Voice assistants duke it out in the most passive aggressive display of tech company feuding via slick-looking adverts yetMicrosoft’s seemingly getting pretty offended over the whole “iPad Pro is a computer thing”. In its eyes, a keyboard does not a PC make, and it’s all starting to get just a little catty.Microsoft’s latest advert for the Windows 10 PC-in-a-tablet Surface Pro 4 takes the two arch rival’s tit-for-tat war of words to the next level - irritating voice assistants. Continue reading...

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

Website reportedly contains thousands of non-consensual images of underage schoolgirls uploaded by male students

Group called Shadow Brokers says it infiltrated NSA’s elite Equation Group and teases files including some named in documents leaked by Edward SnowdenA mysterious online group called the Shadow Brokers claims to have infiltrated an elite hacking unit linked to the National Security Agency and stolen state “cyber weapons”, and is now auctioning them off to the highest bidder.The stolen malware is said to belong to Equation Group, a sophisticated hacking team believed to be operated by the NSA. So far, the Shadow Brokers have only released a few taster files and images of the cache, but security researchers said they appear to be legitimate. Continue reading...

Carmaker announces plans to make self-driving vehicles for companies such as Uber and Lyft by 2021, saying automation of cars will define the next decadeThe robot car wars moved up a gear on Tuesday when Ford announced it would produce a fleet of driverless cars for ride-sharing services, such as Uber and Lyft, by 2021.

British authorities had no power to force social media giants to take down material, hate preacher’s trial heard

Sixth biggest Instagrammer with nearly 78 million followers closes account after abuse from fans and tense exchanges with ex-girlfriendJustin Bieber, the world’s sixth biggest Instagram user, has deleted his account and left the photo and video service.The Canadian singer had 77.9 million Instagram followers, followed only 75 users and had posted 3,779 images and videos, according to data from Social Blade, which made him one of the biggest draws for users to the Facebook-owned social media site. Continue reading...

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

App for Android and iOS aims to be simple, friction-free alternative to Skype, using your phone number to quickly place free video callsGoogle has finally launched Duo, its super-simple video calling app for Android and iOS, after the company first announced it three months ago at its I/O developer conference.

Select models sold in US will show countdown to signals turning green – and warn when it’s too late to beat a redThe German carmaker Audi is rolling out technology that will allow its vehicles to communicate with traffic lights.

In a New York Times op-ed, Thiel justified bankrolling the Hulk Hogan sex-tape lawsuit by saying Gawker repeatedly violated people’s privacy, including his ownTech billionaire Peter Thiel defended his decision to finance a lawsuit that bankrupt Gawker Media on Monday, saying the news site was willing “to exploit the internet without moral limits” and “did something beyond the pale” by publishing a former wrestler’s sex tape.Thiel funded a lawsuit by retired wrestler Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, that ended in March with a jury’s order that Gawker pay $140m in damages. In June, the media organization filed for bankruptcy and put itself up for auction; the announcement of a new owner is expected Tuesday. Continue reading...

Robotic vacuum cleaner is said to run over animal feces and continue its cleaning cycle around the house, spreading the mess over ‘every conceivable surface’Jesse Newton found out the hard way what happens when a robotic vacuum cleaner encounters a dog turd, and it isn’t pretty.

New report finds ‘that the energy of 87% of vehicle-days could be met by an existing, affordable electric vehicle’ – but that’s not quite good enoughElectric cars could take over most driving necessities tomorrow, according to a group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but they’ll need the help of internal combustion engines to do it.Using travel surveys and global positioning data, the MIT team has evaluated the possible widespread use of electric cars, and has found that grids could easily support today’s cheap electric cars, and that the cars themselves can already meet drivers’ requirements almost nine times out of 10. Continue reading...

Europe will publish draft law to ensure that online messaging services have privacy rules like those for texts and callsWhatsApp, Skype and other online messaging services face an EU crackdown aimed at safeguarding users’ privacy, in a move that highlights the gulf between Europe and the US in regulating the internet.

Messaging app has been asked to add traditional drinking vessel to its emoji list, with group arguing it warrants recognitionBeaming pile of poo? Check. Sexually suggestive aubergine? Check. Enduring symbol of Catalan community and conviviality? Hmmm.A cultural association based near Barcelona is asking the mobile messaging service WhatsApp to add the porrón to its list of emojis, claiming the spouted glass pitcher possesses a “cultural and social meaning” that warrants recognition. Continue reading...

Smash-hit mobile game developer takes action against bot-makers and cheaters who have been driving users from the gamePokémon Go cheaters are starting to get their comeuppance, as game developer Niantic has begun issuing lifetime bans and is pursuing legal action against bot developers.

