- Masimo, the company that sued Apple over patent infringement, has unveiled its own blood oxygen monitoring smartwatch called the Masimo Freedom.
- The Masimo Freedom is a health-focused device that can track blood oxygen levels, hydration index, respiration rate, pulse rate variability, pulse rate, steps, and detect falls.
- The smartwatch is currently in prototype stage and will be available for sale later this year at a price of $999.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/aOUXX
In the name of every medical professional out there:
Fuck Masimo. You piece of shit garbage company.
Masimo does strategically patent troll other companies to keep their monopoly on oxygen saturation technology, deliver a subpar product that is very likely designed with planned obsolescence (which actively endangers patients). It’s an absolute shit show.
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It’s more about the medical field - we use more precise equipment than can measure a bit more. And very likely Samsung has to pay somone even for the smartwatch version.
There are different types of O2 sensors.
Patent trolling Apple doesn’t seem like a winning move. Can they really sell a smartwatch without infringing on anything in Apple’s patent portfolio? The revenge will be swift and terrifying
They can license it, just like how Apple should have licensed their tech.
ThTs usually the way things work, but that didn’t happen here (obviously). We don’t know who tried to get better terms or who rejected terms
They aren’t a patent troll. This is literally their business. They are sueing apple becsuse they are violating their patent and could have or has had a negative impact on their business. This is the kind of suit patents were designed for.
Patent trolls buy up patents but produce nothing and do nothing with those parents–except for suing people to make money.
Charging $999 for a watch is the next idea Apple will steal from them.
The Apple Watch Ultra already costs that much, doesn’t it?
Really? That’s insane.
Not really. Apple charges what it’s idiots will spend.
it’s idiots
goteeeeem
I mean, spellcheck does that more often than not.
If ever there was a time to not rely on autocorrect it is when you are calling people idiots
No it doesn’t, it’s $200 cheaper.
Ah - it’s $1000 CAD. That’s where I was mistaken. USD it would be about $200 cheaper like you mentioned.
It isn’t even an official price.
Price is for United States only and is subject to change based on final design, specifications, and features.
Well, that definitely means the price will go up then.
Wait until you hear about Rolex
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You should take a look at Withings. Uou have to like the analog retro look, but it has all thoses features (including ECG).
$999
I have no use for a HR smart watch but at this price it’s not even a possibility. Hundreds of dollars is acceptable but this is a hard no for me. My Casio G-Shock GBD 200 + GadgetBridge has all the features I want from a smart watch and costs about $150.
However, I will say kudos to Masimo for sticking it to Apple. Not many people can go against a giant like that and win.That is more than the last two phones I’ve bought put together, Holy Balls. No way am I spending a grand on a smart watch.
The G shock sounds tempting.
You were never their intended audience to begin with. If you’re going to balk at a mere $1k, you’re not the customers they want.
Yeah, you could get a really nice traditional watch for a fraction of the cost and have money left over. And it won’t be obsoleted by a company turning off their servers 5 years down the line.
Really I don’t see the point of smart watches.
This is less than some of the more feature-rich Garmin watches. That said, Garmin’s offerings are best-in-class, so they can justify it.
Garmin software, particularly their integration with third parties absolutely bloody sucks. Their hardware is amazing though.
I haven’t had an issue in the 8 years I’ve owned Garmin stuff. What apps are you having trouble with? I sync with Strava, training peaks, swim coach, humango, and probably others over the years
Pebble - $99
Pebble Steel - $149
Now Pebble is gone and Masimo is selling a $999 smartwatch.
Apple’s cheapest watch is $249.
All I want is a watch like the Pebble again. I don’t need color or all this extra health stuff.
Which is odd because I do want the health stuff, but don’t want the rest of that stuff that is useless to me. I don’t need the texting, music, weather, or the phone stuff - my smart phone still needs to be in bluetooth range for it to work anyway.
But I do value the ability to take a pulse, blood pressure, and count steps. It has increased my self-awareness and improved my health consciousness - small changes can make big differences. And for $40US, I found a decent watch that actually works pretty well.
Take a look at Withings.
I really like Garmin for this. Lots of models to choose from to find your niche (eg, they have running focused, scuba diving focused, or just looks like a regular watch with no gps). What’s cool is their ecosystem is NOT to do much smartwatch stuff. It’s all about health focus. Or maybe fitness focus I guess.
Edit: oh I reread and saw you want blood pressure. They don’t do this that I know of.
Garmin is also the only fitness tracker that isn’t just like explicitly selling your data. But then again who’s to say that won’t change tomorrow.
May I ask which watch you ended up with?
I bought a FITVII smartwatch from Amazon, (the price has gone up a bit since I ordered mine), after seeing a review of smart watches on a tech website. It was rated as their “Best Budget” -YMMV- smart watch.
A word of warning - it took over 3 months to receive the watch even though it was listed as in stock with 10pcs available. In truth I forgot about it until it showed up in the mail…
Agreed on all accounts except for weather updates. I got my watch for the health tracking and love it for it. But I have been slowly won over by the other little things that give me info about the world at a glance but don’t take me out of it. Weather and directions especially.
