Technology | The Guardian

My father-in-law, Raymond Hardman, who has died aged 96, was a modest man from a working-class family who overcame his relative poverty to rise to academic excellence in his chosen field of electrical engineering.Raymond was born in Oldham to Joseph Hardman, a carder in a cotton mill, and his wife, Jessie (nee Oliver), a cotton mill worker. As a result of injuries sustained during the first world war Joseph died when Raymond was only two, and he and his younger sister, Mabel, were brought up by their mother and her sister, their Auntie Bina. Continue reading...

Matt Brittin says company ‘needs to do more’ but declines to say whether it will actively seek out inappropriate materialGoogle’s European chief has publicly apologised after online adverts for major brands appeared next to extremist material, but declined to say whether the company would begin actively seeking out such content and taking action against it.Matt Brittin, Google’s head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told the Advertising Week Europe conference in London on Monday: “I want to start by saying sorry to the brands affected by this. I take the issue very seriously and I apologise in the instances where that may have happened.” Continue reading...

The US president has not tweeted from Android for 11 days, while some missives coming from an iPhone have been more Trump-esque than usualDonald Trump appears to have ditched his infamous Android phone – at least when it comes to tweeting.The President of the US has not tweeted from an Android device for almost two weeks, since he noted a survey that showed positive employment news. Instead, every tweet sent since 8 March from his Twitter account has been sent using Twitter for iPhone. Continue reading...

A court in Minnesota has told Google to hand over the names of everyone who inputted a particular search

Jeff Jones’s exit is latest blow for firm after revelations of secret tool to evade law enforcement and claims of discrimination and sexual harassmentUber president Jeff Jones left the taxi-hailing firm after just six months in the job because working at Uber was incompatible with his values, he said.Jones’s departure is the latest blow to the San Francisco-based company, after revelations of a secret programme to evade law enforcement, allegations of workplace discrimination and sexual harassment, and a string of departures of high-level executives. Continue reading...

Jones, hired to boost taxi hailing app’s reputation, is latest in string of high-level executives to leave as firm faces multiple controversiesTaxi hailing app Uber has been thrust deeper into turmoil with the departure of company president Jeff Jones, a marketing expert hired to help bolster its reputation.

Vodafone and trio of high street banks take action as industry and UK government ask how their ads became attached to extremist materialGoogle executives are bracing for a two-pronged inquisition from the advertising industry and the government over the company’s plans to stop ads being placed next to extremist material.A slew of big-name companies, advertising firms and government departments have either pulled their adverts from Google and its YouTube video site or are considering whether to do so, with media giant Sky, telecoms group Vodafone and a trio of banks adding their names to a growing list over the weekend. Continue reading...

Can all those drinks, capsules and powders really improve your sporting performance? We asked the expertsThere are hundreds of powders, gels and bars that promise to improve an athlete’s performance. But judging which ones are based on good scientific evidence and which might be useful for a particular activity or individual is a bewildering business.Even the fact that professional sports teams use particular products might not be an indicator of their effectiveness – they may merely be fulfilling their sponsorship obligations. Continue reading...

Social media companies could face regulation as Google advertisers pull out in protest over extremist contentPoliticians and advertisers have warned Google that it must overhaul advertising practices or risk being hit by regulation and advertiser boycotts.A major global marketing company became the first to pull all its advertising spending with Google after the news that adverts for a range of organisations had been inadvertently placed next to extremist material. MPs meanwhile threatened that legislation could be put on the table if social media companies did not effectively self-regulate. Continue reading...

Anyone looking at the adverts companies think I may be interested in will conclude I lead a pretty dull lifeShow me a person’s targeted adverts, goes no proverb (yet), and I’ll show you what they put in their online shopping basket but decided against buying at the last minute. Most internet users will be very familiar with the feeling that your computer is spying on you, with adverts trying to get your attention and reminding you what you’re missing out on.Related: How Google's search algorithm spreads false information with a rightwing bias Continue reading...

