The Next Generation Apple Watch Could Identify Users by Their Heart Rate

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published an invention today that suggests the next Apple Watch could identify its owner simply by checking their heart rate.

Apple’s patent application is titled “User identification system based on plethysmography” and describes how a pulse oximeter is used to determine the biometric signature of a user’s cardio rhythms. This data could then be used to identify the wearer and unlock the watch in a manner similar to Touch ID on the iPhone.

The system works similarly to existing monitors, by projecting light on the user’s skin and measuring how much of it is absorbed and reflected back to the device. The measurement can then be used to determine the amount of blood present in the vasculature. According to the patent, the data gathered by the two photosensors is either stored or compared against previously saved information to positively identify the user.

In an associated patent also published today, the invention is extended to take in data from motion sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes to determine user movement. Certain gestures, for example raising the device from waist height to head height, trigger the authentication process.

AppleInsider notes that the system could replace Touch ID during Apple Pay payments and further reduce the watch’s reliance on iPhone, although it’s unclear if heart rate data can be a unique enough identifier to ensure the same level of security.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
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Apple Seeds Third Beta of watchOS 3.1 to Developers

Apple today seeded the third beta of watchOS 3.1 to developers for testing purposes, just over one week after seeding the second beta and a month after releasing watchOS 3 to the public. watchOS 3.1 has been in testing since September 21.

watchOS 3.1 can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General –> Software Update. To install the update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone. watchOS 3.1 requires an iPhone running iOS 10 to install.

watchOS 3.1 appears to focus on bug fixes and under-the-hood performance improvements rather than outward-facing changes, as no new features were discovered in the first two betas. Should any changes be found in the third beta, we’ll update this post.

watchOS 3 brings a new interface to the Apple Watch, with a dedicated App Dock and instant launch apps. There are new Activity sharing features, a “Breathe” app guides you through daily deep breathing sessions to cut down on stress, and there are new Reminders, Find My Friends, and Heart Rate apps.

Three new watch faces are included, and an SOS feature can automatically call emergency services. A revamped Messages app makes it easier to reply to incoming texts, plus there’s a new “Scribble” feature for writing replies on the Apple Watch face with a finger. For more details on what’s new in watchOS 3, make sure to check out our watchOS 3 roundup.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
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Apple Seeds Second Beta of watchOS 3.1 to Developers

Apple today seeded the second beta of watchOS 3.1, Build 14S464, to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first beta and three weeks after releasing watchOS 3 to the public.

watchOS 3.1 can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General -> Software Update. To install the update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone. watchOS 3.1 requires an iPhone running iOS 10 to install.

watchOS 3.1 appears to focus on bug fixes and under-the-hood performance improvements rather than outward-facing changes, as no new features were discovered in the first beta. We’ll update this post with anything new that’s found in the second beta.

watchOS 3 brings a new interface to the Apple Watch, with a dedicated App Dock and instant launch apps. There are new Activity sharing features, a “Breathe” app guides you through daily deep breathing sessions to cut down on stress, and there are new Reminders, Find My Friends, and Heart Rate apps.

Three new watch faces are included, and an SOS feature can automatically call emergency services. A revamped Messages app makes it easier to reply to incoming texts, plus there’s a new “Scribble” feature for writing replies on the Apple Watch face with a finger.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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Apple to Sell Fewer Apple Watch Models in 2016 Despite Launch of Series 2

Apple may sell fewer Apple Watch models in 2016 than it did in 2015, according to research conducted by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and shared by Business Insider. According to Kuo, the new Series 1 and Series 2 Apple Watch models suffer from a lack of “killer” applications, inadequate battery life, a heavy reliance on the iPhone and a multi-touch UI that he does not feel will be the ideal solution for wearable devices.

The Apple Watch, says Kuo, has failed to impact sales of the Fitbit, and he does not believe the more affordable Series 1 models will lead to a higher number of sales.

As a result of these perceived shortcomings, Kuo has cut his estimates for 2016 Apple Watch shipments by 15 to 25 percent, projecting sales of 8.5 to 9 million units during fiscal 2016. Kuo made similar predictions in April of 2016.

“Based on these considerations, we revise down our 2016F shipments projection for the entire Apple Watch line from 10.0-10.5mn units to 8.5-9.0mn units (vs. 10.4mn units in 2015),” writes Kuo. “We now predict 2016F Apple Watch sales will decline from 2015 (with shorter selling time of eight months).”

