Each morning I wake up and check my sleep score on my Apple Watch. And then I wonder if it’s doing me any good. It’s certainly adding stress and hassle to my day.
That’s why I’m thinking of turning it off. Maybe you should, too.
Logging how you feel throughout the day with your iPhone can help you identify what’s causing you trouble or what works for you, whether it’s work, family, exercise, sleep or other things. You don’t need to hand your data over to a third-party app; the built-in and totally free Apple Health app comes with a built-in mood tracker that helps you keep tabs on your mental well-being.
In order to make any kind of meaningful change, you need to understand fully what helps, what doesn’t, and what you can do. And that means effectively tracking your mental health. Luckily, starting your log is easy. Set it up once, and your phone will ask you every day so you don’t forget.
Let me show you how to set up a mood tracker on your iPhone.
Apple Watch sleep stage tracking might help you get to the bottom of what’s going on with your sleep. Ever since watchOS 9, it can track what sleep stage you’re in. That means you can see if you’re not getting enough deep sleep or REM sleep, or if you’re waking up too often in the middle of the night. If you have insomnia or sleep apnea, this information could be very useful.
Read on to see how to use the advanced sleep stage tracking on Apple Watch.
At WWDC23, Apple said it’s adding a slew of new health features in iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and watchOS 10 that will help you take care of yourself physically and emotionally.
And while new mental health and vision features are coming across platforms, the more-general Health app finally arrives on iPad, as well.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The iOS 17 leaks start drip, drip, dripping out as we approach Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Sounds like a minor update overall, but there’s some interesting stuff coming down the pike.
Also on The CultCast:
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
Apple reportedly wants to use the power of artificial intelligence to create a virtual coach integrated into Apple Watch.
In addition, Apple’s Health app allegedly will get new features for those with vision problems, and to help users track their moods.
Apple laid out its far-reaching goals for the health and wellness tech built into iPhone and Apple Watch in a report issued Wednesday. It details how Apple intends to develop technology to support personal health, medical research, and patient care.
“We believe passionately that technology can play a role in improving health outcomes,” said Apple’s chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, in a statement.
The iPhone Health app’s Cycle Tracking feature provides a simple solution for logging menstrual cycles. If you menstruate, it’s an effective way to monitor your overall health and estimate when you’re most likely to get pregnant.
Given the personal nature of Cycle Tracking data, you need to be sure that it’s stored securely, away from prying eyes. The good news is, Apple’s security for health and fitness data is very robust. There are just a few things you need to know to ensure your data is safe.
Are you drinking enough water? Probably not. But if you want to know for sure, Apple’s online and retail stores have started selling two new smart water bottles from HidrateSpark. They automatically track your water intake and sync it to the Apple Health app.
They do it for a price, that is. The two new smart water bottles are $80 and $60. And if drinking enough water on a regular basis adds years to your life, that might actually be worth it.
The blood oxygen sensor featured in Apple Watch Series 6 and 7 is “not intended for medical use,” Apple says. That seems odd, considering that low blood oxygen is a serious medical condition. If the watch’s monitor is not for medical use, then what exactly is it for?
In this post, we’ll look at what blood oxygen is, how Apple Watch measures it, how the device compares to medical-grade alternatives, and what you can actually use it for.
There’s an interesting new feature in iOS 14 that you might never have noticed. It’s called Mobility Metrics, and it tracks several things that offer insight into your overall fitness, coordination and health. Find out where to look for these metrics, and what to make of them, in our in-depth Mobility Metrics how-to.
Also in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine, we’ve got several hot rumors about upcoming Apple gear (and a possible March 16 event), plus loads of Apple TV+ reviews and first looks at upcoming shows. Download it now to enjoy on your iOS device.
P.S. If you’re a fan of Apple lore, don’t miss our exclusive interview with Del Yocam, the company’s first COO and a mentor to Steve Jobs. He’s got some interesting stories to tell.
The new Mobility Metrics feature that Apple added in iOS 14 offers important insights into your health and fitness. Using its built-in sensors and some extremely smart software, the iPhone in your hip pocket captures data and analyzes how you walk at all times. Then, the Health app serves up seven key measurements that provide an overall picture of your strength, coordination and cardiovascular health.
Even if you don’t experience any mobility difficulties, you might still be interested to see what these new stats reveal about the way you walk.
Apple’s VO2 max metric measures the performance of your heart and lungs when you push yourself to the limit. Up until now, though, it’s only been useful to serious fitness fanatics. No wonder Apple buried it in the Health app, where most users never found it.
But watchOS 7.2 and iOS 14.3, which Apple released Monday, change all that. In those updates, the VO2 max metric has been renamed Cardio Fitness. Now it can detect lower ranges and send alerts when the reading gets too low. That makes it the latest in a series of potentially life-saving health notifications from Apple Watch.
