Dark Souls II named game of the year

Over nine million votes were cast for the awards

Dark Souls II has been named game of the year at the 2014 Golden Joystick awards.

Now in its 32nd year, the Golden Joysticks are the only annual awards voted for by gamers.

The ceremony also saw Metal Gear Solid series creator, Hideo Kojima, get a lifetime achievement award.

Other winners included DayZ, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, which all took home two awards.

Destiny missed out on four awards including game of the year

Destiny, which at £310m was the most expensive game ever to make, failed to pick up any of the four awards it was nominated for.

Following on from Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, Dark Souls II is the third game in the RPG series.

Described as "near perfect" when it was released in March, the game was the resounding winner as voted for by gamers around the world.

Hideo Kojima was given the Lifetime Achievement award

Lifetime achievement recipient, Hideo Kojima, is seen as one of the most influential figures in the world of gaming.

He has worked in the industry for almost 30 years and is behind the groundbreaking Metal Gear Solid series, as well as adventure games Snatcher and Policenauts.

He also produced series Zone of Enders, Boktai and Castlevania: Lords of Shadows.

Receiving his award, Kojima said, "Thank you very much for presenting me with this prestigious Golden Joystick Award.

"To be recognised with this award means a huge amount to me."

Personality of the year winner PewDiePie has more than 31.5m subscribers on his gaming YouTube channel

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, the free-to-play digital collectable card game, picked up best online game and best mobile game, while Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag won best visual design and best audio with the game's creators, Ubisoft Montreal, also winning studio of the year.

Elsewhere, Oculus Rift retained their innovation of the year crown.

Most wanted - which looks forward to game releases in the coming year - was won by The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, which was also exclusively revealed during the ceremony, and gaming personality of the year was won by PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg.

The winners of the Golden Joystick Awards 2014 are:

Lifetime achievement: Hideo Kojima

Game of the year: Dark Souls II

Best original game: DayZ

Best online game: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Best storytelling: The Last of Us: Left Behind

Best visual design: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Best audio: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Most played game of the year: Rust

Best multiplayer: Battlefield 4

Best indie game: DayZ

Innovation of the year: Oculus Rift DK2

Best gaming moment: The Last of Us: Left Behind - "The kiss"

Best handheld game: Pokemon X & Y

Best mobile game: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Most wanted: The Witcher III: Wild Hunt

Gaming personality of the year: PewDiePie

Studio of the year: Ubisoft Montreal

Gaming platform of the year: Steam

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Job centres to get digital makeover

24 October 2014 Last updated at 00:12 By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

The government is investing in a digital revamp of the UK's job centres.

Electronic pads that recognise job seekers' signatures using biometric software will be installed at centres around the UK, along with PC workstations and free wi-fi.

The computers operate on the government's network and share the same level of security against hacking and viruses.

The equipment has been tested at London Bridge Jobcentre.

"We've moved away from customers coming in and standing in a queue waiting to be directed," said Baljeet Mahal, the branch's customer services manager.

"We don't have podiums, we don't have public-access phones.

"If you look back to Job Centre Plus from years ago, we had boards with paper cards with vacancies on them - we don't have those anymore."

The Department for Work and Pensions, which runs the job centres, estimates that installing the computers will save £2m per year.

While their use will not be not monitored formally, Ms Mahal said the screens were visible and staff would "have a chat" if they saw people using them for purposes other than job hunting.

Business analyst John Oldroyd told the BBC that cyber-security was crucial for all new equipment.

"I think every organisation is a target for hackers," he said.

"Security is a high priority for every system we introduced.

"It's all protected by the Department for Work and Pensions network, there are several firewalls in place."

He added that the signature pads had been designed to store data securely.

"The signature pad is used in banks in central Europe," he said.

"It uses biometric software, which measures how somebody writes their signature.

"It's not concerned so much with the image, but the way you write it - it's very consistent and individual to you like a fingerprint."

The overall signature also has to correspond at least 80% with six sample signatures, which each individual job seeker has to provide the first time they use the device.

"In terms of the signature data we store, we don't store images, we store data which builds up a signature profile," added Mr Oldroyd.

"If anyone did hack in there's no way that could be turned back into a visible signature."

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Google offers new email app, Inbox

23 October 2014 Last updated at 12:02

Google is revamping its email service with a new mobile app it is simply calling Inbox.

It is an attempt to reorganise overcrowded inboxes and ensure important emails are not overlooked.

Currently the tech giant has invited a select group of Gmail users to try out the new service. Some experts believe it will eventually replace Gmail.

