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(image source | Sindya N. Bhanoo via The New York Times)

Remember when you didn’t have to leave your house when you were sick because your doctor made house calls? Yea, well I don’t either, but I saw it in a movie once. However, getting to a doctor is a routine part of many individuals lives, especially the elderly. Many need to have weekly tests performed to manage health conditions. Beyond the inconvenience of constantly needing to visit your doctor and adhering to their appointment hours, many who experience severe difficulties with their mobility simply cannot make these trips without help and/or more suffering. Beyond the burden on the patient, this routine visits incur financial and administrative strains on doctors and hospitals, raising health care costs and delaying service for everyone. As a solution Denmark is pioneering in “telemedicine”. The NY Times recently ran an article in regards to the evolution of electronic medical records into home medical tests. Through the use of technologies and a few computer accessories individuals can take certain exams in the privacy of their own home and electronically submit the information gathered to their physician. Prescriptions can even be electronically sent to pharmacies to be filled, and if that pharmacy delivers, well you get the point about how these technologies can be a great benefit for all. Be sure to read The New York Times article after the jump for a personal take on this emerging technology.

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(image source | mocoNews)

Twitter just might have a few more tricks up its sleeves. Square, the new startup from co-founder Jack Dorsey is a mobile payments company that “allows anybody with a cell phone or laptop that has a headphone jack to accept credit card payments using a small plug-in dongle, rather than having to purchase costly credit-card processing equipment.” Right now Square is being tested amongst a handful of companies, but is expected to aggressively expand in 2010. Square is an ideal product for any small business, or artists selling their works on the street to complete their transaction there and then. Currently there is no word on how much the device will cost.

Source | mocoNews

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Having grown up in NYC there are few ads more familiar than NYS Lottery commercials. Putting aside the benefit the money reaped from selling these tickets is supposed to generate for schools, the infamous “Hey, You Never Know” and “All You Need is a Dollar and a Dream” taglines are forever ingrained in our collective subconscious. However, despite the incessant repetition of these ads and other NYS Lottery advertisements, there has always been some truth to the “tax on the poor” criticism of lottery games. If you really look at these ads, they more than not are focused on getting rich for little. True, this is what a lottery game is about, but the manner of these ads clearly represent an attempt to attract those least fortunate. I have watched numerous poor and elderly hand over $20-, $50- and in some cases even $100- on daily tickets with the hope of getting out of their life situation, only to put on an enormous grin if they win back 5% of their spendings. Now, I am not one to tell anyone how to live their life, or spend their money, but one must admit that there is something wrong with that scenario. Having said my peace on lottery games, I will get to the point of this post about FLAX, the Norwegian scratch lottery games. I was actually in awe of the television advertisements I have been seeing for the past few months for these games. Their seemed to be little of a direct attempt to prey on the wallets of those less fortunate, but rather a positive, playful style to welcome all to an occasional game of chance. Now, I am sure there are other ads out there that are as horrid as those for the NYS Lotto, but to me these ads are a great example of what advertising a get-rich-quick scheme can be. See the videos in question, created by Thorbjørn Ruud, here.

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Perhaps Banksy had a bad experience trying to put together Billy bookcase system from the Swedish furniture retailer, but the latest work suspected to be that of the infamous artist appears to be taking on Ikea. Not content to go after just one retailer, (I’m looking at you Tesco) the latest piece depicts a stenciled “punk” assembling a do-it-yourself graffiti slogan.

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(image source | Jeffrey Tsang @ AS|D LABS - All Rights Reserved)

The AS|D DROP blog now allows comments to be left on our blog posts. So, come on everyone and join in the conversation!

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(image source | YouTube)

Online video site YouTube is in talks with several major movie studios about renting movies to users by streaming the movies over the Internet according to a person familiar with the talks on Wednesday.

It would mark the first time the world’s most popular video site would charge its users to watch videos.

YouTube, which is owned by Internet search giant Google Inc, has held discussions with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, Sony Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp, and Time Warner Inc’s Warner Brothers about online movie rentals, the person said.

In many cases, the movies would be available for rental for a fee in a system similar to Web rental programs from Apple Inc’s iTunes, Netflix and Amazon.com with newer movies. YouTube would likely charge a similar fee around $3.99 a rental.

YouTube, which is the world’s No.1 video website, currently offers video for free, on an advertising-supported basis.

It currently has a range of archive movies, TV shows and promotional clips from the three named studios and other partners on its site.

“We hope to expand on both our great relationship with the movie studios and the selection and types of videos we offer our community,” said YouTube spokesman Chris Dale.

YouTube is in the midst of talks and negotiations with a wide range of media content partners as it ramps up efforts to build a substantial library of current and archive professional movies and videos that it can monetize.

The site, best known as a place to seek out fun videos uploaded by users that feature themes such as skateboarding dogs and dancing babies, recently started to emphasize a growing amount of professional videos.

Advertisers are believed to favor professionally made videos over those of users. Hulu, a video site owned by News Corp, Walt Disney Co and NBC Universal, has had relative success attracting both users and advertisers with a range of full-length TV shows and older movies.

Last month, YouTube announced a partnership with Time Warner Inc properties including CNN and TNT. It agreed a similar deal in March with Walt Disney.

YouTube owner Google has come under growing criticism from Wall Street analysts and investors concerned the expense of serving millions of videos to users around the world everyday is costing the company more money than it earns from advertising.

Source | Yinka Adegoke and Alexei Oreskovic via Reuters

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