Technology | The Guardian

Links with no purpose other than adding a user on a different social network are ‘not the way our platform was intended to be used’, says owner, FacebookFacebook doesn’t often give the impression of being scared of anything, but it looks like the social network is a bit concerned about the potential for competition from Snapchat and Telegram.The two social networks have found themselves blacklisted from Facebook’s Instagram service, just weeks after Telegram also reported minor censorship among users of Facebook’s WhatsApp messenger. Continue reading...

The billionaire CTO of the rental website discusses his rigorous work ethic, its effect on his family life and how discovering a corpse won’t stop people using his siteHe’s a billionaire, but Nathan Blecharczyk still likes to host on Airbnb. He has a guest there right now, he says, though the guest doesn’t know who his host is. He is waking in Blecharczyk’s San Francisco home, unaware that the pleasant quarters with separate entrance and electronic locks belong to one of the three co-founders of Airbnb itself. Hopeful visitors, however, will struggle to discover Blecharczyk’s listing. “You’re not going to find me on the website very easily,” he warns. “For obvious reasons, I don’t want people to know where I live.”What, because some stalker might seek him out? Continue reading...

The loud-mouthed investor has won over movie mogul Harvey Weinstein for a new reality series – yet says his tech industry success is down to dumb luckJason Calacanis is having his makeup done backstage at his annual Launch Festival, a huge gathering of entrepreneurs in San Francisco and, claims his website, “the largest startup event in the world”.Calacanis, a battle-scarred veteran of the tech world, is Silicon Valley’s belligerent comedian. Now a wealthy man thanks to his early investment in the ride-hailing firm Uber, he is quick to remind people that his investments are mostly dumb luck. That kind of bawdy, bellicose, self-deprecating persona puts him in stark contrast with most Silicon Valley investors like Paul Graham or Marc Andreessen – two very serious men who recently argued in favor of inequality and British colonialism of India, respectively. Continue reading...

MIT project uses artificial-intelligence algorithm to learn Republican frontrunner’s speech patterns before publishing ‘remarkably Trump-like statements’“OK, it’s amazing right now with Isis, I tell you what? I don’t want them to vote, the worst very social people. I love me.”Donald Trump may be a “really smart person” by his own estimation, but his speeches are now fuelling a really smart Twitter bot, which uses artificial-intelligence technology to copy the Republican frontrunner. Continue reading...

Michael Ramos claims a ‘lying dormant cyber pathogen’ on mass killer Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone still poses a threat. But what the hell is it?A “cyber pathogen” could be “lying dormant” in the iPhone at the centre of the legal battle between Apple and the FBI, ready to unleash havoc on the critical infrastructure of San Bernardino county. Apparently.We’ve never actually heard of a “lying dormant cyber pathogen” before, but if Michael Ramos, San Bernardino’s district attorney, says we should be scared of it, we should be. Right? Continue reading...

US Chamber of Commerce suit is latest in legal battle over whether drivers are independent contractors or employees and what rights they should haveThe US Chamber of Commerce sued the city of Seattle on Thursday over an ordinance that allows drivers of ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft to unionize, saying it violates federal antitrust laws.Seattle last year became the first US city to pass a law giving drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft, as well as taxis and for-hire drivers, the right to collectively negotiate on pay and working conditions. Continue reading...

Hopes excavation unearths remains predating priory ruins on island famous for St Cuthbert and Lindisfarne GospelsArchaeologists are to launch a search on Holy Island in Northumberland for the monastery where one of the most beautiful books in western Europe, the Lindisfarne Gospels, was made.The quest may puzzle tourists since the romantic priory ruins have been a magnet for artists and photographers for centuries. However the ruins, on an island connected by a causeway accessible only at low tide, date from early in the 12th century. The original monastery was founded by the Irish monk Aidan in 635 and sacked by the Vikings 160 years later. Continue reading...

In a rare step away from increased security around personal data, Amazon confirms its latest operating system will no longer encrypt its customers’ dataAmazon has quietly removed the ability to encrypt data stored on its Fire tablets, streaming media devices and Kindle e-readers with the latest update to the Fire OS operating software.The change, which has been confirmed by Amazon, could make private documents, financial data and other sensitive information vulnerable to attack. Continue reading...

Facing increasing pressure from shareholders, the embattled tech company may try to sell patents, property or other assets, says CFO Ken GoldmanYahoo is exploring the sale of $1bn to $3bn of patents, property and other “non-core assets”, its chief financial officer said on Thursday.

