The flights climbed number for me is off. I'm not surprised at that, FitBit got rid of the feature for the same reason (it's really hard to get right), but I'm a bit surprised that since it's not very accurate it was included at all.
When I experimented with my FitBit I had to exaggerate my vertical motion when going up and down stars to get it to register well. It seems I'm too 'smooth' walking up and down stairs to reliably trigger the mechanism.
Sure it is. Users are already getting inaccurate 'floors' measurements and posting the associated bug reports in their forums. If Apple had paid attention to FitBit's featureset over time Apple would have realized the feature was removed because it was uselessly inaccurate. A barometric sensor doesn't become more accurate for tracking flights of stairs climbed just because it's in a device with an Apple logo.
My Fitbit reports the number of flights climbed - it's the Fitbit 'One' model. Along with my daily 10k steps, I have a flights climbed goal that I track through the website. Maybe it's a different model that doesn't track this?
It's pretty damning of the HealthKit product team that a post like this is required. Why would Apple publish the app at all?
It seems like they should have released iOS8 with some kind of simple pedometer/stair counting app that looked good and was easy to use, like a reference application to show what HealthKit could be used for, and then buried the HealthKit app as it currently stands in some settings menu that most people will never need to look at.
The only thing I can imagine is that they intended to roll out a bunch of HealthKit-compatible apps from third parties like Nike and FitBit along with iOS8, but the bug messed up their release plan.
The best I can tell is that the Health app is more of a hub to see aggregated (raw-ish) data, and set/update permissions on what apps have access to what data.
I don't think their intent is to compete with any of the apps out there that use the data though.
I believe your correct. The iPhone 5s, 6, and 6+ all record the number of steps you take thanks to the M7 motion processor, but that seems to be more of a 'because it's there' thing.
Because the intention was to have third-party apsp and device integration at launch. But something went wrong, and all the partner apps were pulled if already published, or postponed if not.
It's called HealthKit because it's basically a software development kit. The GUI is clearly more of an afterthought and a way to keep the settings from getting buried in the already packed settings app.
The more I look at these measures, the more I wonder whether Apple has a plan for all of this or if they're just throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks. Some of these seem like there's tie-in (body measurements can be assessed through a Withings scale, sleep can be assessed through a Jawbone UP or similar device, and the "Me" section is mostly static), but does Apple have any plan to get people to track their Molybdenum intake on a regular basis? Or their BAC? Or their body temperature?
I'm not saying they need to, but in the past it has seemed like when Apple provided an affordance, they also had a clear use case. If nothing else, you could fully use the device/service in the way they describe, and that would sufficiently justify its adoption for many. With Health, I'm not seeing that. I wonder if this will threaten the overall adoption of Health, which in general seems like not a terrible idea - anything that gets people thinking more about their activity and diet seems like a good thing.
One could argue that their solution is to leave it to third party devices and integration. Apple doesn't need to make a scale to help you track your weight (Withings has already done it, as I'm sure others have), nor does it want to touch the quagmire that is nutrition by claiming to measure the nutritional value of any food. Let some food-related startup do that dirty work, as long as Apple provides some interface for the measurement to end up in this data silo.
This argument seems weaker to me than the argument seemed when Apple first started accepting apps for the iPhone (later iOS). Health currently leaves huge swaths of its UI barren for lack of data, and I'm not sure that hardware developers can swarm to fill in those gaps the way software developers could with the platform.
Maybe I missed the part of their talk where they made it obvious how they envisioned Health (and HealthKit) to be used in a fuller way; if that's the case, I'd appreciate a pointer.
> anything that gets people thinking more about their activity and diet seems like a good thing.
This makes intuitive sense; however, in practice, the truth is a bit more complicated.
We don't really know how to get people to change their behaviour and exercise more, eat less, etc.[0] - this is the holy grail of "lifestyle" diseases such as diabetes or heart attacks. (Disclaimer: my startup is a health-tech company aimed at improving medical outcomes through a number of factors, including getting patients to adapt their behaviour).
However, there's a lot that we know doesn't work. It turns out that simply making people more aware of what they're eating not only doesn't work, but in fact oftentimes causes people to eat more. There are a few hypotheses explaining this, both of which are supported by evidence (so it's likely to be a combination of factors).
First, people falsely equate awareness with action, psychologically[1], so making them over-aware of that they are doing makes them likely to think that they are taking more action than they actually are[2].
The second is that people don't have a good sense of how to process this data, so by (e.g.) placing caloric counts[3] next to food items, if they don't also know how many calories they should be consuming in a typical meal[4], they can end up overeating ('This dessert is "only" 800 calories!).
