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

This 7in Android tablet is ludicrously cheap (and comes with a buy-five-get-one-free offer), but it gets the basics right while costing less than one-sixth of an iPad mini 4Amazon’s latest low cost Fire asks the question: can a tablet that sets you back just £50 each, or buy five and get one free, be any good at all?

The Silicon Spa cluster has 40 video gaming companies, including some of the biggest names. But the game is far from wonApproximately 75% of the digital media companies in Leamington are gaming companies. It is known as the Silicon Spa.This games cluster grew out of the success of games developer and publisher Codemasters – which really was a trailblazer – and then Blitz Games Studios. Other companies moved or set up here to be near those companies. As the businesses thrived, some staff left to set up on their own but stayed local. Continue reading...

US authorities made the most requests for users’ information, while India and Turkey had the most takedowns for content that violated local lawsFacebook has said government requests for data and demands for content to be taken down surged in the first half of 2015, which the social network has seen continually increase since it began publicly releasing such data two years ago.Related: World's biggest tech companies get failing grade on data-privacy rights Continue reading...

The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, says education department computers were breached revealing private data including allegations of sexual assaultAllegations of sexual assault are among the personal information about students that has been hacked in Queensland’s education department, the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, told parliament on Thursday.Earlier this week the attorney general, Yvette D’Ath, told parliament a cyber attack on TAFE Queensland and Department of Education and Training computers uncovered only low-level information that “would be otherwise found on other public websites such as the White Pages”. Continue reading...

Optimism surrounds roll-out of ShareTheMeal smartphone app after summer trial provides 1.7m meals for school children in LesothoThe World Food Programme (WFP) is banking on technology, generosity and busy thumbs to help it feed some of the 600,000 Syrian refugee children who have been forced from their homeland by the country’s four-year civil war.Related: Conflict drives 'unacceptable' figure of 795 million people facing hunger Continue reading...

Facebook’s chief operating officer is an unconventional choice for a ship sponsor, who are usually wives of senior officers or politicians with navy tiesThe US navy has made an unconventional choice to sponsor its newest submarine: Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, who is known for advocating women’s empowerment through her Lean In book and campaign.Sponsors, who christen the ship, are always women but historically they were often the wives of senior officers or politicians with close ties to the navy. According to navy lore, sponsors are said to imbue a ship with their personalities. Continue reading...

CEO Tim Cook stresses tech company’s commitment to Ireland regardless of European Union decisionApple’s chief executive has said a looming European Union tax ruling on its dealings with Ireland would not affect its presence in the country, where it declares much of its overseas profit, and where it is hiring 1,000 extra staff.

Chinese e-commerce giant says more than 1.7 million people, 400,000 vehicles and 200 aircraft will be involved in deliveriesAlibaba Group’s sales for its Singles’ Day shopping festival have topped $14bn (£9bn), a 60% rise on the Chinese e-commerce giant’s performance a year ago.The numbers were boosted this year by adding the sales from various new channels, including its affiliates and investees. Overall sales on Wednesday reached 91.2bn yuan ($14.3bn/£9.4bn).

TalkTalk offers an upgrade to all of its customers after data breach, after putting cost of attack at £35mTelecoms group TalkTalk is offering customers a free upgrade following the cyber-attack which left many of them panicking that money was being stolen from their accounts.The company has also made it clear, however, that customers who have decided to terminate their contracts because of the uncertainty cannot do that for free unless they can show they have been “financially impacted” by the attack on the group and its customer base. Continue reading...

Tanner White asked Steve Grand to be his date for the Marine Corps Ball via YouTube and his ‘heart skipped a beat’ when the singing star acceptedCountry singer Steve Grand has fulfilled his promise to attend the 2015 Marine Corps Ball with a marine who asked him to be his date via YouTube in September.

#Milifandom was a thing, but Ed didn’t win. Our panel met at Web Summit to talk internet echo chambers, state-sanctioned trolling and ‘clicktivism’How did Labour get such a walloping the last UK general election when everyone you knew on Twitter was a #Milifan? Or, alternatively, how could Ukip be such an electoral damp squib – in terms of seats, if not votes – when everyone you chatted to on Facebook was on Team Farage?The answer – and it’s not a new concept – is filter bubbles. As we spend more of our online lives on social networks where we’ve chosen the people we follow or friend, there’s a risk that our belief of what “everyone” thinks will be disproved when the real-world everyone goes to the polling stations. Continue reading...

