Hasta La Gadget!

While Android Wear devices like the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live are slowly starting to make its way to customers, we’re starting to see more apps make its way onto the platform. However what makes these otherwise normal apps different is that they are designed to run on smartwatches which are constantly on our wrist, thus saving us time from having to get our phone out.

A good example would be the EchoWear app. This app has been designed for the Android Wear platform and it is basically the equivalent of Shazam or Soundhound for your wrist. For those who aren’t familiar with Shazam or Soundhound, it basically has the ability to listen to a snippet of a song and identify it for you.

EchoWear does the same thing and it uploads its findings to Gracenote who will then return the results on your smartwatch. The app can also be launched via voice command, thus making it even more convenient, so users will be able to quickly identify songs before it ends. The app was developed by XDA Recognized Developer, kevdliu, and for those interested in learning more, head on over to the XDA forums or the Google Play Store for the download.

EchoWear Brings Song Identification To Android Wear Devices

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By Paul Bennett

[CAPTION: Image via Shutterstock]

Consumer healthcare apps linked to smartphones or wearable devices are growing in popularity, and forthcoming offerings from Apple and Google are likely to draw more attention to the field. These systems allow users to monitor a range of information–heart rate, calories burned, distance walked–but they don’t guarantee a change in behavior, much less an improvement in health.

Still, many doctors and clinicians see great potential for mobile medical apps. According to an April article in Modern Healthcare, 2013 “saw the beginning of convergence between devices and apps used by clinicians and those used by consumers.” In the future, experts see the integration of consumer apps and devices into “a comprehensive healthcare and wellness information system,” that could enable medical professionals to help patients manage their health, according to the report.

The ubiquity of smartphones and tablets is creating opportunities for that to happen, but hurdles remain, including the as-yet-uncertain regulatory demands on those who create and deploy apps that not only take measurements but actually prescribe a course of action for a patient.

When used in a clinical setting monitored by physicians, mobile apps are already leading to improved health. In a recent cardiac rehabilitation program at the Mayo Clinic, patients who used a smartphone-based app developed by the clinic to record daily measurements such as blood pressure, weight, blood sugar levels, minutes of physical activity, and dietary habits over a three-month period were less likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 90 days of discharge, compared with those patients who followed a traditional regime. The app also provided educational materials that would formerly have been provided via books, CDs, and DVDs. The interactive nature of the process led to improved results.

The cardiac rehab app was developed by the Clinic’s cardiology team in tandem with Dallas-based Healarium. “They had the proper platform already set up,” says R. Jay Widmer, an M.D./Ph.D. who oversaw the program at the Mayo Clinic. “We were able to integrate our requirements, so the task of setting it up wasn’t onerous.”

“Physicians are embracing the trend,” says Widmer, “but there still isn’t enough data on digital health. This program was very specific to the Mayo Clinic and to what we do. I knew it would be successful because of that. But I don’t have the same level of trust for mainstream apps.”

The Mayo Clinic’s digital health efforts extend beyond cardiac rehabilitation. Doctors there are working on digital health efforts in internal medicine, general health, musculoskeletal, and pediatric care. “The trend is likely to keep expanding,” says Widmer. “Digital certainly has the capability to do a lot, but we’re going to need more data to have widespread implementation.”

Among the many benefits digital medicine confers is the ability to extend the reach of doctors. The Mayo Clinic has a number of satellite offices, and mobile apps allow patients even hundreds of miles away to check in with physicians. This isn’t just a matter of rural areas; even urban areas can be underserved, says Widmer–but increased use of smartphones and better outreach from hospitals is beginning to change that.

More innovations are emerging at the Center for Digital Health Innovation at the University of California, San Francisco. It is “an oasis of agility,” created to spur a range of innovations from sensor development to consumer-facing self-management apps, enterprise technologies that support research and clinical care, and Big Data analytics, according to Aenor Sawyer, M.D., Associate Director of Strategic Relations.

Four large projects underway at the center include: CareWeb, a “Care-team collaborative platform that uses social and mobile communications technology built on Salesforce.com;” Tidepool, which is building the infrastructure for a new generation of smart diabetes apps; Health eHeart, “a clinical trials platform using social media, mobile technology, and novel real-time sensors to revolutionize heart disease;” and Trinity, which provides “precision team care by integrating patient data with multidisciplinary input and evidence” via secure online collaboration for virtual tumor board and case conferences.

