Technology | The Guardian

BuzzFeed, HuffPo and Vox will have to show they can keep their cool as they challenge more traditional rivalsLast year saw the digital media upstarts step up a gear, and 2016 looks set to see them consolidate their place alongside established media businesses. The biggest development of the year will be digital darling Vice going all traditional media and launching TV channels across Europe. At least that will be the big story until something bigger happens, because the digital media landscape is a bit like that.Vice will probably get yet another investor upping its stake (cue a further ridiculous surge in valuation beyond $5bn) to try to tap into some of its edgy, youth-focused cool. Or perhaps founder Shane Smith might look to sell up, or go for an IPO. Continue reading...

2016 promises more stunning open-world immersion, Nathan Drake’s last hurrah – and the arrival of virtual reality gaming on your smartphoneMixing open-world exploration, survival drama and sci-fi RPG elements, Horizon may be the most beautiful game yet due for 2016. Set in a post-apocalyptic world a millennium hence, it follows hunter Aloy as she tries to eke out an existence on a ruined Earth overtaken by cybernetic titans. If developer Guerrilla Games can deliver solid gameplay and a story as good as the stunning visuals, this could be incredible. Continue reading...

Everyone hates web adverts – except those people developing intrusive technology to force them on us.On 16 September 2015, Apple launched the latest version of its iPhone operating system, iOS9. One feature of the new system is the option to install an ad blocker, preventing the phone’s Safari web browser from loading most web ads. The following day, the top-selling application in the UK was Peace, an ad blocker by celebrated software developer Marco Arment.An estimated 150 to 200 million people use ad blockers on their desktop or laptop ad browsers and that number is growing at 41% a year. As ad spending shifts from desktops to mobile platforms, ad blockers such as Peace terrify both advertisers and proprietors of services that rely on advertising for their revenue. Yet the demand for mobile ad blockers makes perfect sense. Mobile phone users pay for the bandwidth they consume, and on many websites the bandwidth used to load ads and their accompanying tracking information is greater than the bandwidth used to load the content. Continue reading...

The dainty paintjob and smooth curves belie the sturdy nature of this traditional bicycle at a brilliant priceBen and Jezz met at university and quickly became friends. Ben was into designing bikes, while Jezz was focused on marketing. Scratching around for something to do, they decided to launch their own brand, as you do, and in 2012 Mango Bikes duly sold its first model. Since then they have sold hundreds of bikes, and this month sees the launch of their latest, the Ladies Classic.It’s an elegant ride and comes in five colours, including this one, mint. It’s impossible to imagine how they can afford to sell it for under £300. For that you get the pannier rack and matching tan saddle and leather grips. The wicker basket is £10 extra – ideal for a small dog. The Classic isn’t to be ridden hard. It’s a bike that wants you to waft around town in style, probably wearing linen (mangobikes.co.uk). Continue reading...

High-tech giants are becoming more like the radical right as they launch populist crusade to block government regulation – and they have the technology to recruit believersBack in August 2014, Mike Bulajewski, a Seattle-based designer with a penchant for psychoanalysis, published a fascinating essay. In The Cult of Sharing, he argued that the best way to understand why so many users feel emotionally attached to such companies as Uber and Airbnb – even earning them the feel-good moniker “the sharing economy” – is by treating such communities as cults.Like all good cults, such firms tap into our inner quest for solidarity and belonging, promising to fill our lives with meaning. By presenting their foes as enemies of innovation who want to destroy the new and deviant class of entrepreneurs, technology companies play on the perennial theme of persecution. And they stoke fears of conspiracy – involving governments, trade unions and big corporations – out to suppress all disruptive ideas. Continue reading...

