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The Engadget Podcast Ep 30: I Can Change
After surviving The Great AWS Outage of 2017, managing editor Dana Wollman and senior editor Devindra Hardawar rejoin host Terrence O'Brien to debate some of the biggest tech stories of the week. First they'll pit YouTube's live TV offering against its competitors, then talk through Twitter's new tools for fighting online harassment. Plus they'll address the latest controversy surrounding Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and discuss whether or not it's time for him to resign. Then they'll turn their attention to Nintendo's Switch, Zelda and where the console still needs to improve. They'll also briefly recount their own history with Nintendo's machines and gaming in general. Plus Terrence threatens to fight Devindra for his Switch
Amazon admits that a typo took the internet down this week
The Great Amazon Web Services Outage of 2017 is behind us. Now, Jeff Bezos' golden child is ready to explain what happened. Turns out, what took Giphy, Medium, Slack, Quora and a ton of other websites and services down was a typo. As Amazon explains it, some of its S3 servers were operating rather sluggish, so a tech tried fixing it by taking a few billing servers offline. A fix straight from the company's playbook, it says. "Unfortunately, one of the inputs to the command was entered incorrectly and a larger set of servers was removed than intended." Whoops. As for why the problem took so long to correct, Amazon says that some of its server systems haven't been restarted in "many years." Given how much the S3 system has expanded, "the process of restarting these services and running the necessary safety checks to validate the integrity of the metadata took longer than expected." Amazon has apologized and promises to do better in the future, at least, saying it has altered the at-fault tool (the code, not the employee) so it removes capacity slower. Beyond that, it is adding measures to stop so many being taken offline at once.
Amazon wants Alexa to answer customer service calls
In the near future, Amazon's Alexa could be on the other end of your next call to tech support. With call centers expected to become a more than $15 billion industry in the next five years, the online retail giant has apparently identified another market that is ready for a shift in technology. According to a new report from The Information, Amazon is currently prepping a commercial version of Alexa developed specifically for fielding questions from phone calls and text messages.
Amazon outage breaks large parts of the internet
If your favorite website or internet service isn't accessible today, it's probably not just you. Amazon Web Services' S3 cloud storage is experiencing "high error rates" that have caused chaos among many of the sites that depend on AWS to work. Our own website is one of them, but the failure has also affected some or all of Giphy, Medium, Slack, Quora and a slew of other websites and apps you likely use. Some connected home devices aren't working correctly, either. Even Amazon's ability to report problems was broken for a while -- the AWS dashboard wasn't changing color because its issue was "related" to S3's problems.
Amazon Chime is yet another videoconferencing tool
Somehow, in 2017 it's still a chore to collect people for a conference call, much less one with video. Now Amazon is taking on Microsoft/Skype, Cisco and the rest with its new solution, Chime. Aimed squarely towards businesses, Chime comes out of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) side of things, running on the company's servers and promising "frustration-free meetings."
'Star Citizen' switches to Amazon's game engine
Star Citizen is still far from being ready, but it now has a more solid underpinning. Cloud Imperium has revealed that it has switched both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 from Crytek's CryEngine to Amazon's Lumberyard engine as of Star Citizen's just-launched Alpha 2.6 release. It was an "easy and smooth transition" due to Lumberyard's CryEngine roots, but both secures the "long term future" of the games and promises some distinct advantages. It taps directly into the cloud through Amazon Web Services, for instance, and makes Twitch streaming easy.
Program Amazon's new Dash button for tasks, not products
I have a trio of Amazon Dash buttons scattered around my house to lend a hand when I run low on flushable wipes, whey protein powder and dish soap. There's really no downside to trying them out, since the online retailer reimburses you for the device after your first purchase. Amazon's latest Dash button isn't for re-ordering products though, it's a programmable option that lends a hand with tasks and controlling your IoT devices.
Apple reportedly designing its own secure servers
Apple's track record for online services like iCloud has been shaky at best. According to The Information, the iPhone maker has spent years trying to come up with an internal solution that can handle the amount of data that the company needs to keep iMessages, photos, iTunes, Apple Music, the App Store and others running smoothly. More importantly it's also trying to keep hackers and spies out of its network by designing its own hardware.
