@anon20961960, what are the features that you find are locked our for 3rd parties? I had a cheap Garmin (35) and now I have an AW Series 6 and the third party apps I’ve found have been solid for me. My wife is a permanent Garmin supporter though and we just got her a last gen Fenix for really cheap since the new models just came out. I do echo your thoughts that the round face on the Fenix looks pretty sweet with some very clever designs which fit the round face very nicely. I need to explore it more.
On the AW, I’m currently using the World Time face as it has a nice round feel (using the digital time instead of analog).
Ah, yes, I definitely see that. From a purely smart watch perspective, the Garmin is crippled in the iOS ecosystem. The features you’ve listed aren’t ones I need, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be useful to others and I think most could definitely be opened up by Apple if they chose (with the exception of unlocking).
I made the wrong assumption you were referring to fitness features where in my experience, third party developers on the watch have largely been able to leverage everything that the first party app can, though there are some bits missing here and there.
Thanks for sharing the video! I’ll take a look at it today!
If you think running in the rain is tough try swimming. In the latter case one has to very precisely remember when to turn fitness tracking on. Once you and your watch become wet, there’s no easy way to enable it.
At least it’s possible to pause workouts with a simultaneous press of the crown and the side button. The unfortunate side effect is that it may coincide with the screenshot key combination (if it’s turned on in settings). This means that every time you pause/resume workout you get a screenshot.
That being said, I’m quite happy with the feature set of the Apple Watch. For (very) amateur workouts of mine every now and then it’s kind of perfect. And swimming, for all its faults due to the physical properties of the watch, it’s still very convenient as it counts all laps.
I can’t help but think that an extra button customisable button or two on the other side of the watch could be quite helpful. Even outside of the workout context.
I’m about a half hour in and feel like I need Red Bull to keep going. I’m biologically incapable of being this amped.
(Still listening, though!)
Somewhere in this podcast someone mentions smart home heating (I think). Assuming this more than the cute but limited Google Nest or thermostat, this might be an interesting thing to dig into either on MPU or the Automators. (Sorry I listened to three podcasts today).
Premise - many people own homes where one room is warm and while another is cool. We might want a way to even out the distribution of heat.
That’s a good article.
Since it doesn’t go into depth, though, @mlevison might want to know that Google Nest doesn’t let you average the temperature across sensors. All you can do is tell it which sensor to prioritize at any particular time.
The other brands I can’t speak to, not having any experience with them.
It was just meant as general knowledge. For example, until recently I had never heard of smart air vents.
Understood. 
I just thought I’d add a little more that I happen to know. Believe me, I very much wish Nest could average the temperature across sensors…