Apple today is releasing a detailed new report highlighting the ways its ecosystem of products and services are impacting human health, from helping users keep track of their own personal health to supporting medical research and care.
"We believe passionately that technology can play a role in improving health outcomes and encouraging people to live a healthier day, and we are excited about the many ways users are benefiting from our health and fitness features, and by the ways third-party developers, institutions, and organizations are using Apple technology to advance health and science," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer. "Our vision for the future is to continue to create science-based technology that equips people with even more information and acts as an intelligent guardian for their health, so they're no longer passengers on their own health journey. Instead, we want people to be firmly in the driver's seat with meaningful, actionable insights."
The 59-page document is split into two main sections, with the first one focused on empowering users with convenient access to their own health data while delivering health and fitness features to help maintain or improve their health. Apple outlines its commitment to privacy with secure storage of health data, the Apple Watch's role in health monitoring and as a health and fitness companion, and the HealthKit framework that opens up the ecosystem to third-party apps.
With the release of iOS 16 and watchOS 9 later this year, there will be even more health-related features available to users, including medication tracking, AFib History, and sleep stage tracking.
The second section of the report examines how Apple's health initiative integrates with the medical community, including features like ResearchKit and the Apple Research app. Other aspects include how Apple supports physician-patient relationships with technology and data and how it helps health organizations and insurance companies promote healthy lifestyles with Apple Watch.
The report concludes with an Extensions and Spotlights section that highlights a number of examples of developers and organizations that are leveraging Apple's health-related features and services to drive innovation.
Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017
"APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote.
Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April.
From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements.
While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way.
By the time the ...
Tuesday February 25, 2025 2:58 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is making significant headway on its long-rumored foldable iPhone, with a new report suggesting the company has achieved a major breakthrough by effectively eliminating the screen crease that plagues current foldable devices.
According to Korean publication ETNews, Apple is finalizing its component suppliers for the foldable iPhone, with the selection process expected to be completed...
Tuesday February 25, 2025 1:18 pm PST by Juli Clover
Multiple iPhone owners today noticed a pronunciation processing issue that causes the word "Trump" to momentarily show up when using dictation to send a message with the word "racist."
In some cases, when speaking the word racist through the iPhone's built-in dictation feature, the iPhone briefly interprets the spoken word as "Trump" and "Trump" text shows up in the Messages app before being ...
Monday February 24, 2025 9:14 am PST by Joe Rossignol
According to a post on X today from a leaker known as Kosutami, Apple plans to launch AirPods Pro 3 in May or June this year.
The leaker also claimed that an AirTag 2 will launch around the same time.
Kosutami is best known as a collector of prototype Apple hardware, but they have occasionally shared accurate information about Apple's future product plans. For example, they accurately...
Monday February 24, 2025 6:11 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple plans to launch a second-generation AirTag in May or June this year, according to a post today from a leaker known as Kosutami.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that a new AirTag would be released in mid-2025. May or June would align with that timeframe.
Below, we recap three new features rumored for the AirTag 2:
With a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, the...
Sunday February 23, 2025 2:23 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
The first beta of iOS 18.4 is now available, and it includes a small but useful change for CarPlay.
As we noted in our list of iOS 18.4 features, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra, which can be equipped...
Apple is doing a fantastic job with integrating technology and health
I hope that Apple continues to add and make improvements to both the Apple Watch and HealthKit
There have been rumors that the upcoming AirPods Pro, which may be released this fall, will have additional health capabilities so I’m really looking forward to the new AirPods Pro being released
I currently am using an Apple Watch series 7 but if Apple adds additional health capabilities to this year’s Apple Watch, I will definitely be upgrading to the series 8
It's silly to say that, because I used almost all the other features. Calls (with cell plan so I didn't always bring my phone), several message apps, games, mail, music, podcast, weather, calendar, food ordering, to control several home devices, shazam, navigation, alarm, reminders, audiobooks...all this just the top of my head.
To say that I should use a mechanical watch just because I don't use health features and want the watch to do without the extra hardware? Come on. If you want to sling that tiresome sarcastic reaction toward somebody, I'm not the target.
I understand where you're coming from but I don't think Apple will ever release a watch without HR sensor, it's too big of a headline feature. Ever since the very first one almost flopped from leaning way too hard into fashion, they've made it essentially a health device that also does some other stuff (from a marketing perspective.)
