New iOS app asked for access to phones accelerometer, thoughts on what it could be used for.

[David Goldwasser]

I didn't see any documentation on what this would be used for, but I can think of a few ideas.

• If I'm charging the band but still have the phone on me can still track steps
• For biking, assuming the phone is in my pants pocket, the band could have access to peddeling informaiton. At least one band I looked at instructs users to actually put their badn on their ankle when riding. Leg could give similar information.

I just wish it would have asked for access to phone location for GPS support. With 45 minutes of biking riding a day I have to charge every day (maybe can squeak out 2 days, but I've had it die on ride home a number of times.

 

[William Grafton1]

The new MS Health app can now use information from your phone's step counter. This probably shouldn't be done if you're actually using a Band, but is more for people who want to use the Health platform with their phones tracking mechanisms. Maybe they'll add in support for third party HrM's as well.

 

[David Goldwasser]

Thanks, that makes sense. I think this is creating issue I see now with steps counting during bike riding activity.