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There’s nothing excessively bad about “Enola Holmes,” a new film about Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister Enola. But there’s nothing particularly good, either. The film was originally planned for a theatrical release from Warner Bros., but Netflix picked it up earlier this year, after the pandemic shuttered theaters around the world. “Enola Holmes” stars Millie Bobby Brown as titular adolescent detective, along with Henry Cavill as Sherlock, and they’re both … fine? Neither of them seems to be phoning it in, and Cavill is downright charming at times. And although Brown has admitted that she struggled to reacquire her English accent, she brings plenty of energy to her role, which includes plenty of fourth-wall-breaking monologues that fill the audience in on backstory and explain the solutions to not-particularly-puzzling mysteries. As we explain on the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, the film seems competent in virtually every respect, but thoroughly inspired, leaving us underwhelmed by the results — Anthony to the point where he was pacing around the room and wondering about his life choices. But hey, maybe kids will enjoy watching it? In addition to reviewing the movie, we also discuss Netflix’s recent discussion to cancel “Glow” and “Teenage Bounty Hunters.” You can listen to our review in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You can also follow us on Twitter or send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!) If you’d like to skip ahead, here’s how the episode breaks down: 0:00 Intro 0:37 “Away” listener response 4:04 “Glow”/”Teenage Bounty Hunters” discussion 12:43 “Enola Holmes” review 29:17: “Enola Holmes” spoiler discussion View the full article

Google Nest Audio $99.99 View Product The Good Affordable • Compact • Beautiful design • Improved audio quality • Seamless connectivity • Less muffled sound The Bad Not for the audiophile • Sound quality could be better • Not waterproof The Bottom Line At just under $100, Google's Nest Audio is an excellent and affordable choice if you're the type who values smart home controls over top notch audio quality. Mashable Score 4.25 Cool Factor 4.0 Learning Curve 5.0 Performance 4.0 Bang for the Buck 4.5 Since its launch in 2016, Google Home has evolved from a glorified speaker with an inbuilt voice assistant to a full-blown smart home hub. It can now read off your daily schedule and even start your coffee machine before you get out of bed. But its growth over the years has been on the software side of things. Before Google introduced its new and rebranded Nest Audio smart speaker last week, the device's design had remained completely untouched for four years. Read more... More about Google, Google Assistant, Smart Speakers, Nest Audio, and TechView the full article

In Tales of the Early Internet, Mashable explores online life through 2007 — back before social media and the smartphone changed everything. I’m not sure what triggered my journey. A nagging nostalgia, I suppose. Affection for an internet long gone. A part of my life I hardly remember. A certain bored curiosity that comes with life in quarantine. I wanted to access my old Myspace. The internet is a central part of my life now, even more than most. I make a living writing on the internet, about the internet. It fascinates me that Myspace could all but disappear from the daily habits of the perpetually online. What happens when a site that was once ubiquitous — the first stop on the internet for many — falls out of favor in a flash, leaving the bones of our old pages behind? The internet is alive and ever-changing, but this relic meant so much to me, a late-20s person barreling toward 30. Beyond AIM, Myspace was the center of my generation's online universe at the time. We fretted over our Top 8, stressed over the Read more... More about Myspace, Early Internet, Culture, and Web Culture View the full article

Fearing the spread of coronavirus, jails and prisons remain on lockdown. Visitors are unable to see their loved ones serving time, forcing friends and families to use prohibitively expensive video visitation services that often don’t work. But now the security and privacy of these systems are under scrutiny after one St Louis-based prison video visitation provider had a security lapse that exposed thousands of phone calls between inmates and their families, but also calls with their attorneys that were supposed to be protected by attorney-client privilege. HomeWAV, which serves a dozen prisons across the U.S., left a dashboard for one of its databases exposed to the internet without a password, allowing anyone to read, browse and search the call logs and transcriptions of calls between inmates and their friends and family members. The transcriptions also showed the phone number of the caller, which inmate, and the duration of the call. Security researcher Bob Diachenko found the dashboard, which had been public since at least April, he said. TechCrunch reported the issue to HomeWAV, which shut down the system hours later. In an email, HomeWAV chief executive John Best confirmed the security lapse. “One of our third-party vendors has confirmed that they accidentally took down the password, which allowed access to the server,” he told TechCrunch, without naming the third-party. Best said the company will inform inmates, families and attorneys of the incident. Somil Trivedi, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project, told TechCrunch: “What we see again and again is that the rights of incarcerated people are the first to be trampled when the system fails — as it always, invariably does.” “Our justice system is only as good as the protections for the most vulnerable. As always, people of color, those who can’t afford lawyers, and those with disabilities will pay the highest price for this mistake. Technology cannot fix the fundamental failings of the criminal legal system — and it will exacerbate them if we’re not deliberate and cautious,” said Trivedi. Inmates have almost no expectations of privacy, and nearly all prisons in the U.S. record the phone and video calls of their inmates — even if it’s not disclosed at the beginning of each call. Prosecutors and investigators are known to listen back to recordings in case an inmate incriminates themselves on a call. HomeWAV, a prison video visitation tech company, exposed thousands of phone calls between inmates and their families, but also calls with their attorneys that were supposed to be protected by attorney-client privilege. (Image: HomeWAV/YouTube) The calls between inmates and their attorneys, however, are not supposed to be monitored because of attorney-client privilege, a rule that protects the communications between an attorney and their client from being used in court. Despite this, there are known cases of U.S. prosecutors using recorded calls between an attorney and their incarcerated clients. Last year, prosecutors in Louisville, Ky., allegedly listened to dozens of calls between a murder suspect and his attorneys. And, earlier this year defense attorneys in Maine said they were routinely recorded by several county jails, and their calls protected under attorney-client privilege were turned over to prosecutors in at least four cases. HomeWAV’s website says: “Unless a visitor has been previously registered as a clergy member, or a legal representative with whom the inmate is entitled to privileged communication, the visitor is advised that visits may be recorded, and can be monitored.” But when asked, HomeWAV’s Best would not say why the company had recorded and transcribed conversations protected by attorney-client privilege. Several of the transcriptions reviewed by TechCrunch showed attorneys clearly declaring that their calls were covered under attorney-client privilege, effectively telling anyone listening in that the call was off-limits. TechCrunch spoke to two attorneys, whose communications with their clients in prison over the past six months were recorded and transcribed by HomeWAV, but asked that we not name them or their clients as doing so might harm their client’s legal defense. Both expressed alarm that their calls had been recorded. One of the attorneys said that they had verbally asserted attorney-client privilege on the call, while the other attorney also considered that their call was protected by attorney-client privilege but declined to comment further until they had spoken to their client. Another defense attorney, Daniel Repka, told TechCrunch confirmed one of his calls with a client in prison in September was recorded, transcribed and subsequently exposed, but said that the call was not sensitive. “We did not relay any information that would be considered protected by attorney-client privilege,” said Repka. “Anytime I have a client who calls me from a jail, I’m very conscious and aware of the possibility not only of security breaches, but also the potential ability to access these phone calls by the county attorney’s office,” he said. Repka described attorney-client privilege as “sacred” for attorneys and their clients. “It’s really the only way that we’re able to ensure that attorneys are able to represent their clients in the most effective and zealous way possible,” he said. “The best practice for attorneys is always, always, always to go visit your client at the jail in person where you’re in a room, and you have far more privacy than over a telephone line that you know has been designated as a recording device,” he said. But the challenges brought by the pandemic has made in-person visits difficult, or impossible in some states. The Marshall Project, a non-partisan organization focusing on criminal justice in the U.S., said several states have suspended in-person visitation because of the threat posed by coronavirus, including legal visits. Even prior to the pandemic, some prisons ended in-person visitation in favor of video calls. Video visitation technology is now a billion-dollar industry, with companies like Securus making millions each year by charging callers often exorbitant fees to call their incarcerated loved ones. HomeWAV isn’t the only video visitation service to have faced security issues. In 2015, an apparent breach at Securus resulted in the leak of some 70 million inmate phone calls by an anonymous hacker and shared with The Intercept. Many of the recordings in the cache also contained calls designated protected by attorney-client privilege, the publication reported. In August, Diachenko reported a similar security lapse at TelMate, another prison visitation provide, which saw millions of inmate messages exposed because of a passwordless database. You can send tips securely over Signal and WhatsApp to +1 646-755-8849 or you can send an encrypted email to: [email protected] View the full article

