Facebook isn't exactly enthusiastic about President Biden's claim that it and other social networks are "killing people" by allowing COVID-19 misinformation to spread. The social media firm posted a refutation of the allegations, using data to suggest that something other than Facebook was responsible for a slowdown in vaccination rates and a rise in cases.

The company noted that vaccine acceptance in user polling had risen from 70 percent in January 2021 to as high as 85 percent in July, and that cultural group disparities had declined "considerably" over the same period. This was ahead of Biden's goal of getting 70 percent of Americans vaccinated by July — to Facebook, this was a sign the company was "not the reason" the US fell short of that target.

Facebook added that Canada and the UK had higher vaccination percentages despite using the social network about as much as their American counterparts. There's "more than Facebook" to the US results, the company said. It also pointed to its efforts to both promote accurate claims and fight falsehoods, including the use of misinformation labels, reduced exposure and takedowns. 

The internet giant didn't attempt to find an alternate explanation for US troubles. Some observers have pointed to a possible link between political affiliation and vaccination rates, but Facebook didn't even hint at this in its refutal.

It's not a flawless argument. Facebook is trying to draw a link between its polling data and the entire US, which doesn't make for a neat and tidy comparison. The company also hasn't shared estimates of how much COVID-19 misinformation slips through the cracks. The social site has a strong incentive to downplay its possible contribution to the problem given past complaints that it hasn't done enough to stop misinformation campaigns. 

At the same time, the data shifts the attention back to the Biden administration — it may need to provide more substantial data if it's going to show that health misinformation on social networks like Facebook is a major threat, as the US Surgeon General recently said. If nothing else, it suggests the answer is a complicated one regardless of how much Facebook is responsible.

WhatsApp chats already have end-to-end encryption, but what about your online backups? They'll soon be covered, too. As The Vergenotes, WABetaInfo has discovered that the latest WhatsApp beta for Android (2.21.15.5) includes a test for end-to-end encrypted cloud backups. Opt in and you don't have to worry that hackers or spies will easily read your conversation history.

There are some caveats. You'll need to create a separate password for restoring your backups, and you can't get them back if you both lose your phone and forget that password. You can alternately create a 64-digit encryption key, but you're also in trouble if you lose that key.

It's not certain that WhatsApp will deploy secure cloud backups with the next stable release, so you might not want to count on it in the near future. It's also unclear if everyone using the new beta gets the same backup functionality.

The timing is apt, at least. WhatsApp just started testing multi-device syncing that isn't dependent on a phone connection. These encrypted backups don't appear to be available across devices, but they could prove reassuring as people depend more and more on WhatsApp for chats on all their gadgets.

NASA's Curiosity rover might be sitting near a wealth of information that might hint at signs of life on Mars. New Scientist and Space.com note that Caltech researchers have identified six locations for methane "burps" (that is, emissions blips) on the planet, including one just a few dozen miles west southwest from Curiosity. Ideally, the rover could investigate the emissions and determine their true nature.

Curiosity has detected the methane spurts six times since landing on Mars in 2012, but scientists haven't had success locating their sources until now. Europe's Trace Gas Orbiter has also failed to spot methane at atmospheric levels. The Caltech team narrowed down the on-the-ground sources by modelling methane particles as packets and tracing their routes based on historical wind velocity.

The research hasn't yet been peer-reviewed, so we'd take it with a grain of caution. It's also entirely possible that the gas has non-organic origins. Even if that's the case, though, the burps could be tied to geological activity linked to liquid water. Early Mars reportedly held massive amounts of water — even if there's no active water at these sources, a close-up study could help illustrate Mars' history.

The many-gigabit internet speed records of a decade ago now seem downright inadequate. Motherboardreports that scientists at Japan's National institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) have smashed the internet transfer record by shuffling data at 319Tbps. For context, that's almost twice as fast as the 179Tbps a team of British and Japanese researchers managed in August 2020.

