IBM’s supercomputer will now help save lives.
After beating up on lowly humans on ‘Jeopardy,’ IBM’s supercomputer Watson will now help Wellpoint Inc., the health insurer with 34 million members, to diagnose medical problems and authorize the correct treatments.
By integrating Watson’s database into its own existing patient information, Wellpoint says they should be able to find the best treatment and remedies in the quickest time.
Says IBM: “This very much fits into the sweet spot of what we envisioned for the applications of Watson.” Wellpoint agrees: “It’s really a game-changer in health care.”
More specifically, the databases being integrated are Wellpoint’s patient charts/electronic record, the insurance company’s history of medicines and treatments, and Watson’s vast database of textbooks and medical journals.
IBM says it will only take seconds for Watson to sift through all the data and provide several diagnoses or treatments.
Result for: into
Barnes & Noble, the proud owners of the highest-rated dedicated e-reader, ever, are giving users even more incentive to pick up a new Nook.
As of this weekend, anyone who walks into a Barnes & Noble brick-and-mortar store with a rival e-reader and purchases a new Nook Color or Nook Simple Touch will be given a 2GB microSD card filled with “$315″ worth of free e-books.
A few of the 30 books provided are classics like “Robinson Crusoe” and “Don Quixote” and you can check the full list here: 30 Free Nook books
The Nook Color (more of a tablet than an e-reader, retails for $250 and the brand-new Nook Simple Touch (the highest-rated dedicated e-reader, ever) retails for just $140.
Barnes & Noble is of course hoping that many will show off their old Amazon Kindle and “upgrade” to the Nook Simple, and the cheap promotion should also help drive foot traffic to the struggling stores.
Result for: into
Twitter may be ready to introduce its own photo-sharing service as early as this week, say multiple reports.
The service will be announced tomorrow at the D9 Conference in California, with CEO Dick Costolo as keynote speaker.
Currently, there are a number of competing photo services for Twitter, with the most popular being TwitPic, Lockerz and Yfrog.
The new service shouldn’t be anything too mind blowing, but will be likely integrated into Twitter’s official Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Web apps/sites.
Twitter recently acquired popular client TweetDeck for $40 million.
