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Forza 6 takes simulation of the racing track to a new level as players grapple with aquaplaning“It is like driving down the M1 three metres behind a truck with your wipers switched off. But at 200mph,” explains Allan McNish on the experience of piloting a top-end prototype sportscar in the rain. And he speaks from experience. The former Formula One driver, three-times winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours and the 2013 FIA World Endurance champion with Audi, drove, during his extensive career, in every permutation of wet weather conditions imaginable.Two of the cars in which he competed , the 2012 R18, in which he won the 12 Hours of Sebring and the R8 that was part of his American Le Mans Series title in 2006, both feature in the recently released Forza 6, as does, for the first time, racing in the wet and at night, now that developer Turn10 believes it can do the conditions real justice. But it has also gone further and simulated an even greater level of realism – that of standing water and the aquaplaning it can induce in cars. Continue reading...

Computer gamers looking to relive their memories of space invaders and Pac-Man can now play the original arcade versions at homePlaying arcade games on original hardware is the ultimate way to enjoy the arcade experience at home. But the cost – and size – of an arcade cabinet can be prohibitive. Yet there is a relatively unknown console that lets you play arcade hardware on a TV: the supergun.Inside the arcade cabinet

Whether your iPhone processor chip was manufactured by Samsung or TSMC, Apple says battery life will only vary by 2-3%Claims that the battery life of the new iPhones can vary by up to two hours depending on which third-party supplier manufactured the central chip don’t reflect real-world usage, according to Apple.The chip at the heart of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, named the “A9” chip by Apple, comes in two forms, one manufactured by Samsung and the other by Taiwanese company TSMC. Since the phones started hitting shelves last week, users have reported that the phones containing Samsung chips significantly underperform those with TSMC chips in intensive battery-life tests. Continue reading...

Two taxi drivers appear in Brisbane magistrates court over allegations they and others were involved in assaults on three Uber driversA Brisbane Uber driver was assaulted by angry taxi drivers who used the ride-share app to set up their unsuspecting victim, a court has heard.Related: Brisbane taxi drivers charged over attacks on Uber drivers Continue reading...

High-profile law firm brings action on behalf of one woman from Boston and another from South Carolina, and says Uber ‘fails to protect female passengers’The law firm that represented the hotel maid who said she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn and a woman from Delhi who said she was raped and beaten after hailing an Uber driver last December has filed a lawsuit against the controversial taxi app on behalf of two female passengers.Related: Delhi woman sues Uber for 'negligence and fraud' after alleged rape Continue reading...

Letter calls for investigation and asks ‘what’s the difference in security measures’ that allowed supposedly limited access to database of 200 million peopleDozens of consumer privacy groups are calling for a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into the data breach at credit agency and data broker Experian, saying that intrusions into other parts of the company’s data “would be a terrifying and unmitigated disaster”.

Demise of Mark Group and Climate Energy prompts furious attack from green campaigners but government blames firms’ commercial decisionsThe Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has denied that subsidy cuts were responsible for the collapse of two solar panel installers in as many days, blaming the company failures on “commercial decisions”.Amid warnings of a crisis in the green energy sector following the failure of Mark Group and Climate Energy and a forecast that 20,000 solar jobs could eventually be threatened, the DECC defended aid cuts for solar and energy efficiency. Continue reading...

Murdoch sent a tweet on Wednesday night praising the Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson and jabbing at the current presidentRupert Murdoch has issued an apology, after suggesting on Twitter that Barack Obama was not a “real black president”.Murdoch sent a tweet on Wednesday night praising the Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson and his wife and jabbing at the current president – although not by name. Continue reading...

Kenya’s Samburu national park has been mapped by Google Street View, raising awareness of the reserve’s efforts to protect the elephant populationGoogle Street View has launched a map of Kenya’s Samburu national park, giving internet users the chance to get up close to the majestic elephants that live there. The project, created in partnership with Save the Elephants and with the support of the Samburu County government, aims to raise awareness about the struggle to protect the elephants, that remain at risk from poachers. Continue reading...

