With everything from malware and security breaches to fake cell towers designed to intercept your calls, you can't be too careful with your smartphone these days. If you value your privacy more than anything, you've probably been keeping tabs on the Blackphone, the Android-based phone designed from the ground-up to focus on security. But if you were also wondering what you could do with such a phone besides keep all your secrets under wraps, you'll be glad to know that the team behind the Blackphone says it will also be providing an app store.
Maybe you have a fitness tracker. Maybe you've gotten your genome sequenced before. Probably your medical records are kept in electronic, instead of paper, form. Now some companies are seeking to combine all those things and more into a talking, personalized, health-advice app. Not sure when to give yourself your next insulin shot after having a croissant for breakfast? You can ask the app. How much exercise should someone with your genetic makeup be getting? The app will give you suggestions.
“When I first heard the news, I was doing cartwheels,” says Cindy Southworth, a technology expert at the National Network to End Domestic Violence. “But my official statement is ‘Yippee! One down and 400 to go.’ There’s a long list of really vile products right behind StealthGenie that need to be investigated and taken down too.”
Sometimes people are hard to read. Why not leave all that work to a computer? Perhaps you could use this experimental app that works in Google Glass. Aim Glass's camera at a person's face and the app reads the human's facial expression and tells you to what extent the person is feeling happy, sad, angry, or surprised. As a bonus, the app guesses the person's age and gender. Evaluating whether you want to hit on that person is still up to you.
