Elon Musk plays ‘Minecraft’ differently than you do

Since December, Elon Musk has been discussing plans to build a tunnel to help avoid LA traffic problems. It’s been hard to tell if he was serious about “The Boring Company,” but a few days ago Wired reported a test trench was already under construction somewhere in the vicinity of SpaceX’s headquarters. Musk tweeted that he would start digging on January 27th, and said during last weekend’s Hyperloop that the plan is to increase tunneling by “500 – 1000 percent.”

Now, (apparently away from the president’s economic advisory council meeting) he’s posted this picture of a massive digging machine at work, simply titled “Minecraft.” So what are you doing with your weekend?

Minecraft pic.twitter.com/lU1YzJjLOZ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2017

Source: Elon Musk (Twitter)

The Public Access Weekly: Working man blues

Y’all, it has been a busy week here in the Engadget community. There is just a ton of stuff happening behind the scenes (more on that next week), and there are a few dozen articles in the queue, and over a hundred registrations awaiting approval, and several emails that need some urgent responses, and some exciting upcoming stuff we’re looking to roll out, and some not exciting details that need to be attend to, and I’ve been sick so this is essentially what the week has looked like in GIF form:

Except less calm, and with more Kleenex.

So let’s dive right in:

Looking for something to read? Check out:

Claire Jones took some time to list all the real-life tech wearables that could (hypothetically) turn you into a member of the illustrious X-Men via developments like GeckSkin and bionic lenses. There still aren’t any available developments into teleportation so I guess I’m still out of luck though.

Meanwhile, Emily Chi dives into the AR vs VR hubbub by discussing the available games, developing technologies and hardware releases for each platform.

Lastly, Eric Puller gives us his review of Super Mario Run complete with details on features and game play, deeming it a “must-have” for Nintendo fans.

Looking for something to write about? Mull over:

Those who were looking forward to seeing the “build your own battle bot” game demo for Project Giant Robot become a full-fledged Wii U game were dealt a heady hand of disappointment this week when the game was scrapped. Which led us to wonder, which cancelled gadget or game or tech product has been the most disappointing to you?

Sean Buckley recent attended SCRAP’s Defenders of the Triforce escape room experience to see what it was like to play the Legend of Zelda in real life — and found it fun, but not quite what he expected. While some may consider real life Zelda too ‘geeky’ an activity for adults, it doesn’t seem any worse than your average bar trivia night to me. Anyhow, it’s confession time: What is the ‘geekiest’ thing you do?

There’s been a lot written about Facebook, fake news, clickbait, “fake news” and web content lately so it was way past time to ask you: What’s the solution to fake news and fake content on the web?

‘Mafia III’ expands its story starting at the end of March

It’s more than a little weird that it’s taken until now for the folks behind last year’s Mafia 3 to announce add-on packs for the game. But that’s just how the world works lately. The additional story missions start with “Faster, Baby!” at the end of March. The expansion focuses on stunt driving and car chases, according to the game’s blog. More than that, it offers up a new section of the New Orleans-esque setting.

“Stunt driving takes center stage as [returning protagonist] Lincoln joins forces with Roxy Laveau, a sister-in-arms out to take down a corrupt sheriff terrorizing civil rights activists on the outskirts of New Bordeaux,” the post reads.

Then there’s “Stones Unturned” and “Sign of the Times,” which will release this May and July, respectively. You’ll join forces with a CIA agent to settle a score that started in Vietnam in the former, and explore a ritualistic killing and the cult responsible in the latter. All era appropriate stuff.

Given the bayou region’s rich history and gothic underpinnings (True Detective season one anyone?) these expansions could be worth checking out. Hopefully the game’s bugs didn’t turn you off enough to trade it in already. Otherwise, there’s always the excellent Resident Evil 7 if you need a virtual Louisiana vacation.

Via: Eurogamer

Source: Mafia III

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!