Technology | The Guardian

Finman used his fortune to fund an educational business – and he’s not as awful as he seems on InstagramErik Finman is one of the world’s youngest bitcoin millionaires – an achievement he’s not shy about flaunting. The 19-year-old’s Instagram feed is full of ostentatious photos of himself stepping out of private jets or lying on beds covered in money with captions like: “Cash so worthless compared to Bitcoin I’m sleeping on it …”In one photo he is pictured smoking, with the caption: “Sometimes you just need a good smoke to relax when you have to live with the exhausting burden of so much money and too many beautiful women.” After one of his fans admonishes him, he replies: “Don’t worry guys. It’s not a real cigarette. Just a hundred. Don’t smoke!” Continue reading...

Private companies are helping the government build a virtual alternative to the physical wall, prompting an outcry

Melbourne man to sue over ‘Melbourne criminal underworld photos’ search results that show his faceMelbourne man Milorad “Michael” Trkulja has won his high court battle to sue the search engine Google for defamation over images and search results that link him to the Melbourne criminal underworld.Trkulja said he would continue legal action against Google until it removed his name and photos from the internet. Continue reading...

The tax, which would have assessed $275 per employee on Amazon, was not considered a ‘winnable battle’ by officialsA month after Seattle leaders applauded themselves for landing a small blow against big business in the form of an “Amazon tax”, on Tuesday they hurriedly abandoned it to avoid what they called “a prolonged, expensive political fight”.The tax, which would have assessed a $275-per-employee “head tax” on Seattle’s largest private employer, was slated to pay for new public housing and homeless services in the booming city. Passed unanimously on 14 May, the tax was also an unsubtle demonstration of the company town’s disaffection with its unofficial patron, Seattle-headquartered Amazon. Continue reading...

• Gareth Southgate’s team were briefed by security experts

CEO says thousands of job losses are part of a ‘difficult, but necessary’ restructuring

One of the most popular games in the world arrives on Nintendo’s Switch console on Tuesday, and Nintendo has revealed new games arriving in the next yearNintendo announced via livestream at E3 in California that Fortnite – which has more than 40 million players on PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and mobile phones – arrives on Nintendo Switch today.For European players, it will be available to download from the Nintendo eShop at around 11pm BST, and is out now in the US. Continue reading...

ICO says firm ‘failed to prevent’ 2014 Russia-sponsored hack after 500m accounts compromisedYahoo has been fined £250,000 over a hack from 2014 that affected more than 515,000 UK email accounts co-branded with Sky, the Information Commissioner’s Office has announced.The personal data of 500m user accounts worldwide was compromised during a state-sponsored cyber attack in 2014, which was only revealed in 2016. The stolen data included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, passwords and encrypted security questions and answers, the ICO said on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Join video games editor Keza MacDonald and correspondent Keith Stuart for another day of video game news, including the latest from Sony and Ubisoft at E3.3.32am BSTFor its 2018 E3 press conference, Sony made the decision to concentrate on longer, more in-depth footage of previously announced titles rather than bludgeoning our senses with reams of announcements, whilst those in attendance were shepherded through a giant video-game-themed labyrinth built on a film set in LA. It has proved a rather controversial decision and several technical problems with the live feed didn’t help matters for those watching at home.Nevertheless, a visceral sequence from Last of Us 2 gave us a glimpse into protagonist Ellie’s new life – and a new relationship – as she dances with and kisses another woman at a church dance. It’s a touching, warm and beautifully visualised scene, but it gives way to a gut-wrenchingly violent sequence with Ellie sneaking through an overgrown multi-storey car park, stabbing various enemies.3.18am BSTThe Sony conference attendees are now allowed out to play some games.We are now being let loose on the film set to play some games. Here's the Spider-Man area. pic.twitter.com/vi7JA6MLcF Continue reading...

New system could examine a user’s walking speed, unusual typos and whether a phone is swayingUber may be working on technology which would detect if users of its app are drunk or high. A patent application from the company, revealed this week, outlines a system that would be able to identify if someone is displaying uncharacteristic behaviour by looking at small changes in their behaviour as they use the Uber app.Related: Uber to allow sexual assault and harassment victims to sue company Continue reading...

