Technology - Google News

The Galaxy Fold is now available for purchase in the US - TechCrunch
Column: Amazon Care may be to healthcare what Amazon Prime is to shopping - Los Angeles Times
Google has booted 46 apps made by a big Chinese developer from its app store with no explanation - Business Insider

The Galaxy Fold is now available for purchase in the US - TechCrunch

Posted: 27 Sep 2019 07:15 AM PDT

This is, surely, the moment some loyal fans have waited for. And understandably so. The Galaxy Fold is, by all measures, an exciting phone. It's the sort of bold brashness that has helped Samsung set itself apart from the competition. Many of us laughed at the Galaxy Note, too, and yet here we are, with larger phones across the board.

Five months after originally planned, the Galaxy Fold goes on sale today in the U.S. The handset has had its share of set backs, of course. The first round ran into problems from several reviewers for a variety of reasons. And as I outlined yesterday, I ran into my own issues with the reinforced version of the handset.

Even in its current version, the Galaxy Fold is a fragile thing. That's something Samsung has been abundantly cautious about disclosing, through a video pleading to "just use a light touch" and a lot of paper work that ships with the device. I'll be giving more thoughts on my time with the product in an upcoming writeup. In the meantime, however, anyone thinking of plunking down the $2,000 and up needs to factor that into the equation.

But this is a phone, not a faberge egg. It will be interesting to see how wider availability plays out. There is still a sense around the launch that we're dealing with a sort of wider scale beta phase here. It would be silly to suggest that the foldable category will live or die by this launch, but it will surely be the most closely watched device release in recent memory.

Also out today is the Galaxy Watch Active 2. If been wearing that device around as well. More on that soon, but so far, so good.

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Column: Amazon Care may be to healthcare what Amazon Prime is to shopping - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 27 Sep 2019 05:00 AM PDT

When Amazon joined Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase last year in establishing a joint venture aimed at overhauling the U.S. healthcare system, people could only guess as to what the three corporate behemoths had in mind.

The picture is now clearer, or at least it seems to be.

While the joint venture, dubbed Haven, remains largely shrouded in mystery, Amazon's announcement this week that it will test an app-based approach to treatment on a limited number of employees is an indication of where Haven may be heading.

Amazon unveiled what it calls Amazon Care on a website. It describes the service as "a mobile application that allows you to access virtual and in-person healthcare services."

Those services are provided at the moment not by Amazon but by a Seattle clinic called Oasis Medical Group, which brings medical professionals to the equation and shields Amazon from privacy concerns about an employer prying into workers' health status.

Amazon Care includes video conferences with doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses, online prescriptions being written and drugs being delivered by courier.

If in-person treatment is required, Amazon Care "will send a Mobile Care nurse to your home, a designated room on the Amazon campus, or any other location in our service area that you request."

An Amazon spokesman, asking that his name be withheld, told me that Amazon Care will be tested at first on a relatively small number of workers in the Seattle area.

He declined to comment on whether the program will be expanded to other Amazon offices nationwide or if Amazon Care eventually will become available to the company's customers — as a benefit of Prime membership, say.

"We're as curious as anyone else about how this will work," the spokesman said. "We're looking forward to seeing if it's successful."

I asked how Amazon Care plays into Haven's plans. The spokesman also declined to go there.

But he did acknowledge that "Haven is very much aware of this and is completely supportive of it."

Healthcare might be the last big mountain for Amazon to climb. The company already accounts for about half of all online sales. It's into original TV programming, clothing, even groceries via its Whole Foods acquisition.

Applying its data-driven mojo to the $3.5-trillion U.S. healthcare market seems almost too big an opportunity for Amazon to ignore.

Healthcare experts have been predicting for years that telemedicine would play a role in Americans' lives. But those predictions have remained largely speculative, aside from relatively small-scale forays into the field by some medical providers.

Amazon's size, technical expertise and laser focus on using data to expand its business opportunities could change everything.

"It makes a difference when a firm like Amazon, with its scale and reach, does something like this," said David Asch, executive director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Health Care Innovation.

"It's hard not to think that pretty soon Amazon will be doing this for everyone," he said.

Brad Doebbeling, a professor of science of healthcare delivery and biomedical informatics at Arizona State University, was similarly impressed by the possibilities of what Amazon is attempting.