“With Health eHeart,” says Sawyer, “we’ve been able to leverage social media, data aggregating platforms, and remote activity and physiologic sensing, to extend the reach of clinical research. Participants can go online, create a profile, provide their history, and update their outcomes. They can also send genomic information back to us through a ‘spit kit.’ It has rapidly increased patient recruitment by magnitudes over traditional methods, at a fraction of the cost.”

For the Health eHeart, which combines a Web-based program with a mobile app, the center partnered with sensor maker AliveCor to offer remote access to electrocardiography; physiological sensor company iHealth; and Ginger.io, which helped create an aggregating dashboard and patient portal.

The center’s CareWeb “is putting into a single secure platform all the ways we communicate as a care team in the hospital–phone, e-mail, voice, text, medical records,” says Sawyer. “There will also be a portal so the patient and designated family can access the information, making them part of the care team.”

Many of these projects ultimately become products, available to other centers and consumers, says Sawyer. “Our frontline innovations undergo extensive evaluation during development and after implementation.” Once we have shown, through proof-of-concept testing, that they are effective in care and cost, I feel we are obligated to get these solutions scaled up and out of the university, into the world to provide greater benefit.”

Original article published on Techonomy.com.

Think about when you’ve fallen in love in your life or the first time you held your newborn child in your arms. The colors looked brighter, the sounds were clearer, and it felt like your heart was going to burst with love and joy. (Hopefully you’ve had this experience in your life at some point so you know what I’m are talking about!)

It is possible to bring that kind of energy into our work too. This is when we are truly engaged at work.

When we know what we are passionate about, only then we can reach our full potential. If you think about the words job and passion, which one would you rather spend your time on?

• Tapping into the power of passion is essential to being able to accomplish what you want with yourself and with your company.

• Getting others to feel that same passion and add their personal passions is what energizes a group of people to greatness.

• It is released when the people are “emotionally and intellectually excited by the firm’s vision and values.” Passion is a much more powerful energy than that fear, dread, or boredom.

A job has become synonymous with drudgery, a drag; something you have–not want–to do, and it drains your energy.

Having a passion for your work is energizing, something you are looking forward to, that you cannot wait to dive into to, and it makes you happy.

When passion is strong and it is identified and understood, it is possible to harness that energy to create great things and have a big impact in the world. This is true on all levels of our world–individual, family, company, national and world (although we have yet to reach this ideal so far).

Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Ghandi are two examples of leaders who made a huge impact because of their passion to make the world a better place. If you look at any successful company, the founders tend to be great leaders who had both passion and vision.

Tony Collins, CEO of Virgin Trains, discovered the passion of his people in a very traditional industry. He shares:

“What is remarkable about our experience in trains is how the same people who delivered the service under British Rail and were seen to be largely cold and disinterested toward the passen¬gers are the same people who now deliver indus¬try leading customer service, so the passion was always there. It had been suppressed, devalued, destroyed by a command and control structure driven by process, status and fear. All we had to do was release it.”

What overall organizational energy do you have in your company right now?

Here are five questions you can ask yourself to figure out how to bring more passion to your work:
1. What do I love to do?
2. How can I be the best version of myself at work?
3. What gives me energy or makes me feel excited?
4. When have I felt the most joy at work?
5. How can I bring this into my work?

Donald Trump is known for saying if you’re going to think, you may as well think big. It’s that big thinking that comes from being passionate.

Passion is when the fires within ignite. Passion in work turns it into play, something that you love to do. It is the unseen power of any organization and truly inspiring leaders know how to tap into it.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California water regulators voted Tuesday to approve fines up to $500 a day for residents who waste water on lawns, landscaping and car washing, as a report showed that consumption throughout the state has actually risen amid the worst drought in nearly four decades.

The action by the State Water Resources Control Board came after its own survey showed that conservation measures to date have failed to achieve the 20 percent reduction in water use sought by Gov. Jerry Brown. Survey results released before the 4-0 vote showed water consumption throughout California had actually jumped by 1 percent this past May compared with the same month in previous years.

The fines will apply only to wasteful outdoor watering, including watering landscaping to the point that runoff flows onto sidewalks, washing a vehicle without a nozzle on the hose, or hosing down sidewalks and driveways.

“Our goal here is to light a fire under those who aren’t yet taking the drought seriously,” water board Chairwoman Felicia Marcus said in an interview after the vote.

She called the vote historic, not only because the steps are unprecedented in California but because the board is trying to spread the burden of the drought beyond farmers and agencies that are trying to protect wildlife.

She said city and suburban residents are not fully aware of the seriousness of the three-year drought — the worst in California since the mid-1970s.

