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Uber China will merge with local rival to create $35bn ride-sharing giantUber’s seemingly unceasing expansion across the world has finally had the brakes applied as the ride-sharing company plans a deal to sell its Chinese operation to local rival Didi Chuxing, according to Bloomberg News.The new company will valued at around $35bn (£19bn) – given Didi’s previous $28bn valuation, that values Uber China at $7bn – and puts an end to a year-long standoff that has led to both Uber China and Didi losing money in an effort to secure a lasting victory. Uber alone has lost more than $2bn in the fight. Continue reading...

I’d normally rather stay at home with a virtual romance, but the game allowed me to build a comfortable – and perhaps long-lasting – bond while out and aboutI can feel my shoulders freckling in the summer sun. The heat borders on oppressive and a thin line of sweat beads at my hairline, barely cooled by a passing breeze. I am standing next to a pond, atop a giant sundial where high noon betrays no shadows, and I am sending a Tentacruel – a giant poisonous jellyfish – to attack the man across from me. There are no tumbleweeds to set the scene, no spaghetti-western whistles or wide-frame cuts to layer on the tension, but my finger still twitches to the countdown of our duel.Three. Two. One. Go.

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

Shanghai-based studio Pixpil is trying to bring video games into Chinese homes – no easy feat in a country that only just lifted its ban on foreign consoles such as PlayStation and XboxThink of the word “China” and one of two ideas should come to mind: either the country, or the crockery sat in your kitchen cupboard. This synonym in the English language is testament to the reputation of China’s porcelain trade around Europe in the 16th century. China was top of the line. But when it comes to video games, China sits at the opposite end of the spectrum; Chinese games are often associated with cheap Mario clones and free-to-play RPGs that look like they’re designed by business executives. It’s not good.Shanghai-based game developer Tommo Zhou dreams of changing that stigma. He hopes one day to release a video game on a console with a global reach. The PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Wii U (or the upcoming NX) are the dream. Zhou’s friend and colleague, known as Feng, goes so far as to say it would be a “great honour” to have a game on one of these consoles. It’s not necessarily the potential sales numbers and the success that might come with such a move, it’s what the principle itself represents.

New life, so to speak, for the zombie genre in a fun indie adventure, and a fine puzzling platformer from Curve Digital Continue reading...

Further automation of the retail sector raises issues far beyond the needless luxuries of choice, convenience and speed of delivery (Amazon to test drone deliveries in British skies, 27 July). I wonder if the “demand” for stuff to be delivered by robot to our door within 30 minutes of ordering really exists – is modern satisfaction really that shallow? But in an increasingly automated society, where are the wages to buy these goods going to come from?While Brexit showed that politicians were detached from the anger of the dispossessed of this country, where are they on the automation of yet more of the jobs that so many people depend on? It seems they are keen to race headlong into a very misty future. Continue reading...

Want the best apps and breaking news on the go without breaking the bank? These may be the devices you’re looking forRRP £109 Continue reading...

A revolution in politics is under way, and it is being fought 140 characters at a time. Gaby Hinsliff reports on how Twitter is fuelling a political race to the bottomWhen Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first woman in American history to clinch a major party’s presidential nomination, her rival responded with all his customary grace.“Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama – but nobody else does!” Donald Trump sneered on Twitter. Continue reading...

Apple’s tablet has a host of easy-to-miss tricks, many of which work on the iPhone too. We take a tour… Continue reading...

If the Russians were behind the attack on the Democrat convention – and the evidence suggests they were – this represents a major shift in Putin’s military doctrineLast month, it was discovered that the computer networks of the US Democratic National Committee (DNC) had been penetrated by two sets of intruders, who appear to have been unaware of one another’s activities. The hackers seem to have been able to do whatever they liked, including accessing the DNC’s email servers. As a result, some (perhaps most) DNC emails found their way into the public domain via a number of routes, including WikiLeaks.It’s been dubbed Watergate 2.0. And as in 1972, the key questions are: who were the burglars? What were their motives? Continue reading...

