Technology | The Guardian

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

Chief executive Elon Musk shows off image of new car and semi-truck, and gets ready for mass-market electric vehiclesTesla’s chief executive Elon Musk has given preview of its upcoming Model Y small SUV and a so far nameless electric truck, as it prepares to deliver its first cheaper Model 3 electric saloons.During the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting, Musk released a teaser image of the Model Y, which will be available in the 2019-2020 time frame and follow on from its larger SUV, the Model X. Musk said the Model Y would use a new platform building on the improvements made to existing models. Continue reading...

The death of wired keyboards, less integration with Facebook and Twitter on iOS 11, and a £29 pencil case. Here’s what they didn’t tell youNot everything Apple introduces at WWDC gets a big announcement on stage. Sometimes there are positive things that just aren’t big enough for a fancy executive to spend 30 seconds talking about; sometimes there are good changes that are just a little too copycat for Apple to want people to notice; and sometimes things get a little worse, for various reasons.Here are some of the biggest changes that you won’t have heard about. Continue reading...

Countries say ties will not be restored until Gulf state breaks links with extremists while UAE threatens jail for sympathisersSaudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have increased the pressure on Qatar, insisting diplomatic and economic relations would not be restored until the tiny Gulf state breaks all links with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Iran.The Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, who is due in Berlin for talks with his German counterpart on Wednesday, said it was up to Qatar, which denies funding extremist groups, to take action to relieve a block on air, sea and land links with its neighbours.

As excitement builds for the biggest hype-fest in gaming, here are the new titles we’re most looking forward to seeing more ofEvery year the video game industry debates the ongoing relevance of E3, its most famous hype-disseminating event. With the business changing so fast, with our new era of digital distribution, YouTube influencers and “games as services”, do we really need a mammoth meet-up at the Los Angeles convention centre? Then every year, as June gets closer, the excitement builds.So a week before E3 2017 kicks off, here are the titles we’re most excited to see and maybe even play. Continue reading...

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

Company has been taking steps to change culture following scandals that appeared to demonstrate aggressive business practices and a toxic workplaceUber has fired more than 20 employees after a company investigation into sexual harassment claims and workplace culture.The terminations were announced at a company-wide meeting on Tuesday, details of which were first leaked to and reported by the New York Times and Bloomberg News. Uber confirmed the departures to the Guardian. Continue reading...

DoJ says in criminal complaint Reality Winner admitted to leaking document that revealed Russian hacking of US voting systems manufacturer before electionReality Winner, the woman alleged to have leaked classified information about Russian interference in the US election, could face up to 10 years in prison if the Trump administration pursues its complaint that she violated the Espionage Act.The 25-year-old allegedly shared documents that reveal Russian intelligence agents hacked a US voting systems manufacturer in the weeks immediately before the 2016 presidential election. Continue reading...

The barring of a non-terrorist group for ‘terrorist activity’ sparks debate – again – about how overloaded moderators can handle content fairly and accuratelyFacebook censored a group of supporters of Chechen independence for violating its community standards barring “organizations engaged in terrorist activity or organized criminal activity”, the latest example of the social network mistakenly censoring government dissidents.The Facebook group, Independence for Chechnya!, was “permanently deleted” by Facebook in late May, according to the group administrator, an Estonian human rights activist who asked to be identified by her initials, MP. She said she was “shocked” when she received a message from Facebook informing her of the deletion. “We do not support terror,” MP said. “We support [a] political[ly] legal way for returning Chechen independence.” Continue reading...

Labour makes up 62% of specific party references on platform, while proportion of links to professional news sites rises – but so do those to fake newsContent about Labour is dominating Twitter in the run-up to the general election, according to a new study from the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute.The researchers, who have been tracking the changes in activity over time, looked at traffic on Twitter over the final week of May to identify trends around political engagement, ultimately cataloguing almost 2.5m tweets spread over a number of election-related hashtags. Continue reading...

Internet safety should be treated like road safety and caution with strangers as new figures show frequency of exposure to inappropriate content, says children’s charityA leading charity has urged parents to do more to keep their children safe online as new figures reveal how often young people are exposed to violence, hatred, sexual content, bullying and other inappropriate content when using the internet.Amanda Azeez, associate head of child safety online at the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), said parents should have regular, open conversations with their children about their online lives, and discuss basic safety in the same way they are also are taught how to cross the road and not to talk to strangers.

