Chris Thorman from softwareadvice referred me to his new online survey that he recently posted here. The survey starts with this statement; The smartphone industry is on fire. iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pre and Google are all in the hunt for dominance. We want to know one thing: Which phone will become the device of choice for healthcare providers?

In that survey he’s asking what type of mobile device health care professionals are using and for what purpose.

However, I may disagree with the question itself. Because there will be no winner in the near future. They are all good and they are all competing with each other and adding more and more features day after day. Have a look at the best PDA device for pediatricians article in Pda4peds. It’s difficult to say that any of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Palm, or RIM will ever win our hearts!

Nonetheless, this survey could give us a clue about the current point prevalence in the Smartphone market and It would be interesting to see the results.

For those of you who don’t know about Charter, here’s a short statement, Charter Communications, Inc. is a Fortune 500 company and the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States. Charter provides advanced video, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to approximately 5.5 million residential and business customers in 27 states.

Now why should I be writing about a cable company in a pediatric PDA blog? this is because recently they launched a marketing campaign in which they will give an HP 550 Notebook PC – Model KS158UT and a NeoTec Computer Backpack (approximate retail price is $415) for those who sign up to their services in what’s called Laptop-a-Day Sweepstakes.

Well, yah it could be a remote possibility to win that prize but am signing up because I hate the way Comcast increasing the bill every now and then and I don’t want to settle to “low speed” ADSL AT&T service!

Having a good Internet connection at home is very important for proper use of our handhelds now that everything turning to be web based. Wifi connection at home is certainly advantageous over the costly GPRS unlimited data plans provided by mobile carriers and I encourage everyone to get a descent Internet at home with a good wireless network to avoid extra charges from mobile carriers.

For more information about Charter have a look at these links
Charter on Facebook
Charter on Twitter

For those of you who don’t know about Charter, here’s a short statement, Charter Communications, Inc. is a Fortune 500 company and the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States. Charter provides advanced video, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to approximately 5.5 million residential and business customers in 27 states.

Now why should I be writing about a cable company in a pediatric PDA blog? this is because recently they launched a marketing campaign in which they will give an HP 550 Notebook PC – Model KS158UT and a NeoTec Computer Backpack (approximate retail price is $415) for those who sign up to their services in what’s called Laptop-a-Day Sweepstakes.

Well, yah it could be a remote possibility to win that prize but am signing up because I hate the way Comcast increasing the bill every now and then and I don’t want to settle to “low speed” ADSL AT&T service!

Having a good Internet connection at home is very important for proper use of our handhelds now that everything turning to be web based. Wifi connection at home is certainly advantageous over the costly GPRS unlimited data plans provided by mobile carriers and I encourage everyone to get a descent Internet at home with a good wireless network to avoid extra charges from mobile carriers.

For more information about Charter have a look at these links
Charter on Facebook
Charter on Twitter

Here’s an iPod Touch example:

Here’s a Windows Mobile example:

The cost is $39.99 for all versions here is a list of links;

• Buy it for the iPhone in App Store here
• Buy it for the other platforms from Unbound Medicine here
• Buy the paper back book from Amazon here

This is one of the rare occasions where we see an Unbound Medicine title that can be directly purchased in App Store rather than a free template to be filled by the contents when we subscribe.

The new edition has several updates of the contents but no new sections seen. Of note, is that the free copy that comes with Merck Medicus is not updated [Merck Medicus told me that it's not likely in the near future and they'll keep the fourth edition for now].

With the new edition we still have the same wishes that we had about the previous edition which are:

• Some more images to accompany the imaging tests.
• Age based normal reference values will be greatly appreciated in pediatric practice.

