Technology | The Guardian

Request signals increased scrutiny of automaker and comes as calls increase to disable the automatic steering function on its electric vehiclesThe chairman of the US Senate committee that oversees auto safety issues wrote Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Thursday, asking the automaker to brief the committee on a fatal May 7 crash involving its autopilot software.

Capcom’s brilliant Nintendo DS series about hunting fearsome creatures just got even better – but it still might not be for everyoneAmong the different ways to make video games at the very top end is iteration, and one of the masters has always been Capcom. The original Monster Hunter was released on PS2 in 2004 and since then it has become a phenomenally successful series in Japan, mostly on handheld platforms, with more modest sales globally. Each of the Monster Hunters adds to its predecessor with new locations, monsters and weapons, plus hundreds of more subtle changes, but the template remains familiar.Put so baldly, iteration might seem at best formulaic and at worst exploitative – money for old rope. But interactivity flips the table. Making iterative games requires one non-negotiable quality. The core game has to be absolutely brilliant.

Eight-month-old boy reunited with family after appeal for information was shared thousands of timesLatest updates: Bastille Day attackAn eight-month-old baby boy lost in the chaos after a truck rammed into a crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice has been tracked down through Facebook.The boy, who was in a blue stroller, was lost when the rampaging truck killed at least 84 people and sent hundreds of people who had been watching Bastille Day fireworks fleeing in panic. Tiava Banner – who said she was not the mother of the baby – sent out an appeal on Facebook looking for any information on his whereabouts. Continue reading...

Sarah Natochenny isn’t surprised by the hype as fans are rediscovering their love for the character – and she’s among the 7.5 million people hooked on the gameEven after 10 years of voicing Pokémon protagonist Ash Ketchum for television, Sarah Natochenny fondly likens getting the gig to “being struck by Pikachu’s Thunderbolt”.As 7.5 million people worldwide are rediscovering their love for Pokémon through the wildly popular Pokémon Go, Natochenny, a Queens native, isn’t surprised at all by the fanfare. Continue reading...

Three fire engine crews and two rope rescue units helped teenagers who entered Box caves to play augmented reality gameMine rescue experts and firefighters had to come to the aid of a group of teenagers after they became hopelessly lost in Wiltshire while searching for Pokémon Go characters deep underground.The four teenagers had ventured into the network of caves at Box to play the augmented reality game, which launched in the UK this week and is already sweeping the nation.

Businesses across the US are cashing in on the popular game thanks to crowds of players prowling the streets – and sponsored locations could be nextThe mobile game sensation Pokémon Go has altered the lives of the more than 20 million people who’ve downloaded it over the past week, but it has also affected the thousands of businesses that find themselves situated near one of the game’s many hotspots – both for good and ill.Related: 14 essential tips to get you started in Pokémon Go Continue reading...

In 40 years, the internet has morphed from a military communication network into a vast global cyberspace. And it all started in a California beer garden

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

The Spanish city – grappling with the effects on residents of 27 million tourists a year – has banned Segways from the waterfront over the summerSegways have lots of advantages: they’re environmentally friendly, silent and sort of fun ... maybe. What’s more, despite being a common joke in film and TV shows, they have found a solid economic niche: city tours. But they can also be tremendously annoying for pedestrians.Barcelona, for now at least, has had enough. After summer upon summer of what the mayor’s office calls “complaints and problems” from residents of Ciutat Vella – the central neighbourhood and the one most affected by mass tourism – the city council has provisionally banned Segways from the waterfront for the summer months.

Latest satellite pay-TV system is the best television experience you can get right now, with in-home streaming, modern interface and on-demand focusSky Q is satellite broadcaster Sky’s new set top box system that takes the idea of TV anywhere – made popular by the likes of Netflix – and applies it to live TV. As the biggest change to the company’s offering in both capability and interface in a decade, it is a much needed modernisation of pay TV.It takes the same content and TV channels available through the older Sky+ and lets viewers watch live, downloaded and recorded video on other devices. The system works by using a Wi-Fi network to spit out TV content from a central satellite box to multiple wireless TV receivers and tablets about the home. Continue reading...