My parents have a bit of a problem throwing things out. They aren’t hoarders per se, but our basement is perpetually full of things that my mother swears she will sell in a garage sale one day. That garage sale is never happening, and the state of our basement is dire. Thank goodness for the internet, where you can sell pretty much anything, and where I’m going to unload everything. Sure, there are plenty of places to sell your stuff online, but it can be pretty overwhelming. And when you have a variety of things to sell, like my parents do, it can be hard to keep track of which items you should post on a particular site. So we broke it down by category, from clothes to electronics to furniture and more, with some of the most user friendly and profitable websites for finding a potential buyer and getting rid of your goods. Happy selling! Read more... More about Amazon, Ebay, Tech, and Work LifeView the full article

Website blocking is without a doubt one of the favorite anti-piracy tools of the entertainment industries. The UK has been a leader on this front. Since 2011, the High Court has ordered ISPs to block access to many popular pirate sites. While official numbers are lacking, it’s believed that thousands of URLs are currently blocked, targeting sites such as The Pirate Bay, RARBG, Fmovies, NewAlbumReleases, and Team-Xecuter. UK Site Blocking Set an Example The UK approach has set an example for many other countries and has been used to argue in favor of site blocking measures in other regions including Australia and Canada. More recently, the UK example was highlighted in a US Senate hearing, with Hollywood’s MPA praising its effectiveness. “Studies in the UK and Australia have shown that this can lead to statistically significant and meaningful increases in legal online consumption. In that respect, the injunctive remedy in the European Union, the UK, Australia, and elsewhere has been decidedly more effective than the endless cycle of DMCA notice sending,” MPA’s Stan McCoy said. The comment was made to support a new push for ‘no-fault’ site-blocking injunctions in the US. The MPA speaks from personal experience here, as it was the driving force behind several UK court orders. That said, McCoy’s testimony leaves out some important context. Pirate Sites Flourish While the MPA is pushing site blocking in the US, the UK efforts have completely died down. The last blocking request from Hollywood studios dates back roughly years ago. Similarly, there hasn’t been any request from record labels since 2013. As a result, new pirate sites, and those that haven’t been blocked, were able to grow their audiences without much trouble. And indeed, if we take a look at the 500 most visited sites in the UK, names including Magnetdl, Filmix, Lookmovie, Rutor, and 9anime show up. For a site such as Magnetdl, roughly a quarter of all traffic comes from the UK, where the site isn’t blocked. Why No New Requests? This begs the question; if site blocking is so extremely effective in curbing piracy, why aren’t there any new requests? We reached out to the MPA’s EMEA office, which was kind enough to comment on the matter but didn’t offer any answers. “The MPA EMEA is continuing with site blocking across Europe. Site blocking is a legitimate and effective way of halting the spread of online piracy. Piracy affects everyone involved in the creative process – from the songwriters to authors and the makeup artists, a spokesperson informed us “Site blocking builds on years of work, and forms just one pillar of the MPA EMEA’s overall enforcement strategy. Online infringement is complex, and there is no single answer to addressing it.” Costs Play a Role Reading between the lines it appears that the MPA prefers to focus on other anti-piracy efforts, at least in the UK. This is likely the result of a cost-benefit analysis. Although it wouldn’t be hard to apply for new pirate site blockades, these anti-piracy measures come at a cost. Previously, it was estimated that an unopposed application for a section 97A blocking order costs roughly £14,000 per site, while maintaining it costs an additional £3,600 per year. With hundreds of blocked sites, the costs are quite significant, to say the least. BPI Will Request Stream Ripper Blocks in 2021 The music industry may have similar reasons. In recent years they have complained repeatedly about the copyright-infringing nature of YouTube rippers, but there haven’t been any attempts to have these sites blocked. That will change though. We reached out to the UK music group BPI which says that it still sees site blocking as a valuable tool. The group hasn’t requested any new blocks in years but it will soon request blocks against stream rippers. “There are a range of tools that we use to reduce stream ripping and music piracy in all its forms in the UK. We also expect others who are in positions of responsibility within the digital economy to do more.” “Website blocking is an important and very effective part of our tool kit and is used in a proportionate way. BPI intends to seek the High Court’s judgment in relation to stream rippers in 2021,” a BPI spokesperson added. While the movie and music industries have other priorities, site-blocking powers are not completely unused. In recent years various sports organizations, including UEFA and the Premier League, have repeatedly requested and renewed IP-address blocks of illegal IPTV services. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. View the full article

A lot has been made of the open memo that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong published nearly two weekends ago, essentially barring political activism at work because he sees it as a distraction. He also made it clear that employees who disagreed with the decision — and he foresaw that some would not be happy — were free to leave. “I recognize that our approach is not for everyone, and may be controversial. I know that many people may not agree, and some employees may resign. I also know that some of what I’ve written above will be misinterpreted, whether accidentally or on purpose. But I believe it’s the right approach for Coinbase that will set us up for success long term, and I would rather be honest and transparent about that than equivocate and work in a company that is not aligned,” he wrote. Perhaps owing to an almost immediate backlash, Armstrong sent a separate, internal memo the next day detailing separation packages for employees who might be upset and looking for the exits. Coinbase was willing to be very generous, too, offering four months’ severance pay for those who have been at the exchange for less than three years, and paying longer-term employees six months of severance. (Worth noting: Coinbase also gives employees up to seven years to exercise their stock options.) Whether Armstrong expected that more than 60 employees of Coinbase’s staff of 1,200 would take him up on the offer is something only he knows. As he disclosed in a follow-up post yesterday, that’s how many people had alerted the company by its October 7th deadline that they are quitting, and Coinbase expects the number to inch higher, based on a “handful” of ongoing conversations. Either way, if I were Armstrong, I might be a little nervous about that number. Though small in the grand scheme of the company’s ambitions, that’s 60-plus people who have Coinbase on their resume, institutional knowledge about the company in their head, and potentially money in the bank, between their severance and equity. More worrisome, they might also have a bit of an axe to grind against a company that told them it was changing the world, then changed the terms of its pact with them in the middle of an already trying time for most people. That frustration — if it exists — could come out in potential leaks to the press, though presumably every employee had to sign a lengthy non-disparagement agreement on their way out the door. The bigger threat is that one or numerous of these employees might now start their own crypto-related business, or else join rival companies that could use their skills. (Non-compete agreements are famously difficult to enforce in the state of California.) As crypto enthusiasts like to say, it’s still early innings when it comes to decentralized finance. Certainly, taking on Coinbase is a very tall order at this point. Two years ago, when the company closed on $300 million in Series E funding, it did so at a post-money valuation of more than $8 billion, putting it leaps and bounds ahead of numerous other crypto exchanges. No matter what you think of Armstrong’s new policy, there aren’t a lot of founders with the stuff to grow a company as strong and fast as he has, either. Still, it happens all the time that people launch companies to take down other companies. It’s human nature. Given that a number of former Coinbase employees has already raised funding for projects after leaving Coinbase, combined with so many investing dollars sloshing around out there looking to be put to use, the risk of this happening to Coinbase because of Armstrong’s memo and its aftermath may be small. But it isn’t zero. View the full article