The following points summarize some of the advantages and disadvantages of the iPhone versus the other Smartphones such as Palm, Blackberry, and Pocket PC

The Pros:

Cool: You will join the cool community! having an iPhone has grown to give the impression that you are cool, bright, updated, tech-minded, and fashion-oriented doctor. However, I have too say, that there are more and more “cool” devices coming in the other platforms, like for example  T Mobile’s myTouch and Palm Pre and they all basically talk iPhone in that they have a large touch screen, slim design, supporting finger flips, fluidy smooth transitions of screen objects and pages ….etc

App Store: You will get an App Store that simply holds all the medical and non-medical applications in one shop. For Palm and Pocket PC you’d have to shop around for that particular software you are interested in. Blackberry, however, learned the trick and they recently created the Blackberry App World.

Medical Library: As opposed to few months ago, you are not going to miss any major medical app. Everybody is on board now, Epocrates, Skyscape, Unbound Medicine, Pepid, Medical Wizards and a host of all major medical PDA software developers. In fact, in certain examples, you will get apps that are not yet available in other platforms. This stems from the fact that there are now individual developers for the iPhone who have never thought of developing an app before the iPhone blast, take for example Mediquations, Medimath, and Lytes.

Ease of use: The iPhone OS is designed from the ground up to be simple to learn and to use. My niece told me that when she got her BB she spent hours trying to understand it and eventually she threw it away for the next day while when she got her new iPhone 3GS she learned everything she needs to do in less than an hour. I even believe that Apple intentionally missed some of the more advanced features in the initial generations to make it simpler for people to get acquainted with it and then to add those extras later on like MMS, blue tooth pairing, GPS, copy and paste.. etc. That’s smart isn’t it? Speaking of the simplicity, you now have medical schools pushing their students and residents to use it [for example the University of Virginia Mobile health system].

Cost effectiveness: Despite the fact that the iPhone costs more when you first buy it compared to others, on the long run you may spend less. Here’s why: First, there is a tremendously increasing trend of free and low cost apps in the App Store, take for example Skyscape Medical Bag and Pepid Elements, both of these two apps are not available for the other platforms. Second, in my personal experience, iPhone tends to crash far less than the others and so you are less likely to pay for your tech repair bills.

No stylus: I regard this as an advantage. Most of us would like to take the PDA out from the white coat, find out something quickly, and then putting it back. Obviously, this is more cumbersome if you have to use both hands and much easier done single handedly with the tip of the thumb doing the action only. Yet, Palm Pre and the newer Pocket PC devices have started to support more and more the single hand functionality.

The Cons:

No file support: Doctors tend to write their notes and drafts on MS Word and their clinical trial data on a spreadsheets such as MS Excel and would like to read journal articles that are usually PDF files and perhaps want to rehearse their MS Power Point presentation. Unfortunately, none of these file extensions are supported by the iPhone OS. In addition, the iPhone OS is configured in such a way that makes file storage and sharing inherently difficult. For example, iSilo documents are very difficult to transfer to the iPhone.

Not all medical apps: Yes, I said that most developers have already established their iPhone apps but this does not holds true for all. Still the Palm and Windows Mobile libararies are significantly larger than the medical iPhone library. Even some major developers such as USBMIS and UpToDate are not yet there on the iPhone.

AT&T Exclusive: So far, in the US, the only carrier that provides iPhone is AT&T. This is a great limitation when it comes to freedom of choice. For Palm, Blackberry, and PPC we can virtually choose any of the major US carriers to carry our smartphone of choice. See I want an iPhone without AT&T post.

Limited storage capacity: Although there are 32GB iPhone devices but still the storage is limited. You don’t have a memory card expansion. This will translate into unwanted cost should you need only 2 GB or limitation in case you’d like to have more than 32GB to store videos and images [although 32 gigs is extremely high and more than enough speaking of medical apps only].

The following points summarize some of the advantages and disadvantages of the iPhone versus the other Smartphones such as Palm, Blackberry, and Pocket PC

The Pros:

Cool: You will join the cool community! having an iPhone has grown to give the impression that you are cool, bright, updated, tech-minded, and fashion-oriented doctor. However, I have too say, that there are more and more “cool” devices coming in the other platforms, like for example  T Mobile’s myTouch and Palm Pre and they all basically talk iPhone in that they have a large touch screen, slim design, supporting finger flips, fluidy smooth transitions of screen objects and pages ….etc

App Store: You will get an App Store that simply holds all the medical and non-medical applications in one shop. For Palm and Pocket PC you’d have to shop around for that particular software you are interested in. Blackberry, however, learned the trick and they recently created the Blackberry App World.

