Barge of Cocoa Beach nearly washes ashore (again)

     Paul Speese

Saturday around noon I was riding to Port Canaveral on my bike and noticed emergency vehicles and fire engines parked just by the beach blocking the the pedestrian on ramps.  There was clearly some type of emergency underway.  I pedalled a few more blocks and found a street that was not blocked by emergency vehicles and walked my bike down to the beach.  What I saw was amazing.  A huge barge, 200- 300 feet in length had broken loose from its anchor or whatever they use to to moor it when not in use.  You can generally see it several miles out to see for the last 6 months or so where there is some kind of dredging process for cruise ships and other large ships coming in and out of Port Canaveral.  The Coast Guard or Civil Authorities must have ordered a Tug Boat to try and rescue the barge and at what seemed like the last few minutes before it was going to crash on the beach the Tug Boat appeared to secure a cable and pull the boat away from the impending beaching.  There were thousands of people on this stretch of the beach at the South end of Port Canaveral and North end of Cocoa Beach, it would have been quite a scene to evacuate all of those people once the decision was made that they could not stop it from coming ashore.  Anyway, congrats to the tug boat operator and whomever else facilitated the capture and turnaround.  Check out the picture below.  

P.S.  The reason I said again is that this barge washed completely ashore back in February or March of this year.  How does this happen?  

Riding the beach in Cocoa Beach

I have been riding my bicycle routinely since I started living in Cocoa Beach in August of 2012.  One of the things you will discover immediately in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral is how dangerous it is to ride your bike along Route A1A.  There are several reasons, some obvious some not so much.  The first and foremost is not so obvious, the sidewalks are generous and in general well maintained but not clearly marked as heavily traveled paths and often obscured by bushes, trees and general vegetation.  As a car driver it can be difficult to discern that you are blocking walkers and bikers in many cases.  The second reason is more obvious, the average age of Cocoa Beach residents is 55.7 years old according to the 2010 Census.  That means more than half the residents are over the age of 70 and frankly their driving skills are terrible.  Add the third factor of a large influx of tourists who are unfamiliar with the area and in some kind of insane hurry to go everywhere and many of them intoxicated or on drugs and you get an unhealthy mix of danger for walkers and cyclists.

So, enough said, biking can be dangerous along A1A.  The best bike route on the island is Ridgewood Drive  which runs parallel to Route A1A from Route 520 for approximately 5 miles.  The speed limit is 25 MPH and there are generous hike/bike lanes and drivers are generally very conscious or walkers, runners and bikers, not to mention a number of skateboarders.  The problem is getting there, I have to travel for about 2 miles to get to that road along the dangerous and unattractive A1A section.

One day I had a brainstorm, could I ride on the beach and avoid the noisy and dangerous section of my ride.  I was in Cape Canaveral and just turned up one of the streets and walked my bike from the ramp to the hard pan portion of the beach.  I was glad to see a couple other bikers so I gave it a shot.  As long as I stayed on the hardpan near where the waves would roll in I was able to ride smoothly.

My first ride was very successful, I made it all the way to RT 520 and jumped back on the road.  This past weekend I went much further, all the way to Patrick Air Force Base.  Check out the attached video.  When the beach is firm, it is similar in speed to riding on the road.

Video is here


Paul Speese

Glass Bank Irony-truth is funnier than fiction

I was riding my bike the other day and as I was riding behind the eyesore in Cocoa Beach known as the Glass Bank and saw a derelict boat parked in the parking lot.  My eye went to the name of the boat and I nearly fell off my bike as I burst out laughing.  Take a look. If you can't read it, the name of the boat is "Side by Side".  The derelict boat side by side with the derelict bank building-perfect Cocoa Beach story.

NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 747 back at Patrick Air Force Base

I was driving to swim early last Friday morning when I was surprised to see the NASA 747 parked at Patrick Air Force Base.  During the summer of 2012, the specially modified 747 was a frequent site at Patrick AFB during the time when the last Shuttles were being ferried to their final resting spots in museums.  Since that time I had read in news reports that both the 747's were going to be retired to air museums in California and Texas.  Since that time I have seen one or both of them at Patrick AFB on several occasions in addition to last week.  Maybe there is a new mission and they decided not to park them in the air museums.  One observation is how vulnerable to terrorist or any type of attack these planes are when parked at Patrick.  This photo was taken from my bike just off the A1A road that runs past the base.

Patrick AFB doesn't have much flight activity on a regular basis.  There are some Florida Air National Guard troop carriers stationed there and a couple of old P3's as well.  Every couple of weeks, some old Fighter Jets show up on the weekends, I will try and get a shot of them next time I see them.

