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Apple Confirms Tattoos Can Interfere With Apple Watch

whatos said:
I believe you've said it very well.
Tattoos have been around for centuries. A very rich history of artistic expression. With modern inks, open minded youths and a resurgence of tattoos as socially acceptable expression, Apples ignorance is stifling.
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WATCH has been around for a couple of weeks.

Socially accepted norms of people with sleeves of tattoos has been around for a handful of years.

So the next thing is testing and working around tattooed users. Tattooed people are not some protected class of people. I think the rage is a little overblown.

It's too bad they didn't test WATCH on their Apple Store employees. Man, I remember when it was just nerds in there, not cool kids. Ah, the good ol' days.
 
whatos said:
I believe you've said it very well.

Tattoos have been around for centuries. A very rich history of artistic expression. With modern inks, open minded youths and a resurgence of tattoos as socially acceptable expression, Apples ignorance is stifling.
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Please... There are many things that are socially acceptable yet involve making choices. Many women who decided to get ass antlers have found that their anesthesiologist won't give them an epidural if the needle must pierce the ink. If I choose to get a neck tattoo it would surely end my career. The list goes on.

Choices.
 
dylanwho said:
I think the rage is a little overblown.
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Reeking of defensiveness, you imagined "rage" from nothing more than reading mere commentary. Your imagination is only outdone by the person below

barthrh said:
Many women who decided to get ass antlers have found that their anesthesiologist won't give them an epidural if the needle must pierce the ink.
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Here's an example of the wild imaginations of the Apple Disciples. Anytime they perceive even the slightest difference of opinion they respond with.... Well this gem of an exaggeration speaks for itself... :)

Moral of the story?

While posing as responsible calm enthusiasts, the moment another Apple enthusiast dares express an individual perspective calmly, these types hurl personal insults designed to start a fight.

Proving once again, intelligent discussions are off limits in Appleland... :eek:
 
Apple is a business and businesses only exist because it provides solutions to problems. If a product is not suit to a particular individual because of a genuine issue, then out of good will the business should refund the product. The product serves no purpose to someone who can't use it. It damages the customer experience and the trust in the company.

Poor form is Apple thinking it's the users problem. It's a very primitive way of thinking and is bad for future business.
 
69Mustang said:
Ink is the issue. Not skin pigment.
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I don't think it's even "ink" per se. It's metals. Many tattoo inks are based in metals (as are many pigments), but the issue is that "light" (electromagnetic signals) is (or signals are) interfered with by metal films. For example, it takes a vanishingly thin film of lead to block an X-ray or an RF signal to the point that it is unmeasurable. Sure, something gets through, but it is 0.0000000001% of its initial strength (an example, not to be quoted in scientific literature). And/or some portion is reflected.

It's not social science. It's hard science. It's too flipping easy for people to point at "freaks" or "losers" and to be flippant.

At the same time, I do agree, this is not "Apple's problem". It is a by-product of personal decisions that people have made. The desire to wear ink doesn't make a person "X": the act of getting inked makes their skin less scrutable.
 
Is this an issue specific to the Apple watch and the sensors used by Apple, or is it a more general issue with any smart watch or sensor and tattoos?
 
nfl46 said:
This isn't surprising. All the people with sleeve tattoos on both arms, please cancel your orders so we can finally get our Apple Watch that have been processing since 4/10. Thank you!

I'm joking. Or maybe not. :)
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Haha, thank you! I'm still processing here...Yeah if you want an Apple watch please report to the nearest laser center for tattoo removal.

-Mike

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Attonine said:
Is this an issue specific to the Apple watch and the sensors used by Apple, or is it a more general issue with any smart watch or sensor and tattoos?
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I would think it affects all similar devices. I'm also surprised Apple has not come up with a clever solution for this, maybe in the near future they will add tattoo mode so that the sensor behaves slightly different for these poor folks so they can still use the darn thing.


