Technology | The Guardian

The culture minister has spoken at the Develop conference in Brighton about games industry tax credits and the vital cultural role of the sectorVideo games are as important to British culture as film, Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has claimed during a keynote speech at the Develop conference in Brighton.Speaking to an audience of developers, publishers and investors, Vaizey, who has backed the games industry since becoming Shadow Culture Minister in 2006, also highlighted the success of video game tax credits, which were introduced last year, allowing studios based in the UK to claim relief on up to 25% of their production costs. Continue reading...

Chief executive Satya Nadella says Microsoft is not getting out of mobile, but strategy is shifting from Windows Phone to Windows 10 everywhereAfter cutting 7,800 staff and taking a $7.6bn loss on its Windows Phone division, Microsoft’s chief executive Satya Nadella intends to ramp up the company’s invasion of iPhone and Android with its apps and services.While the write-down has been seen as effectively neutering the remainder of the smartphone business Microsoft bought from Nokia in 2012, Nadella insists that his company is not exiting the smartphone market. Continue reading...

Gearbox co-founder hints at bitter attacks received over Aliens Colonial Marines controversy in keynote speech at Develop conferenceRandy Pitchford, the chief executive of Gearbox Software, has used a keynote speech at the Develop conference in Brighton to address the issue of vocal, highly critical gamers – with specific references to the controversy over the studio’s 2013 release Aliens: Colonial Marines.After performing a magic trick based on the Three Card Monte street scam, the industry veteran told attendees that, while many spectators would quietly appreciate any entertainment act, a small percentage would be critical and would seek to validate that by attempting to convert others. Continue reading...

People will now have more power to moderate edits on the service, with ‘a community of well-intentioned users’ fending off digital vandalismGoogle is relaunching its Map Maker tool, which allows people to make edits to its Google Maps service, but will give its community of users more powers to moderate digital vandalism.The tool was shut down in May, shortly after an image of the Android robot urinating on an Apple logo was discovered on Google Maps just south of the Pakistani city of Rawlpindi, having been added using Map Maker. Continue reading...

Advertising Standards Board deem ‘Fanta Crew’ characters target young children. Under self-regulation, junk food may not be advertised directly to under 12sA TV commercial and an iPhone app for the soft drink Fanta has been pulled after the Advertising Standards Board deemed its cartoon-style “Fanta Crew” characters were directed at children as young as nine.Under the self-regulation of advertising rules, junk food may not be advertised directly to children under 12. One 450ml bottle of Fanta has about 14 teaspoons of sugar. Continue reading...

Following Ellen Pao’s departure, interim CEO Steve Huffman says Reddit is not obligated to support ‘reprehensible’ communities on the siteOn the heels of the departure of CEO Ellen Pao last week and its chief engineer shortly thereafter, Reddit’s top executive has now said the site is not about free speech.The company’s interim CEO, Steve Huffman, flatly told users in a post on the site on Tuesday evening that Reddit does not have “an obligation” to support all Reddit communities. Huffman’s post came after days of uncertainty about the company’s direction following Pao’s apology and subsequent resignation. Continue reading...

The story fairly accurately mimicked the look and feel of Bloomberg News and carried the byline of a staff writer but the website address and errors gave it awayTwitter’s shares jumped more than 8% on Tuesday after a fake online story said the company had received a $31bn takeover offer.The shares jumped from $36.80 to $38.60 in less than 10 minutes after the fabricated story was posted to Twitter and began to circulate. Continue reading...

Nintendo chief executive who helped bring video games to a family audienceSatoru Iwata, who has died aged 55 of a bile duct tumour, was that rarest of beasts: the president and CEO of a giant company who retained the human touch and nurtured a relationship with his consumers that felt personal. As the man who had held the reins at the colossal video games company Nintendo since 2002, he did more than anyone else to bring video games to a mainstream, family audience. He presided over the launches of the Nintendo DS handheld gaming system – the second-most successful console to date, after Sony’s PlayStation 2 – and the Nintendo Wii, with its innovative, much-copied motion-sensing, TV remote-style controller, which appealed to a generation that had previously found video games intimidating.Genial, approachable and solicitous in person, and always with a humorous glint in his eye, Iwata never conformed to the stereotype of the haughty CEO – although he was forced to take plenty of tough decisions in the harsh Japanese corporate world, where shareholders’ responses to quarterly results hold sway and losing face is not an option. Uniquely among CEOs of the games industry’s leading players, he began his working life as a programmer, and retained a lifelong enthusiasm for making and playing games. Continue reading...

