Technology

The Food and Drug Administration authorized booster doses for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines, following its authorization of a third Pfizer / BioNTech shot in September. The agency also said today that it will allow “mix-and-match” boosters — eligible people who are already fully vaccinated can get a booster dose of any of the three vaccines, regardless of which they started with. As with the Pfizer / BioNTech booster, the FDA cleared third Moderna shots for vulnerable groups, including people 65 years of age and older, those who are at high risk of severe disease, and people at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 at work. The booster for the Moderna vaccine, though, will be a half-dose. Both vaccines are mRNA vaccines that contain tiny snippets of the coronavirus’ g...

Elon Musk’s Boring Company just won approval from local officials to move forward with building a network of vehicle tunnels underneath Las Vegas. Dubbed the “Vegas Loop,” the system will allow passengers to hitch rides in Teslas to and from places like the hotel casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, the city’s new football stadium, the Las Vegas Convention Center, and McCarran International Airport. The Boring Company already operates a small version of this “Teslas in Tunnels” system underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center, which opened earlier this year and involves two 0.8-mile tunnels. But Musk’s startup proposed a massive city-wide expansion in December 2020 that largely lines up with what Clark County officials approved Wednesday. The system that was approved involves 29 miles of tunne...

Activision Blizzard has fired 20 employees as part of its investigation into allegations of gender-based discrimination and harassment at the company, the Financial Times reported. The gaming company has recently faced accusations of enabling sexual harassment for years. In their efforts to urge Activision Blizzard to take action, over 800 employees penned an open letter to the company this summer and many participated in a series of protests. Company president J. Allen Brack also resigned in August. The Financial Times obtained a letter sent to Activision Blizzard staff on Tuesday, in which the company announced the firings and wrote that it will expand its ethics and compliance team to create a “more accountable workplace.” The company’s chief compliance officer, Frances Townsend, d...

Microsoft and Adidas revealed a slick-looking pair of limited-edition Xbox sneakers earlier this month to celebrate Xbox’s 20th anniversary, and now, we know what you need to do to actually try to win a pair for yourself. From October 21st at 12PM ET through October 23rd at 11:59AM ET, you can donate $10 on StockX, an online collectibles marketplace, to be entered to win one of 20 pairs. Donations will benefit Gamers Outreach, a charity that helps children in hospitals by bringing them video games. A closer look at the Xbox-themed shoes.Image: Microsoft The cool shoes are just one piece of Microsoft’s 20th anniversary celebration for Xbox. The company is releasing a translucent controller and headset that you can preorder now ahead of availability on November 15th, the actual day of the an...

District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine is adding Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to a lawsuit over the Cambridge Analytica data-mining scandal. Racine announced the addition on Twitter this morning, saying his investigation had revealed that Zuckerberg was “personally involved in decisions related to Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s failure to protect user data.” The 2018 lawsuit accuses Facebook (and now Zuckerberg) of misrepresenting its policies around third-party data access and compromising user privacy with lax protections. The attorney general’s office alleges that Facebook violated the Consumer Protection Procedures Act and seeks civil damages for the offense. A judge allowed the case to proceed despite Facebook’s efforts to halt it in 2019. BREAKING: I just added Mark Zu...

Google’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are the company’s most interesting devices in years. They might actually succeed at the Pixel’s ultimate goal of being the shining example of what Android phones can and should be capable of. It’s high time that Google followed that example with a Pixel Watch that does the same thing for Wear OS. It’s pretty likely that Google is already working on something along those lines: When we asked, Rick Osterloh told The Verge’s Dieter Bohn that its own Wear OS wearable is just a matter of time. He noted that Google’s acquisition of Fitbit is still “pretty early in the integration” since the purchase only went through a few months ago — it takes time to develop a product, after all, especially one with a new operating system that Fitbit has never used before. But ...

