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Heart rate monitor -- be honest!

bjdraw said:
One size does not fit all and style does matter for something you wear all the time. A purpose built health monitoring device for gym work isn't going to be the type of device you want to wear all the time and a all day monitor isn't going to be perfect for the gym.

I think this is why the Watch supports BTLE heart rate monitors. That way you can track your HR 18x7 (including helping you determine an accurate resting heart rate) with a device that you are comfortable wearing anywhere, then you can add a chest or another more accurate wrist strap during exercise.
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Indeed yes, and, if I'm honest, it's one reason I have issues with what Apple is currently trying to make.

A cartruckbikeskiracehoverplane in one body.

I go running I'd wear one set of cloths.
A hot workout at the gym another.
Lazy around the home another
The the office another

If I'm going to go to the gym, changing cloths, then I'd change what's on my wrist. Not expect the thing in the office to be THE best item for my gym work.

This is why I think the Apple watch has no focus, and, if I'm honest, and I'm not alone here in thinking this. Apple does not know what it's for yet.

I would like to see Apple have at least 3 products for different uses, each of them made the very best for that area.

Not try and do it all in one so so device.

In most aspects of life we use the best tool for the job.

Actually even in the gym. You can get multigyms that you can mess with and adjust and change around to offer you multiple machines on one, say for the home. But it's always better to have a dedicated machine for the one job.

Jack of all trades, master of none I guess.
Trying to be all things to all men.

typical sayings.

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Bryan Bowler said:
Plus, don't forget: making a difference in humanity is one of Apple's primary goals and movement activity is critical to the health of the human race.
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If I am honest, I would suspect their main reason is to make money for the company and shareholders.

The aspect you are taking about is good public relations to help them sell more.
If they wanted, above all else to "help the common man" they would price things nice and low so that almost everyone can buy one.

High price and elitist, and wanting to help the human race in general as you say don't go together.
 
Piggie said:
If I am honest, I would suspect their main reason is to make money for the company and shareholders.
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Not every business believes that focusing on profits leads to profits. Many believe that if you focus on your customer, then you won't need to worry about profit. Everything I know about Apple leads me to believe that they are one of these companies that focuses on serving their customer.
 
bjdraw said:
Not every business believes that focusing on profits leads to profits. Many believe that if you focus on your customer, then you won't need to worry about profit. Everything I know about Apple leads me to believe that they are one of these companies that focuses on serving their customer.
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Well we see things in different way then.

To me, that is the SmokeScreen they use and how they try very hard to promote themselves.

Their products, pricing however don't, for me, match this.
 
Piggie said:
Well we see things in different way then.

To me, that is the SmokeScreen they use and how they try very hard to promote themselves.

Their products, pricing however don't, for me, match this.
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The main reason I believe this is after reading the Jobs' biography. The same book that many of Steve's friends don't like because they don't believe it painted a unfair picture of him.
 
Piggie said:
I know, I was just really pointing out that for serious Gym work you don't need all the gimmics the Apple watch has.
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I currently use my phone, which is able to do a lot more than the watch. Just because it has things I wouldn't use while working out doesn't mean I have to use them.

Piggie said:
TBH, if you are working out then probably a tiny MP3 player that can get knocked around and store a LOT of music would be better anyway.
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Except that wouldn't allow for streaming music or apps that people can use for workouts such as interval training timers.
 
This support article about the heart rate feature answers a few questions.

If you’re not able to get a consistent reading because of any of these factors, you can connect your Apple Watch wirelessly to external heart rate monitors such as Bluetooth chest straps.
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The HR monitor is the main reason I sold my automatic mechanical watch to get the SS Apple Watch.
I exercise every single day..
 
RickInHouston said:
The Gamin heart rate chest strap in more a nuisance than running with a phone? What?
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Yes. I find the strap around my chest to be a nuisance and only wear it when I begin marathon training every year to get a baseline on some of the Garmin metrics that require the HRM.

I would run with a phone regardless of whether I was wearing an Apple Watch, Garmin or whatever. I generally run 40+ miles a week and never run without my phone. I use a waist pouch.
 
What I like, at least in theory, about devices such as the Fitbit Charge HR is that your heart rate is recorded regularly throughout the day so that you can see a nice overview at the end of the day. For me personally, this is pretty useless but it's also pretty cool and I like the idea of seeing that just for the sake of seeing it. I know the Apple Watch can read your heart rate from the glance and during a workout but do you think Apple might open that API up to developers eventually so that some apps (maybe when they're native on the watch) could grab heart rate along with steps at a more regular rate as opposed to it only being when we force a reading?
 
profmatt said:
For me, the heart rate monitor is like the feature unique to the iPhone 6+: the barometer. It sounds really cool and on the first day it's the best thing ever. Then you stop caring and never use it again.

I don't go to the gym. I'm never going to the gym. There's an awful lot of time and money and weight and space put into the AW to provide a heart rate monitor. How many people are going to use it regularly.

Be honest!

