What's up with health lately?
That's not a crappy Jerry Seinfeld impersonation in the making; it's an honest question following recent announcements by Nintendo executives &and rumors related to Apple's future plans for iOS 8 that suggest both companies are on a bit of a health kick lately.
With Nintendo, president Satoru Iwata indicated that the company is looking to create another platform alongside its existing flagships, the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.
"What Nintendo will try to achieve in the next 10 years is a platform business that improves people's quality of life in enjoyable ways. What I see as our first step into a new business area in our endeavor to improve QOL is the theme of 'health.' Of course, defining a new entertainment business that seeks to improve QOL creates various possibilities for the future such as 'learning' and 'lifestyle,' but it is our intention to take 'health' as our first step," Iwata said this past Thursday.
As for what Nintendo's efforts might entail, Iwata pointed to previous gaming titles like Brain Age and Wii Fit as examples of the company's health-themed gaming thus far —additionally, as evidence that Nintendo can release games that are both fun and hospitality-themed. Otherwise, he's been a bit vague: Commenting that "non-wearable" technology will help fuel this "integrated hardware-software platform business" expected to launch in 2015.
"[..] What is generally good for health requires some kind of effort to be made by the individual, and, as I am sure that many of you have experienced this, it is sometimes difficult to stay focused and engaged, and it is not uncommon to give up after a few days. This is where our strength as an entertainment company to keep our consumers engaged and entertained comes into play, assisted by the non-wearable feature, which is the biggest differentiator of this new business field, as well as user experiences that integrate into people's daily lives, all of which help us overcome this difficulty, " Iwata said.
"If we do indeed succeed in doing so, we will be able to provide feedback to our consumers on a continual basis, and our approach will be to redefine the notion of health-consciousness, and eventually increase the fit population," he added.
As for Apple, 9to5Mac reported on Friday that Apple is allegedly looking to pack new mobile health tech into iOS 8. The cornerstone of this endeavor is rumored to be a new "Healthbook" fitness monitoring app. Presumably, it will allow users to perform a myriad of functions via their iPhones: Track steps taken, miles walked, and calories burned, to name a few of the features that you can already find on your favorite fitness-tracking wearable technology.
The more eye-opening bits of Apple's rumored Healthbook app include its ability to track heart rates, blood pressure, and possibly even glucose levels. If you take medication, the app is rumored to be able to synchronized with Apple's Reminders app to let you know that it's time to pop the next pill.
You're probably thinking exactly what we're thinking right now: How could your iPhone possibly monitor your blood sugar? Well, it can't. And while it's highly unlikely that Apple is planning to introduce some kind of blood-pressure-sensing tech into the iPhone 6, that doesn't rule out the possibility that Healthbook could be the flagship software companion to the oft-rumored iWatch. That device, reports 9to5Mac, is expected to have sensors for tracking some of the particulars that Healthbook is rumored to collect.
If so, and if all this health stuff actually makes the pass for iOS 8 (it might not; fair waning!), then it's possible that Apple could officially announce or ship said rumored iWatch at some point in 2014.
Otherwise, Healthbook could serve as the centralized data collector for third-party tracking devices. It's a bit less fun than, say, having an iDevice measure your hydration levels on-the-fly, but Healthbook could at least become a useful tool for those keen on storing all sorts of data points about what their bodies are up to.
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via apple - Google News http://ift.tt/1cL9iaJ
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