Top Bananas | Tag Archives: Apple Watch

Apple Watch Saves Woman From Rape

Posted on October 24, 2019 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: A Calgary woman used her Apple Watch to call for help when a man broke into her home to rape her.

A woman in Calgary was wearing her Apple Watch when a man broke into her home to rape her. She used her Apple Watch to contact her boyfriend, who contacted police. When police arrived, they caught the potential rapist hiding in a closet.

The Apple Watch succeeds precisely because it’s a wearable computer. Mobile computers like smartphones and tablets took off because you can use a computer wherever you go, which is simply not possible with a desktop or even a laptop that won’t turn on right away.

Just as people are relying more on mobile computers than desktops/laptops, so will people eventually shift to wearable computers over mobile devices simply because wearable computers will always be with you.

You can drop a smartphone or forget to bring your tablet with you. However, once you put a wearable computer on, it’s with you no matter what. Now if you fall or need help, the wearable computer is right there with you, which may not be true with a mobile computer.

The Apple Watch is just the beginning of a wearable computer. Future wearable computers can include devices in your ears to not only listen to music but to give you audio feedback as well. Another type of wearable computer will be smart glasses that will let you see augmented reality through special lenses.

The future for wearable computers is bright. The future for traditional desktops/laptops remains stagnant. Desktops and laptops will always have their place, but so will wearable computers. With the Apple Watch dominating the smart watch category, it’s only a matter of time before Apple will likely dominate other wearable computer categories as well.

If you still can’t figure out a use for the Apple Watch, you’re not thinking hard enough. The Apple Watch will only get better and more useful over time. If you don’t have a wearable computer yet, you will sometime in the future. Either that or you can get left behind like someone who refuses to use a smartphone in favor of a laptop.

To learn more about how a woman used her Apple Watch to call for help, click here.

Smart Bands are the Future of the Apple Watch

Posted on September 4, 2019 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: Apple recently patented smart bands for the Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch has always been constrained by its smaller size that needs to fit comfortable on a user’s wrist. While the Apple Watch provides sensors to detect heart rates and skin moisture, there’s only so many sensors Apple can put on the physical size of the Apple Watch. Even worse is that some people may not want certain types of sensors while other people do.

That’s why Apple has patented smart bands that work with the Apple Watch. The main idea behind smart bands is to provide extra sensors that the smaller size of the Apple Watch can’t accommodate.

One long-rumored sensor that Apple is working on is non-invasive glucose monitoring. This would provide a way for diabetics to monitor their blood sugar level without breaking their skin to get a blood sample. Since only diabetics would want such a sensor, it makes sense to offer it as an optional smart band that can work with any Apple Watch.

Right now, the band that holds an Apple Watch to a person’s wrist does nothing else. By adding smart capabilities, a smart band offers more space for adding sensors to compliment the Apple Watch. Today the Apple Watch is dependent on the iPhone but soon the Apple Watch will be independent of the iPhone. With the addition of smart bands, the Apple Watch will soon be more capable as a biometric device as well.

The Apple Watch isn’t the only type of wearable computer Apple is working on. The less obvious rival is Apple’s AirPods, which could detect blood vessels in the ear canal, which is supposedly easier to access than blood vessels in the arm.

Still another potential wearable computer will be smart glasses. With so many wearable computer models to choose from, it’s likely people will choose one or more for different activities.

The Apple Watch will be focused on real-time health monitoring. AirPods will be focused on hearing and real-time health monitoring. Smart glasses will be focused on real-time information overlaid against the real world.

Mobile computing (smartphones and tablets) are slowly taking over the traditional PC market just as PCs gradually took over from the mainframe and minicomputer market.

Now wearable computers offer the next big leap forward as people start wearing their computers instead of carrying them with them.

The future of the Apple Watch is smart bands and the future of computing will be wearables whether strapped to your wrist, stuck in your ear, or propped on your face.

To learn more about Apple’s latest patent involving smart bands, click here.

