Month: October 2018

Solving big problems for many people is the kind of opportunity that both entrepreneurs and investors love. Like recent Brazilian investment booms focused on fintech innovation and new on-demand business models, there’s been a recent explosion in healthtech startups in Brazil. With tens of millions of the country’s people impacted by gigantic inequities in access to health services, some serious quality problems, burdensome costs and inefficiencies on all sides, entrepreneurs’ plates are full in bringing healthtech innovations to the market.

In a recent study by Liga Ventures, there are now more than 250 health-focused startups in Brazil, the world’s seventh-largest health market with more than $42 billion spent annually on private healthcare. Yet, with more than $18 billion wasted due to inefficiencies, and health-related costs doubling in the country during the last five years (with accumulated inflation at 38 percent), Brazilian healthcare is ripe for disruption. Healthtech startups are one of the five featured verticals at Cubo Itaú, one of world’s largest entrepreneurial hubs based in Vila Olímpia, in the southern zone of São Paulo.

Last year, healthtech was the second-fastest growing tech sector in Latin America, according to “Inside Latin America’s Breakout Year in Tech” published by LAVCA. There was a 250 percent increase in the number of healthtech deals compared to 2016. A $50 million investment in Dr. Consulta, a network of brick-and-mortar clinics in Brazil offering top-quality healthcare at an affordable price, was among the top venture capital deals for 2017.

The healthcare sector is a complex market that connects people, processes and products between patients, intermediaries, care providers, distributors and suppliers. Based on tech innovation in Brazil that’s having the biggest impact, here are some of the key categories and players bringing new business models to market.

Healthcare on demand

About 75 percent of Brazil’s population (approximately 150 million people) only have access to the public healthcare system, which is poorly managed and inefficient. Often times, to schedule a single consultation or exam, a patient needs to wait weeks or even months to see a care provider. Technology-driven startups are springing up to address better, more efficient access to healthcare for a large and aging population.

For example, Dr. Consulta’s chain of low-cost medical clinics have expanded in three years from one to 51 branches and now claim to have the country’s largest clinical data set drawn from more than one million patients. In comparison to other private-sector clinics that cost at least $90, consultations with doctors at Dr. Consulta cost $25. Others offering similar clinical services on demand in Brazil today include Clínica Sim, Dr. Sem Filas, Docway and GlobalMed.

Telehealth and mobile health apps

To help make healthcare advice, diagnosis and monitoring more accessible, telehealth services in Brazil are expanding. Brazil Telemedicine (Brasil Telemedicina), for example, provides a variety of services around the clock that include medical exams and doctor consultations, a remote monitoring system and psychological counseling.

Startups with B2B telehealth services to improve patient care include Telelaudo, which provides 24/7 radiology imaging analysis, and Ventrix, which provides specialty devices to monitor heart health, treat vacuum wounds and monitor babies’ breathing and well-being. Another São Paulo-based startup called NEO MED has launched a marketplace to make it easier and faster to generate medical reports for ECG and EEG exams, facilitate improved collaboration between clinics, laboratories and hospitals and support physicians seeking more income and flexibility in where they choose to work.

Mobile health apps have grown in popularity in Brazil, in part due to a high prevalence of diseases like diabetes and hypertension and a large number of internet users in the country. For example, a mobile app and online program called Diet and Health (Dieta e Saude) has helped more than 1,600,000 users make better nutrition choices and motivate them to exercise regularly. Youper, founded in Brazil and now based in San Francisco, is a virtual emotional health assistant that helps overcome social anxiety. It helps its users re-formulate thought patterns and arrive at healthier states of mind.

AI and data analytics

Like many industries, AI and data analytics are transforming healthcare in Brazil and beyond from improving the speed of patient diagnoses to managing healthcare costs.

Gesto is one such emerging innovator that’s using machine learning to sift through and make sense of a lot of data on more than 4.5 million patients in its database to help select better insurance plans for corporations that optimize patient care while controlling costs. Intensicare, the largest specialist in intensive care unit management in Brazil, uses AI to speed diagnosis and reduce patient stay time and mortality rates. Epitrack is a Recife-based startup that uses crowdsourced data, AI and predictive analysis to combat outbreaks and epidemics through computational epidemiology.

