Technology | The Guardian

Fujisawa residents will be ferried in driverless cars, which, if successful, could be used to transport spectators for the 2020 Tokyo OlympicsDozens of people in Japan will be whisked to the local shops in driverless taxis from next year in an experiment with robot technology that could be fully commercial by the time Tokyo hosts the Olympics in 2020.

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

There’s been a reported increase in the number of serious accidents caused by smartphone users not looking where they are going. So what are people so absorbed by? We took to the streets to find out Continue reading...

In Silicon Valley, millions of dollars change hands every day as investors hunt the next big thing – the ‘unicorn’, or billion-dollar tech firm. There are now almost 150, but can they all succeed?

Startups vying for attention at TechCrunch’s recent Disrupt event in San Francisco talk about their dog-eat-dog world, and in one case, their dog-eat world

Whistleblower Edward Snowden made a barnstorming start on the micro-blogging site, and here are 10 othersNSA whistleblower Edward Snowden arrived on Twitter last week. Within half an hour of his @Snowden account launching, he’d beaten the 72,000 followers amassed by the only feed Snowden himself is following - that of the National Security Agency itself. He’s currently on 1.2m and rising, while his first Tweet was, “Can you hear me now?” – a jingle used by US telecoms giant Verizon in television ads. He’s right up there with our top 10 Twitter debuts… Continue reading...

Transport for London’s belated attempt to regulate the sector is wrongheadedUber is not perfect. It is important to make that point before analysing Transport for London’s attempts to curtail its expansion. The taxi app has not done enough to guarantee the safety of its passengers or stop its prices surging when cities face unique events. On a lighter note, its drivers’ obsession with rigidly following their satnavs can be hugely irritating when that means flying over speed bumps and avoiding traffic-free routes that as a local resident you know are quicker.However, this not an excuse for TfL’s ham-fisted attempt to protect the status quo. The organisation has launched a consultation on plans to overhaul the private-hire car market in London. The proposals include an interval of at least five minutes between booking a car and the start of a journey, a requirement for drivers to pass an English-language test and a map-reading assessment. Taxi firms may also have to operate a landline telephone service and accept bookings up to seven days in advance. Continue reading...

Apple has made ad-blocking mainstream, prompting fears in the $31.9bn mobile ad market. But those grappling with the problem say the user must come firstEveryone hates mobile ads – even advertisers.Related: Can publishers stop the ad blocking wave? Continue reading...

Women’s groups call for advertisers to boycott internet starOne of YouTube’s biggest stars has been accused of trivialising rape amid pressure for firms to distance themselves from the online sensation.Olajide Olatunji, better known as KSI, whose YouTube channel has more than 10.2m subscribers, has been criticised by a coalition of women’s groups for denigrating victims of sexual violence and propagating misogynistic views of women by calling them “sluts”. Continue reading...

European Court of Justice decision has ‘changed face of data protection’ for internet companies claim experts by changing rules of one-stop-shopThe European Court of Justice has ruled in favour of the Hungarian data protection authority in its case against Slovakian property site Weltimmo. It’s a landmark ruling that could have big implications for companies such as Facebook and Google, operating across multiple EU countries.

Holes in audio and video handling systems could allow hackers to take over your device by just visiting a website, warn security expertsMore than 1bn Android smartphones and devices are vulnerable to a new security vulnerability dubbed Stagefright 2.0, warn security experts.

Christopher Miller, Phil Lord and Fox 21 Television Studios option rights to chronicle making of podcast as it follows new caseHit true crime podcast Serial is to turned into a television series by the directors of The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street films.

Faster fingerprint sensor, slightly better camera, and novelties such as a pressure sensitive screen cannot make up for the lack of extended battery lifeThe iPhone 6S Plus promises richer interactions with a pressure sensitive screen, a better camera with new “Live Photos” and longer battery life, despite it having a smaller capacity battery. Does it deliver?

