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I suppose those US based shopping-by-proxy services are about to get some more international business!
 
Anyone complaining about no ECG must have got their information about the feature from beyond Apple, be it sites like this or otherwise, but did not read into the fact that it was US only. If you had not been doing additional research (just not thorough enough it seems) then you would not even know about the feature, it is not advertised so outside the US after all.
 
Anyone notice that the ECG App not showing up on their watch.. i do have the beta profile installed on watch and iphone but seem to be missing the app.
 
I was under the impression that they said that feature will be available to people who live in US, not specifically that the watch needed to be purchased in the US. If they said that the watch had to be purchased in the US, then there's no wiggle room of course.
Most people buy their devices in the countries where they live. And laws usually govern sales in those countries alone. Apple can’t legally sell a personal ECG outside the US, so they track the serial numbers of units they designate for sale in each country.
 
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Mark my words, this will never get approved in the UK. Not for years anyway after which the Series 4 would be obsolete. Way to go Apple. Should have made it easy for us to enable it on our own volition
 
Mark my words, this will never get approved in the UK. Not for years anyway after which the Series 4 would be obsolete. Way to go Apple. Should have made it easy for us to enable it on our own volition
Then it would be banned from sale altogether. Apple was upfront that it requires regulatory approval. Expecting them to enable workarounds is unreasonable.
 
Anyone notice that the ECG App not showing up on their watch.. i do have the beta profile installed on watch and iphone but seem to be missing the app.

Your iPhone and watch can’t not have the beta profile on it. You have to delete beta profile on both, reboot both and try again.
 
Please post the results of your investigation. Many others (myself included) want to know the answer too.

BTW, I've asked Health Canada on twitter about how long it would take them to approve ECG functionality of AW4 in Canada.
This was in mid September, just after the new Watch was announced. They said at the time that they have not received an application from Apple yet but the approval can be as quick as 15 days. Apple has since started working with them by what I've read in the media but it's been a lot longer than 15 days and nothing has happened yet. :(

See, that's just Apple not giving a flying fig. If it hasn't even submitted an application after releasing S4.
 
Then it would be banned from sale altogether. Apple was upfront that it requires regulatory approval. Expecting them to enable workarounds is unreasonable.
Not really. Locking something down unless the user goes out of their way to change the region would be perfectly acceptable.
I don’t understand why the feature cannot be enabled with clear disclaimers.
It’s disappointing
 
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More *hardware* region-locking and US only functions are surely what we need.

Even the most stubborn company in the world Nintendo has loosen its grip on this.
 
That sux, cos changing my region would be the first thing i'd do :)

More *hardware* region-locking and US only functions are surely what we need.

Even the most stubborn company in the world Nintendo has loosen its grip on this.

Hardware-based would be more tougher to get round than software only.
 
More *hardware* region-locking and US only functions are surely what we need.

Even the most stubborn company in the world Nintendo has loosen its grip on this.
More *hardware* region-locking and US only functions are surely what we need.

Even the most stubborn company in the world Nintendo has loosen its grip on this.
Exactly. Without this feature enabled, I only have half an Apple Watch Series 4 , so I’ve no choice but to sell my UK model and secure one from the USA. It’s ridiculous I have jump through hoops like this.
I won’t hold my breath for the blood glucose monitoring that we expect in the future, again that will probably be US only.
 
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Pay for something you cannot use even if you moved to the US because your watch was purchased elsewhere. Ridiculous. Doesn’t make sense.
I was thinking about the case where I sometimes buy an Apple device on a whim while traveling. So if I live in San Francisco but buy a AW4 at Covent Garden, I'm toast. Not fair.
 
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The fact that Apple have removed all mention of the ECG functionality from the UK Apple Watch site pages tells you all that you need to know.
[doublepost=1544142278][/doublepost]
I was thinking about the case where I sometimes buy an Apple device on a whim while traveling. So if I live in San Francisco but buy a AW4 at Covent Garden, I'm toast. Not fair.
I think the clear rule of thumb is from now on only buy apple watches from the USA if you want to actually use any newly introduced health features.
 
The fact that Apple have removed all mention of the ECG functionality from the UK Apple Watch site pages tells you all that you need to know.
[doublepost=1544142278][/doublepost]
I think the clear rule of thumb is from now on only buy apple watches from the USA if you want to actually use any newly introduced health features.
By the pace Apple releases new stuff I think we are just a decade away from getting the ECG function. By then your Apple Watch Series 4 will truly shine.
 
Yes you can. I bough the S4 in the US and live in Mexico. I changed mi iPhone region to the US and have the ECG function working in the watch without issue.

"That's not the case with the the ECG app on the Apple Watch Series 4, though, as it only functions on models purchased in the United States"

So this begs the question: can I just buy a series 4 while in the U.S. (I'm Canada based), bring it home and enjoy the feature? We used to do this with the original iPhone before Canada got them and have done so with lots of tech stuff in the past. If the unit itself is a U.S. model and I set my region to the U.S., which I have already done to get the Apple News App, will I be able to use the ECG feature? Might have to investigate this one with a trip south!
 
Back in the day I used to order mj seeds from UK, Holland, Spain even though seeds were illegal in the U.S they were sold and shipped legally as novelties.
Why can't the ecg on the AW since it is listed as an "informational product" and not medical product be used anywhere? Just change the language a bit for those overseas
 
The fact that Apple have removed all mention of the ECG functionality from the UK Apple Watch site pages tells you all that you need to know.
[doublepost=1544142278][/doublepost]
I think the clear rule of thumb is from now on only buy apple watches from the USA if you want to actually use any newly introduced health features.
They may have been advised by their attorneys not to advertise it until it is available.

Remember that this is also Apple’s first attempt at adding features that require approval from health regulators. They aren’t familiar with this process.
 
See, that's just Apple not giving a flying fig. If it hasn't even submitted an application after releasing S4.
So were trusting a random twitter comment over Apple? Dont you think Apple would want this enabled everywhere..? This functionality can only help sales...
 
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I almost can't believe that my Canadian purchased Apple Watch won't work in USA - even if I moved to USA and got the USA App Store account etc etc.

I would be asking the Apple Geniuses if I should sell my perfectly good Apple Watch 4 and buy a replacement in the USA to solve e the problem. That would be funny if that was the only solution.

I will have to test this myself - it seems like a bit too much effort for Apple to try and block the usage like this.

Whats everyone's issue? Simply purchase the US model! Seriously guys!
 
Maybe people have already purchased their aw4... like for a long enough time that they cannot return it.
 
And yet you charge the same or even more in countries outside of the US (even though the Watch isn't even produced in the US). This is becoming more and more ********
 
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