Posts Tagged ‘iOS’
The FDA Wants to Approve Your Medical/Health-Related Smartphone Apps
At the moment, the FDA does bestow its approval on some apps, including a radiology tool called , but that approval at the moment is both pretty scarce and totally optional--it's a nice bonus if your app is FDA-approved, but the only organization an app developer really needs approval from is Apple. The FDA strikes a tone of total support for the surge in medical apps, but states concern that there is no real approval process that vets medical apps prior to release. If you've got a weird rash or a pain somewhere in your abdomen (could it be the spleen? What is a spleen, anyway?), or want to use your phone's sensors to monitor your organs (like a spleen, which I am 99% sure is in the abdomen), you might consult an app, and the FDA wants to make sure you're getting the right information.
The FDA proposed a guideline that would have the organization overseeing certain kinds of apps. Specifically, they'd want to examine any app that is "used as an accessory to an FDA-regulated device," which seems reasonable--of course the FDA would want to make sure that any device they approve would be used with accessories of which they also approve. The other kind of app the FDA wants to regulate is any software that turns a smartphone into a "regulated medical device," like an electrocardiography machine. Again, pretty understandable--the FDA monitors EKG machines, so if you're using an iPhone as an EKG machine, that should also be monitored.
There's no mention of the FDA examining WebMD-type diagnosis apps--the proposal seems much more geared to apps that turn smartphones into legitimate medical tools, rather than just references. FDA approval might slow down the release of some of these apps, but the agency thinks added oversight will be worth the delay.
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Wireless, Chipless Tech Transfers Cash from Your Smartphone Using Ultrasound
Zoosh me a $20?
You can read , but as a basic summary, NFC is a short-range wireless tech similar to RFID, in which small chunks of information can be passed among devices like smartphones and all sorts of other appliances like point-of-sale units, subway entry points, and even less mechanical items like movie posters. There's only one major NFC-enabled smartphone--the Samsung Nexus S--in the U.S. at the moment, and the infrastructure is in its infancy, but other countries have robust NFC or NFC-type setups and all signs point to a North American embrace as well.
But NFC is a few years off, and Zoosh is here right now. Zoosh, coming from a small Silicon Valley startup, is a software solution that uses the audio hardware found in phones to communicate. As every phone is necessarily equipped with a speaker and microphone, Zoosh saw an opening to use that hardware, rather than create something new. To send data (whether it's a URL, a phone number, or payment information), Zoosh broadcasts ultrasonic audio in a frequency not audible to human ears, around 20,000Hz. A speaker in another phone (or, later, a point-of-sale unit, which the startup claims can be upgraded for only $30) picks up that audio and translates it back into the intended data. You can see it in action in this wholly Silicon Valley video.
What's most intriguing about Zoosh is its ease of adoption. All a smartphone needs is a simple app that unlocks its ability to communicate in this way, and there's no need to worry about compatibility, as all phones have the required hardware. We don't know many specifics at the moment--the speed of transfer and amount of data that can be transferred is still unknown--but it's a surprising and seemingly very practical solution. At least, it's a practical stopgap until NFC gets here.
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Google Translate Hits the iPhone App Store
Tango brings its cross-platform video chat app to the iPod Touch
Mobile video chat company announced today that it has updated its iPhone OS app to support the fourth-generation iPod Touch, which features front and rear-facing cameras like the iPhone 4.
With this update, Tango is now a bigger threat to Apple’s own FaceTime video chat, which is built in to the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod Touch. The big difference with Tango is that users can also video chat over 3G (FaceTime is restricted to WiFi only), and they can video chat with friends on Android phones. Tango’s interface is as simple and easy to use as FaceTime, and it’s also easy to find your friends on the service as the app automatically combs through your phone’s contacts.
We reported in October that Tango’s iPhone and Android apps were wildly popular, in a mere 10 days after they launched. Tango by the end of November. The company tells me that its usage doubled over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Tango says that 70 percent of its members perform spontaneous video calls with their friends and family, and they do so more than once a week. I argued earlier this year that , and we’re clearly seeing that happen with Tango’s apps.
In a video chat interview, Tango’s executives mentioned that the service is using peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to handle the video calls. That means the service is highly scalable and doesn’t rely entirely on the speed of the company’s servers. Tango has six patents pending surrounding its video chat technology, three of which are related specifically to its P2P technology implementation.
A recent Android update allows Tango’s app to take advantage of Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) technology, a feature of the Android OS that lets push notifications get sent for Tango calls without having to run the app in the background — saving precious battery life in the process.
Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Tango has raised $5 million in funding from individual investors including Bill Hambrecht, Michael Birch, Bill Tai, and Daniel Scheinman.
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Another delay for Nokia: E7 smartphone pushed to early 2011
, the Finnish cellphone maker, said on Tuesday that it will delay the rollout of the E7 smartphone to early 2011, missing the holiday shopping season.
Originally, the enterprise user-oriented smartphone was meant to be out in December. According to Nokia, the company is pushing back the release of the phone to ensure “the best possible user experience on the E7”.
Nokia’s previous high-end smartphone, , and when released, the reception was , to say the least. The E7’s big claim to fame is its sliding mechanism and hardware keyboard, otherwise it’s basically the same as the N8. The N8 and E7 models are seen as flagships of the latest version of the Nokia-developed Symbian OS, which is struggling to stay relevant in a time when Google-owned Android OS and Apple’s iOS are gaining ground quickly in the smartphone OS market. (According to a recent , Android will become the second-largest smartphone OS this year and possibly take over Symbian in 2014.)
While the delayed releases of both models attest to the fact that 2010 has not been a high point for Symbian, Nokia is planning multiple upgrades to the OS in the next 12 to 15 months. According to a ComputerWorld , Nokia will come out with four or five upgrades, honing the operating system with frequent improvements instead of major upgrades that are a long time apart.
It remains to be seen if Nokia’s efforts are enough to regain lost territory in the smartphone OS market with Symbian, which is largely seen as a clunky operating system that is dragging the company down. Then again, the company is not betting all its money on the same horse, as it is launching its new MeeGo operating system sometime next year, which, if we are to believe the company’s SVP of Design, Marko Ahtisaari, . Just don’t hold your breath waiting for it, either.
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Google Latitude iPhone app will help you stalk your friends
After last week, Google’s official Latitude iPhone app is , the this morning.
Google as a way to easily keep track of your friends’ locations in real-time. Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian users have been able to take advantage of the service for some time with background updating, which automatically updates their Latitude location. Now with an official app, combined with , iPhone users, too, will be able to take advantage of all Latitude has to offer.
Apple blocked Google’s first attempt at releasing a Latitude app last year (Google said Apple was worried users would confuse it with the Maps app), so that let users manually update their locations. Being a web app, it couldn’t offer the convenient background updating feature found on other platforms.
Latitude is the second rejected Google service to get an official iPhone app in the past month. Apple , after . Google after Apple’s rejection, but just like Latitude, it was no replacement for a native app. Apple’s change of heart can be traced back to .
I’ve only had a short while to dig into the Latitude app, but it seems pretty straightforward. You can view a map of all of your friends’ locations, change privacy settings and invite more friends to Latitude. The background location updating seems to work just fine, and it can also be turned off easily. Now that Latitude is fully functional on the iPhone, I’ll definitely be inviting more friends (who don’t mind being stalked) to use the service.
Google says that there are over 9 million Latitude users on other mobile platforms. I expect that number to explode now that iPhone users can take full advantage of it.
The Latitude app requires iPhone OS 4 and is compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad and the 3rd/4th generation iPod Touch. You can view a video demonstration of the app below:
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Can we just agree that the iPad 2 will have cameras already?
We have new details on Apple’s iPad 2 from component suppliers, but none of it is all that surprising. There’s word that the new iPad will have front and rear-facing cameras, and that it will be thinner, lighter, and feature a higher-resolution display, .
Now I realize that since we have no official details on the iPad 2, nothing is set in stone yet. But we’ve been hearing about cameras on the iPad successor for months now. And given that all of the iPad’s tablet competitors — including the and the — feature dual cameras, it would simply be unfathomable for Apple not to follow suit.
Apple also recently computers, so it would make sense for it to bring video chat to the iPad as well.
Reuters points to camera module makers Genius Electronic Optical and Largan Precision as new Apple component suppliers, but neither would confirm that they were building components for the iPad 2.
That the iPad will be lighter, thinner, and equipped with a better display is no surprise either. Many complained that the original iPad’s weight (1.6 pounds) made it too heavy to hold for long periods of time. And ever since Apple introduced the high-resolution Retina Display on the iPhone 4, the iPad’s resolution seemed less impressive in comparison.
Reuters’ sources also confirm our previous report, which said that and will be available for purchase some time in April. It’s expected that the iPad 2 will be announced in January.
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