Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck just made history, and not in a good way. It has lost around $534 million worth of NEM tokens, one of the lesser-known cryptocurrencies, after its network was hacked on January 25th, 12:57pm EST. The attackers remained undetected for eight hours, giving them enough time to steal 523 million tokens kept in a "hot wallet," a type of storage that's connected to the internet for easy spending. While the exact value of the stolen coins are unclear due to the ever-changing nature of cryptocurrency -- it's $400 million at the very least -- Coincheck might have already lost more than what Mt. Gox did a few years ago.
Mt. Gox, which was also based in Shibuya like Coincheck, was the victim of another massive cryptocurrency theft back in 2014. It lost between $400 and $480 million from the heist, prompting Japan's legislators to pass a law to regulate bitcoin exchanges. Despite the comparable figures, Coincheck's hack didn't quite affect the market the way Mt. Gox did. Mt. Gox, after all, handled around 80 percent of Bitcoins back in the day when there weren't a lot of exchanges yet. Also, affected Mt. Gox users didn't get their money back.
Coincheck suspended its trading and withdrawal for all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin, but the company promised not to run from its customers. It said it will use its own money to reimburse all 260,000 affected users, though it didn't specify when it will start disbursing funds.
No, we're not kidding. After weeks of teases, Elon Musk has confirmed that The Boring Company is selling... a flamethrower. That's right, the same company digging traffic-skipping tunnels is now offering a weapon. Plunk down $500 for a pre-order (there's no word on when it will ship) and you can have the "world's safest" fire-breathing weapon. Just in case it isn't safe enough, though, there's also a $30 branded fire extinguisher.
There are 20,000 on sale. And before you ask: yes, these should be legal. Musk said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms allows throwers with flames shorter than 10 feet, which looks to be the case here.
Why a flamethrower? Musk hasn't said, but he did indicate that he would sell a flamethrower when Boring Company hats sold out, and he's clearly living up to that promise. It's certainly consistent with the firm's "if it sounds good, do it" ethos -- remember, Elon Musk founded The Boring Company on impulse after he was caught in traffic. It's undoubtedly going to garner attention as a marketing ploy. The question is, what happens if and when the flamethrower sells out? We have a hunch that Musk would be happy to top this with another novelty, especially since the company's first tunnels won't see service for a while.
Via: Elon Musk (Twitter)
Source: The Boring Company
Songwriters just claimed a major victory in the fight for better pay from streaming giants like Apple and Spotify. The US Copyright Royalty Board has ruled for an increase in songwriter rates that will give them a 43.8 percent pay raise over the next 5 years. They also won't have to jump through hoops to figure out how much they're owed: they'll claim either a percentage of revenue or the total content costs, whichever pays the most. There are no longer caps on writer rates, for that matter.
This isn't exactly what writers wanted. They were hoping to be paid per stream, which would give them a direct stake in the success of a popular tune. However, the National Music Publishers Association's David Israelite called it the "best songwriters have ever had" under the current compulsory license system.
There's no guarantee this will make writers happy. Musicians frequently complain about low royalties from streaming services, and songwriters frequently get the short end of the stick even in those conditions. It also raises questions about how the streaming companies themselves will account for this pay raise. They may not have to increase your subscription rate to make up for the difference, but that could mean having to accept thinner profits to get your business. Mind you, this could help everyone involved if it convinces more artists to stream their music.
Via: Variety
Source: NMPA
Saudi Arabia has released almost a hundred people detained on corruption allegations, and one of them is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The billionaire prince known as the "Arabian Warren Buffet" is one of the tech's biggest investors and known for having stakes in various tech corporations. His current and former investments include Apple, Amazon, AOL, eBay, HP, Twitter and Lyft. bin Talal was arrested in November when the government launched a massive crackdown on corruption and confined at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh. The other detainees were released after reaching financial settlements -- authorities expect to raise $100 billion from them -- but it's unclear if bin Talal also offered to pay.
With a net worth of around $17 billion, the prince can definitely afford to. But he told Reuters in an interview hours before he was released that he's "continuing to maintain his innocence of any corruption in talks with authorities." He said his confinement was a misunderstanding and he supports Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's economic reform efforts contrary to earlier reports that he was critical of them. Despite being accused of money laundering, bribery and extorting officials, he said there'll be no charges: "There are just some discussions between me and the government. I believe we are on the verge of finishing everything within days."
While the terms of the prince's release weren't revealed, he said he expects to keep full control of his investment firm Kingdom Holding Company. He also assured the investors and investees of his business empire that he won't be required to surrender his assets to the government. If that's truly the case, we can likely expect his firm to invest in more tech companies in the future.
Source: Reuters, The New York Times
When Microsoft killed its Band wearables, a leak emerged of what was believed to be the cancelled third-generation model. Well, it's real -- and it says a lot about what Microsoft was thinking before it pulled the plug. Windows Central has obtained a Band 3 prototype and given it a shakedown to see how well it would have worked. True to the rumors, the biggest deals were the additions of waterproofing, swim tracking and (most importantly) an electrocardiogram sensor to track your blood pressure. We now know that the Band 3 could tell if you were stressed out, check your body temperature or otherwise track your health beyond fundamentals like heart rate and calorie burn.
This was also going to address some of the Band 2's design issues. The Band 3's clasp was much thinner, so you'd have an easier time slipping it under a shirt cuff. It appeared to be sturdier, too. And charging was considerably faster -- you'd have a full charge in an hour instead of the 1.5 hours of its predecessor. There's RFID tag support, although that wasn't working.
When you combine this with the recent Xbox Watch leak, there's a clear pattern: Microsoft was fully committed to wearable hardware until it made an about face sometime in 2016. While there hasn't been a formal explanation, it seems likely that Microsoft decided that wearable tech just wasn't worth the effort given modest sales and fierce competition. This may also have been part of a broader strategy where Microsoft cut its work on underperforming products (such as Windows 10 Mobile) in favor of more reliable or promising businesses like Windows on PCs, mixed reality, cloud services and the Xbox.
Source: Windows Central
If you want a good barometer of how far Amazon Alexa has come, you just need to look at the company's teaser for its Super Bowl LII ad. Where Amazon's first-ever Super Bowl commercial was eager to sell you on the still-unproven Echo using as much star power as possible, the biggest star (so far) in the teaser is Jeff Bezos -- you know, the company's own CEO. The clip has Bezos giving the tentative go-ahead for a sketchy Alexa replacement after the AI assistant loses her voice.
Both the inclusion of Bezos and the very subject of the ad (a national panic caused by the absence of Alexa) show the kind of confidence Amazon has going into 2018. The 2016 ad reflected Alexa's young state. The Echo had only been on the market for slightly over a year, and Amazon had to explain the product to a public that had never heard of a smart speaker. Flash forward to 2018 and it's a different story -- Alexa is seemingly everywhere, including new Echo speakers, cars, and thermostats. Amazon doesn't have to introduce Alexa so much as defend it against incursions by Google and Apple.
Via: Recode
Source: Amazon (YouTube)
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