Technology | The Guardian

They can do everything from playing your favourite tunes to turning on the lights. But which should you get? We test the four leading models Continue reading...

This large and comfortable 4x4 from Korea has established itself as a contender in the UK mud-wrestling worldSsangYong Rexton

The Explore, Land Rover’s ‘ultra-rugged’ phone, has a built-in compass. As if it’s ever going to leave townThe imminent Land Rover smartphone, Explore (£599), sounds exciting. Described variously as “ultra-rugged” and the “toughest phone in the world”, it’s bulkier than a regular smartphone (great, I love carrying stuff) and splash- and dust-resistant. One presumes that this is in case the au pair hasn’t done a diligent enough cleaning job or the jets in the wetroom go off accidentally?Explore offers extra battery life from an “adventure pack”, which also improves the phone’s GPS signal – so useful for when people are finding it difficult to find their way out of the car park of a particularly large Waitrose. And – hurrah! – there’s a built-in compass. Only the other day, I got completely lost among the bath-bombs in Lush and was considering sending up a flare. Continue reading...

A diss from Kylie Jenner, an ‘annoying’ redesign, competition from Facebook and Musical.ly ... why does Snapchat keep getting it wrong?

In light of the Florida massacre, the company expresses ‘regret’ over its decision to bring the game to CPAC

Investor Vinod Khosla has battled regulators for years over Martin’s Beach, which can only be reached by road on his propertyA Silicon Valley billionaire who was ordered by California courts to restore public access to a popular surfing beach is seeking to take his case to the US supreme court.The case could entirely upend public access to beaches in a state with more than 1,000 miles of shoreline. Continue reading...

Has the technology industry truly embraced diversity? What more needs to be done to make it a more inclusive industry? Inspired by Black History Month, Jordan Erica Webber and Chella Ramanan try and answer these questions.Subscribe and review on Apple, Spotify or on your favourite podcasting app and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter.

Users rebel against social media app’s new features while celebrities dump platform as it tries to appeal to new usersMore than $1bn was wiped off Snap Inc’s market value on Thursday, in one of the company’s worst trading days since it went public last year – and the rout was led by a bored tweet from a member of the Kardashian clan.Kylie Jenner, one of the first wave of celebrities whose fame grew primarily on Snapchat over other social media firms, shared her disappointment with the app on Twitter late on Wednesday: “sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me ... ugh this is so sad,” she said. “[S]till love you tho snap ... my first love”. Continue reading...

iPhone, iPad; Mountains/Annapurna Interactive

Résumé listed Jobs’s phone number as ‘none’; auction also includes letter from Amy Winehouse to Blake Fielder-Civil

Startup moves toward full-service travel-booking company as it adds new housing categories and guest loyalty programmeAirbnb has expanded its offering to include hotels, luxury properties and a loyalty programme for guests as the California startup shifts towards a full-service travel-booking company.Hoteliers and B&Bs have long been listing their rooms on the platform, but the company is adding extra search categories for users who are not looking to rent someone’s home or room. Continue reading...

Lure of video-sharing site’s 1.3bn users finally has club ready to play catchup with football rivalsManchester United is to launch an official YouTube channel after a 13-year absence as it looks to build its brand and commercial income in a deal with the world’s biggest video-sharing site.Manchester United is the only Premier League team and the only one of the top clubs globally not to create an official channel since YouTube launched in 2005.

Yuri needs a laptop to run Adobe Creative Suite but is short of funds. Could he get an old machine that will do the job?I’m a graphic designer with a long-term health condition that regularly puts me in hospital. At home I work on a desktop, but when I’m on the ward, I’m forced to use my partner’s laptop. I need a PC that can run the Adobe Creative Suite, including 3D in Photoshop when necessary, support a second monitor and store large files. It also has to be pretty solid as it will travel to and from hospital often. Times are tough financially, but last week you suggested refurbs. Can you recommend a laptop that would suit me? YuriLast week’s answer covered desktop PCs, which become available as refurbs after they have been retired from corporate use after three or four years. There are even more refurbished laptops, which can do sterling work for people who don’t need the latest and greatest specifications.

