Technology | The Guardian

In a David versus Goliath-like battle, Ukrainian forces look to private companies and crowdfunded volunteer organisations to develop defence software and drone hardware in their fight against Russia

Amazon, Etsy and Booking.com all named in leaked document as having undue power over their markets

Developers from CNN and The Economist to Citymapper, Epicurious and TuneIn explain what they’ve learned and how they think smartwatches will be used• 20 Apple Watch apps worth trying on launch day Continue reading...

The Apple Watch isn't the first timepiece to be packed full of gadgetry and gizmos. From TV remote controls to classic calculators, and even James Bond's intrepid use of magnetics and flying wires, our most wearable devices have always been packed full of features and done more than tell the time. Ollie Peart investigates

Zoella, PewDiePie and FunToyzCollector are raking in a fortune, providing the world with, respectively, make-up tutorials, video game walkthroughs and close-ups of toys being unwrapped. Could you join them in the YouTube elite?

Strong demand for cloud services boosts company’s revenue, but Amazon reports loss of $57m in the first quarter of 2015 Continue reading...

Internet users ‘can breathe sigh of relief’ as FCC calls for lengthy hearing, reportedly scuttling proposed mega-deal between top two US cable companies Continue reading...

A new government-issued executive order has weakened a federal ratings system aimed at greening America’s electronics industry, environmentalists say. Is the US moving backward on green purchasing? Continue reading...

The most senior executives at Twitter barely tweet themselves and one has only ever sent four tweets, web developer who analysed their activity findsMost of Twitter’s senior executives did not use the social network before they joined the company and barely use it now, new analysis has found.The typical executive at Twitter has tweeted less than once per day since they joined the social network, and two have sent less than one tweet a month, according to analysis by Si Dawson, a web developer from Wellington, New Zealand. Continue reading...

Working with tech startup Victorious to find a new way to connect with fans, with Freddie Wong, Michelle Phan and others to follow suit Continue reading...

Periscope and Meerkat are apps which let you live-stream video from your smartphone, and are being hailed as a communication revolution. But are they? Continue reading...

Mail Online loses more than 5% of its daily unique browsers in latest ABC figures to fall back below 14 million Continue reading...

But veteran American Sniper director denies seriousness of 2005 death threat at Las Vegas event Continue reading...

Delivery service brings new meaning to car boot sale with pilot scheme in partnership with carmaker Audi in GermanyAmazon is testing an addition to its Prime subscription postal service that will see parcels delivered directly to customer’s cars.

Samsung introduces its latest mobile phone product, the Galaxy S6. The S6 is 6.8mm thick and weighs 138g, which makes it thinner but heavier than Apple's 6.9mm thick, 132g iPhone 6 and thinner than most other top-end smartphones, including the 7mm thick S6 Edge, which has curved edges to its screen. The 5.1in quad HD screen is one of the best ever fitted to a smartphone: pin sharp, vibrant and with rich blacks and wide viewing angles Continue reading...

FireEye plans to demonstrate hack that intercepts biometric data before it hits devices’ secure zone at upcoming RSA security conference Continue reading...

Chris is using a personal finance management program from 2002 on his PC, and has no reason to upgrade. He wonders if he can keep running it for many more yearsI’ve been running Intuit’s Quicken for years: my current version is 2002 Deluxe. It runs fine under Windows 7, but I haven’t tried it under Windows 8, and wonder if it will work under Windows 10 and 10+? If it won’t run under Windows 10, what do I do?Quicken 2002 does everything I want, and I don’t have any need to change to another product. I’m only 72 and hope to run it for many years more. Chris Continue reading...

The blood-splattered fighting legend returns with sophisticated visuals and online play, but also a knowing sneer at its Grand Guignol heritageThe problem with fighting games is that there are players out there who see them in frames. Not strung-together as fluid animations like the rest of us, but broken up into minute clusters of stills.Many top-level tournament fighters really care that six frames are devoted to a particular character lifting their arm, or that another’s leg swinging back after connecting consumes 12 more. Those fleeting moments are windows of opportunity for the best to turn a match. Continue reading...

Social network says more than 1m small businesses have posted videos and bought advertising as a resultFacebook videos were being watched more than 1bn times a day at the peak of the ice bucket challenge craze in the summer of 2014. Six months on, that figure has quadrupled to 4bn daily views.The social network’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed the latest figure in his company’s earnings call with analysts, after announcing Facebook’s latest quarterly financial results.Related: Traders 'unlike' Facebook shares after first-quarter revenues miss expectationsRelated: Facebook: latest news feed tweak gives more priority to your friends Continue reading...

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

And big-data crunch has some bad news for breeders: ‘At every age, parents listen to less currently-popular music than the average listener does’Some encouragement for all the 42-year-olds suddenly getting into Rihanna or Rudimental: at least your midlife crisis is less dangerous than buying an unsuitably-powerful motorbike.Streaming music service Spotify has identified 42 as the age when many of its users rediscover the joys of current pop music, as part of research into how their tastes mature over time.“While teens’ music taste is dominated by incredibly popular music, this proportion drops steadily through peoples’ 20s, before their tastes “mature” in their early 30s.Men and women listen similarly in their their teens, but after that, men’s mainstream music listening decreases much faster than it does for women.Related: Spotify has six years of my music data, but does it understand my tastes? Continue reading...

