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No user data was breached, but incident proves even ‘tech savvy millennials’ can fall prey to a phishing emailSnapchat’s pictures are deleted automatically seconds after they’re viewed. Unfortunately, the same isn’t true of the company’s confidential financial records, which it just handed over to a scammer.In a blogpost, the company apologised to its staffers after a phishing attack tricked an HR employee into handing over payroll information about “some current and former employees”. Continue reading...

Feeling flush? HTC hopes the price of its headset doesn’t put people off, as the battle for virtual reality dominance heats upHTC’s Vive virtual reality headset finally has a UK price: a hefty £689.So, what do you get if you splash out a month’s rent (in London at least)? There’s the headset itself, co-created by gaming company Valve, which has two 1080 x 1200 screens offering a 110-degree viewing area, as well as a front-facing camera for augmented reality features and a plethora of other sensors for head- and motion-tracking. Continue reading...

Peter Ward, known online as PlutoPete, sentenced for possession, supply and importation of class A and B drugsA self-styled “psychonaut” who sold crack cocaine and crystal meth on the dark web has been jailed for five years and two months.

Bradford-based supermarket becomes first of big four to sign a deal with the online retailerAmazon is to start selling fresh and frozen Morrisons food in a groundbreaking tie-up that highlights the growing strength of the US online retailer.Hundreds of lines of Morrisons’ fresh, chilled and frozen food will be available on Amazon within the next few months through its Prime Now and Pantry services. Continue reading...

A new prototype rubbish lorry built by Volvo uses drone technology to locate bins and send a robot to pick them up, all without driver having to leave the cabVolvo’s latest research prototype uses a small robot to pick up and empty bins into a rubbish truck, guided by an overhead drone and without the need for humans – but Britain’s binmen should not fear for their jobs just yet.

Despite millions of views, the Damn Daniel video was deleted on Monday morning after a hacker gained control of its creator Josh Holz’s Twitter accountAnother piece of internet history is gone, perhaps forever, after the creator of the viral “Damn Daniel” video, Josh Holz, had his Twitter account hacked on Monday.Holz, 15, posted a video to Twitter of his friend Daniel Lara, 14, wearing a variety of shoes (don’t ask) on 15 February. The video, a collection of clips of Holz exclaiming “Damn, Daniel”, was also uploaded to YouTube at the same time. That version of the video remains live. Continue reading...

Hundreds of Morrisons products to be available to Amazon Prime Now and Amazon Pantry customers in the coming monthsHundreds of Morrisons fresh and frozen food products will be available to order from Amazon, after the US online retailer struck its first supply deal with one of the UK’s “big four” supermarkets.Related: Amazon and Morrisons tie-up: a customer's guide Continue reading...

Arts theatre, London

Did Kanye West hide the message ‘I am Lord Voldemort’ in his tweets? No. Here are five more ‘stories’ that fooled the worldThe internet rarely lets truth get in the way of a good story, which can spread worldwide before anyone checks the facts. The beached dolphin that died this month while Argentinian sunbathers posed for selfies with it? Already dead when it washed up. Donald Trump’s recently deceased cousin using his obituary to plead with Americans not to vote for “the walking mucus bag”? Tragically, untrue. Last week’s conspiracy theory that Kanye West hid the message “I am Lord Voldemort” in his tweets? Big fat fib. Here are five virals that fooled the world (click on the links to see the images)… Continue reading...

Telecoms regulator puts pressure on BT to open up its network infrastructure, allowing rivals to lay their own ultrafast fibre-optic linesBroadband users may benefit from better service after a review last week put BT under pressure to open up its network infrastructure to let rivals lay their own ultrafast fibre-optic broadband lines. The move was announced on Thursday as part of Ofcom’s once-in-a-decade review of the telecoms market. The regulator opted for this course of action after deciding against forcing BT to spin off its Openreach division, which operates the UK’s broadband network infrastructure. But does this help consumers experiencing trouble with their broadband?Related: Mobile users face long wait for Ofcom to help with compensation for loss of signal Continue reading...

