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Why isn't there a birth control emoji?
In June 2018, there will be 2,823 emoji in the Unicode Standard -- the global specification that ensures characters are interpreted the same across platforms. But nowhere in that list -- which has everything from zombies (both male and female!) to smiling poop -- is there an emoji to signify birth control. At least, not yet.
PillDrill does smart medication tracking in style
Folks who rely on medication for a long period may forget their routine once in a while, especially the elderly or anyone with memory loss. It also gets rather dull when every conversation with the family starts with, "Have you taken your pills yet?" This is where PillDrill comes in. The system consists of a hub that resembles a cute-looking alarm clock, a couple of weekly pill strips containing RFID pods (you can add more strips, too), a dozen alphabetical RFID tags for your own bottles, a "mood cube" and a mobile app. You don't need to learn how to program your schedule: Just take your pills the way you're used to -- be it with the pods on the pill strips or with the original pill bottles -- and scan their RFID tags onto the right hand side of the hub as you go along.
Scientists want an exercise pill that saves you from hitting the gym
Those '50s-era dreams of taking pills to solve all your problems? They're more realistic than you might think. Researchers have created a blueprint of the molecular-level muscle reactions to exercise that should lead to treatments which mimic workouts. Yes, that means that you could eventually take an exercise pill that produces the effects of hitting the gym without all that pesky time and effort. Any pill would be "at least a decade" away, the University of Sydney's Dr. Nolan Hoffman explains, but the scientists are "actively working on" that vision -- it's not just a daydream.
FDA approves a drug made using 3D printing
You might be familiar with the concept of 3D-printed medical equipment, but you're going to have to get used to seeing 3D-printed medicine, too. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved its first drug manufactured using 3D printing, Aprecia's epilepsy-fighting Spritam. The medication uses a porous, 3D-printed formula to help deliver even very high doses (as high as 1,000mg) while remaining easy to swallow -- all you have to do is take a sip of liquid to quickly disperse the drug and get it into your body.
Apple recalls Beats Pill XL speaker due to overheating battery
While most of the internet was busy oogling the Fallout 4 trailer, Apple delivered some bad news to owners of Dr. Dre's super-sized speaker. The company is recalling the Beats Pill XL, citing the wireless speaker's battery tendency to overheat in rare cases and creating the risk of a fire. In the announcement, Apple points out that the audio gadget was announced in late 2013, long before it acquired the company last year. If you splurged for one, this website will guide your through the process of getting a refund in the form of Apple Store credit or an electronic payment of $325 -- $25 more than the original price tag. The Pill XL is said to be the only product that exhibits that overheats, and there's no word on a new version that remedies the issue going on sale at a later date.
The worst iPhone stocking stuffer
Plenty of cheap, strange smartphone accessories pop up around this time of the year in the hopes that you'll pick them up as a last-second gift, but this little doohickey Walgreens dreamed up is something special. It's a pill case that, for whatever reason, plugs into your smartphone's audio jack. Amazing. To be clear: The case itself doesn't actually require power or need to be stuck into your iPhone for any reason, it just happens to have a plastic shaft that fits into an audio jack. For convenience.
Beats Pill speaker goes 'XL' but specs stay distinctly 'M'
Since no-one's brave enough to ask which University gave Dr. Dre his PhD, he's continuing to prescribe pills at his whim. The latest to emerge from his cabinet is the Beats Pill XL, which we've just spotted being tested for sale at the FCC. The Bluetooth speaker comes with NFC pairing and a 4,400mAh battery, the latter of which you can use to charge your smartphone -- although if you've got something beefy like a Galaxy Note 3 or HTC One Max, don't expect to get more than one charge out of it.
Beats by Dre Pill portable Bluetooth speaker officially drops, we take one per the Dr. and go ears-on (video)
It's official. Aside from letting loose its first set of headphones post-Monster for the Executive types, Beats Electronics has set its sights on nabbing the portable Bluetooth audio crown from Jawbone's Jambox. You'll recall this hitting the FCC a bit ago, but today the Dr. is officially ready to offer you his remedy for on-the-go wireless audio with the $200 Pill, an NFC-equipped portable Bluetooth 2.1 speaker. Coming in your choice red, black or white, the cylindrical system is loaded with a quartet of 1-inch drivers, and supports codecs including Apt-X and AAC. An internal battery is said to provide about seven hours of listening at around 75-percent volume (80 decibels), and the unit can be charged via its Micro-USB input. Notably, an auto-off feature turns the unit off after 30 minutes if no audio is streamed to it. As you'd expect, the Pill features a front-facing on-board mic for use as a speakerphone, physical volume buttons and power button, as well as a 3.5mm input if you'd like to play sans Bluetooth. We're also pleased to notice that the diminutive system also features a 3.5 output if you'd like to send the audio out to another audio ware. The Pill comes with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, a USB to Micro-USB cable for charging with an included wall adapter and, lastly, a carrying shell case that can be hooked to a bag. We've been able to spend about an hour with the system, and we've frankly come away very impressed. The unit feels very sturdy, with a stiff metal grille and soft-touch coating around the rest of its exterior. It feels very comfortable to hold in a hand, and will easily fit in a jacket pocket. Actually, one of our only initial complaints is that the included carrying shell doesn't leave any room for the included cables. All of the buttons have a soft, slightly clicky tactility, which also aids to its premium feel. Using it initially alongside one of Beats' on-hand Jamboxes in a wired A/B comparison, the Jambox came out sounding like a distorted, rumbling mess up against the Pill -- we even had a rep bring out a second unit confirm that it wasn't a dud. If that wasn't enough, the Pill also managed to get much louder, staying fairly clean (in comparison), and without rumbling on the table as the Jambox did very slightly. As a triple-check measure, we later came up with a similar outcome with our in-house unit of Logitech's $99 UE mobile boombox -- a speaker we find comparable in sound, if slightly better, than the Jambox. %Gallery-168433% In what could be viewed as slightly ironic, the Pill has a voicing that edges toward the flatter side of things, rather than pumping out exorbitant amounts of bass. It's not to say that it can't reproduce bass at all, it's just not the focus here. This flatter output seems to be a big part of what keeps it from distorting, but we should be clear, that the audio here is many times better still on the Pill. Pleasantly, the speakers are also angled up slightly, which makes for a noticeably more natural listening experience. Our only other concern for the time being is that the Bluetooth connection with our iPhone 5 did crackle occasionally like a vinyl record, but it's too early to say if the issue will be consistent during future use. We're still a ways off from being able to definitively give you a thumbs up on the Pill, but -- at least, initially, it seems like it's easily blowing the Jambox and similar speakers out of the water. Like the Executive headphones, the Pill is available today at Beats stores and other retailers -- check out our video hands-on after the break for a better look.
FDA approves Proteus Digital Health's e-pills for dose monitoring
An "ingestible sensor" doesn't sound like the tastiest of snacks, but soon it might be just what the doctor ordered. A tiny microchip which activates upon contact with stomach acid has recently been given the green light by the US FDA. When the sensor is swallowed, an external patch picks up its signal and shoots a message over to whoever it's supposed to. The technology is aimed at tackling an issue known in the healthcare biz as compliance -- or, following instructions. Correct timing and dose are important for many drugs, and lax schedules can be responsible for treatment failures or the development of nasty drug-resistant bugs. Although the pills have only been used in trials, one pharmaceutical heavyweight has already bagged a license to the technology for real-world applications. If you don't like the thought of a belly full of microchips, no need to worry -- the harmless sensors pass naturally after completing their mission.
Vitality GlowCap review
The Vitality GlowCap concept's been floating about for years now, but it still slightly blows our minds -- you stick a tiny, battery-powered wireless computer on top of your pill bottle, which reminds you to take your medicine on time. Well, it turns out they aren't exactly a concept these days, as you can buy one for $10 with a $15 monthly plan, and we've actually spent the past month living with the chirping, glowing, AT&T-connected device, keeping a journal all the while. After the break, find out what a life-saving nag feels like. Note: Amazon's actually out of stock at the time of this writing, but Vitality says a new shipment should arrive tomorrow. %Gallery-114026%
Bluetooth-enabled meds to enter European bloodstreams
One of the great things about miniaturization is that it allows us to swallow things that a few short years ago were just a wonderful dream, from microprocessors to bowel scanners. Now a Swiss pharmaceutical company called Novartis AG is developing the Ingestible Event Marker (IEM), a chip that can be embedded in medication and, upon being activated by the patient's stomach acid, will send the doctor biometric data that gauges the drug's effectiveness (including heart rate, body temp, and body movements) via Bluetooth. The plan is to introduce the technology to monitor transplant recipients, although it could be expanded to other uses as well. If bioequivalence tests demonstrate that the device doesn't alter the effects of the pills, you could see 'em submitted for regulatory approval in Europe in the next 18 months.
Printable prescription drugs heading to a pharmacy near you?
If researchers at the University of Leeds, Durham University, and GlaxoSmithKline have their way, some drugs will be custom printed for you at the pharmacy in the near future. Prescription drugs are usually about 99.9 percent filler and 0.1 percent actual medication, so the new method they're working on would involve printing the active drug onto the surface of a pill in the pharmacy -- meaning that drugs could be customized for each person, and multiple drugs could potentially be included in one pill. The process currently only works with about one percent of prescriptions on the market, but they're moving toward expansion in the near future.
SmartPill evaluates, evacuates your GI tract
We've seen a number of medical manufacturers with a common goal: getting you to swallow microprocessor-filled horse pills for things like cauterizing small, internal wounds and dispensing drugs -- and now you can add the "evaluation of constipation" to the list! SmartPill is designed to cruise the GI tract, where it measures temperature and pH, provides temporal-spacial analysis, and differentiates between normal and abnormal transit times -- you know, "the usual." The data from the pill is transmitted to a receiver for later analysis by your doctor. As for what happens to the pill itself, we'll let you use your imagination. This one should be available for shipment in January 2010. PR after the break. And please: keep the comments classy.
