Technology | The Guardian

The rebooted action heroine channels the spirit of Indiana Jones – and creepy daddy issues – in a dull, derivative rompDave Allen once said that men know they’re getting older when they watch Sunset Boulevard and realise they find Gloria Swanson quite attractive. Similarly, a certain generation will sense the grim reaper’s presence now that Angelina Jolie is no longer the screen face of Lara Croft, because the mantle has passed to Alicia Vikander.This Lara is notably more serious and sensitive, and unlike Jolie, or the figure in the 90s video game – or indeed Karen Gillan in the new Jumanji movie – she doesn’t have to wear cute shorts or revealing clothes, which is fair enough. But she does an awful lot of very pathetic and borderline creepy daddy-daughter pining for that all-important man in her life. It’s a fantastically lacklustre appearance from Dominic West as the stately parent from a stately home, the daring anthropologist “Lord Richard Croft” (the son of a duke or earl, perhaps?). Continue reading...

Data protection watchdog forces firm to sign an undertaking declaring it will not share user data with parent company before GDPRThe UK’s data protection watchdog has concluded that WhatsApp’s sharing of user data with its parent company Facebook would have been illegal.

Ads for cryptocurrencies, ICOs, wallets and exchanges will be blocked from June to prevent scams, following Facebook’s move in JanuaryGoogle will ban all adverts for cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and initial coin offerings (ICOs), as it seeks to “tackle emerging threats”.

Nectome offers to preserve grey matter through ‘vitrifixation’ process tested on rabbits – but doesn’t have a method for uploading brains yetA US startup is promising to upload customers’ brains to the cloud using a pioneering technique it has trialled on rabbits.The only catch, according to the company’s cofounder? The process is “100% fatal”. Continue reading...

A small number of companies have become extraordinarily rich by harvesting our data. But that wealth belongs to the manyGoogle knows you’re pregnant. Spotify knows your favorite throwback jams.Is this convenient or creepy? It depends. One minute, you’re grateful for the personalized precision of Netflix’s recommendations. The next, you’re nauseated by the personalized precision of a Facebook ad. Continue reading...

Platform plans to launch a feature ‘in the coming months’ that will flag disinformation with additional info from WikipediaYouTube will flag conspiracy theory videos with additional information from Wikipedia in an effort to tackle the spread of disinformation on its platform.The feature, which will launch “in the coming months” will at first focus on “well-known” conspiracy theories that have significant debate on YouTube, for example videos suggesting that Nasa’s Moon landing was a hoax. Continue reading...

IMF chief says cryptocurrency’s own blockchain technology could be used to control itChristine Lagarde has called for a crackdown on bitcoin by using the technology behind the digital currency to “fight fire with fire”.The head of the International Monetary Fund said authorities around the world could harness the potential of cryptocurrencies to help bring them under control, warning that failure to do so would allow the unfettered development of a “potentially major new vehicle for money laundering and the financing of terrorism”.

Two-person, 110mph electric craft made by Google co-founder’s drone company begins regulatory approval process in New ZealandAutonomous flying taxis just took one big step forward to leaping off the pages of science fiction and into the real world, thanks to Google co-founder Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk.

Video games have often attracted moral outrage from religious groups. But the clergy are increasingly interested in how they can be used to explore spirituality in a Christian settingPut your screens away and worship God, I was often told on Sundays. Video games and church don’t mix. When they do, it’s usually fuelled by outrage or misunderstanding – PlayStation game Resistance: Fall of Man’s use of Manchester Cathedral for a violent gun battle in 2007 led to legal threats from the Church of England and an apology from Sony.

‘Facebook has now turned into a beast’, says United Nations investigator, calling network a vehicle for ‘acrimony, dissension and conflict’Facebook has been blamed by UN investigators for playing a leading role in possible genocide in Myanmar by spreading hate speech.Facebook had no immediate comment on the criticism on Monday, although in the past the company has said that it was working to remove hate speech in Myanmar and ban the people spreading it. Continue reading...

