Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) affects approximately 5.1 million people in the US and 900,000 people in the UK each year, costing an estimated $32billion. The demand for care is expected to rise dramatically over the next few years, along with healthcare costs, but the amount of caregivers available is unlikely to be able to keep up.

In order to deal with this discrepancy, e-health applications are starting to play a more prominent role and at JiveWorld 2014 we heard from Dr Folkert Asselbergs, consultant cardiologist at University Medical Centre Utrecht, about how his smart health application is being used to monitor and empower patients in their battle against the disease.

With Azure and Office 365, Microsoft already has a strong position in the business cloud market. But the company isn't resting on its laurels, it used this week's Convergence 2014 conference in Barcelona to announce a number of innovations to help enterprises gain greater benefit from the cloud.

The main announcement is that the latest Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 release will be generally available in December this year. The new release is designed to address the growing need for businesses to deliver seamless experiences to their customers by helping them break down the barriers between divisions.

NFC payments are all the rage nowadays, in no small part thanks to the support that Apple Pay is receiving from financial institutions and iPhone users, and raving reviews from the media. Naturally, this may tempt you to give NFC payments a go, to see what all the fuss is about. But what if you have a Windows Phone? Apple Pay is obviously out of the question. What can you do then?

As you may know, Windows Phone supports NFC payments out-of-the-box, thanks to a feature known as Tap to Pay. Like Apple Pay it leverages the built-in NFC chip in your device. The only thing standing between you and paying through it is its lack of support. However, there is another way you can make NFC payments with your Windows Phone, and that is by using the Softcard app, which just arrived on the platform. Here is what you need to know about it.

The head of GCHQ, the UK's equivalent of the NSA, says that the Edward Snowden leaks have helped terrorist organizations such as ISIS who have taken to the web to spread propaganda. Writing in the Financial Times, Robert Hannigan points out that ISIS is the first terrorist group whose members have grown up on the internet. He says that the group has made use of "messaging and social media services such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, and a language their peers understand" and that the security tools that have popped up post-Snowden makes the work of GCHQ in tracking communication much harder.

This might not come as a surprise, but something else that Hannigan says is likely to raise eyebrows. His assertion that "privacy has never been an absolute right" goes against the grain of what many web users believe, but he suggests that the challenges facing governments and intelligence agencies in fighting back against terrorists can "only be met with greater co-operation from technology companies".

Gang members that apparently have the highest chance of committing a crime can now reportedly be identified using a special product.

Accenture's new software, resembling that seen in the Minority Report movie, relies on data that has been collected over four years.

US scientists have developed a piece of wearable technology that could improve communication between dogs and humans.

The harness, which is fitted with sensors to monitor a dog's posture and vital signs, could also be used to help with training or to gather data.

Fans of the Beeb will be pleased to hear that the BBC has unveiled a significant new update to its catch-up app for Android users with the release of BBC iPlayer 4.4 for Android. The app adds a new Audio Described category and expands the current Most Popular category too.

Other changes see the promise of better streaming performance and a number of minor bug fixes.

Acer makes some cool computers and has been known to take some chances on design. Sure, the company produces the typical clam-shell laptops, but also computers like the R7, which features a unique hinge and experience. I appreciate a company going out on a limb with computer designs, as it can fall flat or be a success.

Today, Acer takes another unique approach to design with the Aspire Switch 12 -- an evolution of the previously released Switch 10. Not only is the screen larger, but the functionality increases immensely. Oh and did I mention that it is fanless? Yeah baby, no fan-whirring!

Working in conjunction with Google, Canonical is launching a public beta of Ubuntu for Google Cloud Platform. These are part of the Certified Public Cloud (CPC) programme which means that the cloud versions of Ubuntu will be updated just about as quickly as the regular ground-tethered versions. Images for Utopic Unicorn, TrustyTahr, and Precise Pangolin releases are now available on Google Compute Engine.

The Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, 12.04 LTS releases benefit from the regular five years of maintenance and security updates, while 14.10 has a shorter shelf-life. Taking Ubuntu to the cloud serves as an alternative to the likes of Azure for anyone looking to venture into cloud platforms without breaking the bank.

A lot of wearable devices have accompanying smartphones. The Apple Watch has the iPhone 6, Galaxy Gear ties in with a number of Samsung Galaxy handsets, while the Motorola Moto 360 marries happily to just about any Android phone. Falling into the same works-with-anything camp is the recently announced Microsoft Band.

With a newly launched wearable, you'd think Microsoft would be keen to push it as much as possible. So when the company decided to bundle a wrist-worn device with the new Lumia 830, which do you think it opted for. Yeah... the Fitbit Flex...

Generally speaking, an enterprise data security company and a National Security Agency leaker might make for strange bedfellows. Yet, some of the controversial Edward Snowden’s comments at the New Yorker Festival have us nodding our heads -- with reservations, of course.

In his video interview, Snowden warned about the vulnerability of some popular storage and collaboration tools, calling them "dangerous services" that are "hostile to privacy". Indeed, we too find it troubling that a vendor or government agency can access (and distribute) personal or corporate information, without the consent of the data owner.

Another day, another streaming media box. Quite frankly, the idea of testing yet another such device would normally bore me, but this one is different. You see, it carries the Nexus name. If you aren't familiar, "Nexus" is synonymous with a pure Google experience. What does this mean? Well, it is Android the way the search-giant envisions it.

Amazon for instance, uses Android as a base for its Fire OS found on the Fire TV; however, it is very customized and doesn't have access to the Play Store. The Nexus Player is Google's retort -- showing device manufacturers how Android TV should be done. How does the Nexus Player compare to the competition? Read on for more.

My first-ever tablet was the first-generation iPad. I loved Apple's tablet very much, but ended up selling it to buy the Nexus 7. My decision made sense, as the iPad was nearing end of life, while Google's tablet was just beginning.

The Nexus 7 was awesome, but it lacked the same magic as Apple's tablet. Yes, I am using the word magic to describe the iPad, a much maligned word for Apple's detractors. To explain, the "magic" I speak of, was the emotional connection that I had with iPad; something that did not exist with both Nexus 7 models. Don't get me wrong, both Nexus 7 tablets were great and functional, but also cold and smartphone-like. Now Google releases the Nexus 9 and it finally has the feature I desire most -- magic.

Having a web presence means that companies are open to greater scrutiny than ever before. Post-NSA there was huge interest in learning just how much data the likes of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft had shared with the government and its agencies, and the next target for attention has been the racial and gender make-up of these same companies.

We have already seen diversity reports from Twitter and Apple, and now Amazon has thrown its hat into the ring. The Diversity Report's figures show that -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- the company is dominated by white men, particularly in the higher positions. But while the numbers and graphs tell one story, the photographs released by Amazon to accompany the report try to tell a rather different tale.

We used to live and survive in the savanna in a simple, local and linear world. When we had to kill animals for food we would think and act in a linear way to realize our goal. A relatively easy, stable and predictable world. The linear and local world is ingrained in our mental model of the world.

However, in the last few decades we have witnessed the increased importance of exponential phenomena, mainly driven by technology. The tipping point came in 1965, when Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, introduced Moore's law which predicted that computing power would double every two years. So what is the real value of tech analysts and market researchers in an exponential world? Do they provide business benefit? Or are they particularly valuable in a more linear and predictable world?