Technology | The Guardian

The star of Steve Jobs and X-Men: Days of Future Past had never played Assassin’s Creed before signing on to star in forthcoming film adaptation of the video gameThe video game Assassin’s Creed has sold more than 73m copies and spawned numerous novels, comic books and short films. But Michael Fassbender, the star of the highly anticipated film adaptation has admitted never having played it prior to being offered the lead role.Speaking to Entertainment Weekly as the first photography was released for the movie, the actor said he first got to grips with the video game only after being approached by Ubisoft to join the production. Continue reading...

Alex Hern tries out Google’s Project Tango, which allows mobile devices to decipher the space around them like never before. It has the potential to change the way we use technology, but will more likely inspire evolution than revolution Continue reading...

Online retailer’s data shows shoppers’ spending was based on their love of local sportspeople, singers and comediansThe differences between Britain’s regions extend to our taste in Christmas books and DVDs, according to data from Amazon.Festive sales patterns show that shoppers put their hands in their pockets based on a love of local sportspeople, singers and comedians. Continue reading...

This year experts from Elon Musk to Stephen Hawking warned about the havoc robots could cause the economy and humanity. How do we ensure machines are friends rather than foes?Ever since IBM’s Deep Blue defeated then world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game contest in May 1997, humanity has been looking over its shoulder as computers have been running up the inside rail. What task that we thought was our exclusive preserve will they conquer next? What jobs will they take? And what jobs will be left for humans when they do? The pessimistic case was partly set out in the Channel 4 series Humans, about a near-future world where intelligent, human-like robots would do routine work, or stand on streets handing out flyers, while some people worked (law and policing seemed to get a pass, mostly) but others were displaced – and angry.In May, Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment, described the concern for both white- and blue-collar workers as that Humans-style world approaches: “Try to imagine a new industry that doesn’t exist today that will create millions of new jobs. It’s hard to do.” Continue reading...

Smartphone security no longer has to be a chore thanks to effective biometrics that do their jobs and get out of your way without compromising your dataRemember when your phone first had a camera? I was nice, sure, but it took rubbish photos and you rarely used it. Then it got a capacitive touchscreen, which was better than using stylus, even if you couldn’t type as well as using a keyboard. Quickly both improved and became essentials.Then came the fingerprint sensor, and you thought: really? Why? Putting in a pin isn’t that painful, do I really need this? Yet now you don’t even think about the fingerprint sensor, or all those seconds you’ve saved, because you use it all the time. 2015 was the year fingerprint scanners came of age. Continue reading...

As it enters its 10th year, social networking site reportedly plans to introduce measures to show abusers their actions have effects in the real world

Star’s All I Want for Christmas Is You hit has now been streamed 100m times on Spotify, generating estimated royalties of $66k in the last weekJustin Bieber may be gracefully trying to bow out of the race for Christmas number one in the UK by encouraging fans to buy the rival NHS Choir song, but further down the chart there’s another notable festive trend.Older Christmas songs by Mariah Carey, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, Wham, Shakin’ Stevens, Wizzard and Chris Rea are all set for top 40 placings on Christmas Day, with their end-of-year rise fuelled by streams as well as sales.

Popular vlogger to release Common Culture Vol. 4 through his own Heard Well label, which boasts fellow stars Lohanthony and Jc Caylen as curatorsNow that’s what I call a new source for music compilations: YouTube star Connor Franta is releasing his fourth “Common Culture” album through his own label Heard Well.The 17-track album will be available in January, with the millions of fans who watch Franta’s vlogs for free online encouraged to buy Common Culture IV in physical form. Continue reading...

Andrew O’Hehir of Salon magazine was told to ‘die and leave us alone’ by one fan after posting a negative review of the much-hyped space fantasyA US critic has penned an open letter to angry Star Wars fans after being hit with a barrage of hatemail over his negative review of new instalment The Force Awakens.Related: Filmgoer named Star Wars marathon champ after watching saga for 46 hours straight Continue reading...

