(Is anyone else completely done with the “There’s an app for that” meme?)
Novartis, for example, signed a $24 million (£15.3 million) deal last month with US-based Proteus Biomedical to create “smart pills” that can transmit data from inside the body to monitor patients’ vital signs and check they have taken medicines as prescribed.
Bayer is connecting its glucometer for diabetic children to Nintendo’s video-gaming consoles to promote consistent blood sugar testing.
And Johnson & Johnson’s Lifescan unit has an iPhone application that lets users upload readings from their connected blood glucose monitors to their Apple phone.
I finally broke down and bought a Motorola DROID from Verizon several weeks ago- that’s the new phone that runs Google’s Android 2.0.1 Operating System.
Thus far, I don’t regret the decision.
AT&T’s coverage where I live stinks, so as much as I like the iPhone, it just wasn’t an option for me. Fortunately, the DROID does most things as well as the iPhone, and does some things much better than the iPhone.
I agree with most of the accolades and criticisms you’ve probably already read about the DROID.
Things I Like:
The touchscreen is large, responsive, and looks terrific.
Syncing of my Gmail contacts, my work contacts, and my Facebook contacts is pretty darn great. I always have ALL my contact information on me- and it is updated whenever Facebook, my Gmail contacts, or the Address Books at my place of work are updated.
The “open” model is appealing. Even without having a rooted phone, I have *much* more control over the device than with an iPhone. If there’s any file I want on my Droid, I can put it there without jumping through any hoops. I have complete control over the file structure. iPhone/iTouch users has undoubtedly been annoyed by how strictly Apple controls what can (and cannot) be moved over the device’s USB cable and have to use third party applications to move data from an iPod/iTouch to a new computer- even if that data has no DCM.
Customization-I can tweak so much about the DROID’s interface that it took me several days to explore a lot of options and make some decisions about how I wanted it laid out. As my continued use of it reveals new/different/unexpected needs, I can quickly and easily make changes.
Navigation design is good- getting around the DROID takesa bit of getting used to, but it makes sense and I can customize shortcuts to almost any application, document, directory, etc- so common tasks are accomplished quickly.
The Notification Panel is GREAT. I’m never interrupted, just notified.
MPOW supported my access to my (Exchange) work email and work calendar immediately- cleverly, it interfaces through Outlook Web Access, which makes supporting the device’s access to Exchange a very easy decision for the Information Systems department. I win, they win. Everyone is happy with no additional work. (Our IS department has some security concerns about iPhone access to our Exchange server and Blackberries require an enterprise server to make Blackberries play nice with Exchange.)
It is a good TELEPHONE. The sound quality is about as good as can be expected from a mobile phone.
There’s a nifty little app called Call Filter that blocks calls from unknown numbers (i.e. telemarketers) or any number you tell it to block. This is especially useful if you keep getting “wrong number” calls from one particular source.
Other useful telephony apps include Phonalyzr, which analyzes your phone usage:
Dial Zero is useful little utility that lists companies alphabetically. Choose the company and it’ll give you a number to click (which the Droid will dial), then tell you how to game the voicemail system to get to a human being as fast as possible.
Awesome Apps for Android
All of these are available from the Android Market.
SugarSync may remind some of Dropbox (mentioned during the #mlamobile Webcast for the iPhone/iTouch), but actually does a good deal MORE than just synch files between my DROID and folders on other computers. I can stream media files from my home computer to my DROID, if I want. More here: https://www.sugarsync.com/downloads/android.html
I have it set up to send status messages to Twitter when I get to work or when I go to my Mother-in-law’s house. I’d eventually like to set up a simple status board for Liz and I so each would always be able to quickly check where the other is. Imagine that I could tap my phone and see quickly if Liz is on campus, at her mom’s, or somewhere else. I also have Locale (with a WOL plugin) set up to wake up my home computer as I approach our house after work.
I also have it set up to prevent my phone from ringing when my calendar says I’m in a meeting. (Can your iPhone do that?) It also stops notifying me of new work email between 5:00 PM and 8:00 AM.
I also have it set up so if my battery falls below 30% of capacity it alerts me to plug in and shuts down all non-essential functions (don’t want to miss a call from my wife because I was using it for something power-intensive, right?)
abcOrganizer is a great way to be able to manage and access a great number of applications, shortcuts, contacts, or any other objects in Android in a compressed, organized fashion. Click on the category icon and a window of the apps in that category pops up. Yes, you could do this just by using Android’s native folders, too- but I like AbcOrganizer better. I get to choose my own icons.
For those who like reading comics in .cbr or .cbz format, check out ACV:
For books, I’ve use mostly FBreader and have read a few novels in it now. No eye strain for me, and the night display (black background, white text of adjustable brightness) keeps it from annoying my wife.
AndFTP is an awesome file explorer and FTP client for your Android device. Soooooo convenient to access my FTP server this way. Also supports SFTP and FTPS. The Estrongs File Explorer is another good client for managing media files via LAN or FTP.
Barcode Scanner is really neat. It’ll scan the barcode on an item and try to find prices for you elsewhere. Even cooler for those of us who like books: If the book is scanned by Google Books, you can scan the barcode and search within that book. We live in the future.
