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Consumers demanding technology to change healthcare

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Mary Meeker says digitization of care is well underway

Now famous tech trend investor and publisher of annual trends report, Mary Meeker, has stated that the digitization of the health care industry is responding to consumer pressure to be more transparent and convenient. Areas impacted are health care records, health information, scheduling appointments with providers, measuring health with wearables and devices, and telemedicine. ZDNet

dis-rup-shun: The health industry has been slow to embrace technology, primarily as care payers have been unwilling to pay the cost of new technologies. A bonus of the Affordable Care Act has been a restructuring by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of what procedures get reimbursed by the U.S. Government. The shift to consumers paying a larger portion of healthcare has resulted in demand for technologies to increase convenience, offer more information, and reduce costs. Healthcare is shifting to a consumer, not industry, driven marketplace and the growing demand makes it great business for technology companies.

Cozy relationship between DOJ and Apple, Google

The DOJ has been reported to be considering anti-trust investigations against Apple and Google, while the FTC may be looking into Amazon and Facebook. Senator Elizabeth Warren, however, has determined and announced that the person at the DOJ in charge of a potential inquiry is Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, a man who was a paid lobbyist for both Google and Apple. The Senator is calling for Delrahim to recuse himself if any inquiry occurs. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: Senator Warren is doing her part to drain the swamp and expose the increasingly cozy relationships Silicon Valley has formed with Washington through an army of lobbyists. The GAFAM (or FAANG, if you prefer) big-five are increasingly setting pricing and policies on the Internet, and are counting on their political investments to pay off, but an increasing consumer backlash on privacy and data standards will make for a rougher road.

Amazon ends restaurant delivery businesses

Amazon has announced the end of two U.S. food delivery businesses: Amazon Restaurant and Daily Dish. At the same time, the company has increased its stake in delivery business and former competitor, Deliveroo. Deliveroo, based in the UK, is Uber Eats largest competitor. Engadget

dis-rup-shun: We are not accustomed to hearing about Amazon retreating. Amazon is not afraid to lose money in new ventures, and is generally patient. If the company believed that there is no future in food delivery by car, it would likely not have invested in Deliveroo, unless to keep Uber Eats in check as Amazon’s developing drone fleet will challenge Uber’s fleet at some point in the future. Amazon likely wishes to use its stake in Deliveroo to stay connected to the business until it can provide a more profitable form of food delivery than people in cars.

The European Union implements drone regulations

The EU has drafted specific operating requirements for drones, allowing registered drones to fly across borders. The regulations categorize drones in three classes, based on size, purpose and degree of risk. The regulations are likely to be in effect in one year. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: The EU is establishing itself as the efficient and effective regulator of technology. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) data privacy standard, adopted in 2018, changed the way that big data companies operating in Europe store and transmit personal data, including processes and disclosure. Kudos to the EU for taking action and demonstrating leadership in management of personal data, and now drone usage.

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Bezos explains how to succeed in business

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Bezos offers the key to business success

Bezos, at Amazon’s re:MARS conference on AI, while wearing a questionable shirt and sportcoat combination for the world’s wealthiest man, offered business leaders advice for success: 1. Focus on a customer need that will not change, such as customers wanting products delivered faster at lower prices; 2. Focus on something for which you are passionate, as without passion, you will get outworked, and 3. Do something risky because if it is not risky, someone is already doing it. ZDNet

dis-rup-shun: Bezos’ advice appears elementary, until we consider the very things that the company is transforming: shopping, the grocery business, travel (Blue Origin), package delivery (drones), TV watching, controlling home systems (Alexa), and many other industries. Bezos is saying go where the money is and transform the delivery of fundamental needs. Unfortunately for other entrepreneurs, Amazon has already disrupted, or started to, for most industries.

 

Space X shows how a trip from NYC to Shanghai in 39 minutes

In a concept video, Space X shows how passengers will board a high speed ferry which will deliver them to a floating launchpad, where they will board a rocket that hurls them into orbit and makes a gentle touchdown on another floating platform, from which they will be ferried to downtown Shanghai. YouTube

dis-rup-shun: The concept shows why the Space X test landings on floating platforms are critical to the plan. Using a floating platform for travel introduces more opportunities for nature’s interference. Calling home to inform your loved ones that you missed your rocket due to rough seas will be a big disappointment for all. 

