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macformat.com @macformatAPPLE WATCH SOS
One selling point for me (as a
septuagenarian, living on my own) when
I bought my Apple Watch Series 4 last
autumn, was the fact that it could
automatically send an alarm to the
emergency services, if the wearer should
fall and lose consciousness. The Apple Store
salesperson assured me that this facility
should soon be available in the UK but, to the best of my knowledge, this
has not happened yet. Do you know if and when this might be available?
BY F B REEDROB SAYS...
Apple UK says the Fall Detection feature has been available in this
country since its inception. However, you need to enable it on your
devices for it to be triggered. To do that, head to the Apple Watch app
on your iPhone and tap the Apple Watch tab. Next, tap Emergency SOS
and turn Fall Detection on.
A fall alert is only triggered in the event of a hard fall. At this point,
your Watch will tap your wrist and ask you to confirm that you are OK.
If it doesn’t detect movement for more than a minute, your Watch will
begin a 30-second countdown and repeatedly tap your wrist and sound
an alert, with the alert getting louder each time. If you, or no-one else
nearby responds, your Watch will
automatically call the emergency services
and play an audio message which tells
them your current location (latitude/
longitude). The message will continue
to play until the call ends or you or a
paramedic stops it from playing.
If you need to trigger an Emergency
SOS call, without relying on fall detection,
simply press and hold the side button on
your Watch until the Emergency SOS slider
appears. Continuing to press the side
button will start a countdown, then trigger
an emergency call. Alternatively, drag
the Emergency SOS slider to begin the
Emergency SOS call manually.
Before enabling Emergency SOS and
Fall Detection: first, add any contacts
(friends, family) that you’d like to be
notified in the event of an emergency –
you can do this from the Health app onLETTER OF THE MONTH!
Have your say on all things Apple!
Q LETTER OF
THE MONTHiPhone under Medical ID; secondly, make
sure that Wrist Detection on your Watch is
active. Open the Settings app on your Watch,
tap Passcode, and then turn on Wrist
Detection if it’s not already enabled.PERIPHERAL VISION
Congratulations to Mr Bolton on his ‘Opinion’
item in MF #340. I’ve been using computers
since the days of Hollerith cards (anyone
remember those?). In those days, if anything
went wrong at work the friendly people in
the IT dept would sort it out and, when I
eventually bought a computer for home,
I could still contact them for help.
When I retired, I soon discovered the
general lack of support and the difficulty in
obtaining the little which was available. I have
now been a total Apple user for nearly 20
years and would not change. My wish is that
Apple increases its range of peripherals. In
addition to the Time Capsule and AirPort
products mentioned by Matt, I need an NAS
drive that works ‘out of the box’ and an
AirPrint printer that works every time and
doesn’t seem to be designed to drink ink!
BY GRANVILLE BLAKEROB SAYS...
We completely agree, Granville. Losing both
Apple Wi-Fi solutions in AirPort and Time
Capsule is still a bitter pill we’re trying hard
to swallow and a user-friendly NAS box
would be on our wish list, too. If only.Setting up Fall Detection could end up saving your life.Win yourself a
BentoStack XL
The author of our Letter
of the Month gets a prize:
a BentoStack XL with four
adjustable compartment
dividers and two silicone
straps to keep your cables
safe and tidy on a desk or
in a bag. Learn more at
function101.com.Contact us
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