The World Health Organization said Wednesday that ivermectin — touted by some on social media as a Covid-19 "miracle cure" — should not be used to treat coronavirus patients. In response to the swirl of claims around the cheap anti-parasite drug, the WHO issued guidelines saying ivermectin should only be used on Covid-19 patients in clinical trial settings. The UN health agency said there was a "very low certainty of evidence" on ivermectin's effects on mortality, hospital admission and getting rid of the virus from the body.
Facebook posts and articles endorsing ivermectin have proliferated in Brazil, France, South Africa and South Korea as governments around the world struggle with vaccination programmes.
The pandemic has prompted a surge in demand for the drug, particularly in Latin America.
But in an update to its guidelines on Covid-19 therapeutics, the WHO said: "We recommend not to use ivermectin in patients with Covid-19 except in the context of a clinical trial."
"This recommendation applies to patients with any disease severity and any duration of symptoms."
The WHO looked at studies that compared ivermectin against a placebo and against other drugs, in 16 randomised control trials examining 2,400 patients.
"We currently lack persuasive evidence of a mechanism of action for ivermectin in Covid-19, and any observed clinical benefit would be unexplained," it said.
The drug has long been used to treat parasites such as head lice and for river blindness in sub-Saharan Africa.
The WHO recommendation was triggered by "increased international attention" on ivermectin as a potential treatment for Covid-19.
But the guidance said: "The effects of ivermectin on mortality, mechanical ventilation, hospital admission, duration of hospitalisation and viral clearance remain uncertain because of very low certainty of evidence addressing each of these outcomes."
WHO experts stressed that the guidelines were not rigid and could be updated over time if further evidence comes to light.
But for now, "the low cost and wide availability do not, in the panel's view, mandate the use of a drug in which any benefit remains very uncertain and ongoing concerns regarding harms remain".
Ivermectin is one of a string of medications tested as a potential Covid-19 treatment since the pandemic began.
Like anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine — so far unproven by clinical trials — ivermectin is widely available and relatively cheap.
The recommendation is likely to provoke fury and scepticism among the drug's social media champions.
Often the rhetoric doing the rounds on social media for ivermectin is the same as for hydroxychloroquine: that the authorities are deliberately ignoring it because it is not profitable for the pharmaceutical industry.
However, its claimed benefits in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic has not been proven in major clinical trials.
The WHO's clinical management leader Janet Diaz told reporters: "We've been fighting this over-use of unproven therapies, especially some of the repurposed drugs in various parts of the world without evidence of efficacy.
"So it is always concerning because there can be more harm than any good." Furthermore, "It can take resources away from conditions that should be treated with these drugs."
Proponents of ivermectin, like those of hydroxychloroquine, often argue that it is already widely used — even for totally different purposes — therefore its use for Covid-19 is nothing to worry about.
However, Bram Rochwerg, methods chair of the Guideline Development Group (GDG) behind the WHO recommendation, told reporters that while ivermectin was a "relatively safe drug", the dosing regimes used for other illnesses were not comparable.
"The other potential for harm... was a diversion of attention and resources from supportive care that we know works for Covid patients," he added.
Without evidence of efficacy, the GDG felt "these other factors outweighed any potential for uncertain benefit".
Last week, the EU's medicines regulator likewise advised against using ivermectin for coronavirus outside clinical trials.
The US Food and Drug Administration's Covid-19 frequently asked questions page says bluntly "No." in response to "Should I take ivermectin to prevent or treat Covid-19?".
Samsung is gearing up to expand its F series portfolio with the launch of two new phones early next week. The company will launch the Samsung Galaxy F12 and the Galaxy F02s on April 5 in India.
The Samsung Galaxy F12 and Galaxy F02s will be launched at 12 noon on April 5 in a virtual event. Both phones were previously spotted on different certification sites and database, so we know a few details about these phones. Also, the Flipkart launch page has revealed several key specifications of the devices.
The Samsung Galaxy F12 will come with a quad rear camera setup with a 48MP primary ISOCELL GM2 sensor. It will feature a 6.5-inch HD+ Infinity-V display with a screen refresh rate of 90Hz, a first in the F series. Under the hood, the device will be powered by Exynos 850 SoC. These are the specs that the Flipkart page offers us. These specs are similar to the Galaxy M12 budget phone which was launched back in March.
The Galaxy F series has always a rebranded version of the M series counterpart and with the Galaxy F12, the brand is rebranding the Galaxy M12 and will sell on Flipkart with some changes. One change we can notice is the back panel design of the F12 which comes with a stripe line design as compared to the plain one on the Galaxy M12.
Other features expected include up to 128GB storage and 6GB of RAM, Android 11 OS out of the box, 6000mAh battery, and an 8MP selfie camera.
The Galaxy F02s will be more affordable than the F12 and will be launched along with the F12 on April 5. The pricing of the same was leaked a few days back. The Galaxy F02s will feature a 6.5-inch HD+ display, a 5000mAh battery, a 13MP triple rear camera, and will be powered by Snapdragon 450 SoC. Again, these specs are similar to the Samsung Galaxy M02s launched back in January 2021.
According to the leaked pricing, the Galaxy F02s will be priced at Rs 8,999 for the 3+32GB variant and the 4+64GB variant will be priced at Rs 9,999.
The Galaxy F12 and F02s will join the Samsung Galaxy F41 and Galaxy F62 in the series.
Update(April 1): The Redmi Note 10 Pro Max will go on sale today at 12 noon via Amazon. Again, the base variant won't be available for today's sale.
The Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is Xiaomi’s best budget smartphone yet, bringing quite a few premium features to the mid-range. If you were in the market for one, you can buy it starting today.
Launched on March 4 in India, the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is amongst the best smartphones under Rs 20,000 in India. It will go on sale for the first time on March 18 at 12 noon on Amazon.
Redmi Note 10 Pro Max price in India starts at Rs 18,999 for the base variant with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, but it will not be available for today's sale. However, the 6GB + 128GB variant priced at Rs 19,999 and the 8GB + 128GB variant priced at Rs 21,999 will be available. Colour options include Vintage Bronze, Glacial Blue and Dark Night. ICICI Bank credit and debit cardholders will be eligible for a Rs 1,500 discount on the phone.