Paul Speese

Update on Nike Fuel Band

I have been using my Nike Fuel Band every day for more than 1 year until this week.  I traveled home to Pennsylvania for Spring Break and forgot my USB cable so for the first time in the year I am not wearing it because the battery is dead.  I really miss it, but it did remind me to post some observations of my first year of usage.  I am on my second Fuel Band as the first one crapped out after about 7 months.  To be fair, it still worked fine with the exception of the button.  It kind of got stuck in the down position.  Nike was pretty good about replacing it, we went through the usual debugging process but they pretty quickly understood the problem and I had a new unit within a week.  Since that time it has worked great and the battery life on the new one is improved by a day or two.

I suspect Nike continues to iterate and improve the accelerometer algorithm which interprets motion.  I don't have exact figures to quote you but I have noticed recently that biking with the Fuel Band on my wrist is equivalent to putting it on my shoe.  I will do a test on the same route  with the same level of effort and report back but my sense is that Nike has adjusted the algorithms to recognize cycling and report more accurately.  

Another random observation is that the average Nike Fuel band owner has lost interest in exercise or isn't wearing the band.  I generally earn 4000 Nike Fuel Points per day and generally meet my 3000 point goal 6 of 7 days in week.  In my 50-59 age group the average points per day is less than half of mine and on average they only meet their goal 1 day per week.  Pretty pathetic.  I still wish the Nike Fuel Band was waterproof for swimming laps.  My exercise on swim days is significantly under reported.

All in all I am very happy with the Fuel Band, I would like to see some incorporation of Heart Rate and Waterproof on future versions.

Paul Speese

SEO and Conversion

                                                                       Paul Speese

SEO-It is now all about conversion.  So over the last 4-5 months we have written blogs, assembled FAQ's, continually added new content to the website, created Keyword and search term lists over and over.  After all of that work and time invested we are somewhere on the continuum of what I would call success.  We have reached a level where the majority of our keywords and search terms put us on page 1 of Google.  We are less successful on exact match part numbers, which is frustrating but my sense from watching the activity very closely is that most people search part number families, part number roots, or the overall specification.  So, without fooling myself I think we are in a good place at this point.  So, we get anywhere from 20-40 people a day searching for something relevant to what we sell and they land on one of our pages.  Now what happens?  Do they fill out a quote request?  Do they send an email?  Do they pick up the phone and call?
The answer is no, or more accurately not often enough.  We get a small fraction of visitors actually contacting us, at least that we are aware.  This week we had 3 companies search the exact same part number, an unusual part number that we happen to stock in volume.  All 3 companies hit our website multiple times within 24 hours, did they call us?  Did they send a quote? Did they reach out and ask the obvious technical questions?  NO, NO, NO.  Interestingly, what did happen is that we got an order for the part from a small US based company that had never heard of us.  They must have received information from one of the 3 large companies to buy from us.  You could say that was successful conversion, but our goal is not just a sale but customer acquisition as well.  The 3 European companies searching the part were all in our sweet spot and selling to a proxy here in the US doesn't provide the inroads we desire.
So, again the question arises.  If only a small fraction of the companies who land on our site convert that search to action of some meaningful type, if only to tell us who they are, email address or name, then is this all a waste of time?  We sat around Friday brainstorming on how to increase conversions.  Do we need more and better content?  Maybe.  Do we need to offer free freight?  Maybe.  Do we need to offer discounts for new customers?  Maybe.  I think we will try all three of those ideas over the next couple months and see if that improves our conversion rate.  I would welcome any suggestions.

Paul Speese

Brave new world of SEO

Paul Speese-COO

Part of my responsibilities in my latest assignment are to create a new web site and to generate as much new business from it as possible.  The best way for me to accomplish that objective is to have the largest number of Keywords important to the client land on page 1 of Google, Bing and other leading search engines.  I am about 2 weeks from launching the new web site and I can tell you that I have spent a lot of time and effort to understand the dynamics of Google's search algorithm and through hit and miss tactics we appear to have some success.  There are 3 important elements in successful SEO that I have learned.  The first is to have the content that you want found prominently displayed and searchable in both dynamic and static pages on the web site.  The second is to use Blogging to reinforce the most important content.  The third is to continually update and add new content to both the web site and Blogs.  Using these simple but time consuming tactics we are now on page 1 of Google search results for approximately 75% of our top 200 keywords.  Not bad for 4-5 months worth of work.  We are also on page 1 for approximately 65% of about 45,000 part numbers that are important to the client's core business.

The next challenge is conversion.  We are getting approximately 35 hits per day on the site.  Almost all of them are relevant to the business, we get approximately 5 per week to reach through and contact us for  a quote or other questions.  How do we increase that conversion rate?  That is the key question and will be the subject of my follow up post.

