Technology news

• Updated: Spotify, Apple Music and more: which is the best music streaming service?

  27-07-2015 23:55
  
  Diamond-level servicesMusic streaming services are like sportsteams: everyone has the squad they root for above all others. Whether you're a Pandora person, an iTunes devotee, a Spotify specialist or a Tidal lover, we all have one service that's close to our hearts. But music streaming services, like all things, change over time. What do you do when that one feature you loved six months ago has been replaced to make room for a new, completely unwieldy user interface, causing all the friends you
  
  Read more

• NSA ordered to destroy phone records it collected illegally

  27-07-2015 23:45
  
  In case you were worried the National Security Agency was still probing around your phone records, soon enough they will be deleted.The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced that the "bulk collection" of phone data the NSA illegally collected under Section 215 of the Patriot act will be locked away starting November 29, 2015. The data will effectively be out of reach from agency employees ad infinitum, effectively making it unusable in anti-terrorism or national sec
  
  Read more

• Planned Parenthood says hackers are trying to access to employee data

  27-07-2015 23:31 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  The organization notified the FBI and Department of Justice of a possible data breach that could threaten the ‘privacy and safety of our staff members’Planned Parenthood representatives say that hackers appear to be working to gain access to the abortion providers’ employee information systems. The organization notified the FBI and Department of Justice of a possible data breach, a spokesperson said on Monday, one that representatives from the organization said “if true” could threaten
  
  Read more

• Planned Parenthood says hackers are trying to access employee data

  27-07-2015 23:31 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  The organization notified the FBI and Department of Justice of a possible data breach that could threaten the ‘privacy and safety of our staff members’Planned Parenthood representatives say that hackers appear to be working to gain access to the abortion providers’ employee information systems. The organization notified the FBI and Department of Justice of a possible data breach, a spokesperson said on Monday, one that representatives from the organization said “if true” could threaten
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The Apple car could have been an electric BMW

  27-07-2015 21:48
  
  A new report is claiming that Apple may have been in talks with BMW last year in regards to electric cars, giving us more evidence of Apple's interest in cars.According to the German site Manager Magazin, Apple executives, including CEO Tim Cook, had visited BMW's Leipzig facility to see the production of the i3 electric car last year.The publication further claims that Cook was interested in the body of the i3 model as a platform for Apple's own car, and that negotiations had started late 2014,
  
  Read more

• Mac Tips: How to disable 'open safe files after downloading' in Safari for Mac

  27-07-2015 21:34
  
  Got an Apple, Mac or iOS tech question? We have the answer. When you use Safari to download files - music, movies, images - it's usually a simple matter to decide if they'll open automatically once they're on your computer. But this time we have a reader who's having trouble getting that function to work. Luckily, we have a Plan B.QuestionI am using Safari 8.0 on an iMac running Yosemite 10.10.1 and the "Open 'safe' files after downloading" is greyed out so that I cannot uncheck it. I
  
  Read more

• VIDEO: Festival of Code attracts young

  27-07-2015 20:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  More than 1,000 young computer enthusiasts, aged between five and 18, are taking part in the Festival of Code.
  
  Read more

• MPs call for 'anti-Muslim paramilitary manual' website to be investigated

  27-07-2015 19:46 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Far-right Gates of Vienna website is also promoting upcoming London exhibition of Muhammad cartoons which it is feared is intended to incite Islamist violenceA group of MPs have called for an investigation into a far-right website described as a training manual for anti-Muslim paramilitaries – amid fears that an upcoming exhibition of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in London is designed to incite Islamist violence.The Gates of Vienna website has been heavily promoting the exhibition, which i
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Microsoft's next Android app is Arrow, a Windows Phone-like launcher

  27-07-2015 19:30 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Following in the footsteps of Nokia, Microsoft has an app launcher for Android. Called Arrow, the software is available through a private, invite-only basis for now.
  
  Read more

• Rapper 'hologram' stopped by police

  27-07-2015 19:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A digital performance by American rapper Chief Keef has been halted by police.
  
