sapelzin's blog

Two of my passions are health care and computer gaming.  Now the time has come where they can go hand in hand, as there is a growing movement to use games to change people behavior as it pertains to their health.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has created the Health Games Reasearch Group which funds the development of digital games to promote health.  Their website also provides research briefs on gaming as it relates to health behavior.  Each year they host a Games For Health conference, a forum for game developers to meet and discuss health-related game development.

Research is being published that shows computer games can help modify behavior.  Elsevier did a study that showed game playing can improve dietary choices in obese kids.  The AMIA published a study by Hadi Kharrazi about improving healthy behaviors in diabetes patients.  Informa Healthcare published a paper on improving outcomes of people in recovery for alcohol dependece through mobile technology.

At Broderbund we developed Carmen Sandiego to encourage kids to learn history and geography through game play.  Unfortunately revenue streams for "edutainment" dried up as game platforms for fast action, first person games improved.  With health care reform, there is a new opportunity for developers to create games that encourage healthy behavior and changes in non-healthy behaviors.

Apple Inc. is working on new versions of the iPhone that are aimed at slowing the advance of competing handsets based onGoogle Inc.’s Android software, according to people who have been briefed on the plans.

One version would be cheaper and smaller than the most recent iPhone, said a person who has seen a prototype and asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been made public. Apple also is developing technology that makes it easier to use the iPhone on multiple wireless networks, two people said.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who remains involved in strategic decisions while on medical leave, would use lower prices to widen the iPhone’s appeal and keep it from losing further ground to Android devices. Less expensive iPhones may also ratchet up pressure on Nokia Oyj, whose handsets are especially popular in Europe and some developing markets.

“Instead of targeting 25 percent of the global mobile- phone market, Apple would be going after 100 percent,” said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York, who has a “buy” rating on Apple shares.

Google’s share of the global smartphone market more than tripled to 32.9 percent in the fourth quarter, eclipsing Apple’s 16 percent, according to Canalys. Apple will face another challenge as Nokia and Microsoft Corp. join forces in smartphone development, a partnership announced today.

Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California- based Apple, declined to comment.

Apple added $1.30 to $355.84 at 9:59 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock had climbed 9.9 percent this year before today.

Smaller, Cheaper

Apple has considered selling the new iPhone for about $200, without obligating users to sign a two-year service contract, said the person who has seen it. Android phones sell for a range of prices at AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and other carriers, and typically come with agreements that include a fee for broken contracts. The iPhone 4, sold in the U.S. by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, costs $200 to $300 when subsidized by a contract.

While Apple has aimed to unveil the device near mid-year, the introduction may be delayed or scrapped, the person said. Few Apple employees know the details of the project, the person said. Apple often works on products that don’t get released.

The prototype was about one-third smaller than the iPhone 4, and it had no “home” button, said the person, who saw it last year.

Apple would sell it at a low price mainly because the smartphone will use a processor, display and other components similar to those used in the current model, rather than pricier, more advanced parts that will be in the next iPhone, the person said. Component prices typically drop over time.

Dual-Mode Phone

Apple is also working on a so-called dual-mode phone, two people said. This device would be able to work with the world’s two main wireless standards -- the global system for mobile communications, used by AT&T and overseas carriers such as Vodafone Group Plc, and code division multiple access, used by Verizon Wireless. It couldn’t be determined whether Apple intended to include this capability in the cheaper iPhone.

Apple is working on a technology called a universal SIM, which would let iPhone users pick from a variety of GSM networks without having to switch the so-called SIM cards that associate a phone with a network, according to one person. Having universal SIM capability built-in would help cut the cost of distributing and managing millions of SIM cards.

The new features could also give Apple an advantage over mobile carriers in influencing customers. The device would be affordable without a carrier subsidy, so buyers wouldn’t need to agree to terms, such as termination fees, that carriers demand in exchange for lowering the cost of the phone.

Global Appeal

A cheaper iPhone would help Apple make deeper inroads in markets such as China and India, where many shoppers opt for lower-priced devices that don’t carry long-term contracts, Wolf said.

Apple has also worked on redesigned iPhone software that would let customers choose a network and configure their device on their own, without relying on a store clerk or representative of a carrier, according to the person.

Apple has gone down-market before. In 2004, when sales of the original $299-plus iPod were still rising, the company introduced the $249 iPod Mini. In 2005, when the iPod Mini was still a bestseller, Jobs discontinued it in favor of the cheaper iPod Nano. Apple began selling the last version of the iPhone, the 3GS, for just $49 in January -- though it required a two- year contract.

Price cuts and the absence of a carrier subsidy may put Apple’s margins under pressure.

Still, Apple is able to get big discounts from suppliers because of the large volume of iPhone sales and by signing long- term contracts. The company said in January that it has executed long-term agreements totaling $3.9 billion in recent months.

Google’s Android operating system also may suffer if Apple makes the iPhone more versatile and affordable. The Google- backed operating system benefited when Apple wasn’t available from Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless began selling the iPhone yesterday.

