Exclusive: Italian government official says no classified emails were compromised in attack believed to have lasted more than four months last yearRussia is suspected by Italian officials of being behind a sustained hacking attack against the Italian foreign ministry last year that compromised email communications and lasted for many months before it was detected, according to people familiar with the matter.
Optional function will require users to input a six-digit security codeWhatsApp is implementing a new two-step verification process to boost security for users.The optional security feature significantly increases the hurdles that a third-party would have to get over to break into a user’s account. Continue reading...
Despite promoting an image of innovative iconoclasm, outside the spotlight a cadre of powerful tech figures are planting themselves in Trump’s cornerWhen a group of 97 technology companies filed a legal submission against Donald Trump’s travel ban for citizens of seven Muslim-majority companies, the immediate question for many was not who had signed, but who had not. Absence from the brief became a source of embarrassment, and many new tech firms – including Adobe, Tesla, Zenefits, Postmates and Fitbit – quickly jumped on board.As much as Silicon Valley likes to promote an image of innovative iconoclasm, companies have a herd mentality when it comes to political or social issues. Once one company goes out on a limb, the rest rush to follow. With near-unanimous opposition to Trump’s executive order, tech burnished its image as a bastion of progressive values – a reputation that had taken a major hit when top executives travelled to Trump Tower in December to make nice with the then president-elect. Continue reading...
Activision has announced its best-selling first-person shooter will return to its roots with its 2017 instalmentThis should not come as an enormous surprise to fans of first-person shooters, but Activision is taking the Call of Duty series back to “its rootsâ€. In a conference call to investors on Thursday, the publisher’s chief executive, Eric Hirshberg, and chief operating officer, Thomas Tippl, both acknowledged that last year’s space-based Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare had commercially underperformed. They promised that the 2017 instalment would return to “traditional combat†– a homely phrase which is likely to mean either a contemporary or historical setting.The announcement reverses a trend toward ever more futuristic combat, which really began with the 2012 title Call of Duty: Black Ops II,partly based in a second cold war in the mid-2020s. Later, the poorly received Call of Duty: Ghosts, and the decent pair Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, wandered further into a speculative universe of drone warfare, mass electronic disruption and outer space dog fights. This trend was always questioned by hardcore fans of the series – which began in 2003 as a second world war drama – and was only going to become more obscure as studios faced coming up with ever more outlandish technological weaponry. Continuing along this narrative route for a few years we faced the prospect of holographic soldiers shooting each other with mind lasers – or even worse, a diplomatic solution. Continue reading...
by Presented by Alex Hern & Produced by Iain Cham on (#2C60E)
Alex Hearn takes a look back at the ‘no professors allowed’ informal dining club The Ratio Club which laid the foundations for the British cybernetics movement and, ultimately, artificial intelligenceSubscribe and review on iTunes, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast, or on your favourite podcasting app and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterWriting in his journal on 20 September 1949, English psychiatrist Ross Ashby noted that six days earlier he had attended a meeting of young minds in the basement of the National Hospital for Nervous Disease in London. But what was discussed? Who else was in attendance? And how would the regular meetings of the Ratio Club change the face of British cybernetics and, latterly, the artificial intelligence we see all around us today? Continue reading...
From Motorola’s oh so 80s DynaTAC brick to the Nokia 3310 with its changeable covers and Samsung’s explosive Galaxy Note 7 – these are the phones that matter the most Continue reading...
Intel’s CEO said the Arizona plant was a response to Trump’s business-friendly policies, but the company announced it in 2011 – and Obama gave a speech thereThis week Intel’s CEO used a meeting with Donald Trump to announce it would invest $7bn in building a factory in Arizona, creating about 3,000 jobs.It seemed like a coup for Trump, who has pledged to bring manufacturing back to the US. Continue reading...
Social media giant is failing to capitalise on US president’s use and is reluctant to make deep cuts needed to turn a profitNot even the best efforts of Donald Trump can pull Twitter out of its dive, it would seem. The company’s fourth-quarter results showed a loss of $167m (compared with $90m a year before) on flat revenues of $638m, with no clear path to profit, even though the US President’s frequent outbursts helped increase the number of users by a modest 2 million to 319 million.Twitter should be capitalising on the fact that the most powerful man in the world is using it as his channel to present the alternative facts of his presidency. Imagine if Trump’s key announcements were made on YouTube: each clip would be festooned with ads.
