Your doctor may soon check your heart with a smartphone
The stethoscope, invented 200 years ago because a French doctor was too embarrassed to put his ear directly against a woman’s chest, is finally getting a digital upgrade. A device called the Eko Core, which attaches to a regular stethoscope, has just been approved for medical use by the US FDA. It amplifies and records the sound signals transmitted by the ubiquitous medical devices, then sends the sound waves wirelessly to an iPhone app. From there, doctors can record the waveform and either listen to it later or compare it to a future visit to test the effects of a treatment. It will also be handy as a teaching too for medical students.
The Eko team has much bigger plans for the Core than that, too. It’s started clinical trials for an algorithm that would compare a patient’s heartbeat to pre-recorded ones and classify their rhythm as normal or abnormal. The doctor would get the final word, of course, but such an app could aid in the diagnosis. Lead UC San Francisco researcher Dr. John Chorba told the NYT that “the question is whether the software can identify pathological heart sounds… as the device gets used, you should get more data and the accuracy should improve.”
The Eko Core is still useful without the algorithm, however, especially for family physicians who may lack the experience of heart specialists. The Mayo Clinic’s cardiovascular head Dr. Charanjit Rihal said “this is probably one of the most important innovations in the plain old stethoscope in recent years.” It’s now on sale in the US for $199, or available with a stethoscope for $299.
Filed under:
Wireless, Science
Via:
NYT
Source:
Eko (PDF)
Tags: approval, Cardiology, Core, Eko, EkoCore, FDA, iOS, iPhone, stethoscope, video
Ricoh’s upgraded its Theta spherical camera in all the important ways
Ricoh’s Theta camera was a novel, but pricey experiment: a stick-shaped camera that took completely spherical stills (and later, video.) There was also the unfortunate problem of spreading a typical point-and-shoot camera resolution over a understandably bigger 360-degree digital canvas, meaning that images were often noisy and low on detail. Ricoh’s Theta S camera, which launches globally next month, looks like it’ll improve on its predecessor in those areas and more. The new camera roughly doubles the resolution of images it can take over the last Theta camera, and an upgraded f2.0 lens (like the optics found on high-end smartphones) ensuring more light and meaning less noise and less blur. (The results of the last model were often lacking when there wasn’t a strong light source.)
The Ricoh Theta S captures spherical images up to almost 14 megapixels, while it can now record spherical video in full HD (1,920 x 1,080 at 30fps) with a maximum recording time of 25 minutes. (The older model tapped out at 5 minutes.) When you’ve captured something spherical, you can now not only share on Ricoh’s own site (theta360.com), but also Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. You can also now share across Google Maps and YouTube’s own 360-degree channel. Ricoh’s also made a new app to complement the Theta S, offering a much-needed remote viewing mode, as well as the ability to manual adjust camera setting from your phone on the fly: that extends to ISO, white balance and shutter speed.
The Theta’s WiFi module has also been upgraded so that image and video transfer speeds that are four times faster than the old model. The camera’s also been decked out in a moody black rubber coating so it doesn’t slip out of your grip during that epic spherical team selfie. It arrives in the US, Europe and Asia in late October, priced at $349.
Filed under:
Cameras
Tags: ifa, ifa2015, ricoh, sphericalphotos, theta, thetas
Wacom’s Bamboo Spark offers another option for digitizing scribbles
Do you still prefer the feel of pen on paper but need an easy way to catalog your handwritten notes digitally? Wacom’s Bamboo Spark will do just what. The product is something the company calls a “smart folio” that uses its digital pen technology to capture the scribbles of a real ink pen on A5 paper (5.83 x 8.27 inches). How does it work exactly? With the help of the Bamboo Spark app on an Android or iOS device, the folio’s Electro-Magnetic Resonance board and Bluetooth beam your pen strokes to that trusty mobile device at the push of a button. The Spark can hold up to 100 pages, even while it’s in offline mode, and claims up to 8 hours of use before needing to recharge via USB.
As you might expect, the included pen uses special ink that you’ll need to re-order from Wacom when the time comes (after about three months of use) for $10 per pack of three. If you’re looking to make the leap, the Bamboo Spark comes three ways: with a gadget pocket (for a phone, etc.), tablet sleeve, or snap-fit that’s made just fot the iPad Air 2. All three models include the requisite pen and paper for $160 and are set to ship in October.
