Readers, I think we need to talk. Communication is really important, and I’m just feeling like I need more ways to connect with you.

Good thing investors dumped millions into communications-based companies today. We saw $10 million go to a texting app that competes with companies such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Texting over anything but data is so passé anyway.

On the flip side of communication, Skyword got $6.7 million to communicate your brand through stories. PR through content is wildly popular now-a-days, but do people actually trust what they’re reading?

For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

Check out more about these companies below:

MessageMe nabs $10M from Greylock, Google, & others to take on WhatsApp

Better watch out, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Hot messaging app MessageMe has just raised $10 million in its first round of funding, the company confirmed today. MessageMe offers iOS and Android apps that send rich messages to friends, family, and groups. The app also lets you share YouTube videos, iTunes tracks, voice recordings, emoticons, and other things you might not share over traditional text messaging. MessageMe has risen quickly in status; it only just raised seed funding about a month ago. At that time, the service said it had one million users. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Skyword takes off with $6.7M for content marketing

Consumers these days expect their favorite brands to tell a story, and Skyword helps them tell it. Skyword has announced closing $6.7 million in growth financing for its content marketing solutions. This Boston-based startup provides agencies, brands, media, and retail customers with a platform to publish content and tools to distribute it effectively. It has a database of more than 20,000 professional writers that publishers can use to recruit and manage freelancers and keep track of workflow. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Doc talking via Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Bang With Friends’ newborn iPhone app no longer appears in the Apple App Store, leaving “down to bang” iPhone users wondering why.

The company’s chief executive Colin Hodge told Valleywag that the app recently passed over one million users, but it’s been removed from the store.

Bang With Friends matches you up with people in your network who are, well, interested in having the sex. You sign up for Bang With Friends using your Facebook account. The “service” will only match you up with those willing to service you; otherwise, your activity remains anonymous.

The company only launched its iOS and Android apps last week, bringing the action off the computer and into the mobile world. You’re now able to find out if someone wants you when you’re on the go, but not if you’re an iPhone user, evidently.

It might not be the subject matter that’s giving Apple pause. If the company found Bang With Friends violating any privacy guidelines, or taking data in a way that Apple doesn’t approve of, it would pull the app. We’ve reached out to both Apple and Bang With Friends to figure out what is behind this removal and will update the post upon hearing back.

BangWithFriends’ website only offers that it will “be right back” and is trying to work with Apple to restore the app.

It was also recently uncovered that you can discover just which of your friends use the app on Facebook. All you need to do is type a special URL into your address bar and it will call up all of your friends who match a certain app identification number. This goes against what Bang With Friends claims, which is that your use of the app will remain anonymous.

via Valleywag; Bang With Friends image via Bang With Friends

Yahoo invited press today to a product event in New York saying only that it will “share something special” soon after reports that the company is going to buy blog platform Tumblr.

It seems Yahoo has been very product-focused in the months since Marissa Mayer both took the chief executive corner office and demanded that critical employees not work from home. It has done a lot on the mobile front, releasing apps for the weather as well as Yahoo mail, which VentureBeat’s Jolie O’Dell called gorgeous.

The company also recently integrated Summly, a content summarizing technology, to its mobile homepage, providing a summary of a story to help people decide if they want to read it.

In the past month Yahoo has also acquired a number a companies including GoPollGo and Milewise, a polling app and frequent flyer app respectively.

Yesterday, rumors broke out about what would be the biggest acquisition for Yahoo next — a $1 billion deal to buy Tumblr. We may hear more about this deal at the event, which is set for 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday.

Photo credit: earcos via photopin cc

When people run into major problems with the health industry — trying to get money from insurance companies or to get access to an experimental drug, for example — they’re no longer just turning to lawyers. Increasingly, they’re turning to online petitions.

One petition website, Change.org, has already seen over 7,000 health-related petitions come through — with some big successes.

Chief executive Ben Rattray, who is speaking at VentureBeat’s HealthBeat conference next week in San Francisco, explained that that he has seen people successfully take on big-name organizations like the USDA and insurance providers — and those successes inspire him. Indeed, healthcare companies are often quite inaccessible despite the fact that they’re involved in such a sensitive and critical aspect of life.

Change.org isn’t focused exlusively on healthcare or health tech. The company helps people petition specific leaders on any issue. But health-related issues have quickly become one of the most popular topics on the site.

We chatted with Rattray to see just where his company fits into the healthcare conversation:

VentureBeat: What role does Change.org feel it plays in grassroots health activism?

Ben Rattray: Our role is to empower people everywhere to create the change they want to see. We’re an open platform and therefore don’t advocate for campaigns ourselves, but we are a place where parents and siblings and friends who haven’t been able to make their voices heard are starting petitions on behalf of their suffering loved ones. We think people deserve to be part of the decisions being made that affect their lives, so we’ve created a tool that gives them a voice in that conversation.

VentureBeat: How many campaigns has Change.org hosted and what kinds have you seen?

Rattray: More than 7,000 people have started health-related petitions on Change.org, covering every health topic imaginable. One of the most popular topics is around medical coverage from major insurers. For example, last year a young man from DC named Jason Warren successfully petitioned Blue Cross Blue Shield to cover his father’s recovery from a heart attack after gathering 190,000 signatures — a shift we have seen many insurers make in response to petitions. Another popular topic is healthy food; in one campaign last year, Bettina Siegel, a mom in Texas, successfully petitioned the USDA to stop packing “pink slime” in school lunches in just one week with more than 250,000 signatures –  after health advocates had been working on the issue for 10 years.

VentureBeat: Why is this, in today’s digital age, more powerful than picking up the phone and talking to your representative?

Rattray: There’s still value in many types of civic action, including picking up the phone. But on a phone call, you’re just one person with an opinion. On a petition, you’re a member of a collective movement, and your voice is shared publicly for everyone to see. Even if they want to, there’s no way a government official or company can ignore your comment – it’s like a highly visible time capsule of public sentiment.

Take Jenn McNary, the mother of two boys with a rare, lethal disease, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. One of her boys had access to a medical trial for a new drug, and his condition improved dramatically. Her other boy doesn’t have the trial drug, and his muscles are deteriorating rapidly. Soon, he’ll lose all upper body strength, and he won’t be able to eat or drink on his own.

