Technology | The Guardian

Blue-tick badges normally reserved for the accounts of high-profile figures are to be rolled out to all users who provide correct informationThe Twitter “blue tick” badge normally reserved for the accounts of high-profile figures is to be made available to all users, the social media site has said.Related: ​Belarusian president accidentally ​sparks international striptease Continue reading...

Supreme court overturns judge’s order to mobile phone companies to block access after owner Facebook stood by refusal to intercept texts for police inquiryBrazil’s federal supreme court has suspended a judge’s ruling ordering mobile phone companies to indefinitely block access to Facebook’s WhatsApp – the third such decision against the popular phone messaging app in eight months.

Institutions including MoMA in New York are seizing the opportunity to get gamers through the doors, though some museumgoers are unimpressedSummer is a tough time to get paying museumgoers through the doors – but this year, there’s an extra incentive. Art museums like the Whitney and the Museum of Modern Art in New York are jumping on the Pokémon Go bandwagon and helping players of the augmented reality game “catch ’em all”.Just as local businesses have jumped on the bandwagon to get new customers, museums are jumping on board to attract young players and boost ticket sales from Los Angeles to New York, Texas and Boston. Continue reading...

The wildly popular mobile game is a Pokétopian fantasy that has flooded our world with good feelings – and timing could be everything behind its success

The £24.3bn deal has been called into question by SoftBank’s shareholders, who are concerned about their company’s debt levelThe £24.3bn takeover of ARM Holdings, Britain’s biggest technology company, could be in doubt after investors in the Japanese group behind the deal – SoftBank – gave it the thumbs down.Related: The chancellor's reaction to SoftBank's takeover of ARM was ludicrous Continue reading...

Employment law’s ‘case of the year’ will assess claim by 19 drivers that they are not technically self-employedUber is facing a legal challenge from drivers who say that they should be recognised officially as workers at the company, as calls grow for new rights for the UK’s burgeoning army of self-employed individuals.In a tribunal hearing described as “the case of the year in UK employment law”, lawyers working for a group of Uber drivers will argue that the terms and conditions of their work with the company mean that they are not technically self-employed and should be entitled to a range of benefits that they currently do not receive.

Art Cockerill, who has died aged 87, was a soldier, engineer, author, librettist, publisher and occasional contributor to Guardian Weekly.Born in Blidworth, Northamptonshire, he was the fourth of 10 children, all of whom would later feature in his semi-fictional family saga Lay Gently on the Coals (2011). His father, John, was variously a soldier, manual worker and entertainer; his mother, Margaret, let rooms to theatricals – Art remembered John Mills as a lodger. He entered the Duke of York’s Royal Military School, in Dover, Kent, in 1939. A proud “Dukie”, he went on to write the school’s bicentenary history, The Charity of Mars (2002). Continue reading...

ICM poll shows support for victims to have their identity protected after Home Office rejects calls for anonymityThree-quarters of people believe victims of “revenge pornography” should be given automatic anonymity to bring the offence in line with other sexual crimes.In an ICM poll 75% of men and women questioned supported campaigners who want victims’ identities to be protected after an allegation is made to police. The revenge pornography law – introduced in April last year – does not treat the offence as a sexual crime and girls, men and women who are victims face being re-victimised if a suspect is arrested and charged, say campaigners. There is also concern that victims are not supporting prosecutions because of fears of an online backlash if they come forward. Continue reading...

Players wishing to skip effort required to gain experience and capture rare or advanced Pokémon appear to be willing to pay for someone to do it for themThe Pokémon Go craze continues unabated, with accounts being sold on auction sites such as eBay for thousands of pounds, despite contravening developer Niantic’s terms of service.The accounts, which list high-level trainers and specific rare or powerful Pokémon with combat powers over 1,000 points, promise to help users defeat others in battle and take over gyms without needing to pound the streets catching Pokémon for weeks. Continue reading...

Worst Tinder Date Ever, from the writers of Friends With Benefits, will be the first film to explore the dating app on the big screenWarner Bros is developing a romantic comedy based on dating app Tinder.Worst Tinder Date Ever is a pitch from Keith Merryman and David A Newman, writers of Friends With Benefits and Think Like a Man. The plot follows a couple in Los Angeles who meet via the app and share an accident-filled date. Continue reading...