It’s six months since hackers leaked the names of 30 million people who had used the infidelity website Ashley Madison. Resignations, divorces and suicides followed. Tom Lamont sifts through the wreckageIt was 9 o’clock on a Sunday night last July when a journalist called Brian Krebs came upon the scoop of his life. The 42-year-old was at home in Virginia at the time, and wearing pyjamas. For years Krebs had written a popular blog about internet security, analysing thefts of consumer data from big companies around the world, Tesco, Adobe, Domino’s Pizza among them. Now Krebs, as his weekend came to an end, was being tipped off about a more sensational breach. An anonymous informant had emailed him a list of links, directing him to caches of data that had been stolen from servers at a Canadian firm called Avid Life Media (ALM). Krebs vaguely knew of ALM. For years it had run a notorious, widely publicised web service called Ashley Madison, a dating site founded in 2008 with the explicit intention of helping married people have affairs with each other. “Life is short. Have an affair” was the slogan Ashley Madison used.At the time Krebs received his tip-off, Ashley Madison claimed to have an international membership of 37.6 million, all of them assured that their use of this service would be “anonymous”, “100% discreet”. Only now Krebs was looking at the real names and the real credit-card numbers of Ashley Madison members. He was looking at street addresses and postcodes. Among documents in the leaked cache, Krebs found a list of telephone numbers for senior executives at ALM and Ashley Madison. He even found the personal mobile number of the CEO, a Canadian called Noel Biderman. Continue reading...

Tim Cook urged investors not to vote through plans to accelerate recruitment of minorities on its 18-person board – which currently has 15 white menApple shareholders have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would require the board of America’s largest company to adopt an “accelerated recruitment policy” for minorities among company leaders.The result offered a fresh reminder how Silicon Valley, a meritocracy dominated by white men, is having a tricky time navigating identity politics and modern attitudes towards diversity. The proposal, which wasn’t expected to pass, failed 94.9% to 5.1%, according to an early tally announced at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting at company headquarters in Cupertino, California. Continue reading...

The civil rights leader joined other investors at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting, where most supported the company’s stance against the FBIMost investors might cringe at the idea of their firm going to war with the US government.But these being Silicon Valley investors and this company being Apple, those rules may not apply. Continue reading...

Speaking to an audience in Berlin, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the harder approach the social network is taking to hate speech on the platform, singling out attacks on migrants as a particular area where they intend to make improvements. Stating that ‘we are committed to doing better’, 31-year-old Zuckerberg said an increase in engagement with the German people had helped to point the company in the right direction Continue reading...

From smartphones to internet of things, Cambridge-based chip designer remains at the heart of a new front in tech innovationThe smartphone revolution has transformed Arm Holdings into the UK’s leading technology company, but while the pace of change is now showing signs of slowing, Arm is not. Instead, the Cambridge-based company appears to be at the heart of a new front in technological innovation.Founded in a Cambridge barn 25 years ago, Arm is now worth almost £14bn. With its hi-tech focus and non-London base, it is the sort of company the government wants at the forefront of the country’s economy. Continue reading...

UK Airprox Board reports two more high-risk near misses involving passenger planes, one at Heathrow and the other at Manchester airportTwo more near-misses between drones and passenger planes at UK airports have been reported by aviation authorities, including one a “wingspan away” from a jet landing at Heathrow.

Car makers switch to smaller and safer robots working alongside humans for greater flexibilityBucking modern manufacturing trends, Mercedes-Benz has been forced to trade in some of its assembly line robots for more capable humans.The robots cannot handle the pace of change and the complexity of the key customisation options available for the company’s S-Class saloon at the 101-year-old Sindelfingen plant, which produces 400, 000 vehicles a year from 1,500 tons of steel a day. Continue reading...

Following a lawsuit coordinated by industry body the RIAA, rightsholders are awarded maximum damages and given green light to seize domain namesMusic filesharing site MP3Skull has been slapped with a $22.2m (£15.8m) damages bill after losing a lawsuit filed by record labels in the US.The labels, working through industry body the RIAA, won a default judgment against the site, with the judge in the case awarding maximum statutory damages of $150k for each of the 148 songs submitted as evidence. Continue reading...

