Technology | The Guardian

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...

The Silicon Valley company launched hardware at the San Francisco Jazz Center, including their latest smartphones, new voice assistants and more

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...

Lawyers for US firm – which was stripped of its London licence last week – say it has not introduced new employment practices

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Wednesday. Continue reading...

The site is polling users about how they perceive it but declining to publish the results. Answer these survey questions and let us know your thoughtsIs Facebook having an existential crisis? The company has been asking users a stream of questions that indicate some wear and tear in the company’s previously optimistic outlook.Is Facebook good for the world? Does it care about its users? Is it making the world better or worse for people having a tough time in life? Does my butt look big in this? (OK, that last one was a lie.) Continue reading...

British inventor, whose company has been working on vehicle since 2015, says it will launch in 2020British inventor Sir James Dyson has announced plans to build an electric car that will be “radically different” from current models and go on sale in 2020.The billionaire who revolutionised the vacuum cleaner said 400 engineers in Wiltshire had been working since 2015 on the £2.5bn project. Continue reading...

Have you always wanted a smartwatch but don’t want to wear a watch? How about a vibrating denim jacket that connects to the internet? Anyone?Google and Levi Strauss have partnered to make a “smart jacket”, and the end result is exactly as good as you’d expect from a collaboration between the companies that brought you a set of glasses people actively hated and a hideous touch-sensitive watch (that one was Levi’s).The apparel, a $350 denim jacket branded as “Levi’s Commuter Trucker Jacket with Jacquard by Google”, is the first product of a two-year-long collaboration between the two firms that started back in May 2015 with the intention of making a pair of “smart jeans”. The idea was to use a newly designed conductive fabric to allow the garment to send data and power without the need for wires. Continue reading...

The stereotypes of young, angry, pale and isolated gamers are wrong. Gamers of all ages play for connection, for relaxation or the intellectual challengeIn our high-vocational stress household, the most volcanic tension usually erupts over control of the PlayStation. I’m still – still – absorbed in the game of Fallout 4 I started a year ago, with thousands of hours spent on perfecting the aesthetics of post-apocalyptic settlement-building. My partner prefers a wordless immersion in the splattery worlds of first-person shooters and war games but we reconcile over rounds of two-player Diablo, fighting demons and hoarding treasure together.I’ve come a long way from the handheld Donkey Kong I cherished as a child, or the Pitfall caves I explored on a home PC, or the small parties of teens that gathered to play Sonic the Hedgehog on the loungeroom TV. The demands of fun are more complex now – but the need for fun remains the same. Continue reading...

Kajal Odedra, UK director of Change.org, says the beauty of the platform is that anyone can start a petitionRegarding Luke Samuel’s letter (25 September) about Uber’s petition, which the company started on Change.org, anyone can use Change.org to campaign about the issues that matter to them. That is the beauty of our platform: everyone has access. No matter who you are, you have the freedom to sign petitions you care about, or even start an opposing petition. This is why we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people turn to Change.org in the last few days on either side of the Uber debate.Our mission is to empower people everywhere to create the change they want to see. The signatures on Uber’s petition were driven by their customers, rather than advertising on our site. We no longer have organisations advertising on our platform and have shifted our business model so that it is powered by people. You can now become a subscriber of Change.org or chip in to help specific campaigns get seen by more people. Continue reading...

Luke Samuel questions the validity of the online petition supporting the platform, while other readers worry about the way companies like Uber and Ryanair treat their staffOn Friday Uber was stripped of its licence to operate in London due to repeated infractions of regulations around safety (Uber loses licence to operate in London, 23 September). This follows the long-standing concerns about how Uber operates – its dubious taxation arrangements, its corporate model (loss-making, then raising costs and reducing driver pay) and its non-recognition of any worker benefits (sick pay, contracts, holiday etc). The company will appeal anyway, meaning the service will continue potentially for months or potentially even years, irrespective of outcome.The firm immediately took to the public petitions site Change.org, reproducing its own press release in the form of a petition to “Save your Uber in London”. Have I misunderstood the meaning of a public petition, or is a company producing a petition to protect its own profits something of a confused perversion of this long-standing mode of political participation? Continue reading...

Ride-hailing group’s London manager says it has not been asked to make changes but would ‘like to know what we can do’Uber will be fighting for its future on two fronts this week, as the ride-hailing service attempts to reverse the revocation of its London licence while appealing against a landmark ruling on the way it engages its drivers.The dual efforts will come against the backdrop of the company being branded a “disgrace” by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, while the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said Transport for London (TfL) had raised “serious concerns” about safety but suggested Uber would have an opportunity to “mend its ways”. Continue reading...

