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Tip: the fall detection feature seems to be turned off by default. I just turned mine on. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944 https://support.apple.com/en-

Tip: the fall detection feature seems to be turned off by default. I just turned mine on. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

Angostura 7y ago
I think its turned off by default if you are under a certain age - 60?
- cbsks 7y ago
  > If you've entered your age when you set up your Apple Watch or in the Health app and you're age 65 and over, this feature automatically turns on. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944
  - rosybox 7y ago
    This is so amazing. Serious kudos to the apple watch team for this.
    - awad 7y ago
      Apple don't get nearly enough credit for the thought and effort they put into these sorts of features. The same goes to their dedication to accessibility, which is industry-leading and honestly pretty inspiring.
      - Rapzid 7y ago
        Doesn't seem like outsized thought and effort given the companies size, resources, and relatively small product focus..
        cheeze 7y ago
        No, but they are one of the few _actually_ thinking about it rather than devoting their resources to something "more worthy". It's easy to criticize a company their size, but they definitely do this very very right.
        shanev 7y ago
        Apple has had strong accessibility features since before they were a household name, when they were a fraction of the size of the company they are today. Here's a post from 2006 for example, talking about accessibility in Mac OS 9: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/724948 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/724948. Here's about accessibility in Mac OS X Tiger (2005): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Tiger#Accessibility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Tiger#Accessibility.
        Rapzid 7y ago
        It's 2019, not 1980.
        gzer0 7y ago
        Evidence is simply being brought forth to showcase that before Apple became as large as they did, they still cared about accessiblity, irregardless of their "company size" as you stated.
        Rapzid 7y ago
        I don't see how that's relevant at all in 2019. People WERE giving Apple mad props for their thoughtfulness back in the day. Now, they have revenue over a third that of Saudi Arabia's GDP. I was responding the OPs point. That's evidence for an argument nobody made.
        gzer0 7y ago
        > Doesn't seem like outsized thought and effort given the companies size, resources, and relatively small product focus.. It was evidence to elucidate upon a baseless statement you made earlier.
    - snuxoll 7y ago
      I ordered my grandmother a Series 5 for this feature alone, in fact it just arrived at my door today and she’s coming over later this week so I can get it setup and walk her through the basics. She has a hard time getting up from the floor if she kneels or sits down as is, one good fall from a cat tripping her or something is likely to be devastating.
      - vinni2 7y ago
        Just curious did she already have an iPhone? I want to buy one for my mother but she doesn’t use iPhone. First I would have to buy her an iPhone.
        snuxoll 7y ago
        We just switched her to an iPhone 8 recently because her Lumia 950 wouldn’t hold a charge and W10M is going EOL soon anyway.
        Angostura 7y ago
        If you're interested, it might just be worth buying a second hand or refurbed SE.
        criddell 7y ago
        The only iPhone I've owned is asecond hand iPhone 5C that I used for a few months. The watch is making me think my next phone will be an iPhone. Fortunately, I don't think there are any Android only apps that I depend on so the switch should be easy.
FreakyT 7y ago
Also of note: Fall detection is exclusive to the series 4 or above, which seems questionable. (I would be very surprised if the series 3 and 4 have significantly different accelerometer hardware)
- dantle 7y ago
  Why would a different accelerometer surprise you? The entire SiP is different between the Series 3 and Series 4. One source say the accelerometer in S4 has higher dynamic range. [0] [0] https://www.anandtech.com/show/13364/apple-announces-the-apple-watch-4-fully-custom-sip https://www.anandtech.com/show/13364/apple-announces-the-app...
- garmaine 7y ago
  Series 4 is very different hardware. I'm not surprised.
- graeme 7y ago
  They specifically said in the announcement that it was due to new tech.
- zacwebb 7y ago
  > which seems questionable Maybe because they added new hardware to enable it...?
- alphakappa 7y ago
  Consider that to detect falls reliably, you might need an accelerometer with a higher range than that was in the original watch.
  - JaRail 7y ago
    Might also have needed a higher sample rate. For battery life concerns, I can see them implementing some of the fall detection logic in hardware as well. For example, a high shock or shaking could trigger the fall-detection software to wake. Although, with the 60-second period, they probably wake the main processor often enough anyway that hardware detection might not save much power.
PascLeRasc 7y ago
Does anyone know if you need to get the watch with an active cellular plan to have the auto-911 feature? Or is it like how cell phones without a plan can still call 911?