Jenn’s petition asks the FDA to approve the medication through the Accelerated Approval Program, which expedites approval of drugs that treat serious diseases. Jenn could have picked up the phone – and trust me, she has, many, many times. But it was her petition, with its 179,000 signatures, many from parents of other DMD-afflicted kids, that got her a meeting with senior FDA officials. Jenn just sent us an email a few weeks ago saying they were “extremely supportive, engaging, and receptive” to her ideas – so things are looking up. That’s the power of the Change.org platform.

VentureBeat: Do you believe Change.org is really making a difference? Can you point to any successful campaigns?

Rattray: We’ve seen hundreds of health-related victories. The 28-year-old UC Davis student whose radiation treatment was finally covered by Anthem after four long weeks of appeals. The 21-year-old severely disabled student who got Medicare to continue her nursing care through the end of college, when she could move back home for support from her family. The Ohio woman who got Governor Kasich to add autism benefits to the state’s essential health benefits package. The list goes on and on. The question of whether petitions can have an impact is by now clearly answered – they can and do every day.

VentureBeat: Do you see spikes in health petitions around current events?

Rattray: We may see a small spike around, say, the Affordable Care Act — people who want it passed, people who don’t want it passed — but in general, it’s pretty consistent. That’s because our platform is really built for micro-movements: small, personal petitions replicated hundreds or thousands of times over across cities, states, even countries. At Change.org, we deeply believe in the power of starting local and building movements from the ground up instead of jumping on huge national problems and trying to tackle them from the top down.

VentureBeat: What role can social media sites play in health activism? Are they too unorganized to make a real difference?

Rattray: Social media sites can play a crucial role in raising awareness about health issues. Where they sometimes fall short, though, is translating that awareness into effective, coordinated action. That’s where Change.org comes in; because our platform is built explicitly to make changing the world intuitive and easy, it’s generally more effective than social media sites not structured for that purpose.

VentureBeat: Why should people use Change.org for health-related issues over creating a White House petition online?

Rattray: We’re big fans of the folks working on We the People, the White House’s petition platform. Over the past few months, we’ve actually worked with them on building out their API.

The Change.org platform is unique not only because it lets anyone start a petition about anything they care about, but also because people can target whichever decision maker has the power to do something. If the issue is political, sometimes that’s the Obama administration, but more often than not, it’s the director of a smaller government agency or the head of a specific task force. For non-political issues — say, an insurance provider who won’t cover a loved one’s medical treatment — you can use Change.org to petition the right people there, too. And it works — thousands of people have won their petitions using our site.

VentureBeat: If you could ask tech companies for any one thing to help Change.org health petitions get more attention, what would it be?

Rattray: Send us your engineers — we’re hiring.

Ben Rattray photo via Chrissy Farr/VentureBeat

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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It seems privacy issues related to Google Glass are drawing government attention. A committee in the U.S. Congressional Privacy Caucus sent a letter to Google chief executive Larry Page asking just how the company plans to protect both people wearing the device and the people it records.

The group was particularly interested in the idea that Google Glass can use facial recognition to deliver a wearer information about the people nearby. Mostly, the caucus wanted to know if this facial recognition can be turned off or opted out of by a specific person.

The committee also brought up Google’s past with privacy issues, including the recently settled case where Google collected data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks as a part of its Street View project. Google agreed to pay a $7 million fine as a result of that lawsuit, though it has obviously left the U.S. government wary of Google’s privacy protections.

The letter was signed by eight of the Privacy Caucus’ members, and was led by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX).

As All Things D notes, Google Glass product director Steve Lee explained that privacy and “social implications … of Glass, of people wearing Glass, has been at the top of our mind.” He went on to explain that Google will likely not deviate from the current privacy policy it has set up — another concern of the Privacy Caucus.

Letter to Google from Congress privacy group regarding Google Glass privacy

via All Things D; Google Glass image via Jolie O’Dell/VentureBeat

AirWatch, which helps companies manage employee’s mobile devices, raised another $25 million in a follow-on to its first round of funding today because the $200 million it received in February just wasn’t quite enough.

Today’s funding was led by Accel Parterns. The $200 million round it got three months ago was led by Insight Venture Partners.

AirWatch makes a suite of mobile security products used by customers such as Delta, Lowe’s, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It covers a range of different IT needs such as managing not only the phones themselves, but the apps, emails, and other content on those phones. It covers Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Phone, and other devices and can be tailored by industry.

The company’s goals with this addition are the same as those it had when it took on the original amount: expand globally, and beef up its sales team. It also looks like AirWatch wants to branch out with new research and development. This funding gives it the resources to do so.

What likely happened is Accel Partners wanted in on this company and offered up some extra cash. Accel is a very well-known venture firm that has invested in such companies as Facebook, Spotify, Rovio, and mobile security company Lookout Mobile.

AirWatch was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Atlanta.

Man catching money image via Shutterstock

Michael Yang is Managing Director, Comcast Ventures.

[Editor's note: Michael Yang and Keas CEO Josh Stevens will be debating the topic of educating employees on health benefits at HealthBeat 2013 next week. See Josh Stevens' story published yesterday: "Getting American employees online is key for health care — and reducing health costs."]

Despite some recent news that healthcare spending may be slowing down, it continues to increase each year, and traditional financial sponsors of healthcare in the U.S. — be it the government, the health plan, or the employer — are increasingly adopting a more “consumerist” mindset when it comes to healthcare.  This is especially prevalent in the employer market, which continues to underwrite approximately half of Americans’ healthcare costs.

So what have the leading employers in our country been doing about it? From pushing patient portals rich with online content, to offering decision-support tools for provider selection and procedure price transparency, to leveraging game dynamics and social networking techniques for corporate wellness programs, HR benefits teams have introduced numerous waves of innovation targeted at making employees more sophisticated consumers of healthcare. The central hypothesis is that if you know what you are consuming and how it affects you financially, you will better manage your utilization of healthcare. But is it working?

Health tech is no different than any other new innovation – just because you build it, does not mean they will come. No one remembers the portal’s URL address; no one remembers their log-in for their provider search tool; and no one cares about the leaderboard for weight loss. We are losing the war on patient engagement as these solutions on a standalone basis are not enough. If the patient or employee will not engage, then there is little hope that information is exchanged, proper guidance is given, and appropriate actions are taken. So the real question is, how do you encourage employee engagement?

