YHK - yet another hacker news clone

Apple Watch Ultra 4

54 points tech234a 2 hours ago 87 comments

mikestew 2 hours ago | parent

The only thing keeping on a Garmin is that my OG AW Ultra probably won't last a mountain 50 miler (I've used it for easier 50 mile races). If it truly lasts anywhere near 45 hours, even my old, slow ass could knock out 100 miles in that time.

Plus satellite comms on the AW (which I'd have to spend money to upgrade the 965 to get that feature). I just might pick one up next week.

ktallett 2 hours ago | parent

Two days is so poor for a ultra watch. The fact it won't last a full weekend let alone any significant hike just means it doesn't fit the market it is aiming at.

smeeth 2 hours ago | parent

Dear Apple,

I want to send you my money, but your expensive watch I want to buy is f**ing massive and my wrist is normally sized. I don't really understand why this is still an issue since it's been 4 years.

Thanks,

- Guy with slightly below average wrist circumference (40th %ile)

alistairSH 1 hour ago | parent

An "Ultra Mini" with a proper lap button would open my wallet very quickly.

Jubijub 32 minutes ago | parent

Same, I’d pay for more physical buttons

tiahura 1 hour ago | parent

I’m probably 60% and would feel ridiculous wearing one.

atomflunder3000 1 hour ago | parent

The first thing they mention is the "great" battery life and it is still only just over 2 days, great.

carabiner 1 hour ago | parent

I desperately wish apple would release a viable competitor to the garmin fenix line but they can't with that battery life. Garmin UX and software overall is such dogshit, and to have Apple UX with garmin raw performance (battery life, GPS tracking accuracy, activity modes) would be perfect. Apple could never though because the fenix was designed from the ground up as an embedded device microcontroller, whereas apple watch is a general purpose computer with a GPU.

brians 1 hour ago | parent

Yup. This tells me the AWU is not the adventure watch for me. I love my Apple Watch (8? I think?) and I love my Garmin Instinct Solar with 40d battery life. One of these is for daily wear as a communicator; the other is for weeks in the mountains or offshore.

jsbisviewtiful 1 hour ago | parent

Hyperbole is Apple’s favorite communication style, but at this point it’s so overused that it’s just a meaningless meme. Apple’s wearable competitors blow the Apple Watch’s battery life out of the water and it’s not even close. Hyperbole is all Apple has in this race.

rootusrootus 1 hour ago | parent

On the flip side, Apple blows them away on feature set, and often on data accuracy. There is give & take, different priorities for different people.

psygn89 1 hour ago | parent

I bought an Apple Watch recently so I can enter my workplace without much hassle (first world problems). Highly disappointing watch coming from a no-name Amazfit brand. I like my step counter, I don't care whether it's slightly off, I want to see it on my watch face - you'd safely assume it was possible, but no! So now I have to go through multiple menus and swipes to see it and it doesn't even show right away (takes several seconds at times). Don't get me started with the joke that is the battery life.

Apple Watch is probably Apple's shittiest product today.

rootusrootus 1 hour ago | parent

I take it you are opposed to using non-Apple apps? I show step count on my Apple watch face.

psygn89 1 hour ago | parent

No, I'm not opposed. I got my watch like 2 months ago and haven't really messed with it since. Just baffled that the option doesn't exist. Which app do you use for that and does it affect battery life?

browningstreet 52 minutes ago | parent

Why so helpless? Maybe try and solve the problem before complaining about it.

Pedometer apps that pull from Apple Health and offer Watch face complications are a dime a dozen in the app store.

stetrain 15 minutes ago | parent

Check out Pedometer++

bwnkl 1 hour ago | parent

The battery life during workout tracking did at least see a 3x improvement. 14 hours sounds plenty at first until you start riding your bike over long distances! 45 hours should cover most except the craziest ultra athletes, and those are probably sponsored by Garmin anyway

elAhmo 1 hour ago | parent

I haven't met anyone who is serious about cycling and not using a real bike computer.

wl 44 minutes ago | parent

Triathletes are more likely than most cyclists to use wrist computers over bike computers.

