Technology

People who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can gather indoors with other vaccinated people without masks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today. The recommendation is part of the long-awaited guidelines for how people who have received the shots can adjust their behavior. People who are vaccinated should still wear masks when they’re in public and while interacting with people who have not been vaccinated. They should also avoid large gatherings. “A growing body of evidence now tells us that there are some activities that fully vaccinated people can resume at low risk to themselves,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing today. People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, ...

Satellite television provider Dish Network has announced its plan to acquire cell carrier Republic Wireless, Dish said on Monday. The acquisition, when it closes, will give Dish roughly 200,000 wireless customers to help boost its 5G network, which Dish plans to launch later this year. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Dish says Republic Wireless customers won’t see any immediate changes to their plans and won’t have to take any action on their accounts. Dish became a major player in the telecom business last year when it finalized its purchase of Sprint’s Boost Mobile business for $1.4 billion, as part of a sale Sprint was required to make to merge with T-Mobile. Dish has since signaled its intentions to launch a 5G network in the US by buying up costly spectrum and acqu...

The European Commission has approved Microsoft’s $7.5 billion deal to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Doom and Fallout studio Bethesda Softworks. Microsoft’s deal has been approved by the EU without conditions, as it “does not raise serious doubts as to its compatibility with the common market.” The acquisition required EU approval before Microsoft could finalize the Bethesda deal and bring future games to its Xbox Game Pass subscription. “The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given the combined entity’s limited market position upstream and the presence of strong downstream competitors in the distribution of video games,” says a European Commission statement. “The transaction was examined under the normal merger review proc...

WhatsApp is reportedly working to increase the security of its cloud backups with a new password protection feature that’ll encrypt chat backups, making them accessible only to the user. WABetaInfo reported on the work-in-progress feature last year, and today it shared screenshots of how it could be presented in the service’s iOS and Android apps. “To prevent unauthorized access to your iCloud Drive backup, you can set a password that will be used to encrypt future backups,” one of the screenshots reads. “This password will be required when you restore from the backup.” The app then asks the user to confirm their phone number, and select a password that’s at least eight characters long. Another screenshot warns that “WhatsApp will not be able to help recover forgotten passwords.” • The cha...

Apple is making it easier for parents to find podcasts to listen to with their kids. The company is teaming up with nonprofit Common Sense Media, which specializes in age-based content reviews, to curate various collections that’ll appear in the Apple Podcasts app in the US and online. The initial four themes focus on narrative storytelling, shows that kids themselves recommend, mysteries and dramas, and Common Sense’s “all-time” picks. Programming comes from Tinkercast, American Public Media, WNYC Studios, Rebel Girls, and Nickelodeon, among others, and Common Sense will provide age group recommendations. The collections will be updated monthly with new themes being tied to “important historical and cultural moments,” like Women’s History Month. You’ll see these show suggestions starting ...

OnePlus has announced an official launch date for its next phones: the OnePlus 9 series will be formally announced on March 23rd at 10AM ET. It’s also confirming a partnership with Swedish camera maker Hasselblad to improve the devices’ camera systems — something that’s been leaked and hinted at previously. Rumors thus far have pointed to the announcement of a OnePlus 9 Pro with curved 1440p 120Hz display, 45W fast charging, and reverse wireless charging. OnePlus’ reference to the “series” product launch would seem to confirm more than one device debuting later this month. There’s also confirmation of 5G, which isn’t surprising in this year of our lord 2021. The companies have tweaked the cameras’ color reproduction to look more natural As for the Hasselblad partnership, details aren’t sup...

Oppo has become the best-selling smartphone brand in China for the first time ever, according to figures from Counterpoint Research. Counterpoint’s report says that Oppo managed to capture 21 percent of the world’s biggest smartphone market in January, ahead of Vivo and Huawei, which both achieved 20 percent. Apple and Xiaomi rounded out the top five with 16 percent apiece. Oppo’s sales were up 26 percent year on year and increased 33 percent from the previous month. Counterpoint says that the new Reno 5 series had a successful launch due to offering better specs at a lower price point than the earlier Reno 4. But for Oppo to gain market share, someone has to lose it, and the report shows that Huawei’s smartphone troubles are taking hold in China too. Counterpoint says Huawei has increased...

I had the end of WandaVision spoiled before I watched it because I basically work on the internet and couldn’t quite avoid it, so I won’t do the same to you, dear reader. Let’s just say I didn’t hate it? My colleague Julia Alexander writes in her review that the finale “never lost sight of the story it wanted to tell, the show it wanted to be, and the finale does a mostly decent job of hitting those final notes.” Next up in the MCU, of course, is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. After giving us a full trailer during the Super Bowl last month, Marvel dropped a new teaser titled “Coworkers” (it’s over before you know it) so let’s dive in there. [embedded content] The Falcon and The Winter Soldier This was supposed to be Marvel Studios’ first big original series for Disney Plus, but it got ...

Rumors about a long-desired upgrade to the Nintendo Switch have been swirling for some time, and this week, Bloomberg reported that this fabled new Switch might actually be coming soon. This upgraded Switch will apparently have a 7-inch 720p OLED screen that can output 4K graphics when connected to a TV, according to the report. An OLED screen would be a major upgrade from the Switch and Switch Lite’s LCD, likely providing deeper colors and darker blacks. And the 4K output would be a big jump, too; right now, the current Switch tops out at a 1080p resolution when hooked up to a TV. But a lot of us here at The Verge still like our existing Switches quite a bit, even those of us with the launch model that debuted four years ago this week. The changes we’re clamoring for aren’t necessarily an...

Tesla is expanding its “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) beta, CEO Elon Musk said, doubling its size with a new software update, and eventually increasing the number of participants tenfold. “Still be careful, but it’s getting mature,” Musk tweeted Friday. He said Saturday that Tesla would add a “download beta” button to Tesla displays in the coming days “due to high levels of demand.” Due to high levels of demand for FSD Beta, adding “Download Beta” button to Service section of car display in ~10 days https://t.co/D6M3ZiMarG — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2021 Tesla first introduced the FSD beta in October to vehicle owners in its Early Access Program. At the time, Musk said the company was handling the software update “very cautiously.” Drivers still are expected to keep their hands on the ste...

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts in a new research note that Apple will release a “helmet-type” mixed reality headset next year, augmented reality glasses in mid-2025, and an AR contact lens product by 2030-2040, according to MacRumors. “We foresee that the helmet product will provide AR and VR experiences, while glasses and contact lens types of products are more likely to focus on AR applications,” Kuo writes in the note. While several prototypes of Apple’s mixed reality headset weigh between 200 and 300 grams, Kuo says, if Apple can solve some technical problems the headset could end up weighing between 100 and 200 grams, MacRumors reported. He added that the headset will likely be priced in the $1,000 range in the US. The headset will be able to offer an immersive experience Kuo say...

Several current and former Google employees say the company’s human resources department would often suggest mental health counseling or leave in response to complaints about racist or sexist behavior in the workplace, NBC News reported. The workers described encounters with coworkers that included racist comments about skin color and hairstyles, as well as sexual harassment. When they contacted Google’s human resources department, each was encouraged to take mental health leave, even when their complaints were unrelated to mental health concerns, according to NBC. The report follows the December firing of Google AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru, who refused a manager’s request to retract a paper that described the dangers of language models like the ones Google relies on to power its sea...