Technology | The Guardian

Britain’s record on employing female engineers is worst in Europe, says Hayaatun Sillem, CEO of the Royal Academy of EngineeringThe failure of British engineering companies to increase the proportion of women they employ above 10% is a source of embarrassment, one of the profession’s leading figures has said.Hayaatun Sillem, chief executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said the gender imbalance was particularly frustrating given the significant progress made by other countries and in professions like law and medicine. Continue reading...

It’s years since Silicon Valley gave us a game-changer. Instead, from curing disease to colonies on Mars, we’re fed overblown promisesBack in 1999, Google hit 1bn searches a year. Wifi began to make an impact about two years later. Thanks to the pioneers of Facebook and Twitter, the age of mass social media dawned between 2004 and 2006 – and non-stop posting, messaging and following was soon enabled by the iPhone, launched in 2007. These things have changed the world and, in hindsight, the way they became ubiquitous had a powerful sense of inevitability. But the revolution they represented is old now, and nothing comparable has come along for more than a decade.Despite this, a regular ritual of hype and hysteria is now built into the news cycle. Every now and again, at some huge auditorium, a senior staff member at one of the big firms based in northern California – ordinarily a man – will take the stage dressed in box-fresh casualwear, and inform the gathered multitudes of some hitherto unimagined leap forward, supposedly destined to transform millions of lives. (There will be whoops and gasps in response, and a splurge of media coverage – before, in the wider world, a palpable feeling of anticlimax sets in.) Continue reading...

Matt Hancock wants to rein in internet excess – just don’t ask him how it will work in realityTowards the end of the Conservatives’ 2017 general election manifesto was a largely overlooked chapter setting out the party’s stance on the future of the internet.

Last week it was revealed that Apple operates 55 driverless cars. What else is coming down the self-driving road?An Oxford University startup, Oxbotica, proposes to solve the problem of liability in a collision involving autonomous vehicles by allowing insurers access to the vast amounts of data the car generates, even allowing them to control a car in real time if it detects a dangerous situation. Continue reading...

The likable crossover has had a makeover. It’s not as extrovert as it used to be, but it still packs plenty of French flairCitroën Cactus

New laws will make Britain ‘safest place in the world’ to be online, culture secretary saysNew laws will be introduced to tackle the internet’s “wild west” that will make Britain the “safest place in the world” to be online, the culture secretary has said.Social media companies have already taken some positive steps to protect users, but the performance of the industry overall has been mixed, according to Matt Hancock. Continue reading...

The pop star is all the more human for swearing at a fan for changing his phone’s camera angleThere’s a short clip doing the rounds of Lana Del Rey posing for a selfie with a fan. All is polite until he tries to direct the shot by moving the phone towards, presumably, a more flattering angle. Anyone who has experienced the shock of opening the camera app to see myriad chins rather than a beautiful vista will understand his motivation. But Del Rey is not having it. “You know what? Fuck it,” she says abruptly and walks off.I feel for the fan, who looks shaken, but it made me like Lana Del Rey infinitely more. You hardly ever see bad behaviour from pop stars these days, thanks to a smartphone culture that monitors their every move – even Solange couldn’t smack Jay-Z in a hotel lift in privacy – so in that moment of frustration, she seemed less sad-chanteuse-bot, more worn-out human being. Continue reading...

Requiring companies to erase our information quarterly would offer us greater freedom online – without destroying profit marginsIt’s taken a long time, but people have finally discovered how much information companies like Google and Facebook have on them. We cannot keep sacrificing our privacy and dignity to continue using the internet. However, at the same time, new digital innovations that millions love and enjoy require our data. So what are we to do?The biggest issue with the software industry’s data collection is the span of time for which it hoards information. The industry simply does not believe in a delete button. For instance, Google has records of all my locations for the last six years, and Facebook has my deleted messages from nearly 10 years ago. Continue reading...