Riding the Pokémon Go wave but stuck on training your Pokémon to fight in gyms? Haven’t quite mastered when to tap and when to swipe? Look no furtherTwo weeks in, Pokémon Go fever continues, but as new players join it’s getting difficult to compete in gyms. Here’s some advanced tips to help you get the best out of what you’ve got.

Culture, media and sport committee says BT’s broadband infrastructure division offers poor serviceBT is failing to invest properly in broadband infrastructure and should be broken up unless it spends more money to improve the service, according to a committee of MPs.In a report published on Tuesday, the culture, media and sport select committee said BT’s underinvestment in its Openreach broadband infrastructure division could amount to hundreds of millions of pounds a year. Continue reading...

Shares in the Japanese firm have more than doubled since the launch of the popular gameShares in Japan’s Nintendo soared another 14% on Tuesday, more than doubling the firm’s market capitalisation to 4.5tn yen (£32bn) in just seven sessions since the mobile game Pokémon Go was launched in the United States.The phenomenal success of Pokémon Go – now available in 35 countries, the majority in Europe, and most recently in Canada – has triggered massive buying in Nintendo shares, surprising even some seasoned market players. Continue reading...

Romain Pierre, 27, was arrested in Cirebon but was freed when police realised he had unintentionally entered baseIndonesian police say they have detained a French man who trespassed on a military base while playing the augmented reality game Pokémon Go.Related: Pokémon Go: how the overnight sensation was 20 years in the making Continue reading...

BBC+ selects content users are likely to be interested in based on indicators such as their location and what they have previously watched, read or listened toThe BBC has launched a new personalised app tying together access to all its digital services that it says will help the public get the most out of their licence fee.BBC+, which soft launches on Tuesday, collates BBC content and tailors recommendations, bringing together different services such as iPlayer and the BBC News website. As it develops, more content will be accessible from inside the app. Continue reading...

Thread is helping thousands sharpen up their wardrobe without leaving the house. As well as revolutionising shopping habits, it is an interesting test case for AI in the workplaceLast week, I bought a selection of clothes recommended by an online personal stylist: a pair of skinny Topman jeans, a perfectly fitting white T-shirt from Jack & Jones, and most daringly – for me, anyway – some khaki chino shorts by Pull&Bear.We’d carried out the consultation online, with me sharing not only obvious information like my size, desired price range and “daringness” (with “daring” defined as wearing floral shirts or shorts with blazers), but also helping her work out my actual style preferences by telling her brands I like and flicking through endless pictures of well-dressed men to highlight the looks I want. Continue reading...

NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione expresses concern about potential effects on children, saying in real life ‘game over is game over’New South Wales’ top police officer has warned against the society-wide impact of violence in video games, saying that in real life “game over is game over”.Andrew Scipione, the state police commissioner, expressed concern at the potential effects, particularly on children, in his opening address to a conference on violence in the media in Sydney on Monday. Continue reading...

Worldwide study finds that while 39% of Brazilians think they could build a website, only 16% of British workers feel the sameOnly 16% of workers in the UK would be comfortable building a website, compared with 39% in Brazil and 37% in India, according to a report, which warns that Britain’s digital skills lag behind other countries’.

Revenue, minus commissions paid to partners for web traffic, fell 19% in the company’s second quarter, the sixth decline in the past seven periodsThe bad news keeps on coming for Yahoo. On the same day the company reached a shortlist for the sale of its troubled assets, the fallen tech giant once again missed its quarterly earnings predictions.Revenue for the company’s second quarter was $1.31bn. Revenue, minus commissions paid to partners for web traffic, fell 19% in the second quarter, the sixth decline in the past seven periods. Continue reading...

Company missed second-quarter expectations, announcing that it added only 1.7 million members worldwide and blamed price increase for drop in membershipViewers gave Netflix the chill last quarter, as the company blamed a price increase for a dramatic drop off in its growth rate.Netflix shares plunged 15% in the after-hours trading on Monday when the company announced that it added just 1.7 million members worldwide in the second quarter. As of last month, the streaming service has more than 83 million members.

Microsoft shrinks games machine by 40% and adds redesigned controller, IR blaster and front-facing USB port in console war with SonyMicrosoft’s slimmed-down and 4K-movie capable Xbox One S will cost £350 ($400) and be available from 2 August in the US.

