Technology | The Guardian

When Marina Joyce uploaded a YouTube video advertising some dresses, the last thing she expected was that it would put her at the centre of a conspiracyWhat do you do when the internet decides you’ve been kidnapped?It sounds like a strange question, and it is. Yet that’s what happened to the 19-year-old Marina Joyce. Somehow, a video about some dresses turned into a huge conspiracy theory involving her friends, family and even the police. Then people online turned on Marina herself, accusing her of planning the entire thing. How did it happen? Continue reading...

Textbooks are being dropped in favour of technology, with parents saying they are being lumbered with much of the costState schools are putting pressure on parents to buy their children iPads to use in lessons, as a result of a lack of proper government funding for technology equipment, headteachers have warned.The National Association of Head Teachers says inadequate government funding is forcing schools to call for parents to pay for their children’s equipment. An investigation by Education Guardian found at least 15 state schools were asking some parents to purchase an iPad for their child, while offering help to disadvantaged families. Charities estimate hundreds of schools are doing the same. Continue reading...

British cleaner maker’s first robot vacuum was worth waiting for, but costs a lot, can’t do the stairs and isn’t perfect despite being the best available right nowDyson’s 360 Eye robot vacuum cleaner has finally been released in the UK after an extensive trial in Japan and it claims to be the best available. How does it stack up against the market leading Roomba – and is it really worth buying? Continue reading...

Ambitious new cities Songdo and Masdar may not have lived up to their promise, but smaller projects in the US aim to be laboratories for sustainable city planningMasdar, on the edges of Abu Dhabi, was billed as the world’s first sustainable city when it was conceived in 2006. It was intended to be a zero-carbon, zero-waste city, with smart technology embedded across all the city’s functions. A decade on and ambitions have cooled. The completion date has moved from 2016 to 2030 and city authorities have said it won’t achieve the original aim of being a net zero-emissions city.Related: Masdar's zero-carbon dream could become world’s first green ghost town Continue reading...

Fifty CubeSat miniature satellites – three of them Australian – will be launched from the International Space Station in JanuaryResearchers hope to discover more about a little-understood understood layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, known as the thermosphere, when they launch 50 miniature satellites known as CubeSats from the International Space Station in January.Three Australian-built miniature satellites are being contributed to the international project known as QB50, along with 47 other satellites from around the world. The CubeSats are about the size of a lunch box, weighing about 2kg, but cost $1m each. Continue reading...

Shadow assistant treasurer criticises Nick Xenophon and Greens senators for refusing to fill in census fully saying that could ‘imperil quality of data’Labor has called on Australians not to spoil the census, slapping down a growing revolt led by minor parties to withhold names when filling it out.But the shadow assistant treasurer, Andrew Leigh, criticised the federal government for failing to explain changes to hold name and address information for four years, up from 18 months, after two Greens senators joined the push to withhold their names. Continue reading...

Free TV episodes that the website was originally known for will be gone in a few weeks, as Hulu makes plans for real-time broadcastingHulu is dropping the free TV episodes that it was initially known for as it works on an online television service to rival cable TV.

Joshua Neally’s Tesla Model X didn’t exactly save his life when he started having severe chest pains, but it helped him get most of the way to a hospital

Data scientists at Facebook have sampled 160,000 users and confirmed some long-held stereotypes about cat people versus dog peopleMontagues and Capulets. Edison and Tesla. Bloods and Crips. Among history’s greatest rivalries none has been so fierce as that between cat people and dog people.In honor of International Cat Day, Facebook researchers examined the behavior of these warring factions to find some insight into who they are and how they operate. The team of data scientists wanted to find out who has more friends, who is more likely to be single and who has the best taste in TV. Continue reading...

Sophisticated cybercrime, privacy fears and ongoing confusion about security have soured the internet for many, and doing something about it won’t be easyWhen cybersecurity professionals converged in Las Vegas last week to expose vulnerabilities and swap hacking techniques at Black Hat and Defcon, a consistent theme emerged: the internet is broken, and if we don’t do something soon, we risk permanent damage to our economy.“Half of all Americans are backing away from the net due to fears regarding security and privacy,” longtime tech security guru Dan Kaminsky said in his Black Hat keynote speech, citing a July 2015 study by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. “We need to go ahead and get the internet fixed or risk losing this engine of beauty.” Continue reading...