Unauthorised access involved names, email addresses, mailing addresses and order details of customers who have shopped on the store’s websitesThe details of David Jones online customers have been hacked after a vulnerability in the department store’s website was discovered.David Jones is not saying how many customers have been affected but has moved to reassure people no credit card details were accessed. Continue reading...

Hack of one of the largest data brokers and credit agencies in the world affects T-Mobile USA users who applied for credit checks, company saysExperian, one of the largest credit agency data brokers in the world, has been hacked. Some 15 million people who used the company’s services, among them customers of cellular company T-Mobile who had applied for Experian credit checks, may have had their private information exposed, the company confirmed on Thursday.Information from the hack includes names, addresses, and social security, driver’s license and passport numbers. The license and passport numbers were in an encrypted field, but Experian said that encryption may also have been compromised. Continue reading...

Cheating on vehicle emissions is not an industry-wide problem, insists UK’s top representative of the car industryThe row that has engulfed the diesel car industry over cheating on vehicle emissions tests is limited to one company and should not be taken to indicate an industry-wide problem, the UK’s top representative of the car industry insisted on Thursday.

Author Lisa Watts, who helped to teach a generation of children about computers a quarter of a century ago, hopes new books will inspire tomorrow’s programmers

Privacy company Second Circle releases the second version of its phone, created by an encryption expert and a member of Navy Seal Team SixCan you hear me now? Not if you’re eavesdropping on a Blackphone. Privacy company Silent Circle has released a second version of its signature handheld, a smartphone designed to quell the data scraping and web tracking that’s become such an integral part of the digital economy in the last few years (and whose results might well end up with the NSA, if the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act passes).Silent Circle is the brainchild of the inventor of the modestly named “Pretty Good Privacy” (PGP) encryption, Phil Zimmermann, and former Navy Seal Team Six sniper Mike Janke. In the beginning, Janke said, the Blackphone project was just a way for people working for his security firm SOC, since sold, to call home without having their communications intercepted. With its newer and easier to use model, it’s seeking industry clients in addition to individual security wonks. Continue reading...

Lord Drayson says diesel cars, which received subsidies from Labour in 2001, are ‘literally killing people’Former science minister Lord Drayson has admitted that the Labour government’s support for diesel cars was a mistake, and warned that diesels are “literally killing people”.The comments came a day after Volkswagen, the world’s biggest carmaker, admitted that almost 1.2m vehicles in the UK were involved in the diesel emissions scandal that has rocked the company. This means more than one-in-10 diesel cars on Britain’s roads are affected. Continue reading...

Unsolicited SMS messages are designed for our mobile-focused world, but they could face a similar fate to email spamA prescient episode of The Simpsons (season 12, episode 14) referred to advertising as a three-pronged attack – subliminal, where the message was hidden; liminal, which was conventional advertising; and superliminal, which was shouting the message at random people in the street.Today, some companies choose to take the superliminal concept further by effectively shouting at us via SMS. If your number gets onto an advertiser’s list, you are on the receiving end of a relentless stream of calls and texts. Many of these do not involve other people, since the calls are generated by automated software and if you pick up, you hear a recorded message. Continue reading...

New profile videos let you ‘show a part of yourself you couldn’t before’, says social media company

Nintendo’s domestic design sim is as cute as you’d expect, but although the lights are on, there’s nobody homeIn life, there are things you just know you shouldn’t do. Never eat the yellow snow. Never trust anyone who is rude to waiters. Never take on one last job before retirement. And, of course, the golden rule: never, ever go on Grand Designs if you don’t really know what you want, where you want it and whether or not you have the budget to build it anyway.Grand Designs is a show in which Kevin McCloud joins a series of couples as their ambitious home-building plans are crushed beneath the caterpillar tracks of fortune. Every single episode follows the same plot. A happy couple describes their perfect house, Kevin raises his eyebrows, then they embark on the project anyway. A year passes – then we see the couple, now a shadow of their former selves, squatting in a concrete house-shell, taking it in turns to wash themselves in a stagnant puddle. For some reason, they always decide to have a baby at this point. Then Kevin says: “I told you so”. This makes for entertaining viewing. Continue reading...