‘Virtual newsstand’ lets users read about 200 digital titles for a monthly subscription feeApple is to buy the digital magazine service Texture, which lets users read titles for a monthly subscription fee.The “virtual newsstand” gives readers online access to current and back issues of about 200 titles, including Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Cosmopolitan, for a monthly fee of $9.99 (£7.19). Continue reading...

Humans must prioritise the colonisation of Mars so the species can survive in the event of a third world war, the SpaceX and Tesla founder, Elon Musk, said on Sunday.'It’s important to get a self-sustaining base on Mars because it’s far enough away from Earth that [in the event of a war] it’s more likely to survive than a moon base,” Musk said on stage at SXSW. It came days after Donald Trump announced plans to meet the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in an attempt to defuse rising nuclear tension

Businessman wants links to articles about his criminal past to be removed from search engineA second businessman who wants links to articles about his criminal past removed from search engine results has launched a high court fight.The man, known as NT2, was convicted more than 10 years ago of conspiracy to intercept communications, a high court judge has been told.

Becoming first British politician to speak at SXSW tech conference in Texas, Khan will warn of abuse online and breakup of rights by sharing economyThe UK government is guilty of a “dereliction of duty” for leaving big technology firms unregulated, London mayor Sadiq Khan will warn, saying that no firm or industry is “above local rules”.Speaking on Monday at the South by South West technology conference in Austin, Texas - the first British politician to do so - Khan will criticise politicians for failing to ensure technological progress benefits all, saying that regulation is clearly out of date. Continue reading...

Violent, isolationist and misogynist desires course through games – and push rightwing ideologies on playersDonald Trump’s claim, in the aftermath of the Florida school shooting, that these events are the result of violent video games, resurrects old arguments about whether young people emulate the games they play. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recent decision to consider video game addiction an official illness shows comparable concern. However, these responses demonstrate anxiety about the right things for the wrong reasons.Gaming cultures are connected to violence – but should be considered in terms of the rise of far right political discourse and the prominence of “alt-right” misogyny and racism. While Trump is firmly on the right and the WHO may embody normative centrism, there is an aspect of gaming that should worry the progressive left. Continue reading...

Experts believe that how we handle finances is shaped by the age of seven – and board games and apps can helpThe cost of a mortgage or rents, meeting monthly utility bills, shelling out for a new car – all headaches most people get to worry about from their 20s. But while some may struggle to pay their bills after a few too many nights out at the start of the month, others will have a tightly followed plan for their repayments.So what is the difference between the savvy saver and the more knee-jerk spender? Continue reading...

Alibaba-backed Ofo targets 150,000 bikes in London alone as Tencent-sponsored Mobike expands in ManchesterDockless bike providers Mobike and Ofo will dramatically expand their operations in London and Manchester as the two Chinese companies continue their cut-throat multibillion-dollar battle for global domination. Continue reading...

Yes, my AI face-swap attempts might show how hard it is to make a deepfake – but it’s getting easier every dayMPs from the House of Commons inquiry into fake news were warned last week of a new AI technology that is about to change the world, and not for the better.“We’re rapidly moving into an era where the Russians, or any other adversary, can create our public figures saying or doing things that are disgraceful or highly corrosive to public trust,” Edward Lucas, the senior vice president of the Centre for European Policy Analysis told MPs. “And we’re not remotely ready for this.” Continue reading...

The inventor of the world wide web warns over concentration of power among a few companies ‘controlling which ideas are shared’Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, has called for large technology firms to be regulated to prevent the web from being “weaponised at scale”. Continue reading...

