Apple Watch

Apple has refreshed its “Close Your Rings” page that looks to offer some inspiration for Apple Watch users and potential Apple Watch users to live healthier lives. Today’s update offers the stories of four more individuals along with fast-paced videos showing how they close their rings and what’s motivating for them.

Expand
Expanding
Close

The start of a new year may be an arbitrary point in our planet’s orbit of the sun, but it can be a handy reminder to pick up some new good habits or drop some bad ones.

A few years ago, I suggested a few tech-related new year’s resolutions, and I thought it would be timely to revisit these and make some additional suggestions …

Expand
Expanding
Close

I first wrote about my health and fitness journey with the Apple Watch two years ago. The last couple of years have been eventful (to say the least), so an update is in order. I started 2017 on a high note, faced new challenges in my personal life that flipped my world upside down, saw the birth of my son, and moved my family to a new house.

My health and fitness journey and experience with running peaked in the spring, then I broke my healthy routines after a difficult experience over the summer that triggered a crippling depression — not the first episode I’ve experienced but the worst. Similar to physical health, mental health has long been something I’ve found difficult to manage throughout life for a myriad of reasons.

Fortunately, the personal situation settled down around fall, but I felt completely exhausted and needed a break. I’d met my fitness goals every day for a year and felt okay with resetting my Activity Rings streak. The journey back has been a brand new challenge, and it’s also shown me new ways to approach the Apple Watch — as both a coach and monitor for physical health as well as a signal for changes in my own mental health.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple Watch can be a great way to break the habit of checking your iPhone too often, but moving all of your alerts to wrist can be annoying if you don’t manage your notifications. For the best experience, you may want to proactively fine tune a few settings before you get bombarded with buzzes and bloops.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple Watch continues to improve as an all-day fitness tracker each year. Newer Apple Watches add optional cellular connectivity and longer battery life, and older Apple Watches benefit from new software updates that add useful features. Want to use your Apple Watch to improve your overall health in 2019? Start by personalizing your Apple Watch Workout and Activity features to you.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Ever since the Apple Watch, I’ve used a diary format to track my experience of Apple products over time. A conventional review represents a one-off take on a product at the time it’s written, but product diaries of my Apple devices provided a much more rounded perspective – from pre-purchase expectations through established use.

Unsurprisingly, I generally have plenty to say in the early stages, and less as time goes on. But as we approach the end of the year, I thought it would be useful to provide a roundup of my current view of each – as well as a look at how Apple might persuade me to upgrade next year …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple Watch can be an excellent health monitor just by wearing it, but there are some opt-in features that you need to turn on to access. Even if you don’t plan on working out with Apple Watch, you may want to double check that these health-monitoring features are turned on so you can get the most out of the Apple Watch.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Looking to get activity credit for skiing or snowboarding this winter with your Apple Watch but also want more detailed data like vertical descent, speed, number of runs, and more? Whether you hit up to your local resort regularly, or are about to head to one on a holiday trip, follow along as we look at two solid apps for Apple Watch to take your ski and ride tracking to the next level. We’ll also look at some cool social features, with one app offering a fun way to compete with friends on the mountain.

AutoSleep is my go-to app for tracking sleep quality with the Apple Watch (although the watch isn’t required), and today the sleep tracking app is receiving a major update. AutoSleep 6.0 introduces a new look including a darker dark mode, new ways to view your sleep data and suggestions for how to improve sleep quality, and a new Siri Dashboard feature that works with Siri Shortcuts on iOS 12.

Expand
Expanding
Close

While everyone I know who owns an iPhone or iPad with Face ID would never want to go back to Touch ID, the older technology does have its fans. An Apple patent raises a slim possibility of a future iPhone combining both forms of biometric authentication tech …

Expand
Expanding
Close

More than one in ten American adults are expected to own a smartwatch by the end of next year, and the health features introduced in the Apple Watch Series 4 are thought to be playing a major role in adoption.

Research firm eMarketer suggests that US smartwatch ownership will hit 28.7 million people by the end of 2019 …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Last month, we took a look at HomeRun, a new Apple Watch app from indie developer Aaron Pearce. HomeRun makes it incredibly easy to run HomeKit scenes from the Apple Watch, and today the app has been updated with support creating custom complications.

Expand
Expanding
Close

December has been a big month for Apple’s health efforts as its long-awaited ECG (electrocardiogram) app for Apple Watch Series 4 recently landed. Now a new CNBC report looks at how serious Apple is taking its health focus moving forward. It now has as many as 50 doctors on staff across a variety of teams and projects to help users do more than just track exercise and fitness.

Expand
Expanding
Close