Exclusive: Etsy, Kickstarter and other leading companies to fight FCC plans to neuter 2015 rules in July protest backed by ACLU, Greenpeace and moreSome of the world’s largest internet companies are planning a day of action in defense of open internet rules now under attack by the Trump administration.Amazon, Etsy, Kickstarter, Mozilla and Vimeo all intend to hold a day of protest on 12 July in opposition to plans by Donald Trump’s newly appointed telecoms regulator to neuter tough 2015 rules meant to protect “net neutrality” – the concept that all traffic should be equal online. Continue reading...

Prosecutors say federal contractor printed classified document detailing how Russia hacked voting equipment vendor and was trying to breach local systemsThree days before Americans voted last November, Reality Winner joked with her sister online that Moscow’s efforts to influence the US presidential election could have an upside for her as a keen weightlifter.Related: Russian agents hacked US voting system manufacturer before US election – report Continue reading...

Smart speaker announced along with new iMac Pro coming in December while iMacs and MacBook Pros get immediate spec bumpsApple is launching a smart home speaker called HomePod to compete with the Amazon Echo and Google Home devices, the company revealed at its annual worldwide developer conference.Related: iMac Pro: Apple launches powerful new desktop – starting at $4,999 Continue reading...

Apple announces new $5,000 desktop computer, spec bumps to the iMac, and watchOS, iOS and Mac updates at San Jose conference

Chief technology officer among those accused of trying to push out co-founder and give investors control of company behind Just Mayo eggless mayonnaiseThe billion-dollar Silicon Valley food startup Hampton Creek fired three of its top employees on Monday amid accusations they were engaged in a coup meant to take control from its co-founder and hand it to investors.The company behind the popular Just Mayo eggless mayonnaise spread and other products wrote to staff Monday to inform them that Jim Flatt, the chief technology officer; Lee Chae, vice-president of research and development; and Sofia Elizondo, vice-president of business development, were out after an internal investigation. There is no suggestion that any of the individuals were doing anything illegal. Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom has been waiting in the wings for years as lieutenant governor. Now his campaign to lead the state is taking on its golden industry: techThe graduating computer science students at the University of California at Berkeley had just finished chuckling at a joke about fleets of “Google buses, Facebook shuttles and Uber-copters” lining up to whisk them them to elite jobs in Silicon Valley. The commencement ceremony for a cohort of students who, one professor confided, were worth around $25bn was a feel-good affair.Until, that is, Gavin Newsom took to the lectern and burst the bubble. Continue reading...

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

Exclusive: ACCC claims staff wrongly told iPhone customers they were not entitled to free replacements or repair if device had been taken to unauthorised third partyAustralia’s consumer watchdog carried out a sting operation against Apple which it says caught staff repeatedly misleading iPhone customers about their legal rights to a free repair or replacement after a so-called “error 53” malfunction, court documents reveal.

After London Bridge the prime minister has wheeled out the usual scapegoat, and demanded controls on cyberspace – but that would open a Pandora’s boxWe can feel pretty certain that the London Bridge attackers did the following things: owned smartphones; and used Google, YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. That isn’t because owning those things and using those services marks you out as a terrorist: it’s because it marks you out as someone living in the west in the 21st century.The problem, as those companies (actually only two: Google owns YouTube, and Facebook owns WhatsApp) are discovering, is that politicians aren’t too picky about the distinction. Speaking outside 10 Downing St this morning, Theresa May was much more aggressive in her tone than previously. The London Bridge attack had its roots in Islamic extremism, she observed: “We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed. Yet that is precisely what the internet, and the big companies that provide internet-based services, provide.” She continued: “We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremism and terrorism planning.” Continue reading...

Many are concerned about the internet’s role in politics. But more worrying is the digital tsunami poised to engulf us, as machine intelligence and a rising tech elite radically restructure life as we know itThose who mistakenly thought 2016 was an anomaly, a series of unprecedented events, should have few remaining doubts. Marine Le Pen may have stuttered but still picked up almost 11 million votes. Her opponent, the “normal” candidate, was leader of a party only one year old. The ongoing terror attacks, fake news panic, Trump’s tweets and James Comey: last year never really ended, it just carried straight on into this one.After decades of exaggerated prediction, the internet is finally transforming politics, but not in the way the digital prophets expected. The 90s, you may recall, were awash with optimism about our online future: limitless information and total connection would make us more informed, less bigoted and kinder citizens. But the internet is an overwhelming mess of competing facts, claims, blogs, data, propaganda, misinformation, investigative journalism, charts, different charts, commentary and reportage. It’s not the slow and careful politicians who have thrived in this busy environment, it’s the people with the shareable cut-through messages. Donald Trump might very well be the first truly social-media politician: his emotion-filled, simplistic blasts are perfect for the medium. Continue reading...

