Technology | The Guardian

Internet company says it complies with Spanish laws and will cooperate with authoritiesTax investigators in Spain have raided Google’s Madrid offices, in the latest investigation into the group’s tax affairs. Continue reading...

Among the best new apps for Android smartphones and tablets of June 2016 are Detour, RunGo, Lost Frontier, Rodeo Stampede and BitTorrent NowFrom travel tips and running guides to puzzles and elephant stampedes, it’s a good month for high-quality new Android apps and games.Here are 20 worth trying. Prices are correct at the time of writing, with IAP indicating that in-app purchases are used in an app or game. Continue reading...

Thomas Ross sketched technical drawings before filing 1992 patent for Electronic Reading Device, which he said is ‘the very essence’ of iPhone, iPod and iPadA businessman has filed a $10bn lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the iPhone, iPad and iPod all infringe his 1992 invention of an Electronic Reading Device, or ERD.In an exclusive interview, Thomas Ross, from Miramar in Florida, told the Guardian that he knows he is fighting a goliath. “I am just one person going up against the resources and power of Apple, the biggest corporation in the world. But what’s right is right.” Continue reading...

A patent granted to Apple may allow iPhone cameras to be disabled by infrared sensors. This seems logical enough for concerts, but what about protests?House Democrats were able to garner wall-to-wall media coverage of their sit-in by broadcasting live from a congressman’s smartphone on 23 June. Yet that may not be possible in the future if a new patent recently granted to Apple is an indication of technology restrictions to come.Related: Democrats stream gun control sit-in on Periscope after Republicans turn TV cameras off Continue reading...

Boss of Facebook’s virtual reality headset business Brendan Iribe gets Twitter account hacked, putting him in good company as tech heads keep fallingThe head of Facebook’s virtual reality headset maker, Oculus, has had his Twitter account hacked, making him the latest in a long line of celebrity and tech bosses to have had their social media accounts compromised in recent weeks.The account of Oculus chief Brendan Iribe was taken over at around 7am UK time, when a tweet was sent out to his 16,000 followers announcing that “we here @Oculus are very excited to announce our CEO. @Lid ! :)“. Continue reading...

CEO says restrictions on free tier of note-taking service and price rises for paying users are to fund improving Evernote in the long termEvernote, the note-taking service, is facing a user backlash after restricting the number of features available to free accounts.The company’s Evernote Basic tier, which offers free access to the software, will now only be able to sync across two devices. For most people, this will be a computer and one mobile device, leaving users with more than one computer, or a computer and two mobile devices (a phone and a tablet, for instance), needing to pay for the first time. Free users can still access the web version of Evernote, though. Continue reading...

Windows 10 makes Julia log in whenever she leaves her laptop alone for a few minutes. Happily, it’s very easy to change that, but it does raise security issues Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Thursday. Better late than never? Continue reading...

Award-winning studio Fullbright Company returns with another intriguing narrative adventure, this time set on a doomed space station where everything is recordedThree years ago, The Fullbright Company helped to redefine the nature of narrative video game design. The tiny independent studio, based in Portland, Oregon, released Gone Home, a first-person exploration drama about a young woman who travels back to visit her family and finds nothing but an empty house.Wandering the hallways and rooms alone, players used environmental clues such as audio recordings and notes to piece together what had happened. The game cleverly employed the tropes of survival horror (an abandoned house, rumours of a murder) to suggest there was a mystery or supernatural element to the story, thereby hooking players familiar with gaming conventions into the experience. But eventually we discover something much more human, grounded and emotionally complex. Gone Home wasn’t about horror, it was about friendship, music and first love. Continue reading...

Infrared device would be able to block fans using their iPhones to record shows, films and other live eventsThe spread of smartphones has created a divide among gig-goers. There are those who like to hold their phone up for large chunks of the show, to capture footage of the band. And there are those who like to stand and watch the group and listen to the music, without any screens in their way.Now, it seems, the latter group could be on their way to victory in the eternal struggle between the filmers and the watchers. Pitchfork reports that Apple has won approval from the US Patent and Trademark Office for technology that could be used to prevent fans filming or taking photos of gigs on their iPhones. Continue reading...

