With your smartphone, you can have an in-home health lab with Cue

If you've ever watched one of those television medical shows, like House, or ER, you know how important the lab is in diagnosing a patient. Usually, you hear a Doctor reciting a litany of alphabet soup. "Get me a CBC, with ANA and C-Ancha." And don't forget every one's favorite, the tox screen. Starting next year, you will be able to conduct your own tests right at home using blood, saliva or nasal fluids, with Cue.

The company behind the product wants to push out beta versions of the hardware and software sometime next year. For $199, you will be able to run your own labs, see if you're sick, and if you are, find out what's ailing you. At the same time, you can check you testosterone levels. Other tests will be available for the flu, inflammation, fertility and Vitamin D levels. You can save yourself from having to visit the Doctor so often.

The Cue uses cartridges for each test. You cannot re-use them. A package of five cartridges will cost you $20, while the Flu test will cost $30 for a package of three. The results of each test are sent by Bluetooth to your smartphone, where it can be analyzed using an app. The Vitamin-D test is just 10 minutes, and the Flu test is three times faster using Cue. The device's inventor, would like to see he cartridges covered by medical insurance plans and Medicare.

Since Cue has not been approved by the FDA at this point in time, it must be classified as an "investigational device" and cannot be sold in stores. Once the FDA does approve Cue, it can help ease your mind, or feed your hypochondria. You can pre-order Cue now at the sourcelink, for a 33% discount. The device is expected to begin shipping next spring.

IDC: smartphone ASP to fall this year, most OSes growing

IDC's bold predictions of the faraway year 2018 caught our eye but the analyst company also put out much shorter term predictions for this year (we're already half way through it). The predictions echo what we've been seeing on the market ? Android is the unquestioned leader, while on the other end of the spectrum BlackBerry is reaching the end of its tether.

Android is the main driving force behind the explosion of affordable devices ? "low cost has equaled poor quality in the smartphone space" says IDC, but with phones like the Moto E affordable devices are starting to hit the "good enough" mark.

Android's market share will reach 80.2% by the end of this year, but IDC warns it will peak soon and will decline slightly in the following years. Still, this year its growth is expected to outpace the smartphone market.

The Average Selling Price (ASP) of Android handsets will be well below the general ASP this year ? an expected $254. IDC forecasts general smartphone ASP to drop 6.3% from $335 last year to $314 this year.

ASP is not a term Apple uses often and analysts note that. While the Cupertino company does well in established markets with heavy carrier subsidies, it has a tough time competing in emerging markets where there are no subsidies but people still want sub-$200 handsets.

Still, iPhone sales will grow 20%, roughly matching the market expansion speed. That's why the market share will remain stable - 14.8% this year, compared to 14.7% last year. Like Android, IDC expects iOS to start declining slightly in the coming years.

The big winner of this will be Windows Phone, which is expected to grow 29.5% over the 43.3 million of 2013 to 65.9 million. That's about a third of the 184.1 million iPhones Apple is expected to sell this year.

Meanwhile BlackBerry will likely drop a precipitous 49.6% to just under 10 million units for just 0.8%. IDC expects BlackBerry will still be around in 2018 with under 5 million units but we fear the legendary smartphone maker is near the minimum viable level of shipments per year.

You can also peek into the crystal ball and find out what IDC thinks the smartphone market will be in 2018, check out its long-term predictions. Spoiler: it's more of the same.