tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/apple-watch-12293/articlesApple Watch – The Conversation2022-11-08T19:40:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1940602022-11-08T19:40:21Z2022-11-08T19:40:21ZShould you really use your smartwatch or fitness wearable to monitor your heart?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494006/original/file-20221108-22-8gdqj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C22%2C2991%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dragana Gordic / Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Wearable devices that can record your pulse can be handy for tracking your fitness – but can you really use them to monitor for an irregular heartbeat?</p>
<p>The short answer is maybe, and it depends on who you are. These devices are great, but there are some things you need to know.</p>
<p>Several large studies have been carried out to examine how well wearables can check for signs of a common heart rhythm problem called “atrial fibrillation”, which can lead to strokes.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.058911">new Frontiers review published in Circulation</a>, we and our colleagues in the <a href="https://www.afscreen.org">AF-Screen International Collaboration</a> weighed up the current evidence, including from three very large studies: the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060291">Fitbit Heart study</a> (funded by Fitbit); the <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1901183">Apple Heart study</a> (supported by Apple) and the <a href="https://www.jacc.org/doi/abs/10.1016/j.jacc.2019.08.019">Huawei Heart study</a> (Huawei was involved in development and optimisation of the app but did not fund the study).</p>
<h2>What is atrial fibrillation?</h2>
<p>Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm problem (arrhythmia). Up to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/42/5/373/5899003?login=false">80% of patients may have no symptoms</a>.</p>
<p>Atrial fibrillation becomes more common with increasing age, and it can substantially increase the risk of stroke. Patients at <a href="https://www.mdcalc.com/calc/801/cha2ds2-vasc-score-atrial-fibrillation-stroke-risk">high risk</a> of atrial fibrillation-related stroke, due to age and/or other risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes, are generally prescribed blood-thinning medication.</p>
<p>More and more devices for recording heart rhythm are available to consumers. These include handheld electrocardiogram (ECG) and pulse-based technology in smartwatches, other wearables and portable consumer devices. These are often marketed as “health and wellness” products.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-wearable-fitness-trackers-arent-as-useless-as-some-make-them-out-to-be-173419">Why wearable fitness trackers aren't as useless as some make them out to be</a>
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<p>For people aged 65 and over, <a href="https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/Bundles/Your-heart/Conditions/Atrial-Fibrillation-for-Professionals">Australian</a> and other international <a href="https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/42/5/373/5899003?login=false">guidelines</a> <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.116.026693">recommend</a> occasional screening for atrial fibrillation.</p>
<p>However, new technologies (including wearables) allow consumers to record their own heart rhythms whenever they wish, and continuously monitor the regularity of their pulse. This technology can empower consumers and provide important information, but it does have limitations.</p>
<h2>How accurate are wearables and other consumer devices?</h2>
<p>The short answer is that, for identifying atrial fibrillation, wearables are probably quite accurate (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8752409/">often over 95%</a>). However, the information is often based on studies of small numbers of people.</p>
<p>Some devices include an algorithm that automatically says whether your heart rhythm is regular (a “normal sinus rhythm”) or irregular (which may indicate atrial fibrillation). These algorithms generally require regulatory approval (such as from the <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/how-we-regulate/manufacturing/medical-devices/manufacturer-guidance-specific-types-medical-devices/regulation-software-based-medical-devices">Therapeutic Goods Administration</a> (TGA) in Australia). </p>
<p>However, device companies often don’t publish many details about the accuracy and performance of their devices. Wearables that simply track heart rate or activity without making claims about serious conditions are not regulated by the TGA.</p>
<p>It’s important that manufacturers of health devices:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>are accurate in their health claims</p></li>
<li><p>don’t advertise unproven benefits</p></li>
<li><p>report the accuracy and performance of their devices in different populations.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>While the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060291">Fitbit</a>, <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1901183">Apple</a> and <a href="https://www.jacc.org/doi/abs/10.1016/j.jacc.2019.08.019">Huawei</a> studies were very large, the calculations used to determine accuracy of the device may be based on small numbers because not many people in the study had atrial fibrillation.</p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1901183">Apple Heart study</a> had 419,000 participants overall – which is a lot of people! However, the accuracy was calculated by comparing simultaneous recordings of atrial fibrillation on the smartwatch pulse irregularity detector and an ECG patch in only 86 people.</p>
<h2>Who are they good for?</h2>
<p>If you have symptoms, or are aged over 65, wearables can be very useful for detecting atrial fibrillation.</p>
<p>Wearables are great as an “event recorder” for anyone with a symptom (such as heart palpitations) that could be an arrhythmia. Devices with ECG capability such as <a href="https://www.apple.com/au/healthcare/apple-watch/">Apple Watch</a> Series 4 or later, <a href="https://www.withings.com/au/en/scanwatch">Withings Scanwatch</a> and <a href="https://www.kardia.com/">KardiaMobile</a> are particularly good as they provide more information. Once you have an ECG recording during a symptom, you can give it to your doctor, which can help guide further follow-up.</p>
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<img alt="A photo of a smartwatch on a woman's wrist." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494052/original/file-20221108-16-e5ih7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494052/original/file-20221108-16-e5ih7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494052/original/file-20221108-16-e5ih7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494052/original/file-20221108-16-e5ih7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494052/original/file-20221108-16-e5ih7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494052/original/file-20221108-16-e5ih7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494052/original/file-20221108-16-e5ih7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Wearable devices give us more heart rhythm data than ever before – but it’s not always clear how to interpret it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Unsplash</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Wearables are also good for helping people to get an early diagnosis of atrial fibrillation. Ideally, this needs to be supported by integrated care, including risk factor reduction and lifestyle changes to reduce progression and complications (especially relevant for young people who may need no specific therapy).</p>
<p>We also know wearables can be used to screen enormous numbers of people: 457,000 in the Fitbit study, 419,000 in the Apple Heart study and 188,000 in the Huawei study. However, the yield of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-022-00803-9">new atrial fibrillation detected was low</a> (less than 1%) in these studies, mainly because the study participants were very young (the average age in all three studies was 41 years or less).</p>
<h2>What are the problems then?</h2>
<p>More data isn’t always better. If your GP checks your pulse at an appointment, finds it irregular and an ECG confirms it is atrial fibrillation, it’s likely you are experiencing atrial fibrillation quite a lot of the time (or all the time).</p>
<p>The risks of atrial fibrillation are <a href="https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/a-1588-8867">similar</a> for people with symptoms and those without, and we know how to treat the condition.</p>
<p>However, wearables are able to monitor people’s heart rhythm far more frequently and for much longer. The more you look, the more atrial fibrillation you find, but we are not yet sure we should.</p>
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<p>So, while wearables increase detection of atrial fibrillation, we don’t know whether this will also prevent strokes.</p>
<p>Many people who buy wearables are younger and at lower risk. We aren’t yet sure about what it means when a young person with few or no risk factors has short episodes of atrial fibrillation.</p>
<p>More evidence is needed, ideally from good-quality, independent, randomised studies.</p>
<h2>Drawbacks and data</h2>
<p>Even highly accurate devices can and do <a href="https://twitter.com/CardiologyBlurb/status/1587302634976735232">sometimes give false positives</a>, more frequently in younger people who have a lower risk of having atrial fibrillation. Additional tests may be needed, which increase cost, and may lead to unnecessary testing that could cause problems and potentially anxiety.</p>
<p>Data privacy is also a concern. There are important legal gaps in relation to <a href="https://support.mips.com.au/home/should-you-trust-the-data-from-wearable-fitness-devices">data protection and regulation of apps</a> in many countries.</p>
<p>Consumers often lack <a href="https://canberraweekly.com.au/who-owns-the-data-fitbits-and-private-health-data-give-pause-for-thought/">ownership or control of data</a> from health apps.</p>
<h2>What should I do if my wearable tells me I have atrial fibrillation?</h2>
<p>If your device says you may have atrial fibrillation, save a copy of the reading and talk to your doctor about the result. You may need further testing or treatment. However, don’t panic!</p>
<p>We need to remember one size doesn’t fit all. Either way, wearables are here to stay. We have to make sure we understand their benefits and limitations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Jessica Orchard is a Research Fellow at the Centenary Institute and Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Public Health, the University of Sydney. She is supported by a Heart Foundation fellowship and some of her research has been supported by Pfizer-BMS (investigator-initiated research grants) and Alivecor (provided devices for study purposes).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Freedman receives current competitive grant funding from the Medical Research Future Fund, the NSW Dept of Health, and from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement no. 648131, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement no. 847770 (AFFECT-EU). In the past 5 years, B.F. has received speaker fees and travel support for speaking at sessions or official satellites of large international or continental society meetings from Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb–
Pfizer Alliance, Daiichi Sankyo and Omron; and investigator-initiated research grants to the institution from Bristol-Myers Squibb–Pfizer Alliance. </span></em></p>Wearables and smartwatches can track your pulse – but if you’re using them to scan for irregular heart rhythms, there are some things you should know.Jessica Orchard, Research Fellow, Centenary Institute; and Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Public Health, University of SydneyBen Freedman, Director External Affairs and Group Leader Heart Rhythm & Stroke Group, Heart Research Institute, and Honorary Professor, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1902312022-10-20T02:58:17Z2022-10-20T02:58:17ZIs tracking your sleep a good idea?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485024/original/file-20220916-12-4ztlp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5455%2C3637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you have trouble falling asleep or getting a good night’s sleep, it seems intuitive to work harder to solve the problem by using some of the sleep apps, bracelets and other devices that have become increasingly popular. </p>
<p>But could this common practice of self-monitoring your sleep result in a sleep paradox, where instead of fixing the problem we create patterns of stress and arousal that exacerbate it?</p>
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<h2>What is a normal sleep?</h2>
<p>The amount of sleep we need, as well as our preferences for turning in early or staying up late, varies a great deal within individuals. <a href="http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/science/variations">Some differences are related to</a> age, cultural, environmental, or behavioural factors and some are at least in part genetically driven. </p>
<p>In addition to this variation, within each human there is quite a high degree of normal sleep variation – it’s not expected to be exactly the same every night. Most adults require approximately <a href="https://www.sleephealthfoundation.org.au/files/pdfs/Sleep-Needs-Across-Lifespan.pdf#:%7E:text=ACROSS%20THE%20LIFESPAN%20Sleep%20need%20gets%20less%20with,daytime%20naps%20until%203%20to%205%20years%20old">eight hours of sleep per 24 hours</a>, but sleep needs may range from about six to nine hours.</p>
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<p>But this normal variation in sleep isn’t well understood. Some people who think their sleep is somehow inadequate worry so much about getting a good night’s sleep that it becomes a kind of performance anxiety, rendering sleep as a source of dread. </p>
<h2>How do sleep apps work?</h2>
<p>Most <a href="https://www.sleephealthfoundation.org.au/sleeptracker.html">modern sleep tracker apps</a> use input such as sound, heart rate, and motion indicating bed time or wake time to estimate what happens. </p>
<p>For this, many apps use data from wearable devices such as an Apple Watch to calculate a sleep score and create graphs to show changes over time. Thus sleep tracker apps analyse sounds, movement, and heart rate as you sleep to give a snapshot of the duration and quality of your sleep, sometimes aided by questions on the sleep quality as rated by the sleeper. </p>
<p>These apps claim to determine how much time you spend in light sleep, deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and how many times you are disturbed throughout the night. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485029/original/file-20220916-24-uo7sq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Scrabble tiles spelling out " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485029/original/file-20220916-24-uo7sq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485029/original/file-20220916-24-uo7sq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485029/original/file-20220916-24-uo7sq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485029/original/file-20220916-24-uo7sq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485029/original/file-20220916-24-uo7sq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485029/original/file-20220916-24-uo7sq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485029/original/file-20220916-24-uo7sq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Everybody knows it’s important to get a good night’s sleep. Labouring the point can be unhelpful for people already anxious about getting enough.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brett Jordan/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>But are they accurate?</h2>
<p>Often <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/best-sleep-apps-5114724">websites determining the best sleep apps</a> limit their tests to the functionalities and features included – but fall short of testing whether these apps <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8157780/">actually measure accurately</a> what they claim. </p>
<p>Although sleep trackers are becoming <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33378539/">quite accurate at detecting sleep and wake</a>, the classification of sleep stages <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7368340/">remains unreliable and inconsistent</a>. </p>
<h2>Are there potential dangers in using sleep apps?</h2>
<p>It’s important not to put too much emphasis on data which may be imprecise, set unrealistic and uniformed sleep goals (such as viewing wakings as abnormal), or become overly anxious about sleep. </p>
<p>Relatively few and only small studies have focused on how these wearables can be effectively used to drive positive sleep health behaviour change. The most recent study found a slightly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7849816/#:%7E:text=Study%20Impact%3A%20In%20healthy%20people,%2C%20respiratory%2C%20and%20heart%20rate.">positive effect</a> – but in healthy volunteers with no sleeping problem to start with. </p>
<p>There is a risk the increased focus on optimising these biometric data may lead to unexpected problems, such as a preoccupation and an obsession with getting the numbers right. This is becoming so common there is now a name for this condition – orthosomnia.</p>
<h2>What is orthosomnia?</h2>
<p>Orthosomnia is not a medical disorder – it is more accurately described as an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5263088/">anxiety phenomenon</a> which is affecting people who obsess over the results of their sleep trackers. </p>
<p>The current knowledge of orthosomnia is based only on <a href="https://publications.ergonomics.org.uk/uploads/A-qualitative-study-of-sleep-trackers-usage-evidence-of-orthosomnia.pdf">small case studies</a> of few participants. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485030/original/file-20220916-16-x8uo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman in bed" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485030/original/file-20220916-16-x8uo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485030/original/file-20220916-16-x8uo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485030/original/file-20220916-16-x8uo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485030/original/file-20220916-16-x8uo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485030/original/file-20220916-16-x8uo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485030/original/file-20220916-16-x8uo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485030/original/file-20220916-16-x8uo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Users should be aware not all sleep data is completely accurate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lux Graves/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>People with orthosomnia believe tracking devices offer highly accurate information about sleep and trust sleep tracker data over more objective testing like an overnight sleep study in a specialised clinic. </p>
<p>This can develop into unhelpful behaviours such as spending a longer time in bed in order to improve their sleep tracker data, which paradoxically worsens sleep quality and quantity.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sleep-heres-how-much-you-really-need-for-optimal-cognition-and-wellbeing-new-research-181879">Sleep: here's how much you really need for optimal cognition and wellbeing – new research</a>
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<h2>So is it time to uninstall the sleep apps?</h2>
<p>Sleep tracking devices might have broad appeal and provide no risk to those people in the general population with good sleep who are interested in tracking bio-data. </p>
<p>But if you feel you might be preoccupied with your sleep, and find that you become anxious about your sleep, then you’re probably not a good candidate for a sleep tracker. </p>
<p>There is no commercially available sleep tracker that sends a stronger signal about whether you’re getting enough sleep than your own brain. If you’re alert (without caffeine), able to concentrate, feeling you’re able to have a good quality of life at work and home, then you’re probably getting enough sleep.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190231/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maximilian de Courten is affiliated with The Mitchell Institute a health and education policy think tank. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Moira Junge is CEO of The Sleep Health Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shantha Rajaratnam is Chair of the Sleep Health Foundation. Shantha Rajaratnam consults to Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Circadian Therapeutics, Roche and Avecho Biotechnology through his institution, and has previously consulted to the Alertness CRC. He has received honoraria (through his institution) from the National Sleep Foundation. He has served as an expert advisor/witness in legal cases involving sleep deprivation and/or shift work. He receives funding from Vanda Pharmaceuticals, WHOOP Inc, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council, WA Police Force and Hopelab. He previously served as a Program Leader for the Alertness CRC.</span></em></p>Sleep is important for health, but the heavy focus on getting enough sleep and tracking our sleeping patterns could make it more elusive.Maximilian de Courten, Professor in Global Public Health and Director of the Mitchell Institute, Victoria UniversityMoira Junge, Health Psychologist; Casual Research Academic Assistant, Monash UniversityShantha Rajaratnam, Professor, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1779002022-05-04T12:33:36Z2022-05-04T12:33:36ZA boom in fitness trackers isn’t leading to a boom in physical activity – men, women, kids and adults in developed countries are all moving less<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459877/original/file-20220426-22-gzk038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C23%2C7892%2C5273&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Since the mid-1990s, people have been doing less and less walking or bicycling to work and school and spending a lot more time staring at screens. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-couple-changing-channels-while-relaxing-on-royalty-free-image/1321174010?adppopup=true">RainStar/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Worldwide sales of fitness trackers increased from US$14 billion in 2017 to over <a href="https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/fitness-tracker-market-103358">$36 billion in 2020</a>. The skyrocketing success of these gadgets suggests that more people than ever see some value in keeping tabs on the number of steps they take, flights of stairs they climb, time they spend sitting and calories they burn. </p>
<p>The manufacturers of these devices certainly want consumers to believe that tracking fitness or health-related behaviors will spur them on to increase their activity levels and make them healthier. </p>
<p>Our analysis of research published over the past 25 years suggests otherwise.</p>
<p>We are professors of kinesiology – the science of human body movement – at <a href="https://www.boisestate.edu/humanperformance/faculty-staff/dr-scott-conger/">Boise State</a>, the <a href="https://krss.utk.edu/faculty-staff/david-r-bassett-jr-ph-d/">University of Tennessee</a> and the <a href="https://webapps.unf.edu/faculty/bio/n01443361">University of North Florida</a>. To learn whether and how physical activity has changed in the years since fitness trackers became popular, we analyzed more than two decades of research from several industrialized nations – all conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>Our systematic review of data from eight developed nations around the world shows that despite the surge in sales of fitness trackers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0000000000002794">physical activity declined</a> from 1995 to 2017. What’s more, we discovered that this was not an isolated effect in one or two countries, but a widespread trend. </p>
<h2>Reviewing the research</h2>
<p>To conduct the study, we first searched for published research that tracked physical activity such as walking, household activities or playing sports throughout the day. We wanted studies that obtained two “snapshots” of daily activity from a population, with the measurements separated by at least one year.</p>
<p>We found 16 studies from eight different countries that met these criteria: Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the United States. The studies were conducted between 1995 and 2017.</p>
<p>It is important to note that these snapshots did not track specific individuals. Rather, they tracked samples of people from the same age group. For example, one Japanese study of physical activity among adults ages 20 to 90 collected data each year for 22 years from people in each age group. </p>
<p>Scientists tracked the participants’ physical activity using a variety of wearable devices, from simple pedometers – step counters – to more sophisticated activity monitors like accelerometers. </p>
<p>The study groups ranged from large, nationally representative samples numbering tens of thousands of people to small samples of several hundred students from a few local schools. </p>
<p>After identifying the research studies, we calculated an “effect size” for each study. The effect size is a method of adjusting the data to allow for an “apples-to-apples” comparison. To calculate the effect size, we used the data reported in the studies. These include the average physical activity at the beginning and end of each study, the sample size and a measure of the variability in physical activity. Using a technique called meta-analysis, this allowed us to combine the results of all studies to come up with an overall trend. </p>
<p>We discovered that overall, researchers documented fairly consistent declines in physical activity, with similar decreases in each geographical region and in both sexes. Overall the decrease in physical activity per person was over 1,100 steps per day between 1995 and 2017.</p>
<p>Our most striking finding was how sharply physical activity declined among adolescents ages 11 to 19 years – by roughly 30% – in the span of a single generation. For instance, when we compared the studies reporting physical activity in steps per day, we found the total steps per day per decade declined by an average of 608 steps per day in adults, 823 steps per day in children and 1,497 steps per day in adolescents.</p>
<p>Our study doesn’t address why physical activity has declined over the past 25 years. However, the studies we reviewed mentioned some contributing factors. </p>
<h2>More staring at screens, less walking or bicycling</h2>
<p>Among adolescents, declines in physical activity were associated with increases in ownership and use of smartphones, tablets, video games and social media. </p>
<p>In the U.S., for example, screen time increased dramatically in adolescents, from <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED527859">five hours per day in 1999</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/dbp.0000000000000272">8.8 hours per day in 2017</a>. </p>
<p>At school, most of the physical activity that adolescents perform has traditionally come from physical education classes. However, the changes in the frequency of physical education classes during the study period are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2014.06.002">inconsistent and vary from country to country</a>. </p>
<p>All of these factors may help to explain the decline in physical activity that we observed in our study.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rhcpv9VOtrg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Lisa Cadmus-Bertram, an assistant professor of kinesiology at University of Wisconsin – Madison, explains which fitness trackers are best at tracking.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, fewer adults and children are walking or bicycling to school or work than 25 years ago. For instance, in the late 1960s, most U.S. children ages 5 to 14 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2007.02.022">rode a bicycle or walked to school</a>. Since then, this “active transportation” has largely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2011.04.006">been replaced by automobile trips</a>. Rates of travel by school bus or public transportation have seen little change. </p>
<h2>So why use a fitness tracker?</h2>
<p>So if levels of physical activity have dropped at the same time that the popularity of fitness tracking has grown, what makes these gadgets useful?</p>
<p>Fitness trackers can help to increase people’s awareness of their daily physical activity. However, these devices are only part of the solution to addressing the problem of sedentary lifestyles. They are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2014.14781">facilitators, rather than drivers, of behavior change</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>When a person’s physical activity goes down, it opens the door to overall reduced fitness levels and other health problems such as obesity or diabetes. On the other hand, physical activity has a dramatic positive impact <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/hco.0b013e32833ce972">on health</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.16111223">well-being</a>. The first step to increasing active movement is to measure it, which these devices can do. But successfully increasing one’s overall physical activity requires several additional factors such as goal setting, self-monitoring, positive feedback and social support.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research is revealing that fitness trackers alone can be helpful facilitators toward changing a sedentary lifestyle but don’t motivate people to increase their physical activity.Scott A. Conger, Associate Professor of Exercise Physiology, Boise State UniversityDavid Bassett, Professor and Department Head of Kinesiology, Recreation and Sport Studies, University of TennesseeLindsay Toth, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, University of North FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1625752021-07-28T12:24:42Z2021-07-28T12:24:42ZHealth apps track vital health stats for millions of people, but doctors aren’t using the data – here’s how it could reduce costs and patient outcomes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408984/original/file-20210629-20-z39aiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=101%2C50%2C8385%2C5509&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mobile health apps and gadgets could help doctors and patients treat chronic illnesses in real time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1267542302">Moment via Getty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Health-tracking devices and apps are becoming part of everyday life. More <a href="https://www.iqvia.com/insights/the-iqvia-institute/reports/the-growing-value-of-digital-health">than 300,000 mobile phone applications</a> claim to help with managing diverse personal health issues, from monitoring blood glucose levels to conceiving a child.</p>
<p>But so far the potential for health-tracking apps to improve health care has barely been tapped. While they allow a user to collect and record personal health data, and sometimes even share it with friends and family, these apps typically don’t connect that information to a patient’s digital medical chart or make it easier for health care providers to monitor or share feedback with their patients.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=2SFosXQAAAAJ">professor and a researcher</a> in the field of operations management, my current research focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of health care delivery. My colleagues and I recently published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/HJH.0000000000002909">a multiyear study</a> showing that integrating a mobile health app with ongoing medical care can significantly improve the health of patients with hypertension – a widespread, serious and potentially deadly chronic medical condition.</p>
<p>But it’s not easy to use health apps this way as a regular part of medical care in the U.S.</p>
<h2>Case study: Hypertension</h2>
<p>Hypertension, better known as high blood pressure, is one of America’s leading chronic health problems. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/facts.htm">According the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a>, hypertension was a primary or contributing cause to nearly half a million deaths in 2018 and affected nearly half of U.S. adults – nearly 110 million people. Left uncontrolled, <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/high-blood-pressure">high blood pressure </a> can also permanently damage the heart and other parts of the body.</p>