True engagement can only be achieved through the helping hand of an emerging class of players in the health advocacy, health assistant, and health navigator space. Our Byzantine healthcare system is so complicated that most of us are effectively healthcare illiterate. “Do-it-yourself” is arguably easier with a home remodel than a chronic condition in our healthcare system. As such, it is falling on the shoulders of companies like Accolade, Health Advocate, and Quantum Health that are offered as an employee benefit to assist employees through their healthcare journey. Professionally trained health coaches and assistants are accessible to employees by phone, email, chat and even sometimes on-site, and can help problem-solve a wide range of topics from administrative to clinical, all with the objective of helping the employee understand their options and having all the relevant information in front of them to take the right next step. A patient portal, a wellness program, or a price transparency tool is so much more powerful when an employee can talk through what they’re seeing with a health assistant (or better yet, have their health advocate do it for them).

Early results are in and engagement is high, patients are satisfied and healthcare costs can be managed. Perhaps this is the formula for the future. Engaged employees can equal smarter patients, which in turn can be healthier employees, but you have to help them become engaged.

To learn more, come hear Meghan Kelly of VentureBeat moderate a fireside chat with Michael Yang and Josh Stevens of Keas at HealthBeat 2013’s Healthy Employees=Smarter Patients.

Disclosure: Comcast Ventures is an investor in Accolade.

Doctor image via Shutterstock

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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Microsoft employees poked fun at Google this week in a mock advertisement that was never meant to leave the Redmond, Wash. company’s walls.

Of course, it did, and now it’s available for everyone’s (except Google’s) enjoyment.

The video mimics Google’s Chrome advertisement that attendees of Google I/O, the company’s developer conference happening in San Francisco, saw yesterday. The original shows a bouncing Chrome icon that takes you around all the devices and places on the Internet that Chrome connects you. Microsoft’s version, however, has that same icon showing you all the places Google tracks you and makes advertising revenue off of you.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to VentureBeat that the video was, in fact, Microsoft’s doing and that it was intended to remain internal.

Yesterday Google told Microsoft that it needed to remove its YouTube app from the Windows Phone app store. Microsoft created the app independently of Google, which obviously didn’t rub the search giant the right way. Whether this video was a quickly thrown together reaction this or just a product of the general competition between the two companies is unknown. Microsoft and Google compete deeply on many different levels: search products, e-mail services, phones, and cloud storage services.

Here’s the original Chrome advertisement from Google:

Featured image via Microsoft video

Larry Page is feeling sentimental. The Google chief executive delivered a heartstring-pulling speech today at the I/O conference in which he spoke about the intersection of technology, humanity, and, of course, Google.

It’s obvious that technology built this man’s life.

Page successfully delivered what should be the end to the era of Steve Jobs-esque inspiring keynotes. He’s filled with hope for technology’s future, saying we’ve only hit about 1 percent of what we’re capable of producing.

He opened the talk by recalling a time his father took him on a road trip to a robotics conference, getting him in even though Page was under the admitting age. He explained that we’ve got a barrier to entry for youngsters. Young people aren’t interested in computer sciences, and that is a scary thought. He urged people to get children involved in engineering, math, and sciences.

But Page is also “sad.” Our technology is failing us, in his eyes. The web hasn’t done enough, though technology itself is booming. For Page, it’s about building a generation that will build life-altering tools. Tools that will change not just the way we watch TV but also the way we live our lives. The way we spend our days.

“Technology should do the hard work, so people can get on with the things that make them happiest in life,” he said at Google I/O. “People are starving in the world, not because we don’t have enough food, but because we’re not organized. And computers are part of that. … Farming is great if that’s what you want to do, but not if that’s what you have to do.”

He says he’s uninterested in the stories about Google versus other companies (of course, everyone’s thinking Apple). Instead, he’s focused on building “things that don’t exist.” To him, the “important things aren’t zero-sum.” An example of one of these big visions is giving people’s commuting time back through self-driving cars.

He explained that technologies need a safe place to experiment, that technology is stunted by regulatory and legislative barriers.

“Many of our laws can’t keep up with the pace of change in technology. … Maybe more of us need to go into other areas, and in those areas, improve and understand technology,” he said, “We had Google Health, and we didn’t make that much progress with it. The primary obstacle was regulatory.”

But all in all, Page doesn’t actually seem bitter. He seems hopeful. Maybe it was his raspy voice or his musings about technology replacing the labor so we can do what we enjoy, but it seems Page may have just become tech’s richest hippie.

Larry Page image via Jolie O’Dell/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google released a major new education program today that organizes and manages the way teachers push apps, books, and other learning content to student tablets.

Technology changed the way we socialize, find new things to do, get directions, play games, date, work, read news, take pictures, and so much more. But some feel it hasn’t done enough for education. We’ve seen attempts to get new PCs in classrooms, and now there’s a big push for tablets in the hands of every student. But device costs along with theft and content management cause schools to shy away. Google’s Play for Education program may dramatically change all of this.

“When I go visit my kids’ classrooms, it looks pretty much exactly like it did when I went to school,” said Chris Yerga, Google’s engineering director at Google I/O. “Teachers told us that in education, there’s a huge gap between what’s possible with technology and what’s practical, especially with mobile technology. And then they told us it was Google’s job to fix this.”

He explained that teachers said Google should make an affordable Android tablet, content management tools, and app discovery tools. So Google is starting with the last two.

Google Play for Education is like an app store designed especially for teachers with some powerful management tools built-in. Teachers will be able to visit this app store and search by categories such as age-range and subject matter. If you are trying to teach math to a bunch of first graders, you can plug in those refinements and get back a list of apps made specifically for that group.

Teachers will also be able to see reviews from other teachers. After instructors select an app, Google Play for Education will push it out automatically to all the tablets associated with a defined Google Group of students.

That’s the catch — you’ll need to set up your entire classroom on Google Apps, buy Android tablets for all the students, and create a Google Group with the tablets hooked up. The only real issue here might be cost, as Google Apps are fairly easy to set up and many education institutions are already using them.

Schools are able to load accounts with funds for the app store, so a teacher can automatically deduct from that balance if they wish to license a classroom-amount of paid apps. Teachers will also be able to push out YouTube videos and books in the same way they do apps.

Apple over the last year has put a lot of emphasis on the role of iPads in schools. It has tested a number of different markets, and developers have created some very beautiful apps for interactive books and other learning software. But the program is lacking structure and, of course, iPads are also cost prohibitive for many schools.

Google Play for Education could have the right kind of management capabilities to make Apple step up its game, but only if it’s actually as easy to use as it seems.

The program will be available this fall, but app developers can start submitting apps by this summer.

Educators, we would love to hear your thoughts on whether Google Play for Educations is what you wanted from Google. Send us an e-mail!

Chris Yerda image via Google I/O livestream

Google Chrome has grown nearly as much in the last year as it has in its lifetime up to 2012. Google announced today at its I/O conference in San Francisco that it has over 750 million monthly active users for its Chrome platform today.

Chrome encompasses both Google’s web browser as well as its operating system. At last year’s Google I/O, the Chrome platform had around 450 million monthly active users. In the time since, Google has added over 300 million monthly active users to that amount and it seems mobile is playing a big part in that growth.

“Chrome increasingly is being used on mobile. What excites us is that a lot of this new growth is coming on phones and tablets,” said Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome, at Google I/O. “It is in its early days, but we think we can do to the mobile web what we did for the desktop web.”

Pichai believes that Chrome web browser is the most popular one today.

There seems to be growth for Google’s Chrome operating system as well, which runs on its series of Chromebooks. Chromebooks are web-only personal computers, and currently Lenovo, HP, and Asus are the only companies building hardware for it. Pichai says that Google will continue to expand its partners carrying the computers.

Chrome user growth image via Jolie O’Dell/VentureBeat

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Google released three location tools for its app developers today, one of which will actually tell the app whether a person is walking, cycling, or driving.

The location application programming interfaces (API) are a part of Google Play Services, a tool chest for Android developers. Adding location-sensing features to your app is difficult and often straining on the phone itself — particularly the battery. To deal with this, Google released the first of today’s APIs called fused location provider. Among other things, this API uses a “low-power location mode,” which collects data on where the person is while using what Google says is less than one percent of the battery power.

Google also opened up APIs for geofencing, or putting a ring around a specific location that can provide data such as when a person enters or exits that circle. You can have up to 100 geofences active simultaneously per apps.

But the last API Google released could be a huge benefit for fitness apps. It’s called Activity Recognition, and it does just that — it feels the person’s movements and determines what they’re doing. It uses a combination of accelerometer data and machine learning classifiers to figure out if you’re walking, cycling, or driving.

“We do it in a really battery-efficient way without ever turning on the GPS,” explained Hugo Barra, Google’s vice president of Android product management.

This makes what is undoubtedly difficult to build on your own, a plug-and-play feature developers with fitness aspirations can use in their apps. Developers could also build much deeper movement analysis around the API.

It may also mean big things for future Google Glass apps. If people actually start wearing Google’s smart eyewear daily, it could become a whole new type of fitness device, joining the ranks of Android phone pedometers and smart wristbands existing in the market.

The APIs are available today for all Android version Froyo and up. If you use Activity Recognition, drop us an e-mail and tell us about your experience.

Google image via Google I/O livestream

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google temporarily released information about its next mobile operating system, Android 4.3, today. A search for the company’s developer site returned a listing for Android 4.3, which it has quickly removed.

The page referenced security enhancements for the otherwise unannounced Android version. It came alongside a security enhancements release for the existing Android 4.2 operating system. Since the page has been removed, we are unaware of what these security enhancements entailed. Indeed, Android 4.3 is otherwise fairly shrouded, but we may learn more about it today during Google’s developer conference Google I/O.

The Verge grabbed a screenshot of the search result, and it mentions that 4.3 may contain a new kind of Bluetooth that will help save battery life on the phone. It may also come with a new graphics tool that will help game apps and other graphics-dependent apps run more effectively.

Google’s stock price has risen to record-highs this morning in anticipation of what Google might announce. While we don’t know exactly what will come out of this morning’s keynote, this Android 4.3 reveal is the second leak of the morning for Google. Late last night a signup page for a new version of Google Maps popped up and was similarly removed. It is also rumored that Google is launching a music streaming service after reports yesterday that the company had signed two major music licensing deals.

Android image via .RGB./Flickr

Google is kicking of its Google I/O developer conference today to much anticipation. The company’s shares hit $900 and continued to to climb this morning, a first for Google.

The stock price hit a high of $911.45 around 10:06 a.m. Eastern time this morning and is trading around $906 at the time of this post. That’s up over 2 percent from its opening price of $894. Google has yet to break $900 a share until today, though it has continued to rise steadily in price over the past month.

Google is holding its famed developer conference this week with a three-hour long keynote starting at noon Eastern time. While we’ve heard rumors for weeks about what Google might talk about, investors are seemingly anticipating good things. There hasn’t been much speculation about a big hardware product, release, however.

Investors may be reacting to a new music streaming service that some rumors say may show up at the show, if not the overall fanfare. Reports indicate that Google recently signed two major music partnerships — one with Sony Music Group and another with Universal Music Group — that may give Google the boost it needs to launch a product similar to Spotify. With Spotify, customers can listen to the songs and bands of their choosing on a subscription basis, as opposed to an online radio company like Pandora, where customers can only choose a theme or genre of music to listen to.

Google has also been releasing its Google Glass headwear into the market in the weeks leading up to Google I/O, causing speculation that we’ll hear more about the product in Google’s keynote.

GOOG data by YCharts

Google I/O image via Dylan Tweney/VentureBeat

The big news at Google’s developer conference I/O might be the music streaming service we’ve all been hearing about for the last year. Google reportedly wrapped up the necessary music partnerships to get it off the ground, according to The Verge.

The new licensing deals include Sony Music Group and Universal Music Group that will enable Google to use their music on YouTube and Google Play. Google also reportedly struck a deal with Warner Music Group earlier in the year. This opens Google to some of the most major players in the music industry — an hurdle any music streaming service has to jump before it can be successful.