It may be something of a stopgap, but the XBox One S is still a lovely piece of kit with plenty to attract the first-time buyerMicrosoft’s revamped Xbox One occupies a curious space in the current gaming generation. It’s not because it’s a sleeker take on the original bulky hardware – slimline consoles are nothing new, after all. Sega tweaked both the Master System and the Mega Drive, Sony offered at least one redesigned version of each PlayStation, and Microsoft itself introduced a svelte Xbox 360 previously.Rather, it’s the marginal power boost and hardware improvements that the Xbox One S enjoys over its predecessor that make it a strange beast. Now capable of supporting Ultra HD 4K video with High Dynamic Range colour, upscaling 1080p games, and with marginal CPU and GPU upgrades that potentially improve frame rates on more demanding games, the console straddles the line between discrete hardware generations. Continue reading...

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

For the most serious players, League of Legends is much more than just a multiplayer video game – it’s a viable career option. And, at a packed South Bank Piazza in Brisbane on Saturday, two Oceanic teams competed for their chance at a world championship worth $2.1m. Continue reading...

First weekend of much-trumpeted $180m coverage marred by delays and poor picture qualityThe first broadcast by Optus of English Premier League football action has infuriated fans who paid to watch the exclusive live coverage only to have it disrupted by major technical faults.The hashtag #OptusOut was trending on Twitter as fans vented their frustration about the signal dropping out, delays of up to a minute and a poor-quality picture. Continue reading...

Accounting, payroll and payments software company says internal login was used to gain unauthorised accessSage, which provides accounting, payroll and payments software for businesses, has released a statement saying that an internal login had been used to gain unauthorised access to the data of some of its British customers.Related: TalkTalk counts costs of cyber-attack Continue reading...

Accounting, payroll and payments software company says internal login was used to gain unauthorised accessSage, which provides accounting, payroll and payments software for businesses, has released a statement saying that an internal login had been used to gain unauthorised access to the data of some of its British customers.Related: TalkTalk counts costs of cyber-attack Continue reading...

Since 2009, I have been getting bombarded with phone calls and texts for a wanted man – but it’s not meHayden Lowe has been a fixture in my life for more than seven years. There is no escaping him. He disappears for weeks but, when he returns, it’s with a barrage of phone calls and text messages. Hayden, it seems, is a wanted man. The problem is that I am his intermediary, through no desire of my own.Hayden made his first non-appearance in 2009. “I wish to speak to Hayden,” said an unknown woman who had rung my mobile. I replied that there was no one called Hayden at my address. There was no Hayden among my friends and acquaintances. After hearing this, her voice took on an anguished tone. “We’ve been reliably informed that this is Hayden’s contact number,” she continued. I assured her that her informant was mistaken and hung up. Continue reading...

The game has built its success on a largely single-player experience – but to really leave a mark on players, developers should focus on the interpersonal angleA location game overlaying the city, with players able to hunt monsters, capture stations, battle each other, build guilds. A virtual imagined world connected to the physical one by a database of locations and human “check-ins”.It’s not Pokémon Go. It’s Chromaroma, from the UK games company Mudlark. And it’s not from this year. It was released in 2010. Continue reading...

A cyberpsychologist is worryingly persuasive about the potential damage to children of a life onlineNote the doctorate after the author’s name; and the subtitle: A Pioneering Cyberpsychologist Explains How Human Behaviour Changes Online; and the potted bio, informing us that “Dr Mary Aiken is the world’s foremost forensic cyberpsychologist” – all clues indicating that this is a book targeted at the US market, another addition to that sprawling genre of books by folks with professional qualifications using pop science to frighten the hoi polloi.This is a pity, because The Cyber Effect is really rather good and doesn’t need its prevailing tone of relentless self-promotion to achieve its desired effect, which is to make one think about what digital technology is doing to us. At this stage, there can’t be many people who haven’t, at one time or another, fretted about this question. After all, the technology has invaded every aspect of our lives; it is changing social and private behaviour, having a disproportionate impact on our children and facilitating types of criminal and antisocial behaviour that are repulsive and sometimes terrifying. And it is now also changing democratic politics: the most interesting thing about Donald Trump is how his narcissistic personality has found its perfect expression in Twitter – which is how we come to have an internet troll running for president. Continue reading...

US federal court rules the German tech entrepreneur could not recover his assets because he is ‘a fugitive’ – but he vows to fight onGerman tech entrepreneur and alleged internet pirate Kim Dotcom will seek a review of a federal court decision which rejected his bid to keep hold of millions of dollars in assets held in Hong Kong and New Zealand, his lawyer said.A three-judge panel of the 4th circuit US court of appeals ruled two to one on Friday that Dotcom could not recover his assets because by remaining outside the US, he was a fugitive, which disentitled him from using the resources to fight his case. Continue reading...

