Hackers use streaming devices to make radio stations play ‘FDT’

Vulnerabilities in the Internet of Things can have odd results, as we witnessed last year when radio stations suddenly started playing archived clips from a furry podcast. More recently, unknown hackers have exploited the Barix IP streamers some stations use to syndicate content for another purpose: playing YG’s song “FDT.” According to the Associated Press, a South Carolina station ended up playing the song on a loop for 15 minutes Monday night, following incidents on small stations in other states.

As Radio Insight explains, hardware left unprotected by firewalls and with default passwords can easily be exploited remotely. The Michigan Association of Broadcasters has information on how the devices can be secured, but if they aren’t, then we can expect to keep hearing about incidents like this. The Shodan search engine makes it trivially easy to find vulnerable connected hardware, so make sure your hardware (security cameras, refrigerators, TVs, whatever) is set up properly and ports aren’t exposed to the internet.

Source: AP, Buzzfeed, Radio Insight

The Western Digital My Passport gives you 4TB of compact storage ($110 for Prime members)

Data storage is only getting smaller and cheaper per gigabyte as hard drive technology rapidly improves. A myriad of storage options are available on the market today, from tiny MicroSD cards to large external drives, yet even full-size external HDDs are getting slimmer and more travel-friendly. One popular and highly rated model is the Western Digital My Passport hard drive, which offers up to four terabytes of storage in a compact, colorful, and feature-laden package.

Western Digital is one of the leading manufacturers of storage devices, and the My Passport lives up to the company’s reputation for affordable quality. The attractive housing comes in a variety of colors and measures 4.33 inches long, 3.21 inches wide, and less than an inch thick, allowing it to easily slip into your bag or even your pocket. The hard drive connects to your computer via the included USB cable for both power and data transfers –- no need for multiple cords or a clunky AC adapter. This cable utilizes a high-speed USB 3.0 interface and is compatible with older USB 2.0 devices as well.

More: Carry your devices with ease with the Ecosusi vintage-look laptop bag (51% off)

The Western Digital My Passport hard drive comes with built-in 256-bit AES encryption and security software that keeps your sensitive data locked down and password-protected. The included software also allows you to set a schedule for automatic backups so that your important files will be regularly uploaded to the drive at a time of your choosing.

Along with a 4.5-star user rating on Amazon, the Western Digital My Passport hard drive garnered rave reviews from PCMag and TechAdvisor. The 4TB My Passport retails for $160, but Prime members can now get the white, orange, and yellow models for just $110 or the attractive red model for $120. Those without a Prime membership can pick up the blue 4TB My Passport for $120 as well.

$110 on Amazon

The FCC stops investigating carrier’s ‘zero-rating’ plans

Now that there’s a new voice atop the FCC, priorities are changing. As part of a “Friday night news dump” — as it’s being called by fellow commissioner Mignon Clyburn — the regulator announced it’s done investigating carriers for “zero rating” programs that exclude some services from monthly data limits. T-Mobile’s BingeOn, AT&T’s DirecTV streaming and Verizon’s Go90 have all been criticized as violating the principles of net neutrality, by treating some data differently from others. On cable, Comcast has had similar questions about its video-on-demand streaming (like the new support for Roku) and Stream TV.

However, Ajit Pai sees FCC interference in the matter as a “regulatory spasm” and accordingly, wrapped up the inquiries. In a statement, the new chairman said “These free-data plans have proven to be popular among consumers, particularly low-income Americans, and have enhanced competition in the wireless marketplace. Going forward, the Federal Communications Commission will not focus on denying Americans free data. Instead, we will concentrate on expanding broadband deployment and encouraging
innovative service offerings.”

