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San Francisco, Sep 4 (IANS) After rolling out several new features, Meta-owned WhatsApp is likely working on a new feature for businesses to let them manage chats from their linked devices in an upcoming subscription service from WhatsApp for businesses.

According to WABetaInfo, under a new optional subscription plan called WhatsApp Premium, users will be able to use additional features such as the ability to create a custom business link and link up to 10 devices to their accounts in the future.

About the last feature, it would also be helpful for large businesses to manage certain chats from a specific device -- for this reason, WhatsApp is developing the ability to assign chats to linked devices, the report said.

In a screenshot, a tooltip showed up to inform the user about the new feature when it is enabled for the business account.

"When you want to assign a certain chat to a specific linked device, the list of your linked devices will show up so you can select the desired device," the report said.

"Assigned chats will be highlighted within the selected device, so the user that's using that specific device knows they have to manage those conversations," it added.

Since this is a business tool, it will not be available for standard WhatsApp accounts. This feature is under development and will be released in a future update of the app.

--IANS
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London, Sep 3 (IANS) Apple Watch's ECG heart sensor has once again saved a man's life by sending him alerts for a low resting heart rate on almost 3,000 occasions.

David Last, 54, from the UK credited Apple Watch for saving his life after his heart stopped an astonishing 138 times in a 48-hour testing period at the hospital, reports the Independent.

His heart resting rate was found to have dropped as low as 30 beats per minute (it is normally between 60-100bpm).

After tests like a 48-hour ECG and MRI, his cardiologist told him that he had a massive heart blockage.

His heart stopped 138 times in 10-second intervals over a 48-hour ECG period.

Last was operated this month, and a pacemaker was installed to detect abnormal heart rhythms.

His wife gave him Apple Watch as a gift on his birthday in April this year.

"If she hadn't bought me my Apple watch for my birthday, I wouldn't be here. I will always be eternally grateful to her for it. Apart from charging it, it's always staying on me now," he was quoted as saying.

The Apple Watch has saved several lives in the past across the world.

With iOS 16 and watchOS 9 this fall, Apple Watch and iPhone will offer features that focus on 17 areas of health and fitness, from heart health to sleep, women's health, mobility and more, according to the tech giant.

Apple recently collaborated with Stanford University in the US to build the Apple Heart Study, which was a first of its kind in the medical community and the largest virtual cardiac clinical study during its time.

--IANS
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London, Sep 1 (IANS) Vaccinated people who were infected by the earlier Omicron subvariants have four times greater protection than vaccinated people who were not infected against the new variants like BA.5, finds a new study.

The study indicates that previous infection in vaccinated people (the so-called hybrid immunity) continues to confer immunity for the variants that are known for their ability to evade the immune response.

"Vaccinated people who were infected by Omicron sub variants BA.1 and BA.2 have a protection against infection with subvariant BA.5, in circulation since June, about four times greater than vaccinated people who were not infected at any time," said lead author Luis Graca from the University of Lisbon.

"Infections in 2020 and 2021 that occurred through infection with earlier variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (ancestral lineage, Alpha and Delta variants) also confer protection against infection for the more recent Omicron variant, although this protection is not as high as that of individuals infected with the BA.1 and BA.2 variants, at the beginning of 2022," Graca added.

For the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine journal, the team accessed the registry of Covid-19 cases at Portugal's national level.

"We used the Portuguese national registry of Covid-19 cases to obtain information on all cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the population over 12 years of age residing in Portugal," the researchers said.

"The virus variant of each infection was determined considering the date of infection and the dominant variant at that time. We considered the infections caused by the first variants of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 together," they added.

--IANS
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By Sanu V. George
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 30 (IANS) There is never a dull moment when Thiruvananthapuram Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor speaks or writes and it was no different this time when he aired his opinion in a vernacular daily on the need for a contest to the top party post.



As soon as the article became public, it gave rise to speculation that he might throw his hat in the ring to contest for the top post, but on Tuesday he clarified to the media saying: "I never said that I will contest, the rest can be discussed later," said Tharoor before driving away.

Meanwhile, one will have to wait a bit to know if Tharoor is actually in the contest as the last date for filing of the nomination to the top post is September 30, according to the notification that has been brought out by AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C.Venugopal.

Things are likely to become clearer in the coming days as Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', will kick off from Kanyakumari on September 7 and reach the Kerala border on September 11. It will cover 43 Assembly constituencies and 12 Lok Sabha and will cover 453 kms in 19 days.

A political analyst on condition of anonymity pointed out Tharoor ever since he contested the Lok sabha election in 2009, he has never been a person who has been liked by a huge section of the front line Congress leaders here.

"And this is seen every time he comes to contest the polls, which he won in 2014 and in 2019. The reason why he wins each time is because of his personality and is able to get a sizable vote from the political voters, the youth and also the women voters. The only time women voters left him was at the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as it was held a few months after his wife Sunanda Pushkar died, when his margin of victory fell down from close to a lakh of votes to around 15,000, but Ain 2019, he again won with a margin of over 90,000 votes," said the analyst.

But the analyst points out that at the moment, even though the Congress party in Kerala continues to be headed by faction leaders, there have been no open defiance against the Gandhi family, even though veterans like P.J.Kurien and now estranged K.V.Thomas have expressed some reservation.

"That should be a bother for Tharoor, as veterans like A.K.Antony, Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala and leaders like K.Sudhakaran (State party president) and Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan are most unlikely to go against the Gandhi family. If at all Tharoor decides to contest, he will have to take on the candidate who will have the full blessings of the Gandhis and hence it's anyone's guess that for Tharoor to get votes from his home state party colleagues will be really tough than getting votes from his constituency voters," added the analyst.

So one will have to wait a while to know if Tharoor is actually going to contest or if this was just his routine tongue-in-cheek remarks, which has seen his stock rising.

--IANS
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