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Started w/ a 4 upgraded to the 7 (sleep usage now) then added an Ultra which is my every day & good for both competitive pistol shooting & even better for lap swimming & biking. Will stay w/ those 2 & see what an updated Ultra offers next yr.
What apps/features do you use on the Ultra for competitive shooting? 🤔
 
Too many years without innovation already. It's become a boring product and the competition has clearly caught up.

Blood glucose has been rumored for 6-7 years already.

What about the "clinic on a wrist" rumor posted here a few months ago ? It would monitor body hydration, electrolytes and alcohol.

What about blood pressure ? Some watches do it and there were rumors 2 years ago https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/03/apple-watch-blood-pressure-glucose-alcohol/

What about the fat % and body composition ? Samsung watches do it if you give them an initial value, and it works similarly to doing an ECG on the watch. https://www.samsung.com/levant/supp...dy-composition-with-the-galaxy-watch4-series/

What about sleep apnea ? Rumored for years.

What about all those independent studies who mentioned the Apple Watch could be used to detect this or that? (Depression, COVID, Sickle Disease, Arrhythmias and so on and so on)
 
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Can apple make a watch that does everything my 10 year old garmin can do?

Seriously add ant+ integration or support Bluetooth sensors like external heart rate, left right power meters, cadence sensors, radar sensor, etc.

Is it too much to ask for a watch made for real athletes? Ultra only added all day battery life. One check mark.
I was hoping Apple was going to take cycling seriously when they introduced the Ultra.

I was expecting the workout app on Ultra to at least support BLE cycling accessories like cadence and power sensors.

Without pairing to sensors, the workout app uses speed when calculating calories burned during outdoor cycling workouts. I accidentally set it to an outdoor cycling workout when I was on my indoor trainer, and the watch credited me with 0 active calories.

Speaking of my indoor trainer, the Apple Watch really should broadcast heart rate so I can use it with my bike computer and on Apple TV apps like Rouvy or Zwfit indoors. I only get heart rate from the Watch in the fitness+ app which doesn’t support cadence and power (even though Apple TV supports BLE sensors in other cycling apps).
 
… Is it too much to ask for a watch made for real athletes? Ultra only added all day battery life. One check mark.

That would be interesting:
Ad more external sensors and more training metrics on watchOS.

I think Apple will do more on watchOS. The AW Hardware is good enough (except the AW glas -> scratches) and since the last 2-3 AW: there is nothing new.

Higher prices and less features is a given

But not in Europe. Thanks😎

Yes prices increase, but what will happen:
You will have more price discounts:
AW Ultra on Amazon is always 900 €. (Almost 10%)
Same for Garmin Fenix 7:
699 -> 540€.

Wearables demand has decreased.
 
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Ant+ protocol is owned by Garmin now, so highly unlikely to get into Apple products.
I wasn’t aware Garmin controlled ANT+, but I recently bought a cheap (non-Garmin) bike computer with ANT+ for my wife, so any licensing fees are minimal.

At any rate, BLE support in the workout app would be simple to implement, along with allowing the Watch to transmit heart rate.
 
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... which is no help at all if those 10x features the Apple Watch has doesn't include the athletic sensor integration that you need. You will still have to wear or carry a second device to make up for the AW's deficiencies.

That doesn't mean the AW is a bad product, isn't worth buying, etc, etc. It's just a large area Apple has left untouched, and a market segment that has to look for alternatives to find what they need.
I’m firmly in the Apple ecosystem, and I’m annoyed I had to buy a separate heart rate monitor to use with my bike computer for outdoor riding, and with my Apple TV for indoor rides on Rouvy or Zwift!
 
I think you have basically described the problem. An Apple Watch designed solely for athletes is not going to have mass appeal (which is the conundrum Garmin faces). The Apple Watch Ultra is still at its core an Apple Watch that we all know and love. Even if I am not a hardcore athlete, I can still appreciate the larger display and longer battery life, and therefore justify getting one.

So yeah, it may be too much to ask for an Apple Watch made for "real athletes", whatever that may entail.
Transmitting heart rate over BLE wouldn’t reduce the Apple Watch’s mass market appeal. But it would mean I could use it with my Apple TV on an indoor bike running cycling apps (or on my bike computer outdoors).

