Tech Digest daily roundup: NHS trials drones for chemo drugs delivery
The NHS will trial the use of drones to deliver life-saving chemotherapy drugs within half an hour. Doctors believe the pilot scheme, which will ferry the drugs from a hospital in Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight, could be the first step towards “same-day delivery” for the health service. It is hoped that drones will enable doctors to order drugs and medical equipment from anywhere in the country for delivery that day. In the trial, chemotherapy drugs will be delivered from a pharmacy at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust to St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight. Sky News
The RAF’s flagship drone trials squadron owns no drones and has carried out no in-house trials with the uncrewed craft in the two years of its existence. Hailed by the Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston as delivering the service’s “futuristic and ambitious” plans to harness drone swarms, The Telegraph can reveal 216 Squadron RAF also has just four full-time personnel. The figures were disclosed in Freedom of Information requests made by Drone Wars UK, a campaign group calling for greater public accountability over military drone usage. Telegraph
Xbox is hoping to bring back gamers who no longer play games via its newly released collaboration with Samsung TVs. In a new interview with NME, Gus Grimaldi, head of product Europe at Samsung Electronics, and Pav Bhardwaj, senior global product manager at Xbox Game Pass discussed the new partnership. Both touched on the expectations the new collaboration will bring, explaining how it should not only bring more players to experience Xbox games but older gamers who no longer play. NME
Amazon’s smallest and cheapest tablet gets a much-needed upgrade in design, speed, battery life and software – but with a price increase. The 12th-generation Fire 7 starts at £59.99 ($59.99) – £10 more than the last version – but still offers the most bang for one’s buck in the budget tablet market. Amazon’s tablets all have a tried-and-tested formula: simple durable design, reasonable quality screen, fast-enough chips and its own version of Android with a long support life offered at markedly less than mainstream rivals. The new Fire 7 inherits the smoother, more modern and slimmed-down design of the recent Fire HD 8 and HD 10 tablets. The 7in screen is better in the flesh than it might seem on paper but it is not HD and pales in comparison to higher-priced competition. The Guardian
In the worst idea since putting all your life savings into crypto, a company has just announced a new console dedicated to ‘Web 3 gaming’. We hope you’ve got a strong stomach for buzzwords because this story has them all, as a brand new hardware launch has just been announced: the Polium One – a ‘multi-chain console for Web 3 gaming’. The nonsense of cryptocurrency and NFT seems to be coming to an even swifter end than many predicted, but despite the value of crypto already collapsing Web 3 company Polium is pushing ahead with what may be the most low-key hardware reveal ever. Metro
