Slivers of information are emerging from Apples’ super secretive testing centre - apparently we are to be discouraged from staring at the smartwatch for too long, we learn todayApple has released strict design guidelines for applications built for the watch, which suggest that applications be used for no longer than 10 seconds at a time, a report by Bloomberg states.Apple will review every application submitted to the App Store for the Apple Watch, like it does for iPhone, iPad and Mac apps, to ensure that only those that conform to its policies are let through to customers.

Salvation Army South Africa launches hard-hitting viral campaign inspired by ‘What colour is the dress?’

Disney’s live action remake of the classic fairytale will star the Downton Abbey aristo as the spellbound prince opposite the Harry Potter star as Belle

New Rock Band and Guitar Hero titles are in development marking the return of the once dominant music game genre. I have my plastic guitar readyIn 2003, researchers Hatanaka Yuko and Miyakoshi Yukiko from Hiroshima University published a report that would come as little surprise to anyone who’s ever sang into a hairbrush in front of the mirror: karaoke is good for you. In their research paper “Karaoke and stress response” the duo reported that indulging in communal singing sessions reduces stress and increases sociability. As exercise, it is as effective as a short run – obviously discounting all the Jägermeister shots you may need before agreeing to belt out Take My Breath Away alongside your line manager.This is partly why it’s great news that the music gaming genre is set for a triumphant return. Last week, Kotaku speculated that Activision will soon be reforming its Guitar Hero series after a five year absence, while developer Harmonix revealed on Wednesday that it is working on a new Rock Band title. Both games provide players with a microphone, an array of plastic controllers designed to resemble musical instruments, and hundreds of songs to play along with. For a while, music games were a huge deal selling millions of copies. But then the market got overcrowded, the instruments were expensive and the economy collapsed a teeny bit. It was the day that music died.Related: Guitar Hero set for comeback? Continue reading...

A gadget dreamed up 1980s film Back to the Future, the first real ‘hoverboard’ will glide off the production line in 2015. But Arx Pax, the company behind it, has much more ambitious plansIt’s 2015, but we still don’t have time-travelling cars. However, another gadget from the Back to the Future films is within reach: the hoverboard. American startup Arx Pax raised $510,590 on crowdfunding website Kickstarter in December for its Hendo hoverboard, with plans to ship the first in October to 11 backers who each pledged $10,000 for one of the first.The device uses magnetic-levitation technology: four disc-shaped “hover engines” induce an opposing magnetic field in a special surface, enabling the Hendo to hover an inch above the ground. Hundreds more people pledged between $299 and $949 on Kickstarter for Arx Pax’s “whitebox” developer kit, which includes a set of hover engines and enough surface to hover on. The idea is that they’ll be able to explore Arx Pax’s patented “magnetic field architecture” (MFA) technology, and perhaps make their own devices. Continue reading...

Former VP of online marketing Sean Percival on corporate interference, Punch The Monkey, and a failed attempt to buy Spotify: ‘They sure as hell were not selling to us...’In 2015, Sean Percival is a partner at Silicon Valley seed accelerator 500 Startups, but from 2009 to 2011, he was working at MySpace as its vice president of online marketing – just as the social network lost its crown to Facebook.In a speech at the By:Larm conference in Oslo this week, Percival gave an insider’s view of what went wrong at MySpace, from the “massive spaghetti-ball mess” of its website and the “politics, greed” of parent company News Corporation to a doomed attempt to acquire music streaming service Spotify. Continue reading...

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

Virtual reality and PC gaming dominated the headlines last week as the Game Developers Conference 2015 took place in San FranciscoValve, the developer behind Half-Life and the owners of the PC download service Steam, has teamed up with HTC to create a virtual reality headset, Vive. The headset will rival Facebook’s Oculus Rift and is out this year. Continue reading...

Avoiding being tracked online is nearly impossible, but here are a few ways to reduce the riskRelated: DuckDuckGo: the plucky upstart taking on Google with stealth searches"Dropbox...is very hostile to privacy" Continue reading...

Stuart Dredge picks ten general and ten gaming apps to brighten up your smartphone for springtime

New offerings follow refugees’ stories and focus on the personal experience of conflict Continue reading...

Mobile and desktop sites allow you to discover streets near you that are named after politicians, and what they were famous for Continue reading...

Woman who has accused Silicon Valley firm of passing her over for a promotion because of her gender will take the stand on Thursday Continue reading...

We test an app that lets you live stream video (or ‘Meerkat’) by tweeting out a link to your followers, who you can then say hello to Continue reading...

