Technology | The Guardian

Stanford postdoctoral fellow Sebastian Alvarado helps studios build fictional worlds from scientific reality, for video gamesWhy do you need accurate science in largely fictional worlds?A player is more informed on their media than they have ever been before, and developers want to engage them with their best ideas. While accuracy isn’t the most critical part of our work, suspending disbelief with plausibility is. We carefully pick parts of our scientific discipline to facilitate this engagement. Continue reading...

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

The association’s CEO admits they have not responded well to customer criticism in the past and are now looking for honest feedback to remain competitiveVictoria’s Taxi Association has abandoned industrial action and campaigning as a response to Uber, admitting the industry has not responded well to customer criticism.On Monday the association’s chief executive, David Samuel, announced an initiative calling for honest feedback from taxi customers so that the industry could adapt and respond. Continue reading...

American vlogger has thousands of fans – online and in real life – who watch him discuss being gay, eating disorders and attacking small-town life and religionIf you’re over the age of 16, Tyler Oakley might be the most famous person you’ve never heard of. But this 26-year-old, from a small town in Michigan, has more accolades to his name than most. He’s interviewed Barack Obama, made a health vlog with Michelle Obama, can claim over 500m views on YouTube – and now has penned a New York Times bestselling book.Oakley is among the new generation of celebrities who have made their name entirely through YouTube. Posting videos of themselves from their bedrooms, discussing everything from pop culture and shopping to their own sexuality and mental health, teenagers across the world obsessively consume the content, interacting with the internet stars through comments, twitter and Snapchat. It is a highly profitable occupation – some of the biggest YouTube celebrities, Oakley included – are thought to earn six figure salaries through sponsorship and advertising alone. Continue reading...

The first proper look at the long-awaited big screen adaptation of popular video game World of Warcraft has hit the web, leaving our blogger wondering if he missed why we’re supposed to care about this formulaic fantasy universeThe race is on to be the first team to successfully adapt a hit video game for the big screen. Michael Fassbender and Justin Kurzel are currently in pre-production on Assassin’s Creed, which certainly has the potential to outgun its many disappointing forebears. And now comes Warcraft: the Beginning, with a highly-rated young director, Moon and Source Code’s Duncan Jones, who clearly cares enough about the outlandish fantasy world imagined in the game to risk his career on trying to convince non-believers.For let no one fool themselves, even with a whopping 5.5 million subscribers, Warcraft is not going to succeed at the box office unless it can convince those of us (myself included) who have never played the game that this is a universe worth delving into. That also means persuading mainstream film critics, most of whom don’t strike one as the type to spend their evenings battling through swords and sorcery-style adventures, to suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves in this world of giant, muscular orcs and beardy warrior humans. Continue reading...

Conservative price of $11 and $13 a share for company that deals in mobile debit and credit payment raises eyebrows across Silicon ValleyTwitter chief executive Jack Dorsey’s other company, Square, has seen at least a third shaved off its 2014 valuation at $6bn, resulting in an IPO share price of between $11 and $13 a share. To make up the shortfall, the company may have to issue extra stock to preferred shareholders.As more and more “unicorn” companies come under scrutiny for current financial practices rather than the hope of future returns, the conservative share price for Square, which deals in mobile debit and credit payment, raised eyebrows across Silicon Valley. Part of the reason for the drop may be Square’s partnership with Starbucks, a deal that has been leaking cash and is due to end next year. Continue reading...

List of names and social media accounts mentioned alleged FBI informants and those who already publicly identify as members of white supremacist groupThe hacking collective Anonymous has begun its promised leak of the identities of members of the Ku Klux Klan with a data dump of the names of more than 350 alleged members along with links to social media accounts. Many of the identities are already in the public domain.Only one of the names listed in the file, on the anonymous sharing site Pastebin, had a phone number attached. Fewer than five had email addresses. None returned requests for comment. Continue reading...

