Technology | The Guardian

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...

The way a game lets you treat its non-player characters can tell us volumes about the limitations of interactive adventuresWe all know that video games offer us the chance to do things we’d never dream of doing in real life – robbing banks, slaying dragons, sorting falling shapes into the right position to make them disappear. Crazy stuff.But in structural terms, games are nowhere near as rebellious and anarchic as they appear. Most are packed with rules and frameworks which are specifically designed to restrict the player – and there is usually a central narrative that you have to follow if you want to see the end. This is fine in a lot of genres, where rules are obviously necessary to create a tight play structure. But only a select few titles labelled as “open world” or “sandbox” adventures let you completely and utterly shatter the experience intended for you by the developers – or at least punish you in an imaginative way. Continue reading...

Users were unable to access social networking site on Monday afternoon, following similar outage on ThursdayFacebook was inaccessible for some users on Monday afternoon, its second outage in less than a week.

Body slamming US stars beat nursery-rhymes channel Little Baby Bum with 456.4m views of their videos, boosted by Summerslam 2015WWE wrestling, children’s nursery rhymes and Turkish music videos were the biggest hits on YouTube in August 2015, according to the latest chart of the online video service’s top channels.The American wrestling channel topped that month’s chart of the most-viewed YouTube channels, published by analytics firm OpenSlate and industry site Tubefilter, with 456.4m views of its videos. Continue reading...

A German transport ministry spokesman gives a statement on Monday saying the government had no prior knowledge of VW’s emission manipulation. The spokesman, Martin Susteck, says the car manufacturer had been given until 7 October to present a timetable for a mechanical solution to the emissions scandal Continue reading...

Discount grocer opens up new line of attack in supermarket wars by selling wine per case in its first online ventureAldi is to open a new front in its assault on the UK grocery market early next year when it begins selling wine online.The move comes despite the impact of the continuing price war on the group, which has suffered its first fall in operating profits in six years. Matthew Barnes, chief executive of Aldi in the UK and Ireland, said a huge part of an £11m decline in operating profits last year, to £260m, was due to price cuts, as Aldi responded to waves of activity by its bigger rivals. Continue reading...

Smart TVs aren’t always that smart, meaning a streaming box normally offers much more. But which one is best for you?Want more from your television without having to buy a new one? You need a streaming box. Here are five of the best on the market. Continue reading...

YouTube beefed up its live streaming and Amazon’s Twitch added video uploads, but it’s their gaming audiences that will define which advances fastestSoon, ridiculing the idea of watching other people play video games will seem ridiculous in itself. People do, and in increasingly large numbers online.YouTube has “hundreds of millions” of people watching “billions of hours” of gaming videos every month, with its top 100 games channels generating 7.3bn video views in July 2015 alone. Continue reading...

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

Roads and Maritime Services say taxi and hire car services must have authorised and accredited operators and a licensed and insured vehicleUber says it is “shocked” and seeking legal advice after 40 of its New South Wales drivers had their vehicle registration suspended.Roads and Maritime Services director of safety and compliance Peter Wells said the government was cracking down on those who allowed their vehicles to be used for illegal ride-sharing. Continue reading...

Narendra Modi and CEO both get emotional at event at Facebook headquarters in California, as pair discuss the role of internet and technology in IndiaThe Indian prime minister Narendra Modi seemed at home at Facebook headquarters on Sunday, in a town hall event seen by many as an attempt by Facebook to gain much-needed support for its expansive ambitions in India.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was certainly in a welcoming mood, changing his profile picture to include an Indian flag and writing: “I changed my profile picture to support Digital India, the Indian government’s effort to connect rural communities to the internet and give people access to more services online.” Continue reading...

A chunky PC, lava lamp and the 1998 Google logo encourage users to wish the company a happy birthdayThere was a beautiful array of autumnal vegetables for the Google doodle marking the change of the season, and a rugby player looking suspiciously like an American footballer for the start of the Rugby World Cup. But to mark its 17th anniversary, Google has gone for a retro commemorative doodle, referencing a simpler era when Larry Page and Sergey Brin could leave a doodle of a stick man to tell users that they were out of office at the Burning Man Festival.Google has celebrated its anniversary with a doodle every year since its fourth in 2002, and has at times sparked controversy: in 2014, the company used a rainbow-coloured doodle to mark the opening of the Sochi Winter Olympics, declaring where it stood on Russia’s gay rights record. Continue reading...