Now that the security services are allowed to record us through our phones, privacy has become impossible – unless we renounce modern telecomsLegalised hacking in the UK now allows a third party to take control remotely of a phone’s camera or microphone and record video and conversations taking place, the Guardian’s Alan Travis reported this week. What’s the point of Apple trying to encrypt its iPhones if the spooks can switch them on remotely and monitor what we are doing?Until recently, the security services have gone to great lengths not to disclose their operational capabilities. If the bad guys know how their communications can be monitored, they’ll look for other ways of exchanging information. Continue reading...

In a sign of the autonomous security of the future, a $2m contest wants teams to build a system that can exploit rivals’ vulnerabilities while fixing its ownCould you invent an autonomous hacking system that could find and fix vulnerabilities in computer systems before criminals could exploit them, and without any human being involved?That’s the challenge faced by seven teams competing in Darpa’s Cyber Grand Challenge in August. Continue reading...

Breakthrough in next generation of storage batteries could transform the US electrical grid within five to 10 years, says research agency, Arpa-EA US government agency says it has attained the “holy grail” of energy – the next-generation system of battery storage, that has has been hotly pursued by the likes of Bill Gates and Elon Musk.Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (Arpa-E) – a branch of the Department of Energy – says it achieved its breakthrough technology in seven years. Continue reading...

Threatening letters sent to the partners of former and current members, as well as themselves, with the demand: ‘pay $2,500 in bitcoin or have your infidelity exposed’It’s been six months since extramarital dating site Ashley Madison was hacked, and now the spouses of former and current users of the site are being targeted by blackmail attempts, as well as the users themselves.Almost as soon as the database was made public, accountholders started receiving anonymous blackmail letters, first electronically and then physically. The letters demanded payment, in the thousands of dollars, to avoid having their membership of the site made public. Continue reading...

Ten years ago, Rab Florence and Ryan Macleod brought humour, pathos and intelligence to video-game television. Now they’re back and as sharp as everShieldinch looks like a typical Glasgow suburb, albeit an upscale one. An art-deco Italian cafe nestles among the attractive tenement houses, with a Subway station and a traditional boozer mere paces away. But today, the streets are eerily deserted, and not just because of the heavy rain – it’s because Shieldinch doesn’t really exist.This is actually the exterior set of BBC Scotland’s soap opera River City, a mini version of Glasgow located in Dumbarton, 20 miles away from the city. While the long-running soap is on a production break, Shieldinch has been invaded by guerrilla film-makers: Robert “Rab” Florence, Ryan Macleod and a three-man camera crew. Wearing garish hats and deliberately radiating the hyperactive energy of children’s TV presenters, Florence and Macleod are capering outside the Oyster Cafe, delivering a piece to camera at a remarkably high volume. Continue reading...

The PCs on Scott’s company network have not been upgraded to Windows 10, and he wonders if they will arrive with Windows Update for BusinessI keep reading about WUB (Windows Update for Business). Will that allow a PC joined to a domain to get the over-the-web upgrade to Windows 10? Scott Continue reading...

Ashton Carter has been courting tech firms in San Francisco, trying to heal the rift between the Pentagon and the industry in the ongoing Apple and FBI clashThe escalating encryption fight between Apple and the FBI has a prominent dissenter inside the government: US defense secretary Ashton Carter.Related: Apple v FBI congressional hearing – as it happened Continue reading...

Diego Dzodan was imprisoned for one night after a judge said he failed to cooperate with a drug trafficking and organized crime investigationA Facebook executive arrested for refusing to give information about the company’s users to law enforcement has been released from jail.Diego Dzodan, Facebook’s most senior representative in Latin America, left a jail in Sao Pãulo on Wednesday after one night in custody on a warrant issued by a judge in the north-eastern state of Sergipe. A judge ruled he was wrongly detained because he was not named personally in the legal proceedings. Continue reading...

From automated DJing with Serato Pyro to audio broadcasting with Anchor, via The Walking Dead, Final Fantasy IX and Kendall & Kylie JennerApple’s iOS continues to be a hotbed of new app ideas and inventive games in 2016, as developers continue to scrap it out for success on the company’s App Store.The last month’s crop of new releases has plenty to offer, from an automatic DJ in your pocket and a news app that you chat to, through to baby-feed tracking and a tool for blind and visually-impaired people. Continue reading...

