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TECH NEWS
Strava_Apple_Watch_WebStrava app is ready for Apple Watch launch
Strava has redesigned its mobile app specifically for the new Apple Watch, details of which have just been announced.
Strava says that its global online community for athletes “will seamlessly integrate with Apple Watch’s distinctive technology, delivering effortless connectivity and a more personal, engaging, and real-time training experience for cyclists and runners.”
“The redesigned app will extend the breadth of Strava’s product portfolio from web (strava.com) and mobile (iOS and Android apps) to the most anticipated wearable device of our time, Apple Watch,”said Erik Joule, Strava’s chief marketing and commerce officer.
Strava for Apple Watch will allow you to track time, speed and distance in real time, toggle between Ride and Run modes, and automatically sync activities with your Strava profile. You will need an iPhone to use the Watch to its full capabilities.
Strava list these features:
• Intuitive on-wrist display: You can track your performance on Apple Watch in real time while keeping your phone tucked away.
• Real-time segments: You’ll be able to receive alerts as you approach a starred segment, check elapsed time in the moment, then get instant results at the finish.
• Weekly training progress at a glance: Using Apple Watch’s Glances feature, Strava’s personalised training dashboard summarises weekly training volume and progress towards your goals.
• Immediate hands-free results: Completed activities automatically sync with Strava and your results are instantly summarised on the Apple Watch display.
• Fast transitions between Ride and Run modes: Multi-sport athletes can easily toggle between modes.
In the build up to the Watch’s release, Apple released the WatchKit software development kit to allow developers to design apps for the device and have them ready ahead of time. Like Strava, social networks like Facebook and Instagram have already developed software for the Apple Watch, and the Viewranger navigation/positioning app has been adapted for it too.
The Apple Watch is not self sufficient in that to provide GPS tracking – as well as to receive calls and transmit messages – it has to be used alongside an iPhone 5, 6 or 6+.
“A simple glance at Viewranger running on the Apple Watch will provide information on where you are and where you are going, without needing to fish the iPhone out of your pocket,” say Viewranger.
“This includes directions for navigation such as your current coordinates, altitude, heading, plus distance to the next waypoint, point of interest, or to the end of the route. It is also possible to review information about your trip such as the duration, distance travelled and height gained and lost.
“As with other smartwatches, this is not an attempt to replicate the smartphone experience, instead it offers a new way to access time-sensitive information that will appeal in particular to people out cycling or walking or engaging in any outdoor activity where you need to keep your hands free.”
Apple’s smartwatches will cost from £299 to £13,500 when they become available on 24 April (pre-orders start on 10 April), the price of each one determined by the metal it is made from (aluminium, stainless steel or gold) and the type of strap it comes with. The 38mm models will be around £40 cheaper than the 42mm models.
The range is divided into three segments: Watch, Watch Sport and Watch Edition.
The 10 Watch Sport models get anodised aluminium cases in silver or grey and come with strengthened Ion-X glass that’s said to be resistant to scratches and impact. They’re distinctive in that they get elastomer straps, most of them brightly coloured.
The Watch Sport comes with an integrated heart rate sensor, along with an accelerometer and gyroscope for sporting applications. It’s splash and water resistant but not waterproof.
“You can, for example, wear and use Apple Watch during exercise, in the rain and while washing your hands, but submerging Apple Watch is not recommended,” say Apple.
It can communicate using Bluetooth 4.0 and has a battery life of up to 18hrs, according to Apple.
The 38mm version of the Apple Watch Sport weighs a claimed 69g with the 42mm model 78g.
The good news is that the Apple Watch Sport is the cheapest version, priced at £299 or £339, depending on size.
For more information on Strava, please visit www.strava.com. For more on the Apple Watch, go to www.apple.com/uk/watch.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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43 comments
Given how much rain we had on Sundays ride - I'm not sure that the iwatch would have survived it. It can't be that hard to make something waterproof surely?
Given how much rain we had on Sundays ride - I'm not sure that the iwatch would have survived it. It can't be that hard to make something waterproof surely?
About as much use as a chocolate teapot.
About as much use as a chocolate teapot.
surely for cyclists the forthcoming Garmin Vivoactive is the one to look at and at less than £200
Screw apple watch we need ANT+ on Strava
Screw apple watch we need ANT+ on Strava
Screw apple watch we need ANT+ on Strava
Screw apple watch we need ANT+ on Strava
I can't help thinking that the ideal watch to act as a passive GPS display is the Pebble.
It's battery life is days and it displays using e-ink, so a nice clear and contrasty image with no need for a back-light during the day.
