Technology | The Guardian

We explore how our addiction to notifications and alerts influences how we use technology and go about our everyday lives

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...

When the wider world goes to pot, tales of plucky humans using mind-boggling tech can save the dayMeet the Cyborgs (R4) | iPlayer

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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 approach”.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!”. 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...

Did this account predict events ranging from Brexit and the Trump presidency to Beyoncé’s pregnancy? Almost certainly not – but it’s still spooking the webA seemingly-psychic Twitter account has appeared, apparently predicting Brexit, the Trump presidency and Beyoncé’s baby news.@beyoncefan666 Who are you and why has everything you've said come true.. pic.twitter.com/QMGZxxKdRO 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 “doxing”: 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 merchandise”. 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 place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Thursday. Continue reading...

Jury determined that VR company’s CEO Palmer Luckey failed to comply with a non-disclosure agreement with games company ZeniMax

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...

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

Scale and sophistication of hack points to foreign state, says Czech foreign minister, comparing it to attack on US Democratic partyThe Czech Republic has suffered a damaging security breach after hackers infiltrated the emails of dozens of its most senior diplomats in a massive cyber-attack thought to have been carried out by Russia.

My mother used to only check on me when I visited unstable countries for work. Now she does it when I am in Trump’s USWhen I was a kid dreaming of being a game developer, I hoped that in the future I’d be joining a large studio and working on a blockbuster title. Things didn’t quite pan out that way. After leaving university with a fellow student, I am now the co-founder of my own company, Vlambeer, renowned for successful game releases such as Nuclear Throne and Ridiculous Fishing.I was born in the Netherlands, the son of an Egyptian immigrant and a Dutch mother, and was raised as a proud Muslim. For the past years, much of my travel to the United States has led to secondary selection, investigation, or interrogation. For all 100 flights I took in 2014, I jokingly created a website that kept track of whether my boarding passes were marked for “random checks” before even reaching airport security. For many of the 1.6 billion Muslims across the world, whether they’re born in the western world or not, this is a recognisable issue with air travel. Many of my Muslim friends calculate an extra 30 minute delay for boarding and transfers. Continue reading...

The creators of the online game announced today that they will be shutting down the website to make way for a new mobile version. How did a game for children become embedded in internet culture?It’s the end of an internet era: Club Penguin is closing its website.While this is far from the end for Club Penguin – the creators say they will be launching a new mobile-only game, Club Penguin Island – it marks the end of a beloved chapter in internet history. Continue reading...

Guerrilla Games’ have created a brave, independent, multi-dimensional heroine to lead this highly satisfying missionOf all the ways Horizon: Zero Dawn could have begun, we certainly weren’t expecting a Lion King tribute. This is, after all, a far-future, post-apocalyptic adventure set in a brutal world populated by monstrous robots – hardly Disney material. But sure enough, the game opens with Aloy, the flame-haired warrior who has become a fixture of Sony’s PlayStation 4 marketing, as a baby, carried on the back of her mentor, Rost. When he reaches the edge of a cliff, he holds the child aloft to the Goddess, screaming her name into the abyss.

CEO Jeff Bezos says company’s legal and lobbying teams will help fight the ban, echoing moves by Expedia and MicrosoftAmazon chief executive, Jeff Bezos, has pledged the full legal resources of his company to fight the travel ban instituted by Donald Trump against seven Muslim-majority nations.In an email to employees sent on Monday afternoon, Bezos said that Amazon would be putting its legal and lobbying efforts behind the fight against the ban. A key avenue of opposition involves supporting the attorney general for Washington state, where Amazon is headquartered, in his lawsuit against Trump – the first confirmed legal action from a state against one of the new administration’s policies. Continue reading...

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

Finally released as a complete package, last year’s episodic stealth shooter is the best in the series and possibly one of the finest stealth games ever madeWhen this new instalment in the Hitman series was first announced back in June 2015, the overwhelming reaction was one of confusion.Following 2012’s poorly received Hitman: Absolution, the franchise was to re-emerge as something unprecedented in the action adventure genre: a six-part digital episodic release, spread across a whole year, each part constituting one level of the final game. Nobody was quite sure what this experiment would look like, or what the point was. Continue reading...

Libratus, an artificial intelligence robot, has won chips worth $1.5m from four of the world’s top poker players in a three-week challenge at a Pittsburgh casinoEvery day for the last 20 days, between the hours of 11am and about 10pm, four of the world’s top poker players have been sitting in a Pittsburgh casino playing against a software robot called Libratus.With only a few hours of the Brains vs Artifical Intelligence competition left, Libratus has won more than $1.5m worth of chips from the humans. It would take a miracle for the human players, Dong Kim, Jason Les, Jimmy Chou and Daniel McCauley – all specialists in no-limit Texas Hold’em, a two-player unlimited bid form of poker – to make a comeback. Continue reading...

After Uber lifted surge pricing during a protest at New York’s John F Kennedy airport against Trump’s travel ban, condemnation online was swiftThere was plenty to be angry about this weekend – and many people were extremely irate about the ride-hailing company Uber.As news of Donald Trump’s travel ban on Muslim-majority countries spread, protests sprang up at airports around the US. In support, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance called on its members to avoid John F Kennedy International Airport for one hour: Continue reading...

