The tech behind the Apple watch ban is contained in this wristwatch

The Freedom: A Simple, Basic Wearable Platform to Monitor Blood Oxygen and Blood Pressure Measurements at Consumer Electronics Exposing the Future of Health

Goldberg told us that Masimo is trying to showcase the accuracy of its sensors and not make fun of Apple. In particular, he highlighted that unlike some competitors (Goldberg declined to name names), Masimo’s blood oxygen tech is able to account for challenges like motion, low perfusion or bad blood flow, and skin pigmentation. Goldberg tells me that the Freedom has the same medical grade sensor as the W1, though it is premature to say if it will get clearance from the FDA.

I got to see an early prototype of the Freedom at CES last week, and in person, it’s an intriguing product. For starters, it’s visually distinct from the Apple Watch, in that it’s opted for a circular display with a leather band, with no digital crown in sight. You can scroll with the help of a touch bar on the right side. On the left, if you squint, there’s a small button that you use to select items in the Freedom’s interface. Eugene Goldberg, president of consumer health at Masimo, said it looked great on his small wrist.

Even so, what I saw was the bones of a fairly basic smartwatch. The software was a very small sample, and it wasn’t ready for prime time. The platform was still evolving even though it was a prototype.

“Even as technology in general gets better, we need to create an expectation of what accuracy and ‘continuous’ [monitoring] actually means. Goldberg says that he does not think that digital health is all truly continuous, despite what you hear on the show floor. “You want to know where’s the good data, where’s the bad data, and then how do you as a health professional actually work with that data? That’s where all this is going.”

Goldberg is correct in his opinion of how other watches use their health readings. Many big-name Wearables don’t measure your Heart Rate or Blood Oxygen every second; many prefer to measure once every few minutes. Other companies are trying to make this distinction a selling point, too: Movano was at CES this year touting the accuracy of it medical-grade smart ring, and a few years ago, Omron showed up with an FDA-cleared smartwatch capable of measuring your blood pressure.

The Apple Watch has blood oxygen, if it can hold its own when it launches later this year, will determine whether or not it continues to stand out.

Apple vs. Masimo in a patent fight: Apple’s decision to drop the blood oxygen sensor feature in the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 models

The court’s decision to rein in the feature ban shows that even the largest and most powerful companies must respect the intellectual rights of Americans, and deal with consequences when they are found violating others’ patents, according to the statement by the founder and CEO.

Instead of banning the watches outright, the court granted Apple permission to continue selling the watch as long as changes were made to remove the technology at the center of the patent fight.

Apple has continued to appeal the case and said they believe the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should reverse the trade commission’s decision.

Starting Thursday, the ability to measure blood oxygen levels will no longer be available on newly purchased Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 models.

Apple decided to drop the health feature after losing a patent case brought by the medical technology company Masimo, which alleged that Apple infringed on its patent for a blood oxygen sensor that can read someone’s pulse. Apple has repeatedly denied the allegation.