Virtual weapons won in some games can be bought for real money and used like casino chips on online gambling websitesIn what could prove a world first, an Australian politician is seeking to have games such as the hugely popular Counter-Strike series defined in law as gambling.Nick Xenophon, the independent senator for South Australia, on Sunday announced a bid to have multiplayer first-person shooter games defined as gambling in an update to the current Interactive Gambling Act of 2001. Continue reading...

Whether for taxi drivers or Hollywood stars, the world’s most famous hybrid always puts in a great performancePrice: £23,295

A radical new design brings multiple benefits to the humdrum city slickerIt seems incredible that the basic ingredients of a bicycle – frame, wheels, saddle and bars – can be almost infinitely reworked to produce dynamic bikes of endless variety. Take a look at this one. It’s the new Commuter 8.0 from Canyon. The German firm, based in Koblenz and set up in 1985, has always championed cutting-edge design. But doing away with the traditional headset to create a ‘cockpit’, in which the handlebars, stem and lights all form a single unit, seems drastic even by its standards. It gives the bike a weird ‘neckless’ look. It looks like its lines were inspired by a hyena. However, it rides brilliantly and handling is ferociously direct. It benefits from a greaseless silicon belt drive, and a low-maintenance gear hub saves you money and hassle in the long term. Internal cabling and seamless welds also help create its clean and simple look. It comes in this ‘espresso’ colour or a cool grey. A powerful dynamo supplies electricity through clever contacts in the dropout points, which means your lights will never dim. It’s bright stuff! (canyon.com)Price: £1,749

Pope tells young people ‘we didn’t come into the world to vegetate ... We came to leave a mark’Pope Francis urged “drowsy and dull kids” to swap their sofas and video games for walking boots on Saturday at an international Catholic youth festival in Poland.

With state television the main source of news, accusations of email hacking and the doping of athletes are met with incredulityA T-72 tank roared into the jump at full speed, launching several feet into the air. “Ooooohhhh!” several spectators yelled as it slammed back down so hard its gun barrel nearly hit the ground. A second T-72 followed behind, but suddenly everyone’s attention was directed behind them as strong winds ripped the metal-and-tarpaulin roof off the grandstands. The spectators climbed over the barriers to escape as rain poured down.This was the tank biathlon, a sport devised by Russia in 2013, ostensibly to allow its own tank forces and those of other countries to test their preparedness and equipment. But it also serves as a patriotic spectacle and a show of military might held with an eye on the west. It’s part of the huge Army Games taking place across Russia and Kazakhstan, which also include competitions among jet fighters, air-defence systems, artillery and paratroopers. More than 3,000 personnel are taking part from Russia and 18 friendly countries, such as Angola, Venezuela, Serbia and several former Soviet republics. Continue reading...

Tim Cook – and his investors – seem confident that TV programmes, music and software are the path to the futureApple has been punished by investors in the wake of recent financial results that have posted growth in revenues, iPhone sales and business in China. Shareholders were concerned that the tech group’s growth was not as meteoric as expected, so they sold down the stock.Related: Apple plans to invest in augmented reality following success of Pokémon Go Continue reading...

Three teenagers were playing game in park when apparently armed robbers struck, prompting safety warning from policeThree teenage Pokémon Go players have been robbed of their mobile phones at gunpoint in a north London park, prompting police to warn of the dangers of roaming the streets with expensive mobile phones on show.The victims, aged 15, 16 and 18, were playing the popular mobile phone game in Whittington Park in Holloway on Tuesday night when three male teenagers approached them. Continue reading...

‘Acceleration is nothing to boast about, even in the most advantageous circumstances, such as going down a hill’The highpoint of life with the jaunty little DS3 Cabrio was when I filled it with children, opened the retro fabric roof and worked out how to Bluetooth my phone to the hi-fi. We sat in a layby – there were more children than seatbelts, so I had to decant some before we could move – waving our hands in the blue, blue sky and singing to Little Mix: children like to stick their hands out of roofs the way dogs like to stick their noses out of windows. There is nothing about this car, from its contrasting blue-and-white colour to its curiously inaccessible letterbox boot, that doesn’t make perfect sense if you’re eight. I guess we have to assume 18-year-olds are the same.The cabin is well-designed; it doesn’t feel cramped in the front, the dash is pleasing and I am such a convert to the leather steering wheel that I now feel something like the sharp offence of shiny bogroll whenever I’m required to touch anything else. It also has a leather handbrake, leather door trim and a gloss black knob, if you please. Personalisation is a big thing for this model, with a thousand variations in trim and colour to allow full expression of your, erm, personality. Continue reading...