<p>Simple changes in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2014.10.047">diet, exercise, smoking and drinking</a> can help prevent or postpone the onset of hypertension. Once a person has high blood pressure, the focus of medical care is treatment and management. But patients typically see their doctors only three to four times a year, making it difficult for physicians <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2014.10.047">to track, assess and address the root causes</a> of their hypertension. <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MD-10-2017-1010/full/html">These visits also tend to be brief,</a> because the fee-for-service insurance payment model motivates doctors to see more patients in a given day. </p>
<p>Prior studies on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.2196/10723">effectiveness of mobile health apps for self-management of hypertension</a> were done in controlled settings in which all the participants agreed to use the app, rather than in clinical settings where patients had a choice of whether to engage with care providers using the app. We wanted to see how a hypertension patient’s use of an app played out in a real-world setting. So one of my study co-authors, a <a href="https://diabeticcareassociates.com/">practicing endocrinologist</a>, developed a proprietary web-based smartphone app to help monitor and treat hypertension between office visits. </p>
<p>Patients who received this app free of charge measured and entered their blood pressure and pulse readings. The physician reviewed these readings once a day and, if needed, recommended interventions such as new medications or changing doses of existing medications, or advised on diet and exercise. My co-author and his medical assistants weren’t paid to monitor these patients. </p>
<p>Patients and staff could also talk directly with one another through the app. This enabled regular <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-10-2017-1010">communication and joint decision-making</a> between providers and patients on how to best treat their hypertension, which in turn encouraged patients not to abandon the app after only a few uses. </p>
<p>In tracking the condition of 1,600 hypertension patients over the course of four years, we found that a typical app user reduced her <a href="https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/understanding-blood-pressure-readings">systolic blood pressure</a> – the upper value in a blood pressure reading, indicating the pressure while the heart muscle contracts – by 2 “millimeters of mercury,” or mmHG, compared with someone not using the app. For patients with systolic blood pressure greater than 150 mmHG, the reduction was more than 6 mmHG. These were significant decreases. A reduction of 10 mmHG in systolic blood pressure lowers overall mortality risk by 13%.</p>
<p>Our study bears out the findings of other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10729-018-9458-2">researchers who have found</a> that using mobile health apps is beneficial for managing chronic conditions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413427/original/file-20210727-18-1ng148f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gray-haired woman snaps on a bike helmet. She is wearing an Apple watch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413427/original/file-20210727-18-1ng148f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413427/original/file-20210727-18-1ng148f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413427/original/file-20210727-18-1ng148f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413427/original/file-20210727-18-1ng148f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413427/original/file-20210727-18-1ng148f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413427/original/file-20210727-18-1ng148f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413427/original/file-20210727-18-1ng148f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You may be collecting health data on your phone, but does your doctor ever see it?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-putting-on-cycling-helmet-royalty-free-image/1255380001">Tara Moore via Getty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Barriers to connection</h2>
<p>These finding were promising, but there’s a catch: Many patients can’t afford to buy a mobile device and pay for its service.</p>
<p>Further, medical practices need to make a profit to survive, and there is currently no clear way for a provider to charge for <a href="https://www.iqvia.com/insights/the-iqvia-institute/reports/the-growing-value-of-digital-health">time spent</a> providing medical care via an app. However, the massive switch during the COVID-19 pandemic from in-person care to telehealth has driven many insurers <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/medicare-and-telehealth-coverage-and-use-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-options-for-the-future/">to figure out how to bill for services delivered remotely</a>. These solutions might eventually apply to medical health apps as well.</p>
<p>Developers also have few financial incentives to create apps that integrate with professional health care. Apps commonly earn revenues by converting users into paying customers or ongoing subscribers, or by selling advertising space within the app. The most profitable apps tend to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.07.017">mobile phone games, which use psychological techniques to increase sales</a>. </p>
<p>But these would be inappropriate in the medical setting. Selling to a patient – or selling the patient’s attention to advertisers – raises questions like: Is my data safe? Is this a medically necessary sale? Does my doctor earn money from this? These concerns could reduce the trust between physician and patient <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1177%2F2333393616664823">that is essential to</a> treating chronic health conditions.</p>
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<p>And the tech has to work. Patients care about how easy it is to use an app, and whether it has the tools that they are looking for. <a href="https://mobius.md/2019/03/20/11-mobile-health-statistics/">Providers are unhappy</a> when their patients have bad experiences with technology. Further, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4029126/#b11-ptj3905356">there are no established standards ensuring</a> that mobile health apps are collecting or delivering accurate information, as there are with most professional medical monitoring equipment.</p>
<p>But as the recognition grows that properly designed health care apps can play a big role in enabling more effective medical care, we could see a major stakeholder step in and provide a monetary incentive for app development and use: the insurance carriers who benefit from lower costs of care. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the key part of treating hypertension and other chronic health problems is the interplay between patient and doctor. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/HJH.0000000000002909">Our research shows</a> that a well-designed health app that talks not just to the user but also to the user’s care providers increases the likelihood of that engagement and leads to better treatment and better health.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saligrama Agnihothri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Connecting health apps to health care can enable better care for patients with chronic diseases, and it has the potential to lower skyrocketing US health spending.Saligrama Agnihothri, Professor of Supply Chain and Business Analytics, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1582292021-04-05T20:06:53Z2021-04-05T20:06:53ZThe media is overhyping early detection tests, and this may be harming the healthy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393010/original/file-20210401-21-1hyhk22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C5991%2C3350&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you remember hearing about the simple <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/new-blood-test-potentially-holy-grail-of-cancer-research-1.3516118">blood test</a> that could tell if you had any of several different cancers? What about the <a href="https://www.thesun.ie/tech/3918297/apple-watch-ecg-feature-that-spots-deadly-heart-condition-arrives-in-uk-and-doctors-say-it-could-save-your-life/">Apple Watch</a> that promised to catch your hidden heart problems before it was too late? Or the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6359979/AI-detects-Alzheimers-disease-SIX-years-early-100-accuracy-small-study.html?ito=amp_whatsapp_share-top">artificial intelligence test</a> to diagnose your dementia years before symptoms appear?</p>
<p>These are not tests for sick people. But the trouble is, testing the healthy can too often wrongly classify them as sick.</p>
<p>Today, in the journal <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2778372">JAMA Internal Medicine</a>, we’ve published the results of a large global study looking at media coverage of these tests. </p>
<p>We found a disturbing pattern of stories hyping benefits, failing to mention potential harms, and ignoring the conflicts of interest of those promoting the new technologies.</p>
<h2>Turning people into patients</h2>
<p>The idea of catching something early makes a lot of sense, and in some cases can prevent great suffering and extend lives. But the ever earlier detection of disease is causing too much unnecessary diagnosis of many healthy people.</p>
<p>The problem is called <a href="https://theconversation.com/preventing-over-diagnosis-how-to-stop-harming-the-healthy-8569">overdiagnosis</a>, and it’s increasingly recognised as a threat to both human health and health system sustainability.</p>
<p>Overdiagnosis means making people into patients unnecessarily, by identifying and treating problems that were never destined to cause them harm. It causes anxiety, brings side-effects of unnecessary treatments, and wastes resources that could be better spent on genuine need. </p>
<p>Overdiagnosis is driven by <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3879">many factors</a> — cultural and commercial — but also by the increasing availability of sensitive new tests that can detect minor “abnormalities” of sometimes uncertain importance. </p>
<p>Often these tests are aggressively promoted before there’s strong evidence of their benefits, sometimes by companies with obvious interests in maximising markets for their products.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-warning-signs-of-overdiagnosis-110895">Five warning signs of overdiagnosis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Cancer is an important example of overdiagnosis. Recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/29-000-cancers-overdiagnosed-in-australia-in-a-single-year-127791">estimates</a> suggest around 29,000 cancers may be overdiagnosed in Australia in a single year. These are cancers that either never grow or grow very slowly, and wouldn’t have spread or caused any problems if left untreated.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most powerful example is the popular PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test used to screen healthy men for prostate cancer, with <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/3/e022457.long">evidence</a> suggesting 40% of prostate cancer may be overdiagnosed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man consults with a doctor in a bright office." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393044/original/file-20210401-19-7gj6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393044/original/file-20210401-19-7gj6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393044/original/file-20210401-19-7gj6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393044/original/file-20210401-19-7gj6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393044/original/file-20210401-19-7gj6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393044/original/file-20210401-19-7gj6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393044/original/file-20210401-19-7gj6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early detection tests can be beneficial — but there are also risks that can lead to overdiagnosis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Putting the media to the test</h2>
<p>We’ve known for some time that media stories tend to <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200006013422206">overhype the benefits</a> of medical treatments. But until our study today, there was no published, peer-reviewed data about how the media globally is covering early detection tests for healthy people.</p>
<p>Our team of researchers from Bond University and the University of Sydney searched three years’ worth of global English language news media coverage, including print, broadcast, and online. We focused on five early detection tests for healthy people:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>liquid biopsy blood tests for multiple cancers</p></li>
<li><p>Apple Watch for atrial fibrillation (abnormal heart rhythm)</p></li>
<li><p>3D mammography for breast cancer </p></li>
<li><p>blood tests for dementia </p></li>
<li><p>artificial intelligence for dementia.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In particular, we wanted to know whether stories reported on the potential benefits of these tests, such as saving lives, and whether there were any mentions of potential harms, such as overdiagnosis. </p>
<p>We also wanted to know whether these stories featured the views of commentators with financial ties to companies that might benefit from widespread use of the test, and if so, how often the media stories disclosed these conflicts of interest.</p>
<p>We established conflicts of interests using resources including the <a href="https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/">Open Payments</a> database in the United States, <a href="https://www.disclosureaustralia.com.au/search/">DisclosureAustralia</a>, and <a href="https://search.disclosureuk.org.uk/">Disclosure UK</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/your-apple-watch-can-now-record-your-ecg-but-what-does-that-mean-and-can-you-trust-it-103430">Your Apple Watch can now record your ECG – but what does that mean and can you trust it?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Unhealthy reporting</h2>
<p>In total we analysed more than 1,100 news stories, most published in the US, Australia, and the United Kingdom. <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2778372">We found</a> 97% of all stories reported on benefits, while only 37% reported any harms, and 27% downplayed harms, for example by describing them as negligible.</p>
<p>In other words, while almost all covered benefits, almost two-thirds of stories failed to make any mention of potential harms, and stories that did mention harms tended to downplay them. Further, only one in 20 stories mentioned overdiagnosis. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman controls her Apple watch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393041/original/file-20210401-19-1agq29n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393041/original/file-20210401-19-1agq29n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393041/original/file-20210401-19-1agq29n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393041/original/file-20210401-19-1agq29n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393041/original/file-20210401-19-1agq29n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393041/original/file-20210401-19-1agq29n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393041/original/file-20210401-19-1agq29n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Apple watch can take an electrocardiogram (ECG) to detect atrial fibrillation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hyped headlines raised hopes, with no hint of possible harms. The <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/05/alzheimers-blood-test-detects-disease-decades-before-symptoms.html">dementia blood test</a> was described as detecting disease “decades before symptoms”, and the <a href="https://www.thesun.ie/tech/3918297/apple-watch-ecg-feature-that-spots-deadly-heart-condition-arrives-in-uk-and-doctors-say-it-could-save-your-life/">Apple Watch</a> “could save your life”. </p>
<p>We also found more than half (55%) of all stories included the views of commentators with important financial conflicts of interest, but these conflicts were only disclosed in 12% of stories. </p>
<p>The most striking example concerns the Apple Watch. Some 19 of the 22 authors of the <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1901183">trial</a> examining the watch’s ability to detect atrial fibrillation reported grants or personal fees from Apple. While Apple’s funding of the study was mentioned in 30% of the 273 stories we examined on the Apple Watch, no stories mentioned the conflicts of interest of the individual researchers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-routine-breast-screening-you-may-not-need-a-3d-mammogram-122126">For routine breast screening, you may not need a 3D mammogram</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>So what can we do?</h2>
<p>Clearly, there are many great reporters, and much good-quality coverage, often produced under difficult circumstances. But our findings of misleading media promotion of early detection testing — overstating benefits, downplaying harms, and failing to disclose financial interests — risks harming the healthy through causing more overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment. </p>
<p>We urgently need strategies to improve reporting on early detection tests that target healthy people. Last year we conducted interviews with 22 Australian journalists, including members of the team of health editors at The Conversation, finding an enthusiasm for enhanced training opportunities.</p>
<p>This year, with colleagues from the National Health and Medical Research Council-funded <a href="https://www.wiserhealthcare.org.au/">Wiser Healthcare</a> research collaboration, we’re planning to pilot a suite of interventions including training and tipsheets, which we hope might improve coverage and better inform the public. But perhaps we shouldn’t overstate the potential benefits of our plans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary O'Keeffe has received research funding from The European Commission. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Moynihan receives funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. </span></em></p>In our new study, we’ve found the majority of news stories are failing to cover potential downsides of early detection tests. This could be perpetuating the problem of overdiagnosis.Mary O'Keeffe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of SydneyRay Moynihan, Assistant Professor, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1564642021-03-09T13:35:58Z2021-03-09T13:35:58Z3 medical innovations fueled by COVID-19 that will outlast the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388126/original/file-20210305-19-1xbafnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1233%2C95%2C5784%2C5892&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gene-based vaccines had never been approved for humans before the coronavirus pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/covid-19-rna-vaccine-illustration-royalty-free-illustration/1296294288?adppopup=true">Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A number of technologies and tools got a chance to prove themselves for the first time in the context of COVID-19. Three researchers working in gene-based vaccines, wearable diagnostics and drug discovery explain how their work rose to the challenge of the pandemic, and their hopes that each technology is now poised to continue making big changes in medicine.</em></p>
<p></p><hr><p></p>
<h2>Genetic vaccines</h2>
<p><strong>Deborah Fuller, Professor of Microbiology, University of Washington</strong></p>
<p>Thirty years ago, researchers for the first time injected mice with genes from a foreign pathogen to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/356152a0">produce an immune response</a>. Like many new discoveries, these first gene-based vaccines had their ups and downs. Early mRNA vaccines were hard to store and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2017.243">didn’t produce the right type of immunity</a>. DNA vaccines were more stable but weren’t efficient at getting into the cell’s nucleus, so they <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2Fnrg2432">failed to produce sufficient immunity</a>.</p>
<p>Researchers slowly overcame the problems of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/mt.2008.200">stability</a>, getting the genetic instructions <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1209367109">where they needed to be</a> and making them induce <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2017.243">more effective immune responses</a>. By 2019, academic labs and biotechnology companies all over the world had dozens of promising mRNA and DNA vaccines for infectious diseases, as well as for cancer in development or in <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2Fvaccines7020037">phase 1 and phase 2 human clinical trials</a>.</p>
<p>When COVID-19 struck, mRNA vaccines in particular were ready to be put to a real-world test. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mrna-vaccines-from-pfizer-and-moderna-work-why-theyre-a-breakthrough-and-why-they-need-to-be-kept-so-cold-150238">94% efficacy of the mRNA vaccines</a> surpassed health officials’ highest expectations.</p>
<p>DNA and mRNA vaccines offer huge advantages over traditional types of vaccines, since they use only genetic code from a pathogen – rather than the entire virus or bacteria. Traditional vaccines take months, if not years, to develop. In contrast, once scientists get the genetic sequence of a new pathogen, they can <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.583077">design a DNA or mRNA vaccine in days</a>, identify a lead candidate for clinical trials within weeks and have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-020-0159-8">millions of doses manufactured within months</a>. This is basically what happened with the coronavirus.</p>
<p>Gene-based vaccines also produce precise and effective immune responses. They stimulate not only antibodies that block an infection, but also a strong T cell response that can <a href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/what-are-nucleic-acid-vaccines-and-how-could-they-be-used-against-covid-19#:%7E:text=Nucleic%20acid%20vaccines%20use%20genetic,immune%20response%20against%20it">clear an infection if one occurs</a>. This makes these vaccines better able to respond to mutations, and it also means they could be capable of <a href="https://www.genengnews.com/insights/immunotherapy-targets-emerging-infectious-diseases/">eliminating chronic infections</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03072-8">cancerous cells</a>.</p>
<p>The hopes that gene-based vaccines could one day provide a vaccine for malaria or HIV, cure cancer, replace less effective traditional vaccines or be ready to stop the next pandemic before it gets started are no longer far-fetched. Indeed, many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coi.2020.01.006">DNA</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2017.243">mRNA</a> vaccines against a wide range of infectious diseases, for treatment of chronic infections and for cancer are already in advanced stages and clinical trials. As someone who has been working on these vaccines for decades, I believe their proven effectiveness against COVID-19 will usher in a new era of vaccinology with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymthe.2020.06.017">genetic vaccines at the forefront</a>.</p>
<p></p><hr><p></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388127/original/file-20210305-23-1yr4ab5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person wearing a smart watch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388127/original/file-20210305-23-1yr4ab5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388127/original/file-20210305-23-1yr4ab5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388127/original/file-20210305-23-1yr4ab5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388127/original/file-20210305-23-1yr4ab5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388127/original/file-20210305-23-1yr4ab5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388127/original/file-20210305-23-1yr4ab5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388127/original/file-20210305-23-1yr4ab5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Smartwatches and other wearable technologies allow users to capture more continuous health data than ever before.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/smartwatch-gadget-technology-smart-828786/">Pixabay</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wearable tech and early illness detection</h2>
<p><strong>Albert H. Titus, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University at Buffalo</strong></p>
<p>During the pandemic, researchers have taken full advantage of the proliferation of smartwatches, smart rings and other wearable health and wellness technology. These devices can measure a person’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78355-6">temperature</a>, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2196%2F10828">heart rate</a>, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2196%2Fjmir.9157">level of activity</a> and other <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2196%2F16811">biometrics</a>. With this information, researchers have been able to track and <a href="https://doi.org/10.2196/26107">detect COVID-19 infections</a> even before people notice they have any symptoms.</p>
<p>As wearable usage and adoption <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-01-11-gartner-forecasts-global-spending-on-wearable-devices-to-total-81-5-billion-in-2021">grew in recent years</a>, researchers began studying the ability of these devices to <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2Fnano9060813">monitor disease</a>. However, although real-time data collection was possible, previous work had focused primarily on chronic diseases.</p>
<p>But the pandemic both served as a lens to focus many researchers in the field of health wearables and offered them an unprecedented opportunity to study real-time <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-00533-1">infectious disease detection</a>. The number of people potentially affected by a single disease – COVID-19 – at one time gave researchers a large population to draw from and to test hypotheses on. Combined with the fact that <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-01-11-gartner-forecasts-global-spending-on-wearable-devices-to-total-81-5-billion-in-2021">more people than ever</a> are using wearables with health monitoring functions and that these devices collect lots of useful data, researchers were able to try to diagnose a disease solely using data from wearables – an experiment they could only dream of before.</p>
<p>Wearables can detect symptoms of COVID-19 or other illnesses <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-020-00640-6">before symptoms are noticeable</a>. While they have proved to be capable of detecting sickness early, the symptoms wearables detect are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-00533-1">not unique to COVID-19</a>. These symptoms can be predictive of a number of potential illnesses or other health changes, and it is much harder to say what illness a person has versus simply saying they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2011.05.002">sick with something</a>. </p>
<p>Moving into the post-pandemic world, it’s likely that more people will <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-01-11-gartner-forecasts-global-spending-on-wearable-devices-to-total-81-5-billion-in-2021">incorporate wearables</a> into their lives and that the devices will only improve. I expect the knowledge researchers have gained during the pandemic on how to use wearables to monitor health will form a starting point for how to handle future outbreaks – not just of viral pandemics, but potentially of other events such as food poisoning outbreaks and seasonal flu episodes. But since wearable tech is concentrated within pockets of affluent and <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.ijinfomgt.2020.102209">younger populations</a>, the research community and society as a whole must simultaneously address the disparities that exist.</p>
<p></p><hr><p></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388128/original/file-20210305-23-cskouk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing proteins connections." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388128/original/file-20210305-23-cskouk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388128/original/file-20210305-23-cskouk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388128/original/file-20210305-23-cskouk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388128/original/file-20210305-23-cskouk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388128/original/file-20210305-23-cskouk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388128/original/file-20210305-23-cskouk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388128/original/file-20210305-23-cskouk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Every place that a coronavirus protein interacts with a human protein is a potential druggable site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://qbi.ucsf.edu/COVID-19">QBI Coronavirus Research Group</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A new way to discover drugs</h2>
<p><strong>Nevan Krogan, Professor of Cellular Molecular Pharmacology and Director of the Quantitative Biosciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco</strong></p>
<p>Proteins are the molecular machines that make your cells function. When proteins malfunction or are hijacked by a pathogen, you often get disease. Most drugs work by disrupting the action of one or several of these <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/targeted-therapies/targeted-therapies-fact-sheet">malfunctioning or hijacked proteins</a>. So a logical way to look for new drugs to treat a specific disease is to study individual genes and proteins that are directly affected by that disease. For example, researchers know that the BRCA gene – a gene that protects your DNA from being damaged – is closely related to the development of breast and ovarian cancer. So a lot of work has focused on finding drugs that affect the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-018-0055-6">function of the BRCA protein</a>.</p>
<p>However, single proteins working in isolation are usually not solely responsible for disease. Genes and the proteins they encode are part of complicated networks – the BRCA protein <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0805242105">interacts with tens to hundreds</a> of other proteins that help it perform its cellular functions. My colleagues and I are part of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2018.07.010">small but growing</a> field of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.08.044">researchers</a> who study these <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04670">connections and interactions among proteins</a> – what we call protein networks. </p>
<p>For a few years now, my colleagues and I have been exploring the potential of these networks to find more ways drugs could ameliorate disease. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, we knew we had to try this approach and see if it could be used to rapidly find a treatment for this emerging threat. We immediately started <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-treatment-might-already-exist-in-old-drugs-were-using-pieces-of-the-coronavirus-itself-to-find-them-133701">mapping the extensive network of human proteins</a> that SARS-CoV-2 hijacks so it can replicate.</p>
<p>Once we built this map, we pinpointed human proteins in the network that <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-treatment-might-already-exist-in-old-drugs-were-using-pieces-of-the-coronavirus-itself-to-find-them-133701">drugs could easily target</a>. We found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2286-9">69 compounds</a> that influence the proteins in the coronavirus network. 29 of them are already FDA-approved treatments for other illnesses. On Jan. 25 we published a paper showing that one of the drugs, Aplidin (Plitidepsin), currently being used to treat cancer, is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf4058">27.5 times more potent than remdesivir</a> in treating COVID-19, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.24.427991">including one of the new variants</a> The drug has been approved for phase 3 clinical trials in 12 countries as a <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04784559">treatment for the new coronavirus</a>.</p>
<p>But this idea of mapping the protein interactions of diseases to look for novel drug targets doesn’t apply just to the coronavirus. We have now used this approach on <a href="http://hpmi.ucsf.edu">other pathogens</a> as well as other diseases including <a href="http://ccmi.org">cancer</a>, neurodegenerative and <a href="http://pcmi.ucsf.edu">psychiatric disorders</a>.</p>
