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Posts tagged "helps"

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Apple’s Vision Pro successfully helps nurse assist in spinal surgery – and there’s more mixed-reality medical work on the way
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In a fascinating adoption of technology, a surgical team in the UK recently used Apple’s Vision Pro to help with a medical procedure.

It wasn’t a surgeon who donned the headset, but Suvi Verho, the lead scrub nurse (also known as a theater nurse) at the Cromwell Hospital in London. Scrub nurses help surgeons by providing them with all the equipment and support they need to complete an operation – in this case, it was a spinal surgery. 

Verho told The Daily Mail that the Vision Pro used an app made by software developer eXeX to float “superimposed virtual screens in front of [her displaying] vital information”. The report adds that the mixed reality headset was used to help her prepare, keep track of the surgery, and choose which tools to hand to the surgeon. There’s even a photograph of the operation itself in the publication. 

Vision Pro inside surgery room

(Image credit: Cromwell Hospital/The Daily Mail)

Verho sounds like a big fan of the Vision Pro stating, perhaps somewhat hyperbolically, “It eliminates human error… [and] guesswork”. Even so, anything that ensures operations go as smoothly as possible is A-OK in our books.

Syed Aftab, the surgeon who led the procedure, also had several words of praise. He had never worked with Verho before. However, he said the headset turned an unfamiliar scrub nurse “into someone with ten years’ experience” working alongside him.

Mixed reality support

eXeX, as a company, specializes in upgrading hospitals by implementing mixed reality. This isn’t the first time one of their products has been used in an operating room. Last month, American surgeon Dr. Robert Masson used the Vision Pro with eXeX’s app to help him perform a spinal procedure. Again, it doesn’t appear he physically wore the headset, although his assistants did. They used the device to follow procedural guides from inside a sterile environment, something that was previously deemed “impossible.”

Dr. Masson had his own words of praise stating that the combination of the Vision Pro and the eXeX tool enabled an “undistracted workflow” for his team. It’s unknown which software was used. However, if you check the company’s website, it appears both Dr. Masson’s team and Nurse Verho utilized ExperienceX, a mixed reality app giving technicians “a touch-free heads up display” 

Apple's future in medicine

The Vision Pro’s future in medicine won’t just be for spinal surgeries. In a recent blog post, Apple highlighted several other medical apps harnessing visionOS  Medical corporation Stryker created myMako to help doctors plan for their patients’ joint replacement surgeries. For medical students, Cinematic Reality by Siemens Healthineers offers “interactive holograms of the human body”. 

These two and more are available for download off the App Store, although some of the software requires a connection to the developer’s platform to work. You can download if you want to, but keep in mind they're primarily for medical professionals.

If you're looking for a headset with a wider range of usability, check out TechRadar's list of the best VR headsets for 2024.

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This iPhone app helps perfect your posture while you use your AirPods
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If you feel like you slouch your head too much while sitting at your desk, playing video games, or standing at the bus stop, an app for your iPhone could help with that, as long as you're wearing your AirPods.

PosturePal uses a motion-tracking feature in iOS 15 that can tell the position of your head as you're wearing AirPods and alerts you if your posture is bad.

Available on the App Store for free, with a one-off purchase to unlock all its features for $ 1.99 / £1.99 / AU$ 2.49, the design is fun and easy to use. You're greeted with a character that reacts to whether you're tilting your head correctly or not, and once you're done, you're given a score.

TechRadar spoke with developer Jordi Bruinabout how Posture Pal came to be, and its future plans to help more users with their head posture.

A chat with the developer

PosturePal Permissions

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Developing an app can take anywhere between a week and six months. But for Bruin, it was quite a bit shorter.

“I got the first version up and running in 10 minutes back in October last year,” Bruin reveals. “The API was very clear and I found some good sample code on GitHub, which allowed me to test out if the idea would be feasible.”

