Apple has announced important new app updates at its June 2021 WWDC event, and these provide interesting new health-oriented capabilities as Apple continues to encourage broader use of its Health and Fitness apps.
Most notably, the Health app will now have a Sharing feature that will allow patients to send the health data the app has collected to their doctors or family members, as well as get notifications from people they are sharing with. This can include data like test results and COVID-19 immunization records, which means the Health app may now support more vaccine pass-related activities.
The feature appears to be a great way to allow for ongoing monitoring of health issues and goal tracking — and Apple’s full encryption ensures everything stays HIPAA compliant. The company made it clear that it will be unable to see any health data shared this way. If you do end up sharing test information with loved ones or your doctor, the app will also be able to show expanded lab results, making sharing more useful from a technical standpoint. Combined with the ability to share health trends, Apple is making the Health app a more attractive option for medical professionals and caregivers.
The Health app is also getting more friendly for those aging in place, with a new Walking Steadiness feature that monitors gait and can bring up alerts when it looks like someone is in danger of falling, and can track other health issues over time with the Trends mode. This may be especially helpful for elderly users in more independent living situations. Combined with watchOS 8, the app can also monitor long-term breathing patterns and watch for any warning signs about breathing difficulty.
Breathing is a common theme for this year’s WWDC, as the Fitness app is also getting updates to add tai chai and Pilates, while the new Mindfulness app encourages breathing techniques for relaxation.
Public release of watchOS 8 to support many of these health upgrades is expected sometime in fall 2021, although features like Sharing will be available when iOS 15 launches. We’ll fill you in with all the details as the developer’s conference continues with important updates to Apple’s software!
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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