Changes ahead for streaming service as, with 15m paying subscribers, it continues the battle with rivals Spotify and YouTubeHappy Birthday will presumably be being played on repeat in Apple Music’s offices today. It’s one year after Apple’s music-streaming service launched and it has 15 million subscribers.It also has an upcoming redesign, unveiled at the company’s recent WWDC event in San Francisco, to close a year in which it got first dibs on Drake’s new album, bagged Taylor Swift for a series of ads and even ventured into enemy territory by launching on Android. Continue reading...

Toffler was one of the world’s most famous futurists who foresaw how digital technology would transform the worldAlvin Toffler, a guru of the post-industrial age whose books, including Future Shock, anticipated the transformation brought about by the rise of digital technology, has died. He was 87.Toffler died in his sleep at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, on Monday, said Yvonne Merkel, a spokeswoman for his Virginia-based consulting firm Toffler Associates. Continue reading...

Changes to the algorithm mean your friends’ posts will be prioritized, and publishers that rely on Facebook traffic will be gnashing their teethTo paraphrase Archimedes, give me an algorithm, and I can move the world.Facebook announced yet more changes to its news feed algorithm on Wednesday, the secret sauce that determines whose posts show up on your Facebook page, and whose remain unseen. Continue reading...

Viewers can feel like they were sitting on the hillside during the Sermon on the Mount or right beside the crypt during the resurrection in VR re-enactmentFirst came the scriptures; then the altarpieces. After that, stained glass windows and engravings of the Stations of the Cross. Last century brought biblical epics like Spartacus. Now believers will be able to experience the life of Jesus as if they were there themselves, thanks to advances in virtual reality technology.Autumn Productions and VRWERX are set to release Jesus VR – The Story of Christ, a 90-minute virtual reality re-enactment of the New Testament, which includes Jesus’s birth and death by crucifixion, along with key moments like the Sermon on the Mount. Continue reading...

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act makes technology terms of service legally enforceable, which the ACLU says can be used to hide illegal activity

Changes to posts from Facebook groups or the pages of brands likely to affect traffic to publishersFacebook is to give greater weight to posts from individuals rather than corporations in a change to its newsfeed likely to affect traffic to publishers.In a posting on its Newsfeed blog, Facebook said that it was planning to make an “upcoming change to News Feed ranking to help make sure you don’t miss stories from your friends”. Continue reading...

Of the 2.8m vehicles being recalled globally over fears of cracks in the fuel emissions control unit, some 713,000 are in EuropeTens of thousands of Toyota cars are being recalled in the UK for safety reasons, including fears that their airbags could inflate without warning.The world’s largest carmaker has been forced to recall 2.9m vehicle worldwide, including 72,885 UK-registered Prius, Auris and Lexus CT200h models, over possible cracks in the fuel emissions control unit. Continue reading...

Cancelling a Windows 10 upgrade by closing the pop-up dialogue will no longer schedule the install, but will lead to further nagsMicrosoft is backtracking on its aggressive upgrade policy that has seen Windows 10 apparently installing or attempting to install without users’ permission leading to lawsuits and interrupted weather forecasts.

Publishers including the BBC, Telegraph and Guardian saw double-digit surges in web traffic around EU voteThe public’s thirst for EU referendum news smashed web records for publishers including the BBC, Telegraph and Guardian, while Facebook proved crucial in driving the leave campaign’s impact online.News publishers saw huge double-digit surges in web traffic on Thursday, the day of the referendum, as the public sought news, views and information before casting their vote.

My secret account is now not so private after Facebook updated its search engine without warning, and there’s nothing I can do about itQuietly, over the last year, Facebook has killed the concept of a private account.The site has always had a love-hate relationship with privacy: it’s long offered some of the most granular controls of any social network for choosing who sees what content, letting users make posts visible on a sliding scale from “everyone” to “only me”. Continue reading...