I’m following a 30-day plan to wean me off it. I leave it in another room and, like an 18th-century gentleman, reply to messages only once a dayThere is something wrong with my phone, and it is not just that the predictive text feature thinks I’m obsessed with ducks. The real problem is that my phone is the first thing I look at in the morning, and the last thing I look at at night. I come running when it makes a “ding” noise. I think in tweets and look at meals and people and imagine them cropped into squares on Instagram. There is something mentally totalitarian about it.Smartphones are designed to addict us – nagging us with notifications, disrupting us with noise, making themselves indispensable. Social media apps harness neuroscience to the same end, triggering dopamine hits that lock us into them for hours. A terrifying new book, How to Break Up With Your Phone, says we are rewiring our brains so they are less organised for deep thought; killing our attention span, destroying our memory, sleep and happiness. Phones have changed the world, too; advertisers use them to hoover up our attention. We are no longer just consumers, but product. As Ramsay Brown, co-founder of app-designers Dopamine Labs, has said: “You get to use [Facebook] for free, because your eyeballs are what’s being sold there.” Continue reading...

By day, a glamorous film star, by night a technology pioneerIt is, as one interviewee says, the ultimate “crime fighter by night” story. By day, Hedy Lamarr was the most glamorous star in Hollywood. By night, she was an inventor whose frequency-hopping technology is now used in bluetooth and wifi. This rousing documentary charts the story of a brilliant woman who was, in some ways, handicapped by her beauty. Film-maker Alexandra Dean explores a fascinating life full of contradictions. Lamarr claimed that the world never saw her true self, yet she lived her final years as a recluse, hidden even from her family. She was an immigrant who gave her all to support her adopted country but who was always regarded as an outsider. Continue reading...

The latest luxury seven-seat SUV from Land Rover is as glossy as it is immense. Just be very careful when you try to squeeze into a parking spaceLand Rover Discovery

For many tech insiders, the most exciting thing about bitcoin is the thing that allows it to function: blockchain. What is it and what other uses might it have?These days, bitcoin is front-page news, as its price’s vertiginous ups and downs elicit glee and despondency by turns among investors. It was not always this way: the now-definitely-in-a-bubble cryptocurrency is making a comeback following years in which its association with crime and darknet drug markets kept it away from the spotlight. During that period, technologists and corporate evangelists had stopped touting the qualities of bitcoin, turning instead to a technology that underpinned the cryptocurrency without being tainted by dodgy connections: blockchain.The blockchain was born as the digital scaffolding for cryptocurrency transactions. When devising bitcoin, pseudonymous inventor Satoshi Nakamoto’s aim was to create a stateless virtual currency, not controlled by any bank or government. Continue reading...

Google has successfully argued that its search results are analogous to a newspaper editor’s decisions about what op-eds to run. They aren’t, though

Next version of Windows to have game-changing new Timeline feature for resuming apps from other devices, including Android and iPhonesThe next version of Windows 10 looks set to shake things up in the way people switch between devices, and now, reportedly, has a name: Spring Creators Update.

Super Seducer is the work of a pickup artist who even Piers Morgan finds vile. I’m calling on gamers to join my campaign“If you’re not good at cooking you better be real good at sucking dick.” That memorable line is from a new video game released this week, just in time for International Women’s Day.The game is called Super Seducer. It was created by a pickup artist called Richard La Ruina, a man Piers Morgan recently branded “repulsive” for his views on British women. Take that in for a second. Piers Morgan thinks this man’s views on women are beyond the pale. In the game players are given the option to try out different lines and “moves” on women, like grabbing their breasts … or their bottom. The aim is to hone your skills for real life so you can “win” the ultimate prize: the girl of your dreams. Continue reading...

Much-loved fighting game joins Crash Bandicoot Trilogy and No More Heroes spin-off on list of new games announced for handheld consoleNintendo has announced several new games for its Switch and 3DS consoles, including the popular fighting game Super Smash Bros.Related: Arms: how Nintendo is reinventing the motion game for the Switch age Continue reading...

Would you download an app that sends you a reminder five times a day that you’re going to die? Some people are doing exactly that. This week, Jordan Erica Webber attempts to figure out why we need this kind of app, and why we’re so dependent on apps in general in our day-to-day livesSubscribe and review: Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook, Twitter & email us as podcast@theguardian.comIt seems as if nowadays we think there is no problem in the world that can’t be fixed with an app. According to Apple, from the launch of the App Store in July 2008 up to June 2017, we’ve downloaded 180bn apps. These range from games to keep your mind active on the morning commute to more niche and bizarre apps.

