Technology | The Guardian

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

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

In the first of a four-part series, we explore the United Nations’ resolution that considers internet access to be a basic human rightOn 1 July the United Nations resolved that access to the internet is to be considered a basic human right. While this decision may seem straightforward, with the complex nature of human rights law considered, the resolution is far from simple.To investigate, we talk to the United Nations’ special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye; the co-creator of the internet, Vint Cerf; and the human rights lawyer and founder of rightsinfo.org Adam Wagner. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The crowdfunding platform – which notoriously funded the Oculus Rift – has the power to connect people, reignite dying markets and promote social wellbeing. All while raking in real hard cash for its project creatorsThe Fed Ex guy is always delivering intriguing parcels to Mini Museum’s headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, but he’s never allowed to see what’s inside.On Wednesday, it was something very cool from Norway, co-founder Jamie Grove explains – though he can’t say any more. But Mini Museum has the fascinating, rare and bizarre delivered every day; it’s a unique startup that collects scientific and historic artefacts from around the universe, meticulously divides them and presents them encased in clear acrylic as a “mini museum”. Continue reading...

The Olympic gold medallist tries to get the comedian on track in our review of new advertising workBradley Wiggins is the perfect foil for Jack Whitehall in this funny advert for Samsung. In the run-up to the Olympics, the comedian famous for his limp athleticism on Sky’s A League of Their Own is going to try a number of different sports and – it would appear – he’s be offering scant respect to our Olympic heroes.

The Yahoo CEO’s inevitable resignation raises the questions: do women get a fair shot at reaching the corner office? And are they treated equally once they do?In the same week the United States gained its first female presidential nominee for a major political party, the country also lost one of its highest-profile female CEOs, with the announced $4.8bn acquisition of Yahoo’s core assets by Verizon.When – and it looks inevitable – Marissa Mayer steps down from Yahoo, she will lose her status as head of part of a tiny and elite group of women who head publicly traded companies. Continue reading...

Does tech chief’s butchering of word Pokémon, during company spiel about augmented reality, show he’s a true fan?What’s in the pronunciation of a word? It can give you away as a complete noob, someone from another world, or a massive fanboy, but for Apple chief executive Tim Cook’s butchering of the word Pokémon, it’s not easy to see which description is correct.

Kevin’s laptop has been hijacked by ransomware. He has no files worth paying for, but he wants to keep using his PCMy laptop has been hijacked by the ransomware virus. I really have no files on my computer worth paying for. However, how do I continue to use my computer after it has been hijacked? I did a system restore back to when it came in the box, but the ransom screen still covers my home page. KevinRansomware is a type of malware that demands money with menaces: it takes control of your PC, and wants you to pay to get it back. In general, it’s best to avoid paying. If you feel you have no choice, then the malware has exposed critical flaws in your malware protection, and backup and recovery procedures. No reputable business should ever find itself in this position. However, some have been caught out by ransomware that infects files on the server as well as on individual PCs, when they did not have adequate offline or cloud backups. Continue reading...

Tightly moderated Q&A session provided little new information about the Republican but offered a glimpse into his fervent online fanbaseHours after a chaotic morning press conference in which Donald Trump appeared to encourage the Russian government to hack his opponent’s emails, internet users on Wednesday got the chance to ask questions of the Republican presidential nominee. The venue was the only place where conversations spiral more quickly out of control than at a Trump press briefing: a Reddit AMA.

A server issue has taken down PetNet’s automatic feeding system for a number of users, leaving many animals without their scheduled meals

The tech company surpassed quarterly estimates with $6.24bn in ad sales thanks to soaring popularity of mobile app and burgeoning live video feedsFacebook began as a social network – and then became a media delivery service, a mobile advertising giant and a massive messaging platform. But as its second-quarter financial results reveal, it is also a money-making machine.Facebook’s quarterly profit and revenue blew past Wall Street estimates on Wednesday as the company’s hugely popular mobile app and a push into video attracted new advertisers and encouraged existing ones to spend more. Continue reading...

Rank’s bingo halls | Marx and Engels | Amazon drones | Children’s books | Interest ratesStern old Methodist though he undoubtedly was, J Arthur Rank could hardly have objected to the Rank Group’s bid for William Hill (Letters, 26 July), since he was responsible for the conversion of his Odeon cinemas into bingo halls in the 1960s. He had previously, as chairman of the National Savings Authority, been the public face of the introduction of premium bonds in 1956; it is said that one Methodist minister, appearing shortly afterwards on a platform with him, addressed him as “altogether such as I am, except these bonds” (Acts 26: 29).