Online retailers are increasingly using your personal data to decide how much to charge you. And high-street shops are about to get in on the actIn 1861 a shopkeeper in Philadelphia revolutionised the retail industry. John Wanamaker, who opened his department store in a Quaker district of the city, introduced price tags for his goods, along with the high-minded slogan: “If everyone was equal before God, then everyone would be equal before price.” The practice caught on. Up until then high-street retailers had generally operated a market-stall system of haggling on most products. Their best prices might be reserved for their best customers. Or they would weigh up each shopper and make a guess at what they could afford to pay and eventually come to an agreement.Wanamaker’s idea was not all about transparency, however. Fixed pricing changed the relationship between customer and store in fundamental ways. It created the possibilities of price wars, loss leaders, promotional prices and sales. For the first time people were invited to enter stores without the implied obligation to buy anything (until then shops had been more like restaurants; you went in on the understanding that you wouldn’t leave without making a purchase). Now customers could come in and look and wander and perhaps be seduced. Shopping had been invented. Continue reading...

Ghost in the machine: BMW’s wonderfully realised 3-Series iPerformance hybrid puts Martin Love in mind of an old friendPrice: £34,475

Anthony Barrs and Baiyu Chen’s Hyperlane system proposes clusters of self-driving cars zipping past local traffic at 100mph, controlled by a central computerThese days there are so many self-driving cars coming down the pipeline it seems inevitable they’ll soon be stuck in a robot traffic jam – just like the human-piloted cars of today. Well, not if Anthony Barrs and Baiyu Chen get their way.The two graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, have devised a system that would have tightly-packed clusters of autonomous vehicles zipping past local traffic at speeds of more than 100mph, all on existing roadways. They call it Hyperlane, and it works a lot like high-speed toll lanes already do, only with a central computer controlling everything. Continue reading...

It looks as though a super-talented designer were trying to please a millionaire’s 12-year-oldPeople talk about “iconic styling” and I’ve finally worked out what it means: a car that looks like itself, and no other car, and has done for a long time. It must wax and wane, from compliment to insult, the way the popularity of a thing will when it makes not-changing its USP. Certainly, the Mini Clubman has its signature snout, but there is no way to adjudicate on whether it’s chic or twee: that would depend on your mood. The most distinctive of all the Clubman’s idiosyncrasies is that back end, with the barn door-style opening. It’s cute, like a wendy house made of car, but it is the devil to park. There you are, imagining yourself in a miniature vehicle, yet you can’t get into a space you’d have had a shot at in a Passat. And the boot is quite high, so it’s not the easiest fit for anything heavy or bulky.It has the heft and width of a BMW 2-Series Active Tourer, because that’s essentially what it is: some theorise that it’s an entry-level beemer, in a cunning disguise, from a firm that doesn’t want to diminish the big-boy brand with an affordable way in. The evidence against this theory is that it’s not actually much cheaper, and I prefer the notion that it’s for a would-be BMW owner who doesn’t yet want to grow up. Continue reading...

The Russian president says the US needs a ‘pill’ to deal with the allegations that Moscow interfered with last year’s presidential election. Speaking at the St Petersburg economic forum on Friday, Putin compares what he sees as the Clinton campaign’s insistence that ‘the Russians are guilty’ to antisemitism and says ‘they will not end up with anything good’

Bezos, whose wealth has risen by $20bn in five months, could take Bill Gates’s crown within days if Amazon shares keep soaringJust a few dollars more on the Amazon share price and the world will have a new richest man. Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder, is on the brink of overtaking Bill Gates to become the wealthiest person on the planet.Bezos, 53, has been having a very good year. His net worth has risen by almost $20bn (£16bn) in the past five months to $85.2bn, putting him just behind Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, who is valued at $89.3bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Continue reading...

Guests with blindness, cerebral palsy, dwarfism and spinal injuries were refused at higher rates, sometimes when homes were advertised as wheelchair accessibleAirbnb hosts routinely reject guests with disabilities, sometimes when they have even advertised their homes as wheelchair accessible, according to a new study that adds to growing concerns about discrimination in the sharing economy.A Rutgers University study of nearly 4,000 requests for lodging on the home-sharing platform found that guests with blindness, cerebral palsy, dwarfism and spinal cord injury were refused at rates higher than people without disabilities. In some instances, hosts who claimed that their homes were accessible were also more likely to approve guests without disabilities, according to the research published Friday. Continue reading...