Alfa Romeo’s romantic sports cars have been turning heads for years, but the new Giulietta isn’t a keeperPrice: £18,555

Sadiq Khan defends TfL’s decision to revoke licence over security concernsMore than 600,000 people have signed a petition calling for Transport for London to reverse its decision to strip Uber of its licence in the capital, which the company’s chief executive suggested could delay the rollout of electric vehicles and wheelchair-accessible transport.The Observer also understands that 20,000 Uber drivers have emailed the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who defended TfL’s decision on Saturday amid a growing backlash. “I know that Uber has become a popular service for many Londoners – but it would be wrong for TfL to license Uber if there was any way this could pose a threat to Londoners’ safety,” Khan said. Continue reading...

Are Silicon Valley’s giants at last being reined in by the regulators?Giuliana Ingegneri is worried about her father, Adriano. Since December he has combined his job as an Uber driver with stints at the family business. But on Friday, Transport for London’s bombshell announcement that the technology giant’s licence will not be renewed in the capital sent shockwaves through the Ingegneris’ Tooting home.“My dad helps out with the family carpet cleaning business so the flexible hours work well for him,” said Giuliana, 16. “He also has diabetes so it’s important he can work when he wants so he can attend his medical appointments. Sometimes he will work 20 hours a day and earn around £300 and on others he will only make £8 a day.” Continue reading...

After London stripped the service of its license, stories from Austin, Alaska and Denmark offer a preview of what could be next for the city’s transportationWhen Uber and Lyft abruptly ended services in Austin last year, 10,000 ride-share drivers lost their jobs overnight and riders across the Texas city were stranded.“It left us all in a lurch,” said Frances DeLaune, who was working as a driver when the taxi apps shut down service there in May 2016 after refusing to comply with local regulations. She recalled how some turned to crowd-sourcing on Facebook where passengers posted ride requests and drivers showed up to help strangers: “People were panicking.” Continue reading...

Taxi service should be assessed to ensure it is operating up to community standards, Transport Workers Union saysUber should be audited to ensure it is operating up to community standards, the Transport Workers Union secretary has said after the ride-hailing service was banned in London for not being “fit and proper”.Transport for London (TfL) has deemed the Silicon Valley technology giant was not fit and proper to hold a private vehicle hire licence and its current agreement will not be renewed when it expires on 30 September. Continue reading...

US ride-hailing company to appeal against ruling but new chief executive admits it is the ‘cost of a bad reputation’Uber has been stripped of its London licence in a surprise move that dealt a serious blow to one of Silicon Valley’s fastest rising companies and sparked an outcry from a coalition of customers, government ministers and drivers at the ride-hailing company.The firm’s application for a new licence in London was rejected by Transport for London on the basis that the company is not a “fit and proper” private car hire operator. Continue reading...

A head of the National Cybersecurity Centre predicts the most serious level of hacking will happen within yearsA “category one” cyber-attack, the most serious tier possible, will happen “sometime in the next few years”, a director of the National Cybersecurity Centre has warned.According to the agency, which reports to GCHQ and has responsibly for ensuring the UK’s information security, a category one cybersecurity incident requires a national government response. Continue reading...

Lauri Love is charged with masterminding a 2013 attack by Anonymous on US government websites. Will Britain allow him to spend the rest of his days in an American prison?• Read the text version hereSubscribe via Audioboom, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Acast & Sticher and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter Continue reading...

Sources speaking exclusively to the Guardian reveal details of new phones and a smaller Google Home Mini smart speaker ahead of October launchGoogle is set to release two new smartphones, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, as well as a smaller Google Home Mini smart speaker on 4 October, the Guardian has learned.The devices will be released at the Made by Google event scheduled to take place in San Francisco and will lead the company’s renewed hardware efforts as it attempts to take on Apple and Samsung in the premium smartphone and accessory market. Continue reading...

When Guardian reporter Olivia Solon was sent a rape threat, she posted a screenshot on Instagram. Then the Facebook-owned company made it an adInstagram used a user’s image which included the text “I will rape you before I kill you, you filthy whore!” to advertise its service on Facebook, the latest example of social media algorithms boosting offensive content.Related: Facebook to tighten ad targeting after antisemitic 'fail', says Sheryl Sandberg Continue reading...

