Zone’s Ross Basham handpicks and shares the five best stories on digital trends, experiences and technologies…
1. NHS dispenses with paper prescriptions
Of all the organisations going through digital transformation, the NHS must be one of the biggest challenges in the world, with its huge array of legacy infrastructure and outdated technology. But it has reached an important milestone with the announcement that paper prescriptions are to be scrapped next month, thanks to the national rollout of the electronic prescription service (EPS).
At least 70% of prescriptions are already prescribed and dispensed through the EPS, which should save the NHS £300m by 2021. Digitising the system isn’t only more efficient, it’s more secure and reduces the risk of prescribing errors. The NHS’s digital troubles are well known, so it’s great to hear about a success story.
2. Facebook gets back into the news game
Fresh from his grilling in Congress over Facebook’s reluctance to police political advertising, Mark Zuckerberg has announced that his much maligned platform is about to launch a News Tab feature. It is expected to be a standalone, curated section, with content from a range of high-profile media outlets, plus local news.
The announcement comes two years after FB moved away from news in favour of more personal content after criticism about fake and misleading news reports in its feed. Despite that move, a US poll this month found that 52% of adults already get their news from Facebook — but most don’t trust it. So that’s OK, then.
3. An immersive future for in-car entertainment
Amid all the talk about driverless vehicles, car brands are turning their attention to what the passengers will do when robots finally take the wheel. And they’re looking at reinventing the road trip with immersive AR and VR entertainment that makes the car a hub for gaming, viewing and shopping.
Honda, for example, is integrating mobile services into cars with its Dream Drive technology, while Audi’s Holoride uses a headset to immerse the rider in a different world. One thing’s for sure, once the driver becomes the passenger, a whole new world of in-car entertainment will open up.
4. Smart gumshields protecting more than teeth
With the Rugby World Cup semi-finals taking place this weekend, the issue of concussions in sport could well come to the fore again. With no obvious measurement of concussion, pitchside doctors have to rely on honesty from players who just want to get back on the field — especially in such important matches.
But a new product being trialled by Welsh club Ospreys builds sensors into the players’ gumshields to paint an accurate picture of the forces involved in the impact. It also includes an FM radio transmitter to send a signal to a pitch-side receiver, helping the doctor decide straight away if a concussed player needs to come off.
5. Apps to stop you constantly looking at apps
Google has launched a batch of new Android apps as part of its Digital Wellbeing effort (ie encouraging you to spend less time staring at your phone). Unlock Clock, for example, counts and displays the number of times you unlock your phone in a day, while Post Box lets you choose when to receive notifications, rather than just being hit by them all day.
Morph is a launcher that shows different apps based on the time of day or your location: home, work or holiday, for example. We Flip is an interesting one for friends and family time, as it counts the amount of time the entire group has gone without anyone unlocking their phone. About 30 seconds, would be my guess.