 

All three smart speakers to get smarter this year

The race to dominate home voice control through smart speakers means a constant stream of new features. Alexa will allow a user to complete multiple tasks with one request to Alexa. Google’s voice assistant is getting more friendly in that you can now ask it to go back when reading instructions, or simply to “stop” without using the watch word. Siri is now able to distinguish different voices in one room, a skill already possessed by Alexa and Google Assistant, and in the home space, Apple is a distant third. CNet

dis-rup-shun: While smart speakers are great to use and making interaction with home systems much more natural, the new capabilities mean that the tech companies will be listening and recording your conversations longer, so that they will have more context to carry out commands. Those that are worried about being listened to will not be in favor of these new enhancements, but those that are willing to pay for some convenience with some privacy see it as a good deal.

 

FexEx appears to be aligning with Walmart: ends Amazon Express deliveries

FedEx announced that it will not renew its Amazon Express services, using the capacity to assist other e-commerce companies. Meanwhile FedEx is increasing the number of kiosks inside of Walmart stores. New York Times

dis-rup-shun: The online power players are jockeying for position. Walmart is working overtime to catch up with Amazon’s dominance, and FedEx is threatened by Amazon’s growing fleet of trucks and planes. FedEx is likely terminating a low profit contract with Amazon and seeking higher profit per delivery with other customers, and siding with Walmart as both companies seek defense from Amazon’s tight grip on online selling.

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Everything you need to know about Apple’s announcements

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Monday was the big keynote at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference

Here is the summary of all the new offerings, thanks to Wired:

iOS 13 for the iPhone:

  • The background is now all black for a more modern look
  • Music player shows the lyrics to your songs
  • Maps will notify your friends of your ETA (no more fibbing about being almost there)
  • A new keyboard “Quick Path” enables you to choose words rather than type them
  • Sign in to third party apps using your Apple ID without sharing your data and contacts, as you do with Google or Facebook sign ins

dis-rup-shun: Apple is playing catch up to Android’s, and particularly Samsung Galaxy’s feature gains with software, given that the next advance in camera features will not be released for four months. Apple has taken the good guy posture on data sharing — taking advantage of consumer backlash against Facebook and Google’s “know all” policies.

Apple Watch

  • A separate app store for Watch provides more app options
  • More health tracking
  • More audio capabilities

MacPro

  • Impressive metal radiator-looking industrial design and even sharper monitor
  • Intel Xeon processor and heavy duty graphics card capable of 12 simultaneous, 4K video streams
  • $11,000 price tag for this professional grade device

 MacOS for laptops and desktops

  • A “sidecar” app enables an iPad to be an extension of the laptop/desktop
  • Project Catalyst is for developers — making it simple for one app code base to run on pads or desktop

iPad OS

  • A number of enhancements make the iPad behave more like a PC

dis-rup-shun: Apple is tired of losing tablet buyers to Microsoft’s surface — the Surface has become an effective back path to lead iPad users back to Windows.

Siri

  • More human voice
  • Ability to voice control third party apps such as Pandora and Waze

dis-rup-shun: Apple is tired of watching Alexa spread like wildfire and threaten CarPlay’s dominance on the dashboard.

AirPods

  • The ability for multiple wearers to listen to the same audio source

iTunes

  • Content is now separated into an app for video, an app for music, and an app for podcasts

Memoji (not to be confused with iPhone X’s Animoji)

  • Emojis are more detailed and lifelike

dis-rup-shun: Animojis are so realistic they are creepy and will entertain users for hours. Memojis spread the fascination to older iPhones.

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Amazon and Google and federal scrutiny

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Amazon and Google under federal scrutiny for unfair competitive practices

The Washington Post (owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos) reports that the FTC and DOJ have divvied up duties of looking into the practices of Amazon — a job for the FTC, and of Google, to be handled by the DOJ. 

dis-rup-shun: Google’s dominant search engine and Amazon’s marketplace, together with Prime subscription data, enormous logistics resources and leading cloud platform, AWS, put the companies in the difficult position of direct competition with most of their customers. Owning the very rails of the online market, the Post puts it, is akin to the railroads of the late 1800s. The “coopetition” position of the companies — as they both compete and serve their customers, will undoubtedly be the companies’ defense should the feds take the companies to court.

iTunes is dead

This is the week of Apple’s annual developer event, WWDC. It has been rumored that Apple will shutter iTunes, more tightly integrating movie and music content services into new operating system features, rendering iTunes as a standalone marketplace irrelevant. Engadget

dis-rup-shun: Most people likely fell out of love with iTunes years ago as soon as it swallowed their music collection after their first iPhone upgrade. Launched in 2001, the service was the most important thing that happened to the music industry after music became digital, but iTunes complexity was its demise. By making it difficult to manage and share the content that people rightfully owned, it hastened the shift to streaming music services, which Apple finally joined by acquiring Beats in 2014. By that time, consumers had already tried and settled on several streaming services and the majority chose Spotify. Apple, the company that re-invented music, lost it only a dozen years later.