The company is investing in studios in attempt to win over next generation of gamersWhen you think of Microsoft, you probably think of Word or Windows first; omnipresent computer software that, despite its usefulness, does not elicit enormous excitement. Xbox is different. At E3 each year, the video games industry’s biggest event, Microsoft packs out a stadium-sized room with fans for its annual press conference, many of whom have travelled from all over the world. People are passionate about Xbox and its games – Minecraft, Halo, Gears of War – in a way that nobody is about Microsoft Office.Microsoft’s most senior figures appear to have woken up to this relatively recently. Phil Spencer, who ran Xbox’s game development studios for years, was made executive vice-president of gaming within the company in September 2017. This finally put Xbox on equal footing with Windows and Office within Microsoft – and put a gamer in the room with the CEO and CTO of the company. This has meant big changes for the Xbox business, and apparently huge investment in creative video game talent.

Security fears rise as South Korea’s Coinrail loses about £28m of virtual currencyThere has been a sharp drop in the price of bitcoin and other virtual currencies after South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail was hacked over the weekend.A tweet from Coinrail confirming the cyber-attack sent the price of bitcoin tumbling 10% on Sunday to two-month lows. Continue reading...

As long as humans are sensible when they create the operating programs, robots will bring enormous benefits to humanity, says expertThe idea of killer robots rising up and destroying humans is a Hollywood fantasy and a distraction from the more pressing dilemmas that intelligent machines present to society, according to one of Britain’s most influential computer scientists.Sir Nigel Shadbolt, professor of computer science at the University of Oxford, predicts that AI will bring overwhelming benefits to humanity, revolutionising cancer diagnosis and treatment, and transforming education and the workplace. If problems arise, he said, it will not be because sentient machines have unexpectedly gone rogue in a Terminator-like scenario. Continue reading...

Day one brought plenty of announcements, from Gears 5 and Halo Infinite to Fallout 76, Doom Eternal and Elder Scrolls VIMicrosoft has showcased the line-up for its Xbox One console and Windows platform in 2018 and 2019, announcing new Halo and Gears of War games in a press conference in Los Angeles on Sunday that covered 50 games in total. Game publisher Bethesda also announced fantasy role-playing game The Elder Scrolls 6 and shooter Doom Eternal in its own announcement, and spoke in more detail about the highly anticipated Fallout 76, a role-playing game set in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear war.Related: As it happened: Day one of E3 2018 gave us new Halo, Gears of War, Fallout, and Elder Scrolls V Continue reading...

Matt Hancock refuses to rule out law to protect minors online, but would stop short of French measuresThe UK culture secretary, Matt Hancock, does not allow his own children to have mobile phones and thinks none should have access to devices overnight, but would not follow the French government’s lead in legislating on the issue.Hancock, whose brief includes digital issues, said: “Keeping children safe online is mission-critical, and everybody has a responsibility. The parents have a responsibility to ensure that children use technology appropriately. For instance, I allow my children to do their homework online, but I don’t let them on to social media. Continue reading...

Researchers suggest artificial intelligence is now better and faster at detecting cancer than cliniciansAn AI system developed by a team from Germany, France and the US can diagnose skin cancer more accurately than dermatologists. In the study, the software was able to accurately detect cancer in 95% of images of cancerous moles and benign spots, whereas a team of 58 dermatologists was accurate 87% of the time. Continue reading...

Part beauty, part beast: Audi’s latest super estate has it allAudi RS4 Avant

The tech billionaire urges buyers to act responsibly as dozens queue up to get their hands on the $500 weaponsSome may think it the worst idea in the history of capitalism, an irresponsible stunt by a pyromaniac Willy Wonka, but for Earle Tabula there was no better feeling than buying a flamethrower.

For 30 years the model of a global village dependent on American innovation worked... for the US. Now that illusion is fading fastAs Donald Trump’s America gears up for a full-blown trade war with the resurgent China, Washington seems to have forgotten the very mechanisms that assured its dominance in the post-cold war era. Those mechanisms were underpinned not just by America’s military might, but also by its ability to minimise the odds of any anti-systemic dissent.American policymakers have known perfectly well that the hallmark of effective hegemony is the invisibility of its operations. Getting other people to behave as desired is easier if those others believe that doing so is not only in their interest but also the natural course of history and progress. Continue reading...

In the Chinese city of Hengyang, we find a fatigued, disposable workforce assembling gadgets for Amazon, owned by the world’s richest man.Five o’clock in the morning and the young woman’s eyelids are drooping. All night she has been removing spots of dust from Amazon smartspeakers with a toothbrush. Time seems to crawl. Now she is overwhelmed with exhaustion.She works on, more and more slowly, until she can do no more. She looks around the workshop. Other workers have rested their heads on the bench. She slumps forward and falls asleep. Continue reading...

US tech giant admits audit of Foxconn factory in Hengyang found irregularitiesAmazon has admitted that thousands of agency workers who make its Echo smart speakers and Kindles in China were hired and paid illegally.The US giant issued a statement regretting “issues of concern” following an investigation by the Observer and the US-based China Labor Watch into the “unethical and illegal” working conditions at its supplier factory in Hengyang. Continue reading...

