yeah I've read it completely kills the accuracy. If you have the heart rate monitor turned off it's completely nerfed.
If you don't like the watch by all means take it back, but my experience was outstanding.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Running London Marathon tomorrow with Apple Watch - which app?
- Thread starter hingus2000
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
yeah I've read it completely kills the accuracy. If you have the heart rate monitor turned off it's completely nerfed.
If you don't like the watch by all means take it back, but my experience was outstanding.
I had the same problem - i started the run from my watch despite having my phone on me at the time. It didnt pick up the GPS map either. It seems set up to use the phone for that too
Sorry to hear of your experience with the watch yesterday. I ran the marathon yesterday as well, with the SG Sport just using the Activity app, and I found it very accurate, it basically buzzed for each mile just as I crossed the mile markers on the course. The annoying thing was I had to stop at the Mile 19 point and the Activity app (I discovered later) seemed to think I'd finished - once I'd started running again and noticed it wasn't showing my pace anymore, I didn't want to fiddle about starting it up again.
The other great thing about the watch was receiving notifications from friends and family during the race, I could just look down and see all the messages of encouragement and where to look out for them on the course. So my experience was very positive!
it doesn't autostop. If you stop though your pace stops showing because, well, because you have no pace when you're stopped
Not surprising at all, its the usual for Apple. Their first party Apps get access to everything and only once these have been 'battle tested' do they release the libraries for these functions to the Developers. Its been like this since the release of the first iPhone.
God job with the marathon!
Because you were running MiCoach your workout app was blocked from using the GPS. So basically your watch was using an uncalibrated accelerometer to guess your distance.
You need to run several times with the watch and phone (which cannot be using a gps app) in order to calibrate the watch's accelerometers.
The guided tour on apples website goes into this as well as other tips using the workout app. (i.e. Changing data fields that are displayed)
I do not belive it will be blocked. Apps (3rd party) cannot access the phone GPS directly, it uses Core Location which is happy to send your location to any apps that asks for it similtaneously....
From the report it sounds as if the excercise app does not use GPS even if it is available.
Thanks. I'm not quite sure that is the case though. Are you saying only one application can use GPS are time?
If you have a sports app on your phone that's using the gps constantly then your watch's activity app can't use it. There was another thread about it yesterday. Like Palinurus said above, his activity app was dead on the mile markers, which is what you would expect if it's using the phones GPS.
I see. But it doesn't really solve my issues with the watch. I either have to use the native app which is severely limited, or a third party app that doesn't have access to HR data.
I had the same problem - i started the run from my watch despite having my phone on me at the time. It didnt pick up the GPS map either. It seems set up to use the phone for that too
Fixed it by turning off the return to watch face setting on the watch app.
Yeah the HR data is a pain. The Nike app is pretty good as you can quickly swipe from the data screen to music controls and back. It won't be long before native apps appear. Presumably they need iOS 9 and the native SDK to be released later in the year. I think my Garmin 620 will be history once native apps with HR support appear, especially ones with training plans and interval workouts.
Not sure over the marathon itself but the watch came out of airplane mode at 10am and was on 38% at the end of the day (11:30pm). The phone (6) was at 40% by the end of the day which is a lot better than a normal day pre-watch!
----------
When I started running again, I looked down at the watch and, rather than showing the Activity app as before, it was just showing the watch face. I didn't want to start trying to get into the app again whilst i was running so left it like that but assumed the Activity app was still tracking me. At the end of the race, I found it had only tracked me up to the point I'd stopped.
First of all, great time on the marathon! I'm only an average runner, so that's quite inspiring.
Secondly, seeing as my space grey order is still in processing hell, I haven't yet had a chance to use the watch. For the folks using Strava and the activity app, are you running both on the watch, or are you running Strava on the phone?
And to that point, does running both apps affect the activity app's access to GPS?
I want to use the HR monitor to help improve my pace, while having Strava for the whole "Strava or it didn't happen" business.
It's too bad the activity app won't just send the data to Strava.
Thanks.
Secondly, seeing as my space grey order is still in processing hell, I haven't yet had a chance to use the watch. For the folks using Strava and the activity app, are you running both on the watch, or are you running Strava on the phone?