Space race setback: Stratolaunch shutting down

The race to own space is full-on with several governments (China, Russia, Japan, USA) and several private and public companies (SpaceX, Blue Origin, Lockheed, Boeing and others) aggressively pursuing economic and strategic initiatives. Stratolaunch, space company of late Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, is reported to be shutting down. The company has built and flown the world’s largest aircraft, capable of launching heavy rockets from high altitudes, which reduces the cost and complexity of blast offs from a launch pad.  Engadget

dis-rup-shun: The U.S. government has outsourced space innovation to corporations. The free market will create efficient competitors who will profit from space exploration, but whose goals may not align with political and military objectives. Having a contract with NASA, however, helps stabilize the early days of the new space race.

Odd technology: Muro programmable music box

Muro is a wood and metal retro music box encased by a plastic dome. Unlike its pre-computer predecessors, this version can be programmed with an app to play essentially any tune. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: The appeal of an antique-looking and sounding music box playing Guns N’ Roses is lost on most, but perhaps this tech novelty will be the rage this holiday season.

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How China can bruise Apple and slow the global economy

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[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22.3″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.22.3″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.74″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]If China retaliates for Huawei’s banishment

Wired offers some damaging scenarios for Apple if Chinese leaders decide to pay back damage to state influenced telecom maker, Huawei. China could offer some severe blows to the world’s largest company that derives 19% of its revenues in China by:

  • Interfering with Apple’s supply chain and manufacturing that take place in Shenzen
  • Placing limits on Apple’s retail stores or on its online app store
  • Requiring certain Chinese manufactured components to be included in iPhones
  • Fueling a nationalist campaign against buying Apple

dis-rup-shun: Apple moved much of its production to China’s Foxconn several years ago, and the company should hope that Chinese authorities are still appreciative of the action. Apple’s performance is undoubtedly a lever of global economic health that, if pulled by China, will certainly contribute to economic turbulence in the year ahead.

Google, Amazon and now Facebook want you to use their home portal

This week Amazon released a new version of its home portal, Echo Show 5. Also this week, Facebook released software to make it easier to send content from a smartphone to the Facebook Portal device, and to place video calls to the device. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun:  Facebook Portal is a quality hardware device if you like using Facebook messenger for calls, and like a large photo viewing screen. Will smartphone apps increase demand for the in-home device? This product is expensive and appeals to a niche market – the Facebook Messenger junkie. Without the home automation device support offered by Amazon Echo, and without the integration with the Google search engine that Google Home offers, the Portal remains a specialized device taking up valuable counter space. And, by the way, Amazon and Google are selling their devices at a loss, seeking to be the razor that will sell their growing portfolio of services (blades). Facebook will have to add functionality to Portal and sell at a deep loss to succeed with devices. This device just doesn’t make a lot of sense.

iRobot knows how tall is your grass 

iRobot, the $1 billion maker of Roomba vacuums and Braava robotic mops is now offering a robotic lawn mower, the Terra, which, unlike prior products that navigate with cameras, uses beacons buried in your yard to guide the device.  ZDNet

dis-rup-shun:  iRobot is launching robotics 2.0, devices that reuse both data as well as code bases to know more about your home. After cleaning your floors, iRobot’s devices have mapped your home using cameras and now have the intelligence to clean up a bathroom or work in specific areas, as well as pass that information on to other devices such as the robotic mop. The map of your home is stored in Amazon’s cloud and will someday be shared with other authorized devices with a need to know.