Researchers say it’s a crucial step towards cheaper and more environmentally-friendly energy storageScientists have created the world’s first rechargeable proton battery, a crucial step towards cheaper and more environmentally-friendly energy storage.While the battery is just a small-scale prototype, it has the potential to be competitive with currently available lithium-ion batteries. Continue reading...

Researchers find fake news reaches users up to 20 times faster than factual content – and real users are more likely to spread it than bots“Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it,” wrote Jonathan Swift in 1710. Now a group of scientists say they have found evidence Swift was right – at least when it comes to Twitter.In the paper, published in the journal Science, three MIT researchers describe an analysis of a vast amount of Twitter data: more than 125,000 stories, tweeted more than 4.5 million times in total, all categorised as being true or false by at least one of six independent fact-checking organisations. Continue reading...

Meeting will include campaigners seeking to tie mass shootings to violence in games and movies – despite research failing to show a linkAs Donald Trump convenes a meeting on Thursday to address violence in video games, in the wake of last month’s Florida school shooting, those in attendance will include a group that argues the Muppets drink too much, and another committed to exposing strident liberal bias on television.The president’s round table at the White House will be the latest in a series of discussions on school safety after a gunman left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman high school in Parkland on 14 February. Continue reading...

Keith’s Toshiba smart TV lacks good sound and he’s bought a soundbase that overdoes the bass. What should he do next?I have a Toshiba 32L3753DB TV, which is OK, but the sound needs help. I bought an Otone Audio Ltd Soundbase, which does amplify the sound, but it over-emphasises the bass and cannot be adjusted. Is there a soundbar or other addition that will allow me to adjust the bass and treble? KeithIt looks as though bass and treble controls have gone out of fashion. They certainly featured on the now-discontinued Sony CT60 and similar soundbars, using up and down buttons on the remote control.

Led by Australian of the year Michelle Simmons, team has built qubits from single phosphorus atoms in silicon

Australian federal police reportedly questioned two IT workers at the bureau’s Melbourne headquartersTwo Bureau of Meteorology employees are reportedly being investigated by police for mining cryptocurrency on their work computers.The Australian federal police questioned the IT workers at the bureau’s Docklands headquarters in Melbourne on 28 February, the ABC has reported. Continue reading...

The company acknowledged the issue after some reported their devices had developed an unsettling new skill

If you have children between eight and 18, the chances are you’ve heard of the multiplayer online shooter Fortnite: Battle Royale. Here’s what you need to knowYou know a video game has made it when ITV daytime programme This Morning posts on its Facebook page asking parents if their kids are addicted. You can be doubly sure when that post attracts almost 60,000 comments. In this case the game is Fortnite: Battle Royale, a bright, brash multiplayer shooter. It was released last year, and is now one of the biggest online games out there.With more than 40m players worldwide, the chances are either your children or their friends are already passionate fans. For some, that fandom may well be bordering on obsession. Should you be worried? Here’s what you need to know about the game. Continue reading...

Tech firm is first to offer calls to UK mobile and landline numbers without charge, as battle for the home intensifiesGoogle has started offering free voice calls through its Home smart speakers to UK landlines and mobile phones, bringing it in line with US offerings.

Technology expected to be rolled out this summer raises fears for retail jobs

Analysis into Uber’s business model reveals the company relies on drivers’ low incomes to escalate its market valueUber’s fares are made possible because the company is significantly underpaying its drivers, a new report argues.UberX drivers earn well below minimum wage once all hidden costs are taken into account, according to analysis by the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute think tank. Continue reading...

Sir James Dyson says company is investing in smaller, lighter, battery-powered cleanersDyson has halted the development of plug-in vacuum cleaners in order to focus on improving and expanding its range of cordless battery-powered machines.Sir James Dyson, the company’s founder and inventor who revolutionised the vacuum cleaner, announced the change of tack on Tuesday as he unveiled a new cordless model, the Dyson Cyclone V10. Continue reading...