The California judge in the legal skirmish between Epic Games and Apple has denied Epic’s request that Apple be forced to reinstate Fortnite in the App Store, but did affirm that Apple cannot take action against the Epic Games developer accounts used to bring Unreal Engine developers access to Apple devices. The court’s decision re-affirmed its proclamation from late August in a court hearing where Epic Games’ lawyers sought to obtain a temporary restraining order after Apple informed the Fortnite developer that they would be kicking the company off the App Store and terminating all of their company accounts. The judge noted that “[p]reliminary injunctive relief is an extraordinary measure rarely granted,” and detailed that they were granting in part and denying in part Epic’s request, noting that “Epic Games bears the burden in asking for such extraordinary relief.” From the filing: Epic Games has strong arguments regarding Apple’s exclusive distribution through the iOS App Store, and the in-app purchase (“IAP”) system through which Apple takes 30% of certain IAP payments. However, given the limited record, Epic Games has not sufficiently addressed Apple’s counter arguments. The equities, addressed in the temporary restraining order, remain the same. This confirms that Fortnite will not return to the App Store before the trial begins; a court filing this week signaled that the two companies will go to trial on May 3, 2021. Both sides aimed to take their win and ignore their loss in the mixed decision. “Epic Games is grateful that Apple will continue to be barred from retaliating against Unreal Engine and our game development customers as the litigation continues. We will continue to develop for iOS and Mac under the court’s protection, and we will pursue all avenues to end Apple’s anti-competitive behavior,” an Epic Games spokesperson said in a statement. “Our customers depend on the App Store being a safe and trusted place where all developers follow the same set of rules,” an Apple spokesperson told TechCrunch in an emailed statement. “We’re grateful the court recognized that Epic’s actions were not in the best interests of its own customers and that any problems they may have encountered were of their own making when they breached their agreement. For twelve years, the App Store has been an economic miracle, creating transformative business opportunities for developers large and small. We look forward to sharing this legacy of innovation and dynamism with the court next year.” View the full article

Tchami and Gunna team up for a smooth new collaboration, “Praise,” out now. The French producer and Georgia rapper prove to be a perfect match with a song that’s been on the radar for months now. A club-ready house groover, “Praise” pairs the most infectious of basslines with Gunna’s slick vocoder vocals — a no frills combination destined to tear up any dancefloor (or living room). With this release, the Confession label head and tastemaker comes one step closer to releasing his debut album YEAR ZERO. Fans await the album with much anticipation, so there’s no doubt “Praise” is well received. In addition, Tchami recently uploaded his Confession Livestream in full. The hour-long mix features more YEAR ZERO productions, “Born Again,” “Buenos Aires,” and “Faith” featuring Marlena Shaw. Check out “Praise” here, in all its glory! Tchami – Praise (feat. Gunna)  Photo via Rukes.com This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: Tchami & Gunna Team Up for Slick Club Banger “Praise” [LISTEN] View the full article

Subtronics serves up spooky, in-your-face bass with his new String Theory EP, here just in time to thrive through Halloween. The EP makes a statement from the jump with “Nitrous Mafia” as a dizzying build sets listeners up for its snarling vocal samples, shuddering drops and jagged rhythms. Next up, ” Clockwork” rocks a playful melody, hard-charging beats and West World samples. Suddenly, we’re into the mind of Subtronics. The EP also boasts a couple of collaborations… “Melt Ur Brain” with Wooli follows with an almost hypnotic refrain over crashing snares and stabbing synths. Kompany joins Subtronics on the track “Wicked Witch” picking up the pace with a flurry of drums and funky, robotic drops. Subtronics’ latest release comes complete with three more solo productions including the relentless “Broken Code,” sci-fi inspired title track “String Theory,” and downtempo “Professor Chaos” with chill flow and hip hop influence. Subtronics says of the new EP: I’m so thrilled to finally share my ‘String Theory’ EP with everyone. It is a direct reflection of the wide range of emotions I have been experiencing through the pandemic. I wanted to encapsulate them in my music which resulted in a unique vibe that is my most honest form. We can always count on Subtronics to deliver boundary-pushing, hard-hitting sounds and rhythms and his String Theory EP leaves nothing more to be desired — at least for now. Listen here. Subtronics – String Theory EP Photo via Rukes.com This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: Subtronics Drops Hard-Hitting ‘String Theory’ EP Filled with Spooky, Relentless Bass [LISTEN] View the full article

Diplo is partnering up with TikTok to host a live, meditative experience to promote Mental Health Awareness Day on one of the world’s largest social media platforms. This Saturday, October 10th, Diplo will take over for his exclusive one-hour meditative music experience featuring Secular Sabbath, Rhye and “other surprises.” In recent history, Flume has joined in on the action as well, so anything is possible. Diplo’s new Under Ancient Skies concept promotes music off his 2020 ambient album, MMXX. Through this music and the upcoming stream, he’ll be supporting the JED Foundation, which strives to protect emotional health and prevent suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults. In addition, TikTok is teaming up with The Trevor Project, Providence Health, and Seize the Awkward . Look out for Diplo and Secular Sabbath – Looking for Me(ntal Health Awareness) this Sunday. Follow along with the conversation using #MentalHealthMatters. This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: Diplo to Host Mental Health Awareness Live Stream via TikTok This Weekend View the full article

