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Crystal Maze-style games in tourist destinations all over the world are now so popular they need their own TripAdvisor category Continue reading...

Many Iranians bypass state’s filtering system to post positive messages after the announcement of a framework for a nuclear deal in Lausanne Continue reading...

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Research reveals average speeds in Britain have fallen between the start and end of 2014, and that home broadband is now fasterBritain’s newly built superfast 4G networks appear to be slowing down as more subscribers sign up for top-flight mobile internet and traffic increases over the fledgling service.The average speed at which a mobile phone can download content – such as apps or video files – fell between last spring and last winter, according to a study published on Thursday by Ofcom. Continue reading...

The country offers Airbnb a unique opportunity with its many hosts who have long rented out homes and rooms to visitors from abroadThe home-rental company Airbnb has opened for business in Havana, bringing the sharing economy born in capitalism to communist Cuba as relations thaw with the United States.Following President Obama’s move to relax cold war-era travel restrictions in January, the company sent teams to meet with Cuba’s many hosts who have long rented out homes and rooms – known as casas particulares – to visitors from abroad.Related: Cuba's 'offline internet': no access, no power, no problem Continue reading...

Broadcaster follows Radiohead’s Thom Yorke in testing legal file-sharing distribution with 10-episode bundleDoctor Who is on BitTorrent. But this time, it’s the BBC that has put it there.The broadcaster’s BBC Worldwide division is releasing an official digital box-set of 10 episodes from its popular sci-fi show’s modern incarnation.Related: What are BitTorrent bundles and how can I download Thom Yorke's album?Related: Doctor Who's new web game aims to teach children programming skills Continue reading...

File-sharing firm’s Matt Mason says he wants to combat piracy: ‘Content has value, it should be legally licensed and distributed...’ Continue reading...

Social network brings its current total of photography and video apps up to six in battle with Twitter’s Vine and PeriscopeFacebook has launched another video camera app. Riff for the iPhone and Android allows collaborative looping video creation – a bit like Twitter’s Vine on steroids.The free app allows one user to record a short clip similar to a Vine or Instagram video and publish it within the app or Facebook. Other users can then find and add to that clip with their own short clip, building a longer video that loops through.Related: Periscope review: does Twitter's live-streaming service beat Meerkat? Continue reading...

Apple CEO Tim Cook set off an unprecedented backlash against ‘religious freedom’ laws this week, and showed why Republicans can no longer stay silent on civil rights Continue reading...

It’s got cats, it’s got crime, and a mystery involving a fried egg: everything you could want and moreCan we just take a minute to appreciate the Isles of Scilly police force’s Facebook page?

Jane’s job requires rapid typing for long periods, and she can’t do that on today’s Chiclet-style laptop keyboardsI work as a specialist electronic note-taker for deaf people, which means I type a comprehensive précis of all that is said in the room, using a laptop linked to a separate monitor for them to read in real time. Qualified electronic note-takers type at very high speeds, with no breaks, for up to an hour at a time (sometimes longer in settings where people clearly don’t consider us to be sentient beings). We are at real risk of RSI.Like many fast touch-typists, I just cannot work well on the new Chiclet keyboards. Continue reading...

From hidden programmer credits to movie references and macabre jokes, developers have been stuffing their games with secrets for 30 yearsLegend has it that the 1979 Atari 2600 game, Adventure, was the first to include a hidden in-joke buried away in an obscure corner of the code. If players directed a grey dot into a hidden room they got to see the message “Created by Warren Robinett”, a self-referential protest by the game’s programmer who was annoyed at Atari for not crediting its staff.Since then, it’s been discovered that the Fairchild Channel F console, launched in 1976, boasted several such messages. The demo cartridge that originally came with the machine had one, as did the 1978 title Video Whizball, a Pong derivative that would post the coder’s name on the screen (Bradley Reid-Selth) if you carried out a complex sequence of moves at the close of the game. Continue reading...

Move by search engine means warning display could deter Chrome browser users from visiting sites approved by Chinese authority

Stephen Lavelle’s website offers over 200 strange and thrilling games – yet one of the artform’s most unusual talents asks for little in returnStephen Lavelle develops short games, little games, but they make me more aware that I am alive than just about anything else. He just gives these games away for free on his website, like throwing breadcrumbs to pigeons.

Shares in company best known for its controversial Super Bowl ads soar by 30% on New York stock exchange flotation Continue reading...

