Former Bank of England adviser and ex-M&S executive Laurel Powers-Freeling named as new chair of embattled taxi appUber has unveiled former Bank of England adviser Laurel Powers-Freeling as the new chair of its UK operations, as it battles to stave off a ban on operating in London.Powers-Freeling, who was born in the US but took British citizenship in 2003, will oversee operations at the ride-hailing app at a crucial juncture for the business that claims to have 5 million customers in the UK, served by 50,000 drivers. Continue reading...
White grievance is on the rise around the world – even in the non-real world, as criticism of the latest instalment of the Wolfenstein game demonstratesWolfenstein has been around longer than I’ve been alive. What began as two innovative anti-Nazi stealth video games for the Apple II and Commodore 64 became id Software’s famous first-person anti-Nazi shooter. The game popularised the first-person shooter, giving rise to household names like Doom and Call of Duty. The latest iteration is released this week and, for the first time, some people are offended by its opposition to Nazis. How on earth have we got here?Related: Is there a neo-Nazi storm brewing in Trump country? Continue reading...
Condensing everything that’s good about the bigger Google Home into a small pin-cushion-like speaker works great, but it won’t blow you away for musicGoogle Home Mini is the company’s new smart speaker that shrinks down all the intelligence into a cheaper, smaller package.
Channel 4’s Jay Hunt who poached Bake Off from BBC and commissioned hit shows like Sherlock appointed creative chief of European video operationsApple has hired the television executive who masterminded Channel 4’s £75m poaching of The Great British Bake Off from the BBC, in an ambitious move to take on traditional broadcasters and digital rivals Netflix and Amazon.The US tech firm has hired Jay Hunt, who has held top roles at Channel 4, the BBC and Channel 5, and whose credits include British hits such as Sherlock, Luther, Humans and Gogglebox. She was also behind deals to bring US series such as Homeland and The Handmaid’s Tale to the UK. Continue reading...
by Dorothy Allen-Pickard Noah Payne-Frank Jess Gormle on (#35X6J)
Four UK-based, female influencers on Instagram discuss how they use the social media platform and the effect it has had on their lives. They tackle issues such as anxiety, addiction and the endless appetite for consumption, but point out that their real lives are distinct from what they portray on their Instagram feed Continue reading...
by Serge Pennings, Andy Robertson and Will Freeman on (#35T21)
An old RPG favourite is thrillingly reborn on the 3DS, a Sony platform franchise takes a step up and a cyberpunk shooter proves a real blastNintendo 3DS; cert: 3
Prime minister responds to NBN Co chief’s concerns the network may never pay its way, due to competition from 4G networkMalcolm Turnbull has labelled the national broadband network a mistake and blamed Labor for leaving the Coalition a “calamitous train wreck†of a project while responding to concerns from the NBN Co chief executive that it may not pay its own way.Bill Morrow has suggested that competing technologies may hamper the commercial viability of the NBN in the lead-up to an ABC Four Corners investigation, airing Monday night, into the digital divide between premises that get faster fibre-to-the-premises rather than fibre-to-the-node connections. Continue reading...
The tech pioneer, CEO of publishing company O’Reilly Media, says his industry will fail unless the web giants start putting consumers ahead of shareholdersTim O’Reilly believes we need to have a reset. This means more coming from him than it does from most people. The 63-year-old CEO, born in Ireland and raised in San Francisco, is one of the most influential pioneers and thinkers of the internet age. His publishing company, O’Reilly Media, began producing computer manuals in the late 1970s and he has been early to spot many influential tech trends ever since: open-source software, web 2.0, wifi, the maker movement and big data among them.His new book, WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us, looks at work and how jobs will change in a world shaped by technology. It is sometimes hard not to be pessimistic about what’s coming over the hill, but he is convinced that our destiny remains in human hands. Continue reading...
Consumer group finds that 53% of households are left unhappy by slow speeds, rising prices or router failuresHalf of all broadband users in the UK are getting a raw deal from their supplier, with slow speeds, rising prices and router failures exasperating customers, according to a damning assessment of Britain’s internet services.Consumer group Which? found that 53% of households have had difficulties with their broadband, with customers of Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Sky and BT the most likely to experience an issue. Continue reading...
Arianna Huffington’s upcoming app stops you receiving notifications, so you can concentrate on other things. But is it the best way to break free of technology?
