Technology | The Guardian

Chinese smartphone firm’s latest flagship Android puts Huawei on the map with a solid all-metal phone that costs significantly less than competitorsYou’ve probably never heard of Huawei. With a brand name that few recognise and which many who do can’t pronounce, the Chinese company has struggled outside developing markets – but that may be about to change.Its new flagship P8 Android smartphone – thinner than an iPhone 6 – could be about to put Huawei on the map.Pros: very thin, solid build, decent camera, good battery life and performanceCons: lack of premium finish to the body, software modifications are a little unpolished and change Android significantly Continue reading...

Communications watchdog says US companies could face sanctions over alleged ‘illegal activities’ under controversial bloggers law Continue reading...

Letter signed by more than 250 companies demands greater transparency and says ‘dangerously vague’ language would criminalise whistleblowers Continue reading...

From selfie drones to data protection, all the latest news from the US tech scene Continue reading...

Release of footage of recently captured soldiers said to violate Geneva conventions. RFE/RL reports Continue reading...

Glitch found in engine software requires immediate checks after issue-plagued fleet is groundedAirbus has issued a critical alert calling for immediate checks on all its A400M aircraft after a report identified a software bug as having caused a fatal crash in Spain earlier this month.The aircraft manufacturer’s alert follows the crash of the new A400M military transport plane during a test flight in Seville, in which four Spanish air force crew members died and two were injured. Continue reading...

Google’s mapping app throws up some unusual responses for vanity searchers Continue reading...

Gus Van Sant’s The Sea of Trees, Woody Allen’s Irrational Man and Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster pinch plenty of mentions online Continue reading...

Plus Phil Libin’s next problem to solve: ‘Most products are still not cognitively ergonomic: they’re not made with an understanding of how the brain works’ Continue reading...

Searches using a racist slur return results pinpointing the White House in Washington DCGoogle has apologised after searches which include the racist slur “nigger” were shown to find the White House in Google Maps.

Auto-tagging system slaps ‘animal’ and ‘ape’ labels on images of black people, and tags concentration camps with ‘jungle gym’ and ‘sport’Flickr is facing a user revolt after a new auto-tagging system labelled images of black people with tags such as “ape” and “animal” as well as tagging pictures of concentration camps with “sport” or “jungle gym”.The system, which was introduced in early May, uses what Flickr describes as “advanced image recognition technology” to automatically categorise photos into a number of broad groups. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matter Continue reading...

Benefits, such as improved attention and perception, could come at a price, according to research

Innocence of Muslims reposted a day after a federal appeals court ruled the website should not have been forced to take it down Continue reading...

Officials raided offices belonging to Axact following report alleging it makes millions of dollars selling bogus qualifications from universities such as ‘Barkley’ Continue reading...

Tweet by Greater Manchester police prompts cheeky responses pointing them towards David Cameron and Boots pharmacy

Sixty percent of US drivers admit to messaging habit, as 33% email and 10% even video chat, according to AT&T-commissioned survey that worries researchers Continue reading...

Telecoms giant is entering fiercely competitive mobile, home phone, broadband and TV market dominated by Sky and Virgin Media Continue reading...

Era of free rein over equine internet is no more: cartoonist Jeph Jacques’s .horse website goes offline after he is contacted by corporationThe greatest horse-based web domain in history is no more: Walmart.horse has disappeared from the internet following a complaint from the American megastore chain.Registered in late February by Massachusetts-based cartoonist Jeph Jacques, author of webcomic Questionable Content, Walmart.horse was a simple website containing nothing but a picture of a horse superimposed on top of a Walmart store.Related: Why you should buy your .sucks domain name before someone else does Continue reading...

New CEO hints at further move into sports and says Deezer can survive against well-funded competition from Apple and SpotifyStreaming music service Deezer is beefing up its spoken-word content, adding more than 20,000 podcasts and radio shows to its catalogue.The shows will be streamable on-demand alongside the 35m songs available through Deezer, initially from today in the UK, France and Sweden with other countries to follow. Partners in the expansion include the Financial Times, Slate, Monocle 24 and Sveriges Radio.Related: Spotify financial results show struggle to make streaming music profitable Continue reading...

Children’s advocates point to video of duo performing Scorsese dialogue as they argue for a Federal Trade Commission crackdown on internet content for kids

Shot of orc chieftain Orgrim Doomhammer fuses features of English actor Robert Kazinsky with CGI work from Hulk creators Industrial Light and Magic Continue reading...

Cryptologists join call for US president to resist pressure from FBI and surveillance agencies to build back doors in operating systemsApple, Google, other tech giants and a number of noted cryptologists have signed a letter to the Obama administration urging the US government to preserve strong encryption against pressure from law enforcement and surveillance agencies.The letter argues that “strong encryption is the cornerstone of the modern information economy’s security,” and that the government should “fully support and not undermine efforts to create encryption standards [nor] in any way subvert, undermine, weaken or make vulnerable” commercial software.Related: Encryption won't work if it has a back door only the 'good guys' have keys to Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matter Continue reading...

