TechCrunch

Former US President Donald Trump asked a federal judge in Florida on Friday to ask Twitter to restore his account, which the company removed in January citing a risk of incitement of violence.

Trump filed a request for preliminary injunction against Twitter in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, arguing the social media company was “coerced” by members of the US Congress to suspend his account.

Twitter and several other social media platforms banned Trump from their services after a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in a deadly riot on Jan. 6.

That assault followed a speech by Trump in which he reiterated false claims that his election loss in November was because of widespread fraud, an assertion rejected by multiple courts and state election officials.

Twitter “exercises a degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is immeasurable, historically unprecedented, and profoundly dangerous to open democratic debate,” Trump’s lawyers said in the filing. The filing was reported earlier by Bloomberg.

Twitter declined to comment on the filing when contacted by Reuters.

At the time of removing Trump’s account permanently, Twitter said his tweets had violated the platform’s policy barring “glorification of violence”. The company said at the time that

Trump’s tweets that led to the removal were “highly likely” to encourage people to replicate what happened in the Capitol riots.

Before he was blocked, Trump had more than 88 million followers on Twitter and used it as his social media megaphone.

In the court filing, Trump argued Twitter allowed the Taliban to tweet regularly about their military victories across Afghanistan, but censored him during his presidency by labeling his tweets as “misleading information” or indicating they violated the company’s rules against “glorifying violence”.

In July Trump sued Twitter, Facebook and Google, as well as their chief executives, alleging they unlawfully silence conservative viewpoints.

The popular instant messaging app WhatsApp has a feature that you can use to message on your own number to add notes or save some important information.

The “click to chat” feature allows you to start a chat with someone without having their phone number saved in your phone’s address book.

Here’s how you can message yourself:

• First, you are required to open any browser on your phone. Make sure that you are connected to the internet.
• Now, you need to copy this “wa.me//” in the address bar and add your WhatsApp phone number after that. You will also have to add your country code before entering mobile number because if you don’t do that the app will term your number invalid. For example, the Pakistani users need to type “wa.me//92XXXXXXXXXx.
• You will now be redirected to a WhatsApp page. You will be able to see your phone number on the top and a box that reads, “Continue to Chat”. Click on that box.
• Your chat window will be visible along with all your chats. Now, you can start messaging on your number and add notes.

It is noteworthy that the process is similar for both mobile and web versions

You can follow the same process to chat with an unknown person without saving their number.

There is some good news for the Mortal Kombat game franchise as one of its installments titled Mortal Kombat X will be available on PlayStation Plus in October without any cost.

PS Plus will also see free of cost access to several games that is Mortal Kombat X, PGA Tour 2K21, and the upcoming game titled Hell Let Loose.

The subscriber will be able to get their hands on the free games from October 5.

Mortal Kombat X is one of the most beloved games and it received praise for its visuals, gameplay and storylines. It was released in 2015 and was followed by Mortal Kombat 11.

The project will be available in a catalogue of 20 games for those who buy PS5 consoles.

Hell Let Loose was released in access back in June 2019 and was launched on PC a month later July. It will see its release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X on the same day.

It is a team-based multiplayer shooter with the team side having 50 players maximum. Set in World War II, the players can join German forces and engage in battle against the US or Soviet Union or vice versa.

PGA Tour 2K21, also called PGA Tour 2021, got launched in the summer of 2020 and was praised by the gaming industry. It had an impressive robust career mode along with a rotating lineup.

Have your eyes thanking you by knowing how to use WhatsApp dark mode when you’re chatting away late at night.

A new WhatsApp feature makes the app easier to see in poorly lit surroundings, and knowing how to switch on dark mode can help prevent you from having to strain your eyes.

Considering that the WhatsApp is currently one of the most used apps around, this should help serial-texters a great deal.

Below is the step-by-step guide to the entire process on how to use WhatsApp dark mode on Android, iOS and desktop.

How to use WhatsApp dark mode on Android

Tap the three dots in the upper-right corner of your screen.

