Senate alters sanctions to allow use of Russian rocket engines

Don’t look now, but American spaceflight just dodged a bullet. Senators have passed an amendment to an Iran-Russia sanctions bill that, if gone unchecked, would have barred both NASA and private outfits from using Russian rocket engines. The original measure was supposed to prevent purchases from organizations that work with Russian defense and intelligence, but it would have effectively banned imports of the common RD-180 engine (found in ULA’s Atlas 5) and RD-181 (used in Orbital ATK’s Antares).

The amended bill still has to go through the House, but it’s likely to pass when both the amendment and the sanctions themselves received strong bipartisan support (the amendment passed 94 to 6, while the bill cleared the Senate 98 to 2).

While it seems likely that the Senate was going to catch the mistake, it’s safe to say that the consequences of missing it would have been… severe. Numerous upcoming civil and commercial missions are dependent on rockets powered by Russian motors, and the bill would have forced them to delay or even scrap those missions. That’s not very reassuring if you’re a space station crew member waiting for resupplies. The US may be trying to reduce its dependence on Russian space technology by developing more engines of its own, but it can’t cut ties that quickly.

Source: Space.com

‘Killer Instinct’ will be available through Steam

Ever since the revived Killer Instinct launched in 2013, you’ve had to download it through one of Microsoft’s online shops, whether it’s on your Xbox One or your Windows 10 PC. However, you won’t have to go that route in the next few months. Iron Galaxy has confirmed that KI will be available through Steam sometime later in 2017. More details are forthcoming, so it’s not clear if there will be anything new or any incentives for existing owners to make the leap. The very fact that it’s happening at all is important, though, and it hints at an emerging trend.

Just as with Quantum Break (which arrived on Steam in September), KI was supposed to be a tentpole release for the Windows Store — a marquee game that persuades you to stick around and see what other titles are available. While it certainly got enough attention to warrant three seasons’ worth of content, it’s not clear that it reached its sales potential by launching on a store that (let’s be honest) many gamers don’t use.

Iron Galaxy hasn’t officially explained the jump to Steam (we’ve asked if it can comment), but it wouldn’t be surprising if the studio is belatedly acknowledging a market reality by going where the players are. You’re unlikely to see in-house Microsoft games on Valve’s storefront any time soon, but we wouldn’t be shocked if third-parties more frequently release their Windows Store-only games through other portals going forward.

That’s right, KI is coming to Steam later this year! Thanks to @CEOJebailey for helping us break the news. More details to follow.

— Killer Instinct (@KillerInstinct) June 17, 2017

Via: Polygon

Source: Killer Instinct (Twitter)

Pimp your iPhone 7 with an Apple logo that lights up like a MacBook’s

Note: This process will void the warranty on your iPhone, and compromise its water resistance.

We’ve all grown accustomed to the Apple logo on our MacBooks illuminating, but wouldn’t it be nice if our iPhones were capable of the same function? Well, fortunately, there’s now a way to light up the Apple logo on the back of your iPhone 7.

First, you’ll need to purchase the light kit for your exact iPhone model. Once this arrives, use the pentalobe screwdriver to remove the two screws on either side of the charging port, which is located on the bottom of your iPhone.

Next, attach the included suction cup to the bottom of your iPhone’s display. Now, wedge the flat metal pry tool between the screen and your iPhone’s housing. Once you’ve wedged enough space between the two surfaces, switch to the plastic pry tool to minimize the risk of scratching the housing. Work this around the left side of the device (the right side of the iPhone is where the screen is connected). Once you’ve worked the flat tool around your entire device, you should be able to flip open the iPhone like a book.

Next, use a Phillips screwdriver to remove the metal plate over the portion of the phone where the battery is connected and disconnect the battery using the plastic pry tool — or even your fingernail. Once that’s up, remove the taptic engine under the battery toward the bottom of the phone to give yourself some room to work.

Carefully pull up the black adhesive tabs at the bottom of the battery.  You can grab these with with your index finger and thumb. Pull each one slowly, downward toward the bottom of the phone until each one is removed. If these strips break, it becomes very difficult to remove the battery, so tread lightly and patiently. Once these glue strips are removed, it should be easy to lift the battery.