Web users have turned to adblockers to fix slow page load times – but the software been criticised for robbing publishers and others of vital revenueAdblocking has become popular because people have become frustrated with ads slowing page load times on the internet, particularly on mobile.A recent report revealed that 22% of the UK’s internet users have an adblocker installed, up from 18% just three months earlier, and the figure rises to almost half for 18- to 24-year-olds.

From Fire Emoji to Six Strings: new collections are made by algorithms, will be updated once a week, and build on the success of the Discover Weekly playlistMusic-streaming service Spotify is letting its recommendation algorithms loose again with six new-music playlists that will be updated once a week.Under the brand of Fresh Finds, the playlists will be constructed from an analysis of music blogs, news sites and the songs being listened to by “tastemakers” on Spotify. Continue reading...

Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell ditched tablet for ring binder when iPad Pro seemingly let him down mid-speechThere’d be something amiss if Apple’s general counsel didn’t use an Apple product when representing the company in front of the US Congress. But Bruce Sewell must have been thankful he’d also brought a hard copy when his iPad Pro failed him mid-speech.It was all going smoothly at the House judiciary committee hearing into the standoff between Apple and the FBI when suddenly Sewell’s gentle scrolls turned into rapid swipes, a quizzical look and a quick switch to a ring binder. Continue reading...

Discover Auntie’s crooners with BBC Music, track breastfeeding and nappy changes with Glow Baby, and put a VHS camcorder filter over videos, plus play GTA: Liberty City Stories, Final Fantasy XI and moreIn terms of sheer numbers, Google’s Android has been bigger than Apple’s iOS for some time now – it reached 1 billion active users in mid-2014.That has made Android a bigger priority than it used to be for many more app developers: in 2016, lots of prominent new apps debut simultaneously on Android and iOS, with some even appearing on Android first. Continue reading...

Culture secretary also asks if BBC shows such as Strictly Come Dancing are ‘distinctive’ enough and launches initiative against online adblockingThe government is to rush through legislation to close the “iPlayer loophole”, which allows people to watch BBC shows on catchup services without having a TV licence.In a speech on Wednesday, culture secretary John Whittingdale also asked whether popular BBC1 programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing were “distinctive” enough and launched a new initiative on the devastating impact of adblockers on the newspaper industry. Continue reading...

British Airline Pilots Association warns tests are needed after 23 near-misses were investigated in just six monthsTests must be done into what would happen if a drone hit a passenger jet, say airline pilots following a recent spate of near-misses.The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) wants the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to back research into the possible consequences of such a collision. Continue reading...

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

Legislators accuse Justice Department of overreaching and undermining privacy but warn Apple it’s ‘not going to like’ a congressionally mandated solutionThe Justice Department is on a “fool’s errand” trying to force Apple to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists, lawmakers told FBI director James Comey on Tuesday.Lawmakers of both parties sharply challenged Comey as the House judiciary committee considered the FBI’s court order to unlock an iPhone owned by Syed Farook, who with his wife killed 14 people at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, in December and was killed by law enforcement. Continue reading...

FBI director James Comey appeared in front of Congress on Tuesday to be questioned on his organization’s demand that Apple help them to unlock the iPhone of a terror suspect. Speaking to the House judiciary committee, Comey says he is not asking Apple to build a back door, but instead to ‘take the vicious guard dog away and let us pick the lock’. Apple is resisting the demand through the courts, with the case expected to be heard later this month Continue reading...

Microsoft is bringing its famed console racing simulation to Windows 10 machines as a free-to-play taster. Subsequent Forza titles will all arrive on both PC and consoleMicrosoft is bringing another of its big Xbox franchises to Windows 10 PCs. At a showcase in San Francisco last week, the company revealed Forza Motorsports 6: Apex, a “curated and focused” version of the popular series, which will be available free to Windows 10 users in the spring.The version, which was written in Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP), features over 60 cars and a range of new race modes. The main focus of the game is the Showcase Tour mode, which includes 12 events, based around specific motoring stories. One, set on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, pits Ferrari against Lamborghini in a competition to decide the ultimate Italian super car. There’s also a free mode for taking out any car on any of the six available environments, and the pre-race procedure contains much of the complexity of the full Xbox titles, including assists, tuner set-up and practice options. Continue reading...

