The upcoming Apple Watch Series 8 is reported to come with a nifty new body-temperature detection tool that could allegedly identify if you’re having a fever. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is expected to include the feature in both this year’s standard Apple Watch, as well as the rumoured rugged variant that will be geared towards extreme sports athletes.
Apparently, the body-temperature detection won’t be able to specifically determine your current temperature like a regular thermometer, but it will still be able to detect if you’re experiencing a fever. If the watch believes you are potentially sick, it will recommend you to see a doctor or use a dedicated thermometer to really be sure.
Aside from the temperature sensor, Gurman expects no other major hardware improvements in this year’s Apple Watch. The S8 chip that will be powering the watch is also speculated to have the same processing power as the previous S7 and S6 chipsets.
The fever detector would just be Apple’s first step towards its grand ambition to turn the Apple Watch into a fully decked-out health device with blood pressure monitoring without inflatable cuffs, fertility planning, a glucose sensor for detecting diabetes, and more. That being said, Gurman also claims that the tech giant is still at least two years away from being able to make the aforementioned technologies a reality.
The Apple Watch Series 8 is likely to launch sometime in September, alongside a new SE watch and this year’s iPhone 14. Right around that time, watchOS 9 and other major software updates should also be rolling out to Apple devices globally.
On a related note, while there has been chatter about an updated AirPods Pro with heart rate and body-temperature monitoring coming this year, Bloomberg’s report claims that neither of the features will be coming anytime soon. The next-gen Pro is expected to be unveiled later this year and will reportedly support a lossless audio codec known as ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec).
(Source: Bloomberg)