Once you’ve removed the battery, you’ll need to pry off the Apple logo that is currently housed under the battery. The easiest way to do this is to take a flathead screwdriver and scratch along the edge of the logo until you can wedge the screwdriver underneath and pry it upward. Once done, place the light kit logo inside. You can use a piece of electrical tape to hold it in place, if need be.

Your phone will not need to be on for the logo to begin to light up.

Next, place the LED over the new logo and make sure the LED connector can reach where the battery connects and set it in place. Put the battery on top of it, and lay the battery connector over the LED connector and snap it in place. You can then put the metal plate back over the connector and screw it down.

Replace the taptic engine and, at this point, the logo should illuminate. Your phone will not need to be on for the logo to begin to light up. Next, close your phone by laying the screen down and working it back inside the housing. As you do, slowly work your way around the edge. Afterward, apply the pentalobe screws at the bottom of the phone to finish the job.

David Cogen, a regular contributor here at Digital Trends, runs TheUnlockr.com, a popular tech blog that focuses on tech news, tips and tricks, and the latest tech. You can also find him over at Twitter discussing the latest tech trends.

Elon Musk says Los Angeles is open to using his traffic tunnels

Elon Musk might just have the first customer for his traffic-skipping tunnels. The tech entrepreneur says he’s having “promising conversations” with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti about using The Boring Company’s technology as part of a larger underground network that would shuttle cars, bikes and people. It’s not clear exactly how well the talks are going, but Garcetti is clearly open to the idea — he even name dropped Musk’s effort during an ABC interview.

As Musk observes, though, the technology is the easy part… it’s the legal clearance that’s hard. The Boring Company will need extensive permits if it’s going to create a whole grid of high-speed tunnel transports underneath LA, and it’ll be no mean feat to convince officials that such an ambitious project should go ahead. Still, this is a start. And when LA is both highly dependent on cars and infamous for its traffic, the city might be receptive to some audacious ideas.

Promising conversations with @MayorOfLA regarding tunnel network that would carry cars, bikes & pedestrians. Permits harder than technology. https://t.co/0dxrXBOOWy

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 18, 2017

There could be an #express train @unionstationla to @flyLAXairport–Here’s @MayorOfLA @ericgarcetti on #Newsmakers. #WATCH 11AM Sun @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/zJAFTge2VO

— Adrienne Alpert (@abc7adrienne) June 17, 2017

Source: Elon Musk (Twitter), Adrienne Alpert (Twitter)

All the weird things you missed at E3

E3 2017 will go down in history as the first year the show was open to the public, which means the crushing crowds filling the Los Angeles Convention Center were even more extreme. The rest of the show, however, was just as amped up — eSports tournaments took over downtown, Mario and the Rabbids formed a strange yet intriguing relationship, Bethesda held a carnival and band geeks commiserated with sports bros. Get a first-hand look at all of the madness in the carefully curated, painstakingly compiled “Weirdness of E3 2017” gallery below.

Next year’s E3 is scheduled for June 12th – 14th, and it’s set to be just as busy as 2017. Attendance for the show’s first public year was up by 18,100 people over last year, growing from 50,300 attendees to 68,400. Needless to say, we’ll be among them, bringing you the best that the show has to offer.

Mat Smith contributed to this report.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Microsoft expects consumers to ‘figure out’ which Xbox is which

The best way to keep a job as a marketer is to never go off message. That’s precisely what happened when I interviewed Xbox’s head of console marketing Albert Penello on our E3 stage this week. While he was more than happy to talk about the Xbox One X’s tech specs and the impact 4K gaming will have on everyone, asking harder questions about Xbox as an organization resulted in a lot of non-answers. But there were a few tells.

When I pressed him about Microsoft’s reliance on timed exclusives and seemingly abandoning original games in favor of sequels to its headlining franchises (Gears of War, Halo and Forza), for instance, he said this: “We’re clearly invested in game [intellectual property]. The industry’s not going anywhere, there’s going to be plenty of time to bring new IP.” Which is to say, Microsoft isn’t worried about creating a robust stable of original games any time in the near future.

