Pro tips on which games your child should play, how long they should play for, how to limit screen time – and what to do if their friend plays violent gamesFor me, parenting often feels like endlessly having to say no. No, we can’t have Kinder Eggs for breakfast. No, we can’t buy a horse. No, it doesn’t matter that you only met her once, you still can’t wear swimming trunks to Auntie Ethel’s funeral. Although that last one was my husband.
Use of electronics in packaging is on the rise, raising questions about the recyclability of everyday productsIn the run up to this year’s Super Bowl, US snack company Frito-Lay launched a limited run of microchipped bags of tortilla chips, supposedly capable of sensing alcohol on a user’s breath and, if instructed, calling them an Uber home.It was a stunt to grab attention but the use of interactive, intelligent packaging is not a futuristic fantasy. Already, you can find olive oil and craft beers connected to the cloud and ready to report on their origins to any passing punter with a smartphone. Continue reading...
Company attempts to secure place in health market with acquisition of Finnish business specialising in tracking sleep quality, heart rate and snoringApple has bought Finnish sleep tracking firm Beddit to boost its health and fitness services, as it attempts to secure its place in the “quantified self†market.
In the maelstrom of new motherhood, doing something fun and familiar can be a huge stress reliever. And why shouldn’t that thing be gaming?Here’s one of the more bizarre and pressurising fictions of motherhood: the second you give birth, everything in your previous life instantly becomes meaningless. You might have spent 30 years enjoying skiing or novels or, you know, a career, but as soon as you’re someone’s mummy you become singularly devoted to parenthood forever. If you do have any spare time in between tending to the ceaseless needs of your infant you’re supposed to spend it either baking or aggressively researching local schools.Oddly enough, we don’t expect dads to give up all their hobbies and redirect their energies into sewing bunting or father-baby yoga. Mums shouldn’t have to either. In the first few months after having a baby, I was desperate to retain some sense of personhood amongst all the feeding and nappy-changing and not-sleeping and marvelling at my son’s tiny hands. But a lot of the things I really enjoy – travel, reading things longer than five paragraphs, drinking more than one glass of wine a night – truly are off the table for a while, as they are wildly impractical. During the first three months of my son’s life, playing video games was one of the only things I could realistically do for myself. They are relatively cheap and you don’t have to spend two hours trying to leave the house. Continue reading...
The iPhone maker’s market capitalisation is well on the way to $1 trillion after a huge 50% rise since the US electionApple has become the first company in history to top the $800bn mark in market capitalisation, slightly more than two years after it crossed the $700bn threshold.
Kicking off our series of features about motherhood and gaming, Kate Gray looks at why the maternal role is so badly represented in the mediumI’ve never had a baby. I once had one of those dolls that you could feed and it periodically pissed itself, but I gather this represents only a fraction of the maternal experience. I’ll tell you what I have done, though: I have played a lot of video games.And games, you may be startled to discover, are not too great at portraying motherhood – though they seem to have fatherhood all figured out. Did you know that once you have a daughter you suddenly become aware that women are people, too? Who could have seen that coming? This modern phenomenon, known as the “dadification of gamesâ€, has largely come about through game designers and writers growing up, becoming parents and having all these feelings about protectiveness and caring that they want to express through their chosen medium. See The Last of Us, BioShock Infinite and The Walking Dead among others. Meanwhile, due to the fact that not a lot of senior game designers are women, and because many of the ones that are women are often forced to choose between career and family – because sexism is bullshit – the motherhood stories just don’t get told. Continue reading...
US campaigners rejoiced in 2015 when ‘net neutrality’ enshrined the internet as a free and level playing field. A vote on 18 May could take it all backThursday 26 February 2015 was a good day for internet freedom campaigners. On that day the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to more strictly regulate internet service providers (ISPs) and to enshrine the principles of “net neutrality†as law.Related: John Oliver on net neutrality: 'Every internet group needs to come together' Continue reading...
The BBC’s latest Panorama asks whether it’s time to regulate Mark Zuckerberg’s cultish dotcom. Plus, laddish app comedy Loaded soars when the women join inThirty-two million people in the UK have a Facebook account and globally that figure is closer to 2 billion. Likes, political affiliations, favourite bands: all of that data sloshes around in a big, unregulated tank for the advertising sharks to guzzle. No wonder Panorama: What Facebook Knows About You (And What it Does With Your Information (BBC1) is asking the question: is it time to regulate Facebook?As is often the case with the half-hour documentary format, we barely scratch the surface of the who and how here. Reporter Darragh MacIntyre could have done with more time to sum up his research and extensive US interviews. But I get the feeling even a six-part series wouldn’t be enough. Continue reading...