EA Sports has abandoned Tiger Woods in favour of a new star and the result includes richly detailed visuals, and feels like a fresh start for the seriesFor 24 years, the PGA Tour series has dominated the world of golfing simulations, its hegemony threatened only by the mostly PC-based Links series – and the more approachable Everybody’s Golf. Tiger Woods has been the cover star since 1998, but considering his wane in fortunes, it is understandable that he has been bundled into a golf cart and sent on his way. Now Rory McIlroy, who looks just as fiercely motivated and skilled as the young Tiger once did, will front a fresh chapter for the series.At first, long-time fans will most likely find the absence of Woods jarring, at first. It feels strange to begin the “Prologue” section of the game and find McIlroy staring back at you recanting his own experiences, rather than reliving some of Tiger’s many achievements. But the nostalgia fades as McIlroy, directly addressing the player, talks about how it feels to stand on the opening tee in the final round of a major championship. It is unusually candid, offering a lot more insight than most golfers ever would in a TV interview. Continue reading...

#Mecca Live trends on Twitter with snaps providing insight into Saudi city closed to non-Muslims

Previous justice secretary said satellite tracking tags would come into use by end of last year, but project has had significant problemsThe introduction of the next generation of GPS tracking of offenders, including convicted paedophiles, has been delayed for at least another 12 months, the Ministry of Justice has announced.The prisons minister, Andrew Selous, said there had been significant problems with the project which meant it was impossible to meet the deadline for the £265m six-year contract to begin. Continue reading...

The right to be forgotten has highlighted the need for information merchants to be much more transparent about their decision-making process

Data shows 95% of Google privacy requests are from citizens out to protect personal and private information – not criminals, politicians and public figuresGoogle’s data leak reveals flaws in making it judge and jury over our rights Less than 5% of nearly 220,000 individual requests made to Google to selectively remove links to online information concern criminals, politicians and high-profile public figures, the Guardian has learned, with more than 95% of requests coming from everyday members of the public.The Guardian has discovered new data hidden in source code on Google’s own transparency report that indicates the scale and flavour of the types of requests being dealt with by Google – information it has always refused to make public. The data covers more than three-quarters of all requests to date. Continue reading...

Economic policy speech slams the ‘on-demand economy’ following lawsuits against startups like Uber over responsibility to workers and employee rights

New service built into social network’s Messenger chat app aids with product research and purchases, connecting users with knowledgeable peopleFacebook is testing a service called “Moneypenny” that connects users of its Messenger chat app to real people for product-buying advice, according to reports.

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Tuesday. Today’s screenshot is from Quiver of Crows, a twin-stick shooter by Orange County-based studio Sheado.net. Continue reading...

For $15 a month the web-based add-on will feature the major broadcast networks and PBS and HBO – and might signal the end of the old-fashioned cable landscapeWill traditional cable die the death of a thousand cuts? Comcast said late on Sunday it would begin selling a web-based service called Stream, with content from the major broadcast networks and PBS and HBO. The programming will be available as a $15 add-on to Comcast’s internet-only package.

Anti-surveillance campaigner and former Microsoft privacy chief who warned of online state snooping many years before Edward SnowdenCaspar Bowden, who has died of cancer aged 53, warned of online state snooping many years before Edward Snowden, and ran a successful campaign to stop surveillance laws becoming even worse than they are. He entered the fray in 1997, when Tony Blair went back on a pre-election promise not to demand government access to cryptographic keys. At a Scrambling for Safety conference convened at the London School of Economics to thrash out a response, Caspar emerged as knowledgable, articulate and passionate.He was born in London, the only child of Kenneth and Angela Bowden, though he had two older half-brothers, Malcolm and Simon. He attended Westminster school and read mathematics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, but spent a lot of time working on artificial intelligence and failed his degree. He found a job as a programmer at Island Logic, then moved to Goldman Sachs, working on projects including option pricing and cryptographic software. He became an active member of the Labour party in Islington, and by 1997 was chair of Scientists for Labour. Continue reading...