Tom Currie says he will spend two months travelling around New Zealand to capture all the Pokémon released for the gameNew Zealander Tom Currie has become a full-time Pokémon hunter. Each morning he fills a flask with coffee, packs a rain jacket and cut lunch in his backpack and heads into the wilderness to hunt Pokémon – come rain, hail, or snow.Related: Pokémon Go: armed robbers use mobile game to lure players into trap Continue reading...

Two men wearing balaclavas allegedly threatened players in Tahmoor park with rifle before fleeing empty-handedTwo Pokémon Go players have been mugged at gunpoint while playing the game in a New South Wales park at night.The couple, both aged 29, drove to a skate park at Tahmoor at 7pm on Wednesday where they found their way blocked by a white ute after entering the car park. Continue reading...

Former pharmaceuticals CEO dubbed ‘poster boy of greed’ for raising price of HIV pill 5,000% overnight makes comment after leaving New York courtMartin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical boss dubbed “the world’s most hated man” after he increased the price of a HIV-related drug by 5,000%, was on Thursday told he will face trial for fraud.

The hugely popular app is reinventing the way that technology can transform images by recreating a photo from scratch, rather than overlaying a filterPeople across the world are turning amateur photos into elaborate works of art with a new viral app that relies on AI technology to let users instantly transform mundane images into Picasso paintings.Related: Watch out, Instagram: new Polaroid app brings a nostalgic classic to your phone Continue reading...

The magazine says the carmaker should disable the automatic steering function – and change its name to avoid promoting ‘dangerous assumptions’Consumer Reports magazine on Thursday urged Tesla to disable the automatic steering function on its electric vehicles and change the name of its autopilot driving-assist system, which is under investigation after a driver was killed while using it.

Apps such as Pokémon Go turn physical space into a game – and as technology has done since the telegraph, we are subtly distributed via these connected toolsIn his 1963 book God and Golem, the founder of the cybernetics movement Norbert Wiener suggested a compelling thought experiment. Imagine cutting off someone’s hand, he wrote, but leaving intact the key muscles and nerves. Theoretically, a prosthesis could connect directly both to nerves and muscles, giving the subject control of the replacement organ as if it were real (I’m indebted to Thomas Rid for highlighting Wiener’s thought experiment in his new book, Rise of the Machines).So far so sensible: this scenario was a reasonable extrapolation at the time, and is close to becoming a reality today. Wiener, however, went further. Having imagined an artificial hand able to replace its original, he wondered why we should not now imagine the addition of an entirely new kind of limb or sensory organ? “There is,” he wrote, “a prosthesis of parts which we do not have and which we never have had.” There was no need to stop at nature. Human-machine integration could in theory blur its boundaries well beyond replacement. Continue reading...

One-third third of its workers are female, while black employees accounted for just 3% of senior US leadership, its latest diversity figures showFacebook has said about one-third of its workers are female, while black employees accounted for 3% of its US senior leadership, both numbers only slightly higher than a year earlier.The data released by the world’s largest social network on Thursday reflects the scant progress made by Silicon Valley heavyweights in making their workplaces more diverse in the face of criticism for having mostly white, male workers. Continue reading...

A federal appeals court has ruled Microsoft Corp and other companies cannot be forced to turn over customer emails stored on servers outside the USA federal appeals court has ruled Microsoft and other companies cannot be forced to turn over customer emails stored on servers outside the United States, handing a victory to privacy advocates.Related: Microsoft sues for right to tell customers when US government requests emails Continue reading...

The video game company is rereleasing the console that started it all, with a new version of the Nintendo Entertainment System set to hit shops in NovemberHot on the heels of Nintendo’s biggest success in years – that would be Pokémon Go, which you may have read about – the company is releasing a new version of its 1983 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) on 11 November. Stock in the company, already on the rise from the Pokémon Go phenomenon, was up 15% on Thursday morning.The new NES, called the Nintendo Classic Mini, will be smaller, lighter and composed of fewer parts than its 33-year-old thrice-great-grandfather. The company has released five subsequent home video game consoles since the NES broke out and, unlike other systems made by Nintendo, the new version will be a dedicated machine with a preset selection of 30 games from the company’s vast library. It will retail for $59.99.

The Guardian hit the streets to speak to restaurateurs who have transformed their establishments into money-making Pokéspots, but not everyone is happy with invasions of Pokémon catchers.Bars and restaurants across the country have been scrambling to cash in on the Pokémon Go phenomenon and lure budding trainers into their establishments, but the company behind the game is hoping to monetize it even further by introducing sponsored locations.Related: Pokémon Go: US holocaust museum asks players to stay away Continue reading...