Australian science agency CSIRO says workplaces will be increasingly digitally focused and automated. Who wants to be an ‘online chaperone’?Workers looking for jobs in 2035 might consider retraining as remote-controlled vehicle operators or online chaperones.Those are two of the jobs of the future suggested in a report by the CSIRO that charts 20-year trends in increasingly digitally focused and automated Australian workplaces. Continue reading...

The director of the FBI, James Comey, appeared before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday and addressed the contentious question of whether the demand by his organization that Apple help them break into a gunman’s iPhone could create a legal precedent. Stating that, due to the phone model and operating system, he did not believe the case would be a ‘trailblazer’, Comey nonetheless agreed that it could impact similar cases around the country Continue reading...

Former innovation adviser to Hillary Clinton Alec Ross talks us through the big tech changes that are set to radically change how we work and livePredicting the future can be a fraught process. History is littered with the grand visions of futurists who imagined us living under a dome on the moon come 2015 and yet here we are in 2016 no closer to lunar life but glued to cat videos on the screens in our hands.One man who has had enough experience travelling the world as Hillary Clinton’s senior adviser to look into his own crystal ball is Alec Ross. His new book The Industries of the Future looks at the sorts of changes that are going to emerge in the next 20 years from the commercialisation of genomics to the impact of robotics and whether the next world war will be a cyber war. Continue reading...

Much-delayed hi-tech tracking device for use in England and Wales will be replaced with off-the-shelf alternativeJustice ministers have given up a three-year attempt to introduce a “bespoke” GPS tracking tag for offenders, after the prime minister, David Cameron, promised to make the technology a central part of a radical overhaul of British prisons.

ISPs could wield ‘gatekeeper power’ in conflict with public sector broadcasters unless regulation is modernised, it warnsThe BBC has called for stronger protection for digital TV services such as iPlayer to make sure internet providers treat them fairly.In its submission to Ofcom’s once-in-a-decade review of UK communications, which was published on Thursday, the BBC said the communications regulator and Ofcom needed to modernise regulation and ensure incoming net neutrality rules were enforced. Continue reading...

Court documents show that the government funded apparently successful study into revealing identity of anonymity service usersThe US government funded research into breaking the online anonymity service Tor, court documents have revealed.Carnegie Mellon University carried out the research, funded by the US Department of Defense, which attempted to deanonymise users of the service. Continue reading...

BT has been told to open up its Openreach cable network to rivals. What problems are consumers having? Are they entitled to compensation?BT is under pressure to open up its network infrastructure to allow rivals to lay their own ultrafast fibre-optic broadband lines, after a review by the telecoms regulator.The move was announced on Thursday as part of Ofcom’s once in a decade review of the telecoms market. It has been considering whether to push BT to spin off its Openreach subsidiary, which operates the UK’s broadband network infrastructure. Continue reading...

Dating app releases charts for most popular professions among its users, with entrepreneurs, interior designers and firefighters also scoring highlyMen looking to improve their prospects on dating app Tinder have a new failsafe strategy: albeit one that involves racking up 1,500 hours of flying planes to secure a pilot’s licence.The company has published research into the most popular professions on its service in terms of how often those users get swiped right – approved as a potential match. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Thursday! Sorry about the whole Wednesday thing - I was on a plane! Continue reading...

Latest version of iOS 9.3 public beta software reportedly restores broken smartphones through iTunes

Proposed changes would bring bitcoin, dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies under definition of currencyJapan’s governing Liberal Democratic party is planning to propose legal changes that would define bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as currencies.The changes would mean bitcoin could be more tightly regulated and taxed, and are likely to lead to more investment in developing cryptocurrency infrastructure in Japan. Continue reading...

US-based Anna Messner turns to online forum users to call ambulance after partner Melody Madill falls ill during SkypeReddit users have come to the aid of a New Zealand student who had an epileptic seizure while home alone.Melody Madill, a student in Dunedin, was Skyping her fiancée, Anna Messner, on Tuesday afternoon when she started having a seizure. However, Messner was powerless to help because she was in the US. Continue reading...

