular, dominating the compact SUV market, the bestselling in the world last year. Since the appeal of the SUV is largely to show off how much space you can take up using only your wallet and your bullheadedness, I don’t really understand the market for the compact version: people are weird, was my take-home. The City-Brake Active System is the big safety feature: a windscreen-mounted laser radar that detects a likely collision at speeds of less than 18mph and brakes if you don’t. So, if you’re in traffic of more than one lane, which you often are in town, it emits a constant high-pitched noise. It’s needlessly stressful. From what I know of driving, you always would brake, unless you were asleep: they might as well have designed a seat-mounted sleeping-driver detector with a sprinkler system. Continue reading...

Ed Sheeran, Mark Ronson and Rihanna helping to drive the boom in audio streams on services such as Spotify, Deezer and Google PlayThe revolution in the way we listen to music has passed another landmark, as more than 500m songs were streamed online in the UK in a single week, with Mark Ronson, Ed Sheeran and Rihanna among the most popular artists.The 505m audio streams in the chart week ending 16 July is the first time the number of weekly streams on services such as Spotify, Deezer and Google Play has topped the half a billion mark – which is nearly double the number of songs streamed a year ago. Continue reading...

Company joins calls for BT and Openreach to be split to share fibre-optic cables between providers as Ofcom reviews broadband market

Tech developers face huge complexity building applications for connected environments – leading to the reinforcement of power hierarchiesThe grand vision of the internet of things is currently an exercise in imagination. It is about what happens when more and more of the real, physical world comes online, as devices and sensors proliferate, connecting everything.The promise is that the internet of things won’t just connect our homes, hospitals, schools and streets – it will enable whole new ranges of interactions, services and efficiencies. It’s not just about the things, in other words – it’s about the people and environments that animate them. Continue reading...

UN says powers given to intelligence agencies, which include phone-tapping and computer-hacking, are ‘excessively broad’ and intrusiveFrance’s highest authority on constitutional matters has approved a controversial bill that gives the state sweeping new powers to spy on citizens.The constitutional council made only minor tweaks to the legislation, which human rights and privacy campaigners, as well as the United Nations, have described as paving the way for “very intrusive” surveillance and state-approved eavesdropping and computer-hacking. Continue reading...

As classic Star Wars game Knights of the Old Republic II is patched for the first time a decade, what other games should be fixed for the modern era?Released in 2005, Obsidian’s Knights of the Old Republic II is still hailed by many fans as one of the greatest Star Wars games ever made – so perhaps it’s appropriate that, like the greatest Jedi Masters, it has been given life after death.The PC version of the game, originally released in a notoriously buggy, unfinished state, has just received its first official update in over 10 years. And it’s huge. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterGood day! Today’s game is, OMG, Streets of Rage II, which is on the 3DS digital store from today. Why are you even still reading this?! Continue reading...

Broadcaster’s UK arm and studios such as Disney and Paramount alleged to have struck anti-competitive deals under EU rulesThe European commission has accused Sky and six Hollywood studios of putting up anti-competitive barriers that restrict consumers from watching the films and TV shows of their choice. The commission, which has sweeping powers to stop anti-competitive practices, accuses Britain’s biggest pay-TV broadcaster and major film-makers of creating bilateral agreements that mean consumers outside the UK and Ireland cannot get access to Sky’s full range of programming.

Device lets travellers to the US avoid expensive data roaming charges - and helps locals avoid restrictive data limitsKarma wifi was first mentioned to me as I was heading to a conference in Texas early last year. A friend lent me their own hotspot, their early adopter enthusiasm pitching it as a secret weapon against the tyranny of expensive and irritating data costs when travelling abroad.And we all know that odd sensation of internet angst - the feeling that your laptop has become an island of futility, cast adrift from all the cloud-based streaming, email and web services upon which we have all become so dependent. Continue reading...

