Technology | The Guardian

Company plans to send 648 micro-satellites into space by 2019, racing Facebook, Google and Elon Musk’s SpaceX to be first to create global broadband networkThe broadband space race has received a $500m boost after Airbus, Coca-Cola and Virgin Group joined other funders in backing a venture to bring the internet to the most remote corners of the planet.OneWeb, based in the channel island of Jersey but with offices in California and Washington DC, plans to send 648 micro-satellites into space by 2019. These will do away with the expense of installing mobile phone masts or laying miles of cables, instead beaming a broadband signal direct to small, solar-powered user terminals on the ground. Continue reading...

Eavesdropping agency collected bulk personal data without authorisation ‘due to technical error’ finds intelligence services watchdogGCHQ, the government’s electronic eavesdropping agency, has been found to be spying too much on its own staff, an official watchdog has said.Sir Mark Waller, the intelligence services commissioner, reveals in his annual report that GCHQ reported one error to him last year when it was found that an internal monitoring system, which keeps an eye on staff communications, was capturing an unauthorised amount of information. Continue reading...

Intelligence and law enforcement data-sharing envoy in treaty talks with internet companies, the US and other governments over co-operation in terrorism casesExisting international laws will never be enough to persuade US internet companies to hand over their customers’ personal data to the British security services in urgent counter-terrorism or “threat-to-life cases”, according to a secret report by the prime minister’s special data envoy.

Technology company says it will open 14th data centre at Widows Creek site in Jackson County that will be powered with 100% renewable energyGoogle will convert an old coal-fired power plant in rural Alabama into a data centre powered by renewable power, expanding the company’s move into the energy world.

Critics say Icann’s proposal to make sites used for ‘commercial services’ ineligible for proxy registrations puts users at risk of harassment and ID theft

The novelist is contributing her own cartoons, detailing her experiences as a young woman, to Kickstarter-funded The Secret Loves of Geek GirlsMargaret Atwood is taking a short break from writing acclaimed and award-winning literary novels to contribute a series of cartoons to a crowd-funded, all-female anthology aimed at the “geek girl” looking for “stories on dating and love”.Racing towards its goal of C$37,000 (£19,000) on Kickstarter – launched earlier this week, it is already at over C$27,000 – The Secret Loves of Geek Girls is the brainchild of Hope Nicholson, a Canadian comic-book publisher and editor, who called it “a celebration of the stories we tell each other but never make public – until now”. Atwood is the most high-profile of a host of women, both creators and fans, contributing a mix of prose stories and comics to the anthology. Continue reading...

Will Lewis says sharing deals with companies such as Facebook, Apple and Google pose threat to newspapers over control of contentWill Lewis, the chief executive of Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones, has warned rival newspapers not to “run like headless chickens” to strike content deals with tech firms such as Facebook and Google.Lewis, a former editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph, warned that deals such as Facebook’s Instant Articles partnerships pose a threat to loss of control of content. Continue reading...

El Capitan, the world’s most iconic cliff face, has been mapped by Google, giving anyone online the chance to join some of the world’s greatest climbers on the Yosemite rock faceEl Capitan, the iconic granite monolith in Yosemite national park, is used to having the world’s eyes on it: in January millions followed the progress of climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson as they completed the first-ever free climb of its Dawn Wall, a gruelling 19-day marathon.But now anyone with access to the internet will be able to visit the cliff-face, thanks to the latest Google Street View project, which has mapped 3,000 vertical feet of the famous rock formation. Continue reading...

Will I lose Office 2010 if I upgrade? Does it come in a DVD format, as well? Will I have to use an Outlook account? Find out here

Inspired by Google’s dreamscape images, students have set up a neural network that takes users’ suggestions and feeds back on itself to create a kaleidoscopic stream• Yes, androids do dream of electric sheepRemember those amazing images from last week that looked like a computer having an acid trip? What if you could watch them live?A group of PhD students from Belgium have created a Twitch livestream which lets viewers look in to the mind of a neural network as it “dreams”. Continue reading...

The history of ‘forgetting’ is really about making things hard to find, and what the company’s new policy does is give people a limited right to obscurity

New Statesman columnist tweets displeasure after being kicked off social media site, saying she used alias to avoid being trolledFacebook has been accused of putting users at risk “of rape and death threats” by a journalist who was banned from the social networking site for using a pseudonym.Laurie Penny, a contributing editor at the weekly political magazine the New Statesman, who also writes for the Guardian, said she had been kicked off Facebook for using a fake name to avoid being trolled. Continue reading...