Scientists announced yesterday (Feb. 2) that NASA's Kepler mission has discovered 1,235 alien planet candidates, including 54 that orbit in their host stars' habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that allow liquid water to exist.

If a significant portion of these candidates are subsequently confirmed, Kepler may have just doubled — or tripled — the number of known exoplanets, which had stood at about 520. Not bad for its first four months of data collection.

The Kepler Space Telescope launched in March 2009, tasked with searching for Earth-size alien planets in their stars' habitable zones. The telescope's science mission will run through at least November 2012.

Yesterday, SPACE.com caught up with the Kepler mission's principal investigator, Bill Borucki, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Borucki discussed Kepler's latest finds, how the mission can help astronomers better understand planetary systems — and how it's likely to shape our search for life elsewhere in the galaxy.

SPACE.com: So, how do you feel today, after announcing Kepler has found more than 1,200 planet candidates? It must feel good to show the world what you guys have been up to.

Bill Borucki: It does feel very good. We spent a lot of years, we spent a lot of money, a lot of time, and it's nice to see the product. The product is basically game-changing. It will help people — dramatically help — understand planetary systems, how our own solar system may have come into existence. It gives us lots of hope that we will find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone.

We are finding some candidates in the habitable zone right now, and so as time goes on and we find the ones that are around hotter stars more like the sun — everything looks good. I think everybody's happy with the productivity of the mission.

SPACE.com: So how many of these 1,235 planet candidates do you reckon will eventually be confirmed?

Borucki: My feeling is, it'll be better than 80 percent. So, something short of a thousand of them.

SPACE.com: Wow. That's very exciting.

Borucki: It really is, in so many ways. We really don't understand the structure of some of our planets. For example, if you're interested in saying, "I want to know how Jupiter and Saturn were constructed" — the gas giants. One of the theories is that you build up a rocky planet like the Earth, but you keep building until it's maybe twice the size, or three times the size. Then the hydrogen and helium condense out, and you form a Jupiter.

Well, let's go look at Jupiter. Jupiter doesn't have such a core. Now, isn't that odd? The main prediction of your theory doesn't work on the most prominent planet in your own solar system. There are a lot of things like this that are puzzles to us, understanding our own solar system. And by looking at another variety —tens or hundreds of other solar systems — we'll begin to understand what really goes on in developing planetary systems, and developing planets.

So it's just a tremendous amount of new knowledge. One of the people at headquarters today was saying, "We're writing the book on planetary physics."

Vint Cert, one of the fathers of the internet, didn’t realize back in the 1970s that we might one day run out of internet addreses. Back in 1977, he was one of those who came up with the 4.3 billion addresses allocated for users and other entities. No one foresaw that billions of smartphones, PCs and laptops would need their own unique addresses.

Addresses matter because they are the key to finding things and people on the internet. They’re part of the identification system of the internet and have to be assigned for every new device that signs on to the web. (They’re the four numbers ranging from 0 to 255, separated by dots).

If there aren’t enough of them, then communications problems can occur, where some devices won’t be able to access certain web sites. It may not be “internet armageddon” as some newspapers have claimed, but it could be a very frustrating experience — all because the creators of the original technology didn’t have enough vision about how big their creation could become.

“Who the hell knew how much address space was needed?” Cerf recently said. “It doesn’t mean the network stops, it just means you can’t build it very well.”

Given the fact that the address exhaustion is so near for IPv6 addresses, it’s surprising we haven’t heard much about this problem. Experts have warned the day would come, but their words were unheeded, much like the approach of the Y2K crisis (when computers failed because they couldn’t tell what year it was) in 2000. The speed with which we’ve run out of addresses — which happened faster than predicted — is a sign of how many internet devices are being created.

Applying listening logic to television content as Shazam has done for music, new startup IntoNow is launching its iOS application Monday that are capable of identifying 2.6 million broadcast airings, equating to 266 years of video.

The television companion application is designed to create an easy way for users to connect with friends around the shows that they love.

Select the TV icon from within the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch app and IntoNow listens to what you're watching on the boob tube or internet. In four to 12 seconds, the application magically returns the exact episode, and correctly identifies whether the content is airing live or if it's a rebroadcast on the original network or a syndicate.

IntoNow provides users with show info, one-click access to IMDb, iTunes and Netflix, the latter of which provides users with a quick way to save episodes to their Instant Queue. In-app notifications alert users to activity and comments from friends, and the "Discover" tab presents a visually engaging way to explore content from curated lists like "Best Shows of the 90's" or "Movies Featuring San Francisco."

IntoNow users can optionally share what they're watching with friends on Twitter and Facebook. The application experience is also immensely social, so adding friends from those services is seamless, and engaging around the television content users have implicitly "checked in" to -- the entertainment checkin experience as we know it is nonexistent, this is a listen-driven experience -- works in a way that feels akin to an ever-present digital water cooler.

