After completing teardown of the new iPhone 13 lineup, iFixit has now shared some neat teardown and X-ray wallpapers that offer a look inside Apple’s latest flagship. These are fun wallpapers that make it seem like your iPhone 13 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro Max is see-through…more…The post Take a look inside your iPhone 13 Pro with these X-ray and teardown wallpapers from iFixit appeared first on 9to5Mac.from 9to5Mac https://ift.tt/3onKGjs https://ift.tt/3kWzoki

Apple Arcade launched with close to 100 titles and the service is seeing new games added regularly with over 200 games now in the library. Follow along with our guide on the latest from Apple’s gaming service.New for 10/1: The newest release on Apple Arcade is the award-winning rhythm game Thumper: Pocket Edition.more…

iPhone assembler Foxconn has bought an EV factory in Ohio in a $230M deal. The purchase was made from electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors.While a key Apple supplier buying an EV plant in the US will inevitably create speculation about potential Apple Car production, this appears unlikely …more…The post Foxconn buys EV factory in Ohio; unlikely to be used for Apple Cars appeared first on 9to5Mac.from 9to5Mac https://ift.tt/3kYWKFZ https://ift.tt/3ipfQTY

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is calling on carriers to implement better security protections against SIM-swap and port-out attacks.These attacks are a common way for criminals to carry out identity theft, and take over anything from an Apple ID to a bank account …more…The post Protections against SIM-swap and port-out attacks should be improved, says FCC appeared first on 9to5Mac.from 9to5Mac https://ift.tt/3opC1NG https://ift.tt/3oteWtl

Apple employee activism is shifting the balance of power within the company, suggests a report today. It says that more employees are willing to speak out about issues which concern them – such as pay disparity – and feel more protected than they have in the past.The evidence presented is mixed, but it does indicate there has been at least some shift in the culture of secrecy at the company …more…The post Apple employee activism is shifting the balance of power, suggests report appeared first on 9to5Mac.from 9to5Mac https://ift.tt/3B28mNQ https://ift.tt/39VjeRR

Merck’s experimental oral drug for COVID-19, molnupiravir, reduced by around 50% the chance of hospitalization or death for patients at risk of severe disease, according to interim clinical trial results announced on Friday.Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics plan to seek U.S. emergency use authorization for the pill as soon as possible, and to submit applications to regulatory agencies worldwide. Due to the positive results, the Phase 3 trial is being stopped early at the recommendation of outside monitors.“This is going to change the dialog around how to manage COVID-19,” Robert Davis, Merck’s chief executive officer, told Reuters.If authorized, molnupiravir, which is designed to introduce errors into the genetic code of the virus, would be the first oral antiviral medication for COVID-19.Rivals including Pfizer Inc and Swiss pharmaceutical Roche Holding AG are racing to develop an easy-to-administer antiviral pill for COVID-19 but so far, only antibody cocktails – which have to be given intravenously – are approved for treating non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients.A planned interim analysis of 775 patients in Merck’s study found that 7.3% of those given molnupiravir were either hospitalized or had died by 29 days after treatment, compared with 14.1% of placebo patients. There were no deaths in the molnupiravir group, but there were eight deaths of placebo patients.“Antiviral treatments that can be taken at home to keep people with COVID-19 out of the hospital are critically needed,” Wendy Holman, Ridgeback’s CEO, said in a statement.In the trial, which enrolled patients around the world, molnupiravir was taken every 12 hours for five days.The study enrolled patients with laboratory-confirmed mild-to-moderate COVID-19, who had symptoms for no more than five days. All patients had at least one risk factor associated with poor disease outcome, such as obesity or older age.Merck said viral sequencing done so far shows molnupiravir is effective against all variants of the coronavirus, including highly transmissible Delta.The company said rates of adverse events were similar for both molnupiravir and placebo patients, but did not give details of the side effects.Merck has said data shows molnupiravir is not capable of inducing genetic changes in human cells, but men enrolled in its trials have to abstain from heterosexual intercourse or agree to use contraception. Women of child-bearing age cannot be pregnant and also have to use birth control.Merck said it expects to produce 10 million courses of the treatment by the end of 2021, with more doses coming next year.The company has a U.S. government contract to supply 1.7 million courses of molnupiravir at a price of $700 per course.CEO Davis said Merck has similar agreements with other governments worldwide, and is in talks with more. The company said it plans to implement a tiered pricing approach based on country income criteria.Merck has also agreed to license the drug to several India-based generic drugmakers, which would be able to supply the treatment to low- and middle-income countries.Molnupiravir is also being studied in a Phase 3 trial for preventing coronavirus infection in people exposed to the virus.Merck officials said it is unclear how long the FDA review of the drug will take.“I believe that they are going to try to work with alacrity on this,” said Dean Li, head of Merck’s research labs.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced just three weeks before world leaders gather for a climate summit that scientists say could determine the future of the planet, one reason why prize watchers say this could be the year of Greta Thunberg.The world’s most prestigious political accolade will be unveiled on Oct. 8. While the winner often seems a total surprise, those who follow it closely say the best way to guess is to look at the global issues most likely to be on the minds of the five committee members who choose.With the COP26 climate summit set for the start of November in Scotland, that issue could be global warming. Scientists paint this summit as the last chance to set binding targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for the next decade, vital if the world is to have hope of keeping temperature change below the 1.5 degree Celsius target to avert catastrophe.That could point to Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist, who at 18 would be the second youngest winner in history by a few months, after Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai.“The committee often wants to send a message. And this will be a strong message to send to COP26, which will be happening between the announcement of the award and the ceremony,” Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, told Reuters.Another big issue the committee may want to address is democracy and free speech. That could mean an award for a press freedom group, such as the Committee to Protect Journalists or Reporters Without Borders, or for a prominent political dissident, such as exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya or jailed Russian activist Alexei Navalny.A win for a journalism advocacy group would resonate “with the large debate about the importance of independent reporting and the fighting of fake news for democratic governance,” said Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.A Nobel for either Navalny or Tsikhanouskaya would be an echo of the Cold War, when peace and literature prizes were bestowed on prominent Soviet dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.Oddsmakers also tip groups such as the World Health Organization or the vaccine sharing body COVAX, which are directly involved in the global battle against COVID-19. But prize watchers say this could be less likely than might be assumed: the committee already cited the pandemic response last year, when it chose the U.N. World Food Programme.While parliamentarians from any country can nominate candidates for the prize, in recent years the winner has tended to be a nominee proposed by lawmakers from Norway, whose parliament appoints the prize committee.Norwegian lawmakers surveyed by Reuters have included Thunberg, Navalny, Tsikhanouskaya and the WHO on their lists.