Roles for former Conservative and Labour figures prompt fears firm ‘whispering in ears’ of parties to aid micro-targeting of usersFacebook has stepped up attempts to build its influence as a political tool by giving jobs to former senior Conservative and Labour campaign officials.The Guardian has learned Facebook’s recruits have inside knowledge of how the major parties’ general election campaigns are likely to work. They include a former Downing Street adviser to David Cameron, a former aide to Ed Balls and a social media expert who worked with the Conservatives’ election strategist Lynton Crosby. Continue reading...
Security firms think group with ties to Russian intelligence behind leak of emails and other documents belonging to French election winner’s campaign teamThe hackers behind a “massive and coordinated†attack on the campaign of France’s president-elect, Emmanuel Macron, have been linked by a number of cybersecurity research firms to the Russian-affiliated group blamed for attacking the Democratic party shortly before the US election.Tens of thousands of internal emails and other documents were released online overnight on Friday as the midnight deadline to halt campaigning in the French election passed. According to the head of Macron’s digital team, Mounir Mahjoubi, “five entire mailboxes†were “stolenâ€, with many of the accounts being personal Gmail mailboxes. Continue reading...
More toylike than other Nintendo handhelds, light and sturdy, the 2DS XL looks like it’s meant for young gamersThe full name of Nintendo’s latest handheld-only console is the New Nintendo 2DS XL, a title that almost requires breaking down into parts to fully understand. It’s a 2DS because it’s like a 3DS without the stereoscopic 3D. It’s XL because its screen is the same size as that of the 3DS XL, roughly 80% bigger than that of the original 2DS. And it’s New because it’s part of the same generation as the New 3DS XL: consoles with slightly more power than their predecessors, a small additional analog stick called the C-Stick, and a handful of exclusive titles (most notably Xenoblade Chronicles and Binding of Isaac: Rebirth).And yet, though the New Nintendo 2DS XL is an improvement on the Nintendo 2DS, it’s not meant to be a replacement. Of course, it’s rarely wise for a company to admit that a product they still have for sale is about to become obsolete. But Nintendo insists the New 2DS XL is just a new member of the family, not meant to push out any other, fitting somewhere between the 2DS (with slightly more power, a C-Stick, and a clamshell design) and the New 3DS XL (without 3D). Got that? OK, good. Continue reading...
The on-trend funeral is a celebration rather than a solemn occasion, says Co-op, with Darth Vader and She-Ra making recent appearancesThe undertaker’s traditional uniform of dark frock coat and top hat is under threat from Darth Vader and Spider-Man outfits.Co-op Funeralcare, which arranges about 100,000 funerals annually, says there is a trend towards celebration rather than solemnity. Continue reading...
A US couple have lost custody of their children after featuring them in allegedly abusive prank videos. They’re not the first to go too far in search of hitsPranks have been a booming part of YouTube’s scene for years – but it’s a subculture prone to attracting controversy. The latest incident has led to a US father and a stepmother losing custody of two of their children as a result of some of their prank videos.Mike Martin of Baltimore ran a channel named DaddyOFive, featuring his wife, Heather, and their five children. At the height of the controversy, but before his videos were made private, DaddyOFive had more than 750,000 subscribers and the clips were viewed more than 176m times. Continue reading...
The insurance market is extracting millions to protect us from the built-in flaws the surveillance state relies onThe political legitimacy of democratic capitalism, that unlikely political formation that has brought us the end of history and now presents itself as the only bulwark against rightwing extremism, rests on a clear distribution of functions between governments and corporations. The former take on the role of regulating the latter in order to protect the customers from the occasional harmful effects of the otherwise beneficial business activity.Related: Should we worry the general election will be hacked? Continue reading...
Election authorities will prosecute internet users who pass on documents from massive En Marche! hackFrance’s electoral commission warned media and internet users that they could face criminal prosecution for publishing documents obtained in a “massive and coordinated hacking attack†on the presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron’s political movement.The commission, which held an emergency meeting to discuss the leak, said some of the documents appeared to contain “false informationâ€. Continue reading...
Nostalgia runs high as the city approached 50th anniversary, but residents say free love has given way to wealth and individualismIsaiah Wolfe, who goes by the name Orange, spends his nights under a bush outside Golden Gate park and his days on the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets, soaking up the love. Love from his wife, his dogs, his buddies and everyone else who calls this part of San Francisco home.“We’ve come here to experience the love this place has,†said Orange, 20, sporting a beard, piercings and multi-coloured sweater. “I heard the summer of love was the best thing to ever happen.†Continue reading...
by Julian Borger, world affairs editor on (#2NGPR)
After the hacking of the Democratic party in the US, governments have been braced for similar attacks. The onslaught has arrivedThe mass document dump looks likely to become an inevitable part of modern elections.Related: Emmanuel Macron campaign hacked on eve of French election Continue reading...
