Danie van der Merwe

Samsung Galaxy Watch might soon just save your life: Finally getting irregular heartbeat recognition and notification

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 21:43:38 +0200

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Starting this summer (Northern Hemisphere?), Samsung will add Irregular Heart Rhythm Notification (IHRN) to its Samsung Health app in 13 markets. The list of countries includes Argentina, Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Georgia, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Panama, UAE, Korea, and the US.

It will work in the background by analysing your heart rate, and when it detects signs of AFib, you will be notified to record an ECG.

Yes, this is really way after Apple, and the use of the temperature sensor was also a good year after the sensor appeared on the watches. Samsung does seem to be lagging rather badly on the watch side (despite it being claimed to be one of the best Wear OS watches around).

See Your Samsung Galaxy Watch might soon just save your life

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AFib warnings are coming first to the Galaxy Watch 6 and more later

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Samsung Finally Enables the Temperature Sensor on the Galaxy Watch 5: Use it to track menstruation and ovulation using the Samsung Health app

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 22:05:49 +0200

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Samsung finally enabled temperature tracking on a smartwatch launched nearly nine months ago. The Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro now offer detailed menstrual tracking by measuring your core body temperature. Samsung says the new feature is rolling out “progressively” to the Samsung Health app in the U.S., Korea, and select European countries.

Rather than simply counting the number of days from when you input your last period, the new Samsung Health will measure your basal body temperature, or BBT, right as you wake up, according to the press release. If your Samsung Health app has been updated, you can find the feature under Cycle Tracking. Samsung says it uses “infrared technology” to track your temperature to determine whether you’re close to ovulating or starting your period.

Well, at least we know it does work now, and I hope its stats still become visible on sleep stats too (like Fitbit has). Bearing in mind now what its use case it, I just hope the data is being protected from the US authorities.

See Samsung Finally Enables the Temperature Sensor on the Galaxy Watch 5

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Use it to track menstruation and ovulation using the Samsung Health app.

technology health galaxywatch ovulation

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro will gain temperature-based menstrual cycle tracking

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 10:15:22 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Something many (me included) did not originally realise, was that the temperature sensor on the Galaxy Watch was not intended to display "body temperature". Firstly for the reason that it is only skin temperature (not body core temperature) and secondly that it was really intended to help compliment identifying sleep cycles etc.

So now the feature will be used, in partnership with Natural Cycles, in order to provide the most accurate menstrual tracking possible. There is also a setting on Health Connection to define what gets synced or shared to other apps, so it is possible to disable that and keep the data local (for the USA obviously due to legal issues there).

See Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro will gain temperature-based cycle tracking

#technology #health #GalaxyWatch #menstrualcycles

The feature will come in partnership with Natural Cycles in order to provide the most accurate tracking possible.

technology health GalaxyWatch menstrualcycles

Why I migrated from an Apple Watch to a Samsung Galaxy Watch 5

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 09:44:09 +0100

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

It's a very long story all in all, so I made a full length blog post on my website at the link below. Essentially the choice of watch really depends on which phone brand you use, so if you switch phones then you probably have to switch watches too (if you want to still use all the features). Why I switched from an iPhone 12 Pro to a budget Galaxy A13 phone is the topic of a future post after March 2023.

The purpose of the post was to compare the features of both watches, and to see whether I'd have buyer's remorse or not.

These are really my observations from using both watches, so is in no way intended to be a scientific analysis.

See Why I migrated from an Apple Watch to a Samsung Galaxy Watch 5

#technology #GalaxyWatch #AppleWatch #health #gadgets

Both smartwatches are actually very good, in fact, pretty much on par with each other as I discovered, but another thing that both watches have in common is, that you really need their matching brand phone to fully use them effectively. This is even more true for the Apple option. So the easy answer to...

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