
How to see your iOS8 health data - aprilzero
http://aprilzero.com/journal/fixing-healthkit/
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vpontis
I did this and I still don't have any data on my dashboard. Does anyone else
have this problem? Do you have to enable the tracking?

I am using an iPhone 5 so it might be different...

~~~
Titanous
The iPhone 5 doesn't have the "motion coprocessor" (added in 5S), so it's
unlikely that it will gather this data without a third-party app.

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owenfi
Correct. Also the 5S doesn't have barometer/altimeter so you won't get flights
climbed.

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MBCook
The flights climbed number for me is off. I'm not surprised at that, FitBit
got rid of the feature for the same reason (it's really hard to get right),
but I'm a bit surprised that since it's not very accurate it was included at
all.

When I experimented with my FitBit I had to exaggerate my vertical motion when
going up and down stars to get it to register well. It seems I'm too 'smooth'
walking up and down stairs to reliably trigger the mechanism.

~~~
JohnTHaller
Apple is just starting out with these sensors, so they're likely to make the
same mistakes that FitBit made a few years ago.

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spydertennis
that's not likely

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JohnTHaller
Sure it is. Users are already getting inaccurate 'floors' measurements and
posting the associated bug reports in their forums. If Apple had paid
attention to FitBit's featureset over time Apple would have realized the
feature was removed because it was uselessly inaccurate. A barometric sensor
doesn't become more accurate for tracking flights of stairs climbed just
because it's in a device with an Apple logo.

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ceworthington
It's pretty damning of the HealthKit product team that a post like this is
required. Why would Apple publish the app at all?

It seems like they should have released iOS8 with some kind of simple
pedometer/stair counting app that looked good and was easy to use, like a
reference application to show what HealthKit could be used for, and then
buried the HealthKit app as it currently stands in some settings menu that
most people will never need to look at.

The only thing I can imagine is that they intended to roll out a bunch of
HealthKit-compatible apps from third parties like Nike and FitBit along with
iOS8, but the bug messed up their release plan.

~~~
notjosh
The best I can tell is that the Health app is more of a hub to see aggregated
(raw-ish) data, and set/update permissions on what apps have access to what
data.

I don't think their intent is to compete with any of the apps out there that
_use_ the data though.

~~~
MBCook
I believe your correct. The iPhone 5s, 6, and 6+ all record the number of
steps you take thanks to the M7 motion processor, but that seems to be more of
a 'because it's there' thing.

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usrname
Why the ... you hidde scrollbar ?

body { background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #171d25; color: #fff; display: none;
height: 100%; overflow: hidden; !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! position: relative;
}

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hahainternet
Can't even scroll at all without javascript, what a terrible site.

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aprilzero
yeah, you should probably use javascript

~~~
aw3c2
For what gain? The post is just some images and text, there is nothing
necessarily dynamic.

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alialkhatib
The more I look at these measures, the more I wonder whether Apple has a plan
for all of this or if they're just throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing
what sticks. Some of these seem like there's tie-in (body measurements can be
assessed through a Withings scale, sleep can be assessed through a Jawbone UP
or similar device, and the "Me" section is mostly static), but does Apple have
any plan to get people to track their Molybdenum intake on a regular basis? Or
their BAC? Or their body temperature?

I'm not saying they need to, but in the past it has seemed like when Apple
provided an affordance, they also had a clear use case. If nothing else, you
could fully use the device/service in the way they describe, and that would
sufficiently justify its adoption for many. With Health, I'm not seeing that.
I wonder if this will threaten the overall adoption of Health, which in
general seems like not a terrible idea - anything that gets people thinking
more about their activity and diet seems like a good thing.

One could argue that their solution is to leave it to third party devices and
integration. Apple doesn't need to make a scale to help you track your weight
(Withings has already done it, as I'm sure others have), nor does it want to
touch the quagmire that is nutrition by claiming to _measure_ the nutritional
value of any food. Let some food-related startup do that dirty work, as long
as Apple provides some interface for the measurement to end up in this data
silo.

This argument seems weaker to me than the argument seemed when Apple first
started accepting apps for the iPhone (later iOS). Health currently leaves
huge swaths of its UI barren for lack of data, and I'm not sure that hardware
developers can swarm to fill in those gaps the way software developers could
with the platform.

Maybe I missed the part of their talk where they made it obvious how they
envisioned Health (and HealthKit) to be used in a fuller way; if that's the
case, I'd appreciate a pointer.