The US company is to launch its contactless payment system, which will be accepted at more than 250,000 locations, on TuesdayApple Pay is set to launch in the UK on Tuesday, allowing iPhone users to tap and pay with their phones.It is the first time it has been launched outside the US, and will be available to users with an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. It is also compatible with the Apple Watch. Continue reading...

Artist Robin Lee was arrested on suspicion of ‘abstracting electricity’ after plugging his phone in to charge it when travelling from Hackney to Camden

Tweet by man who claimed to be stuck in a bag triggered flurry of online attention before it was revealed to be a hoaxEarly on Monday morning as the T in the Park music festival was winding down a man calling himself Scott Johnston, 23, tweeted: “Hi im somewhere in green 7 someone has packed me into a tent bag for a joke and I can’t get out I don’t have much battery left.”@Tinthepark hi im somewhere in green 7 someone has packed me into a tent bag for a joke and I can't get out I don't have much battery left Continue reading...

Fans, gamers, developers and colleagues pay tribute to Satoru Iwata, the leading figure behind some of Nintendo’s most popular devicesTributes for Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata, who has died from cancer at the age of 55, have been flooding in on social media.Since Nintendo announced the news on Monday morning, tributes to the self-confessed “gamer at heart” have sent the hashtag #ThankYouIwata trending on Twitter. Continue reading...

Attack that revealed data exposing deals with dictatorships was on a ‘governmental level’ and ‘planned for months’, says David Vincenzetti in first statementThe founder of cybersecurity firm Hacking Team has finally spoken out over the attack that saw 400GB of its data dumped on the internet, insisting: “We’re the good guys”.

RE: Shakespeare, Crayola DJ, Halo Channel, Hooks, Alphabear, Fearless Fantasy, Democracy vs Freedom, Atomas and moreWelcome to this week’s roundup of the latest, greatest Android apps and games, covering smartphones and tablets.All these apps have been released for the first time – ie not updates – since the last roundup. All prices are correct at the time of writing, with “IAP” indicating use of in-app purchases. Continue reading...

The Nintendo president, who has died from cancer at the age of 55, brought in a ‘blue ocean’ strategy that would lead to the industry’s most successful consolesOn my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.– Satoru Iwata, speaking at the Game Developers Conference in 2005 Continue reading...

A place to talk about Satoru IwataGoodbye Satoru Iwata. Continue reading...

(PS Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Tecmo Koei, cert: 12)Take up your katana in this hand-held hack-and-slasher as a samurai in the service of legendary warlord Nobunaga Oda. Samurai Warriors: Chronicles 3 is a highly stylised version of real events, moving between breezy gameplay and dry retellings of the Warring States period of Japanese history with a few “what-if” scenarios mixed in. There are multiple game modes and plenty to uncover, if you have the patience.The actual moment-to-moment combat is fairly unchallenging, mowing through hundreds of mooks to get to more powerful officers and generals. Managing the army is more interesting; the 3DS’s second screen can switch between characters, manoeuvre officers and react to the battle’s changes. This is a port, however, based on a console version and hence looks a little stripped down; the Vita’s hardware handles large areas and mobs better than the 3DS. It’s a solid package overall, but there is little here to wow the player. Continue reading...

(iOS, Bethesda, cert 12)Too many freemium games are a cheap cash grab. But Bethesda’s mobile spin-off from its famous post-apocalyptic series is that rare beast: free and not constantly squeezing you for cash.Sharing a scorched-earth setting with the role-playing titles from which it takes its name, a cartoon aesthetic is put to good use in this building game, where players are tasked with creating a vault to protect and attract survivors. Resource collection and management are key – with food, water and electricity needed to maintain the ever-expanding shelter. These are farmed from a variety of upgradeable rooms, which each require dwellers with a different asset – six in all, from strength to luck. Continue reading...

His work providing the voice of Nathan Drake on PlayStation’s Uncharted series has made him one of the biggest stars of the video games industryAs Nathan Drake in PlayStation’s Uncharted series, Nolan North pioneered a new standard in video game performance while establishing himself as a leading voice actor in both games and animation. But the trick, he says, is not to compartmentalise yourself …Is there a secret to becoming a voice actor? Continue reading...