Now viewers around the world can join in the fun as summer events are streamed liveBack in the days when a live televised football match was a rarity, it was widely believed that the more football was shown live on TV, the fewer people would bother to go to a match. The opposite turned out to be true. Live coverage boomed and so did match attendances. Now a similar phenomenon seems to be happening with another British institution, the summer music festival.Related: Wilderness – the festival that mixes music and Momentum Continue reading...

House minority leader calls on colleagues to change cellphone numbers after contact information for House members was posted onlineNancy Pelosi warned fellow Democrats on Saturday to change their cellphone numbers and not let family members read their text messages after personal and official information of Democratic House members and congressional staff was posted online.The House minority leader told Democratic lawmakers that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other Democratic party entities were the target of “an electronic Watergate break-in”. Continue reading...

As student numbers fall and fears over Brexit grow, universities are adopting new digital tactics to recruit studentsIn the past, a school pupil thinking of going to university would make a decision after attending an open day or two and a chat with a careers adviser.Today, though, a generation that uses smartphones to hook up is equally reliant on technology to connect with academia. Rather than the quality of its pastoral care, canteens and libraries, a student’s perception of a university is largely framed by how well it uses social media. Continue reading...

It has a lot of SUV styling, a beefy, bullish exterior, but is in fact quite underpoweredThe Peugeot 2008 is like a sleek-looking person dressed in a cashmere polo neck. A smidge unusual, with a trace of charisma; you don’t know whether you want to hug it or smell it.It has a very open view, thanks to the wide windscreen and the determined addition of windows where you didn’t expect them (little triangular ones in front of the wing mirror, a panoramic sunroof). I inferred a pure, unadulterated pride in the French countryside. It turned out the visibility was poor – too many struts between panes of glass – and the panoramic roof was a booby trap. (It looked as though it should open, but was, in fact, only decorative; in the course of pushing every button to find that out, I accidentally called Peugeot’s roadside emergency unit. This is an additional feature costing £250, when surely any normal person would pay £250 not to have it.) Continue reading...

It’s not ‘just’ a game unless you think chess is ‘just’ a game, amazing, I can’t believe it – a Voltorb!Wait – got it, just a basic Pidgey, do you want to see, now I can evolve it into a Pidgeotto, fantastic – though that probably doesn’t mean much to you, does it? Don’t you want to interrogate the boundaries of augmented reality? I’ll show you, it won’t take a second, but first I need more candy, let me explain. Actually it’s much simpler if you try it, I promise you’ll be hooked, mind if we stop at the church? I need more eggs and there’s a PokéStop in the nave. So I can incubate more Pokémon – course I need to, if I want to understand the sociology of ambulatory gaming, that’s the whole point. To collect more Pokémon for my Pokédex.It’s not why do I want to, but why would anyone not want to be part of a massive cultural shift, what would that say about you as a person? Continue reading...

Phone firm’s travel bolt-on plan is catching out unsuspecting travellers, charging them £1.99 a day even if they only send one textO2 mobile users heading abroad should check if the travel bolt-on package, automatically charged to phones on arrival overseas, is suitable for them, after several people found they were being charged excessive amounts for sending the odd text message while on holiday.Thousands of the firm’s customers heading to Europe are automatically paying £1.99 each day they use their phone on holiday, unless they’ve opted out of the travel bolt-on option. Many will want it, but the company has admitted to Guardian Money that any pay-monthly user who has previously signed up for the O2 travel service has automatically been opted in to pay the daily charge while away, even though in many cases they may be better off without it. Continue reading...

The files were posted to a blog used by Guccifer 2.0, which at least one cybersecurity firm has labeled an operation of Russian security servicesThe hacker Guccifer 2.0 posted phone numbers, email addresses and passwords for nearly 200 sitting and former Democratic lawmakers on Friday, including current members of intelligence and armed services committees.The files were posted to a blog used by the hacker, which at least one cybersecurity firm has labeled an operation of Russian security services. Intelligence officials, other firms and Democrats have also accused operatives supported by the Russian government of hacking the Democratic National Committee this year. Continue reading...

The new frontier of digital culture is about self-respect, hard work and healthy relationships – but does it go against the spirit of the internet?The internet can be a cold, dark place.It’s survival of the snarkiest – or the most favourited, with the culture falling between that of an angry mob and a popularity contest. Continue reading...

Most analysts are confident that the radical democrats – in favour of legalising drugs and offering asylum to Edward Snowden – will win 18-20 MPs in OctoberOne of Europe’s most radical political parties is expected to gain its first taste of power after Iceland’s ruling coalition and opposition agreed to hold early elections caused by the Panama Papers scandal in October.Related: Iceland PM steps aside after protests over Panama Papers revelations Continue reading...

