Technology news

• Can Google be taught poetry?

  07-06-2015 20:30 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  If computers and search engines could understand metaphor and symbolism, would it make them more human? A new project tests the theoryIn 1989, American author Norman Cousins wrote that poetry was the key to preventing computers from dehumanising us: “The company of poets may enable the men who tend the machines to see a larger panorama of possibilities than technology alone may inspire. Poets remind men of their uniqueness.”Twenty-six years later, researchers in the US are testing that idea,
  
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• Investigation into iSoft co-founder dropped by regulators

  07-06-2015 19:00 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Patrick Cryne, whose firm was supplier of software to NHS, was at centre of fraud scandal, but criminal charges were dropped by the Financial Conduct Authority
  A disciplinary investigation into Patrick Cryne, the multimillionaire co-founder of iSoft, the NHS software supplier at the centre of a fraud scandal a decade ago, has been quietly dropped by accountancy regulators.
  Two years ago the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which has powers to fine and strike off accountants found to have breac
  
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• China likely behind hack of US data, says House homeland security chair

  07-06-2015 18:42 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Mike McCaul calls attack ‘most significant breach of federal networks in US history’, amounting to espionage – but the White House has not assigned blame Related: US threatens sanctions against culprit in hacking of federal employees' data Mike McCaul, the chairman of the House of Representatives homeland security committee, on Sunday said he believed China was responsible for the recent hacking of personal data of 4 million federal employees.Continue reading...
  
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• Darpa robotics challenge: South Korea's humanoid nets team $2m

  07-06-2015 15:23 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  US defense department awards prizes in event that featured robots built and piloted with funding from sources that included Amazon and NasaRelated: Try, Robot: Darpa contest sends new humanoids into 'nuclear reactor' On Saturday evening, with their sleek humanoid robot DRC-Hubo, a team of roboticists and engineers from the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, South Korea, won $2m from the R&D arm of the US defense department, Darpa, by outperforming 24 other robots
  
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• Review: Lenovo S20-30

  07-06-2015 10:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Introduction and performanceThe arrival on the market of Google's Chromebook a few years ago took the industry by surprise. Not so long before, many had predicted that tablets would kill netbooks, which were essentially Chromebook competitors with a Windows operating system. Figures showed that this prediction was apparently correct as sales for the form factor slumped massively.The success of the Chromebook caused many in the PC industry to reconsider the netbook form factor so it is not surpri
  
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• Music streaming – a user’s guide to the best listening experience

  07-06-2015 09:59 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Our expert offers shortcuts and tips to getting the most out of Spotify, Tidal, Deezer and the rest – and saving you money at the same timeRun to the beat Continue reading...
  
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• South Koreans win robotics challenge

  07-06-2015 06:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  South Korea's Team Kaist win the $2m prize for the fastest robot at the US Department of Defense's Darpa Robotics Challenge.
  
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• Where Uber and Amazon rule: welcome to the world of the platform

  07-06-2015 01:05 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Powerful tech firms are altering not just the way we buy things, but could sweep away an entire economic modelHardly a day goes by without some tech company proclaiming that it wants to reinvent itself as a platform. Back in March, when South Korea banned Uber, the company promised to let local taxi drivers use its platform – along with its matching services.Facebook pulled a similar trick in early May: having run into trouble with its pseudo-humanitarian effort to provide free internet access
  
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• Daniel Ek: Spotify and free music will save the industry, not kill it

  07-06-2015 01:05 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  The music streaming pioneer has come under fire from critics such as Taylor Swift for giving away songs. Now he faces a new challenge from AppleThe chief executive of Spotify, Daniel Ek, has predicted that the free online music service will help the industry grow to as much as 10 times its current size, in a future where old distinctions between providers break down.Having paid out $3bn to music rights holders so far, Spotify is pitching itself as a competitor to traditional broadcasting, having
  
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