The Apple Watch uses Wi-Fi and GPS from your iPhone, in addition to its own accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate and barometer sensors, to track your physical activity and movement. Now, there’s been a lot of commotion regarding whether or not the wrist-worn gizmo can operate independently as a fitness tracker.
As first noted by MacObserver, American model and activist Christy Turlington-Burns, who blogs about the Apple Watch on Apple’s website, said in her most recent blog entry that the device can learn about the user’s stride enough over time to start accurately track workouts without an iPhone.
“After you run with Apple Watch and your iPhone a few times, the Workout app knows more about your stride,” she wrote. “So you can run on a treadmill or outside without your phone and still get a really accurate workout summary.”
If true, I’ll be very excited about this.
As someone who hits the gym on a regular basis, I’m finding it extremely uncomfortable and dorky to run on the treadmill, do push-ups and bench presses with a huge slab of glass in my pocket.
As an iPhone 6 Plus owner, I’m constantly worried about the device accidentally slipping out of my tracksuit pocket and having to constantly interact with fitness apps on it.
A Watch with a heart-rate sensor that continually tracks my pulse while keeping tabs on my runs and workouts while my iPhone is in my locker seals the deal for me.
Source: MacObserver