Tim Chevalier says he lost his job over posts on internal forums amid controversy following James Damore’s comments on genderA former Google engineer has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was fired for speaking out against James Damore’s controversial memo about gender, the latest development in a litigious battle over diversity and speech at the technology company.Tim Chevalier, a site reliability engineer who worked for Google until November 2017, sued his former employer in California state court on Wednesday. Chevalier, who identifies as queer, disabled and transgender, alleges that Google terminated him over posts he made on internal forums advocating for diversity at Google and criticizing Damore. Continue reading...

The entrepreneur’s brother, Kimbal, is making the news, but since mother Musk flew around the world in a propeller plane, the whole clan has been involved in eye-catching initiativesWe know plenty about Elon Musk, the South African-born erstwhile teen mega-nerd, PayPal co-founder and Tesla boss turned tunneller, space coloniser and battery tycoon. But what about all the other Musks? Because while Elon revels in the success of his recent rocket launch, and a car-based publicity stunt that made Richard Branson look like Derek Trotter, little brother Kimbal is now making news, too. Time for a quick climb up the Musk family tree. Continue reading...

BGI merger with Nottingham’s National Videogame Arcade creates ‘centre of gravity’ for the UK’s £1bn-plus games industry – but it’s still seeking government supportThe recently formed British Games Institute, which aims to become a video game equivalent of the BFI, is merging with the National Videogame Foundation to create a new body dedicated to supporting and promoting game development and culture in Britain.The British Games Institute will be housed at the NVA’s National Videogame Arcade building in Nottingham, where a games museum as well as cultural and educational programmes have been in operation since 2016. Continue reading...

Exclusive: transit app firm says new service has stops like a bus, is bookable like a cab and runs on a network like a tube trainLondon-based transit app Citymapper is today launching Smart Ride, a hybrid bus and taxi service that will take riders around a fixed network in the capital.The company is operating the service under a private hire licence from Transport for London, following a pair of trial “smart bus” routes in the capital. The new licence limits the firm to operating vehicles that can carry eight or fewer people, but frees it to run future routes that can change dynamically as demand shifts, rather than being legally mandated to stick to specific timetables and stopping patterns. Continue reading...

Experts say action must be taken to control artificial intelligence techWanton proliferation of artificial intelligence technologies could enable new forms of cybercrime, political disruption and even physical attacks within five years, a group of 26 experts from around the world have warned.In a new report, the academic, industry and the charitable sector experts, describe AI as a “dual use technology” with potential military and civilian uses, akin to nuclear power, explosives and hacking tools. Continue reading...

“I’d rather pump septic tanks,” John Perry Barlow told me in a Chinese restaurant in 1995 to explain how much he hated writing. “You can never tell whether you did any good or not.”We were all attending a nearby Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference. Barlow was then hashing out the beginnings of A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, which he conceived as a modern-day equivalent to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Many at the time thought the piece overwrought; faced with the criticism, Barlow would laugh and say his friend Mitch Kapor thought he needed a “hyperbolectomy”. Continue reading...

Music streaming service is gearing up to make its first physical products as it faces blockade from rivalsSpotify is working on a line of “category defining” hardware products and is ready to start setting up the manufacturing process.The streaming music company intends to create a hardware category “akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles”, according to job adverts posted over the past year. Continue reading...

MPs cast doubt on whether energy efficiency gains can keep offsetting rising power demandA cross-party group of MPs has raised doubts over whether the growing energy demand from digital technology and the proliferation of internet-connected gadgets can continue to be offset by energy efficiency improvements.More efficient smartphones, networking gear and data centres have so far largely staved off increased power demand from the internet and computing – which now accounts for about 6% of global electricity use. Continue reading...

Aim is for players to build a fake news empire, which researchers hope will expose propaganda tacticsFake news is already an entire industry, an anti-democratic weapon, a movie, a play, an insult and a cliche.Now it is being turned into a game – to help people understand its wiles and deceptions.

Police say 30-year-old man was shot, and later died, following possible ‘exchange of words’ with delivery driver for on-demand app

‘His excellency’ Calvin Ayre says project will be entirely funded from digital currency profitsCalvin Ayre, a gambling and bitcoin multi-millionaire who was once on the run from the US authorities, is building a $100m five-star resort on Antigua funded by profits from digital currencies.Canadian-born Ayre, who has been appointed Antigua and Barbuda’s special economic envoy, said he had begun work on the upmarket tourist resort on Antigua’s Valley Church beach. Continue reading...

