Technology | The Guardian

30,000 people reached final stage of challenge designed by GCHQ cryptographers which included phonetics, semaphore and The Lord of the RingsThirty thousand people made it through to the final stage of GCHQ’s Christmas card challenge, 550 submitted answers and six were considered complete. But in the end, only three people proved to be almost a match for Britain’s finest cryptographers.While no one got all the possible answers correct, three men came the closest to fully solving the series of challenges set by GCHQ director Robert Hannigan in his Christmas card. Continue reading...

Compared to other Silicon Valley companies, Slack seems to be making progress in hiring practices, with 7.8% identifying as black, 5.6% Hispanic and 13% LGBTBlack engineers make up 8.9% of Slack’s US engineering staff, according to a new diversity report released by the company on Thursday. The report has been issued just five months after Slack released its initial diversity figures. According to the new report, globally, more than 7.8% of its engineers identify as black, compared to just under 7% in September.The most recent data collection allowed Slack to break down its diversity numbers into global and US employees, whereas the first set of data focused on the company as a whole. In September the percentage of African American employees across all departments was 4%; today this percentage, globally, is down to 3.4%, while US figures are up to 4.4%. Continue reading...

With two major exhibitions on net-art opening in London we take a look at how artists have navigated the digital era and why big data is a powerful material in the creation of contemporary artworksIn some ways the internet has made artists of us all. Whether we’re updating Instagram or filming on our smart phones, technology has given us new avenues for creativity. But what do the fine arts have to say about technology and it’s impact on global culture? How do artists use their skills to engage with the huge social challenges arising from the web and how our personal data is used online?Joining Nathalie Nahai to discuss is The Guardian’s art critic Adrian Searle, curator Helen Kaplinsky who is hosting a course at The Tate about art & digital drift, data Journalist David McCandless and two artists engaging with the internet in very different ways: Julie Freeman and Ruth Catlow. Continue reading...

3DS title provides nice, if non-archetypal, way for devotees to re-enter the universe while they await forthcoming XV and VII instalmentsThe genre-defining Japanese RPG franchise Final Fantasy is one of the games industry’s great lumbering beasts – and is set for a Kraken-like reawakening with both Final Fantasy XV and the reimagined-for-current-gen fan favourite Final Fantasy VII due this year. In the meantime, impatient enthusiasts can blow the dust off their 3DS handhelds, and avail themselves of an amuse-bouche in the form of Final Fantasy Explorers.

More than 50 political activists say Twitter won’t answer critical questions about ‘state-sponsored’ hacking attempts in DecemberWhen more than 50 political activists from across Europe and North America were told by Twitter in December 2015 that their accounts had been attacked by anonymous “state-sponsored actors”, they had very little to go on.One of those targeted was Anne Roth, who has been advising the German Left party during the government’s investigation into US surveillance. She is no stranger to these type of attacks, she said, but when threats come from her own government she has a framework for what to do. Continue reading...

Neal has a six-year-old old Dell Studio 17 laptop and wonders if the hard drive is likely to fail. Is this a good time to swap it for a faster SSD, or buy a new PC?My main computer is a Dell Studio 17 laptop from 2010 (specification attached). In my home office, I hook it up to a separate keyboard, mouse and monitor.As a part-time university lecturer, I run the usual software – Microsoft Office, Adobe Illustrator etc – plus some specialist software such as ArcMap, part of the ArcGIS suite.The Dell Studio 17 was a solid desktop replacement laptop with plenty of power but not much portability. It’s already running Microsoft Windows 10 with 8GB of memory, so there’s no urgent need to upgrade or replace it. Continue reading...

Star strikes deal with Glu Mobile to launch game by Christmas, but will be hoping to avoid a Katy Perry Pop-sized flopTaylor Swift’s 1989 was one of the best-selling albums of 2014 and 2015, but now she’s hoping to have a hit on the app store charts at Christmas 2016 with her first mobile game.Swift has signed a multi-year licensing deal with Glu Mobile, the games publisher behind the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood mobile game, as well as recent titles based on James Bond and Katy Perry. The Taylor Swift game will be released in December for smartphones and tablets. Continue reading...

Adblock Fast downloaded 50,000 times since Monday – but is thought to have breached Google’s rules for disrupting third-party servicesGoogle has pulled an adblocking app for Samsung phones from its Play Store just days after it was launched.The Adblock Fast app, which blocks ads in Samsung’s own mobile internet browser, disappeared from the store suddenly on Wednesday. The app had been supported by Samsung, which released a download enabling adblocking in late January. Continue reading...

