Technology | The Guardian

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

Grim Fandango is back. And it’s as brilliant as ever Continue reading...

Bossa’s Spy_Watch game app for Apple Watch could catch on Continue reading...

Lorna Roge reportedly replaced by telco provider after a dispute with Nauruan government over payment Continue reading...

Go Bluetooth to avoid cables that can get tangled and catch on things – there are options to suit almost any budgetHeadphone cables can get caught in clothing, snagged on bags and trapped in doors, but it doesn’t have to be like that. Bluetooth wireless headphones can set you free of cables and connect effortlessly to almost any smartphone, tablet or computer.

After registering his .com website, Michael has received emails informing him that his name will be registered in various Chinese domainsI registered my surname as a .com domain for my website. I received an email from a company claiming to be the registry for China, telling me that someone wanted to register the same name. Then I then received an email from a Gareth Cui stating that he intended to go ahead and register my name in the .cn, .com.cn, .net.cn, and .org.cn domains.I do not understand why someone wants to register my name in China. I assume that there is a scam behind this, but what is it? Michael Continue reading...

Former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard becomes first woman to seek party’s nod for White House in crowded 2016 race – and to test Hillary Clinton ‘disconnect’ Continue reading...

Sending an erotic selfie should not automatically land teenagers a criminal record, say anti-censorship campaigners Continue reading...

Twitter CEO boasts its live-streaming service was the saviour when viewers struggled for access or didn’t want to give up $100 Continue reading...

Use of drones in Nepal earthquake relief effort and Dronestagr.am, which allows users to upload their aerial photos, are just two examples of non-military useYou float above a garden in Belgium. There’s not a soul in sight. In another picture a group of men stare up at you from the entrance of a church, eyes squinting in the sun. In another you drift across a charred landscape, black and scabbed, as if the desert has bubbled up in blisters. A caption by the user who uploaded the photo on to Dronestagr.am, Eric Hanscom, says: “I was at a seminar a while back where a man from the military explained that his strategy for drones was to put a drone in harm’s way before he would put a person. I took the same approach with my Bebop over the mud volcanoes of the Salton sea.”Bebop is a consumer multirotor aircraft, a personal drone, and sites such as Dronestagr.am allow users to upload and share photographs and videos taken using their drones. The images on Dronestagr.am are mostly scenes of natural beauty: grand vistas, panoramic shots of beaches and red-roofed villages tucked between rolling hills. These photos are charted across a world map on the front page of the website, clustered around Europe, North America and South East Asia. There are very few photographs on the website from the Middle East.It’s important to do our bit to make sure that drones are seen in a positive light, as a content creation toolI don’t think there was ever much of a public perception of the military ones before the civilian ones arrivedRelated: Lords urge compulsory registration of all civilian dronesRelated: Is it possible to run a drone business with an ethical base? | Antony Loewenstein Continue reading...

Is the smartwatch the next big thing after the MP3 player, smartphone, tablet and phablet, or is it the 21st-century equivalent of the electric can opener?Smart watches are attempting to break into the mainstream. The massive marketing machines of Apple, Google and Samsung are trying to push their appeal beyond geeks and early adopters and get everyone wondering whether there’s a smartwatch for them.Smartwatches have existed, in various incarnations, for 10 years or so. Last year saw Pebble launch the second iteration of its successful smartwatch; Samsung unveil its fourth, fifth and sixth smartwatches; and Google enter the game with Android Wear.Related: Apple Watch review: beautiful hardware spoiled by complicated software Continue reading...

Social network kills MS-Dos gaming fun, saying interactives and games breach its embedded cards terms of serviceFaster than Ryu KOing Ken, Twitter has killed off the ability to play MS-Dos games in tweets.

Hardballing, Rubik’s Cube skills and other ways of securing a job with the Silicon Valley behemoth Continue reading...

(PS4, Xbox One, Terrible Posture Games, cert: 7) Continue reading...

Google has upgraded its software meaning that many people can no longer watch YouTube on their ‘smart TV’ and set-top box. What can you do?Did you buy a smart TV or set-top box or tablet any time before January 2013? Do you watch YouTube on it, perhaps through an app? Bad news: Google has shut down the feed that pushed content into the app. You may have noticed this of course: one person contacted me on Twitter to complain their daughter now couldn’t watch an ad-free YouTube video on his first-generation iPad (that’s 2010) via the YouTube app. Millions of people will be having the same experience. It’s not only iPads; pricey Sony, Samsung and Panasonic “smart” TVs (with built-in app capabilities) were sold by the truckload, and the idea was that they would be the future. Mediatel forecast in November 2012 that more than 100 million households would be “smart” by 2013, and by the end of that year Samsung said the apps were used on two out of every three North American smart TVsAs people tend to replace their TV about every 10 years, there’s not much chance those buyers are in the mood to update yet – especially as everything else will work, just not the YouTube app. (You might be able to access YouTube if the device has a web browser. Not all do, though.) Continue reading...