You take part in a game in a way unequalled by reading a book or watching a playAt a debate on technology and the future a few months ago, the panel chair confronted me with the line: “It turns out computer games merely teach you how to play other computer games.” What did I make of this, as a novelist? Wasn’t it damning? If true, didn’t it – the question implied – prove that games are practically worthless?Well, no. I’ve been puzzled for a long time by the modern tendency to try to justify life experiences by pointing to research about how they “make us better” in some way. You know the kind of thing. Walking in the countryside improves cardiovascular function by 14%. Believing in God increases lifespan by 2.6 years. Falling in love takes two swings off your golf stroke. (Note: some of these may be made up.) As if there are no other – important, immeasurable – reasons to go for an autumnal stroll or find a life partner. As if you should try to make yourself do things you really don’t want to do, like taking up religion, to reap the supposed “benefits”. Continue reading...

Chris Dring meets the man who turned a curious concept into one of the most eagerly awaited gamesIt was 6am on 15 June in LA, and Swedish developer Martin Sahlin was wide awake.He had been for a while, anxiously preparing for “his moment” on stage, when he would announce Unravel – a 2D adventure game starring an anthropomorphised ball of yarn – to an audience of millions. It would be the culmination of the most unlikely of partnerships, proving that a tiny spark of genius can still make its mark on gaming’s big hitters. Continue reading...

The latest title in the billion-dollar Call of Duty franchise is out today. Here’s our take on its futuristic campaignIt is the future and everything has gone really wrong. The looming threat of nuclear annihilation is over thanks to the development of super reliable air defences but this has only led to an endless state of paranoid cold war. Armed factions gather around the world’s dwindling resources, mega corporations obsess over new ways to push their expensive technologies and government agencies seek ever more inventive ways to assassinate privacy. It’s a big old mess.The third Call of Duty: Black Ops campaign, then, is another globe-trotting conspiracy thriller filled with secret bases, covert government programmes and wise-cracking solders just trying to keep their shit together as the galaxy collapses around them. You enter the maelstrom as fresh-faced rookie, fighting for the Winslow Accord, which sounds like a Terrence Rattigan play, but is actually a gathering of countries looking to ring fence themselves from swarthy foreigners. An Egyptian minister has been kidnapped by the evil Nile River Coalition, and you need to get him back. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Call of Duty day, suckers! Continue reading...

Whether it’s voice control and fingerprint recognition you’re after, or improved ways to save time, energy and memory, this expert list will help you unlock Google’s latest confection Continue reading...

James Alan Craig, 62, tweeted bogus posts about two tech firms, causing their shares to crash before he tried to buy the stock at deflated pricesA Scottish man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco for using Twitter to make bogus claims that drove down the stock prices of two companies, in an effort to profit from illegal trading.

Thousands of protesters, many wearing Guy Fawkes mask, gathered in London on Bonfire night to take part in the Million Mask march and demonstrate against the government’s austerity cuts and increased state surveillance Continue reading...

Email provider headquartered at Cern in Switzerland has internet connection cut off by hackers who did not cease attack even after $6,000 ransom was paidProtonMail, a Switzerland-based encrypted email provider, was forced offline on Thursday after hackers held the company’s internet connection for ransom by using a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.“ProtonMail is likely under attack by two separate groups, with the second attackers exhibiting capabilities more commonly possessed by state sponsored actors,” the company said. “It also shows that the second attackers were not afraid of causing massive collateral damage in order to get at us.” Continue reading...

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch report (Resistance is useless, 5 November) misses the point. As robots take over the jobs in the service industries of bankers, doctors and drivers, as well as many manufacturing jobs, there is the potential for many new directions, with associated jobs. This fourth industrial revolution, led by robots, signals both doom and opportunity – but this time the route taken rests even more on intelligent human reaction: in this case, education.Related: Robot revolution: rise of 'thinking' machines could exacerbate inequality Continue reading...

US officials working on Iran policy appear to be focus of recent surge in cyber attacks that could be linked to Iranian American’s arrest, Wall Street Journal saysIran’s Revolutionary Guards stepped up hacking of email and social media accounts of Obama administration officials in recent weeks in cyber-attacks believed linked to the arrest of an Iranian-American businessman in Tehran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Kerry wants to buy her son a notebook or laptop for his ninth birthday and doesn’t want to spend too muchWe are thinking of getting our son a notebook or laptop for his ninth birthday. He will need software such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and in time he may get into internet coding. I also think it would be a good idea if he could dock it so he can use a separate mouse and keyboard.We want to ensure it lasts him for a while but we can’t afford to spend lots of money. KerryAs far as I can tell from my annual visit to BETT (formerly the British Educational Training and Technology Show), most schools now use consumer-grade Android/Apple tablets and Windows laptops. However, BETT 2015 showed a trend towards Windows 2-in-1 “detachables”, which is what I’d recommend. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterThursday cometh. Continue reading...

