Technology news

• Second hack of federal records hit intelligence and military personnel

  12-06-2015 23:15
  
  OPM hackers linked to China accessed sensitive background informationNews follows revelation records of 14 million federal employees compromisedAs many as 14 million current and former civilian US government employees had their personal information exposed to hackers, according to two people who were briefed on the investigation, representing a far higher figure than the 4 million the Obama administration initially disclosed – and coming amid an apparent second cyber breach that officials said
  
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• YouTube to launch video gaming site

  12-06-2015 22:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  YouTube is to launch a dedicated site and app for gaming in an attempt to take on Amazon-owned streaming service Twitch.
  
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• Twitter needs to stop comparing itself with Facebook

  12-06-2015 20:30
  
  As chief Dick Costolo departs, investors must stop pushing Twitter to be the next big social media network and focus on its simple strengths When the chief executive of Twitter announced he was stepping down on Thursday, staff knew there was only one way to mark his surprise departure. A hashtag on the social network was created – #thankyoudickc – for colleagues to lavish praise on Dick Costolo, a former standup comedian turned Silicon Valley entrepreneur. “140 characters certainly not eno
  
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• YouTube launches live gaming site to take on Amazon's Twitch

  12-06-2015 20:09
  
  Due to launch in the US and UK this summer, the new site will showcase live streams and let’s play videos, joining music and kids spin-offsYouTube is launching YouTube Gaming, a new spin-off app and website for gamers that will make its debut in the summer, initially in the US and UK.It will seek to capitalise on the popularity of gaming videos on YouTube, with profile pages for more than 25,000 games “from Asteroids to Zelda” collecting videos related to each title. Games publishers and Y
  
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• Government hack now believed to affect up to 14 million federal workers

  12-06-2015 18:55
  
  Hackers may possess ‘all personnel data for every federal employee’Harry Reid says that the hack was carried out by ‘the Chinese’As many as 14 million current and former civilian US government employees had their personal information exposed to hackers, according to two people who were briefed on the investigation, a far higher figure than the 4 million the Obama administration initially disclosed.The newer estimates put the number of compromised records at between 9 million and 14 milli
  
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• After Mean Girls: the video game, maybe a Call of Duty: Downton Abbey

  12-06-2015 18:20
  
  Lindsay Lohan’s Mean Girls is being transformed into a video game (again!) so we’ve taken a look at six other unlikely conversions Continue reading...
  
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• Updated: 8 Best Ultrabooks 2015: top thin and light laptops reviewed

  12-06-2015 18:13
  
  Best UltrabooksUpdated: The business-oriented HP EliteBook Folio 1020 G1 is also an excellent Ultrabook you'll want to keep your eye on.The term Ultrabook was coined by Intel, and it specifies laptops with particular specifications, separating them from other ultraportable laptops.They all have Intel Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 processors, fast SSD storage to some degree, and now USB 3.0 connectivity, for speedy file transfers.Ultrabooks are made with design in mind, so they tend to start from a
  
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• Richard Desmond: Google are gangsters, but wear fantastic sweaters

  12-06-2015 17:46
  
  ‘BuzzFeeds, SchmuzzFeeds’ said the Daily Express owner in his Financial Times interview. Here are 10 more insights into the mind of the media mogulRichard Desmond dismissed BuzzFeed in his Financial Times interview as “BuzzFeeds, SchmuzzFeeds – at the end of the day, you trust the Daily Express”. So here’s a list of 10 things we learnt about Desmond during media correspondent Henry Mance’s expensive lunchtime encounter with the porn baron. 1) He is not an internet fan, saying about
  
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• HP Pro Slate 12 review: Large-screen business tablet with dual-purpose stylus

  12-06-2015 17:02 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  This 12-inch Android tablet offers an interesting twist in the shape of the Duet Pen, which can digitise notes you make both on-screen and on paper.
  
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• Uber drivers threaten rebellion against the $40bn company

  12-06-2015 16:47
  
  The taxi-app firm calls them the engine of the business, but drivers complain of falling pay, insecure employment and vulnerability to difficult passengersMost days at midday, Uber’s nondescript office in London’s King’s Cross opens its doors and dozens of men clutching sheaves of driving licences and insurance documents pour in. Many are first- or second-generation immigrants from places such as Afghanistan, Poland, Somalia and Nigeria eager to sign up to drive for the US tech company, wh
  
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• Uber whistleblower exposes breach in driver-approval process

  12-06-2015 16:47
  
  Global taxi firm’s computerised system approves fake insurance papers amid fears such exploitation by drivers may risk passenger safety
  The taxi giant Uber is reviewing its systems in the UK after an investigation raised questions about the robustness of its approval procedures for driver documents. Related: Uber drivers threaten rebellion against the $40bn companyContinue reading...
  
