An anonymous reader quotes a report from CoinDesk: Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on Ethereum and a centerpiece of the $42 billion decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, is releasing its third iteration. In a Tuesday blog post, the firm behind the platform said its aim is to make Uniswap "the most flexible and efficient [automated market maker] ever designed." AMMs -- once nearly solely the domain of Uniswap -- have grown in stature along with DeFi's emergence last year. Rivals like SushiSwap, 1inch and others have also made the exchange of Ethereum-based assets easy for many crypto natives. Uniswap v3 is expected to launch on mainnet on May 5, the firm wrote. Notably, Uniswap is eyeing an integration "soon after" with Ethereum throughput booster Optimism. All told, the new version promises greater "up to [4,000 times] capital efficiency relative to Uniswap v2," the firm wrote. The key change, as outlined in the new white paper, is what Uniswap is calling "concentrated liquidity." "In this paper, we present Uniswap v3, a novel AMM that gives liquidity providers more control over the price ranges in which their capital is used, with limited effect on liquidity fragmentation and gas inefficiency," it states.

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Facebook could have prevented more than 10bn pageviews of prominent misinformation-spreading accounts in the US if it had acted sooner in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, a new report has claimed [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source]. Financial Times: The social media giant took a number of eleventh-hour steps to combat misinformation ahead of November's highly polarised election, such as demoting some misinformation superspreaders and blocking new political advertisements. However according to the US-based non-profit activism group Avaaz, if the platform had tweaked its algorithm and moderation policies in March last year, instead of waiting until October, it would have prevented an estimated 10.1bn additional pageviews on the 100 top-performing pages it classified as repeat spreaders of misinformation. The list comprised pages that Avaaz had identified as sharing at least three misinformation claims that were fact-checked between October 2019 and October 2020, with at least two of the posts falling within 90 days of each other. The report said that Facebook's delay in acting had been critical because it allowed prolific spreaders of misinformation to increase their online footprint dramatically, with some tripling their engagement over the course of the election campaign and even catching up with mainstream US media pages. It added that even after Facebook acted to block top-performing misinformation pages from October 10, the effect was inconsistent. While the average decline in interaction was 28 per cent, not all major figures were affected.

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phalse phace writes: During today's "Intel Unleashed: Engineering the Future" webcast, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger gave an update on the company's future plans and developments, one of which includes a $20 billion investment to build two new chip fabs in Arizona. The new factories are expected to "become a major provider of foundry capacity in the U.S. and Europe" to serve the global demand for semiconductor manufacturing. "To deliver this vision, Intel is establishing a new standalone business unit, Intel Foundry Services (IFS), led by semiconductor industry veteran Dr. Randhir Thakur. IFS will be differentiated from other foundry offerings with a combination of leading-edge process technology and packaging, committed capacity in the U.S. and Europe, and a world-class IP portfolio for customers, including x86 cores as well as ARM and RISC-V ecosystem IPs." "Gelsinger said the foundry business will compete in a market potentially worth $100 billion by 2025," reports CNBC. "A slide displayed by Intel suggested that companies including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm could be customers for the business." The company is also partnering with IBM to improve chip logic and packaging technologies, which will "enhance the competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor industry and support key U.S. government initiatives."

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AmiMoJo shares a report: In August of 2019, I published research from now-defunct clickstream data provider, Jumpshot, showing that 50.33% of all Google searches ended without a click to any web property in the results. Today, thanks to new data from SimilarWeb, I've got a substantive update to that analysis. From January to December, 2020, 64.82% of searches on Google (desktop and mobile combined) ended in the search results without clicking to another web property. That number is likely undercounting some mobile and nearly all voice searches, and thus it's probable that more than 2/3rds of all Google searches are what I've been calling "zero-click searches." Some folks have pointed out that "zero-click" is slightly misleading terminology, as a search ending with a click within the Google SERP itself (for example, clicking on the animal sounds here or clicking a phone number to dial a local business in the maps box) falls into this grouping. The terminology seems to have stuck, so instead I'm making the distinction clear. [...] Here are the headline statistics from the data: SimilarWeb analyzed ~5.1 trillion Google searches in 2020 These searches took place on the 100M+ panel of mobile and desktop devices from which SimilarWeb collects clickstream data Of those 5.1T searches, 33.59% resulted in clicks on organic search results 1.59% resulted in clicks on paid search results The remaining 64.82% completed a search without a direct, follow-up click to another web property Searches resulting in a click are much higher on desktop devices (50.75% organic CTR, 2.78% paid CTR) Zero-click searches are much higher on mobile devices (77.22%)

