AstraZeneca says third dose helps against Omicron

A test tube labelled with the Vaccine is seen in front of AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken, September 9, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration AstraZeneca said on Thursday that preliminary data from a trial showed that its COVID-19 shot, Vaxzevria, generated an increase in antibodies against the Omicron and other variants when given as a third booster dose. The increased response, also against the Delta variant, was seen in a blood analysis of people who were previously vaccinated with either Vaxzevria or an mRNA vaccine, the drugmaker said, adding that it would submit this data to regulators worldwide given the urgent need for boosters. AstraZeneca has developed the vaccine with researchers from the University of Oxford, and lab studies conducted by the university last month already found a three-dose course of Vaxzevria boosted antibody levels in the blood against the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. The brief statement on Thursday, which did not include specific data, was the first by AstraZeneca on the protective potential of Vaxzevria as a booster shot following a two shot-course of either an mRNA based vaccine or Vaxzevria. Vaccines base on mRNA technology are made by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna. The company said the findings “add to the growing body of evidence supporting Vaxzevria as a third dose booster irrespective of the primary vaccination schedules tested”. The data on Vaxzevria’s potential as a booster came from a comparative analysis in a trial testing a redesigned vaccine which uses the vector technology behind Vaxzevria but targeting the now-superseded Beta variant. AstraZeneca is trying to show the Beta-specific vaccine has potential also against other variants and more trial data is expected during the first half of the year. Separately, Oxford University and AstraZeneca last month started work on a vaccine specifically targeting Omicron though Astra – as well as other vaccine makers in similar development projects – have said it was not yet clear whether such an upgrade was needed. A major British trial in December found that AstraZeneca’s shot increased antibodies when given as a booster after initial vaccination with its own shot or Pfizer’s, but that was before the explosive spread of the Omicron variant. However, the study at the time concluded that mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna gave a biggest boost to antibodies when given as a third dose. AstraZeneca and its contract manufacturing partners have supplied over 2.5 billion doses globally of its vaccine, even though it is not approved in the United States, while BioNTech-Pfizer have shipped about 2.6 billion doses. Source: ARY News
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BlackBerry 5G smartphone with physical keyboard officially confirmed for launch again

Image Credit: TCL OnwardMobility, owner of the BlackBerry brand, has now reiterated its commitment to provide a BlackBerry 5G  smartphone with a physical keyboard.  “Contrary to popular belief, we are not dead,” the company said. OnwardMobility, early last year after acquiring the BlackBerry brand, announced that it is working on a new BlackBerry phone that offers both 5G and a physical keyboard. While no such phone was launched in 2021, the company is back with a reiteration of that promise. The US-based company has proclaimed it is not dead and still has plans to release a BlackBerry 5G  device this year. The company attributes the lack of a launch in 2021 to the “various delays” it has exp While there are already concept renderings of the phone, there is little  information on how exactly it looks. We expect it to primarily retain the KEY2 form factor, but with a modernized outlook. We will be sure to keep you updated.  
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Remember That Weird 'Cube' on The Moon? Yutu-2 Finally Took Closer Pictures

  The Yutu-2 image of the ‘mysterious hut’. (CNSA/CLEP/Our Space) The mysterious Chinese “moon cube” is no longer a mystery. The big reveal: it's a rock that doesn't even have the shape of a cube. National rover Yutu2  discovered the object - which appeared to be a gray cube looming above the lunar horizon - in early December. China's National Space Administration (CNSA) dubbed it the “mystery hut,” playfully speculating that the cube could be an alien house or a spaceship. The news called it the "moon cube".  The CNSA estimated that the object was about 80 meters (262 feet) away, according to the blog  affiliated with the agency, and ready to point the rover towards it. The blog said it would take two or three months to reach the cube. After several weeks of preparation and driving, the rover is close enough to see that the "mystery hut" is just a rock. Its sharp geometric aspect on the horizon was a simple turn of perspective, light and shadow. In an updated posted on Friday, Our Space published the rover's latest photo of its target, below. Yutu-2 image of the closer rock. (CNSA/CLEP/Our Space) One of the rover's ground controllers noted on the blog that the rock is shaped like a rabbit, with smaller rocks in front  that resemble a carrot. The rover's name, Yutu, means "jade rabbit," which is now also the name of the rock too. Yutu2 reached the moon in January 2019, when the Chang'e4 lander landed on the lunar surface and launched a ramp for the rover's descent. It was the first mission to land on the opposite side of the moon.  Over the next three years, Yutu2 traveled over 1,000 meters (3,200 feet), used ground-penetrating radar to reveal a surprisingly deep layer of lunar soil, and identified rocks in the lunar mantle, below the crust, which have been pushed to the surface. when an asteroid crashed into the moon billions of years ago. A closer look at the rock. (CNSA/CLEP/Our Space) The rover has survived long past its initial three-month mission, meaning Yutu-2 had plenty free time for a wild cube chase.
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Apple will reportedly unveil an iPhone SE with 5G this spring