NICT managed the feat by upgrading virtually every stage of the pipeline. The fiber optic line had four cores instead of one, and researchers fired a 552-channel comb laser at multiple wavelengths with the assistance of rare earth amplifiers. While the test was strictly confined to the lab, the team used coiled fiber to transfer data at a simulated 1,864-mile distance without losing signal quality or speed.

As with many of these experiments, it could be a long time before this performance has a meaningful impact. While the four-core fiber would work with existing networks, the system could easily be very expensive. It's more likely to see initial use with internet backbones and other major networking projects where capacity matters more than cost.

That could still impact your internet usage, though. The NICT researchers envision their next-gen fiber making technologies "beyond 5G" (like 6G) more practical. You may see the benefits simply by moving to faster internet access that doesn't choke when there's a surge of users.

TurboTax creator Intuit has had a chilly relationship with the IRS, and now it's cutting some of its involvement. The Hillreports that Intuit is leaving the IRS' Free File program after participating for almost 20 years. The company said it was "proud" of its involvement, but claimed the limits of the program and "conflicting demands" from outside the program left it with little choice but to leave.

An exit would let Intuit concentrate on "further innovating" in ways the IRS Free File program didn't allow, the company said. While the firm didn't elaborate on what those plans were, it argued that it could help taxpayers get refunds sooner at no charge while drawing on experts and letting users rely on their own data.

The company maintained that it was still "committed" to free tax filing, but that almost 90 percent of filings from the past eight years came from outside of the Free File program.

The move comes just a year after the New York State Department of Financial Services found that Intuit and four other tax prep providers (including H&R Block) had conducted "unfair and abusive" practices by hiding the landing pages for their free filing pages in an alleged attempt to artificially drive paid filing. The IRS also added protections that not only prevented attempts at hiding free filing, but gave the IRS the power to create its own free-file option.

It's not certain if the government crackdowns prompted Intuit's exit. Whatever the motivations, the move could still make it harder for some people to file their taxes. About 3 million of Intuit's 17 million free filings last year went through IRS Free File. That's a large number of people who will have to either find alternative free solutions or hope that TurboTax won't incur a cost.

California might soon make it practical for small internet providers to deliver speedy broadband, not just well-heeled incumbents. Ars Technicareports that the state Assembly and Senate have unanimously passed legislation that will create a statewide open fiber network that promises truly fast internet access from smaller ISPs, particularly in rural or otherwise underserved areas.

The strategy will devote $3.25 billion to the construction of a "middle-mile" network that won't directly connect customers, but should make it much easier for ISPs to launch or upgrade their service. Another $2 billion will help those providers establish last-mile connections to users.

Governor Newsom has yet to sign the legislation into law, but that's considered a formality when he made agreements on details with legislators.

The network met resistance from larger ISPs that lobbied to block the reach of the open fiber network. It might have a significant impact on internet access in the state, however. While state and federal governments have pushed for improved rural broadband coverage for years, the focus has usually been on merely offering service rather than upgrading quality. This could bring truly competitive speeds to underserved areas and ensure they can access the same services as people subscribed to major broadband companies.

Tesla's Full Self-Driving subscription is finally available after multiple delays — and it might be a better value if you'd rather not commit to a purchase. Electreknotes that an updated Tesla mobile app now offers an FSD subscription for $199 per month to most users, or $99 if you bought Enhanced Autopilot before it was discontinued. You can cancel at any time, so you're not tied to a minimum obligation past that first month.

You will need the relevant FSD computer (aka HW3.0). If your EV doesn't have the hardware, you'll need to buy it for $1,500 before subscribing.

This has been a long time in coming. Elon Musk first revealed plans for the subscription in April 2020, but Tesla missed stated goals to launch the feature in late 2020, early 2021 and even a "sure thing" launch in May.

The monthly outlay still isn't a trivial expense, and it would still make more sense to pay the $10,000 upgrade price if you fully intend to use the FSD package for the life of your car. You'd start overpaying just 50 months into the subscription. Still, this might give you an excuse to try the not-quite-autonomous feature to see if it's worth the investment. It might also make sense if you only think you'll want FSD for short stints, such as a lengthy road trip where you'd rather let the car handle lane changes and traffic lights.

