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Apple Watch Ultra 3 Coming Soon: What to Expect

mk313 said:
I'm a little surprised that they haven't already. It seems like such a natural fit for the cycling crowd. I know you can sync bluetooth accessories, but ANY+ is a pretty glaring omission.
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It's not going to happen. It can't.

Garmin owns the Ant+ protocol and ended certification officially last June. Bluetooth BLE is the immediate future (or rather present).

The writing was on the wall before the Apple Watch even launched due to the EU in 2014 adopting the Directive 2014/53/EU Radio Equipment Directive (RED).

Ant+ doesn't have encryption, which Apple would've been against to begin with, but that was the driving force behind the directive. It also simplifies components since Bluetooth was going to be needed anyway.

I just upgraded all of my bike tech and it's all Bluetooth. There's a lot of gym equipment that will take a long time to switch over, but no new equipment is going to be Ant+.
 
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Seriously considering AWU3 to replace my AW6 which has been great to be fair, but need better battery life and a larger display. The Ultra design is beautiful also, love the chunkiness of it.
 
wagszilla said:
It took me 2 hours to sync music onto my AWU2 today.

Switching to Garmin. Apple has become a joke.
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Why do you need to sync?

I have never needed to do any manual sync — audiobooks (Audible), Podcasts (Apple Podcast), and playlists (Apple Music) just work without any syncing seemlessly. I guess this is thanks to having LTE in watch.
 
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Faster charging would be great

More RAM to run better quality voice recognition and workout buddy locally — I hope

Satellite for extra security

5G for better battery life and more robust data when leaving phone at home


Starts to sound like AWU2 upgrade time…
 
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jz0309 said:
What do you do on your watch/use it for that requires such an upgrade from the S9?
I have an Ultra 2 and processor performance is excellent. What watch do you have?
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Haha I don't really need more power for NOW... But in the future yes... If we look at the series 5... the watchOS support dropped at the same time as the series 4... Why? Same CPU !! Meaning that the Ultra 3 will get dropped at the same time as the Ultra 2 !!


So there is two possibilities here :

- The Ultra 3 with S11 (like the S9) will get dropped in 2-3 years

- Or we stay with boooooring watchOS updates... Tho I don't think that we will get watchOS 30 or even 29...


With better performances on the watch, I'm pretty sure that apple will be able to add more things, maybe small AI or things like that in the future...


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Anyways what I just want is some big changes in watchOS... watchOS 11 and 26 are kinda boring for me (as the series 10) so I hope there will be something big...
 
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Don’t really need more speed on the Apple Watch, but I’m interested in 5G for potential increase in coverage. But I’m also worried an additional modem will negatively impact battery life without any noticeable improvement.
 
Astuces iOS said:
So there is two possibilities here :

- The Ultra 3 with S11 (like the S9) will get dropped in 2-3 years

- Or we stay with boooooring watchOS updates... Tho I don't think that we will get watchOS 30 or even 29...


With better performances on the watch, I'm pretty sure that apple will be able to add more things, maybe small AI or things like that in the future...


------

Anyways what I just want is some big changes in watchOS... watchOS 11 and 26 are kinda boring for me (as the series 10) so I hope there will be something big...
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The Apple Watch series 5 dropped support of watchOS 11 in 2024. That's 5 year of software support. Apple is very well known to keep up with at least that time frame, I don't see them drop Series 11 and ultra 3 in 2 or 3 years.
 
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It will have newer processor and display with LTPO3 that matches the one in Series 10. Faster charging is always welcome. Don't think it will come in any new color.
 
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CouldBeWorse said:
It forces you to keep it on the charger in order to install an update anyway
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that's a limitation I never understood tbh. Why? I would understand if like the iPhone it forces you to have at least like 30 ou 40% of battery life, but why forcing to keep it on the charger?
 
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NicoTRZ said:
that's a limitation I never understood tbh. Why? I would understand if like the iPhone it forces you to have at least like 30 ou 40% of battery life, but why forcing to keep it on the charger?
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I agree that it’s weird. My assumption is that the watch can’t handle everything it’s doing while it’s on your wrist alongside installing an update. Things like taking blood oxygen readings and tracking your movement is probably top processor intensive given the chip to do at the same time as installing an update.
 
CouldBeWorse said:
I agree that it’s weird. My assumption is that the watch can’t handle everything it’s doing while it’s on your wrist alongside installing an update. Things like taking blood oxygen readings and tracking your movement is probably top processor intensive given the chip to do at the same time as installing an update.
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I don't see that as an issue tough. It's just a long restart, we can assume it does not take any measurement during the time of the update (10 - 15 min max)
 
Aimed for adventurers? Seriously, is that a pisstake? It’s only got a day and a bit battery life, you won’t be doing much adventuring with that. I think I’ll stick with my Garmin which has offline maps and can last me at least two weeks even while tracking a gps trail when I’m out in the desert and mountains on my motorbike. I’ve tried both the apple and the Samsung ultra and both had joke life, utterly useless for my adventures.
 
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Beepster said:
Aimed for adventurers? Seriously, is that a pisstake? It’s only got a day and a bit battery life, you won’t be doing much adventuring with that. I think I’ll stick with my Garmin which has offline maps and can last me at least two weeks even while tracking a gps trail when I’m out in the desert and mountains on my motorbike. I’ve tried both the apple and the Samsung ultra and both had joke life, utterly useless for my adventures.
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AWU also have offline map FYI
 
I've been very happy with the Ultra 2. The larger screen over the smaller standard watches has been a big help. My eyesight is just about capable of reading the larger display unaided, and that small difference is all that it takes to make a hugely more useful device for me without having to reach for reading glasses all the time.

The supposed even larger 3 screen would be useful, but on its own not a compelling enough reason to upgrade. Neither for me is the satellite stuff. Great, but for me a very edge use-case. The blood pressure monitoring might be worth exploring, but it all depends on what it can actually do and how accurate it is.
 
This is what Apple should do, at least as an optional model. Apple should make Watch Ultra truly standalone, without any dependency, not requiring other device to setup and use. No, I do not want an iPhone; even for free! Free your mind and your hands! Allowing to install any application including web browsers like Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge, etc. Add a camera to read QR codes, etc; best if it is telescopic rotating retractable camera in the crown neck (protecting from dust and sweat, besides privacy). Then I am sold, even for 1,000 USD or more.
 
NicoTRZ said:
that's a limitation I never understood tbh. Why? I would understand if like the iPhone it forces you to have at least like 30 ou 40% of battery life, but why forcing to keep it on the charger?
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It's just to "be on the safe side". It used to be like that on the iPhone too not long ago. I assume they will change the requirement soon on the watches as well.
 
jole said:
Why do you need to sync?

I have never needed to do any manual sync — audiobooks (Audible), Podcasts (Apple Podcast), and playlists (Apple Music) just work without any syncing seemlessly. I guess this is thanks to having LTE in watch.
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This works if you're subscribed to apple music only. If you want to have your own music collection on your wrist it's still a big effing PITA to do this. Apple want's you to subscribe and shell monthly... if you don't, well take your time, literally.
 
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