One can be elusive and expensive, the other turns a human moment to a rateable transaction. It’s not easy steering between black cabs and the taxi service app Continue reading...

French government to invest more than £70m in three-year plan, while tightening the law on hate crime and cracking down on racism online Continue reading...

Prosecutors declare Uber a ‘suspect’ and begin collecting evidence of ‘providing illegal transportation on a commercial basis’ after company ignored banDutch prosecutors are launching a criminal investigation into Uber for providing an illegal taxi service following court rulings and €10,000 fines.Uber continued to operate its UberPop peer-to-peer ride-sharing service in the Netherlands in violation of a Dutch court order which saw fines of €10,000 for every driver caught providing the UberPop service. Continue reading...

Silicon Valley heavyweight IVP joins US startup’s investors, and predicts it could be as successful as Netflix and Twitter Continue reading...

A website commenter who will end up being banned for antisocial behaviour can be spotted with 80% accuracy simply by examining their first five posts, claim researchersIt is possible to tell comment trolls apart from other users simply from looking at the way they write, researchers have found.Studying the comments on three sites – CNN, Breitbart and IGN – over an 18 month period, the researchers at Cornell and Stanford universities found that users who went on to be banned wrote differently to other users in the same comment thread, using fewer words indicative of positive emotion. Continue reading...

After 85m downloads of its apps, Swedish company will explore the booming world of online entertainment for kids: ‘It’s an almost blank piece of paper’Tens of millions of parents are familiar with the children’s apps made by Swedish firm Toca Boca. Now it’s hoping to capitalise on that reputation as it explores the worlds of TV and video.The company is launching a new video division, based in New York and headed up by J Milligan, who previously worked as creative director of Sesame Street parent company Sesame Workshop’s content innovation lab.Related: ‘Traditional TV viewing for teens and tweens is dead. Not dying. Dead.’Related: YouTube Kids ads row: how should we pay for children's entertainment? Continue reading...

Google faces a real challenge from Microsoft’s Bing in the US, but its dominance of global, European and UK search is almost uncontestedMicrosoft’s Bing search engine has captured more than 20% of the US desktop search market for the first time since it launched, leaving Google with 64.4%.

A new report wants to foster a digital age underpinned by human rights and calls for greater transparency from global giants. But will we ever trust the internet?Citizens of the internet: here is some welcome news. Your downtrodden digital rights might be getting a well-overdue booster shot. But it comes with some warnings.This week in the Hague, a high-level group of 29 internet policymakers and influencers – including prominent ex-US and UK security and intelligence officials Michael Chertoff, Joseph Nye, Melissa Hathaway and David Omand – issued a clarion call for the protection and promotion of human rights online. Self-styled the Global Commission on Internet Governance, the group made this call as part of the broader objective of restoring trust and confidence in the internet. Continue reading...

Statistics from San Francisco suggest carpooling is a new frontier for public transport. But is everyone ready to jump in a car with a total stranger? Continue reading...

Tidal Rising update debuts as criticism continues that the digital music app will only boost the careers of its superstar owners Continue reading...

Julian Assange says data ‘belongs in the public domain’ and says hacked files shed light on extent of cooperation between government and HollywoodWikiLeaks has republished the Sony data from last year’s hacking scandal, making all the documents and emails “fully searchable” with a Google-style search engine.The move provides much easier access to the stolen information. Searching the name of, for example, former Sony Pictures chief Amy Pascal, whose controversial comments were revealed by the hack, immediately yields nearly 5,700 results. Continue reading...

An art group satirising the anthems of fighters in eastern Ukraine say they are countering Russian propaganda about the conflict, RFE/RL report Continue reading...

Man ruptures tendon in his thumb by playing Candy Crush Saga, but addiction to game enabled him to ignore the intense pain and keep on tappingA man has ruptured a tendon in his thumb by playing Candy Crush Saga, making it one of the first touchscreen-gaming related injuries and putting BlackBerry thumb back on the map.

TripAdvisor-style wine apps may seem to be the future, but are they really?

The number of tech companies valued at dizzying sums over the last year has fuelled talk of a tech bubble - are we in one? Continue reading...

Russian voice-assistant for iPhones and iPad accused of answering questions with homophobic responses, while company dismisses issue as ‘a bug’ Continue reading...

