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Posts tagged with "health"

Behind the Scenes of Apple’s Secret Health and Fitness Lab→

Apple, known for keeping its product developments under the strictest of lock-and-key, gave ABC News exclusive access into its top secret health and fitness lab, where only Apple employees became test subjects for the new Apple Watch.

Apple engineers, managers and developers have been secretly volunteering for the past year in this state-of-the-art lab to participate in rowing, running, yoga and many more fitness activities in order to collect data for the Apple Watch’s inner workings.

ABC News got exclusive access to Apple’s secret fitness lab, where the company tested the fitness and health functionality of Apple Watch and iOS for years. I needed to watch the video with a VPN (ABC is regionally restricted to the U.S.; YouTube version embedded below), and it was worth it: Apple has set up an entire facility with equipment and machinery worth millions of dollars to accurately calculate calorie burn and the response of the human body to various conditions – this includes special climate chambers, breathing masks, and even yoga tests.

This is impressive, and it reinforces the idea that health and fitness are going to be a big deal for Apple going forward. The video makes me even more excited about the potential of Apple Watch as a daily fitness companion.

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Tim Cook on Health→

From Tim Cook’s call on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money, as transcribed by iMore:

Cramer: Let me ask you about where you think things are going — I know that the car, the home — do you think of them as connectivity/social mobile cloud connectivity? Do you feel as though these are the next frontiers, or is there a frontier that I’m missing, I’m not thinking big enough?

Cook: Well, I think that those are two big ones that you’ve talked about. I think that Health may be the biggest one of all, because for years, people have depended on strictly someone else to determine their health. And now these devices — in essence — empower people to manage and track their own health and fitness. And so I think that market is probably significantly underestimated.

I’m confident that Apple has huge plans for personal health over the next few years. They’re just getting started now.

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Thousands Sign Up for Apple’s ResearchKit→

ResearchKit is off to a good start:

Stanford University researchers were stunned when they awoke Tuesday to find that 11,000 people had signed up for a cardiovascular study using Apple Inc.’s ResearchKit, less than 24 hours after the iPhone tool was introduced.

“To get 10,000 people enrolled in a medical study normally, it would take a year and 50 medical centers around the country,” said Alan Yeung, medical director of Stanford Cardiovascular Health. “That’s the power of the phone.”

Bloomberg’s article has also initial numbers for the various apps announced by Apple last week. As I argued in my thoughts on the March 9th event, ResearchKit has the potential to bring change to millions of people.

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Life After Cancer: How the iPhone Helped Me Achieve a Healthier Lifestyle

I’ve been struggling to get back in shape after chemo.

Since being diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma (Stage IV) in late 2011, my life changed. Beyond the psychological and emotional consequences of how cancer affected me, my family, and my relationships, it is undeniable and abundantly clear that cancer took its toll on me from a physical perspective.

Last year, I decided to regain control of my body, my life habits, and my health. I started tracking everything I could about my activities, my exercise routine, the food I ate, and the time I spent working with my iPad instead of walking, sleeping, or enjoying time with my family. Since then, I’ve made a decision to not let cancer and its consequences define me any longer.

I want to be healthier, I want to eat better, and I want to take the second chance I was given and make the most of it. What started as an experiment has become a new daily commitment to improve my lifestyle and focus.

And it wouldn’t be possible without my iPhone.

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Apple Highlights “Apps for Health”

Following the release of iOS 8.0.2 and the restoration of HealthKit functionalities for third-party apps, Apple has started highlighting iPhone apps that integrate with iOS 8’s Health dashboard with a dedicated section on the App Store.

Experience an entirely new approach to wellness where your fitness app can talk to your calorie tracker, your doctor can be automatically notified of updates to your health data, and great apps work together for a healthier you. This handpicked collection highlights the best fitness, nutrition, and medical apps customized for iOS 8.

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MyFitnessPal Adds HealthKit Support, Bringing Its Data to iOS 8’s Health App

Popular food tracker and calorie counter MyFitnessPal, available for free on the iPhone, iPad, web, and other platforms, has today introduced an update for iOS 8 users that adds support for Apple’s new Health app. I’ve been testing the updated MyFitnessPal, and I believe that Health integration has the potential to be a great way to let the app integrate with other services on iOS 8.

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