Apple Watch Ultra’s GPS is impressively precise

With watchOS 9.2 and later, your Apple Watch Ultra uses GPS and Apple Maps data to automatically detect when you arrive at a track. When you start an Outdoor Run workout, your watch offers to start a Track workout.

Track Detection

With Track Detection, Apple’s Workout app detects when you arrive at a track, and uses both Apple Maps data and GPS to provide the most accurate pace, distance, and route map.

Victoria Song for The Verge:

[W]hile I love hyper-accurate maps as much as the next runner, I’ve been most impressed by how Apple uses GPS for its track detection feature.

Track detection uses a combination of Apple Maps data and GPS to automatically recognize when you’re at a standard 400m IAAF running track. You are then prompted to enter which lane you’re in. Later, in your workout summary, you’ll get a route map with what Apple says is lane-level precision.

If you’re telling the watch which lane you’re in, you’d expect it to be precise, especially if you start your workout at the track. The impressive part is getting that accuracy without any calibration. Other running watches require you to create a profile specific to each track you run in, usually by starting a track run activity, then running between one and four laps in a specific lane to calibrate the watch’s GPS… I ain’t doing all that.

The Apple Watch can switch to track mode in the middle of a regular run once it recognizes you’ve arrived at a track…

I’ve avoided running at tracks because calibrating is a pain and how the Ultra made this entire experience painless. Aside from toggling on lap alerts, I really didn’t have to do anything. All I had to do was show up and leave whenever I felt like it.

MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last September: “Apple Watch Ultra plus dual-frequency GPS plus watchOS 9 plus Apple’s new Workout app certainly adds up to a serious runner’s watch!”

Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!

Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.

4 Comments

    1. The military would release that data if it would help arrest more J6 peaceful protestors. Need to round up all the opposition and throw away the key. No charges needed. No exercise equipment. Just tiny dark cells and no visitors and no talk of “rights”. Fuck that BS.

      1. You should choose not to carry any electronic equipment with you when you choose to commit crimes, including violent armed overthrow of the senate while chanting to hang the VP. Pretty simple concept for civilized people. Why so hard for you to understand?

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.