Never an apple product

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

this is the path to simple, realtime race tracking. Plus, as an athlete, you can potentially see where you are (what race position) in the race. Just bring up the 'leaders' menu on the new IM tracker, and you'll know that you're only 2 minutes behind 74th place in your age group.

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TEAM F3 Undurance

I was initially really fired up about this. Since becoming a dad, I have gotten used to taking my phone everywhere with me and I really love the idea of a basic device for calls and texts.

My only hesitation is that I have gotten so used to bringing the phone - I mean I buy running shorts based on which has the best phone pocket - that 2.5 years later, I may not appreciate it as much.

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

I have been waiting for this feature from Apple. Unfortunately, it took them so long to incorporate it that I no longer feel the need for it. I've gotten used to having my phone on me during a run.

If they go on sale for under $325 around Christmas I may bite the bullet...or Apple, I guess.

I wait for battery life tests w/ GPS and LTE on

Too bad you can't take any selfies with it :-(:::::

Garmin is somewhat pricing themselves out of the market with the Fenix 5. I own one. I use it religiously. Never off my wrist but I would like something a little more refined like the Apple Watch for non-sport related stuff. I am bought into the Apple ecosystem so it just makes sense for me. Some people hate Apple. To each their own but this platform is a game changer. I am a data nerd but respect simplicity for collecting that data. There has to be a single app that works for swim/bike/run and up to Ironman distance training/triathlon.

I've seen a few early numbers posted from some prerelease tests. Gps + LTE (not talking, just data) = 4 hours. Talk time on LTE really burns through battery, down to about an hour. I'll see if I can find the links I read all this at.

I guess you miss-read the thread title? It is about apple products.

18 hours w/o GPS..
5 hours w/ GPS
GPS + LTE = Better Run faster than ever before to finish before the watch battery finishes.

Not only is the F5 being priced out of the water, the lower end stuff like the newly announced Vivoactive 3 (i like it tho) has it's priced up'ed 2x IIRC from the initial version.. it's now at USD299 for the VA3 a bump of USD50 from the VA HR (version 2)

Garmin still wins currently for the fitness crowd but looks like apple is slowly (but surely) gaining ground.

Yes and no.

I'm an Apple guy through and through. I've owned one or more Apple products continuously since about 1987, including through the early and mid-90's when it wasn't cool. However, the Apple Watch is not something I have any interest in.

The AW is an awesome smart watch that kinda does fitness ok. We are not the target audience. Unless and until it's got significantly better battery watch both in regular mode and in GPS mode, I think it's a non-starter for folks like us. Don't get me wrong. For people like my wife who runs 3-4 times per week for 3-5 miles, walks the dog and does stuff like boot camp, it's perfect for them. She loves hers. But, for people like me, it just doesn't work. I'll take my 935 over an AW any day of the week - or maybe two weeks, i.e. the 935's battery life in watch mode. I prefer a top shelf fitness watch that sort of does basic smart watch ok.

I guess the obvious question is:


"Where does the Gear S3 fall short in terms of being a replacement for your Garmin"


I'd never even heard of it, but I just had a quick browse on the internet and it seems to fulfil the exact same niche as the Apple Watch. Say you're going for a run, what apps can you run on there to track it? How about swimming? What kind of battery life are you getting out of it?

On seekingalpha (investor website), they are talking about $11B revenue from this watch at $350 Average Selling Price (ASP). That sounds like over 30M units that they plan to sell, so to get to that number, they are not targeting the 30M tri geeks and extreme endurance people that don't exist (maybe there are 1-2M of us across sports).

Personally I really can't see the utility of cellular connectivity when I run. My runs are short enough that I am back home/office before any major emergency can get out of hand and I have my phone with me in my jersey for bike rides in case I need to call. I actually turn it to airplane mode so that no one can reach me anyway. I can't see GPS+LTE battery life being long enough for any meaningful ride, so you're turning off the LTE and having it on airplane mode anyway, which is back to what I am doing.

I am a big apple fan and have everything Apple except their watch. I like it and thought about getting the 2 but that battery life is horrendous. What I like about my Fenix is that I don't have to charge it that often. Maybe once a week.
Also, I've heard numourious reports about their GPS and how spotty it is and sometimes it just stops tracking mid runs.

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SmartBikeTrainers.com || YouTube || My Twitter

How do you carry the phone with you and which shorts have phone pockets?

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SmartBikeTrainers.com || YouTube || My Twitter

Not them, but I use a spibelt to cart my phone. It's a 7 plus with a case so not small. You can't even feel it. Several times I've forgotten it's on there when changing after a run and dropped it.

As for the watch, there's also a charge by your cell provider to add it to your plan. I've heard it's $10 for att and Verizon in the us. Not sure about other carriers/counties. Seems too high to me.

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--Chris

This is off-topic but does anyone know what the technical difference is between lower-end Garmins like the Vivoactive and the high-end multisport watches that allows them to track open water swimming when the Vivoactive can't? Is it simply a better, more sensitive/accurate GPS receiver?