Health service joins UK firms in rushing to comply with new data protection rulesThe National Health Service is texting patients to warn they could lose alerts about hospital and doctor appointments, joining the deluge of more than 1bn “GDPR” messages currently hitting personal inboxes to meet an EU deadline this week.GDPR, which stands for General Data Protection Regulation, has been described as the biggest overhaul of online privacy since the birth of the internet, and comes into force on Friday May 25. It gives all EU citizens the right to know what data is stored on them and to have it deleted, plus protect them from privacy and data breaches. If companies fail to comply, they can be hit with fines of up to €20m (£17.5m) or 4% of global turnover.

After Yanny and Laurel, a new audio illusion is dividing the internet. This time, it was taken from a 2014 YouTube review of a children's toy. The toy is saying 'brainstorm', but many people are saying they can also hear 'green needle', depending on which word they concentrate on before hearing the sound. What do you hear? Continue reading...

The latest CoD instalment is ditching its Campaign mode and going multiplayer-only, taking lessons from Overwatch, Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s BattlegroundsThe latest title in the multimillion-selling Call of Duty series will abandon the once-staple single-player Campaign and add a Fortnite-style battle royale mode, Activision has revealed.At a unveiling event in Los Angeles on Thursday, the company showed off Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 for the first time, promising major changes to the franchise, now in its 15th year. The latest title in the Cold War conspiracy-fuelled Black Ops series will lose the futuristic elements of its predecessor with no wall-running or jetpacks, returning – like last year’s Call of Duty: WWII – to “boots on the ground” combat. Continue reading...

At the world’s largest blockchain conference, female leaders in the industry sought to shake off bitcoin’s boyish image

Original audio clip comes from vocabulary.com and features voice repeating one word – but which one do you hear?A short audio clip of a computer-generated voice has become the most divisive subject on the internet since the gold/blue dress controversy of 2015.The audio “illusion”, which first appeared on Reddit, seems to be saying one word – but whether that word is “Yanny” or “Laurel” is the source of furious disagreement. Continue reading...

Celia’s working day was almost ruined after she was caught out by an enforced update. Can she stop it happening again?Yesterday, I intended to take my laptop to visit a client, but when I was about to set off, yup, I couldn’t turn it off without allowing Microsoft to do its upgrades. We all know how long that takes, and I had a train to catch, so I ended up having to wing the whole presentation.

Digital laundering funds terror and will ‘double by 2020’ – and the UN’s anti-crime chief says it must be tackled“We all have a stake in stopping cybercrime, which also enables so many other crimes, from human trafficking and migrant smuggling to trafficking in drugs, illicit firearms and wildlife, and money laundering,” said Yury Fedotov, the director general at the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime, this week.States are meeting at the UNODC in Vienna to discuss criminal justice responses to prevent and counter cybercrime, which uses new technologies to generate some $1.5tn in revenue per year, with a rapidly increasing amount laundered via equally cutting-edge digital methods that often avoid detection. Continue reading...

The Xbox adaptive controller features two large buttons for hands, elbows or feet, as well as 19 ports to accommodate extra devices including mouth-operated ‘sip and puff’ quadsticksMicrosoft is launching a new Xbox controller, developed to meet the needs of people with disabilities.Set for release later this year, the Xbox adaptive controller is a customisable device intended to support a wide range of needs and disabilities, making video games more accessible. It will retail for $99 (£73.50) and will be sold worldwide via Microsoft digital stores. Continue reading...

Policy change designed to help verify identity has sparked a backlash by inadvertently excluding undocumented Americans

Smart speakers influence debate about switching off analogue signal in UKThe popularity of Amazon’s Echo smart speakers has helped push the audience for digital radio past that of FM and AM in the UK for the first time. The milestone, which was reached in the first quarter of this year, could prompt the government to launch a review to evaluate whether it should switch off the FM signal.Digital, which covers listening via digital audio broadcasting (DAB) sets in homes and cars, televisions and through services such as Echo, hit a record share of 50.9% of all radio listening in the three months to March. Continue reading...

