The latest video-game-to-movie adaptation will update an obscure Sega Mega Drive title from 1992 about a young superhero for hireAn obscure Sega Mega Drive title about a slacker who becomes a superhero for hire is the latest video game to become a candidate for a big-screen adaptation, according to Deadline.Rent-a-Hero, first released in 1992, has a backstory in which a small-town Japanese kid orders a pizza and instead receives a suit of power armour. Hot Tub Time Machine director Steve Pink (who also co-wrote Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity) is on board to direct, and will write the script with Jeff Morris (The True Memoirs of an International Assassin). Continue reading...
In 2015, the story of a stolen iPhone went viral and led to a friendship forged on China’s Twitter. Now, the Finding Dory star is working on a film about itEllen DeGeneres and BuzzFeed are working together on a film inspired by a series of articles about a stolen mobile phone, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Continue reading...
From calendar to email, here’s what to replace the iOS defaults with to work better, harder and hopefully lessFace it: the best thing about iOS is the App Store. The iPhone has come a long way since version one, but the ability to add to the fifteen built-in apps has been the biggest improvement.These days, Apple’s default apps are showing their age. What’s more, they suffer from being too simple for power users and too complex for new users. Ask anyone who needs to get serious work done with their iPhone and they’ll tell you that the first step to a more productive life is to ditch the defaults and replace them with apps built from the ground-up for power. Continue reading...
Over two years, eight videos from Melbourne’s the Woolshed Company were viewed more than 205m times, partly thanks to $100,000 in taxpayer fundingThe Australian producers who were behind eight fake viral videos which made news around the world were part of a Screen Australia-funded project to explore the impact of a short film narrative.Over two years, eight disparate videos from Melbourne’s the Woolshed Company were viewed in 180 countries, more than 205m times. On YouTube alone they were watched for the equivalent of 164 years; they accrued 500,000 comments and 1.6m likes. Continue reading...
From its animist origins to its relationship with tech and capitalism, the game has more in common with religion than you might expectOver the past week, tens of thousands of people have taken to roaming the streets, interacting with invisible beings that now inhabit our cities.
The SEC is scrutinizing whether Tesla should have disclosed the self-driving car crash in a formal regulatory filing, according to the Wall Street JournalThe US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Tesla failed to disclose to investors a lethal crash involving its autopilot technology.According to the Wall Street Journal, the SEC is scrutinizing whether the incident was “material†information that Tesla should have disclosed in a formal regulatory filing, though one source reportedly said the investigation may not lead to any kind of enforcement by the agency. Continue reading...
Five years after the US government took down the site accusing it of piracy, tech entrepreneur tweets about plans and hints new website will use bitcoinFlamboyant German tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom is planning to relaunch file-sharing website Megaupload in January 2017, five years after the US government took down the site accusing it of piracy.
Government seeking steer from drivers on everything from collision liablity and car insurance to remote parkingA planned shake-up of motor insurance rules and changes to the highway code have been unveiled by the government in preparation for the arrival of driverless cars on UK roads.
Producers of content from toy-unboxing videos to Minecraft gamers and vloggers target growing children’s marketAt the Children’s Media Conference in London last week, one big structural shift in how the young watch TV loomed large amidst conversations about diversity and the impact of Brexit.YouTube was still the hottest of topics, with its ever-growing popularity among children making it impossible to ignore. In May 2016, 35 of the top 100 YouTube channels (by video views) were aimed at children, generating 8.6bn views collectively. Continue reading...
Hundreds of centers across the US are using virtual reality to train officers to shoot more accurately – and also help them to decide whether to shoot at allWhen I arrived, two women sitting in a hot tub asked me what I was doing in their backyard. I wasn’t quite sure myself. “I’m just here because I heard it was a little loud and I’m seeing if you could keep it down.â€In the corner of my eye, a tall man lumbered toward me from inside the house, swinging a bottle. I asked him once, then twice, to put down the threatening object. Continue reading...
