Users: Apple Watch is getting sick at the hospital

03 Jan Users: Apple Watch is getting sick at the hospital

It’s more like a fainting spell, actually. Some Apple Watch owners are reporting that their wearable has a tendency to unexpectedly shut down and restart when inside a hospital. Cult of Mac reports that Apple Support Forums are “littered” with complaints from Watch owners experiencing difficulties. The problem is confined to the new Apple Watch 3, which has its own wireless connection to the internet.

The device is probably reacting to some sort of wireless interference from high-tech medical devices in the hospital. Apple actually warns of such difficulties in the Watch’s device manual, Cult of Mac points out, warning that the wearable’s wireless components are subject to interference from a “pacemaker, defibrillator, or any other medical device.” The manual mentions nothing about random reboots, however.

There’s a certain amount of irony here, in that Apple has been working to make the Watch a more serious health device–one that can generate the kind of data doctors would actually care about. The tech company took pains to publicize a new study at Stanford where the Watch’s heart rate sensor is being tested to detect arrhythmia.

Apple declined comment to Fast Company.

Source: Fast Company