Technology | The Guardian

Artist James Bridle reveals his quest to trace the anonymous faces appearing on hoardings around our cities

As politicians lose the protection of Westminster’s IT security, hackers have increased opportunity to access sensitive data, say security researchers

Maere wants to replace her old mainstream Windows laptop with something similar, but not too expensive Continue reading...

Based on an old mechanical coin-op game, this is a quaint, challenging puzzler that works especially well on the Nintendo SwitchNintendo Switch owners should immediately add TumbleSeed to their collection. This mid-priced roguelike is available for PC, Mac and PS4, but both its aesthetic and its core mechanic fit particularly well on the Switch, especially in portable mode.Your goal is to move a seed up a procedurally generated mountain, but the mountain is full of holes and you can only move the seed with a stiff green vine that stretches horizontally across the whole screen, using the left and right analogue sticks to tilt each side up and down. The notion of using a horizontal bar to move a round object up a holey course might sound original, but it’s directly inspired by a 1983 mechanical arcade game called Ice Cold Beer (and, in fact, Shrek n’ Roll used a similar mechanic in 2007). Developer Benedict Fritz made a derivative digital prototype, designer Greg Wohlwend saw it on Vine, and the two teamed up to turn that simple project into a game. Continue reading...

Digital campaign experts have created program to allow voters to expose how political messages arrive in Facebook feedsA tool exposing how voters are targeted with tailored propaganda on Facebook has been launched in response to what is likely to be the most extensive social media campaign in general election history.Experts in digital campaigning, including an adviser to Labour in 2015, have designed a program to allow voters to shine a light into what they describe as “a dark, unregulated corner of our political campaigns”. Continue reading...

Revenue is up but sales of the popular product dipped, suggesting customers may be waiting for 10th-anniversary editionApple reported a surprise fall in iPhone sales for the second quarter on Tuesday, suggesting that customers had delayed purchases in anticipation of the 1oth-anniversary edition launch of the company’s core product.The company shipped 50.8m iPhones in the quarter ended 1 April, down from 51.2m shipped in the second quarter of 2016. Analysts on average had estimated iPhone sales of 52.27m, according to the financial data and analytics firm FactSet. This means that the iPhone’s return to growth following the launch of the iPhone 7 only lasted through the so-called holiday quarter at the end of 2016. Continue reading...

Tech company is disputing analysis that female engineers have code rejected 35% more than male engineers and said such leaks make it harder to hire womenFacebook is disputing a former employee’s analysis that female engineers have their code rejected 35% more than male engineers, telling employees internally that leaking such information damages its “recruiting brand” and makes it harder for the company to hire women.The original analysis, first reported by the Wall Street Journal and independently confirmed by the Guardian, was conducted by a longtime Facebook software engineer last year. The engineer studied the company’s code review process, looking at the number of times code was rejected, commented upon, or updated; how long it took for code to be accepted; and demographic data about the coder, such as gender and length of employment. Continue reading...

I believe the social media giant could target ads at depressed teens and countless other demographics. But so what?

New premium laptop is thinner, lighter, faster and has longer battery life than any Apple laptop, while Windows 10 S takes on Google’s ChromebookMicrosoft has launched Windows 10 S, a new locked-down version of its operating system aimed at the education market, and the new premium Surface Laptop in an attempt to challenge both Google’s popular sub-£300 Chromebooks and Apple’s premium MacBook Pro.The new Surface Laptop shares features with its Surface Pro and Surface Book siblings, including a 13.5in touchscreen and coloured, fabric-covered deck. The 14.5mm thick and 2.76lbs (1.25kg) laptop will also have a standard USB-A port, mini DisplayPort, a headphones socket and Microsoft’s proprietary power connector which allows it to dock with existing Surface accessories.But it does not come with the newer USB-C, which has become common for both smartphones and computers. Continue reading...

News that Facebook shared teens’ details with advertisers throws focus on firm’s ability to mine the data of its 2 billion users – and raises serious ethical questions

The Circle envisions an omnipotent social media platform whose quest for tech utopia turns sour. Sound familiar?Mark Zuckerberg ate two brats in Madison, Wisconsin this weekend, “basically inhal[ing]” the first before remembering that the entire reason he was in Madison eating brats in the first place was to memorialize the event with photographs. So he ordered another, and posed for the pic.That the Facebook founder and CEO’s latest trip through the heartland occurred on the weekend that the techno-dystopian thriller The Circle was released provided a helpful comparison between the menace of an endlessly rapacious social network as imagined in 2013, and the much more alarming reality of an endlessly rapacious social network in 2017. Continue reading...