Video game addicts and experts unravel the Pokémon Go phenomenonLeigh Alexander talks to cultural critic Clem Bastow, the Guardian’s Alex Hern and the CEO of the United Kingdom Interactive Entertainment Association, Jo Twist, about Pokémon Go, its social implications and the what the future holds for augmented reality in video games. Continue reading...

NearSt, a new platform to order titles from local bookshops – and get them to customers within an hour – begins in LondonAt Ink@84, an independent bookshop in Highbury, north London, an order pinged in on Thursday morning for Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel. The Pulitzer prize-winning bestseller was then to be delivered to a nearby customer within 60 minutes – by NearSt, a new platform that is offering one-hour delivery for books across London, as well as the facility to browse your local shops with your phone.Almost 40 bookshops are now on NearSt’s newly-launched platform, which allows customers in London to enter their postcode and the name of the book they’re looking for on the site or app. They can then order the book for instant collection from a local store, or have it speedily delivered. Entering Joe Hill’s post-apocalyptic thriller The Fireman for my home address in Kilburn, I’m told I can either walk nine minutes to a local shop, Queen’s Park Books, where it will be reserved for me, or have it delivered within the hour. Continue reading...

The world has been turned into a Pokémon menagerie, but the game is not without problems. The real fun comes from going outside to exploreAs those in the know will doubtless already be aware, there’s a Squirtle at Senate House Library, a Bulbasaur at Buckingham Palace, and maybe even an Evee at your local bus stop waiting, not for the 147, but for an intrepid player to snap it up. Pokémon Go has turned the world into a Pokémon menagerie, and now everyone with a smartphone has the potential to become a master of cute little monsters.Pokémon Go is the first smartphone release from The Pokémon Company, which has been looking after this multimillion-selling video game franchise since 1998. Created by augmented reality specialist Niantic Inc, the developer behind Google’s experimental AR game Ingress, it’s a massive-multiplayer, location-based spin-off from the role-playing fantasy series. Continue reading...

Charge against firm’s advertising arm follows reinforced filing against shopping service and probe into alleged abuse of AndroidThe European commission has filed a third antitrust charge against Google, this time against its AdSense advertising business.The EU regulator accuses Alphabet’s Google of abusing its dominance in search to benefit its own advertising business, which has historically been the company’s main revenue stream. The EC also reinforced its existing charge against Google’s shopping service, which the regulator says receives preferential treatment in search results. Continue reading...

People often search for their symptoms, but the right diagnosis can be hard to find. Google and Microsoft are working on ways to improve thingsWhen Liz Jurcik of Seattle felt a sharp pain in her side and back in January of 2013, she didn’t think much about it.Jurcik, a 31-year-old human resources professional at Boeing, ran regularly and was in good shape. She thought it was probably a strained muscle from a workout. But the pain got worse, and by early February she could barely stand up. “I had the absolutely worst pain in my life,” she said. “I couldn’t stand up straight.” Continue reading...

Location-based smartphone game available in the UK Google Play Store and Apple App Store for iPhoneThe smash-hit location-based game that has led people all over the world take to the streets with smartphone in hand, Pokémon Go, has finally launched in the UK for both Android phones and iPhones.

Niamh would like to start drawing on a tablet instead of paper, and would like to be an animator. Where could she start? Continue reading...

Sydney police say the teenagers, who were each fined $325, put themselves and others at great riskPolice have caught two teenagers playing Pokémon Go while driving near a busy pedestrian crossing in western Sydney, which they said put themselves and others at great risk.Two 17-year-olds were busted while driving on John Street in Cabramatta – a location described by Pokémon fans on Facebook as “lit”. Continue reading...

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

Su Bin, 51, admitted conspiring with China-based hackers who targeted projects including F-22 and F-35 fighter jets on behalf of People’s Liberation ArmyA Chinese businessman who admitted taking part in the hacking of US defence secrets has been given nearly four years’ jail.

All vehicles using the ‘autopilot’ technology that featured in the accident that killed Joshua Brown in May to be reviewed, Nhtsa letter tells companyA letter from the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration says that it is investigating all Tesla vehicles equipped with any version of its “Autopilot Technology Package” in the wake of a crash in May that killed a 40-year-old man.The accident that killed Joshua Brown appears to have happened because autopilot – a self-driving mode still in its testing phase – could not distinguish between a white truck and a bright sky in this case, according to Tesla. Continue reading...