Drivers welcome Transport for London decision as way of combating challenge to street-hailed taxi trade from UberAll black cabs in London will be required to take credit cards and contactless payments from October, Transport for London has announced, as the taxi trade seeks to keep up with the technological challenge from Uber, the ride-hailing app.The minimum fare of £2.40 will rise across the board by 20p to cover the costs of using the new technology. Credit card companies have agreed to cut the costs of accepting cards and other contactless methods, such as smartphone, carried by cabbies. Fees will fall below 3% of the transaction compared with a current rate that can be as high as 10%. Continue reading...

With millions of subscribers, top YouTubers such as Zoella have huge, passionate audiences. Here’s a handy guide to help you understand their popularityBritish vlogger Zoella has just reached the milestone of 10m subscribers to her main YouTube channel, but she has a long way to go to catch its most popular creator PewDiePie, who is about to pass 42m.They’re just two of the most prominent YouTube stars. In October 2015, online-video tracking firm Tubular Labs reported that there were more than 17,000 YouTube channels with more than 100,000 subscribers, and nearly 1,500 with more than 1m. Continue reading...

Developers and authors explain how they are experimenting with technology to publish ‘unprintable’ books – including a love story told through Google street view and a prison break with swappable recipesPublisher Anna Gerber isn’t trying to kill off the printed book – she’d just like you to spend a bit more time on your mobile. “We don’t really think the point is to change the way we read,” she says, “but we do like the idea of trying to immerse readers in books on their phones.”Gerber has been pushing at the boundaries of the printed page since she and Britt Iversen founded Visual Editions in 2010, a publisher of mould-breaking books including Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes and Marc Saporta’s Composition No 1. Now Visual Editions has teamed up with Google Creative Lab in Sydney to create Editions at Play, a publishing project and online bookstore that sells books that “cannot be printed”, with each one available through Google Play. Continue reading...

Tech company reportedly paid $250m for UK-based business, whose software is installed on more than 300m smartphones and tabletsMicrosoft has acquired British apps firm SwiftKey for a reported $250m (£173.2m), promising that it will continue to develop the company’s Android and iOS keyboard apps.Microsoft and SwiftKey confirmed the acquisition in blogposts, shortly after it was first reported in the Financial Times. Continue reading...

A Californian venture capitalist had his Tesla Motors Model X order cancelled after he wrote about a badly run launch eventUnimaginable wealth has brought Elon Musk a lot of benefits, from being able to build a private spaceflight company to planning a magnet-powered vacuum tube supersonic transport system between LA and San Francisco – and be taken seriously. But perhaps the best perk of being Elon Musk is the ability to be unbelievably petty.The Californian venture capitalist Stewart Alsop learned that to his cost, he says, after he wrote an open letter to Musk about the badly run launch event for the Tesla Motors Model X (the newest car from Musk’s electric vehicle startup). Continue reading...

Facebook has built its business around our relationships – but as the site turns 12, are we just too busy for the emotional labor of ‘real’ friends?When I was a little girl, everyone at summer camp was going to be best friends forever. A few weeks away can feel like a lifetime to an adolescent, and the minor trials of those times – homesickness, secrets, social crises, skinned knees – loomed large. Camp would conclude with group sing-alongs, tears, the exchange of addresses, and earnest promises that the closeness and unity formed in those endless sunny days would last forever.Of course, it never did. Reality set in once you got home to your parents and the regular neighborhood kids, and your thoughts turned to new notebooks for the school year and whether you got prettier while you were away and whether your crushes were going to notice. You always meant to write, meant it in your heart, but you never did. I still vividly remember getting in the mail a package from a camp friend containing a pen-scribbled loyal letter, pages long, and a tiny box of plastic earrings – I received it with equal measures of shock and guilt, never having expected such an earnest delivery on her promise, and wholly unprepared to reply. Continue reading...

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

Authorities say the calls, which threaten bombing or shooting attacks, and have been received at schools around the world, may be the work of hackersAuthorities believe a sophisticated and automated hacking system is behind a series of threatening hoax phone calls that have disrupted the start of the year for students at more than 30 schools throughout Australia, as well as students from hundreds of schools throughout France, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, and the UK.