Superstore giant has fallen well off the pace of online retail leader Amazon and hopes Jet’s chief executive will provide ‘entrepreneurial sprit’Walmart is buying Jet.com, an online retailer less than two years old, for more than $3bn (£2.3bn) as it attempts to rebuild its internet retailing strategy to try to catch up with Amazon.The big box store giant, which operates more than 11,000 stores across the world, including Asda in the UK, on Monday said said the total $3.3bn purchase represented “another jolt of entrepreneurial spirit being injected into Walmart”. Continue reading...

Students who played online games scored above average in maths, science and reading tests, although study does not prove games were the causeChildren who play online video games tend to do better in academic science, maths and reading tests, according to an analysis of data from over 12,000 high school students in Australia.

Flaws that could give hackers complete access to a smartphone have been found in the microchips of millions of Android devicesSecurity flaws that could give hackers complete access to a smartphone have been found in the processors of hundreds of millions of Android devices, researchers claim.Computer security firm Check Point says that the bugs could affect up to 900m Android phones, including some made by BlackBerry, Google and LG among others. Continue reading...

We now spend more time deciding what to take with us on our tablets, phones and e-readers than we do packing our bags. Here’s how to organise your digital luggageNever mind the old ways of rolling up clothes to maximise space, splurging on travel size toiletries, then flipping out and throwing the contents of your case all over the gate when it doesn’t meet the hand luggage requirements. Holidaying is now all about what goes in your digital suitcase.According to a survey commissioned by audiobook retailer Audible, travellers spend more time doing their “digital packing” for a week-long break – four hours and 16 minutes to be precise – than they do packing their physical case, on which they spend a comparatively measly two hours and 30 minutes. A third of under-35s pack their digi-case – which contains music, audiobooks, ebooks, films and TV shows – before they think about the actual stuff they will take on holiday. Continue reading...

Country becomes the first to block access to game, citing concerns about its use of location-based virtual reality technologyIran has become the first country to ban the Pokémon Go mobile game, citing security concerns about the game’s use of location-based virtual reality technology.“Any game that wants to operate nationwide in Iran needs to obtain permission from the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, and the Pokémon Go app has not yet requested such a permission,” the semi-official Isna news agency quoted Abolhasan Firouzabadi, the head of Iran’s supreme council of virtual space, as saying. Continue reading...

Ten million Australian households are expected to take part but the census has been marred by privacy fearsBilled variously as a valuable snapshot of the nation, a dangerous violation of privacy, or an opportunity to briefly convert to Jediism, Australia’s five-yearly census takes place on Tuesday night.Ten million Australian households are expected to take part but the national headcount is mired in unprecedented controversy, with allegations that the move to collect the census online, and the requirement that personal details such as names will be retained for four years, pose an unprecedented risk to the safety of Australians’ data. Continue reading...

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As a study shows many people feel unable to switch off from the internet, we ask our readers how much time a week they spend onlineDo you spend too much time online? It’s a question that may unearth some uncomfortable truths, and if you are worried about how much you use Facebook/Google et al, you’re not alone.The annual communications market report from media and telecoms regulator Ofcom looks at how people cope with spending so much time connected, and this year it found that more than a third of UK internet users are taking “digital detox” breaks from the web. It found an increasing amount of time we spend online is leading to lost sleep and less time spent with friends and family. Continue reading...

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

Most of the 349 fines were issued to people playing the game on motorcycles since the game was released on SaturdayPokémon Go was only released in Taiwan on Saturday – but hundreds of eager players have already been fined for playing the game on their phones while driving.According to the National Police Agency, 349 fines have been doled out since Saturday. Most of those fines went to people playing the game on motorcycles. Continue reading...

