[HN Gopher] Apple Watch Series 10
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Apple Watch Series 10
        
       Author : latexr
       Score  : 123 points
       Date   : 2024-09-09 18:39 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.apple.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.apple.com)
        
       | colesantiago wrote:
       | Looks like nothing has been announced that is groundbreaking
       | here.
       | 
       | It seems it was rumoured that the Apple Watch Series 10 would
       | have blood pressure monitoring but instead removed the blood
       | oxygen detection from US models in the fine print:
       | 
       | "The ability to measure blood oxygen is no longer available on
       | Apple Watch units sold by Apple in the United States beginning
       | January 18, 2024."
        
         | laweijfmvo wrote:
         | maybe i'll buy one on my upcoming trip to europe then...
        
           | ValentineC wrote:
           | Apple Watches (even Series 9) sold by Apple resellers in the
           | US (Amazon etc) still came with blood oxygen detection, even
           | after firmware updates.
        
             | chaostheory wrote:
             | Only those that shipped before this year. They were getting
             | hard to find even last may.
        
         | jameshart wrote:
         | The blood oxygen detection is disabled to comply with a patent
         | ruling.
        
         | ValentineC wrote:
         | I think it's interesting that the new sleep apnea detection
         | uses the accelerometer for detection, instead of blood oxygen
         | levels.
        
         | hombre_fatal wrote:
         | In another article I read last week, Apple just couldn't get
         | passive blood pressure to work well enough. The tech isn't
         | there yet, but I can't wait until it's standard.
         | 
         | Whoop (another wearable) has been doing closed consumer testing
         | on optical blood pressure. Probably trying to figure it out for
         | the Whoop 5.0, but if it Apple couldn't figure it out this
         | year, I don't think anyone will. Maybe next Christmas.
        
       | danieldk wrote:
       | I thank Apple for not releasing an Ultra 3. No FOMO this year :).
        
         | laweijfmvo wrote:
         | Honestly seems like the main reason to buy an Ultra 2 over a 10
         | is if you dive, or really, really need the extra battery life.
        
           | nostromo wrote:
           | I don't care about either of those, personally.
           | 
           | After breaking 3 Apple Watches, I just needed something more
           | durable. I've been happy with it for a few years now with no
           | real damages.
        
             | nahtnam wrote:
             | Cheaper to just buy apple care
        
               | swatcoder wrote:
               | Is it really good to treat things as disposable just
               | because price incentives happen to make doing so cost
               | efficient?
               | 
               | If the GP has a lifestyle that's hard on their watch,
               | good on them for selecting the durable product that can
               | survive it instead of churning needless extraction,
               | labor, shipping, time, and e-waste.
        
               | paulcole wrote:
               | I don't think it's bad to treat things as disposable.
               | 
               | I think it's easy to scoff at (and look down on) someone
               | who does treat things as disposable.
               | 
               | But the reality is that we all (in the developed world)
               | treat everything as if it's disposable. But we just like
               | to think that we're mindful or whatever because it makes
               | us feel good.
        
               | gensym wrote:
               | You can only buy AppleCare+ for a 2-year length.
        
               | 8ytecoder wrote:
               | AppleCare now has monthly until you cancel plans - not
               | just for watch but for phone and even the monitor. (I'm
               | not sure of the macs). It's a bit confusing when you
               | order and I'm not sure if it's because Apple is trying to
               | discourage this; I just decline during order and then add
               | it separately and this option always shows up for me.
        
               | ValentineC wrote:
               | AppleCare+, since 2019, has been renewable (presumably
               | until Apple declares the product obsolete) for most
               | products except the AirPods (in my experience) in the
               | following countries [1]:
               | 
               | Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France,
               | Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New
               | Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United
               | Kingdom and the United States
               | 
               | [1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/101560
        
               | Kirby64 wrote:
               | You can buy AppleCare+ monthly indefinitely (until they
               | EOL the device) at a monthly rate. You can even renew it
               | after the 2 year length into a monthly plan.
        
           | kolbe wrote:
           | Runners like the dual band GPS in the Ultra 2.
        
           | haswell wrote:
           | Some concrete reasons I have for wanting that extra battery
           | life: camping, hiking, and road tripping.
           | 
           | I can keep up with charging when I have a predictable
           | schedule. When I don't, I'm always running out of battery and
           | often in the worst moments, i.e. when I'm just starting a
           | hike.
        
             | laweijfmvo wrote:
             | road tripping: you can charge in the car
             | 
             | camping and hiking: sure, but for overnight trips, i have a
             | battery pack (for my phone) that also has a magnetic watch
             | pad.
        
           | kstrauser wrote:
           | I don't really, really need the extra battery life. I treated
           | myself to a Ultra 1 when they came out and now I'd never go
           | back to _having_ to charge my watch daily. Among other
           | things, now I never wonder if it 's charged enough before bed
           | to track my sleep. It is. It always is.
        
           | izacus wrote:
           | Unfortunately the reports from other divers say that the
           | Ultra is not a very reliable diving computer with OS crashing
           | and rebooting at times. Something that's unthinkable on a
           | Shearwater, Garmin or even a Suunto.
        
           | meursault334 wrote:
           | I don't "really really" need the extra better life but I just
           | bought a Ultra 2 on Amazon today because they were on sale
           | and the 10 doesn't improve battery life at all.
           | 
           | I've been doing hikes that last 6-8 hours (I have little kids
           | so we go slow, takes breaks etc) and pretty much every time
           | my Series 8 either runs out our I have to really carefully
           | conserve battery. I'm hoping the Ultra 2 will mean I can just
           | record my hike and not worry about it.
        
             | kstrauser wrote:
             | That's my experience with the Ultra 1. If I have even 50%
             | battery, I'm ready to run or hit the gym or paddleboard or
             | whatever.
        
           | MBCook wrote:
           | The 10 got the diving stuff this year, though perhaps not as
           | good as the ultra.
           | 
           | I think the big story on the ultra is just going to stay
           | battery life + better GOS (for now?). Want to do a 12 hour
           | trail ride? It can keep exercise mode without fully draining
           | your battery.
        
         | Spartan-S63 wrote:
         | I'm hoping that means the Ultra 3 will be more interesting
         | later on, in some way. Maybe a 51mm circular option to compete
         | with Garmin on form factor? Maybe a bigger battery? It's
         | disappointing they broke the lockstep release of the Apple
         | Watch this year, though.
         | 
         | I have an Ultra 1 and the battery life is a lot worse than the
         | Ultra 2, but there's no new watch for me this year, so now I'm
         | stuck.
        
       | minkles wrote:
       | Meh. Stopped wearing my S9 in May. Not sure why I bought it.
       | Think AW wore off here finally. It's a nice toy but useless for
       | me (even cycling / hiking etc).
       | 
       | I take an F91W when I go hiking as it doesn't need charging.
        
         | laweijfmvo wrote:
         | I still use mine mainly for
         | 
         | - sleep tracking combined with Athlytic for Whoop-style metrics
         | (might not be the most accurate, but good enough). also silent
         | alarms
         | 
         | - runs tracking -- nice to be able to track my run and listen
         | to a podcast all from the watch
         | 
         | - swim tracking -- i guess Garmin is just as good, but love
         | being able to see the screen while swimming to check my
         | progress
         | 
         | if the silly cellular plan wasn't such a JOKE ($15/month to
         | share my already $60 plan???), I'd enable that and not need to
         | carry my phone for emergencies on hikes/bike rides, etc.
        
           | amonon wrote:
           | What's the value of something like Athlytic/Whoops against
           | just sticking to a routine?
        
             | laweijfmvo wrote:
             | Routine is Step 1, you're right. But for training, seeing
             | things like HRV, resting heart rate, etc. allow you to
             | optimize your training for the day based on your
             | recovery/sleep.
        
               | ra7 wrote:
               | I used Athlytic for a bit, but didn't find it that
               | useful. Ultimately I figured I could just read HRV and
               | RHR from the Health app to optimize training.
        
               | laweijfmvo wrote:
               | Shame on me for not knowing it was already there..
        
         | nabaraz wrote:
         | Give garmin a go. One week+ battery and it's outdoor activities
         | tracking is just great.
        
           | kawsper wrote:
           | I have a lower entry Garmin and it's amazing for running,
           | biking and every day tracking, it's a Forerunner 245, but
           | it's no smart watch.
        
           | minkles wrote:
           | I'll pass on that. I've got a Garmin handheld and OrganicMaps
           | on my phone which are both fine for any remote activities I
           | do. I don't need to track activities.
        