The lawsuit revolves around the company’s use of quarterly performance reviews, used to determine promotions, demotions and terminationsThere’s nothing particularly surprising about allegations of gender discrimination at a Silicon Valley tech firm. Over the past year, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft have all been sued for discrimination against female employees.But in a lawsuit filed 1 February in US district court, Yahoo is accused of “actual and intentional gender-based discrimination” against male employees by Gregory Anderson, a former Yahoo employee who worked as an editorial director for the website for four years, until his firing in November 2014. Continue reading...

Search engine giant reveals plans for pilot scheme to home affairs committee hearing, with Facebook and Twitter also probed over extremism policiesUsers of Google who put extremist-related entries into the search engine are to be directed towards anti-radicalisation links under a pilot programme, MPs have been told by an executive for the company. The initiative, aimed at countering the online influence of groups such as Islamic State, is running alongside another pilot scheme designed to make videos posted by extremists easier to identify.The schemes were mentioned by Anthony House, senior manager for public policy and communications at Google, who was appearing alongside counterparts from Twitter and Facebook at a home affairs select committee hearing on countering extremism. “We should get the bad stuff down, but but it’s also extremely important that people are able to find good information, that when people are feeling isolated, that when they go online, they find a community of hope, not a community of harm,” he said. Continue reading...

CEO Marissa Mayer announces a ‘strategic plan’ that includes cutting 1,700 jobs and is expected to lead to the sale of parts of its businessYahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer has announced plans to cut the company’s workforce by 15% and close five foreign offices by the end of 2016.The struggling tech company reported a $4.4bn loss for the last three months of 2015 as it wrote down the value of assets including Tumblr, the blogging site it bought for $1bn in 2013. Continue reading...

Service almost fully restored after tens of thousands affected by broadband and phone network failure

EU-US Privacy Shield ‘safe harbour’ comes with assurances against US mass surveillance and the protection of EU citizens’ dataEurope and the US have reached a new “robust” deal over data sharing that will ensure the safety of EU citizens’ data when transferred across the Atlantic by firms such as Facebook, Apple and Google.The new EU-US privacy shield will allow companies to transfer and process EU citizens’ data in the US given certain privacy guarantees. It comes after the original data-sharing safe harbour agreement from 2000 used by 4,500 companies was struck down in October by the European court of justice, following legal action by an Austrian privacy campaigner following the Snowden revelations of mass US government surveillance. Continue reading...

The messaging app has passed the one-billion-monthly-active-user milestone. Whether you’re staying in touch with family or organising a night out, group chats have become an ever-present feature of the national conversation Continue reading...

Michel Sapin’s comments add pressure to European commission to launch investigation into settlementPressure is mounting on the European commission to launch a full state aid investigation into the UK’s £130m tax settlement with Google after France’s finance minister attacked the deal.Michel Sapin said HMRC’s settlement, which allows Google to continue booking £5bn of UK sales via Ireland, “seems more the product of a negotiation than the application of the law”. Continue reading...

Alphabet’s shares rose by 4.7% following better than expected results, amid concerns that Apple has yet to come up with another blockbuster productAlphabet, Google’s parent company, pipped Apple to become the world’s most valuable company on Tuesday, ending the iPhone company’s four-year reign.Alphabet’s shares rose by 4.7% by noon on Tuesday following the release of better than expected results. After the rise Alphabet was valued at $548bn to Apple’s $534bn. Continue reading...

Homophobic comments by BBC star and drug-smuggling porn actor among stories that gay news site uploaded saying article-removal laws are censorshipGay news site PinkNews has published a list of 19 stories it says have been removed from Google search results under Europe’s right to be forgotten rules, claiming the legislation is an “infringement of press freedom”.The stories include allegations of homophobic comments by a BBC star and a report about a gay porn actor attempting to smuggle crystal meth on a transatlantic flight to the UK. Continue reading...

Users who entered email addresses received offer to opt in to ‘match-making app’ Nine, launched January 2016

Hungarian website argued that holding it liable for messages on its forum – which it removed – would have serious repercussions for freedom of expressionNews websites are not responsible for “insulting and rude” comments by readers, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday, after a Hungarian website was sued for messages on its forum.The case related to the Index.hu news website on which readers posted a series of angry comments about a real-estate company. Continue reading...

Security researchers have found a flaw in the Smart Toy internet-connected teddy bear that used a child’s name, birthday and genderIn September, Mattel’s Fisher-Price brand announced it had partnered with a tech company to make Smart Toy, a stuffed bear that can learn a three-year-old’s name.