Check out the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max
6GB + 64GB: Rs 18,999 (available later)
6GB + 128GB: Rs 19,999
8GB + 128GB: Rs 21,999
The Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is currently the cheapest smartphone to offer a 108MP camera stack, consisting of a Samsung HM2 primary sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide lens, a 5MP tele-macro shooter and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front is a 16MP selfie camera in a punch-hole notch.
The Super AMOLED display spans 6.67-inches and has a refresh rate of 120Hz and a peak brightness of 1,200 nits. It is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 against scratches and cracks. The fingerprint scanner is embedded in the power button on the side, and also supports gestures.
On the inside, the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is powered by the Snapdragon 732G chipset and the Adreno 618 GPU, along with UFS 2.2 storage and LPDDR4X RAM. There’s a large 5,020mAh battery inside, which supports 33W fast charging via the included USB Type-C charger. Other features include IP52 water-resistance, dual stereo speakers, Hi-Res audio certification, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an IR blaster, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner with support for gestures and more.
Russia announced Wednesday it had registered what it said was the world's first coronavirus vaccine for animals, describing the step as important for disrupting virus mutations. It said mass production of the vaccine could begin in April. The agriculture oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement that the vaccine called Carnivak-Cov had been tested since October on dogs, cats, mink, foxes and other animals and was proven to be effective.
"All test animals that were vaccinated developed antibodies to coronavirus in 100 percent of cases," said Konstantin Savenkov, deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor. "It is the world's first and only product for preventing Covid-19 in animals."
Rosselkhoznadzor said the development of its shot would help prevent mutations in animals and cited Denmark's decision to cull 15 million mink last year after some were found to be carrying a mutated virus variant.
"The use of the vaccine, according to Russian scientists, can prevent the development of virus mutations," the statement said.
The agency added that animal-breeding facilities and private companies from countries including Greece, Poland, Austria, the United States, Canada and Singapore had expressed interest in Carnivak-Cov.
Military officials in Russia's second city Saint Petersburg announced this week that army dogs would undergo mandatory vaccination before being deployed at airports and participating in nationwide World War II commemorations in May.
Veterinarians and fur breeders said on Wednesday they saw no immediate need to vaccinate animals.
A veterinary clinic in Moscow said it was looking into the information but currently it saw no reason to vaccinate cats and dogs.
"It has not been proven that they are Covid-19 carriers," the clinic said in a statement to AFP.
Russian fur breeders have so far not encountered any cases of coronavirus in animals and are not planning to vaccinate them, said the head of the National Association of Fur Breeders, Nadezhda Zubkova.
But some of the animals have been vaccinated during trials and "are feeling fine", Zubkova told AFP.
"It is a decent vaccine," said Zubkova whose association comprises farms with around 2 million animals including minks and foxes.
Russia has heavily promoted its state-sponsored coronavirus vaccine abroad but it has been met with scepticism in the West and even by many in Russia.
Officials registered the Sputnik V vaccine last August, ahead of large-scale clinical trials, sparking concern among many experts over the fast-track process. It has since registered two more vaccines.
Leading medical journal The Lancet in February confirmed Sputnik V to be safe and over 90 percent effective.
Moscow has applied to Europe's medicines regulator to gain approval for the use of Sputnik V in the 27-nation bloc, but is still waiting for an answer.
An area of pristine rainforest the size of the Netherlands was burned or hacked down last year, as the destruction of the planet's tropical forests accelerated despite a global economic slowdown, according to research Wednesday. The worst losses were in Brazil, three times higher than the next highest country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a report from Global Forest Watch based on satellite data. Across the tropics, the study registered the destruction in 2020 of 4.2 million hectares (10.4 million acres) of primary forest — 12 percent higher than the year before.
Ecosystems straddling the equator shelter abundant biodiversity and store vast amounts of carbon.
In total, the tropics lost 12.2 million hectares of tree cover — including forests and plantations — last year, driven largely by agriculture.
But researchers said extreme heat and drought also stoked huge fires that consumed swathes of forest across Australia, Siberia and deep into the Amazon.
These losses are a "climate emergency. They're a biodiversity crisis, a humanitarian disaster, and a loss of economic opportunity", said Frances Seymour of the World Resources Institute, which is behind the report.
The study found some evidence that Covid-19 restrictions may have had an effect around the world — with an increase in illegal harvesting because forests were left less protected, or the return of large numbers of people to rural areas.
But researchers said there was little sign that the pandemic had changed the trajectory of forest destruction and warned that the worst could be still to come if countries slash protections in an attempt to ramp up economic growth.
But Seymour said the most "ominous signal" from the 2020 data is the instances of forests themselves falling victim to climate change.
"I mean, wetlands are burning," she said in a press briefing. "Nature has been whispering this risk to us for a long time. But now she is shouting."
Plants — especially in the tropics — and soil comprise an enormous carbon sink, sucking up roughly a third of all the carbon pollution humans produce annually.
Yet tropical forests continue to disappear rapidly, threatening irreparable losses to Earth's crucial biodiversity.
Researchers said the destruction of tropical primary forests in 2020 released 2.64 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2020, equal to the annual emissions of India or 570 million cars, more than double the number on the road in the United States.
"The longer we wait to stop deforestation, and get other sectors on to net zero trajectories, the more likely it is that our natural carbon sinks will go up in smoke," Seymour said.
Also read: Carbon might boost forest, grassland growth but absorption capacity of soil decreases
Brazil, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has cut funding for environmental programs and pushed to open protected Amazon lands to agribusiness and mining, lost 1.7 million hectares of primary forest in 2020, an increase of 25 percent from 2019, the report said.
"Brazil, having achieved a huge reduction in deforestation in the Amazon, is now seeing an unravelling of that success, and it's heartbreaking," said Seymour.
Much of the loss was in the Amazon, including new areas that were deliberately cleared.
But dry conditions also meant fires lit on previously deforested land spread to once humid forests, burning out of control.
Fires also devastated the Pantanal wetlands, a paradise of biodiversity that extend from Brazil into Bolivia — the country with the third highest level of forest loss in 2020.