Defense officials restrict playtime to outside the building, citing the risks of spies tracking facilities and information via the appThe Pentagon has a message for its staff: Pokémon stop.Anyone working at the Arlington, Virginia, headquarters of the US Department of Defense searching for Squirtles and Snorlaxes on the Pokémon Go app has been told to do it outside the building, according to a memo obtained by the Washington Times. Continue reading...

Instagram is challenging Snapchat with Stories, but … can we spice it up a bit? Videos of lunches and office carpets are as boring as they soundI don’t hate Instagram Stories, but Instagram Stories hates me.I also don’t know what I’ve done to deserve such brilliant friends in life, but, equally, I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve their banal videos of facial cleansing routines or them making a peace sign on a busy road as a lorry roars by or a macro shot of a bug they found in the bathroom. Continue reading...

From sky gardens over Rio to sprawling slums in Blackpool, artists at the game development studio Eidos-Montréal have reimagined global cities as part of their Deus Ex universe Continue reading...

The reaction to Planet of the Apps, in which app developers compete for investment under the guidance of Paltrow and Will.i.am, has been lukewarmWhen you hear the name Gwyneth Paltrow, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps it’s her Oscar-winning acting, her neurotic eating habits as documented on her lifestyle blog Goop, or her praise for steam-cleaning one’s vagina (not recommended by doctors). You might also think of her appearance in Glee, her “conscious uncoupling” from Coldplay singer Chris Martin or her pint-sized fitness guru Tracy Anderson.What probably won’t immediately come to mind is app development. So it comes as quite the surprise that she’s been selected as a mentor on Apple’s new reality TV show about apps and their creators, called Planet of the Apps. Continue reading...

Hello Games has created a gorgeously realised, constantly regenerating universe for players to get lost in, where the incredible journey trumps the destinationNowadays it seems difficult to consider a game separately from the months or years of expectation that preceded its release. Just as science fiction is built on speculation, so too was the conversation surrounding this science-fiction video game. Two-and-a-half years ago, the team at Hello Games presented their concept for a practically infinite procedurally generated galaxy, and since then they’ve been suffering the consequences of that pitch’s success, faced with the task of creating a real game that would somehow measure up to thousands of different imagined ones. Continue reading...

Cars that use Volkswagen’s remote keyless entry system are vulnerable to theft using equipment costing £30, researchers claimTens of millions of cars are made vulnerable to theft by their keyless entry systems, according to a report by computer security experts.The paper claims many of the 100m Volkswagen vehicles sold over the past 20 years are vulnerable and can be hacked using cheap tools. Audi, Seat and Skoda models sold since 1995 are also said to be affected as they share Volkswagen’s remote keyless entry system. Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Fiat, Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, and Peugeot models are also at risk from a similar exploit, the researchers claim. Continue reading...

When a meme goes mainstream it usually means it isn’t funny any more and it’s over. So how has the Harambe gorilla meme endured so long?When it comes to memes, there’s a rule: it is dead as soon as the thinkpieces come out.The thinkpieces happened months ago with Harambe, so why can’t the internet let him rest in peace? Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterYay, it’s Friday! Continue reading...

Facebook thought it had thwarted ad-blockers on its network. Facebook was wrong

Takeaway delivery service would like to do away with paying its workers an hourly rate, paying instead by number of orders deliveredDeliveroo is embroiled in a pay row with its couriers after more than 100 riders staged a protest outside the company’s London offices in a dispute over a new wage structure.Related: Deliveroo riders protest in London against changes to pay structure Continue reading...

Dr Miguel Nicolelis explains the findings of the Walk Again Project, the collaborative project aimed at helping paraplegic people regain control of their lives using robotics. The project published its findings after ten months’ research into the use of virtual reality and exoskeleton technology with paraplegic people. However, it was found that the pairing of technologies lead to unexpected positive results for patients, all of whom reported increased movement on command and greater sensation after 2000 hours of training with the systems

The tech-savvy administration added a private message feature to the White House Facebook page to allow users to write to the president through a chatbotGetting a message to Barack Obama just got easier. Just hit him up on Facebook.The White House unveiled a new feature on Wednesday that allows Facebook users to contact him via Messenger – just like they would any of their other friends on the site – using a chatbot. Continue reading...

Szuhsiung Ho of China General Nuclear Power Company becomes latest case to fan US fears that Chinese firms will do anything for a hi-tech leg-upSzuhsiung Ho is not the first person of Chinese origin to be arrested in the US over industrial spying.A string of cases have fuelled suspicions in the US and beyond that some Chinese firms will resort to any measures to obtain valuable intellectual property that could give them a technological leg-up.

The House minority leader stated at a press conference on Thursday, ‘It is the Russians,’ referring to the security breach affecting the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that led to the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Continue reading...

You don’t need a record company or a promo campaign to reach the huge audience of the Nigerian diaspora – just a WhatsApp account