After much speculation over a ‘dislike’ button, social network trials emotional reactions for users, such as ‘love’ and ‘laughter’Facebook is to trial “reactions” options for users responding to content, proving that merely being able to “like” something was somewhat limiting the human emotional spectrum.From Friday, Ireland and Spain (assumingly particularly emotive nations?) will be the first to test the new feature. Despite wide reporting that Facebook was working on a “dislike” button in September, it seems company boss Mark Zuckerberg has decided that a binary choice of like and dislike is too specific. Continue reading...

Company’s Snowball hardware lets developers use postal service to get higher bandwidth than their broadband serviceAmazon has come up with a new system for getting huge amounts of data from your computers to theirs: send it by post. As computer science pioneer Andy Tanenbaum wrote: “Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.”The company’s new Snowball hardware is aimed at developers who use Amazon Web Services, the increasingly-ubiquitous internet backend to websites as varied as Netflix and Ocado. Continue reading...

Display market rises by more than a quarter as total digital advertising hits record £3.98m in first half

Korean company insists its payment system is secure and that no user or transaction data has been impacted by hack into underlaying technologySamsung has insisted that its newly launched mobile payments system is unaffected after the technology on which it is based, called LoopPay, was hacked.

Laurene Jobs allegedly called stars to dissuade them from taking part in Danny Boyle-directed drama, according to the Hollywood ReporterSteve Jobs’s widow Laurene Jobs called Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale to beg them not to play her husband in a forthcoming biopic, according to the Hollywood Reporter.In an extensive piece on the new film, titled simply Steve Jobs, the US trade bible quotes an anonymous “key player” in the film-making process, who reveals: “Since the very beginning, Laurene Jobs has been trying to kill this movie, OK? Laurene Jobs called Leo DiCaprio and said: ‘Don’t do it.’ Laurene Jobs called Christian Bale and said: ‘Don’t [do it].’” Continue reading...

Mario doesn’t like the sound of his Windows PC, particularly when watching TV programmes online. What can he do to improve it?What are the best, reasonably inexpensive hardware and/or software solutions to improve a PC’s crappy sound? We find the audio of TV programmes hard on our ears, bass too loud, and the high notes are several db lower than normal due to our age. We use our PCs to listen to classical music as well.Our operating system is Microsoft Windows 7, default device: Realtek speakers. Our speakers are cheap Creative MF 0055 2.0 Series. Are the standard sound boards that come with most PCs suitable or is a better one required? (We live in Canada and subscribe to the Guardian.) MarioA PC is a poor source for hi-fi, but that probably doesn’t matter if you mainly want to change the sound to suit your ears. In the long term, I expect you will have to buy better speakers. However, you can start by experimenting with Windows’ settings and, perhaps, some audio utilities. Continue reading...

TSMC and Samsung make chips for iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, but power consumption varies markedly, according to user reportsTwo seemingly identical, brand new, iPhones 6S may have a battery life that differs by up to two hours depending on which of two companies manufactured their processor, according to reports from owners.The investigations were sparked by a report from technology news site Anandtech that Apple is dual-sourcing one of the key components of the new phones. The A9 “system on a chip”, the lump of silicon that lies at the heart of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, is designed by Apple but manufactured by two independent contractors: Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Taiwan’s TSMC. The two chips interact with the rest of the hardware identically, based as they are on the same designs, but differences in their production is apparently having an effect on how efficient they are at doing their jobs. Continue reading...

These new aluminium wire-freeheadphones sound better than most. Linked by a subtle cable, they clip to each other magnetically – but battery life could be betterBluetooth earbuds offer the holy grail of wire-free listening without the bulk of headphones. Optoma’s new NuForce BE6 promise better sound and a premium aluminium design, but are they worth the extra cost over cheaper rivals?The NuForce BE6 are about as simple and understated as Bluetooth earbuds can get. Continue reading...

Matthew Keys was fired by a TV station owned by the same company two months before the website was hackedThe well-known social media journalist Matthew Keys has been found guilty of conspiring with the hacking group Anonymous to break into the Los Angeles Times’ website and alter a story.

