Apple is reportedly making a big push into health and home monitoring

Apple looks to have a few new product categories to introduce the world to during the WWDC 2014 keynote on Monday morning. Corroborating earlier rumors, the New York Times is reporting that Apple will indeed show off a new health monitoring system on Monday as well as a new smart home initiative. A source speaking with the newspaper who spoke under the condition of anonymity that a new health app will indeed be shown off tomorrow that will track statistics for things such as general health, fitness, heart rate, sleep activity,and exercise. Initially the new app will interface with third-party hardware, but it will more than likely connect with Apple’s long rumored iWatch once it is finally unveiled.

Apple is unlikely to introduce new devices this week, the things that most excite customers and investors these days. But the company is expected to dive deeper into two new areas: connected health and the so-called smart home. Along with operating system updates for mobile and desktop machines, Apple plans to introducex a new health-tracking app at its annual developers’ conference on Monday, according to a person briefed on the product, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans were confidential. The app for mobile devices will track statistics for health or fitness, like a user’s footsteps, heart rate and sleep activity. The health app will initially pull data from third-party fitness and health-monitoring hardware, the person said, but it will most likely be able to connect with a smart watch that Apple is widely expected to release this year. Apple is also expected to make an announcement about its efforts with connecting to so-called smart home devices, or home appliances that can be wirelessly controlled with a smartphone, like light bulbs, thermostats or door locks.