From the unintended reply all to the email bitching about your boss that you accidentally send to your boss, here’s how we can now be savedThe wheel, the telegram and now, Google’s “Undo Send” email feature. There’s nothing like an invention that truly changes the fabric of life. Even better are those that save us: hydraulic braking, say, or rehab.This is the news that the tech giant is rolling out a feature allowing users to pull back emails – up to 30 seconds after hitting send. The feature has been around for a while, but hidden in Google’s labs section. Continue reading...

Employee understood to be member of company’s UK team

Reality TV star says she is choosy about promoting products, and reveals husband Kanye West inspired her to launch a computer gameKim Kardashian West has revealed that she never allows her Instagram account to be made part of promotional brand deals – and why she owes her husband Kanye West for pushing her to break into the world of video games.The reality TV star said that her single biggest social media bugbear is those celebrities who over-promote products on Instagram.

Independent bodies WIN and Merlin give licensing deals their backing, while Happy star Pharrell Williams gives streaming service his new Freedom singleTwo independent label bodies have given Apple’s new music streaming service their backing, after the company abandoned its plans not to pay royalties during its three-month free trial.Meanwhile, Pharrell Williams has been confirmed as the first exclusive for Apple Music, which launches on 30 June, with his new single set to debut the same day on the service. Continue reading...

Samsung software updater disables Microsoft’s built-in Windows Update, which delivers critical patches for security bugs and holes among other fixesSamsung is disabling Windows Update on some of its computers, leaving users exposed to security holes and bugs according to an independent Microsoft support engineer.

Xiaomi accuses rival Qihoo of scare tactics after it markets router complete with safety mode for women expecting a childMove over Apple and Samsung, the latest tech rivalry is in town – and it’s to do with a router aimed at pregnant women.Chinese tech firm Qihoo has launched an upgrade to its P1 router, which features three settings: “wall penetration”, “balance” and … er, “pregnant women”. Continue reading...

Games site turns to crowdfunding to survive, matching music site Drowned In Sound – their struggles may spark a debate about independent specialistsMobile game reviews website TouchArcade has launched a fundraising campaign on crowdfunding site Patreon, admitting that the evolution of app store marketing and online advertising has put “our existence in jeopardy”.It’s the latest independent journalism site to try crowdfunding as a solution, with the US website’s struggles and strategy mirroring those of British music site Drowned In Sound, which launched its own Patreon campaign in early June.

Microsoft demoed two fascinating Hololens experiences at E3: a robot invasion game and a holographic version of Minecraft. We played them bothThere are robot insects bursting in through the walls. Everywhere I look, the plaster is cracking, then suddenly, out they spew, their metallic claws aimed at my jugular. It sounds like the sort of techno-hallucinogenic nightmare that filmmaker David Cronenberg may concoct in one of his woozy sci-fi horror flicks. But it isn’t. This is a demo for Microsoft’s Hololens, a forthcoming “mixed reality” headset. The future is terrifying. But also sort of amazing.I’m standing in a quiet room, upstairs from the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, with two staff from Microsoft’s Hololens development team that’s based in Redmond. They’re going to show me a couple of demos: the robot shooting game, Project X-Ray, and the one I’m really desperate to see, Minecraft Hololens – basically, the game that stole the show at Microsoft’s pre-E3 press briefing. Continue reading...

RA Guide app released for iPhone with Android to follow, promising a more dance-focused alternative to apps like Songkick and DiceElectronic music site Resident Advisor has launched its first app for its community of fans, taking its listings for clubs and concerts mobile.The free RA Guide app has been launched for iPhone, with an Android version to follow at a later point, and will provide listings for more than one million artists, venues and events, and provide a ticket-selling service. Continue reading...

Privacy advocates claim always-listening component was involuntarily activated within Chromium, potentially exposing private conversationsPrivacy campaigners and open source developers are up in arms over the secret installing of Google software which is capable of listening in on conversations held in front of a computer.

Lurkmore is backing off from its infamous biting humour after a series of clashes with media regulators. The Moscow Times reportsLurkmore, a Russian site described as the “satirical Wikipedia”, is suspending its operations because of increasing censorship, founder Dmitry Khomak has announced.

The new Paperwhite’s screen has twice the number of pixels and is faster and clearer, making it the best e-reader for the priceAmazon’s latest Kindle is an updated version of its Paperwhite, now with a crisper and easier to read screen with twice the number of pixels.

