Premier League fans will find their viewing experience complicated by the arrival of BT Sport this season, and there has been much public scrutiny of who will screen which matches and for how much. On…
China’s foreign minister has advocated a system of cyber rules in response to accusations regarding online operations. The US echoed the call, with National Security Advisor Tom Donilon saying that dialogue…
An old sign, or the future of the internet?
mikecogh
Can we really separate a “nice” internet from a “bad” internet? That appears to be the thinking behind David Cameron’s statements foreshadowing the introduction of “porn filters” and search engine roadblocks…
Portrait helps keep the good times alive for dementia patients.
leakytr8
Care homes in Scotland are taking on a new type of technology to help improve the service they give to residents, particularly those suffering from dementia. With the help of digital portraits, staff can…
You might want to forget that picture, but the internet won’t.
Miia Ranta
Justice ministers from across Europe sat down in Brussels yesterday to discuss some tricky issues for internet privacy, one of the most controversial of which was the right to be forgotten. After the NSA…
Defeating piracy is harder than law enforcement agencies would like to think.
spieri_sf
According to a new Ipsos report, piracy in Norway has declined markedly over the past few years. In 2008 they estimated there were 1.2 billion illegal downloads of songs, but by 2012 this had dropped to…
Students at the University of York are challenging what they see as the closed worlds of nanotechnology and healthcare by crowdsourcing funds to produce a new type of treatment for cancer using magnetic…
Covering your ears won’t protect you from bone conduction advertising.
Markus Kison
Just when you thought it was safe to have a nap on a train, the window you’re resting your head on might try to sell you a new app, skin cream or tickets to the theatre. Sky Deutschland has announced a…
Moving with the times. Mobile phones are a vital tool in African banking.
whiteafrican
Bitcoin has landed in Kenya. The online currency that was, until recently, the preserve of tech entrepreneurs and only the most pioneering financiers, is to go mainstream in Nairobi while the rest of us…
A new subject is to be introduced in England to kick start our technological future. Instead of teaching ICT, the national curriculum published this week calls on schools to teach computing. This new way…
In his new National Curriculum for schools in England, announced this week, Education Secretary Michael Gove pledged to modernise design and technology education. This is thought to include introducing…
Hacker to mastercrook by way of HMP Pentonville.
DFectuoso
Following an agreement in the European Parliament on the 4th July, EU countries are to strengthen their domestic laws against the more serious forms of cyber-crime. We can now expect to see prison sentences…
Analysis of Twitter timing can catch robots red-handed.
Flickr: Arthur40A
A recent study of Twitter communication patterns has revealed that human activity on Twitter is easily distinguishable from other types of users. By analysing the timing of tweets, we were able to discover…
Still waiting to load the hamster dance…
Scorpians and Centaurs
The National Audit Office has warned that the government is two years behind schedule in its plan to bring broadband to 44 rural areas by 2015. It now looks like only nine of these areas will be linked…
Regrets may lie ahead in the switch to the universal credit.
Karl Ludwig G Poggemann
The introduction of the universal credit will change the face of benefit and welfare services for families all over the country. By making assumptions about digital literacy levels, the government is putting…
Huawei has many critics to face before becoming a trusted partner in the UK.
Huawei Press
In a memorandum of understanding signed this week, Imperial College London signed up to working with controversial communications technology firm Huawei. The two have set plans in motion to run a joint…
MOOCs aren’t the answer to all higher education’s questions.
Kanaka Menehune
Foundation essay: This article on the rise of massive open online courses by Martin Weller, Professor of Educational Technology at The Open University, is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation…
Where can I plug in my laptop? Courtrooms are due a digital makeover
Fayerollinson
The UK courts are to be dragged into the 21st century with a £160 million investment to help them go digital. Announcing its plans, the Ministry of Justice revealed that the courts get through a staggering…
Cyber-snooping is a threat to knowledge as well as privacy.
EPA/Guardian/Glenn Greenwald
While Edward Snowden sits in a Russian airport, the repercussions of the NSA scandal are being felt far and wide. But while headlines warn us about personal data and privacy, an even more sinister threat…
The news that Yahoo! is to close down AltaVista on 8 July was greeted on the internet with shock. Shock because everyone over the age of 30 thought their original search engine of choice had ceased to…