Electronic medical records

Last year, the Brazilian government launched a project to modernize patient records for more than 42,000 public health clinics across the country by the end of 2018. This digitization of records is estimated to save the federal government about $6.8 billion according to The World Bank. As of late last year, only 30 million Brazilians (out of 208 million) had electronic medical records (EMR), and nearly two-thirds of the family clinics in Brazil didn’t have any way of recording digital information about their patients.

iClinic, a SaaS EMR platform, is one of the top Brazilian startups that has made a big impact on modernizing healthcare. It helps health professionals organize patient records electronically, store all that data in the cloud and retrieve it from any device. iClinic provides an extremely easy-to-use system to make healthcare more efficient, reduce costs and improve the quality of patient care. It’s now used in many parts of Brazil and has begun to spread its usage outside Brazil in more than 20 countries.

Digitizing prescriptions

Another major issue caused by a lack of digitization is that close to 70 percent of medical prescriptions in Brazil have potential for errors, according to the World Health Organization. As a result, Brazil has thousands of deaths per year linked to medication errors. A good number of them could be avoided by scanning. In the U.S., more than 77 percent of prescriptions are already done digitally.

To address this life-and-death issue, Memed has emerged as a key player for managing e-prescriptions in Brazil. Its platform, now used by more than 55,000 doctors from all medical specialties in the country, helps cross-check for allergies and drug interactions, makes treatment adherence easier and improves health outcomes. It’s developed the most complete, reliable and updated drug database in Brazil.

Certainly, healthtech startups in Brazil have emerged as a sector to watch, and we’re only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of problems in the country to be addressed by healthtech innovation. The key ingredients to create another boom sector like fintech in the region are abundant. Healthtech in Brazil will surely remain a hot spot for entrepreneurs, and the investors who believe in them, for many years to come.

Disclosure: Redpoint eventures is an investor in Memed.  

Stardew Valley, the hit indie farming game made by one guy in his spare time, is coming to mobile. I’ve dropped dozens of hours into this charming little spiritual successor to Harvest Moon, and now I know how I’m going to spend my next few plane rides.

In case you’re not aware, Stardew Valley is a game where you inherit a farm near a lovely little town and must restore it, befriend (and romance) the locals, fish, fight your way through caverns, forage for spring onions and wild horseradish, mine ore, and… well, there’s a lot. Amazingly, it was created entirely by one person, Eric Barone, who taught himself to code, make pixel art, compose music and do literally everything. And yes, it took a long time. (GQ of all things wrote an interesting profile recently.)

Fortunately it was a huge hit, to Barone’s great surprise and no doubt pleasure, and deservedly so.

Originally released for the PC, Stardew Valley has since expanded (with the help of non-Barone teams) to the major consoles and is now coming to iOS — undiminished, Barone was careful to point out in a blog post. This game is big, but nothing is left out from the mobile port.

“It’s the full game, not a cut down version, and plays almost identically to all other versions,” he wrote. “The main difference is that it has been rebuilt for touch-screen gameplay on iOS (new UI, menu systems and controls).”

Barone has added a lot to the game since its release in early 2016, and the mobile version will include those updates up to 1.3 — meaning you’ll have several additional areas and features but not the multiplayer options most recently added. Those are planned, however, so if you want to do a co-op farm you’ll just have to wait a bit. No mods will be supported, alas.

In a rare treat for mobile ports, you can take your progress from the PC version and transfer it to iOS via iTunes. No need to start over again, which, fun as it is, can be a bit daunting when you realize how much time you’ve put into the game to start with.

I can’t recommend Stardew Valley enough, and the controls should be more than adequate for the laid-back gameplay it offers (combat is fairly forgiving). It’ll cost $8 in the App Store starting October 24 (Android version coming soon), half off the original $15 price — which I must say was amazingly generous to begin with. You can’t go wrong here, trust me.

If you’re considering making the jump to Google’s newly announced Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, you’re in the right place. Whether you’re a Pixel 2 owner eyeing greener pastures or a bargain type hunting for a last-gen smartphone that’s still top of the line, comparing new and old is often useful.