'Spider pill' bowel scanner will be ready within a year
Endoscopy, or the examination of a person's bowels via a tube-mounted camera, is not exactly the most pleasant medical procedure one could undergo. In 2004, we noted the early stages of a project to alleviate the (literal) pain of the procedure with a spider pill, which -- once swallowed by the hopefully willing patient -- can be remotely controlled and positioned inside the human body. Yes, it's a tiny, wirelessly communicating robot with a camera for a head crawling inside you. Hit the read link for the full BBC report, it really is worth seeing, and start your Innerspace jokes ... now!
Philips iPill -- it's like a regular pill, but with a microprocessor
It's been just about a year since we saw the patent for Philips' remote control "pill," and it looks like the thing is finally a reality. For those of you straining to remember that far back, the iPill (as it is now sadly known) is a miniature capsule that among its many charms contains a microprocessor, power supply, medicine reservoir and pump, and a radio so that it can remain in contact with external medical equipment. The pill's ability to accurately determine its position in the digestive tract enables it to deliver drugs precisely where they're needed, reducing dosage strength and side effects. According to Philips, the current design is a prototype, but it's suitable for serial manufacturing. Of course, this is not the first robot pill we've seen -- and it certainly won't be the last. Just the same, we think we'll refrain from swallowing any nanotech for the time being.
Carnegie Mellon brings adhesive arms to the burgeoning pillbot scene
We've seen plenty of pill bots in our day -- most of the dumb little swallowable cameras -- but Carnegie Mellon University isn't messing around with this stuff. The nerds over there have built a remote controlled pillbot with small, adhesive arms that allow it to grip onto internal surfaces. That is to say, your internal surfaces. The pill can view damaged areas, deliver drugs and might eventually be outfitted with a small laser for cauterizing internal wounds. Yes, we just said lasers.[Via Hack a Day]Read - Controlling a Gut Bot's PositionRead - Creepy action video
Puchi Puchi Prinny Prinny preorder preorder
NIS America's online storefront, Rosenqueen, is promising a goofy preorder bonus for anyone who reserves Puchi Puchi Virus, Nippon Ichi's budget puzzler. Customers who pay the $19.99 in advance will receive a squishy, pill-shaped Anti-Virus Stress Reliever, much like the image on the right, except branded with everyone's favorite Disgaea mascots, Prinnies. As far as we know, the actual game doesn't feature any Prinnies, so it seems as if Rosenqueen is looking to move more Puchi Puchi Virus units by attracting Disgaea fans who have to own every piece of the series' merchandise. Then again, we wouldn't put it past Nippon Ichi to pack one of its games with cameos from the developer's other franchises. Rosenqueen plans to only have a thousand of these two-tone capsules, so make sure to preorder soon! Hopefully they made sure not to line up any of the colored halves while packing these, lest they accidentally clear out their entire stock. Gallery: Puchi Puchi Virus [Via CAG] See also: An explosively cute bonus for Disgaea
Philips' remote control pill may cure your allergies
Philips has applied for a patent of a remote controlled pill which can be signaled to dose your innards via an external, electronic trigger. Freaky, we know. These aren't just time-controlled coatings now, but automated medicament delivery systems whose course can be monitored inside the body via MRI or ultrasound before precision ejection. Better yet perhaps for allergy sufferers, the device could be designed to communicate with external sensors which would release drugs if say the atmospheric pollen count reached a certain level. Tip for the colon: never confuse the remote-controlled pill with Philips' remote control tablet. You can thanks us later. [via NewScientistTech]
Vitality's GlowCaps remind you to pop those pills
In case the digital pill box is a bit too much for you current needs, Vitality is looking to give those one-off prescriptions a bit of added intelligence to make sure they get taken on time. The firm's GlowCaps seem to have been around for some time, but who's not kosher with having one less thing to remember each day? The caps purportedly fit onto standard prescription bottles, and can alert users that it's time to open wide by softly glowing, emailing the user or remote caregiver, and mailing you a monthly report of how you minded the signals. Additionally, an optional feature will actually enable the device to send in refill requests as your pill count begins to deplete, and if you use multiple caps, they can each talk wirelessly to the NightLite adapters that can translate the glow to your AC outlet. Pricing details aren't readily available, but we're sure a personal med-minder won't run you cheap.[Via Infosthetics]
MedSignals' digital pill box charts your dosage
As the field of devices that let caregivers step away and give the elderly more independence expands, it was just a matter of time before digital pill boxes hit the mainstream. The aptly-dubbed med-minder holds one's pills in separated compartments to divvy up the days, and send out audible alerts (as well as flashing LEDs) when it's time to take them, records the time of opening in its built-in memory, uploads the usage data automatically to a server, and allows for access to personal chart trackers that show if any days were skipped over or taken late. The 5- x 3.5- x 1-inch box stays permanently connected to both a telephone and AC outlet, and once a day it dials up a toll free number to deliver the latest statistics. The box can apparently be ordered right now for $169, but if your great grandmother figures out that she can just crack the lid and dump the pills, you're still back to square one.[Via MedGadget]