While the US voted to protect open internet, European ministers are accused of pushing to ‘permit every imaginable breach of net neutrality’ Continue reading...

The home-rental service is valued at $10bn, but near its headquarters homeless people survive in ways similar to the billionaire neighbour Continue reading...

Several readers found their internet radios stopped playing BBC stations last month. Jack Schofield explains the problemWhere we live we have very poor medium wave and FM radio reception, and the DAB signal is hopeless, so we bought a DTech internet radio to listen via online streaming. Sadly, the BBC has dropped support for the formats our device uses (WMA and AAC), and other internet radios seem to be in a similar situation. Help! Which internet radios still receive BBC radio under the new arrangements? SteveI live in the Philippines and rely on BBC Radio to keep in touch, but my favourite stations are no longer available as they have changed some stuff. I still get Radio Scotland on my Samsung GT-S5360 phone. What do I need to do to receive the new BBC Radio? John Continue reading...

Publisher Electronic Arts has shut down its legendary studio, famed for the long-running Sim series of titles. Here is why it will be missed

As streaming service teams up with Australian ISP for preferential treatment, it’s forced to clarify US executive’s comments on broadband caps

Writer/director claims superhero-juggling blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron is ‘as tough as anything I’ve ever done’ Continue reading...

Reports indicate larger 12.9in iPad could be released in second half of 2015 with new USB ports aimed at business usersApple’s rumoured “iPad Pro” has reportedly been delayed by production issues surrounding its bigger screen.The 12.9in business-focused iPad will begin production in the second half of the year, reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal state. Continue reading...

Millions of people all over the world play video games: we’d like to hear your stories about how they’ve changed your lifeVideo games are often labelled as just another hobby, but often, they can be much, much more.Our games writer Keith Stuart spoke in depth about the positive influence Minecraft has had on his son, who was diagnosed with autism. For him, its creator Markus “Notch” Persson helped give his son a voice:But most important was the way in which, after talking to each other while playing, they came to talk to us. Zac never really tells us much about what he does at school; his short-term memory isn’t great and a lot of it doesn’t seem to filter through. Or perhaps he doesn’t want us to worry. We know he doesn’t play with other children at break times or lunch, he sits by himself – the other kids grew tired of the fact that he couldn’t deal with team games. But he talks to us about Minecraft. He talks and talks. We were getting bored of it, to be brutally honest, but then my wife read an article that said if you listen to your children when they’re young, they’ll tell you more when they’re older. It’s sort of an investment of care. So we always listen, even though we don’t really get what the ender dragon is, or why it matters. Continue reading...

Epic space trading sim will journey to Microsoft’s console this summer, in comparable form to PC versionElite: Dangerous is coming to Xbox One as a timed console exclusive, Microsoft has announced. The ambitious space trading game, a sequel to the classic BBC Micro title from 1984, was released on PC last December. In an announcement at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Xbox chief Phil Spencer said that the new version would be released this summer.Featuring a vast universe with 400bn star systems, some realistically mapped from our own galaxy, Elite Dangerous is a massively-multiplayer open-ended simulation where players are free to explore, trade and engage in battles. The project was partially funded through a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 which raised over £1.5m. The Xbox One version will apparently include all of the add-on material that has been released for the PC version since its launch.Related: Elite: Dangerous review – vast, beautiful and intimidating@smallfaraway_ Sure. Mac of course, then down the line we will support more, including PS4. The XB1 is a timed exclusive. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt is definitely Thursday. Sorry about yesterday. Crazy day. Continue reading...

Our young reviewers try the the Raspberry Pi 2, the Kano, the MakeyMakey and more

Director explains what his expertise can bring to games, where animators and developers lack the skills to deal with actors Continue reading...

An alternative to the internet as shopping mall is emerging – a place where creative assets can be redistributed for non-commercial useA cynic might say that we have the internet we deserve. We were promised a democratic platform for change, for equality, for collaboration, yet are faced with a reality of weary cynicism, as author Charles Leadbeater wrote last summer, and an assumption that we cannot trust any organisation with our personal data.We were told of flourishing startups and opportunities for all, yet the internet has amplified global inequalities, says Andrew Keen, a writer on the internet revolution, using the parlance of openness and opportunity to create an industry of disproportionately wealthy entrepreneurs. Continue reading...