The service will likely resemble Spotify, according to The Verge. That is, it will serve up music the user chooses on a subscription basis, as opposed to an online streaming radio model. We are not sure what Google will charge for the service, but the New York Times reports that it will not offer the music free at any level. Spotify, by comparison, costs $10 per month for a premium version.

It will have its own internal competition, however, in YouTube, which many people already use to listen to music throughout the day. A mobile version of the streaming service, of course, would make the product much more alluring.

Apple is also said to be working on its own streaming product that will likely take Pandora’s model over Spotify.

We have reached out to Google and will update this post upon hearing back.

Man laughing with headphones via Shutterstock

After flying a drone “a few feet away” from a family home in Seattle, one man claims he was doing research well within his legal rights. The camera-clad drone, however, spiked justified concerns about the privacy of the family who lives there.

A woman in Seattle explained to the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog (CHS) that she heard a buzzing noise outside her home that she assumed was a weed-whacker. Instead, it turned out to be a flying drone with an attached camera, hovering near her third-story window. She spotted a man on the sidewalk outside of the house controlling the drone. Her husband did what any normal person would do: he asked the man to cut it out, but he refused saying it was within the law to fly the drone and that he was conducting research. The couple subsequently called the police, who decided not to come once as the man decided to leave the area.

“We are extremely concerned, as he could very easily be a criminal who plans to break into our house or a peeping-tom,” she said, according to CHS.

The Atlantic points out that a 1946 Supreme Court ruling considers all airspace to be a public highway. But airspace or not, I assume you can’t take pictures of someone’s home through their windows without permission. If someone had a very long stick with a camera at the end and held it over your fence, you’d likely not consider that legal either. It’s yet another example of the dire situation we’re in trying to keep legislation up with technology.

Commenters on the CHS blog post speculate that the drone could have been used by a local paper’s reporters to demonstrate how “useless” they are. Others suggest it could have just been a weirdo.

Drone image via Don McCullough/Flickr

Janice Nicholson is CEO of i2i Systems.

As someone who has spent over 20 years focusing on the needs of healthcare organizations, I have experienced firsthand their unique challenges while using technology to improve patient outcomes. I think we have a major dilemma when it comes to health IT and it’s time we call it out.

First, let’s get right to the heart of the matter: What factors limit health IT’s ability to support quality measurement and quality improvement?

My response is based on field experience in supporting hundreds of clinics and practices who are using more than 30 different Practice Management (PM)/Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. I would like to tell you that we have figured out why health IT investment has not resulted in more dramatic improvements to outcomes of care, and that we have the solution — but we do not.

What I can share with you are three of the top challenges we have experienced in helping organizations realize the benefit of health IT adoption.

Limitations within EHRs yield roadblocks

The first challenge is that of standards and interoperability. EHR makers claim the records interoperate, but what they don’t say is at what level. Much of the data in EHRs about patients is customized, unstructured data. Even within the same EHR, templates allow a patient’s medical data to be stored in different locations of the database using different representations. This means that while you think you may be accessing information at one end of the EHR, the information you really need might be on the other. This lack of EHR vendor standardization and inability/unwillingness to share customized, unstructured data cripples efforts to address Meaningful Use (MU) and severely limits the analytic capability of EHR data.

Health IT capabilities are behind the times

The second challenge is that EHRs do not fully support MU requirements. Our current health technology isn’t able to analyze data in a way that would allow us to support tactical, operational, and strategic improvements in public health management. This primitive state hampers organizational leaders, management, and even care teams from proactively monitoring and improving performance. To meet requirements of MU Stage 3, organizations need tools that will support long-term, sustainable change.

A simple example of this is HbA1c testing for diabetic patients. Evidence-based guidelines suggest that A1C screening for a diabetic patient should occur at least twice during a year-long period. This simple adherence tracking for one patient becomes complex very quickly when managing population health for thousands of diabetics.

A lack of incentives creates stagnancy

The third challenge is lack of incentives to achieve higher levels of performance. We often see organizations drawn to our solutions mainly for required reporting to payers. We encourage organizations to leverage our tools to their fullest, but sadly, many are satisfied with threshold performance since there are not enough incentives for them to dive deeper into what’s available out there. This speaks to the lack of a data-driven culture incented to measurably improve health outcomes.

Challenges provide the opportunity for solutions

Despite all these challenges hindering the healthcare industry’s ability to successfully move forward in using technology to their advantage, I see various opportunities.

First, Health IT vendors must provide clinics open access to their data, and remove barriers to standardization and interoperability. Performance can then be measured in a reliable way and shared across the health system.

Second, we need to face the reality of what EHRs currently deliver. There is no single, comprehensive, all-inclusive Health IT solution that will meet everyone’s needs today and in the future. Rather, the real solution lies in cultivating a healthy and diverse Health IT ecosystem. We have to help providers understand the intelligence tools they need so they can plan and budget for what will be required to monitor, improve and sustain health outcomes.

Third, we need to increase the percentage of revenue directly related to pay-for-performance. Organizations must be incentivized for behaviors that drive change. This will naturally catalyze the quality life cycle that results in high performance.

We can be optimistic if we address these opportunities. Success is within our grasp and it can come at a price that you, me and the rest of the nation can afford.

Before founding healthcare software provider i2i Systems, Janice Nicholson worked as a software engineer and played a major role in developing a patient management system for private practice. She has managed over 10 major product releases; and, prior to its acquisition by WebMD, she served as the vice president of product engineering at HealthPro Solutions.

Hospital image via Shutterstock

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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Apple is putting law enforcement requests on hold, according to one judge. The company has created a waiting list for all the “unlock this device” requests it receives.

After repeat attempts to unlock a suspected drug dealer’s iPhone 4S, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) reached out to Apple for help, as reported by CNET. Apple complies with law enforcement requests, like most big tech companies, to unlock devices or supply data. But, according to Judge Karen Caldwell handling the case, the ATF was told it would have to be placed on a waiting list along with all the other requests Apple receives.

The agent involved explained in an affidavit that it would be up to seven weeks before the request was fulfilled meaning Apple has its hands full with law enforcement aid. But it makes sense as smartphone data can be a pivotal part of the discovery process in a law suit.