<p>These maps are allowing us to connect the dots among many seemingly disparate aspects of single diseases and discover new ways drugs could treat them. We hope this approach will allow us and researchers in other areas of medicine to discover new therapeutic strategies and also see whether any old drugs might be repurposed to treat other conditions.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156464/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deborah Fuller is a co-founder of Orlance, Inc that is developing a needle-free technology for delivery of DNA and RNA vaccines. She has grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and the Washington Research Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Albert H. Titus has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense. He has also received funding for research in this area from Garwood Medical Devices. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a Senior Member of the IEEE, a member of BMES, ASEE, and is a member of the BME Council of Chairs. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nevan Krogan receives funding from NIH, DARPA and Roche Pharmaceuticals.</span></em></p>The coronavirus pandemic has driven a lot of scientific progress in the past year. But just as some of the social changes are likely here to stay, so are some medical innovations.Deborah Fuller, Professor of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of WashingtonAlbert H. Titus, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University at BuffaloNevan Krogan, Professor and Director of Quantitative Biosciences Institute & Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, University of California, San FranciscoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1498862021-01-07T18:02:08Z2021-01-07T18:02:08ZConnected workouts can help you get fit alongside virtual buddies during the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377043/original/file-20210104-17-1cfjt5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=135%2C692%2C7180%2C4795&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Riding together from afar can help you build the exercise habit.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/man-cycling-indoor-with-exercise-bike-trainer-royalty-free-image/1222113631">ArtistGNDphotography/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sales of exercise gear and technology-based fitness tools have <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/how-the-pandemic-has-changed-the-fitness-industry.html">exploded in the U.S.</a> as people try to maintain their workout regimens without going to the gym.</p>
<p>Purchases range from simple dumbbells and outdoor bicycles to internet-connected devices such as the Peloton stationary bike or the Tonal digital weight machine. There are exercise video games like Nintendo’s Wii Fit and PS-2’s Eye Toy: Kinetic; wearable technology like Fitbits or Apple Watches; and mobile apps like Strava. People are even using platforms like Zoom or Skype to connect with a personal trainer.</p>
<p>These <a href="https://www.techaheadcorp.com/blog/connected-fitness/">connected fitness tools</a> bring together your exercise workouts and your digital life. <a href="https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1191-4863">As researchers in</a> <a href="http://education.msu.edu/search/Formview.aspx?email=kap@msu.edu">the field of kinesiology</a>, we’ve studied the effects of connected fitness on motivation and fitness outcomes. If you’re looking for ways to beef up your fitness during pandemic-related downtime or to replace a pre-COVID-19 exercise routine, one of these tech-enabled items may work for you.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377045/original/file-20210104-19-1satrtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="young woman uses a Wii Fit video game" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377045/original/file-20210104-19-1satrtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377045/original/file-20210104-19-1satrtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377045/original/file-20210104-19-1satrtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377045/original/file-20210104-19-1satrtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377045/original/file-20210104-19-1satrtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377045/original/file-20210104-19-1satrtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377045/original/file-20210104-19-1satrtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Games like the Wii Fit make users move their bodies to play.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/skylar-grey-gets-her-hands-on-wii-fit-u-while-at-the-news-photo/463355359">Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Nintendo</a></span>
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<h2>Tapping into the tech</h2>
<p>Connected fitness is not new. The <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00162.x">first such technology</a> was developed in the 1980s: stationary bikes connected to game consoles that required pedaling and steering on a handlebar-mounted gamepad. Exercise video games (exergames) were first created around the same time, really taking off in the late 1990s with games like Dance Dance Revolution and Nintendo Wii Fit <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/g4h.2014.0077">that require limb or trunk movement</a> as the primary interface with the technology.</p>
<p>New and creative technologies, however, continue to make exercise more convenient, trackable and customized. <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2012.673850">Some exergames have become more gamified</a>, including rewards, challenge levels, leader boards and immersive story lines to <a href="https://us.humankinetics.com/products/advances-in-sport-and-exercise-psychology-4th-edition">create elements of competition and enhance engagement</a>.</p>
<p>Even before the pandemic, connected fitness devices and exergames were appealing because they eliminate some of common barriers to exercise or physical therapy. Users don’t need to worry about the scheduling problems, costs of joining exercise programs or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2008.11.002">social physique anxiety</a> that can be associated with working out in public. These tools also shift the focus away from what can be unpleasant parts of exercising – like exertion, fatigue and boredom – to novel and engaging aspects of the activity.</p>
<p>One hitch, though, is that so far there are no independent “Consumer Reports”-type evaluations of how much these technologies affect performance outcomes or influence behavior. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377046/original/file-20210104-17-1ha81ke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="older woman on exercise bike" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377046/original/file-20210104-17-1ha81ke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377046/original/file-20210104-17-1ha81ke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377046/original/file-20210104-17-1ha81ke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377046/original/file-20210104-17-1ha81ke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377046/original/file-20210104-17-1ha81ke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377046/original/file-20210104-17-1ha81ke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377046/original/file-20210104-17-1ha81ke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inspiring gameified content doesn’t help your fitness if you don’t make it a habit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/senior-woman-on-exercise-bike-royalty-free-image/1182742824">MoMo Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Connected in more than one way</h2>
<p>Purchasing fitness equipment and technology-based devices is a great first step toward adding more physical activity to your life. But just like with a gym membership that’s paid for but never used, a high-tech piece of gear can gather dust.</p>
<p>Luckily, exercise psychology researchers have figured out frameworks that are more likely to help folks keep up the intensity of their exercise regimens and turn them into habits. Setting exercise goals, having individual choices in the type of workout, seeing improvements in your performance and exercising with others all make you more likely to stick with it. <a href="https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-9522-1.ch011">Working out in a group</a>, in particular, enhances the experience. The added social elements – including cooperation, coordination, obligation to the group, social comparison and even competition – all contribute.</p>
<p>Of course, finding the right exercise partner or group in these pandemic times can be difficult. Gyms are closed and social distancing guidelines are in effect. Can a virtual buddy do the job?</p>
<p>Our research team, which began investigating partnered exergames long before the pandemic, was the first to examine the use of virtual as well as nonhuman, software-generated exercise partners.</p>
<p>Based on principles of social comparison and what it takes to be a valued teammate, we customized our partners to be somewhat faster than the exerciser to provide a challenge to keep up. We also electronically “tethered” the partner to the exerciser in such a way that if the exerciser slowed down below their target pace, the partner had to slow down too. So if you start slacking, you slow down the team. This tool builds in some obligation to your partner.</p>
<p>We found that motivation and performance improve when the partner is slightly better than the exerciser. This finding held whether the partner is real, but virtually presented, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000003732">or unreal and software-generated</a>, and with a stationary bike <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.07.004">or a walking app</a>.</p>
<p>Even if you don’t have a software-generated exercise buddy, you can team up with someone on FaceTime or Zoom while you are on a stationary bike, treadmill or even doing dance aerobics. That way you can challenge and encourage each other to keep up the pace. Teaming up with someone who will also hold you accountable to keep showing up is also helpful. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CJJu4z1h4E6","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Even if you can’t find someone who can work out virtually with you at the same time, you can still share your workout results, compare notes and set future team challenges. A number of running apps, like Strava and RunKeeper, for instance, allow you to keep in touch with running buddies. Pricey indoor cycling classes like Peloton offer many options for how much or how little you want to compare with others, and let you share workouts with friends.</p>
<p>But you can apply the same motivational principles without spending money on such programs. Choose your activity, set your workout goals and search out an exercise buddy where you both challenge and encourage each other. If finding a workout pal is difficult, <a href="https://www.getmotivatedbuddies.com">GetMotivedBuddies</a> provides a low-cost membership.</p>
<h2>Just having fun or really working up a sweat</h2>
<p>Certainly, any movement is superior to a sedentary lifestyle in terms of health benefits. But to meet U.S. Department of Health and Human Services <a href="http://health.gov/paguidelines/">recommendations</a>, adults should attain at least 150 minutes per week of physical activity that is of at least the intensity of a brisk walk.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p><a href="https://us.humankinetics.com/products/advances-in-sport-and-exercise-psychology-4th-edition">Few of the companies that sell technology-based tools</a> to increase physical activity have provided evidence of objective changes in long-term physical activity. Exergames may or may not help you meet recommended levels of physical activity.</p>
<p>In one systematic review of 28 studies, researchers found that when playing the game outside of structured settings, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198112444956">exergamers rarely hit moderate to vigorous physical activity levels</a>. The most common exergames reviewed were DDR, Wii Fit, Playstation2 and GameBike.</p>
<p>An important consideration is how tools are used. For example, people can cheat to avoid exercise with a Wii controller by simply flicking the wrist instead of performing full-body movements. People still must commit to using tools for their intended purpose. </p>
<p>Physical activity is good for you in so many ways – including lowering the risk of developing multiple forms of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Importantly, physical activity is also positively linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10238-020-00650-3">immune system function</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2015.1022901">mental health</a>, which are paramount concerns during a pandemic like COVID-19.</p>
<p>So figure out your personal preferences and what motivates you. See what resources you can access. Fortunately, there are creative options available for those wishing to be physically active, and many of them involve technology-based tools. Now is a great time to get connected to fitness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deborah L. Feltz has received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, and National Institutes of Health. She currently does not receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karin Pfeiffer has previously received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She has previously received and currently receives funding from the National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p>From step counters and active video games to apps for exercisers and tech-enabled gear, there are a lot of ways to combine your workouts with your digital life.Deborah Feltz, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Kinesiology, Michigan State UniversityKarin Pfeiffer, Professor of Kinesiology, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1478052020-10-15T12:38:23Z2020-10-15T12:38:23ZWhat is HIPAA? 5 questions answered about the medical privacy law that protects Trump’s test results and yours<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363533/original/file-20201014-21-q2f1h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=473%2C0%2C6875%2C4912&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Doctors can share your medical information, with your permission.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bad-news-royalty-free-image/486418295">sturti/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>When President Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19, his doctor pointed to “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/politics/hipaa-trump-conley/index.html">HIPAA rules and regulations</a>” as the reason he couldn’t speak more freely about Trump’s condition. HIPAA is a medical privacy law, but people often misunderstand what it does and doesn’t do.</em></p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1313205926309093378"}"></div></p>
<p><em>Margaret Riley is a <a href="https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/mf9c/1202931">law professor at the University of Virginia</a> who specializes in health law. She spends a lot of time teaching future lawyers and medical professionals how medical privacy laws work. Here are the basics.</em></p>
<h2>1. What is HIPAA and why did Congress pass it?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-regulations/index.html">Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s</a> Privacy Rule is a federal law that <a href="https://www.hipaajournal.com/when-was-hipaa-enacted/">went into force in 2003</a>. The need for such a law had been underscored when tennis star <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/09/sports/an-emotional-ashe-says-that-he-has-aids.html">Arthur Ashe’s HIV status was revealed publicly</a> and country music star <a href="http://www.cmt.com/news/1475729/medical-worker-sentenced-over-wynette-medical-records/">Tammy Wynette’s health records were sold</a> to tabloids for a few thousand dollars. People were also starting to worry about genetic privacy. And Congress recognized that the internet would make it easier for health care privacy breaches to occur.</p>
<p>The law prohibits health care providers and businesses and people working with them – including administrative staff, laboratories, pharmacies, health insurers and so on – from disclosing your health information without your permission. That includes information about your COVID-19 symptoms and test results – though there are some exceptions.</p>
<h2>2. Is all my medical info protected by HIPAA?</h2>
<p>No, HIPAA protects only health care information that is held by specific kinds of health care providers. For example, health care data that may be on your Apple Watch or Fitbit are usually not covered by HIPAA. Similarly, genetic data you enter on websites like Ancestry.com are not covered by HIPAA.</p>
<p>Even some apps that do things like help you maintain your blood sugar may not be covered by HIPAA if you aren’t using them at the direction of your health care provider. Other laws or agreements like the privacy disclosures required on many apps (although <a href="https://theconversation.com/nobody-reads-privacy-policies-heres-how-to-fix-that-81932">many people don’t read them</a>) may protect that information, but HIPAA does not.</p>
<p>Employers are generally not covered health providers, so HIPAA does not apply to them. If necessary to protect others, your work could share that you have an illness. That said, other laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act may prevent your employer from disclosing identifiable health information about you that you may have shared with them.</p>
<h2>3. Who can disclose what under HIPAA?</h2>
<p>HIPAA gives you the right to control your health information disclosures so you can tell your health care provider what to share. </p>
<p>For example, you may be willing to have your health care provider share some of your health information with family members, but you might not want to share all of it; you can tell your health care provider not to share any stigmatizing information or procedures that your family might not know about. You need to be very clear with your health care provider if you want to exclude some information. Some information, like psychotherapy notes or giving your data to marketing companies, requires written authorization. </p>
<p>Sometimes people try to use HIPAA as an excuse for actions that it doesn’t in fact cover. In 2020, for instance, some people confronted with rules about wearing masks in stores assert that they don’t need to wear one and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/07/19/fact-check-asking-face-masks-wont-violate-hipaa-4th-amendment/5430339002/">don’t need to explain why because of HIPAA</a>. That’s not actually how this privacy law works.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363537/original/file-20201014-21-1mxfqp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="exterior of a medical center with mask sign" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363537/original/file-20201014-21-1mxfqp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363537/original/file-20201014-21-1mxfqp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363537/original/file-20201014-21-1mxfqp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363537/original/file-20201014-21-1mxfqp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363537/original/file-20201014-21-1mxfqp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363537/original/file-20201014-21-1mxfqp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363537/original/file-20201014-21-1mxfqp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even during the pandemic, your personal medical information is largely protected.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bad-news-royalty-free-image/486418295">Spencer Plat/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>4. Could my health care provider be required to disclose any of my info without my permission?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/guidance-materials-for-consumers/index.html">There are exceptions</a> to HIPAA’s nondisclosure requirements. For example, HIPAA regulations allow covered health care providers to disclose patient information to help treat another person, to protect public health and for certain law enforcement purposes.</p>
<p>There are additional exceptions that apply during a pandemic. For instance, while health departments may have access to information about people in their district who’ve tested positive for COVID-19, HIPAA and other privacy laws require them not to release any more information than is needed to keep people safe. So, health departments will provide information about how many people have tested positive and how many people are hospitalized, but they won’t release any names to the general public. Health department contact tracers may reveal identities of individuals if it’s really necessary to alert specific people that they may have been exposed.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>HIPAA covers President Trump just as it does you and me. There may be good reasons that people want to know more about the president’s health, but his health providers can provide the public only with information about his health that he has allowed them to share. They shouldn’t say anything that isn’t true, but they can certainly omit information.</p>
<h2>5. What if someone violates my rights under HIPAA?</h2>
<p>Only the government can bring a claim if an individual’s protected health information is breached. So to bring a federal claim, you would need to work with the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You may be able to sue under state law and use the breach of your HIPAA rights as evidence.</p>
<p>Some people who are particularly worried about their privacy may ask health care providers to sign a nondisclosure agreement that gives them additional claims and the right to sue directly if there is a breach.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147805/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret Riley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A health law expert explains what the regulation does and doesn’t protect.Margaret Riley, Professor of Law, Public Health Sciences, and Public Policy, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1433882020-08-07T12:35:59Z2020-08-07T12:35:59ZWearable fitness devices deliver early warning of possible COVID-19 infection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350944/original/file-20200803-24-1x9uoce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5615%2C3715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fitness information from wearable devices can reveal when the body is fighting an infection.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/runner-in-the-park-using-smart-watch-royalty-free-image/636251614?adppopup=true">Nico De Pasquale Photography/Stone via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The difficulty many people have getting tested for SARS-CoV-2 and delays in receiving test results make early warning of possible COVID-19 infections all the more important, and <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/06/30/sciadv.abd4794.full">data from wearable health and fitness devices shows promise</a> for identifying who might have COVID-19. </p>
<p>Today’s wearable device gather data about physical activity, heart rate, body temperature and quality of sleep. This data is typically used to help people track general well-being. Smartwatches are the most common type of wearable. There are also smart wrist bands, finger rings and earbuds. Smart clothing, shoes and eyeglasses can also be considered “wearables.” Popular brands include Fitbits, Apple Watches and Garmin watches.</p>
<p>Several studies are <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/snyderlab/news/20202-covid-19-research.html">testing algorithms</a> that <a href="https://wvumedicine.org/news/article/wvu-rockefeller-neuroscience-institute-announces-capability-to-predict-covid-19-related-symptoms-up-/">assess data</a> from wearable devices to detect COVID-19. Results to date show that the concept is sound. However, wearables can be expensive and sometimes challenging to use. Addressing these issues is important to allow as many people as possible to benefit from them.</p>
<h2>Detecting flu-like illness</h2>
<p>Because wearables are excellent tools for monitoring general health conditions, researchers began studying ways of using them to detect illness before the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, researchers used Fitbit data <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30222-5">to identify people who could have an influenza-like illness</a> from their resting heart rate and daily activity patterns. An elevated resting heart rate can be related to an infection. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Fitbit fitness tracker" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350946/original/file-20200803-24-t4cbmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350946/original/file-20200803-24-t4cbmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350946/original/file-20200803-24-t4cbmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350946/original/file-20200803-24-t4cbmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350946/original/file-20200803-24-t4cbmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350946/original/file-20200803-24-t4cbmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350946/original/file-20200803-24-t4cbmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fitness trackers like this Fitbit monitor heart rate, activity and quality of sleep. Elevated resting heart rate is a sign of infection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/185603127@N05/49111707501/">Krystal Peterson/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most Fitbit models measure and record heart rate, so the devices can be used to spot periods of increased resting heart rate. They also measure and record activity, so they can identify reduced levels of daily activity. Combining these two measures allowed the researchers to better predict who had an influenza-like illness. </p>
<p>It’s not possible to determine if a smart device wearer has a particular illness from just these data measures. But seeing a sudden change in these conditions can prompt people to isolate themselves and get diagnostic tests, which can reduce the spread of communicable diseases like COVID-19.</p>
<h2>Body temperature</h2>
<p>Fever and persistent cough are the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234765">most common symptoms of COVID-19</a>. This has sparked widespread screening using thermometers, most commonly contactless infrared thermometers. </p>
<p>Despite the ubiquity of thermometers, temperature sensors in wearables are uncommon. This is due in part to <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2Fs18061714">how complicated it is</a> to obtain true body temperature from skin-based measurements. Skin temperature varies depending on environmental conditions and stress levels, sweat evaporation can lower skin temperature, and temperature sensors sometimes have less-than-ideal contact with the skin.</p>
<p>There are wearable temperature patches that communicate with smart devices and record temperature continuously. But body temperature isn’t 100% predictive of illness, and it’s impossible to diagnose a particular infection, such as COVID-19, using body temperature alone. Nonetheless, a fever alert could lead to earlier intervention.</p>
<h2>Sweat and tears</h2>
<p>Research into sensing technology continues to expand the possibilities for wearables as health monitoring and diagnosis devices. The COVID-19 outbreak is likely to influence the direction of this research as well as accelerate it. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="backside of Garmin smartwatch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350948/original/file-20200803-14-1c653hn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350948/original/file-20200803-14-1c653hn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350948/original/file-20200803-14-1c653hn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350948/original/file-20200803-14-1c653hn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350948/original/file-20200803-14-1c653hn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350948/original/file-20200803-14-1c653hn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350948/original/file-20200803-14-1c653hn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The backside of this Garmin smartwatch shows the sensors that use light to illuminate blood vessels in order to measure heart rate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/185627742@N03/49108710981/">Tina Arnold/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One approach is to create sensors that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/elan.201800677">detect compounds in sweat</a> from the skin. These compounds can provide a lot of information about a person’s health. pH, sodium ions, glucose and alcohol content are just some of the things that emerging sweat sensors can detect. Tears also contain compounds from the body, so researchers are investigating <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C9LC01039D">chemical sensing using contact lenses and smart lenses</a>. </p>
<p>Sweat rate can also be measured, which can be used as an indicator of temperature, so these sensors are being examined for use in <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/the-institute/ieee-member-news/sweat-sensing-patch-aimed-athletes-takes-covid19">helping detect COVID-19</a>. </p>
<h2>Toward detecting viruses</h2>
<p>The drawback of many existing wearable sensors is that they can’t actually detect the presence of a virus such at SARS-CoV-2. To do this, they would have to detect virus-specific RNA. </p>
<p>RNA detection typically involves several steps, including extracting RNA from a sample, making many copies of the RNA and identifying the RNA. Although there has been a lot of progress in miniaturizing RNA detection equipment for use in rapid, point-of-care testing, there’s still a ways to go before it can fit in wearable devices.</p>
<p>Much of the ongoing research on developing rapid, point-of-care pathogen detection uses “lab-on-a-chip” technology. Lab-on-a-chip refers to the goal of shrinking laboratory tests that once required many large pieces of equipment to the size of a computer chip or microscope slide. </p>
<p>An example is a <a href="https://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/ArticleID/20451/Lab-on-a-Chip-LoC-COVID-19-Test-Advances-to-Clinical-Trials.aspx">COVID-19 diagnostic test</a> undergoing clinical trials. The test’s sensor is a specialized <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6189704">ion-sensitive field-effect transistor</a> (ISFET) that is designed to respond to the presence of the virus RNA. The device can perform a test in less than one hour, but requires a sample collected by nasal swab. </p>
<p>While this technology is not wearable, it could become the launching point for future virus-detecting wearables because these can be made small and use little power. A wearable device that continuously monitors a person and indicates that they’ve contracted or been exposed to the virus would allow the person to seek treatment and isolate themselves to prevent further spread.</p>
<h2>Sonic screwdrivers and tricorders</h2>
<p>Fans of Dr. Who know the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_screwdriver">sonic screwdriver</a>, and Star Trek followers know the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorder">tricorder</a>. The ideal wearable of the future would be similar to these wondrous fictional devices. It would be able to detect the presence of the virus in the environment around the wearer, providing the opportunity to leave before becoming exposed. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>But airborne virus detection requires significant equipment to <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0174314">collect air samples and analyze them</a>. Other methods, such as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.0c02439">plasmonic photothermal biosensor</a>, provide promising results, but still require the user to perform the analysis. It will be some time before a smartwatch will be able to alert its wearer to the presence of a dangerous virus.</p>
<h2>Wearable and accessible</h2>
<p>For all the promise of wearables as tools to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, and future pandemics, there are barriers to widespread use of the devices. Most wearables are expensive, can be difficult to learn to use by non-native English speakers, or are developed without data from a broad population base. There’s a risk that <a href="https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.6494">many people won’t accept the technology</a>. </p>
<p>Continued development of broadly accepted health-based wearables should include community input, as outlined in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/23439">National Academies Workshop Summary</a>. By ensuring that everyone has access to wearables, and accepts them, the devices can help keep people healthy in the midst of a global pandemic. Ongoing research should result in improved technology that, with care, will benefit all of society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Albert H. Titus has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense. He has also received funding for research in this area from Garwood Medical Devices.
