Cullmann Design Blog

I thought that I was going to avoid the Apple Tablet rumor bandwagon, but I couldn’t resist: After searching for and reading documentation for Apple’s iTunes Extra and iTunes LP format, I began to think about why Apple had not opened up their SDK sooner. The search for this software was instigated by asking why popular podcasters and vloggers had not begun using this extended format as a vehicle for more immersive experiences for their subscribers. Using a subscription model for the extended format would change how people engage their favorite podcasts and provide a delivery vector for content, visuals and, potentially, advertisements.

In October last year, Apple had announced their plan to introduce the enhanced format to iTunes users. The format allows end users to not only listen to audio content or watch video content, but to browse provided content and interact with the media (effectively replacing the experience large-format vinyl provided). The format is taking advantage of the already provided HTML/CSS/JS support within iTunes and provides an experience akin to a well designed website. The format was met with a luke-warm response, but there were few examples provided in the iTunes store and interest waned.

Why would Apple announce such a review-driven feature with no support or easy method of development? (Apple Rumor): To fold the adoption of this new media-driven format into an Apple Tablet release. Documentation that is provided in the iTunes LP Format SDK indicates that an automated system for submitting produced files is set for early 2010 (coinciding with a yet-to-be announced press release). A tablet device would be an ideal vehicle for browsing the LP or iTunes Extra format with a defined navigation structure and click-driven user interface. The distribution vehicle would be built-in with the Apple iTunes ecosystem already widely adopted by the audience.

I think my prediction is a conservative, but I do not think that Apple will introduce a completely alien solution to the idea of the “Tablet” as a device. What is likely is that they will provide a fantastic piece of hardware housing an adaptation of an already excellent user interface and make the tablet something it has not been since it’s introduction to the public by Microsoft in 2001: desirable.

If you are subscribing to my rumor idea, download the Apple iTunes Extra SDK and be ready for the Apple Tablet craze.

The next generation of iPhone software will change the medical hardware market.

Apple announced that they will be releasing the 3rd generation of iPhone software this week to developers. This is has become an annual announcement and clearly a large update with functionality improvements including copy and paste, search, stereo bluetooth and file sharing. Many of these new features had been a long-time coming and had been anticipated. A significant improvement, and one that I am most intrigued by, is the opening of the iPhone hardware to application developers. Developers can now build software and design hardware to add functionality to the iPhone hardware and extend the device into a much more flexible platform. This is of course, pending Apple’s approval of any new device and wear the label “Made for iPod“. This is a change in position for Apple and an opportunity for anyone looking to improve and extend the usability of the 17 million iPhones and iPod touches in the hands of the public today.

The Glucose Meter market is based on inexpensive, flash rom based devices that calculate glucose levels with a small blood sample and save the result. Not an elegant solution, but one that makes life more livable for millions of people. One of the demonstrations during the iPhone keynote announcement was a small piece of hardware that can be paired with the iPhone to read glucose levels in the same way as these devices. It also extends the functionality of these devices by logging the entries, charting trends and providing a method to back this data up for future reference.

The iPhone represents an improvement over the traditional, single-use device. An improvement that uses expandable, up-date-able and customizable software to adapt to changes rather than relying on the patients to input and calculate their persona<span></span>l data. A software model for these types of solutions can be infinitely more flexible then those solutions bound to single-function devices. This does not promise to (or should attempt to) relieve a patient of their personal responsibility of health, but rather takes the arduous process of logging and tracking their condition manually, or worse, estimating records when in discussion with a healthcare professional.

Most important, the use of a software-based solutions, like the one provided by the iPhone platform, presents an elegant answer to patient needs and a new avenue of products that patients will be able to take advantage of: contextual information and patient support. By tethering a health-monitoring device to one that can access the internet, patients are immediately able to access information about the severe or benign return on their test, information is results from a test are outside norms or if they require fast reference to adverse events or unique physical reactions. This information would also be accessible within the context of the specific device that they are using. A particular brand of blood pressure monitor for instance, can employ an application with information about their specific medication, how that medication may react,and provide more alerts if the medication is mixed with food or other medications. All of this (ideally) available within 1-2 clicks from a test results screen.

I do not believe that the iPhone offers a silver-bullet to the problems discussed. In fact, the closed-platform that Apple offers, the expense of the iPhone and cellular data plans, and the slow adoption of mobile internet devices in general, make such a solution impractical for the general public. The solution I am recommending is the extending of devices that are designed to help improve the quality of patients lives. I believe that the generation currently coming into their late teens and early twenties will not accept the limitations of devices that are not networked or will log information. Their lives (and the lives of many people of all ages) are now life-cast as habit and their data, protected of course, will need to be recordable. Microsoft and Google are currently developing separate architectures for the storage and use of online medical records for just such a purpose. The public’s adoption of these technologies, has been luke-warm to date, but both platforms are in their infancy.

The need for “smart” devices is evident and the popularity of the iPhone, Apple’s newly released software and the want for companies to make their products more effective will quickly fuel the next generation of software and hardware solutions.