A huge weakness in wifi security erodes online privacy. But the real challenge is designing with human shortcomings in mindThis week’s security scandal is the discovery that every household with wifi in this country has a network that isn’t really private. For 13 years a weakness has lurked in the supposedly secure way in which wireless networks carry our information. Although the WPA2 security scheme was supposed to be mathematically proven to be uncrackable, it turns out that the mechanism by which it can compensate for weak signals can be compromised, and when that happens it might as well be unencrypted. Practically every router, every laptop and every mobile phone in the world is now potentially exposed. As the Belgian researcher who discovered the vulnerability points out, this could be abused to steal information such as credit card numbers, emails and photos.It is not a catastrophic flaw: the attacker has to be within range of the wifi they are attacking. Most email and chat guarded by end-to-end encryption is still protected from eavesdroppers. But the flaw affects a huge number of devices, many of which will never be updated to address it. Since both ends of a wifi connection need to be brought up to date to be fixed, it is no longer safe to assume that any wifi connection is entirely private. Continue reading...
Antonella wants a reasonably priced compact camera with an image stabiliser that’s good for night shots. Something like the Sony RX100, but cheaper …I’m struggling to find the perfect camera for my needs. I watched a YouTube video by one of my favourite photographers, and she suggested the Sony DSC-RX100 M5, but it costs way too much. It got my attention because it was small, it had the SteadyShot stabiliser, and was good for night shoots.I’m now using a Canon PowerShot SX110IS, but it’s pretty terrible, unless the weather conditions are perfect. If I try photographing landscapes at night, I get wobbly pictures, and I don’t usually have wobbly hands. Continue reading...
Company updates rules on hate speech, revenge porn and violent groups to counter perceptions social network is not doing enough to protect usersTwitter is introducing new rules around hate symbols, sexual advances and violent groups, in an effort to counter perceptions that the social network is not doing enough to protect those who feel silenced on the site.The company was planning to announce the new rules later on this week, but they leaked in an email to Wired magazine, which published the changes on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Google’s parent company drops takeaway food and also medication into back gardens in rural Australia as project enters new phaseGoogle parent Alphabet has begun a new phase of testing its hybrid drones, dubbed Project Wing, by delivering burritos and medication to customers in rural Australia in a partnership with taqueria Guzman y Gomez and pharmacist Chemist Warehouse.In a blogpost, Project Wing’s co-lead James Ryan Burgess wrote: “This fall we’ve been testing in a rural community on the border of the [Australian Capital Territory] and [New South Wales] and tackling an entirely different level of operational complexity: making deliveries directly to people’s yards.†Continue reading...
Top-end phone with premium design and big battery looks to lead new trend of baking AI in locally to make smartphones smarter and with greater privacyHuawei’s new Mate 10 Pro takes aim squarely at Samsung, Google and Apple with a large screen, competition-beating big battery and AI baked in.
Clinton, promoting memoir addressing her 2016 US election defeat, tells UK audiences that the Kremlin is ‘hacking our unity’ by waging information warHillary Clinton embarked on a speaking tour of Britain with a message that the Brexit referendum was won on the basis of a big lie and warning that Vladimir Putin has been conducting a “cyber cold war†against the west.She urged more women to enter politics and praised those who spoke up about the Hollywood movie mogul and Democratic donor Harvey Weinstein, saying his reported behaviour was disgusting. Continue reading...
Warehouse will be third in north-west and will be next-generation facility with staff working alongside robotsAmazon is to create a further 1,200 new jobs with a warehouse in Bolton as it continues its rapid UK expansion.The warehouse, which will be the third to open in the north-west, will be one of a new generation of Amazon facilities that will see staff work alongside robots. Stefano Perego, an Amazon director, said the warehouse would take the total number of new permanent jobs the company has created in the north-west of England to more than 3,500 since 2016. Continue reading...
WeChat is blaming machine learning for erroneously converting a neutral phrase meaning ‘black foreigner’ into something far more offensiveChinese messaging app WeChat has reportedly apologised after an AI error resulted in it translating a neutral Chinese phrase into the n-word.The WeChat error was reported by Shanghai-based theatre producer and actor Ann James, a black American. In a post on the service’s Twitter-like Moments feature, she wrote that it had translated hei laowai – a neutral phrase which literally means “black foreigner†– as the n-word. Continue reading...
