“During the unveiling of the new Apple Watch, the iPhone-maker presented the wearable as primarily a fitness device. And although there are still several fitness functionalities the Apple Watch is missing, it’s no surprise that the company is looking to fill in some of the blanks,” James Vincent reports for The Verge.
“According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple is working on a number of new apps for its wearable, including one tracking users’ sleep and another interpreting their general fitness based on heartbeat data.,” Vincent reports. “Both of these functionalities could be implemented on current Apple Watch hardware (which can already track wearers’ motion and heart rate, but doesn’t interpret this information). But exactly how these apps would work isn’t clear.”
Vincent reports, “Creating a sleep-tracking app might be tricky considering that most Apple Watch owners have to charge their device overnight — something that can’t be done while wearing the device.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Nothing precludes Apple from releasing a device designed expressly for sleep-tracking. Put your Apple Watch on the charger and slap on Apple’s sleep tracking slap bracelet (optimally, slap on the sleep tracker first, then remove your Apple Watch and vice versa when you awake in order to have zero data gaps). With Continuity, that data can be on the Apple Watch, your iPhone, iPad, Mac, iCloud and anywhere else you need it automatically.
SEE ALSO:
Apple to expand HealthKit from tracker to diagnosis tool; new Apple Watch apps for sleep tracking, fitness levels in pipeline – September 26, 2016
Apple acquires Gliimpse – August 22, 2016
Apple rehires Flipboard co-founder Evan Doll to develop health software – August 12, 2016
Apple working on all-new, advanced health-tracking hardware; years in the making – August 9, 2016
Tim Cook hints Apple might build a health device – November 10, 2015
Apple’s Tim Cook declares the end of the PC and hints at new medical product – November 10, 2015
Apple announces new ResearchKit studies for autism, epilepsy and melanoma – October 15, 2015
GlaxoSmithKline working on integrating Apple’s revolutionary ResearchKit into clinical trials – July 13, 2015
ResearchKit, Apple’s medical data experiment, explained – May 20, 2015
Apple announces ResearchKit available today to medical researchers – April 14, 2015
Why Apple’s ResearchKit signals a golden age for health care – March 28, 2015
ResearchKit: The inside story of how Apple’s revolutionary medical research platform was born – March 19, 2015
Apple’s open source ResearchKit will change the world for the better – March 9, 2015
Apple debuts ResearchKit, giving medical researchers the tools to revolutionize medical studies – March 9, 2015
if users changed the charging cycle, which really doesn’t take that long, they could easily sleep while wearing the watch and make it through the next day.. Specially with the 42mm, the 38mm could be more problematic… but if you charged a couple hours before retiring, it would probably work just fine.
The idea here is the device makes my life easier not the other way around which seems to be what you are suggesting.
So after months of MDN fanboys telling everyone to just charge the AW while you sleep every night so you can make it through the day, now the tune changes.
Let me guess – you’re supposed to buy several chargers from Apple so you can charge the damn thing in the car, at the office, and in the bathroom. Or you’re supposed to buy two A-Watches so one can always be charging.
Maybe Apple will also put a charging pad onto the next Apple TV and on the top of the upcoming knockoff Apple version of the Amazon Alexa spy orb. Advance photos of the Apple device here:
That’s my current approach. I charge the watch in the evening, before bed, while watching TV. It takes less than two hours most days. I like having the watch on my wrist during the night, but I do have to put it int the Power Reserve mode, so it doesn’t keep bugging me to stand all night.
I put mine on the charger about 30-45 minutes before I’m ready to go to sleep. I watch some tv, read a book, whatever. I wear the watch during the night using the Pillow app. When I wake up, I put it on the charger when I’m showering/getting dressed. I never run out of power.
I like the second device option. Something simple, inexpensive, and a companion piece to the Watch.
Almost fell over when I read “inexpensive” from Apple you have to be joking their watch straps cost more that the majority of watches sold. I just purchased 2 Apple watches for my kids and they didn’t have the watch +strap combination my daughter wanted but I couldn’t bring myself to buy the second strap in the couloir she wanted Blue instead of pink for a Rose 38mm, for some reason they sell that combo in the larger size though.
When I go to bed I then put the watch on the charger, I then put it back on when I get up.
This seems to be how sleep tracker apps work and this works for me and this is probably how Apple will do it.
