Technology | The Guardian

Laurence Bain led Premier Farnell, which makes the educational mini-computer, for three years but saw stock plunge to a six-year low in JulyPremier Farnell, which makes the Raspberry Pi mini-computer, has ousted its chief executive, Laurence Bain, following disappointing recent results.Bain ran the company for the last three years after taking over from Harriet Green, who left to take charge of Thomas Cook. Mark Whiteling, Premier’s chief financial officer, has been appointed as interim chief executive until a permanent successor is found. Continue reading...

IoT is helping make privacy and autonomy the preserve of the powerful. As technology’s glare increases, it’s imperative we question who benefits from itRecently I went on a BBC news programme to give “the privacy side” of a technology story. Employees of a software company in Sweden had implanted chips in their wrists that activated the company photocopier. Yes, you read that right. Having minor surgery instead of just remembering a four-digit PIN is a pretty daft idea. You’d have to be a tech utopian to want to do it.But this news story wasn’t just about privacy and new technologies, and how “we’ll all soon be doing it”. This story was about power: who has it, who doesn’t, how it is used. And the internet of things, too, is about power. Continue reading...

Join us to watch the TEDxMelbourne 2015 live from 11am. TEDxMelbourne’s theme this year is ‘the stuff of dreams’, from uncovering vast visions for humanity, or just the local community, to stories of adventure, exploration and overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds with strength and courage.• Full list of speakers Continue reading...

The tech company’s 2014 EEO report, which it finally released after repeated refusal, showed only 11 people of color were in upper management positionsMore than 70% of Apple’s most senior executives are white men, the company’s first official diversity filings show.

Harvard student Aran Khanna lost position after he launched app called Marauder’s Map that could pinpoint location of Facebook Messenger usersA Harvard University student says he lost his internship at Facebook after he launched a browser application from his dorm room that exploited privacy flaws on the company’s mobile messenger.

A recent Vanity Fair piece heralded the ‘dawn of the dating apocalypse’, led by the app Tinder. Or has dating always been this way? Share your experiences of dating in the internet ageThe internet is ruining dating for everyone – or has it always been like this?A Vanity Fair piece published this week struck an ominous tone for 2015’s singletons. Headlined “Tinder and the dawn of the dating apocalypse”, it was brutal about the New York dating scene, placing the blame squarely at the feet of Tinder and other dating apps. Continue reading...

You’d think John Cridland, as head of the CBI, would know a bit about the games industry. Instead he comes out with a staggering haiku of ignoranceHi, I’m a bit confused. Is it still 2015 out there or have I somehow gone 30 years back in time? It’s just that, this morning, I saw the Independent’s interview with John Cridland, director general of the Confederation of British Industry. The role of this organisation, according to its incredibly dull website, is to promote and provide a voice for British businesses – so you’d think its director general would know a little bit about, say, one of the UK’s most vibrant and dynamic creative sectors. But this is what he had to say about video games, which he recognises as an important growth industry:Related: GameCity festival interviews: Lumino City – video Continue reading...

War with Apple hots up as Korean company launches larger version of smartphone matching Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus, and powerful new Note 5Samsung has launched two new phablets, the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+, in its war with Apple and LG to maintain its large-screen smartphone crown.

Even as it draws you in with its central mystery, this game will frustrate you by being so damn slowRapture’s apocalypse is unlike those in other games. While you don’t initially know the cause, it’s clear it was no nuclear bomb or zombie horde. The tiny English village looks almost exactly as you’d expect one to have done 30 years ago, except that, as the title suggests, everybody’s gone.Games such as Rapture (often dubbed “walking simulators” by those who look down on them for having fewer traditionally game-like elements) commonly exclude human characters to ensure a more immersive experience, as in Gone Home, and developer The Chinese Room’s previous game Dear Esther. That raises the question here: what came first, the format or the story? Continue reading...

People aren’t the only ones threatened by drones invading their privacy, as spate of attacks caught on camera shows wildlife fighting backRemarkable footage of an eagle attacking and disabling a drone has taken the internet by storm, but it illustrates that drones can distress animals as much as they annoy humans.

