by Ben Jacobs in Washington on (#25J1T)
The US president held his final press conference of 2016, criticizing the media for its coverage of Hillary Clinton’s emails, and discussing Russia and Syria
Technology | The Guardian
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| Updated | 2024-10-07 21:32 |
by Letters on (#25H49)
The Netherlands has found a solution to the problem of car doors and cyclists (Transport secretary knocks man off his bike, 16 December). Dutch motorists are trained to open the car door with their opposite hand. This forces the body to swivel, and your eyes to look backward, thus spotting a passing cyclist. Drivers must demonstrate this to pass the driving test. It is referred to sometimes as the “Dutch reachâ€. In the Netherlands it is simply called how you open your car door.
by Mark Sweney on (#25FY1)
Regulator advising the government on improving broadband access across the UK says 1.4m homes get below-par speedsMore than a million UK homes are unable to get fast enough broadband for modern families’ needs, including watching streaming services such as Netflix and video-calling friends.Ofcom has revealed that 5% of UK homes and offices, or 1.4m properties, cannot access broadband speeds over 10 megabits per second. Continue reading...
by Jasper Jackson on (#25GJH)
A report this week ranked Britain’s 4G service behind Romania and Peru. It’s not quite as simple as that, but patchy signal is still a problem in plenty of the countryIs the UK’s 4G mobile phone coverage really worse than Romania, Albania and Peru, as a report suggested last week?
by Luke Harding on (#25GFN)
Everything we know so far about Moscow’s reputed involvement in the election that saw Donald Trump defeat Hillary ClintonAccording to US intelligence officials, Russian hackers made repeated attempts before this year’s election to get into major US institutions, including the White House and the state department. The tactics were simple: send out volleys of phishing emails and hope that someone clicked. Continue reading...
by Alex Hern on (#25G2E)
The listing, produced by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, was topped by the US site The InterceptThe Guardian has been listed as the second most secure news publication on the web, according to a ranking produced by the American non-profit Freedom of the Press Foundation.Points were awarded for supporting technologies which protect the privacy and security of visitors, with a focus on using HTTPS, a web protocol that allows for encrypted connections. Continue reading...
by Adam Fisher on (#25FWD)
Can common-sense and our real-world intuition show us how to write secure software?It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armoured space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.Creating secure software is one of the huge challenges of the modern age. Software security is generally considered an advanced topic but I believe there are important lessons we can learn from how people secure things in the real world. By considering well-understood real-world situations and thinking about how those lessons apply to our software, we can often stumble upon security best practices. Continue reading...
by Kamilia Lahrichi in Caracas on (#25FQA)
Bitcoin users still represent a tiny minority, but some believe that the currency will become more popular in Venezuela as economic uncertainty escalatesAmid growing economic chaos, and the highest inflation rate in the world, some Venezuelans are swapping bolivars for bitcoins in order to buy basic necessities or pay their employeesThe digital currency is free from central bank or government controls, and users in Venezuela see it as a safe alternative in an economy where the government has enforced strict foreign exchange controls, and inflation is running at an estimated 500%. Continue reading...
by Olivia Solon and Sam Levin in San Francisco on (#25FPS)
Search and autocomplete algorithms prioritize sites with rightwing bias, and far-right groups trick it to boost propaganda and misinformation in search rankings
by Sam Levin in San Francisco on (#25FPR)
Intense fight with the state, ignited after cars were caught running red lights, exposed illegal and unethical tactics the company has used for years, critics sayUber has launched an aggressive battle with California over its controversial self-driving cars, with regulators and consumer advocates accusing the corporation of flagrantly violating the law, endangering public safety and mistreating drivers.The intense fight with the state – which ignited hours after numerous self-driving cars were caught running red lights in Uber’s home town – has exposed what critics say are the unethical and illegal tactics that the company has repeatedly used to grow its business. Continue reading...
by Guardian readers on (#25FMM)
With the release of Nintendo’s new Mario venture on iOS we’d like to hear your reviewsFans can finally get their hands on Super Mario Run now that it has been released on iOS.Unveiled at Apple’s WWDC event in June and available on 15 December, the game has been long awaited by fans of the legendary platformer.
by Alex Hern on (#25FH1)
Facebook Messenger has launched a new in-app camera for selfies with features including photo filter and stickersFacebook has, for the 15th time, tried to take on Snapchat.“Facebook Messenger built a new in-app camera for Snapchat-style selfiesâ€, reports Recode. The messaging app has rolled out a new camera with features including photo filters (aka geofilters), masks (aka lenses) and stickers (aka ... actually, Snapchat calls them stickers too). Continue reading...