From a Nigerian living in the shadow of Boko Haram to a 70-year-old farmer in Zimbabwe, technology is transforming what is possible in AfricaAfrica is in the throes of a technological revolution, leapfrogging computers in favour of internet connections through mobile phones. A fifth of the continent now have access to a broadband connection, a figure predicted to triple in the next five years.But how are phones and the internet changing the lives of ordinary Africans? And what barriers do people still come up against when trying to connect?

As the mobile game spreads its tentacles around the world, our readers let us know where they’ve managed to play the game so far

On the trail... Continue reading...

IRS has been exploring how the tech company transferred assets to Ireland and whether it deliberately tried to minimize the tax it paid in the USFacebook could be liable to pay between $3 to $5bn in extra US tax after an extensive investigation by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) into the way the tech company transferred assets to Ireland.The tax agency has been exploring whether Facebook deliberately deployed complex financial processes designed to minimize the amount of US tax it paid. Continue reading...

Tesla is considering whether the radar failed to detect the truck or detected it but ‘tuned it out’ as a structure such as a bridge to avoid triggering brakingTesla Motors told the US Senate commerce committee staff it is considering two theories that may explain what led to the 7 May fatal crash that killed a Florida man who was using the car’s Autopilot system, a person familiar with the meeting told Reuters on Friday.

Startup founder built the derelict ‘experiment in sustainable living’ without proper permits and failed to demolish it when requested, city authorities sayRob Rhinehart, the founder of food-substitute drink Soylent, is facing criminal charges over his installation of a now-derelict and graffiti-strewn red shipping container on a hill overlooking Los Angeles.

Hubs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, as well as website of national airline, showed message criticising sovereignty claims in South China SeaHackers have attacked the website of a national airline and flight information screens at Vietnam’s two biggest airports, posting notices that state media said criticised the Philippines and Vietnam and their claims in the South China Sea.Operators of airports in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City briefly had to halt electronic check-ins when systems were attacked on Friday afternoon, the country’s civil aviation authority said. Continue reading...

The committee, which is the political arm of House Democrats, says the FBI is investigating the breach and that it resembles the recent DNC email hackingThe computers of the House Democratic campaign committee have been hacked, an intrusion investigators say resembles the recent hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for which the Russian government is the leading suspect.Related: Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear: did Russians hack Democratic party and if so, why? Continue reading...

Amazon has been granted permission for small-scale testing of drone deliveries in the UK, but don’t expect all your shopping to start arriving by air soonRelated: Amazon to test drone delivery in partnership with UK governmentAre drones really going to deliver my shopping? Continue reading...

Virginia’s Smithfield Police Department invited eight ‘random citizens’ to catch super-rare Ditto in their processing room, after New Hampshire police employed same tacticThere can’t be any doubts now of Pokémon Go’s world domination – even the police are getting in on the action.A police station in Virginia is using its Facebook page to invite “random citizens” to try and catch a super-rare Pokémon in their processing room. Continue reading...

Twelve Against the Gods by William Bolitho becomes Abebooks’s busiest search term after Tesla chief declares it ‘really quite good’A forgotten, out-of-print history book from 1929 has sold out across the internet after it was praised by Elon Musk.The Tesla chief executive and billionaire told Bloomberg on Thursday that he was currently reading a book called Twelve Against the Gods by William Bolitho. “It’s really quite good,” Musk added, sending the price of the now obscure text up from $6.35 (£4.82) on Amazon.com for a secondhand paperback edition, to $99.99, before it sold out at the online retailer. Shortly after, used books marketplace Abebooks reported that it had also sold out, with the 13 copies available quickly snapped up and Bolitho’s book the most sought for on the site all day. Continue reading...