  The Apple logo is displayed at an event at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 10, 2019. REUTERS/Stephen Lam Apple could use its now common spring event to update its cheaper smartphone. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said in his latest newsletter that Apple is expected to showcase a third-generation iPhone SE this spring through a virtual presentation that "likely" will take place in March or April. Echoing past rumors, Gurman understood that the new SE would still stick to the iPhone 8-era design, but would add 5G and a new processor, possibly the A15 from the iPhone 13, when Apple's history of using the chip peaked of last year . No other changes were mentioned. It wouldn't be surprising if Apple increased the storage to 128GB or upgraded the camera sensors (again carried over from the iPhone 8), but that's not guaranteed given Apple's low-cost approach to the iPhone SE. A larger battery may be required to compensate for the typically higher power consumption of 5G. If the leak is true, the new iPhone SE would be disappointing to those who want a modern design that covers almost the entire screen. It would still have a relatively small screen, thick bezels, and a button-based fingerprint reader. However, as we just mentioned,  price is everything to the SE. The model's current  price of $ 399 is helping Apple reach some customers who otherwise wouldn't justify an iPhone. The company may not want to do anything that could result in a small  price increase, if only to maximize the SE's potential audience.
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SUPERMAN, CINDERELLA AND MINIONS GIVE CHILDREN COVID-19 SHOTS

A medical staff member wearing a costume looks at a child who receives a shot of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a mass vaccination center in Prague, Czech Republic, January 8, 2022. REUTERS/David W Cerny Superman, Cinderella and Minions were among characters from films, comics and fairy tales who greeted children at a COVID-19 vaccination centre in Prague on Saturday to ease their nerves as they came to be inoculated. Despite a lull in coronavirus infections in the past month, the Czech Republic is trying to boost vaccination rates because it is bracing for the Omicron coronavirus variant. Vaccinations lag other European Union countries. With children aged 5-11 now eligible for the vaccine, staff dressed in costume at one of the biggest vaccination centres in the Czech capital helped children who came to be vaccinated. REUTERS/David W Cerny “We thought it would be better to have a day just for the kids,” said Nikola Melicharova, a vaccination centre worker dressed for the day as Snow White. “And because kids are usually a bit afraid of vaccinations, we decided for a fairy tale day so that it was a little more pleasant.” Some 62.4% of the population in the country of 10.7 million has been fully inoculated, compared to a rate of 68.6% in the whole of the EU, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. REUTERS/David W Cerny The Czech Republic started giving shots to children aged 5-11 in mid-December. Health Ministry figures show just over 27,000 shots had been administered to this age group by Friday. Some children cried, but less so while talking to their favourite characters. “I think it is right (for vaccinations). It is the only way out of the pandemic,” said Jaroslav Kottner, who brought his nine-year-old son to be vaccinated.
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Google launches Ripple, an open standard that could bring tiny radars to Ford cars and more