Tech Weekly goes live in this panel discussion from the 2015 Web SummitCould machines ever understand us emotionally? How much is technology already affecting our cognitive abilities, mental wellbeing and emotional lives? And as our personal and emotional experiences migrate to alternate platforms, VR, mobile, and others, will empathy be lost in an AI world?In the second of our podcasts from the annual Web Summit in Dublin, Nathalie Nahai is joined on stage to discuss by Oren Frank from Talkspace; Rana el Kaliouby from Affectiva and Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab. Continue reading...

Dating app announces changes, allowing the option for users to add job and education information, and enhancing matching algorithmsTinder has announced updates to its app in response to user requests, including the addition of job and education information to personal profiles, a cleaner messaging interface and an improved matching algorithm.In a blog post, the company announced the introduction of so-called “smart profiles”. Job and education information will be pulled from a user’s Facebook profile, but is optional for the app and can be slightly edited. Continue reading...

Mobile phone company objects to rival’s advert claiming it is ‘the undisputed ... most reliable network’

Of 18 submitted proposals, Sean Parker’s Adult Use of Marijuana Act is considered the frontrunner because of his rumored financial backing

Social media and selfie queen who sensationally quit Instagram was approached by male supermodel to become a couple – to boost followersThe teenage Instagram star with more than half a million followers who sensationally quit the social media platform last week has now turned her attention to fake online couples.The 18-year-old Australian Essena O’Neill hit headlines for replacing captions on her popular Instagram photos with more realistic descriptions of the shots, before deleting almost 2,000 pictures and describing them as “contrived perfection made to get attention”. Continue reading...

ISPs tell Commons select committee that £175m budgeted by government for implementation will not cover ‘massive costs’ of collecting everyone’s dataConsumers’ broadband bills will have to go up if the investigatory powers bill is passed due to the “massive cost” of implementation, MPs have been warned.Internet service providers (ISP) told a Commons select committee that the legislation, commonly known as the snooper’s charter, does not properly acknowledge the “sheer quantity” of data generated by a typical internet user, nor the basic difficulty of distinguishing between content and metadata. Continue reading...

This year’s Singles’ Day – the country’s answer to Black Friday, which began as an ‘anti-Valentine’s Day’ binge for singletons – tramples 2014 recordShoppers have spent more than $9bn (£6bn) in the first 12 hours of China’s Singles’ Day sales, topping last year’s total for the world’s biggest online shopping day.Total gross merchandise volume, a measure of sales, matched the 2014 Single’s Day figure of $9.3bn just after midday, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said. Continue reading...

‘Who Viewed Your Profile - InstaAgent’ secretly sent user passwords to its developer’s server, and posted images without permissionAn Instagram client which was the most downloaded free app in Britain and Canada has been silently stealing usernames and passwords and uploading them to its developer’s server.The app, marketed as “Who Viewed Your Profile - InstaAgent”, claimed to allow users of the social network to track the people that have visited their account. But users who logged into the account instead had their credentials uploaded, unencrypted, to a third-party server. Continue reading...

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

New Silent Circle smartphone promises to be the most secure and private Android device available, and delivers with surprising ease of useIn a world of unscrupulous apps and tech company tracking, the Blackphone 2 promises to help keep your personal information private without getting in your way.

More than 1.3m people have adopted technology that blocks online ads since June, with young people more likely to turn off intrusive pop-ups and videosAd blocking is on the rise in the UK, with 18% web users saying they use the software, up from 15% just five months ago. The increase, captured in research by the Internet Advertising Bureau, is equivalent to more than 1.3 million people adopting the technology since June.Though the rise is modest, it suggests dissatisfaction with ads is growing, especially among the young, with 35% of 18- to 24-year-olds saying they blocked ads, compared to just 15% of over 55s. Continue reading...

Streaming service crosses into rival territory with its core features and free trial intact: ‘It’s a full native app, so it will look and feel like an Android app’Apple has launched an official Android app for its Apple Music streaming service, just over four months after its debut on iOS.The Spotify rival’s core features have survived the translation, including its “For You” playlist and album recommendations, Beats 1 radio station and Connect social network - as well as its three-month free trial for new users. Continue reading...