Almost a third of the Pantanal was scorched, including indigenous lands and jaguar habitats, and researchers said it could be decades before the region recovers.
Also read: Increasing agricultural demands by rich countries increases deforestation in tropics
One bright area was in Indonesia, which reduced its rate of forest loss by 17 percent from 2019 and dropped out of the global top three for the first time in the 20 years of Global Forest Watch monitoring.
Forest destruction has slowed for four years in a row in Indonesia and researchers said government policies — helped last year by wetter weather — appeared to be having "a long-term effect on reducing primary forest loss".
Forests cover more than 30 percent of Earth's land surface, and tropical forests are home to between 50 and 90 percent of all terrestrial species.
Recent research has shown that, beyond a certain threshold, deforestation in the Amazon basin could tip the region into a new climate regime, turning tropical forests into savannah.
In January, two top Brazilian indigenous leaders asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Bolsonaro for "crimes against humanity", accusing him of unprecedented environmental damage, killings and persecution.
On Monday, a study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution estimated that rising demand in wealthy countries for commodities ranging from coffee to soybeans was accelerating deforestation in the tropics.
Also read: Third of world's farm are at 'high risk' of pesticide pollution
Responding to creator feedback on "well-being and targeted dislike campaigns", YouTube says it is testing few new designs for the platform where the public dislike count would not show. The 'new designs' are still an experiment and will be visible to some creators and viewers over the coming weeks. Creators will still be able to see the total likes and dislike on a video in YouTube Studio. For viewers, the ones who are part of the experiment, there will be a dislike button, but it won't show the dislike counter.
YouTube announced experimenting with the design on its official Twitter account.
Creators, you'll still be able to see the exact number of likes and dislikes in YouTube Studio. For viewers, if you're in the experiment, you can still like or dislike a video to share feedback with creators and help tune the recommendations you see on YouTube.
— YouTube (@YouTube) March 30, 2021
Last week, YouTube also announced expanding the ‘Products in this Video’ option. The update is going to provide videos for related content in any YouTube video. The feature will appear when a user will scroll through the video player and in between the recommended videos.
The update will be an addition to the pre-existing ‘recommended videos’ section that suggests users play videos similar to the ones that they are already watching. It is expected to focus on the video that users watch to check the features of a product before making a purchase.
Xiaomi, on Tuesday, 30 March, unveiled a brand new dynamic logo with a corporate visual identity. With the logo, the Chinese tech giant aims at improving the brand’s awareness. The new corporate identity, with the design concept of “Alive”, will help in strengthening the company's foothold in the market, stated the press release. Alive interprets the brand's philosophy giving it a visual image full of life: people are alive. Since people have created technology, thus, technology is also alive.
New year. New look. New us.
Together with @haraken_tokyo, we've changed our logo! How do you like our new logo? #XiaomiMegaLaunch pic.twitter.com/bqi33ZC3vE
— Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) March 30, 2021
"The concept of Alive is Xiaomi’s thinking and response to the turning point in the era of intelligent interconnectivity. As a technology company, Xiaomi is committed to bringing more innovations around the world and it is essential for the brand to grow along with its users," states the press release.
The logo has been designed by Kenya HARA, the President of the Nippon Design Center (NDC) and a professor of Musashino Art University. He used the “superellipse” mathematical formula while designing it, the release added.
In the logo, the old square has been replaced with a squircle (the shape in between a circle and a square). Basically, it now has rounded corners. That's the only change.
The logo’s corporate colour remains Orange as it conveys the brand's youthfulness and liveliness, the release added.
The company will use black and silver as supplementary colours.
Redmi Note 10 series debuted in India last week. The series includes three models Redmi Note 10 (Review), Redmi Note 10 Pro and Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. The three models come with a Super AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and a quad rear camera setup. Redmi Note 10 Pro Max will go on sale today at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com. The smartphone comes with a 108 MP quad rear camera setup and a 5,020 mAh battery that comes with support for 33 W fast charging.
(Also Read: Redmi Note 10 Pro Max Vs Redmi Note 10 Pro Vs Redmi Note 10: What's the difference)
Redmi Note 10 Pro Max will be available in three storage variants. The 6 GB RAM + 64 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 18,999, the 6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 19,999 and 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant will cost you Rs 21,999.
Be a part of the #108MP REVOLUTION!
Grab your #RedmiNote10ProMax from https://t.co/cwYEXdVQIo, Mi Home and @AmazonIN tomorrow at 12 noon.Avail up to ₹1500 off with @ICICIBank Credit Cards or get up to ₹600 cashback using @MobiKwik code 'MBK600' on https://t.co/cwYEXdVQIo. pic.twitter.com/smaBMNsmdp
— Redmi India - #RedmiNote10 Series (@RedmiIndia) March 24, 2021
It will go on sale today at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com.
Xiaomi has also announced that consumers buying Redmi 10 series smartphones will also get up to Rs 1,500 off on ICICI Bank debit and credit cards.
Redmi Note 10 features a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED display that comes with a 120 Hz refresh rate. It is powered by Snapdragon 732 G chipset and offers up to 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. It runs on MIUI 12 based on Android 11.
For photography, it sports a quad rear camera setup that houses a 108 MP Samsung ISOCELL HM2 sensor, an 8 MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 5 MP Super macro lens and a 2 MP depth sensor. For selfies, it comes with a 16 MP punch hole camera. The Camera app now comes with Night mode 2.0, Magic Clone mode, Dual Video mode and more.
It is equipped with a 5,020 mAh battery that supports 33 W fast charging.
If you have a Nvidia GPU, you'll now be able to use GeForce GPU Passthrough when running virtual machines on Windows.
While the feature has been used for a while now, the company didn't officially support the technology in the past but this has changed with the announcement that GeForce GPU Passthrough for Windows Virtual Machine is now in beta.
GeForce desktop graphics cards that are based on the Kepler, Maxwell or Pascal architectures or newer will be able to take advantage of GPU passthrough when running a virtual machine on Windows. Users that want to leverage GPU passthrough on a laptop though will need a GPU based on the Maxwell architecture or newer.