Through verifying identities and enforcing a culture of civility, the neighborhood social network built trust. That could change if it enters the political ad gameNextdoor, the social network that helps neighbors talk to each other, has a billion-dollar valuation and a presence in streets from San Jose to Liverpool. But according to its CEO, none of the tech giants are interested in acquiring it.“Facebook, Google, those guys haven’t actually come and talked to us,†said Nirav Tolia.
Good battery life and fancy group-tracking features can’t save the Garmin Edge 820 from its irritating touchscreen and terrible navigationMany cyclists have a love-hate relationship with their Garmin GPS navigation devices. Love, because they allow them to ride complex routes in unknown territory while collecting data about distance and speed, plus geekier pro metrics such as cadence and power with accessories. The hate sets in when they don’t behave as they’re supposed to.
US justice department inquiry comes after Uber acknowledged using software to identify and circumvent clampdowns by government officialsThe US Department of Justice has begun a criminal investigation into Uber’s use of a software tool that helped its drivers evade local transportation regulators, two sources familiar with the situation said.Uber has acknowledged the software, known as “Greyballâ€, helped it identify and circumvent government officials who were trying to clamp down on Uber in areas where its service had not yet been approved, such as Portland, Oregon. Continue reading...
Hundreds of specialists in speech science and ‘knowledge engineering’ to be recruited at new tech development centre in the cityAmazon is to more than triple its research and development team in Cambridge working on tech innovations such as its Alexa digital assistant, delivery drones and Echo smart speaker.The US online retailer is opening a new building in the city with room for 400 experts in mathematical modelling, speech science, machine learning and “knowledge engineeringâ€. Continue reading...
Sometimes it takes a left-field designer and action game about robots that you’re supposed to play over and over again to push sci-fi gaming forwardIn 2014, game designer Yoko Taro gave a talk about the creative process behind his cult PlayStation 3 title Nier: Replicant. He called the talk “Weird Games for Weird Peopleâ€. That is the best possible description of what he makes.Taro is famous for the eccentric persona he presents to the world. He rarely shows his face in public or interviews, preferring to talk from behind a sock puppet or the eerie wide grin of a mask. Yet his approach to design is weird only insofar as it’s rare for someone to understand that games about killing hundreds of people shouldn’t end happily or heroically. He always asks us to extend our sympathy equally to flawed protagonists and victims alike. The video game equivalents of low budget B-movies, his projects have never sold well, have never been well funded and have always lacked graphical polish. They ship with their technical seams showing. But even at their weirdest and most frustrating, they possess a unique kind of heart, and extend a rare kind of trust. Continue reading...
The social network has pledged to work harder to identify and remove disturbing content – but doing so can take a psychological tollEver wanted to work for Facebook? Mark Zuckerberg has just announced 3,000 new jobs. The catch? You’ll have to review objectionable content on the platform, which has recently hosted live-streamed footage of murder, suicide and rape.
The world’s biggest online social network is searching for new advertising features to supplement main revenue streams that it expects to cool off this yearFacebook reported surging quarterly profit and revenue on Wednesday, helped by its fast-growing mobile ad business. But its shares dipped from a record high in after-hours trading as investors showed some nervousness about future earnings.The world’s biggest online social network, which is nearing the five-year anniversary of its initial public offering, is searching for new types of advertising features to supplement its main revenue streams that it expects to cool off this year. Continue reading...
Deceptive invite to edit a Google Doc appeared to be spreading rapidly, and users were taken to a legitimate Google sign-in screen if they clicked itA Google Docs scam that appears to be widespread began landing in users’ inboxes on Wednesday in what seemed to be a sophisticated phishing or malware attack.The deceptive invitation to edit a Google Doc – the popular app used for writing and sharing files – appeared to be spreading rapidly, with a subject line stating a contact “has shared a document on Google Docs with youâ€. If users click the “Open in Docs†button in the email, it takes them to a legitimate Google sign-in screen that asks to “continue in Google Docsâ€. Continue reading...
Following outrage over broadcasting of killings and assaults, Facebook chief says social network will invest in people and tools to remove content more quicklyFacebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to add 3,000 more content reviewers and invest in tools to help remove objectionable content more quickly, after a man broadcasted footage of himself killing his 11-month-old daughter.