Roy Price is accused of sexually harassing producer and ignoring actor’s allegation that Harvey Weinstein raped herAmazon has put the head of its video content service on leave after he became embroiled in the widening scandal surrounding the disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein.Roy Price, who is in charge of Amazon Studios, is accused of sexually harassing Isa Hackett, the producer of one its best known shows, The Man in the High Castle. The actor Rose McGowan also claimed Price ignored her claim that Weinstein had raped her. Continue reading...
Ex-football boss is ‘proper excited’ about something dismissed by IMF, bankers and economistsThe trouble with these cryptocurrencies is that expert opinion is so divided. In the sceptical camp, you have the likes of Kenneth Rogoff, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund; Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of one of the world’s largest banks, JP Morgan; and our own Financial Conduct Authority. In the other camp, there’s Harry Redknapp.Yes, the football manager who recently departed Birmingham City is the latest celebrity to join the craze. “Proper excited about Mobile Cryptocurrency! I’m in, get involved!†tweeted Redknapp in support of Electroneum, which bills itself as “the first British cryptocurrency.†Continue reading...
Tote bag created by artist Frances Cannon features two nude women dancing but was ‘in no way meant to be controversial’The Victorian Women’s Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that supports women and girls through research and advocacy, has been banned by Facebook from advertising a tote bag for sale as part of a fundraising drive.The bag features a picture of two nude women dancing and was created by the Melbourne artist Frances Cannon, who uses her work to promote self-esteem, positive body image and self-love. Continue reading...
Former Tottenham Hotspur manager urges people to get involved with Electroneum in rare tweet firm says he was not paid forWarnings about bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies are coming from all directions. The City watchdog has said the bitcoin industry is unregulated and investors could be wiped out. Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan, has called them a fraud and said the entire bitcoin system will blow up. Even Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, has said cryptocurrencies are risky and used by criminals.Related: Cryptocurrency craze wins over ex-football boss – but few others | Nils Pratley Continue reading...
Rising price of the cryptocurrency, now worth four times as much as an ounce of gold, has led to warnings of a bubbleThe price of bitcoin has smashed through $5,000 to an all-time high.
Pennine and Focus Group blame each other after hundreds of premium rate overseas calls were billed to my companyI run a small company and incur monthly phone bills of about £140. Recently, however, I was charged £3,075 for more than 200 calls to overseas premium rate numbers over a four-day period. My provider, Focus Group, was unaware of the charges until I contacted it. It placed a bar on all international calls and premium rate numbers, but advised me that a further £8,282 had been racked up in the previous 11 days.Pennine supplies my actual telephone systems, and it and Focus are blaming each other. Pennine says Focus should have noticed the large call rates, which were occurring at night and were out of character, while Focus says Pennine should have offered a more secure system. Continue reading...
Security firm uncovers hacking group KovCoreG’s attempts to trick browsers of world’s largest adult site into installing fake updatesMillions of Pornhub users were targeted with a malvertising attack that sought to trick them into installing malware on their PCs, according to infosec firm Proofpoint.By the time the attack was uncovered, it had been active “for more than a yearâ€, Proofpoint said, having already “exposed millions of potential victims in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia†to malware by pretending to be software updates to popular browsers. Continue reading...
Forget sudoku – Japan has produced hundreds of other fiendish logic problems that are unknown in the UK. Alex Bellos explains how to tackle Shakashaka, Marupeke and SkyscrapersThe pencil-and-paper logic puzzle is arguably Japan’s most successful cultural export of recent years. Look inside almost any daily newspaper and you will find at least one number puzzle with a Japanese name; sudoku most commonly, but there are many others, such as kakuro and futoshiki, to mention only the ones that appear regularly in the Guardian. Shelves stuffed full of these exotic-sounding, square-gridded, numerical brain-teasers fill every newsagent and bookstore.I visited Tokyo to try to understand why Japan dominates the puzzle world. I discovered a country with a unique puzzle culture. Japanese inventors have created hundreds of other brilliant types of logic puzzle, most unknown in the west, and the country sustains a cottage industry of several hundred puzzle “artisans†who design these puzzles by hand rather than by computer, as is usually done elsewhere. Continue reading...
