by Jason Snell
David Smith extends his Apple Watch battery
Following up from his post from last fall, developer David Smith has taken his Apple Watch on a three-day hiking trip and figuring out some strategies for extending its life:
What gives me some excitement about this experience is that it seems clear that an Apple Watch can already make a solid companion for a long backpacking trip. When I set off I was expecting to have to charge it completely every day, but in reality it is more like every third day. Which gets it under my threshold for consideration for use. Especially since bringing it means that I now have a fully programmable computer on my wrist.
Turns out that putting the watch in Theater mode, thereby deactivating the always-on screen, saves a lot of power. Add in Airplane Mode and he was able to keep the watch running for three days, with fitness tracking still running to log his hikes.
Perhaps most importantly, the Apple Watch was able to display live UK Ordnance Survey maps overlaid with a GPS location. (This is similar to a feature I use here in the U.S. via the iPhone app Maplets, which unfortunately doesn’t seem to offer an Apple Watch equivalent.)