Apple Collected Over 18,000 Hours of Health and Fitness Data for Apple Watch

[Keirasplace]

Today my coworker introduced me to his Galaxy Gear S watch. That thing is pretty impressive! Has GPS and a SIM card. I know I'm supposed to pledge allegiance to the Apple flag and all, but wow.

Its also more than 100% bigger in volume than the smallest Apple watch, but hey whatever, if you don't mind the I'm a geek look. Do it.

Also, there is few apps, interface is clunky, craddle flimsy (and Samsung is a bitch about replacing when it breaks seemingly). Reviews have been mixed. 3/5 to 4/5, average about 3.5.

Tizen seems to be a very efficient embedded OS, so that's a positive if they can actually get it developed more.

 

[theBostonian]

Does that mean the Apple Watch contains 2 year old tech?

 

[justperry]

€399 for an Apple watch, no thank you, I just use my iPhone to check on mail, time and other things.
Using the watch seems to be crap.

 

[gavroche]

No there isn't. Apple should put the same devotion into fixing the existing issues. Patch after patch yet issues persist. Oh and in many cases we wait months and months for the fix that fixes nothing.

Right now the watch is nonsense. It's has to prove itself useful. At $349 I don't think it makes sense. Do you realize how small 42 mm is? Do you know you carry an iPhone that runs apps and tells the time? Right now, nonsense seems appropriate. But it's your money. Waste it as you see fit.

[100% Personal Opinion + Completely Insulting Verbage] = Someone Not Worth Paying Any Attention To.

 

[Carlanga]

Try to imagine Samsung running 10,000 1–2 hour test sessions in a secret fitness lab over two years. Not very believable, is it? Neither the extreme pursuit of quality and usefulness, nor being years AHEAD of the industry instead of following 2 months behind the latest rumor about Apple...

I don't know if/when I'll want an Apple Watch, but I do know Apple goes way beyond the halfway spaghetti-on-the-wall product development practiced by the competition.

Is 10-2,0000 hours of "testing" from 10,000 sessions for a watch a lot?

Is this quantity of hours statistically significant to be considered good enough q&a for the firmware and apple designed apps? How standard is the curve of the apple employees physically constitution vs the average person to qualify it as good enough.

While I do think apple tests their products more than the competition does in the current state they also charge you more and still hardware issues affect almost all first gen Apple devices; based on my experience w owning apple products since the beginning of the Intel era comeback in afraid all their products have suffered some issues w q&a in the hardware dept. from MacBooks to iOS devices. Only the S versions of the iPhone and other second gen hardware that hasn't had major changes of hardware have been good enough releases w.out real hardware since they fixed them preproduction on those 2-3gen devices.

IMO a smart watch should have at least 100,000 hours of testing the first gen hardware.

 

[mdelvecchio]

10 bucks a new watch strap connector comes out in 2 years and makes all those over priced straps useless.... Jono ivey will come out and say.. all new thin connector so we can make the thinnest watch ever, saving 1mm and ****ing all you over. thank you for dropping 500 dollars on your old useless strap...

nope. the connector will stay the same for years to come. why? 1) because apple is smarter than you -- they know how annoying and upsetting changes it would be. 2) there is no precedent for that -- the 30-pin dock connector was with us for 12 years. 3) even if the watch got thinner it wouldnt require a new connector as long as they developed this one w/ that is in mind -- and see point #1.

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BS this things among other health gadgets are useless, there is no biometric technology yet. they act like a reminders at best.

nonsense. activity tracking doesnt require more biometrics than whats on board today. and as a sedentary office worker, activity tracking & alerts is what i want it for.

 

[TMRJIJ]

This is why IOS and MAC OS suffer. All these people focussed on this nonsense. Get back to work and fix what's broke.

Strange, I don't remember having major problems with OS X nor iOS.

 

[wigby]

It wouldn't be "superior" because visually we can see the same LED based HRM sensor, even down to the same green lights as the Fitbit Surge/MS Band etc.