So, thus far there aren’t a ton of health info apps for Android that I find exciting.
In the meanwhile, my favorite health info destinations on my DROID are the new MedlinePlus Mobile and Unbound MEDLINE, both of which run in the browser.
So, we had just decided that we should encourage people to tweet about the Webcast using a hashtag and we jumped online to announce it…and discovered Nikki Dettmar had beaten us to it by a few minutes.
GMTA, Nikki.
Anyway, it has been a lot of fun reading the tweets and I’m so grateful to those who participated for providing such useful, fun, fast feedback.
Some tweets I found interesting:
BerrymanD Great content today. Would recommend that, in the future, we skip the history lesson and go directly to the current content. #mlamobile
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:00:38 +0000 – tweet id 5837056058 – 552
Donna, I could not disagree more. The history provides context showing that technological change isn’t new, but is happening faster and faster. Without context, we’d just be talking about this week’s information instead of shedding a little light on longer-term trends. Also, Max rules and I learned a whole lot from his history lesson.
ericrumsey RT @joepemberton Android vs iPhone Debate Looks Like Windows vs Mac Debate #MLAmobile (Wired) http://bit.ly/11iy2G (via @jmk)
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:57:48 +0000 – tweet id 5836982620 – 540
I think of it as more analogous to “Windows vs. Linux.”
bohyunkim App development requires a web developer, says Rothman. Excellent point – mobilization requires resources + staff. #mlamobile
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:55:54 +0000 – tweet id 5836934904 – 532
App development requires, I believe, a developer. Simple iPhone-optimized Web sites seem within the reach of people who are already comfortable with XHTML and CSS …and those people aren’t necessarily programmers/developers.
jopomojo #mlamobile nice image of Google’s modus operandi: throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. Was that Rothman who said that?
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:52:21 +0000 – tweet id 5836846201 – 518
Nope. That was Bart. Bart was, I believe, the most consistently funny presenter.
ilyse324 #mlamobile so glad to see how happy Bart and David are to be there and talk about these technologies
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:48:18 +0000 – tweet id 5836744716 – 503
Well, I’m more accustomed to being asked to STOP talking about the stuff that interests me…so this was a nice change of pace.
dial_m #mlamobile google conversion util good to way to preview how ur current website displays on a mobile phone http://www.google.com/gwt/n
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:44:47 +0000 – tweet id 5836655564 – 490
I don’t think I agree. The Google mobile conversion tool isn’t an emulator that shows you what a page will look like on a mobile browser. Its purpose is to take pages that are NOT mobile-friendly and present them in such a way that they are easier to view in a mobile browser.
greeneyed_ives Does anyone have current patrons using PubGet? Especially practicing clinicians? Curious if it as popular as Rothman says. #mlamobile
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:04:55 +0000 – tweet id 5835687873 – 338
Did I say PubGet was popular? I don’t think it is yet…but I don’t understand why not. Besides, PubGet is only REALLY useful to patrons if their library implements it. It is free and and easy to try- why not get in touch with the folks at PubGet, set it up, and see if patrons like it? If you’d like an introduction to Ian at PubGet, let me know. He seems an awfully sharp, very nice guy who really likes libraries and librarians.
gabinator says @davidlrothman says Palm Pre’s problem is poor marketing #mlamobile
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:41:35 +0000 – tweet id 5835110236 – 214
Well, that’s one of its problems. iPhone marketing is everywhere and excellent. The marketing pushes for the T-Mobile MyTouch and the Verizon Droid have been strong. The other important problem Palm has with the Pre is that it is the only device using its operating system…so development for it is going to be pretty limited.
Other dangling queries:
Someone asked about an Android phone called the “Hero.”
Boston, MA, October 09, 2009 –(PR.com)– The Harvard Health Publications Division of Harvard Medical School announced today that it will launch a new program called HMS Mobile to deliver a series of iPhone Applications aimed at promoting public health. The first such application will focus on the H1N1 flu pandemic and is scheduled for release to the public in early October. These applications will leverage Harvard Medical School’s extensive knowledge along with its long-standing expertise in publishing health information for the general public. The School’s goal is to provide the public with the best available information on public health-related issues, including practical advice on how to reduce risks and how to respond in the event of a public health threat.
No indication of the anticipated price to download such apps…?
that looks at the stereotypes of how people view the young, and what the reality is, when it comes to the publishing industry and books. It was produced by the UK branch of Dorling Kindersley Books for a sales conference, ... […]
I've been trying to wait until bloglines* can get itself together and work properly again to post this, but I have other stuff I am dying to show you already! The final two heart to heart swappers very generously sent along an extra ... […]
David Rothman has an informative post about adding medical terms to your spell checker in Word. Rather than adding medical terms individually, you can populate your spell checker with thousands of medical terms from one file, ... […]
Following my posting on best practices, David Rothman, Community's blogging librarian, chided me this week with a copy of "Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of ... […]
Via Ronald zag ik dat Biomedbiblog stopt: daar moest ik wel even van slikken. Ik begrijp het wel, maar het is evengoed erg jammer dat het niet gelukt is om voldoende draagvlak te krijgen om het te continueren. ... […]