An upcoming app allows you to assign one- to five-star reviews to people you know – and its founders insist it will be used responsiblyIn our modern world, where there are online reviews for everything from specific brands of ballpoint pen to specific shades of eyeshadow, buyer’s remorse should be a thing of the past. There are no mistakes; only lack of research.Those who won’t go to a play, buy a new phone, or eat at an unfamiliar restaurant without reading what others had to say about their experience first might be early adopters of Peeple, a user-review site like Yelp – but for human beings. Continue reading...

The internet. Probably the best invention ever (with apologies to the wheel). But are you using it efficiently? Here are ten ways to improve the experienceEver checked Facebook on a friend’s or family member’s device and then realised, with horror, that you forgot to log out? Never fear, there’s a simple, but little known, way to log out of your profile remotely. Navigate to “settings” using the drop-down in the right hand corner of your screen, then “security”, then “when you’re logged in”. From this screen, you will be able to close an open session, on whichever device it’s still running on. Continue reading...

Social network’s UK and Ireland managing director to assist publisher with digital expansion

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

Hackers disguised malicious software in emails purporting to be parking tickets sent to former secretary of state’s accountThe risks posed by Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while US secretary of state have been dramatically underscored by the disclosure of five attempts to break into her computer by hackers apparently based in Russia.

Biggest overhaul of law for years will see statutory rights traditionally covering cars and white goods extended to apps and music downloadsMillions of UK consumers who download music or buy ebooks can now claim a replacement if the digital content they have bought is faulty.

Taxi app says it is looking into legal action over ‘completely unconstitutional bill’ after Mayor Eduardo Paes signed legislation: ‘Uber is forbidden’The city that hosts next year’s Olympic Games has become the first in Brazil to ban the use of smartphone-based ride-hailing applications like Uber.Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes on Tuesday signed legislation recently passed by Rio’s city council banning Uber and similar technologies from operating in the city. Continue reading...

Taxi hailing company gathers 90,000 signatures as Institute of Directors accuses mayor of heavy-handednessBoris Johnson, the mayor of London, has been put on the spot over the launch of a consultation process being viewed as a crude attempt to curb the explosive growth in London of Uber, the taxi hailing app.Simon Walker, the director general of the Institute of Directors, said that Johnson, together with chancellor George Osborne and business secretary Sajid Javid, should be reducing regulation in the capital’s taxi and private car hire market rather than bringing in new and stiffer rules. Walker was responding to a set of proposals from Transport for London (TfL), revealed on Tuesday, which are said to reflect the mayor’s concerns about traffic congestion in London. Johnson is the chair of TfL. Continue reading...

Long-awaited SUV has 17in touchscreen, radar and sonar technology, and double-hinged falcon-wing doors that open when driver approachesTesla Motors has unveiled its new electric sport utility vehicle (SUV), the Model X, with much fanfare in California.The debut comes amid growing speculation that low-carbon vehicles are finally on the verge of a breakthrough after the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Continue reading...

Eyeo’s move follows court victory against German publisher Axel Springer, which claimed it breached laws on competition, copyright or market dominanceThe company behind popular ad blocking software AdBlock Plus has said it will set up an “independent board” to oversee its list of acceptable ads, less than a day after beating off a court challenge from German publisher Axel Springer.Eyeo has been accused of holding publishers to ransom by charging to have ads served to users of its ad-blocking software. Eyeo, a German software company, says those advertisers who want to get on its so-called “whitelist” must abide by rules against annoying or intrusive ads, but until now has made the final decision on which ads should be allowed. About 70 companies are reportedly signed up, but their names have not been disclosed. Continue reading...