On specs alone, the Pixel 3 shares most of its DNA with the Pixel 2, but there are a handful of meaningful differences and they’re not all obvious. What is obvious: The Pixel 3’s AMOLED screen is now 5.5 inches compared to the Pixel 2’s 5 inch display. The Pixel 3 XL now offers a 6.3 inch display, up .3 inches from the Pixel 2 XL.

The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL upgrade the Pixel 2’s processor slightly and add an additional front-facing camera for some of the device’s newest tricks. The primary camera also gets an under-the-hood upgrade to its visual co-processing chip, called Visual Core. The Visual Core chip update is what powers some of the new camera features that we’ll get into in just a bit.

Pixel 3 XL

Beyond that, the hardware looks very similar for the most part, though the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL do offer some changes in screen size, like we mentioned. Most noticeably, the Pixel 3 XL has an iPhone-like notch this time around while the notchless Pixel 3 offers a reduced bezel but no edge-to-edge screen.

Pixel 2 XL

The Pixel 3 starts at $799 (64GB of storage) while the base model Pixel 2 is currently priced at $649, though more price drops could be in store. The Pixel 3 XL starts at $899 for 64GB of storage and offers 128GB for $999. The Pixel 2 XL is more deeply discounted than its smaller sibling at the moment with a 64GB base option on sale for $699. If it sounds complicated, it’s not really. Each Pixel comes in two sizes: 64GB or 128GB and more storage costs $100 bucks extra.

The black and white Pixel 2 XL

With the Pixel 3, Google has unified the color scheme across both sizes of device, offering “Just Black,” “Clearly White” with an eye-catching seafoam colored button and a very Apple-like “Not Pink” that comes with a coral colored button.

Google’s Pixel 2 also came in black and white but also a muted greyish blue color, which was cool. The Pixel 2 XL came in all black or black and white with a brightly colored power button, so we’re a little sad to see that colorway go. Google also noted in its launch event that the new phones feel more comfortable to hold, though we’d have to try that out with the Pixel 3 XL to see if that really holds true.

Like we said, if you’re not vehemently anti-notch the hardware isn’t that different. The dual front-facing camera is the most substantial change. But since we’re talking about Google phones what we’re really talking about is software and when it comes to software Google has held some substantial perks exclusive to the Pixel 3.

We spoke to Google to clarify what features won’t be coming to the Pixel 2, at least not yet:

• Photobooth: The hands-free selfie mode that snaps photos when you smile
• Top Shot: Burst photo mode that picks your best shots.
• Super Res Zoom: A new machine learning-powered camera mode that merges many burst images to fill in additional details.
• Wide angle selfies: That extra front-facing camera wasn’t for nothing. Mark my words, this is the Pixel 3’s real killer feature, even if it takes a while to catch on.
• Motion Auto focus: A camera mode that allows you to tap a subject once and track it while it moves.
• Lens Suggestions: A new mode for Google Lens.
• Titan M: A new security chip with a cool name that Google touts for providing enterprise-level security.
• Wireless charging: Either a big deal to you or it’s not.

Thrift-minded shoppers and fairly content Pixel 2 owners fear not. There are plenty of new features that don’t rely on hardware improvements and will be coming to vintage Pixels. Those include Call Screen, Night Sight, Playground (the AR sticker thing) and Digital Wellbeing, already available in beta.

So, do you need to upgrade? Well, as always, that’s a very personal and often very nitpickily detail-oriented question. Are you dying for a slight but not unsubstantial bump in screen real estate? Does Google’s very solid lineup of cool new camera modes entice you? Is wireless charging an absolute dealmaker?

As for me, I’m perfectly happy with the Pixel 2 for now, but as someone who regularly takes front-facing photos with more than one human in them, that extra-wide group selfie mode does beckon. If I were still using a first generation Pixel I’d be all over the Pixel 3, but my device has a ton of life left in it.

A Google spokesperson emphasized that as always with its flagship smartphone line, the company will “try to bring as many features as possible to existing phones so they keep getting better over time.”