Calvin Riley was killed by an unknown assailant at Aquatic Park on Saturday nightA 20-year-old man has been shot dead while playing Pokémon Go at a tourist spot on San Francisco’s waterfront, authorities have said.Calvin Riley was shot on Saturday night by an unknown assailant at Aquatic Park near Ghirardelli Square, the US Park police said.

Explosive growth in mobile broadband use across the continent is improving transparency and giving a voice to citizensMobile phones will account for almost one-tenth of African GDP by the end of the decade, as mobile broadband connections triple in five years, underlining how the explosive growth in the telecoms industry is having a major economic, social and political impact on the continent.Market analysts Ovum expect mobile broadband connections, which stood at 147m in 2014, to account for a substantial share of the mobile market, forecasting a rise to 76% at the end of 2020, up from just 17% in 2014. Continue reading...

Footage of the accident in Virginia, which will make car lovers wince, showed the red Mercedes wedged on top of the front of the luxury sports carThe driver of a Mercedes 380 SL has made a potentially costly mistake when she ended up reversing over the bonnet of a nearby $300,000 Ferrari while attempting a parallel park.Footage of the accident in Great Falls, Virginia on Saturday, shows the red Mercedes wedged on top of the front of the luxury sports car. Continue reading...

Grattan Institute reports only half of those graduating with degrees in science found work within four months, 17% below the average for all graduatesGraduates with bachelor degrees in science struggle to find work in comparison with their counterparts in other science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) disciplines, the Grattan Institute has found in a new report.The Mapping Australian Higher Education 2016 report, released on Monday, shows that science and information technology graduates have patchy prospects in the labour market despite increasing demand for Stem skills. Continue reading...

Cryptocurrency platform to issue compensation for £55m bitcoins theft in form of credit tokens

China National Nuclear Corporation on government list of preferred bidders for development funding for next-generation modular reactorsA controversial Chinese company has been selected to bid for millions of pounds of public money in a UK government competition to develop mini nuclear power stations.The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) features twice in a government list of 33 projects and companies deemed eligible to compete for a share in up to £250m to develop so-called small modular reactors (SMR). Continue reading...

This summer’s video game phenomenon has brought the physical realm – including the human body itself – back into gamingThis is weird, I thought to myself recently, while standing at the urinal. That still we must live inside these leaky bodies. Pissing feels so anachronistic, doesn’t it? The body is in decline, culturally speaking. We access the office, the theatre, the supermarket and even the university from chairs via screens. Bodies increasingly feel like a hangover from those dark days before Anno Internet, when we had to go out in search of nourishment, ideas, wonder and delight. Nowadays it all comes to us: via Just Eat, via Netflix, via Attenborough and, of course, via social media, with its endless stream of data that froths over our minds. We’re happy to become brains in jars – so long as the jar is Wi-Fi enabled.Pokémon was a way for its creator Satoshi Tajiri to revisit his lost childhood hobby of entomology Continue reading...

With 1bn smartphones lying idle in the US, meet the companies repurposing old smartphones into sensors and security cameras in a bid to tackle e-wasteIf Jim Poss hadn’t dropped his phone in the bath while bathing his son, he might never have hit upon the idea for his business. While researching a cheap replacement for his waterlogged iPhone, he had an epiphany: the used phones sold online for $60 (£45) or less could be repurposed as Internet of Things sensors and used to form flexible, low-cost security and vehicle telematics systems.Related: Apple announces new recycling program as interest in green gadgets grows Continue reading...

Overseen by a UK government board, the Cell is a part of Huawei in Oxfordshire ensuring its own technology cannot be compromised for nefarious purposesWelcome to the Cell. All visitors must surrender their phones at the door. No cameras or filming equipment allowed.In a deceptively humdrum office block on the outskirts of Banbury, Oxfordshire, a team of cybersecurity experts is working to combat the risk of surveillance and hacking attacks from China. Continue reading...

The departure of Saatchi & Saatchi’s Kevin Roberts after his complacent and misguided interview leaves gender bias in corporate life unaffectedSo farewell, Kevin Roberts. The Saatchi & Saatchi executive chairman resigned last week after giving an interview to Business Insider that was so riddled with sexism and complacency it is difficult to pick out a particular soundbite.To summarise, Roberts said that there was no problem with sexual discrimination at Saatchi & Saatchi and that some women, and men, were looking just to be happy in life rather than climb up the ranks of a company. He also accused a female campaigner of “making up a lot of stuff to create a profile”. Continue reading...