Republican nominee simultaneously seeks to distance himself from Vladimir Putin as Clinton campaign accuses Russia of interfering with US electionDonald Trump appeared to incite Russia to hack into and publish Hillary Clinton’s private emails, as her campaign sounded “alarm” at growing evidence of a foreign power “interfering in an American election”.

Family Library will allow up to six people to share content and payment options, with purchase approval for childrenGoogle has launched a family sharing function that will allow up to six people to share purchases made via the Google Play store, including apps, movies, TV shows, books and games.

It’s claimed that our passion for narcissistic pictures is fuelling the growth of everything from lipstick to old-fashioned photobooths. Here’s a sector-by-sector breakdown

Lights flicker, shelves gather dust and cables twist like snakes – all that’s missing from this workspace are workers, leaving you feeling like a lab rat in a mazeChisenhale Gallery in east London recently closed its doors and sent its staff on a five-week break. It has now reopened. But as what? Is Yuri Pattison’s User, Space an office, a warehouse, temporary quarters or an art installation? Come to that, am I spectator or viewer; critic or user? Don’t answer that.

Exploits for advanced players, from working out whether your Pokémon are worth upgrading to rapidly boosting your trainer level, finding specific Pokémon to picking your Eevee evolutionOnce you’ve mastered the basics of Pokémon Go, advanced to curve balls and tried your luck in gyms, it’s time to turn it up a notch and start exploiting the game to boost your chances of being a champion.

Panel at Democratic convention reveals tech firm’s savvy PR operation, in the face of increased scrutiny over its effect on affordable housingAirbnb and Uber pitched the “sharing economy” as a key antidote to wage stagnation and inequality at the Democratic national convention with a campaign that critics say reflects the technology corporations’ pattern of deploying questionable data in its political battles.Coinciding with its panel discussion on Tuesday, the popular home-sharing startup also released results of a survey it commissioned, which claimed that 74% of millennials have a “favorable” impression of the sharing economy and that 81% “want Airbnb to be legal”. Continue reading...

Social network’s users will be able to see key moments and goals in real time via SkyFootball accountTwitter has signed a deal with Sky Sports to show Premier League highlights and goals on the social media site from the 2016/17 season.As part of the agreement, Twitter users in the UK and Ireland will be able to see video clips of key moments and goals from all games broadcast by Sky in real time via the SkyFootball Twitter account. Continue reading...

Conventional wisdom says apps aren’t for old people. But that may change as tech startups take on a sizable need: caring for elderly relativesWhen Alan’s wife, Toby, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s four years ago, the retired geophysicist turned to a not-for-profit in Palo Alto, California – called Avenidas Village – for guidance. Through Avenidas, Alan learned about several online platforms that connect individuals who need home care with workers who provide it.Now, once a week, Alan opens his Windows PC and logs onto the website of a company called Honor, which lets him summon a “CarePro” the way you would call an Uber. These “nice young women”, usually nursing students, look after Toby while Alan goes to attend a lecture or to rehearse with one of several chamber music groups, for which he plays violin. Continue reading...

Rob Rhinehart lacks permits for his ‘experiment in sustainable living’ and has ignored a removal order, which may lead to criminal charges, authorities sayAfter apparently abolishing the need for food with a meal-substitute drink, which spawned a $100m startup, Rob Rhinehart had another epiphany: plonk a shipping container on a hill overlooking Los Angeles.The red metal hulk would be his home, an eco-abode with solar panels and panoramic views that would set a new benchmark in hip, minimalist living. Continue reading...

California court ruled in favor of parents who filed lawsuit after children unknowingly spent hundreds of dollars on Facebook virtual currency for gamesFacebook must provide refunds for purchases made in apps and games by children should they or their parents request it, a California court has ruled.

The place to talk about games and other things that matter‘Tis Wednesday. Continue reading...

Growing consensus within Obama administration is that Russians infiltrated DNC but there is less certainty that Vladimir Putin’s government is responsibleThe emerging consensus within the Obama administration is that Russian hackers successfully infiltrated the data networks of the Democratic National Committee, the Guardian has learned, although there is less certainty that the Russian government is definitively responsible for the attack.