İmage Credit: Google Google has been publicly building tiny radar chips since 2015. They can tell you how well you sleep, control a smartwatch, count sheets of paper, and have you play the world's smallest violin. But the company's Soli radar hasn't necessarily seen commercial success, primarily in an ill-fated Pixel phone. Now Google has launched an open source API standard called Ripple that could theoretically bring the technology to additional devices outside of Google, possibly even a car, as Ford is one of the participants in the new standard. Technically, Ripple is under the auspices of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the same industry body that hosts the CES show in Las Vegas each January, but there's no doubt who is actually behind the project. "Ripple will unlock useful innovations for the benefit of all. General Purpose Radar is a key emerging technology for solving critical use cases while respecting privacy," read a quote from Ivan Poupyrev, The man who led the team through G oogle's ATAP skunkworks. who invented Soli in the first place. "Standard Radar Api" seems to be the original Name. Adritionally, the Github ripple project  is filled with  references to Google, including different instances of "Copyright 2021 Google LLC" and contributors must sign a Google Open Source license agreement to participate. (One commit points out that the project was updated “to include CTA.”) Ripple appears to be a rebranding of Google’s “Standard Radar API,” which it quietly proposed one year ago (PDF). None of that makes it any less exciting that Soli might find new life, though, and there may be something to the idea that radar has privacy benefits. It’s a technology that can easily detect whether someone’s present, nearby, and/or telling their device to do something without requiring a microphone or camera. Ford, for its part, tells The Verge that indoor radar might become part of its driver-assistance technologies. Right now, the automaker says it’s using “advanced exterior radars” to research those features instead (which sounds expensive to me). Here’s a statement from Ford’s Jim Buczkowski, who’s currently heading up the company’s Research and Advanced Engineering team: We are investigating how to use indoor radar as a  source of sensors to improve various customer experiences in addition to our  Ford CoPilot360 driver assistance technologies which now use advanced exterior radars. A standard API, with input from the semiconductor industry, will allow us to develop hardware-independent software purchases and give  software teams the freedom to innovate across multiple radar platforms.   Other companies are also exploring radar: Amazon is also investigating whether radar could help it track your sleep patterns; This smart dog collar uses miniature radar to monitor vital signs, even if your dog is very hairy or furry, and this  bulb does the same  for humans. But most of the participants listed in Google's initiatives so far are chip and sensor vendors, with only Ford and Blumio, which have a development kit for a radar-based blood pressure sensor, stand out.
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Andrew Garfield says Tom Holland was 'jealous' of his Spider-Man suit because Holland 'had to use his nose' to work his phone

On the left: Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. On the right: Tom Holland as Spider-Man in "Spider-Man: No Way Home." Columbia Pictures/Sony; Matt Kennedy/Sony/Marvel Studios When multiple generations of Spider-Man come together as they did in the recent Spider-Man: No Way Home, it's only natural for the actors behind the mask to compare their different Spidey costumes, with Amazing SpiderMan actor Andrew Garfield recalling the 'one of his companions. SpiderMen is jealous of a particularly useful item included in his costume. Remembering the first time they were all in their respective costumes, Garfield discussed what it was like on the set of No Way Home with three live SpiderMens. “[Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire and I] talked about what worked for each of us,” Garfield said in an interview with Variety. “[Holland] was jealous because I have little zippers in it. my dress that I can take off my hands  very easily. ”In fact, Garfield recalled how Holland was forced to resort to a workaround  to use the phone while he was dressed, saying,“ So that the phone works, he had to use his nose because he couldn't access his hands. Garfield brought back other memories during his time with Holland and Maguire while working at No Way Home, as Garfield discussed what he was  not just as as a SpiderMan fan himself, but as one of the many. Actors who played the character on the big screen. “I think the first time we  all put the costume together,”  Garfield said, “it was hilarious because it's just three normal guys who were just actors who had just come outside. But then  you too become a fan and say, "Oh my God, we are all dressed together  and  doing as it says!"We would also have deeper conversations and talk about our experiences with the character. Garfield recalled other memories during his time with Holland and Maguire while working on No Way Home, as Garfield discussed what it was like not only as a fan of Spider-Man himself but as one of several actors who have portrayed the character on the big screen.  "I think the first time we were all in the suit together," Garfield said, "it was hilarious because it’s like just three ordinary dudes who were just actors just hanging out. But then also, you just become a fan and say, 'Oh my god we’re all together in the suits and we’re doing the pointing thing!'...  We would have deeper conversations, too, and talk about our experiences with the character." Garfield summed up his experience with his fellow Spider-Men, as the actor went on the reveal the origins behind one of his improvised lines in No Way Home. "There's a line I improvised in the movie, looking at [Maguire and Holland] and I tell them I love them," Garfield said. "That was just me loving them." Although it's been almost a decade since Garfield last donned the Spidey suit in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the actor  recently spoke about returning to the role on a possible future project. Garfield also spoke about what got him aboard the multiversal cast of No Way Home, including how one scene in particular convinced him to dress up as a WebSlinger again. Garfield has elaborated further on the initial pitch for the film when he was approached by Sony and Marvel, detailing the concept that would allow him to explore an old character in a new way.
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