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

Developer Insomniac previewed its forthcoming Marvel superhero spin-off at E3, but can it live up to brilliance of the first PlayStation classic?Spider-Man is Marvel’s most performative superhero. He uses the city like a stage, his movement is balletic and self-conscious, and there is a clear separation between the costumed hero and the child actor behind the mask. In a lot of ways, it’s the perfect dynamic for a video game – and in August 2000, Californian developer Neversoft realised this with absolute precision.Its Spider-Man title, released on the original PlayStation, was built around the same engine used in the groundbreaking skateboard sim Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. This gave the Marvel hero incredible freedom and manoeuvrability as he swooped over the streets of New York City, but it also accentuated the sheer fun and creativity of Spider-Man’s movement. Some 17-years later the Web Slinger is back with a similar concept, but in a very different era. This is the Marvel tie-in a heck of a lot of people have been waiting for. Continue reading...

At a meeting with top tech leaders Trump promised a transformation of outdated federal technology, which, astonishingly, still includes floppy disksDonald Trump called for “sweeping transformation of the federal government’s technology” during the first meeting of the American Technology Council, established by executive order last month.Eighteen of America’s leading technology executives – including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google parent Alphabet – convened at the White House Monday for the summit. Continue reading...

After years of refusing to let passengers tip through the app, Uber added tipping in three US cities after embattled CEO Travis Kalanick took a leave of absenceUber is adding tipping to its platform, addressing a longstanding complaint of drivers with a new feature rolled out one week after embattled CEO Travis Kalanick announced an indefinite leave of absence.The ride-hailing corporation launched tipping in Seattle, Minneapolis and Houston on Tuesday, with plans for an expansion to all US drivers by the end of July. The company had refused for years to allow passengers to tip through the app, one of many sources of frustration for drivers, who have repeatedly raised concerns about low wages and a lack of basic labor rights. Continue reading...

Warmongering football managers, a rampaging Cambridge professor, a ravenous space city, and a deep and meaningful round of golf … here are 10 great games to liven up your holidays

An anti-distraction campaigner has suggested draining the colour from your smartphone as a route to tranquility. But does it work?As someone who finds giving anything my continuous attention difficult, I’m always on the look-out for tips and tricks that can improve my concentration and render my digital life marginally less scatterbrained than normal. Continue reading...

Nine-country study finds widespread use of social media for promoting lies, misinformation and propaganda by governments and individualsPropaganda on social media is being used to manipulate public opinion around the world, a new set of studies from the University of Oxford has revealed.From Russia, where around 45% of highly active Twitter accounts are bots, to Taiwan, where a campaign against President Tsai Ing-wen involved thousands of heavily co-ordinated – but not fully automated – accounts sharing Chinese mainland propaganda, the studies show that social media is an international battleground for dirty politics. Continue reading...

Draft report from European parliament clashes with UK government calls to allow access to encrypted communications from WhatsApp and othersThe European Union is considering banning the implementation of so-called “backdoors” that allow the reading of encrypted messaging, a move that would place it in conflict with the UK government’s desire to have access to all secure communications.The draft report by the European parliament’s committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs says the data protection regulations have not kept pace with advances in technology and that amendments to the 2002 regulation on privacy and electronic communications (ePrivacy) are required. Continue reading...

Two primary coloured platform favourites return while elsewhere Destiny 2, Splatoon 2 and Call of Duty: WWII all make the cut in our best from the festActually playing video games at the E3 conference in Los Angeles proved a somewhat Herculean task this year. With over 65,000 attendees (15,000 more than 2016), grabbing hands-on time meant queuing for hours – and that’s if you could make it through the crowds to the relevant stands.Fortunately, it was frequently worth it: here are the most enjoyable demos we managed to experience amid the chaos. Continue reading...

Interconnected technology is now an inescapable reality – ordering our groceries, monitoring our cities and sucking up vast amounts of data along the way. The promise is that it will benefit us all – but how can it?• Read the text version hereSubscribe via Audioboom, iTunes, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Acast & Sticher and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter Continue reading...

Google announces four measures to tackle problem, including better detection and greater counter-radicalisation effortsGoogle has introduced four new measures to tackle the spread of terrorist material online, saying the threat poses a serious challenge and that more immediate action needs to be taken.It has pledged better detection of extremist content and faster review, more experts, tougher standards and an expansion of counter-radicalisation work. Continue reading...