Tech’s stock market dominance is no longer a Wall Street fear as Apple is close to becoming first company valued at $1tnApple is just a couple of pips away from becoming the first company ever to be valued at $1tn, a symbolic threshold that further shows just how much tech companies have come to dominate the US stock market.On Friday, Apple was valued at over $940bn – “just” $60bn short of a figure no other listed company has ever achieved. It’s not the only tech company nearing $1tn – Amazon is currently valued at over $820bn. Continue reading...

Hackers said to have swiped information, including secret plans for new type of missile, from US navy contractorChinese government hackers have stolen a massive trove of sensitive information from a US navy contractor, including secret plans to develop a new type of submarine-launched anti-ship missile, according to the Washington Post.Investigators told the newspaper that breaches were executed in January and February by a division of the Chinese ministry of state security, operating out of the Chinese province of Guangdong. Continue reading...

Firm changes initial ad for ‘news credibility specialists’ to ‘news publisher specialists’Facebook has advertised for “news credibility specialists” to fact-check content that appears on its site, after accusations of bias and the ongoing controversy over fake news.Almost two years after the company fired its “trending” news team and replaced it with algorithms in an attempt to fight accusations of anti-conservative editing, it posted the job listings on Thursday. Continue reading...

Facing criticism over the grip it has on our lives, Silicon Valley has developed the idea of ‘digital wellbeing’. I don’t buy itDo you find it hard to relax and switch off because you spend so much time on your phone? You just need to download another app. The popular New Zealand station Sleep Radio, which plays ambient music to help its listeners doze off, is now available on smartphones, to help people who use their devices late at night. Listeners have been tuning in from around the world. Meanwhile, Apple has announced a suite of new tools for the next iPhone operating system that allow you to set time limits on how much you use particular apps, and quieten the flood of notifications.The promise that new functions in these machines will help us break our addictions might seem cynical Continue reading...

Company says it will notify users affected by bug that led to posts being published publicly that were intended to be private

Findings about crash in Silicon Valley raise fresh concerns about limits of Elon Musk’s technology

Graham and his wife take thousands of photos while travelling but aren’t always near wifi – is there a cloudless alternative?

At a special Microsoft lab, joypads are tested to destruction to ensure they withstand pummelling by games aficionadosAs soon as you open the door, the noise pummels you. It’s like the sound of a steam train, or even an experimental electronic music track. “Thankfully, no one needs to sit in here,” says the engineer showing us around. “You’d go crazy.”This isn’t some kind of vast industrial production line – this is a laboratory at Microsoft’s otherwise sedate headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The extraordinary noise is created when button durability on dozens of Xbox controllers is tested simultaneously. Continue reading...

The much-loved British brand has improved its wireless on-ear range, perfect for metal and hip-hop heads alikeThe Marshall Major III Bluetooth headphones are the latest in the much-loved British audio brand’s wireless headphone range, and while the changes are minor over the last pair they are still a winning combination of look, sound and battery life.

Software provider used by companies for job applications has been hackedA Sydney law firm is seeking potential victims for a class action after PageUp, a multinational software provider used by some of Australia’s biggest companies to manage their recruitment, notified that it had been hacked.

Built-in alarm sparks anger from city officials amid concerns over racism and policing: ‘This is a threat to people’The stories of Americans calling police on people of color who are just going about their daily lives have gone viral multiple times, and prompted a national debate about everyday racism.

PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC; Dontnod Entertainment

UK is important as consumer market and talent source, says UK and Ireland chiefAmazon is to create more than 2,500 jobs in the UK this year, including 650 head office roles, as the online retailer says it remains committed to expanding in Brexit Britain.The company is looking for speech science and machine learning experts to help it develop its smart speakers and Alexa personal assistant Continue reading...

Move is part of firm’s efforts to patch up its relationship with European governmentsUber has launched an electric bike-sharing service in Germany as part of efforts to repair its relationship with European governments.The controversial ride-hailing app has been prohibited from operating some of its services in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium, after battles with taxi organisations and protests in several cities. Continue reading...

One in three UK consumers have mistakenly purchased a counterfeit electrical item online, according to new findingsPopular e-commerce sites such as Amazon, eBay and Fruugo are being misused by third party sellers to exploit online UK shoppers and expose them to thousands of fake and potentially dangerous electrical goods, an investigation has claimed today.The charity Electrical Safety First (ESF) found that one in three UK consumers – about 18 million people – has mistakenly purchased a counterfeit electrical item online. They were led to believe that the product was genuine, only to find it was a knockoff item at risk of causing an electric shock or even a fire. Continue reading...