Users from the US, Canada, Australia and Europe complain their Samsung smartphones do not receive all text messages sent to themUsers of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 smartphones across the US, Australasia and Europe are complaining about SMS messages that seemingly fail to arrive.The issue, which appears to affect users on all four US major mobile phone networks as well as in Canada, Australia, France and the UK, causes intermittent problems with basic text messages. A certain proportion of SMS messages appear not to be received by the Galaxy S8. No warning is sent, leaving users oblivious. Continue reading...
With bitcoin and Ethereum gathering momentum among investors, some experts fear a bubble could soon burstJoe Kennedy, patriarch of the Kennedy clan, said he knew it was time to exit the stock market after a shoeshine boy gave him stock tips. If everyone thinks it’s time to buy, it’s time to sell, reasoned Kennedy. Then came the great crash of 1929 to prove him right. Perhaps some of that thinking could be applied today to the digital currency bonanza.In recent months, warning voices have grown louder as the digital assets known as cryptocurrencies have attained record valuations. The price of bitcoin, the most famous cryptocurrency, has soared this year, from $969 to more than $5,000 in September; rival Ethereum began the year at $8 and has traded as high as $400 – while new coins or tokens are issued weekly, often attached to tech startups as a way to raise venture capital. Continue reading...
While the Blue Mountains error in New South Wales has been fixed, those looking for Aireys Inlet in Victoria head down a residential drivewayThere is nothing particularly special about Adam Gilliver’s house on the Victorian coast, except that it sits a bit further back from the road compared with the homes of his neighbours.And that Google Maps thinks it’s a lighthouse. Continue reading...
If you’ve got acrophobia, paranoia, fear of flying, PTSD, even depression, software could soon be the solutionLeslie Channell admits he’s not a typical case for treatment. Channell, known to everybody as Chann, is a registered pilot who served 24 years in the army working on Apache helicopters. Chann also happens to be scared of heights. He doesn’t mind flying planes or sitting on the side of the Apache with the door open; he’s just terrified of going up two or three floors of a building or driving over a bridge.Chann is nervous; his speech is fast. He says he’s sweating. We meet at a trendy startup in Oxford, where he is about to undergo virtual-reality therapy for his phobia (although the term “virtual-reality†therapy is controversial: some say the VR is just a tool for the therapy; others argue that the virtual reality is the therapy itself). Psychologists are now trialling VR for all kinds of conditions, from phobias to pain management to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Continue reading...
The Connecticut-born marketing executive on her fearless daughter and the app she couldn’t live withoutBorn in Connecticut, US, Saint JohnBozoma Saint John, 40, spent her early childhood in Kenya. After studying English and African American at Wesleyan University, she worked for Spike Lee’s advertising agency, Spike DDB, then ran PepsiCo’s music and entertainment marketing division. In 2014, she became head of global consumer marketing for Apple Music and iTunes. In June, she became chief brand officer at Uber. She is a widow, has one daughter and lives in Los Angeles.Which living person do you most admire, and why?
The concept is simple: it’s a celebration of black girls and women in a world all too happy to make them smallIsn’t technology amazing? I cannot fathom a world without a search engine at my fingertips. How did we cope before them? Sometimes, I remember I completed university without the distracting diversions of YouTube, and marvel silently. When I realise neither Tumblr nor Twitter were around to derail my academic career, I thank my lucky stars. In 2017, aka the hyperbolic age, we get to receive (perceived) threats of nuclear war issued via 140 characters (or, as of last month, 280), and people with strange avatars can threaten you with bodily harm. It’s sometimes easy to forget there is joy to be wrung out of a life lived even partly online.CaShawn Thompson’s inadvertent #BlackGirlMagic movement has weathered all sorts since its inception, from applause to cries of “reverse racism†(no such thing exists, friends). The concept is simple: it’s a celebration of black girls and women in a world all too happy to make them small, and to discard their contributions. Continue reading...
John Sculley, 78, remembers the early days of Apple, 24 April 1984The first time I drove out to Silicon Valley, it was 1982 and I had no idea where I was going. The place was mainly still homes. Apple was based in a handful of converted houses and tilt-ups. There was a one-storey building where they’d started designing the Macintosh. It had a Bösendorfer piano inside and a pirate flag on the roof.Steve Jobs was in jeans when I arrived. He’d co-founded the company in 1976 and wanted to be the CEO but the board had refused. He was 26, and Apple had $550m in revenue. The board said there needed to be someone more experienced in charge. That’s why I was invited; they wanted me to be the adult supervision. Continue reading...
