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Guardian’s analysis reveals that hidden subsidies, direct grants and tax breaks to big business amount to £3,500 a year given by each UK householdTaxpayers are handing businesses £93bn a year – a transfer of more than £3,500 from each household in the UK.Related: Direct aid, subsidies, tax breaks – the hidden welfare budget we don’t debate Continue reading...

Spark Movement collective honours the historic achievements of women by developing an app for Google’s Field TripAn app that can signal where a woman made a historic achievement is being developed.Women on the Map is aimed at 13- to 22-year-olds and hopes to address the lack of recognition and honours for women. Continue reading...

Social network criticises application of privacy ruling while backing Irish watchdog and EU data protection reformsFacebook has criticised European countries for using the “right to be forgotten” ruling on a Spanish case to challenge privacy regulation.

Influential group of international cryptographers and computer scientists says proposals will open door to criminals and malicious nation statesDemands by US and British security agencies for access to encrypted communication data have been dealt a serious blow in a report by an influential group of cryptographers and computer scientists who dismiss the move as unprincipled and unworkable.They warn that such access “will open doors through which criminals and malicious nation states can attack the very individuals law enforcement seeks to defend”. Continue reading...

Robin Hunicke, producer of Journey, on the joyous celebration of friendship and intuition she has developed with Katamari creator Keita TakahashiRobin Hunicke, the CEO of San Francisco-based game studio Funomena, is kind of worried. We’re standing in a corner of the Los Angeles convention centre amid the cacophany of the E3 games expo. Metres away, a large crowd has gathered around the game she has brought to show off. It is called Wattam. It is not a typical E3 game. There are no guns, there is no dark, cyberpunk imagery. On the screen a small group of apples is being chased by a toilet.“I’m the first to say: ‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the person running this company has no idea what she’s doing,’” says Hunicke. “I’ve never been a CEO before, I literally have no experience in marketing or PR. I have a very weird feeling about being on camera. I may not be the best person. I may not be cut out for this job.” Continue reading...

Coalition of free-speech and anti-harassment campaigners, the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative, calls for internet governing body not to enact proposalA coalition of anti-harassment initiatives and digital rights organisations is fighting a proposal from the internet’s governing body, Icann, to strip anonymity from website owners.

Corporation understood to be looking into future of £66.2m TV channel and how live news is covered, with final decision yet to be madeThe BBC is considering making its news channel online only following a similar cost-cutting move for its BBC3 TV channel, it has emerged.

Actor in anti-vaccine protest on Twitter comes under fire after attaching picture, but apologises after contact from boy’s familyJim Carrey has been forced to apologise after tweeting a picture of a child suffering from autism and tuberous sclerosis without his family’s permission.Carrey tweeted the picture of Karen Echols’ son Alex as part of a protest against recent legislation in California that removed the personal-belief exemption from public health vaccination programmes. Continue reading...

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

Internet taxi firm says decision to provide security was made after ‘recent intimidation’ and protests from other taxi operatorsInternet taxi firm Uber said on Monday it was providing security for its drivers in South Africa after verbal threats from other taxi operators in the latest outbreak of friction to hit the fast-growing company.Uber drivers in Johannesburg have been targeted by meter taxi drivers and a protest was held outside Uber’s offices on Friday, local media reported. Continue reading...

Research projecting to 2030 says self-driving taxis and specialised one-person vehicles would greatly cut inefficiencies in current human driving patterns

Chief executive John Riccitiello explains why being popular with small independent studios is a mixed blessing

Minecraft Stop-Motion Movie Creator, BuzzFeed News, BitTorrent Shoot, The Executive, Lego Minifigures Online and moreWelcome to this week’s roundup of the latest, greatest new iPhone and iPad apps and games. All prices are correct at the time of writing, with “IAP” indicating use of in-app purchases.You can read the previous Best iPhone and iPad Apps roundups for more recommendations, but if Android is your platform of choice, check the Best Android Apps roundups. On with this week’s selection. Continue reading...