         | truncate wrote:
         | Useless is bit extreme criticism. I'm not an athlete or super
         | intense, but somewhat more active than average (regular
         | strength training, hiking 10-20 miles 3000-6000ft gain, bike
         | ride 25-35 miles). It works just fine, its precise enough --
         | and I don't care about extreme precision. Sure there are better
         | devices out, and battery will last much longer for bigger
         | hikes, but its good all-around for most people which works for
         | both active and regular life.
        
         | f0rgot wrote:
         | Willing to sell it?
        
         | Aaronstotle wrote:
         | I love cycling with my apple watch, its actually the largest
         | use case for owning one in my opinion. If I'm not exercising I
         | don't wear it, I like getting the heart rate states synced to
         | strava.
        
           | minkles wrote:
           | Urgh it's the worst for cycling I find. I just use the phone.
           | The watch is in the wrong place to see it, the controls
           | aren't tactile and the thing distracts you. All recipes for
           | trouble.
        
         | maipen wrote:
         | I also ditched my apple watch.
         | 
         | Even when working out I didn't really bother using it to track
         | my workouts. Going to the gym is the only thing that mattered.
         | 
         | For checking the time and apps? I have my phone in my pocket at
         | all times...
         | 
         | Charging it was annoying in my experience, if I didn't wear it
         | for 1 or 2 days, when I wanted to wear it, it was dead...
         | 
         | But I know some people that actualy take advantage of it, so it
         | depends.
         | 
         | If battery lasted a whole month, I would probably reconsider.
         | But honestly I do without just fine...
        
           | seanmcdirmid wrote:
           | I use my watch a lot to unlock things and pay for things. It
           | is weird how much more I use it than my phone now (which can
           | do all those things also, but is usually in my pocket and not
           | on my wrist).
        
         | fsloth wrote:
         | Apple pay over the watch is killer app IMO. You can pay
         | everything with it. In civilized cities like london you can use
         | it to pay the public transit. While it may sound gimmicky, this
         | is actually an improvement (if only slight) to daily chores.
        
           | minkles wrote:
           | I live in London. You have to wear it on the right hand side
           | for TFL gates and contort yourself to use them. Also it's not
           | quite as reliable as the iPhone.
           | 
           | It was fine for ordering beer.
        
       | braaileb wrote:
       | Sounds like this isn't a compelling new release for many of you
       | all but as a person with autism the training load feature is
       | something I missed from Garmin. My interoception isn't very keen
       | and to have this help me train mindfully is nice, I've had a
       | history of either under or over training because I can't sense
       | how my body is adapting.
        
         | hbcondo714 wrote:
         | Thank you for sharing. Were you by chance diagnosed with a
         | sensory processing disorder[1]?
         | 
         | https://www.autismspeaks.org/sensory-processing-disorder
        
           | nullindividual wrote:
           | A good visual representation:
           | 
           | https://psyche.co/films/enter-the-sensory-world-of-an-
           | overst...
        
         | arthur-st wrote:
         | This depends on the model, e.g., the non-entry level Forerunner
         | series watches have had training load-related metrics for a
         | while now. That said, Garmin is mainly a cardio watch, and by
         | extension the Apple training load metrics seems to be giving a
         | more presentable UX to the "default"[1] approach to cardio
         | training load.
         | 
         | [1] https://evokeendurance.com/a-new-and-better-look-at-
         | training...
        
         | bengale wrote:
         | I've been using an awesome app called athlytic that takes this
         | to the next level.
        
       | cruffle_duffle wrote:
       | Finally they are focusing on making that thing thinner!! That
       | watch is currently obnoxiously thick and can sometimes get caught
       | on clothes and stuff.
        
         | esfandia wrote:
         | But now it's also apparently larger! I'm sure I'm not the only
         | person hoping for an Apple Watch that is reasonably thin and
         | small.
        
           | mistercheph wrote:
           | Monkey want big shiny rock, not stupid little rock
        
             | zombiwoof wrote:
             | You made my day
        
           | geerlingguy wrote:
           | I'd love that old 38mm watch, but thinner.
           | 
           | The problem is more little mini watch apps are adding more
           | functionality / touchable area, to the point it's hard on my
           | older 41mm (I think? Maybe 40?) watch to touch some of the
           | touch areas.
           | 
           | I'm guessing most devs use the giant size watches.
        
             | mikestew wrote:
             | Even Apple themselves are guilty of ridiculously small
             | touch targets these days. Hold the side button until the
             | emergency screen comes up. I defy you to hit the "power
             | off" button on a 40mm watch on the first try. Hell, I have
             | a hard enough time on my AW Ultra with these old eyes.
        
               | jjtheblunt wrote:
               | agreed : it's worse when your display has a hardware
               | failure, you remember how to try turning it off, and you
               | screw up and trigger an emergency instead, which i've
               | done.
        
           | Nextgrid wrote:
           | Can't have as much ads, distractions and other "engagement"
           | features on a small screen.
        
             | Carrok wrote:
             | I have had an Apple Watch for some time now, and have never
             | once seen a single ad on it. As far as distractions I get
             | only the notifications I want.
        
             | wilsonnb3 wrote:
             | Even the biggest Apple Watch screen is still tiny by any
             | reasonable metric.
             | 
             | They aren't filling the extra space with "distractions",
             | they are giving you space for an extra widget or two and
             | making it marginally less painful to type.
        
           | MBCook wrote:
           | The if you compare the 45mm series 8 from two years ago and
           | the new 46mm series 10, it's 1mm wider, 1mm taller, and 1mm
           | thinner.
           | 
           | Not much of a change on the other axis. The thickness is
           | mostly notable because that's about 10% gone.
        
         | WorldMaker wrote:
         | Thick wrist watches are in style every few decades, nothing
         | says "wealth" in just about any century quite like "big chonky
         | arm jewelry". I personally wouldn't have minded more battery
         | rather than thinner. 18 hours still seems far too short
         | compared to competitors, especially with a growing emphasis on
         | sleep tracking. (Though I appreciate that claims here that
         | charging time went down even further with this thinner model.)
        
         | BugsJustFindMe wrote:
         | Most of my friends with one would rather have longer battery
         | life than have it be slimmer.
        
           | bengale wrote:
           | That's the ultra.
        
             | BugsJustFindMe wrote:
             | Yeah but it's still not enough. Also the ultra is more
             | money than anyone I know is willing to pay for an apple
             | watch.
        
         | selykg wrote:
         | As a Garmin watch user, I don't mind the bulk, it's mostly the
         | general _shape_ of the Apple Watch that kills me. It's shaped
         | in such a way that it just sorta knocks into things in weird
         | ways.
         | 
         | I'm ultimately still very glad I ditched the Apple Watch in
         | lieu of a more fitness oriented watch but still like to keep an
         | eye on what they're doing. Looks like a decent upgrade for
         | someone that hasn't upgraded in several generations.
        
         | etrautmann wrote:
         | I completely disagree. I'd much rather have battery life than
         | thinness.
        
         | Menu_Overview wrote:
         | Yea, this was the one "feature" I've wanted. My S8 is still
         | working just fine, so no upgrade this year, but I'm glad
         | they're trimming it back after several years of slight
         | increases.
        
         | steve_adams_86 wrote:
         | If the ultra wasn't so durable mine would be dust by now from
         | all the random crap it knocks into. They're giant, blocky
         | watches.
        
         | kif wrote:
         | Interesting. I find the thinner S10 less appealing visually
         | speaking.
        
       | wintermutestwin wrote:
       | My Series 9 totally fails at sleep detection and regularly claims
       | that I am in "Deep Sleep" while I am lying there trying to get
       | back to sleep. Instead of fixing that, they are adding sleep
       | apnea alerts. I wish there was an alternate ecosystem that was
       | actually competitive with Apple.
        
         | 1123581321 wrote:
         | That sounds like a peculiar issue, so maybe it'll be bug-fixed
         | in the new iOS. They don't announce small fixes.
        
           | hombre_fatal wrote:
           | It's a common issue with all health wearables because they
           | don't have sufficient data.
           | 
           | When your heart rate and respiration rate are at sleep level
           | because you just slept for four hours, but you woke up and
           | now you're waiting to go back to sleep, there isn't much that
           | a wrist strap can do to disambiguate.
        
         | nu11ptr wrote:
         | My sleep tracking works pretty well on my S9. It isn't perfect
         | and there are glitches and bugs I've noticed, but overall the
         | long term trend tends to even out and feels pretty comparative
         | to my old Fitbit.
        
         | parl_match wrote:
         | Garmin is actually pretty competitive. It's definitely more
         | athlete and exercise focused though, to a fault.
        
