Technology news in brief

Google-Novartis aim: Smart contact lens

Google Inc. gained an ally to develop smart contact lenses with embedded electronics to improve vision and monitor health by teaming up with Swiss drug company Novartis AG.

Novartis’s Alcon unit will work with Google’s secretive Google X division on lenses with noninvasive sensors, microchips and embedded miniaturized electronics to monitor insulin levels for people with diabetes or to restore the eye’s natural focus in people who can no longer read without glasses, Basel-based Novartis said in a statement Tuesday. No terms of the deal were disclosed.

Novartis Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez identified eye care as one of three key divisions, along with branded and generic drugs, in announcing a $28.5 billion restructuring of the company in April that involved selling off the vaccines and animal-health units and buying GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s cancer business.

“This is a key step for us to go beyond the confines of traditional disease management, starting with the eye,” Jimenez said in the statement.

Google said in January that it was developing smart contact lenses after Bloomberg News reported that the Mountain View, Calif.-based company had met with officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who oversee medical devices.

“Our dream is to use the latest technology in the miniaturization of electronics to help the quality of life for millions of people,” Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, said in Tuesday’s statement.

— Bloomberg News

Amazon starts Kindle subcription service

After months of speculation, Amazon announced Friday that it was introducing a digital subscription service that allows subscribers to download unlimited e-books and digital audiobooks for $9.99 a month.

The service, Kindle Unlimited, offers a Netflix style, all-you-can-read approach to a library of more than 600,000 e-books, including blockbuster series like The Hunger Games and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, nonfiction titles like Michael Lewis’ Flash Boys, and literary fiction and classics.

News of the service was reported earlier this week last week when Amazon accidentally posted a promotional video for the subscription model. The video was quickly taken down from Amazon’s website, but not before technology bloggers took notice.

So far, it appears that few of the biggest publishers will be making their titles available through the service. Books published by HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, for example, are not offered, representatives from both companies confirmed. A spokesman for Penguin Random House declined to comment, but titles from the company’s 100-plus imprints are not currently available on Kindle Unlimited.

When the service went live Friday morning, some popular titles were noticeably absent. Subscribers who want to read Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken or Veronica Roth’s Divergent won’t find those books on Kindle Unlimited, at least not yet. (Books that can be downloaded for free at will as part of the subscription have an orange “Kindle Unlimited” icon under the title, along with a $0.00 price tag.)

Amazon is also entering an increasingly crowded marketplace. It will be competing with publishing startups offering similar services, like Scribd and Oyster, which charge a similar subscription fee and have comparable digital libraries. Oyster has more than 500,000 titles available and gives readers unlimited access for aroundabout $10 a month. Scribd has about 400,000 titles and charges subscribers about $9 a month.

— The New York Times

Facebook, Twitter pursue impulse angle

Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. are getting closer to letting people shop as they chat and share posts with friends on social networks.

Facebook is testing a “buy” button on browsers and mobile devices that lets users make purchases through advertisements, the world’s largest social network said in blog post Wednesday. Separately, Twitter said it acquired CardSpring Inc., a service that lets users redeem deals and discounts through merchants’ tweets.

As competition between the sites heats up, they’re betting that goods and services displayed alongside posts are more likely to lead to impulse purchases, giving retailers and advertisers an opportunity to boost sales. Facebook, which has more than 1.2 billion users, has tried enabling purchases on its social network in the past, with limited success. Twitter and Amazon.com Inc., the largest online retailer, rolled out a joint service last month that lets members shop by hashtag.

Twitter’s acquisition of San Francisco-based CardSpring is the first major move by Nathan Hubbard, the former president of Ticketmaster, who was hired last year to find ways to let people buy goods directly from tweets. CardSpring lets people claim coupons or special deals via tweets, however it won’t enable the direct purchase of products. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Dick Costolo, chief executive officer of San Francisco- based Twitter, has said that the social network is seeking to eventually offer “commerce in the moment.”

Facebook’s new buy-button service is being tested in the United States with a few small and medium-size businesses. Users’ credit- or debit-card information won’t be shared with other advertisers, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company said.

Facebook is testing the buy button even after saying earlier this year that direct purchases wouldn’t be the best strategy to serve marketers.

— Bloomberg News

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