Leaked documents said to describe how the social network shares psychological insights on young people with advertisersFacebook showed advertisers how it has the capacity to identify when teenagers feel “insecure”, “worthless” and “need a confidence boost”, according to a leaked documents based on research quietly conducted by the social network.The internal report produced by Facebook executives, and obtained by the Australian, states that the company can monitor posts and photos in real time to determine when young people feel “stressed”, “defeated”, “overwhelmed”, “anxious”, “nervous”, “stupid”, “silly”, “useless” and a “failure”.

Driver Becky Graham says two men she picked up in San Diego sexually assaulted her, but filing reports with both Uber and the police have led nowhereThe Uber passenger said he wanted to give a tip. The driver, Becky Graham, had picked up two men at a bar in November of 2015 and was dropping them at a hotel in San Diego when she said one came up by her side – and grabbed her head with his hands.“He said, ‘My tip is the tip of my tongue,’” Graham, 42, recounted in a recent interview, describing how the intoxicated man shoved his tongue in her ear and began licking the side of her face. Behind her, she said, the other man grabbed her and tried pulling her into the back seat. Continue reading...

The latest in the military shooter series misses the mark, while two retro puzzle games offer simple satisfactionPC, PS4, Xbox One, CI Games, cert: 18

Most police cars are Vauxhall Astras. Why not buy your own – and pretend you’re in an unmarked squad carPrice: £16,615

Clever minds should devote themselves to real problemsThe Science & Tech feature (“What if virtual reality is outside the headset?” New Review) was fascinating, if somewhat more science fiction than one might have preferred. It has to be bizarre in the extreme that, if the hypothesis is true, we, the computer simulants/avatars, have started to believe that we are just that and there is some sort of intelligent creator culture designing us in the “real world” .It would be far more meaningful if the big brains such as Ranyard, Bostrom and Musk et al, who are thinking up this stuff, devoted their undoubted cleverness to finding solutions for many of the ills of the human condition. Continue reading...

Moore family of Newton Falls, Democrats who voted for Trump, hosted the Facebook CEO who is visiting all 50 states amid speculation of a run for officeAn Ohio family said they learned just 20 minutes before dinner on Friday evening that a planned mystery guest would be the Facebook founder and billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.

After 100 days of Trump, you may need some memesWhen Trump won the presidency, someone on 4chan wrote: “We actually elected a meme as president.”As terrifying as the idea of a meme having access to the nuclear codes is, the age of Trump has ushered in a new age of memes. Jokes on the internet often crop up in the most trying of times – and with a non-stop news cycle based around whatever the president tweets next, maybe memes are the only way to make sense of the turbulent times we live in. Continue reading...

In December the UK government was given reports by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele on possible collusion between Trump camp and the KremlinThe UK government was given details last December of allegedly extensive contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow, according to court papers.

British inventor Richard Browning tests his personal flightsuit before a demonstration at the TED conference in Vancouver. The jet-powered suit, named Daedalus, allows Browning to fly for around 10 minutes

Our monthly guide to new board games features a mysterious archipelago kingdom off the coast of Japan, a magical gardening game and a chance to play pizzaWelcome to our monthly roundup of the best new board games. This time around we’re building shrines and palaces in ancient Japan, stuffing ourselves with delicious pizza and growing magical flowers in a surprisingly cut-throat gardening contest.

Gravity founder Richard Browning demonstrates his ‘Daedalus’ flight suit at TED conference in VancouverRichard Browning, the British inventor dubbed “Wiltshire’s Iron Man”, successfully demonstrated his personal flight suit on the shores of Vancouver harbour, with mini jet engines on his hands.Inspired by the Marvel comic superhero Iron Man, Browning flew in a circle and hovered a short distance from the ground using thrusters attached to his arms and back, captivating attendees at the Vancouver TED conference. Continue reading...