(Cue joke about triathletes not being serious about cycling.)

jawilson2 1 hour ago | parent

My Garmin Venu 4 has 10+ days.

brandonb 1 hour ago | parent

The 4th generation heart rate sensor is quite interesting -- Apple Watch used to sample every ~5 minutes, and now it's every 5 seconds (basically continuous). I think that'll enable a lot of interesting health & wellness use cases.

skadamat 1 hour ago | parent

It's interesting because during workouts, the heart rate sensor samples every 5 seconds but besides that, it was either every 2 or 5 minutes. I'm guessing the battery drain is too much to have it sample every 5 seconds all the time!

danek_szy 1 hour ago | parent

Too bad Apple reserved the [training] Readiness feature only for the Ultra 4 - I'm pretty sure Ultra 3 and probably below are just as well equipped to provide such insight...

ryanschaefer 1 hour ago | parent

Had this thought during the presentation. How is the “rewind” feature legal? Don’t a lot of states have laws against making secret recordings?

rootusrootus 1 hour ago | parent

Recordings, yes, but this is transcription.

alwillis 1 hour ago | parent

It doesn't save a recording of someone speaking; it's 15 seconds of a transcription.

testfrequency 1 hour ago | parent

My understanding is it’s E2E transcribed dictation via PCC? Is that not the case?

Insanity 1 hour ago | parent

I guess it was already technically possible with phones though, or hidden tape recorders for something more old-school. Not sure on the legality.

LeoPanthera 1 hour ago | parent

They made it very clear that it doesn't record anything.

ryanschaefer 1 hour ago | parent

If it doesn’t record anything how does it make a transcript? I think some of these laws are strict enough such that no audio recording, even if it’s immediately discarded, is legal.

But of course, I am not a lawyer.

danielmarkbruce 1 hour ago | parent

People generally don't think of keeping bits in memory for some short period of time as "recording".

dboreham 1 hour ago | parent

Doesn't stop it being...recording, though.

ridgeguy 1 hour ago | parent

An audio "recording" is data (digital, analog, grooves on vinyl, whatever) that allows later listening to the original audio.

What Apple is doing in Rewind is as legal as if you were to take a contemporary transcript of a conversation. That's not illegal.

It's legal even if you're a skilled shorthand transcriber and get every word. That's Rewind, if I've understood it correctly.

danielmarkbruce 1 hour ago | parent

You've always been allowed to transcribe (ie, write) out a conversation. Recording is a different thing. A person can always claim, easily and believably, that the transcription is made up. It's just text.

ryanschaefer 1 hour ago | parent

Is that the main differentiator? Not the use of a microphone to create the transcription?

danielmarkbruce 1 hour ago | parent

From a legal perspective you can't record something. Using the microphone, keeping the bits in memory while you turn it into text, probably doesn't meet any reasonable definition of "record".

quicklywilliam 36 minutes ago | parent

Maybe this will be true legally (we wont really know until it is tested in court), but I think there's a huge difference in practice.

Siri Recap is an electronic record of a conversation that includes timestamps. Imagine for example that during a scheduled meeting with my boss, he threatens to fire me for not doing something illegal. I now have strong evidence that this was said (even if it cant be officially attributed to him) during the time I was in a meeting with him. Not saying this will hold up in court, but it certainly is more damning that having written notes (not to mention the fact that my boss probably wouldn't say this when I am taking written notes).

danielmarkbruce 7 minutes ago | parent

Yup, and maybe the law will need to evolve.

Fwiw, imo, you should assume everything you say (and write) is recorded going forward.

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

$800 for a watch.

Man we lost it as a society.

Others are not able to eat, die because of insulin prices, struggle every day and we sit here on HN and people are thinking about buying the next gadget.