Test footage from abandoned 1997 Tim Burton superhero film has been unearthed for a forthcoming documentaryNever-before-seen test footage has emerged of Nicolas Cage as Superman from an infamous abandoned Tim Burton film which would have been the director’s follow-up to Mars Attacks.The 1997 video shows Cage, with shoulder-length hair, trying on a sculpted, skintight electric blue bodysuit. The actor, who appears lean and athletic even without the figure-forming effect of the outfit, asks if the suit will “feel looser the more I wear it” as he tests the limits of the outfit by swinging his arms back and forth and reaching towards the ceiling. Continue reading...

Living beings aren’t the only ones who suffer when a heatwave strikes – smartphones and portable electronics hate the heat just as much as we doOverheating, sluggish, running out of energy faster than usual? Have you noticed how it’s not just you that suffers in the heat, your smartphone does too? Don’t worry, you’re not imagining it, the heat really does make a difference.Unlike people, phones can’t sweat, and while this may be good news for your pocket, it’s bad news for them. Without a way to cool themselves, phones suffer: the battery dies, the processor melts and the screen can crack.

Cybersecurity firm has 400GB of what purport to be its own documents published via its Twitter feed after hackThe cybersecurity firm Hacking Team appears to have itself been the victim of a hack, with documents that purport to show it sold software to repressive regimes being posted to the company’s own Twitter feed.The Italy-based company offers security services to law enforcement and national security organisations. It offers legal offensive security services, using malware and vulnerabilities to gain access to target’s networks. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and everything else that mattersMonday? So soon? Continue reading...

They wanted to make a medieval Fistful of Dollars. They ended up with a cult hit that triggered the sword and sorcery boom. Now, Hawk the Slayer is set to return – with better fights and special effects, but still plenty of cheeseBack in 1980, Terry Marcel kicked off the cinematic sword and sorcery boom that would give us Excalibur, Conan, Dragonslayer and Willow with a low-budget opus called Hawk the Slayer. Shot in six weeks in Buckinghamshire for £600,000, it featured the handsome but wooden John Terry as Hawk, who – with his flying “mindsword” and mismatched allies (witch, elf, dwarf, giant) – sets out to rescue a nun from his own deformed brother Vultan, played by Jack Palance at his scenery-chewing worst. Now, 35 years on, Marcel is finally preparing the follow-up: Hawk the Hunter. It’s not quite the longest a British director has waited to make a sequel to a cult hit, but damned close.“We have a studio deal and a sales deal,” says Marcel, himself quite elfin at 73. Games company Rebellion has also signed up to produce a Hawk game and a putative range of books or comics, and to provide CGI and funding for the sequel. Rebellion’s co-founder Jason Kingsley described the original Hawk as “a touchstone” of his life and said he was “delighted and slightly awed” to be part of the new venture. Continue reading...

Wii U, Nintendo, cert: N/A, out nowAnother intriguing direction for the Wii U here, with Art Academy: Atelier offering a good basic toolkit for learning to paint and draw. It does so through rather charming lessons that communicate the fundamentals of visual art in a laid-back, step-by-step format. Each stage features detailed explanations and animations that do an admirable job of explaining concepts such as the rule of thirds or colour theory.The Wii U gamepad, it has to be said, is slightly awkward for accurate drawing, but with practice it is possible to create good-looking work. However, finished pieces can create large files that will eat up storage space, so it may be worth investing in SD cards for back-up. Continue reading...

Mojang reveals what’s next for its popular game, YouTube explains how to become an online games star, and more live from London

Tim Adams was invited to hang out at Google’s California HQ, where some of the world’s brightest minds are working on innovations, such as driverless cars, that will transform our lives. But is society ready to go along for the ride?Whatever happened to wonder? The most unnerving thing about sitting in the back of a driverless car is how quickly you get used to it. After 10 minutes cruising Californian streets in the rear seat of one of Google’s “autonomous” Lexus 4x4s, the “look, no hands!” miracle of the Google “driver” in the front already feels old hat. Approaching a complicated four-way junction, every nearby moving or stationary object – lorries, wheelie bins, birds, trees, pedestrians – mapped and colour-coded instant-by-instant on the car’s computer console, I find myself thinking not, “Look out!” but rather, “Speed up!”The car, one of 24 that have now done a collective million miles on the roads around Google’s campus in the city of Mountain View, and further afield on freeways, and even out in San Francisco, behaves – not surprisingly – somewhat like a cautious learner driver. Its sensors, bolt-on radar and lasers and cameras, are twitchily hyperactive. They can monitor unexpected movements two football pitches away. Now they are calculating from memory what the dad and his toddler passenger on a bike on the right are likely to do next, now processing the probabilities that the car approaching the stop sign at some speed is actually going to stop. Continue reading...

