Technology | The Guardian

An attacker can take over the vast majority of Android phones with just a text message, security researcher reportsA major security flaw in Android lets an attacker take control of a phone simply by sending a text message – and for the vast majority of Android users, there’s no fix available yet.Even the small number of people using Google’s own line of Android phones, sold under the Nexus brand, are vulnerable to some of the effects of the bug, according to Joshua Drake, the researcher who discovered the flaw. Continue reading...

Amazon attempts to undercut Spotify and Apple Music with a 1m-track music streaming service bundled with its Prime delivery, books and music serviceAmazon is launching its Prime Music streaming service in the UK, in a move that will see it aim to undercut Spotify and Apple Music.

Bethesda’s VP of development and its marketing head, Pete Hines, reflect on how their team constructs a devastated future AmericaTodd Howard says he never stops thinking about the games he makes. When one Elder Scrolls or Fallout project ends, he’s already planning the next. As VP of development at Bethesda Games Studios in Maryland, the place he has worked for over 20 years, he has a comparatively small team by today’s standards – just 100 staff. But they have produced two of the industry’s most important and ambitious open-world franchises. And they seem to do this through a ceaseless sense of purpose. “You don’t ever stop talking,” says Howard about the creative process. “You never take a break.”Fallout 4 is, of course, the latest project in that cycle. Set 200 years after the cataclysmic nuclear war that sets off the series, the role-playing odyssey gives players complete freedom to explore a devastated version of Boston, fighting with mutants, carrying out quests and collecting loot. In a preview level set before the apocalypse, you learn more about the 1950s-inspired society that pre-existed Armageddon, and get to fully customise your lead character. Then you wake up in a Vault two centuries later and – bam – everyone you know is dead. Continue reading...

Companies including Airbnb and Google compare themselves to civil rights heroes, while using their popularity among consumers to nullify federal law

My father, Richard Calder, who has died aged 78, was an engineer who lived and worked all over the world and who had a special love for Brazil.He was born in Surrey but brought up in New Zealand, where his father, Malcolm, was an air vice-marshal and later chief of the New Zealand Air Staff. With his mother, Peggy (nee Mandeno), and his sister Susan, the young Richard travelled around the UK, Malaya and South East Asia visiting his father, who was stationed in various parts of the world. At Wanganui Collegiate boarding school in New Zealand, Richard’s passions were flying, fishing and aeroplanes, and he desperately wanted to join the air force. But bad eyesight precluded him from doing that, and instead he graduated with a degree in mechanical and aeronautical engineering from Canterbury University, New Zealand. Continue reading...

Nine arrested as Beijing police shut down factory which produced more than 41,000 fake iPhonesPolice in Beijing have raided a factory that produced more than 41,000 fake iPhones worth as much as 120 million yuan ($19 million).Police arrested nine people, including a married couple who led the counterfeiting operation, after a raid in May on the factory, run under the guise of a gadget maintenance shop on the northern outskirts of the Chinese capital. Continue reading...

Media group’s founder says it is to begin ‘a real, civil dialogue’ in the wake of senior editors’ exit over the deletion of a post

Telecommunication authority orders encrypted messaging and internet services to be stopped ‘for security reasons’

A holiday thrusts the issue of sexting into my mind – but autocorrect and Instagram filters dampen the passionThrust, thrust, thrust. Bang, bang, bang. I’ve been listening to this for the past four evenings. Two people sweating and panting in the room above, in a hotel too close to a busy road, which serves spaghetti that is cold as it hits the plate.I’m sharing a twin room with my mother – hoping to God she isn’t hearing this too. But I know she is, because in the darkness the shape of the room changes when she sits up in bed. Continue reading...

Another Godzilla game fails to cut it and the latest PGA title is solid, but Deception IV showcases the joys of sadismGodzilla’s genre-defining impact on cinema is undeniable. Sadly, the same can’t be said for his interactive appearances – he’s rarely done well in gaming form, a tradition that continues here. Godzilla: The Game certainly makes an effort. A single-player God of Destruction campaign is bolstered with the King of Kaiju mode (clobber six beasts in a row), online battles and a monster-customising evolution mode. Unfortunately, core gameplay is so dreadful you’ll not want to explore much. Continue reading...

