Apple hires Google X founder and former Nest technology VP for health projects

Yoky Matsuoka has worked on new and experimental products

Apple's Jeff Williams announces CareKit in March. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Apple has hired Yoky Matsuoka, a cofounder of Google's experimental Google X division and former vice president of Technology at Nest, to work on some of its health initiatives. Fortune reports that Matsuoka is working under Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams on the company's health initiatives, which include HealthKit, ResearchKit, and the recently announced CareKit.

Matsuoka has worked on multiple tech and health initiatives at several big-name companies. After leaving Google X for Nest, Matsuoka helped develop the algorithm for the company's flagship thermostat; her departure from Nest about a year after its 2014 acquisition by Google is one among many. For about a year after leaving the search giant, she worked at Quanttus, a troubled startup working on blood pressure monitoring technology. And shortly before being diagnosed with an apparently cured illness in May, she was headed to Twitter to take a VP position, though this ultimately didn't end up happening.

HealthKit and the Health app were introduced as part of iOS 8 in 2014, and are intended to store and share health tracking information collected from HealthKit-compatible apps with other HealthKit apps and with healthcare professionals. ResearchKit, announced and launched in early 2015, is meant to help researchers gain in-depth data about participants over a longer period of time than would normally be possible. And CareKit, unveiled by Apple in March of this year and officially launched just a few days ago, is meant to help patients recover from major procedures and manage chronic illnesses.

Read on Ars Technica | Comments

Gründung von Algorithm Watch: Achtgeben auf Algorithmen

Eine neue Initiative will untersuchen, wie Algorithmen sich auf die Gesellschaft auswirken. Für den Auftakt dient die Netzkonferenz Re:publica, auf der über die Zukunft der digitalen Gesellschaft diskutiert wird. Wir haben mit den Machern gesprochen. (Politik/Recht, Datenschutz)

Eine neue Initiative will untersuchen, wie Algorithmen sich auf die Gesellschaft auswirken. Für den Auftakt dient die Netzkonferenz Re:publica, auf der über die Zukunft der digitalen Gesellschaft diskutiert wird. Wir haben mit den Machern gesprochen. (Politik/Recht, Datenschutz)

Garmin’s latest fitness tracking watch looks like… a watch

Garmin’s latest fitness tracking watch looks like… a watch

Garmin has been making activity trackers, GPS watches, and other fitness-oriented wearables for a few years. But the Garmin Vivomove may be the company’s first fitness gadget that looks more like a watch than, well, a gadget.

It’s a waterproof watch with an analog watch face, long battery life, and support for interchangeable bands. But the watch also has all the sensors you’d expect from a fitness tracker, and the ability to sync data with your smartphone.

Continue reading Garmin’s latest fitness tracking watch looks like… a watch at Liliputing.

Garmin’s latest fitness tracking watch looks like… a watch

Garmin has been making activity trackers, GPS watches, and other fitness-oriented wearables for a few years. But the Garmin Vivomove may be the company’s first fitness gadget that looks more like a watch than, well, a gadget.

It’s a waterproof watch with an analog watch face, long battery life, and support for interchangeable bands. But the watch also has all the sensors you’d expect from a fitness tracker, and the ability to sync data with your smartphone.

Continue reading Garmin’s latest fitness tracking watch looks like… a watch at Liliputing.

Garmin’s new Vivomove fitness tracker masquerades as an analog watch

The $149 watch packs all of Garmin’s basic features into a sleek frame.

(credit: Garmin)

Garmin continues to add to its wearable family with a new device that could redefine the brand's name—at least when it comes to style. Garmin announced the Vivomove tracker today, an analog watch designed to be worn all day as it monitors activity and sleep.

The first thing you'll notice about the Vivomove is that it's Garmin's most traditional-looking tracker. It's an analog watch with a case finished in numerous colors, including black, white, rose-gold, gold, and silver, with both silicone and leather band options. Yes, it follows the general formula of other fitness-tracker watches we've seen debut recently, but for Garmin, that is a departure from the norm. On the watch face are two small, curved bars: one that fills in black showing progress toward your daily activity goal, and one that fills up in red when you've been inactive for too long. These bars seem like a good way of making important stats glanceable without cluttering up the simplicity of an analog watch face.