           | wintermutestwin wrote:
           | I meant a company with a full ecosystem (PC/Phone/Watch) that
           | was competitive.
        
             | parl_match wrote:
             | I've found that the Garmin stuff actually integrates with
             | healthkit pretty effectively. You can't make calls on
             | (most) of the garmin watches, but they also have 30+ day
             | battery (and in worse case, active GPS and music playback
             | usage 72+ hours).
             | 
             | But I don't want to make calls or texts or be bugged by a
             | fitness device.
             | 
             | Plus, the long battery life means you can sleep with it on
             | without thinking about or caring about charging.
        
         | rollcat wrote:
         | S6 user here, yeah sleep tracking can be dodgy. Good to know
         | it's not a device issue. Also the OS keeps getting slightly
         | more buggy/glitchy with every major release. I like it that I
         | sometimes still get a new useful feature (sleep tracking wasn't
         | this good on release) but it kinda sucks that a 4yro device is
         | getting overall worse because of software.
         | 
         | Still agree, wish there was competition worth considering.
        
         | 4dm1r4lg3n3r4l wrote:
         | Try turning off sleep schedule and automatic sleep focus
         | on/off. AFAIK sleep tracking uses sleep focus to determine if
         | you try to sleep or not, it gives off false positives a lot.
         | For example I was watching a movie, sleep focus turned on
         | automatically at 9pm (due to my sleep schedule being set to
         | start then), movie was boring, I had a low HR and the watch
         | thought I was asleep. Managing sleep focus manually made the
         | measurements pretty much spotless as I turn it on whenever I
         | lay down to sleep and turn it off as soon as I wake up.
        
       | nine_zeros wrote:
       | I just use whoop these days for better accuracy and battery life.
       | Not interested in the complex screens and notifications.
        
         | voisin wrote:
         | I hate the subscription model for Whoop.
        
         | maximus_prime wrote:
         | The annual subscription though... $319. That is an absurd
         | amount of money imo
        
           | hombre_fatal wrote:
           | It's 240 USD which is $20/mo. The $30/mo plan is still a one-
           | year commitment thus operates more like a loan with $10/mo
           | overhead.
           | 
           | I got a Whoop the other month and really like it. The ulti-
           | day battery life + no screen + low profile gadget are what
           | won me over even though I like Apple Watch's tech.
           | 
           | The way I see the $20/mo subscription is like a gym: if this
           | thing can't even give me $20/mo of value, then it's not doing
           | anything for me.
           | 
           | But it gives me much more than that in value because it has
           | me always going for extra runs, doing extra sets of push-ups
           | and pull-ups at home, and it regularly has me turning down
           | late night snacks / drink to get better sleep. If I had to
           | choose, I'd pick it over my much more expensive gym
           | membership.
        
         | tonymet wrote:
         | i've heard plenty of commercials and still don't quite get it.
         | Why whoop?
        
           | nine_zeros wrote:
           | > Why whoop?
           | 
           | - I want a health and fitness tracker.
           | 
           | - I don't want to be locked into an Apple/Google ecosystem.
           | 
           | - I don't want screens and notifications.
        
             | tonymet wrote:
             | i see yeah that's about what I gathered from their
             | commercials.
        
       | ryeguy_24 wrote:
       | Apple Watch Ultra 2 is stuck on the S9. The S10 looks different
       | if visually inspected but curious to know performance differences
       | as they didn't mention much about S10 improvements this time.
        
         | geepytee wrote:
         | By performance, is there any stat outside of battery life that
         | really matters here? It is a watch after all
        
           | wlesieutre wrote:
           | It does bring some feature improvements year over year. Siri
           | works offline on S9 and Ultra 2, the S10 has a neural network
           | to remove background noise if you use it for phone calls.
        
             | ryeguy_24 wrote:
             | Good observation. I wonder if that's something S9 can do
             | too.
        
             | callalex wrote:
             | Siri doesn't really seem to work offline on my S9 despite
             | the claims.
        
               | wlesieutre wrote:
               | It's probably a limited subset of things that can be done
               | on-device. Even starting a timer or workout doesn't work
               | for you?
               | 
               | I have an S6 and if I go outside for a run without
               | bringing my phone I definitely can't do it with Siri.
        
         | matwood wrote:
         | Keep in mind it's an SiP. It might just be a reconfiguration to
         | fit the different sized case and not much in the way of a new
         | chip. That would be why AWU2 gets all the new features of the
         | AW10.
        
       | dakiol wrote:
       | If only it could play mp3 files.
        
         | wilsonnb3 wrote:
         | It can, if you load them via itunes onto your iPhone and then
         | from the iPhone to the watch.
         | 
         | At least, I am pretty sure I did that on my Series 8 the last
         | time I was using it.
        
         | fsloth wrote:
         | It sort of can. For example you can load spotify playlists to
         | it, podcasts over podcast app etc. The interface to achieve
         | this is quite cumbersome, though.
        
       | nu11ptr wrote:
       | Dang, I felt safe getting the series 9 last year and that there
       | wouldn't be any major features this year. The sleep apnea
       | detection would be something that could be handy as I suspect I'm
       | borderline. It would be nice to non-intrusively test over several
       | months to see how I trend vs. the one night sleep tests doctors
       | typically use.
        
         | davepeck wrote:
         | Sleep apnea detection is coming to the series 9 too.
        
         | wilsonnb3 wrote:
         | I doubt that the sleep apnea detection will be useful in
         | borderline cases aside from saying "you might have sleep
         | apnea", which you already know.
        
           | thih9 wrote:
           | Since that would come from a different source, that would
           | still be helpful. Or there might be no notification.
        
           | kylehotchkiss wrote:
           | A lot of people who live alone might not know. I think I have
           | it but a Phillips home test was inconclusive for me. I don't
           | really love the idea of the doctors office sleep study since
           | I'm not really experiencing any daytime affects but having my
           | watch keep an eye on it is a nice peace of mind.
        
       | k2xl wrote:
       | Been hesitant to get due to battery life. My fitbit lasts for
       | days on one charge. Is there ways to configure the watch settings
       | to extend the battery life for more than a day?
        
         | kirktrue wrote:
         | The usual suggestions I've read about are to disable the
         | "always on" display, disable WiFi and/or cellular, turn down
         | the brightness, limit notifications, and so forth. However, I
         | cannot state how much impact these would have.
        
         | tonymet wrote:
         | daily charge is a pain. you can stretch it to two with some
         | tweaks but it's my biggest gripe
        
       | nextos wrote:
       | I really wish they made it independent of the iPhone.
       | 
       | I think for people that only use smartphones occasionally, it'd
       | be ideal to have just a watch and a desktop/laptop.
       | 
       | It'd also be a great move by Apple towards reducing distractions
       | of its users. Watches can be much less intrusive than phones.
        
         | zactato wrote:
         | Thats got to be a super tiny population of the world
        
           | voisin wrote:
           | I suspect OP is also including Android users in the group
           | too.
        
             | nextos wrote:
             | FWIW, I don't use Apple anymore. But I think this would be
             | a nice product and it'd also stimulate the market.
             | 
             | Right now, most expensive fitness trackers rely on
             | smartphones.
             | 
             | I think only Garmin and Polar can be set up without a
             | smartphone, but Polar still relies on smartphones for GPS
             | updates.
        
           | Etheryte wrote:
           | I wouldn't be so sure of that. There are many studies showing
           | that age is strongly correlated with reduced smartphone use,
           | additionally, youth only makes up a small portion of the
           | whole population.
        
             | seanmcdirmid wrote:
             | Youth are fewer, youth have an outsized affect on
             | consumption however. Meanwhile, older people tend to slow
             | down consumption a lot, and therefore you can't really make
             | as much money catering to them.
        
               | Etheryte wrote:
               | I think you have the reasoning backwards. Older people
               | have considerably more purchasing power, after all
               | they've had all their life to make money. There are many
               | industries that do extremely well catering exactly to
               | that fact.
        
               | seanmcdirmid wrote:
               | You mean like Harley Davidson?
               | 
               | Ya, they have more buying power, but they are choosey
               | about what they buy and aren't so interested in new
               | gadgets. Younger people have less buying power but they
               | are full of wants. They also get more money and will buy
               | more over time, whereas baby boomers are going to retire
               | quickly and their buying will fall off.
        
           | steve_adams_86 wrote:
           | I figure if I'm in that group, it can't be that small of a
           | group. I'm a turbo normie and no thought I have is remotely
           | unique or original. There are at least dozens of us out there
           | using our watches as phones.
           | 
           | But seriously, probably millions of people would prefer to
           | not carry a phone everywhere yet still have the essentials
           | (texting and calling) handy if need be.
        