Our post had a picture of my husband and me, and a toll-free number so prospective mothers could call us free of chargeWhen I told my husband we were going to adopt, he looked at me as if I were crazy. We had always wanted to do it, but somehow the years had slipped away while we were busy with work and family.We are blessed with two biological sons, but through adoption we wanted to offer a child born into difficult circumstances a better home. My husband is a New York City firefighter and I am a paediatric physical therapist. Helping others is central to who we are. Continue reading...
Eugene Kaspersky, the founder of the Moscow-based cybersecurity firm, called allegations of role in government hack ‘like the script of a C movie’Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab has hit back at a report in the Wall Street Journal which accused it of being involved in a Russian government hack of an NSA contractor in 2015.The paper reported on Thursday that the NSA contractor, a Vietnamese national who was working to create replacements for the hacking tools leaked by Edward Snowden, was hacked on his personal computer after he took his work home. Continue reading...
Social network’s British revenues nearly quadruple on the back of climbing advertising salesFacebook’s UK operations paid just £5.1m in corporation tax last year, despite a jump in profit and revenues nearly quadrupling on the back of increasing advertising sales.
Tesla’s new take on the electric SUV is powerfully impressive. But is the Model X a real world contender or just an expensive gimmickfest?Price: from £70,500 for the 75D
The gamers’ charity SpecialEffect is holding One Special Day, a day-long fundraising drive to help people with disabilities get back into the video games they loveVideo games can get a pretty raw deal in the news. At worst, we see stories claiming links between playing violent games and some of the worst aspects of humanity, or that games are robbing children of time spent in nature. At best, we hear news stories where games are regarded with a certain distain; something to be smirked at, and not taken seriously. But these sorts of stories completely miss the varied, rich and nuanced experiences that playing games can afford.But playing video games isn’t always a trivial endeavour. For many children and adults with disabilities, simply being able to pick up a controller and coordinate fine motor movements can be a difficult, even impossible task. SpecialEffect is a charity based in Oxfordshire that tries to help people get back into the game. Continue reading...
Apple might have phoned in the design again, but an improved power supply, wireless charging and a cracking camera save it. But is it worth £700?Another year, another iPhone, except this time there are three of them. The iPhone 8 is the first out of the gate, but it’s overshadowed by the iPhone X looming in the wings, and while there are some new elements – a glass back – you could be forgiven for feeling a bit of deja vu.
Jenny opened a Facebook account and has progressed from a personal profile to a business page. Now she’d like to delete her personal profile …I set up a Facebook account for my business but I did it as a personal page. I then realised my mistake, so I now have a shortcut link to a business page. How can I delete the personal page, because I only want to have one business page? Jenny Continue reading...
Jane Austen’s works have been given the World of Warcraft treatment, but with dinner parties instead of dungeons – and gossip instead of guns. Our writer ties on her virtual bonnet and goes hunting for a suitorI had been travelling for two days with my aunt Amelia in her private carriage when upon arrival at the Fleckcot Glebe Inn, an establishment of some ill repute, Aunt Amelia received a letter that so altered our plans it leaves me in a whirlwind of mortification. My name is Flopsy McCanada, a Regency era girl of large oval face and low social standing. My aim? To find my way through the confusing customs and daily rituals of Jane Austen’s age without committing a major social transgression over tea.I’m playing Ever, Jane, a virtual roleplaying game by Judy L Tyrer, formerly of Linden Labs, which created the seminal online world Second Life. As avid fans of Jane Austen, Tyrer and her team at 3 Turn Productions have worked to unify the worlds of Austen’s writing, from Lady Susan to Sense and Sensibility, turning them into Tyrehampton, a place where women in bonnets lounge about in day rooms and dissect their rivals. Continue reading...
Twitter selects a small number of accounts to test long tweets, and users instantly rise to the challenge of wordier jokesTwitter’s decision to double its character limit to 280 has not been received with universal acclaim. Even – make that especially – on Twitter.Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, broke the news on Wednesday. Continue reading...
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