The unexpected new version of the multimillion-selling handheld features a larger display and clamshell design, and hits Europe in JulyIt seems as though Nintendo is trolling the entire games industry. Two months ago it launched the Switch, a strange hybrid of portable device and home console that everyone thought was filling a market gap that didn’t exist. It has now shipped almost 3m units, making it the company’s most successful roll-out since the Wii. It was also thought that the Switch may well replace Nintendo’s dedicated line of handheld consoles, or at least delay a new iteration. But no. Wrong again.The ever-unpredictable hardware veteran has announced the Nintendo 2DS XL, a new version of the 2DS, which was itself a refreshed version of the 3DS. Featuring two enlarged displays, 4.88in on top and 4.18in on the bottom, and a clamshell design, the new format is lighter than the 3DS XL and of course lacks that machine’s stereoscopic capabilities. Continue reading...

Not even two of the biggest US technology firms are safe from fraud, as the social network and the search company named as victims of sophisticated attackGoogle and Facebook were phished for over $100m, it has been reported, proving not even the biggest technology companies in the world are immune from the increasingly sophisticated attacks of online scammers.Last month it was reported that two major tech companies were tricked by a Lithuanian man into sending him over $100m (£77m). Evaldas Rimasauskas, 48, was charged with wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft for impersonating Quanta Computer – a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer that includes Google, Facebook and Apple as clients. Continue reading...

Why circumventing 1980s copy protection is the first step in saving part of tech historyWhy has the quest to hack old Apple II software become the best hope we have of preserving a part of our cultural history? How do these floppy discs – still turning up in their box-loads – shine a light on the educational philosophies of the 80s? And do a new generation of gamers risk losing whole days of their lives by playing these compelling retro games in their browsers? Continue reading...

A massive, beautiful 6.2in QHD+ ‘infinity’ screen, long battery life, powerful performance and future-proofed technology all make for a formidable packageHaving hit a home run with the smaller Galaxy S8, is Samsung’s Galaxy S8+ the bigger-screen phone to beat?The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are practically identical metal and glass sandwiches, but the S8+ is 10.6mm taller, 5.3mm wider, 0.1mm thicker and 18g heavier than the S8, with a screen-to-body ratio of over 83%. Continue reading...

Artificial intelligence and machine learning can identify threats to an organisation – but at what cost to privacy and whistleblowers?Troubled by something deeply unethical going on at work? Or maybe you’re plotting to leak sensitive information on the company that just sacked you? Either way, you best think twice before making your next move because an all-seeing artificial intelligence might just be analysing every email you send, every file you upload, every room you scan into – even your coffee routine.

San Francisco-based company reached an agreement with California’s housing agency amid complaints of guests being rejected for their raceAirbnb will allow the government to test for racial discrimination by hosts as part of an agreement with California that is the first of its kind and could pave the way for stricter regulations and greater public scrutiny.The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) announced Thursday that it had resolved a complaint it filed against Airbnb with an agreement that forces the company to permit the state to conduct “fair housing testing” of certain hosts. That means that for the first time the San Francisco-based company is giving a regulatory body permission to conduct the kind of racial discrimination audits that officials have long used to enforce fair housing laws against traditional landlords. Continue reading...

In an exclusive interview, head of Xbox Phil Spencer explains the vision behind Project Scorpio and what it adds to the Xbox One generationEarlier this month, Microsoft did something console manufacturers haven’t done for many years. It announced key details of its forthcoming Project Scorpio console – an update to the Xbox One – via a set of exclusive features on the video game news site, Eurogamer. In the modern games industry the strict control of information, especially regarding hardware, has become something of a corporate obsession. To cede control of a major revelation – in this case the technical specifications of a forthcoming machine – was a fascinating, but intelligent move. It added a sense of impartiality and validity to all the specs and stats that came out of the reveal, lending the information some real authority that would have been missing from an official press release. It let gamers start processing the meaning of the machine for themselves.But there are still big questions for Microsoft: Is there really a large enough audience for a high-powered version of a console that’s barely three years into its lifecycle? Is this really just about the 4K television industry? Continue reading...

Government lawsuit against the huge Silicon Valley data-analytics firm comes at a time of heightened debate about discrimination in the tech industryPalantir, a Silicon Valley company with ties to Donald Trump, has agreed to pay $1.7m to settle a government lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against Asian applicants.The $20bn data analytics company, co-founded by Peter Thiel, one of the president’s advisers, has not admitted wrongdoing in the settlement, which comes at a time of increasing debate about discrimination in the tech industry. Continue reading...