ACT attorney general says federal government’s proposed scheme would allow police access to personal information without sufficient safeguards restricting its useA new facial recognition database would give police “unprecedented and extraordinary” access to personal information without adequate safeguards restricting its use, the attorney general of the Australian Capital Territory has warned.Simon Corbell met his state and federal counterparts in Canberra on Thursday during a meeting of police, justice and law ministers. The issue of the National Facial Biometric Matching Capability database was raised, with Corbell expressing the ACT’s outright opposition to the federal government’s scheme. Continue reading...

Designer Stephanie Liu has come up with the Lumoscura mask to combat bad air beautifullySculpted, pristine and sparking with fibre optics, this mask is certainly a breath of fresh air for wearable tech, bringing style to the problem of pollution.Recently on show at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Fashion 4wrd exhibition, the Lumoscura mask is the idea of designer Stephanie Liu, who created the piece this year while completing her industrial design degree at the Rhode Island School of Design. Continue reading...

Swedish car manufacturer has fitted anti-moose and -reindeer systems in northern hemisphere but says 60km/h, 90kg marsupials much more challengingVolvo is developing a kangaroo detection system designed to avoid collisions that can be deadly to man and beast.The Swedish car manufacturer has fitted some of its northern hemisphere models with systems tailored to moose and reindeer. But a senior safety engineer, Martin Magnusson, said dodging 60km/h marsupial missiles was much more challenging. Continue reading...

The social media site also made more money in mobile advertising alone than the entire business did, according to quarterly results announced WednesdayFacebook now averages 1.1 billion users per day, according quarterly results announced on Wednesday, which also revealed the company made more money on mobile advertising alone than the whole business took in during the same period last year.When its flagship product hit the billion-user milestone on 24 August, the company took a victory lap; now that appears to be slightly below the norm. Continue reading...

After Finland announced it would release some national symbol emojis, what should Australia choose if it were to follow suit?The Finnish government has launched a set of 30 national emojis, including people in a sauna, a headbanger and a Nokia 3310.If Australia were to follow suit, what items should be emojified? There’s already a surfboard and a snake in the standard set, but perhaps texters would find a use for an icon depicting a meat pie, or Warnie? Removed from any context, what would be the semiotic significance of a southern cross? Continue reading...

Tweets by former NSA whistleblower claim Theresa May’s plans are akin to compiling ‘a list of every book you’ve ever opened’Edward Snowden has outlined his opposition to the British government’s investigatory powers bill, arguing that Conservative politicians were “taking notes on how to defend the indefensible”.The former National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, whose disclosure of top-secret documents ultimately led to the home secretary, Theresa May, proposing the bill, made a series of tweets on Wednesday warning that the communications data covered by the legislation was “the activity log of your life”. Continue reading...

Theresa May makes dramatic admission that ministers have directed firms to hand over communications data of UK citizens on day that redrafted bill is unveiledThe total redrafting of UK surveillance laws was under growing challenge on Wednesday night after an initially broad political welcome gave way to alarm at the detail of the proposed sweeping powers for spies.MPs and privacy groups raised concerns about the proposed judicial oversight regime set out by the home secretary, Theresa May, who made the dramatic admission that ministers had issued secret directions since 2001 to internet and phone companies to hand over the communications data of British citizens in bulk. Continue reading...

The new program will save time by studying how you communicate and answering emails for you. Here’s a quick sampling of what users can expectThis week Google – the enormous corporation that largely controls all of the information you see and share on the internet – is releasing a new program dedicated to making your life easier, by answering your email for you.The program, called Smart Reply, will pay attention to the way you communicate and over time manage to respond to certain emails based on your habits. Here’s a sampling of what users can expect from the new program: Continue reading...

Early UK-based internet mapping company Streetmap suing Google over alleged conduct that led to ‘dramatic loss of traffic’Google has been accused of abusing its search dominance to promote Google Maps over rivals by UK-based Streetmap.Streetmap, one of the first online mapping providers that launched in 1997, says Google is engaging in “anticompetitive conduct” and that its launch of Google Maps in 2007 lead to a “dramatic loss of traffic” to Steetmap’s website. Continue reading...