The BPM Festival has announced its much-anticipated return for 2021 with a trailblazing array of events set to take place in Ibiza in collaboration with IMS and Pollen. After a highly successful Costa Rican edition back in January, the house and techno institution is back with its first major announcement for next year. Spanning three days, the shows will not only mark a grand reintroduction of events for BPM as a whole but also serve as a celebration for the White Isle’s long-awaited official reopening. Slated for Thursday, April 29th through Saturday, May 1st, 2021, pre-sale signups for The BPM Festival: Ibiza Showcases are available now. SIGN UP FOR THE BPM FESTIVAL: IBIZA SHOWCASES PRE-SALE HERE Set to be the biggest party Ibiza has ever seen – to coincide with the annual IMS Conference – The Ibiza Opening will feature a non-stop weekend of showcase parties at some of Ibiza’s most famed superclubs, hosted by highly-esteemed electronic brand staples from around the world. Taking place over three days, across three iconic venues, The BPM Festival: Ibiza Showcases will play host to an array of world-class techno talent, with lineups boasting some of the scene’s most adored acts and special b2b performances from the global BPM family. Five years since its first foray hosting an event on the island, at the world-renowned Amnesia nightclub, the BPM brand is now making its long-awaited and much-welcomed return. Further information on pricing tiers as well as venue and lineup announcements coming soon. Photo via aLIVE Coverage for BPM Festival This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: The BPM Festival Announces Ibiza Opening Events In Collaboration With IMS View the full article

Born and raised in São Paulo, Leo Lauretti has successfully established himself as the fastest rising progressive-trance producer in the country. He’s been supported on massive shows like Above and Beyond’s Group Therapy, Ferry Corsten’s Corsten’s Countdown and Cosmic Gate’s Wake Your Mind, and has continued his winning streak in 2020 having reached Beatport’s Trance Top 10 and three consecutive Trance Hype Top 1 with his releases “Dust” and “Find My Own“, and “Stay With Me“. His latest release, “Take Me Away“, is a collaboration with Blue Harvest featuring the beautiful vocals of Stephanie Collings, is another soon to be hit, carrying the weight of an anthem for dance music fans all around the world. It’s Stephanie’s debut and a powerful one, as Lauretti and Blue Harvest perfectly compliment the vocal with a euphoric arrangement that can’t help but captivate you instantly. Stream “Take Me Away” below! This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: Leo Lauretti & Blue Harvest Collab For Massive Single, “Take Me Away” ft. Stephanie Collins [Elliptical Sun] View the full article

On the strength of his major label releases and crowd pleasing remixes, Famba has become one of Canada’s fastest rising talents. His first two major label releases, “Wish You Well (feat. Trove)” and “Swear to God” each went on to achieve Gold certified status in Canada, while his third release, “Storm (feat. Kara Mastro)” introduced Famba to the U.S. market in a big way by scoring the #1 spot at Dance Radio. Jake Tarry has had a huge year, with his debut single with Joe Stone earlier this year receiving support from the likes of R3HAB, Afrojack and many more. Australian singer/songwriter Alex Hosking is unashamedly unique and undoubtedly captivating, garnering success in her music through alluring lyrics, hooky melodies and a supreme work ethic. Together, all of these incredibly talented artists make an excellent team in their brand new single, “Know You Best“, signed to none other than Spinnin’ Records. It’s an uplifting house anthem, produced to perfection by Famba and Jake Tarry, featuring the bright and infectious vocal performance of Alex Hosking. We had the chance to catch up with Famba and hear more about the song as well as what he’s been up to: “Know You Best” is part of new House direction for you. Can you expand on that? I had a lot of time to reflect on my music direction when the lockdown started. Before I transitioned to more pop focused music, I was making disco house and tech house. I felt like I was missing it more and more, so I decided to come back to my roots and combine the two styles. Now all of the new music feels so inspired and fun, I reignited the spark and genuinely have been having fun making music again! Have there been certain artists or songs that have inspired you in this new direction? My biggest inspiration has always been Calvin Harris. It was partly seeing him take on his new alias “Love Regenerator” that really inspired me to open up this new chapter. How did “Know You Best” come together? The song started at ADE, and we had plans to finish it in person around our tour dates and writing camps. However COVID hit and we all know how that went. After lots of sessions transfers and revisions going back and forth, we were able to get it across the line. Let’s talk about your gear lust…what are some of your favorite synths? Do you prefer analog to digital synths? Oddly enough, I was never super into analog gear. I always wanted it but never gave it much thought. Then I went to Shaun Frank’s studio and it blew my mind. It was so amazing to see his eurorack set up and his synth collection. After I left there for the first time, I was obsessed! I quickly ended up planning my own euro rack, and got a Juno-06A (a combo of the classic Juno 106/60). I recently picked up a Moog Sub 37, and am keen on also getting the Prophet 6. I think those 3 synths together can get you anywhere you need to go musically. To answer the question, analog all the way We hear you’re into playing Nintendo Switch, what games do you play? Do you play with any other DJ’s? Is there anyone you’d like to play against? I’m a huge gamer, I always have been and always will be! I play a really terrible amount of smash bros, but I think it’s a great way to disconnect from music. I think it’s important to have other hobbies to take your mind off everything. Fransis Derelle is a DJ I had met through my old roommate, CRaymak. We met in Miami at Miami Music Week, and we discovered we both played competitive smash. Now we play a ton together, we’ve def had some late nights haha! I have an idea to start an “EDM DJ Smash Bros Invitational” tournament sometime in the future – I think that would be hilarious. Check out “Know You Best” below! This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: Famba Talks Gaming, Favorite Synths, & New Single With Jake Tarry & Alex Hosking, “Know You Best”[Spinnin’ Records] View the full article

