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I felt the same way, outside of one particular situation. I tried running with a smartphone for a while. I was constantly afraid I would drop it. I tried armba

I felt the same way, outside of one particular situation. I tried running with a smartphone for a while. I was constantly afraid I would drop it. I tried armbands, pockets, sometimes I just carried a stopwatch and logged all my data in a spreadsheet like some kind of neanderthal. Eventually though I bought a watch. It can tell me how I'm doing on my split times and play music into a cheap bluetooth headband. It's super lightweight. It can even detect different types of weightlifting, and tell me I just did a set of five deadlifts, or squats. It somehow knows the difference. It doesn't seem to understand sprinting at all though and has all sorts of weird bugs because I assume it has a small userbase. I'm not sure any of my apps aside from activity tracking and music make any sense on a smaller device, so that is kind of weird. It's like I strap a tiny phone to my wrist in the mornings, then I swap it out for a larger copy an hour later. Maybe one day phones will be like other accessories and we'll have eight of them and complain both about having too many and how we want more of them. And each night we'll debate internally about which one to wear to a certain function, and judge each other mercilessly for being over- or under-phoned.

lokopodium 9y ago
Sounds complicated. Most gym rats I know just use pen and paper clipboards. Then again, I guess most gym rats are not really tech savvy/apple fashion type.
- brownbat 9y ago
  > Sounds complicated. Most gym rats I know just use pen and paper clipboards. I've done it both ways. Keeping track of paper and pen and taking notes is more complicated than just having something strapped to your wrist that does it all automatically with an occasional swipe or tap. Both ways are pretty simple so I don't want to exaggerate, but having the thing automatically do the thing is definitely simpler. The random quirks of software are complicated... that's the world we live in though. New stuff is developed to replace the old stuff before we've even worked out the kinks in the old stuff. I don't use an apple or high fashion watch for this, and while GPS and payments work, I don't have LTE for messaging like many do. A lot of watches are just a step up from a fitbit. Fitbit with maps I guess. Hmm, maybe I should have just gotten a fitbit. :)
- scarface74 9y ago
  Way before the Apple Watch came out I had a bulky Garmin GPS watch. I thought it was the greatest thing not to have to fumble with my phone to check my running stats. If I were still a runner, I would buy an Apple Watch in a heartbeat especially now that it has cellular. Heck I would buy it if I still went to the gym (as opposed to having my home gym) just so I could leave my phone in the car.
  - asendra 9y ago
    If you were still a runner, or did any type of sport with decent training, you would still be using Garmin or equivalent. Apple watch just doesn't cut it. I own both (AW2 and Garmin 735xt) and I gave up trying to use the AW for any of the sports that I do. (Running, swimming, biking, gym, Triathlon)
    - scarface74 9y ago
      I'm not an outdoor runner anymore, I have a home gym. But the only thing the Garmin did for me was measure my pace and distance. It wasn't any more or less accurate than my iPhone at the time (around 2010), it was more convenient.
      - asendra 9y ago
        If you train any sport with any kind of seriousness you usually end up needing more advanced training features, like HR pacing, zones training, intervals for speed workouts, cadence.. There is no way to do all that properly with an Apple Watch as of today. Not to mention the pain that is to wait for the screen to turn on to see if you are running at the proper pace/HR vs a Garmin watch.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
jlmendezbonini 9y ago
Which watch do you have that detects deadlifts or squats?
- pastastickers 9y ago
  https://www.facebook.com/gymatic/ https://www.facebook.com/gymatic/
- brownbat 9y ago
  It's coming from Google Fit on Android Wear. I assume using accelerometer and possibly heartrate data, so should be available on most devices. Fair warning though... It's brilliant in some ways and alpha in others. I can't seem to edit a set if I tap too fast and log it incorrectly. It guesses one rep too many in about 30% of sets. On the other hand it knows when I'm doing pull ups (ie, without moving my wrist) and accurately counts them, which seems like magic. It calculates an extrapolated one rep max for all your sets. On the other hand the web interface is not exactly feature rich for data junkies. And I'm not sure there's an easy way to export your data to a more useful spreadsheet. It's ripe for someone to make a great lifting app. But you know, watches are niche, so don't expect any customers.

lokopodium 9y ago

Sounds complicated. Most gym rats I know just use pen and paper clipboards. Then again, I guess most gym rats are not really tech savvy/apple fashion type.

brownbat 9y ago
> Sounds complicated. Most gym rats I know just use pen and paper clipboards. I've done it both ways. Keeping track of paper and pen and taking notes is more complicated than just having something strapped to your wrist that does it all automatically with an occasional swipe or tap. Both ways are pretty simple so I don't want to exaggerate, but having the thing automatically do the thing is definitely simpler. The random quirks of software are complicated... that's the world we live in though. New stuff is developed to replace the old stuff before we've even worked out the kinks in the old stuff. I don't use an apple or high fashion watch for this, and while GPS and payments work, I don't have LTE for messaging like many do. A lot of watches are just a step up from a fitbit. Fitbit with maps I guess. Hmm, maybe I should have just gotten a fitbit. :)
scarface74 9y ago
Way before the Apple Watch came out I had a bulky Garmin GPS watch. I thought it was the greatest thing not to have to fumble with my phone to check my running stats. If I were still a runner, I would buy an Apple Watch in a heartbeat especially now that it has cellular. Heck I would buy it if I still went to the gym (as opposed to having my home gym) just so I could leave my phone in the car.
- asendra 9y ago
  If you were still a runner, or did any type of sport with decent training, you would still be using Garmin or equivalent. Apple watch just doesn't cut it. I own both (AW2 and Garmin 735xt) and I gave up trying to use the AW for any of the sports that I do. (Running, swimming, biking, gym, Triathlon)
  - scarface74 9y ago
    I'm not an outdoor runner anymore, I have a home gym. But the only thing the Garmin did for me was measure my pace and distance. It wasn't any more or less accurate than my iPhone at the time (around 2010), it was more convenient.
    - asendra 9y ago
      If you train any sport with any kind of seriousness you usually end up needing more advanced training features, like HR pacing, zones training, intervals for speed workouts, cadence.. There is no way to do all that properly with an Apple Watch as of today. Not to mention the pain that is to wait for the screen to turn on to see if you are running at the proper pace/HR vs a Garmin watch.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

jlmendezbonini 9y ago

Which watch do you have that detects deadlifts or squats?

pastastickers 9y ago
https://www.facebook.com/gymatic/ https://www.facebook.com/gymatic/
brownbat 9y ago
It's coming from Google Fit on Android Wear. I assume using accelerometer and possibly heartrate data, so should be available on most devices. Fair warning though... It's brilliant in some ways and alpha in others. I can't seem to edit a set if I tap too fast and log it incorrectly. It guesses one rep too many in about 30% of sets. On the other hand it knows when I'm doing pull ups (ie, without moving my wrist) and accurately counts them, which seems like magic. It calculates an extrapolated one rep max for all your sets. On the other hand the web interface is not exactly feature rich for data junkies. And I'm not sure there's an easy way to export your data to a more useful spreadsheet. It's ripe for someone to make a great lifting app. But you know, watches are niche, so don't expect any customers.