Technology correspondent receives tweet from US-based New Word Hacking saying attack was to test group’s servers

Online dating websites like Plenty of Fish and Match.com see a spike in new users and activity on first Sunday of the new year after the holidays are overLet the swiping begin! Ladies and gentlemen, charge your phones and ready those index fingers for the first Sunday of the year is almost here and that can mean just one thing: plenty more fish in the online pool of love-seeking candidates.It’s not just all those Christmas engagement photos flooding your Facebook feed, all those questions that your single cousin had to dodge over her relationship status, or the fact that you now have the FarmersOnly.com jingle stuck in your head after being parked in front of the TV most of the holidays – the beginning of the year is the busiest time for online dating sites. Continue reading...

‘I thought first was a moving-off gear until I met this car’The Smart Car Forfour is, generally speaking, attractive; and where it’s not attractive, it is weird enough to confuse you into finding it attractive. Mine came in a tangy orange that, coupled with its snub nose (the engine’s at the back), gave it the look of a novelty drink. Inside, the seats had a zippy, race-driver hardness, and the door stowage was done in a newfangled plasticised basket weave. I can’t imagine the person this would mean a lot to, but it was impossible not to notice. The interior was lively and intuitive: lots of fancy white stitching and bold, round and ovoid shapes – even the vents look perky.In fact, I have just two complaints about the vehicle, which relate to its size. The Smart Car was put on Earth to be titchy: its entire allure lies in the fact that you can park it sideways and give almost nobody a lift anywhere. Once this idiosyncratic boon has been lost – the Forfour might have a truncated front, but it’s no smaller than about 100 other family cars – you’re left with traits that feel gimmicky, purposeless. I wouldn’t say it raised existential doubts about the point of a new-look anything, but if you were liable to get that kind of reaction to a car, this would be the one that did it. Continue reading...

The defining political achievements of the past decade have favored tolerance and empathy – and online discussion has fuelled them all, argues Steven JohnsonEvery new technology threatens to kill off some revered institution. But in the waning months of 2015, more than a few smart and tech-savvy commentators began suggesting a radical hypothesis: that the rise of social media threatened to deliver a death blow to civic consensus and even to truth itself.“The news brims with instantly produced ‘hot takes’ and a raft of fact-free assertions,” Farhad Manjoo observed in the New York Times. “The extremists of all stripes are ascendant, and just about everywhere you look, much of the internet is terrible.” Continue reading...

Michelle Simmons and her Australian team make strides in developing a true supercomputer, pursuing the idea that cheap silicon is the keyAround the world, teams of engineers, physicists, mathematicians and engineers are using all kinds of exotic materials in the race to build the world’s first practical quantum computer, capable of processing amounts of data in a matter of hours that would take today’s computers millions of years.Caesium, aluminium, niobium titanium nitride and diamond are among the substances being used by researchers trying to determine which will best allow particles to maintain a delicate quantum state of superposition, where particles exist across multiple, seemingly counterintuitive states at the same time. Continue reading...

Apps that prevent ads making it to the screens of mobile phones topped the charts this year. What will the consequences be in 2016?When Apple revealed that its new operating system for mobile phones, iOS 9, would feature what the company called “content-blocking Safari extensions”, no one really blinked.Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, didn’t even detail the feature on stage at the lavish launch for iOS 9 in July. Continue reading...

The choice is limited. Need a picture to illustrate a hacker? A photograph of a man, in a darkened room, wearing a hoodie, obviously Continue reading...

Murdock’s work combined an insistence on excellence with a public commitment to open, ethical software development, writes Doc SearlsIan Murdock, who died in San Francisco on 28 December, was the co-creator of the Debian, the Linux distribution he founded while an undergraduate at Indiana’s Purdue University in 1993.The circumstances of Murdock’s death have not been made public. After praising Murdock for the good work he did for the company and the world, a statement from his most recent employer Docker added that “Ian’s family has requested that well-wishers and press respect their privacy and direct all inquiries through Docker”.

Instalment loans offered to those spending over £400 in potential ‘gamechanger’ for UK furniture and electricals marketAmazon has started offering loans to customers buying products off its website in a move that could shake up the UK furniture and electricals market.The world’s biggest online retailer is offering a new pay monthly option on orders of more than £400, which can include multiple items. Continue reading...