         | darknavi wrote:
         | A friend has his kids use LTE Apple Watches. He set them up
         | with his iPhone and they don't have them. It supports "Kid"
         | mode on the watches and everything. They can call and text him
         | when ever they want, which is really nice.
        
           | latchkey wrote:
           | Walkie-talkie mode is really nice.
        
             | CalChris wrote:
             | Dick Tracy mode is great for screening calls.
        
           | mgrandl wrote:
           | How old are the kids? My wife can't find well fitting watch
           | bands for the smallest Apple Watch due to here thin wrists.
           | Can't imagine finding some for a kid.
        
             | gdudeman wrote:
             | Many of my daughter's 11-year-old friends have Apple
             | Watches as their mobile device. Some of them have tiny
             | wrists.
        
             | Nextgrid wrote:
             | You can find handmade Apple Watch bracelets on Etsy.
             | Alongside a lot of dropshipped crap ones from Aliexpress -
             | but the point is it seems like third parties are able to
             | make bracelets that replicate the mechanical "interface"
             | for the bracelets, so you should be able to find any size
             | you want.
        
               | danudey wrote:
               | You can also get adapters that allow you to connect any
               | standard watch band you can find at a store to an Apple
               | Watch.
               | 
               | Example: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07YTN8VY4/
               | 
               | Probably makes it even easier to find watch bands that
               | work/fit kids/that they like.
        
         | zardo wrote:
         | Apple might have sold me one last month, but I'm not switching
         | phones just because I'm getting a watch.
        
         | wilsonnb3 wrote:
         | I last tried to ditch my phone and just wear the watch with a
         | Series 4, so things might be different now, but you give up way
         | too much compared to using a smartphone.
         | 
         | Only being able to take calls on speakerphone, not having
         | access to the long tail of apps you might need on occasion, and
         | not being able to effectively input text into the apps you do
         | have are the biggest problems for me.
         | 
         | Its alright for the kids and old people thing they have now
         | where you really want a life alert/GPS tracker combo and
         | calling/texting is a nice bonus but the form factor isn't
         | viable for solo use.
        
           | criddell wrote:
           | > Only being able to take calls on speakerphone
           | 
           | I was under the impression that if you had AirPods, they
           | would work for phone calls through the watch.
        
             | gdudeman wrote:
             | Can confirm: AirPods work for calls, music and podcasts.
        
             | wilsonnb3 wrote:
             | You can but in practice this doesn't end up working well.
             | By the time your airpod is out of your pocket, out of the
             | case, in your ear, and connected to your watch, the call
             | has stopped ringing.
             | 
             | If you are only worried about placing calls and not
             | receiving them, it works better but you still have to
             | contend with bluetooth, which is less than 100% reliable,
             | being an essential component of your setup.
        
               | HaZeust wrote:
               | >"You can but in practice this doesn't end up working
               | well. By the time your airpod is out of your pocket, out
               | of the case, in your ear, and connected to your watch,
               | the call has stopped ringing."
               | 
               | How is the form factor of this any different than when
               | you connect AirPods to take a call on your iPhone? This
               | exact order of premeditation prior to the action of
               | taking a call is already commonplace if for the iPhone -
               | why not for the Apple Watches too?
        
               | wilsonnb3 wrote:
               | Well the difference is that I can hold my iPhone up to my
               | ear to take a call in public, whereas the only options
               | with the watch are airpods or speakerphone.
        
               | HaZeust wrote:
               | That's fair enough - I wonder if the sales pitch for
               | users already accustomed to taking calls with their
               | AirPods will be a lot more susceptible to being swayed
               | into using the Apple Watch for them instead, then?
        
               | wilsonnb3 wrote:
               | Probably! I see a lot of people, particularly young
               | people, out and about these days who seem to keep their
               | airpods in all the time, which probably helps too.
        
               | elzbardico wrote:
               | The kind of situation where not carrying your phone works
               | is one where usually you either have your AirPods in your
               | ear, or when you're driving and it is connected to your
               | car audio, or you don't mind answering via the speaker
               | phone.
               | 
               | Transparency mode is good enough on AirPods that I feel
               | safe using them when I am cycling or running, and not
               | having to carry a phone during those activities is a big
               | win for me.
               | 
               | Of course this means getting even more locked into Apple
               | ecosystem, but I even forget that AirPods are bluetooth
               | devices given the way they seamless work with other apple
               | stuff.
        
           | sfjailbird wrote:
           | I use my LTE watch for smaller errands where I don't want to
           | lug around the phone, yet can still take or make a call if it
           | is really necessary, make payments, etc. Like going out for a
           | walk, or leaving my desk at work for a few minutes. It's a
           | nice convenience, not a substitute.
        
         | onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
         | > I think for people that only use smartphones occasionally,
         | it'd be ideal to have just a watch and a desktop/laptop.
         | 
         | Apple doesn't want to build a world in which people
         | occasionally use smartphones.
         | 
         | They're an iPhone company.
         | 
         | They're building things to make iPhone's more valuable and to
         | keep / strengthen their lead / profit engine.
        
           | selimnairb wrote:
           | Would love to see anti-trust enforcement to force Apple to
           | allow pairing with iPad or Mac. There is no good reason to
           | limit to iPhone.
        
             | yreg wrote:
             | Ideally you wouldn't need to pair it with anything.
             | 
             | iPhones required a computer with iTunes up until iOS 5.
        
         | zer0zzz wrote:
         | Hopefully it will also work with apple tv
        
         | anonymousiam wrote:
         | I 100% agree, and this is the only reason that I have not
         | purchased one. I've got an Android phone and an iPad pro (with
         | active eSIM). There is no technical reason for Apple to not
         | allow me to "tether" to my iPad, or even any reason to require
         | me to have another device in order to have/use all the features
         | of the watch. It's purely a marketing decision, so I will
         | continue to pass on the Apple Watch until they untether it, or
         | let me access all features with my iPad.
        
         | adastra22 wrote:
         | The Watch's operation is independent of the iPhone, especially
         | if you get one with LTE. You need an iPhone for setup, but
         | that's it.
        
         | zikduruqe wrote:
         | This. I have cellular activated on my watch, and I seldom, if
         | ever, carry an iPhone outside my home. It does everything I
         | need from tech, when I am on the go, and that includes
         | recording hours long bike rides.
        
           | bilsbie wrote:
           | Can you unlock your Tesla? Also can you do navigation?
        
             | rootusrootus wrote:
             | > Can you unlock your Tesla?
             | 
             | Yes but you have to use a third-party app for that, the
             | official Tesla app does not have a Watch version.
             | 
             | > Also can you do navigation?
             | 
             | Yes.
        
       | ValentineC wrote:
       | Apple introduced a "new" 42mm smaller size, and with that, added
       | a whole lot of confusion to band compatibility. The Sport Loop
       | and Milanese Loop now come in 40mm, 42mm, _and_ 46mm variants.
       | 
       | From one of their updated watch strap pages:
       | 
       | > Strap Compatibility
       | 
       | > _You can match most straps with any Apple Watch Series 3 or
       | later case of the same size._
       | 
       | > _40mm, 41mm and 42mm straps are all compatible with 40mm, 41mm
       | and 42mm case sizes. 44mm, 45mm, 46mm and 49mm straps are all
       | compatible with 44mm, 45mm, 46mm and 49mm case sizes._
       | 
       | > _The Solo Loop and Braided Solo Loop straps are only compatible
       | with Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 4 or later and Apple
       | Watch Ultra or later._
       | 
       | > _For Solo Loop and Braided Solo Loop, the 40mm, 41mm and 42mm
       | cases are compatible with strap sizes 0-9; the 44mm, 45mm, 46mm
       | and 49mm cases are compatible with strap sizes 0-12._
       | 
       | I'm having such a hard time trying to parse this, especially
       | since Series 3 was available in 38mm and 42mm variants, and it
       | was Series 4 that upped the numbers to 40mm and 44mm.
        
         | jameshart wrote:
         | There are still just two strap widths - small and large. Why
         | Apple won't just come out and say that I have no idea.
        
           | kube-system wrote:
           | I think the most plausible reason to do this would be to
           | avoid future confusion if they decide to introduce new band
           | sizes.
           | 
           | Also, the current differences in case sizes mean that band
           | sizes are slightly different when used with different watch
           | models, even if the band width is the same. The same solo
           | loop on a 38mm watch fits slightly smaller than the same
           | exact band on a 40mm watch, even if they're the same mounting
           | mechanism. So, to be precise about fit, you already need to
           | specify the watch size specifically, even if the band width
           | is the same.
        