The Quadro is a scooter with four tilting wheels. You can say goodbye to falling off on sharp corners

Corrections Victoria will not discuss details but says it has informed the officers affected by the data breach and that their safety is its top concernPrisoners accessed the personal information of prison guards during riots in Melbourne’s Metropolitan Remand Centre, Corrections Victoria has confirmed.The prisoners gained access to the personal documents of a small number of officers, who have been informed of the breach. Continue reading...

A 32-acre site recreating Michigan’s roadways is the testing ground for technology that experts hope will be able to cut fatal auto crashes by 80%For Sebastian, life is destined to be lonely. The short pedestrian will, for now, be the sole resident of a small city located near the University of Michigan’s north campus. He’ll pass time by stepping into oncoming traffic – while others watch on, never warning of an impending crash.But Sebastian won’t feel pain: he’s a robot, created by students of the university’s engineering school to assist researchers at MCity, a 32-acre environment that opened this week as a safe zone for testing driverless vehicles. Continue reading...

It’s the must-have skill-set of the 21st century, yet unless you’re rich enough to afford the training, or fortunate enough to be attending the right school, the barriers to learning can be high. Now a movement of pioneering coders is challenging the stereotype by offering free training for all‘Why are we not doing more to have coding colleges and technical, vocational education alongside university education?” This question, raised by Labour’s Yvette Cooper during an interview with the Observer in May, reflects a wide concern about the availability and equality of software training, an area with a reputation for being elusive, exclusive, expensive and overwhelmingly male.Calls to improve the state of digital education in the UK have become commonplace, with new coding initiatives appearing all the time. The international Hour of Code claims to have given millions of Britons a taste of programming, while the government declared 2014 the official Year of Code”. Female programmers can join Girls who Code’ or Ladies who Code’ programmes; the BBC recently launched its Make it Digital’ campaign; and even the online grocer Ocado has thrown its hat in the ring with a scheme called Code for Life’. But while the national curriculum now includes programming for children as young as five, there is still a dearth of affordable, vocational options in higher education, despite a rocketing number of well-rewarded jobs for software developers. A budding programmer can try to learn their trade online, tackling one of the hundreds of coding tutorials, or they can stump up the hefty tuition fees for one of the many private coding academies that have sprung up in the past decade. Continue reading...

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium presses charges against Joshua Newell, 35, after clip shows affectionate meeting with big catsOhio zoo officials say they are pressing charges against a man who jumped a fence to pet cougars, then posted a video on YouTube.The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium said the Delaware County sheriff’s office has charged a suspect with a misdemeanor count of trespassing. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Tracy Whited said 35-year-old Joshua Newell was served on Friday with a summons to appear in court on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Previously free sorts package will automatically cost broadband users £5 a month, unless they register to say otherwiseBT phone and broadband customers who signed up for the “free” sports package over the past two years will soon find themselves paying £5 a month for the service – unless they opt out.The telecoms giant is launching a revamped sport channel in August, and while the service will be free to BT’s television customers broadband-only users will be required to pay. Continue reading...

Publishing sector has the lowest level of illegal downloads in the entertainment industry, with book piracy at half the rate of copyright theft in film and musicFor publishers, fresh from winning a landmark ruling forcing internet service providers to block illegal ebook download sites in Russia and the US, pirates are the enemy. Author Paulo Coelho believes that “the more people ‘pirate’ a book, the better”. But research commissioned by the government shows that that the literary world has the lowest level of illegal downloads in the entertainment industry.Just 1% of UK internet users aged 12 and over read “at least some” ebooks illegally between March and May 2015, according to the Intellectual Property Office’s study into the extent of online copyright infringement in the UK. This compares favourably to other forms of entertainment, with 9% accessing some of their music illegally, 7% television programmes, 6% films, and 2% computer software and video games. Continue reading...

