trumptman

macmarcus said:

Apple's voluntary repair program blunts most of the claim BUT these lawyers appear to be asking for a LOT more - like a recall and full refund. This isn't a defective Pinto that causes death or something so seems a bit much given Apple standing behind their product (and I've had issues with the butterfly keyboard unfortunately so am glad Apple made it easy to get a repair). I'm sure what the lawyers REALLY want is to be able to conduct discovery to see the extent of the issue knowing that Apple won't want to provide it. My personal opinion is that Apple has done the right thing and has done enough with its repair program to address the concern. Just greedy lawyers at this point...Apple gots the deep pockets.

GeorgeBMac said:

trumptman said:

GeorgeBMac said:

I'm surprised by this.   Garmin has always targeted serious exercisers / athletes rather than general purpose smart watches.  And, as such, they have been consistently valued by those athletes as superior to the Apple Watch -- and that superiority rested on three main things:
-- Better software for tracking exercise
-- Active buttons that are (easily) used to control the exercise trackers -- say to start and stop it during track workouts
-- Superior battery life -- mostly due to not having to deal with the power requirements of an OLED display.

And, one of the main complaints by those serious athletes against the Apple watch has been that it's battery can't last through a long race such as a 4 hour marathon.

Garmin is claiming 6 hours -- but I wonder how they got there with an OLED display?   Could it be the 1/2" thick watch let them drop a bigger battery in?

It will be interesting to see where they are going with this:   Is it meant as a general addition to their line of exercise trackers or are they trying to break into the generalized smart watch market?   Either way, it is likely to be mostly a niche product, but nevertheless, a worthy and capable competitor.

Garmin still is targeting serious athletes both with this watch and their other lines. You note a few points. I'll address them and add others.

Better software...here is just a few of the items added via software to this watch that will be a continuation of the Vivoactive 3 line and with also be shared with Vivoactive 4 lines which is also launched at the same time as this watch but without the OLED screen.

– Added hydration tracking to manually track liquid intake with widget and app
– Added Estimated Sweat Loss post-workout
– Added Respiration Rate for all-day and sleep metrics (and certain workout types)
– Added Breathwork Exercises (way different than simple breathing stress features)
– Added Workout Animation functionality: For Strength, Cardio, Yoga, Pilates
– Added new Yoga and Pilates Built-in workouts: Includes step by step animations
– Added ability to design Yoga workouts in Garmin Connect: Complete with step by step pose animations
– Added ability to design Pilates workouts in Garmin Connect: Complete with step by step animations
– Added PulseOx for 24×7 blood oxygen tracking
– Revamped health stat widget akin to latest Fenix/Forerunner models

That is on top of all the regular sports it tracks and all of this also works via the Garmin Connect website and app on your iPhone.

Active Buttons...while it comes with a touch screen it also has two hardware buttons. Top right allows you to start and stop an activity and bottom right is the lap button. The chief complaint on the Apple Watch is there is no easy way to hit a lap button or advance training, etc during an activity.

Superior Battery Life.....Garmin has added music but it seems to really hurt their battery life. If you just use GPS tracking then you get 20 hours of tracking. So it will be able to get through that marathon just fine.

Excellent summary!
What bothers me is that, except for the battery life and (possibly) the buttons, Apple could and, in my opinion, should be doing all of that.   Instead, they provide a very nice but very basic exercise tracker.   Then for the most part, it is up to you to find a more fully functional app if you want more.   For myself, I use iCardio for its heart rate analysis -- which is almost totally lacking in the Apple Watch and the Health App.

It seems to me that Apple has relied too much on medical personnel who really do not understand serious exercise.   They tend to be more focused on the "150 minutes of moderate exercise each week" mantra.