Investors take fright as company reveals $457m loss for 2016 and concedes its financial growth is lagging its popularityShares in Twitter have slumped after the tech company suffered a decline in advertising income, despite a rise in user numbers as Donald Trump’s high-profile tweeting helped to advertise the platform’s influence. Continue reading...
A semi-satirical subreddit is home to some of the most ardent supporters of The Schulz – but can memes influence the Bundestag elections?Donald Trump has r/the_Donald. Bernie Sanders has his dank meme stash. Ed Miliband has Milifandom.Now, German politician Martin Schulz has his own meme-making enthusiasts, who are supporting his bid to be German chancellor. Welcome to the world of r/The_Schulz. Continue reading...
Social network will still allow targeting based on ‘ethnic affinity’ of users in domains other than housing, employment and creditFacebook has updated its advertising policies to ban discrimination based on a number of personal characteristics, including race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or age.Accompanying the new policies is a section aimed at educating advertisers about the extent to which ad targeting is allowed on the social network, both in terms of Facebook’s own policies and applicable national laws. Continue reading...
Libby would like to know which browser she should use – it may sound simple, but there are plenty of optionsWhich is the best web browser for Windows 10: Firefox or Google Chrome? LibbyOver the years, I’ve used and recommended a lot of different browsers for Windows, including Mosaic, Netscape, Internet Explorer, Maxthon, Firefox, Chrome and Vivaldi. Times change, and so do web browsers. You can always switch to whichever feels better at the time. Continue reading...
Online encyclopaedia editors rule out publisher as a reference citing ‘reputation for poor fact checking and sensationalism’Wikipedia editors have voted to ban the Daily Mail as a source for the website in all but exceptional circumstances after deeming the news group “generally unreliableâ€.The move is highly unusual for the online encyclopaedia, which rarely puts in place a blanket ban on publications and which still allows links to sources such as Kremlin backed news organisation Russia Today, and Fox News, both of which have raised concern among editors. Continue reading...
‘Minor’ fire at Galaxy Note 7 battery supplier’s Tianjin plant saw 110 firefighters and 19 trucks sent to put out blaze, according to emergency servicesA fire that drew out 110 firefighters and 19 trucks to a factory operated by Samsung Galaxy Note 7 battery supplier, Samsung SDI, was caused by discarded faulty batteries, the company has said.
Company reveals technology capable of increasing picture resolution 16-fold, effectively restoring lost data – but results still an educated guessGoogle’s neural networks have achieved the dream of CSI viewers everywhere: the company has revealed a new AI system capable of “enhancing†an eight-pixel square image, increasing the resolution 16-fold and effectively restoring lost data.The neural network could be used to increase the resolution of blurred or pixelated faces, in a way previously thought impossible; a similar system was demonstrated for enhancing images of bedrooms, again creating a 32x32 pixel image from an 8x8 one. Continue reading...
The long-running franchise gets a virtual reality makeover and accompanying odour, while Nintendo launches Switch with the help of the princessAt the cinema, too many sequels feel like little more than tawdry cash-ins designed to capitalise on the success of an earlier film. The motivations for making video game sequels can be similarly ignoble, but there is one big difference: often video game sequels are better than the originals. Newer developers get better at making games every year, a process bolstered by improving technology. Worlds can be larger and more convoluted, sound and visuals get all-new Ultra HD sparkle.Related: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard review – a masterclass in terror Continue reading...
Chrome browser is fast and capable but it can murder your battery life. Here’s how to help your laptop or tablet last longerGoogle’s Chrome browser is used by over 62% of the world’s PC users, but it’s a notorious battery hog that if left to run rampant can reduce your laptop or tablet to just a couple of hours of life. But it doesn’t have to be like that, as Google is making efforts to improve it. In the meantime, here are some tips to get Chrome’s battery usage under control without sacrificing functionality. Continue reading...
Vladimir Putin wants to extend his influence beyond the ballot box and into the very fabric of our public life. We must take action before it’s too lateThe Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign is being treated too much like a novelty and not enough as a serious and persistent security threat. The problem becomes more urgent as we see it spread to other countries.WikiLeaks, which disseminated stolen DNC documents, announced last week that it would turn its attention to France, and has released material relating to presidential candidates François Fillon and Emmanuel Macron, opponents of Marine Le Pen. Continue reading...
