“Apple took the wraps off watchOS 5 last week at WWDC, revealing loads of new features that we can look forward to this fall. Among them were some big improvements for runners: Cadence, Rolling Mile Pace and Custom Pace Alerts,” Graham Bower writes for Cult of Mac. “What I find most exciting about these new features is that I think they hint at a much-needed hardware upgrade coming in Apple Watch Series 4, which is expected to debut this fall.”
“Rolling Mile Pace tells you how fast you ran the immediately preceding mile, while Custom Pace Alerts warn you when you are going faster or slower than your target pace. Both these features are based on measuring your pace during your run, which I find surprising, because that is something the Apple Watch’s current hardware is not very good at,” Bower writes. “I have found it jumps around unexpectedly during a run, and does not seem very responsive when I speed up or slow down.”
“My guess is that one major benefit of the rumored plus-size Apple Watch Series 4 is that it will have space for a better GPS sensor, and more GPS satellite signal can reach it through the larger screen,” Bower writes. “Since radio signals can’t permeate the device’s aluminum or steel enclosure, the size of the screen aperture matters.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, as runners, improved GPS is very meaningful to us, but we’re even more excited about the possibility of a slightly larger display as the current largest, 42mm, is just a tad too small for us.