Palo Alto, Calif.-based HealthTap is expanding beyond the consumer space with the launch of a health-management platform aimed right at employers. The platform allows companies to offer their employees the convenience of finding the right healthcare professional within their insurance plan with as little pain as possible (no pun intended).
The first enterprise company to sign up for HealthTap’s service is the “sketch to scale” solution-provider Flex (formerly known as Flextronics). More than 200,000 workers there will be able to receive 24/7 access to personalized health care via HealthTap, which leverages more than 70,000 doctors around the world.
Consumers think nothing of tapping the screen of their smartphone to instantly stream “Can’t Feel My Face” by The Weeknd, track an exercise and diet regimen, or download Candy Crush. But there’s no app store for software needed for power plants, automobile factories or other industrial environments.
For years, consumers have enjoyed a glut of cloud-hosted apps, but software for heavy industry has lagged behind other sectors in following suit. That has limited not only those who need industrial software apps, the users, but also those who write them, the engineers.
NASA is sky-testing a new app that could help airlines cut down on flight times and fuel consumption.
Virgin America and Alaska Airlines have signed up for a three-year program to use NASA’s Traffic Aware Planner (TAP) app to make “traffic aware strategic aircrew requests (TASAR).” The software is loaded onto the electronic flight bag (EFB), which is a paperless way for flight crews to manage in-flight data. It’s a tablet designed for pilots and other flight staff.
Behind the success of the new wave of location based mobile apps taking hold around the world is digital mapping. Location data is core to popular ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, but also to companies such as Amazon or Domino’s Pizza, which are testing drones for faster deliveries.
A Seattle company, by way of New Zealand, has raised $3.5 million to advance technology that helps managers of places like the Smithsonian museum and Sea-Tac Airport create location-based content and services for visitors.
The onset of a migraine can often seem entirely arbitrary, but in fact there are numerous internal and external factors that can cause these debilitating headaches. Migraine Buddy, a data-driven healthcare app from Healint can now predict an oncoming migraine — with 90 percent accuracy — by monitoring the patient and their surroundings, using an algorithm to detect problematic conditions.
Researchers have found a vulnerability in Android devices that allows hackers to access a device remotely without the owner ever knowing it was compromised. The flaw affects roughly 95 percent of Android devices running operating system version 2.2 to 5.1, according to cybersecurity firm Zimperium.
At fault is a media library (used to process media files) called Stagefright. Zimperium says it found multiple vulnerabilities in the framework. The company plans to present its research at the Black Hat 2015 security conference and at the hacking conference Def Con in August.
Sleepless nights are a given for new parents: when a baby awakes in the night, the soothing voice of a mother or father is most likely the only suitable remedy. Now, SleepHero is a sound-activated mobile app which enables parents to reassure their children in the night, without even having to wake up. The app uses a repertoire of lullabies recorded in the voice of a parent, which play automatically when the child stirs, easing them back to sleep.
Apple and IBM unveiled a new product that will be used to keep home care patients in Japan more engaged and connected with their health care providers.
The two companies plan to supply iPhones and iPads loaded with IBM-developed health care apps to Japanese seniors, who will report health data up into Apple’s HealthKit and ResearchKit cloud integration platforms. Health care pros will access it from there.
The initiative will roll out as a service through Japan Post, a company that provides postal, banking, and insurance services.
