Category: Technology

Moderna has begun early-stage clinical trials of an HIV mRNA vaccine, the company announced this week. On Thursday, it administered the first doses of a shot it co-developed with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to volunteers at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Like the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, the new treatment uses messenger RNA to “trick” the human body into producing proteins that will trigger an immune response. Moderna hopes the shot will induce a specific class of white blood cells known as B-cells, which can then turn into broadly neutralizing antibodies. Those proteins are “widely considered to be the goal of HIV vaccination, and this is the first step in that process,” according to the company.

As part of the trial, Moderna plans to test both a primary vaccine and a booster shot. The Phase 1 trial will involve 56 healthy, HIV-negative adult participants. The company will give 48 of those individuals the mRNA vaccine. Thirty-two of that group will also receive the booster shot. To the final eight involved in the first trial, the company will only administer the booster shot. Moderna says it will then monitor the entire group for six months to …read more

It’s been a great quarter for Apple. The company just dropped its earnings report for Q1, 2022 (which for Apple ended December 25, 2021), and it broke revenue records across the board. It also reported a net income of $34.63 billion, with gross margins increasing to approximately 43.8 percent.

Not only did quarterly revenue hit an all-time high of $123.9 billion, Apple also brought in more money selling iPhones, Macs and wearables than ever before. This time last year, the company reported a revenue of $111 billion, which itself was a new record at the time. Last quarter, too, it made all kinds of money selling Macs, even without the release of new Macbooks.

Apple’s revenue from iPhones ($71.6 billion) this year, despite global supply constraints, is a notable jump from last year ($65.6 billion). Driven by the transition to its own M1 silicon chips, Mac revenues were up more than $2 billion compared to the year prior, hitting a record $10.9 billion. Chief financial officer Luca Maestri said on the company’s earnings call that the last six quarters were “the best six quarters ever for Mac,” and that M1-powered devices made up the vast majority of sales …read more

A group of Democratic lawmakers led by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachuttes has asked six crypto mining companies, including Riot Blockchain, to answer questions about the impact of their operations on the environment and cost of electricity in the US. In separate letters to the chief executives of each firm, the group asks the companies to detail how much electricity they consume, their scaling plans and any agreements they have in place with local utility companies. They have until February 10th to reply.

Lawmakers say they’re concerned about what a dramatic increase in domestic cryptocurrency mining has meant for the environment and consumers. Specifically, they cite a 2021 study from the University of California, Berkeley that estimated crypto mining in upstate New York raised annual electricity bills by approximately $165 million for small businesses and $79 million for consumers, “with little or no local economic benefit.” They also point to the fact that energy consumption related to Bitcoin mining tripled between 2019 and 2021.

“The extraordinarily high energy usage and carbon emissions associated with Bitcoin mining could undermine our hard work to tackle the climate crisis – not to mention the harmful impacts crypto mining has on local environments and …read more

The last year has been a boon for social media scammers, according to a new report from the FTC. The agency says more than 95,000 people lost $770 million to scammers who found them via social media platforms in 2021. That’s more than double the $258 million they say scammers made off with in 2020.

The report doesn’t speculate on why there was such a big increase in 2021, but it notes that reports of scams have “soared” over the last five years. It also states that there was a “massive surge” in scams related to “bogus cryptocurrency investments” and that investment scams accounted for nearly $285 million — more than third — of the $770 million lost last year.

Romance scams have also “climbed to record highs in recent years,” according to the report. “These scams often start with a seemingly innocent friend request from a stranger, followed by sweet talk, and then, inevitably, a request for money,” the FTC says. Also prevalent are scams related to online shopping, most of which involve “undelivered goods” that were purchased as the result of an ad on social media.

Of note, Facebook and Instagram are the only two platforms named in the report. …read more

Just a few days after rolling out iOS 15.3, Apple has released the latest iOS developer beta. Among the new features is one that’ll come in very handy for unlocking your iPhone while you’re out and about in the current climate. The company is testing a way for folks to use Face ID while they’re wearing a mask — without needing an Apple Watch.

“Face ID is most accurate when it’s set up for full-face recognition only,” Apple explains when users set up the feature. “To use Face ID while wearing a mask, iPhone can recognize the unique features around the eye to authenticate.”

The update comes almost a year after Apple started allowing users to unlock their iPhone via Face ID while masking up. Until now, people have used an unlocked Apple Watch as a key.

Apple’s looking to get rid of that requirement in the latest beta, which will surely come as music to the ears of people who are fed up with punching in their iPhone passcode at the grocery store or the gym. Avoiding using your passcode in public is a boon for privacy too.

You’ll need to switch on the option manually. Under …read more