The set will boost the pool of Blizzard’s free-to-play card battler by another 132 cards to almost 700 when it launches in AugustHearthstone is to receive its second major expansion in the form of The Grand Tourney.The newly announced set will boost the pool of Blizzard’s free-to-play card battler by another 132 cards to almost 700 when it launches in August, as well as introducing the first new keyword to the game since it launched in 2013. Continue reading...

From the rise of gamer parents to transparent game design, a step-by-step prediction of how games will be made over the next five yearsHundreds of game developers, publishers and analysts recently descended on Brighton for the annual Develop conference. There were controversial keynotes, there were talks about how to make money in a rapidly fragmenting marketplace, but there were also some interesting forward-looking sessions, concerned with where the games industry as a whole is heading – not so much in terms of game design (that’s the domain of events like the Game Developers Conference and SXSW), more in the way the sector will operate as a business. Some of it is pretty weird.Here, then, are the major trends that we picked up on, all of which could completely change the way games are made – and played – in the near future. Continue reading...

Fall in share price of world’s biggest company mirrored by slide in stocks in mining and commodity firms to their lowest level since market crash of 2008Growing concerns about the health of the Chinese economy helped wipe $40bn off the value of Apple on Wednesday despite the company reporting a sharp increase in global sales and profits.The 5% fall in share price in the world’s biggest company was mirrored by a slide in shares in mining and commodity firms to their lowest levels since the stock market crash of 2008. Investors regard the mining and commodities industries as vulnerable to a slowdown in the world’s second biggest economy. Continue reading...

Next time your computer crashes, remember: at least it’s not your car. For nowOn Monday, thousands of people were outed as members of a dating site catering to unfaithful spouses after the theft of a database containing personal details of millions of user accounts. Other panicked users of Ashley Madison have already started to pre-emptively admit to loved-ones that they were members in an effort to stave off relationship destruction if the full database is ever released.On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of people were told to update the software on their cars after two security researchers wirelessly took control of a Jeep, cutting the brakes or turning off the engine all with the click of a button. Fortunately, so far the damage has been limited to one terrified Wired reporter mashing an unresponsive break pedal in an unsuccessful attempt to stop his car rolling slowly into a ditch. The researchers are yet to reveal the technical details of the hack, but plan to in three weeks. Continue reading...

The artist is exhibiting gifs of wiggling strippers found online – and people are collecting her work. So what happens when the technology becomes obsoloete?Strippers are raining from the rafters at Depart Foundation on Los Angeles’s Sunset Strip. It’s not an adolescent fantasy; instead, it’s post-internet artist Petra Cortright’s Niki, Lucy, Lola, Viola, a series of massive screens seemingly infected with VirtuaGirl, a seedy computer programme that sends a cadre of strippers dancing across your laptop, peeking from behind emails, or sidling up to your toolbar.Cortright found VirtuaGirl in 2009, returning again and again to the website to add new dancers to her collection. She first began using it in a 2013 work, Vicky Deep in Spring Valley, featuring a pole dancer and a unicorn in idyllic forest landscapes culled from screensavers. So who usually looks at the VirtuaGirl site? “There’s a Star Wars outfit,” she says about the strippers. “The outfits might tell you who the audience is.” Continue reading...

Despite strong iPhone sales growth and hints Apple Watch is selling well, investors continue to wonder whether company’s popularity has peakedTo Wall Street, Apple is a company where the glass is constantly half-full. Its quarterly results on Tuesday night showed revenues up 33% and operating profits up 37% to $49bn (£31bn) and $14.1bn respectively.However, there were disappointments for investors grown used to quarter after quarter of stellar figures. Unit sales of iPhones rose 35% to 47.5m in the three months ending June, about four times more than the broader smartphone market, but analysts had expected 50m or better. Continue reading...

Swedish company hires Rob McElhenney, creator of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, for film version of phenomenally successful franchiseMinecraft creators Mojang have crafted a director for the forthcoming film based on their popular video game.Rob McElhenney, creator and star of the sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, replaces Night at the Museum’s Shawn Levy, whose vision of a ”Goonies-style” adventure was apparently rejected by the Swedish game company.

