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Retailer faced criticism for making money from far-right group’s ditty Together We Are Strong, released over ChristmasAmazon has said it will donate to refugees in Germany the profits from online purchases of a track released by the far-right anti-migrant Pegida movement.The online retailer had been criticised for making money from sales of the instrumental song Gemeinsam sind wir stark – German for “Together we are strong” – which was released over Christmas. Continue reading...

Open thread: An Iranian blogger thinks the rise of social media is killing the potential of the web. Is he right?

Although the day when every household has its own robot is some way off, the Japanese are demonstrating a formidable acceptance of humanoidsErica enjoys the theatre and animated films, would like to visit south-east Asia, and believes her ideal partner is a man with whom she can chat easily.She is less forthcoming, however, when asked her age. “That’s a slightly rude question … I’d rather not say,” comes the answer. As her embarrassed questioner shifts sideways and struggles to put the conversation on a friendlier footing, Erica turns her head, her eyes following his every move. Continue reading...

How can we stop superintelligent computers from taking over the world? Feed them a digital dose of LSD, suggests this mind-bending bookDo androids dream of electric Kool-Aid acid tests? If there’s to be any hope for us, they will. That is the message of Andrew Smart’s splendidly mind-bending book, which mashes up Alan Turing, The Matrix, Immanuel Kant, “zombie AI”, Leibniz, and research on psychedelic drugs.In our age of techno-utopianism, we are routinely told in crypto-religious terms about the coming “Singularity” – the creation of superintelligent, conscious machines. One problem with superintelligent conscious machines, however – as SF writers down the ages and some modern philosophers agree – is that they might very well choose to destroy all humans. How to stop the godlike robots wiping us out? The best way, Smart suggests, might be to give them a dose of digital LSD to force open their doors of perception. Continue reading...

The internet in 2015 has given us a lot of laughs – a vigil to a raccoon, Drake playing tennis and the ‘duck army’ – but which memes make our cut of the best? Continue reading...

Sandra and others have asked for an update on buying a laptop to run Minecraft, so here it is ...I read your article about the best laptop for Minecraft – which is what I’m after – but unfortunately it is two years old, so I assume very out of date in the tech world. We have Minecraft on Xbox but I am told that “mods” (which my son is desperate for) are much simpler/more straightforward to download to a PC version. What would you recommend? SandraThis is a frequently asked question, so I should probably schedule an annual update. Joakim from Sweden has also asked for a Windows laptop to replace a “quite old” Dell Inspiron 1525 running Minecraft. Continue reading...

Australian Taxi Industry says Uber drivers’ incentive is ‘greedy’ but ride-sharing company says it means more transport in cities like Sydney and MelbourneWhere you ring in the new year may prove less important than how you get there, and get home, as the bitter conflict between Uber and taxis continues.With New Year’s Eve the busiest night of the year for Uber, fares are expected to surge with increased demand – a strategy to offer an incentive to drivers that the head of Australia’s taxi industry has condemned as “plain greedy”. Continue reading...

A team of open source software developers solved the problem that most urgently needed solving: distributing wages to healthcare workersLittle known to the rest of the world, a team of open source software developers played a small but integral part in helping to stop the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone, solving a payroll crisis that was hindering the fight against the disease.Emerson Tan from NetHope, a consortium of NGOs working in IT and development, told the tale at the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg, Germany.

From abandoned space stations to drug-fuelled dystopias, here are 25 reasons why 2016 is going to be a fascinating year for gamesOf course, gamers go into every year filled with excitement and anticipation. This is a medium that thrives on slow burn hype, with even tiny indie projects using months of teaser shots and YouTube trailers to garner interest. The good news is, there’s usually enough brilliant, innovative and compelling fare to justify that enthusiasm – and 2016 looks to be no exception.Although you could fill a dozen ‘most anticipated’ lists with all the grandiose sequels and blockbusting franchises due out this year, there are also dozens of smaller-scale independent projects, keeping the idiosyncratic and experimental heart of video game culture beating. Continue reading...

Corporation tax deal follows Apple Italia’s alleged failure to declare earnings in Italy but settlement is thought to be one-third of the estimated £650m billApple has agreed to pay €318m (£234m) to settle a tax dispute with Italian authorities after the iPhone and iPad maker was investigated for suspected fraud.

‘They took it as it was: a loud robot that’s going to give away their position,’ said a military spokesman of Boston Dynamics’ LS3 quadrupedThe US military is cooling its eagerness for robots in the battlefield, after trials with quadrupedal robot and nightmare machine Big Dog revealed one crucial flaw: it’s much, much too loud.The Big Dog robots, first demonstrated almost a decade ago, are developed by Boston Dynamics, a Massachusetts-based robotics firm that was purchased by Google in 2013. They became well known through a series of impressive demonstration videos showing the machine keeping its pace over uneven and slippery surfaces, and even managing to stay upright after a strong unexpected kick from the side. Continue reading...