Wagdi Ghoneim among those said to have earned significant ad revenue from household names and government departmentsExtremists and hate preachers are estimated by marketing experts to have made at least $318,000 (£250,000) from adverts for household brands and government departments placed alongside their YouTube videos.Google, which owns YouTube, is estimated by internet analysts to have taken a cut of $149,000 from advertisers for its role placing the ads against the content, even though brands did not want their names associated with the hate speech. Continue reading...

What is programmatic advertising, how does it work and why did big brands appear next to inappropriate material? We explainWhy is advertising by big brands appearing alongside inappropriate content such as extremist videos?As odd as it may sound, in the digital age many brands do not know exactly where their online advertising is running. The computerisation of digital advertising, where machines are largely responsible for choosing where ads run, has taken over much of the job of deciding where they should appear on the internet. This process is called programmatic advertising.

A patent has been filed for a system that transfers energy from one device to another by converting it to radio waves and then back into energy

Designs that made the act of listening a personal experience, from early in-ear prototypes to Bluetooth, wireless and noise-cancelling varieties Continue reading...

Proposal to let fully autonomous vehicles on the roads is a game-changer with global implications, but comes with a complex set of questionsAutonomous vehicles are already a common sight on the streets of Silicon Valley, an international hub for self-driving technology. But this month, California set the stage for the next phase of innovation that could dramatically alter transportation and mobility across the globe. The state has proposed regulations to allow fully autonomous vehicles to drive on public roads – meaning empty cars with no steering wheels and no backup driver inside.Related: Empty cars with no steering wheel could soon be driving in California Continue reading...

British advertisers urge company overhaul after adverts from several big organisations appear next to inappropriate materialGoogle has been summoned to the Cabinet Office after it emerged that government advertising was being inadvertently placed next to extremist material.The government joined a number of organisations, including the Guardian, in pulling advertising from Google and YouTube after discovering that ads had appeared alongside inappropriate content. Continue reading...

Interrupting the march of technology through art

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

Travel association says cyber-attack may have affected 43,000 people, including 1,000 files with personal data of holidaymakersA cyber-attack on the website of the UK’s largest travel association could have affected about 43,000 people, including 1,000 holidaymakers.

Readers have reacted to messages about ‘the end of Windows Vista’ with a flurry of questions about their options. Here are the main ones Continue reading...

Max Aguilera-Hellweg is both a doctor and a photographer and has brought his unique sensibility to explore the point at which robots become more like humans. His new book of portraits of humanoids and androids displays the range created, from the geminoids designed to look and act like humans, to a scary robot created to understand how they learn. Humanoid is published by Blast Books Continue reading...

We asked readers how they’ve been getting on with Nintendo’s hybrid console – and the answer, mainly, is playing ZeldaIt’s been a week or so since the Nintendo Switch came out, so we thought we’d ask our readers how they were getting on with the venerable Japanese game company’s hybrid console.

The justice department announced charges on Wednesday against four defendants, including two Russian security services officers, in a huge data breach at Yahoo that affected 1b user accounts, according to a federal law enforcement official. Two of the defendants are Russian FSB officers and the other two are hackers. One of the defendants has been taken into custody in Canada, and another is on the list of the FBI’s most wanted cyber criminals

10,000 contractors told to flag ‘upsetting-offensive’ content after months of criticism over hate speech, misinformation and fake news in search resultsGoogle is using a 10,000-strong army of independent contractors to flag “offensive or upsetting” content, in order to ensure that queries like “did the Holocaust happen” don’t push users to misinformation, propaganda and hate speech.The review of search terms is being done by the company’s “quality raters”, a little-known corps of worldwide contractors that Google uses to assess the quality of its systems. The raters are given searches based on real queries to conduct, and are asked to score the results on whether they meet the needs of users. Continue reading...