By using GPU passthrough, developers can use virtual machines to test software and even games on different operating systems while only using one machine. Linux users on the other hand will be able to play Windows-based games using a virtual machine with GPU passthrough enabled.
In order to start using GeForce GPU Passthrough on your system, you'll need to ensure that you have the R465 driver installed.
While GPU passthrough could be a godsend for developers that want to test code in both Windows and Linux on one machine, there are some limitations.
For instance, Nvidia's GeForce GPU Passthrough technology only allows for one virtual machine to access the host machine's GPU. If you need to run multiple virtual machines using a single GPU, the company's GeForce graphics cards won't suffice. Instead you'll need to upgrade to either a Tesla or Quadro graphics card.
Now that Nvidia officially supports GPU passthrough, we'll likely see further enhancements and features that leverage the technology in the future.
Via Wccftech
One of biggest tech trends of 2021 was the skyrocketing popularity of the audio-only app Clubhouse. From 2,000 downloads in September 2020, the app’s monthly downloads jumped to 2.4 million in January 2021. In February 2021, Clubhouse crossed 10 million downloads globally on the Apple App Store.
Unless you took social distancing a little too far and were living in a cave, you would know that Clubhouse is a social platform built around the “drop-in audio chat” model. It features ephemeral real-time voice conversations that any user can listen to and nobody can record.
From Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah to Lindsay Lohan, Clubhouse has gathered a legion of high-profile users.
For starters, the pandemic, the quarantine, the one-year of WFH, the hordes of people desperate for social connection, all of that together may have created the ideal conditions for the audio-only model to thrive.
Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) recently shared a study, according to which, ‘Zoom fatigue’ is real. Bailenson says these video calls are tiring people out more than usual.
Constant Zoom calls and meetings, longer work hours (than usual) have worn people down over time, and with so much fatigue, text-based social media can only go so far; audio is a natural alternative. Live conversations transmit more empathy than text chat, while needing less screen and seat-focused than video.
To some extent, the popularity of podcasts have laid the foundation for the audio-only model.
The audio-chat model also creates the excitement and unpredictability around eavesdropping on a conversation, which can be thrilling.
I also spoke to Amit Doshi, the founder and CEO of IVM podcast about what makes audio conversations so attractive. He says: "Conversations are something we all do everyday. It's different from writing or addressing a group of people, conversations can be casual, deep, emotive, funny and everything in between. As the oldest mode of communication and something that comes very naturally to us, it’s a medium that allows for a deeper level of intimacy and authenticity."
Essentially, the audio conversations work well because they offer the best of the both worlds — of podcasts and webinars. You can drop in and out of a chat room, you can choose to be a passive listener or an active speaker. On Clubhouse, in particular, I also find the randomness very interesting – a conversation on Bitcoin can be followed by one on how to kick off a startup, or a discussion on women entrepreneurs, as opposed to the social media echo chamber we are by now accustomed to.
"Any content that is relayed via a single sense, in this case, audio, does not require our full attention in the sense that you can listen to something while sending emails, or cooking, or working out or any other task. This means that while you’re fully engaged and consuming the content, you are also able to devote your time to other tasks making it very easy to incorporate into your existing routine," Doshi adds.
In effect, the audio-only medium is like the Goldilocks zone. It’s not as invasive as a video chat, but it’s also not as impersonal as a text; it’s voice, it’s intrinsic, it’s just right!
Within weeks of Clubhouse’s popularity shooting up, other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook jumped at the chance of gaining back the audience that Clubhouse may have lured away from them.
Earlier this month, Twitter started rolling out a feature called Spaces on the platform, which lets users join in on an audio-only conversation. You can choose to join as a listener or a speaker or switch between the two. The feature is now rolling out for most Android and iOS Twitter users globally, including India. While still an experiment, it is impossible not to see the inspiration.
Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, LinkedIn are also reportedly dabbling with a similar offering.
Audio doesn’t fit neatly into the always-on, hit-and-run, race-to-the-bottom formats of online content. It’s slower, more considered, garners more engagement by design and has taken a while to really gather steam. With the current renaissance in podcasting and sudden interest by big tech in ephemeral audio content, it appears that we’re on the cusp of something.
However, current social media platforms continue to struggle to regulate and make their spaces safe for its users. And considering audio moderation is harder to manage than text or images, platforms like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces will have to do a lot more to keep harassment at bay. Twitter spokespersons have spoken at length about the evolving experiment that is Spaces, and how health and safety are top priorities going forward.
Rian Johnson scored a big win with 2019's Knives Out, a star-studded 'whodunnit' that proved both a critical and commercial hit for the writer-director following his successful-yet-divisive Star Wars film, The Last Jedi.
Johnson announced plans for a Knives Out sequel shortly after the first film's release that would see Daniel Craig return as detective Benoit Blanc to solve an entirely new mystery.
Although news on the follow-up has been quiet since then, a major development has occurred today, with Variety reporting that Netflix has purchased the rights to not one, but two Knives Out sequels for the astonishing price of $450 million.
The deal will see Johnson return to write and helm the two sequels, alongside Craig who will reprise his role as the brilliant, Southern-fried investigator who must solve an especially complex murder mystery with numerous suspects.
While $450 million may seem like an outrageous sum to pay for two mid-budget mystery films, the purchase does provide Netflix with a ready-made franchise which already has a built-in fanbase.
Netflix has amassed an enormous audience over the years, but has so far struggled to develop compelling film properties which have lasting appeal.
Recently, the company has attempted to kick off a number of blockbuster-style franchises with the likes of The Old Guard, Project Power and Outside the Wire, but most (with the exception of the Chris Hemsworth's record-smashing actioner Extraction) have faded from memory rather quickly.
On top of this, Netflix now has to compete with Disney Plus and HBO Max, which have a number of enormous franchise films in the pipeline from the likes of Star Wars, Marvel and DC, so it makes sense for the streaming giant to aggressively build its own exclusive properties with legitimate franchise appeal.
The first Knives Out made an impressive $311 million at the global box office from a budget of just $40 million. The film also earned Johnson an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. At present, it's unknown whether Knives Out 2 and 3 will also be released theatrically.