Sensitive information about patients’ conditions could become public if phones are lost or stolen, warn researchersDetails of patients’ illnesses and treatment could be leaked because so many doctors use smartphones to send details of their cases to each other, including x-ray results and photographs of wounds, warns research.Patients are at risk of having their confidentiality breached because up to two-thirds of doctors are using SMS texts and picture messages to share information, including photographs of wounds, in the search for a second opinion. Continue reading...

Companies are pushing for the ability to fly their drones without the strict supervision that is currently required, but regulators say it could be a long waitIf you’re hoping Amazon will send the next George R R Martin novel to you by drone, you may have even longer to wait than you thought: the FAA estimates it will be three years before it has a framework for drone operators to fly the machines without direct human oversight.At a conference for commercial drone operators in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, the US Federal Aviation Adminstration (FAA) told the drone industry its new rules for drones will be given to the White House by the end of the year, including some more relaxed policies for corporate drone users.

People could use it to disable hobbyists’ drones but Liteye’s Anti-UAV Defense System has practical applications for law enforcement and government tooA team of British technology firms has developed a “death ray” for drones that can knock an unmanned aerial vehicle out of the sky by turning it off in midair up to a mile away.

Microsoft is betting big on a premium laptop that rivals Apple’s MacBook Pro and turns into a tablet – but it’s the kind of innovation it needsMicrosoft did something shocking last night. It launched something people might actually lust over, something sleek, something powerful, something innovative. The Surface Book.

Urban smellscape researcher Kate McLean travels the world mapping scents: Edinburgh smells of the brewery and penguin poo, New York’s summer is ripe with garlic and spilled beer, while Amsterdam smells of ... damp?“It smells like Amsterdam” is a well-turned phrase. Each year, about 1.5 million tourists visit the city to legally consume cannabis in specially licensed coffee shops, and every time their doors open to welcome a new customer, a potent waft escapes with the force of a jet missile into the street.Whatever your views on the subject, the scent of marijuana and hashish is strong. The distinctive and easily identifiable smell curls along the narrow streets of De Wallen, lingers among the pubs, clubs, bars and coffee shops of the red light district and wafts across the open expanse of Stationsplein as newcomers in transit cram in a full, enhanced, poly-sensory experience of the city. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and everything else that mattersIt’s Wednesday! Continue reading...

Attorney general tells billion-dollar companies to explain how they stop player data being misused by employees to line their own pocketsNew York’s attorney general has started investigating the fantasy sports companies DraftKings and FanDuel after reports that an employee may have used inside information to win $350,000 in a football contest.

European court of justice struck down provisions allowing transfer of EU citizens’ data to the US after Austrian student argued NSA might get access to itIreland has said it plans to investigate the transfer of data on Facebook users in Europe to the United States after an EU court invalidated the “safe harbour” provisions under which it took place.

New devices include the new Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, challenging Apple’s dominance at the top end of the laptop marketMicrosoft is bringing “the thunder”. That was the message sent to its competitors today, when Microsoft unveiled its Windows 10 devices, including the new Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, challenging Apple’s dominance at the top end of the laptop market.“We have competitors, you might have noticed. They are chasing us,” Panos Panay, head of engineering of all Microsoft devices, said during the hour-and-a-half-long presentation. “What do you do? Do you double down and bring the thunder or do you reinvent the category again?” Continue reading...

Budget airline says screenscraper websites such as eDreams, which pay to appear top of search engine, charge consumers moreRyanair has called on Google to take action to protect customers from booking flights with the airline at inflated prices on websites that it claims are masquerading as its own.In a turn of events that would have appeared unlikely a few years back, the no-frills carrier will champion consumers over what it believes is misleading advertising on Google. Continue reading...

The European Court of Justice decision in the Facebook case is the latest evidence of difference in attitude towards data protection

Want to pimp out your Sparrow? You’ll be able to from 13 October, if you’re prepared to payAll the new story content for the next year of Destiny, Bungie’s first new franchise since it launched Halo in 2001, will be free, as the company continues with a major overhaul of the multiplayer online game following its troubled first year.To make up for the lost revenue from giving away the content for free, Bungie has announced plans to introduce microtransactions to the game for the first time, letting users spend real money to buy cosmetic items such as character gestures and visual changes to their “Sparrow” hover bike in game. Continue reading...