Apple does not break down Apple Watch sales numbers and has never revealed how many of the wearable devices have sold since April of 2015, making it difficult to pin down just how well it’s doing with customers. IDC estimates shared over the summer suggest Apple sold 1.6 million units during Q2 2016, down from 3.6 million estimated units in the second quarter of 2015, aligning with Kuo’s prediction.

It’s important to note that estimates for Apple Watch sales sometimes vary wildly, however. For example, during the March quarter, Swiss bank UBS estimated sales of 1.6 million units, while Strategy Analytics estimated sales of 2.2 million.

The new Apple Watch Series 2 looks identical to the Series 1 Apple Watch models but includes better waterproofing to make it suitable for use when swimming, GPS, a faster dual-core processor, and a brighter display. Series 1 models also feature a faster processor, but are otherwise unchanged from the original Apple Watch.

More substantial changes are expected for the 2017 Apple Watch, including an exterior redesign.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
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Manhattan’s Union Square Cafe Will Outfit Managers With Apple Watches to Improve Hospitality

Union Square Hospitality Group and Resy, a restaurant reservation startup, tonight announced at the TechTable Summit that every manager and sommelier at the Union Square Cafe will be outfitted with an Apple Watch to help improve customer service, reports Eater. The Union Square Cafe is set to reopen in late October and is the flagship restaurant of Danny Meyer, founder of Shake Shack.

Photo via Union Square Cafe
The Apple Watches will be outfitted with restaurant “control center” app ResyOS. Floor managers and sommeliers wearing the watches will receive notifications when VIPs enter the restaurant, when new tables are seated, when guests have waited too long to order, when menu items run out and more.

An iPad running ResyOS will act as the command center at Union Square Cafe’s host’s stand while the Apple Watches will pull the info inputted into the iPad in real-time. The Apple Watch’s function will be focused on cutting out steps and increasing response time. For instance, when a guest is finished dining a manager will get a notification, allowing them to ping a server for the check or the guest’s coat. Sommeliers will get wine orders sent to their Watch, rather than having to wait for a manager to relay the information to them.

Maureen Cushing, Union Square Hospitality’s VP of Technology, tells Eater that ResyOS and the Apple Watches are “another way to respond and listen to our guests.” She also notes that the Apple Watch will not replace communication between servers and management, as servers will not be receiving Apple Watches with ResyOS.

This isn’t the first time that the food and beverage industry has embraced Apple products to improve hospitality. Many smaller restaurants and food trucks have opted to use iPads or iPhones as POS systems in lieu of more traditional options.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
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Aetna to Provide Apple Watch to 50,000 Employees, Subsidize Cost for Customers

Insurance company Aetna today announced a major health initiative centered on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, which will see Aetna subsidizing the cost of the Apple Watch for both large employers and individual customers.

Starting this fall during open enrollment season, Aetna will subsidize “a signficant portion” of the Apple Watch cost and will offer monthly payroll deductions to cover the remaining cost.

Aetna also plans to provide Apple Watches at no cost to all of its nearly 50,000 employees as part of a wellness reimbursement program to encourage them to live healthier lives.

“We are thrilled that Aetna will be helping their members and employees take greater control of their health using Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Aetna’s new initiatives will be a powerful force toward creating better customer experiences in health care, and we look forward to working with Aetna to make them successful.”

Aetna plans to develop several iOS health initiatives with “support” from Apple, debuting “deeply integrated” health apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch that will be available to all Aetna customers.

According to Aetna, these apps will “simplify the healthcare process” with features like care management to guide customers through a new diagnosis or a medication, medication reminders and tools for easy refills, quick contact with doctors, integration with Apple Wallet for paying bills and checking deductibles, and tools to help Aetna members get the most out of their insurance benefits.

Aetna’s health-related apps will be available starting in early 2017, but the Apple Watch initiative will begin in 2016. Aetna has not detailed how much of the cost will be subsidized or which Apple Watch models will be available to subscribers.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
Tag: Aetna
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Second Wave iPhone 7 and 7 Plus Launch Kicks Off in Dozens of Countries Around the World

Following their September 16 debut in more than 25 countries around the world, the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus are seeing their second wave launch today, debuting in a number of additional countries across Europe and the Middle East.

The iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus are now available for purchase in the following locations: Andorra, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Maldives, Malta, Monaco, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

With today’s second wave launch, Apple’s latest devices have rolled out to more than 55 countries, and will expand to India in the near future with an October 7 launch date planned.

In many countries, supplies of the iPhone 7 and especially the iPhone 7 Plus are likely to be severely constrained, as Apple has been struggling to meet demand. In the United States, Apple had no iPhone 7 Plus stock available for walk-in customers on launch day, with all supplies having gone to pre-order customers.

Wait times are up to three to five weeks for the most popular iPhone models, like the Jet Black iPhone 7 Plus, in many countries, with lower two to three week shipping estimates for other devices.

The iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus feature better water resistance, much improved cameras (with a dual-camera for the 7 Plus), faster processors, brighter, more vivid displays, a redesigned Home button powered by a new Taptic engine and no headphone jack.

The Apple Watch Series 1, Apple Watch Series 2, and Apple Watch Edition are launching in new countries today as well, including Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Cayman Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Guam, Hungary, Jersey, Kuwait, Macau, Monaco, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia and the US Virgin Islands.

Apple Watch Hermès Series 2 models are also available as of today in Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Macau, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, the UK and the US.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3, iPhone 7
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Apple Watch Series 2: A Swimmer’s Perspective

As a lifelong swimmer, I found the addition of 50-meter water resistance and swim workout tracking in the Apple Watch Series 2 to be a welcome improvement that made the new watch a must-have upgrade for me. While the original Apple Watch was not rated for swimming, many users had no issues regularly using it in the water, although its lack of built-in swim tracking features limited its usefulness.

With Apple Watch Series 2, Apple has not only upgraded the water resistance with new gaskets and seals to make it suitable for swimming, but added new Pool Swim and Open Water Swim workouts to help track your progress. As part of the Apple Watch Series 2 introduction earlier this month, Apple highlighted how it worked with swimmers in the company’s fitness labs to develop the software to accurately track swim workouts, from using the accelerometer in the watch to measure arm movements to tracking energy expenditures during workouts.

So how well does the new Apple Watch work when you take it for some swims in a pool? Let’s take a look.

Getting Started

Swim tracking is managed in the same Workout app as other types of exercise, with both pool and open water swim workout options to choose from and a variety of different goals available for each workout.

When you launch a pool swim workout from the Apple Watch, the first screen lets you input the length of the pool you’re going to be swimming in. The default value in the U.S. is 25 yards, which is the most common pool length, but you can adjust this manually down to the exact yard as needed. A force press on the screen lets you change between yards and meters.

The next screen is where you set your goal for the workout. As with other types of workouts, you can swipe left and right on the watch to choose between calories burned, time or distance, or simply set an open goal. If you’ve previously completed swim workouts, the watch displays your best performances for each of the metrics, giving you a reference for setting new goals.

In the Pool

Once you’ve selected your pool length and workout goal, you’re ready to go. Hit the Start button and the watch will give you a three-second countdown and you’re off.

During your swim workout, the Apple Watch can display up to four different metrics. By default, these include workout duration, active calories burned, laps completed, and distance. Using the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, however, you can customize the display to rearrange the order of the different metrics or replace some of them with other options including average pace, total calories burned, and heart rate. Alternatively, you can set your Apple Watch to display only a single metric at a time and use the Digital Crown to change metrics during the workout.

One unique aspect to swim workouts is that once the workout begins, the Apple Watch screen automatically locks to prevent accidental taps that can occur as water interferes with the touch sensing. If you want to pause your workout at any point, simply press the Digital Crown and the side button simultaneously. Pressing them again resumes the workout tracking.

As detailed during its introduction earlier this month, the Apple Watch Series 2 has a clever feature to help clear water from its speaker, using vibrations of the speaker itself to expel water from the speaker cavity when your workout is complete. Once your workout is paused and you’re finished, turning the Digital Crown expels the water from the speaker and unlocks the screen, which then allows you to swipe right and end the workout, resume the workout, or re-lock the display.

How Well Does It Work?

So how well does the swim workout tracking work? The answer is very well if your goal is to simply swim back and forth to rack up yardage. The watch accurately senses individual strokes and both open turns and flip turns at the ends of the pool to calculate the distance you’ve traveled, elapsed time, and calories burned, and I found the active calories burned metric calculated by the watch to be close to figures estimated by other sources for various types of swimming activity.