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

The veteran fighting series reaches its peak, Dark Souls finds a fitting successor and Japan’s Sengoku era is the setting for some enticing hack and slashPS4, Xbox One, PC, Bandai Namco, cert 16, out now

Ben C Lucas’s innovative rumination on the pitfalls of technology has Hollywood appeal and features a darkly charismatic performance from Jessica De GouwIt is not uncommon for films about drug users to contain closeup shots of pupils dilating. This is hardly surprising given closeups of eyes have long been fashionable in cinema; the famous opening of Luis Buñuel’s 1929 classic Un Chien Andalou comes to mind. And after a hit of the good stuff, eyeballs look fabulous on screen, as films like Requiem for a Dream remind us.Australian writer/director Ben C Lucas’s sophomore feature, OtherLife, joins the crazy-eyed canon in its opening moments, peppered with near full-screen vision of a narcotic-infused peeper. Continue reading...

The burgeoning Instagram genre celebrates mishaps by Lycra bros clanking iron. But its popularity shines a light on our conflicted relationship with the gymFor most people, the most common #gymfail is merely the failure to turn up in the first place. For a precious few, however, it might be the sexually suggestive way they are misusing the rowing machine. Or how they’re lifted clean off the ground by putting 980kg on to the lats machine. Or that inevitable comedy staple, the pull-up bar malfunction.These mishaps and petty vanities form grist to the mill of the #gymfails subgenre, in which strange, unseen humans with phones take videos of calamitous gym accidents. On Instagram, IG Gym Fails boasts 1 million followers. IG Gym Fails and its many competitors do a lively business in pushing the flip-side to Instagram’s body-beautiful culture. They are joined by a YouTube community where gym-fails compilations can easily hit millions of views. Continue reading...

In an extract from his new book, Brian Merchant reveals how he gained access to Longhua, the vast complex where iPhones are made and where, in 2010, unhappy workers started killing themselvesThe sprawling factory compound, all grey dormitories and weather-beaten warehouses, blends seamlessly into the outskirts of the Shenzhen megalopolis. Foxconn’s enormous Longhua plant is a major manufacturer of Apple products. It might be the best-known factory in the world; it might also might be among the most secretive and sealed-off. Security guards man each of the entry points. Employees can’t get in without swiping an ID card; drivers entering with delivery trucks are subject to fingerprint scans. A Reuters journalist was once dragged out of a car and beaten for taking photos from outside the factory walls. The warning signs outside – “This factory area is legally established with state approval. Unauthorised trespassing is prohibited. Offenders will be sent to police for prosecution!” – are more aggressive than those outside many Chinese military compounds.But it turns out that there’s a secret way into the heart of the infamous operation: use the bathroom. I couldn’t believe it. Thanks to a simple twist of fate and some clever perseverance by my fixer, I’d found myself deep inside so-called Foxconn City. Continue reading...

If you are a farmer, a pick-up makes a lot of sense. If you’re not, it’s little better than a bull in a china shopPrice: £31,506

Uber has vowed a shakeup of its scandal-prone executive culture. But it’s drivers, often left destitute by car rentals and low pay, who are being shortchanged

Forget football, the world’s fastest-growing sport is live video gaming. But increasingly its impact is proving harmful to those involved

Lack of story and some dodgy characters don’t spoil this physical Switch game’s immensely playable coreThe premise of Arms requires a substantial suspension of disbelief. The characters in Nintendo’s new fighting game mostly seem to have ended up immersing themselves in this sport because their arms (or, in one case, hair), instead of regular arms, are capital-A Arms – springy and extendable and ending in interchangeable weaponry. This raises some questions: How do they eat? How do they pick their noses? How do they wipe?Of course, a game like this doesn’t need to make sense, and the marketing makes it clear that Nintendo is perfectly content with the ridiculousness of it all. But given the popularity of the Switch and the focus on multiplayer, Arms could become a hit with a huge online fanbase, and it’s a shame that the lore and characters are lacking the kind of treatment received by games like Overwatch. There will still be fan fiction and fan art, obviously, it just won’t be as compelling. Continue reading...

Hospitals with relationship to university suspend email servers in precautionary measure against phishing scamUniversity College London has been hit by a “major” ransomware attack which brought down its shared drives and student management system.The attack has also led to a number of hospital trusts suspending their email servers as a precautionary measure, in an attempt to prevent the repetition of last month’s damaging WannaCry epidemic. Continue reading...

