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Apple Watch Series 5

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281–290 of 491 posts

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, does anyone with more knowledge know how Garmin are able to get so much more battery life out of their watches? Their official spec definitely lists "2 weeks" in "Smartwatch Mode" (which seems to be GPS disabled, but still heart rate tracking and similar). It is impressive and I'm curious why Apple cannot compete.

I'm guessing it's because Garmin has a lot of excellent embedded hardware folks.

I think it’s more that Apple prefers a powerful OS on a slim devices over long battery life.

Even if they don’t already have a lot of excellent embedded hardware folks, which I doubt, I don’t think they would have trouble hiring them, if they wanted to.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#283
The Watch does too much. I love the Fitbit Versa because it helps me get off my phone. Just important notifications and reading texts and that's it. I can't really "do" much on it except glance at notifications and that's exactly what I want. Helped me keep my phone in another room in the house or in my bag at work and not look at it at all.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#284

While I am looking to upgrade to the Series 5 from a Series 1, I'm disappointed in the lack of native sleep tracking functionality... it's a glaring hole in the concept of overall health tracking. Similarly, I'd hoped they would announce some standardization to weightlifting in HealthKit. The watch and iphone health options are very cardio-centric, and every weightlifting app has implemented their own internal 1RM tr…

I’ve been using the app called AutoSleep (I think it was like $5) and it’s pretty awesome. You can even export your own data. Highly recommended.

Obviously not a solution to the native sleep tracking issue but definitely good for what’s available right now.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While sleep tracking is possible the single most useful thing I could get out of a wearable, I just have never been able to sleep with a watch or band on. Until there's something as low profile as a reminder band (think Livestrong), I'm not sure if I'll be able to get sleep tracking (the Oura ring is promising, but the price point is too high for its limited applications to me).

I don't mean to be sarcastic - but how is sleep tracking useful? What practical benefit do you get out of knowing how long/how you sleep?

When you wake up exhausted (or not) you can see what/when contributed to that.

I used such for a couple years. Best part was specifying what time range I wanted to wake up, and it would watch for the best actual time to wake me. Much happier mornings then.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1980 watches: battery lasts a couple of months 2019 watches: battery lasts a couple of hours

1980 supercomputers: 5 tons and cost $10m 2019 watches: 30g and cost $400

1980 watches: 30g and cost $35

https://www.timex.com/browse/collections/ironman/

(sorry)

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#288
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think all day depends on the specific device. For example, I would accept a 10 hr battery life for a laptop or wireless headphones as "all-day" because that will cover a full work day and people aren't expected to use those devices 24/7. 18 hours for "all-day" on a wearable seems reasonable if the expectation is that it will be used only when the user is awake. A complicating factor is that Watch OS 6 is supposed t…

While sleep tracking is possible the single most useful thing I could get out of a wearable, I just have never been able to sleep with a watch or band on. Until there's something as low profile as a reminder band (think Livestrong), I'm not sure if I'll be able to get sleep tracking (the Oura ring is promising, but the price point is too high for its limited applications to me).

I find that placing my device on my ankle is significantly more comfortable for night-time tracking.

The band I have is of a suitable length for both wrist and ankle use.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#289
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think all day depends on the specific device. For example, I would accept a 10 hr battery life for a laptop or wireless headphones as "all-day" because that will cover a full work day and people aren't expected to use those devices 24/7. 18 hours for "all-day" on a wearable seems reasonable if the expectation is that it will be used only when the user is awake. A complicating factor is that Watch OS 6 is supposed t…

While sleep tracking is possible the single most useful thing I could get out of a wearable, I just have never been able to sleep with a watch or band on. Until there's something as low profile as a reminder band (think Livestrong), I'm not sure if I'll be able to get sleep tracking (the Oura ring is promising, but the price point is too high for its limited applications to me).

Interesting, I don't mind sleeping with a watch band on and there are a few 3rd party sleep tracking apps for the apple watch already that are decent.

My biggest complaint is there's no way to disable the screen that's good enough for sleeping. In theater mode it still wakes up if you tap the glass and I accidentally bump it way too often when lying in bed. I really want a better night time mode where only pressing the crown will light up the screen. If they do add an officially supported sleep tracker I hope they'd run into this issue and fix it.

Re: Apple Watch Series 5

#290

This is a big let down for me. I love endurance sports and currently use a S3+LTE with bluetooth headphones and it's the perfect running companion. I don't have to carry anything to track to run and listen to my music, podcasts, or audiobooks. But I was really expecting more innovation from the "by innovation only" event. Garmin's flagship watch has a feature that extends the battery life by embedded TWO SOLAR PANELS…

You don't have to carry anything to listen to music, podcasts, or audio books with the wifi-only Apple Watch (beyond the bluetooth earphones, presumably), and it tracks your run too. The thing has 16GB of storage and a full ability to exist by itself. I've never used the S3, or the Garmin, so I have no idea how great they are, but I just had to comment on the Apple Watch thing.

There are some things that the Apple Watch seemed designed to be tethered to an iPhone, almost like they were (bizarrely) afraid that it would make people not want to upgrade their phone. They've taken a really rapid approach away from that, though, and the watch is becoming dramatically more powerful by itself, even though it could already do all of the basic things.

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