Earlier this year, Hawaiian anti-piracy lawyer Kerry Culpepper turned some of the most popular piracy brands into a powerful anti-piracy tool. The attorney, who is listed as director of the company ’42 Ventures,’ registered several piracy-related trademarks, including ‘YTS’ and ‘Popcorn Time.’ The company, which was founded last year, legally claimed these marks and uses them on a website that doesn’t draw any significant traffic. What did get people’s attention, however, were the enforcement actions that followed. Shortly after the trademarks were granted, Culpepper managed to suspend the Twitter account of a popular Popcorn Time fork. He offered to return it in exchange for a Popcorn Time licensing deal, which failed. Trademark Lawsuits Against YTS Sites and Apps In addition, the attorney also filed a trademark infringement lawsuit on behalf of 42 Ventures. The lawsuit targeted the operators of yst.lt, ytsag.me, yts.ae, ytsmovies.cc, yts.ms, as well as apps such as “Y Movies,” “YTS Movies Library” and “YTS movies.” The people behind these sites, who are believed to be from India, China and Egypt, used the YTS brand as a promotional tool. This isn’t uncommon, as YTS has been a popular pirate brand for years, after originally belonging to a long-defunct release group. Over the past weeks, one of the site operators agreed to settle the trademark infringement matter for $200,000, on paper. The other four didn’t respond to the allegations at all, which prompted the lawyer to request default judgments of $250,000 against all defendants. “Defendants purposefully utilize Plaintiff’s YTS mark in their domain registrations and app names in order to mislead consumers about the origins of its goods and services as connected to Plaintiff, resulting in a substantial loss of income, profits, and goodwill,” Culpepper informed the court. 42 Ventures Requests Default Judgment Since none of the defendants showed up in court there was little to stop a victory, except for the court itself, it now appears. In a ‘findings and recommendations’ issued this week, US Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter recommends the court to deny the $250,000 damages request and dismiss the complaint because the court lacks personal jurisdiction. For a court to decide over a defendant, it should have the right to do so. This is usually not a problem when a US citizen is taken to court in the US but, in this case, the defendants are foreigners. That changes everything. The court can only issue a judgment when it’s shown that the defendants “purposefully directed their activities towards the United States.” Here, Judge Porter is not convinced that this is the case. According to Culpepper, the trademark-infringing YTS sites and apps were available in the US, used US-based services including domain registrars, and used US-based payment providers, among other things. Judge Doesn’t Believe Court Has Jurisdiction Judge Porter doesn’t dispute these facts but doesn’t agree that this is sufficient to show that the court has personal jurisdiction. “The Court finds that Defendants’ use of United States-based companies for webhosting and domain name services and for paying for those services is insufficient to show that Defendants aimed their allegedly infringing acts at the United States,” Porter writes. The Judge notes that in some cases people simply choose to work with US-based companies because they are the biggest brands in their industries, or have a monopoly. Not because they’re from the US. “Indeed, as other district courts have recognized ‘it is more accurate to say that [the defendant] utilized Apple and Google because they arguably have a virtual monopoly on the channels in which developers can distribute application-based software—not because they have offices in [the United States]’.” If this logic indeed applies, then all foreigners with a Gmail account would subject themselves to the jurisdiction of US courts, which is something Judge Porter doesn’t agree with. Two of the defendants also used advertising services, cookies and web beacons, to gather information about individual visitors, some of whom are from the US. Culpepper brought this in as another argument to show that the court has jurisdiction but that was disregarded as well. “Finally, the Court finds that Plaintiff’s allegations regarding Defendants Mav and Shan collecting information about users on their websites is insufficient to show that these Defendants have done engaged in ‘conduct directly targeting the forum’.” Judge Recommends Dismissal All in all, Judge Porter concludes that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over the defendants. He therefore recommends denying the motion for a $250,000 default judgment and suggests a dismissal of the entire case. This recommendation has yet to be adopted by the court in a final ruling and can be contested by Culpepper. However, the first signs don’t look positive for the trademark owner. In closing, it is worth pointing out that YTS.mx, which is by far the most popular YTS site, wasn’t targeted in this trademark case. However, the same lawyer previously negotiated copyright infringement settlements with the site’s owner, totaling well over a million dollars. — A copy of the findings and recommendations published by US Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter is available here (pdf) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. View the full article

Sophie Alcorn Contributor Share on Twitter Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Dear Sophie: Is it easier and faster to get an O-1A than an EB-1A? Dear Sophie: Now that a judge has paused Trump’s H-1B visa ban, how can I qualify my employees? Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies. “Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley immigration attorney. “Whether you’re in people ops, a founder or seeking a job in Silicon Valley, I would love to answer your questions in my next column.” Extra Crunch members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one or two-year subscription for 50% off. Dear Sophie: I’ve been reading about the new H-1B rules for wage levels and defining what types of jobs qualify that came out this week. What do we as employers need to do to comply? Are any other visa types affected? — Racking my brain in Richmond! Dear Racking: As you mentioned, the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) each issued a new interim rule this week that affects the H-1B program. However, the DOL rule impacts other visas and green cards as well. These interim rules, one of which took effect immediately after being published, are an abuse of power. The president continues to fear-monger in an attempt to generate votes through racism, protectionism and xenophobia. The fatal irony here is that companies were in fact already making “real offers” to “real employees” for jobs in the innovation economy, which are not fungible and are actually the source of new job creation for Americans. A 2019 report by the Economic Policy Institute found that for every 100 professional, scientific and technical services jobs created in the private sector in the U.S., 418 additional, indirect jobs are created as a result. Nearly 575 additional jobs are created for every 100 information jobs, and 206 additional jobs are created for every 100 healthcare and social assistance jobs. The DOL rule, which went into effect on October 8, 2020, significantly raises the wages employers must pay to the employees they sponsor for H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 specialty occupation visas, H-2B visas for temporary non-agricultural workers, EB-2 advanced degree green cards, EB-2 exceptional ability green cards and EB-3 skilled worker green cards. The new DHS rule, which further restricts H-1B visas, will go into effect on December 7, 2020. DHS will not apply the new rule to any pending or previously approved petitions. That means your company should renew your employees’ H-1B visas — if eligible — before that date. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has formed a task force to review the rules and help with litigation. Although both the DOL and DHS rules will likely be challenged, they will likely remain in effect for some time before any litigation has an impact. They are actively seeking plaintiffs, including employees, employers and representatives of membership organizations who will be hurt by the new rules. View the full article

