Apple plans to make a splash in the wearable technology market with a new version of its EarPods that have incorporated sensors to track various health metrics, as per an unidentified source posting on anonymous social networking app Secret.
The post author said Apple is planning to release EarPods that can measure the user's blood pressure and heart rate. The EarPods will come with Apple's iBeacon system to help the user find them in case they get lost.
The post also confirms long-held rumors of an iWatch, saying Apple is also looking to launch a wearable smartband, although the "name isn't final yet." If this claim is true, Apple will have to face stiff competition from its long-standing legal rival Samsung, which lately released a Gear Fit smartwatch that can measure heart rate.
"Apple's new EarPods will have sensors in them, for heart rate & blood pressure. Also iBeacons so they don't get lost. They will require the Lightning port, it's why the audio jack was moved to the bottom," writes the anonymous poster.
The EarPods will also use a storage method "similar way to thumbprint point data, fully encrypted and nothing identifiable. But nice to send to your doctor to keep track of at which point your blood pressure started rising for example," the post author adds.
Secret, having claimed a dedicated market in the young circle of programmers and engineers of Silicon Valley, is notorious for being a hotbed for whistleblowers in the technology industry.
Last month, Nike disbanded its team responsible for its FuelBand wearable device, confirming a post on Secret that was leaked ahead of time. It was also on Secret where we first learned of former Google+ chief Vic Gundotra's resignation, which he filed days after his plans were posted on the social network.
"We can't take credibility from something posted on Secret. But are these things Apple could do? If you had simply asked me what Apple could do, then putting sensors in is a rational next step," says chief analyst Ben Wood of CCS Insight, pointing out that other companies, specifically LG and Intel, already have prototypes of earphones with health-tracking sensors.
It is interesting to note that the rumor of health-tracking EarPods from Apple is backed up by patent claims that go as far back as 2006. As MacRumors notes, Apple has filed an application to patent sensors that can collect physiological data and can be integrated into various electronic devices.
A second application filed in 2008 and granted this February shows Apple proposed a "monitoring system that can be placed proximate to the head or ear of a user," such as a hearing device, headsets, earbuds or headphones.
The Secret post also bodes well with rumors that Apple is planning to release its next version of the iOS integrated with its Healthbook app, one that can track various health-related information.
The anonymous poster says Apple will release its fitness-tracking EarPods in September, along with iOS 8 for iPhone and iPad and in time for the Christmas shopping period.
As to why the post author revealed top-secret information from what it claims is its former employer, he (or she) says, "I have being manipulated... I'm not the only person who got sent home for good last week."
