Technology | The Guardian

As two companies compete to make Hyperloop a reality, one looks to Slovakia as the first destination, ahead of the original Los Angeles to San Francisco rail planTake that Silicon Valley – Slovakia, a country at the heart of Europe, might become home to the first hi-tech Hyperloop train.Dirk Ahlborn, chief executive officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), announced on Thursday that HTT has reached an agreement with the Slovakian government to explore building a local Hyperloop system. A transport system capable of speeds of up to 760mph (1,223kph). Continue reading...

Automotive giant looks to head off challenges to its dominance by tech companies such as Alphabet and Apple in developing driverless vehiclesDetroit automotive giant General Motors has acquired Cruise Automation, a Silicon Valley maker of driverless cars, as it moves to head off a challenge to its dominance from some of the tech world’s biggest companies.GM’s acquisition of Cruise “provides our company with a unique technology advantage that is unmatched in our industry”, said GM executive vice-president Mark Reuss. “We intend to invest significantly to further grow the talent base and capabilities already established by the Cruise team.” Continue reading...

US attorney general says on Late Show with Stephen Colbert that ‘we’re not asking for a backdoor’ with request for Apple to unlock shooter’s cellphoneThe US attorney general, Loretta Lynch, on Thursday defended the US government’s position in its heated public fight with Apple to unlock an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino attack.Lynch, the government’s top law enforcement official, made the case in a seven-minute interview on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday. Continue reading...

Apple’s software chief, Craig Federighi, tells customer it makes no difference and that he doesn’t bother laboriously quitting all iPhone apps when done with themMany people believe that quitting all the apps in the iPhone’s recently used apps list will save battery power, but according to the company it doesn’t.

Smaller iPhone and iPad Pro predicted to feature at special event happening a week later than expected, apparently due to its ongoing court case with the FBIApple is holding a press event on 21 March, the company has confirmed, at which it is expected to announce a new, smaller iPhone and a replacement for the iPad Air 2.The company announced the event, to be held in its Cupertino, CA, offices, with the typically obfuscatory strapline: “let us loop you in”. The line could refer to Apple Watch straps, or simply to Apple’s location at 1 Infinite Loop. Continue reading...

Watchdog reveals number on counter-terror database and reports errors in deleting biometric records

The Justice Department reasserted claims that the tech company is putting its brand ahead of safety in formal legal rebuttal over landmark privacy caseThe US Justice Department has used its formal legal rebuttal against Apple in the landmark privacy case to accuse the company of seeking to usurp power from the US government in a bid to make its iPhones “warrant-proof”.

What if there were ‘countries’ the size of the average suburban household? What if they had their own rules, laws, and currencies? What if one of them almost brought the entire Internet to its knees? They’re called data havens, and they are the Switzerlands of the Internet: bunkers, caves, and sea fortresses, offering cybercriminals and freedom fighters alike the privacy to conduct unregulated information exchanges, malware attacks, spam dumps, ransomware breaches, and more. Nearly every cybercriminal alive walks these halls, virtually or literally. Here today, gone tomorrow, disappearing and re-emerging, these independent micro-nations are the sole provider of true online privacy, offering 100% anonymity without any government restrictions. Welcome to The Most Dangerous Town on the Internet.Film provided to The Guardian courtesy of FilmBuff. Continue reading...

New York Fed reveals spelling of ‘foundation’ as ‘fandation’ prompted bank to seek clarification and stop transfer, but hackers still got away with about $80mA spelling mistake in an online bank transfer instruction helped prevent a nearly $1bn heist last month involving the Bangladesh central bank and the New York Fed, banking officials said.

Google’s AlphaGo defeats world Go champion Lee Sedol for a second time on Thursday, putting owners of the machine only one victory away from the $1m [£700,000] prize. Sedol says the match was a ‘complete loss’ for him and that AlphaGo was in control of the game from the first move. The five-game series is scheduled to run until Tuesday

Eddy Cue warns precedent set by San Bernardino case could lead to company being forced to turn users’ smartphones into surveillance devicesIf the FBI wins in its case against Apple to help it unlock the San Bernardino killer’s iPhone 5C, it won’t be long before the government forces Apple to turn on users’ iPhone cameras and microphones to spy on them, according to the company’s head of services Eddy Cue.The FBI has demanded that Apple creates custom software that bypasses certain security features of the company’s iOS to allow law enforcement to brute force the passcode of the gunman’s iPhone 5C. Continue reading...