Real-Time Health Monitoring is the Purpose of Wearable Computers

Posted on March 18, 2019 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: The “killer” app for the Apple Watch is real-time health monitoring.

When the Apple Watch first appeared, critics dismissed it as a gimmick. That’s because even Apple couldn’t define a specific use for the Apple Watch at first.

The whole purpose of technology is to solve a problem that was too difficult or impossible to solve previously. The PC made computers accessible to more people beyond the mainframe and minicomputer users. What made the PC useful was the spreadsheet, first embodied by VisiCalc and then by Lotus 1-2-3. People bought PCs specifically to use spreadsheets.

When the iPhone first came out, it represented a giant improvement over existing mobile phones, but also gave you a computer in your pocket. Combined with mobile location tracking, the iPhone defined how smartphones work, which eventually led to location tracking services like ride-sharing services.

The Apple Watch first appeared with no specific purpose in mind, but the latest Stanford study indicates that the Apple Watch does a decent job detecting heart abnormalities. To detect this usually requires expensive equipment at a doctor’s office, but the Apple Watch is bringing this capability to the masses. That makes real-time health monitoring the real killer app for wearable computers.

If you’re concerned about your health, then the Apple Watch is for you. For people who still refuse to buy and use a wearable computer like the Apple Watch, they’re essentially telling the world that they either can’t afford a wearable computer or they don’t think their life is worth a few hundred dollars.

The next step for wearable computers will be health enhancement. That can come with smart glasses that enhance a user’s vision while also tracking health conditions at the same time. Real-time health monitoring and enhancement is the ultimate goal of wearable computers.

Apple Watch Detects Man’s Fall

Posted on February 4, 2019 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: An Apple Watch detected a man’s fall and called for help.

67-year-old Toralv Ostvang fell in the bathroom, fracturing his face in three places. Fortunately, Toralv was wearing an Apple Watch that detected his fall and automatically called for help when it detected Toralv was not moving after the fall.

Emergency crews responded to the Watch’s alert beacon and said he would likely not have survived the night if he hadn’t received immediate help. That means the Apple Watch helped save one man’s life and its automatic fall detection feature will likely save many more lives in years to come.

Because of its fall detection feature and other health-related options, the Apple Watch is ideally suited for senior citizens. By providing help when the wearer is unable to do so, the Apple Watch can save lives.

While the Apple Watch is ideal for senior citizens, it can also be used for younger people to track their physical activity and urge them to stay active during the day. Sitting in one place is extremely harmful to one’s health so younger people can use the Apple Watch to monitor their physical movements.

The Apple Watch’s main purpose is simply real-time health monitoring, which can literally save lives. As the Apple Watch gains more features such as non-invasive glucose monitoring, it will continue offering health benefits that were too expensive or impractical to track with current technology.

The Apple Watch is a huge success simply because it has a clear purpose to monitor health. What Apple needs to do with their other products is define an equally important purpose.

Anyone know what’s the one compelling reason to use HomePod? HomePod offers hands-free computing, but beyond that, what purpose does it serve to solve a problem that other products can’t do as well? The lack of a clear answer is the reason why HomePod isn’t as popular or profitable while the Apple Watch continues growing in popularity and importance.

If you don’t have an Apple Watch yet, get one or something similar to track your health. A wearable computer like the Apple Watch could one day save your life.

To learn more about how an Apple Watch saved one man’s life, click here.

Apple’s Future is Health

Posted on January 17, 2019 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: Apple’s hiring of health related talent has increased 400% since 2017.

At one time, Apple relied on the Macintosh computer for all its revenue, but the world had already standardized on Windows so Apple had little room for growth focusing on personal computers.

Then Apple introduced the iPod and iTunes, and suddenly portable music players and music downloads gave Apple a huge boost in revenue while helping it rely less on the Macintosh.

When smartphones threatened to kill the iPod market, Apple reduced their dependence on the iPod by releasing the iPhone. The iPhone proved so popular that it defined the current smartphone market.