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

Madonna, Yoko Ono and calling out hipster baristas. We take a look at some of the funniest and most on-point tweets of the yearThe earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. Continue reading...

The company has clarified definition of abusive behaviour amid criticism it should do more to halt use of the platform by IsisTwitter has clarified its definition of abusive behaviour that will prompt it to delete accounts, banning what it calls hateful conduct that promotes violence against specific groups.The social media company disclosed the changes on Tuesday in a blog post, following rising criticism it was not doing enough to thwart Islamic State’s use of the site for propaganda and recruitment. Continue reading...

Cracker frontman David Lowery leads class action suit against streaming site, claiming it knowingly distributed band’s work without permissionSpotify is being sued for at least $150m by a collective of musicians who allege that the streaming site has knowingly and willingly reproduced and distributed their music without permission, Billboard reports.David Lowery, frontman of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, is leading the suit, filed at California’s central district court in Los Angeles on 28 December by the law firm Michelman & Robinson LLP. Continue reading...

Hossein Derakhshan was imprisoned by the regime for his blogging. On his release, he found the internet stripped of its power to change the world and instead serving up a stream of pointless social triviaLate in 2014, I was abruptly pardoned and freed from Evin prison in northern Tehran. In November 2008, I had been sentenced to nearly 20 years in jail, mostly over my web activities, and thought I would end up spending most of my life in those cells. So the moment, when it came, was unexpected. I was sharing a cup of tea when the voice of the floor announcer – another prisoner – filled all the rooms and corridors: “Dear fellow inmates, the bird of luck has once again sat on one fellow inmate’s shoulders. Mr Hossein Derakhshan, as of this moment, you are free.”Outside, everything felt new: the chill autumn breeze, the traffic noise from a nearby bridge, the smell, the colours of the city I had lived in most of my life. Around me, I noticed a very different Tehran from the one I had been used to. An influx of new, shamelessly luxurious condos had replaced the charming little houses I was familiar with. New roads, new highways, hordes of invasive SUVs. Large billboards with advertisements for Swiss-made watches and Korean TVs. Women in colourful scarves and manteaus, men with dyed hair and beards, and hundreds of charming cafes with hip western music and female staff. They were the kind of changes that creep up on people; the kind you only really notice once normal life gets taken away from you. Continue reading...

Tracking agency Excipio reports more people watched pirated films in 2015, with Fast & Furious 7 in second place on Hollywood’s least favourite chartChristopher Nolan’s space adventure Interstellar has been named the most pirated movie of 2015, with 46m illegal downloads, putting it at the head of a chart no Hollywood studio wants to top.According to figures from piracy tracking firm Excipio, the 2014 release was just ahead of action sequel Fast & Furious 7, with 44m downloads and superhero sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron, with 41m downloads. Other films to make the top five include the year’s biggest blockbuster, Jurassic World, in fourth place with 36.8m downloads, and Mad Max: Fury Road, in fifth place with 36.4m downloads. Continue reading...

Online retailer has announced it is adding thousands more products to its Pantry service, as big four struggle with changing shopping habitsAmazon is preparing to crank up the pressure on Britain’s struggling supermarkets by dramatically expanding the range of grocery products it sells. Christopher North, the UK boss of the online retailer, has said it plans to expand its Pantry service rapidly in the new year.The news that Amazon is to ramp up its grocery delivery business will come as a blow to the “big four” supermarket chains – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – which are already under pressure as a result of changing shopping habits. Large grocers have been battling falling sales as households abandon the weekly shop in favour of discount supermarkets, regular local top-up shopping and online ordering. Continue reading...

Actor accuses airline of being ‘ridiculous’ after he and his children are told they cannot take hoverboards on flight because of safety concernsRussell Crowe has lashed out at airline Virgin Australia after being told his children could not bring their hoverboards on a flight.The two-wheeled self-balancing motorised boards were the most sought-after toy at Christmas but have been the subject of a series of safety warnings in Australia, the US and the UK because of fires caused by faulty charges. Continue reading...

The technology companies are aiming to tap the potentially lucrative market in as China seeks to manage its notorious urban pollution problemTwo of the world’s largest technology firms, IBM and Microsoft, are vying to tap the fast-growing market for forecasting air quality in the world’s top carbon emitters.

Two days from the end of potentially damaging public consultation on net neutrality, Facebook’s founder dismissed accusations that Free Basics service is anti-competitiveFacebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has vigorously defended his company’s motives for rolling out free basic internet services across India, dismissing what he called “false claims” by critics who say its Free Basics service promotes a “walled garden” controlled by Facebook.In an opinion piece published by the Indian newspaper the Times of India, Zuckerberg equates internet access to education and health provision, claiming it could help relieve the poverty of one billion people in India who are not currently online. Continue reading...

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...