Tip: the fall detection feature seems to be turned off by default. I just turned mine on. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

Angostura 7y ago

I think its turned off by default if you are under a certain age - 60?

cbsks 7y ago
> If you've entered your age when you set up your Apple Watch or in the Health app and you're age 65 and over, this feature automatically turns on. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944
- rosybox 7y ago
  This is so amazing. Serious kudos to the apple watch team for this.
  - awad 7y ago
    Apple don't get nearly enough credit for the thought and effort they put into these sorts of features. The same goes to their dedication to accessibility, which is industry-leading and honestly pretty inspiring.
    - Rapzid 7y ago
      Doesn't seem like outsized thought and effort given the companies size, resources, and relatively small product focus..
      - cheeze 7y ago
        No, but they are one of the few _actually_ thinking about it rather than devoting their resources to something "more worthy". It's easy to criticize a company their size, but they definitely do this very very right.
      - shanev 7y ago
        Apple has had strong accessibility features since before they were a household name, when they were a fraction of the size of the company they are today. Here's a post from 2006 for example, talking about accessibility in Mac OS 9: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/724948 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/724948. Here's about accessibility in Mac OS X Tiger (2005): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Tiger#Accessibility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Tiger#Accessibility.
        Rapzid 7y ago
        It's 2019, not 1980.
        gzer0 7y ago
        Evidence is simply being brought forth to showcase that before Apple became as large as they did, they still cared about accessiblity, irregardless of their "company size" as you stated.
        Rapzid 7y ago
        I don't see how that's relevant at all in 2019. People WERE giving Apple mad props for their thoughtfulness back in the day. Now, they have revenue over a third that of Saudi Arabia's GDP. I was responding the OPs point. That's evidence for an argument nobody made.
        gzer0 7y ago
        > Doesn't seem like outsized thought and effort given the companies size, resources, and relatively small product focus.. It was evidence to elucidate upon a baseless statement you made earlier.
  - snuxoll 7y ago
    I ordered my grandmother a Series 5 for this feature alone, in fact it just arrived at my door today and she’s coming over later this week so I can get it setup and walk her through the basics. She has a hard time getting up from the floor if she kneels or sits down as is, one good fall from a cat tripping her or something is likely to be devastating.
    - vinni2 7y ago
      Just curious did she already have an iPhone? I want to buy one for my mother but she doesn’t use iPhone. First I would have to buy her an iPhone.
      - snuxoll 7y ago
        We just switched her to an iPhone 8 recently because her Lumia 950 wouldn’t hold a charge and W10M is going EOL soon anyway.
      - Angostura 7y ago
        If you're interested, it might just be worth buying a second hand or refurbed SE.
      - criddell 7y ago
        The only iPhone I've owned is asecond hand iPhone 5C that I used for a few months. The watch is making me think my next phone will be an iPhone. Fortunately, I don't think there are any Android only apps that I depend on so the switch should be easy.

FreakyT 7y ago

Also of note: Fall detection is exclusive to the series 4 or above, which seems questionable. (I would be very surprised if the series 3 and 4 have significantly different accelerometer hardware)

dantle 7y ago
Why would a different accelerometer surprise you? The entire SiP is different between the Series 3 and Series 4. One source say the accelerometer in S4 has higher dynamic range. [0] [0] https://www.anandtech.com/show/13364/apple-announces-the-apple-watch-4-fully-custom-sip https://www.anandtech.com/show/13364/apple-announces-the-app...
garmaine 7y ago
Series 4 is very different hardware. I'm not surprised.
graeme 7y ago
They specifically said in the announcement that it was due to new tech.
zacwebb 7y ago
> which seems questionable Maybe because they added new hardware to enable it...?
alphakappa 7y ago
Consider that to detect falls reliably, you might need an accelerometer with a higher range than that was in the original watch.
- JaRail 7y ago
  Might also have needed a higher sample rate. For battery life concerns, I can see them implementing some of the fall detection logic in hardware as well. For example, a high shock or shaking could trigger the fall-detection software to wake. Although, with the 60-second period, they probably wake the main processor often enough anyway that hardware detection might not save much power.

PascLeRasc 7y ago

Does anyone know if you need to get the watch with an active cellular plan to have the auto-911 feature? Or is it like how cell phones without a plan can still call 911?