Technology

In a highly unusual statement issued early this morning, United States health officials said that the data released by AstraZeneca on its COVID-19 vaccine may include “outdated information.” The announcement, which came from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), comes less than a day after the pharmaceutical company said its vaccine was highly effective in the US trial. The NIAID said that the independent board of experts reviewing data from the trial raised concerns about the publicly released data. It “may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data,” the agency said in its statement. The announcement may contribute to some unnecessary hesitancy around the AstraZeneca vaccine, Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID, said on Good Morning America this m...

As the editor-in-chief of The Verge, I can theoretically assign whatever I want, however there is one topic that I have failed to get people at The Verge to write about for years: robotic process automation, or RPA. Admittedly, its not thexciting, but it’s an increasingly important kind of workplace automation. RPA isn’t robots in factories, which is often what we think of when it comes to automation. This is different: RPA is software. Software which uses other software, like Excel or an Oracle database. On this week’s Decoder, I finally found someone who wants to talk about it with me: New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose. His new book Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation, has just come out, and it features a lengthy discussion of RPA, who’s using it, who it will...

Microsoft is rebranding Xbox Live to Xbox network. Instances of the new branding started appearing in the Xbox dashboard recently for beta testers, with clips being uploaded to “Xbox network” instead of Xbox Live. Microsoft has now confirmed the name change. “’Xbox network’ refers to the underlying Xbox online service, which was updated in the Microsoft Services Agreement,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “The update from ‘Xbox Live’ to ‘Xbox network’ is intended to distinguish the underlying service from Xbox Live Gold memberships.” Microsoft has used Xbox Live to refer to its underlying Xbox service since its original launch 18 years ago. Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson, has been known as “Xbox Live’s Major Nelson” for years, but Hryb now refers to him...

The next Nintendo Switch will use a new Nvidia system-on-chip with support for DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), according to a report in Bloomberg. The chip is said to bring improvements to GPU and CPU performance, with DLSS serving as Nintendo’s solution for displaying higher resolution images on 4K TVs. DLSS was introduced with Nvidia’s RTX 20-series GPUs, based on the Turing architecture. It makes use of neural networks to reconstruct game images in real time at a higher quality. Different versions of the technology have variously relied on the GPU’s tensor cores and training the AI on specific games, but the upshot is that you can render a game at a lower traditional resolution and get a much higher output with minimal performance penalty. That theoretically makes it a good fit for...

Open-source software advocate Richard Stallman is rejoining the board of the Free Software Foundation. Stallman founded the FSF in 1985 and acted as its president until 2019, when he resigned after making widely criticized statements about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Stallman announced the news during a live stream for the FSF project LibrePlanet. “Some of you will be happy at this, and some might be disappointed, but who knows?” he said. “In any case, that’s how it is, and I’m not planning to resign a second time.” He also mentioned that the announcement was meant to be made with a more formal video, but that “it didn’t get finished.” Stallman resigned from the FSF, as well as a position at MIT, after participating in an email conversation about MIT’s leadership and its ties w...

It’s not at all controversial to say that internet service sucks in the United States. As part of its plan to update coverage maps in the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in a break from tradition, is finally asking average Americans to report which internet services are actually available where they live. In the past, the FCC has made these coverage maps with self-reported data from the ISPs themselves, an inherently compromising decision because internet service providers will naturally want to paint the rosiest picture possible. Since the FCC uses these maps as evidence for proposed regulation, it can seriously hinder the FCC’s ability to make sure there’s actual competition in the market and that the internet is being responsibly distributed. For instance, a map might s...

Some Android apps are crashing for some people right now, but Google is working on a fix. The issue is due to a system component called Android System WebView that lets Android apps display web content, but it has some kind of problem right now that is causing apps to crash. “We are aware of an issue with WebView causing some apps on Android to crash for some users,” Google said in a statement to The Verge. “We are currently working to fully validate the scope and a fix is in progress.” Some users are saying that removing the latest update to WebView should fix the issue — and in fact, Samsung’s official US support Twitter account recommends taking that exact step. Hi! Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Please remove the Webview Update and then restart the phone. Here are the steps...

Microsoft is in discussions with Discord to acquire the gaming-focused chat software for more than $10 billion, according to sources talking to Bloomberg. Xbox chief Phil Spencer is said to be talking to Discord about the potential deal. VentureBeat reported earlier today that Discord was exploring a $10 billion-plus sale after multiple potential buyers expressed interest, and that it had signed an exclusive acquisition discussion with one party, suggesting a deal could be close. Bloomberg’s sources say the deal isn’t imminent, however, with one person saying Discord would be more likely to take itself public than seek an acquisition. Bloomberg names Epic Games and Amazon as companies that have also held discussions with Discord in the past. Discord has about 140 million monthly users and ...

NASA’s Perseverance rover is getting ready to deploy a mini-helicopter named Ingenuity on Mars. The four-pound, four-blade rotorcraft will attempt the first flight of its kind on another planet, and in the process, it will test a new mode of mobility that could transform the way we Earthlings remotely explore other worlds. The craft is currently attached to the belly of Perseverance, which landed at Mars’ Jezero crater in February. One of the first steps toward setting the baby helicopter off on its debut flight came this weekend when Perseverance dropped a protective shell and exposed Ingenuity to the bright Martian sunlight for the first time. “Away goes the debris shield, and here’s our first look at the helicopter,” the rover’s Twitter account said on Sunday. Away goes the debris shiel...

Tinder is partnering with Lyft to offer the ability to gift rides to dates without having to leave the Tinder app. It’s a small convenience if you already have the Lyft app downloaded, but like adding video chat in the app, it’s one less reason to switch your focus away from your match and to another app. There’s no firm release date for the Lyft integration other than it’s “slated to roll out in the coming months” and Tinder has no visuals to share yet for how it will work in the app. Tinder does say that Lyft’s usual safety features like location sharing with family and friends will be available from the Lyft app for gifted rides. Adding Lyft rides could be convenient, but there are some potential scenarios to be concerned about. It’s not clear at what point you’re able to order a ride, ...

Niantic, developer of the smash hit Pokémon Go, has announced a new partnership with Nintendo. The first new game from the collaboration will be a mobile augmented reality game based on Nintendo’s popular Pikmin franchise, and it will launch later this year. Details are thin right now, but Niantic says that “the app will include gameplay activities to encourage walking and make walking more delightful.” If you want to receive more information about the new game as it’s available, you can sign up here to get updates. The new Pikmin AR game will be the first developed by Niantic’s Tokyo Studio. “Niantic’s AR technology has made it possible for us to experience the world as if Pikmin are secretly living all around us”, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto said in a statement. “Based on the theme of ma...

I just realized: I never came back to thank you for buying that $30,000 8K television. I mean, I’m sure the $1,500 coupon helped? But I feel like I still owe you a bit more. How about this: why not be the first to stream PC games at 8K resolution to the other end of your mansion? When we saw that Steam now supports that feature, we immediately thought of you. Imagine the possibilities: you could sit down on your fully immersive $9,000 toilet with your backup 8K TV — as you do — and instead wasting so many of those glorious pixels on a pillarboxed Snyder Cut, you can use all 33+ million of them to sling some not-terribly-demanding game at 8K resolution from your blinding rainbow death box of an RTX 3090-equipped gaming PC, without even disturbing its sanctum at the other end of your house! ...