It does look interesting, however as a non iPhone user it is a big expense to get into the apple ecosystem! I wonder if FaceID will work recognising my contorted features after a hard workout...

My guess is money, as in you didn't pay enough to Garmin for them to enable that feature.

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--Chris

This question has me changing my tune and wanting the new watch. I have a iPhone 6 (the smaller one) and I have found the best way to run with it is in the "hip" zipper pocket of several models of Lululemon running shorts. They seem to be just the right size to fit the phone and keep bouncing to a minimum.

I would love to have a giant phone as I commute an hour each way to work on the train and would love the extra space on the screen. But I want to be connected all the time in case of an emergency at home.

Having the watch could mean I can get a giant phone and not have to take it with me everywhere. Almost all of my runs are at lunch during the week and sometimes I do need to be reachable.

Heading out for a run with just a watch with Strava and streaming music/being able to take a call with AirPods seems pretty ideal.

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

I'm looking forward to the day when the watch can stand alone as a cellular device, and the phone just becomes one of an array of accessories that gets its data from the "brain". Chipsets, batteries, and efficiency have a long ways to go, but I could see it being feasible some day. I would rather divorce the "brain" from the UI-- make it minimal, small, and unobtrusively wearable, and allow the user to pick the appropriate UI for the activity. One data device, one monthly fee-- many form factors.

I have the Apple Watch 2 and love it. I'm hardly without my phone though so the LTE isn't groundbreaking. When you factor in the $10 a month added data fee, it's not for me right now. I'm guessing they drop that to $5 a month at some point to make it more appealing. I'd also like to see them (Apple and the carriers) do some type of integration so that you can only use data on one device and then you not have to pay an extra service fee - if your phone is in range of your watch then the watch using the phone's data, and if the watch is out of range of the phone then the watch uses it's own data, and the carrier assumes the data usage from the phone is going to be minimal when the watch is separated since the only data will be from background app refreshes and syncs. They might not have the technical ability to do this yet though.

This is my use case as well (though I'll likely opt for local storage for music to keep LTE usage low and thus hopefully prolong battery life a bit)

How far are you running??!! I'll probably still bring my phone on longer rides.

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

Long runs for me are ~100 minutes. I don't stream music on my phone either fwiw.

If this phone can't stream music and run GPS for 2+ hours, it has no business being in the space!

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

So let me understand what you want. Basically a brain that can clip to a belt (ex fuelbelt for sport, regular belt with a suit), or stay in a pocket or purse or maybe just somewhere in the room within line of sight , but that brain has no screen....just CPU, memory and networking. Separately, you can have a user interface that is just a screen (could be laptop/notebook or tablet size, phablet, phone or watch size). Brain unit communicates with whatever you have in your hand and recognizes which physical visual interface it is communicating with based on a code that the visual interface pushes to the brain and then brain pushes the apps/programs etc in a format appropriate to the interface?

On a plus side, it makes the UI side very lightweight and battery life friendly (potentially). On the down side, you need both or the UI/Screen unit is useless. I actually was hoping for something like that for laptop 15 years ago. Just let me eject the CPU-Memory-Networking-Storage in a tiny module and throw into my pocket for the commute home and then when I get home I can just dock it in my display/keyboard shell at home. No need to carry around all these bulky display units.

Once we get into augmented reality, I think this is the path to go. Brain unit plus glasses that render the 3D user interface experience.

I have two walkman waist mounted belts. One I put on with my walkman. The other I put on with my phone running strava. Pretty simple.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

Dev: several companies have tried to bring that idea to market unsuccessfully. I've been a fan of that concept for probably as long as you. For whatever reason the manufacturers always brought these concepts to market with seriously underpowered components. It wasn't a thermal issue (I built my own cascade systems as a kid ;) I suspect it was a power supply issue.

Hey guys I don't mean to be the Silicon Valley douchebag in the room, but have you heard of "the cloud" ?

Your $1200 iPhone is he brain. You get calls/texts on the phone, watch, iPad, MacBook, etc.

Your work is in Salesforce/workday/Box/gmail/O365/JIRA/hubspot/etc.

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

95% of our business is in the cloud but then you have a program like Revit which doesn't do well at all in a virtualized instance.

This is the future. But a 4 hr battery life with GPS? Yeah no. That's not going to work. Maybe in a year or three.

One would be right in terms of money.
poorer CPU
Lesser storage
none of those FirstBeat / VO2 max etc (which again - I thinkit's just firmware....) which you're getting on the VA3
Open Water Swimming algorithm and I guess this also needs a speedy CPU to get the lock on the GPS signals at every arm stroke?

it's 4 hr w/ GPS + LTE, 5 for w/ GPS only.

but you're right.. for the tri-athlete, doesn't work, but for the majority of runners and such, I think it fills that niche VERY nicely. (just have a spare charger powerbank in the car for the post run coffee place

Try this about battery life - https://www.macrumors.com/...ries-3-battery-life/

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)