Head of Microsoft’s gaming division effectively confirms Xbox is becoming a new kind of PC/console hybrid

Women at the Lesbians Who Tech Summit talked about their experiences blending in with the tech bros – but that doesn’t always mean equalityOver this past weekend, something strange and a little funny happened in Silicon Valley: 1,600 lesbians held their third and largest annual tech conference to date.None of the sessions at the Lesbians Who Tech Summit, which took over the massive Castro Theatre and surrounding bars from Thursday to Sunday, were particularly gay-themed; as with any tech conference, there were panels on the future of ed-tech, robot innovations, and data-driven design interspersed with startup demos. Continue reading...

Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet claims social network ‘seem to have a need to control the information and communication around them’A Swedish newspaper has accused Facebook of trying to influence its coverage by vetoing its choice of reporter to interview the social network’s executives.Svenska Dagbladet had run an investigation with freelancer Jack Werner into offensive comments posted to the Facebook pages of senior government ministers in Sweden. Werner had found that those reporting the comments to Facebook were being told they were acceptable. Continue reading...

Vigilant Global and New Line Networks (NLN) want to build communications towers to shave milliseconds off the time it takes trade the marketsWhen Roman invaders made landfall on the British coast in AD43, it was at the present-day settlement of Richborough where they probably set up camp.Now this sleepy corner of rural Kent has become an unlikely battleground once again – as the potential site for telecoms masts as high as London’s Shard skyscraper that will enable high-speed trading firms to make millions. Continue reading...

Hundreds walk off job at battery manufacturing plant as union organizers say out-of-state workers are increasingly being hired for lower payHundreds of union construction workers walked off the job at Tesla Motors’ battery manufacturing plant in northern Nevada on Monday to protest what union organizers say is the increased hiring of out-of-state workers for less pay.

US officials to argue in congressional testimony that legislators should pass a law requiring tech companies to retain user keys for decrypting customer dataThe war of words between Apple and US law enforcement escalated again on Monday as their fight over personal versus national security prepared to move beyond the courthouse and into the halls of Congress.In testimony released ahead of a hotly anticipated congressional hearing, Apple’s chief attorney argued that helping unlock an iPhone used by a terrorist in San Bernardino will ultimately create more crime. New York’s chief prosecutor said the company’s devices were beyond the law and urged Congress to pass new legislation keeping encryption keys to user data in the hands of the tech giants. Continue reading...

US military acknowledges for the first time – during an active war – that it’s using its storehouse of new digital weapons to disrupt communications networksThe Pentagon has acknowledged using its storehouse of new digital weapons to attack Islamic State communications networks, the first time that the US military has acknowledged doing so during an active war.

After signing deal to sell Morrisons food, US retailer has sights set on fashion, loans, drones, physical shops and more groceriesAmazon is expanding into grocery shopping after agreeing a deal to sell Morrisons food. But that is not the only initiative the ambitious US company is investing in:Fashion Continue reading...

No user data was breached, but incident proves even ‘tech savvy millennials’ can fall prey to a phishing emailSnapchat’s pictures are deleted automatically seconds after they’re viewed. Unfortunately, the same isn’t true of the company’s confidential financial records, which it just handed over to a scammer.In a blogpost, the company apologised to its staffers after a phishing attack tricked an HR employee into handing over payroll information about “some current and former employees”. Continue reading...

Feeling flush? HTC hopes the price of its headset doesn’t put people off, as the battle for virtual reality dominance heats upHTC’s Vive virtual reality headset finally has a UK price: a hefty £689.So, what do you get if you splash out a month’s rent (in London at least)? There’s the headset itself, co-created by gaming company Valve, which has two 1080 x 1200 screens offering a 110-degree viewing area, as well as a front-facing camera for augmented reality features and a plethora of other sensors for head- and motion-tracking. Continue reading...

Peter Ward, known online as PlutoPete, sentenced for possession, supply and importation of class A and B drugsA self-styled “psychonaut” who sold crack cocaine and crystal meth on the dark web has been jailed for five years and two months.

Bradford-based supermarket becomes first of big four to sign a deal with the online retailerAmazon is to start selling fresh and frozen Morrisons food in a groundbreaking tie-up that highlights the growing strength of the US online retailer.Hundreds of lines of Morrisons’ fresh, chilled and frozen food will be available on Amazon within the next few months through its Prime Now and Pantry services. Continue reading...

A new prototype rubbish lorry built by Volvo uses drone technology to locate bins and send a robot to pick them up, all without driver having to leave the cabVolvo’s latest research prototype uses a small robot to pick up and empty bins into a rubbish truck, guided by an overhead drone and without the need for humans – but Britain’s binmen should not fear for their jobs just yet.