Text messages, Facebook messages, emails, pictures, location-data and more would be available to anyone who had the unlocked phone. In the case of a drug dealer, law enforcement would of course want to look for any messages about transactions, or anything that could lead to further arrests in a drug ring.

Of course, this becomes a sticky matter when it comes to whether warrants are involved or not. It could then be considered an unreasonable search and seizure.

This might be a testament to how secure iPhones seem to be. This might also be a testament to how law enforcement might want to invest in more technical resources.

Apple HQ image via matteoartizzu/Flickr

Hey, you, my innocent-looking Facebook friend. You’re using Bang With Friends, aren’t you. No? Well, thanks to an oversight found by The Daily Dot, I have proof.

There was a two week period in 2012 where everybody was talking about Bang With Friends, the Facebook app that connects you to friends you’re “emotionally” interested in if they’ve also expressed an interest in you. It was intended to be completely anonymous, in that no one would know you signed up for the app, your identity being revealed only when you’re matched up with another person.

But if you play around with Facebook’s URL a little bit, you can see all your friends who have installed the app.

All you have to do is go to this link: https://www.facebook.com/browse/friends_using_app/?app_id=178205172320915

Facebook uses “friends_using_app” to tell the server to pull data about your friends in particular and then uses the “app_id” to define which app you’re talking about. This ID happens to be for Bang With Friends.

It’s pretty simple, and it seems you can do the same thing with any app on Facebook, as long as you can find the app ID number. For example, I found out that five of my friends use Match.com by going to the company’s Fan page. From there I clicked on “Go to app” and saw in the address bar a number that looked very similar to the app id shown in the Bang with Friends example. In this case, the number came after “client id=” in the address bar. I plugged it in and it worked.

However, it was difficult to find other fan pages that linked to their apps in the same way. Simply going to the app store and clicking on an app doesn’t produce the same results either. But if you know the app’s ID number, it’s simply a matter of plug and play.

Girls gossiping image via Shutterstock

Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

File-sharing company Box acquired Crocodoc today because your documents are boring and no one wants to read them. Crocodoc’s technology can turn them into interactive experiences using HTML5.

Box announced the acquisition today, but declined to reveal the terms of the deal. Chief executive Aaron Levie did say that the deal was a cash-and-stock transaction and that all of Crocodoc’s employees will be absorbed into Box. Crocodoc founder Ryan Damico will join Box as director of platform.

Crocodoc, once a Y Combinator company, was born in 2007 to make documents are more enjoyable experience. Many people feel that text documents are boring, even if you layer on as many PowerPoint transitions as possible. Using Crocodoc, you can turn your documents into carousels, flip-books, and more.

The company first started working in Flash to take elements of a document and make them more pleasing to the eye and interactive. But it quickly moved on to HTML5 as soon as the technology was available. Indeed, Crocodoc only complete its transition to HTML5 within the last few days.

Source: Meghan Kelly/VentureBeat

Ryan Damico, founder, Crocodoc

“Things like document experiences haven’t really been modernized, they’re still very clunky, very cumbersome,” said Levie at the announcement today. “You think about what viewing videos looked like in 2005 before Youtube videos came around. You had to have all these different plugins and players just to view a video somebody sent you. We see the same sort of experience required for documents today.”

Box assures Crocodoc’s customers that, for the time being, the service will continue to run as normal. This means it will continue to work with Box competitor Dropbox. The technology will also be integrated into Box’s existing products and some form of rebranding will happen in the coming months.

The conversation often turned toward bringing “consumer-grade” products into the enterprise. This type of attitude seems to be flowing throughout Silicon Valley — the idea that consumer-grade apps are more beautiful, usable, well-built than enterprise-grade apps, which are characterized as clunky and outdated.

“It’s very consumer-grade design … I think that’s really the standard that you have to shoot for now,” said Box’s vice president of engineering Sam Schillace at the announcement. “Documents kind of seem boring. … We’ve had them for 20 years, but they are undergoing this interesting evolution.”

Damico told me that he is particularly excited to start building out new use cases for the healthcare industry, which could certainly use some consumer-grade love. This might include turning research papers into more-digestible flipbooks, or turning medical images into HTML5-based interactive documents in some way.

Damico may also tackle electronic health records — a massive market opportunity, given that so many healthcare institutions find them cumbersome, hard to read, and slow. A different presentation of a patient’s medical history might make all the difference. (For more on electronic health records, check out VentureBeat’s upcoming HealthBeat conference, May 20-21 — it’s one of the event’s major themes.)

Security, of course, is at the top of the priorities list when it comes to any health-related documents. Box recently received HIPAA compliance, which opens the doors for Crocodoc, which otherwise wouldn’t have been able to achieve that security itself.

Ryan Damico and Aaron Levie images via Meghan Kelly/VentureBeat

After firing its chief executive and founder in February, Groupon says it is not rushing to find someone to permanently fill his shoes.

“The leadership team is very, very strong and is jelling very nicely,” said Ted Leonsis, the co-interim CEO at Groupon, in today’s earnings call. “We’re not in a hurry.”

Leonsis and executive chairman Eric Lefkofsky are sharing the CEO role after ousting Andrew Mason a day after its last quarterly earnings report. Even when the company met earnings expectations, shares would drop because the profit simply wasn’t there. Indeed, during the earnings call that would result in Mason’s kick out the door, shares plummeted 28 percent despite coming in right around where analysts expected at $638 million in revenue.

This quarter the company made $601.4 million in revenue, beating expectations. This revenue also represents an 8 percent increase compared with the same quarter in 2012. With Mason gone, and a new plan to unify the backend systems between its North American and international operations, stock went up 10 percent in after hours.

It’s no wonder the company is happy to stay where it is. But Leonsis assures investors it has formed a committee to find the new CEO and the search is currently under way. Groupon otherwise had a loss of $0.01 per share and a gross profit of $379 million. Groupon has $1.2 billion in overall cash and “cash equivalents.”

There are four major players in the fitness wristband business now: FitBit, Jawbone, Nike, and Basis. They’re jockeying prices and features to get your dollars, but sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. That’s why we’ve created the chart above to help you take the leap.

You should consider three major categories when choosing one of these geek-chic exercise buddies: price, device, and battery life.