He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a member of BMES, ASEE, and is a member of the BME Council of Chairs.</span></em></p>Fitness information like resting heart rate collected by wearable devices can’t diagnose diseases, but it can signal when something is wrong. That can be enough to prompt a COVID-19 test.Albert H. Titus, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1412932020-06-25T03:40:19Z2020-06-25T03:40:19ZLatest updates: Apple is trying to reclaim its major innovator status (by making you wash your hands)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343901/original/file-20200625-190498-1f76hks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C5%2C1954%2C1094&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Apple</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Market commentators view Apple’s announcements at this week’s <a href="https://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2020/">Worldwide Developers Conference 2020</a> (WWDC) as one of the company’s most <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-stock-rises-to-yet-another-record-as-focus-on-integration-across-products-cheered-2020-06-23">important</a> strategic moves of the past decade. </p>
<p>Among the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/22/21299042/apple-wwdc-2020-recap-biggest-announcements-ios-ipados-macos-silicon-chips-mac">key announcements</a> were details of the watchOS 7 – with a pandemic-inspired handwashing detection feature – and plans to end Apple’s reliance on Intel for Mac processing chips.</p>
<p>While Apple still views itself as an <a href="https://time.com/5857500/apple-wwdc-2020/">innovator</a>, critics point out many of its product innovations in recent years have been incremental – with calls for an <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2019/06/07/at-its-core-apple-is-no-longer-innovative/#364681e7196d">entire new product category</a>. And consumers have been finding it increasingly hard <a href="https://www.theverge.com/21299641/apple-ios-14-vs-android-11-features-beta-iphone-google?fbclid=IwAR0fwR_qMJAy9AAL4wVtIBNTIhJa6gemS43agYUSULWhXcsZfggUnfIFAwA">to distinguish</a> between Apple and competitors like Samsung. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1275189963378786307"}"></div></p>
<p>Will we ever again see something from Apple that truly changes the market?</p>
<p>We think Apple’s newest updates may be early signs it is, in fact, looking to get back on the map as a “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0312896215587315">business model innovator</a>”. This describes how an organisation creates, delivers and captures value through business activities. </p>
<p>As University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School professor <a href="https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/apple-innovation-edge/">Raffi Amit explains</a>, Apple has renewed its business model many times – from changing the music industry with Apple Music, to creating a community of independent app providers through the App Store.</p>
<h2>A pro-hygiene smartwatch</h2>
<p>In today’s COVID-19 world, Apple’s new watch OS7 (expected to be released <a href="https://www.techradar.com/au/news/watchos-7-release-date">later this year</a>) will offer automatic handwashing detection. </p>
<p>Motion sensors, the microphone (which will listen for water sounds) and on-device machine learning will detect when a user is washing their hands. The watch will then start a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/22/21299042/apple-wwdc-2020-recap-biggest-announcements-ios-ipados-macos-silicon-chips-mac">20-second timer</a>. </p>
<p>By monitoring the frequency and duration of handwashing, preventative health care will be in the hands of users. </p>
<p>Apple uses its wealth of consumer trend data, combined with advances in machine learning, data and analytics to offer an intensely human experience to suit users’ lifestyles. By focusing on the customer’s journey, Apple is in a unique position to create products with superior customer value. </p>
<p>For the WatchOS 7’s handwashing feature, the customer journey starts by reminding users to wash their hands when they get home. The health app monitors the process, even detecting if a user stops prematurely. By focusing on each step of this “journey”, Apple aims to provide peace of mind and address customer anxieties during the pandemic.</p>
<p>In the market of fashionable wearables, Apple’s smartwatch dominates. Last year, the Apple Watch <a href="https://news.strategyanalytics.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2020/Strategy-Analytics-Apple-Watch-Outsells-the-Entire-Swiss-Watch-Industry-in-2019/default.aspx">outsold</a> the entire Swiss watch industry.</p>
<p>In line with a strong trend towards personalisation, Apple’s WatchOS 7 also offers customisable watch faces, sleep tracking, improved workout apps with dancing and several built-in acoustic health features such as monitoring ambient sound levels.</p>
<h2>Breaking up with Intel</h2>
<p>Apple’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-02/apple-is-said-to-plan-move-from-intel-to-own-mac-chips-from-2020">long-awaited breakup</a> with Intel was confirmed at the WWDC 2020. Chief executive Tim Cook announced the company’s plans to transition to using its own Apple silicon processors for Macs.</p>
<p>Currently, Mac computers operate with Intel’s x86 desktop chips. By <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-09/apple-plans-to-announce-move-to-its-own-mac-chips-at-wwdc">2021</a>, these will be replaced with the custom-designed processors Apple has already been using in newer iPhones and iPads – spelling the end of a 15-year partnership between Apple and Intel. </p>
<p>The move is part of Apple’s continued strategy to gain as much control as possible over its product ecosystem and development processes. It could also be seen as a reaction to Intel’s hesitance to meet its requirements. </p>
<p>Intel has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/technology/apple-intel-breakup.html">fallen behind</a> in the industry’s race to miniaturise and has experienced production delays and shortages. Apple’s new processors promise more power efficiency, are lighter and have superior performance for 3D graphics and for apps using artificial intelligence.</p>
<p>Similar to other <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/technology/apple-intel-breakup.html">tech giants</a>, Apple is expanding its capabilities not just through acquisition, but also by developing its inhouse capabilities. </p>
<p>And while the Apple-Intel partnership only amounted to 5% of Intel’s overall sales, the breakup will still impact Intel’s image as a <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/100214/inside-intel-look-mega-chipmaker.asp">market leader</a> in chip manufacturing. </p>
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Read more:
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<h2>An insulated ecosystem</h2>
<p>It’s likely the decision from Apple signals their intent to exert more control over developers, suppliers and customers through the Apple product ecosystem. Indeed, Apple’s tendency to entrench its customers in this <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/01/why-people-keep-buying-apple-products.html">ecosystem</a> has raised concerns. </p>
<p>For instance, larger players like <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/31/netflix-stops-paying-the-apple-tax-on-its-853m-in-annual-ios-revenue/">Netflix</a>, Spotify and Amazon Kindle have been fighting back against Apple’s policy of forcing users to use Apple pay to purchase their apps, which sees Apple collect up to 30% of the revenue <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/apple-developer-rage-30-percent-app-store-tax-2020-6?r=US&IR=T">up front</a>.</p>
<p>While companies such as Netflix can reach users independently through online marketing, smaller app developers are forced to pay the <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/31/netflix-stops-paying-the-apple-tax-on-its-853m-in-annual-ios-revenue/">Apple tax</a> of 15-30%. </p>
<h2>Still a leading innovator?</h2>
<p>At the WWDC, Cook framed the newest announcements as evidence of Apple’s ongoing commitment to innovation. </p>
<p>For many consumers, the most exciting updates will be Apple’s new internet-based technologies. These include spatial audio for <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/airpods-pro-will-soon-automatically-switch-between-apple-devices-and-have-spatial-audio/#:%7E:text=But%20Apple's%20new%20spatial%20audio,delivering%20more%20convincing%20surround%20sound.">AirPods Pro</a>, a feature that creates a more realistic surround sound experience and the new <a href="https://www.apple.com/au/newsroom/2020/06/apple-reimagines-the-iphone-experience-with-ios-14/">CarKey</a> function which will be compatible with 2021 BMW 5 Series. This will let drivers unlock and drive their car using their iPhone, thanks to a specialisied NCP (network co-processor) chip inside the phone.</p>
<p>It seems Apple does want to excel as a business model innovator. The company’s innovations – even when incremental – still drive product value. And this is used to turn profits which can then be reinvested into broader business model innovation. </p>
<p>This may be why shareholders and enthusiasts remain <a href="https://www.apple.com/au/newsroom/2020/01/apple-reports-record-first-quarter-results/">confident</a> about Apple’s future.</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A range of announcement were made at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, including the new ‘CarKey’ feature, and Apple’s decision to part ways with chip manufacturer Intel.Margarietha de Villiers Scheepers, Senior Lecturer Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of the Sunshine CoastMartie-Louise Verreynne, Professor in Innovation and Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1048902018-10-15T21:30:41Z2018-10-15T21:30:41ZIn the end, it was Khashoggi’s ‘friends’ who silenced him<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240638/original/file-20181015-165888-1nhwvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People, including the activist group Code Pink, hold signs at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia during a protest about the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Oct. 10, 2018, in Washington, D.C.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I was first in touch with Jamal Khashoggi — <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-october-12-2018-1.4859175/alleged-plot-surrounding-missing-saudi-journalist-didn-t-factor-in-his-fianc%C3%A9e-says-lawrence-wright-1.4859179">the Saudi journalist who disappeared on Oct. 2</a> — while setting up an interview with Osama bin Laden’s former close friend and brother-in-law, Mohammad Jamal Khalifa, for the <em>CBC</em> back in 2003.</p>
<p>It was two years after <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/27/us/september-11-anniversary-fast-facts/index.html">Sept. 11, 2001, when 2,977 victims were killed by four co-ordinated attacks against the United States</a> by the al-Qaida terrorist group, and the world was still searching for reasons behind the tide of anti-Americanism across the Arab world.</p>
<p>Khalifa was a murky character at the time (he has since died in a mysterious <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/02/alqaida.saudiarabia">killing in Madagascar in 2007</a>). After Sept. 11, 2001, he always maintained publicly that he had fallen out with bin Laden’s decision to form al-Qaida in 1988. He was accused of being a major financier for the al-Qaida-aligned Abu Sayyaf terrorist group and reportedly also played a controversial role in the arrest of the group that attempted to blow up the World Trade Centre in 1993.</p>
<p>Khashoggi, then the deputy editor-in-chief of <em>Arab News</em>, a Gulf English language daily, was one of dozens of Saudi-based journalists and political observers I reached out to in an effort to track down Khalifa. For several months, all my calls and emails went unanswered. And then Khashoggi responded.</p>
<p>Yes, I know Khalifa, he told me via email. And yes, he could help facilitate an in-person interview with him.</p>
<p>From a news perspective, it was a great scoop: a rare opportunity to speak to someone who had once been close to bin Laden. Khashoggi not only followed through with the interview, but he also sought out several other English-speaking political analysts to take part in another separate television segment — a panel discussing Saudi affairs.</p>
<h2>A wide source-list: Saudi royals and terrorists</h2>
<p>I know I am not alone among foreign journalists who have had similarly positive experiences working with Khashoggi. Any reporter or policy researcher who has covered the Gulf countries can attest to how difficult it is to find helpful, credible and thoughtful voices who are willing to share their insight on life inside the elusive kingdom.</p>
<p>In this respect, Khashoggi was a breath of fresh air. He always seemed to be fine with appearing on camera and being identified in news reports.</p>
<p>But Khashoggi was also noticeably cautious. This caution likely prompted any reporter who used him as a source to assess him with a healthy degree of scrutiny. How many journalists after all — no matter how high they are — can honestly say they have sources to both international terrorists and elusive members of the Saudi royal family?</p>
<p>It’s no secret <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/jamal-khasoggi-missing-saudi-arabia-journalist-istanbul-opposition-mbs-a8575671.html">Khashoggi had parallel careers as both a reporter and a government adviser</a>. From 2003 to 2006 he was the right-hand man of the powerful Saudi prince, Faisal bin Turki, a former spy chief and ambassador to the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Clearly, he was no ordinary journalist.</p>
<h2>Polite requests for new freedoms</h2>
<p>But he was also no ordinary political adviser. Under his editorial direction at <em>Arab News</em>, for instance, he bravely published editorials that called for more personal freedoms and greater employment for Saudi youth, and allowed coverage of public demands by migrant workers and Shia minority communities in Bahrain. These are virtual no-go areas in Gulf news outlets.</p>
<p>It would be misleading, however, to portray him in the way some leading journalists have since his disappearance last week in Turkey. Khashoggi wasn’t “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45731341">a fierce critic</a>” of the Saudi regime.</p>
<p>Before he decided to start using <em>The Washington Post</em> last year as a platform to effect change (after being constantly suspended from writing in various Saudi media), his criticism of the leadership could probably best be described as subtle with polite reservations of the kingdom’s policies.</p>
<p>“Khashoggi was a smooth, articulate and polite defender of the realm,” says Madawi al-Rasheed, a visiting professor at the London School of Economics in a column for U.K. publication <em>Middle East Eye</em>. “<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/defender-realm-did-jamal-khashoggi-know-too-much-1084333312">His reservations on Saudi policies have always been subtle and tolerated</a>.”</p>
<p>They were especially tolerated — and no doubt appreciated by the ruling elite — when he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8prUmGPHMc0">publicly supported the Saudi position</a> on the disastrous war in Yemen (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/12/05/with-ali-abdullah-salehs-death-saudi-arabia-is-paying-the-price-for-betraying-the-arab-spring/?utm_term=.0d115f67c258">although his recent editorials in <em>the Washington Post</em> take on a decidedly different tone</a>), the execution of leading Shia cleric <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35213244">Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in 2016</a> and the 2011 Saudi-led military crackdown on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/13/bahrain-warns-protesters-force">Arab Spring-inspired activists in Bahrain</a>.</p>
<h2>Khashoggi’s disappearance</h2>
<p>In the days after Khashoggi’s disappearance, it’s worth noticing that many of the experts, journalists and political officials he regularly debated with on air also expressed sorrow — and respect for what he stood for. “Jamal Khashoggi and I disagreed on many issues, but unlike many of his Saudi and UAE colleagues he was always civil and polite to me and other Iranians,” tweeted <a href="https://twitter.com/s_m_marandi">Mohammad Marandi</a>, a professor of English literature and orientalism at the University of Tehran.</p>
<p>Another journalist in Bahrain who has been imprisoned numerous times for covering the violent Saudi crackdown on unarmed activists, vehemently disagreed with Khashoggi’s perception of Iranian encroachment in the region, but told me he still credits Khashoggi for trying to bring reform. “You don’t survive in Saudi if you don’t have friends. I can tell you from experience he was focused on getting the real story with all views out.”</p>
<p>In the end, it was Khashoggi’s own “friends” that silenced him. And <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/12/middleeast/khashoggi-saudi-turkey-recordings-intl/index.html">if the latest accounts of his death by Turkish media and authorities are true</a> — that there was an assault and a struggle inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/10/09/please-president-trump-shed-light-on-my-fiances-disappearance/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c7774aeb4fab">where he was last seen walking into</a> — then he follows a long line of other critics who have paid tragically to speak truth to power.</p>
<p>It’s a vital reminder not only of Riyadh’s crazed obsession with stifling dissent, but of the need to genuinely respect and value intellectuals with diverse perspectives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shenaz Kermalli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was no ordinary reporter. His contacts included the Royal Family as well as known terrorists.Shenaz Kermalli, Journalism Instructor, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1034302018-09-19T20:13:56Z2018-09-19T20:13:56ZYour Apple Watch can now record your ECG – but what does that mean and can you trust it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237025/original/file-20180919-158222-s8owz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Apple's smart watch can now read your heart current.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Apple’s new, fourth-generation watch has an <a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2018/09/redesigned-apple-watch-series-4-revolutionizes-communication-fitness-and-health/">electrical heart rate sensor</a>. This can record your electrocardiogram or ECG, which Apple says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… can classify if the heart is beating in a normal pattern or whether there are signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib), a heart condition that could lead to major health complications.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, what actually is an ECG and can you really rely on a watch to read it?</p>
<h2>How does the heart beat?</h2>
<p>As a quick summary, your heart is divided into four chambers. The two top chambers (called atria) receive blood and push it towards the two bottom chambers (ventricles), which pump blood out to the body (left side) and the lungs (right side).</p>
<p>At the top of the right atrium is a little collection of cells called the sinoatrial node, or SA node. These generate an electrical signal which travels toward the middle of the heart (atrioventricular node). Finally, this electrical impulse spreads into the ventricles, which makes them squeeze blood for what we feel as a heartbeat or pulse. A <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-should-my-heart-rate-be-and-what-affects-it-98945">normal heart rate</a> can vary significantly between different people.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-should-my-heart-rate-be-and-what-affects-it-98945">What should my heart rate be and what affects it?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So, these small electrical currents help co-ordinate each beat. In the early 1900s, Willem Einthoven developed a machine to be able to record these signals (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize) – a device that developed into the modern-day ECG machine. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237020/original/file-20180919-158237-17p8ni1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237020/original/file-20180919-158237-17p8ni1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237020/original/file-20180919-158237-17p8ni1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237020/original/file-20180919-158237-17p8ni1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237020/original/file-20180919-158237-17p8ni1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237020/original/file-20180919-158237-17p8ni1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237020/original/file-20180919-158237-17p8ni1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237020/original/file-20180919-158237-17p8ni1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Your heart is made up of four chambers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An ECG involves having small stickers applied to your chest, shoulders and ankles, which can then read the electricity coming from your heart. You don’t feel anything when it is taken and it takes only a few seconds to make a recording. It can be done at your local GP clinic or in hospital.</p>
<h2>How does an ECG work?</h2>
<p>With every beat, there is a characteristic appearance of each signal on the ECG, with separate “waves” that correspond to electrical activity from different parts of the heart.</p>
<p>The P wave (before the spike) represents the atria squeezing blood down towards the ventricles. The QRS looks like a spike and represents the two ventricles squeezing blood to the body and lungs. And the T wave at the end reflects the recovery of the ventricles as they relax to receive blood again.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237024/original/file-20180919-158240-ijzvu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237024/original/file-20180919-158240-ijzvu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237024/original/file-20180919-158240-ijzvu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237024/original/file-20180919-158240-ijzvu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237024/original/file-20180919-158240-ijzvu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237024/original/file-20180919-158240-ijzvu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237024/original/file-20180919-158240-ijzvu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237024/original/file-20180919-158240-ijzvu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each beat is represented by a separate wave or spike on the ECG.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By analysing various segments, the person reading the ECG can understand about problems, signalled by an abnormal-looking ECG, in the heart. The ECG can usually detect severe or urgent heart attacks, which cause elevation of the segment between the QRS and T waves. Smaller heart attacks sometime show signs, but not always. </p>
<p>The ECG is good for detecting arrhythmias, which are abnormal rhythms. The most common arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation (AF) – this is where the top chambers (the atria) don’t squeeze properly. As a result blood can stagnate and form a clot, which can then go to the brain and cause a stroke. </p>
<p>You can see atrial fibrillation on an ECG when no P wave is visible. Instead there are often small irregular blips indicating that the atrium is beating in a weak and disorganised way. An ECG can also pick up other arrhythmias, though it is most useful if the person is in the abnormal rhythm at the time the ECG is done.</p>
<p>The ECG can also pick up abnormal heart structures. Sometimes it can show signs of the heart being weak (heart failure) or if the muscle is unusually thick, such as when people have high blood pressure for a long time. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tom-petty-died-from-a-cardiac-arrest-what-makes-this-different-to-a-heart-attack-and-heart-failure-85245">Tom Petty died from a cardiac arrest – what makes this different to a heart attack and heart failure?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>So, can the Apple Watch actually read your heart?</h2>
<p>The ECG at your local doctor is called a 12-lead ECG. Only ten leads are physically attached to you, but the machine derives 12 based on the direction of electrical flow. Each of these leads provide a different view of the heart. </p>
<p>Imagine you are peering into a room through several windows. Each window would give you a different perspective, and putting these together can give you an overall impression of the room.</p>
<p>Wearable ECGs, like that with the Apple Watch, can pick up only one lead (for your further reading, it’s lead I). This can tell if your heart is irregular and sometimes if there is no P wave (so it could potentially detect atrial fibrillation). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237018/original/file-20180919-143281-1fed0br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237018/original/file-20180919-143281-1fed0br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237018/original/file-20180919-143281-1fed0br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237018/original/file-20180919-143281-1fed0br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237018/original/file-20180919-143281-1fed0br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237018/original/file-20180919-143281-1fed0br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237018/original/file-20180919-143281-1fed0br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237018/original/file-20180919-143281-1fed0br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An ECG involves several stickers placed on your chest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A key advantage of having the Apple Watch is the ability to take a 30-second ECG (this requires you to put your right hand on the watch to form a circuit so the electrical signals can be read from both arms through your heart) at the time you feel symptoms. It can understand the context as well (for example, your activity level at the time). </p>
<p>There are drawbacks, though. The watch can only give a single-window view of what’s happening in the heart, and won’t be able to detect heart attacks or abnormal heart structure accurately. Wearable devices are also more prone to interference with the signal as they rely on just one lead, whereas a 12-lead ECG remains the gold standard.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-apple-watch-adds-heart-tracking-heres-why-we-should-welcome-ecg-for-everyone-103375">New Apple Watch adds heart tracking: here's why we should welcome ECG for everyone</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And, of course, the actual ECG must be read by a professional. Apple gives you the option to download your reading as a PDF. </p>
<p>Ultimately, if you have concerns about your heart, an ECG is a simple, non-invasive, cheap test, which your local doctor can interpret. It should always be accompanied by a detailed history of your symptoms and a physical examination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shane Nanayakkara receives funding from the Heart Foundation and the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Beale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The new Apple Watch is making waves for being able to record an electrocardiogram (ECG) and share it. An ECG can tell you what’s going on with your heart.Shane Nanayakkara, Cardiologist, Baker Heart and Diabetes InstituteAnna Beale, Medical doctor, PhD candidate in cardiology, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1033752018-09-18T12:23:56Z2018-09-18T12:23:56ZNew Apple Watch adds heart tracking: here’s why we should welcome ECG for everyone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236854/original/file-20180918-158243-1km8z6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5184%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/women-wear-hand-watch-running-motion-331673009?src=Hb2rY9pOMnx1gNDCY2OcYQ-1-5">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/08/28/apple-iphone-9-x-plus-xplus-release-date-specs-price-cost-iphone-xs/#5cad5ce925dd">Leaked details</a> of the new iPhone models were quickly relegated to second tier headlines after Apple’s latest product announcement. More people seem to be excited about the fact that <a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2018/09/redesigned-apple-watch-series-4-revolutionizes-communication-fitness-and-health/">the new Apple Watch</a> will come with a built-in heart monitoring electrocardiogram (ECG) function.</p>