It wouldn't be World Emoji Day without an update from Google on its next Android emoji, and there will be plenty of updates to the special characters for Android 12. Google has previewed updates to "hundreds" of characters for the new OS that will also make them more accessible across apps and platforms. In many cases, they're simply more thoughtful — they don't make quite so many presumptions about you or the context of using a given emoji.

To start, there's a more 'universal' pie instead of the pumpkin pie from before (where was this for Android 9?). The bikini emoji doesn't look like it's being worn. Food emoji like the croissant and shrimp look like they've been cooked properly. The camping tent emoji cleverly reflects day or night depending on your OS theme. And the mask emoji no longer looks like a sick person — it's a pandemic-era acknowledgment that wearing a mask shows kindness and respect.

You'll also see emoji that are more functional and easier to read, such as a more realistic motorway character and larger vehicles.

You'll have an easier time using the new emoji, too. From Android 12 onward, apps that support Google's Appcompat will always support the latest emoji without requiring separate updates. Better emoji functionality is also coming to many of Google's platforms, including consistent support in Gmail this July, a new emoji picker in Chrome OS the same month and improved functionality in YouTube chats later in 2021. All told, you won't have to worry so much about missing emoji or other challenges expressing yourself.

Xiaomi is now a true heavyweight in the smartphone arena. Canalys estimates that the Chinese tech giant became the world's second-largest phone brand in the second quarter of 2021, surging 83 percent year-over-yer to claim 17 percent of the market. The company not only overtook Apple (14 percent) to claim the second spot, but blew past its BBK-owned Chinese rivals Oppo and Vivo, both of which held 10 percent. Samsung held on to its lead at 19 percent, but there's clearly not much of a gap.

The key, as you might guess, was price. Xiaomi's average selling prices are well below those of Samsung (40 percent) and Apple (75 percent), and even flagships like the Mi 11 are relatively affordable. That may have helped Xiaomi's strong international expansion, including a 300 percent jump in Latin America, a 150 percent spike in Africa and a 50 percent gain in Western Europe. And unlike its fallen competitor, Huawei, Xiaomi doesn't have a US blacklisting to cloud its future.

It's not certain that Xiaomi will hold on to its position. The second quarter is historically weak for Apple as it reaches the tail end of a given iPhone's release cycle. Canalys also notes that Oppo and Vivo aren't staying still — they have their own dreams of world dominance. And if Xiaomi hopes to escape its low-cost reputation, it needs phones like the Mi 11 Ultra and Mi Mix Fold to resonate with the public.

Even a temporary second-place position would be notable, though. While Xiaomi has long had a major presence in its native China, the company has had a much tougher fight for international recognition. Now, it's large enough to battle with behemoths like Samsung and Apple — it's just a question of whether or not Xiaomi can become the frontrunner.

Blue Origin's auction winner can't make the company's first commercial spaceflight, but there will be a historic substitute. Jeff Bezos' firm has revealed that the first paying passenger for a New Shepard rocket is Oliver Daemen, who at 18 years old will be the youngest person to visit space. That's more than a little appropriate when one of his fellow passengers is 82-year-old Wally Funk, who'll be the oldest person to make the trip.

The flight is still scheduled for July 20th. The auction winner still wants to remain anonymous, but will take a later Blue Origin trip due to "scheduling conflicts."

It's not clear how much Daemen paid for the trip, but it's likely no small amount. Oliver's father is Joes Daemen, the CEO of hedge fund Somerset Capital Partners. While he probably didn't have to pay the $28 million from the auction, the final price was likely enough to keep other wealthy customers at bay.

This launch won't have as much impact as intended given Virgin Galactic's fully crewed spaceflight. Nonetheless, it's still historic beyond the ages of some of its passengers. This trip will include an honest-to-goodness paying customer. It might also be the first flight of its kind to technically enter space. While Virgin's altitude was short of the Kármán line (62 miles) that officially delineates space, Blue Origin is keen to point out that it should cross that symbolic barrier. Think of the July 20th flight as escalating a private space race that's unlikely to end any time soon.