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Apple Sneaking Into the Health Records Industry

Posted on July 19, 2017 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, Medical, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Cedars-Sinai hospital is using iPads for both storing and displaying health information.

The huge mistake rivals make is that they try to duplicate and surpass the hardware features of their products compared to Apple products. That’s a huge mistake because it’s easy to shove more advanced hardware into a product. What’s more difficult is giving people a reason to use that advanced hardware.

In the smartphone and tablet market, rivals try to compete against Apple with lower prices and better technical specifications. That’s a recipe for failure. While rivals worry about prices and hardware specifications, Apple is moving towards making their products useful. One huge market that doesn’t care about prices or hardware specifications is the medical and health industry.

Cedars-Sinai hospital is using iPads for several purposes. One way is to use FaceTime to allow parents and children to interact when the children have infection diseases and need to be kept separate from other people. However, a far more interesting use for the iPad is to store and display medical information. Of course, any tablet or computer could do that. What Apple hopes to do is store medical information in a standard electronic format that’s also secure.

Now when you talk about security and online access, there can never be complete security. However, the availability and accuracy of medical information stored digitally means that health records can be accurately and quickly transferred among doctors and hospitals.

Right now, medical records are far more secure when stored in separate databases and pieces of paper. However, the huge drawback is the lack of accuracy and inability to transfer crucial information to others when needed. More than once, patients have been given penicillin or other antibiotics even though their medical records show they’re allergic to those medication. Today’s paper and half-solutions on a computer trade security for inaccuracy and inability to share.

By itself, there’s nothing special about the iPad when it comes to inputting and displaying medical information. What’s important is how that information gets stored and accessed securely, and that’s where Apple can make the iPad more secure than much cheaper Android tablets. First of all, iOS is far more secure than Android. Second, Apple can design security in rather than slap it on at a later date.

Hospitals are far less likely to be swayed by lower prices and better technical specifications than they are with devices that work and securely display information as sensitive as medical records. The iPad is never going to reach sales records it hit when it was first introduced. Instead, the iPad will find a new market in the enterprise world where price and minor hardware improvements matter far less than security and simplicity.

Apple’s big future lies in health. Real-time health monitoring will boost sales of the Apple Watch while health records will help boost sales of the iPad. While not everyone has a need for an Apple Watch or an iPad, everyone does have a need for maintaining their health. The only question is whether you’re willing to pay the price for better health or not.

Watch for Augmented Reality Apps From Apple

Posted on July 17, 2017 by admin Posted in Hardware, Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Apple released ARKit at their developer’s conference to pave the way for augmented reality apps from third-parties.

There’s a lot of confusion on what virtual reality and augmented reality are good for. Generally, virtual reality is great when you want to stay in a limited space and need to immerse yourself completely in an artificial world such as training simulations. Flight simulators are a crude sort of virtual reality system that works perfectly well, although you don’t see similar simulators used in public because it’s too expensive and bulky.

Virtual reality headsets are fine for limited use as well, but nobody’s going to carry a virtual reality headset with them at all times on the off chance they might need it. That’s where augmented reality comes in because you can view it on an iPhone or iPad. The demonstrations of augmented reality and the current use with Pokemon GO are fairly trivial. Where the real focus will come is creating augmented reality apps such as mapping directions.

Most likely, Apple will introduce its own augmented reality apps on the next iPhone, which will also work on the iPhone 7 and later and the iPad Pro and later. By seeing Apple’s own augmented reality apps, you’ll get a better idea how augmented reality can be useful instead of just a gimmick.

One likely use for augmented reality will come from the Map app and possibly an indoor mapping app that shows you directions in an airport or museum. The regular Map app will show you street names and landmarks on a map as you drive.

In case you’re wondering, one huge reason why Apple needed its own Map app and not rely on Google Maps wasn’t just to take control of its own apps, but to gather mapping data for augmented reality. Without its own map app, Apple wouldn’t be able to add augmented reality to a third-party mapping app. When Apple acquires or develops its own technology, it’s not just to replace an existing third-party solution but to plan for the long-term future.