<p>An ECG <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/electrocardiogram/">is a simple test</a> that can be used to check your heart’s rhythm and electrical activity, designed to detect any underlying issues. The Apple Watch 4 will be the first mainstream wearable gadget to integrate this kind of medical diagnostic technology. (<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-reliable-is-your-wearable-heart-rate-monitor-98095">Other devices</a> such as the Fitbit typically measure blood flow by <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/04/how-wearable-heart-rate-monitors-work-and-which-is-best-for-you/">shining a light</a> through the skin. This should be an exciting breakthrough, but Apple’s revelation has been met with a <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/apple-watch-heart-ecg-fda">mixed reception</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2684614">There isn’t yet enough evidence</a> to show that using an ECG in general to screen people for cardiovascular diseases ultimately makes them healthier. In fact, <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2684613">it’s not recommended</a> for screening people who are at low risk of developing problems because it could produce false positive results (indicating a problem where none really exists). This can then lead healthy people to seek unnecessary, invasive and potentially harmful treatments, at a cost to the health service provider, as well as producing increased anxiety. For those who are at high risk of disease, ECG results might suggest medical intervention when lifestyle changes could actually be more beneficial. But does this really mean the technology shouldn’t be made more widely available?</p>
<p>It would be naive to assume that everyone who is at risk of heart problems knows, never mind consults with a doctor, about it. Often, people don’t realise until it is too late and they need emergency treatment and lengthy retrospective investigation – or, at worse, they die. To ignore the current digital health movement, and surging enthusiasm for it among early adopters of devices, health enthusiasts and growing numbers of people more generally would also be foolish. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/4393/fitness-and-activity-tracker/">The industry is booming</a>. The growing numbers paying to monitor their health with fitness trackers and smart watches has shown how <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2227-9709/4/1/5/htm">engaged and motivated</a> people can become. We shouldn’t be denying people opportunities to take greater responsibility for their health, particularly as health services come under growing pressure from an ageing and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/24/number-of-britons-living-with-chronic-illnesses-set-to-rise">increasingly ill</a> population.</p>
<p>The physical risks associated with performing ECGs are minimal. Sensors attached to the skin are used to detect the electrical signals produced by your heart each time it beats. It is <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/electrocardiogram/">quick, safe and painless</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236855/original/file-20180918-158243-u83va1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236855/original/file-20180918-158243-u83va1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236855/original/file-20180918-158243-u83va1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236855/original/file-20180918-158243-u83va1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236855/original/file-20180918-158243-u83va1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236855/original/file-20180918-158243-u83va1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236855/original/file-20180918-158243-u83va1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first mainstream wearable device with ECG.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Apple</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We shouldn’t <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/ecg-apple-watch/">ignore concerns</a> that an ECG test in a commercially available watch could encourage many people to make additional trips to the doctor when they have recorded any anomalous activity. A rush of gadget-adorned people descending on clinics demanding services is a worry. But many people already self-diagnose conditions or agonise about symptoms unnecessarily, often caused by using the internet and other technology. Those who do use the Apple Watch ECG may well include large numbers of <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/health/fitness/fitbit-fad-threatens-to-drive-up-gp-visits-from-worried-well-17065632">“worried well”</a>. But the impact of uncontrolled use of ECG technology seems likely to be limited for the moment, especially as many people will still simply be unable to afford it.</p>
<p>If ECG is added to the list of readily available health technology applications, it will be little different from enabling people to detect their pulses, count their steps, track their periods and analyse their sleep. An Apple Watch ECG won’t be conducted under controlled conditions, but this is true of so many health consultations.</p>
<h2>Personal health tech is already common</h2>
<p>Medical staff now give out many interventions that can be performed independently at home. This includes some <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2055207616678498">self-tracking</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6001233/">technologies</a> and sensitive diagnostic tests, such as those for <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/how-to-use-self-test-kits-safely/">sexual health and bowel screening</a>. In some places, you can even swap the GP’s surgery for a <a href="https://www.gpathand.nhs.uk/">smartphone app</a>.</p>
<p>While accuracy may be an issue with the Apple Watch ECG, the same is true for ECG tests performed in clinics and interpreted by professionals, according to <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_ylo=2018&q=ecg+accuracy&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5">many papers published on this topic</a>. Of course, technologies can always be improved, but waiting until a test is close to perfect isn’t necessarily the best way to use it. </p>
<p>Ultimately, we are living in a digital age and healthcare has so far been slow to revolutionise. We should be <a href="https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital">harnessing technology to improve healthcare</a>. Everyday ECG won’t replace medical care but might help people to spot important warning signs and seek expert opinion. The real-time data the device has already collected may then help inform a medical expert’s interpretation and diagnosis.</p>
<p>What we should really be thinking about is how we can widen appropriate access for this kind of technology to those who it would most benefit, so that it might identify more people at risk, earlier. This would help make health services more efficient, reduce waste and perhaps even save lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather May Morgan led a feasibility study (unfunded) in partnership with CloudTag Inc. (<a href="http://www.cloudtag.com/">http://www.cloudtag.com/</a>) in summer 2017, which used its Onitor Track (unpublished). She previously received funding for research into digital health from The Wellcome Trust through the University of Aberdeen’s Institutional Strategic Support Fund under Grant RG12724-13. Heather is presently an Apple Watch 3 user for research and life purposes.</span></em></p>Gadgets that tell too many people to go to the doctor are a worry, but the growing enthusiasm for health monitoring should be encouraged.Heather May Morgan, Lecturer in Applied Health Sciences, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/653412016-09-19T04:59:04Z2016-09-19T04:59:04ZCan an app help us find mindfulness in today’s busy high-tech world?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138023/original/image-20160916-14277-l6zp7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We all need to seek some mindfulness.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/dariagarnik</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the release of the latest Apple Watch this month came a new Breathe app <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT206999">which promises</a> to “help you better manage everyday stress”. Giving mindful breathing a place beside the alarm clock and weather app seems to prove mindfulness has truly gone mainstream. </p>
<p>But modern society is still strongly oriented in the opposite direction: toward speed, efficiency and multitasking. Take the <a href="http://www.apple.com/watchos/">tagline for the Apple watch</a>: “Do more in an instant.”</p>
<p>Other hooks for the new watch include “Share. Compare. Compete” and “Do even more right from your wrist”. So can a device that promises to optimise your productivity and competitiveness also help you non-judgmentally focus your attention on the present moment?</p>
<p>Or, to put it simply: can an app make you mindful? </p>
<p>As researchers in well-being technology, we are in constant pursuit of answers to questions like these. In our book <a href="http://www.positivecomputing.org/p/book.html">Positive Computing</a> we dedicate an entire chapter to mindfulness.</p>
<p>More recently, we had the opportunity to pose the question to two distinguished colleagues at the intersection of mindfulness and technology. One is the world-renowned well-being psychologist, <a href="http://www.sas.rochester.edu/psy/people/ryan_richard/index.html">Richard Ryan</a>, the other is the Venerable <a href="http://www.imonk.org/">Tenzin Priyadarshi</a>, director for the <a href="http://thecenter.mit.edu/">Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values</a> at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.</p>
<p>Their responses, based on decades of research and personal experience, yielded illuminating insights into the design of future technologies. </p>
<h2>Mindfulness apps can help beginners</h2>
<p>Both agree mindfulness apps can help connect beginners to the practice, as Priyadarshi explained. </p>
<p>“Firstly, from a Buddhist framework, mindfulness is a much wider field than what is being spoken of in the contemporary discourse,” he said.</p>
<p>“In the contemporary discourse on mindfulness, I do think apps are more useful, but useful mostly as an introductory phase, and in terms of creating the connection level.”</p>
<p>Ryan added: “One of things that I’ve been impressed by comes from the old adage that, even when you’ve been well-trained in mindfulness, the trick is remembering to be mindful.</p>
<p>"So some of the apps, such as the .B app used as part of the <a href="https://mindfulnessinschools.org/">Mindfulness in Schools</a> program, is a reminder to ”.B" (stop, breathe) – a recall that mindfulness is a state available.“</p>
<h2>Meditation by definition is not exciting</h2>
<p>A mindfulness app should motivate us to practice by making it fun, right?</p>
<p>According to Priyadarshi, mindfulness is by nature, not "exciting” and Ryan’s research supports this. In fact, it is initially about learning to embrace and move beyond the boredom we feel as a response to lack of stimulation. </p>
<p>Priyadarshi said: “Part of the challenge is that if you take any kind of beginning mindfulness practice, it has elements of serenity and stillness built into it.</p>
<p>"Technologies are constantly trying to generate some form of mental activity to get to this exciting state, but as <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-merton-9524435">Thomas Merton</a> (a Trappist monk) put it, part of the practice of meditation is to curb this appetite for excitement.</p>
<p>"Part of the thing that people come into mindfulness for is to restrain that excitement so that they can actually focus or be more attentive to the object at hand.”</p>
<p>Ryan said: “Our recent research has indeed shown that states of solitude, including meditation, produce deactivated sates of emotion. People are less aroused both in negative and positive emotions.</p>
<p>"A common outcome of meditation is in fact a calm vitality, rather than an excited one.”</p>
<h2>Location matters</h2>
<p>Try meditating at your work desk and you’ll battle thoughts of work deadlines. Try mindfulness in the living room and you’ll meet the temptation to play a video game or watch a movie instead.</p>
<p>The visual cues around us prime us for certain activities and trigger memories. So according to Priyadarshi, dedicating a space exclusively to meditation (even if it’s just a corner) is important for fostering mindfulness. </p>
<p>By extension, this suggests that our virtual work spaces (phones) could be ill-suited as mindfulness spaces. If your work tool is attached to you (in the form of a watch) the act of disassociation may be even trickier. </p>
<p>“At MIT we have various pods within the MIT institution – there are about five or six meditation communities across campus that use dedicated spaces […] and it helps them to focus on whatever the object of meditation is,” Priyadarshi said.</p>
<p>“Eventually the idea is that once the mind is trained, it is able to meditate and practice in any environment. But initially, all these things are useful in training the mind.”</p>
<h2>Fostering mindfulness means reshaping technology and society</h2>
<p>While mindfulness apps can be helpful, in the long run, truly improving our capacity for mindfulness relies on shifting the societal assumption that doing more is always better.</p>
<p>Until we reshape this orientation, our technologies will continue to foster behaviours that work against mindfulness and its benefits. </p>
<p>While the Breathe app may appear little more than wishful thinking as part of a device otherwise designed to optimise multitasking, its appearance is still a good sign.</p>
<p>It’s a sign that users are pushing back and questioning the tyranny of productivity. It’s a sign we may be turning a corner and taking the first step down a road to technologies that will genuinely (dare we say it?) make the world a better place.</p>
<p>We’ve got a long way to go though, and finding a quiet place to sit in stillness and bring our attention to the present moment is probably a very good place to start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rafael A Calvo receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Beyondblue, Asthma Australia, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SCHRCA). He is Senior Member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers IEEE</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dorian Peters is employed by the University Sydney. </span></em></p>Apple’s smartwatch promises to optimise our productivity and competitiveness. But can the new Breathe app for the watch help us to relax and make us mindful?Rafael A Calvo, Professor and ARC Future Fellow, University of SydneyDorian Peters, Creative Leader, Positive Computing Lab, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/650792016-09-08T22:18:28Z2016-09-08T22:18:28ZApple Watch pivots to fitness – and focuses on a different style of self-help<p>When Apple <a href="https://youtu.be/bdyVH5LqneU">unveiled its original watch in 2014</a>, the California company touted <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20150509040832/http://www.apple.com/watch/">three tent-pole features</a> of the new wearable: style, communication and fitness. <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2016/">Rolling out</a> the second-generation Apple Watch this week, Apple has positioned fitness, and fitness alone, as the device’s main selling point. High-end fashion, and friend-to-friend gestures like the <a href="http://www.imore.com/how-send-someone-your-heartbeat-apple-watch">heartbeat share</a>, were hardly mentioned. Exercise was the unrivaled star of the watch reveal. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Introducing Series 2 – with an emphasis on physicality.</span></figcaption>
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<p><a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2016/">Tim Cook’s keynote</a> introduced the new <a href="http://www.apple.com/watch/">“Series 2” device</a> with a <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">promotional video</a> dominated by sports: color bursts of swimming, tennis, basketball, cycling, stairs, skateboarding, jogging and on and on. The watch’s featured hardware changes, in addition to the requisite processor upgrade, were a GPS chip and a new “swimproof” water rating.</p>
<p>The upgraded operating system, <a href="http://www.apple.com/watchos/">watchOS 3</a>, is all about fitness too: new Activity watch faces, workout sharing, additional health metrics, and a new “Breathe” app. Cook called the watch the “ultimate device for a healthy life.” He said he expected the new version to be “especially popular with runners” – and proceeded to invite Nike’s brand chief to introduce a full-fledged, standalone unit: the <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-nike/">Apple Watch Nike+</a>. The Nike version, with its own specialized bands and watch faces, was hailed as the “perfect running partner.”</p>
<p>The Series 2 announcement did include a brief mention of new Hermés bands, as well as enhanced emojis and a “Scribble” finger-drawn input system. But the original tripartite pitch – style, communication and health – was reduced to a single, focused sell: the Apple Watch is a fitness device. And with that shift Apple has substituted a strand of self-improvement – disciplined and quantitative – for its longstanding appeals to iconoclastic self-expression. </p>
<h2>Forget fashion, follow the market to fitness</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Fitness doesn’t appear to be top of mind for this high-fashion model sporting the original Apple Watch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2014/10/voguecover.jpg?retina">Vogue China</a></span>
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<p>Recall that the original watch was promoted with <a href="https://youtu.be/dAFEoUc3JNw">videos narrated by designer Jony Ive</a>, with purring, pornographic attention to design and exotic materials. Crucial to the original roll-out campaign was a relentless effort to link the watch to the fashion world: the <a href="http://www.self.com/flash/celebrity-blog/2015/02/march-cover-girl-candice-swanepoel-apple-watch/">Self</a>, <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/02/apple-watch-flare-magazine/">Flare</a> and <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/wearables/apple-watch-vogue-china-cover-iphone-6-preorders-start/">Vogue China</a> covers, the <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/apple/apple-watch-splashed-across-12-pages-of-vogues-march-issue/">12-page ad spread</a> (and <a href="http://www.vogue.com/1415025/apple-design-genius-jonathan-ive/">glowing Ive profile</a>) in U.S. Vogue, the in-store boutiques at <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/10/8380993/apple-watch-tokyo-paris-london-shopping">Galleries Lafayettes and Selfridges</a>, the high-profile hires from Burberry to L.V.M.H.</p>
<p>Equally prominent, in that <a href="https://youtu.be/bdyVH5LqneU">first unveiling</a>, were the watch’s communication features. The Dick Tracy phone calls, the intimate “Digital Touch” messaging, the dedicated “Friends” side button: The stress, back in 2014, was on new, “subtle ways to communicate.” With the Series 2 version, most of that fell away. Even the side button has been repurposed as an app-loading dock. And now it’s your Activity rings – the addictive circles that track standing, movement and exercise – you’re <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">encouraged to share</a>.</p>
<p>The business angle of Apple’s pivot to fitness isn’t that interesting. The company is following its customers and the broader wearables market – where lower-cost wristbands like Fitbit are reportedly <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/07/heres-why-apple-needs-a-new-watch-sales-are-plunging.html">picking up market share</a>. The Nike+ deal isn’t an aspirational bid to tap an underserved market. Instead, right now at least, exercise tracking is the reason consumers are buying smart watches and “basic” wearables like the Fitbit.</p>
<p>The intriguing thing about Apple’s shift in marketing is its elevation of self-improvement over self-expression. The original watch was promoted as a custom display of personal style – as an identity statement on par with clothing. Cook <a href="https://youtu.be/bdyVH5LqneU">described the original watch</a> as the “most personal device Apple has ever created,” and the device’s <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20150509040832/http://www.apple.com/watch/">web copy</a> reinforced the point: Apple Watch is “more than a tool. It’s a true expression of your personal taste.” Or, in a <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160406034110/http://www.apple.com/watch/">later rendition</a>: “From the way it works to the way it looks, Apple Watch isn’t just something you wear. It’s an essential part of who you are.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">new web copy</a>, however, drops all the expressive language: The Series 2 Watch is “designed for all the ways you move,” full of features that “help you stay active, motivated and connected.”</p>
<h2>Apple switches its flavor of self-help</h2>
<p>The shift represents a victory of one mode of self-help over another. As sociologist Micki McGee observed in <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/self-help-inc-9780195337266?cc=us&lang=en&">Self-Help, Inc.</a>, a pair of ethics have long competed in the American self-improvement market, one emphasizing self-mastery and the other self-discovery. Think <a href="https://www.tonyrobbins.com/">Tony Robbins</a> versus Oprah Winfrey: Robbins asks us to treat ourselves as objects to (relentlessly) work on, while Winfrey preaches meditative fulfillment.</p>
<p>Each ideal, in turn, <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674824263">draws on a different strand of Western individualism</a>: the notion that the self is something we own, versus the competing idea that the self is to be discovered and expressed. The first ethic, the <a href="http://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780195444018.html">possessive individualism</a> of philosopher John Locke, helped provoke the second notion of self discovery, as expressed in the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/508124">literary and artistic Romanticisms</a> of the 19th century. Since then – for <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/fables-of-abundance-a-cultural-history-of-advertising-in-america/oclc/30547687">over a century in the American case</a> – these two ideals have been hitched to selling consumer goods. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Apple’s traditionally been more about self-expression than self-mastery.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Apple has traditionally wrapped its products in the second ideal of self-expression and discovery: the iconic <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R706isyDrqI">1984 sledgehammer ad</a>, the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_different">Think Different</a>” and “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Mac">I’m a Mac/I’m a PC</a>” campaigns, <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G3">candy-colored iMacs</a> and all those <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpM5nzSEyXE">silhouetted iPod dancers</a>. Apple is selling the Series 2 Watch, by contrast, on the self-mastery ethic. It’s less “<a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tjgtLSHhTPg">Here’s to the crazy ones</a>” and more <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">lap-counts and “achievement” badges</a>.</p>
<p>What’s novel about Apple’s move is that self-discipline is getting delegated to a device. In a sense, watch wearers are outsourcing their superegos to a publicly traded company, the world’s most valuable. With every tap-to-stand and Activity report – “<a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">a nudge when you need it</a>” – the watch becomes more like a personal trainer, one coded by Apple engineers. By baking in fitness-sharing (“<a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">Healthy loves company</a>”), the new watch appeals to social comparison and competition too – “whether it’s to send encouragement or a little smack talk.” And Apple’s exercise-centric messaging is built around <a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9781509500598">quantitative self-monitoring</a>, via bar graphs and calorie counts and beats-per-minute tallies. The Series 2 “tracks all the ways you move throughout the day,” reads new <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">web copy</a>. “Select up to five metrics to view at once.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Will this pivot affect the physical health of Apple zealots?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shinyasuzuki/16924905779">Shinya Suzuki</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Exercise is a good thing. But we shouldn’t pretend the design and promotion of devices like the Apple Watch are value-neutral. By the time they’re slotted under flawless in-store glass, they already have a <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/social-shaping-of-technology/oclc/39713267">set of ideals preinstalled</a>. In the Apple Watch case, those values reflect their California origins: Our selves are objects to work on, to sculpt and measure, in competition with others. Indeed, the watch echoes the subculture of <a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9781509500598">dedicated self-quantifiers</a>, who – to a deliberate extent – define themselves in metrical terms. </p>
<p>The watch’s new <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">“Breathe” app</a> is a fascinating case in counterpoint. The app, which encourages periodic deep breathing, is meant to “help you practice mindfulness every day.” Here is a reminder of Silicon Valley’s <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo3773600.html">long flirtation with New Age mysticism</a> – as well as the <a href="http://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/3941">gauzy repurposing of Buddhist meditation</a> for the self-help industry. If anything, the Breathe app is a throwback to Apple’s expressivist marketing campaigns. And in that respect the new watch echoes a century-old American injunction: <a href="http://www.jeffpooley.com/pubs/PooleyConsumingSelf2010.pdf">If you want to get ahead, go find yourself</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65079/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jefferson Pooley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Forget high-end design and cutting-edge communication. The new Watch is a fitness device and heralds a shift for the company – from enabling self-expression to nudging users toward self-mastery.Jefferson Pooley, Associate Professor of Media & Communication, Muhlenberg CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/650862016-09-08T11:46:13Z2016-09-08T11:46:13ZiPhone updates charm and annoy in equal measure, but Apple leaves Mac users in the shade<p>It’s been a tough month for mobile phone manufacturers: Samsung has recalled its Galaxy Note 7 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/02/samsung-recall-galaxy-note-7-reports-of-smartphones-catching-fire">due to exploding batteries</a>, the European Commission has handed Apple a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-apple-taxavoidance-idUSKCN114211">€13 billion fine</a> for its tax practices in Ireland, and Google has <a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/283995/google-thinks-mobile-first-unless-its-a-modular-p.html">withdrawn from the modular phone project</a> which would have allowed consumers to switch out components as and when they wanted.</p>