Company changes policy to notify users if government-related attacks take place after previously not alerting users when Hotmail accounts were hackedMicrosoft has announced that it will start notifying users it believes have been targeted by government-linked hackers, after failing to do so when Chinese authorities allegedly compromised over 1,000 Hotmail accounts.

UK public broadcaster apologises as its internet services are taken down in what may have been a DDoS attack affecting its website, apps and streaming servicesThe BBC has suffered an intermittent internet services outage that took down its website, the BBC iPlayer and all other digital services provided by the bbc.co.uk domain.

Retailer faced criticism for making money from far-right group’s ditty Together We Are Strong, released over ChristmasAmazon has said it will donate to refugees in Germany the profits from online purchases of a track released by the far-right anti-migrant Pegida movement.The online retailer had been criticised for making money from sales of the instrumental song Gemeinsam sind wir stark – German for “Together we are strong” – which was released over Christmas. Continue reading...

Open thread: An Iranian blogger thinks the rise of social media is killing the potential of the web. Is he right?

Although the day when every household has its own robot is some way off, the Japanese are demonstrating a formidable acceptance of humanoidsErica enjoys the theatre and animated films, would like to visit south-east Asia, and believes her ideal partner is a man with whom she can chat easily.She is less forthcoming, however, when asked her age. “That’s a slightly rude question … I’d rather not say,” comes the answer. As her embarrassed questioner shifts sideways and struggles to put the conversation on a friendlier footing, Erica turns her head, her eyes following his every move. Continue reading...

How can we stop superintelligent computers from taking over the world? Feed them a digital dose of LSD, suggests this mind-bending bookDo androids dream of electric Kool-Aid acid tests? If there’s to be any hope for us, they will. That is the message of Andrew Smart’s splendidly mind-bending book, which mashes up Alan Turing, The Matrix, Immanuel Kant, “zombie AI”, Leibniz, and research on psychedelic drugs.In our age of techno-utopianism, we are routinely told in crypto-religious terms about the coming “Singularity” – the creation of superintelligent, conscious machines. One problem with superintelligent conscious machines, however – as SF writers down the ages and some modern philosophers agree – is that they might very well choose to destroy all humans. How to stop the godlike robots wiping us out? The best way, Smart suggests, might be to give them a dose of digital LSD to force open their doors of perception. Continue reading...

The internet in 2015 has given us a lot of laughs – a vigil to a raccoon, Drake playing tennis and the ‘duck army’ – but which memes make our cut of the best? Continue reading...

Sandra and others have asked for an update on buying a laptop to run Minecraft, so here it is ...I read your article about the best laptop for Minecraft – which is what I’m after – but unfortunately it is two years old, so I assume very out of date in the tech world. We have Minecraft on Xbox but I am told that “mods” (which my son is desperate for) are much simpler/more straightforward to download to a PC version. What would you recommend? SandraThis is a frequently asked question, so I should probably schedule an annual update. Joakim from Sweden has also asked for a Windows laptop to replace a “quite old” Dell Inspiron 1525 running Minecraft. Continue reading...

Australian Taxi Industry says Uber drivers’ incentive is ‘greedy’ but ride-sharing company says it means more transport in cities like Sydney and MelbourneWhere you ring in the new year may prove less important than how you get there, and get home, as the bitter conflict between Uber and taxis continues.With New Year’s Eve the busiest night of the year for Uber, fares are expected to surge with increased demand – a strategy to offer an incentive to drivers that the head of Australia’s taxi industry has condemned as “plain greedy”. Continue reading...

A team of open source software developers solved the problem that most urgently needed solving: distributing wages to healthcare workersLittle known to the rest of the world, a team of open source software developers played a small but integral part in helping to stop the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone, solving a payroll crisis that was hindering the fight against the disease.Emerson Tan from NetHope, a consortium of NGOs working in IT and development, told the tale at the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg, Germany.