Quantic Dreams’ new narrative video game imagines the consequences of relying on robots in a thrilling study of control, subservience and humanityIn the 1950s, Isaac Asimov imagined a future in which sentient robots are built to serve and protect humans, but end up doing the opposite. Almost seven decades later, artificial intelligence and robotics technologies have brought that scenario closer to the realms of possibility. Detroit: Become Human, a narrative adventure from experimental studio Quantic Dreams is the latest work to imagine the consequences of relying on such super smart machines.Set several years in the future, the game takes place in a world where androids have taken over most menial tasks and humans are figuring out what to do with all their leisure time. The major manufacturer of replicants, CyberLife, says its machines are safe and under control, and everyone is happy to trust them. But when a small group start to show human-like awareness, fear and resentment grow. Detroit: Become Human gives players control over several of these awakened droids as they form a kind of underground movement and start demanding some rights. Continue reading...

Emphasis on simulator work in motor sport means more drivers will emerge from the gaming scene – if they can conquer problems over the lack of ‘fear of death’When Lewis Hamilton looked to his future in Formula One in 2012 and decided to leave McLaren, the team with whom he had grown up and won his first world championship, the decision was roundly questioned. After securing two further titles for Mercedes, the move was regarded as inspired but predicting what is round the corner in motor racing has never been easy and, with F1 having just begun the process of reinvention under its new owners, the future is very much on the agenda.Many sports have faced new challenges and opportunities because of the extraordinary changes technological advances have wrought in the past two decades. But that is true of F1 perhaps more than most, the sport having stuck with a long outdated model that has increasingly failed to engage with a younger audience. If F1 and motor racing in general are to survive, doing so is crucial and it seems it is at the crossroads between the virtual world and the real that it is most likely to happen. Continue reading...

The ruling comes after seven-year legal battle and could lead to ISPs and governments blocking access to other torrent sites across EuropeThe European court of justice (ECJ) has ruled that BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay is directly infringing copyright, in a move that could lead to ISPs and governments blocking access to other torrent sites across Europe.

Mike and Joan are planning to buy their student granddaughter a laptop for university and would like some tips before they discuss it with herOur granddaughter is off to university this year and we will be buying her a laptop. We will discuss this with her, but some advice from you would be welcome. Mike and Joan Continue reading...

From Life is Strange: Before the Storm to Mario + Rabbids, here are the titles that most beguiled and surprised us at this year’s E3Before the giant E3 video game exhibition takes place every year, it is proceeded by a series of vast press events, where publishers hope to snag just a little of the world’s attention with their latest mega releases. Filling huge venues and live-streamed to a global audience of millions, these one-hour hype-fests can make all the difference between blockbusting success and ignoble failure.Here, then, are our 17 favourite announcements, culled from all the pre-E3 shows. We’ve stuck to games that were either revealed for the first time on stage, or were finally confirmed after months of gossip, leaks and rumours. These are the titles we want to discover more about at the show, and over the months to come. Continue reading...

The company typically releases security updates for operating systems it still supports – but in wake of serious cyber-attack it has reassessed the policyMicrosoft has released new security updates for older versions of Windows as it warns of potential cyber-attacks by government organisations.The patches include updates to Windows XP, the operating system that was targeted by the WannaCry ransomware attack in May that attacked parts of the NHS and other companies worldwide. Continue reading...

With all the ranting and raving, it’s easy to feel that sensible online debate is impossible. But people are watching, and sensible voices need to be heardQ: When someone posts something offensive or factually wrong on my social media feed, how obliged am I to wade in and correct them?A: There are words and aphorisms to describe doing nothing in the circumstance to which you refer. “Bystander syndrome” is one, the phenomenon of witnessing an attack, verbal or physical, and standing passively by. When I was at college, spotty men wielding clipboards would loiter outside the dining room on the day of student elections, informing their uninterested peers that “apathy led to the rise of Hitler”. These days, we are more likely to reach for a line sometimes attributed to the philosopher Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

New Windows variant delivers on speed, security and simplicity – but its limited Windows Store apps and awful Edge browser just don’t cut itWindows 10 S is the latest version of Microsoft’s new and improved operating system, which is about to launch with the new Surface Laptop and a series of machines from third-party manufactures.

In meeting on company culture, David Bonderman said there was ‘likely to be more talking’ when Arianna Huffington mentioned having more women onboardThe venture capitalist David Bonderman has resigned from Uber’s board of directors on Tuesday, after apologizing for making a sexist remark during an all-staff meeting earlier in the day about reforming the company’s culture.The resignation comes at a critical time for the nearly $70bn ride-hail company. On Tuesday, the CEO, Travis Kalanick, announced that he would take an indefinite leave of absence and the company released the results of an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and a toxic work environment. Continue reading...

