The newest version of the Apple Watch may be able to let you know if you happen to have a fever, several sources are reporting.
Are smartwatches getting too smart these days? The tech shows no signs of letting up when it comes to your health. The Apple Watch Series 8 could alert you to signs you have a fever.
It’s the latest health innovation for Apple’s smartwatch. Apple Insider says we can expect the watch in late 2022 and that it should include “some sort of body temperature-sensing feature.”
The little gizmos already have some health capabilities. They can track your activity and exercise. With that, it can provide a calorie count, although some say it’s not necessarily accurate. The watch can also potentially save a relationship by alerting you to the fact that you’re snoring. You can install an app that can detect signs of sleep apnea through your Apple Watch.
The watch can even detect some cases of irregular heartbeat, although Apple insists you can’t rely on it to detect a heart attack.
By 2024, you may even be able to get your blood pressure checked.
Eventually, according to plans, the thing might even be able to monitor your blood sugar, a great feature for those of us with diabetes.
The Series 8 edition of the watch should be released later this year. A body temperature sensor could let you know right away if it detects a possible fever. It might let you know before you feel it yourself. Or, it might confirm that you have a fever after you start feeling as though you do.
Either way, it’s one more piece of information that little gizmo on your wrist may be able to provide.
Maybe some day, it’ll even be able to detect specific viruses. A watch that can detect COVID seems much more appealing than that awful nose swab we’ve heard about.
Does this wearable technology know too much?
That’s an interesting question, isn’t it? Should we be afraid of a watch having this many details about us?
Well, if we know — as well as we can know — where that health information goes, it could be a good thing. Any piece of technology that makes us more aware of our health could be a very good thing.
As a Type 2 Diabetic, I might like to know what my blood sugar is. My case is mild enough that I don’t need to monitor the blood sugar regularly and medication has successfully kept my A1C below 7.0, which is very good.
Still, being able to monitor things like that, along with blood pressure, would be a useful tool.
I worry that the more a watch can tell us, the less likely some of us might be to visit a doctor regularly. Something you wear around your wrist can’t possibly replace a medical professional. But considering how much more everything costs these days, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some would put off doctor visits thinking the watch would let them know if they needed one.
Wouldn’t be ironic if a device meant to improve your health hinders it by convincing you that you don’t need that doctor’s appointment after all?
In the meantime, I’m not looking to upgrade my Apple Watch anytime soon. At least not until it can tell me the winning lottery numbers ahead of the drawing. That would be worth the upgrade!