The cloud services giant VMware aims to help customers unlock the power of multi-cloud and deliver modern applications at the speed of business with the launch of its new multi-cloud platform VMware Cloud.
VMware Cloud is a distributed, multi-cloud platform that enables organizations to accelerate app modernization across the data center, edge and any cloud. The new platform also provides distinctive advantages to both developers and IT operators who are often forced to make trade offs.
With VMware Cloud, developers can be more productive as it allows them to build and deploy applications to any cloud. At the same time though, the platform enables IT departments to modernize their infrastructure and operations with better economics and less risk.
COO of products and cloud services at VMware Raghu Raghuram provided further insight on the advantages of VMware Cloud in a press release, saying:
“We are on the cusp of the next evolution of cloud and apps. Architectures are becoming distributed and increasingly multi-cloud, while modern applications will soon outnumber traditional apps. The challenge for any CIO is to take advantage of this new innovation without introducing more complexity and risk. VMware Cloud is the only cloud solution today that customers can use in the datacenter and on any cloud, accelerating their modernization journey with speed, simplicity, and better security. With VMware Cloud Universal, customers make a single purchase and gain the ability to deploy apps across any environment, then move them as business or application requirements change.”
By using VMware Cloud, customers can deploy apps to VMware Cloud Foundation running in AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud on VMware Cloud on Dell EMC and across hundreds of VMware Cloud Verified partners.
With the launch of VMware Cloud, the company is also announcing new offerings that bring a more integrated experience to customers including VMware Cloud Universal, VMware Cloud Console and VMware Cloud Navigator.
VMware Cloud Universal is a flexible subscription that simplifies the purchase and consumption of VMware multi-cloud infrastructure and management services. Once customers purchase credits they can apply them to deployments of VMware Cloud Foundation on premises, VMware Cloud on AWS, or VMware Cloud on Dell EMC. The subscription also includes built-in Kubernetes through VMware Tanzu Standard.
VMware Cloud Console supports this new subscription and delivers end-to-end visibility and control of all VMware Cloud infrastructure across on-premises, cloud and edge environments. This integrated portal allows customers to allocate, manage and better optimize all of their VMware Cloud resources.
Finally, organizations can use VMware App Navigator to prioritize app modernization initiatives and deliver results faster. The new offering uses automated tooling and hands-on experimentation to plan just enough to get started, then quickly scale app and cloud transformation initiatives.
Helping startups succeed has been an integral part of AWS since its beginning which is why Amazon's cloud computing arm has announced the launch of its new accelerator for space-focused startups.
AWS Space Accelerator is a four-week business support program open to space startups that are seeking to use AWS to help solve the biggest challenges in the space industry. Through its new accelerator, AWS will provide technical, business and mentoring resources to space startups around the globe.
AWS is also collaborating with the investment group Seraphim which focuses exclusively on the space industry to provide business development and investment guidance. Together, the two companies will select a cohort of space startups to participate in their intensive, four-week program with AWS Cloud and technical training to help accelerate their research, development and growth using AWS.
Director of aerospace and satellite at AWS Clint Crosier explained in a blog post how the new accelerator will help startups in the space industry succeed, saying:
“Startups provide a catalyst for bold new experimentation in the space industry. We are proud to announce the AWS Space Accelerator as part of our ongoing commitment to help startups succeed, and to shape the future of aerospace. We look forward to helping the first cohort of companies launch and grow through this new program.”
AWS and Seraphim are now accepting applications from innovative startups at all stages of maturity working with space technology or space-derived data that have a clearly defined and unique mission. Some examples of qualifying missions include (but are not limited to) earth observation, electronics and robotics, spacecraft launch and delivery, spacecraft hardware and software, launch manufacturing and launch operations.
Applications will be judged on several factors such as the innovative and unique nature of the project, the overall value the solution will bring to the industry, creative application of AWS to solve problems and the team's ability to deliver on an identified opportunity.
AWS and Seraphim will select a total of 10 companies to participate in the AWS Space Accelerator that is scheduled to take place in June. Selected startups may receive up to $100k in AWS Activate credit as well as mentoring from space domain and technical subject matter experts with experience working on AWS.
Interested space-focused startups can apply now and their proposals will be due on April 21.
iOS 14.5 is the next version of iOS, and while it won’t be as big an update as iOS 15, which isn’t expected to land in finished form until September, it’s still set to add a bunch of new features and improvements.
We know this because iOS 14.5 is already in beta, so developers and members of the public have turned up all sorts of interesting additions. Some of these are handy upgrades, like an alternative to Face ID that lets you unlock your iPhone by wearing an Apple Watch.
iOS 14.5 beta 6 has arrived with another promising feature – recalibrating your iPhone's battery life estimates to correct faulty readings. Unfortunately, that feature's only for the iPhone 11 range at first, though we can't imagine why it won't come to other Apple phones.
Below, we’ve highlighted the four best things we’re expecting in iOS 14.5. It’s worth noting that there’s a chance some of these things won’t turn up, as occasionally features in beta don’t make it to the finished release, but we’d certainly expect most of them.
We’ve also included information on when iOS 14.5 is likely to land, so that those who don’t want to brave the beta will know how long they have to wait.
The iOS 14.5 beta 6 for developers came out, and with it the capability to recalibrate battery life estimates. This takes time – up to several weeks – and only seems to be for the iPhone 11 range for now.
There’s no news on exactly when iOS 14.5 might launch, but we have reason to believe it’s coming very soon.
There are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, it’s already available in both public and developer betas, which suggests it would probably arrive soon. But secondly and more significantly, Apple has launched a new 14.x version every calendar month since the launch of iOS 14, and iOS 14.4 landed in January, so we could see iOS 14.5 this month (March).
That said, iOS 14.4 started rolling out at the end of January, and the actual gap between new versions is over a month on average, so it might be towards the end March by the time we get iOS 14.5.
Expect to hear an exact date for the rollout before it arrives on your phone, but it's likely to be a quick turnaround between us hearing the new software upgrade is out and it actually landing on your iPhone.
We’re expecting a bunch of updates as part of iOS 14.5, but below we’ve listed the five most interesting ones that we’ve heard about so far.
