Best Buy expanded its telehealth reach, partnering with Tyto Care on a device that does medical exams on-demand from home. The TytoHome device is available at retail exclusively on Bestbuy.com and in select Best Buy stores in Minnesota, and “soon” in California, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota, said the companies Wednesday. The $299 handheld device comes with attachments used to examine the heart, lungs, skin, ears, throat and abdomen, and measure body temperature, to enable remote diagnosis of acute care situations such as ear infections, sore throats, fever, cold and flu, allergies, stomach aches, upper respiratory infections, coughs and rashes, they said. With the device, users can perform “comprehensive medical exams,” said the companies, and send the captured exam information to a primary care provider for diagnosis 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Maximum cost to users per virtual visit is $59, “potentially even less depending on the visit and/or the user’s health insurance plan,” they said. Sanford Health will provide care to TytoHome users in Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa and South Dakota. Users will be able to connect with a Sanford medical provider for physician-guided exams and diagnosis. Tyto Care works with “experienced, quality telehealth platforms” across the country including LiveHealth Online, powered by American Well, the telehealth provider for users who buy TytoHome from the Best Buy website and reside outside of Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota, they said. Through LiveHealth Online, select employers can offer the service to their employees and give them coupons to buy TytoHome at Best Buy. In August, the retailer bought GreatCall, a provider of connected health and personal emergency response services to the aging population, for $800 million.
The lack of quality, non-gaming content is "inhibiting" virtual reality's "broader adoption,” reported Parks Associates Monday. With U.S. broadband household penetration stuck at 8 percent, consumer familiarity with VR technology remained flat at a quarter of broadband households from 2017 to 2018, with gamers most aware, said analyst Billy Nayden. Content quality is a challenge for VR headset owners, 55 percent of whom say content for their device has remained the same since they bought their headset; 3 percent said it has gotten worse. The main barriers for VR content development are cost, demand for interactivity and limits on content length, said Nayden. Mobile headsets are capable of playing most non-gaming content in VR but often can’t play premium games and have much lower Net Promoter Scores than other headset types. For gamers, PC-based and game console-based systems are the primary VR headset option, though stand-alone VR headsets are promoted as a cost saver, he noted. Fifteen percent of U.S. broadband households have tried VR; 28 percent of game console owners are familiar with VR headsets, Parks said.
Asus is shipping the ZenBook S13, a 13.9-inch laptop with a screen-to-body ratio of 97 percent, it said Monday. Features include a GeForce MX150 graphics processor, eighth-generation Intel Core i7 processor and 512 GB PCIe solid-state drive, it said; ports include a USB 3.1 Type-A, two Type-C and a MicroSD card reader. Suggested retail prices are $1,399 for the 8 GB version, sold online at Asus.com, Amazon, Newegg and Walmart, and $1,499 for the 16 GB version, available at Micro Center, it said.
Sprint is pushing hard to steal customers from AT&T and Verizon, new promotions show. Customers who switch to Sprint from another wireless carrier will get up to $650 to help cover switching fees, and they can score for a limited time a $250 prepaid Mastercard if they buy a late-model “iconic” smartphone with a contract, it said Friday. Under a “100% Total Satisfaction Guarantee,” new and current customers who try Sprint’s “improved” LTE service are assured full satisfaction or they’ll get a refund from Sprint to cover phone costs, service charges and fees, it said. The carrier said it has been working to improve coverage, reliability and speed nationwide via its Next-Gen Network plan, resulting in a 36 percent performance boost in national average download speeds from March to March. Through roaming agreements, Sprint offers 30 percent more total LTE data coverage nationwide, it said.
Wearables account for more than 65 percent of the $2.3 billion U.S. home sleep-screening devices market, reported Future Market Insights Thursday, but lower prices will contribute to a future rise in adoption of nonwearable devices for continuous sleep tracking that doesn’t require physical contact with the user. Overall revenue is expected to grow in the segment by 7 percent this year. Growing awareness of sleep disorders is driving demand for studies with home sleep-screening devices. It noted CTA’s collaboration with the National Sleep Foundation to define terms and functionality required for devices that measure sleep behavior. Primary sleep tracker form factors -- which include wristbands, headbands, masks and ring devices, and hybrid devices such as Fitbit’s Ionic, which tracks fitness and activity along with sleep patterns -- will help expand awareness and sales, the researcher said.
Beginning Friday, consumers who previously registered on Samsung.com to receive more information about the Galaxy Fold smartphone (see 1902200065) will be at the head of the line for an invitation to reserve the next-generation phone that’s due April 26 in select AT&T, T-Mobile, Best Buy and Samsung Experience Stores. Supplies will be limited, Samsung said Thursday. It describes the Fold as having a “tablet-like experience when you want it,” and being a smartphone “when you need it.” One of the wow factors of the hybrid device is the ability for content to move from the cover display of the folding device to the larger 7.3-inch tablet screen when the device opens. Samsung also pushed its Galaxy S10 5G, due next month. Preorders for the 5G handset will begin "soon," it said.
Dahua Technology announced an integration with Control4, its first with a home control platform. Dahua’s Internet Protocol cameras, Pro and Lite series network video recorders (NVR) and HDCVI video recorders are integrated with Control4’s Composer HE 2.9.0 automation system, it said Wednesday evening. Dahua NVRs support motion detection to trigger events on the Control4 system’s watch menu and alert a user of suspicious activity, it said. The Dahua NVR driver provides Motion JPEG and H.264 video feeds and allows integrators to select stream quality, it said.
LG and Xperi announced development and integration of DTS Connected Radio technology in vehicles sold worldwide with the first implementation due next year from an undisclosed global car brand. DTS Connected Radio delivers a digital audio broadcast and HD Radio FM experience by pairing broadcast programming with internet-protocol-delivered content, they said Wednesday. The system aggregates metadata, such as station content information and on-air radio program, artist and song information directly from broadcasters. It will be the first global system to allow carmakers to create a common radio experience across different analog and digital broadcast systems deployed regionally, said Jeff Jury, general manager of Xperi automotive.
MagnaChip Semiconductor announced Tuesday it plans to partner with companies to develop and standardize OLED-based human-interface capabilities for smart touch, stylus and fingerprint technologies based on its OLED display driver integrated circuits. The first partnership is with Elan, developer of smart human machine interface applications, including capacitive touch-screen controllers, capacitive trackpads and fingerprint sensors. The companies plan to expand capabilities of OLED displays for next-generation consumer, communication, computing, industrial products and automotive displays, it said. Referencing customer demand for stylus inputs on screens, MagnaChip said it will work with Elan to bring its stylus technologies to rigid and flexible OLED displays. Elan supports pen protocols defined by Huawei, Microsoft and Wacom.
Silicon Line launched integrated circuits with transmission speeds of 16 to 18 Gbps, it said Monday. Applications include optical cables for HDMI- and DisplayPort-enabled devices and custom cables for virtual reality headsets, 4K and 8K TV and commercial products.