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

Social network launches See First tool, allowing users to take more control over which stories appear at the top

Music streaming company tells customers they can save money by subscribing directly via website, preventing Apple from taking 30% cut

London cab drivers and users of the taxi-booking app criticise its ‘surge pricing’ policy, when fares rise due to increasing demand, during strikeUber, the app-based taxi-booking business, has been accused of exploiting customers by tripling fares during London’s tube strike.

Doncaster resident made a comment on the Facebook page of South Yorkshire police that identified the victimA Doncaster man who published the name of the victim of a sexual offence on the Facebook page of South Yorkshire police has been charged.Shane Ward, 31, of Edlington, commented on the police’s Facebook page post about the sexual offence court case and identified the victim. He was charged under Section 5 of the Sexual Offences Amendment Act 1992 for breaching the victim’s right to anonymity. Continue reading...

Cold, silly, downright terrifying – at first I was unstirred by the allure of VR pornography. That was, until I met Adrian …Pornography often helps to drive new technology into the mainstream. Everyone knows that. In fact, by now the point has become rote. It’s the sort of thing that needlessly contrarian dinner party guests routinely trot out 20 minutes before embarking upon trickier subjects like “Hitler had some good ideas” and “Female drivers, eh?”Still, an element of truth remains. Print, film, video, the internet, ebook readers – they’ve all been given a tremendous boost by their ability to show or describe sexual practises to the public. However, now that I’ve been forced to experience porn on the next wave of popular technology – lightweight virtual reality units Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus – I think we might be selling it short by calling it a catalyst for popularity. In fact, VR porn might even bring about a new era of world peace. Continue reading...

Sources tell a music and tech site that the social media giant is to follow its video programme with an expansion into streamingCan’t decide between Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal? Your choices are only going to get harder. Now Facebook is set to enter the music streaming race, with the social media giant reportedly planning to launch its own streaming service.According to the music and tech news website Music Ally, which cites sources speaking off the record, Facebook is planning to follow its trial of native videos – videos that play only within Facebook, rather than on a parent site such as YouTube, and an experiment that is likely to include music videos – with an audio streaming service. Music Ally notes that “its plans to monetise music videos [are] an important stepping stone towards the on-demand audio service”. Continue reading...

The files on Tara’s PC have been encrypted by CryptoWall malware, and she wonders if she can rescue anything without paying the criminals a ransomI have been hit by a CryptoWall attack. My files are encrypted. I presume I have lost everything, but is there anything I can do to rescue them? TaraIf you have been hit by the latest CryptoWall 3 then your presumption is probably correct – unless you pay the criminals who are holding your files hostage. Ransomware is getting more and more sophisticated, and making it harder to recover files. However, it doesn’t always work properly, so it is still worth trying. Continue reading...

Design-led Quasar project steers VR away from adrenalin-fuelled experiences to create calming space environments that focus on the sensesWant to get into VR but can’t stomach a rollercoaster ride? London-based design studio FIELD has an alternative.Dubbed “Quasar”, the project consists of three sculpted helmets, containing fibreglass, each kitted out with an Oculus Rift headset that plunge wearers into futuristic scenes while motion-tracking armbands allow them to interact with each virtual environment. “Each experience has a slightly different control mechanism and completely different visuals and sound,” Field’s creative director, Marcus Wendt, told Tech Monthly. Continue reading...

Petals, developed with the help of Coventry schoolchildren, aims to give teenagers facts about female genital mutilation without detectionThe UK’s first web app designed to allow teenagers to learn about female genital mutilation (FGM) anonymously, and get help if they are at risk, has been launched.Related: I witnessed FGM. That’s why I know we need to talk about it | Domtila Chesang Continue reading...

Airline says service has resumed after technical issues forced grounding of all planes in the US, but delays are expected throughout the dayThousands of United Airlines flights across the US were grounded for two hours on Wednesday, after what the airline said was a “network connectivity issue”.The airline has said it is working to restore flight operations but residual delays were expected throughout the day for all 4,395 daily departures. Continue reading...

Experts warn that ‘magical thinking’ of a security flaw only the US government could exploit could easily be utilized by hackers, foreign spies and terroristsThe director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned US senators that the threat from the Islamic State merits a “debate” about limiting commercial encryption – the linchpin of digital security – despite a growing chorus of technical experts who say that undermining encryption would prove an enormous boon for hackers, cybercriminals, foreign spies and terrorists.In a twin pair of appearances before the Senate’s judiciary and intelligence committees on Wednesday, James Comey testified that Isis’s use of end-to-end encryption, whereby the messaging service being used to send information does not have access to the decryption keys of those who receive it, helped the group place a “devil” on the shoulders of potential recruits “saying kill, kill, kill, kill”. Continue reading...