Face ID was great until we all started wearing masks, but with iOS 14.5 Apple is making it great again, at least for Apple Watch owners.
That’s because as long as your Apple Watch is unlocked, you’ll now be able to use it to authenticate your identity on your phone, meaning you can simply raise your phone as if to use Face ID, and it will unlock, with a buzz on your wrist to tell you your watch has done the heavy lifting.
However, while this will work for unlocking your iPhone, it doesn’t currently work for other things that rely on Face ID, such as authenticating purchases. Still, it's a handy workaround for users who have had facial recognition blocked when wearing face masks – and given the feature arrived in iOS 14.5 beta 2 for developers, we'd expect this to land in the full release.
Previously, we'd thought this change meant that you'd be able to change your default music player in iOS 14.5. A new update from Apple has confirmed that it won't work in the exact way we had expected though.
A new feature will allow you to better use your own choice of music players rather than your iPhone defaulting to Apple Music, but it isn't a specific change you can make within a Settings menu.
Instead, Siri will use its learning of how you listen to music, audiobooks and podcasts. When you ask it to play a specific piece of audio, it'll then ask you where you want to listen to it.
Then it'll gently integrate that into your future listening, and that likely means that in the future your iPhone will learn you listen to music on Spotify and podcasts on the Apple Podcasts app.
iOS 14.5 is also expected to include a big new privacy feature called App Tracking Transparency. This will require apps to get your permission before sharing your activity and data with websites and apps owned by other companies.
This sharing of data is often used for adverts, with Facebook for example making big use of it, but with App Tracking Transparency you’ll be able to opt out if you’d prefer, and Apple is insisting that users still have full access to apps even if they do opt out of this.
If you’re a gamer then you’ll probably appreciate the addition of support for PS5 and Xbox Series X controllers as part of iOS 14.5. The Verge reports that this feature has been found in the public beta, and it should be a handy upgrade for anyone who owns one of these consoles, especially those who also make use of Apple Arcade.
Arguably this would be even more useful for gaming on an Apple TV, and while the feature isn’t yet confirmed for tvOS, we’d expect it will soon be added to that too.
Many of us aren’t really going anywhere at the moment, but for those who do have much use for Apple Maps, there’s a potentially handy new feature in the iOS 14.5 beta.
MacRumors reports that you can now report accidents, hazards, and speed checks on your journey, and presumably if enough people flag the same thing a warning about it will appear on Apple Maps – though with so many people staying at home and the feature still being in beta, it’s not getting enough use for that to have been confirmed as far as we can see.
Vaccine maker Bharat Biotech, Biovet and Sapigen Biologix on Monday signed a collaborative research agreement with CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) here to collaborate on the development of novel platform technologies for biotherapeutics and vaccines to support affordable healthcare solutions for humans and animals. The Master Collaborative Agreement (MCA) was signed here by Bharat Biotech International, Biovet, Sapigen Biologix with the IICT in the presence of Bharat Biotech CMD Krishna Ella, CSIR DG Shekhar C Mande, IICT Director S Chandrasekhar and others. The collaborators would identify mutually interesting projects to pursue under the agreement, a CSIR-IICT release said.
As a part of the MCA, the Industry collaborators shall provide necessary financial support to CSIR-IICT for developing key raw materials required by the collaborators, and also perform "in-vitro and in vivo studies" for further development of potential vaccine candidates and bio-therapeutics formulations to be designed by the collaborators.
The broad-based MCA enables the partners to take up futuristic development activities in other related areas as well, it said.
The MCA follows the contribution by CSIR-IICT during February 2021, in developing a synthetic process route for adjuvant molecule TLR 7/8 to BBIL for Covaxin, the indigenous vaccine rolled out by BBIL.
The partners intend to strengthen the "excellent working relationship" between the organisations, by conducting studies on futuristic vaccines, bio-therapeutic formulations, delivery strategies and also explore innovative solutions to the vaccination administration process.
Biovet is a leader in animal vaccines, while Sapigen Biologix is engaged in research, design, development of technical know-how in all kinds of work in the fields of Biology, Bio-technology and others, according to the release. Addressing the gathering, Krishna Ella talked about the dependence on imports for some of the raw materials and the need to address the issue.
"When you want to leapfrog the vaccine field, we need other ancillary industries to come up, other technologies to come up along with it. Otherwise, I don't think, biotechnology field, we will go (far ahead). We will be importing a lot of stuff from other places..," he said.
Noting that some raw materials could not be obtained from the US due to certain restrictions imposed by that country, he said such problems needed to be anticipated in the future.
"That is one of the reasons why we said, let's partner (with CSIR)...," he said.
Asked about how the issue of shortage of raw materials would be addressed, Mande referred to the goal of ''Atma Nirbhar Bharat''and that the government is very keen on generating as many resources as possible within the country.
"Shortage of chemicals that probably is being asked is only one aspect of that. What we would like to take is a much larger view and try to see that as much as possible, we would like to be self-dependent," he said.
However, the statement of self-dependent on raw materials does not mean remaining inward-looking (that nothing will be imported) and the government is keen on having the capability, capacity and confidence that everything can be done in the country, Mande said.
About how the agreement would work, he said true collaborations involve exchange of ideas between different parties and working together and not working in isolation.
He said CSIR and Bharat Biotech are looking at bringing mRNA based vaccine platform in the country.
"For example, today there is a need felt that India must have a vaccine platform which is let us say mRNA based. Today, we don''t have an mRNA based vaccine platform in the country." "Dr Ella and us are already talking about it that how do we actually bring it and Dr Ella is very confident that in the coming few months we will be able to actually bring it, this particular platform," Mande said.
He said mRNA has emerged as one of the most powerful technologies in the COVID pandemic.
Asked if the mRNA effort would be COVID specific, he said the CSIR, in its collaborations with companies, would like to cover different areas and many diseases together.
"When we do collaborations with companies, we always do long term, many different areas, many different diseases together. COVID also is a part of that. But, what we want to do is generate a platform here so that any other diseases or future pandemics can also be dealt with this kind of a platform," Mande added.