           | mikestew wrote:
           | Captain Axually checking in to say that there three widths.
           | The Ultra is wider enough that the "large" bands, though they
           | fit the Ultra, leave a bit of a noticeable gap where the band
           | hardware slides in.
        
         | wlesieutre wrote:
         | I use the original band from my 38mm S3 on a 40mm S6, it
         | definitely fits perfectly between them
         | 
         | But I bet they omitted the original 38/42 sizes from that list
         | because now it overlaps with 42mm being the small size of S10
         | 
         | Sizing the watches by mm instead of naming them small/large
         | feels like a weird relic from the original apple watch launch
         | when it came in a $10,000 gold version and Ive was positioning
         | it as a fashion item
        
       | twobitshifter wrote:
       | it's annoying that they can't put the sapphire glass on the
       | regular 10. What is the cost of this glass and why do they
       | refuse?
       | 
       | > Ion-X front glass (aluminum cases) Sapphire front crystal
       | (titanium cases)
        
         | thih9 wrote:
         | Non sapphire is lighter and perhaps less prone to breaking from
         | impact (even if not as scratch resistant), that works better
         | for sport use cases.
         | 
         | Many users don't need sapphire glass for non-sport activities
         | either.
        
           | lbourdages wrote:
           | I made a big scratch on my SE by accidentally rubbing it
           | against the corner of a quartz countertop. Of course, this
           | was not covered by AppleCare, because the display still works
           | and is not cracked.
           | 
           | I'd have loved to have this not happen, but the only option
           | (even with the non-SE model) is to pay a premium for steel
           | and cellular, neither of which I care about.
        
             | twobitshifter wrote:
             | my series 8 has two big scratches. We have the technology
             | to eliminate this but they are gating it behind the less
             | needed features
        
           | twobitshifter wrote:
           | how much lighter could it possibly be? half a gram? I can't
           | see that being anything that matters to people and they put
           | it on the titanium case this time which is the light weight
           | version.
        
       | mlhpdx wrote:
       | Anyone else wondering where the recycled titanium comes from?
       | 
       | > Apple Watch Series 10, made with 100 percent recycled aluminum
       | or 95 percent recycled titanium...
        
         | mohaine wrote:
         | I'm guessing it is `waste` from milling iPhones and Mac. Plenty
         | of that and a marketing win even though this would always get
         | recycled anyway.
        
           | MBCook wrote:
           | They're not made from titanium. Last years's pro phone is.
           | 
           | The Apple Card is too. So I did wonder if there was a little
           | of that in there too.
        
         | btian wrote:
         | Presumably aerospace & medical devices.
        
         | aliasaria wrote:
         | From my digging...
         | 
         | Apple seems to get most of their recycled titanium from
         | IperionX:
         | 
         | https://www.linkedin.com/posts/iperionx_over-20-years-ago-ap...
         | 
         | IperionX announced they get their recycled source Ti from ELG
         | Utica Alloys:
         | 
         | https://www.aero-mag.com/new-partnership-creates-100-recycle...
         | 
         | From ELG we can read that a source of scrap Ti comes from
         | companies like GE, Boeing, etc:
         | 
         | https://cdn.ymaws.com/titanium.org/resource/resmgr/2010_2014...
         | 
         | But this article from 1990 (may be outdated) states that a
         | misunderstanding of the public is thinking that scrap mostly
         | comes from old devices or planes. But these types of things
         | last long and don't get recycled enough to provide enough
         | volume. This seems to say that the bulk of scrap comes as a
         | byproduct of the smelting process:
         | 
         | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11837-018-3278-1
         | 
         | The following article from 2004 however says that recycled Ti
         | comes from 10% old scrap (old recycled parts we normally think
         | of as recycled metal) and 90% "new scrap" which is partly
         | wasted Ti generated when making parts. For example in 2004, the
         | aerospace industry used 12000t of Ti but wasted 10000t of that.
         | 
         | https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1196-Y/pdf/Circ1196-Y.pdf
        
       | crooked-v wrote:
       | Calling an 18-hour battery life 'all day' still feels like at
       | best borderline fraud to me.
        
         | 7e wrote:
         | In the arctic summer, days can be longer than 18 hours. Or if
         | you don't sleep, I guess. Excepting those cases 18 hours seems
         | all day to me.
        
           | lainga wrote:
           | I think it just throws me off due to cultural differences.
           | Most homes and offices in my country have electric lighting,
           | which means we can end up living and working outside of
           | daylight hours, especially on Fridays. I have on numerous
           | occasions asked people how their day was, and they tell me
           | about things that happened while the sun was not up.
        
         | spike021 wrote:
         | Depends on your definition of 'all day'. I wear mine from about
         | 7 or 8am until about midnight and it just about lasts that
         | entire time. It's a series 6 so not the newest either.
         | 
         | I guess if you want to wear it to sleep it just means taking it
         | off sooner to charge. Personally I hate wearing it to sleep, it
         | feels very uncomfortable and bulky for that.
        
         | steve_adams_86 wrote:
         | I guess it depends on if your definition of the day is when the
         | sun's up, or the entire 24 hour period. Advertising loves
         | living in this grey area with a big smile.
        
         | marknutter wrote:
         | Get some sleep
        
         | unshavedyak wrote:
         | I wear it 23.25+~ hours a day and charge it while i drink
         | coffee in the morning (probably 30-45m on average, while i sit
         | at my desk). I wear it all day, and while i sleep for sleep
         | tracking.
         | 
         | I get annoyed when they say 18h and people freak out.. i'm not
         | sure what they're testing vs my daily usage but it doesn't feel
         | the same. I assume it's like 18h with a ton of screen-on time?
         | 
         | Either way i wouldn't wear a watch that i had to charge for 6
         | hours a day, and the Apple Watch is definitely not that. Hasn't
         | been that for at least as many generations as i've owned.
        
         | knodi123 wrote:
         | Don't get me started on "Life Sentences"!
        
       | pazimzadeh wrote:
       | Weird use of semi-colons in the sub-heading?
        
         | crazygringo wrote:
         | I've been noticing that more often recently in text -- using
         | semicolons to separate list items when one or more of the list
         | items has a comma.
         | 
         | I know that's been a technically correct usage of the semicolon
         | for a while now, but I've never actually seen it in mainstream
         | news/marketing until in the past few months.
        
         | hombre_fatal wrote:
         | It's standard to use semicolons in complex lists where list
         | items have commas.
        
       | hedgehog wrote:
       | All that and no improvement to battery life. I've been wearing an
       | Apple Watch for a few years, the data collection is good but the
       | abysmal battery life and associated charge management is a real
       | downer. I'm Apple ecosystem for almost everything but the battery
       | and touch sensitivity issues are enough to get me to do the work
       | to go to a different platform for health data.
        
         | tiltowait wrote:
         | At this point, it's pretty clear Apple targets a specific
         | battery life (18 hours) and builds the techs around that. As a
         | result, I don't think we will get an improvement in that area
         | anytime soon.
         | 
         | However, it does look like they improved the charging story--
         | something like 80% in 30 minutes? Not bad.
        
           | tester89 wrote:
           | Yeah, they could've made the size decrease less impressive
           | and boasted of a 24 hour battery life if they really wanted
           | to.
        
           | Menu_Overview wrote:
           | I've thought about this. How much more battery life would
           | they have to build in for it to be noticeably better?
           | 
           | When I charge my watch at the end of the day, I usually have
           | plenty to spare, but not always enough to make it through to
           | the morning (especially if I tracked an exercise). Even if a
           | new watch got 24hrs of battery life, I would still have to
           | charge it at night so I wouldn't really matter. I'd guess
           | that 18hrs it a balance that keeps people content and gives
           | Apple's engineers enough room to fit in all the features they
           | want.
           | 
           | Of course, I would love to be able to track a long exercise
           | or a 10-hour hike...but there's a different price tier for
           | that.
        
             | MBCook wrote:
             | That's a good point. Maybe 36-48 hours?
             | 
             | Even then you're still charging every other day, so is that
             | so much better than every day?
             | 
             | 18->120 hours would be a real change, but that's almost a
             | 7x increase.
        
             | hedgehog wrote:
             | Three days would be solid, that would get me mid day Friday
             | to mid day Monday. Sleep data is a high priority for me and
             | it's go time pretty much from when I open my eyes (little
             | kids) so I wear the watch pretty much 24h/day. On desk work
             | days I charge there (not much activity to miss) but over
             | the weekend or if I'm traveling that gets disrupted.
        