(iPad, Sega, cert: 4)The football season is drawing to a close and without the joys of a World Cup or European Championship fans could be left with a barren two months with nothing to do but head out into a British summer. But fear not. Sports Interactive has come to the rescue. After years of slimmed-down, portable Football Manager, finally a fully fledged iteration arrives on the iPad. FM Classic, as its name suggests, was a mode introduced to appeal to old-school fans who didn’t fancy delving quite as deeply into this most addictive, and complex, management simulation.It proved a hit and so here it’s replicated to a T, but on a touchscreen. The 3D match engine is present and correct, as are the meticulously detailed options that have always defined this archetypal management simulation. Some of the loading screens can be a bit sluggish, and the amount of text on the screen can make selections imprecise at times, but it’s still a hugely enjoyable time-sink. Nothing is more rewarding than spending days leading a team from non-league to European glory, and now there’s the added bonus of being able to do it in the glorious outdoors. But, well, with that British summer, just make sure you have an umbrella handy. Continue reading...

(PS3, Konami, cert: 3) Continue reading...

Can a Rafael Nadal-endorsed, data-collecting tennis racket improve a wayward backhand?

Maurice gets a message saying he is not authorised to open files he has copied from one computer running Windows to anotherI have tried to copy files from my old computer running Microsoft Windows 7 to my new one running Windows 8. When I try to open the files, I get a message telling me that I am not authorised to open them. MauriceWhen you use a Windows PC, you do it via your user account. This “owns” all the files you create, and lets you set permissions for sharing them (or not). This is handy when the same PC is used by several different people. However, when you move the file to a different PC, it can no longer find the account used to create it. If this happens, Windows will tell you that “you don’t currently have permission to access this file” or folder. Continue reading...

Former Hewlett-Packard chief questions Hillary Clinton’s record in hunt for female voters and startup cash on campaign trail, but ex-colleagues insist Fiorina ‘didn’t know what she was doing’ Continue reading...

Sky News and BBC News channel face digital-driven reorganisations as they struggle to keep up with the speed of social media Continue reading...

Residents of Gotland bemused by a Facebook glitch that places them just north of Oslo, and local businesses worry it might affect the tourist trade Continue reading...

Industrial designer Oluwaseyi Sosanya hopes his 3D weaver can stitch together much more than shoes – be it bulletproof vests or even buildings Continue reading...

Our tech favourites this week let you grill with the power of the sun, or eat chow mein with the power of the forceConstructed from carbon fibre, a material commonly used in aviation, this longboard puts the lightweight technology to use on terra firma (although certainly not with the aim of keeping your feet firmly on the ground). The Gridboard, rather unsurprisingly, is designed in a grid pattern, with the desire to cut down every ounce resulting in an elegantly simple symmetry to the deck. The team from Germany are looking to raise €20,000 (£14,380) on Indiegogo with backers offered the choice of two different wheeled boards depending on whether they want to cruise or freestyle.Prices for the ready-to-ride models start at €389 (£280) and are expected to roll up on doorsteps next month. Continue reading...

The mighty search engine is putting on a good Samaritan act with its Digital News Initiative, but its munificence isn’t all that surprising in a digital world where content, and allies, are vitalAnd now for a wholly different area of politics. Here’s Google, the mightiest search engine in the universe, struggling to win press friends and get the European Union’s antitrust campaigners off its back. So here, in turn, is £107m (carved from some $66bn in revenues last year) to start a “Digital News Initiative” that will help eight European newspapers (including the Guardian) to devise fresh platform opportunities, train staff and – via the Reuters Foundation – learn more about the good digital things that are happening across the 28 EU nations. Oh, and we’re sorry we haven’t been softer and gentler down the years, a European main man tells an FT conference of the great, good and grateful. What’s not to like?There’s no instant reason to poll the lucky first eight perhaps – although their initial reaction is a bit suck-it-and-see. Google doesn’t do “nice”. Google is Godzilla, not Paddington Bear. But let’s dig around for theories that might underpin this beneficence. Continue reading...

Tropico and Democracy 3 give you a chance to experience being a political leaderPolling day looms and, as the clamour for our votes reaches a climax in this extraordinarily close-run election, it might be supposed that gaming has little to add to the debate. But whether democracy really works and how is a question the gaming industry has taken on and with interesting results.Factors that determine not just a fair election but a working, democratic government are, in reality, incredibly hard to track. But in games, complexities such as voting, governing and policy-making can be expressed through simple, interactive mechanics, in turn illustrating how our political system works. Continue reading...

What does it mean when a car has a big red bottom? Peugeot’s special 208 GTi is ready for action Continue reading...

Votr uses your postcode to collate candidates’ tweets and invites you to swipe, like the Tinder dating appAre your election candidates up to scratch on community issues? Whose opinions really chime with your own? And are ingrained allegiances clouding your judgement? Two teenagers have developed an app to help you find the answers.Offering the digital-savvy a way to scrutinise those braying for their votes, Votr is the brainchild of Londoners Zak Cutner and Freddie Poser who turned their coding skills to politics – despite being too young to vote themselves. “We found an electoral commission survey which showed that young people wanted to know more about their candidates,” says 16-year-old Cutner. “So we chose to do something to do with the candidates and then we tied-in Twitter.” The upshot is Votr – an app that uses your postcode to collate the tweets of those gunning for election in your area and invites you to swipe, like the Tinder dating app, right if you like the tweet, left if you don’t and up if it leaves you cold. The identity of the tweeter, as well as overt party references, are obscured while you judge the posts, however a swipe down reveals your candidates’ names, parties and how they are faring in winning your approval. Continue reading...

