Category: Innovation

Apple recently announced that it will begin to support RCS, the modern standard for smartphone messaging. This decision to adopt the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol in 2024 marks a significant shift in the landscape of cross-platform messaging, promising enhanced interoperability between iOS and Android devices.

Announced to be part of a future iOS update, likely iOS 18, RCS support on iPhone will introduce a range of iMessage-like features for texts between iPhone and Android users, including read receipts, typing indicators, and high-quality media sharing​​​​​​. RCS has been supported by Android devices for some time, with Google and Samsung championing the standard as a modern replacement for the aging SMS and MMS protocols.

Apple’s adoption of RCS, as announced in November 2023, comes after years of industry pressure and amidst growing regulatory scrutiny over proprietary technologies like iMessage. However, it’s important to note that RCS, while offering many improvements over SMS/MMS, does not currently match iMessage’s end-to-end encryption for all messages.

Apple will not be opening up their proprietary communication protocol to allow end-to-end encryption communication with Androids over iMessage. Instead, RCS is going to be Apple’s fallback protocol when communicating with an Android device. Apple has committed to working with the GSM Association to enhance RCS’s security features, including better encryption standards.

Despite these advancements, iMessage will remain exclusive to Apple devices, maintaining its encrypted communication platform for iPhone users only​​​​. The introduction of RCS on iPhones aims to alleviate some of the common frustrations experienced in cross-platform messaging, such as issues with group conversations and the sharing of media between Android and iPhone users.

While RCS messages will continue to appear as green bubbles on Apple devices, the underlying technology will ensure a more seamless and feature-rich messaging experience​​. This move, while long-awaited, is a positive step towards bridging the communication gap between iPhone and Android users, offering a glimpse into a more unified messaging future.

Having just recently experienced the frustrating inability to send any messages to a mixed Android and iPhone group chat. I can say that I am personally quite happy that Apple finally made this decision.

From Barton Springs in Austin, Texas, to Switzerland’s Aare river, urban waterways worldwide provide relief from city heat, allowing people to enjoy the benefits of swimming. However, even on the hottest days, New Yorkers are reluctant to swim in the city’s rivers.

A floating pool aims to change that by repurposing the city’s river water for public use. +POOL, an organization advocating for equitable access to NYC’s waters, has secured $16 million in state and city funding to create the first urban river-sourced swim facility in the U.S. This summer, a 2,000-square-foot version of the pool will be tested in one of the rivers or bays surrounding New York City. If successful, it could be open to the public by 2025.

The pool’s plus sign-shaped design includes a kid’s pool, sports pool, lap pool, and lounge pool, forming an Olympic-length pool when combined or opening up for 9,000 square feet of play.

+POOL’s patented filtration system is designed to clean over 1,000,000 gallons of raw river water daily without chemicals. The Environmental Protection Agency’s water quality modeling software will ensure the water meets acceptable microbiological standards for swimming.

In the early 1900s, swimming in NYC’s rivers was common, with 40% of New Yorkers using floating baths. However, environmental degradation led to the closure of public river pools in the 1920s. Municipal swimming pools were popular in the 1920s-1940s, but subsequent decades saw a decline in public pool investment and a shift towards private facilities, resulting in unequal access.

Despite this, New York’s rivers have become cleaner due to improved environmental practices. With advancing technology and environmental stewardship, the city might be on the brink of a new era of public swimming, potentially eliminating the need to leave for a cool plunge by 2025.

An ongoing human study suggest that a new experimental cancer test can accurately detect up to 18 early-stage cancers. But how does it work? And maybe even more importantly, how much will it cost?

The new cancer test works by analyzing blood proteins, instead of tumor DNA, and showed this style of test may accurately detect up to 18 early-stage cancers. The US biotech firm, Novelna, presented trial results involving 440 individuals with 18 different cancers, using blood plasma samples from each patient and 44 healthy donors.

The Novelna team achieved high sensitivity and specificity by analyzing trace proteins in the blood. The test, which also considers sex-specific proteins, identified 93% of male and 84% of female cancers at stage I with 99% specificity. The researchers proposed the test as a foundation for a cost-effective, accurate, multi-cancer screening on a population-wide scale, covering major human organs.

Acknowledging the trial’s small size, the team stresses the need for larger trials to confirm accuracy. Despite this, they highlighted the significance of detecting low-level proteins in blood samples for early tumor identification. Implementing such tests could improve survival rates, especially for cancers like breast cancer, and contribute to global efforts in combating the substantial impact of cancer, which currently accounts for one in every six deaths worldwide.

Novelna also anticipates that the test will be much cheaper than current option, with the estimated cost to be below $100. Current tests, like the Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) tests, can often cost close to $1,000.

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