Resistance to autonomous cars is understandable but it comes mainly from people who haven’t tried one themselvesThe room went quiet, as if everyone had just held their breath. Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, had just walked in wearing Crocs. I think it was the fact it was billionaire Brin, rather than the Crocs. Brin has the loosest of schedules and works on whatever takes his fancy. This morning it was self-driving cars. Regularly deferring to his engineers for the detail, Brin was there to emphasise how important and impressive the technology is, as if we needed reminding.I asked Brin how he planned to humanise the technology, how to take it beyond Google’s privileged and pro-technology bubble into a real world where citizens are more sceptical and less trusting. He looked disappointed with the question. Continue reading...

Social media site announces move into news publishing with launch of standalone site – but users won’t be able to upvote, or commentReddit has announced its move into news publishing (along with everyone else) with the launch of standalone site, Upvoted. The new site intends to capitalise on the popular content posted to Reddit, which is often picked up by other online media organisations.Upvoted will be headed by former MySpace editorial director Vickie Chang, in charge of a team of around 10. Initially, the site hopes to produce around 20 stories a day, increasing to 40 later. Continue reading...

Staff benefit from shares windfall as social media site doubles profits and revenuesTwitter UK staff benefited from a £14m share bonanza last year as the social media site doubled profits and revenues.Twitter made a pre-tax profit of £3.2m last year, almost double the £1.7m reported in 2013, according to the latest financial records at Companies House.

European Court of Justice rules 2000’s data protection agreement with US invalid, but will that stop Facebook from transferring your EU data to America?The European Court of Justice has ruled that the “safe harbour” agreement that allowed the transfer of European citizens data to the US is no longer valid. But what does that mean for the Facebooks, Googles and Microsofts of this world?

Backlash prompts social media app to abandon raft of features including plans to let people give anyone a negative ratingPeeple, the controversial app that promised to let users “review” other people and give them a rating out of five, has softened its offering just weeks before its planned launch.The company had previously scheduled the launch of the new social app, dubbed “Yelp for people”, for November this year. Revealed in early October, the app promised users the ability to “revolutionise the way we’re seen in the world through our relationships”. Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg details plans on how company is ‘exploring ways to use aircraft and satellites to beam internet access down into communities from the sky’Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg took to his own timeline on Monday to announce that the company would be providing web access … from space. A new satellite called Amos-6 will make the web accessible from big chunks of sub-Saharan Africa, orbiting over the continent and serving what Zuckerberg characterized as “large parts of west, east and southern Africa”.

Ownership of tablet computers among under-fives in the UK is widespread, with a quarter of under-threes having one of their ownA third of pre-school children in the UK have their own iPad or a similar tablet that they use for an average of one hour and 19 minutes every weekday, often on their own without a parent or guardian, according to research.The study found that in households that have tablets, 31% of children aged five and under have their own tablet; among even the youngest children ownership is widespread with a quarter of those under three having a tablet of their own. Continue reading...

Apple’s latest iPhone has a better camera, pressure sensitive 3D Touch screen, faster processor and quick fingerprint sensor, but lives fast and dies before bedThe iPhone 6S is one of only a handful of smaller premium smartphones and promises fast performance, a great camera and new pressure-sensitive touchscreen.

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

Benjamin Wash says Uber must accept some responsibility for the attacks and urged immediate political action from the Palaszczuk governmentThe Taxi Council Queensland has called on the state government to intervene after conflict with the ride-sharing app company Uber escalated to physical violence.Two Uber drivers were bashed by a group of men in Fortitude Valley and Kangaroo Point early on Monday morning. A third motorist who did not work for Uber was also bashed. Continue reading...

