Coronavirus Drug Might Cure COVID-19; Apple-AR/VR Headset in 2022, AR Glasses by 2025; Galaxy Watch 4 in Q2; Saudis Pump Billions into Hydrogen Fuel Production

It’s all about the vaccines right now, but a team at Georgia State had announced in December a promising study of a drug called molnupiravir, an oral antiviral which totally blocked virus transmission within 24 hours in ferrets. Bgr.com reports that now, the drug…developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics…has been studied in humans and preliminary conclusions in a Phase 2a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial are out. The drug cured infections from the novel coronavirus in only five days. Full conclusions haven’t been released, but this could be a pretty promising development. We’ll stay tuned!

Well-reputed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says a lot is in the pipeline revolving around AR and VR from Apple. According to macrumors.com, he looks for a mixed reality headset in mid 2022, and augmented reality glasses by 2025. The AR/VR goggles are expected to be 100-200 grams…notably less than most of the headsets out right now. Expect the price to be around that of a high end iPhone…around $1000. Kuo says they will be ‘portable,’ but not truly mobile. That seems to mean they will have their own processors and memory, but may depend on an external battery pack, etc. The glasses are expected to tightly integrate with the Apple Car. Looking way of in the future, Apple is apparently experimenting with AR contact lenses sometime after 2030! Kuo says this will take us from ‘visible computing’ to ‘invisible computing!’

Although Apple has a giant share of the smart watch market, never write off muscular player Samsung, which also has a huge footprint in smartphones. 9to5google.com says a Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch Active 4 should be out in the next few months…likely by June of this year. One major feature Samsung is working on…as is Apple….blood glucose monitoring! Also rumored…Samsung may drop Tizen and switch to Android or even Wear OS. 

Saudi Arabia can see the writing on the wall, with most auto manufacturers in high gear now as far as switching to electric vehicles. Bloomberg.com reports that the kingdom is investing a $5 billion plant powered entirely by sun and wind that will be among the world’s biggest green hydrogen makers. It is located in the planned megacity of Neom, and projected to open in 2025. Hydrogen is expected to be a big piece of the move away from fossil fuels, and it appears the Saudis are determined to have a large piece of this market as the oil market shrinks.