From abandoned space stations to drug-fuelled dystopias, here are 25 reasons why 2016 is going to be a fascinating year for gamesOf course, gamers go into every year filled with excitement and anticipation. This is a medium that thrives on slow burn hype, with even tiny indie projects using months of teaser shots and YouTube trailers to garner interest. The good news is, there’s usually enough brilliant, innovative and compelling fare to justify that enthusiasm – and 2016 looks to be no exception.Although you could fill a dozen ‘most anticipated’ lists with all the grandiose sequels and blockbusting franchises due out this year, there are also dozens of smaller-scale independent projects, keeping the idiosyncratic and experimental heart of video game culture beating. Continue reading...

Corporation tax deal follows Apple Italia’s alleged failure to declare earnings in Italy but settlement is thought to be one-third of the estimated £650m billApple has agreed to pay €318m (£234m) to settle a tax dispute with Italian authorities after the iPhone and iPad maker was investigated for suspected fraud.

‘They took it as it was: a loud robot that’s going to give away their position,’ said a military spokesman of Boston Dynamics’ LS3 quadrupedThe US military is cooling its eagerness for robots in the battlefield, after trials with quadrupedal robot and nightmare machine Big Dog revealed one crucial flaw: it’s much, much too loud.The Big Dog robots, first demonstrated almost a decade ago, are developed by Boston Dynamics, a Massachusetts-based robotics firm that was purchased by Google in 2013. They became well known through a series of impressive demonstration videos showing the machine keeping its pace over uneven and slippery surfaces, and even managing to stay upright after a strong unexpected kick from the side. Continue reading...

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

Madonna, Yoko Ono and calling out hipster baristas. We take a look at some of the funniest and most on-point tweets of the yearThe earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. Continue reading...

The company has clarified definition of abusive behaviour amid criticism it should do more to halt use of the platform by IsisTwitter has clarified its definition of abusive behaviour that will prompt it to delete accounts, banning what it calls hateful conduct that promotes violence against specific groups.The social media company disclosed the changes on Tuesday in a blog post, following rising criticism it was not doing enough to thwart Islamic State’s use of the site for propaganda and recruitment. Continue reading...

Cracker frontman David Lowery leads class action suit against streaming site, claiming it knowingly distributed band’s work without permissionSpotify is being sued for at least $150m by a collective of musicians who allege that the streaming site has knowingly and willingly reproduced and distributed their music without permission, Billboard reports.David Lowery, frontman of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, is leading the suit, filed at California’s central district court in Los Angeles on 28 December by the law firm Michelman & Robinson LLP. Continue reading...

Hossein Derakhshan was imprisoned by the regime for his blogging. On his release, he found the internet stripped of its power to change the world and instead serving up a stream of pointless social triviaLate in 2014, I was abruptly pardoned and freed from Evin prison in northern Tehran. In November 2008, I had been sentenced to nearly 20 years in jail, mostly over my web activities, and thought I would end up spending most of my life in those cells. So the moment, when it came, was unexpected. I was sharing a cup of tea when the voice of the floor announcer – another prisoner – filled all the rooms and corridors: “Dear fellow inmates, the bird of luck has once again sat on one fellow inmate’s shoulders. Mr Hossein Derakhshan, as of this moment, you are free.”Outside, everything felt new: the chill autumn breeze, the traffic noise from a nearby bridge, the smell, the colours of the city I had lived in most of my life. Around me, I noticed a very different Tehran from the one I had been used to. An influx of new, shamelessly luxurious condos had replaced the charming little houses I was familiar with. New roads, new highways, hordes of invasive SUVs. Large billboards with advertisements for Swiss-made watches and Korean TVs. Women in colourful scarves and manteaus, men with dyed hair and beards, and hundreds of charming cafes with hip western music and female staff. They were the kind of changes that creep up on people; the kind you only really notice once normal life gets taken away from you. Continue reading...