The Pixel 2 is still one of the best smartphones ever made and it’s more affordable now than before. Even with last-gen hardware — often the best deal for smartphone shoppers — you can rest easy knowing that Google won’t abandon the Pixel 2.

Google unveiled a new lineup of devices today, including the Pixel Slate, a tablet that the company described as the next evolution of Chrome OS — but could also be seen as the company’s answer to both Apple’s iPad and Microsoft’s Surface.

After the presentation, I had a chance to try the Pixel Slate out for myself. There wasn’t time to test out everything (a packed room full of journalists isn’t the best place to try out the speakers, and there didn’t seem to be much new with the accompanying Google Pen) but it was enough to get a taste of the main selling points.

The first thing I noticed was the screen. Google is pitching this as a device that can be used for both work and entertainment, with a particular emphasis on content creators.  The display seems to be up to the task — it’s 12.3 inches in size, with a resolution of 203ppi. The result is that everything from YouTube videos to email composition screens looked sharp and vivid.

There’s also an emphasis on thinness and lightness. The Pixel Slate has an official weight of 1.6 pounds, and it did feel easy to carry, and to adjust the angle to my liking using the case/stand. (The real test, of course, will be seeing how my arms and fingers felt after several hours of Netflix.)

There’s also an optional keyboard. It includes nice touches like rounded keys, but I was most intrigued by the quietness touted by Google’s presenters. Loyal TechCrunch readers will know that I’m a notoriously loud typer, so I couldn’t resist trying to bash away at it.

Turns out it was as quiet as promised. To be honest, I would’ve appreciated a little more noise, but I’m sure everyone in my immediate vicinity felt otherwise. And even with the relative absence of sound, the experience was still satisfyingly tactile — I didn’t hear the keys, but I felt them clacking under my fingers.

The Slate also appeared to move seamlessly back-and-forth between desktop and tablet modes. As the name suggests, desktop mode looks like a more mouse- and keyboard-oriented interface (with capabilities like snapping two applications side-by-side as a splitscreen), while tablet mode a more standard, touch-friendly interface, along with an on-screen keyboard.

The Slate automatically snaps back-and-forth between the modes — in my demo, you just had to pull it away from the aforementioned keyboard to trigger the switch, though apparently it’s the presence of a trackpad or mouse that really makes the difference.

Other features front- and rear-facing cameras, Google Assistant and a fingerprint reader. Pricing starts at $599, with an additional $199 for the keyboard and $99 for the Pen.

Enterprise Dropbox users have a useful new feature that some would say is long overdue for the cloud storage company: optical character recognition that automatically transcribes all their images and PDFs. No more rummaging around in your saved photos for a receipt or opening dozens of mysteriously named documents to find the right one. Just search and ye shall find.

Dropbox’s text recognition engine is rolling out to Dropbox Pro, Business Advanced, and Enterprise accounts over the next few months, but admins might want to check to see if they can get early access.

When it comes into effect, every image and PDF you have will be scanned for text, which will be added to metadata allowing you to search for it that way. Of course all this data will be kept as secure as the document itself. Handy, though of course much depends on how accurate the transcription is. OCR can be fiddly.

Box, Dropbox’s perennial and more concisely named competitor, added comprehensive OCR last year, though with the added capability of recognizing objects. So although this doesn’t bring Dropbox quite up to the level of feature parity, it definitely narrows the gap and fits the most common use cases.

Previously you could specifically scan documents you wanted OCR’ed, but this is obviously more convenient. You can read a bit about how they built their own OCR system (Box leveraged Google’s, which accounts for its head start) at this rather interesting technical blog post.

If you’re part of a group that gets access to this useful new feature, it’ll come into play automatically and will back-process all your documents already in the system.

Behold the Google Home Mickey. It’s an official collaboration with Google and Disney that OtterBox is selling for $20. The base props up Google’s best-selling smart speaker and gives it iconic mouse ears and red suspenders in the process. It also helps the Mini project by propping it up at an angle.

Oh, and the power cord happens to double as a tail.

The clunkily named Den Series for Google Home Mini featuring Disney Mickey Mouse will be available through the case maker’s site. No specific availability just yet, and yes, Home Mini is sold separately.