Apps that let fans create their own versions of their favourite songs - and duet with the likes of Jessie J - have put the US company on the music mapJessie J has performed with a host of musicians in her time: Dizzee Rascal, Ariana Grande, 2 Chainz, Queen, David Guetta, Mary J. Blige, Tom Bleasby… Wait, Tom who?Bleasby is the fan whose video duet with Jessie J went viral last month, notching up nearly 3.6m views on his own YouTube channel and another 10.3m on Facebook after the star shared it with her followers. Continue reading...

Committee to only consider candidates who will make a full-time commitment to Twitter, the social network’s board says in statementTwitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is currently set to stand in as the interim chief executive of the company once current boss Dick Costolo steps down at the end of June. But don’t expect Dorsey to get the top job permanently: Twitter’s board of directors has made it quite clear today that they don’t want him.The company announced on Monday that it had hired headhunters Spencer Stuart to find the new chief executive, and confirmed that it wasn’t interested in getting a candidate who spends some of their time elsewhere. “The Committee will only consider candidates for recommendation to the full Board who are in a position to make a full-time commitment to Twitter,” it said in a statement. Continue reading...

The comedian infamous for rape jokes and other hilarity has established DappsDaily.com – which appears to be lifting content wholesaleDapper Laughs’ listicle website, DappsDaily.com, has had the briefest stint online after a Guardian investigation revealed it to be rife with content copied word-for-word from a number of different websites, including Metro.co.uk and PopSugar.The comedian, aka Daniel O’Reilly, is most famous for releasing a single called “Proper Moist”, making jokes about homeless people, telling a woman she was “gagging for a rape” and having an ITV show pulled after public outcry. Continue reading...

Evan Spiegel extolls the vitrues of advertising that ‘fits the context of the story’ rather than pre-rolls or banner adsGoogle’s motto, lest we forget, is “Don’t be evil”. It seems that Snapchat’s catchphrase might now be summed up as “Don’t be creepy”.Evan Spiegel, the 24-year-old chief executive of the messaging app, has told a gathering of advertising types that he and his colleagues “really care about not being creepy”. Continue reading...

Reporter who exposed criminal boss David Hunt is second high-profile journalist from paper to join websiteSunday Times journalist Michael Gillard is joining BuzzFeed UK, becoming the second high-profile journalist from the paper to join its investigations team, which is run by former colleague Heidi Blake.Gillard won journalist of the year and investigation of the year at the 2013 British Journalism Awards for his work exposing criminal boss David Hunt. The Sunday Times subsequently fought off a libel suit by Hunt during which a firm of bodyguards hired to protect Times journalists pulled out after one day. Continue reading...

From the epic Star Wars Battlefront to the intimate Beyond Eyes, here are our most memorable moments from this year’s rather fantastic eventLast week, E3 – the Cannes film festival of the video game industry – attracted more than 50,000 game makers, journalists and retailers to the LA convention centre for three days of frenzied hype, promise and speculation.300 exhibitors were there, showing off more than 1,600 products, from cutting-edge augmented reality headsets to farming simulators. But now the multimillion-dollar stands have been deconstructed and the billboards torn down. It’s all over for another year. Continue reading...

If we are serious about free speech for all, we need laws to combat this abuse. It is naive to think it can be self-regulated

Kindle readers now have an extra reason to feel guilty about not finishing a book – putting the author out of pocketAmazon will start paying some authors according to how many pages of their books are actually read, the company has announced.The change will affect self-published writers who make their books available through Amazon’s Kindle Owner’s Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited services, which offer readers who subscribe to Amazon Prime a selection of free ebooks. Continue reading...

Retailer uses artificial intelligence to fight astroturfing by putting greater emphasis on verified and helpful reviewsAmazon is using artificial intelligence to combat fake product reviews and inflated star ratings.It is employing a new AI machine-learning system that the online retailer built in-house to boost the prominence and weight of verified customer purchase reviews, those marked as helpful by other users and newer, more up-to-date critiques on its site. Continue reading...

Legislation allows copyright holders to seek injunctions forcing internet service providers to block access to sites that facilitate piracyNew piracy laws mean it may soon be harder for Australians to illegally download their favourite shows and music.

Provider Host Europe cancelled contract after Swiss site was flooded with Redditors in wake of harassment banVoat, the main destination for the diaspora of disgruntled Redditors who left Reddit in protest at perceived censorship, has been dropped by its web host for “politically incorrect” content.The Swiss Reddit clone, which has become the home of Redditors leaving their former haven in the wake of a crackdown on harassment, had its servers turned off without warning on Friday. A backup had been created on a cloud-based hosting platform just hours before so the site to allow it to remain online. Continue reading...

