Technology | The Guardian

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

Amazon, Facebook and Netflix among companies demonstrating on behalf of net neutrality, in what supporters say will be biggest online protest in historyAmazon, Facebook, Netflix and a host of other tech giants will join with online activists, librarians, minority rights and free speech groups today in a day of protest against the Trump administration’s plans to roll back rules in what critics charge is a “war on the open internet”.The “day of action” – which supporters claim will be the largest online protest in history – comes as the new head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the US telecoms and media watchdog, prepares to defang tough rules protecting internet access in the US following pressure from cable companies and other internet service providers (ISPs).

Lower-cost electric car begins delivery with first model to company chief executive as first 30 customers to get vehicles at 28 July partyThe first of Tesla’s highly anticipated lower-cost electric cars, the Model 3, has rolled off the production line to its new owner, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk.The one-man marketing machine, who also took on a large, high-profile battery project in Australia and a runs a privateer space company Space X, shared a couple of photos of the Model 3. Continue reading...

Streaming music company rejects accusations that it is padding out popular playlists such as Sleep and Ambient Chill with fake artistsSpotify has denied filling its most popular playlists with “fake artists”, after it was accused of creating songs to bulk out its most popular ambient playlists at low cost to itself.The allegation, first made by industry website Music Business Worldwide and brought to wider attention by culture publication Vulture, is that some playlists on Spotify are full of bands with no public profile, few songs, but millions of song plays – all as a result of their position on the service. Continue reading...

The place to talk abut games and other things that matterIt’s Monday. Continue reading...

The tech giant aims to build 1,500 apartments at Menlo Park after being criticised for helping to deepen the Silicon Valley housing crisisFacebook is to build its own “village” of 1,500 homes for workers struggling to pay soaring rents as the housing crisis in Silicon Valley deepens.Related: 'We will be torn apart': the battle to save Silicon Valley's oldest trailer park Continue reading...

Risk-takers are cashing in millions with launches of new cryptocurrencies that make traditional initial public offerings look practically prehistoricAfter the boom and bust and boom of bitcoin, where some lost millions on discarded drives and others found forgotten wallets with enough to buy a flats in Oslo, the next big thing in the cryptocurrency is here to generate millions of pounds for the lucky few brave enough to invest: the initial coin offering (ICO).If you hang out in cryptocurrency circles, you’re used to hearing conventional wisdom being questioned. After all, the sector was born out of the idea that orthodox economics is bunk. From there, there’s nowhere to go but up. Continue reading...

Artist Naho Matsuda has harnessed real-time smart city data in Manchester to create live poetry displays reflecting on what’s happening in real time

Consumer watchdog finds 60% of consumers have had issues with service in past six months and more than 75% of NBN customers have had problemsAustralia is plagued by internet disconnections, drop-outs and slow download speeds, a survey has found.

Jayme’s father wants a mobile phone to take photos of things when he is out and about. But would a smartphone or a compact camera be the best solution?My dad wants a mobile phone with a camera so that he can take photos of things when he is out and about. Trouble is, he is technophobic. Giving him a smartphone would, I think, be an expensive waste as the camera functions seem to be buried deep within various apps and finger swipes. Is there is a simple point-and-shoot camera that can also function as a mobile phone? So far, I have come up with the Kodak Ektra, but I haven’t held one to see how accessible the camera function is. JaymeThe simplest way to take photos when you are out and about is to use a point-and-shoot camera. Smartphones can do lots of things, but they are not as good for taking pictures as cameras designed for the job. Continue reading...

The gaming phenomenon that baffles parents took over a cultural icon last weekend: a symbolic meeting of high and low art that the game itself revels inIf ever there was an event specifically designed to send the regular Sydney Opera House clientele into a near-fatal frenzy of monocle popping, it was this one: a video game festival hosted at Australia’s most famous cultural icon.But whatever misgivings one may have about Minecraft at the Opera House, when I arrive the mood is buoyant. Continue reading...

From men who struggle with intimacy to women trafficked into sex work, all sorts of people stand to benefit. But, really, these are simulations of women to be bought by menWhen I was young, the ideal woman was said to be a deaf and mute nymphomaniac who lived above a pub. These days, I have a grudging fondness for this cliche: at least this imaginary woman is a creature of desire. And human. “Nympho” is so of its time and used to be said of any woman who was not a virgin.Apparently, though, we are in the midst of another sexual revolution, in which the new ideal woman will be a robot; lifelike dolls that feel real and communicate their “needs”. I am not sure whether revolution is the right word but that is the one being used. The authors of a report from the Foundation for Responsible Robotics suggest that sex robots could provide help for people who find it hard to have intimate relationships: people in care homes, people with dementia, people with disabilities. This might be a noble idea were we to accept that everyone must be enabled to have sex as a human right; that this is all somehow therapeutic. The reality is more basic. Those in the business of manufacturing sex robots for “people” are actually making simulations of women to be bought by men. Continue reading...