Legislation from Jason Chaffetz would make it illegal for Stingray technology to be deployed without a warrant: ‘If you’re just on a surfing expedition, back off’A bill has been introduced in Congress that aims to control the use of the sophisticated surveillance equipment known as Stingray, following a Guardian investigation which revealed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as the 13th federal agency known to possess the devices.Stingrays are one of a class of suitcase-size devices known as “cell-site simulators”, which work by pretending to be a cellphone tower in order to strip data and metadata from any phones which connect to them. Continue reading...

The respected and sometimes reviled CEO of Activision Blizzard is typically bullish about the takeover deal everyone in the industry is talking aboutThree years ago, a group of senior Activision executives led by CEO Bobby Kotick met with Stephane Kurgan and Riccardo Zacconi, the heads of mobile gaming company King. It was, says Kotick, a social engagement, two powerhouses of the global games industry shooting the breeze in a fancy restaurant. During an investor call this week, however, Zacconi talked about the “mutual fear and respect” at the table. Executives don’t meet like this for fun. They were sizing each other up.On Monday, Activision announced that it would be acquiring King, creator of the massively successful Candy Crush Saga game – as well as other more modest smartphone hits – for $5.9bn. Predictably, the revelation sent shockwaves through the industry: it’s a hefty sum – more than Disney paid for legacy entertainment companies Marvel and LucasFilm. What was Activision thinking? Continue reading...

Information Commissioner’s Office fines CPS £200,000 after finding that videos had not been kept securely by private film studioThe Crown Prosecution Service has been fined £200,000 after laptops containing videos of police interviews with victims of sex attacks were stolen from a private film studio.The highly unusual security breach and heavy penalty follow an inquiry by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which is responsible for enforcing data protection laws. Continue reading...

Company plans to help drivers ‘recognise and prevent’ offensive and inappropriate behaviour. Mada Masr reportsUber is teaming up with an Egyptian anti-sexual harassment initiative to train its drivers in how to “recognise, prevent and take positive action” against inappropriate behaviour, the company has announced.All drivers available on the app will undergo the training to ensure “Uber is offering the safest ride in Cairo,” the company said in a recent statement. Continue reading...

The Colombian pop star teams up with Angry Birds maker Rovio for gem-swapping puzzler, with ambitions to make it a wider brandMobile game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood has made more than $113m (£73.2m) according to its developer Glu Mobile’s financial results. No wonder so many celebrities are following in her footsteps.Glu alone has signed deals to make games for Katy Perry, Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj, but they have all been beaten to the app stores by Shakira, via her partnership with Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment. Continue reading...

16-year-old who was detained after search of an address in Norwich has been released on police bail until MarchA 16-year-old boy arrested in connection with alleged data theft from TalkTalk has been released on bail.He was detained after detectives from the Metropolitan police cybercrime unit and officers from the National Crime Agency searched an address in Norwich. Continue reading...

New wireless headphones are comfortable, have great controls and automatically pause the music when taken off your headThe latest Bluetooth headphones from Plantronics sound great, last ages and won’t break the bank.You may not have heard of Plantronics, but the US firm first made headsets for pilots and Nasa, including the headsets through which Neil Armstrong spoke the immortal words “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Continue reading...

Voters rejected a proposal to restrict short-term rentals following $8m campaign by the online letting company, with 55% of citizens voting againstSan Francisco’s citizens have narrowly voted against controversial proposals to restrict short-term home and apartment rentals, handing a victory to companies such as Airbnb.The failure of “Proposition F” is a victory for the company which has been targeted by affordable housing advocates and tenants’ rights attorneys, though it won by a tighter margin than expected with 55% of votes. Continue reading...

Share price falls 27% as co-founder Eric Lefkofsky returns to chairman’s seat and company forecasts revenue below estimates through 2016Groupon, the daily deals website, has said co-founder Eric Lefkofsky is stepping down as chief executive and returning to the role of chairman, effective immediately.

Tesla announces it delivered slightly more vehicles in the quarter than it estimated, prompting a jump in share price in after-hours tradingElectric car maker Tesla Motors Inc delivered more vehicles in the third quarter than it had previously estimated, helped by the rollout of the Model X SUV.