But is it curation or commerce when the collections that you are compiling mainly feature your own products?Twitter’s latest new feature involves celebrities and brands curating “collections” of their favourite products and places for their followers on the social network – although in some cases, their lists are decidedly self-promotional.“You’ll be able to browse rich collections from influencers you care about and get more information about the products or places you find interesting,” explained Twitter product manager Amaryllis Fox in a blog post as the feature went live. Continue reading...

When the V&A Museum of Design opens in 2018, it will put a flourish on Dundee’s remarkable reinvention as a creative hub ... as long as the city doesn’t overlook that it’s still one of the most deprived places in ScotlandChris Van Der Kuyl set up his first video game company in Dundee in the mid-1990s. “It was an industrial landscape,” he says of the city, which had been bled of heavy industry from the 1970s onwards. “Everything was closing, everyone was leaving.”Van Der Kuyl’s 4J Studios would go on to help develop the global gaming sensation Minecraft; next year he will open a new digital headquarters on the city’s docks. “It’s not the V&A but it will cost a few million,” he laughs. Continue reading...

This years highlights? Breathtaking game reveals, the return of cult classics, a footballing legend, and the new virtual realityThere was, perhaps, not a little provocative symbolism before this year’s annual E3 electronic entertainment expo, when Todd Howard, creative mastermind behind Fallout and Elder Scrolls, took to the stage at the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles. It’s the host venue to the Oscars, and it was here that Howard declared that the next five days, dedicated solely to video games, would be “the best week for entertainment ever”. And for once, in a city that positively feeds on hyperbole, he wasn’t wrong.After two years of somewhat disappointing game launches, this year’s E3 delivered some breathtaking game reveals. Bethesda’s opening event last Sunday showcased astonishingly good-looking forthcoming titles such as Fallout 4 – to be released on 10 November – and Doom 4. At Sony’s showpiece, punctuated by a mightily raucous crowd, the company won over legions of gamers by announcing that it would remake Final Fantasy VII (one of the most iconic games of all time), and that there would be a new game in the Shenmue franchise, a hugely acclaimed cult Sega series that has not been seen since 2001. Continue reading...

Eddy Cue reveals independent label protests were also a factor in company’s streaming U-turn, a week ahead of Apple Music launchApple will pay royalties to music labels and publishers during the three-month free trial of its Apple Music streaming service, the company has confirmed, after protests from independent labels and musician Taylor Swift.Related: Taylor Swift criticises 'shocking, disappointing' Apple Music Continue reading...

Polish state-owned airline LOT suffers hacking assault on ground systems that causes 10 national and international flights to be cancelledAround 1,400 passengers of the Polish airline LOT have been grounded at Warsaw Chopin airport after hackers attacked the airline ground computer systems used to issue flight plans, the company said.The computer system was hacked on Sunday afternoon and fixed after about five hours, during which 10 of the state-owned carrier’s national and international flights were cancelled and about a dozen more delayed, spokesman Adrian Kubicki said. Continue reading...

Search giant to issue forms for people to request removal of links to pictures and video of them as images ‘serve only to degrade victims’Google plans to exclude “revenge porn” from its internet searches in future, limiting the spread of unauthorised nude or sexually explicit photos and videos posted on websites by spurned ex-partners without the subject’s consent.

‘Electrosensitive’ people are flocking to the West Virginian home of a deep-space telescope, attracted by the rules prohibiting phones, TVs and radios. But, as Ed Cumming reveals, their arrival means Green Bank is far from peacefulUp and up the roads to Green Bank went, winding into the West Virginian hills as four lanes thinned to one. It was early March and snow was still spattered on the leaf mould between the firs and larches. Hip-hop and classic rock radio stations were gradually replaced by grave pastors and bawdy men twanging banjos and, eventually, they too faded to crackling white noise. The signal pips on my phone hollowed out. I was nearly there.Over a crest in the road was the cause of the electronic silence: the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), an array of radio telescopes set against the indigo vastness of the Blue Ridge Mountains. These giant white ears are cocked to interstellar whispers: the formation of stars, nebulae and supernovae. So sensitive are the devices, and what they are listening for so faint, that even tiny signals nearby can be disruptive: a badly fitted microwave or a faulty electric blanket. It’s like trying to eavesdrop across a room while listening to heavy metal in your earphones. Continue reading...