Companies were not original signatories, but now join 97 other tech firms in supporting Washington state lawsuitElon Musk’s companies SpaceX and Tesla are to join the ranks of technology firms officially opposing the migrant ban imposed by the US president, Donald Trump, standing alongside the 97 firms who signed up to an amicus brief on Sunday night.The companies are supporting a lawsuit brought by Washington state against the ban, which affects millions of people from seven majority-Muslim nations. The suit, which is currently being heard in the ninth circuit federal court in San Francisco, California, has already succeeded in imposing a temporary halt to the enforcement of Trump’s executive order. Continue reading...
Robots exhibition at the Science Museum, London, is a striking display of 500 years of automata – and raises pressing questions about the futureEric the robot wowed the crowds. He stood and bowed and answered questions as blue sparks shot from his metallic teeth. The British creation was such a hit he went on tour around the world. When he arrived in New York, in 1929, a theatre nightwatchman was so alarmed he pulled out a gun and shot at him.Related: Robots 'could replace 250,000 UK public sector workers' Continue reading...
A new exhibition opening on 8 February, Robots is a collection of over 100 objects ranging from 16th century automata to cutting-edge ‘emotional’ robots Continue reading...
From Bioshock to butt battles: the hidden games we both love – and hate – to findIf you remember Pimp My Ride, the long-running TV show in which rapper Xzibit modified people’s cars with gigantic speakers, horrible decals and velvet seats, you may also recall that the programme spawned a particularly daft meme.“Yo dawg,†the original joke went, “I heard you like cars, so I put a car in your car so you can drive while you driveâ€. It was, of course, a reference to the show’s habit of building each owner’s interests into their remodelled car – however laboured the connection happened to be. The meme was absurd and recursive, but it’s probably how mini-games – those little nuggets of alternative gameplay hidden within a larger experience – came about. “We heard you like games,†the developers of the first ever example may have said, “so we put games in your games so you can play while you play.†Continue reading...
by Oliver Wainwright, Alex Healey and Jess Gormley on (#2BS1R)
Design critic Oliver Wainwright goes behind the scenes at the Robots exhibition at the Science Museum in London. Curator Ling Lee introduces him to some of the most advanced humanoid robots in the world, from a lifelike baby to robots without conscience. She explains the stage that the technology is at, who may use it and how far it has to go
Judge rules Gmail-provider must comply with FBI warrants despite privacy implications, contrary to previous ruling in similar Microsoft caseGoogle has said it will appeal a ruling by a US judge to hand over the emails of Gmail users stored outside of the country – which puts the privacy of non-US citizens at risk.US magistrate judge Thomas Rueter in Philadelphia ruled on Friday that Google must comply with search warrants issued by the FBI as part of a domestic fraud investigation. He said that transferring emails from a foreign server so FBI agents could review them locally did not qualify as a seizure because there was “no meaningful interference†with the account holder’s “possessory interest†in the data sought. Continue reading...
Legal brief on behalf of almost 100 tech firms argues immigration ban is illegal and harms innovation, growth and competitivenessAlmost 100 US technology companies have filed a legal brief opposing President Trump’s ban on migration from seven Muslim-majority countries, arguing that it imposes significant burdens on the industry by preventing it from hiring talented migrants.Among the companies signing the filing, an amicus brief supporting Washington state’s lawsuit against Trump’s order are Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, as well as smaller firms such as Uber, Reddit, Netflix and Dropbox. Notably absent are Amazon, which had previously pledged its support to the Washington lawsuit, and Tesla and SpaceX, the companies of Trump advisory council member Elon Musk. An Amazon spokesperson said that the company was advised by the Washington attorney general to not join the amicus brief, since the company acted as a witness in the original lawsuit. Continue reading...
Turn up the heat, dim the lights and cue the music, all with the touch of a button or a voice command. Here’s the latest kit to connect your worldMore and more of the devices in our homes come with an internet connection, hooked up to your wifi to do various “smart†things. And while the smart-home dream where everything just magically does your bidding without you having to lift a finger is still a long way away, even the most mundane devices will soon be able to do something to make your life easier.Right now, the Internet of Things is still a bit of a mess, but with the right gear you can make your home work more efficiently to fit in with your daily routines. Continue reading...
