February 10, 2025

The Download: DOGE’s influences, and rescuing federal data from deletion

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. These documents are influencing the DOGE-sphere’s agenda  Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be…

Technology

Apple researchers explore dropping “Siri” phrase & listening with AI instead

March 22, 2024
Researchers from Apple are probing whether it’s possible to use artificial intelligence to detect when a user is speaking to a device like an iPhone, thereby eliminating the technical need for a trigger phrase like “Siri,” according to a paper published on Friday. In a study, which was uploaded to Arxiv and has not been…

The Download: tracing a mysterious covid strain, and fighting dengue with drones

March 22, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How scientists traced a mysterious covid case back to six toilets This week I have a mystery for you. It’s the story of how a team of researchers traced a covid variant in…

How scientists traced a mysterious covid case back to six toilets

March 22, 2024
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. This week I have a mystery for you. It’s the story of how a team of researchers traced a covid variant in Wisconsin from a…

Roundtables: How China Got Ahead on EVs

March 21, 2024
Recorded on March 21, 2024 How China Got Ahead on EVs Speakers: Zeyi Yang, China reporter, Amanda Silverman, Features & investigations editor, and Abby Ivory-Ganja, Sr engagement editor In the race to produce and sell more electric vehicles, China has emerged as the unexpected winner. If you visit Shanghai or Shenzhen today, it feels like…

This startup wants to fight growing global dengue outbreaks with drones

March 21, 2024
The world is grappling with dengue epidemics, with 100 to 400 million cases worldwide every year,  an eightfold increase since 20 years ago, according to the World Health Organization. Much of this is driven by the warming climate, which allows mosquitos to thrive in more areas.  A startup in São Paulo,  Brazil, one of the…

The Download: the world’s most expensive drug, and New York City’s e-bike plan

March 21, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. There is a new most expensive drug in the world. Price tag: $4.25 million The news: There is a new most expensive drug ever—a gene therapy that costs as much as a Brooklyn…

Why New York City is testing battery swapping for e-bikes

March 21, 2024
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Spend enough time in a city and you’ll get to know its unique soundscape. In New York City, it features the echoes of car stereos, the deep grumbles of garbage truck engines,…

NBCUniversal’s Peacock will let you watch four live streams at once for 2024 Paris Olympics

March 20, 2024

Today, during NBCUniversal’s annual technology conference, One24, the company revealed a slew of features coming to its streaming service Peacock ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics in July. The most notable feature to launch on Peacock is multiview, which allows subscribers to view up to four simultaneous matches at once. Next to picture-in-picture mode, many […]

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There is a new most expensive drug in the world. Price tag: $4.25 million

March 20, 2024
There is a new most expensive drug ever—a gene therapy that costs as much as a Brooklyn brownstone or a Miami mansion, and more than the average person will earn in a lifetime. Lenmeldy is a gene treatment for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and was approved in the U.S. on Monday. Its maker, Orchard Therapeutics, said…