Apple Earpods To Include Health Sensors – Report

Apple is following Samsung into the health market after a leak suggested that its next generation earbuds (or earpods in Apple speak) will include health sensors.

The report (if true) highlights an increasing problem for tech firms in Silicon Valley, as the leak came from a posting on the anonymous social network ‘Secret’, which is favoured by many high-tech workers. Secret yesterday revealed plans to launch in the UK and elsewhere.

Health Trend

“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,” said the anonymous posting on Secret.

The posting also reportedly added that “[The phone] stores the data in a similar way to thumbprint point data, fully encrypted and nothing identifiable. But nice to send to your doctor to keep track of at which point your blood pressure started rising for example.”

According to the Daily Telegraph, the Secret poster claims to be former Apple employee who was recently let go. He reportedly said “I have being manipulated… I’m not the only person who got sent home for good last week.”

It should be noted that it has previously been reported that Apple is heading into the health market. In March for example, 9to5mac reported that Apple is set to include a fitness and health application known as Healthbook in its iOS 8 release. This would allow iPhone users to track data in a number of categories, harvested from the smartphone itself, third party devices and applications, and possibly a health-focused iWatch.

Screenshots suggest that Healthbook is capable of collecting data in a range of categories, including bloodwork, heart rate, hydration, blood pressure, physical activity, nutrition, blood sugar, sleep, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and weight, displayed as cards.

In January it was also reported that Apple had hired two experts from the medical sensor world to work its heavily rumoured but as yet unconfirmed ‘iWatch.

Apple’s move into the health market mirrors that of its bitter rival, Samsung. At the Mobile World Congress conference in February, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S5 smartphone with built-in heart rate sensor and pedometer, along with a range of fitness applications.

Secret Leaks

It should be remembered that reports like this do need to be taken with a pinch of salt. But the growing use of anonymous social network apps like ‘Secret’ does highlight a growing problem for tech firms, seeking to keep their latest internal developments confidential.

Earlier this month for example, Nike was forced to deny rumours that had surfaced on Secret that it was disbanding the team responsible for the fitness tracking FuelBand bracelet. However weeks later the FuelBand engineers were made redundant.

Another example saw Secret reveal that Vic Gundotra, the former head of Google+, was looking for other jobs, three days before his resignation was officially confirmed by the search engine giant.

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