Executive order creates sanctions that could potentially penalize companies in China and Russia that benefit from hacks in attempt to curtail rising threatPresident Obama on Wednesday created the first-ever sanctions program to penalize overseas hackers who engage in cyber-spying and companies that knowingly benefit from the fruits of that espionage, potentially including state-owned corporations in Russia and China.“Cyber threats pose one of the most serious economic and national security challenges to the United States,” Obama said in a statement after signing an executive order creating the sanctions. Continue reading...

Turn the world’s most famous thoroughfares – or even the street where you live – into mazes and wolf down the dots Continue reading...

Research shows 64% of Americans own a smartphone but 23% run into money problems and 15% run out of mobile dataIn the last three years the number of Americans owning a smartphone has jumped from 35% to almost two-thirds but affordability has meant many have had difficulties paying for them, according to the latest Pew study.

After 70m downloads on iOS and Android, casual hit courts gamers in the UK and Ireland with local heroes – plus a pair of recent web memesPopular mobile game Crossy Road has released a “UK & Ireland” update featuring 17 new characters based on familiar figures from the British Isles.They include a busby-wearing Queen’s guard, a policeman, a Scottish piper, a chimney sweep and a “fancy lady”, as well as a packet of fish’n’chips. They join existing characters like the dragon, gravedigger, giddy goat and emo goose in the game.Related: Mobile game Crossy Road has made $10m in three months since launch Continue reading...

Online star teams up with Endemol Beyond for new lifestyle network, which will also be available on other video services and social networksYouTube star Michelle Phan is launching her own online video network, Icon, which will cover beauty, fashion, food and other lifestyle topics – but not just on YouTube.The network is a partnership with television firm Endemol, and will distribute its videos through a range of partners online and on TV, as well as through its own mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.Related: Little Baby Bum: how UK couple built world's fifth-biggest YouTube channel Continue reading...

Ofcom report also finds that almost three quarters of adults have used services such as YouTube or on-demand TV Continue reading...

New re-ordering device reduces need to ever leave the house again with a one-touch button for when products run outHave you ever been stuck on the toilet with no toilet roll? An end to that nightmare might soon be in sight. Amazon’s next big thing in the “internet of things” lets you order a new roll at the touch of a button, even as you sit in the smallest room.Related: Samsung pledges over $100m to make an open Internet of Things finally happenRelated: The internet of things - the next big challenge to our privacy Continue reading...

Research firm’s survey of Americans finds 20% say they’d be ‘likely’ to pay $7.99 a month for an iTunes subscription – with Spotify at riskApple could quickly become the biggest streaming music subscription service in the world after it relaunches its Beats Music service later this year, according to a survey conducted by music industry analyst Midia Research.The company asked 1,000 Americans whether they would subscribe to an Apple music streaming service for $7.99 a month, and found 10% saying they’d be “very likely” to sign up, and another 10% saying they’d be “likely” to. When it came to iOS users only, 15% were in the “very likely” camp.Related: Apple's plan to beat Spotify: push Beats to every iPhone and iPadRelated: Trent Reznor to be 'point man' for iTunes relaunchRelated: The future of music sales is here. So how CAN the artists make it pay? Continue reading...

What role will social media and digital strategies play in winning the main political parties crucial votes? Continue reading...

Communist-era kitsch is in big demand online, with the majority of buyers coming from America. But many items are cheap knockoffs made more recently in China, reports The Moscow Times Continue reading...

Google has marked this April Fools’ Day by superimposing the classic video game on to its 2D maps. Here’s our urbanist’s guide to the best street layouts to play on Continue reading...

Watchdog says radio campaign suggested that driving in dangerous winter weather can be fun Continue reading...

Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone has a curved screen, powerful processor and premium craftsmanship that finally matches rivalsSamsung’s latest flagship smartphone the Galaxy S6 Edge has a curved screen, metal body and is powerful. But is it enough to beat strong competition from HTC, Sony and Apple?The S6 Edge combines the premium design and feel of Samsung’s Alpha range with the curved screen technology seen in the Note Edge phablet to create a new smartphone that is a cut above previous efforts.Pros: fast, great screen, attractive design, good fingerprint reader, excellent cameraCons: short battery life, no removable battery or storage, Facebook and Microsoft apps bundled, curved edges provide little utility Continue reading...