Counter-terrorism expert says that, contrary to Theresa May’s assertion, technology companies are treating the problem of terrorist content seriouslyFacebook’s senior counter-terrorism strategist has dismissed Theresa May’s demand that the company should go “further and faster” to remove material created by terrorists and their supporters, describing the claim that it does not do enough as unhelpful.Artificial intelligence programs are being created to identify such material, and hundreds of people are employed to search for content that should be removed, said Brian Fishman, who manages the company’s global counter-terrorism policy. Continue reading...

Google is acquiring a $1bn chunk of HTC’s smartphone arm, including 2,000 employees and access to intellectual property, as it bets big on hardwareGoogle has announced it’s acquiring a $1.1bn chunk of HTC’s smartphone business, and with it providing the once leading Taiwanese phone brand a much needed lifeline. But what does Google want with part of a smartphone business?Google isn’t buying the whole of HTC, just a relatively large part of the Taipei-based company’s smartphone business and not its Vive virtual reality headset business. Google gains half of HTC’s research and development team – about 2,000 people – and a non-exclusive license for HTC’s intellectual property, allowing it to take advantage of some of HTC’s advances in smartphone technology. Continue reading...

Deal will not involve purchase of direct stake and HTC will continue to run its remaining phone businessGoogle has announced a deal to acquire part of Taiwanese firm HTC Corp’s smartphone operations for about $1bn.The deal will not involve the purchase of a direct stake and HTC will continue to run its remaining smartphone business. Continue reading...

A privileged young white woman gallivants around the developing world in search of adventure … is it Lara Croft or White Saviour Barbie?Remember White Saviour Barbie? It was big on Instagram last year. White Saviour Barbie only had one joke, but it was a doozy: it followed the adventures of a wide-eyed Barbie doll as she travelled through the developing world on a gap year in the naive assumption that she was somehow helping. “What better way to bless the villagers than a fresh coat of paint?!” she asked in one post. “Many of them don’t know the calming effect that just the right color can provide. I’m just doing what I can to help these huts become homes”.White Saviour Barbie is so popular that they’ve now made a movie about her, starring Alicia Vikander. True, they’ve called the movie Tomb Raider for some reason, but anyone with half a brain can see from the trailer that it’s really about White Saviour Barbie. Let’s run through some quick comparisons. Continue reading...

Apple’s latest software update has enraged companies who have been using cookies to track users across the webApple is cutting down on how many cookies advertisers can force on to your devices, with changes coming to iPhones, iPads and Macs. The advertisers, naturally, are not happy.Digital cookies are small text files that can be used to track users as they surf the web, helping to build up a detailed profile of which sites they visit, what they do while they are there, and how long they do it for. Continue reading...

New media-focused Android device has hands-free Alexa, faster processor, better screen and longer battery life – all for £150Amazon has unveiled a new, improved and cheaper large-screen Fire HD 10 Android tablet, now featuring hands-free Alexa integration, a much better screen and longer battery life.

Arkane’s standalone game is a bit of an indulgence, but it offers a beautifully dark and detailed world of grand interiors and dimly lit streets to get lost inDishonored’s new standalone adventure has quite the setup: you have to murder a god.Throughout the five year history of this steampunk stealth adventure series, this eponymous deity, the Outsider, has been at the centre of everything – dealing in regicide, revenge and all the juicy stuff in between. He’s an omnipotent force who watches and intervenes from the void – a mysterious place between worlds – giving mortals like Billie Lurk, our new protagonist, spectral powers. Continue reading...

The artificial intelligence expert’s new book, Life 3.0, urges us to act now to decide our future, rather than risk it being decided for usAfew years ago the cosmologist Max Tegmark found himself weeping outside the Science Museum in South Kensington. He’d just visited an exhibition that represented the growth in human knowledge, everything from Charles Babbage’s difference engine to a replica of Apollo 11. What moved him to tears wasn’t the spectacle of these iconic technologies but an epiphany they prompted.“It hit me like a brick,” he recalls, “that every time we understood how something in nature worked, some aspect of ourselves, we made it obsolete. Once we understood how muscles worked we built much better muscles in the form of machines, and maybe when we understand how our brains work we’ll build much better brains and become utterly obsolete.” Continue reading...

