Technology | The Guardian

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is to assess digital-only releases on a case by case basisFilms without a cinema release have the chance to be considered eligible for the British film industry’s most prestigious awards, following a rules changed announced on 19 August.Previously, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts had required competing titles to be released in cinemas. As of the 2017 awards, movies released only digitally will be able to be submitted. Continue reading...

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

Police shut down site that encouraged schoolboys to upload naked pictures of female students from about 70 schoolsA parent of a student at Kambrya College, a state school in Melbourne’s south-east, says she was “mortified” by the way the school responded to victims of a website that carried sexually explicit images of underage female school students.The college was one of 70 schools whose students were reportedly involved in uploading the images to the website, which was believed to be hosted overseas until Australian federal police said it had been shut down on Friday.

Whether nostalgic for older versions or looking forward to something new, the game seems eager to please both campsIf news that Final Fantasy XV has been delayed, has you desperately searching for alternatives to get your JRPG fix, then here’s something that should take up a good chunk of time: SquareEnix has released a full hour of gameplay footage taken from the gold master of the game, giving a more in-depth look at its systems, side quests and early plot than anything to date.The game was delayed by two months to 29 November, apparently, because Hajime Tabata, its director, felt the contents of the planned day-one patch should ship with it, not be made available to download after the fact, hence the two-month delay to the “master version”. Continue reading...

Prior to the proposed settlement the case had been scheduled to go before a jury in June, leaving its future outcome unclearA federal judge has rejected the proposal to settle a major class-action lawsuit by California and Massachusetts drivers against Uber for $84m, ruling that “the settlement as a whole as currently structured is not fair, adequate, and reasonable”.In a ruling issued Thursday, Judge Edward M Chen noted that the settlement “yields less than 5% of the total verdict value of all claims being released”. Continue reading...

Ride-sharing firm to trial autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh as it also announces tie up with Volvo to develop driverless carsUber passengers in Pittsburgh will be able to hail self-driving cars for the first time within the next few weeks as the taxi firm tests its future vision of transportation in the city.The company said on Thursday that an unspecified number of autonomous Ford Fusions will be available to pick up passengers as with normal Uber vehicles. The cars won’t exactly be driverless – they will have human drivers as backup – but they are the next step towards a fully automated fleet. Continue reading...

New fulfilment centre in Tilbury will create 1,500 permanent jobsAmazon plans to open a new delivery warehouse in Essex next year, creating 1,500 permanent jobs.It will be the company’s 13th fulfilment centre in the UK, where Amazon employs a total of 15,500 people.

The final segment of our four-part series. With the United Nations’ resolution considered, Chips with Everything discusses what the future of internet access looks like in developing countriesOn 1 July the United Nations resolved that access to the internet is to be considered a basic human right. While this decision may seem straightforward, with the complex nature of human rights law considered, the resolution is far from simple.In the final episode of our series, we explore internet accessibility in the developing world and discuss how the United Nations’ resolution might increase widespread internet access in these countries. To help us dig into this topic, we speak to the Guardian’s global development desk’s Liz Ford, the World Wide Web Foundation’s Africa regional coordinator Nnenna Nwakanma, and lead council at the World Bank David Satolas. Continue reading...

‘They will soon be calling me MR BREXIT!’ the Republican presidential nominee tweeted on first day with new campaign team, setting off wave of jokesDonald Trump has sent some questionable tweets in the past, but none have been so mind-boggling as one posted early Thursday morning.“They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT!” the Republican presidential nominee tweeted at around 8am. Continue reading...

Vlogger forced to deny his videos in North Korea were funded by its governmentA strange controversy has been bubbling in the world of travel YouTube. A popular vlogger has been forced to deny being paid by the North Korean government to make feel-good travel videos from the DPRK.You read that correctly. Continue reading...

Video game developer Konami imagines a new future for its biggest series, but the fans aren’t happyFormer Konami game director Hideo Kojima may be one of the most famous faces in video gaming. Not least because he puts himself in his games, a la Hitchcock, which for nearly the past three decades have been mostly Metal Gear titles. 2015’s MGSV: The Phantom Pain was a spectacular finale that offered real-life fireworks too, as Kojima and Konami acrimoniously parted ways.This breakup saw a reaction along tribal lines, with the fanbase generally siding with Kojima and blaming Konami. Something of the hangover remains in the reaction to Metal Gear Survive, which is a “divergent take” on Metal Gear in the studio’s own words. It transplants the series into another dimension for an online co-op game for up to four players – with, and it’s hard to suppress a slight sigh here, zombie-type enemies. Continue reading...