However, the smartphone market is slowing down. People aren’t upgrading their smartphones as often because each new model offers minor improvements over the current models. That means people are holding on to their smartphones longer, which means slowing smartphone sales.

Not only is Apple reducing their future revenue guidance due to slowing iPhone sales, but Samsung is also forecasting a downturn in smartphone sales as well. The problem isn’t just Apple but the overall smartphone market.

That’s why Apple has been diversifying recently with services such as Apple Music, Apple Books, and Apple Pay. the idea is to reduce dependence on hardware and make money whether people are using older products or not.

With iPhone sales slowing and showing no signs of suddenly picking up ever again, Apple needs a new market to target and that new market will likely be health, led by wearable computers such as the Apple Watch.

Like the iPhone, the Apple Watch has gone through major improvements with each generation although there’s little reason to upgrade each year with the Apple Watch.

However what will keep people pinned to the Apple Watch will be its improving health sensors. Since everyone (especially older people) are concerned about their health, it’s easy to see how wearable computers such as the Apple Watch and future Apple smart glasses product can use health as their primary focus, targeting the world’s aging population.

Far more people care about their health than care about using the latest smartphone. For that reason, health will be Apple’s new focus. Unlike smartphones, health-related products take more time to develop, which means it will be harder to take off-the-shelf components and slap them together to mimic an Apple Watch.

The iPhone is fine, but it will no longer be the primary driving force of Apple any more just like Apple no longer depends on the iPod or the Macintosh for the bulk of its revenue.

Health is the new focus because everyone is a potential customer, even people who don’t like Apple. Such people will have to decide if their health is more important than their irrational dislike of Apple because their lives literally depend on their decision.

Apple Watch Users 34 Percent More Active

Posted on November 29, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: Participants in the John Hancock Vitality program who were given Apple Watches for $25 showed greater physical activity compared to users without one.

There’s an old saying that what gets measured gets improved upon. In other words, if you track a certain activity, you know exactly where you stand at any given time so you know what you need to do to reach your goals. In the dieting world, tracking your calorie intake insures you don’t consume more calories than you should. Without measuring your activity, it’s too easy to lose track of your goals.

The RAND Corporation tracked 400,000 people across the US, Europe and South Africa and found that incentives including subsidized Apple Watches significantly improved people’s activity. In the research conducted for financial and life insurance firm John Hancock, participants with a watch on average increased their number of active days by 31 percent on the company’s Vitality program.

In other words, people tracking their physical activity tend to do it more often than people who do not track their physical activity. The Apple Watch and other wearable computers simply makes it easy for anyone to measure their physical activity daily. When you can see you’re not reaching your physical activity goals, you’ll have the incentive to increase your activity to meet those goals.

The Apple Watch’s primary purpose is real-time health monitoring. Anyone interested in maintaining their health is a candidate for the Apple Watch, which is practically everyone. As more insurance companies learn the advantages of the Apple Watch, it will be to their benefit to subsidize the cost of Apple Watches to increase the health of their customers. The healthier people remain, the less likely they’ll need health insurance, which simply makes the insurance companies more money by not paying out massive benefits.

The insurance companies are giving away Apple Watches out of the goodness of their heart but because it’s a sound business decision that actually benefits everyone (not just the insurance company). By staying healthy with an Apple Watch, people can live longer, more enjoyable lives. By not needing health insurance, insurance companies can keep more of the premiums for themselves.

The Apple Watch is going to be far more important than the iPhone in the near future because not everyone needs or wants an iPhone, but everyone will need or want to stay healthy. Of course, with more people using the Apple Watch, more people will have an incentive to use other Apple products like the iPhone or Macintosh.

Wearable computers like the Apple Watch are the future of Apple. Just like the iPod gradually faded in importance over time, so will the iPhone gradually fade in importance compared to the Apple Watch. When Apple releases smart glasses, that’s when the real revolution in wearable computers will take off.