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Facebook's bullying and harassment policy explicitly allows for "public figures" to be targeted in ways otherwise banned on the site, including "calls for [their] death," according to a tranche of internal moderator guidelines leaked to the Guardian. From the report: Public figures are defined by Facebook to include people whose claim to fame may be simply a large social media following or infrequent coverage in local newspapers. They are considered to be permissible targets for certain types of abuse "because we want to allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news," Facebook explains to its moderators. It comes as social networks face renewed criticism over abuse on their platforms, including of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and of professional footballers, in particular black stars such as Marcus Rashford.Facebook, which also owns Instagram, has changed its policies in response to the criticism, introducing new rules to cover abuse sent through direct messages and committing to cooperate with law enforcement over hate speech. In the detailed guidelines seen by the Guardian, running to more than 300 pages and dating from December 2020, Facebook spells out how it differentiates between protections for private and public individuals.

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Samsung is reportedly working on a double-folding phone to add to its lineup, according to Nikkei Asia. From the report: According to the article, the phone would fold into three segments using two hinges and could be announced "as early as the end of this year." The phone would be a third option in Samsung's foldable lineup, joining the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip, both of which are also expected to appear in new versions this year. According to the report, the design is still being finalized, but Nikkei's sources say its screen could have a more standard 16:9 or 18:9 aspect ratio, making it easier for app makers to design for than the 25:9 screen found on the Z Fold. [...] It's possible that Samsung is introducing the new type of foldable to ease its power users into a transition to the form factor. Samsung says it might be skipping a new Galaxy Note this year but wasn't exactly clear on why. There was talk of streamlining its phone offerings and of the global chip shortage, but this could be a test to see if Note users are ready for the fold. By giving customers three foldable options to choose from, Samsung could be trying to make it as likely as possible that people will find one that works for them.

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Nintendo plans to adopt an upgraded Nvidia chip with better graphics and processing for a new Switch model planned for the year-end shopping season, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The new Switch iteration will support Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling, or DLSS, a novel rendering technology that uses artificial intelligence to deliver higher-fidelity graphics more efficiently. That will allow the console, which is also set for an OLED display upgrade, to reproduce game visuals at 4K quality when plugged into a TV, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan is not public. The U.S. company's new chipset will also bring a better CPU and increased memory. DLSS support will require new code to be added to games, so it'll primarily be used to improve graphics on upcoming titles, said the people, including multiple game developers. Bloomberg News previously reported that the new Switch is likely to include a 7-inch OLED screen from Samsung Display and couple the console's release with a bounty of new games.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: India is racing to contain a second wave of the coronavirus, but its vaccination campaign is running into doubters like Akbar Mohamed Patel. A resident of Mumbai's densely populated slum area of Dharavi, Mr. Patel survived a severe bout of the coronavirus in May. The first wave prompted Mumbai officials to seal off his housing complex, confining thousands of people for nearly two months. Still, the current campaign has been marred by a slow initial government rollout, as well as skepticism and apathy from people like Mr. Patel and his neighbors. "On social media we come to know this is all a big game to make money," Mr. Patel said. Of the vaccine, he said, "many things have been hidden." The coronavirus, once seemingly in retreat, is again rippling across India. Confirmed infections have risen to about 31,600 daily from a low of about 9,800 in February. In a recent two-week period, deaths shot up 82 percent. The outbreak is centered on the state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, the country's financial hub. Entire districts of the state have gone back into lockdown. Scientists are investigating whether a new strain found there is more virulent, like variants found in Britain, South Africa and Brazil. Officials are under pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to aggressively ramp up testing and vaccination, especially in Mumbai, to avoid disruptions like last year's dramatic nationwide lockdown and resulting economic recession. "I am very categorical that we should stop it, contain it, just here," said Dr. Rahul Pandit, a critical care physician at a private hospital in Mumbai and a member of the Maharashtra Covid-19 task force. India's vaccination campaign could have global consequences. Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that an expected drop in Britain's Covid-19 vaccine supplies stemmed from a nearly monthlong delay in delivery of five million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine being manufactured in India. The reasons for the delay are not clear, but the manufacturer, Serum Institute of India, has said shipments will depend in part on domestic Indian needs.