Automated mini-buses will carry people on open public roads in southern district of Finnish capital during month-long trialTwo self-driving buses have rolled out on to the public roads of Helsinki, Finland, alongside traffic and commuters, in one of the first trials of its kind.

Developers hope the tool, that enables anyone with internet access to track fishing vessels worldwide, will create greater transparency in the oceansAnyone with internet access and a passion for seafood will soon be able to track commercial fishing trawlers all over the world, with a new tool that its developers hope will help end the overfishing that has decimated the world’s fish stocks.Millions of people depend on fish to survive, and fish will be vital to feeding the world’s growing population that is predicted to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050, the United Nations says. Continue reading...

Esther’s MacBook Air has died and would cost too much to repair. She’s thinking of buying a more affordable Windows laptop to replace it, but which one should she choose?My first ever laptop was a MacBook Air. However, the logic board stopped working, and Apple was going to charge $600 to fix it. Technicians have told me it is not worth fixing.At this point in time I cannot afford to buy a new MacBook, so which PC laptop would you recommend? I am a third year social work student, and I won’t really be carrying it to class: it will mostly be used at home. I don’t run any special applications, and my budget is less than $1,000. EstherIf you have $1,000 to spend, then you can probably get a new 11in MacBook Air for $899 or a 13in MacBook Air for $999. You could even get a $1,099 13in MacBook Pro for less, if you look for discount offers on Amazon or at a local store. Or you could get a Mac Mini and add your own keyboard and screen for less than $1,000, though you would lose the portability of a laptop. Continue reading...

The world’s largest airship, Airlander 10, completed its maiden trip on Wednesday at London’s Cardington airfield. Stephen McGlennan, the CEO of the airship’s manufacturer Hybrid Air Vehicles, says the 92-metre long aircraft ‘is a mixture of aeroplane, airship and helicopter technology’. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters Continue reading...

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

About 7% of global workforce to go, as networking company moves away from hardware to focus on software and cloud technologyCisco Systems is to cut about 5,500 jobs, representing nearly 7% of the US technology company’s global workforce.

After maiden flight in Bedfordshire, creators of world’s largest aircraft say 100 could be in skies within five yearsAbove a field in rural Bedfordshire, a shiny, futuristic craft the size of a football pitch ascends majestically into the evening sky, and gawping onlookers crane their necks for a better view. This could be the trailer for the latest Independence Day film, but it is the maiden flight of the Airlander 10, a helium-filled craft aiming to kickstart a new age of the airship.It has been a while coming – the first flight had been delayed several times and Wednesday’s takeoff was held up for hours – but once in the air, showing off its curves as it banks and soars for its audience, the Airlander is quite a spectacle. Continue reading...

Economists expected rise in joblessness but firms have not cut jobs yet because no one knows what Brexit will look likeIf you put Brexit to one side, the latest unemployment figures are no surprise.They show that Britain’s unemployment rate remained at 4.9% at the end of June, the lowest since 2005, while the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance dropped by 8,600 to 763,600 in July, the first fall since February 2016. Continue reading...

Tech firm, which may cut 14,000 jobs, was the world’s most valuable company but is now dwarfed by younger competitorsFounded in, and named after, San Francisco in 1984, Cisco Systems is one of a cluster of early Silicon Valley stalwarts that owe their existence to Stanford University.The company’s two founders, then husband and wife Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, worked for the university, where early breakthroughs in networking technology were made. Cisco’s first product was substantially based on Stanford’s own router software – to the point where the company eventually signed an official licence with Stanford for the system three years later. Continue reading...

Uber drivers fear some will lose their livelihoods as a result of requirement campaign groups say is discriminatoryTransport for London’s plan to force would-be cabbies to pass a written English exam before they can work in in the city has triggered outrage among Uber drivers and campaign groups.The rules, which only apply to people from certain countries where English is not the first language, are due to come into force on 1 October. Continue reading...

Visual sharing site follows Facebook and Twitter in targeting the growing online video market

Mixed-reality system will place user’s hands, arms and real-world objects into a virtual world without the need for a series of external sensorsIntel has unveiled its next evolution of virtual-reality goggles Project Alloy for so-called mixed reality, which drags real-world objects into the virtual realm using 3D cameras.