A poet’s ambitious alternative history of computing, from the Puritans to 2040To speak of Speak is to remark on this novel’s ambition and scope, woven from a varied series of first-person narratives: Mary, a 17th‑century Puritan girl emigrating to America; Alan Turing pre and postwar; Karl Dettman, a 1960s scientist working on artificial intelligence (a character based on real-life computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum); Gaby, a young girl in 2035 suffering from a trauma-induced “lock-in” syndrome after her beloved robot doll was snatched from her; and Stephen R Chinn, who is in a Texas prison in 2040. Chinn is a Steve Jobs-style genius and entrepreneur who made billions designing and selling intelligent “babybots”, who fell from grace when his invention proved too successful. Shy kids bonded with their bots to the exclusion of actual humans. Convinced their development was being impaired, the authorities confiscated them, and a psychological epidemic of stuttering, fitting and freezing swept through the child population. Chinn looks back on his life: from school nerd, via a stint as obnoxious pickup artist, to lonely billionaire prone to dating shallow supermodels who, in a narrative knight’s move that is genuinely affecting, unexpectedly finds happiness with his physically unprepossessing cleaning lady – for a time, at any rate.This sort of patchwork novel structure is very fashionable at the moment, as writers work to emulate the aesthetic and commercial success of books such as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad and Hari Kunzru’s Gods Without Men. But Hall is not just being modish. She draws all these disparate elements into a coherent whole made, in Chinn’s words, of “widening spirals, delicate as the ripples that build into waves, the shoots that grow into branches on the most magnificent tree”. Continue reading...

Early developer preview available with better battery-life optimisation, faster app switching, multi-window and night modeGoogle has released a very early preview of the next version of its mobile operating system – Android N – with split-screen multitasking, increased battery life and better notifications.

Revolutionary Screening Room venture by Sean Parker could end ‘theatrical window’ by offering new films at $50 a pop – despite industry doubtsA new service that would make major blockbusters available at home on the same day they hit cinemas has been proposed by the Napster founder, Sean Parker, despite reports of major misgivings in Hollywood.Parker’s startup venture, known as the Screening Room, would offer movies for $50 (£35) in the US, with as much as $20 going to compensate theatrical distributors for their potential losses. Variety reports “serious interest” from studios Universal, Fox and Sony, as well as cinema chain AMC, the second largest in North America with 346 sites. Continue reading...

Whether it’s frustration with longer page load times, intrusive advertising or flashing images, we asked readers to tell us why they use adblockers onlineLast week the UK’s culture secretary John Whittingdale described adblocking companies as acting like a “modern-day protection racket”. We asked our readers why they use adblocking software when browsing the web, and what they thought media companies should do to fund content in the future. Continue reading...

Smart, funny and wonderfully filmed, this movie about the jaded marketeer of virtual reality glasses is the movie Steve Jobs should have beenOne of the more nerve-wracking scenes in film this year consists of a man sitting alone at a desk. Through his augmented reality glasses (more on that in a bit) he’s volleying three IM conversations, watching the latest cut of a past-deadline television commercial and “uh-huh”-ing his way though a video conference with an artiste in need of mollycoddling.With just a few fingertip flicks and nods of the chin David (Benjamin Dickinson, also the director and co-writer) struggles vainly against modernity’s quicksand. With sleek (mostly) black and white cinematography, an unpredictable editing style, unexpected musical choices (Handel, Vivaldi and Bach) and dialogue that is droll af, the Creative Control is the bleeding-edge tech drama we hoped Steve Jobs would be. It’s always the start-ups that surprise us. Continue reading...

The famous, wealthy and attractive no longer need to slum it on Tinder: there’s a new breed of exclusive dating apps in townSo you’ve decided Tinder is full of frogs, and your prince doesn’t seem to coming any day soon. But fear not – there are a new breed of dating apps for the more discerning serial dater.If you went to the wrong school, don’t earn enough money or just aren’t attractive enough, then apps such as Luxy (“Tinder, minus the poor people”), Raya (populated by Kelly Osbourne and Patrick Schwarzenegger) and The League (“You don’t need a dating app to get a date – you’re too popular as it is”) just aren’t for you. Continue reading...

