Month: April 2022

Both Apple chairman Art Levinson and health lead Sumbul Desai are among the speaker line-up for Life Itself, a conference which aims ‘to inspire and foster changes in healthcare, while celebrating leaders whose work helps us all to be healthier and happier humans.’

The conference is co-hosted by CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta and TEDMED creator Marc Hodosh, and is open to ‘a limited number’ of guests …

The website is something of a tease, providing an extensive biography for each speaker, but only the vaguest of topics. For Levison, for example, the complete description of the topic of his talk is:

Is ageing a disease?

While his biography is rather more extensive.

In September 2013, Arthur Levinson was named chief executive officer of Calico, a company focused on health, aging, and well-being.

Levinson joined Genentech in 1980 as a senior scientist, became head of R&D in 1993, and served as chief executive officer of Genentech from 1995 to 2009. Levinson serves as the chairman of the board of Apple, and previously served as a director of Google from 2004 to 2009.

Levinson has authored or co-authored more than 80 scientific articles and has been named an inventor on 11 United States patents. He was inducted into the Biotech Hall of Fame at the 2003 Biotech Meeting of chief executive officers. BusinessWeek named Levinson one of the “Best Managers of the Year” in 2004 and 2005, and Institutional Investor named him “America’s Best CEO” in the biotech category four years in a row (2004-2007).

In 2006, Princeton University awarded Levinson the James Madison Medal for a distinguished career in scientific research and in biotechnology. In 2008, Levinson was elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. In 2011 Levinson received the American Association for Cancer Research Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research, and in 2012 he received the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Double Helix Medal.

In 2014 he received the Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus Award from the University of Washington and was honored as a recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Obama. The Franklin Institute named Levinson as the recipient of the 2020 Bower Award for Business Leadership, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in an American business or industry while adhering to the highest ethical standards.

Levinson received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Washington, earned a doctorate in biochemical sciences from Princeton University, and did his postdoctoral work with Mike Bishop and Harold Varmus at UCSF.

With Dr Desai, we don’t even get a topic title, just her biography.

Sumbul Desai, MD serves as Vice President of Health at Apple, overseeing health initiatives including clinical product development, medical research, and innovative clinical partnerships. She also leads the regulatory and quality teams at Apple.

Apple is also working with the best in the medical field, including Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the American Heart Association, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins University, to conduct landmark health studies and advance discovery with the ResearchKit and CareKit platforms. Apple recently launched its Health Sharing and Walking Steadiness features, adding to the many consumer health tools available on Apple Watch and iPhone including ECG, Irregular Heart Rhythm, Cycle Tracking and Hearing Health.

Dr. Desai recently served as Vice Chair of Strategy and Innovation in the Department of Medicine at Stanford Medicine, as well as Associate Chief Medical Officer at Stanford Healthcare. She also serves as Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at Stanford School of Medicine.

Desai was hired by Apple back in 2017, when she was Stanford’s digital health leader. A couple of months ago, she talked about the three questions the company asks when designing new health features for its products:

• How are they grounded in science?
• How are they technically feasible?
• How do we deliver them in a thoughtful and meaningful design that will be impactful to a user?

I’m sure both talks will be well worth hearing.

As it slowly becomes safer to move your weekly game of Dungeons & Dragons away from the computer and back to the table, virtual tools like Roll20 will continue to be an option. But it’s also time for DMs to start thinking about physical maps and miniatures once again. Luckily, in an announcement at today’s D&D Direct event, Wizards of the Coast has you covered.

Image: Wizards of the Coast

Feast your eyes on Campaign Cases. These two kits give you everything you need to lay out two-dimensional maps and environments. The Creatures Case includes 64 customizable tokens in three sizes (and four colors) with a nice mix of what look like one, two, and three inch tokens to represent D&D’s small, medium, and large creatures. The case comes with 159 illustrated and reusable cling stickers in sizes to match and cover a wide range of creatures from kobolds to umber hulks to dragons.

Image: Wizards of the Coast

The Terrain Case has 30 interlocking tiles, along with a larger foldable map that looks to be about 22 by 18 inches or so. The double-sided tiles and map show a grassy terrain on one side and an snowy terrain on the reverse. The Terrain Case comes with the same type of reusable cling stickers as the Creature Case, representing things like campfires, trees, and gigantic bird nests. The announcement didn’t mention if the map and tiles would be dry erase friendly.

Both cases come in a ready-to-travel keepsake box with compartments for the various components and a handle on top. No pricing was mentioned during the presentation, but Campaign Cases will release on July 19. Preorders kick off today.

A new Dungeons & Dragons adventure is available in the Krynn world in late 2022. Titled Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, it marks the return of the classic setting first introduced by TSR in the 1980s. Wizards of the Coast made the announcement Thursday during the D&D Direct streaming presentation — and that’s not all. Wizards introduced a new battle game Dragonlance Warriors of Krynn .. You can see more in the teaser trailer, voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse), embedded above.

Originally created by Laura and Tracy Hickman during a cross-country road trip, the Dragonlance setting became a key product line for D&D’s original publisher TSR in the 1980s. Most fans know it best from a series of novels, written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weiss — Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning. But the companion adventure modules also sold well, with many of them still available for purchase from the Dungeon Master’s Guild.