As India’s cities struggle to turn the tables on rape and sexual assault, a new app allows women to share their stories of harassment and actively address abusive behaviour in their neighbourhoodsI was touched at rush hour at the busy Andheri Station. A person passing my rickshaw simply touched my breast and ran away while I sat disgusted and dumbfounded in the rickshaw at a signal. I couldn’t even see his face and don’t even know whom to hate more – him or my timing for being there at that point. (Andheri West)The Safecity app lets women share their stories of harassment and abuse in public spaces in cities. Elsa D’Silva, one of its founders, says that women can use it to report “what happened, where it happened and when it happened”. Continue reading...

Operating system contacts OneDrive, MSN and other services even if a user has activated privacy-protecting options, report discovers

New rules from eSports league ESL will match anti-doping policies of sporting bodies WADA and NADA, with saliva-based tests for playersProfessional gamers competing in events run by eSports body ESL are now banned from using marijuana during competitions, under the organisation’s new anti-doping policy.ESL announced plans in July to introduce the policy, promising that it would be “fair, feasible and conclusive while also respecting the privacy of players”. Now it has published details of its plans. Continue reading...

Live-streaming app’s founders say it now has nearly 2m daily active users watching 40 years of video per day to their smartphonesTwitter’s standalone app for live-streaming video, Periscope, now has nearly two million daily active users watching 40 years of broadcasts a day.Periscope published the stats to celebrate another milestone: its 10 millionth registered user since the app first launched for Apple’s iPhone in March, with an Android version following in May. Continue reading...

Welcome to Aleppo pushes back at the apathetic response to the impact of the civil war in Syria, but its maker wants action not just empathy“There’s a deafening apathy to all of the stories about refugees in a situation like Aleppo in Syria. To be honest, people don’t care any more, and we’ve had a few years of beating our heads against the wall trying to make people care.”As a freelance photographer and videographer, Christian Stephen has been trying to tell stories from war zones for the last half a decade while fretting about this challenge. His latest film, Welcome To Aleppo, uses technology to try to solve it. Continue reading...

We investigated Tinder’s defensive claims in reaction to the Vanity Fair article to find that many users might not be single and swiping in North Korea gets lonelyTinder fired off a series of intemperate tweets on Tuesday night in response to a Vanity Fair story that alleged the dawn of the “dating apocalypse” is upon us.Related: 'The Tinder Generation is real': app has online meltdown over Vanity Fair article Continue reading...

Police and government agencies asked for user information 299 times from January to the end of June, up from 116 in second half of 2014The number of requests for Twitter user data made by British authorities has more than doubled in the last six months, , figures reveal.

Feel free to bombard your friends with effectively unlimited direct messages now as the social network enables a longer unbroken serviceTwitter users can now send direct messages (DM) of up to 10,000 characters, three months after the company announced the forthcoming change to users and developers on its development blog.The new DMs, which are intended to be of effectively unlimited length for the typical user, are part of the company’s long-running effort to upgrade its messaging service to make it a more competitive alternative to market leaders such as Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger apps. Continue reading...

Documents show the tech company has skirted regulations for private firms for a year by flying its Project Wing aircraft over private land as part of a deal with NasaGoogle has been quietly testing its drone delivery program in US airspace and is planning further tests in rural California after striking a deal with Nasa, the Guardian has learned.Documents seen by the Guardian also reveal technical details of Google’s drone, which is capable of speeds of up to 100 mph and weighs less than 25kg (55lb). The papers also reveal Google’s safety plans should a drone lose contact with its operator.

Corporation will spend nearly half its advertising budget for paid-for media on promoting launch of online-only channelThe BBC has announced that half of the advertising budget it spends on paid-for media this year will be spent solely on promoting the launch of an online-only TV service to replace the BBC3 TV channel.The corporation said it intends to almost triple BBC3’s budget that is focused on paid-for media, ad space bought on commercial media and not through the use of BBC TV, radio and online inventory, in the year to the end of March 2016. Continue reading...