Opposing the move are parties like net neutrality supporter Public Knowledge. Its general counsel Ryan Clough responded with a statement of his own: “This move confirms that zero rating and sponsored data will face no scrutiny whatsoever from Chairman Pai’s FCC. The FCC is saying that AT&T and Verizon are allowed to zero rate their own video services, and effectively charge customers more to access competing services. That’s deeply troubling. The 2015 net neutrality rules are still the law, but that doesn’t mean very much if the FCC refuses to enforce them.”

Source: FCC (PDF), Ajit Pai, Mignon Clyburn

A ban on immigration is an attack on Silicon Valley

Almost immediately after President Trump signed an executive order banning immigrants from seven muslim majority countries from entering the US, tech companies have come out in force against it. The ban left hundreds of people detained in airports, even those with green cards. Some were even deported.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent out an urgent memo to employees to quickly fly back to the US or risk not being allowed in. “It’s painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues,” he wrote. Later in the week, Google employees staged a walkout protesting the ban. Comcast employees did the same as well.

A whole host of other companies like Apple, Microsoft, Uber, Facebook and Airbnb have released statements denouncing the executive order as well. Several have stated they would offer legal help and advice to any employee affected by the ban. Lyft donated $1 million to the ACLU in response to the ban and Google donated $4 million to pro-immigrant causes.

More pictures of the thousand of Googlers protesting. #GooglersUnite #MuslimBan pic.twitter.com/sh7OkUJhKW

— William Hester (@WilliamHester) January 30, 2017

Uber, which suffered some backlash after it continued services to JFK during a cab driver protest, also offered a $3 million legal defense fund for affected drivers. Still, over 200,000 customers deleted their Uber accounts, prompting CEO Travis Kalanick to step down from Trump’s advisory committee.

As if it isn’t clear already, Silicon Valley wouldn’t be where it is today if it weren’t for immigrant workers. Not only is the Google CEO himself an immigrant, but Sergey Brin, one of the company’s co-founders, is a refugee from Russia. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is from India, just like Pichai. More than half of startups valued at more than $1 billion (also known as “unicorns”) have an immigrant co-founder. What’s more, many companies like Apple, Google and Facebook recruit a lot of foreign talent, especially in highly technical fields.

Recently, several big tech companies — Apple, Google, Facebook and Uber among them — got together to draft an open letter to Trump, directly addressing the recent immigration ban. It states that the ban is not only against the American dream, but also poses great economic risks. “In a global economy, it is critical that we continue to attract the best and brightest from around the world,” it reads.

Image credit: Getty

Another letter written by more than 115 startup founders and venture capitalists states: “Silicon Valley flourishes because of our free and open culture of entrepreneurship and excellence. The President’s actions yesterday not only negatively affect Tech’s competitiveness, they hurt the US economy overall.”

And it might get even worse. Currently, the ban limits employees from the affected countries from entering the US, which in turn discourages them from leaving if they’re already here. But the implications of this ban are far-reaching, even beyond those countries directly targeted by the order. There are tech workers from India and Pakistan that are worried about their immigration status, and many are afraid to leave the country, fearful that they would never be able to get back in.

Fueling their fears is a possible executive order that could overhaul work-visa programs, cancelling the annual lottery through which Silicon Valley companies sponsor tens of thousands of engineers. It’s unclear yet on how many H1B visas will be allocated going forward and how restrictive the process will be.

A few days ago, more than 400 tech leaders in New York City penned a statement to Trump that best summarizes the impact that the executive order has on the tech industry, and by extension the country:

“In addition to all of the humanitarian reasons to welcome refugees, it is dangerous to discourage immigration when the facts show that immigrant entrepreneurs play a significant role in the American economy. Immigrants are more than twice as likely to start a business as the native-born population. Immigrant entrepreneurs started, in whole or in part, some of the most important technology companies of our time including LinkedIn, Tesla Motors, Zipcar, Google, Intel, Yahoo!, eBay, and WhatsApp. More than half of the companies on the current list of U.S. technology startups valued at $1 billion or more were started by immigrants.