Letting the workout app pair with cycling sensors for cadence and power would not affect the Watch’s mass market appeal, but it would mean the workout app would have relevant data to calculate calories burned instead of just using speed (which is different on a mountain bike or road bike, paved trail vs gravel trail, etc…).

Apple is forcing me to buy external heart rate monitors and bike computers from companies like Garmin, which starts to make the Apple ecosystem a little less sticky…

I‘m a big fan of John Gruber’s takes when it comes to Apple, but unless Apple starts to take workouts seriously, he is wrong about Garmin being worried about the Ultra. I wanted to buy the Ultra at launch, but it offered nothing for me as a cyclist that my Series 7 didn’t. It still forces me to need products from companies like Garmin. The annoying part to me as an Apple fan is that the functionally could be enabled in software, but Apple chooses not to.

Apple’s activity rings on the Watch are a great way to get people to be more active, but once we become more active, Apple is dropping the ball in a lot of respects.
 
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Unless they’re planning to introduce a larger wrist, I have no use for a larger watch.
I agree. The aw extreme is comically large. I can see the point for the intended use (extreme sports etc). But people use it to go out and about and it just looks silly and ridiculous.
 
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I am very happy with my Series 4 Stainless steel watch. I don't plan to upgrade for few more years regardless of what new features Apple throws at Apple Watch. I dont use any 3rd party apps, and overall my watch usage is basic - can almost say, I use Apple Watch as a watch to tell time 9 out of 10 times and for that I won't need to upgrade for few more years.
 
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I have the Apple Watch 4 and am surprised I haven’t been tempted to upgrade. The one thing I really want is better battery life in this form factor. Just being able to use the watch for 24 hours including sleep tracking and some workouts without the iPhone would be a huge QOL improvement. Right now I’m charging my watch 2x a day.
I have a series 4 myself. I will buy the apple watch 9 ..........Sept. ultra is too big and seems to be a waste of money at this time.
 
I wonder if last year's seemingly lacklustre update to the series 8 was because the ultra Apple Watch got all the R&D time and resources. If we assume the Ultra is on a 2-year upgrade cycle, this could mean more meaningful upgrades for the series 9, but it may also mean no new Ultra either.
 
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Sounds like I continue to use my series 5. I need to get a new battery for it. Any tips on how to get one? I took it to Apple and they were like we will charge you $300 so you might as well get a new watch. This was conflicting with my understanding of their repair website which said it would be like $75 for a new battery…
 
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Our family has a 12/18 S4, 4/20 S5, and 6/21 S6 (replaced my 5/17 S1). The only thing that would get me to upgrade my S6 is:
  • Flat glass so I can put on a screen protector
  • Glucose sensor
  • Temp sensor
  • Ultra watch band
  • Keep price around $400 or so
Everything else like color, charging, battery life, screen size - I don’t care if it improves or not. My S6 is an absolute wonderful watch and it’s already paid for itself ($280 new).
 
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The S6, S7, and S8 processors were based on the A13 E-cores on the 7nm node while the A14, A15, and A16 moved to 5nm/4nm. My guess is that the S9 will be based on the A15 or A16 E-cores on the 5nm/4nm node now that the A17 will be on 3nm. This will likely net us some good battery life gains.
This is exactly what I have been wondering! I was thinking that if Apple has been using (roughly) the same chip for years now, wouldn't we be able to squeeze out some better efficiency with a smaller node? I would imagine the R&D that would go into creating a new SOC would be quite a bit and surely wouldn't warrant a yearly chip upgrade. I guess that is why it seems that the chips get upgraded every 3-ish years?

Seems like we are due for a processor update, no?
 
I have a tough time believing they are just going to do a chip bump and no updates to the Ultra. Apple knows that won’t sell consumers and even with “off” years of the AW and S-Models of the phones, they always bring something.

I’d bet on a dark version of the Ultra and some sort of compelling change for the S9 (flat screen, continuous temp monitoring during day, etc.).
 
Sigh.... I feel like the Series 4 was the last update that *wasn't* iterative..
I feel like the S5 was significant in adding AOD.

S6 was pretty meh, S7 was a little interesting in the added screen size and rapid charging, but S8 again meh.
 
Looks like I will be holding onto my badly banged-up-and-scratched (but also still perfectly functional) Series 6 until either it croaks or Apple releases something for the mass consumer market that isn’t another middling iterative update.
 
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