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Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

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Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#111

Post by mikestew »

nhance wrote: post #109
babypuncher wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think nhance was trying to say that Apple is evil, they are expressing a desire not to get sucked into Apple's ecosystem. Samsung's ecosystem lacks the breadth of Apple's and isn't nearly as good at creating vendor lock-in.

Correct. Apple products work well together, but also make it a huge pain in the ass if you don't buy everything from them. The kids have apple products and we can't manage them effectively because we don't have apple devices. This provides a strong disincentive to want to give them any more money. Samsung was only mentioned because are there any other real competitors to a full smart watch? Garmin will likely keep me…

Garmin will likely keep me because running gps for 10+ hours at a shot is important. A full smart watch is far less of a priority.

If you don't want to dive headlong into Apple's stuff, then a Garmin might very well be all the smart watch you need. It's been quite a few years since I used a Garmin as a full-time smart watch, but you can have notifications and messages (read-only if using an Apple phone) and even contactless payment on a Garmin. If we weren't a knees-deep Apple house, I'd just use my Garmin 945 as my smart watch.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#112

Post by mikestew »

TobyTheDog123 wrote: post #76

Why would you make the "action button" a fixed bright orange color? I want to be able to wear it whether I'm on a run or whether I'm going out. EDIT: Yeah, international orange, cool - keep it as an option, but the vast majority of people buying this will never be in a situation where "international orange" is needed.

Oh, it's needed alright. It signals to the others in that sprint planning meeting that you are an extreme athlete who cares not for such things as aesthetics. And in case they can't quite make it out at the other end of the conference table, we'll make it bright orange.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#113

Post by nradov »

imchillyb wrote: post #15
Sakos wrote: post #3

I'm most annoyed that they've locked competent GPS tracking behind a $799 price tag. It's the one reason why I didn't get an Apple Watch originally. It was consistently less reliable and inaccurate in weird ways than similarly priced Garmin and others.

Apple Watch is significantly more accurate than a Garmin or other handheld 'portable' GPS unit. Significantly so, especially when paired with a phone (which users already own).

Independent tests have shown that the latest high-end Garmin devices are more accurate than previous Apple watches due to support for dual-frequency GPS. This makes a significant difference when signals are obstructed by buildings or trees. The new Apple Watch Ultra will now have feature parity so it should be just as accurate.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#114

Post by alberth »

People are getting hung up on battery life.

You have to realize Apple is creating the equivalent of the luxury Mercedes G-Wagon for off-roading, when in reality a Jeep Rubicon (Garmin) addresses all of your real needs at 1/3 the price.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#115

Post by nradov »

evgen wrote: post #97
AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlikely they can use bluetooth as the communications methods between the AI pod and the watch are custom and bespoke due to needing to work underwater and be super reliable.

Too bad that this is not a good option. Maybe someone will put a WiFi AP into an air integrated unit to enable connectivity :)

WiFi doesn't work underwater, the signals don't propagate far enough. Most tank pressure transmitters use a different radio frequency band which does penetrate water. The Garmin devices use an audio signal instead.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#116

Post by jwagenet »

slg wrote: post #66
muppetman wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The value is you can leave it on your wrist without having to take it off all the time to charge it. Like a normal watch. It's one less thing to have to have go flat on you because you forgot to charge it the night before. One less thing to be a slave to charging.

> It's one less thing to have to have go flat on you because you forgot to charge it the night before. But you don't need 18 days for that. Like I said, I understand wanting a few days. Why do you need a few weeks? It seems like at that point it becomes even more likely that you would forget to charge because it never becomes a routine.

the importance for me isn't actually the idle battery life itself (even for phones or laptops that isnt the case). The high battery life allows me to use GPS for 8-12 hours on my Coros, which is usually >20 days of idle use with infrequent HR, elevation, etc.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#117

Post by KennyBlanken »

alberth wrote: post #114

People are getting hung up on battery life. You have to realize Apple is creating the equivalent of the luxury Mercedes G-Wagon for off-roading, when in reality a Jeep Rubicon (Garmin) addresses all of your real needs at 1/3 the price.

The problem with Garmin is that they obsessively fragment/segment/differentiate their market/products.

It's infuriating that such an expensive watch will be unable to do some basic feature because they want to sell a "golf" version of the watch or a "sailing" version and so on.

They'll also release some feature that clearly is possible to implement on even current products elsewhere in the lineup - and isn't even really implemented on the watch at all but just some processing done on their cloud. But you don't get the feature, even if you bought a current model elsewhere in the lineup, because only the new watches get it.

With increased competition, supply chain issues, and consumer spending tightening it's been amusing to see Garmin suddenly drop much of that; the Vivoactive 4 and Forerunner 255 are absent most of their typical segmentation crap. The Forerunner 255 is a running watch that supports cycling power meters, for example, which had been a feature that had been limited to their absurdly expensive, huge, gaudy-looking "Fenix" watches.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#118

Post by TobyTheDog123 »

isitmadeofglass wrote: post #105
pcj-github wrote: post #53

They used the word "extreme" 15 times, sigh. I didn't realize wakeboarding was an "extreme" water sport. TIL.

Sigh, Yes, wakeboarding is an extreme sport. Just because you personally might feel that it’s “not extreme enough” doesn’t change that fact. The category of extreme sports is about risks of serious injury or death, not about how “Rad” people perceive them to be. > Contusions, abrasions, strains, sprains, low back pain and rib fractures are common injuries experienced in wakeboarding.

Found the wakeboarder

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#119

Post by zimpenfish »

drewg123 wrote: post #16

How can they call 36 hours of battery life "long"? The $799 version Garmin Fenix 7 solar (which they seem to be targeting) has an 18-22 days of battery life.

> 18-22 days of battery life.

Only in "smartwatch" mode - ie. pretty much everything is turned off. In GPS mode, you get 73 hours (which is more than the 60 you get on the Watch Ultra in conservation mode, yes, but vastly lower than "18-22 days"!)

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#120

Post by zimpenfish »

alphakilo wrote: post #69
drewg123 wrote: post #16

How can they call 36 hours of battery life "long"? The $799 version Garmin Fenix 7 solar (which they seem to be targeting) has an 18-22 days of battery life.

I definitely agree with you. Even my Garmin Phoenix 5x plus will last multiple days with GPS usage for Backcountry camping. Another factor I worry about is the durability of the screen. Although you should always travel with backup Maps nobody wants to lose their primary navigation tool because a touch screen is nicer than Sapphire glass displays. That said the Apple watch is a nicer experience than the Phoenix which…

> Even my Garmin Phoenix 5x plus will last multiple days with GPS usage for Backcountry camping.

Sporadic GPS usage, I'm guessing, since Garmin themselves only claim 13 hours of GPU usage (can't tell if it has UltraTrac though - the 5x non-plus can do 50 hours in UltraTrac mode.)

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