I always tell people I wish the watch was the smart revolution instead of the phone because it augments daily life so well while our phones so easily become a distraction (though admittedly often a welcome one).
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My galaxy watch I bought many years ago has this same feature, is cheaper, and looks amazing. I got the “classic” model with the turning frame. It’s an outstanding watch even to this day. No lag, great battery, and very bright even in sunlight.
Watch 4? I got the non-classic and my battery sucks ass now. I’m looking at replacing the battery now
Yeah got a galaxy watch 2 classic years ago and it needs charging every day now, and it sometimes randomly drains the battery in like 1 hour.
But I’m honestly surprised of its longevity, it outlasted 2 phones
Hell, my Watch 4 Classic needs to be charged daily as well, but I think it’s mostly because I have it continuously monitoring my heart rate + stress levels and I use the always on display setting extensively cause I want my watch to look like a watch.
I enjoy my $26 watch
I enjoy my $0 watch (I don’t have one)
I use to not wear one but I got myself a PineTime and it is very handy for my current job which revolves heavily around time.
The Pinetime is an awesome watch. Basic functionality, but…way more than you’d think for the price and the simple UI. It’s crazy what that thing can do.
I pretty much just use it for a watch and phone notifications. There are games on it that I don’t play, the HR monitor isn’t that great though. A great price for a fun little open source watch.
I still have my teeth.
Mine also cost $0 (I got it from my community’s free page)
I work in many dusty, gritty places, machine shops included. I love my $60 watch, it’s been to 4 continents and back for 12yrs now.
Slight chip in the edge of the crystal, some mild scratches too. I’m just happy to not contribute to the waste stream by buying one reliable item, and cherishing it even when it gets a bit beat up.
Do these kind of apple/google watches hold up? How hard is battery replacement?
I have around 12 watches. Only 2 of them cost more than $200 and both of those were gifts. I’ve never had the desire to have a smart watch let alone one that costs $1,000 but I can see the value in having a device that can measure certain parameters for medical reasons.
Not three-fiddly?
🤣🤣
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I am very curious to see if this will be the first smartwatch that works with tattooed wrists. None of the health & security features have ever worked for me with any of the major brands.
Wear it on your ankle and make up a cool story about your criminal past.
I feel like they’d have made more money by licensing their patent to Apple rather than trying to sell a watch for a ridiculous $999 price tag. I’m not saying they were wrong for their patent lawsuit, and it’s nice to see that small companies can still win, but I just don’t see this early product getting enough sales for them to profit.
I might be mistaken, but I think Apple started with a licensing deal and then walked back on it?
Googled and found this
Not a fan of Apple but the number of people who would benefit from being able to monitor blood oxygenation is more meaningful to me than Masimo’s ability to sell thousand dollar smartwatches with its patent technology. Would be great if somehow this patent was bought out and made public domain so people outside the upper middle class could have an affordable way to track their vitals.
Would be great if somehow this patent was bought out and made public domain so people outside the upper middle class could have an affordable way to track their vitals.
Apple is a strange choice as a champion for that. Their devices always have been notoriously overpriced.
Their devices always have been notoriously overpriced.
I disagree. They don’t offer a low-end option, but their devices are fairly priced for what you get. People keep claiming they are overpriced but when you ask them for a cheaper alternative they always respond with something not even remotely comparable.
Which apple product doesn’t have a chaper alternative?
All of them. Every cheaper alternative is just a crappier product that cheaper because it’s simply not as good.
I’ll take my Garmin over you apple toys any day
Can a Garmin even run apps? It’s a completely different product.
There’s been a Garmin app store for twice as long as Apple has been making watches.
https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/
It’s not at all a different product. It’s a direct competitor who makes a superior product.
Again – I’ve had a smart watch that does all the shit apple watch does, for half a decade before apple even thought about it. And mine can go a month without charging.
I think it’s hilarious that you show proof of how overpriced Apple products are and there are still fanboys that down vote you.
I can’t relate to the value you place in them. You couldn’t pay me to use Apple software.
With Windows or Linux, I spend a lot of my time operating the computer. On macOS I just spend my time on the tasks I was working on. The nice thing about Apple’s software is that it gets out of the way so you can focus on what actually matters.
This can be absolutely true the other way around too, depending on how proficient you are, and what you are used to or find intuitive. For me, macOS is extremely unintuitive, for example, while my fully personalized Linux setup allows me to do what I want. It is very subjective, ultimately.
I’m very proficient in Linux. I used to run it as a desktop about 15 years ago, before I was able to afford a Mac. Still run it on the server, both personally and professionally. It’s come a long way, but it’s not nearly as polished as macOS.
A desktop linux user is not someone “very proficient”
You ran an install script.
I’m very proficient. It’s my career.
Copyright and patent laws need to die.
Only idiots think that work wouldn’t get done without them.
Ha ha ha ha ha!