Main companies in fantasy sports industry worth billions insist they monitor for fraud after admission that employee accessed data and then won $350,000DraftKings and FanDuel, the two major US sports fantasy companies, defended their businesses’ integrity on Monday after an employee released insider information and then placed winning bets in the unregulated industry worth billions.Related: SEC Network bans ads for DraftKings and FanDuel citing gambling concerns Continue reading...

Local artist Ivan Cash unveils himself as the perpetrator of the infamous signs, which have reappeared in several parks across the cityWhen an official-looking “No Tech Zone” sign appeared in San Francisco last month, authorities were left confused by its mysterious arrival.

Malware that was active for over a year could have ‘accessed payment card information as it was being inputted,’ Trump Hotel Collection executives sayPresidential candidate and real-estate baron Donald Trump’s chain of high-end hotels “may have been the victim of a data security incident”, the company has informed customers.Trump Hotel Collection (THC) executives ascribed the breach to malware that was active on its systems “between May 19, 2014, and June 2, 2015”.

Recent high-profile cyber-attacks have highlighted the importance of online security. But are technological solutions at the mercy of human error?Businesses are coming under frequent and increasingly brazen attacks from computer hackers looking to steal sensitive data about customers and disrupt their operations. But many organisations are failing to take adequate steps to repel these onslaughts and often seem clueless about what to do when they happen.This summer’s scandal, when hackers attacked the Ashley Madison adultery website – posting confidential details online about 33 million accounts – should serve as a wake-up call to businesses, especially those dealing with personal data. They need to protect their customers’ data from cyber-attack – or see their reputations shredded. Continue reading...

Monthly line rental fee will rise by 6%, with the cost of calls also rising sharplySky is to increase the cost of its landline and other telecoms charges just five months after it increased the cost of watching its TV packages.From 1 December Sky’s phone customers will see their line rental increase from £16.40 to £17.40 a month – a 6% increase. Continue reading...

Twitter co-founder returns to permanently head up company of which he was also the first chief executiveTwitter has confirmed Jack Dorsey as its new chief executive. Dorsey, currently the company’s interim CEO, co-founded Twitter in 2007 and was its first CEO.He has served as the interim head of the firm for the past three months, after former boss Dick Costolo stepped down on 1 July. Alongside his appointment, the company also promoted Adam Bain, formerly the company’s president of global revenue & partnerships, to a chief operating officer role. Continue reading...

Lego finally enters the popular toys-to-life genre with a consistently delightful game that adds bricks and building to its on-screen adventuresIt’s hard to believe now, but during the late 90s, the Lego company faced an enormous struggle to stay relevant and profitable as children turned elsewhere for entertainment. Now, however, the Danish toy outfit has established itself as a cultural giant built not just from little bricks, but from licensed toys, animated feature films and, of course, video games.The unique, symbiotic connection between key brands like Star Wars, physical Lego playsets and the hugely successful Lego series of games was always going to lead toward a “toys-to-life” title. In this genre, created by Activision’s Skylanders series, special action figures can be placed on a USB portal, which then renders them into the on-screen action (using a rather unglamorous technology close to that which sees an Oyster card open a Tube station’s gate). The only surprise is that it’s taken so long for Dimensions to arrive. Continue reading...

Alphabet’s code of conduct is slightly less strict than Google’sGoogle is now Alphabet. Temporary Holding Company Number Two is now Google. And “don’t be evil” is now one step closer to being a thing of the past.Following the corporate reshuffle at Google, the world’s largest search firm is now owned by a holding company called “Alphabet” – which, confusingly, was temporarily a subsidiary of Google but then executed a “reverse takeover” of its parent company to become the new boss, at which point Google spun off a number of its own subsidiaries such as its life sciences subsidiary Calico and “moonshot” division X to sit under Alphabet. Continue reading...

Pressure on taxi app increases ahead of court hearing after London mayor says its technology dodges the law by mimicking the act of hailing a cabUber is coming under increasing pressure after Boris Johnson accused the taxi-hailing app of systematically breaking the law.In his weekly column for the Telegraph, the mayor of London said Uber’s mobile phone technology is effectively mimicking the act of hailing a taxi – a process that only black cabs can legally carry out. Continue reading...