No need for coffee for a post-lunch lift, the Doppel can enliven or relax users with a gentle change in pulse, its creators claim

Taking its name from the legendary DS of the 1950s, this saloon is trying too hard to stand out from the crowdPrice: £25,980

The sisters have launched their own internet channel, the latest and most popular of a new genre that is revolutionising celebrity cultureThe idea seems to be one from some dystopian novel: a world where every celebrity has their own internet channel, exhaustively promoting their brand to eager fans, who pay to tune in and watch their favourite stars selling themselves online.In truth, that future is already upon us. This month, four of the five Kardashian/Jenner sisters – Kim, Khloé, Kendall and Kylie – launched their own subscription-based digital hubs through media company Whalerock Industries. Fifth sister Kourtney’s hub is in the pipeline. Continue reading...

Veteran head of Porsche division Matthias Müller takes over car giant and blames ‘small group’ of staff for emissions scandalVolkswagen has blamed its emissions scandal on a “small group” of people and has suspended a number of staff as Matthias Müller was unveiled as its new chief executive.

Huge amounts of data are being generated by Facebook users around the world, at a rate that doubles every 18 months. The Luleå centre is a part of the global infrastructure connecting 1.3 billion users. Guardian photojournalist David Levene went to the Arctic circle to take a tour of the pioneering facility Continue reading...

Not much is new about Apple’s iPhone 6S, but it does come in a new colour. But is it baby pink? Salmon pink? Hot pink? Or maybe blood orange? We wish it would make its mind up, but whatever the colour, it certainly doesn’t look like ‘rose gold’ (whatever that is) Continue reading...

Twitter trials new functionality in native applications, allowing users to click one of two options and see resultsTwitter has introduced the ability for some users to create polls within its mobile app and desktop site during a significant feature trial.The polling feature, which takes the form of a two-option choice, has been rolled out to Twitter staffers and certain – but not all – verified accounts. Continue reading...

Remote datacentre in Luleå cools itself using freezing outside air, has a fence to keep moose out and processes your selfiesFrom the outside, it looks like an enormous grey warehouse. Inside, there is a hint of the movie Bladerunner: long cavernous corridors, spinning computer servers with flashing blue lights and the hum of giant fans. There is also a long perimeter fence. Is its job to thwart corporate spies? No – it keeps out the moose.Related: Data centre emissions rival air travel as digital demand soars Continue reading...

Remember all those sites you used to use? We’d like to know what you used to get up to on the internetRemember a time before Twitter? Before Facebook? The internet used to be a completely different place. Continue reading...

Elena and Alex get misty eyed about the days of ye olde internete when the world wide web was black and white and needed winding up in the morningIn this week's instalment of Updog – our podcast dedicated to internet memes and all things digitally viral – Alex Hern and Elena Cresci trawl through the dusty corners of the internet to look back at the days of dial-up modems, LiveJournal and neopets.Elena's finally admits to her career plan B, Ginny Weasley Fanfic. Continue reading...

Winter games: the big video game releases of 2015 and what they tell us about the state of the industryWe're heading into video game release season, when all the major blockbuster titles are flung onto the market in the hope of snaring those Christmas millions. However, amid the flood of sequels, shooters and sci-fi epics it seems that variety and diversity of experience are being increasingly overlooked in the rush to give a certain demographic exactly what they think they want.Can big publishers really sustain this hugely expensive Triple A model into the next decade? On this week's games takeover podcast, Keith Stuart and Jordan Erica Webber take look at all the biggest releases with independent games developer Holly Pickering, journalist at Kotaku, Keza Macdonald and Nicholas Lovell from Gamesbrief to ask if creativity is being strangled in the mainstream video game sector. Continue reading...

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

Transport minister and aviation authority chief clash over couple’s demand for drones, helicopters and a hot air balloon to record happy dayThe imminent wedding in Israel of the supermodel Bar Refaeli would usually be the territory of celebrity magazines. And yet Thursday night’s event has stoked a bitter political spat between the country’s transport minister and the head of Israel’s civil aviation authority.The point of dispute is whether the 30-year-old celebrity and her husband-to-be, the billionaire Israeli businessman Adi Ezra, should have the airspace above their nuptials at a spa in the Carmel forest resort closed to all but a fleet of aircraft they have hired. Continue reading...

Vehicle with the power of 180 F1 cars is put on display in Canary Wharf ahead of plan to break current world land-speed record of 763mphFor the last two years a supersonic car has taken shape in an ordinary-looking unit on an industrial estate near Bristol, a joinery on one side, a plumbers’ merchant on the other.On Friday, the car, Bloodhound SSC, will be unveiled for the first time in the much more glitzy surroundings of Canary Wharf in east London. Continue reading...

Social network giving virtual-reality content a boost in its news feed, with other partners including GoPro, LeBron James and ViceFacebook users watch more than 4bn videos a day on the social network. Soon, they’ll be able to watch some of them in 360 degrees.The company has begun supporting videos that allow viewers to pan round the scene in a full circle, six months after YouTube added a similar feature to its service. Continue reading...