The Apple Watch is proving to be more than just a smartwatch for quite a few people. It’s been looking after them very well. Be it saving a man’s life after detecting supraventricular tachycardia or detecting afib to convert a naysayer. According to a new report, the Apple Watch called for help after an 80 year old woman suffered a fall in Munich, Germany.
Heart disease and problems have always been around, but it’s starting to feel like maybe we could be seeing less fatalities as a result of them. This is thanks to the many stories we’ve heard about the Apple Watch saving the life of its wearer by alerting them to potential heart problems, allowing them to seek out treatment before it was too late.
There are many reasons why someone might buy the Apple Watch. It could be that they want to use it for fitness purposes where it can log their activities. Some might want it for lifestyle purposes, some might simply want it to better communicate with their smartphones, and as such, not all features of the watch might be used.
The idea of putting a lithium-ion battery into our pockets via our smartphones sounds dangerous enough, but strapping one to our wrist also seems rather risky, but that’s the choice we make whenever we put on our smartwatches. Thankfully, to date, we haven’t really heard about smartwatches exploding, but some have come close.
A report from the other day revealed that Apple could be expanding the availability of its ECG feature of the Apple Watch Series 4 to more countries. This was to be part of the watchOS 5.2 update. It turns out the rumors were right because the update has since been released which also expanded on the ECG’s availability at the same time.
The Apple Watch ECG feature has proven to be quite a literal lifesaver. Unfortunately, the feature is only available in the US because due to the different regulations used around the world by different governments, Apple will need to work their way through various regulatory hurdles before it finds its way to more markets, similar with Apple Pay.
One of the new features of the Apple Watch Series 4 is that it comes with a built-in ECG. The feature seems to have saved more than its fair share of lives to date, but at the same time it seems that some doctors aren’t a fan of the feature as it seems to be causing undue panic for some of their patients.
Apple has so far remained mum on exactly how many Apple Watches they have sold. We’re not sure why, especially in the face of multiple reviews and third-party data, all of which seem to suggest that the device is doing pretty well, so why not boast about it, right? Unfortunately the company is still keeping quiet on that front, so for now third-party data will have to do.
At the moment the Apple Watch can track the user’s sleep. This is done through apps such as Sleep Cycle which can monitor how much sleep you’re getting based on your movements. However according to a report from Mark Gurman over at Bloomberg, Apple could be looking to introduce their own sleep tracking to future Apple Watch devices.
Just the other day it was reported that the Apple Watch’s ECG feature had saved the life of a man by alerting him to a possible A-fib. Less than a week later, it seems that we’re hearing about yet another story of the ECG saving another life, this time of a 75-year old woman by the name of Liz Turner.
Last year we reported that it wasn’t long after Apple enabled the ECG feature in the Apple Watch that it managed to save its first life. We have since heard multiple stories of the Apple Watch saving lives, and it looks like we can now add another to the list, where the Apple Watch alerted the user to the return of his atrial fibrillation.