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

Typical British viewer last year watched about 77 minutes a week of shows on services such as Netflix and Amazon, although traditional TV is still kingThe popularity of services such as Netflix and Amazon surged last year with the typical British TV fan almost doubling the amount of time spent watching programmes.The typical British TV viewer watched about 77 minutes a week of shows on subscription video-on-demand services, primarily Netflix and Amazon Prime, in 2015. Continue reading...

Amazon’s hyperactive new click-and-buy live show is a noble effort to extract our every last dollar. But, Dave Schilling asks, just who is it for?Related: Amazing fashion: will Amazon as 'a fashion site' ever take off?I wish it wasn’t so easy to buy things. I can buy a two-pack of Redbarn Ham Bones and they will arrive at my home by Friday. That’s right, for only $6.29, I can have what the company describes as “lightly smoked pork femur” on my doorstep. Continue reading...

Civil court gives search company two weeks to provide information on fake reviewers that attacked nursery with claims of child abuseGoogle has been ordered to hand over the contact details of accounts linked to fake reviews that attacked a Dutch nursery.The nursery, which was not named in the proceedings, won a court order against Google to reveal details on who was responsible for a series of fake reviews alleging child abuse using the company’s Google+ social network. Continue reading...

Report predicts growing threat from ‘swarm attacks’, genetic weapons and cyber-warfareBritain could become increasingly vulnerable to attack from an array of novel threats including “swarm attacks”, genetic weapons, cyber-attacks and new pathogens as hostile powers and extremist groups obtain more lethal weapons, a study by a Ministry of Defence thinktank warns.The study, an attempt to spot future military trends called Future Operating Environment 2035, also warns that the UK, “will face a broad range of natural and manmade threats” and it will be “increasingly difficult to distinguish between threats from state and non-state actors”. It concludes than even “limited tactical nuclear exchanges in conventional conflicts” cannot be ruled out. Continue reading...

Do these technological trackers put our minds at rest, or lull us into a comfort zone?As an old-school runner, I’ve always had a rather scathing attitude towards heart-rate monitors, fitness trackers and associated technology. But as an older runner – I’m 53 – I find I am increasingly susceptible to health scares. I was scared indeed when I witnessed a far younger fellow parkrunner being brought back from the brink by paramedics after he collapsed on the finish line. He went on to make a full recovery, but his near-death experience had a positive legacy: the London Ambulance Service provided our park cafe with a defibrillator, and gave our parkrun team CPR training.We found out later that the casualty had had a narrowed aorta since birth, and that his collapse could have come at any time, but the episode made a big impression on everyone, especially us more mature runners. Mental notes were made to check in at our local GP surgery for an MOT. Continue reading...

Public trust in the US government has been statistically low for years. So what, or who, will replaces it as the public entity in which people can place their faith?If you wanted proof that Americans trust Apple more than they trust their own government, look no further than the FBI encryption debate.The battle between the two giants of modern American society – the nation’s government and the world’s largest corporation – is a watershed moment in technology and corporate history. It’s an amazing new high in the rise of brands, considered by many to be a sort of religious force in the 21st century. And though the verdict is out on who the majority of Americans will support in this battle, with public opinion polls inconclusive, the reality is we’re seeing a corporation successfully take on one of our government’s basic premises: that it knows best how to keep us safe. Continue reading...

Google’s computer programme AlphaGo beat its human opponent, South Korean Go champion Lee Sedol, on Wednesday in the first leg of a five-game match between human and computer. Lee’s loss was a shock to South Koreans and Go fans. The 33-year-old had been confident of victory two weeks ago, but sounded less optimistic a day before the match

The sorry state of research into one of the world’s biggest entertainment industries is leaving us in the darkIn 1976, the driving simulation Death Race was removed from an Illinois amusement park. There had, according to a news story at the time, been complaints that it encouraged players to run over pedestrians to score points. Through a series of subsequent newspaper reports, the US National Safety Council labelled the game “gross” and motoring groups demanded its removal from distribution. The first moral panic over video game violence had begun.This January, a group of four scholars published a paper analysing the links between playing violent video games at a young age and aggressive behaviour in later life. The titles mentioned in the report are around 15-years-old – one of several troubling ambiguities to be found in the research. Nevertheless, the quality and quantity of the data make this an uncommonly valuable study. Given that game violence remains a favoured bogeyman for politicians, press and pressure groups, it should be shocking that such a robust study of the phenomenon is rare. But it is, and it’s important to ask why. Continue reading...

