Apple Watch Series 8 debuts with new sensors & focus on health
The newly announced Apple Watch Series 8 is an update with a focus on speed improvements and fitness.
Rumors pointed to a significant Apple Watch redesign for the previous two generations. Instead, for 2022, Apple iterated on the existing design with minor changes that enhanced the overall experience.
The Apple Watch Series 8 could easily be mistaken for the Apple Watch Series 7 that came before it. The curved chassis, Digital Crown, speaker cutouts, and edge-to-edge display are identical.
Similar to the other health sensors on Apple Watch, the temperature sensor isn't meant to replace dedicated medical equipment. Instead, it will alert the user if a trend indicates health issues.
Specifically, Apple highlighted women's health as part of the announcement. With a two-sensor design-- one sensor on the back of the watch near the skin, and another under the display-- it samples the wrist temperature during sleep every five seconds to measure changes.
Cycle Tracking with the temperature sensor on the Apple Watch Series 8
People can view nightly shifts in baseline temperature inside the Health app. These can be caused by exercise, illness, or even jet lag.
Women can receive ovulation estimates with the temperature sensor, a helpful feature for family planning. Temperature sensing also enables improved period predictions, again found within the Health app.
With iOS 16 and watchOS 9, the Cycle Tracking app pushes a notification to show possible deviations in a cycle, such as irregular, infrequent, or prolonged periods, and persistent spotting. These can be symptoms of underlying health conditions.
When it detects a severe car crash, it checks on the user and dials emergency services if the person is unresponsive after a 10-second countdown. Emergency responders will receive the user's device location, which is also shared with the user's emergency contacts.
The feature is built into watchOS 9 instead of limited to the Apple Watch Series 8, available on the Apple Watch Series 4 and later.
When Low Power Mode is not enabled, the Apple Watch Series 8 offers users all-day 18-hour battery life.
Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch SE are available to order today, with availability beginning Friday, September 16.
Read on AppleInsider
Rumors pointed to a significant Apple Watch redesign for the previous two generations. Instead, for 2022, Apple iterated on the existing design with minor changes that enhanced the overall experience.
The Apple Watch Series 8 could easily be mistaken for the Apple Watch Series 7 that came before it. The curved chassis, Digital Crown, speaker cutouts, and edge-to-edge display are identical.
New health capabilities
The exterior design didn't need to change to accommodate the new body temperature sensor. It uses the existing sensor's contact with skin to take periodic measurements to observe temperature trends.Similar to the other health sensors on Apple Watch, the temperature sensor isn't meant to replace dedicated medical equipment. Instead, it will alert the user if a trend indicates health issues.
Specifically, Apple highlighted women's health as part of the announcement. With a two-sensor design-- one sensor on the back of the watch near the skin, and another under the display-- it samples the wrist temperature during sleep every five seconds to measure changes.
Cycle Tracking with the temperature sensor on the Apple Watch Series 8
People can view nightly shifts in baseline temperature inside the Health app. These can be caused by exercise, illness, or even jet lag.
Women can receive ovulation estimates with the temperature sensor, a helpful feature for family planning. Temperature sensing also enables improved period predictions, again found within the Health app.
With iOS 16 and watchOS 9, the Cycle Tracking app pushes a notification to show possible deviations in a cycle, such as irregular, infrequent, or prolonged periods, and persistent spotting. These can be symptoms of underlying health conditions.
Crash Detection
A new emergency feature can detect car crashes using a more powerful gyroscope and accelerometer on Apple Watch. In addition to motion data, Crash Detection uses the barometer, GPS, and the microphone on iPhone as inputs to detect severe crashes.When it detects a severe car crash, it checks on the user and dials emergency services if the person is unresponsive after a 10-second countdown. Emergency responders will receive the user's device location, which is also shared with the user's emergency contacts.
Low power mode
A new Low Power Mode can give up to 36 hours of battery life on a single charge. It disables certain features, such as the always-on display. It temporarily disables or limits certain sensors and features, including the Always-On Retina display, workout autostart, heart health notifications, and more.The feature is built into watchOS 9 instead of limited to the Apple Watch Series 8, available on the Apple Watch Series 4 and later.
When Low Power Mode is not enabled, the Apple Watch Series 8 offers users all-day 18-hour battery life.
Price & availability
Aluminum color options include Midnight, Starlight, Silver, and (PRODUCT)RED. Stainless steel sticks with Silver, Graphite, and Gold. Apple customers can purchase it for $399 for GPS and $499 for the cellular option.Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch SE are available to order today, with availability beginning Friday, September 16.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Physicians call vital signs “vital” for a reason. Simple parameters such as temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, and oxygen levels convey critical information.
Apple is gradually adding the ability to nearly continuously monitor vital signs. They also monitor additional information, such as heart rhythm. What makes Apple stand out is the high quality of the measurements and Apple’s development of extremely clever algorithms to extrapolate additional information from the data they measure, far more than the sum of the parts. When they are able to add blood pressure monitoring, glucose monitoring, etc., we will see something pretty amazing as the result. I can imagine Siri being able to tell you that you are “diagnose” dehydration, respiratory/lung problems, severe infection (sepsis), sleep apnea, seizures, orthostatic hypotension (blood pressure dropping when you stand up), early Parkinson‘a disease, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Each sensor they add could increase the potential issues that the watch/iPhone could detect in an exponential fashion.
TL;DR - Doctors love this crap!
https://www.macworld.com/article/205387/apple-rolls.html
And yes, you can expect many states to pass statutes requiring that women provide this data when investigating any specific crime, particularly when there is an accusation that they ovulated and then...something illegal happened.
How I hate that this is where we now are.
I would like to know if the bands for the new AW Ultra will fit on other models. I suspect not, but I REALLY liked them.
EDIT: THEY DO! I just checked and they are up in the Apple Store. The Ultra bands fit 44mm, 45mm, and 49mm watches.
When Apple’s branding agreement with Hermès expires there’s a good chance that Apple Watch “fashion” will continue as a few wristbands and downloadable wristfaces. Apple isn’t going to make a digital Cartier tank watch.
I'll reserve judgement, but I can't imagine Apple would create a temperature sensor that was only good for one very specific purpose. Perhaps the sensor isn't precise or sensitive enough for another purpose? I'm sure somewhere, at some point, a man will buy one and we'll find out for sure.
And having a new processor would have certainly significantly increased the battery life which is really needed for the AW (sorry, low power mode doesn't really count).
Just adding more transistors for more performance also increases power consumption and die size. My guess is Apple has some SoC variants in lab prototypes and after evaluating all of their options chose to stick with the existing part as a balance of performance and cost.
Using the same part -- and not just the SoC -- over multiple generations (and maybe multiple products) does help drive down overall cost. Apple does this with pretty much all of their products; they keep some parts and upgrade others.
Anyhow Apple Watch 8 is a nice combination of features for a first time Watch buyer or someone upgrading from the Series 4/5 generation (or earlier). Apple kept a close eye on price this time around.