The 19th Robot Soccer World Cup is taking place in Hefei, China. More than 2,000 contestants from 47 different countries build robots to play in football games Continue reading...

Civil Aviation Authority issues ‘drone code’ after several near misses when drones buzzed passenger jets using British airportsDrone pilots who “buzz” passenger jets as they take off and land at British airports have been warned they face jail if caught as the number of companies and unlicensed individuals making use of the relatively low cost flight technology continues to grow.The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which issued the warning on Wednesday, has recorded six serious incidents in the past year when drones came within 20ft of airliners at airports around the country including Heathrow.

Sony Pictures Animation plans to make an animated feature film centered on icons beloved of text message and social media addicts around the globeThe Lego Movie proved that anything can be turned into a blockbuster franchise with sufficient imagination. Now the stakes have been raised, with an upcoming animated movie centering on the emoji, the (usually) yellow spherical faces and symbols used for text and social media correspondence, hoping to have the same success.Related: The Lego Movie sequel gets director and title: The Lego Movie Sequel Continue reading...

One in five Ottawa residents are allegedly subscribed to the adulterers’ website and are now vulnerable to a breach of privacy after hackers targeted the siteOne in five Ottawa residents are allegedly subscribed to adulterers’ website Ashley Madison, making the Canadian capital among the most vulnerable to a breach of privacy after hackers targeted the site.Related: Infidelity site Ashley Madison hacked as attackers demand total shutdown Continue reading...

Connecticut 18-year-old faces scrutiny from FAA as well as local police after posting 14-second clip online that shows drone firing shotsAn 18-year-old Connecticut man may be in trouble with federal aviation officials after posting a video online that shows shots being fired from a drone that had been rigged with a handgun.The FAA said Tuesday it is investigating whether Austin Haughwout of Clinton violated its regulations, which prohibit the careless or reckless operation of a model aircraft. Continue reading...

Millions of users of the infidelity website may have good reason to be worried as cybercrime experts warn that the ‘Impact Team’ may be focused on blackmailThe hacking of the dating site Ashley Madison has raised complex questions about online privacy and the safety of personal data but for the users of the site, which claims to have more than 33 million members in 46 countries, the questions are fairly straightforward: what are the chances my husband or wife will find my profile on the site, and what can I do to stop that happening?This is what Ashley Madison customers, or anyone who shares intimate details about themselves on a dating website, need to know. Continue reading...

Clangers, Enlight, Mapstr, Annabel Karmel, This War of Mine, Warhammer 40,000, SongPop 2 and moreWelcome to this week’s roundup of the latest, greatest new iPhone and iPad apps and games. All prices are correct at the time of writing, with “IAP” indicating use of in-app purchases.You can read the previous Best iPhone and iPad Apps roundups for more recommendations, but if Android is your platform of choice, check the Best Android Apps roundups. On with this week’s selection. Continue reading...

Candidate tells journalist that ‘black lives matter’ as she takes public’s questions on gender issues, family life, and lighter fareHillary Clinton has again called for the US to confront the “hard truths” about racial inequality during an online question-and-answer session on Facebook that included remarks on a range of topics from criminal justice reform to her pantsuit preference.In the Facebook chat, Clinton was asked what she would do to “dismantle structural racism” in the US, just days after two Democratic challengers were heckled by Black Lives Matter protesters at a progressive conference in Phoenix. Her response echoed earlier comments she has made about race and racial inequality in the country. Continue reading...

Swoop for Black Hawk manufacturer opens new foreign markets for Lockheed, the Pentagon’s largest arms supplierLockheed Martin is to buy Sikorsky, maker of the Black Hawk helicopter, from rival United Technologies Corporation (UTC) for $9bn (£5.8bn), consolidating its position as the Pentagon’s largest supplier.The deal opens key foreign markets for arms manufacturer Lockheed, which dwarfs its nearest competitors, the defence business of Boeing, and Northrop Grumman, maker of the B-2 stealth bomber. Continue reading...