Kickstarter project battles situation where ‘in kids cartoons, 0% of princesses are engineers, 2.9% of characters are black, and Batman doesn’t recycle’A British technology startup is hoping to encourage children to learn programming skills through a series of stories that avoid traditional stereotypes around engineering, science and technology.Bright Little Labs is trying to raise £12.5k on crowdfunding website Kickstarter to make a series of print and digital books aimed at 7-9 year-olds, based around its characters of Detective Dot and her “former designer t-shirt” Mr Tumble Cotton. Continue reading...

Miitomo will be mainly focused on communication and customisation, with the potential for mini-games played with Facebook friendsNintendo’s first app developed with mobile games firm DeNA will include in-app purchases for virtual clothing for players’ Mii characters.DeNA president Isao Moriyasu revealed the plans for the social app, which will launch in 2016, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading...

Ho ho ho, let’s talk about video games and ChristmasIt’s Christmas Eve! Continue reading...

From Her Story and Prune to Lara Croft Go, Alphabear, Alto’s Adventure and Minecraft Story Mode: the 25 best iOS games of the yeariOS gamers were truly spoiled for choice in 2015, with at least two or three excellent new games released every week. Independent developers were fizzing with ideas, even if they often struggled to make their fortune from them.Narrowing down a huge longlist to reach the 25 games featured here involved squeezing out some impressive titles, from Skylanders Superchargers and Real Boxing 2 to Attack The Light, Letterpad and You Must Build a Boat. Continue reading...

Forgotten someone, or need a gift that can be delivered instantly? Check out these ideas from movies to TV, music, comics and games Continue reading...

The 23-year-old illegally accessed movie scripts, social security information and sensitive materials, a New York court has heardA 23-year-old from the Bahamas hacked the email accounts of 130 celebrities, taking unreleased movie scripts, social security numbers and even a few sex tapes, federal prosecutors have alleged.According to the New York Times, the alleged hacking activities of Alonzo Knowles were discovered when he tried to sell some of the material he found for profit. Continue reading...

Company with hotels in 52 countries warns customers after malware was discovered in payments system in NovemberGlobal hotel chain Hyatt has advised customers to review their card statements after it found malicious software on the computer system that processes customer payments, raising the possibility that hackers may have obtained credit card numbers or other sensitive information.The company has not said if any customer data was stolen. Hyatt spokeswoman Stephanie Sheppard said in an email the malware was discovered on 30 November but did not say why the company waited more than three weeks to report the discovery on Wednesday. Continue reading...

High street retailer warns of falling sales in face of intense competition from online stores and digital gaming servicesDecember is traditionally the biggest games-buying month of the year, but it’s proving distinctly unfestive for retailer Game Digital, which has warned of falling sales in its stores.Sales of games for current-generation consoles such as the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are not growing fast enough to outweigh the decline in sales of games for their predecessors, the Xbox 360 and PS3. Continue reading...

Alcon Entertainment CEO Andrew Kosove denies the watermarked DVD ever reached him, and plans to launch an independent investigation into the leakThe source of the online leak of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight has been traced to an awards-season DVD screener that had been sent to a leading Hollywood studio executive.According to the Hollywood Reporter, the pirated version of The Hateful Eight available from some file-sharing sites bears a digital watermark that identifies it as a DVD sent to Andrew Kosove, co-CEO of Alcon Entertainment, a major production and finance outfit involved in films such as The 33, Transcendence and the recent remake of Point Break. Continue reading...

Charity finds more than half of consumers unable to identify cheapest deal when comparing offers, potentially leaving them heavily out of pocketMisleading broadband ads are hiding the real cost of contracts and are making it too difficult for consumers to compare prices, Citizens Advice has warned.The charity found more than half of consumers (56%) are unable to identify the cheapest deal when comparing broadband offers. The confusion means potential customers could be left up to £197 out of pocket over the length of their contract, the charity said. Continue reading...

