Hacker News Reader

Comment by PurpleFoxy | Hacker News Reader

The fact that nothing does this makes me wonder how it would be possible apple could be first. Surely if it was possible to do accurately, some other company would have released something.

View on HN

It’s a bit of a circular logic though, isn’t it? Apple can’t be first, therefore they aren’t first and the sensors are useless. Personally, I have no opinion on the technology, but Apple is actually commonly the first company to use some new technologies in mass-market devices.

What they usually do is find a small company with some compelling technology and then either fund it to gain exclusive or privileged access, or buy it outright. The story here (that a small company working on cutting edge sensors has close links with Apple) fits that pattern perfectly.

Apple is rarely ever the absolute first. Usually similar things have existed for a while and apple comes in and makes them much better and more accessible.

Sure, maybe apple is first this time but I have a hard time believing Apple is at the cutting edge of new medical technology.

I believe (could be wrong), that Apple was the first to have a mass-market wearable with a ECG feature. So you don’t even have do look that far to find a refutation.

I don’t know about how innovative these rumored sensors may to comparatively, though.

There are some measures to make it work (such as [0] which uses bioimpedance ), but they are small scale, and I suspect reliability and accuracy will be an issue.

[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31312808/

Not to mention, certification and authorisation, which adds years to the pipeline.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com