Lara Croft trades original ideas for popular ones in an action blockbuster that will please the crowds but leave some nostalgic for the days she actually raided tombsDespite her escalating body count, Lara Croft has no problem crossing borders. In Rise of the Tomb Raider, the explorer’s second outing since a 2013 reboot which re-established her as a more vulnerable yet more violent warrior, she freely zips around the world – including an ill-advised stop-off in chaotic Syria.

E-commerce company set for record sales in what has become the world’s biggest online retail promotionShoppers spent nearly $8bn in the first 10 hours of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s “singles day” event on Wednesday, the company said, reinforcing its status as the world’s biggest online retail promotion.

US unveils indictments against against two Israelis and two Americans for ‘breathtaking’ cybercrime that affected 100 million customersUS authorities have charged four men with orchestrating “the largest theft of customer data from a US financial institution in history” in indictments unsealed on Tuesday.The “massive computer hacking crimes” affected 100 million people and targeted employees, databases and customers of JP Morgan Chase, Dow Jones and Fidelity Investments. Fidelity has said that no customer information or related systems were breached. Twelve victims spanning the globe are identified by pseudonym (“Victim-1, Victim-9”) in the indictment.

New facial recognition feature is rolling out in Australia first, but might not be able to come to Europe at all, due to privacy issues

Sony announces end of production of Betamax cassettes for March next year, 40 years after its introduction and 28 years after losing format war to VHSSony has announced that in March next year it will stop producing Betamax video cassette tapes, forty years after its introduction and 28 years after losing the war to VHS.

The maiden flight of the JB-9, said to be the world’s first personal jetpack. Developed by Australian entrepreneur David Mayman, the pack has been cleared for flight by the US Federal Aviation Administration and is powered by adapted jet engines. The debut, which took place on 3 November, involved flying past the Statue of Liberty with the New York skyline as a backdrop. It was filmed as part of an forthcoming documentary on the jetpack’s development, Own the Sky Continue reading...

Fancy yourself as the new Meg White, Max Roach or even just Animal from the Muppets? Enter our competition to win a Yamaha DTX400K, the gold standard series of electronic drum kitsWant to master polyrhythms, rimshots and cymbal chokes? Or simply beat things heavily with a stick? Then pull up a stool behind a Yamaha DTX, the gold standard series of electronic drum kits, of which the 400K (pictured above) is an entry-level powerhouse: packing enough features to usher you from timid beginner to thrashing virtuoso. For an exceptionally civilised price, it has crash and ride cymbals, three toms, snare and hi-hat, and that’s before you get into the really clever stuff. The module offers you the sounds of ten legendary acoustic kits from drumming history, with superb fidelity. Whiplash-esque jazz afficionados can mix and match within these; playing say, a maple custom tom against a hard rock, twin-kick pedal. Accent articulation translates strike pressure into sound, putting you fully in control.Want the good news? Drum roll please: we have one to give away, for free. Continue reading...

Robots, meteorites and magic snow – a Wi-Fi enabled, smart sackful of gift ideas for everyoneCompetition! Win a featured set of Yamaha electronic drums and headphones Continue reading...

Bethesda has a reputation for two things: stunningly realised worlds and frustrating technical issues. In both cases, the latest Fallout does not disappoint“War,” intones your character solemnly. “War never changes.” Fallout 4 begins with the go-to line of the series, before repeating it at the monologue’s close. There is a point when tradition can turn into cliché or, even worse, into parody. Fallout 4 is one of the biggest releases of the year but it is an unusually musty game, a new experience that feels over-familiar. Perhaps the line’s true after all.The opening briefly suggests a more unusual spin. After being introduced to the excellent character creation tool, where I sculpted a post-apocalyptic hero named Corbyn, you’re guided through some tinned conversation with your husband or wife in the sunny suburbia of Boston, 2077. The vibe of these games has always been 1950s futurism and period Americana (here with the added flair of a British-accented butlerbot called Codsworth), but explored many decades or centuries after the bombs have fallen. So a pre-war scene showing nuclear armageddon through ordinary eyes, and evacuation to the ‘Vault,’ is definitely new. Continue reading...

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

Judge threatens social network with fines of €250,000 a day over ‘datr’ cookie, which records visits to many websites whether or not user has Facebook accountA Belgian court on Monday gave Facebook 48 hours to stop tracking internet users who do not have accounts with the social network or risk fines of up to €250,000 a day.