Fab Four’s full catalogue will make Christmas Eve debut on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play and Amazon Prime, ending long streaming site holdoutAs a band, the Beatles were famed for their adoption of new recording technology, everything from tape-looped studio effects to double-tracked vocals. But in more recent years their songs have been absent from that most modern of ways to consume music: streaming websites. Until now, that is.From Christmas Eve the full Beatles catalogue will become available on nine separate music streaming sites, including Spotify, Google Play and Amazon Prime. It will even be on Apple Music, eight years after the end of a long and brutal legal battle between the technology company and the Beatles’ Apple record label over the use of the Apple logo in the music business. Continue reading...

Megaupload founder is wanted by American authorities on charges of copyright infringement, racketeering and money launderingA New Zealand court has ruled that Kim Dotcom, the Megaupload founder, can be extradited to the United States to face charges of copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering.Related: Kim Dotcom case is ’simple fraud’, court told Continue reading...

Secure networking devices used by the US Defense Department and the FBI could have been targeted by a vulnerability that lay undetected for three yearsTwo security flaws that lay undiscovered in Juniper Networks’ widely used corporate virtual private network (VPN) software for three years could have exposed sensitive informative to foreign governments or criminal groups, researchers have said.The vulnerabilities were in the form of “unauthorised code” discovered during a recent internal code review and announced on 17 December. One of the flaws could have allowed hackers to decrypt information passing through Juniper’s devices, including equipment for a secure network used by companies internally. Continue reading...

Was it black and blue or white and gold? The internet was divided but for Cecilia Bleasdale, who bought the dress for her daughter’s wedding, going viral left her confused – and caused family frictionIn a small village in Lancashire, in an upstairs wardrobe, in a Roman Originals bag, still with its receipt, lies The Dress. Which dress? Like you need to ask. When Twitter released its list of the most influential moments of 2015, only big political events, the Women’s World Cup and humanity’s first trip to Pluto were ranked ahead of the dress that Cecilia Bleasdale bought to wear at her daughter’s Grace’s wedding. Was it #blueandblack or was it #whiteandgold? For a few days in late February and early March, millions of people, perhaps hundreds of millions, including Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, all had an opinion.“I’m not a very public person,” Bleasdale says now. “I’m not a blogger or anything like that. So it’s been quite stressful having to deal with it and thinking, What’s going to happen next?” Most people still don’t know what happened to begin with. Continue reading...

Twitter spat between space-exploring technology billionaires continues as Falcon 9 rocket finally lands vertically, dwarfing Blue Origin’s New ShepardAmazon’s founder and owner of space privateer firm Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, decided that Elon Musk’s big moment – vertically landing the 48m SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after delivering satellites into orbit – was too good a moment to pass up the opportunity for some backhanded compliments on Twitter.

From March, adware on Windows will have to be easily removable and not able to hijack users’ connections

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

The incredible frustration of teaching your mum and dad how to connect to Wi-Fi can result in family slanging matches. But fear not, we are to here to help …Leo Tolstoy famously wrote: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” But that was before the advent of tech.Now, family unhappiness is a stressed-out mother trying to work out how to send an emoji, and a dad repeatedly getting a Wi-Fi password wrong while his belligerent, unsympathetic teenagers lose all patience and end up screaming at him. Continue reading...

The breach occurred in 2013 at a dam in New York state and raises concerns over the security of computer systems that govern America’s infrastructureIranian hackers reportedly breached the control system of a dam near New York City in 2013, raising concerns about the security of the country’s infrastructure.Two people familiar with the breach told the Wall Street Journal it occurred at the Bowman Avenue dam in Rye, New York. The small structure about 20 miles from New York City is used for flood control. Continue reading...

Colours of some birds created through light manipulation by feather nanostructure; knowledge could lead to non-fading fabric and paint coloursSheffield scientists now know why kingfishers catch fire, robins are red, and jays are blue: the pattern of colour on a bird’s wing may have nothing to do with pigment, and everything to do with feather structure on a scale of billionths of a metre.The research has a potential pay-off for fabric manufacturers and the paint industry. If blue jays never turn grey with age because their colour is based on the way light is manipulated rather than a splash of natural dye, then fashion designers could perhaps dream up amazing technicoloured coats that would never fade in the wash. Continue reading...

