Apple reportedly working on sensors to predict heart attacks

Apple is reportedly looking to make a serious splash in the medical field. According to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle, the Cupertino-based company is working on sensor technology that could help predict heart attacks.

The research is being led by Tomlinson Holman, the audio engineer responsible for creating THX. You may be asking yourself what an audio engineer would know about the medical field – and it’d be a valid question.

Apparently, Apple and Holman are focused on the sound that blood makes as it travels through a person’s arteries. A sensor that is capable of monitoring and analyzing such sounds would logically need to be worn on the body at all times. In other words, it could be a perfect fit for the long-rumored Apple iWatch.

We’ve been hearing for a while now that Apple is planning to focus on fitness and health with iOS 8 and the iWatch. Apple hired medical device expert Marcelo Malini Lamego, the former CTO of medical device company Cercacor, last month while the company added Michael O’Reilly last summer. O’Reilly formerly served as the chief medical officer and executive VP of medical affairs at Masimo before joining Apple.

All of this suggests Apple is planning for the iWatch to be a much more impactful device than most initially expected. It’d also be a completely different path compared to the direction that Pebble, Samsung, Sony and others have taken with their connected watches.

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Google acquires 'sounds for passwords' startup SlickLogin

Google has acquired SlickLogin, a small Israeli security startup that develops a unique, sound-based system for identity verification at websites. The "acqui-hiring deal", which means that the company's staff and knowledge will be integrated into the search giant, was confirmed in an announcement posted to the SlickLogin's website.

Put in simple words, the idea behind the startup is: In order to authenticate a user's identity and log them in, a SlickLogin-enabled site would play an almost inaudible tone. An app running on your smartphone, which you'd hold up to your computer's speaker, would analyze the tone and signal back your credentials to the website's server.

The technology can be used either as an alternative to traditional passwords or in Google's two-factor authentication system, which currently involves entering in a unique code from your phone.

Founded less than a year ago, the company has not yet released a commercial product. It launched into closed beta at the TechCrunch Disrupt in September last year. Although the terms of the deal were not officially disclosed, according to Geektime, which first reported it, the deal is said to be valued at "several million".

Google has acquired quite a few Israeli companies in recent years, including mapping service Waze, entertainment company LabPixies, and spreadsheet company iRows.

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Windows apps and desktop are coming to Chrome OS, thanks to Google and VMware

Google, acknowledging that “many of our customers still use traditional desktop applications” has teamed up with VMware to bring the Windows desktop and apps to Chrome OS. Apparently 21% of commercial laptop sales in the US last year were Chromebooks — and with Windows XP soon to be retired, Google and VMware think it’s prime time you make the jump to Chrome OS.

The setup goes something like this: You (or rather your company’s IT admin) installs the VMware Horizon DaaS server. Horizon (which costs thousands of dollars) is basically a big server that runs virtualized instances of Windows. Then, when a user wants to use a Windows desktop or app, they simply connect to the server and request one of those instances. In this case, that connection is made using VMware View — and as of 2011, there’s an HTML5 version of VMware View that works in all major browsers, includingChrome OS. (In the photo above you can see an early beta version of VMware View logging into Windows 7 on a Chromebook.)

The HTML5 viewer is surprisingly good, especially over a high-speed LAN — but you probably won’t be using it to play fast-paced games on your Chromebook. The main use-case here is giving employees access to legacy applications — old, sometimes bespoke Windows programs that are very difficult to upgrade or migrate. This solution could also allow you to use high-performance applications like Photoshop on your wimpy, low-spec Chromebook.

Beyond platform agnosticism, the biggest benefits of running the Windows Desktop as a Service (DaaS) are ease of management and security. As you may know, Windows (for a variety of reasons) isn’t the safest OS for enterprise use — while Chrome OS, at least according to Google, is highly secure and doesn’t require additional antivirus software. WithWindows XP finally being retired in April, Google is hoping that business customers will switch to Chromebooks + VMware, rather than upgrading to Windows 7 or 8. This is probably a bit too optimistic on Google’s behalf, but there’s no denying that there’s a large, ongoing shift towards cheaper, thin clients that leverage remote computing power (the cloud, a local server, etc.)

The hard truth is that, in a large number of cases, most users don’t need a full Windows machine. Almost everything can now be done in the browser — a fact that Google must be very, very happy about.

To use Windows apps on your Chromebook, you’ll need to be running VMware Horizon DaaS and have access to VMware Horizon View 5.3 — which are currently only available as subscription-based services. Google says Horizon View will “soon” come to the Chrome Web Store, but I’m fairly certain you will still need the very expensive Horizon DaaS software to use it.

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64-bit Windows 8.1 tablets are coming later this year

Here’s something you may not have noticed before – most Windows 8.1 tablets that are currently on the market are loaded with the 32-bit version of Microsoft’s latest operating system despite the fact that they carry 64-bit processors. That’s about to change, however, according to at least one source familiar with the matter as reported by CNET.

As the publication points out, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Samsung all offer Windows 8.1 slates powered by Intel’s Bay Trail (Atom) CPU but oddly enough, these machines have all included 32-bit versions of Windows 8.1. Why is that, exactly?

The main reason that most users opt for a 64-bit installation is to be able to use more than 4GB of system memory. That really hasn’t been a concern just yet for tablets as they don’t pack a ton of RAM but as Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64, points out, there’s demand for 64-bit tablets from IT organizations that want to standardize on 64-bit images and 64-bit apps.

True enough, the first wave of Bay Trail slates were largely marketed as consumer-level devices. The next batch is expected to target business customers, hence the push for 64-bit Windows. And at least one major PC maker is expected to introduce a 64-bit tablet at Mobile World Congress later this month.

Dell also told the publication they would be rolling out 64-bit OS support for the Venue 8 Pro and Venue 11 Pro tablets running Bay Trail later this year. Additionally, Microsoft confirmed there will be multiple Windows 8.1 devices running 64-bit on Atom as well.

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Microsoft reportedly considers bringing Android apps to Windows

One of the biggest challenges Microsoft faces today is the widening app deficit. The company's app stores, both on Windows and Windows Phone, are lacking popular titles. The situation can be gauged from the fact that it took three years for Instagram to arrive on Windows Phone, and viral sensation Flappy Bird never even made it.

The situation has taken a complex turn, with new customers unlikely to embrace Microsoft's mobile platform and Modern UI on the desktop unless there are apps, and developers unwilling to develop apps if there are no customers. Looking for a way out of this vicious cycle, the company is considering allowing Google's Android apps to run on its Windows and Windows Phone platforms, if a report from The Verge is to be believed.

Close to 80% of smartphones today run Android, and most developers release their apps for both Android and iOS simultaneously. Running Android apps on Windows and Windows Phone would at least serve as a band-aid for Microsoft. There is no confirmation from Microsoft, but adding weight to the rumors is talk of Nokia's Android phone, which is scheduled to be officially unveiled at this month's Mobile World Conference.

Of course, not everybody at Microsoft is convinced with the idea (Android apps couldn't save BlackBerry, after all). As per the report, many believe that this change would lead to the death of the Windows platform. Meanwhile, it is not yet clear if the software giant is looking to partner with a third party (Intel or AMD) to help the company bring Android apps to the Windows platform, should it decide to move ahead with the plan.

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