My beef is that the Ultra has NO dedicated map when using the waypoints like Garmin and to me that would have been a big plus. But Apple does everything a little little bit and I would not be surprised if this happens with the next generation of the Ultra. Sticking with my Garmin
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The Ultra could have been better
- Thread starter chiefs1968
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One day it'll probably come, but in the meantime there's plenty of apps for the watches these days, I'm sure there'll be a suitable one for you.
One of the major points of an Apple Watch is it supports third party apps, of which you will find many that can do what you want.
That's not a problem with the Ultra. It has the capability to do what you like. The "problem" is with the native apps in WatchOS 9, if you want to consider it a problem. But like @rmcq said, you can use existing third-party apps to do what you want.
It‘s kinda weird that so many people seem to expect that all useful Watch apps should be first-party ones. This expectation was never a problem with the iPhone; there third-party apps (i.e. the App store) were welcomed with open arms.
I suspect that not many people actually wind up using third party watch apps, much less browsing the App Store for them, so they end up feeling stuck if the watch doesn't came bundled with an innate feature they want.
Which is fine for the vast majority of users because all of the (to them) most important functions of the Watch are indeed covered by system/first-party apps.
As a consumer, if there is a feature that is really important to me, I should be sure that feature is included before I buy the device (any device, really), no? And if I still buy it regardless and a feature I want isn't there, finding out if there is "an app for that" is literally one google search away.
Yes, hopefully v2 will see the bezel disappear, you would think that would be easily possible, it would offset from its ugliness slightly and I might consider buying.
The peculiarity of ultra is that it is very resistant. That's what the bezel is for.
The apple watch is a way different than the other sport watches out there. If they are coming from a garmin, coros, polar, suunto or many of the other brands they are used to the watch being able to give them information on one app and not having to go through 5 different apps to get the information. I understand why apple does it the way they do as they can let other developers do the work and they can take a royalty but maps and a clean one app system is a must for most outdoor adventure enthusiasts.
Well you can have maps. And I really don't think the "clean one app system" is what matters for those people. If Apple Watch had the same battery life as Garmin et al., it would be game over for the competition. As it is, their niche is safe (but getting smaller).
Respectfully disagree. As busy working athlete that relies on the data from these devices having it all in one place is a huge plus. I cant stand using three different apps to figure out the total picture of all my activities, strain levels, HRV status etc. The ultra is really just a regular Apple Watch that has a more rugged case and a Siren with slightly more battery life. Alot of people were bashing apple for how they did things with the watch years prior and bought garmins etc and now are jumping on the ultra bandwagon using the excuse of the battery being longer makes everything better without the apps that they were complaining about changing. Workoutdoors is def a nice workaround but it still has its issues with integration to the AW and requires a fee. Athlytic meh it is nice but isnt there yet and its another subscription app. Look I wanted the Ultra to take the place of my garmin and fought tooth and nail to make it happen But kept coming back to the fact that connect has everything in one place. Now one of the biggest apps that most athletes use is getting a ton of backlash because of them raising prices substantially (ok ok you can say that they havent done it in years blah blah blah) but its still 60-100$ a year to have. AND IMO Strava is absolutely needed with an Apple Watch.
Another thing i didnt realize would be such a big deal going to apple was losing the ability to set up a race within The apps or whatever like you can with garmin. I think a lot of people are not using the race day widget within garmin and they are missing out as it literally tells you everything you need to know about your race day.
I think we can agree that the more important the fitness/athletic aspects of the device are to you, the more probable it is that you‘ll choose a Garmin as the whole device is dedicated to this. But I think that group of people will get smaller the better Apple gets at this and the Ultra definitely already took a bite out of this part of the market. There‘s just a lot of middle ground between folks that just want a smart watch and the fitness aspect is secondary (clear choice: Apple Watch) and fanatic/professional athletes (clear choice: Garmin), and this huge middle ground is where this battle is fought. And the Garmin fans feel that they‘re missing out on a lot, too, as the Apple Watch is just so much better at everything else except fitness. Which is why you tried to make it work, too, I guess.
Also, in another completely different part of the market, there is a similar, yet also very different battle going on. There folks who vastly prefer the look of a traditional (mechanical) watch on their wrist are also finding it harder and harder to ignore the ever-increasing versatility of the Apple Watch with all its features. Some are even so desperate to tell themselves that “double-wristing“ is a good idea. 😂
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It would be interesting to see how much of a bite they have taken out of the garmin market. I’ve been to a few races since the ultra came out and have yet to see more than one or two at each (that obviously doesn’t mean anything numberswise just a quick observation vs what seems hundreds of garmins) the people I know and hang out with -mostly distance runners- have stated that they tried the AW in the past and this is not really much different other than the battery life which wouldn’t cut it for their needs anyway - they do 100-200 milers. And of course it won’t matter to many (and I tried to make it not matter) but it is a hassle to get the direct information you need to line everything up when you’re juggling between 3 different apps.
To be fair Apple could have a better shot at highlighting Watch apps I feel, I swear they used to have a dedicated App Store you could browse in the Watch app.
There is none. WorkOutDoors can only download small portion of an area. There is not a single Apple Watch app that I know of that can download entire state or country like Garmin (even almost entire world).
I've been using WorkOutDoors for years. It's a gem of an app. Developer is on the ball.
By comparison, I've tried my Ultra's waypoints and backtrack features several times, but they're just too abstract.
When you're in an unknown park, nothing beats a live, relatable, moving map of your "breadcrumb trail" whenever you glance at your wrist. It's always just there. You don't have to press anything to see exactly where you are, and where you're been.