Apparently the product wasn’t able to sneak its way into today’s overly crowded Google hardware keynote. But then, the company didn’t spend much time on the Home line, outside of the new Hub.

No word yet on Donald, Goofy, or, most appropriately of all, a Google Home Minnie.

When we last met with Salto the jumping robot it was bopping around like a crazed grasshopper. Now researchers have added targeting systems to the little creature, allowing it to maintain a constant hop while controlling exactly when and where Salto lands.

Called “deadbeat foot placement hopping control” the Salto can now watch a surface for a target and essentially fly over to where it needs to land using built-in propellers.

Researchers Duncan Haldane, Justin Yim and Ronald Fearing created the Salto as part of the Army Research Office and they will be exhibiting the little guy at the 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

The team upgraded Salto’s controller to make it far more precise on landing, a feat that was almost impossible using the previous controller system, SLIP. “The robot behaves more or less like a spring-loaded inverted pendulum, a simplified dynamic model that shows up often enough in both biology and robotics that it has its own acronym: SLIP,” wrote Evan Ackerman at IEEE. “Way back in the 1980s, Marc Raibert developed a controller for SLIP-like robots, and people are still using it today, including Salto-1P up until just recently.”

With its latest consumer hardware products, Google’s prices are undercutting Apple, Samsung, and Amazon. The search giant just unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, tablet, and smart home device and all available at prices well below their direct competitors. Where Apple and Samsung are pushing prices of its latest products even higher, Google is seemingly happy to keep prices low and this is creating a distinct advantage for the company’s products.

Google, like Amazon and nearly Apple, is a services company that happens to sell hardware. It needs to acquire users through multiple verticals including hardware. Somewhere, deep in the Googleplex, a team of number crunchers decided it made more sense to make its hardware prices dramatically lower than competitors. If Google is taking a loss on the hardware, it is likely making it back through services.

Amazon does this with Kindle devices. Microsoft and Sony do it with game consoles. This is a proven strategy to increase market share where the revenue generated on the backend recovers the revenue lost on selling hardware with slim or negative margins.

Look at the Pixel 3. The base 64GB model is available for $799 while the base 64GB iPhone XS is $999. Want a bigger screen? The 64GB Pixel 3 XL is $899, and the 64GB iPhone XS Max is $1099. Regarding the specs, both phones offer OLED displays and amazing cameras. There are likely pros and cons regarding the speed of the SoC, amount of RAM and wireless capabilities. Will consumers care since the screen and camera are so similar? Probably not.

Google also announced the Home Hub today. Like the Echo Show, it’s designed to be the central part of a smart home. It puts Google Assistant on a fixed screen where users can ask it questions and control a smart home. It’s $149. That’s $80 less than the Echo Show thou the Google version lacks video conferencing and a dedicated smart home hub — the Google Home Hub requires extra hardware for some smart home objects. Still, even with fewer features, the Home Hub is compelling because of its drastically lower price. For just a few dollars more than an Echo Show, a buyer could get a Home Hub and two Home Mini’s.

The Google Pixel Slate is Google’s answer to the iPad Pro. From everything we’ve seen, it appears to lack a lot of the processing power found in Apple’s top tablet. It doesn’t seem as refined or capable of specific tasks. But for view media, creating content and playing games, it feels just fine. It even has a Pixelbook Pen and a great keyboard that shows Google is positioning this against the iPad Pro. And the 12.3-inch Pixel Slate is available for $599 where the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is $799.

The upfront price is just part of the equation. When considering the resale value of these devices, a different conclusion can be reached. Apple products consistently resale for more money than Google products. On Gazelle.com, a company that buys used smartphones, a used iPhone X is worth $425 where a used Pixel 2 is $195. A used iPhone 8, a phone that sold for a price closer to the Pixel 2, is worth $240.

In the end, Google likely doesn’t expect to make money off the hardware it sells. It needs users to buy into its services. The best way to do that is to make the ecosystem competitive though perhaps not investing the capital to make it the best. It needs to be just good enough, and that’s how I would describe these devices. Good enough to be competitive on a spec-to-spec basis while available for much less.