           | npunt wrote:
           | Yep they do this for all their platforms, set a battery
           | target based on ~90%tile daily usage of particular form
           | factor (e.g. 18hr watch/iphone, 10-12hr macbook/ipad) and
           | then let ID & chip teams do whatever they want to hit that.
           | The value add of every additional minute/hour of battery life
           | drops off from there because daily loops for charging are
           | realistically what everyone will do, and there's more value
           | add in other places like making things thinner, faster, or do
           | something new.
        
         | etrautmann wrote:
         | The Apple watch ultra, while expensive, at least has 1.5 to 2
         | day battery life, which has completely eliminated the issue of
         | charging midday that I used to run into if using gps or fitness
         | tracking for more than a few hours.
        
           | BugsJustFindMe wrote:
           | Yeah but "expensive" is an understatement. It's double the
           | price for barely any functional difference other than battery
           | life.
        
         | tpurves wrote:
         | Yes! Agonizing that 10 years in and the battery still can't get
         | you through more than one day. My pebble from 2013 was a much
         | more practical and useable device than any Apple watch I've
         | owned over the last decade.
        
           | orev wrote:
           | The Ultra can go two days, so there's an option available if
           | you need it.
        
             | GiorgioG wrote:
             | For the low low price of 2x the regular watch...where do I
             | sign up?
        
             | MBCook wrote:
             | They now state that the series 10 can do 36 hours on low
             | power mode, which is a nice option to have in your back
             | pocket.
             | 
             | Wouldn't want to run that all the time though with all it
             | likely disables.
        
           | colordrops wrote:
           | I've got a Garmin epix and it lasts over a month.
        
             | grujicd wrote:
             | My 5 years old Garmin 935 still lasts 15 days, same as when
             | it was new.
             | 
             | That also means it takes 15 years to have the same number
             | of charging cycles as Apple gets in a year.
        
           | after_mirage wrote:
           | Could you please compare the performance of the first Apple
           | Watch and current one? I believe then you will see how
           | battery life improved.
        
             | adastra22 wrote:
             | I don't think the battery life has improved? Maybe compared
             | with the very first generation, but they hit 18 hours
             | pretty quick and have stayed there.
             | 
             | They've used efficiency gains to get more features over the
             | years.
        
         | zoul wrote:
         | Got Garmin Fenix, use mainly for the sports features. Lasts a
         | week on a single charge including several activities with GPS
         | usage. Can't imagine having another device to charge daily.
        
           | slekker wrote:
           | If only Garmin had an unlocked LTE watch, it would be
           | perfect. I had been eyeing the Garmin Instinct Solar, with
           | "infinite" battery and Garmin Pay, but to be able to leave my
           | phone home I'd need LTE
        
           | mynameisash wrote:
           | > Can't imagine having another device to charge daily.
           | 
           | This is precisely why I stopped using my Garmin. I did really
           | like it and used it when I was running daily. But when I went
           | on long hikes (8+ miles), I often ran out of battery. The
           | watch charged very fast, but I got sick of having to remember
           | to charge it daily if I wanted to track an activity.
           | 
           | I now wear my Fossil ('dumb'?) watch daily. After maybe five
           | years, I've replaced the battery once. It's so much nicer
           | than a daily recharge.
        
             | colordrops wrote:
             | My epix goes for over a month. Got the largest model. With
             | GPS on it will last more than a day.
        
             | ilikehurdles wrote:
             | I have a garmin enduro 2 that I got for under $500 with
             | some discounts. When tracking activities with GPS it lasts
             | for over 100 hours, closer to 150 if you're benefiting from
             | some solar charging. In normal smartwatch mode it gets up
             | to 40 days.
             | 
             | I'll randomly once a month remember to charge it and that's
             | enough. I've never had the battery dip below 27 days
             | remaining.
             | 
             | My old garmin was a forerunner 945 and I could about two
             | days of hiking in on a charge, maybe more with battery-
             | saving stuff on, but this is a whole different ballpark
             | now.
        
           | vineyardlabs wrote:
           | This. I like my apple watch for doing mainly two things;
           | tracking workouts and being a silent alarm clock that lives
           | on my wrist. The <2 day battery life is really becoming
           | annoying, as I have to remember to put it on the charger for
           | at least ~1 hour a day or it won't have enough juice to wake
           | me up in the morning.
           | 
           | Also, it boggles my mind but the alarms/haptics in my S8 seem
           | weirdly unreliable. Like 10% of the time my alarms just
           | decide not to vibrate and I don't wake up. Tons of people
           | have this problem and it seems to have something to do with
           | the cover to mute gesture, but disabling it in settings
           | doesn't fix the issue.
           | 
           | For those two reasons I'm strongly considering ditching my
           | apple watch and grabbing a garmin instead. Just trying to
           | decide if the move outside of the ecosystem is worth it and
           | which model to buy.
        
         | dr_kiszonka wrote:
         | I don't understand features like sleep apnea monitoring on a
         | device with an "all-day, 18-hour battery life," unless they're
         | expecting people to get one watch for the day and another one
         | for the night.
        
           | mulderc wrote:
           | I wear my Apple Watch all the time, even when I'm sleeping. I
           | pretty much just charge it when I'm in the shower or getting
           | ready in the morning. It charges super fast, and I've found
           | that having a regular charging routine is actually better for
           | these gadgets.
           | 
           | Funny enough, watches with longer battery life can mess up
           | your charging habits. I had this problem with my old Pebble
           | watch. Yeah, the battery lasted longer, but I'd forget to
           | charge it and end up with a dead watch more often than I do
           | with my Apple Watch.
           | 
           | Now, I just pop it on the charger every morning, and I'm good
           | to go. No more worrying about it dying on me out of nowhere.
        
             | 51Cards wrote:
             | A personal habit thing perhaps? My Pebble Time is still
             | going strong but I religiously charge it every couple days
             | (around 60%)... as you mentioned, while I showered. Before
             | the most recent battery change I was down to about 48 hours
             | on a charge. I do love taking weekend camping trips and not
             | needing to take a charger.
             | 
             | I have tried a couple other smart watches but I keep going
             | back to my Pebble as it does all I care about. Until they
             | can get to a solid 4-5 days of life (or Rebble stops
             | working) I don't know that I'll be too tempted to replace
             | it permanently. The Garmin line is interesting though.
        
               | outofpaper wrote:
               | Time Steel here n exactly the same boat as you. How the
               | world upgraded to a worse battery experience is beyond
               | me. All I want is a watch that tells the time for days
               | and it's nice to have smart features.
        
               | ValentineC wrote:
               | I used to use the Pebble, then the AmazFit Bip (with
               | something like 40 days battery life) after that --
               | finally only switching to an Apple Watch when Series 5
               | came with an always-on display.
               | 
               | Apart from telling time, I like how it tracks my steps
               | and sleep, and can send music to my earphones so I don't
               | have to bring my phone out for a run. I also like being
               | able to use the watch as a camera viewfinder/remote.
               | 
               | One huge plus of the Apple ecosystem is the sheer number
               | of watch straps I get to choose from, which lets me dress
               | up the watch if I have to. And to top it all off, I get a
               | nice screen.
               | 
               | I wouldn't have made the switch if the battery life was
               | incompatible with my lifestyle, but so far, so good.
        
             | ValentineC wrote:
             | +1 to this. I charge whenever I'm in the shower as well,
             | and this routine works for me.
        
               | ProfessorLayton wrote:
               | To each their own, I wear my watch in the shower so I can
               | change the song on my bluetooth speaker.
        
               | mulderc wrote:
               | I feel like if you are making it through more than a
               | couple songs, your shower is too long.
        
             | kurthr wrote:
             | The other good charging time/place is your car/bike when
             | commuting.
             | 
             | If you have a 20min commute each direction you can get most
             | of the way charged and make it through the night!
        
               | kyleee wrote:
               | Yep, just work in short frequent charges during downtime
               | like that. I was worried about being annoyed by the
               | charging too but in reality it's not been a problem at
               | all
        
             | grujicd wrote:
             | When you notice your Garmin is under 10% it still means
             | full day or enough battery to track 2-3h activity and still
             | have some battery left. I'm surprised Apple watch battery
             | is still - more or less the worst in the industry. Even if
             | we forget about Garmin, comparable Samsung watches are
             | multiday devices.
        
               | mulderc wrote:
               | Garmin is great, but it is a fitness sports watch first
               | and less of a smart watch. Once Garmin can have apps like
               | overcast and omnifocus on them I will think of them as
               | being in the some category as the apple watch.
        
             | nradov wrote:
             | Charging your wearable device shouldn't require "habits".
             | If they do then the device is defective by design.
             | Competing watches from Garmin don't seem to have this
             | design flaw.
        
               | WillPostForFood wrote:
               | Not to mention the Chinese smart watches. I have an
               | Amazfit Bip that will go 60+ days between charges, no
               | problem.
               | 
               | https://i.imgur.com/4HT2Q6G.jpeg
        
               | nozzlegear wrote:
               | > Charging your wearable device shouldn't require
               | "habits". If they do then the device is defective by
               | design.
               | 
               | Why?
               | 
               | > Competing watches from Garmin don't seem to have this
               | design flaw.
               | 
               | This oversimplifies the issue. The Apple Watch has a much
               | broader range of functionality than Garmin's products,
               | doesn't it?
        
               | wubrr wrote:
               | > The Apple Watch has a much broader range of
               | functionality than Garmin's products, doesn't it?
               | 
               | Very interesting piece of text. Starts with a big claim
               | about 'much broader range of functionality' (which is
               | completely false btw), and ends with a question mark. The
               | mind of an apple fanboy is a curious thing.
        
             | tshaddox wrote:
             | > Funny enough, watches with longer battery life can mess
             | up your charging habits.
             | 
             | My experience with Kindles!
        
               | mulderc wrote:
               | Yep! Funny how often I am traveling and get to the hotel
               | and open up my kindle to find it needs a charge.
        
             | hedgehog wrote:
             | I don't mind charging my watch daily when I go to my desk
             | to do e-mail, I just want the watch to be handle skipping
             | that for a few days due to travel or a weekend or whatever.
        
               | ToucanLoucan wrote:
               | I mean it's literally a few minutes on a charger to go
               | from 5% battery to 60%. Would it be more convenient if it
               | went longer? Sure, but as it stands, if you carry a watch
               | charger in your bag, like... even the most minuscule time
               | on a USB port will have it ready to roll.
               | 
               | I've got an SE at current (had a 4 before it finally
               | keeled over, and this one has essentially identical
               | features and was readily available) and I just don't get
               | the battery griping. Mine only uses a scant 70% ish of
               | it's available capacity. I wear it every day while
               | sleeping and to/from work, then come home and toss it on
               | the charger till bed time.
        
               | hedgehog wrote:
               | I have a handful of watch chargers including one at my
               | desk and one in my laptop bag. A full day of kid
               | activities and work around the house doesn't really see
               | either of those though. Do I detour to top up the watch a
               | couple times a day? Yes. Does my watch run out of juice
               | some days? Also yes. Would a Fitbit or Garmin have this
               | problem? No. It's a bit of a slog moving my health data
               | out of Apple's ecosystem which is why I haven't done it
               | yet.
        
             | wubrr wrote:
             | My head is spinning after reading this comment. Why do
             | apple fanboys have the incessant need to pretend that
             | specific objective deficiencies are actually
             | features/advantages?
             | 
             | No.
        
               | nozzlegear wrote:
               | Did you have any specific critique about what they said
               | and why it's wrong, or did you just feel that you needed
               | to call them a fanboy?
        
               | wubrr wrote:
               | The specific critique is literally right above. Did you
               | read the comments we're talking about, or are you just
               | triggered by the word 'fanboy'?
               | 
               | In case it's too difficult to grasp:
               | 
               | >Reasonable person: 'The battery life is shit'
               | 
               | >Apple fanboy: 'That's actually a good thing'
        
               | nozzlegear wrote:
               | Sorry, I was actually asking what _your_ critique of
               | their comment was, specifically. Someone else offered a
               | great critique of the product; someone else followed up
               | saying they don 't feel it's an issue; and then you came
               | in throwing the word fanboy around with little critical
               | thinking applied, and now you're using the original
               | person's critique as though it's your own.
        
               | wubrr wrote:
               | > Sorry, I was actually asking what your critique of
               | their comment was, specifically
               | 
               | I laid it our twice already. Which part is confusing?
               | 
               | > someone else followed up saying they don't feel it's an
               | issue
               | 
               | Someone else followed up with a hilariously nonsensical
               | excuse for why a hard, OBJECTIVE deficiency is not a
               | problem and actually an advantage. If you don't
               | understand what the problem with that is, I can't help
               | you.
               | 
               | > with little critical thinking applied
               | 
               | Oh, you're good at critical thinking?
        
               | wlesieutre wrote:
               | Their comment isn't wrong though, I had the same
               | experience with Pebble. It wasn't part of my daily
               | routine, so I would forget to charge it. With my Apple
               | Watch I don't.
               | 
               | That being said, the Apple Watch has issues of its own,
               | like sometimes draining substantially faster for (as far
               | as I can tell) absolutely no reason. Rebooting the watch
               | and phone has sorted that out for me, and it's only
               | happened a couple of times, but it's not a good problem
               | to have on a device where you may need the whole battery
               | to get through a day.
        
               | wubrr wrote:
               | > It wasn't part of my daily routine, so I would forget
               | to charge it.
               | 
               | So maybe the problem is your daily routine, not the fact
               | that the battery life is objectively better?
               | 
               | It's like if you bought a laptop with too little RAM, and
               | you try to explain that its actually an advantage because
               | it forces you to run less applications. It's absurd to
               | the max.
        
               | wlesieutre wrote:
               | Yes, longer battery life would be better.
               | 
               | But aside from the times when I've had bug-induced
               | battery drain, I never run out of battery and it's not
               | something I worry about. So I also don't really care
               | about the battery life being shorter than my Pebble's
               | was.
               | 
               | Apple could triple the battery life to 3 days, but as
               | you've just pointed out it should still be part of my
               | daily routine to charge it, and if I'm not charging it
               | every day to make sure it's a habit this is a "problem"
               | with my daily routine (your words).
               | 
               | So supposing the battery gets better, and I fix my
               | problematic routine and make sure to charge it every day,
               | now the extra 2 days of battery life are literally
               | pointless. So I can see why Apple has prioritized
               | thinness over a larger battery.
        
             | m463 wrote:
             | I have a garmin watch. Charge it every day while I'm taking
             | a shower and it's always ready.
             | 
             | ...but I can miss a day... or 12 days. 13d = full charge
        
               | mulderc wrote:
               | I don't think a Garmin watch and an Apple Watch are truly
               | comparable. The Garmin is primarily a fitness watch,
               | while the Apple Watch is a smartwatch. When a Garmin can
               | run apps like OmniFocus, Overcast, a Mastodon client, an
               | Instagram client, and even join a Zoom call, then I'll
               | consider it a smartwatch.
        
             | detourdog wrote:
             | We used to wind our watches in the morning. I think that
             | could be Apple's thinking. Your positive experience with a
             | daily routine reenforces that idea to me.
        
           | dymk wrote:
           | You charge it for an hour before you go to bed. 23/24 hours
           | is pretty good.
        
             | WillPostForFood wrote:
             | It gives you no margin - you come home late, you lose the
             | data for the night. It is mental overhead that don't want.
        
               | shuckles wrote:
               | My watch can get a night's worth of charge in 10 minutes.
        
             | nradov wrote:
             | It's amazing that anyone would consider that "pretty good"
             | when competing products with similar features can go
             | literally weeks between charges.
        
           | unshavedyak wrote:
           | I wear my watch all day and night, charge it for 30mim while
           | I sip coffee. I don't get the issues people have around
           | battery life. Mine is on me almost 24 hours a day and a daily
           | charge. Two watches seems dramatic for a single 30m charge a
           | day.
           | 
           | Edit: note on charge, it's probably more, but it's just while
           | I sip my coffee. I never pay attention to it despite the
           | claims of battery life woes.
        
             | runjake wrote:
             | Series 7 here. I do <= 30 minutes a day twice -- usually
             | closer to 20 minutes at a time, on the Apple Watch fast
             | charger plugged into an Apple 20W power adapter. Otherwise,
             | I wear the Watch 23.25-ish/7 and never run out of battery.
        
           | gshulegaard wrote:
           | I was in the same boat, but the 30 minute fast charging now
           | makes me think that this actually might work. Sleep with it
           | on, wake up, pop it on the charger while you get ready, bam
           | basically a full charge by the time you leave the house.
           | 
           | I don't wear an Apple watch at night (and I don't plan to
           | upgrade to this one) but for the first time I think I could
           | see how this might work for someone.
        
           | bombcar wrote:
           | My band doesn't feel right when I'm done exercising, so I
           | usually throw it on the charger when I sit down.
           | 
           | Now if it could charge from the _face_ while still on my
           | wrist ...
        