‘Swishing round a roundabout, the handling was so tight and sure, I felt like a shark’They call it the saloon that thinks it’s a coupe. “The Mercedes CLS,” I was sometimes heard to murmur, leaning against it, doing a voice like Sean Connery, “the car made of muscle.” Then I’d set the alarm off and electronically immobilise it, but it was nothing the manual couldn’t fix.So much car jargon, I often think, exists to replace perfectly serviceable words that car buffs don’t know about because they never speak to anybody. I give you “oddment stowage”, the term they use for for “small drawer”. And yet, when people talk about the “build quality” of a Merc, there is no other phrase for it. Everything you open, everything you close, every time you sit down, every time you move, there it is, in a noise or a texture or some ineffable combination of the two: build quality. One might almost just say “quality” for short. Continue reading...

High court ruling highlights inconsistencies between UK copyright law on physical and digital content – and how consumers might foot the billWe all know that it’s possible to share books, CDs and mixtapes, pull them apart, or transfer them to different environments. Their digital equivalents, however, are not so free.On Friday, the high court in London ruled that when you rip your lawfully owned CDs, transfer a DVD movie to a USB-only device, or backup your playlists, consumers are potentially “harming” rights holders. Continue reading...

Endless battery life, colourful fasciae and Snake (obviously) – as Nokia plans a return to the phone market, in praise of its most enduring product: the 3210Hold the phone – Nokia has announced its return to the mobile (cell) market. The Finnish telecoms giant, which was once the biggest producer of mobile handsets in the world, has agreed with Microsoft to begin designing phones again in 2016.Microsoft bought the company’s faltering mobile phone unit for €5.44bn (£4.6bn) in 2013, after declining sales in the face of competition from Apple. But now that Microsoft’s chief executive Rajeev Suri has said Nokia is to return, we can’t help harking back to its pièce de résistance: the Nokia 3210. Here’s why we loved it. Continue reading...

Every year the E3 event in LA tells us what the industry is thinking about – and this year it’s female characters, virtual reality and post-nuclear droid petsIf you want to know what’s going on in the collective consciousness of the global games industry, just hang out at E3 for a day. This gigantic three-day celebration of mainstream gaming has just closed up in Los Angeles, and it made a heck of an impression.So here are the key trends that we picked out among the many hundreds of announcements. Continue reading...

PS4, Xbox One; 505 Games; £31.50Cops and robbers have been such an enduring inspiration for Hollywood, it’s curious that games haven’t really bothered with the genre. Battlefield Hardline may have grafted policeman onto its game of war, enabling full scale urban combat, and Grand Theft Auto V does let you perform heists, but neither is as detailed or ambitious as Payday 2. You’re one of a team of four criminals taking on jobs that range from quick jewellery shop knockdowns to complex operations taking place over several days, starting with casing the joint and finishing when you’ve fenced your ill-gotten goods.

Judge rules government erred in law by not introducing compensation scheme for rights holders when it changed rulesMusic industry organisations have won a high court battle over measures introduced by the government allowing people to lawfully copy CDs and other copyright material bought for their own private use.

Activity tracking pioneer is valued at $4bn and could be about to come to a workplace near you as personal fitness goes corporateYou may have heard of Fitbit, you may even have worn one of its trackers to count your daily steps, but it’s unlikely you would have expected the clamour for its shares to send them soaring 50% when they floated in New York yesterday.Shares in the firm responsible for the gadget took off at a sprint, jumping from their $20 initial price to more than $30 in early US trading to value it at around $6bn – despite the company already having raised its expectation of the price this week and putting additional shares into the float. The stock closed at $29.68. Continue reading...

Vendors of the supernatural can sell tangible items as long as they do not claim objects can induce weight loss or love, the arts and crafts marketplace statesSelling the services of demons on Etsy, from Astaroth to Zagan, is unacceptable to the arts and crafts marketplace. The recently public company had previously done a brisk trade in weight loss spells, ex-lover-shaped voodoo dolls, and philtres of various descriptions, but no more.“Any metaphysical service that promises or suggests it will effect a physical change (eg, weight loss) or other outcome (eg, love, revenge) is not allowed, even if it delivers a tangible item,” read the company’s quietly rewritten terms of service. The old terms simply made sure nobody claimed without proof to have cast a hex on someone’s new boyfriend by requiring some kind of good to change hands. Continue reading...