  Read more

• Just the fax: internet activists go analog to fight Congress on cybersecurity bill

  27-07-2015 18:50 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act would give tech firms broad latitude to collect personal data – even as Congress uses old tech to avoid prying eyes
  Internet activists determined to halt what they see as another ill-conceived Washington cybersecurity bill are hitting Congress where it hurts: right in the fax machine. Protesters have programmed eight separate phone lines to convert emails sent from a handy box at FaxBigBrother.com (as well as tweets with the hashtag #faxbigbrother) to indi
  
  Read more

• Richard Calder obituary

  27-07-2015 18:17 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  My father, Richard Calder, who has died aged 78, was an engineer who lived and worked all over the world and who had a special love for Brazil.He was born in Surrey but brought up in New Zealand, where his father, Malcolm, was an air vice-marshal and later chief of the New Zealand Air Staff. With his mother, Peggy (nee Mandeno), and his sister Susan, the young Richard travelled around the UK, Malaya and South East Asia visiting his father, who was stationed in various parts of the world. At Wang
  
  Read more

• My old gadgets are worth £114. How much is hidden in your junk drawer?

  27-07-2015 17:53 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Argos has become the first major British retailer to offer an on-the-spot trade-in service for old devices – so how much could one writer get for the old phones and tablets knocking around her house?How many old mobile phones and tablets are languishing in your home? A quick inventory of my drawers, where gadgets go to die, reveals a stash bigger than Las Vegas’s neon boneyard.There are five phones, a couple of them smart and stored inexplicably in their original boxes (a state of affairs th
  
  Read more

• Phone charger explodes, burning student

  27-07-2015 17:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  EE say they are investigating as a matter of urgency after Katy Emslie woke up at 1am on Friday to "smoky soot in the air" and a "firework noise."
  
  Read more

• Review: Acer Aspire Switch 10 E

  27-07-2015 17:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Introduction and designThe Acer Switch 10 E ($349 in the US while not being available in the UK and Australia in this exact skew) dives into a veritable ocean of shiny, new 2-in-1 notebook computers ready for Windows 10. Pioneered by the Microsoft Surface 3 and others, the new hybrids further refine the mixture of tablet convenience and laptop productivity. This latest model from Acer competes with convertibles such as the Asus Transformer Book T100 Chi and the Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000, only the S
  
  Read more

• Steam account hijacking 'bug' fixed by Valve

  27-07-2015 15:53 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Requesting password recovery email allowed attacker to gain access to gaming accounts without needing password or access to email accountPC gaming platform Steam has fixed a bug that allowed anyone to steal a user account by being armed with nothing more than the account’s username.The bug affected Steam’s password recovery process for four days, from 21–25 July, and was excruciatingly simple: an attacker could try to log-in to someone else’s Steam account, and ask for a password recover
  
  Read more

• Automated trucks seek German licence

  27-07-2015 15:52 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Car manufacturer Daimler is hoping to test self-driving trucks on German roads as early as this year.
  
  Read more

• Twitter removes lifted jokes over copyright infringment claims

  27-07-2015 15:33 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Users left unamused as social media company replaces content subject to takedown notices with ‘tweet withheld’ messages, allowing 10 days to appealTwitter has begun to honour takedown requests from users complaining their jokes have been lifted wholesale and shared by others, passing them off as their own.Certain tweets have begun to be replaced with copyright notices and a message saying “tweet withheld”. The blocked tweets offer users the chance to “learn more” via a link to Twitte
  
  Read more

• Gift cards for phones offer launched

  27-07-2015 15:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Consumers can exchange old mobile phones for instant gift vouchers at catalogue retailer Argos.
  
