June 16, 2008

1. New $199 iPhone Makes Apple Fanboys Look Stupid for Paying $599 11 Months Ago

Facts and Background

Apple announced its new $199 iPhone 3G Monday, which will use AT&T's faster 3G network for Internet access.

Opinion

It's not actually cheaper if you look at total two-year cost including service, but it's cool enough that consumers will be willing to deceive themselves about the price just to have one.

Musings

• Want to unlock your 3G to get cheaper but slower service elsewhere? Tough. You can't walk out with the phone until you've signed up for service.
• Microsoft Exchange integration should increase the iPhone's appeal to business users, assuming no security concerns are found.
• The 3G contains a GPS chip and one application was demonstrated that allowed users to pinpoint the location of nearby friends and send them messages. That could be an interesting foundation for hospital applications.
• MimVista's PET scan viewing application was apparently highly impressive, allowing users to zoom in by moving their fingers closer together and to remove images by shaking it like an Etch-a-Sketch.
• Analysis aside, you want one. Steve Jobs knows you do.

2. Microsoft Picks Companies Who Can Make HealthVault Do Something Useful

Facts and Background

Microsoft named 15 RFP recipients Tuesday for its HealthVault Be Well Fund to develop online solutions for its personal health platform.

Opinion

The paid widget-building program is kind of interesting, although it does smack of a certain amount of desperation to ramp up HealthVault's capabilities to beat Google to the PHR punch. Still, it's a smart move, especially limiting awards to non-profits. And, the projects themselves are well thought it, at least from the skimpy descriptions provided.

Musings

• Who's going to support these applications? Microsoft charges for supporting just about everything these days and surely the developing organizations don't plan to accept user calls.
• Will they work with FireFox browsers running on Linux? Microsoft likes proprietary technologies, so it will be interesting to see if the end results are required to use them.
• Nobody received a grant to build in advertising capabilities, but you can bet Microsoft is working hard on those. It's not investing in HealthVault and making it free for altruistic reasons.
• This was a pretty good idea, assuming all the applications are delivered and work well.

3. Two-Job Courier Down to One After Records of Utahns Gahn

Facts and Background

University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics announced Tuesday that backup tapes containing the records of 2.2 million patients were stolen from a contract courier's car when he went to work at his second job and then home instead of taking the records to a storage center.

Opinion

Everybody regrets the incident, thieves probably don't know what they stole, the information will be hard to read so hopefully the thieves are too stupid to figure it out, and everybody gets free round of credit reporting. You could boilerplate these stories and simply change the names every day or so as new incidents make the papers.

Musings

• The hospital is offering $1,000 for return of the records. Seems kind of cheap, doesn't it? Especially given the cost of letters, call center staffing, and credit reporting.
• Nobody said anything about encryption, which the university would brag about if the tapes had it, so the tapes were most likely not encrypted. Shouldn't they bear some responsibility for that?
• Patients always express outrage, at least when provoked by news crews looking for a story angle.
• The courier, who had worked with the records company for 18 years, was fired, of course. The company and university needed to distance themselves from the problem and were probably relieved to find a policy that he had broken.

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