A female engineer who came forward with claims of harassment says she was fired in retaliation. But now other women have voiced similar concernsThe theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was “be bold for change” in the fight for a “more gender inclusive world” – but some at Tesla had a different plan for the day.It was an opportunity for women to discover essential oils. A “health and wellness group” at the electric car company invited female staff members to an 8 March “lunch ‘n learn” about oils and how they can help improve people’s “health and happiness”, according to emails seen by the Guardian, which reveal that the proposed event was quickly met with vocal criticism. It was particularly offensive to some given that a week earlier, AJ Vandermeyden, a female engineer, had publicly accused Elon Musk’s company of sexual harassment and discrimination. Continue reading...

Ministers should seek reparations from the US government and Microsoft, and invest to protect civilian infrastructure, says J Robin HughesAmong HMS Queen Elizabeth’s vital statistics, Ian Jack mentions the use of Windows XP (Britain’s new aircraft carrier may be a vast folly – but it still provokes awe, 1 July). The Ministry of Defence denied in December 2015 that it would be used once the vessel is operational, but appears not to have informed defence secretary Michael Fallon, who during his 27 June interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme seemed unable to confirm or deny its use. He also asserted – wrongly – that the system is not vulnerable, and then blamed NHS staff for enabling the WannaCry attack in May this year through “the sloppy use of passwords”.This obscures the fact that, apart from the criminals, others bear heavy responsibility. The US National Security Agency concealed the security problem for years, and only warned Microsoft months after it was stolen. Microsoft held back the fix for non-paying Windows XP users until after the attack. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt cancelled the support contract which could have protected the NHS. Ministers should seek reparations from the US government and Microsoft, and invest to protect civilian infrastructure.

It’s hoped first Breath of the Wild DLC will tide fans over until The Champion’s Ballad is released in December – but it might not sate them for longThe first downloadable content for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a neat extension to the game for those who’ve exhausted its considerable pleasures, but ultimately just an appetiser to tide you over until the real meat – The Champion’s Ballad – lands this Christmas.At the heart of the expansion is the Trial of the Sword, a multi-tiered test of your combat ability with more than a passing resemblance to one of the standout segments of the main game, Eventide Island. That locale stripped players of their items, weapons and armour, and tasked them with rebuilding their capacity from scratch: desperately foraging for food to heal hearts, stalking weak enemies to kill and steal weapons from, and ultimately taking out a Hirox, the one-eyed giants more generally seen as a world boss roaming around Hyrule. Continue reading...

Video game consumers often deride industry changes as ‘money-grubbing’ actions – but is that fair? We spoke to developers and publishers to find outVideo games have changed immeasurably since the days of tape loading and cover-mounted floppy discs. Today, we get lifelike 3D virtual worlds where the player can seamlessly connect with companions and opponents from every corner of the globe. An online triple-A title will now offer literally hundreds of hours of fun spread across years of play. Yet, inflation aside, the price we pay at the till remains the same now as it was 25 years ago.

South Korean firm wants to expand lead in global memory chip amid booming demand for storage productsSamsung Electronics will invest nearly $18bn in its chip business, the South Korean firm said Tuesday, as it seeks to expand its lead in the global memory chip and smartphone markets.

If malware outbreak was state sponsored it could count as violation of sovereignty and open possibility of countermeasures, says Tomáš MinárikThe NotPetya malware that wiped computers at organisations including Maersk, Merck and the Ukrainian government in June “could count as a violation of sovereignty”, according to a legal researcher at Nato’s cybersecurity division.If the malware outbreak was state-sponsored, the Nato researcher says, it could open the possiblity of “countermeasures”. Those could come through retaliatory cyber--attacks, or more conventional means such as sanctions, but they must fall short of a military use of force. Continue reading...