3DS, Renegade Kid, cert: 7, out nowDeveloper Renegade Kid delivers a very satisfying trip down memory lane with Xeodrifter, in the form of a 2D side-scrolling platformer with lovely, retro, pixel graphics. They know their reference points too and cleverly have based it on classic Metroid staples such as exploration, a slow rediscovery of powers and challenging boss encounters.Being stranded in space after a meteor strike the small protagonist must investigate the planets still within reach to find a replacement engine. However, it’s action rather than narrative that is central here, running, shooting and jumping through strange worlds, defeating ever more aggressive alien enemies. Equally, as the genre demands, Xeodrifter is hard; it’s meant to be. There’s also much repetition of boss fights and retraced steps once new abilities open fresh paths and strategies. That this rarely grates is testament to the deft delivery. Balancing frustration and incentive, much like Renegade Kids’ excellent Mutant Mudds game, ensures momentum doesn’t dwindle. Equally strong is the use of the 3DS’s visual depth that emphasises the layered retro aesthetic. Continue reading...

From Pygmalion to Ex Machina, the idea – and the ideal – of building a ‘perfect woman’ has come down through history. A new book explores whyFrom mechanical dolls to the eponymous Coppélia, the Jetsons’ Rosie to Ex Machina’s beguiling Ava, the lure of technology to create a manifestation of “the perfect woman” has long proved seductive.But just why are automatons so attractive? And just what is this “perfect woman” anyway? Rounding up a veritable sorority of artificial Eves, Julie Wosk delves into the issues in her latest book My Fair Ladies, casting an analytical eye over female depictions, both physical and fictitious, to explore the history and the future of Woman 2.0. Continue reading...

Japanese company confirms its chief executive died on SaturdayNintendo said Monday that its chief executive Satoru Iwata has died of bile duct cancer at the age of 55, several months after he abandoned the Japanese gaming giant’s consoles-only policy.

Silicon Valley’s most controversial executive has personified the discrimination and harassment directed at women in technology and on the internet. A look back at her landmark gender lawsuit and her ouster at Reddit reveals how much – and how little – has changedWhen Ellen Pao took the witness stand four months ago, accusing the most powerful venture-capital firm in the most powerful new industry of pervasive sexism against her and powerful women like her, she talked about the “right path”.Pao’s own attorney asked the 46-year-old executive why she continued to fight Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the firm that accused her of being a bad employee, even as she had become the top executive at Reddit, the influential social-media website that is infamous for nothing if not its trolls. The site’s former contributors – Pao now among them – describe it as a kind of misogynist fire swamp where “harassment swarms”, even and especially for an accidental feminist champion like its suddenly former CEO. Continue reading...

The American star of Humans likes computer science, but hates autocorrect. As for owning a robot, he’s really not sure…Are you a gadget fiend or a technophobe?I’ve been interested in technology and computers since I was 17. I always figured that science fiction is mostly science probability. The ideas in people’s imaginations become fact pretty quickly these days. Continue reading...

Ethical objections to the all-conquering app are laudable, but try maintaining those when there’s a cut-price chauffeur at the doorBring up the subject of the world’s biggest, most unscrupulous tech companies, and many people will mention the low level of corporation tax paid by online behemoths in the UK (just slashed from 20% to 18% by 2020 in George Osborne’s budget). Or they’ll talk about how Amazon is squeezing independent bookshops and paying self-published authors a pittance – as little as $0.006 per page read. Perhaps there will be handwringing over the state of Foxconn, the biggest supplier of Apple products. In Foxconn factories in China, workers average around 55 hours a week, and conditions are so poor that in 2010 alone 14 workers killed themselves. Continue reading...

It’s a game where you’re unlikely to meet other players, no one will win and it will take over four billion years to explore it all. And that’s why it’s the most anticipated title for decades.Sean Murray is sweating in an Uber cab as it lurches to the staccato rhythm of Los Angeles traffic. The 34-year-old video game programmer is anxious. His meeting at SpaceX with Elon Musk, the American business magnate who hopes to put a human on Mars within the next two decades, overran and Murray and two of his colleagues are perilously late for their next appointment. It is, if not the most important meeting of his life, then almost certainly the most notable (and this in a week of notable meetings; before Musk, Murray met the rapper Kanye West). In five minutes Murray and his colleague, David Ream, are due to show No Man’s Sky, the video game he and a dozen or so friends are creating half a world away in Guildford, to the film director Steven Spielberg.Like Murray, Spielberg is in town for E3, the video game industry’s largest annual gathering, held in boiling LA each June, where publishers show off their forthcoming titles to baying crowds of fans. The cab pulls up at the Los Angeles Convention Centre, where the event takes place over three days. The building is draped in advertising for next year’s blockbuster titles. Murray exits the car with a slam and begins to weave through the crowd, clustered around screens and fingerprint-smeared controllers. He arrives at one of Sony’s cool private meeting rooms, just as Spielberg and his entourage arrive. Inside, Murray, with an apologetic press of a button, loads up the universe. Continue reading...