“We’re all in this together,” Marcus said. “This is our attempt to say … this is the least that urban Californians can do.”

The board estimates the restrictions, which take effect in early August, could save enough water statewide to supply more than 3.5 million people for a year.

Cities and water districts were given wide latitude on how the fines will be implemented. The full $500-a-day fine, considered an infraction, could be reserved for repeat violators, for example. Others might receive warnings or smaller fines based on a sliding scale.

The rules include exemptions for public health and safety, such as allowing cities to power-wash alleyways to get rid of human waste left by homeless people, to scrub away graffiti, and to remove oil and grease from parking structure floors.

If fines fail to promote conservation, Marcus said the board would consider other steps such as requiring water districts to stop leaks in their pipes, which account for an estimated 10 percent of water use, stricter landscape restrictions and encouraging water agencies to boost rates for consumers who use more than their share of water.

Even with the leeway granted to local governments and water districts, some managers were unhappy with the board’s action.

Mark Madison, general manager of the Elk Grove Water District south of Sacramento, said the steps will unnecessarily punish customers who already have reduced consumption. Residents in his district have cut water use by more than 18 percent since last year.

“What you’re asking me to do right now is to thank them with a sledgehammer,” he told the board.

The increased usage noted in the report is attributable to two regions of the state: Southern California coastal communities and the far northeastern slice of the state. It was not immediately clear why consumption had increased in those areas.

No region of California met Brown’s request for a 20 percent reduction, but some came closer than others. Communities that draw from the Sacramento River reduced consumption the most, by 13 percent, while those along the North Coast reduced consumption by 12 percent.

San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California cities that draw from the Colorado River decreased water use by 5 percent.

Cities and suburbs use about 20 percent of the state’s water, with about half going outdoors. Agriculture is by far the greatest water user, accounting for 75 percent of consumption in the state.

California farmers are just as guilty of using too much water as their urban neighbors, according to a separate report released Tuesday. The study by the University of California, Davis, found that some farmers could see their wells run dry next year unless the state sees a wet winter.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) proposed an amendment to a House spending bill Tuesday that would raise the minimum wage for federal government workers. A roll call vote on the amendment, scheduled Wednesday, will force Republicans to go on the record opposing a living wage for federal employees.

Grayson pitched a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour for federal employees, which he said was “still a very modest amount.” He said the U.S. government should set an example for business owners. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25.

“This amendment would end the federal government’s practice of paying poverty wages to its workers, and hopefully set an example for the private sector to stop paying poverty wages to its workers,” Grayson said on the House floor.

The amendment would remove the lowest pay grades for federal workers, forcing them into higher pay categories.

“A fair day’s work should result in a fair day’s pay,” Grayson said, adding that current wages force some federal employees to take multiple jobs, potentially reducing the quality of their work.

After the amendment failed in a voice vote Tuesday night, Grayson requested a roll call vote, which was postponed until Wednesday. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Grayson said the roll call will force House members — including those who repeatedly vote against measures that would improve conditions in poor home districts — to go on the record to oppose a livable wage.

“The Republicans have been ducking a vote on the minimum wage all year long, in the same way they’ve been ducking votes” on other key issues, like immigration reform, Grayson said in an interview. “I saw an opportunity to force a vote on the minimum wage, and I took advantage.”

Grayson said the tea party has been “dictating” what the Republican-led House votes on. “And that’s to the detriment of the national interest,” he said. What the nation will benefit from, he explained, is boosting the minimum wage for the working poor, a move that could “elevate the entire economy.”

“What we’ll see here is if we pay people fairly, we’re not only doing the moral thing … but we’re also doing the thing that will help everyone overall,” he added.

Grayson also responded to criticism from Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.), who said on the House floor that the wording of Grayson’s amendment meant federal employees at the lowest pay grades wouldn’t be paid. Grayson said the assertion was “nonsensical.”

“If we eliminate the lowest paying grades, then these workers will simply be paid more,” Grayson explained. “That’s an obvious, common sense reading of the provision.

View the text of the amendment below:

AMENDMENT TO H.R. 5016, AS REPORTED

OFFERED BY MR. GRAYSON OF FLORIDA

At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following:

SEC.___. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to pay any individual at an annual rate of Grade 1, Steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6; or Grade 2 Step 1 or 2 as defined in the “Salary Table 2014-GS” published by the Office of Personnel Management. Further, none of the funds made available by this Act may be used to pay any individual at an hourly basic rate of Grade 1, Steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6; or Grade 2, Step 1 or 2.