-Mike

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69Mustang said:
I'm confused. 1. Where are you getting your information regarding the cost of the sensor? 2. How does a sensor that works with dark tattoos affect a sale to the rest of us? If your answer to question 2 is the cost would increase, please circle back to question 1.

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Do not expect accurate heart rate monitoring during sex.:eek:
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Haha, thank you for the info! I will be sure to keep this sucker charging while pounding away lol :p

-Mike
 
mikefla said:
I would think it affects all similar devices. I'm also surprised Apple has not come up with a clever solution for this,
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Since it affects similar devices, you'd think that someone ... not just Apple... would've come up with a solution by now, if there was one.

You'd also think that many tattoo wearers would already be aware of the limitation because of the millions of other fitness bands that have been sold.

Do any optical sensor fitness bands read pulse rates over tattoos?

maybe in the near future they will add tattoo mode so that the sensor behaves slightly different for these poor folks so they can still use the darn thing.
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Hmmm. Perhaps use a camera to analyze and store the tattoo pattern, similar to the way fingerprints are done with TouchID.

Alternatively, perhaps in a few years it'll become commonplace for ink designs to include a watch-shaped clear space around the wrist :cool:
 
whatos said:
Reeking of defensiveness, you imagined "rage" from nothing more than reading mere commentary. Your imagination is only outdone by the person below
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"Reeking?" "Defensiveness?" That's funny. Of course my comment was directed at other commenters who are upset. I never claimed to have been using a scientific sample. You are overblowing my statement. Just a little. You must be heavily tattooed, and that's cool with me.

I am almost certain that Apple is looking at this issue, just like everything that comes up and they manage to get to many years from when the problem is reported, like my Dark Side 27" iMac. Fix the tattoos and fix mine and thousands of others' display's melting backlight.

Most important question:

What is Apple going to about people that don't have a hand to keep the watch on? Or people that don't have any wrists?
 
whatos said:
The fact that Apple either failed to consider those with Tattos, or deliberately decided to ignore these potential customers is a bit concerning.
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Wow. If you find a company making sensors that work through any tattoo give us a call.

Of course this is a massive failure on Apple's side. I'm sure the competition will kick them while they are down. Samsung will within a week release a watch with sensors that work with any kind of tattoo and sell them to this mistreated minority. And another company will make sensors that work for people who wear a watch over their shirt sleeves.
 
So help me out here...if some one has a wrist tattoo the Watch is completely useless to them? :confused:
 
gnasher729 said:
Wow. If you find a company making sensors that work through any tattoo give us a call.
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It would have been very easy for Apple to issue a statement about tattoos and the watch before customers got their hopes up, ordered a watch, only to be left to find out the watch wouldn't work for them.

Any excuse that Apple didn't know till buyers tried it, is just that... A lame excuse. Apple's highly skilled engineering and design team spent plenty of time studying skin conductivity, pH sensitivity and a very wide range of other variables.

Failed? No
Dropped the ball? Oh Yeah.
 
ajlei said:
Are there really people calling for Apple's blood about this? I see a lot of comments from people saying "people need to stop being so scandalized about this" or "deal with it" or whatnot... but are people actually that upset about it? Or are people from the opposite camp jumping to extremes?
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Try reading one post before yours.
 
teslo said:
no. stop it.

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drugs with side effects for a low minority of people is a "User Experience" issue, and will impact sales for that specific drug. not much at all, but that's the point of making anything for 'the general public'.. "generally" most people can use it.

i fail to see how you argued his point in any way.
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You fail to see it? Your comparison is literally not a good one. You're comparing side effects to UX. They have nothing to do with each other.

The whole idea with these products is to test and then test some more. Think about the amount of testing and prototyping a UI overhaul goes through. I would imagine it would be the same for a new product.
 
wow,,, i didn't need confirmation to know this one was coming :apple: but i guess it makes it official now :)
 
OMG, all the douchebags with Beats headphones have tattoos on their wrists! They can't use the features of AppleWatch!
 
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