The story of Airbnb’s current battle with San Francisco over regulation actually begins with a senator who prayed to control ‘the pollution’ of internet pornAirbnb, like pornography, is a business based on selling a fantasy. Porn offers the simulacrum of a sexual encounter; Airbnb, that of being “a local” in a city not one’s own. There’s less fuss, less muss, and a much reduced chance of STDs and irritated neighbors.

Search company launches new opt-in ad service for non-Google sites and tools that show how it tracks your internet activityGoogle has rolled out new tools to let users see what its ad-tracking service has learned about them, and to let users opt in or out of a new personalised ads service.

In just two months, Webs & Tiaras has become the third most popular channel on YouTube, even if it’s one of the strangest success stories yet on the serviceThe latest YouTube craze is a channel where adults don Spider-Man and Elsa from Frozen outfits and ride giant ducks, grow Pinocchio noses and lick enormous lollies.Webs & Tiaras’ first video was only published in March 2016 but the channel, which promises “compilations of your favourite superheroes and princesses in real life”, has already notched up 1.7bn video views. Continue reading...

Electrical company acquires greater share of mobile phone market as annual pre-tax profits rise by 17% to £447mDixons Carphone has unveiled a 17% rise in annual pre-tax profits to £447m and dismissed concerns over Britain’s decision to leave the EU.Seb James, the chief executive of the electrical and mobile phone company, said it would continue to find opportunities to grow despite the outcome of the referendum last week. Continue reading...

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

Social media giant agreed on Tuesday that location data was ‘one of the factors’ it used but on Wednesday said no, not any moreFacebook has denied using location data to suggest potential friends amid questions about the unsettling accuracy with which it puts forward “people you may know”.The feature has been known to suggest users who have no or few mutual friends on the network – and, reportedly, nothing in common beyond having shared the same physical space – prompting concerns about how it works. Continue reading...

The platform will avoid in or out arguments by letting remain voters hook up with each other for a proper European unionFear not, Europhiles, for love is not lost. If you’re downbeat about Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, know that 48% of the country are with you, and one of them might just be your soulmate.No, honestly ... there is a new dating app in development that aims to let you meet other Remain voters so that you don’t have to go through the pain alone. Continue reading...

The student loan forgiveness proposal drew immediate backlash on Twitter, where users asked why entrepreneurs should receive special treatmentHillary Clinton put forward a set of proposals, in a newly released agenda on technology and innovation, that would treat entrepreneurs and startup workers more favorably than other student debtors.In a move aimed at “breaking down barriers and leveling the playing field for entrepreneurs and innovators who are launching their own startups”, Clinton proposed allowing startup founders to defer student debt payment for up to three years. The deferrals would also be available to a new company’s first 10 to 20 employees. Continue reading...

Aydin C is linked to the case of 15-year-old Amanda Todd, who took her life in October 2012 after being tormented by an anonymous cyberbullyAn Amsterdam court has ruled in favour of extraditing a Dutchman to Canada where he is wanted on charges linked to the cyberbullying of a teenager who killed herself in 2012.Identified only by his first name because of Dutch privacy rules, Aydin C, “who is linked to the suicide of 15-year-old Amanda Todd, may be extradited to Canada”, the court said in a statement. Continue reading...

US Customs and Border Protection proposal would see Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts requested on landing and visa formsThe US government is proposing making social media accounts part of the visa screening process for entry into the country.

The creator of Life Is Strange is back with a very different tale of warring vampire factions thriving in a disease-ridden LondonLondon, 1918. The streets are dour, cold and deserted, the Spanish flu is claiming dozens of victims a day, and a new scourge is lurking in the capital’s sprawling slums. Vampires.Thus begins the latest project from Parisian studio Dontnod Entertainment, creator of acclaimed adventures Remember Me and Life Is Strange. In Vampyr, the player takes control of Jonathan Reid, a doctor and newly initiated blood sucker, who sees vampirism as a disease that can be cured. But while he’s searching for the origins of the contagion, he must also stay alive – and there’s only one way to do that. “Feeding on citizens is the basis of your character progression,” says creative director Philippe Moreau. “The more you kill, the stronger you get. The question is, how far are you willing to go?” Continue reading...