David Cameron also announces plans to give lifetime anonymity for victims of forced marriage among measures set out in five-year counter-extremism strategyParents worried that their children may be about to travel to Syria or Iraq to join Islamic State (Isis) will be able to apply for their child’s passport to be cancelled, David Cameron has announced in a speech setting out his five-year counter-extremism strategy.Related: The four pillars of David Cameron's counter-extremism strategy Continue reading...

(3DS, Wii U, cert: 12)That a considerable batch of DLC would follow the critical and popular success of SSB was a given, but this latest mix of characters and Mii outfits still seems unnecessarily expensive. The highlight of the pack is Ryu of Street Fighter fame who fits naturally into Smash Bros. His unique movements allow for a very technical execution, making him one of the best third-party inclusions the series has seen.The remaining new characters, Roy and Lucas, both have similar movements to their series’ counterparts, Marth and Ness, and it’s hard to shake the feeling that they’re a bit obscure for inclusion in a major update. Fans of previous Smash games might enjoy having the roster rounded out, but it feels as if Roy and Lucas are simply there to prompt those same fans into buying the bigger pack. Continue reading...

(PS4, Xbox One, Codemasters, cert: 3)Codemasters’ latest version of its F1 franchise is what the sport would call an absolute lights-to-flag winner. The racing sim is a bumper crop stuffed with both 2015’s and 2014’s seasons – the years the new engine regulations came in – from which players take their pick from a roster of real drivers and make their way to the top. Realism is the order of the day, with the game’s incredible physics engine modelling everything from tyre wear and aerodynamics to the weight of the fuel in your tank. It even updates to adjust to the real-world performance of teams and racers, while the braver might risk Pro Season mode, so realistic there is no HUD.The fine line between intense, demanding technical driving and the visceral rush of adrenaline is also balanced admirably. But there’s a surprising amount of character outside of the cars. As you push the machines harder, a friendly engineer chimes in to keep you up to date about how many seconds behind you the nearest racer is. Off the track, it’s all presented like TV coverage – complete with ludicrously detailed commentary – which very much makes the atmosphere. It’s a championship-winning package. Continue reading...

Confrontation took place in central Belfast, but police had stationed cars in the area to prevent large gatherings formingTwo teenage girls have been arrested in Northern Ireland after 200 youths gathered in Belfast city centre for what police believe was a prearranged fight.Hundreds of young people gathered in central Belfast in and around Castle Street and Millfield at 5pm on Sunday afternoon, after details of the planned fight spread on social media. Continue reading...

Matt Smith invented Manic Miner for ZX Spectrum … then disappearedOf all this year’s 80s revivals, the reappearance of the ZX Spectrum is the most eagerly awaited. At least, it is among middle-aged geeks who get a warm feeling just thinking about its tactile rubber keys and fuzzy sprites.Launched by Sir Clive Sinclair in 1982, the home gaming console sold a million, inspired a generation to program, and hit the start key on the British games industry. This month, two Spectrum replicas are being released, in the shape of the crowdfunded Vega handheld and a full-size unit from Elite Systems. Continue reading...

Supermarkets are going all-out for clever ways to make your shopping experience smootherYou’ve just finished off the last of the corn flakes, your other half is clearing up the breakfast things and about to throw away the empty box. Hang on a minute!You grab your new scanning device and zap the box before it hits the bin. The scanner is synced with your online supermarket account, so corn flakes are instantly added to your shopping list. The milk, eggs and flour are about to run out too, so you scan them for good measure. Continue reading...

Taxis say their background checks are more thorough than those of the ride-sharing service, despite Uber’s reported advertising to the contraryA federal judge has ruled California taxicab companies can sue competitor Uber over advertising statements that it offers the safest rides on the road.The San Francisco Chronicle reports that taxicab companies accused the ride-hailing company of false advertising for stating in ads and online postings that its background checks were the most thorough and its services the safest in the business. The statements implied, and sometimes explicitly declared, that conventional taxis were less safe. Continue reading...