Over 200 hours of the Doctor’s original 1963-1989 episodes are being streamed on the website, complete with hashtags and Time Lord emojisIn more than five decades of adventuring through time and space, Doctor Who has appeared not only on TV, but on film, radio, and across a vast range of books, CDs and LPs. Last week the show started exploring another dimension, with 500 classic episodes live-streamed in a viewing marathon on Twitch.For the uninitiated, Twitch, is a video platform mostly devoted to gaming. When you sign up, you are asked to pick out some favourite video games and that choice shapes the channels and streams that are recommended to you. It’s an inherently interactive space: gamers are able to stream themselves playing to potentially huge worldwide audiences, with comments running in real time alongside their videos. And it is an intriguing place to suddenly start broadcasting black-and-white 1960s TV. Continue reading...

The Last of Us getting nasty, Fallout 76 going back to armageddon and Pokemon Let’s Go dropping a nostalgia bomb are some of this year’s hottest prospectsE3, the biggest video game news event of the year, is taking place next week in Los Angeles – and as it is every year, it will be preceded by press conferences and livestreams where Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and the rest will hype up their forthcoming games. E3 very much concentrates on the Hollywood blockbusters of the video game world; here are the 16 games generating the most buzz.We’ll be liveblogging the first three days of E3 2018, including the press conferences. Join us at theguardian.com/games from Monday 11 June. Continue reading...

Once it was the biggest social network; now it’s a ghost town. But for a handful of hardcore users, Myspace remains essentialAlmost every day, Kenneth Scalir takes a trip to the library or a cafe near his home in Sherman Oaks, California, to spend about an hour on his favourite site: Myspace.Scalir, 48, is one of a dwindling group of people still committed to what was once the most popular social networking platform in the world, with more than 100 million users at its peak. While most people have long abandoned Myspace in favour of Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, Scalir roams the digital graveyard searching for signs of life. Continue reading...

Security agencies would be given access to encrypted messaging apps under bid to ‘modernise’ lawsTechnology companies such as Facebook and Google would be forced to give Australian security agencies access to encrypted data under legislation to be introduced by the Turnbull government.But the government has refused to say how the security agencies would access the data. Continue reading...

A woman attempts to reconnect with her past self in a game that aims to recreate the experience of early-onset dementiaWhen you’re playing Before I Forget, wandering around a house inspecting everyday objects, trying to trigger a memory, it feels like a lot of narrative-driven video games: you’re attempting to piece together a story using clues left behind. But this game puts you in the shoes of Sunita, a woman suffering from early-onset dementia, which infuses what you’re doing with sadness and significance. The house is delineated in monochrome, colour seeping back as she gradually reconnects with her past self. Examining a photograph provides a clue to her identity; a familiar piece of music might recall an important person in her life.Other symptoms are conveyed in more disconcerting ways. Sunita can become lost in her own home in a nightmarish loop, opening doors that all lead to the same dark broom cupboard. Before I Forget was exhibited as part of The Leftfield Collection’s experimental indie-game lineup at Rezzed games convention in London earlier this year. Developer 3-Fold Games hopes to provide a sensitive and emotive portrayal of dementia. Continue reading...

Doug Clark says two credit card providers hold the lion’s share of the market, giving them a worrying degree of control over our means of payment, and Mike Peart says he shouldn’t be discriminated against financially for not having a smartphoneOn Friday millions of people across Britain and Europe were unable to pay for goods and services after a crash in Visa’s payment system (Chaos as Visa card network crashes in UK and Europe, 2 June). Countries worldwide are dispensing with cash. This situation stems from new technology such as phone payment apps and contactless systems. While few doubt its convenience, what are the downsides to a cashless society? Since 2008, banks are no longer held high in public esteem, and hacking scandals show that technology firms care little for our privacy.Currently, two credit card providers hold the lion’s share of the market, giving them a worrying degree of control over our means of payment. It is not well known that credit card companies have the legal right to refuse anyone a card or to revoke an existing card – without giving reasons. Such power needs curtailing by encouraging more providers and other payment avenues. E-payment is data-rich and hence ripe for data-mining – again, the public needs protection. E-payment systems have become indispensable to everyday life, but what happens to some innocent person who becomes cut off from the cashless payment system? Effectively, they become divorced from society. Let last Friday’s chaos serve as a warning. Legislation is required urgently.