New version of Microsoft’s OS is faster and more streamlined yet also more restricted than before. Available on new PCs from the summer, how does it compare?On Tuesday Microsoft launched Windows 10 S, a brand new version of its ubiquitous operating system that will come with many new PCs in the near future. But what is it, how much does it cost and how is it different to Windows 10 Home or Pro? Continue reading...
London ranks 16th out of 20 big cities and towns, with coverage and download speeds varying wildly, says Which?Middlesbrough has the best 4G mobile phone coverage in Britain while Bournemouth has the worst, according to a study of Britain’s biggest urban areas.The report, published by consumer watchdog Which?, found the availability of 4G coverage and download speeds varies wildly across the UK’s 20 biggest cities and towns.
The wildly successful role-playing adventure has new content coming, with fresh challenges, new modes and a useful seed-hunting maskNintendo has revealed the contents of the first piece of downloadable content for the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and the reason to get excited can be summed up in two words: Eventide Island.The DLC, now officially named The Master Trial, focuses on a new area (previously called the Cave of Trials but now renamed the Trial of the Sword) which looks to replicate the best area of the base game, an island where the rules of play are overturned and players have to relearn everything from scratch. Continue reading...
With the latest title in its epic tag-team series, Capcom promises to bridge the gap between fighting game pros and the rest of us. Could this be its toughest fight yet?Frame counting is an often misunderstood skill practiced by vast numbers of the world’s best competitive fighting game players. It involves learning the animation frame counts of all the available moves, and comparing the relative speed and power of every attack, so you know instantly how to respond to the punches and kicks coming in from your rival.In most modern games there are 60 frames of animation per second, and every move is broken down into three sections: activation, execution and recovery. In theory, a really great player will be able to spot a rival’s intentions during the activation phase (the milliseconds it takes for a character to bring an attacking move into motion) and select a counter move that reaches execution faster. Continue reading...
Korean electronics firm granted permission to test autonomous cars on public roads using Hyundai vehicles, following rival Apple’s California testingSamsung is stepping up its plans for self-driving cars to rival former Google project Waymo, Uber and Apple, bringing the key players from the battle for smartphone dominance to the brave new world of autonomous vehicles.
When the tech guru’s son unexpectedly died, he turned to an equation they had devised together to get through the griefMo Gawdat is the chief business officer at Google X – the “moonshot factory†responsible for some of the company’s more audacious projects, such as self-driving cars and a balloon-powered global internet. Before he joined Google, while working as stock trader and tech executive in Dubai and in response to a period of depression, he used his engineer’s mindset to create an “equation for happinessâ€. The equation says that happiness is greater than, or equal to, your perception of the events in your life minus your expectation of how life should be.When his 21-year-old son Ali died during a routine operation, Gawdat turned to the equation, which they had worked on together, in an attempt to come to terms with his tragic loss. Gawdat’s book, Solve for Happy, explains the theories underpinning the equation and how it helped him sustain his life after Ali’s death. Continue reading...
The Dark Overlord claims to have stolen and posted episodes from the forthcoming season of the hit show, after demanding unspecified sumA hacker who claimed to have stolen the forthcoming season of Netflix’s hit series Orange is the New Black and demanded a ransom payment claimed on Saturday to have followed through on its threat to release several episodes online.Related: Orange is the New Black season four review – criminally close to greatness Continue reading...
If you want a bike that will inspire a child to cycle, this could be itIt is a scenario many cyclists imagine as they gaze at their newborn baby: the day they can start going for bike rides with junior. Not for their child a PlayStation 4 or Snapchat: their offspring will be turning the cranks with glee. That’s the dream, anyway.Alice, the seven-year-old I borrowed to test the Frog, is the daughter of a former bike mechanic and racer. Almost always keen to go for a pedal, she quickly tires, partly because her legs are going like the clappers – her Carrera from Halfords has twist-shift gears her little hands can’t quite turn – and partly because the adult-sized cranks force her knees up too high. Continue reading...
The place to talk about games and other things that matterChatterbox is the Guardian’s daily venue for video game-themed discussion. It has been running as a comments-based forum for over a decade. Continue reading...
A first-of-its-kind report analyzed the reasons why tech workers leave their jobs, and found a common thread of sexual harassment, bullying and stereotypingSexual harassment, bullying and racist stereotyping are common in the technology industry, creating a culture that drives underrepresented employees out of their jobs, new research has found.One in 10 women in tech experience unwanted sexual attention, and nearly one in four people of color face stereotyping, according to the Kapor Center for Social Impact and Harris Poll, which surveyed more than 2,000 people who left tech jobs in the last three years. Continue reading...