Because a lot of people are talking about waiting till the second generation or even the third. But will Apple add genuinely useful new features, or will it stuff that sounds cool but ultimately really doesn't make that much difference, day-to-day?
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I run every other day and take my iphone 6+ with me for:

- listening to a podcast or music while running
- use a 3rd party app to see my heart rate (the kind you cover your camera lens with your finger).

Once I get my Apple watch I'm leaving my iphone at home.
 
blackbear219 said:
It's one of the things my wife and I are looking forward to the most. The heart rate sensors that are built in to the handles on the machines at the gym are terrible, I usually can't even get a number out of them.

Lots of people in the world exercise. Keeping your heart rate in the optimal range while you're doing that is a big part of it. It's pretty short sighted to think that just because YOU don't exercise that no one else will use the feature.
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Exactly. I don't have a car, but lots of other people do. I exercise regularly and look forward to not wearing a strap, remembering to wear a strap, removing a strap, storing a sweaty strap, etc. etc.
 
i have no use for as it don't work out. I wish there was a way to turn it off to save battery. Maybe in a update?
 
Heart rate monitor -- be honest!

My concern is, does it actually work? All of these heart rate monitors on the android watches are far from perfect and don't even work half the time. (I.E give you a incorrect reading)
 
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shenfrey said:
My concern is, does it actually work? All of these heart rate monitors on the android watches are far from perfect and don't even work half the time. (I.E give you a correct reading)
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Looks like we will have to wait until after launch to find out how accurate it is. I was hoping Apple would release :apple:Watches for review to some fitness sites like DC Rainmaker.
 
eattherich said:
What I like, at least in theory, about devices such as the Fitbit Charge HR is that your heart rate is recorded regularly throughout the day so that you can see a nice overview at the end of the day. For me personally, this is pretty useless but it's also pretty cool and I like the idea of seeing that just for the sake of seeing it. I know the Apple Watch can read your heart rate from the glance and during a workout but do you think Apple might open that API up to developers eventually so that some apps (maybe when they're native on the watch) could grab heart rate along with steps at a more regular rate as opposed to it only being when we force a reading?
Click to expand...

Apple Watch already records your heart rate every 10 minutes on its own. The data is fed to the Health app and is available to any 3rd party app that can access data from there.
 
HR monitor is a great addition, I'm just concerned like all watch wrist monitors, it's going to be inaccurate .

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shenfrey said:
My concern is, does it actually work? All of these heart rate monitors on the android watches are far from perfect and don't even work half the time. (I.E give you a incorrect reading)
Click to expand...

That is my biggest concern, and reading a few reviews, looks like the apple watch is going to be similar to what is currently in the markert. Looks like the tech is not available at present to be accurate. Chest monitor is still the way forward if your really serious
 
ACE83 said:
I know two apps I use now, RunKeeper and 7 minute fitness can read/write from Health. It's up to the developer to build in support.
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I have RunKeeper (and many others) too. What data can RunKeeper pull from Health into RunKeeper and how do you set it up?

EDIT: I now see if you click on the Source App in Health it can have an Allow To Read options.
 
MH01 said:
HR monitor is a great addition, I'm just concerned like all watch wrist monitors, it's going to be inaccurate .

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That is my biggest concern, and reading a few reviews, looks like the apple watch is going to be similar to what is currently in the markert. Looks like the tech is not available at present to be accurate. Chest monitor is still the way forward if your really serious
Click to expand...

I get this and agree that if its not accurate then it's of no real use. A few reviews I've read show it to be very accurate (within 5BPM of a chest strap), which is good enough for me.

I think the heart rate monitor is going to trigger a whole wave of "your wearing it wrong" type of debates. The reviews where it was inaccurate seem to be times where the watch wasn't tight enough and wasn't placed in the optimal position to get accurate results.

It seems (again based on early reviews) that wearing the sports band tightly and placing the watch two inches above your wrist while exercising is optimal.
 
ACE83 said:
I get this and agree that if its not accurate then it's of no real use. A few reviews I've read show it to be very accurate (within 5BPM of a chest strap), which is good enough for me.

I think the heart rate monitor is going to trigger a whole wave of "your wearing it wrong" type of debates. The reviews where it was inaccurate seem to be times where the watch wasn't tight enough and wasn't placed in the optimal position to get accurate results.

It seems (again based on early reviews) that wearing the sports band tightly and placing the watch two inches above your wrist while exercising is optimal.
Click to expand...

For me this will be a major point in relation to me keeping it or returning it. Once I get it I will compare it to the Microsoft band, which I have also preordered, I can use both at the same time
 
I believe we will se some neat things with the HRM & ResearchKit.

In a not so distant future we will have uninterrupted, all-day HRM allowing stroke / cardiac arrest short-term prediction & warnings based on HR patterns, and (semi?)automated alert to emergency response services.


It could also help forecast how our lifestyle impacts cardiovascular disease risk in the long run.

Bring it on Apple. You now have the tools to help reduce the N°1 human death cause !
 
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