With PosturePal available to iOS users with an iPhone and AirPods, we asked if there were any challenges that may still need solving. “Since I only have access to AirPods Max at the moment, I am unable to test all the different supported headphones,” Bruin explains. “The problem with the regular AirPods and AirPods Pro is that a lot of people wear them in the wrong way. For example, by tilting them forward more than they should. I know how I want to fix it, but it’s a hard problem to test when I have to borrow AirPods from friends.”

The app can benefit your back, neck and shoulders from using it just once a day, due to its gentle nudging to make sure your head is straight. We wondered if Bruin was also feeling the benefits of PosturePal. “For me, the main thing that has helped is keeping posture more at the top of my mind. I don’t use the app on every work session [yet], but I want to.” Bruin continues. “I’m trying to make it even easier for myself to track my posture by adding stuff like Shortcuts support to automatically start a session when you connect your AirPods.”

PosturePal Pro and Icons

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Trying out the app on the train, we would experience the pings and vibrations from PosturePal, telling us to keep our heads up straight. We asked Bruin if there were plans to offer a push notification instead.

“Notifications are planned for an update that’s coming out soon. But currently, I’m trying to understand why people would prefer a notification instead of a (more subtle) sound through the AirPods they are already wearing.” Bruin explains. “That being said, we will probably add a simple notification option that we can experiment with and get feedback on.”

Widgets have been popular since they arrived in iOS 14 and iPadOS 15, but they're currently missing from PosturePal, which feels like an easy win. We asked Bruin whether they were coming. “Yes, definitely. We wanted to keep this first release small and focused on the user experience but you can expect a full history view, progress over time, widgets, and more.”

PosturePal Themes

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Bruin does see the app like a game, which you can tell from the cute giraffe and colorful user interface, so could leaderboards or multiplayer options to compete with friends and family be on the cards? “I’ve looked into Game Center Leaderboards, but since I have never built anything with that I did not want to go too far into the rabbit hole for the initial launch,” Bruin reveals. “Since the app keeps track of something you could consider ‘Health’ data, I am hesitant to put too much focus on sharing for now, but it’s definitely something to think about.”

Finally, the rumored Apple AR/VR headset could be a great fit with PosturePal in combination with the AirPods, so we asked Bruin if he thought the app would benefit from this peripheral when it's released. “I'd expect any future headset to have similar APIs to track head/eye movement in a similar way, so that would definitely be interesting to integrate if it gets to that point.”

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This iPhone app helps perfect your posture while you use your AirPods
  • No Comments

If you feel like you slouch your head too much while sitting at your desk, playing video games, or standing at the bus stop, an app for your iPhone could help with that, as long as you're wearing your AirPods.

PosturePal uses a motion-tracking feature in iOS 15 that can tell the position of your head as you're wearing AirPods and alerts you if your posture is bad.

Available on the App Store for free, with a one-off purchase to unlock all its features for $ 1.99 / £1.99 / AU$ 2.49, the design is fun and easy to use. You're greeted with a character that reacts to whether you're tilting your head correctly or not, and once you're done, you're given a score.

TechRadar spoke with developer Jordi Bruinabout how Posture Pal came to be, and its future plans to help more users with their head posture.

A chat with the developer

PosturePal Permissions

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Developing an app can take anywhere between a week and six months. But for Bruin, it was quite a bit shorter.

“I got the first version up and running in 10 minutes back in October last year,” Bruin reveals. “The API was very clear and I found some good sample code on GitHub, which allowed me to test out if the idea would be feasible.”

With PosturePal available to iOS users with an iPhone and AirPods, we asked if there were any challenges that may still need solving. “Since I only have access to AirPods Max at the moment, I am unable to test all the different supported headphones,” Bruin explains. “The problem with the regular AirPods and AirPods Pro is that a lot of people wear them in the wrong way. For example, by tilting them forward more than they should. I know how I want to fix it, but it’s a hard problem to test when I have to borrow AirPods from friends.”

