Christy Turlington Burns, Apple's Jay Blahnik to talk Apple Watch & running at Boston Apple Store

AppleInsider

Model and Apple spokeswoman Christy Turlington Burns will be one of several guests appearing at Boston's Boylston Street Apple Store on Saturday, Apr. 16, there to discuss the Boston Marathon, running in general, and training with the Apple Watch.

An excerpt from Burns' diary marketing the Apple Watch.

The event begins at 3 p.m. local time, and people must RSVP to attend. Moderating the discussion will be Jay Blahnik, Apple's director of Fitness and Health Technologies.

Other guests will include ultramarathon runner Scott Jurek, and Heather Armstrong, a professional blogger. All three are running to support Burns' organization Every Mother Counts, which works on improving maternal healthcare programs worldwide.

Burns has been a key marketing tool for the Apple Watch, appearing on stage at Apple events as well as in a pre-release diary that highlighted the product's features. She sat with Blahnik at the Regent Street Apple Store in London last year. In exchange for her help, Apple has allowed Burns to draw more attention to Every Mother Counts.

Although it's not heavily fitness-oriented, the Apple Watch does track steps, heartrate, and standing time, like many mid-range fitness trackers.

It's not clear what a next-generation model might do to improve tracking, but the device is expected to have better internal hardware, while remaining mostly the same in external design.

adrayven

One of the reasons I didn't invest in bands was I wanted to see what they come out with next.. Form factor will change.. maybe not this next version, but next year, defiantly ..

Silico

AppleInsider said:

Although it's not heavily fitness-oriented, the Apple Watch does track steps, heartrate, and standing time, like many mid-range fitness trackers.


Actually, the Apple Watch has the Workout app that tracks time, miles, calories, heart rate and provides splits for several activities including walking, cycling, running, elliptical, stair climber and rower and saves data to iPhone.

brucemc

adrayven said:

One of the reasons I didn't invest in bands was I wanted to see what they come out with next.. Form factor will change.. maybe not this next version, but next year, defiantly ..

No one knows for certain, but my strong opinion is that Apple will maintain the band size/connector for many years to come, along bands purchased in year 1 a very useful life.  They want people to purchase multiple bands, and get attached to Apple's product/ecosystem, and changing the band connector on the second (or 3rd, or even 4th) version would shoot them in the foot.  I am not worried that they will do it, and have purchased 3 bands in total so far.

brucemc

Silico said:

AppleInsider said:

Although it's not heavily fitness-oriented, the Apple Watch does track steps, heartrate, and standing time, like many mid-range fitness trackers.


Actually, the Apple Watch has the Workout app that tracks time, miles, calories, heart rate and provides splits for several activities including walking, cycling, running, elliptical, stair climber and rower and saves data to iPhone.

I don't have a fitness band, but I think the AW is really only missing GPS "standalone" use  - clearly available on the iPhone, but not useful for those wanting to, legitimately, leave it behind when exercise.  And AW is not as waterproof as some dedicated products, limiting its use in those areas.  Getting barometer to give stair counting ala 6/6s would be a useful addition to its fitness functionality (I am not aware of special purpose bands having this capability right now).

sockrolid

Way to go, Christy.

But hey, Apple.  Please make the next-gen Watch Bluetooth work better and faster.

djsherly

brucemc said:

Silico said:

AppleInsider said:

Although it's not heavily fitness-oriented, the Apple Watch does track steps, heartrate, and standing time, like many mid-range fitness trackers.


Actually, the Apple Watch has the Workout app that tracks time, miles, calories, heart rate and provides splits for several activities including walking, cycling, running, elliptical, stair climber and rower and saves data to iPhone.

I don't have a fitness band, but I think the AW is really only missing GPS "standalone" use  - clearly available on the iPhone, but not useful for those wanting to, legitimately, leave it behind when exercise.  And AW is not as waterproof as some dedicated products, limiting its use in those areas.  Getting barometer to give stair counting ala 6/6s would be a useful addition to its fitness functionality (I am not aware of special purpose bands having this capability right now).

I bought it to see if it could replace my forerunner running watch but I found the apps to be lacking and the watch itself, frankly, to be too slow. The lack of hard buttons to invoke app functionality was a real pain and the things I was used to to doing whilst running were either not possible or too finicky when a touchscreen was involved. If you inadvertently got to the home screen finding the app and opening it up again is a real struggle when running. 

App bugs, such as the watch not being in sync with the supporting phone app made me give up on the idea altogether and go back to my running watch or simply use the main app on the phone when I didn't have it. 

The other tracking aspects however were pretty good and exposed a couple of minor health issues which I might not have otherwise noticed. 

Anyway the watch is with my wife now and hopefully a new band which arrives in the next little bit might persuade her to wear it more often. 

Its is nice to have, but it's hardly necessary and for me a task focussed device like my forerunner has proven to be far easier to live with. 

Oddly though, for a watch, glancing at the time has always been a bit hit and miss for me. Will the screen switch on?

aaronj

I live in Michigan and none of these events featuring someone like Christy are ever going to happen here.