<p>So this year’s September Keynote product launch should offer Apple an easy opportunity to impress the market with announcements of the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, a slight upgrade to the watch, now called Series 2, and various software updates. But notable by its absence was any announcement related to the product that made Apple’s name: the Mac. </p>
<h2>New but familiar, the iPhone 7</h2>
<p>Apple tends to redesign the iPhone bi-annually, with alternate years offering speed bumps and minor features. This year brings major revisions, with a new design, a dual camera system that offers better zoom, higher resolution images, and the <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/8/12845984/apple-plugs-iphone-7-parody">controversial removal of the universal standard audio jack</a>. </p>
<p>The diameter of the audio jack limited designers’ ability to shrink the phone further, so its days were numbered. Instead headphones will be wireless using bluetooth, or plug into the Lightning port. Apple has of course released its own wireless Airpod headphones (RRP: US$159/£120), or those with expensive headphones can <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/7/12751058/apple-iphone-7-earbud-headphone-jack-adaptor-dongle">buy an adaptor to keep using them</a>. Dropping such a well supported standard is a typically bold Apple move, but other manufacturers have already tried it – the <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/10/11900992/moto-z-specs-no-headphone-jack">Motorola Moto Z </a> for example – with limited success.</p>
<p>The iPhone’s system software is also boosted to <a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/09/ios-10-launches-september-13-with-imessage-apps-a-siri-api-and-more/">iOS 10</a>, which makes more of the system software accessible to developers – for example Siri will be available in third-party apps. While improvements will only be felt once apps start to integrate these features, the messages and messaging experience will be improved, an attempt to counter the success of Whatsapp and Facebook messenger. This update will arrive for older devices on September 13.</p>
<h2>Watch Series 2, now waterproof</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/07/iphone-7-launch-apple-watch-2-gains-gps-longer-battery-life">Watch Series 2</a> follows the same cycle with major revisions every other year, bringing on this occasion a minor upgrade of faster components, a better screen, waterproofing and the new watchOS within the same shell. Significant architectural changes to watchOS should speed up applications, and brings changes to several design metaphors. Adding GPS to the watch allows a degree of decoupling from the iPhone, but the iPhone still has to be in range for much of the Watch’s functions. Despite it’s sluggish sales, this is still the device to beat. Particularly if you are addicted to Pokemon Go (which now runs on the the Watch).</p>
<h2>Does anyone still care about the Mac?</h2>
<p>For many years, there has been a vocal minority arguing that every Apple Keynote is the last opportunity for the company to demonstrate that it can still out-innovate the competition and to counter the prevailing wisdom that Apple has abandoned its professional users for consumer-focused devices. For the first time time in a long while, <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/13/apple-inc-loses-pc-market-share.aspx">Apple’s computer sales recently dropped</a> and <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/3062555/smartphones/iphone-sales-drop-in-q1-reflect-a-market-that-remains-flat.html">even iPhone sales fell</a>. </p>
<p>To some extent this is true: the line of Mac computers that made the company’s fortune from the 1980s onwards <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/hey-apple-how-about-shipping-a-new-computer-150725169.html">has been moribund over the last two or three years</a>. Some Mac products have dropped off review site and magazines’ recommended lists. So it’s surprising that there were no updates to any of the Mac products. Most of the desktops and laptops <a href="http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac">now contain very old components</a>, leaving creative professionals who are the Mac-using Apple stalwarts with outdated and ageing equipment. Someone at Apple needs reminding that the developers who create apps for the iPhone use Mac computers.</p>
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<p>So, while the iPhone 7 will be desirable for those using substantially older iPhones, upgrading from the previous generation iPhone 6 or 6s is harder to justify. There probably isn’t enough to replicate the massive sales surge when they first introduced the larger iPhone 6, but the slide towards online services allows Apple to transition towards making more money from storage and services – which encroaches on Google’s income stream. Is there enough here for Android users to justify a switch? Probably not. And while the new Apple Watch isn’t sufficiently different from last year’s model to massively increase sales, it may appeal to those who exercise regularly or for whom waterproofing is helpful.</p>
<p>But changes to the pro-computer line are needed desperately. Apple needs to bring back more regular updates to ensure it doesn’t begin to lose its heartlands – those who were Apple buyers well before the iPhone took the world by storm. At the same time, its easy to see the root of Apple’s laser-like focus on its phone: other mobile manufacturers make very little money from their phones, while <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/apples-iphone-the-most-profitable-product-in-history-10009741.html">each iPhone is sold at a 40% profit</a>, adding to the huge cash mountain upon which Apple sits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Avery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Loss of the headphone jack may annoy some, but think of the poor Mac users with almost no updates since 2012.Barry Avery, Associate Professor, Informatics and Operations, Kingston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/590452016-05-12T00:50:22Z2016-05-12T00:50:22ZHow Apple Watch and pervasive computing can lure you into leveling up your fitness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122192/original/image-20160511-18123-b1s762.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fitness trackers make activity into a contest.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=388714795&src=lb-29877982">Wearable image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hello, my name is Michael, and I’m a Ring Addict.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122163/original/image-20160511-18135-1uav5di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122163/original/image-20160511-18135-1uav5di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122163/original/image-20160511-18135-1uav5di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122163/original/image-20160511-18135-1uav5di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122163/original/image-20160511-18135-1uav5di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122163/original/image-20160511-18135-1uav5di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122163/original/image-20160511-18135-1uav5di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122163/original/image-20160511-18135-1uav5di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The rings in question: they close when the goal for the day has been met.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hiddenchemistry/16722196893">Peter Parkes</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>No, not the one ring from “Lord of the Rings”; not the cheap costume jewelry you get at the local Renaissance Fair. I’m talking about the red, green and blue rings that adorn my <a href="http://www.apple.com/watch/">Apple Watch</a>, tracking how much I move, exercise and stand.</p>
<p>For the last five months, I’ve worked daily to meet those magical milestones that appear on my watch face, culminating last month in my earning the badge for 100 days of meeting my move goal. I’m hopelessly addicted, so much so that I sometimes take an extra lap around the University of California Irvine’s <a href="http://funorangecountyparks.com/uc-irvine-aldrich-park.html">Aldrich Park</a> just to make sure to get my red ring for the day.</p>
<p>As the Apple Watch lapped its own <a href="http://mashable.com/2016/04/30/apple-watch-year-one/#0A9VyQxESgqk">first anniversary</a> a couple of weeks ago, stories like mine abounded, with some commenters proudly reporting a year-long activity streak on the first anniversary of the watch. </p>
<p></p><blockquote><p><a href="https://twitter.com/reneritchie">@reneritchie</a> A lot of health nut Watch early adopters are obtaining their 365-day “Move” achievement badges: <a href="https://t.co/c2SFCpnS6k">pic.twitter.com/c2SFCpnS6k</a></p>— Damon F (@df_AL) <a href="https://twitter.com/df_AL/status/728561344094588930">May 6, 2016</a></blockquote> <p></p>
<p>It would appear I’m not the only addict, with the fitness features of the watch often <a href="http://www.cnet.com/au/news/apple-watch-survey-year-later-what-owners-really-think/">reported as the number one feature</a> that attracts buyers. But what makes it so compelling? It turns out that the fitness features of the Apple Watch tap into the aspect of human psychology that makes us feel good about completing a goal or reaching an achievement. It’s one of the most prominent examples of gamification – a way of integrating these goals and achievements into traditionally nongame activities.</p>
<h2>Caught up in the game before you know it</h2>
<p>Exit the Apple store, strap on your watch and, soon after, you’ll get your first fitness notification. The watch quickly asks you to set a move goal of a certain number of calories you’ll burn by moving each day (tracked via an internal pedometer). You also soon discover that the watch reminds you to stand for a few minutes every hour (and monitors whether you do it). And it uses your heart rate to track how many minutes of exercise you do each day (anything that raises your heart rate over that of a brisk walk counts).</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122184/original/image-20160511-18171-18gya8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122184/original/image-20160511-18171-18gya8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122184/original/image-20160511-18171-18gya8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122184/original/image-20160511-18171-18gya8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122184/original/image-20160511-18171-18gya8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122184/original/image-20160511-18171-18gya8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122184/original/image-20160511-18171-18gya8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122184/original/image-20160511-18171-18gya8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Celebrating 100 days of successful movement!</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Cowling</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At first you may consider it all just a novelty. But the continuing reminders and the presence of the activity rings on the front watch face mean you quickly start to notice how you’re doing with these goals. Maybe it’s the stand goal first, when you get a reminder toward the end of one day that you’ve stood for 10 hours, encouraging you to stand up a couple times during your evening movie-watching. Then perhaps it’s the move goal, letting you know that all you need is 50 extra calories to meet your target for the day. </p>
<p>Next, you get your first badge, for a day where you completed all your rings. And then, just to hook you entirely, the watch starts telling you that you’ve hit a streak, with 10 or 20 move goals hit in a row. It encourages you to keep on going. </p>
<p>All of a sudden, you’re addicted, playing the fitness game, and you didn’t even realize! What happened?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122175/original/image-20160511-18165-1tsvzct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122175/original/image-20160511-18165-1tsvzct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122175/original/image-20160511-18165-1tsvzct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122175/original/image-20160511-18165-1tsvzct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122175/original/image-20160511-18165-1tsvzct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122175/original/image-20160511-18165-1tsvzct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122175/original/image-20160511-18165-1tsvzct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122175/original/image-20160511-18165-1tsvzct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We don’t have to play at a certain time and place anymore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/14999735592">Michael Coghlan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Blurring the ‘magic circle’</h2>
<p>Welcome to Apple’s pervasive fitness game. Through the use of goals and badges that can occur at any time, Apple has caught you in a game that you play all the time, wherever you are, and with anybody around you who also knows what the rings mean. </p>
<p>Traditional games have a strict “<a href="http://art.yale.edu/file_columns/0000/1474/homo_ludens_johan_huizinga_routledge_1949_.pdf">magic circle</a>” – a boundary you must enter that limits the game in time and space. Think of a hand of poker – it’s limited in space by being played at the poker table, limited in time because of the length of the hand and limited in players because of the number of seats at the table.</p>
<p>But the type of game introduced by a fitness device such as the Apple Watch is <a href="http://www.journals.elsevier.com/pervasive-and-mobile-computing">ubiquitous and pervasive</a>. Through a blurring of the magic circle that surrounds a traditional game, these kinds of devices are creating a game that can be played anywhere, at any time, either solo or in a group. </p>
<p>By being built into our devices and active by default, this new type of serious game has the potential to become truly ubiquitous, integrating into our lives and allowing us to hit goals that affect not only the game, but also our outside lives. It pushes us toward positive change.</p>
<h2>We can’t resist the desire to level up</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122173/original/image-20160511-18165-u7db6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122173/original/image-20160511-18165-u7db6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122173/original/image-20160511-18165-u7db6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122173/original/image-20160511-18165-u7db6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122173/original/image-20160511-18165-u7db6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122173/original/image-20160511-18165-u7db6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122173/original/image-20160511-18165-u7db6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122173/original/image-20160511-18165-u7db6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Can’t break the streak!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lefty1007/24610663702">lefty1007</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This success of this approach is not surprising. Research into serious games shows that “gamifying” a task can increase motivation for players and encourage them to continue to <a href="https://bocescareer.wikispaces.com/file/view/Rice_assessing.pdf">level up</a> and meet higher numbers to complete the game’s activities. It’s amazing what the presence of a simple goal and some virtual badges for certain activities can do to help somebody persevere with a single task. It turns out that gamification <a href="http://lifehacker.com/the-psychology-of-gamification-can-apps-keep-you-motiv-1521754385">brings out</a> people’s natural desire for competition and achievement. Gamification simply applies those innate tendencies to what are traditionally nongame activities.</p>
<p>For instance, serious games have been shown to greatly benefit <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2007.09.027">health education</a>, with promise in promoting diet and physical activity change for diabetes and obesity prevention in youth. In rehabilitation, serious games have proven able to <a href="http://isvr.org/">improve outcomes for patients</a> suffering from stroke, cerebral palsy and more, by providing them with a motivating way to do the repetitive motions – such as a particular arm or leg movement – often required in a rehab context.</p>
<p>In a more instructional realm, serious games have been used to provide information to students about the <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1581073.1581076">environment</a>, the <a href="http://www.beergame.lim.ethz.ch/">supply chain</a> and <a href="http://www-01.ibm.com/software/solutions/soa/innov8/cityone/">other areas of education</a>. Even <a href="http://www.mixedrealityresearch.com/">my own work</a> in educational technology could be considered a type of serious game intended to improve learning outcomes for students.</p>
<p>In all these examples, the ability to gamify improves motivation, encourages players to participate and, often, <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6758978">leads to improved outcomes</a>. Working with <a href="http://josh.thegeekmovement.com/">Josh Tanenbaum</a> at the <a href="https://transformativeplay.ics.uci.edu/">Transformative Play Lab</a> here at UCI, we’re even exploring how tapping into the pleasure we get from games can be used to increase empathy for others. </p>
<h2>The warm embrace of technology</h2>
<p>But perhaps the most interesting aspect of gamification is how this type of pervasive, serious game can help change the way people interact with technology. There’s a fear that technology <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-you-afraid-of-technology-you-shouldnt-be-38780">takes people away from the real world</a>. But I’d argue the use of the type of pervasive, ubiquitous technology present in the Apple Watch actually helps to integrate people into the world around them. Rather than encouraging people to bury themselves in the technology, it prods people to get out and use the technology as part of their lives. Technology and the real world seamlessly integrate, even encouraging people to make a stronger connection between real-world activities – such as taking a walk around campus – and digital activities. </p>
<p>As this pervasive integration of technology into our lives continues to improve, expect to see more and more Facebook status updates from your friends as they meet their goals, whether that be a badge on the Apple Watch or a successful run on Runtastic.</p>
<p>And perhaps if we’re lucky, we’ll move farther away from the inaccurate stereotype that technology is something used by loner computer geeks in their basement lairs. We’ll recognize technology isn’t just all around us but integrated into our daily lives, keeping us more connected to the physical world and other people than ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Cowling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The human psyche loves a challenge as well as a pat on the back for achievement. Pervasive computing taps into these drives to ‘gamify’ aspects of life that are typically not games or even much fun.Michael Cowling, Visiting Project Scientist in Informatics, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/530542016-01-18T22:24:17Z2016-01-18T22:24:17ZThe disruptive technologies that will shape business in the years ahead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108377/original/image-20160118-20951-75z653.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is your business ready for the next wave?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Regardless of your industry, the marketplace is continually evolving. The reason, increasingly, is the evolution of disruptive technology.</p>
<p>Disruptive technologies are enhanced or new technological innovations that essentially displace conventional and established technology, rendering it obsolete. They can create opportunities for new products, new markets, and new ways of conducting business.</p>
<p>In 2016, business models will again change as businesses adapt. The enhancement of current technology and the development of new technological innovations will undeniably transform how new businesses are established, and how existing businesses compete. For small and medium-sized firms, technology will also enable significant leaps forward in terms of innovation, efficiency and competitiveness.</p>
<p>Adapting quickly will be essential, so here’s the top six we think you should be prepared for.</p>
<h2>Social Robotics</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108254/original/image-20160115-7344-1its1wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108254/original/image-20160115-7344-1its1wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108254/original/image-20160115-7344-1its1wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108254/original/image-20160115-7344-1its1wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108254/original/image-20160115-7344-1its1wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108254/original/image-20160115-7344-1its1wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108254/original/image-20160115-7344-1its1wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pepper robots will work alongside crew members on cruise ships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yuya Shino/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Robots, no longer restricted to the factory floor, are increasingly being designed to interact directly with humans. This not only means that – depending on your industry – certain robots may be about to enter your product ranges, but also that a robot may be interacting with customers on your behalf. Like the emotion-sensing Pepper robot, which according to <a href="http://www.ttgasia.com/article.php?article_id=26449">TTG Asia</a> has just been “hired” to work on cruise ships. </p>
<p>Robots have previously been fixed the the factory floor, but in 2016 they are set to become much smaller, more collaborative and more affordable. Robotics are also making it possible for small companies to expand, such as <a href="http://www.skylinewindows.com/">Skyline Windows</a> in New York, which rely on robots for installation of its windows. </p>
<h2>Artificial intelligence and smart services</h2>
<p>True artificial intelligence - that which is so similar to human intelligence as to be indistinguishable - is difficult to develop, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be running into intelligent machines and smart services as the years progress. </p>
<p>Consider the applications of a machine or service that could learn about your customers, going beyond website analytics to truly understanding their day-to-day behaviour. Or <a href="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/">IBM’s Watson</a> which uses natural language processing to enable partnerships between people and computers. The same technology could help you with business concerns from staffing to strategy. While we’re not quite there yet, consider how smart services like <a href="http://www.apple.com/au/ios/siri/">Apple’s Siri</a> are already becoming more ubiquitous as smart phone ownership increases. </p>
<h2>Virtual reality</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108373/original/image-20160118-20970-mvzd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108373/original/image-20160118-20970-mvzd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108373/original/image-20160118-20970-mvzd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108373/original/image-20160118-20970-mvzd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108373/original/image-20160118-20970-mvzd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108373/original/image-20160118-20970-mvzd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108373/original/image-20160118-20970-mvzd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Royole’s Smart Mobile Theatre system will retail for US$700.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steve Marcus/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Originally considered a gaming technology, virtual reality is becoming more mainstream, and the applications for businesses and consumers are plentiful.</p>
<p>Consider how you could apply a completely immersive environment in your business, and how this might change the competitive landscape in your industry. For instance, in 2015 <a href="http://www.volvocars.com/us/about/our-points-of-pride/google-cardboard">Volvo offered virtual reality test drives</a> using
Google’s mass-produced virtual reality technology, <a href="https://www.google.com/get/cardboard/">Cardboard.</a> The technology has also been used to provide tours, make events more immersive, and even for training purposes. </p>
<h2>3D printing</h2>
<p>Just as virtual reality offers us the ability to bring our thoughts into “reality” for consumers or colleagues, 3D printing offers us the chance to do this with physical reality. 3D printing lets us bring imagination into the physical world, whether we’re showcasing prototype products to investors or custom-making products for consumers. 3D modelling and 3D printing are gradually changing consumer markets and have been used to create a range of products including muscial instruments, medical equipment, artificial organs and <a href="http://korecologic.com/about/urbee_2/">manufactured car parts</a>. </p>
<h2>The internet of things</h2>
<p>We already know that everyone is connected, but what about everything? This is the reality that the “internet of things” will bring. From small changes - your car communicating with your office to switch on the air conditioning, computer and coffee machine moments before you arrive - to larger changes like your global offices being truly connected, beyond what is already offered by cloud computing to consumer applications. </p>
<p>Innovations like the <a href="https://nest.com/smoke-co-alarm/meet-nest-protect/">Nest Protect</a> allows users to “hush” a smoke alarm from a smartphone, essentially allowing the smoke alarm to speak to smart devices. The treatment of security and privacy concerns will determine the speed with which the internet of things rolls out.</p>
<h2>Mobile and wearable technology</h2>
<p>Smartphone ownership is at an all time high, bringing opportunities for businesses to take their operations truly mobile – and to contact consumers in new ways.</p>
<p>Developments in Near Field Communication technology allow us to know where consumers are (with their permission of course) and mean we could potentially send them relevant promotions based on their location, or remember their preferences for a whole new take on customer loyalty. </p>
<p>Consumers are also increasingly taking up wearable technology such as smart watches, pedometers and ear pieces. This wearable technology, working with data on patterns and behaviour, could not only empower consumer interactions but make for more efficient, productive and happier employees. Smart clothes are potentially the future of wearables - <a href="http://www.omsignal.com/">OMsignal</a> already offers a line of smart shirts, and soon a sports bra which tracks biometric fitness data. </p>