Senator wants the federal government to investigate the extent to which the short-term lodging market actually consists of commercial rental firmsSenator Elizabeth Warren has urged the federal government to investigate Airbnb and other short-term rental companies in a move that experts say marks an unprecedented step in US lawmakers’ formal scrutiny of the “sharing economy”.The progressive senator from Massachusetts, who has taken on a high-profile role in the presidential race, co-signed a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday, requesting that the agency “study and quantify” the extent to which the short-term lodging market consists of “persons or firms acting in a commercial manner by renting out entire residences or multiple residences simultaneously”. Continue reading...

Engrossing and high-grossing, this game is a further sign of the commercialisation of our imaginationsThe streets are suddenly full of people ignoring obvious obstacles and dangers because they are playing a collective game on their smartphones. Pokémon Go requires players to walk around looking through their smartphone cameras, waiting for them to show an image of a Pokémon superimposed onto the real-world scene. The aim is to capture them with a phone gesture: there are 150 different varieties, some more common than others. The game has been a sensation in a sensational world (the games market worldwide grossed $6bn in May), putting 25% on the value of Nintendo, the company that owns Pokémon, and downloaded so often in its first week that it is now on more smartphones than the dating app Tinder and has as many active users as Twitter. Yet, technically, it is unremarkable: what’s interesting is what it tells us about ourselves, and about the economy that we work and play within.To overlay reality with an imagined meaning, to blur the boundary between real and virtual worlds, is something we have always done. The technology has changed, but in London, for example, there is usually a queue at King’s Cross station for the sign marking “Platform 9¾”, from where the Hogwarts Express is supposed to leave – a collective fantasy almost entirely driven by print. Augmented reality has long been imagined in science fiction, written about and filmed. The smartphone gives it another technological expression but it can hardly be said to give it a new reality. What is novel about Pokémon Go is that it has taken an existing game framework and plugged into a story, or a game, that many of the players have been familiar with since their childhood: the young adults playing on their smartphones now are those who played Pokémon with cards and game consoles in their schooldays. Continue reading...

Developer Niantic rolls out improved version of app to first non-English language country, as rest of Europe waits with bated breathSmash-hit augmented reality game Pokémon Go has launched in Germany, making its first move into Europe and outside of the US, Australia and New Zealand.

I can’t put a billboard on your house without your permission, but I can put a Pokéstop there. As real and virtual worlds collide, that is causing problemsWhen a virtual space overlaps a real-world space, then whose space is it, and who controls what is created as a result? The success of augmented-reality game Pokémon Go has forced this question into focus. Since its launch less than a week ago, groups worldwide have struggled with the game’s unforeseen ramifications. Continue reading...

Body launches public consultation on laws that need updating including online abuse legislation, which predates digital ageLegislation criminalising indecent or grossly offensive communications should be clarified to help tackle abuse and “trolling” on the internet, the Law Commission has suggested.Launching a public consultation on laws that may need reform, the body that identifies legal flaws also proposed reviewing ineffective or outdated parliamentary acts governing weddings, surrogacy, the “Maxwellisation” process – in which individuals facing criticism are given an opportunity to respond during public inquiries – codification of the law in Wales and confiscation of the proceeds of crime. Continue reading...

Fans of hit smartphone game trek to ‘only Pokémon Go holy land on peninsula’ following restrictions on Google Maps, leaving behind jobs and familiesSouth Korean Pokémon Go players have been forced to leave their home towns and flock to a remote city close to the North Korean border in order to play because of the country’s mapping restrictions.

Tech giant’s first original production will feature developers trying to create ‘the next great app’Apple is seeking participants for its new reality TV show Planet of the Apps.The casting call issued on Tuesday by co-producers Propagate seeks app developers aged over 18 who are planning on making apps for Apple devices. Continue reading...