Epic Games submitted a complaint Tuesday about Apple’s alleged “monopolistic practices” to the UK competition watchdog, which is investigating the iPhone maker over concerns it has a dominant position in app distribution. The move by the maker of the popular video game Fortnite is the latest salvo in its bitter battle over Apple’s App Store. Epic Games has also filed legal challenges in the United States and Australia, and an antitrust complaint in the European Union against Apple.
The game-maker’s complaint accuses Apple of anti-competitive behaviour and setting strict rules on app distribution and payments in alleged violation of UK rules.
Apple said it wasn’t surprised by Epic’s UK complaint “as we have seen them use the same playbook around the world.”
The Competition and Markets Authority confirmed it received the complaint and said it would be considered as part of its investigation opened last month into whether Apple’s practices result in higher prices or less choice for consumers.
The dispute stems from Apple taking a 30 percent cut from some purchases made through apps, which music streaming service Spotify and other apps have also taken issue with. Epic tried to bypass the App Store with a direct payment system, but Apple responded by dropping the Fortnite app from the platform.
“By kneecapping the competition and exerting its monopoly power over app distribution and payments, Apple strips UK consumers of the right to choose how and where they get their apps, while locking developers into a single marketplace that lets Apple charge any commission rate they choose,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said in a statement.
“These harmful practices lead to artificially inflated costs for consumers, and stifle innovation among developers, many of whom are unable to compete in a digital ecosystem that is rigged against them,” Sweeney alleged.
Epic said it’s not seeking monetary damages but wants regulators to come up with fixes to prevent market distortion and manipulation.
Apple said Epic Games became hugely successful thanks to the App Store and now “wants to operate under a different set of rules than the ones that apply to all other developers. The result would be weakened privacy and data security protections for our customers, and we think that’s wrong.”
Australia's Parliament House and the country's Channel Nine television network both recently fell victim to cyberattacks and at this time it's still unclear as to whether or not the attacks were related.
As reported by Sky News, a cyberattack disrupted Channel Nine's live broadcasts from Sydney and at the same time, an attack led to Parliament House's email system being taken offline.
While the nature of the attack against the television network has yet to be confirmed, Channel Nine has begun an investigation into the matter to determine if it was “criminal sabotage or the work of a foreign nation”.
In a statement to News.com.au, Australia's assistant minister for defense Andre Hastie explained that cybersecurity isn't something for Australians to take lightly, saying:
"This is a timely reminder that Australians cannot be complacent about their cyber security. Cyber security is a team effort and a shared responsibility. It is vital that Australian businesses and organisations are alert to this threat and take the necessary steps to ensure our digital sovereignty."
Hastie also explained to the news outlet that the government was forced to cut access to IT and email services at Parliament House in order to protect against a cyberattack related to an external provider. However, Hastie nor the Australian government have yet to say which external provider was targeted by attackers.
We'll likely found out more once Channel Nine and the Australian government conclude their respective investigations into the matter.
Via Sky News
The Realme GT Neo, which is launching in China today, could soon be arriving in India, with the device already appearing on the BIS website. While information on the device was being leaked over the past few days, with its appearance on TENAA now, there's hardly anything left to know.
While teaser posters on Weibo revealed the design specs of the device with its dual-tone finish and rectangular camera module, additional images and specifications have now arrived on TENNA where the Realme GT Neo is identified with the model number RMX3031. The same is now available on the Indian IMEI database and has now appeared on the BIS certification website.
The TENAA listing reveals a corner punch-hole camera and a rear panel that we have already seen on the teasers. In addition, it also suggests that the Realme GT Neo will have a 6.43-inch screen and a 4,400mAH battery. The device itself measures 158.5 x 73.3 x 8.4 mm, indicating a reasonable fit within an average palm.
The affordable gaming flagship phone will be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 processor which could make it quite a welcome addition for gamers, given that the new chipset offers 22% faster CPU performance and 25% more power efficiency.
We already know from the posters that the Realme GT Neo has a dedicated button that is being referred to as the GT Mode. It would offer performance boosts whereby all available resources in the device would be made available to the current task that the user wants it to run.
This could be a boon for gamers who require sound processing and good screen speed during a gaming session. The Realme GT Neo offers lightning, 4D vibration, enhanced image quality, and full-on performance, as per the Weibo poster.
A billionaire’s private SpaceX flight filled its two remaining seats Tuesday with a scientist-teacher and a data engineer whose college friend actually won a spot but gave him the prize. The new passengers: Sian Proctor, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona, and Chris Sembroski, a former Air Force missile man from Everett, Washington. They will join flight sponsor Jared Isaacman and another passenger for three days in orbit this fall. Isaacman also revealed some details about his Inspiration4 mission, as the four gathered Tuesday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
He’s head of Shift4 Payments, a credit card processing company in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and is paying for what would be SpaceX’s first private flight while raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
Their SpaceX Dragon capsule — currently parked at the International Space Station for NASA — will launch no earlier than mid-September, aiming for an altitude of 540 kilometres. That’s 20 kilometres higher than the International Space Station and on a level with the Hubble Space Telescope.
What an amazing day at @NASAKennedy. @ArceneauxHayley and I are so happy to welcome @DrSianProctor and Chris Sembroski to the @inspiration4 crew. Thanks @SpaceX for making this announcement so special. https://t.co/OpQpA1Yubk
— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) March 30, 2021
The capsule will be outfitted with a domed window in place of the usual space station docking mechanism for their trip.
Isaacman, 38, a pilot who will serve as spacecraft commander, still won’t say how much he’s paying. He’s donating $100 million to St. Jude, while donors so far have contributed $13 million, primarily through the lottery that offered a chance to fly in space.
Hayley Arceneaux, 29, was named to the crew a month ago. The St. Jude physician assistant was treated there as a child for bone cancer.
Also read: SpaceX, US billionaire tie-up for first 'all civilian' flight to orbit slated for late 2021
That left two capsule seats open. Proctor, 51, beat out 200 businesses and nabbed the seat reserved for a customer of Isaacman’s company. An independent panel of judges chose her space art website dubbed Space2inspire.