The parcel giant’s couriers complain of low pay, no employment rights and the threat of losing their work at short noticeWhen a courier rings your doorbell with the latest delivery from the virtual high street, there’s a good chance they work for Hermes, the German-owned delivery giant that is on course to deliver more than a quarter of a billion parcels to British households this year. Such is the UK consumer’s appetite for online shopping, Hermes’ parcel load is increasing by as much as 15% a year.Hermes couriers, alongside workers at the Royal Mail’s ParcelForce and other companies such as Yodel, are the footsoldiers of the internet shopping boom. But while most of ParcelForce’s deliverers earn an hourly wage with sick pay and paid holiday, every one of Hermes’ 10,500 couriers is self-employed. They are paid per parcel – 48p is common, but it can be more. Yodel, with 8,000 couriers, operates a similar system. Continue reading...

Tech giant’s head of safety tells conference that enforcement staff weren’t meeting policy requirements about online threatsEnforcement teams working for Facebook have failed to meet the company’s strict rules of zero tolerance towards rape threats online, its head of safety said on Monday.Antigone Davis, global head of safety for the California-based tech giant, said in the last nine months her team had been examining whether the tools, resources and policies in place to tackle online abuse were effective. Continue reading...

Chief executive of Japanese technology giant had asked himself if he still had the energy for job; this takeover proves he doesLess than a month after the abrupt resignation of Masayoshi Son’s anointed successor raised questions about SoftBank’s appetite for overseas investments, the group has made its ambitions clear with a £24bn move on ARM Holdings, Britain’s most successful technology company.Monday’s cash deal marks the start of the mobile technology company’s quest to add semiconductors to its eclectic business portfolio and be a key part of the shift towards artificial intelligence, something that Son, SoftBank’s chief executive, has described as “the biggest paradigm shift in human history”. Continue reading...

Britain’s best unknown technology company ARM Holdings has been bought by Japan’s SoftBank. But what exactly is the Internet of Things?Britain’s best unknown tech business ARM Holdings is being bought by Japan’s SoftBank on the back of the promise of the Internet of Things (IoT). But what is IoT, and what has a chip designer like ARM got to do with it? Continue reading...

It’s the hottest game in the world right now, but what do games developers think of Pokémon Go, and where do they think its success will take augmented reality?Pokémon Go hit the UK app store right smack in the middle of Brighton’s game developer conference Develop, and it seemed suddenly the entire indie community was flicking Pokéballs into hotel corners to try and snag some of the city’s omnipresent Voltorbs and Magnemites.“I hope some of my friends get well-paying work making doomed clones of Pokémon Go,” tweeted indie developer George Buckenham (Beasts of Balance) in the wake of Go’s release. We thought we’d ask those from the indie studios here at Develop how they were planing to capitalise on its success and what kind of pitches they had at the ready for when augmented reality (AR) investors come knocking for their own revamps of Pokémon Go. Continue reading...

Chancellor says sale of country’s most successful technology company shows ‘Britain has lost none of its allure to international investors’

What would the tech landscape look like if girly tropes were championed, rather than ridiculed? Three artists are seeking to find outThe world of technology is traditionally dominated by the voices of men – and over the past few decades, this fact has influenced its tone and aesthetic. Cold blues and chromes, stodgy beiges and fuss-free lines have long been part of the normal palette, while any hue or shape that might be considered feminine or “girly” has been rendered virtually invisible.The cyberpunk fantasies laid out in Blade Runner or Neuromancer prize the stories of gritty guys, with femininity often relegated to the realm of the artificial, even the salacious. Continue reading...

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

Explore underwater worlds in Insomniac’s submarine adventure puzzle, indulge in Megadrive nostalgia, and follow puzzles through time in the latest Zero Escape gameXbox One, PS4, PC, Insomniac Games, cert: 7

The Dragon capsule will reach the International Space Station on Wednesday and deliver the new port for commercial ‘space taxis’SpaceX has sent a new-style space station docking port into orbit en route to the International Space Station.An unmanned Falcon rocket was launched early on Monday in Florida carrying 2,267kg (5,000lbs) of supplies in the Dragon space capsule along with the new docking port. Continue reading...

Tom Walker, creator of Jonathan Pie, says it’s now time to move on from the channel that made his nameJonathan Pie, the fictional television reporter who is regularly pushed to the edge of sanity and beyond by British politics, has now made a political stand of his own in preparation for his first national tour and an appearance on the Edinburgh festival fringe.Pie, the foul-mouthed creation of actor Tom Walker, has become an internet sensation since the success of his short comic films in which his television journalist melts down on screen once he is “off air”. Pie rails against hypocrisy in politics and in television newsrooms and is disillusioned with both his job and the ethics of Westminster. Continue reading...