Despite corrective initiatives, there are too few gaming industry opportunities for women and people of colour. This needs to change if it is to have a healthy futureGlance at last year’s big releases and you might think video games have cracked the issue of diversity. Two of 2016’s most acclaimed action adventures Mafia III and Watchdogs 2 both had black male leads, while Mirror’s Edge 2, Uncharted 4 and indie game, Virginia, all featured women of colour. This year, we have flagship PlayStation4 title Horizon Zero Dawn as well as Gravity Rush 2, Nier Automata and Tacoma, all showcasing female protagonists. But look beyond the games and into the companies that make them, and you get a very different picture. Representation is still very much a problem.In an age where a whole generation is taking its cultural cues and influences from games, this has vital importance even outside of the industry. Video games now make $90bn (£74bn) a year worldwide, dwarfing the cinema and movie businesses. According to figures from industry trade body UKIE, 50% of the UK population plays games, a figure rising to 99% among 8-15-year-olds. The growing popularity of games – on PC, console, smartphone and tablets – has also led to a surge in young people seeking to work in the industry: over 60 UK universities provide undergraduate and masters degrees in games development. But who are the people guiding this inspirational and pervasive cultural sector? Continue reading...

Attributes of a psychopath can be good for running a business, says SXSW panel, but weak HR departments and investors can enable bad behaviorThere is a high proportion of psychopathic CEOs in Silicon Valley, enabled by protective investors and weak human resources departments, according to a panel of experts at SXSW festival.Although the term “psychopath” typically has negative connotations, some of the attributes associated with the disorder can be advantageous in a business setting. Continue reading...

The joy of this family friendly puzzle game is not just in the strategy, but the social experienceSnipperclips is one of those games with a concept so clear that even if you forget what it’s called (and who could blame you – the original prototype Friendshapes had a much more memorable name) people will know what you’re talking about. Sure, there have been other video games influenced by papercraft – most notably Media Molecule’s Tearaway – but none has reached the mainstream with the particular notion expressed in Snipperclips’ tagline: cut it out, together.

Although it’s hard to see how any self-respecting Apple customer would want the $189 accessory, ‘Eye’ prototype has met its funding target and will be madeCan’t decide between an iPhone or Android for your next device? Want to get both at the same time but don’t want the logistical hassle of duct-taping them together in a way that leaves the camera usable? There may be a Kickstarter for you.The Eye is a $189 case for your iPhone which has raised over $100,000 on the crowdfunding site with a huge checklist of features: “a 5 inch display, battery power, up to 256GB storage, SIM slots, an IR blaster & wireless charging!” But, look, there’s a simpler way to sum it up. It’s an iPhone case that is an Android phone. Continue reading...

The latest Lego adventure seeks to rival the creative possibilities of Minecraft. But players are forced to slog for their creative freedomGlance down the intricate family tree that connects the myriad successful Lego video games, and something striking is missing throughout the lineage. Most of those releases have only made cursory attempts at including that defining ability of the real-world toy: uninhibited construction. Aside from curio releases like the 1998 PC title Lego Creator, games based on the iconic bricks tend to allude to creativity, rather than offering freeform building in an unbridled form.And yet Minecraft – with 120m sales and counting – has proved that there is huge potential in the idea of open-ended construction-focused games. Indeed, as Mojang’s creation evolved from a darling of the indie community to an international merchandising empire, it was comparisons with Lego that made the game easy to understand for players and, importantly, their parents. Continue reading...

Giving up Facebook and Instagram made me realise I was using them to block out real emotions with likes. But I couldn’t help going backIn January I deleted all the social media apps from my phone because they were turning me into an idiot.For months I’d been avoiding engaging with anything challenging or anxiety inducing. Worried about where I’d be living next year? Dive into Instagram. Tax bill prickling at the back of my mind? Open Facebook. That grief I thought I’d processed piercing at me again? Disappear into the realm of likes and follows and push the feelings away. Distract. Binge. Escape. Continue reading...

This brilliant patchwork of storytelling, vandalism and melancholic reminiscences at the local mall is set to go down as a millennial classicMae Borowski is 20-years old, a college dropout with anger problems, and staring at herself in the full-length mirror in the attic bedroom of her childhood home. She pats down her shirt, tentatively reassures herself that her build is sturdy rather than round, and tells her reflection, “You’re a smooth talker. You’re a smoothie.”She narrows her eyes, and her shoulders relax. Continue reading...