And to that point, does running both apps affect the activity app's access to GPS?
I want to use the HR monitor to help improve my pace, while having Strava for the whole "Strava or it didn't happen" business.
It's too bad the activity app won't just send the data to Strava.
Thanks.
nice! thank you. I will try that tonight. I might move away from the Nike app and just use the Apple Workout one though.
I ran my second run with apple watch this morning. The first time I used just the workout app and it was pretty close to what I think the route should have been. But I was a little perplexed that there was no GPS data. No map or anything. So today I used both Nike and the workout app. I got 4.03mi on Nike and 3.85 on the watch. I would be interested to know if the app is even using GPS at all. It says it is but that first run where thought was right on may have been a little longer? Next run I will use my GPS watch abd compare that way I know the iPhone isn't trying to use GPS on two apps.
I am pretty sure the iPhone allows it though as I have used multiple apps in the past... I want to try the Nike app on the watch too but sad that there isn't HR support.
I am pretty sure the iPhone allows it though as I have used multiple apps in the past... I want to try the Nike app on the watch too but sad that there isn't HR support.
I saw this tweet yesterday and thought it was pretty good https://mobile.twitter.com/hverlind/status/592249808972288000
So I also ran the Marathon in 5hr 30min! Did it without stopping and walking.
I chose not to use Workout and stick to Runkeeper - idea being if the watch died, i could still track it on my phone.
All was great - Runkeeper was tracking well (though it did show me being around 1/3mile further in distance when i had got to around 17/18 mile marker - but over that distance given that I was not always on the blue line marker sure that was fine.
Was great to send messages to loved ones in crowd to tell them where I was, and equally for them to tell me where they were waiting.
Had no problems with runkeeper at all.
I've ran 18 miles/3hr 30 before with just iphone and normally the battery is down to only 60/70%.
At 18miles in the marathon - the Iphone battery DIED!!!!
Since I installed IOS 8.3 (and got apple watch) noticed that battery has been going down very quickly. Apple watch is only at 1-2% - However Safari is at 60% despite not being overly used. Now trying to do an IOS restore on phone to see if it can fix the phone.
The apple watch was fine - Battery usage after 18miles (3hr 40) was only upto 75%.
So happy with Apple watch - annoyed IOS 8.3 has messed my Iphone battery up!
I chose not to use Workout and stick to Runkeeper - idea being if the watch died, i could still track it on my phone.
All was great - Runkeeper was tracking well (though it did show me being around 1/3mile further in distance when i had got to around 17/18 mile marker - but over that distance given that I was not always on the blue line marker sure that was fine.
Was great to send messages to loved ones in crowd to tell them where I was, and equally for them to tell me where they were waiting.
Had no problems with runkeeper at all.
I've ran 18 miles/3hr 30 before with just iphone and normally the battery is down to only 60/70%.
At 18miles in the marathon - the Iphone battery DIED!!!!
Since I installed IOS 8.3 (and got apple watch) noticed that battery has been going down very quickly. Apple watch is only at 1-2% - However Safari is at 60% despite not being overly used. Now trying to do an IOS restore on phone to see if it can fix the phone.
The apple watch was fine - Battery usage after 18miles (3hr 40) was only upto 75%.
So happy with Apple watch - annoyed IOS 8.3 has messed my Iphone battery up!
[/COLOR]
When I started running again, I looked down at the watch and, rather than showing the Activity app as before, it was just showing the watch face. I didn't want to start trying to get into the app again whilst i was running so left it like that but assumed the Activity app was still tracking me. At the end of the race, I found it had only tracked me up to the point I'd stopped.[/QUOTE]
You'd think it would just start a new activity then. It would be nice if it had an auto-pause on/off setting.
When I started running again, I looked down at the watch and, rather than showing the Activity app as before, it was just showing the watch face. I didn't want to start trying to get into the app again whilst i was running so left it like that but assumed the Activity app was still tracking me. At the end of the race, I found it had only tracked me up to the point I'd stopped.[/QUOTE]
You'd think it would just start a new activity then. It would be nice if it had an auto-pause on/off setting.