Paul Speese

Nike Fuel Band Update

I have been using my Nike Fuel Band for almost 3 months and have some positive and negative comments for others that are considering buying the device. 

Overall I continue to be happy with the device itself.   The battery life is excellent; I generally only charge it for a short time, from 5 minutes to 30 minutes and have never had it shut down.  If I am at home I generally synch via USB every day but when I am traveling I may go 3-4 days without synching.  Synching does have some other issues.  I would estimate that 10% of the time the synch gets hung up and does not work the first time.  Also, there are frequent software updates to the device and they often require more than one attempt to update the firmware.  My other upload issue is Bluetooth to my IPad; I have never done it successfully.  To be fair, it could be my fault as I have not spent a lot of time on it but the few times I have tried it were unsuccessful. 

Once you have successfully uploaded your data, the website is well designed and quickly provides you the information you want to review.  Check out the screen shot from today. 

 The other screen I look at is the goals hit and Active days.  This is a great motivator to keep up the workouts even though it is hard to make the goal every day, but I console myself by getting it most days, as you can see 69 out of 79, not bad.

 The last area of the web site that I generally look at is “How you compare”.  Frankly, I wish Nike would do a better job with more information about peers and the Nike community but this is a good start.

 Okay, there are a few negatives or bumps in the road.  Nike started a Facebook app to compete with other Nike Fuel Bank users.  I signed up for it and it never worked and it is now gone.  Great idea!  What happened?  On a similar note, I received an email a few days ago that was a report on my June activities.  I was happy to see they were giving comparisons similar to above for peers and the Nike community but it was erroneous, there is no way that it was right, check it out.  

They apparently compared my daily average to other’s monthly average.   This doesn’t exactly inspire confidence; I can understand it if I were part of a Beta user group but this is in full production. 

There have been a couple of other annoyances like last week I met my goal but the system captured a lower number.  I have had to reset the device a few times, but that is quick and relatively easy. 

Overall I am quite happy with the device and the web site.  My real hope is that Nike continues to invest and refine the system’s algorithms to better interpret the data, i.e. cycling/elliptical versus just steps.  I also am anxious to see what they are going to do with the publishing an API for developers.  Jawbone UP has an unauthorized API available, Fitbit has a published API.  I think this data is more valuable in the context of overall health and wellness apps that include more than just Nike Fuel/calorie expenditure. 

Nike apparently has a limited API release for developers creating music integration apps that allow for different music to play based upon activity feeds from the Fuel band.  That is cool, but we need more data liberation for apps we would like to create. 

Paul Speese

How to use your Nike Fuel for cycling

I love my new Nike Fuel but wish that Nike had been more aggressive with their accelerometer algorithms and could detect and report activities than walking steps.  But that is a topic for another session. 

I was frustrated that Nike Fuel under reported Fuel Points and Calories burned when cycling.  Look at the chart below on a day where I did 45 minutes on the Elliptical in the morning  and 60 minutes on my bike.  I definitely worked harder on the bike but when worn on the wrist Nike Fuel under reports Fuel Points and Calories burned:  

The following day I did exactly the same Elliptical workout for 45 minutes and rode the same route on the bike, with the exception that I wore the Nike Fuel secured to my running shoe.  Check out this chart:

I suspect this approach may over report cycling Fuel points and calories burned but it is more accurate than wearing the Nike Fuel on your wrist. 

A couple people expressed concern about losing or damaging the Nike Fuel Band by wearing it on your shoe.  I didn't worry much, I simply locked in onto one of the laces and double secured it by tying the lace over it as pictured below.  It may look goofy but it is very secure and hasn't moved on the two rides used in this way:

Nike Fuel Secured to Running Shoe Top View:

Nike Fuel Secured to Running Shoe Side View:

New Android Ice Cream Sandwich Nexus

I bought the new Samsung Nexus Galaxy phone last week.  This is the first Android phone shipping with Ice Cream Sandwich version of the O/S.  I waited for the Verizon Wireless version of the phone, for many reasons. 

                                                                  Samsung Galaxy Nexus

1.  4G LTE footprint of Verizon is awesome and only getting better.