The app can benefit your back, neck and shoulders from using it just once a day, due to its gentle nudging to make sure your head is straight. We wondered if Bruin was also feeling the benefits of PosturePal. “For me, the main thing that has helped is keeping posture more at the top of my mind. I don’t use the app on every work session [yet], but I want to.” Bruin continues. “I’m trying to make it even easier for myself to track my posture by adding stuff like Shortcuts support to automatically start a session when you connect your AirPods.”

PosturePal Pro and Icons

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Trying out the app on the train, we would experience the pings and vibrations from PosturePal, telling us to keep our heads up straight. We asked Bruin if there were plans to offer a push notification instead.

“Notifications are planned for an update that’s coming out soon. But currently, I’m trying to understand why people would prefer a notification instead of a (more subtle) sound through the AirPods they are already wearing.” Bruin explains. “That being said, we will probably add a simple notification option that we can experiment with and get feedback on.”

Widgets have been popular since they arrived in iOS 14 and iPadOS 15, but they're currently missing from PosturePal, which feels like an easy win. We asked Bruin whether they were coming. “Yes, definitely. We wanted to keep this first release small and focused on the user experience but you can expect a full history view, progress over time, widgets, and more.”

PosturePal Themes

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Bruin does see the app like a game, which you can tell from the cute giraffe and colorful user interface, so could leaderboards or multiplayer options to compete with friends and family be on the cards? “I’ve looked into Game Center Leaderboards, but since I have never built anything with that I did not want to go too far into the rabbit hole for the initial launch,” Bruin reveals. “Since the app keeps track of something you could consider ‘Health’ data, I am hesitant to put too much focus on sharing for now, but it’s definitely something to think about.”

Finally, the rumored Apple AR/VR headset could be a great fit with PosturePal in combination with the AirPods, so we asked Bruin if he thought the app would benefit from this peripheral when it's released. “I'd expect any future headset to have similar APIs to track head/eye movement in a similar way, so that would definitely be interesting to integrate if it gets to that point.”

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Oops! Apple helps leak the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus earbuds
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After revealing software appeared on Apple’s App Store, Samsung confirmed that a new-and-improved version of its true wireless earbuds, called the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus, will be launching soon.

While it was live only briefly, the iOS app’s page noted that the upcoming 'buds are compatible with the iPhone 7 and newer as long as they're all running iOS 10 or higher. Samsung confirmed in a statement that the company is "excited to introduce Galaxy Buds+ soon," according to CNET. 

Given that Samsung Unpacked 2020 is coming February 11, and that the original Samsung Galaxy Buds launched at Unpacked 2019 alongside the Samsung Galaxy S10, we’re betting ‘soon’ to mean at this year’s event where we’re expecting to get our first look at the Samsung Galaxy S20. Heck, we even heard the Buds Plus will come free with the new flagship smartphone.

Unfortunately, the app page did not reveal anything about the true wireless earbuds beyond a photo, though the presence of the iOS app means iPhone owners will have more control over the Galaxy Buds Plus (like updating software) than before. Luckily, a specs leak just dropped.

Galaxy Buds Plus leak: more battery, smaller size?

Hours after news broke about Samsung’s official confirmation of the Galaxy Buds Plus, noted leaker Evan Blass tweeted out a spec sheet comparing the original models with the new ones. Best of all: they're allegedly only $ 20 more (around £15 /  AU$ 29) than the original model.

Assuming the leak is true, the Galaxy Buds Plus will have nearly twice the battery life (11 hours, with an additional 11 hours in the case) and will charge faster (recharging for 3 minutes gives an hour of playtime) than the originals. 

They’ll allegedly pack a two-way dynamic speaker (woofer + tweeter), an extra outer microphone, and have additional Spotify interaction with the outside touch pad. 

That’s a lot to boast, though the spec sheet didn’t mention whether noise cancelling –  a key feature in the AirPods Pro – would be coming to the new version. Sadly, rumors anticipate it won’t. 

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