Technology | The Guardian

Android ‘M’ will be announced at Google’s I/O developer conference in May, but will the M stand for Maltesers, Mars, Milky Way or Marmite?Google’s next version of Android, codenamed “M”, will be announced later this month, the company’s developer conference schedule has revealed.Multiple mentions of “Android M” in the Google I/O schedule includes one in an Android for Work session specifically talking about how “Android M is bringing the power of Android to all kinds of workplaces”. Continue reading...

Google announces crackdown on software and removes ‘deceptive’ extensions from Chrome webstore following new researchMore than one in 20 web users are infected with ad injectors, a type of malware that puts unwanted adverts on web pages, according to new research from Google.As a result, the company has announced a new crackdown on the software, which can manifest either as a browser extension or a standalone application. Google removed almost 200 “deceptive” extensions from the web store for its Chrome browser, and has started to use Chrome’s safe browsing features to display warnings to users who are (likely unknowingly) about to download ad injection software. It has a long way to go, though, as the company’s research reveals that there are more than 50,000 browser extensions and 34,000 apps that inject ads into users’ browsers. Continue reading...

Simon’s productivity has benefited from adding an external monitor to his Windows laptop. Now he would like to add a second, giving three screens in allI have recently found that adding an external screen to my work laptop has really helped with productivity, but having visited a colleague who had two additional monitors, I now want that too. His laptop had two HDMI outputs so the setup was simple, but mine only has one. What’s the cheapest way for me to do this without changing my laptop? SimonAny Windows laptop will support two screens – at least, I’ve never heard of one that won’t. Supporting three screens can be just as easy, or much trickier. It depends on the laptop, the graphics card (or integrated graphics), the graphics drivers, and perhaps the amount of memory available. There’s no easy way to tell in advance. However, if you search online for your exact laptop, you may find that someone has already tried it, and this is probably the best guidance you can get. Continue reading...

Police visit Uber offices in Chengdu in a widening investigation into the company’s operations after a raid in Guangzhou last week Continue reading...

Many modern games treat their environments like real-world spaces, but two titles that challenge that notion are set to return and shake things up againVideo games are a spatial medium – they are about space. From Pong to Grand Theft Auto V, the designer seeks to create an environment that is navigable and enclosed, and that embodies the rules of the game.Even sandbox games craft environments with boundaries – San Andreas doesn’t go on forever. But there are also more subtle limits on the navigable space available to players. In GTA V, you can only go into certain buildings, and your interaction with objects is minimal. If you punch a coffee cup out of the hand of a passerby, you can’t pick it up and pop it in a bin. That’s fine, of course, because the game design doesn’t require you to be conscientious about litter, it requires you to handle firearms. The world appears open, but it is entirely designed to facilitate death and destruction. That’s perhaps one reason why GTA stunt and comedy videos are so successful on YouTube: to use the environment in this way is (apart from the few ramps littered around the city streets) transgressive. Continue reading...

Research firm GlobalWebIndex also claims that 62% of the app’s users are men, while hinting that Tinder’s new premium tier could catch onTinder shot to fame as a dating app for tech-savvy single people. Except, as it turns out, a big chunk of its users may not be single after all.That’s according to research firm GlobalWebIndex (GWI), which released some figures on Tinder from its latest survey of more than 47,000 internet users around the world that suggest the app has a wider demographic.Related: Tinder and sobriety are incompatibleRelated: Tinder: the 'painfully honest' dating app with wider social ambitions Continue reading...

Manhattan federal appeals court rejected case to increase rate popular internet radio service has to pay in order to license music Continue reading...

Daimler’s Inspiration big rig certified for use in state whose ‘huge stretches of empty, government-owned land’ make an ideal proving groundDrone trucks could soon be plying US highways after Nevada authorities on Wednesday granted a license to test self-driving trucks on public roads.While companies such as Google and luxury brands like Lexus have dominated the headlines with advances in driverless cars, Daimler board member Wolfgang Bernhard told reporters autonomous trucks were likely to hit the roads first. Continue reading...

Can technology designed to split the cost of shared living beat the old-fashioned Post-it note?I was on the phone at 10pm on a Tuesday when I learned that I owed my housemate £13.61 towards the water bill. It was the moment I realised this new app had been a huge mistake.Splittable is a free download to help house-sharers get on top of living costs. The concept is simple: when you buy washing-up liquid or pay for repairs, you put the expense into the app, then everyone knows they need to pay up. Continue reading...