Company announces new privacy policy following revelations that police gained special access to the social networks to track protestersFacebook and Instagram have banned developers from using their data for surveillance with a new privacy policy that civil rights activists have long sought to curb spying by law enforcement.Following revelations last year that police departments had gained special access to the social networks to track protesters, Facebook, which owns Instagram, announced on Monday that it had updated its rules to state that developers could not “use data obtained from us to provide tools that are used for surveillance”. Continue reading...

Captcha has evolved from identifying mangled letters to web users unwittingly training Google’s AI. Now, finally, you won’t have to do anythingThe experience of squinting at distorted text, puzzling over small images, or even simply clicking on a checkbox to prove you aren’t a robot could soon be over, if a new Google service takes off.The company has revealed the latest evolution of the Captcha (short, sort of, for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart), which aims to do away with any interruption at all: the new, “invisible reCaptcha” aims to tell whether a given visitor is a robot or not purely by analysing their browsing behaviour. Barring a short wait while the system does its job, a typical human visitor shouldn’t have to do anything else to prove they’re not a robot. Continue reading...

WIth this extraordinarily large game about an elite soldier taking on Bolivian drug runners, is Ubisoft’s obsession with open worlds bordering on an addiction?Fittingly for a game centred around cocaine production and the drug trade’s transformative effects on society, Ghost Recon Wildlands bears an uncanny resemblance to the deluge of double albums fuelled by the stuff in the 1970s: self-indulgent and overlong but with enough moments of quality buried within to just about excuse the whole endeavour.In truth, overlong is perhaps selling Wildlands short. This is an extraordinarily large game that will take months to complete. Ubisoft’s obsession with open worlds borders on an addiction itself – it’s surely only a mater of time before their rhythm action franchise Just Dance is relocated to a sandbox night club the size of the city of Sheffield - but they’ve really gone the extra mile here. Continue reading...

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

It’s game on for the long-awaited successor to the Wii-U, which seamlessly transitions into a home consoleAfter the Wii U failed to ignite the imaginations of anyone but the most devout Nintendo loyalists, a lot rides on its successor. Thankfully, it’s a much more exciting proposition for players: home console-quality gaming on the go.The Switch itself is the very tablet you hold, rather than a beast left tethered to your TV. It offers a pixel-dense 1280x720 screen with capacitive multi-touch features, but this is far from a Nintendo-branded iPad – slide it into its dock at home and it offers a 1080p output on the main screen. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary accuses Russia of ‘dirty tricks’ as GCHQ is reported to have written to parties with advice on cyber-attacksThe foreign secretary has said there is “plenty of evidence” that Russia has the ability to disrupt British politics with cyber-attacks following reports that intelligence officials are to brief political parties on how to defend against hacking from Moscow.Boris Johnson, due to meet his Russian counterpart in the coming weeks, said there was no doubt Moscow had been up to “all sorts of dirty tricks” in relation to political interference. Continue reading...

Jaguar’s first ever luxury compact SUV has been a long time coming. Now it’s here you’ll be keen to make up for lost timePrice: £34,730

It has taken all of us to build the web we have, and now it is up to all of us to build the web we want – for everyoneToday marks 28 years since I submitted my original proposal for the worldwide web. I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries. In many ways, the web has lived up to this vision, though it has been a recurring battle to keep it open. But over the past 12 months, I’ve become increasingly worried about three new trends, which I believe we must tackle in order for the web to fulfill its true potential as a tool that serves all of humanity.1) We’ve lost control of our personal data Continue reading...

Inventor of the worldwide web described in an open letter how it has become a sophisticated and targeted industry, drawing on huge pools of personal dataSir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the worldwide web, has called for tighter regulation of online political advertising, which he says is being used in “unethical ways”.“We urgently need to close the ‘internet blind spot’ in the regulation of political campaigning,” he said, writing in an open letter marking the 28th anniversary of his invention. Continue reading...