The dealings of two of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies shows that there remains an urgent political task to bring a rogue culture to heelThe taxi-hailing company Uber brings into very sharp focus the question of whether corporations can be said to have a moral character. If any human being were to behave with the single-minded and ruthless greed of the company, we would consider them sociopathic. Uber wanted to know as much as possible about the people who use its service, and those who don’t. It has an arrangement with unroll.me, a company which offered a free service for unsubscribing from junk mail, to buy the contacts unroll.me customers had had with rival taxi companies. Even if their email was notionally anonymised, this use of it was not something the users had bargained for. Beyond that, it keeps track of the phones that have been used to summon its services even after the original owner has sold them, attempting this with Apple’s phones even thought it is forbidden by the company.Uber has also tweaked its software so that regulatory agencies that the company regarded as hostile would, when they tried to hire a driver, be given false reports about the location of its cars. Uber management booked and then cancelled rides with a rival taxi-hailing company which took their vehicles out of circulation. Uber deny this was the intention. The punishment for this behaviour was negligible. Uber promised not to use this “greyball” software against law enforcement – one wonders what would happen to someone carrying a knife who promised never to stab a policeman with it. Travis Kalanick of Uber got a personal dressing down from Tim Cook, who runs Apple, but the company did not prohibit the use of the app. Too much money was at stake for that. Continue reading...

Company reports 8% fall in revenue in first quarter to $548m, but shares rebound as number of users rises

Hands-free, voice-powered smart selfie camera takes photos and videos on command while its virtual assistant Alexa gives fashion adviceAmazon has unveiled the Echo Look, a new voice-controlled selfie camera pitched as the ultimate bedroom companion that allows AI assistant Alexa to give you fashion tips and tell you what to wear.The camera, which is available by invitation only in the US costing $200 (£156), stands on a shelf armed with four LEDs for lighting, a depth-sensing system and a microphone array to receive commands just like Amazon’s other Alexa-powered Echo and Echo Dot. Continue reading...

FCC chairman Ajit Pai vows to cut rules to enforce an open internet where all traffic is treated equally – but senators and activists warn there will be a fightThe Trump administration’s plans to overturn open internet protections face “a tsunami of resistance from a grassroots movement of Americans from every walk of life,” senators and activists warned on Wednesday.Related: Tim Berners-Lee: selling private citizens' browsing data is 'disgusting' Continue reading...

With their eerily pristine models of Apple and Facebook’s offices, Turner-nominated artist duo Langlands & Bell expose the ‘fantasy of total control’ that is Silicon Valley architectureEerie white forms appear to float off the walls of a gallery on Pall Mall, hovering in front of lurid blocks of colour like the preserved cadavers of some alien race displayed in a future museum of natural history. There are amoebic creatures with bulbous appendages, others with angular faceted shells; some seem to stare out with cyclopean eyes or gaping circular mouths.Westminster’s gilded avenue of gentlemen’s clubs, where kings and earls once strode, is an appropriate place for what turns out to be a display of our modern-day vessels of power. These bleached bodies are the headquarters buildings of the world’s biggest technology companies, as seen through the detached, deadpan eyes of artist duo Langlands & Bell. Continue reading...

Pontiff makes surprise appearance at Vancouver conference via video-link from the VaticanHe sits behind a desk rather than pacing around a stage, but the power of his message is not diluted. Pope Francis has made a surprise TED talk, beamed from the Vatican to Vancouver, calling for leaders to act with humility and tenderness.The first pontifical TED talk, which lasted 18 minutes, featured Francis dispensing advice to politicians and leaders of big business, as well as talking about his own background as the son of migrants. Continue reading...

Select committee chairman Damian Collins says site does not act quickly enough and fake news could pose threat to ‘the integrity of democracy’Facebook must improve its response to fake news before the UK general election and start blocking or issuing warnings about material that contains falsehoods, the chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee has said.

Facebook Live was meant to be part of the social network’s optimistic vision. But in the wake of two violent crimes, its response has left much wanting

Officials say the timeline given by Richard Dabate, accused of killing his wife in their Connecticut home, is at odds with data collected by her wearable deviceWearable technology is revolutionizing the way people keep active, and if prosecutors in Connecticut have their way, it may help put a suspected murderer behind bars.Officials say that the timeline given by Richard Dabate, accused of killing his wife in the couple’s Ellington, Connecticut, home in 2015, is at odds with data collected from her Fitbit, a wearable device that tracks physical activity. Continue reading...