Welcome back to Human Capital, where we discuss the latest in labor, diversity and inclusion in tech. This week’s eyebrow-raising moment came Wednesday when the U.S. Department of Labor essentially accused Microsoft of reverse racism (not a real thing) for committing to hire more Black people at its predominantly white company. And that wasn’t even the most notable news items of the week. Instead, that award goes to Uber engineer Kurt Nelson and his decision to speak out against his employer and urge folks to vote no on the Uber-sponsored ballot measure in California that aims to keep drivers classified as independent contractors. I caught up with Nelson to hear more about what brought him to the point of speaking out. You can read what he had to say further down in this newsletter. But first, I have some of my own news to share — Human Capital is launching in newsletter form on Friday, October 23. Sign up here so you don’t miss out. Now, to the tea. Stay Woke Coinbase loses about 5% of workforce for its stance on social issues Remember how Coinbase provided an out to employees who no longer wanted to work at the cryptocurrency company as a result of its stance on social issues? Well, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said this week that about 5% of employees (60 people) have decided to take the exit package, but that there will likely be more since “a handful of other conversations” are still happening. Armstrong noted how some people worried his stance would push out people of color and other underrepresented minorities. But in his blog post, Armstrong said those folks “have not taken the exit package in numbers disproportionate to the overall population.” Trump’s DOL goes after Microsoft for committing to hire more Black people Microsoft disclosed this week that the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs contacted the company regarding its racial justice and diversity commitments made in June. Microsoft had committed to double the number of Black people managers, senior individual contributors and senior leaders in its U.S. workforce by 2025. Now, however, the OFCCP says that could be considered as unlawful discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. That’s because, according to the letter, Microsoft’s commitment “appears to imply that employment action may be taken based on race.” “We are clear that the law prohibits us from discriminating on the basis of race,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post. “We also have affirmative obligations as a company that serves the federal government to continue to increase the diversity of our workforce, and we take those obligations very seriously. We have decades of experience and know full well how to appropriately create opportunities for people without taking away opportunities from others. Furthermore, we know that we need to focus on creating more opportunity, including through specific programs designed to cast a wide net for talent for whom we can provide careers with Microsoft.” This comes shortly after the Trump administration expanded its ban on diversity and anti-racism training to include federal contractors. While this does not fall into the scope of that ban, it’s alarming to see the DOL going after a tech company for trying to increase diversity. However, it does seem that the effects of the ban are making its way into the tech industry. Joelle Emerson, founder and CEO of diversity training service Paradigm, says she lost her first client as a result of the executive order. While it’s not clear which client it was, many of Paradigm’s clients are tech companies. Crunchbase report sheds light on VC funding to Black and Latinx founders It’s widely understood that Black and Latinx founders receive not nearly as much funding as their white counterparts. Now, Crunchbase has shed some additional light on the situation. Here are some highlights from its 2020 Diversity Spotlight report. Image Credits: Crunchbase Since 2015, Black and Latinx founders have raised more than $15 billion, which represents just 2.4% of the total venture capital raised. In 2020, Black and Latinx founders have raised $2.3 billion, which represents 2.6% of all VC funding through August 31, 2020. Since 2015, the top 10 leading VC firms in the U.S. have invested in around 70 startups founded by Black or Latinx people. Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund are the two firms with the highest count of new investments in Black or Latinx-founded companies since 2015. Gig Work Uber engineer encourages people to vote no on Uber-backed Prop 22 Going against his employer, Uber engineer Kurt Nelson penned an op-ed on TechCrunch about why he’s voting against Prop 22. Prop 22 is a ballot measure in California that seeks to keep rideshare drivers and delivery workers classified as independent contractors. I caught up with Nelson after he published his op-ed to learn more about what brought him to the point of speaking out against Prop 22. “It was a combination of COVID affecting unemployment and health insurance for a bunch of people, getting close to the election and not having seen anyone who is really former Uber or Uber or former any gig companies saying anything,” Nelson told me. Plus, Nelson is on his way out from Uber — something that he’s been forthcoming about with his manager. He had already been feeling frustrated about the way Uber handled its rounds of layoffs this year, but the company’s push for Prop 22 was “the final nail in the coffin.” Uber’s big arguments around why drivers should remain independent contractors is that it’s what drivers want and that it’d be costly to make them employees. Uber has said it also doesn’t see a way to offer flexibility to drivers while also employing them. “I think it’d be really challenging,” Uber Director of Policy, Cities and Transportation Shin-pei Tsay told me at TC Sessions: Mobility this week. “We would have to start to ensure that there’s coverage to ensure that there’s the necessary number of drivers to meet demand. That would be this forecasting that needs to happen. We would only be able to offer a certain number of jobs to meet that demand because people will be working in set amounts of time. I think there would be quite fewer work opportunities, especially the ones that people really have said that they like.” But, as Nelson notes, Silicon Valley prides itself on tackling difficult problems. “We’re a tech company and we solve hard problems — that’s what we do,” he said. In response to his op-ed, Nelson said some of his co-workers have reached out to him — some thanking him for saying something. Even prior to his op-ed, Nelson said he was one of the only people who would talk about Prop 22 in any negative way in Uber’s internal Slack channels. And it’s no wonder why, given the atmosphere Uber has created around Prop 22. During all-hands meetings, Nelson described how the executive team wears Yes on 22 shirts or has a Yes on 22 Zoom background. Uber has also offered employees free Yes on 22 car decals and shirts, Nelson said. As for Nelson’s next job, he knows he doesn’t “want to touch the gig economy ever again,” he said. “I know that for a fact. I’m done with the gig economy.” Union Life Kickstarter settles with NLRB over firing of union organizer Kickstarter agreed to pay $36,598.63 in backpay to Taylor Moore, a former Kickstarter employee who was fired last year, Vice reported. Moore was active in organizing the company’s union, which was officially recognized earlier this year. As part of the settlement with the National Labor Relations Board, Kickstarter also agreed to post a notice to employees about the settlement on its intranet and at its physical office whenever they reopen. In September 2019, Kickstarter fired two people who were actively organizing a union. About a year later, the Labor Board found merit that Kickstarter unlawfully fired a union organizer. NLRB files complaint against Google contractor HCL America It’s been about a year since 80 Google contractors voted to form a union with U.S. Steelworkers. But those contractors, who are officially employed by HCL America, have not been able to engage in collective bargaining, according to a new complaint from the National Labor Relations Board, obtained by Vice. The complaint states HCL has failed to bargain with the union and has even transferred the work of members of the bargaining unit to non-union members based in Poland. The NLRB alleges HCL has done that “because employees formed, joined and assisted the Union and engaged in concerted activities, and to discourage employees from engaging in these activities.” News bites Games Industry Biz published a damning story about sexual assault, racism and other abusive behavior at Twitch. Google is providing cash awards to 76 startups through a racial equity initiative announced in June. White Ops is changing its name because the company just realized, “The name White Ops represents something different than what we’ve intended. It perpetuates a toxic association of good and bad with color and race.” View the full article

Electric Zoo is returning in 2021 with a new theme and fresh lineup! With all festivals (more or less) cancelled this year, one of New York’s premier electronic festivals returns in 2021 with Supernaturals, a theme that opens the door to a host of decorations and set designs that should make the mind spin. Along with it, a lineup that is definitely worthy of your return to the festival grounds, should festivals return by then. Scheduled for September 3-5, Labor Day weekend next year, you’ll have the chance to see Alesso, Kaskade, Zeds Dead, Seven Lions, Illenium, Liquid Stranger, Tiesto (performing a sunset set), deadmau5’s Testpilot alias, and more. There’s plenty of up and coming names on the lineup too, like Moore Kismet, Sippy, and JVNA. Tickets are $250 for 3-day GA and an expensive $500 for VIP, though each comes with the option for a payment plan to make things easier. Check out the full lineup below and go here to buy tickets. Photo via aLIVE Coverage for Electric Zoo This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: Electric Zoo Reveals Phase One Of Supernatural Event For 2021 View the full article

Picture yourself in the role of CIO at Roblox in 2017. At that point, the gaming platform and publishing system that launched in 2005 was growing fast, but its underlying technology was aging, consisting of a single data center in Chicago and a bunch of third-party partners, including AWS, all running bare metal (nonvirtualized) servers. At a time when users have precious little patience for outages, your uptime was just two nines, or less than 99% (five nines is considered optimal). Unbelievably, Roblox was popular in spite of this, but the company’s leadership knew it couldn’t continue with performance like that, especially as it was rapidly gaining in popularity. The company needed to call in the technology cavalry, which is essentially what it did when it hired Dan Williams in 2017. Williams has a history of solving these kinds of intractable infrastructure issues, with a background that includes a gig at Facebook between 2007 and 2011, where he worked on the technology to help the young social network scale to millions of users. Later, he worked at Dropbox, where he helped build a new internal network, leading the company’s move away from AWS, a major undertaking involving moving more than 500 petabytes of data. When Roblox approached him in mid-2017, he jumped at the chance to take on another major infrastructure challenge. While they are still in the midst of the transition to a new modern tech stack today, we sat down with Williams to learn how he put the company on the road to a cloud-native, microservices-focused system with its own network of worldwide edge data centers. Scoping the problem View the full article