Finally, a really smart (and beautiful) universal remote control

A new universal remove from Sevenhugs is separate remote for every device. Based on beacons placed discretely in your primary viewing room, the Sevenhugs remote knows which device you are pointing to and “changes” its layout to take on the attributes of each individual device. Sevenhugs

dis-rup-shun: Though the year is 2019, universal and smart remotes are still often very difficult to set up and frequently inconsistent in their operation, not to mention that some important control functions get lost or omitted from some universal devices. The elegant design and small size makes this remote one that will not have to be hidden away before parties. Its blank touchscreen changes according to the device it is pointed to. Now that’s smart.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

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Stargazing permanently impacted by new space objects

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Shocking photography of satellite launch

An amateur astronomer captured a photo of the launch of 60 StarLink satellites — the first of 12,000 to be launched in coming years. TheVerge  Astonomers around the world, however, have expressed shock at the realization that each satellite’s solar panel will reflect light back to Earth and be very visible at dawn and dusk — forever chaning views of the night sky. Forbes

dis-rup-shun: Imagine the shock of early farmers and urban dwellers when the first interstate billboards, replete with bright lighting, were erected in their views. Today’s stargazers are the ones shocked, as Elon Musk’s band of low orbit satellites, orbiting Earth to provide a new source of broadband services, will forever change views of outer space. Never fear, the new broadband service will make it easier to surf pictures of uncluttered outer space — the way things looked before space objects changed the view.

Withings smart watch is everything Apple’s is not, and more

Withings, maker of connected health and fitness gear, has released a smart watch that is by bar the most stylish design for lovers of classic watches. The device features fitness and workout monitors, sleep analysis, a vibrating alarm, battery life of 25 days and is water resistant up to 50 meters and okay for showers. Inverse

dis-rup-shun: At a price of $199, Withings enables lovers of fashion watches to enjoy the benefits of a connected device, and with long battery life, the ease of use beats Apple iWatch 4’s expected 18 hours.

Tesla Model 3 is best seller in Norway

Tesla’s allocation of Model 3s arrived in the country in February and quickly put a dent in sales of other luxury models, incluing Mercedes Benz. Norwegians have a high interest in electric vehicles. CleanTechnica

dis-rup-shun: Depite Tesla’s bumpy year, with continuous delays in Model 3 production, softening U.S. orders, and stories of cultural disharmony, the company’s product is still favored by buyers of electric vehicles. For generally affluent and eco-conscious cultures such as Norway, the company’s market leadership will spur accelerated EV development by more established competitors such as Daimler, Toyota, and Volvo.

Alexa intercom feature now on all devices

Alexa’s ability to serve as an intercom between only its flagship devices (Echo, Dot, Show, Spot) has now been expanded to every Alexa-enabled device. The Verge

dis-rup-shun: As many different types of devices, including light fixtures, wall switches, door bells, thermostats and Bluetooth speakers now include Alexa, every home has many intercom possibilities. For busy families with young children or homes with seniors, the application for voice to voice, in-home communications adds a new layer of benefits to smart speakers and further advances Amazon’s lead over Google in this category.

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Hitting China where it hurts

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Chip designer ARM ceases work with Huawei

ARM is the UK based company that licenses the semiconductor design spec used by most smartphone chip makers. Although the company is not based in the U.S., it has stated that many of the design elements in its specification originated in the U.S., therefore it can not lawfully license its design to Huawei. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: This second blow to China’s equivalent of Microsoft or Apple, coming on the heals of Google announcing that it will not license Android to Huawei, essentially finishes off the smartphone division of Huawei. If China chooses to get even, first it bans its contract manufacturers from building certain products designed in the U.S., then prohibits the sale of certain components to U.S. companies and poof, there goes the majority of non-South Korean (Samsung) smart phone business. That would be ugly.

Cannondale Treadwell smart bicycle

Cannondale’s new exercise bike, designed not for racers but for ordinary people who like tracking their fitness, features a sensor on the front wheel which tracks speed, distance and location. The data is uploaded to a special smartphone app, and there is a mount for the smartphone — turning the smartphone into a cycle computer. Wired

dis-rup-shun: There is one piece of this product that seems to be missing, or at least has not been described — it is the bike’s role in an online community. Either by posting (bragging) personal fitness progress to one’s social media accounts, or by being a part of a Peloton-like competition of peers, the bike needs to create an alternate reality to create a viral following. Measuring personal progress for one’s own satisfaction only works for a small audience — and that audience will want a racing bike.

Amazon spends $1.2 billion last quarter on new acquisitions

The company’s growing profits are leading to an increase in investments in emerging companies. Several Amazon investments are in the autonomous auto industry, including car companies Rivian and Aurora. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Bezos, through aerospace company, Blue Origin, is conquering space. Amazon is aggressively investing in the autonomous and auto industries and his ambitions are far greater than delivering packages. The company, no doubt, seeks to disrupt Uber and Lyft, as well as city busses, Ford, Chevy and Toyota. The company will continue to boldly charge in every direction, experiment and unafraid of failures.