Burning airships, rocket guns, fighting on horseback – what did playing the closed alpha version of EA’s eagerly anticipated epic tell us about the future of a battered genre?“Preparing all-out war,” says the starting screen as Battlefield 1 loads up. It’s not kidding. When Electronic Arts launched the trailer for its first world war shooter, fans were delighted to see the series, not only returning to its historical roots, but heading even further back than the original start point: 1942. This heavily viewed slab of cacophonous action promised an epic war story of destruction and gritty combat; and judging by the closed alpha test – an early version of the St Quentin’s Scar map available only to a select few players – the game will deliver.After several days on the mostly stable 64-player servers, here’s what we’ve learned about the Battlefield 1 experience so far. Continue reading...

Dominant smartphone operating system maker given extra time to respond to European commission charges over market abuse of Android and Google Search and Chrome appsGoogle has been given a six-week extension until early September to respond to EU antitrust charges filed against its mobile operating system Android.In April the European commission said Google’s requirement that mobile phone manufacturers pre-install Google Search and the Google’s Chrome browser in order to get access to other Google apps including the Google Play Store, the largest source of Android apps with more than 2m available, may harm consumers and competition. Continue reading...

Britain’s biggest carmaker plans to deploy self-driving vehicles on motorways and roads near its Coventry HQ later this yearJaguar Land Rover has said it will create a fleet of more than 100 research vehicles over the next four years to test autonomous and connected technology, with the first hitting the streets later this year.

Phenomenal success of Nintendo’s mobile game has led to renewed interest in the Japanese franchise with Legendary Pictures reported to be close to a dealThe worldwide success of Nintendo’s mobile game Pokémon Go has led to renewed talks over a live-action movie.Related: The joys of Pokémon Go: exercise, the outdoors and 'full-on escapism' Continue reading...

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

Memorial to victims of Nazis is designated as a ‘Pokéstop’ but officials point out that playing game on the grounds is ‘extremely inappropriate’The US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Arlington National Cemetery have requested that smartphone users refrain from “catching” Pokémon when they visit.Like many other landmarks, the museum and the military cemetery are featured in the popular new Pokémon Go game. Continue reading...

Architects and planners brought up on SimCity are using the principles of gaming to encourage sustainabilityMany children of the 1990s would have fond memories of the smash-hit computer game SimCity. The open-ended simulation that allowed players to plan entire cities while balancing public service, environmental and budgetary pressures smashed preconceptions of what a video game could be.At the time of SimCity’s emergence in 1989, a video game with no end and no set target was considered absurd. But the sheer detail (down to crime and traffic levels on each street), the ease of learning, constant feedback to player decisions (citizens moving into suburbs or buildings becoming derelict) and the ability to “play god” lifted this title from mere simulation to a global sensation. Continue reading...

Did you hear the one about the Wyoming girl who stumbled across a dead body while catching Pokémon by a river?Catching cheating boyfriends, stumbling across dead bodies and advertising one’s services as a professional Pokémon Go trainer – less than a week since the launch of the virtual-meets-real-world app Pokémon Go and the stories it has sparked are kookier than the names of the critters its fans are trying to catch. Continue reading...

Tesla said data suggested the driver’s hands were not on the wheel in a recent accident in Montana in which a Model X veered off the road and hit a postAnother accident involving Tesla’s autopilot system has been reported, this time in Montana when a Model X veered off the road and hit a post.Early on Sunday morning on a highway near Whitehall, a Tesla veered off to the right into a wooden guardrail, according to the Detroit Free Press, stopping the car before it left the road. The driver told a highway patrol officer that the car’s driver assist feature had been engaged. Continue reading...

Currency behind social media website Steemit, in which users are rewarded or paid based number of ‘thumbs up’, has rocketed to more than $150m in valueSteem, the digital currency behind the new social media website Steemit, soared more than 1,000% in value on Tuesday to more than $150m, two weeks after it first paid people who posted on its website, according to coinmarketcap.com.

By signing up to the retail giant’s affiliate network, Amazon Associates, publishers can earn commissions from linking to products on Amazon.comIn July 2015, Amazon declared its own annual holiday: Amazon Prime Day. The retail giant promised deals on a wide range of products for customers signed up to its membership program, Amazon Prime.This is the second Amazon Prime Day, and it’s pretty hard to miss. At the time of writing, the #PrimeDay hashtag was one of Twitter’s top 10 worldwide trends. Media outlets including the Daily Mail, USA Today, the Telegraph, PC World and CNet are publishing numerous stories about the discounts on offer, and urging readers to sign up for an Amazon Prime trial. Continue reading...