‘Any back door is a back door for everyone,’ says Tim Cook of proposals to allow authorities to track citizens’ internet use without requiring warrantApple’s chief executive has sharply criticised surveillance powers proposed by the British government, warning that allowing spies a backdoor route into citizens’ communications could have “very dire consequences”.

Tommy Wiseau floats 3D remake and China release ahead of James Franco’s The Disaster Artist, about the making of cult movie The RoomTommy Wiseau, director of the notoriously bad cult film The Room, first released in 2003, has suggested he might remake the film in 3D and release the original in China.The Room – which has been described as “the Citizen Kane of bad movies” – has been given a new lease of life outside the midnight-movie circuit by The Disaster Artist, a feature film adaption – about to go into production – of the book by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell about the making of The Room. The Disaster Artist film is to be directed by James Franco, and stars Franco, his brother Dave Franco, and Seth Rogen. Continue reading...

The IP bill gives the government the power to demand tech companies weaken their encryption, say industry representatives – despite promises to the contraryMajor technology firms are concerned that the British government is attempting to ban strong encryption with the Investigatory Powers Bill, despite its assurances to the contrary.A number of companies, both large and small, have expressed their fears to the Guardian that one particular clause of the proposed legislation gives the government the power to force them to weaken their systems, in order to enable the bulk collection aspects of the bill. Continue reading...

Activision’s monolithic shooter series returns with a blast of new content and features – but the cracks are showingIt is difficult to recall now how innovative the original Call of Duty was when it blasted on to the first-person shooter scene in 2003. Dropping players into a series of vast and chaotic World War II battles, it combined cinematic verve with a new sense of being part of a much wider offensive – a small cog in a massive machine rather than the solo gun-toting hero of Doom or Duke Nukem. When Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare arrived four years later, it revolutionised the mainstream multiplayer component, adding killstreaks and XP points, bringing a sense of progression to the previously transitory online experience.Now in 2015, after a decade of annual iterations, Call of Duty has come to symbolise the deadening cycle of the Triple A video game industry. Every year, a few new features, a graphical overhaul, some extravagant claims. It’s the same story from Assassin’s Creed to Fifa. Continue reading...

Latest Android-compatible Tizen watch is comfortable to wear, has a crisp round screen and great rotating bezel, making it Samsung’s best by a mileSamsung has finally cracked the smartwatch with its seventh design: a round watch compatible with almost all Android smartphones and with a rotating bezel that’s not just for show.The world’s biggest smartphone manufacturer has quite a lot of experience making smartwatches. Its first was launched in 2013, but since then the South Korean firm has made six different models, though none of them have quite got it right. Continue reading...

All but missing from Europe’s biggest tech event was the most important question: what are the social ends of technology?In a famous 1987 essay, the American cultural historian Leo Marx asked a simple but profound question. Does improved technology mean progress? Describing how industrial capitalism has steadily unshackled the notion of progress from any larger political, moral and aesthetic sensibility, Marx challenged us to see technology as a means, not an end.“Progress towards what?” was his rhetorical turn. “What do we want beyond such immediate, limited goals as achieving efficiencies, decreasing financial costs, and eliminating the troubling human element from our workplaces? In the absence of answers to these questions, technological improvements may very well turn out to be incompatible with genuine, that is to say social, progress.” Continue reading...

We’ve got everything on our phones now so why not passports? An encrypted app would mean having a convenient ID on your phoneNothing matches that instant of cold fear when you realise you’re a long way from an essential item that you’ll need imminently. “You’ve brought some identification, haven’t you?” asked my wife as we headed off to the premiere of Spectre (where the presence of royalty might mean proving your identity before entering the premises).Ah. Well, that depends. I had tickets, a credit card and a smartphone. Would any of those count as “identity”? And what on earth is identity these days? Continue reading...

Stanford postdoctoral fellow Sebastian Alvarado helps studios build fictional worlds from scientific reality, for video gamesWhy do you need accurate science in largely fictional worlds?A player is more informed on their media than they have ever been before, and developers want to engage them with their best ideas. While accuracy isn’t the most critical part of our work, suspending disbelief with plausibility is. We carefully pick parts of our scientific discipline to facilitate this engagement. Continue reading...