Taxi app firm offers delivery of ice-cream products in all 58 of its operating countries – but users are left annoyed at lack of availabilityTaxi app firm Uber hasn’t had the best of publicity recently, with cars burned out during protests against the company, anger over its extortionate surge pricing and one of its drivers attacking a passenger with a hammer.Perhaps it make sense then, that Uber has decided to trundle out its ice cream delivery trick again. And rather than surge pricing for ice creams – the £4 Mr Whippys of last summer – this time they are free. Continue reading...

Instead of shock tactics War Child aims to reflect the reality of what children in war zones witness and experience as part of their daily livesThe reality of what children face in conflict emergencies is stark, shocking and unacceptable. And, when campaigning about this issue, you have a choice: relay the facts or convey a story.While the first option is educational, the second is motivational. And, if it is to have an impact, an advocacy campaign has to do the latter. For us at War Child, it is about promoting children’s voices that are neglected. Continue reading...

With the two technologies set to meet, lines between sci-fi and a high-tech new reality continue to blur. Industry experts see no reason to be fearfulIt’s no secret tech luminaries like Elon Musk and Bill Gates worry about humanity flirting with disaster though a digital version of the Icarus myth – in our case, the power of artificial intelligence being the sun that eventually burns our wings.

A new poster for Metal Gear Solid V makes the game look like a snuff movie. But is it just a distraction from an uncertain future for the classic series?I’ve always denied that video games have anything to do with my near-constant violent urges, but Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has now forced a reassessment of just how desensitised one can become to gore and nudity. Earlier this week my partner was using the PC to book some train tickets and the next thing I know, she’s joking about having finally caught me looking at porn. Which of course would never happen. “What the hell is this?” she exclaimed, pointing to an image on my desktop.“It’s okay,” I replied, “it’s just a new poster for the game Metal Gear Solid V.” And then I realised halfway through the sentence that what we were both looking at was a semi-naked woman whose large breasts are dripping in blood. The game’s male lead Big Boss is on there too, but of course, his body is not on show – just his head and shoulders, which are similarly splattered with gore. Continue reading...

The concept is as silly as it is simple: football with rocket-powered cars. But it’s the execution that really makes this multiplayer fun-fest really take offWhatever you think of video games as an entertainment medium, you’ve got to admit that replacing footballers with rocket-powered cars is an attractive idea. And Rocket League hits like a rocket-powered train. From the first seconds, as the engine growls under your all-powerful trigger finger, this feels not just fresh but perfectly-formed.Teams of rocket-propelled cars face each other in an enclosed arena, where the walls can be driven up and all corners are rounded for maximum bouncability. At either end is a large goal, and somewhere in the middle is a giant ball, around twice the height of the cars, which has what feels like its own low-gravity rules: it hangs in the air, moves begrudgingly after taps, and even when whacked will rarely outpace a rocket engine. Continue reading...

What does it mean to live in a world where our possessions can track our every move?Once the domain of science fiction, the internet of things is now here – and it's not just a matter of smart fridges that can order your milk. Soon our towns, our crops and even our insides are going to be increasingly wired to the web in a data driven, hyper-connected world.How can we control who has access to this data? What happens when our connection goes down or our smart homes get hacked? Continue reading...

In the wake of a top player admitting the use of Adderall in competition, the Electronic Sports League has announced plans to introduce an anti-doping policyThe Electronic Sports League, the world’s largest e-sports organization, announced Thursday its plans to implement a comprehensive anti-doping program.The ESL said in a statement it has partnered with Germany’s anti-doping agency, Nationale Anti-Doping Agentur (Nada), to “create an anti-PED policy that is fair, feasible and conclusive while also respecting the privacy of players,” and will be meeting with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) to assist with the creation, enforcement and dissemination of the policy in the United States, Asia and Australia. Continue reading...