Software update upgraded to ‘recommended’ status, meaning those with automatic updates set will see it downloaded in the background and a request to install Windows 10 over Windows 7 and 8Microsoft has followed through with its plans to push adoption of Windows 10 by downloading it in the background to user machines running Windows 7 and 8 set to accept automatic updates.

The company says search oddities are unrelated to its UK tax bill after accusations that search results have been censoredGoogle has categorically denied “conspiracy theories” accusing it of censoring its search results to please the Conservative party in exchange for an agreement to pay just £130m in back taxes.The accusations stem from Google’s autocomplete function, which suggests search terms based on user input. The suggested searches are created algorithmically from previous searches on the topic. Continue reading...

Gmail becomes the sixth Google service to cross the 1 billion barrier, while WhatsApp becomes Facebook’s second most-used appFacebook’s WhatsApp messenger and Google’s Gmail have both crossed the 1 billion monthly active user milestone, meaning that one-seventh of the world’s population now uses them both.The two apps join Facebook’s 1.59 billion monthly active users (MAU), as well as Google’s other 1 billion or more MAU services: Google search, Chrome (both mobile and desktop), Google Maps, YouTube, Google’s Android and therefore also Google Play. Continue reading...

Two of the team behind LittleBigPlanet have formed their own studio to create a co-op adventure title about childhood friendship – and pickled knights’ headsThere is so much warmth, beauty and nostalgia in video games at the moment. We’re seeing a whole generation of designers who may once have once worked on huge projects, but who have now taken leave of the mainstream industry to explore personal experiences and memories. We see it in Firewatch, influenced by the co-designer’s own knowledge of the Wyoming wilderness; we see it in Unravel, a game all about creator Martin Sahlin’s love of rural Northern Sweden; and we’ll soon see it in Knights and Bikes, a co-operative exploration game set on a fictitious Cornish island.In this case, the memories belong to hugely talented artist Rex Crowle, once of Media Molecule, where he worked on LittleBigPlanet and its follow-up Tearaway. As a child in Cornwall he grew up amid the county’s tiny fishing villages, enjoying their wonky, cluttered architecture. As he recalls: “There were little cottages with impossible perspectives, tumbling out of each other with doors in the roofs, and all kinds of details and history nailed to their exterior walls.” Continue reading...

Since Google restructured to become Alphabet it has almost doubled its total value – despite its products remaining the same as everSilicon Valley – and Wall Street – have a new king. Alphabet, the company formerly known as Google, looks set to become the world’s largest publicly traded company on Tuesday thanks to a spike in its share price, following exceptionally good results and a decision to come clean on how its makes and spends its money.Related: Google's Alphabet set to overtake Apple as world's most valuable company Continue reading...

Dutch police have joined forces with Guard From Above, a raptor-training security firm based in the Hague, to keep wayward drones from causing trouble. In a video posted to YouTube, an eagle can be seen during a training exercise snatching the drone out of the air Continue reading...

In a 2013 Tedx talk, media artist and University of NSW professor Sarah Kenderdine spoke about the threats faced by cultural heritage around the world, from politically motivated destruction to climate change and mass tourism. ‘We must find strategies not only to preserve our heritage but to let its stories be rediscovered and reinvented,’ she said. ‘This is both an artistic and technical challenge.’Kenderdine’s latest collaborative work, Look Up Mumbai, is an immersive, site-specific installation which opens at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya museum on Wednesday, and celebrates the city’s spectacular architectural heterogeneity.The public is invited to lie down in the 3D DomeLab – the highest resolution touring full dome in the world – look up and experience 65 fish-eye images of some of the finest heritage buildings in Mumbai. Continue reading...

Revenue spike sees tech firm’s parent company, Alphabet, valued at $568bn – surpassing Apple’s valuation of $535bnGoogle has become the world’s most valuable listed company after announcing that its global revenues rose 13% to $75bn (£52bn) last year, and the group’s tax rate fell to just 17%.The group took a record $1.9bn of revenues from its UK customers for the last three months of 2015, up 16% on 2014 – and all routed through its controversial tax structure in Ireland. But for the impact of the pound weakening against the dollar, UK revenues would have been up 20%. Continue reading...