Telecoms provider to filter content for porn unless customers specify otherwise, as it seeks to comply with David Cameron proposals

Reports suggest Netplay, backed by billionaire Teddi Sagi, is prepared to pay £100m for pools businessThe football pools, long the bedrock of Britain’s gambling industry, may be about to change hands after a company backed by the billionaire owner of London’s Camden Market confirmed it was interested in a takeover bid.Netplay TV, a £20m company listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market, asked for its shares to be suspended on Monday after it announced it was considering a reverse takeover of the larger football pools business. It said no deal could be guaranteed. Continue reading...

With its taut, tense action and destructible environments, Siege is the best Rainbow Six for years – if only Ubisoft would rethink its business modelDeath is a contradiction in the modern competitive shooter. Call of Duty and Battlefront, the big mainstream titles, are all about empowering the player and making them feel like a one-man army – easy enough in single-player, if your explosions are big enough, but much harder in multiplayer. And so dying becomes an inconvenience, with near-instant respawns alongside constant experience points for common in-game actions. Even if someone plays badly, goes the reasoning, it should still be rewarding.You won’t find such sunshine and lollipops in the Rainbow Six: Siege. The earlier entries in this Tom Clancy-branded series were popular for their unforgiving, simulation-heavy approach to virtual combat, and when later titles attempted to make this more accessible, they predictably flailed (with the exception of the excellent R6: Vegas). Siege is not just a return to form, but a return to first principles – and it’s not aiming at Call of Duty, but at Counter-Strike. Continue reading...

SanrioTown, the online community for Hello Kitty fans, suffers leak of information including names, birth dates and email addressesA data breach at SanrioTown.com, the online community for Hello Kitty fans, has leaked details of more than 3 million user accounts online.The information exposed in the breach includes the first and last names, birth dates, genders, countries of origin, and email addresses for 3.3 million accounts. Continue reading...

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

A care home in Florence is pioneering the use of a robot as a carer for its 20 elderly residents. Robot-Era is coordinated by the Robotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa as part of the world’s largest experiment ever carried out using service robots, which involves 160 people in real-world environments over four years Continue reading...

Find out what happened to Motorola’s latest flagship Android smartphone (also known as the Droid Turbo 2 in the US) when it was dropped two-storeys, stamped on, thrown downstairs, hurled at the wall and given an intense beating with a hammer. Spoiler: the screen didn’t shatter, even if the phone wouldn’t turn on, got very very hot and started to smell

Dropped from two-storeys, stomped on, tumbled down stairs, slammed into a wall – even hitting it with a hammer can’t smash the screen on this top-end smartphoneThe Moto X Force (known as the Droid Turbo 2 in the US) is the third in Motorola’s new Moto X smartphone line and claims to have a screen that will not break, no matter how many times you drop it. So we tested it to destruction.

A checklist for an angst-free Christmas filled with technology fun, to avoid the frustration of lacking a vital componentA gadget-filled Christmas is one of the best types of holiday season, but when the shops are shut and you’re tearing into the wrapping paper what if you realise you haven’t got the right cable or battery?

Telstra wins two national broadband network deals and is in negotiations for a third, which could be finalised early next yearTelstra has secured two contracts from the national broadband network (NBN), with combined first-year revenue of about $80m.The telecommunications group is also negotiating a third contract with NBN to cover design, engineering, procurement and construction management of the network, and the agreement is likely to be finalised in early 2016. Continue reading...

Technology expected to cut paperwork and errors as well as to improve patient experienceFree Wi-Fi is to be provided in all NHS buildings in a bid to improve medical treatment and patient experience, said Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary.Related: Prof Bruce Keogh: wearable technology plays a crucial part in NHS future Continue reading...