Tracking agency Excipio reports more people watched pirated films in 2015, with Fast & Furious 7 in second place on Hollywood’s least favourite chartChristopher Nolan’s space adventure Interstellar has been named the most pirated movie of 2015, with 46m illegal downloads, putting it at the head of a chart no Hollywood studio wants to top.According to figures from piracy tracking firm Excipio, the 2014 release was just ahead of action sequel Fast & Furious 7, with 44m downloads and superhero sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron, with 41m downloads. Other films to make the top five include the year’s biggest blockbuster, Jurassic World, in fourth place with 36.8m downloads, and Mad Max: Fury Road, in fifth place with 36.4m downloads. Continue reading...

Online retailer has announced it is adding thousands more products to its Pantry service, as big four struggle with changing shopping habitsAmazon is preparing to crank up the pressure on Britain’s struggling supermarkets by dramatically expanding the range of grocery products it sells. Christopher North, the UK boss of the online retailer, has said it plans to expand its Pantry service rapidly in the new year.The news that Amazon is to ramp up its grocery delivery business will come as a blow to the “big four” supermarket chains – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – which are already under pressure as a result of changing shopping habits. Large grocers have been battling falling sales as households abandon the weekly shop in favour of discount supermarkets, regular local top-up shopping and online ordering. Continue reading...

Actor accuses airline of being ‘ridiculous’ after he and his children are told they cannot take hoverboards on flight because of safety concernsRussell Crowe has lashed out at airline Virgin Australia after being told his children could not bring their hoverboards on a flight.The two-wheeled self-balancing motorised boards were the most sought-after toy at Christmas but have been the subject of a series of safety warnings in Australia, the US and the UK because of fires caused by faulty charges. Continue reading...

The technology companies are aiming to tap the potentially lucrative market in as China seeks to manage its notorious urban pollution problemTwo of the world’s largest technology firms, IBM and Microsoft, are vying to tap the fast-growing market for forecasting air quality in the world’s top carbon emitters.

Two days from the end of potentially damaging public consultation on net neutrality, Facebook’s founder dismissed accusations that Free Basics service is anti-competitiveFacebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has vigorously defended his company’s motives for rolling out free basic internet services across India, dismissing what he called “false claims” by critics who say its Free Basics service promotes a “walled garden” controlled by Facebook.In an opinion piece published by the Indian newspaper the Times of India, Zuckerberg equates internet access to education and health provision, claiming it could help relieve the poverty of one billion people in India who are not currently online. Continue reading...

The star of Steve Jobs and X-Men: Days of Future Past had never played Assassin’s Creed before signing on to star in forthcoming film adaptation of the video gameThe video game Assassin’s Creed has sold more than 73m copies and spawned numerous novels, comic books and short films. But Michael Fassbender, the star of the highly anticipated film adaptation has admitted never having played it prior to being offered the lead role.Speaking to Entertainment Weekly as the first photography was released for the movie, the actor said he first got to grips with the video game only after being approached by Ubisoft to join the production. Continue reading...

Alex Hern tries out Google’s Project Tango, which allows mobile devices to decipher the space around them like never before. It has the potential to change the way we use technology, but will more likely inspire evolution than revolution Continue reading...

Online retailer’s data shows shoppers’ spending was based on their love of local sportspeople, singers and comediansThe differences between Britain’s regions extend to our taste in Christmas books and DVDs, according to data from Amazon.Festive sales patterns show that shoppers put their hands in their pockets based on a love of local sportspeople, singers and comedians. Continue reading...

This year experts from Elon Musk to Stephen Hawking warned about the havoc robots could cause the economy and humanity. How do we ensure machines are friends rather than foes?Ever since IBM’s Deep Blue defeated then world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game contest in May 1997, humanity has been looking over its shoulder as computers have been running up the inside rail. What task that we thought was our exclusive preserve will they conquer next? What jobs will they take? And what jobs will be left for humans when they do? The pessimistic case was partly set out in the Channel 4 series Humans, about a near-future world where intelligent, human-like robots would do routine work, or stand on streets handing out flyers, while some people worked (law and policing seemed to get a pass, mostly) but others were displaced – and angry.In May, Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment, described the concern for both white- and blue-collar workers as that Humans-style world approaches: “Try to imagine a new industry that doesn’t exist today that will create millions of new jobs. It’s hard to do.” Continue reading...