‘It seems like the whole world cares more about how much money I make than I do myself,’ says online gaming star in video posted for fansYouTube star Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg has responded to online criticism after it was revealed that he earned $7.4m in 2014 from his gaming videos.The earnings were published in a financial filing in Sweden by his company PewDie Productions and reported on news site Expressen. Continue reading...

Automated testing and analysis of company’s advertising system reveals male job seekers are shown far more adverts for high-paying executive jobsFemale job seekers are much less likely to be shown adverts on Google for highly paid jobs than men, researchers have found.

Fancy dating a Hollywood actor – or a pop princess, such as Katy Perry? Well, thanks to this app, now you canFancy dating Cara Delevingne or Kit Harington? Who doesn’t fancy dating Cara Delevingne or Kit Harington? Well, now you can – as long as they’re on Tinder.The dating app has rolled out verified profiles, which means now you’ll know if “celebrity” profiles on the app are for real – instead of having to rely on whether or not the profile picture is a heavily pixellated crop from a website, complete with watermark still attached. Continue reading...

What are your alternatives to travelling by underground across the capital? Now you can use your smartphone to find out instantly

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

Swiss postal service says tests will run until the end of July although the widespread use of drones is not likely to kick in for another five yearsSwitzerland’s postal service said on Tuesday it had begun testing parcel deliveries by unmanned drones, although widespread use of the flying postmen is not likely to kick in for another five years.

Vast sums are handed out in corporate welfare and official silence is skewing the debate, so the public don’t know where billions of their own taxes are goingIn 2013, just days before laying out his autumn statement, George Osborne told the BBC: “The cost of welfare is one of the things that makes the public finances unsustainable. We need an affordable state.” The government had to cut the bloated welfare state because it was sucking up too much money.Yet in the financial year ending March 2013, the Guardian can reveal, Britons handed £93bn in welfare to corporations. That is enough to wipe out at a stroke this year’s budget deficit – and it was given to companies in direct aid, subsidies and tax breaks. Continue reading...

Guardian’s analysis reveals that hidden subsidies, direct grants and tax breaks to big business amount to £3,500 a year given by each UK householdTaxpayers are handing businesses £93bn a year – a transfer of more than £3,500 from each household in the UK.Related: Direct aid, subsidies, tax breaks – the hidden welfare budget we don’t debate Continue reading...

Spark Movement collective honours the historic achievements of women by developing an app for Google’s Field TripAn app that can signal where a woman made a historic achievement is being developed.Women on the Map is aimed at 13- to 22-year-olds and hopes to address the lack of recognition and honours for women. Continue reading...

Social network criticises application of privacy ruling while backing Irish watchdog and EU data protection reformsFacebook has criticised European countries for using the “right to be forgotten” ruling on a Spanish case to challenge privacy regulation.

Influential group of international cryptographers and computer scientists says proposals will open door to criminals and malicious nation statesDemands by US and British security agencies for access to encrypted communication data have been dealt a serious blow in a report by an influential group of cryptographers and computer scientists who dismiss the move as unprincipled and unworkable.They warn that such access “will open doors through which criminals and malicious nation states can attack the very individuals law enforcement seeks to defend”. Continue reading...

Robin Hunicke, producer of Journey, on the joyous celebration of friendship and intuition she has developed with Katamari creator Keita TakahashiRobin Hunicke, the CEO of San Francisco-based game studio Funomena, is kind of worried. We’re standing in a corner of the Los Angeles convention centre amid the cacophany of the E3 games expo. Metres away, a large crowd has gathered around the game she has brought to show off. It is called Wattam. It is not a typical E3 game. There are no guns, there is no dark, cyberpunk imagery. On the screen a small group of apples is being chased by a toilet.“I’m the first to say: ‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the person running this company has no idea what she’s doing,’” says Hunicke. “I’ve never been a CEO before, I literally have no experience in marketing or PR. I have a very weird feeling about being on camera. I may not be the best person. I may not be cut out for this job.” Continue reading...

Coalition of free-speech and anti-harassment campaigners, the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative, calls for internet governing body not to enact proposalA coalition of anti-harassment initiatives and digital rights organisations is fighting a proposal from the internet’s governing body, Icann, to strip anonymity from website owners.

Corporation understood to be looking into future of £66.2m TV channel and how live news is covered, with final decision yet to be madeThe BBC is considering making its news channel online only following a similar cost-cutting move for its BBC3 TV channel, it has emerged.

Actor in anti-vaccine protest on Twitter comes under fire after attaching picture, but apologises after contact from boy’s familyJim Carrey has been forced to apologise after tweeting a picture of a child suffering from autism and tuberous sclerosis without his family’s permission.Carrey tweeted the picture of Karen Echols’ son Alex as part of a protest against recent legislation in California that removed the personal-belief exemption from public health vaccination programmes. Continue reading...

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