Amazon's new free game engine comes with Twitch baked in
While Amazon might be known for selling you things, its cloud services now have just as much of an impact. It already powers many of the most popular apps and websites on the planet, but it's easy to forget that the company has an impressive online gaming presence thanks to Twitch. With its latest announcement, Amazon has decided to combine all of its strengths and unveiled Lumberyard, a new free game engine designed to let developers build A+ games and integrate all of its online services at the same time.
Amazon's Snowball is a smart box for shipping tons of cloud data
It seems paradoxical that you'd have to ship cloud data, but plenty of companies do -- it's sometimes faster for them to send a courier than to wait days for a massive upload to finish. And Amazon knows it. The internet giant just revealed the Snowball, an odd but unassuming storage device that shuttles up to 50TB of data to Amazon Web Services the old-fashioned way. The box is not only tough enough to survive the bumps and jostles of a courier, but has everything it needs for power and networking. There's even an E Ink control panel on the side that doubles as an automatic shipping label.
Skype is the latest in a series of high-profile web outages (updated)
The last 24 hours have served as a reminder of just how precarious the strands that connect us to the internet can be. Skype is reporting that some its services have fallen over after a bug was found that's preventing users from being seen as visible, rendering them incapable of making any voice or video calls. The news comes just a few short hours after The Next Web reported that an Amazon Web Services location in Virginia broke down, forcing some of the world's most popular services, including Netflix, AirBnB and Viber, offline. The Amazon outage has been mostly fixed by now, and Skype is pledging to get its own issues shorted post-haste, but if any rival video call providers wanted to take advantage of the situation, now would be the time.
Amazon hopes to mend its image by backing a giant solar farm
Amazon has a reputation problem. While fellow tech giants like Apple and Yahoo are considered champions of clean energy, Greenpeace and other advocacy groups regularly knock Amazon for running its servers on dirty power (like coal) and saying little about its renewable energy plans. The company is about to burnish its image in a big way, however -- it just announced that it will support the construction of an 80MW solar farm in Virginia, the largest ever in the state. The eco-friendly plant will supply Amazon Web Services data centers (both present and future) on top of the local grid, so your favorite app or website might run on pollution-free computing when the farm is ready around October 2016.
AT&T and Dish were the big spenders in the FCC's wireless auction
There's no doubt that companies spent a ton of money in the FCC's latest wireless auction -- $44.9 billion of it, to be precise. But who was it that was so eager to part with their cash? You don't have to wonder for much longer. The FCC has revealed the winning bidders, and there's little doubt as to who the frontrunners are. AT&T was by far the biggest spender. It shelled out almost $18.2 billion for 251 licenses to use that coveted AWS-3 spectrum, or nearly three times what it spent on 700MHz frequencies back in 2008. Dish, meanwhile, made its broadband ambitions pretty clear by snapping up a sizable $13.3 billion in airwaves.
Amazon wants you to dump Microsoft's corporate email platform
Sorry to remind you of one of the more banal parts of working life, but it's time for a story about corporate email services. It's a market that's traditionally been dominated by Microsoft, although Google is managing make some in-roads with its enterprise apps platform. Now, however, Amazon is hoping to coax some disgruntled Exchange veterans away with its new WorkMail service.
Verizon lights up improved XLTE data service in 44 states
Well, if the comprehensive leaks from last week weren't enough, Verizon Wireless has just confirmed that its enhanced XLTE wireless data service is a real thing. Haven't been keeping tabs on the nuances of nationwide wireless network enhancement? It's cool: we have, and XLTE is nothing to sneeze at. Here's the gist of it: if you live in one of the markets where Verizon has been fleshing out its LTE network with AWS spectrum it bought in 2012 (the full list of compatible cities is here) and have the right hardware (here's another list for you), you should notice some snappier peak data speeds without having to do anything at all. Heck, you may still reap the benefits of Verizon's appetite for AWS even if you're not rocking the latest hardware. Data speeds for older devices may improve as people with supported gadgets start leaning more on XLTE -- Verizon's best estimate asserts that a full 35% of the the active devices on its network will benefit from flipping the AWS switch, so we'll see how much better things get for everyone involved.
