May 28, 2023

Apple’s Medications Reminder to Fitbit Sense 2’s body response sensor, the overlooked tech features of 2022

It’s been a tumultuous calendar year in the engineering sector with numerous breaking gatherings that…

It’s been a tumultuous calendar year in the engineering sector with numerous breaking gatherings that dominated our social timelines, which include Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, cryptocurrencies crashing, and significant layoffs. These were being well-known stories that obtained highest eyeballs and awareness. But 2022 wasn’t just about Twitter or Meta’s struggles. All over the 12 months, we observed the launch of lots of new tech capabilities from the major companies which ended up hardly discussed and totally sidelined.

From iOS 16’s remedies monitoring to Fitbit Sense 2’s all-day strain management characteristic, right here are 4 disregarded tech attributes that common end users have never listened to of or wholly neglected.

Prescription drugs reminder

Not the Apple iphone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island but a software that reminds you when to choose your drugs was a recreation changer for a lot of users. Rolled out as element of iOS 16, the Drugs attribute, offered on both of those the Apple iphone and Apple Observe in the Wellness app, wasn’t just outstanding but practical as perfectly. In point, it proved useful for those—at least in the scenario of the elderly—who just take many medicines, as very well as their caretakers, to maintain keep track of of medicines without having relying on their memory or 3rd-celebration apps.

When incorporating a medication, you could enter its name, fill in the kind (capsules, tablets, etc.), how generally it should be taken, and its condition or colour. Consumers also have the selection to use the camera to scan a pill bottle to import the data, established up schedules, and obtain alerts to get their prescription drugs on time. Despite the fact that a simple characteristic, it is substantial time Apple’s Treatment monitoring aspect should get the consideration it warrants.

Fitbit’s Feeling 2 can keep track of your stress ranges. (Graphic credit history: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Categorical)

Fitbit Perception 2’s cEDA sensor

The Fitbit Feeling 2 may perhaps have been prepared off by a lot of as a lacklustre smartwatch, but a single of its capabilities deserves a standing ovation. No, it is not the sleep tracking attribute but how the smartwatch manages your worry as a result of a new body response sensor. Feeling 2 was really correct at detecting when I was stressed. Fitbit detected human body responses when I was sensation notably nervous through the working day and sent out an alert, notifying me about the anxiety. This is all because of to the new Overall body Reaction sensor on the Feeling 2 that adds steady electrodermal action (cEDA) monitoring, which employs your heart charge, skin temperature, and sweat concentrations.

Worry and nervousness are just a couple of of the things that could have an impact on your mental health and fitness but we really don’t like to converse about them in the name of “mental illness.” The Sense 2 by way of its cEDA sensor seems for indications of tension and requires you to the path of having a dialogue with your mind. While I uncovered Feeling 2’s all-working day stress tracking handy, it still has home for advancement. For illustration, there were being moments when I understood I was stressed, but the smartwatch gave me the system reaction inform only just after I felt a minor superior mentally.

The feature performs with choose Apple iphone and iPad products with the LiDAR scanner. (Image credit history: Apple)

Door Detection

The Doorway Detection in iOS 16 justifies exclusive notice, way too. Sadly, the accessibility feature was disregarded, underseen and unfairly dismissed. Doorway Detection, designed to support blind and reduced-vision customers to support locate the door, works by using a mixture of LiDar (Light Detection and Ranging) and the user’s digital camera to detect and describe doors.

The tool could explain to the consumer how significantly they are from the doorway, if the door is open up or shut, how to open up it, and more. Doorway Detection was modern, but simply because it was rolled out as an accessibility element, the environment hardly paid out notice to it. It’s a dilemma with tech at huge. If even huge tech companies like Apple pushes these kinds of accessibility features, they usually get sidelined or at instances completely overlooked. It’s time to pay awareness to accessibility features, due to the fact tech is incomplete without the need of inclusivity.

Google Docs’ pageless paperwork element was manufactured accessible to all customers earlier this 12 months. (Picture credit rating: Google)

Pageless format in Google Docs

The new Pageless structure aspect in Google Docs practically feels like it deserved additional awareness upon its preliminary release and has typically been remaining out of yr-conclude conversations. For a long time, the most disheartening detail about Google Docs has been the incapacity to rapidly change from website page-based formatting to a pageless movement.

Well, that modified this yr when Google added the pageless Google additional the Pageless layout to Docs that presents you with a steady web page without having page breaks as in the default Web pages look at. Confident, the new Pageless function may not be excellent for each use situation but a whole lot of persons will enormously benefit from the new format. No one has actually talked about Google Docs Pageless and that is a pity because it’s a productivity function that will transform how you get the job done.