The setting is the whipping boy of the new operating system. But iPhone users should give it a go before writing it offMy favourite new feature of iOS 9 is Wi-Fi Assist, a smart new setting – on by default on the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system – which allows the phone to gracefully fall back to cellular data when the Wi-Fi in the area flakes out. Admittedly, the fact that it’s my favourite says as much about the nuts-and-bolts nature of iOS 9 (and my own lack of desire to bother with Siri and Spotlight), but there it is.In my own daily use of the operating system, on both an iPhone 6 and 6S, it’s closed a number of black spots in my daily routine. As I’m leaving work, for instance, my phone stays connected to the Guardian’s wifi network until I’m about 100m down the road, but that connection’s too weak for real use almost immediately. Continue reading...

Social network unblocks video promoting the need for sight-loss advisers in UK hospitals after claiming it breached guidelines on languageFacebook has performed a dramatic U-turn, lifting a ban on a campaign by the Royal National Institute of Blind People that it claimed was “degrading”.The hard-hitting ad, which aims to promote the need for sight-loss advisers in every UK hospital, asks viewers to think about how they would feel if their health was under threat. Continue reading...

Three months after its free trial began, users of Apple’s Spotify rival must decide whether to start paying for it. What are the pros and cons?“Algorithms can’t do it alone. They’re very handy, and you can’t do something of this scale without ‘em, but you need a strong human element.”That’s Apple’s Jimmy Iovine, talking to the Guardian in June ahead of the launch of Apple Music, the company’s new music-streaming service. The same interview saw him label rivals like Spotify as mere “utilities” lacking Apple’s human touch. Continue reading...

New larger electric four-by-four can hit 60mph in 3.2 seconds, a top speed of 155mph and drive 250 miles per chargeElon Musk’s all-electric-car company Tesla has launched its highly anticipated SUV, the Model X.

To make it official, we’re publishing it in the media: there’s no need to post an informational message on the social network to warn friendsFacebook is not planning to make its users pay £5.99 [or $5.99 for US users] to keep their status updates private. Is this news? It may be to the people who’ve been sharing a hoax claiming the opposite.“Now it’s official! It has been published in the media. Facebook has just released the entry price: £5.99 to keep the subscription of your status to be set to ‘private’. If you paste this message on your page, it will be offered free,” claims the widely-circulated chain message. Continue reading...

Gaming, once dominated by specialist companies, is increasingly becoming a battleground for the tech giantsVideo and music tend to hog the headlines around the subject of casting technology, but with its new Chromecast, Google is making a play in another area: games.Gaming, once dominated by specialist companies, is increasingly becoming a battleground for the tech giants. Continue reading...

Outgoing COO Divinia Knowles says digital kids’ brand is coming back, while newer game World of Warriors has made $6m so farMind Candy is preparing to relaunch its Moshi Monsters children’s brand for a younger audience of four- to seven-year-olds, initially as animation with apps and toys to follow.Moshi Monsters was the online virtual world that at its peak in 2012 made Mind Candy one of the hottest technology startups in the UK, with more than 80 million registered users and a lucrative range of toys and merchandise. Continue reading...

As company searches for a new CEO and grapples with flattening growth, co-founder Jack Dorsey has suggested change is needed at the social media siteEdward Snowden may soon have more space to write: Twitter is considering allowing its posts to stretch beyond 140 characters, according to a report citing unnamed sources on tech news website Re/code.Twitter has struggled with flattening growth and is still in the midst of a search for a new CEO, with co-founder Jack Dorsey running the company in the interim. Continue reading...

Tinder demanded its name be removed while Grindr halted Aids Healthcare Foundation ads on site as AHF president called dating app companies ‘tone deaf’A recent billboard campaign by the Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) encouraging users of dating apps Tinder and Grindr to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases has led to backlash from the two companies.Related: Popularity of 'hookup apps' blamed for surge in sexually transmitted infections Continue reading...

