Health & Fitness Apps

Sleep Cycle Update Brings Improved Battery Life

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Sleep Cycle for iPhone

The popular sleep tracking app Sleep Cycle has a new update that has rolled out, bringing significant battery performance improvements to your Apple Watch when you use it to track your sleep. The update from the developer Northcube is available in the App Store now. Sleep Cycle, for those that haven’t used it before, is … Read more

Apple Watch Set to Get Built-in Sleep Tracking

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Apple Watch Series 4

By next year, you may be able to track your sleep with a built-in sleep tracking app on your Apple Watch. That’s the suggestion at least that a new report from Bloomberg is indicating. The report states that Apple is already testing the feature and if it passes its internal tests, it will be released … Read more

Opinion – After 2,162 Consecutive Days of Logging, I’m Leaving MyFitnessPal for Lose It!

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My Day in Lose It!

As of this morning, I have logged at least one meal into MyFitnessPal every day for 2,162 days straight. That is 5 years and 9 months if you are keeping score. It is an app that has been a key part of me losing nearly 100 pounds over the past decade and an app that … Read more

Withings Announces The Pulse HR Fitness Tracker for $129

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Withings Pulse HR Fitness Tracker

After relaunching two months ago, Withings has announced their latest fitness tracker, the Pulse HR.  Reviving the design of the original Withings Pulse, the company’s first tracker from 2013, the new HR model has a PPG heart rate sensor that measures your pulse in 10-minute intervals and continual heart rate measurements during workouts.  All of this is then sync’d to the well designed Health Mate app.

The new Pulse HR can be pre-ordered starting today and is priced at $129.95.  You can place your order on the Withings site but it won’t be available for another 3-4 weeks.

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LabCorp Enables Health Records Integration on iPhone

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Apple Health on iPhone

LabCorp, one of the leading medical science companies in the US, has announced that they now fully support Health Records in the Health app on the iPhone.  The integration requires that patients have a LabCorp account and give permission for the LabCorp Patient app to write information to the Health app.

LabCorp test results are viewable in the Apple® Health app for LabCorp patients who have a LabCorp Patient™ account and enable integration with the Health Records app. In addition to their LabCorp test results, patients will have information from participating healthcare institutions organized into one view, covering allergies, medical conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures and vitals. Patients will receive notifications when their data is updated. Health Records data is encrypted and protected with the user’s iPhone passcode, Touch ID or Face ID.

If you have ever had any blood or other lab work done by your doctor or hospital, it is highly likely that you have had work from LabCorp done.  Now, instead of having to go to their site or depend on your doctor to provide you the results, you can get them right within the Health app a few days after they are completed.

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ECG for Apple Watch Series 4 Still MIA in WatchOS 5.1 Beta 3

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Apple Watch Series 4

The latest beta for WatchOS 5.1 has been released to testers and unfortunately, there is no sign of the new ECG app in the release.  The beta, which is only available to developers and is not part of the public Apple Beta Program, is aimed to bring a number of fixes and improvements to the latest Apple Watch as well as supported previous versions.

The Electrocardiogram, or ECG (sometimes referred to as EKG), was a huge point emphasized at the Apple event in September where the Apple Watch Series 4 was announced.  At the time, Apple only said the feature would be coming to the Series 4 later this year.  The assumption has been that WatchOS 5.1 would be the build were it was released.  That, at least for now, doesn’t appear to be the case.

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Cardiogram App Now Offers $1000 Accidental Death Life Insurance Policy for Free

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Cardiogram for iPhone

The app Cardiogram has teamed up with Greenhouse Life Insurance Company and Amica Life to offer up to a $1000 accidental death insurance policy for Apple Watch owners.  The agreement, which starts today, is available in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

For those who may not be familiar with Cardiogram, it gives you detailed information about heart rates and cardio information beyond the basic information that your Apple Watch gives to you.

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iOS 12 Upgrade Accidentally Removes Some Apple Watch Activity Badges

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Improvements to Awards in the Apple Watch app

An early bug has been found in iOS 12 that is impacting some Apple Watch users.  The bug specifically removes some activity challenge badges from the Apple Watch app, badges that are earned for specific events or on specific days.

The good news is that Apple Support has acknowledged the issue and has indicated an update is coming in a future release of iOS 12. That could potentially be iOS 12.1 which went into beta yesterday.

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Withings Returns With The Steel HR Sport Hybrid Watch With 25 Days of Battery Life

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Withings Steel HR Sport

After being relatively quiet over the past two years after their acquisition by Nokia, Withings has returned and returned with a strong wearables offering.  The new Steel HR Sport hybrid watch gives you continual heart rate monitoring, ties into the Withings app (formerly Nokia Health) to give you GPS mapping of your workouts, and has a stunning 25 days of battery life.  All of this in a package that is $199, substantially less than an Apple Watch Series 3 or the new Series 4.

The new Steel HR Sport is loaded with features and has the ability to measure your VO2, a measurement of your cardiovascular fitness, when running.  It also can go up to 50m down in water so you can wear it all the time, no matter what activity you are doing or your exercise routine.

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