But resolution requires passage in House and Trump’s signature – an unlikely outcome before FCC’s repeal goes into effect in JuneAdvocates for net neutrality won a symbolic victory Wednesday when the Senate voted 52-47 to preserve Obama-era regulations that require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally.But the resolution also requires passage by the Republican-controlled House and Donald Trump’s signature to be enacted – an unlikely outcome before the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules goes into effect next month. Continue reading...

David William Hall, 72, charged with improper use of a public electronic communications network

Facebook chief’s closed-door meeting with MEPs will be seen as snub to UKMark Zuckerberg has agreed to appear before the European parliament at a closed-door meeting possibly as soon as next week, according to the parliament president, Antonio Tajani.The Facebook founder’s decision to meet MEPs will be seen as a snub to the UK parliament. British MPs have asked him to appear to explain the company’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal where the personal data of tens of millions of people was used without their permission.

Chinese company launches flagship smartphone complete with headphone jack, but iPhone X-style notch won’t please everyoneWith the new OnePlus 6 the Chinese upstart smartphone manufacturer wants to steal people away from Apple, offering an iPhone X-like smartphone complete with “notch” for less than half the price.

Websites are desperately trying to maintain their links to users before the 24 May deadline, when consumers rather than companies will be in charge of personal data‘Hey there Field Left Blank. So listen, budski, my man, my main man ... I know we’ve been sending you spammy emails about cheap holiday deals five days a week. For the last five years. Yeah, maybe we took a few liberties with that. Mistakes were made. IDK. But I’m here, today, to tell you we value you as a customer, Field Left Blank. So .... um, was wondering, would you be interested in maybe opting in? Please. Please?”So goes every third email in your inbox this week, as a change in the law heads towards its final 24 May deadline, with even such well-established email beggars as the Guardian getting in on the act. But what exactly is GDPR? Continue reading...

Google partially rolls back feature that removes loud and unwanted videos after complaints from users and developersGoogle has partially rolled back Chrome’s blocking of autoplaying video with sound after it was found to break a large collection of web apps and games.

Social network categorises users based on inferred interests such as Islam or homosexualityFacebook allows advertisers to target users it thinks are interested in subjects such as homosexuality, Islam or liberalism, despite religion, sexuality and political beliefs explicitly being marked out as sensitive information under new data protection laws.The social network gathers information about users based on their actions on Facebook and on the wider web, and uses that data to predict on their interests. These can be mundane – football, Manhattan or dogs, for instance – or more esoteric. Continue reading...

Ride-hailing service previously forced those making allegations to go to private arbitrationUber will stop forcing women who say they were sexually assaulted by drivers to resolve claims in secret outside of court, ending a controversial practice that critics said silenced victims.Under a new policy announced on Tuesday, Uber said it would allow US riders and drivers to file allegations of rape, sexual assault and harassment in courts and mediation instead of being locked into arbitration, a private process that often results in confidentiality agreements. Continue reading...

Warning issued after council votes for corporate wealth tax to help tackle city’s housing crisisAmazon has threatened to move jobs out of its hometown of Seattle after the city council introduced a new tax to try to address the homelessness crisis.

Can Jurassic World Evolution break the curse of the terrible licensed movie-game?The perennial failure of video-game movies to capture the magic of their source material has been a hot topic this year – though as well as the boring new cinematic outing for Tomb Raider, 2018 has given us two qualified successes in the form of Ready Player One and Rampage, which suggests some improvement might be on the cards.Historically, video games based on movies have also been disappointingly rubbish. When developers known for their work-for-hire efficiency rather than their specialised talents are given mere months to piece together a game to tie in with a theatrical release, it’s perhaps unreasonable to expect much. Continue reading...

