Announcement of HTC One M9 at MWC 2015 will be 2 hours before Samsung’s event for Galaxy S6 and S Edge
MWC 2015 is bearing down on us and manufacturers around the world are no doubt lining up their flagships to tempt consumers with come announcement day, and arguably two of the bigger announcements to be made will be from HTC and Samsung. We already know about Samsung’s event, where we expect them to announce a […]
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14 Major U.S. Hospitals Now Using HealthKit as Apple Adds Health Industry Advisors
Fourteen major U.S. hospitals have rolled out their own trials of Apple’s HealthKit tool, with the pilot program earning praise among doctors for its ease of use and advanced tracking of various health metrics, reports Reuters.
According to the news agency, eight hospitals trying out HealthKit are on the U.S. News & World Report’s Honor Roll which ranks the best hospitals, with the program seeing more of a positive reaction versus health tracking programs by Google and Samsung.
Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans has been working with Apple and Epic Systems, Ochsner’s medical records vendor, to roll out a pilot program for high-risk patients. The team is already tracking several hundred patients who are struggling to control their blood pressure. The devices measure blood pressure and other statistics and send it to Apple phones and tablets.
“If we had more data, like daily weights, we could give the patient a call before they need to be hospitalized,” said Chief Clinical Transformation Officer Dr. Richard Milani.
Apple said that over 600 developers are integrating HealthKit into their health and fitness apps. The company has also hired Rana and John Halamaka, who act as two informal industry advisors that focus on health data privacy and industry introduction. Last September, it was reported that Duke University and Stanford University Hospital had begun trials with HealthKit, with representatives from both hospitals speaking highly about the program’s convenience for patients and doctors.
Apple introduced HealthKit alongside the new Health app in iOS 8 as a part of a new initiative into health and fitness tracking. HealthKit taps into data from the iPhone’s various sensors along with compatible accessories to provide a more comprehensive picture of a user’s health. The upcoming Apple Watch will also contain a number of sensors and health tracking features that seamlessly integrate with the Health app.
Pentax is finally getting a full-frame DSLR
Pentax has fallen off the DSLR radar of late, unless you’re looking for a medium-format camera or a hot pink K-series model. Parent company Ricoh has just pricked up the ears of the brand’s many fans, however, with long-awaited news of its first ever full-frame K-mount Pentax DSLR. All we know so far is roughly what it looks like (the prototype is shown above), that it’ll work with Pentax’s DA APS-C lenses using image cropping, and that it’ll pack a full-frame 35mm sensor. The cropping part is unfortunate, since enthusiasts would want a full-frame Pentax camera for the extra resolution and depth-of-field. Some DA lenses may already be compatible without cropping, however, and we’d hope that Ricoh is also working on new full-frame DA lenses.
There’s no word so far on the sensor resolution, price or other specs. This isn’t the first time the company has teased a full-frame model — it revealed a 6-megapixel prototype way back in 2001, but never developed it. The late 2015 release sounds ambitious, but we’ll know more when we see a prototype next week at the CP+ camera show in Tokyo.
Filed under: Cameras
Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)
Source: Pentax
BT to purchase mobile operator EE for £12.5 billion
BT has confirmed that has bought UK mobile operator EE for a price of £12.5 billion. BT is already a major national player in fixed-line services, broadband and TV, and is now set to become a front runner in the 4G mobile market as well. EE is currently the leading 4G provider in the UK, with the largest area of network coverage and 7.7 million current subscribers.
As part of the deal, existing EE shareholders will sell all of their existing shares for a stake in the new business. Deutsche Telecom will receive 12 percent of the combined business and a seat on the board of directors, while Orange will receive a 4 percent stake.
“The combination of EE and BT will provide customers with innovative, seamless services that combine the power of fibre broadband with wi-fi and advanced mobile capabilities.” – BT
The UK telecoms market looks set for a major shake up this year, with several new players looking to enter the market. Late last month the focus was on a potential purchase of O2 by Three UK and Sky recently announced its own mobile service, which will be offered via a deal with O2’s network. Rumors also hint that Virgin may be interested in consolidating its business with Vodafone.