"Our biggest rethink of email since Gmail, really excited about Inbox," wrote one Google executive on Google+.

Among the main changes, Inbox will:

• highlight key information from important messages, such as flight itineraries, event information and photographs
• let users add their own reminders - to pick up dry-cleaning or give parents a call, for example
• categorise messages - clustering together receipts or bank statements for instance

"We get more email now than ever, important information is buried inside messages, and our most important tasks can slip through the cracks - especially when we're working on our phones," wrote Sundar Pichai, senior vice-president of Android, Chrome and apps.

"For many of us, dealing with email has become a daily chore that distracts from what we really need to do - rather than helping us get those things done," he added.

Reaction from the technology press appeared to be mixed.

The Verge described it as the future of email. "It's perfectly happy to have you use your email as a to-do list," it said.

But Mashable pointed out that other apps such as Mailbox and Box do similar things, and Engadget questioned whether it would really signal the end of Gmail.

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Zuckerberg's Chinese gets mixed reviews

23 October 2014 Last updated at 13:06

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Mark Zuckerberg did a 30-minute question-and-answer session in Mandarin

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's attempt to woo a Chinese audience by speaking Mandarin has had mixed reviews from Chinese speakers.

News outlet Quartz described his 30-minute chat as making him sound "like someone was stepping on his face".

Others were kinder. "This CEO is so cool, I want to cry," wrote one.

Fellow chief executive - Apple's Tim Cook - was also in China, questioning officials about an alleged hack of its iCloud service.

Articulate seven-year-old

Mr Zuckerberg was in Beijing as a newly appointed member of the advisory board for Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management.

As part of that role, he met students for a 30-minute chat, which he conducted in Mandarin.

There was plenty of reaction to his attempts to communicate in Chinese.

One blogger wrote: "It's hard to describe in English what Zuckerberg's Mandarin sounded like but I'd put it roughly at the level of someone who studied for two years in college, which means he can communicate like an articulate seven-year-old with a mouth full of marbles."

Others commented: "Oh my god... this is terrible... but apart from the tones, he seems to have learnt the vocabulary and grammar pretty well."

One tonal slip-up led Mr Zuckerberg to claim that Facebook had just 11 mobile users instead of one billion.

While most agreed that his pronunciation was far from fluent, most were also impressed that he had attempted it at all.

Mr Zuckerberg, who is married to Chinese-American Priscilla Chan, set himself the goal of learning Mandarin in 2010, in part so that he could communicate with his Chinese relatives.

But Facebook as a company is also keen to improve relationships with China. There is currently a ban on the use of the social media site, which dates back to 2009.

There was no explicit chat about the ban and Mr Zuckerberg described China as a "great country".

"The Chinese language is difficult, and I speak English, but I like challenges," he said.

iCloud hack

On Facebook's future in the country, he was diplomatic: "We are already in China. We help Chinese companies gain customers abroad. We want to help the rest of the world connect to China," he said.

Fellow chief executive Tim Cook is also in China and will attend a meeting at Beijing's Tsinghua University with Mr Zuckerberg later in the week.

Meanwhile he has had talks with the vice premier of China to discuss protecting user data in the wake of recent alleged hack attacks targeting iCloud users.

The attacks were revealed by Chinese activist group GreatFire.org, which accused the Chinese government of being involved.

iCloud user data was collected by creating a spoof icloud.com website.

Mr Cook also used the trip to China to visit Foxconn's iPhone factory and said that the company would open 25 retail stores in China in the next two years.

Apple currently earns about 15% of its revenue in China.

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Piracy police to be given more money

23 October 2014 Last updated at 13:16 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

More money is to be given to the City of London Police's Intellectual Property Crime Unit (Pipcu).

The division deals exclusively with investigating digital piracy and counterfeited goods.

The unit will get an extra £3m so it can run until at least 2016. Since its 2013 launch, it has received £2.56m.

Pipcu says it has suspended 2,359 internet domain names and seized more than £1.29m worth of suspected fake goods since September 2013.

The latest action, on Thursday morning, saw a man, 55, and woman, 39, arrested in Bury for allegedly selling hard drives containing up to 200,000 counterfeited files.

Pipcu said the drives contained a mixture of karaoke tunes, full music tracks and music videos thought to be worth "more than £350,000".

Det Ch Insp Daniel Medlycott said: "Pipcu is committed to tackling individuals who think they can exploit others copyrighted material for their own financial gain, as crimes like these are costing our economy hundreds of millions of pounds."

Diverting traffic

Pipcu was set up in 2013 with the intention to "dismantle and disrupt" criminal activity relating to intellectual property theft.

Since then it says it has:

• suspended 2,359 internet domain names - replacing pages with a City of London Police notice
• seized more than £1.29m worth of fake goods
• diverted five million visits from copyright infringing websites to a Pipcu holding page

Pipcu has also set up an infringing website list (IWL) that acts as a database of sites deemed to be breaking copyright law.

This list is designed to be used as a resource for companies that place advertising on behalf of brands.

However some have raised concerns that lists of this nature - which do not require court approval - can result in over-blocking.

The new funding will come from the budget of the Intellectual Property Office - which is supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

News of the additional money was welcomed by the Publishers Association.

Chief executive Richard Mollet said: "We have seen first-hand the important work the Pipcu team does in tackling the problem of pirate websites and the difference they are making in ensuring the online environment is one which is safe and secure for consumers and allows publishers and authors to be remunerated for their work."

Jim Cormack, a partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, requested serious consideration into how the money is spent.

He said: "The extra funding is very welcome but of course needs to be deployed effectively in further developing specialist police expertise in this area.

"If cases are to be successfully brought before the courts, then it is also vital that expert prosecutors are also available.

"It is key for law enforcement agencies to liaise effectively with technology owners to obtain information and evidence about their rights."

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US 'probes hackable' medical devices

23 October 2014 Last updated at 13:52

US officials have revealed they are investigating about two dozen suspected examples of medical equipment vulnerable to hack attacks, potentially putting patients' lives at risk.

The products include heart implants and drug infusion pumps, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.

It said investigators were concerned that flaws in the kit could be used to cause heart attacks and drug overdoses.

There are no known examples of deaths having happened this way.

One expert suggested that investigators' efforts would better channelled elsewhere.

But the Department of Homeland Security indicated its fears were justified.

"It isn't out of the realm of the possible to cause severe injury or death," an unidentified government official told Reuters.

"These are the things that shows like Homeland are built from."

The TV series Homeland featured a plot in which a fictional US vice-president was targeted via his pacemaker.

Dick Cheney, who was vice-president under President George W Bush, later revealed he had feared a similar attack and had the wireless connectivity of his pacemaker disabled.

Hacked pumps

The inquiry is reportedly being co-ordinated by the US Department of Homeland Security's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-Cert).

It is said to also cover medical imaging equipment and hospital networking systems.

The probe is reportedly an extension of research by Barnaby Jack, a security expert who died in July 2013, a week before he was scheduled to give a talk on the topic at the Black Hat conference.

He had earlier told the BBC about a way he had found to compromise insulin pumps used by diabetic patients, which connected to the internet to get updates.

"We can influence any pump within a 300ft [91m] range," Mr Jack told the BBC. "We can make that pump dispense its entire 300-unit reservoir of insulin and we can do that without requiring its ID number."

Reuters said that government staff told it they were working with device-makers to identify and patch software bugs and other vulnerabilities.

Three manufacturers, whose kit is believed to affected, told the news agency that they had already made safety improvements, but declined to provide specifics. The BBC requested further comment and one of the firms, Medtronic, provided a statement.

"We are committed to addressing the industry-wide issue of wireless hacking," it said.

"We believe the risk to an individual customer is low and the therapeutic benefits of our cardiac devices for treating heart conditions and insulin pumps for diabetes far outweigh this risk.

"Medtronic has already taken a number of concrete actions to enhance device security and... will assess whether additional security measures can be implemented without compromising the therapy that the device is designed to deliver to patients."

However, one expert suggested that the danger of such hacks was minor when compared with the risks caused by another tech-related problem with medical equipment - inconsistent user interfaces - and that efforts would be better spent on that issue.

"We've got no documented cases of people being killed as a result of hacking of medical equipment, but there are many instances of people dying as a result of safety usability failures," said Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge.

"You can find instances of pumps from the same manufacturer where the up key and the down key might be '2' and '5' on one pump and '2' and '7' on another - the design of some medical equipment interfaces is as careless as the design of aircraft cockpits was in the 1930s.

"And there have been tragic cases, not just of kids being killed when they are given 10 times the dosage of morphine or whatever, but of nurses who are blamed for this subsequently committing suicide."

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'Anti-Facebook' investors dig deep

23 October 2014 Last updated at 14:00 By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

A social network promising never to sell user data or incorporate advertising has secured multi-million dollar backing

Ello, which launched in August, has also become a Public Benefit Corporation, which prohibits its current and any future owners from breaking that promise.

