smartphones
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The Price of Wearable Craze: Personal Health Data Hacks
...in a year when the world's largest technology, medical device and health-care firms are betting big and fast on wearable technology's role in delivering patients a more precise and cost-effective way to manage their health, experts are worried that the pace of updating data-privacy laws and building infrastructures with optimal levels of security doesn't match the speed of the market's technological rollout. The risks to consumers depend on what type of device they're wielding. In rare instances, weak links or endpoints in a cloud-based network powering something like a wearable insulin pump could be life threatening, as it opens the door to hackers tampering with them...
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The Prospects Of The HTML5-Based Firefox OS
With the fast expanding reach of the Internet and the approaching of the era of cloud computing, the HTML5 open platform enables quick development of cross-platform applications, easing concerns that there may be different user experience on different connected devices. [...] Read More »
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The ‘privacy by design’ approach for mobile apps: why it is not enough
The mobile apps installed on our smartphones are one of the biggest threats to our digital privacy. They are capable of collecting vast amounts of personal data, often highly sensitive. The consent model on which privacy laws are based doesn’t work. App users remain concerned about privacy, as a recent survey shows, but they still aren’t very good at protecting it. They may lack the technical know-how or the time to review privacy terms, or they may lack the willpower to resist the lure of trending apps and personalized in-app offers...
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There Is Something Magical About Firefox OS
Over the past year and a half I've been spending more and more of my time working with Mozilla's latest project, Firefox OS. During that time I've fallen in love with the project and what it stands for, in ways that I've never experienced with a technology platform before. Read More »
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Think Mobile Is Big Now? Here's Proof That It's Just Getting Started
So, you think that the Mobile Revolution is complete and the battle between smartphones and PCs is all but won? Think again. Read More »
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This Aid Agency Is Using Chatbots to Beat World Hunger
Smartphones and chatbots have made services from banking to transportation more accessible across Africa. Now, aid agencies are hoping they can do the same with food.
The UN’s World Food Program (WFP), has been experimenting with text and Facebook messenger chatbots to monitor food insecurity in hard-to-reach areas, turning smartphones and social media into lifelines for the most vulnerable of refugees...
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Three Areas Where Health Information Technology Needs to Get its House in Order
Health reform is taking off, thanks to pressure from insurers, the promise with which innovative technologies tease us for low-cost treatments, and regulatory mandates dating back to the HITECH act of 2009. Recent hopeful signs for wider adoption of health technologies include FDA forebearance from regulating consumer health apps, calls for more support for telemedicine, and new health announcements from tech giants such as Apple and Google. While technologists push forward in all these areas, we need to keep in mind that several big unsolved problems remain. Let's not get lost in the details--these major issues have to be tackled head on. Read More »
To Master Tech You Must Master Software - And Open Source - Even If You're Apple
But there is a corollary: To master technology you must master open source. The real leaders in tech are understanding that to go it alone and develop software in a company cloister is foolish, expensive and time intensive.
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Top 10 Open Source Legal Developments in 2015
In 2015 there were a variety of legal issues of importance to the FOSS (free and open source) community. Continuing the tradition of looking back over the top ten legal developments in FOSS, my selection of the top ten issues for 2015 is as follows:
- Settlement of Versata cases interpreting General Public License version 2 (GPLv2)
- First decision interpreting General Public License version 3 (GPLv3)
- Linux programmer sues VMware for violation of GPLv2 for Linux
- Community GPL compliance
- European Commission antitrust investigation of Google and its Android operating System (Android OS)...
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Towards a New EHR Metaphor - Or, How to Fix Unusable EHRs
News flash: docs hate Excel! In a recent study, which included researchers from Yale, the Mayo Clinic, Stanford, and the AMA, physicians rated it only at 57% on a usability rating, far below Google search (93%), Amazon (82%), or even Word (76%). But, of course, Excel wasn't their real problem; the study was aimed at electronic health records (EHRs), which physicians rated even lower: 45%, which the study authors graded an "F." If we want EHRs get better, though, we may need to start with a new metaphor for them.Lead author Edward Melnick, MD, explained the usability issue: "A Google search is easy. There's not a lot of learning or memorization; it's not very error-prone. Excel, on the other hand, is a super-powerful platform, but you really have to study how to use it. EHRs mimic that."
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Two Years In, What Has Apple ResearchKit Accomplished?
In March 2015, Apple promised to change the way medical research could be done. It launched ResearchKit, which could turn millions of iPhones around the world into a “powerful tool for medical research,” the company said at the time. Since then, ResearchKit — software that gives would-be app developers a library of coding to create health apps on the iPhone and Apple Watch — has spawned a number of studies: One team has used it to create an app to track Parkinson’s symptoms; another is trying out a screening protocol for autism. A third helps people inventory the moles on their skin and evaluate how they have changed over time...
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Two-Thirds Of The World’s Mobiles Are Dumb Phones. Meet The Company Getting Them Online
And yet U2opia mobile, a Singapore-based company founded by Indian entrepreneurs, has catapulted to 17 million users in 36 countries as a result. To understand why, you have to unlearn Facebook—its blue background, viral videos, photo uploads—as you know it. And put yourself in the position of someone who has never been on the internet before. Read More »
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Ubuntu Edge: 3 Things To Think About
The cross-over Android device wants to break through barriers and smash records. TechRepublic's Jason Hiner boils down the three key takeaways. Read More »
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Ubuntu Linux Enters The Smartphone Wars
Instead of going after both the tablet and smartphone market, Canonical is bravely starting 2013 by trying to become a major player in the smartphone market with an upcoming version of Ubuntu Linux. Read More »
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Ubuntu Superphone Fundraiser Rakes In $1M On Debut
Canonical — makers of the Ubuntu distribution of Linux — is asking geeks to collectively cough up $32 million dollars in the next month to crowdfund a smartphone that could serve as a laptop replacement. Supporters have already pledged over $1 million in the first five hours of the fundraiser. Read More »
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