ISI spy agency sought access to data from ‘landing sites’ passing through Karachi, privacy group claims, in push to acquire digital espionage capacity to rival USPakistani intelligence sought to tap worldwide internet traffic via underwater cables that would have given the country a digital espionage capacity to rival the US, according to a report by Privacy International.The report says the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency hired intermediary companies to acquire spying toolkits from western and Chinese firms for domestic surveillance. Continue reading...

Thousands have pledged money to pre-order the “Swiss Army knife of travel jackets” – built-in pillow, eye-mask, gloves and earphone holders are on the list – but what features would you most like to see in a piece of travel clothing?A design for a new jacket that hopes to solve every petty problem, discomfort and inconvenience a traveller may face has become the most funded fashion item in crowdfunding history, raising over $1.5m in two weeks.The BauBax jacket offers 15 built-in features including an inflatable neck pillow, gloves in the sleeve, earphone holders and an eyemask in the hood, leading some media outlets to describe it as the “Swiss Army knife of travel jackets”. Continue reading...

It’s 30 years since Commodore launched its powerful Amiga 1000 computer, ushering in the era of Worms, Lemmings and myriad other Britsoft classicsIn 1985 my family made a terrible mistake – a mistake that would have far-reaching consequences; a mistake that would blight my life for several painful years. I still look back at it with a sense of sadness and, yes, if I’m honest, fury. What happened was this – and if you’re a gamer of a certain age, you may want to sit down: my family bought an Atari ST instead of a Commodore Amiga.With its powerful 16bit processor and vast 256k of memory (expandable to 512k and beyond), the original Amiga 1000 was the epoch-shattering home computer that effectively invented the concept of the all-round multimedia machine. The Atari ST, meanwhile, was pretty good for midi music. Continue reading...

Movie studio discovers that its own computers host pirated copies of Jurassic World and requests Google to remove links to itUniversal Pictures in France has been seeding a pirated copy of its latest blockbuster Jurassic World from its own servers.

The lack of detail about sales has led some to declare the Apple Watch a flop, but its launch has focused attention on the broader smartwatch sectorThree months after launching its first smartwatch, Apple has reported record revenues and vast iPhone sales - but no numbers on its new wearable. That has got commentators asking whether the Apple Watch is a flop.Before its launch, financial analysts were predicting watches would fly off the shelves to the tune of 40m in the first year. Those estimates were based on the performance of Apple’s iPhone, which sold 47.5m in a single quarter. Continue reading...

Last-minute agreement removes threat of restrictions on number of cars taxi service could put on city’s streetsNew York Uber users can rest easy: there will be no limit on the number of its cars cruising the streets following a deal between the mayor’s office and the online taxi service.The surprise agreement follows a war of words in which New York city mayor, Bill de Blasio, accused Uber of trying to “dictate to government” and failing to take a “wise course” in its dealings with the city. Continue reading...

Al Franken writes letter to attorney general raising concerns that some Apple practices could limit choices and raise prices for consumerDemocratic senator Al Franken said he was concerned that some Apple practices could limit choices and raise prices for consumer, in a letter sent to the attorney general, Loretta Lynch, and the Federal Trade Commission chair, Edith Ramirez, on Wednesday.Related: Spotify bites back at Apple Music with weekly ‘mixtape’ playlist for each user Continue reading...

Japanese company partners with autonomous driving startup ZMP to produce drones for surveillance, inspection and measuringSony is launching a company to produce camera drones in a partnership with the autonomous driving startup ZMP.The new drone manufacturer, Aerosense, will use Sony’s imaging, sensing and networking technology from its smartphone range to create aerial surveillance and reconnaissance drones for businesses. Continue reading...

With the free upgrade to Microsoft Windows 10 shipping on 29 July, should I upgrade Windows 7? Can I revert to my old operating system?Should I go for the Windows 10 upgrade or continue with Windows 7? My laptop is five years old and working very nicely after I installed an SSD (solid-state disc). It has a 2.2GHz Intel Core i5, 8GB of memory and a Blu-ray drive. I am worried about drivers. Ratish Gupta Continue reading...