by Guardian Staff on (#25F6Y)
The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Friday! Continue reading...
by Amber Jamieson in New York and Olivia Solon in San on (#25DG5)
Disputed articles will be marked with the help of users and outside fact checkers amid widespread criticism that fake news influenced the US electionFacebook will begin flagging fake news stories with the help of users and outside fact checkers, the company announced on Thursday, responding to a torrent of criticism over fake news during the US election.Readers will be able to alert Facebook to possible fake news stories, which the social media behemoth will then send to outside fact-checking organizations to verify. Continue reading...
by Sam Levin in San Francisco on (#25DCB)
ACLU investigation revealed fusion centers could access monitoring tech to target activists and journalists while racially profiling people deemed ‘suspicious’Twitter has blocked federally funded “domestic spy centers†from using a powerful social media monitoring tool after public records revealed that the government had special access to users’ information for controversial surveillance efforts.The American Civil Liberties Union of California discovered that so-called fusion centers, which collect intelligence, had access to monitoring technology from Dataminr, an analytics company partially owned by Twitter. The ACLU’s records prompted the companies to announce that Dataminr had terminated access for all fusion centers and would no longer provide social media surveillance tools to any local, state or federal government entities. Continue reading...
by Sam Thielman, David Smith and agencies on (#25D6T)
Victims of the largest data breach in history, which took place in 2013 but was just revealed this week, include FBI, CIA, NSA and White House workers
by Helen Pidd and Frances Perraudin on (#25BAG)
Louise Haigh said internet troll told her he ‘would not rest until I was murdered’ after she proposed debate on far-right groupPolice are investigating after a female Labour MP received “very explicit death threats†online.Louise Haigh, MP for Sheffield Heeley, told parliament she was targeted after calling for a debate on the banning of Britain First, the far-right group which may have inspired the murder of her colleague Jo Cox. Continue reading...
by Kate Aronoff on (#25CHP)
As the likes of Elon Musk and Sheryl Sandberg flock to meet Trump, will they ditch their lofty commitments to climate change along the way?Related: Donald Trump's presidential transition is basically reality television | Richard WolffeSwamp monsters are about to take over the White House, and the consequences for the environment are terrifying. Tech millionaires are known for making lofty promises on climate. Now that they’ve jumped into the bed with Trump, they’ll be quick to say they can “disrupt†the administration from within. That’s nonsense.
by Zoe Wood on (#25BZH)
Internet company embarks on £300m buying spree that will also see it acquire the Canadian service SkipTheDishesThe online takeaway food service Just Eat is to spend up to £300m on a buying spree, swallowing up its smaller rivals Hungry House and SkipTheDishes.Just Eat is paying £200m upfront to buy Hungry House, its biggest UK competitor, from the German group Delivery Hero. It has promised to hand over another £40m if the company hits performance targets. Continue reading...
by Sarah Marsh on (#25BQP)
After the Yahoo hack, we want to hear from people affected by password reuse. What happened and how did it impact on your life?Yahoo said on Wednesday it had discovered another major cyber attack (saying data from more than 1bn user accounts was compromised in August 2013). This is the largest such breach in history.Related: Eight things you need to do right now to protect yourself online Continue reading...
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by Samuel Gibbs on (#25BPY)
Yahoo ‘did not take security seriously enough’, failing to prevent a hack which exposed the data of 1 billion usersExperts have attacked Yahoo’s weak security after the revelation it suffered a hack in 2013, which exposed the personal data of 1 billion users, just months after revealing a 500-million-user data breach from 2014.The hack saw the potential theft of login details, personal details and any confidential or sensitive information contained within email correspondences. Yahoo provided the email services for BT and Sky customers, as well as other services. Continue reading...