<p>Disruptive technologies will significantly influence business models over the next few decades. A <a href="http://thoughtleadership.ricoh-europe.com/eu/thenextdecade/disruption">recent report</a> from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Ricoh stated that “businesses will have nowhere to hide from the disrupting yet energising effects of technology change”. The report suggests it’s no longer viable to implement new technological innovations simply for short-term efficiency gains; instead technology disruption necessitates the implementation of new changes over time, for longer-term efficiency gains.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It won’t happen overnight but it will happen.Charmaine Glavas, International Business Lecturer, Queensland University of TechnologyKate Letheren, Postdoctoral research fellow, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/473722015-09-10T14:23:14Z2015-09-10T14:23:14ZApple’s iPad Pro looks good, but who needs a phone with a 13" screen?<p>Apple’s annual September keynote as usual brings hardware changes, software updates and the occasional surprise. </p>
<p>Rumours of a larger iPad Pro <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/09/ipad-pro-first-impressions/">were proved true</a>: the significantly larger 12.9 inch iPad with upgraded ARM A9X processor and faster graphics and internal components is being sold as a device on which desktop-class applications could run.</p>
<p>This is supported with a stylus and keyboard (sold separately in typical Apple fashion) that essentially converts the iPad Pro into a laptop. The stylus, dubbed Apple Pencil, has provoked comment as Steve Jobs had <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/jobs-if-you-see-a-stylus-or-a-task-manager-they-blew-it/">expressed his distaste for them</a> in the past. The Pencil features hand writing recognition software, and improvements to iOS finally allow multitasking by splitting the screen between two apps. </p>
<p>However, with prices starting at an eye-watering US$799, there will be many who think that this won’t light a fire under tablet sales, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/12/forrester-tablet-sales-have-plateaued-but-theres-a-future-in-business">which have been flat</a>. For example, Amazon has taken the opposite approach, aiming for the bottom end of the market with <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/2402232/amazon-to-release-50-tablet-will-the-6-incher-have-mainstream-hardware-and-features/">a US$50 tablet</a> subsidised by purchases made through Amazon’s services. </p>
<p>There may be iPad sales in education, and in retail where they are often used as point of sale devices, but in business the iPad faces considerable competition. For example, the iPad Pro bears an uncanny similarity to Microsoft’s own convertible tablet/laptop device, the <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/2402232/amazon-to-release-50-tablet-will-the-6-incher-have-mainstream-hardware-and-features/">Surface Pro</a>, in cost and size and style. But the big difference is that Surface comes with a full operating system, Windows 10: few will take Apple’s claims that the iPad Pro can run desktop-class applications for professional use while it’s running the stripped-down iOS operating system originally designed for phones, instead of the full OS X as found on Macbooks and iMacs.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94403/original/image-20150910-27340-ztjq4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94403/original/image-20150910-27340-ztjq4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94403/original/image-20150910-27340-ztjq4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94403/original/image-20150910-27340-ztjq4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94403/original/image-20150910-27340-ztjq4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94403/original/image-20150910-27340-ztjq4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94403/original/image-20150910-27340-ztjq4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94403/original/image-20150910-27340-ztjq4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablet, keyboard and stylus combo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Microsoft</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p> </p>
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<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>A surprise was the <a href="http://winsupersite.com/apple/microsoft-makes-appearance-during-apple-product-keynote">appearance of Microsoft staff</a> on stage to demonstrate Microsoft Office apps running on the iPad – something greeted with a stunned silence in the auditorium. Microsoft Office has been updated to support the stylus, and the invitation to appear at such a high-profile Apple event shows the extent to which Microsoft has been pouring money and effort into ensuring its software suites are cross-platform, rather than tied to Microsoft Windows. Another visitor to the stage was Adobe, whose reps showed off <a href="http://www.dezeen.com/2015/09/10/apple-ipad-pro-apple-pencil-stylus-launch-technical-drawing/">new design tools with the stylus</a> – which all suggests an outbreak of corporate peace between the firms. </p>
<h2>Pushing Apple TV into the home</h2>
<p>The Apple TV finally gets a long-awaited upgrade, a wait during which many competing devices have appeared such as NOW TV, Roku, or Google’s Chromecast. Originally classified as a “media extender”, Steve Jobs called the Apple TV a “<a href="http://appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/02/jobs_apple_tv_a_hobby_because_theres_no_market">hobby</a>” when introduced in 2007, but with this update Apple has refreshed the device, reorienting it to support the app ecosystem that has thrived elsewhere.</p>
<p>The new Apple TV features a new operating system <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/09/apple-tv-first-impressions/">tvOS</a>, making use of the extensive iPhone/iPad developer tools and software already available. Boasting a much higher hardware specification, the Apple TV now runs apps and games, provides a new interface and a touch-enabled remote that can also process audio commands through the Siri digital assistant voice recognition system. With this a user can use their voice to search for content across multiple television networks.</p>
<p>It should be easy to port existing iPad/iPhone applications to the TV, bringing an unparalleled range of services compared to the competition. The surge in streaming services from Amazon and Netflix has sidelined Apple to some extent, so it will be interesting to see whether reorienting the device around apps will increase Apple’s footprint in this space. Sony and Microsoft should be worried that the massive back catalogue of iOS games can now be used in the living room through Apple TV. Prices start from US$149, available from October.</p>
<h2>Phone and Watch</h2>
<p>An update to the Watch, dubbed <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/wearables/apple-watch-os-2-release-date-news-and-features-1296413">WatchOS2</a>, arrives later this month and features updated accessories, colours and straps. The update will give apps direct access to the hardware, allowing developers to write full native applications for that are more independent of the iPhone, to which the Watch has so far played second fiddle.</p>
<p>The iPhone 6S and iPhone 6SPlus are unchanged externally, but Apple claims internal upgrades including a 12 megapixel capable camera, faster A9 processor and a <a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/09/what-is-the-difference-between-apple-iphone-3d-touch-and-force-touch/">Force Touch</a> capable screen, which responds to varying degrees of pressure. This is still a new tech, for which capable software has yet to be written. </p>
<p>Finally, as signalled in the developer conference earlier in the year, owners of older devices will get access to new features when iOS 9 is launched very soon. An incremental upgrade, nevertheless it offers features many users have been calling for and will provide a significant increase in speed and features for older devices.</p>
<p>It’s unlikely these changes will lead to the extraordinary sales achieved with the larger iPhones last year, so it may provide an opportunity for other manufacturers to play catch-up – improving their hardware and services which Apple has always claimed is what differentiates them from the competition in a crowded market.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47372/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Avery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Apple tries to repeat the same supersize trick with the iPad that made the iPhone 6 wildly popular. But bigger isn’t necessarily better.Barry Avery, Associate Professor, Informatics and Operations , Kingston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/413202015-05-19T05:11:48Z2015-05-19T05:11:48ZThe rise of wearable health tech could mean the end of the sickie<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81890/original/image-20150515-25441-zf7ix8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is your smartwatch spying on you?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">wearables by Alexey Boldin/shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Now that the sun is shining and the temperature is rising, it’s officially sickie season: go to work, or get struck down with “flu”, a “24-hour virus”, or that faithful stand-by, the dodgy prawn takeaway.</p>
<p>Figures show that <a href="http://www.confused.com/press/releases/a-third-of-uk-workers-admit-pulling-a-sickie">over a third of employees</a> in the UK admit to pulling a sickie at some point or other. But things may be changing soon – wearable tech such as the Apple Watch, <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-band/en-gb">Microsoft Band</a>, <a href="http://www.fitbit.com/uk">Fitbit</a>, or <a href="https://jawbone.com/up">Jawbone Up</a> may become mainstream within a few years, bringing health monitoring capabilities that reveal how your body is performing. It’s not inconceivable that in time this same data could be used to prove how well, or unwell, you are – such as when phoning in sick.</p>
<p>Wearable health tech is still in its early days. These devices come with sensors that can record how many steps and how much exercise you’ve taken, how well and long you‘ve slept, stress levels, blood pressure, sun exposure, even what you’ve have <a href="http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/apple-watch-app-will-track-your-glucose-levels/">eaten</a>. Added together, all this could easily demonstrate that you’re not so sick after all.</p>
<p>Since some wearables are aimed at being fashionable accessories, employers might be minded to tap into the trend. So next time you’re pulling a sickie, you might need the data to back up your story. With GPS-equipped devices there’ll be no opportunity to escape your sickbed to a barbeque or trip to the beach, while ultraviolet sensors will detect the increase in sunshine and motion sensors detect movement not typically associated with bed rest.</p>
<h2>Using your data against you</h2>
<p>What if employers and health insurance companies move in the direction that <a href="http://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/guides/black-box-car-insurance/black-box-car-insurance-how-it-works">the car insurance industry has taken</a>, where every health transgression (a boozy night out, a Christmas feast, or too many lazy days on the sofa) could increase your health premium rates? Such a scenario isn’t so far away, and this should concern us. Apple is clearly making a beeline for the health and fitness industry with Watch and its integrated HealthKit software, <a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/ios/whats-new/health/">now integrated with its iOS mobile operating system</a>, and it is the only firm to do so.</p>
<p>Typically, health insurers use body mass index (a calculation of body fat that takes into account your age, weight and height) to set premiums, and some insurers set rates based on basic data from wearables, such as the number of steps we take <strong>link?</strong>. Fitbit and Jawbone Up are both already playing a bigger role in how health insurance is calculated, with more employers opting to monitor data generated by such wearable trackers. And here’s the catch: employers are <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/06/19/wearable-tech-health-insurance">holding their insured staff to account</a> with penalties and rewards as part of an increasing number of so-called “corporate-wellness programmes”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81887/original/image-20150515-25403-bigg8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81887/original/image-20150515-25403-bigg8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81887/original/image-20150515-25403-bigg8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81887/original/image-20150515-25403-bigg8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81887/original/image-20150515-25403-bigg8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81887/original/image-20150515-25403-bigg8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81887/original/image-20150515-25403-bigg8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is your wearable spying on you?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fitibit_Flex.jpg">MorePix</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, at BP staff are given Fitbits for free <a href="http://smartcompliance.co/wearable-technology-utilized-health-insurance-companies">as long as the company has access to their data</a>. The more physically active an employee is (as measured by the device) the more points they’re awarded. Higher points lower the company’s insurance premium. Other companies are adopting <a href="http://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/benefits/healthcare-and-wellbeing/how-could-wearable-technology-change-workplace-health/105859.article">similar wellbeing employee health insurance programmes</a> too.</p>
<h2>Consent, for now</h2>
<p>Wearable tech is still far from perfect, and that means inventive workarounds will be found. A few acquaintances of mine who shall remain nameless have found creative ways of racking up a few more miles, while actually continuing their usual, less-than-active habits. These include holding and shaking the device for a few minutes at a time, or attaching it to their cat or dog, or offering pocket money to other, younger and fitter family members to wear. Obviously insurers and developers are aware of these, so it won’t be long until such loopholes are closed.</p>
<p>For now, we can consent to share our health data from wearables with employers or insurers in exchange or lower premiums or cheaper travel. But how long before the company wearable is a mandatory part of the uniform?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41320/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emmanuel Tsekleves does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As wearables record more personal and physical activity data about us, we risk giving away more than we’d imagine.Emmanuel Tsekleves, Senior Lecturer in Design Interactions, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/411712015-05-14T05:17:27Z2015-05-14T05:17:27ZThe Apple Watch heralds a brave new world of digital living<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81498/original/image-20150513-5781-19546nv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's a lot more than just a timepiece.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Apple</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“The Watch is here” touts Apple’s slogan for its wearable computer, implying that the one and only time-piece that really matters has arrived. So much for the <a href="http://rolexblog.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/2010-story-preview-complete-history-of.html">Rolex Cosmograph</a> and <a href="http://www.ablogtowatch.com/seiko-astron-worlds-first-quartz-watch-turns-40/">Seiko Astron</a> when you can buy a stylish digital Apple Watch Sport, or even Apple Watch Edition crafted with <a href="http://store.apple.com/au/buy-watch/apple-watch-edition">18-karat gold</a>. </p>
<p>If we believe the hype, <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/more-than-1-in-4-australians-plan-to-buy-wearable-technology-this-year-fuelled-by-apple-watch/story-fnpjxpz3-1227316544083">one in four</a> Australians plan to buy a wearable device by the end of the year.</p>
<p>Of its many <a href="http://www.theverge.com/a/apple-watch-review#one">features and functions</a>, the Apple Watch is a music player, fitness tracker, communications device, payment token and digital key. And it also tells the time. We were surprised that no one claimed that it will also help look after our kids. But not for long. There’s <a href="http://www.anniebabymonitor.com/">an app for that</a>. So is there <a href="http://www.seas.gwu.edu/%7Emfeldman/csci110/summer06/eniac2.pdf">anything</a> this device cannot do?</p>
<p>Who would have thought that the power of an internet-enabled laptop computer, mobile phone, iPod, fitness tracker, bank card and set of keys could be neatly packaged and strapped around your wrist? </p>
<p>And unlike other futuristic visions of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicator_%28Star_Trek%29">hand-held communicators</a>, the Apple Watch won’t leave you stranded in perilous situations because it’s dropped, stolen or falls out of range because it’s literally always connected to you.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81501/original/image-20150513-5749-snwtcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81501/original/image-20150513-5749-snwtcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81501/original/image-20150513-5749-snwtcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81501/original/image-20150513-5749-snwtcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81501/original/image-20150513-5749-snwtcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81501/original/image-20150513-5749-snwtcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81501/original/image-20150513-5749-snwtcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81501/original/image-20150513-5749-snwtcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It has arrived!</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Apple</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Invisible ubiquity</h2>
<p>This raises a key question: how will we change our behaviour based on the fact that we are walking around with a fully-fledged computer – one that sits in contact with our bodies and communicates wirelessly with machines around us without us being explicitly aware of it? </p>
<p>According to the marketing spiel, we’ll have a lot more convenience at our fingertips. But, in actuality, we may find ourselves reaching for the mute button, longing to be disconnected, and fed up with all the notifications interrupting us. That’s when the <a href="http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a17479/overly-documented-life-0113/">novelty effect</a> wears off. </p>
<p>We have probably witnessed people who cannot resist the urge of pulling out their mobile phone to interact with it at the most inopportune times or who pass their idle time simply <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6763240">looking down</a> at a screen. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OINa46HeWg8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Most do not realise they are even interacting with their personal computer devices for hours each day. The repetitive behaviour has almost become a type of tic disorder which is neurobehavioural. </p>
<p>We get a message, it makes us feel important. We reply and get a buzz the very next time it happens again. It’s kind of like digital ping pong. And the game can get tangible fast. The main reason this repetitive behaviour remains hidden is that the majority of smartphone users suffer from this, so it looks <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY">normal</a>. </p>
<p>You can see people in public spaces <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/photos/technology/smartphones/article4-1035522.aspx">immersed in virtual places</a>. These Wi-Fi-enabled mobile contraptions can also trigger a host of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480687/">internet-related addictions</a>, whether used for gaming, answering mail, web surfing, online transactions, social media, we-chatting, or taking a tonne of photographs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81151/original/image-20150511-22725-mbt03l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81151/original/image-20150511-22725-mbt03l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81151/original/image-20150511-22725-mbt03l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81151/original/image-20150511-22725-mbt03l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81151/original/image-20150511-22725-mbt03l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81151/original/image-20150511-22725-mbt03l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81151/original/image-20150511-22725-mbt03l.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A typical day at the shopping centre.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to experts, internet addiction disorder (<a href="http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Internet_addiction?open">IAD</a>) can ruin lives by causing neurological complications, psychological disturbances and social problems. This is not to mention the potential for accidents when people are not looking where they are going or not paying attention to what they should be doing. In short, our need to be always online and connected has become a kind of cybernarcotic drug.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jqctG3NnDa0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">China’s ‘Web Junkies’: Internet addiction documentary (New York Times).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Little device, big data</h2>
<p>Very few of us are immune to this yearning for “feedback loops”, so telecommunications operators and service providers pounce on this response. Information is money. And while we are busy interacting with our device, the companies are busy pocketing big money using our <a href="http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/co/2013/06/mco2013060022.pdf">big data</a>. </p>
<p>We are fast becoming <a href="https://theconversation.com/whos-afraid-of-the-bad-big-data-you-might-want-to-read-this-13080">a piece of digital information ourselves</a>, sold to the highest bidder. And while we are busy rating ourselves and one another, the technology companies are not only using our ratings to learn more about our preferences and sentiments, but <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gLrvTs9S8k">rating</a> us as humans. In sociological terms it’s called <a href="http://icj.sagepub.com/content/17/3/161.short?rss=1&ssource=mfr">social sorting</a>, and in policing terms it’s called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictive_profiling">proactive profiling</a>. </p>
<p>In days gone by, mobile communications could tell data collectors about our identity, location, even our condition. This is not new. But the real-time access and precision of this level of granularity of data gathered is something we should be all aware of as potentially impinging on our fundamental human rights.</p>
<p>Because they interface directly with the human body, watches have the capacity to tell a third party much more about you than just where you’ve been and where you are likely to be going. They can:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Detect physiological characteristics like your pulse rate, <a href="http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/05/07/apple-watchs-heart-rate-sensor-on-par-with-mios-dedicated-alpha-monitor">heart rate</a>, temperature which can say a lot about your home/work/life <a href="http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-partners-with-ibm-on-new-health-data-analysis/">habits</a></p></li>
<li><p>Determine time, distance, speed and altitude information derived from <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17489725.2011.642820">onboard sensors</a> </p></li>
<li><p>Identify which apps you are using and how and why you are using them, minute by minute</p></li>
<li><p>Oversee the kinds of questions you are asking via search engines and text-based messages you are sending via social media.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Apple watcher</h2>
<p>These watches will become integral to the fulfilment of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-internet-of-things-16542">Internet of Things</a> phenomenon: the ability to be connected to <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6679311">everyone and everything</a>.</p>
<p>All in all, private corporations can glean what you are thinking, the problems you are facing, and they know your <a href="http://fortune.com/2014/02/13/will-your-clothing-spy-on-you/">personal context</a>. What is disturbing is that they can divulge some of your innermost personal thoughts, intentions and actions, and have evidence for the reasons we do things. </p>
<p>Many people immersed in the virtual world are too busy to be thinking about the very act of inputting information onto the internet. People value a life of convenience over privacy too much to be genuinely concerned what information is being logged by a company and <a href="https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/">shared</a> with hundreds of other potential partners and affiliates. </p>
<p>And consumers are often oblivious to the fact that, even if they are doing nothing at all, the smart device they are carrying or wearing is creating a type of digital DNA about their uniqueness. </p>
<p>Today, we are asking to be monitored and are partying in the <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/who/panopticon">panopticon</a>. We have fallen in love with the idea of being told about ourselves and don’t discern that we have become like prison inmates who are being tracked with <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/new-electronic-anklets-a-tougher-collar-for-prisoners/story-fni0cx12-1227151800811">electronic bracelets</a>.</p>
<p>By the time we wake up to this <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6187687">technological trajectory</a>, it may be all too late. Our health insurance provider might be <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2014/06/11/in-healthcare-apple-must-square-up-to-huge-samsung-ambitions/">Samsung</a>, our telecoms provider may be <a href="http://www.techsharx.com/8485-googles-project-loon-in-india-to-offer-affordable-internet-accessibility.html">Google</a>, and our unique lifetime identifier could come from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_ID">Apple</a>. At present, these are the archetypal tech providers. But tomorrow, who knows?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81162/original/image-20150511-22773-1yezw96.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81162/original/image-20150511-22773-1yezw96.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81162/original/image-20150511-22773-1yezw96.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81162/original/image-20150511-22773-1yezw96.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81162/original/image-20150511-22773-1yezw96.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81162/original/image-20150511-22773-1yezw96.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81162/original/image-20150511-22773-1yezw96.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81162/original/image-20150511-22773-1yezw96.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There is no shortage of wearable devices these days that can track and log vast amounts of data about your activities.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And by that time, we will likely be heralding in the age of <a href="http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9871&context=infopapers">uberveillance</a> where we posit that cellphones and wristwatches are not enough, that the <a href="http://www.uberveillance.com/">human-computer interface</a> should go deeper, penetrating the skin and into the body.</p>
<p>The new slogan might read “The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+13%3A16-18&version=KJV">Mark</a> is Here”, herald the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnghvVR5Evc">iPlant</a>, that which gives birth to life, the one and only passport to access your forever services.</p>
