Two Australian retail chains have removed video game Grand Theft Auto V from sale in its stores, following complaints about the depiction of violence towards women. Target and Kmart stores pulled the game after a petition launched by three female survivors of violence gained more than 40,000 signatures.
Target said the decision "was in line with the majority view of customers". Some fans of the game accused the stores of censorship. The decision was made after three women set up a petition on change.org urging Target to withdraw the game. "It's a game that encourages players to murder women for entertainment. The incentive is to commit sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get 'health' points," the petition reads. "To see this violence that we lived through turned into a form of entertainment is sickening and causes us great pain and harm." It goes on to say that games like GTA 5 are "grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women". A rival petition was launched soon after, urging the stores to continue sales. "This game may allow you to kill, hurt, bash and shoot anyone not just females and this game should be on the shelves all over the country. It's made for adults not children, we have the right to buy games despite their content," said Brett Herbert, who launched the petition.

Source:http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30328080

British chip designer Imagination has produced a barebones computer to compete with the Raspberry Pi.
Called the Creator CI20, the board has a more powerful processor than the Pi, more memory and more onboard storage.For its graphics, it uses a version of the Imagination chip that is also found inside Apple's iPad tablet.The small computer enters a growing and competitive market, with the Raspberry Pi already having sold almost four millions units.The CI20 will cost £50 ($65) and can be ordered now, though the first units will not be dispatched to customers until January 2015.As a chip designer, Hertfordshire-based Imagination is better known for drawing up the plans and specifications for processors that are used to handle graphics in Apple gadgets as well as phones from many other manufacturers.With the CI20, Imagination is entering a market that is crowded with small form-factor, barebones computers that are being used by hobbyists and others for small embedded computing projects.Anyone looking to buy a small computer can choose from the Raspberry Pi, the BeagleBone Black, Arduino Uno and Intel's Galileo and NUC devices.Like its rivals, the CI20 can run many different versions of the open source operating system Linux and it can also run the latest edition of Google's Android mobile operating system.It also has wi-fi and Bluetooth connectors onboard. By contrast, the BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi B+ devices have only Ethernet connectors built in.Tony King-Smith, a spokesman for Imagination, said the CI20 was aimed at people who wanted a "high-performance" board for their development projects.Writing on the Bit-Tech reviews site, Gareth Halfacree said there was no doubt that the CI20 was seeking to take part of the market that the Pi currently dominates.However, he wondered, if the high price and "uncommon instruction set architecture" would limit its appeal.One expert who has had time to test the kit also had doubts about its potential."There will be a modicum of pick-up, especially for people trying to develop for Android it could be a very useful low-cost device to have," said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at the Davies Murphy Group consultancy."But do I think it will make much wider impact? The answer is no."It just doesn't have the momentum that the Raspberry Pi has."The Pi was seen as a good cause and had backing from various corporations, the media and even government departments that gave it a good word because of the educational potential it had. "The Creator CI20 is just a product, the Raspberry Pi is a movement."




Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30328080

Apple has been accused by lawyers in a court case of "deleting" songs from rival services from some iPods during the past decade.Users with non-iTunes music received a message telling them to restore devices to their factory settings when they tried to sync them, the court heard.

Apple said that the move was a legitimate security measure.The competition case is examining whether Apple tried to lock down its iPod and iTunes market in 2007-09.
Apple's security director Augustin Farrugia said the company's attempt to keep iPods clear of any non-iTunes music was done to protect consumers from hackers and malicious content.
He added that the error message that appeared when users tried to sync the content of an iPod to an iTunes account was vague because the firm did not want to "confuse users" with too much information.
Jobs video testimony Earlier the court saw the contents of an email that then Apple chief executive Steve Jobs sent in 2005 after learning that a rival company was about to introduce a program that would let music fans buys songs anywhere and play them on iPods.
"We may need to change things here," the email read. Lawyers argue that there was an internal campaign to keep Apple's iPods free of music that was not purchased from the iTunes store.
By updating the iTunes and iPod software to block music from competing online stores, Apple operated a closed system which froze rivals out of the market, they say.
Later in the trial, jurors will hear from a Stanford economist who will claim that Apple inflated the price of iPods by nearly $350m. Jurors will also see video testimony from Steve Jobs, filmed six months before he died. The class action lawsuit, brought by individuals and businesses, is being heard in a US district court in California. They accuse Apple of abusing a monopoly position in the digital music player market. The case has been going on for more than a decade and could see Apple pay out $1bn in damages.

Source:http://www.bbc.com/news/technology