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Apple Watch Series 8 - we got good and bad news.....
Apr 30, 2024
Apple's got some useful features planned for Apple Watch Series 8, but don't expect BIG features like blood pressure and glucose monitoring. Watch full episodes of the CultCast at http://watch.thecultcast.com and catch the live show Thursdays around 11:45am PST. Search "The CultCast" in your favorite podcast player for full audio episodes.
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0:00
Now, let's do your Apple Watch health features
0:03
What's in, what's out? That's what I meant to say. Yeah. And the big question is, you know, what's in
0:07
And not too much. That's the bottom line. God, this seems to be becoming a theme
0:14
Yeah, I know. This is the latest Bloomberg report. You know, German wrote a big story, you know, citing anonymous sources
0:22
And he says, likely to add body temperature readings and other new health features to Apple Watch and health app in 2022
0:30
it looks like blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring will have to wait
0:33
Of course. No surprise there. The big, the big, like, new sensor that you just can't wait to get
0:40
Yeah. He's saying that, you know, they've, you know, been working on this for four years
0:46
We've been talking about it for four years on a high blood pressure sensor
0:51
And apparently, it's just, they've been testing it. It's just not working. It's not accurate enough
0:55
And this is even, they're not even talking about, you know, giving you your, you know
0:59
your actual, you know, systolic and diastolic readings like you get when you, you know, put
1:04
on a cuff or go to the doctor, you know, and you're talking about just basically alerting you
1:10
if you have high blood pressure. And they're saying it's not even accurate enough to do this
1:15
give you that sort of, you know, non-medical kind of guidance, which is what the watch is sort of all
1:20
about, right? Right. Yeah. And which would be fine if it just said, hey, you appear to have
1:27
blood pressure, you might want to go to a doctor and get this checked out or go, you know, go, you know, use your own at-home blood pressure cuff
1:37
So, let's see. That wouldn't be too bad, would it? I mean, that's not a bad feature
1:41
Oh, no, it'd be a great feature if it was accurate. But that's the problem
1:45
That's all they're trying to do. That is a key feature, right
1:50
It has to actually be accurate. It's problematic. Yeah. You know, they're still working on blood glucose
1:56
that's even farther off. You know, they're seeing blood pressures at 2024 at the earliest, maybe even later
2:02
Blood glucose, which I think is, you know, even bigger game changer, even further off
2:08
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. So let's see. You want me to talk about the stuff in the OS2, watch OS 9
2:17
Yeah, you might as well. It's all kind of lump together, right? Yep So they going to upgrade the low power mode Oh yeah Wow So now instead of just switching over to you know here what time it is you in low power mode it going to you know do some other things
2:34
Not exactly clear what, but a couple of other things it might, you know, be handy, I suppose, in low power mode
2:42
Also, supposedly going to add new workout types, which is always good. Track additional workout metrics, expand on sleep tracking functionality
2:50
adding new women's health features, which are based on that, at least some of them, based on that temperature
2:59
That's actually what I read about that, was that that's supposedly not even going to tell you exactly what your temperature is
3:05
It's going to just be like, oh, you appear to have a high temperature, or, you know, whatever to do with women's health
3:11
I didn't say exactly what that is. But supposedly going to give you more details about atrial fibrillation, which, you know, I suppose that's good, too
3:20
but I mean, you know, new watch faces, refreshed, refreshed the old existing watch faces
3:26
To make them more compatible with the larger screens of the newer models. Yeah, yeah, but so in the end, I'm reading this
3:33
I'm going, well, am I going to get a new Apple watch this year? Am I just going to stick with the same old one
3:37
Because it just sounds like next to nothing that's actually that important
3:42
I'm just going to say it, Lewis. I think it needs to be said, Galdarn snooze fest
3:46
God darn snooze fest happening over here. It's like nothing in here is going to be that exciting
3:55
Or... What if it's got the same chip as last year again
4:00
Which is the same chip is the... Actually, that's the play right there, right
4:04
And that's what they did with the Apple Watch is they make one little tweak
4:08
and then they justify that enough to change the name of the chip
4:13
Of the chip that's going into the watch and call it the newer chip. when in fact it's literally just the same architecture with a new name
4:21
That might be what they do with the MacBook. That literally might be what they do with the MacBook Air. And even the iPhone, like they'll come up with some new naming convention
4:28
and they'll improve the chip in some small way. But it will essentially be like the A15 in the new iPhone
4:36