Post EU rail franchises | Mugwump | Family relationships and language | E-readersJohn Draper makes a good point about competitive tendering for rail franchises within EU member states – but isn’t the main point about renationalising the railways that there won’t be any new franchises to bid for (Letters, 26 April)! Whether Caroline Lucas wants Britain to remain in the EU or not is therefore irrelevant.
The Harry Potter alumna missteps after the $1bn success of Beauty and the Beast with a Dave Eggers adaptation that swaps initial intrigue with vapidityThere’s something quite perfectly pitched about the release of The Circle. First, in a landscape overflowing with headlines proclaiming that “this is the BLANK we need right nowâ€, an adaptation of Dave Eggers’ cautionary tale about the dangers of a life consumed by an over-reliance on one’s digital footprint remains ever prescient. Second, it’s anchored by Emma Watson, coming off the back of the phenomenal success of Beauty and the Beast, and she’s joined by John Boyega, his first role since his charming breakout turn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Finally, it’s arriving on the edge of the summer season, aiming to engage our brains before they get pummeled into submission by a parade of shiny effects-driven epics with little interest in raising questions other than: wasn’t that explosion, like, totally sick?Related: Emma Watson: feminist to the core or carefully polished brand? | the Observer profile Continue reading...
Move expected to cost several million pounds a year is latest attempt to head off criticism over conditions for its 40,000 UK driversUber is to start offering its minicab drivers sickness cover in exchange for a £2 per week fee, in its latest bid to head off criticism over working conditions for its 40,000 drivers in the UK.The move is likely to cost the San Francisco-based company several million pounds a year. It comes ahead of the government’s Taylor review of modern working practices, which is likely to recommend that self-employed gig economy workers should be granted greater employment protections and benefits, including sickness cover. Continue reading...
In a frank discussion about the modern games industry, Phil Spencer discusses the potential of episodic games and the pros and cons of downloadable content
An obsession over realism means latest in Activision’s Call of Duty franchise is more Saving Private Ryan than Inglourious Basterds – and that’s a problemThere is a new Call of Duty video game coming out this November, and like the first three titles in the long-running, hugely successful series, it will be set during the second world war. Over the course of a 45-minute livestreamed announcement event on Wednesday night, developer Sledgehammer laid out its vision for the new military shooter: a gritty but authentic evocation of the conflict, following a young recruit to the US Army’s First Infantry division as it storms the beaches at Normandy then trudges through Europe towards Germany. The studio heads spent time talking about the realism and respect of their project, and the painstaking accuracy put into the development process.The whole thing felt distinctly uncomfortable. Continue reading...
Fulfilment centre will offer ‘competitive wages and comprehensive benefits’ and will take British staff to 24,000Amazon is to create 1,200 new permanent jobs as it opens a new warehouse in Warrington where staff will work alongside the online retail giant’s robots.The US group said the new fulfilment centre, part of a significant expansion across the UK, will take its workforce in Britain to 24,000 by the end of this year.
Andy’s PC has less storage space on an almost daily basis and he would like to get some of it back …I frequently use the Disk Cleanup facility in Windows 10, but the amount of disk space taken up increases almost on a daily basis. Despite upgrading to Windows 10, Disk Cleanup still refers to disk space on Windows8_OS[C]. Is this the problem? Also, 3GB is Temporary Internet files, but deleting Temporary Files in Storage makes little or no difference. AndyBefore we start, I must remind you that you are totally responsible for your own PC and all your personal data. If you are going to run programs that delete files, or worse, you must have everything securely backed up first. Windows 10 includes a backup program that can back up your hard drive and also take a disk image. It’s also a good idea to create recovery media and to make separate copies of irreplaceable data files and family photos. Continue reading...
Indie studio Giant Sparrow conjures an adventure that blends exploration, reading, reality and fantasy into one innovative and beautiful experienceWhat Remains of Edith Finch is a game about storytelling and a masterclass in characterisation. Although it bears all the hallmarks of games like Gone Home or Dear Esther with its spooky waterside property, its readable letters and journey entries, and its lack of a “run†button, the game soon strays from the familiar paths trodden by those seminal “walking simulatorsâ€. Instead, What Remains delivers a collection of whimsical tales that leap deftly from one genre to another without ever losing the thread at the heart story.The eponymous Edith is the last remaining member of the cursed Finch family, who have all died in strange circumstances, some of them at a young age. She is returning to the family home to find out what happened to them all. After each Finch death, the person’s bedroom was sealed up, never to be used again, resulting in a rambling, crooked tower of a house, with rooms tacked on here and there over time. In this way, the house acts as a grounding hub for the game, a visual metaphor for the messiness and chaos of life and a physical manifestation of the Finch family tree. Continue reading...
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