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

The newly tapped host has been criticised for controversial tweets from past that some feel are out of step with the tone of the satirical news program Continue reading...

Myspace – the hot social media website of 2003 – is back. But you won’t find Myspace Tom popping up as your default first friend any more – he’s too busy posting pics on InstagramThere aren’t many second acts in the digital world, but Myspace seems to be making a comeback. In the US, Myspace now has more monthly users than Vice, Snapchat and Vine. According to internet analytics company comScore, the site grew 469% between 2013 and 2014, with 40 million unique visitors per month.New Myspace looks pretty different to the 2003 version. It’s dropped the clunky interface, glittery backgrounds, HTML code spilling onto profile pages and mind-boggling load errors. Continue reading...

He is a video games visionary, the creator of intricate gothic fantasies regarded by some as the best titles of the last 20 years. In a rare interview, Hidetaka Miyazaki explains how he rose from unwanted coder to company presidentWhen Hidetaka Miyazaki was a child, he was a keen reader, though not a talented one. Often he’d reach passages of text he couldn’t understand, and so would allow his imagination to fill in the blanks, using the accompanying illustrations. In this way, he felt he was co-writing the fiction alongside its original author. The thrill of this process never left him – and it is very much there in his arcane and fascinating video games, the latest of which, Bloodborne, has just been released to wild acclaim.Related: Bloodborne review – elegant, precise and irresistible Continue reading...

The danger of a herd mentality in tech hack circles is real, including missing out on mainstream products, but a nose for interesting news goes beyond analyticsTechnology journalism – and US technology journalism in particular – is getting a roasting every bit as stinging as Justin Bieber’s recent Comedy Central special, in an opinion piece by mobile industry expert Tero Kuittinen published on tech site Boy Genius Report.Titled “Meerkat is dying – and it’s taking US tech journalism with it”, it pulls no punches in its assessment of whether recent, excitable coverage of video-broadcasting app Meerkat was matched by actual downloads and usage.

New smaller, cheaper tablet joins larger Surface Pro 3 to be its lightest and thinnest Windows tablet

The Guardian is holding a discussion event to investigate the connections between real-life warfare and gaming – and what that means Continue reading...

Nottingham’s new National Video Game Arcade has just opened – and there’s plenty more to see if that’s not your thing, from modern art to an 800-year-old pub Continue reading...

Age ratings and threatening parents with police intervention aren’t the answer. Parents need to know what their children are playing and judge for themselves Continue reading...

Best friends Adam Saleh, a 21-year-old American of Yemeni descent, and Sheikh Akbar, a 21-year old American of Bangladeshi descent, started their YouTube channel in 2012 to challenge misconceptions about Islam. They are now some of the biggest Muslim stars on YouTube, with over 750,000 followers on their channel. Their last London meet-and-greet was so mobbed by fans that police were called to rescue them. Last week, Saleh and Akbar appeared at the new East Shopping Centre in Upton Park, east London, amid a heavy police presence. So who would queue up just to have 30 seconds with them? We spoke to some of their fans to find out Continue reading...

Exclusive: People without Facebook accounts, logged out users, and EU users who have explicitly opted out of tracking are all being tracked, report saysFacebook tracks the web browsing of everyone who visits a page on its site even if the user does not have an account or has explicitly opted out of tracking in the EU, extensive research commissioned by the Belgian data protection agency has revealed.The report, from researchers at the Centre of Interdisciplinary Law and ICT (ICRI) and the Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography department (Cosic) at the University of Leuven, and the media, information and telecommunication department (Smit) at Vrije Universiteit Brussels, was commissioned after an original draft report revealed Facebook’s privacy policy breaches European law.Facebook’s tracking practices have ‘no legal basis’Related: Facebook’s privacy policy breaches European law, report finds Continue reading...

If the future does arrive as promised, technology could herald the end of waiting to pay for goods and services. But what does that mean for Britishness? Continue reading...

The place to keep talking about Bloodborne Continue reading...

Musicians including Beyoncé and Madonna show support for rapper as he overhauls service designed to make more money for artists

Officials scramble to respond after blunder reveals passport numbers, visa details and other personal information about leaders including Barack Obama and Angela Merkel Continue reading...

It’s 126 years since work was compelted on Gustave Eiffel’s famous structure – still the tallest building in Paris

Alex Younger, head of Secret Intelligence Service, defends use of internet and big data to protect the country