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

An emerging genre of games based on people’s real-life experiences is proving provocative and compellingIn my myriad careers as a video game player, I have waited tables in Diner Dash, manned trebuchets in Total War, driven cabs in Crazy Taxi, delivered newspapers as Paperboy and tilled fields in Farming Simulator. Play is work’s twin, and video games are characterised by their capacity to allow us to inhabit the vocations and occupations of others. In general, however, the people whose lives we dip into, playfully, are anonymous, or at least fictional. Literature has biography. Film has biopic. But the interactive biography (the biogame?) has been mostly absent from video games.The closest the medium has come is perhaps in the realm of sports, where for more than three decades we have been able to assume the likeness and talents of superstar athletes, from 1984’s Daley Thompson’s Decathlon to any one of the thousands of footballers who populate each year’s Fifa. This is more aspirational role play than earnest biographical study, however. Tiger Woods was for years the cover star of EA’s flagship golfing series of video games, which in the manner of professional endorsements exclusively focused on his triumphs at the tee. The more sinewy fodder of Woods’s off-green breakdown was not only overlooked in games, but actively shunned: in 2013 the golfer’s lucrative contract with EA was not renewed. Continue reading...

Apple’s smartphone changed the way we function – for better and worseOn Tuesday 9 January 2007, in the Moscone Center in San Francisco, the late Steve Jobs, dressed in his standard black turtleneck and jeans, announced that Apple had built a mobile phone. “The phone is rectangular,” reported CNN “and the entire front surface is a touchscreen. All of its functions are activated by touch, but when you bring your iPhone to your face, a proximity sensor will turn off the touchscreen so you don’t accidentally face-dial. The phone, which runs the Mac OS X, will be able to download and play both music and movies. It will come in two models – a $499 version with 4 gigabytes of memory and a $599 one with 8 gigabytes.”Apple fans were predictably ecstatic – as they always were when His Steveness addressed them – but the rest of the world yawned. After all, the mobile phone business was a boring, mature global industry, dominated by Nokia. Apple knew nothing about the business, and Jobs had been able to negotiate a deal with only one mobile network company – Cingular, a branch of AT&T. Sure, the new gizmo had a web browser that worked – which Jobs said was “a real revolution” – and it could do email. But hadn’t he also said that “the killer app is making calls”? And the iPhone came with a battery that you couldn’t change! How dumb was that? Accordingly, Nokia executives slept easily in their beds – though their counterparts at RIM, which made BlackBerrys and had an unbreakable lock on mobile email, stirred uneasily in theirs, having noticed an $11 drop in their share price on the day. Continue reading...

If low-cost motoring is your game, come on down. And be prepared to be pleasantly surprised by Dacia’s new Stepway SanderoPrice: £8,714

I was prepared to upend my life for this carI realised on about day three, when it transpired that I could talk to the BMW 7 Series, talk to it as if it really understood me, that I was prepared to upend my life for this car. I would move to somewhere with off-street parking to protect it from envy. I would install an outdoor plug in respect of its hybridity. I would make my peace with looking like a bizarrely scruffy chauffeur. I would do whatever it took. Unfortunately, the main thing it would have taken was that I go back in time, embark on a different and more remunerative career, spend 20 years being good at it, whatever that even involves, and then arrive in some other 2017 with £80,000 to spend on a car.The drive is so beautiful, it made my eyes prick with nostalgia for a nonexistent past when I owned a BMW i8 and everybody stared. It has none of those fancy-pants touches, no gull-wing doors, and looks very much like a regular car, but it has borrowed from the bodyshell of the i8 and is incredibly light, strong and agile, like a businessman taking off his suit to reveal that he’s actually Daniel Craig. Is that wrong? Am I allowed to sexualise a car? Will Craig feel objectified? Don’t worry, I haven’t turned into a petrol-head. But I am a madly enthusiastic petrol-cum-electricity-head. Continue reading...

Renwick Haddow created ‘trendy’ companies and duped investors into thinking they were big successes, authorities in New York allegeUS authorities on Friday charged a British businessman with securities fraud, accusing him of deceiving investors over what turned out to be a fake trading platform for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

Microsoft’s Xbox One X is a high-end native 4K machine – but who is it intended for and what are the true benefits? We ask the execs who brought it to lifeSeveral years ago, Xbox chief Phil Spencer, went to Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, and CFO, Amy Hood, with a somewhat unorthodox plan for the company’s latest console. It is not unheard of for a games machine to receive a hardware update at some point in the middle of its lifecycle – but Spencer didn’t want one new iteration. He wanted two.The plan emerging from the R&D labs went like this. Xbox One S would add 4K video playback and HDR capabilities, but another more powerful machine, built with a refreshed processor, and using some of the high-end manufacturing technologies previously only found in advanced server systems, could fully support 4K resolutions. It was a risk and it was going to be expensive. “Our pitch had to be more than just kind of a refinement of what was there,” says Spencer. “The idea that we would come up with the most powerful console, with a higher resolution and a higher capability, as part of the Xbox One family. This was something new.” Continue reading...