Think of Apple’s latest move away from graphics processors to its own in-house graphics processor. That’s not just to get rid of a third-party dependence but to plan ahead. Graphics processors are useful for machines learning and that’s why Apple needs its own in-house graphics processor technology so it can customize its chips for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

In the augmented reality world, the introduction of augmented reality apps on the next iPhone (iOS 11) will drastically change the smartphone market. If you want augmented reality, you’ll have to get an iPhone or iPad. If you want an inferior augmented reality framework that only works on a handful of Android smartphones and tablets, then you can stick with an Android device.

Because so few Android devices will be able to use augmented reality, people will either upgrade to an Android device that does support augmented reality or switch to an iPhone. Most likely people will do both and some may upgrade from an old iPhone to a newer Android smartphone as well. However, Apple’s augmented reality solution will be more refined at the start and that will give it a huge head start with less hassle for most people. Expect augmented reality to be a limited feature on Android devices, limited mostly to high-end devices that cost nearly as much as an iPhone. That means if people want augmented reality, they’ll likely choose an iPhone.

This fall will be a crucial time for the iPhone. Augmented reality offers a software feature that will be difficult for rivals to duplicate. First, you need the software framework from Google. Then you need the hardware support from companies like Samsung and HTC. Since hardware specifications differ, it will be harder for Google to optimize their augmented reality software to work with so many different hardware platforms. That will just make augmented reality even harder and less refined on Android.

Augmented reality will separate the iPhone from Android as much as the original touch screen interface separated the iPhone from Blackberry, Nokia, and Microsoft. Augmented reality is the next killer app for smartphones and it will be difficult for rivals to catch up when it arrives.

Seeing AI

Posted on July 13, 2017 by admin Posted in Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Microsoft has released a new app called Seeing AI, which helps blind people “see” what’s around them.

The main purpose of technology isn’t to focus on incremental improvements in a laundry list of technical specifications. Instead, technology is meant to improve our lives. As smartphones have become common with built-in cameras, Microsoft has taken advantage of these developments with a new app called Seeing AI.

The idea is that by pointing your smartphone camera at people, objects, or even text, the Seeing AI can tell you what the camera’s looking at including descriptions of people, buildings, or reading text. More amazing is that Microsoft is giving the Seeing AI app away for free.

When you see enabling technology like Seeing AI, you realize how technology can make people’s lives better. Even if you have decent eyesight, you could still use the Seeing AI for reading text out loud. Instead of relying on another person to watch your back while playing a game like paintball, you could strap a smartphone to your arm and let the Seeing AI provide another set of eyes to scan for approaching people.

Seeing AI is proof that Microsoft can innovate. If Seeing AI had been available on the Windows Phone platform, that could have been a major game-changer. As it stands now, Microsoft has seemingly given up on their mobile operating system plans and seem content to focus on making great apps for Android and iOS. That’s great for all smartphone users (at least if you’re running Android or iOS) because now you get the benefits of using Microsoft’s apps without the drawback of being stuck on Microsoft’s operating system.

With apps like Seeing AI and OneNote, Microsoft has consistently proven they can innovate on the mobile computer platform. As long as Microsoft focuses on making technology offer clear benefits to people, they can’t go wrong. It’s when they (or any other company) forgets about providing benefits to actual people that any product will ultimately fail.

The End of Windows Phone

Posted on July 11, 2017 by admin Posted in Business, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Today, Microsoft officially ended support for Windows Phone 8.1.

How did one of the most dominant computer companies in the world manage to completely miss the mobile computing market, despite being a leader in that market? Easy. What Microsoft did at first was duplicate their Windows desktop business model by licensing Windows Mobile to multiple phone manufacturers. Windows Mobile used the Start menu interface introduced in Windows 95 and essentially put the Windows desktop interface on a mobile device.

Not surprisingly, this wasn’t an optimized user interface for mobile phones so when Apple introduced the iPhone, Microsoft suddenly found themselves trying to sell an outdated user interface to compete against the iPhone. This would be like trying to sell a more advanced horse carriage while everyone else is buying a car.

So the first mistake was simply coasting along with Windows Mobile and offering incremental improvements to a poorly designed user interface. Then Microsoft made a second mistake by taking so long to offer Windows Phone 7. By the time Windows Phone 7 appeared, most of the world had already adopted Android or the iPhone.