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

The tech industry says the ‘ingenuity, skill and entrepreneurial spirit’ of immigrants is good for the US economy, and is backing Barack ObamaFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley leaders have urged the supreme court to uphold Barack Obama’s efforts to allow millions of undocumented immigrants to stay in the US.It marks the latest step in what has largely been a tough political sell by US technology firms to the rest of the country: that additional immigrants would benefit the American economy. The issue has long struck a chord here, where many of the industry’s hottest companies rely heavily on executives and engineers born elsewhere. Continue reading...

Alphago, a cutting-edge computer programme designed by Google, will face off in the Google DeepMind challenge against Lee Sedol, the world champion of GoThe Google DeepMind challenge match, taking place in Seoul on Wednesday, will pit the world’s top player of the ancient Chinese board game against the world’s most sophisticated Artificial Intelligence programme.Here is everything you need to know about this clash between advanced technology and old-fashioned human wit.

New site will be backed by the two companies, as well as receiving support from Google’s innovation fund set up as part of its Digital News InitiativeMashable has struck a deal with France 24, the international news and current affairs public service broadcaster, to launch a French-language version of the social media news site.The new website, which will be called Mashable avec France 24, will be equally financially backed by the two companies as well as receiving support from Google’s innovation fund set up as part of its Digital News Initiative to support publishers. Continue reading...

Labour’s Tom Watson says George Osborne should set up commission looking at how to benefit from technological advancesGeorge Osborne should establish a royal commission on robots, to examine the impact of new technologies such as driverless vehicles on Britain’s workforce, Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has said.The chancellor is expected to announce a trial of driverless lorries as part of next Wednesday’s budget. Writing for the Guardian, Watson argued that the government should launch an investigation into how to make the most of the benefits of rapid advances in technology, which he believes could be as profound as those unleashed by the industrial revolution. Continue reading...

Korean firm’s latest flagship smartphone comes with two processor variants – Snapdragon 820 and Exynos 8890 – with the UK getting a less powerful version

A wave of apps such as Everest, Cake and SafeBeyond are emerging to help people plan their own mortal passings, right down to Instagram-worthy funeralsA young man is staring straight into the camera. He looks late 20s or early 30s, with a suede blazer and two-toned hipster glasses, and cheerfully waves as he introduces himself. “Hi, my name’s Will,” he tells the YouTube audience. “And I’m dead.”“While my family is a bit upset, they’re not stressed. Because when I was among the land of the living, I made the incredibly smart move of signing up for Everest.” Continue reading...

Troubled warplane that has yet to see any cyber security testing hit with yet another bug affecting flight performance requiring software updateThe much maligned F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has yet another problem with its software: the radar stops working requiring the pilot to turn it off and on again.

Reader analytics company finds male readers want an author ‘to get to the point quickly … or they are gone, gone, gone’Men and women are equally likely to finish a book – but men decide much faster than women if they like a story or not, according to analysis of reading habits by Jellybooks.The start-up, which focuses on book discoverability and reader analytics, has tested hundreds of digital titles on hundreds of volunteer readers over the last few months. Working with many of the UK’s major publishers, it uses a piece of JavaScript in the ebooks to look at readers’ habits: when they pick up, complete or abandon a title. The test groups were made up of significantly more female volunteers, with a 20/80 male/female split. Continue reading...

Researchers show they can spoof common smartphone fingerprint sensors using an off-the-shelf printer with special paper and ink used for printing circuitsFingerprint sensors used to secure smartphones can be fooled with something as simple as a inkjet printer, researchers from Michigan State University have shown.