We should be doing everything in our power to attract these entrepreneurs to the United States. Yet when we close the door to immigrants from certain countries, not to mention to refugees, we are telling all immigrants that they are not welcome here”

A little over 24 hours after Trump signed his executive order, federal judges in New York, Massachusetts and Virginia issued rulings that temporarily allowed those with legal documentation to get in, and some did. On Monday, former acting Attorney General Sally Yates questioned the legality of the order thus refusing to enforce it, but was promptly fired a few hours later by the President. Recently, Washington State filed a federal suit against the ban, with Amazon, Expedia and Microsoft declaring support for it. It won.

As of right now, however, the ban is still in place. Protests are still going on at airports across the nation. The restrictions on those with green cards from affected countries have been lifted, but they are now subject to an additional line of questioning. There’s no word on how many are still detained.

If the President continues to keep the ban in place, or worse, expand it to other countries, it could be disastrous for Silicon Valley. For one thing, it halts any plans for new foreign hires already in place. Companies would have to change their recruiting methods entirely, shifting their focus to a much smaller pool of people who might not have the same level of skill. Or, more likely, they would simply set up shop outside the US, which would result in a brain drain of talent to other countries.

The tech industry is a global one, and it depends on hiring workers and employees from around the world. A majority of Silicon Valley innovations were invented and founded by immigrants. Without them, we might not have the iPhone or Google or Amazon or many things we rely on everyday for our livelihood. Not only is shutting down our borders to a certain group of people based on religion immoral and unconstitutional, it’s also economically unsound.

FCC halts nine companies from participating in the ‘Lifeline’ program

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced on Friday that the FCC will not let nine companies participate in the federal Lifeline program, which provides low-cost internet connectivity for some of America’s lowest-income households. This decision comes just weeks after Pai’s democratic predecessor, Tom Wheeler, had granted the companies permission.

Pai objected to Wheeler taking that action so close to the end of his term. “These last-minute actions, which did not enjoy the support of the majority of commissioners at the time they were taken, should not bind us going forward,” Pai said on Friday.

The Lifeline program provides low-income households with a $9.25 credit per month with which to buy discounted home internet service from one of 900 participating companies. Until last year, that credit could only be applied to basic landline and mobile voice service. However, Wheeler expanded the program with the 2016 Lifeline Modernization Order which enabled those households to purchase broadband access as well. And, two days before he was scheduled to leave office, Wheeler approved these nine companies to participate in the Lifeline program. Pai and another Republican commissioner objected to that expansion over concerns that the plan didn’t do enough to prevent cases of fraud and abuse of the system.

Nixing these nine “would promote program integrity by providing the [FCC] with additional time to consider measures that might be necessary to prevent further waste, fraud, and abuse in the Lifeline program,” the Friday decision read.

This is a surprising move, given that in his first address to his FCC staff, Pai stated that reducing the “digital divide” would be one of his administration’s signature issues. This decision specifically makes it harder for poor people to get internet access. It could also be a signal that Pai intends to restrict the program — say, cap its budget — policy analysts told the Washington Post. The decision isn’t final, however. The commission has 30 days to reverse its decision.

Via: International Business Times

Source: Washington Post

ESPN strikes deal with EA to broadcast ‘FIFA’ eSports tournaments

ESPN isn’t slowing down its plans to make eSports mainstream. The network has now teamed up with EA to broadcast FIFA tournaments on most of its channels, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and the internet-based ESPN3. Last year, ESPN embraced competitive gaming with a dedicated section on its site, followed by coverage of different championships across the world. It’s a significant cultural shift for a company whose president, John Skipper, not long ago expressed that he didn’t see eSports as “real sports.”

As for EA, the developer will have the chance to keep expanding its massive football (aka soccer) franchise, especially among fans who love FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode. Interestingly enough, ESPN chose the first broadcast to be almost at the same time as Super Bowl LI, on Sunday, February 5th at 6PM ET. The Ultimate Team Championship Series won’t be live that day though, since it’ll be a showing for the Paris Regional Finals.

