Open Radar

 
According to the HealthKit Framework documentation:

"The HealthKit framework provides a structure that apps can use to share health and fitness data. HealthKit is designed to manage data from a wide range of sources, automatically merging the data from all the different sources based on users’ preferences. Apps can also access the raw data for each source and let the app perform its own merging."

HealthKit is the mechanism used by the Apple Watch to record active calorie samples (during workouts.)

Unfortunately, third-parties are only allowed record these samples from watchOS. Any device connected via Bluetooth to an iOS device cannot store Activity data.

As a customer, I love my Apple Watch and how it has made me more active. I've worked very hard to reach my daily activity goals and have much better health as a result.

But I've become more active, I have encountered situations where my Apple Watch isn't appropriate. I love the water but the Apple Watch does not:

http://furbo.org/2015/07/14/a-watch-water-and-workouts/

I've been testing is the Suunto Ambit3 watch to act as a complement to my Apple Watch:

http://www.suunto.com/en-US/Sports-Watch-Collections/Suunto-Connected-Family-with-Ambit3/

I have no intention of replacing my Apple Watch with this alternative. But I find it attractive because it has a lot of things that Apple’s does not (and will like never have):

• Rugged case design that is water resistant to 100m depth (10bar) and can operate between -20° C to +60° C. (Apple Watch is water resistant to 1m depth and operates between 0° and +35° C).

• Barometric pressure gauge for measuring elevation and weather conditions.

• GPS and compass for navigation.

• High contrast LCD display (easy to read outdoors) with backlight (easy to read underwater).

• 200 hour battery life.

• No touch controls: only buttons. Works well in water and while wearing gloves.

This watch can also be tailored for specific sports, including:

• Attaching external heart rate sensor (while swimming).

• Measuring bike power (watts) and cadence (while cycling).

Most importantly, the Ambit3 watch can record activity and connect via Bluetooth to an iOS device. And unlike the promise of "the HealthKit framework providing a structure that apps can use to share health and fitness data", there's not way to get these samples to be a part of my daily activity goals.

If I go for a swim or a dive, I’m very active but the Activity app is clueless. It feels like an insult to do a walk, run or cycling workout afterwards just to meet a daily move goal.

Apple may consider the Activity app to be proprietary advantage over competing devices. But remember it’s my body; you don't get to call the shots with my health data and how I choose to record it.