Volkswagen says that customers of the 11m vehicles affected will be contacted in the next few daysVolkswagen is poised to recall up to 11m vehicles as the carmaker prepares its response to the emissions scandal that has rocked the automotive industry.Matthias Müller, the new chief executive of VW, told a meeting of the company’s top 1,000 managers that a comprehensive plan has been drawn up to ensure vehicles fitted with a defeat device meet emissions standards. Continue reading...

Updated smart TV dongle improves Wi-Fi and reduces buffering while new audio connector turns almost any hi-fi smart with wireless audio streamingGoogle has announced two new Chromecast streaming gadgets, one for streaming video and photos to a TV, and one for streaming music to any standard speakers.

Latest version of Apple’s laptop and desktop operating system gains an injection of speed, a new font and a raft of useful small tweaksThe latest version of Apple’s laptop and desktop operating system OS X 10.11 El Capitan will genuinely speed up your computer, particularly if you’ve got an older Mac.

Ex-BBC Radio 1 DJ says Apple music service he oversees measures its success not by ratings but by the amount of noise it makesFormer BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe has said Apple’s new global music service Beats 1, which he oversees, is “like a three-month-old baby. They make a lot of noise … and they shit everywhere”.Lowe, the award-winning presenter who is director of the 24-hour music station that launched to much fanfare in June, said the service measured its success not by ratings but by the amount of noise it generates. Continue reading...

The common language at the European Cultural Foundation’s second annual Idea Camp – featuring 50 ‘idea makers’ from 23 countries who gathered in Stockholm to chase prizes of €10,000 – was English. Unofficially, it was urbaneseIn the Stockholm suburb of Botkyrka, where 1970s towerblocks bathe in damp Swedish autumn air, and misty forests surround the peaceful lake of Albysjön, lies the former estate of telephone tycoon Lars Magnus Ericsson. He was a farmer’s son, and once he was done with telephones he moved back to the country to return to his first love, bovine innovation. After his death the buildings fell into disuse and in the 1990s were bought by the local municipality for one krone, and turned into a “creative cluster” home to a series of arts institutions, collectively known as Subtopia.

Rapid telecoms growth and poor infrastructure are threatening Narendra Modi’s dream of digitally connecting urban and rural IndiaIn the past decade, nearly one billion people have been connected to wireless phone services as part of India’s mobile communications revolution, making it the second-largest mobile phone market in the world. But a recent combination of rapidly rising growth and bad infrastructure has turned India’s dreams of wireless phone expansion into a nightmare.Anguish over dropped calls has cut across income levels and social strata and led to unkind jokes about the country as the “call-drop nation”. The government-run national consumer complaints help line reported that dropped calls ranked near the top of the list of all grievances in July and August. The issue was the cover story of a national news magazine in July. And a TV station has launched a social media campaign called #NoCallDrops. Continue reading...

Gottfrid Svartholm, also known as Anakata, released from prison three years after his arrest in CambodiaA co-founder of the Pirate Bay has been released from prison after serving three years for copyright and hacking offences.Gottfrid Svartholm was initially convicted in 2011, when his involvement with the bittorrent site led to a one-year prison sentence handed down in Stockholm, Sweden. Svartholm, also known as Anakata online, had been found guilty in absentia alongside three of his Pirate Bay colleagues for copyright infringement. He had avoided the trial, and no-one, including his lawyer, knew his whereabouts. Continue reading...

Company responds to privacy fears clarifying what data it collects, claiming transmission of personally identifiable information can be disabledMicrosoft has responded to Windows 10 users’ privacy fears by insisting that it does not scan emails, messages or files for advertising purposes.When Windows 10 launched some users complained that Microsoft had compromised their privacy due to its default settings. Continue reading...

YouTube channel campaign aiming to promote the need for sight loss advisers in UK hospitals blocked on social media site for breaking guidelines on languageFacebook has banned a hard-hitting ad campaign by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, arguing that users of the social networking site should only see “neutral or positive” messages.The RNIB launched the ad on its YouTube channel and has been seeking to run a campaign featuring the video across Facebook. Continue reading...