Technology | The Guardian

If you’ve ever wondered what an android thinks about humans and the future, now’s your chance to ask one a question

Playdead’s Inside picked up four awards as indie developers outshone major studios but blockbuster took the biggest prizeAt last year’s Bafta Game Awards, the developer of Her Story, Sam Barlow, famously so struggled with his three awards that he carried them around in a champagne bucket. This year, indie developer Playdead went one better by winning four for their dystopian puzzle platformer Inside: artistic achievement, game design, narrative, and original property.After their previous game, Limbo, won none from four in 2011, the team at Playdead were delighted to take home so many this year: “We kind of expected to continue the clean slate, so we’re very happy.”

After criminals hijacked our phone to route calls abroad, our insurer and system operator both refused to pay outI work for a small charity in Benwell, Newcastle, where we have been the victim of phone system hacking that has resulted in a bill of almost £5,000 over a four-day period. We have been informed by our phone system supplier, Chaser Communications, that the hackers gained remote access to our phone system via our answering machine, and were somehow able to route calls to Syria at a premium rate.We have reported it to our local police and Action Fraud, but this has been no help. Our insurer has said we are not covered for a cyber attack, while Chaser says it will have to pass on the charges to us. Continue reading...

Following ‘error 53’ case, Choice says businesses cannot turn customers away just because they’ve had a third-party repairsCourt action against Apple for allegedly misleading iPhone and iPad owners serves as a “timely reminder” to companies that consumer rights are inviolable, Australian consumer advocates have said.

Twitter says government wants to reveal identity behind an account that claims to provide anonymity for civil servants who disagree with Trump policyThe US government sought to unmask the identity of an anonymous Twitter account criticizing its policies, according to a lawsuit filed by the social media platform Thursday.Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), a division of homeland security, issued a summons to Twitter on 14 March seeking records including the phone number, mailing addresses, and IP addresses associated with @ALT_USCIS, an account that purports to convey the views of dissenters within the government. Continue reading...

Generous words of Mr Justice Holman – ‘don’t be embarrassed’ – may be indicative of softening attitude to tech among judiciaryThe sudden trilling of a mobile phone amid the solemn atmosphere of a court hearing often leads to stern glances from the bench and cringing embarrassment from the offender. But Mr Justice Holman, one of the longest-serving high court judges in England and Wales, responded to an electronic interruption from one lawyer’s device in the family court on Thursday with compassionate forbearance.

Social network says it has responsibility to reduce amount of fake news on platform and help users make informed decisionsHundreds of millions of Facebook users will be offered tips for spotting fake news as part of the social network’s latest attempt to address concerns about its role in the spread of false information.The new “educational tool” is part of a multi-pronged strategy which will also see a growing range of “signals” from user behaviour and third-party fact checkers used to make misinformation less prominent on the social network. Continue reading...

Traverse, Edinburgh

From Paint 3D to Start menu folders, greater privacy control and a dedicated game mode, here are the things worth updating forThe next big update for Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows 10 operating system is here. The so-called Creators Update adds a host of new features from MS Paint reinvented to privacy tweaks.

Stephen does a lot of backpacking and wants a machine that can handle both Apple iTunes and blogging on the go … Continue reading...

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Online abuse has been around for years, but the idiom of the troll has changed the landscape. Can they be reasoned with?Q: Should I ever engage with my trolls?A: Firstly, let’s settle on a definition of “troll”. A troll is not someone who makes you feel bad. It’s not someone whose opinion you find offensive, or a “devil’s advocate” who assumes a position contrary to your own with the intention of stirring up trouble. That person, while annoying, is called an opinion writer and can still be usefully engaged with. A troll, on the other hand, is someone whose gratification is vested in an intent to cause harm. Why on earth would you engage with that? Continue reading...

New photo-matching technology that allows users to easily report intimate pictures posted without consent has been praised by campaignersFacebook is launching a series of tools designed to crack down on the sharing of so-called revenge porn.The new tools will allow users to easily report any intimate photos posted without consent that they see on the social network, which will flag the pictures in question to “specially trained representatives” from the site’s community operations team, who will “review the image and remove it if it violates [Facebook’s] community standards”. Continue reading...

Activision Blizzard wants to turn the beloved shooter title into a big-screen force to rival Disney’s superhero arm. Can it succeed where others have failed?It has been years since video games surpassed blockbuster movies as the biggest releases in media, but that’s never stopped games makers wanting to get a slice of the action on the big screen.Now Call of Duty’s makers Activision Blizzard are planning an assault to rival Disney’s Marvel Universe. It plans to use the multi-layered, interconnected approach that has made Marvel’s superheroes a dominant force in cinema to turn the first-person shooter into an all-conquering film franchise of its own. Continue reading...