2.  Verizon is my primary provider and I am sick of ATT and T Mobile slow networks.

3.  My DroidX was showing its age and I wanted to replace my primary phone with a faster phone that had front and rear cameras and could do effective video conferencing over 4G

So, I broke down and bought the new Nexus, which is what I am going to call it.  My first impressions were just ok.  It is thin, the screen is nice, the speed is good and it slides in and out of my pocket easily.  It does not have the WOW factor that the original Nexus had on me.  This is a much more subtle phone, it is more of a covert champion rather than a shiny new "look at me" type of phone.  I have had it now for 3 days and it is growing on my as the strong silent type of phone versus the flashy look at me phone.  I really had wanted to purchase the Galaxy S II phone but Verizon never picked it up.  I assumed this phone would be out in October and it has been a long wait, over 2 months later than anticipated.  Then to add insult to injury, Verizon and Google got into a pissing contest over the NFC enabled Google Wallet which delayed the release until December 15th.  

                                                            LifeSignals Vital Signs App

One of the coolest features with the new Nexus is the facial recognition screen locking.  I found it very easy and intuitive to set up and it works very well in normal lighting conditions.  It does not work well if you are wearing sunglasses or a hat.  I did it this morning while working out on the elliptical, worked fine each time.  It worked while I was driving as well.  If it does not recognize you, it will prompt you for a PIN number after a few seconds, it is not annoying at all. 

Compatibility with the LifeSignals Application in Ice Cream Sandwich:  I was worried that I bought a new phone for my own use and that the current version of LifeSignals App would not function.  I was pleasantly surprised, it functions perfectly and looks terrific. 

Battery life is a probably my biggest complaint.  In Mobile Network settings you can de-select 4G LTE and select only 3G.  I did that this morning and it appears to noticeably improve battery life.  I will keep it in 3G mode unless I plan to do a demonstration of our App or am using Video Conferencing.  I don't have 4G in Doylestown where I live, so it is a moot point for when I am at home.

My second biggest complaint is Verizon.  They raised the price of Hotspot from $20 to $30 per month for 4G Hotspot.  One cool new feature in Ice Cream Sandwich is there are now 2 methods for tethering the phone.  In addition to turning the phone into a Wifi Router you have the option of using Bluetooth Tethering.  I haven't used it yet, but I assume that is handy in the new Ford Synch systems and maybe in noisy Wifi environments.  It may be a little more secure (through obscurity) than traditional Wifi hotspot in Airports and other busy areas.  

All in all, I am very happy with the phone and feel that I will like it more as time goes by.  I would highly recommend the phone to any Android user. 

Global Telehealth Market Set to Exceed $1 Billion by 2016
Date: 15 September 2011

The world market for Telehealth is set to exceed $1 billion by 2016 and could jump to $6 billion in 2020, according to a new report, “The World Market for Telehealth – A Quantitative Market Assessment – 2011 Edition,” by InMedica, the medical electronics market research group within IMS Research, the leading independent provider of market research and consultancy to the global electronics industry.

“Many public healthcare systems now have targets to reduce both the number of hospital visits and the length of stay in hospital,” says Diane Wilkinson, Research Manager at InMedica. “This has led to a growing trend for healthcare to be managed outside the traditional hospital environment, and as a result, there is a growing trend for patients to be monitored in their home environment using Telehealth technologies once their treatment is complete.”

Home-monitoring is becoming increasingly relevant in the treatment of chronic diseases. For example, home monitoring of blood-pressure allows sufferers of hypertension to manage their condition better and monitor their progress. Home-use medical devices in Teleheatlh services, such as blood glucose meters, pulse oximeters, weight scales and peak flow meters are being deployed to monitor four main diseases – congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and hypertension.

“By far the most established market for telehealth at present is the US, as evidenced by The Veteran’s Health Administration’s extensive home Telehealth service, which aims to have 92,000 patients enrolled on Telehealth services by 2012” Wilkinson adds. “There has also been some large-scale trial activity in Europe, most notably in the UK in 2010 and 2011, where PCTs have initiated some projects involving more than 2,000 patients”.

“What is apparent is the convergence of many different industries in this space, including Telehealth companies, device manufacturers, healthcare agencies, service providers and telecommunication companies to name but a few. With such interest from a wide range of investors and the need to minimize healthcare expenditure globally while managing the chronic disease epidemic, there is obvious motivation for the full acceptance of Telehealth from governments, physicians and patients alike.”