Trying to build public support as it prepares to do legal battle with the FBI, Apple’s boss has said the debate needs to be conducted openly and fairlyApple chief executive Tim Cook accused the US government of asking his firm to engineer the “software equivalent of cancer” to help investigators unlock a terrorist’s iPhone.“This is not about one phone,” Cook told ABC multiple times in an interview, which aired 24 February. “This case is about the future. Can the government compel Apple to write software that we believe would make hundreds of millions of customers vulnerable around the world?” Continue reading...

The law requires a balance between flexibility and tyranny, and was never intended to allow the government to dictate software designRelated: The FBI wants a backdoor only it can use – but wanting it doesn’t make it possibleApple’s celebrated fight with the FBI over the security of its encrypted iPhones has shone the spotlight on an old and obscure federal law from 1789 known as the All Writs Act (AWA). Continue reading...

PwC says not enough companies are dealing with big threat of economic crime and problem of ‘silver fraudsters’UK businesses are battling a huge rise in cybercrime capable of bringing down entire companies, according to analysis by accountancy company PwC.In a report that singled out the UK as a hotbed of economic crime, PwC said the threat of cyber offences was now a “board-level issue”, but warned that not enough companies were taking it seriously enough. Continue reading...

Threats from the terrorist group are part of ‘everyday life’, Twitter says, following the companies’ attempts to block terrorist content on social mediaIslamic State has released a 25-minute video featuring the faces of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg being riddled with mock bullet holes.Isis has begun to respond with increasing urgency as Facebook and Twitter have attempted to block terrorist content on the network. Representatives from both companies were among those who met senior White House officials in January to discuss how to deal with terrorism online. Continue reading...

Rapper tweeted about upcoming album amid Twitter storm in which he talked about his debt and criticized Grammys as ‘completely out of touch’Kanye West has said he will release a new album this summer, announcing the plans on Twitter.New album coming this summer Continue reading...

The NRA is not opposed to smart guns, engineers say. So why isn’t the market flooded with biometrically accessible firearms? We went to a ‘smart-gun symposium’ in San Francisco to find outA federal agent lost his loaded gun in San Francisco last week after leaving the firearm on top of his car and driving off. In September, police say a man with a Glock 26 pistol stolen from a federal immigration officer’s car shot and kill a beloved Oakland artist. And in July, a man allegedly used a federal ranger’s semi-automatic pistol to shoot 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle in a random San Francisco killing.The thefts and resulting gun violence have raised questions about the individual officers and agency protocols, but in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, police officials and tech entrepreneurs say the offenses shed light on a much broader issue: the need for personalized “smart” guns that only the weapons’ owners can use. Continue reading...

A smartphone app piloted by the NHS could improve communication between hospital staff and help patients get vital care fasterGoogle DeepMind, the tech giant’s London-based company most famous for its groundbreaking use of artificial intelligence, is developing a software in partnership with NHS hospitals to alert staff to patients at risk of deterioration and death through kidney failure.The technology, which is run through a smartphone app, has the support of Lord Darzi, the surgeon and former health minister in the Blair government who is director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London. Continue reading...

Social media giant Facebook has reformed the way its users can react to posts by their friends, adding a range of Reaction buttons to depict a wider range of emotions. The Reactions, which include Love, Haha, Wow and Angry, will appear alongside the traditional ‘like’ on users’ devices from Wednesday, with the rollout set to be complete in a few days Continue reading...

A new word processor allows writers to get work done without distraction. Which is fine until you need to check a fact

Weakness in communication between electric car and app provides opportunities for hackersHackers can control features in Nissan’s Leaf electric cars over the internet, enabling them to remotely enable the air conditioning and heating, or pull information from the car including driving history, replete with GPS co-ordinates.The car can be hacked by exploiting a weakness in the way it communicates with its companion app, NissanConnect EV. The app itself can be used to control the in-car climate and check driving range, but only for the owner’s car. Continue reading...

People will now be able to use a variety of faces and a heart – named Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry – on friends’ posts, but not commentsUsers no longer have to take the time and effort to write “dislike” on Facebook posts about firings and deceased pets: the company now provides a selection of expressive images christened Reactions to use for a wider variety of occasions than simply hitting “like”.The faces and a heart have names: Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry. A video explaining the concept in greater depth was posted to Facebook’s blog on Wednesday morning. Users simply hover a cursor or hold down a finger over the traditional upturned thumb and the new selection pops up. Continue reading...