The $70bn company is locked in a legal fight with drivers who want to unionize, and has hinted it might do what it did in Austin: pack up and goUber is threatening to leave Seattle if it cannot stop a potential union election, and some Uber drivers could not be happier.“Uber came and killed my business,” said Tewodros Ashene, an Ethiopian immigrant who is proud to display the 7,588 five-star trips he has earned on the Uber platform. Before the ride-hail company came to town, Ashene owned a limousine company and made a good living. Now, he is working 16 hours a day to make the same amount of money he used to make in eight. Continue reading...

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US district judge in Seattle temporarily blocks country’s first law of its kind following lawsuit brought by US Chamber of CommerceA federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday temporarily blocked the city’s first-in-the-country law allowing drivers of ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to unionize over pay and working conditions.US district judge Robert Lasnik’s ruling comes after he heard arguments last week in a case brought by the US Chamber of Commerce. He said his decision was not an indication of how he would ultimately rule. Continue reading...

Deal with Universal Music is first time users of music streaming service’s ad-supported free tier won’t have full access to catalogueNew albums from some Universal Music artists will be available only to premium Spotify subscribers for the first two weeks of release, the two companies have announced.The deal means that for the first time ever, users of Spotify’s ad-supported free tier will not have access to the full catalogue of music on the streaming service. Instead, they will have to choose between paying up – the paid-for tier begins at £9.99 a month – or waiting another two weeks. Continue reading...

It may look like a game for children but this primary coloured, Kickstarter-funded platformer is catnip for 30-somethings who came of age with Banjo-KazooieDon’t be fooled by the saccharine paint job, the goggle-eyed supporting cast of anthropomorphic chestnuts, clouds and refrigerators, or the ear-niggling lullaby melodies: Yooka-Laylee is a game meticulously crafted, not for children, but for the middle-aged.Its nostalgia is plainspoken and precise: the game is a paean to 1997, a time when Nintendo, in conjunction with its former life-partner, the British games company Rare, was busily establishing the rules, boundaries and aesthetic of platform games on the Nintendo 64, the company’s first fully 3D-capable machine. Continue reading...

Elon Musk’s electric car company has been valued at $49bn, leaving the 100-year-old motor manufacturer lagging behindOne is an automotive titan that has built more than 350m vehicles in an illustrious history spanning more than a century.The other is less than 15 years old and has never made a profit. Continue reading...

Company apologises to Pro users for neglect of product line as it prepares for the launch of its first new desktop computer since 2015Apple has taken the rare step of pre-announcing major new products, confirming that it will release new iMacs later this year and a “completely rethought Mac Pro” at some point in the future.The company also apologised to Mac Pro users for the neglect of the product line, which has gone three years without an update. Continue reading...

As the world wide web creator accepts the prestigious Turing award, he talks to Sam Thielman about the US Congress’s rollback of privacy rules and fake newsThe Trump administration’s decision to allow internet service providers (ISPs) to sign away their customers’ privacy and sell the browsing habits of their customers is “disgusting” and “appalling”, according to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web.Talking to the Guardian as he was declared recipient of the prestigious Association for Computing Machinery’s AM Turing award on Tuesday, Berners-Lee expressed mounting concerns about the direction of the internet he did so much to promote. Continue reading...

Statistics show minicab firm is worst of six major self-driving car companies, with human intervention required at one-mile intervals during testingAccording to driving statistics published by California, Uber is the worst of six major self-driving car companies testing its vehicles in the state.The minicab firm experienced a “disengagement” – when the automated system forces the human driver/passenger to take over control of the vehicle – once every mile driven, with a total of 20,354 miles clocked up before it was banned from testing in the state. Continue reading...

Home Office minister says home secretary was talking about hashes, which are used to detect recurring images or videos onlineThe Home Office has clarified what Amber Rudd meant when she suggested the government would hire people who “understand the necessary hashtags” as part of the government’s fight against extremist material online.Prompted by a parliamentary question from Labour MP Louise Haigh, Home Office undersecretary Sarah Newton MP said: “The home secretary was referring to image hashing, the process of detecting the recurrence an image or video online. Continue reading...

