| Cult of Mac

How to use advanced Apple Watch sleep stage tracking

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Sleep tracking on Apple Watch got much more advanced in watchOS 9.
Sleep tracking on Apple Watch got much more advanced in watchOS 9.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

If you have trouble sleeping, the Apple Watch might help you get to the bottom of what’s going on. New to 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 in watchOS 9.

Apple builds tech that acts as ‘intelligent guardian’ for user health

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Apple builds tech that acts as 'intelligent guardian' for user health
Apple shared a new report that shows the ways its products help people be healthier.
Image: Apple

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. 

How to keep menstrual cycle-tracking data private on iPhone

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Is your cycle tracking data secure?
Is your cycle-tracking data secure?
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

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.

Apple integrates two new smart water bottles with Health app

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The Pro Steel model keeps beverages cold for 24 hours and will nag you to drink water many times over that period.
The Pro Steel model keeps beverages cold for 24 hours and will nag you to drink water many times over that period.
Photo: Apple

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.

How to use Apple Watch blood oxygen sensor, and what it’s good for

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The Blood Oxygen app is not for medical use. So what exactly is it for?
The Blood Oxygen app is not for medical use. So what exactly is it for?
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

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.

Get moving with iPhone’s stealth fitness feature [Cult of Mac Magazine 389]

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Learn to use Mobility Metrics, the iPhone's stealth fitness feature.
Your iPhone knows more about how you walk than you do.
Cover: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

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.

How to use Mobility Metrics in iOS 14

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New mobility metrics in the iOS Health app provide essential data on how you’re walking.
New mobility metrics in the iOS Health app provide essential data on how you’re walking.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

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.

Cardio Fitness: What Apple’s new health metric means and how you can use it

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Most of the interesting stuff in your body happens in your core, not on your wrist.
Most of the interesting stuff in your body happens in your core, not on your wrist.
Photo illustration: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Apple’s VOmax 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 VOmax 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.

Apple should take this Mac Health app concept to heart

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This Health for Mac concept expands the app beyond iOS.
Is it time to port the iPhone Health app to Mac? A concept artist thinks so.
Photo: Jordan Singer

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.

HealthKit needs a health check at WWDC

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HealthKit on iCloud: Apple needs to step up its Health game.
Apple needs to step up its Health game.
Photo: Julia Ballew/Unsplash CC

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.