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by Sam Levin in San Francisco on (#25A0A)
Regulators ordered Uber to take self-driving cars off roads in San Francisco and company suspends drivers after vehicles were caught running red lightsCalifornia regulators ordered Uber to remove its self-driving vehicles from the road on the same day that the company’s vehicles were caught running red lights – violations the company immediately blamed on “human errorâ€.“It is essential that Uber takes appropriate measures to ensure safety of the public,†the California department of motor vehicles (DMV) wrote to Uber on Wednesday after it defied government officials and began piloting the cars in San Francisco without permits. “If Uber does not confirm immediately that it will stop its launch and seek a testing permit, DMV will initiate legal action.†Continue reading...
by Jack Schofield on (#25BBE)
Stuart is getting his daughter a Windows laptop for Christmas, and would like some advice on setting it up. This is the first part of a two-part answer ... Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs on (#25B6P)
Keeping your details safe in a database is the least a site can do, but password security is complex. Here’s what it all meansFrom Yahoo, MySpace and TalkTalk to Ashley Madison and Adult Friend Finder, personal information has been stolen by hackers from around the world.But with each hack there’s the big question of how well the site protected its users’ data. Was it open and freely available, or was it hashed, secured and practically unbreakable? Continue reading...
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by Reuters in Toronto on (#25A82)
Customers receive nothing from settlement with US Federal Trade Commission, which decided owner Ruby Corp was unable to pay full $17.5m penaltyThe owner of hacked infidelity website Ashley Madison will pay a sharply discounted $1.66m penalty to settle US investigations into lax data security and deceptive practices.
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by Alex Hern on (#25805)
Trial only open to two customers in UK who have huge gardens, live close to an Amazon depot and want items that weigh less than 2.6kgAmazon says it has successfully trialled its Prime Air drone delivery service in Cambridge, UK, by delivering a TV streaming stick and bag of popcorn directly to the garden of a nearby customer.The breakthrough suggests that autonomous aerial delivery could become a viable business sooner than thought, albeit only for customers with huge gardens, who live close to the delivery depot, and want items weighing less than 2.6kg. Continue reading...
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by Robert Booth on (#257QZ)
Taxi-app company attempts to overturn judgment that drivers are entitled to minimum wage, sick pay and paid holidayUber has launched an appeal against a landmark employment tribunal ruling that its minicab drivers should be classed as workers with access to the minimum wage, sick pay and paid holidays.The taxi-app company filed papers with the appeal tribunal on Tuesday in an attempt to overturn the October judgment that, if it stands, could affect tens of thousands of workers in the gig economy. Continue reading...
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by James Walsh on (#25788)
The titles our readers were most horrified to see excluded from our 10 best games of the yearWhat did you most enjoy doing this year: shooting demons? Stealthily flitting your way around a city? Or perhaps you spent many aeons creating a civilisation worthy of song?Related: The 10 best video games of 2016 Continue reading...
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by Olivia Solon in San Francisco on (#256RV)
Members of Silicon Valley’s elite including Tim Cook, Larry Page, Satya Nadella and Sheryl Sandberg to meet president-elect in New YorkOne of the most pressing questions Silicon Valley leaders will want answered at their Wednesday meeting with President-elect Donald Trump is whether his administration will clamp down on the immigration policies that technology companies have come to rely on.You only have to look at the executive boards of some of the world’s fastest growing companies to see the contribution immigrants have made. According to a study by the National Foundation for American Policy, immigrants founded more than half (51%) of the current crop of US-based startups valued at more than $1bn.
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by Alex Hern on (#25732)
Final Fantasy XV is not like other games. But as you marvel at its lavishness and beauty, you may start to notice the wheels coming offA tagline greets you every time you start Final Fantasy XV: “A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timersâ€. It isn’t that the goal itself is notable, so much as the fact that Square Enix feels the need to repeat it every time you turn on the console. After all, what game hasn’t tried to appeal to fans and first-timers? Metal Gear Solid 4, maybe. But other games generally assume their audience includes fans, first-timers, and everyone in between.Of course, Final Fantasy XV isn’t like other games. Other games don’t take a decade from revelation to release, meaning there’s rather more “first-timers†than there ever have been before. Other games don’t launch with a tie-in movie voiced by Aaron Paul and Lena Headey, or a five-episode anime detailing the lives of the main characters, widening the gap between the fans and the first-timers still further. Other games don’t get delayed by three months to ensure that all the content is on disk, before receiving a day-one content patch, and a follow-up content patch a month later. Other games don’t feel the need to open, not with a stunning set-piece, or a slow intro to the world, but with a weird combat tutorial/lore guide where a strange fox thing talks to you about how to fight in the game before the game proper gets going. Continue reading...
