The Morning After: Wednesday, November 8th 2017
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Welcome to Wednesday. The FBI battles with smartphone encryption once again, there's a new type of energy fusion and we struggle with shaving a giant's leg in Your Hands Are Feet.
Code mistake freezes up to $280 million in digital currency
Digital wallet company Parity is warning its users that a large volume of Ethereum funds have effectively been frozen after one coder accidentally deleted the library needed to use multi-signature wallets (those that require more than one signature to move funds) created after July 20th. They triggered a long-unpatched bug that turned Parity's wallet contract into a standard multi-signature wallet, making every wallet suicide and erase the guiding library code.
Whether or not you believe it was a mistake, it could have very serious consequences. Observers estimate there could be more than one million in ether locked away, which would amount to roughly $280 million.
Amazon made a budget Fire TV Stick for the rest of the world
Amazon has unveiled the Fire TV Stick Basic Edition in over 100 countries, including Canada, France, Italy and Spain. It costs €60 in Europe but has been temporarily marked down to €40 for Prime customers. Amazon recently launched Prime Video around the world (both with and without the regular Prime service). The Fire TV Stick Basic Edition comes with quad-core processor, 1GB of memory and 8GB of storage, so despite the name, it appears to be the same as the $40 Fire TV Stick currently sold in the US. The main difference is that the US version comes with an Alexa remote that can take voice commands, while the Basic Edition has, well, a basic remote.
Microsoft will create game studios to ensure more Xbox One exclusives
Microsoft has been chasing Sony in console sales for years and has subsequently entered a pattern of shuttering internal studios and cancelling games. Now, according to an interview with Xbox chief Phil Spence, the Washington-based company is going to do the opposite: start or acquire studios to develop more games and software in-house.
The FBI can't unlock the Texas church shooter's phone
At a press conference, an FBI official investigating the man who killed 26 people in a Texas church last Sunday said the agency can't open the shooter's encrypted phone. The agent painted the issue as a growing concern among law enforcement at all levels who can't access data on devices without their owner's credentials.
'Your Hands Are Feet' puts you inside a psychedelic egg yolk
Let's get weird. We explore the first of four immersive-media projects coming from our Alternate Realities grant program. The bizarre world of Your Hands Are Feet will debut, along with four other prize-winning immersive-media projects, at the Engadget Experience on November 14th, 2017. For more information about the Engadget Experience and to grab a ticket, check out all the details here.