Beijing orders exchanges to stop trading in bitcoin amid fears increasing number of consumers in market could spark wider financial problemsThe value of bitcoin collapsed below $3,000 (£2,200) at one point on Friday after Chinese authorities announced a crackdown on the digital currency.Bitcoin is the first, and the biggest, "cryptocurrency" – a decentralised tradable digital asset. Whether it's a bad investment is the $70bn question (literally, since that's the current value of all bitcoins in existence). Bitcoin can only be used as a medium of exchange and in practice has been far more important for the dark economy than it has for most legitimate uses. The lack of any central authority makes bitcoin remarkably resilient to censorship, corruption – or regulation. That means it has attracted a range of backers, from libertarian monetarists who enjoy the idea of a currency with no inflation and no central bank, to drug dealers who like the fact that it's hard (but not impossible) to trace a bitcoin transaction back to a physical person. Continue reading...

A coalition of activists and consumer groups are banding together to express concerns over an FCC proposal to rewrite the rules governing the internetNet neutrality advocates are planning two days of protest in Washington DC this month as they fight off plans to defang regulations meant to protect an open internet.A coalition of activists, consumer groups and writers are calling on supporters to attend the next meeting of the Federal Communications Commission on 26 September in DC. The next day, the protest will move to Capitol Hill, where people will meet legislators to express their concerns about an FCC proposal to rewrite the rules governing the internet. Continue reading...

Hollywood power is in flux, as traditional broadcast and cable networks, which for decades shaped popular culture, try to keep up with technology companiesIn Hollywood, the screenwriter William Goldman once observed, nobody knows anything. But that was before technology companies rolled in sure of one thing: to conquer television you have to spend, spend, spend.The geeks are raiding their digital vaults to transform themselves into lords of entertainment – or at least owners of content – and in the process shape what we watch and how we watch. Continue reading...

The researchers behind the illusion, which went viral last month, explain how the plan was actually to see how people react to self-driving vehiclesIn early August, residents of Arlington, Virginia, spotted an unmarked silver Ford Transit van cruising around town without a human behind the wheel.Local news publication ARLnow caught the ghostly vehicle on camera and speculated that it was part of Virginia Tech’s autonomous driving research. A couple of days later, NBC reporter Adam Tuss approached the vehicle on foot and peered inside, only to see hands poking out from the driver’s seat holding the steering wheel. The “driverless” car had a driver – but he was disguised as a car seat. Continue reading...

Embarrassing discovery that Facebook let advertisers target users interested in antisemitic topics comes as the social network’s ad practices are under scrutiny

Exclusive: Women say Google denied them promotions, telling the Guardian they were forced into less prestigious jobs despite qualificationsGoogle systematically pays women less than men doing similar work, according to a class action-lawsuit accusing the technology company of denying promotions and career opportunities to qualified women who are “segregated” into lower-paying jobs.

Company says too many people tried to use Face ID on device backstage before its unveiling, highlighting a potential problem for prospective buyers

The digital currency lost 10% of its value after the JP Morgan boss described it as fraud – but it has come a long way since it was started in 2009Bitcoin is a digital currency started in 2009 by a mystery figure named Satoshi Nakamoto, whose true identity is still unknown. It is unlike traditional currencies because it has no central bank, nation state or regulatory authority backing it up.The “coins” are made by computers solving a set of complex maths problems. To spend them, users buy bitcoin and conduct transactions with them using exchanges such as San Francisco-based Coinbase. Rather than a central authority validating transactions, they are all recorded on a public ledger, called the blockchain. Continue reading...

Bungie has improved its sci-fi shooter with a less lonely game for those who don’t have online friends and a more rewarding one for those who doThere are three reviews of Destiny 2 that need to be written.The first is Destiny 2: the campaign, the game that you can sit down and play through from start to finish. It’s a genuinely good experience, with a plot that makes sense, characters who have actual personalities, and a narrative delivered through more than just text inserts and mission descriptions. Continue reading...

Jamie Dimon claims cryptocurrency is only fit for use by drug dealers, murderers and people living in North KoreaBitcoin is a fraud that will ultimately blow up, according to JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon, who said the digital currency was only fit for use by drug dealers, murderers and people living in places such as North Korea.Speaking at a conference in New York, the boss of America’s biggest bank said he would fire “in a second” anyone at the investment bank found to be trading in bitcoin. “For two reasons: it’s against our rules, and they’re stupid. And both are dangerous.” Continue reading...

The first outing in the Steve Jobs Theater saw unveiling of flagship iPhone X, as well as iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and updated Apple Watch and Apple TV

Despite leaks and a hiccup during a demo of its new Face ID unlocking feature, analysts say this year’s launch puts Apple in an ‘extraordinarily strong’ position