Excellent for people who care about such things.
Most consumers don't
Want proof, go and walk in America and look at the general population and see just how many slim, healthy eating, fit, health conscious people there actually are on the streets.
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Glucose Sensing Likely Too Challenging to Include in First-Generation iWatch
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Excellent for people who care about such things.
Most consumers don't
Want proof, go and walk in America and look at the general population and see just how many slim, healthy eating, fit, health conscious people there actually are on the streets.
It's not that they don't care. They are too lazy to care.
If Apple could develop a convenient device that makes a healthy lifestyle fun and simple, then Apple might be on to something here.
Because deep down almost everyone knows what is healthy and what is not. It's a matter of convenience and motivation, areas the iWatch might excel at.
Oh I don't for one moment think this is a bad idea, or that people becoming healthy is a bad thing. It's all great.
However a phone that had instant access to home delivery/take away junk food, would probably sell better then one that told you what you should not be eating
Or put is this way.... How many American cupboards & drawers are jam packed with heath and fitness gadgets that looked great on the TV adverts, but after the novelty wore off they soon got discarded.
So again yes, have health stuff, but don't make it all is does.
Unless Apple really only with to focus on the sport and fitness industry, which is not the mass market
Yup. All this talk about a "watch" is a case of not seeing the forest for the trees.
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I'm not sure I followed 100% of this, but it sounds a lot more like the way Apple would think through the problem than what we've been hearing.
Exactly. I see health monitoring as a set of APIs as much any anything else.
Once you have the APIs you can get data from all sorts of places:
- blood pressure cuffs
- scales
- breathalyzer type devices (which I suspect are going to become more common). Glucose really requires constant monitoring, with all the hassle we see in the HG1-c, but many things can be usefully monitored once or twice a day, and a breathalyzer type device is a much easier route than trying to fire infrared into the skin and see what scatters back.
Apple took too long with their watch. The Samsung Gear 2 is the best looking smartwatch and spells big trouble for Apple.
This is what I've said all along. While their are some small groups that will be interested in continual monitoring of their health, athletes, people with chronic conditions, etc., the overwhelming majority won't. Heck, most people don't even think about their health when they stop by McRats for lunch, or smoke, or talk on their cell while driving. What would make them want a device that gives them BP, glucose, etc. all day long? This is a device that would sell in tens to hundreds of thousands not tens of millions.
This is just dumb.
The question is HOW are the CGM values inaccurate?
If they are simply noisy, and if your interest is in long term trends (pre-diabetic) as opposed to driving an insulin pump, then the noise doesn't matter much --- you just filter it out. It's no different from any other sensor fusion --- the instantaneous signal generated by the accelerometer or magnetometer also looks like garbage, but that's turned into something useful with the right filtering.
Agreed. I see Apple going in a more general direction than specific health care applications, possibly overall fitness or activity. While I love my Apple TV, I would rather they not pick up another hobby, especially one with so much speculation surrounding it.
Do you own a bathroom scale? Or do you believe that scales are some sort of weird fancy item only of interest to a few specialized people?
How about a toothbrush? You're willing to brush your teeth everyday, or you think that's too much effort, and the cost of those brushes and toothpaste really adds up.
Look, I know there's a certain type of (rather despicable) human that loves to look down on their fellow countrymen as no better than animals (basically the Nazi view of the world) but try to have a grain of intelligence here. The number of people who truly don't give a damn about their health is a very small percentage of the population.
So the issue is not "Do I care?" (as compared to selling a device that gives you immediate updates of the price of cocoa in Cameroon, something that truly IS a specialized market). The issue is --- is the benefit worth the cost?
Since we have
(a) no idea what the benefits are. What (physically) IS an "iWatch"? What can it monitor? What else can it do (notifications from the phone, drive Syri, provide Google Now like contextual information?)
Is it sold with services (eg pay $5 a month, and you'll get report telling you if anything in your monitored stats looks worth checking out? If your pulse suddenly disappears the service will try to contact you and, if necessary, send an ambulance [basically fancier Medalert]?
(b) no idea what the cost is. The iPad came in a LOT cheaper than people expected...
(c) we know that Apple buyers tend to be wealthier, meaning that they make a different set of cost benefit tradeoffs
Everything you're saying is truly silly.
You're assuming, for example, that the value of glucose monitoring is knowing a point estimate at a single moment in time. But OF COURSE that's not the value. The value is having long term trends available so that you can see if you are pre-diabetic and if things are getting worse or better.
Similarly for sleep trends. You might sleep well today. But there is value in knowing that, over the past five years, your sleep patterns have become less healthy in the following ways, and that it might be worth trying to reverse that.
That's beyond stupid. What idiot did that? My meter can choose what units I want. I use standard US units, but why would anybody care if I want to use European units?
As for accuracy, regular glucose meters are allowed 20% error per the FDA. Insane, I know. That's the difference between being ok and hitting frank hypoglycemia when injecting insulin. Also the difference between long-term health and long-term bad ****, if your meter runs low rather than high.
The meter line I use is quite accurate, but some of the popular ones aren't so accurate. If the iWatch is within that spec it should be legal. I hate sticking my fingers every meal.