Rob Tong created SleepHero after too many caffeine-fuelled nights trying to comfort his sleepless son. But does it work? Continue reading...

Lighter than an iPad, waterproof and with an excellent keyboard accessory, the Xperia Z4 Tablet is Sony’s best yetSony’s Xperia Z4 Tablet is the Japanese firm’s best yet, with small bezels, a bright screen and a waterproof body – but it’s when you add a full keyboard that things start to get interesting.

The world’s computers are talking to each other. As the web spreads, calling someone a geek may yet become a compliment Continue reading...

Appeals court rules in favour of tech giants after actor wanted Innocence of Muslims removed from YouTube after receiving death threats Continue reading...

Activist investor says Apple shares should be trading at nearly double their current price, making the iPhone maker worth about $1.5tn Continue reading...

If you bought insurance on your TV in 1998, the company remembers – and as it faces creditors, attorneys are looking into how much data it can legally sell Continue reading...

President collects 5,000 Twitter followers per minute as he launches @POTUS feed, where tweets will come ‘exclusively from him’, White House says Continue reading...

Paul Farley, game designer: ‘In one version, you had to go around burning churches. You’d probably get arrested for that now’ Continue reading...

The veteran director calls for progressive audiences to fight the studio system and back his new movie, an exploration of dreams starring Willem Dafoe Continue reading...

Based on Finland’s Sailfish operating system, the plan is the latest way Russia is fighting for independence from US technologyThe cold war may have ended in the 90s but Russia is still fighting to free itself from American influence over its technology sector, with the country’s minister for communications announcing plans to create a new mobile operating system to challenge iOS and Android across all the Brics nations.Meanwhile, another Russian company is designing its own central processing units to take on Intel and AMD. Continue reading...

It seems Alex Hern isn’t the only one accidentally stealing people’s identities online. Here are your tales of mistaken identity via emailThere's some guy living in the Pacific NW who has apparently spent the last three years thinking his email address is my email address.I get *so* much stuff for this guy, I can more or less plot a vague outline of his month-to-month life at this point. He works as some sort of freelance consultant, and I wonder how it's going because he's presumably missed a number of important meetings, updates and debriefings in the last 24 months, owing to the fact that I get updates about them rather than him. He's also been having a lot of renovations on his house in the last year, and much as I'd like to confirm Tuesday would be a good time for the roofer to drop by for a quote, I can't, because I live 4500 miles away and don't know if he's free on Tuesday - the same reason I can't confirm that his air conditioning unit was delivered last week, or that it's ok for his party of four booking at a local restaurant on Friday to be pushed back an hour. He appears to be having difficulty selling his former property; I'm not that surprised.@alexhern My best friend has a common name as well as me, we're discussing your article pic.twitter.com/MtFfptdh8cThe most disturbing one was from a (well known) UK solicitor who was handling the divorce of his client and there was a lot of money involved. I replied immediately and pointed out their mistake. A few weeks later the same, again I replied.

I wasn’t expecting a young, vibrant creative world to have a uniform. But there is an insidious pressure to fit in, and it involves plaid and denimMost professions have a uniform of some kind, whether it’s the suit and tie of corporate culture, or the brand-asserting mono-wear of the world’s major retail outlets. Sometimes, however, dress codes can be much more insidious. In the world of video games, a young creative industry that seeks to assert its rebelliousness and vibrancy, we aren’t required to conform through necessity or tradition. But one thing I discovered very quickly when I started working here is that there is a uniform: it’s just that this one is the result, not of workplace rules, but of a lack of diversity. And it can be just as excluding.It was the night of my very first launch party. I’d just finished my internship at a video games TV channel and I was going through the familiar routine of choosing an outfit. In other words I was trying on everything in my own wardrobe as well as the wardrobes of all my flatmates. I eventually decided on something I’d been saving for a special occasion: a patterned mid-length dress with black panels down the side. I sent a photo of it to the colleague who’d invited me, but her replied surprised me: “It’s lovely, but a bit too dressy for tonight.” I wore it anyway.Just another day at the 2K offices... pic.twitter.com/PZs1VRslI8 Continue reading...

‘China’s Apple’ launches low-cost headphones, fitness bands and portable battery packs to test the waters for a full smartphone launchChinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi will launch its first stores in North America and Europe on Tuesday, selling low-cost accessories as a prelude to launching smartphones in the West.

Camera51, Test Chamber, Great Little Places, Vimo Fitness, Knights of Pen & Paper 2, Marvel Future Fight and more Continue reading...

Meerkat, Seabeard, Microsoft Hyperlapse, Knights of Pen & Paper 2, Wear Personal Fitness Trainer, Lego Star Wars and more Continue reading...