If you’re interested in checking out more of the competition, EA has a handy schedule here.

Watch a modified motorized skateboard shred on solid ice

Why it matters to you

Even if you’d rather just watch, this German electric skateboard company has come up with a way to make a scintillating transport method even better.

We’ve all been there. You’re running late for work, your office is the other side of a giant frozen lake, and all you’ve got to get there is a regular skateboard, a battery pack, a few dozen carbide metal studs, and a handy engineering degree.

What do you do? Well, the obvious answer would be to hammer together something like the amazing electric Mellow e-Iceboard, built by a team of engineers in Germany. Capable of speeding across frozen vistas at up to 40 kilometers per hour, it’s the only way to travel over ice in style.

More: Motorize your favorite scuffed-up skateboard with Mellow

“Ice skating was originally used as easy transportation way back when, in Spreewald, East Germany, [which is sometimes] known as ‘Little Venice.’” Mellow Boards team member Steven Uy told Digital Trends.

Mellow Boards first burst onto the scene in 2015 as a firm that created a successful Kickstarter campaign to manufacture snap-on battery packs for skateboards. Earlier this year, a backer of the original Kickstarter campaign came up with an idea to make a cool concept even cooler by adding extra grip to the skateboard to let it travel on ice.

Jump forward a short time, and the Mellow Boards team had hacked together the world’s first electric-powered spikewheel iceboard racer.

But surely there’s no way to make the idea even better? Think again — because the team next hopes to turn it into a competitive sport.

“E-skate ice racing is like a street race, with the added complexity of the ice making a damn fine line between a drift and a hurtling crash,” Uy said. “Forty kilometers an hour seems slow in a car, but it’s nerve-racking when standing on a thin board without bindings on the ice.

As seen in Red Bull’s Crashed Ice competitions, what makes ice dangerous also makes it — mostly — safe. A board like the Mellow has enough torque, even at high speeds, to shred ice easily, making racing and maneuvering a matter of finesse, not brute motor force.

Whether we’re all glued to TVs showing ice skateboarding competitions a few years from now remains to be seen, but this is definitely one of the greatest (and most heart-pumping) new concepts we’ve seen in a while. Although we’d rather let you try it out before we have a go!

Powerful “boost mode” for old games hidden in latest PlayStation 4 update

Why it matters to you

“Boost mode” may give PS4 Pro owners something new to fawn over, and standard PS4 owners another reason to upgrade.

It wasn’t on Sony’s official list of new features for the PlayStation 4’s version 4.50 update, but the console just got a new “boost mode,” along with other additions. The PS4 boost mode is designed to help older games run better on the newest and most powerful PS4 hardware, the PS4 Pro.

Users who have access to the 4.50 beta and a PS4 Pro can check the new feature out in their console’s settings menu under the new “boost mode,” which has been confirmed. A Sony spokesperson provided a statement on its function to The Verge.

More: What took so long? PlayStation 4 finally supports external hard drives

Boost mode “lets PS4 Pro run at a higher GPU and CPU clock speed in order to improve gameplay on some PS4 games that were released before the launch of PS4 Pro … Games that have a variable frame rate may benefit from a higher frame rate, and load times may be shorter in some games too,” Sony explained.

The boost mode isn’t perfect. Apparently, it can cause some “unexpected behavior,” and it won’t affect all old PS4 games equally (or at all). Meanwhile users are congregating on sites like neoGAF to test the feature out. One early YouTube video claimed Just Cause 3, an open world action game released in 2015, benefits so much from boost mode that it “seems like a whole new game.”

The 4.50 update also includes support for external hard drives, custom home screen backgrounds, the option to manually post to the PlayStation Network activity feed, 3D movie support in PlayStation VR, and improvements to the quick menu accessed by holding the PlayStation button on the PS4 controller. The update is available now to users signed up for the PS4 beta program (which is closed to new users unfortunately), and will roll out to all PS4 users at a later date.