The network plans to make money by introducing micro-payments for additional features.

Investors have pledged $5.5m (£3.4m).

"There are 'freemium' successes like Linked In and in gaming. Ello is taking a unique spin on this," said Lee Bouyea, of Fresh Track Capital, one of the platform's new backers.

"We are long-term investors. We have a company on our portfolio we invested in for nine years before they were successful. We look long term for a company to grow something of scale and value."

Some experts have argued that people are not prepared to pay to use social media platforms.

"You don't invite your friend to connect with you if it costs your friend money. Even in the world of digital music, you can pay for services but most people don't," James McQuivey, an analyst at tech research company Forrester, told the BBC recently.

'Tried and true'

But Ello founder Paul Budnitz insists his business can thrive without advertising or data mining.

"Our business model is tried and true - it's used all over the place, it just hasn't been applied to social networks," he said.

What the agreement means

Ello's developers have agreed to make Ello a Public Benefit Corporation - which means the site cannot, for monetary gain, do the following:

1. Sell user-specific data to a third party;
2. Enter into an agreement to display paid advertising on behalf of a third party; and
3. In the event of an acquisition or asset transfer, the Company shall require any acquiring entity to adopt these requirements with respect to the operation of Ello or its assets.

"You get an iPhone and it comes with basic apps - you can call, text and so on, but everybody buys apps because they want to customise their experience.

"For a few dollars, you can customise Ello to do what you want."

He added that the decision not to explore user data was already saving the company money.

"If you ask me what the demographic of the Ello user is I can't tell you - I don't know," he said.

"Maybe anecdotally but not at a granular level.

"While Ello has grown incredibly fast, we still have 14 staff.

"We're adding a few more people to help handle growth - but because we're not selling ads or mining data, there's a whole load of people we don't need to hire."

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Online abuse 'hits 40% of adults'

23 October 2014 Last updated at 17:03

Some 40% of adults have experienced online harassment, according to a study from the US Pew Research Internet Project.

From name-calling to other threats, harassment is a common part of online life for many, its research suggests.

While men are more likely to experience name-calling, women are more vulnerable to sexual harassment and stalking.

The report comes amid a rise in social media abuse aimed at women in the games industry.

The report found that 73% of American adult internet users had witnessed online harassment - from being called offensive names to witnessing someone being stalked online.

It found that young adults - aged 18-29 - are most likely to experience online harassment, with 65% of internet users in this age group claiming to have fallen victim.

The vast majority of harassment took place on social networking sites, according to the research.

The report looked at six types of abuse:

• Attempts to purposefully embarrass

• Harassment for a sustained period of time

• Online threats to physically harm

"It was striking to see how different varieties of harassment impacted different groups on different platforms, and the range of reactions online harassment elicited," said report author Maeve Duggan.

Of those who had personally been harassed online, the majority chose to ignore it, she found.

Young women are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment and stalking online, she told the BBC.

Her research also found that gaming platforms were seen as the least welcoming to women, with 44% of people saying such forums were more geared towards men.

Last month, more than 2,000 people signed an open letter calling for an end to "hateful, harassing speech" on Twitter and other social media, following death threats to feminist games reviewer Anita Sarkeesian.

Her series on the portrayal of women in video games led to what she described as "some very scary threats" which forced her to leave her home.

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The Queen sends her first tweet

24 October 2014 Last updated at 11:51

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"Her Majesty used the technology of the moment, sending her first tweet", reports Rory Cellan-Jones

"It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R."

That was the Queen's first tweet - sent through the @BritishMonarchy account - heralding the launch of a major new exhibition at London's Science Museum.

Three years in the planning, the exhibition is one of the most ambitious projects the museum has undertaken.

Alongside historic objects, visitors can enjoy interactive experiences.

The Information Age gallery, opened by the Queen this morning, takes visitors on a journey through the history of modern communications from the telegraph to the smartphone.

There is the first transatlantic telegraph cable which connected Europe and North America, the broadcast equipment behind the BBC's first radio programme in 1922, and Sir Tim Berners-Lee's NeXT computer, which hosted the first website.

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The exhibition includes the NeXT computer Sir Tim Berners-Lee used to host the first website

You can construct a 1980s mobile phone network, making sure your cell towers are efficiently positioned. You can go into the web story box to find out exactly what happens when you click on a link. And you can plug headphones into a 1950s telephone exchange, and listen to the operators describing what their work involved.

The gallery's chief curator Tilly Blyth hopes that visitors who may be somewhat blase about the digital revolution will come away with a longer view.

