The Apple Watch Series 8 could come with some major upgrades with new health sensors and features, according to the latest updates by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In his ‘Power On’ newsletter, Gurman states that Apple will likely add the ‘body temperature’ sensor to be a part of this year’s edition, which will be the Series 8. The list of upgrades mentioned is quite significant, especially when compared to the existing Apple Watch Series 7.
He also notes that the blood pressure sensor will likely appear only in 2024 or 2025. But what about blood-sugar monitoring, which has been talked about quite a lot in the past well? He does not expect it to make it to a commercial device till the end of the decade.
A previous Bloomberg report had said that the blood sugar monitoring feature was not ready for commercial usage. Another Wall Street Journal report from 2021 had talked in detail about how Apple was still testing the feature and unable to make a breakthrough. The report said that Apple was yet to see success when it came to developing a non-invasive method for testing blood sugars.
According to Gurman, Apple will also add new software to the Series 8 which will include “Afib burden detection.” This builds on the existing Afib detection capabilities adding the “ability to monitor how often a user is in a state of atrial fibrillation over a particular period,” he wrote.
The Apple Watch will also get a different kind of low-power mode which will allow some apps and features to work. At the moment, the low-power mode, only shows the clock. It could include “satellite connectivity,” but it will likely be limited to cellular variants. This connectivity is meant for emergency use to send short messages or an SOS when a user is in distress and has no cellular access.
Apple will also add new “sleep, women’s health and medication tracking features in the iPhone Health app,” along with “new workouts and watch faces.” It was reported in the past that the body temperature feature will allow Apple Watch to detect ovulation periods, and help with fertility updates as well. The Apple Watch and iPhone Health app already allow women to track their periods and add extensive symptoms as well.
Meanwhile, Apple will hold its WWDC 2022 conference from June 6 where it will showcase the latest software versions for iOS, watchOS, macOS, etc. These also given an indication into what features one can expect from the future devices. Apple’s Watch Series 8 will likely launch along with the iPhone 14 series in September. Apple is also expected to introduce new MacBooks this year with the M2 chipset and has reportedly begun testing them as well. However, the MacBook launch usually takes place as a separate event.
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