With real lives and real rights under threat, what’s the point of writing about virtual worlds?Early into the video game critic’s career, the statement “I write about video games for a living†assumes the fraught, almost tearful, character of a confession. Even in its highest form (something like: the sifting of art and entertainment in search of truth or beauty), the critic’s profession is something of a superfluity for the species. Marooned on the desert island, the critic can only whisper “fair cop†when his co-survivors reveal the result of their vote on whom to eat first. Criticism is not a practical skill. It saves no lives.Self-doubt is the common cold of writerly ailments. Doubly so for the critic of an emergent form Continue reading...
Artificial intelligence is fast at learning games, but applied to wider society it can have troubling outcomesYou might not expect to find a player named Libratus around a poker table in a high-stakes game of no-limit Texas Hold’em. Yet it was Libratus – an artificial intelligence (AI) – that emerged triumphant from a gruelling 20-day tournament that culminated late last Monday in a dramatic victory over four of the world’s top players. Continue reading...
We thought computers needed to become more human to win at pokerI was one of those who said it could never be done: that a computer wouldn’t ever manage to beat the best at the game of poker. I was romantic and wide-eyed at 18, when my heroes were the cowboys from Texas who ruled the felt. They were uneducated and coarse, yet chock full of the human qualities needed to excel at poker.With nicknames like Amarillo Slim and Texas Dolly, these larger-than-life characters had fearlessness, aptitude, and a deep understanding of what makes people tick. The higher the stakes, the better they played. One moment an opponent would be confidently betting their hand, then squirming with fear and unable to call. Continue reading...
The accent is on fuel and carbon economy – relative to the rest of the Land Rover family, of course, not to cars at largeThere’s something about the rounded exterior of the Range Rover Evoque that makes me want to give it a hug, but only in the pictures. I would never hug a live car.People in the big-car market call this a diddy version of a real Range Rover; there’s even one with three doors, for those who want all the road hogging with none of the convenience. However, to any regular eye, it’s still a large high rider, a car in which you meet other cars that are also impractically large on urban streets: one of you has to reverse, and it falls to the person who is the humblest, which is never the person who is best at reversing. But anyway: I maintain, nonetheless, that it has a linear softness I like, and a pleasing, clink-clunk quality to the interior. Continue reading...
Nintendo has ceased production of Wii U less than five years after its launch. What went wrong, and what will be its legacy?In late January it was announced that Nintendo had ceased production of the Wii U console. The follow-up machine to the hugely successful Wii had sold fewer than 15m units worldwide since its launch in 2012. PlayStation 4 sold more in a year. Wii sold more than 100m in its lifetime.What happened? How did Nintendo, one of the oldest and most respected companies in the video game industry, get it so wrong? And did anything good come out of the Wii U era? How will the machine be remembered, if at all? Continue reading...
Travis Kalanick says participation in president’s strategic and policy forum has been ‘misinterpreted’ as endorsement of Donald Trump’s agendaUber’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, is stepping down from Donald Trump’s economic advisory council following intense criticism and an online boycott of the company over its ties to the new administration, the company confirmed on Thursday.Related: Facebook, Apple and Google pen letter opposing Trump's travel ban Continue reading...
The disappearing picture message service will likely be valued at up to $25bn, cementing co-founder Evan Spiegel’s status as one of the richest people in techSnapchat is going public. The company that owns the disappearing picture message service revealed plans for an initial public offering (IPO) late Thursday, plans that are likely to value the loss-making five-year-old company at between $20bn and $25bn.The IPO of Snap Inc will be one of the highest-profile stock debuts in recent years and is likely to be the largest US-listed technology IPO since Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba made its debut at a $168bn valuation in 2014. Continue reading...
A draft letter co-authored by Silicon Valley heavyweights highlights how immigration supports entrepreneurship and corporate AmericaSome of Silicon Valley’s most prominent technology companies, including Alphabet (Google), Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Uber and Stripe, have co-authored a draft letter formally opposing Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, arguing that “a blanket suspension is not the right approachâ€.Related: Support for Trump travel ban in line with anti-Muslim attitudes in America Continue reading...