Apple is the new Tiger Woods

Apple is the new Tiger Woods

Many golf fans will appreciate this analogy.  Prior to Tiger's spectacular fall from greatness that began with him crashing his SUV in his driveway and being attacked by a club wielding wife he was the most feared golfer on the planet.  His competitors would wilt at the very sound of the gallery that followed Tiger.  His competitor's wind tunnel tested golf swings would melt down playing under the cold icy stare when paired with Tiger.   Many top rated golfers would change their schedule to compete in the events Tiger skipped as he prepared for only the top tournaments and major golf championships.  For many of the game's top players who had competed and won top honors their entire careers, they became happy with chasing 2nd place when Tiger was in the field.  Since smashing his Escalade in the front yard and the public humiliation that followed Tiger has crashed to earth and is no longer a threat to the top tier players.  Not to worry,  for fans of totally dominating leaders and the devastating effects they have on the competition  there is a new leader to watch with fascination.   Two leading stories in the business news this week bestow the mantle of the new Tiger to Apple Computer.  The first in chronological order was waking up to the news Monday morning that Google intends to acquire Motorola Mobility.  The mighty Google, whose meteoric rise from Stanford project to global behemoth that dominates search engine marketing and whose Android O/S is the fastest growing phone operating system on the planet is going to spend $12 Billion dollars to buy a struggling handset maker who happens to have 17,000 patents and another 7500 patent applications.  Has Apple's dominant patent portfolio forced Google to do the unthinkable, to acquire a hardware company that operates on razor thin margins in a hypercompetitive business?  Did Apple's winning strategy to create a consortium with Microsoft, RIM, Sony, and EMC to buy Nortel's patents force Google to buy Motorola?  Did Apple's  $385 Billion dollar valuation  and recent eclipsing of Exxon as the most valuable company on the planet force Google to buy Motorola in order to mimic Apple's hardware strategy?  Google was not alone in the Smartphone and Tablet industry to hear Apple's footsteps just like the Tiger Woods pre-crash.  The two leading Android Handset makers, Samsung, LG and HTC released press statements that were eerily similar and heartily supported Google's acquisition of Motorola.  How crazy is that?  Google is buying one of their competitors  which threatens their market leading position and they applaud the move?  That is the Tiger effect that Apple has now evolved to, anything that takes them down is good for the under classes of competitors.  It is breathtaking to watch and understand. 

The second news item of the week that reinforces that Apple is the  new Tiger Woods was HP's announcement that they are considering selling their PC business and that they will not compete with Apple on Handsets or Tablets.  The strategic move away from the PC business is the result of the "Tablet Effect" on the sales and margins of personal computers and Net books.  It is also the result of Apple's dramatic impact on computing, moving from fixed to mobile computing which has propelled the sales of IOS and Android mobile devices globally.  Think of it, HP's PC business is over $22 Billion and they are seriously considering selling it off completely and not competing with Apple on PC's or mobile devices.  They also announced a $10 Billion dollar acquisition of Autonomous software.  They are going to try and mimic IBM and move away from PC hardware and focus on services and software.  That is another way of saying they don't want to play on any course where Apple competes.  Sad, but that is the reality that faces them, they cannot win against Apple and they have decided not to try.  Shareholders punished HP for these announcements amputating over $12 Billion dollars in the company's value in 1 day.  How proud would founders Hewlett and Packard be today watching their company run and hide from the mighty Apple?

There are many unknown outcomes from the events of this week with Google and HP.  My first concern was that Google's fears drove an acquisition that would damage the growth trajectory of Android.  Since our business is based on Android and the idea that it will hurt the growth trajectory worries me.  Is one of the unintended consequences of the Motorola acquisition that Samsung, HTC and others diversify their use of Windows 7 phone O/S and other operating systems?  Is there a potentially perverse outcome where HP becomes the new Google with their WEB OS?  Web OS (formerly Palm OS) was universally considered a world class O/S and was about to enter the game as a serious contender with IOS and Android.  Obviously, HP was late to the game and has pulled back from this strategy but this will not stop them from licensing Web OS to the Android ecosystem who may feel the need to hedge their bets.  Yes, there will be a cost to license Web OS, but given the fear of Apple and the cost to litigate, Android is not really free.  

I used to enjoy watching Tiger dominate the men's PGA tour.  I enjoy it more now in the post Tiger era where any number of players can win any given week.  I look forward to that type of level playing field in the mobile arena but fear it won't be any time soon.

Android O/S continues to gain traction

Android O/S continues to gain traction

Recent reports from Nielson, Canalysis and Comscore provide terrific insight into Android's market penetration which is mostly at the expense of RIM's Blackberry O/S and Nokia's Symbian O/S. 

At this point it appears to be a two horse race between Google and Apple. 

Android is number 1 in Smartphone O/S during Q2 2011. Nielsen reported that

55% of all new mobile-phone sales in the U.S. from March through May were

Smartphones, for the first time Smartphones outsold feature phones. Nielsen reported 38% of all phones in use in the US were  Smartphones versus 34% in the prior period/year.