The BT and EE deal is expected to be finalised by March 2016, providing that it is met with approval from shareholders and the Competition and Markets Authority.
Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z3 to start this month according to Vodafone Australia
Sony Mobile has been remarkably quiet regarding updating its devices to the latest version of Android, but thanks to the database at Vodafone Australia, it seems likely that Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z3 is going to start testing this month, presumably to become available not long after, probably in March. This […]
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Google just bought a storytelling app for kids
When Google said it was busy creating a kid-friendly internet, it wasn’t joking around. The company just bought Launchpad Toys, best known for its animated storytelling app Toontastic. While it’s too soon to know what Google’s exact plans are, Launchpad says its going to make “even more amazing creativity tools” for the younger crowd. That may mean web-based tools, knowing Google. Whatever the search provider does, now’s a good time to check out Launchpad’s apps — Toontastic and its add-on content are free in the wake of the buyout.
Filed under: Tablets, Internet, Software, Mobile, Google
Via: CNET
Source: Launchpad Toys
Samsung’s NX500 camera gives last year’s model a stylish, compact makeover
If you liked the sound of Samsung’s NX1 camera last year, which delivered 28-megapixel stills alongside 4K video, how about its stylish new sibling, the NX500? Looking a whole lot more desirable, the specifications inside haven’t actually changed all that much: you’ll find the same APS-C sensor, flippable AMOLED display, an ISO range up to 51,200 and a heavy serving of connectivity options including WiFi, NFC and Bluetooth. Inside the NX500, you’ll also find a new DRIMeV imaging processor, which Samsung reckons is much faster than the predecessor — and should result in better images in a lot of ways.
Thanks to the new chip, we’re also promised better color reproduction, better noise reduction and heck, better image quality. However, barring the quality of the images themselves, the NX500 delivers and all-round more attractive look compared to the NX1. Better ergonomically shaped (and sized), the design steers at least slightly closer to something you might see from Fujifilm, and less like the nondescript DSLR body that Samsung’s NX1 was housed inside. The camera will land in brown, black and white color options starting mid-March 2015. You’ll need $799 to pick up the camera, which will also come with optical image-stabilizing 16-50, f3.5-f5.6 power-zoom lens — which sounds good to us.
Reuters: more than half of top US hospitals are running Apple HealKit trials
When Apple announced HealthKit, one of the more interesting features was the ability for Doctors to check your health data remotely. HealthKit has already been trialled with health professionals monitoring patients with Type 1 diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Reuters suggests that these trials are moving away from Universities, and into hospitals. It claims that over half (14 of 23) the “top” hospitals (including eight on the News & World Report’s Honor Roll) it contacted were running pilot programs that leveraged HealthKit data.
With the US healthcare market valued at around $3-trillion, it’s a relatively unexploited market for mobile technology. Apple rivals, Google and Samsung have competing health apps of their own, but neither has made significant headway with the establishments polled — though Reuters does say that hospitals are interested in Google’s Fit service, thanks to the high number of Android devices in use. Current trials are mostly using the data to monitor diabetes and hypertension, but with a certain watch just around the corner, the usefulness of HealthKit is likely to expand even more.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Google
Source: reuters
Microsoft’s buying Sunrise calendar for more than $100 million
Sunrise calendar is getting snapped up by Microsoft for “at least $100 million.” The calendar app, which integrates sources diverse as Google Calendar and Trello project management and is available on Android, iOS, OS X, and the web, has carved out a niche for itself on the devices of many users.
According to TechCrunch, Microsoft’s plans for Sunrise are varied:
We’ve heard Microsoft will keep its apps alive as stand-alone products, while using some of its technology for its own future products. That’s similar to what it did with Acompli, which Microsoft acquired for $200 million.
Acompli recently relaunched as Outlook on iOS and Android, offering a fully-functional email client that stands toe-to-toe with Apple’s and Google’s. It might not even be a long time before we see what Microsoft has in store for Sunrise — they bought Acompli just back in December 2014.
Source: TechCrunch
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