Tap on Settings

Tap the Chats option as seen below.

Go to Themes located at the top

Go in the ‘Choose theme’ window and toggle the ‘Dark’ setting.

Yeap, you’ve now activated WhatsApp dark mode.

How to do the same on iPhone
Unfortunately, on iOS devices it’s not possible to simply switch on dark mode for WhatsApp exclusively. But there’s a way around via iPhone’s default settings to dark mode, WhatsApp will follow suit.

Gyour iPhone’s Settings app.

Select the “Display & Brightness” option

Now toggle the Dark appearance setting

Now you’ve now activated your iPhone’s dark mode which would work for WhatsApp as well.

How to do the same on desktop

Go the three dots located just above your chat logs.

Select the Settings option in the drop-down menu

Go to the option titled “Theme.”

Toggle here the “Dark” bubble and click on OK

WhatsApp dark mode on your desktop activated.

The post How to use WhatsApp dark mode on Android, iOS and desktop appeared first on ARY NEWS.

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…

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The post Take a look inside your iPhone 13 Pro with these X-ray and teardown wallpapers from iFixit appeared first on 9to5Mac.

I’ve so far only done a handful of quick Cinematic Video tests on my iPhone 13 Pro Max following my earlier macro photography tests. While the results haven’t been perfect, they have certainly been good enough to show the potential of the technology.

In particular, the ability to adjust the focus points in editing makes it an extremely powerful tool. Honestly, for manual mode in particular, I’m excited…

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The post iPhone 13 Diary: Quick Cinematic Video tests excite me appeared first on 9to5Mac.

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.

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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 …

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The post Foxconn buys EV factory in Ohio; unlikely to be used for Apple Cars appeared first on 9to5Mac.

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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 …

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The post Apple employee activism is shifting the balance of power, suggests report appeared first on 9to5Mac.

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 …

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The post Protections against SIM-swap and port-out attacks should be improved, says FCC appeared first on 9to5Mac.

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.

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 WORK

The 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.

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.

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 operating system aims to make the current Windows experience finer with its design prettier and more user-friendly interface.

However, regardless of all the improvements and better UI, some of your important software might not work right in the new operating system. And thus downgrading or going back to Windows 10 might be the only way.

Don’t worry if you find yourself in this dilemma since going back to Windows 10 is pretty easy, and takes very little effort.

Step by step guide to downgrade your computer from Windows 11 to Windows 10:

Click on the Start button

Click on Settings

Under System, click on Recovery

Under Recovery Options click on Go Back

Select a reason and click ‘Next’

Click ‘No Thanks” when windows asks you to check for updates

Make sure you backup important information and click Next. In our experience, none of our critical files were deleted. But better to be safe than to be sorry.

Windows will warn you to use your Windows 10 password, so make sure you remember. If you do, click Next.

Finally, click Go back to Windows 10. Once you do, your computer will restart.

The post Step by step guide for downgrading instantly to Windows 10 appeared first on ARY NEWS.

In addition to all the updates for its operating systems, Apple also introduced SF Symbols 3 beta at WWDC 2021 in June. The new version of SF Symbols, which includes more than 600 new icons, is now available to the public as an official release.

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The post Apple officially releases SF Symbols 3 and updates for San Francisco and New York fonts appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Apple Watch Series 7 was announced at Apple’s September special event along with the iPhone 13 lineup and the new iPad models. However, unlike its siblings, Apple Watch Series 7 is not available to customers – and there’s no word from Apple on when it will be. According to Jon Prosser, the next-generation Apple Watch is expected to hit stores in October.

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The post Apple Watch Series 7 rumored to hit stores in mid-October appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Following a small “Device Support” update earlier today, Apple has just released macOS Big Sur 11.6.1 RC to developers. According to the release notes, this update brings security fixes to macOS Big Sur users — but details are unknown.

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The post Apple releases macOS Big Sur 11.6.1 RC to developers with security fixes appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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