Digital veteran Burnie Burns talks YouTube, Lazer Team, GamerGate and why PewDiePie isn’t his main competition any more“We were three years late to YouTube! We didn’t join YouTube until late 2008, because when we first looked at it, honestly, I viewed them as a competitor. But then it grew to the point where if you wanted to be part of the conversation, you had to be on YouTube.”Burnie Burns, co-founder and creative director of Rooster Teeth, is sitting in the company’s booth in the basement of Cannes’ Palais des Festivals at the MIPTV television industry market, one of a number of digital production companies here to parlay massive YouTube popularity into licensing deals with broadcasters.Related: ‘Traditional TV viewing for teens and tweens is dead. Not dying. Dead.’Related: BuzzFeed sees short-form videos as springboard to TV shows and filmsRelated: ‘History, yes. Science, sure. Sharks, yes’ – what millennials want from factual TVRelated: TV industry faces its ‘ketchup’ moment: ‘Mobile is now the first screen’ Continue reading...

New UP4 fitness band has contactless payments built in joining a new raft of wearables that go beyond fitness trackingJawbone has added contactless payments to its latest fitness band, giving a secondary use to its activity tracker as the wearables market becomes more competitive.The new UP4 is a version of Jawbone’s long-awaited UP3 and incorporates an NFC chip that can be used to pay for goods and services in shops. Continue reading...

Stunning landscapes with dizzying visual detail, and a tool that lets you record and edit in-game footage and upload it to YouTube, puts this open-world game lightyears ahead of its competitorsRockstar Games / PC / £40 / PEGI rating: 18+

Dave is planning to get a new family computer but would like a touch-sensitive screen for Windows 8 Continue reading...

New Photos app replaces company’s amateur and professional photo apps, but is it any good – and is it safe to upgrade?Almost every new gadget has a camera these days, which means almost every moment can be captured for posterity. But the sheer number of photos we collect as we go about our lives is becoming a nightmare of organisation.

Online campaign, which first appeared on BuzzFeed, asks viewers to imagine what Tory leader would do with another five years Continue reading...

Everyone’s favourite fantasy drama is back on screen – but there’s even more backstabbing, plotting and fantasy to be had with the game first released in 2003When you play the Game of Thrones, as Cersei Lannister famously observed, you win or you die. And at this particular moment, my chances for survival didn’t look too good.I’d set out from my home on Dragonstone intent on raiding the Lannister lands on the eastern shores of Westeros. With a strong force of cavalry, infantry and ships, I’d planned a succession of lightning attacks that would culminate in my seizing the city of King’s Landing and establishing House Baratheon as the rightful holders of the Iron Throne. Continue reading...

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

From natural disasters to the scale of government spying, we don’t seem able to process figures we can’t relate to. So will we fall into big data’s empathy gap?It’s a little unclear whether Joseph Stalin actually said, “the death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions is a statistic”, but it seems about right.The number of lives the Soviet dictator ended is so large that it is mind-boggling. And it seems “mind-boggling” is a literal description of what happens when we encounter large numbers. It seems humans don’t really know how to process figures which they can’t personally relate to, and this has surprising consequences. Continue reading...

AVS WinVote machines used in three presidential elections in state ‘would get an F-minus’ in security, said computer scientist who pushed for decertification Continue reading...

Google has become part of our language and our behaviours – but we are floundering with what it means, whether it is a problem, and what to do about it Continue reading...

From avoiding trends to keeping patient when your views are in the low double-digits, Spanish vlogger’s advice: ‘The way people consume content is changing...’Luzu used to work at a TV production company, but in 2011 he launched his own YouTube channel called LuzuVlogs. Four years on, the Spanish-language vlogging channel has nearly 1.6 million subscribers, with Luzu now running two others.“I actually have a bigger audience in my channel than the TV company I used to work for,” he said in an appearance at the MIPTV conference in Cannes, in a session that aimed to provide practical advice to any creator trying to build their audience on YouTube.Related: ‘History, yes. Science, sure. Sharks, yes’ – what millennials want from factual TVRelated: TV industry faces its ‘ketchup’ moment: ‘Mobile is now the first screen’Related: ‘Traditional TV viewing for teens and tweens is dead. Not dying. Dead.’ Continue reading...

A box at the top of a search results page, with links to online retailers, is at the heart of the European commission’s statement of objection Continue reading...

European commission accuses tech firm of skewing search results to favour its own shopping service in breach of competition rules

But AwesomenessTV still wants to package shows with creators like Meg DeAngelis up for traditional channels, according to chief executive Brian RobbinsBrian Robbins, the chief executive of multi-channel network (MCN) AwesomenessTV, clearly knows the value of a punchy soundbite to wake up the audience at a television industry conference.“Everyone knows that traditional TV viewing for teens and tweens is dead. Not dying. Dead,” Robbins told the audience at the MIPTV conference in Cannes. Continue reading...