It's clear that the design is the focus of the Vivomove because its features are the same as many other Garmin devices. It monitors all-day activity, inactivity, and sleep, syncing to Garmin's Connect system to keep track of progress. It's also water resistant up to 50 meters and has a one-year battery life, which is welcome for a device that you're supposed to treat as a regular watch.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

New drone parachute saves falling drones—and the people under them

SafeAir detects free-fall and deploys chute to safely recover consumer drones.

(credit: ParaZero)

NEW ORLEANS—It’s now possible to prevent the heartbreak, wallet-ache, and risk of physical injuries when consumer drones suddenly plummet from the skies mid-flight. At the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's XPONENTIAL conference, a company called ParaZero is introducing SafeAir, a device that deploys a parachute to safely bring a falling drone back to earth.

To ensure that the parachute deploys in time to prevent a crash at low altitudes, SafeAir shoots out the chute with a gust of pressurized gas. SafeAir attaches to the top of a drone and uses an independently-powered chip to detect when the drone goes into freefall. According to a company spokesperson, SafeAir has worked with drone manufacturers to develop recovery systems for their drones based on how far it is safe for their drones to fall—including DJI (the makers of the popular Phantom consumer drone), professional photography drone maker 3D Robotics, and Martin Aviation—makers of the JetPack search and rescue small uncrewed aerial system (UAS).

A video detailing the features of SafeAir.

ParaZero also manufactures pyrotechnic-deployed parachutes for larger drones, along with an airbag system for cinematic drones to protect cameras and other expensive gear during an unpowered landing.

Read on Ars Technica | Comments

Bug-Bounty-Programm: Facebooks jüngster Hacker

Auch Kinder können Bugs bei Instagram finden. Ein finnischer Junge hat jetzt für eine Fehlermeldung 10.000 US-Dollar von Facebook bekommen, mit denen er offenbar großzügig umgehen will. (Facebook, Soziales Netz)

Auch Kinder können Bugs bei Instagram finden. Ein finnischer Junge hat jetzt für eine Fehlermeldung 10.000 US-Dollar von Facebook bekommen, mit denen er offenbar großzügig umgehen will. (Facebook, Soziales Netz)

Taxidienst: Mytaxi-Bestellungen jetzt per Whatsapp möglich

Wer nicht die Mytaxi-App benutzen will, kann sich künftig auch per Whatsapp ein Taxi bestellen. Dafür muss nur eine Nachricht an eine bestimmte Telefonnummer geschickt werden – analog zum Modell der Genossenschaft Taxi Deutschland. (Taxi, Applikationen)

Wer nicht die Mytaxi-App benutzen will, kann sich künftig auch per Whatsapp ein Taxi bestellen. Dafür muss nur eine Nachricht an eine bestimmte Telefonnummer geschickt werden - analog zum Modell der Genossenschaft Taxi Deutschland. (Taxi, Applikationen)

Koalitionsstreit über WLAN: Merkel drängt auf rasche Einigung zu Störerhaftung

Seit Monaten stocken die Verhandlungen zur Abschaffung der Störerhaftung bei offenen WLANs. Nun soll Kanzlerin Merkel ein Machtwort gesprochen haben, um eine Einigung in den nächsten Wochen zu erzielen. (Störerhaftung, WLAN)

Seit Monaten stocken die Verhandlungen zur Abschaffung der Störerhaftung bei offenen WLANs. Nun soll Kanzlerin Merkel ein Machtwort gesprochen haben, um eine Einigung in den nächsten Wochen zu erzielen. (Störerhaftung, WLAN)

10-year-old gets $10,000 bounty for finding Instagram vulnerability

Facebook pays out as part of its bug bounty program.

(credit: Instagram)

A 10-year-old schoolboy from Finland has become the youngest recipient of a £7,000 ($10,000) award under Facebook's bug bounty program, after he found a vulnerability that allowed anyone to delete comments on Instagram simply by planting malicious code into the photo-sharing app.

Jani—who at the tender age of 10 is considered too young to use Facebook by the company's own rules—outshines an unnamed 13-year-old cyber enthusiast, who once held the title of the youngest person to receive a bug bounty reward from the free content ad network.

In fact, the Finnish kid might well be the youngest publicly acknowledged bounty hunter—a title that appeared to have been previously held by Alex Miller from California, who received £2,000 from Mozilla back in 2010 at the age of 12.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments