SmartWatch and swimming

Minion Queen

At this point I am not a great swimmer either.

IRJ

I have a general ambition to one day swim a mile in under an hour.

I had to do that, but not by choice. Small kayak and really rough water. A buddy and I had to swim over a mile. It was a pretty helpless feeling.

scottalanmiller

I find that tracking what I do makes me better at doing it. It makes you mentally "game" your exercise. Right now I just use the step tracker built into my iPhone but boy does it work well. I used it while I was in California for a fortnight and I watched my steps / mileage every day. It really encouraged me to put on a lot of extra miles. It was great.

Minion Queen

I am supposed to track everything for my doctors and also to keep me on track as well.

Reid Cooper

Good idea to track that stuff even when a doctor doesn't tell you to. Like in IT, creating a baseline before something happens makes it easier to tell when things change because you know what "normal" is like!

scottalanmiller

I really hope to get a nice device like this before we start our crazy traveling. I want to see just how much things change when I am in one place or another.

Minion Queen

I bought a Pebble (the plain one not the steel). I will start testing it out tomorrow when I swim and walk etc. Let's see how it works!

coliver

@Minion-Queen said:

I bought a Pebble (the plain one not the steel). I will start testing it out tomorrow when I swim and walk etc. Let's see how it works!

I have a Pebble (one of the original ones) the screen is starting to become finicky but otherwise it is pretty good.

Minion Queen

This is the one that got some pretty good reviews on their swimming app as well as the heart rate monitor etc. So I will see how it does. The price is pretty good comparatively to other smart watches.

scottalanmiller

I totally forgot why I have been holding off on buying a smart watch or device. I am planning on getting the Apple Watch as soon as I am back in the US in June. That will probably be my first purchase. Sucks that I will not have it for my first time in Spain when I was hoping to get to use it extensively but I don't want to buy one device just to replace it. So waiting until June.

nadnerB

@scottalanmiller said:

I totally forgot why I have been holding off on buying a smart watch or device. I am planning on getting the Apple Watch as soon as I am back in the US in June. That will probably be my first purchase. Sucks that I will not have it for my first time in Spain when I was hoping to get to use it extensively but I don't want to buy one device just to replace it. So waiting until June.

I heard yesterday that Apple were dropping the health monitoring stuff from the watch. I'll see if I can find a link to the article.

scottalanmiller

@nadnerB said:

I heard yesterday that Apple were dropping the health monitoring stuff from the watch. I'll see if I can find a link to the article.

That seems unlikely as their website, just an hour ago, was covered in details about the health monitoring.

nadnerB

Here 'tis: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/17/apple_watch_ditched_features_scare/
*Apple has scrapped health-monitoring tech from its upcoming Watch, it's claimed, following problems with sensors and regulators.

Some of the features are too complicated, while others would have prompted unwanted attention from watchdogs, it's reported. We're told the Watch has failed to meet Cupertino's strict product standards – sensor readings are spoiled by hairy arms or dry skin, for instance.*

All the articles that I can find reference this article (subscription walled) http://www.wsj.com/articles/challenge-of-apple-watch-defining-its-purpose-1424133615

scottalanmiller

I just found one as you found that...

http://www.eweek.com/video/daily-video-apple-watch-will-lack-key-health-monitoring-features.html

But Apple's website doesn't support this currently.

scottalanmiller

http://www.apple.com/watch/health-and-fitness/

gjacobse

Late to the game here... I had and am getting rid of a FitBit. I liked what it could do,.. But I found that it was difficult to get myself to wear it.

I'm waiting for the embedded version via Star Trek.... NOT.. I want the option to not be tracked and recorded.

nadnerB

Very interesting. It is possible that the Journo's are incorrect as they all seem to reference ONE non-Apple source (lol, Apple Sauce) and Apple usually yank stuff from their site pretty quickly if it's not happening or incorrect.

scottalanmiller

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/23/did-pebble-just-leak-its-color-screen-smartwatch/

nadnerB

@scottalanmiller said:

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/23/did-pebble-just-leak-its-color-screen-smartwatch/

I hope it isn't that ugly. That's also pretty pricey... or maybe I'm just a cheapskate.