Computer exploit merchant Zerodium says it paid research team that worked out how to ‘jailbreak’ latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 9.1.

Cyberpsychologist Mary Aiken thinks we need to understand cybercriminal motivations, while mentoring young people with tech and hacking skills“A humanistic, cognitive psychology approach to hacking would be to consider an emotion such as revenge… But my favourite explanation for the academic literature is a Freudian psychoanalytic approach to hacking, which actually conceptualises hacking in Freudian terms as a cyber-sexual urge to penetrate. And there are castration complex overtones in terms of being cut off from the network as well…”Mary Aiken knows what she’s talking about: she’s the cyberpsychology expert whose work was the inspiration for TV show CSI: Cyber. In a speech at the Web Summit conference in Dublin, she suggested that we have a lot to learn still about the motivation of the people behind hacks of companies like Sony and TalkTalk. Continue reading...

Palmer Luckey thinks virtual reality can bring ‘real-world experience’ to more children – and become ‘more ubiquitous than the smartphone’Games were the earliest showcases for virtual reality company Oculus VR’s technology, but its founder Palmer Luckey thinks it will have important applications for education in the future.“I think there’s a lot of potential for virtual reality in the education industry … Classrooms are broken. Kids don’t learn the best by reading books,” he said at the Web Summit conference in Dublin. Continue reading...

Hacktivist collective distances itself from data dump purporting to out several politicians as Ku Klux Klan members, which was quickly discreditedThe hacktivist collective known as Anonymous has denied involvement in a data-dump on Monday that incorrectly outed several politicians as being members of the Ku Klux Klan.

World’s biggest online retailer opens shop in Seattle’s University Village stocked with 6,000 books at same price as on its websiteAmazon is opening its first physical bookstore, 20 years after the world’s biggest online retailer started selling publications on the internet.The company will unveil a shop called Amazon Books at University Village in Seattle, its home city, on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Australian teenager with more than 612,000 Instagram followers radically rewrites her ‘self-promoting’ history on social media (and launches new website)An Australian teenager with more than half a million followers on Instagram has quit the platform, describing it as “contrived perfection made to get attention”, and called for others to quit social media – perhaps with help from her new website.Essena O’Neill, 18, said she was able to make an income from marketing products to her 612,000 followers on Instagram – “$2000AUD a post EASY”. But her dramatic rejection of social media celebrity has won her praise. Continue reading...

Classic design, slim bezels, a round, sapphire screen, two-day battery life and a heart rate monitor make the top-end smartwatch worth the extra costWho would have thought that a little-known Chinese smartphone manufacturer famous for budget smartphones would make the best Android Wear smartwatch going?

Firms such as Google and Facebook didn’t offer users basic disclosures about privacy and censorship. ‘The best-scoring company got a D,’ says thinktankThe world’s top tech companies are failing when it comes to privacy and freedom of expression, according to the most comprehensive assessment to date of their user agreement policies.Related: How a digital rights project ranks tech firms and attempts to fix global failure Continue reading...

The wearable activity tracker’s third-quarter earnings report showed growth, but stocks dropped Monday after news of more than 20m new shares in marketFitbit has announced that months after the company went public in June, its revenue is up 168% year on year, according to its third-quarter earnings report.Despite the better than expected revenue – rising to $409.3m from $152.9m a year ago – the stock for the company dropped by as much as 9% in early after hours trading on Monday. This was due to the company’s announcement that it will be selling additional 7m shares and some of its shareholders will be selling 14m shares. That means more than 20m more shares will flood the market.

Simply play the game and tweet your score to be in with the chance of winning a PlayStation 4‘Where the tech world meets’ Web Summit is the biggest tech conference in Europe, hosted in Dublin between 3 – 5 November. To celebrate the Guardian’s media partnership we’re giving you the chance to win a PlayStation 4. To enter: Continue reading...

After complaints from civil liberties groups, company promises more awareness of context of real-name complaintsFacebook has announced plans to water down its controversial “real names” policy, after lobbying from civil liberties groups worldwide.The new rules still officially require the use of “authentic names” on the site, something which has previously resulted in criticism from varied groups including the drag community, Native Americans, and trans people. While Facebook does not require the use of “legal names” on the site, it does demand that users identify with the name that other people know them by. Continue reading...