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

Move is part of a campaign to show that Apple has assisted law enforcement in dozens of similar cases, and is thus able to help the FBI gather evidenceThe US government has appealed against a ruling by a New York magistrate who ordered that it cannot force Apple to unlock one of its iPhones as part of a drugs investigation in the city.The move is part of a legal and public relations campaign by the Department of Justice to show that Apple has willingly assisted law enforcement in dozens of similar previous cases, and is therefore technically able to help gather evidence. Apple, claims the DoJ, has only recently begun arguing that it isn’t legally required to do so. Continue reading...

Successful trial at a pilot plant in China using bacteria to convert exhaust emissions to oil will now be tested at a larger scaleTurning the emissions of power stations, steel mills and garbage dumps into liquid fuels has been demonstrated by MIT researchers using engineered microbes.The process has been successfully trialled at a pilot plant in China and a much bigger facility is now planned. Continue reading...

Robert Hannigan says he wants dialogue in a less ‘highly charged atmosphere’ and denies he wants mandatory backdoorsThe director of GCHQ has said it is time for a new relationship between US and British intelligence agencies and tech companies, which have been at odds over encryption.In a speech to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Robert Hannigan called for dialogue in a less “highly charged atmosphere” and disclosed that David Cameron would set out a process in the next few months that “can shed some really useful light. And, for my part, my promise today is to engage in that process with the tech industry openly, respectfully and in good faith”. Continue reading...

Facing criticism for removing default encryption from its latest version of the Fire operating system, Amazon has said it will reinstate encryption this springAmazon has reversed its decision to remove a security feature in its Fire OS software that protects sensitive information stored its tablets, e-readers and other hardware devices.Related: Amazon stops encryption on Fire tablets, leaving data vulnerable to attack Continue reading...

Australian research finds that nearly half of all women report experiencing abuse or harassment online, and 76% of those under 30Harassment of women online is at risk of becoming “an established norm in our digital society”, with women under 30 particularly vulnerable, according to the creators of a new Australian study.Related: Tell us about the first time you were targeted by online abuse Continue reading...

Email’s inventor, Ray Tomlinson, died last week, and though his gift to humanity has proved a mixed blessing, it is not what makes us slaves to the smartphoneIf you ask anyone what the worst part of their job is, they are likely to respond with one word: email. Over the weekend, the inventor of this contemporary curse, Ray Tomlinson, died. Tomlinson came up with the idea while developing the Arpanet – the predecessor of today’s internet – in 1971. He and his colleagues were scratching their heads about what to do with their new invention, wherein one application eventually became email. “Don’t tell anyone!” he told a colleague. “This isn’t what we’re supposed to be working on.”Related: How did email grow from messages between academics to a global epidemic? Continue reading...

Ray Tomlinson, the man who invented the @ sign, has died. Here’s a brief history of email, from the Queen’s first mail to the triumph of spamRay Tomlinson, the man who literally put the “@” in email, died on Saturday, but his invention, which allowed electronic messages to spread across the internet and fill our lives and our inboxes on a daily basis, will live on.Here is a brief look at what Tomlinson started and the evolution of email through the last half-century. Continue reading...

We look back on video game history with rose-tinted nostalgia, but some things tend to get overlooked amid those misty-eyed tales of gaming yoreGamers tend to glorify the past, wistfully recalling when graphics were simple, but the challenge was tough. Get two gaming veterans together and it’s not long before they’re reminiscing about how good Final Fantasy used to be, and how Jet Set Willy was better than Sonic the Hedgehog.Well I was there and let me tell you, it was weird. Here are 12 aspects of ancient gaming history that we tend to forget.

Experts say some Macs may have their files encrypted on Monday if computer has been infectedApple customers were targeted by hackers over the weekend in the first campaign against Macintosh computers using a pernicious type of software known as ransomware, researchers with Palo Alto Networks have revealed.

In honour of Ray Tomlinson, the inventor of email who has died aged 74, we want to hear about your most memorable emailsRay Tomlinson, the inventor of email, has died aged 74.

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

Halfway between a stylus and a pen, the Smartpen 3 writes on paper but captures your notes and drawings digitally with added audio tied to your strokesThe pen hasn’t changed much since the successful invention of the ballpoint pen in 1938. We’ve had pressurised containers that work in space, different types of ink and slicker ball designs, but fundamentally it works the same way it always has.