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by HAL 90210 on (#25734)
Latest MacOS 10.12.2 update removes the long-used ‘time remaining’ feature so users have no indication of poor battery lifeApple has issued a “fix†for battery life complaints from users of its new MacBook Pro and other Mac computers.
by Guardian Staff on (#256JQ)
The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Wednesday. Continue reading...
by Australian Associated Press on (#2560T)
Broadband network will cost budget $580m in 2016-17 and increase from there, but the final cost won’t be known until NBN Co is soldThe annual cost to the federal budget of the government’s investment in the national broadband network will grow in coming years.The cost to the budget in 2016-17 is estimated to be about $580m, a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office released on Wednesday shows. Continue reading...
by Elle Hunt on (#255Q9)
Translation agency seeks first emoji specialist to help meet ‘challenges posed by the world’s fastest-growing language’Do you venture further into the emoji dictionary than the faces and food pages?Does your vocabulary extend beyond “thumbs up†and “red heart� Continue reading...
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by Jamie Grierson on (#254EP)
Tell MAMA accuses social networking site of ignoring calls to tackle online abuse against Muslims, Jews and LGBT peopleThe founder of a hate-crime monitoring group has told MPs that Twitter is failing to tackle far-right extremists in the wake of Jo Cox’s murder.Fiyaz Mughal, founder of Tell MAMA, which records anti-Muslim abuse, said the group’s attempts to report far-right extremism, including voices that call for the eradication of Muslims, had been ignored by the social networking site. Continue reading...
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by Alex Hern on (#252GD)
Six months after its release, the game is getting its first major tranche of new pokémonPokémon Go is getting bigger. Six months after its release, the game is getting its first major tranche of new pokémon, with fan favourites from the second generation of games including Pichu and Togepi joining the roster.The pokémon, originally introduced in Pokemon Gold and Silver for the Game Boy Color, won’t be immediately accessible on the game map like typical creatures in the game. Instead, they will begin to hatch out of eggs from Tuesday, according to Pokémon Go developer Niantic Labs. Continue reading...
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by Ben Tarnoff in San Francisco on (#252PW)
Fearmongering Donald Trump and optimistic Silicon Valley seem to epitomize opposing ideologies. But the two have far more in common than you thinkTomorrow, Silicon Valley leaders will sit down for a summit with Donald Trump. Larry Page, Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and Sheryl Sandberg are all expected to attend. The agenda is unknown, but the mood is likely to be tense. After all, tech executives overwhelmingly backed Hillary Clinton and loudly railed against the dangers posed by a Trump presidency. And Trump regularly lashed out at Silicon Valley on the campaign trail, bashing the industry for building hardware overseas and importing foreign engineers.But tech has little to fear from Trump. If his cabinet appointments are any indication, he seems keen to govern as a free-market fundamentalist, cutting taxes and regulations to the bone. Trump’s elevation of ultra-hawkish ex-generals to key cabinet posts also suggests that he will aggressively expand the sprawling surveillance state inherited from Obama. This is excellent news for companies like Palantir, which sell data analytics tools to the CIA, the NSA and other agencies. Palantir was co-founded by Peter Thiel, the billionaire who broke with his Silicon Valley colleagues to embrace Trump. Thiel now sits on the transition team, and has begun drawing a select circle of tech industry allies into Trump’s orbit. He and his friends are likely to make lots of money. Continue reading...
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by Guardian Staff on (#252J0)
US president Barack Obama says Russia’s involvement in the email hacks that blighted the US elections was no secret. In an interview with The Daily Show host Trevor Noah on Monday, Obama warns president-elect Donald Trump against ignoring intelligence briefings
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by Oliver Laughland in New York and Alec Luhn in Mosc on (#251EB)
Carter Page, John Bolton and more bolstered president-elect’s claims, saying US intelligence agencies’ findings were ‘a lot of speculation’ and could be a ‘false flag’Some Donald Trump loyalists have bolstered the president-elect’s unsupported claims that US intelligence agencies could be perpetuating a “conspiracy theory†after they reportedly concluded that Russia interfered with the presidential election and strengthened Trump’s run for the White House.Related: CIA concludes Russia interfered to help Trump win election, say reports Continue reading...
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by Gabrielle Chan on (#2515Z)
Superfast broadband competitors will be charged $7.09 per line a month to help subsidise the cost of regional internetThe Turnbull government is planning to charge competitors to the National Broadband Network a levy to help pay for rural broadband services.The levy would ensure NBN rivals are unable to cherrypick the most profitable parts of the market, usually in the inner city, and leave NBN Co to wholly subsidise the cost of providing services to rural and remote areas, which is expected to cost about $10bn over the next 30 years. Continue reading...