With its super-fast processor, brilliant camera and wireless charging, Samsung’s latest flagship is the best phone it’s ever madeThe Galaxy S6 is the latest flagship Android smartphone from Samsung, a design-focused all-metal and glass powerhouse with one of the best cameras to date.The S6 comes in two varieties: one traditional flat smartphone and one with curved edges to the screen, the S6 Edge.Pros: fast, great screen, attractive design, good fingerprint reader, excellent camera, wireless chargingCons: no removable battery or storage, Facebook and Microsoft apps bundled, back glass easily scratched Continue reading...

The UK Conservative party chairman has already gotten into trouble over an online alter ego – now he’s making headlines for allegedly editing his own biography Continue reading...

Labour candidate Karl Turner asks director of public prosecutions to investigate Tory chair after suspended user Contribsx made changes on web encyclopedia Continue reading...

Tory chairman says he could not have been behind suspended Wikipedia account as he was elsewhere while edits were made. We check if this holds true Continue reading...

EU competition commissioner says Kremlin-controlled energy multinational charged eight countries up to 40% more for their gas than elsewhere in union Continue reading...

The video site is 10 years old this week and now contains tricks and guides to pretty much every problem ever. Guardian writers reveal the lessons they’ve learned

It had the backing of artists such as Kanye West and Rihanna and was hailed as the music industry’s salvation, but Tidal is showing early signs of failure Continue reading...

The robot - which goes by the name Random Darknet Shopper - was part of an art installation meant to explore the dark web Continue reading...

The place to eventually talk about games and other things that mattered four hours ago Continue reading...

E-commerce has been built to favour the tech giants. Only new regulations that recognise the plight of spunky startups and SMEs can help weaken their gripThe European anti-trust action against Google uses a silly rubric to get at a serious underlying problem.The nominal issue is that Google preferentially directed comparison shoppers to its own e-commerce sites even when they weren’t the cheapest option. This would be sleazy if true. What’s certainly true is that Google’s shopping site has always sucked, is barely used, and is the least worrisome competition question raised by Google’s online dominance. Busting Google for sleazy e-commerce search results is like taking down Al Capone for tax-evasion. Continue reading...

Standalone site on Tumblr, aimed at 16- to 34-year-olds, aims to recreate bulletin’s ‘feisty spirit’ Continue reading...

Mojang’s crafting title still top game franchise on Google’s video service, ahead of Grand Theft Auto and Five Nights at Freddy’s Continue reading...

Cheapest model lacks hard sapphire screen, instead relying on hardened glass similar to smartphones. But is it scratch resistant enough for a watch?The vast majority of Apple Watch sales are expected to be of the cheapest version, the Apple Watch Sport – but just how scratch resistant is its screen?

Bug in open-source codebase found its way into at least 1,000 apps, leaving millions of users open to man-in-the-middle attacksAround 1,000 iOS apps are affected by a weakness in their mobile security which makes it easy for attackers to access encrypted data like passwords, bank account numbers and home addresses as they are being sent over the airwaves, according to a report from security firm SourceDNA.Companies including Microsoft, Uber and Yahoo all released apps affected by the flaw – they have now fixed them but many others still have not updated their apps to a new secure version. Continue reading...

Nick Clegg pokes fun at Grant Shapps on Wednesday over accusations that the Conservative party chairman secretly edited Wikipedia pages to remove embarassing references to himself and made unflattering references online pages of Tory rivals. The Liberal Democrats leader jokes that while Shapps denies editing his Wikipedia page, perhaps it was 'Michael Green' – a pseudonym used by Shapps Continue reading...

A new generation of talented game makers is looking to put Indian development on the map – just as giants like Disney and Rovio are moving in to exploit the vast local marketEvery month, blogger Mithun Balraj organises a get-together for gamers and developers in a bar in Koramangala, Bangalore. When these informal gatherings began a year ago, five or six people came along – now there are over 30 and interest is growing. Some pop in just to chat about the games they’re playing, others show off prototypes of their own projects; they all want to discover new titles. “I brought in the sword-fighting game Nidhogg last week,” says Balraj. “It was great, but we got a little bit carried away. The bar owner told us to be quiet because the other customers were trying to watch the cricket.”

The streaming service launched as an alternative to Spotify seems to have floundered. In fact, it may even have boosted sales of its rivals Continue reading...

The former Smiths guitarist warns fans away from ‘eBay tossers’ reselling vinyl at inflated prices Continue reading...

Fewer posts from pages or strangers that friends have interacted with: ‘People are worried about missing important updates from the friends they care about’Facebook is rolling out the latest change to its news feed algorithm, tipping its emphasis back towards status updates, photos, videos and links posted by friends on the social network.Posts from Facebook pages and media organisations will still appear in the news feed, but reading between the lines of the company’s blog post about the changes, they seem likely to receive less priority after the change.Related: How does Facebook decide what to show in my news feed?“Content posted directly by the friends you care about, such as photos, videos, status updates or links, will be higher up in News Feed so you are less likely to miss it. If you like to read news or interact with posts from pages you care about, you will still see that content in News Feed. This update tries to make the balance of content the right one for each individual person.”Related: Hi Mum, sorry about that love-doll bumhole in your Facebook feed Continue reading...

Primary school pupils encouraged to use ‘sandbox’-style game to visualise their dream park, with $8.9m allotted to bring winning design to life Continue reading...