[0] by this, I mean a systematic process that is cost-effective on the population at large, not something that is (a) effective only for a small subset of people, or (b) effective but cost-prohibitive. There are a lot of strategies that are very effective for people who are already low-risk, and a few strategies that are effective but insanely expensive for people who are high-risk.
[1] This is analogous to what happens in politics with "slactivism".
[2] This is probably the origin of the advice that you shouldn't tell your friends about new resolutions before you have constructed a plan to enact them - telling others about it gives you a sense of satisfaction even before you've done anything.
[3] Not that calories are really the best way to measure diet, but let's set that aside
[4] Most often, people are familiar with the number '2,000 daily', but that doesn't help you determine how that should be allocated throughout the day (dividing up into three equally-sized meals is not ideal), and many people require significantly less than or more than 2,000 calories.
If people have no reference for how much they should eat, then it would be trivial for any app to notify them about it, e.g based on just height, gender and weight[0].
If the problem is inaction then you could have e.g the step counter show the user not just the steps they have done but whether they have reached a safe minimum. Fitbit does that - and it works.
[0]: it would be reasonable to infer their activity level based on their weight too.
What drove this home for me was the inclusion of a separate measure for BMI.
I've already given it my height (hopefully static, but apparently deserving of a line graph), and my weight. Yet apparently calculating my BMI from these inputs (admittedly a crude measure of health) is beyond the capability Health app?
Perhaps this is a concession so that people who do not want to work with BMI do not have to by default. As minikites says, on a personal health basis BMI isn't very useful so folks may want to skip it altogether.
There are devices which measure BMI using conductivity. Given that a device may report a value other than the simple function of height and weight, it seems prudent to have a spot to put it.
Implant-based blood glucose measurement devices[1] are becoming available, for example. These devices are well outside Apple's area of expertise, but interfacing with the data from these devices is well and truly within Apple's grasp.
Imagine that Apple was going to develop wearable technology of some sort (like, say, a wrist-watch) with inductance charging. Would the induction loop also be usable to interface with implanted inductance-powered sensors located in the wrist?
> body measurements can be assessed through a Withings scale
Nope, Withings still hasn't actually released an update that does this. Despite it being one of the "flagship apps" that were advertised with iOS8 to have the feature from the start.
None of the mainstream health/diet/fitness apps currently give anything to the Health app that I can find.
Definitely a very lacklustre launch. I was/am quite excited for this app but when it launched and nothing actually worked except your steps, it was a bit of a letdown.
The need to pull HealthKit apps from 8.0 probably meant Withings delayed their update (so they could stay on the store). With 8.0.2 out now they'll presumably have an update soon for it.
I think Apple is setting the stage for someone else to come out with an excellent virtual personal trainer app. Personal trainers are one of the reasons that the wealthy are more fit than everyone else. This could be a big deal for first world health.
After using a HealthKit enabled exercise app and contemplating the potential benefits from HealthKit enabled gadgets, I am beginning to think the direction that Tim Cook is taking Apple may be superior to the one Jobs would have taken it in. Jobs probably would have made better gadgets, but Tim may end up making a better world.
I could definitely see Cook et al. winning the Nobel prize in medicine in 5-10 years if HealthKit catches on.
Where is the health data stored? Is it only locally or on iCloud as well? I updated some data in Health app on my iPhone 5S before I got the new iPhone 6, did a backup and restore when I got it and lost all the data I had entered..
I think the reason Apple didn't market this to us is iWatch and the lack of third party integration as of now. They might be wanting to show this off as part of iWatch integration or let the third party apps do the marketing.
They were supposed to have tons of 3rd party apps at launch, but they found some sort of (presumedly security) bug in the release build and had to pull/prevent apps from integrating when iOS 8 launched. There was even a feature area on the iOS App Store but it was quickly removed.
This was fixed in iOS 8.0.1, but that caused connectivity problems on the 6 and 6+.
Now with 8.0.2 things are finally ready, but now the apps aren't out or approved, so things aren't ready yet. Sadly this whole thing has been kind of a mess. I remember reading some 3rd parties scrambled to get an update out for the iPhone 6 and 6+ that disabled the Health functionality since Apple was temporarily rejecting apps due to the bug. I've seen a handful of commercials on TV already.
Sadly none of this has gone smoothly. I imagine in the next week or two we'll see the 'real' roll out. Maybe they'll make a big push again when they turn on Apple Pay.
PSA: If you have any important information to add, enter it in the app, and first responders will be able to see it by going from the "Emergency" screen. Neat if you're allergic to anesthetics.
If you are really allergic to anything like this, please use the tried and tested methods of a medical bracelet or necklace. First responders aren't going to know the device buried deep in your pocket has emergency medical information on it, and it will waste their time checking.
(Disclaimer: I used to be a voluntary first responder while I was studying)
I am using an iPhone 5 so it might be different...