Smartphone security no longer has to be a chore thanks to effective biometrics that do their jobs and get out of your way without compromising your dataRemember when your phone first had a camera? I was nice, sure, but it took rubbish photos and you rarely used it. Then it got a capacitive touchscreen, which was better than using stylus, even if you couldn’t type as well as using a keyboard. Quickly both improved and became essentials.Then came the fingerprint sensor, and you thought: really? Why? Putting in a pin isn’t that painful, do I really need this? Yet now you don’t even think about the fingerprint sensor, or all those seconds you’ve saved, because you use it all the time. 2015 was the year fingerprint scanners came of age. Continue reading...

As it enters its 10th year, social networking site reportedly plans to introduce measures to show abusers their actions have effects in the real world

Star’s All I Want for Christmas Is You hit has now been streamed 100m times on Spotify, generating estimated royalties of $66k in the last weekJustin Bieber may be gracefully trying to bow out of the race for Christmas number one in the UK by encouraging fans to buy the rival NHS Choir song, but further down the chart there’s another notable festive trend.Older Christmas songs by Mariah Carey, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, Wham, Shakin’ Stevens, Wizzard and Chris Rea are all set for top 40 placings on Christmas Day, with their end-of-year rise fuelled by streams as well as sales.

Popular vlogger to release Common Culture Vol. 4 through his own Heard Well label, which boasts fellow stars Lohanthony and Jc Caylen as curatorsNow that’s what I call a new source for music compilations: YouTube star Connor Franta is releasing his fourth “Common Culture” album through his own label Heard Well.The 17-track album will be available in January, with the millions of fans who watch Franta’s vlogs for free online encouraged to buy Common Culture IV in physical form. Continue reading...

Andrew O’Hehir of Salon magazine was told to ‘die and leave us alone’ by one fan after posting a negative review of the much-hyped space fantasyA US critic has penned an open letter to angry Star Wars fans after being hit with a barrage of hatemail over his negative review of new instalment The Force Awakens.Related: Filmgoer named Star Wars marathon champ after watching saga for 46 hours straight Continue reading...

Kickstarter project battles situation where ‘in kids cartoons, 0% of princesses are engineers, 2.9% of characters are black, and Batman doesn’t recycle’A British technology startup is hoping to encourage children to learn programming skills through a series of stories that avoid traditional stereotypes around engineering, science and technology.Bright Little Labs is trying to raise £12.5k on crowdfunding website Kickstarter to make a series of print and digital books aimed at 7-9 year-olds, based around its characters of Detective Dot and her “former designer t-shirt” Mr Tumble Cotton. Continue reading...

Miitomo will be mainly focused on communication and customisation, with the potential for mini-games played with Facebook friendsNintendo’s first app developed with mobile games firm DeNA will include in-app purchases for virtual clothing for players’ Mii characters.DeNA president Isao Moriyasu revealed the plans for the social app, which will launch in 2016, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading...

Ho ho ho, let’s talk about video games and ChristmasIt’s Christmas Eve! Continue reading...

From Her Story and Prune to Lara Croft Go, Alphabear, Alto’s Adventure and Minecraft Story Mode: the 25 best iOS games of the yeariOS gamers were truly spoiled for choice in 2015, with at least two or three excellent new games released every week. Independent developers were fizzing with ideas, even if they often struggled to make their fortune from them.Narrowing down a huge longlist to reach the 25 games featured here involved squeezing out some impressive titles, from Skylanders Superchargers and Real Boxing 2 to Attack The Light, Letterpad and You Must Build a Boat. Continue reading...