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That can't possibly be the case. A big point made during the latest keynote was that the watch will now report heart arrhythmia and that wouldn't be possible if

That can't possibly be the case. A big point made during the latest keynote was that the watch will now report heart arrhythmia and that wouldn't be possible if the tracking was intermittent. It's probably close to something like the FitBit where it tracks every 5 minutes or something. That's enough to get rate information for things like arrhythmia while saving battery life enough to make it last 1.5 days on a charge.

brlewis 9y ago
Fitbit tracks continuously, not every 5 minutes. There's a picture on this page where the Apple Watch shows "current" heart rate from "2m ago", so yes it can possibly be intermittent. Perhaps they can detect arrhythmia without continuous measurements. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/09/apple-watch-series-3-features-built-in-cellular-and-more/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/09/apple-watch-series-3-...
- dpkonofa 9y ago
  According to their website, FitBit only offers continuous tracking (known as PurePulse) on a few of its models. My point was that the new OS update must track continuously or more frequently than it was originally done because it wouldn't be able to detect arrhythmia otherwise. It already tracks continuously when you're doing a workout or it senses a heart rate reading that's greater than your resting heart rate and the technology that is used on the Apple Watch to detect the rate is exactly the same as the PurePulse found on Fitbits. It's green LEDs and photodiodes. Unlike the FitBit, though, the Apple Watch also offers infrared heart rate detection, although that's only used as a backup.
  - brlewis 9y ago
    I don't get what point you would be making if your "a few of its models" comment were true. Obviously any Fitbit that would come up in the context of an Apple Watch discussion is going to be one with purepulse. And in fact according to https://www.fitbit.com/purepulse https://www.fitbit.com/purepulse there are 4 models in addition to Ionic that have it, i.e. 5 out of 8 trackers. I don't know where you're getting the "or it senses a heart rate reading that's greater" part. Outside of workout mode it measures intermittently when you're still according to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666 "When does Apple Watch measure your heart rate". There's more to technology than hardware. Apple Watch can't do continuous all-day heart rate like Fitbit does even though the hardware is largely the same.
    - dpkonofa 9y ago
      Only because it needs the battery to do the litany of other things it does. As for your "or it senses a heart rate reading that's greater" question... that comes from my actual use of the watch. I sometimes forget to put the watch into Workout mode. If I go into the Health app afterwards, I can see that the frequency of measurement goes up when the watch detects that my heart rate is above my resting heart rate. It goes from being sporadic to being continuous until it detects it go back down. So it's not that it can't do it, it just doesn't do it to conserve battery life. The Fitbits don't really have much else going on that requires the battery so they can run continuously all day. Additionally, according to most medical uses and reviews of the Apple Watch, it's more accurate than many stand-alone heart rate monitors so, as battery life improves, the watch can only go up from here.
      - brlewis 9y ago
        So we can conclude that this user's RHR is 80bpm or more, since there have been no measurements for 12 minutes? Seems high. https://twitter.com/sainiankur/status/911347017959518208 https://twitter.com/sainiankur/status/911347017959518208

brlewis 9y ago

Fitbit tracks continuously, not every 5 minutes. There's a picture on this page where the Apple Watch shows "current" heart rate from "2m ago", so yes it can possibly be intermittent. Perhaps they can detect arrhythmia without continuous measurements. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/09/apple-watch-series-3-features-built-in-cellular-and-more/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/09/apple-watch-series-3-...

dpkonofa 9y ago
According to their website, FitBit only offers continuous tracking (known as PurePulse) on a few of its models. My point was that the new OS update must track continuously or more frequently than it was originally done because it wouldn't be able to detect arrhythmia otherwise. It already tracks continuously when you're doing a workout or it senses a heart rate reading that's greater than your resting heart rate and the technology that is used on the Apple Watch to detect the rate is exactly the same as the PurePulse found on Fitbits. It's green LEDs and photodiodes. Unlike the FitBit, though, the Apple Watch also offers infrared heart rate detection, although that's only used as a backup.
- brlewis 9y ago
  I don't get what point you would be making if your "a few of its models" comment were true. Obviously any Fitbit that would come up in the context of an Apple Watch discussion is going to be one with purepulse. And in fact according to https://www.fitbit.com/purepulse https://www.fitbit.com/purepulse there are 4 models in addition to Ionic that have it, i.e. 5 out of 8 trackers. I don't know where you're getting the "or it senses a heart rate reading that's greater" part. Outside of workout mode it measures intermittently when you're still according to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666 "When does Apple Watch measure your heart rate". There's more to technology than hardware. Apple Watch can't do continuous all-day heart rate like Fitbit does even though the hardware is largely the same.
  - dpkonofa 9y ago
    Only because it needs the battery to do the litany of other things it does. As for your "or it senses a heart rate reading that's greater" question... that comes from my actual use of the watch. I sometimes forget to put the watch into Workout mode. If I go into the Health app afterwards, I can see that the frequency of measurement goes up when the watch detects that my heart rate is above my resting heart rate. It goes from being sporadic to being continuous until it detects it go back down. So it's not that it can't do it, it just doesn't do it to conserve battery life. The Fitbits don't really have much else going on that requires the battery so they can run continuously all day. Additionally, according to most medical uses and reviews of the Apple Watch, it's more accurate than many stand-alone heart rate monitors so, as battery life improves, the watch can only go up from here.
    - brlewis 9y ago
      So we can conclude that this user's RHR is 80bpm or more, since there have been no measurements for 12 minutes? Seems high. https://twitter.com/sainiankur/status/911347017959518208 https://twitter.com/sainiankur/status/911347017959518208