Unless there is some brand new never been seen or announced before tech in it (which Apple would have surely tooted their own horn about) it's the absolute safest bet that it's a tech that is "equal to", rather than "greater or less than" what is already on the market.

So how come iPhone camera is always rated the best? It's just a Sony camera that anyone can buy? Hint: it's the software.

Apple spends all this time and money collecting data so they can optimize he software to best work with the hardware. So while their HRM hardware might be no different than anyone else's, their software knows when the HRM isn't properly in contact with he wrist because the subject is exerting the self s lot more Han usual and sweating more too. How do they know that? 18,000 hours of data, that's how.

 

[Gameboy70]

Is 10-2,0000 hours of "testing" from 10,000 sessions for a watch a lot?

...

IMO a smart watch should have at least 100,000 hours of testing the first gen hardware.

Ah, so a 20 year testing window instead of two years. By the time Apple released it, competitors would be shipping brain implants.

 

[MasterRyu2011]

<s>

OMG..Apple is no better than Google. They collect data from its users to gain a competitive advantage and use it to sell their products!


</s>

 

[lederermc]

It wouldn't be "superior" because visually we can see the same LED based HRM sensor, even down to the same green lights as the Fitbit Surge/MS Band etc.

Unless there is some brand new never been seen or announced before tech in it (which Apple would have surely tooted their own horn about) it's the absolute safest bet that it's a tech that is "equal to", rather than "greater or less than" what is already on the market.

2 years? I bet the next gen watch will have a new design that needs a new strap.

The reason this MIGHT be much better than other fitness gadget like Fitbit is because it is calibrated with actual calorie consumption data. Those face masks you see in the video monitor CO2 which is directly related to the energy your body is consuming. Other devices use correlations between heart rate and calories consumed based on age/gender/weight. It looks like Apple is trying to improve on those correlations. Having said that, I'll keep my $69 fitbit and forgo the $400 Apple watch.

 

[djtech42]

Blue??? Why would they turn blue?

The shirts are now red because the retail division of Apple is going through changes.

 

[JUiCEJamie]

Do you think this is a pro-active move on Apple's part? Or a reactive one?

Great insight to the Watch. I think it really justifies why they do what they do. It puts context behind what Tim spoke on stage about it being a fitness companion.

A lot of my friends think Apple Watch is just pushed out solely for bottom line; so it's nice when there's things like this watch, and understand that they're serious about their products.

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I would think that for the data to be useful, one would need to study the workouts of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of test subjects, and that would amount to considerably more than 18,000 hours of data.

Of course, I don't know the results either. But perhaps the results of these tests created a relative trend early on?

Instead of results changing, peaking etc etc - they may have collected data that fell in line so they didn't need to test hundreds more people for thousands of more hours.

 

[demodave]

https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/21/apple-watch-abc-nightline/


The five-minute interview behind closed doors revealed that Apple collected over 18,000 hours of health and fitness data based on over 10,000 workout sessions that Apple employees participated in over the past two years at the company's secretive fitness lab. Blahnik, director of fitness and health technologies at Apple, also confirmed that the company tested the Apple Watch outdoors based on a variety of activities.

Article Link: Apple Collected Over 18,000 Hours of Health and Fitness Data for Apple Watch

What I find particularly interesting is the "two years" part And that the employees were unaware of what was going on!

I'm also assuming that several design iterations have been going on, so, in spite of the Lamentations of the haters, this will be a pretty mature product.

 

[NoNothing]

Apple's CPU... you mean the SOC like the A8? The ones made by Samsung? Made mostly to keep the size of the phone small?

Haptic Chip? Like this tech developed last year by Fujitsu? http://www.tomshardware.com/news/feedback-tactile-heptic-touch-fujitsu,26244.html

A singular cell chip that encompasses more bands isn't a new tech. It's condensing existing techs.

Seems like you're the one that doesn't know Apple let alone understand technology at all...

You actually think of the A8 as off the shelf on the low-end????

Really????

You don't know anything about technology.

 

[robjulo]

Unfortunate they didn't give a similar effort to maps, icloud, Siri or notifications.

