Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Am I being ridiculous to want a fit bit, and a Apple Watch?

M

mellofello

Suspended
Original poster
Feb 1, 2011
1,259
556
I am watching a bunch of friends have competitions with their fit bits and feeling a little left out. I also really want sleep tracking as insomnia is my biggest current health challenge right now.

I just wonder how uber dork I will look with both strapped on my wrist.
 
You do realize that the CURRENT sleep metrics are junk. All based on arm movement.

The REAL one will be based on arm movement, heart rate, and maybe even use the oxygen sensor on our Watch and put it to good use!

Imagine the possibilities!! Sleep apnea can be diagnosed by your watch! Unofficially of course because Watch is not FDA approved.
 
I'm almost thinking the same thing. My sister, at least one aunt and a few cousins, and soon (maybe) my wife are all using Fitbits. And, as we know, Fitbit ignores step data from the Watch, even as they use iPhone step data for group challenges.

I had a Saturday a few weeks ago which registered zero steps in Fitbit because I kept my phone at home while we went for a walk. Made for an unfair comparison with my sister's stats that weekend.

It's not Apple's fault, either. There's no technical reason Fitbit can't use AW data. But, I can't blame Fitbit for taking care of their own hardware sales, either.

Meh.
 
You don't have to get a Fitbit that is worn on the wrist, as long as you are willing to give up a few features like heart rate monitoring. I have a Fitbit One that I can clip to my belt or carry in my pocket. I have mostly stopped using it since I got my Apple Watch, but I used it for about a year and a half before that. After getting the Apple Watch I carried the Fitbit for several months just to compare the step tracking to my AW. The two devices are very close in terms of my step count. I never got into the social aspect of Fitbit, but that is something really lacking on the Apple side. There are other social fitness apps that work with Apple Health (like Strava) but Fitbit is popular and what your friends are using.

I do still use my Fitbit for sleep tracking sometimes. No it's not exactly true sleep tracking, but it does provide some information that is useful. I can see when I got into bed, how restless I was, and when (and for how long) I was out of bed to let the dog out, go to the bathroom, or check on a crying kid who woke up in the middle of the night. Over time you can see some patterns emerge that are helpful. I wouldn't depend on it to troubleshoot or help with serious sleep disorders, but just seeing the data for times when I get into bed and when I get up is helpful. It inspires me to get into bed earlier. I can't always control the things that wake me up in the middle of the night, but I can control when I get to bed so I get more sleep on average.

By the way...I had not been to the Fitbit site in a long time so I see they have a new model called the Blaze that I thought was an Apple Watch at first glance! :p
 
I may do the same as I can't wear my watch to work but I could wear a Fitbit. Dont really care what it looks like just haven't pulled the trigger yet. The new Fitbit Alta looks intriguing.
 
Not sure about Fitbit, but looks like Jawbone app is integrated with AW:
https://jawbone.com/blog/using-new-apple-watch/

"Can I use Apple Watch with an UP band? Yes, you can connect and track steps using an Apple Watch and UP band at the same time, and the UP system automatically calculates the best single step count for you at any given time. At night, many people want to charge their smart watch but keep wearing their UP band to track sleep. Without the need to change any settings, all your data is brought together to show you the complete picture of your day and night."

Personally, I am waiting for possibility of something next to the AW, in March or Sept:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...ares-the-end-of-the-pc-and-hints-at-new-medi/

"We don’t want to put the watch through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) process. I wouldn’t mind putting something adjacent to the watch through it, but not the watch, because it would hold us back from innovating too much, the cycles are too long. But you can begin to envision other things that might be adjacent to it -- maybe an app, maybe something else.”
 
Get the Fitbit Zip. I have one in addition to my AW. FB is the world standard for activity trackers, and their social connections and challenges are part of what make it really fun and gamify health.
 
I have both and don't see an issue with it. I have the Fitbit Charge. Fit just announced the Alta which looks pretty solid as well that will be available next month.
 