Labour calls for urgent review of rules after UK Airprox Board reveals plane came within 20 metres of drone above Houses of ParliamentThe near collision of a drone and a passenger plane over the Houses of Parliament should be a wake-up call for the government to speed up its review of unmanned aerial vehicles, Labour has said.Richard Burden, a shadow transport minister, said the near-miss over central London and other recent cases should be a “spur to action” after delays in the government’s promised consultation on regulating drones. Continue reading...

The rise of mobile computing and more vulnerable internet-connected devices could actually make surveillance easier for national security officials, report saysWhen Silicon Valley closes a door for spies, it opens a window.

Spanish telecoms group aims to cut debt by asking employees with 15 years’ service not to come to work, with chance to returnThe Spanish telecoms group Telefónica has come up with a novel way of reducing its wage bill by offering employees aged over 53 the chance to stay at home on 68% of their salary.Under a new deal negotiated with trade unions, any employee over 53 with 15 years of service will continue to receive slightly more than two thirds of their salary if they do not come in to work. They will remain under contract and the company will continue to pay their social security and private health contributions until they reach 65, thus saving the state the burden of further unemployment benefits. Continue reading...

Search group’s bosses will confirm about one in every 10 dollars came from British advertisers as debate over company’s tax arrangements continuesGoogle bosses in California are expected to reveal global revenues grew by more than 11% to about $72bn (£50bn) last year – with more than £5bn believed to have come from sales to UK customers.Alphabet Inc, the search group’s parent, is expected to confirm on Monday about one in 10 dollars earned last year by Google came from UK advertisers, despite the dollar strengthening against the pound. Continue reading...

British vlogger’s videos have been watched more than 1bn times so far on Google’s online video service across her two channelsShe may be a bestselling author and makeup mogul now, but Zoe “Zoella” Sugg is still attracting new fans on her original stomping ground: YouTube.The vlogger’s main YouTube channel has just reached the milestone of 10 million subscribers, making it the fourth British channel to reach that mark after One Direction, KSI and Adele. Continue reading...

YouTubers hit back at Fine Bros’ attempt to trademark word over fears that the pair are trying to seize entire concept of the reaction video format

World’s largest smartphone manufacturer releases update to its default web browser enabling users to block advertisingThe world’s largest smartphone maker, Samsung, has introduced adblocking on its devices, potentially introducing hundreds of millions more people to barring online ads.Samsung released an update on Sunday night that allows apps to stop ads appearing in its own web browser, which is installed as a default on its smartphones. Continue reading...

Facebook’s Android app negatively impacts performance and battery life, even when it’s only running in the background, users findFacebook does not have the greatest track record with its Android app. Users have long complained about performance issues and it sucking up battery and last year Facebook’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, took the unusual step of making his staff ditch their iPhones and move to Android until they sorted out the issues.

How a small team set out to tell an intimate personal drama within the vastness of the Yellowstone National ParkThe outdoors in Firewatch isn’t like the outdoors in most games. It feels somehow bigger. This is a game set in Wyoming’s Yellowstone national park, a vast wilderness of lakes, mountains and hiking trails. When the sun began to set on my first day in the park – as the lead protagonist Henry, the volunteer fire lookout – it reminded me of rushing home at dusk while playing out as a kid, of escaping the dark as a small person in a big world.This is all very deliberate. Firewatch is a relatively small and simple game, designed to engage players emotionally with a handful of basic, believable parts. It comes from a new studio, Campo Santo, though its dozen members have worked on lots of other games at various other studios. The lead artist, Jane Ng, worked on The Cave at Double Fine, while the writer/director pair, Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin, led the team behind the hugely acclaimed first season of The Walking Dead at Telltale Games. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and others things that matterUh-oh, it’s Monday. Continue reading...

Google Translate helps us overcome the language barrier. But can it help our reporter with a Scouse accent? Hannah Jane Parkinson finds outI’m a big fan of travel. Travel is great – whether it is the Trans-Siberian railway or trekking in the Amazon. And from Citymapper to TripAdvisor, technology has made travel a lot easier.But perhaps my favourite travel aide is Google Translate. Continue reading...

Business secretary Sajid Javid says he shared Britons’ sense of injustice as criticism grows of agreement with tech firmA senior government minister has admitted the tax settlement between Google and the UK government “was not a glorious moment”.The admission by the business secretary, Sajid Javid, came as a senior executive from Google claimed he could not say how much UK profit has been generated by the technology firm in the past decade, or how many meetings had been held between the company’s executives and ministers. Continue reading...