Like the concept, but for me a watch needs to survive a swim. plus what is the life span of the battery? eg how long will it last until it will not keep a charge? and how much will it cost to replace the battery? being apple it will not be cheap and probably not be easy to do yourself. i do not mind waiting 3 years until it has been refined or suffers the fate of google glasses.
Using an iPhone for multiple days cycling there are two main issues that the watch will have to improve upon.
1. Battery life while using strava especially if you combine taking photos and video on your ride.
2. Heat from iPhone
3. 20 hour battery life on the now cheaper but totally adequate Garmin 510.
Personally I use a 510 and put the iPhone in airplane mode as I ride and turn off most apps apart from the camera. Sometimes it is just good to be disconnected from the I-world!
Don't see the point when you have to carry your phone anyway. If it had built-in GPS it would be an attractive Garmin alternative
An excellent plonker detector!
I read elsewhere today that Apple is limiting "interaction time" for all apps on the watch to 10 seconds, and telling in house developers to limit interactions to 5 seconds.
Presumably these limits are to save on battery life. So you'll get a max of 10 seconds to check any directions coming from the phone. Can see that getting frustrating if you're cycling at speed or having to concentrate on the road.
Until the battery technology catches up (and it hasn't caught up in the last 8 years of iphone releases), smart watches are going to be a niche gimmick.
How long does the battery last on a new iPhone when using gps? 3-4 hours or more?
18 hours was Apple's "best case" multi use scenario. They admit calls is about 3. Health app about 7. So, I would imagine, Strava might demand more, given it live linking, than the health app. Perhaps not as much as calls. We really don't know how long it will last. Not awfully useful for your average sportive.
Does anyone know if you will be able to get turn by turn navigation on the watch, to follow a pre-programmed route (whether using a strava route, or another mapping program)? Do any other smart watches or gps watches offer turn by turn navigation of gps routes?
You can use a Pebble with OsmAnd on Android which does turn by turn navigation of GPS routes. It works, but OsmAnd isn't exactly user friendly.
big issue I have, beyond early adopter version 1 etc, it isn't very long as far as the battery goes. I think I read it is 7 hours of HRM? So brand new watch that'll get you a 100, after a year of charging everyday? You'll soon be needing a new battery.
Also not totally sure what it is for, a phone is obvious, although being honest mine is used more for surfing the net than making calls. But a watch... you can tell the time, but it'll need charging at least everyday, which is more than a pain. And??? Most of what it achieves I can do with a phone and as I no longer bother with a watch most of the time why would I start again??
It is pretty though.
It is specifically for making Apple more money. To be fair, Apple are very good at that !
Regards,
Gordon
Once again, horses for courses. Todays iPhone is a vast improvement on the original, but it takes time, money, competition & mass-adoption to improve most new things. We're fortunate to live in a time where that development cycle is now so compressed, though sadly with correspondingly high expectations of absolutely everything.
I'd love this to be thinner, waterproof, not iPhone reliant and the battery to last a week - and version 'n' will have all of that and more. But it'll need to go through several paid-for iterations first - personally I'm sufficiently sold on the accurate digital watch, Nest thermostat remote control, alarm clock / calendar alerts and HRM / activity tracking to pay for the first one.
Garmin Vivoactive?
Meh. I must say I resent the fact Apple are appropriating common or garden English words and using them as trademarks: First the 'App(lication)' now the 'Watch'. Next they'll be selling us such concepts as 'time' and badging it as their own invention.
Given that a Garmin 1000 can be had for £370, just £70 more than this, I'm really not sure why you would buy one of these for Strava when it's markedly less suitable for the task.
Because there's probably more to the watch than just compatibility with Strava perhaps?
There's more to life than Strava??? Say it ain't so.
Heh. Because the Garmin 1000, like all Garmin products. is notoriously unreliable and because this does far more than any Garmin will do with better software and far better connectivity.
I'm generally an Apple fan, have been since the late 80s, but if there's one lesson to learn it's NEVER buy the first version of any of their products. In fact, unless you're a professional early-adopter it's nearly always worth waiting for 2nd or even 3rd generation. In 18 months, Apple Watch Air will be a thing of beauty - razor thin, impossibly long battery life and no longer reliant on carrying an iPhone life support unit.
Well, maybe.
I've also been keen on Apple products since the Apple ][, and have had good use from v1.0 products (Mac, PowerBook, Newton, iPod, iPhone, iPad), so will be ordering the basic model on the 10th and look forward to convenient navigation & caller notification when out riding. I think you'll be waiting a lot longer than 18 months for your vision of the Apple Watch.
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