DIY drones: don't confuse homemade UAVs with military killing machines

Google's Eric Schmidt has suggested they will be used for surveillance, but those who make them insist they have benefits"It was always a dream to build one, after having built helicopters in my bedroom for a while. I mostly like flying for fun, seeing whether I can get the device to auto-stabilise. As opposed to a plane or helicopter, you don't need a lot of knowledge to control them. They f

The future of virtual reality: want to conquer vertigo or have a go at surgery?

Now you can with the next level of 3D technology – which defies gravity and lets you come squeamishly close to deathEver wondered what it would be like to tightrope walk above the city, dissect a human heart, and jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet – all in one afternoon? These are just some of the experiences on offer in a basement in east London, as part of the Digital Shoreditch festival ne

The future of media measurement should be people-based | David Gosen

Nielsen executive David Gosen responds to Frédéric Filloux's blog backing a site-centric approach using server logsWhen it comes to the development and distribution of content, the pace of innovation has been breathtaking. Today, people consume media on multiple platforms and devices and, with the rise of mobile technologies, they do it any time and in any place. So, how should this prolifera

Internet users' privacy concerns may mean cookies start to crumble

Firefox is about to follow Safari's lead by disabling third-party cookies, but the web simply would not work without themWhen the Cookie Directive, officially known as the EU e-Privacy Directive, was first drafted two years ago, tablets hadn't been adopted in their millions, and smartphones had nothing like their present-day ubiquity.Their rise in popularity raises a number of difficult is

Boot up: Glass views, Surface v iPad, Bitcoin flourishes, SGS4 hits 10m and more

Plus broadband for Staffordshire, price elasticity in the smartphone business, how Chrome will dominate, and moreA burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamGlass Questions >> ongoingTim Bray on Google Glass: Do They Meet a Need? · Seems pretty ob­vi­ous to me; I'm damn sick of haul­ing out my mo­bile to find out what time it is, or to check on my next mee

What should I look for when buying a desktop PC?

Gill needs to replace an old Dell desktop and wants to know what she should know about them …_I need to replace an old Dell desktop and have no idea what I should buy. I don't use it for gaming. I do use it to watch some TV via an HDMI cable to my TV and I might want to download films. It's mainly used for photos, web browsing and emails. What sort of things should I be aware of?_GillThere

Xbox One: should TV broadcasters be afraid?

Microsoft focused on TV over games as it unveiled its new generation console – and it could threaten rival platformsXbox One's voice and gesture-activated TV wizardry is unlikely to leave BSkyB worried about its future. But with big name games and on-demand content Microsoft is aiming to maintain Xbox's appeal in the face of consumers spending increasing amounts of time on their tablets and s

Boot up: Metro apps usage, Pirate Bay hacking case, iOS 7 + Flickr?, and more

Plus IBM's Watson heads towards phones (sorta), how Lotus lost, hyperattentive Kinects, and moreA burst of 7 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamMetro Apps Usage Report >> SolutoHow often are Metro apps used?We found that, on average, a Windows 8 user will launch a Metro app 1.52 times a day. Tablet users launch the most Metro apps at 2.71 times per day. People

Boot up: Chinese hackers, Lumia buildup, life at Tumblr and more

Plus fast charging for batteries, tax row grows, why solar costs aren't falling, Dropbox v Google Drive v Skydrive, and moreA burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamChinese hackers who breached Google gained access to sensitive data, US officials say >> The Washington PostChinese hackers who breached Google's servers several years ago gained access to a se

Review: Pebble's smart watch doesn't try too hard - but does what you need

Born in a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $10m in a month, Pebble's watch is wearable computing made real. Cleverly, the designers make sure it does a few things really wellNowadays, when my phone rings, my wrist buzzes. When someone texts me, I don't look at my phone to find out what they said; I look at my watch.Why? I've got a Pebble - the "smartwatch" launched on Kickstarter last