A beloved but long-struggling industry sees a fresh start in VR, and in Bangkok headsets and high-powered PCs have replaced the coin-op machines of oldIt’s a scene straight from a 90s arcade.A group of guys clutching greasy fries and icy sodas fixating wide-eyed on a screen where their friend is manically shooting the limbs off zombies. The gang have bought credit for an hour of gaming — surely more than enough time for bloodshot eyes and pounding headaches. Continue reading...

Supreme court says Russell Howarth used intimidating tactics and had financial motive for damaging Uber’s businessAn Australian man who performed citizen’s arrests on Uber drivers and was associated with a rival ride-sharing service “terrorised” drivers, a court has found, and has been permanently banned from making similar arrests.Russell Howarth has touted himself as an “Uber vigilante” campaigning against the company’s “cartel-like” behaviour. From 2014 he gained notoriety from a series of “citizen’s arrests” on Uber drivers in Sydney he performed and filmed. Continue reading...

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Forget clockwork mice. There’s a new range of gadgets for your cat to get its paws on, including ones to track it, feed it and even scoop up after itCats are relatively low-maintenance animals, though that won’t stop us from finding innovative ways to spend money on them. First they overran the internet; now they’ve come for the internet of things: the market is littered with toys, cameras, and camera-toys. Even some of the more basic items – food bowls, litter trays – apparently need a power supply now. But is this stuff really useful? Or are companies merely playing on the vulnerabilities of doting pet owners, such as myself? We tested a few gadgets with the reluctant help of my ageing cat, Toby. Continue reading...

Congress voted to allow internet service providers to sell your browsing habits to advertisers, but there are a number of options for protecting your historyCongress voted this week to allow internet service providers to sell the browsing habits of their customers to advertisers. The move, which critics charge will fundamentally undermine consumer privacy in the US, overturns Obama-era rules issued last October designed to give people more control over their personal data.

Digital service will let motorists view a ‘representation’ of their licence, but DVLA stresses it will not replace plastic licenceMotorists could be allowed to have their driving licence on their phones by 2018, according to the government agency developing the plans.The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) said a test system would be in place by September this year and that it would develop a “quick, easy and secure” service between April and March 2018. It wants the digital service to allow people to share and validate information with “trusted” third parties, although stressed that the new system will not replace existing plastic licences. Continue reading...

Industry trade body Ukie found 57% of games companies employ workers from the EU, and many are assessing their future in UKTwo fifths of games companies based in the UK are considering relocating out of the country in the wake of Brexit, a survey has found.The primary concern across the industry is over a loss in international talent from EU countries creating a skills shortage which 40% say could make them move some or all of their operations. Ukie, the industry trade body that carried out the research, found 57% of UK games companies employ workers from the EU, and that at those companies EU workers represent an average one third of all employees. Continue reading...

Password manager security flaw found by researcher from Google, prompting fears sophisticated hackers might be able to exploit itPassword manager LastPass is advising users to avoid using its browser plugins while it battles to fix a “major architectural problem”, which could allow an attacker to steal passwords or execute code.The vulnerability was discovered by Tavis Ormandy, a security researcher at Google, who tweeted about its existence over the weekend. Keeping with responsible disclosure norms, Ormandy did not publicly state how the bug is exploited, and informed LastPass of its existence. Continue reading...

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Company pledged to measure diversity after a wave of scrutiny, but numbers reveal its tech leadership team is entirely white and Asian, and 88.7% menUber released its first diversity report on Tuesday, fulfilling a pledge made last month amid a storm of allegations about workplace sexual harassment and gender discrimination.The numbers reveal a workforce that is overwhelmingly made up of white or Asian men. Just 15.4% of the tech staff are women, while blacks and Latinos account for 1% and 2.1% of tech staff, respectively. Continue reading...

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Workplace sexism row continues at taxi-hailing company with HR complaint from female manager

Critics say home secretary’s demand for access to encrypted messaging to thwart attacks is unrealistic and disproportionateAmber Rudd has called for the police and intelligence agencies to be given access to WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging services to thwart future terror attacks, prompting opposition politicians and civil liberties groups to say her demand was unrealistic and disproportionate.The home secretary said it was “completely unacceptable” that the government could not read messages protected by end-to-end encryption and said she had summoned leaders of technology companies to a meeting on Thursday 30 March to discuss what to do. Continue reading...