 

[Carlanga]

Ah, so a 20 year testing window instead of two years. By the time Apple released it, competitors would be shipping brain implants.

lmao, where did you learn to do calculations?

a) 100,000 hours if apple was testing one unit would be 11.408 continuous years, it could be ~20 years if you only test it ~12 hrs a day, but again that is apple doing all the testing/collecting with ONE unit.
b) 100,000 w just 100 testers is just 1.37 continuous months or 41.67 days. So this fitness testing took only months and not that many of them. Of course if they say it took them years to get just this fitness data, then they are doing the testing just as fast as the george martin writes books. The years they are talking is everything not this fitness testing.

 

[bnmcj1]

18,000 hours and they still forgot a standalone gps and a battery.

 

[usarioclave]

18,000 hours and they still forgot a standalone gps and a battery.

They forgot the coffee and sandwich maker too. And the soda dispenser and car remote start. These Apple guys are so ******** stupid, right?

 

[gnasher729]

Is this quantity of hours statistically significant to be considered good enough q&a for the firmware and apple designed apps? How standard is the curve of the apple employees physically constitution vs the average person to qualify it as good enough.

I don't think this is about statistics, it is about the watch sensors working with the majority of people. There is enough variance between people to make it impossible to work for everyone (for example there are a few known cases of people _without fingerprints_). With 18,000 hours of data collected, the number of people for which the sensors just don't work will be small. And adding more hours wouldn't make much difference.

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Today my coworker introduced me to his Galaxy Gear S watch. That thing is pretty impressive! Has GPS and a SIM card. I know I'm supposed to pledge allegiance to the Apple flag and all, but wow.

Yeah, that's what I always wanted in a watch. GPS and a SIM card.

And here's a hint: There is no Apple flag.

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Some paid astroturfers apparently have been caught in Singapore spreading lies about their customers' competitors. FTC should launch an investigation on this site too: ;-)
http://www.prweek.com/article/1338736/when-agencies-sin-clients-name-singtel-gushcloud

Samsung has been fined for doing exactly the same thing a while ago. Paid people to post bad reviews of HTC products.

 

[bobenhaus]

Yeah and people complain about Google collecting other peoples data. double-standards. I don't give me the reason its because of research. You know Apple will sell the data to other companies. I love Unicorns.

 

[doelcm82]

Yeah and people complain about Google collecting other peoples data. double-standards. I don't give me the reason its because of research. You know Apple will sell the data to other companies. I love Unicorns.

If Apple sells this data to other companies, then other companies can exactly duplicate the Apple Watch! That's probably Apple's diabolical plan.

 

[Gameboy70]

lmao, where did you learn to do calculations?

Hmm. Oh, I don't know. Maybe from the two years it's taken Apple to date?

Of course, it's always possible that you know how to do Apple's testing regimen in one-tenth the time, in which case they should definitely hire you.

 

[dork]

18,000? Big deal

18000 hours is basically 100 testers saving data non stop for one week. Frankly, this seems like a tiny, nay, scant amount of data.

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They forgot the coffee and sandwich maker too. And the soda dispenser and car remote start. These Apple guys are so ******** stupid, right?

The lack of GPS is precisely why my wife, I, and a number of other people I know have no interest in this device. My wife bought a Garmin watch instead - the goal was to be able to leave the phone at home while jogging. The Apple Watch won't allow for that, which makes it useless as an exercise tracker, as far as I am concerned. As a status symbol and fashion statement, however, it's an outstanding device. Best thing out there, really.

 

[AppleScruff1]

18000 hours is basically 100 testers saving data non stop for one week. Frankly, this seems like a tiny, nay, scant amount of data.

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The lack of GPS is precisely why my wife, I, and a number of other people I know have no interest in this device. My wife bought a Garmin watch instead - the goal was to be able to leave the phone at home while jogging. The Apple Watch won't allow for that, which makes it useless as an exercise tracker, as far as I am concerned. As a status symbol and fashion statement, however, it's an outstanding device. Best thing out there, really.

I personally wouldn't call something that millions of people will soon have a status symbol.