South East London Wargames Group | Boris Johnson’s image in France | Response to foreign secretary’s limerick | Andrea Leadsom and male nannies | Tennis heart-throbs | Zoe Williams for Top GearYour article (In the dragon’s den, G2, 14 July) brought out the geek in me: aged 17, in 1974, at a meeting of the South East London Wargames Group (venue: Grove Park Youth Centre), my friends and I acquired a boxed set of Dungeons & Dragons from an American guest. I suspect we were the first people in the UK to play, so by the 80s this was old hat to us. But I recall the huge excitement and pleasure of our first campaign, which lasted nine months and almost certainly clipped a grade off each of my A-Levels!

The city of Manchester department’s Facebook post invited people to capture a rare character called Charizard in the booking areaPolice in New Hampshire’s largest city are using Pokémon Go in an attempt to lure fugitives into their clutches.Related: Pokémon Go: how the overnight sensation was 20 years in the making Continue reading...

MP says harassment of Labour figures is coming from inside and outside party and is a threat to democracyLabour and other parties have a responsibility to stamp out vitriolic online abuse that is threatening to stifle democracy and all too frequently targets women, Yvette Cooper has said.Following Jeremy Corbyn’s declaration that he intends to lead a clean campaign over the coming months, the former shadow home secretary said this was welcome but “not enough” given that her female colleagues were being subjected to a torrent of online threats and misogynistic and racist abuse. Continue reading...

Whether you’re a vlogger or a budding Spielberg, it’s never been easier to shoot your own short film. Here, from effects to filters, are the only apps you’ll needShooting and sharing videos has never been so easy, with a wide selection of mobile apps available to capture, edit and distribute your footage. Some are squeezed-down smartphone versions of powerful, desktop, video-editing software, while others are inventive new tools for the Instagram generation of social sharers. There are specialist video-making apps for special effects, stop-motion and even virtual reality film-making, and novelty apps to raise a smile with face swapping or retro filters. Here are 20 of the best apps to try in 2016, whatever your level of expertise. Continue reading...

The story of GPS and its impact on our natural homing instinct is both fascinating and unsettlingThe desire of human beings to know where exactly they are on the planet, and more to the point how they might get home, has a vivid history. In the opening chapter of his suitably precise and fascinating account of the modern evolution of this desire, Greg Milner goes back to the extraordinary feats of the aboriginal Polynesians, who somehow explored and dispersed across the vast Pacific in outrigger canoes with sails made from woven leaves.The islanders apparently learned how to navigate thousands of miles eastward, against prevailing wind and current, using mind maps of stars triangulated in relation to known specks of islands; as they neared land they utilised a close knowledge of cloud formations and the patterns of birds in flight and bioluminescence in the sea. They factored all these observations hour by hour against speed and wind resistance, and somehow found their way in the world. Pretty much all that knowledge, the ways of seeing that allowed them to do that, has disappeared. Continue reading...

App maker Niantic blames ‘incredible number of downloads’, but hacking group claims responsibility for server failure as game launches in EuropePokémon Go servers crashed across Europe and the US on Saturday, as global demand for the hit mobile app soared in its first weekend since being launched in the UK.Players in 26 countries took advantage of mostly good weather to venture outdoors to hunt and capture their first Pokémon creatures, with millions having downloaded the game in its first days since release. Continue reading...

App created by French government to warn people of terrorist incidents sent out alert hours after truck attack occurredThe French government has vowed to overhaul its emergency smartphone app designed to alert the public to an ongoing terror attack after it malfunctioned during the attack on Nice.

Once the Kia has settled into its speed, it is confident, solid and grippyI think the Kia Sportage is best understood channelled through the energy of family resentment. Imagine you have a cousin who has always been better than you at things you pretend not to care about. In adolescence, your parents said: “Why can’t you be more like Steve?” and your tacit response was a direct 50:50 split between: “Because Steve is a twat” and: “Why couldn’t I have had a manly name like Steve?”Anyway, fast forward to 2016, and Steve has arrived on your drive with a Kia Sportage. He must be doing OK for himself, you think (it is £31,650 OTR), and yet he is moving in circles where he doesn’t quite feel he belongs. This is a car that’s trying to look a bit beefier, more SUV-ish and ski slope-ready than it actually is. The snout has a curvaceous, American styling but the drive is a little diesel-ey and wheezy, not so much New Hampshire as regular Hampshire. So Steve has a little bit of status anxiety, you think. Maybe later you’ll test him at ping pong. Continue reading...