Messaging app forecast to attract revenues of $3bn a year by 2019 by attracting hard-to-reach youth marketSnapchat could become more popular with advertisers than Twitter, Yahoo and AOL within three years, with the messaging app company forecast to bring in revenues of more than $3bn (£2.4bn) a year before the end of 2019.That bullish forecast is based on advertisers targeting the youth audience that the disappearing photo app has seemingly cornered. More than half (51%) of video users on Snapchat are under 24, compared with 23% for Facebook and 17% for Google’s YouTube, according to Ampere Analysis. Continue reading...

Company removes all self-driving cars from road in three states pending further investigation into Volvo SUV collisionUber has suspended its fleet of self-driving cars while it investigates a crash in Arizona involving one of its vehicles.

It harks back to that 80s principle that being a bit uncomfortable might do some family members a bit of goodAh, the Fiat Tipo: they call it a multijet lounge, which gave me distinctly mixed messages. Did it want to jet, or did it want to lounge? Did I want to sit in it, or did I want to race? The cabin is spacious but beset with tiny inconveniences. The gear housing was a bit lax, so when you put it in neutral, it would transpire you’d left it in second. You could never catch it in the act, so you never knew whether it was your fault, and had to fall back on “But this has never happened to me in any other car”, like a bad relationship.The frame design is strange, with big wedges of plastic at the back; if you parked on a curve, the road was effectively all blind spot. There was a lot of red styling going on in the binnacles, which made me feel a little alarmed, as if I was being told something important in a dream. The cabin did not make me feel special: the screen was diddy and hard to read; the bits where you keep things were not where my hand wanted them to be. Continue reading...

Grindr’s “gaymoji” (Pass notes, G2, 22 March) serve as an unfortunate reminder of the widespread conflation of being gay and being promiscuous – one that causes thousands of gay people, particularly men, across the world to believe that their homosexuality forces them to constantly have sex with strangers. Grindr is free to create all the sexual emojis it wishes, but it is colluding in a societal deception that prevents gay people from forming real relationships; that makes thousands of teenage boys weep with fear and sadness because they believe they have no choice but to follow this form of living that masquerades as “gay culture”. As a 17-year-old gay boy, I hope to join those demonstrating that this is emphatically not the case, and I hope that others of whatever orientation can realise the same.

From Maps to Instagram, Uber to Snapchat – the top 10 app developments which have been copied, adopted or simply absorbed into everything else

Workers in wholesale and retail sectors at highest risk from breakthroughs in robotics and artificial intelligence, PwC report findsMore than 10 million UK workers are at high risk of being replaced by robots within 15 years as the automation of routine tasks gathers pace in a new machine age.A report by the consultancy firm PwC found that 30% of jobs in Britain were potentially under threat from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI). In some sectors half the jobs could go. Continue reading...

EE has told Duncan and other readers it’s closing email addresses that some have been using for almost 20 years. Where should they go now?Many of us have been using Orange/Freeserve/Wanadoo email accounts since they were introduced about 20 years ago. Now BT/EE plans to shut them down at the end of May 2017.Many businesses were built on the back of these addresses, and large investments made using their contact information in brochures, product literature, business cards, letterheads etc. Having started to work out a migration plan, I realise I shall have to invest a substantial amount of time and money to move to a new email address. I also need a new account that allows me to download, archive and work offline with a suitable email client.Dixons launched Freeserve in 1998, and it was subsumed into France Télécom’s Wanadoo in 2000. Then France Télécom bought Orange UK, and changed its branding to Orange SA. In 2010, Orange UK merged with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile UK to become EE (Everything Everywhere). Finally, BT bought EE for £12.5bn, completing the deal in January 2016.

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A captivating exploration of transhumanism features cryonics, cyborgs, immortality and the hubris of Silicon ValleyMax More runs Alcor, an American company which, in exchange for $200,000, will store your corpse in liquid nitrogen until the science exists to revive you. Tim Cannon is a computer programmer who implanted a device the size of a pack of cards into his arm, without the aid of anaesthetics. Zoltan Istvan recently ran for US president and publicised his campaign by driving across the country in a huge vehicle modified to look like a coffin.These are among the unusual individuals Mark O’Connell interviews in his travelogue-style exploration of transhumanism, the movement that campaigns for the direct incorporation of technology into our bodies and minds, and strives to remove ageing as a cause of death. “What are my chances, would you say, of living to a thousand?” the author asks Aubrey de Grey, an established figure in this strange world: “I would say perhaps a little better than fifty-fifty,” is the serious reply. “It’s very much dependent on the level of funding.” Continue reading...

Problems are inevitable in a game of such epic proportions but there is a lot here that will make you want to keep playing

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Inconsistencies behind the company’s ability to police advertising on controversial content are coming to light

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