Theresa May has rejected claims that the UK is a surveillance society, stressing instead the extensive oversight of intelligence and the need, as she sees it, to increase legal capacities to survey online…
BP Portrait Award 2014 Shortlisted entries, L to R: Richard Twose, Jean Woods 2013; Thomas Ganter, Man with a Plaid Blanket, 2013; David Jon Kassan, Letter to my Mom, 2013.
National Portrait Gallery
The BP Portrait Award 2014, which opens at the National Portrait Gallery this week, might seem to some like the celebration of a dying art. In our digital age, portraiture might seem to be less and less…
Waiting for the next notification.
Sabphoto/Shutterstock
As smartphones have become ubiquitous, parents and teachers have voiced concerns that a technology-rich lifestyle is doing youngsters harm. Research on this question is still in its infancy, but other…
Streaming opens the charts up to new directions.
awaywiththepixies
Music streaming is soon to be counted within the charts, a reflection of a major shift in the music industry. Spotify and other sites like it make access to their vaults of recordings free – if you don’t…
Picking an app isn’t as easy as ABC.
Kathy Cassidy
Parents and teachers have long been given guidance on which books can help children learn but no such help is on offer when it comes to apps. The bad news is, definite recommendations may be a long time…
La Grande Danse Macabre, printed by Matthias Huss, Lyons, 1499.
British Library
The public clash between Hachette and Amazon has been making headlines for a while now, most recently around J K Rowling’s latest novel. Amazon bowed to consumer pressure after complaints that the book…
Edgware Road: where big decisions are made.
HowardLake
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is holding its 50th public meeting in London from June 22. An international crowd spanning business, politics and civil society will be meeting across…
There are many tales in literature over millennia about people selling their soul to a malevolent deity for the right price. But at least it’s usually a good price. Recent research has discovered that…
Phil Neville told to stick to his day job.
Martin Rickett/PA
Experiencing live football has never been so easy. And the enjoyment of following the action can now only be complete for many of us if we tune in to the global chorus of opinion that takes place on Twitter…
Outside the box. Amazon’s new direction makes sense.
Uwe Zucchi/EPA
Amazon, the e-commerce internet giant, is launching its first smartphone. Media attention is focusing on whether the phone’s features, such as its rumoured 3D interface, are really as cool as portrayed…
The US government has lifted restrictions on the use of high-quality satellite images in a move that will be welcomed by industry but could have serious privacy implications for the man or woman on the…
Tech companies want us all to reset the net.
Reset the Net
When you go online today, you are likely to encounter the Reset the Net campaign. Exactly one year after the first revelations from Edward Snowden about NSA spying, the campaign is designed to mobilise…
Watch your step in Copenhagen – no one else will.
jacobchristensen
If you’re going to fall, injure yourself and need help, where is a good place to do it? Should you choose a busy thoroughfare or a deserted backstreet? Statistics and experiments in social psychology will…
Many trolleys have been reduced to roaming the countryside in search of work.
Patrick Wilkin
Ever since there were shops, people have enjoyed window shopping. But a new phenomenon is emerging that takes the habit to the extreme. If you save things to your Amazon wishlist without ever actually…
OS X Yosemite will be available this autumn.
Apple
Apple has set developers in a frenzy with an overwhelming spread of software updates, unveiled at its Worldwide Developers Conference. The new releases include updates for its desktop operating system…
It’s little wonder that computer experts are warning that computer users could be experiencing “notification fatigue” after the past few weeks. But even if you’re feeling overwhelmed following the Heartbleed…
Trust me guys, you’ll like me in the morning.
opacity
We’ve all returned home after a night out at a party to find a Facebook friend request from someone you briefly met but barely know. Just to be polite, you add the person to your friend list. But it turns…
What do you mean ‘IHATECAT’ is not a strong password?
konsvi
Several high-profile security breaches have, of late, got many people wondering about their passwords. It would be great news if I could tell you a perfect sure-fire system to manage your passwords; the…
As the UK government wrangles with the sticky problem of how to make health records useful for research without compromising privacy, it might look to how Google has evolved for inspiration. Google was…
When we want what we write to be clearly communicated to a reader, we generally try to use a typeface that is clear to read. But few people realise how quickly your choice of typeface affects that process…