Right now, the FitBit Flex is the cheapest, coming in at around $100, followed by the Up at $130, the FuelBand at $150, and Basis at $200. There are, of course, tradeoffs. The Flex can’t tell when you’re on an incline, and while Basis is twice as much, it can monitor other elements such as your sweat and heart rate.

Indeed, the Basis might seem expensive and pared-down on the chart, but it focuses more on what’s going on inside your body than the others. An optical sensor can detect your blood flow, which means Basis can watch your heart rate throughout the day. It also measures your skin temperature and sweat levels, bringing all of this information together to gauge the intensity of your activities. It also plans on releasing mobile apps soon, with Android coming first.

On the device front, if you’re an Android user, however, you’re probably not going to want the FuelBand. It’s only iOS compatible, and it seems Nike has no plans to come out with an Android version. Flex, Up, and Basis provide Android support, but only for some devices.

When it comes to which band can outlast the rest, Up comes in as the winner with its advertised battery life at 10 days. Flex follows behind with five days of battery life and FuelBand with only one to four days. Of course, these times will all depend on your usage, which may include sleeping, as both Up and Flex monitor your sleep patterns and will wake you up with an alarm. Basis will track your sleep, but you’ll have to rely on another device to get your butt out of bed.

You can also hook up your wristbands to a number of apps. While Up and Flex support many fitness apps such as MyFitnessPal and LoseIt!, FuelBand focuses on the social side with connections to Facebook, Twitter, and Path.

Of course, your decision will depend on what matters most to you. Is it the science? The cool charts and analysis on your daily activities? The price or battery life? Let us know which you choose and why you love it (or hate it).

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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The White House has reportedly created the position of Chief Privacy Officer and tapped Twitter legal director Nicole Wong to fill it.

Twitter hired Wong in November 2012, only a few months after it first released its Transparency Report — a list of government take-down requests that often highlights privacy and censorship issues in the industry. The company often has to deal with these issues as its user data is often desired in court cases and other situation.

She will work alongside the current chief technology officer under the Obama Administration Todd Park. Park is rightfully focused on the security and privacy industry and user data becomes more accessible and valuable to others both in and outside of the Unisted States.

Todd succeeds the country’s first CTO Aneesh Chopra, also appointed by President Obama.

Wong is also an interesting pick because she knows the ins and outs of how big technology companies like to use that data themselves. She’ll bring what seems like a rounded experience and knowledge of U.S. law to the White House tech team.

Wong previously worked at Google, which is also known for its transparency reports. She spent time choosing between which take-own requests requests to fulfill and which to throw out.

via CNET; Nicole Wong image via Twitter

The Pentagon pointed an accusing finger at China today in its annual report to Congress, saying the country and its government are trying to gain insight into U.S. secrets.

Specifically, the report says China is hacking into U.S. computer systems to grab data that will improve its own technology. It is also looking to get a read on how the U.S. government feels about China internally, according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s a strong statement for the Pentagon, which is very direct about the use of hacking in its report.

“China is using its computer network exploitation capability to support intelligence collection against the U.S. diplomatic, economic, and defense industrial base sectors that support U.S. national defense programs,” said the report.

Security firm Mandient identified a group of hackers from China’s People’s Liberation Army called PLA 61398, which has been launching a number of damaging cyber attacks on the U.S. It has been linked to hacks on a number of technology companies as well as media such as the New York Times.

Last week, it was revealed that PLA 61398 is suspected to be behind a wide-scale attack on QinetiQ, a U.K.-based defense contractor with a U.S. subsidiary. Those brought on to research the QinetiQ case said they were able to find traces of the hackers in all corners of its business. The cyber criminals stole what Bloomberg reports as the equivalent of 3.3 million excel spreadsheets.

The data lifted included drones and robotics plans.

Pentagon image via michael baird/Flickr

Tech blogger and investor MG Siegler is joining Google Ventures. Though he’s moving on, mostly, from CrunchFund — the venture firm started by his former boss, TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington — Siegler still seems confident in the firm that gave him his investing start.

Siegler says he’ll continue to “help out with our current portfolio as any of those startups/entrepreneurs see fit” and says he’ll likely continue to work specifically with Arrington on “the investing side of things.” He will also continue his column at TechCrunch.

“Long story short, I’m very happy with how CrunchFund is doing,” said Siegler in an email to VentureBeat. “Michael and I are and will remain on great terms. We’ve worked together for a long time and we’ve been able to remain friends that entire time. Just because the professional side of things is changing, doesn’t mean everything will change.”

Siegler, who once reported on technology for VentureBeat, amassed a following as an Apple-focused reporter for TechCrunch. After TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington left to start CrunchFund in 2011, Siegler was brought on as a surprising partner recruit given his reporting background. CrunchFund raised $20 million in 2011 to give out to early stage companies. Portfolio companies include Betable, Ifttt, Vine, Karma, Wavii, and others.

He’s still going to focus on early-stage investing at Google Ventures in a team with Kevin Rose and Wesley Chan. He explained to me that he’s confident in the resources Google Ventures has and the ability to expand on what Rose and Chan are already doing. As for what he’ll bring to table?

“We definitely have different networks when it comes to deal flow. And hopefully I can teach them how to write good,” he joked.

“We’re thrilled to add his unique perspective to Google Ventures, and our portfolio,” Google Ventures managing partner Bill Maris said in a blog post.

He says Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital is a good role model for him as Moritz also started out as a reporter and moved into venture capital. Siegler doesn’t seem to be too fazed about those who quip that just about anyone can be a VC nowadays, either. He says just because the money is there doesn’t mean everyone has the chops.

“Anyone can also be a deep sea diver,” he explained. “That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to do so.”

MG Siegler image via LeWEB12/Flickr

Fitbit began shipping its Flex wristband today, finding its place among established wearable (but expensive) fitness devices in the market.

Flex is Fitbit’s answer to big-name companies like Nike and Jawbone who have their FuelBand and Up wristbands respectively. Bracelets seems to be the form-factor of choice for many exercise enthusiasts as they are easy to keep track of and don’t get in the way of your workout. They become an accessory as opposed to another device you have to find a pocket for.