Lifeboat launched to rescue group who became trapped on Birnbeck Island in Somerset before finding their way to safetyA group of six teenage Pokémon Go players had a lucky escape on Thursday night after almost getting cut off by the rising tide off Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.Weston’s volunteer lifeboat crew were alerted by Milford Haven coastguard shortly before 9pm to rescue the teenagers, who were searching for Pokémon on Birnbeck Island, which is cut off from the mainland at high tide apart from the partly collapsed, and unsafe, old pier. Continue reading...

MelaniaTrump.com has disappeared, and a kerfuffle over a college degree may be to blame. But experts say it could amplify what they hope will remain unseen

Microsoft’s constant upgrade notifications should end by Sunday as free offer expires for Windows 7 and Windows 8 usersMicrosoft’s controversial year-long free Windows 10 upgrade offer for users of Windows 7 or 8 ends today (Friday), which means now is the time to claim a free licence or be forced to pay upwards of £80 for a copy.

Analysts and the US government suspect an official hand behind the breach of the DNC’s emails – but if so it would represent a major escalation of cyber-activityIn April of last year, at 10pm on a Wednesday, French network TV5Monde suddenly began to broadcast Islamic State logos and slogans in French, Arabic and English. Simultaneously the broadcaster’s Facebook page began to post inflammatory messages. “Soldiers of France, stay away from the Islamic State!” read one. “You have the chance to save your families, take advantage of it.”“Je suIS IS,” read another. Continue reading...

In the first of a four-part series, we explore the United Nations’ resolution that considers internet access to be a basic human rightOn 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.To investigate, we talk to the United Nations’ special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye; the co-creator of the internet, Vint Cerf; and the human rights lawyer and founder of rightsinfo.org Adam Wagner. Continue reading...

A cheeky look at the Pikachu phenomenon, JT meets his match on the golf course and the BBC detective returns

The place to tak about games and other things that matterI Continue reading...

Final chapter in intriguing narrative adventure series brings back favourite characters, but fails to go out with a bangIn the Zero Escape trilogy a psychopath forces the player to solve a series of escape-the-room puzzles while submitting them to all kinds of mind games and threatening to kill them the entire time. That’s right, this is very much Saw meets Crystal Maze. And if anyone from Channel 5 is reading, I thought of that first and will demand a 10% commission on its inevitable production.The final game in the saga is Zero Time Dilemma, released on Steam, Vita and 3DS this month. It functions on the same catchy premise as the first two games: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue’s Last Reward. This time, nine people are trapped in some secret facility, and must figure out a way to escape. Some of them know each other, some of them don’t. They all have secrets, motivations and lives they desperately want to return to. Continue reading...

Phenomenal success of Pokémon Go sees players of smartphone game exploring shops, cafes and museums worldwideTransfixed players have fallen off a cliff in California, wandered across the border in Canada and broken a limb in Australia while hunting Pokémon. The authorities at Auschwitz and the Hiroshima memorial have asked players to stay away; the police in Portugal, the Chinese army, the Indonesian civil service and Japan’s national centre of incident readiness and cybersecurity have all issued warnings.In Britain, four teenagers had to be rescued in Wiltshire after following imaginary Pokémon down a 100ft mineshaft; two girls wandered half a mile out to sea on mudflats in Somerset; and a lifeboat crew was scrambled after three girls were seen wandering into rough seas in Hastings while playing the game. Network Rail has displayed signs warning commuters against straying on to tracks. Continue reading...

Cyber intrusion at Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which may have begun in June, may be related to earlier DNC hackThe FBI is investigating a cyber intrusion at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) that may be related to an earlier hack at the Democratic National Committee, said four sources familiar with the matter on Thursday.The previously unreported incident at the DCCC, which raises money for Democrats running for seats in the US House of Representatives, may have been intended to gather information about donors, rather than to steal money, the sources said. Continue reading...

