Proving that Samsung isn’t the only one that can take shots at its rivals, Apple has released a new TV spot simply titled “Powerful”. And in the process of showing the things you can do with an iPhone, it touches on one of the Galaxy S5‘s most advertised features: the heart rate monitor.

The 90-second video extols the iPhone 5s features, some of which come out of the box, like slo mo video recording. Others, however, are features you can achieve through apps or accessories, giving credence to the almost cliché expression “there’s an app for that”. You have apps and tools for enhancing your musical jamming sessions, control lights from a distance, play games on your TV, feel like a camera man, or even launch rockets into the atmosphere. One feature, however, that might catch some people’s attention is the heart rate monitor, the very same feature that Samsung is boasting in its latest flagship.

What makes the iPhone 5s’ version different is that the heart rate monitor comes purely via software. The iPhone 5s doesn’t have a hardware monitor sensor but the app, called Instant Heart Rate, uses the same principles. The app uses the device’s camera to try to discern the heart rate by monitoring the flow of blood cells on a finger. Such a method works better when light is shone on the right area, which is why the app recommends using it on a more recent iPhone model that has n LED flash. What Apple is saying, in effect, is that the iPhone 5s doesn’t need any hardware gimmick to implement a heart rate monitor the way that Samsung does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODmfmUWqlSA

Apple’s message is clear and explicit. You already have a powerful device right in your hands already, which, at least for Apple, is the iPhone. The ad might even give Android app developers some ideas, but it does make one wonder about the accuracy of such software-based implementations versus what is supposedly more dedicated hardware. It also calls into question the practicality and wisdom in the growing amount of sensors on our mobile devices, a trend that might not be slowing down any time soon.

SOURCE: Apple
VIA: SlashGear

13 COMMENTS

  1. Sad thing for them is that everything they are advertising there can be done by any decent smartphone. They are looking desperate at this point..

  2. But there are apps on the google play stroe that already does that , take for instant HEART RATE PRO. which is very good too so samsoung has nothing over my HTC ONE

  3. This was horrible, most of those things can be done on an android. What it does show is that iOS has more dedicated devs

  4. A number of smartphones can do just about all of that being it’s an Android device or iPhone. Most of it can be done through third party apps if it’s not a native feature. The issue is some companies are adding all these features but in unpractical ways and forgetting about the quality of the feature. Leaving it limited to it’s use and just thinking about being first. The fingerprint scanner is useless if it can’t be used beyond PayPal payments. It should work with app and in-app purchases. Unlocking and any password related things.

  5. I don’t trust these heartrate monitors, iPhone nor Android, any more than I do with the dedicated Polar heart rate monitors. Apple should pick a better argument.

  6. So the iphone is a powerful device but it cant even recive my emails instantly or notify me when one eventually comes through.lol.
    I like both android and apple but apple is still rough in ways.

  7. wait they missed off I)messed up maps, ii) messed up SSL, iii) serious secure data leakage, iv) ios frequent crashes.
    when they announce ios 7,7.1 etc does that indicate the number of added major bugs in the device.;-).

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