From superfast trains to colonising Mars – a selection of Elon Musk’s extraordinary ideasMusk’s SpaceX enterprise was founded with the intention of making space travel affordable. By extension, Musk has stated that he hopes human beings will one day become a “multi-planetary species”. At the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide last September, Musk said he hopes to send cargo ships to the Red Planet within the next five years, with humans settling by 2024. Continue reading...

Whatever two-wheel adventures you are planning, this classy take on the all-round gravel bike will make the ideal companionTemple Cycles Adventure Disc

Is a 1-litre engine enough? The new compact crossover from Seat proves you can pack a punch no matter your sizeSeat Arona

The outspoken libertarian’s departure is a sign of the times, say LA conservatives, as Silicon Valley faces criticism for silencing alternative viewpoints

Bath holiday lets | 1970s contraception | Mattinata | Dame’s Delight | Birthday listings | Jazz thanksIn Bath it is not just Airbnb that’s a problem (Letters, 15 February). A housing association is renting out former council homes as holiday lets. One is let to hen parties, leaving neighbours to explain to their children the inflatable penises in the back garden.

Social network instructed to delete illegally collected data or face €100m in fines after it loses case over consent and trackingFacebook has been ordered by a Belgian court to stop collecting data on users or face daily fines of €250,000 a day, or up to €100m.The court ruled on Friday that Facebook had broken privacy laws by tracking people on third-party sites in the latest salvo in a long-running battle between the Belgian commission for the protection of privacy (CPP) and the social network. Continue reading...

Now available free on PC, Dead Space came closer than any other game to replicating the look, feel and atmosphere of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi thrillerThis week, Electronic Arts has made one of the most interesting and atmospheric narrative games of the 2000s available for free to users of its Origin gaming service. Released in 2008 and created by Californian studio Visceral Games, Dead Space remains a heady, often terrifying thrill ride and if you’ve never played it before, it’s worth taking this chance – especially if you’re a fan of the Alien movies.Although there have been numerous attempts to bring Alien directly to video games – most successfully, Creative Assembly’s incredibly tense Alien: Isolation – it’s Dead Space that has got closest to replicating the look, feel and atmosphere of Ridley Scott’s original film. Continue reading...

Company is working to fix glitch in software update that can put devices into bootloopApple is working urgently to fix a bug in its latest software update that crashes applications that display a particular letter from the south Indian language Telugu.Typing or receiving a message that contains the letter causes apps such as Gmail, Instagram or WhatsApp to crash. Continue reading...

Can technology provide solutions to the various difficulties that disabled people face every day in areas where full accessibility is lacking?Subscribe and review on Apple, Spotify or on your favourite podcasting app and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter.

White House labels Kremlin ‘reckless’, while UK says it ‘undermined democracy’The US and UK governments have publicly blamed Russia for a crippling cyber-attack last year that targeted Ukraine and spread around the world.On Thursday, Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said that the NotPetya ransomware attack in June 2017 “was part of the Kremlin’s ongoing effort to destabilise Ukraine and demonstrates ever more clearly Russia’s involvement in the ongoing conflict.” Continue reading...

Next wave of development will see drivers only expected to intervene when the car requests it, say researchersDriving down the motorway in a swanky semi-autonomous car, the vehicle is at its own wheel, humming along smoothly. But coming off a slip road it is over to you. The only trouble is, you’ve fallen asleep.The goal of a completely driverless car is considered top of a six-level scale of autonomy, and researchers believe it will one day be possible to achieve that aim. But for now, cars are stuck at level two on the scale – in which the driver must still perform several key aspects of driving – while engineers work out how to crack the problem of keeping drivers alert.

With cries of undue influence over the industry body deciding which ads to ban, is new Chrome adblocking too self-serving?From today, users of Google Chrome, the most popular web browser in the world, will no longer see 12 types of online adverts which have been deemed to be “intrusive” by a group of advertising industry membersLeading that body, which examined 104 potential formats to determine which should be blocked and which should be allowed, is the world’s largest digital advertiser: Google. Continue reading...

PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One; Warhorse Studios/Koch Media

White rings formed due to oils and polish in the wood reacting negatively with the silicone foot on the bottom of £319 speakerEarly adopters of Apple’s new £319 HomePod smart speaker have started complaining that the “new sound of home” is leaving white ring marks on wooden surfaces that are difficult to remove.