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

The association’s CEO admits they have not responded well to customer criticism in the past and are now looking for honest feedback to remain competitiveVictoria’s Taxi Association has abandoned industrial action and campaigning as a response to Uber, admitting the industry has not responded well to customer criticism.On Monday the association’s chief executive, David Samuel, announced an initiative calling for honest feedback from taxi customers so that the industry could adapt and respond. Continue reading...

American vlogger has thousands of fans – online and in real life – who watch him discuss being gay, eating disorders and attacking small-town life and religionIf you’re over the age of 16, Tyler Oakley might be the most famous person you’ve never heard of. But this 26-year-old, from a small town in Michigan, has more accolades to his name than most. He’s interviewed Barack Obama, made a health vlog with Michelle Obama, can claim over 500m views on YouTube – and now has penned a New York Times bestselling book.Oakley is among the new generation of celebrities who have made their name entirely through YouTube. Posting videos of themselves from their bedrooms, discussing everything from pop culture and shopping to their own sexuality and mental health, teenagers across the world obsessively consume the content, interacting with the internet stars through comments, twitter and Snapchat. It is a highly profitable occupation – some of the biggest YouTube celebrities, Oakley included – are thought to earn six figure salaries through sponsorship and advertising alone. Continue reading...

The first proper look at the long-awaited big screen adaptation of popular video game World of Warcraft has hit the web, leaving our blogger wondering if he missed why we’re supposed to care about this formulaic fantasy universeThe race is on to be the first team to successfully adapt a hit video game for the big screen. Michael Fassbender and Justin Kurzel are currently in pre-production on Assassin’s Creed, which certainly has the potential to outgun its many disappointing forebears. And now comes Warcraft: the Beginning, with a highly-rated young director, Moon and Source Code’s Duncan Jones, who clearly cares enough about the outlandish fantasy world imagined in the game to risk his career on trying to convince non-believers.For let no one fool themselves, even with a whopping 5.5 million subscribers, Warcraft is not going to succeed at the box office unless it can convince those of us (myself included) who have never played the game that this is a universe worth delving into. That also means persuading mainstream film critics, most of whom don’t strike one as the type to spend their evenings battling through swords and sorcery-style adventures, to suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves in this world of giant, muscular orcs and beardy warrior humans. Continue reading...

Conservative price of $11 and $13 a share for company that deals in mobile debit and credit payment raises eyebrows across Silicon ValleyTwitter chief executive Jack Dorsey’s other company, Square, has seen at least a third shaved off its 2014 valuation at $6bn, resulting in an IPO share price of between $11 and $13 a share. To make up the shortfall, the company may have to issue extra stock to preferred shareholders.As more and more “unicorn” companies come under scrutiny for current financial practices rather than the hope of future returns, the conservative share price for Square, which deals in mobile debit and credit payment, raised eyebrows across Silicon Valley. Part of the reason for the drop may be Square’s partnership with Starbucks, a deal that has been leaking cash and is due to end next year. Continue reading...

List of names and social media accounts mentioned alleged FBI informants and those who already publicly identify as members of white supremacist groupThe hacking collective Anonymous has begun its promised leak of the identities of members of the Ku Klux Klan with a data dump of the names of more than 350 alleged members along with links to social media accounts. Many of the identities are already in the public domain.Only one of the names listed in the file, on the anonymous sharing site Pastebin, had a phone number attached. Fewer than five had email addresses. None returned requests for comment. Continue reading...

You take part in a game in a way unequalled by reading a book or watching a playAt a debate on technology and the future a few months ago, the panel chair confronted me with the line: “It turns out computer games merely teach you how to play other computer games.” What did I make of this, as a novelist? Wasn’t it damning? If true, didn’t it – the question implied – prove that games are practically worthless?Well, no. I’ve been puzzled for a long time by the modern tendency to try to justify life experiences by pointing to research about how they “make us better” in some way. You know the kind of thing. Walking in the countryside improves cardiovascular function by 14%. Believing in God increases lifespan by 2.6 years. Falling in love takes two swings off your golf stroke. (Note: some of these may be made up.) As if there are no other – important, immeasurable – reasons to go for an autumnal stroll or find a life partner. As if you should try to make yourself do things you really don’t want to do, like taking up religion, to reap the supposed “benefits”. Continue reading...