Information commissioner calls for more transparency over how individuals’ data is used for political endsFacebook and Twitter may be forced to reveal detailed information about how and why users were targeted for political advertising, the information commissioner Elizabeth Denham has suggested.Speaking to the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) select committee, which is holding an inquiry into fake news, Denham said that transparency in political campaigning was crucial. Continue reading...

The social news site says it has removed a few hundred accounts linked to Russian misinformation effortsReddit has become the latest social network to admit that it was infiltrated by Russian misinformation actors in the run-up to the 2016 US election.In a post on the social news site, Reddit’s chief executive Steve Huffman said that the company has “found and removed a few hundred accounts” which it suspects are of Russian origin, or which were linking directly to “known propaganda domains”. Continue reading...

Ben Bradley’s apology to Jeremy Corbyn was retweeted 55,000 times. Does this mean social media is the future of political recourse?Congratulations to Ben Bradley, Conservative MP for Mansfield, who, in little over a week, has managed to clock up more retweets – 55,000 – than all of the Tory party’s tweets in 2018 combined.Unfortunately for Bradley, the tweet in question was part of a legal agreement following a defamatory post sent about Jeremy Corbyn, in which he said that the Labour leader had “sold secrets to communist spies”. A slur related to a right-wing press fabricated story that Corbyn cooperated with a Czech intelligence agent in the 1980s. Continue reading...

Some drivers end up losing money after insurance, maintenance and other costs, according to study raising concerns over labor standardsUber and Lyft drivers in the US make a median profit of as little as $8.55 per hour before taxes, according to a new report that suggests a majority of ride-share workers make below minimum wage and that some actually lose money.Researchers did an analysis of vehicle cost data and a survey of more than 1,100 drivers for the ride-hailing companies for the paper, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. The first draft of the paper, released last month, said the median profit was $3.37 an hour, but the author released a new analysis on Monday following criticism from Uber. Continue reading...

Prolific inventor famous for his wind-up radioTrevor Baylis, who has died aged 80, is best known for being the inventor of the wind-up radio, but he also created hundreds of other devices, including many to help people with disabilities. He liked to proclaim: “I don’t do things because I want to do good; I do things because I like to show off.” Nevertheless he did a great deal of good with the wind-up radio, which he conceived in 1991 and first produced in 1994. He held in contempt what he called “spivs, crooks and vulture capitalists” and suggested there should be a royal academy of invention that would help neglected inventors get their ideas off the ground without being ripped off.His dislike of exploiters came from experience. A few years before his wind-up radios began to sell at the rate of 120,000 a month, many of them bound for Africa, he had conceived more than 200 devices to help people with disabilities. He did most of this in less than three months of creative effort in which food and sleep played inconspicuous roles. The inventions included one-handed bottle and can openers, whisks, graters, sieves, sketching easels, embroidery frames and binoculars, as well as smoking aids for those who had difficulty in co-ordinating their limbs (he was an unreconstructed heavy pipe smoker). Continue reading...

The lord bishop of Oxford has handed a new list of laws for AI to a select committee. But, if we are to live in harmony with our robotic companions, here are a few more he might wish to includeThe notion of a robotic future is terrifying to many humans. However, the Right Rev Steven Croft has made efforts to fix this by writing a set of new commandments for robots.Croft’s commandments follow his appointment as a member of a House of Lords select committee on artificial intelligence. They are essentially Asimov’s laws of robotics rewritten to reflect a present where artificial intelligence already plays an important part in many of our day to day interactions. Continue reading...

PC; Subset Games

Digital rights campaigners threaten legal action if data protection bill clause is enacted

Emergency services called to Norman Foster-designed Apple Park, which Steve Jobs called ‘a shot at the best office building in the world’Employees in Apple Park, Apple’s grand new spaceship-style headquarters in California, keep walking into glass doors and windows.