But they'll call it like the A16R or something, you know, that differentiates it from the chip that's going to go into like the pro model of the iPhone
4:44
I bet you that's what they do. Yeah well you know the other thing that you know we talk about this before but there is possibility that they come out with three different Apple Watches this year You know regular series I guess what is series eight
4:58
Yeah. And also a rugged version for extreme sports, which, you know, maybe that's the way they'll get people to, you know, buy a second watch or upgrade
5:09
And that's going to be a, it's not going to be a low-end one, is it? That's going to be a high-end premium case
5:16
I mean, shoot. I'd be pretty interested in that. Yeah. I mean, and like you were talking about it being a
5:21
having a better battery life. I mean, that could be a thing it would actually make even non-extreme athletes want to buy one, right
5:29
And if it looks, I don't know, less Apple watchy. I don't know
5:34
I mean, Apple watch is great. Don't get me wrong. I love it. But it doesn't exactly look like a
5:38
you know, high-end watch, right? Yeah. Like those big beefy kind of extreme
5:46
Who makes, I don't even know who makes all those things. Garmin watches and Cassette
5:50
Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's a whole bunch of them. So I'm not the only one that's upset about this Apple Watch stuff
5:56
This is from German's story. It says, while Apple is making headway with several health features
6:00
some employees haven't been satisfied with the company's progress. They argue that enhancements are taking too long
6:05
and that the company isn't making big enough bets in the area. Yeah
6:10
It's like what they're doing with, the Apple TV. It's, I would say that the Apple Watch seems to be the other product that's kind of languishing
6:19
They're just not really doing very much with it. And, and, and every year you're expecting more
6:26
but then you don't really get very much more than you already had
6:31
So it's hard to justify replacing the watch more than every, like, two or three years
6:35
Yeah. We'll see. All right. I hope that, you know, it seems like year after year
6:40
the Apple Watch has kind of been less leaky. Like they've, you know, there's been less information about it
6:48
And the information we've had has been more wrong like last year with the whole big
6:52
redesign that didn't happen. So who knows? I mean, it may be that all this is wrong
6:57
It may be that they do something wonderful this year. I don't know. I hope so
7:01
That was one of the biggest upsets since we've been doing this show. That was one of the biggest upsets in cult cast history, Apple history, at least as far as I've seen
7:09
And we talking about that front page tech leak that they had that they showed the Apple Watch was going to have this new design and flat design and and no hate to front page tech I mean they might have had it right and Apple switched
7:21
it or they, or maybe that report was never right. I mean, who knows what happened. And then Apple
7:27
just releases and it seemed as though Apple was just releasing a new watch last minute because
7:34
they couldn't quite get the new watch out the door. So maybe we'll get the new form factor. But if we
7:39
don't get the new form factor this year, if we don't get this year, then truly those renders
7:45
were never going to actually happen, right? Because if Apple couldn't, if our theory last year was that
7:50
there was that, that, that beautiful flat design that front page tech made renders of. And if Apple
7:57
couldn't get it out the door in time and released an updated, you know, the same design that they have
8:03
because they couldn't get the new design out the door. But then they had a year to do it and still
8:08
couldn't do it, right? They still couldn't update the new design. Then clearly that new design was never going to happen. And wherever front page tech got their info from gave them some bad
8:16
intel. So I'm excited to see what happens with Apple Watch because if they do change the form
8:21
factor and that flat design does materialize, like that might be enough for me to bite. But
8:25
if they don't, if they don't make some significant updates for the new Apple Watch, I mean
8:32
I'm going to just stick with my Apple Watch. What? Yeah. Maybe that's
8:38
extreme sport version. Or maybe it looks more like that or something. That would be cool
8:42
I would love to see them create something more rugged and, you know, just like real masculine
8:47
Just like a big old, big old chunky watch with, you know, some kind of like super athletic look to it
8:56
That'd be pretty cool. And they'll probably just wrap in some kind of like cool case or cool body or something and just put the same screen in
9:02
But I just hope they make it in the 41 millimeter because, you know what I've realized? The 45 millimeter, it's just too big
9:08
big. It's too big for most wrists. I have those little pencil wrists
9:12
You know what? How dare you? I'll be sneaking up behind you and putting you a chokehold in these pencil wrists and you'll be like, I was kidding
9:21
I would ever attack you. I know that you're well-versed in self-defense, managing the Colton Mac writing pen
#Consumer Electronics
#Health