“It was like when Harry Potter found out he was a wizard, a little bit of shock and awe,” Proctor told The Associated Press last week. “It’s like, ‘I’m the winner?’”
Sembroski, 41, donated and entered the lottery but wasn’t picked in the random drawing earlier this month — his friend was. His friend declined to fly for personal reasons and offered the spot to Sembroski, who worked as a Space Camp counsellor in college and volunteered for space advocacy groups.
“Just finding out that I’m going to space was an incredible, strange, surreal event,” he said.
He’s about to start a new job at Lockheed Martin and admits it will be a balancing act over the next six months, as the crew trains.
Isaacman insists they won’t cut any corners as they prepare for launch.
“You don’t go up on Everest, right, after just a hike in the backyard. You build your way to it,” he told reporters.
Proctor, who studied geology, applied three times to NASA’s astronaut corps, coming close in 2009, and took part in simulated Mars missions in Hawaii. She was born in Guam, where her late father — a “Hidden Figure” in her mind — worked at NASA’s tracking station for the Apollo moonshots, including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s.
She plans to teach from space and create art up there, too.
“To me, everything that I’ve done ... has brought me to this moment.”
A newly observed interstellar comet is the most pristine visitor from outer space ever seen in our Solar System, according to a pair of studies released Tuesday detailing its unique characteristics. Pristine, in astronomical terms, describes a comet that has never passed close enough to a star to be transformed by its searing heat. 2I/Borisov was discovered in 2019 by Ukrainian astrophysicist Gennady Borisov at the MARGO Observatory in Crimea and is only the second interstellar object detected in our planetary system.
The first — the asteroid known as Oumaumua, which roughly means "Scout" in the Hawaiian language — baffled scientists for its unprecedented properties.
Both objects had trajectories unbound by the Sun, suggesting they came our way through the emptiness of deep space from another Solar System.
Writing in the journal Nature Communications, an international team describe how 2I/Borisov's coma — the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet — polarised light at a higher rate than typical comets.
This is evidence that the comet probably didn't pass very close to its own star before embarking on its interstellar voyage.
The heat from a star can evaporate a comet's ice particles, liberating dust particles.
Lighter particles form the comet's tail while heavier ones fall back on to its surface, building a crust.
Observing the tail of a comet can help scientists see how pristine — or intact — it is.
Co-author Lioudmila Kolokolova from the University of Maryland's Department of Astronomy explained the findings with reference to the coma, the cloud of gases and particles enveloping the comet core.
"Since we have observed a very homogeneous coma, without any signs of jets and other features, we suppose that the comet does not have a crust," she told AFP. "Thus it is really a pristine object, not affected much by radiation and charged particles."
The researchers said that only one other comet —Hale-Bopp, discovered by amateur astronomers in 1995 — had exhibited similarly polarised light.
A second paper, published in Nature Astronomy, analysed the dust in the 2I/Borisov's coma and found it consisted of tiny "pebbles".
This compact pebble dust may have resulted from its formation, "perhaps due to gravitational stirring by giant planets much like in our own Solar system" according to lead author Bin Yang, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory.
She said that the indications were that 2I/Borisov's composition was "quite similar to a solar system comet".
There are likely to be far more interstellar objects out there in the vast expanse of space than the two observed so far in our Solar System, she added.
"We think there are many asteroids and comets around other stars," she told AFP. "However, because of the vast distance between us and other stars, the odds of finding these wandering objects is extremely low."
Even using the largest telescope available for comet-hunting, scientists expected to find just one such object every year, she said.
The 2021 Volkswagen Taigun SUV has made its world premiere today, giving the world its first look at Volkswagen’s brand-new midsize SUV for the Indian market. It was previewed in concept form as at the Volkswagen Group Night in Delhi last year, and is the group’s second model to roll out under VW’s ambitious India 2.0 plan after the Skoda Kushaq. Underpinning the Volkswagen Taigun is a tailored-for-India platform, and the midsize SUV is set to go up against formidable rivals such as the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos when it is launched in the coming months.
Volkswagen Taigun images confirm the production-spec SUV remains largely identical to the concept showcased in 2020. It retains almost all of the design and styling cues of the concept, with the only changes being the addition of chrome strips for the door handles, smaller alloy wheels and the deletion of the C-pillar decals. Other notable design elements include black trim-encased tail-lights (which accentuate the width of the Taigun), faux front and rear skid plates, heavy body cladding, prominent roof rails and chunky alloy wheels.
The Taigun is based on Volkswagen AG’s customised-for-India MQB A0 IN platform, which is designed to accommodate up to 95 percent local content and will also form the base for the Taigun, as well as Skoda and Volkswagen’s new sedans, which are due at the end of this year. The Volkswagen Taigun has a wheelbase of 2,651mm, which is 41mm longer than that of the king of India’s midsize SUV space, the Hyundai Creta.
Taking centre stage on the Volkswagen Taigun’s dashboard is a 10-inch touchscreen infotainment system, and also present are body-coloured trim elements, which liven up the interior. One major difference for the Taigun compared to the Kushaq is the presence of a digital instruments display, which is missing from the Skoda.
Top-spec Volkswagen Taigun variants will be equipped with auto climate control, height-adjustable driver’s seat, connected car tech, and safety equipment will include up to six airbags, electronic stability control (ESC), hill hold control, cruise control and a tyre pressure monitor.
The Volkswagen Taigun will come with two turbo-petrol engine options – a 1.0-litre, three-cylinder unit making 110 hp, and a 1.5-litre, three-cylinder engine putting out 150 hp. A six-speed manual will be standard for both engines, but the 1.0-litre version will also be available with a six-speed torque-convertor automatic, while the 1.5-litre model will get the option of a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic (DSG). Those looking for a diesel SUV will be disappointed, because the Taigun will not be offered with a diesel engine option.
With 92 percent localisation from the get-go, the Volkswagen Taigun is expected to be launched at a competitive starting price at the start of the festive season this year. Expect Volkswagen Taigun prices to be in the range of Rs 11-17 lakh (ex-showroom) when it arrives sometime between August and September, which will give it the momentum it needs to battle established players in the segment such as the Hyundai Creta and the Kia Seltos.