Streaming service apparently generated £200m in revenue from UK and paid no tax but company says its rapid expansion means overall it is making a lossNetflix paid no UK corporation tax last year despite being estimated to have around 4.5m subscribers in the country, it has been reported.The video streaming service behind award-winning series such as Orange is the New Black and House of Cards charges customers a minimum of £5.99 a month to subscribe and has grown rapidly since its UK launch in 2012. Continue reading...

The planet Mira delights in Xenoblade Chronicles X; the latest in the Darius series is exceptional; and Beyond: Two Souls gets a makeover(Wii U, Nintendo, cert: 12)

Don’t go to the shops for your holiday entertainment. Here are some ideas that will spark creativity and won’t empty the bank

Welcome to the Guide’s end of year review, a tradition as beloved as grubby Santas and unwanted guests. We’ve got special contributions from Limmy, Steven Toast, Young Fathers, Stormzy, the Kurupt FM crew and many moreModern Toss’s review of the yearStar Wars, Cereal Killer and Ronnie Pickering fall under the cartoonists’ eye Continue reading...

Nine out of 10 people are paying too much for the wrong mobile phone contract, but there are ways to save moneyMobile phone users in the UK are wasting about £160 a year by being on the wrong contract, according to a new report. Furthermore, 90% of those with a mobile are losing out this way.Overpaying subscribers tend to either be on contracts that give them more minutes and data than they use, or on contracts with limits they regularly exceed, which means they rack up extra charges each month. The latter group tend to be the biggest overspenders. Continue reading...

It’s amazing how often it feels like a regular car, when it’s closer to the price of a prestige bicycleDriving a Vauxhall Viva SE 1.0 is like flying Ryanair. Every time you look for a thing – satnav, parking sensor, pretzels, aircon, a smile, some acceleration in second gear – it isn’t there. Seriously? Vauxhall’s idea of a “feature” is a driver’s seat head adjuster and a removable luggage compartment cover?Then you have to talk yourself down: it is very cheap. It’s cheap to buy and cheap to run. It’s cheap enough to represent a social shift, the democratisation of new car ownership. It’s so cheap that to drop a monkey on green metallic paint, as on my version, is like garnishing a Happy Meal with saffron. Keep that in mind. It didn’t cost very much. Or, in industry parlance, it is “affordable”. Continue reading...

Apple CEO says the company pays ‘every tax dollar we owe’ amid debate in the US over corporations avoiding tax by using offshore unitsApple’s chief executive Tim Cook has dismissed as “total political crap” the notion that the technology giant was avoiding taxes.

Concerns grow after disclosure Google enlisted US politicians to pressure EU brought attention to tech giant’s close relationship with Washington politiciansGoogle has made political donations to 162 members of the US Congress in the latest election cycle, figures show, as concerns grow over the internet giant’s lobbying influence in Washington.

Whether it’s 12 strangers in a two-bed flat or friends sharing ideas over a cup of tea, living with other business owners can be a route to successCommunes may have gone out of fashion since their hippy heyday in the 1960s, but the concept of people with a shared outlook living and working together is being reinvented for the 21st century entrepreneur. House shares where small business owners sound out ideas with like-minded peers are popping up in cities around the world.Berlin has been experimenting with the concept for years. Palomar5 was the first “innovation camp” to launch in Germany back in 2009. Over a seven-week period, 30 participants under the age of 30 from 17 countries lived and worked together in an old warehouse in the city’s Tempelhof neighbourhood, coming up with tech projects around the topic of “the future of work”. Continue reading...

TFI hosts Alan Partridge; Captain Webb sets out to swim the Channel and Queen revisit the birth of Bohemian Rhapsody. Plus: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel plonks ageing thesps in RajasthanKnockabout laughs from the charismatic Sam and Mark, a double act who know how to hold a kids’ TV show together. Their Christmas extravaganza features crooners the Overtones, Leona Vaughan (Wolfblood), Akai Osei (4 O’Clock Club) and Amy-Leigh Hickman (The Dumping Ground). If you’re not in your early teens, those names may mean little to you, so all you need to know is that Sam and Mark bring the chuckles in a style reminiscent of Ant and Dec’s SM:TV. Hannah Verdier Continue reading...