JB Straubel, the Tesla co-founder and former CTO, is often cast as the humble and pioneering engineer, the quiet one who toiled away in the background for 15 years on some of the company’s most important technologies. That characterization — which intensified as the hype and media attention on Tesla CEO Elon Musk grew — tells a half truth. Straubel isn’t prone to self-promotion, or even progress reports. His personal Twitter account, nor the one dedicated to his startup, Redwood Materials, has ever even tweeted. And he does like toiling away on complex problems. But his understated delivery obfuscates his ambitions and plans for Redwood Materials, the recycling startup that he co-founded in 2017. Straubel envisions and is actively working to make Redwood one of the world’s major battery recycling companies, with numerous facilities strategically scattered throughout the globe. “This is something that is a major industry and a major problem, and it’s a big part of why I want to spend my time on it,” Straubel said on TechCrunch’s virtual stage Wednesday at TC Sessions: Mobility. “I want to do something that can actually make a really material impact on sustainability in the world. And you need scale to do that. So I am very excited to keep growing this and to be one of, if not the major battery recycling company in the world. And eventually, one of the large battery materials companies in the world.” The Carson City, Nevada-based company, which Straubel runs, is aiming to create a circular supply chain. The company has a business-to-business strategy, recycling the scrap from battery cell production as well as consumer electronics like cell phone batteries, laptop computers, power tools, power banks, scooters and electric bicycles. Redwood collects the scrap from consumer electronics companies and battery cell manufacturers like Panasonic. It then processes these discarded goods, extracting materials like cobalt, nickel and lithium that are typically mined, and then supplies those back to Panasonic and other customers. Redwood Materials has a number of customers, and has only publicly disclosed that it is working with Panasonic and Amazon. Image Credits: Redwood Materials While Redwood Materials is a B2B company, its business model could someday evolve. Interest has been so high that Straubel is now contemplating whether it should also expand into a more consumer-facing business as well. Redwood may never offer collection sites where consumers can drop off old smartphones and other consumer electronics. However, the number of inquiries from local government officials, as well as consumers looking for options to recycle electronics, including the batteries in EVs, has prompted Straubel to at least consider the possibility. What is known is that Straubel sees numerous facilities — perhaps dozens — getting set up regionally, and in some cases co-located with factories if the customer is large enough. The company hasn’t disclosed where those future facilities will be located. The company has two recycling and processing facilities in Carson City. And while that hardly qualifies it as one of the world’s largest battery recycling companies, Redwood is already operating at the “gigawatt scale.” “We’ve been able to grow extremely quickly and to ramp up our capacity and I expect that will follow roughly the scale of lithium-ion production, lagging by a few years,” he said. To put Straubel’s words into context, consider the Gigafactory that Panasonic operates with Tesla in Sparks, Nevada. Today, the factory has the capacity to produce 35 gigawatt hours of lithium-ion battery cells annually. If Straubel hit the scale he’s shooting for, Redwood would be supplying Panasonic with enough materials to match that production capacity. Reaching that goal would fundamentally change Panasonic’s supply chain away from minerals that had been mined and toward those recycled by Redwood. Those recycled materials would come from Panasonic’s production scrap as well as other sources of consumer electronics. Celina Mikolajczak, vice president of battery technology at Panasonic Energy of North America, said it would be foolish for the company to ignore the recycling supply. “We’ve already dug these metals out of the ground, we’ve put them in cells, they’re sitting there,” Mikolajczak said during the joint interview with Straubel at TC Sessions: Mobility. “And yeah, it’s a little difficult to handle cells, they process a little differently than a typical metal ore, right, but at the same time, we have a much higher concentration of the metals we need than a typical metal ore. So it makes total sense to go after recycling and to do it aggressively because there’s a lot of it, there’s a lot of batteries already out in the world.” Second-life batteries Today, the majority of lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones and other consumer electronics are not recycled and instead either sit forgotten in the owner’s junk drawer or enter the waste stream and end up in a landfill. Electric vehicles have a much longer shelf life, so to speak. But eventually batteries used in electric vehicles will pose a challenge for automakers, as well as communities grappling with the waste. Straubel wants Redwood to be a part of that end-of-life solution for electric vehicle batteries as well. “The second-life issue and how these batteries are recovered it’s really interesting and there’s a lot of different ideas around about how batteries can go into a whole second application,” Straubel said, noting that Redwood is not working directly on second-life use cases. “It’s great if we can get more useful life on these devices by reusing them for a period of time, but it only delays the inevitable; they eventually need an appropriate disposal, and recycling solution.” Straubel said he wants Redwood to be that backstop. There are a number of automakers that have talked about repurposing EV batteries for energy storage. But the details of how an OEM might recapture those batteries back from consumers is scant. Straubel wants Redwood to be an independent company so it can partner with all OEMs producing electric vehicles and provide its materials across the entire industry. Redwood has never talked publicly about which automakers it might or already is partnering with. However, looking across the EV landscape a few likely partners emerge. For instance, electric vehicle startup Rivian has never announced plans to work directly with Redwood Materials. But the companies do share Amazon as an investor and customer. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe and Straubel not only know each other, they share a common vision. Scaringe has talked about plans for second-life batteries — albeit without a lot of detail yet — as well as what happens at the end of a battery’s life. Rivian doesn’t have any vehicles on the road today, so it’s a seemingly distant problem. That changes in 2021 when the company will bring an electric pickup truck and SUV to the consumer market, as well electric vans to Amazon. Ultimately, Rivian has a contract to deliver 100,000 electric vans to Amazon. “I’m really excited about what JB [Straubel] is doing because we’d love to have these vehicles be a feedstock, and the batteries from these vehicles be a feedstock to then begin another start of lifecycle for another set of batteries and electric vehicles,” Scaringe said in an interview last month at the Bloomberg Green Summit, in which he joined Straubel and Ross Rachey, director of Global Last Mile Fleet and Products at Amazon, on a panel. “The ability to control this essentially as a closed ecosystem allows us to learn and build the muscle memory for this as the whole industry starts to shift not only to electrification, but different methods of consumption as well.” All about scale Straubel said he isn’t interested in taking Redwood Materials public, certainly not in the short term. “For better or worse, I had a front row seat to some of the less efficient parts of being a public company,” Straubel said, a comment directed to Tesla’s public status. “It’s nothing that I’m rushing toward. I think that being public is somehow equated with success, which doesn’t really make sense.” He said his goal is for Redwood to make an impact, do something meaningful at an industrial scale and generate returns — aka be profitable. “It’s not about going public quickly, or, you know, trying to give a quick return to investors or something like that,” Straubel said. “This is what I really want to spend my time on. And I see this as a very long-term growth mission that is likely to span decades.” Workers sort through a pile of used mobile phones in New Delhi, India. (Image Credits: Getty Images / Kuni Takahashi/Bloomberg) Straubel talks a lot about scale, both in terms of his vision for Redwood as well as the current state of e-waste sitting in junk drawers of U.S. consumers. It was the scale of the Gigafactory, which is used by Panasonic to make battery cells and by Tesla to make the battery packs and electric motors for its vehicles, that partially drove Straubel to start Redwood in the first place. “As the world electrifies transportation it needs so many different materials and the supply chain upstream of the factory is, I think, often under appreciated,” he said. “The Gigafactory is a little bit like an iceberg — there’s so much of it that’s kind of below the surface, in the suppliers and in the mines and refineries and all the different things that need to feed into it that you don’t typically see.” Parts of the supply chain became more of a bottleneck as the Gigafactory ramped, he added. “You certainly see Tesla focusing more on this, I think rightly so,” Straubel said, a nod to Musk’s recent public comments about needs to focus on the broader supply chain of materials such as nickel. “That was a very interesting area that I thought wasn’t getting as much attention and end-of-life and recycling as a part of that material supply chain is just an incredibly powerful space, one where I think we can have a major impact on the sustainability of creating batteries.” View the full article