Hashtag is May Day hit in Silicon Valley, where top-paid workers are mostly white and male – but some fear tweeting salary could have personal consequences Continue reading...

The social network’s results and revenues are failing to impress investors – especially when compared with Facebook’s and Google’sGood news travels fast, but bad news even faster – especially if it’s the release of lacklustre results from Twitter. That’s what happened on Tuesday last week when, through no fault of the company’s, its first-quarter earnings appeared on its website for just 45 seconds, but an hour before their scheduled release.Twitter’s shares began falling within seconds of the release being spotted, bumping down 7% from the day’s start, and after the official release of the figures, kept going down, falling more than 18% on the day.It’s a valuable and interesting company; getting $1bn of advertising per year is quite an achievement by any standards Continue reading...

Clive Sinclair’s computer returns as a retro games console after crowdfunding campaignGiven the public’s insatiable appetite for reviving anything from the 1980s, from Dallas to Spandau Ballet, it was only a matter of time before wily entrepreneurs brought back the computer that did as much to define the decade as shoulder pads and the Filofax.For a large number of people in their 40s, mention of the ZX Spectrum will bring back fond memories of hours spent using a pad with rubber keys to type elementary code while waiting to upload a game via a tape recorder that emitted a succession of high pitched bleeps and whistles. Continue reading...

The Upstairs Downstairs actor breaks the rules on Twitter and would really like to print a 3-D prosthetic handAre you a gadget fiend or a technophobe?

‘I can’t imagine what acceleration you’d have to require to see this car struggle’ Continue reading...

Google’s video service has become a global children’s TV staple thanks to channels like Funtoys Collector and Little Baby BumFour of the five most popular YouTube channels in March are aimed at children, and they racked up nearly 1.5bn video views between them that month.The latest chart from online video analytics firm OpenSlate and industry site Tubefilter shows that US-based toy unboxing channel Funtoys Collector was the biggest YouTube channel by some distance in March, with 477.5m views.Related: Little Baby Bum: how UK couple built world's fifth-biggest YouTube channelRelated: YouTube backs digital star Stampy's new Minecraft show Wonder Quest Continue reading...

Microsoft; £26.95; Xbox One Continue reading...

Streaming music service closes its doors after lengthy legal battle with rights holders, and says: ‘Despite best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes’Streaming music service Grooveshark has shut down as part of the settlement following its loss of a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by major labels.The US-based service had been going for nearly 10 years, but its decision to build a catalogue of music from users’ uploads rather than licensing deals with rights holders led to its demise.Related: Behind the music: Why Grooveshark takes a bite out of artists' earnings Continue reading...

The software entrepreneur says hit men are on his tail after a hasty exit from Belize but his focus is on warding off tech companies’ all-seeing eyeDeep in the heart of the Bible Belt, John McAfee, the tech millionaire, eccentric and one-time fugitive, appears to have finally settled down – in his way.A few months shy of his 70th birthday, McAfee, as famous for his plentiful eccentricities as the anti-virus software he created, is living somewhat in the open again, this time in Lexington, Tennessee, a rustic and unassuming town with a population of less than 8,000.

As technology grows and spreads further into everyday life, we have new irritants to deal with. Like listening to someone’s keyboard clicks on the train …The other day, my boss tweeted about one of those fundamental facts of life that speaks to us all. It was this: the excruciating annoyance of being subjected to the keyboard click sound of a person’s mobile phone.As Ionesco, the Romanian playwright, said, anguish brings us together. Is there anybody who isn’t instantly riled at this? Who doesn’t want to throw their hands up at the true horror of humanity, and around the phone owner’s neck?Is it rude to ask strangers on the train to FFS TURN OFF KEYBOARD CLICKS ON YOUR MOBILE! I mean honestly, who has keyboard clicks on?! Continue reading...

Blog recording abuse levelled at female film-makers causes stir in America as founders say they launched site as ‘crisis intervention’ Continue reading...

Remote monitoring and use of patient data in disease prevention could give sufferers back their lives and save NHS vast sums, says Labour’s Liz Kendall“Would you like an easy peeler?” Liz Kendall asks me, pulling out a massive bag of satsumas. The job, says the shadow minister for care and older people, and the Labour candidate for Leicester West, is extremely unhealthy, though that’s not the biggest problem with working in politics.First elected as an MP in 2010, Kendall has already been disciplined for tweeting in the House of Commons and for passing a bottle of water to a colleague doing her maiden speech, and complains about the inefficient and outdated Parliamentary conventions – including the 40-minute ritual of physically walking through the lobby to vote. The process would be far more efficient voting electronically, she says, while the order of speakers could also be published online so members didn’t have to wait four hours to talk for five minutes. Continue reading...

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

The acclaimed director has criticised watching films on mobile phones during a conference in New York Continue reading...