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• How we tested Uber's system of checking cab drivers – video

  12-06-2015 16:47
  
  Taxi drivers say breaches in Uber's approval process could put customers' safety at risk. The Guardian's Robert Booth demonstrates how a cab driver was able to pick up a paying customer despite having provided faked insurance paperwork to Uber via its computerised system. Following our investigation, Uber says it is reviewing its systems in the UK• Uber whistleblower exposes breach in driver-approval process
  • Uber drivers threaten rebellion against the $40bn company Continue reading...
  
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• How Facebook is bringing virtual reality gaming within touching distance

  12-06-2015 16:41
  
  Oculus Rift has linked up with Microsoft as it prepares to bring VR to the home, and developers’ enthusiasm appears undiminished by past disappointments
  Oculus Rift’s virtual reality headset has moved another step closer to serving up heart-in-mouth moments in gamers’ living rooms with news of a link-up with Microsoft that will see every headset ship with an Xbox One.Having paid $2bn for VR startup Oculus in 2014, Facebook is making its plans to be one of the key providers of the technolog
  
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• Windows 10 makes it easy for apps to banish malware

  12-06-2015 16:36
  
  Windows 10 users will be protected more than ever before thanks to a new feature that allows software developers to integrate all apps with any anti-malware programs on the computer in question.Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI), which was unveiled by Microsoft this week, allows apps to automatically send content over to any anti-malware program installed locally by the user and then be scanned without having to set up any extra processes."While the malicious script might go through several
  
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• Take a look at the Microsoft smartwatch that could have been

  12-06-2015 16:28
  Behind closed doors, Nokia showed off a smartwatch to certain customers at Mobile World Congress 2014. Then Microsoft bought Nokia and the project sadly got shelved.Twitter leaker @Evleaks found a piece of promotion art on a Tumblr blog run by Microsoft design employee Pei-Chi Hsieh.It shows off the Microsoft Moonraker with orange, green or black straps and the whole thing is quite reminiscent of the Sony Smartwatch 3. It doesn't exactly look like the kind of watch James Bond would wear though,
  
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• In Depth: 9 features we would like to see on the iPad Pro

  12-06-2015 16:26
  
  Apple's announcement at its Worldwide Developers Conference of the upcoming iOS 9 mobile operating system has already made headlines throughout the world. The public beta is available now for developers and will be available for regular Apple customers in July.The new software made its public debut on an iPad, prompting some to speculate if the rumors of an iPad Pro, a larger 12-inch tablet designed for business and enterprise use, are more than just idle tech chat.A tablet for business could he
  
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• Keitai: How to take a screenshot on your smartphone

  12-06-2015 16:15
  
  How to take a screenshot on your smartphoneKeitai is back - and this week's instalment sees us telling you how to take a screenshot on your phone, tablet or even smartwatch. Sounds obvious - but so many people actually go to do it and realise they're not ENTIRELY sure how to do it.Also a bad man steals some flowers and how you'll kill every contact in your phone. You're welcome.Catch up on KeitaiHow to take a screenshot on your smartphoneBeing able to capture the current screen on your smartphon
  
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• Apache Spark 1.4 adds R language and hardened machine-learning

  12-06-2015 15:48 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  With support for stats language R, along with a range of new features, the latest update to in-memory data-processing engine Apache Spark is now out.
  
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• This computer algorithm will tell you if your painting is crap

  12-06-2015 15:43
  
  Art is no longer in the eye of the beholder - a robotic art critic has been designed which rates paintings based on their creativity, uncovering the influence of others.A team of AI researchers began with software that attempts to classify objects in an image into different categories using what are known as 'classemes'. Then, they fed in Wikiart - a database of about 62,000 paintings and used network algorithms to figure out which paintings influenced others.The computer was then about to outpu
  
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• Review: Garmin VIRB Elite

  12-06-2015 15:30
  
  Features and designThe action camera market is starting to settle down, with a familiar formula of ultra wide-angle lens, ultra tough exterior and small size. Despite the recent explosion in the number of action cameras on the market, it's rare to see a device with a new feature outside of improvements in core technologies such as resolution and frame rates. But Garmin is a big name in GPS, producing location-tracking car and personal navigation devices used by many outdoor enthusiasts. Perhaps
  
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• Week in Tech: Week in Tech: Oculus Rift gets us moving, Apple Music gets us grooving

  12-06-2015 15:28
  
  The key word this week was Apple. We saw a new version of OS X with a silly name, a new version of iOS with a normal name and a new version of watchOS that should make the Apple Watch more fun. But it wasn't just about Apple. We also saw a brand new Xbox One, some fantastic speakers, the best kit to take to a festival and what might just be Samsung's next smartwatch.WWDC 2015: Apple updates everythingIt started with a funny video and ended with a big rambly speech by Drake. Yep, it was the WWDC
  