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

Andy wants to know how to invest a few hundred pounds in bitcoin. It’s not hard to buy bitcoins, but whether they are an investment or a gamble is another matter ...How can I invest in bitcoin? I’d like to invest a few hundred pounds. AndyThere are at least three ways, though only one of them looks rational today. First, you could mine your own bitcoins. Second, you could buy some from an exchange. Third, you could buy shares in a fund that has invested in bitcoins. Continue reading...

Extremist content is spreading online and law enforcement can’t keep up. The result is a private workforce that’s secretive, inaccurate and unaccountable

Revolutionary, life-changing... a bit annoying? Guardian readers around the world on a decade of iPhones and the wider smartphone revolution

A letter from Labour’s Frank Field urges ministers to step in to improve the lot of Uber drivers and others working in the gig economyThe charge sheet against Travis Kalanick, and the Uber board as a whole, is a lengthy one (End of the road – Uber’s investors decide chief is liability after avalanche of claims, 22 June). There is, however, one major omission.The rampant exploitation of Uber’s tens of thousands of drivers under Kalanick’s watch should be at the very top of that charge sheet. The fact that it hardly features is hugely concerning. Continue reading...

Digital security researchers say malware attack that spread from Ukraine appeared to be focused on damaging IT systemsA ransomware attack that affected at least 2,000 individuals and organisations worldwide on Tuesday appears to have been deliberately engineered to damage IT systems rather than extort funds, according to security researchers.The attack began in Ukraine, and spread through a hacked Ukrainian accountancy software developer to companies in Russia, western Europe and the US. The software demanded payment of $300 (£230) to restore the user’s files and settings. Continue reading...

Sadler’s Wells, London

Cumulative effect of missteps led the Guardian to overstate the potential impact on the security of users’ messagingThe Guardian was wrong to report last January that the popular messaging service WhatsApp had a security flaw so serious that it was a huge threat to freedom of speech.

Apple’s iPhone is turning 10, and we want to know if the smartphone has changed your life – and if so, whether it’s been for the better“A widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device.”That’s how Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, which was released 10 years ago this Thursday. A revolutionary concept on release, smartphones are now so ubiquitous you’re probably reading this article on one. Continue reading...

Companies have been crippled by global cyberattack, the second major ransomware crime in two months. We answer the key questionsMany organizations in Europe and the US have been crippled by a ransomware attack known as “Petya”. The malicious software has spread through large firms including the advertiser WPP, food company Mondelez, legal firm DLA Piper and Danish shipping and transport firm Maersk, leading to PCs and data being locked up and held for ransom.

The European commission is not showing signs of anti-American bias – its actions will benefit consumers worldwideLet’s start by laying one falsehood to rest. In fining Google €2.42bn (£2.14bn), the European commission is not engaged in a form of underhand trade warfare against US technology companies. Instead, Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition commissioner, is addressing a central commercial question of the digital age: to what extent should companies such as Google be able to exploit their dominance in one area to gain advantage in another?Accusations of anti-American bias don’t hold water if one views the commission’s pro-competition patrols in aggregate. In other industries with different competition complaints, Brussels has been strong in dishing out fines against European firms. Just ask the truck makers – all European – who copped a collective €2.93bn fine last year for colluding on prices. Continue reading...

Google’s mail app now offers a range of AI-generated responses. Is modern life about to devolve into one long Turing test? No thanks!Confusing times at Google. The company has announced it will stop automatically scanning users’ emails in order to provide targeted adverts. At almost the same moment, though, it has decided to launch an auto-reply system that scans one’s emails and generates possible responses from which you can choose.The new functionality, added to the app store versions of Gmail, works by analysing a large, anonymised body of emails to generate possible responses. Machine-learning systems then rank these to pick the “best responses to the email at hand”. Continue reading...

The developer behind retro-tinged shooters Super Stardust and ResoGun returns with an astonishing twin-stick masterpieceThere is a famous story behind the making of Robotron 2084, the seminal 1982 arcade game which provides the clear inspiration for Nex Machina. Designer Eugene Jarvis, the genius behind hit coin-op Defender, broke his wrist in a car accident and found himself unable to use a fire button. Determined to keep working on a new game project, he and colleague Larry DeMar hacked together their own controller using two joysticks; one to move the onscreen character, one to fire a weapon. The twin-stick shooter was born.Thirty-five years later, we have the latest title from Housemarque Games, the Finish studio that’s spent two decades rediscovering and perfecting classic arcade game dynamics. Its Super Stardust and Resogun titles are exemplary old school scrolling shooters, catching the speed and style of arcade blasters but enriching them with modern era visual exuberance. Nex Machina continues that legacy – and then some. Continue reading...

The winning entries in the annual iPhone photography awards have been announced, chosen from thousands of entries submitted from around the world. The overall winner: children in Iraq playing against a a backdrop of oil wells set aflame by Isis Continue reading...