Get ready: Verizon is launching improved mobile data as 'XLTE'
Verizon has been widening its LTE data pipes for months, and it now looks like the carrier is ready to take full advantage of that extra headroom. An early TV ad (below) and details from both Droid-Life and @evleaks have revealed plans to offer its improved 4G speeds under the "XLTE" banner. Reportedly, the badging represents a promise of improved performance in areas where Verizon has added AWS wireless spectrum; if you live in an XLTE region, you'll get double the bandwidth and higher peak speeds. Given that those who live in test areas have already noticed big performance boosts, that may be a realistic claim.
Amazon 'AppStream' service allows devs to stream games from the cloud
Amazon announced the upcoming introduction of AppStream, a service that delivers high-performance games and other applications via Amazon Web Services cloud streaming. Essentially offering developers the ability to "build complex applications that run from simple devices," AppStream aids in reproducing high-performance, GPU-powered rendering on platforms normally incapable of delivering such performance. Supported applications launch instantly, and can be controlled either with touchscreen input or with linked devices. Microsoft's Xbox One has a similar supplemental cloud service in the works to boost in-game performance, and Amazon's AppStream could potentially help power graphically rich games for mobile and desktop devices. Developers interested in testing out a limited preview version of Amazon AppStream can apply for admission here.
Verizon's Galaxy S 4 can now surf more LTE bands after Android 4.3 update
In a particularly punctual effort from Verizon, the carrier has begun feeding its Galaxy S 4 variant with Android 4.3 via an OTA update, after Samsung gave it the nod earlier this month. As the Korean company has been keen to iterate, this update adds Galaxy Gear compatibility to the flagship, as well as support for Sammy's Knox security platform and some other, minor software tweaks. Most importantly for Big Red customers, the software activates Band 4 as previously promised, meaning the handset is now able to cruise LTE over AWS frequencies where that new slice of spectrum is active. Those unburdened airwaves are currently offering some tantalizing speeds, which are now just an update away.
Verizon's LTE boosted in 'major markets' by new frequency, hits 80 Mbps down (update)
The prospect of faster LTE over AWS frequencies has made Verizon lick its chops since late 2011, and now it's finally starting to sate its speed-demon appetite. Big Red has confirmed to PhoneScoop that many of its "major markets" are now being graced with the fresh spectrum (Band 4, if you're curious), which is expected to boost bandwidth, help its infrastructure cope with growth and improve reliability. While the carrier didn't specify which areas are seeing the rollout, several reports indicate that the new frequency has arrived in parts of New York City. In particular, GigaOM reader Milan Milanovic has pulled down 80 Mbps on the new waves while in Midtown Manhattan, with uploads hovering around 15 Mbps. Of course, those speeds are sure to take a dive as more and more folks jump on the bandwagon. Milanovic says fellow network testers have seen Verizon activate AWS in Chicago and Los Angeles, but we've yet to spot speed test results for those areas. Before you get too excited at the prospect of increased bandwidth, keep in mind that only handsets with the appropriate radios can surf the AWS band. However, Verizon says an update for phones sporting the right hardware, such as the Galaxy S 4, is due in the near future. There's no word on how quickly AWS will spread throughout the wireless telco's domestic empire, but we've reached out for a timeline and will update things here if and when we get one.
Amazon aims to unify push notifications across app platforms with SNS service
Calling all app developers: Amazon just launched a new tool that you'll no doubt want to take a peek at. The company's Web Services (AWS) division has just introduced Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) with Mobile Push, which is described as a "fully managed, cross-platform push notification service in the cloud." The real kicker, of course, is this nugget: "With one simple API, application developers can easily send notifications to Apple iOS, Google Android and Kindle Fire devices." Amazon's allowing all AWS customers to use the service for free so long as the reach remains under one million users, but even if you exceed that, you'll only be asked to pay $1 for each additional million. Devs who have historically had to build and maintain different push architectures for separate platforms will likely fawn over such a universal approach, and while it's certainly not the first of its kind, it's the first to be backed by a stalwart such as Amazon. Hit up the outfit's SNS portal to get started, but please, don't take this as a green flag to up your spamming efforts -- we all know how that turned out for Farmville.