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It’s not as if the tech hasn’t shown promise, but jet propulsion has never become part of our daily lives. Here’s whyThose of a certain age may remember the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. As Rafer Johnson lit the eternal flame, a man strapped into a rocket-propelled backpack launched himself across the arena above the ticker tape and balloons, landing gracefully on the track before a TV audience of 2.5 billion.It was a moment of triumph seeming to herald a new age in which, finally, teased for decades by Buck Rogers’ “degravity belt” and King of the Rocketmen, we’d all soon be fizzing off to work with our own personal jetpacks. Even Isaac Asimov confidently predicted that by the turn of the century, they would be “as common as a bicycle”.

Driver of Model S, which failed to stop at a red light and collided with a firetruck in Utah, told investigators she was using the semi-autonomous systemThe driver of a Tesla car that failed to stop at a red light and collided with a firetruck told investigators that the vehicle was operating on “autopilot” mode when it crashed, police said.A Tesla Model S was traveling at 60mph when it collided with the emergency vehicle in South Jordan, Utah, on Friday, causing minor injuries to both drivers, officials said Monday. The Tesla driver’s claim that the car was using the autopilot technology has raised fresh questions about the electric car company’s semi-autonomous system, which is supposed to assist drivers in navigating the road. Continue reading...

Most live-streamed footage is of affluent young white girls in their own homes, says IWFChildren are being coerced and blackmailed into live-streaming their own sexual abuse from their own homes, researchers have found.The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which carried out the study, says that large numbers of victims are white girls apparently from relatively affluent backgrounds, often streaming from their bedroom. Their profile contrasts markedly with that of typical offline abuse victims who are often homeless or poor, it points out. Continue reading...

After Cambridge Analytica fallout, the company is investigating apps that had access to large amounts of data before 2014Facebook said it had suspended roughly 200 apps as part of its investigation into the potential misuse of personal data on the social network, the latest fallout from the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.In an announcement on Monday, the company also said that it had investigated thousands of apps two months after reporting by the Observer and the Guardian revealed that millions of Americans’ personal data was harvested from Facebook and improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy. Continue reading...

In five years, online membership service Patreon has attracted two million patrons supporting 100,000 ‘creators’ to the tune of $350m – including nearly $1m a year for rightwing psychologist Jordan Peterson. So what’s the secret of its success?

Former Google robotics outfit Boston Dynamics announces 30kg quadruped will be available to buy for an as yet unknown priceFormer Google robotics outfit Boston Dynamics, famed for its advanced humanoid and canine automatons, has announced that it will begin sale of its headless robotic SpotMini next year.At a robotics conference in California, the company’s founder Marc Raibert announced that the slightly creepy SpotMini was currently in pre-production and scheduled for large-scale production and general availability from middle of 2019. Continue reading...

Plaintiffs complain of frustration at design that has left keys prone to becoming stuck, leaving laptops unusableApple is facing a class action lawsuit over the design of its MacBook and MacBook Pro keyboards which, consumers complain, has keys that are prone to becoming stuck.The lawsuit follows a litany of complaints across user forums, specialist media and a petition with over 21,000 signatures urging Apple to recall the Mac laptops released since late 2016. Continue reading...

Australians are reportedly paying their telco providers for the data harvested by tech giantThe Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will investigate reports Google harvests huge amounts of data from Android phones, including detailed location information, after the software company Oracle revealed Google could be harvesting a gigabyte of data from devices each month.Not only does data transfer raise new privacy concerns for the 10 million Android users in Australia but they are also reportedly paying their telco providers to send the data. If it is in the vicinity of the gigabyte a month Oracle estimates, it is likely costing millions. Continue reading...

Digital Rights Watch warns of ‘systematic and wilful degradation of our human rights online’

William Blake | Art and the CIA | Grenfell inquiry | Neanderthal brains | Predictive textI am as appalled as the other artists and arts lovers and activists who have expressed their concern about the philistine taboo on arts and creative subjects in the new English baccalaureate for secondary school children (Letters, 10 May). As William Blake pointed out, “Nations are destroy’d or flourish, in proportion as their Poetry, Painting, and Music are destroy’d or flourish.”

