Apple Watch Series 6 Rumors: Blood Oxygen Tracking, Performance Improvements, Faster WiFi and More

nitramluap said:
I don't think so, other than better battery life & lower power consumption during sleep mode.

I think Apple is being very sensible about their sleep app to be honest. There is not a sleep app or device out there in the consumer world that truly measures quality or depth of sleep (despite all the pretty graphs & claims to the contrary) - it's just not possible to determine that without a full blown EEG on your head.

So I think Apple will stick to movement of the watch (but they will add snoring detection I think) as a crude measure of whether you're likely to be sleeping or not (ie. restless). I think that's more than enough and all you can really tell from 'movement' anyway.

I actually like their sleep app & the data presentation in the Health App on the iPhone. It's more about good sleep hygiene & routines rather than making guesses about the 'quality' of sleep.
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I didn’t think I would like Apple’s rudimentary sleep app but, it has forced me to be consistent each night, which is a good thing.
 
O2 saturation has been figured out by other companies. If they have that plus EKG, heart rate....this thing will be an unbelievable medical device.
 
"We've seen a battery allegedly for the ‌Apple Watch‌ that features a capacity of 303.8mAh, which is not too far off from the 296mAh battery in the Series 5 models, so we're not expecting significant gains in battery life other than what comes through software improvements."

If that is true, that is truly a slap in the face, Apple. Cmon, it's 2020, we shouldn't have to keep hoping for better battery capacity (and by better I don't mean a few mAh)!
 
Well, since my S3 broke (my fault; screen slowly cracked and came off over many months of whacks) I am still no closer to figuring out if I should just get an S5 or wait to see what the S6 is going to have.
 
With their filings of just new iPads and wearables and not mentioning iPhone, wouldn’t that mean that they will release iPads and Apple watches now and then file the iPhones in October?
 
bernoulli said:
As an anaesthesiologist, I would have to disagree with that statement. Oxygen saturation does not gauge fitness or lung performance. Well, not in the way you are thinking. If your oxygen saturation is below 95%, regardless of any setting, may indicate there could potentially be pathological VQ mismatch.

To gauge performance then you would be looking at more like vo2 max which could actually be estimated using the heart rate ratio without any need of pulse oximetry;
VO2 max ~ hr max/hr rest x 15.3 mls/kg/min
There are also other ways of estimating VO2 max.

Other things one could look at are things like aerobic or anaerobic threshold.
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It's refreshing to hear some from a forum member of your background and experience. As a frequent flyer of the Mayo Clinic consortium, I learn as much as I can on each visit. I'm blessed to have an allergy/immunology specialist who is also an associate professor at the Mayo Clinic school of medicine. He explains things as though I'm a second-year med student. It's in sharp contrast from other specialists as they can't be bothered, assuming the patient is too stupid to understand. He wraps it all together, from neurology to pathology. Any time I donate to the research programs, I always specify his discipline as the beneficiary.

Back on point, I predicted the oximeter feature more than two years ago. I believe the Apple Watch has more real-world potential than any other product Apple has made since 1983. Currently, the Apple Watch relies on the iPhone as a combined technology, but that could change. I predict that the Apple Watch band, in theory, could provide the mechanism to measure blood pressure, monitoring and dosing of insulin, and auto-announcing of medical alert information when EMS arrives. In my view, the future is 'wearables' with multiple functionalities, and all handheld devices may will become obsolete.
 
bernoulli said:
As an anaesthesiologist, I would have to disagree with that statement. Oxygen saturation does not gauge fitness or lung performance. Well, not in the way you are thinking. If your oxygen saturation is below 95% regardless of any setting may indicate there could potentially be pathological VQ mismatch.

To gauge performance then you would be looking at more like vo2 max which could actually be estimated using the heart rate ratio without any need of pulse oximetry;
VO2 max ~ hr max/hr rest x 15.3 mls/kg/min
There are also other ways of estimating VO2 max.

Other things one could look at are things like aerobic or anaerobic threshold.
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Agree - also an Anaesthesiologist ;)

For a really accurate VO2max you need to be measuring actual oxygen consumption and it requires quite a bit of complicated kit & a standardised testing protocol. The estimated VO2max is good enough.

I think detecting undiagnosed sleep apnoea will be how they angle the marketing (and maybe high altitude sports/aviation)... but not as a general health tool. Apple's usually pretty sensible in this regard - they don't claim anything which can't be backed up with evidence which is so refreshing to see in the tech world.
 
jlocker said:
Can not believe that my Apple Watch version 1 is still running from the original launch of the watches. I think it is time to upgrade :)
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I went from the S0 to thenS5 last year - you’ve got a big surprise in store for you. The always on display, waterproofness, bigger display, and everything being SO MUCH FASTER, is really really nice. It made Siri on the watch really useful, among other things. Plus some of the new watch faces that weren’t available to the S0 are lovely.
 
CarlJ said:
I went from the S0 to thenS5 last year - you’ve got a big surprise in store for you. The always on display, waterproofness, bigger display, and everything being SO MUCH FASTER, is really really nice. It made Siri on the watch really useful, among other things. Plus some of the new watch faces that weren’t available to the S0 are lovely.
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Still rocking the Series 0 since 2015. Maybe I'll upgrade this year. This is turning into an expensive Apple year.
 
