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The Register reports: "Apple's bad hair day: Watch 'stripped' of health sensors":
Apple has ditched plans to make its new smart watch a health-monitoring device following problems with the technology and regulatory issues, according to reports.
Sources told The Wall Street Journal that some of the features were too complicated, while others would have prompted unwanted regulatory oversight. It said development of its health sensor technology has failed to meet standards, with inconsistency from sensor readings, arising from hairy arms or dry skin.
"Apple also experimented with ways to detect blood pressure or the amount of oxygen in the blood, but the results were inconsistent," said the paper.
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Apple Ditches Health-Monitoring Features from Watch
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There's coffee in that nebula!
-- Capt. Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager, "The Cloud"
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18 2015, @11:52PM
Personally, I think enough of my personal life is being "mined" by some US company already. Every e-mail, every phone call, every text message, every website I visit...maybe it's cynical but I don't see how any tech company at this point could actually be collecting vital health statistics and _not_ resist the urge to sell them to whatever three-letter-agency or defense contractor waved enough money in their faces. There'd be too much to gain...monitor your heart while you're watching a program on a "smart" TV, detect which of the commercials made your heart race (quite literally) and target further ads appropriately, maybe even specific to your device.
It all sounds like a mix of science fiction and the sort of thing you'd hear people rant about on late-night call in shows, but two major whistleblowers and a pile of evidence doesn't lie... It really isn't paranoia if they really -are- out to get you. Whatever else groups like the NSA might be doing with people's personal information it sure as hell isn't for the benefit of the people under surveillance. They don't need to know my pulse rate and how many steps I've walked in a day, they can probably already pinpoint my location to within a few centimeters with the phone I'm carrying around.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 19 2015, @12:39AM
Wow. Full of dislike.
So don't buy it.
Its a cheap (as in work for hours if you want it) consumer thing, not a right enshrined by the founding fathers.
My problem is it doesn't really work, so I don't want it.
If it actually read my heart rate(etc.) through my hairy arm, passively, all the time, and showed me a chart/stats/etc on it that made a difference in my life...
They could sell the bulk data to the NSA until the cows come home and I'd still be happy.
If the NSA then invades my asshole because of it... well, I can stop wearing it.
Tin foil hats protect you from more hazards than actually exist.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Thursday February 19 2015, @01:46AM
I'm the guy who modded you troll. I'm probably personally responsible for half the troll/flamebait mods mods around here, because I'm an uncooperative curmudgeonly asshole.
That said, it isn't hard to imagine a use case for heart rate detection when coupled with location data -- presumably people who are in specific locations with fast heart rates after not running (you can tell because GPS) are terrorists and need swatting. Seriously, why else would they be nervous?
(meeting a date, saw a hot dude/chick, reading an exciting book, just got a million dollar idea, too much coffee, and on forever)
Secondly, premium features become common. Once upon a time it was the rare phone that had GPS, and now you can only find GPS free phones in a thrift store bin. Cameras too -- now it's hard to find a phone without one. Biometric detection is all fancy right now, but in a few years I wouldn't be surprised if most handsets could detect at least heart rate, because you know, faster Ambulance response or some BS like that.
And lastly, because all of this information is collected by private companies, it is available to the government in a warrantless manner as a result of the third party doctrine. Seriously, if some business collects it, the government will figure out some way to use it to screw citizens.
Not all paranoia is unwarranted, but searches under the third party doctrine certainly are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 19 2015, @09:48AM
Ah, preparing for rape.
No reading activity of purchased books on your ebook reader detected. Must be pirated stuff.
Ah, finished a robbery.
Ah, drug abuse.
SCNR ;-)
(Score: 2) by Daiv on Thursday February 19 2015, @03:17PM
So you're worried that every watch sold after the Apple iWatch will have biometric readings and communication chips that send data to private companies? Beyond that, you'll be required to wear any new watch with said features at all times until you die? Gotcha.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Thursday February 19 2015, @03:45PM
OK smarty, where can I buy a GPS-free cell phone? At one time, GPS phones were exotic. Now it's a fucking law.
(Score: 2) by Daiv on Thursday February 19 2015, @06:30PM
http://www.thuraya.com/xt-lite [thuraya.com]
Cell phones transmit digitally now, you can triangulate any cell phones position, even without GPS.
Comparing cell phones to watches is asinine. Also, they're both optional. People lived for quite some time without both and there is still a large number of people who don't have a cell phone.
(Score: 2) by Daiv on Thursday February 19 2015, @06:39PM
Also, it's not the law:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394177,00.asp [pcmag.com]
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-09-28/pdf/2011-24865.pdf [gpo.gov]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 19 2015, @07:06PM
I'm the guy who modded you troll.
I disagree with the parent post as well but what exactly was trollish about it?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday February 19 2015, @11:50PM
Troll: "Its a cheap (as in work for hours if you want it) consumer thing, not a right enshrined by the founding fathers."
Troll because it totally ignores the effect of the Third Party Doctrine which essentially decimates the warrant requirement of the 4th Amendment, something the founders did actually enshrine in the Bill of Rights, and does so in a totally airy lighthearted manner, as if fundamental rights are a joke.