Volvo’s chunky little crossover has a big future ahead of itVolvo XC40

MPs’ frustrations grow as new evidence in America reopens the issue of Kremlin influenceMike Schroepfer, Facebook’s chief technology officer, was the second executive Facebook offered up to answer questions from parliament’s select committee for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).He took his place in the hot seat in the wake of the first attendee, Simon Milner, Facebook’s (now ex-) head of policy for Europe, who answered a series of questions about Cambridge Analytica’s non-use of Facebook data that came back to haunt the company in the furore that followed the Observer and New York Times revelations from Christopher Wylie. Continue reading...

Georgina Chapman | In the Night Garden | Smart Compose | Philip K Dick | SuguruNo criticism of Georgina Chapman (‘I was so humiliated and so broken’, 11 May), but of the Guardian. Again you show an unhealthy interest in fashonista celebrity and weight loss – “the British fashion designer describes how she lost 10lbs in five days”, with an accompanying “Photograph: Annie Liebovitz for Vogue”. British or American? I’m sure your readers are desperate to know; and will you do an article on trauma weight loss?

US investigators recently tracked down the suspect of a 40-year-old murder case after uploading DNA to a genealogy website. Jordan Erica Webber weighs up the pros of finding ancestors with the cons of selling privacySubscribe and review: Acast, Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook, Twitter or email us at chipspodcast@theguardian.com.A former police officer called Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested in April in connection with a series of murders, rapes and burglaries attributed to an unknown assailant known as the Golden State Killer. Continue reading...

The app that analysed and scored users’ online followings has closed after 10 years – to make way for a tool that may cheapen social media even furtherName: Klout.Age: 10. Continue reading...

It’s taken three years for Boston Dynamics’ robot to be able to jog unaided outside, but now it can run across grass and leap over logsWith their advanced sensors, hiding from robots has never been an option, but running from their often plodding frames has been, until now. Atlas can now run after you.Three years ago former Google robotics outfit Boston Dynamics demonstrated its Terminator-like humanoid Atlas robot running through a forest tethered to a machine. Now that same hauntingly human robot can now run across and navigate uneven terrain unaided, bounding over the trickiest of obstacles … such as a log. Continue reading...

Plaintiffs claim social network’s ‘scraping’ of information including call recipients and duration violates privacy and competition lawFacebook is facing a class action lawsuit over the revelations that it logged text messages and phone calls via its smartphone apps.In the lawsuit filed in Facebook’s home of the northern district of California, the primary plaintiff, John Condelles III, states that the social network’s actions “presents several wrongs, including a consumer bait-and-switch, an invasion of privacy, wrongful monitoring of minors and potential attacks on privileged communications” such as those between doctor and patient. Continue reading...

The US firm Boston Dynamics has created a robot that can run autonomously and jump over obstacles, in this case a log. Other robots built by the company have been able to open doors and go down stairs Continue reading...

A fake Isis attack in an Iranian mall is the latest example of extreme YouTube pranks, a trend driven by American teensIt sounds like another terrifying story of insurgent terrorism in the Middle East: on Tuesday, men dressed in the black garb of the Islamic State stormed through a mall in Iran, brandishing swords and guns, shouting “Allahu Akbar”. Shoppers reportedly fled the scene in fear.It was reminiscent of the 2017 Tehran Isis attacks in which 17 people were killed. Except that the mall “attack” was actually a Punk’d style prank. The weapons were fake, and the presumed terrorists were actually actors. The whole incident was a piece of viral marketing for a film called Damascus Time about an Iranian father and son who are kidnapped by Isis. Some shoppers worked out what was going in and filmed the stunt on camera phones, but others can be heard screaming in terror. Continue reading...

Decision described as ‘hammer blow’ to west Ireland and comes before supreme court hearingApple is scrapping plans for an €850m (£743m) data centre in Ireland after three years of planning approval delays, the company has said.Plans for the European data centre were announced in February 2015, to be built in Athenry, County Galway, where green energy sources were available. The project was stalled by a series of planning appeals by conservationists seeking to preserve a forest. Continue reading...