Here’s where Microsoft compounded their mistakes. To create Windows Phone 7 apps, Microsoft chose Silverlight, their Flash clone. That’s because Flash was slowly losing popularity and Silverlight was dying too. That meant Microsoft needed to find another use for Silverlight and they chose to make it into the Windows Phone 7 development language.

So as Silverlight died along with Flash, Silverlight only had a future as a Windows Phone 7 programming language. Then Microsoft made another mistake by introducing Windows Phone 8, which was incompatible with Windows Phone 7 and relied less on Silverlight and more on C# to create apps. That meant all those developers who used Silverlight to create Windows Phone 7 apps had to rewrite them in C# to get them to work on Windows Phone 8.

Then Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 8.1, which still didn’t attract much market share. With a sliver of market share, Windows Phone 8.1 couldn’t attract many customers. Without customers, developers had no one to sell to. Given a choice between learning to write Windows Phone 8.1 apps or make more money writing Android and iOS apps, most developers chose to follow the money and develop for Android and iOS instead of Windows Phone 8.1.

Then Microsoft switched things around with Windows 10 Mobile. Now Windows Phone 8.1 apps couldn’t work on Windows 10 Mobile, forcing developers to rewrite their apps yet again. Not surprisingly, most developers gave up constantly rewriting apps for a nearly non-existent market.

It’s no surprise that Windows Phone 8.1 is officially dead. It’s been unofficially dead since its arrival. Microsoft’s mobile strategy now focuses on making apps for Android and iOS. Windows 10 Mobile still exists, but it’s unlikely to grab any significant market share any time soon. Expect Windows 10 Mobile to quietly fade away. Look for any developers and most will be creating apps for Android or iOS. There’s no room for another mobile operating system at this point. The era of Windows Phone is over for good and Microsoft’s mobile phone operating system strategy looks like it’s gone for good as well.

Being Late to the Party

Posted on July 4, 2017 by admin Posted in Business, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Haiku is an open source desktop operating system based on BeOS, an operating system that Apple almost acquired instead of NeXT.

Back when Apple knew they needed a modern operating system, they had two choices. One was to acquire BeOS, a desktop operating system designed specifically for multimedia. Two was to acquire NeXT, another desktop operating system. Apple seemed to favor BeOS but they deemed the cost too high and ultimately chose to purchase NeXT instead, which eventually became OS X and macOS.

Ever since Apple decided against acquiring BeOS, the BeOS operating system has floundered. Palm Computing bought it a while back and then did nothing with it, so developers decide to create an open source version of BeOS and release it to the public under the name of Haiku. Haiku is free for anyone to use and can essentially replace Windows, Linux, or macOS. The huge problem with Haiku is that it’s still an alpha version and isn’t quite stable yet for ordinary use.

Haiku is an interesting project but one probably doomed to failure. That’s because if people want a free operating system, they can always choose Linux or one of the lesser known BSD distributions such as OpenBSD or FreeBSD. The era of desktop operating systems has long passed. If Haiku came out twenty or thirty years ago, it might have been interesting but now that the world has moved to mobile computing, there’s little need for another desktop operating system when the current ones (Windows, Linux, and macOS) work just fine.

Haiku is simply too late despite being an interesting project. Even the greatest idea in the world is useless if it’s too late. Windows Phone and its tile interface is still an interesting mobile phone operating system. If it had appeared before the iPhone, it would have been considered revolutionary. Because it appeared long after the iPhone had already dominated the smartphone market, Windows Phone was a good product that came too late, much like Haiku.

When you take great ideas and deliver them too late, it doesn’t matter how great the idea is. It’s too late. Sometimes a good idea that arrives early is far superior to a great idea that arrives too late.

The Windows Phone tile interface is a decent alternative to the icon interface of Android and iOS. The problem is that the tile interface isn’t a dramatically useful option. No one is going to dump Android or iOS to switch to Windows Phone just to get a tile interface. However, compare the Windows Phone tile interface to BlackberryOS or even Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile and you’ll see that the tile interface of Windows Phone truly is a drastic improvement.