Filed under:
Misc
Tags: art, bamboo, bamboospark, design, drawing, sketching, stylus, wacom, wacombamboospark
Google’s new Street View app lets you add your own spherical photos
In the midst of IFA’s volley of tech hardware news, Google Maps has announced a spin-off Street View app that allows you to upload your own spherical photos. Yes, you’re now a human Street View car. The app not only lets you shoot photo spheres from your phone but also connect directly to spherical cameras, like Ricoh’s Theta camera series. The announcement came alongside the latest Theta camera, which is of course compatible with the new feature. It sounds like Street View will turn into a combination of Google’s own photography and crowdsourced spheres. Charles Armstrong, Google Maps Product Manager, said the new app will allow “people all over the world to explore user contributions, Google’s own imagery, and their own published photo spheres through a seamless world map of landscapes, landmarks, business interiors and more.”
From the home screen, you can search for any place in the world and then scroll through a series of tabs such as “Collections” and “Explore,” which contain relevant panoramas uploaded by both Google and other users. Once you’ve launched one, you can hold your phone in either portrait or landscape and swipe around to take in the scene — alternatively, you can press the compass icon to look around using the phone’s accelerometer.
The slide-out menu on the right-hand side reveals two upload options: Camera and Spherical Camera. The former allows you to shoot a regular Photo Sphere, just as you would with Google’s stock Android camera app. It’s then immediately saved in a “Private” tab on the home screen where you can review it and ultimately publish to Street View, allowing others to take it in for themselves. Selecting the “Spherical Camera” option, meanwhile, will connect your device to external hardware, which could be anything from the aforementioned Theta stick camera to the 16-camera GoPro rig spotted at Google I/O.
Additional reporting by Nick Summers
Filed under:
Cameras, Internet, Google
Source:
Google
Tags: google, googlestreetview, ifa, ifa2015, streetview
The latest Nook is based on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2
Barnes & Noble’s partnership with Samsung continues with the Galaxy Tab S2 Nook. And, as you’ve probably guessed, it’s simply Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy Tab S2 jam-packed with Nook apps. The 8-inch tablet hits Barnes & Noble stores today for $400, though if you’ve got a B&N membership you can also knock another 10 percent off that price. It’s still sad to see the book seller move away from its own tablet hardware, but you could do a lot worse than the Tab S2. It’s an incredibly thin and light tablet with a bright quad HD screen (our full review is coming soon). The Tab S2 Nook fills a premium slot for Barnes & Noble, whereas last year’s Tab 4 Nooks are more budget-friendly at $150 and $250. You won’t really gain much with the Tab S2 Nook variant — you get three free books from a selection of 20 titles, along with three free magazines and $5 worth of credit. But really, it’s a tablet meant for people who are more used to strolling around B&N stores than comparing Android tablets online. Slideshow-317039
Filed under:
Tablets, Mobile, Samsung
Source:
Barnes & Noble
Tags: mobilepostcross, samsung
Exclusive: LG’s Nexus 5X coming September 29 for around $400
The Nexus 5X will come two years after the popular Nexus 5.
The LG-made Nexus is coming at the end of the month and it will be slightly more expensive that the original Nexus 5.
A source close to the matter has revealed to us details about Google‘s and LG’s plans for the new generation of the Nexus 5 smartphone. The source warned us that this information is not final, and as such, official details may differ, but we feel very confident in the veracity of this report.
First up, our source confirmed that the new Nexus will be made available in the Google Store from September 29. Both the LG Nexus and the Huawei Nexus will be offered at this point. This confirms a recent report from CNET, as well as an older rumor from Korean media.
The LG Nexus will probably go under the Nexus 5X moniker. We say probably because a decision on the final name has not been taken yet at Google HQ. That name makes a lot of sense: it allows Google to keep its “Nexus #” naming convention, while signaling that this is a new device in a much more intuitive fashion than by adding a “(2015)” or “(2nd gen.) suffix.
The Nexus 5X will look a lot like the device pictured in this leaked image.
Next up, we can confirm that the leaks that have been making the rounds showing the design of the Nexus 5X are accurate. The device will feature a circular rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, along a raised camera and the dual LED flash on the side.
The Nexus 5X will be available in white, black, and light blue, and will feature a plastic back and a USB Type-C port.
Perhaps the most important detail we gleaned from our source is the price of the Nexus 5X: the device will be affordable, but not as affordable as the original Nexus 5. The Nexus 5X will cost $50 more than the Nexus 5, according to our source. That means we can expect a starting point of $399 for the 16GB model and $449 for the 32GB model, assuming Google has decided to stick with 16GB for the base version.
Again, this is non-final info so do not take it for granted just yet. That said, this is a very solid source, so we fully expect this info to pan out.
That’s it for now! How do you feel about a $400 Nexus 5X? Let us know your thoughts.