I’ve been inundated with questions about whether it’s any good. I’m almost loth to say it, but it really isI can’t claim that hairdryers particularly turn me on, much less one that costs £300. On a scale of new purchase excitement, a dryer would ordinarily rank somewhere between hedge trimmer and gas boiler, but the new Dyson Supersonic (£299.99) has caused a huge stir in the industry and I’ve been inundated with questions about whether it’s any good. I’m almost loth to say it, but it really is.James Dyson’s brainchild is based on fitting a microprocessor to a hairdryer to regulate temperature and prevent damage. It’s too early for me to say if it delivers on improved hair condition, but, in any case, it has a great deal more to recommend it. Its stylish design is backless, meaning you won’t get that revolting hairball-trapped-in-mesh effect of traditional dryers (the filter and motor are in the handle), nor can your hair get sucked inside and create a smell like a fire in a pet shop. Continue reading...

Turkish president Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan appears on television through a FaceTime video connection to address the country as a coup threatens to topple the government. People claiming to speak for the Turkish military said the army was now in charge of the country Continue reading...

Reports emerge during attempted military coup of people struggling to access social media in a country described as a ‘bastion of internet censorship’Turkey may be blocking or slowing access to social media networks amid an attempted military coup, although there are conflicting reports emerging from a country that’s been described as a “bastion of internet censorship” by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.Related: Turkey military coup: tanks open fire near parliament building – live updates Continue reading...

It has only taken a week for Pokémon Go’s creatures to pop up all around the planet – but their journey really began in 1996Returning home on Thursday afternoon, I was stopped by two 10-year-olds standing at the top of my road. “Are you playing Pokémon Go?” one asked. When I said I was, they went wild.“Oh my days! There’s a Gengar over there, and there’s a gym over there and that woman’s playing it too. Everyone here is playing it! What level are you? How many Pokémon do you have?” At this point, the game had been out in the UK for less than 12 hours. Continue reading...

Request signals increased scrutiny of automaker and comes as calls increase to disable the automatic steering function on its electric vehiclesThe chairman of the US Senate committee that oversees auto safety issues wrote Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Thursday, asking the automaker to brief the committee on a fatal May 7 crash involving its autopilot software.

Capcom’s brilliant Nintendo DS series about hunting fearsome creatures just got even better – but it still might not be for everyoneAmong the different ways to make video games at the very top end is iteration, and one of the masters has always been Capcom. The original Monster Hunter was released on PS2 in 2004 and since then it has become a phenomenally successful series in Japan, mostly on handheld platforms, with more modest sales globally. Each of the Monster Hunters adds to its predecessor with new locations, monsters and weapons, plus hundreds of more subtle changes, but the template remains familiar.Put so baldly, iteration might seem at best formulaic and at worst exploitative – money for old rope. But interactivity flips the table. Making iterative games requires one non-negotiable quality. The core game has to be absolutely brilliant.

Eight-month-old boy reunited with family after appeal for information was shared thousands of timesLatest updates: Bastille Day attackAn eight-month-old baby boy lost in the chaos after a truck rammed into a crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice has been tracked down through Facebook.The boy, who was in a blue stroller, was lost when the rampaging truck killed at least 84 people and sent hundreds of people who had been watching Bastille Day fireworks fleeing in panic. Tiava Banner – who said she was not the mother of the baby – sent out an appeal on Facebook looking for any information on his whereabouts. Continue reading...

Sarah Natochenny isn’t surprised by the hype as fans are rediscovering their love for the character – and she’s among the 7.5 million people hooked on the gameEven after 10 years of voicing Pokémon protagonist Ash Ketchum for television, Sarah Natochenny fondly likens getting the gig to “being struck by Pikachu’s Thunderbolt”.As 7.5 million people worldwide are rediscovering their love for Pokémon through the wildly popular Pokémon Go, Natochenny, a Queens native, isn’t surprised at all by the fanfare. Continue reading...

Three fire engine crews and two rope rescue units helped teenagers who entered Box caves to play augmented reality gameMine rescue experts and firefighters had to come to the aid of a group of teenagers after they became hopelessly lost in Wiltshire while searching for Pokémon Go characters deep underground.The four teenagers had ventured into the network of caves at Box to play the augmented reality game, which launched in the UK this week and is already sweeping the nation.