James McAvoy’s bravura turn helped M Night Shyamalan’s film hold the top spot, while A Dog’s Purpose dodged controversy and Resident Evil crept inM Night Shyamalan’s revival as a commercial force was underlined by the figures for his multiple-personality thriller Split’s second week at the US box office: it held on to the No 1 spot with an estimated $26.3m (£20.9m) for a total of $77.9m (£62.1m), well ahead of second-placed family movie A Dog’s Purpose, which managed $18.4m (£14.6m). Continue reading...

A big 5.5in screen, solid build and feel, a great fingerprint scanner and dual-Sim support means latest Huawei Honor is a solid, good value smartphoneHuawei’s Honor line has been making a name for itself by selling good yet reasonably priced smartphones. The Honor 6X is no exception, even if it isn’t perfect.

Three engrossing games put the fun into planning – a Viking conquest, a presidential campaign and an after-work competition for car-plant robotsOne of the fascinating aspects of the resurgence of interest in board gaming is how they have demonstrated a knack for making pedestrian or even administrative processes engrossing. Vikings on Board, superficially a game themed around preparing for a journey, is a superb example. It’s not quite a packing-your-suitcase simulator, yet the gameplay remains focused on managing a workforce and moving supplies around a harbour, all with a view to dominating the northern territories with a clan of Norsemen.The mechanics might seem at odds with the game’s claim to be a family-friendly strategy title. However, thanks to its captivating Viking theme and a riveting betting mechanic, which sees players trying to balance predicting the fortunes of their rivals with racing to claim victory, Vikings on Board shines, whether played with the family or over drinks with adult friends. Elaborate, enthralling and lavishly produced, it can feel a little convoluted when played at the family table, but if your own Viking clan doesn’t mind flexing its grey matter, it is well worth paying attention. Continue reading...

There are ways to get your point across more effectively. Avoid shouting into the abyss and follow these steps to become a master persuaderWhenever a major story breaks in the social media age, from the supreme court judgement on article 50 to the news that roast potatoes can apparently cause cancer – it sparks a heated debate. And in this post-truth world of alternative facts even the US president conducts his battles on Twitter. But what if you’re less interested in just shouting your view and actually want to try to change people’s minds? Continue reading...

Purchases on its software platform made $8.6bn for the company last year, even as demand for the iPhone showed signs of easingWhen Apple launched its App Store eight years ago with a selection of just 500 applications for iPhone users, not many of the company’s famously bullish executives could have expected that it would grow into an earnings juggernaut. The iPhone and iPod were overwhelming successes and the iPad was just around the corner: apps seemed like an offshoot.But last year, Apple’s app business made almost $30bn (£24bn) as the Pokémon Go phenomenon drove purchases, taking total store sales to $85bn since 2008. This week’s latest quarterly results will confirm its importance to the tech group, with iPhone sales losing steam and the group’s services unit – home to the app store and iTunes – becoming increasingly important to Apple. Continue reading...

I can get you to 128mph no problem, it seems to say, but wouldn’t you rather enjoy the scenery?The Peugeot 3008 has sleek, long lines in the body, then an abruptly curtailed snout, as if it’s been punched in the face. Inevitably, then, I started to wonder why someone might want to punch it in the face. This ridiculous Peugeot fascination with vista, a huge great windscreen delivering less-than-brilliant visibility, thanks to its very shallow angle and hefty A-frame? I could live without that. The highly effective fragrance diffuser that gave the eerie impression of having swapped one’s regular family for aliens or furniture? That was a bit prissy. But overall, no: it would be fanciful to bear ill will towards this car. It is trying its best, goddammit. Its face looks like that only to reduce its dimensions and kerb weight while keeping its boot capacity.Over the years, I’ve noticed I rarely ask passengers how comfortable they are, preferring instead to stare at them now and then, and observe how comfortable they look. This is a spacious back row, with a lot of headroom and a high seat, so they look rather regal. The driver and front passenger, likewise, have a lot of space, most noticeably in the area of the elbows. Highly gesticulate-prone people, who both like an array of drinks and always arrive in a car bursting with oddments, will find almost nothing to argue about, which – vexingly for this superior cabin – they won’t even notice until they’re in a smaller car and start knocking over each other’s coffees again. Continue reading...

The Facebook CEO used his own page to criticize Donald Trump’s executive order that will severely limit immigrants from certain Muslim-majority countriesMark Zuckerberg criticized Donald Trump’s executive order to severely limit immigrants and refugees from certain Muslim-majority countries, becoming the most high-profile tech industry leader to speak out against the president since the election.“Like many of you, I’m concerned about the impact of the recent executive orders signed by President Trump,” the Facebook CEO wrote on his Facebook page. “We need to keep this country safe, but we should do that by focusing on people who actually pose a threat ... We should also keep our doors open to refugees and those who need help. That’s who we are.” Continue reading...