NVIDIA is behind schedule shipping SHIELD Tablet replacements after issuing worldwide recall
Nvidia issued a voluntary, worldwide recall for its SHIELD tablet at the tail-end of July that applied to devices with the ‘Y01‘ battery installed. The recall was issued because the ‘Y01′ battery had been found to overheat, thus posing a potential fire hazard. The way that Nvidia immediately issued a worldwide recall, along with a definitive strategy of making it right by collecting and replacing the affected devices, garnered the company some well-deserved compliments. As is often the case, though, even the best-laid plans can suffer from snags and glitches when exposed to real-world conditions, as shown by the email that is being sent to customers.
While Nvidia and the 3rd-party company it contracted to handle the replacement of affected SHIELD tablets originally envisaged a wait of between 2 and 4 weeks, it seems that things are running behind schedule, with reports of at least one SHIELD tablet owner being without a device for over 5 weeks.
Nvidia’s email:
“Dear NVIDIA tablet owner,
We apologize for the delay in sending your replacement SHIELD tablet.
We are fulfilling claims as quickly as we can, in the order that they were received. In some cases, we are running behind our target delivery of 2-4 weeks. We’re doing everything we can to accelerate the schedule.
We’ll notify you when your unit ships. Ine the meantime, should you have any questions, please contact us at nvidiashieldtablet@stericycle.com.
Thanks for your patience,
NVIDIA”
If you had an affected SHIELD tablet and made a claim, have you received the replacement device yet? And if you are still waiting for your replacement, how long are you prepared to be patient? While NVIDIA, quite rightly received praise for the way it initially handled the recall, if the delay in sending replacement devices runs for much longer, surely it would be in the interests of the consumer for NVIDIA to consider issuing refunds? Let us know your thoughts about the SHIELD Tablet recall situation in the comments below.
Source: Droid-Life
Come comment on this article: NVIDIA is behind schedule shipping SHIELD Tablet replacements after issuing worldwide recall
KGI Expects New iPhones to Have 5MP Front Camera, Retain 16GB, 64GB and 128GB Capacities
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a note to investors that claims the so-called “iPhone 6s” will be offered in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB storage capacities, the same sizes available for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Kuo also claims the iPhone 6s will have an improved front-facing FaceTime camera with a 5-megapixel sensor, and reaffirms three much-rumored features: Force Touch, a new rose gold casing color and an upgraded Touch ID fingerprint scanner.
Kuo’s prediction corroborates multiple rumors that claim Apple will retain 16GB, 64GB and 128GB storage sizes for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, which are expected to be announced at the company’s September 9th media event in San Francisco.
Kuo says the iPhone 6s entered mass production in mid-August after some manufacturing bottlenecks due to Force Touch, casing and vibration motors.
Apple Sells Over 1 Million Apple Watches in China, Increases ‘iPhone 6s’ Orders Ahead of Launch
Apple is believed to have sold over over 1.07 million Apple Watches in China, according to data analysis company TalkingData (via Business Insider). The company uses a monitoring platform supported by over 80,000 mobile apps — including the country’s most popular app WeChat, with over 1 billion registered users — to receive its data.
Many remain curious as to how many Apple Watches the company has sold specifically, but Apple continues to remain firm on not assigning a tangible number to the sales figures of its new wearable device. After a few weeks of speculation, in July CEO Tim Cook gave the closest hint to the success of the Apple Watch, stating that its sales had “exceeded expectations” at the company.
Also of note today is a new report from Japan Display Inc. CEO Mitsuru Homma, who stated that the display manufacturer’s “biggest client” is ramping up orders ahead of an upcoming launch for the unnamed company’s newest smartphone (via Reuters). JPI has been known to work with Apple in the past, and was reported earlier in the year to be seeking a partnership with the Cupertino company in becoming its go-to manufacturer for iPhone screens with a $1.7 billion display plant.
Mitsuru Homma, who was appointed CEO in June, said weakness in China’s smartphone market, the world’s biggest, amid that country’s broader economic slowdown was not affecting the orders for display screens it was getting from its top client.
“They’re coming to us with more orders, saying ‘give us more, give us more’. They keep increasing,” he told Reuters in an interview.
Homma fielded questions about “difficult technology” causing production stalls in the manufacturing process — most likely this year’s inclusion of Force Touch — but he still believes that “ramp-up is going well.” The big reveal of the “iPhone 6s” and “iPhone 6s Plus” is just under a week away on September 9. The latest rumors point to a slightly thicker and larger “S” generation device, with the possibility of Apple Watch-like motion wallpapers and a slightly overhauled iOS thanks to the addition of Force Touch.
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