  Read more

• 'I'm sitting next to a weirdo on the bus' and other true meanings of emoji

  27-07-2015 13:53 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  What is the ‘speak-no-evil-monkey’ really saying? Are those hands praying or high-fiving? Emoji ambiguities explained So there’s going to be a film based on emoji. Of course there is, there’s a film based on everything these days. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But the emoji film is going to have a tricky time getting the meanings of emoji right. It’s often the case that the symbols’ official Unicode Consortium titles do not relate to how we use them every day.The truth is, emoji can mean a
  
  Read more

• ​Best Buy to sell Apple Watch from August

  27-07-2015 13:28 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Apple Watch will make its debut at 100 Best Buy stores, with 200 more to come before the holidays.
  
  Read more

• Seven things security experts do to keep safe online

  27-07-2015 13:11 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  From using password managers to checking urls, best practices revealed in new studyCybersecurity experts aren’t like you or I, and now we have the evidence to prove it. Researchers at Google interviewed more than 200 experts to find out what security practices they actually carry out online, and then spoke to almost 300 non-experts to find out how they differ.Perhaps unsurprisingly, the security experts practice what they preach – or, at least, they tell Google they do. They’re more likely
  
  Read more

• Police shut down massive iPhone counterfeiting operation

  27-07-2015 12:55 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Nine arrested as Beijing police shut down factory which produced more than 41,000 fake iPhonesPolice in Beijing have raided a factory that produced more than 41,000 fake iPhones worth as much as 120 million yuan ($19 million).Police arrested nine people, including a married couple who led the counterfeiting operation, after a raid in May on the factory, run under the guise of a gadget maintenance shop on the northern outskirts of the Chinese capital. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Hardware prices could come down after WTO tariff repeal on chips, switches and touchscreens

  27-07-2015 12:38 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  A new trade deal will see 54 nations scrap tariffs on 201 tech products thanks to an update of a decades old agreement.
  
  Read more

• The lessons of the cloud: What have we learned so far?

  27-07-2015 12:30 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  As the cloud moves into the mainstream of IT strategy, tech execs discuss where the cloud has brought benefits and where issues remain.
  
  Read more

• Nick Denton: Gawker to search for new top staff and draw up editorial code

  27-07-2015 12:18 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Media group’s founder says it is to begin ‘a real, civil dialogue’ in the wake of senior editors’ exit over the deletion of a post
  Gawker Media will begin hunting for new senior editors and drawing up an editorial code this week in a bid to repair the damage caused by a deleted post on its flagship site.In a memo to staff, founder Nick Denton said Gawker president Heather Dietrick will search for a replacement for executive editor Tommy Craggs, who resigned earlier this month along with
  
  Read more

• Musk, Wozniak and Hawking urge ban on warfare AI and autonomous weapons

  27-07-2015 12:18 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  More than 1,000 experts and leading robotics researchers sign open letter warning of military artificial intelligence arms race
  Over 1,000 high-profile artificial intelligence experts and leading researchers have signed an open letter warning of a “military artificial intelligence arms race” and calling for a ban on “offensive autonomous weapons”.
  The letter, presented at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was signed by Tesla’s Elo
  
  Read more

• ​First OnePlus 2 invites go out ahead of launch

  27-07-2015 11:33 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  OnePlus will reveal all about its forthcoming OnePlus 2 later today, but would-be buyers will once again need an invite.
  
  Read more

• Bowers & Wilkins P5 Wireless headphones review: no wires, no compromise

  27-07-2015 11:20
  
     The new B&W P5 Wireless takes the same styling and hardware quality of its rightly-famed on-ear P5 Series 2 headphones, and takes them wirelessBy: Michael Rundle, Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Pakistan bans BlackBerry services in privacy crackdown

  27-07-2015 11:06 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Telecommunication authority orders encrypted messaging and internet services to be stopped ‘for security reasons’Pakistan has banned BlackBerry’s enterprise server and its internet and messaging services “for security reasons” in a crackdown on privacy.
  Mobile phone operators were told by the Pakistan telecommunication authority on Friday that the BlackBerry services must be shut down by the start of December. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Sexting, amorous neighbours and the danger of the nude selfie