Algorithms can make bad decisions that have serious impacts on people’s lives, leading to calls for a third party body to ensure transparency and fairnessAn artificial intelligence watchdog should be set up to make sure people are not discriminated against by the automated computer systems making important decisions about their lives, say experts.The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has led to an explosion in the number of algorithms that are used by employers, banks, police forces and others, but the systems can, and do, make bad decisions that seriously impact people’s lives. But because technology companies are so secretive about how their algorithms work – to prevent other firms from copying them – they rarely disclose any detailed information about how AIs have made particular decisions. Continue reading...

Seven days into Trump’s presidency, and the response from many of us has been anger and alarm. Fortunately, there were also those who could see the funny side – here is a pick of the bestThis week has been a lot.As 2017 slowly turns into your favourite dystopian fiction, we thought you might appreciate a reminder of those able to draw on humour to get us all through. Like this alternative rendition of Trump’s inauguration: Continue reading...

It started as a cult game that scared a generation before spawning a film franchise that is about to call it a day. For one writer, it’s still body horror at its bestIt’s March 1996. The Fugees have taken over the world. Happy Gilmore’s in cinemas and people are saying things like “Hey, that Adam Sandler dude’s great!” and “I do not hate Adam Sandler at all!” And if you play video games, you walk past any darkened window worried that a skinless hound will clatter through it and try to rip all your organs out through your armpits. This is because you’ve just played Resident Evil. And it’s scared you. Scared you like no other game has before.Related: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard review – a masterclass in terror Continue reading...

Police get a break as digitally savvy criminals who can’t resist the lure of an audience broadcast acts as serious as rape and torture. But why do they do it?This week three men have been arrested in Sweden on suspicion of raping a woman in an apartment in Uppsala, about an hour north of Stockholm. It wasn’t difficult for the police to find the suspects because they broadcast the alleged assault on Facebook Live. Several viewers reported the footage and police swarmed the apartment to take the men into custody.Facebook Live allows anyone to broadcast a video directly from their smartphone to the social network. Despite a wide-reaching advertising campaign urging people to use the feature to share heartwarming life moments, it’s gained a reputation for much grittier subject matter: the torture of a young man with disabilities in Chicago; the musings of a spree killer being chased by police; child abuse and now gang rape. Continue reading...

Following the news that Square Enix is making a new range of Avengers games, here are our favourite comic book conversions from gaming historyOn Thursday, games publisher Square Enix announced it had signed a multi-game partnership with Marvel to produce a series of Avengers titles. Two studios, Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider) and Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex) will be working on the project, so we can perhaps expect big, open world action adventures with a smattering of role-playing depth.So what legacy will this tie-in have to contend with? Is there a glorious history of super hero games? Kind of. Continue reading...

The moustachioed plumber’s latest adventure takes place in a lifelike New York. But gaming should give us valuable respite from reality, not more of itMario is coming to a street near you. His latest outing, Super Mario Odyssey, was unveiled in a Nintendo trailer earlier this month, and shows the moustachioed plumber gleefully sprinting around a facsimile of New York, hopping over taxis and scaling skyscrapers. Elsewhere, he swings through dewy forests and slides through realistically animated streams. The angry, sentient plant pots may be slightly less believable, but that’s besides the point – Mario has been plucked from the multicoloured fantasy of the Mushroom Kingdom and dumped into our much less palatable reality.Related: And breathe: the computer games helping kids relax Continue reading...

Yevgeniy Nikulin faces extradition requests from both countries amid lingering disquiet over Moscow’s alleged interference in the US presidential electionAn alleged computer hacker being held in the Czech Republic is at the centre of an international legal tussle between the United States and Russia amid lingering disquiet over Moscow’s alleged interference in the recent US presidential election.Yevgeniy Nikulin, 29, faces extradition requests from both countries after being detained by Czech police on an Interpol arrest warrant issued by US authorities. Continue reading...

In audio obtained by the Guardian, McCain says ‘it is the one aspect of our confrontation where adversaries are ahead’John McCain warned that the Trump administration is unprepared to deal with Russian attempts “to influence elections in France and European countries in the coming months”.In audio obtained by the Guardian of the 2008 presidential nominee speaking at the congressional retreat in Philadelphia, the Arizona senator said “we don’t have a policy and we don’t have a strategy” for Russian cyber warfare. He said “it is the one aspect of our confrontation where I believe our adversaries are ahead of us”, adding “it is a hell of a lot of easier to offense in cyber than defense”.

President probably owns a 2012 Samsung Galaxy S3, which no longer receives software updates, leaving Trump vulnerable to hackers and nation-state actorsDonald Trump is a big fan of the phones in the White House. “These are the most beautiful phones I’ve ever used in my life,” he told the New York Times in an interview this week. It’s not their aesthetics he’s drawn to, but the security built into the system that ensures no one is tapping his calls.Unfortunately the president’s love for security doesn’t seem to extend to his smartphone, revealed in the same interview to be an “old, unsecured Android phone”, which he carries around the White House “to the protests of some of his aides”. This contradicts previous reports suggesting Trump traded his handset for a “secure, encrypted device approved by the Secret Service”. Continue reading...