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Rob73

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 9, 2015
2
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Virginia Beach, VA
I see where the watch will track distance, pace, time, calories burned, but does it track STEPS? The info Apple provides on their website is not clear regarding tracking steps. Additionally, the website is silent on tracking sleep; that's an important feature for me, which may cause me to wait until they improve battery life.
 
And with the battery life you will most likely be charging it at night while sleeping.
 
You can track sleep with a pebble using the accelerometer, so what's stopping you tracking sleep with Apple watch in the same way? Without notifications coming through at night you could easily make it through the night with minimal battery loss. If 18 hours is the average in the day, at worst you'll lose 44% at night . Likely far less considering youre not activley using it. Have the heart rate sensor recording figures every hour and you'll get a good snapshot of your sleeping patterns. There will be an app for it by release, I guarantee it.
 
It'd be great if Sleep Cycle brought out a watch app for their alarm, although I'm not sure when you'd be able to charge it.
I'm worried about the health aspect for that reason - you're not going to get a comprehensive picture unless you can wear it all the time and for longer than a day.
 
No sleep

I plan to use my $39 Jawbone UP for sleep tracking (it imports right into Health unlike fitbit) and then use the watch for steps
 
Check out 24/7 from MotionX.

Yes, this app is great sleep tracker, but it is for the iPhone. I want to use the step tracker part of the app, but without Watch counting the steps, this doesn't work for that (yet). I don't carry my phone with me at home. It sits on the desk, in my purse.... But not in my pocket.
 
Been tracking my heart rate as I sleep, and I still have about 30% left when I charge it at the end of the day. That includes using the Workout app and Runkeeper app simultaneously for an hour in the evening.

However, my "end of the day" is around 8 PM, which means I charge it before I wear it to sleep. :)

Hoping that there will be more sleep tracking apps that utilise the watch, and that WatchOS 2 would not take too much battery away.
 
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i can honestly say that i found sleep tracking interesting for about a week with the fitbit i had and after that it lost its allure.
 
I have a Fitbit Surge and it tracks sleep. I guess it can be useful and I found it to be somewhat interesting but more often then not, I use what my body is telling me, that is I could be feeling more tired after a long sleep and not up to a work out, and on other days I may only get 3 or 4 hours sleep but I'm still up for a nice run.

I think its better to listen to your body, you don't need a watch to tell you that didn't sleep well the night before :)
 
Other Fitbit models also track sleep (One, Flex, Charge, and the recalled one I forgot the name of) also. I'd guess there will be apps eventually for tracking sleep on the AW. Has there been any mention if that is build in natively in Watch OS 2?
 
I'd guess there will be apps eventually for tracking sleep on the AW
Battery is the limiting factor, if the batter lasts under 24 hours, it doesn't make sense to have a sleep tracker.
 
Battery is the limiting factor, if the batter lasts under 24 hours, it doesn't make sense to have a sleep tracker.

Yeah, in my case, I wouldn't use it. I've used Fitbits previously for it, but didn't really like having them on my wrist during sleep, especially larger ones like the Surge. I use my AW daily, primary use (aside from regular notifications, etc.) is for fitness tracking during running or gym time. I charge it when I go to bed, so I wouldn't be using it for sleep.
 
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Expect sleep tracking in Apple Watch 2, probably the most requested missing feature I've heard
What would the 2nd gen watch need to track sleep? I think all the hardware is in place, and as I mentioned only battery performance is stopping it.
 
i can honestly say that i found sleep tracking interesting for about a week with the fitbit i had and after that it lost its allure.


Same here. I tracked on my Surge for weeks and it was not ground breaking with new information so I stopped to let my wrist go naked and rest while I sleep! Unless you are having sleep problems there is little need in tracking it unless you want to know what your resting HR is and that does not change more than a beat or two normally.
 
What would the 2nd gen watch need to track sleep? I think all the hardware is in place, and as I mentioned only battery performance is stopping it.

How is battery performance stopping it??? Just charge it before you go to bed, or other times other than when you are sleeping.

Also, everything is there in the 1st gen watch to track sleep ... accelerometer, heart rate sensor, etc. I am sure we will see plenty of 3rd-party sleep tracking apps once WatchOS2 is officially out.
 
I use mine for sleep tracking. (sort of) If you look in Health-Heart Rate, there will be a period of time where no readings were taken. That would be when I went to bed until the time I woke up and put the watch back on. Its not taking my heart rate at night but it is tracking when I sleep since this is the only time I have my watch off. When I get up I almost always think I should have gone to bed earlier but none the less, I get up and go because I have places to be.

You know I'm making a little joke here but I don't see (for myself) that I need sleep tracking at this time. I do however see that others might want the feature and why not ask for it since this is a tracking device. Hope its added in the future.
 
What would the 2nd gen watch need to track sleep? I think all the hardware is in place, and as I mentioned only battery performance is stopping it.

I'm not sure if there needs to be additional hardware, but Apple has shown with Siri on the 4s that it will hold back software updates to get people to update
 
I'm not sure if there needs to be additional hardware, but Apple has shown with Siri on the 4s that it will hold back software updates to get people to update

There is nothing to hold back...

In WatchOS 2, we've already been told that developers will have access to the accelerometer and hr sensor, so I am sure we will be up to our eyeballs in sleep-tracking apps this fall. Most wrist-based activity trackers that track sleep only use an accelerometer, and some also utilize a HR sensor, and the AW has both. Plus, 3rd-party watch apps will be able to write to the Health app in WatchOS2.
 
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What would the 2nd gen watch need to track sleep? I think all the hardware is in place, and as I mentioned only battery performance is stopping it.
How is battery performance stopping it??? Just charge it before you go to bed, or other times other than when you are sleeping.

Yes, exactly. I've done this. Charge it to 100% before going to bed. Then wear it to bed, and if you feel the need, top it off while taking a shower in the morning.
 
Last year at an event Jony Ive said a team member used the watch for a silent alarm so he didn't have to wake his wife and baby. I remember John Gruber mocking the comment saying how can you use it as an alarm if it's charging. Well, I have the 38mm watch and I wear it to bed every night. I use the alarm as well as the sleep pulse app. If it's completely charged before I go to bed it will be around 85% when I wake up. I think Apple undersold battery life. I've had the watch for 2 weeks and haven't yet had to use power reserve mode. Plus I'm used to charging other iOS devices so sticking the watch on its charger every night before I go to bed isn't a big deal.
 
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