Oliver Haslam on October 19, 2018, 7:14 am

Ember Smart Mugs Add Apple HealthKit Integration On iOS

If you’re all-in on Apple’s HealthKit platform, you’re going to love what the folks at Ember have been able to do with their latest smart mugs.

Previous Ember mugs have been able to regulate their temperature automatically, which was pretty cool (pardon the pun!) in and of itself, but with the newly announced mugs they also tie into HealthKit for easy tracking of caffeine intake.

The feature is only possible thanks to the inclusion of an iOS app that allows users to input what drink they are consuming, with sensors in the mug itself then able to detect how much of a drink remains and thus work out how much caffeine has been consumed.

All of this information will then be synced with the Health app, allowing it to warn users if they have been deemed to be drinking too much caffeine.

This is an interesting use of HealthKit, an app, and platform that is more often used for tracking body measurements and statistics, including weight, BMI, activity and more. Nutritional information can be inputted into Health, but that’s usually a manual affair thanks to apps like the popular MyFitnessPal. There is still a manual element to the way the Ember system works, but it’s certainly an improvement on current caffeine tracking methods.

The only downside here is the price. Two mugs are currently available via Amazon from here, with a ceramic one costing $79.95 and a travel mug also on offer for a whopping $149.95. If you order from Apple, there’s also a white version of that travel mug that appears to be exclusive to the Apple Store.