There’s no doubt sport is better exercise than playing on PlayStation, but educators say students’ love of technology could actually get them moving

Company quits after state lawmakers voted through legislation that would force Uber to carry out background checks and carry additional car insurance“Kansas just shut down Uber, no pickups effective immediately,” was the message sent to Uber users in Kansas after state lawmakers voted through legislation that would force the company to carry out background checks on its drivers and carry additional car insurance.The controversial car service company said on Tuesday it would cease operations in Kansas immediately after state lawmakers vote for laws requiring Uber, and other taxi apps, to carry out background checks through the Kansas bureau of investigation and hold additional auto insurance coverage when they have Uber turned on in their cars. Continue reading...

European commission vice-president Andrus Ansip says EU-wide GDP could be increased by £300bn a year if a harmonised market is establishedPlans to reverse the fragmentation of internet shopping and other online services have been unveiled by the EU executive, which called for a digital single market in Europe covering everything from e-commerce to broadband spectrum, courier and parcel delivery rates, and uniform telecoms and copyright rules.Setting out an ambitious digital strategy that will run into fierce resistance in some of the 28 EU countries, the European commission vice-president, Andrus Ansip, said Europe would be left behind if it did not create a level playing field for internet shoppers and firms. Expected to take years to even partially realise, the proposals would also boost digital services across the EU, which lags far behind the US. Currently, not a single market leader among internet providers in the EU is European.Related: EU warns of 'point of no return' if internet firms are not regulated soon Continue reading...

Drone operators will need permission from the country’s aviation authority following complaints in affected areasThe Nepalese government has cracked down on unmanned aerial vehicles following the magnitude 7.8 that hit the country in late April.Operators who want to fly UAVs in Nepal will now have to ask for, and receive, permission from the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN), according to an official from the organisation. Continue reading...

After months of rumours that the first commercial model of Facebook’s VR headset would slip beyond 2015, company confirms the newsThe first commercial model of Facebook’s much anticipated Oculus Rift virtual reality headset will go on sale in the first quarter of 2016, the company confirmed today.The announcement ends months of speculation that the release, which had been anticipated to happen by the end of 2015, would slip beyond Christmas. The most high profile device in the virtual reality market, Oculus Rift has been developed primarily for gaming but the technology is also being explored for occupational therapy, education and by film makers.Related: Oculus warns Sony to solve motion sickness before launching a VR headset“In the weeks ahead, we’ll be revealing the details around hardware, software, input, and many of our unannounced made-for-VR games and experiences coming to the Rift. Next week, we’ll share more of the technical specifications here on the Oculus blog.”Extremely excited to announce that the Oculus Rift will be shipping Q1 2016! We can't wait to get it in your hands. pic.twitter.com/TVquKTQJjxRelated: Project Morpheus: Sony's plan to make virtual reality a social experienceRelated: Virtual reality documentaries 'take the middle man out of journalism' Continue reading...

British firm taking on YouTube and Netflix will offer some shows for free while charging parents £3.99 a month for an unlimited subscriptionChildren’s streaming TV service Hopster started life as an iPad app, but now it’s making the leap to larger screens through the Apple TV set-top box.The British startup has launched on the device in the UK, using the same £3.99-a-month subscription model as the iOS version, with subscribers able to use both.Related: Four of the top five YouTube channels are for kids (and the fifth is Taylor Swift) Continue reading...

Worst offenders include volume-control app that connects to 2,000 websites for advertising and tracking websites, according to France’s EurecomThe average free Android app silently connects to more than 100 different web addresses to serve adverts and track users, according to a paper from French research institute Eurecom.The worst offenders found on the Google Play store connect to orders of magnitude of up to 20 times more sites. One app that does nothing more than control volume “connects to almost 2,000 distinct URLs” when it’s booted up on a phone. Continue reading...

This new ‘electronic playground’ also stocks more traditional board games and does a tasty sideline in gourmet burgers and craft beers, says Bangkok-based writer Diana Hubbell Continue reading...

With the BBC planning a drama about the creators of Grand Theft Auto, here are some other big moments from video game history that would make gripping TVSo far, film and television writers have managed to completely overlook the games business, a $60bn a year creative industry that has produced 40 years of sex, drugs and intrigue. Well OK – mostly intrigue. But in April, however, we all discovered that the BBC is planning a drama about Grand Theft Auto publisher Rockstar and its legal face-offs with loose cannon lawyer Jack Thompson. There is considerable star power involved too, with Daniel Radcliffe set to play Rockstar co-founder Sam Houser and Bill Paxton lined up as anti-gamers campaigner, Thompson.So now the lid has been prised from the Pandora’s Box that is the games industry, what other juicy controversies could be mined for TV material? Here are eight candidates. Continue reading...