FCC halts investigations into zero-rating data programs like T-Mobile’s Binge On

Why it matters to you

Zero-rated data services like T-Mobile’s Binge-On are no longer on the FCC’s chopping block.

The Federal Communications Commission recently gained a new head in Ajit Pai, and the agency is already showing signs of a policy shift on key issues like net neutrality.

According to recent letters posted by the agency, a number of inquiries into how carriers allow customers to access some services without it counting against their data, have been dropped. An instance of this is T-Mobile’s Binge-On program, which was being investigated for unfairly favoring some services over others. Similar concerns were raised over AT&T’s Sponsored Data program.

More: Are you an AT&T subscriber? Analysts say you may be part of a dying breed

Advocates of net neutrality have long held to the belief that such programs are harmful to lesser-known services, and that carrier giants should be able to pick the winners and losers of the internet. Critics of net neutrality, however, argue that such rules harm competition among carriers.

Identical letters were sent to T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast today, suggesting that inquiries have been dropped and investigations closed. T-Mobile has arguably been the most dominant force in offering sponsored data programs, and its Binge-On service has been quite popular among customers.

“Any conclusions, preliminary or otherwise, expressed during the course of the inquiry will have no legal or other meaning or effect going forward,” read the letter. On top of posting the letter to the FCC website, FCC chairman Ajit Pai confirmed separately that the FCC would not be making similar inquiries in the future.

“These free-data plans have proven to be popular among consumers, particularly low-income Americans, and have enhanced competition in the wireless marketplace,” Pai said. “Going forward, the Federal Communications Commission will not focus on denying Americans free data. Instead, we will concentrate on expanding broadband deployment and encouraging innovative service offerings.”

Only time will tell if this represents the start of a bigger push against Title II and net neutrality in general.

Windows XP and Vista users could lose the Gmail they love by the end of 2017

Why it matters to you

If you’re a big Gmail user, then you won’t be able to hold out on upgrading to Windows 10 forever.

Windows 10 crossed the 25 percent market share threshold in January and at last count, more than 400 million users had migrated to Microsoft latest OS. While those are impressive numbers given that Windows 10 has only been available for about 18 months, that leaves quite a few stragglers who haven’t yet made the move.

Many reasons exist to upgrade to Windows 10, and for Windows XP and Vista users — which according to some data represent a bit more than 10 percent of all PC users — perhaps the biggest reason is for the night-and-day differences in support and security that Windows 10 provides. Google just offered another reason update to Windows, specifically that Gmail will reduce support for Windows XP and Vista, as Google announced on the G Suite blog.

More: Windows 10’s Anniversary Update cements its status as the best desktop OS

While those users will still be able to access their Gmail messages, they will be doing so with the much less robust HTML version as early as December. The Windows version is actually a secondary cause of the reduction in functionality. More specifically, Google will be shifting all users running Chrome Browser v53 or below and it just so happens that the latest Chrome version supported on Windows XP and Vista is v49.

Starting on February 8, Google will start displaying a banner for users running Chrome v53 and below encouraging them to upgrade to the latest version, v55. Google is concerned that older, unsupported versions of Chrome represent security risks as well as a lack of the latest features and bug fixes.

Google’s specific statement regarding the reduced functionality is as follows: “Gmail will continue to function on Chrome Browser v53 and below through the end of the year. Users who remain on Chrome v53 and below could be redirected to the basic HTML version of Gmail as early as Dec 2017.”

Anyone running Chrome v53 or below only has to update the browser to maintain full access to Gmail’s functionality. If you’re a Windows XP or Vista user and require all of Gmail’s functionality, then you will want to get your machines updated to Windows 10 by the end of 2017. You might as well do so, given that by some accounts, Windows 10 is the best PC operating system and well worth the investment.