Annual Minecraft conference kicks off in London: we’re there to cover the sights, news, YouTube stars and more from Mojang’s event

Mojang and Telltale Games’ partnership will take a narrative approach to popular game, but players will have to play as male character Jessie.

Since her husband, Iain, died seven months ago, Caroline Twigg has had to face an unexpected problem – what to do with his online legacynyctwigg: Ah, there you are; a Skype username you created while working in New York for a month. And here I am, trying to call someone yet absent-mindedly pulling up your profile. In the tiny square picture icon, you are there in your blue T-shirt, leaning over the table and smiling at the camera. Next to your name it says, “Hear me now”.That drove me mad; you’d sit there and repeat, “Hear me now? Hear me now?” A deliberately annoying mantra, because you knew I could hear you perfectly well. I would hang up and redial to a laughing you and we’d catch up, but today I sit and stare, wishing I could conjure up that annoying voice again. Even just once. Continue reading...

Smart plugs, facial-recognition cameras and even potted plant monitors can help automate your home – but is this first generation of products worth the effort?It’s early days for the Internet of Things: we’ve been promised smarthomes, and so far we can turn on the lights from our phones. It’s a start.The arrival of Apple’s HomeKit and Google’s Brillo will likely help speed smarthomes along, making them easier to install and manage, but in the meantime there are options for home automation. Continue reading...

American Registry for Internet Numbers calls for switch to new protocol after being unable to fulfil a request for new numbersSorry, the internet is full - in North America at least.The organisation that hands out IP addresses has finally run out of numbers. Continue reading...

Sony, Microsoft and Valve all have immersive technologies to push this year, but are the big games publishers aboard the VR express?Virtual reality was a big deal at this year’s E3 video game expo in Los Angeles. Oculus was there showing off the latest build of its Rift headset, Sony revealed a new multiplayer shooter demo for the Project Morpheus, and Microsoft announced a partnership with Valve, seeking to make Windows 10 the software platform for the HTC Vive as well as all other PC-based VR devices. It also brought the “mixed reality” device Hololens along for the ride. There was much excitement.But what do the mainstream games publishers really think about this new era of immersive technology? The spectre hanging over the whole industry right now is that, behind all the hype, very few VR or AR headsets have actually been sold to the public. The only commercially available mainstream products right now are Android phone extensions like the Samsung Gear VR and Zeiss VR One; Google ditched its Glasses project this year. The first big player to get a launch is likely to be the brilliant HTC Vive this winter, but it’s going to require an ultra high-end PC, limiting its user base – at least at first – to enthusiasts. Continue reading...

Tech firm opens up its image processing neural-network algorithm and people create awesome imagesGoogle has made its “inceptionism” algorithm available to all, allowing coders around the world to replicate the process the company used to create mesmerising dreamscapes with its image processing neural-network.The system, which works by repeatedly feeding an image through an AI which enhances features it recognises, was first demonstrated by Google two weeks ago. It can alter an existing image to the extent that it looks like an acid trip, or begin with random noise to generate an entirely original dreamscape. Continue reading...

The community manager Victoria Taylor was abruptly let go from her job at the site, prompting a number of high-profile subforums to go dark in protestMany of the biggest subreddits on social news site Reddit have shut down to protest against the sacking of a well-liked employee.The so-called “Reddit Revolt” has seen the temporary closure of the site’s gaming, science, history, and cinema subforums by their volunteer moderators, with many more joining in. Continue reading...