An employee sent 31 tweets responding to claim Tinder has brought about the ‘dating apocalypse’ – and denies that a significant chunk of users are marriedTinder has reacted poorly to being heralded as the harbinger of the “dating apocalypse” in Vanity Fair magazine, going on a defensive rampage on social media.Related: How to survive the dating apocalypse Continue reading...

From smart pans to connected scales, the internet of things is now tackling the art of cooking – so would professional chefs want to use these gadgets?

WIth a bigger – and vastly more engaged – Facebook fan base, the 73-year-old Vermont senator looks a lot like young Americans’ candidate of choiceHillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, or at least their campaign staff, spent Monday night posting altered versions of each other’s campaign slogans and logos, in a check-out-how-tech-savvy-I-am fight that might as well have been hashtagged #DownWithTheKids.

Google restructuring pushes companies’ search results right down the page – with alphabet.com, owned by BMW, reviewing ‘trademark infringement’One day after Google’s reorganisation under the umbrella brand Alphabet, you have to dig through three pages of internet search results just to find a single reference to an alphabet of any other kind – and when you do, you find Alphabet, a fleet-car services company owned by German auto giant BMW.

As Larry Page once told staff, technology is revolutionary, not evolutionary, and Google’s surprise move has experts speculating there are more changes to come

Suspects in the US and Ukraine accused of reading corporate press releases before they came out, and then trading on that information ahead of the pack on Wall StreetNine people in the US and Ukraine were charged on Tuesday with making $30m by hacking into business newswire services, reading corporate press releases before they came out, and then trading on that information ahead of the pack on Wall Street.Federal authorities said it was the largest scheme of its kind ever prosecuted. In a measure of the scope of the alleged conspiracy, the US Securities and Exchange Commission brought related civil charges against the nine plus 23 other people. Continue reading...

Tolerance of corporate secrecy and business-friendly tax laws in state where Google lists its official address have seen it labelled one of world’s top tax havensGoogle’s Street View cameras have photographed locations across the world, allowing armchair tourists a view of anything from the Tower of London to Tiananmen Square. But one address is notable by its absence. The office building at 2711 Centerville Road in Wilmington, Delaware, a small town just south of Philadelphia, has not been captured by the Street View cameras. And yet this is the official address of Google Inc, the holding company of one of the world’s most successful software groups.Related: Why Google is restructuring, why the name Alphabet and how it affects you Continue reading...

A bit like the phenomenon of stealth Starbucks branches, Google has become so ubiquitous it is choosing to fade into the background“Sergey and I are seriously in the business of starting new things,” writes Google co-founder Larry Page, in his blogpost launching the company’s latest venture to the world: the birth of a Google mother-brand, henceforth to be known as Alphabet. It is something of an understatement for an organisation set on conquering every aspect of our known existence, having grown from the small ambition of indexing all the world’s information, into a web of endless autonomous divisions that now tackle everything from self-driving cars to roaming internet balloons to slowing down the process of ageing.So what brand could represent this new catch-all umbrella, an overarching vehicle for the company’s voracious new forays into further-flung fields? The evolution of the Google brand over the years has always reflected the company’s changing aspirations, from the homespun novelty WordArt of a pair of Stanford maths geeks, to the slick logo we see today. Continue reading...

Technology companies file brief with New York court urging judges to strike down film studios’ injunction in MovieTube piracy caseGoogle, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo have accused US film studios of attempting to resurrect the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa), which was defeated in Congress in 2012.

Piano Media and Tinypass to create business serving more than 1,200 media companies wishing to charge for accessPaywall providers Piano Media and Tinypass are merging to create a business serving more than 1,200 media companies including NBC Universal, Time Inc and News Corp.The merger marks a further consolidation of the market for helping media companies get their users to pay for content online. Piano, originally founded in Slovakia, acquired US company Press+ last Autumn in a deal reportedly worth $45m (£29m) to create the world’s largest provider of paywalls. Continue reading...