Classic 1990s console returns with 21 games including Super Mario Kart, Secret of Mana and an unreleased sequel to Star FoxFor some it was the greatest video game console of all time, a 1990s treasure trove of legendary titles such as Super Mario Kart, Super Metroid and Yoshi’s Island – and now, not altogether unpredictably, it’s back. Continue reading...

The Fire HD 8 has always played second fiddle to its smaller sibling, but with twice the storage, better screen and speakers, that’s no longer the caseAmazon’s bigger, 8in HD version of its rock-bottom tablet, the Fire HD 8, has always played second fiddle to the £50 Fire 7, but not any more.

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft announced Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism to focus on solutions, research and partnershipsFacebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft have created a joint forum to counter terrorism following years of criticisms that the technology corporations have failed to block violent extremists and propaganda on their platforms.The Silicon Valley companies announced the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism on Monday, saying the collaboration would focus on technological solutions, research and partnerships with governments and civic groups. Continue reading...

Sector says current threat coming to the fore because of trend towards decentralised power plantsConcern over the threat posed by cyber-attacks on power stations and electricity grids is “off the scale” in the UK energy sector, according to a leading industry figure.No other country in the world has an energy industry as worried about the risk from cyber threats, such as the WannaCry ransomware attack that recently hit the NHS, the former chief of National Grid told the Guardian. Continue reading...

From all-nighters at the office to insensitive male coworkers, working mothers and mothers-to-be often describe the tech world as hostile to their needsSara Mauskopf was nine months pregnant and about to go on maternity leave, when her boss, the Postmates CEO Bastian Lehmann, mentioned her by name at an all-hands meeting: staff would no longer be able to use one of the company’s conference rooms, Lehmann said, because Mauskopf would need it pump breast milk when she returned to work.“I felt very called out and embarrassed,” recalled Mauskopf, who was the delivery startup’s director of product at the time. “It singled me out as the reason for the conversion and made me feel like I was taking something away from everyone.” Continue reading...

From the Bioshock collection for less than a tenner to Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor at 80% off, we’ve been searching for the best Steam dealsForget Glastonbury, forget Wimbledon – the big event many of us look forward to at this time of year is the Steam Summer Sale. Every June, the online PC games store slashes prices on dozens of titles, sometimes down to a couple of pounds, prompting a digital feeding frenzy.The 2017 sale began on Wednesday night, and here are some of the must-have bargains we’ve spotted so far. Add your own findings in the comments section! Continue reading...

Firm’s Online Civil Courage Initiative, already launched in Germany and France, aims to help charities and NGOs identify and eliminate hate speachFacebook is to step up its attempts to tackle extremist material on the internet by educating charities and other non-government organisations about how to counter hate speech.The technology company will launch the Online Civil Courage Initiative in the UK on Friday, which includes training organisations about how to monitor and respond to extremist content and the creation of a dedicated support desk at Facebook where concerns can be flagged up. Continue reading...

As Uber CEO departs, questions have been raised as to why its CTO – who was included in a viral post about discrimination and harassment – still has a jobThe resignation of Uber’s embattled CEO Travis Kalanick has led some to question why the company’s chief technology officer (CTO), who was included in an engineer’s viral account of sexual harassment and discrimination, has kept his job.Kalanick announced his departure this week after months of scandals, most notably the allegations of former employee Susan Fowler, who published a detailed blogpost in February about rampant sexism at Uber and management’s repeated refusal to respond to her complaints. Continue reading...

Personal data, including names, addresses, voter registration details and social media posts, made vulnerable because of improper security settingsA data trove owned by the Republican National Committee (RNC) containing personal details of nearly every registered voter in the US was left unsecured for nearly two weeks earlier this month due to an improperly configured security setting, internet security firm UpGuard revealed on Monday.The data, which includes names, birth dates, addresses, voter registration details and social media posts, was available to download by anyone who knew to look for it from 1 June through 14 June when the oversight was corrected. Continue reading...

Half of the children in poll using devices unsupervised and two-thirds of families report conflict related to screen timeA third of preschoolers and two-thirds of primary school-aged children own smartphones or tablets – and 50% of them are using them unsupervised, the latest Australian Child Health Poll shows.

New smartphone continues phone’s USP of refined metal design and fluid user experience, but it’s not quite the bargain its predecessors wereThe new OnePlus 5 has big shoes to fill following, as it does, the excellent OnePlus 3 and 3T, which managed to undercut the competition on price and beat them on design. So, more expensive than ever, can OnePlus’s latest smartphone pull off the same trick in 2017?