New Android app looks to correct your posture

If you’re like me, your posture can be rated as something that needs improvement. Our incessant use of smartphones and other mobile devices aren’t helping the situation. It makes sense then that there’s an app to remind you to correct your posture and help keep at bay any aches and pains. This new and free Android app is called Posture and its philosophy revolves around the idea of being mindful over how you hold your phone. If you continuously look down, that strains your neck and shoulders. This app will remind you to periodically hold the phone at eye-level and let your hand and arm do the work.

Posture lets you set the time intervals when you want it to remind you. It show up as a floating icon on your phone, which should be enough to draw your attention to it. The app even lets you customize how the reminder look and where on the screen it will appear.

Source: Lifehacker

Google buys Cronologics to boost Android Wear efforts

Google’s latest acquisition looks to improve Android Wear’s chances of a more sustainable future—or at least that is the hope. The tech giant bought Cronologics, the company behind CoWatch’s software, which is an Android-based smartwatch operating system that also brings Amazon Alexa to smartwatches. The team will be joining Google and working on Android Wear and they plan to “help grow the portfolio of watches powered by Android Wear” and will be “pushing the frontier of wearable technology and smartwatches with Android Wear 2.0 and beyond.” Interestingly, a number of Cronologics employees are also ex-Googlers, making this a homecoming of sorts for them.

Source: TechCrunch

Smart stethoscope to come to Canada

A new smart stethoscope just got its Health Canada license and might be seen at your next doctor's appointment. Medical device company Eko gives the trusty stethoscope an update right on the 200th anniversary of the stethoscope's invention. The Eko Core wirelessly streams heart and lung sounds to a smartphone application. These sounds can even be saved to a patient's electronic health record, paving the way for easy sharing  of medical information with the doctors and other healthcare professionals involved in a certain case.

The Eko Core is available for purchase on Eko's site and through MedTach, a Canadian medical device distributor. The Eko Core Digital Attachment is a digital converter for analog stethoscopes and goes for $265. There's also the Eko Core Bundle Stethoscope that has the attachment pre-assembled to a cardiology-grade analog stethoscope. This costs $399.

Facebook to introduce 360-degree live video

It seems like a natural progression for Facebook to bring together two of its biggest projects: live video and virtual reality. The social network announced plans of releasing 360-degree live video feature to its users. This’ll help bring you right into an event. It won’t be available to all users when it’s released but will come to publishers first. Facebook will officially introduce the feature on Tuesday starting with a video from the Mars Desert Research Station facility in Utah thanks to a partnership with National Geographic.

Source: CNET