As artificial intelligence increases its influence on our lives, the talk is of job losses, self-driving car crashes, algorithms running amok. But there is an upside…AI might be shaking up life as we know it, but like any good party guest, it’s about bringing the beers. That’s according to the work of London-based company IntelligentX, which is using artificial intelligence to brew the perfect pint. What makes IntelligentX’s beers smart is the speed at which the firm is able to respond to the changing tastes of customers – on a batch-by-batch basis. The company currently brews four beers: golden, pale, amber and black. Continue reading...

If you think you’re a big clever grown-up who can handle a car, think again… Lexus’s latest SUV is in charge

Commuter, road bike, cross-rider – three bicycles for the price of oneHow many bikes do you need? There’s an old equation which states the ideal number is n + 1 where n is the number you currently own. Well, here’s a novel way to get three bikes for the price of one. British brand Quella has just launched the Evo which has been engineered to be incredibly versatile and durable. Starting with the basic frame you can use it as a no-nonsense, single-speed commuter. Or you can upgrade the gears and handlebars so it becomes an entry-level road bike. And if that doesn’t appeal, you can swap in chunkier rubber and use it as a rugged cross-rider for country trails and muddy lanes. Bottle holders, mudguards and racks can also be added, while a custom colour will cost you a further £100. It’s a great result for the chronically indecisive.Price: £599

The ride sharing firm will now be eyeing the Indian market, and has its sights set on even bigger rivalsOnly a Chinese wall could slow the progress of the Uber juggernaut. The ride-sharing app, pugnacious pioneer of the sharing economy, has given up on its attempt to get the better of Chinese domestic rival Didi Chuxing.Uber agreed instead to hand over its branding, operations and data in exchange for a 20% holding in Didi, which is valued at $35bn. That makes Uber’s stake worth some $7bn, not a bad return on the $2bn the San Francisco tech firm has already spent trying to establish a profitable beachhead in the People’s Republic. Didi will also invest $1bn in Uber Technologies, adding to the company’s already hefty pot. Continue reading...

‘Pilots’ gathered for a test flight before the National Drone Racing Championship, a budding sport competitors hope will become an ‘everybody hobby’A pack of drones whizzed across Governor’s Island against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline. About the size of a plate, they whipped through the track of the second annual National Drone Racing Championship, piloted by racers in goggles standing a few yards away.Friday was a practice day at the drone race, a sport that’s still in its infancy. But this weekend’s event is its big moment. For the first time in drone racing’s short existence, the competition will be broadcast on ESPN. Continue reading...

The fact that most election machines are not connected to the internet makes hacking unlikely, but the software itself could be vulnerableIt’s been a topic of debate ever since hackers – presumably working for Russia – stole thousands of private emails from the Democratic National Committee and leaked them on the net. Could a nation state or other adversary hack our elections and determine the next president of the United States?The answer depends on how they try to go about it, says Avi Rubin, computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University and technical director of the university’s Information Security Institute. Continue reading...

There are sports-style seats, lots of red stitching, a large rear spoiler, a front grille that looks like the mouth of a predator…“People,” (I am channelling Ford’s marketing manager, talking to the car designers here) “who is the Focus actually for?”“Is it,” suggests a middle-ranking designer, possibly wearing a bow tie, “a young executive who hasn’t hit his full earning potential and enjoys the open road?” Continue reading...

The agency’s stockpile of unpatched, undisclosed vulnerabilities is a big concern to the security community, but research suggests it discloses more than it keepsAmerica’s National Security Agency (NSA) spends upwards of $25m in a year buying previously undisclosed security vulnerabilities – known as zero days, because that’s the length of time the target has had to fix them – but the large investment may not result in as much of a collection of hacking capabilities as is widely assumed.Jason Healey, a senior research scholar at Columbia University and director at the Atlantic Council policy thinktank, argues that the true number of zero days stockpiled by the NSA is likely in the “dozens”, and that the agency only adds to that amount by a very small amount each year. “Right now it looks like single digits,” he says, adding that he has “high confidence in this assessment.” Continue reading...