Despite millions of views, the Damn Daniel video was deleted on Monday morning after a hacker gained control of its creator Josh Holz’s Twitter accountAnother piece of internet history is gone, perhaps forever, after the creator of the viral “Damn Daniel” video, Josh Holz, had his Twitter account hacked on Monday.Holz, 15, posted a video to Twitter of his friend Daniel Lara, 14, wearing a variety of shoes (don’t ask) on 15 February. The video, a collection of clips of Holz exclaiming “Damn, Daniel”, was also uploaded to YouTube at the same time. That version of the video remains live. Continue reading...

Hundreds of Morrisons products to be available to Amazon Prime Now and Amazon Pantry customers in the coming monthsHundreds of Morrisons fresh and frozen food products will be available to order from Amazon, after the US online retailer struck its first supply deal with one of the UK’s “big four” supermarkets.Related: Amazon and Morrisons tie-up: a customer's guide Continue reading...

Arts theatre, London

Did Kanye West hide the message ‘I am Lord Voldemort’ in his tweets? No. Here are five more ‘stories’ that fooled the worldThe internet rarely lets truth get in the way of a good story, which can spread worldwide before anyone checks the facts. The beached dolphin that died this month while Argentinian sunbathers posed for selfies with it? Already dead when it washed up. Donald Trump’s recently deceased cousin using his obituary to plead with Americans not to vote for “the walking mucus bag”? Tragically, untrue. Last week’s conspiracy theory that Kanye West hid the message “I am Lord Voldemort” in his tweets? Big fat fib. Here are five virals that fooled the world (click on the links to see the images)… Continue reading...

Telecoms regulator puts pressure on BT to open up its network infrastructure, allowing rivals to lay their own ultrafast fibre-optic linesBroadband users may benefit from better service after a review last week put BT under pressure to open up its network infrastructure to let rivals lay their own ultrafast fibre-optic broadband lines. The move was announced on Thursday as part of Ofcom’s once-in-a-decade review of the telecoms market. The regulator opted for this course of action after deciding against forcing BT to spin off its Openreach division, which operates the UK’s broadband network infrastructure. But does this help consumers experiencing trouble with their broadband?Related: Mobile users face long wait for Ofcom to help with compensation for loss of signal Continue reading...

It’s six months since hackers leaked the names of 30 million people who had used the infidelity website Ashley Madison. Resignations, divorces and suicides followed. Tom Lamont sifts through the wreckageIt was 9 o’clock on a Sunday night last July when a journalist called Brian Krebs came upon the scoop of his life. The 42-year-old was at home in Virginia at the time, and wearing pyjamas. For years Krebs had written a popular blog about internet security, analysing thefts of consumer data from big companies around the world, Tesco, Adobe, Domino’s Pizza among them. Now Krebs, as his weekend came to an end, was being tipped off about a more sensational breach. An anonymous informant had emailed him a list of links, directing him to caches of data that had been stolen from servers at a Canadian firm called Avid Life Media (ALM). Krebs vaguely knew of ALM. For years it had run a notorious, widely publicised web service called Ashley Madison, a dating site founded in 2008 with the explicit intention of helping married people have affairs with each other. “Life is short. Have an affair” was the slogan Ashley Madison used.At the time Krebs received his tip-off, Ashley Madison claimed to have an international membership of 37.6 million, all of them assured that their use of this service would be “anonymous”, “100% discreet”. Only now Krebs was looking at the real names and the real credit-card numbers of Ashley Madison members. He was looking at street addresses and postcodes. Among documents in the leaked cache, Krebs found a list of telephone numbers for senior executives at ALM and Ashley Madison. He even found the personal mobile number of the CEO, a Canadian called Noel Biderman. Continue reading...

Tim Cook urged investors not to vote through plans to accelerate recruitment of minorities on its 18-person board – which currently has 15 white menApple shareholders have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would require the board of America’s largest company to adopt an “accelerated recruitment policy” for minorities among company leaders.The result offered a fresh reminder how Silicon Valley, a meritocracy dominated by white men, is having a tricky time navigating identity politics and modern attitudes towards diversity. The proposal, which wasn’t expected to pass, failed 94.9% to 5.1%, according to an early tally announced at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting at company headquarters in Cupertino, California. Continue reading...

The civil rights leader joined other investors at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting, where most supported the company’s stance against the FBIMost investors might cringe at the idea of their firm going to war with the US government.But these being Silicon Valley investors and this company being Apple, those rules may not apply. Continue reading...