A watch for $800...

orf 1 hour ago | parent

Insulin shouldn’t be expensive. What’s that got to do with high-end smartwatch pricing?

SoftTalker 1 hour ago | parent

It's more a comment about what we value as a society. An Apple watch is an utterly optional accessory that nobody needs. And yet there's a bubble of rather wealthy people who will buy them without really giving it a second thought, and another large group of people who really can't afford one but will buy it anyway.

throw1234567891 1 hour ago | parent

And? People buy what they want to buy. Apple builds what people want to buy. Been like this forever.

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

And? Why do you even the comment on a social critisism comment? Just ignore it, feel happy when you buy yourself the next stupid thing while you feel offended seeing your fellow citicen.

Why does it even trigger you then?

throw1234567891 59 minutes ago | parent

It doesn't trigger me, I'm trying to understand why it triggers the other guy. Now, pass the baton.

matchbok3 1 hour ago | parent

There's also a bubble of wealthy people who spend their time commenting on HN articles, complaining about .... other wealthy people.

For what purpose? Virtue signaling?

orf 1 hour ago | parent

Man that’s so deep - some people are purchasing things while other people cannot purchase said things.

Society is so screwed :/

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

The social critisism is, that people in the united states of america (were apple is home), let people die while also buying unironically $800 watches as a mass consumer product.

rstupek 1 hour ago | parent

Insulin isn't expensive. Walmart sells 100 doses for $77

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

You do understand that this was headlines for years? Did you complelty ignore that?

It only got 'fixed' 2023 and insulin still costs $30-50 per month for something you need to live.

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

I'm referencing us american people who were unable to afford insulin due to us americans shitty healtcaresystem.

Search for Alec Smith in Minnesota.

Its social critic, you did not get that? A country which let their own people die but also make such a product.

lab14 1 hour ago | parent

How much of your networth have you donated to the starving people? Nature is pretty metal and doesn't care about justice. I thought we all learned this in school.

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

This is not an apple fan club. Someone likes it and comments, i use it to bring up a comment like this.

Just don't deflect.

Btw. i'm from a country with a social system soooo

SoftTalker 1 hour ago | parent

I understand the sentiment, but you can spend a lot more than that on a watch if you want to, and for a watch that does a lot less. Few people do though, and a lot of people will probably buy the Apple.

onlyrealcuzzo 1 hour ago | parent

You do realize people have been paying tens of thousands for watches for decades, right (and for hand bags, sunglasses, necklaces, rings, etc)?

$800 is not particularly egregious.

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

And?

Is this an apple fanboy club and critisism is not allowed or you don't think this critisim is valid because of your strawman argument?

_fw 1 hour ago | parent

Sorry to inform you about Patek Phillipe:

https://www.watches-of-switzerland.co.uk/Patek-Philippe-24-H...

jawilson2 1 hour ago | parent

Yes, you're correct, billionaires should not exist, and we should keep raising taxes until that is true. The "real" max wealth number is probably a bit lower, but 10 digits of wealth is a good starting point.

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

This is not a consumer product but a homage to craftmanship and clearly a luxury product.

Apple is a mass produced product under shitty work conditions.

throw1234567891 1 hour ago | parent

Glancing at Richard Mille watches and thinking... $800, peanuts.

rootusrootus 1 hour ago | parent

> die because of insulin prices

Where does that happen? Even without insurance in America insulin is like 25 bucks a month.

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

Minnesota in 2017, when you search for Alec Smith.

rootusrootus 1 hour ago | parent

A tragic case, and maybe things were different back then. Now, Lilly caps their insulin out-of-pocket costs at $35/month, insurance or not. Walmart has cheap no-insurance insulin, too, I'm not sure if that was true in 2017 though. Alec was trying to ration a much more expensive insulin variant, which definitely sucks, and laws were changed in response to his story.

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

Josh Wilkerson

And it wasn't just a case.

And i'm not allowed to reference this?