Moron: "They could sell the bulk data to the NSA until the cows come home and I'd still be happy."
Troll: "If the NSA then invades my asshole because of it... well, I can stop wearing it."
Invades my asshole? Again, making mockery of the serious ongoing relentless privacy violations of the Federal Gov't. Mocking the violation of fundamental human rights scores high on my trollometer.
Troll: "Tin foil hats protect you from more hazards than actually exist."
Need I explain? You're crazy if you believe the government will use data in nefarious ways because that hazard doesn't actually exist.
So yeah, troll was warranted. Maybe more flamebait, but I tend to distinguish between those a bit more loosely than I perhaps should. If he had mentioned nazis or used flagrant ad hominems, I'd have probably choses flamebait over troll, but either way, he deserved it when I gave it, and he deserves it even now that it has been errored into "insightful".
(Score: 5, Interesting) by dbe on Thursday February 19 2015, @12:55AM
Well maybe citing NSA seems like a bit too much in this case, but the more slippery slope is when is this data going to be integrated by your heath provider to jack-up your premium if you're spending your days in the basement eating Doritos?
Companies are already promoting heath campaigns where they give a free pedometer to employees and distribute fake prices for whoever has registered more steps per month... While you are free to not register and do exercise on your own I'm not sure how long that will not be part of your employee record as "does not want to participate to corporate activities" and come to bite you at your review.
So I would be more concerned by the integration of all that data with social networks and health providers.
(I refuse to call it big data, but that's the elephant in the room)
-dbe
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 19 2015, @02:56PM
You mean the shepherd? :-)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Megahard on Thursday February 19 2015, @01:01AM
Because of HIPAA any leaks or unauthorized sharing of data could result in significant fines, instead of the standard "oops, so sorry, here's a year of free credit monitoring".
(Score: 3, Funny) by Snotnose on Thursday February 19 2015, @03:01AM
detect which of the commercials made your heart race
You've never fapped watching your laptop while the TV was on in the background?
I came. I saw. I forgot why I came.
(Score: 2) by Foobar Bazbot on Thursday February 19 2015, @12:59AM
I bet they could have made it work, if only they could have somehow acquired a 2070s CMR chip to clone.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by K_benzoate on Thursday February 19 2015, @04:17AM
It's a glorified pedometer, like all "smart" watches. I want this product category to fail so badly, because it's just an obvious push to artificially create a new market now that laptops, smart phones, and tablets are fully saturated. The constant drum beat of GROWTH drives these big firms to such madness. It's not good enough just to sell a lot of devices. You have to sell more every year. Your *rate* of growth has to increase every year, too. If you're just doing brisk but steady business investors think you're dead in the water--which creates a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Apple (and Samsung, et al) need a new upgrade treadmill. They've gotten everyone on the 3-4 year laptop/tablet cycle, the 1-2 year phone cycle. There aren't any more humans left to sell to who want and can buy these things, so the only solution is to find another device to sell to the same people.
And it's a glorified pedometer called a "smart" watch. I just wish that, for once, consumers would say enough and reject this idiocy.
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Thursday February 19 2015, @07:08AM
I think the 3-4 year laptop cycle has been, and is going continue to quickly slow down. We're hitting the point where laptops are about as good as they need to be, baring software mandating hardware upgrades, and there's enough alternatives for that kind of stuff for anyone who doesn't have more money than brains when those mandated upgrades do happen. I'm more pissed off about 1-2 year old peripherals not being usable (ever) with the next (Windows) OS that comes out.
Even my several year old tablet does everything I want it to as well as it did when I got it. Of course, I only really use it for PDFs and ebooks, because it fits in a laptop bag better than equal volume of D&D books would, but it would be more than enough for just about anything else I'm causally aware of on the play store. Only other things that would be "nice" to have in it that you see nowadays would be a cellular radio and maybe a form factor that is more square. I still look at the new stuff and think "shinies". I don't buy it though, just allow myself to be impressed. That's enough for my particular brand of consumerism. I (generally) use hardware until it dies, and I drive my cars until they die. I guess I might be a minority. Really, I'm here, so I must be. I think your "average person" though would actually be somewhere reasonably healthy between the "use it till it dies" crowd and the asshole that immediately rushes out to buy every Apple product the moment it comes out.
I'm actually cautiously optimistic about gadgets that supply some sort of form factor outside of what we already have. It is still just an overglorified pedometer that tells you when the brick in your pocket tells it that you have a text message, but eventually someone's going to actually come up with a significant feature for it that might make it useful. It's at least more compelling than "Buy our new model laptop. It's 'Apple Black and Silver'!" For example, Microsoft AR thing might be interesting if it doesn't turn into vaporware. Might send every last thing it sees back to the mothership and be too damn creepy to consider. Difficult to say without more hard details. I also have an odd fascination with wristwatches and the "wearable" fad going around, so maybe I'm letting it slide on that.
Sigh. I don't know. Maybe I just really WANT you to be wrong though.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 4, Informative) by Kilo110 on Thursday February 19 2015, @02:35PM
I agree with you regarding the drive for growth. But your disdain and constant use of "glorified pedometer" says more about your lack of imagination than about smart watches.