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Threat posed by short-term rentals has always been high, but security researcher says it should now be considered one of the biggest risks of travelingAirbnb and other home-sharing startups may be eating the hotel industry from the inside out, but as the number of people staying in strangers’ houses rises, so too does the security threat the whole industry poses.When it comes to connecting to unknown networks, the typical Airbnb home network is likely to be less secure than a coffee shop Wi-Fi, hotel internet or even the extensive university network, according to security researcher Jeremy Galloway. Continue reading...

Fans of the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team have long cheered ‘Go Big Red’ – so why is the Union Jack now latching onto their tweets?On the wind-swept plains of Nebraska, the abbreviation “GBR” means a specific thing to supporters of the University of Nebraska football team.

I saw this Lapras was close. As it’s a water-type creature I assumed it must be down by the nearby lake. I jumped into my younger brother’s carIt was a quiet Tuesday evening last month, around 10.30pm, and I was sitting watching TV at my mother’s house. I had driven across the States from Oregon to New York and was back from college for the summer. I checked the Pokémon Go app on my phone and a creature showed up. It was a Lapras: an unusual one that I hadn’t encountered before.When I was about 12, I got the original Pokémon Yellow game on my Gameboy. My friends and I used to play it on the bus on our way to school. Continue reading...

When grown adults dressed as Pikachu take to the streets and hit bystanders in the face with giant Pokéballs fired from slingshots, you know it’s gone too farPokémon Go has taken the world by storm but now the phenomenon has definitely jumped the shark, with life-sized Pokéballs and humans dressed as Pikachu being used for a marketing stunt. Continue reading...

New open source project hopes to remove burden of remembering passwords and instantly log you into apps on Android, with plans to roll out across every platformGoogle has taken the next big step forward in its war against the password – an open source system to instantly and securely log you into apps on your phone using your password manager.

Like many young people, I live much of my life online. While it can be isolating, the internet can also aid mental healthLast week, in a largely futile attempt to actually do some work, I installed a browser extension that blocked pretty much any website I could possibly distract myself with. Twitter: gone. Facebook: gone. Even my emails, which I obsessively tend to in order to feel moderately productive, were off limits for an hour.Having found new and imaginative ways to waste my own time, what surprised me most was not how much more work I did, but the sheer frequency with which I attempted to access the internet. I’d incessantly tap “twitter.com” into the address bar, somehow immediately forgetting it was blocked. I’d click on my still-open Facebook tab to check my feed before remembering there was no point. Every time I finished a sentence I’d flit away from my work again, trying to exchange 10 seconds of productivity for 10 minutes of distraction. I knew I spent a lot of time online – but not this much. Continue reading...

From 3D-printed limbs to hacktivists tackling oppression, Africa is the perfect place for tech innovation against the oddsAfrica may be taking a great leap forward into the digital era. But when technology reaches a new area, the hackers are never far behind.Many are familiar with the African hacker cliche: revolving around a badly written email from someone, claiming to be a friend, for example, who has been mugged and needs an urgent money transfer. Continue reading...

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

Gamers help find hard-to-reach communities as Médecins Sans Frontières uses data from MapSwipe app to produce detailed local mapsGamers can now help aid workers locate communities affected by natural disasters, disease outbreaks or conflict using a mobile app developed by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).MapSwipe users swipe through satellite images of remote areas and tap the screen when they see features such as settlements, roads and rivers. Information is then fed back to mappers, who use it to draw detailed maps. Continue reading...

Here are six easy steps to rid yourself of Pokémon Go for good. Follow them all Continue reading...

The top prize will be given for finding bugs in Apple’s ‘secure boot’ firmware for blocking unwanted programs when an iOS device powers upApple has said it plans to offer rewards of up to $200,000 to researchers who find critical security bugs in its products, joining dozens of firms that already offer payments for help uncovering flaws in their products.