A Weston Allen–directed visual from the gecs’ debut album 1000 gecs View the full article

Sean Ono Lennon has recruited artists, including Jeff Tweedy, to play his father’s songs on what would have been the Beatle’s 80th birthday View the full article

Starting this weekend, everyone of voting age in the U.S. will begin seeing informational videos at the top of Instagram and Facebook, offering tips and state-specific guidance on how to vote through the mail. The videos will be offered in both English and Spanish. The vote-by-mail videos will run on Facebook for four straight days in each state, starting between October 10 and October 18 depending on local registration deadlines. On Instagram, the videos will run in all 50 states on October 15 and October 16, followed by other notifications with vote-by-mail information over the next two days. Image via Facebook Image via Facebook The videos let voters know when they can return a ballot in person, instruct them to sign carefully on additional envelopes that might be required and encourage returning ballots as soon as possible while being mindful of postmarking deadlines. Facebook will continue providing additional state-specific voting information in a voting information center dedicated to the 2020 election. Even more than in past years, app makers have taken up the mantle of nudging their users to vote in the U.S. general election. From Snapchat to Credit Karma, it’s hard to open an app without being reminded to register — and that’s a good thing. Snapchat says it registered around 400,000 new voters through its own reminders and Facebook estimates that it helped 2.5 million people register to vote this year. Voting rights advocates are concerned that 2020’s rapid scale-up of vote-by-mail might lead to many ballots being thrown out — a worry foreshadowed by the half a million ballots that were tossed out in state primaries. Some of those ballots failed to meet deadlines or were deemed invalid due to other mistakes voters made when filling them out. In Florida, voters that were young, non-white or voting for the first time were twice as likely to have their ballots thrown out compared to white voters in the 2018 election, according to research by the ACLU. Adding to concerns, state rules vary and they can be specific and confusing for voters new to voting through the mail. In Pennsylvania, the most likely state to decide the results of the 2020 election, new rules against “naked ballots” mean that any ballot not cast in an additional secrecy sleeve will be tossed out. In other states, secrecy sleeves have long been optional. Facebook gets ready for November Since 2016, Facebook has faced widespread criticism for rewarding hyper-partisan content, amplifying misinformation and incubating violent extremism. This week, the FBI revealed a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer that was hatched by militia groups who used the platform to organize. Whether the public reveal of that months-long domestic terrorism investigation factored into its decisions or not, Facebook has taken a notably more aggressive posture across a handful of recent policy decisions. This week, the company expanded its ban on QAnon, the elaborate web of outlandish pro-Trump conspiracies that have increasingly spilled over into real-world violence, after that content had been allowed to thrive on the platform for years. Facebook also just broadened its rules prohibiting voter intimidation to ban calls for poll watching that use militaristic language, like the Trump campaign’s own effort to recruit an “Army for Trump” to hold its political enemies to account on election day. The company also announced that it would suspend political advertising after election night, a policy that will likely remain in place until the results of the election are clear. While President Trump has gone to great lengths to cast doubt on the integrity of vote-by-mail, mailed ballots are a historically very safe practice. States like Oregon and Colorado already conduct their voting through the mail in normal years, and all 50 states have absentee voting in place for people who can’t cast a ballot in person, whether they’re out of town or overseas serving in the military. View the full article

“I mean, it seems absurd, but we at first were just doing it as not a joke, but just as a kind of funny thing, and now it’s becoming kind of serious and real” View the full article

China now has a tool that lets users access YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google and other internet services that have otherwise long been banned in the country — selectively. Called Tuber, the mobile browser debuted on China’s third-party Android stores this week, with an iOS launch in the pipeline. The landing page of the app features a scrolling feed of YouTube videos, with tabs at the bottom that allow users to visit other mainstream Western internet services. While some celebrate the app as an unprecedented “opening up” of the Chinese internet, such as this state media journalist, others quickly noticed the browser comes with a veil of censorship. YouTube queries for politically sensitive keywords such as “Tiananmen” and “Xi Jinping” returned no results on the app, according to tests done by TechCrunch. Using the app also comes with liabilities. Registration requires a Chinese phone number, which is tied to a person’s real identity. The platform could suspend users’ accounts and share their data “with the relevant authorities” if they “actively watch or share” content that breaches the constitution, endangers national security and sovereignty, spreads rumors, disrupts social orders or violates other local laws, according to the app’s terms of service. Rather than blocking sites beyond the purview of Beijing and tracking the “illegal” use of VPNs to circumvent the Great Firewall, China now has an app that gives its people a glimpse into the Western internet — with the caveat that their digital footprint may be under close watch by the authorities. Much about the service remains unclear, such as its origin, the motive behind it and the technology it uses to get past China’s elaborate censorship engine. The operator of the app’s official website (上海丰炫信息技术有限公司) is 70% owned by a subsidiary of Qihoo 360, a Chinese cybersecurity software giant, according to business registration information. If Tuber appears to target YouTube watchers in China with its video-first interface, its sister product Sgreennet, available on both PC and mobile, is a regular web browser connecting users to censored overseas sites. Qihoo 360 itself has been in the Chinese browser market since 2008. Based on VPN encryption technologies, Sgreennet allows “no one to track, collect or share a user’s private data,” the app claims, a pledge that will likely draw skepticism amongst those familiar with Qihoo 360’s tainted reputation. Musical.ly’s early investor Fu Sheng alleged back in 2010 that Qihoo 360 logged user data including passwords. Software maker Sogou sued the company in 2013 over anticompetitive tactics. The most known and notorious incident is its prolonged battle with Tencent a decade ago that disrupted hundreds of millions of users’ activity. For an annual fee of around $50, Sgreennet enables users to skip ads, stream Netflix content, download high-definition videos, perks that will likely touch a nerve with the likes of YouTube. Within two days, Tuber has attracted over 5 million downloads just on Huawei’s Android app store. It’s certainly not the first browser in China to claim it can get around the Great Firewall without VPNs, though few have drawn as much attention. A now-banned article introducing the app went viral on WeChat on Friday and seems to have contributed to its overnight success. It’s safe to say tens of millions in China have already used the app to sample a heavily censored Western internet. It’s unclear whether Beijing granted Qihoo 360 the green light to pursue the browser project. It’s unsurprising if that was the case, given two of the firm’s executives are key members of the Cybersecurity Association of China, an organization aiming to align industry and academia around the government’s cyber governance issues, including censorship. Qihoo 360 cannot be immediately reached for comment. As of Saturday afternoon, Tuber has been removed from the Huawei Android store and the downloaded copy stops functioning, leaving users with a message that it is “undergoing a system upgrade.” The story was updated on October 9 with background information and on October 10 to add the app was removed from the app store. View the full article