The issue with the Apple Watch, if you are obsessed with health tracking stats, is that you have to take it off too often to charge it, and that it is not particularly pleasant to sleep in.
It seems, therefore, an Apple Ring would be an excellent form factor that could overcome such issues. This would be even more enticing if all you have to do to charge it is hold your finger next to your phone for a few moments whilst it soaks up some rays from the electromagnetic induction system.
Moreover, it may be more acceptable to a wider audience of users to wear a ring continuously vs wearing a watch or AirPod. I know of some who sleep in AirPods for their Noice Cancelling as a sleep aid. I cannot imagine doing that myself. I sleep on my side.
The Ōura ring has a great following now, and therefore there is a proven product on which to model an improvement upon (typical Apple strategy), and it would calmly surprise me if Apple did not release a Ring this fall; especially since their invites allude to heat-maps.
So, we have patents for brainwave tracking sensors on AirPods1, the suggestion of body temperature tracking this fall, and an ability to decipher what a viewer is seeing by using LED light to detect brain activity3, and an ability to determine thought from electroencephalograms4.
Should we be worried? Does such detailed insight into our minds belong in the stream of data collected by huge companies?
There will always be an argument that early disease detection from health data can save lives. I fully support data used in that way. However, what of the correlations found when machine learning picks up links that are not related to health, but related to patterns that could influence behaviour?
Behaviours that are linked to purchasing decisions are extraordinarily valuable. I cannot imagine that all companies who are able to collect such data, would be able to ignore the potential value. The upcoming surge in health data collection, that may coincide with Apple's deepening relationship with our vitals, should be considered with caution.
1 https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230225659).pn.&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids
2 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.18.517004v2
3 https://medicine.washu.edu/news/brain-signals-decoded-to-determine-what-a-person-sees/
4 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-16/mind-reading-ai-brain-computer-interface/105376164
Your Thoughts?
What is your take on Apple and its future range of products?