Users of latest Chrome browser on Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Android will have some of most intrusive types of ads blocked automatically

The company’s first foray into smart tech adds Amazon’s Alexa to a great wireless speaker to create a formidable comboHaving practically invented the multi-room wireless speaker category in 2005, Sonos has lagged behind in the race to become smart. Now the Sonos One is here, packing Alexa in the top and premium audio in the bottom.

How an extreme libertarian tract predicting the collapse of liberal democracies – written by Jacob Rees-Mogg’s father – inspired the likes of Peter Thiel to buy up property across the Pacific

Readers respond to John Harris’s article exposing the impact of online holiday lets on local communitiesCongratulations to John Harris for his excellent article on the reality of Airbnb (Profiteers make a killing on Airbnb – and erode communities, 12, February). The scale and nature of this problem needs to be exposed. Harris is absolutely right to distinguish between local residents letting out a spare room and commercial operations buying into the property market for large returns. In our local residents’ association, the disruption caused by Airbnb visitors is in the top five of problems where action is desperately sought from the council.There are two points worth adding. Firstly, Edinburgh council acts more like the Edinburgh development corporation than a local authority, promoting tourism with singular disregard for the people who actually live in central Edinburgh 365 days a year. This helps to generate the market in which Airbnb flourishes. It also gives the council a stake in Airbnb accommodation. Secondly, the city loses out on tax revenue from this “non-commercial” sector’s demands on the infrastructure. No one is against tourism, but it should be balanced against the needs of those who live and work in Edinburgh. But then we all know the pressures on council from many directions.

Though 5,000-site attack suggests forcing visitors to mine cryptocurrency offers scant reward, it hasn’t stopped news platform SalonA malware attack that turned thousands of websites into cryptocurrency mining engines made just $24, according to the company that develops the software used.On Sunday, hackers compromised an accessibility plugin, BrowseAloud, which is used to offer screen-reading services on a number of websites including the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Student Loans Company and several English councils. Continue reading...

Advertising watchdog rejects Echo Dot owner’s complaint that TV spot was irresponsibleAn Amazon Echo owner has tried to get a television advertising campaign for the smart speaker banned after the Alexa virtual assistant attempted to order cat food when it heard its name on an ad.

Analysts say local competitors are as profitable as before the global giant’s ‘underwhelming’ launch – but for how much longer?Three months after the launch of Amazon in Australia, local competitors say they are still waiting for the dreaded “Amazon effect” to hit their sales.

Robotics company releases video of the SpotMini, its four-legged and well-mannered machineEight years after it was first revealed to the public, the uncanny gait of Boston Dynamics’ quadrupedal robots is still unsettling. But a new video, released by the firm on Monday, shows the company’s flagship robot, the SpotMini, crossing a new threshold – literally – as it demonstrates that it can open doors.The video depicts a SpotMini, a four-legged yellow machine that stands about a metre high, flummoxed by a closed door before a second robot of the same type, equipped with a fifth limb extending from its back, arrives to save the day. The second bot turns the handle, pulls the door open and holds it for the first to walk through, then follows. Continue reading...

Fourattic/Devolver Digital; PlayStation 4, PC, PlayStation Vita

There’s no question that ‘distracted driving’ can be deadly – so why are so many of us reluctant to take a stand against it?A friend drove me to work the other day and, while she was driving, picked up a call on her cellphone. It was a short conversation and after she hung up, she apologized, but the episode left me feeling uncomfortable. Should I have called her out or am I overreacting?I suspect you don’t need me to tell you that your nervousness is well-founded: the statistics on car accidents and phone use are incontrovertible. In 2015, approximately 3,477 people were killed, and 391,000 were injured, in car crashes caused by “distracted driving”. Continue reading...

The Xbox and PC online multiplayer pirate adventure will boast sea monsters and skeleton forts – and this is only the beginningWhen the veteran British games studio Rare first revealed Sea of Thieves in 2015, it’s fair to say the response was positive. After years spent concentrating on the controversial Kinect device, the creator of luscious SNES and N64 classics Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie unveiled an online pirate adventure where groups of friends would set sail on an open ocean, seeking out treasure and doing battle with other player crews. It felt like the beloved developer had truly returned.Two years later, anticipation remains high. Within five hours of the recent closed beta test going live, it was the most watched game on streaming service Twitch, beating even the mighty League of Legends. In the end, more than 300,000 people signed up to play, spending 2m hours and completing 400,000 quests in the week-long test. Continue reading...