Tech pioneer says he doesn’t recognise himself in Seth Rogen’s performance, but admits parts of the trailer for Danny Boyle’s Apple drama made him cry

Taking photos during public tours of the ‘People’s House’ is now allowed, a sign the Obamas believe the White House should be more open and accessibleThe lifting of the 40-year-old ban on taking photos during public tours of the White House on Wednesday led to a stream of filtered shots of the president’s mansion making their way to social media.Using #WhiteHouseTour - a hashtag promoted by the White House - visitors documented the inside of the “People’s House” for the first time in decades. Since Wednesday, more than 2,500 photos have been uploaded to Instagram under the hashtag.

GoFundMe page, which has since been removed, had asked for $5,000 in contributions after Charleston church shooting forced cancellationThe sister of the man suspected of killing nine people at the Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, briefly launched a crowdfunding campaign to help cover the lost costs of her wedding, which was canceled in the wake of the mass shooting.A GoFundMe page, which the company confirmed was created by Amber Roof, asks donors to help her and her fiance, Michael Tyo, gain a “fresh start” after their wedding was abruptly called off. Continue reading...

Residents of the Spanish town use Twitter for everything from reporting crimes to booking doctor’s appointments. Is this the future of local government?“The only things that the United States has given to the world are skyscrapers, jazz, and cocktails,” once wrote Federico García Lorca. “And in Cuba, in our America, they make much better cocktails.”The residents of Lorca’s hometown of Granada may now dare to add Twitter to that list. The California-based social network has become something of a specialism for the Spanish city, which now proudly promotes Jun, a local town pioneering Twitter as a way of administering its public services, and hosts an annual conference dedicated to Twitter. Continue reading...

Writers of shorter works could lose out on revenue as company’s Kindle Owners Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited no longer pay per copy downloaded

Minecraft in Education portal aims to get educators sharing tips on how Mojang’s popular game can be used to teach childrenMillions of children are already playing Minecraft at home, whether on computers, consoles or mobile devices. Now the game’s parent company Microsoft wants to encourage more teachers to use it in the classroom.Microsoft, which bought the game’s developer Mojang for $2.5bn in 2014, has launched a new site aimed at teachers, aiming to foster a community of educators swapping lesson plans and other tips based on Minecraft. Continue reading...

Social app’s latest update is designed to make long videos less annoying, but it’s also adding two-factor authentication to protect usersSocial app Snapchat hopes its 100 million daily active users will give the thumbs up... to spending less time holding their thumbs on their smartphone screens to see photos and videos.The company’s latest app update introduces a new “tap to view” control, which replaces the “press and hold” user interface that’s been used since Snapchat’s launch in 2011. Continue reading...

Contractor was setting up the stationary robot when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate at the plant in BaunatalA robot has killed a contractor at one of Volkswagen’s production plants in Germany, the automaker has said.The man died on Monday at the plant in Baunatal, about 100km (62 miles) north of Frankfurt, VW spokesman Heiko Hillwig said. Continue reading...

Social networking company doubled its number of African American employees in 2014 with 36 hires but proportion to total company barely changedFacebook has almost doubled its number of black employees, but African Americans still represent less than 1.5% of the social networking company’s 5,479 US employees, according to a report released on Wednesday.Mark Zuckerberg’s company hired 36 black employees last year out of a total headcount increase of 1,216. Continue reading...

In your article (Export bar imposed on John Logie Baird archive, 30 June), the culture minister, Ed Vaizey, is quoted as saying: “Britain led the world in the development of television technology in the 1920s, all due to the pioneering work of John Logie Baird and his colleagues.”While not wishing to diminish the contribution made by Logie Baird, I think it is unfortunate that Vaizey completely omits to mention the key role played in the development of television in this country by my grandfather, Sir Isaac Shoenberg. It was Shoenberg’s vision and leadership as director of research at EMI that guided his team of gifted electronic engineers in developing the high-definition television system, which was adopted in preference over Logie Baird’s system at Alexandra Palace in 1936 and which resulted later that year in the opening by the BBC of the world’s first public television service. Continue reading...