Whilst you make some valid points, most features on any smartphone or other tech product are really used by the masses. Most users still don't lock their iPhones or use Siri, flashlight, Calculator, or Timer. People don't buy muscle cars because they will travel at 130 mph, but because they know they will have the capability to do it.
Still not sure why a glucose meter is necessary for everyone. If you're diabetic you should have one anyway, and if you're not you don't need one.
they should make radiation sensors on these things first. seems like the first logical step to me.
nice idea...but in order to get glucose level checked...you would need blood via puncturing the fingers...you also need also alcohol swab to wipe the blood first...
so..in order word...it's not likely this will happen....unless they put skin sweat and bp and other components into a factor.
so..in order word...it's not likely this will happen....unless they put skin sweat and bp and other components into a factor.
The more I read about this thing, the less I want one. The endless messages my iPhone pops up are bad enough. Can you imagine getting this sort of thing each day?
Hello. It appears you are in or near a restaurant. You should stop eating, you are obese.
Hello. I predict you are about to have heart attack.
Hello. You have entered 60 minutes of swimming exercise this afternoon but my location records show you have been to a pub 4.7 miles from the nearest swimming pool. This message has been sent to all your iOS devices, including your wife's.
Hello Barman. It appears Tom has just asked you for an alcoholic beverage. I do not think you should serve this man. He is 3 alcohol units above his weekly total.
Hello. It appears you need an insulin injection. I think.
Hello. You have been in the pub and movements of your body suggest you may be driving. As you did not tick the "do not grass me up box" this information and your location have been sent to the police.
Hello. It appears you are running. Here are three sports shops near you now.
Hello. Are you in a restaurant? Computing your requirements... You should order lettuce soup, half a cucumber, a cup of lavender tea and, as a treat, 0.0435 g of dark chocolate. Enjoy your meal.
Hello. During your meal you have moved your hand towards your mouth four times. You have either left some food or are putting too much on your fork. Did you know this can lead to an average lifespan reduction of 0.000000687676 days?
No thank you. Not for me.
Hello. It appears you are in or near a restaurant. You should stop eating, you are obese.
Hello. I predict you are about to have heart attack.
Hello. You have entered 60 minutes of swimming exercise this afternoon but my location records show you have been to a pub 4.7 miles from the nearest swimming pool. This message has been sent to all your iOS devices, including your wife's.
Hello Barman. It appears Tom has just asked you for an alcoholic beverage. I do not think you should serve this man. He is 3 alcohol units above his weekly total.
Hello. It appears you need an insulin injection. I think.
Hello. You have been in the pub and movements of your body suggest you may be driving. As you did not tick the "do not grass me up box" this information and your location have been sent to the police.
Hello. It appears you are running. Here are three sports shops near you now.
Hello. Are you in a restaurant? Computing your requirements... You should order lettuce soup, half a cucumber, a cup of lavender tea and, as a treat, 0.0435 g of dark chocolate. Enjoy your meal.
Hello. During your meal you have moved your hand towards your mouth four times. You have either left some food or are putting too much on your fork. Did you know this can lead to an average lifespan reduction of 0.000000687676 days?
No thank you. Not for me.
Most people like eating and don't like exersize.
you think a watch beeping at them is really going to change that?
T1D here
Hey Macrumors. I'm a Type 1 diabetic and a long time apple user. THere are some glucowatches on the market but i've heard they aren't very reliable and you need to shave your wrist and run the risk of getting rashes and stuff. The fact that apple is even exploring this is so cool.
To the user who said americans dont care about health, then you have a very poor understanding of the market Apple sells to. Obesity is a problem in America, but that doesn't mean it has to be or that apple shouldn't address it.
I'd love a device that counts calories for me, that would be cool
Hey Macrumors. I'm a Type 1 diabetic and a long time apple user. THere are some glucowatches on the market but i've heard they aren't very reliable and you need to shave your wrist and run the risk of getting rashes and stuff. The fact that apple is even exploring this is so cool.
To the user who said americans dont care about health, then you have a very poor understanding of the market Apple sells to. Obesity is a problem in America, but that doesn't mean it has to be or that apple shouldn't address it.
I'd love a device that counts calories for me, that would be cool
I don't think that's fair - if you don't want a healthcare device then the iWatch probably isn't for you, but that doesn't mean these functions are gimmicks; unlike many of the function on the S4. Heart rate monitor, pedometer, analysis of sleeping habits are all useful for me. Glucose levels not so much but I'd use it when working out. In all honesty I wouldn't buy an iWatch if it didn't have this stuff: a watch which just tells me my text messages instead of pulling my phone out of my pocket isn't that appealing to me.
You are correct that one of the reasons people fail at dieting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is because of a lack of motivation.
Another big reason is that they have no accurate way of measuring their progress. They typically use a scale and guess the amount of calories they are consuming. Do you know how much a food item can vary in the amount of actual contained calories as opposed to the amount listed on the package? It can contain as much as 50% more calories than is actually listed.
I'm not saying that this will work for everyone, but it could definitely help a lot of people.
IMO, people fail at losing weight and eating healthy, exercising, etc because it is difficult and takes a lot of discipline and self control to do so. Staying with a plan is very hard for most people to do. And I don't see a monitoring device suddenly giving people the willpower and long term commitment needed to lose weight etc. On the other hand, people with chronic conditions and diseases may find a product like this a Godsend. But will that be the target market? I doubt it.