Apple notes that the heart rate sensor may not function properly during swimming activities as water may interfere with the measurements, but that calories burned continue to be estimated using the watch’s accelerometer. In my experience, however, the heart rate sensor continued to function very well in the water, accurately capturing my heart rate throughout my workouts.

Where the Apple Watch’s swim tracking starts to fall short is for people looking to do more varied swim workouts based around swim sets and focused exercises like stroke drills and kicking. The Apple Watch’s tracking is linked to its ability to sense arm motion, which means if you’re doing a kick set, it won’t pick it up at all. Or if you’re doing specialized drills to work on your technique, such as one-arm strokes, if may not track accurately if you don’t have a regular stroke rhythm.

The Apple Watch’s pace calculation also becomes less useful if you’re doing interval-based sets, as it’s simply going to tell you the interval you were going on instead of your actual swimming pace unless you manually pause the workout as you finish each repeat and resume before starting the next one. That quickly becomes tedious, especially as I found myself having to visually check the watch’s screen each time to make sure it was pausing and resuming correctly, as pressing the crown and side button didn’t always register properly.

It would be great if the watch could sense when I’ve stopped at the wall to rest and automatically pause my workout and then resume once I push off the wall on my next swim. It obviously starts to get tricky differentiating random arm movements while resting from the start of a new swim with only an accelerometer to go on, but I feel like there could be some improvements made here.

I’d also love a way to edit workouts after the fact to include untracked activities such as kick sets and drills, even if it’s just adding in the yardage. For now, I’m using a third-party app like MyFitnessPal to create a second workout to estimate my calories burned for the portions of my workouts the Apple Watch can’t track.

Finishing Up Your Workout

At the end of your workout, the Apple Watch app displays a summary of your session, including the time of day the activity took place, dominant stroke used, distance, workout time, pool length, laps completed, average pace, average heart rate, and both active and total calories burned, as well as the weather at your location.

All of that data gets synced over to the Activity app on your iPhone, where it’s visible in the Workouts tab. A bonus view on the iPhone lets you break down the average pace number and see your pace for each 100-yard segment of the workout. And of course the exercise and calorie data also automatically syncs over to the Health app on the iPhone, as well as third-party apps hooked into HealthKit, to help track your overall health status.

Open Water Swimming

Aside from pool swims, the Apple Watch Series 2 can also track open water swims in the Workout app. I’m not as much of a fan of open water swimming and so I haven’t had a chance to test that function out, but it operates in a similar fashion to pool workouts, allowing you to set a goal for time, distance, or calories, or leave an open goal.

As with pool swims, you can customize the metrics shown on the Apple Watch’s display during a workout using the Apple Watch app on your iPhone. The default metrics are duration, active calories, burned, average pace, and distance, but these can be rearranged or swapped out for total calories burned and heart rate metrics from your iPhone.

Once you hit “Start” it will track your swimming progress, and as long as you are using a freestyle stroke it will use GPS to plot your location and speed while the accelerometer tracks your calories burned. Once your open water swim is completed, you can view a map of your route within the Workout entry in the Activity app on your phone.

Wrap-up

Plenty of serious and not-so-serious swimmers and triathletes already wear fitness watches to track their workouts, but this is my first foray into wrist-worn swim tracking. I like the tracking the Apple Watch can provide in pool swims to help keep tabs on my yardage, heart rate, and calories burned, and it’s something I’ll likely continue playing with. It’s great for tracking long workouts with a minimum of stopping.

If you’re doing sets of short swims or varied sets involving drills or kicking, it can be frustrating to have that activity go untracked or to have to manage pausing and unpausing the tracking to separate swimming from resting intervals. Frequent focusing on the watch to ensure it’s tracking accurately and at the right times can also divert your attention from the actual swimming, although that will likely improve over time as I gain familiarity with using the watch in the pool.

For those reasons, the Apple Watch Series 2 may not yet become an everyday swim tracker for me, although I’ll keep experimenting with it to figure out the best way to incorporate it into my workouts to provide the best data with minimum disruption to my workout focus.

Where the new Apple Watch could be a major benefit, however, is for open water swimmers. The lengthy freestyle swims are ideal for tracking with the Apple Watch, and the watch’s GPS should make it a great tool for tracking those lake and ocean swims where it’s difficult to estimate how far you’ve swum. It’s certainly not the first GPS swim tracking watch, but for open water swimmers it’s a great addition to an Apple Watch they can wear throughout the day to provide a host of other functions.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
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Apple Watch Hermès Series 2 Models Officially Launch Today

Apple Watch Hermès Series 2 models, released on a pre-order basis last week, are now officially available for purchase both online and in stores.