I wouldn't spend any money with Fitbit as they purposefully don't support, and purposefully break 3rd party apps that try to support a connection between Fitbit and Apple Health.
 
zhenya said:
I wouldn't spend any money with Fitbit as they purposefully don't support, and purposefully break 3rd party apps that try to support a connection between Fitbit and Apple Health.
Click to expand...
Huh? Apple Health is an aborted turd. Fitbit is the best-in-class for activity tracking software platforms. I have not followed the data integration closely, because I have not found any benefit yet of having any data in AH versus Garmin, Fitbit, or Strava. What examples of breaking 3rd party apps that do FB to AH data integration have you seen? And, what FB data not in AH is the deal-breaker for you?

Until Apple rewrites the Health app and Activity apps (on the phone and watch) so that activity data move seamlessly up and down between apps and devices, the whole Apple workout/activity/activity/health stack is marginalized.
 
I think the AW does enough good to make the fitbit superfluous, while there's really no "sleep" monitoring I don't think that stuff was all that useful when I wore my fitbit
 
exxxviii said:
Huh? Apple Health is an aborted turd. Fitbit is the best-in-class for activity tracking software platforms. I have not followed the data integration closely, because I have not found any benefit yet of having any data in AH versus Garmin, Fitbit, or Strava. What examples of breaking 3rd party apps that do FB to AH data integration have you seen? And, what FB data not in AH is the deal-breaker for you?

Until Apple rewrites the Health app and Activity apps (on the phone and watch) so that activity data move seamlessly up and down between apps and devices, the whole Apple workout/activity/activity/health stack is marginalized.
Click to expand...

While the UI for Apple Health badly needs an overhaul, the basic building blocks are sound. AH lets you move data in and out through apps so long as the 3rd party developer chooses to support it. The benefit of having data in Apple Health over those other companies is that Apple is likely to be a much more stable force in the long run and they allow you to move all of your data in or out. I don't want to choose Garmin or Fitbit as my master health database because they are heavily tied to a relatively basic hardware ecosystem. Apple is much more central. I use Strava for that reason to track my running metrics, but they only focus on running and cycling specific activity and don't support wider health metrics. If they did, and did it well, they could be my choice instead.

Fitbit has been resistant to Apple Health in that they don't read or write to Apple Health with their app (and and don't plan to), choosing instead to access the motion co-processor on the phone directly. The main 3rd party app for syncing data between them - Sync Solver - was rendered useless in December when Fitbit purposefully changed their API to exclude steps from Apple Health.

All they'd have to do is support Apple's open system and it would work. They choose not to and purposefully broke the one app that allowed you to do that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sean000 and BarracksSi
I knew about FB's refusal to directly support AH. I had not read about SyncSolver.

If I were to choose a master health database (for the medical and biometrics stuff beyond food, activity, weight, and sleep that most trackers capture), I probably would not choose AH. The reason is that it does not have a native path for restore if you need to rebuild the phone as new and it is trapped on a phone with no web in sight. I would probably lean toward Microsoft Health. (I do not trust Google at all.)
 
This is somewhat true - and thanks for pointing it out as I now am more fully aware of how it's stored. If you are backing up your phone to iCloud or to iTunes as an encrypted backup, the Health data is stored in that backup. True, it would be better to give an option to store the Health data separately, but it is not a total deal breaker for me as across 7 iPhones I have never had to restore a phone completely as new other than for troubleshooting purposes. You also have the option to export your data manually. I will hope that they improve this process over time - hopefully with a UI overhaul (we need a web gui now!)

The reality is that there is no one health database, nor one activity tracker that is perfect right now. Everyone has limitations. However I try to choose software and hardware that leave my options as open as possible for the future. Fitbit choosing to lock in their data to their hardware ecosystem rubs me the wrong way.
 
Thai said:
You do realize that the CURRENT sleep metrics are junk. All based on arm movement.

The REAL one will be based on arm movement, heart rate, and maybe even use the oxygen sensor on our Watch and put it to good use!

Imagine the possibilities!! Sleep apnea can be diagnosed by your watch! Unofficially of course because Watch is not FDA approved.
Click to expand...