Twit or Miss game kicks off digital strategy to bring Dahl’s characters to young fans, in tandem with the writer’s centenary celebrations next yearOne of the most dysfunctional couples in the history of children’s fiction, The Twits, are starring in a new children’s game for smartphones and tablets.Roald Dahl’s Twit or Miss, due for release on Thursday, is the first in a planned series of apps based on the author’s back catalogue, released by the Dahl estate and publisher Penguin Random House. Continue reading...

The parallel between Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon and CCTV may be clear, but what happens when you step into the world of data capture?

American robot THORwin, designed by a team from the University of Pennsylvania, won the ‘adult-size humanoid’ category at the annual eventThe Iranian bore down on the US, a goal or two away from bringing America to its knees and achieving world domination. America’s sole defender stared ahead, unblinking. There would be no deal with Tehran today.Thus a team of Americans and their four-and-a-half-foot robot defeated Iran 5-4 in the RoboCup soccer final on Wednesday, denying the Iranians the 2015 title. The victory keeps the geopolitical rivalry heated in at least one arena, even if relations have improved in the diplomatic one. Continue reading...

Anti-hacking technology backed by former founder of Autonomy attracts $22.5m funding from venture capital firm SummitA British cybersecurity firm backed by software entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been valued at more than $100m (£64m) in a new funding round.Cambridge-based Darktrace aims to combat sophisticated cyber-attacks with software that learns the behavioural patterns of every device, user and network within an organisation. When unusual activity is detected, the Darktrace software alerts human cybersecurity experts.

Shares off 5% before lunchtime on Wednesday even in face of Apple Watch’s likely $1bn sales as analysts say investors are spoiled by company’s successApple stock fell down and stayed down Wednesday morning, as investors seemed disappointed by another set of record-breaking results and a lack of fireworks over Apple Watch sales figures. The stock was off by 5% before lunchtime.Analysts said Apple’s investors are frankly spoiled. “The sharp plunge in the stock price can partly be attributed to the company missing projections for iPhone shipments and revenue forecasts, but is largely due to the fact that investors had become accustomed to significant earnings beats by Apple,” wrote James Chen, senior market analyst to City Index. Continue reading...

A million minutes of historic current-affairs footage from 1895 to the present day becomes available on video-sharing websiteOne million minutes of historical video dating back to 1895 – from footage of a hover scooter floating on a cushion of air to Mussolini calling for world peace – have been uploaded onto YouTube.In what is the largest upload of historical news content on the video-sharing platform to date, the Associated Press and British Movietone are to host a collection of 550,000 video stories on two YouTube channels. Continue reading...

With influences ranging from John Wyndham to 1980s nuclear-war drama Threads, this gorgeous adventure is a very English take on the end of the worldAcross the village green, the small country pub looks inviting – especially when bathed in the orangey light of this warm summer evening.It has taken a short walk to get here, along a quiet country road, then through the picturesque village of Yaughton, with its quaint cottages and bulging hedgerows. The only sound is birdsong and a quiet electrical buzz, perhaps coming from an overhead power line somewhere. No one is around – nor will there ever be again. Everyone in the village is probably dead and whatever happened here may have happened all over the world. This is a particularly English vision of the apocalypse – bucolic, refined and charming. But it is the apocalypse nonetheless. Continue reading...

Theme of kegs, red Solo cups and beer pong provokes outrage from equality campaigners – and an apology from TwitterTwitter has apologised for hosting a frat house-themed party for its staff while the company is in the middle of a class-action lawsuit for gender discrimination.The party was held on Tuesday by one of Twitter’s San Francisco-based teams for their internal “happy hour”, and involved frat-style accoutrements such as a keg, red Solo cups, and beer pong, all under faux-Greek letters reading “TWΦTTΣR ΓRΛT HΘVSΣ”. Continue reading...