           | katbyte wrote:
           | my 2 year old watch lasts longer the 24h and i simply charge
           | it when i shower.
        
         | aucisson_masque wrote:
         | went back to a casio f91w. battery last 7 years, can buy 200
         | for the price of one apple watch se and no privacy issue. Just
         | get a polar h10 to monitor sport activity and honestly it's as
         | good or better, having to charge it everyday is painfull.
        
         | GiorgioG wrote:
         | Apple is run by a bunch of well-past-middle-age executives who
         | have zero incentive to do anything but coast to the finish
         | line. The sleep apnea feature makes no sense for a product that
         | is charging on my nightstand every night because of it's shitty
         | battery life. Apple has gotten too fat.
        
         | tails4e wrote:
         | Go garmin. I have a vivoactive 5, it has 11 days of battery and
         | loads of stats. I love it. My wife liked mine so much she
         | dumped her Fitbit and now has the same watch. It's great.
        
           | MikeKusold wrote:
           | Garmin's own product webpage highlights the biggest problem
           | with Garmin.[0] They have too many options, with very little
           | distinguishing features. Instead of making hardware to
           | justify the number of models, they cripple watches in various
           | ways using software.
           | 
           | For example, on my Vivoactive 4, recording a "Hike" activity
           | is impossible. Instead, I have to record all my hikes as
           | "Walks".
           | 
           | They should trim their offerings down to fewer than 10 models
           | instead of the 28 currently listed.
           | 
           | 0: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/wearables-
           | smartwatches/?curre...
        
         | TexanFeller wrote:
         | Battery life is the main thing that made me upgrade to the
         | Ultra model. It has double the battery which gets it to the
         | point I don't have to worry about battery.
        
         | poulsbohemian wrote:
         | FWIW: My first gen Ultra can go a couple days without a charge
         | pretty easily, but I did have issues with my previous Apple
         | watches. If battery life is the issue, you might do better off
         | going with the Ultra...
        
       | Eric_WVGG wrote:
       | I was thinking about shelling a little extra for the enhanced
       | casing this year, because I'm pretty tired of the cheap-looking
       | aluminum...
       | 
       | what's this, polished jet-black aluminum? Dang, I think they
       | might have designed themselves out of some upgraded purchases
       | this year!
        
         | tiltowait wrote:
         | The enhanced casing this year is titanium, no?
        
           | MBCook wrote:
           | Yep. A great change. I've loved the polished stainless steel
           | but it's heavy as hell.
           | 
           | The larger non-ultra watch goes from 51.5g to 41.7g. A 20%
           | reduction is _very_ welcome.
           | 
           | They offered a special titanium model a few years ago but
           | didn't have it last year. To have all the fancy versions use
           | it is fantastic. The fancy ones are expensive enough without
           | an extra titanium cost penalty on top.
        
       | tonymet wrote:
       | Nobody wants a thinner watch, everyone wants more battery life.
        
         | orev wrote:
         | Both the regular Watch and the Ultra are very much on the side
         | of "only just bearable" regarding their thickness. They do not
         | fit very well for anyone wearing button-down shirts with
         | buttoned sleeve cuffs. Thinner is definitely welcomed.
        
           | tonymet wrote:
           | that's an interesting concern. would you still make the
           | tradeoff for 30% battery ?
        
           | tonymet wrote:
           | could it be your wrists ? I don't seem to have that issue
        
       | vegardx wrote:
       | I'm mostly happy with my Apple Watch, but you better hope that it
       | doesn't calibrate itself poorly. There's no way to force it to
       | recalibrate and it persists through full reset and even full
       | replacement of the Apple Watch itself. I've more or less given up
       | trying to fix it. So according to Apple I've been standing
       | upright all waking hours for the last 3-4 years.
       | 
       | I've heard similar issues for people using crutches. They get
       | like 3-5x the amount of steps, or not steps at all, and you've
       | guessed it, no way to calibrate it.
       | 
       | (I'm sort of posting this in the hope that someone actually know
       | how to force it to recalibrate)
        
         | aspenmayer wrote:
         | https://support.apple.com/en-us/105048
         | 
         | > Reset your calibration data
         | 
         | > Here's how to reset your calibration data:
         | 
         | > On your iPhone, open the Watch app.
         | 
         | > Tap the My Watch tab, then tap Privacy > Reset Fitness
         | Calibration Data.
        
           | teemaw wrote:
           | I understand this will reset motion calibration data but does
           | anyone know if heart rate measurements also use calibration
           | data? My Ultra 2 always seems to undercount my heart rate
           | compared to my older Series 6. This is especially noticeable
           | during higher intensity workouts.
        
       | wtcactus wrote:
       | From the description:
       | 
       | "Apple Watch Series 10 is nearly 10 percent thinner than Apple
       | Watch Series 7, Series 8, and Series 9, while offering all the
       | advanced capabilities users love, adding new features, and
       | maintaining all-day 18-hour battery life."
       | 
       | Well, I'm pretty sure a full day has substantially more than 18h.
       | 
       | I really can't understand the appeal of yet another device I must
       | charge at least once a day. I would be willing to pay for a watch
       | that had good sleep tracking and activity tracking and that
       | lasted at the very least 1 week. But, this is not it.
        
       | bmurphy1976 wrote:
       | I wish Apple had more design variation for their watches. When
       | I'm not using my phone, it's in my pocket. When I am using it, I
       | honestly only care about the screen, the camera, and the audio.
       | If it looks cool great BUT that ultimately doesn't matter.
       | 
       | Watches are different. Watches are a true fashion accessory.
       | Watches have style. Apple watches are so damn plain and boring
       | and sterile. Swapping the band doesn't fix that. I would love a
       | watch that looks like my Fossil 6 but doesn't suck. Why can't
       | Apple make something like that?
        
       | mrcwinn wrote:
       | Bummer not to see a more meaningful Ultra 2 update. I would have
       | at least considered it. I recently received the new Garmin Fenix
       | 8 Sapphire and, while expensive, it is really a stunning piece of
       | hardware. Perhaps it's not quite as well crafted as the Ultra,
       | but it certainly is close and has a better battery and, in my
       | mind, better software specifically for people more serious about
       | fitness. (In my case, running ultras.)
       | 
       | What's neat about the Ultra is the idea of heading out for a run
       | with no phone and your podcasts are still synced. "Running
       | (mostly) free." Half the time, though, I start my run and realize
       | the content isn't really there because it can only sync on the
       | charger with more than 50% battery.
       | 
       | It's all to say, Apple products are tough because they arrive to
       | markets late and then self-impose one- or two-year update cycles.
       | It's SO SLOW getting to parity with existing solutions.
        
       | zdw wrote:
       | Can we get one of these you don't wear on your wrist?
       | 
       | I'm all for the exercise and health tracking, but I hate wearing
       | a watch when I'm typing or at a computer a good chunk of the day,
       | where it would be resting on something.
        
         | parker-3461 wrote:
         | This may be as good as it gets
         | https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/17/24200520/tinypod-apple-wa...
         | 
         | But I'm uncertain how polished the experience would be.
        
       | _ph_ wrote:
       | As I have big wrists and my eyes aren't getting better, I like a
       | larger screen a lot. But for me, the most important update might
       | be, that the screen now updates every second instead of every
       | minute in the "inactive" mode. I do use the seconds display of
       | any watch a lot when timing short things, especially when
       | cooking. Whenever I want to watch the seconds, with my current
       | watch I have to keep shaking my wrist to keep it active. Having a
       | seconds display all the time is the big step to make it a real
       | watch. I hope they also add a digital watch face with seconds
       | display.
       | 
       | I would have like a bit better run time - as the CPU is getting
       | more efficient, I hope Apple is downplaying any enhancements.
       | With my 7 series Apple watch I do still get 24 hours of run time
       | (wearing it at night) after 3 years, so it is just sufficient.
       | But a bit more would add safety margin.
       | 
       | A future Ultra 3 would be tempting with a longer run time and
       | especially the red "night vision" watch face. I would so much
       | like to have it on the plain Apple watch - clearly that is an
       | artificial limitation.
        
       | dmix wrote:
       | So they finally figured out the sleep apnea patent issue? You
       | used to have to download a separate app for sleeping breathing
       | detection. Wasn't built in like Fitbit
       | 
       | I wonder if it's being backported to old models
        
       | kylehotchkiss wrote:
       | That shiny black watch is going to be littered in scratches after
       | 2 weeks. My Ultra 2 has a big scratch on it. It's not the
       | materials are bad or anything, people just bump into metal often.
       | For me, it's metal tables at the coffeeshop.
        
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