[015a]

(2019)

Go buy a Fitbit today. Incredibly, against all odds according to this article, you still can. They make new ones every 6 months. They may not have the high-performance 60hz display tech of the AW, but look past that and its a better experience than AW (and I use an iPhone; I still prefer Fitbit).

Week long battery life on all models. Truly continuous heart rate monitoring (versus AW's "I'll take a reading maybe once every five minutes unless you're working out"). Great range of devices, from $50 trackers to $300 super-watches (ALL of which are still cheaper than the $400 giga-watches that Apple physically cant not make). Sleep tracking, without worrying about battery life?

Apple Watches are a jewelry phone companion. That's what they do, and that has value, for some people. I've never seen that value. My value is specifically in fitness; Fitbit is Just Better at that.

[rufus_foreman]

What I want is a fitness tracker that doesn't require me to create an account or store data in the cloud, where I can just transfer the data to my computer using USB or Bluetooth or something like that. Apparently I'm the only one because such a thing doesn't seem to exist.

[angrais]

Such things do exist, particularly for medical purposes. What type of "fitness tracker" are you after? Explain more and I am certain that i can offer at least three sensing devices that suit your needs that record data offline.

[rufus_foreman]

Something that could monitor heart rate and rhythm, steps, sleep, breathing, that sort of thing. Blood pressure if that is even possible.

[abdabab]

Apple Watch is more of a mini-computer with apps than a heartbeat tracker. You can install separate fitness tracker apps for tracking fitness.

A heartbeat tracker doesn’t provide the same amount of value.

[nltrace]

Why do people give their health data to Silicon Valley corporations? I just don't get it.

Didn't people train before the advent of "smart" watches?

[nradov]

Some of the largest players in the fitness tracker market such as Garmin, Suunto, Samsung, and Coros are hardly "Silicon Valley" companies. Sure it's possible to train without a smart watch, but having one makes it much easier to follow a structured training program, measure your progress, and share data with coaches and friends.

Didn't people travel before the advent of the "wheel"?

[toomuchredbull]

I actually have the opposite complaint. I would like my doctor to have access to info from my Apple Watch. Certainly I trained before a smart watch but I didn't necessarily know how fast I was going, if my metrics (like v02 max) were improving, how its affecting my heart, etc. Why would I care if Tim Cook could theoretically look up my resting bpm?

[moistbar]

> Why would I care if Tim Cook could theoretically look up my resting bpm?

Because a company can tie the timestamp of your BPM reading to your activity on your phone/desktop/what have you and judge your emotional response to whatever you're doing at the time. Psychotic as this may sound, it opens the door for a lot of particularly Orwellian mass surveillance under the guise of targeted ads. They wouldn't be knowing just what you do or buy, they'd know how you feel about it too.

[mrkeen]

Substitute 'Tim Cook' for 'law enforcement', 'theoretically' for 'warrantless fishing expedition', 'resting bpm' for 'location' & 'known associates' & 'search terms' & 'browser history'.

[bootlooped]

Those things seem more related to smartphones than smart watches.

[angrais]

Your smartphone is a sensing devices that can record medical and fitness measures. So it is important to raise alongside a wristband

[tinus_hn]

In the future you could have a hard time getting insurance, because they bought that data and can tell you’re going to require expensive care soon.

[anonuser123456]

I trust Apple over Epic. Hell, I trust Apple over my doctor.