Our monthly roundup of 10 apps and 10 mobile games should keep your smartphone well-stocked for summer

Reaction ranged from celebration to dismay as some wonder whether company used Pao as a scapegoat, a theory rejected by a board memberRelated: Reddit's Ellen Pao is latest female CEO blamed for inherited woes, experts sayWhile vitriol against the Reddit chief executive Ellen Pao dominated the site in the weeks leading up to her resignation on Friday, in the hours after her departure discussions centered on whether this had been the company’s plan and how responsible users were for her ousting. Continue reading...

More than 15,000 seek new limits on the number of nights hosts can offer visitors – but Airbnb advocates say middle-class owners are the ones most hurtA battle over one of the country’s most expensive rental markets intensified this week when thousands of San Francisco residents petitioned the city to restrict home sharing websites like Airbnb.More than 15,000 signed a petition calling for more oversight as well as new restrictions on the number of nights hosts can offer. Continue reading...

As Pao steps down following a petition and death threats, sociologists and other observers point to a ‘glass cliff’ for female executivesFemale chief executives like Ellen Pao may reach the pinnacle in business only to discover that they have risen to the top of a precarious “glass cliff”.

Mixing protein powders, fish oils, vitamins and minerals into a blender and drinking the results is seen in Silicon Valley as the new way to consume a healthy diet without the burden of eating real food

Some in Silicon Valley claim that a combination of supplements, over-the-counter medications and other chemicals taken together can improve cognitive function

The option to share your ‘block’ lists offers Twitter users a new way to tackle online abusers, but would identification be a step too far?Partner at Kingsley Napley lawyers Continue reading...

‘This bike seems like my perfect match – but is it too good to be true?’Like a dating profile that promises more than a real-life human could ever deliver, the Charge Grater 3 Mixte always seemed too good to be true. Just as few men are handsome, kind, able to complete cryptic crosswords and jumpstart an engine, so does the Grater promise that bit too much for its £549.99 price tag. The key is finding the catch.A bike fitted with Shimano Nexus hub gears – eight of the beauties – would normally be significantly more expensive. Hub gears are the biz for anyone who wants to commute in their work clothes, because the machinery is all hidden away and there are no oily, exposed cogs. Usually they are teamed with a chain guard to protect your slacks, though that’s weirdly missing from the Grater. I have Nexus gears on my indestructible Fahrrad 300, which I’ve ridden without any maintenance for five years. Continue reading...

‘I’m just another human,’ says outgoing boss, who was forced to quit by users angry about alleged attempts to curb the site’s ‘anything goes’ toneEllen Pao, the interim chief executive of Reddit, has resigned following a user backlash against the sacking of one of the company’s employees.Pao, who became an international symbol for gender imbalance in Silicon Valley when she lost a landmark discrimination lawsuit, leaves after around eight months in the job and will be replaced by the site’s co-founder Steve Huffman. Continue reading...

With security threats around every digital corner, David Nield examines whether you’re likely to become a target Continue reading...

The SteelSeries Sentry Gaming Eye Tracker promises video game players a faster, more responsive experienceEye tracking promises to give gamers an edge, adjusting view as fast as you can glance. But does the reality match the potential?What is it? Continue reading...

With the launch of its OnePlus 2 model imminent, company co-founder Carl Pei explains why scale will allow it to work with the ‘best-in-class’Carl Pei has an ambition: to have 100 million users of his OnePlus smartphones. But he says it’s not just self interest which is driving him, he wants to create a platform that will help its users to do good.“If there’s an earthquake, we can nudge them to donate money, or help in some other way, to get free credits on their OnePlus account. Or some other incentive,” he says. Continue reading...

Can’t afford to get away this summer? Here’s how to experience everything from city breaks to safaris without having to leave your house – or even get dressed Continue reading...

The original card game has 20 million players worldwide. Now, its publishers are revisiting its leading characters’ origins in an effort to get bigger still