cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/[email protected]/p/2367535/the-new-apple-watch-will-use-microphone-and-other-sensors-to-generate-ai-recaps-of-your
cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/[email protected]/p/2367535/the-new-apple-watch-will-use-microphone-and-other-sensors-to-generate-ai-recaps-of-your
The stupidest tech purchase I made, ever, was an Apple Watch. Useless piece of shit.
I’ve never seen anyone come up with anything even slightly useful for any smart watch.
$500 bucks to learn that your heart rate goes up when you exercise and to start each day being told your sleep wasn’t perfect. Wow what awesome actionable information thanks
Oh you paid a thousand bucks for the one with the built in altimeter that gives you the exact same information printed on the trail map? So cool, wow so we really did go up the mountain and then back down, who could have known. Oh my god it even remembers where we parked the car?
Sleep and exercise tracking are the number one reason why I bought one. Just because you don’t get excited by it doesn’t mean others don’t.
You and I both get excited about many things in our lives that are totally useless, or even activey detrimental to our goals. The watch probably makes your sleep worse in and of itself, for starters. And I’ve never seen anything helpful on the exercise tracking side, what do you use it for?
How in the world is the watch going to make my sleep worse? Yeah maybe the first week when I had to get used to something being strapped to my wrist. But that’s no different from when I slept with my old Cassio. The watch has bed time reminders that prompt me to go to bed, which has only helped me be more consistent with my sleep. It also alerted me that I was having sleep apnea and prompted me to get a proper test which has only helped me get better sleep. the watch doesn’t magically make my sleep better though, it just tracks my sleep and lets me know when there’s problems. In ways that I can’t do when I’m ya know… asleep.
You’ve never seen tracking heart rate or exertion be useful while exercising? Really?
There are tons of stories from people who report the sleep tracking causes them unneeded stress and worsens their sleep. That’s if they realize it’s happening. Plenty more never make the connection.
Your $1 casio also has the ability to set an alarm
Anxiety based marketing. Yes, if you were previously not mindful of your health and the watch was the catylist that got you to seek treatment, that’s genuinely great.
Everyone should however be familiarizing themselves with the symptoms of common preventible illnesses, including the vast majority of which the watch doesn’t track and has no way of alerting you to. Typically you want to pursue medical assistance when you encounter some type of problem, and not just spend oodles on consumer tech because a mega corporation realized they can rake in cash by larping as a preventative diagnostic.
Correct. “Heart rate zone” is a fundamentally worthless metric. It was contrived as an excuse to sell trackers. Even if it were 100% accurate there is literally no benefit to knowing or considering that information during or after your workout. I mention accuracy because there are plenty of examples of people wearing two different brands during the exact same workout and getting wildly different results, just so you know.
If you want to monitor your exertion you just use your breathing. Forced to slow down due to breathing = max, breathing challenged but sustanable (barely possible, but possible, to have a conversation) = mid, sustainable breathing and could easily have a conversation = min. Totally free and you can even do interval training with that same casio if you so desired
having a map on your wrist is helpful, not $500 useful but useful.
It’s what got me my POTS diagnosis. No doctor would even listen to me unless I brought in my own data (60bpm lying, 80 sitting, 110 standing, 130 walking). Obviously I shouldn’t have to pay $500 just to do their job like that, but it changed my life for the better, personally. Now I have medications that help
That’s awesome, genuinely. I’m glad things worked out well in the end
But did they require that information to come from a $500 smart watch? Simply heart rate monitors can be had for $20. For sitting/walking/standing you can check your own pulse for free in a few seconds with a timer or any clock that has a seconds display
They wanted the ECG recordings. Since it came in fancy PDF form it added some legitimacy. They didn’t care about anything I said at all, but being able to show actual evidence like that was a big deal. Just like, hey this is actually real, stop ignoring me.
I dunno if other heart rate monitors would give the same level of data. It was also good for setting up an alarm when my heart rate goes above 190bpm (dangerous), but I don’t need it anymore because I know what that feels like now. I still keep it around just in case though.
Mine’s probably a unique case though. But I also saw a study that 7 people around the entire world got diagnosed with atrial fibrillation from the watch’s warnings, which is a tiny number overall; but I wasn’t included in that study either so they probably missed others too.
The main thing I use mine for is being able to check notifications without having to grab my phone. I already enjoy wearing a watch, so the time, date, temperature and any other bonus info I want can be there too.
That’s about where it stops though. It should be a mostly passive device. I don’t think the design of fiddling with buttons and talking to it are reasonable. It should tell you information, not take it.
Hey if you simply enjoy it that’s awesome. My main problem is really just the marketing angle where people end up believing the watch has unlocked the ability for them to go for a walk around their neighborhood