I have not tried this but someone said that charging it during your daily shower and one of your meals, breakfast or dinner, was enough to top it off every day.
Now that I have had mine for 8 months, when I go to sleep the battery is typically at 50%.
I tried this and found it didn’t work for me. This is especially problematic because most people don’t have watch chargers at work, so if you’re running low during the day, you’re out of luck. As an earlier poster said, tech is supposed to make my life easier. Having to worry about when/where I can charge my watch does the opposite. I ended up returning the Apple Watch and getting a Pebble, which goes a week or so on a charge. It doesn’t do everything the Apple Watch does, but in my experience it was snappier, more reliable, and had the features I wanted.
Battery life is just one of many limitations of the Apple Watch.
Admit it, Apple Watch owners: you still tote around an iPhone everywhere you go, don’t you? After playing around with them in the store, I very quickly realized that no watch had any chance of replacing an iPhone. The features of the Apple Watch just didn’t offer enough value to someone who hasn’t needed a watch in over a decade. And the overpriced straps really turned me off. I’m just not a jewelry person.
Imagine how much time an Apple Watch owner could save if he turned off all the annoyances and just concentrated on the people in the room in front of him. When your wrist isn’t constantly buzzing, it’s amazing what one can accomplish. Where I work, we are finally turning the corner on getting the culture aligned so that people are present and engaged in meetings, instead of playing on their electronic devices. The Apple Watch hasn’t been embraced by anyone because glancing at your wrist in reality is just as distracting as picking up your phone.
Perhaps the Apple Watch is more suited to being used ONLY as a health monitor and sleep tracker. Put it on after dinner, take it off before breakfast. Strap it to the wrist of your elderly relative (with the understanding that they won’t ever be able to figure out how to use it).
If all you need is a super awesome exercise watch, there are better lighter slimmer models that work just fine for significantly less money.
If it’s Apple Pay and messages and notifications that you love, then use an iPhone that you already own.
If you buy an Apple Watch because you love dinking around with an annoying interface with tiny text, then by all means, keep putting up with the limitations of a device that offers minimal value to most people.
No one with a brain ever suggested Apple Watch was meant to replace iPhone. You don’t understand the product.
There is a sleep tracking app called “pillow” out there already that uses the Apple Watch to augment its data set. The watch charges quite fast, so I can wear my watch all night with pillow running, then stick the watch on the charger while showering or just for a little while during a tv session or when reading before bed and have zero issues with charge all day. The Pillow app is pretty good too
I like reading comments by people who don’t have an Apple Watch but still have an opinion about it. It reminds me of the sort of people who held off buying the iPhone, maintaining that it was pointless and insisting that all they needed to do their work was a laptop…just as soon as they could find a wifi connection…and wait through lines to order up a coffee…then power it up…and wait for the updates to run….
While not everyone needs to get the latest X, the experience of having an X versus not represents a difference of kind not one of degree. People who don’t have a smartphone won’t understand how they could benefit from one. As was the case with the iPhone, the Watch is a habit altering device which makes it hard to apprehend via a store display or even a 14-day return period.
Naturally, there are some people who would make more use it than others; learning to fit a new device into their lives is not something every person is inclined to do.
I predict that this will play out like we’ve seen before in this space: with people gradually waking up to it, the biggest fans getting every new version, voices holding back the tide fading, and humanity ever slightly furthered by great new tech.
I like reading comments by people who have to overstate the importance of their latest gadget in order to justify their purchase. Landfills are full of fad products that you just couldn’t live without
If you really are green you might need orienting your priorities. Here’s one rule of thumb: the bigger something is, the larger its environmental impact. Furniture has a large impact, cars even larger and your house should be the heaviest thing on your conscience, eclipsing a 30 gram watch. Your other priorities might be eliminating meat from your diet, and reducing transportation/travel.
The gadgets of today are much greener than those of the past. Think of how many miles of driving never took place since our culture became less car-centric from technology and social media. Think of how technology greases the wheels of social change and disseminates knowledge and ideas like the green movement.
With regard to landfills, I have a seven year old iPhone 3GS in active use which I can easily find replacement parts for, suggesting that a substantial number are still in active use somewhere in the world.
The world is a tangled web of indirect causality. At my job I am in custody of very energy intensive machinery. I design systems that monitor their efficiency and save resources orders of magnitude times greater than I personally consume directly thanks to my gadgets. That’s my departure for overstating their importance. 😉