Fake News Machine research comes amid increasing concern about hacking elections and the ways that fake news on social media has manipulated voters

Tim Cook confirms tech giant is working on ‘autonomous systems’, but is tight-lipped on whether it is making its own vehicleApple has shed new light on its top-secret driverless car project, as chief executive Tim Cook described the challenge of building autonomous vehicles as “the mother of all” artificial intelligence projects.Cook said Apple was ploughing resources into developing technology to control driverless vehicles, although he refused to rule out the Silicon Valley firm building its own car at some point. The Apple boss spoke as shares in his company and other US tech firms came under pressure this week amid investor concerns that a sector-wide boom is losing steam. Continue reading...

The youngest member of France’s new government is a self-taught digital guru from a poor immigrant family. He talks about how his Arab name harmed his CV, working in a call centre and how he foiled the cyber attack that threatened En Marche’s election hopesAt a crowded market in the shadow of towerblocks in north-eastern Paris, shoppers gather to take selfies with a smiling, slightly shy, young man in a business suit. “Mounir! A photo with my granny!” shouts one young woman, pushing forward an old lady in north African dress for a hug. “My daughter needs work experience, what do you suggest?” asked a father from the 10th floor of a high-rise, proud of the first child in the family to go to university.Mounir Mahjoubi, 33, is the youngest member of France’s new government and part of Emmanuel Macron’s inner circle. He is the computer brains and digital campaigner whose online strategy helped the independent centrist Macron secure a decisive presidential election win in May, and who worked to stem a vast hacking attack that hit the final days of the campaign. He is now being held up as one of the faces of the “Macron landslide” – a newcomer to parliamentary politics well-placed to win a seat in the final round of National Assembly elections on Sunday, when the president’s new centrist movement, La République En Marche, is on course to win one of the biggest majorities in the modern French state. Continue reading...

The multiplayer-only original disappointed many players. With a new story faithful to the Star Wars canon, can EA make amends this time around?Standing on the bridge of a Star Destroyer, Imperial squad commander Iden Versio does her best not to look too visibly shaken. After the Empire’s recent defeat at the Battle of Endor, its forces have been left scattered and leaderless, sending her elite commando unit to wait for orders on a nearby planet. Now, it looks like those orders have arrived. Slowly walking across the Destroyer’s intimidating deck, Versio finds herself face to face with an imperial commander – her father.Flanked by an ominous-looking member of the Emperor’s Royal Guard, the commander coldly reveals that The Empire has a mission for Iden’s squad. In an instant, Emperor Palpatine’s face flickers into life on the Royal Guard’s holographic visor, relaying his last recorded orders to The Empire. Instructed to initiate the supposedly fail-safe Operation Cinder as revenge for his death, a surprise Rebel attack interrupts Iden’s briefing before she can glean any more information. Jumping into a Tie Fighter, she goes to tackle the threat head on. Continue reading...

Cab company has approved recommendations to fight sexual harassment in firm, which some say is caused by the chief executive’s management styleThe future of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is hanging in the balance after the embattled cab company’s board voted to adopt a portfolio of recommendations to fight sexual harassment in the firm.Uber said its board had unanimously approved recommendations – which stem from a report prepared by former US attorney general Eric Holder after a sprawling, multi-month investigation into Uber’s cultures and practices – but declined to reveal what they were until after Uber employees have been told on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Taxi app service tight-lipped on Travis Kalanick leave of absence as it responds to accusations of culture of harassmentUber’s board of directors has adopted a series of recommendations about the company’s corporate culture from the former US attorney general Eric Holder, but it was silent late on Sunday on whether it would approve a leave of absence for the taxi-hailing app service’s embattled chief executive.A spokesman confirmed that the board met Holder and Tammy Albarrán, both partners with Covington & Burling LLP, a law firm hired to investigate complaints of widespread sexual harassment and other cultural problems at Uber. Continue reading...

There are design niggles that come from trying to do a tiny bit too much, the way a multitasker never quite finishes anythingMy abiding feeling about the Ssangyong Tivoli XLV is that it’s trying to convey quite a lot – dependability, maturity, affluence – at quite a low price. It’s the car Breaking Bad’s Walter White would have driven if he hadn’t got cancer and swapped teaching chemistry for cooking crystal meth. There are design niggles that come from trying to do a bit too much, the way a multitasker never quite finishes anything. The seatbelt alarm comes on with the engine, which makes you feel harassed just for getting in. There are two mysterious gaps in the boot floor, so stuff rolls underneath it and nestles around the spare wheel. I spent the whole week thinking, “I’m sure I had more onions”, until I finally lost two bottles of wine and investigated properly. The sound system is a bit tinny, while the cabin is alive with stitching and high contrasts, but feels as if you might flick something open and find it’s held together with gaffer tape.But once you had reconciled yourself to the interior, I think you’d become quite fond of it. The cabin is visually busy, but pulls off a rare combination, being intuitive yet novel; I think all European cars are secretly gunning to be like the VW, only more exciting. They didn’t get that memo in South Korea, and the result is ergonomic and distinctive. Continue reading...