Much more than a renaming, the reshuffle at the US search group suggest there’s more going on than meets the eyeIf you haven’t heard of Alphabet, don’t worry: neither had most people in the world until 5pm EST (10pm BST) on Monday, when Google announced a restructuring. When it’s all done, the search company will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, a new holding company headed up by Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt, formerly the bosses of Google.It may seem like a simple name change, but the reality is more complicated. Later this year, Google will create Alphabet as a wholly owned subsidiary of itself. Alphabet will then create its own wholly owned subsidiary, which will merge “with and into” Google, leaving Google – through the magic of corporate finance – a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet. Confused? You’re not alone. Continue reading...

Mandatory automatic update for operating system causes issues as broken patch makes it reach certain percentage of installation before failing and rolling back

Poet Victoria Bennett and digital artist Adam Clarke’s ‘poem-world’ shows popular video game as a platform for art and expressionMy Mother’s House is the most moving poem I’ve ever played. It’s the work of poet Victoria Bennett, inspired by her experience caring for her terminally-ill mother, and reliving some of the shared memories in her home.As I explored it, the poem brought back my recent memories of helping my own mother clear out my late grandfather’s house, remembering and sometimes learning for the first time about different aspects of his life. Continue reading...

Sales of high-margin games pick up after pre-Christmas giveaways kept customers glued to their screensGame Digital has recovered from a profit warning in January to declare robust trading in the second half of its financial year as customers bought more games to play on their consoles.The company also said its foray into mass gaming was going well. Its Multiplay business, acquired in April, has sold more than 35,000 tickets for the Insomnia festival, to which games enthusiasts bring their consoles to play games and watch others in action. Continue reading...

People are waking up to the news that Google is now Alphabet, and are suitably confused. Here, with the help of social media, is an explanation

At Defcon in Las Vegas, hackers gather to show off the latest vulnerabilities. That’s why last weekend was just full of bad newsEvery year in Las Vegas, thousands of security researchers, penetration testers, and infosec experts congregate at the hacker conference Defcon to share security tips, show off newly-discovered vulnerabilities, and just generally deliver really bad news to the rest of the world.Because if you’re a researcher who’s managed to hack something that you really shouldn’t be able to hack, Defcon is the place to show it off. And this year – the 23rd in the conference’s history – was no different. Hackers showed off ways to penetrate drones, skateboards, and even brains. Sort of. But the important thing is that they haven’t yet worked out how to hack that unsettling sense of impending doom you’re feeling right now. Nope, that’s all natural. Continue reading...

Writers consider legal action against Moscow publishing house after discovering series about president circulated in their names. The Moscow Times reportsA Russian publishing house has printed a series of books about Vladimir Putin under the names of prominent western analysts and journalists – without the knowledge or permission of the so-called authors.Related: Major labels sue Russian social network vKontakte for 'large-scale' music piracy Continue reading...

Government sources tell NBC News that Chinese attack targeted personal emails of ‘all top national security’ officials just days after Pentagon hackThe ongoing saga of successful foreign hack attacks on government databases continued Monday with news of another break-in allegedly perpetrated by China.Just days after the reported spear-phishing attack on the Pentagon’s joint staff email system, which exposed some 4,000 civilian and military employees and is believed to have been sponsored by Russia, anonymous government sources told NBC News that a separate set of Chinese hack attacks targeted the personal emails of “all top national security and trade officials”. Continue reading...

Social network study finds just 1.9% use ‘LOL’ to signal amusement, as emoji use is on the riseStill using LOL to express laughter digitally? Ha, that’s so old. According to a new study carried out by Facebook, 51% of us express our laughter on the social network with a simple “haha”.The US-wide study, entitled The Not-So-Universal Language of Laughter, and conducted in response to a New Yorker article on the subject of “e-laughter”, has collated data on the way de-identified users express mirth. The results are broken down by age, gender and location. Continue reading...

Software developer exploits loophole to obtain thousands of names, pictures and locations of users who link their mobile phone number with accountFacebook has been urged to tighten its privacy settings after a software engineer was able to harvest data about thousands of users – simply by guessing their mobile numbers.The developer obtained the names, profile pictures and locations of users who had linked their mobile number to their Facebook account but had chosen not to make it public. Continue reading...

