iPhone

Published yesterday in PLoS ONE, the data suggests an alternative to the six-minute walk test often conducted in clinics to measure functional capacity.

The three-year investigation will use iPhones, Apple Watches and Beddit trackers to monitor sleep, physical activity, heart rate and other daily signs.

The study will use the smartphones, Apple Watches and a custom health engagement program to influence stroke risk and atrial fibrillation detection.

The smartphone's distance measurement algorithm does not appear to account for the length of an individual's strides, making it difficult to recommend for health applications. 

The United States Patent Office has published a patent from Apple, filed December 18 of last year and not yet granted, for a "sunscreen detector" that could be incorporated into the Apple Watch or the iPhone and could even include augmented reality functionality.

Apple has announced a partnership with RapidSOS that will allow iPhones to more easily send detailed location data to first responders in the event of an emergency, the Cupertino tech giant announced yesterday.

Smartphone-enabled heart monitor device maker AliveCor has launched a new app for patients, which is both timed with the new iOS 8 launch and incorporates the atrial fibrillation algorithm the company received FDA clearance for in August.

A new longitudinal study of the microbiome from researchers at Harvard and MIT demonstrates how the ubiquity of a smartphone enables research that would have been much more difficult previously.

When it comes to tech partnerships, it's hard to imagine one more hard-hitting than Apple and IBM, two companies who announced this week that they would be collaborating on enterprise software for iPhones and iPads.