Scientists behind COVID-19 vaccines could be in the running to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine even though the pandemic is far from over.Some scientists say it is just a matter of time: If the work that went into developing the vaccines is not recognised when this year’s prize is announced on Monday, it will win the award in years to come.More than 4.7 million people have died from COVID-19 since the first cases of the novel coronavirus were registered in 2019, and many countries still live under severe restrictions intended to curb its spread.But COVID-19 vaccines have helped some wealthy states return almost to normality while others are yet to receive vaccine doses in large quantities.Among those seen by other scientists as potential winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine are Hungarian-born Katalin Kariko and American Drew Weissman for their work on what are known as Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines.The mRNA vaccines developed by Moderna and by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have revolutionised the fight against the virus. They are quick to produce and highly effective.“This technique will get the prize sooner or later, of that I am sure,” said Ali Mirazami, professor at the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. “The question is when.”Traditional vaccines, which introduce a weakened or dead virus to stimulate the body’s immune system, can take a decade or more to develop. Moderna’s mRNA vaccine went from gene sequencing to the first human injection in 63 days.The mRNA carries messages from the body’s DNA to its cells, telling them to make the proteins needed for critical functions, such as coordinating biological processes including digestion or fighting disease.The new vaccines use laboratory-made mRNA to instruct cells to make the coronavirus’ spike proteins, which spur the immune system into action without replicating like the actual virus.DECADES OF WORKThe mRNA was discovered in 1961 but it has taken scientists decades to cure the mRNA technique from problems such as instability and causing inflammatory conditions.Developers now hope it can be used to treat both cancer and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) in the future.“In addition to the fact that they have been shown to generate a very effective immune response, you do not have to tailor the production every time you make a new vaccine,” said Adam Frederik Sander Bertelsen, Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and chief scientific officer at vaccine company Adaptvac.“It has actually saved countless thousands of people due to its speed and efficiency, so I can well support that.” Kariko, 66, laid the groundwork for the mRNA vaccines and Weissman, 62, is her long-time collaborator.“They are the brain behind the mRNA discovery,” said Mirazami. He added: “They might be too young, the (Nobel) committee usually wait until the recipients are in their 80s.”Kariko, with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, made a breakthrough by figuring out how to deliver mRNA without kicking the immune system into overdrive.The Nobel Prize was founded by dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and is awarded for achievements in Medicine, Chemistry, Literature, Peace and Physics. This year’s winners are announced between Oct. 4 and 11, starting with Medicine.