Taxi-hailing app said Transport for London had moved the goalposts over requirements for new driversTaxi-hailing app Uber has launched a legal bid to stop Transport for London forcing its drivers to take a written English test.From 1 October, anyone from a non-English-speaking country who applies for a private hire driver licence or to renew an existing licence in London will have to prove that they have passed an exam in English. Continue reading...

There’s no paradox in finding your true self via virtual reality because everyday reality is a simulation, says self-help guru Deepak Chopra of his latest ventureThe cosmos swirls, wisps of purple, yellow and orange light flickering across the darkness of space, then across the visage of Buddha. An otherworldly plain fills the horizon, framed by the branches of a tree – the tree of enlightenment.A familiar voice intrudes. “What or who is having this experience right this moment, right now?” Pause. “It is your own being. It is your innermost being that is having the experience, your true self.” Continue reading...

Bungie have lined up a fast-paced, raid-filled expansion of the massively multiplayer shooter, starring Lord Saladin and his gigantic caninesThe most important fact about Destiny: Rise of Iron, the fourth and likely final expansion for Bungie’s groundbreaking massively multiplayer shooter? You cannot pet the wolves.The two gigantic canines, pictured in promo art flanking Lord Saladin, leader of the Iron Banner tournament and central figure in the newest expansion, are not pets. They are wild animals – a fact drilled in to Bungie by the Washington State wolf sanctuary, the team recruited to help with the motion capture, audio and visual modelling, according to the game’s director, Christopher Barrett. Continue reading...

Voice assistants duke it out in the most passive aggressive display of tech company feuding via slick-looking adverts yetMicrosoft’s seemingly getting pretty offended over the whole “iPad Pro is a computer thing”. In its eyes, a keyboard does not a PC make, and it’s all starting to get just a little catty.Microsoft’s latest advert for the Windows 10 PC-in-a-tablet Surface Pro 4 takes the two arch rival’s tit-for-tat war of words to the next level - irritating voice assistants. Continue reading...

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

Website reportedly contains thousands of non-consensual images of underage schoolgirls uploaded by male students

Group called Shadow Brokers says it infiltrated NSA’s elite Equation Group and teases files including some named in documents leaked by Edward SnowdenA mysterious online group called the Shadow Brokers claims to have infiltrated an elite hacking unit linked to the National Security Agency and stolen state “cyber weapons”, and is now auctioning them off to the highest bidder.The stolen malware is said to belong to Equation Group, a sophisticated hacking team believed to be operated by the NSA. So far, the Shadow Brokers have only released a few taster files and images of the cache, but security researchers said they appear to be legitimate. Continue reading...

Carmaker announces plans to make self-driving vehicles for companies such as Uber and Lyft by 2021, saying automation of cars will define the next decadeThe robot car wars moved up a gear on Tuesday when Ford announced it would produce a fleet of driverless cars for ride-sharing services, such as Uber and Lyft, by 2021.

British authorities had no power to force social media giants to take down material, hate preacher’s trial heard

Sixth biggest Instagrammer with nearly 78 million followers closes account after abuse from fans and tense exchanges with ex-girlfriendJustin Bieber, the world’s sixth biggest Instagram user, has deleted his account and left the photo and video service.The Canadian singer had 77.9 million Instagram followers, followed only 75 users and had posted 3,779 images and videos, according to data from Social Blade, which made him one of the biggest draws for users to the Facebook-owned social media site. Continue reading...

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

App for Android and iOS aims to be simple, friction-free alternative to Skype, using your phone number to quickly place free video callsGoogle has finally launched Duo, its super-simple video calling app for Android and iOS, after the company first announced it three months ago at its I/O developer conference.

Select models sold in US will show countdown to signals turning green – and warn when it’s too late to beat a redThe German carmaker Audi is rolling out technology that will allow its vehicles to communicate with traffic lights.

In a New York Times op-ed, Thiel justified bankrolling the Hulk Hogan sex-tape lawsuit by saying Gawker repeatedly violated people’s privacy, including his ownTech billionaire Peter Thiel defended his decision to finance a lawsuit that bankrupt Gawker Media on Monday, saying the news site was willing “to exploit the internet without moral limits” and “did something beyond the pale” by publishing a former wrestler’s sex tape.Thiel funded a lawsuit by retired wrestler Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, that ended in March with a jury’s order that Gawker pay $140m in damages. In June, the media organization filed for bankruptcy and put itself up for auction; the announcement of a new owner is expected Tuesday. Continue reading...

