Anyone else find the activity on the Apple Watch so inaccurate?
I first noticed it the other day… to set the scene our 2 month old is a pain to get off to sleep so you find yourself pacing the bedroom to get her to sleep… well this particular night must have taken me some 40 minutes and I failed to hit the stand for that hour.
Tonight I thought I would watch it… again in 30 minutes it has not registered a stand and not counted a single step. Yes I am not bouncing around but surely it should register me walking??
It seems to depend on the position of your arm. My girlfriend stands at her standing desk, but doesn’t get credit because her arm is horizontal (the same as if seated). Similarly, on Apple’s website, they recommend if you walk a dog to hold the leash in your non-watch hand, so that it moves while you walk and you get credit for walking.
So I would imagine your baby is in both your arms, with your arms not at your side, and that is why you aren’t being credited.
On the last episode of The Rebound one host noted that when he ran on a treadmill his Apple Watch always gave slightly longer distances than the treadmill, so he could never tell which device was off. But after he went for a run outdoors, where the Apple Watch could recalibrate based on GPS data, his return to the treadmill found the two devices’ results much more closely matched.
Here’s how to cheat at the Apple Watch Stand goal: dangle your wrist by your side while you sit in a chair. I discovered this by accident — I dangle my arm during meetings — but once I found it out, I did it on purpose. I cheated while watching Thor: Ragnarok , in meetings, at brunch.
A great article on the Watch and its interactions with our behaviour.
Rebound is a bunch of three guys who’d worked or are working for MACWORLD - Dan Moren, Lex Friedman, and John Moltz - pfaffing about discussing Apple-related news and joking and ranting. You’ll almost never learn anything, but it’s entertaining.
Reminds me of a quote from Frank Gilbreth (wrongly attributed to Bill Gates): “I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
Mine is a Series 2. If I take a walk, and forget to start a workout, it normally takes about around 22 - 23 minutes or about 1.5 miles before my watch notices and asks if I want to start one. At least once it has told me to stand within minutes of finishing 5 miles. I would hope the newer ones would be more accurate.
But while I do use the workout feature to pace my walks, etc., that’s not why I bought it. It’s good at what I need it to do.