Slashdot Mirror
Tattoos Found To Interfere With Apple Watch Sensors
An anonymous reader writes: A number of early Apple Watch adopters have complained that their tattoos cause interference with many of the new product's key features. According to multiple tattooed sources, inked wrists and hands can disrupt communication with the wearable's sensors installed in the underside of the device leading to malfunction. Owners of Apple Watch have taken to social media to voice their frustration using the hashtag #tattoogate and sharing their disappointment over the newly discovered Apple flaw. One user reported that the Watch's lock system did not disable as it should when the device was placed on a decorated area of skin – forcing those affected to constantly enter their security pins. A further source suggested that notification alerts would fail to 'ping' as they are supposed to, and that heart rate monitoring differed significantly between tattooed and non-tattooed wrist readings.
The ultimate hipster struggle is real!
Stop Computers/Cars Analogies on S
You're saying that pigments with metal particles in them are blocking certain wavelengths of light from penetrating the skin? I'm shocked. I'm shocked, Cotton!
you're wearing it wrong
Apple is trying to move away from being perceived as the hardware of choice of nose-ringed tattoo-sleeved hipsters. This ink incompatibility is not a bug but a feature.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Now I have reason to get one.
what? a tat(too) or some tat (i.e. an Apple watch)?
...hipster tragedy*:
"Oh no, my trendy tattoo is interfering with my Apple Smart watch! What ever will I do?"
*also called comedy by the rest of us.
-Styopa
If you've ever been to the Apple campus, you'll find there is not a shortage of tattoos.
"Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
Im sure fellow readers are concerned about the $10,000 version of the apple watch, and as an early adopter I am truly livid. If the watch comes into contact with my tattoo of the spirit of extacy riding a diamond into tattooine astride a golden dove the sensors stop working entirely. The watch is also difficult to locate as im sure most people have undoubtedly found out. I had to search all five bedrooms on the yacht just to find the darn thing! Also the watch has difficulty determining if or when I am wearing the rare jade oriental pendant of everlasting immortality, and just last weekend I had to buy a new one after I bumped into the caviar chafing dish and spilled lemon rochette truffle remoulade on the band.
Its not that apple doesnt make an excellent product, they truly do! But I for one am getting tired of having to take the same bently to the same helicopter every other week to send my manservant into the apple "store" as the common people call it to have it replaced. A man can only tolerate so much car champagne before the aftertaste of the lox comingling with the alsace vintage becomes too much to bear.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Who could have possibly predicted your sleeve tattoo would limit your options later in life??
I have tattoos.
Tattoo from younger days...$200
Won't purchase Apple watch due to ink incompatibility...Saved $10,000
Sticking it to MegaCorp...Priceless
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Ick. I've never understood why people get tattoos. While I can respect the idea of using the human body as a canvas for art, it just doesn't come across as such. Perhaps it is just the way my brain is wired, when I see a tattoo my brain instinctively registers it as "damage" and that the person may be injured or ill. Certainly others must have the same instinctive reaction, yet it seems even more people are doing that these days.
If you want a tattoo on your wrist, either put it on the wrist where you wouldn't wear a watch, or go to some competent tattoo artist who will be able to advise you what kind of ink will affect your skin more or and which one will affect it less; consider that the Apple Watch is just the start of wearing things around your wrist. .
Back in the day tattoos were the 1%'ers now tattoos are the 99%'ers.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
If companies had to list everything that's not possible with their products, everything would come with enough books to fill an olympic swimming pool.
Did you know you can't wear the Apple watch if you don't have arms?
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
over the newly discovered Apple flaw.
How is it Apples fault your body contains a deposit of metallic pigments where there should be none?
Seems more like a defect in the wearer to me.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Sure you can - you just need to get the iAnkleBracelet.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I heard it doesn't work through bandaids either.
from apple's website:
What else affects your reading?
Many factors can affect the performance of the Apple Watch heart rate sensor. Skin perfusion is one. A fancy way of describing how much blood flows through your skin, skin perfusion varies significantly from person to person and can also be impacted by the environment. If you’re exercising in the cold, for example, the skin perfusion in your wrist may be too low for the heart rate sensor to get a reading.
Motion is another factor that can affect the heart rate sensor. Rhythmic movements, such as running or cycling, give better results compared to irregular movements, like tennis or boxing.
Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact heart rate sensor performance. The ink, pattern, and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings.
If you’re not able to get a consistent reading because of any of these factors, you can connect your Apple Watch wirelessly to external heart rate monitors such as Bluetooth chest straps.
Heart rate is just one of many factors that Apple Watch uses to measure your activity and exercise. Depending on your workout, it selects the most appropriate inputs for that activity. For example, when you’re running indoors, it also uses the accelerometer. When you’re cycling outdoors, it uses the GPS in your iPhone. And even when you’re not in a dedicated workout, it tracks how much you move each day. So Apple Watch can give you the information — and the motivation — to improve your fitness and your health.
https://support.apple.com/en-u...
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
They were dumbing down the explanation to make it understandable, there's obviously enough of an absorbtion difference to be detectable--that's all that matters.
Maybe stop investing so much of your self-worth into your choice of consumer electronics and then you won't feel the need to invent lame excuses (like bullshit marketing) for why someone else's choice is flawed.
I don't have a tattoo. Saved $200 ... Priceless!
Not buying an iWatch Saved 10,000
Sticking to nobody, just living my life
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
So, now that we're all frothing at the mouth and getting our pitchforks, has anyone bothered to check if other smart watches or fitness trackers have same issues or it's only Apple's?
Just curious if this is something endemic to the entire category or only the technology Apple used in their watch.
If 2 out of 3 Apple products failed then we probably would have heard about that by now.
And Apple fixed their website yesterday.
'
FTFY
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
The sensors on the Apple Watch and other devices use specific color range of light to detect blood flow through the skin. The tattoo ink can block it.
Yet another reason not to mark up one's body.
I hardly think "Can't use an Apple Watch" ranks very highly on the list of reasons not to get a tattoo since there's such an easy workaround -- don't buy an apple watch.
This sucks for Apple especially since the target demographic for this product is poor decision makers, like people who get wrist tattoos or buy Apple stuff.
Easy! Just get an Apple Watch tattoo. Problem solved.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
And as noted by others in reply to your note from others, your own fucking wayback machine link states:
"Even under ideal conditions, Apple Watch may not be able to get a reliable heart rate reading every time for everybody. And for a small percentage of users, various factors may make it impossible to get any heart rate reading at all."
Clearly, having a tattoo counts as one of the "various factors"
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.