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• innovators: Great tech innovators: Sergey Brin

  12-06-2015 15:12
  
  Age: 41Known For: GoogleQuote: "Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems."For many, when you think of the internet you think of Google. And for good reason. The search giant is all-encompassing when it comes to the web. Its search metrics decide what we consume, its other services - including Maps, YouTube and Android - are everyday components of the majority of lives.Google began at Stanford, when Sergey Brin met Larry Page. The pair authored a paper on the importan
  
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• Ultra Street Fighter IV review

  12-06-2015 15:08
  
  PS4, Xbox 360, PC; Capcom; £17.99-£19.99It may not be obvious when you look at screen shots, but the Street Fighter games have more in common with chess than they do with less accomplished beat ’em ups. Stratagems are executed in split seconds, while individual frames of animation mark the difference between a successful attack and risible failure. Ultra Street Fighter IV adds the ability to trigger two ultra combos at once and time your character’s wake-up after being knocked down, along
  
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• Hitman: Sniper review

  12-06-2015 14:57
  
  iOS & Android; Square Enix; £3.99For some shameful reason, being a sniper in video games is brilliant fun. Hitman: Sniper knows this, delivering an entire game in which your only interaction with people is shooting them from a very long distance. Overlooking a sprawling Alpine chalet, you’re given 10 minutes to kill a series of targets, all of whom are people traffickers, which assuages the messy moral ambiguity. Your prey and their security guards wander about waiting to be picked off, p
  
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• Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Supremacy review

  12-06-2015 14:47
  
  Xbox 360/One, PS3/4, PC; Activision; £11.59Supremacy, the third downloadable add-on for Activision’s monstrously successful Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare, follows the series’ template of four multiplayer maps and an extra chapter of the celebrity cameo-infested Exo Zombies game, which adds Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell to John Malkovich, Bill Paxton and Rose McGowan, who were introduced in past instalments. Of the four multiplayer levels, Skyrise is a remake of old favourite Highrise, reta
  
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• VIDEO: K-pop stars perform as holograms

  12-06-2015 14:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The theatre in Seoul which allows you to see pop stars perform as holograms
  
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• Opinion: Microsoft is scared of Sony's Project Morpheus

  12-06-2015 14:09
  
  Microsoft is scared of Sony's MorpheusThe whole Oculus ecosystem is really coming together. After all the excitement surrounding the development kits over the last couple of years we're now getting solid details about the consumer version.First there was the minimum specs announcement for the PC needed to power your new VR world. Then there was the reveal last night about the final design of the Rift and lastly the Oculus Touch controllers.Oh, and Phil Spencer also got up on stage last night bec
  
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• Halo 5: Guardians – first play

  12-06-2015 13:21
  
  With its release slated for October, we take an early look at Halo 5, and find it more immersive than ever
  • All hail Halo - the master gameFive is set eight months after Halo 4 and, with what is described as “mysterious events threatening the galaxy”, the game will bring an expansion to the fundamental Halo canon. Having built a new game engine specifically for the Xbox One, game developer 343 was committed to ensuring the game ran at 60fps in campaign and multiplayer modes. Alongside Mas
  
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• All hail Halo - Xbox’s master game

  12-06-2015 13:03
  
  It was the game that launched a million Xboxes. We delve into the world of Halo and its enigmatic hero the Master Chief
  • Halo 5 Guardians - first play
  There are few success stories in gaming quite like that of Halo, a title that has become a phenomenon and one of the few that has entered mass, popular consciousness. The franchise has sold 60 million games and with the latest, Halo 5: Guardians, due out later this year, will doubtless sell millions more. Yet when it all began in 2001, such suc
  
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• Amazon Web Services launches new instance for general purpose workloads

  12-06-2015 12:54 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  AWS has released a new general-purpose instance aimed at running caching fleets, batch processing, and business applications like SAP and Microsoft SharePoint while reducing the price of its other images.
  
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• Action over Google 'right to forget'

  12-06-2015 12:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Google has 15 days to comply with a request from France's data watchdog to extend the "right to be forgotten" to all its search engines.
  
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• Inside Skolkovo, Moscow's self-styled Silicon Valley

  12-06-2015 12:15
  
  With buildings like the Hypercube and the Matrix, the Russian startup hub looks the part – but corruption allegations, the parlous international situation and getting on the wrong side of Vladimir Putin have all made life difficultThere’s a machine that can print a thyroid gland, a mechanised suit that is helping a paraplegic play football and a lifelike bust of Alan Turing answering questions in a robotic drawl.Welcome to Skolkovo, a 400-hectare plot of land west of Moscow that is trying to
  
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• Snoop Dogg wants to become Twitter CEO after Dick Costolo quits

  12-06-2015 12:12
  
  Rapper tweets ‘I’m ready to lead Twitter. First order of business, get that moolah!’ as Costolo announces shock departureSnoop Dogg has professed an interest in becoming chief executive of Twitter after the announcement that current chief Dick Costolo is to step down.The rapper, briefly known as Snoop Lion during a short-lived reggae phase, tweeted: “I’m ready to lead @twitter!”, following up with: “First order of business, get that moolah!”Continue reading...
  