The subtitle of the adventure is a reference to the Dragon Queen, Takhisis, the evil antagonist working in the background of the entire setting. Her canonical role is to have corrupted the race of chromatic druids of the planet of Krynn. She often assumes the appearance of a five-headed dragon.

What makes Dragonlance different from The Forgotten Realms, Wizard’s main setting for 5th edition D&D? The kender is a small and powerful fantasy race that exists only in the Krynn world. The magic system is a little different, as schools are strictly divided into the Arcane or the Divine. There are also the dragons. These sentient beasts have steeds warriors can ride to battle and they’re both sentient. Draconians, unlike their cousins the dragonborn, are also distinctly brutish and evil. Overall the narratives found inside are much more epic in nature — more like The Lord of the Rings, less like The Green Knight.

Apple Pay in Russia was last month suspended by the Cupertino company as one of a range of sanctions against the country for its invasion of Ukraine. A class action lawsuit has now been filed against Apple, arguing that Russian consumers have been harmed by losing access to the electronic wallet service.

Russian citizens who have been affected by the withdrawal of Apple Pay in the country are being invited to join the case …

Background

Apple Pay service in the country was suspended back in February as part of US sanctions against five Russian banks.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US government and the European Union imposed economic sanctions on the country – which include restricting foreign transactions to Russian banks. As a result, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other digital wallets have been suspended in Russia […]

The affected banks are: VTB Group, Sovcombank, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, and Otkritie. The Central Bank of Russia notes that cards issued by these five banks no longer work with Apple Pay or Google Pay, as both platforms are US-based.

Shortly afterwards, Apple halted all sales in Russia’s online Apple Store, and ceased supplying all Apple products to resellers in the country.

Lawsuit over suspension of Apple Pay in Russia

RepublicWorld reports on the lawsuit.

Lawyers from Chernyshov, Lukoyanov and Partners (CLP) law firm have decided to file a case against Apple for closing its payment service Apple Pay on devices in Russia […]

Konstantin Lukoyanov told TASS that the law firm has decided to sue Apple as the rights of Russian consumers have been violated by the “unjustified” and “unilateral” shutdown of Apple Pay.

According to the attorney, the move by the company needs to be considered as “intentional moral damage” to Russian users and owners of Apple devices. The attorney asserted that the recovery amount needs to be substantial for compensating the damage caused to the Russian consumers by the decision of Apple […]

Anyone who thinks that their rights were violated by Apple’s decision and it needs to be held “responsible” for its actions, can contact the law firm and join the lawsuit against the company. 

9to5Mac’s Take

The lawsuit seems unlikely to succeed, even in Russia, as the suspension of Apple Pay is a direct consequence of US government sanctions against Russian banks. In other words, Apple couldn’t legally offer service there even if it wanted to.

It is an unfortunate fact that innocent Russian citizens are suffering in many ways as a result of sanctions, but the loss of Apple Pay hardly ranks among the significant ones – and the remedy is in the hands of Putin, not Apple.

Spelljammer is returning to Dungeons & Dragons. This setting combines high fantasy with space travel. Wizards of the Coast announced the setting’s return Thursday during the D&D Direct streaming presentation. The three-volume set, titled Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, comes packaged in its own slipcase, and includes a double-sided map and a Dungeon Master’s Screen. Pre-orders appear to be live now on Amazon with a list price of $69.99. August is the release date. 16.

Spelljammer was first introduced in 1989, also as a boxed set titled Spelljammer: Adventures in Space written by Jeff Grubb. It was originally published by TSR. Physical copies are still available through a partnership with OneBookShelf.

The setting’s name comes from the eponymous starships. These are large flying craft controlled by wizards. You can see one in action in the teaser trailer above. Spelljammers look like elegant, open-decked vessels with distinctive, wing-like sails used to travel through space, through the air of terrestrial planets, and even between different planes of existence. They have been connected to the various settings in the D&D multiverse including Eberron and The Forgotten Realms.

The Astral Adventurer’s Guide . is the first volume in Spelljammer : Adventures in Space . Wizards says it contains everything DMs need to run a campaign as well as six new options for playable characters — specifically all six of the races included in recently released playtest materials. That includes the industrious autognome, the bipedal hippo-like giff, the primate-like hadozee, the oozy plasmoids, astral elves, and the insectile thri-kreen.

The second book is titled Boo’s Astral Menagerie, named after the eponymous miniature giant space hamster from the original Baldur’s Gate video game. This is where the strangest part begins: The setting now features evil space clowns and vampirates as well as sentient comets and space dragons.

The final book in the series is Light of Xaryxis .. Set in Wildspace in the Astral Sea, it includes 12 episodes, each of which end in a cliffhanger. It’s not known at this time what levels characters will start or finish the adventure at.

This slipcase-packed collection is not the first Wizards have released. Mordenkainen’s Monsters of the Multiverse was released as part of a three-volume set earlier this year. The books included with Spelljammer: Adventures in Space are, however, much slimmer at just 64 pages each. Previously released hardcover materials for 5th edition D&D are generally well in excess of 250 pages each.