Look for the me-too followers and you can be certain they won’t go far. It’s too late to try to sell books online to compete and dethrone Amazon. It’s also too late to compete with streaming videos to dethrone Netflix. Even Android’s creator, Andy Rubin, has created a new smartphone running Android called Essential Phone that’s another me-too, too late to the market product.

Why would anyone switch to the Essential Phone? It’s probably a decent phone and people will buy it based on tis features, but nobody can expect the world to suddenly shift to the Essential Phone use because it was designed by the creator of Android. The Essential Phone runs Android, so it’s not much different than other Android smartphones on the market.

You never want to be too late to the market. It’s always possible to dethrone the leader but only if you offer something drastically better. The iPhone killed Blackberry and Nokia because it was drastically better in the same way that the iPad killed netbooks because the iPad is drastically better. Linux is more open and generally more secure than Windows, yet it’s not drastically better so the world will cling to Windows for decades to come. The Macintosh is generally easier to use than Windows, but not drastically so. The Macintosh had a huge lead back in the days of MS-DOS command line interfaces, but Apple failed to exploit their lead at the time. Now it’s too late for the Macintosh to take over although it’s slowly growing at the expense of Windows.

If you have an idea, a good idea implemented now is far better than a great idea implemented too late. The best ideas are original, not minor variations and improvements over existing ideas like Windows Phone is over Android and iOS.

The future belongs to the revolutionary advantages, once people accept those revolutionary advantages. Arriving too late is never a path to success so Haiku and other me-too products like the Essential Phone may do well, but they’re not game-changing products like the iPhone and iPad.

To learn more about the Haiku open source project, click here.

The iPhone as a Camera

Posted on June 30, 2017 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: The iPhone is the most popular camera in the world.

The iPhone defined smartphones because previous mobile phones were little more than telephones without a cord. If you wanted to do anything more, you could send text messages (often by tapping the same key multiple times to choose the right letter), but if you wanted driving directions or to view a web page, too bad. You were out of luck.

One often overlooked feature of the iPhone is its camera. In the early days of cameras, you took a picture and sent the film off to be developed. Then Polaroid offered instant cameras so you could see your picture as soon as you took it. However if you wanted to share pictures with others, you still had to mail them in an envelope.

When the iPhone appeared, not only could you capture pictures easily, but you could share and edit those pictures right on your iPhone as well. As the image quality of the iPhone’s camera improved, it was more than good enough for most people. Today’s iPhone camera is equivalent to yesterday’s dedicated digital camera. Dedicated digital cameras will always be more versatile, but the added cost, bulk, and inability to share pictures will always give the iPhone an advantage. The iPhone camera, combined with the iPhone’s portability, helped redefine the way the world takes and shares pictures while the iPhone redefined how smartphones should work.

The iPhone ushered in huge changes in just ten short years. Yet many people failed to recognize the potential of the iPhone when it first appeared, which is like seeing the future in front of your eyes and refusing to believe it exists. Imagine how today’s critics of the Apple Watch and iPad will feel when both of those devices take over the market more in a few more years. The iPad is going to redefine mobile computing and the Apple Watch is going to redefine wearable computers.

With iOS 11, the iPad is going to get more versatile and merge into a laptop. With additional sensors, such as a non-invasive glucose monitor, the Apple Watch is going to dominate the real-time health monitoring market. Expect other wearable computers to soon appear from Apple such as Air Pods and Smart Glasses. Wearable computers will become common just as the world finally adjusts to the reality that the iPhone has ushered in a whole new world for mobile computing.

Follow Apple and you can see the future because rivals will simply mimic Apple instead of forging ahead with their own initiatives. Sadly, only Apple (and possibly Google) seem capable of recreating new markets. The rest of the world seems content to follow and then wonder why they can never be seen as innovators.

Even if you use an Android smartphone, it owes its design to the iPhone. The iPhone will soon redefine a new world with augmented reality. When Apple introduces its own augmented reality apps on the next iPhone, expect to see Apple redefine the smartphone market once more.

The future is Apple. Just watch what they do and be ready for massive change. Even if it’s just changing the way we take pictures.