ECG capabilities, available with the Apple Watch Series 4 and later, allow users to quickly take an ECG by simply placing their finger on the Digital Crown and staying still for 30 seconds. Before the feature launches in countries, Apple must retain regulatory approval from the country's respective and appropriate authorities. The feature first launched in the U.S. in 2018 with the Apple Watch Series 4, following FDA approval.
watchOS 8.3 and iOS 15.2 are currently available to developers and public beta testers and can be expected to be launched publicly in the near future. iOS 15.2 includes several new features, including a redesigned Notification Summary, the Apple Music Voice Plan, Legacy Contacts, and more.
Friday October 30, 2026 2:45 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple today announced that the first iOS 27.3 developer beta will be released next week and enable some Apple Intelligence features in China.
In a press release shared on the Apple Newsroom website in China, Apple said the beta will be released on Wednesday, November 4, but that likely means Tuesday, November 3 in the U.S. due to time zone differences. Apple said iOS 27.3 will then be...
Wednesday October 14, 2026 1:24 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to bring Apple Intelligence to China in iOS 27.3 after two years of regulatory delays, reports Bloomberg. The launch will include basic Apple Intelligence features for things like photo editing, but Siri AI won't be available. Image Playground and the newer version of Genmoji will be missing, plus text generation tools will be limited.
The South China Morning Post today reported...
China is doing much of the heavy lifting for Apple's iPhone 18 Pro launch, with a 29% sales increase helping offset declines in the U.S. and Japan, according to Counterpoint Research.
Combined global sales of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max rose 3.1% during their first three weeks of availability compared with the equivalent launch period last year. U.S. sales fell 4%, while Japan...
One guess is it might be a medical device requirement.
To have it approved per-region, yes, but to do so in a software update? Why not have a server somewhere that answers "I'm in region x requests" with "OK, you're in"?
Strange that they're hardcoding these regions into the OS, rather than having a separate mechanism to decide who gets to use the feature. I guess it's not a huge deal, but rolling out an entire OS upgrade just to add
public bool IsEcgAvailable { switch (user.Region) { case China: // new in 8.3 return true; default: return false; } }
Strange that they're hardcoding these regions into the OS, rather than having a separate mechanism to decide who gets to use the feature. I guess it's not a huge deal, but rolling out an entire OS upgrade just to add
public bool IsEcgAvailable { switch (user.Region) { case China: // new in 8.3 return true; default: return false; } }
seems a bit much.
One guess is it might be a medical device requirement.