<p>“You can’t live without it”, may soon no longer be just figurative, but a reality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katina Michael receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC). She is affiliated with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Australian Privacy Foundation (APF).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>MG Michael does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Apple Watch represents a significant shift from handheld technology to devices that become an invisible part of our lives.Katina Michael, Associate Professor, School of Information Systems and Technology, University of WollongongMG Michael, Honorary Associate Professor, School of Information Systems and Technology, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/412512015-05-06T16:57:56Z2015-05-06T16:57:56Z‘Windows 10 on everything’ is Microsoft’s gambit to profit from its competitors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80715/original/image-20150506-10953-1u69snm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Windows on anything means revenue from everything, at least that's the idea.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">gadgets by aslysun/shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Microsoft’s aim to make Windows 10 <a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/04/microsoft-continuum">run on anything</a> is key to its strategy of reasserting its dominance. Seemingly unassailable in the 1990s, Microsoft’s position has in many markets been eaten away by the explosive growth of phones and tablets, devices in which the firm has made little impact.</p>
<p>To run Windows 10 on everything, Microsoft is opening up. </p>
<p>Rather than requiring Office users to run Windows, now Office365 is available for <a href="http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-expands-word-excel-powerpoint-for-android-tablets/">Android</a> and <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/2844218/microsoft-office-for-ios-goes-free-and-full-featured-on-your-iphone.html">Apple iOS</a> mobile devices. A version of Visual Studio, Microsoft’s key application for programmers writing Windows software, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/29/microsoft-shocks-the-world-with-visual-studio-code-a-free-code-editor-for-os-x-linux-and-windows/">now runs on Mac OS or Linux</a> operating systems. </p>
<p>Likewise, with tools released by Microsoft developers can tweak their Android and iOS apps so that they <a href="http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-software/24524/android-and-ios-apps-will-run-on-windows-10">run on Windows</a>. The aim is to allow developers to create, with ease, the holy grail of a universal app that runs on anything. For a firm that has been unflinching in taking every opportunity to lock users into its platform, just as with Apple and many other tech firms, this is a major change of tack.</p>
<h2>From direct to indirect revenue</h2>
<p>So why is Microsoft trying to become a general purpose, broadly compatible platform? Windows’ share of the operating system market has <a href="http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/microsoft-pc-market-share-drops-60-in-5-years">fallen steadily from 90% to 70% to 40%</a>, depending on which survey you believe. This reflects customers moving to mobile, where the Windows Phone holds <a href="http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp">a mere 3% market share</a>. In comparison Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure platform <a href="http://azure.microsoft.com/">Azure</a>, Office 365 and its Xbox games console have all <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-azure-joins-microsofts-billion-dollar-business-club/">experienced rising fortunes</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80710/original/image-20150506-10919-12vlb5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80710/original/image-20150506-10919-12vlb5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80710/original/image-20150506-10919-12vlb5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80710/original/image-20150506-10919-12vlb5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80710/original/image-20150506-10919-12vlb5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80710/original/image-20150506-10919-12vlb5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80710/original/image-20150506-10919-12vlb5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80710/original/image-20150506-10919-12vlb5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We’re way into the post-PC era.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_iOS_family_pile_(2012).jpg">Blake Patterson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lumbered with a heritage of Windows PCs in a falling market, Microsoft’s strategy is to move its services – and so its users – inexorably toward the cloud. This divides into two necessary steps.</p>
<p>First, for software developed for Microsoft products to run on all of them – write once, run on everything. As it is there are several different Microsoft platforms (Win32, WinRT, WinCE, Windows Phone) with various incompatibilities. This makes sense, for a uniform user experience and also to maximise revenue potential from reaching as many possible devices.</p>
<p>Second, to implement a universal approach so that code runs on other operating systems other than Windows. This has historically been fraught, with differences in approach to communicating, with hardware and processor architecture making it difficult. In recent years, however, improving <a href="http://searchvirtualdatacentre.techtarget.co.uk/definition/Virtualisation">virtualisation</a> has made it much easier to run code across platforms. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see whether competitors such as Google and Apple will follow suit, or further enshrine their products into tightly coupled, closed ecosystems. Platform exclusivity is no longer the way to attract and hold customers; instead the appeal is the applications and services that run on them. For Microsoft, it lies in subscriptions to <a href="https://products.office.com/en-gb/business/compare-office-365-for-business-plans">Office365</a> and <a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-gb/LIVE">Xbox Gold</a>, in-app and in-game purchases, downloadable video, books and other revenue streams – so it makes sense for Microsoft to ensure these largely cloud-based services are accessible from operating systems other than just their own.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80707/original/image-20150506-10927-8dnpcx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80707/original/image-20150506-10927-8dnpcx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80707/original/image-20150506-10927-8dnpcx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80707/original/image-20150506-10927-8dnpcx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80707/original/image-20150506-10927-8dnpcx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80707/original/image-20150506-10927-8dnpcx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80707/original/image-20150506-10927-8dnpcx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80707/original/image-20150506-10927-8dnpcx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Windows family tree … it’s complicated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_Updated_Family_Tree.png">Kristiyan Bogdanov</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Platform vs services</h2>
<p>Is there any longer any value in buying into a single service provider? Consider smartphones from Samsung, Google, Apple and Microsoft: prices may differ, but the functionality is much the same. The element of difference is the value of wearables and internet of things devices (for example, Apple Watch), the devices they connect with (for example, an iPhone), the size of their user communities, and the network effect.</p>
<p>From watches to fitness bands to internet fridges, the benefits lie in how devices are interconnected and work together. This is a truly radical concept that demonstrates digital technology is driving a new economic model, with value associated with “in-the-moment” services when walking about, in the car, or at work. It’s this direction that Microsoft is aiming for with Windows 10, focusing on the next big thing that will drive the digital economy.</p>
<h2>The revolution will be multi-platform</h2>
<p>I predict that we will see tech firms try to grow ecosystems of sensors and services running on mobile devices, either tied to a specific platform or by driving traffic directly to their cloud infrastructure. </p>
<p>Apple has already moved into the <a href="https://theconversation.com/apple-releases-its-watch-and-makes-a-surprise-move-into-the-area-of-medical-research-38566">mobile health app market</a> and <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/digital-home/the-apple-homekit-collection-these-are-all-the-home-appliances-that-work-with-homekit-1291197">connected home market</a>. Google is moving in alongside manufacturers such as Intel, ARM and others. An interesting illustration of this effect is the growth of digital payments – with Apple, Facebook and others seeking ways to create revenue from the traffic passing through their ecosystems.</p>
<p>However, the problem is that no single supplier like Google, Apple, Microsoft or internet services such as Facebook or Amazon can hope to cover all the requirements of the internet of things, which is predicted to scale to <a href="http://readwrite.com/2011/07/17/cisco_50_billion_things_on_the_internet_by_2020">over 50 billion devices worth US$7 trillion in five years</a>. As we become more enmeshed with our devices, wearables and sensors, demand will rise for services driven by the personal data they create. Through “Windows 10 on everything”, Microsoft hopes to leverage not just the users of its own ecosystem, but those of its competitors too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Skilton is a Professor of Practice at Warwick Business School and also works for PA Consulting as a Digital Expert</span></em></p>If the money is in the cloud, it makes sense to take as many users there as possible.Mark Skilton, Professor of Practice, Warwick Business School, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/406182015-04-21T20:43:48Z2015-04-21T20:43:48ZThe last two digits of a price can signal your desperation to sell<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78838/original/image-20150421-9008-181q238.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The last two digits of a product's price sends signals about how badly you hope to sell. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">1.99 via www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While someone’s bargaining position can be shaped by competition, we economists know that there is a big gray area in our ability to predict negotiated prices. </p>
<p>Competitive options for buyers and sellers can define a limit beyond which they will not go, but there is still a range of prices that fall within those limits. Within that range, clearly sellers would like a higher price, while buyers would like a lower one, so each has an incentive to signal to the other their willingness to be a tough negotiator.</p>
<p>Sometimes, however, you might want to send a signal that you might be willing to be less tough. Why? Because negotiations take time, and you might want to get a deal done quickly. For instance, you may be moving to another city and wish to sell your house in a hurry. </p>
<p>The usual means by which such a signal could be sent is to simply lower your starting price. But for some goods — where quality is hard to observe, such as real estate — lowering the price may be difficult to do, at least in small increments. This is the traditional asymmetric information or adverse selection story, where if a seller has a product of high quality, they can’t use higher prices to convince the market that they are still not a low-quality seller in disguise. </p>
<p>So how else would you signal your willingness – or unwillingness – to be “flexible?” When there are sellers around with differing levels of patience, both signals are desirable for those who know how to use them.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/stadelis/round.pdf">a new paper</a>, Matt Backus, Thomas Blake and Steve Tadelis look at this issue within the confines of eBay’s structured negotiation platform. While we often associate eBay with auctions (rather than straight out sales), that hasn’t been eBay’s main business for about a decade. Instead, most trades are listed for a specific or “buy it now” price, and the seller may give you the option of making them an alternative offer. </p>
<p>So a seller of an iPhone may list a price of $1,000, and someone might come back with a counteroffer of $800, to which the seller could then accept or make a new offer. This could go on for about three rounds (eBay rules) and may last about a week. </p>
<p>But if the seller wanted a quicker negotiation, what could he do? Backus, Blake and Tadelis discovered an interesting way to do just that, which is summarized in the following chart. </p>
<p>The chart shows that when the posted initial price is of a round number (the red dots), like $1,000, the average counteroffer is much lower than if it is a non-round number (the blue circles), like $1,079. For example, the graph suggests that you can actually end up with a higher counteroffer if you list $998 rather than $1,000. In other words, you are better off initially asking for a lower price if price was all you cared about.</p>
<p>Backus et al postulate that what is going on here is “cheap talk” – that is, an easy-to-make statement that may be true or untrue with no consequences for dishonesty – and not an otherwise reliable signal. There are some sellers who don’t just care about price and, absent any other way of signaling that to buyers, they set their price at a round number. Alternatively, you can think that the more patient sellers are using non-round numbers to signal their toughness. Either way, the last two digits of the price is cheap talk. </p>
<p>The rest of the paper does the econometrics to back all this up and is (except for one really interesting thing that I’ll get to in a moment) as robust as the graph suggests. End your price with “00” and you receive offers that are 5% to 8% lower, more likely to finish six to 11 days sooner and 3% to 5% more likely to sell at all. This is pretty interesting because the last two digits of a price essentially tell you nothing about anything else. Nor do they make much of a difference to the price. This is the first paper I am aware of that uncovers a plausible cheap talk equilibrium; that is, where people use a simple unverifiable statement and it is believed as intended. </p>
<p>But wait, there’s more. The authors wanted to see if their analysis would work in other markets and whether they could guess what the cheap talk prices would be. </p>
<p>While we know that round numbers seem to be the focal point, we don’t know that for sure. And so they checked. And what they found was that while the effect they observed didn’t happen for all other prices, it did arise for prices that ended in 99! These days, those prices are the “normal” ones used at any grocery store or shopping mall and, as it turns out, send the same type of signal as the “00” prices. If you look at the graph closely, you can kind of see that.</p>
<p>Does this arise elsewhere? The authors grabbed some real estate data and here are the results:</p>
<p>There is it again. So if you want to sell your house quickly, pick a round number. As it turns out, real estate agents then understand the signal. Alternatively, if you want to sell for a higher price and are willing to wait, your agent will advise you to pick an odd one. </p>
<p>This is one of those things I certainly didn’t know about, but it is clear that enough people in the market did. One wonders what other cheap talk signals lie in our economics future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40618/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
While someone’s bargaining position can be shaped by competition, we economists know that there is a big gray area in our ability to predict negotiated prices. Competitive options for buyers and sellers…Joshua Gans, Professor of Strategic Management, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/388742015-03-17T09:51:54Z2015-03-17T09:51:54ZThe $10k Apple Watch is more than a product, it’s an HR policy<p>A lot has <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/9/8177197/apple-watch-gold-macbook-luxury-fashion-brand">been written</a> about the Apple Watch Edition and its price tag of more than $10,000, all the way up to $25,000. Many have decried it’s super luxury status, <a href="http://stratechery.com/2015/apple-make-wearable-market">while others</a> see it as shrewd strategy.</p>
<p>I initially didn’t think it would be priced so high. It’s out of character for Apple, whose identity is more mass market than exclusive, with its technology being widely accessible to most consumers. To be sure, Apple products were never cheap, but they weren’t ludicrously expensive either.</p>
<p>There was always something different about the positioning of Apple versus that of Rolex and the like. Most of us can afford Apple products, while Rolex is exclusive. </p>
<p>Indeed, it is so exclusive that Rolex takes out billboard ads not to convince passing commuters to buy one but to sell them on the idea that whenever they come across a person wearing one, they know they are encountering someone who is friggin’ rich. Put simply, if you wear a Rolex and no one knows it costs a ridiculous amount of money, there goes your value proposition. What are you going to do with a $20,000 watch? Tell the time? Give me a break.</p>
<p>Which brings us back to the Apple Watch Edition. </p>
<p>Robert Frank argues Apple released a high-end watch to help with price discrimination, or what he calls differential pricing. He <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/3/11/8190093/apple-watch-gold">wrote in Vox</a> that the Apple Watch Edition should be celebrated by the rest of us because it spreads fixed costs around. The high-end watch, with much higher profit margins, thus subsidizes a lower price point for the cheaper models the rest of us can afford. </p>
<p>That price discrimination argument sounds great for things like business class travel, but it does not hold up for the Apple Watch. Why? Because to make sense, it must be that the presence of the Apple Watch Edition actually lowers the price of the other versions. But I just don’t believe that is the case. </p>
<p>Instead, if it does have an impact, it is to raise the stature of all Apple Watches and, for that reason, <em>increase</em> their prices. In other words, it is more <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good">Veblen</a> (the demand for a luxury product increases as the price goes up) than <a href="http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/473/394">Varian</a> (an array of price points help companies cover fixed costs). </p>
<p>So how should we look at the Apple Watch Edition? </p>
<p>First, I don’t think it exists to make money and, therefore, does not exist to help defray the costs of developing the Apple Watch. Second, given this, I do not think that it is there to have any impact at all on Apple’s image of having accessible technology. </p>
<p>Put these two things together and we see a plan. The Apple Watch Edition is most likely there for Jony Ive – the company’s chief designer And arguably most important employee – so that he can play in the major fashion designer leagues.</p>
<p>I know that he seems like such an affable guy and a man of the people, but he has a Bentley and a knighthood. So it is a very British sort of person made good. You want to keep him interested, you have to throw him a bone, and that bone is the Apple Watch Edition. </p>
<p>This is why on the Apple site they talk about $10,000-plus and put that out to the press when, in reality, if anyone buys one of these they will be paying twice as much to get the “good red one” – the version with the red leather buckle. After all, the $10,000 comes with a sport band. A sport band! No one is going to get that. No one.</p>
<p>But the other clue we have is that the guts of the Apple Watch Edition are precisely the same as the Apple Watch Sport. There are the same two sizes with the larger one costing more (in the case of Edition, $2,000 more, but still). The Edition models are enclosed in 18-karat gold and crystal Sapphire, but the technology is the same. The insides are the same.</p>
<p>The rich person with the Edition will not be able to do one thing more than someone with a Sport. Not one thing. This is unprecedented in price discrimination. Whenever different versions arise, they typically can do more. This time around, you don’t even get extra storage. It would have been so simple for Apple to have differentiated on some feature. Yet they chose to do none of that. Why? The company wanted to err on the side of not compromising its identity.</p>
<p>In summary, the Apple Watch Edition is possibly the most commercially irrelevant product ever launched (certainly by Apple) and should be viewed as an expense on the human resource management ledger.</p>
<p><em>This is a modified version of a post that first appeared on Joshua Gans’ Digitopoly blog.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A lot has been written about the Apple Watch Edition and its price tag of more than $10,000, all the way up to $25,000. Many have decried it’s super luxury status, while others see it as shrewd strategy…Joshua Gans, Professor of Strategic Management, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/386492015-03-11T06:49:11Z2015-03-11T06:49:11ZTechnology and fashion converge in the Apple Watch<p>Apple’s ability to mesh technology with beautiful design will be put to the test when it finally releases the much-anticipated <a href="https://www.apple.com/au/watch/">Apple Watch</a>. The tech giant is taking a super-advanced piece of technology and packaging it as a fashion statement.</p>
<p>Although the iPhone-compatible wearable watch is still more than a month from its official release date, the hype is building among Apple enthusiasts and fashionistas alike as they anticipate the first product Apple has designed to be worn.</p>
<p>On April 24 this year, the new smartwatch will find its way on to store shelves in a dazzling variety of colours and styles to trump even the options for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. There will be 38 Apple Watch choices with a range of changeable faces – including an animated Mickey Mouse face. Apple <a href="http://www.apple.com/au/pr/library/2015/03/09Apple-Watch-Available-in-Nine-Countries-on-April-24.html">says</a> the watch is designed to be “highly customisable for personal expression”, allowing the owner to make a unique statement.</p>
<p>The watch is all about personalisation, even more so than previous Apple products, which have sported various colour possibilities plus the option of <a href="http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/03/05/apple-rumored-to-further-enhance-personalization-of-apple-watch-with-custom-engravings">engraving</a> the iPhone, iPod and iPad, which will also be available for the watch. With six band types and 18 interchangeable colours, you can don the sport band for a gym session and switch effortlessly to the Milanese loop for a night out.</p>
<h2>Wearable technology</h2>
<p>But is the world ready for wearable technology? We can hardly forget the moment when fashion designer <a href="http://www.dvf.com/about-diane-von-furstenberg.html">Diane von Furstenberg</a> put Google Glass on the runway in 2012.</p>
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<p>But the Google Glass project is <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30831128">currently on hold</a>. This head-mounted optical display was seen as somewhat <a href="http://www.wired.com/2013/05/inherent-dorkiness-of-google-glass/">dorky</a>, giving rise to the <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/03/08/apple-watch-reinvent-fashion/">opinion</a> that technology belongs on our desks and not on our bodies.</p>
<p>So the question remains: will the Apple Watch succeed as a fashion item in a way that Google Glass has not? The emphasis on creating a fashionable product is readily apparent, with Apple leaning heavily on <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/03/08/apple-watch-reinvent-fashion/">fashion insiders</a> and retail gurus throughout the development phase. Apple is betting big on the success of its watch.</p>
<p>Apple’s senior vice president of design, <a href="https://www.apple.com/au/pr/bios/jonathan-ive.html">Jony Ive</a>, even <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/03/08/apple-watch-reinvent-fashion/">introduced</a> the device to iconic designer Karl Lagerfeld and a <a href="https://medium.com/@DraketheFox/apple-is-no-longer-a-consumer-brand-it-s-a-fashion-icon-317b4f0b06f2">12-page spread</a> is reportedly being prepared for Vogue.</p>
<p>In case we needed further evidence that Apple is taking the fashion aspect seriously, super model Christy Turlington Burns appeared alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/christy-turlington-burns-role-at-apple-watch-launch-alongside-tim-cook-ticks-off-techies-20150310-13zyem.html">spruik the watch</a>. She went so far as to call the Apple Watch a chic fashion accessory at the official launch.</p>
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<h2>The price of design</h2>
<p>Given the emphasis on luxury, it is perhaps not surprising that the Apple Watch comes with a designer price tag for the 18-karat solid <a href="https://www.apple.com/au/watch/apple-watch-edition/">gold edition</a>, which also has a top-of-the-line computer inside it. <a href="http://www.apple.com/au/pr/library/2015/03/09Apple-Watch-Available-in-Nine-Countries-on-April-24.html">Apple says</a> prices for these top-of-the-range models start from A$14,000.</p>
<p>For those of us who are not prepared to take out a loan on what is essentially a piece of jewellery, the entry-level Apple Watch Sport with its aluminium body and rubber strap starts at A$499 for the 38mm version and A$579 for the 42mm.</p>
<p>One step up from there is the Apple Watch, which has a A$799 or A$879 price tag for the 38mm and 42mm versions respectively.</p>
<p>Depending on the band you choose, be it classic leather or the Milanese loop, expect to pay up to A$1629. Apple has never been shy of setting premium prices.</p>
<h2>What can the watch do?</h2>
<p>Given the hefty price tag, you may well be inclined to ask: what does the Apple Watch actually do (after telling you the time)? Quite simply, the watch aims to get us moving.</p>
<p>Like the <a href="http://www.fitbit.com/au/">Fitbit</a> -— an early leader in the fitness tracking market -— the Apple Watch is an activity tracker that counts our steps and measures our heart rate. And let’s not forget, it’s also a timekeeper and rather novel communication device.</p>
<p>Despite similar products on the market, Apple is betting that it can do it better, thanks to its ecosystem of hardware, software and services. Coupled with a loyal fan base and the watch’s status as a fashion item, Apple is likely to be on to another winner in terms of sales.</p>
<p>But despite its potential to help us achieve our fitness goals and perhaps curb <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/overweight-and-obesity/">obesity rates</a> in Australia (three in five adults and one in four Aussies children are overweight), will we see Apple move from a <a href="https://medium.com/@DraketheFox/apple-is-no-longer-a-consumer-brand-it-s-a-fashion-icon-317b4f0b06f2">well-loved consumer brand</a> to the next big name in fashion?</p>
<p>There does seem to be a convergence of <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/03/08/apple-watch-reinvent-fashion/">technology with fashion</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38649/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Apple’s ability to mesh technology with beautiful design will be put to the test in its much anticipated Apple Watch, destined to become the must have high-tech fashion item.Amy Antonio, Lecturer, University of Southern QueenslandDavid Tuffley, Lecturer in Applied Ethics and Socio-Technical Studies, School of ICT, , Griffith UniversityNeil Martin, Learning Technologist, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.