Disappearing messages launched alongside new encryption feature, ‘secret conversations’For the fourth time, Facebook is trialling a Snapchat-style ephemeral messaging system.This time, however, the company is introducing the new feature alongside a much wider change: the first chance to use end-to-end encryption to secure conversations on Facebook Messenger. Continue reading...
OurMine Security released a few Vine videos through Dorsey’s account, which cross-posted to his Twitter feedThe Twitter chief executive, Jack Dorsey, had his Twitter and Vine accounts hacked.The hacking group which posted on Dorsey’s account, OurMine Security, is the same group which has previously defaced social media accounts belonging to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google boss Sundar Pichai. This time, OurMine released a few Vine videos through Dorsey’s account, which cross-posted to his Twitter feed. Continue reading...
Xbox execs Phil Spencer, Mike Ybarra and Shannon Loftis talk about Xbox One S, Scorpio, virtual reality – and why diversity is central to modern gamingAt the end of this year’s E3 conference in Los Angeles, one thing seemed clear: although a lot of journalists left feeling that Sony had “won†the hype war with its games-focused press conference, everyone was actually talking about Microsoft. The company choose the event to announce, not one, but two new consoles: an updated version of the Xbox One with a simple “S†suffix, and a more powerful upgrade – codenamed Project Scorpio – due out next year.The question on a lot of lips was, why? Why did Microsoft start its press briefing with Xbox One S, promising 4K compatibility, a new 40% smaller body and support for HDR gaming, only to apparently undermine the package by revealing Scorpio at the end? Due in late 2017, this intriguing iteration packs in eight CPU cores and promises six teraflops of processing power. And while Xbox One S will run 4K movies and promises to upscale games to that resolution, it’ll be Scorpio that delivers true, native 4K gaming. So why not keep it secret for a few more months? Why instantly cannibalise the Xbox One S market before it has even launched? Continue reading...
Missouri suspects used app’s geolocation feature to target ‘unwitting victims’, says police after another incident saw game lead player to dead body
by Rich Flower, Patrick Harkin and Rory Summerley on (#1KY39)
An uneven attempt to make the world war two strategy game more popular, an ambitious but flawed shooter and a niche slice of Japanese culturePC, Paradox Interactive, cert: 7
Tech billionaire says he hopes to publish details this week as cryptic message echoes 2006 blogpost in which he unveiled what is now Tesla Model STesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, under pressure after a fatal crash involving one of his electric cars, went on Twitter Sunday to say he’s working on another “Top Secret Tesla Masterplanâ€. He said he hoped to publish details this week.The tantalizing message echoes an August 2006 blog post, titled “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me)â€, in which Musk unveiled the cars that became the Tesla Model S four-door family car and the Tesla 3 sports sedan. Continue reading...
Networked devices for your smart home are the modern way to manage your life, but the rush to sell shoddy smart products risks compromising securityYou know the problem. You’re going abroad for a couple of weeks, during which time your house will be empty. You haven’t yet got round to installing a burglar alarm. But not to worry – just pop round to a supermarket and buy a couple of timer sockets. Plug them into the mains, set the timers to switch on and off at appropriate times twice a day, plug your lamps into them and off you go. Easy, peasy!Well, yes. But it’s so 1950s. So analogue. Why not be really cool and have a proper networked timer socket, something that you can control from your smartphone from anywhere in the world? Something like the AuYou Wi-Fi Switch for example. Looks like it’s just the ticket. Plug it in, hold down the power button and it hooks up with the app on your (Android) smartphone, and – bingo! – job done. Now, where did you put that boarding pass? Continue reading...
Motorola and LG are getting on board this emerging smartphone movement, but will it all fit together?Wander into your local phone shop for an upgrade and you could soon be sold a module rather than a whole new phone. It’s a radical new idea. But is the driving force behind modular phones being produced by Motorola, LG and others a response to consumer needs and environmental concerns, or is it simply an over-designed fad?Such devices came to attention in 2013 when Phonebloks, an open-source modular smartphone startup, was set up to reduce electronic waste. In essence, it was the conceptual introduction of a forever-upgradable phone, one customisable to suit different needs. Continue reading...