  27-07-2015 11:00 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  A holiday thrusts the issue of sexting into my mind – but autocorrect and Instagram filters dampen the passionThrust, thrust, thrust. Bang, bang, bang. I’ve been listening to this for the past four evenings. Two people sweating and panting in the room above, in a hotel too close to a busy road, which serves spaghetti that is cold as it hits the plate.I’m sharing a twin room with my mother – hoping to God she isn’t hearing this too. But I know she is, because in the darkness the shape o
  
  Read more

• VIDEO: Struggling to surf the web in Cuba

  27-07-2015 10:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The internet revolution has all but passed Cuba by and the country is one of the least connected in the world.
  
  Read more

• Optus, TPG add voices to criticism of 'dangerous' government fixed-line pricing submission

  27-07-2015 08:57 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Two more Australian telcos have protested the government's involvement in an independent pricing review, stating a price slash would not impact customer migration to the NBN and Telstra's costs have been misconstrued.
  
  Read more

• Godzilla; Rory McIlroy PGA Tour; Deception IV

  27-07-2015 08:00 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Another Godzilla game fails to cut it and the latest PGA title is solid, but Deception IV showcases the joys of sadismGodzilla’s genre-defining impact on cinema is undeniable. Sadly, the same can’t be said for his interactive appearances – he’s rarely done well in gaming form, a tradition that continues here. Godzilla: The Game certainly makes an effort. A single-player God of Destruction campaign is bolstered with the King of Kaiju mode (clobber six beasts in a row), online battles and
  
  Read more

• Quadro 4: scooter review | Martin Love

  27-07-2015 07:00 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  The Quadro is a scooter with four tilting wheels. You can say goodbye to falling off on sharp corners
  Price: £8,499
  MPG: 70
  Top speed: 85mphSomething strange is happening in scooter land. They can’t decide how many wheels they need. For decades, it was two, évidemment! But then some sprouted an extra wheel at the front. Now some of these three-wheelers have grown another wheel, this time at the back. Pedants will be thinking: “Four wheels. Engine. Seat. Brakes. Isn’t that a ca
  
  Read more

• Government digital transformation to deliver AU$20.5b in cost savings: Report

  27-07-2015 06:59 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  A Deloitte report has acknowledged the work of the federal government's Digital Transformation Office will provide the government and citizens with huge cost savings over the next 10 years.
  
  Read more

• Tech groups welcome Labor's call for data-retention review

  27-07-2015 06:39 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Australian technology industry groups have applauded Labor's proposal to seek a review of the data-retention legislation.
  
  Read more

• iiNet shareholders approve TPG's AU$1.5B takeover bid

  27-07-2015 05:34 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  The shareholders of iiNet have approved a takeover bid made by TPG in March, with 95 percent voting in favour.
  
  Read more

• Ravenhall prison guards' personal data accessed during remand centre riots

  27-07-2015 04:01 via feeds.theguardian.com
  
  Corrections Victoria will not discuss details but says it has informed the officers affected by the data breach and that their safety is its top concernPrisoners accessed the personal information of prison guards during riots in Melbourne’s Metropolitan Remand Centre, Corrections Victoria has confirmed. The prisoners gained access to the personal documents of a small number of officers, who have been informed of the breach. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Australia to chase Amazon and other overseas retailers to collect GST: Hockey

  27-07-2015 02:28 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  Rather than inspecting packages when they enter the country, the Australian government will get online retailers to apply and collect GST, Treasurer Joe Hockey has said.
  
  Read more

• ISP Woosh sells customers to rival Slingshot

  27-07-2015 01:21 via zdnet.com.feedsportal.com
  
  New Zealand-based ISP Woosh is selling 9,000 customer contracts to M2-owned Slingshot.
  
  Read more

• VIDEO: The 'smart' suit that can purify air

  27-07-2015 01:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  How a Dutch fashion designer is putting devices into clothes to help clean the air.
  
  Read more

Follow @TechnologyUKnws on Twitter!