After a week (four days for some of us, thanks to the Martin Luther King Day holiday) of working hard in healthcare technology and innovation, it’s time to take a look at what you may have missed in the world of tech outside healthcare.
Here are five interesting general technology stories that people in healthcare should pay attention to, since these issues could have an impact on health tech. We’d love your feedback in the comments below and on social media.
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1. “YouTube Now Has a ‘Global Virtual Reality Evangelist'” (Re/code)
YouTube really wants to make virtual reality video a thing. Case in point: The Google arm now has someone solely devoted to convincing others to make content for it.
Scott Broock, who led partnership deals for virtual reality startup Jaunt for the past two years, has moved to YouTube. He’s now “Global VR Evangelist” for the world’s largest video service.
2. “Outlook on Your Phone Is the Future of Email” (Wired)
So it’s a shame there’s hardly anyone dedicated to making email awesome. Except for Microsoft. Its Outlook app for iOS and Android is the best mobile email app, no matter what phone you’re using. It’s better than Mail, better than Gmail. It’s the biggest email innovation since spam filtering.
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3. “Skype hides IP addresses to protect users from online trolls” (Engaget)
After initially allowing users to choose whether they wanted to share their IP address with contacts, the company’s latest update will now hide their details from other Skype users by default. Microsoft says the measure will “prevent individuals from obtaining a Skype ID and resolving to an IP address,” which won’t only protect gamers, but other Skype users who may be targeted by online trolls.
4. “The Fail Whale Returns: Twitter Goes Down; Stock Hits a New Low, Closing at $16.69” (TechCrunch)
From what we’ve been able to see, today there were periods where Twitter was not working for a large number of its users, either partially or not at all, in London and other parts of the UK, Switzerland, and Bangkok (according to reports from our own team) this morning UK time. However, we also had initial reports from Palo Alto [California] and other parts of the U.S. that seem to indicate it never dropped, although now as the East Coast is waking up, the service is wobbling once again
5. “Davos: There’s a real risk of talking ourselves into a downturn” (The Telegraph)
From a South Korean robot called HUBO who is stalking the halls of the centre, terrorising and delighting the 2,500 delegates (and their 7,500 hangers on), to a special lounge containing virtual reality headsets that allow users to escape it all, the future of technology appears to be a central theme.
One need only walk along Davos’s main road – the Promenade – to see that playing out beyond the hall itself. From Facebook’s pop-up innovation lounge demonstrating the latest Oculus Rift prototypes, to Salesforce.com’s transformation of two different shops into customer lounges, to support chairman Marc Benioff who is here to talk about the digital transformation of industries, the tech world is here in force.
Photo: Getty Images