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• Climate Hope City: how Minecraft can tell the story of climate change

  12-06-2015 12:12
  
  As part of our Keep it in the Ground campaign, the Guardian has commissioned a Minecraft map exhibiting a city filled with real-world climate initiativesOn the rooftops, there are endless luscious gardens, so that the skyline of the city looks almost like the tree tops of a vast rain forest. Beneath them, lining the roads, are multi-storey farms, producing fruit and vegetables for the local populace. There are strange sail-shaped constructions that suck CO2 out of the air, and along the canals,
  
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• US net neutrality rules to go ahead

  12-06-2015 12:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A US court has decided that attempts to block the implementation of net neutrality rules in the US cannot be upheld.
  
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• Vector, the smartwatch with a 30-day battery, will arrive in September

  12-06-2015 11:56 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  The smartwatch, which is compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows phones, will initially be sold on five markets, including the US and UK.
  
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• Crowdfund man spent money on himself

  12-06-2015 11:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  US regulators have taken legal action against a man who raised cash via Kickstarter but spent a lot of it on himself.
  
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• BlackBerry planning to launch Android smartphone with sliding keyboard

  12-06-2015 11:17
  
  New smartphone would mark U-turn in company strategy as it struggles to stymie falling sales and moves to place software on iPhones and other AndroidsThe next BlackBerry smartphone could run Android and have a sliding physical keyboard, according to reports.BlackBerry briefly showed off a slider device on stage at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in March, but has provided little detail on it since. Continue reading...
  
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• BT's broadband prices under scrutiny

  12-06-2015 10:54 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ofcom is proposed price cuts to the leased lines that broadband providers, schools, libraries and universities rent from BT.
  
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• Twitter's Dick Costolo to step down amid stalled growth and troll troubles

  12-06-2015 10:41
  
  Co-founder Jack Dorsey to take over as interim chief executiveCostolo had faced controversies including piracy and online abuseThe outspoken Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo will step down in July, the company’s top brass said on Thursday, even as he insisted the sudden departure – which arrived after years of stalled user growth and amid a storm of controversy – was his own decision.Related: Twitter CEO: We suck at dealing with trolls and abuseContinue reading...
  
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• Twitter will remove 140-word character limit in direct messages

  12-06-2015 10:41
  
  From July, direct messages can be 10,000 characters long, but there will be no changes to the length of tweets
  Twitter will remove the 140-character limit on direct messages from July, the social network has announced.But don’t expect the same change to occur in public-facing tweets, as the company has been at pains to make clear that there are no changes coming to the main part of the service. Continue reading...
  
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• Samsung takes hands-off approach to Android-powered printer

  12-06-2015 08:23 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Samsung is continuing to push into the A3 printer market by launching the MultiXpress 7 multifunction printer, but will leave it to technicians to support the Android-powered machine after installation.
  
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• Wynyard Group gains NZ$40m funding ahead of ASX debut

  12-06-2015 07:18 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  New Zealand forensic analytics software company Wynyard Group has picked up NZ$40 million and the backing of MYOB founder and Xero investor Craig Winkler.
  
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• BlackBerry considering a move to Android: Report

  12-06-2015 04:36 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  The former Canadian handset behemoth is reportedly weighing up its options concerning a move to Google's mobile operating system.
  
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• Telstra public Wi-Fi moves out of free trial

  12-06-2015 04:09 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Australia's dominant telco will begin phasing out its existing free hotspot service from June 15, and plans to return with its full national Wi-Fi network.
  
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• MasterCard's MasterPass hits 38 percent growth in APAC in 2014

  12-06-2015 03:24 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Purchases of smaller-ticket items are helping drive the growing trend of consumers choosing to pay with MasterCard's MasterPass at checkout.
  
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• Why did Twitter boss stand down?

  12-06-2015 02:29 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Why did Twitter boss feel he had to quit?
  
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• Fears over older people's IT skills

  12-06-2015 01:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A charity warns that the lack of older people taking part in training may leave the UK with a digital skills gap.
  
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• VIDEO: The computer that runs on water

  12-06-2015 01:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  BBC Click's LJ Rich looks at some of the best of the week's technology news.
  
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• Roaming Sim card tackles UK notspots

  12-06-2015 01:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A mobile phone service will automatically switch users between networks to ensure they can continue to receive and make calls in dead zones.
  
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