‘Keep calm and code on’, urges one VC firm as tech companies try to inject confidence into the industry after country votes to leave the EULeading lights of the UK’s technology sector are trying to calm fears of a “Texit” following the result of last week’s EU referendum.After some of Britain’s biggest tech start-ups, including business data company DueDil and foreign exchange service TransferWise, revealed they are openly mulling an overseas relocation after the historic leave vote, other investors and entrepreneurs have intervened to try to inject some confidence into the shaky industry. Continue reading...

New advances in technology are sparking efforts to use virtual reality to help people gain a deeper appreciation of environmental challenges, reports Yale environment 360Could virtual reality (VR) — immersive digital experiences that mimic reality — save the environment?Well, that may be a bit of a stretch. But researchers say that it could perhaps promote better understanding of nature and give people empathetic insight into environmental challenges. Continue reading...

Bitly blamed for some of the hacks on victims including actor Channing Tatum and journalist Matthew Yglesias, but company denies vulnerabilityGoogle CEO Sundar Pichai has become the latest celebrity to fall prey to hacking group OurMine Security, apparently due to a vulnerability in URL shortening service Bitly.On Monday morning, Pichai tweeted the message: “Hey, it’s OurMine,we are just testing your security, to upgrade your security please visit our website”, and posted a similar statement to his Quora. It was deleted a few minutes later, but it put the CEO in the company of a number of other celebrities who’ve been hacked by the same group in the past few weeks. Continue reading...

In a rare interview Fumito Ueda, the creator of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus talks, about his hotly anticipated game and his nerves over its releaseThere are very few games that become legendary for a single moment, a single unforgettable image, but Ico is certainly one of them. For many players, when the eponymous protagonist takes the hand of the captive girl Yorda and leads her from her cage, it is a profoundly emotional experience. Most had never played anything that required one character to connect with another in such a tactile and protective way, and the idea that hand-holding could be a central mechanic was as revolutionary as it was quietly beautiful.

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

Government on course to biometrically register country’s 1.25 billion population as part of plan to modernise administrationThe digital revolution arrives in remote Indian villages such as Akbarpur by communication methods old and new: a WhatsApp message buzzes through to the village chief; he notifies his fellows via megaphone.The world’s biggest biometric ID programme is coming to town. Continue reading...

The band’s audience accessories illuminated the crowds at Glastonbury – but how do they work, and what’s next for crowd interaction?When they played Yellow, they went yellow. It doesn’t take a genius to programme Coldplay’s Xyloband wristbands, but the effect – at a Glastonbury that even the normally Pollyanna-ish Michael Eavis dubbed the “muddiest ever” – was to add a touch of closing-night glamour to a sodden Worthy Farm.The Xylobands have become a proprietary part of Chris Martin’s sets, filled with red, yellow and blue LEDs. These are synched to a radio transmitter, allowing them to be manipulated in time with the music, creating vast rivers of coloured light, like the slush-ballad mid-set lighter experience for the age of the e-cig. Their inventor, Jason Regler, claims to have had the idea while watching Coldplay perform their mid-set slush-ballad Fix You. Continue reading...

Dean Farrar, 49, from Rochdale contacted thousands of underage girls on social media in attempt to persuade them to perform sexual acts on cameraA serial child abuser who contacted 11,000 minors across the world on social media in attempt to get them to perform sexual acts has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Research by affordable housing advocacy groups finds more than 55% of listings in city on Airbnb are illegal, and 30% are listed by commercial hostsShort-term rental companies like Airbnb are flooding New York City’s housing market, reducing available housing stock citywide by 10%, a new study has revealed.

Company withdraws appeal leaving it liable for $10,000 compensation judgment after botched automatic upgrade of travel agent’s computerA Californian woman has won $10,000 in compensation from Microsoft after Windows 10 automatically tried and failed to install on her Windows 7 computer.

