Technology | The Guardian

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

US National Transportation Safety Board said operational limitations in the Tesla Model S played a major role in the death of 40-year-old Joshua Brown from OhioThe chairman of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Tuesday that “operational limitations” in the Tesla Model S played a “major role” in a May 2016 crash that killed a driver using the vehicle’s semi-autonomous Autopilot system.The limits on the autonomous driving system include factors such as Tesla being unable to ensure driver attention even when the car is traveling at high speeds, ensuring Autopilot is used only on certain roads and monitoring driver engagement, NTSB said. Continue reading...

Felix Kjellberg, the highest-paid YouTuber in 2016, says he learned nothing from previous racist controversies and that ‘there are no excuses for it’YouTube star PewDiePie has apologised for using a racial slur during a livestream, saying that he is “disappointed in himself”.In a short video posted to his YouTube account , the vlogger – real name Felix Kjellberg, the highest-paid YouTuber in 2016 – said he was “not going to make any excuses” as to why he said the n-word in the middle of a game of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, “because there are no excuses for it.” Continue reading...

The electric-car giant gave customers a lifeline by remotely boosting their vehicles’ battery capacity. But this act of kindness also highlighted that it had been selling identical cars at different pricesTesla drivers who fled Hurricane Irma last weekend received an unexpected lesson in modern consumer economics along the way. As they sat on choked highways, some of the electric-car giant’s more keenly priced models suddenly gained an extra 30 or so miles in range thanks to a silent free upgrade.The move, confirmed by Tesla, followed the request of one Florida driver for a limit on his car’s battery to be lifted. Tesla’s cheaper models, introduced last year, have the same 75KwH battery as its more costly cars, but software limits it to 80% of range. Owners can otherwise buy an upgrade for several thousands of dollars. And because Teslas software updates are online, the company can make the changes with the flick of a virtual switch. Continue reading...

Games developer Campo Santo files copyright takedown requests against Felix Kjellberg after racist comment, and urges others to follow suitYouTube’s best-paid star Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, has yet again used a racial slur on the video-sharing site.The 27-year-old video blogger called an opponent a “fucking nigger” while live-streaming playing the online game Playerunknown Battlegrounds, before correcting himself to “fucking asshole”, adding: “I didn’t mean it in a bad way.” Continue reading...

My former colleague and friend Peter Bird has died aged 82. Today computers are ubiquitous and have transformed many aspects of business administration and how we live our daily lives. But the so-called information age ushered in by computing and communications technology dates only from the middle of the last century.Peter, who had worked with J Lyons & Co, the food company famed for its teashops, and the unlikely pioneer of the use of computers in business from the 1950s, chronicled the Lyons initiative in his groundbreaking book LEO: The First Business Computer (1994), and later the story of J Lyons itself in The First Food Empire: A History of J Lyons & Co (2000). Both books were meticulously researched and compiled, with original photos from the respective eras. Continue reading...

With its invisible rear doors and dramatic design, Toyota’s compact coupé is all set to divide public opinionPrice: £21,065

As robots grow more lifelike, and religious faith in our uniqueness wanes, it is a challenge to understand what it means to be mortalPerhaps the best way to think of what makes a human being human is to look at something that seems almost human and subtract the difference. Whatever is left over is what is unique to us. That seems to be the thinking behind the Finnish photographer Maija Tammi’s One of Them Is a Human #1, a portrait of Erica, the Japanese android who was declared the most realistic female human robot of 2016. The photograph caused a stir last week because it was shortlisted for the National Portrait Gallery’s prestigious Taylor Wessing prize, despite the rule that “all photographs must have been taken by the entrant from life and with a living sitter”.Related: Why the rise of the robots could allow humans to flourish again | Giles Fraser: Loose canon Continue reading...

US-based credit ratings firm says records of UK citizens were among those unlawfully accessed during cyber-attack in JulyEquifax, the US credit ratings firm victim to an unlawful breach of security, has been told to inform British residents “at the earliest opportunity” if their personal information has been put at risk, the Information Commissioner said on Friday.Equifax says it holds details on over 44 million Britons, and said that records of UK and Canadians citizens were among the unlawfully accessed confidential data for 143 million Americans. Continue reading...

Online services are challenging our model of primary care – the NHS must find a way to incorporate new approaches into the mainstreamThe irresistible entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley is slamming into the immovable object of UK healthcare regulation, with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) exposing significant concerns with at least 10 online clinical services.

The lives of tech entrepreneurs aren’t always as glamorous as they’re made out to be, as I learned living among them on a dangerous San Francisco streetFor the past 12 months of my life, I paid the bargain price of $1,250 per month to sleep diagonally in a bunk bed in a 10ft x 10ft room that I shared with a 32-year old man. Because I am 6ft 4in, sleeping diagonally in my undersized accommodation was the only way I could make it through the night without getting cramps.Welcome to my life in the hacker house. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Friday. 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?In October 2013, Lauri Love was drinking coffee in his dressing gown in his bedroom at his parents’ house in the village of Stradishall, Suffolk, when his mother called upstairs to say there was a deliveryman at the front door. Love, whose first name is pronounced “Lowry”, like the English painter, clomped downstairs. In the front doorway was a man dressed in a UPS uniform. “Are you Lauri Love?” the man asked. “Yes,” Love said. In a single motion, the man grabbed Love’s arm while presenting, not a package, but a pair of rattling handcuffs.For the next five hours, while dusk turned to evening outside, Love, then 28, and his parents sat in the front room as a dozen or so men from the National Crime Agency, which investigates organised crime and other serious offences, checked the computers in the house. In Love’s bedroom, they found two laptops, and a PC tower humming on his desk. Among the bewildering Rolodex of open tabs in Love’s internet browsers, the officers found accounts logged into several hacker forums and arcane internet chatrooms. Downstairs, Love, who knew that anything said in these limbo moments of investigation could be later used against him, kept the conversation to small talk about the weather and football. Continue reading...

Amazon is looking to build its second home, promising it will be a full equal to current Seattle base, but has a list of key demands from potential candidatesAmazon has launched a $5bn (£3.8bn) search for a site for a new headquarters, asking cities across the US and Canada to make their pitches.The new HQ will be the world’s largest e-commerce company’s second in North America, and “will be a full equal” to its current headquarters in Seattle, Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos said. Continue reading...

Social media company’s advertising data doesn’t tally with census data for millennial and other demographics to the tune of millions of peopleFacebook claims that it can reach more millennials and people in other demographics than actually exist in the UK, US, Australia, Ireland and France, according to census data.In the UK, Facebook says it can reach 7.8 million users aged between 18 and 24. The Office of National Statistics, however, says there were only 5.8 million people in that age group in the whole in the country in 2016. Continue reading...

For his new book, America 51, the Slipknot frontman has been examining the sicknesses at the heart of US culture – and from Donald Trump to modern dating, here’s his exclusive guide to navigating themHe is so ineffectual. Everyone was worried about the crazy things he’d do, but there’s nothing that he’s done that can’t be changed in another administration, like the Paris agreement. There’s no need to panic. Too many – I don’t want to say liberal lambasts – are hitting the panic button too quickly, instead of bringing up issues and talking about them. For me it’s really a case of: what’s going on with the senators, what’s going on on a local level? Continue reading...