Can the reactive crowds, first-person perspective stage performances and new controller re-awaken interest in guitar games?Looking back, it’s hard to appreciate the impact Guitar Hero made on gaming a decade ago. It wasn’t the first rhythm action game, of course. Konami had already paved the way with its Beatmania and Guitar Freaks arcade titles. But with that huge licensed track list and cleverly designed guitar controller it brought the concept of music gaming into millions of homes, kickstarting a multimillion-dollar industry. Original developer Harmonix would later go on to extend the concept with Rock Band, introducing drums and a mic, but Guitar Hero plucked away for another five major releases, adding hundreds of tracks and enlivening many long nights indoors.

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

China-based Ninebot plans to use self-balancing technology to produce new transport systems as Xiaomi continues expanding beyond smartphonesAmerican self-balancing transport firm Segway has been bought by a Chinese robotics startup backed by Xiaomi.

Modern aircraft increasingly connected to internet, which could potentially lead to hackers seizing control of a plane mid-flight, says GAOHackers on commercial flights could now bring down the plane they are on by using the on board Wi-Fi, a US government watchdog has warned.The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) does not suggest it would be easy to do but it points out that as airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration attempt to modernise planes and flight tracking with internet-based technology, attackers have a new vulnerability they could exploit. Continue reading...

The Finnish telecoms company is acquiring its ailing French counterpart in a bid to become a leading global networks operatorNokia has confirmed it is acquiring the ailing French telecom company Alcatel-Lucent through a public exchange offer in France and the United States, in a bid to become a leading global networks operator.The deal has been approved by each company’s board of directors and is expected to close in 2016 subject to regulatory and other approvals, the Finnish company said. Continue reading...

President of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures Ze Frank sees clips as ‘a fantastic way to build affinity with shows and characters’ before spawning movie projects Continue reading...

New fitness tracker is one of the most advanced available with all-day heart rate, GPS, skin temperature and stress sensors rolled into a chunky bandMicrosoft’s first piece of wearable technology since the Spot smartwatch is a fitness tracker packed with 10 sensors, but does it put others to shame?The company best known for Windows, Office, and PC/tablet hybrids such as the Surface, is no stranger to health and fitness. Microsoft’s HealthVault – a service for storing and maintaining health and fitness data – has been around since 2007, storing data from fitness trackers and medical devices alike and now underpins the new Health app.Pros: three-day battery life, constant heart rate, GPS and loads of other sensors, cross-platform, good appCons: a bit chunky, styling is polarising, Cortana only available with Windows Phone, not all the data collected is currently available Continue reading...

Arguably the best small heater fan available, Dyson’s newest innovation is powerful and very beautiful – but comes with a hefty price tagThe weather hasn’t made up its mind. One day it’s hot and sunny, the next windy and rainy. Welcome to April in the UK. Dyson reckons its new fan, which blows both hot and cold, is the answer – with an eye-watering price tag to match.The new Dyson AM09 is the company’s latest in its series of bladeless fans – a heater and fan combined into an oblong loop. It’s the third version of Dyson’s “Hot + Cool” fans – the first two, the AM04 and AM05, were subject to a recall last year for a fire risk found in models manufactured before April 2014.Pros: heats a room quickly, powerful small fan, easy to use remote, exact temperature controlCons: expensive, noisy enough to drown out a TV at full blast, can only push warm air around Continue reading...

Inquiry will focus on accusations that internet search and tech multinational has unfairly used its products to oust competitorsThe European Union accused Google on Wednesday of cheating competitors by distorting Internet search results in favour of its Google Shopping service and also launched an antitrust probe into its Android mobile operating system.In a statement, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the US tech giant, which dominates Internet search engines globally, had been sent a Statement of Objections - effectively a charge sheet - to which it can respond. Continue reading...

‘Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival,’ tweets Elon Musk, CEO of the private space company, minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, FloridaSpaceX has failed to land a reusable rocket booster back on to its platform barge in the Atlantic, its third failed landing in as many attempts to revolutionize rockets used for spaceflight.

Two groups headed by former FCC commissioners claim watchdog ‘usurped the role of Congress’ in passing new rules to protect an open internetTwo major lobbying groups are hitting back hard at new net neutrality rules meant to protect an open internet, both headed by former commissioners for the regulator that passed the rules.The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), a wireless industry lobbying group run by former Federal Communications Commission commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the FCC seeking to overturn the regulator’s landmark net neutrality rules on the grounds that “the FCC usurped the role of Congress” in creating them. Continue reading...

Dino Maglio convicted of raping Australian teenager after allegedly using website to lure women to his home, and drugging and assaulting them Continue reading...