The former Millwall prodigy was scarcely seen at senior level but statistical quirks in the popular computer game saw him become a cult heroDepending on whose numbers you believe, he made anything between 50 and 100 appearances in his senior career. His CV includes Millwall, Cádiz, Plymouth, FC Haka, Panetolikos, FK Tonsberg and the Gambian side Samger FC. He won youth caps for one country and four senior caps for another, scoring once. The statistics are, using the measures by which anyone can assess itinerant footballers who prowl the world for work, nothing at all remarkable.Related: Is being addicted to Football Manager a medical condition? | Iain Macintosh Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterI don’t know what happened yesterday! Anyway, today’s game is Xo, a space strategy game from Portland-based developer, Jumpdrive Studios. The team is being supported by Square Enix and has launched a kickstarter to fund the game. Continue reading...

Camera maker gets lift from China, Japan and South Korea as it bolsters its offerings and reports a net income of $35mAction camera maker GoPro Inc has reported better than expected quarterly profit and revenue, helped by strong sales in markets outside North America. GoPro, whose helmet- and body-mounted cameras are popular with surfers, skydivers and other adventure sports enthusiasts, has benefited from a focus on markets such as China, Japan and South Korea. The company earns more than half of its revenue from markets outside the United States.“China is now a top 10 revenue-generating country for GoPro,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Continue reading...

New York City mayor says ‘I don’t debate with private corporations’, as he pushes to remove taxi app’s cars from streets in order to evaluate impact on congestionNew York City mayor Bill de Blasio warned that Uber was not taking a “wise course” in its dealings with New York City and said that “people will reject” the online taxi service if it continued to act as if it could “dictate to government”.The latest missive in de Blasio’s ongoing fight with the multibillion dollar company, which is facing regulatory hurdles in major cities around the world, came shortly after the mayor rejected an open invitation for a debate with the company officials that would have been streamed online to discuss the Democratic mayor’s issue with the company. Continue reading...

A banal spat between two teenagers tells a sorry tale of oversharing, the currency of teenage sexuality, and the vulnerability of growing up in publicI’m always quick to defend the internet against charges of toxicity. It is home to so much that’s positive, but there’s no doubting it can be a despairing space. Ellen Pao, former chief executive of Reddit, wrote earlier this week in the Washington Post that “the trolls are winning”.There’s online misogyny, cyberbullying, hacking, and God knows how many irritating mailshots from political parties. And there’s no better marker of how unfun the internet can be than the ongoing Twitter conversation between Vine star Carter Reynolds and his ex-girlfriend Maggie Lindemann, who split in December 2014. Continue reading...

Engineering firms BuroHappold, Bystrup and Arup are frontrunners to build £40m Thames crossing between Nine Elms and PimlicoFour shortlisted designs have been unveiled for another new bridge across the Thames in London – thought to be the first in a major city centre to incorporate the needs of pedestrians and cyclists.The proposals for the bridge, which will link Pimlico and Nine Elms in south-west London, were shortlisted from 74 entries in March in a competition run by Wandsworth council. Continue reading...

Hackers have threatened to release details of all 33 million profiles – including one belonging to a Guardian journalist who registered while investigating siteHackers threatened to release the identity and credit card details of 33 million adulterers on Monday. And it turns out I was one of them.I set up an Ashley Madison profile last year to investigate the site’s claims to have built an “infidelity map of the UK”. But when I attempted to delete my account, I was presented with a £15 charge. Given that the service prides itself on its discretion, I decided my personal information would probably be safe, and I forgot all about it – until yesterday. Continue reading...

Reps claim system is ‘completely secured’ and that hackers ‘weren’t successful’, while denying more than 2,500 customer records have been releasedExtramarital dating site Ashley Madison is in disarray with its customer service centre telling users their accounts are secure despite the company admitting its user records have been stolen.More than 2,500 customer records have been released to the public by attackers who claim to have stolen the total database of the site, which claims to have more than 33 million members in 46 countries. Continue reading...