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Useful and controversial apps and services

These apps and web services are not specifically ophthalmic but hopefully of interest. Office Lens Delegates take pictures of presentation slides at conferences quite frequently. If this is something you do, have a look at the ‘Office Lens’ app. This...

Smart speakers: for patients and practitioners

Many readers will have experience of using smart speakers, such as the Amazon Echo or the Google Home. These popular devices are inexpensive and powerful. In brief, smart speakers listen for a spoken trigger word, followed by verbal commands. Commands...

GDPR, email and private practice

A new set of data protection regulations became law in the EU (including the UK) in May 2018. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) replaces the 1988 Data Protection Act. The regulation brings new rights and expectations about how our personal...

Meltdown, Spectre, Flying Hospitals and Spy Cams

iPhone slowdown In early 2018 users discovered that Apple was slowing down older iPhones intentionally. The reported reason was to prolong the usable battery life. These changes were made without the knowledge or consent of owners. Unsurprisingly, a community backlash...

Eyemate, Big Keys, SeeColors and Lastpass

In this article we are covering four topics, ranging from a service to improve television for the color blind, to an intraocular implant that is now available to measure IOP. SeeColors Samsung have released a new app called SeeColors. The...

A Doctors.net.uk app and more security woes

Doctors.net.uk gets a new app The Doctors.net.uk website is well known in the medical community. Its online services started 20 years ago, in 1998! Since then it has retained its core features of providing email accounts and also an online...

Home Wi-Fi / range and security tips

This issue covers two topics that relate to Wi-Fi. The first is keeping your wireless network secure and the second is extending its range. Keeping home Wi-Fi secure Let’s say the recent computer attacks that resulted in disruption to NHS...

The Wachter Review

Professor Robert Wachter (pronounced Wokter) is well known in the NHS IT sector. In late 2015 Jeremy Hunt announced he had tasked Dr Wachter to lead a review of the digital future of the NHS. The resulting Wachter Review was...

Google Maps - some supremely useful features

This article covers some less well known, yet very useful, features of Google Maps. Estimate your journey time by the day and time you’ll be travelling It’s easy to type a destination in and get an idea about how long...

Social networking

The use of social networking is now very common in both home and work environments. The field is expanding continually and we have had some requests for a roundup of common platforms. What is social networking and social media? As...

Eye drop reminder apps

There are quite a few apps in both the iPhone and Android app stores designed to help patients remember to take their eye drops. The goal here was to select an app suitable to recommend to patients. Ophthalmic specific apps...

Projectors and Stagefright

Choosing the correct aspect ratio for a presentation There are several mistakes that are easy to make when using PowerPoint. The most common one I see is the failure of a video to play because the video file wasn’t copied...