Apple WatchOS 10 Topographic Maps: Hands-On with the Public Beta

Some random miandering thoughts about some of the points in the article:

Apple is trying hard to break into the fitness market... Honestly my first thought is they should buy out Strava. Garmin lives off on Strava's coat tails (Despite Garmin being so uptight about data sharing). Garmin has had years to develop Connect into a Strava replacement but has foundered the opportunity repeatedly.

Garmin undeniably is a better product for athletes, especially in cycling. The integrated nature of my cadence, speed, power, heart, GPS, (and even DI2) give me unprecedented analytics on how to improve. The only area Garmin has really foundered on in this area is Nutrition, again outsourcing that to scrappy third party apps which they barely support.

Next, I'm guessing Apple is going to come to a crux with the sensors I listed above: Either support ANT+ on the iWatch, or start making their own BLE sensors that are actually power efficient. When I kick my sensors into BLE mode, there is a marked difference in battery life. I don't want to be changing coin cells once a month. With Airtags Apple has shown that can nail coin cell battery life, so if they're die hard about BLE, they could probably bring their own sensors to market.

Next, Apple has to 10x their battery life. Some of my races are 20 hours. My Garmin watch will easily last that long, even with GPS on, and have plenty to spare. Same with my Garmin headunit. I don't think my iPhone would last 12 hours recording a GPS track and probably not an iWatch either.

Finally, and hear me out, I think Apple's biggest missed opportunity in the sports market is actually Action Cameras. Anyone that uses a GoPro knows how absolutely crap they are. You might get an hour of battery, it will probably overheat, it'll probably crash and lose your footage, the transfer rate sucks, the touch screens suck (why do we have touch screens on action cameras? ffs I sweat). I can imagine an Apple quality sports camera with a few hours of battery, high dynamic range that doesn't blow out clouds and the sky, small, light, and a user interface that can be operated while sweating or in the rain.

that's all. That was longer that I anticipated.