Robotic vacuum cleaner is said to run over animal feces and continue its cleaning cycle around the house, spreading the mess over ‘every conceivable surface’Jesse Newton found out the hard way what happens when a robotic vacuum cleaner encounters a dog turd, and it isn’t pretty.

New report finds ‘that the energy of 87% of vehicle-days could be met by an existing, affordable electric vehicle’ – but that’s not quite good enoughElectric cars could take over most driving necessities tomorrow, according to a group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but they’ll need the help of internal combustion engines to do it.Using travel surveys and global positioning data, the MIT team has evaluated the possible widespread use of electric cars, and has found that grids could easily support today’s cheap electric cars, and that the cars themselves can already meet drivers’ requirements almost nine times out of 10. Continue reading...

Europe will publish draft law to ensure that online messaging services have privacy rules like those for texts and callsWhatsApp, Skype and other online messaging services face an EU crackdown aimed at safeguarding users’ privacy, in a move that highlights the gulf between Europe and the US in regulating the internet.

Messaging app has been asked to add traditional drinking vessel to its emoji list, with group arguing it warrants recognitionBeaming pile of poo? Check. Sexually suggestive aubergine? Check. Enduring symbol of Catalan community and conviviality? Hmmm.A cultural association based near Barcelona is asking the mobile messaging service WhatsApp to add the porrón to its list of emojis, claiming the spouted glass pitcher possesses a “cultural and social meaning” that warrants recognition. Continue reading...

Smash-hit mobile game developer takes action against bot-makers and cheaters who have been driving users from the gamePokémon Go cheaters are starting to get their comeuppance, as game developer Niantic has begun issuing lifetime bans and is pursuing legal action against bot developers.

It may be something of a stopgap, but the XBox One S is still a lovely piece of kit with plenty to attract the first-time buyerMicrosoft’s revamped Xbox One occupies a curious space in the current gaming generation. It’s not because it’s a sleeker take on the original bulky hardware – slimline consoles are nothing new, after all. Sega tweaked both the Master System and the Mega Drive, Sony offered at least one redesigned version of each PlayStation, and Microsoft itself introduced a svelte Xbox 360 previously.Rather, it’s the marginal power boost and hardware improvements that the Xbox One S enjoys over its predecessor that make it a strange beast. Now capable of supporting Ultra HD 4K video with High Dynamic Range colour, upscaling 1080p games, and with marginal CPU and GPU upgrades that potentially improve frame rates on more demanding games, the console straddles the line between discrete hardware generations. Continue reading...

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

For the most serious players, League of Legends is much more than just a multiplayer video game – it’s a viable career option. And, at a packed South Bank Piazza in Brisbane on Saturday, two Oceanic teams competed for their chance at a world championship worth $2.1m. Continue reading...

First weekend of much-trumpeted $180m coverage marred by delays and poor picture qualityThe first broadcast by Optus of English Premier League football action has infuriated fans who paid to watch the exclusive live coverage only to have it disrupted by major technical faults.The hashtag #OptusOut was trending on Twitter as fans vented their frustration about the signal dropping out, delays of up to a minute and a poor-quality picture. Continue reading...

Accounting, payroll and payments software company says internal login was used to gain unauthorised accessSage, which provides accounting, payroll and payments software for businesses, has released a statement saying that an internal login had been used to gain unauthorised access to the data of some of its British customers.Related: TalkTalk counts costs of cyber-attack Continue reading...

Accounting, payroll and payments software company says internal login was used to gain unauthorised accessSage, which provides accounting, payroll and payments software for businesses, has released a statement saying that an internal login had been used to gain unauthorised access to the data of some of its British customers.Related: TalkTalk counts costs of cyber-attack Continue reading...

Since 2009, I have been getting bombarded with phone calls and texts for a wanted man – but it’s not meHayden Lowe has been a fixture in my life for more than seven years. There is no escaping him. He disappears for weeks but, when he returns, it’s with a barrage of phone calls and text messages. Hayden, it seems, is a wanted man. The problem is that I am his intermediary, through no desire of my own.Hayden made his first non-appearance in 2009. “I wish to speak to Hayden,” said an unknown woman who had rung my mobile. I replied that there was no one called Hayden at my address. There was no Hayden among my friends and acquaintances. After hearing this, her voice took on an anguished tone. “We’ve been reliably informed that this is Hayden’s contact number,” she continued. I assured her that her informant was mistaken and hung up. Continue reading...