MacDirectory Magazine

Mikko Silvennoinen

MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.

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Not Getting Enough Exercise Minutes? How to Calibrate Your Apple Watch By Jesse Hollington A special thanks to iDropNews for republishing permission. Images provided by iDropNews. Be sure to visit them at idropnews.com Considering how popular the Apple Watch has become among fitness devices, there’s little doubt that Apple hit on something with its Activity Rings feature. Thousands of Apple Watch users compete against their own goals every day to feel the accomplishment of closing three colorful rings. However, sometimes that’s not as easy as it looks. While the red Move ring is a pretty straightforward measurement of calories and steps that often increments even when you’re sitting on the couch, the blue Stand ring requires you to get up and move around at least once every hour, and the green Exercise ring generally requires some vigorous workouts. Although there are ways to game the system — the “Other” workout will record exercise minutes no matter what you do — most of us prefer to have our green ring reward us for actual physical exertion, whether that’s jumping into a high-intensity workout on Apple Fitness+ or simply going for a walk. Most of the time, a brisk walk is enough to move the Exercise ring even when you’re not running an active workout, but there are times when the numbers don’t add up the way they should — especially this time of year when folks in colder climates are more likely to be doing indoor walks. The Apple Watch uses multiple sensors to track your workouts, and during an outdoor walking workout, that includes engaging the GPS to help track how far you’ve gone. However, if you’re walking around on an indoor track or at your local shopping mall, the GPS won’t be of much help. Instead, Apple has to use other sensors like the accelerometer to detect your movements and run them through sophisticated algorithms that detect your distance, pace, and calories burned. Since the Apple Watch is worn by people of all shapes and sizes, these algorithms need to be calibrated for your particular fitness level and stride. This typically happens automatically when you do your first outdoor walk or run of at least 20 minutes or more, where watchOS can use the GPS to compare and adjust the readings from the other sensors. However, there are cases where this may not have happened properly. Fortunately, it’s an easy problem to fix. How to Calibrate Your Apple Watch First, you’ll need to have Location Services enabled to get the calibration data your Apple

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