As someone who has owned multiple pebble watches and an android wear device, I get considerable utility out of these devices and I use them daily. I easily made the transition from an automatic watch to a smart watch and never looked back. This is usually where people ask so what does a smartwatch do that can justify the price when theres a perfectly good phone in your pocket. It's mostly about convenience. You personally might not value convenience, but many people do.
Here are a few uses for me.
1. the pebble is 5atm waterproof. meaning I can use it safely in a shower or pool. I can change music tracks, launch different applications, read incoming texts and emails, and screen phone calls and even answer them on speakerphone if I deem it important enough. I never miss any important messages or calls and I don't need to fumble with my phone with wet hands.
2.the speech-to-text on android wear is really good. I feel comfortable dictating texts and emails using it while driving. Its also surprisingly good at filtering out background noise. I can even be listening to music and it'll still pick apart my voice and accurately
3. different watchfaces provide lot of flexibility. Usually I prefer an analog watchface along with day and date. I have to travel often for work and when I do I switch to a multi timezone watchface where I can have 2 or more times on my watch to quickly see if it's ok to make that call back home or not. During the bitcoin boom a year ago I had a live BTC ticker along with a digital clock as a watchface. There are so many possibilities.
4. I've an android phone and along with the excellent Tasker program I can use the watch to control my home automation devices using preprogrammed button combinations or voice control. It's very convenient.
5. I was at the airport about two weeks ago on a United flight. Google saw the flight confirmation email and automatically grabbed the boarding pass QR code and sent it to my moto 360 watch. I literally waved my hand under a scanner to board the plane at the gate.
6. My mother has lost a lot of her hearing and she used to always miss phone calls. I bought her a pebble and now that her wrist vibrates when someone calls her, she never misses them. She also uses facebook and whatsapp quite a great deal and loves the notifications.
Those are only a handful I know of. I'm sure there are many many more.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 19 2015, @03:28PM
Let me pick that apart for you...
1. the pebble is 5atm waterproof. meaning I can use it safely in a shower or pool. I can change music tracks, launch different applications, read incoming texts and emails, and screen phone calls and even answer them on speakerphone if I deem it important enough. I never miss any important messages or calls and I don't need to fumble with my phone with wet hands.
How freaking hard is it for you to not be connected for the short amount of time you take a shower? Why is your brain rewired to *need* to be able to read incoming texts/e-mails while you are washing yourself?
How important is a message or call really? How often do you get life-or-death-calls (I'm thinking shit like "Dad, they arrested me and you're my one phone call")?
2.the speech-to-text on android wear is really good. I feel comfortable dictating texts and emails using it while driving. Its also surprisingly good at filtering out background noise. I can even be listening to music and it'll still pick apart my voice and accurately
This has nothing to do with wearables.
3. different watchfaces provide lot of flexibility. Usually I prefer an analog watchface along with day and date. I have to travel often for work and when I do I switch to a multi timezone watchface where I can have 2 or more times on my watch to quickly see if it's ok to make that call back home or not. During the bitcoin boom a year ago I had a live BTC ticker along with a digital clock as a watchface. There are so many possibilities.
You have lost the ability to either a) do mental math in order to compute your current 'real' time or your reference time of b) you forgot how to change the time on your wristwatch.
You are dumb!
The BTC ticker... don't even get me started...
4. I've an android phone and along with the excellent Tasker program I can use the watch to control my home automation devices using preprogrammed button combinations or voice control. It's very convenient.
Convenience != good
The same could be done on your phone. Again, why the need to be constantly completely hooked up? Do you sleep in pods filled with goo and have a huge pin stuck in the back of your skull? http://veilofreality.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/neo-wakes-in-matrix-pod.jpg [wordpress.com]
5. I was at the airport about two weeks ago on a United flight. website saw the flight confirmation email and automatically grabbed the boarding pass QR code and sent it to my moto 360 watch. I literally waved my hand under a scanner to board the plane at the gate.
Congratulations, you saved a tree by going paperless and about 5 seconds of your life by pulling out your phone and showing the QR code. You must feel so proud.
6. My mother has lost a lot of her hearing and she used to always miss phone calls. I bought her a pebble and now that her wrist vibrates when someone calls her, she never misses them. She also uses website and whatsapp quite a great deal and loves the notifications.
So now that your mother can pick up the phone, you can yell into yours so she can hear you on the other side, right?
My point is larger than wearables, it stretches over all devices and reaches into the trend of society of being connected 24/7/365.25... What the heck is up with that?
Back in my day, when I got bored... well tough luck... Find something else productive to do. These days if you are bored, you take out your little shiny bobble and stare into the abyss that the internet has become.
FFS, disconnect already!
(Score: 2) by Kilo110 on Thursday February 19 2015, @07:23PM
Try again without the personal insults.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 19 2015, @07:24PM
No, you deserved them
(Score: 2) by Kilo110 on Thursday February 19 2015, @07:25PM
Nah I didn't.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday February 19 2015, @02:52PM
My iDoc said I was healthy but I had a heart attack, im suing!