GadgetBen said:
Thinner and a slightly bigger face option.
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at this point the S4/S5 did a significant and great reduction in thickness and it was VERY welcome!

to get thinner impacts the size and capacity of the battery una. Negative way (using same batt tech). To get larger screen face sizes 45-52mm is the only way to get thinner.

I’m surprised that we get reports of a 5nm cpu fabrication for the iPhone 11/12 yet nothing about the Apple Watches SoC getting a fabrication re-education for the cpu and related capacitors. This would help with understanding battery consumption.

Blood oxygen will have a HUGE benefit now consider many of us in the world are in phase 3 and finally getting much needed exercise yet our lungs oxygenuse efficiency is still behind after 4mths.

didital crown movement (from the S4 haven’t had the S5 Watch) needs huge refinement. I was able to scroll slowly for minute adjustments in alarm or weight selection in the clock/Strong apps accordingly, while fast for big jumps. Neither app changed this behaviour in their code yet the change was isn’t the crown: slow/fast twists didn’t change both served as slow increments.
 
bernoulli said:
As an anaesthesiologist, I would have to disagree with that statement. Oxygen saturation does not gauge fitness or lung performance. Well, not in the way you are thinking. If your oxygen saturation is below 95% regardless of any setting may indicate there could potentially be pathological VQ mismatch.

To gauge performance then you would be looking at more like vo2 max which could actually be estimated using the heart rate ratio without any need of pulse oximetry;
VO2 max ~ hr max/hr rest x 15.3 mls/kg/min
There are also other ways of estimating VO2 max.

Other things one could look at are things like aerobic or anaerobic threshold.
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And I’m pretty sure the Watch is already estimating vO2. I see it show up in my Health app.
 
For me personally, I think sleep tracking is my number one health request. They’re currently third parties that gave what I believe to be decent comprehensive results and I know that Apple is also making it a feature in the upcoming OS, however I think that there could be substantial gains if Apple dedicated some real hardware and software to this.
 
bernoulli said:
As an anaesthesiologist, I would have to disagree with that statement. Oxygen saturation does not gauge fitness or lung performance. Well, not in the way you are thinking. If your oxygen saturation is below 95% regardless of any setting may indicate there could potentially be pathological VQ mismatch.

To gauge performance then you would be looking at more like vo2 max which could actually be estimated using the heart rate ratio without any need of pulse oximetry;
VO2 max ~ hr max/hr rest x 15.3 mls/kg/min
There are also other ways of estimating VO2 max.

Other things one could look at are things like aerobic or anaerobic threshold.
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Responses like this are why these forums are so great.

Well, that, and the snarky jokes.

Thank you for relaying your expertise in a way even goons like me who skipped physical science classes in college can understand. :)
 
btrach144 said:
Really torn on whether or not to upgrade from S5 to S6 this year. Apple watch is still very much an early device and each gen seems to add more features similar to early versions of the iPhone. Of course, after time, the innovations slow down.

Really missing better battery life from the S5. If they improve the battery, maybe I'll update but considering pictures of the S6 battery leaked and showed little difference over S5 battery, I'll probably be disappointed this year.
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is it worth upgrading from watch series 3 to the Series 6?
 
Theyayarealivin said:
Jon P. said next week though.
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Exactly, as a rule of thumb for me, whatever he says and nobody else is saying it, I think the opposite will happen.
Example, he says “oh man Apple will not be happy by this 😘. New iMac, soon on April 😉” (with emoticons and all, that dude is insufferable) then no new iMac is happening soon nor in April, June or July. It happened on August and Apple is not unhappy about it it, actually they don’t give a damn about him.
 
jlocker said:
Can not believe that my Apple Watch version 1 is still running from the original launch of the watches. I think it is time to upgrade :)
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I wear mine to bed. Though my original was actually replaced by apple when the bulging battery popped the screen off. So it’s not my original original.

wear my series 4 all day and some nights if I forget to switch.
 
I'm really looking forward to all the new health sensors that will be completely disabled and useless in Australia!
Just like my lovely ECG on my AW4 & 5 that's still disabled.
 
nordique said:
You don’t need oxygen sats to diagnose acute bronchitis

Keeping up with chronic bronchitis sure it can have use. But that’s a very small percentage of the population - like I mentioned earlier for a chronic copd pt on oxygen therapy this would be a very useful tool actually. Or say you have had chronic empyemas and you have known fibrotic lungs. Or perhaps you’re in immunosuppressive therapy. These are all good reasons to have an O2 monitor. It could also have some role with sleep apnea as well, that is a practical feature too. These are small population cases though.

For the general public, not so much. By the time you have a severe respiratory illness, 1) you will know you are breathless. It’s not something you’ll check with an O2 sat to confirm. 2) you’ll be in an emergency room or hospital ward with treatment hooked up to a monitor when it has relevance. Even then we use other measurements to look at your oxygen status, the sats are a very, very minor part of it

To detect undiagnosed Sleep apnea may be a useful feature if they can implement it somehow. But that’s really the limit of practical use.
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Thank you. This, and other comments about Blood Oxygen monitoring, has kept me from upgrading my S5. 😀
 
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