Apple’s Medications Reminder to Fitbit Sense 2’s body response sensor, the overlooked tech features of 2022

When adding a medicine, you could enter its name, fill in the type (capsules, tablets, etc.), how often it must be taken, and its shape or colour. Users also have the option to use the camera to scan a pill bottle to import the information, set up schedules, and receive alerts to take their medications on time. Although a simple feature, it is high time Apple’s Medication tracking feature should get the attention it deserves.

Fitbit’s Sense 2 can monitor your stress levels. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

Fitbit Sense 2’s cEDA sensor

The Fitbit Sense 2 may have been written off by many as a lacklustre smartwatch, but one of its features deserves a standing ovation. No, it’s not the sleep tracking feature but how the smartwatch manages your stress through a new body response sensor. Sense 2 was quite accurate at detecting when I was stressed. Fitbit detected body responses when I was feeling particularly anxious during the day and sent out an alert, notifying me about the stress. This is all due to the new Body Response sensor on the Sense 2 that adds continuous electrodermal activity (cEDA) tracking, which uses your heart rate, skin temperature, and sweat levels.

Stress and anxiety are just a few of the things that could affect your mental health but we don’t like to talk about them in the name of “mental illness.” The Sense 2 through its cEDA sensor looks for signs of stress and takes you to the path of having a conversation with your mind. While I found Sense 2’s all-day stress tracking useful, it still has room for improvement. For example, there were times when I knew I was stressed, but the smartwatch gave me the body response alert only after I felt a little better mentally.

The feature works with select iPhone and iPad models with the LiDAR scanner. (Image credit: Apple)

Door Detection

The Door Detection in iOS 16 deserves special attention, too. Sadly, the accessibility feature was overlooked, underseen and unfairly dismissed. Door Detection, designed to help blind and low-vision users to help locate the door, uses a combination of LiDar (Light Detection and Ranging) and the user’s camera to identify and describe doors.

The tool could tell the user how far they are from the door, if the door is open or closed, how to open it, and more. Door Detection was innovative, but because it was rolled out as an accessibility feature, the world barely paid attention to it. It’s a problem with tech at large. If even big tech companies like Apple pushes such accessibility features, they often get sidelined or at times completely forgotten. It’s time to pay attention to accessibility features, because tech is incomplete without inclusivity.

Google Docs’ pageless documents feature was made available to all users earlier this year. (Image credit: Google)

Pageless format in Google Docs

The new Pageless format feature in Google Docs almost feels like it deserved more attention upon its initial release and has mostly been left out of year-end conversations. For years, the most frustrating thing about Google Docs has been the inability to quickly shift from page-based formatting to a pageless flow.

Well, that changed this year when Google added the pageless Google added the Pageless layout to Docs that provides you with a continuous page without page breaks as in the default Pages view. Sure, the new Pageless feature might not be perfect for every use case but a lot of people will greatly benefit from the new layout. Nobody has really talked about Google Docs Pageless and that’s a pity because it’s a productivity feature that will change how you work.