Statement in response to petition signed by more than 4.1m people says referendum was ‘once in a generation’ voteThe hopes of more than 4.1 million people who signed a petition calling for a second referendum on the EU have faded, after a response from the government saying it was a “once in a generation voteâ€.Parliament must consider all petitions that reach a threshold of 100,000 votes for a debate and, although the decision has yet to consider the motion for a debate, the Foreign Office responded to the signatories by email on Friday evening, pointing out that over 33 million have had their say.
With a top speed just shy of 90mph, the Leaf doesn’t have many pretensions in the boy racer departmentOften, when I think an idea won’t catch on (the mobile phone, the breakfast bar), it’s just because I haven’t thought about it as hard as its inventor has; I fear this may be true of the Nissan Leaf. It struck me as inherently preposterous to design a car that has to be delivered on the back of another car, because no one can be sure it’ll make the journey on electricity alone.While we’re here, why eschew the option of a petrol hybrid? Why not throw in some petrol so that the superbly organised can bask in their virtue, having remembered to charge it for eight (or 16) hours the night before (depending on the voltage), while the feckless can be allowed to sometimes forget? Continue reading...
Facebook’s live streaming video allows people to broadcast life – and death – for the world to see, raising a new and complex set of ethical questionsThree days in America. Three mobile phone videos depicting violent deaths.The killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and then a bloody shootout in Dallas, join a growing canon of brutal imagery either instantly broadcast or rapidly distributed on Facebook. Continue reading...
After much delay from surveillance concerns, the EU agreed to Privacy Shield, a new data transfer deal that will affect Facebook, Google and other US tech firmsGovernments across the European Union have finally given the green light to a new deal on how consumer data must be transferred with the United States, ending months of delay caused by concern over US surveillance.Privacy Shield, the new commercial data transfer pact, was provisionally agreed by the EU and the US in February and will come into effect on Tuesday. Continue reading...
The over-35s have discovered Snapchat – much to their kids’ utter horror: ‘We young people need another social media migration anyway’Like many people of a certain age, I recently began using Snapchat, after years of shunning it in favor of social media apps designed for people who still type with all their fingers and not just their thumbs.And I’m not alone. Of the 150 million people who use Snapchat each day, the number of US users over 35 has increased from 2% in 2013 to 14% today, we learned this week from ComScore. Continue reading...
Police’s lethal use of bomb-disposal robot in Thursday’s ambush worries legal experts who say it creates gray area in use of deadly force by law enforcementFor what experts are calling the first time in history, US police have used a robot in a show of lethal force. Early Friday morning, Dallas police used a bomb-disposal robot with an explosive device on its manipulator arm to kill a suspect after five police officers were murdered and seven others wounded.“We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was,†Dallas police chief David Brown told reporters. Continue reading...
His latest documentary lays bare the story of the Stuxnet worm, a groundbreaking virus jointly created by the US and Israel. Here the acclaimed film-maker discusses the pervasive threat posed by this new age of warfare“How paranoid were you before you made this movie and how paranoid are you now?†That question was perhaps the only moment of levity during a conversation with documentarian Alex Gibney after the credits rolled on Zero Days, a terrifying account of the cyberwar that is already raging on thumb drives and mainframes from Washington to Tel Aviv to Isfahan Province in Iran and anywhere else that can connect to the internet.Related: Zero Days review – a disturbing portrait of malware as the future of war Continue reading...