The ALS Association says money raised by viral charity challenge, dismissed as ‘slacktivism’ by many, has helped identify a new gene associated with the diseaseIt is often easy to dismiss viral charity campaigns as “slacktivism”, which lacks in real-world impact (we never did catch the warlord Joseph Kony, after all) but a breakthrough discovery bankrolled by 2014’s ALS ice bucket challenge may give the lie to that cynicism.The ice bucket challenge was a phenomenon in the summer of 2014 in which people dunked a bucket of iced water over their heads in order to solicit donations before nominating others to do the same.

Chief executive Tim Cook said the computing platform is going to be ‘huge’ as he announced third-quarter revenue was down 15% from last yearApple’s CEO Tim Cook has told investors that augmented reality is going to be “huge” and that the company is investing in the technology.Responding to a question about Pokémon Go Cook said that the game had shown that “AR can be really great”. “We have been and continue to invest in AR in the long run,” he said. “We’ll see whether it’s the next computing platform, but regardless it will be huge.” Continue reading...

Cybercriminals also referred to as Guccifer 2.0 have invaded the White House, state department and German Bundestag between them, security firms sayGuccifer 2.0, the hacker behind the recent Democratic party email leak, is not a single operator but Russian cybercriminals designated Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear by investigators who have invaded the White House and the Bundestag between them, according to leading cybersecurity firms.Security firm ThreatConnect issued a comprehensive report on Tuesday using their own data and data from previous reports by rivals CrowdStrike, Mandiant and Fidelis. Continue reading...

Shares plunge 10% as revenue falls short of analysts’ estimates amid modest gain of 3 million usersTwitter is battling for a share of the internet’s booming video advertising budgets, its executives said on Tuesday, as the company reported its slowest growth in quarterly revenue since going public in 2013.Facing increasing competition from fast-growing competitors such as Snapchat and Instagram, Twitter is attempting to encourage users to stay longer on the platform by adding more live video content from Periscope and on Twitter itself. Continue reading...

Amazon want to fill the skies immediately above our heads with buzzing, swishing drones carrying packages (Amazon to test drone delivery in partnership with UK government, theguardian.com, 26 July). It is reported that the government’s transport ministry is happy to be a partner; and they see this mainly as a matter of sorting out safety issues (we look forward to hearing their plans to deal with terrorists’ use of this technology once the skies are full of “legitimate” drones).But do we, the people, get any say at all? Chris Grayling, the new minister of transport, was a leader of the leave campaign. The population voted leave in protest that unaccountable elites in Brussels were taking decisions behind our backs. Citizens were urged by Mr Grayling to “take back control”. If Amazon had announced this as an EU-backed plan to fill the air with drones, would Mr Grayling be queueing up to smooth its path through government? Continue reading...

Hackers deface technology site while telling visitors attack is only a security test in latest high-profile breachVerizon-owned prominent technology site TechCrunch has become the latest victim of the OurMine hacking group.

Tepco requests Niantic to remove Pokémon character from nuclear plant meltdown areas and evacuation zoneJapan is asking for the Fukushima nuclear exclusion zone to be classified as a no-go area for Pokémon after the discovery of at least one of the game’s characters on a power station’s site.Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) has requested that Pokémon Go developer Niantic and the Pokémon Company prevent Pokémon appearing in and around areas affected by the nuclear reactor meltdown in Fukushima to help prevent encouraging players to enter dangerous areas. Continue reading...

A team at MIT has created technology that would allow for mass-market 3D consumption without the need for glassesA movie screen that can show 3D films without the need for glasses has been developed by researchers at MIT.Called Cinema 3D, the technology utilises multiple parallax barriers, rather than just the one used for regular 3D viewing. It allows for different viewers to have the same experience, no matter where they are sitting. Continue reading...

Media regulator Ofcom instead orders BT to give further independence and investment powers to broadband divisionBT will not have to sell off its Openreach broadband division despite concerns that it has been starved of investment and provides a poor quality of service to millions of homes.The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has instead ordered BT to give more independence and investment powers to Openreach, which owns the fibre and copper wires that run from the local telephone exchange to homes and businesses. Continue reading...

The tech-driven city struggles with how to pay for the dark side of the tech boom – a boon for some, a bust for othersIn the 50s and 60s, San Francisco was known as the home of beat poets and hippies. Now, San Francisco is defined by hi-tech firms and the people who work there. Freaks have been replaced by geeks.But this transition has been messier than most. The tech boom has generated thousands of high-paying jobs and vast amounts of wealth. It’s also contributed to a spike in housing costs, a steady rise in evictions, a seismic shift in the identity of neighborhoods and an ever-widening gap between the city’s richest citizens and its poorest. Continue reading...