Technology news

U.S. federal prosecutors have filed and won a temporary restraining order against a website offering a fraudulent coronavirus vaccine, which the Justice Department said is its first enforcement action related to the pandemic.
In a statement, the Justice Dept. said the action was taken against a website, said to be engaging in a wire fraud scheme, seeking “to profit from the confusion and widespread fear” surrounding COVID-19.
The website, seen by TechCrunch, claims the World Health O

Ford, GM and Teslahave been given the “go ahead” to make ventilators to help alleviate a shortage amid the COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump said in a tweet Sunday that ended with a challenge to auto executives to show how good their companies are.
Ventilators are a critical piece of medical equipment for patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by coronavirus. COVID-19 attacks the lungs and can cause acute respiratory distress syndrome and pn

The COVID-19 virus is touching every aspect of our lives and having a profound impact on individuals, businesses and society at large. Box’sAaron Levie has built a successful business from dorm room to IPO and beyond. He spoke to TechCrunch today about the level of creativity and focus that it’s going to take to succeed in the current environment.
Levie pointed out that his company was a fledgling startup when the economic downturn hit in 2008, but he thinks this one could have a muc

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AT&T’s networks have seen a surge of usage since companies around the United States have asked employees to work from home and schools have moved online following the COVID-19 outbreak.CEO Randall Stephenson told CNN’s Brian Stelter on today’s Reliable Sources that “mobile volumes are up 40 percent,” and “Wi-Fi calling volumes are up 100 percent.” Stephenson added the network infrastructures are “perform

Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted Saturday that the company was donating “millions of masks for health professionals in the US and Europe,” to help combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. Cook’s tweet appears to confirm a statement earlier in the day by Vice President Mike Pence.“The president and I literally heard directly from Apple that they’re donating 2 million industrial masks to this effort around the country and working with

Emirates, the world’s largest airline by international traffic, today briefly announced on Twitter and its own website that it would halt all passenger flights by March 25 but then reversed course and said that it would still fly to 13 destinations, including the U.S., UK, Japan, Australia and Canada.
It’s a sign of the times that a) nobody would blink if Emirateshad actually announced that it was ceasing all passenger operations and b) that there would be confusion around this given

We’ve been diligently following the development of virtual worlds, also known as the “metaverse,” on TechCrunch.
Hanging out within the virtual worlds of games has become more popular in recent years with the growth of platforms like Robloxand open-world games like Fortnite, but it still isn’t a mainstream way to socialize outside of the young-adult demographic.
Three weeks ago, TechCrunch media columnist Eric Peckham published an in-depth report that positioned virtual w

The tech industry is mobilizing its considerable resources to attempt to support efforts against the growing global coronavirus pandemic. Over the weekend, the CEOs of Amazon,Apple and Microsoftall shared updates regarding some aspects of their company’s ongoing contributions, which range from donations of medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline healthcare workers, to software projects that help track and analyze the global spread of infection.
AppleCEO Tim C

Disney will delay the release of its Disney Plus streaming service in France in accordance with government requests, Reuters is reporting.The streaming service, which was supposed to launch on March 24th, will instead reportedly launch the week of April 7th, according to Disney. That’s two weeks after it was initially set, and two weeks after other European markets will get the streaming service. Disney has not said if people in other countries set to receive Disney Plus, including the UK,

Lyftis expanding the types of services it provides through its on-demand transportation network in an effort to boost efforts to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company announced that it will be offering delivery of critical medical supplies to individuals who need them during this time, including the elderly and those living with chronic diseases, and that it will be delivering meals to students who ordinarily get subsidized lunches through school, as well as seniors.
The new effor

In recent times, organizations have been competing with one another to implement chatbots for various reasons, including enhancing customer experience, streamlining processes, and fueling the demand for digital and innovative technologies. Cognitive technologies such as chatbots have become an apt candidate for end-use application as they have high automation feasibility, high potential of accuracy, low complexity and low execution time. Raising the bar through intelligence, virtual assistants

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving much more quickly to grant special ’emergency use authorization’ to equipment and tests that could help increase testing for the novel coronavirus in the U.S., which lags behind most countries in the world when it comes to tests conducted relative to the size of its population. One type of test just approved for use could help expand the availability of frontline testing in hospitals and at clinics where patients are receiving car

Starting today, Best Buy is limiting its US stores to “contactless” curbside service, allowing only employees into its stores, according to a statement from the company. Orders placed on the Best Buy website or via its app will be delivered to customers’ cars outside its stores by employees.
The curbside system includes returns and exchanges, and in an email to customers, Best Buy says “if, for any reason, you didn’t order the product in advance and the product is i

People who suspect they may have come into contact with the coronavirus are being advised to self-isolate (stay at home) for 14 days. For some people, the idea of self-isolation may seem like a dream come true. For others, the idea of being cut off from the outside world, alone, or with only a few close family members, will fill them with dread – ask any parent who has had to entertain two small children at home on a wet afternoon. When people are stuck indoors for long periods of time, t

GameStop is temporarily closing all its US-based retail locations and moving to “delivery only” starting on March 22nd, the company announced today. It’s an abrupt reversal for the company, which just a few days ago was defending its decision to keep its stores open, as an “essential” business, and was instructing staff to ignore coronavirus-related lockdowns.
GameStop CEO George Sherman said in a letter to customers that it will “will temporarily stop custome