From Game of Thrones-inspired castle estates to spiralling pink robo-slides, this year’s graduate architecture shows offer a window to escapist fantasy landsArchitects might be known for wearing black, as if in permanent mourning for the lives they once had, and for spending months searching for the perfect shade of grey. But judging by this year’s student shows, that monochromatic hegemony is under threat: the next generation appears to be plotting a psychedelic revolution. Continue reading...
by Jana Kasperkevic and Sam Thielman in New York on (#1KPA1)
Officials also revoke regulatory approval for Theranos’s California lab, months after company acknowledged regulatory investigationUS regulators have banned Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes from owning and running a medical laboratory for two years, the company announced on Thursday. The Center for Medicare and Medical Services also revoked regulatory approval for Theranos’ California Lab.The announcement comes months after the company admitted to being investigated by several regulators following a series of reports from the Wall Street Journal. Theranos claimed that its technology enabled it to perform blood tests with just a pinprick, instead of a traditional blood draw. In October 2015, Theranos employees interviewed by the Wall Street Journal cast doubt over those claims and the accuracy of the company’s tests. Continue reading...
Forget New York, let alone Tokyo: as reader Greg Whistance-Smith points out, the wildly popular Japanese anime show Mobile Suit Gundam has rather bizarrely chosen quiet Edmonton, Alberta as the backdrop for its two-part season finaleOne of the peculiar honours shared by the world’s major cities is a knack for getting destroyed on screen. Residents of London, New York and Los Angeles have seen their cities fantastically ruined by natural and manmade disasters alike. None have experienced this quite as frequently as Tokyo: radioactive monsters, giant robots, supernatural forces and earthquakes have taken turns smashing the city in films and television shows for the past 60 years. Meticulously depicting a city’s demise is, if nothing else, a declaration of its importance: these places are worth destroying.In Edmonton, a quiet city at the northwestern tip of the Canadian prairies, those images of mass destruction seem exhilaratingly foreign. Edmonton is often forgotten not just in discussions of cities but in discussions of Canadian cities; or else it is humorously acknowledged as a place with endless winters and harsh, Soviet-like architecture. Those half-truths noted, the city nevertheless has its gems, among them an incredible river valley, one of the world’s biggest universities (the University of Alberta), and a thriving arts scene, including the world’s second largest fringe festival after Edinburgh. It’s one of the youngest cities on the continent, with a median age of 36.5, and the northernmost city of more than 1 million people.
by Presented by Leigh Alexander with Elena Cresci and on (#1KNFN)
We talk to internet culture experts about how memes are used to generate change in society and politicsWith social editor, Elena Cresci, Montclair State University professor Joel Penney and digital culture lecturer Paolo Gerbaudo, Leigh Alexander discusses the impact that memes have on the world around us. Continue reading...
With fewer than 6,000 units sold, Silent Circle’s privacy-focused Blackphone was a huge flop. It highlights a bigger problem with how people value securityPrivacy and security of personal data is a hot-topic. From the snooper’s charter to the NSA, your Facebook settings to your medical data, concerns over the security of our information impacts many aspects of our lives. Many of us are exercised about intrusions and campaign strongly for personal rights - but when it comes to protecting ourselves, do we ever put our money where our mouths are?In 2014, after the Snowden revelations, a partnership between Swiss privacy outfit Silent Circle and Spanish smartphone maker Geeksphone produced the Blackphone. Continue reading...
KiLife has created two wearable devices that use apps and Bluetooth to track a child’s distance from a parent and emit a 95-decibel siren if they stray too farParents afraid of losing their child in a crowd can rest easy thanks to a new wristband that can be locked to a youngster’s wrist and emit a 95-decibel siren should they wander too far.
Tiny robotic stingray gives hope to scientists they can create artificial creatures and ultimately build a human heartWith a flash of light and a ripple of fin, the small aquatic robot set off across the water and into the annals of science as the latest advance in artificial creatures.A melding of tissue and technology, the robot in question resembles a miniature stingray. It has a thin rubbery body, a skeleton of gold, and an unusual power source: a sheet of heart cells that contract when illuminated with pulses of blue light.
Technology | The Guardian