Lords demand a national, online database recording all drone operators and flightsA database of civilian drones being flown in the UK should be created to enforce their safe operation, a House of Lords report has recommended.The database would log any civilian drone and their pilots and allow police greater powers to enforce flight rules, capturing rogue drones and being able to identify law breakers.Related: Parrot Bebop drone review: bird's eye video without a sky-high price Continue reading...

Apple TV streaming service is set to be partner in the launch of HBO Now next month bringing premium shows to viewers without a cable subscriptionApple is reportedly in talks with HBO to bring Game of Thrones and the premium cable service’s other hit shows to its new online service.Related: Are you paying too much for cable and internet? Continue reading...

The tech team discuss this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as the event grows in size and scope Continue reading...

Youth media company faces barrage of criticism on Twitter after it mistakenly posts ad offering pay of £109 – or $127 – a week

Paying tribute to his genius at the annual Douglas Adams lecture, writer explains how meeting the Hitchhiker’s Guide author at 22 changed his life Continue reading...

Chinese smartphone manufacturer dubbed ‘China’s Apple’ enters European market with headphones, fitness bands and battery packsChinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is taking its first step into Europe by opening an online store this year, the company has announced.

Developer Hipster Whale’s co-founder tells GDC conference that he’s ‘happily surprised’ at return from 50m downloads of freemium gameMobile game Crossy Road has made $10m in just over three months since its launch in November 2014, including $3m from in-game video advertisements.Developer Hipster Whale revealed the revenues figure in a presentation at the GDC conference in San Francisco, during which co-founders Matt Hall and Andy Sum also said that the game has been downloaded more than 50m times so far.Related: The best apps of 2014 for Android, iPhone and iPad Continue reading...

Musician has 1,400 backers 14 hours after launching her profile, including two who’ll pay $1,000 every time she releases a new song, video or piece of writingEvery time US musician Amanda Palmer releases a new song, video or long-form piece of writing, she’ll earn more than a total of $13,000 from her 1,400 backers on crowdfunding site Patreon, making her one of the site’s most popular creators.It took just over 14 hours for the musician to reach that figure after launching her profile on the US-based site, with her fans pledging to pay an average of $9.28 each whenever she releases a new piece of content to her “patron-only” feed.Related: Amanda Palmer is crowdfunding again, but this time on Patreon Continue reading...

Device can detect when it’s being dropped, bounced, kicked and shaken, with 6-10 year-old children coding games on its companion iPad app“Kids should be outside kicking balls around, not inside staring at more screens!” is a regular complaint about children’s apps. But what if they’re outside kicking a ball around that they’ve programmed using an iPad app?That’s the pitch for Hackaball, a project trying to raise $100k on crowdfunding site Kickstarter. Described as “a programmable ball for active and creative play”, it has already raised more than $12k towards its goal.Related: 'Great big poo balls!' What it's like making a Kano computer with your kids Continue reading...

The press preview shows the latest offerings from car manufacturers. The motor show will open to the public from 5 March to 15 March

Tom Wheeler tells the world’s largest telecoms trade show ‘there needs to be a referee’ even as European officials propose fast lanes that don’t impair trafficThe US’s top media regulator hit back at critics of new net neutrality rules voted into law last week, comparing them to the first amendment and saying neither government nor private companies had the right to restrict the openness of the internet.The Federal Communications Commission chairman, Tom Wheeler, was speaking in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest telecoms trade show, just as European governments are meeting to thrash out their own principles for keeping the internet open.

A new French law demands that manufacturers display how long their appliances will last. Could this stop planned obsolescence – products designed with restricted lifetimes?It is news that will cheer anyone who has struggled to get a vacuum cleaner, fridge or TV repaired only to be told it’s probably cheaper to buy a new one. A new government decree in France is forcing manufacturers to tell consumers how long their appliances will last. French companies will also have to inform consumers how long spare parts for the product will be available, or risk a fine of up to €15,000 (£11,000).And if this wasn’t enough, from next year faulty products – whether it’s mobile phones to washing machines – will have to be repaired or replaced for free within two years of being purchased. Continue reading...

Around 2,000 companies have flocked to Barcelona to show off their new wares, from iris-recognition phones to sat navs for cyclists or furniture that charges your deviceWearables of every shape and size have littered the exhibition halls at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, where 2,000 companies have gathered to show off their wares to a forecast record 90,000-plus visitors this week.Apple traditionally stays away from the event, giving rivals a chance to get noticed, although the iPhone maker is set to unveil its digital watch on Monday. HTC, Huawei, Samsung and LG have all rushed to release their own wrist-based screens.