Medical Library: As opposed to few months ago, you are not going to miss any major medical app. Everybody is on board now, Epocrates, Skyscape, Unbound Medicine, Pepid, Medical Wizards and a host of all major medical PDA software developers. In fact, in certain examples, you will get apps that are not yet available in other platforms. This stems from the fact that there are now individual developers for the iPhone who have never thought of developing an app before the iPhone blast, take for example Mediquations, Medimath, and Lytes.

Ease of use: The iPhone OS is designed from the ground up to be simple to learn and to use. My niece told me that when she got her BB she spent hours trying to understand it and eventually she threw it away for the next day while when she got her new iPhone 3GS she learned everything she needs to do in less than an hour. I even believe that Apple intentionally missed some of the more advanced features in the initial generations to make it simpler for people to get acquainted with it and then to add those extras later on like MMS, blue tooth pairing, GPS, copy and paste.. etc. That’s smart isn’t it? Speaking of the simplicity, you now have medical schools pushing their students and residents to use it [for example the University of Virginia Mobile health system].

Cost effectiveness: Despite the fact that the iPhone costs more when you first buy it compared to others, on the long run you may spend less. Here’s why: First, there is a tremendously increasing trend of free and low cost apps in the App Store, take for example Skyscape Medical Bag and Pepid Elements, both of these two apps are not available for the other platforms. Second, in my personal experience, iPhone tends to crash far less than the others and so you are less likely to pay for your tech repair bills.

No stylus: I regard this as an advantage. Most of us would like to take the PDA out from the white coat, find out something quickly, and then putting it back. Obviously, this is more cumbersome if you have to use both hands and much easier done single handedly with the tip of the thumb doing the action only. Yet, Palm Pre and the newer Pocket PC devices have started to support more and more the single hand functionality.

The Cons:

No file support: Doctors tend to write their notes and drafts on MS Word and their clinical trial data on a spreadsheets such as MS Excel and would like to read journal articles that are usually PDF files and perhaps want to rehearse their MS Power Point presentation. Unfortunately, none of these file extensions are supported by the iPhone OS. In addition, the iPhone OS is configured in such a way that makes file storage and sharing inherently difficult. For example, iSilo documents are very difficult to transfer to the iPhone.

Not all medical apps: Yes, I said that most developers have already established their iPhone apps but this does not holds true for all. Still the Palm and Windows Mobile libararies are significantly larger than the medical iPhone library. Even some major developers such as USBMIS and UpToDate are not yet there on the iPhone.

AT&T Exclusive: So far, in the US, the only carrier that provides iPhone is AT&T. This is a great limitation when it comes to freedom of choice. For Palm, Blackberry, and PPC we can virtually choose any of the major US carriers to carry our smartphone of choice. See I want an iPhone without AT&T post.

Limited storage capacity: Although there are 32GB iPhone devices but still the storage is limited. You don’t have a memory card expansion. This will translate into unwanted cost should you need only 2 GB or limitation in case you’d like to have more than 32GB to store videos and images [although 32 gigs is extremely high and more than enough speaking of medical apps only].

Now the question is, where to find those great deals and bargains. Your immediate answer to this question is likely to be Ebay or Amazon but what I want to point out here that there is another great online resource Geeks.com.

As the name applies this website is all about those hi tech items that you found your colleague is using and you just can’t find it in your neighborhood Bestbuy store.

So if you ever wondered where to buy that printer that can print right from your Palm and PDA or that iPod accessory that’s no longer in the market then Geeks.com is the place to go.

Geeks.com is a website that is a deal driven [see price grabber ratings], they buy excess inventory, end-of-lease, overstock, or manufacture close-out from vendors looking to liquidate inventory quickly and thence they sell it back to you at exceptional low price. They also have a great customer support as rated here.

