Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of watchOS 9.4 to Developers

I wish they actually made a watch that shade of purple!

Apple makes a significant change for runners with watchOS 9.4 ... new this year in 9.0 was "Running Power" a complex algorithm that helps create a numerical value and graph that quantifies the effort you make while running while accounting for grade, wind and more. Basically the watch knows you are working harder running uphill or against the wind and gives you credit even if you are running slower, etc. It's a powerful way to train because you can workout to a given Power value and the number should equate to effort no matter if you are running on the flats, downhills or uphills if you just keep the number the same etc. The problem? Apple unlike competitors only created this value for RUNNING and just dropped the value to 0 if you began walking. The problem was twofold... 1) walking still takes effort and 2) many runners might walk portions such as during intervals, or when on a particular steep incline etc. This "0" Apple gave you skewed the effort value for the entire run as you can imagine. With 9.4 Apple fixes this and now begins giving appropriate Running Power effort values EVEN if walking, which makes it far better to understand the overall effort of a workout.

I wish I could run like I used to. I used to do two miles a day. I couldn't figure out why my aerobic capacity would never get better no matter how hard I pushed myself. I used to run myself almost stupid trying to get better. I often felt like a failure, or even lazy.

Then I was diagnosed with a defective mitral valve with severe regurgitation in my late 40's. They put a "clip" on it because I was too sick for open heart surgery at the time. It worked great at first, but its effectiveness has diminished with time and the clock is ticking on a full valve replacement. I'm not really comfortable with exercising the way I did in my 30's and 40's given my heart condition. My job can be physically stressful at times so I get a lot of exercise there. My cardiologist said he was amazed I never had a full blown heart attack doing what I do and exercising at the level I did. And none of the standard heart screens caught it. I had several that were job related over the years and passed every one. He also said I'm healthy enough for the standard robotic valve replacement surgery now. so this thing bought me time to get better.

Hopefully this fixes battery life on my Ultra. I averaged 51 hours with Sleep tracking on the last beta.

I'm generally happy with my Ultra. It's my favorite gadget right now. The altimeter is a bit buggy. The battery life isn't as good as I thought it would be, but it's pretty good. It was spendy, but I think it was worth the money over the regular watch. If you have a big enough wrist.

It better fix the slow charging issue!!! I only bought a Series 7 because it supports fast charging.

Is there a slow charging bug? Haven’t noticed?

Hopefully this fixes battery life on my Ultra. I averaged 51 hours with Sleep tracking on the last beta.

How many hours should it average?

I went to the Apple Store website thinking that was an actual color for the sports band. Disappointed it’s not.

Apple makes a significant change for runners with watchOS 9.4 ... new this year in 9.0 was "Running Power" a complex algorithm that helps create a numerical value and graph that quantifies the effort you make while running while accounting for grade, wind and more. Basically the watch knows you are working harder running uphill or against the wind and gives you credit even if you are running slower, etc. It's a powerful way to train because you can workout to a given Power value and the number should equate to effort no matter if you are running on the flats, downhills or uphills if you just keep the number the same etc. The problem? Apple unlike competitors only created this value for RUNNING and just dropped the value to 0 if you began walking. The problem was twofold... 1) walking still takes effort and 2) many runners might walk portions such as during intervals, or when on a particular steep incline etc. This "0" Apple gave you skewed the effort value for the entire run as you can imagine. With 9.4 Apple fixes this and now begins giving appropriate Running Power effort values EVEN if walking, which makes it far better to understand the overall effort of a workout.