"We really want them to see that our predecessors lived through similar periods of change. Ours isn't the only revolution - just the latest. in a series of transformations since the electric telegraph in the 1830s."

Baroness Lane-Fox, who has campaigned for better access to and understanding of the internet, welcomes the new gallery: "It's an amazing opportunity for people young and old to come and see the extraordinary developments in technology over the last hundred years or so. It really reminds me of the scale of ambition that people have had to change things."

She hopes too that visitors will learn of the great contribution made by Britain to the development of communications - from Ada Lovelace, the woman who conceived the idea of computer programming in the 1830s, through to the 1950s when Lyons Corner Houses introduced the first business computer Leo, and on to Sir Tim Berners-Lee: "I hope that people who visit will have their ambition and excitement lit so we can continue to be world leaders in this field because it's so important."

The gallery certainly does show off the role Britain has played, and a number of British companies including BT and the chip designer ARM Holdings have sponsored the Information Age and supplied exhibits. But, as they wander past early computers like the ACE, designed by Alan Turing, visitors may begin to ask themselves a question.

In a communications world now dominated by the likes of Google, Apple and Facebook, where are the British technology giants that will shape the communications of the future?

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Hailo says Uber blocked investors

24 October 2014 Last updated at 18:41 By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

Taxi app Hailo has complained rival Uber has blocked potential investors from offering funding.

Speaking to the BBC, Hailo chairman Ron Zeghibe alleged Uber would talk to potential investors only if they agreed not to invest in Hailo or other rivals.

Hailo recently abandoned its business in North America, saying it could not compete with Uber's "astronomical marketing spend".

Uber said it did not wish to respond to Mr Zeghibe's remarks.

However, other sources close to the taxi app industry said Uber was acting with "common sense" and protecting itself from having its ideas stolen.

Uber recently secured $1.2bn (£750m) in funding, valuing the company at $18bn.

Mr Zeghibe told the BBC: "[Uber] can spend money like drunken sailors."

He added: "In raising that massive [funding] round, any investor who wanted to even look at Uber's books to decide whether they wanted to make an investment had to sign an agreement which specifically named us, as well as Lyft, and restricting them from having any ability to even talk to us for at least a year.

"It wasn't just good enough for them to raise enough money for their business - they needed to restrict the market to Hailo and its competitors to have access to capital.

"That's what we're up against."

'Mug's game'

Hailo's comments came following an announcement about new features on the service, which has expanded to Leeds and Liverpool, and is also being rolled out in Singapore.

Of the new features announced, Pay With Hailo stood out the most - a way of using a Hailo account to pay for taxis hailed off the street, at no additional cost to the driver.

Hailo also waded into the debate around public transport regulation, calling upon the UK government to be stronger in enforcing public transport rules.

"It becomes very hard to play by the rules if no-one else is," Mr Zeghibe said. "It's a mug's game."

He argued that Uber drivers should face the same costs, and training requirements, as black-cab drivers who have to earn the right to be able to pick people up on the street and charge by the meter.

Many black-cab drivers insist that Uber's system - where a journey cost is determined at the end of the trip - amounts to a meter, and therefore drivers should be forced to comply.

Private hire vehicles, by contrast, state an agreed price at the start of a journey, and must be booked through a central office, rather than on the street.

Transport for London (TFL) has said it did not believe Uber was in breach of the rules.

It has so far ruled that as Uber requires booking a car on a central system, it should be considered a private hire vehicle.

However - it has referred the issue to the High Court for a final judgement on Uber's legality.

Hailo is concerned this process is taking too long.

"This thing is moving so fast, and the technology evolves so quickly, that it will be a fait accompli," Ron Zeghibe, Hailo's chairman, told the BBC.

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Rory Cellan-Jones talks to Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick

"In the end it is up to the politicians to decide where the public interest is and make sure there are the rules available to protect that interest. Right now, with the rapid changes going on, they better take some actions quickly.

"If they don't, they're going to find out that the public interest will be defined by the tech companies."

But Hailo's relationship with black-cab drivers has not always been steady.

It lost a lot of support earlier in the year by applying for a licence to operate private hire cars as well as black cabs which some cab drivers felt was a betrayal of trust. Around the city, drivers were displaying mock logos reading "Failo".

In the midst of the furore, a new competitor, Maaxi, began recruiting black-cab drivers disgruntled with Hailo.

The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) is currently in the process of taking several individual Uber drivers to court.

TFL's decision is to be reviewed by the High Court - but only after the LTDA action has concluded.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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