Then there’s the explanation for how Microsoft arrived at the Xbox One X name:

“If you look at phones, there’s all kinds of different types of names used and people manage to figure it out. You’re gonna know ‘I want the 4K one,’ [you’re gonna know] by price or bundles or color; I think people will figure out which console they’re buying.”

Good luck getting a hapless Best Buy or Walmart employee to explain which one “the 4K one” is to someone who isn’t a NeoGAF member. Both the One S and the One X contain UHD Blu-ray drives, play 4K videos and support HDR. That’s to say nothing of their similar designs and the myriad colors and bundles each will be (One X) and is (One S) available in.

Thankfully, Penello was clear about which Microsoft franchise he’d love to see resurrected.

“Oh man, I’m gonna get in so much trouble for saying this. For me it would be MechAssault. I love robots and multiplayer; I think there would be a great modern interpretation of MechAssault. And I’m fired,” he said, laughing.

The last MechAssault that graced Xbox hardware was 2004’s MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf for the original Xbox. But hey, maybe we’ll get to play it again with the newly announced backwards compatibility program.

I’ll have a deeper look at the state of the Xbox coming later in the week, but for now, check out the video up above.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Google bets AI and human oversight will curb online extremism

Google is under a lot of pressure to stamp out extremists’ online presences, and it’s responding to that heat today. The internet giant has outlined four steps it’s taking to flag and remove pro-terrorism content on its pages, particularly on YouTube. Technological improvements play a role, of course, but the company is also counting on a human element that will catch what its automated filters can’t.

To start, it’s pouring more energy into machine learning research that could improve its ability to automatically flag and remove terrorist videos while keeping innocently-posted clips (say, news reports) online. It’s also expanding its counter-radicalization system, which shows anti-extremist ads to would-be terrorist recruits.

It’s the stronger reliance on people that may matter the most, however. Google plans to “greatly increase” the number of humans in its YouTube Trusted Flagger program, improving the chances that it’ll catch terrorist material. It’s likewise working with anti-extremism groups to pinpoint recruiting-oriented content. Google wants to tackle those YouTube videos that are borderline, too — if it spots videos with “inflammatory” religious or supremacist material, it’ll put those clips behind a warning and prevent them from getting ad revenue, comments or viewing recommendations. In theory, this strikes a balance between free speech and public safety.

To some extent, the plans are an extension of Google’s ongoing efforts, such as its plan to pull ads from extremist videos. Still, they might just assuage politicians who have threatened to institute legal mandates for anti-extremist takedowns. Google, Facebook, Twitter and others have already stepped up their collective fight against terrorism, but this is a relatively concrete roadmap. The big question is whether or not all these initiatives will be enough. AI-powered flagging and greater oversight could help, but the sheer volume of videos on YouTube makes it entirely possible that some footage will slip through the cracks.

Source: Google

Rapid-fire archery battles are the best way to do E3

Nothing gets rid of the E3 jitters like shooting an exploding arrow right at your social media manager’s face. Luckily, we brought TowerFall: Ascension to the E3 show floor this year, so nobody had to break out the actual bow hidden behind the Engadget stage.

Feminist Frequency founder Anita Sarkeesian and Managing Editor Carolyn Petit joined Engadget social media manager Evan Rodgers and senior reporter Jessica Conditt (that’s me!) on-stage at the heart of E3 for a live TowerFall gameplay session. After nearly a week of press conferences, surprise announcements and hands-on events, we all needed a few rounds of calming, couch-based, competitive playtime.

TowerFall landed in 2014 as a local-mutliplayer-only experience, and creator Matt Thorson is currently working on a new, single-player platformer called Celeste.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

The best 6 cheap tablets to buy

You don’t have to break the bank to secure yourself a new tablet. There are plenty of budget options out there. If you’re willing to compromise, you can easily snag yourself a serviceable device for less than $200. Cheap tablets have improved fast in the last couple of years, and they’ve continued to drop in price as smartphones have grown larger and eaten into the tablet market.

If you’re feeling the pinch right now and that budget is limited, here are the best cheap tablets that $200 or less will buy you.