Here’s everything you need to know to get the benefit of this essential new feature.
A concept artist shows what the iPhone’s Health application could look like after being redesigned for Mac.
Currently, this software is only for iOS. There’s not even an iPad version. This concept, created in SwiftUI, hopes to convince Apple to change that.
As a fitness writer and app developer, there’s just one thing I’m hoping to see at WWDC next week: a major upgrade to HealthKit.
Don’t get me wrong. I think Apple’s health-tracking framework is great, but there’s so much more it could do. Moving HealthKit to iCloud would finally set Apple Watch free from its iPhone dependency, launch a brand-new Apple subscription service, enable users to access health and fitness data on all their devices, create a whole new class of TV fitness apps, and much, much more.
iPhone and Apple Watch will soon make it easy to share medical ID information during emergency calls. Basic details like allergies and medications can be sent to a dispatcher during the call.
This feature appeared in iOS 13.5 developer beta 4, which debuted on Wednesday.
The Health app on your iPhone acts as a central repository for all your workout data. Not just activity from your Apple Watch, but from third-party apps, too.
That’s great, because it gives you the freedom to use any workout app you want, safe in the knowledge that it will still contribute to your Activity rings. But this flexibility can cause problems. When you use multiple apps or third-party devices, it can cause duplicate workouts. So let’s take a look at how Apple handles these duplicates, what impact they have on your Activity Rings, and how you can fix the problem.
Strava is a brilliant app for sharing your workouts and analyzing your fitness activity. But its Apple Watch app is not so great. That’s why I prefer to use Apple’s built-in Workout app and then view my data afterward on the Strava website.
The trouble is, up until now, the only way to do that was by relying on third-party apps such as HealthFit, which provide the missing link that syncs Apple’s workouts with Strava.
Strava has been promising to come up with a solution for years. And this week, the company finally delivered. It’s a huge step in the right direction, but I won’t be deleting HealthFit just yet. Here’s why.
When you finish logging a workout with Apple Watch, you can gloat over all your hard work in the Activity app on your iPhone. This provides all kinds of useful charts, maps and trends to show you how you’re doing.
But what if you logged that workout by accident? Or if you forgot to log a workout? You can’t edit Apple Watch workouts on your watch, nor in the Activity app on your iPhone. But fortunately, there is still a way to set the record straight. Here’s how to edit Apple Watch workouts.
Apple retail stores are expanding their lineup of health-related products with a blood glucose monitor that integrates with iPhone and Apple Watch.
One Drop might be the most beautifully designed blood glucose monitor we’ve ever seen. Its advanced health features though are what really set it apart from other products.
Activebody’s Activ5 is a palm-size accessory for isometric-based workouts. Along with companion iPhone and Apple Watch apps, it lets users exercise anywhere.
Apple approves of this workout gear enough to put Activ5 in its stores.
WWDC is less than a week away and there are already plenty of rumors doing the rounds on what new features Apple has in store for iOS and watchOS. Dark mode, a refreshed Reminders app and a new Find My app all look set to make an appearance.
But will Apple also be giving its operating systems a shot in the arm to improve their health and fitness as well? Here’s my top-ten wish list of announcements I’m hoping to hear during next week’s keynote. These features will get my pulse racing so fast it’ll trigger a heart rate warning on my Apple Watch.
Want to know how fit you really are? Apple Watch provides loads of insightful metrics you could check. So many, in fact, that there is not enough space for them all in the Workout app. Instead, you’ll find much of this crucial data buried away in the Health app on your iPhone.
One of the most interesting is VO2 max, which is basically the ultimate test of your aerobic fitness. If you’re into endurance sports, VO2 max is a metric you’ll want to check out.
Here’s a quick guide to everything you need to know about VO2 max on Apple Watch: What it is, how to use it, and how to improve yours.
A UK pharmacist’s attempt to collect more than $2.5 million in life insurance after murdering his wife was thwarted by Apple’s Health app for iOS.
Mitesh Patel strangled his wife, Jessica after five years of planning her murder, according to police. He attempted to make the entire murder look like a break in, but when authorities accessed the Health app on his iPhone and the one on his wife’s iPhone, the data told a completely different story.
Your shiny new Apple Watch is great for logging workouts. But it comes up short when you want to review your training progress and share your workout history with friends. Everything gets bundled in the Activity and Health apps on your iPhone, which are pretty basic.
That’s where third-party apps like Strava come in. Strava offers all the essential fitness analytics that Apple overlooks. The trouble is, Strava’s watch app sucks for logging workouts.
If only you could have the best of both worlds: logging your workouts with Apple’s excellent built-in Workout app, then syncing the data automatically to Strava. Well, thanks to a brilliant indie app called HealthFit, you can.