Google’s Android O/S  is responsible for the majority of that growth.  Thirty-eight percent

of new U.S. Smartphone buyers purchased an Android handset during the three month

period.  Android's growth trajectory should continue along the same lines as the O/S matures and evolves.  We learned at Google I/O that the next big release in Q4 2011 will be Ice Cream Sandwich which will be an advanced version of the O/S that combines some of the advances in Honeycomb tablet version that can run on either a phone or a tablet.  That will certainly be helpful to LifeSignals as we see more interest and traction in the Health Care space on the new tablet devices.  

Google's Android races to the top

Google's Android races to the top

When we attended Google IO in early May Google announced that Android activations had hit the mind-blowing rate of 400,000 devices per day.  About two weeks ago Andy Rubin announced that activations had increased to 500,000 per day.  In yesterday's earnings conference call, Google founder and CEO Larry Page said the company is activating 550,000 Android phones per day now.  Comscore released data last week that 49% of all Smartphones sold in May were Android.  Google also released that Android activations have reached 135 million devices, with 400 models available globally. 

These are staggering numbers that must even make Apple worried.  I would not want to be at RIM or Nokia and be processing these numbers and evaluating how to survive. 

From LifeSignals perspective, we continue to be validated that we chose the right operating system to launch our Mobile Health Platform.  Our rationale was low cost, open source, and diversity of suppliers.  We are fortunate to have made this decision and will reap the benefits as a Google continues its amazing growth. 

Google Health Announcement

Google IO and Google Health

Google announced last week that they are no longer going to support their ground breaking Google Health Personal Health Record system as of the end of this year.  This is a disappointing announcement but not entirely unexpected.  There have been rumors swirling around Google Health for quite some time and their lack of presence at Google IO only served to confirm the impending collapse.  We will miss Google Health as it was a nice story for end to end Google connectivity from Android phones.  We will also miss the ability to use the CCR (continuity of care record) connectivity as a reference example of EMR connectivity.  We will most likely interface the application to Microsoft Health Vault in the near term.  Microsoft has announced a Health Vault Mobile SDK for Windows 7 Phone Mobile with Android support coming soon.  More on that when it is available. 

In the meantime we received the video from Google of interviews with Steve Jacobs and Paul Speese.  Google IO seems like a year ago already even though it was just 7 weeks past.  They did a nice job splicing our separate videos, capturing some of the apps we showed and getting a flavor or the event at the floor level inside the Sandbox area. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpq08ictqB0

LifeSignals app optimized for Honeycomb Android 3.0

As I mentioned in the last post, I was fortunate enough to have received one of the new ultra slim Samsung 10.1" Honeycomb tablets while attending Google IO 2011.  I just received the tablet back from the developers who were working to optimize the graphics and performance on Honeycomb.  It has really turned out nice, as you can see in the video link below.  Samsung has done an incredible job with all aspects of this new Tablet.  I am impressed with the size, weight, screen resolution and overall performance.  I have been an iPad user since its inception and have not found an Android Tablet that could replace it until now.  This is every bit as good as a consumer media consumption device for me but has the advantage of being Android O/S and running our applications.  The quality of the video conferencing is really amazing.  I will capture a video of that next time.
Enjoy the video link below:
http://youtu.be/Ckbx-6gy5ME

Google IO 2011

I was invited to attend Google IO by friend and business associate Steve Jacobs from Apps4android.  Steve is engaged with Google on a mission to make Android phones and tablets more accessible to the blind and other visually challenged individuals.  Steve and his team do some excellent work and his collaboration with the Google accessibility team has payed dividends for the visually challenged all over the world.  Steve has also worked with us in the same vein, to enable the Androiter application to be fully accessible.  We demonstrated the system at his pod on the 3rd floor of the Moscone Center last week.  We demonstrated the system hundreds of times over the two days of the event and had rave reviews. 

Google IO was really a terrific event.  Exciting keynotes on both day 1 and day2, exceptional sessions, a diverse and energetic group of 5000 developers, parties, food, all contributed to a significant buzz and quite a bit of fun.  From a mobile health perspective, there were several significant takeaways.

·         Google announced that over 100 Million Android phones have been activated.  I don't need to wax philosophic about that level of success in just 2 and 1/2 years.  It speaks for itself.  100,000,000  wow.

·         Equally staggering, there are 400,000 activations of new Android devices every day!

·         There are 36 OEM's producing phones and tablets globally

·         There are 215 Carriers selling Android phones

·         There are 450,000 registered app developers

·         There are over 200,000 apps available in the Market

·         There are 1 billion apps downloaded every 60 days at the current pace

·         There have been 4.5 Billion downloads as of last week

LifeSignals made a conscious choice to use the Android platform to develop our mobile health and wellness applications.  It appears to have been a good choice. 

Thanks to Steve Jacobs and Google for such a fun and informative event.  Also thanks to Google, Samsung and Verizon for the free 10.1" Galaxy Tab and 4G hotspot.   The new tablet is sleek and gorgeous and makes a great platform for our applications. 