The taxi app is attempting to turn around its toxic image with a quirky documentary narrated by Dawn French. But has anything actually changed for its drivers?Near the end of April, Uber dropped a “fireside chat” podcast on to its “partner” channel on SoundCloud. It featured representatives of UberENGAGE (the company’s scheme for soliciting feedback from its drivers) doing a little soul-searching about the taxi app’s toxic public image. Back in 2014, the Guardian had been asking if Uber was the “worst company in Silicon Valley”, and that was before the sexual harassment lawsuits, the #DeleteUber campaign, the employment tribunals over its failure to pay the UK’s minimum wage, Transport for London (TfL) refusing to renew its licence and the forced resignation of its chief executive, Travis Kalanick, last June.On the podcast, Uber London’s marketing strategy boss, Irina Kondrashova, conceded that the company had some “reputational challenges”. But she promised that Uber would come out fighting. “You probably haven’t seen much advertising for Uber in the last six months or so because rebuilding reputation is not just what you say but how you say it,” she said. “Shouting with billboards about how great we are doesn’t feel like the right thing right now. But I have some great news in that [over] the next couple of months we’re going to have some great campaigns coming out.” Uber was ready “to start telling people what we’re about and how we’re doing the right thing and ultimately changing our reputation”. Continue reading...

Smartphones used to be a status symbol. Now they are a necessity for all but the most privileged peopleDigital detoxes are all the rage these days, but did you know that unplugging from your smartphone suddenly can have severe, occasionally nauseating, side-effects? Within minutes of deciding to disconnect from the modern world to live a purer, more analogue life, some people have reported overwhelming feelings of smug superiority. Many of them appear to transform into modern messiahs, eager to preach the virtues of a smartphone-free life to anyone who will listen.A case in point is Simon Cowell who, apparently, has not touched his smartphone for 10 months. Cowell imparted this news to the Mail on Sunday, which, in an uncharacteristic display of hyperbole, labelled it “an astonishing confession”. The entertainment mogul said that abstaining from his mobile has helped his mental health; it has made him happier and more aware of the people around him. It has also made him more focused, he said. “The thing I get irritated with is when you have a meeting [and] everyone’s on their phone ... You can’t concentrate.” Continue reading...

Apple has unveiled its new OS for its smartphones and tablets. What does it mean for notifications, privacy and emoji?Apple has unveiled all the new features heading to iPhones and iPads at its developer conference in San Francisco on Monday, including speed boost for even older devices, improved privacy and a host of new features.

ITP2 anti-tracking and limiting Screen Time app clearly targeting Facebook and InstagramOver a long two hours at WWDC, Apple showed off the roadmap for the next year of its software. Phones will get performance boosts and services aiming to help people fight compulsive use, Macs will get iOS apps and new machine learning technologies, and even the Apple Watch sees an upgrade or two.But some changes didn’t make it on the main stage, either because they’re a bit too technical, a little embarrassing for the company, or just plain old bad news. Continue reading...

Flying at twice the speed of sound was the preserve of the super-rich. If supersonic flight roars back to the skies, could it be more affordable?You could tell without looking up that Concorde was on its final approach to Heathrow: its Rolls Royce Olympus turbojets made the same roar on landing as others did taking off. It was a treat just to watch it in flight, and many of us assumed one day that supersonic flight would be the norm, not a novelty.Concorde’s crash just outside Paris on 25 July, 2000 was actually just the symbolic end for the world’s only supersonic airliner. It may have been ahead of its time, but paradoxically it was already out of date and out of touch. Weighed down with political and economic baggage, Concorde was grounded in 2003, which seemed to signify the end of commercial supersonic travel (SST). Continue reading...

Tim Cook and friends kick off ‘dubdub’ in California, with new Apple Watch features, Siri Shortcuts, new Animoji, group FaceTime, ARKit and more9.37pm BSTThat’s all from us here, but Olivia Solon in San Francisco has condensed it all into one nice piece.

Company is changing its focus from the Windows operating system to tools for developersMicrosoft is buying the code-sharing site GitHub, a developer-focused startup that has become a crucial part of the programming industry, for $7.5bnThe acquisition shows Microsoft further cementing its role as a company built around tools for developers, part of a pivot away from its flagship Windows operating system started by its chief executive, Satya Nadella, four years ago. Continue reading...

Bill Morrow tells senators he is considering ‘throttling back’ customers who use network the most during peak hoursThe head of the NBN has blamed gamers for a significant increase in data consumption on its fixed wireless network and said the company was considering throttling back data consumption of “extreme users” during peak periods.Bill Morrow, the chief executive of the National Broadband Network, appeared before a parliamentary committee on Monday to answer questions about the rollout of the NBN in rural and regional areas. Continue reading...