Rhode Island school employees fired after private chat referring to particular pupils as “dumb”, “idiots” and “toxic” was leakedThe old adage, don’t write anything down in an email you wouldn’t say publicly, appears to apply to chat now too, after three teachers were fired for calling their pupils “idiots” in a private chat.The Rhode Island school teachers were using Slack – the darling of Silicon Valley that pitches to be better than email – when their messages were leaked. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Documents reveal Sidewalk Labs is offering cloud software Flow to Columbus, Ohio, to upgrade bus and parking services – and bring them under Google’s management

Ultra-cheap Ringing Bells Freedom 251 Android phone previously thought to be scam will ship in batch of 200,000 – but company will make loss on each handsetThe $4 Indian phone that some thought might never materialise reportedly does exist, but only because the startup producing it is making a loss on each one.The Ringing Bells Freedom 251, initially announced at a price of £5, is apparently set to ship this week to customers who preordered the phone in February for – ($3.70 or £2.77). At that price – the one the company originally pledged – it is losing the Indian startup Rs 150 ($2.2 or £1.65) on each smartphone. Continue reading...

Even at Google’s DeepMind, there’s still stuff that humans code best, it seems – and it’s all down to timingAlphaGo, the board-game-playing AI from Google’s DeepMind subsidiary, is one of the most famous examples of deep learning – machine learning using neural networks – to date. So it may be surprising to learn that some of the code that led to the machine’s victory was created by good old-fashioned humans.The software, which beat Korean Go Champion Lee Sedol 4–1 in March, taught itself to play the ancient Asian game by running millions of simulations against itself. Continue reading...

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

Telltale is back with a story-focused spin on DC’s most famous hero. But this time the mask is offTelltale Games has always been an ambitious studio. It started making episodic adventure games back in 2007 with the Sam & Max titles, but later graduated to big movie tie-ins Jurassic Park and Back to the Future. It’s breakthrough though was Walking Dead, a dialogue-based thriller with just as much dramatic punch as the frantic and emotional zombie comic series. Since then it has managed to convert both RPG shooter Borderlands and building sim Minecraft into unlikely adventure hits, appeasing two highly invested fanbases.But Batman: A Telltale Series may be its most audacious project yet. For a start, it follows countless adaptations of DC’s defining hero, from Ocean’s 1986 action adventure, to the likes of Lego Batman, Injustice and, of course, the hugely acclaimed Arkham trilogy. It’s quite a legacy to live up to. Continue reading...

The dystopian free-running epic gets a fluid reboot, everyone’s favourite detective gets a new case and the weirdest beat-’em-up around gets physicalPS4, Xbox One, PC, Electronic Arts, cert: 16, out now

Analysis of abuse of politicians in the US, UK and Australia sheds light on a problem often dismissed as par for the courseby Elle Hunt, Nick Evershed and Ri Liu Continue reading...

A wave of new internet startups aim to do for eating out what Airbnb did for travel accommodation and Uber for taxis, with diners eating in chefs’ own homesLast weekend, with a certain amount of trepidation, I made a booking with a website called EatAbout, whose tagline invites you to “enjoy private meals in the home of a chef”. Conceived last October by two young Swedes living in London, the website launched in January with the intention of “democratising eating out” and making “good food accessible to everyone” by cutting out many of the costs associated with running a restaurant. Despite a deep and abiding love of the traditional restaurant-going experience, I was curious enough about the concept to give it a try.First, I scan a map of London for hosts – EatAbout currently has 30 chefs in its network, all within the M25 – and settle upon Carine O, whose food incorporates influences from France and her native Cameroon. Then, out of five options, I pick a three-course menu called “Fish BBQ My Way”, priced at £77 for two. Once I’ve chosen a time and submitted my card details, Carine gets in touch to ask whether we’d prefer mackerel or sea bass and then offers some friendly advice on wine (EatAbout invites guests to bring their own). The next day, bottle in hand and with the meal already paid for, we arrive at Carine’s home in south London ready for some barbecued fish. Continue reading...