Apple offers seven different Hermès models designed with handcrafted leather, including three with Single Tour bands, two with Double Tour bands, one with a Single Tour Deployment Buckle, and one with a Double Buckle Cuff. Prices range between $1,149 and $1,499 in the United States.

The new models serve as a refresh to last year’s original Apple Watch Hermès lineup, released in October 2015. The new Series 2 models have the same custom Hermès watch face, but beyond that and the bands, the Hermès models are identical to regular Apple Watch models.

Apple Watch Hermès Series 2 models can be purchased through Apple’s website in many countries, while in-store availability is limited to select Apple Store and Hermès locations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Honolulu, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Washington D.C.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
Tags: Apple Watch Hermès, Apple retail
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watchOS 3: How to Share Activity With Your Friends

When watchOS 3 launched alongside iOS 10, it brought a handful of feature additions and speed improvements to the Apple Watch. One of the new social features is a way for users to share their Activity Rings with friends and family through “Activity Sharing.”

Mainly focused in iOS 10’s Activity app, the ability to share workout data nevertheless requires an Apple Watch updated to watchOS 3, and for you to be comfortable with certain people receiving live updates on your fitness activity. When you’re ready to start sharing your Activity Rings, and you’ve updated to both iOS 10 and watchOS 3, follow these steps:

Activity Sharing on iPhone

Open “Activity” on your iPhone.
Navigate to the “Sharing” tab on the bottom right.
Tap the “+” icon in the top right corner to add a friend.
The app will offer suggestions from your contacts of users who may own an Apple Watch, so you can tap one of those or type in someone specific in the text box.
You can include multiple invitations at one time, and once you have everyone included in the “To” box, tap “Send.”
From there, simply wait for your friend to accept the invitation. Afterwards, you’ll begin to see one another’s Calorie, Workout, and Standing rings in the same Sharing tab you sent the invite from. Once you amass a group of friends and family members, you can also sort the data in helpful partitions depending on what you’d like to see. Simply tap “Sort” in the top left corner of the Sharing tab and choose from Name, Move, Exercise, Steps, and Workouts as the primary focus.

Tapping on anyone in the list will bring you into a deeper menu about that individual’s Activity that day. The app will break down each ring, as well as showcase a step count, distance walked, and list any completed workouts or earned achievements. At the very bottom, there’s a few options to mute a friend’s notifications, hide your Activity from them, or delete them as a friend. Within your main friends list you will see your own Activity as well.

An example of a friend’s Sharing card (left), and your own (right)

Activity Sharing on Apple Watch

Although Activity Sharing is more in-depth within Activity on iOS, most of the interactivity of the new social feature takes place on the Apple Watch. Whenever friends begin closing their Activity Rings, completing workouts, and earning achievements, you’ll get push notifications about each accomplishment. From these pop-ups, you can send friendly encouragements (or sly digs) about their hard work.

When you receive an Activity notification from a friend on your Apple Watch, scroll down.
Tap “Reply.”
You can choose from the traditional speech-to-text, emoji, Digital Touch, and Scribble options, or scroll more for some of Apple’s stock Activity responses.
Tap on any phrase to send it.
These responses are integrated directly into Messages in iOS 10, so if you sent “You’re on fire!” for example, Messages would provide slight context above the message with “Mitchel completed a workout.” Until they otherwise mute you for the day, or turn off your notifications completely within Activity on iPhone, each of your friends will receive a notification upon the completion of every workout and earning of every achievement.

If you visit the Activity app on Apple Watch, you can scroll down to get more detailed readouts of each Activity Ring. Swiping right-to-left shows the new Sharing tab, similar to the one on iPhone. You can scroll to see each friend, tap on them for an individualized view, and send a message through a button at the bottom of their profile.

It should be noted that Apple’s stock fitness-related phrases will only appear following a Sharing notification from a friend, and then only on Apple Watch. Any other Messages-related prompt outside of a notification from a friend will simply guide you over to Messages with all of the expected features introduced in the app in iOS 10.

There are plenty of other interesting and notable features to discover in watchOS 3, so be sure to check out the MacRumors roundups for both watchOS 3 and Apple Watch Series 2 to find out more information on each.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
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