Jimmy Wales has launched a new site and Google is changing its algorithm – but they’re not the only ones offering innovative solutions to combat fake news onlineIt was Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway’s assertion that there were “alternative facts” that did it for Jimmy Wales. The Wikipedia founder has set up a site that will attempt to tackle the growing proliferation of fake news. Like the established online encyclopedia, Wikitribune will rely on a volunteer fact-checking community – peer-reviewed news if you like – but they will be collaborating with professional journalists, paid for by crowdfunding. The site, which launches today, is described as “news by the people for the people”. At the same time, Google has announced it is to combat fake news by identifying misleading or offensive content (thanks to reports from users) and changing its algorithm to stop fake news being so prominent in search results. It will promote more authoritative and authentic content – much like these existing fake-news fighters:Related: Google acts against fake news on search engine Continue reading...

Adam Mudd jailed for two years for creating attack-for-hire business responsible for more than 1.7m breaches worldwideA man has been jailed for two years for setting up a computer hacking business that caused chaos worldwide.

Firm introduces user tools for reporting misleading content, and pledges to improve results generated by algorithmGoogle announced its first attempt to combat the circulation of “fake news” on its search engine with new tools allowing users to report misleading or offensive content, and a pledge to improve results generated by its algorithm.The technology company said it would allow people to complain about misleading, inaccurate or hateful content in its autocomplete function, which pops up to suggest searches based on the first few characters typed. Continue reading...

Users of viral face-tuning app have criticised its ‘hot’ filter for whitening skinThe creator of an app which changes your selfies using artificial intelligence has apologised because its “hot” filter automatically lightened people’s skin.FaceApp is touted as an app which uses “neural networks” to change facial characteristics, adding smiles or making users look older or younger. But users noticed one of the options, initially labelled as “hot” made people look whiter. Continue reading...

Snooker player Neil Robertson blamed a recent drop in form on video game addiction. But was he right to? We speak to the researchers trying to find outSnooker player Neil Robertson claims a ruinous addiction has harmed his professional career. It’s not alcohol, it’s not drugs – it is video games. In a recent interview with Eurosport, the Australian said his compulsive need to play the online fantasy game World of Warcraft interfered with his training and preparation for a tournament in China. “I’m two months sober from playing them,” he told the site. “My friend said to me: ‘you don’t get to choose the crack you are addicted to’. And the multiplayer online ones I can’t touch because I just get too hooked on them.”It is only the latest article to put forward the possibility that video games have addictive qualities similar to drugs or gambling. Over the last 20 years, as the medium exploded in popularity, there have been regular scare stories about zombie-like teenagers slumped in front of their PCs, eschewing school work and social interaction. In South Korea, where online gaming is effectively a national sport and its pro players are treated like rock stars, the government has funded treatment centres for games addiction and passed laws to limit access to games for children. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterChatterbox is the Guardian’s daily venue for video game-themed discussion. It has been running as a comments-based forum for over a decade. Continue reading...

How Activision’s shooter presents the conflict should be watched closely by those interested in public history to bring about a dialogue between academia and games

Uber allegedly used program to track and identify Lyft drivers, building up profiles of individuals and figuring out who was driving for Uber and LyftUber faced yet another challenge on Monday when a former Lyft driver filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that a secret program created by the ride-hailing giant to spy on its rival’s drivers violated federal and state privacy laws.Related: Uber allegedly used secret program to undermine rival Lyft Continue reading...

Polling days as public holidays | Wales coverage | Redundant machines | Toasting the mole | Cemetery dangersInstead of new bank holidays for each of the nations of the UK to coincide with saints’ days (as proposed by Labour), why not make national elections a public holiday as in many other countries? This would help to make it as easy for many people in employment to vote, as it is for people who are retired or not in work. Alternatively, voting should take place at weekends, thereby avoiding disruption to schools. Improving turnout and making the voting process just as convenient for everyone would be a step towards a healthier democracy.

The phone app uses ‘neural networks’ to turn your frown upside down – but the results are nothing to smile aboutSometimes it’s hard to work up a smile for the camera. I don’t want people to think I enjoy having my picture taken. Even when I slavishly follow an instruction to smile, I try to make sure my eyes betray a little resentment. I may be saying cheese, but my face is saying: I hate cheese.Luckily, I’ll never have to smile for a picture again, because now there’s an app for that. FaceApp uses “deep generative convolutional neural networks” to turn your frown upside down. It is meant to be more realistic than previous selfie filters, making subtle adjustments to the eyes and the rest of the face to produce a look of genuine merriment, instead of a cheese-hating grimace. Continue reading...