Epic Games launched its battle royale hit Fortnite on Android devices in 2018 with a big catch: it was exclusive to Samsung-made phones for a few days as a way to help market the then-new Samsung Galaxy Note 9. At the time, would-be players had to deal with a waiting list and / or a restrictive list of qualified Android phones. These days, it’s a lot easier — but you still need to download it directly from Epic. (Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said this is basically to avoid paying Google’s 30 percent cut on in-app purchases.) Epic is using its own website and a Fortnite Installer program to distribute the game more widely on all compatible Android devices. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown to make sure you’re prepared and understand the best way to start playing Fortnite on Android. But before we get...

Bitcoin on Wednesday soared past $65,000 USD to set a new all-time record high. The blockchain-backed coin exceeded the milestone at 9:43 a.m. EST, and it is now trading above $66,400 USD, according to Coindesk data. The record marks the resurgence of the digital currency, which previously set an all-time high of just under $65,000 USD in April before declining to as low as $29,800 USD in June. “The key here is whether we are able to establish support above $65,000,” Jesse Proudman, CEO of crypto robo-advisor Makara, told CNBC. “If we can, the classic Q4 crypto rallies we’ve seen in most years could take Bitcoin towards some of the loftier price predictions we’ve seen over the past several months. If sell pressure takes over, though, our next leg up could take a while to materialize.” Bitc...

Samsung has announced a special collaboration with multifaceted Paris-meets-Tokyo lifestyle brand Maison Kitsuné, introducing a limited-edition Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Buds2 wearables. The Galaxy Watch4 Maison Kitsuné Edition incorporates the Watch 4’s suite of robust wellness features and intuitive UI, with added flair courtesy of the independent fashion house. The 40mm digital dial and Maison Kitsuné branded stainless steel case is secured by a Moonrock Beige strap decorated with Fox-shaped holes and delicate engravings. A custom Stardust Gray strap featuring Maison Kitsuné cursive lettering is also available. The 2nd generation Galaxy Buds feature the same soothing Moonrock Beige hues housed in a sleek Stardust Gray leather case. Variations of the Maison Kitsuné fox with galaxy sparkle...

Brave, the privacy-focused browser that blocks third-party ads and trackers by default, is switching to using its own search engine by default, the company has announced. The change will be applied for new users, and will affect which search engine is used via the browser’s address bar. Brave Search will replace Google in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, Qwant in France, and DuckDuckGo in Germany. More countries will be switched over in the coming months. It’s a significant step for Brave’s fledgling search engine, which launched in public beta earlier this year, since most people just take what they’re given. The search engine set as the browser default is a valuable promotion tactic, and so important that the practice has become a significant focus of antitrust scrutiny. In...

I didn’t have stellar hopes going into Resident Evil 4’s virtual reality adaptation. VR versions of non-VR games are often at best superfluous and at worst painful — sometimes literally if you’re prone to motion sickness. Resident Evil 7 supported VR to questionable effect in 2017. And Resident Evil 4 in VR, an Oculus Quest 2 version of Capcom’s 2005 GameCube game, makes a lot of tradeoffs that sound compromising on paper. But the weirdest part by far? It mostly works. Resident Evil 4’s VR version retools a horror classic with VR combat satisfying enough to make up for its myriad rough edges, producing something surprisingly fun. Unlike Capcom’s recent Resident Evil 2 and 3 console remakes, which were heavily reimagined versions of their source material, RE4VR (technically simply named Res...

No Man’s Sky is getting its fourth seasonal update with a new expedition called Emergence. Just in time for spooky season (and, coincidentally, the theatrical release of Dune) Emergence focuses on discovering, taming, and battling giant sandworms. [embedded content] The trailer for Emergence features some of the wormy updates coming to No Man’s Sky. Existing sandworms will come in more varieties, players can obtain a grotesque Sarlacc pit-looking helmet, and, perhaps most importantly, players will be able to tame and ride giant flying sandworms. Since expeditions launched in March of this year, Hello Games says Emergence is the first one to feature a dedicated narrative. Starting on the sand-blighted planet of Wasan, explorers will unravel the mysteries of an ancient cult as they unlock mi...