~~~
scoot
What drove this home for me was the inclusion of a separate measure for BMI.

I've already given it my height (hopefully static, but apparently deserving of
a line graph), and my weight. Yet apparently calculating my BMI from these
inputs (admittedly a crude measure of health) is beyond the capability Health
app?

~~~
minikites
BMI is only intended to measure health at a population level, it's too crude
to have any useful input on personal health.

And height isn't static if you're an adolescent.

~~~
scoot
Exactly - and yet BMI is one of the metrics included. Meanwhile a manual input
is required, despite having been provided with the relevant data.

~~~
king_jester
Perhaps this is a concession so that people who do not want to work with BMI
do not have to by default. As minikites says, on a personal health basis BMI
isn't very useful so folks may want to skip it altogether.

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coolfilmaker
After using a HealthKit enabled exercise app and contemplating the potential
benefits from HealthKit enabled gadgets, I am beginning to think the direction
that Tim Cook is taking Apple may be superior to the one Jobs would have taken
it in. Jobs probably would have made better gadgets, but Tim may end up making
a better world.

I could definitely see Cook et al. winning the Nobel prize in medicine in 5-10
years if HealthKit catches on.

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oliv__
Just a note on the website: I had to disable the body's overflow: hidden
property to be able to see anything below the fold. On Firefox 32.0.3 (mac)

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beggi
Where is the health data stored? Is it only locally or on iCloud as well? I
updated some data in Health app on my iPhone 5S before I got the new iPhone 6,
did a backup and restore when I got it and lost all the data I had entered..

~~~
selectodude
My exercise data came in through iCloud when I restored. Can't speak to
anything else though.

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nell
I think the reason Apple didn't market this to us is iWatch and the lack of
third party integration as of now. They might be wanting to show this off as
part of iWatch integration or let the third party apps do the marketing.

~~~
MBCook
They were supposed to have tons of 3rd party apps at launch, but they found
some sort of (presumedly security) bug in the release build and had to
pull/prevent apps from integrating when iOS 8 launched. There was even a
feature area on the iOS App Store but it was quickly removed.

This was fixed in iOS 8.0.1, but that caused connectivity problems on the 6
and 6+.

Now with 8.0.2 things are finally ready, but now the apps aren't out or
approved, so things aren't ready yet. Sadly this whole thing has been kind of
a mess. I remember reading some 3rd parties scrambled to get an update out for
the iPhone 6 and 6+ that _disabled_ the Health functionality since Apple was
temporarily rejecting apps due to the bug. I've seen a handful of commercials
on TV already.

Sadly none of this has gone smoothly. I imagine in the next week or two we'll
see the 'real' roll out. Maybe they'll make a big push again when they turn on
Apple Pay.

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kmfrk
PSA: If you have any important information to add, enter it in the app, and
first responders will be able to see it by going from the "Emergency" screen.
Neat if you're allergic to anesthetics.

~~~
lucaspiller
If you are really allergic to anything like this, please use the tried and
tested methods of a medical bracelet or necklace. First responders aren't
going to know the device buried deep in your pocket has emergency medical
information on it, and it will waste their time checking.

(Disclaimer: I used to be a voluntary first responder while I was studying)

~~~
kmfrk
(Or do both.) :)

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revelation
I don't get it. None of this has anything do with health. That's
fitness/sports/activity data.

~~~
aprilzero
The app is called "Health"

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brianbreslin
What apps or third party devices out there now already are integrated with
this?

~~~
ciniglio
MyFitnessPal just released an update that integrates with Health today.