Amazon Fire HD 8 ($80)

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

This is a remarkably capable tablet for the price. The 8-inch display has a respectable 1280 x 800-pixel resolution, there’s 16GB of storage onboard with space for a MicroSD card, and the battery life is solid. It also comes with Alexa for quick voice searches and commands. If you just want a tablet for reading, games, and watching videos, then this will do the job. You’ll get more out of it if you’re invested in Amazon’s ecosystem, but the fact you’re limited to Amazon’s Appstore is going to understandably put some people off. Amazon does offer the even cheaper Fire 7 tablet at $50, but if you can stretch to the HD 8 we highly recommend that you do, because it offers a lot of small improvements that really add up when put together.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

Asus Zenpad S 8 ($180)

You should definitely check out the favorably reviewed, Zenpad S 8, if you’re shopping for a cheap Android tablet. Asus has been one of the leading manufacturers of Android tablets since the beginning, and this one offers great specs for the money. You get a quad-core, 64bit, Intel Atom Z3530 processor clocked at 1.3GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage with a MicroSD card slot to add more. It also has a 5-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Best of all, there’s an 8-inch screen with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. If you want to play games and watch movies, this tablet will serve you well. It’s a stylish tablet that feels more expensive than it really is.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 ($130)

This tablet sticks out because of the innovative rotating kickstand along the side, which also enables you to turn the impressive 8-megapixel camera. The versatile kickstand will prop your tablet in landscape, but it also has a hook in case you want to hang it up. The 8-inch screen has a 1280 x 800-pixel resolution, and there’s a 1.3 GHz Qualcomm processor inside with 2GB of RAM. You get 16GB of internal storage, but there is a MicroSD card slot for expansion. The big 6,200 mAh battery gives you plenty of power and it runs Android 5.1. It is a bit heavier than similarly-sized tablets because of that kickstand, but it’s ideal for watching movies on and it offers decent sound, too, via the dual front-facing speakers.

Buy it now from:

Amazon

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 7 ($150)

Here’s a portable tablet with nice build quality that offers a decent mix of specs for a low price. As the name suggests, Samsung’s budget tablet has a 7-inch display. The resolution is 1280 x 800 pixel, so this is fine for reading on. It has a decent quad-core processor inside with 1.5GB of RAM, which is about standard around this price point. You only get 8GB of storage, but there’s room for a MicroSD card. The battery life is very good. Unusually, the Tab A 7 also has a fairly decent 5-megapixel camera, as well as a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, so this is the cheap tablet to go for if the camera is important to you.

Buy it now from:

Amazon Best Buy

LG G Pad 7.0 8GB ($110)

At this price, you can forgive the wide bezels and the 1280 x 800-pixel resolution. Inside, you’ll find a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with just 1GB of RAM, but this tablet still performs surprisingly well in practice. You only get 8GB of storage and a 3-megapixel camera, but that’s counterbalanced by a decent 4,000mAh battery, which delivers around 10 hours of service. It’s a solid, 7-inch Android tablet that offers good value for money. If you want something to read on and maybe watch the odd video, this cheap tablet will do the job. Read our full review of the LG G Pad 7.0 here.

Buy it now from:

Amazon Best Buy B&H

Lenovo Tab 2 A10 ($145)

A tablet with a 10.1-inch display for well under $200 is not to be scoffed at. Thankfully, this is a major improvement over the original, fuzzy-screened A10. This time around the resolution is 1920 x 1200 pixels, there’s a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera, and a 7,000mAh battery for up to 10 hours of juice on the go. It also runs Android 4.4 out of the box, but can be updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop. To put it simply, this tablet is an absolute bargain.

Buy it now from:

Amazon Best Buy Walmart B&H

The Pixel program is a mess [#acpodcast]

This week, Daniel, Flo, Alex and Jerry discuss the latest Pixel 2 rumors — will it be made by HTC, LG or both? — and what that means for the future of the Pixel program.

Also discussed:

• HTC did good with the U11
• Apple’s WWDC announcements: Is the iPad Pro 10.5 the best Google tablet around?
• Bixby sucks. When will it be good?
• The OnePlus 5 is coming, but is it a lot of hot air?
• Locked phones will be banned in Canada this year. How does that change things, and how does it compare to other countries like the U.S. and the UK?

This episode of the Android Central Podcast is brought to you by Thrifter, the best place to get great deals in your inbox every day!

Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral340.mp3