Fitbit’s Flex shares a lot of the same functionality as the FuelBand and Up wristbands. It will track your steps and calories burned, how far you actually went, and it will look at your sleeping patterns and make suggestions based off of that data. The difference is, it costs $100 in comparison to the FuelBand, which goes for $150, and the Up, which goes for $130.

It can also wirelessly connect to your phone or computer using Bluetooth 4.0. That means you won’t need to pull out a wire to view your activity data on your phone and can start evaluating yourself anywhere. Its social components keep you engaged through competition to see who can walk the most steps in a week as well.

One thing that’s missing, however, is the ability to track your “climbs.” That is, if you’re walking up stairs, the Flex won’t be able to tell that you’re on an incline and burning more calories. Fitbit’s other devices have this feature, but it’s curiously missing from Flex. For those who live in areas like, say, hilly San Francisco where Fitbit is headquartered, this could be a deterrent.

hat tip Engadget; Flex image via Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Samsung’s Knox security software gained a little bit more legitimacy today when the Department of Defense approved Samsung Galaxy S4′s running the protections for use in the government.

Getting your phone into the hands of Pentagon employees is likely not the easiest task. The Knox software keeps specified data separate from the rest of your phone. That way if it gets hacked, the criminal won’t immediately have access to your sensitive information. This is important for separating things like private documents, apps, and accounts that you might access through the phone. The data is also encrypted. You can also use Knox to set up a VPN.

“We are very pleased to announce that the U.S. Department of Defense has approved Samsung Knox-enabled devices for use in DoD networks,” said JK Shin, president of Samsung Mobile, in a statement. “This approval enables other government agencies and regulated industries such as health care and financial services to adopt Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets.”

It seems the technology is good enough for the government, which likely scrutinizes all the devices that come through its doors. But while choosing the most secure devices is an important task, the government doesn’t want to get stuck with just one kind of phone, according to a statement. Blackberry is the phone of choice at the Pentagon with around 470,000 users. Apple’s iPhone comes in second place, with Android bringing up the rear.

This isn’t surprising given that Android has a reputation for contracting more malware given its open marketplace nature. You can download Android apps from many sources (and not just the App Store, like in Apple’s case), so there’s more opportunity for something malicious to slip through.

But it seems the government is looking to expand its horizons, according to the company’s announcement. It doesn’t want to get stuck with one type of technology and miss out on learning about different kinds of phones.

hat tip CNET; Pentagon image via gregwest98/Flickr

Ten drones joined the Navy today in its first drone squadron. The unmanned aircraft are joined by other manned aircraft to resurrect a retired helicopter squadron known as “The Magicians.”

The drones are Fire Scout MQ-8B helicopters, built by Northrop Grumman, that the Navy plans on arming. Currently, they can target individuals and send back images and video to a home base to alert those controlling the drones as to what is going on. They’ll likely be used in missions deemed extremely dangerous that the military will want to keep humans away from.

The Magicians squadron was retired in 1992 after 19 years of service and is today reborn with eight manned aircraft joining the drones. The drones will be armed and deployed in a year. Currently, both the Army and Air Force have their own drone programs.

Fire Scout MQ-8B drones can take off and land on ships, though we’ve seen a variety of bugs including one that brought a drone down in its attempt to land, as the Associated Press notes. Two of these drones crashed last year in separate instances. In 2010, one drone disconnected from its control base and flew into restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. Washington was warned of the meandering drone before it deployed fighter jets.

Commander of naval air forces Vice Admiral David H. Buss assures that these issues have been fixed.

Drone image via Northrop Grumman

Workers are suffering. These newsroom-style workspaces that startups seem to love are really hindering the privacy needed to surf Reddit and watch YouTube videos. Thankfully, a mobile app developer has found the answer to our problems: Reddit on Google Glass.

“With no compelling reason to use while at the office or work, [Google Glass] sits tucked away inside the desk drawer,” said Malcolm Nguyen, a mobile developer for One Republic Title Company, said in a post on Google+. “That’s all about to change, because now you can get pictures of cats and memes and _gonewild beamed directly to your face without anyone suspecting a thing.”

Nguyen is part of Explorers, a group of individuals that Google’s picked to purchase Glass for $1,500 prior to its release to the broader market. These adventurous people are supposed to hack, play with, record on, and otherwise use Glass for any manner of crazy things. While some have taken it skydiving or even hopped in the shower with it, Nguyen’s app will likely encourage people to sit on their butts for hours at a time with it.

Of course, when Reddit’s involved, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Nguyen lists the features as including the option to upvote and downvote a post, share external content to Reddit, view and reply to threaded comments, and have comments read aloud to you. Your font page will also be digested into the top 25 hits, updated every hour.

So, for those few of you who have a pair, go secretly enjoy your Reddit. Good luck trying not to bust out laughing in the middle of a meeting when you see something like this, though.

hat tip Mashable; Google Glass Reddit image via Malcolm Nguyen

Hear that buzzing next to your ear? Don’t be so quick to flick next time, as it might not be a bug — it may be a bug-sized robot.

The RoboBee, which is known as the world’s small flying robot, flew for the first time in a recently released video.

A group at Harvard built the robot. Graduate student Kevin Ma studied insect wings in order to build those that keep the RoboBee afloat, according to Science. The whole robot is the size of a quarter with wings made of carbon-fiber material and polymer film that are cut using a laser.

Ma explained that the wings have a specific “pop-up” pattern that resembles those in a children’s book. They help the wings stay as symmetrical as possible for flight. These pop-ups require a human using tweezers to raise, but eventually they will automatically open.

Tiny insect robots have the opportunity to play a big role in search and rescue or disaster situations. They can squeeze through tight spaces, say in the case of fallen rubble, or discretely collect information in hostage situations. With the right kind of sensors or cameras onboard, they could possibly detect gas leaks or find people in places that current cameras (or even eyes) can’t see.

The Harvard group is trying to go beyond just flight as well. They hope to build thousands of these bug-bots, according to Scientific American. It’d be a hive of robot bees that are spatially aware and can divvy up tasks and work as a group. This breakthrough is really just the beginning of a long journey toward an army capable of executing missions.

For now, however, the robot is tethered to a power supply and flight sensors by a small wire, greatly reducing its usability. Ma hopes to install the technological components on RoboBee before he graduates.

Image and video credit: Harvard

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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