"I think it's the future of healthcare," he said, describing himself as "very interested and engaged."

But he sounded a cautionary note.

"There will obviously be challenges and barriers, including willingness to adopt by providers and patients, concerns about confidentiality, reimbursement concerns and need to evaluate whether it is helping or hurting," Doebbeling said.

He added: "I'm not sure I want my personal information shared with Amazon. But it's time for innovation and disruption."

Another aspect of this is that Amazon is simultaneously learning how to dispense and deliver drugs online by testing an online pharmacy on its employees.

The company last year purchased a San Francisco-based online pharmacy called PillPack. Since then, PillPack's mail-order facilities nationwide have obtained licenses to sell in most states.

Wall Street analysts have speculated that Amazon aims to gain experience with online drug sales by first meeting the needs of the company's hundreds of thousands of workers. Then it could start filling prescriptions for its millions of U.S. customers.

Amazon's spokesman declined to comment on how PillPack might play into Amazon's broader healthcare initiatives.

He did say, though, that "Amazon is a customer-obsessed company."

It may be premature to connect all the dots. But stir these developments together and you get a strong sense of Amazon being on the cusp of far-reaching healthcare services.

"It's sort of a no-brainer," said James Robinson, director of UC Berkeley's Center for Health Technology. "This is a company that already owns a good part of the internet."

There is much that's unknown: How ambitious are Amazon's plans? Does it see Amazon Care becoming a sort of online CVS MinuteClinic, or will it offer more comprehensive treatment?

Will it work with all insurance companies? Will Amazon offer its own insurance?

What are the consequences of telemedicine to some extent replacing in-person visits with medical professionals? Will care suffer as a result?

How much do we really want the world's largest online retailer knowing about our personal well-being (beyond what it already knows)?

"Amazon's move into healthcare in general signals an approach that may seem more patient-centered because Amazon is good at customer service," said Kirsten Ostherr, director of Rice University's Medical Futures Lab.

"But it is actually less about people and more about data mining as a means to cut costs," she warned. "This general approach, which Google and Facebook and Microsoft and others are all pursuing, points in the opposite direction of person-centered care, and it raises serious concerns about digital profiling and the harms that may result."

It will be up to state and federal officials to ensure that medical regulations keep pace with these technological changes.

But it seems fair to say that the U.S. healthcare system is ripe for disruption — and no company excels at disruption like Amazon.

Color me optimistic. Cautiously optimistic.

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Google has booted 46 apps made by a big Chinese developer from its app store with no explanation - Business Insider

Posted: 27 Sep 2019 04:01 AM PDT

Google CEO Sundar Pichai.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Google has purged at least 46 apps from major Chinese developer iHandy from the Play Store, BuzzFeed reports.
Google would not give an explanation when asked why it had booted the apps, but said an investigation has been launched into iHandy.
An iHandy executive reportedly said the mass removal came as a surprise to the company.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google has booted dozens of apps from a big Chinese developer en masse without giving any explanation, BuzzFeed reported Thursday.

The apps are from Chinese developer iHandy, and BuzzFeed reports that the 46 apps which were taken down collectively garnered tens of millions of downloads. The apps were varied, with a horoscope app, a security app, and a selfie camera filter among those removed.

The filter app — called Sweet Camera — was reportedly amongst the developer's most popular, with 50 million downloads.

Neither Google nor iHandy were immediately available for comment when contacted by Business Insider. A Google spokesperson refused to explain why the apps had been removed when asked by BuzzFeed, but confirmed Google has launched an investigation into them.

When BuzzFeed reported the story eight of iHandy's apps were left on the Play Store, but more seem to be disappearing — as of writing, only five remain.

iHandy executive Simon Zhu told BuzzFeed that the removal was a surprise to the company. "It is an unexpected action from our point of view. We are trying to find out the reasons. Hope the apps will be back to Play Store as soon as possible," he said.

"As we all know that in recent years, Google keeps improving policies and process to build a healthier ecosystem for users and developers. We are definitely willing to follow these improvements as a developer in good standing."

On its website, iHandy says that it partners with Apple, Google, and Facebook.

Business Insider found at least 12 apps by iHandy live on Apple's App Store. It's not immediately clear if Apple has taken action against any of the developer's apps, and the American tech giant did not respond to a request for comment.

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