Go to Skyscape’s Offer Page

This time it’s 15% site wide discount

Good opportunity to buy that expensive title from Skyscape, offer ends in July 9.

Happy fouth of July to all …

However, and stunningly, it was not! Play this video for details;

Skyscape’s Medical Bag features a reasonable portions of the original titles namely the Archimedes 360, Labs 360, and Life Support 360.

In fact if you see the video above it shows clearly that the life support content is exactly as the original version and the selected calculators are closer to Archimedes 360 than it is to the free Archimedes. Only the lab section is perhaps significantly trimmed down from the original Labs 360, but in any case still they include what is commonly asked for in clinical practice.

But anyway this is a great deal. The combined prices of the original components is over $80 in Skyscape’s Website and you get them all for only $1.99! Are they serious?

This is not the first time Skyscape is giving away their titles in such a low price. They have done it before in their first iPhone app, the Skyscape Medical Resources. Probably, they realized that selling thousands [may be hundreds of thousands] of low priced apps is more profitable than selling hundreds of high priced apps.

Note that both Skyscape Medical Resources and Skyscape Medical Bag are not offered in the Skyscape website only in iTunes App Store, and there are no Palm or WM or BB versions, only iPhone version. Why? may be they want to take advantage of the alarmingly increasing number of “iPhone” doctors!

Ultimately, this is good for us consumers. We certainly love lower prices.

So here’s my advice; if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, Do not buy Life Support 360, And perhaps Don’t buy Archimedes 360 and Labs 360 either.

Instead go to iTunes App Store and download the Skyscape Medical Bag for only $1.99.

And if you don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch, get yourself one of them soon.

Of note, Skyscape is using their properiatory titles in these “subsidized” collections because otherwise they would have to pay royalties if they for example include the Harriet Lane or Davis’s Drug Guide.

After thinking for a while, I gave her three options:

• Get an iPod Touch [aka iTouch]
• Or Get a jailbroken iPhone
• Or Wait for a while as there are big rumors that iPhone is coming to Verison next year

Her answers were:

• I still want to make phone calls
• I don’t want to engage in something “illegal”
• I don’t want to wait and I don’t believe in rumors!

So obviously I could not help her out and she left me unhappily…

When I came back home I was still thinking of her question, and finally I’ve got a better idea

You can still use the iPod Touch as a phone

iPod Touch is equipped with WiFi and there is a dedicated free Skype app that you can install on it and it would allow making FREE and LOW COST phone calls both country wide and even internationally.

All you need is:

1) A second generation iPod Touch: this is important because the first generation devices has no microphone support. Note that we are talking here about the device itself [hardware] not the new iPhone 3.0 OS. How to tell the difference? Second generation devices has contoured design and oval shaped antenna over the left upper back corner compared with a squared one of the first generation.

2) A simple mic and head phone: pretty much all compatible with iPod as it has the standard 3.5 mm jack, check this Amazon page for a long list of these. Moreover, if you upgrade your iTouch’s OS to the latest iPhone 3.0 OS you can even pair it with a wireless bluetooth headset [check Amazon options] making calls conveniently without the hassle of wires.

3) Install the free Skype or TruPhone for iPod Touch that gives similar functions.

That’s it you are good to go…

Even more:

• If you are worried about receiving calls not only making calls then Skype can give you an online number that people can dial and call you on. You can do that from within the app itself;

• You can even use your iPod Touch to send SMS text messages! Yes, most carriers support email to SMS. So you can email your text and your friends will receive it in their SMS Inbox. The email address is in this format [your friend's 10 digit phone number including the area code@your friend's carrier messaging domain];

Here are examples of the most common US carriers.
AT&T: 1234567890@mobile.att.net T-Mobile: 1234567890@tmomail.net Verizon Wireless: 1234567890@vtext.com Sprint 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com Nextel: 1234567890@messaging.nextel.com

Finally my friend was convinced as she has Wifi both at the hospital where she works and at home