Mojang’s London conference will have 10k attendees, plenty of panels, a costume contest for fans and other surprisesMinecraft developer Mojang has published the schedule for this weekend’s Minecon conference in London: its gathering of more than 10,000 fans, partners and YouTube stars.Highlights include panels and live “let’s play” sessions featuring the creators of Minecraft-focused YouTube channels Stampy, The Diamond Minecart and Captain Sparklez, as well as sessions giving a glimpse at what’s next for Minecraft. Continue reading...

Those showing support online for the US supreme court’s decision to legalise same-sex unions have faced a barrage of criticismWhen Nabeel Khalid joined the 26 million people around the world to superimpose a rainbow flag over his Facebook profile picture, he did not expect a tirade of abuse for showing support for same-sex marriage.But the meme that swept the social networking site in the wake of last week’s decision by the US supreme court to legalise same-sex unions has not gone down well in Pakistan. Continue reading...

NaturalMotion claims it’ll be ‘not just the best-looking racing game on mobile, but the best-looking racing game full stop – including console’The original CSR Racing game was a big hit on mobile. After its release in 2012, it quickly sped to $12m of monthly revenues – a startling amount at the time, although less so now with Candy Crush Saga having made around $3.6m a day in 2014.Still, CSR Racing motored on to 130m downloads on iOS and Android, and was a big part of the reason why social games publisher Zynga paid $527m to acquire its British developer NaturalMotion in January 2014. Continue reading...

The BBC’s action betrays a wider ambivalence to the right to be forgotten. But they would do well to recognise the dangers of the internet’s perpetual presentThe BBC really doesn’t like the right to be forgotten. Director of editorial policy, David Jordan, has termed it “unsearching – an ugly word for an ugly process”. Big data advisor, James Leaton Gray, says it makes him nervous. And now Neil McIntosh, managing editor of BBC Online, has republished a list of 182 BBC links that have been partially obscured by Google over the past year, after Europe’s highest court commanded Google to start respecting European data protection law.Crucially, the BBC links are not removed from Google or the web, as McIntosh’s post misleadingly implied. Instead, as Google corrected, they are only delisted in a very selective way - from top search results on particular individuals’ names, where those individuals have made a solid case for obscurity. Continue reading...

The Greek PM and his finance minister have been live-tweeting the debt drama, but the eurozone is striking back in the social media onslaughtPoliticians aren’t particularly renowned for a strong game on social media. Whether it’s falling for parody accounts, tweeting their own names, or, er, offering free owls for all, it’s not often they get it right.Enter the Greeks. Never before has a government embroiled in one of the biggest global economic crises been so good at tweeting. We hear President Coolidge, for instance, was always screwing up his mentions. Continue reading...

Officials say increasingly severe national security situation necessitates the law, which has wide-ranging powers but few exact detailsChina has passed a wide-ranging national security law expanding its legal reach over the internet and even outer space as concerns grow about ever-tighter limits on rights.

Rev Jesse Jackson says black people are becoming ‘intolerant’ with companies like Twitter, which has exploited its large base of minority users for ad revenueTwitter employs just 49 black people out of a total US workforce of 2,910. The tiny number of African American staff – 35 men and 14 women – represents just 1.7% of Twitter’s US staff.

Can the plucky new upstart beat the music streaming market leader at its own game? A Spotify user puts Apple Music to the testI’ve always loved music. I used to spend hours making cassette compilations so I could play my CD singles in the car. Yes, this was another time (and indeed another place). Tapes were replaced by MiniDiscs (stop laughing please), then I joined the iPod generation.But I never really became a committed iTunes buyer, so when Spotify came along it was something of a revelation. Read about a new artist or a new album from a band I already know, go to Spotify and listen to it, all for no additional cost above the £9.99 a month I already pay. Repeat ad nauseam. Finding the time to listen to everything I’d like to is the real problem. Continue reading...

From its Zane Lowe-fronted radio station to the quasi–social network Connect, it’s a big day in Apple’s attempt to knock Spotify from its music-streaming perch. Nadia Khomami listens in to bring you her verdict