Donald Trump and his billionaire friend highlight how the rich and poor make their home in the antipodes. The US president wrote The Art of the Deal. He should honour the one his predecessor made for Pacific refugeesThese are the times we are living in: the super rich are able to prepare a bolthole in New Zealand to escape to should the world implode, while the poor and desperate who have sought asylum in neighbouring Australia are rejected first by the Australian government and now, it seems, by the US as well. We have Donald Trump to thank in part for revealing this paradox. The US president apparently slammed down the phone on the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and took to Twitter to decry his predecessor’s “dumb deal!â€. The “deal†would have seen 1,250 refugees resettled on US soil after years languishing in detention on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus. The US president made it shamefully clear – if his actions this week had not already done so – that in the Trump era the door will be closed to the poor, the stateless and the unprivileged.Mr Trump is, of course, not the first leader to implement hostile policies toward refugees and Mr Turnbull, a smart rightwing politician, must sense the hypocrisy in imploring the US to take in the refugees he has refused to accept into his own country – refugees who have been living in Australian-run detention centres which have been repeatedly criticised by the UN as illegal and cruel. But there are no such difficulties for those with money who wish to come to the antipodes, as we have seen this week with revelations that Peter Thiel, Trump adviser and co-founder of PayPal, has been given New Zealand citizenship, despite not meeting usual residency requirements. The prospect of Trump’s America is not the reason for Mr Thiel’s application for citizenship, which he received in 2011, but having an out-of-the-way refuge must be looking attractive at the moment. The New York Times called New Zealand Mr Thiel’s “backup country†and wondered whether his citizenship was a way to hedge his bets in case of a global catastrophe. Others suggest the Silicon Valley billionaire might be shoring up an exit strategy should Mr Trump’s plans go off the rails. Continue reading...
Animal rights campaigners are upset about the fur stoles. Though what did they expect from a fantasy universe where the throne is made of skulls?The tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000 lays its cards (and plastic, resin and metal miniatures) on the table from the word go. Its famous tagline warns players: “In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war.†Well, war and fur stoles.It’s the latter that has got Peta UK up in arms, it seems, with the animal rights organisation writing to Games Workshop, creators of the franchise, to protest about the fact that some characters wear animal hides. “From the mighty Leman Russ and Horus Lupercal to Chaos Warriors and the Sisters of Silence, Warhammer features an abundance of characters who wear what appear to be animal pelts, which just doesn’t add up,†the group’s senior manager, Yvonne Taylor, wrote. Continue reading...
Final straw was groups’ participation in ‘doxing’, sharing private personal information without permission as a form of online harassmentSocial media site Reddit has banned two of the largest far-right “subreddits†groups it hosts, altright and alternativeright.The subreddits have been used in the organisation of America’s resurgent neofascist movement but the final straw for Reddit was the two groups’ participation in what is known as “doxingâ€: sharing private personal information without permission as a form of online harassment. Continue reading...
AWS was launched as little more than a way to buy space and time on Amazon’s computers. Now it powers Netflix, Airbnb and the Ministry of JusticeAmazon is big. In its last financial quarter, it sold $32bn (£25.6bn) worth of stuff worldwide, including $6bn of media, $10bn of sales outside North America, and $23bn of electronics “and other general merchandiseâ€. That “other†category encompasses everything from crucifixes to sex toys, board games to plyboard, and mousemats printed with the faces of obscure TV and Radio personalities.It has also diversified beyond its simple shopping business: the company will sell you something to be delivered in less than one hour, food from restaurants, and even digital content to be watched on your TV or listened to on your phone. And, of course, it has a hardware business which many other companies would kill for, producing ebook readers and tablets, and single-handedly creating the product category of “smart speaker†with the Echo. Continue reading...
The iPhone and Mac are booming, the iPad not so much, and the Apple Watch could still be a contenderApple’s quarterly results, released on Tuesday, showed the company back on its game. It recorded its highest revenue ever, raking in $78.4bn (£62bn), and also achieved record iPhone sales.But, as ever, the most interesting points lie below the top line. Apple doesn’t break out much, but what it does can be telling. Continue reading...
24 hours of battery life, good controls and lots of bass will sound great to many, but if you’re a fan of classical music, look elsewherePlantronics promises top-end noise cancelling wireless headphones for a third-less than market leaders, but do the new BackBeat Pro 2s really deliver?The new BackBeat Pro 2s only have a passing resemblance to their forbears. Gone is the round shape in favour of a more ergonomic oval that fits around the ears rather than touching on them in some parts. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian