Samsung Galaxy S8 could get updated S Health app to counter Apple's HealthKit, CareKit
Samsung's next flagship phone, the Galaxy S8, could include a new S Health app with features above and beyond Apple's HealthKit and CareKit -- including the ability to schedule online consultations with doctors, or even pay medical fees.
Video appointments with doctors should be available around the clock, SamMobile claimed on Monday. The option will reportedly stem from partnerships with companies like Amwell and WebMD, which should also let people hunt for information on symptoms, illnesses, and medications.
The patient-doctor focus is expected to extend down to appointment details, letting people save symptoms, photos, and prescriptions, and rate doctors as well as pay them. People could flag whether or not they have insurance.
More minor features may include the ability to find local pharmacies, or dial 911 without switching to the phone app.
While offering activity and biometrics tracking like Apple's Health app, S Health is intended to be even more comprehensive, letting people track nutrition and get fitness tips, to the extent of suggesting exercise programs like building up to a 5K run.
The rumored new features are most similar to CareKit, which Apple introduced for iOS devices just last year. Apple's platform, though, is aimed strictly at letting people track their treatment and share that information with physicians. Last week, the company announced a partnership with Tresorit to improve encryption.
While the S Health update is expected to debut alongside the Galaxy S8 -- which could be announced at Mobile World Congress in late February -- SamMobile suggested that the timing isn't certain.
Video appointments with doctors should be available around the clock, SamMobile claimed on Monday. The option will reportedly stem from partnerships with companies like Amwell and WebMD, which should also let people hunt for information on symptoms, illnesses, and medications.
The patient-doctor focus is expected to extend down to appointment details, letting people save symptoms, photos, and prescriptions, and rate doctors as well as pay them. People could flag whether or not they have insurance.
More minor features may include the ability to find local pharmacies, or dial 911 without switching to the phone app.
While offering activity and biometrics tracking like Apple's Health app, S Health is intended to be even more comprehensive, letting people track nutrition and get fitness tips, to the extent of suggesting exercise programs like building up to a 5K run.
The rumored new features are most similar to CareKit, which Apple introduced for iOS devices just last year. Apple's platform, though, is aimed strictly at letting people track their treatment and share that information with physicians. Last week, the company announced a partnership with Tresorit to improve encryption.
While the S Health update is expected to debut alongside the Galaxy S8 -- which could be announced at Mobile World Congress in late February -- SamMobile suggested that the timing isn't certain.
Comments
why's Sammy still running android?
and I wish that some of you guys could keep these discussions to serious matters instead of the done to death Note 7 problems. That just gives this site a bad rep everywhere.
As if doctors aren't hard pressed enough to have to be 'on video call' 24/7. I read that in the UK, for example, there are waiting times of up to three weeks just for an appointment to see one's GP, whether you think you're dying, or not!
If not, I honestly don't know what you're talking about: I find the comments here (as I did the story from a little earlier about Samsung finding the cause of their problems) to be both witty and insightful.
problem is Samsung steals, has nothing to do with "competition". You don't see this outside of Apple markets.
Android security issues are generally due to some specific OEM's changes/modifications to stock Android, worsened by failing to maintain those customization's with monthly Google supplied security updates even if the OS itself doesn't get updated. It's not necessarily Android with security issues but the way it's used by some companies.
The world's most secure smartphones are built on Google's Android operating system, all of them AFAIK. But that doesn't equate to ALL Android phones being as secure as the best of them.
Example:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/09/28/government-agency-issues-warning-over-exploding-samsung-washing-machines
So sometimes this site does it to itself...
The US Government started to go away from custom, proprietary computer hardware to OTS systems probably 20 years ago because of cost factors. I've sure there are still custom systems in use that might use Android, but it's not the same Android that's being used in 95-99% of consumer computer systems.
Apple worked with DISA to provide technical input for their STIGs. Download them and you'll see what is necessary to provide and maintain an acceptable level of security not only for DoD but also for DOE and other US government departments. The STIGs include the necessary MDM configurations. This work has been done over many years and, incidentally, I was involved in the early work of begging getting Apple to participate in these as well as SCAP configurations. (You'll need to look that one up.) I worked for a DOE contractor for 33 years making sure a variety of systems were secure. I retired 3 years ago and haven't kept up with this field for obvious reasons.
My comment about Android being openly insecure was a bit sarcastic but all you have to do is look at how it's being implemented and how easy it is to hack on the vast majority of devices and you'll see that my exaggeration isn't that far off. Of course, programmers can take any version of unix and make it secure but many times security gets in the way of usability and since usability sells, many companies have dropped security so they can sell products as well as grab data to sell on the side (Google's primary business model). The one company that appears to put security first, and stand behind it, is Apple. Just talk to the FBI......
Samsung seem entirely unwilling to engage originality. This isn't a small statement concerning the iPhone or Apple's technological interests, but a much wider statement regarding all of Samsung's products. Samsung don't aim to enhance the marketplace by providing genuine innovation or their own unique point of view - their core business is to copy market leaders and skirt around IP laws, acting like a parasite for cash. Despite this being a time of incredible new technologies which could significantly differentiate their portfolio.
This originality problem applies to nearly every Samsung endeavour: it's at best a copy of the market leader and unsurprisingly this insincere duplication frequently leads to a product that is not only poorly designed, but dangerous. (The list of Samsung recalls is large: Microwaves, washing machines etc.)
One only need to walk into a white-goods department store to see Samsung clones of every other successful brand's appliance. Electrolux, Dyson, Bosch etc, the list goes on. It's almost a game to see who they are copying with each.
The competition that you're talking about is still present in the marketplace, but it doesn't come from Samsung. Just recently we've seen Microsoft introduce some interesting new products that, despite their flaws, are clearly the result of original thinking. In time these could turn into great workhorses and serve a market that Apple does not currently address.
The reality is that Apple don't have a device for every kind of user out there, and that's ok. But if you think Samsung are filling that market void, then you are terribly mistaken.
It would probably come as a shock to some who have bought into the Android-can't-be-secure malware-infestation stories to learn how secure Android can be, which is a reason every phone (AFAIK) on this list runs it.
http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/53806/digital-id/secure-smartphones.html