Apple making sleep tracking available for Apple Watch in the future

Using Apple Watch's accelerometer to detect micro-movements, the software captures when the wearer is sleeping and how much sleep he or she gets each night. PHOTO: APPLE

Apple is finally making sleep tracking available on the Apple Watch, following a trend set by other smartwatch makers such as Fitbit and Garmin.

This is said to be the biggest feature in the upcoming watchOS 7, announced at Apple's annual worldwide developer conference (WWDC) held virtually last week.

Using Apple Watch's accelerometer to detect micro-movements, the software captures when the wearer is sleeping and how much sleep he or she gets each night.

The wearer will then get a visualisation of the night's sleep, including waking and sleeping periods.

Another highlight of the new operating system - which will only be available on Apple Watch Series 3 and later - is an automatic handwashing detection feature to ensure the wearer's handwashing time is at least 20 seconds long.

A 20-second countdown timer - which can be turned off - is activated whenever the smartwatch detects that the wearer is washing hands. If the wearer finishes early, he or she will be prompted to continue washing.

This will be handy in these times of the Covid-19 pandemic.

If the battery is at 30 per cent or lower within an hour from your bedtime, the smartwatch will remind you to charge it ahead of your sleep.

Also announced was Apple's upcoming desktop operating system macOS 11 Big Sur.

A 20-second countdown timer is activated whenever the smartwatch detects that the wearer is washing hands. PHOTO: APPLE

Named after a scenic stretch of coastline in California, it is the biggest upgrade since Mac OS X (launched in 2001). A prominent new feature is a revamp of its Safari web browser, first launched in 2003.

A new built-in translation engine will detect and translate entire pages with a click from seven languages including Chinese, French and German.

Apple also claimed the new Safari would be 50 per cent faster than the Google Chrome browser.

The redesigned tabs on Safari will let users get a quick preview of a page through hovering the mouse cursor over a tab. In addition, users can customise their start page with a background image and sections such as Reading list.

Several Macs released in 2012 and 2013 will not be able to support Big Sur.

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