Asian Invasion Fragmentation

My last posting was a description of our dilemma with the LG Optimus V price increase.  Since that time I have received 3 more phones, 2 of which were low cost Chinese imports and the other two mainstream phones purchased on eBay.  Let's start with the low cost Chinese phones.  The first one from China Vision called Eclipse is an attractive phone with Android 2.2, an attractive 3.2" capacitive screen and a unique (for US market) dual SIM design.  I installed the AT&T SIM in SIM slot 1 and after some modest configuration time was able to send text messages and acquire ATT 3G coverage.  The WIFI radio is a bit shaky, constantly connecting and disconnecting similar to the way the Galaxy Tablet often acts so no reason to put it down for that reason.  I turned off the WIFI and began to test it on our application.  The first problem was the phone does not come standard with the USB drivers required for side loading applications.  After reading the worthless manual and contacting responsive but non helpful technical support I gave up.  We have the ability to load the application via a server link so I went that route.  Once I had the application installed I received an error message that it required an SD memory card.  After installing a 2GB SD card I rebooted the phone and launched the application and it loaded perfectly.  I performed routing testing starting with the thermometer, pulse Oximeter, and blood sugar monitor.  The first two tests were flawless and then the Blood Sugar Monitor failed to connect and began requesting the pairing code which had already been entered.  I went through this process 4 or 5 times and then threw the phone into the trash can!  Just kidding, but I could not determine a method of getting it to work.  I have set it aside with the idea of getting back to it after testing some of the other phones.  The next phone was the Huawei IDEOS phone.  This phone appears to be a very high quality device with a smaller screen at 2.8" with a beautiful and responsive capacitive screen and version 2.1 of Android O/S.  This phone was well equipped with memory and had its USB drivers preinstalled and loaded Gmail, app installer and the Androiter application flawlessly.  Same with pairing the devices and running through the tests and then BAM!  It began rejecting the Nonin Pulse Oximeter and the blood sugar monitor despite repeated successful pairings with the phone.  I set that aside before it went flying out the window, count to 10 and all of that nonsense.  I thought I should shift gears and work with the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S and T-Mobile Motorola Defy phones.   The Motorola Defy was a joy to load the SIM and turn on with the exception of Moto blur.  What a bloated piece or crap that is, but once you are past the early stage of enabling this is a nice phone and very appropriate for the M Health market due to its water proof and dust resistant characteristics.   Samsung had a huge hit with the Galaxy S selling over 10 Million phones in 2010.  It is a beautiful full featured device and I looked forward to getting back to 4" screens and predictable performance from US carrier phones.  Wow did I get kicked in the teeth.  I paired all the devices and upon loading the Androiter application I am given an error message that the phone will not accept non market applications.  I quickly went to settings/applications and found it does not have the selection for Unknown Sources.  I Googled side loading on ATT Galaxy S and found much to my chagrin that ATT's version of the Galaxy S indeed blocked loading of any non market application.  Not to be outdone, I Rooted the damn thing.  Didn't matter, still blocked non market apps.  Android Central to the rescue with their Sideload Wonder Machine.  This wonderful little tool enables side loading on the phone.  Success, I loaded the app and it works great.  Nice phone, but what a pain in the butt.  So, to recap, my wonderful idea of buying low cost phones resulted in wasting a ton of time and getting scared that Android phones and the various Android versions they use are so fragmented that they will cause a nightmare for M Health providers such as LifeSignals to support.  At the end of the day, we have concluded that we need to certify as broad a selection of phones possible from carriers in the US market.  If we are diligent in this process we can proactively identify the problematic devices and Android builds and either solve the problem or identify in advance that we don't support the device.