Xbox 720: Microsoft banking on entertainment services in the next generation

Rival to Sony's PlayStation 4 due to be revealed in Washington on Tuesday, with name of latest incarnation still a mysteryThe world's gaming press is descending on Redmond, Washington, on Tuesday, as Microsoft gears up to reveal the successor to its hugely successful Xbox 360 machine. After months of speculation, and following the announcement of the PlayStation 4 in February, tech pundits ar

Boot up: Intel v big data, wearable and health, Apple on tax, Google Island and more

Plus Dell blames Windows 8 (again), Jolla hopes with Sailfish, southeast Asia's smartphone growth, and moreA burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamIntel's data economy initiative aims to help people capture the value of personal data >> MIT Technology ReviewIntel is a $53bn-a-year company that enjoys a near monopoly on the computer chips that go into PCs.

Marissa Mayer announces Yahoo Tumblr acquisition via animated GIF

Setting up her own Tumblr, dropping Google+ from her Twitter profile, rolling with the zeitgeist - the chief executive of Yahoo has got internet style to burnMarissa Mayer: she's got style. First she buys Tumblr - which, OK, is one of those Big Corporate Acquisitions that gets everyone het up (if they're on Tumblr) or analysing the cash flow (if they're on Wall Street).But Mayer? She took

Yahoo's $1.1bn Tumblr gamble is a power bet on native advertising

Tumblr's acquisition by Yahoo looks like an investment not in search advertising but in contentIn its latest attempt to inject some energy through acquisition, Yahoo is buying content creation platform Tumblr for $1.1bn. But what does Marissa Mayer see in Tumblr's 26-year-old founder David Karp, and what does the deal mean for the rest of us?This is a rational deal at a good time for both

Why Google will crush Nielsen

Internet measurement techniques need a total overhaul – new methods make it hard for incumbent players to stay in the gameThe web user is the most watched consumer ever. For tracking purposes, every large site drops literally dozens of cookies in the visitor's browser. In the most comprehensive investigation on the matter, The Wall Street Journal found that each of the 50 largest websites in

Boot up: Samsung's 10m S4s, NFC's double counts, Google's un-openness, and more

Plus Nokia Asha's unique selling point, the point of a Google Music service, what Apple needs at WWDC, and moreA burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamMac malware signed with Apple ID infects activist's laptop >> Ars TechnicaStealthy Mac OS X spyware that was digitally signed with a valid Apple Developer ID has been detected on the laptop of an Angolan a

Moshi Monsters' founder: the shift to mobile caught us by surprise

With a dip in desktop users, Moshi is racing to keep kids entertained on tablets and mobiles. By Jemima KissMichael Acton-Smith on what Moshi does nextLondon-based Mind Candy was stalling five years ago, but took a punt on an idea for a social networking game site for children.By 2013, the children's game network had become ubiquitous at every supermarket checkout and at every toy store

Boot up: Surface Pro reviewed, Google mapped, LulzSec's voice speaks, and more

Plus the messaging mess, Glass intentions, how to get hold of a Chromebook Pixel, the scammer who cost Google $500m, and moreA burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamMicrosoft Surface Pro review >> PC ProSasha Muller: Stop to consider what you're getting, however, and the Surface Pro really isn't bad value for money at all. The hardware is impeccably we

Boot up: Google I/O, Android profit share, Thorsten Heins v PCs, and more

Plus Taiwan's problems in consumer electronics, European PC sales slump, Google's 'pure' GS4 and moreA burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamGoogle I/O: the liveblog >> Guardian TechnologyAmanda Holpuch at the keyboard, with Dominic Rushe checking the audience for Jon Hamm sightings.Samsung captures 95% share of global Android smartphone profits in Q1 2

Boot up: the Net v middle classes, missing apps on Windows, Twitter hacks, and more

Plus Windows Blue named and priced, Acer and Asus revenues, how to beat clickjacking, Adobe cloud priced, and moreA burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamWindows keeps getting better >> Windows BlogToday at the JP Morgan Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in Boston, Tami Reller shared with the audience that the update previously referred to as "Windo