Most prominent independent kid-apps developer reports £6.1m for 2014, as it prepares for video expansion in 2015Tens of millions of children are using tablets, but this does not yet mean a lucrative market for the companies making apps for these digital kids.The most prominent independent developer of children’s apps, Swedish company Toca Boca, has published its financial results for 2014, revealing revenues of SEK 82.2m (£6.1m) for the year. Continue reading...

British children’s channel makes first merch move fuelled by 3.6bn views, with ambitions to overtake One Direction on YouTube by ChristmasFresh from overtaking Ed Sheeran, the BBC and X Factor in YouTube’s all-time video views chart, children’s nursery-rhymes channel Little Baby Bum is moving into the toys market.Its videos have been watched more than 3.6bn times since it was launched in 2011 by a UK-based couple, and is currently one of the top five channels on Google’s online videos service. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterMonday again! Today’s screenshot comes from Heavy Gear Assault, a mech battle game from Canadian independent developer Stompy Bot Productions. It’s currently in early access. Continue reading...

Facebook has been urged to tighten its privacy settings after a software engineer was able to obtain data about thousands of users by generating random mobile phone numbers. The developer shows how he harvested the names, profile pictures and other data of users who had linked their mobile phone numbers to Facebook, but had not chosen to make them public Continue reading...

Much of wearable technology is used to help coaches, trainers and general managers maximize player performance – but athletes want to make sure the line between the personal and the professional doesn’t blurWearable technologies and big-data analytics are enabling coaches, trainers and general managers to analyze previously unquantifiable aspects of athletic performance in fine detail. But as more technology gets strapped on to professional athletes, some are beginning to express concern over how such devices could be used to track their diet, sleep patterns and life off the field.

Millions of users exchange short video clips as 1980s file format changes online conversationDotcom fashion has left hordes of trends and hot names in its impatient wake but there is hope for those cast out of the digital mainstream: the gif is back. Continue reading...

‘It swam into sixth gear with discernible enthusiasm; the torque could blow your cheeks back’It’s the sportiest in the Hyundai range; it has sportier wheel arches, a sportier, more shapely grill, an all-round aura of sportiness.But I wasn’t struck by it, not at first. Who reads a car’s personality in its grill? Then I got in and it all changed: the steering wheel is leather with red stitching. Visible stitching shouts “fun”, because it subconsciously reminds you of saddlebags and other horse paraphernalia. It shouts, speed for the hell of it, speed you didn’t know was coming; it has been yelling, “You are about to go much faster than walking” since the 1880s. Continue reading...

Report says push to diversify boardroom means Costolo, who stood down in July as chief executive officer, could be among those on the way outRelated: Dick Costolo: why tech firms are set to face complex ethical issuesTwitter’s board is weighing a shakeup that could involve the complete exit of its former chief executive officer, Dick Costolo, Bloomberg has reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Continue reading...

Sony Pictures’ slate for 2016 and 2017, which includes remakes of the Robin Williams family film, has prompted cries of ‘too soon’ and ‘travesty’Twitter users have reacted with fury to the prospect of a remake of the hit 1995 movie Jumanji, which starred Robin Williams as a man released from a magical board game in which he had been trapped for 26 years.Industry stories of a Jumanji reboot had been quietly circulating for some time, but Sony Pictures’ slate announcement on 5 August confirmed it was going into production – and even named its release date: Christmas Day 2016. No director or actors have yet been named, but it is likely that Zach Helm will be one of the credited writers, after an announcement was made in 2012 that the Stranger Than Fiction writer had been hired to work on a script. Continue reading...

UK-designed turbines aim to harness tidal energy to produce cheaper electricity − without endangering marine life, reports Climate News NetworkA British company has announced plans for an array of unique marine turbines that can operate in shallower and slower-moving water than current designs.Kepler Energy, whose technology is being developed by Oxford University’s department of engineering science, says the turbines will in time produce electricity more cheaply than off-shore wind farms. Continue reading...