So you need a new phone do ya? Well as is the case each year there are some hot new pieces of metal and glass out there from Apple and Google and to make sense of how they stack up against each other we’ve got some fine comparison details here for you.

This was an iterative year for both the iPhone and Pixel lines. The most notable upgrade for the iPhone XS was the introduction of the Pixel XS Max which balloons the screen size, but otherwise the main differences come in the computational photography tweaks to the camera which Apple has lagged behind Google in. Google’s new phone had a rather leaky introduction but pulled off an interesting release with some camera features we’ll be tempted to check out in more depth once review units come in.

This isn’t the fairest of fights as we’ve had some flesh and blood time to examine the iPhone XS warts and all while the Pixel 3 is a shiny new enigma that we’re kind of taking Google at their word for until we can stress test the little bugger.

Here’s a bare bones view at the specs you really should be caring abour: display, rear camera and price.

Pixel 3

• Starts at $799 (64 GB)
• 5.5 inch 443 ppi OLED screen
• 12.2MP “dual-pixel” rear camera

Pixel 3 XL

• Starts at $899 (64 GB)
• 6.3 inch 523ppi OLED screen
• 12.2MP “dual-pixel” rear camera

iPhone XS

• Starts at $999 (64 GB)
• 5.8 inch 458ppi OLED screen
• Dual 12MP wide-angle and telephoto cameras

iPhone XS Max

• Starts at $1099 (64 GB)
• 6.5 inch 458ppi OLED screen
• Dual 12MP wide-angle and telephoto cameras

First off, if you’re strapped for cash or more accurately just want to be more responsible with the cash you do have, the price tags of these devices communicate some loud differences. The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL go for $200 less than the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max respectively. Paying $1000 for a phone is wild but it’s the world we live in and honestly given the amount of quality time we spend with our phones, it’s some of the more functional coinage you’ll be spending.

In terms of displays, the Pixel 3 is un-notched while the Pixel 3 XL, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max all have the little bulbous feature. If you hate the notch, you’re probably going to have to adapt and embrace it for at least a generation or two, but the Pixel 3 gives you a chance to kick that can down the road. These are big devices with big displays though in terms of sheer size, the iPhone still hold a much more substantial screen-to-body ratio. While the smaller and larger phones are very comparable in sheer size, the OLED on the iPhone squeezes out the extra fractions of an inch that bring the display right up to the edge.

Based on design, it depends on your preference or whatever, but I definitely think the iPhone XS has the upper-hand here. It’s a premium phone with premium heft because of its more premium price.

It’s again worth reiterating that the Pixel 3 XL and iPhone XS Max are both giant phones but the Pixel 3 XL is a hair smaller by manner of width and nearly an entire ounce lighter. Here’s a dimensions break down of the different devices.

• Pixel 3
  5.7″ height x 2.7″ width x 0.3″ depth (148 grams)
• Pixel 3 XL
  6.2″ height x 3.0″. width x 0.3″ depth (184 grams)
• iPhone XS
  5.65″ height x 2.79″ width x 0.3″ depth (177 grams)
• iPhone XS Max
  6.2″ height x 3.05″ width x 0.3″ depth (208 grams)

The spec that’s least helpful up above is the camera hardware because Apple and Google are increasingly shifting focus to camera software tweaks as their distinguishing marks. It is fascinating that Google is maintaining the single rear camera solution given the real potential dual lenses open up, including wild features like the iPhone XS depth-of-field adjustments. But the lack of dual lenses on the back of the phone didn’t stop Google from highlighting some of the new camera features they’re opening up including what they’re calling Night Sight which promises extremely good low-light performance strengthened by machine learning. I’m skeptical but given how stellar the Pixel 2’s camera has proven, I’m sure they have something unique there.

More here on the Pixel 3 camera announcements:

And here’s our iPhone XS review for some camera details there:

There a bunch of other specs that you can find on the Pixel 3 and iPhone XS product pages, but when shopping for a phone in 2018, tech specs of flagship phones are telling you less and less about where the major differences actually lie. We’ll have more thoughts on the Pixel 3 and Google’s performance claims when it comes out later next week but if you’re hankering to smash that pre-order button ponder your options and check that bank account.