Apple Watch

Escape from the Apple Watch

On Friday, March 31, 2023 the move streak on my Apple Watch ended at 586 days.

I ended it deliberately.

I not only had a 586-day move streak, I’d also completed my stand and exercise goals for that same 586 days. I admit I flinched a little at ending the streak–I even strapped the watch on my left wrist when I got up on Saturday morning. But after about an hour I took it off, put on my Garmin Forerunner 255 and two days later, I’m still wearing the Garmin.

Why?

Ostensibly, it was to allow the Garmin to monitor my vitals all day, so I could get more accurate results and better health-related recommendations. But as that first Apple Watch-free day went by, and I realized the streak was really over (Apple doesn’t support anything like a missed-day feature to get you back on track if you miss one) I came to the realization that, in a way, the Apple Watch was controlling me.

I was letting it do this, of course. I constantly glanced at it to check the outside temperature. Why? I don’t know. I apparently have a weird need to always know the temperature (it’s really only important when I’m about to go out on a run and want to know how to dress). I was also in the thrall of those fitness rings (I had the ring complication on my watch face), repeatedly checking it, making sure I stood every hour, making sure I got all 30 exercise minutes, even if it meant hopping on the treadmill in the middle of the evening after a lazy day, or going for a walk to burn enough calories to get my move goal.

And you may be thinking this is good. I’m being gently pushed to do healthy things!

But it started to become obsessive. And after I deliberately called the whole thing off, it struck me how rigid the Apple Watch is when it comes to physical health. You MUST exercise every day. You MUST burn x number of calories (move), or you lose your streak. Again, you might think this is fine (doginburninghouse.jpg), but compare this to the Garmin watch, which has a morning report feature. It analyzes your current condition, looks at your previous workouts, and sometimes it recommends…a rest day! It’s a much more nuanced approach. It’s a better approach. Apple’s gamification left me feeling put off. The Garmin watch gives me all the stats, but leaves me free to judge (or not) myself.

I miss the bright AMOLED display of the Apple Watch. It’s a terrific piece of tech and a great convenience for saving you from pulling out your phone just to check a notification. But for general fitness, I feel better having moved away from it. For now, at least.

Plus, the Garmin watch still lets me check the outdoor temperature.

Speaking of buggy software: Everything Apple produces

When you speak to old Mac geezers (OMGs), they will often wax poetic about Snow Leopard as being the best version of OS X (and remind you it’s the Roman numeral 10, not the letter X), not because it came with a boatload of new features, but because it didn’t. Apple advertised it as having “0 new features” because it focused on improving existing features and fixing bugs found in Leopard, the previous version of OS X.

Back then (roughly the first decade of the 2000s) Apple released its updates on a “when they are ready” schedule, which meant you could go almost two years between updates. That changed in 2012 when Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) came out a year after Lion. Henceforth, all Mac OS updates would come out on a yearly basis, ready or not.

Ready or not.

iOS updates and the rest of Apple’s lowercase-Uppercase OS releases followed suit, and now yearly releases are the norm.

And they are a bad idea, bad for the industry, bad for users, and Tim Cook should feel bad.

Why? One word: Bugs.

Apple has tacitly admitted it can’t keep up with yearly releases, because it now regularly leaves out major features until “later”. Just this year they delayed iPadOS 16 altogether from September to October just to get things working properly. Yearly releases are not sustainable, they’re dumb, and serve no one when they come with incomplete or missing features and copious glitches. Apple is the 800 pound gorilla in consumer electronics, so if they change course, the industry is likely to follow. And they should!

And the thing is, if Apple switched to updates every two years or “when they’re ready” people would still buy tens of millions of iPhones, plus oodles of iPads, Macs and AirPods, not to mention staying subbed to the cash cows that their services have become. But Apple is not only gigantic, they are incredibly conservative and unlikely to change course unless forced by circumstance or the law (but mostly the law).

Why do I think this? Why am I posting now?

Because watchOS 9 is a bug-riddled mess and since I use my watch for my running workouts, the glitches affect me on a regular, ongoing basis. None of these issues happened before watchOS 9 was released (Apple eventually forces updates, so you can’t even just stay put, eventually you’ll need to upgrade).

Among the bugs I’ve encountered:

  • Stuttery or missing animations (not a big thing, but annoying)
  • Unreliable heart rate monitoring, especially at the start of a run (this is a big thing)
  • Music playback on the watch being permanently muffled when interrupted by a notification. It happened today (again) and even closing the music app did not fix it. I restarted the app and tried three albums before the music finally popped back to regular volume.
  • Pausing music playing from the watch via the AirPods (clicking the touch control on one of the earbuds), then unpausing, and the playback switches to whatever you were previously listening to on the iPhone. It’s like having someone come into your living room, quietly pick up the remote, change the channel from whatever you were watching, then just as quietly leaving the room.