The blazingly fast next-generation mobile data network is not far away – but not everyone is convinced that we really need itPhilip Hammond says he wants the UK to become a “world leader” in 5G, the next-generation mobile technology that proponents say is the key to an internet-connected world of driverless cars, smart home appliances, delivery drones and lightning-fast video on the go.The government, which has published a 70-page tome on its future 5G strategy, said in the budget it would invest up to £16m to run trials and support the technology’s development, to make sure the UK is at the crest of the “next wave of mobile technology services”. Continue reading...

Proposed rules would give powerful boost to self-driving industry by permitting cars without a backup driver, steering wheel or foot controls on the roadCars with no steering wheel, no pedals and nobody at all inside could be driving themselves on California roads by the end of the year, under proposed new state rules that would give a powerful boost to the fast-developing technology.For the past several years, tech companies and automakers have been testing self-driving cars on the open road in California. But regulators insisted that those vehicles have steering wheels, foot controls and human backup drivers who could take over in an emergency. Continue reading...

The injunction request escalated the intellectual property dispute between the two technology companies and adds to the growing list of Uber’s troublesWaymo, Google’s self-driving car company, has asked a judge to block Uber’s work on autonomous vehicles, escalating the high-profile intellectual property dispute between the two technology companies and adding to the growing list of Uber’s troubles.In court filings on Friday, the self-driving car operation owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, filed an injunction requesting that a judge prevent Uber from using technology that Waymo alleges was brazenly stolen.

Facebook staff presumably don’t join up because they want to clone its biggest competitor, but still the company keeps churning out embarrassing copiesIt must be getting hard to walk into work at Facebook with your head held high. You roll into the campus in your Tesla, waltz over to your desk, and sit down, head full of ideas as to how to make the social network better for users and advertisers alike. Then a notification pings up on Messenger. It’s Mark Zuckerberg himself! The boss is speaking to you! What could he have to say?

Why do people vent such toxic opinions online? Filmmaker Kyrre Lien spent three years travelling the world to find out who these anonymous ‘internet warriors’ are and why they do itNorwegian filmmaker Kyrre Lien began researching online commenters on Christmas Day 2014. “I became fascinated by how much hate and ignorance people were writing in the comments section of a news site,” he says, “so I began looking at people’s profiles, trying to work out who they were. Many seemed quite normal. They had families and looked like nice people, but the comments they were writing in a public space were so extreme. There was a disconnect.” And so began Lien’s three-year journey into the lives of some of the internet’s most prolific online commenters, now the subject of a documentary, The Internet Warriors. Continue reading...

From the first box camera to the ghetto blaster and the Sony Walkman, these are the devices that brought our favourite tech out into the open Continue reading...

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

How Alexa-style language processing is allowing scientists to talk to the cells of our bodies

The Tesla founder says he can build a 100MW battery storage farm within 100 days or provide the system free of chargeElon Musk, the billionaire co-founder of electric car giant Tesla, has thrown down a challenge to the South Australian and federal governments, saying he can solve the state’s energy woes within 100 days – or he’ll deliver the 100MW battery storage system for free.On Thursday, Lyndon Rive, Tesla’s vice-president for energy products, told the AFR the company could install the 100-300 megawatt hours of battery storage that would be required to prevent the power shortages that have been causing price spikes and blackouts in the state. Continue reading...

Tech company’s health subsidiary planning digital ledger based on blockchain to let hospitals, the NHS and eventually patients track personal dataGoogle’s AI-powered health tech subsidiary, DeepMind Health, is planning to use a new technology loosely based on bitcoin to let hospitals, the NHS and eventually even patients track what happens to personal data in real-time.Dubbed “Verifiable Data Audit”, the plan is to create a special digital ledger that automatically records every interaction with patient data in a cryptographically verifiable manner. This means any changes to, or access of, the data would be visible. Continue reading...