The Apple Watch is not about to be a medical advice. Useful for tracking long-term trends, possibly. Have you ever been wired for telemetry in hospital? That's what's required for a true medical device. (Trouble sleeping? Come in and sleep in a strange bed in a strange room while wired up with a bunch of leads that will definitely interfere with your ability to easily roll over in your sleep, and guess what we'll find? You have trouble sleeping!)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Phelony Jones
Current sleep metrics might not be great, but they are useful enough for me in that merely logging how long I sleep, approximately how well, and for how long means that I tend to take steps to maximize my sleep quality. and I can correlate bad sleep with other factors in my health directly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sean000
nightcap965 said:
(Trouble sleeping? Come in and sleep in a strange bed in a strange room while wired up with a bunch of leads that will definitely interfere with your ability to easily roll over in your sleep, and guess what we'll find? You have trouble sleeping!)
Click to expand...
Did this once, and I'm not sure which part was more difficult -- the wires which I had to tend to when I wanted to turn sideways, or the worn-out, too-soft cheap mattress that had deformed into a hammock. ;-p
 
exxxviii said:
I knew about FB's refusal to directly support AH. I had not read about SyncSolver.

If I were to choose a master health database (for the medical and biometrics stuff beyond food, activity, weight, and sleep that most trackers capture), I probably would not choose AH. The reason is that it does not have a native path for restore if you need to rebuild the phone as new and it is trapped on a phone with no web in sight. I would probably lean toward Microsoft Health. (I do not trust Google at all.)
Click to expand...

SyncSolver has been broken for weeks. I wouldn't count on it coming back either.

I've personally been debating getting a Fitbit Blaze when it comes out and just selling my Apple Watch. Apple's fitness implementation is a hot pile of garbage compared to Fitbit's.
 
RichP74 said:
I've personally been debating getting a Fitbit Blaze when it comes out and just selling my Apple Watch.
Click to expand...
Depending on the size of the Blaze and how well it does the notifications, I am considering giving it a try as well. It is so cheap, it is hard to ignore. My hunch it's discounted retail will be in the $150-$175 range.

I had to buy an electronic scale a few weeks ago, so I had to pick a health ecosystem alongside the scale. My technical favorites were the Garmin and Withings scales. However, I picked the Fitbit scale because it was part of the best overall wellness ecosystem, although it was just technically adequate compared to the others. Many of the scales claim to send data to Health, but Health is effectively useless in that function, so AH was a non-starter as an evaluation point and further confirmed the Fitbit scale selection.
 
Last edited:
RichP74 said:
SyncSolver has been broken for weeks. I wouldn't count on it coming back either.

I've personally been debating getting a Fitbit Blaze when it comes out and just selling my Apple Watch. Apple's fitness implementation is a hot pile of garbage compared to Fitbit's.
Click to expand...

The Blaze is the first Fitbit that I wouldn't mind wearing on my wrist. I'm not a fan of the fitness band look of their other wrist bands, which is why I bought the Fitbit One a couple of years ago... I just put it in my pocket.

I bought my Apple Watch after having the Fitbit One for about a year and a half, and kept carrying the Fitbit for a few months after I started wearing my Apple Watch. While the Fitbit iOS app had its bugs while I was using it (they would get fixed, but it always seemed like new bugs would take place of the old ones), it was definitely more intuitive than the mixed bag of Apple Activity, Workout and Health apps. Overall I think Fitbit (and others) offer better fitness tracking than the Apple Watch, but the Apple Watch is fine for the average person's health and fitness tracking needs. I think the activity rings are fantastic, the workout app is merely adequate, and the Health app is a hot mess with a ton of potential.

If fitness tracking was my primary reason for wearing a smartwatch, the Fitbit Blaze would be an attractive option. I'm more interested in other Smartwatch features though, and the Blaze falls short in that department.

Sean
 
  • Like
Reactions: OTACORB
I haven't read the comments. But I have both. My AW still doesn't count my steps correctly. It's always off by 1-2k a day. I wear my old Fitbit flex around my ankle ( I put the tracker in a Griffin ribbon band made for Fitbit ) and I wear my watch during the day. I've had my Fitbit for two years. I didn't want to give up all my stats and competing abilities. It's fun.
I use my AW for excersizing/HR and the other fun stuff. But for step counting, it just doesn't cut it.
 
I think you should do whatever you want to do. I have a garmin that tracks sleep and wile i find it informative I don't really know a way to "change" anything due to whatever the readings say are wrong.
 
Not at all, Fitbit is the best there is for fitness tracking. AW just doesn't come close to Fitbit or other activity trackers really.
Maybe the AW2 but for now get a Fitbit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back