Australian police say 19-year-old likely to be charged after he drove into a school building while trying to catch a creature in the popular mobile appA man made an unplanned Pokestop when his car crashed into a Melbourne school, police have said.Officers say the man was trying to capture a creature from the Pokémon Go mobile phone app when he lost control of his vehicle while negotiating a roundabout. Continue reading...

The strong growth suggests that Google is successfully navigating the transition from desktop ads – its traditional strength – to mobile ads“There’s an amazing atmosphere at Google,” said the company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, on a conference call with investors.That is not exactly surprising. Pichai’s call was a victory lap, coming on the heels of the announcement that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, had posted a 21.3% increase in second-quarter revenue – exceeding analysts’ expectations – driven by strong advertising sales on mobile devices and for video content. Continue reading...

Nearly 500,000 online searches a month return Islamist material, says report that advocates multilateral approach to removing extremist sitesMore than 484,000 Google keyword searches a month from around the world, including at least 54,000 searches in the UK, return results dominated by Islamist extremist material, a report into the online presence of jihadism has revealed.Related: Google to point extremist searches towards anti-radicalisation websites Continue reading...

The company’s cloud services business combined with a surge in Prime subscriptions to increase revenue 31% year on yearAmazon Web Services, the company’s cloud service division, has long provided the infrastructure for vast retail websites and plucky startups alike, from Netflix and Airbnb to Nasa and the Royal Opera House, but is now seen as the company’s biggest driver of growth.AWS combined with enthusiastic take-up of its premium “Prime” service to generate better than expected revenue for the second quarter of the year. Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg says VR will capture human experiences like never before – but is it really superior to what writers and artists achieved centuries ago?

Professor Simon Szreter (Letters, 27 July), in his criticism of Amazon’s plans to test drone delivery systems, claims that “For the whole of human existence and all of our lives so far, the sky has been free for us all to look up to for quiet pleasures and the sense of freedom it evokes …”In fact aircraft have interfered with the view for more than 200 years, with a corresponding legal framework for their regulation, initially based on law of trespass and later on statute law in the form of the Air Navigation and Transport Act, and the Air Navigation Order. Continue reading...

European pressurised reactor will be most powerful in the world but is designed to use less fuel and produce roughly a third less waste than older reactorsBritain’s first new nuclear power station in more than 20 years will contain the industry’s most cutting-edge technology.Hinkley Point C on the Somerset coast will feature two European pressurised reactors (EPRs) designed to be safer, more reliable and more fuel efficient than anything that has gone before. Continue reading...

Dash, available in the US since 2014, will let shoppers reorder groceries by scanning barcode or saying name into microphoneAmazon is stepping up its assault on the UK grocery market with the launch of a gadget that helps restock the kitchen cupboards with the scan of a barcode – or just a whisper.Shoppers who use the online retailer’s new fresh food and groceries service, Amazon Fresh, are being offered the Dash gadget, which has been available in the US since 2014, free with their second order. Amazon Fresh is currently only available in some areas of London. Continue reading...

Seventy-six pages and 50 illustrations from the great Latin epic made available to all, part of a project to put all its 80,000 manuscripts onlineThe Vatican Apostolic Library has digitised one of the world’s oldest manuscripts, an illustrated fragment of Virgil’s Aeneid that dates back 1,600 years.Created in Rome around 400AD, the Vatican Virgil consists of 76 surviving pages, and 50 illustrations. The fragments of text are from the Latin poet’s Aeneid, his epic tale of Aeneas’s journey from the sack of Troy to Carthage, the underworld and then Italy, where he founds Rome. It also contains fragments from Virgil’s poem of the land, The Georgics, but the original manuscript is likely to have contained all of Virgil’s canonical works. According to Fine Books magazine, it is “one of the oldest [copies of The Aeneid] to survive the centuries”. Continue reading...

1990s styles may be back in fashion, but getting hold of 20-year-old technology is about to get much harder. The last known maker of video cassette recorders, Funai Japan, has announced it is to cease production of VCRs. Those whirring, magic boxes will soon be nothing but a mere memory Continue reading...