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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. From a report: "'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 himself as "Xbox's Major Nelson."

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Google, Microsoft and the broader web community are working together to make it easier for developers to build websites that work seamlessly across browsers. From a report: They've teamed up for a cross-browser effort called #Compat2021, which aims to eliminate the top five browser compatibility pain points on the web for developers. The group identified the issues they decided to focus on based on usage data, number of bugs reports, survey feedback and test results. One of the most problematic issue that they want to address is with CSS Flexbox, since images as flex items are often stretched incorrectly and differently between browsers. They also want to improve CSS Grid so that it can be used to create animated grid layouts on Chromium and WebKit -- at the moment, the ability is only supported in Gecko. The group wants to work on sticky positioning so that any content that's stickied looks consistent across browsers, as well. Similarly, they want to make sure web elements maintain a consistent width-to-height ratio and that animations and 3D effects look the same whatever browser a user is on.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: YouTube is always running experiments. One of its latest: testing an automated list of products detected in videos uploaded to the site. As of March 22nd this year, that test is being expanded to "people watching videos in the US," according to YouTube. In one of its blogs, a YouTube representative gave a little more detail about how this particular feature will be deployed: "We are experimenting with a new feature that displays a list of products detected in some videos, as well as related products. The feature will appear in between the recommended videos, to viewers scrolling below the video player. The goal is to help people explore more videos and information about those products on YouTube.

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Facebook could have prevented more than 10bn pageviews of prominent misinformation-spreading accounts in the US if it had acted sooner in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, a new report has claimed [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source]. Financial Times: The social media giant took a number of eleventh-hour steps to combat misinformation ahead of November's highly polarised election, such as demoting some misinformation superspreaders and blocking new political advertisements. However according to the US-based non-profit activism group Avaaz, if the platform had tweaked its algorithm and moderation policies in March last year, instead of waiting until October, it would have prevented an estimated 10.1bn additional pageviews on the 100 top-performing pages it classified as repeat spreaders of misinformation. The list comprised pages that Avaaz had identified as sharing at least three misinformation claims that were fact-checked between October 2019 and October 2020, with at least two of the posts falling within 90 days of each other. The report said that Facebook's delay in acting had been critical because it allowed prolific spreaders of misinformation to increase their online footprint dramatically, with some tripling their engagement over the course of the election campaign and even catching up with mainstream US media pages. It added that even after Facebook acted to block top-performing misinformation pages from October 10, the effect was inconsistent. While the average decline in interaction was 28 per cent, not all major figures were affected.

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Microsoft is in talks to acquire Discord, a video-game chat community, for more than $10 billion, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: Discord has been talking to potential buyers and software giant Microsoft is in the running, but no deal is imminent, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Discord is more likely to go public than sell itself, one person said. Representatives for Microsoft and Discord declined to comment. VentureBeat reported earlier on Monday that Discord was engaged in sales talks. San Francisco-based Discord is best known for its free service that lets gamers communicate by video, voice and text, and people stuck at home during the pandemic have increasingly used its technology for study groups, dance classes, book clubs and other virtual gatherings. It has more than 100 million monthly active users and has been elaborating its communication tools to turn it into a "place to talk" rather than merely a gamer-centric chat platform.

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Telegram has now announced it's pulled in over $1BN in debt financing by selling bonds. From a report: Founder Pavel Durov put out an update via his official Telegram channel after a press announcement earlier today had revealed the company had taken in $150M from Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners by selling 5-year pre-IPO convertible bonds. It's not clear where the additional millions in debt funding are coming from -- Durov merely writes that Telegram has sold bonds to "some of the largest and most knowledgable investors from all over the world."

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Most major global companies no longer plan to reduce their use of office space after the coronavirus pandemic, though few expect business to return to normal this year, a survey by accountants KPMG showed on Tuesday. From a report: Just 17% of chief executives plan to cut back on offices, down from 69% in the last survey in August. "Either downsizing has already taken place, or plans have changed as the impact of extended, unplanned, remote working has taken a toll on some employees," KPMG said. Many offices in London, New York and other Western cities have been empty for months after health authorities ordered staff to work from home where possible, but the roll-out of vaccines means some firms are now planning for a return. Most chief executives said they wanted vaccination rates to exceed half the population before they started to encourage staff back to the office -- a target which is close to being met in Britain but remains distant in much of Europe. More than three quarters of chief executives also wanted the government to encourage people to return to offices before employers themselves started to request it.

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