"People spend 62% of their leisure time watching television; it's the largest activity after work and sleep," says founder and CEO Adam Cahan citing Bureau of Labor Statistics from a 2009 surgery. "Television is an engaged topic," he says.

The natural engagement piece is why Cahan believes game mechanics employed by a growing crop of entertainment checkin applications are unnecessary. "This is not a consumer experience we understand," Cahan says of checkins, badges and rewards. "The act of sharing should be seamless; the act of connecting and engaging should be rewarding enough," he says.

Pragmatus sues over patents originally issued to Image Telecommunications Corp.

A patent-licensing firm is trying to squeeze cash from the six largest cable operators, alleging they infringe on two patents it owns related to video on demand technology.

A holding company identified as Pragmatus VOD LLC sued Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision Systems, Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Bright House Networks. The suit, filed Jan. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, seeks unspecified damages for "past infringement and any continuing or future infringement."

The patents in questions are U.S. Patent Nos. 5,581,479 ("Information service control point, which uses different types of storage devices, which retrieves information as blocks of data, and which uses a trunk processor for transmitting information") and 5,636,139 ("Information service control point which retrieves information as blocks of data").

Charter said in a statement, "Charter is reviewing the allegations of the lawsuit and plans to vigorously defend itself."

Robert Benmosche's forthrightness about his illness is in stark contrast to the Apple chief’s secrecy.

AIG's Robert Benmosche said on Monday he will stay on as the insurer's CEO despite the fact that he continues to battle cancer. Benmosche first acknowledged that he had the disease in October. Steve Jobs and Apple's board should take note of Benmosche's openness about his condition.

Jobs last week said he would take a second medical leave in as many years "so I can focus on my health." He didn't disclose what's ailing him, and his secrecy has led to speculation that he has suffered a recurrence of the pancreatic cancer he revealed in 2004, nine months after the diagnosis, or complications from a 2009 liver transplant he had tried to keep secret.

Or maybe Jobs is suffering an altogether new medical calamity. No one really knows.

 (Reuters) - American students scored poorly on a national test of science proficiency, a new report said, suggesting a tough road ahead for President Barack Obama's goal of educating a workforce to compete in the global economy.

The results of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the Nation's Report Card, showed that only 21 percent of high school seniors were performing at or above the proficient level in science.

About a third of fourth and eighth graders were found to perform at the same level.

"The results released today show that our nation's students aren't learning at a rate that will maintain America's role as an international leader in the sciences," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.

The federal government assessment sampled 156,500 fourth-graders, 151,100 eighth-graders, and 11,100 twelfth-graders.

The figures in the report cannot be easily compared with the past because students were assessed in a new way that includes advances in science and pedagogy, and to bring it in line with international standards.

The Program of International Student Assessment which assesses different types of literacy found that that the United States ranked 13th out 34 developed countries.

China, Korea, Finland, Singapore, and Canada topped the international rankings.

The science test results came on the same day that President Barack Obama is expected to emphasize in his State of the Union Address the importance of education and innovation to bolster America's ability to compete globally.

(Reuters) - Britain's state-backed public broadcaster the BBC said Monday it would close 200 websites over the next two years in a drive to slash costs and reshape online content.

The move, which includes the loss of 360 jobs, is part of a raft of cost-cutting measures following a reduction in its negotiated license fee funding which was chopped by a fifth last October.

The corporation said the cuts were needed to meet a planned reduction of 25 percent, or 34 million pounds ($54 million), in online content.

The group has been criticised in the past by competitors and legislators for expanding aggressively using taxpayer monies, while commercial firms struggle in the downturn.

Sites to go include more obscure domains like skills website "RAW," teen sites "Switch" and "Blast," documentary website "Video Nation" and community sites like "h2g2" and "606." The BBC iPlayer message board will also close.

BBC Director General Mark Thompson said its online service remained at the heart of organization's digital future, but said it was in need of an overhaul to improve quality.

"BBC Online is a huge success, but our vast portfolio of websites means we sometimes fall short of expectation," he said in a statement.

The BBC said editorial focus would be on high-quality news, with up-to-the minute news updates with rich multimedia content woven in.

It also said show-business news, blogs and message boards would be cut, while Sports news and live sports sections would also be pared down.

Companies disappear all the time. Sure, it may be news when large corporations with well-known brands go belly-up. But think about it: Businesses like Circuit City, Northwest Airlines and Countrywide are gone now.

24/7 Wall St.recently looked at a number of large American companies, some of which are owned by foreign companies, to see which will disappear in 2011. A vanishing firm may go bankrupt and its assets sold off, it may be closed after being bought by another company or it may cease to exist due to a merger.

The website looked at a variety of companies: those that are in deep trouble, the merger and acquisitions targets, firms in industries that have too many competitors for any to become highly profitable or corporations that Wall Street believes are worth more in parts than as a whole. The 19 companies below were picked from this universe, because odds are that they won't exist a year from now: