Unconfirmed reports suggest that Apple was to incorporate health monitoring in its next version of Earpods, with data collected stored in iPhones and potentially accessed for scrutiny by medical personnel have been confirmed as untrue.
A post on Secret, the anonymous app for iPhones, has turned out to be a hoax! The post said that sensors incorporated in the headphones would be used to monitor blood pressure and heart rate then connect to an iPhone for storage of data recorded. The post also said that if the headphones became lost the iBeacon system would help the user to locate them, which we still think is a really great idea and cannot believe this simple concept hasn’t already been introduced! The post said that “Apple’s new EarPods will have sensors in them, for heart rate & blood pressure. Also iBeacons so they don’t get lost. They will require the Lightning port, it’s why the audio jack was moved to the bottom.” The writer of the post said he/she thought that the headphones would be launched at the same time as iOS 8, expected by many to be in September or October of this year. This product was also likely to be the gateway to the long awaited iWatch. This post may have been a hoax but Apple is thought to be keen on fitness and wearable technology and some of its patents prove this, maybe there will be some kind of new type of headphone, something that will link with the iPhone and the iWatch to give a complete health monitoring system? Only Apple knows for sure.
Of course the very nature of Secret means that any posts cannot be verified, nor is it possible to trace the authors of those posts, the fact that this has turned out to be just “pie in the sky” just proves that you can’t believe everything you read – but some posts have proved genuine and this has earned Secret a heightened credibility. Nike confirmed that it was ending its Fuelband Wearables, this was after a post had already leaked the news on Secret. Vic Gundotra, the Google+ Chief left his job only two days after a post had appeared on Secret claiming he was looking at other jobs, but of course the post on Secret could have been the very reason he left his job.
The fact that anyone can post anything, and do so anonymously, makes us feel a little uneasy. This post was a hoax but, as far as we know, one that didn’t really do any harm or hurt anyone. Free speech is all very well and good of course, but nameless posting on the web is really just gossip – and gossip can often be a dangerous, sometimes even cruel, thing that should be treated with caution.
As always there was no word from Apple on the subject, just that they do not comment on rumors and speculation.