Asian Invasion of Low Cost Android Phones

As LifeSignals moves toward its first customer pilots we find ourselves in the position of having to purchase small quantities of Android Phones to provide to our Pilot clients.  Our goal is to identify low cost Android Phones that run our applications efficiently and are GSM phones that will run on AT&T's network.  We have recently formed a relationship with AT&T that has provided us with low cost data only SIM cards that we can integrate into low cost GSM phones.  So, we initially found $150 LG Optimus V phones from Virgin Mobile at Radio Shack.  They were nice phones, a sub 3" screen but the apps run well and they were easy to use and had reasonable battery life.  That phone set the standard for us, but they expensive for 3G data service at $25 per month.  We assumed that our early pilots would all have Wifi so we would use the phones only in Wifi mode and skip the monthly 3G data plan.  Unfortunately, earlier this month Virgin Mobile announced a price increase to $200.  Apparently a lot of people thought that was a good deal and they could not keep enough of them in stock.  We were really blindsided by this change, but you know what they say about the silver lining in every dark cloud.  The price increase forced us to search the market for other phones that we could acquire in the $150 or less category.  I used my time at CTIA to visit a number of Chinese, Korean and South American device companies and made some good contacts.  Over the last 2 weeks I have purchased about 12 phones from 4 different companies overseas.  In my search I found that you could buy the new Dual Core LG 2X from the same low cost suppliers on the web.  I received the new LG phone yesterday, wow!  This is by far the best Android phone we have seen produced.  It is a beautiful sleek design, the screen technology is gorgeous, and the phone is super responsive.  I currently have a data only SIM in the phone which makes me sad as I would like this to be my personal phone.  When you put it side by side with my DroidX it makes the Droid X seem old and tired.  In addition, for M-health this phone has both front and rear facing cameras for video conferencing.  But I digress, so I have ordered a variety of low cost phones and received the first one today.  It is the Blu Tango from Bluproducts in South America.  It is a ZTE product from China that is pictured below. It is an attractive phone with a 2.8" screen and Froyo 2.2.  I generally like the phone but have two complaints that force me to admit that it is not comparable to the LG Optimus V that we are trying to replace.  First, the device does not come standard with the USB drivers that allow you to mount the phone as drive on your PC.  This makes it impossible to side load applications which is how we currently load our application on phones and Tablets.  Secondly, and probably more important is that the touch screen is very poor.  The visual quality of the phone is fine, in fact it is very attractive but navigating between icons and screens is very awkward and frequently results in accidents and mistakes.  Over the course of setting up Gmail and Wifi I got better at understanding how it worked best but that doesn't make me any happier with the performance.  You have to really slow down and be deliberate with every touch and keystroke.  If it was the only phone you had you might become accustomed to the pace but when I was switching back and forth between my DroidX and the new LG 2X it was glaringly obvious that the Blu Tango was more "Skanko"or "Tanko" than Tango.  See a picture of the Blue Skanko below.  So we have a number of new phones coming in over the next week and it will be fun and instructive to understand the qualitative differences between them.  It is clear right now, the high end phones we have come to know well from Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG are really accomplished phones that are first class.  So far, the next class is defined by the LG Optimus V which are small screen but completely acceptable with only a modest fall off in quality and ease of use from the high end devices.  The current crop of low end devices will probably have one or two good enough to qualify for our pilots...I hope!

Ripped from the headlines: Connecting the dots for Mobile Health

Today and yesterday's Wall Street Journal had some fascinating and relevant M-health articles. 

·         Cisco Flips Consumer Strategy-This article goes into some depth and history about Cisco's failed direct to consumer strategy including the Flip Video Camera which they are shutting down after spending $590 Million to acquire.  They are reevaluating Linksys and their recently launched video conference product named UMI.  We payed a lot of attention to the UMI announcement since we examined the consumer video conferencing product closely in order to choose high quality low cost products for the telemedicine portion of our applications and found the UMI product to be ridiculously expensive given what was available for free from Skype and Logitech.  It was not surprising to see them cut the price from $25 per month to $10 per month and now to pull it entirely and "reposition" it as an enterprise product which means you will rarely ever see this system again.

·         Symbian Holds Fort for Nokia-The alleged news here is that Nokia is defensively announcing two new smart phones based upon the Symbian O/S that they are in the process of abandoning while Microsoft pays them to adopt Windows Phone 7.  This is laughable that if it wasn't so sad to see the world's leading phone company burrow into the ground.  Apart from the drama, the important point for Mobile Health is that the success of the iPhone and subsequent domination by the Android O/S has changed the global market narrowing the platform down to only viable two operating systems.  

·         HTC Phone Adds Video as makers go past apps-This article focuses on HTC and other Smart Phone manufacturers diversifying their proprietary offerings to go beyond app stores and markets.  HTC, Samsung, LG and Motorola were all demonstrating new services and systems at CTIA a few weeks ago.  The relevance and dot connection with Mobile Health is twofold.  The first is that the device companies are beginning to recognize the next phase of application integration and are seriously investing in proprietary and in house capabilities to develop applications and extend existing applications across phones-tablets-TVs and Set Top boxes.  This is an important recognition for Mobile Health to be sustainable in the home.  The other noteworthy nugget from the article was the projection from Gartner Group.  " The dominance of Google's  Android operating system, which market researcher Gartner Inc predicts will run on nearly half of the world's Smartphones by next year..."  So the upshot for Mobile Health is that the device makers are looking for differentiation and outside of Apple they are focusing on Android.  This is all good news for Mobile Health Developers such as LifeSignals.