I mean i can reference a lot of other things which are still happenin in the USA or do you know want to argue that united states of america takes good care of its people?

1123581321 1 hour ago | parent

Walmart has had cheap insulin for decades, and update their formula periodically as patents expire. Not many know about it, though. I've used it when traveling and it works even though it's not as effective as the current prescription insulin.

jryan49 1 hour ago | parent

I mean how often do you buy a watch? Compare with how much do you spend on groceries every month...

Dlemlo 1 hour ago | parent

We can have real arguments, but lets be clear, comparing a $800 dollar watch you use for lisening to music and paying is not the thing to compare to something you actually need to live.

timothyduong 46 minutes ago | parent

There is the non ultra series and SE series.

What are you talking about?

nradov 1 hour ago | parent

Interesting but the short battery life and 40m (130ft) scuba diving depth limit still make it useless for me.

anukin 1 hour ago | parent

40m diving is more than good for a lot of divers. I am allowed to go on a 30m dive and that’s probably at the 75 percentile of divers.

still-learning 1 hour ago | parent

Looks like you'll be one of the only people using dive watches for their actual purpose then.

nvahalik 48 minutes ago | parent

130ft/40m is standard limit for non-tec diving.

Past that depth, you will be using diving computers and not a smartwatch. And the training you receive will help you to understand why.

bilsbie 1 hour ago | parent

When are they going to detect blood sugar?

michelb 1 hour ago | parent

When the patent trolls die down and accuracy improves.

pilif 1 hour ago | parent

The Ultra 2 was sold to me as the watch that can do Siri without network connectivity. That was very useful to me to leave reminders for stuff I think about while on a run without the phone.

3 years later, Apple releases the OS 27 versions and Siri got improved to the point where it can’t work on-device any more on said Ultra 2

So to get the feature back which I paid for and which was specifically used to sell me the device and which now has been taken away from me, I just have to… buy the next hardware generation?

And how long will that last before they decide to remove the feature again?

Thankfully, the Ultra 4 provides some other compelling features making this less painful, but I would have expected at least a toggle to keep old Siri on the old watch. New Siri over the network is impossibly slow and buggy (I made the mistake of installing the betas, so there’s no way back now)

silksowed 1 hour ago | parent

As someone who often backpacks off grid, the features listed are pretty interesting. Anyone have any alternative products this competes with? The "adventure" watch is a new thing for me

danek_szy 1 hour ago | parent

[Dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49631121 - this one seems to have more lively discussion

neon_me 1 hour ago | parent

Having Garmin Enduro with 3+ weeks of battery life seems funny to watch apples ultra ads ...

thomasahle 37 minutes ago | parent

It's surprising that in 2026 they still haven't figured out how to remove the bezels. They are smaller than they used to be, but On something as compact a watch, all screen estate counts.

mwidell 27 minutes ago | parent

So apparently Siri AI is not coming to my part of the world anytime soon because of EU law. With that, I see no reason at all to upgrade from my Ultra 1, as not much else has improved in any meaningful way in 3 years. Don't get me wrong, I love my Ultra 1. But I had hoped for more innovation in three generations of it.

noja 6 minutes ago | parent

Not because of eu law. Because Apple wants an exception to the rules.

cute_boi 26 minutes ago | parent

> For everyday use, Apple Watch Ultra 4 now offers more than two days of battery life, up to 50 hours.

This is the reason i don't like these smart watches... I always forget to charge the watch.....

amelius 23 minutes ago | parent

You just plug in your devices when you go to sleep. I don't get why that is difficult.

stetrain 14 minutes ago | parent

That does diminish the sleep tracking benefits. It's still doable, but now it becomes "remember to charge your watch at least an hour before bedtime" which isn't as simple of a routine.

vablings 10 minutes ago | parent

The battery life being so short is just pathetic. My Garmin can last up to two whole weeks in a similar form factor and its pretty much the only differentiation