Authorities uncover operation run by 20 employees of ‘outsourcing company’ that used internal tools to gather and sell data worth over £5.8mA massive underground criminal operation run by employees of an Apple “domestic direct sales company and outsourcing company” to steal and sell the private data of Apple users has been uncovered in China, according to authorities.Chinese law enforcement detained 22 people on suspicion of infringing the privacy of Apple users and illegally obtaining their digital personal information, according to local police in southern Zhejiang province.

Don’t fret too much about the impact of ‘technoference’ on your children – they can take a bit of vital parental texting in their strideI have written before in this column about how the use of information technology by children affects their psychology and socialisation, but I have not given much thought to the way the use of that same technology by their parents can also have an effect.Now a study in the Journal of Child Development suggests that “technology-based interruptions in parent–child interactions” – a phenomenon know as “technoference” – can also have a negative effect on children. This amounts to parents having their attention drawn away from their offspring by constantly accessing their phones and other devices. I have often seen this outside the school gates – parents, tapping at their phones while their children try to talk to them. Continue reading...

The singer’s return fills a blank space that has existed since she pulled her songs from streaming sites such as Spotify and Google Play in 2014Everything has changed: Taylor Swift’s back catalogue has reappeared on streaming services.Subscribers to Spotify, Google Play and Amazon Music can now stream the artist’s entire library, including her most recent album 1989, in an abrupt about-turn from her previous stance against free streaming services. Continue reading...

Following news that Travis Kalanick uses Uber’s lactation room to meditate, women share stories of finding men using the space for their own needsThere was a “lactation/quiet room” sign on the door and the room had been reserved for that purpose on the company calendar. So Hannah was surprised when she walked in to discover a male co-worker using the lactation room for a phone call.Related: Uber executive fired amid reports he obtained rape victim's medical records Continue reading...

Firm acquired by Japanese company was put up for sale in early 2016 after Google’s parent company cooled on its military connectionsGoogle’s parent company Alphabet has sold robotics firm Boston Dynamics to Japan’s Softbank for an undisclosed sum, over a year after putting it up for sale.As part of the deal, Softbank also purchased Schaft, a lesser known Alphabet robotics subsidiary. Continue reading...

The place to talk about video games and other things that matterIt’s Friday morning. I’ve been up all night. Let’s talk about the election. No sorry, video games. I meant video games. Continue reading...

Socially intelligent design is changing how writers approach interactive story-telling

Move targeting kingdom’s major broadcaster comes amid diplomatic standoff with fellow Arab statesPan-Arab satellite network al-Jazeera is fighting a large-scale cyber-attack but remained fully operational, a company source said on Thursday.“There were attempts made on the cybersecurity of al-Jazeera but we are combatting them,” said a senior employee who declined to be named. Continue reading...

Officer who ran investigation into rape of Delhi woman by Uber driver says he cannot understand how Eric Alexander got recordsAn Uber executive who reportedly obtained the medical records of a Delhi woman who was sexually assaulted by one of the company’s drivers would have had no legal reason to access the documents during the investigation or trial, according to the police officer who oversaw the case.Indian lawyers said Eric Alexander, the former president of Uber’s Asia-Pacific division, could have applied for access to the woman’s medical records after the verdict was delivered in 2015, but receiving permission would have been “highly unlikely” and strongly opposed by police. Continue reading...

An earlier answer endorsed some programs for people setting up a new Windows PC, but Joakim would like some suggestions for more seasoned usersI’m not a programmer, but I consider myself a bit more advanced than the person addressed in your answer to your article, Which programs should I install when setting up Windows 10? You mentioned Agent Ransack in the comments. Which other more advanced apps/programs would you recommend? Joakim Continue reading...

Shipbuilders and shipping firms believe autonomous ships will reduce accidents by removing potential for human errorCommercial drones and self-driving cars will soon be joined by fleets of autonomous cargo ships that navigate the world’s oceans using artificial intelligence.

In what’s been called ‘a stunning violation of privacy’, executive allegedly got victim’s records in India to scrutinize her story of being raped by an Uber driver