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by Jasper Jackson on (#24ZXK)
Job ad suggests company is looking for someone to address fears about fake news and social network’s wider impactFacebook is looking for an experienced media executive to help smooth its relationship with the press amid mounting concerns about fake news and the social network’s influence over the public.On Monday the company began advertising for a head of news partnerships with “20+ years of experience in news, with strong track-record and understanding across the businessâ€. The requirement means those applying must have started their news career before Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had celebrated his 13th birthday. Continue reading...
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by Alex Hern on (#24YQ1)
Popcorn Time malware offers users free removal if they get two other people to install link and payA new ransomware variant has been discovered using an innovative system to increase infections: the software turns victims into attackers by offering a pyramid scheme-style discount.Any user who finds themselves infected with the Popcorn Time malware (named after, but unrelated to, the bittorrent client) is offered the ability to unlock their files for a cash payment, usually one bitcoin ($772.67/£613.20). Continue reading...
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by Olivia Solon in San Francisco on (#24YJF)
This year has revealed how difficult it is for the social network to ‘make the world more open and connected’ when the decisions it makes can be so divisiveMark Zuckerberg started 2016 with a cookie cutter message of hope. “As the world faces new challenges and opportunities, may we all find the courage to keep making progress and making all our days count,†he wrote on his Facebook wall on 1 January. He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, had just had their daughter, Max, and had been sharing warm and fuzzy photos of gingerbread houses and their dreadlocked dog Beast over the holiday season.Then 2016 happened. As the year unfurled, Facebook had to deal with a string of controversies and blunders, not limited to: being accused of imperialism in India, censorship of historical photos, and livestreaming footage of human rights violations. Not to mention misreported advertising metrics and the increasingly desperate cloning of rival Snapchat’s core features. Things came to a head in November, when the social network was accused of influencing the US presidential election through politically polarized filter bubbles and a failure to tackle the spread of misinformation. The icing on the already unpalatable cake was Pope Francis last week declaring that fake news is a sin. Continue reading...
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by Alex Hern on (#24YDK)
Richard B Spencer’s account reinstated weeks after being suspended as part of wider crackdown on hateful conduct from ‘alt-right’ membersTwitter has reinstated the account of Richard B Spencer, a self-styled white nationalist leader who was suspended from the service in the wake of a much publicised crackdown on hateful conduct.Spencer’s account was initially suspended on 15 November, as part of a sweeping move against leaders of the “alt-rightâ€, a far-right movement which has been resurgent in America since the election of Donald Trump. Continue reading...
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by Samuel Gibbs on (#24Y6A)
It’s the best, lightest, most beautiful laptop around. Until it runs out of battery. Or you forget a dongle. Or you realise you’re bankruptApple’s latest laptop, the new 13in MacBook Pro, is a much anticipated re-design of the company’s notebook range and represents a brave new USB-C-only future. But is it worth sacrificing ports and spending the best part of £2,000 to use?
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by Hilary Osborne on (#24VVB)
Liberal Democrat leader in Scotland claims workers are paid so little some camp outside warehouse in tents to cut commuting costsAmazon has been accused of creating “intolerable working conditions†after allegations that workers have been penalised for sick days and that some are camping near one of its warehouses to save money commuting to work.Willie Rennie, the Liberal Democrat leader in Scotland, said Amazon should be “ashamed†that workers at its warehouse in Dunfermline have chosen to camp outside in the winter. Continue reading...
by Guardian Staff on (#24Y37)
The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Monday. Continue reading...
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by Stuart Richardson, Andy Robertson on (#24Y35)
The hacker crime-caper sequel comes good, while Dishonored’s follow-up falls short of the original and Nintendo’s build-your-own phenomenon gets an impressive port to its handheld consolePC/PlayStation 4/Xbox One, Ubisoft, cert: 18
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by Dyani Lewis on (#24WZE)
Some devices will power themselves but the more complex will contribute to the world’s huge data storage energy billThe internet of things (IoT) – that ever-expanding ecosystem of digital sensors, home appliances and wearable smart devices – attracts its fair share of attention. Speculation is rife on how the 23bn-odd (and counting) “things†will improve quality of life, streamline business operations and ultimately fuel economic benefits to the tune of up to $11tn per year by 2025.
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by Ian Tucker on (#24TPX)
From the retro gaming delights of Super Mario Bros to virtual reality, home-bots and hybrid cars, here is this year’s must-have technologyThis first person-view drone can bank, twist and zoom through the heavens at nearly 50mph. Probably as close as you can get to flying without leaving the ground. Continue reading...
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