Forget brightly coloured cases – 2016 will be the year of the hard-sell of phone add-ons, as manufacturers try to ensure brand loyaltyAs the world’s largest mobile trade show, MWC 2016, draws to a close in Barcelona, one thing is for certain: the days of the smartphone being the be-all and end-all are over. We’re now in the second coming of the accessory, with virtual reality leading the charge.Samsung, LG, Sony, Xiaomi, HP, Alcatel and others all lined up to announce their latest smartphones, some garnering interest, others less so. But while the new and shiny smartphones were plentiful, they were dwarfed by the sheer volume of add-ons. Continue reading...

Public accounts committee says £130m deal seems ‘disproportionately small’ compared with size of UK businessGoogle’s controversial tax deal has been criticised for being “disproportionately small” by parliament’s public spending watchdog.The new analysis of the deal to pay £130m in back taxes has been released amid claims that the French government is seeking about€1.6bn (£1.3bn) in back taxes from the tech company. Continue reading...

Much like climate change denialists, politicians continue to debate encryption – ignoring the consensus of experts that it must not be compromisedThe FBI’s demand that Apple create a defeat device for decrypting a phone that belonged to a mass murderer has all the ingredients for a disastrous public conversation.Combine a highly technical debate about information security with an emotionally charged subject matter, then confuse the whole issue with a 24-hour news cycle tick-tock about who did what, when, and you end up bogged down in questions like, “Does it matter if the FBI directed the local cops to try to change the phone’s password, inadvertently creating the lockout?” Continue reading...

Atlas, the latest robot from Google’s Boston Dynamics, can withstand a beatingGoogle’s long-standing quest to build the robot overlords which will eventually subjugate humanity and usher in a 1,000-year reign of the machines is apparently progressing nicely.The company’s robotics subsidiary, Boston Dynamics, has revealed the latest iteration of its Atlas robot, most recently seen doing the hoovering last month. Continue reading...

‘On your very best day at work – the day you come home and think you have the best job in the world – what did you do that day?’ social network asks prospective employeesTechnology companies are notorious for favouring impossible job interviews. Google’s questions range from logic puzzles (“how would you weigh an elephant without using a scale”?) to puzzles of a different sort altogether: it asks would-be music curators to put together a playlist that would please Susan Boyle fans, to make sure that they don’t accidentally hire music snobs.Facebook too has its own range of interview questions. Their technical challenges are as tough as any other Silicon Valley firm, with candidates reportedly asked to write code to find words on a Boggle board, or find sums in an array of numbers. And even non-technical jobs are given their own head-scratchers: one executive assistant candidate in London was asked “If your exec was stuck in Paris and needed to get to Milan, but their flight was cancelled and their phone was dying, what would you do?” Continue reading...

While the iPhone itself has advanced, its software is stuck in the past, making it feel like trying to drive a sports car with the handbrake onWhile every other smartphone manufacturer is trying to speed up your smartphone, providing ever snappier interactions, better links and faster access, Apple is intentionally holding the iPhone in the slow lane.It’s obvious when you look at the iPhone and its default interactions. Everything has a smooth animation. Those slick-looking motions were interesting about three years ago, but today they’re holding users up, slowing things down that that should be quick. Continue reading...

Broadcaster’s new Android and iOS app will help people discover music from its radio and TV output and listen to it through streaming servicesThe BBC is launching a standalone smartphone and tablet app for its BBC Music brand, helping people listen and watch music clips from its radio and TV output.The app is being released as a free download today for Android and iOS devices, although it will only be available in the UK. Continue reading...

Firm has submitted list to federal judge of at least 11 times since September that DoJ has sought access to newer models of iPhone than was earlier suggestedApple has challenged the White House’s claims that its use of a controversial law to access the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook is limited in scope.The Department of Justice has sought access to iPhones, including the company’s very latest models, under the All Writs Act at least 11 times since September, according to a letter from Apple counsel Marc Zwillinger to federal magistrate judge James Orenstein dated Monday. Continue reading...

What the US intelligence agency is asking the tech company to do may not affect mobile security as much as its CEO Tim Cook wants you to believe