I suppose I should be happy most things are still working. But bleah, the yearly updates are clearly not going to improve, so I really wish Apple and the whole industry would move away from them.

Run 408: The unexpected run with bonus Watch and nippy dog

UPDATE, August 21, 2022: Updated tags for better searching and to note this was the first run using an Apple Watch (Series 0).

Run 408
Average pace: 5:42/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 5.0 km
Time: 28:35
Weather: Overcast
Temp: 7ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 172
Stride: n/a
Weight: 165.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 3320
Device used: Apple Watch (debut, Series 0) and iPhone 6

Here it is a mere four and a half months later and I’ve completed my next run, which I was totally not expecting.

Dedicated spambots scraping this blog for running articles may recall that my last run was on August 3rd, the first official day of my vacation. The run ended with my right hip (not actually my hip, as it later turned out) being hurt sufficiently that I knew I would be out for the rest of the summer or, as it turned out, almost the rest of the entire year.

Once I had sufficiently mended we were past summer and into fall and the days grew short and it was difficult to run after work. Running on the weekend also proved difficult because I just plain lost my mojo.

Today I had a Clif Bar for lunch (usual as I quest toward my target weight of 150) but a short while later I caved and had an apple strudel. It was loaded not only with sugar but also guilt. I had made a vow to stop snacking, and this was a clear violation. I soaked in the tub and contemplated how this, along with a planned pasta dinner, would contribute to The Fattening. I felt bad.

I decided to run.

I got changed and because this wouldn’t be an “official” run, I chose to not wear the TomTom watch. Instead I thought I’d give my fancy new Apple Watch and iPhone a workout (ho ho), using the Watch’s Activity app.

Setup was simple. I chose Outdoor Run, it advised me as this was my first run that I should run for at least 20 minutes to let the watch suss out my average pace. I planned 5K so this would not be an issue as I have not recently had bionic legs surgically attached.

I decided to walk the length of the Brunette River trail first, then start the run at the opposite end. This would get me heading in the right direction on the home stretch. I wore my usual gear, though the t-shirt was swapped for the long-sleeved version. This was not an unwise choice as it was 7ºC, not exactly tanning weather.

Upon arrival at the river trail I noted the bear sign was still up. It’s December 20th, I’m pretty sure the bears have gone south or started hibernating or whatever it is they do in the winter.

Using the watch, I selected my running music (from 1987, see previous post), chose the Outdoor Run activity and set the distance at 5 km. I tapped the Start button and three seconds later I began my first run in a good long time.

I kept the pace deliberate and actually had no trouble completing the full 5 km. A stitch threatened early on but never fully materialized and the only discomfort I felt was the usual “this is what it feels like to use certain muscles again after not using them for 18 weeks.” The left foot started to hurt but stayed tolerable. I stuffed toilet paper into the shoe to help provide extra cushioning but toilet paper squashes easily, something I forgot since I’m not in the habit of squashing it.

My pace seemed about right, given the layoff: 5:42/km. I broke the five-minute mark on the first km, slowed over the next three and picked up on the final. Again, this is all more or less normal. The BPM came in at 172, much higher than the 160 of my last run back in August. I’m not sure if this is accurate and thus worrisome, or inaccurate and no big deal.

While everything worked well enough with the Activity app, it is too self-contained and lacks some stats to really prove useful in the long term. I may try the Strava app on my next practice run, as it’s supposed to be spiffy.

Three other things of note on the run:

  • There were a lot of fishers out there and more people in general than I expected
  • As I looped back to the entrance of the trail, a Metro Vancouver worker was removing the bear sign, as if he had read my mind; for reasons unknown (conspiring with bears?) the other sign at the western end of the trail was left up
  • Some dope with a dog let his dog off-leash and while he was bent over tying his shoe on the other side of the trail, the dog came running after me, nipping and barking at my heels. It wasn’t scary so much as annoying. I shot the guy a dirty look as he called Cujo back, then observed, with no surprise, as they headed off, the dog was still unleashed. I pondered what it would take to get him to decide it was a good idea to put the leash back on (he had a leash with him). I decided nothing would because he was a stupid, selfish jerkface.

I now wait to see how my body feels tomorrow (I’m thinking a little sore but not bad). I could potentially run again in three days, but may wait until next weekend. The important thing is I ran, I survived, I worked off that strudel, and I’m curious to go out and do it again.