Today on DT Daily: The latest details on Apple’s $3 billion Beats buyout, Samsung’s Simband tech gets serious about your health and just in time for the weekend, we order a cocktail from a robot bartender.
It’s official: Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are now gazillionaires after signing on the line to turn over Beats Music to Apple for $3 billion dollars. Not bad for a company valued at just over one billion dollars just about a year ago.
The $3 billion price tag is a $200 million reduction from the initial $3.2 billion offer, apparently reached after Apple took a closer look at Beat’s financials and their struggling Beats Music service, which has just over 100,000 subscribers. Compare that to the 20 million people using Spotify, and, well, you can see why they may have gotten a discount. So when will we be seeing Beats ‘phones packed in with our new iPhones and other Apple wares? Probably sooner than later as Apple looks to regain some hip mojo and put those little white earbuds in the rearview mirror.
Fitness bands are great for tuning up your workout, but Samsung is looking to take wearable health tech to a whole new level with the Simband platform. Designed more as a holistic health monitor and diagnosis system, the Simband packs numerous sensors in the band of the to-be-finalized watch-styled device.
It’s an open-source project according to Samsung, so in addition to the myriad native functions, which includes an EEG sensor, more features could be added by other parties down the line. The watch band uses pulses of light to check things like pulse and other health metrics, and pairs with other devices to expand its capabilities. The device will diagnose symptoms and even contact your doctor if need be.
Samsung says the SimBand is designed to “give your body a voice” through technology and will work more as an overall medical monitor and not just as a fitness aid, but you can bet this kind health tech will find it’s way into more devices, and probably soon.
Hey, it’s Friday, and that means once the little hand hits 5, it’s time for some post-cubicle libations at your favorite watering hole – which just might be at your place.
But these are modern times, so what you need of course, is a robotic bartender. The slightly tipsy folks at Barobot have got just the thing in this automated bartending bot, which can make a mean Manhattan or any number of other adult beverages. The Barobot has a built-in touch screen for dialing up drinks, or just use the tablet or smartphone app to order by remote control. You can even input custom drink recipes and the system is open source, so hey, get creative.
The Barobot is on Kickstarter now and you can buy it as a kit for about $1500 or in “plug and pour” form for about $2200. Spendy, sure, but probably cheaper than having Tom Cruise come to your shindig to serve the drinks.
Your host today is Greg Nibler.