Boot up: AT&T kills HTC First, Apple's maps mystery, another Google shutdown, and more

Plus Wikipedia's Middle Earth bias, more on Windows Blue, caption glasses for deaf cinemagoers, graphene gets magnetic, and more_Note: the daily launch time for this post will in future be 0730 UK time._A burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamHTC First discontinued by AT&T: first 'Facebook phone' a flop >> BGRZach Epstein: The HTC First, or "Faceboo

Tesla's Elon Musk enjoys sweet revenge

His company has just scored its first profitable quarter and consumer reports put the Model S at the top of its rankingPalo Alto is known, primarily, as the cradle of high-tech. Its birth registry stretches from pre-World War II Hewlett-Packard, to Cisco, Sun Microsystems (after Stanford University Network), Logitech, and on to Google and Facebook.But there's an aspect of the town that's r

New York Times v Washington Post – a tale of two strategies

Both are great American newspapers, both suffer from the advertising slump and from the transition to digital. But the NYT's paywall strategy is making a huge differenceThe Washington Post's financials provide a good glance at the current status of legacy media struggling with the shift to digital. Unlike others large dailies, the components of the Post's P&L clearly appear in its statements,

Why Songkick's new paternity policy is good for women

Startups can 'change business norms', founders sayThere's a consensus among the entrepreneurs and technologists I talk to that many of the way to encourage more women into the industry is by challenging and changing the way a business operates, and often that means relatively subtle changes that will have a long-term impact. Leaving aside the more fundamental crisis of IT education in scho

Boot up: Google's card nixed, Samsung's ITV exclusive, space station Linux and more

Plus DRAM prices rise, learn vim by adventure, more on app pricing, the US cyberwar strategy, why mobile web is slow, and moreA burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamPrivacy advocate Jonathan Mayer has had it with 'Do Not Track' >> Ad ExchangerAsked what the ideal solution to the DNT row would be, Mayer says: "Consumers don't have a great handle on wh

Boot up: Apple v photos, Amazon's 3D phone?, ninja Google searching and more

Plus Bitcoin gets some venture capital, high-frequency trading visualised, 3D gun downloads and moreA burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamDear Apple, let's talk about photos >> Peter NixeySo Apple, I think you've got a bit confused. Don't worry about sharing, we don't need you for that. Your job is to take photos, organise them and make sure they don't

Boot up: Google v Amazon, Galaxy S4 build cost, luminous plants! and more

Plus Spotify fixes download exploit, Gatwick's head in the clouds, more on Windows 8 and RT, Alex on gadgets, and moreA burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamGodzilla vs. Mothra, the sequel >> Fortune TechFormer eBay manager and now venture capitalist Jeff Jordan: In Google's case today, I am becoming increasingly convinced that their most challenging

Boot up: app price woes, Syria traffic stops, Prenda Law phasered, and more

Plus Nokia's new China boss, first-quarter Windows 8 PC sales analysed, Google Glass positive and negative, and moreA burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamApps are too cheap >> Dave AddeyAddey is behind the UK Train Times, Qi and Malcolm Tucker apps: Implementing time-limited trials isn't a new feature for the iTunes Store – this principle already ex

Mobile phone networks must think consumers are idiots

Carriers are confident we won't read the small print in their adverts – why are they so rarely called to account?'My goal in life has been to have just enough money to ignore 8-point Helvetica!' Thus spake a close friend one night in a quiet San Francisco bar. His objection was neither stylistic nor ophthalmologic. We were, once again, lamenting the shenanigans and ruses, the hidden fees and

UK top 20 video games chart

Dead Island: Riptide knocks Injustice: Gods Among Us off top spot as BioShock Infinite continues its slide from number oneUKIE Games Charts © compiled by GfK Chart-Track*Games*PS3*PlayStation*Xbox*Wii U*Wii*PCguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More