When it was launched I found it more interesting than the watch which was presented at the same event.
I thought the same, I couldn't believe news about this was more widespread as it's really a far bigger deal in the long-term.
I also think that this initiative would not hace come from Jobs.
I think given his health problems he would have been rather big on ways to understand disease better so that his could have been prevented much earlier.
If lots and lots of people start gathering data over time, the history of which can be shared with researchers, perhaps there can be found some signs that you should have tests done early on for some conditions that get worse later...
And even habitually Apple bashing slashdotters must grudgingly respect that it is open source.
No they "must" not. If that were true they would have done so with WebKit, LLVM, etc. Instead they ignore these things, and secretly it makes them hate Apple even more.
One of the research areas was particularly interesting: it was if I remember well a study about asthma symptoms, and the participants phone location was used together with a grid of a few 1000 air polluants sensors in New york city
And samples taken by researchers from around the city too (scrapings from buildings and trash cans)! That was a really cool use of the technology to try and find more exactly what things may trigger attacks.