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Apple Watch 3

2,761 bytes added, 13:35, 24 January 2018
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* The GPS accuracy of the Apple watch is surprisingly good. I'll add more details soon.
* The built-in activity tracking uses 3 metrics: The number of calories burned, the number of activity minutes, and the number of hours where you've been moving for at least one minute. Overall, I quite like this approach when compared to simple step counting, and it doesn't seem to get confused in the way many step counters due by the partial steps that occur when you're doing things like cooking.
* The vibration (hepatics) on the Apple Watch is quite strong, and it's harder to miss the vibration alerts than with some other watches.
==Cons==
* The Apple watch is expensive, costing as much as a high-end Garmin running watch. If you're looking for a running watch, then the Apple watch is vastly overpriced and has only the crudest of capabilities.
** With the Apple Workout and Bluetooth HRM, GPS, and Cellular, I can get over 6.5 hours of recording from a full charge.
** Disabling cellular with the Apple Workout with GPS and a Bluetooth HRM only increases the recording by about an hour, to 7.5 hours of recording. That's a worthwhile improvement, but given one of the primary purposes of getting a cellular Apple Watch is the cellular access, it's a bit self-defeating.
** Using Apple Workout cellular but without GPS give a much longer battery life. I have not drained the battery in this mode, but I'd estimate that it's over 20 hours. However, because there's no support for a [[Footpod]], this is of limited value, but it does suggest that it might be possible to get much longer battery life from the Apple Watch with the right application & footpod.
* The Apple watch support for Bluetooth sensors is app dependent, but generally fairly poor.
* I've found the user interface to the Apple watch okay for general use, but frustrating when running. There are 2 physical buttons, but both of them are used by the operating system, so apps cannot leverage them. There is the rotating "crown", but most of the time this is used instead of swiping up and down, and few apps seem to leverage it. The touchscreen is responsive, and includes "force touch" for additional user interaction possibilities. I found the force touch to be quite frustrating when I'm running, as it's hard to judge how much pressure to apply when you're moving, and pressing too hard is registered as a force press not a button press. There's also no indication of when force touch is likely to be a valid input, so you end up having to try and see what happens. There's also no consistent user interface paradigm for when apps should use a press, force press, or a turn of the crown.
* The Workout app will support an external Bluetooth heart rate monitor as well as the internal OHRM.
* There's no built-in data export option. There are third party apps that help with this (to be tested).
* There's no support for a footpod, so treadmill running has limited accuracy. I found this mode had a lot of error (~20%).
* There's also no support for bike trainers, like the Kickr. This means that if you do an indoor cycling workout, the Workout app just records your heart rate. (Apple are working on an NFC based connection to Gym equipment, but I've not tested that.
* A minor annoyance in the scale of things, but if you take a screenshot of the workout app, it pauses the recording. This can be a real pain when you don't notice for hours!
[[File:AW Workout Default.png|center|thumb|300px|The default display using the Workout app for outdoor running.]]
==Apple Workout Data Export==
The Apple workout app stores your data in Apple Health, and provides no options for export or synchronizing with other applications. This is in line with Apple's general approach to their Health application and data. Thankfully, there are apps that will support data export, and I've tried a couple. Both work reasonably well, depending on your specific requirements.
===RunGap Export App===
RunGap is a free to download, but $2 every 3 months to enable the export functionality. You get quite a number of export options, including Garmin Connect, Endomondo, RunKeeper, Strava, Runtastic, Polar, Suunto Movescount, SportTracks, Adidas, Magellan, Nike+. You can also export the war data to email, Dropbox or iCloud as TCX, FIT, or GPX. I found that the export functionality was reasonably good, though I noticed the FIT files didn't include lap markers. You also get some details of your workouts, but no overall analysis of things like training stress (that's not what this app is about.) [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rungap-workout-data-manager/id534460198?mt=8 RunGap on Apple.com]
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===HealthFit Export App===
HealthFit is a slightly simpler than RunGap, but it's also a $2 outright purchase, so it works out cheaper. It allows you to export workouts to email, iCloud, Strava, Dropbox, Final Surgee, Selfloops, Smashrun, SportTracks, and TrainingPeaks. It only exports of files as FIT, not TCX or GPX, but the FIT files include lap splits. It provides some overview health metrics as well and some filtering of workouts based on the source or the activity type. [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/healthfit/id1202650514?mt=8 HealthFit on Apple.com].
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=iSmoothRun App=
To follow.
To follow
=GPS Accuracy =
To follow(not iSR, Cellular, no iPhone)

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