I'd love to get my Mom and Apple Watch but getting her to switch to iPhone is probably a bridge too far. How come no Android watches have this functionality?
iOS is a nice upgrade for parents as well...
Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911
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Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wondered the same: is it embarrassing here to think Apple does various things well?
Apple has a long history of very enthusiastic fans that can at times crossover into being obnoxious. Apple is hardly unique in that but it does seem to be somewhat more prevalent for them. Some commenters likely don't want to be quickly dismissed as fawning fans lacking perspective of Apple's place in the world.
Maybe it's the circles I travel in, but I have seen way more knee-jerk Apple haters--here, on the internet at large, and IRL--than I've ever seen knee-jerk Apple apologists.
Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911
#293On the flip side of this Samsung removed the oxygen saturation SPO2 feature from its phones in Canada and Cyprus (weirdly random choices). It was probably for legal reasons but you'd never find out why. Here in Canada my dad who has COPD and IPF was using it to get a ballpark idea of his current blood oxygen percentage. It's not a medical device but it's (was) convenient for someone in his situation. It seems fraudul…
Pure speculation: perhaps it wasn’t reliable enough so it got yanked?
I’d think the decision should be up to the owner of the device. Who is the company to determine acceptable functionality AFTER purchase?
Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911
#294Anyone know of any force alarm emergency service automatic dials from a watch or app (Apple or otherwise?).
I am having a hell of a time trying to parse that sentence. Can you rephrase?
Rephrased:
Anyone know of any force alarms from devices that call the emergency services automatically, be that a watch or app?
Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're in the market for a smart watch, and you're a cyclist, I'd recommend checking out Garmin. They have a massive array of sensors and record very precise data that is aggregated on Garmin Connect. It's been invaluable to me for assessing training effectiveness over time. They make Apple watches look like toys. If you want the latest and greatest, the Forerunner 945 is probably what you're looking for, but the…
How are they on privacy? The issue that I have is that every wearable device expects you to allow upload of sensitive information to their servers. At this point, especially with medical information such as heart rate, I do not trust it on any computer not covered by HIPAA or under my control.
Or simply encrypt everything before it leaves the watch and decrypt client-side ala ProtonMail.
I believe most people, if given a discrete choice, would sacrifice 2% of battery life and "forgot your password?" features for the privacy of such information.
Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the future, everyone will wear a smart watch (2015): https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyo... I’m disappointed that Android Wear didn’t take off. More competition would greatly increase innovation.
>I’m disappointed that Android Wear didn’t take off. More competition would greatly increase innovation. Android wearables have a chicken and egg problem. Manufacturers aren't innovating because nobody is buying and nobody is buying because there are no innovations. Apple is fully vertically integrated so it can recoup the high R&D costs for new silicon and other components through the price of the unit but on Androi…
Apple also has the willingness (and resources, but those resources are a consequence of that willingness) to double down on tech it believes in.
If Apple Watch hadn’t been an immediate success, I’d like to think they’d still be pushing hard to make it so.
Most of its competitors have far more offerings with much less commitment behind any one of them.
Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
My condolences, it's always painful losing family. I too lost a cousin about six years ago due to heart failure, he had just about turned 21. I wish he'd had an Apple Watch (or similar device) at the time.
how does this happen :( so young...
I can't speak for all cases but there are often unknown medical conditions involved. My aunt got the flu one year and it weakened her heart so much that she required a transplant and while she lived for a while after that, she died at 27.
Please vaccinate yourselves and loved ones even for the flu.
Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911
#298I have lots of criticisms for Apple, but this is truly an amazing thing that technology has brought us to this point. This is one of the few things that has me feeling like we "live in the future"
Let me add back to the criticism pool then (and I say this as someone with a long history of enjoyment of Apple products): while Apple touts the amazing health and safety features of their watch, they price it as an expensive status symbol/fashion item that the majority of people could never justify buying.
It's classist as fuck: potentially lifesaving tools for the relatively wealthy, and screw everybody else. If they want to get on their high horse about making the world a better place, maybe they should be pricing it in reach of more people instead of lining their already very, very bulging pockets.
Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911
#299An important system - reminds me of how where the F1 safety + medical car is automatically scrambled if a crash is > 20G on impact.
Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911
#300I'd love to have this passive features, but the problems I have with smartwatches is that most of them are ugly, and I'm trying to minimize notifications in my life.
I find that Apple Watch notifications are very useful because I can limit them to important ones (someone texting me, someone calling me, calendar events, reminders) and leave everything else to my phone.
If my watch tries to get my attention, I know it’s reasonably important. If my phone does, I don’t have to pull it out of my pocket if I don’t want to.