Apple Watch – Carol’s

Brian gave me an Apple Watch for Christmas (and probably V-Day and my birthday all rolled into one).  Thank you Smoofie.  I’ve enjoyed having an earlier model Apple Watch, and keeping track of all my activity or lack of activity, has been fun.  I had a Kardia band with it that could take an EKG.  Both the watch heart monitor and Kardia band got a thumbs up from my Cardiologist. 

I like the ability to take a picture with my iPhone remotely with my watch.  I like getting messages and the ability to interact with my phone without taking it out of my purse, pocket, wherever.  It connects via blue tooth to my phone.

The battery on the Apple Watch Series 1 lasted all day but had to be charged overnight.  I notice now, when I take off for the night, its still at 73%.   There are sleep tracker third party apps that will allow you to track your sleep patterns which was useless to me on the previous version because of battery issues.  

For an additional amount you can also get an Apple Watch that has a cell connection.  You can leave your phone at home and answer calls or use the other features without needing a phone near by.
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But the real reason I wanted the new Apple watch was the health apps.

Fall Detection
If Apple Watch Series 4 detects a significant, hard fall while you're wearing your watch, it taps you on the wrist, sounds an alarm, and displays an alert. You can choose to contact emergency services or dismiss the alert by pressing the Digital Crown, tapping Close in the upper-left corner, or tapping "I'm OK" and choosing an option on the screen.  See image.

If your Apple Watch detects that you're moving, it waits for you to respond to the alert and won't automatically call emergency services. If your watch detects that you have been immobile for about a minute, it will make the call automatically. After the call ends, your watch sends a message to your emergency contacts with your location letting them know that your watch detected a hard fall and dialed emergency services. Your watch gets your emergency contacts from your Medical ID.

What happens if your Apple Watch detects that you're immobile after falling?
If your Apple Watch detects that you're immobile for about a minute, it begins a 15-second countdown, while tapping you on the wrist and sounding an alert. The alert gets louder, so that you or someone nearby can hear it. If you don't want to call emergency services, tap Cancel. When the countdown ends, your Apple Watch automatically contacts emergency services.

When the call connects, your Apple Watch plays an audio message that informs emergency services that your Apple Watch detected a significant, hard fall and then it shares your latitude and longitude coordinates. The message continues to play until you tap Stop Recorded Message or the call ends. The first time the message plays, the audio is at full volume, but then the volume is reduced so that you, or someone nearby, can talk to the responder.
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Calling Emergency services
Need to call 911 but didn’t fall and can’t reach your phone?  You can hold down the crown until a SOS option appears that will call emergency services and give them your location.

All of this is great but there is a caveat.  You must be connected in some way to the outside world. If you are hiking where there is no cellular connection, this will not work.  There are emergency transponders such as SPOT Messenger that work with Satellites, and you might want to check into one of those devices if you do a lot of hiking alone.
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Heart Monitor
The Apple Watch tracks your heart rate.   The New Apple Watch also has a warning feature allowing you to receive heart rate notifications.

If your heart rate remains above or below a chosen beats per minute (BPM) while you appear to have been inactive for a period of 10 minutes, your Apple Watch can notify you.  This is huge as conditions such as Atrial Fibrillation or "Afib" can go undiagnosed, because in many cases it is paroxysmal in nature -- it comes and goes.  When the app notifies you, it gives you the option to call a doctor.

ECG
An app that is coming soon is the ability to take an ECG.  That feature is now going to be available on the Apple Watch.  This app is to be released by the end of 2018.
These apps can give peace of mind for yourself or for a loved one.

The Apple Watch Series 4 is available from Apple.  
Earlier versions are available from Amazon.  If you don’t need all the latest bells and whistles you can save a bit of money.  Refurbished Apple Watches are available for less.  click below for watches on Amazon.
Series 1, Series 2, Series 3.

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