What do the parties say about tech in their manifesto pledges? And what do their promises mean for Britain's digital future? Continue reading...

Taneli Armanto put Snake on the Nokia 6110 phone in 1997, and is now working on Snake Rewind for iOS, Android and Windows PhoneLong before Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans and Angry Birds, Nokia’s Snake was the king of the mobile gaming world – not least because it was installed on every single mobile phone the company sold.Now the game is returning for modern smartphones courtesy of that mobile version’s creator Taneli Armanto and developer Rumilus Design, who will release Snake Rewind on 14 May.Related: Britney Spears to follow Kim Kardashian by launching her own mobile game Continue reading...

In second Sky-related blow, Microsoft barred from registering trademark for its voice chat service Skype, after being forced to rename SkyDrive to OneDriveAn EU court has ruled that Microsoft’s Skype is too similar in name to Sky TV and that it could confuse the public.The ruling prevents Microsoft from registering a trademark for its voice, video and text chat service Skype as well as its light blue bulb logo in the EU, in the second blow against Microsoft revolving around Sky-like names in two years. Continue reading...

British startup attracts Silicon Valley funding for its global expansion ambitions: ‘We’ve evolved from a cool Kickstarter kit to an end-to-end computer company’British firm Kano has raised $15m (£9.9m) of new funding to back its build-your-own-computer kit for children, while launching a new model six times faster than its predecessor.The company, originally backed by $1.5m of Kickstarter pledges in 2013, is also returning to the crowd for investment, offering $500k of equity through crowdfunding site Quire.Related: 'Great big poo balls!' What it's like making a Kano computer with your kidsRelated: Parents! Focus less on worrying about Minecraft and more on understanding itRelated: BBC Micro Bit will complement Raspberry Pi not compete with it Continue reading...

Google searches have been filled with questions about the internet of things. What is it and why does it matter? Is it safe? Is it even real? Here are some answersAmong its many other cultural and economic assets, Google is accumulating a rather comprehensive record of what is troubling us, from asking the search engine to diagnose our disease symptoms to whether we will ever find true love. It seems only natural, then, to turn to Google to decrypt the latest piece of technical jargon, “the internet of things”.It is a term that internet users have been peppering the search engine with questions about. But what does it mean for real life? We’ve taken the most commonly asked questions about the internet of things, and answered them using a real human being. Continue reading...

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

Two-day removable battery, expandable storage and a great 5.5in screen overcome some cheap material choicesLG’s latest flagship mobile phone is designed to meet the high expectations that no-compromise, power users of Android phones have been craving. Fortunately, it manages to meet most of those demands.The successor to one of the best phablets (phone-tablet) of last year, the G3, the G4 boasts a removable back, expandable storage and replaceable battery – the last remaining mainstream Android smartphone manufacturer to do so.Pros: great screen, brilliant camera, two-day battery, expandable storage, removable battery, KnockCode.Cons: lack of premium materials, plastic back easily scratched, no built-in wireless charging. Continue reading...

Facebook post says the first family is ‘heartbroken’ as countless tributes pour in after accidental death of SurveyMonkey CEO in Mexico Continue reading...

Retail boss Ahrendts earned $82.6m last year, while Oracle chief financial officer Safra Catz, who was awarded $71.2m, was second best paid woman Continue reading...

Dave Goldberg fell while exercising on holiday in Mexico on Friday, a local official has revealed Continue reading...

Platform game from the makers of acclaimed Banjo-Kazooie hit its Kickstarter target in 40min, but studio head Gavin Price says it won’t lead to feature creepOn Friday, Midlands-based game developer Playtonic launched a Kickstarter funding project for its opening title, Yooka-Laylee. The studio was looking for £175,000 – enough to fund an initial release on PC and Mac, with a console version to follow. The company reached that target within 40 minutes. A few hours later, it hit £1m.“It’s so unexpected, we’re overwhelmed,” says studio head Gavin Price. “We’ve not really slept much in the last few days. With £175,000 we knew we could definitely launch on PC and then follow up on console, using the funds from initial sales to keep us going. All our fans wanted a console version – so that was very important. The whole campaign has been based on feedback from the community.”Related: Rare talent: inside the studio building Banjo-Kazooie's spiritual successor Continue reading...

Like its rivals, this health app is searching for a business model after signing up 85m users and being bought by sportswear firm Under Armour Continue reading...

Sometimes, I worry about the effect that Football Manager has had on my life. I’ve had girlfriends I haven’t loved as much as my Uefa Cup-winning Southend United side (CM97-98). So I went to see a doctor Continue reading...

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.