Month: October 2021

Fans of the Oscar-winning film Parasite will recognize the star of Dr. Brain, a new sci-fi thriller from Apple TV+. Lee Sun-kyun, who played Park Dong-Ik in Bong Joon-ho's film, plays a brilliant brain surgeon who seeks to find out the truth about the tragic accident that befell his wife and son.

This is the first Apple TV+ series filmed completely in Korean, and its release coincides with the official launch of the streaming service in South Korea. Written and directed by Kim Jee-woon (A Tale of Two Sisters, I Saw the Devil), the new six-episode live-action series is based on the popular Korean webtoon of the same name by Hongjacga. Most Americans are probably unfamiliar with the source material, but South Korean programming has proved to be quite popular in the US, as evidenced by Netflix series like zombie period drama Kingdom and this year's Squid Game. The latter is currently Netflix's most-watched series to date, reaching over 142 million households during its first month.

So it's no wonder that Apple TV wants to emulate that success with Dr. Brain. Per the official premise: "The series follows a brilliant brain scientist Sewon (Lee Sun-kyun) who suffers a horrific personal tragedy when his family falls victim to a mysterious accident. Desperate to uncover what happened, he goes to extraordinary lengths to solve the tragic mystery by conducting 'brain syncs' with the dead to access their memories for clues." The series also stars Lee You-young, Park Hee-soon, Seo Ji-hye, and Lee Jae-won.

Enlarge / Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes inside the Robert F. Peckham US Federal Court on June 28, 2019, in San Jose, Calif. (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes told Walgreens executives in an email that pharma giant Pfizer had completed its “own technical validation" of Theranos, jurors in Holmes' criminal trial heard Friday. As if to support that claim, Holmes attached a document titled “Pfizer Theranos System Validation Final Report,” which included a Pfizer logo. 

But the document wasn’t the work of Pfizer’s scientists—it was from Theranos’ own staff.

Pfizer had investigated Theranos’ technology in 2008, but it ultimately concluded that the startup wasn’t worth investing in. “Theranos does not at this time have any diagnostic or clinical interest to Pfizer,” Shane Weber, former director of diagnostics at Pfizer, wrote in December 2008. He added that “no further financial investment or clinical sample resources [should] be extended to Theranos.”

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

Big Sur was a landmark release of macOS, in ways both technical and symbolic. It introduced a major new redesign, it was the first version of macOS to run on Apple's own in-house processors in addition to Intel's, and it was the first version of macOS in nearly 20 years to change the version number. Coming off that, this year's release was bound to feel a little small.

Welcome to Monterey, macOS version 12.0.

Monterey feels of a piece with maintenance-mode macOS updates like El Capitan or Sierra or High Sierra—change the default wallpaper, and in day-to-day use you can easily forget that you've upgraded from Big Sur at all. It's not that there aren't any new features here—it's just that improving any operating system as mature as macOS involves a lot of tinkering around the edges.

Enlarge / Samsung tablet, or the top half of a Macbook Pro? (credit: OnLeaks x 91mobiles)

Everyone saw the Macbook Pro announcement last week, right? Apple has made the controversial design decision to bring the iPhone notch to some of its laptops, minimizing bezel space but introducing an awkward cutout on the display area. Now, Samsung is apparently working on bringing the same idea to tablets. The reliable leaker, Steve Hemmerstoffer, aka "OnLeaks," has created renders of the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra design, and it basically looks like someone cut off the top half of a Macbook Pro, complete with that weird notch.

According to OnLeak's information, the base-model S8 Tab is expected to be an 11-inch tablet, a "Galaxy Tab S8+" will be 12.4 inches, and this notched behemoth, the Tab S8 Ultra, will have a 14.6-inch display. The renders only cover the Ultra model. The base-model S8 design leaked in a separate post, showing a more traditional design with slightly thicker bezels housing a camera module. The Ultra model features dual rear cameras, a USB-C port, quad speakers, and no headphone jack.

Those are some thin bezels. I'm not sure where you're supposed to hold this thing. (credit: OnLeaks x 91mobile )

As usual, Hemmerstoffer's information is based on CAD files covering the location of everything (including this crazy notch), but some of the finer details could be different. This report notes that there will be magnetic connectors on the left side of the frame, but it's not clear what those will look like.

Enlarge / Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo speaks during a press conference at Neo City Academy in Kissimmee, Florida. (credit: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Florida's top health official was tossed from a meeting last week after refusing to wear a mask in the presence of a state senator with cancer.

In a reportedly tense exchange on Wednesday, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo was asked to leave the office of Democratic state Senator Tina Polsky, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Cancer patients are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and becoming severely ill. They also may not be able to mount a full immune response after being vaccinated against the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ladapo had requested the meeting with Polsky in an effort to win Senate confirmation for his appointment, which Gov. Ron DeSantis announced late last month. Ladapo's appointment has drawn controversy, particularly from Democrats, because of his views on the pandemic and vocal opposition to public health measures. In a series of op-eds and public appearances, Ladapo has advocated for allowing the pandemic coronavirus to spread and signed onto the controversial Great Barrington Declaration. Meanwhile, he has stoked unfounded fears about vaccine safety, misrepresented evidence on mask effectiveness, and opposed mask mandates, vaccine mandates, quarantines for school children, and lockdowns.

Enlarge (credit: LG)

The market for Chromebooks is generally growing this year despite recent pandemic-related slowdowns, and it looks like more PC vendors are interested in releasing Chrome OS devices. The next in line may be LG.

On October 18, a filing was listed with the Bluetooth SIG, the special interest group that awards Bluetooth certifications, for an "LG Chromebook." The listing, spotted by Chrome Unboxed, doesn't give us much further information. The device's model number is "11TC50Q," and the machine should have some version of Bluetooth 5.

Without any official word from LG, we can't be sure that the product exists. But since the company went through the effort of getting Bluetooth certification from Bluetooth SIG, an LG-branded Chromebook is far from a pipe dream. Plus, it would make sense for LG to release a Chromebook.